how we are and our family pictures

So this summer has been a little different than the summer we envisioned for ourselves a few months ago. People have worried about us and asked how we are--thank you enough for caring it is very sweet. We are doing fine. We move back to Indiana in a week and are very excited. We have made many great memories staying with Granny and Pappy this summer, and I am sure this special time with grandparents will benefit the boys greatly. Still, it will be nice to finally feel like we are completely settled back into our lives. We had pictures taken of us this summer by Sarah Ward who did an awesome job and was very patient with the boys-- and let's be serious-- with the adults as well.

So here is a tiny bit about how everyone is doing and then enjoy our family pictures.

Thomas- he is almost 1 now and I can't believe it. He loves to sing and talk (sometimes he actually says words like hi, bye, and ball). When he smiles he scrunches up his nose and it is the cutest thing ever. He can pull up and cruise but doesn't seem very interested in moving away from furniture just yet. This summer he has loved balls and swimming in the pool.

Luke- has made huge advancements in his language skills and it is so awesome to hear him begin to talk. When we left he only said one or two words--sometimes--and he was 2. Once in Germany he began to say 3 or 4 words in German. When we came back he continued to use his German words but very little else. Then about a month ago he just had an explosion in language. I am not sure if it is because he has had so many aunts and cousins around who have helped him or if he just decided it was time to start, but the difference from the beginning of summer to now is amazing. He has loved having the aunts and cousins around because they would carry and play with him like he was their little pet. He likes having little baby things (small tiny things) to carry around and be his pets-like toys, balls, or balloons. He took swim lessons this summer for one week and loved that he got to be a big boy and do something Thomas couldn't.

Jack- has taken to the water like a fish this summer. At the beginning of the summer he was nervous of the water and unsure about what to do while in it, but now he has no fear. He jumps in , does cannonballs, can doggy paddle the length of Granny's pool, has jumped off the diving board multiple times, puts his head completely underwater,is starting to learn the frog kick, and wants to be in the water every day. It has been so fun to see this transformation and emergence of confidence. He went to VBS even though he didn't know anyone in it and it was at a church he was not familiar with-I was so proud of him for doing something that I know was outside his comfort zone.

Pete and I are doing fine too-- there isn't much to report on us so you will just have to take my word for it.

Ok let the family pictures begin----

here we were going for all the boys laying on their stomach but it didn't work out

didn't work here either

basically this is when we gave up on that idea

injury, running, and an anniversary

Thomas was sitting in his booster seat, I was making eggs, and the other kids were just wandering around the house waiting for breakfast. Suddenly, I hear a crash and a sobbing, painful, frantic cry. Thomas was still in his booster seat but now the booster seat was on the floor and Thomas's face had attempted to break the fall. Luke was just standing there staring. Luke had pulled the booster seat off the chair, but didn't quite understand that this is what was causing all crying. I picked up Thomas to find that his mouth and nose were bleeding. I couldn't take it- I went to wake up Pete until the bleeding stopped. It was determined that Thomas broke his nose but since babies mostly have cartilage in their nose and it had broken straight there wasn't much we could do other than give him Tylenol and make sure he didn't hurt it further. Oh my. This after Jack jumped backwards into the pool causing him to smash his mouth on the ladder causing his tooth to go straight through his lower lip. I think I am going to have to get used to injury since I have such active boys.

after his fall and after the crying stopped

Jack has decided that he is going to be our running man. He decided that while his Granny and uncles were running in a 10k he would run in a 1 mile race. So on the 4th of July Jack and I ran in our race, probably the first of many for Jack. It was very hot already that morning and Jack wasn't real sure about running without seeing the finish line, but ultimately we finished. We started out running but then switched to a goal oriented run walk method: run until the stop sign, walk until the big tree at the end of the street, and finish up the last bit running hard.

before our race

during our race

after the race

Also, Pete and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this month. We went to the French Lick/West Baden Resort. It was very nice and relaxing. We spent one night away with no kids and enjoyed a Sprudel Bath at the spa, sitting poolside while having drinks brought to us, a nice dinner, an hour gambling in the casino, and finally a room service breakfast we enjoyed while watching Wimbledon.

inside hotel

outside hotel

Summer Summer Summer!

These are some of the words and things that have been part of our summer so far: Family, swimming, hot, playing, Jack's busted mouth, fireworks, Squeezie being a pet, throwing and skipping rocks, girl cousins, trampoline fun, trail walks,and crazy times.

Goodbye Germany

When we left Roxel we didn't have a lot of stuff, but we had some stuff, and it had to be removed from the apartment. Not sure what to do,the secretaries suggested we just leave it on the street. This is just what we did, and it turns out that many other people in town saw us doing it and thought it was a wonderful idea. When we first started doing it a man asked if it was pick up day. In Roxel there is a day every 6 weeks or so where you can leave anything you don't want on the street and the town picks it up. We weren't sure when pick up day was, but we knew we couldn't leave our stuff in the apartment and things like a bed wouldn't fit in a dumpster-- so to the street it was. By the time we had made a few trips we noticed that our entire street was getting in the mood and so was our whole apartment building. We left before we found out when pick up day was, but we did start a trend.

Our plan trip home was a bit more difficult--dealing with children wise-- but we made it. The long trip was long but ok. Once in America one of our legs involved taxiing the runway for an hour and Thomas screaming the whole time, while I sat wedged in between to men. Once off that flight almost every single person said something about it-not negative but still they ALL felt the need to comment. Then after 24 hours of travel we thought we were a 45 minute plane ride from being pick up by family when that flight got cancelled and we had to spend the night in a hotel, and by night I mean the 4 hours until we were booked on a new flight. Still-- we were glad to be home.

We are back in the States and spending the summer in Kentucky. When school starts in August we will be moving back to Purdue.

A decision had to be made......

And so..... after packing up our lives, saying our goodbyes, leaving our dog behind, and flying across the ocean to a new country we found that moving without a support system is quite difficult. It is hard to say when and where we realized things weren't going well, when we knew that this unsettling feeling might be more than homesickness.

 We first moved into a small apartment completely furnished and within walking or biking distance to everything, and here things were not easy, but felt doable given time. We knew this place was only our temporary home given the fact that we had not signed up in time to save it for a whole year, which many people do, we only had it for 4 weeks. We didn't want to buy more stuff to stock it when we knew we would have to move again.

 We found a place to move, got the keys, and loaded our meager belongings into a car and were driven 15 or 20 minutes to a small quaint town just outside the busy center of Muenster- it was a lovely picturesque town. Maybe it was here, or maybe not, that things began to feel overwhelming. The place was completely unfurnished, we knew this going in, but once we moved in with only mattresses and a couple lawn chairs to our name, the unfurnished aspect hit home hard. There were no mirrors, and this may seem minor but how is a girl to get dressed without a mirror? There were no light fixtures and while we had been given a few odd looking ones, no one thought to help us install them and we had no clue. We asked how to do it and were given verbal instructions, while correct, did not take into account the fact we are not handy; we went without lights, minus two baby sized mini-lamps we bought. We had no window coverings and so the extreme daylight, being up north, played with our children's senses and screwed up any semblance of routine, I also once caught sight of the man in the next building's butt. We were also in dire need of a kitchen and when we asked for help we were given two websites to look at, one was ebay and the other was a combination craig's list plus the classifieds. We didn't know what to look for, how to ask, how to install it, how to transport it, and etc., finally we found a person who would accompany Pete to see about a kitchen but wouldn't be able to help do anything else. It was quite frustrating. We asked many people to help us rent a truck and transport and install the kitchen but most said they had bad backs. Argh!!!!! We needed furniture and seeing what a pain the kitchen ordeal was I simply ordered it from IKEA- it was going to take at least 6 weeks for it to arrive-also, you had to pay in cash and the time of delivery which seemed quite odd.

 I ordered a few things, like a mirror and small toy box online through Amazon, and while I received my items, I got the distinct impression that people in Germany do not order stuff online the same way we do in America. First of all, I was quite embarrassed since I wasn't sure how to buzz the delivery guy in because when I tried to speak to him he didn't answer, so I simply went downstairs. He had 3 boxes for me but didn't appear to make any movement in any effort to help me upstairs with them, so I asked him to help, which seemed to put him off slightly but he did it. The next day or so I got another box or two and it was the same man and he met me halfway this time and made some facial expression or comment indicating that I sure was having many boxes delivered-this was done in such a way that I understood he was getting tired of delivering things to me. I was able to buy things online because we had smartphones not because we had the internet. We called about that but it turns out they mail you stuff and it takes quite awhile and they don't come to your residence because they aren't even located in Muenster. Then in order to feel like I had some control I decided to just do laundry. Well no, it turns out I wasn't going to just do laundry. They had changed the lock or were in the process of changing the locks to the laundry room so either way we had no access to the washer. Let me say that with three small kids this is not welcoming news. We had a drying rack so Pete decided to set that up on the patio and fill the tub up with hot water and wash our clothes. It wasn't the best way and we obviously didn't do it correctly because our clothes dried hard and crinkly, but at least we had 'cleaned' them.

 Pete wasn't having any time to study because taking care of all these unexpected kinks were consuming his 'free' time. His adviser was out of town every weekend and holiday to visit family so he wasn't even able to meet with him, which was the reason we came to Germany in the first place. I guess, to be fair, he met with him once for math related purposes. The secretaries, who had been our main link to the German world, informed us that we would likely not make any friends while we were in Germany because Northern Germans do not befriend outsiders easily. It isn't in their nature at all. Many never leave the small towns where they were born and see no reason to do so. In fact, we learned, that if you are American and have German heritage you more than likely have Southern German blood running in your veins because they are the ones who move around- Northern Germans do not. We were told it takes years before you are seen as someone they trust enough to befriend and even then you will still be an outsider. None of this was welcoming news, all of it was hard, and no one seemed to want to support us or help us because there seemed to be a feeling of-- if you are going to live here you better figure it out on your own. While that may be something we would need to be told later on, the fact that no one would even help us set up our home so that we could at least have one place that was safe, comforting, and refuge for us was too much for me, I began to bend and break under the stress. Our family began to look nothing like it did in the States, Pete wasn't studying, it didn't seem like he would be able to study or see his adviser for quite awhile, and so a decision had to be made.

 Before we spent any more time or money did we even need to be there, should we stay? If Pete needs to finish his thesis in the next year( maybe year and a half) is it worth spending 6 months getting acclimated? How much would we end up relying on him since he was already picking up the language and I could barely order a brotchen? If I made him make all the appts., talk to all the teachers, and make all the phone calls would he be able to study enough? Would the added stress do us in? Still, we had made this decision, we had prayed, we knew it wouldn't be easy, and how would we feel just giving up? After much talking, many tears, and stressful nights of being torn in both directions we made the choice to come home. Once we decided it happened quite quickly. Pete should be able to fly out to Germany a few times and with skype and email it will get done, it may be difficult but now we see that it won't be near as difficult as if we had stayed.