Bebenhausen and Kicking Myself

Less than 20 minutes from my home, there is an idyllic little medieval town called Bebenhausen, complete with its own gorgeous little church and monastery.  Sara and I went to check it out on Tuesday, and all I could think was, why have we never been here before?  The town, the monastery, and the surrounding lands are breathtaking.  I've known it was there for the past year, but of course I waited to explore it until just a few short weeks before moving out of the country.  And to top it off?  I left my camera at home.  Ugh.  So yes, I've been kicking myself in the derriere, on both counts.

Fortunately for us, Sara did have her camera.  (I'd still like to go back with my camera.) There's really not a whole lot to be said, that can't be said far more eloquently by the photos themselves.  (There's a lot, I know, but seriously.  It's gorgeous.  If you live here in Germany, and you haven't been yet, you need to go.  Bring a picnic and your camera.)

We wandered around inside the monastery wall, oohing, ahhing, and taking pictures.   You see this one?  This is someone's house.  People actually live inside this place.

Little Miss was being grumpy, and didn't want to explore.  She just wanted to be held, and any time we put her down, she would do this:

The little stinker.

The moving process is coming along.  Han has had his shots, we've arranged to ship the car, we've scheduled the movers, the pre-inspection, and the final inspection.   Sara has been helping me go through and organize things, and she's been a great help with keeping the house straight and the Little Miss occupied.  She leaves on Monday, and then I've got about a week before the advent of chaos.

Oh boy.

Crafting? What is that?

I can't stop taking pictures!!

I'm having so much fun with my new camera, it's ridiculous.  I have so many pictures of Elora, doing pretty much the same things.  I just can't help myself.  My baby is so cute, and my camera is so awesome...  I took these right after she woke up from her morning nap one day last week:

Isn't her hair wild?  It's always like that when she wakes up.  These are the pictures I took 2 weeks ago and then forgot about, of Corinnea fighting with the long arm machine:

I did a double take when I saw her under there, and she said "Yes, I really am sitting under here...".  These are from Sunday morning:

She was helping him eat his breakfast.  She often pilfers food from our plates now, when she can.

Fantastic Friends

This is the purse and wallet set I commissioned from Lizy and Katelyn, respectively.  I chose the fabric, and they did all the work.  Don't I have incredible friends??  Seriously, you guys are awesome.
  As a bonus, we got some awesome little charms in at the shop, and one of them just happened to match my new set perfectly.  So I brought one home and promptly made it into a zipper pull.

Perfect, right?  Man, I love it when that happens.  Double yay!!  More of the zipity-do-da-ness.

As a side note, this is what happens when you forget to adjust the white balance setting on your camera:

And this is what happens when you correct it:

Printers and Cameras, Oh My!

I got my new printer and my new camera yesterday.  I LOVE them!  The printer is actually a printer/scanner combo.  I got the Canon Pixma MP620, and I've only played with it a bit, but it is definitely waaaay better than what I had.

I took a picture of Brandon setting up my new printer, with my new camera.  As you know, I got the Canon Rebel XSi, and it's amazing!  It keep giggling or squealing or jumping up and down when I take a picture, and I've already taken a ton of pictures!  So Brandon keeps laughing at me, but he's taken at least as many pictures as I have so I know he's excited too.

 

I didn't do a very good job cleaning the mirror, did I?  Oh well.  This is one of the ones that Brandon took, and I think it looks really cool:

Decisions, Decisions

I have been teetering on the fence for days now, trying to make up my mind about what camera to get.  Do I get the Canon Rebel XSi (a DSLR) or the Canon PowerShot S90 (a point & shoot)?  Do I want the phenomenal cosmic power of the bigger camera?  Or the convenience of the smaller one, even if it means sacrificing photo quality?  I've vacillated back and forth between the two so much that I've made myself dizzy.  And all the while I've deliberated, I've been missing awesome photo opportunities.

photos from amazon.com

Thanks to a helpful nudge from Corinnea, however, I've fallen off the fence and landed squarely on the side of the Rebel.  It's more expensive (bigger, better things usually are) and it's size might be a bit cumbersome, but I've decided it's worth it to get the more powerful camera.  I take most of my pictures at home anyway, and size won't be an issue there.  And when we do travel, Brandon will be around to help me carry everything. Once we've had it for a while, we'll evaluate whether we should acquire a smaller, more convenient camera that I can carry around in my purse.  Right now I'm just happy to have made a decision.  I'm going to order it today.  Yay!

Elora is feeling more like herself now.  She's still coughing, and she's still stuffy, and she still has twin streams of yellow goo running from her nose, but at least she's acting more normal.  She's playing on her own again, and jibber-jabbering and laughing.  She still won't eat her baby food though.  I've switched to giving her regular food that she can feed herself, and I'm having more success with that.  Granted, half of it ends up on the floor, but at least she's consuming something more than formula.  I hope she doesn't relapse!

All Over the Place

I made some delicious brownies yesterday, using a recipe from my new Nestle Tollhouse Cookbook.  Staria gave it to me for Christmas.

Elora pulled this plant stand down on herself today.  Elora was only startled, since it really fell around her.  The plant came too, of course.  It just didn't land on her.  Amazingly, it landed perfectly upright and the ceramic pot didn't even crack.  It scared the crap out of me. 

We are slowly trying to switch Elora over to drinking from a sippy cup.  She's not particularly interested in making the switch.

Jennifer, she loves the pillow that she inherited from you.  It's her thing.  The other day, it got left in the living room and wasn't in her crib when we tried to put her to bed.  She sat up and fussed, looking around in her crib for it.  As soon as I tracked it down and gave it to her, she laid down and went right to sleep.

My search for a new camera has become more urgent.  I'm not sure what she did, whether she dropped it or got it wet, but Elora has managed to render it feeble. (I stupidly left it on the coffee table, where she could reach it.)  This is as good a picture as it is now able to produce:

 

That is all.