Family – Page 7 – Across The Water

January 7, 2009January 7, 2009

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

I know that my Canadian friends on the West Coast have seen just about enough of the white stuff, but here in Innsbruck the city is very excited about winter sports. Although I wasn’t sure how my first winter in 10 years was going to be, I’m happy to report I have been enjoying myself in this winter wonderland. Since I’m behind on tracking our fun and adventures with Ryan and Renata from Victoria, I’ve decided to combine all of the snow-based activities into one fun-filled post. Unfortunately, these all took place when Rebecca was touring Italy with her mom and Katherine, so no pictures of her.

Our first trip was to KÃ¼thai to go tobogganing. It was a beautiful day with clear skies, although it was a bit cold. We all bundled up, including Annie, and trekked the mountain to the lodge. I think one of my favourite parts of this day was realizing how much better shape I am in than 3 years ago when I last made this same hike. Yeah for me! Coming down was hilarious…I am getting much braver after a few runs this year. Soon I’ll be as scarily fast as Markus and Annie!

Beautiful...but that is a long way down!

The next winter-related adventure was a visit to the ski jumping run. I bailed that day (I can’t even remember what I was doing at this point), but had to include some pictures of the beautiful view of the city.

I have to say one of my favourite days of this holiday was finally getting onto downhill skis for the first time this season. We had been seeing guests at the hotel and folks around town clearly heading off for a day on the hills, so we were all quite excited to join in.

We went up to Axamer Lizum, which is about a 45 minute bus ride from door to door. The bus system is very sophisticated here, picking up guests at all of the downtown hotels and dropping them off at various ski areas around the province. Markus was working so it was just Ryan, Ren and I. (Annie spent the day in daycare, as I’m not a good enough skier to try to teach her. She’ll have to wait for Markus.)

We started out on the learner hill a couple of times, as it has been a while for all of us. We then tried the blue run (the easiest), which is quite a bit harder than the easy runs on Mt. Washington or Whistler. Our first time down it took us about 45 minutes, and about 30 minutes the second run. Renata looked up the times for the women’s downhill (which took place on the runs we were on) and they finished the course in less than 2 minutes. My greatest concern with this is that Annie or Rebecca will want to take up ski racing if we stay here a few years. Shudder. But anyway, we all survived (I have a massive ugly bruise on one hip from a wipe out, but nothing serious), and lived to enjoyÂ a hearty lunch at the top of the mountain. Beautiful.

On top of the world — Ready for the real run

Trying to look like we know what we are doing

O.K…just 2 more activities to go! We took Ryan and Renata to beautiful Seefeld (about a half hour outside of Innsbruck) to go cross country skiing, as it is supposed to have some of the best runs in the area. They had a good day getting their exercise while Markus, Annie and I enjoyed a fun day at the pool (with just one not fun moment on the water slide that was too crazy for Annie, but we all survived and recovered.)

And finally, Ren, Ryan, Markus and Annie went to the Olympic oval to try their hand at skating. Despite brutally unsharp skates, they still enjoyed the exercise. I think we are all going to need a few days to recover from all the adventures…whew!

I guess I didn’t download the photos from Renata’s camera from Seefeld, but here some cute shots from the oval.

December 27, 2008January 2, 2009

Frohe Weihnachten

Merry Christmas to you all!! We had a great celebration, amalgamating some traditions from both Austria and Canada. Rigth now I am just glowing with that warm Christmas feeling, as we just returned from a lovely Christmas concert at a beautiful church. I definitely teared up when the excellent choir boy sang ‘Stille Nacht.’

On Christmas Eve we all sat down for dinner together. Markus made Beef Wellington (this is becoming our family tradition!) with almond crusted potatoes, beans and carrots. Delicious. It was a lively and large crowd. Markus, Rebecca, Annie and I, Susi and Lili, Renata and Franz, Renata’s mom (who is a very upbeat 90 year old), as well as our 4 guests from Canada, our friends Ryan and Renata, and Rebecca’s mom and her partner, Catherine and Katherine. Whew! Here are some shots of everyone:

The family having a lovely Christmas dinner

Lili and Annie playing with Lili's new skookum kitchen

We were going to open gifts in the Austrian tradition of the 24th, but Annie is getting over a bad flu and conked out early, so we decided to move it to Christmas morning. Good for mommy as well, as I had been up the last 3 nights with Annie so I was certainly ready for bed early.

Christmas morning was a very relaxed affair; Rebecca is old enough to wait and Annie is too young to really understand what is about to happen. We had a calm breakfast and then about 10:00 moved to the living room to open gifts. Annie was very over-represented, as we don’t exchange many gifts with adults and Rebecca was getting ski boots (quite expensive, so that was really the only gift from our side.)

Here is the pre-opening scene. We decided on a little tree (3 flights up with no elevator) and didn’t get organized to purchase a tree-topper, so Catherine worked with Rebecca’s origami and made an awesome substitute.

All of us had a little something to open and enjoyed the morning. Annie, like most 2-year olds, wanted to play with whatever was opened, so she really didn’t get to all the gifts until the next day. A very relaxed, sweet Christmas day. But pictures say so much more than words in these kinds of situations.

Santa arrived in Austria to fill the stockings

Annie needed to show each of her gifts to the Teddy Bear Picnic bears (a great gift from Grandma Susan and Grandpa Ken)

More festivities to come!

December 23, 2008December 23, 2008

Just Shut Up and Drive

I have been avoiding driving in Europe. It is quite intimidating for me, as people drive faster, the rules are a bit different and also people pass you with only an inch to spare, which really freaks me out. But Markus was loaded down with bags coming from Canada and Franz couldn’t pick him up as he had to work, so my in-laws convinced me to give it a try. I felt I was very brave driving all the way to MÃ¼nchen, which is about a 2 1/2 hour trip. It ended up being really easy, despite driving in a fairly heavy snowfall. Franz set me up with his GPS, which worked like a charm. It even tells you what lane to be in! And it took me literally to the parking lot for Terminal 2 arrivals. Incredibly specific.

Annie slept the whole way there and Markus flight was only 20 minutes late, so we didn’t have a long time to kill at the airport. It was really great to see Markus after a month away. Annie had this huge smile on her face.

Once we made it back to Innsbruck (I drove home as well), Rebecca was, of course, so excited to see her dad. She is very happy with Markus coming home and then was over the moon when her mom, Catherine, arrived with her partner, Katherine, on Saturday. A real family reunion.

And with my friend Renata and Ryan coming today as well, we are going to have a fun-filled Christmas. Unfortunately, Annie has the flu the last couple of days, so we are hoping she perks up for the festivities tomorrow.

December 17, 2008

I May Be Going Dark

Well, my mobile wireless Internet connection has crapped out on me. And the “service” people (heavy sarcasm) need a week to look at it. A week?!! After begging, they gave me a replacement, but I need to download the driver from the web and the instructions are in German. I might have to wait until Markus is back (Saturday) until having a connection. Not pleased. Anyway, it might be a few days until I post again.Â

In the meantime, my nerves are starting to wear thin. So, like last time, it is probably a good idea for me to chronicle all the lovely things about Annie that I adore, so as not to dwell on the struggles (like getting dressed, leaving the house, going to bed, eating, breathing, living……..).

Annie loves, loves, loves music. Cousin Lili gave her a plastic purse that plays high-pitched dance music when you press a button. Annie spent a good part of an hour dancing and then marching and then running to the tunes. Too funny. She would need to press the button every minute or so, but of course wanted to do it herself. No help from me please! She did look up imploringly at me saying, irresistibly,: “Do you want to dance with me?”, so we boogied down together for quite a while.

We also have a great game of hiding behind doors these days, which makes us both laugh. She loves to be scared. I hated that as a child, so that is interesting for me. I also hated being tickled, which is Annie’s favourite thing. (She inherited my incredibly ticklish skin.) She will come and lie down on the bed, couch or even floor and look at me with a twinkle in her eye and say, “It’s Tickle Time!!” I think not having sadistic brothers is the difference between Annie and I in this department.

Yesterday we were in one of the bigger city parks and Annie just started going for a walk. I thought it was rather random, but as we didn’t have any real plans, I was happy to follow her lead. But then she finally went down one of the paths that led out of the park and said, “I want to go visit Lili.” I was floored. This was, in fact, the way to walk to Susi and Lili’s place, but we had only gone this route a few times and not for at least a month. What a memory! Unfortunately they weren’t home, so we grabbed a pizza and headed for home instead. She reallyÂ is a sweet girl, that Annie. (But I’m still going to be glad when Dad gets back!)

December 3, 2008July 7, 2009

House Maybe Sold…Emotions Conflicted

Well, we had a solid offer on the house, which we have accepted yesterday. We dropped the price by a good lot, because all indications are that the spring is going to be even worse than now.

So, of course, part of me is relieved that we can check this off the list and can pay off some of our bills. But I am also experiencing a fairly large amount of angst over this. Interesting.

I’m sure that this is partly because we had to sell for about $100,000 less than what was going to be our ‘bottom price’ only 7 months ago. It is so close that it is hard not to do the woulda coulda shoulda thing. If we had only dropped the price in the spring, we would likely have at least an extra $50,000 in our pockets right now. Ah well, 20/20 hindsight and all that.

But I am also feeling (perhaps irrationally) like my most tangible connection to Canada has been severed. I guess that (without realizing it) I had in the back of my mind that if things didn’t work out here we would just move back to the house and go from there. With the house gone, everything seems like a bigger decision. Even visiting Victoria becomes more of a challenge. I know, I know that we could always move back and rent a place. But somehow that is different.

And of course it is really hitting me that I won’t be seeing the place again where Annie was born and did all of her ‘firsts’, where Rebecca spent so many years growing up, where Narnia brought in that snake…oh right, that I’d like to forget. As you all know, I wasn’t even in love with our condo, and yet I still feel sadness over seeing it go. As I say, interesting.

Everything else is still up in the air (the Aerie, The Hotel), so it is nice to have one major event (hopefully) behind us. And all of these financial issues have started to make me think about working again. Susi (sister-in-law) let me know that there are a couple of positions in the Marketing department of Swarovski that require a business degree and no other language other than English. And Markus discovered that there is at least one business college that teaches all of their courses in English (although I think I might need a PhD to apply there.) It is making me think hard about what I want to do. I’ll keep you updated.

On the home front, I am still sick as a dog. I forgot to take my ColdFX this morning and almost didn’t make it through class. I dare any of you to try to conjugate verbs in a foreign language when your head is full of cold and throat is blazing sore. Good times. My pharmacist friend from school, Ana, has a homeopathic remedy she is bringing me tomorrow that I really, really hope does the trick. I have so much fun in these classes and am feeling like I am making some progress, so I want to be mentally as well as physically present the rest of the week. I know my family in Vancouver are also suffering from various illness. I wish all of them, and you, good health.

November 29, 2008November 29, 2008

Annie and Her City

Well, Annie certainly has come to make Innsbruck her own. We walked to a downtown shopping center this afternoon, and when I blew by the place we sometimes buy ice cream, she looked back at me from her stroller like I was more than a wee bit insane. “What in the world do you think you are doing?” her face read and in a very calculated voice declared, “I want some ice cream.” SpÃ¤ter, my love.

Annie frequently points out stores or has a running comment on streets that she is familiar with. I’m glad she is identifying this as her hometown, where she has memories and adventures. Every time we put on her warm boots, she asks if we are going to play in the snow, which obviously isn’t something she has or will experience in beautiful warm Victoria. We all need connections, don’t we?

As to how the temporary single mommyhood is going, I have to say that weekends without Markus are the most difficult for me. We struggled through the morning, as we both are sick and Annie woke up early with a cough and trouble breathing. But then she had a 3 hour nap, which allowed me to have a bath, relax and work a bit more on my soon-to-be late Christmas cards. (You’ll all be fine with a post-Christmas card, right?) Actually, I have no idea how long it takes for mail to get from Austria to Canada, so I might be fine. We’ll see and I’m sure you will report back.

After lunch we went to said shopping mall. I tried their service for the first time where you can drop-off (ditch?) your child for up to 3 hours while shopping. Annie, oddly, had a few tears at first but then saw the doll and stroller and was all “see ya mom”. She didn’t want to leave after 1 1/2 hours when I picked her up. It was a great way to blast through some errands and then have a relaxing cup of hot chocolate. Definitely going to do that again. And since Markus is staying another week in Canada, perhaps we’ll be going back to that mall again, and again, and again…

November 27, 2008November 28, 2008

What a Difference Two Months Make

This will be a short one, as I have managed to come down with another cold. Apparently I have no immunity to European viruses. Oh well. With the ColdFX, I’m not feeling it too badly.

So far things without Markus are going O.K. Annie is in full-time daycare, so I can catch up after my classes in the afternoon. Also speaking a bit more German helps a lot. A big milestone in my Deutsch sprachen…I actually was able to give someone on the street directions when they were lost. Lots of hand-gestures, but still. (Apparently I have a friendly, I’m-not-a-axe-murderer face, because no matter where I go in the world, people always stop me and ask me for directions.)

I really notice a difference in Annie from the last time Markus left until this time. Annie is just that much more independent, better at dressing/undressing herself, able to keep herself entertained. It certainly helps. She woke up a bit earlier today, but 6:00 is still an improvement over 4:30!

Plus having friends makes the world of difference. Lauriane and her husband, (another Markus), one of her French friends and I all went out with the kids yesterday evening to the Christmas Market. We had GlÃ¼wine and chatted until the kids started to freeze. Lots of fun.

That is it for now. I’m off to put Annie to bed and then crawl into bed myself with a cup of tea. Hopefully I can make it to class tomorrow so I don’t miss anything.

November 25, 2008November 25, 2008

A Bit of This, a Bit of That

Well, the first couple of days ohne Markus have been just fine. Sister-in-law Susi and I took the cousins to play at one of the shopping centers (not as pathetic as it sounds because the play area is skookum) while we had coffee and chatted.

And tonight Rebecca suggested we go skating. Around the corner from us (literally…like 35 seconds away) is an open skating rink that the bank puts up in their plaza each year. Markus’ Dad had skates for all of us, including some old one of Lili’s for Annie. Annie has been on the ice before, but this was her first time actually skating. Rebecca and I mostly hauled her around, but she loved it and wants to go again. Mommy, on the other hand, discovered that although she used to be a fairly proficient skater, now sucks. But hopefully after a winter here that will improve.

Annie misses Dad and asks about him frequently. I’m not helping, as I tend to talk to myself out loud; Annie keeps thinking I am talking to Markus and comes running into the room to see if he is there. My quirkiness will soon make us all insane.

I guess the other big news for those of you following our trials and tribulations of parenthood, is that Annie slept in until 7:00 this morning! (My knees are sore from all the genuflecting in gratitude to the gods above.) Please join me in a collective finger-crossing that this wasn’t an anomaly.

I still love my German classes, but am finding it increasingly difficult, as the pace is very rapid. I had a fun couple of exchanges with people when I posted on Facebook that I was feeling like I would never learn German. Mostly the advice centered around drinking more beer, which certainly isn’t difficult to do here. I’ve actually had a bit too much to drink on a couple of occasions and can verify that this does, in fact, improve one’s ability to speak another language! (Nothing to do with just thinking I am doing better, of course.)

Off to send out some hand-made Christmas cards (this Hausfrau thing sure beats working!)

TschÃ¼ss!

November 11, 2008November 11, 2008

A Little Jaunt to Hall

Since I’m going to have a quiet day off at home tomorrow, Markus thought it would be nice to go for a drive this afternoon after I finished my class. We drove about 20 minutes to Hall, a little town about 10km east of Innsbruck.

After a tasty lunch at a restaurant called Geisterburg (with a great wood-fired pizza oven), we walked for a bit around the old town. It is such a pretty little place. There are about 12,000 people living in Hall, and it has a lovely small-town atmosphere.

Hall’s claims to fame includes a silver mine on the outskirts of town and a mint in the city, as well as a salt mine. The Austria silver coin, der thaler, was minted in Hall for centuries. This is where the English word ‘dollar’ comes from. Hall is about 800 years old, similar to Innsbruck. The old town has very pretty, narrow streets lined with storefronts that are centuries old, just like we North Americans think of when we imagine a European town.

I didn’t have my camera with me, but here is an image of how Hall will look in about 4 weeks after a couple of hearty snows:

This life where neither of us are working regular hours is pretty special. I know it won’t last forever, but I am certainly feeling grateful for the time these days spent with Markus enjoying the beautiful area around Innsbruck.

Cute Girl Update

Annie’s German is just incredible. I am constantly asking Markus what she is saying, and it is really helping me pick up on everyday words. Annie’s caregiver, Gabby, plays the guitar and teaches the kids songs. There are a couple where Annie knows all the words and hand actions, and she is teaching them to me. I’m especially a proud Mama when she inserts her own words to the tunes that she learns to go with whatever situation is at hand. (Clapping, eating, misbehaving, etc.)

I’m also pretty thrilled that Annie likes crafts. We sat on the floor a good while this evening cutting, gluing and tearing paper. With these sticky gluedots I have I was even able to make her some snowflake stickers (for her hand, of course, because that is where stickers go these days.)

And Dad is pretty tickled that Annie is into block building. I’m not sure if she’ll ever be as Lego-obsessed as cousin Devon, but she sure likes building towers, as this picture shows:

I just feel so in love with that little girl right now. Since we had such a hard time together a few weeks back, this makes me feel incredibly happy.

November 10, 2008

Little Latern Shining Bright

As promised (warned), today’s post is about Annie’s lantern walk.

The daycare that Annie attends, Kindervilla, held a lantern walk in Hofgarten park near the old city centre. Kindervilla is on 2 floors and has a second building, so it doesn’t feel like a huge organization. But there sure were a lot of people there once all the children,siblings, parents and grandparents came together. Quite a sight.

Last week the children in each of the groups made different lanterns complete with candles: hedgehogs, moons, Chinese-style, apples. They were really lovely and obviously the teachers and children put some real effort into them.

Here is Annie’s:

The group showed up at 4:30 at the park entrance. Annie was quite excited to be finally holding her lantern, as Mommy had been mean, mean, mean and had not let her destroy it before the event. (No, we haven’t been beating her up; she had a little bite near her eye, which subsequent scratching made look like quite the shiner.)

The parade ended in a small pavilion where the kids sang songs and showed off the lanterns. Annie’s group used instruments to accompany their song; I was so impressed that Annie knew when to sing and when to shake her little symbols. Too cute. The school provided tea and cookies afterward for everyone to enjoy.

A wonderful little afternoon for all of us. Here are the pictures:

Ah, toddlers and open flames. Luckily no fires ensued

Lanterns in the pavillion — Lanterns in the pavilion