Question of the day

Is it wrong to send your son to school with duct tape holding the bottom of his shoes together? For the record, I did buy him some new shoes this summer in the states. He still wants to wear his old shoes because they feel comfortable. I was able to convince the boy to take his new shoes in his bag today "just in case". He has soccer after school and I don't want him to appear like we can't afford new shoes. Although with the stock market situation, these may become quite the vogue fashion around here! I did a quick money conversion and currently 700 billion dollars is equal to about 28 euroes!

Going along with Dad

Last week, Jacob rode into school early with Jeff. What was interesting about their ride was that Jacob rode on the back of Jeff's scooter. Jeff found a helmut for Jacob so he was able to ride in on some mornings. Jacob was a bit nervous but once he came home in the afternoon, he asked when he could ride on the back again. Maybe he will go in the morning again since he has a science test and can use the time to study in Jeff's office before school.

Stay off the sidewalks, this bad boy can get up to 35 mph!

Joshua eats a cheerio

If anyone would like to contribute to Joshua's cheerio fund, he will gladly accept more in any care packages. He especially likes the "cheerios to go" small containers which can be found in any store.

Local Color

Fall is in the air around our corner of the world. We are starting to see many villages holding fall festivals. In our area this is very popular because we are in the middle of wine country. Yesterday we drove about ten miles to a neighboring village and took in some local color at their wine festival. It actually wasn't much but it was something fun to do for a Sunday afternoon.

Jeff bought the kids an ice cream cone to enjoy on the brisk afternoon.

Some of the grapes that grow along the local vinyards.

Joshua shielding his eyes from all the brilliant colors around him.

On the way back to our car, we stopped to show the kids a historical spot on a resturant. Napolean and his army came through and fought in this village of Schliengen to claim it for France. On this resturant they left a cannon ball that his army shot and marked the date that it happened. This really happened. When Jeff and I traveled to Moscow six years ago, we saw a marker with all of the cities that Napolean had conquered and Schliengen was listed.

Our last stop before we headed home was the playground. Joshua got to sit in the swing like and big boy and had a blast.

The bubble

When I was in college I often heard the term living in the Biola bubble. Feeling shut off from the "real world" living in a small community where I learned, worked, ate and worshiped together with other Biolans. Now, here I am hearing the term BFA bubble. Now, our family has not always been so into the BFA bubble. That phrase more reflects the students perspective. After all, we have lived here over 8 years. The average family stays on only two years. I think mainly due to the burnout of intense ministry with in the bubble and never taking the time to get to know the German culture which is very rich and allows for some great cross cultural experiences. All that to say, we are finding ourselves now slowly switching to the bubble more these days thanks to Jacob and his activities in Middle school. He LOVES middle school and is fitting right in. This week, I attended his first two soccer games after school on the outside court yard of the main campus. Because the weather was perfect everyone from the bubble was there hanging out and visiting.

Anna and best friend Caylie greet Joshua afterschool. Caylie loves to help take care of Joshua.

Even though Sarah doesn't look happy, she was so excited to be playing with her friends. Here "best friend" Katie and two big girls from Jacob's class Britta and Hannah always make her feel special. The girls are carrried around too like that for most of the time.

Some video of Jacob playing his soccer game against another middle school team.

What bugs me

On thing that not only bugs me but Jeff as well while living here in Germany are their toilets. As far as we can tell there are no Christian toilets anywhere. When ever we flush one, they don't flush with any strong convictions. Thus you must spend many minutes standing over it reflushing and reflushing. Water is very expensive here so I would think that some big shot in the toilet business would want to improve and make them flush with more conviction and not waste our euores! Jeff and I joke that every time we flush we literally hear money going down the pipes while the waste just floats around.

Joshua in motion

Joshua loves to be pushed in his Johnny Jump up. Jeff fasten it to our deck since it wouldn't fit to any door jams inside our German home. I think he loves being outside swaying back and forth anyway. He is a daredevil and loves to hang upside down or bounce on my lap all day long. I predict that he will start walking in the next couple of months since he isn't interested at all in crawling. By the way, he turns 9 months on Sunday!

Little Gardner

We have had such nice weather this last week. The children and I have enjoyed spending our afternoons outside pushing them on their swings. Sarah has also gotten into helping me with some outside chores. Here is my little gardner in action.

I love her careful intense look on her face.