Some pictures from today...

Isabelle picked out these beautiful purple mums to plant. They had so much fun playing in the dirt and "helping" me.


Enjoying the gorgeous weather at Holliday Park.

Erwin finds a suitable resting place next to a napping Isabelle.

Isabelle is all smiles at dinner.

Allie eating her first ear of corn. She is a much more adventurous eater than her sister.

Nothing excites Allie more then finding my cellphone or wallet within her reach. She could sit and sort my change and credit cards for hours.

Allie - 17 months old.

Isabelle - 3 1/4 years old.

The girls are both changing so much. When I look back just a few months, I am amazed at how different they look! Here is an update on what the mischevious sisters are up to...

Isabelle:
Favorite American snack: Oreos
Fav outside activity: Going to playground, zoo, and swimming.
Next week I will...be starting preschool.
Loves...to watch TV.
When you are not looking I...harass my sister.
At dinnertime I like to...get up from my seat and wander.
Words out of my mouth..."Daddy, you're drivin' crazy". (After Daddy ran over some bumps and gave us a jostle).
Listens to Mommy...80% of the time...on a really good day.
Favorite toy...Schleich animals (especially the mommy and baby giraffe and baby and mommy seals) and pretending.

Allie:
Favorite American snack: Goldfish and go-gurt
Fav outside activity: Blowing bubbles and playing with rocks.
Next week I will... be going to Parents Day Out. (yeah!!! Mommy finally gets a free morning!)
Loves...to be the center of attention.
When you are not looking I....love to play in the toliet (yuck!)
At dinnertime I like to...stick pieces of food in my ears, eyes, nose, etc...
Words out of my mouth..."go, go, go"
Listens to Mommy...30% of the time.
Favorite toy...Ball popper and pushing the doll stroller.

Jammin' to the Pixies

Having a bit more space to roam, Isabelle and Allie enjoy having an open floor to practice their dance moves in our living room.

Sunrise in Iowa

Allie got me up for an enchanting, misty sunrise over the corn fields.

Fun on the farm.

Isabelle really wanted to pet a sheep while we were there. She became very attached to a petting zoo lamb a few months ago and I think that she thought all animals loved to be touched and man-handled.

Allie was more of a fan of the pigs and held her hands up to Grandpa Koss whenever we asked her if she wanted to go see them.

Isabelle found the fuzzy caterpillars to be quite entertaining. Allie even played with them too.

Hi Grandpa.

We found quite a few toads which my niece Hayley loves to play with. Even a random frog happened to be swimming in the pool at Uncle Dustin's house (how did it get in there Grandpa?) Slimy, fuzzy, noisy, or _________ (insert any adjective here), my girls and their cousins alike find any creature to be of interest.

Dilly bars and more

Isabelle and Allie experienced their first dilly bar in Iowa. Allie was thoroughly impressed.

The girls couldn't believe all of the fun things to see and do on the farm. Isabelle loved the baby animals (especially when a mommy cat was moving her baby kittens...and she even got to hold one!)

Allie preferred to see the livestock behind a fence...you can see how she is a bit reluctant to see the baby pig.

Clearly running away from the unpacking in Indianapolis, the girls and I took a trip to Iowa with the intention of seeing the grandparents and family. The drive was mind-numbingly long with occasional whining intermixed with sounds of Dora, Diego, and Barney. Ugh. It is the kind of drive that you lose track of where you are and how far you have gone. It is like you blink, and wonder, am I still on I-74? You know that old joke about Iowa...What is the state tree of Iowa? The telephone pole. You see alot of them. Not like miles of corn and soybean fields against a flat plain isn't beautiful...it is for about 5 minutes. So the story goes...but Isabelle, Allie and I made it to Solon where we stayed. Even though Allie took some warming up to the animals, Isabelle was in her element, spending every minute playing outside and experiencing the farm. The girls and I unfortunately came down with a summer respiratory illness and Isabelle gave Allie (and her poor cousin Emily) a case of the pink eye, so we weren't able to make it to see her other grandparents in Moravia! :( Sigh. We did have fun and had a wonderful time seeing the family that we could. My computer's hard drive is full and so I can't download all of the pictures yet, so there are more posts to come. Stay tuned.

Allie hasn't been liking the food very well since we left. Daddy went to find her some Nutella and she has been a happy camper in the morning eating her toast.

Allie and Isabelle both enjoy swinging...they never want me to stop pushing! We have a little plastic playset in the back-yard that they have fun fighting over.

I forgot how big Indianapolis really was...the driving and how much time it takes to get from point A to point B. Thankfully, we have some very nice parks within a 10 minute drive from our house. Isabelle is having park withdrawal since leaving Tuebingen, but is quite happy being outside.

Allie is trying to talk so much now...most of it is pretty unintelligable except to a discernable mommy ear. She is big into screeching to get her point across and holding up her hands to any question that she trying to say. Sometimes she just lifts her hands and cries why? She is a character! Isabelle is getting so tall and is funny with the comments she comes up with. She is all about animals and would watch TV (especially Dora and Diego) 24-7 if I let her. Isabelle wants to carry Allie around and picks her up all of the time (which drives me crazy), they get along most of the time, and Allie gets anything she is playing with taken away on a minute by minute basis by the big sis.

Here kitty kitty...

Poor Erwin...the girls love having a 4 legged live animal to share their home. Erwin is tolerating his admirers fairly well. He lets them know when he has had enough "loving" for the moment.

Home sweet Indiana. We decided to rent a house for the first year while we settled down. We are happy to have alot more space and the kids are a little overwhelmed with how many toys came out of storage. Isabelle still talks about wanting to go back "home" to the "pink house". She seems to really miss her German life.

It is so nice to be back in many ways. We loved so many things about our life in Germany, but there was such a sense of familiarity when we came back to Indy. It seems like such a world away. Isabelle and Allie didn't waste any time getting to the zoo with their little friends, Breck and Jaden.

Allie had a great time helping me unpack.

We drove through Iowa City where we picked up our lonesome cat, Erwin and saw my parents. I plan on coming back when things settle down a bit in Indiana.

We were able to spend a very brief 30 hours with family before we ventured on to Indy. We love to have every chance to spend with our wonderful family.

Thank you Jurasek family for bringing us to and from the airport and all of our luggage too...3 times! You don't know how much we appreciated it!!!! You are the best.

So, WE MADE IT!!! At the time, the trip seemed like it would never end, but in hind-sight it wasn't to bad. Allie spent some time on the floor, between my seat and the next seat in the row in front of us...yes, I know...not safe...but desperate times call for desperate measures. She was happy having that 6 inches to exercise her legs. Isabelle was content with movie time. Sure, there were times they got restless, and the times that they got woken up and then went crying and screaming to our next connection. I think it will be awhile until we take our next trans-Atlantic flight, but we are pretty versed on tricks and bribery for children.

Rosi graciously brought us to the airport on Tuesday morning. We are so indebted to their kindness. We had a total of 8 BIG bags that we brought the night before to keep in storage. We also had our carry-ons, stroller, car seats, and it was quite a struggle to manage it through our connections.

Helmut took Jamie and I "pub-hopping" the night before we left. Here we are enjoying a glass of Kolsch bier.

Karla (the babysitter) and Isabelle.

Walking down the small streets of Tuebingen, the half-timbered houses seem to have movement and dance. Having a small area in which to build, every level is built slightly larger then the base. When you look toward the sky, the tops of the buildings jut inward. The city is so colorful, pink, green, yellow, orange houses with flowers and plants blooming at every opportunity.

It is difficult to sum up what this year has meant to Jamie and I. Jamie has obviously been able to attain scientific knowledge through his experiments in oncology research and shadowing various neurosurgeons. We both have been able to immerse ourselves in another culture, learn the language, taste the delicious cuisine and enjoy the beer and meet so many great people.

silly girls


Usch (she lives in the same building but the other half) and Hans-Joerg (our neighbor on the 2nd floor came to wish us farewell.

Ranier and Monika are good friends of Rosi and Helmut

Our landlords (and friends), Rosi and Helmut had a "going away" party for us. Rosi had been busy teaching me how to make some German cuisine...I also got a spaetlze press as a gift!

There are many things about living in Germany that we are going to miss... the open- air markets were so nice.