My Mom is here!

My Mom is here for 3 weeks! She arrived here on July 21st and since then we have a great time! My brother became recently captain of the A 340 of Lufthansa and is now able to fly over to Denver from Frankfurt. He did not come in about 4 years since Michael first became captain on a smaller plane that could not fly all the distance to the USA so he needed to serve Europe and Asia. But since a couple of months he is back on the US market!

Here some pictures of their arrival:

Olivia and Jonah show no fear in meeting my Mom that they have not seen in almost 1.5 years

My brother welcoming all on board and flying the Airbus

Michael and my Mom came on Saturday and he needed to take off for Germany again on Sunday, so we always have my brother here for less than 24 hours. He will come back to take my Mom home again so that she has a secure seat since we fly stand-by!

Snake!

Last  fall I saw a tiny black snake wiggling its way through the fence to the greenbelt out of our back yard when I started the lawn mower...that was my snake experience in this house..so far!

Since weeks we have a black snake, about 3 feet (90 cm) long in our front yard. It scared the kids twice when they played on the tree swings.

Then I saw THIS bull snake in the middle of our lawn in the back yard, like 2 weeks ago. Peanut, the French Bulldog, almost peed on it! By accident of course! This snake was about 5 feet long (1,50 or so) and scared the heck out of me! Luckily I could get  some pictures for proof and snaky got  so annoyed of me that it slithered back to the fence. Since then I have not seen it again.

The next day I saw a Garter snake in one of our juniper bushes. (Garter snakes are like Blindschleichen in Germany, they are everywhere but you don't see them, they are harmless and just about 50 cm long). Guess who trimmed the Juniper bushes today? Me of course and I found again snake skin of about 70 cm...ugh! DISLIKE!

Some pictures I took from the kids...

I used to make pictures of the kids in a Super Target (they make awesome pictures) but we do not have any Target store with a photo booth anywhere close to Parker. So I had the kids dress up and we looked for a nice place to take pictures at and here is the  outcome!

Not too shabby, no?

Werde ich beruehmt? Will I get famous?

OK, there was the Craigslist ad that a Research Company in Colorado Springs is looking for German natives for a study on make-up. If I will be needed, I need to say stuff in front of the camera and  this commercial can be broadcasted world wide. Well, since they want me speaking German, I guess you could only admire my dorkish self in Switzerland, Germany or Austria! 

They needed a full body and a close-up picture. Today I finally send them my  dorky pictures. Chris came home early feeling sick so  he took the pictures laying on the couch in the basement, therefore the somewhat unprofessional background.

My hairstyle is so outdated, I actually  tried to go to the hairdresser since what now, 4 weeks?

Anyway, I sent off my email with their required data (what town I live in, phone number, e mail address) and I got two messages back from the director of the Research Company. That her client likes me and I should now please send in a short video in German language about my age, where in Germany I was born, what make-up I currently use and what problem zones I have. For you English folks, sorry, the videos are quite hilarious but only a German does understand them so here your fun of me stops :-(

My German friends and family, keep on laughing....

Finally, this is what I sent off...

Cindy said, after sending in the video, she would talk to me more about the next steps...will keep you posted!

official baseball pictures

Here are the official baseball pictures of Jonah. Taken in June. He even received a little trophy with his name after baseball was over!

The end of the swimming lessons

I could not have asked for more progress for the swimming lessons of both Jonah and Olivia. Olivia had now 4 weeks in total, Jonah 2. Jonah is the fastest one with the board practicing his kicking and lays flat in the water like a pro. Olivia is majorly improving her breast stroke. She is doing great at freestyle and back stroke but breast stroke is very hard to coordinate plus  trying to not to drown.

Jonah build his skills for freestyle and for diving into the water. Our life guards of the pool were the instructors and they did a fantastic job. I only paid $45 per kid per 2 week lesson for tremendous success. Olivia can swim the entire length of the pool what she could not have imagined 4 weeks ago but now we are happy that the lessons are over for now and we can do whatever we want with our days from now on! Well, with this hot weather, we might spend it at the pool :-)

Jonah in awesome flat position

Jonah jumping streamline into the water - well, kind of

Olivia doing breast stroke as good as she gets it


Jonah swimming freestyle


Olivia swimming back stroke


Olivia swimming freestyle

4th of July parade

Due to the fires that we have here all fireworks were cancelled for today in Douglas County. But for the morning our neighborhood had a bike parade for the kids, following a fire truck just around the pool. Afterwards they had some donuts and lemonade.  The right kind of drink for another 90 degree weather at 9 in the morning!