MIA for a while

steve leaves tomorrow morning to denver for some finance conference for work then going to utah to see family, so i may be missing in action for a while. he is taking the laptop with him so im stuck at home with the nasty dinosaur desktop thats slower then crap. so, i dont know how often i will be online. im going to have to find another hobby around here to keep me busy! i guess there are always things to clean around the house...
im really jealous that steve gets to go to the states for 2 weeks while brynn and i are stuck here in kraut land dealing with the nasty weather. i told him he better bring me back bread from great harvest in logan or im not letting him in the house! i seriously miss that place along with logans firehouse pizzeria, tandoori oven, and caspers. if there was only a way to keep indian food and icecream shakes good on a 15 hour flight AND get by customs, he would be hauling that stuff back to me.
so janae and louise, make sure steve takes lots of pictures for me! he tends to forget about using the camera and it drives me crazy. i wish brynn and i were able to come along as i havent been to the states since june 2007! not cool...
(and valerie r, THANKS A TON for helping me with my hair and makeup today! if it wasnt for you, i would have looked a little funny. and annie p, thanks for devoting your afternoon/night for me! i had a blast and cant wait to see the pictures! you are awesome and crack me up)

hilarious craigslist post

today i came upon an actual craigslist posting (thru a friend) that had me and steve DYING! this is exactly what it said, i swear i didnt add/change anything!

Ferocious attack kitten is available for adoption to any home willing to accept him.

This destructive kitty has been trained as a proud warrior and will fiercely defend your house, even against you. Well-trained since 10-weeks of age to attack anything in his presence, he will protect your family from evil things, including the following:

* insects

* other trained attack kittens

* babies

* toilet paper

* anything under a blanket

* unwanted house guests

* paper bags

* floor rugs

* Chuck Norris

* Feet.

Great with children (assuming you don't like the children). Probably best used for professional catfighting. He is housebroken, but only because he wants to be. This attack cat has trained himself to seek out his food anywhere you hide it and rip the bag open to feed himself, great for those who travel extensively. Also trained to drink water out of toilet bowls and dishwater from items in the sink. Knows how to open some doors. He will find you wherever you hide. Neutered (trust me, you wont want to him to procreate). Has not been declawed, but you'll figure that out really fast. Understands and responds to a variety of vulgar and profane verbal commands. Has a very soft and furry belly, like a teddy bear - however he will bite your face if you try to touch it. Willing to accept trades. Potential adopters must have experience with trained attack-kittens... please be prepared to show scars. For the love of God, someone please take this thing out of my house.

LMAO! LOL! hahahahaha! if only we could think of something this clever to get mango a new home! i love funny people...

hope everyone has a fabulous thanksgiving! im planning on devouring my very own pumpkin pie along with a huge tub of cool whip! gotta love a holiday that youre supposed to be fatty on.

twilight

(if you havent seen the movie yet, DON'T read this as i dont want to hear you say "ahhh lindsay! you ruined it for me!)

since everyone else in the world has been blogging about the twilight movie, i thought i would join the ranks as you know i am a huge follower!...hahahaha

it didnt seem like the movie was going to reach our area for a few more weeks, so a few people from the ward were going to drive to belgium (i think it was in liege?) this coming wednesday to go and see it. i didnt see that working out too well with me as finding someone to watch brynn the whole day was going to be hard as our normal babysitters would still be in school. luckily, stacy p from the ward heard that a german movie theatre was showing it near ramstein afb (about an hour and a half away) so people called in, reserved tickets, and we were able to go and see it saturday night. i wasnt too crazy with the people they choose for bella and edward, so i had a hard time getting into it as whenever they spoke, it took everything i had to not bust out laughing!

here are a few of the parts i thought were hilarious! (and they werent supposed to be!)

-seeing jasper! WTF! dude looked like a mime! but a lot of people in our theatre laughed too when he first appeared on the movie

-seeing the vampires dance around the fire in the ballet studio when they were burning james

-the way emmet was dressed. i dont remember him being a "gangsta" when i read the book. did someone catch that part when they were reading the books? maybe i missed it...

-edwards sparkling skin. hmmm...i understand that that would have been hard to do though in a movie so i cant complain too much

-edward running around with bella on his back

-all of the vampires powdery complexions! it looked especially awful on carlisle.

-alice jumping on james and breaking his neck/taking his head off.

-edward's face in biology class when bella first came in and sat by him! that actually was pretty good acting!!! totally how i pictured that scene to take place in my head.

now, i understand that there is no way they could have made the movie as great as the book, so i wasnt expecting that when i watched it. all in all, it was on ok movie, but i prefer the version i made up in my head when i read all of stephenie meyers books. yes, i think everyone should go and see it for themselves and try and not let "my" opinion alter theirs.

this is a pretty funny spoof that i found on youtube a few weeks ago that i think is worth sharing. if you watched the original twilight trailer, you'll get the humor.

my favorite part is when "edward" runs away screaming "hey, im immortal"!!!! LMAO!

german fashion show

here is the video i promised over a month ago of some weird german fashion show that my friends emily, shelly and i witnessed while on a shopping trip in trier. i guess they all incorporate dancing into their shows? i dunno...it was entertaining to watch though!

and it happens yet again...

(i meant to blog about this sooner but we've been busy around here)

saturday morning, brynn and i had to go to base to run errands and hit the gym but we encountered a slight problem. as i started the car, it would hardly turn over. when it finally got some power, it was shaking violently and on the verge dying again. i knew right away what the problem was (as we had dealt with it twice already!) and couldnt believe it. to prove what i was thinking was in fact the issue, i popped the hood, and this is what i saw:




yep. we are the victims again of those $%&#@% weasels! GRRRRRRR! i couldnt believe it as we've been spraying our engine with this special spray and i was under the impression that they wouldnt return! so we're back to sharing the ol' bmw again and it seriously sucks. its a good thing that steve has some work buddies that live relatively close as they've been kind enough to have him carpool with them to work.

i called an auto parts store this morning and luckily, they think they can get the spark plug shtuff for the crv in by tomorrow. the guy told me that it sounds like a family of these bastard weasels have marked our car and will continue to return unless we give the engine a good cleaning. so it looks like thats what i'll be doing when brynn goes to school tomorrow morning. have these disgusting rodents become immune to this special spray? i think so...i cant wait until we can have a garage!!!

on a better note, ive discovered this local website www.spangdahlemyardsales.com and am thrilled to know that something like this exists in our area! i have a butt load of things i wanted to sell, but posting them on the bulletin board at the post office isnt getting the word out. so if you live in the bitburg area, check it out! steve and i just purchased a bike trailer for brynn this morning for $50 and cant wait to try it out! sure beats the retail price of $299! AND the one we bought has only been used a few times. this makes up for the above situation...

new pictures

annie came over this afternoon to drop off the cd from our photography session last weekend and im in LOVE with how great they all turned out! again, thanks annie for devoting your saturday morning for us! its about time we had some good family photos!!! here are a few that i saw for the first time today and a few others that annie sent to me earlier in the week.

i've been tagged!

annie p tagged me a few weeks ago and im finally getting around to it! sorry im a little slow...

rules:
1. post the rules on your blog
2. write six random things about yourself
3. tag six people at the end of your post.


1. I HATE RUDE DRIVERS! here in germany, it seems like they are everywhere! people constantly tail gate, flash their lights when they want to pass you, and are always in a hurry and have no problem passing you when there are other cars coming. every day i think im going to witness a head on collision and it freaks me out! i am a very nice person, but when im behind the wheel, i have no problem at all beeping my horn and giving people the ole skunk eye when they've pissed me off/done something ridiculous. it drives steve crazy as i dont think twice about laying on the horn and this embarasses him.

2. i am terrified of public speaking! i respect those who can get up in front of large groups of people (especially without notes!) and carry on like its no big deal. thats why you wont see me lining up to bear my testimony or volunteer to give a talk in church. i always stammer over words and feel like a complete idiot when i do speak and that really frustrates me. so please, DONT ask me to talk at anything as i will turn you down! and that leads me to my next point...

3. i have a hard time saying no to people. this drives me crazy! when i do have to tell someone no, i feel awful and worry about it for days. i worry if i have hurt their feelings and i never EVER want people to be upset because of me. lame i know! i need to understand that i cant please everyone all the time and thats ok. i try to avoid as much confrontation as possible as i dont deal well with that.

4. i cant relax if my house is a mess. this can be a good and bad thing... it motivates me to keep a clean house, but at the same time i cant do anything else until i have tackled the mess and that tends to make me late for appointments and other things. ive been known to stay up till 2am working on a sharing time lesson for primary on a saturday night as i felt i had to clean the kitchen, scrub the shower, do the dishes, and put away the laundry first. so if im looking like butt at church, you know why. but hey, at least my house looks good right? hahahaha

5. when i was 17, i was held at gunpoint and robbed working at baskin robbins in renton washington. it sounds a lot worse then it really was...all i remember was that i was incredibly calm and didnt get a good look at the guy which pissed the cops off. i was more traumatized by the cops then the guy as they were so mean when they were questioning me! my mom demanded that i quit right then (i was having issues with my boss too so this just made the decision easier) and i was off to bigger and better things...pizza hut baby!

6. i really like shopping online...like a lot. its not a good thing! but i try to justify myself to steve with my "oh, but i got free shipping from retailmenot.com" and "i found a 10% off coupon on this one site". hey, its hard out here without the conveniences of malls, walmarts, and targets! getting package slips in my box totally makes my day! i love getting presents...even when i buy them!

so, i tag tami, sarah, kristen, heidi, janae and shelly.

bastogne belgium

since today was veteran's day, we thought it was appropriate to go and visit bastogne. in this town close to the luxembourg border, thousands of soldiers died in WWII during the battle of the bulge in the winter of 1944-1945. the whole town is filled with those reminders, including a star-shaped american memorial that we visited. we didnt make it inside the museum as it was sort of pricey ($35 bucks for all of us to go in) and brynn didnt take a nap on the way there so we opted to skip out on that. we decided to walk the grounds instead, check out the cute city, and stuff our faces with awesome pastries. steve and i LOVE bakeries (and that shows!) and like to try different types when we go to different cities out here. in belgium, they speak french and dutch (and i dont speak either of those!) so ordering was a little crazy for us! we always feel so stupid trying to get our point across and get embarrassed when the locals stare us down. leave it up to the petersons to represent the americans with our crappy knowledge of the german language combined with awkward hand motions! "uhhhhh....ein bitte cherry danish thingy with those sprinkles on top danke shurrrnnnn...tchusss!

i was happy to find some cute cheap childrens stores and grabbed a few warm shirts for brynn. i also found some cute pacifier retainers (they are crazy popular here in europe!) as im going to three baby showers here in the next 2 months and havent found any gifts yet.

it was friggin butt cold but nice to get away from our house and do something locally. we only live a little over an hour away from bastogne so driving wasnt bad at all. crazy how right when you hit the belgium border there are street lights everywhere! has anyone else noticed that out here? driving in germany at night is awful as its so dark and nothing is lit up!

we will definitely miss living so close to so many things! thank goodness the airforce sent us out here as we would have NEVER come to europe on our own.

i love this picture of brynn! she looks so funny bundled up in her blanket.

st martins

at church yesterday, jennifer s. told me about a german holiday parade that was taking place at 6pm in spangdahlem and that huge free pretzels were going to be given out. uh, hello! i am so there! free food? sa-weet! so i convinced steve to go (he wasnt too happy about it as he wanted to stay home and hang out) so we grabbed our coats, blankets, and headed towards spang town. i had no idea what st martins day was all about, so we went not really knowing what to expect. we saw a HUGE fire from the autobahn so we headed towards that direction and found a ton of people walking away from it with these homemade paper mache' lanterns.

so we did as the germans do and parked our car in the street almost blocking traffic from all directions (if you live here you know what i mean! so hey, OPSEC right? we're just trying to blend in!) and walked out. we were confused as to what was going on but ran into some friends from church that explained where they were headed to. everyone had just left the giant bon fire and were walking towards the towns fire department to get free pretzels so we followed behind. these pretzels were so big! brynn and i shared one as there was no way she would be able to eat one by herself. and of corse, no german holiday (or any event for that matter) is complete without a huge tent with a bar filled with alcohol!

after we grabbed our pretzels, they handed out kinder eggs to the children. brynn loves these things but im always a little hesitant with the little toys inside as they are small and brynn STILL puts everything in her mouth.

since we missed the beginning to this event, we headed back down to the massive fire to take pictures and get warm. its been getting pretty cold at night so it felt great to be by a fire. brynn was afraid when we got too close, so we kept reassuring her that everything was ok.

we are really going to miss these fun events! these past few years here in germany have really flown by.

i love, LOVE!

(hahaha! annie i totally stole your saying!)

on saturday, we had the pleasure of getting our pictures taken with annie! she has shown us a few so far and from what ive seen, i LOVE them! she is amazing with her camera and totally knows how to rock in in the editing department. i wish i had that talent...

so here are a few so far that she's sent us. thanks again annie for spending your saturday morning with us! we had a blast and love your style!

hahahaha!!! i was trying so hard NOT to bust out laughing (as i cant be serious...you all know that) so my "seductive" face looks a little forced!

halloween recap

(lots of pictures!!! sorry!)

its so crazy that halloween is over! i was looking forward to it all month and then it was over before i knew it. steve had that day off as it was a base down day so we were able to relax and bring brynn to her little preschool together. her class had a little party towards the end, so after steve and i hit the gym, we went in to see her. i dressed her up in her pirate costume but she refused to wear the hat, so she was lookin' more like rambo then a pirate with the band around her forehead. she gets a little too crazy when we're around her in her classroom, so we decided to bolt early and run some errands (why is it that kids are better for other people?!!). when we went to pick brynn up, she had a bloody nose from trying to ram playdough up there (ahhh...she is so steves kid!) so that of corse was nice as i had to quickly wash her costume before going out again that night.

the base had a halloween carnival on spangdahlem for the kids, so we went there at 4pm to check it out. it was almost over by the time we arrived, so we ate hotdogs and bummed cupcakes off our friends (thanks celeste!!! hahahaha!) for a while before heading off to the bitburg side. steve passed out candy while i took brynn out but we were only able to hit a few apartments as most homes had already ran out of candy. we had heard that the bishops wife was making her homemade doughnuts again, so we were so there! it was butt friggin cold outside but it was so worth the wait for her doughnuts. i probably shouldnt have ate any (i have gained a good 5+ pounds this past week from eating candy and crap!) as my love handles are back again for revenge! *sigh, who am i kidding? i will never be thin so why even try!!! ugh...i envy all of you who can pop out a ton of kids and lose the weight in a few weeks then look like you've never had any kids...i hate you all! i guess hate is a strong word...but i am very VERY jealous of you all...i wish i inherited those genes.

here are some pictures we took in our yard before we left for the night. notice steve's nasty teeth! i found this black out for your teeth at the costume store in wittlich that stays on great and comes off when you brush with toothpaste. steve put in between his teeth to make it look like plaque and decay. sick! it totally looked that way! he was proud of his work and even put on his own eyeliner! i think he enjoys wearing makeup too much...

while we were taking pictures, she had another bloody nose. but it goes with the pirate attire! so we didnt clean her up too well to add to the "arrggg" factor.

oh, and here are some pictures from brynns recital. they arent the best (i should have brought our different lense for the camera) as the lighting was weird and we couldnt get too close.