Lazy Monday in Germany....

Today Rachael woke up with a fever, so we decided to stay put and relax. Lesa took Rachael to the doctor to get some medicine, which fortunately is just a short walk over the hill, and the ER doctor is their next door neighbor, so they got in and out pretty quickly. She ended up being okay, just needing some rest. We also walked over to a bazaar that the base was hosting. I didn't buy anything, but there were some really cool cork purses and wallets from Portugal that I might have purchased if they were a lot cheaper. We also sampled lots of cheese from Holland and some schnapps from Germany.

This evening we went out to dinner, and tried to go to a German restaurant in nearby village, but it was closed, so we ended up at Chili's on base. It was fun to drive around and see more of the air force base. Here's a photo of Bella in her super cute outfit for going out to eat.

Sunday (Day 3) in Germany

Today was our rest day, since we sort of wore the kids out with all the walking on Saturday. We went to church this morning at the First Baptist Church in a nearby town. It's an American church with mostly military families. After church we had lunch at a wonderful Italian restaurant in one of the nearby villages.

This afternoon I played outside with the kids for awhile since it was so nice. Andy has been teaching Bella how to ride her bike without training wheels and here are a few photos I took of Bella and Chance riding in their cul-de-sac.


Rachael has had a bad cough from her allergies, so in an attempt to get her to rest, she and I came inside to watch Thumbalina. I've seen better movies. First of all, I wouldn't recommend a movie with Barbie as one of the main characters, but that's just my opinion. I kept falling asleep during the movie and everytime three year old Rachael would catch me with my eyes closed, she grabbed my face and said "stop that attitude!". I'm assuming she has heard her mother say this and thinks it means that you are doing something she doesn't like. It just made me laugh, which then made Rachael laugh too. Later when I was showing her photos of my kittens on my computer, she said "stop it Kelly, you're killing me!". Funny kid!

Now I'm drinking a glass of wine and getting ready to plan out the rest of the week. We can't decide where to go: Paris, or Amsterdam, or Munich/Austria. They are all about 4 or 5 hours away so we were thinking of doing an overnight trip, just can't decide on which direction to go! Too many choices....

Music Video

Here is a short video of Bella dancing in Heidelburg while we were listening to the street musicians and waiting for Lesa to get her Starbucks!

Day 2 Flea Market and Heidelburg

Busy, fun day! Saturday morning we went to Homburg to go to a flea market. It was a huge flea market and lots of fun! I scored some Micheal Jackson albums for Julie, which I know she will treasure, and a necklace. Rachael scored a nice big bratwurst (see photo)
After the flea market, the kids played at a playground near downtown Homburg where we parked, while Lesa and I rested on the bench. Then we drove about twenty minutes to some town in France which I don't know the name of. It was very anti-climatic crossing the border from Germany into France because no one even stopped us, much less stamped my passport :( We went into France to go to a large grocery store called Cora to pick up a few things. The store had a very large liquor department (mostly wine and beer), including this wine in a juice box Lesa is holding. Nice!After pizza for lunch, we headed back to Germany and drove an hour or so to Heidelburg. This was a great city to visit, although it was packed with visitors out enjoying the beautiful day. We walked through the shopping district, stopping for ice cream of course.

My favorite part was walking across the bridge and seeing the gorgeous views of the city. Here's a photo of Lesa and the kids near the entrance to the bridge.

Germany Day 1

I arrived in Frankfurt around 7:30 am Friday morning, which was seven hours earlier back in Kansas (or about the time I would normally be falling asleep). I slept for about an hour on the plane, but was too excited to sleep much more. Lesa picked me up from the airport, which was a little over an hour from where she lives. She said I had to stay awake at least until supper time, and then I could go to bed early, but if I took a nap my time schedule would be off for days. This sounded good to me because there was so much to do, who wants to sleep on the first day of vacation???

Once we found our way out of the Frankfurt airport, we headed to Ramstein military base to get me a visitor’s pass and photo ID (lovely). We also went grocery shopping at the commissary and walked around the area on base a little bit. They had several little shopping areas in the next building including a small bookstore, hallmark store, thrift store, bank, etc. It was actually pretty nice and Lesa said they will be building a little mall on base soon which will house all these stores.

Apparently there are multiple military bases in the area and they house not only American military, but other NATO members as well. Lesa and her family actually live on the base in Landstuhl, even though Andy works at Ramstein. Landstuhl is a medical base, housing the hospital where the wounded Iraqi soldiers come before heading home to the states. It’s a smaller base and a very nice, quiet place to live. They live in a three bedroom house on cul-de-sac with tons of kids. It’s surrounded by tall evergreen trees and made me feel like I was in the pacific northwest. It’s beautiful!

So eventually we got back to the house and greeted the kids. I showed them the gifts I brought (the HSM movies and some wooden animal painting kits), and they wanted to immediately go outside and start painting. Here’s a photo of them painting, and a close up of the butterfly Rachael was working on. After painting was over, we walked over to the hospital to go to the bank on the first floor so I could change some money over to Euros. We also stopped and talked with lots of the neighbors, as everyone was out enjoying the nice spring day, watching the kids play.

Next, Lesa, Bella, and Rachael and I decided to walk down the hill into the village of Landstuhl to get some ice cream (and keep me from sitting down where I might fall asleep). It was a pretty walk down a tree lined street with views of the village below. This is the closest town to where I am staying. I was just reading about it on wikipedia and it says it is a village of about 9000 people in the region of Kaiserslautern. Here are a couple of photos from the walk, and one of our yummy ice cream.

I was able to stay up until about 7:30, then finally off to bed! It’s about 5:30 am now and I'm up early while everyone else is still in bed (this would never happen if it weren't for jet lag!), and soon we are heading to Homburg (not to be confused with Hamburg which is way north) to go to a flea market, and then to Heidelburg to go to a castle or something like that.

More pictures tomorrow!

My playlist for the week

This week might kill me. I like a little bit of busyness, but this is too much. Today I had fun speaking to a high school class this morning, then spent 8 hours at the office getting ready for the week ahead (yes, that's in addition to the four hours I spent at the office on Sunday afternoon). Tuesday I drive to Topeka and back for our monthly management team meeting. I'm looking forward to the meeting and the lunch with our new staff, but I sure hate having to be on the road by 6:30 am to be in Topeka by 9:00. It makes me a little bit cranky. Wednesday I am back in Topeka (don't have to be there until 10:00 that day though) for our Advocacy event at the Capitol to kick of Child Abuse Prevention month in April. Then after a quick afternoon meeting, I'm heading to Lenexa to stay the night so I can do two days of training with our new home visiting staff on Thursday and Friday. It's a fun training to do, and I'm looking forward to seeing some college friends while I am in town. Actually the week wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't teaching online classes at the same time, meaning I'll be spending time each evening responding to students posts and assignments. I'm planning to crash on Saturday!

Since I'm spending so much time on the road this week, I made a new playlist to take with me of songs I like. Hopefully I won't be kicked out of my house church for my taste in music, although I think we established tonight that we are all accepted and appreciated, despite our differences.

Cecelia - Simon and Garfunkel
Everything'll be Alright - Joshua Radin
Kodachome - Simon and Garfunkel
Leave the Pieces - The Wreckers
Long Time Gone - Dixie Chicks
Manic Monday - Relient K
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard - Simon and Garfunkel
Only the Good Die Young - Billy Joel
Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me - Terri Clark
Sky - Joshua Radin
Star Mile - Joshua Radin
Suddenly I see - KT Tunstall
Vegetable Car - Joshua Radin
The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson
We Are Okay - Joshua Radin
Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks
You're Still Standing There - Lucy Kaplansky

And when I go on really long road trips (like my drive to Illinois I'll be making this summer), these are my favorite CDs to bring along:

Karaoke Superstar - Superchick
Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek - Relient K
ABBA Gold
The soundtrack from High School Musical (the first one)
The Beatles Greatest Hits 1962-1966

:)

Lent journey 2009

With the Lenten season beginning this week, I have been giving a lot of thought as to what I do want to do to make the season more meaningful in my life. I may still attempt my usual fast of giving of soft drinks, but I decided to focus more this year on something I could add, rather that what I might give up. My goal is to have some sort of sabbath each week. Since I go to church on Saturday nights, I am fortunate to have my Sundays free, so I've decided to try and make the next six Sundays a day of rest and study and reflection.

I'm not exactly sure what one is supposed to do or not do on the Sabbath, so I'm making up my own rules. First off, I'm starting a little early with today so I can get in six Sundays before I leave for Germany on Palm Sunday weekend. I'll be in Germany visiting friends for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday weekends, so my personal Lenten journey will probably end when that trip begins. One of my first rules is no television or movies, although tonight I do want to watch the Academy Awards, so I may end my day by breaking my first rule. My goal isn't to make a bunch of rigid rules though, but to be more thoughtful and planful in finding time to spend enriching my christian life. One of my goals for the year was to keep a prayer journal at least once a week. I had not started this yet, and so I'm hoping that carving out some time each Sunday during Lent to spend in extended prayer, specifically in written prayer, will get me started on this goal, and extend it beyond Lent. Writing out my prayers has always been helpful as it helps me to focus and reflect. Another goal has to been to pray for my church at least once each week, so that is definitely becoming part of the Lenten practice as well. I'm embarrassed by how little I pray for my church now.

I also want to spend time studying scripture, something which I have found myself neglecting over the past year. I'm finishing up a study of Esther with a few friends, and I think I want to continue some Old Testament studying during this time. I'm also rereading the book "Mudhouse Sabbath" by Lauren Winner. I started this book (and many others) last year and never finished it. It's a very short, easy read, so I'm starting over to read it, hoping it might give me some good insight into how to use my six week practice in honoring the Sabbath. It's also another one of my 2009 goals to finish all the books I started last year, so this will help me achieve that as well.

In the introduction to the Mudhouse Sabbath, Winner writes that "practice is to Judaism what belief is to Christianity". Her perspective in writing this book is that she grew up Jewish and converted to Christianity during college. As she relishes her new understanding of Jesus Christ, she also misses some of the practices of the Jewish faith. She goes on to say "your faith might come and go, but your practice ought not waver. (Indeed, Judaism suggests that the repeating of the practice is the best way to ensure that a doubter's faith will return)". I find that as I get older the Christian faith is less about the emotional experiences that you experience in youth like church camp, CIY, Bible college, etc. and more about the perserverance of your faith, your ability to continue to believe and act out those beliefs, even when the emotion isn't there. I've always been fascinated with the concept of self-discipline, always searching for ways to make myself more disciplined, and this plays into that fascination I suppose.

Well, on to finish my time of study and prayer. And for my loyal reader who has been requesting for some new cat updates, a couple cute cat photos:

The cats helping me get ready in the morning. They are not really that helpful.

Close up of Topher


Willie in the sink. He likes to drink from the faucet while he is in the sink and it is dripping on him.