Happy Halloween!

Can you guess what she was?

Um. I think I'd like one of these in my garden...

I don't know how much "scaring" she'd do.

But she'd be fun to look at.

And then there was the classic Batman.

And this is how Luke emerged from the basement after 2 mn when I sent him down to get porter's mask.

He makes me laugh.

But he told me he wasn't Wolverine.

But Wolverine's goofy cousin, Beaver.

:)

I loved the autumn leaves here.

And just to prove that I was there.

I dressed up like a pregnant lady ;)

My Newest Yummy Creation

Okay, who are we kidding. It's probably been "created" 100x over.

But I'll pretend I'm the first.

Since my method of measuring is the eyeball and tastebud method, I cringe when people ask me for recipes.

"...a little of this, handful of that, and then add this until your texture is like this."

I finally measured the following so I could share. Now don't go rolling your eyes or making gross noises when I tell you what's in it. PLEASE try it first and let me know what you think!

I came up with this during one of my husband's long absences during my 1st nauseous trimester, 2 weeks of 98 degree heat (with no AC...silly Germans), or window screens, and not being able to get off the couch for more than 20mn.

Pour the following into a blender:

Total of 1 cup of: Organic drinkable berri yogurt (or runniest kind you can get your hands on)

Organic Applejuice (not from concentrate and no added sugar!)

1 whole banana

4-5 cups of Spinach leaves

2 cups of lightly thawed Mango chunks

Handful of Organic Granola (good fat)

Small handfull of Walnuts (omega 3)

You Likey?

Is There Snow in Your Forecast?

There has been in ours.

So what to do when you're ready to cry because all you had was 5 months of being able to get outside without boots and puffer coats?

Dig 'em out of storage (I think I'll save my energy this year and keep them in the foyer year round) along with your happy attitude, then get outside to show 'em who's boss.

Blah.

What Did You Do

This weekend?

I got certified as a Level 1 Crossfit trainer with these fabulous ladies!

Well, actually, this was a few weekends ago now, I just forgot to publish this post :)

But I'm on my way to fulfilling a dream and I am pumped.

It was AWESOME stuff! Hard physical workshops, challenging classroom seminars, and WODs that kicked some serious booty!

I could have done without the stressful test at the end but it's over.

And I passed.

Check out the picture from our Basel, Switzerland group on top. It was taken after our all-day physical workshops and then the WOD which was completing 250 thrusters and 250 pull-ups with a team of 4 others.

Killer.

Where's Waldo?

http://www.crossfit.com

(or if you look it up after today, "Monday 100809")

2 Years with Afton...

have brought excitement, laughter and joy I didn't know were missing;
and taught patience, tolernace, and humility on a level I never expected.
Here's to 2 beautiful years with our spunky, intelligent, beautiful, stubborn, and hillariously entertaining 2 year old, Afton!

Where do our kiddos come up with their crazy expressions?

And we wonder why we scare people.
:)

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Published

Click on the button below to read my 2nd guest post here:

Barcelona, Espana

So for those of you who are unaware,which will be most of you

(since geneology doesn't come up as frequently as potty training and what's on the lunch menu)

Luke and I have German ancestors on both of our maternal and paternal sides.

Yeah, we're pretty much made of sourkraut and potatoes.

(THAT would explain some things.)

So I found out that my dad's side originates from an area along the German-Denmark border.

Cool.

My dad came to visit for 2 weeks,

so we first thought we'd try to locate some family lines since his side emigrated most recently and he would be with us in the motherland.

Little did we know where and how quickly we'd run into our relatives!

We found ties in Barcelona Spain of all places!

So why do I, and especially my Dad, still dance like honkies with back problems who are amped up on Red Bull?

Not sure.

We must be 99% white and .nada% latin.

I digress.

This is what we found:

We'll call him the "dododad bird"

We came across him when we followed our line to the Barcelona Zoo.

:)

Okay, okay. But did it make you smile?

On our third full day in Barcelona, we decided to make it all for the kids.

We first went to the zoo

(which, btw, Porter is still talking about).

Then on foot to some sandy beaches where an entire army of asian women were waiting, bags of "massage paraphernalia" in hand, for their next customer.

Weird, I know.

But we managed to look past this red-light district charm, and enjoy the breeze, the sun and the view of the cold ocean.

I couldn't narrow my picture choices down.

So I chose the lazy man's way out.

I put together 2 collages of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The first is Favorite Sites which included:

Sagrada Familia,

Las Ramblas

Barrio Gotico

Park Guell

Casa Batllo

Montjuic

and more.

Favorite Moments:

We Like the Sun

This is what we do when Mr. Sun decides to come and play.

We prepare our garden.

I till while she removes the bugs.

I Was Upstairs for 5 Minutes!

Artwork: Courtesy of Porter

Director of Photography: Porter

Picture Pose Choreographed by: Porter

Rainy Days and Jumping Beans

Did you ever have the "no jumping on the couch" rule growing up?

We did.

Yeah. That doesn't apply in our house...at least not yet.

These make me happy :)

Today's Workout:

Hello Gals!
Here's a great quick workout:

This is for time, so make sure you start your watch!

- 500 meter Row
- 150 Double-unders (or 450 single jumps)
- 50 Burpees

My Time: 19:43
Good luck, and post your time as a comment!

Grass Colored Popsicles

What do YOU do at the first sign of Spring?
After 6 months of cold Winter wind, snow, rain, snow, and blizzards, we broke out the grass-colored Popsicles, put on our sundresses, and sunbathed in lawn chairs...

until the snow came.
AGAIN.
We're ready for you, Mr. Sun!

Today's Workout:

Hello Gals!
Because I was super pressed for time this morning, as I was getting ready for a little friend's b-day party, and peeling me naked child out of her crib from her "nap" ...where I discovered she must have been just dancing around naked the entire time,and because I am rehabilitating my elbow, I altered one of my favorite workouts to be the following:

(that was a reeeeeeeeaaaaaally long sentence)

For Time:

100 Walking Lunges

100 Box Jumps (24"+)

100 Ab Mat Sit-ups

100 Handstand Holds (you can do push-ups)

My time: 20:55

Post yours as a comment, and Have Fun!

(Hey! Be thankful I didn't add the 100 pull-ups and 100 squats to the mix ;)

Green and Yellow

...that's what you get when you refuse to find out what sex your new baby will be.

AH! I can't stand the suspense and it's not even mine!

So I made a yellow and green diaper cake...well, mostly green because I kept trying to do blues and greens (because those are my favorites together) and then had to remind myself that not everyone likes to put their girls in blue :)

I think they liked it.

Tissue Pom Poms & Cake

Diaper Cake, that is.
Someone asked if anyone knew how to do a diaper cake.
I volunteered.
I didn't lie.
Just didn't volunteer the information that I had never made or seen one before.
Bwahaha.
Competitive? Maybe a little...
with myself.
The Tissue Pompom idea is courtesy of Martha Stewart. You can find everything cute 'n crafty on her site.

The pink flower is actually part of a headband I made for the new baby as well.
And I tried to make the washcloths look like candles.

I was pretty happy with the results. And it only took a few hours!

My favorite detail:

We've Got a Squatter

And I love it!
I especially LUV to squeeze and kiss her diaper-less bum in her new little undies.
We've officially been out of daipers for 2 months.
Yay!!!

Today's Workout:

Hello Gals!
5 Rounds of the Following:

- Warm-up Run (10mn)

- Deadlifts until Failure each round.
(You don't want this to be too easy, but you don't want to use your max weight either. I did 70% of my max...or 83% of my body weight.)

- Pull-ups until Failure each round.
(same goes here. You don't want these to be so easy that you're knocking out 30 at a time. Prob shoot for 50-80% of your body-weight)

- Rest 3-5mn in between each round

After Round 5, finish up with the following:

- 50 AbMat sit-ups

- L-Sits (as long as you can hold)

My Total Reps: 58 Dead-lifts & 44 Pull-ups
Post a comment with your numbers,
and Good Luck!

Today's Workout:

Hello Gals!
To motivate me, I thought I'd start posting some workouts as I do them, to help motivate & encourage you too. The great thing about these workouts is that you can do them at your own pace/level! Modify them to fit your "gym" ...what you have in your house. Start slow, go through each move, making sure you feel comfortable with it before you press "start" on that stopwatch.

Machines and equipment you will need:
Treadmill/ hills
12 lb. med ball
12-20 lb. dumbbells-what your comfortable with but not too easy

Here's the Workout:

(For time! So grab that Stopwatch!)

- Walk/Run 1 mile at 12% incline
(yes, 12% which is = hills of San Fran/ Monterey/ or parts of Missouri)

- 50 push presses or push jerks
(with dumbbells-one in each hand.)
"Mommy Modification": Gallon of water or milk in each hand.



Broken Down:


- 30 Med Ball Cleans



- 30 Wall Balls (10lb or higher)
Mommy Modification: Basketball or Bag of Trash


- 50 Push ups (or in my case, because I'm rehabilitating my elbow, Handstand-holds)



- 30 Box Jumps
Mommy Modification: Use your stairs. Start by jumping 2...then 3. Find an amount you are comfortable with and then begin counting to 30.


- Walk/run 1 mile at 1.5% incline

My Time: 42:14
Post your time as a comment.
And GOOD LUCK!

Challenges or Blessings?

TomAtoes or Tomatoes?

So we all know

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know whatchya gOne-na get"
&
"when it hands you lemons...
you make lemonade."


The more I study the scriptures the more readily I accept and welcome the challenges the Lord let's us endure.
Let's rewind a few weeks and I'll splain:

It started with the loss of my iPhone
I've never really been into "the latest and greatest"
or been one to get attached to such.
But since it only cost 1 Euro when we arrived here, I thought "why not."
My phone was awesome.
Then it took a bath.

Next:
my spillage issues follow me to the computer keyboard.
$180 later, we're on our 3rd.

Next, the endeavor to potty-train Afton at 19months.
I knew I'd be house-bound for a good week or more.
No biggie.
Suck it up.
Do my workouts at home.

Stalk-call people

Bring travel potty with me in the back of the car for the grocery trips.

Our 2 daily outings would be walking Porter to and from school.

TOTALLY do-able.


Until you lock yourself out of the house w/ car keys but no house key on the ring...
in the snow...
no wallet...
no cell phone...
and still don't have your husband's contact numbers memorized.
:)

So what's to be done?
Bring the white-trash to Germany!
Knock on my neighbor's door...
wake her from her nap and ask to use her internet so I can send an S.O.S. to the hubby.
Have her feed my child who still hasn't eaten lunch,
and let us use the potty.

Nicht so schlimm.


Same Day: Family-mobile died.

2 Days later: our 2nd car broke-down.

No prob.
We were even laughing still at this point!
What more can be thrown our way that can't be handled with a little prayer!?

Com'mon, try us!

But SRSLY. In the midst of it, these two AWESOME missionaries told Luke they'd be over to fix our car and make us dinner!

SAY WHUT!?!
They pretty much Rock!

Here's the Chef/babysitter:

And this is the Mechanic/babysitter:



The night the missionaries came to fix the car, Afton was just not herself. So cranky.
Which by 4p.m. was making for a cranky ME.

Turns out, that was her first night with....
The Chicken Pox

She didn't want to pose for a picture because she said this was her
"bad side."
And I said, "Oh, sweety, every side is bad when you have
the pox of a chicken!
You need to smile and let me document this for posterity."

So then she made this face and said "Hey. it's all I got.":
{Guess that's the picture that will live on for generations.}

And...

"WHAT. You don't ride scooters naked while wearing socks a
nd begging for your daddy's cereal?"
It totally helps when you have the Pox of a Chicken!

At least we've already had the Swine flu here.
Cause who knooooooooooows what she'd be doing!...

running across the street wearing only a mask?


Next:
Our computer caught a MEAN virus and crashed hard.
BAD, Sony, BAD!
Why can't you be a good boy like our lil' Apple?


We've got AWESOME friends!
I called computer 9-1-1 and rushed my computer over where this amazing guy worked day and night to save our Vaio.
He said we almost lost her...
THANKS, Jeff!!!
(and Laura, for watching the kiddos while he worked even longer hours!)

Let's face it.
REAL stressers aren't fun blogging material. :)
As with anyone, the most challenging "stressers" have been unseen to the outside.
It has just seemed to hit all at once.


I have a stronger testimony that God lives.
He answers prayers.
I have 3 scriptures in the Book of Mormon that have given me strength through trials this past year:

Mosiah 4:9
"Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."

Alma 32:21
"...faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."

Ether 12:4&6
"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."
"And now, I, Moroni, would speak concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

What gives YOU strength through trials?