So long… Farewell… Auf Wiedersehen… Goodbye!

Guten Morgan!

Tomorrow morning my best friend, Emily, is getting on a plane to wing her way here! 

We pick her up on Wednesday morning in Frankfurt and then we’ll have her for 12 days! I am so excited!!!  We have so many plans… places we want to take her, sights we would like to show her, and food we’re just dying for her to try!  But most of all I can’t wait to just sit with her and talk for long hours… about absolutely everything and nothing at all! 

Then on the day she leaves The Land of Fairy Tales I’ll be flying home to spend two weeks in Phoenix. 

As a result this will probably be my last post for a while…  I’ll have my laptop with me and of course my camera so there will be plenty of stories and pictures to share… but it may be a while before I’ll be able to visit again.  I will miss you all and my time here but I’m so excited to see what these next few weeks will bring!

Auf Wiedersehen!  Until next we meet.

Courtney

P.S.  For those of you following our TTC journey please check my TTC website for an update. (Okay it’s up now! Sorry got distracted!)

 

Blue glass baubles…

Years ago when I was a little girl my aunt gave me a pair of earrings for Christmas that she had made herself. They were a pretty and simple pair made up of a single small blue glass bead surrounded by tiny silver pieces. I can remember being amazed that someone could make their own jewelry… I was just in awe…

I used to dress in shades of blue just so that I could wear the earrings out… but more often than not I would just sit and look at them and watch the light play through them… Daydreaming through blue glass…

And then I grew up. The earrings are gone now. Lost in some move no doubt but I can perfectly picture them in my mind…

A few years ago I started making my own jewelry and those little baubles danced back into my head… and the magic went out of them. It was a sad moment.

I was recently given the opportunity to give a hand made bauble to another little girl… and it surprised me to see the look of awe in her face… my mind flashed back to that feeling and I knew in that moment that I had been given a new opportunity to rediscover the magic that those little beads once held.

I think that this is why God puts children in our lives…

Your child coming to you and asking, “Mom why do birds fly?” And you realize you know the answer but you have forgotten the magic of the question. You know the science behind why a bird flies but do you know why a bird flies? Your child pets a bunny for the first time and whispers, “Mom it is so soft.” And for one moment you forget about germs and fur coats and think right along with her, it is so soft.

When you have children do the simple things once again have magic? White puffy clouds, ice cream, a spiders web, a mushroom that wasn’t there the day before, rainbows, rain when the sun is shining, the sandpaper tongue of a kitten, the slobbery tongue of a dog, a giraffes long neck, an elephants trunk, or a simple pair of blue glass earrings.

What a burden what a joy. You become responsible for making sure that child discovers everything about herself and her world, what an amazing chance to rediscover yourself, your world.

We have children because they make us young again… even as we help them grow…

Courtney

 

Love in a paper envelope… Or printed offline in any case…

Guten Morgan!

I have great news!! 

As many of you know, Ryan and I are flying home on April 7th to attend my sister Becky’s wedding.  It turns out that between the wedding date and the date we get there only three business days exist… In those three days I would have to see my bridesmaids dress for the first time, let alone try it on, have a fitting, and have it altered… then there is having my hair cut and done to decide how to do it for the wedding…. yada yada yada… I’m sure if any of you have ever been involved in a wedding you can guess how hectic those three days will be… ON TOP OF JET LAG! 

Added to that, I had been kind of down the last few weeks at the thought that my baby sister is getting married in a few short months and I would not be able to go shopping with her, or help her plan, or just sit up and giggle with her over wedding plans… you know all that sister stuff! 

So Ryan came home yesterday for lunch and just out of the blue said that he’d been thinking and maybe I should take a short trip home alone this coming month… Just to spend a few weeks with my mom and sisters shopping and enjoying each other’s company before the last minute rush!  Not to mention to meet the groom!

So I called my mom, schemed, and looked for tickets through the base and all said and done?

I go home to Phoenix on the 5th of February!!!!  It’s already booked!  I’ll be gone until the 21st so I’ll have 16 days!

So my best friend Emily will be here in 7 days and then she and I both fly back to Phoenix on the same day! (No not on the same flight… which stinks but it would have cost me an extra $1400.00 and I just don’t think so!!!)  We’ll spend the last few days making soups and casseroles to freeze so that Ryan doesn’t starve… 

How amazing is my husband?

 

The saddest part is that I’ll be gone over Valentine’s day…  I think I just got the best Valentine’s Day gift ever!  I’ll make sure to get him something good!!!

I’m off to clean and get ready for Emily!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Courtney

 

Enchanted Fog…

Guten Morgan Xangaland!

A whole quiet week has passed here in The Land of Fairy Tales since last we spoke…  A week of ice frosted shrubs, grey shrouded skies, and dense swirling fog… I think that the fog, as strange as it sounds, is one of my favorite things about this enchanted forest… despite the creepy movies that have been made about it…

A few short nights ago Ryan and I stood outside at dusk and watched this deep fog roll up from the ravine a few kilometers from our door…  We watched it engulf the forest, roll over the farms, and then enclose the horse paddock across the street from view…  As we stood shoulder to shoulder in our buildings yard it rolled over us and pried at our coats with icy little fingers…  The temperature dropped sharply and little puffs of our breath added to the mists… 

There is just something magical about stepping out into the silence of a deep fog… Something enchanting about standing in a field nestled deep into my cloak while Ryan and I walk the dogs, watching them run in and out of the mists like grey shadows… the only sound the jingle of their tags as they chase the ghosts that swirl around them…

And the things that most find creepy I find fascinating…  The feeling of being isolated, of being all alone in a world gone grey and misty…  The feeling that time has no hold on me as I look at the old building being torn down across the street… only the bare outlines visible… and feel as if I’m looking at something 60 years in the past…

And even now as dawn breaks once more over the land the fog does not burn off…  It seems that yet another quite and shrouded day awaits me here in The Land of Fairy Tales… 

Auf Wiedersehen!

Courtney

 

Morning Mists…

Guten Morgan Xangaland!

They are razing the building across the street… the one that they used to do practice fires in for the fire department at the end of the summer…

Right now they are stripping off the outer coating of the building, stripping off the roof, and taking out all of the window frames, cabinets, toilets and such… (Germany has very strict recycling laws so they have to take it apart piece by piece.)

I’ll make sure to get pictures and maybe even video when they start taking it down!

On a completely different note… There really isn’t anything all that interesting going on in The Land of Fairy Tales of late…

Winter has settled like a blanket over the land, the fields have all been tucked in for the winter and there aren’t any more birds except for your ever present ravens…

Speaking of ravens…

I was coming into the gate the other day and as I handed the gate guard my ID I politely asked him how he was doing… He nervously shifted from one foot to the other, cleared his throat, and said,

“Good, but really freaked out…”

“Why?” I asked, starting to feel a little bit of a prickle myself…

He pointed to the field across the road with his flashlight and quietly whispered…

“Them!”

I glanced across the road to see a perfectly straight line of ravens… just staring at the guard shack… Startled I looked back and him and asked in quiet tones…

“Have they been there all night?”

“Yes since dusk.” He whispered.

To be honest, I felt a little like I was in the middle of a scary movie… And I couldn’t’t blame the poor man for becoming paranoid! So I smiled politely at him, wished him a nice night and high tailed it home… Creepy!!!

So back to the thought I was on… Winter has settled like a blanket over the land, the fields have all been tucked in for the winter and there aren’t any more birds except for your ever present ravens…

All the leaves are gone now and the mists swirl and dance through the bare branches… It’s quiet and beautiful… Like nothing I have ever experienced.

Summer, Autumn, and Winter… I can’t wait to see spring!!!

What an amazing first six months in Germany!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Courtney

~L  ~ 

Song of the day?  Morning Prayer by Peter Tchaikovsky

 

2 Year Gastric Bypass Update…

Guten Tag Xangaland!

On December 27th I passed an anniversary that I honestly didn’t even realize was going by…  The two year anniversary of my gastric bypass surgery.  For those of you that don’t know why I had gastric bypass surgery you can read THIS.  It explains in detail the medical reasons for this drastic action.

In the two years since I underwent GBS I have become a person reborn.

I have gone from 285 pounds to 140 pounds a staggering loss of 145 pounds… 

I have now lost more than I currently weigh…

I have gone from a size 22 to a size 4…  9 pant sizes…

I have gone from 6 prescription medications to only a handful of vitamins…

I have gone from being dead by 30 to having a long, healthy, and happy life ahead of me…

It has been a long road… much of it painful…

…But…

I am happy, I am healthy, I feel wonderful, I am content…

~ll~

Here are my before and after pictures from the front… The first was taken just two days before my surgery on Christmas day of 2004 and the other was taken today.

  

Here are my before and after side shots…  The first was taken at an early Christmas dinner of the same year…  And the other today (By the way I love my shirt!!!  I got it on uber sale at the BX… total cost after all discounts?  $1.75!!) 

 

 Looking back I am shocked to see the drastic difference but honestly the head shots are the ones that really get to me…  This was taken just a few days before Christmas of 2004…

 And this one was taken today.   

I had to go through so much to get here but looking back I would not change a thing…  Through all of the illnesses and the medications, the infertility and the heartache I have become the woman I am today and fat or thin I’m comfortable in my own skin… and I feel as if I am becoming the woman God wants me to be…. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Song of the day? A Living Prayer by Alison Krauss… 

Auf Wiedersehen,

Courtney

 

My Knight in Shining Armor

Guten Morgan Xangaland!

Over the last few weeks I have slowly been working my way to a concussion! 

The cabinets in my apartment are, shall we say, convenient for hitting ones cranium. 

I’m not talking about just the kitchen either…  I’m talking the kitchen, the bathroom, and the over the bed cabinets in the office (which currently do not have a bed under them and are therefore lethal…)  These cabinets are brutal.  I have no idea why anyone would put them at such a height. 

Why only yesterday I stumbled into the kitchen only moments from my bed to put down my phone and water next to my laptop so that I could check my email after completing my morning ablutions.  As I leaned in to set them down I whacked my scull full force against a corner of the cabinets.  (Laugh if you must but I actually have a visible bruise on my forehead.)  Lets just say that I woke up today with the same headache I went to bed with…. ouch.

Two days ago I was doing laundry and accidentally left the cabinet that the tide goes in open towards the door… When I straightened up and turned to walk out the door I ran full face into the cabinet door… and as there is a convenient ledge in the tile wall, keeping it from opening up any farther, I bounced…. sigh… I know you’re laughing now..

Just wait…

Last night just before bed I was sitting, once again, in the kitchen on the laptop doing a last minute email check…  Ryan started putting dishes away out of the dishwasher behind me to kill the time…  I finished and stood up to help him finish up and…

WHAM!!! 

I stood up straight into an open cabinet door!  I went down and Ryan instantly starting laughing so hard he could barely breath… but he had enough breath to legibly say, and I quote!

“Oh did I forget to tell you I left the cabinet door open?  I’m sorry.”

I know that this is exactly what he said because as soon as I could see straight I sat right back down and typed it out… to the soundtrack of my husband in hysterics.

After an excusable 28 minutes of laughing (yeah I timed him) he mastered his emotions and asked me if I was okay.  I said…

“Nothing an aspirin can’t handle” (gallantly belittling the astounding pain so as not to give him more to laugh about…)

And he responded by dissolving into a fit of the giggles that reached so high a pitch that the dogs started barking at him… 

Have you ever seen a distinguished Staff Sergeant run for the toilet so he doesn’t pee his pants?

Yeah me neither, my husband isn’t distinguished…

Apparently…

I’m off to nurse a headache and avoid cabinets!

Song of the day?  Dean Martin’s, Ain’t That A Kick In The Head… since there were no songs entitled… The Cabinets Are Out to Get Me or some such thing….

Auf Wiedersehen!

Courtney

~L   ~

Guten Morgan Xangaland!

Today finds Ryan and me back to our normal schedules. This last two weeks, while lazy, were not unproductive. We ended up cleaning and reorganizing all of the closets and cupboards. They were still in the thrown together state that ensues when one moves in without all of their things! We did all of the laundry and dishes, we washed the dogs, took out the planter boxes, and a thousand other little things to get the house in order and in the end the house is ready for Emily to get here!

I can’t believe that my best friend will be here in only three weeks! (In case I haven’t mentioned it she will arrive on January 24th and be here until February 5th.) We are so excited!!!
I have so much to do today to catch up. As much as I got done over these last few weeks the everyday things have piled up… And so I’m off to get all caught up. I’ll try to get something a bit more substantial out in the next few days!

Auf Wiedersehen

Courtney