Mallorca, here I come!!!

The website even has blueprints for you Dad ;)














http://www.mallorca.co.uk/res/propertydetails.aspx?PropertyId=672

Weekend Re-cap

Woohoo!!! The weather around here has finally changed! Okay, tomorrow is supposed to rain a bit more, but the weekend was BEAUTIFUL.

On Friday Lara came home from her week away with her school group. I was so happy to see her again and I guess the feeling was mutual :) I didn't see her until suppertime and Sabine told me later that Lara kept asking, "Where is Kaija?", "When can I see Kaija?". That's a nice feeling. And at supper she wanted to know all about my week (very detailed actually, that was quite funny and another story) and then she straight away asked if she and I could go for a walk in the woods the next morning, just the two of us. And when it came time for bed there was the usual question of who's bringing whom in bed (mom and dad trade off between the girls). Yep, you guessed it, I was the requested in bed bringer. It was not only wonderful to have Lara home again, but wonderful to have such a happy and relaxed Lara home.

Saturday morning Lara and I went for our walk in the woods. Enjoyed a wonderful hour or so together, talking, singing, teasing etc. The teasing thing was amazing. I think I've mentioned it before that I'm not often allowed to tease Lara, but its also for her to teasing me too was great. Autistic children often have a difficult time understanding how this works, so I really enjoyed it. Then we enjoyed some time at home in the garden, in the sunshine. Lara and I cuddled up and took a little nap outside and then we all rounded off the night with supper outside.

Sunday was another beautiful day and we spent most of it again in the garden. Then as I wrote earlier, Stephan, Sabine and I cleaned up and went to the Ballet. Wonderful!! We drove in Stephan's fancy 'oldtimer', a 30 something year old red Mercedes, down to the beautiful Opera house. Giselle was amazing, the music, the costumes, the dancing, everything. During intermission we drank Champagne on the balcony of the Opera house enjoying the sunshine and the view over the park. It was a great evening.

Yesterday afternoon we had a BBQ test run for our coming trip to Mallorca. Its a whole family event including Sabine's mother and step-father, two half sisters and one significant other, Stephan's father and then us. We're all flying together on Saturday and staying together in a MANSION in Mallorca. Yesterday was just a chance for us all to get together before going and to do a little planning/organizing. Judging from this BBQ, we're going to have a great time in Mallorca. I'll post more details on that later.

That's all for now :)

K.

Giselle

Today I'm going to the ballet with Stephan and Sabine. We're going to see, as you might have guessed, Giselle. And from what I hear the Stuttgart Ballet is very well known around this part of the world so I'm sure this will be a great performance. I'm really looking forward!

If you're interested you can read more about Giselle here.

Let the counting begin.....

Ladies and Gentlemen, whip out your calendars and grab a pen. I have set not only a date for my return but I've got a ticket to go along with it. I'm coming home!!! It's still a few months away but I am officially returning to the U.S of A. on the 2nd of November. And I can assure you that I have no immediate travel plans ;)

It feels really good now to know that I have a date to look forward to. Can't wait to see you all again and just to be home!!

K.

I Win!!

Today I was mistaken for a local and asked for directions.
It isn't the very first time that's happened. But it was the first time I was asked and,
a) understood the question
b) knew the answer
c) was able to give directions in German

Yay! Point for me :)

K.

It hasn't been too exciting around here lately. And the weather has been crummy so we haven't been outside much in the last couple of weeks. We did make a couple short trips here in Stuttgart this past week, so I have a few pictures to share with you.


These are from short walk Stephan, Sabine, Lili and I made one afternoon between rain showers.



Many people living in Stuttgart own one of these little plots of garden. Usually they are built up on the hillside and have a little garden shed and maybe a little garden furniture. Some people use this as their weekend "get-a-way".




Stephan, Lili and I went together one day to ride Stuttgart's Seilbahn. The original from 1929! It works the in the same way as San Fransisco's cable cars. Or so I'm told.



Beautiful wood interior!






Everything is 100% original!! I find that amazing, and fascinating. Maybe I'm just a dork but, 81 years ago some one was riding in this exact Seilbahn!! I find that cool.










It was a one car track except for one spot where the track split and allowed the two to pass.





K.

SOKO Stuttgart

So this evening all the family gathered around the television to watch and episode of SOKO Stuttgart, a crime series set in Stuttgart. Tonight's episode, "Tod im Wasser" (Dead in the Water), was filmed partly in our house here! The plot makes it even better. It begins with someone poisoning the drinking water here in Stuttgart. But as that develops so does a second story surrounding the death of one woman who lived.......in our house. But get this! Turns out that the woman was killed by the AuPair who was living with the family........in our house!! We all enjoyed a few laughs about that and it was cool to see the house on TV. I tried to find a clip or something online for you to see but I only managed to find a synopsis of the plot, in German of course which wont be of much help. I'll keep you posted if I do find something.

I think I am a pretty patient person, I work with children after all. But when it comes to technology I just can't handle it, especially when its my internet not working. I find it so frustrating, just thinking about it makes me stressed!! That said, I've been trying to post this for about a week and every time I work on it, my internet cuts out and I loose my work. Grrrr. Well, here it is. I've put together some photos from my house, and my little apartment. I just realized talking to my parents recently that I haven't posted many, if any photos of where I am living. And frankly I'm surprised my father has lasted this long without a blueprint OR photos :D

Here goes....

I did this quickly and I didn't want to run to the street in my socks so you get a picture looking out the front door.


Our modest patch of Daffodils planted by Lara and I.






The entry way of the house. The door on the right leads directly into the kitchen while the door on the left leads into the dinning area.


Mrs. Peacock in the study with the knife!


German lesson: Wohnzimmer.


Esszimmer


Kuche (that's and u with the umlauts)


The winter garden




Heading upstairs......


Down the hallway to the bedrooms, one 3/4 bathroom and another half bath.


And up to my room!


Here it is.










My very own mini Stuttgart.


Badezimmer


What's this one called?


This was Sabine's idea of art. I found it a few months ago and Sabine cleaned it and insisted that I put it in the kitchen. My sole reason for actually putting it here was to catch Esther. I knew she would fall for it. Last weekend she came over one evening and all of a sudden I hear "Oh no Kaija, what's happened to your marmalade?!!" HAHAHA, yeah.






My very large sofa which not only had to be brought in through the window (and of course they discovered that after carrying it up three flights of stairs) but they also had to construct such an electrical thing outside and cut away part of the tree to get it in here.



And that is where I live!!

K.