Fat Tuesday

It is called "Fasching" (I think I am spelling that right) here in Austria today -- day before lent/Fat Tuesday. It would be neat to see Carnival in Venice today/tomorrow. People dress us here and there have been halloween costumes in the stores the last month. At the grocery store today employees were dressed up and I think a lot of Austrian children dress. I'm thinking tomorrow is the day to find next year's halloween costumes on sale! :) Austrian tradition is also to eat Krapfen today - which we did. These are marmalade filled donut type things.

I can't believe we are into March already. Wow! The sun has been shining a lot (Thank God) but it is still pretty cold. My friend Ida and I are still running to train for the 1/2 marathon on April 17th. We were proud of ourselves today as we did an 8 mile run. Yeah! She is such a great running partner so that is awesome!

Julia had a playdate at a friend's house today. This was a good step for her as she has been shy to go to anyone's house. I had to bring them from school to Lily's house so she was comfortable. All went well so I was thankful for that. They are a very nice Hungarian/British family. Julia thought it was so fun she had the British flag huge on her wall (painted) in pink and purple. Really cute.

Evan got some good news on Saturday and his coach of the U11 team he has wanted on so bad, told us to get his player card. I think this means he is on the team. Yeah!!! Huge news! He continues to love to play the violin. Thank you Grandma Jane for the music genes!!

It sounds funny to say, but we are going to Turkey for Spring Break next month. Yeah! I don't have everything figured out yet - but at least have our plane tickets bought from here to Istanbul and back. It is so hard to decide where to travel to - SOOOO many places, so little time. We picked one that is MUCH MUCH cheaper to get to from here vs. the States. (verus say London or Paris - although I REALLY hope to see all these places too!)

Planning a trip in early April (one month) to Germany to see Aunt Christy, Uncle David, Alexandra and Christian. Their time in Honolulu is wrapping up and we are SO excited to have them close (about 6 hours is close enough!) to us. YEAH!!

Some have heard this already, but not my Mom so here goes :)....

in Ikea a few days ago and a lady asked me (in English) about something I was buying at the Kassa (cash registers) I explained it to her nicely and then said a small statement in German -- to practice. (She seemed nice:)) She then asked me if I was learning German and I said that yes, I was trying. She asked for how long - I said proudly - 5 months and she said "You should try harder" I honestly still can't believe how rude she was!!!!! I asked my German teacher for a german sentence to say back so now I know to say "Das ist unverschamt." Which means that is rude. Nuff said!