Snow

We had our first snow a few weeks ago. I know that we aren't in Alaska anymore, but with the wind blowing the snow nearly horizontal, it was really COLD. When Ashlyn first went outside, she came back in about 5 minutes later. Once Bella was outside too, she stayed out a bit longer. They kept coming back inside to play and warm up, then get wrapped up to go out again.

Recent Activities (with pictures)

I realized that though I have posted lately, I haven't added any pictures. I have regretted that I haven't taken more pictures recently. My new resolution is to not leave the house again without my camera. In the last couple of weeks, Allen and I have both taken all day classes about the local area. Allen's class dealt completely with language and culture, while mine the next week was also an introduction to facilities and programs on post. I would have preferred his class. So, I am taking a German class this week. We are also going to continue to take Rosetta Stone online. I feel a bit lost when trying to talk to people in stores and restaurants. Anyway, here are a few of our pictures.

The week that Allen was taking his class, Ashlyn and I were stuck at home. Of course, we were taking a couple of walks a day, just to get out of the house.

Sharing Ranger's bed

Hanging out in the backyard

By the end of the week, I was feeling very stuck, so we headed to Regensburg, which is our closest larger town. We just walked around the downtown area and had dinner.

Allen and Ashlyn in front of the Donau River (or Danube). Ashlyn is pointing at a boat.

The view to their other side. The small building in front is the oldest sausage kitchen. I believe they have been making sausage since 500 AD.

St. Peter's

Ashlyn and I after dinner

Bad Timing

Allen has really bad timing on offering opinions. I asked for input on paint color for our living room. I told him that I was thinking about blue. He kind of made a face and said that he wasn't sure about blue. I showed him the color I was thinking about, and he said that was an ok color. So, we went to Obi today, which is a Home Depot equivalent. I bought paint for the whole house. Not too many different colors this time. Blue for the living room and Ashlyn's room, yellow for the kitchen and the guest room, and a more neutral yellow (closer to ochre, but light) for our bedroom. The paint was a bit more expensive than what we've paid for paint in the past. We will only live here for three years, so I'm not going to be painting this place more than once. I asked Allen about the color, before I had them mix it. He told me to get what I wanted. After we get home, Allen tells me that he doesn't like the blue. Good grief. Our living room is going to be blue. If we don't like it, our next living room will be another color. I'd just had enough of green and yellow for now, in the living room anyway. Apparently, I still like yellow in every other room in the house. Now, I just have a lot of painting to do before we get our furniture.

Furniture Shopping/Important Decisions

We decided (maybe not the best plan) to leave our couch and love seat in Alaska. We bought CHEAP furniture in 2000, and it looked pretty pitiful before 2001. By the time we left it in Alaska, it was really sad. So, when we got here, we HAD to buy furniture. We started looking right after we got here. We went to our local furniture store, the Mobelhauf, which is actually large, with quite a bit of selection. Of course, most of it was very modern furniture. Clean lines, low to the ground, and kind of hard. We found some furniture that was more comfortable and less modern-looking. The problem was that we (meaning I) didn't like the fabric selections that went with this furniture. So, we headed to Regensburg to the largest furniture store of all time, the Heindl. As we walked into the living room area, Allen said that we were just way too picky if we couldn't find something there. Um, we didn't. Actually, we found something we liked, but it was 7000 Euro, or about $10,000. A little much, I think. We also again found a style of furniture we liked, but, again, not the upholstery. We then went to Ikea. Too cheap. The next day, we went to the PX furniture store in Vilseck. Still, we didn't find THE sofa. By this point I was very frustrated.


All this time, Allen wanted leather furniture, while I wanted upholstery. I just think fabric feels nicer. We also have a cat with claws. I relented and said that we could get him a leather chair, but the rest upholstery. Somehow, with my frustration and the seemingly endless furniture shopping, leather started sounding better. By the time we headed back to the Mobelhauf to check it out again, we somehow just found what we like. We also realized that there were other choices in upholstery in a different section. In my head, I was imagining some type of brown upholstery. But, then we also wanted brown leather. All of the sudden, this seemed like too much brown. So, I picked out a brown leather sofa and love seat, and a red upholstered chair and ottoman. I have been rethinking my decision sooooo many times since we ordered it. We will not have the furniture until July, so I will have a long time to worry about whether I picked the right stuff.

Ok, so now I actually want input. I had red in our last living room as well, with yellow and green. Allen liked the yellow, but I am ready for a change. I was originally thinking a green, but now I am thinking a blue. Do you think the blue hydrangea in the paint samples below will look good with red and brown? (The red is close to the Moroccan red, I think.) My other options were something like the prescott green or maybe sticking with yellow, like the hawthorn yellow. What do you think? Obviously, I will add other accent pillows and such to bring it all together.


Of course, I will listen to all opinions and then ignore them and do whatever I want.

Happy Halloween!

Rather than trick or treating, since Ashlyn doesn't eat candy, and I don't need to eat candy, we went to the MOPS fall festival. Just as she did at the Halloween party, Ashlyn wanted to be next to me constantly. Fortunately, this time I convinced her to just hold my hand and walk around. We played a few games, had a cookie, and a good time. Unfortunately, she did not want the hood up on her costume, so I was not able to get a good picture of her costume. She was still a cute little kitty.

Halloween Party and other photos

Ashlyn loves her little pumpkins.

Our FRG group had a Halloween Party Saturday evening at the Last Frontier Community Center. There were games, prizes, food, candy, and a lot of children! I think it may have been too much for Ashlyn. She didn't want to eat anything, play any games, or let me out of her sight. As I tried to run games, Ashlyn wanted to be on my lap. She did like the bean bag toss, or at least the bean bags. I had to take them away from her for each child to throw. There will be more dress up fun tomorrow.

Ashlyn, having a great time!

In this game, the kids were wrapping people up as mummies. My group didn't do that great of a job. Ashlyn did think this was kind of funny, though.

I love snow pictures

Loving this Time

Today was a great day. On the one hand, I feel like I have so much to feel stressed about right now, and a lot of times I do. But today, I realized how blessed I am. After Ashlyn woke up from her nap, we snuggled in the rocking chair, while I read Brown Bear, Brown Bear over and over. Later, I pulled the sled out to go on a walk. At first, Ashlyn ran around the room, laughing, then she ran to sit in the sled. She got kind of mad when I made her get out to put on her snowsuit. She laughed as we walked outside. It was a beautiful day, and I realized that, if I was teaching, I would miss so many of these times. Eventually, Ashlyn won't want to sit in my lap and have me read to her. I hate to miss a single minute of that.

Cute girl, ready to go

Beautiful Day

Happy Birthday Allen/Daddy!

That's right. Today is Allen's 31st birthday, and the second one he is celebrating in Iraq. Had I been more on the ball, I would have made a video for him with Ashlyn dancing to Happy Birthday. However, I was not on the ball, and it is no longer his birthday where he is. I hope you had a good one, Allen. We love you and miss you!

Here are a couple of pictures of Ashlyn playing outside yesterday.

She loved her sled! It was very difficult to pull her with one hand, while being pulled by Ranger with the other.

Cute girl

Something about this picture reminds me of Ezra Keat's Snowy Day. Probably just the snow suit.

For those of you who are really on here to look at pictures of Ashlyn, I hope that you have clicked on my flickr photos. I add extra pictures to that, too.

Visit Summed up in Pictures

I had planned to do this last week, right after Bob and Vicki left, but I didn't get around to it. I did not take as many pictures myself as I would have liked and should have, in part because I planned so much while they were here. Not for them, but for me. So, basically I ditched them with the kid and left. Anyway, some of these are pictures that Bob and Vicki took of different things they did while they were here.

On the Swings

More at the Playground

Getting a haircut. She would only cooperate with a lollipop in her mouth. (Ok, do you say lollipop or sucker?)

I'm so stressed!

Hugs from Paw paw

On the slide at Eielson

More Eielson photos

More Pictures

Riding in the car at Eielson

She wouldn't wear her own mittens, but would wear Grandma's.

Loving her slide

Paw paw thought he was going to take a nap, but Ashlyn had other plans.

Let it Snow!

We had snow over the weekend. Even though the snow around here lasts soooo long, I was actually ready for it this year. It was kind of late, and, once all the leaves are gone, everything is much prettier with a layer of snow on it. It does seem kind of weird to me that we will not see the grass in our yard again, since we will be out of here before break-up. Apparently, Ashlyn does not remember snow, and she is pretty excited about it, too. Watch for pictures of Ashlyn playing in the snow.

Random Events of the Past Week

Since Bob and Vicki have been in here, I have been taking advantage. I scheduled every appointment that I could think of(dentist, doctor, salon, financial, vet) while they were here, plus I have volunteered at the OSC bazaar this weekend and I have been working out a few mornings a week. They have been doing everything for Ashlyn. I'm just here, though I am the one getting up during the night or very early, if needed. Bob has also fixed a few things around the house, including cleaning out the gutters.

Ashlyn is loving having them here, and is getting SPOILED! She has perfected her "fake" cry. She has also learned a few new words lately: cricket, lights, maybe grandma (sounds like na-na), nanoo(think Mork and Mindy,) and Paw paw. With the addition of Paw paw to her vocabulary, she has definitely further wrapped Bob around her finger.

Vicki bought Ashlyn a stuffed cat. She loves it almost as much as Armand. She has started kissing both cats. She has been trying to share her toys with Armand. He isn't particularly impressed.

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Originally uploaded by ashmom.

Ashlyn has quite the sense of humor. She thinks that she is hilarious! She has taken to picking up the phone and laughing, rather than talking. Ashlyn was teasing Ranger earlier this week by covering him with a blanket and laughing as he barked about it. She tried playing the same way with Bo, so we put the blankets away. (Do not smother the baby, Ashlyn.)

Howl!

I am hilarious!

Grandparents, Leaves, and Good News

Accessorizing our feet

Paw Paw and Grandma (Bob and Vicki) got here VERY early Sunday morning. They have been working hard on spoiling Ashlyn, and are doing a good job of that. Whenever Ashlyn falls down they are right there to hug her and make a big deal out of her "fake crying." (When she falls down in front of Mom, I just say, "you're ok, get back up," and she does.) So, within one day of them arriving, Ashlyn was falling down on purpose, just to watch their reaction and get more hugs. Ashlyn isn't the steadiest walker yet, so she was already falling a lot on accident. Now that she is falling on purpose, it gets a little ridiculous. She is definitely enjoying being the center of attention all day long. They also brought her a new purse, including new jewelry (bracelets and rings,) a cell phone, and keys. She has been enjoying putting the bracelets on her feet.

Yesterday, Ashlyn pointed at me and said "Momma." Then, she pointed at herself, and said "Ashlyn." I was so excited that she could say her name. Every new thing she can do is exciting. We raked leaves after dinner. Ashlyn had a great time playing in them.

Grandma enjoyed playing in the leaves, too.

Paw Paw tried to get Ashlyn to help rake.

For those of you who didn't know this, Allen was put into a new functional area in August. Basically, the Army was telling him that he was going to have to do a different job for the rest of his Army career. This not only meant that he would have to do a different job, but we had no idea where we were moving in just a few months. Naturally, he appealed their decision, and HE WON THE APPEAL! He gets to stay as an Infantry officer, and we get to keep our assignment in Hohenfels, Germany. YEAH! His report date is April 1st, so we will be moving in March.

Modeling Tights

Just a few pics of Ashlyn in her new tights.

These are just a tad too big.

Presents

We got 4 packages in the mail today! Yeah! I love opening them, even if I was the one who ordered something. But, today we even had a complete surprise. I asked Vicki (also known as Grandma Harris) to get Ashlyn some tights. She bought 9 pairs of tights! They are so cute, though. Ashlyn will be wearing lots of dresses for awhile, just so she can wear her tights!
Poppy (my dad) also sent a rocking chair for Ashlyn. She loves it! I opened the package outside, and Ashlyn wanted to stay in the chair. She liked it inside, too. It is so fun to see her excited about little things.

Thanks for the packages!