Bump

I'll have you know that approximately 1 lb. of that bump is baby, which is scheduled to arrive late July.

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...

This year we're celebrating Thanksgiving in Oklahoma. James' youngest brother moved out here to be a youth pastor this past summer, so we decided to make the trip out to see him.  While I wouldn't recommend the 14+hour drive to anyone, I'm enjoying my first trip to OK. So far we haven't seen a lot of the area but we did get a night tour of his church and we've seen a little of the town. Tomorrow we'll go down town to the shops and specialty stores. We hope that everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!

Election Day!

Election Day - it's more exciting than game four of the World Series, my birthday, and the opening night of the newest movie all combined. Perhaps I'm a nerd, but I get excited about elections. I enjoy watching the televised debates, reading election updates, political discourse on the radio, checking the polling stats, etc. I love that citizens impact history on nights like tonight! No matter which way this election goes, I hope all enjoyed exercising your political rights and freedoms at the polls today!  

Brief overview of the trip

We started in London, and enjoyed a lot of the sites from the outside.

After London, we made it to Portsmouth and crossed the English Channel to Normandy to tour the beaches and soak in some history.

On to Lyon and a visit with Bertlinde.

Hiking in Switzerland was breathtaking (literally!).

Attending the wedding of Annemarie and Volkmar was a great experience.

Heidelberg was gorgeous and then we headed home.

Made it to Bertlinde's house without major problems but may have a lovely parking fine coming in the mail due to parking (illegally ?) In Lyon for the art market. We enjoyed some lovely cathedrals, a priory, and châteaus near Bertlinde's and went to see her home in the South. I need to learn some French cooking tips ...but would most likely gain too much weight. We've arrived at Interlaken after going a bit off the beaten path. Beautiful flowers, mountains, and we love the sound of cow bells.

Hello from Caen, so far the trip has gone well...but knowing a bit of.basic French would help quite a bit. Touring Omaha beach and American cemetary tomorrow. Will prove to be very interesting. Enjoyed London... much easier to navigate...perhaps because language was not a big factor? Hoping to make our remaining connections to Bert ok. Perhaps this will lead to more stories.

Summer relaxation?

School is out and it is time to kick back, relax, and have some fun. However, it seems that is not in the cards for me this year. There seems to be a long list that just keeps growing and growing...kind of like the weeds in my strawberry patch. To do list for the summer: 1. Finalize plans for trip to Europe (I absolutely hate vacation planning, but love the end result. Therefore, this is the biggest headache I have currently. I'd like to give the car rental agencies in Cherbourg a piece of my mind... who closes a car rental place in a port town at 5 p.m. when the Ferry doesn't arrive until 7:30 p.m.? THAT threw a wrench in the plans...) 2. Continue to look for different employment options (an ongoing task that started a while back). 3. Finish the kitchen remodel (perhaps by the end of June?) 4. Finish the bedroom closet remodel (perhaps by the end of June?) 5. Paint the upstairs office and move the bedroom pieces that have been in the basement for three years into their rightful spot upstairs (perhaps before the end of August?) 6. Finish planning a baby shower for a close friend 7. Continue running (We've started and now that I'm past the being extremely sore stage, I'd like to keep it up for a while) By the amount of to-do lists I've posted, one would think that we're getting a lot accomplished; yet to be fair I think I'm posting the same things repeatedly. On a slightly different note, the New Year's resolution of one new thing/day has hit the back burner though I'd like to come back to it soon.