Once upon a time there was a little girl who decided she wanted to have her picture taken in the mirror of I tractor. I obliged. And now? I'm entering it in Raw(e). (Yes, I know I said that yesterday, but I've decided I'm going to do it now instead)

Once upon a time there was a girl who was a little too obsessed with finding objects to photograph that had a ton of texture. See?

I'm in love. I want to frame them. Ha.

Once upon a time there was the best ice cream dish in the world. A strawberry chocolate bowl (translated on the spot from German into English...therefore, it isn't the most poetic name), which consisted of chocolate ice cream, fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup. 

It was quickly eaten. ;)

Once upon a time I was informed that some cannot see my photos. Gah. Not again! I uploaded these using Blogger, but I don't have much more space left. How many of you cannot see photos that I uploaded using Flickr? (you can use my previous post as a test) Thank you!

What have you done once upon a time?

-carlotta

(Giveaway winners announced below, as well as my Raw(e) entry!)

Fact about Germany #1: Everything is very old. Nearly all the buildings in the photo above are at least 300 years old. In Germany, if a building is 300 years old, it's relatively new ;) Do you see the church steeple in the background? That's my grandparent's church (it's beautiful inside!). And it was built in the 1400s. Man, I wish we had buildings that old in the states.

Fact about Germany #2: Contrary to popular belief, German men in the 21st century don't wear lederhosen and German women in the 21st century don't wear dirndls. Well, they might for Oktoberfests, but not for everyday wear.

Fact about Germany #3: Germans don't drink regular water like we're used to in America. They only drink sparkling (mineral) water. If you ask for water without the bubbles, they look at you like you have two heads.

Fact about Germany #4: Germany is very, very clean. Every time we come here, I marvel over how tidy and neat everything is...and wish America could be that way. To keep the litter, and to help the citizens recycle more, there is a relatively high deposit on glass (bottles contain beer, wine, etc) and plastic bottles. They have machines that you feed your bottles into; the machine counts how much you returned and gives you money accordingly. It's very effective.

Fact about Germany #5: Again, contrary to popular belief, "Edelweiss" isn't a traditional German folk song. It was merely written for The Sound of Music. :)

How do you like that dude floating in the river above? Apparently it's art, but when I walked across the bridge and saw it, I nearly busted a gut laughing. Heeheehee. Hohoho. Ha.

Do you have any questions about Germany? Ask away, I'll answer them in another post similar to this one.

And now for the giveaway winners!

The winner of the headband is...

Jeska! 

The winner of the earrings is...

Emily!

(I wasn't sure which of your blogs to link to, so I just linked to your profile)

Congrats ladies! Please email me and we'll get you set up :)

I want to thank everyone that entered the giveaway - I wish I could give each of you a prize :) To my new readers, I sincerely hope you'll stick around!

And I'm going to throw my Raw(e) entry into this post. I'm too lazy to write another post...

Oreos may not be the healthiest snack, but gosh, are they good! :)

-carlotta

(Raw(e) farther down)

Alternately titled: I take awful photos too.

...she'll probably find some scissors. 

Nearby the scissors, she'll probably also discover the comics, which no one except for her has read. 

With these tools in front of her, she's probably going to somehow make them work together. She'll slip on her safety goggles to "protect her from flying paper", grab the scissors and newspaper...

...and the end result will probably look something like this, with paper scattered about the table and floor. 

She'll probably act quite proud of herself when she sees her big brother run upstairs to tell the big sister to get her camera. Despite the gravity of the situation (no, seriously, morning comics are an important element of our household ;)), she'll probably feel even better about her work of art when she discovers that everyone is cracking up. It will seem that her family's futile efforts to hold back the laughter bubbling up in their throats was unsuccessful. 

Lilly has struck again - this time before 8am. 

And while I'm on the topic of Lilly, she was in the library (the one in our house) today with Jeremiah, chanting, "Praise God! He forgives! Otherwise you'd be fired from heaven!"

Where does the child GET this stuff?

Do you have any funny stories about your siblings/children? Do share! I'd love a laugh or two :)

EDIT: I'm throwing my yellow Raw(e) shot in here...because I'm too lazy to write a separate post. Heh. 

Oh, I wanted to edit this SO badly. But I was a good girl and didn't touch it. ;)

-carlotta

It's that time again (Already?! Didn't it seem that school just started last year?)...back to school.

Back to learning new things. Back to tests.

Back to pencils, homework, and teacher's dirty looks (I couldn't resist!). Back to reading Ancient Egyptian Literature. Okay, maybe not. But that's one of the things I have to read ;)

Back to fresh, clean notebooks. Back to textbooks.

(Above is my pink entry for Raw(e))

Back to schedules, and if you're not homeschooled, back to rushing from class to class.

Although I'm probably going to change my mind on January 24th at 1:12 pm*, I kind of like getting back to school right now. Even though I'm homeschooled (more like online schooled and self taught with my mom checking on me once a week), I'm going to try to stick to a more rigid schedule this year. We'll see if that lasts ;)

Have you started school yet? Are you glad to be back in the rhythm, or would you rather be doing anything but school?

-carlotta

*This date and time have no significance. They were just picked randomly.

PS I'm only 8 followers away from 300! Eight! Do you think you guys could help me make it to 300? Please? :)

EDIT: People! You've done it again! I am now at 300 followers! Eeeekkk!