smorgasboard!

So I find myself thinking several times a day (I know that's a shocker to some =) ) about how I need to post this or that on our blog, but like many other things, I forget soon after that. Today I had the brilliant idea to actually write some of those things down and tonight I am going to just bounce from one subject to the next to cover all that we can! Here goes!

Our neighbors all around us seem to be pretty nice. It is really hard to explain just how many neighbors you actually have because all of these houses are crammed in together like a bunch of puzzle pieces but just bear with me. One of the ladies who lives behind us (kind of) met Brent, Mason, and Sadie one day soon after we moved in. I wasn't outside because Brent says I was in writing our divorce papers out, but basically I was just having a hard time adjusting and needed a break! When she came over to talk to them (which we all have a hard time doing because she doesn't know much more english other than "moment"), she brought fresh home grown tomatoes and then went and cut me some fresh flowers. The bouquet of flowers was gorgeous! I mean you seriously might pay $40 for these in the states. The last time we saw her out there with some encouragement, I went over and attempted a conversation with her and she again brought fresh tomatoes, green peppers, and then some other kind of pepper as well. She also brought more flowers. I really wish I had taken a picture of them, but I will be sure to do that next time! I feel so bad because I never have anything cool or fresh to give these people. So, feel free to send me any good "American" ideas to hand out to all of our German buddies! I must admit that I just may be beginning to like it here (ssshhh...don't tell Brent though, I'll never hear the end of it)!

Oh...another cute story. So, Mason was getting out of the car to go to school yesterday and Brent was staying in the car with Sadie while I walked him in. As he gets out of the car Mason yells, "Daddy take care of Sadie....and when she screams, give her paci!" Too cute and too sweet that he thinks of her like that! He really is good with her and he is THE man to make her smile. She loves him!

Speaking of Sadie, she had her first cereal tonight! Lately I don't know whether she's on her growth spurt or I'm not enough for her anymore, but she has barely been going 2 hours in between feedings including at night, so needless to say, I am a bit of a zombie in the mornings again. After feeding her bottles several times after I had already nursed her, I decided we might give cereal a whirl. She has been watching us eat at every meal lately and follows the food to our mouths while drooling, so I know she's gotta be ready. When we went to the store today, Mason ran up the actual cereal aisle yelling, "Mommy what kind of cereal are you going to get Sadie?" Too funny! He wasn't impressed with the cereal that we bought, but Evan (I'm sure you'll read this) you would be because we bought her ORGANIC cereal! At any rate, we had our first attempt at eating tonight. If we can ever figure out how to download the videos on here, we'll show you how it turned out. At first she didn't act like she really cared for any of the activity going on but after we stopped filming, she would get really excited when I picked up the spoon and kick her legs and if I put the spoon down, she would begin crying. It's all a learning process I guess. Oh and on a less exciting note, I must post this so that my sister doesn't feel too bad about stuff that happened to her little ones when they were babies. I won the bad mom of the day award yesterday. I was cutting Sadie's nails and yep, I cut her little finger. Poor baby just whimpered a bit, but it did bleed for quite a while and I finally gave in to Mason's request to give her one of his Transformer band aids!




Last but not least, Mason has decided that cooking in Germany must be cool (and cleaning the dishes since we have no dish washer) so he helps out quite a bit. Well, tonight he decided he wanted some hot chocolate, so him and Brent made hot water and Mason mixed everything up for us. He is quite the barista as he made sure that no single part of our hot chocolate was exposed and it was all filled up with marshmallows. Here are some cute pics of the little barista! Side note: He has not grown 2 feet, he is on a stool!


Just one more marshmallow (about 6 more times!)


He's just cute!

O the places you'll go!

So, last weekend we decided we would be more like those around us (aka Germans) and take the train! It was amazingly easy to do. I kind of find the train schedule hard to figure out, but once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad and once you know where you're going and what platform you're going to, you're in business. We made it to the train station decently early and caught the first part of our trip on a train to Nurnberg. From there we rode a double decker train (and of course we had to sit up top) to Bamberg, Germany. After a few initial scares that something had to be wrong with the train, Mason was all for it, too. Who knows what makes this kid scared of nearly everything, I'm not sure. Here's some pictures of the trian ride. The "McClean" you see there is the bathrooms. Yes, you have to pay to pee (or you know)! It is one euro there which is almost $1.50. Pure craziness, but we all used it!


This is the double decker train that we rode to Bamburg.


The potty!


The first train ride to Nurnberg.


...and again...
Mason chillin' with his game like he's a teenager in a seat all by himself!

Now for Bamberg. This town is EXTREMELY old with a lot of history (of which I will not bore you to death with like Brent would if he were writing this blog). While there we toured a palace which was acutally quite cool to see how well preserved it is considering it was in the 1400s or something crazy like that when this place was thriving. We also peeked our heads in a couple of cathedrals which were so incredibly ornate! The town is known as "little Venice" because of its canals in the middle of the city and the gondolas that are present as well as the buildings right on the water. Here's some of what we saw.

SOCCER STAR!

This blog is going to be short and sweet since it really only has Mason's soccer game as its purpose.

Well, Mason sure did prove me wrong today (this was actually September 18)! I don't know if it was because he was just on his game or because his Daddy was back to watch him or because his friends came to watch him, but the boy scored 3 goals at the soccer game today! We got all 3 of them on video, too. I don't even think after the first one he knew what he was doing!

This picture was taken after he made his first goal!

We also decided we wanted to go somewhere this weekend, so we'll report back on that at a later date. I think there's a train ride in it for us. Brent and some of the folks in his office wanted us to go to Munich for the opening day of Oktoberfest, but after hearing horror stories of what it would be like, I will not take my kids there.

Another exciting feat accomplished today was ordering pizza and having it delivered. It was successful, too! I have to say I can't take the credit because Brent made the call.

While we've been doing all of this today, Sadie has just sat around as her little trendy self. She is seriously more trendy than I am. It seems to be a good problem, though. I am losing weight quicker than expected so all of my clothes are either too big or just a little too small. At any rate, I took some pictures of Miss Priss on our new couch. This too impresses me because it came in 3 pieces and with NO directions and somehow Brent still got it together. We'll see how it withstands time. Ha, ha...just kidding Brent!


By the way Julie, can you get these pics off of here and print them or do you need more sent in e-mails? You people are really time consuming to keep updated on our lives. You would think you never get to see the kids because we live overseas or something!

Well, I thought today was going to deem a really interesting blog, but thank goodness it didn't. Brent had to go pick up some furniture that we ordered before he went out in the field, so he had to drop the kids and I off at Burger King 30 minutes before Mason's school day started. This meant that I had to get our food, eat, make Mason do more eating than playing, and WALK the kids back across pretty much most of the base all in 30 minutes! We actually made it within 5 minutes of start time and I was highly impressed (highly winded also, but that's okay). Anyhow, this wasn't the worst of it. We had high chances of rain the whole afternoon, so I was expecting it to just bottom out on me at some point, but it barely sprinkled and that was only one time during the 4 and a half hours we were out there. See, I had to entertain myself and Sadie during Mason's school because again, Brent had the car. Aaaahhh, such is the life of a single car family. Have I mentioned how much I despise that single car? Brent got a little taste of it today when the bottom (yes, the bottom) of the car came down and began flapping as he was on his way to pick up the furniture. HA! It's finally him and not me...except for the fact that just yesterday I had carried it to the car care center and had someone "tack" it up for me if you will. Huh...must have not worked!

Anyhow, I've been nursing a bad foot if you will for several days now. How one can twist (or actually I'm not exactly sure how it went down) their ankle and have bruises on the top of their foot and the sides of their foot and in between their toes, I'm not quite sure, but nonetheless, I did it! It's talent if you ask me! My foot was asleep and somehow when I got up (holding the baby mind you), I fell, but luckily not down, just up against the bed and waaaala!, it was done. Who knows, but all is working well again.

Tonight Mason was being quite the handfull, but he actually did something so very smart and very very sweet for Sadie. Bless her heart the kid had been irritable all afternoon and we finally got her down for a siesta while we were eating. She woke up shortly thereafter and I wanted to finish the dishes before I got her. Before I knew it, my little helper had left the stool by my side and disappered into our room. Brent looked over not long after that to find him pushing Sadie in her bassinet out to us. He couldn't get the wheels up over the ledge to get out of our room, so the lined up a big plastic bin behind it and I guess thought the extra weight of it might be enough to send it on over. After a little coaxing from Brent as to how to accomplish this task , in rolled Sadie to the kitchen! It might have not been the smoothest ride of her life, but I know that she was greatful for her big brother's efforts!

Not enough hours in my day!

Dear Mr. Sandman,

If you don't mind, I could really use at least a few hours extra every day. Thanks. P. S. A few extra hands would be great, too.

I don't know what it is around here, but I seriously cannot get everything in order around these parts! I don't know if it is that we have 2 sets of stairs that I am not used to, 2 kids instead of one, no husband (well, he's back now), the fact that it literally takes a load of clothes 2 hours, 28 minutes to dry, or just simply the fact that I have lost all my self confidence temporarily in this move to a foreign country, but I just don't ever get everything checked off of my list each day.

The day of (or the day before, I don't really know, they all run together) Brent's arrival home, I was trying to get the kids in the car and get on the move. Somehow I forgot that I had left the diaper bag in the front of the car until I ran smack over it! That makes 2 diaper bags now and Sadie is only3 months old! If you didn't know, the first bag went kaput when Brent and Mason spilled our fish's water all in the bag and we couldn't get the smell out no matter what. It is now dubbed the "fish bag" and living in the states at my dad's house! That whole escapade is another story all in itself! It's like I told Brent, for some reason, I can't just have a complete, disaster free day!

Anyhow, I have a few minutes today to give a brief update, so I thought I would. Since we last blogged, Brent made it home (praise the Lord), Mason's started school (which he loves), and he had his first soccer game.

Mason really does love his school. This year he has a leg up on being a ladies' man because he and Zachary (his side kick who's also on his soccer team) are the only 2 boys in the classroom. Mason did fine, in fact, I don't think he could get me out of the door fast enough and I think the feeling was mutual. He was completely bored of being at home with same 'ole mom all day and I really did need a small break from his whining every day! His teacher, Mrs. Sardella, is sweet as pie and I really like the program so far. He was so excited for his first day at school that even though he had to have 5 shots (yes, poor, poor baby), he went on trucking like it was just another day and did not have a single bother from them. The day after, however, he was a holy terror as far as whining and mis behaving and I am sure it could be attributed to the shots. When he talked to my dad at the end of the day and found out it was my Birthday, he later admitted he might should have acted better considering the occasion. I pretty much delcared it my un birthday and I might try turning 27 again next year. That sounds really quite old, huh? I certainly don't FEEL that old at all!

Now, Mason's soccer game. When I first heard that they only allow these kids to have a 30 minute game, I really was kind of irritated. Their practice usually runs over and the kids do just fine, so i didn't quite understand...until Friday! Mason really did a fine job "playing" the game the first half of it. He still really has NO idea how to play and it was quite humorous watching the coach run from one side of the field, blow his whistle because the ball went out of bounds, get it set up to go again, only to run to the other side of the field, blow his whistle and repeat the whole song and dance pretty much the whole game. The kids all intend for th ball to head towards A goal, not necessarily their own, but it just seems to be a little challenging yet for them. Half time rolls around and then I begin to experience WHY they only want the kids playing for this short amount of time. Mason and his buddy, Zachary, begin pushing each other and goofing off and then, here's the real kicker: Mason decides it would be hilarious to take his shirt and put it over his head (so he can't see a darn thing) and run around aimlessly on the field. I've never been so embarrassed in my life. I cannot do anything but yell at this point either because Sadie is hooked up to me eating, of course! O well, I just attribute that to him being the youngest on the team and another reason why kindergarten next year may need to be put off for one more year so that he's not always the baby!

Here are a few pictures of the kids lately. You can click on each picture to bring up a full size one! Sadie is getting much bigger, of course. Brent even thinks in the 10 days he was gone that she looks bigger. She is also cooing like crazy and even gives a good chuckle every now and then! She has become a big fan of being carried around in the baby Bjorn all day, too. I would normally not do this, but i only have so long with just one kid and i have so much to accomplish in that time frame that I can't afford not to hold her. She also has the craziest, loudest, most ear piercing scream that one cannot function if she is doing this, so the baby Bjorn it is. My mom thinks I'm getting pay back for how I was when I was a baby! If so, bless her heart and thank God for the new inventions of the Baby Bjorn and baby slings!



Here's Sadie's 3 month picture with her baby doll!



There's some serious stretching going on because it is about to go down on the soccer field!


The Green Garden Snakes vs. Minute Maid! (Can you guess that the little guys came up with our team name?)


The proof is in the pudding ladies and gentlemen! I thought I might have gotten a picture of this and sure enough, here it is! That's a soccer star if I've EVER seen one!


When Brent got home, Mason decided to take a walk in his boots!



Sleepin' sweet baby girl =)

Such is the life of an Army wife!

So, today I discovered that Mason totally gets that I am playing the role of both Mommy and Daddy at the same time. He came in yesterday with a few of his transformers that were taken apart. I had lots going on and did not get a chance to "fix" them before I went to bed, so Mason found them on the night stand this morning. He immediately started in on me about putting them back together, so I began trying to do so. After becoming frustrated with Bumblebee, I decided to work on 'ole Optimus Prime and was successful. It was a euphoric moment that I was able to complete this task, so while on my success trip, I decided to tackle Bumblebee again. It truly is amazing to me that these things are technically for ages 5 and up! Ifinally had to tell Mason that I couldn't get it but that Daddy would be able to get it once he got home. Well at this point you can see the wheels turning. He knows that Daddy isn't coming home any time soon, so he politely says, "Well, you can be the Daddy, too." Bless his heart. I've come to the conclusion that this is something females just aren't really made to do, so Papa (my dad), GET READY!!!

Since everyone is interested in what goes on with little miss priss, too, here's a little update on her. I stepped on the scale today with her and it looks like she's about 12 pounds. I think that sounds about right. She's also really beginning to coo a whole lot! It is so funny to see Mason with her when she does it because every time she makes a noise, Mason swears she's saying something that actually makes sense. Even if it is only one sound, it is always a word and most of the time it will even pertain to the conversation that he and I are having. Mason really thinks highly of her to hear actual words and at that, words that are used in the correct context of our conversation! Too funny.

Let's see what I can give you all as far as me. I had a decently successful conversation with our landlord, who is also our neighbor about the trash schedule today. They have really been good about overly explaining most things, but I don't think they understand that Americans don't have 4 separate trash bins and 4 separate trash schedules! Now, I need to explain that whole system briefly with you. We have a trash can for organics, papers, trash, and then yellow plastic bags for plastics. Also, your glass has to be carried off separately as well as batteries, etc. OK, here goes: I will randomly find their trash can by the road, but ours isn't out there, so this morning that happened and much like I used to do in Alabama, I panicked thinking the trash men would be here any minute, so I rushed to get dressed and raced out to the edge of the road only to find Heir Kansler out there. He explained to me that the trash doesn't actually run until tomorrow, but since his bin was full, they put theirs out early. He then looked into our bin and said it isn't full enough yet. I'm thinking there's about 6 inches left until it hits the top, and why does it even matter? We're paying for it! Besides that, they only run one time every 2 weeks and yes, I am serious, so does he assume we won't take it out this time? Anyhow, he explains that we will find some trash (this thought is just hilarious for me) to fill ours this evening and take it out to the road then! I got home tonight and it was out there, so I am sure he filled it with some sort of good trash for us! It is amazing, though, to see that you really do have such little REAL trash once you sort everything through!

Well, that about sums up a typical day for me. I know they are probably thinking, "Why in the world did we ever rent to these stupid Americans?!," but if they do, they never let on. They really are as sweet as can be and as far as that goes, we are truly lucky!

Until next time....OH! I will post some pics here pretty soon!

Move In Day

Fall is nearing us....we think!

So, we have finally moved into our house. It was definitely a euphoric day for us as the moving truck rolled in with OUR things! Mason was indeed happy, but he quickly got impatient to have everything of his brought out. We worked on his room first and things are definitely coming together, but it is still just a house and not a home. I have come to the realization that no matter what 'home' amenities I have, it is going to take a while to get used to all of the differences. Move in day went pretty smoothly and to be honest, we only had one real casualty as far as broken items. A kitchen chair was broken but we have hopes that it can be fixed. We also are missing our stroller and one or two boxes of clothes/pillows. As all of you army wives know, we will put a claim in and sometime within the next century, they'll help us out with it. We have worked our tails off the last 4 or so days trying to get everything in place and we are quickly realizing how much bigger this house is than all of our stuff is. We went to one of the stores today and spent a ridiculous amount of money on a few items that we really needed and we were able to bring a few of them with us, but we had to rent a truck for 2 weeks from now to get the rest because we didn't have room in our car and Brent leaves for the field for 2 weeks starting tomorrow. Luckily, for Brent's sake, we already have phone, internet, and 1o whole channels of English programming! Out of the many threats to move back to the United States, without these things while I'm by myself for 2 weeks, I seriously might have gone back without them! So far I have only met one person, so needless to say, I'm dreading these 2 weeks. I have posted the pre move-in pics on facebook, so check it out!