Festivals galore!

Kevin, our two new friends, and I headed to Manderscheid over the weekend. We got to enjoy a Ren Fest at the Manderscheid Castle Ruins. We had lots of fun. It was the guys’ turn to drink, so Tori and I got to stay DD. She didn’t drink because I wasn’t drinking, since I was driving. It was pretty cool day. Found lots of stuff I wish I had the Euro to buy.

Parts of the Market were inside the castle, they also had little kid areas. Out on the main green was the center stage and the Jousting court. Lots of food stands and beer gardens. While exploring the castle, we even found a wine area, but since us girls weren’t drinking, we didn’t hang out there. Still Lots of fun!

Tori and I are thinking of working on outfits for next year. I think it will be lots of fun to go while dressed up! Think I will take the kids with also next year!! I know they will really enjoy it.

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First we had the 4th of July.

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I have quiet a bit of catching up to do… A lot has gone on and at the same time, very little has actually happened…

Lets see here. On May 6th, Derric got to attend the Special Olympics with his Autism class. He had lots of fun doing a few of the “events” in the Kinder room. He was actually too young to fully compete, since it was 8 and up, but they had a little room set aside with fun activities the younger kids could do for “prizes”. He had lots of fun doing that. The day was filled with lots of walking and a few pictures.

Group Hug

On May 7th, Dokota and Kauchana had Middle School field trips, and we celebrated Dokota’s birthday.

Happy 14th!!

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I figured I would sit here and write about the year…. but honestly, I think that would be kinda boring lol. I am sure going back and reading all my posts this year would take me a few days and then, the whole point of this post would kinda be out of date. Instead, I will say, the year 2008 brought about a couple huge changes; the PCS to Germany and Derric’s Autistic diagnoses. I didn’t do nearly as much as I wanted to do this year, I didn’t plan on COLA being cut, I didn’t plan on the exchange rate to be so bad. I had huge dreams, big ideas, things I wanted to do, places I wanted to see…. Instead, we have spent most of our time home, doing nothing. Our four year tour here is one fourth done, and I really can’t say it was all that exciting…. The family trip to Trier was wonderful, the day at the Cascades was the best, but that was two days out of 365, not a good average…

I am really hoping 2009 is better. Planning better is a must be.
Places I would like to visit in 2009:

• France – There are a couple small villages right on the border that I have been told are a wonderful visit. I have heard there and back can be a day trip, but would love to make it a weekend.
• Luxembourg – There are places there I would love to go see, some castles still standing not ruins.
• At least three castles, ruins or not in Germany
• At least one fun land place for the kids

And I would like to do this as a family, not just because company is coming… It would be nice to actually have an idea about where to even take family for once instead of just spending most of our time guessing….

I have other goals I would like to try and accomplish this year also.

• Go to the gym every day. Kevin said he will be working on this with me, now that he is on the mid shift. Once I get the kids to school, catch the shuttle over to the main base, meet him at the gym, work out for an hour or so a day, then just come home together. I know once I start working out again, I will have much more energy, which will help me accomplish my other goals.
• Take the kids swimming every other week, after school for an hour or so. I don’t want to go on the weekends… too busy, so a day in the middle of the week, maybe after supper, should be good… just depends on the husband’s work time.
• Attempt to relearn German. I am remembering some, but the dialect is so different and since I haven’t heard it in several years, is hard to catch back up with it…
• Restart Family Movie Night on Friday nights. We did this back in NC. Loved it. Really want to bring it back.
• Family Wii Night. Now that I have a Wii, I really want to have family game night on it. Since once I get my WiiFit, I want to use it more for that. Also want to be able to play Wii Games with my mom (send me your Wii numbers and I will add you to my list! will send you mine back =) )

I have more, and will add to my list, but those are the main ones I can think of. I know 2009 will bring some new challenges, after all, I know I will have a deployment to deal with soon, not sure when yet, but soon… But for now, I need to get Derric to bed and the husband. Hope you all have a wonderful New Years Day and I hope the New Year is full of wonderful times for all.

Christmas this year has been ….. interesting to say the very least.

Things just didn’t really feel all that festive. Maybe because the kids had my nerves stretched to the limits and then some. Maybe because the weather was just off… I don’t know. I spent a good part of the holiday trying to video things we normally do, capture it for family, but the kids would start really acting up once the camcorder was turned on. Out of all the things I taped, I got only three videos worthy of sending to family. Ugh.

We put the tree up the first weekend of December, presents were put under it as they got wrapped, so everything was done pretty much by the 10th. Since we were done early, I really didn’t have to focus on anything but the kids themselves. Derric got out of school early since the Kindergarten building had no heat and needed to get the heaters fixed. While he was home, alone, he did pretty good, he would do the work I needed him to do, and was very excited to work with me. Once the rest of the kids got out, it was a struggle to get him to do anything, then Dokota would jump in to help, only he would spend more time trying to bride Derric into doing the work, which honestly I don’t want Derric to learn. So he ended up off schedule even though I worked hard to try and keep him on it.

They messed with Kevin’s work schedule, so he was off on his hours, which threw everyone else off also. Mids, Days, Swings, Mids, all in a month time.. Talk about messed up!

The Squadron Christmas party was actually good. Not at all what I expected, but also not as well planned as it should have been. Cocktails were supposed to be from 6 to 7, at 7 supper was supposed to be served. Nope, then because a couple people got DUIs the night before, the open bar got turned into pay as you drink, which NO One notified anyone on, so next to no one had any cash on hand. You could set up your debit card, but you first had to buy something 20Euro worth. Talk about annoying.. Then Dinner didn’t even start on time, they didn’t even draw for table order until 8:30! By that time I had three glasses of wine on an empty stomack. Ugh. But the food was good, really good. I now want to learn to cook a goose lol.

We still need to go get Xavier’s glasses, we went all the way up to Volgeweh, since that is where they have a much bigger selection, but the lab tech wasn’t in, we weren’t able to make it the next weekend due to Kevin’s schedule shift, and honestly, I am not comfortable enough yet to drive over an hour and a half on the autobahn, maybe in a year or two…

I got my eyes checked, and now I can’t find the new script. I thought it was in my purse, but all that is in there is my contact script. I need new glasses also, which I will be seeing about getting come January, after we get paid, but I kinda need that script to get them.

Christmas Even was an interesting day. Baked cookies, decorated them also. The kids had fun with that. Derric went over to his friend’s house and those two exchanged gifts. Kauchana is friends with the sister, so she falled a bit later to give her friend a card. It was kinda fun, let Dokota and Xavier stay home playing video games while Kevin slept.

Played Santa, then headed to bed myself. Kevin, due to hour shifts, wasn’t able to get back to sleep after getting woken up, so he was up until way early morning. Derric was up right at 6:30, I got woken up when Kevin was trying to get him back to his bed since he was trying to curl in with me like normal. But he did go back, with whisphered glees of Santa having came. Around 8:30 I heard the three boys up and about, whisphering about Santa coming, waiting on Kauchana to get up stairs, and wondering when they should wake us up. I was up, but not 100% sure when Kevin had gone to bed, so was kinda hesitant about waking him up. But I let the kids wake him at 9am. Got hot chocolate made up for the two of us, since neither of us are morning people.

Then it was present opening time. The kids did pretty good, but Xavier got kinda pouty because he had an odd number of presents out. He had bought some presents for everyone else, so he was one off and didn’t get to unwrap one on one round. But they were very happy with the amount they got. I should have split his puzzles up, I had wrapped two as one, but then that was when I was going to let the older two head to the elementary school to go to the shop, until I learned it actually sucked.

Should have unwrapped it and rewrapped it sepretly… Oh well, lesson learned.

I am happy with how the morning went. Kevin got a small laptop, one of the minis, to take with him on deployments and TDYs. It is the perfect size to fit into his backpack. And I got my Wii. Yay! LOL. I only have the Wii Sport and wont be able to get any of the other games or such until next month, but when we head up to get my glasses, I am going to look for some games. I browsed Amazon and found 8 on there, but want to see if I can find any of them localy before spending for shipping and handeling…

I had to argue with the kids about how it was my Wii and I wanted to have fun with it first. Then when I did let them play, they went and unlocked all the training… Oh I was mad. I had said they could only do the Fitness Age then they were to get off the game.. Nope, they did the Fitness Age then all the training.. Oh well. nothing I can do about it now.

Today was another bum around day. It is Boxing Day, though honestly I haven’t fully learned what that day means. I just know nothing is open here. Thankfully the Bx is American ran, we needed a few items so I was able to get them. Now we are just kinda buming about until the New Years. Wow, to think this year has gone by so fast. I will be doing a year in review post here and on the family site close to the 1st of the Year.

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