Kidd's Ring

One of the down sides of working in an international school is that there are always so many goodbyes.  Today we had to say goodbye to this sweet girl.  When she first came to our school, she was super shy and hardly spoke any English.  We worked together for a year and a half and she became very dear to me.  I loved watching her language skills develop and her personality come out of its shell.  I tutored her last year and we had so much fun together!  These things are for sure:      I will miss  ...her sweetness...  ...her hugs...  ...her smiles... ...her silliness...   I will miss this sweet girl.   I hope and pray that God will continue to bless her and her family, to use them back in their home country for His glory and that they will grow closer to Him! Why are goodbyes so hard?

Some mornings I wake up to this: It makes getting up early so much better! :)

Currently these are spreading cheer in our apartment. I'm not sure if they have these in America or elsewhere, but in Austria and Germany, there are flower fields, where you can go, cut some flowers and leave money in a canister to pay for your flowers.  I've been wanting to do this for a while and on Sunday, I was finally able to!  They really opened up after putting them in water.  I love sunflowers!

My cousin, Wes, came to visit us in August.  It was so fun having him here and showing him around Vienna.  I wanted to blog about it, but got so busy with the beginning of the year things, it totally slipped my mind.   Here we are at the top of Kahlenberg overlooking Vienna - see the tower over my shoulder to the left, we live right around there. so beautiful After hiking up the hill, we went swimming here.  It was so beautiful, but SOOO cold! silly Wes our view over dinner  We went to a brunch right behind the Schönbrunn palace in the Gloriette.  It was great food and a beautiful location. i love these small alleys in Europe! We tried taking a clicking the heels picture ... didn't quite work though, but was fun! :)

So somehow I forgot to upload this blog post last week.  Sorry!  On the way to Munich, at one of the train stops, I saw this: I'm not really sure what was going on, but it looked very funny.  I was kinda embarrassed, because after I took the bottom picture, I looked over to the guy who was writing in the first one and he was looking at me and waved!  Oops, caught in the act of stalking ....! Despite the embarrassment, our weekend in Munich and Salzburg was quite fun.  We did a lot of walking and got to eat some yummy things!  As we walked through downtown Salzburg, I noticed all the old signs hanging over the stores.  Most were of restaurants or places to buy food. I thought this old/new one was quite amusing!  Good to see that McDonalds is trying to fit in with the old signs in downtown Salzburg! 

Today in our Primary class, two girls were talking about one of their friends and I wasn't sure which one, so I asked who they were talking about.  They said she was from their old Kindergarten and told me her name.  I replied that I didn't know her and the answer back from one of them was "but she knows God."  I told her that I don't know everyone who knows God and she tried again "but she knows God."  She couldn't believe that I didn't know someone who knew God!  Apparently I should get out more and meet  everyone who knows God! ;) I'm so glad it's almost the weekend!  This week has felt like a really long one.  Ever since school has started they have all felt so long.  I'm ready for a break and our next one isn't until the end of October ... oh boy!  But I do get a small break of Vienna city life this weekend.  Felix has been in Munich all week, so I'll take the train right after school and meet up with him...

Once again, let me say how fun and useful pinterest is!  I found this great idea on pinterest and was excited to try it last night.  This morning Felix and I had separate guy/girl brunches.  The guys was hosted at our apartment and the girls at church.  I decided to be a nice little wifey and offer to make something for their brunch...so last night I had the task of making cinnamon rolls.  I had been wanting to make them ever since I found a pin on pinterest about freezing them and using floss to cut them.  I couldn't wait to try the floss trick!  It really does work GREAT!  So much better than squishing out the inside while trying to cut the roll with a knife.  Next time you wanna make cinnamon rolls, remember to check if you have any floss before you make them!  just go around the roll cross over and bring the floss down Don't they look so nice?  I was so impressed!  What baking/cooking tips have you found out ...

If you haven't joined pinterest, I can only recommend it!  It's such a fun place to get ideas for decorations, recipes, dream house ideas, free printables, etc.  I love it!  I saw one pin for a framed print that said I <3 you because:___________.  Then you can use an erasable marker and write down what you love about your spouse.  It's so great because it can be done over and over again!  I thought it was such a cute idea and wanted to try to do it myself.  So here's what I came up with: I found a free printable online here and I already had the frame and paper at home.  Just had to buy an erasable marker!  It's even hung already (thus part of the reason why I love my husband!) :) Not quite sure about the big size and the colored paper in the back.  But I think I like it! :)  What do you think? I'd love to hear why do you love your spouse or your roommate?  Don't forget to tell them, too!!

So we've been looking for months for dining room chairs and just couldn't find THE ones we wanted.  Finally, last weekend we finally found ones we wanted and got a great price on them!!  Here they are:  We had to buy cushions for them, so that was another event, but I'm really excited about the way it all looks!  Tying bows was challenging, since the material is so thick, but I think they are okay.  I love the different colors! And we finally got some more pictures hung in our living room!  What do you think?  I love how our home is coming together and is so homey!  Drop by anytime! ;)

My first weekend back from the States, Felix and I went to a high school friend's wedding.  It was fun to go to a real Austrian wedding.  Here are some pictures: they had bubbles! the happy couple my new dress -  I was so excited to wear it! :) the little chapel was so pretty! some parts of Austria have the tradition of the bridal couple sawing through a log the invitations had swans on them and the theme was carried throughout the reception, too ... even the place settings (lots of folding took place for this wedding) [Felix is known as Lixi for some people :)] beautiful sunflowers more swans of all kinds of sizes They had us write down what we thought was the secret of a good marriage.  Later on, the couple read the papers and put them on heart helium balloons and let them fly.  It was fun hearing what people say! and they're off... there they go!