The underwear motivator

Ya, so 2 days this week I've been cooking at the gym... cookin' the fat off me! heh.

Sunday, Nov 26th, 172 (AAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK)

Wed, Nov 30th, 170

20 pounds to go in 26 days before the cruise and swimsuit wearing days are upon me.....

I'm tempted to use Kilos.... it doesn't seem as much to my brain...woohoo, I'm only 77 kilos heh... either way, many more trips to the gym and, whoa, hold the pasta!

Ok, really, now I'm on to the payroll! Dated, Dec 1st.

a 'little' visual

There are no more "big girl" underwear in my drawer, so when the little strings of my string bikini undies cut into the rolls that I call my hips.... naturally, the next obvious article of clothing I put on is my work-out pants!

ug....

Merry eggnog Christmas......

31 adults and 18 kids

OY!

Ok, assuming we need places to seat 29 adult guests... Kurt and I don't mind if we're standing throughout the evening.... yikes... I only have chairs scattered about to seat 16. Hmmm, perhaps I should visit the local rental place and see what sort of party affairs they have to rent. Maybe some portable chairs, a large coffee urn, champagne fountain... heh. Ok, nevermind about the fountain... this is a beer drinking crowd! I'm also planning a trip to the grocery store today to plan the meals and other party essentials. The lights and decorations outside are up! I spent the warm day yesterday stringing rope lights and setting up the white Christmas tree with blue lights (a little surprise for Kurt). Today the maids come to take care of the inside. Laundry is forever washing.... And of course, I didn't get to the books at all yesterday, so today... a catch up there is needed.

Blah, blah... the mundane life in CowTown continues.

The days of food and fun are over now

And it's back to the grind.... back to quickbooks and paychecks (dated Dec 1st) ... back to cleaning the house, and sewing cases to cover the foam window inserts.... back to planning this party and decorating the house. Back to lost homework papers and competing with the Gamecube.... back to working out and losing weight... or the guilt associated with not bothering.....

It's no wonder that ... dies Morgen habe ich Kopfschmerz......

spiked eggnog before 10am

pizza
Originally uploaded by frau cowtown.

And handmade, whole wheat, thick crust pizza with pineapple, German sausage and onions for Thanksgiving day feast! Ah yes, you'd be here at the 11th annual vonS family Thanksgiving. The wonderful weekend where you do as you please... plenty of knitting for me, shoot-'em up games for Kurt, naps in the afternoon, movies throughout the day.... 'National Treasure' was great, and food, food, food!

This evening is the parade that Kurt plays in... and we'll watch as the final float will bring Santa Claus to town.... although it's so bitter cold outside... it's going to make standing in the crowd less than desireable.... sigh.. ah well.... it will not dampen the holiday!

I live in a house full of kids

Kurt wakes up and flips on all the big, bright, outside lights and hops on the bed with Tabi to wake me up.... "didja see outside?" he bounces.... just like I'm sure he did, oh, 40 years ago.... sigh.... "mmmmmmmpppffffhhh" that was all I could muster, and dove deeper under my down comforter. I could tell by his voice there was snow out there. The kids, all 4 of them, and that includes the black furry one, are just lovin' the first snow. Now Tabi just stares out the window and gives a pathetic little whimper every now and again... to let me know that we need to go outside and play Toss The Snow again. I've already been out once with her. And I haven't even finished my first cup of tea.... now that's love.

I'm ready for the snow, though, this year. I outfitted myself with the warmest coat I could find, in a decent price range that is.... Heck, it will keep me warm in -35F weather, although, mine is black.... and tall, warm boots in matching black!

holiday headaches

Aaack! I decided it would be a good idea to host a holiday party at our house for all our employees, their spouses ( or would that be, spice?), and other jolly good partiers at the school. What fun, I thought. Then I put down on paper, assuming everyone and their kids were coming, the number of people that would really be here.

47.

OHMIGOD! I don't know that over 50 people, including us 5, can really even fit in the house. LOL... oh man. What have I done????!!!!! That will indeed be an interesting evening. Oiiiyyyy!

Now I have two weeks from yesterday to get the house in ship shape!! AAACCCKKKK

In other, unrelated news.... I did some good mental exercises for myself today.... I rearranged rooms ... again. Little Cee is back downstairs in her own room and the boys are together in the upstairs mega room! I think that's the way it will stay. Even though middle K doesn't need to wake up for another hour after the little kids do.... sigh... oh well, he can just lounge in bed, besides, I think little wolfie is pretty quiet in the mornings....

Little cee is not too pleased yet to be sleeping alone... although, now the puppy will be sleeping in her room! I don't know, really, why I did the change. Perhaps it was in response to the upcoming party and having middle k in the PINK room. Rather than go about painting... I decided it would be easier to just make the move. That and hormones. 'nuff said there! Although, Kurt will back me up... my mood wasn't really too awful bad this month... 'eh?! Only 1 day, yesterday, of "oh woe is me" and "life is so overwhelming"..... Then he just made me a drink and told me to sit on the couch and knit! Which I did and finished off another hat!!! Whee that was fun! Ahhh, my man knows how to take care of me..... But, I tell ya.... I can feel those hormones and what they're doing.... but I just cannot alter my mood. Although, the alcohol helped alter it for a brief while.... heh ;)

What else? Oh right... we had judo Friday night. Black belt classes have started up, and this past Friday was Judo for karate. Damn! We haven't had judo for 2 years now.... the falls and rolls came back pretty quickly..... as did the freakin' sore muscles. I'm still walking weird because my leg muscles are still screaming 2 days later..... Man! Judo is just not for old people!! I was thinking, I may not go back to judo.... it's just too body beating for my taste.... sigh. Ya, I'm an old lady. There ya go.

OOOHHH! The best sight was this afternoon in the parking lot!!! The COW CRUZR, as the license plate read!!! Heee heeee! I'd love to have my very own cow cruiser!! LOL

Boy, for thinking I didn't have much on my mind... I sure had plenty to type! heh.

So, my new books from Amazon arrived!

I love the intro to this one.....

It's great, makes sense to me... so here we go with yet another German text book. I'll quote some of it here.... because it is so pertinent to where I am in my learning. I need to be more conversational.

"There are two ways of learning a foreign language by self-tuition. The first is to learn words; rules, exceptions to those rules and then to practicse putting them together according to the rules while remember (or trying to) the exceptions.
It is most difficult to acquire fluency by this method. When speaking or writing the language you have no time to think what rule ought to be applied, or what exception remembered. Fluency in a language means that phrases are on the tip of your tongue when you need them.
This can be achieved far better by means of the second method, which is to memorize the most useful sentences so that they may come automatically to your lips at a moment's notice!
.....
How did you learn you own English language? Did you study it? Of course not. You first began to understand it, then to speak it, by constantly hearing it spoken and by its daily repetitaion. You did not study the language -- you absorbed it!"

OH! Yes!! This is so applicable to me! And, true! I asked my girlfriend for some basic phrases... einsteigen und anschnallen! See?! I can get the kids moving in the car and buckled up ready to go! Heh! Zahneputzen, Buchelesen.... nice commands that are easy for me to remember and the kids to learn! Lass das!

Ya, well in my free time, I'll be diving into this book in a serious way! Oh, and then I needed some new Deutschmusik... so I ordered this! Hee hee! For a little fun!

That time of year again

Online holiday shopping, that is. The stack of magazines is piling up at my dinner spot, cousin M can attest to that! ha! I don't even have room to eat.... so as usual, tonight I put my bowl of green beans on top of one stack and started flipping through the others! In the end, I weeded out 4 to go to the recycle bin, a bunch of other ones gave me great ideas for people on my list.... (eBay is fired up in another window online...) and then in another magazine, I found a lovely dress for New Years' eve on the cruise ship just off the coast of Cozumel! ....or will that just accentuate the ever-growing pear shape I'm sportin', Kurt??!!


In other news... spent a full day at my desk today.... working on all the things that need my attention..... I did take a lunch and knitting break, however.... my, the day flew by!

Friday wrap-up

Hmmm, spent 2 hours at the accountant's office yesterday..... what a headache. This accounting/bookkeeping is a full time job. And, I have the full time job of mom and part time instructor. Ya, I'm feeling stressed a lot of the time. I screwed up when I wrote the employees' paychecks and dated them for Oct 31. The accountant just laughs and says, "ah, you're learning quickly!" Now I get to pay double for employer federal taxes this month. f*ck. Although, the upside, I won't pay it for November.... because you can be assured, I'm dating the employees checks Dec 1st. sheeeesh.

Business is slow. I have to be a better salesman.... I need things written down, a pricelist, a school plan, and just stick with it. We need to make many changes at the karate school... a lot of them for legal reasons, some to clean up, others to make the school plan more firm. And, I need to finish the database for our students so we can keep track of attendance, testing etc. easier.... And, I need to enter in all the inventory, and other bookkeeping aspects into Quickbooks..... and we need to finish putting our brochure together... and find a new company to order supplies who can take our .jpg logo and create a plate to silk screen uniforms....... and we need to finish up the new website that has been designed for us.... woodstockmartialartsDOTcom .... it's not public knowledge yet.... still in the designing stages.... but it's kinda cool to see so far..... sigh....

We're a bit busy.

But, I did take time out to enjoy an afternoon with family. Cousin M was over, my aunt, my mom..... now, it's back to the grind..... and shopping..... and babysitting my kids......

TGIF. Oh, and happy Martinstag!

a tee shirt for me

...and it reads....

"forget skinny dipping, I go chunky dunking!"

hahahahahahah... sigh....

and in other news.... mr. competitive aka, Kurt, was scouring the internet... even found the Franziskaner website and wrote to them, hoping they'd respond with the pronounciation in his favor..... he writes an email to me.... and I quote,

"HAHAHAHA! I wrote to these guys... and the answer will be here soon! I hope!
Loser has to buy beer for a month! Franciscan.... just a thought, but nobody says "Franciscahn"--unless they've got too much money!"

....oder, sie sind Deutsch!!! ( I say! hahahahah) .... but he did send along a cute postcard to me from Franziskaner's website! ;)

ah yes... beer is always more tastee, when someone else is buying! hahahahahah

Two words came to mind

Three years ago this week, I was off on my own having an adventure.... driving north on the Autobahn for 2 hours until I realized Heidelberg was south of Frankfurt, and 'oh scheiss, I'm going the wrong way!'.... that sort of an adventure. But, it was an adventure in Germany, so there ya go, other than it was too short a visit, it was perfect!

So, here we are again, the kids have a 1/2 day of school tomorrow, then they're on holiday until Monday. Sheesh, didn't we just have a 12 week summer holiday? I think the kids are out of school more than they're in. Anyways, this morning when mulling over the fact that they'll be home and underfoot this week.... a smile came to my face when I suddenly thought..... "sleep in".... sigh... ah! Two little words, can make all the difference in outlook.

Dinner date on Friday evening

1104051826.jpg
Originally uploaded by frau cowtown.

...and we found a lovely resturant down the street from the karate school, that serves Weißbier on tap!!! yayayayay

;)

decisions, decisions

choices
Originally uploaded by frau cowtown.

Hmmmm, which shall I try first tonight??!!!

click it bigger to read the labels... but all are Hefeweiß imported from Germany, of course! ;)

And, there's plenty of sauerkraut in the fridge for the weekend!!! Yummy!

Goodness, I'm becoming a bier snob... when Kurt and I go out.... I cringe when it comes time to asking what sort of beers they have... Inevitably, it's Bud light, Miller light...and so on....

GAH, that's not beer, man.... ech!

Tabi peeking out the window

tabnpumpkins
Originally uploaded by frau cowtown.

So, I'm all set for my Friday. Drive middle K to school, go workout, then go make copies of forms for the karate school. Oh wait. I don't have a car this morning. sigh. The brakes on the ol' cruiser are being worked on, again. Seems after rolling over 55 thousand miles, I'm in to the mechanics more often.... ah well, if things go the way I'm planning... I'll have a big, mom mobile in the summer. Afterall, I love hanging with kids... and now I can drive 6 of them around. OIY!

Band concert was last night... I forget how good it is for my head to be out in public... saying 'hi' to all the moms I know, and it's surprising how many kids in town know me. Although, it shouldn't be... I know them from schools... be it school school, or the karate school. I was just embarrased to see my hair when I got home... aack, how did I allow myself to go out into public with gross hair last night?! I've really got to be more careful.... too many people know me in this town.

Well, my email this morning from Photo Friday listed "warm" as this week's challenge. Hmmm, this was all I found in my current photos. I think I'll browse some of my older pics and see if I have any better matches to the theme....

Anything else... nah, just a day to do household schtuff. Good, the house and I need it!

a wise woman once told me

"... ya, the days can sometimes drag on... but the years, they fly by."

Wow, 10 years ago I had a newborn, chubby, baby girl! Middle K was a one and a half, and he had a new , "blah, blah". (her name being too hard for him to pronounce....)

10 years ago.

Those days were such a blur. Such a different world for me. 2 kids under 2 years old. ya.

What a cute, little squirt she's turned into ... 10 years later!

Call me red

Call me red
Originally uploaded by frau cowtown.

Well, I've done it. I decided to make a huge change away from my dirty blonde look.

I'm now a chestnut, reddish brown.... aaack! It's still a shock when I catch a glimse of my dark, dark hair in the mirror.... heh. My hairstylist, Anne, told me in 6-8 weeks if I come in for a touch up... when the lighter hair starts growing out at the roots... she can add bunches more blonde highlights in and start phasing this dark out... I think that is the way I'll go.... so I'll be a lighter red, perhaps strawberry blonde for the Christmas cruise! =)