Birthday Countdown Begins

Something I do every summer is my "Annual birthday countdown." I can almost hear my sister and mom groaning as they read this. This is usually saved for my immediate family, however, this year is a milestone birthday for me so I feel it is only fitting to add it to the blog. All I really do is just announce how many months, weeks, or days away my big day is. So, without further adieu. . .

2 months from today is my 30th Birthday!!!!!

The Munich Story

As promised here is the Munich story. . . As many of you know Tim and I are not a very adventurous couple. So, it took a lot for us to decide to break from our group on the second day of our Legoland trip.

On Sunday, which happened to be Father's Day, we found the train station in our sleepy town of Gunzburg. There was no one at the ticket window since it was a Sunday so we had to figure out the ticket vending machine. Of course we couldn't get it to change over to English. We had about 20 minutes before the train was to arrive. A German couple came along and helped some other tourists and tried to get us to go on there ticket (29 euro/5 people). No thanks! So then another German woman came by and helped us get tickets. She was going to an Aviary in Munich to save a bird she had found the day before. Let the crazieness begin! We found out her name was Maria. Very sweet older woman. She chatted with us on the train and got a kick out of Jacob. Jacob found the bird facinating as well as his first train ride. What 2 yr old boy wouldn't? Maria decided to show us around before heading off on her mission. When we got to Munich, there happened to be a festival celebrating 850 years of something. Score! vendors everywhere, people dressed in Liederhosen, dirndles, etc. We were just waiting for Chevy Chase to jump out of the crowd (if you've ever seen European Vacation you know what I am talking about). Maria showed us around not only for 1 hour but the WHOLE DAY! No matter how we tried to nicely tell her we had some places to go, she always found a way to show us something else.

All in all it turned out great. We had our own, free, personal tour guide for the day. Saw things were wouldn't have and got our own little German history lesson. She even came to the Zoo with us! That was really what we wanted to do was take Jacob to his first zoo. He loved it, Maria loved it, and not only did we see your typical zoo animals, but a pug as well. Those of you who really know us know how we love pugs and miss our little Star pug that is living with my parents in NC. I think we have now seen a pug in every country we have visited.

At 6pm We finally parted ways with our new found friend and the little bird, who by then was practically ready to fly away. Cannot imagine why? LOL! It was doing much better. Maybe it was the McDonald's hamburger we were feeding it. Oh, and everytime we all stopped to feed/check on this bird we wound up with a crowd around us. It was a surreal experience to say the least. To wrap the day up I got my Starbucks fix, had some Chinese food, and headed back the train. Your probably wondering, "who goes to Germany and eats Chinese and Starbucks?" Well, after not being able to readily eat these 2 items in Sicily, we do. We finally got off the train in Gunzberg at 12 am and walked the 20 min back to the hotel. Oh and I totally forgot it was Father's day until the next day. Luckily, so did Tim :)

Blog Revisited

Well, I realized today that it has been 6 months since I had orginally set up this blog. I started because most of my friends have well established blogs and it seemed like a really good way to keep in touch with everyone, something that I have been lacking in lately. Thanks 2 of my good friends, Selene and Carla, for reminding me of this. So, this seems like a good time to get back into the swing of things.

June 12th marked our 2 year Anniversary of living on the island of Sicily. This means we have 1 more year to go, and yes, I am counting down. As amazing as it is to say we live in Europe the truth is, I really miss being "home" in the States. Jacob and I haven't been back for 1 year. I honestly didn't think I would make it this long. It's been rough. I am homesick. I have come very close a few times to buying tickets "home."

I have finally decided it's not worth working here. It's only taken me 2 years to be content with this decision. I might as well enjoy my last year of not having to work. I know when we return to the States next year I will have to. Especially if we buy a house and I want to continue with my "retail therapy." Yes, I enjoy shopping without any questions asked.

Last weekend we went Germany. It was amazing! I cannot wait to go back. We went with a group to LegoLand on Saturday. Sunday we went exploring on our own to Munich. That is a really funny story that I might share later. Monday we went to the town of Ulm to see the largest church Steeple.

Jacob was 2 1/2 in May. He is all boy to say the least. He loves Pixar Cars, Thomas and Friends, dinosaurs, running, jumping, bugs, and talking. Acutally, he is hardly ever quiet. Even at night he talks in his sleep sometimes. And to think I was worried a year ago because he wasn't saying much at all. . .

We have some more travel planned over the next 6 months and hope to have some family and friends visit during our last year here.

Stay tuned to read about our Munich adventure and pics (I have to figure out how to download pics to a blog)

Ciao!