Today, the high was 33 degrees. That was COLD. It has been snowing since sometime last night. We have quiet a bit of snow on the ground, and it sure isn’t fun to walk in. No, snow seeped threw my shoes, my socks are wet! I have spend a good amount of time outside too today. First it was the joy of walking the kids to school. That became even more of an adventure as we tried to walk fast but not slip on the ice.

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Warning… This will be a vent post…. Feel free to skip to the next post, which does include pictures and fun times…

The posted an announcment in the stairwell bulletin board that there will be sign up for Cheer, Dance, Gymnastics, etc. at the youth center on Spangdahlem today. I thought this would be a grand idea, get the kids into some activities, etc, and let them, oh, I don’t know, have fun…. So I loaded the truck up with all four kids and headed over.

My first reaction to the youth/teen center on Spangdahlem side is, “man, we are being screwed over on Bitburg”. The Spang side has a huge two story building, the on site playground is the size of the center we have, which doesn’t even have a play ground. This kids center is freaking huge, I think it almost rivals the base gym in size, and that is a huge building.. I have all four kids begging to get on the playground. Since Derric can’t play there, I said not now.

Walking into the building, I realize we are really getting screwed on the Bitburg side. I am sorry… when walking into the Bitburg Youth/Teen Center, you are greeted with one pool table, an air hocky table, a huge tv, and a few tv games. There is an art & crafts room that is locked up except when it is art night. A small snack room is off to the side, and the basement houses the “teen” section, which has two stationary bikes, a smaller pool table, and a single computer…

Walking into the Spangdahlem Youth/Teen center, you pass three class rooms, filled with kids playing and doing crafts. Off to the side of the front desk is an actual cafeteria, complete with a cooking staff.. (the snack room on Bitburg is vending machines) There is a full size gymnasiam (like school regulation size) that had an instructor inside with kids, teaching them basketball moves.  I saw a “tots” room for 5-7 year olds to play in… There was also an actual locker room, complete with lockers with kids names on them in cool stickers.

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In all honesty, I have started to ask myself this just about every day for the past two weeks. Why do I even bother to try and do anything? Why do I bother attempting to do something nice for them? Any of them? Why, when all I get are yelling at each other, hitting each other, throwing of things, and reasons enough for me to just pack my bag and leave them all.
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Every base has one of these. I remember the Marine base, it was free, Kevin remembers the same about Army bases. But the Air Force bases we have been to, you have to be a member to play, membership is somewhere in the $20 range for a year. At our last base, it was exactly $20. This new one, it is $24 for a year. I didn’t mind the prince jump because it gives the kids access to both youth/teen centers, the one here on Bitburg, and the one over on Spangdahlem.
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