After the park we had a lovely meal in the city center of Weiden.  We had some wonderful traditional German fair and I got some lovely Spagel, oh yum!  Spagel is a rare white asparagus that they have here in Germany, oh, so good!  We sat outside and enjoyed the lovely evening and watched people pass us by.  As we sat there, our family, surrounded by the sights and sounds of Europe, I thought about how this is just another reason that I love my husband so much!  We are so much alike, we love to be spontaneous, we love make our children smile, we love a good meal, and we love to enjoy a beautiful day.  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family, I don’t need pictured to remember this day.  This one will never fade.

Okay, I just discovered this, I about fell over laughing from this one.

Swagger Wagon

So, enough thinking about it, I decided to try it.  I was inspired during our trip to Pottenstein, to do a personality page about Gabrielle.  If you know her, you know that she climbs EVERYTHING.  I have finally given up making her stop, maybe she will be in the cirque du sole, or something.  Anyhow, last year when Debbie came to visit, we went to Pottenstein and Debbie took a great picture of Gabrielle climbing on a stairway railing.  Yesterday, in Pottenstein, I took a great picture of Gabrielle climbing a railing for a pathway at the palace.  Some things never change.  The green and blue patterned paper under the photos and the dark blue strips on the top and bottom are digi-papers printed on my printer.  The photo mats and background paper are from my collection.  The embellishments were chosen from both my “Green” and “Blue” bins.  I love the way this one came out.  Also, I must say, that my F.R.E.D. has truly changed the way that I scrapbook, I can really see how my page will look before I glue anything, best gift EVER!

I apologize for the glare, I forgot to take the picture before I put it into the book.  The journaling is simple, the pic on the left says June 2009, the one on the right says June 2010.  The circle on the bottom reads:  Both taken in Pottenstein.  Some things never change.

This morning Rusty and I actually woke up early enough to work out, Yay!  We discovered a few unwelcome guests in our bedroom, ants (ugh).  I decided to check the girls room, they had another half hour to sleep so I tried to be careful and quiet.  There were no ants in their room, but I did find both girls sleeping together in Abby’s bed.  Can you say Kodak moment?  I ran and got my camera.  After I took some pictures and was walking out the door, I came across a tag from an outfit that I had bought for Gabby about a week ago, it said: 2 Piece Set.  I tell you what, that scrapbook page just wrote itself!

Journaling:

The two of you don’t always match up (in personality).  You clash very often and things can get down-right nasty.  But you are sisters and you love each other and defend one another.  Forever more, you will be a 2 piece set.

By the way, I am LOVING my F.R.E.D.

My most recent example of a story that needed to be documented is my Dad’s t-shirt collection.  Silly, right?  But very important, if my children are to understand my Dad’s goofy side (one of my favorite parts of Dad).

The journaling reads:

If you have ever wondered anything about my Dad, such as…

-Which sport teams did he support?

-Where did he travel?

-How does he feel in a picture?  Patriotic?  Playful?  Goofy?

Just look at his shirt!  The answer is usually right there.

Dad had a huge collection of  T-shirts.  He bought them everywhere he went and he often bought them for others, as well!  He wore his collection proudly every day.

This page is a good example of the lighter side of my Dad, and the girls got a laugh out of it, especially the shirt he is wearing in middle left.  Those of you who knew Dad, know that this was one of his favorites!

We’ve been using slimfast.com to get recipes and build shopping lists.  It’s free and really easy to use.  I eat about every 3 hours, and I have plenty of energy.  I’ve limited myself to about 1500 calories a day, but I don’t bother to count them.  I just eat the planned snacks.  It was hard to do the first few days, but it seems to get easier every day.  I just set an alarm on my cellphone for each snack and lunch.

The most significant part of this lifestyle change has been our fitness goals.  We’ve started working out everyday. And not just working out, but really working hard.  I can honestly tell you that I think we’ve found the right program for us.  I’ve set up a separate blog to chronicle our progress.  You can check it out here. The full URL is http://p90x.wilson-home.net/.  Well, until next time…

-Rusty

Rusty and I were listening to the Brad Paisley Christmas album and we hear the song, “Only 364 days left.”  We started talking about all of the things that have changed in our lives since last Christmas, allow me to run through the list:

1. We cut up all of our credit cards and started using only cash/debit.
2. We went to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and decided that we will do whatever we have to do to get out of debt.
3. We both quit smoking.
4. We both got laser eye surgery.
5. We sold our house.
6. We moved to Germany.
7. We got new jobs.
8. The kids changed schools, Gabrielle changed twice!
9. We got our new home.
10. Rusty has rededicated himself to learning to play the guitar like the pros.

I think it’s funny how most people, even me, stress out about change.  I will tell you from first hand experience that change is much better and much more fun if you sit back and accept it rather than try to fight it.  Change is going to happen, the hardest part is deciding what you will do about it.

Do you want to know the best part? We have found another couple who has two boys who are also children in disguise. We wento mega play with them yesterday and we had a blast, our kids played all day and we sat and talked for five hours. Guess who we’re going to Disney with? Yep, you guessed it. I love that we have found people who are like us and p