Antique-ing....is that a word??

I love the saying "Grandmas are just antique little girls"  It makes me smile.  
We have had a bit of a slow week, which was nice after all the hustle and bustle of our trip to France last weekend.  


I thought for this week's blog, I would just show you a few pictures of some random snippets of life in Germany.


A couple of weeks ago, the three of us went out for a little walk in our backyard....

We live on the edge of our village and we can walk right into the fields and then the woods...

It was pretty hot that day and the bugs were swarming.  Travis had to tuck his shirt in his pants to keep the bugs out of his boxers!

There is not a lot of wildlife left in the Wald (forest or woods).  Someone told me yesterday that it's because after the war there was no food and so the Germans had to eat anything they could find and they ate it all!  They have had to re-introduce wildlife back in to the country.  There are deer, but they are very small deer.  Karma and I saw one standing in the middle of our trail this week when we were on a bike ride.  He just stood there for a couple of minutes and didn't bolt unitl we got pretty close.  There are wild boar and although I have heard lots of tales about them being in the woods, thank goodness I haven't seen one yet.  There are snakes...icky!  And there are more singing birds than you can even imagine.  They start singing at 4:00 am and keep singing all day long. 

While I enjoy walking and biking, I have found another fun activity that I really enjoy. 

Antique shopping!!  This is a really cute antique shop right here in our village.

On Saturday Mike and I went to a village called Schneewiedlerhoff up in the hills north of here to an open house at an antique dealer than normally only sells at the Bazaars.  She has an open house three times a year. It was a gorgeous day and we really enjoyed driving through the countryside.  

Rolling hills, farmland and dark forests, all in a 45 minute drive!   A common sight on the roads this time of year is tractors and horse trailers.  

 Guess who we ran in to there...Mike and Missy!!  Do the guys look like they are having lots of fun? They were just  ready to go find some "german" Mexican food for lunch.  I think antique-ing is much more fun without "the guys"!

 None of us bought anything...the prices were quite high and it was mostly turn of the century stuff from England.  I am finding I like the Belgian and French style antiques better than the English oak pieces.  This is Schoolhouse Antiques where we went to the open house.  I was more fascinated with the building itself.  This was a big quarry at one time and this was the townhouse type apartment housing for the quarry workers.  The owner has antiques in every room of 4 or 5 three story apartments.   She actually lives in the school house behind here that was used to teach the worker's children.  It was pretty interesting.

Tonight was stake seminary graduation.  Travis got a certificate of completion for his first year in seminary.  He was acknowledged for having 100 percent attendance. Only six kids in the whole stake did it.  (He did miss a week when we moved here, but a military move is not considered being absent)   Anyway...we are so proud of him!!  He has really enjoyed early morning seminary.  He likes being with his friends every morning before school starts and he has had an amazing teacher.  Bro. Jaster has a teaching style that has really clicked with Travis and he has taught him so much this year.  

Weather report:   Okay...it's hot enough for me now!   We have hit 80 degrees and it's WARM!! With no air conditioning here, we have to really know how and when to open and close the rolladens and the windows.  It's muggy, too.   It's supposed to cool back down into the upper 60's and rain again day after tomorrow.   We had some showers this evening and it smells wonderful out there. I have heard it never gets too hot for too long here.  I like that!

We are sad to think we have missed seeing our first grandchild baptized this weekend.  Palmer, we are so proud of you.  You are growing up so fast and we love you very, very much!

For all the fun we are having over here, there is always the downside of missing our family and friends. And missing out on important events and milestones. 

We really do love and miss you all,

-corri