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Farewell, Paris...

That wacko keyboard kept me from updating while in Paris.  Anything I tried to type took 3 times as long because I had to keep going back to fix things.  Annoying!  Anyway, here's how the rest of our week went:

Monday - We walked up the Champs Elysees to take in the view of the Arc de Triomphe.  Along the way, we got a big surprise when it turned out that this was the day that the Olympic torch was passing through Paris.  So, we got to see the torch and the protests that went along with it.  The big debate this year is centered around the Olympics in Beijing and the Chinese occupation of Tibet.  Right next to us, the police took down a protester who was waving the Tibetan flag from atop a bus stop.  Very exciting!

Tuesday - We spent this whole day out at Disneyland Paris.  It was Disney.  It was expensive.  It was tons of fun for the kids.  What more is there to say?

Wednesday - I forced the family to go to the Musee D'Orsay.  After the day at the Louvre, they weren't exactly excited to hit another art museum, but I really wanted to see the impressionist masterpieces.  We saw Whistler's Mother and Van Gogh's Self Portrait and lots of Monet's works.  I loved it!  In the evening, we took a boat ride and, although it was cold, we thoroughly enjoyed seeing beautiful buildings all lit up.  The family favorite was the Eiffel Tower, of course.  Just as it came into full view, the sparkling lights came on - it was as if they waited for us to be close enough.

Thursday - This was predicted to be a beautiful day, so we made our way up to the Sacre Coeur.  It is definitely my favorite church in Europe.  It's beautiful and welcoming and magical.  This time, there was a choir of nuns singing as we entered and it just made the atmosphere perfect.  Afterwards, we walked to the square nearby where the painters hang out.  We had a dozen offers to do sketches of the girls (for 50 euro a pop!), but all that Marisa wanted to do was create her own art.  She lost her little mind when we couldn't produce blank paper and markers.

Friday - We decided to have another kid-friendly day, so we headed for the Cite de la Sciences at the Parc de la Villette in northern Paris.  This is the most amazing children's museum ever.  There was so much neat stuff to check out!  We had fun for hours. 

Saturday - To make the most of our last few hours in Paris, we took an early morning walk around the Seine islands.  It was so cool being so near to Notre Dame this whole week.  I loved the majesty of such a big church and the girls loved the little playground in the park behind it.  There was this rotating disk that could have amused Jillian for hours, if we had been willing to stay there that long.  But we had to say "Good-bye" and head up to Gare de l'Est and get on our train back to Germany.

It was a great trip!  Renting an apartment is definitely the way to truly enjoy Paris...

We are in Paris!

We are in Paris and aside from this wacko keyboard everything is wonderful.  We got in yesterday and LOVE our apartment.  We are on Ile St Louis, just  a stone's throw from the Notre Dame.   Here's a link for our Apartment in Paris.  It's just the right size for a vacation place.

Today we spent a few hours at the Louvre Museum and then went up the Eiffel Tower.  Marisa was so excited to see it.  Having a great time!

Massive Update

It has been brought to my attention that I have neglected to update this blog in a long, long while.  Although it should surprise no one, it is true.  Now I will give a quick update on our activities over the last two or three months.  Pictures will come later.  Hopefully....

• In the second quarter, Jillian scored the highest points in the whole school for Reading Counts.  We are very proud of her passion for reading!
• We celebrated Marisa's 6th birthday with a unicorn theme.  We did a simple party in the basement of our building with traditional games and all the kids had a good time.
• We traveled to Stuttgart to see where Mike's relatives reportedly emigrated from.  It was a beautiful city.  We visited the zoo, the Ritter Sport Chocolate Museum and the Mercedes Museum while we were in town.
• I've been cropping a bit more frequently and finally finished my Georgia albums.  Woo-hoo!
• I had a yard sale and made over $200 (not exactly news, but exciting for me!)
• This month, I started a part-time job at the girls' school.  I'm a library assistant.  I love it.
• We are waiting for orders to our new assignment - Hawaii!

That's about it.  Does it catch you up?

An unexpected Christmas "gift"

We were spending Christmas evening with friends and the kids were supposedly watching a video.  Somehow, Jillian tripped and broke her arm.  So we got to spend Christmas night in a German emergency room.  The x-ray showed a small fracture.  This was presented to me as, "I have good news... she won't need surgery."  This was before he even told me that it had actually been broken.   European doctors don't sugar coat anything - it's all very direct!  So now Jillian is sporting a soft cast (splint with a bandage) until next week when we see the orthopedist.  Merry Christmas!

Our newest "family member"

We have to start off with an explaination that Marisa names everything.  My minivan is Percy. 

So, when we got a new car for Mike, it had to have a name.  Meet Inga... she's from Sweden.   Inga is a S60 Volvo and she's all that and more!   Since we needed a car quickly, we had to get one off the lot and ended up with features that we wouldn't have selected on our own... leather interiors, heated front seats, moonroof, fancy headlights, turbo engine.  It's pretty cool to drive a car with a little get-up and go!

The Velveeta Santa

When you live overseas, there are limited opportunities to do some things that are very ordinary in the U.S.  One of these is visiting Santa at Christmastime.  We missed out on Santa at the community tree lighting ceremony because Marisa wasn't feeling well.  So, yesterday, we were very excited to find out that he was visiting the commissary.  In the civilian world the commissary is known as the grocery store.  When we arrived, Marisa rushed right over to tell him everything on her list.  I took pictures while Mike and Jillian cracked up over Santa's throne.  Check it out....

December is always nuts...

So, cut me some slack for not being very updated. Thanks! 

Here's what we've been up to this month:

We've visited the Christmas markets in Heidelberg and Wiesbaden.  We plan to hit at least two more, because I LOVE Christmas markets.  The treats, the atmosphere, the browsing through beautiful booths.  It's all so wonderful!

Jillian rocked on her first report card with grades.  (no one seems to give grades until 4th grade these days)  She got straight A's!

St. Nicklaus visited our house and left lots of candy in the girls shoes.  Isn't it great to live in another country and celebrate their customs?!

We bought our tree when we were in Heidelberg.  The boy scouts had set up a lot at the commissary and with the horrible exchange rate, it was the best price around.  We had an intense young Cub Scout as our sales person, and he led us right to the perfect tree for us.  Then he happily posed for pictures with Marisa.  He was the highlight of that day!

What else...?  Oh, yeah...  We're moving to Belgium.  We found out last Friday and Mike has to be there at the beginning of January.  We're still working out the details of when we'll join him.  This was completely unexpected, but we're not upset.  A new adventure!

Yes, we're still out here!

Okay, time got away from me... we've been busy... I went away for a week... I'm notoriously bad about keeping up with things...

Enough excuses?  Good.  Let's move on...

The kids ended their first quarter of school earlier this month.  Jillian kicks booty and got all A's.  She sings the blues about homework and how she's having trouble catching on to concepts at school, but then she gets great grades.  My little perfectionist.  Argh.

Marisa is doing great in school, too, but they don't grade in Kindergarten.  She is learning to READ!  Her excellent memory is paying off and she's learning how to read sight words - we, see, am, a.  She is constantly talking about letters and sounds.  It's so fun to watch this skill blossom!

We had a fun Halloween.  Marisa was Little Red Riding Hood and Jillian was a phantom or a ghoul or something.  A neighbor had a party and the girls had a ball dancing, bobbing for apples and playing other games.

This week, we're gearing up to head to Garmisch.  We want to see some snow!  The highest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze, is there and it'll be beautiful.  I went to Garmisch several times when I was a kid and now I get to show it to my girls. 

Exciting week we've had

Where to begin...

Marisa lost her tooth practically right away.  It came out on Friday evening, just after Jillian was awarded her half-blue belt.   On Saturday, I got to scrapbook for over 6 hours, which is exciting for me, if not for everyone.  Jillian was one of two anchors for the AFN Kids News on Friday and Monday (sorry I can't link it since it doesn't stay online for very long).  Today Jillian was chosen to present a book to some bigwigs in DoDDS and ended up joining a couple 5th graders to give a tour of the school.  Jillian was the most articulate- I was so proud!  We've got neat kids.

My baby is growing up

It's been a while, but I just have a short comment for today.  My precious baby Marisa is hitting a new milestone.  She's got her first loose tooth!  She bit into a plum at lunch and it hurt.  When I went looking for a cavity, I found a loose tooth instead.   Marisa is very excited!