Randomness

Having a house full of active children at diffrent ages and devlopment, I am learing that my days are filled with a lot of random events rather than order and schedules that all builds up to busy weeks full of memories. Take for instance this week, Getting Sarah ready to go out the door for an errand can take up to a half hour. She and I both have our own agenda. She wants to explore everything I just want to go. However today we were both on the same page. She was happy to move along and visit Anna at school so we could actually get out the door at a decent time. I took this picture to remind her that she is capable of coroperating with me.




Once at school, immediatly a swarm of excited girls encircle sarah. I am not sure if she enjoys the attention or not. Anna was giving her first book report today. I brought in some ice cream for her to share with the class. Here is another random event from the week. Anna's class went on a field trip yesterday to a bug museum in France. Of all random activities to take thrid graders to. "Hey lets have a field trip to France today, don't forget your passports!"

One last random event from the week I will write about: I think Sarah may be ready for potty training. This morning as I was rushing the kids to get ready for school and making their lunches in a blurr, sarah toddles up to me and and exclaims, " mommy poo poo." I said, "well do you want to sit on the potty like a big girl?" "NO". Jeff found her standing next to the potty doing the act! Okay, note to self: time to start active potty training for this girl, she is catching on fast!

Weak Dollar

For the past week, Jeff and I have been forced to sit and watch the dollar drop against the Euro. This is very painful for us as we realize that our monthly support simply doesn't go as far as it use to. The dollar is at a record low right now at 1.41 against the euro. To put this into perspective for you, if Jeff goes to the bank to transfer money from our U.S. account to our German account in order to pay our German bills he has less money to do this. Because of the current exchange rate, he is only able to take out about 30% of what he could withdrawl last week. He often comes home looking like this.

It is amazing to us to see how much this currency rate is such a part of our daily life. This is yet another cultural stress that we deal with living over seas. Fortunately for us, we have a stable income compared to some of our fellow missionaries. God always provides for us just what we need when we need it. So the next time I go to the grocery store and I price a bottle of maple syrup for 5 euroes, I immediately convert that in my mind to u.s dollars and just pass it up.

High School Musical 2

Before I hear a collective groan going out among cyper space, let me tell you that this is a big deal in our household! Last night, was the European premier of High School Musical 2. We were lucky to be able to see it at our home. We are able to get the Disney channel through our dish so I thought I would do something fun and have a premier party night. Anna was so excited! She invited some of her friends over after school and they eagerly counted down the hours and then minutes until the movie came on. Then I had called our middle school dorm and invited them to come over for the viewing as well. 9 out of the 13 students showed up. Our living room was packed with anxious viewers to witness this special event.

Here are the girls and Jacob enjoying pizza before the movie for dinner. It wasn't as good as Paddingtons pizza in Salem- but everyone still enjoyed it.

The girls count down the last minutes until the showing of the movie. Erruptions of excited shrills where heard all over the house as the anticipation grew.

The kids from Liel dorm arrived just as the movie came on, now we have a packed room. Anna exclaimed very loudly, " This is the best day of my life!"

Baby Benjamin #4

Today, I had my doctor's appointment. I am now only 10 weeks away from our unexpected blessing to arrive. The doctor said that the baby was very healthy and had lots of room to kick around. After determining the size of the baby he said to Jeff, " I think instead of a German soccer player, you will have more like an American football player." Our baby is a bit bigger than the others were!


All I can say is hurry up! I can't stand being big much longer and can't imagine getting any bigger. Besides, your three siblings are waiting for you to arrive. This is one of their favorite activities to do while they are waiting for your arrival.

Back to school night

Last night, we attended our second back to school night at BFAS. (Black Forest Academy Sitzenkirch). We sat in on Jacob's class first and heard his teacher, Mr. Carey talk about the curriculum for the year and also all the extra activites planned. In a couple of weeks a father/son camp out is planned. In the Spring, they do an neat underground railroad game at night which is a highlight for everyone. While he was talking my mind kept flashing back to 15 years ago when we sat next to eachother at our college graduation ceremony. I was the last in the "B's" and he was the first in the "C's". Now, all these years later, he is my son's teacher- at an international boarding school in Germany! We feel so blessed to have a neat role model teaching Jacob at this age. Jacob loves telling us stories everynight around the dinner table that Mr. Carey shares with the class.
Next, we went to Anna's class. She was sooo excited for us to see her classroom and her desk. Her teacher Ms. Allen is a vertren teacher having taught oversees for over twenty years. Anna has really been able to connect well with her teacher and class this year.
Even though the elementary school is small- only 45 students- we feel that this is where God wants our children and they are in such good care of a nurturing staff.

Cultural moment

Our family moved to Germany in the summer of 2000. We have lived here for eight years. Believe it or not, I am still dealing with cultural adjustments. Some may not seem like a big deal, but the little ones add up to build into "cultural stress" that makes you just go "Arrgh! I just don't get it!" Today, as I turned onto our quiet Cul-de sac I soon noticed that the road was blocked by a large oil truck and a car. Both were parked next to each other with no driver near by. My immediate response was one of anger- how dare they block MY way. I should have the right of way. So I stopped, got out and saw the oil truck guy and kindly told him that I needed to get through. He just shrugged at me and told me I was going to have to wait. With anger again steeming through me I thought, I am not going to sit in my car with frozen groceries melting and a cranky toddler only three homes away from my front door and wait for you to load oil into this house. So my only option was to ring the doorbell of my neighbor and see if they could move their car so I could squeeze by. After waiting for their guest to leave, I felt like I was being the bad person, but all I wanted was to get home. "Why can't they make nice wide roads in Germany like in America, that would solve everyone's problem I thought". Like I said another Arrgh moment for me!

Doing a Man Size Job

Saturday was an absolutely perfect day to be outside. It was sunny and the temps were in the upper 60's. So, out we went to get some yard work done. Jeff set about to mow our lawn and Jacob decided that he was going to build himself a treehouse. Jeff and I have noticed how more responsible Jacob is becoming. At ten, he will willingly help me with chores and taking care of Sarah. I can really see his servant heart come out. He also wants to do big jobs like Jeff around the house. At one point, Jacob took a break from his tree fort building effort and walked over to Jeff to help him mow the lawn. Here is evidence of him doing a man sized job for a little guy!

Activities of Sarah

Sarah has been one busy bee this last week. She hasn't let any grass grow under her size 5 shoe. Here are some highlights from her busy week.

Making an apperance at the first social activity of the school year. Here she is watching the High schoolers play a game in the gym.

Trying to sweet talk Christine in giving up her balloon. It didn't work, but Sarah still played with it for awhile.

Cheering on the highschoolers during a fun skit. She really got caught in the moment with it all!

Having friends over for a playdate in our "new" attic playroom.

Sarah loves her play times and being at the center of all of the action. But I am also happy that she is content to have her quite play time in her room when I need a rest.