Soooooo Coooooold!

When every other word out of the weatherman's mouth is Arctic, you know you are in for it. We are expecting/experiencing record low temperatures this week. There are a couple feet of snow on the ground, school was cancelled because of the high winds, and Jack is in heaven. The kid stays outside in the snow for hours at a time. Sam has been a trooper and can stay out for almost an hour at a time. Jack was thrilled with his really cool invention today. He took a round sled and used it to slide down the slide on our swing set. I think it is a good thing I have insurance!
But this is the real reason I am blogging tonight! Jack came in from retrieving said sled with a bleeding tongue and lots of tears. He quickly explained that he put his tongue on something metal and it stuck and he had to pull it off and now he is bleeding. I am sorry, I am a horrible mom, but I laughed my head off - almost peed my pants. He was not impressed with my lack of sympathy. He also would have loved it if I wrapped his tongue in a gauze bandage just like they did on The Christmas Story movie, but I made him take a few sips of water and that was it. I asked him if he knew it would stick, and he said he didn't. He later confessed to Tyler that he knew it would stick, but not that bad. He also was unable to eat any salad with dinner because the ranch dressing hurt his tongue. I let him get away with that, because I was still laughing every time I looked at him. I should get credit for only asking him once if someone double dog dared him to do it.

Coming to you from Dayton Ohio

Another business trip, another hotel room...It seems that is the only time I have lately to blog. I have very cute pictures of the boys in their Halloween costumes on my computer at home. Never got a chance to blog them. Sorry, just imagine a cute Jack the Army boy (face paint of course), Sam the Superman (sprayed black hair with a little curl in front), and Logan the darling dancing elephant. Something about the costume made him dance. Doesn't that sound cute? I also have pictures of the pumpkin patch, petting zoo, and carving pumpkins.

Oh, by the way it was Tyler's birthday on the 7th too and I made him another delicious apple pie. Happy Birthday Tyler, maybe I will get you a present by Christmas :) I would list 38 reasons why I love you, but I really don't have time for that either. I could totally do it though. I have known you now for 23 years - can you believe it?!?

I am really looking forward to a week off for Thanksgiving!

Germany!

It is my last day in Germany; I decided to blog before I get home and forget all that I have done. This is my trip report.

The purpose of my trip is to provide training to our US Army customers working in the Army bases here in Europe. We had about 40 customers from about 18 different facilities in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy... Typically our customers travel to out annual users conferences for this training, but it is not cost effective to send so many users from over sees to the US, so they planned this conference to allow those customers to get some the training they missed. For a regular conference, we send 20 or so people from our company to put it on. For this training conference, I travelled with one other colleague named Paul. Paul and I have known each other since 2000. He was one of my star students, so I hired him as a trainer and I used to be his boss. When I left the training position, he took my position. We have been friends all along. He and his family live in Warner Robins Georgia. Paul has been to Germany several times, so I was very glad he was coming with me; it was like having a free driver and tour guide.
I arrived in Heidelberg Germany on Monday morning after a full day of exhausting travel. My hotel was in the countryside right outside of Heidelberg. All of the leaves are in full color change, and the hillsides were gorgeous with changing leaves, old farm houses, and castles. The weather was perfect. It was comfortable outside in a sweater. It is very strange to be in Germany. It is not something I had ever considered before. I cant stop looking out of my window.

Tuesday morning - Ate a lot of free breakfast consisting of fresh breads, cheeses, yogurt, fruit, and juice. (I will miss this bread). We went to the room where the conference would take place. We tested our Internet connections, and made sure all of the final touches on our presentations were ready. Then we went to Heidelberg to see the sites. We went to the castle and crossed the bridge over the Neckar river. I took about 150 pictures of all the cool architecture. I think I might have enough to make a book of pictures of the doors and windows of Heidelberg. We ate at a great little German restaurant. I ordered a dish that was translated into English as: spicy vegetarian flat bread served with goat cheese and Mediterranean vegetables. When it came out, I couldn't stop laughing. I had managed to order pizza off of a German menu.

I also had fun in the Christmas store and bought a few souvenirs. We met Juliet, our point of contact in Europe, for dinner. She lives in Mannheim, and took us to her city. She took us to a Turkish restaurant in the "Turk Town" area of the city. The menu was in German with no translation. Juliet tried to translate, but was having a hard time explaining, so she had us look at the pictures inside the restaurant. I learned a very important German word that night, chicken. It helped me on several later menus when I could not figure out what to order.

Wednesday - Our training conference started. I had 3 50-minute presentations. Paul taught a 3 hour class on report writing. For dinner, we went with the Army Headquarters contact, Pete, to a Greek restaurant. It was the funniest restaurant of the trip. Each booth had sheep skins stapled to the wood. There was one old Greek man running the whole show. He had one cook. It was packed. He basically yelled at us in German to order. Luckily, Pete speaks Greek, none of us speak German. Pete was able to order us chicken :) in Greek and that is all we knew. He tried to order himself a Greek item and ended up with a German lasagna with gravy. Our chicken was excellent - grilled with yummy Greek spices and served with french fries and a really yucky German salad. At the end to make up for the horrible treatment he gave us all a free shot of Oso. Neither Paul nor I drink, so sadly it went to waste. Pete did take a nip of his before leaving. We took his word that it was very good. He wouldn't take my credit card and yelled at me to pay with Euros. I don't know how I am going to sort out my expense report.

Thursday - 2nd day of training conference. I had 5 50-minute presentations. Paul had 2 50-minute presentations. Juliet arranged for all that wanted to participate to go to a Spanish restaurant in Mannheim. This restaurant has flamenco dancers who perform on a small stage. About 2o of us participated. The menu was in Spanish with German subtitles. I could figure out the foods in Spanish. I ordered an amazing grilled salmon dish. The Europeans are so laid back. We were at the restaurant for 4 hours. They just drank a little, ate a little, and talked and laughed and enjoyed the dancing. I was dying! I had to pack, and work, and talk to my family. I thought about how little time we spend eating our dinner. I decided that I am in too much of a hurry and it would be good if I slowed down every once in a while. I really enjoyed visiting with our foreign customers. They asked us a lot of interesting questions about the US government, geography, schools, etc. You could tell they were trying to make sense of things they had read or heard about the US. They are such generous, laid back, and kind people. I loved learning a bit about them. They did not share much though, because they kept asking us question. The funniest was asking us to explain different US phrases like "pulling your leg" and "your name is mud".

Friday - last day of conference. We had a wrap up, but ended early. Our customers presented with the most beautiful handmade rose leis. Paul and I drove to Frankfurt. That is where I am right now. We are staying in a high rise hotel right in down town. This is an amazing city. Very big, and modern. After we checked in, we walked to the down town shopping area. We found a urban fusion restaurant. We have a policy about only eating at a restaurant where the menu has English subtitles if there is no one with us to translate, but we were hungry and this place looked good. There were enough words that we could pick out by now like pizza, pita, chicken!, curry, etc. I ordered a chicken curry dish and it was amazing. I did accidentally eat a mushroom instead of a piece of chicken, but I didn't die. :) We are taking it easy tonight and eating at the hotel. My flight leaves in the morning. I am ready to get home to my kids. My in laws were nice enough to stay with them, so Tyler could work. I got to talk to them on the phone today and they seem to be in good spirits.

***I arrived home safely on Saturday afternoon. I am finally feeling back to normal. I had to wait and post this in the US, because my spell check was in German and I was too embarrassed to post without it. After running it this morning, I am glad that I didn't post!

Conclusion:

• I actually like Germany. I am pleasantly surprised by this, and it makes me want to see more of Europe. My instincts are much better than when I travelled overseas back in 2000. I guess I grew up a bit in the last 10 years.

• I cannot read, understand, or speak German. I should not even try to say the words I see written on signs. It feels like my brain can pronounce them, but when I speak them it sounds ridiculous.


• I am an American! I enjoy quick and convenient things. I like alarm clocks in my hotel rooms, and TV that I can understand. I will try to slow down when I eat, but 4 hours is way too long for a dinner out!

Cross Country

I love Jack's elementary school. They have such fun programs. During the fall, the kids can participate in cross country. They practice on Tuesday and Thursday after school. At the end of the season, they have a track meet against another elementary school (each grade races separately). They have one more huge track meet at the high school against all of the schools in the district. I only had my camera at the first meet. Here is a play by play.

The starting line up

half way around the course

Sprinting towards the finish line (love the grasping of heart)

A happy finisher! (They get cookies)

In reality, Jack finishes right in the middle of the group. In Jack's estimation, he is pretty close to winning. "Probably 4th or 6th". I love Jack - he is such a positive kid, and he gives everything he has to everything he does.

Jack is also taking piano lessons right now, and is pretty good. He loves it, so that helps a lot. We have a great teacher that comes to our house which helps me out a lot. He is also loving scouts and is busy every night with homework. He is always interested in adding activities, but I am hesitant to overload him. Right now he wants to take a martial arts class. We'll see what is next for Jack!

Sam's Surgery

After Sam's scary penicillin allergy our doc sent us to see an Ear Nose Throat doctor. He checked out both Jack and Sam. While Jack's tonsils were on the larger size, Sam's were gigantic and causing him to mouth breath, so we scheduled him for a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy on Oct 14th.

The kids had the funniest reactions. Jack was very jealous that Sam got to have surgery and he didn't, and Sam was excited to go to the "blue hospital" where he was "borned". When we got to the hospital, Sam was darling. He was all grins and enjoyed having mom all to himself. He was polite and quiet and practiced using the mask on himself and his dragon named "drag-o". All the nurses gathered for his enactment of how he would fall asleep after he got the gas. When they gave him the meds to relax him, he was absolutely hysterical. He got all glazed and was amazed by my hair. He decided that his surgery doll was a Super Dentist that was saving the world. More nurses gathered to enjoy the fun. He went right back and had no problems breathing in the mask. He really wanted to blow up the purple balloon for the doc.

Surgery went great, and he was very calm in recovery. He ate his applesauce, and drank some juice and they sent us home with the normal warnings.
And then the fun begins... Carrying him into the house from the car, he tells me that he feels like he is going to throw up. I put him on the counter in the bathroom and run to get a bowl. I come back and he is a black puddle of blood. Scary. I lay him down, and give him his meds. He throws up another bowl full of red blood. After several repeats, I call the doctor. I try to explain the amount of blood, and that his nose is bleeding and wont stop. We try everything he says and it continues, so he tells us to go to the ER. Luckily I handed Sam a barf bag, because he threw up two more times on the way and in the lobby. He was pale, and tired, and miserable. They gave him some anti-nausea meds and and IV full of fluids. He stopped throwing up, and the clots were able to form on his adenoids. If he would have bled one more time, he would have had to go back to surgery for more cauterization. They moved us to peds and we got to sleep overnight. Sam was very very mad about that. I had told him he didn't have to sleep overnight at the hospital. I lied, and I learned a lesson about not promising things that I cannot control. He is doing fine now. Still pretty drained and whiny! They said his voice would change, but now he sounds like Mickey Mouse. I wonder if it will change back.

I handled this all surprisingly well, because this is just the way things have been going for me lately. If you are close to me and start to have bad luck, sorry it is probably just me.

3rd Grade

A little late for the first day of school post, but better late than never. Jack LOVES 3rd grade. He was a bit nervous, because he thought the homework was going to be really really hard. I had a talk with him about the workbooks he had done this summer - they were 3rd grade level, and they weren't hard. Good ol' Jack came back to me and quickly agreed that he is very smart and very good at things like math, spelling, and science. He was a little disappointed that none of his friends were in his class, but got over that quickly too - he can still play with them at recess.

He was most excited about his shirt. If you can't read it, it says "homework does not compute". He thinks that this is hilarious and likes to look in the mirror. He came home from the first day very excited. His teacher has a ton of incentives that he is all over. The rules were similar to what he was used to, so he felt like he would be ok with them. He has three pages of homework each day, and he comes up with a lot of "strategies" for completing his work. I get to hear detailed explanations of his strategies as I correct his work. I think his teacher must talk about strategy. He also reports to me every person in class who got in trouble that day and lets me know that he has yet to even receive a warning. He thinks that he is the best behaved kid in class, and might get student of the month, because he is really "displaying all of the character traits." He also started cross country, and after the first practice I asked him how he did. He said, "I did great, I ran until I couldn't." I would love to know if that meant, a few yards, half way, almost to the end? I didn't press him for that information. I want him to always think he is doing great.

Jack is also working very hard to earn his wolf badge in scouts. We only have a few more things to pass off.

Sam is in preschool. I am not sure why I didn't take pictures. Maybe later this week, and then I will post about his adventures. They are many!

The last hurrah

We always try to do something fun the last weekend of the summer before school starts. This year, we had free passes to Silver Wood (local amusement park). Before we could go, Jack and I went to a baptism of his good friends Zach and Savannah (twins). On the way home, the fire fighters were in the street collecting money for Jerry's Kids. I told Jack to roll down his window. We were in the prism which does not have automatic windows. Jack looked at me like I spoke a different language and asked, "How do I do that?" Am I seriously getting old enough that kids don't know how to roll down a window? Once we got home from the baptism and made a quick change, we loaded up in the car for a fun trip!

When we got into the gates, Sam looks at me and says, "Mom, just drop me off in the kid's area." He was totally serious as if it as OK to just drop my 4 year old off to play on his own. For a while, we stuck together while Jack and one of the grownups rode a big ride. Jack is fearless and wants to ride every thing possible. Here are some fun pictures of him and Tyler on the Panic Plunge. He was not nervous at all.

Then we moved to the kids area where we all rode the elephants. This is the first ride for Logan. He LOVED it. The lady yelled at me to make him sit down, but I couldn't keep him in his seat. He wanted to push the green button that made us go up high. I also love that Jack was just as happy to ride the kid's rides with Sam. He is such a cute big brother.

After a round on the kids rides and some lunch, we split up. Tyler went with Jack for a while, and I hung out with the kids. Sam was hilarious. He would get in line, and then make a friend. He would spend the whole time in line making plans with his "friend". They would discuss which color they were going to ride and what their "mission" was going to be. If he saw a baby, he would tell me that it was Logan's friend. Logan was so good in his stroller. He didn't take a nap, and didn't melt down once. We stayed until closing (10:30 pm). As soon as Sam and Logan got into the car, they were zonked out.

Tyler switched with me, so that I could ride some with Jack. I love rides too, and I can ride almost anything. Age has made me a bit queasy on the round and round rides, so I only ride a few of them. Coasters are my favorite. It is so fun standing in line with Jack. We have awesome conversations about anything that pops into his head. Plus he holds my hand and thanks me over and over again. I like him at this age. I like that he likes me.

Today (Monday/Labor Day) we got a bonus fun day. What do you do for fun when you are married to a total geek and live with three dirty little boys? You go digging for garnets. Tyler did not explain this to me very well, so I was not prepared. He said we would get "a little dirty". When do we not get a little dirty? I dressed the boys in their cute outfits and off we went.

To find garnets, you first dig holes from a big pile of dirt, clay, and rocks and put what you dig into buckets. You can have two buckets per person. I figured 1 bucket per person was plenty.

After your buckets are full (and very heavy), you go to a sifting area where you sit on dirty buckets and sift out the sand. Our four buckets yielded one full (and very very heavy) bucket of rocks. Then you go to a washing area and clean your rocks to see if any of them are garnets. Seriously, a little dirty Tyler?!? This is also the spot where you ask each other 5000 times, "Is this one?" I loved that they all kept asking me like I had ever done this before." I just said sure to every question. When you find the garnets, you put them in to a baggy.

After a couple of hours of this, you think phew our bucket is empty and we have some garnets in a baggy. Lets go to a cute restaurant and eat something, but that is when your geeky husband and his prodigy decide that you definitely need to go dig some more. So off you go to fill another bucket, which actually ends up being two buckets. Then repeat the steps and now we have more garnets in our baggy. This time, I found some large ones that got praise from the bored forest service guy who stands around and answers the question, "Is this one?" When you are done, you take the baggy to the forest service desk. They shamefully go through your bag and pick out the rocks that apparently are not garnets, and weigh those that are. We came away with 4 oz. This, I was told, is pretty good. The limit is 5 lbs per person. They assured me that no one ever gets the limit. Jack was pretty happy with his bag. He is going to use them to start his rock collection for one of his cub scout requirements. I will put the bag next to the other bag of rocks and the box of fossils that we keep in his closet. Hint to Tyler, NO MORE ROCKS!

After garnet hunting we were going to go to Paul Bunyan Day's (or as Sam says, Small Onion's Days) in St Maries Idaho, but we were "a little dirty", and it was all shut down. We ended up driving home and grabbing some dinner on the road, so that we could get Jack in bed on time. Tomorrow I will take the traditional pictures of him standing on our porch in his darling school outfit going off to 3rd grade. We had a great summer, and we will miss the freedom!

P.S. To the locals that read my blog, garnet hunting season ended today. Sorry, you will have to wait until next year. Also, you will not get a little dirty. People were wearing rain gear and boots. Additionaly, if you tell your four year old to stay out of the muddy puddles, people will laugh at you.