Repurposed Barstools...

Due to the long weekend we had some extra time on our hands. Cameron and Doug took advantage of this time to make a desk for his room. I had promised him a desk in his room when we moved to Germany, but due to some unexpected expenditures and the IRS ~more on that in a later post~  we haven't had a lot of extra spending money as we had planned. What I did have was 2 old barstools and Pinterest. I would like to take credit for this creative idea but I stole it from someone else. Never the less, it kept Cameron busy for a while and he got his desk.

Here is what our old barstools looked like beforehand. They were cheap ones from Walmart that I  remember getting a discount due to some minor scratches. I guess the over all theme here is THRIFTY! :)

Cameron choose black for the color of the stools. 

Finished painting.

The picture below is the finished product. Cameron was suppose to take pictures throughout the process but he must of got really involved or left his Dad to do the rest of the work. I think the latter statement is probably what happened. All we had to do was buy a slab of wood for the top of the desk, smaller pieces of wood to make the shelves in the legs of the stools and long wooden screws. I swear Doug has buckets of screws and we didn't have any that were long enough. Isn't that always the case?

Now we need to find a chair or stool, as the desk is taller than a normal desk. And Cameron also stated that he needs his own computer there too. Ha!

Wilhelma Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Stuttgart...

This past weekend Cameron had his first football game in Stuttgart. It was a Saturday morning game and is just over a 2 hour drive. So, we decided to stay in Stuttgart for the weekend and take in some sites. As suggested by some other football parents, we went to the Wilhelma Zoo and Botanical Gardens. I am glad we listened because it was awesome. Now that our boys are older, we are not big zoo explorers anymore. I mean, you never really see anything different. This zoo was beautiful because of the gardens and it was interesting to see how different a German zoo is. First, we noticed they let you get pretty darn close to the animals. Furthermore, we saw some type of vermin get fed their meal of whole dead baby chicks. I was disturbed, but it seemed to be status quo. 

Since all the signs were in German, we weren't able to translate the animals we were unsure of. But this type of monkey we have never seen before. We called them, "Mustache Monkeys".

Cameron hanging out with a gorilla made of logs.

And an elephant

Cam and I are blurry in this one, but I like how it captured the landscape. 

These slugs were all over and are HUGE!

These big lily pads had to be at least 4 feet in diameter. 

Botanical Garden

I big drop of water on a leaf.

Such a strange flower. Cam said they were bee's butts sticking out. 

Home Sweet Home...

Okay...for those of you begging for pictures of our house I have given you something better...VIDEO! For the most part we are unpacked with the exception of the basement. We still need to decide what goes into the garage and organize. I would love to go buy more stuff for the house, but we are also looking at going to Paris in October and Rome in November. The "stuff" will have to wait! 

FIrst Day of School...

Monday was the first day of school for Cameron. He is now a 6th grader at Ramstein Middle School...GO RAMS! Surprisingly he was pretty calm in the days leading up to the first day. If you know Cam, you know he has anxiety. On Monday the school had the parents go with their child in the morning. During this time they did a dry run of the daily schedule with all 7 periods only lasting 10 minutes. This gave Cam and I the opportunity to find his classes together. Excellent idea! And since he has been playing football already, he ran into some of his teammates in the hall and in the classroom. I felt good leaving Cam that morning as he was in smiles.

Then I had a big goof.....

I forgot to tell Cam what bus stop was his. We didn't take it in the morning, so Cam didn't know what it looked like. So once the bus started to go he just stayed on and with every stop he got more scared. He kept looking for me at every stop but I wasn't there.

So...during this time. I am walking to what I think is the bus stop. Mind you, I only looked it up on the map and never went to physically find it. It was just up the road 2 blocks and on the right. By the way, German blocks are like 3 times larger than American blocks, just saying. Needless to say, I got lost. I knew the name of the street and 2 blocks up wasn't that street. So, I start to walk around looking for a group of parents standing somewhere. Finally, just one more block up was his bus stop. I was literally 30 seconds late.

By the time I got to Cam he took one look at me and just broke down crying. Poor kid was so scared because he knew this was the last stop and he had NO IDEA where he was at. Yep, take back my Mom of the Year award. I felt like the biggest piece of crap ever.

Garden..

The house we are renting here in Germany has come with a garden. It is really neat, but Doug and I tend to kill anything living in an outdoor setting. The owners of the house have been taking care of it and showed up yesterday to tend to it. I am hoping that they continue as we are loving the produce coming out of it. As far as I can tell we have: cherries, apples, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, rhubarb, chives, dill, and some sort of hot pepper. There are two trees that have some sort of fruit on them, but we have no idea what they are. Anybody know?

Garden at the end of the driveway

Any idea? They are about as big as a grape. 

These have a fuzzy exterior and a pit inside. Some sort of plum?

Fresh berries on my ice cream..YUM!

We made it...

Cameron and I made to it Germany safe and sound Tuesday afternoon (early Tuesday morning stateside). Our travels were pretty uneventful as all our flights went smoothly. Cameron did have a little meltdown right when we were boarding our plane in Baltimore to head to Ramstein. He was so tired, as this flight was at 11:30pm and our first flight of the day was 6:45am, he starting crying and freaking out saying he didn’t want to go. Poor little guy. He finally calmed down and we boarded then his tears turned into slumber for the next 7 hours of the flight, thank goodness! Once he saw his Daddy at the passenger terminal he was all better. He is such a Daddy’s boy.

Since Tuesday we haven’t been doing a whole lot except cleaning the house. It was (still is, but my body is super sore) very dirty! The house we are in is a very traditional German house, lots of rooms, no closets to speak of, and a VERY tiny kitchen. I nearly cried when I saw it. We did manage to make a trip to IKEA, which is about an hour away. I can’t go anywhere by myself yet as I do not have a German driver’s license. I will take the test soon, but I am putting it off because the driving scares the crap out of me. First of all, the streets are tiny here and people just whiz in and out of them. Second, every intersection seems to be a roundabout. Last, no matter how much I pay attention I cannot get my bearings as to where we are and I have a pretty keen sense of direction.

On August 20^th, the movers will be delivering our stuff. The loaner furniture we have is just as comfortable as concrete so it will be a good day. I have been taking pictures with my cell phone, but it isn’t set correctly so I can’t get the pictures off of it yet. Speaking of cell phones, I got another iPhone so for those of you who have an Apple device send me your number or Apple ID and we can text for free. Also, once we get our household stuff I will be better at updating. We have internet but forgot to bring one of our wireless routers with us. So, we are stuck to plugging into the computer the old fashion way and I am just not very good about getting on with it. Pretty pathetic, huh?! Once we get our household items too we will work on getting a stateside number so everyone can call us. So stay tuned…pictures and more updates to follow. 

Summer Highlights...

At this moment, Cam and I are sitting in the Baltimore airport waiting for our flight to Germany. I can’t believe this day is here. It’s bittersweet. I’m sad that Dougie isn’t here with us and it will be a few years before we get stateside again. But I am anxious to get settled in our new home, explore Europe and establish our new “normal”. I had a great summer though. Here are just some highlights:

• Seeing Dougie graduate from high school and celebrating with tons of family in Rapid City. It is always SO GOOD to see extended family, as I don’t get to see them as much as I like.
• Spending time with my nieces, Lilly and Ella. They are just growing up too fast. Next time I visit I will have a nephew to add to the mix. That will be interesting to see them with a little boy in the house.
• Taking Dougie to college. Even though it was an emotionally tough experience, I am so excited for Dougie.
• Hanging out and re-connecting with my old girlfriends.
• Going to Denver with my friend Margo to see some concerts.

·       This summer has just gone by too fast, but now I have new adventures to be had…