Mom's Away, the kids will play, part 2

The kids survived day 1!  I slept in a little on Saturday, then put on a DVD of Bugs Bunny cartoons and went for a 5 mile run.  Joy and I have been running farther and farther down the hill at the mid-way point as she increases her distance, but the extra quarter mile I ran today felt nearly straight DOWN.  And the run back up was brutal.  I think we'll have to change our route to get Joy up to 5 miles!

I made French Toast and bacon for breakfast, and Ian and I had the leftover hashbrowns from Rockers.  We got everyone set for the day, then took Bella on a 2 mile walk.  Ellie really wanted to run with Bella, and she probably ran/walked 500 yards or so!

We went back to the house, loaded some snacks, got gas at Landstuhl, got cat food at Kaufland (my comfort level for shopping on the local economy is improving), and went to the Speyer Technical Museum.  It was about an hour away, and is just off the end of the Speyer Airport.  The main exhibit hall is a former hangar, and outside is a Boeing 747 mounted about 60 feet in the air with a slide back to the ground!  The interior of the plane has some cut away parts, and you can go to the flight deck/first class area, as well as the cargo hold.  Ian and Ellie both liked it!

 Ian and Ellie on the landing going up to the 747, with the old hangar in the back ground.

 Ian under the 747.  It's at a bit of an odd angle, and walking around in it makes you feel a little disoriented.

  Looking to the tailcone of the airplane, Ian is standing in the cargo hold, with his arms where the seats would go.

 In the distance was a beautiful cathedral. We ended up in that neighborhood looking for McDonald's for dinner...it looked like a great place to explore!

The lion was very random.  Having an 11-year-old in drama class is a blessing and a curse.

Even though this jet was a MiG, Ellie liked it because the nose and the tail were hot pink.

Ian and I liked the U-boat.  It was a post-World War II diesel-electric, from what we could gather.  I didn't realize the front end was so blunt.

Ellie, of course, has as much drama as her brother.  Here, they are being sucked into a giant turbofan engine.  Oy.

I didn't realize the Soviets made their own space shuttle.  This was a non-space flight version with jet engines for high atmosphere tests.  Turns out, they did some great work on remote-controlled flight!  And this version is far larger than the US space shuttle.  The two Soviet BURANs went into space 25 times, until the program was curtailed when the USSR failed in 1989.

Ian (did I mention he's taking a drama course?) liked the Corvette.  I liked the Mercedes 300 Gullwing coupe in the back, not to mention a beautiful Audi, a pair of Jaguars, and a Mercedes that used to belong to the King of Iraq.

We ended up closing the place, eating at McDonald's near the highway, and then heading home to bed.

Sunday was relatively routine, with Sunday School (I taught), church, lunch at a Holiday Bazaar on Rhine Ordinance Barracks that looked very similar to the one on Ramstein in September, and then a few chores.  Ellie fell asleep on the couch, and I had to wake her up for AWANA back at church.  Ian tried out a new evening course (not AWANA), and he now has a role in a drama the youth are putting on.  Did I mention he's liking his drama course?  One of our Sunday School classmates made a whole chicken with potatoes and carrots for us, felling sorry for us that Joy is away.  I also taught the lesson on FELLOWSHIP and meeting the needs of the church through small groups, so perhaps my message hit the mark.  Anyway, Ian and Ellie both made it to bed by 2100 (much later than I would've liked, but it took me 15 minutes to find Ian after church).  By the time the lunches were made, and a long-sleeved blues shirt was ironed, it was 2200!  I'm not sure how single parents do it.

Tomorrow, Ellie will go next door to her AWANA teacher's house for the day, while Ian is in school.  I'll leave work a little early to get him to hockey, then we'll have more of the 7 lbs. chicken I mentioned above.

Somewhere, in there, I'll get Air War College and the honey-do list done...I hope.

Mom's away, the kids will play, part 1

Joy and I have been going to a parenting class, and one of the things we need to work on is affirming our children, just as they are.  It was shortly after this lesson that Joy felt led to fly home to see Josh in the lead of his play at Armstrong Atlantic State University.  That leaves ME with the kiddos for a few days.  In order to preclude all the usual gasps of incredulity, I decided I should try to put up a few pictures of how we're doing.

Friday, after dropping Joy off at the airport, I took the kids to base for breakfast at JR Rockers.  We went home to rescue Bella from herself (she likes to sleep in, so she wasn't up when we left at 0600), and took her for a picnic at Burg (castle) Nanstein in Landstul, the largest town closest to the house.

We thought about exploring the castle, as it has been partially restored, but because there was a fee and we had Bella (who has no qualms about defecating on floors), we decided we could do that another day when Joy was around.

 With the castle at my back, you are looking north at Ellie over the town of Landstuhl.  Ramstein Air Base is off to the right about 4 miles, behind the tree to Ellie's right.

 Now, looking nearly west, the rest of Landstuhl is nestled in the valley, below.  The notch in the trees holds another small fort-like edifice that I presume was an observation post that could send signals to the castle.  Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and Ian's school is behind that ridge, farther to the left of the picture.

We did a 700 meter loop in the forest.  Ellie walked for about half of it.  Bella liked it a great deal.  Ellie never misses a chance to take her blanket everywhere!

After the picnic, we went back to base for Ian to get shots.  Otherwise, he'd be barred from school on Monday.  We were able to opt out of the flu vaccine, though.  Then, we bought a printer at the Exchange, so Joy can print her recipes and Ian can print his schoolwork.  I've downloaded the iPhone app to be able to print to it...I wonder if I'll ever use it?

For dinner, Ian and I finished the chicken curry Joy made last week, and Ellie had salami and crackers while we watched the original Lion King on VHS.  I'd really like to digitize the whole collection and be done with DVDs and VHS, etc.  But that will take lots of time.  Maybe after Air War College...

Rhine River Cruise

 

Joy mentioned that some folks had gone on the Rhine River cruise in October, and the colors made it a spectacular trip.  So, Joy did the research, I got us all up early, and off we went to Bingen, Germany, a port on the Rhine.  We took the Audi so we could make good time, and use the Germany GPS, but as it was, we basically parked and walked on the boat as it was leaving...the Germans are punctual!

I was expecting something like the ferry we took at Sault Ste. Marie:  an open-deck boat that was very loud.  Fortunately, I found we were on a 3-deck boat that was glassed in on two levels.  We had wait service and warmth on the cool fall day!  We took advantage of it and had tea and apple kuchen (cu-ken, an apple cake) on the way out, and brats, chicken nuggets, pommes frittes (French fries!), and salad on the way back.  The boat went about 2 hours downstream (North) towards the North Sea, and got off in St. Goar to look around.  This is Joy, Ian, and Ellie with our boat in the background at St. Goar.  The top deck was open air, but we didn't spend much time there.

We did have a minute before we got on the boat to snap this picture of a grinder organ player.  The monkey is fake, but the rest of it is authentic!

This is one of the first castles North of Bingen, though I snapped this one on the way back upstream.  There were nearly a dozen castles in various states of repair (or disrepair).  We did jot down the name of one that is now a hotel.  I'm thinking Joy and I might need a date, soon!  Though I know Ian and Ellie would both love to stay overnight in a real castle!











This is Ian with the fall colors and a castle in the back. 

When we got off in St. Goar to look around, we found this lovely old church.  After taking this picture, we walked up the hill behind it, and down the alleys.  It's tough to live on a hill...the kids really have nowhere to play because NOTHING is flat!

Joy has some other pictures to put up, but I can't edit her draft, so you'll have to wait for her version.  I just know we are way behind, but with Joy in the US for Josh's play, this weekend, I have a minute to BLOG just a little.  

The colors, though not quite peak, were lovely, and it was nice to just sit back and relax for several hours and watch the world float by. 

Side note: I apologize for the formatting.  Google has changed how the interface works, and I've got some work to do.

A Month in Review

Yet another month has passed and I haven't been updating the blog like I had hoped. It didn't help that we finally got our stuff and we've been busy trying to get the house in order as well as enjoy our weekends and the beautiful weather while we could. I am posting some pictures from the past month to try and catch up on what we've done as best I can. The next couple of pictures are of the scenery we get to enjoy daily!











The next picture is of us with our landlords, Pirmin and Monika, at a place they took us to eat one Sunday. They are currently on vacation and we have missed them!





These next few pictures are at a big wine festival in Bad Durkheim. It is a huge festival with a big ferris wheels (you can see the pictures) and even a roller-coaster! Ian and I did the roller-coaster and I must admit that knowing it was a set up and tear down kind of ride definitely increased the fear factor a little!





This picture is of Ian eating a chocolate covered marshmallow at the festival. It was pretty rich!





These two pictures are of the before mentioned ferris wheel that Brian and Ellie rode. That girl has no fear but her mom stresses the whole time she's on these kind of rides!





I took the following picture to prove that Germans really do eat corn!





This is a picture of something you'll see at just about any festival. They are cookies with a message written on them. I haven't ever actually seen anyone eating one!





I saw this on our way home from the festival and had to take a picture. It's a brat and a bottle of wine with a glass.





One day, I was driving home and had to come to a pretty abrupt stop because four horses were in the middle of the road trotting along. (No human in site with them). By the time my camera was ready, I was only able to get this picture but at least I have proof!





The next few pictures I took at a fall festival at a place called Hirtschhof. The first picture is of flammkuchen that has become one of our favorite foods!





Here is Ellie with one of the pumpkin displays.





How about the great pumpkin?











This picture is of Brian and Ellie as they were leaving for the daddy/daughter dance.





While visiting a friend, she took Ellie and I to this place right by her house where we were able to feed deer! It was amazing to see them running over to us!





Eventually some goats joined in, too.




A couple of weeks ago our village had a little festival. Ian and Ellie really enjoyed the bumper cars.


Check out Ellie's expression in this one!


It's really fall and our apple and pear trees have been in need of harvesting so we finally got most of them. Here is some pictures of us harvesting them.



The apples!





Ellie in the apple tree - ready to go to AWANA.





I know there is more we have done in the past month but that
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Germany

A Fitting Conclusion

For the first time, Brian gets to write on this public BLOG! As y'all know, half of 2010 and half of 2011 were spent apart, as I was in Iraq and Joy held down the home front in Georgia. While the separation was awful, and not something I care to repeat, it is no secret that I had a GREAT time while I was deployed. I had an awesome boss, a series of great teams, a mission I could be passionate about, and freedom to go do the J.O.B.

There were several interesting things that developed while I was there, typically involving Iraqi insurgents and the Iraqi Army Aviation Command. As a result of how I got to participate in those events, and due to the contributions my teams enabled me to make, I was awarded the Bronze Star, today, by Lt Gen Gorenc, the commander of Third Air Force.

I had deliberately not mentioned the level of award (mostly because I found out only recently) because I wanted to be able to post the pictures and video here to share with all the followers. I did not mention that to Joy, though, and she might've mentioned it on Facebook before we could get the BLOG up-to-date. Added to that, I have captured the video on computer, but it's too big to post, and the software I have to edit it won't recognize the format the video is in. Add to that, the theater was really dark, and the picture above is the only one that really came out. SO, apologies to all that I didn't spill the beans earlier, and a promise that we'll keep trying to get the video up so you can hear the citation!

I don't know what will happen in Iraq as US forces leave, but I know that we left an indelible mark on the people with whom we worked, and they changed us, too. I know that the cradle of civilization has some cultural inertia to overcome, and I don't harbor any illusions that they will ever be a near-peer competitor, again. But there are some Iraqis who have tasted liberty, who know what freedom of expression is, and they are the ones who need to fight for their own security against an enemy that offers no retreat, no dialogue, no hope, no future, and no competing vision of any value whatsoever. The good guys in Iraq exist. I met them. I spent a year of my life with them, and my family gave a year of their lives to them. The Bronze Star is merely a representation of the blood, sweat, and tears that one family gave so the greatest country on Earth could share with the people of Iraq their chance to claim the inalienable rights of their Creator, namely life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I wish them well.

One month today

It is hard to believe but we have been in Germany for a month today! We have been in our house almost two weeks and hope to actually get our stuff on Monday! Since the majority of our time here is spent in our village, I thought it appropriate that this entry should focus on it. Here are some pictures of our village. They were taken from a path outside the village so you can get a feel for its size and quaintness!






The followig pictures were taken by Ian from an upstairs window of the house one morning.





Here a some pictures of the kirche (church) in our village.






We have some of the most amazing scenery as we leave our house heading other places. It's pretty cute because now Ellie will say, "Look at the view, Mom. Isn't it beautiful". We are truly blessed and hope we don't take it for granted in our next few years here!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad