i forgot

I did forget to mention one thing...I signed up Shelby for Kindergarden yesterday. It's 0830 until 230 everyday. It's right next to preschool and she already knows where it is and is pretty excited. She's growing up.....am I ready? I'm sure I am.

Easter, Pics and Little Girls

Before I begin, I hope everyone had a Happy Easter. Considering our family was together, it was a very good one for us. Since the weather has been so nice here, it felt like we were home for Easter. Shelby and I were even bare foot outside Easter morning! LOVED IT!!

It has been a good week here. We have been on more and more bike rides and the kids love it, it's good for us adults as well!! Mikey seems to understand the word "bike ride" as he gets all excited when we say it to him. Getting excited, meaning, he smiles big and gets a sparkle in his eye, he is however, only eight months. We rode up to the Italian restaurant this past Friday and had the usual pizza, but split a tirimisu that Shelby really wanted. Mikey just sat in the high chair and had applesauce and drooled over our dinner. That place is really great though. We go more for the atmosphere then the food (hence we always get pizza), but it's so nice to eat outside and Shelby can play on the play ground. WE also usually head off to the bigger park next to it after dinner so SHelby can ride the zip cord. Jay had taken both the kids over the four day while I went to a ladies night in and she loves it. It goes pretty fast and it hits the stop pretty hard, but she just holds on and laughs laughs laughs!! So the restaurant and the park have become our normal weekend thing to do now.

It was Spring Break here last week, but Shelby spent most of it lying on the couch as she was sick for a few days into it. We had a nice long weekend going into the break and she was fine. Shelby, Mikey and I even got a chance to go have a wonderful visit with and old friend up in Ramstein at this British Cafe there. Her kids and Shelby just played while we handled lunch and the two babies. As a parting gift, the boys wanted to make sure that Shelby got a lollipop like they did and they made her day. It is always so nice to see them. And if your reading...I still have your plate here and it will get back to you soon!! (maybe...its a cool plate..hehe) It was the last night that Shelby got sick. WE were out around the fire pit (cause I will go out there now since it's not so cold anymore) and she was eating popcorn....next thing we know, we are seeing the popcorn again. She got sick once more the next day, but for two and a half days her temp kept going up to 102 then down, back and forth. She did make it to a birthday party of one of her good friends, and mine, and had some fun. She brought home a nice painted flower pot and a pretty African Violet. She was tired, but she had a nice time. She was recovered by Wednesday and Thursday is when we went to Ramstein.

That Friday (of Easter weekend) was supposed to be my day to clean; however, it did not turn out the way I planned. Shelby and three of her friends eventually decided to stay over here to hang out. They tend to pop in between houses and it was our turn. They had a good time though. For lunch they took a blanket outside and had themselves a picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, strawberries with whipped cream and lemonade. They were all dressed up in their fancy little outfits and I handed them a camera. I had no idea what the pictures would look like. Oh my goodness...they all seem to love the camera!! Their poses were so cute. They looked like they were modeling for Pretty Pretty Princess is now a Mommy. Shelby's little boy friend who has a crush on her must have seen it because next thing I know, he's now in the mix with his buddy and now there are six kids upstairs. I remember this when I was growing up but I wasn't prepared to have my daughter old enough to just hang out with her friends. I did enjoying watching it all. Eventually I kicked them all out...I really needed to clean...and the boys took off (I think the friend of the boy who has the crush really did not want to play with girls) and the girls decided to put their bathing suits on and play in the sprinkler. They laid out all their towels all in a circle and decided to "stretch" out first. It was like watching a bunch of teenagers. But then the hose came out and the little girls were appearing again. I just kept thinking to myself...is she really old enough for this yet? But I guess she is, and I'm very happy for her. It seems as if I started a little trend. I was at the stores Saturday with my friend looking for Easter stuff when I called Jay to see how everything was. The same girls brought two more in and now they were going to have a picnic over at another friends house. Again the hose and the slide came out and so did the towels. I guess they wanted to come in and play, but Jay made them stay outside. It was WAY to nice to be inside. I did nothing but errands that day and Jay handled the girls. I think he was happy to see me come home though.

Easter Sunday, Shelby was the first to wake up. I heard her go down the stairs, so I followed her to see what her reaction would be. By the time I got back down, she was asleep on the chair. She must have heard me turn the TV on, because all of a sudden she was awake. She says in a very sleepy voice.."mommy, the Easter bunny took the eggs we dyed (which was at 930 the night before) because they aren't in the fridge anymore." I asked her if he let something behind, but she didn't even see the basket! She walked right past it!! I had to point it out to her! Then her eyes got big!!! She was all awake and happy after that. She was pretty excited about Mikey's big stuffed tonka truck basket. By this time Jay got up and all she wanted to do was find Easter eggs (which we still hadn't hidden yet). Jay and I just wanted a cup of coffee first. As he was trying to make breakfast (eggs) she went out to find them anyways. She told us she just wanted to put her basket on her bike, but she seemed to find some eggs along the way. I think Jay went out and hid them very quickly while I had her distracted by taking pictures of the kids. Oh yeah, Mikey liked his big truck basket too. So we went ahead and did the Easter egg hunt. IT took maybe five minutes, but she had fun and that's all that counts. I still haven't done anything with the eggs! After the kids got cleaned up and bathed, Shelby wanted to put on her new Easter dress that her good friend gave her, so Jay decided to take her out (he had to run out and get something) so she could parade around. I thought it was so sweet. They had lunch together and went to a few stores. I just had quite time here at home. By the time they came back, he had cheap plastic furniture for outside and we ate dinner alfresco that evening. Some of her friends came over for another Easter egg hunt (pre-filled candy eggs..yeah!) and then off on a another bike ride with our friends and the zip cord park. Mikey even sat in a booster seat outside and looked every bit a little man. As we ate and just kept his arms on top of the table and chatted away like he was the king of conversation. Well I hate to tell him, he has competition with his sister. We had a nice, light, healthy dinner and I think Jay is really enjoying grilling again. AT the end of the evening we got to Skype with both sides of the family and it really rounded out a perfect day.

Days like this past Easter have been so few and far between for this family. When we do get one, it is so very cherished and it brings this family closer together. We have become so thankful for the time we do get together. Easter and Spring are all about rebirth and renewing. The past two weeks of really reminded me of my younger childhood and now I am reliving it through my family. This family is finally started to get it's groove and now we are on the road to just living and being just that, a family. Yes, it does make me sad to think of those who have lost, but ever so thankful for the love that was brought home. If it wasn't for both of our families, and the friends we made along the way, the road would have been so much harder and we may not have to peace that we have now. I know it is hard for our families not being able to see us as often as we would all like (and hard for us as well), but this family is what you gave us in return. So thank you very much. PS- you will all find four new albums.."March Pics", "Spring Pics", "Pretty Girls", and "Easter pics"....enjoy..I'm trying to put video on as well..so stay tuned

Can it be..? Really..? SPRING IS HERE!!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen!! Spring has arrived, and none to soon as we were all very close to a nuclear meltdown!! The weather has been in the high 60's to low 70's and the sunshine has helped heal up some of the homesickness that has been running rampant in the long, cold, dark months that lead up to this past weekend. I can't tell how glorious it was, and still is, to see the sun and FEEL the warmth.

It was a four day weekend for us and we spent it celebrating Spring. Friday we drove about and hour west to visit a good friend of mine from Georgia and Jay took the baby and went shopping through the PX areas looking for a bike. Shelby and I had a wonderful time with our friend and she fed us well. MMMM, those cookies.....YYUUMM!! Shelby played with her little ones while we got to sit, knit and just hang out. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to sit with a friend and knit again. It really has been so long. When we were in Columbus, I would go to her Mom's group and her knitting group, and I would always have such a wonderful time. (Shelby loves her (she let her spin on her wheel)). After what seemed to be such a short visit, Jay came to pick us up and we went back to our town to look for bikes for both him and Shelby. We found both, at the same store, and both on sale. Shelby got a regular blue bike with training wheels (yes, no pink as we want to be able to pass this bike down) and cheaper than we have seen anywhere. We were worried that she would be upset that it wasn't pink, but since it had penguins on it, it was all good. We took them home and Jay put all the bikes together and fixed mine. By dinner time we had both kids in the bike trailer and we went for a ride in the Wald and up to the Italian restaurant. The cutest sight ever was seeing the two of them cuddled in the trailer. We tried to put a helmet on Mikey, but that didn't work. So Shelby had one on and Mikey just sat there smiling. HE LOVED IT! He would look around and smile. Whenever Jay would look back on him, he would giggle. That's good news for us because we plan on using the bikes alot. I think he was just happy being so close to his Sissy! Shelby felt like a great big sister. She kept her arm around him the whole time and kept talking to him, explaining everything they saw.

Since we lost our bearings a bit going there, it took longer getting there than coming home, but it isn't far, so it wasn't bad. They have a playground at the restaurant, so while we waited for food, Shelby played and Mikey hung out with us. We sat out on the patio and it actually felt like a date., even with Mikey there. We had a wonderful dinner. We all had pizza and jay and I had a secret dessert of flambéed ice cream while Shelby played again. She never found out!! We had a wonderful waiter who showed Shelby the treat bag and let her come back with four lollipops!! As you can imagine, she was a little happy camper. After we rode home, the kids were both pretty tired. This meant that we could get them to bed early, and fast, and we could spend some time together ourselves.

The next day was spent running errands together, which isn't as bad as it sounds. We went down to the local hardware store and Shelby and I picked out some flowers for our garden. Shelby's flowers filled out the whole window box while I just got some lavender plants. We both have really been looking forward to planting some f lowers as it has become a tradition for us every spring. Shelby had been asking me about it for weeks now. It finally got warm enough to do something about it. She really likes to help me take care of the flowers and plants. Jay and I dug up the flower beds and put weed stop paper and mulch down. It looks so much better. Now it's ready to find little things for our flower garden. We also got a Little Tikes slid and swing from the neighbors for only $60. The swing on it is an infant swing and the slide is big enough for Shelby. It took Jay and friend to tear it down and bring it back here. It's quite a big piece. Though there are playgrounds all around here, it's nice to have something just in the back yard for the kids as Shelby is still too young to go to the playground by herself. As soon as she saw it set up, she couldn't wait to play on it. It needs some cleaning and so do the small clamshell sand boxes and the little tikes car that I found. All this stuff people are giving away!! Crazy!!

Later that night, I went to hang out with some friends as Jay made hamburgers for the kids and biked them out to the big park in the Wald. They have a zip line there and Shelby is all about it. The last time she fell off face first so that was the first thing she told me when she saw me the next morning. She was so proud because she didn't fall off this time. Having the Wald right behind us is a big plus. When we were in Columbus, we had to drive to the park and now we can either walk or bike it out there. If we get hungry, there is an imbiss and a restaurant.

However, by Sunday, both kids were sick and we spent alot of time messing around with Jay's new toy. We got and Apple TV because we were so tired of the programs on AFN. This way we can download what we want to watch and the movies we want to rent and we are much happier. We still had a nice time Sunday even if they were sick. During the weekend, Shelby did get outside on her bike with her friends alot and had a good time. Jay made fajitas and we had a fire out at the pit. That's when Shelby got really sick. We thought maybe she just had too much popcorn, but she threw up the next morning as well. Her temp has been high, but comes down with medicine. Mikey has a bad head cold is draining snot everywhere. But we did get to talk to family Sunday and Shelby and Mikey Skyped with Grammy and PopPop. Grammy hasn't seen the kids since Mikey was first born. As a matter of fact, my side of the family hasn't either. we are looking forward to both their visits this year. I have to admit, it is very sad that both of our families will not get to see Mikey grow like they got to see Shelby grow and Shelby got so used to seeing her cousins and all her aunts, uncles and grandparents. I will miss that most of all.

Yesterday was the day to nurse the kids, but at least we had such lovely days at the beginning of the weekend. It was so relaxing, I may have energy to clean my house! HA!! Even Trysta had a good weekend as we let her outside without a leash with us and she did fine. She never ran off. She would come back as soon as we called her name and she knew her boundaries.

Weekends like this past one is the reason we came to Germany. It helped cure a bit of the homesickness I have really been feeling, and I think Shelby has as well. We decided not to do any traveling this month so hopefully there will be more weekends like this one.

I LOVE WARM WEATHER!!!

Until next time! Pics coming soon!