Things That Annoy Me

I have been feeling pretty complainy today so I might as well go ahead and make a list of all the things that annoy me. Then perhaps I will get over them and let them quit bothering me. So, here is goes, in no particular order, things that annoy me.....some more than others........

1. Germans who freak out when I pull over for less than one minute to let Deaner jump out of the car and buy a stamp. I do not need you to show me that the street I am on is one way and that I should continue on down the road. I am not hurting you by sitting here for 45 seconds, there is PLENTY of room to go around me AND there is currently no one behind me. MYOB.

2. Germans who honk at me because they are forced to turn their steering wheel 3 inches to go around me while Deaner is out of the car for 45 seconds buying a stamp. It's really not necessary. And while I'm not positive if it is legal or not to pull over like this,it's not hurting you and it is DEFINITELY illegal to honk your car horn at me inside the city limits. Especially since I am not imminently about to hit you. MYOB.

3. When people (I cannot say "Germans" here because I am not 100% sure they were ALL German) disregard the LINE at the customs desk at the airport. It's a line. Get at the end of it. Oh! You thought you could just go to the front?? Well that is not how it works really.

4. When I put together my son's exersaucer and 10 minutes later he has pooped all over it. (of course, I don't blame him I just find it annoying).

5. When my husband watches me change Evans' diaper and then asks me if I used a wipe. WTH? No honey, I put our child's dirty butt into a clean diaper! Seriously?

6. When I go to the German equivalent of Home Depot, ask someone to help me only to have them tell me that what I need to accomplish is "IMPOSSIBLE". I didn't ask you if thought it was impossible. I asked you where the carpet glue was. (just for the record, it was NOT impossible)

7. When a waiter/waitress takes my order, doesn't write it down and then gets my order wrong. This mainly happens in the States because Germans don't make mistakes. :) If you write down my order and make a mistake, I will forgive you. If you don't write it down and make a mistake I am irritated.

8. When my DVD player that is less than a year old quits working while Evans is watching Baby Einstein. It is CRITICAL that the DVD player work expressly for this purpose. Even if it only cost $29, I'm still annoyed that we have to buy another one. STAT.

9. When deciding where to go to lunch or dinner anywhere in Wiesbaden, I have to consider if there is parking or not. What does everyone in Europe have against parking lots anyways? I don't even mind paying as long as it is AVAILABLE!

10. When there is no where to park at the commissary. Evans' carseat is HEAVY and I don't like having to haul it all the way to the grocery carts. Then it doesn't even fit in it properly.

I really could go on but I'd rather not sound like such a grouch. And believe it or not, I am not really annoyed by any of these things right now! Maybe my post worked!! I hope that everyone has a great weekend. My good friend Emory and her husband Bradley will be welcoming their new addition, Anna Claire, to the world today! Keep them in your prayers! I would like to leave y'all with a picture of things that DO NOT annoy me!! Happy Friday!

Finally.......

What can I say? I have been bad. A very bad bad blogger. I want to do better. I've been receiving death threats from family members about the state of my blog lately. But really, if you were out visiting places like this, would you be able to make time for YOUR blog?? Yes. I know the answer is yes because no one else could possibly be THIS neglectful. It is weird to me because things used to happen in my life and the first thing I would think is "oh, I can't WAIT to write about that on my blog". Now, the only things that happen to me are baby related and I feel like most people don't really think that sort of stuff is all that funny! But I am going to try harder. Much harder. I promise. It's just that it is sooooo cold here in Germany and my bed is sooooo warm when Evans goes down for a nap.....

ANYWAYS, turning over a new leaf! Deaner, Evans and I had a fabulous time over Christmas break spending time with our family and friends. It is always sad for me to come home but this time with Evans it was especially hard. Of course I cried like a baby (ok, well maybe most babies don't cry THAT hard) when my mom dropped us off at the airport to fly home. My dad couldn't make it to the airport with us so we dropped by his office on the way to the airport to sign our wills (to divide up our vast fortune) and say goodbye. He rode down the elevator with us down to his lobby and I could hardly look at him because I knew if I did I would start crying. This time I made it all the way to the curb at Hartsfield before having a nervous breakdown. I think everyone was sad to see us go and we have certainly missed everyone over the past month of being back in Germany.

So what have we been up to? Deaner has been pretty busy with work lately but we managed to sneak away for MLK weekend. We left Wiesbaden early on Friday and drove to Rothenberg for the night. We stayed in a sweet little hotel that was a converted stable. The town was pretty much deserted since it is winter (we have both been here before separately and in the summers it is crazy busy) and we had the whole place to ourselves. Saturday afternoon we continued south to Garmish where we stayed until Monday. We took Evans to the Zugspitz, the highest peak of the Alps in Germany, so he could experience the Alps for himself. Not bad for a 5 month old. I think he liked his form of transportation as well! Once we figured out how to put him in the backpack securely I wasn't even afraid that he would fall out! :)How can you not love that face!? And his new Patagonia snow outfit too!! I had to put him down in the snow just to see if it worked properly! Evans is not so sure of what to think!All in all it was a good trip. Evans was so good that we took him to Brussels with us last weekend for Deaner's work trip. Tomorrow I will post pictures of Evans out on the town during that trip. We really couldn't be luckier to have such a GOOD baby. Sometimes I find myself thinking that something is bound to go wrong and that he is going to "turn bad" one day when I go to get him out of his crib. For now, I am thanking God for a sweet, friendly, easy going baby! I do enjoy writing this blog so I promise that I will be better! And I'll try and keep the baby yakkity yak to a minimum. Oh yeah, maybe someone can help me? It is possible to upload pictures straight from iPhoto to Blogger? I've been having to move them to my desktop and upload from there and that is sort of annoying! Happy Thursday!

Last Day of the Year

2010 has been a good year for us. I don't think that we can complain. We started the year off with the good news that we would be having a son come August. I spent the spring and early summer remodeling the nursery to make it perfect. I got to travel to Atlanta in April/May for an awesome baby shower. We anxiously awaited our new addition until the August when he finally decided to grace us with his presence. I can hardly believe that I am sitting here on the last day of 2010 with my 4 month old baby boy. It has been a great ride and I can't say that I would do anything differently. We were lucky enough to have all sets of our parents visit us in Germany (some twice!) and I got to spend almost 6 weeks at home in Atlanta after Thanksgiving. It's been a good year. I am looking forward to everything that 2011 might have in store for us. I don't know how it can get any better than this!Tonight we will ring in the new year quietly with a VERY casual dinner, football games and PERHAPS making it til midnight. My how things can change in just a year! Deaner and I met 5 years ago today so it is a special day for us as well. We head back to Germany on Monday and while that flips me out a bit, I guess it is time to get back home. I never really thought I would refer to it as home but I suppose it has grown on me over the past two years. Hopefully we will enjoy the rest of our time here and I won't act like too big a fool come Monday!! Happy New Year to everyone!!

Hi from Atlanta!

Evans and I are really enjoying our time in Atlanta. Even better is that Deaner will be joining us in less than 48 hours! It has definitely been hard to be away from Daddy for so long. We are both looking forward to picking him up at the airport on Wednesday! Then Deaner and I are really looking forward to taking Evans to see Santa Claus to have his picture taken. We are leaving on Thursday to head to Danville, Virginia to visit Deaner's grandmother and introduce her to her latest great grandchild. I hope Evans cooperates. We have been having some trouble with his sleeping since we have arrived and this desire he has for a bottle at 4:30am is really starting to wear me out! I am crossing my fingers tonight!

No matter how much we have missed Deaner, Evans has been getting A LOT of attention around here. My parents have been loving every minute of having him here and the extra hands are ALWAYS appreciated!Evans had a great time helping pick out the Christmas tree. Thankfully it wasn't 12 degrees yet when we went!Aunt Mimi comes over to help at bathtime. Evans' favorite time of the day!Evans and me at my favorite pizza place, Mellow Mushroom. It was here that we told Deaner's parents last Christmas that Evans was on the way. He really seemed to like it! HA!My awesome friend Erin and her husband Steve and baby James came from Nashville to visit us on Saturday night. It was SO nice to get to see them and meet James. We got to have dinner out while Evans and James stayed home and played with Buddy (my dad).Evans really loves spending time with Buddy surfing the internet!All and all we have had a really good time at home so far. I am already not looking forward to going back to Germany. It seems so far away right now and COLD!!! Just want Deaner to get here!! Happy Monday!!

Home Again Home Again

Jiggity jig!!! We made it to Atlanta safely! I was pretty nervous to be flying with Evans for the first time without Deaner but everything went smoothly. We flew home with my inlaws and Evans and I had the bulkhead seats with plenty of room. Would you believe that Evans didn't make a peep the entire flight? Seriously, the kid was perfect. He smiled, laughed and slept. All the flight attendants fawned all over him and things could not have gone more smoothly. Evans of course had all his worshippers waiting on him in Atlanta! We had a constant stream of visitors yesterday to pay a visit to the little Prince! First his great aunt and Godmother, Jennifer, Uncle Thomas and cousin baby Thomas came over.Baby Thomas wasn't exactly sure what to make of Evans. Mainly he was just upset that Evans got a binky and he didn't!Aunt Amelia could hardly wait to get her hands on him either. So far she has only been able to see him on Skype!Our good family friend's, the Edwards, stopped by for a visit.
Followed by Evans' Gleaton cousins!!Everyone seemed really happy to meet him! Today promises more visitors and more cuteness by Evans. We had a semi rough night but I suppose that is to be expected when you bring a 3 month old half way across the world. Evans was up several times last night but I am hoping he will become more adjusted today. We have skyped with Daddy already twice and I know that he is REALLY missing his baby boy. Thank goodness for Skype. Alrighty, time to hit up the grocery store and stock up on formula! We are happy to be home!! Maybe now I will have more time to blog!! Happy Sunday!

Picture Update

Pictures are better than nothing, right? Deaner's parents arrived today and will be with us for Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to a week of sightseeing, catching up and of course THANKSGIVING!! This year I have 8 for dinner and I am really looking forward to celebrating with family and friends. I love cooking for others and if it is anything like last year, it will be a blast. The only sad part is that our friends Steph and Jon will be in Oklahoma this year!! Boo!! We will definitely miss them. I might also be walking on a cloud because one week from today I will be back in the States showing off my baby! I could not be more excited. Not only will I have a fun week here, I then get to go home! Of course I will miss Deaner A LOT and I know that he will miss us but it just made sense to do things this way. I have too many friends and too much family that want a piece of Evans to only be home for 3 weeks. And let's be honest, with the past month and a half that I have had, it will be nice to have some help at home. I am STILL being treated by my doctor twice a week for my c-section "wound" (I know it sounds like I have been shot or something) and this upcoming week will be my last! I am almost completely healed and right now the treatments are just precautionary. Don't want to take any risks! I have officially been seen by my doctor more times SINCE I have had Evans than when I was pregnant with him. So much for my easy pregnancy!!

Anyways, I thought I would update my blog with some pictures of my precious baby boy. Evans is so great that I can't even say enough about him. He sleeps when he is supposed to, he eats when he is supposed to and laughs at all the point inbetween. He makes me smile. I know he is going to make my parents smile when we get home! Here is Evans getting an EKG at his second doctor's appointment! He didn't seem to mind at all! Too bad he didn't know that the shots were coming!My perfect baby.On a walk with daddy.His new monster hat.Helping with the laundry!This is what happens when Deaner dresses the baby to go on a walk. Seriously? Both these outfits are OUTRAGEOUS!What's up??Evans finds his tongue. And continues to lick everything around!The cutest baby lamb after his bath!Super happy in his carseat.And finally, Evans favorite place to take a nap. Please excuse my unshowered self!That is all for now. Time for me to get in bed and give up on this Ole Miss v. LSU game. Sometimes it is just best to give up on a season. It is better for your health. Plus, I'm finally reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and that is WAY more entertaining than this football game. I hope that everything is good with everyone in blog land. I always claim that I am going to be better about the blogging but the truth is that I tend to choose sleep/napping over it on most days. Maybe once I get home next week and have several days of undisturbed sleep while my mom watches Evans, I'll be better. A six week vacation home is JUST what the doctor ordered! Happy Saturday!

Attempting to Catch Up

I am only blogging today because I am afraid if I don't, my parents are going to revolt against me. They don't seem to understand that this blog is what falls by the wayside when other things need to be done, including caring for a baby! Things here are going pretty good I have to say. We have had some minor setbacks in the past few weeks but I am working at overcoming them. The weekend before last Deaner and I decided it would be a fun trip to take Evans to Brugges. Since Deaner had that Monday off of work our plan was to leave for Brugges on Sunday morning and spend Sunday afternoon and all day Monday there. From Brugges we were to head to Brussels on Tuesday morning for Deaner to work there for the day and then Wednesday morning we were going to head to Mons for a big work meeting before heading home on Friday morning. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong. We got to Brugges LATE on Sunday. Why does everything take so much longer with a baby?? And here is what our car looked like. UNREAL.Who knew we would require SO much stuff. But don't worry, we did end up taking out one of those strollers and adding a playgym. It doesn't appear that all this stuff bothered Evans one bit. Sunday night in Brugges we just found a restaurant to have dinner in and then pretty much hit the hay. Monday morning we were up bright and early to do some sight seeing. The only problem was that I was not really feeling very good. I felt pretty queasy and pretty much just yuck. More on that later. Brugges is honestly one of the prettiest cities we have visited. They had gorgeous canals, buildings, churches and delicious beer, french fries and steak! I would have been in heaven had I been feeling a bit better. Here are some shots from our sightseeing. The weather was beautiful and sunny and we even got to take a canal tour.It was a really great trip and I can't wait to go back again next time Deaner has some work in Brussels. He is not so sure he is going to be bringing me back anytime soon though! Back to feeling bad. My c-section incision had really been bothering me and was still really sore. I thought this was weird because at this point in the game, I felt like I should have been completely healed. Everything was supposedly fine at my 6 week postpartum so I just didn't understand it. Well, Tuesday morning I woke up and felt a very swollen area on my abdomen. It was very red and something was definitely wrong. When we got to Brussels I called my doctors office and she said that I needed to either go to the ER there or come home first thing in the morning to see her. UGH! Last time I went to Brussels with Deaner he had to miss a meeting to bring him home because I was sick. I couldn't believe this was happening again. That night my incision ruptured and we left first thing in the morning to get home. My doctor's office was closed but she met me there to take a look. It was pretty much the worst case scenario that we could have been thinking. I had a massive abdomenal infection and it didn't look good. My doctor said that she would do everything she could to keep me out of the hospital but that if it got worse I would have to go. Despite her office being closed for two weeks of vacation, she agreed to meet me there EVERY SINGLE DAY to treat me in order to keep me out of the hospital. The other part to the agreement was that Richard not go back to work until TODAY. She told him that he had to stay home and pretty much do everything while I worked on getting better. I have LOVED having him home the past two weeks. Recovery has been SLOW and not very comfortable but we are getting there. This Wednesday will mark two weeks of treatment and two weeks of being on antibiotics. The first one my body did not respond to at all but this second one has been working better. I am finally down to going to the doctor every other day now and Deaner went back to work today. It has been a LONG day. My doctor is seeing me before all her other patients in the mornings now that the office is open again but that means that I have to get to her office by 8:45am. No small feat with an 8 week old! SO, that is the update on me. I am VERY thankful to have such a great doctor who was willing not to pawn me off to the hospital since it was her vacation after all. I know for a fact that my doctor in Atlanta would not have done this for me!

Besides all this other garbage going on, things have been good. Evans continues to be the dream baby. He started sleeping thru the night around 6 weeks and last night he went down at 10:00pm and I had to wake him up at 7:30 to go to the doctor with me. I can't ask for much more than that! He isn't the best napper during the day but I'd rather him sleep at night than during the day so you won't hear me complaining! He is such a happy baby and laughs all the time. He especially loves talking to my parents on Skype. Deaner and I made the decision a few days ago that I am going to return to the States with his dad and stepmom after their visit at Thanksgiving instead of waiting to fly with him home on December 15th. Originally I thought 3 weeks would be plenty of time at home but I have so many people that I want to see and so many events planned that it just makes sense for me to go early. So Evans and I will fly home with Dick and Maggie on November 27th. Needless to say that my parents are out of their minds with excitement and Evans and I are worried about missing Daddy while we are away so long! I know Deaner will miss us too but he might not mind sleeping in a quiet house and it will give him some time to make up on traveling that he has missed.

That is about all I have to update I believe. I know I promise all the time that I will be better about blogging and I promise I will try. Once I am home I should have more time since I will have extra hands to help out. I just can't wait for my family to meet Evans! My sister and brother still haven't seen him! I hope that everyone has been doing great and will try and stick with me until I get into a better routine!!!!! Happy Monday!