Back in the USA!

So more people read this blog than I thought, I've been fussed at twice this week for not writing. Even called LAZY once! Well to prove to you that I have been doing things....

I was greeted at the airport by two of my friends, Mary & Lauren V. and my parents.

(Gotta be honest, more German was the last thing I wanted to see, but thanks!)

We all went out to dinner in Charlotte at The Cheesecake Factory!

It was overwhelming to be in a restaurant so huge, with ice in my drinks, and waitresses that are attentive and call me "hun". (I'm used to french restaurants, where you have to search and beg for someone just so you can pay your check.)

I think the next thing I did was go on a retreat with my church. Every year we have to put on some sort of "talent" show. Here is an example of my friend Katie and what her group did. (I'm always lucky enough that no one ever videos my group. I believe I rolled on the ground as a human speed bump this year.)

Then I got my Honda!

Had to personalize her. Go Gamecocks!

My roommate and all our friends started making these cute little fuzzy owls out of felt, just for fun. We had quite a sweatshop going for awhile. I made the one with the glasses, and the one that is pink and purple mixed.

Oh, here they are, I think of them as best buddies.

Then I got to go camping with a few of my bestest friends. Unfortunately, camping turned into "Car Camping" after a long night of trying to find our campsite in the rain. We never found it, we ended up pulling our cars together with a tarp attached to the roofs so we could hang out together. Until it started raining so hard, we were getting wet no matter what. Then we spent a long night sleeping in our cars and not being able to hike the next day.

The night before camping we went to the famous "Beacon" restaurant in Spartanburg.

The following is not my food... but is a perfect example of "a plenty", which means you get plenty of fries and onion rings, to the point that you can't actually see your hamburger.

(Note to Europe friends, I know you think we eat hamburgers all the time. I ordered chicken, and this grease feast is not a typical American meal. My American friends are going to yell at me for acting like I'm not proud.)

We followed up that healthy dinner with an even healthier breakfast from IHOP.

I believe Halloween came next. I went to two parties, the first one I went as an ensemble, with two of my friends as CareBears! I think we were Bedtime Bear, TenderHeart and Lots of Love Bear. We made our friend April, an honorary CareBear, Western Bear.

2nd round, I got to pull out the German dirndl dress. I once got yelled at in Germany, because when I bought the dress, I said "now I have a good halloween costume forever!" I was told "No, now you have a traditional German dress, not a costume." ummm, well....anyway.

Oh and this is my friend Paul, sad, he has now moved to Ohio to get marrrrried!

(Don't ask me what he is, I never know.)

Oh oh yay! It actually snowed in South Carolina this year! Twice! That never happens!

Ok and now for my favorite part! My babies!!! I babysit for this little guy before I left for Germany. Now I just babysit occasionally. I started when he was 3 months, now he's over a year old. I was shocked to see how much he'd changed.

And this is how I spend my mornings, with this little girl....

(We are picking out clothes to wear.)

This is the face I see 99% of the time.

I did some pictures for her family when she turned 6 months!
I did these with a backdrop in their own living room. 

(More of those pictures later...)
And I spend my afternoons with these two!

I actually let them do this when it rains. I even bought rainboots so I could join them!

We got to go strawberry picking the other day!

Lots of fun and lots of red stained fingers.

During evenings and weekends I still work as a photographer, more on that coming soon.
I'm planning a new blog, logo, website updates, facebook fanpage, new frames, albums and more!
I even have a launch party in the works to show everything off.

Also a little out of order but I'd like to show you my Christmas present from my brother. It's a holiday message from all my friends in France (and one in Spain), also just a tour of the holiday lights in Limoges. I was so surprised and it was so good to hear from all my friends again! You have to watch at least to the point where they trick Ghennadi into wishing me a Happy Chanukah.
 Great Christmas present Eric!!!