Valetnines Day swap and a crazy life

. I know I am bad about posting lately. It has been crazy here. Last week I was in the hospital for surgery on my shoulder. They had to shave some bones down that were pressing on muscles and nerves. I was there for three days and during that time the family was sick. I have been home resting this past week and it has been quiet but painful. I don't like taking to many pain pills but I am coping.
 Next week we are heading out on a trip I won to go see the US Ski Team compete in the World Alpine Ski Championships and then to Berlin for a couple of days. I will try to take pictures and post them up!!

Also, I am involved in a Valentine's Day swap with my friend Tamara,  from http://memorybeandesigns.blogspot.com/. We don't know who has each other. We are supposed to get a little box and send it off by tomorrow. Of course I did!! I just love the person who I got and enjoyed shopping for her. I sent a heart of candy and a very nice German glass. Over here we don't have a lot of valentines stuff so I did the best I could. I hope she enjoys it. When I get mine I will post what I got and thank whoever it is. I love mail and even sent out some snail mail to a few people!! YAY me, well I am going to go lay on the couch and let the family take care of me.

Pencil Pals

Well the Holidays are over and I am still tired!! It was great and now we are working on getting Grandma home. She has been in the hospital here for a week with an infection in her leg. Its been getting better but still stressful that she is there. On another note, one of my blog friends had a great idea. I miss getting mail and she came up with pencil pals. So, I am going to do it to and if you want to get notes and cards from me and we can send things to each other, email me your address at tiggerfan79@gmail.com and lets get it started!!

Holiday Cards

The holiday season is fast approaching and I love to do Christmas Cards. Last year I went through Shutterfly and they looked fabulous!! I like things to be simple and easy, and shutterfly is very easy. I did mine in about 20 minutes, I had to find the right pictures and that what took the longest. As soon as I ordered them they were here in about a week, and for APO that was pretty quick!! They looked great and my family loved them. I choose something that is winterish so it can be displayed until the Spring and maybe this year I will do one for every season. You should go check them out. Its well worth it and if you don't believe me go here and check it out!
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/5x7-folded-greeting-cards
P.S.  I have done the photo books through them as well for gifts and people love it. Its more personal than what you can give from a store!
http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books/simple-path

Barbie Cake!!

  

 

My first attempt at doing a Barbie cake!! It is for my neighbors little girl who is turning 4. What do you think? Should I do more? It was so much fun!!

A moment of silence for Butch.

Lets take a moment of silence for Summer's Dad Butch. He lost his fight of cancer on October 24th. Please pray for her and her family at this hard time.

A promotion and a sickness

Well it finally happened, after months of waiting and years of hoping, I finally became the next rank!! WOO HOO!! It felt good and really deserved. Now I am looking already to go to the board again in a few months and keep moving forward in my career!!

Now I am sick, my head hurts and my throat kills. My voice sounds like a guy!! I am trying to keep motivated at work and do my job, buts its hard!! I am so tired by dinner I go to bed. However, there is a light oat the end of the tunnel. I can't stay sick forever.

I want to give a shout out to my friend Kristie. She has an awesome blog, and wrote about me!! Check out her blog and follow, She is a very funny person and makes me laugh even when I am sick!!

http://momwifewinowoman.blogspot.com/

A video

So the family and I went to a fest here in Graf. It was great, they had a mini obstacle course and let kids shoot a weapon ( shot blanks so no worries) The kids enjoyed it and I made a video of it, Enjoy!!

Oh My!!

Wow this summer has been bad for blogging!! I am so busy, I need to figure out a better way to organize my life!! Where to start?

The kids started school and yes I took pictures and not I do not have them downloaded yet, maybe this weekend but who knows. BAM is in 4th grade and so far likes it. TJ is in 2nd and we have a good teacher and we hope this year is better than last year and he progresses much better!! My youngest is finally in kindergarten and boy was he happy about going. We had met his teacher the week before and when we got to the line for his class he just said by and ran off. No hugs or kisses, no tears on his end, I may have shed a tear later!! :) Now when I go home at lunch its quiet and calm.

Well I am doing fine, just busy and trying to read many many books!! I just got mine from my book club and have already started it. I will review it (if I remember) whenI am done!!

Well thats it in our household, I will TRY to be better and post more often!!

~~on a sad but serious side note, one of my friends Dad has cancer and we are spreading the word for prayers and if you can send a dollar. He sounds like a great guy, well he raised Summer and she is awesome so that's worth sending prayers in my book! Please follow the link and follower her blog, she is a great person and he blog is great to follow. Help her Dad out because he deserves it and so does she!!

http://bisforbrown.blogspot.com/

so sorry, been bad

It has been over a month since my last post, but to be fair it has been a busy month for me.
I had to go to a 18 day school that started with me getting up at 4 am every day including weekends!! I had a week off and now I am in a school to raise my scores in a military test. Its all about math which I really haven't done a whole lot of since Junior year of High School and that was in '96!! So my brain is hurting now. but at least it is starting to come back to me.

In the past month, BAM went to his first Tang So Do tournement here in Munich and in 4 events took first, second, and third. In the 4th one he had only done it once so I give him kudos for even trying!! We now have three trophies on out book shelf. I am very proud of him. TJ and DOC have been really helping out around the house with me being busy and my hubby has done wonders with keeping up with everything!! The house really has stayed clean and the kids are pretty clean as well. He does such a great job that sometimes I just amazed.

Well that's about it here, I am going to have a vacation soon, not doing anything but getting ready for kids school. All three will be in school this year and we can't wait!!

Not me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to < target="_blank" href="http://www.mycharmingkids.net">her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


Um.. another Not Me Monday, I did not drink alot this weekend, nope not me!! I needed a stress reliever and I waited until the kids were down, but 4 hours of sleep and the slight hangover was not really worth it. Am I worried that our neighborhood game night is ruined because of drama, nope not me. Well yes me, but sometimes women just can't let the drama go. I am one for letting things roll of my back and trying to make peace, but there is always one who wants to keep it going. Did I spend an hour this Saturday making mini cheese cakes to just sit there, nope not me, It took about 30 minutes but still. The kids liked them. Well this peace maker is off to try to make it all better, but not before saying one last thing. Am i crazy for trying to do too much the next 2 months, nope not me. Its for my career and if it all works out I will be going to a college class, a military school and then another class all back to back!! So at least I will have alot to post about!! LOL

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas in Germany!

Post It Note Tuesday

Saw this on a blog and am going to try it for awhile, see how it goes.

Post It Note Tuesday

Brought to by:

Happy Father's Day

 HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my loving husband who has been the best dad my kids could ever ask for and who does so much for me I can't list them all because it would be 15 pages long. Also to my Dad who has always been there when I needed him.  Thank you both for all that you do for me and the kids!!

Well I am back and have been playing game night with the neighbors since I have returned from my class, which I passed!! It was hard but worth it. It will be good for my career and its worth promotion points!! We are now off to brunch, see ya around soon!!

Camp out backyard style!!

What a weekend!! It has been nice out so Friday night we put up out rent and let the kids sleep outside. Of course they wanted Mom to go to!! I would NOT sleep without a air mattress, but other than hat it was not too bad, so we did it again last night.

Last night was game night with the neighbors. The past few Saturday nights the neighbors next door and their neighbors and then their neighbors, so all in all its 4 houses!! We get together, have a couple drinks and play a game. Its pretty fun and a nice way to end a week.

Well today is Sunday and in our house that means brunch. We go every Sunday the kids really love it. They get the same thing every time but its the fun and doing things as a family that we enjoy. It looks like it will be another nice day out as well, so who knows what we will do!!

p.s. I am out in a class this week with limited to no Internet access. I don't have any guest bloggers set up because I don't have any idea how to set it up and didn't think about it until now! LOL Maybe next time!!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my youngest!!














He is now 5 yrs old. This is the first birthday where he is actually excited and has been counting the days. We are going bowling and he gets to pick where we go for lunch, and what we make for dinner and then tomorrow we area ll going to the movies!! What a fun weekend. I will post pictures soon!!

Wordless Wednesday

Schloss Linderhof (Castle)
Summer Palace of King Ludwig

 

 Gold Statue in the water. Fountain goes of once an hour.

Dachau, A concerntration camp.

What a weekend. I spent Saturday with a friend and we went to Dachau, otherwise, a concentration camp. It was depressing and heartbreaking. I learned a lot more than I had learned in books. WWII and what the Nazi's did is one of my favorite things to learn about. I like to learn about it and make sure that it is not forgotten and in a few years teach it to my kids and teach them not to hate somebody based on looks, religion, or race. Brendan has asked a little about it and I have talked a little about it, but I feel he is a little too young to actually go and see the photographs.

It was weird to see the barracks where they stayed and the beds stacked three high where they slept. They are much smaller in person than I thought. The special exhibit going on right now was pregnant and having babies in camps. I had to walk away after reading some of the stories, and I won't go into detail here, but as a mom it breaks my heart what these cruel people did to women and their children. The main thing that got me was the crematorium.

They had to build a bigger one because the original one was being used beyond its capacity. I walked away with tears in my eyes. How can people be so cruel and how could the town that this is right in the middle of be so oblivious too? I walked away Saturday with a deeper understanding of what the Jewish people went through and sadness in my heart. I will try harder to make sure my kids understand what happened here and that they will not hate anybody and bully anybody just because they don't believe in the same beliefs.

Gas Chamber (where they thought their were taking a shower but were actually killed by gas)

Picture of what it looked like before all the barracks were torn down. Now thats all left is two. Dachau was built to hold 5,000-6,000 but at the time of liberation it was about 32,000!! If you are ever in Germany I would highly suggest gong and seeing one of the many camps. I am going to try to see Auschwitz next because I am into history and being so clase this is a once in a lifetime chance for me.

Wordless Wednesday

Classic movies and childhood memories!!

The past few weeks I have been reliving my favorite movies of my childhood. I have been sharing them with the kiddos and to my surprise they actually like some of them!!

It all started when I got from the library 5 Roger and Hammersteins musicals. We watched "Sound of Music" first. They watched the entire thing and loved it. They want to go with me to Salzburg, Austria where a lot of it was filmed. Hey its only 3 hours away and we may just go for a weekend. They like the songs and were singing them for a few days afterwards. It was great. Of course the next one to watch was "State Fair" and " Gone With the Wind" They didn't really get into those but GWTW is pretty long!! "Oklahoma" was next and they watched it and said it was ok. Brendan was like where is this at, is it a state? I told him yes and that we have family in the state of OK. Just tonight I watched "The Little Princess" with Shirley Temple. They liked it, but it just made me remember watching all of her movies at my dad's growing up. I would always watch her movies when I would visit him and it was so fun. My goal is to watch a bunch more classical movies with them, we will have to use netflix for most of them. I am trying for "Mary Poppins" next.

If you guys have any suggestions, please let me know. What is your favorite movie form your childhood? We have seen "Labyrinth" and " The Never Ending Story" as well. We have seen of few of the Muppet ones too!!

That's what we are doing on the rainy days and its been great to cuddle with the kiddos and watch some good classic movies!!

Random Thursdays

Random thoughts Thursday:


I have been bad this past few weeks and I am sorry. I have been busy.
Life has gotten in the way of my new past time. I was busy getting ready for a promotion board, which i passed and hopefully soon someday I will get promoted. 
This week, DR has been complaining of an ear ache so I took him to the doctor and he has an ear infection but the doc saw a blister in his ear and wants us to come back in two weeks to see if its just the infection of something else. Its Spring clean up here and that means I have to make sure my yard is pretty. I am trying to win yard of the month again, I did it in VA. I found a German version of Lowe's, so I am hitting that store up this weekend!! I will post pictures when its all pretty, but I have flowers in pots and working on weeding and mulching around the bushes. I am turning a fire pit into a planter ( never use it) and thought I would make the front yard pretty too!!

Now that life has slowed down a bit, I will be better and just need to buy a card reader so I can upload pictures to my computer life would be so much better. I did find the time to watch a couple movies, I watched "Julie and Julia" What a great movie!! Now I am reading the book, which is even better. It makes me want to try French cooking!!
Oh by the way, a new video by Carrie Underwood is out!! I remember when she was on Idol and then I went and saw her in VA. She was so nice and sweet. She signed my hat, which I still have and I still use the key chain to this day!! I love her and admire her!!


Well enough ramblings today!! I am off to do something for somebody I am sure!!