I am so awesome at this game!

A few years ago my brother gave me the deluxe edition of Clue, the 50th Anniversary edition to be exact. It is sweet! the weapons and people are heavy metal and the rooms have extra detail.

I don't know what it is about this game but I seem to always win. I must have good critical thinking skills or I am a good guesser. The summer before I got married we played this with my brother and I won every time.Annie Kate has taken an interest in this game and we have played a few times this week. She has wanted to win so bad! Tonight we played three games. First one I won, second Jeff and the third I winked at Jeff and said "let Annie Kate win"

I swear the third game took 1 hour! Jeff and I kept guessing our own guys until she figured it out. Oh my when she did, she was thrilled!

Ryan, in case I never sent you a thank you note (chances are good I didn't) for the Clue game, Thanks we love it!

Do you like Clue?
Do you let other people win to make them feel good?

my word of the year.

Why did I pick this word this year? Why didn't I pick the word

sitonthecouchandeatchocolate?

I seem to be stretching many things lately (except my muscles, note to self, do more of that!)
so my word of the year is really kicking in.

These magnets were sent to me by Mique and are so awesome!! I would love to peer pressure her into a little how to on her blog or a link to buy more, they are great!

school started this week and it has been awesome. AK got a wonderful teacher and the above box was full of gum and we took it to her on the day of Sneak a Peek.

today is the teacher's birthday and in one week me and the other room mom made 25 t-shirts for all the kids to wear today in the celebration. She was surprised and it was so fun. I also have to put in a HUGE plug (why have I not done this sooner!) for a wonderful project in case you are looking for one.
My friend here in D.C. makes flag quilts to give away at Christmas, Veterans & Memorial Day at Walter Reed hospital. (she has spent many Christmas eve's sewing up to the last minute) Her husband is an orthopaedic physician there and many of the soldiers who he personally hands these quilts to are his patients. There have been some years that he has delivered them and it has taken all day, as he spends much time talking with them and their families. He dresses in "dress blues" to deliver them out of respect for their service. Linda, his wife, never looks for credit and does not receive any. I have always asked her, "don't you want to go and just see the look on their face when they get it" she always says it's not about me, it is about them.
What is great about these quilts is that they keep them in their room and use it as an autograph book for many famous people and political leaders that come in daily to the hospital.
How cool would it be to make a quilt that will then hold the President's signature for a solider.

My friend Chanel found out about this project and has taken it by storm and is encouraging all of us to either take on a quilt or pass this information on to a group who might be interested.

Take a second to read and see some awesome photos. If you don't sew but know someone who does and might be interested let them know. It is a easy first quilt project if you want to tackle it.
My friend Linda has no idea that Chanel has done this and it will be a wonderful surprise for her to see so many people getting involved.

Ten

it has been 10 days since I have blogged, looked at blogs, my email or such. I am in a little bit of a rut. I have not finished my Europe trip recap, which I want to finish so I don't forget what a blessing it was for our family. I am returning from 9 days in New Mexico which will have to come after Europe recap and now school is starting on Monday, which brings another whole level of journaling.
I am feeling like how did I ever have the time to blog and remembering the good old days that I would not go to bed without documenting our happenings? What has happened to my blogging energy? How do I get it back?
I am so excited for Pink Christmas I can't stand it! I have had so many sponsors who are going to spoil the girlfriends who signed up with discounts and goodies in the very thick Pink Envelope that will be coming in the mail.
I just got an email for Go City kids that the Lucketts Fair is going on this weekend and am hoping to take the little girls while Jeff and Annie Kate go river rafter with the downtown youth.
I came home to some really great mail and these incredible letter fabric magnets that spell the letter Stretch (my word of the year) I love them and can't wait to get a good mail post going --

Annie Kate has her first soccer practice today. It is not really her sport, but that is what we said about swimming so who knows. I must go get shoes by 5:00 pm and am still sitting in my jammies (2:21 pm)

I must also think of something cute for the "Magic School Bus" to bring for the girls on Sunday night, if anyone did this and has any great ideas let me know.
And... Anne just called and is sending my family dinner tonight, now that is some warm good mail. Thanks Anne, how would I adjust to getting back from trips without you!

So, I am off to unpack, shower and get my head in the game. If anyone has any good blogging rut advice for me pass it on.

today I will be driving from here to

here... (who knew D.C. had a district flag) then I will be flying to

here. getting on another plane so I can fly backwards to...

here and then get off the plane to drive to

here!

Maybe it is a blessing the air conditioning and fridge are not working so this crazy day flying alone with the girls may not seem so bad.

I was thinking next Pioneer day if you want to get a glimpse of Pioneer's life turn your air conditioning off for a week and don't use a fridge - it will be a lasting memory for your kids.
It is months like this when renting feels oh so good.

our 169 euros after we gave the bank $240.

Some shops I found and their websites that were more than happy to count my Euros for me.


This store Noukies was fun to go into. Everything was as soft as our "soupies" they had a darling character for a little girls room that was a Indian girl that was so darling. This was a fun store to go into and so is their website.

Obaibi - Annie Kate got the most darling little chocolate brown dress here,(kind of looked like this) and the girls some 5 Euro t-shirts that are so soft. I regret not getting more school clothes for Annie Kate here. Here and I had a total blast shopping in her together, she was giddy and fun.

Petit Bateau. - this was a find! Then I come home and see they have stores in the northeast. Surprisingly the prices are much more here in the U.S. I got some t-shirts for me and some matching ones for the girls, here. They don't have these ones on the US site. I also figured out that Olive Juice sells their underwear for little girls and AK actually has a pair. OJ has great summer sales on them.

La Cure Gourmande - this could possibly be one of my favorite shops I went into. It was like Willy Wonka with a French twist. It had cookies everywhere, candies and "Choupettes" (which my girls learned were lollipops) We each got one and they were heaven on a stick. I don't know if they ship to the US but the packaging alone is amazing!

Oliver Grant - we saw this store in Strassburg. I kept trying to convince Jeff to bring home a tie and this would have been the place to to it. Their store windows were awesome.

On my charm hunt from each country I found a store in Garmisch that sold these charms by Thomas Sabo. I didn't love them individually but the bracelets looked awesome when they were covered with them.

Strollers. We saw some awesome strollers and if I would not have been pushing my own I would have photographed them all. Most of them I think are from Europe but I have seen many appearances of them in larger cities here in the U.S. Here is a website with the brands we saw.
This green Quinny one was my favorite.

We saw a lot of these too. Stokke

Jill and Stacy I would have bought these for you if I could in the flea market in Italy

What I bought or wish I had

I had been hoping on our trip I would find someone cutting silhouettes and we did in Salzburg. I didn't even think twice about it and made everyone in the family get one cut

yes even Jeff. They were only 4 euros each.

The guy was an entertainer as well. The girls drew quite a crowd and he had 4 customers after we left. It was dead quiet when we got there. He was out front of the Church where Mozart was baptized in and played in as well.

I think of all of them mine is by far the worst - it looks nothing like me and I don't know why he gave me bangs. I should have put me and Annie Kate's hair in a pony tail. Oh well.

me - what do you think? any resemblance?

Annie Kate

Sally Jane. Her hair was so curly this day and i was glad she had a big bow in too.

Jeff. I scanned it kind of crooked but I think it is dead on and
he looks kind of presidential don't you think.

Caroline. I could not believe she held still for it.

In Innsbruck Austria I bought a water color the Golden Roof from an artist right out front of it. Annie Kate wanted one too, so she gave us a deal on two. Annie Kate picked one with actual golden leaf on it. The lady then told us the story of the water fountain painted in the print. It is a freezing cold water that you can drink. This is Jeff filling up Caroline's strawberry shortcake sippie cup. It was refreshing!

This was a nativity set we found in Murren Switzerland. The cheapest I found at 20 euros a piece but not what I was looking for.

Annie Kate looking for some treasures in Obberamergau.

Our friend who used to live in Germany have one of these on their front porch and I wished now I had bought one. They are springy like figures that you hang outside.
Annie Kate this hand carved wooden box in Obberamergau and she collected some of the Euro's and Swiss Francs to keep and put in there. Along with the ticket to get to the top of the Zugspitze.
The girls each got a doll of a Austrian girl - they sold the same doll in Germany and Switzerland. Each morning the hotel would make up the girls beds and lay their dolls on their pillow it was so cute.
As tempted as I was to buy each of the girls a traditional dress I was even more tempted by the Leiderhosen. If I had a boy I would have for sure bought one of these - they were darling.
I did seem to find a fabric store in each town we went to - how amazing is that. I bought a button from almost each country. I have some ideas in my head of how to put them together, but it was an inexpensive and small item to get from each place.
This was the dress that haunted me the rest of the trip. I can't begin to say how incredible the fabrics are there. Very high quality and a pleasure to touch. this dress was in Garmish and was beautiful. I only took a photo because I knew if I had her try it one I would buy it. The dress and shirt were like 85 euros. The photo through the window does not even do it justice.
One night when we went to town in Garmish there was an art festival going on in town center. There was a bunch of pottery- which never seems to attract me but our girls fell in love with these little ceramic animals. I was shocked that Jeff (Mr. Don't buy junk) bought each of the girls one. Annie Kate got a frog, Caroline a cat and Sally Jane went for the duck. The frog and cat made it home but the duck stayed behind somewhere in France.
I loved seeing the girls get so excited about their little finds. I on the other hand was painfully spending way too much money on a battery charger for my Nikon camera because I left it at home. Oh the pain of spending that money. I walked out of the camera store and Jeff said, "Happy Anniversary" very funny!



The Easter Egg store in Salzburg was dreamy to go into. They were not that expensive and all hand painted, yes those are all eggs. But I knew there was no way I get one home without some crackage going on.
What is so amazing to me that I didn't remember until we got home was that this Easter we had a nice Easter brunch in downtown D.C. at each table there was a hand painted egg. The egg went to our friends who treated us to brunch but I had asked the waiter if they sold them because I thought it would be a nice memento to remember the day. He said, "oh no we order these every year from a store in downtown Salzburg, Austria"
Now I am even kicking myself more for not spending the 7 Euros to give it a shot for a safe return.

I had hoped to find a inexpensive wooden nativity carving, but just could not spend the money. I do wish I had bought this large Mary & Joseph that I found in Austria for 48 euros. I saw the exact same one in the wood carving city Oberamergau Germany for 138 Euros. I kept holding out I would find it for 15. No such luck.
This hat we got for Annie Kate in Italy after days a day of her complaining about the sun. On the center square in Brixen there was a $.99 Euro store so it was only a dollar. The hat was great fro the trip and even made it home in the suit case the same shape.

Oh the Italian Flea market we found in Brixen we be a highlight for me. Two things were against me in this situation.

1. Jeff was carrying all the money so I had to ask to buy something (note to self next time bring clothes with pockets so he has less control)
   
2. We were all hungry so food search was more important than junk.

At this table was this man who only spoke German and Italian. (again kicking myself I didn't listen better to Herr Kothrun in high school, who knew it would pay off to bargain for something) In the box on the table held some incredible treasures. There was a silver charm travel bracelet that was incredible. So chunky and unique. But oh so much it was $130 Euros. I kept thinking what can I buy that I can give to my grandchildren and say I got this when I took your mother to Europe in 2007 - it is so scary how my mind works that way. There was an old Italian large coin on a chain. It seemed perfect. It was 30 Euros. At this point I wanted to bargain the man for it. I do know my numbers in German. The battle that went on for me were, will I find something better. This is the first few days of the trip, I can't spend all my money in one day. (all I had bought at this point was a 99 cent hat and 3 buttons, what was I thinking) Also because we could only afford this trip because it was basically free - I didn't have a lot of money to spend and had to keep reminding myself being here is the souvenir.
So after walking away, eating dinner and thinking about it way too much. I did not buy the coin. Poor Jeff spent the rest of the two weeks hearing me say, "I should have bought that coin!"
When I came home i looked some up on Ebay and may just buy one to remind me of the story.
this was a box of sewing notions also at the flea market. At this point the kids were done looking and I never got to dig through this box - oh what could have been inside...



I took this photo for my dad as he loves old skis. Look how awesome that red scale is too.I did buy this bag for 4 euros. The lady who sold it to me said she found an old piece of crewel embroidery and cut it up to make a bag. Jeff said "I bet there is a made in Mexico tag inside" I like her story better. She ended up giving all my girls a beaded bracelet for free which was very nice.ok, this was not for sale but I am so excited to share this and know someone will do something cool with this idea. I was walking past a florist shop and out of the corner of my eye saw this girl making this arrangement out of an old umbrella. I said, "may I please take a photo for my friends"
she had taken an old umbrella and taken off the fabric part. she then covered it in chicken wire and was wrapping a green grapevine in there and then would add flowers. she had made one that had dried and was out front.
I have two old umbrellas that I just may try to do something with. It is much cooler than I think I am describing.

France by far had the best shopping. We got into town at 8:00 pm and everything closed. I was thrilled when we ended up staying there so we could do some browsing the next morning. I got a couple awesome t-shirts at this store I will post more on later with it's website. It was awesome.

We bought a cow bell for Caroline ( i have not taken a photo yet) to remind her of Switzerland. She had a "run in" with a cow - literally and I can't wait to write it all down in my Vacation from our Vacation post on Switzerland.

also no picture yet, I bought two balls of multi colored string. One at a grocery store in Wengen and one in a Stationery story in Interlocken Switzerland. They are some of my favorite things I bought.

current news here: since we have been home the refrigerator (i miss ice) is broken and so is our air conditioning. We took 2 extra hours to get home from church today because we could not stand going into our home. Our home teacher came over at 8:15 am to home teach us and had told our ward (this is not even the one we go to) our situation and someone came over later to check on us. We are so blessed.