Beautiful Sunsets

We definitely live in a beautiful place!  We've had a few gorgeous sunsets in the last week or so, but I've only been able to capture one with a picture.  Enjoy!

Apartment Updates

We're still in the process of purchasing some things for our apartment, so I thought I'd update you on a few of our more recent purchases and things we've acquired.  Brian also told me I had to update the plant pictures because those are a few weeks old by now and our plants are much bigger!  Enjoy!

We had quite a few comments about our very bright guest bedroom bedding, so we knew we had to change it (I hated it, too!).  A few weekends ago we rode past a bedding place with stuff on sale and found this set for about half off!  There's purple sheets underneath.

This kitchen table came from one of Brian's co-workers who recently got married and had too much furniture for their apartment.  It's nice to have a small table in the kitchen to eat breakfast at.  The aloe plant we bought at the floh markt (flea market/giant garage sale) in FN on Friday night.  Her name is Beatrice.  :)  The clock we bought yesterday and have yet to put our own pictures in.  We hope to hang it on the wall, too.

Here's one set of yellow beans.  They're huge!

My flowers which were basically non-existent in my last picture.

Our lettuce...just about ready to eat!

The other set of yellow beans.

First Visitor - Becky!

We had our first visitor to FN at the beginning of September for an extended weekend - one of my best friends, Becky.  She was in Ireland for a conference, stopped by us for a few days, and then was off to Asia to visit another friend of ours for a few weeks.  I'm so glad she added us into the trip because we don't see her often since she's lived in Colorado for the last while and shortly before she moved back to Michigan, we moved to Germany.

The three of us weren't the healthiest bunch while she was here, but we managed to have fun anyway.  I was on the last stages of a cold, Brian was right in the middle of a cold, and Becky was just starting to get a cold.  We went through lots of Kleenex!

Becky navigated flights, trains, and the ferry to get to us and we were very happy to see her!  We learned about how to tell future visitors the best way to get to us.  :)

On Saturday, Becky and I made a trip to Pfaender since she had never been to Austria and we live so close.  We took the train to Bregenz, Austria and then found our way to the cable car.  Instead of taking the cable car, we decided we were going to hike up the mountain instead.  This probably wasn't the greatest plan since we were both sniffling quite a bit, but we made it!  There was a well-marked path, but it was a bit steeper than we expected.  A few spots were a bit slippery because of some mud, but we made it all the way without too much complaining.  :)

This is part of the trail.

Such a beautiful mountain to climb!

Once we made it to the top, we had a slightly chilly lunch of kaesespaetzle.  I was proud that I could order our lunch all by myself!  It took a few times of repeating it to the man before he understood was I was speaking in his language, but we got what we wanted and it was delicious!  We then headed to the candy stand.  :)  This was our reward for climbing the whole mountain.  I got lots of gummy things and Becky tried some of the chocolates too.  We took a quick trip around the "zoo" while we were up there too.

Us at the top with the Austrian Alps in the background.

We took a slightly different route down that mountain that we hoped would bring us closer to the train station.  It sort of did, but we still had to walk through part of the town.  We saw some beautiful flowers going both up and down the mountain, but these were my favorite because they looked like mini orchids.  Anyone know what they are?

Once we got to the train station, we had to buy our tickets from the counter because I couldn't figure out the Austrian ticket machine, so we ended up having to wait a little bit for our train.  We took the opportunity to make sure we got some pictures of Becky that proved she was in Austria since she didn't get a stamp in her passport.

It's Becky in Austria!  (Of course she's not covering the word "casino")

Becky and the Austrian flag in Austria.

Becky and the German flag.

Becky and the Swiss flag (but she's been there before).

On Sunday, the three of us took train to Lindau to explore the island city.  We walked around the whole island and have a lovely sandwich lunch in the garden there.  It was a beautiful day for some walking.  

Becky and I on some lounge chairs that I thought were comfortable until I laid down on it.

Brian and I by the fountain in the park.

On Monday, Becky and I were very European and went to get groceries with bikes and backpacks.  It was fun to go to the grocery store with someone who hadn't been there before and was still amazed by all the German stuff and not frustrated with it.  :)  We vegged for quite a bit of the day because we were both pretty sore from all the walking we had done the previous 2 days.

On Tuesday, we waited around the apartment until our boat shipment came in and then she helped to unpack some of it.  It was so exciting to get all our stuff!  We then headed to McDonald's to do Bible study on Skype with our friend Deb back in Michigan.

Tuesday night, Becky had to leave us because she had to take the last train trip back to Zurich since her flight left in the morning before the trains got there.  It meant she had to sit at the airport for a while, but she made it all the way to Asia without any problems even if it did take a while.

It was so nice to have a friend here for a while and someone to speak English with!  We can't wait to see her again at Christmas!

Projects to Keep Busy

We've been in Germany for almost 7 weeks now and finally have Internet in our apartment!  This means that I can check my e-mail more regularly, listen to WaYfm online, and update the blog more often!  It's very nice to not have to walk half an hour to McDonald's just to use the computer, but can rather check things whenever I feel like it.

Since I'm not taking the walks to McDonald's anymore, I have to have things to keep me busy while Brian is at work.  I don't have a job here, so I spend most of my days at home doing things around here.  I spend quite a bit of time cleaning because the apartment is much bigger than any place we've lived and has hard wood floors that show all sorts of dirt.  Besides cleaning, I'm working on some other hobbies that I've been doing for a while and trying some new things.  Here's some pictures of what we've been up to.

This is a new checkbook cover for my mom.  

She has one just like it, but it's starting to fall apart, so I made her a new one.

A bookmark I made.  It's not quite finished because I have to figure out how to do french knots without having them fall out!  I have a few more of these types of bookmarks to work on.

This is Brian's project.  In the blue bin is our compost bin.  The dead plants and leaves are to put in it once they dry out.  The bin is pretty full now, so hopefully we will have some dirt soon.  We're hoping this will give us dirt so that we don't have to buy any and take it home on our bikes.

We've got some plants growing on our balcony.  They not very high-maintenance, so it's not a very busy project.  These are yellow beans.

These are the beginning of some flowers...they're much bigger now.

This is lettuce.

More yellow beans.

My most recent project - carrot cake.  Brian wanted to bring something to work for his birthday, so I suggested a cake.  When I went through the cookbook, Brian picked out the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  I had never made a carrot cake before, so it was definitely a process!  We had to figure out what all the ingredients were in German and then find them in the grocery store (nothing is where you would expect it here!).  I then had to convert things from standard to metric measurements because my recipe was in standard and my ingredients were in metric.  Grating 3 cups of carrots is not fun either!

Here's the finished product with cream cheese frosting and marzipan carrots on top.  

I hope it tastes good for the guys at work tomorrow!

I've got to finish another bookmark and then Brian would like some knitted mittens.  I've never done that before, so I think it will be a bit of a process to do because I have to go buy yarn and needles here.

Watch for more projects because I've got lots of them!