Back to blogging

So I have been majorly slacking on our blog and have considered giving it up, but I know our future will involve keeping in touch with lots of people and this does seem to be one of the best ways to share information (more than short posts on facebook), so I have plans to get back to blogging...
 
So stay tuned and I hope to be more consistent...not a New Year's resolution, but a change that needs to be made...

Gregory's 7th Birthday

April 27th, was Gregory’s 7th birthday, so a couple of days before we started celebrating and continued throughout the weekend.  Friday during school, we shared birthday cupcakes with Gregory’s classmates and then after school the boys from his class (along with one other who is a good friend – Tucker) met at Sensapolis for a fun time of running around, climbing (rock-climbing wall), shooting balls in the “jungle area” and so much more.  He had a Star Wars themed party and had cupcakes to share again with his friends.  He also overcame a huge “fear of heights” and he did the rock-climbing wall.  He did an awesome job and climbed incredibly high (about 2 or 3 stories high!)  Throughout the rest of the weekend we pulled out gifts from family to continue the celebrating.  One of his "big" gifts was a telescope we got from a student in our youth group.  We can't wait to be back in the USA and to let Raquel, who's newest "gig" is teach Astronomy at a college in Minneapolis to teach us how to use it :-)   

March and April

So February was finished and March came and we heard from Cadence that we weren't accepted to be missionaries with them and we got the approval from the Air Force that we can retire early.  Knowing we only had four months left we planned a "bunch" of trips.  In April (birthday month for Roxanne & Gregory) we headed north to the Netherlands.  The tulips were beautiful!  This trip was probably one of my personal favorites of our nearly three years in Europe.  My birthday was spent with the ones I love and with such beautiful scenery.  We also stopped in and visited with my friend Hope Hamer (that I met at MOPS when we were in Colorado Springs).  It was great to catch up with such a sweet friend who is living out her dream of FINALLY being in Germany :-)  

I'm Still Here

It has been a VERY long time since I have posted on my blog, every day that passes it makes me feel like I should just give up on my blog, but then in the back of my mind I keep thinking, "no, don't be a quitter."

Life has been incredibly busy these past few months.  The busyness has been making wonderful memories mostly so for this I am immensely thankful.

In November we had our first visitor, my sister.  We crammed much into the time she was here and it was a wonderful time together.  We also had a good time with friends celebrating Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for. 

Then in December, wow, we had our second visitors (my parents), visited a few Christmas Markets, celebrated Jesus' birth, Gregory memorized his first portion of scripture for our church's Christmas Eve service, celebrated Joshua's 4th birthday with lots of friends (and Grandma Judy got to make another birthday cake).

In January, we calmed things down a bit...Joshua started pre-school since he was fully potty-trained!  This was a huge accomplishment and we are very proud of him.  We also got news that we could apply for early retirement from the Air Force.

In February, we completed and submitted our application to Cadence to be missionaries to the overseas military youth.  We also (as a family) went to the Germany Cadence Middle School Retreat called Escape.  Tom was a small group leader (and Nick's right hand man), Roxanne helped Nick with Admin duties, while Joshua and Gregory ran around and had fun with the students and other kids of Cadence workers.  This was all with about 110 students from Stuttgart and about 140 more from other bases around Germany.  It was a great time for the students to grow closer to God, have fun and build relationships.  For us it was a great time to do ministry as a family and see how it can still be done with all of us together - as this was the first time we participated as a family where both Tom and I had significant roles and we had both of our boys with us.

We are nearing the end of February and we know that the pace of our lives is going to pick up again soon, as we are anxiously awaiting news from the Air Force and praying for the acceptance of our request for early retirement.     

2013 Annual Letter & Christmas Card

Autumn / Herbst

So I am not too tardy on this post as we are still in the season of Autumn, but I do know that it's been a while since I've blogged.  I guess I can say that we've been enjoying life rather than "typing" about it (except on Facebook).

So my favorite season of all has been here for a couple of months and it's turning into winter here in Germany (my least favorite season - except for the one or two days of snow I enjoy to look at).

I love the colors of autumn, the word autumn, the smells of autumn (pies of all sorts, pumpkin anything, caramel - that's not really seasonal - for me it's ALL the time!, apple everything) and the sounds of autumn (the crunch of the leaves).

As a family we got to visit a corn maze (with quite a few friends), we also visited the pumpkin festival (Tom's first time, our second time).

The Pumpkin Festival is an annual event but the theme changes each year (last year was Switzerland and this year was Sports).

The past couple of years I have gotten pictures of my two sweet boys with the beautiful colors and this makes me happy.

We also got to participate in an amazing Chapel marriage retreat down in Garmisch at Edelweiss...it is our boys FAVORITE vacation spot - mostly because of the pool.  This was such a great retreat with childcare and such beautiful scenery and then we even had friends at the retreat too, so the fellowship time was sweet too.

There have been a few other things that have happened during the fall, but those deserve their own post...so for another day...

First Day of 1st Grade

Today Gregory completed the first day of the 1st Grade.  He is in a multi-age class (K - 2nd grade) so he will keep the class (for the most part) and the same teacher (as long as she remains here).  So there wasn't a lot of "new" today for Gregory and that was kind of nice.  His class is relatively small (20 students) and about half of that number are new students (maybe a little less).  There is a german tradition that when you enter the 1st grade you get a "Schultüte".  This is a cardboard cone which is filled with "goodies" and school supplies.  Even though Joshua isn't going into 1st grade he got a miniature Schultüte because it was just easier this way.  I put some silly stuff (moustaches, toys, candy) and then a couple of school supplies in them each as well. 

I also forgot to get a picture last year of what Gregory wanted to be when he grows up, but it was a paleontologist.  This year it's an astronaut.  I love asking this question each year...it will be fun to hear what it is in 10 years from now :-)