germany day 3.....

day 3 started out bad. (day 2 was included in the day 1 post)

i was sick all night, so waking up was slow and painful. but i was lucky, even though i was in a foreign country, where i don't speak the language, in a house full of semi-strangers, in a bathroom where the toilets don't flush like ours (seriously, they don't, its sometimes a challenge when going to the bathroom in germany to figure out just what/where to press to flush, i should have taken pictures....), i had packed load of medicine that i thought i would never need (but needed) and the house i was in, belonged to a doctor. not that i was going to wake him up at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 am when i was awake....

so after i was drug out of bed and force-fed and reminded several times that everyone else felt just fine and wanted to go out and run around germany, i was up and ready to face the day....er...the afternoon. the doctor, hans' uncle (onkel hans) took my pulse and declared me ready to leave the house.

thankfully my illness was self-limiting and the only big drawback to the day was the constant rain. this was annoying and cold and made it difficult to take pictures, plus when i'm not feeling 100%, i'm not really into taking photos, but i have a few of my day....

we got on the train and headed to Nurnberg (pretend the u has two dots above it) or you can write it Nuremberg (the american way). the train is fun, really fun and MUCH better than driving in germany. hans' cousin Alex is living in Nuremberg, going to med-tech school (just like me! she's one of my 4 fave girl cousins hans has) but she had a little time to run us around the city and show us what she could in the pouring rain.

to get to her place, we ended up in a very large train-ish station. which is difficult to explain because i can't remember the exact name of it and i can't remember if we switched trains or if we just got on the subway or uban (pretend there is two lil dots above that u too).

first i notice that i have my own lounge....(um...yeah...my initials are DB!)

then i notice i have my own museum! (yeah, looks like museum in german is museum.)



ooooh! check it out, i'm that way!

turns out, DB is just the train/subway company thingy.....my initials are on every train station and every train (except the super fast BOB trains) and every subway, at least that i saw.

this is the subway......i'd never been on or seen a subway before. not all of them are decorated like this with the orange and white, some are yellow, some are done with really cool murals and such. but i only took a picture of this one. sorry.

we visited alex's apartment, had some yummy snacks and then headed out on the town.

now, here's the first of many, many food photos....i ate my way through germany. seriously, there was a huge amount of food over there and i tried to eat it all. or at least most of it. and i took photos....to show you (rub it in) all the good/weird food i ate.

this was like a jelly filled donut, covered in powdered sugar. it was HEAVEN...first off, the donut part was not donut-ty, it was not yucky, greasy or overly sugary. the jelly....oh....man.....it is hans and i's fave, its a really smooth, yummy rose hip jelly. we've bought and eaten this jelly in a previous trip, we've requested this jelly from evi when she went to germany and we brought back some of it for us too, this time. so now imagine that your favorite jelly in the whole world was in a yummy donut, covered in powered sugar.....

yeah, you'd look something like this. if you didn't share one with your husband so you could cut it in half and take pictures of it and then eat another one but have to share it because you shared the first one AND you already ate a yummy cake (kuchen, pronounced like coo-ken) that aunt isabella (tante isabella) made. like i said, i ATE my way through germany. and then walked it off....well...some.....

this is a church in Nuremberg. i can't remember what church though. a really cool looking one. see the tiny people? it was huge! we couldn't go inside this one, there was a service and then later it was closed. but the outside was pretty sweet.

this is the view from the castle in Nuremberg. the castle (which we walked around but not in) was built on a giant rock, so it is up higher than the rest of the city, hence, the views. see the church in the back ground? (maybe mid-ground)

here's a picture that shows you lots of apartment buildings....people live like chickens over there! but how else to do you cram so many people in such a little space? and the cobblestone streets. most of the streets/sidewalks are cobblestone, especially in the 'older' parts of town. this is neat, fun to see and walk on but i saw some girls wearing heels on this, i couldn't even imagine!!!



and finally, i leave you with a dessert....hans' onkle took us to a steakhouse. we ate Argentinian beef. it was good, but i didn't take a picture. instead i took a picture of the dessert that hans and i shared. this was battered, then deep fried, slices of apples with ice cream. mmmm.....it was so freaking good! oh and of course, it would be german if it was drizzled with chocolate.

germany, day 1 (and why i've been 'gone' for so long)

i'm sorry that i haven't blogged for a while, although, this time i'd like to think that i have some sort of lame excuse. i went to germany for 2 weeks. the week or so before i spent getting ready and the weeks after, i've spent playing catch up. of course i also had to spend a weekend with my parents going to some photography lectures and things of that nature too.

so, i've decided to blog my trip, day by day and include photos. i hope this is exciting for you!





day 1-2


it ends up being two days, but you are awake for most of it, so it really feels like just one giant day.


we got to the airport with no problems, checked our luggage and went through security. easy as pie. we got to our gate with plenty of time to sit, relax, get something to drink and catch our flight. the gate attendants asked us if we were going to SLC and then promptly shuffled us onto the flight that was already boarded, so that we'd have no issues with the stormy weather by waiting for our flight. we thought that this was great, no waiting and we'd have plenty of time in SLC to catch our next flight and even get some breakfast.


when we are almost ready to board our flight from SLC to atlanta, they delay us...and delay.....and delay.... because of a valve that is broken on the plane. we run out of time, we know that we are going to miss our next connection, so hans spends a whole bunch of time getting us re-routed. we end up getting a flight from SLC directly to Paris and then onto Munich. only problem, we have to wait in the airport for HOURS. we spent a totally of 10 (yes, 10!!!) hours in the SLC airport. when we get on the plane to paris, hans and i aren't sitting together, it gets delayed because of some issue with the toilets not being empty, it is an 11 hour plus flight, with tons of turbulence and a very loud screaming baby. blech.


the paris airport is lame. trust me. go ahead and fly TO paris, just never fly THROUGH paris.


we make it to munich, get our luggage (it all showed up!) and meet evi (hans' mom). she ended up in munich quite a bit ahead of us, because of the plane issue, so she already had a rental car. and on our way to the car, i learned a new german word! if you ever want to know how to say 'booger' in german, it is said 'popel' (pronounced like opal with a 'p'). so there is a funny joke about a 'popel' driving and 'opal' (a brand of car) and wouldn't you know what our rental car is? yup, an opal....we were boogers the entire time!


we head to hans' uncle and aunt's house. while we are driving i see this:

for those of you who don't know, Fischer, is my maiden name. i thought this was funny. i told hans that he should have changed his last name instead!

when we get there we eat dinner (see, its a crazy long 2 days!!) watch a movie, well, i think i slept through part of it and went to bed before the sad ending (i'd seen it before and knew what happened). ahhh....bed.......

me, overexposed.....and answered prayers, unrelated....

it has been a long time since i posted. i'm sorry. as punishment you get to see a completely embarrassing photo of me. will that make it all better? good. but i'm going to make you wait until the end. hehe

ok, so first a tiny and quick update as to what we've been doing and why there hasn't been any blogging. first we had our bull sale. that doesn't seem like to big of a deal, right? well, to my non-ranching friends, the bull sale is possibly the biggest deal that goes down on a ranch. see, ranches don't make money everyday of the year. they only make money when they sell their cows, bulls, calves, etc. so when our ranch has a bull sale in march and sells the calves in november, we essentially make money only 2 days a year. and those 2 days can make or break us. so, you can see, it is a pretty stressful time. we don't sell our bulls at the ranch (no place to hold a sale) so we truck them to a neighboring town. this requires a lot of time, effort and sleeping in hotels. hence, no blogging.

after the sale, we get to deliver the bulls. sure, some people pick them up and take them home, but some people have us deliver them. this means a whole lot of 'windshield time'. (hey, i didn't coin the phrase 'windshield time' but that is what people in montana seem to say the most!) hence, no blogging.

the third thing that is going on, is.....well, i'm going to leave a little something to blog about later. hehe! but it has required some of my free time too....hence, no blogging.

now, to the good part. a certain prayer of mine has been answered. i've known this for a while. but i just thought that i would share. (prairie mama, you posted your answered pray blog when i was going to post, so i waited a while, so it really looked like i was copying you! :) hope that is ok.)

i love cats. i always have. i think kitties are god's gift to the world.



see how cute they are?? awww, just melts my heart.....


and see how cool they are?? jack is the coolest...

i know not everyone feels this way and i'm ok what that, sometimes.... anyways, my parents were very understanding of my love of cats and i had a few when i was younger. i used to take them in my room and try to make them sleep next to me. i realize NOW that i would have had more luck with a dog, but i really, really wanted my cat to sleep next to me and purr while i fell asleep. they never did. so i used to pray and pray and pray to god. eventually, cats stopped being allowed in the house (sorry dad!) and i went to college. then along came jack. (see how cute and cool above) he's a very independent little kitty. he really doesn't seem to need humans for anything except filling the food dish and emptying the poop box. which is ok with me because then when you get loves from him, they are just that much more special.

except at night. then he needs you. he needs you bad! he needs you to lay and your side and make a little spot for him to lay in. he needs the lights to be off, the covers to just be right and for you to not move around too much. then he curls up and purrs you right to sleep. it is almost like heaven every night. i say 'almost' because he is a cat and sometimes when his needs aren't met, he gets a little snippy. but anyways, if you roll around or move or throw the covers off, he has to remake his place and sleep next to you.....even after hans gets up (i don't get up early, common misconception about volunteer ranchers) jack will get up with hans and then come back to bed and sleep in 'his spot'. i know, its weird.

here's the proof.

yikes! sorry if i scared you. see, completely embarrassing! but, it is the proof that after hans gets out of bed and i roll over, jack always finds a way to lay in 'his spot'. just like i prayed for so many, many years ago.

mums....and moms.....

the best think about having a bunch of store-bought flowers around is that you can take lots of pictures of them while they are pretty and in nice lighting. you don't have to wait for spring to come or for the rain to stop. i've been trying to get hans to buy me flowers to take pictures of ever since i bought these mums for my mom at thanksgiving. so far, there have been no other bought flowers. but i haven't shown you all the neat pictures i took! so here are some more....
technically this photo is probably a little over exposed because of the lack of detail in the highlights (something i learned in my online photo class!) but i like it, so i'm posting it. and it might not win any awards but it just looks so bright and sunny....makes me all warm inside...

this one is probably more technically sound....i like it too...

and this one is a little overexposed again....what can i say? i like it!!! but in my class, they say that professionals tend to like darker photos...and i'm not a professional, so i can like this bright cheery ones, right?

i like the first and the third one because the background was all black, which was striking, but i gave it this nice orange-y glow....which i think looks cool.

so these mums were bought for my mom. but i probably need to specify which mom. i tend to collect moms, like i collect frogs...just kidding moms! i just find myself surrounded by a lot of women, maybe it is because of avon, some of it is because of who i married and some is just pure luck.

mom #1, is the mom who gave birth to me. she'll be the one who i call mom the most often. and she's the one who the mums were bought for. she likes to take pictures too. she's probably a better photographer than i am but maybe a little more shy about sharing her photos with others. she's a busy lady. i got my love of science and art from her. (thanks mom!) she's very 'math-y' and science-nerdy but still creative and artsy. it is a weird combination but we're goats (chinese horoscope wise) so maybe it has something to do with that. she's also a pseudo-vet. (i consider myself a pseudo-doctor sometimes, but that's just because i feel like i have more of a medical background than the average joe and my family always comes to me for medical advice, even though i'm no where near a doctor....) ok, back to the pseudo-vet. she loves animals and knows a lot about them. she's worked for a vet, so she's been exposed to that kind of stuff. i always go to her when i have a vet question. she's good like that.

mom in colorado, is the mom of my husband. i don't want to call her mom #2, because, well, numbering the moms seems like i'm ranking them and i don't want them to feel bad because they can't all be mom #1. i call her mom also, and sometimes when i'm explaining things to other people, my mother-in law, because calling everyone mom is confusing for people. anyways, mom in colorado, is also an artist. i'm not sure how this all works out, that my moms are so artsy....but, back to colorado mom....she's a definitely a more professional photographer than me. she's had her work published many times over. and i'm sure she never, never likes photos that are too overexposed. but besides photography, she paints, draws and all sorts of things, even woodworking. hard core artsy. i also need to mention that she's german. like FROM germany, not just of german decent. she did get her citizenship a few years back, but she still has an accent, you know, 'proof' that she's a real german. she's also the one to go to when you have any questions about travel. she's like the travel guide/agent of the family.

maybe the next 'mom' i should talk about is my step-mother-in-law. she doesn't get called mom, because, well, she came into hans' life when he was older, so he's always called her by her first name. but she's artsy too! holy moly, this woman can paint. she's starting to do some drawing too. and she can dance. she could dance circles around all of my moms and me. (sorry moms, but i gotta be a little honest!) not just dancing, but official, ballroom dancing kind of stuff, i'm sure i could beat her in car dancing. (car dancing is the dancing you do while seated in a car, either as a passenger or a driver...also known as chair dancing....) i think she also did some synchronized swimming, which is something that i think is very artsy...

my next mom got to be called mom because she could be my mom's twin sister. she's a southern bell (even if she doesn't think so!) is that supposed to be bell or belle? oh man, i don't know my southern well enough! spell check can't even help me! so this mom is my most recently adopted mom. but she's great. she also happens to be german....hmmmm.....very interesting.....she doesn't have an accent except when she speaks german. then you can tell. no gerglish for her! (gerglish is like spanglish, except not as well known) i haven't been to this mom's house to see if she's got photos or paintings all over the walls. but i have a feeling that she could hold her own in the art department.

i don't know if i have a lot of other people that get called mom....i do tend to call a lot of people 'mama'. its my way of giving them a loving nickname. i like calling people by nicknames, its more personal and.....well, seems more affectionate. plus when they have a bunch of kiddos running around, they are mama. i'm not old enough to call everyone honey, sweetie, darling....although i can't wait. i love when the old waitresses call you hun. makes me feel good.

i have called other people mom in the past, mostly friend's mom's growing up. and my teacher's, mostly by accident. especially my third and fourth grade teacher, i remember calling them mom by accident.

and there you go. my mums and my moms all summed up.

p.s. sorry moms if i forgot anything important you think i should have remembered....

this is a test....

mostly to see if i can tell a difference.....or you can tell a difference....

so, is there??