Camping indoors

J really made Rock and Roll's night Saturday. I was out with the girls and when I came home, I saw this....

J really made some brownie points with not only the boys but me. He sure is a great dad! The boys really enjoyed the indoor camping experience and wanted to make their "tent" their new bedroom:)

Here she is!

Sophie is now 13 weeks old! She is a little pirahna with a toy chest of her own:)
We do so adore her though and she is growing so fast! She is getting heavy as well which makes it difficult for the late night bathroom breaks:( She also thinks my pants need more venilation so I have several new stylish holes in the ankles:)

CHECK OUT THOSE BEAUTIFUL BABY BLUES!

I will keep adding photos and of course more of my two favorite boys!

Sophie is growing!

Well I promised some updates on Sophie so here they are. Her coloring is deepening. She is a little pirahna with a toy chest of her own:) I have several pairs of pants that she felt needed venilation holes.

Family Update

Sorry it has been awhile since I have updated. Our new puppy joined us about three weeks ago and she is adorable! Roll was blessed with naming her and he chose Lady Sophia. We call her Sophie. The whole house has been turned upside down but you would find the way J acts quite hilarious. It is truly as if a baby girl has joined our family. We have had pups before but J was never so caring, patient, or willing to take the 2 am nature calls. Wait a minute, he didn't do that with the boys either! :)

Roll is doing very well at his studies and I am very proud of him. He decided to stop with Boy Scouts as that was adding a bit too much pressure with so much to learn at school. I hope that he will have more interest next year but I think it would help if we start to "play" with some American boys as well. The weather has broke finally so Roll is out on his skate board and roller blades. I hope he will finally let me teach him how to ride his bike.

Rock is entertaining as always. He takes the world by force and sometimes it isn't always pretty but usually he brings a smile to those around him. Rock loves to do what his brother does and this causes quite a bit of trouble between the two of them. Some times I think he is growing up so fast and then I catch him when he is tired twisting his hair and sucking his thumb. (Yeah that is a future battle.)

J is doing well but as most know him he likes to complain:) Present complaint is that I am on the computer rather than folding laudry. I just so hate housework and I am much better at finding other things to do. J will begin softball season soon and we are about halfway through our winter bowling league.

I began community level volleyball. Right now the team is a bit disorganized and I hope it will be straigtened out before our first competition. School is crazy with class sizes in the mid twenties and counting. We are currently over enrollment by about 120+. I have received a new student each month for the last 5 months. Last week I started a new student and was supposed to get another on Thurs. I dodged by a lucky colleagues generousity but I am expected to get one next week. We are drowning in kids while waiting for the new school and more teachers to arrive.

Well I not uploading photos but I will try to make time to update more often. It always brings me to check out my other friends blogs and see what they are doing. Sophie has grown so much that I will put on a new photo but I need to upload it from my camera later.

C-ya!

We're Adopting!!

By the time we bring our little girl home we will have waited nine months! Much as if we went through a pregnancy ourselves. We haven't decided on a name for her and she doesn't get to come live with us for another week. We have visited her often though and she is very adorable, energetic, and a bundle to be loved. We have had to work with our schedules, educate the boys and ourselves, and really prepare for her presence in our family and the changes she will require of us. We know that she will will try our patience through her baby/toddler and later teenage years but she will also bring us much joy. Please welcome our newest addition!

When it snows.....IT STORMS!

Well today we were awakened to a 3am call from school informing us that we are on a two hour school delay. Grrreat! I was surprised since the German street crews are usually on top of things and although we went from 0 to about 6-7 inches in a few hours, they seem to handle such things. Well when the time arrived to drive in I was very disappointed. The roads were declared red and they were! It was trecherous in several places and most roads were not cleared, even main roads!

The real kicker was arriving into work and receiving and email from our boss that stated though the students were on a two hour delay, the teachers were NOT. Evidently she was upset that teachers were not at work at 7:55am. AFN (our local radio program) announced the delay and stated red road conditions. They followed that up by clarifying that any non-emergency, non-mission essential military and civilian personnel were to be on the roads. Normally the message only applies to military but they did include the term civilian today. They even joked about how happy this would make the teachers.

Needless to say that the staff was extremely upset. Why call us at 3am if we are expected to report at the normal time? The tone of the message implied that we were not doing our job. This was offensive to all. As anyone knows teachers are not given enough planning time and often are found coming in early and leaving late. We have however noticed that our boss leaves before we do. Interesting... We were also expected to remain after school for committee meetings even though the weather has only deteriorated. That said, this is her first year in her current capacity so she is sure to learn by trial and error. As it is still snowing and doesn't seem to be stopping, I do hope she uses better judgement.

As for my own homeward travel, the throttle cable clip broke on my way home! This means that my car would only idle, no gas! Fortunately J was almost back from Schweinfurt and was able to pick me up. What a day! I will have to upload more photos.

I took Jakob to the doctor today and it is possible that he has chicken pox! We will know for certain in a couple of days! When is snows....it storms!

Back to Normal???

I have found that recovering from the holidays can be as overwhelming as preparing for the holidays. This year our break lasted two weeks into January. It has been difficult to get back into the swing of things. We find that we have less time for relaxing without worrying that something needs to be done. Rock and Roll both returned to school and are doing quite well. Roll has been very busy with Boy Scouts. J and I returned to dancing on a different night. We also returned to bowling but also no a different night. We still have some holiday decorations up that need to be packed away but by the time the weekend arrives, J and I just want to relax and haven't found the energy required to get the house back in order.

Just after Christmas I found that my Christmas tree had been home to a few spider nests and the warmth of the house tricked them into thinking it was time to hatch. We had hundreds, possibly more, of spiders covering every available limb of the tree. A friend kindly rushed to my house to get it outside since J was at work with no desire to come to my rescue. I was alerted to the problem when Rock began screaming while I was cleaning downstairs. I ran upstairs to his frantic yells that a spider was in his plate. I couldn't understand how a spider got into his food until I looked down and saw several walking around on the tree skirt. Anyone knowing me, understands that this is my worse nightmare come true! J wasn't sympathetic then or now.

On a different thread....Roll has his first loose tooth!! Unfortunately it doesn't appear to want to come out on its own. The permanent tooth has aready come in behind the baby teeth with another soon to erupt as well. I was hoping that the baby tooth would come out on its own but now I worry that if it doesn't come out soon, the permanent tooth will remain crooked. I need to make an appointment this week.

We had a terrible wind storm this past week. J and I laughed with the way the locals were reacting as we have had some pretty bad wind storms on the WA coast. I have since revised my opionion as over 40 people were killed due to accidents caused by the storm. I was called during the day Thursday and told that all German schools had been closed due to the upcoming storm but that my Nanny would get the kids until I could get home. Next we heard that the American school in Hohenfels was closing early. We ended up canceling all afterschool programs in order to keep people off the roads. Teachers were told to leave as soon as the busses pulled out. I picked up the kids and and storm was still not here but the wind was picking up. We called out dance studio to learn that they didn't expect people to come so we should stay home. We cancelled out babysitter. The storm arrived that evening and while I was on the phone with my family the power cut out. The boys started freaking out although they were supposed to be in bed. After getting them calmed and getting settled in bed ourselves J came running in yelling that Roll was sick to his stomach. We used candles to try to avoid the mess and get him cleaned up and resettled in bed. Fortunately he had made it out of his bed but what are the odds that he would get sick after the blackout? The power came back on around 10ish but went out again for a shorter period about half hour later. It stormed severely all through the night. All German schools were cancelled on Friday so our Nanny once again took the kids. The drive to work was interesting. There were many trees that had fallen in the night but the city had obviously been hard at work and most was off the roads already. There were two trees that had fallen on the newly built section of the church next to our school. They considered the wind storm to be equal to that of a hurrican force and named it Kyrill. It is now Sunday and there is still much to be cleaned up but not a lot of damage to be seen here. Still terribly windy though!

I do hope that everyone else has recovered nicely from the holidays. Give me another week or too and maybe I will feel more caught up on things!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas has never been as fun as watching your own kids delve in and try to open all presents at once, at the same time trying to play with each new toy! We are truly blessed to have two wonderful children. I admit I was pulling my hair out dealing with them the closer we came to Christmas this year. Threats of calling Santa didn't seem to phase them the same as in years past. Roll actually asked for the number so he could talk to him as well! Rock follows his big brothers lead so this can create some interesting evenings in our house.

We shared the day with some close friends and new ones as well. It was truly enjoyable. The only damper was not having family near. The time difference creates a bit of a problem when trying to share your children's joy with grandmas and grandpas.

To those whom we have shared past Christmas's with, you were missed! Another pit fall to being in the military environment is that although we have many wonderful friends, once their tour is up, they move on. We miss each of you and keep you in our thoughts and prayers!

(J bought me an iPod!! He has already regretted that as I tend to get one tracked and he feels a bit left out. Although he wouldn't admit it, I think he is enjoying it as much as I and we may purchase one for him next!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Busy Week

Monday night was the last night for the winter league bowling. We tied for 6th out of 11 teams. After I hurt my ankle I had some terrible games that certainly didn't help. For the most part it was quite fun and we will miss our friends whom were our bowling partners.

Tuesday night Roll's school was invited to "open" a window at the old Rathaus (old court house). The whole school turned out and sang together. It was quite nice although at the end St. Nikolaus was there to hand out gifts and candy. This wasn't organized and it quickly turned into a mob. Roll was exhausted already so the fact that he was too small to fight the crowd and they ran out by the time he reached St. Nikolaus just made his night. Fortunately our friend was with whom the boys adore and she was able to cajole him out of his bad mood.

Wednesday night and Thursday I was visiting a good friend who is in the hospital.







Friday night was the Holiday Ball for the Vilseck, Hohenfels, and Grafenwoehr Training Area. J nor I have ever attended a ball and I thought it would give us a good chance to put our dancing lessons to use. The sappy side of me loved the idea of my guy taking me to a dance as I never had that in high school. We were all decked out for the night and really enjoyed ourselves. The best part was that many did not recognize me and thought J was stepping out on me. I had received cool welcomes until they realized it was me. J says they don't expect teachers to clean up so well:)









Saturday found us running around doing things we can't during the week. Spending time with the kids and cutting down our Christmas tree. Roll helped J cutting it down but Rock was a bit afraid of the saw. We couldn't decorate as we had dinner plans with friends who flew out this morning. After dinner we met up with other friends to celebrate her completion of her Master's
degree.



Today we woke early and headed to Vilseck for some much needed Christmas shopping! The boys did get to meet up with Santa and ensure that thier orders were heard. It was quite cute to see them intently conversing with Santa rather than screaming in fear.
Then upon our return the family crashed. When everyone was up and about we spent the rest of the day decorating the Christmas tree. Now the boys are in bed and I will soon follow. Tomorrow will be equally crazy as I am pretty sure Rock has "pink-eye". I will be glad to be on holiday so that I can rest. There is just too much to keep up with on my blog!

Weekend Wonder - Historic Christmas Market by Naaburg

Today the boys, J, and myself drove up to the old historic town of Naaburg. We heard through friends that there was a Medieval Festival this weekend. We had also seen advertisements for it throughout Weiden. They evidently have this yearly but we haven't been before so we thought it would a great idea to go today. When we arrived in Naaburg we immediately saw what appeared to be a Christmas market. After about five minutes we realized this couldn't possibly be what they were advertising as it was just a bunch of street vendors much like you would see at a Farmer's market. Sure enough after asking we found that we turned right off the autobahn but had we turned left, we would eventually have left Naaburg and came across the castle turn where the festival takes place in Guteneck.

Upon arrival we were worried that we had a made a poor choice and were thankful we were dressed warmly. This was due to the fact that the streets were lined with cars about 3/4+ mile from the festival and people were walking. We also passed a Shuttle Bus stop. Luckily we were able to park closer but still had a jaunt before arriving at the fest.

This was an impressive event. People were dressed in medieval attire and the entire area was transformed to create a middle age time period, knights, ladies, and all. By the time we arrived it was quite dark and fog had set in adding to the atmosphere. There were torches everywhere to light our way and such a crowd of people. The festival sports a menagerie of entertainment to include: flame throwers, jousting, trade work examples, theatre, mintrals, stilt walkers, dancers, etc. We were able to enjoy a man using glass balls that he rolled around his body and juggled. There were booths selling trade goods, alcohol, clothing, and food. Though some of the food was more comfort food for modern times, they did have several from the past as well. I myself enjoyed a fresh baked flat bread with garlic, tomato, and cheese. It was quite tasty! Of course we had hot cider as well. Unfornately for J they were sold out of Gluwein when we arrived so he enjoyed a beer instead.

They had a medievial camp showing how they may have lived at the time, an area for the animals, and other areas we did not get to see due to the large crowds. We did enjoy our time though muddy and cold as it was. We may attempt to go again next weekend but earlier in hopes of avoiding so many people or without the boys as the crush of people can be frightening to them.

The story behind this Festival is quite interesting. If you would like to read about it, check out the following link: http://www.historischer-romantischer-weihnachtsmarkt.de/en_index.php