We had a wonderful Christmas here at the home of our friends, the Webbs. Tim made a fabulous lamb dinner, with lots of veggies and a Christmas pudding for desert. Then we opened presents, which were handed out by a very excited three year old, and we were regaled with stories from Magdalena's Dad about what Germany was like in the 50s. It was a lot of fun.

After returning from dinner we headed out for a walk with Finn, and Brendon decided that he wanted to try ice-skating at the rink they've erected a few blocks from us - needless to say, he'd had a beer or two with dinner. Finn and I had a fabulous time watching from the upper deck as Brendon's ice-skating prowess was evidenced to all of Munich (there may have been a bit of laughing involved on our part ;) Anyway, it was a good time and I would post pictures, but Brendon seems to have hidden the camera from me for fear of having his ice-skating genius shown to the world and making you all jealous. ;-)

Hope you're all having a great holiday season wherever you are!

Well, Brendon surprised me with tickets to the Bavarian State Opera for Christmas, which was great! We went to dinner tonight and then saw "Werther", which was sung in French and subtitled in German. The music was beautiful and opera house was gorgeous, but neither Brendon or I was very impressed by the poor, pathetic, love-sick Wether. In fact it was a bit tough to feel sorry for him at the end when he ran around the whole time crying "woe is me." So, although we both had a good time, apparently we've proven not to be too sentimental...Anyway, I'm including a picture of us all dolled up and ready to go to the Opera. It was a wonderful surprise and a great present. Now I'll just have to see if I can drag him to the ballet before we leave Munich. ;-)

Had fun putting together the baby bouncy seat today. Especially when I realized that I'd left the instructions back in the States. Luckily, it was pretty straight forward and I had a picture to work from. Still it took 20 min, leaving me to envision many years of upcoming late night Christmas Eve assembly projects for Brendon and I. ;-)

Other than that not much going on. Brendon's in Madrid for work today and I'm almost completely done Christmas shopping. I also made Brendon start watching the labor/birth video with me over the weekend. He agreed that it wasn't that bad so far -
there are 6 classes on the tape, the first was pre-labor. So, he now understands effacement, dilation, pelvic station and pre-labor signs and I think he's starting to wonder how I will ever fit a baby out of my pelvis. Then again, with only 8 weeks to go, so am I...

New belly pic of me at 32 weeks - enjoy!

We had a fun weekend here, got some Christmas shopping done and ate out every night! Brendon has also founded a new addiction for me by installing the Sims game on my computer. Damn him, now I will never get anything done around the house!

We also visited the Christmas Market at the English Garden in Munich with our friends, Tim & Magdalena Webb and their daughters, Lee and baby Zoe, which was fun. They have a bunch of food and drink stands (brats, funnel cakes, holiday punch-gluhwein, etc), carousel rides for the kids, crafts and gifts for sale at other stands and St. Nick walks around handing out candy to the kids. Very festive. Brendon and I have decided that this is a tradition they need to adopt in the States.

Then the guys headed back to Tim & Magdalena's to get dinner ready, but they forgot the keys. So, they were obliged to get a few beers in a pool hall that Hitler used to be a regular at (interesting trivia)- the Schelling Salon. We girls were told "no need to hurry, we'll find something to occupy ourselves" ;-) . But, of course we hurried to their rescue, and once home, Tim made a fabulous lasagna, we had good conversation and music, and their oldest daughter Lee cheesed for the camera with me. Good times.

Not much going on here. It's been pretty rainy and dreary for the past few days - even Finn isn't all that excited about going out. He has been very happy about the addition of the Sendlinger Tor Christmas market, which is right next to the park we walk in though, as they have stands where they sell brautwurst and other goodies. He keeps hoping some clumsy person will drops something when we walk by, but alas he has had no luck in that department yet. So, poor dog, just has to walk by with his tongue hanging out and mouth watering...

In very exciting news, I bought and got our Christmas tree up over the weekend - yippee. It is a stunning two footer, which makes our living room look very posh indeed ;-)

Also, went to the doctor today and my glucose test for gestational diabetes came back fine and my iron levels are back into the normal ranges (although still on the low end), so that's good news. Kinda cool too, the doctor measured the baby via ultrasound and the baby weighs in at about 2.9 pounds, which is apparently a perfect weight for 30 weeks. It seems weird to me that they can tell that from abdominal ultrasound measurements - and that she's only 2.9 lbs. of the total 18.5 lbs I've gained!

Take care everyone!

Ok, first I'm gonna have a bitch session about my shower/hot water heater. The shower from hell seems to have declined in the past week since we left and can no longer hold a constant temperature for longer than a minute. So, every shower consists of me turning the shower on to an ok temperature, getting in, waiting to hear the hot water heat kick on, nearly getting scalded, turning the knob toward cold (ever so slightly). Then the water turns colder and colder until the goose bumps are so bad I can hardly stand it. Thus, I turn the hot water up (ever so slightly) and wait for water to get so hot I can hardly stand it. Then I get to repeat the up and down process about 8 times. It really, really sucks.

The solution, thus far, has been taking a bath and having a quick rinse with the shower nozzle afterward, but the more pregnant I get, the tougher it is to get up out of the bath tub. By the end of nine months, I'm either gonna give up and really stink or chuck this damn thing right out the window of our apartment and insist that the landlord get a new one! Anyway, here's a new pic for all those of you that didn't get to see me last week - I'm at 29.5 weeks.

What a whirlwind of a week. With a baby shower, Thanksgiving, a crazy dog to babysit and many KU games to cheer/scream about, I'm pooped! It was great to see everyone in the States, but it went way too fast. Strange to go from surrounded by everyone to being back in Munich by myself with Finn as my only companion. He's a pretty good one though. His tail was wagging so hard when I went to pick him up that I thought he may injure himself. That and he's not upset by my new nocturnal behavior - guess I'm still on Kansas time zone.

It was also odd to arrive in the Munich airport at 8am and not recognize the place. I forgot that they setup a little Christmas village and skating rink outside between the main terminal and the car rental/S Bahn (train) area. It appears the Germans have their Christmas look in full swing because some mysterious lights are now gracing our street at night as well. I may have to visit the Christmas market this week and buy you all really cheap German Christmas goodies with the little money I have left after this past week. Ah, crappy stocking stuffers, the true meaning of the holidays :)

Anyway, here are a few pics. One of the baby shower and one of the new nursery (in Lawrence)- thanks to Dad and Margaret for the help painting and getting the crib all set up and ready. And thanks to everyone for the shower gifts! I had to make three trips up the apartment stairs because the suitcase was like an overfed tick just waiting to burst and was too heavy to carry up with everything in it. Bet my neighbors had a good laugh at the Crazy Pregnant American Lady when they saw me hauling armloads of miscellaneous baby paraphernalia in (breast pump, blankets, toys, etc). Let the good times roll ;-)

Oh and I'm also happy to report that the bar below our apartment seems to still be doing good business at midnight on a Tuesday. I'm up here chair dancing as I type. Way cool retro tunes at the favorite bar... Just wish they sold food - very hungry and ran out of time to go to the store before they closed. Guess you know what I'll be doing at 8 am tomorrow!

We were in Dublin for the past few days and it was great. I saw St. Patrick's and Christchurch Cathedrals, Dublin Castle, the National Gallery of Ireland, Natural History museum, Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green - very neat city. I also had tea, scones and some yummy pastries and bread. My Nana would've loved Dublin and all of it's bakeries and cafes. I loved it too. I couldn't get enough being able to speak English - can't wait to talk your ears off in the States next week everyone!

Other good news, Finn did very well at the kennel, so I feel much better about leaving him while we're in the States next week. They said he was "sehr gut und freundlich" (very good and friendly) - I'm so proud :-)

Take care all!

Well, we've had our first snow here in Munich. Woke up this morning to 30 degrees and snow on the cars and bushes. It's not been quite cold enough to stick to the streets and sidewalks, but it's been snowing off and on all day. So, maybe tomorrow. In other news, our dog is officially a serious world traveller. He now has an EU pet passport - fancy stuff.

Ok, so last week was 70 degrees and this week we have highs in the 30s. What the heck!!! We may be frozen out of Munich and have to return to the States early ;-)

Ok, so as I've mentioned to some of you, my belly seemed to expand exponentially this past week. So, I'm including a new belly pic for you all. Please note the big smile on my face. There are two reasons for this:
1) It's really nice out today 70 degrees (unseasonably warm)
2) possibly most important - I had a KFC two piece hot & spicy chicken meal for lunch, which beats my usual peanut butter or grilled cheese sandwich at the apartment by a mile!

A small side note: KFC here does not have mashed potatoes or biscuits - Boo! They do, however, have better coleslaw than in the States and FREE DRINK REFILLS! No one here has free refills and drinks are kiddie sized (.2-.3 liters), so they get big points for that. Good on ya' KFC! Think I'm still delirious from the happy taste buds...

Well, Derek & Andrea are back in St. Louis and we had a great week with them here. Just wish it could've been longer - it went very fast!

Here are a few more pics from our week.

PS - Derek, took Finn to the dog park today and banana hammock guy was there again - looking gloriously old, wrinkled, tan and unclothed! ;-) Yuck!

Yes, I've been a slack blogger this week, but only because we've been so busy with Derek and Andrea here.

We've trekked all over the place, visited the Munich sights (Rathaus, Engl Gdn, etc), including Nymphenburg Palace, which I hadn't seen before. It was beautiful inside and had a very cool carriage and sleigh collection. Unfortunately they didn't let us take pictures inside the palace. So, you'll just have to take my word that it was beautiful. We also went to the Olympic Park - neat architecture.

Then over the weekend, we visited Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles, which are about an hour and a half south of Munich. They were built by the Bavarian royalty during the 1800s and were both beautiful. The countryside in the area was gorgeous, especially with the fall colors! After 5 hours of touring and hiking, we stopped for dinner at a small town on the way home and unintentionally found a nice little Greek restaraunt. Then it was back in the car for the trip back to the city.

Great times were had by all :)

So, now for the trip to Salzburg...

Took us an hour and a half to drive there through some beautiful countryside. Brendon is now a pro driver on the autobahn, topping out at 180 in our Opel stationwagon. Yes, that's right we have a station wagon and Brendon's wishing he could bring his BMW over from the States to really drive fast, but alas, it is not to be.

We got to Salzburg at about 11am, figured out the park and ride system in Salzburg and took the bus to the city center. Salzburg is located in a beautiful area, on the river Salzach, sits between the Kapuzinerberg and Mönchsberg mountains and has some of the best architecture I've seen for a town of it's size (150,000ish). We visited the Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress) first, which is one of the biggest castles in Europe, on a hill above the city and dates back to the 1077. After that, we visited St. Peter's cemetary and the Catacombs, which were pretty cool and then went on to the Salzburger Dom (cathedral).

After returning to the car at 4:45, we had a lovely drive until we hit some nasty traffic. It took us 2 hours and 20 minutes to get home, only 45 minutes longer than it took to get there and have been told by friends that EVERYONE is returning to Munich from weekend trips at about that time and traffic always sucks. So, yay, really looking forward to more traffic jam weekends in our future! ;-)

Salzburg was really beautiful though and well worth it. I'd recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to go.

The next two blogs are going to be out of order, but I have too many pics from Salzburg to go through to post it yet. Anyway, we had a great time in Salzburg on Sunday and I'll have more up on it tomorrow!

As for today, I think I have set a new record for length of doctor visit.

I went to preregister at the University Hospital today and spent over 5 hours waiting for different offices/doctors. Good lord!!! Despite my 9am appointment, I sat outside the registration booth waiting my turn for an hour. Spoke with the lady about my insurance, then went to get paperwork finished at another office.

From there I was sent for basic tests (BP, urine, weight) at the gyno clinic. I managed to spill half a bottle of rubbing alcohol all over myself while reaching for a cup to pee into. It was sitting on a shelf next to the urine cups in bathroom and someone had left the cap loose. Now, if you've never experienced the joy of peeing into a cup, lucky you and let's just say it's not much fun anyway, much less covered in and reeking of alcohol in a subfreezing hospital bathroom.

After toweling myself, the floor, wall, etc. off and completing the urine specimin and turning it in, they asked me to go to lunch and come back in 45 min. because the final doctor was not available until then. So, I left and came back (15 min walk home & 15 min walk back), waited for 20 more minutes and the final doctor they sent me to said he didn't even need to see me until 34 weeks and he wasn't sure why they sent me to wait at his office.

Not sure that the communication gap could get much larger. Bad f*ing day!

Anyway, for all you who have been asking, here's the latest belly pic. (24 weeks) and I've topped the 120 lb. mark. I am officially 55.3kg/122lb, which I've been told is right on track - 10 lbs. total so far. Hope you're all well and having a better day than me.

Happy 30th Birthday Brendon!!!

So proud of you and how far you've come honey. Love the hat ;-)

What a fun weekend! We had some friends in town for Oktoberfest this weekend. Chris (Sampson) and Jim got here on Thursday and Bryan and Carolyn arrived on Saturday. I found non-alcoholic beer on Saturday afternoon at a beer garden (see pic). Then Saturday night we went to Oktoberfest - talk about crazy. The boys had fun trying to win us things at the games and, after much searching and leaving a table of vomit, we were able to find a "clean" table at the Hofbrau Tent. We unintentionally got into a political discussion with a very drunk man from India - interesting to say the least... Then we headed to the Irish/Aussie pub. All in all a very fun night, although a few of the guys were hurting a bit Sunday morning after staying out until 3am (girls went home at 1). Very impressed that Chirs and Jim caught their plane at 9am on Sunday!

On Monday, Bryan, Carolyn and I went on a Mike's bike tour around the city, which was a lot of fun. I didn't see many new things, but I did volunteer and got the highly acclaimed role of butt babe in our tour group. Meaning that I got to be the last person in line and make sure we didn't leave anyone behind - there were two stragglers. Anyway, got a free frisbe for my troubles. :) I'll have to post more pics when I get them back from the rest of the group.

Take care all!

Well, Brendon has finished a crazy few days of meetings and now his company will go to phase two of their work with their German partner. It was nice meeting everyone from Netopia (California and Europe) that I hadn't met before. I gave a few of the guys a tour of Munich on Monday afternoon and we all had dinner together Monday night, which was very nice. I'm posting a few pics from our city tour: Viktualienmarkt (an outdoor marketplace that sells everything from souvenirs to flowers to fruit, veg and meat - it's pretty cool) and another of the English Garden (I'll never get sick of it).

We're also looking forward to some friends from college arriving for a visit on Saturday - the next group of photos may be much more interesting, so stay tuned!

Oh and baby says hello to everyone - she's kicking me as we speak - quite the squirmer ;-)

We had a pretty good weekend - after Brendon got done fixing a Bell South problem at 11pm on Friday night!

On Saturday we went to the English Garden for a while, had drinks and munchies at the Chinese Tower, played with Finn and had some good laughs spotting nude sunbathers. Of course Finn and I tried to stay out of the way of the mad bikers, who were riding off the paths, but it was to no avail... (see pics) Then, as Brendon had a hankering for a "real" steak and I was craving Mexican (of any kind), we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Great food, ridiculous prices, but we got the added bonus of seeing some 18(ish) year old boys pass out on a table and literally have to be picked up, forced to pay and escorted out by security - ah the joys of Oktoberfest ;-)

On Sunday we went to lunch with our friends Tim & Magdalena (whom we met in Australia) and their daughter Lee. Then helped them to paint their flat - they're moving - and we went to dinner with Brendon's boss Jerry, who's in town from the States. Lots of fun.

Well, it's almost officially a girl! We're 80% sure, but she was moving around a lot during the ultrasound, which made it difficult to say with 100% accuracy. Anyway, very exciting. Now eveyone, myself included, can have fun thinking about all the things she'll do - play soccer, gymnastics, harrass the boys, go fishing, hiking, etc. Did I mention we don't allow girly-girls into the family ;-)

We had a fabulous time on Saturday hiking around Herrsching and visiting the Andechs Monastery and Brewery with one of Brendon's friends from work and his family. The weather was perfect and the scenery was fabulous. Aside from that we got out of the city!!! Woo-hoo!!! I think I need to do that everyday. Now we just need to get Finn used to the trains so that we can take him with us next time :)