I am in love......

...with my husband of course, but also with Nuremburg. Last night we took a train to Erlangen, north of Munich for Matt's next trade show in Nuremburg. The show is so big that all of the hotels in Nurnberg (as it's written in German) are full and we have to stay in Erlangen, about a 25 minute train ride away. I got up bright and early this morning with Matt (5:40 am) and headed to Nurnberg. I am in LOVE with this city. Oh my goodness. I spent from 7:00 am until 6:20 pm (truly- my legs are exhausted, but don't even notice because I enjoyed myself so much drinking coffee and people watching in a little corner cafe, looking in shops, walking around the market, gazing in awe at the beautiful churches, touring a castle and a brewery along with the underground beer cellars, talking and enjoying some beer with some folks from Belgium, and just making choices on the spot. I went through most of the "Old City". Which ever way I wanted to go, I went. No agenda (well besides the map that I had marked up with spots I wanted to see eventually). The buildings are beautiful, tall, red-roofed,aged and the churches are enormously gigantic and breathtaking, the shops are oh so fun, the roads are cobblestone, the history is magnificent, .....blah blah blah. I could go on and on. It takes too long to put pictures on over here, so I will have to do that when I get back. Of course I am heading back there tomorrow to get some more depth in some of the things I started, to do some shopping, and to tour the Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Reichsparteitagsgelande) where many of the parades, rallies, events, and the Nuremburg Trials took place during that time. This is all too incredible, have to pinch myself before I go to bed.

We've been going to bed for a little while and then setting the alarm to wake up to call the boys (and grandma and grandpa of course) on the web cam. We call them at midnight German time, so that it is about 5:00-5:30 pm U.S. time. Being able to see and talk to them, makes it easier to be away for so long. It sounds like they are having a blast, and it's fun hearing all of the stories and anecdotes of the day. Tonight we also got to see and talk to Natey and Matt, Kristin, and Kelsey. What a treat. Technology is wonderful most of the time isn't it?

Again.....GRATITUDE.

Hallo from Germany!

No, it is not a mispelling, it's how you say hello in german.

Before I left Tuesday, the boys and I were able to spend a little time together and we had "I love you" scrambled eggs (in the shape of hearts if you can't tell).

Well, after a long detour I finally made it here to Munich..............and met up with Matt. I arrived 5 hours later than I was supposed to. What an interesting journey. To start with, I feel really stupid but didn't really think anything of the fact that my passport still has my maiden name on it. When I went to check in at Mpls. the lady gave me a really hard time about it and didn't know if I was going to be able to take the trip. It ended up being fine as long as I had all of this verification, but she flagged me as high risk security (she was not my favorite person) so every time I had to go through security they had to look through everything by hand and pat me down. Ugh! Note to self, make sure passport is completely updated next time. The flight to Amsterdam was fine, long (8+hours), but fine. I enjoyed a couple of movies and some wine. From Amtsterdam, where my flight was late to start with, I had to get on this little plane where I had be outside on the runway and walk up one of those stairways on wheels to get on the plane. The flight went fine, however we couldn't land in Munich because of zero visability, so we had to land in Stuttgart. This was pretty cool because it's the city where my dad was stationed when he was in the service. From there they provided a bus to take us to Munich, a 2 -1/2 hour ride. Like I said, what a long journey, however I was able to meet and visit with some interesting people from Amsterdam, Germany, London, and India and I got to see more of Germany than I had planned on! Always try to see the positive right?! Gratitude! ;)

Needless to say I am exhausted. We went to the Hofbrauhaus (big brewery) and had some delicious german food and beer and then walked around a little. We walked to Marienplatz (the the town center and the City Town Hall). I love all of the little streets with tall buildings and shops. I am so excited to be here, and so fortunate I could take this trip.

We got back to the hotel, slept for a little while and then woke up to call the boys at grandma and grandpa's. It was good to see them and hear their voice. We are so fortunate that it worked out for my parents to watch them, Mattey to take Connor to preschool, and Natey to help out this weekend with swimming lessons and giving mom and dad a break.

I can't wait to go back and see this City Town Hall in daylight. The green area is the Glokenspiel and the figurines dance and move to music at certain times of the day.
I decided to do these last two pictures in Sepia and Black and White because they are a little blurry. We had to ask like three different people to try to take our pictures (they didn't understand english and I couldn't get them to understand the focus part of my camera. Oh well).

I obviously won't be updating this every day (if at all while we're here I just couldn't sleep at the moment - the whole time change thing), but will have a ton of stories and pictures to share when I get back. Mom is doing a great job keeping up with taking pictures and jotting down stories and comments for me.

Crazy, when I try to log onto this site everything is in German. Good thing I know the site well enough because I only know a few words.

Auf Wiedersehen (good bye) for now!

Gratitude...2009

This post is actually for Monday, but I didn't get to the computer in time tonight (this morning!).
I got a little busy with preparing for the trip.


My necklace came in! If you were able to read and remember my blog entry back in December about my word of the year for 2009, I was fortunate to be chosen as the winner of a necklace. Originally I did the post without knowing about the contest, so winning is an extra bonus.

Check out Laurie at Tip Junkie. She has an incredible site and I get such great ideas from her. Thank you Laurie for the giveaway and thank you Tabetha at Reminisce Heirlooms for the beautiful necklace. I love it! Check out both of these wonderful blogs for great ideas and beautiful jewelry. I love the picture bracelets Tabetha makes.



I plan to wear this often to remind me of everything I have to be grateful for.

Talking to...and seeing...daddy

We met with our friends, the Burmeisters, for lunch today at McDonald's. We both have 3 boys, so we have lots to laugh at, complain about, and compare! Here are the boys eating their ice cream (minus their little one).

Daddy called tonight on the web cam. It's the first time we've used it with him. The boys thought it was pretty cool. It helps me knowing that I will be able to see them when we talk. Seeing their faces will be an extra bonus, and help me be able to enjoy the trip. Silly I know, but this is a long time to be away from them.

We watched the Super Bowl with my family for a little while, as long as the boys could make it that is. Bummer the Cardinals lost! What a great last touchdown play by the Steelers.

Matt called this morning letting us know he made it safe and sound.

My bebe now has his own spot at the table in Nolan's high chair. Again, cute? or obsessive? ;)



The boys had swimming lessons today again, and lucky me got to get in with Jacob. I LOVE putting my swimming suit on! NOT! However, it was very fun being in there with him. He is just wild and crazy, so happy. He went under the water a ton and was so proud. Connor did great as well. We got home and took a nap. It must have been all they needed because then they were chasing in circles and wrestling (I was having visions of our life with 3 boys so close together in age in the years to come).



Matt, Kristin, and Kelsy dropped by for a visit tonight, with ice cream! MMMMM. We played some Wii, and Uncle Matt even made a treasure hunt for Connor. Kelsey took a bath at our house so we got out our tub. Guess who Nolan thought needed a bath? Kelsey girl's first Mario cart game.Auntie Kristin's first Mario cart game also!

Don't go daddy.....

Matt left for Germany today. Connor came running out of his room when he woke up this morning and squeezed Matt's legs really hard saying, "Don't leave daddy." It was too cute, and heartbreaking at the same time. I wish I would have had the camera right there and then. Matt kept them this morning for a little bit and did breakfast and hung out before he took them to day care. I guess when he dropped them off Connor gave him a big hug telling Matt that he was giving him a big one to last all of today and for the rest of his trip.

Is bebe cute, or getting obsessive?

My bebe

I was at my mom and dad's house tonight setting up the webcam for our trip and Nolan made a new friend. He made such a good friend that he had to take "my bebe" home with us. He started crying when I said it was grandma and grandpa's baby. "No, my bebe -home!"

He had me put eye drops in "my bebe's" eyes, we changed his diaper, gave him kisses goodnight.....are you seroius?

Mom, look at me!

On a mission to find the cure for pink eye

So ....this morning Matt headed up to the cities early and I had the boys to myself. When it's just me and them it's a crazy morning. Connor was really tired so I let him sleep in a little longer and figured we could just get dress, brush teeth, and run. Well, as he was brushing his teeth (mind you this is about 7:10) I notice his eye is all crusty and really red. Great! So I asked him about it and he said it hurt. I knew right away because pink eye has been going around at daycare. In fact we took Nolan in two nights ago to get checked out and he didn't have anything. Needless to say....I was in a heap of trouble. Matt was already gone, I had to take the other two boys to daycare, I didn't have a sub or sub plans yet and school started soon. Luckily I have a great team that I work with and it all feel into place (well sort of). I took Connor in and sure enough he has it. I should have asked for a mega bottle of drops because it's almost inevitable that the other two will get it. We are ALL putting drops in our eyes at the Ginskey house, pink eye or not. ;)


Connor was so bummed because he didn't feel sick. He didn't understand and he was now going to have to miss making and eating his own ice cream at school. Ms. Jane said they would try to figure something out for him to do it when he gets back.



Connor and I had a blast at home today though. I feel guilty saying that because I was away from work - but hey the kid couldn't go to school or daycare and someone had to stay home with him. It was strange being home from work with a kid that wasn't really sick. We played spies and had a really big and important mission. We had to find the cure for coughs (a hippo bean bag) which was somewhere in the jungle, the cure for runny noses (a turtle bean bag) which was in the castle, and the cure for pink eye (a rubber ball) which was at the bottom of the sea. Man, Connor had the whole thing planned out - we had to avoid guards, booby traps, laser beams, etc. We were sent secret messages and looked for clues. It was quite a mission. Here is Connor's spy belt and gear that we used (great Christmas gift).

Candy land update - they played a game and Connor had everything planned out in his head, he was so excited. I guess Tyler didn't get the card this time. It didn't really work out.....maybe next time.

Apparently a basket of clean clothes makes for a great place to lie down.

Pursle guy, pursle guy what do you see?

Connor and Jacob were playing Mario Cart tonight and Connor looks at me as says, "Mom, whoever created Wii is COOL!"

We love bath time. The boys have a blast together.

One of the boys' favorite books as they've grown up has been Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Tonight in the bathtub Jacob created his own Brown Bear story....

Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong, what do you see? I see a pizza looking at me.

Pizza, Pizza, what do you see? I see pursle guy (those of you that have been following this blog know that this is purple guy Waluigi) looking at me.....

I think there is maybe too much Mario Cart playing going on.