Catch Up: Out with the Old...

Note: I was looking through old blog posts and realized that I never published this.

Moving to Germany has been time consuming, stressful and very physically demanding. We basically sold almost all of our worldly possessions. We sent one moving cube to Delaware with our heirlooms. We are arriving with only suitcases. Here are some pictures of the process:

Packing up the important things

Visits from family. Note the piles in the back for the yard sale.

I took so many pictures for posting on Craigslist. Here is our couch. It found a home with Lisa. I really miss it. It wasn't really beautiful, but it was the most comfortable couch ever!

I know I should have taken pictures of the yard sale and the boxes and the pod, but honestly, I was exhausted physically and emotionally.

Coming up next: Trip to the East Coast

Longing

While I very much enjoy this:

 I yearn for this:

*sigh*

Blanca

This is Blanca. She is a beautiful pointed mini-rex rabbit at the BUNS shelter here in Santa Barbara. She is the sweetest rabbit, and I would take her home in a heartbeat if I could.

Eliza loves her too.

We will miss her when we move to Munich. :(

Someone, take her home. She is the best! Here is her petfinder ad.

Too Soon

The countdown to Munich has definitely begun. I can't tell you how much I will miss days like this.

Our Last Santa Barbara Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had a great day. Eliza got up around 9 a.m. We took some pictures and skype'd my parents. She loved opening presents.

 Her favorite presents were her "Suzy" pets (Zhu Zhu pets), her "science" (a chemistry set), her book from Grandpa that reads to her in his voice and this horrible, obnoxious princess laptop.

She liked opening presents but definitely took her time.

She liked her stocking. It contained the Ridge stocking prescription.

A Ridge stocking contains:
-Something to Eat
-Something to Read
-Something to Play With (and)
-Something You Need

For dinner, we had our friends, the Argyles, over. They have a baby, Lydia, who is 4 months. We had salad, ham, funeral potatoes and green beans. We ate on my legacy china. (I can't believe I didn't take a picture!! I also didn't take any pictures of us in our Christmas wear.) After dinner, we talked to family and then went to the Argyles' home to play games. We played a great game about trains. It poured rain part of the day. It was a great day!

A Day in the Life

Planning a Garden Party

My friend, Whit, is having TWINS! Exciting, huh? Well, if anyone can do it, she can. I am planning her shower. We are having at a really, really beautiful house in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Santa Barbara. I was really wracking my brain as to what to do. So... I came up with a garden party. Everyone wants to go to a Santa Barbara Garden Party, don't they?

Here are the invites:

No, I don't miss the change of seasons

I took this on Saturday.

FFFFiiiiiiiiiiiiire! Smoke on the horizon.

Dear Fire,
You're back again?! Already? C'mon, you visit more often than my parents. In fact, I called my parents and accidentally, callously commented, "Can you believe the stupid mountains are on fire AGAIN?" Really. You are making me a bad person. This time can you just burn all the chapparral, be over with and stay away... even just for a year? I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Amanda

P.S. I'd also really, really appreciate if you could not burn people's houses down (and more selfishly if you could keep blowing all the smoke out to sea. I really, really, really hate when you coat everything in nasty, sooty ash).