Adventures in Deutschland

Delayed posting

2011-06-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

My previous blog entry was written last week while we were still in Germany...between being super busy, flying across an ocean, jet lag and lack of internet, I am just now getting around to publishing. :)

Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland

2011-06-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

1,535 days ago (yes, I counted. I'm freaky like that.) we started our newest adventure ~another 4 years in Europe. Oh my has that time flown. We landed here with a 9 year old 4th grader and a 7 year old 1st grader, anxious about new schools and friends, bewildered by this new language that was just impossible to understand. Now we leave with newly minted high- and middle-schoolers (their mother feeling impossibly old) who will forever be able to keep up with their friends due to that wonderful invention called Facebook. No more wondering when the next letter will come in the mail or begging to make a phone call. And for this I am grateful, for my kids it meant easier goodbyes.

Before we ever set foot in Germany, we sort of set some ground rules. Biggest rule: No traveling back to the USA. Sure, we would miss family terribly. But with the kids being old enough to appreciate and understand their surroundings, we thought our travel time and money would be better spent on seeing things that most people only dream about. Things they will read and study about in history class. World famous landmarks and Wonders of the World. How could we pass that up? So with a "everyone is always welcome to come travel with us," we set off on our adventures. And boy did we make the most of it:

Germany: Berlin, Munich, Oktoberfest (Twice!), more Bavaria (aka heaven on earth), Black Forest, Day trips galore.

France: Paris, Normandy, Mont St Michel, Disneyland!

Belgium: Bastogne, St Vith

Luxembourg

Switzerland: Bern and a beautiful drive through the Alps.

Italy: Genoa, Naples, Pompeii

Austria: Innsbruck, more Alps, Salzburg (the hills are alive....)

Czech Republic: one very loooong day trip to Prague, one of the most beautiful cities I've seen.

Greece: Ancient Olympia, Athens, Crete, Rhodes

Turkey: Mamaris

Egypt: Cairo and the Pyramids. So thankful to have gone on that cruise early in our time here as now you can't get there because of all the unrest.

Denmark: Copenhagen

Estonia: Tallinn (another beautiful city)

Russia: St Petersburg

Sweden: Stockholm

England *disclaimer - everything here could be deemed a repeat but due to our kids not remembering much at all, AND due to the fact that I refused to leave Europe w/out a trip to my fave European country, we spent a week there.* - Dover & White Cliffs, RAF Lakenheath, London.

Phew! I'm tired. I'm afraid I will find the states a bit boring after we land and our vacations come to a screeeeeeching halt. But that is ok. There are some things I am really looking forward to having again:

Family within 2 time zones, ending middle of the night "OMG who died" phone calls where your family just forgot you were 9 zones away and sleeping.

Garbage Disposals

Garages

Garage Door Openers!

Any kind of possible storage closet to include bedroom, hallway, linen, bathroom storage.

an oven that will fit ALL my cookware, or for that matter:

a kitchen that will fit my extensive Pampered Chef and Polish Pottery collections.

T-A-R-G-E-T

Starbucks (pretty easily found here in Europe but oh-so-pricey. Not that a silly thing like cost stopped me from my Caramel Macchiatos and Vanilla Creme Frappachinos)

mail delivered to my front door, to include UPS and FedEx...and an end to "We don't ship to APO's, sorry" emails.

Wendy's

Papa John's

Olive Garden (you get the picture on the restaurant thing)

That being said, there are many more things I will miss about this country. A few:

Lazy Sundays. Everything is closed. People go for walks. There is no rushing around. It's nice.

Rodenbach, our happy little town. I love it.

Rodenbach's Pizza Galerie and take-out delivery restaurant. Best. ever.

Eis Shops.

Gabriellas

Schnitzel (I learned how to make it, but it'll never taste as good)

The Autobahn. Sigh. Cruise control is now my bestest friend.

the kids' schools. Loved VES and KMS.

Traveling, traveling and more traveling.

Bavaria and the Alps (could be roped into the "traveling" line, but I love it so much, it needed it's own shout-out.

Autobahn rest areas. you pay, you get your money back and they are CLEAN. Love it.

Rolladens

There are also things that bug the daylights out of me about this place. But, I choose not to dwell on them. Europe is what it is. You adapt or you're miserable. We adapted, we went with the flow and we loved it. Loved it so much, we are not opposed to coming back if the Air Force so desires Rod's abilities over here again. Family, before you howl the war cry over my last statement, I think we're good for awhile. Chill.

So here we are, looking in on the next stage. We are first time home owners. that will be an adventure all on it's own. The kids will be starting new schools in a few months, once again the "new kids." Rod starting a new job. Me getting a job (gah). New adventures to come.

But, wherever we go, there will be a Biergarten.

Tschuss, Deutschland. Til we meet again.

Still waiting...

2011-05-22T02:46:00.001-07:00

So soon, next month in fact, our 4+ year European adventure comes to an end. More on what I've loved, hated, what I'll miss & won't miss later. Now it's just time to get our stuff packed up, car shipped, moved out of our house and into billeting (military-speak for "hotel on base that may or may not have tv, phone or internet). So we wait. You can't do any of this stuff without hard copies of orders, which finally came in 10 days ago. Bright and early the next duty day, Rod starts calling to try and get this stuff scheduled. 5 duty days, endless phone calls and emails later, we only have a date for our car to get shipped. No pack-out dates. No flight arrangements, which we need to get a date to move out of our house and give our LL notice (way past the deadline for that but what can you do when you just don't know). It's been very a very frustrating week on which my resolve to give up soda (again) went up in flames. Over the course of the week I stress-ate Spicy Nacho Doritos for breakfast every day. I did get some stuff pre-packed in anticipation for the movers eventually showing up. Got the wine stash (pitifully tiny per Missouri state law) organized. My scrapbooking cave is mostly boxed up. 2 carloads of trash has been gotten rid of. 6 bags of clothes donated to German charites. 4 bags of stuffed animals donated to the KMS/VES Japan stuff animal drives (i hope they enjoy those Beanie Babies I insisted on collecting years ago). So it's not like we've been sitting here twiddling our thumbs and wasting time away. I've been feeling a little less stressed over the course of the weekend because there is just nothing I can do about it. We'll get our stuff gone eventually. Our LL's will have zero problem getting our house rented as PCS season is in full swing and there are hundreds of new families that will need a home and quick. We'll see what this week brings. This coming weekend though.....AMSTERDAM! The Netherlands. Our last hurrah. The 17th (and last) country we'll get to visit. One more Hard Rock Pilsner glass and Starbucks Mug to add to my collections. Looking forward to the beauty of the Van Gogh Museum (already under protest of my non-museum loving family. Tough.), the solemness of the Anne Frank House, and the Heineken Experience. Should be a fun and busy 2 days.

Alright, I'm off to tackle another dresser.

It's Been Awhile...

2011-05-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

So, yeah. Here I am blogging again. I guess I got WAY too used to Facebook (an addiction that I will never overcome. There should be support groups for people like me). Instant status updates, Notes, Messages...just way too easy to do all that and forget about my poor little neglected blog.

This entry is in response to my dear high school friend Carrie (who I can keep in touch with oh so easily...thanks to the beforementioned FB, ahem). She double dog dared her friends with lapsed blogs to post something. So hear you go Carrie! Thanks for the shot in the arm. So much to say, so little I don't think the whole wide world needs to know...and I will be going private with this thing, as soon as I figure out how.

Til next time~ Tschuss!

Hmmmm

2010-01-05T03:31:00.000-08:00

I wonder what it is that makes babies think a 2 minute (literally) nap in the car is a reasonable substitute for a normal 90-120 minute nap in their nice, comfy crib. Seriously.

And, I wonder why the German court system is taking so long to place Aiden with his loving grandparents when it's super obvious his own parents have zero interest.

I'm tired today, can you tell?

Congrats to my Mom!

2009-11-25T06:18:00.000-08:00

Today marks my mom's retirement from 25 years of working at the State of Washington's Department of Natural Resources. Go Mom! I'm so proud of you and wish I could be there to help you party this weekend. I remember her first getting this job after being a teacher for years. It was an adjustment for all of us, her to working full time, us having to go to day care and sitters before and after school. We grew used to it, though. We bugged her incessantly at her office. Calling for one thing or another. But a bonus was going down to her office sometimes on the city bus...it was right across the street from Dairy Queen! That was a treat. One of my funnest memories of my mom at work was when I was 16. She had given me a hand-written gift certificate entitling me to go down to the local Animal Shelter and adopt a kitten. She couldn't take me, so my "Big Sister" did and I adopted Ashley (and so began my habit of naming my cats after "Gone With The Wind" characters. But that's another blog entry). I was so excited, I had to show my mom. So I got Kristen to take me to my mom's office, where I promptly removed him from his carrier and put him on her desk. I'm not sure she was so amused....but she put up with it.

So now I don't have to wait til her lunch hour to bug her during the week. I'll be sure not to call at 7am (4pm Germany time!) hoping to catch her before she leaves for work. I'm sure she'll keep busy turning out project after project from her sewing room. She burn up the skies flying back and forth to Spokane and Grand Forks, ND and maybe Germany to visit the grandbabies.

Mom, congratulations and I love you.

Now would someone PLEASE convince her to come to Germany for a month. :)

WITF...Day 2

2009-11-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm too lazy to type out the whole title.

Today is going to be short and sweet. I loved the fact that today was sunny and 61 degrees. M, Baby A and I went to get my "M" from the bus stop...with no coats, mittens, scarves, etc. If there are 2 things in this world that can calm a cranky Baby A...it's a warm bath (he's such a water baby. He's the next Michael Phelps) or a nice long walk in his stroller outside in the fresh air. So today, I am thankful for a short (but sweet) semi-Indian Summer in the middle of November. But the rain, it is coming. After all, this is autumn in Deutschland.

Til next time~~~~~

What I'm Thankful For...Day 1

2009-11-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

So I am an avid Facebook addict. One could suggest I need therapy for it. My dear mother suggested earlier this year that I give up FB for Lent. OMG! I. Would. Die. It's actually a rather interesting experiment, one that intrigues me a little bit. But I know I would be destined to fail the minute a FB email alert popped up in my inbox. The same goes for me trying to give up coffee. I caved after Day 1. I'm so weak....I wish I could get away with giving up something like, say, doing the dishes. Now that would be a great 6 weeks.

But this post isn't about FB exactly. A few weeks ago people started putting things they were thankful for as their status updates. This is supposed to be a daily thing. I didn't jump on the bandwagon, I generally don't participate in most of the little FB games. But today I figured since it's only 1 week til Turkey Day, I would give it a shot. The problem is, I'm rather long-winded (who me?!?)...so I'd wind up having a huge paragraph in place of the sentence or two that normally makes up a Status report. You know, those reports we all know and love. "Laura F-B is having a wonderful, sun-shiny happy day!" "Laura F-B is so tired she can barely see the keyboard and needs an IV of some kind of highly caffeinated beverage STAT." "Laura F-B is heading up to the bathroom...." Ok, so I've NEVER gone that far. But I know people that have...ewww gross. So to my blog it goes. Kind of goes hand-in-hand with the fact that I've dismally neglected said blog for most of 2009. Thinking maybe this will kick-start it a bit.

So today, to tie in the FB thing a bit...I'm thankful for my wonderful family of FB friends. This includes family, friends from looooooong ago in Tumwater-land, college and military bases of past and present. I'm relatively picky about who I accept or ask to be a friend. I'm not a "friend collector" by any means. I would prefer that we have (or have had at some point) some kind of face to face relationship in the past or present. This being said, this social networking thing is fun for a person in my predicament...moving every 4 years presents a whole list of challenges, including saying goodbye to wonderful groups of friends and having to start over thousands of miles away. Which I hate, bye the way. I suck at saying goodbye, it's not something that I can get used to. But I manage. I'm thankful that I can put up a vent or a gripe and get a few heart-felt "it's going to be ok's." Sometimes, you just need that little pick-me-up to get through a stressful day. I'm thankful that when I'm having a great day and want to shout it from the rooftops, that I can share it. Or if I want to just stay silent (which is hard for me), I can. I really try hard not to be one of those that posts 457 status updates a day. But some days I get kind of carried away. Shocker, huh.

So that's my post for today. Later in the week, they will get sappier, I promise. One I'm already composing in my head and I will admit I have brought myself to a few tears. But today I thought I'd keep it light-hearted. Now, I will also admit I'm off to watch the finale of "America's Next Top Model" with Meghan, who really really really really really loves that show and has been lobbying out loud all.darn.week her pick to win. I think she might turn out to be more of a reality TV junkie that I was. She wants to be on "American Idol" and if it would be in any way possible, would already have her application for "The Amazing Race" half filled out with Tyler, her choice of partner. Lord help them. LOL!

Um, Wow.

2009-10-03T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. I guess I've been more than a bit lazy on the blogging front. It's been darn near 6 months! Bad Laura! Had a busy 6 months, too. Kids finished school. Fun camping trip with friends. Last minute trip solo to Montana to attend my beloved Grandma's funeral. I miss her more than words can say, probably why I never blogged about it. All I can say is when you're sitting at home, nothing to do (or at least nothing important to do)...and you realize it's been days or weeks or months since you've made that phone call to a family member...make the call. I talked to her pretty regularly, but there were times I put it off. Now I would give anything to hear her call me "honey babe" one more time. Just sayin'....

A few weeks after I got back from the states we embarked on a different kind of adventure. We are Emergency Placement Care Parents over here in Germany, a program through the Army that provides last-minute temp care for military kids when their parents can't/won't take care of them. We got a call that a 5 month old little boy needed a home for at least 5 weeks. So a few days later we welcomed baby A into our home. He's the most wonderful, happiest little guy I've ever seen. We were originally only supposed to have him til the middle of Sept. But we lobbied for and got the chance to get him back for an undetermined amount of time. Backstory: We had a trip to Munich planned for 6 months now, one that included a day at Okotberfest. Not exactly the most baby-friendly environment. So we talked to the director and instead of just outright placing him w/ another family long-term, she found a short term caretaker and we got him back the day after we returned. So we are now at almost the 2 month mark of having an infant living here. It was quite the adjustment at first, I forgot how long it takes to actually get out of the house to run a simple errand! Diaper bags, bottles, pacifiers...all have to be checked off my mental list. So far so good, though.

We are currently in road construction hell at our house. Our courtyard has but one entrance in and out for 12 houses and 27 cars. They have been slowly working their way down our street, tearing it up and replacing decades-old water pipes. We knew our time was coming to be blocked in. Notices were sent out and they expected us to be without car access to our homes for 5 days. FIVE. Ahem. We are now starting week FOUR with no access except by foot. No explanation given or offered. Seriously, people! German road construction workers are the slowest on record. No offense intended to the country that I do like very much. But geez! parking 7 blocks away is getting old, fast! But it will get done. Maybe by Christmas?

Kids are adjusted to school. Meghan has a great 4th grade teacher. Tyler has some great 7th grade teachers. (Notice I said "some." Some are not so great. But he is dealing.) They both started Karate Tech over the summer and love it. Meghan is continuing on with her Cheerleading, although this might be the last year. Tyler opted out of soccer due to a lack of interest. He really wants to give cross country a try next year. Due to my trip to the states, we didn't get him properly trained and conditioned to run with a high school cross country team this fall. But next year he's hoping to give it a shot. The kid loves to run.

Well, time to get Rod ready for yet another TDY. I'll try to write again before the year 2011. HAHA!

Busy Month!

2009-04-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

I was poking around online and noticed it's been over a month since I've posted something! Just been busy, I guess.

We had a great visit with my mom, sister and nephew at the end of March. They were here 8 days. I never knew 8 days could pass so quickly. Probably the one thing I hate about the military is also what I love most...being able to live overseas. It's a double-edged sword, though, when you're as close to family as I am. My nephew was born 2 1/2 weeks after we got to Germany. So I met him a month shy of his 2nd birthday. We sure did make up for lost time, though! We played and played, and by the end of the week, Aunt Laura was asserting "Auntie" rights and feeding him junk for breakfast. Kit Kat's to be exact. Having my kids as early as I did, my family had all sorts of fun messing with my kids and then handing them back. Now it's payback time, baby! :) We took a couple of day trips, but due to the lovely German spring weather (translation: rain) we hung out at home a lot. Nothing wrong with that! I was sad to see them go. Hopefully the next 2 years will fly like the first 2 years did.

Both kids and Rod started baseball season. Rod is coaching Tyler's team. Here the teams are named after actual MLB teams and Rod (of course) requested the Yankees, however was told that the Ramstein Youth Center always gets that team. Since we are Vogelweh YC, his only request was that his team NOT, under any circumstances, be the Boston Red Sox. I think if he would have been assigned that, they would have been short one coach and player. I dont' think there is any way Rod Bernard (or his son for that matter) will don a hated Red Sox hat or jersey. Lucky for Rod someone had already requested them, so we wear the jersey's of the Washington Nationals. Oh what I would have GIVEN for the Mariners to be one of the options. I would have paid off the youth center director to give that team to Rod (insert evil laugh here.). They have a pretty good group of boys and have gotten a lot of practice time in. Their first game last weekend was rained out, so they hope to start playing Saturday. Meghan is really enjoying her first year of softball. She's been playing baseball since she was 3, and it's been a bit of an adjustment getting used to the bigger softball. But she's getting there. I'm team mom for Tyler and Rod's team. That's my contribution! This lovely sport eats up 5 out of 7 days of the week from now until June 12. This is the one time of year that it would be so much easier for us to live on base. But not gonna happen, so I drive. A lot.

The kids finished 3rd quarter at school with excellent grades. Tyler earned himself a spot on the Silver Honor Roll for the first time. He's been on the Bronze for the past 2 quarters and after getting his certificate for 2nd Quarter, said he was setting a goal to get on Silver. He accomplished that with a lot of hard work and determination (and quite a bit less free time playing outside), earning 6 A's and 1 B on his report card!!! We're so proud of him. He even got one of only a few "most improved" spots for his grade! School does not come overly easy to him, so it makes it even that much more special to know that he set this goal and gave up a lot of his free time to make sure it happened. Meghan can do 3rd grade blindfolded with one arm tied behind her back, so we expected and she got her usual great report. She has yet to delve into the world of A's and B's...that comes next year in 4th grade.

We've taken a few day trips with the gorgeous weather that came the day after my family got on the plane back to Seattle (go figure). Hope to do more as weather and baseball permit. Rod's TDY schedule seems to have slowed down so things are a bit more relaxed. Tyler is hoping to do his first triathalon in a few weeks. He is teaming up with 2 friends and they are each going to do a leg. He's pretty excited. He's joined the runner's club at his school and runs almost every day at lunchtime. I smell a cross-country future for him if he likes it as much as he does now!

So I am off to, where else, baseball practice. Yay. Go team. Whoo-hooooo. Incidentaly, I've started reading a great series of books by Diana Gabaldon. It the Outlander series. Great for reading in cars while waiting for (insert kids' names here)'s practice to be over. I'm on book 2. :)

A Girl's Gotta Do What A Girl's Gotta Do...

2009-03-18T01:11:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. Not a day we usually celebrate to the hilt...although I'm thinking that a cool trip while we're over here would be to go to Dublin on March 17. Maybe in 2011. Yes, I think I will investigate that. Anyone want to come? I'm rambling again...

When the kids go to bed each night our habit is to lay out clothes for the next day. Now, I've gotten better in recent months (yes, months. not years.) about letting the kiddos pick out their own clothes. Meghan is usually in bed at this point and I am left to stand at her wardrobe and pull stuff out til she says "yes." (I still reserve the right to overrule any questionable decision she makes...). Monday night we were going through our nightly ritual. I pull out a red dress and she picks that. I get out the turtleneck, tights and shoes that match and think nothing of it. The next morning, 1 minute before they need to leave for the bus, I realize that she's wearing NO green. Now in elementary school, that's an open invitation. I remember at Michael T Simmons, our teachers would hand out green stickers to those that were turning black and blue from all the pinching going on. We didn't have time to remedy the situation, so I told her to fight back. LOL! Just kidding!

Fast forward about 8 hours and she walks in from the bus. She says, well Mom, I had to draw on myself with green marker. Yep she sure did. A shamrock on her face and various designs on the back of her hands. Lucky for me that was her only skin showing that day, lol! Turns out she pretty much got attacked from the get go, starting at the bus stop that morning. So she took matters into her own hands and reverted to happy childhood memories of finding markers for the first time. Everyone with kids knows that Kid + Marker + Bare Skin = BLANK CANVAS!

So here's a picture of my almost 9 1/2 year old right before she hopped in the shower to scrub off said green stuff. Hey, if it keeps the little hellion leprechans at bay, why not? Next year Loser Mom will be better prepared and she will go to school in green everything, right down to her fingernail polish.

And I'm seriously thinking St Patty's Day 2011: Dublin. We'll be one foot out the door here and what's a better send off to Europe than that? Who wants to join us? 2 years to plan!!!

Green beer anyone??

Barry Manilow, my Mother and Me

2009-02-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

Got your attention, didn't I?!? Not too many 33 year olds 'fess up to being Barry fans. To be more accurate, the correct term for a Barry Manilow fan is: "Fanilow." Yep, that's the word. And yes, I am a Fanilow.

This dates back to the late 70's, when my mother Judith purchased a record of Barry singing live. I'm sure that wasn't the first one she bought. Or maybe it was and more followed, I don't know. I know she has several. This particular album has special meaning, for me anyway. One fun memory I have of my early childhood is Mom letting Leslie, Eric and myself each pick out a record to listen to. We had quite a few, including fairy tales on albums. Mostly we would pick those. But sometimes we'd pick this one, or Mom would totally just not listen to us and put good ol' Barry on. One song, I decided, apparently, to put motions to. The song is titled "Daybreak." One line says something about "runnning around, day after day...." (yes, the exact words at this moment escape me, but my greatest hits CD with the words is upstairs.). Me, being the cute little tot that I was (and still am, by the way, just a bigger version) decided the whenever Barry sang this line, I needed to run at breakneck speed around the dining room table. A Fanilow is born.

Years go by, and while a more closeted Fanilow, I still secretly didn't mind when Mom upgraded to CD's and would put them in the 5-CD changer in the living room and hit the "random" button. I don't think my step-dad shared my enthusiasm. When I moved out of the house, I kinda missed it. Not enough to be seen in public purchasing my own CD's, though. When I married Rod (very decidedly NOT a Fanilow) he took a bit of pleasure in chiding Mom about her taste in music. When she bought me my very own copy of "The Ultimate Manilow" (the before-mentioned greatest hits album) he was slightly horrified. I tried to put it in the CD player in the car soon after. Not pretty. Soon after, she presented me with a Barry Christmas CD. More fun for me! Yay! At my sister's wedding in 2004, as a kind of present to his mother-in-law, he requested "Copacabana" and took my mom out on the dance floor. I don't think he's willingly listened to a Barry song since, but it was a nice gesture. All in the name of family harmony...

In late 2006, Mom read in the Portland, OR newspaper that Barry was coming to town in January 2007. And so the fun began. Judith came up with a crazy plan to get all us Holter women to Portland to see the show. I was the only hold out, not because of the concert, I really did want to go, but living in North Dakota presented a number of obstacles. First of all, we were moving to Germany 3 months later. Second of all, because of the move, we didn't really have a ton of extra money to get me to Oregon (flying out of Minot, ND is really NOT cheap.). So Mom sat on it for awhile and called me up. She offered to buy my plane ticket and concert ticket, she in turn would cancel her semi-planned last trip to Minot. Since the kids and I already had plans to take the train out to Spokane before we moved, she wouldn't be giving up her last chance to see the grandkiddos before we took them overseas. So after hemming and hawing and talking it over with Rod (who thought us all certifiably insane at this point) I agreed. I took a week off work and out I flew. I flew to Seattle about 4 days before the concert. Little did I know the extend of how much she was into all this. She made us hats. That we were required to wear to the concert. In public. In front of thousands. Since this trip was mostly funded by her, I had no say. What she did was color-copy various CD jackets, cut them out, and glued them to foam visors she found at a dollar store. She made them for herself, my Aunt Janet, Leslie, cousin Sarah and me. My aunt, mom and I drove to Portland, where my sister met us at Sarah's house. The night of the concert, we dazzled up (also a requirement...in some way, shape or form had to have glitter on us that night) and headed out to dinner and the concert. My 6-months pregnant sister completely stole the show. As a surprise for my mom, she bought a plain white maternity tshirt and made her own iron on transfer. It read "The Littlest Fanilow" and pointed down towards her cute little tummy where my nephew Ethan was quietly resting. It was hysterical. When we got to the concert, the hats got attention, but her shirt got more. We even thought it could be her ticket to be invited onstage but no such luck. We had a tremendous time, and it only strengthened her obsession. He puts on a hell of a show, and unlike some singers, can actually sing live. We had a blast singing along with the audience to all the songs we loved. And my sister, cousin and I were pleased to see we weren't the youngest fans there, either. Phew!!!

A few weeks back, Mom got wind of a contest that Evening Magazine, a daily entertainment show of sorts on the Seattle station KING 5, was running. Barry was coming to Seattle and she wanted to win tickets. She REALLY wanted to win tickets. Grand prize was a trip for 2 to Las Vegas to see him there. But she just wanted one of the 5 sets of tickets they were giving away to the Seattle show. So enlisting the help of Leslie, our brother Eric and myself, she put together a scrapbook page of sorts as her submission to the contest. She used pictures from the Portland show of course, but also requested that my siblings and I show how we are passing our love for Barry (yes, even my brother doesn't mind listening) onto our young children. I should say now, that Tyler, being a Rod mini-me, refused. While he puts up with Grandma's "family song" ("I Can't Smile Without You" by, none other than, Barry Manilow), he is too much like his dad to go this far. She accepts this. Because she knows she has the others hooked. I still had my visor and I had bought a concert tshirt (reading: "At the Copacabana...you'll fall in love"). So I put the shirt on Meghan, and over her slight objections, got the visor on her head and snapped a pic of her holding my Ultimate Manlilow CD. Eric took a picture of Cecil holding an album, and Leslie (who somehow got her hands on Mom's collection of records...I must remedy that) lined up the albums and snapped Ethan's (now almost 2) picture. She printed them all off and made her page. And waited. About 10 days ago...she got the call...She won THE WHOLE THING. Judith Holter was declared "The Ulitmate Fanilow" and is being flown to Las Vegas, put up at the Hilton, and gets 2 front row tickets to his show. She will be interviewed by Evening Magazine later this week...and her trip to Vegas will be documented by a reporter following along on the trip. She has asked me to share via my blog, the winning entry. We are very proud of her. So proud, that my aunt and Leslie are once again making the trek to join her. For some reason, I couldn't convince her to buy me another plane ticket. What? No last min, round trip ticket from Frankfurt, Germany to Vegas? Hmph. Oh well, as long as she "sticky-notes" the Barry LIVE album (inside private joke there) I will get over it. I look forward to the pictures from the show and the autographed CD liner to my Ultimate Manilow CD that I hope she brings me when she visits next month. When asked how I would get the CD liner to her, I replied it was simple. She uses HER liner, and then trades me when she gets here. Soooo simple. (I won't let her see the grandkids til I get it. )

So enjoy the poster. I think tomorrow I shall wear my tshirt (yes, in public) and tune my IPod to my Barry songs when I'm running my errands. And sing my favorite songs, "Daybreak" and "Copacabana," and think of my mom....The Ulitmate Fanilow.

Daddy for President!

2009-01-21T09:50:00.001-08:00

So yesterday was the "big day." Congrats to President Obama. May God bless you as you begin what is probably one of the greatest undertakings one can do in this world. I'll admit, I voted for the other guy, but was on the fence big time. But there is no whining and griping here. (McCain's a good guy, but I actually shudder at the thought of who our VP would be at this moment, after the fact.) He's our President. He's my husband's boss. He deserves all the respect one can give.

But I digress (I do that a lot...)

The kids and I watched the inaguration last night (on at 6pm Germany time). They were very interested and asked a lot of questions. I was shocked to discover that neither of them had any discussion in school about it. The schools didn't do anything for the election either. Geez! I clearly remember in 1984 having a "mock" election in Mrs. Ramstad's 4th Grade class. Reagan won for President and Booth Gardner soundly defeated John Spellman for Governor of Washington. (Mom, can you believe I remember that? LOL!) Yeah. Here? Nothing. At least in my kids' classes. What an opportunity wasted. But we talked about it here. Meghan is somewhat jealous of Sacha and Malia Obama that they get to live in the White House. She thinks it would be cool to live there. She mentioned that Rod should run for President so she can live there too. I let that one go. So today I'm on the internet and I read an article about the scavenger hunt that White House people put together for the girls and some new friends while their parents were at all the parties. The article didn't say what all they had to find, just that it was designed to help them become more familiar with the place. Fun! What the piece DID say, was that their last "find," behind a closed door, was none other than the JONAS BROTHERS. Now, Meghan worships them. Has the CDs in her room and on her IPod. I've even caved and bought her Bop and Tiger Beat Magazines that were dedicated to the band and now her room is a shrine. She's obsessed, to put in plainly. But that's ok. I remember clearly intending to marry Kirk Cameron when I was 10 or 11. I let her do her thing. I told her at dinner tonight what the Obama girls (and how cute are they, by the way.) "found" at their little party...

She's upstairs plotting Rod's campaign as we speak. Daddy for President in 2012. Hey, better than Palin, right? *grin*

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T09:13:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it back home safe and sound. The trip was amazing. Unfortunately I got slammed with a crud cold thing the last night that has me pretty much flat on my back with no energy...so not pics are loaded up yet. Will do that as soon as I feel better. Until then, I hope the new year finds you happy and healthy and here's to a better 2009! Ciao...

And if I have to run into pirates...

2008-12-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

....may it be this one. He he he.

We're off

2008-12-16T14:24:00.001-08:00

After seemingly endless errands and last minute purchases (did I really need that new pair of Nike's? Yes, I think I did!) I think we are ready to head off on our trip. Two weeks from now I will have added 5 new countries to my list of places I've been. We start out in Italy, head to a few stops in Greece (hopefully the riots in Athens will have calmed down by Sunday), dock in Egypt, Cyprus, and Turkey, then back to Italy. Wait! 6 countries! We are driving down to the port in Genoa and we have to go right smack through Switzerland on the way there and back. In fact we are staying the night in Lucerne on the way back. Rod said it's gorgeous through there. Snow-covered Swiss Alps anyone? Yes please! Too bad none of us ski. But there are easier ways to knock on death's door than by standing on top of an ice and snow covered mountain with nothing to stop you but 2 flimsy poles. And trees. Maybe our last winter here we'll go to Garmisch and get the kids a few ski lessons, so they can say they skied in the Alps. But I'll be in the lodge sipping (spiked) hot chocolate! :)

I did manage to carve out some time this last weekend to make a few batches of Christmas cookies for a cookie swap I was in. I got tons of yummy goodies to snack on in the car tomorrow. Most of the kids' presents are wrapped. We got a live tree a few weeks ago...the darn thing up and died on us within 10 days. So the Charlie Brown tree came down yesterday and is now on our patio waiting to be chopped up and burned. So, no tree for presents this year. But the kids emailed Santa (thank you www.emailsanta.com!!!) and asked if he could find kids on cruise ships. Luckily he can *wink wink*. A few things will be left by the kids' beds on Christmas Eve. The rest will be done at home on New Years Eve, I think.

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I will post pics when we get back home! Til then...Tschuss!

Snow day...sort of??

2008-12-03T04:27:00.001-08:00

It's been an interesting morning. We woke up to an inch or 2 of snow. No biggie. Listened to the radio, there's no school closures. YAY for me! I sent Tyler and Meghan off to the bus at 720. I had them go a few mintues early as they have about a 3 or4 block walk plus they have to cross a busy street with no crosswalk or light. From what I heard on the radio and from Rod, the roads were pretty dicey. At 805, the doorbell rings. It's Meghan PLUS two little neighbor girls who I don't know. She says the bus never came, but the other 2 busses for their stop did and now everyone but them were gone. Grrrrreat. If it were just Meghan, fine. I'd wait for the roads to clear up and take her in. Or just keep her home. But now I have 2 extra...and I don't know their parents at all, even their names. I had met them once a few months back. So I call Rod and he looks the parents up on the global...finds and contacts the mom. She calls and I tell her I will take them all in later when the roads are better and the traffic clears. Then I call the bus office and ask them if they can tell me for sure that the bus will be running after school. He says he can't guarrantee it. Grrrr again. So rather than wait for a phone call telling me to come get my kid, I decide to just keep her home. I call the other mom and she asks if her kids can stay too. *sigh* alright. There goes my day for errands, especially now that the roads are just wet. I really don't mind helping out. It's my nature to help people. I'll do anything for anybody, just ask. Just today I needed to get some specific things done. Now I get to cram them all in tomorrow.

Boy, Tyler is going to be MAD when he gets home and finds out Meghan got to camp out here all day! He'll probably ask for a comp day for him. LOL! Denied! On the upside of all this, I am getting caught up on the mounds of laundry that are quickly overtaking my laundry room.

I do find it funny that my kids don't even fathom they will cancel school for just a few inches. Growing up in Tumwater, a few inches on the ground was at the very least a guaranteed 2 hour delay! With my kids growing up in Minot, they go to school in ANY accumulation, the only exception being if the power was knocked out or it snowed too much over night to clear the roads in time for the bus to come.

I still might venture out to go check the mail. My little online shopping spree lately has me waiting on 10 boxes to come. I would like to nominate myself for Amazon's customer of the year award, if there is such a thing!

She's 9!

2008-11-25T22:44:00.000-08:00

I don't have a scanner but if I did I would scan a picture of a screaming, MAD Meghan a few mintues after she was born...and then one of her yesterday on her 9th birthday. She's grown up so much, it's hard to believe 9 years have come and gone. She had a great day. It started out a bit ominous, with her school bus getting in an accident before they got to school. It was a very minor thing, most of the kids didn't even feel the car merging off the Autobahn hit the side of the bus. Let me ask you this, how do you not see a big huge double decker touring bus? HELL-O!!! She and the other kids were entertained by the driver arguing with the guy who was driving the car. She told me "Mommy, he kept saying "this" word," and pointed to her middle finger. She thought it was a pretty fun start to the morning, especially since they were 30 min late to school. Rod and I took her McDonalds for lunch at school, making her the envy of all those around her that had to eat Aafes version of Chicken Fries. I took cupcakes to her class and wound up taking her out of school 30 min early. She thought that was a great present right there, lol! We baked her cake when we got home and she requested Breakfast for Dinner, so I cooked up scrambled eggs and toast. Rod managed to get home by 6 (which is WAY early for him) and my brother and family came over for cake and presents. The highlight of the night was her opening her American Girl Doll, a doll she has been saving up for herself but we beat her to it. She's kind of a slow saver. ;) A few weeks ago we were talking about names and she asked if we were always going to name her Meghan. I said, yes (even before we knew Tyler was a boy we had it picked out), except for a few weeks when I was kicking around the idea of Kaitlyn. I told her Daddy liked our original name better, so we went with that. So last night she took her doll out and said she was naming it Kaitlyn after the name that we almost named her. How sweet is that!

She's already talking about her 10th bday next year. She's excited because that's when she gets to get her very own military ID card. I told her not to rush growing up, but what can you do...

Today I start getting ready for Thanksgiving. We are going to Eric and Shiela's for dinner, so I will do some baking today and a bit tomorrow before we head over there. But most importantly, I am meeting the girls for coffee today, kind of to rev up for 4 days home with the kiddos, lol! So I'm off to my girl time, and I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Not much going on around here

2008-11-12T04:52:00.001-08:00

The title says it all. We've had a pretty uneventful last few weeks. This week the kids' school schedule is nuts due to Veterans Day and school conferences. We all had yesterday off and just had a quiet day at home. Rod and I tackeld the fridge that needed cleaning badly and then he rearranged our one storage closet. Whoo hooo, exciting day, huh? The kids enjoyed their day off and spent the majority of the day playing with friends around the neighborhood. We were going to try to hit one of the American cemeteries around the area, but the weather wasn't being completely cooperative. Maybe next year. We'll definitely visit one or two in the meantime, but there's something to be said about visiting one on Veterans Day with all the ceremonies going on.

Meghan has school today, but has Thursday and Friday off due to conferences. Much to his chagrin, Tyler onlyhas Friday off. He's a little miffed that his sister gets to stay home while he has to go. What he doesn't know is it pretty much saves him from a day of running around. I have Meghan's conference in the morning and then we have to take Mellie to the vet in the afternoon. He's better off at school. I don't think HE sees it that way.

I'm doing ok, trying to start Christmas shopping so I can get that done. Meghan turns 9 in a few weeks. Trying to figure out where the last 9 years went! She's having a Hannah Montana themed party this year at a pizza place on base. IF the Hannah Montana party supplies come in the mail. We're having some slooooooow mail times lately.

Rod is busy at work, usually putting in a 12 hour day. He started his 3rd-to-last class he needs for his degree. It's a pain, but he's so close to finishing! Yay! He is going to earn the rest and relaxation of our cruise in a big way!

So that's about it from our end. 'Til next time...

The "List"

2008-11-04T03:42:00.000-08:00

Last week my mother the bargain hunter actually found decently priced tickets to Germany. So she, my sister and my nephew are flying over in March for a week. This will be especially fun for me as I've never met my nephew as he was born just a few weeks after we moved here. And then there's my sister...she's my best friend and it's hard to be so far away from her. Thank GOD for free long distance phone calls! But I digress...

Tyler and Meghan were thrilled when Leslie called them to say she was coming. So they immediately sat down and started making a list of everything they want to do while Grandma and Aunt Leslie are here. They were so engrossed in this project that they almost missed the bus that morning. They finished it that night. I've been asked to post the list on my blog, which I am doing with authentic spelling. Meghan was writing so fast she never bothered to ask me how to spell words she wasn't quite sure of. Things that need clarifying I will post next to it with an asterik. So here goes (um, you might want to get a cup of coffee or something now. It's long.):

Go to the new pool
Get ice cream
Go to Yabadoo *Indoor play place. Just the kind of place my mom AVOIDS.
cook cupcakes or cookies
play the Wii
Go to Castles
Shopping for Webkinz on Amazon
Surprise party for mom and dad *How sweet...
Go the the power zone for movies
Achmed the dead terrorist on youtube *I'm assuming they want my mom to see this. It is hysterically funny...
Go skating
Go to Disney land
Go to the food court
play with Eathen *Ethan
Go to Garmich *Garmisch
Go exploring
Go to the movie theater
play with Mellie
Go to the commissary *because that's what my mom wants to do on vacation..go grocery shopping!
make smoothies
Go bowling
go to Kidzone *a chuck e cheese type place on base. Also something Judith avoids like the plague
listen to music
take me to school (Meghan)
scrapbook
Go on walks
Make bracelets
make oven mits
make knitting creaturs
play with clay *from the last few, can you tell she wants to play with all her craft kits she has stashed in her room?
Go play at the soccor field
Go to the BX
Go look at close *clothes
Go look at shoes *she forgets that my mom doesn't like to shop...
make dinner from my cookbook
go to the etkah *Edeka, a small market near our house
go to the Bistro *ice cream parlor in our village
go to parks
go to the creak *creek
feed the birds
look for scrapbooks
Run at the track *Tyler's addition
Visit Meghan's school
Visit Tyler's school

So that's it. If anyone has any extra No-Doz, caffeine pills, SPEED, anything for my mom and sister to make it through the week that my kids have planned, you have until 23 March to get it to them.

For the record, I LOVE the Disneyland idea. It's 4 hours down the road and what fun would that be for me, Aunt Laura,to take Ethan to his first Disney trip! It's been vetoed, however. I will settle for spoiling him rotten while he's here, stuffing him full of McDonalds french fries and chocolate shakes. And whatever else his adorable little heart desires. That's an Aunt's perrogative, right? I think so...

Halloween

2008-10-31T15:20:00.001-07:00

Well it's all over and done with for another year. Meghan the Cheerless Cheerleader and Tyler the "Scream" dude ran around collecting their candy. We had a good time, we went with friends that were visiting from England. We tried Ramstein this year. Won't be doing that again, next year we'll go back to Vogelweh to the bigger housing area, but they still got a little bit of candy ( the least amount they have EVER gotten trick or treating, even in Minot in sub-zero temps!) and had fun running from house to house. The dentist will be glad to know next week that they didn't collect the usual bag full, lol. The weather held beautifully. Earlier this week it was calling for snow/rain/freezing rain for Halloween. But none of that materialized and Tyler never even put on a coat. Now I'm resisting the urge to get their candy bags from the kitchen and assert my "Mom's rights" on the good candy. I promptly confiscated the one Almond Joy Meghan got when she dumped out her bag. And Tyler offered up his one box of Milk Duds willingly, saying he hates them. Strange child. How can you hate caramel and chocolate? He must be adopted.

Next year I'm hoping to get them to brave one of the many haunted houses that various squadrons put on during the week. Neither of them were interested this year. I'm also hoping one of these years to get to Frankenstein's castle, about an hour and a half from here. Tons of fun I've heard. That seems like a must-do while in Germany. Got 2 more Halloween's left to accomplish that. I also heard Disneyland Paris puts on one heck of a show, but that might be pushing it, lol. I will probably try to get Rod to go for it, but I'm not going to get my hopes up for that one.

The rest of the weekend should be pretty quiet. I have some Christmas cards to plan out and some swap cards to dream up. Not to mention my scramping room needs a bit of a clean up. That's an understatement. I've been on strike since Rod turned my craft room into a greenhouse to ripen the peppers he decided to grow this fall. My room now smells like dirt. He can't complain about the mess til he gets them out of there. Think if I "accidentally" dump bleach in the planter he'll be mad? I can say I was "cleaning..."

Think tomorrow I will haul out the fall decorations and spruce up the house a bit. I decided, purely out of laziness, to not get my Halloween stuff out. But I do have a few fall themed things I might break out of the box this weekend. We'll see. Til next time...Happy Halloween!!!

Champs!!!

2008-10-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

We had soccer playoffs all last week. Tyler's team, the Vogelweh Panthers, fought their way to the 11-12 year old championship game and WON! It was a tough game, probably the toughest they had all year, but pulled out the 3-2 win in the end. It was tied with just a few minutes left. I've decided that it's probably much easier to be the kid playing than the parent watching. I was a wound up bundle of nerves! He had a fun season, learned a lot from 2 fantastic coaches and is looking forward to baseball in the spring. I am looking forward to Laura's Taxi Service closing down for a few weeks, until Meghan's Basketball cheerleading season starts in December. Wait, she's starting Art Club after school. Tyler is going to join a science club after school. CRAP. It never ends....Oh well. At least those are after school and we can stop paying the Burger King workers paychecks as most of those don't interfere with dinnertime. I need to find some more great Crock pot recipes. We can only have BBQ pulled pork so often (their favorite) before they all start rebeling.

This picture was taken right after they won. They were all pretty pumped up.

This week is going to be pretty full. Tomorrow I get to take my car in to be fixed. It's making a "noise." The place on base was able to get the part though, saving us a trip to a garage off base. Trying to fix an American car in Germany can be not so much of a good time. We have friends coming down from England for the week, looking forward to visiting with them and their girls. I am watching Makayla most of the week. Mellie gets to go to the vet to get her shots. That should be a fun car ride...and of course Friday is Halloween. Meghan the "Cheerless Cheerleader" and Tyler the "Scream character with blood running down the face" (how else do I put that?) will be joining the throngs of other American kids who flood the bases and beg for candy. Tyler has decided that it is his last year dressing up (I swear I didn't put him up to that) so he is going for the gold as far as candy consumption goes. His theory for next year he can walk around with Meghan while she trick or treats, then she can give him half of her candy. She quickly vetoed that idea. Verrrrrrrry quickly. We just laughed. Have to give the kid credit for creativity...and for trying.

No School

2008-10-22T00:08:00.001-07:00

I have no idea why, but the kids have no school today. On a Wednesday. Just today. It was scheduled, so it's not like a snow day or anything...weird. Obviously whoever decided the school calendar is NOT a mom.

So I rented them new movies last night and they got to stay up later than normal. So did I...I was up til 1230 talking to my dad. Woke up and now I have errands to run. Rod needs stripes sewn on his blues, Tyler needs a haircut, I have to go to a local store to see if they have the cheap computer desk we're wanting to buy, then I go get Makayla and bring her back here for the afternoon. Somewhere in all that I need to get some laundry and housecleaning done. Hmmm. Kids off from school, housecleaning that needs to be done. WHOO HOOOO! Maybe I can turn them into my little slaves for an hour or two.

Guess I'm off to hit the shower and put my diabolical plan into play...he he he!

I am

2008-10-20T03:09:00.000-07:00

I am...a wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend
I want...peace
I have...issues with the way I look
I wish...Rod was closer to retirement
I know...I am loved
I hate...my husbands job
I fear...flying
I hear...the dishwasher running
I crave...time away
I search...for ways to be a better mom and wife
I always...kiss my kids goodnight, even if they're already asleep
I usually...spend too much time on the computer
I am not...the perfect housewife
I miss...my family in the states
I love...my husband, kids and crazy friends!
I never...get all the things done that I want to in a day
I rarely...do everything on my "to do" list
I cry...too easily
I lose...weight too slowly
I am confused...by lots of things
I need...more hours in a day
I should...go back to school and finish college
I worry...that I will lose family members before we move back home.
I dream...of Rod's retirement, a new job and the day we quit moving!

8 Inches +

2008-10-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

So today was the day. I chopped my hair off. I've been wanting (needing) to do this for a loooong time. I had Meghan take a picture of me this morning before she left for school and she said she was sad I was cutting my hair, lol. But when she got home this afternoon, she loved the end result. So do I. I feel like my head is 20lbs lighter. Too bad the scale doesn't reflect that! No more highlights, if that gives you any idea how long it had been, they were totally cut off! For the first time in 5 years I'm totally "natural." The original plan was to get the highlights redone in December before our trip, but I think I'm liking the real me for now. So we'll see. Today it's all nice and straight, tomorrow I'll take the diffuser to it and see what it looks like with all my natural curl. ;)

I'm attaching pictures. Since I've not posted here before, I can't say which one will come up first, the before, or after. LOL! Bear with me...

Today is also the last practice for Meghan's Cheerleading squad. Since Tyler's soccer team made the playoffs, he has another week. But at least one kid is done. Soon our evenings will be free again and I can quit relying on the microwave or Burger King for dinner so often. Ciao for now!

Wow, I started a Blog!

2008-10-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

Alright, I did this. I enjoy reading my friends' blogs and saw this an an easy way to keep everyone up to date on our latest adventures, or for that matter, my latest mood. Kid happenings, husband happenings, cat...well, not much to blog about the damn cat, except she's cute and dumb and keeps us entertained.

So bear with me as I learn to do this, I'll try to post as often as I have stuff to say. For now, I think Meghan has a webcam date with her friend Ally back in the states. Rod is watching football on the laptop, so I might as well go bury myself in my scrapbooking room. Until next time...