Monday, September 24, 2007

Fall is here...

It's official, Fall is here or it has been here for abt the last 3wks. It's getting dark sooner. The trees are turning colors & loosing their leafs. It's been in between the 50's & 60's for some time now. Cold at night & the darn mosquitos are trying to come in or should I say, they come in either way as we don't have screens in our windows, but 1. September is like mosquito season. I remember last year there were so many mosquitos in Sep. It doesn't fail, there's always one stupid mosquito buzzing at night right over our heads. So here we re at the crack of dawn swatting them evil things.

Back to my fall story. Since I have been inspired & motivated by logzie to a better healthy eating, I started walking with my kids in the morning. It's beautiful in the morning around our neighborhood. It's cool & hardly any cars. Well that's because we live in between Farm houses & corn fields & all kinds of different crops. It's not a big neighborhood but you can go for miles if go thru the street fields. I also ahem..um.. yip, started riding my bike..well Steve's bike, I need to get me one. I went not very far, but it was at least a 1/2hr ride. I actually saw more of the neighborhood & more of the fields & houses that are hidden in between the fields. I really enjoyed it. I could of gone further but I din't really know where I was going. SO next time I'll push myself to go further. Now my butt is sore although Steve did change the seat. haha! Do you know how long it's been since I'ved ridden a bike? years. I did buy one abt 2yrs ago & only rode it 2x's. Before that, it had been since I was a kid. Looooooong time ago. That's sad, isn't it.

So now I am determine to change my eating habits & exersice more. I'm cutting out the carbs, not totally but eating less than what I eat, or watching my portions. I love to eat bread. It's no problem for me to eat less of something as long as I am not totally deprived from it. The key is balance & moderation. We have been eating dinner earlier. well between 5 & 6pm. No later than that. I was proud of myself yesterday, since I did not have a snack after my dinner. I have increased my water intake, since I need it & it makes me less hungry.

I can't really do a calorie count since I don't really understand grams & ml etc. I am eating more salads, with my homemade olive oil & balsamic vinegar dressing, salt & pepper & little tiny bit of sugar. It's yummy. I don't really care for tomatoes but I do eat them. I cut up tomatoes, press 2 cloves of garlic & add add the dressing, shake it & it makes a really good healthy tomato garlic salad.

I know I haven't blogged as frequently as I would like too, well I to am lazy sometimes b/c I think that I don't have anything to blog about although I know I do. Just having children should make you blog right?

Ok here are some more updates. My son Andre might need surgery, beginning of Nov. Andre has one testicle that has not come down since he was born. Boy that's a funny word to blog about. "Testicle". We were told that he needed to get it ckd out by a specialist if it din't come down by the time he was a yr old. Well we never really did anything about it but did keep an eye on it, since insurance in America pretty much sucks the life out of you or our ins did. That means it will cost you or us alot of $$$ & we weren't in that position to have thousands of $$$'s in medical bills, since we were still paying of Andre's hospital bill. Well at one point it seemed like it had sort of come down, but it never really did.

2 weeks ago we took him to a the hospital to see a specialist recomended by his peditrician here in AT. They did an ultra sound & could not find the testicle. Which means that is probably somewhere in his stomach & they have to get it out since it can be cancerous if it stays there. Ok, so they couldn't find it in the ultra sound, but they did recommend this medicine that may or not work b/c his 3yrs old now, but it has worked in the past. It's a nasal spray that he has to take 3x's a day. This might help that testicle to come down although is not active.

However, although that testicle is not active his other testicle is enlarged to make up for the other one. What a nice problem to have right. Whohoo look at me I have a big testicle. Just kidding. Well so if it does come down then he gets the surgery & gets to go home that same day, but if it's in his stomach floating around like a planet in outer space the he'll be in the hospital for 3 days. So were praying & believeing God that it will come down & he can go home that same day.

The other thing...well how about I just make a new post about the other thing....I bet u can't wait to find out ha!

Monday, September 10, 2007

A search team!!!!

I am coming back...the return of Amazing it's on it's way...Behold it looks like it's going to be a book. hehe

Yikes!!

So here you have it. The week at Hannes Hoff was great. I will post pictures since that will speak for it self. It's a beautifull valley right smack in the middle of the mountains. The town is called Flachau. Theres a lot of beautiful houses & bed & breakfast as this place is popular for skiing in the winter. Aparently they are busy all year long b/c it is very pretty & there's lots of outdoor stuff to do. Lakes, mountains, bycicle trails are all very close. etc.

Ok, let me back up. OK since my thrifty thrifty post we have been to Salzburg & actually visited a castle. The name of the castle is called "Hohensalzburg" The walk up there & in there was sort of brutal b/c it was steep, but it was an adventure. So here are some pictures of that. As we walked up to the castle we walked through houses that are built right around the bottom of the castle. Really nice ones too. The view of the city as you are walking up is beautiful.

Then there was the Grill Fest, That was a blast! Then there was something else going on that following weekend. Then Summer Bible week, My B-day, Flachau, a stay at Hannes Hoff. This was a nice trip. We went to 2 different mountains. The 1st mountain that we went to was called: The Drinker's Pasture. Funny name, that's because it has an "ALM" which stands for pasture. We drove up there & climed up. At the ALM'S there's a restaurant where you can eat after youve'd cimbed the mountain. Very nice.

Although, I have to say it is very cold up there. The second mountain that we visited was called: Grossglockner which is abt 3980 meters, now that was freezing cold. There are glaciers up there & you can actually go down there. It takes abt 45min to go down. All the people look like tiny little spots down there. You can actually climb on the glacier if wearing appropriate gear. There's a restaurant up there, really nice, the view from there is unbelieveable, beatiful, the pictures don't do justice.

The next day, we heard on the news that 5 people had fell in one of the cracks as they were climbimg the glacier & 2 of them died, due to not wearing the appropriate gear. How sad. After we ate dinner, we played games til midnight. That was fun.

More has happened after we got back..hmm let me think, Oh yeah, we just got back from a youth weekend camp. So we are catching up fron that.

Oh, I have to tell this story. I was givng the kids a bath tonight playing with them & washing them & Audrey pulled a "Gabriella" Logziella's daughter. This is how it happend. Kids playing...I wash them, they play some more I play with them & then I hear a big bubbly sound coming from the water. Andre & I looked at each other & said...Audrey tooted, well it wasn't just a toot, stress, get them out as fast as I can, turn on the shower wash them.

I didn't see it coming, it happened so fast. All of a sudden I see something that is not a toy nor does it look like one floating in the water. OMG, that was the 1st time this had happened to me. As fast as I could I pull both kids out of the water & put them in the shower. This was probably the most discusting thing I have had to deal with...well it seemed like at the moment. Now the tub is cleaned, filled with water & bleach, toys are soaking in water & bleach as well & washed the shower, just in case. So there you have it.



















MY B-DAY
Andre was helping Steve get bikes ready for the Flachau trip. The rest of the pictures were of my grill B-Day party. we had a good time.








SUMMER BIBLE WEEK:







Grill Fest:
The Grill Fest turned out great. We had a pie eating contest, sticky bun eating contest, knocking off the cans w/ water guns, water ballon fight oh & yeah eatinf lots of yummy food. mmmm.







CASTLE VISIT: