Impact 2011 - Belgium Youth Retreat

In my previous post I said we've been busy, busy, busy.  One of the things in our lives that kept us a little extra busy was planning for and participating in Impact 2011.  This was a retreat for youth put on my the International Baptist Churches in Europe.  We attend one of those churches and attended a different one when we lived up in Ramstein.  We've kept in touch with our friend Jan Horak, who is the youth pastor at Faith Baptist in Ramstein so this is how we got roped into helping...just kidding...we were invited to help and loved helping!  Unfortunately, I was just getting over being sick with bronchitis and Tom was just getting sick when we were leaving.  So the whole weekend Tom wasn't feeling real well, so he didn't have as much fun as he could have, had he been well.  So Tom was in charge of the recreation time (games) and I was in charge of the food (for about 100 people).  There were many challenges during the weekend, but we did our best and came out happy to have gotten to enjoy the time away in Belgium in spite of the challenges.

Some of the highlights of the weekend...
-Gregory got to pretend to be a teenager for the weekend :-)
-Joshua got to hang out with mom A LOT in the kitchen
-Joshua also got to help make 7 cakes and 6 pans of bars before we left for Belgium
-Gregory got to help peel 48 apples for some of the applesauce we made at home to take to Belgium
-Got to see an old friend from a retreat about 4 years ago...when we had the same speaker
-Got to make new friends - had wonderful people to help in the kitchen (about 6 adults)
-Got to stay in an OLD Chateau...it was so crazy and beautiful there!
-Like I said Tom was sick, but he enjoyed using a megaphone, especially since he was so hoarse.
-Most importantly 8 youth committed their lives to Jesus Christ!

To see more pictures, go to our shutterfly website and to see even more pictures, listen to some of the messages and read some of the youth comments go to these websites:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/IBC-Youth-Impact-Fall-Retreat/199974680079930
https://www.facebook.com/events/179351518814328/
http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

We've been busy...so let's catch up

As always, we've been busy...busy unpacking, packing and unpacking.  In the past three months we've taken four trips to Ramstein (2 hours away), one trip to Belgium and numerous trips to the grocery store :-) 

We've gone to Ramstein to visit our good friend's Jan, Ginger and kids, celebrated Tom's birthday, visited my other good friend (Jean and her two boys), had another good friend take some pictures of us at a castle for our Christmas pictures (Thanks Anna!), stopped through on our way to Belgium, and most recently for Tom's medical appointments. 

Of course there has been much unpacking of boxes going on in our house and last night we may have unpacked the last boxes (other than some large pictures).

The boys have had lots of fun playing, coloring, pretending and just being boys.  Joshua loves coloring.  Gregory loves legos.  Joshua loves being in the kitchen helping with dishes and making cakes and brownies.  Gregory loves dressing up like a doctor and says he wants to be a doctor like Uncle Bryan when he grows up. 

Here are a few recent pics.

A cheap adventure day

So today we set out on an adventure to find a pumpkin (to cook) and some apples (to eat).  We found both and even more!  We went to where there is a "self serve" wagon to buy fall items and there is also a self serve flower field when they are in season.  So we picked out a pumpkin after wandering around the flowers that are in season.  Here are a few pics from this part of our adventure.

And then we set out to find apples.  We didn't know for sure where we were going, so we drove out to Robinson Barracks (about 1/2 hr away) and didn't find any "state/city" apple trees.  It was a nice drive with all the fall colors.  So we set out to come back home.  We were just outside the gate to go back on base to head home when I looked over at the "park area" outside our base and noticed APPLE trees (and a few pear trees).  We drive by them EVERY day multiple times a day!  So we parked and hopped out and got a few apples, played at a fun "natural" playground and visited with an Oma (grandma) and her enkel (grandson).

On the way home Gregory asked me what does "spiele" mean?  Very cute and even enunciated correctly.  He has been learning so much German.  I think the Oma was talking to Gregory and that's where he picked it up, but then also he was asking "how do I say I want to play outside after Joshua's nap?"

It was so funny to find APPLES right outside our base, now to find some more so we can make some applesauce!  I can't wait!

Gregory starts Preschool

An event as big as this deserves its own post...

Here are the pictures from the big day.

What we've been up to...

We've been in Germany a little over a month and we've been in our apartment a little over two weeks.  We are still at most two weeks away from getting the "rest of our stuff".  I can't hardly wait!  Not sure what I am most excited about...having OUR microwave, or OUR bed, or just a simple pair of scissors.  Sometimes it's the little things that matter so much! 

So what have we been up to?  Well, Tom is the easiest one to start with...he's been working.  Not a lot, but long hours when he is working and we've sure missed him whenever he's not with us during the day.

Joshua is the next easiest, he's been busy playing, getting into trouble and following his big brother around where ever he goes.

Gregory has been enjoying Germany lots, but still missing his best buddies in Colorado.  There aren't too many days that go by when he doesn't mention something about someone in CO or he's flying his airplanes to Colorado or just remembering good times we've had when we were in CO.  Gregory LOVES preschool.  He's been learning about the letter "O" and he has a wonderful teacher that is helping him learn.  We've also attended the same church for two weeks in a row and this has been a big deal for Gregory.  He's enjoyed learning here as well.  There's been new songs, new friends and crafts (his favorite).  Today I loved to hear Gregory telling Joshua, "Goliath, you cannot defeat me!"  And then yesterday Gregory was quizzing Tom about all kinds of bible facts like, is there a story about Moses when he was a baby?

And then there's me.  I have been meeting new people trying to find new friends through MOPS, PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel), hanging out at the park, church and any where else I meet women.

This move has been a difficult transition for our family, but we have so much to be thankful for...most importantly, we are together as a family. 

Here are some pics that have been bringing smiles to our faces, hope you enjoy them as well.

Germany Part II

After leaving MO we headed to Atlanta, GA for our first leg of the trip.  There we spent a night and then left Georgia for Germany.  The flight from MO to GA was uneventful as was the flight from GA to Germany.  We were so thankful the boys behaved and weren't too frustrated by being confined to their seats.

Of course there were little "issues" once we got here in Germany, but overall God has for sure been with us and helping us as we are adjusting.  It's very different here in Stuttgart than when we were in Ramstein.  Of course having TWO boys is one of the biggest differences.

We got our van pretty quickly after getting our licenses, so that's been nice.  We've taken a road trip up to Ramstein already and got to hang out with some wonderful friends (Jan, Ginger and kiddos).  It was nice to get to spend a couple of days with them.  Such dear friends and wonderful to catch up with them.

We are in our apartment.  It's way smaller than our house back in COS, but it's bigger than our last place at Ramstein.  We are anxious to get the rest of our stuff so we can really make this feel like home.

The weather here has been great (warm and cooler days), so we've spent LOTS of time at the various parks all around.  Gregory has found kids to play with most everywhere we've gone, although, he does realize they aren't his "friends".  So that has been hard for him with being as social as he is.  He misses his wonderful friends from Colorado for sure.   

Another big thing for us since getting to Germany is Gregory has started preschool two days a week.  He has gone two times so far and is loving every minute of it.  The main reason for him going isn't for him to learn tons, but to learn to listen in a structured classroom setting AND to learn some while he's there.  Kindergarten will be here before we all know it (a year from now!). 

So there we have it, I'm closer to caught up!  Next up will be to get some pics of our new place online, but for that we'll wait until all of our stuff is here..in a few weeks.

MO Visit

After our goodbyes in Colorado we got to spend some time with Tom's family in Missouri.  It was a great time!  We spent lots of time with Tom's mom, Betty.  Me and the boys enjoyed spending more time with her this time than any other visit, so that made it especially nice. 

We got to spend time with Tom's sister and her family as well.  So the cousins enjoyed more time together since we had seen them earlier in he summer.  We were so thankful that we got to see all of our family before we left for Germany.

While with Betty, we took some time to get some pictures of the boys with their Grandma Betty.  Joshua and Gregory both had no problem warming up to their grandma that they've only gotten to see a few times.  As always, Gregory had lots of questions for grandma and Joshua was just thrilled to show off and eat crackers.