And how do the parents leave?

In Style!
Black Pick Up, no, it's not a Ford, but a GMC :-)
The bed is full of "luggage", no wonder Dirk send the parents!
He doesn't like to carry all this himself.

No, Mama, you are not the driver, we let Papa do that!
Your cell ready and charged? We can't have you lost on the way to DFW!

They made it well back home, I think, no phone call yet!
No "Thank You" from brother either :-( Oh, well...maybe my pictures of the truck didn't turn out the way he wanted them...and here I am the best sister he has, right Sandra?

Mother's Day Breakfast

Last weekend with my parents we went to Round Rock and surprised Jason. He had no clue Oma and Opa were coming to the States in the first place, and then to Round Rock, surprise!

Saturday morning we went to see the Capitol building! Hey, we are Texans and have to tour it at least once! It was very nice and interesting. Tiffany was our tourguide :-)Back at Jason's apartement we waited for friends to come and visit and have some cake with us. Jason showed off his Jaeger photo album! Before we all went out to eat. We had such a fun time that we didn't get to go to eat until 9 pm!!! We will have to watch that time better. Sunday morning Tiffany and Jason made a great breakfast for the 'three' mothers. Tiffany made a Salat with Cheese and fruit (I am waiting for the recipe) and Jason made Avocado Cheese Omelets. And all that before he had to go to work!Mmmmh! Good food!

My "real" wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday 5-15

Wordless Wednesday 5-7

Wordless Wednesday 5-2 pt. 2

Wordless Wednesday 5-2

And another Round Rock Experience!

Maggie and Jaeger and Tiffany and Jason















The future family!





Have the get the dogs together once in a while :-)

Jaeger at the PetsHotel!

So, this week end we took Jaeger along to Round Rock and dropped him off at Jason's place of employment! Jaeger got a nice "room" and lots of playtime with new friends.

Which one is Jaeger?

Sniffing time!

Time to rest up!

Water break!See Jaeger? Left back corner, looking at Jason. You should have seen him a bit earlier when he was stretching his neck looking for Jason who was then standing next to me! And see the Rottweiler on the right? That is Taz. Dan kept looking at him wondering why the dog wasn't recoginzing him. I had to tell Dan he was looking at the wrong Rotti!And here is a poor dog watching Jason getting Jaeger ready to leave!And here you can see one happy dog and two happy owners!!! Look close and see who has the biggest smile! Now I need to scan the Report card Jaeger got at PetsHotel, all good and an A+ for using the potty :-) It's a BARK!!!

The New Texas Assesment Test

As we just finished the TAKS last week, and yes, I was involved as we had students in the library every day and Kristy and I got to help out :-) (oh, check tomorrows 'Wordless Wednesday')!!!

Here is something my good friend from Okinawa send me last week, you might like to read it and get a chuckle out of it, as there are a view School systems that are trying to get away with the State Mandated testing at this time.

Have fun and enjoy this short read, and come back tomorrow for more :-)

The New Texas Assesment Test

The TACO

"Since the average life of previous statewide tests (TABS, TEAMS, TAAS, and now TAKS) has been five years, it is not too early to plan for the next test. The new instrument will be the Texas Assessment of Cognitive Operations (TACO). It will have a remedial version (Soft TACO), a regular version (Hard TACO), and an advanced version with many more pages (the Gordita.) It will be graded on a normal curve (the TACO Bell).
Districts receiving the lowest scores will be put on probation with a Basic Educational Appraisal-Not Satisfactory (BEANS). A second low rating earns the dreaded Supplement Remediation Factor for Individualized Education Deficits (REFRIED BEANS). This rating will cause a lot of hot air at campus faculty meetings."

Wordless Wednesday 4-25

Early Start for Wordless Wednesday!

This will be short

Wasn't going to say anything, but I threw out my back last Saturday and have been limping along ever since. Monday I had taken off anyway as Tiffany was going to be in town, with Jason and her mom, for a Bridal Shower hosted by my co-workers at school. Tuesday I went working all day, but I skipped cross stitching. Wednesday I went to work for half a day but went to see a doctor in the afternoon. Since then I am on meds, but I don't know if they are working. I went to work Thursday for half a day, then home and in bed. Took off Friday to stay relaxed all day, well, that doesn't work either. I just can't sit up it hurts more when I get up then.
Today marks one week. I found some exercizes on the internet which I am now trying out too. How often should you do them? I'll do em as long as I can. Still hurts though. Sitting here with my heating pad in my back. Guess I'll stop this and lay down again before it hurts too much again.

No sympathy needed...I'll just limb along and might have to see a doctor on Monday . Supposedly its' just a muscle, but why aren't the muscle relaxant working yet?



And now it is Sunday and I still am not doing much better. But it is getting boring to lay down watching TV, so with Dan's help I finally found a way to play around on the computer. Looks comfy, doesn't it...no! I am using a hot pouch (filled with corn) under my back. As it is still hurting. I think I am not even waiting for Monday to roll around, we are going to the doctor today.
Yes, I got a transfer to the doctor from base and that's where we went this afternoon. X-rays showed only that I don't have a curve in my spine and she thinks it is from my muscle spasms. They actually straightend my spine. And that is where my pain comes from. She also asked me what those marks were on my back. Hated to tell her that they come from the hot pouch I was using, they burned my back! It also is not a good idea to use something like "icy hot" and then go and put a hot pouch on as that makes it even hotter! Oh, well...I guess we all learned something new now!
Oh, yeah, I took a shot at the doctors and got another set of pills prescribed. And I take another dose each of the other two! My, I am becoming a drug addict here!

Worldless Wednesday - Babes!

Maggie meets Jaeger!

Tiffany and Maggie patiently wait for Jaeger......who knows something is up and storms out with Jason close behind!

Maggie ignores and backs up from Jaeger, who wants to play and Jason has plenty to do to hold him! But they both come down a bit, Maggie just stays away, smart girl :-)

On the street they are a little more tolerant and Jaeger is just curious about that black and white furry creature.

But after a nice long walk and plenty of sniffing, they at least ignore each other.

There is a truce between the humans....Oh, you thought I was talking about the dogs?!
Oh, well...that's a hole 'nother matter :-)

Happy Easter! Frohe Ostern!

It is sad when Easter comes around in April and we are snowed and iced in in Texas! Oh, well...at least we have a story to tell :-)

It shows it is 38 degrees outside this morning, which lets me hope that it will actually get a bit warmer today then it was yesterday. Of course it was nice sitting in front of the fire with Dan and Jaeger last night.

As I can't find any pictures of me on Easter at any of the Easter Egg Hunts we did on the 'Ranch', yes we do have a Ranch, I found the next best one, me with my uncle and a Rabbit on my skirt, what was I thinking? This picture was taken in the early 60's, in East Germany at my Grandparents house, and they had always had rabbits.

I know, I used to be young and cute, now I'm only cute :-)

Weather Update...and Happy Birthday Dirk!

So, when I finally looked out this morning this is what I found!
You can't see the flakes, but they were coming down slowly also.

And my bushes are blooming so nicely again too. Hopefully they will keep it up. There are many more closed buds that should have opened this week. We'll see what will happen.

And... Happy Birthday, Little Brother!

Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zu Deinem Geburtstag!

Yes, I used to hold him when he was small and undementing (Demented, Demanding whatever)!
Now he is taller then me and very dementing! Well, we love him anyways!
P.S. If you check my sister's blog and find the slideshow of me slapping my older brother, this is the same day :-) See, I can be nice!

And more snow pictures that I just took this afternoon! See my pink flowering bushes? :-(

And Ugly Front Yard!

Neighbors car all snowed in :-)

Abilene's Weather Forecast for the Easter Weekend.

Tonight (Friday): A chance of rain showers, mixing with snow after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 30. Northeast wind between 10 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Saturday: Rain, snow and sleet likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 36. East northeast wind between 10 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Saturday Night: A chance of snow and sleet. Cloudy, with a low around 29. East southeast wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Sunday: A chance of snow and sleet before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. Southeast wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 36. South southeast wind around 10 mph.

Monday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 70. South wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 54. South wind between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Tuesday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 79. Southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 51. North northwest wind between 10 and 15 mph.

Wednesday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 75.

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 51.

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 79.

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 76.

Wordless Wednesday 4-4

Jaeger's page

As I have way too much to do today, I decided to do this first! It is so much more fun to work on something like this then to do house work :-) Now who would not agree with me on this one?!

Hope you enjoy Jaeger's pictures! It sure takes all the patience we have to take a good picture of this dog. He has ADD and everytime there is a bird rustling the feathers he looks away. Or someone moving, or when I can't find the trigger! Oh, well...this will have to do for today!

View full size

And if you hit the right spot on Jaeger he will fall asleep! Last night he decided he couldn't get too comfortable in a sitting position, you should here the sound it made when he just dropped down and turned and spread his legs (all four) into the air so Dan could get to his "Spot"!