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Bad Duerkheim by train

If you love wine, or good food, or rides, or games, or wine, or overeating, then the Bad Duerkheim Wine Wurst Markt is just the place for you!   They claim to be a big sausage festival, but in reality, it is the biggest wine fest in all of Germany.  It gets rockin' at night, but we went down for the day and headed out when it started getting crowded. 

Instead of driving, we hopped on a train in Wiesbaden and 3 switches later, we were in Bad Duerkheim.  Riding the trains here is so easy and convenient.  Our family was able to talk and play with the Grassi family the whole way down - much more fun than caravaning in two cars. 

We arrived at lunch time and dug right in.  Mike got Marisa a half chicken and she ate just about all of it.  How did a vegetarian such as myself end up with such a carnivore?  It's weird.  I had some delectable mushrooms in wine sauce.  Mmmm!  Mike had a wurst, of course, since it's a wurstmarkt.  We washed down the food with schoppens of wine.  These are half liter glasses.  Really.  After that, we were ready to watch kids ride some rides!  That's the kind of day people have when they go to a German fest.  Love it!

Marisa started Kindergarten!

Marisa is an official "big kid" now.  She started Kindergarten last week and may be finally getting into the routine of things.  She was super excited the first day, but then didn't want to go back for the rest of the week.  I couldn't really blame her.  The first day was a madhouse.  There's currently 28 kids in her class and even with the teacher plus and aide, it's just too darn many.  This week, we got word that the school has hired an additional kindergarten teacher who will start next week, so things will get a little better.  I'm just relieved that I won't have to pitch a really big fit to get the school to do what they should have done before school even started.  These numbers are insane and I don't see how DoDDS can continue to justify them.

So, stepping down from my soapbox, I'll tell you more about Marisa.  She is having some good times in class and some challenges.  She likes visiting the library (of course!) and learning Spanish.  Kindergartners have Spanish about twice a week as part of their specials rotation.  They also have host nation (German language and culture), art, music and PE.    Marisa says that the best part about Kindergarten is the drawing.  Her pictures are really getting good; her people have fingers and hair and feet.  Lots of details!

Jillian started 4th Grade!

Now I can get back to the business of telling everyone what we're up to over here in Wiesbaden. 

Last Monday, Jillian started 4th grade.  Her teacher is Mr. Skully, but he's team teaching, so she gets Ms. Brown and Ms. Younkin, too.  They all started with a bang and plenty of homework.  Jillian did a great job on all of it and didn't even complain... much.   In a couple weeks, she'll start back to TAG and will be truly settled in for the new school year.  On Tuesday, she'll also get back to Tae Kwon Do and find out how much she remembers from last year.  yikes!

The picture is from the first day of school.   She looked fabulous!

We're back online!

It has been a couple stressful weeks for me, and consequently, for Mike.  We had yet another computer crash.  After a few days of the computer being in the shop, we learned that the hard drive was corrupted.  This was the hard drive that we thought we had replaced in February, but it turns out that we had only replaced the hard drive pin, whatever that is.  So, anyway, we decided to hook up the kids' computer as our main one.  During that process, we ended up totally infesting it with viruses and had to restore the whole thing.  At least this time there wasn't any data lost, except for a couple of Jillian's saved Zoo Tycoon games.  After this fiasco, we decided to take the plunge and buy the laptop that we had planned to buy someday in the future.  It's been over 5 years since we had a new computer, so I suppose we may have been due.  We have a 17in Toshiba Satellite with tons of memory and features and we're both pleased with it. We also got an external hard drive for backing up future files.  Feel free to share any other tips for ensuring smooth computing for the next 5 years.  Got a favorite virus scan - tell us!  Ideas for remembering when to do backups? - tell us!   We don't want any new computer issues for a long, long while!

Vacation Bible School

The girls attended Vaction Bible School at our chapel last week.  Believe it or not, I wasn't involved.  It felt weird and decadent. 

They used a curriculum called Avalanche Ranch from Group Publishing.  I have always loved their stuff - great songs, fun crafts and child-inspired activities.  Both girls had a great week and *hopefully* learned a thing or two.  All the kids wore cowboy hats and looked adorable!

We're back home in Germany!

I finally had to give up trying to update from my parent's house.  The internet situation was just too darn frustrating.  If anyone is considering doing a dial-up connection using a cell phone - DON'T!!!  It's as effective as listening to music on a cassette tape walkman rather than an iPod.  It'll do a job, but never as good as you wish it did.

Anyway, on to more positive things.  We had a wonderful visit from my Auntie Bo and Aunt Gail, AND my very best friend from high school, Jeni, and her two girls, Kirsten and Taryn.  All at the same time.  Joining me, my girls, my mom and my sister.   Dad was smart enough to high-tail it out of town before the house became packed with women.  He ventured back just for the last day and really enjoyed watching all the girls play in the pool.  Lots of squealing and fussing, but lots of fun, too.  We hadn't seen Jeni for two years and I loved hanging out - she's awesome!

Our last week in Georgia continued to be busy.  We went to see Hairspray while my aunt was still in town, since we're all big musical nuts.  It was lots better than I expected.  I thought I was in for superficial silliness, but there were alot of great political jabs that kept me laughing.  Definitely a fun watch.  I also got out with Cindy for a kid-free few hours of shopping and movie watching.  We saw No Reservations; I enjoyed it, but had not paid enough attention to the trailer and didn't know that a child ends up orphaned when her single mom dies in a car accident.  I was so upset that I could barely watch the movie.  Sad kids just break my heart - even if they are fictitious characters in a movie.  Since it was a see lots of movies kind of month, we also went out to see Shrek the Third for a second time.  Why not?

So, now we're home.  I've finally unpacked all but one of the six suitcases.  The house is a mess.  I can't remember what responsibilities I may have.  Hopefully jet lag will pass soon and I can start thinking again!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Don't worry - I'm not telling anything about the story!

Loved it!  I've enjoyed reading all the books and couldn't wait to find out how everything ended, so I read as often as I could and finished in less than two days.  I'm quite satisfied with how Rowling wrapped things up and don't feel that we've been left hanging.  I'm glad that she's finishing it and hope that she won't subcomb to the demands of fans who want more.  It's been a great series and I would hate to see it continue until it's ridiculous.

Now all I have to do is keep my mouth shut while I wait for mom and Jillian to finish reading.  If you've finished send me an email so that we can "talk" about it.  It's hard not to share my thoughts!

Harry Potter mania

We got into the Harry Potter spirit last night.  Jillian and one of her best friends, Rebecca, got in costume and we (along with Nana) went to the local Books-a-Million for the excitement of the last book being released.  Jillian looked terrific as Luna Lovegood and Rebecca was a totally quirky Tonks.  Tons of people - kids, teens and grown-ups - were dressed up at the event.   We saw Colin, Draco, Mad-Eye Moody, Snape, tons of Harry's, Rita Skeeter, the Fat Lady, Prof. McGonagal, Madam Pomfrey, Dobby, Nagini, Hagrid, Prof. Trawlawny and lots others.  My favorite of the night was Moaning Myrtle - she looked the part, complete with a toilet seat around her shoulders.  There were crafts, costume contests, trivia and games, but the best fun was just being around all the excitement.

Around 11 folks started "lining" up to be able to get the book when it became officially available at 12:01.  It was a complete disorganized mess, so we decided to head home so that the girls could have a midnight swim.  Mom went back to get the book this morning and I'm already several chapters in!  I just love the Harry Potter books!

It's not always fun to go to the dentist...

But before I get to that, I'll mention how we wrapped up our trip "up north" to Gwinnett County.  Karen was gracious enough to invite a bunch of old friends from church over for an evening catching up, and they were gracious enough to tolerate me telling them all about Creative Memories.  It felt wonderful to be in a room filled with inspiring, Christian women that I had spent so much time with in the past.  Relationships are so important!  Everyone there had challenged me to grow in some way and it was neat to have them all in one place.  The next evening our old playgroup (minus Mike, who was very missed by all)  was back together at the Milak's house for a BBQ dinner.  It felt as if a year hadn't passed at all - surreal, really.   One of the other hightlights of our visit to Gwinnett was getting to shop at Costco.  Boy, I miss that place!

This week, the girls, Cindy and I went to see Are We Done Yet?  I wouldn't call it the best movie ever, but it was a fun diversion for an afternoon, made all the better by the fact that Cindy treated.  "Free" movies always seem better to me!  It had one of the guys from Scrubs in it and I just love watching him because he's so darn hilarious.  We all also got out to the zoo, meeting up with Karen and her kids and Maribel and her kids.  Cindy was in kid overload, but I think we all had a fun time.  Zoo Atlanta isn't a very big zoo, but it is really well done and they have some of our favorites.  Their only problem is being too expensive for a day visit.  $19 for a zoo you can get all through in less than 3 hours is just too high.

So, that brings us to dentistry.  I had my check-up and my teeth are fine even though I almost never remember to floss.  Jillian had a small cavity.  But my poor sweet Marisa.  Today she had to get crowns on two of her molars.   She did great for the procedure, but did not handle the numb sensation afterwards.  She bit her lip over and over and ended up with a hugely swollen lower lip.  It looks so awful and it breaks my heart.  I just couldn't get her to understand that she had to leave it alone.  I'll have to come up with a proactive plan for the next time she gets numbed up for a  procedure.

Driving around Georgia

We're continuing to stay very busy on our vacation.  Isn't that an oxymoron?  Shouldn't we be lying around when it's our vacation time?  But it's all been fun, so it's okay.

At mom's we had back to back party days.  She loves Independence Day and so she had a big to-do with friends, neighbors and us.  It was a fun day in the sun.   A couple days later, my parents hosted the monthly neighborhood get-together.  Again a fun event.  The girls were the only kids there (against the rules apparently) and were doing their best to be sophisticated.  Lots of fun to watch!

We got to see another new movie this week.  This time it was Evan Almighty and we all had lots of laughs.  I had been hesitant to see it because I was afraid it may have some of the hard edge of the first movie, but this one was a great family movie.  I can't wait to see it again on DVD.

On Saturday, we drove up to Varnell, Georgia, to spend some time with our friends, the Gwin family.  The most difficult part of being a military family is keeping up with the friends that we make at every duty station and it's a real treat to get together for visits.  That afternoon, we picked blackberries to make into a cobbler for dessert.  It felt like a very country thing to do for us city/suburb girls.  Marisa was particularly thrilled with the whole thing. 

We had a couple busy days with the Gwin's.  On Sunday we attended church at Varnell United Methodist Church and later went to the Creative Discovery Children's Museum in Chattanooga.  We love that place!  There's so much fun stuff for the kids to do.  This time, the temporary exhibit was all about Alice in Wonderland.  Marisa loved going through the rabbit hole and Jillian and Rebecca were moving around so fast that I couldn't figure out what they were most interested in.  Everything, I suppose!  After the museum, we all went wading in the Passage; it's like a staircase fountain that is meant to be enjoyed on a hot summer day.  Totally cool!  On Monday morning we hiked around Red Clay State Park.  It's in Tennessee and is on the site of very important events in Cherokee history.  The kids all loved being immersed in nature for little while and were watching for butterflies and playing in the stream.  I found it to be a very peaceful place... even with kids!

That afternoon, we headed for Gwinnett county to stay with the Gimnig family, friends from our old neighborhood.  Jillian hadn't had enough time with Rebecca yet, so we asked to bring her along, too.  We drove by Jillian's old school and discovered that it's been taken over by trailers; I guess that the unending growth in this county is taking it's toll on the school.  We also drove by our old house and discovered that the new owners are not much into taking care of the yard and have interesting decorating taste - Bud Lite sheets for curtains in Marisa's old room.  The girls were a bit upset, but got over it when we went to Stevi B's for their pizza buffet and arcade room.  All our best buddies from playgroup met us there and we had so much fun that we had to continue it at the pool until 9pm.  It was so cool to see Marisa, Megan, Jordan and Katie all together again.