Each year we celebrate Fred's birthday. This year, on June 11, he turned nine years old. While this year's celebration was less extravagant than in previous years, we still had a good time. The typical celebration includes inviting Fred's grandparents (my parents) over for dinner, followed by a DQ ice cream cake (yes, Fred gets a couple of licks in). This year, we just had the ice cream cake. But, next year, once he hits double digits, watch out for the celebration.

From Fred's birthday in 2006 (I don't have the pictures from this year downloaded yet).

The hero

My husband is a hero. Yes, as in someone who saved someone else's life.

A few weeks ago coming home from church, we drove by what looked to be someone who had just driven off the road and wrecked their car. But, as we got closer, we noticed that there were a few other ordinary citizens giving a woman CPR because she had a heart attack. James immediately stopped the car and jumped out the second that it was put into park. James and another fellow Army person gave this woman CPR until the ambulance arrived. After awhile James left because he was no longer needed...at that time we thought the woman would never survive as she still was not breathing.

Until today we did not know what happened to this woman. James received a letter in the mail from the Prior Lake police department thanking him for his life saving actions. This woman had survived, miraculously.

Earlier that day I complained that we did not fill up the car with gas before church, but rather we waited until after church to do it. I do think that God had planned this all out. He wanted us to fill up with gas after church because then James was positioned to help saved this woman's life. It's amazing how he works.

I have always thought that my husband is an amazing person, but this just proves it even more!

Ampelmann

In Berlin they have something that they call the ampelmann. The ampelmann is like the walk/don't walk sign in America, but in Berlin it's a little person. Actually, it's one of the few remnants of East Germany, that's now spread across all of Berlin. For some reason, tourists in Berlin find this little guy fascinating once they learn about it's history...including us. In fact, it's so popular, they even have several tourists stores that sell only ampelmann related items.

European Food

Whenever we travel out of the country we always try to make sure that we eat what the locals eat, instead of the normal American food (ie McDonalds). The food is always so much better overseas...or maybe that is because we are always so hungry because all we do is walk all day long as we sightsee. Here are some of the local flavors from our recent European trip...

Yummy....Panekoken (Dutch pancakes). It was so good despite the fact that it was 2 p.m. and I was drinking a Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke) and James was drinking a beer.

A speciality in the Netherlands is raw herring. Little did I know when James said he needed a "snack" that he was going to get this traditional dish. Yes, the herring was served raw, on a bun, with onions. I happened to capture him mid-bite, but despite the picture, he claims he liked it. I, on the other hand, thought that one bite was enough as it was slimy and I ended up smelling like fish for the rest of the day.

Fred says it's been a long time since he was in a post, so this post is for the little buddy. Fred manages to make sure he is always comfortable. Despite that fact I usually kick him off the bed when it's time to make the bed; however, my husband does not agree with that philosophy. He always tells me that Fred is the priority, so as you can tell my this picture (with an unmade bed) that it was James' responsibility to make the bed, but it just didn't get done because of Fred.

Knut the Polar Bear

A few year ago Knut was all the hype. An orphaned baby polar bear warmed all of our hearts as he managed to survive, and was the talk of the world. Knut's home is in Berlin, and so of course I had to make sure we went to the zoo to visit. While it was sad to see him alone in an exhibit without any friends, he did put on quite a show for us. These are just a few of the 100 pictures or so we have of him.

Knut was recently in the news again, as another German zoo (where Knut's father is) wants either Knut or some of the money that the Berlin zoo has made off of Knut. We met a nice Berliner at the zoo (although rather crazy I might add), that had a button that read "Knut forever in Berlin".

A historical trip

We recently took a quick trip to Europe, which included stops in Amsterdam and Berlin. As I find with most European cities, there is so much history attached with them, and these two cities are no exception to this. From the Berlin Wall to the Anne Frank House there was so much to see, and we barely made a dent in exploring both cities. Here are a few favorites:

The Brandenberg Gate, Berlin

The Berlin Wall (side note, the first night we were in Berlin we were in such a hurry to find a hotel before it got dark that we walked right by one of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall and didn't even notice.)

The Anne Frank House

The Moth!

Last fall, we were about to start a fire in our fire pit (see September 2008 posting), but noticed a caterpillar climbing on the side. We saved it, and a few days later it started a cocoon on our deck. We've patiently been awaiting the big day that it would come out and hoped it wouldn't come out while we were at work. Luckily, James had yesterday off, and the big event happened. I made it home just in time to see the moth before it flew away a little later.

Before

During

After (June 12)

He wasn't small either. It was about a 5.5" wingspan in this picture. Isn't mother nature cool?!

Yikes...it's been a month since the last post. Hum...more posts to come soon, including our recent (like we just landed back in the USA 2 hours ago) trip to Europe.