Three Big Brothers

Personality, Parker.

2011-04-06T15:21:00.004+02:00

Welcome back to the "old blog." I guess I couldn't stay away long, huh? Since I couldn't get the WordPress to upload this video without paying, I decided to stick it here and on Facebook. Hope you enjoy my little guy showing off his personality. If you're wondering why this is here, you can go read this blog for the background story.

Moving, again.

2011-03-29T12:30:00.002+02:00

No, not physically. No orders just yet.

But virtually moving from this blog to a new location. Check out the new digs at WordPress and you can also find out why I'm moving from here to there.

And if any of you are seriously smart at website things, I would LOVE to import all of my posts from this site into the WordPress one. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Tschüß!

Mario, Luigi, and Bailey

2011-03-29T06:52:00.016+02:00

If you have known me any time at all, you know I have an irrational love of cake. The taste and smell, of course. But also, a the look of cake. And I especially love PRETTY cakes that TASTE and SMELL amazing. From the time my first son was one, I've sought out a "cake lady" to bring my vision to life in the form of sugar. I had a great cake lady in Forest City (Janet). I found one in Columbia for the one set of birthdays we had there, and then was mostly without one until this year. If the friend of mine who made this cake wanted publicity, I can assure you, I'd flood the internet with references, but she doesn't want to create a business out of her passion. I can honor that.

I think I need to write an entire blog about the beautiful cakes the boys have had over the years, but since THIS particular post is supposed to be all about Bailey, I'll stop drooling over cakes for the moment and move on.

My third child, the greatest surprise of my life, has turned 7. He got a super celebration this year as we were in England on his actual birthday. Sherri gave him a full birthday party at her house, and honestly, it was plenty party to sufficiently celebrate Bailey! He loved it and it was his favorite part of our England trip. I can't thank her enough! Then we got home and celebrated Bailey with our friends at our home. Bailey is my child who most loves to be at home so when his brothers started planning their birthdays (last SUMMER) and they wanted large get-togethers at the bowling alley or indoor play places, Bailey wanted his to be at home. Easy enough!
Thanks to the Caltriders (who were sorely missed at Bailey's party, both by the boys and the adults) we were able to let the boys eat their pizza on the porch. We inherited their outdoor furniture and have already had several meals out there!
And now you'll see why I find someone to make cakes for me. I have no talent whatsoever for decorating. I can make it taste just fine, but it is U*G*L*Y! Now, please note that I'm referring to the icing part of the decorations. The letters and green icing and characters are beautiful and well done, thanks to the Birthday boy.

We made this cake yesterday in keeping with our family tradition (that started last year, so I'm sort of amazed at how seriously the boys now take it). In 2010, because we weren't celebrating with a party on Carson's actual birthday, but did so with friends a few weeks early, we decided to make a cake together ON his birthday to celebrate. A month later we did a similar thing for Bailey's 6th birthday. 2 months later for Hayden's, we had to do the same to keep things fair (I don't like that word... 'nother blog for 'nother day). Well, guess what? They remembered that this year and so Carson and I whipped up a cake together. A month later, Bailey SO remembered that, even though he's already had two full birthday parties! :) But who can argue with a 7 year old with two missing front teeth when he says he wants to spend time just with you? Not this mom! And so we spent a portion of rest time yesterday making this cake.
Now, in breaking with normal practices, Bailey didn't want a triangle slice of cake. He wanted his name. So, as best I could, I cut the top layer off giving him all 6 letters.

No cake making day is complete without big brother kissing the baby and getting chocolate on his face.

Now, in the next picture I understand that I used too open an aperture here, therefore blurring Parker out (even though I adjusted hoping to get them both in focus) I couldn't resist adding this photo. For whatever reason, Bailey's using his 'gangsta' face and it's adorable.Happy Birthday, sweet Bailey. You are a joy to your family and we are so glad God surprised us with you!

The Advocate

2011-03-28T21:58:00.005+02:00

So, the time has come to transition from the new baby seat to one that will grow with him. This milestone occurred much later for Parker than for any of my other babies, that's for sure. At only 18 lbs (3rd percentile) he still has 4 more pounds he could gain before outgrowing his infant carrier. But since he's officially a year old, I decided to order his big-boy car seat. It arrived today so I was fast to get it set to the right size and install it in my van. We even took a ride to WAAF to show daddy. He was unimpressed. That was fine with me! (I was quite impressed!)

His original seat:The new seat:

He seems pleased enough. Okay, so the truth is he has his second ear infection and doesn't feel very well.
Saying good-bye to the old seat. He's growing up so fast.

The way to see England...

2011-03-27T19:42:00.012+02:00

My dream finally came true. I got to see England! I am so excited about the memories we made and the fun we had. We've been home less than a week and I've already made and ordered my Shutterfly Photo Book for the trip! (If you need the password, email me and I'll give it to you.) This is how we traveled. The big three were on their own, Matt carried Parker, and I carried the essentials: a back pack full of diapers, wipes, Motrin to stave off kids' leg cramps, a banana, video camera, sippy cup of milk, change of clothes for Parker... thinking back, I don't even remember what else was in that heavy thing that I never even used. I should have carried less each day... And of course, in my hands at all times, my new Nikon that I reference here.

Here is a quick recap of our awesome vacation:

Here we are in front of Buckingham Palace. I wish the scaffolding wasn't there.

After we left the palace we headed to Hard Rock Cafe. We all had a great experience there, the wait staff took amazing care of us. But Parker seemed to have the best time of all! :) (Bailey lost a tooth while we were there, the day before his 7th birthday!)

Here is Matt in front of Westminster Abbey.

And here he is with a sleeping Parker in front of Big Ben. During February and March we spent a few weeks studying England and its major landmarks. We learned that what we can actually see is called "Clock Tower" or "St. Steven's Tower" and the bell inside is called "Big Ben." The minute hand is 14 feet long and made of copper. It's hollow to keep it light.We love this bridge. It's called "Tower Bridge" and it's just beautiful.
The day we visited Cambridge proved to be the day I had more time to try out some creative things. The city is less busy and we spent most of the day in pedestrian zones, which means we were less concerned about the boys stepping into traffic. Bikes were everywhere, as were signs warning bikers not to chain their bikes to specific fences. At the end of Cambridge day, we went to Sherri's house, a friend of Jessica's and Zak's. Sherri had planned a full-on birthday party for Bailey! She made a strawberry checkerboard cake with Buzz Lightyear on top. She served this cake on Star Wars plates and had the table decorated with a solar system table cloth. Everything was so well thought out and after we returned home to Germany, Bailey said that Sherri's house was his favorite part of the entire trip. Makes a mommy happy!And the next day, the babies got a rest. Here's Connor sacked out on the floor of our hotel room, chilling while Jessica taught me how to play Fluxx. Pretty fun, but it takes a while to get the hang of it. I won the first two rounds, then lost the next 10!
Part of the day we spent outside letting the babies swing, play in the grass, and letting Owen and Bailey run free, with no cars to watch out for. Just a free, relaxing day.

Zak and Matt took Hayden and Carson to Oxford to eat lunch at a very special restaurant. The Eagle and Child is where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien sat together every Tuesday and shared their timeless manuscripts with each other. When we returned to Germany, the boys both said that this was their favorite part of the trip.

On Sunday we headed back to London to Hillsong Church. Amazing worship experience, even if Jessica and I had to take in the service from the "baby" room. Afterwards we headed to see the top item on my list: Diana's chapel! This was a highlight for me, for sure!

On our last day in England we had a few hours before our ferry back to France. We saw Dover Castle and were SO highly impressed. The castle was so well preserved and the historical importance was meaningful to us. Here you can see me reading to the boys about the underground tunnels that were used during WWII.

Here are some words I wrote for the end of our Shutterfly book. It's not required reading, so no complaints that it's long! :)

We were so blessed to have friends take us to England who had lived there before. That meant we didn't have to drive on the other side of the road. That also meant they knew the area well enough to get us around and about in cars, trains, tubes, and double-decker busses.

We were able to hit all the major sights that one wants to see when heading to London, giving us just a taste of all there is to experience. We would love to go back and see more things in detail. I want to tour Buckingham Palace and the Royal Muse. I want to spend a lot more time in St. Paul's Cathedral (where Diana was married). I want to enter Parliament. I want to spend a full four hours at the Tower of London. None of these were possible in the time we had, but we got to see each of them and snap the obligatory photos of us with each of them.

A neat story about our experience with St. Paul's... On our first day in London we used the Hop-On-Hop-Off tour. We passed "Diana's chapel" before the automated audio-tour guide told us what it was. I was disappointed to have missed it, but we had other things we really wanted to do, so my mind was set toward getting us to the Tower of London. The next day I started to really hope that we could go by and see the Cathedral on Sunday when we were back in London. Zak and Jessica were cool to let us go out of the way a bit to spend some quality time there. I LOVED every minute we spent there and am so glad it worked out that we were able to fit it in.

Things that surprised me:

* Londoners do NOT wait for the "little green man" before crossing the street. (Germans ALWAYS wait and I appreciate them for that.)

* There is way more to see and do in England than I thought.

* The London Eye is much bigger than I expected.

* The babies did a great job traveling in their backpack carriers.

* Double-decker busses are just as fun to ride on as I had imagined.

* There were NO pictures of Diana... Anywhere.

* A baby who touches your lens at Hard Rock will leave a smudge that will be evident in all the pictures you take for the rest of the day, causing some of the windows on Parliament to be blurry.

(Clean lens often.)

I also believe God had his hand on our trip. We asked Him to bless us with smooth travels and safety and He answered those prayers. Some of the many ways we saw this are below:

* Even though we had 10 people in our party, we were always able to be seated in restaurants immediately. Unheard of.

* At The Hard Rock Cafe they sat us immediately, gave the kids a table next to ours, and gave us a military discount without us having to ask. (I wouldn't have THOUGHT to ask... the waiter asked us if we were "with the forces.")

* We got on all trains/busses/tubes without having to wait a long time. AND we never got on a wrong train/bus/tube.

* Our hotel was amazing: 1 bedroom, 1 full kitchen, 1 living room, 2 full bathrooms. (Each family had their own hotel room.)

* We saw several accidents averted right before our eyes. A few SHOULD have been accidents and, had they occurred, we would have been involved.

* Nothing got stolen, lost, or left behind. (Not even Bailey's "Lord of the Ring" ring that he did his best to lose!)

* We had absolutely gorgeous weather!

* Everyone stayed healthy while on the trip.

* On the way home we drove as far as we could, trying to get into Germany so we could fill up at an Esso station, using the US prices rather than European prices. The GPS sent us on a wild goose chase and we ended up in a small village with an Esso Station that had closed a few hours earlier. At that point we were 29 miles from empty. We were a bit nervous that we wouldn't find ANY station open, Esso or otherwise. Matt prayed aloud and within 3 minutes we found a Shell. Paid full price, but got enough gas to get us home without danger of running out. The relief of finding that gas station more than compensated for the extra money we spent having not used an Esso station.

* And finally, as important as almost anything else, we left for England friends with the Hills and we returned as such. There's always a chance that too much togetherness can tarnish a friendship and I believe God was good and provided protection against this. We are thankful for every aspect of this trip!

I'm ONE!

2011-03-13T21:48:00.005+01:00

Ten on Ten : March 2011

2011-03-10T10:33:00.023+01:00

Today I am taking a new challenge. a photo challenge. it's called TenOnTen and the idea is by the blogger of a bit of sunshine...

The goal is to take a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours. Finding much life and beauty amongst the ordinary things of our day! Here I go!

7:50 - Dinner started early (now that's a beautiful thing!)

8:45 - Keeping Parker out of the hallway where Bailey was putting number cards in order

9:45 - Doing a Math lesson with Bailey

10:45 - History - Learning a bit of England's history before we go there next week

11:40 - Parker time

12:45 - Heading out the door for P.E.

1:45 - Homeschool P.E. (me practicing "panning")

2:45 - Tired baby - he missed his nap during P.E.

3:45 - ME TIME! (working on this blog during "me time")

4:45 - Putting dinner together

5:45 - Eating Dinner (this is my long-awaited cheese grater!!)

6:45 - Love is spelled "TIME" and "TIME" sounds an awful lot like "Dad, will you play catch with me?" And when it gets dark before dinner is over, an episode of Mythbusters will always suffice...

(I think I cheated... I did more than 10 photos. Oh well. I can't write a short blog for the life of me... why did I think I'd be able to keep it short in photos?!?)

"Are you ONE?"

2011-03-09T13:17:00.013+01:00

My sweet baby has learned a trick. When I ask, "Are you ONE?" he raises one finger. We've been practicing for a few weeks and I think it is absolutely adorable! Below is a cute clip of him trying out this new trick:

I sit here looking back at the past year, amazed at the blessings God has poured on us. Parker has completed our family and made us feel whole and content in a way I didn't know was possible. I never knew what it was like for older siblings to adore younger ones, because each older brother was still a baby when a younger one was born. With the gap between the first three and Parker I am seeing a whole different side of "big brother-ness" and I love it.

Hayden is an absolutely adorable big brother who enjoys showing off his baby. He ALWAYS asks if he can hold him in public, wants to make sure that others see him with Parker. Carson, I can tell, already misses the infant stage of Parker's life, as he wants to hold Parker in that snuggly position while Parker wants to be on the go! Bailey loves to tickle and generally mess with Parker, and it rarely bothers the little guy. These three brothers have definitely helped Parker to have the easy-going personality we so enjoy.

Here are some of the things I love about Parker:

his wild and crazy hair that I plan to have tamed (i.e. cut) by his actual birthday;

his infectious laugh that starts small but grows until it envelopes the entire room;

the way he still can't get from belly to bottom while roaming around the house;

the fact that he's content to lie on his belly and play since he can't get to his bottom;

how he will not swallow those stinking little legos we have everywhere, but will just gnaw on them until one of us digs it out of his mouth;

that he will eat anything I make for him, except spaghetti (which just so happens to be his big brothers' favorite meal), or plain yogurt, but who can blame him;

his blue eyes that both captivate me and melt me simultaneously;

that he sleeps 12 hours at night, 2 hour morning nap, 3 hour afternoon nap, and sometimes an hour evening nap;

how he about jumps off the changing table if he hears his big brothers in the hallway;

that no matter how I tried to prevent it, he still sucks his left thumb (and only his left);

how he can eat more than I do;

that he no longer throws up after each meal due to his acid reflux getting so much better;

how he has a crush on my friend, Jessica, and has since he was itty-bitty;

that he will sit quietly and enjoy his stroller while I run (even if I'm not really enjoying the run);

how his mouth gapes open in wonder as he explores his surroundings;

how he looks so much like his oldest brother, Hayden, with whom he has an extra close relationship;

how he will say "NANA" instead of "MAMA" much to my mom's delight;

that he's learning the meaning of "no" and will actually listen to me, sometimes;

how he loves his walker and can RUN through the house;

that I have to wear slippers or he get up to top speed and run into my heels, excited to see mama...

and I will continue to find things about Parker that I love with all of my heart.

What a blessed woman I am!

(And wait a bit and I'll post a blog about his absolutely wonderful first birthday party!)

Taking a break...

2011-03-04T06:56:00.005+01:00

So, week 1 of my first online class is almost over. I've learned a lot, and some of it has nothing to do with photography. One very clear thing I've learned is that my life was pretty well scheduled before I added the class. I was able to fit in homeschooling, exercising, house-keeping, and some playtime on email/FB. But when I added the class, I dropped the exercising and housekeeping, keeping only what was of the most importance... homeschooling and email/FB. :)

After 5 days of that I'm discovering that's really not the best plan and am going to swap my priorities around a bit. If you email me and I don't reply, rest assured that I'm not ignoring you personally, but doing my best to keep up with my main priorities and my super-fun and amazingly-informative class.

I find it oh-so-fitting that one of the subjects I used in my practicing with slow shutter speeds was my wall clock. If you look closely you can see the passing of time in the second hand. The minutes I spent taking pictures this past week have not been in vain. I've learned a great deal and really do recommend this class to anyone who has a DSLR and only uses Auto mode. It's great!

But looking at at my house at this very moment, it's bordering on the C.H.A.O.S. that Flylady talks about. I need to take a break from email and Facebook so that I can do what is of most importance to me, and all of that revolves around my family. Feel free to keep emailing and such, but I'm thinking that, until March is over, I will be taking a break. (This next two weeks also happen to include Bailey's and Parker's birthdayS and a trip to London... I have a lot going on and really need to prioritize.)

Not sure how this will work, as I want to post pictures of birthday parties for friends and family in the states, and I will be OH SO tempted to reply back to the comments... maybe I'll find a way to be balanced. Probably not. :)

So, ta-ta for now! See you in APRIL!

(Okay, you know me better than that. I will post on Parker's 1st Birthday WHICH IS IN 9 DAYS, and then again, when I get back from London, but I will be MOSTLY quiet until April...)

The call...

2011-02-26T15:05:00.002+01:00

Being a Dave Ramsey fan and a loyal listener to his daily radio show (via 3-hour, commercial free podcasts) I could not wait until we got to call and do our "debt free scream" live.

I've been in contact with someone there for the past couple of weeks, and she put me in contact with Lara, Dave's assistant producer. On Thursday, Lara emailed me and asked me a few questions and offered a few dates to choose from. The next day, 25 FEB, was one of the available dates. I jumped at the chance!

Friday afternoon I got the house set up just right. I wanted to video this for our own memories, as well as a way to let the boys realize just how important this moment is. This is a moment I pray they never have on their own, as we are teaching them to follow this lifestyle forever, never getting into debt. I set up my laptop so mom, dad, and Josh could watch via Skype, and turned the table on an angle so the video would show each person. I printed out some coloring sheets from Twistynoodle with debt free sayings on them. These were used during the call to keep the boys entertained and they worked surprisingly well.

2 hours beforehand I as working on dinner, excited but nervous, and listening to podcasts. 40 minutes before, while the boys were watching a movie, I jotted down some notes just in case I went blank.

At 8:00 pm (2:00 pm EST) my internet went out. I about had a mini-freak-out, because I was really hoping my parents could watch. A quick restart of our modem fixed the problem, but, as it turned out, Skype froze up on them a few times during the call anyway. At least they were listening LIVE on Dave's website so they didn't miss anything important.

At 8:1o I dialed the number and within a minute, I was talking to Lara! I felt like we were on hold for a hour, but that was just because my heart was beating so fast. All in all, I believe we were on the phone less than 25 minutes, including wait time. Not bad.

During the waiting I remember worrying that Parker was going to get loud, so I had Matt feed him a jar of baby food. That worked, but he ate too fast, so had him feed him a 2nd jar. Then I remembered I had purchased Ritz crackers. That boy loves Ritz and we only give them to him occasionally... perfect bribery.

In the end, all 4 boys were quiet and we rewarded them a couple of times during the call with chocolate chips. And finally, we got to scream as loudly as we could. It was amazing and I hope many of our friends will be calling to do the same within the next couple of years. What a peace there is on this side of our journey.

Here's the video of our call, plus a little bonus video of us burning our statement from Sallie Mae that shows a zero balance.

WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Celebrating Carson!

2011-02-16T21:27:00.003+01:00

8 years ago right now we were at home watching an ice storm make its way into NC. My parents encouraged us to go to Gastonia (an hour away) to make sure I'd be near the hospital in case Carson decided to come overnight. They met us there and we all crashed in the same hotel room: Mom, Dad, me, Matt and Hayden. I remember Matt was studying for a seminary exam... (random memory)

Sure enough, my water broke during the night and we were right beside GMH. Sweet Carson joined our family at a whopping 9 lbs 11 oz and with the sweetest cheeks you've ever seen.

He is the easiest kid to get along with, rarely complainingabout anything. He reads so fast I have a hard time keeping up with him even when we reserve books from other Army libraries. His giggle is so cute, even if he tries to hide it from us. He looks too cute in his Army hat and we are thankful that Ms. Jennifer had a replacement for the one he lost.

Carson doesn't like fruit, but will eat veggies, so it's a trade-off. His favorite food is his mom's spaghetti but looks forward to any chance to eat pizza, especially when it is for his own birthday celebration!! :)

He's decided to be in the Army when he grows up... he wants to fire at targets like on the AFN commercials. (He likes the "pop-up" targets.)

He just told me thanks for a Christmas gift we gave him 2 months ago, yet another example of his appreciation for what he has.

Carson doesn't get a lot of the limelight in our family... Parker's the baby, Bailey's a ham, and Hayden's the first to accomplish each next step. But that doesn't mean he's any less special to our family. His quiet nature is part of who he is and yet another positive attribute that he gets from his dad. From me, he gets his love of surprises, not wanting to know what his presents are until it's the right time! He even wants his gift from us on Saturday, the day of his small party, instead of tomorrow, his actual birthday.

I enjoy this opportunity to celebrate the young man who is Carson.

WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

2011-02-11T20:20:00.007+01:00

So, after quite a few years of "living like no one else," we have accomplished our first major goal. We have paid off all of our debt! Quite a bit of debt, I must admit. We spent years living beyond our means, ignoring our bad habits and making excuses for why we "needed" to use the credit card yet again for groceries, diapers, or a meal out. Soon after we moved to Columbia we discovered our debt; a chunk of ice that was only sticking out enough to stub our big toe. Once we felt the sting of that, we found out we were moving to Colorado and the iceberg came pushing forcefully out of the ground, revealing the monstrosity we had unintentionally created.

Fast-forward 4 years, one cross-country move, a 15-month deployment, one overseas move, a new baby, and many lessons learned and here we are!

I still listen to the Dave Ramsey Show every day. I am SO excited to be in contact with his assistant who is going to schedule OUR opportunity to scream on-air! I am getting a little nervous and find myself wanting to write down all the questions he asks his callers and answer them ahead of time so that I'll be ready no matter what he asks! I get butterflies every time I lear a new caller say, "I'm calling to tell you that we're debt free!"

The reality hasn't set in just yet. Nothing has changed so far. We haven't yet had our first check that is 100% ours.

"Think about that. Let it sink in," I tell myself. Every single cent of Matt's paycheck is ours. There is no one who has claim to our money anymore! :) We choose to tithe and we choose to have internet/cell phones. Beyond that... AHHH!! NOTHING!

Tuesday I go to get my "out-of-debt" prize: A gorgeous Nikon d300s and a 50mm fixed lens. My beautiful d50 has lasted 5 years and has earned my respect, and Nikon has earned a loyal customer. Matt will inherit my d50. He's more excited, however, about HIS "out-of-debt" prize! You'll never guess what it is... yep. A guitar! To be specific, it's a Taylor T-5 C2 Koa top.

And even after we get our prizes, we won't change much because we have to hit Baby Step 3 hard for the rest of 2011. 2012 will be dedicated to boosting the "replace Matt's car" fund so that when we go back to the US Matt will have the cash to buy a replacement. He won't be able to buy the Defender he really wants but we're both okay with that. One day, maybe!

This is our personal journal of our lives. We share it as a way to share what we are going through. My hopes are that I can encourage anyone reading who has debt to work their way out of it. The simplest, fastest way to do so is through Dave Ramsey's plan, Financial Peace University. I would love to become one of his Financial Counselors someday!

The above picture is of the 'Debtometer' I made as a visual countdown of the last $9700 in our debt. I wanted a way to mark off every last dime we paid off, for myself, but also for the boys. They are SO excited about this and I believe we have changed our family tree for the better as a result of our being transparent with them. Here is a note Hayden wrote in his Math book this week:

Cooking By The Month

2011-01-29T09:51:00.006+01:00

This type of menu planning and food preparation is a way of life. Once you've done it right one time, you become hooked. The couple of days you spend planning, shopping and cooking are not so fun and may result in sore feet (the authors of "Once A Month Cooking"*) highly recommend you wear good tennis shoes while cooking). You may wonder what in the world made you think this was a good idea. The first night or two you eat out of your freezer you won't notice much of a difference. It's a couple of weeks later when you are STILL eating out of your freezer, meals YOU like, that you know are healthful and better for you than what you would have been feeding your family that you sit back and think, "Yep.. it was worth it." The second and third months, you feel that relief much earlier because you have already spent a month (40 days in most cases for my family) seeing how valuable this new way of life is.

The purpose of this blog is to link you to my previous notes about this topic. I have someone ask me at least once a week to share with them what I do. I eventually wrote a Facebook note about it, and have two others that I usually share with them as well, because those two additional recipes are included each time I cook. I am going to link to those notes below but first I want to give a few other tips for newbies:

1. Remember that you will wonder why you decided to try this during the first cooking session. It is overwhelming at first but it gets MUCH easier each time you cook.

2. Use (borrow if you need to) a couple 10-12 quart stock pots to make your favorite soups sauces to make in bulk. I make 12 quarts of spaghetti sauce, chili, and chicken tortilla soup, the freeze each of these in quart size zip lock freezer bags. That's 30 meals right there! (Because we often open two bags of chili to feed the whole family.) The spaghetti sauce is used for more than just the traditional meal: French Bread Pizza and Calzones.

3. You can open up a lap top and watch movies during the day or listen to music or, like I do, Dave Ramsey for motivation! You save so much money cooking this way!

4. Start your day with a clean dishwasher, a sink with one side of hot soapy water, and two empty trash cans (one recycling here in Europe). And if you have an infant, a bassinet comes in handy!

Here are the links. If they don't work, please let me know and I'll combine the text from those notes into this blog.

Cooking By The Month

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Crock Pot Rotisserie Chicken

This note may be a work in progress as I add to it recipes I find work well, and update other tips. Best wishes on your journey!

* If the link for the book doesn't work, search for the title of the book along with "Mimi Wilson," one of the authors.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year?

2011-01-04T14:16:00.021+01:00

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

I write this note with a very heavy heart. If I had written this letter a week ago, I would have started with a totally different tone. My 2010 was fabulous. One of my favorite years ever. And ultimately, this letter is to be a review of twenty-ten but at this moment, I can barely get past the thought that is on the forefront of my mind. As I sit here trying to reminisce over how great my last year was, my dear friends have to say good-bye to their baby girl. People allover the world are praying for the family of this blue-eyed beauty. China, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, Japan, and of course, the US, are filled with people approaching His throne on behalf of Brynnley's family.

How does one transition from such a heavy heart into remembering the joys of a past year? How do I write about how great a time I had, knowing that Kjersten is in such pain? I have no idea.

So, as awkward as this is, I’m going to review my year and share the joys of 2010 with you… awkward definitely describes it and I sort of just want to say, “Sorry, Kjersten, for even writing this, while you are in such severe pain. Honestly, you and your family are more on my heart and mind than this update.”

January – We welcomed this year at the hotel in Ramstein, as friends who were traveling through Europe on Space-A were also there, with the flu. I felt so bad for my friend who had to fly overseas while feeling horrible. On the 1^st we went from Ramstein to Stuttgart to visit with our friends, the Baileys. Quick Memories: driving in that red piece of junk BMW that reminds us of why we buy American; giving myself insulin shots 6 times a day and checking my sugars even more often than that; the boys all sledding down the Bailey’s fun hill; seeing the Black Forest and tasting real, Black Forest cake… yuck.

February – We celebrated Carson’s 7^th birthday. We didn’t know a lot of people here just yet, so we met the Bailey’s again for celebrations at an indoor jump house. How blessed we are that they moved here 6 months before us and so we started off our time in Germany with at least one set of friends! It was about this time, as well, that we started going to WAAF Contemporary Service. A family invited us to eat lunch with them at the Food Court after service one Sunday. Since then, we haven’t missed many Sunday lunches as the PX, as it is a time we get to sit and chat for an hour or so. This was the beginning of us making such great friends here in Weisbaden. Quick Memories: craving cake yet not being allowed much due to gestational diabetes; watching Carson crawl on that huge bubble in the middle of the jump house.

March – We welcomed Parker into this world, having our first kid on foreign soil… our first kid not born at Gaston memorial with Sage being the delivering midwife. We were so glad Nana and Papa made it to Germany in time for Parker’s arrival, but really wished Grammy and Anna could have been here as well. They were a part of the other boys’ fantastic entrances when we lived close enough. We also celebrated Bailey’s 6^th birthday at an indoor play place. The ages of our boys on that day were 8, 7, 6, and 5 days old. Quick Memories: my first Dr. Pepper after having Parker; showing my parents around Germany (okay, they saw much of it while I was in the hospital or at home resting, so I didn’t do much “showing” them around…)

April – We celebrated Matt’s 33^rd birthday. We went to Mexico Lindo, the closest thing to the kind of Mexican food we’re used to, which, I’m told, is not “real” Mexican food. We also had our family pictures taken by a fabulous photographer. I loved our shoot and look forward to having another one around Parker’s first birthday. Quick Memories: The first day my parents left, Matt was back at work and I was alone with all 4. I took a treat to my friend, Jessica, who had just had her son, Connor. Then I took all of my boys on our first outing with no other adults to the Neroberg train. I felt accomplished.

May – We celebrated Hayden’s 9^th birthday with a cook-out in our neighborhood. Finally, we knew enough people to have a party! We also enjoyed a trip to Edelweiss, in Garmisch, Germany. While there we noticed an ad for a used Durango… THAT COULD SEAT 6 PEOPLE!!! A month later we owned that Durango and had happily said good-bye to the BMW! Quick Memories: Trying to tour the monastery in Bavaria in the rain. The boys were wearing shoes with well-worn soles, and their feet got wet very quickly. No tour. Grumpy kids.

June – Our older three boys were baptized and Matt was so happy to be able to baptize them. Each of them had previously made individual decisions to accept Christ but it wasn’t until this moment that they were ready to be baptized. What a beautiful thing to watch! Parker slept right through it. Quick Memories: World Cup Games; Picking strawberries in the field across from the Hainerberg neighborhood. Made some great milkshakes and homemade yogurt.

July – Who said it doesn’t get hot in Germany!?!? They were crazy and, as Matt said, should be beaten swiftly. I don’t have many pleasant things to say about July or August, as I just remember being miserably hot. We had fans going, the windows working to our advantage (open/closed/blinds shut blocking light… depending on what time of day it was). The only saving grace was the lake, which we found one week before the heat ended, so we only got to go twice. We’ll get a pass next summer. Quick Memories: feeling grumpy all the time; feeding Parker his first bit of oatmeal cereal; finding the Rhine River “beach” at a local restaurant… made me feel like I was at the beach even if I was just putting my feet in a river; tasting Spundekäs for the first time… Oh.my.word…

August – I have enmity in my heart for July and August. Though I think that by the latter half of August we were back into bearable temperatures, I just don’t remember liking those two months very much. Quick Memories: Hayden starting 4^th grade, the grade I used to teach! Carson starting 2^nd grade, and Bailey starting 1^st. Time is flying!

September – We had to say good-bye to some sweet friends asthey moved across the pond back to the land of Chick-fil-a and really low speed limits. We spent much of September getting into a good routine with school, figuring out how to do this with an infant in the house. I am thankful Parker’s such a good sleeper! Quick Memories: Receiving two Flat Stanleys… well, one Flat Cierra and one Flat Cole; Carson getting stung by a bee near the eye; having a real scientist in a real lab coat come and lead a science experiment. (Thanks, Tara!); Carson wearing his Army BDU Chaplain hat everywhere, until he lost it.

October – WE got to visit the land of Chick-fil-a and really low speed limits! We took a Space-A flight and spent just over 2 weeks visiting family, celebrating as Matt’s brother married a beautiful bride, Erin. Quick Memories: bringing home two containers of Chick-fil-a sauce to enjoy with my chicken over the next few months; riding on a C-17 over the ocean; introducing Parker to Grammy and our NC family/friends.

November – My birthday! I’ve always enjoyed my birthday. I remember sleep-overs, horseback riding, family parties and friend parties. Up until this year my 18^th was my best ever. My parents had worked out a surprise party for me and, let me tell ya, I was surprised! That was the last time I saw Mike, Matt’s dad, before he passed away a week later. The only picture of me taken with him was taken that night. It is a night that I will never forget, as Matt’s dad kissed me on the cheek before he and the family drove off. I later remember thinking that it was as if he were welcoming me into the family. This year, Matt was in the States on my actual birthday but Jessica took care of me that night. She had a whole fun night planned and we went to dinner and then back to my house where the boys had decorated a cake. We danced, laughed, talked, and had a blast, and I almost didn’t notice Matt was missing. Almost. The day he got back from the States he was supposed to go to a guy’s night at a friend’s house. The girls were all going to get together with the kids at the bowling alley just to hang out. When I got there, all our friends, INCLUDING THE GUYS, were there! They got me! And, to top it all off, Matt had remembered something I had said months before. “All I want for my birthday is a cake, like a wedding cake, all girl.” He actually had someone who makes incredible cakes make the perfect cake for me! Quick Memories: finally feeling totally at home here in Germany, surrounded by such great people and having such an amazing Chapel to belong to.

December – I love Christmas. I love the trees, lights, music, snow, atmosphere, getting dark early… it’s just snuggly. And Germany really does Christmas right. NO fighting over “Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays.” No complaining that there was a manger scene at the Commissary. It felt like Christmases used to feel, before it became a soap box for both sides of the argument. The Christmas markets were fun to visit, and the food there was fun to eat. We found some of our favorite treats and went back for them on more than one occasion. I enjoyed having any possible excuse to make it downtown to our city’s Market. I think it was my favorite of all the markets I visited.Next year I want to make it to Heidelberg’s.Quick Memories: watching the mail for my Christmas cards to arrive… they finally did. January 3^rd!!); a perfect Christmas Eve; Singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus; seeing Parker in his Santa suit that fit him perfectly; hearing the boys read the story of Christ’s birth from Luke; enjoying Christmas day at home with our family of six.

Overall 2011 Quick Memories: Having friends here in Germany who absolutely don’t replace our family and friends in the states but we would add them to our list of family and friends and friends-who-are-like-family even if were living normal-people lives in the States. This Army life has its ups and downs. Meeting such amazing people is its best UP!

What are we most looking forward to in 2011? BEING DEBT FREE! We will be calling Dave Ramsey in a month or two with our Debt Free scream! We will have been working on this for a total of 4 years when we are done. Oh, and as a celebration, we're going to take a trip to LONDON! I've always wanted to go there!

(Wednesday, January 5, 2011)

Torture Chair

2010-12-23T22:14:00.006+01:00

Why am I so intimidated by hair dressers? Why do they scare me to death? I guess it's partly because I'm not a girly-girl. I don't like having my nails painted, even though I do love a good pedicure. Once I got acrylic nails so that I'd look fancy-schmancy in a friend's wedding. One broke the day of the wedding and I regretted the $40I spent to get them done. PLUS, when they all came off, my real nails were damaged beyond belief. Seriously, it took months before they were back to normal. Lesson learned. I don't ever dye my hair. Not because I'm too good for that, but because I'm too lazy to go back every 5-6 weeks to make sure it looks good all the time. I just learned how to use an eye-lash curler about 18monthsago. My friend, Corie, taught me at the same time she taught me how to create a "smoky-eye" look. Have I even tried that since she taught me? No. I look like a clown who forgot to bring a mirror to work so unless Corie is going to hop a plane and come help me with my make up, I'll be sporting the exact same color eye make-up every day, or night, regardless of the dress-upy-ness of the event. All that may explain my anxiety at the mere thought of going to a beauty salon. See, my mom always cut my hair. I was the girl with long blonde hair. (Me at 7.)

When you have long blonde hair, and are 7, you really just need the dead ends cut off once every 6 months or so. (Me at 17.)

Nothing fancy. So when I became an adult, I kept that habit... once or twice a year at the cheapest place possible. I remember when we moved to Columbia, SC I found myself in the seat at Super-Cuts. I actually liked that place because they don't wash hair there. Oh, I forgot to mention I HATE having my hair washed by someone else. It is horrible! I'd rather have a baby... being tickled is one of my all-time least favorite sensations and having the sprayer rinse water down my head is the worst. That reminds me of an episode of Veggie Tales where the worst possible punishment was to be sent to the Island of Perpetual Tickling. Yep. That's pretty much my real life worst possible punishment. So, though Super-Cuts wasn't the greatest place to get a hair cut, I liked the "no-hair-washing" part.

When we moved to Colorado I was a part of a pretty awesome unit, 4-10 CAV. One of our coffees was held at a gorgeous salon, Lotus, where we were pampered with our choice of 3 different spa mini-treatments. I got a pedi, a hand massage, and a face massage. Glorious, I tell you. During one of the drawings, I happened to win a free hair cut with one of their hair dressers, Marrivette. What was there to lose? It was going to be free... So I made my appointment for a few days later and got my hair cut. I'm sure she thought I was nuts for not wanting my hair washed, but trusted that I was telling the truth that I had just come from home and had just washed it. (It was still damp...) When I left that salon, I vowed to never have anyone else touch my hair again! She was magical! I was hooked and went back every 6-7 weeks during our time in Colorado. Before Lotus I always thought a hair cut was a hair cut. Little did I know!

And then, we got great news. We were PCSing to Germany! Awesome! But someone in the orders-making department forgot to add Marrivette to our orders and she was left behind. I had her cut my hair pretty short before we left, just to make sure it lasted as long as possible. That was November. I didn't get brave enough to go to someone else until April. I thought I'd let her tell me what would look good on me. Not a good idea. She said, "I'll give you a mommy-cut." Let's just say that didn't make me feel glamorous at all, and the fact that our family pictures were to be taken the next day didn't make matters any better. The next time I got it cut was September and this time I took with me a picture of a hair cut Marrivette had given me. The lady did okay, but I still didn't get exactly what I wanted. Partly because I always feel so intimidated to tell them to take more off or to make the slant more pronounced. I'm paying them... why do I feel like they're going to cut my ear off if I request something specific?!?

Anyway, here it is December and I needed to have it cut again. So, I did what any modern girl would do and asked around on FB. Let's just say I got very mixed responses to the person I was considering going to see. I had nothing to lose, well, other than a few inches of hair. I arrived at the salon for my appointment and guess where she took me... straight to the TORTURE CHAIR! I asked her if she could just spray it and she said no, that it was better for it to be fully wet. I actually said (because my fear was building and my filter was broken by this point), "This is why I didn't want a wash... I hate having my hair washed." She kept saying, "head down... you get wet." I didn't CARE if I got wet, I just wanted the torture to be over with! Finally she gave up and sprayed the rest of it wet. I showed her the picture and told her that I had been to 2 different ladies in Germany and neither had given me a good cut. I was pleased that when she was almost done she showed me the back and asked if I wanted her to make the slant more pronounced, which I did. She proceeded to cut more off and I think, overall, she did a good job. There are some really choppy places, things that Marrivette never would have left uncorrected. In fact, Marivette used to dry and style my hair and THEN cut on it a few more minutes, fine tuning the cut. Not so much today. Today I had to go home with wet hair and fix my it myself, even though I had paid enough for it to have included a quick run-through with a brush and blow dryer. I was kicking myself for not just asking the woman to style it enough so that I could go pick Matt up at Mainz Kastel... If I'm paying for something, why don't I feel I have the right to ask for what I want? I feel confident in stores or restaurants, but for some reason, beauty salons are my Kryptonite.

So, as I typed this I asked Matt some things (like what that stuff was that Superman can't touch or it renders him weak) and he asked what in the world I was writing about. I told him the basics and he said, "Why are you writing about your hair cut?!?" That is a good question. One I don't think I have a good answer for, as it does seem like a silly topic. But I think it's different for men, especially men in the military who have a specific hair cut FORCED UPON THEM for 20+ years of their life. For the women on their arms, however, we have to weather multiple moves across multiple continents, all the while keeping up with the current style (or for me, the style that was "in" a year or so ago because that's how long it takes me to work up the nerve to try something new...). And sitting in that spinny chair with someone you don't know holding a very sharp pair of sheers super close to your ears and eyes requires us to give over a bunch of control. Control that we, as military wives, are used to having. Being the only parent in a house for a year at a time can create some super independent women... which only makes it harder to hand that control over to someone else... especially when it comes to something as personal as hair. Overall, I think I'm one step closer to being satisfied with my hair cut. I will likely to back to the lady I saw today although I will have to gird up the courage to ask her to dry it for me. I will ALSO remember to go in with wet hair... oh how I hate that torture chair...

Remember.

2010-11-05T18:39:00.008+01:00

Jennifer,

Remember back about 10 years when you didn't pay a bit of attention to finances? Would you call that time period a time of ignorant bliss? You didn't work hard at home economics. Specifically, you didn't budget, cook often, or even consider using coupons. Matt was making less than a first-year teacher and together you were spending quite a bit more than that every year. Life was tough, financially, but it would have been doable had you been a bit more aware of what was going on under the surface of the financial landscape; had you heard about and listened to Dave Ramsey's message.

Remember a few years ago when you noticed a small mole-hill of debt that had you slightly concerned about your financial status? Remember the moment when you realized that the debt was going to keep you from buying your dream house? Do you remember sitting outside Chick-fil-a in Shelby, devestated because you knew it wasn't going to happen. Surely you remember lying on your bed that night crying, grieving over that dream that was lost. And of course, you remember hearing the mortgage broker threatening to sue you if you didn't go through with the purchase, even though you had clearly told him you could not afford the house and hadn't signed anything legally tying you to the house. I wish I could go back to that moment and tell you to let him sue you. What would he have gotten? A mole-hill of debt that you realized, soon after moving into that dream house, was just the tip of the iceberg of debt.

Remember the moments of sheer panic that would set in when you got bills and knew you were only making the minimum payments, not making any dent in the balances? Remember the almost-physical blanket of depression you felt each time you sat in the office of that dream house? Remember counting the days till the next payday because you were barely making it two weeks between each one? Remember being so consumed with the debt that you searched scriptures to find out how to take every thought captive? You learned a great lesson during that time of desperate searching: that when your mind is being overrun with thoughts you do not appreciate, you can sing praises to Him or quote scripture... the enemy cannot be in the presence of praise and you learned how to go to battle against that enemy with the song, "I Cast All My Cares Upon You." Remember singing that song while cleaning? While mopping? While driving? While folding clothes? It was the easiest thing to recall when you needed to drive depressing feelings away. It worked.

Remember when the song "Praise You in This storm" came out? It was at this time in your life and the lyrics pierced your heart unlike any other:

I was sure by now God, You would have reached down, and wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day. But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining.

Remember going through the gate at Fort Jackson when this song had just come on the radio. You were unable to stop the tears, incapable of getting out of the line, so you had no choice but to roll down the window, give the gate guard your I.D. and let him see your pain.

Remember being so dependent on Christ that your sweet husband read your mind and converted the closet into a prayer closet? Remember the hours you spent with Christ in there? He was your comfort in a time of need. He was there. You were never alone.

Remember needing rescuing? Remember the added level of fear when the Army told you that it was time to move after only being in the house 8 months? Remember leaving the house empty after having lived in it only 13 months? I wish I could have told you not to buy the house, not just because you had debt, but also because you were not going to be in Columbia long enough, anyway. Remember the house sitting empty for 6 months? Do you remember the moment you finally gave it up? You were sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot on 8th Street in Colorado. You finally said, "Okay, God. Take it. I have no idea how to do that, but if you don't, this house is going to kill us. I'm going to give it to the bank tomorrow." You had no idea what that was. What a foreclosure or short sale was. But you were desperate for it. Remember when the property manager called you the next day with renters? God stepped in and rescued you.

Remember the deployment? You needed rescuing from your own financial decisions. God gave you and Matt a chance to earn extra income in the form of a 15 month deployment. Remember the long, lonely days that you endured, encouraged by the ever-shrinking iceberg? Each day was worth it, and Matt agrees. That iceberg would have taken twice as long to thaw without that deployment.

Remember reading in Deuteronomy 8 a call to "remember what the Lord your God has done for you." It is clear that God has rescued you. It is time to remember. You need to remember THIS moment, as well. You have come so far. From a place where everything on earth was at stake, to a place where the debt is so small you can squash it in a few short months. But you have not gotten to this point alone. As a unified team, you and Matt have declared war on debt and have made a joint decision to never go back. You will soon be calling the Dave Ramsey Show to do your debt free scream and it will be a great day! But I am afraid you will forget. Forget how not paying attention to the finances got you in a mountain of debt. Forget the feeling of fear lurking in the mailbox. Forget the surrender when forclosure would have been a relief. Forget the 440+ days you spent without your husband knowing that each day was one day closer to being out of that disaster. Forget the clipping of coupons that saves you $30-40 on each grocery bill. Forget the cooking-by-the-month that has saved you THOUSANDS of dollars over the past few years. I don't want you to increase your lifestyle by much, though some is okay. I don't want you to forget the simple birthdays and Christmases which have cost you so little. Those inexpensive holidays have taught the boys many great lessons. Lessons that include the fact that Christmas is more about Jesus' willingness to come to earth to rescue us than gifts under the tree. That, though we could spend hundreds of dollars on toys and gifts for birthdays, we prefer to spend TIME celebrating each other. That we make choices with our money and we don't buy certain things, not because we can't afford them, but because we are making choices with our money that will help us win. Lessons that help the boys learn to earn money for the things they want and to not borrow money, for the borrower is slave to the lender. I don't want you to become lazy with these lessons just because the noose has been removed from your neck. If you become lazy, the boys will end up with a similar noose around their necks as adults. Remember your goal... that the boys will learn the value of a dollar (and a Euro... depending on where we're living at the time), and that they will know the meaning of working for what they need, saving for what they want, and giving generously. Remember that the lessons you're teaching them by example now are only going to get more and more important with each passing year. They will need to see the long-term benefits of saving, not just the day-to-day slow climb. Find ways to show them the fruits of your labor in ways that helps them to appreciate the hard work.

Remember hearing Dave Ramsey say, "Broke people can't help people." He's right. When you're debt free and working on your next few baby steps, remember the desire to pay for others to go through Financial Peace University. Remember that there were people you were willing to pay for their classes if they'd promise to graduate, but you were in no position to help them. Log/Stick. Drowning people aren't much use in the water. When the noose is gone and the issue doesn't feel as pressing, remember that there will be others whose noose feels uncomfortably tight. You will have the opportunity, and the ability, to help!

The remembering ensures that you won't go back. Making yourself remember the fear, pain, and shame you felt isn't to make you feel bad about getting into that situation. You were only normal. "Normal is broke," as Dave would say. But it was a miserable state to be in and if you can remember that, you will avoid that at all costs. You never want to be "normal" again.

Dave Ramsey says that it is hard to get excited about the "how" of getting out of debt until you've examined the "why." Remember the "why."

Why be debt free?

- So you can give to other people in need.

- So you never again have to worry about money (note: you got to this place LONG before you were debt free because you kept the starter emergency fund full at all times... removed stress immediately!)

- So you can always OWN what you have rather than make payments on it...

- So you can travel without guilt.

- So you can retire and have the house you really want.

- So you can leave the boys something when you die.

- So you can help the boys go to college.

So, in conclusion, remember the hard times you endured in order to get to the great times ahead, the times you mentioned in the "whys." Remember who rescued you. Remember the amazing man who walked beside you, hand-in-hand, willing to sacrifice deeply to win. (Remember the guitar he sold? And the guitars he didn't buy but really wanted to?) You've come so far. Be fully alert these last few months of being in debt, watching the finish line come more and more in focus. The count-down is on. The crowds are cheering. Hear them?!? Family and friends who have encouraged you all along. Three boys who can't wait to scream with you on-air! Those boys, along with Parker, who has no idea what debt is, will enjoy a totally different view, from a changed family tree..

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~

To any reader who might happen to be out there...

I had Matt read this in its entirety just to be sure he was okay with my transparency. These thoughts and feelings are mine, but they are very much tied to his story as well, and I didn't want to share more than he wanted me to. He didn't want me to change a thing. He liked it as it is, and was not ashamed by it at all. Neither am I, though I do feel a bit nervous posting it. You'll notice I didn't put a dollar figure on our debt. One main reason: If you have debt that is greater than what we had, you may feel it's too big a mountain and if we were this stressed over THIS number, you may feel your situation is hopeless. If you have debt and it's smaller than ours, you may feel it's small enough to ignore. I implore you to try it this way. Get out of debt. If you don't like the way it feels, you can go right back into debt in a matter of minutes. Apply for a credit card. Take out a loan. Whatever. But I bet you will like this way of living more than the other. I now look forward to pay day not because can barely make it till the next one, but because our "snowball" is so large that we make a BIG dent every 2 weeks. We're looking at being totally done with debt in March. And at that point, we get to move on to Baby Step Three. And at that point the dollar figure will not be shrinking, as it does with debt paid off. It will be growing. We'll feel like real live grown-ups, saving money! 33 years old. A bit late to be growing up, but hey, we're trying! I may sound like I am selling Dave Ramsey and his plan. That's fine. I often get accused of being a salesperson for Pampered Chef because I love the stuff so much. I'm not. Don't want to be. But when I find something that makes my life better, like a stone that makes the best pizza crust ever, or a muffin pan that makes beautiful muffins, or pots that NOTHING sticks to, I must share! And Dave Ramsey's plan has made my financial life so much better and if that plan can work for me, it can work for others... and therefore I share. If you have been doing great on your own, fantastic. You are different from most. Imagine what you could do with Dave Ramsey's plan. You could have millions in a few years. I dare you to try! If you live in Wiesbaden the chapels are going to be hosting Financial Peace University starting in January. I believe it will be free, or at least, very cheap. Let me know if you're interested. If you live in the states and want to find a local place hosting it, click here. Put in your zip and the options will come up. I dare you.

Our Own Space

2010-10-22T16:33:00.002+02:00

We’ve been told by people who have been stationed overseas for a while that going back to America can be overwhelming. That once you live in Europe, America is just plain loud and everything’s big. I looked for this distinct difference when we moved here, to Germany. It wasn’t very noticeable, so I decided to look for it when we went back to the states for our first visit. Again, not too noticeable. Except at Chuck E Cheese’s, where everything is over-stimulating anyway. (If I had to hear the “Pizza Dough” song one more time I might have thrown dough at the speakers… the most repetitive song ever made, I assure you.) I wondered if one had to be away from America for more than 10 months for the differences to really take effect. I sort of just shrugged the idea off as something I might be able to notice when we move back in 2 years. Then we got off the plane in Ramstein… we sat down to breakfast (0600 on our bodies, 1200 lunch time here in Germany) at the PX and were enjoying our pizza and Chinese (no IHOP here). I had dismissed the concept of everything being quieter in Germany and had not given it any more thought until that moment… Even in that huge (beautiful, amazing, Air Force) PX food court, it was definitely quieter here. It was noticeable. It was quite comfortable. We knew we were home. At least home for the next 2 years. Don’t get me wrong. When we head back to the US, we will do so with great excitement and joy! We love America and miss so much about her, but I do believe God has put this “thing” in us that causes us to enjoy having “home” move around. Going back to visit our family and friends who still live in the same houses they’ve lived in for many years is nice. It roots us. It’s great to take our boys back to see these houses, the people who live in them and give them a history. (Another blog for another time, I’m sure.) But Matt and I don’t want to be in our forever-house right now. We like the adventure we’re on. We like not knowing where our next duty station is going to be. Well, we are pretty sure our next stop will be the career course at Fort Jackson, but that’s for only 6 months. The next real duty station won’t be revealed to us until we’re halfway through that course… and we like it that way. This way of life would drive most of the people we visited in NC insane, and I say that because many of them have told me that at one point or another. Sometimes I feel like I need to apologize for not being more homesick, then I remember God set this path for us and He has made us for this journey. If I were homesick I would be miserable, because that trek to visit NC is a cumbersome one. Not one I want to make more than once a year, especially with four boys. I am thankful I am so at home where we are, and thankful that Matt and I share the excitement of our life and look forward to being home. Of course, we use that word interchangeably! Going “home” before the trip meant, “going to NC to visit family and friends.” While there it meant, “going back to the place where we have set our household goods and made our own life.” When we got off the plane in Ramstein, we immediately felt at home. The base there has been a treat for us since we moved here as it is just so nice. (Air Force does everything nice.) When we stepped off the C-17 the air was just a touch cooler than brisk, and we were home! The leaves are turning much prettier colors here, as we’ve had more rain than NC, and we were home. The PX felt like home. The autobahn was FAST and we were home. We stopped at WAAF to pick up our mail, and we were home. (Going through the gate and showing our military ID assured us we were home.) We pulled up to our house and walked in the door, saw our stuff, and we were home! And then strange things started happening. Bailey and I immediately noticed that the house smelled exactly like it did when we first moved in. It literally took us back 10 months to the first few weeks we were here. The house had a distinct smell, not bad or good, just, particular. And it was cool inside, just like we like it, and just like it was when we moved in. As we moved about the house, doing the chores of unpacking, I couldn’t help but have moments that felt like we had just moved in and were unpacking for the first time. Bailey hugged the fridge. I kept repeating, “I love my house.” There’s truly NO place like home! Our space.

Additional thoughts:

While in the states I was 100% there. I loved every minute of it, so don’t take the above as a hint that I wasn’t happy there, because I was. I was reliving our childhoods as we spent time with our families. Reliving our time as newlyweds as we walked around the campus of Gardner-Webb. Reliving our time as new parents as we drove past the house we owned when we had the first three boys. Reliving our time when Matt was a youth minister as we saw the church and the people who loved us so well during our time there. Those events are what made us who we are and we are so glad for each of those periods of our lives. I’m just extremely thankful I don’t want to go back and do them again. I feel that there are some people who wish to go back and live in the past and I pray that I always love the season I’m currently in and look forward to the next season with anticipation. God has proven Himself faithful and I can trust Him with my future.

As soon as we got home last night the boys were off and looking at the new playgrounds that have been built while we were gone. They also headed down to Nathan’s house. They’ve missed their friends! They can’t wait to see Owen and Wyatt!!

Dinner last night was homemade vegetable soup that I had prepared and frozen before we left. I stuck it in the crock pot frozen and thawed it in there, and it was great to eat a home cooked meal! We only had a handful of those while on our trip and have missed the hominess of them.

At bedtime each boy had no trouble falling asleep! In fact, earlier in the day I found Carson in the bed just about to fall asleep. I had to make him get up or he was going to fall asleep way too early… poor kid. As I write, it is 0815 local time and everyone is still asleep. That means the boys have been sleeping over 12 hours. Parker slept for several hours before waking at midnight, ready for the day, as it was 0600 on his little body.

Matt and I enjoyed an episode of Chuck after the boys went to bed and it was nice to be in our own living room, our own space, resting together.

Fun places, sweet faces, amazing spaces…

2010-10-22T13:33:00.014+02:00

Okay, I’m really having to stretch my mind to come up with titles that include the word “space” so I can tie all my NC 2010 trip blogs together! This is going to be a fast paced blog, peppered with pictures showing some of our fun times in NC. In order to see more pictures you can go to our Shutterfly page, but it'll be a while before I get them all edited and uploaded.

6 October: Ramstein waiting to get out. (I wrote about that here and here.)

7 October: Walking around Charleston Air Base waiting on Nana and Papa; our first taste of Chick-fil-a… YUM!! (I wrote about that here.)

8 October: Driving to NC; Campfire time with the family, one of my favorite pastimes!

9 October: Day with the Ramsey family. They were kind enough to come to us and we started the day at Concord Mills, lunch at Chick-fil-a, running around at a park, and ending up at Outback!!

10 October: Virginia Creeper Trail… This was so much fun! The boys were had a blast riding 17 miles down the mountain and Parker enjoyed his time in the bike trailer behind Matt’s bike.

We also enjoyed getting to spend the day with my brother’s son, Mason! HE’S SO CUTE!!

11 October: Rest day. This day was spent at Nana’s house, doing nothing much. (I wrote about that here.) I promised Parker he wouldn’t have to get in his carseat and I believe he was grateful. This day we celebrated Granny’s birthday with a spaghetti dinner and the boys sang “Zum Geburtstag” to her.

12 October: This was the day we had originally planned to go to the Great Wolf Lodge. We decided against it because we were just having enough fun at Nana’s house! We, instead, went to Chuck E Cheese’s and got to see Granny and Grandaddy one last time. I really wish we had had much more time to just sit and chat with people. Catching up with people is hard when you’re on such a short visit.
That eveningwe had a photographer come to Nana’s house and they took pictures of the family: My mom and dad, their kids and grandkids. I still haven’t seen the results and I really look forward to that!

13 October: Today was Parker’s 7 month birthday so I took his ‘recliner pics’ in mom’s office recliner. It was the closest chair in her house to what I use at home.

We headed to Matt’s mom’s work and surprised her! We waited in one of the exam rooms and her co-workers had her come in to check on a “patient.” My camera was on a strange setting and I got horrible pictures. I didn’t realize this until after the fun was over, so I’ll just do my best with what I got. That night we had dinner with Grammy, Brad and Erin. After dinner we spent some time at Grammy’s house as she lavished the boys with gifts. Parker came home with some really cute clothes!

14 October: Sybil’s dad, PawPaw, was in the hospital during our visit so we went to see him. He really enjoyed meeting Parker and seeing the boys again.
After that great visit Grammy took us all to the House of Mouse (Chuck E Cheese’s) where we got to enjoy the “Pizza Dough” song… again. That night we had Panera for dinner. We were making sure to hit our favorites while we could.

15 October: If you have a chance to go see the Billy Graham Library, take it. Expect to spend about 2 hours if you want to see everything. Absolutely beautiful place, peaceful and such a great tribute to an amazing man of God.

That evening Matt and Sybil headed to the dress rehearsal for Brad’s wedding while I stayed at the hotel a bit longer. I met my parents at the restaurant and gave them the three big boys as they were going to keep themovernight. This gave me the opportunity to enjoythe rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding with out kids, (as they also met me and got Parker from mejust before the wedding).

16 October: Without the big kids Matt and I enjoyed seeing Belmont and ate lunch with one of my friends from college, Kristin. This was the BIG DAY! Matt’s little brother’s wedding day! The reason we were in the US to begin with! I had so much fun taking pictures! The wedding was beautiful and we’ve never seen Brad happier.

After the wedding Matt and I headed to the hotel, where Nana and Papa had landed with all 4 boys. This was a sad moment as it was the last time we would see them on this trip.

17 October: We got to see Grammy one last time, before heading to Boiling Springs. We got some good pictures of her with the boys. It’s never easy saying good-bye! Fortunately, we were looking forward to seeing our friends in Forest City so that eased the sadness a bit. And, we hope Grammy will come to visit us in Germany.

Our first stop in NC was at Mitzi’s house. She and Mitchell fed our family a feast of feasts, including fried okra, which I miss dearly. They say it’s not hard to make but I’ve never mastered it! I ate seconds and wish I had had room to carry the rest home with me. Parker had his first tastes of mac and cheese, potatoes, and green beans. He LOVED it.

The boys went out with Megan (who was a BABY when we moved to FC!!!) to ride 4-wheelers. She taught Hayden how to ride the 4-wheeler that requires him to change gears! Awesome!

The next stop was at Cathy’s house. It was just what I had hoped it would be: tons of talking for the adults, lots of playing for the boys. While we missed seeing several families we would have loved to see, we understand that it’s just impossible on such a short visit.

This image was taken by Heather Ensley... I am so glad she grabbed my camera and snapped a few sunset shots off Cathy's back porch. NC really is beautiful!

The day concluded by a time around the campfire, during which I lost Parker’s paci. We spent a good bit of time looking for it by light of the 4-wheeler, never to find it. Well, we did the next day by the light of the SUN!

Our hotel room in Belmont was very small, in an effort to save money. We had 4 nights in this one and we were ready for more space so when we got to Boiling Springs for two nights we upgraded to a two-room suite. We had a huge whirlpool tub and the boys LOVED that.

Parker had been sleeping in the metal crib and hating it.

He ended up in the bed with us a lot, something I really don’t like. It makes me nervous and I keep checking to see that he’s breathing. The hotel in Boiling Springs had a real pack-n-play and he LOVED it. Slept like a log!

18 October: This was a doozy of a day! We toured GWU and reminisced… it seems like yesterday that we were in college.
They did NOT have a Chick-fil-a on campus back then!

We enjoyed lunch at Fuji Yama before hitting Wally-world, the Christian Bookstore and FCBC . This is the Veteran Memorial at FCBC put together by Alex Hutchins for his Eagle Scout project. It looks awesome!

After shopping we got to see the Martin and Murray families, meeting Eli Martin (I forgot my camera so I borrowed this picture of Eli from Pammy’s FB) and...

Keeliana Murray for the first time.

Next stop, the Franklins so Marie could babysit the big three while Matt and I got to go on a double-date with Anna and David.

We always look forward to these dates and try to fit them in every visit. They had a great new place for BBQ. If you live in NC/SC you should try Daddy Joes BBQ in Gaffney… YUM! We had the “chopped pork with rib sauce” plate. So good! Of course, no date is complete without dessert at Outback.

Yes,we had the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under!! And this was the last thing I could taste on the trip, as I woke up the next morning with a cold…

19 October: We slept pretty late and asked for an extended check out so we could enjoy the pool. Parker had his first experience in a pool and LOVED it. It didn’t hurt that the pool was quite warm and he loves water anyway. He was super cute in his bathing suit!!

Since Hayden couldn’t enjoy the pool he “swam” in the whirlpool. We ate lunch at Bojangles before starting our trek to Charleston. On the way I called and found out that there were two flights scheduled for the next day for Ramstein. Our prayers started at that point, that we would get on the first flight. We signed in to our hotel (a 4 bedroom duplex) and started washing clothes. Matt vacuumed the van out and once the boys were in bed we repacked everything, finding out that we only had to ship one box home. Not bad! We crashed at bedtime, exhausted, and I was feeling rough with my cold.

20 October: Roll call times: 14:10 and 15:10. That means that they were going to start calling names accepted for the flight at 2:10. We were great on time, having decided to get to the airport at 11:30 for check in. We pulled into the terminal at 11:35. We checked in and Matt left to take the van back to Triangle. He was fairly certain he’d be back by 12:30 as the car rental place was only 15 minutes away. At 1:00 I had still not heard from him and they had decided to start roll call an hour early. I worked hard at keeping panic at bay, faking a smile and calm voice with the boys. He had the prepaid phone AND the Nextel with him so I didn’t have an easy way to contact him. That’s when I remembered I had stuck a calling card in my pocket. I used the guest phone to call him (after having to search my Facebook messages to find the number to the prepaid phone). He had still not been PICKED UP by the cab! I was close to panic but had to fake it, still! They started Roll call and when they got to our name I had to walk up there and say, “I think we’re going to try for the next flight.” Praise God for the second fight! Oh, I was so worried! He walked in the door 5 minutes later. I went back to the desk and told them that we would try for this one afterall, and they said that when they had gone through all the CAT III’s they would go back down that list. This time, we were ready and we made the first flight! As it turned out, there were 48 seats on each flight, and only about 60 total people needing to get to Germany. The first flight filled up and those who didn’t fit got on the second. I wonder if being on that second one would have been better, more room to spread out. But it wasn’t worth thinking about. We were glad to be scheduled and checked in. Our flight was delayed two different times by an hour each time. It didn’t phase us, as we were there and going home. We pulled out games and entertained the kids as best we could. When we boarded we were happy to be sitting together for this flight. (On the flight to NC we were separated by a couple… they really should have moved down two seats so we could sit together.)

After 3 hours the plane landed in Maine to refuel before making the trip across the pond. This leg was just over 7 hours and everyone slept fairly well. Parker was up at midnight ready for fun, so I had to entertain him a bit. My cold kept me from sleeping very well, but I was headed home, so that was great! We landed and got to see the rear of the plane open up and them remove our luggage. (That small pile behind the connex was the luggage strapped together.)

As we got off the plane we noticed an amazing difference in temperature from when we boarded! We loved it! Lunch for breakfast at the PX, mail from WAAF, then home, sweet home. In the past two weeks we had slept over the ocean going both directions, in SC, and in three different places in NC. It was worth all the work and effort, seeing all the people we got to see.

Fun places, sweet faces, amazing spaces.

Wide Open Spaces

2010-10-22T12:56:00.006+02:00

Everything’s bigger in… North Carolina?!? I thought the saying ended with Texas… Of course, one of the first things we noticed in America was how big all the cars are. And we really enjoyed the big parking spaces, especially since we were driving that huge van! And speaking of big, it was several days before I went into a Target and let me tell ya, HUGE! It was very nice to be able to get everything we needed from one store. In Wiesbaden our shoe store is nowhere near our furniture store, or toys, or sports equipment… We have different places we have to go for each specific item. It was very convenient to be in one store and able to get everything we needed in one stop.

After we left Charleston with Nana and Papa we went straight to visit Nana’s dad, a man we lovingly call “Gramjack.” As the story goes, my cousin, Jason, called him Jack. Trying to get him to say “Grandpa” didn’t work and Gramjack was the result. It stuck. Anyway, Gramjack has recently moved into a new home called Willow Grove and we were so excited to go see his new place. There was recently an article in Matthews Living Magazine featuring Willow Grove with three pictures of Gramjack included! Fun stuff! While there we also saw my aunt and uncle, Janice and David. Janice took Parker out to see the water fountain and he about leapt out of her arms trying to get it. She came back to get us and I followed mom and Parker with my camera ready. I had so much fun capturing his expressions!

David told me a great joke… he’s an Air Force dad: The pilot of a stunt plane came up beside a C-17 and said, “Hey, watch what I can do!” And off he went, doing loops, twists, dives, and twirls. As he finished his exciting demo he came back up beside the C-17. Unimpressed, the pilot of the C-17 said, “Okay, now watch what I can do.” After about 5 minutes of flying straight ahead, steady and smooth, the C-17’s pilot said, “How’d you like that?!?” Confused, the stunt pilot said, “What did you do?” The pilot of the large aircraft said, “I went to the bathroom and got a cup of coffee.”

This is the plane we rode home in.

We had a great visit with Gramjack before heading toward Locust. Mom, Parker and I stopped at the Tomberlin’s house to let me feed Parker while Mom ran to the grocery store. It was a sweet time for Brooke to meet Parker and me to see a side of Brooke I’ve never seen… Usually she’s being entertained by my big boys. This time she was working her hardest at entertaining Parker! She’s such a little momma!

By the time we got to Mom’s house, Hayden was already on the 4-wheeler! We had packed our motorcycle helmet for this very reason. I have to say, boys were made for the outdoors and Nana’s and Papa’s house is a great place for them to explore. Woods, fields, dry creek beds, galore. It is great to be able to send them outside to see what they can get into!

Over the course of our time in NC, we rode 4-wheelers at three different houses. Carson learned to ride Papa’s and Hayden actually learned to ride 4-wheelers that require him to change gears! Bailey was happy riding with either brother who was willing to drive him around. Such a fun experience! These pictures came out totally black and I had to edit them quite a bit in order to see the boys at all.

The next two weeks were followed by amazing fun-ness!

More Space for our Adventure

2010-10-08T12:42:00.004+02:00

We are so happy to have such a large amount of space to sprawl out here at the Inns of Charleston. We fully expected a hotel room with two queen beds and a bathroom. We arrived to find that we are staying in a fully furnished duplex, complete with kitchen, dining room, breakfast room, living room, 4 bedrooms, and two baths. Yesterday mom was planning on coming to pick us up in their extra vehicle, which just so happens to be a minivan that I've been able to use almost every time I've visited. As mom was on her way to retrieve the Hamrick clan, we walked over a mile to eat breakfast and the weather was nice. We ate at the golf course and, I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the breakfast was! Omelet, pancakes, hashbrowns, grits, and, as I mentioned in my Facebook Status, sweet tea! Yes, it counts as part of the breakfast! While there I realized there was no way for my mom to contact us so I called the hotel receptionist and let her know we were at breakfast and that my mom would likely be calling. I asked her to let my mom know that and that once back in the room, I'd check in. The walk back to our room, or, house, reminded us that we were, indeed, back in the south. It was hot. We all changed into shorts and short sleeves when we got back.

After we returned to the house I called the front desk to find out if mom had called. She had and not with good news. She was stranded a couple hours away as the green van had about lost its wheels, literally. Mechanics were looking at it and dad was working on a back up plan. Off and on throughout the day we got calls from them, updating us on the status.

During the time at the house the boys played outside in the enormous back yard for a while and then took a short rest time. Matt and I used that 90 minutes to play "Hill Rummy." (It's a cross between Gin rummy and Phase 10... very fun.) Because breakfast had been sort of late, we ended up eating a rather late lunch. This involved another long walk, probably 1.5 miles. On the walk back to the house, Parker started to unravel. He was super tired and just wanted his bed. The big boys were troopers, but Carson's legs started to get tired. Matt ended up carrying him the last 10 minutes. Back at home we got a call that Mom and Dad were about an hour out! Excitement started to grow amongst the Hamrick boys!

Carson put in a movie and chilled in his room, Parker ate, Bailey went outside, and Matt, Hayden, and I played Scrabble. Then the call came... they were 10 minutes out. Matt and Hayden headed to the main gate to meet them and I gave Parker a quick bath. Afterwards, I had to put him down (how dare I?!?) as I needed to move his pack-and-play into the room he was going to use. He cried the entire time. In fact, he was still screaming when Nana and Papa came in the front door! It didn't take Nana long to have him perfectly content and all the reunions were sweet.

Dad had rented a huge, glorious 15 passenger van so I went out to install the car seat base, trying to stay out of Parker's eye sight while he was calm. (While Matt was in Garmisch last week Parker became something of a mamma's boy... bless him!)

Once the initial hellos were complete we all loaded up, for the first time ever, into the same vehicle. While they were visiting us in Germany we had to travel in two. There's something to be said about a 15 passenger van! It promotes togetherness!!! And, Matt is excited about this, we won't have to strap the luggage and extra kids to the roof to get everything to North Carolina!

Loaded and ready, our destination? CHICK-FIL-A!!!! Oh, the blessed Christian Chicken. We've missed that place! I had chicken strips with CFA sauce. Matt had the new spicy chicken, and the boys had nuggets. I may have to beg for CFA for breakfast to get the Chicken-Minis. And guess what?!? All 5 of the Hamricks who can eat solid foods enjoyed sweet tea with dinner!

The plan was to come back to the house and watch Myth Busters and eat popcorn. The Mythbusters was in but no one was hungry for popcorn. All three boys were asleep before the episode was over and, as it ended, the adults called it a night.

Parker woke up at 0600, ate, played for a few minutes, and then was back to sleep by Reveille. (Yes, it played at 0700 and I enjoyed every single note of it.) Bailey and Carson both woke up at 0700 to use the bathroom but have since fallen back asleep. Currently I'm the only one awake and the coffee has brewed. I think I'll go pour a cup...

The Space A dventure Continues...

2010-10-07T13:40:00.006+02:00

From the moment I finished the previous blog a new stage of the adventure began. People started arriving in droves for the Charleston flight as well as the Baltimore flight. One lady came in, and, let me tell you, she was void of all social cues. I was trying my best to be polite but she was overwhelmingly ... overwhelming. I'll be nice and just leave it at that. One family packed up and left, choosing to wait their remaining hours in the general area, Matt kept having to "run to the car" or "check for the list." Overwhelming. But we find people like this in all areas of our lives, not just in PAX terminals, and we must learn to co-exist peacefully. This began my slight rise in stress level and it remained a bit raised for the next few hours.

At one point I ran downstairs to ask about the flight and to figure out what we were supposed to be doing and when. The customer service reps are just fantastic at Ramstein and were patient with this newbie. One of my questions was, "Can we leave all of our sleeping bags in a single HUGE bag that is clearly not "carry-on" sized. " The official answer was no, but that we needed each person to carry his or her own sleeping bag. When it came down to the actual moment, however, we never had to remove the sleeping bags and have individual kids carry one. We were prepared and willing, but no one from check in to loading even noticed the bag. So, the big hint here that we will do again is to put all the sleeping bags in one bag and carry them as a whole, limiting the number of items we had to tote.

While asking that question, however, I found that our flight had been pushed to 16:30. Honestly, this didn't bother me too much as I began to see that we'd be flying all night, and most likely, sleeping the bulk of the flight. Good enough for me! Matt went to the car and brought all of our stuff in, making a nice mountain in the family room.

Families rotated in and out of the room, and at about 4:00 one family came rushing in, mom on the phone. She finished and then we got to talking a bit. They had been trying for three days to get to Charleston and her husband had befriended one of the girls at the customer service desk. She had informed him that our flight was only going to have 32 seats released, so they were going to give up on that and try for Baltimore. This slightly increased my stress level and I began preparing myself for a night in the Ramstein Inn, something wewere fully prepared to do already, but were obviously hoping to avoid. We wanted as many days in the States as possible.

At about 4:30 they started calling for anyone who wanted the flight to Charleston to come on down. Matt headed down ahead of me, and I got as much of our luggage as possible, leaving behind the carseat and sleeping bags. By the time I got to the elevator he was already at the desk and needed my ID. I sent Carson on down the stairs with it and continued on down the elevator. We were then ready to get into the line to check our bags, so Matt had to run back upstairs for what I couldn't bring down. While in that line we heard them start announcing Cat Vs, which made us feel pretty good that we were going to be on the plane. We were Cat III and would be on before they would.

Our luggage got checked and we were due AT THAT MOMENT at security but Matt still needed to move our car to long-term parking. This began the most stressful 20 minutes of the day, simply because I couldn't physically carry all that we had and 4 kids upstairs without the carts, and into security without Matt. (I could have without his stuff, so if I ever try this alone, it would be possible, as I wouldn't have the extra two bags.)

Matt went as quickly as he could to move the car while the boys and I loaded up our arms to the max. Each boy had been given a long talk about carrying their own weight. I had allowed them to pick what they wanted to take, but I had to nix some of their items. Bailey would have liked to take 100 toys, but he settled on about 5 and his Anakin cloak. I had also packed their snacks in their own bags, telling them that if they wanted snacks on the trip, they were going to have to carry them themselves, as I had my stuff and Parker's, to carry. They did GREAT at not complaining even when I knew they weren't used to hauling this much stuff. (I carried a partial pack of M&M's in my pocket and every 20 minutes or so of not complaining while we were in line, they'd earn one. This technique works so well. In all, each boy earned about 5 M&M's each so they weren't all hopped up on sugar, but were motivated to make it to the next M&M.)

Matt returned from moving the car and we made our way upstairs to security. While this is always a major ordeal, I decided not to let it rattle me, as we could only go as fast as we could go. All went well and we were through in about 10 minutes.

Once through that we were at the Gate. We boughtseveral waters from the drink machine so we'd have enough to get through the flight. If we had been awake for more of the flight, this would have been a vital step, but since we slept for most of it, we ended up having water left over. I'd rather have too much than not enough.

We sat there for 45 minutes or soand I was worried that they'd eliminate seats while we were there. We FINALLY let the boys play the iPods (the ACE up my sleeve) and I could see Bailey was getting more and more tired. He put earbuds in and listened to "Inventures of Odyssey" while gazing off into space. At last they had us all get in line to board.... a BUS. We rode a bus out to the plane, which was a C-17. This was the moment having the HUGE bag with sleeping bags became a problem. It was so fat it was hard to get down the narrow isle. We managed to get everyone and everything on board for the short jaunt to the plane. When we boarded we noticed right away that there were pallets everywhere, leaving only a walkway down each side, 16 seats long. We were among the last to board, so we had to take what seats we could: 4 together, separated by 4, then 2 together. We were on the left side of the plane, if you're standing in the plane looking out the front windows (which, of course, we couldn't see). Starting at the 8th seat, we sat:Bailey, Carson, Parker, me, then four strangers, then Matt, and finally, Hayden. We sat on the tarmac, slightly anxious, because we all had heard stories from the previous days. Remember the family who decided to go to Baltimore? Yesterday they had been ON the plane, sitting on the tarmac for an hour when they removed all Space Aers. We weren't good-to-go until we were in the air, and we were READY to be in the air.

I had made a hotel reservation on base at Charleston and I needed to contact them to let them know we would be arriving late. Loving my iPhone because I was able to send a quick facebook note to my mom asking her to contact them, letting them know we were coming. She, smart thing she is, let them know, but also got us extended check out, giving us a bit more time to adjust. Anyway, back to our first few moments on the plane. We were given our meals, which we had decided to order for the simplicity of it. Not badfood, and plenty of it. 1 large water and a coke, which we decided to make the boys save for another time. Can you imagine three boys, not used to having a lot of caffeine, stuck on a plane, hopped up on Cherry coke?!? Not to mention the inability to close the can when the can only finish half of the drink. Water, it was.

And finally, we were set. Plane taxing, and in the air! We were supposed to stop at Gander, Newfoundland to refuel, so we expected a 9 hour flight to there, then a 3 hour flight south. When we were allowed to get out of our seatsand I pulled out our sleeping bags and comforters. Because we only had the 3 feet wide section in front of our seats, I laid our stuff out longways. I got Parker out and let him sit upright. Bailey had his pillow and got all snuggly.

(As I write, the natives are getting restless, so my details are starting to blur and are not coming to my mind as easily... Must hurry.) After a about 2 hours Carson and Bailey got sleepy and fell asleep. Parker nursed and fell asleep in my arms. We laid on the floor for a while, me peeking every now and then to make sure Parker was breathing (I get nervous sleeping with him.) I also kept an eye on the big boys to make sure they weren't cold. It wasn't nearly as cold on the flight as I expected, but we were glad to have our coats to use to cover up with.

During the night we were told it was going to get bumpy and were asked to get into our seats. This was interesting, as we were all O-U-T. Bailey was able to continue sleeping sitting upright. Carson started watching MythBusters (a new DVD we got just for this occasion). Parker played in his car seat and I read. We had to stay in our seats about an hour before we were released back to the freedom of the floor. I dragged poor Bailey back down and he never even knew what had happened. Carson kept watching movies, Parker was happywhere he was, so I decided to get some rest. I kept poking Carson in the knee, asking him if Parker was crying. About 15 minutes after I got on the floor, Parker started crying. Oh, I guess I should say, I couldn't HEAR Parker crying because the airplane is so loud. I had to ask Carson because he was sitting beside him and could actually SEE Parker. I got him back out of his carseat and fed him once again. Then he and I drifted off to sleep for several more hours. At one point I got up and the girl next to me told me that we were no longer going to Canada, that they had refueled mid-flight! HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?! It cut our flight time considerably! And eliminated our chances of being stranded in Canada!!!

The above image is of Matt on the floor with the Bob the Builder blanket, Hayden watching a movie on my laptop.

Quickly finishing my story, we landed in Charleston and got our luggage. We loaded two carts with our luggage and walked a LONG way to our hotel, because to get a taxi would have been more trouble that it was worth. Honestly. As it turned out, the walk was a nice break from being on the plan 10 hours, the weather was nice, and the sidewalks were fairly easy to travel. When we finally got to our "hotel" room, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it is a fully furnished house! No joke! Living room, kitchen, dining room, laundry room, 4 bedrooms, two full baths. It's actually housing they have converted!

(Parker's first few moments in AMERICA!!!)

After showers and a quick note on FB letting everyone know we had arrived safely, we got in the bed. It was strange to think that we were getting IN BED at 3:00 am local time, but it was already 9:00 am at home (Germany). Try to fall asleep knowing that, if you were at your own house, you'd be an hour into school... strange. Time differences fascinate me!

I don't have a lot of time to proof read this, but I do want to add a few pictures. Hopefully I can come back and edit later.

~Jennifer

Space-A ... the A is for ADVENTURE!

2010-10-06T12:22:00.006+02:00

I sit here writing this with the hopes of getting our first flight out of here. We woke up and got the boys loaded in the car by 0730. Our flight time was changed sometime during the night from 13:25 to 15:55, but I was eager to get here and get everything squared away.

We had an uneventful drive to Ramstein and parked in the 4-hr parking lot. Our first stop was at the Check-in counter. Matt took the big guys to the play-place while I waited for the customer service rep to punch in the passport numbers for my family. His words to me: "That's a big stack of passports." At least he had a good sense of humor, as it took him 30 minutes to do this!

After we were told, "You are officially signed in and marked as present," the family and I headed over to Little America, I mean, the BX/PX of Ramstein. We shopped for a while, smelling every scent of Yankee Candle... some of them are GROSS! There's one titled BeThankful (no space... that's not at typo) and I can tell you, I am thankful it's not in my house. There were plenty of fall scents and I really enjoyed them, but part of me was wishing for the Christmas scents!!! I love that season!

While we let the boys play the Wii a while I decided to check the movie schedules, and wouldn't you know it, there was a movie coming up in 30 minutes. (Love my iPhone!) We ate a quick lunch at Subway before heading to the theater. Parker and I passed on the movie as there is a room at the terminal with a small crib room. He and I left the big boys to their fun and I fed him his first jar of non-homemade baby food. He couldn't tell the difference. (I prefer to make it myself but Gerber is coming in handy right now.) After his lunch I put him in the crib room and sat back down on the big, leather couch.

Before 2 minutes had passed, and just after he had stopped fussing, I heard the scariest words I've ever heard: "Would Passenger Hamrick please make your way to the flight control." Oh DEAR LORD, I freaked out. I thought, "NO! My family is in the movie, the luggage is in the car, the car is in short term parking, and Parker is asleep! If they've moved the flight earlier, we'll never make it." I grabbed Parker, who was not yet asleep, and my wallet, and proceeded downstairs to flight control. The guy was so nice and calmed me down very quickly. This was the flight to Dover!! We had signed up for Dover, Baltimore, Charleston, and McGuire. We had decided to wait until the Charleston flight for obvious reasons (in case it's not obvious to you, it's closer to home, which is NC) so we were "passing" on the Dover flight. He wisely alerted me to the fact that I'll probably hear my name again when the next flight to Dover is called, but to ignore it or come down and let them know we're waiting on the Charleston flight.

I didn't run this morning, mainly because I got up at 0430 to get ready for our trip, but also because my knee is messed up. (Another story for another day.) Well, my heart got a workout regardless with that scare. Our flight is still set for 15:25 and we're still marked as preset. I've been checking my email and reading the last minute tips from more seasoned Space-Aers and really do appreciate all the help. This is fun, but nerve-wracking. I like it.

So, I brought Parker back up, fed him a few minutes, and then put him back in the crib. Less than 2 minutes later he was quiet and has been for the last hour. I decided to see if my computer would get wi-fi here and, thanks to the AMAZING USO, it does!

Just got a call from Matt. The movie is over and the boys are heading this way. Time to unload the car, move it to long-term parking, and begin the real part of the adventure... entertaining 3 big boys while waiting on our flight.

Homeschooling my way, Part 2

2010-09-06T15:14:00.008+02:00

-I wrote in detail my homeschool philosophy as well as a listing of what I use almost exactly one year ago, and have since changed much of what I do. The things I’ve changed were either because I’ve run across amazing things I wanted to add or because a few of the things I was using simply weren't working any longer. This particular letter is meant to be an addendum to the original one I wrote with the disclaimers in all their glory. To be found at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=132119307434.

2010-2011 School Schedule

0700 - Wake up, eat breakfast

0730 - Chores

- H – boys’ bathroom

- C – sweep kitchen and dining room

- B – put toys in white basket and/or empty basket

0800 - Handwriting

0815

- H – Writing

- C – Writing

- B – Jonathan Park

0915

- H – Read and take test

- C – Jonathan Park, Math homework, Reading Tests

- B – Math

0945 - Science

1015 - Story of the World

1045

- H – Rosetta Stone

- C – Read 30 minutes

- B – Read to mommy

1115

- H – Math

- C – Math

- B – Preschool work (This is handwriting practice from a notebook.)

1145

- H –Jonathan Park

- C – Rosetta Stone

- B – Done

1215 - Lunch

1245 - Nap

During nap H: Read 30 minutes, Veritas Press suggested book, Adventures in Odyssey

-I wrote in detail my homeschool philosophy as well as a listing of what I use almost exactly one year ago, and have since changed much of what I do. The things I’ve changed were either because I’ve run across amazing things I wanted to add, or because I really didn’t like a few of the things I was using. This particular letter is meant to be an addendum to the original one I wrote with the disclaimers in all their glory. To be found at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=132119307434.

I’ll go through my day here and explain what we do now, and, where necessary, explain why I’ve switched some of my curriculum.

I’ve never before had a very strict schedule but found that if I don’t do this, Bailey ends up spending a lot of time wandering around the house waiting for me to get to a good stopping point to give him more direction. (Being the youngest he needs 1-on-1 interaction as well as a definite schedule.) This schedule has been changed 4 times in 4 weeks, but I have finally found a variation that works great! (The only major difference in this one and the original is that now the older two do writing first instead of later in the day.)

I need the boys to be up and moving around 0700. Any earlier than that and I haven’t had my coffee. Not good. Any later than that and we’re just being lazy.

They do not need more than 30 minutes to eat regardless of what they may tell you. (They could eat all day, I promise!) At 0730 I have them do chores. They don’t work a solid 30 minutes. In fact, each child’s chore should take between 5-10 minutes. If it takes them longer then I know they’re piddling and not staying on task. I just selected 3 tasks, one for each kid, that require them to clean something that they were not entirely responsible for getting dirty but definitely had a hand in. I used to make them switch jobs on Mondays. That got too tedious for me to remember so now they keep the job the entire month… from the first day of the month to the last. They get paid a quarter for this job. Done 7 times a week will get them $1.75. They also get quarters for other jobs around the house, including running miscellaneous errands for me, like getting Parker’s clean burp clothes, etc. They can make a killing if they try.

Handwriting – I still use Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) for Bailey and would highly recommend it for anyone trying to teach print. For Cursive I use Classically Cursive and really like it. – Regarding the schedule: I had this in latter part of the morning at first, but found that I needed a few minutes to get “things” set up for school. Since all 3 do handwriting I decided to get them all seated and focused with 15 minutes of handwriting, allowing me to get organized. This also allows me to get Parker settled into whatever contraption he’s in the mood for.

Writing – OH MY GOSH, am I excited about what I’ve discovered!!!!! I want to sing it from the rooftops but since we’re just now starting I figured I’d wait until I have some serious, documented proof that it works. As it is, I’m seriously optimistic and hopeful that what I’ve found will revolutionize our writing. I love to write. Between photography and writing I could not decide if asked which one I prefer. Both document memories in such eloquent ways and I pray I’m always able to do both. Until now I’ve hated teaching writing. I taught it in the elementary school classroom and would hate to find out the results my teaching had on the students I instructed. I’ve mostly ignored it up until this point. Since I have a 4^th grader I felt that it was time to get really serious about it. I have deleted (very happily) Shurley English from our curriculum. (While we were using it it was great. Once we stopped for our move I could barely make myself open the book. We were done with it.) I decided to give “Writing Strands” a try. I did. I quit. I started over. I quit. Basically, we all hated it. After the 2^nd week of school I got online and spent hours and hours looking for a better way. I found something that seemed too good to be true. I watched an hour of online interviews with the creator of the program. They had an offer, “First 5 Lessons FREE.” I couldn’t resist. I signed up and had them emailed immediately. We did a lesson a day and on the 5^th day the following words found their way out of Hayden’s mouth: “I don’t even have to think about what to write, I just write!”

This mamma just about fell out of her chair! I wrote what he said in purple ink (I use purple pens because red just seems to harsh and I like purple pens) on his paper for that day. I wanted to document when writing went from a chore to something he could do without much thought. 5 lessons. I could not wait to get the next ones, and as soon as I could, I purchased the entire set. Everything was emailed to me, and I printed everything out, 2 sets: One for Hayden, one for Carson. Speaking of Carson, he has come along well! The first 3 weeks he “couldn’t think of anything to write,” but has since learned that I don’t expect a perfect paper, just for him to write what he can and I’ll be pleased. Today he wrote 5 sentences without ANY suggestions or help from me. No complaining! I am so pleased! So, what is this magic curriculum? See this link for more info: http://www.advanced-writing-resources.com/

While the older two are doing writing Bailey is listening to Jonathan Park. I refer to that in the original note, and we are still very excited about JP. I add a new episode to their iPods every Sunday afternoon and they listen to that new one every day for the following week. For the link to see what this is all about, click here: http://www.jonathanpark.com/

Reading - Bailey FINALLY finished 100 Easy Lessons. He just took longer than the other two and still has a harder time reading than either of the others every did. He is just now being able to read Dr. Seuss. He’s a Level 1 reader with assistance. He has a hard time remembering some of the hints, but he’s getting there. The other two are amazingly advanced as far as their reading. Carson, specifically. I allow them to check out many books from the library and they read them at their leisure. I don’t require more than an hour of reading a day but they often read 2-3 hours on their own. I sometimes have to add in extra rows in their records to add in the books they read that were over and above their required reading. As far as tests, I still use www.bookadventure.com. Homeschool moms should check it out! I make my own incentives and they work toward cash prizes or kids’ meals at Burger King.

Math – Still using Saxon Math for Bailey and Carson, though I have just ordered Teaching Textbooks for C. (http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/) The last time I wrote I had not seen TT in action. Hayden LOVES it and I believe it will benefit Carson as soon as it arrives (I’m actually going to start Carson on it sooner than expected because it overlaps a lot of what he’s learning in Saxon Math 2.) Can I shout it from the rooftops even though Hayden’s only on Lesson 22? IT’S FANTASTIC!!!

Science – Again, LOVING what we have going on! I used KONOS as my foundation years ago. Allow me to use words from their own site to sum up their philosophy:

They wanted to use the kitchen, flowerbeds, garage, and the world around them as part of their classroom and laboratory. They also wanted to train their children in Godly character so they would grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Each volume is really a teacher’s manual which always includes activities for K-8th grade, so a mother can teach her 8th grader, her 5th grader and her kindergartner at the same time using one curriculum.

I loved these ideas. I wanted to teach multiple ages simultaneously, when possible, and use as much from our home as possible to teach and as little “textbook” teaching as possible. I also wanted to use the library as fully as we could. I started out doing KONOS quite seriously, by the book, so to speak. Now I don’t even use their curriculum at all, but have adapted their philosophy to fit what I want to do with my children. I bought a science “textbook” (I know… I just said I wanted to use as little as possible) but I use it for all 3 boys. I just require less of Bailey than I do of the older two. He will absorb what he can. So, now to tell you what I use. I found “Systems Science Level Four” by Purposeful Design to be the best fit. http://www.purposefuldesign.com/Textbooks/tabid/54/CategoryID/6/List/0/catpageindex/2/Level/a/ProductID/126/Language/en-US/Default.aspx?SortField=EAN%2cProductNumber

(I bought the teacher book, 1 student text, and 3 workbooks, all from Amazon/eBay and got better deals. Next time, however, I’ll probably just order from this site, as I’m missing the CD and that’s annoying.)

Social Studies – Again, let me sing this from the rooftops! I LOVE what I’m using! You know, I feel a little weird because so much has changed in the last year in our homeschool. We just started our 5^th year of this and I would have expected that by now we’d have it down pat and wouldn’t need to adjust so much. But when I think about it, as the kids age, they need more and more, and this, in itself, justifies all the changes. Add to that I noticed when there was something lacking and found even greater things to fill the gaps and I’m ending up with a great curriculum. I am sure there are box sets out there that will sell you every subject ready to go. But I don’t want to just “do school at home.” The KONOS creators discuss this in their philosophy. We are a HOME school. That’s different from doing school at home. What I have found, for my family, is that these things work great for us! I guess I should tell you what I use for Social Studies. “The Story of the World.” Oh, PLEASE look this up!! http://www.welltrainedmind.com/the-story-of-the-world-history-for-the-classical-child/ If you decide to use this, be sure to buy the Curriculum Guide. BOTH are amazing and my kids LOVE it! We get cozy in the living room to do this subject. We all find a place to sit while I read to them. It is WONDERFUL!!! We usually only do a few pages a day as the chapters are very short. The activities are perfectly suited to the ages I have and the boys are always look forward to the coloring sheets. I will buy Volume 2 when we finish this one!

Foreign Language - Rosetta Stone Spanish for the older two. The student needs to be a fairly good reader to excel at that, so I’ll wait until Bailey’s more proficient before starting him. They will also have a German come to the house once a week for German lessons, staring this Thursday. (SO excited about this.)

Adventures in Odyssey – Just a note, mine still listen to this every day.

If you read this without reading the original version, there are many explanations I have left off in this note, for lack of time (I had that baby in March and he’s back in his bed begging me to come get him). I also felt like, since I had written it once, it’s still there to read. Check out the link and see if it will take you to the original one, if you’re interested in what is there. http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=132119307434.

I love homeschooling my kids. We enjoyed our summer vacation but started our school year 3 weeks before the other kids here because we were ready. That, and we are going to take time off during the year. My boys look at the hours other kids are in school and are glad they are playing. They get quite a bit done in a short amount of time and they are appreciative of that fact. It works for us, for now.

Feel free to comment or ask questions. So far, this has been my favorite year of homeschooling, but I have to say, I prefer older students to younger ones, so the fact that my “students” are getting older has a lot to do with that. I taught 4^th grade and loved that age… I now have a 4^th grader!

Bee stings stink.

2010-09-02T22:35:00.007+02:00

Carson got a little lesson on how a bee will defend itself and its colony. Last night around 6 pm Carson got stung on the eye. I took a picture just a few minutes after it happened.

Then again this morning.

And again, just before bed tonight. Poor Carson!

(Here is a little video to show him moving his eye a bit. Gives a better idea of what it looks like. You'll noticed in his good eye that his pupils are still dilated from his eye exam this afternoon. No glasses for Carson!)

Snapshot of today

2010-08-11T21:58:00.008+02:00

I want to write but I've been spending my time doing other valuable things. Lately I've been filling my quiet moments learning German. I feel so pleased when I'm out and about and I see German words and know what they mean! Yesterday I saw the word "kalt" on a pipe and knew it was referring to a "cold" water pipe. Means so little to most people but I was ecstatic. I can say many phrases intelligibly and I understand dozens more than I can speak. But my southern dialect is killing me at time. The computer does NOT recognize the word for "excuse me." Entschuldigung. Really!?! I have said it in context and the native German speakers understood me. Why can't Mr. Stone get it?!? (That would be Mr. Rosetta Stone who lives in my computer.)

So, as I sat here the other day I realized my days should be documented as is. No frills, fuss or fixing up. So, I snapped a picture of where I was sitting at that moment. Here's what you see (and this might be a bit too much info for some of you...sorry).

The contrast in this photo is more about the actual items and their current roles in my life rather than the actual composition of the image. On the left you'll see what part of my life is like regarding our newest addition, Parker. I plan to eventually leave Parker with daddy for a few hours at a time and I am preparing for that in a way that only a nursing mother can.

To the right of the milk is a book I'm currently using to teach the older three history. I spent a week preparing for school this year and, today, our third day into it, I can tell we're going to have a great year! So here are my contrasts: Preparing to leave my almost 5 month old for a few hours while simultaneously preparing to instill knowledge into the minds of my older three. Quite a different set of activities but both done out of sheer love for these sons of mine!

This is Parker wearing his duckie bathrobe. How cute is this?!? I really need to get a good picture of him wearing it and frame it to match his older brothers' duckie pictures!

Another part of me wants to develop my skills in photography. Here I was trying out something I learned on a friends' blog. I got it! (Foreground AND backgrounds blurry.)

And here I just can't resist those eyes! He's adorable. In every single way.

Legos, Parks, and Swaddles

2010-07-01T09:44:00.006+02:00

This is one of those random posts that has no purpose other than to document our normal, everyday lives. Memories that matter even if they aren't spectacular.

My boys love Legos. They are the "Scuba Steve" of our existence, that's for sure. (Movie reference. You get 4,000 points if you can name the movie.) One thing about Legos is that they are always evolving. We don't have the kind of boys who build a work of art and set it on a shelf. We have the kind of boys whose mother captures every moment on film and preserves it that way. So, what would boys with that kind of mother do when they build something? Borrow her camera, of course. That way they can tear it down and build something else, while saving the memory of that creation forever. And here are their latest creations, photographed by them:

Yes, this is a Lego gun, taped together by Duct tape sent to Hayden from Grammy.

Indiana Jones scene.

And Indy captures the idol.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

We love the park. We love to go outside and run and play, but we had a cold spell a couple of weeks ago. Parker was cold and tired, so I used one of his favorite blankets and swaddled him, just as we do to put him to bed. He was in heaven... outside, swaddled, watching his brothers play.

With a bib ever-ready to capture the spit-up created by his severe acid reflux issues.

Can you spot Carson?

A Day in Heidelberg

2010-06-28T16:55:00.005+02:00

Friendship. It knows no boundaries. My friends are all over the world, literally. But how blessed am I that one of my closest friends from Colorado moved to Germany just a few months before I did? While she lives 2 1/2 hours south of me, we have made great efforts to see each other ever other month or so. Though I admit, even if we met weekly, it wouldn't be enough. Here are some pictures from a day we met halfway for lunch. The time we had was short, but it was very much worth the drive! And we got to try something unique to that area: Flammkucken. Check out the picture below.

I found the beach!

2010-06-28T15:38:00.004+02:00

I'm not much of a beach person. I don't really like sand. But it is hot. I don't want to stay in my house and just survive, I want to get outside and do stuff that one expects to do on hot days. And I have a kid who is allergic to chlorine so that rules out pools. I live in the center of Germany, a good 5 hours to the nearest real beach. 5 hours doesn't sound all that far, if you ask me. But today I needed a place here, in my town, where I could kick back, stick my feet in the sand, and let the boys go swimming. So I did what every nomadic military wife does when she needs to figure something out. I googled it! It took a few tries to find what I was looking for but when I did, I was sold. We loaded up the car with bathing suits, water bottles and baby and headed out. I felt all the stress of the past few weeks melt away. I didn't realize I was stressed. But there's something about a beach that drains away stress you didn't know you had. We played and rested for 3 hours and then drove the 15 minutes back to our house. We will go back. Maybe tomorrow.

When did time grow wings? It's FLYING!

2010-04-20T13:57:00.008+02:00

So, my baby is now 5 weeks old. How in the world did 5 weeks pass so quickly? Though I cannot answer that question I can say I knew it would be this way. I am amazed at the transformation of a family. Though much of our life resembles before Parker arrived, some aspects are different. For one, my three oldest children have, for the first time, fallen head over heals over someone. When Carson and Bailey were born, the older sibling(s) were still so young that the addition of another person went unnoticed for the most part. The rules were simple: "Don't touch the baby." Okay, that was only one rule, but it worked. Now, at ages 8, 7, and 6, the addition of another person is a really big deal. Each boy wants to show his affection and this leads us to the rules... which are multiple and not simple in any way. "Support his head." "Don't touch his face with dirty hands." "Don't try to carry the baby...stay seated." And to make these many rules more clear, the boys and I headed to ACS for a "Big Brother" class. (Note: This class does not exist. I emailed the contact listed on the New Parent Support Program website and the contact created this class just for us!) She was able to show the boys some calming techniques, to remind them of the very rules I repeat over and over, and she showed them the dangers of shaking a baby. She had two dolls with clear heads, each revealing a brain. One of those dolls demonstrated how the brain moves inside the skull, the other doll cries and, when shaken, parts of the visible brain flash. Drawn on the brain are small images of eyes, feet, hands, mouth, etc and the light flashing shows what part of the brain was damaged: the part that controls sight, speech, walking, etc. My boys had never considered shaking Parker, of course, but the lesson was great for them to hear. And it stuck with them. Bailey's first words to me this morning were, "We should never shake Parker like this..." (said while shaking his blanket). I agreed wholeheartedly and told him that there is a dad in the US guilty of shaking his baby and the baby died. Bailey's face drained and actually went white. He had not even considered that someone HAD ever done this to a baby. He just thought it was a warning of what NOT to do. It really hit him hard.

That class was great and I am so thankful for LaTasha taking the time to organize it and present it to us.

Hayden, Carson, and Bailey love to hold Parker and adore hearing his grunts, burps, and toots. (We don't say fart. Okay, yes we do, but we also like Brad Stine and think he's hilarious! Click here to find out why!) If they walk into a room and I'm not holding him the first thing they say is, "Where's Parker?!?" They line up to hold him and WATCH OUT if I let the wrong brother hold Parker out of turn! They have fallen head over heals in love and I think it's precious! I have to add this: Bailey had picked out a nick-name for Parker before he arrived: Parky. Well, he has ended up calling him "Teensy." It's absolutely adorable!

At 4 weeks old Parker started making "cooing" faces. It really looked like he was trying to talk. His favorite spot in the house is on his changing table. He loves to look at the patterns on the quilt hanging on the wall. It was on this table that he started making faces that resembled those my other boys made when they were cooing. Well, today, at 5 1/2 weeks, he cooed for the first time! One "awwwwooohhh" and it was over, but I was excited. I must write now that I admit to being one of those moms who spends 2 years teaching her child to talk and the next several asking him to be quiet.

Today we had our first scare. I haven't even had a chance to tell Matt yet. I had put him in his car seat and driven over to pick up an extra kid to take to PWOC. While there he cried during the process of getting that other seat loaded and the child buckled in. This didn't concern me because I know that he fusses until we get going. Well, about the time I started to get the car turned around (takes about 39 points to get the XL van turned around in this driveway built for a SmartCar) he got really worked up. By the time I was pulling forward he had stopped breathing. He was only able to suck in a VERY small amount of air. I stopped and got him out as quickly as possible, saying aloud a quick prayer. His lips were slightly blue. As soon as I got him out he cried very loudly for about 5 seconds and then was fine. I, however, was not. I spent a few minutes holding him until I was sure he was fine. I buckled him back in and he slept through the process and all the way to PWOC. Once I got there I took him out and held him the entire time. I didn't want to put him down or look away. So, we've gotten that out of the way. He doesn't have to scare me like that again!

Because I haven't blogged in a while I want to cover a few things simply because I love to journal.

During the two weeks after Parker was born people delivered meals to us almost every night. I didn't cook for several weeks and let me say, it was fabulous! The food was great and we were so blessed to not have to think about what to prepare! And if you recall, I had created MANY meals and frozen them for that time period. That means I am STILL not having to cook! I just thaw a meal and serve it to my family! Thank you to each lady who took the time and effort to provide for us! You were such a blessing, and that blessing is still reaching to me today, 5 weeks later!

Mom and Dad headed back to the states and life resumed. We have a new normal, for sure, but it, for the most part, resembles our old normal. The first 2 weeks back to school were rough, as the boys and I are all ready for summer break. It was taking us SO long to finish each day that I thought we might never see the end. But now we are back on track and have 15 days left! Can't wait!

Parker's sleeping habits are doable. He wakes up once a night, something that Bailey had quit by this point, but I don't think I was putting Bailey to bed as early as I am Parker. The hardest part is that he is not happy for an hour or so each night and I just hate to see him that way. As happy as he is all day it's hard to see him grumpy. He gets his "exercise" during this time...

As far as world news, the volcanic ashes flowing through the air stream has affected our lives. We have friends stranded in Portugal, Ireland, here (some trying to get to the US, some trying to get back to England) and Greece. Amazing that this volcano so far away is grounding flights here in Europe!

We had our family pictures taken Saturday and I am SO excited. The picture of Parker with Matt's hand on his head is my absolute favorite. If you're in Germany, you must check out Jessica Ceason. Amazing photographer (and fellow Army wife, if I may say so!)! And here is what she had to say about our family. We had a blast during the shoot. We just went to a park and had fun! She came along and snapped pics the whole time. Great plan if you ask me!!

Induced, third and final found... (Warning: Birth Story)

2010-03-25T15:05:00.014+01:00

13 March

As I write the title to this blog I remember the feelings of the night before, wondering if Parker would ever be born! I can say, thankfully, that he was born!

This is the fairly-graphic story of his birth, so if you don't want to read details, suffice it to say that he's here now and you can close this window. (You can scroll down to the bottom for quick stats!)

The night's sleep in the hospital was just fine. I had a roommate who was also an Army wife. Her husband was deployed and she was at 28-29 weeks gestation and hospitalized to stop labor. We chatted for a while and then I had to go back downstairs for 30 minutes of fetal monitoring. When I got back we were both ready for bed and fell asleep quite easily. When I woke up I wanted to get a shower immediately, but I was afraid that she'd wake up and need to use the bathroom, only to find it occupied. There is NO privacy in the bathroom so I had to lock the door. The shower had no shower curtain, just a glass wall. I waited for about 30 minutes and finally the "transport team" got her up and rolled her downstairs for her fetal monitoring. That gave me the perfect chance to shower. I had only one problem at this point. My IV was still in my hand, though I was not attached to any meds. I asked a nurse what to do and she brought me a "hand-shoe" and a roll of tape. This was a latex glove which I put on and taped as tightly as possible, allowing myself the opportunity to shower.

At 8:15 am I headed down to the on-floor cafeteria reserved for the new mommies and their babies. It was hard to see other mommies sitting and eating with their new babies resting contently in their rolling bassinets. I was pretty sure I'd be here for weeks hoping Parker would one day choose to come. I was still having to test my blood sugar so I needed to be good. I ate a roll with butter and a little jelly, diabetic yogurt, and my splurge was a small glass of OJ. (I avoided the "bad" foods like Nutella and Bananas...) I can't tell you just how odd it is to see bread and deli meats for breakfast... it's the European thing to do, I guess. Later I would be given a "look" by a nurse for having enjoyed that OJ as my blood glucose levels were elevated... but it was so good!

I was due downstairs at 9:00 but at 8:45 I was back in my room and had cleaned my side as well as I could, locking my suitcase and computer in the closet. I was told I'd most likely be returning to this room tonight so I didn't have to move everything. I headed downstairs early with a bag of snacks (again, thanks to Heather for the tip to bring my own snacks) and my the closest thing I had to a "best friend," my iPhone. I was told to sit at the little waiting area in the hallway and was only left there about 5 minutes before they had me in my room. It was a 2-bed room rather than the 3-bed room, and I was fortunate that I never had a roommate on this day. I was able to labor in privacy. I got into a room and by 9:00 am I was hooked up to the fetal monitor which revealed one by-myself-contraction. Matt and mom were at home getting ready to come to visit with me.

I was aware that we were starting the day with Cervidil and that means a 2 hour confinement to the bed so I had avoided coffee like the plague. I really consumed as little liquid as possible, thus preparing myself for a much more comfortable bed-rest. At 9:30 Bettina came in and checked me. She found that I had gone from 2 cm to 1 cm (how frustrating to go backwards) but that I was still soft. She gave me the cervidil and my wait began. Mom and Matt arrived and we really enjoyed some quiet conversation, something I don't get very often. In fact, I live a life of interrupted conversation. I think it's funny to watch a group of ladies with children in tow trying to hold a conversation. We tend to get partially done with one story, deal with kids, start back up on a new conversation to return to the original one eventually... or not. Sometimes we email each other "the rest of the story" because we never got around to finishing it in person. But Saturday was a day that provided me great conversation with both my mom and husband. Good day!

At 11:30 I was released to walk the hospital. The three of us went down to the cafeteria for lunch, which was immeasurably better than what they serve in the labor rooms. I had a small sandwich and a great cup of coffee. If you're ever at HSK and want to enjoy the best coffee available in a hospital, order a "Latte Macchiato mit vanilla" and add a single packet of sugar. YUM! As good as any Starbucks I've had here in Germany! (The strangest thing was that they serve it in a glass cup, like one you'd expect to get a coke in.) I was having regular contractions but they were not too painful. In fact, yesterday's contractions at this point were a lot more promising, not allowing me to even eat lunch. We shopped around in the lobby shop and then I headed back upstairs for 30 minutes of monitoring. They had placed the wireless monitor on another laboring mom so I was confined to my bed for the half-hour, which was fine.

(This is where it starts to get a bit more graphic. You have been warned.)

I really had to pee but for some reason I couldn't pee while sitting on the toilet. I had to get Matt to give me a bedpan and then I could stand and empty my bladder. The only problem was that I couldn't fully empty. I'd get a little out and then another contraction would come, making it uncomfortable to try. I did this at least 4-5 times throughout the day. {Looking back I believe Parker's head was coming down and blocking my urethra. Later on during delivery when I was given my epidural my midwife gave me a catheter. I was so happy, expecting the sweet relief of an empty bladder, but she told me that my bladder was already empty. The pressure to pee was the need to push. (This was the case when I was in labor with Carson as well. I had called in a nurse to tell her that I felt like my catheter had come out, that I really needed to pee. That nurse checked my catheter, assured me it was intact and all was well, but that she wanted to get my midwife to check me. After Sage came in she confirmed that it was "time" and within 12 minutes of pushing Carson arrived. Evidently I don't get the typical urge to "poop" that most women feel.)}

At 1:30 I was allowed to get up out of the bed and walk the hospital again. At this time my contractions were very strong and long lasting. The three of us walked laps around the hospital, though there were old ladies with canes passing me. We went to the lobby to purchase today's Wiesbaden newspaper so we could save it for Parker. Matt and I honestly debated buying it because we were still not convinced Parker was going to make his debut. We didn't want to waste the money buying one too early but I wanted to err on the side of caution and get it just in case. I would rather have one from a day too early and have to buy the new one the next day (or the next or the next or the next) than not get it and end up forgetting it in the excitement of our son's arrival.

Additional memories from my hours of walking:

I remember thinking about the other visits to hospitals I've made and seen ladies in labor walking. I have never been "one of those ladies" as my water tends to break and I end up laboring in the bed. Now I have joined the ranks of the "hospital walkers."

Only in Germany will you see a man in the cafe pushing his IV with one hand and carrying his beer to his table with the other hand.

The sandwiches were made with really hard bread but were very tasty. The pretzels were really yummy but my favorite was the coffee! Oh that reminds me, the macchiato ice cream is fantastic!

In the lobby, right beside the regular paper and at knee level (therefore kid level), was a newspaper with a totally nude couple on the front. By nude, I mean, NUDE, with nothing blurred or covered. And the photo was only of the couple from waist to knees. Got the image? Gross.

I passed by a particular window several times and I can remember trying to spot my room from the hallway. It took until after I had Parker to figure out which one was mine!!

There was a smell of something burning near our set of elevators, which made me quite happy to walk the stairs as often as possible. We never did figure out what the smell was but it was very strong!

At one point Matt went out to car to get drinks out of the cooler. We didn't bring that in but had a stash of "wasser-still," Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Diet Coke in the car.

I was wearing my green maternity shirt and jeans.

One time we were heading to the room going past the OB clinic and a man came walking in holding his nose which looked to be bleeding profusely. I decided very quickly that I did NOT want to go that direction so we made a 180 and went a different direction! Grossed me out, and blood doesn't normally do that to me.

As I was walking I had to stop and hold onto rails in hallway, breathe through contractions, and pause conversation. It took about 30 min to get from our room to the cafe due to stopping for contractions, while walking at a normal pace one could get there in five minutes. Looking back at the time I spent walking I know I had done much of my laboring in public. I didn't know it at the time, but I was actually "getting somewhere" with all that walking in circles.

I had to keep telling Matt I had reached my "top speed." He had a hard time walking slow enough for me to keep up.

At 2:30 we headed back to my room because I was just getting too uncomfortable. That, and there were only so many laps of the hospital one can make. I had looked at all I could (or was willing to) look at in the lobby store. I was not interested in getting into the bed as standing was how I was most comfortable. I remember soon after getting into my room feeling uncomfortably hot. I looked at the heater and found it was already off. I needed to find a way to get air but couldn't figure out the windows. It looked like the needed some type of tool to get them to work. I stepped into the hallway and found my midwife who was able to open a window immediately. I remember the look on her face when she saw the look on mine. I think she saw a change in my laboring at that point, but I still wasn't grasping what was going on. (In all 3 of my other labors I had been resting in the bed, napping, or chatting with family and friends during this stage.) During contractions I would open the window wide and breathe through the pain, closing it once it passed. I would get cold between contractions if I left the window open. At this point mom and Matt were holding conversations between the two of them keeping me from having to participate, but I would talk every now and then when I could.

At three o'clock Bettina came back to see if I was ready for Pitocin or another dose of Cervidil. I was fairly certain it was going to be the disappointing cervidil and I was going to be sent back upstairs to sleep it off only to try again tomorrow. However, while she was checking me she said she wanted to feel a contraction. It felt like forever before the next one came but as soon as it did, my water broke naturally! She had gotten the "knitting needle" out in preparation for breaking my water (mom told me this later, as I never saw it) but nature worked its course! I had been in such a pattern of strong contractions that the relief of this was not nearly as strong as I expected it to be. I remember thinking, "Man, I really should be excited beyond belief but for some reason I'm sort of numb." Well, numb is a bad description as I was anything but numb physically... mentally, maybe, but I was feeling EVERYTHING physically, let me tell ya! The contractions that started after my water broke were back-to-back and very strong. I had progressed to 3 cm, which didn't encourage me. I wanted to hear I was at a 7!!

The above image shows me in labor after my water broke. Notice the "hand-shoe" I'm clutching. I describe it somewhere in a following paragraph.

At 3:35 I was moved to the delivery room (though I don't know how dilated I was). I don't remember this, but I'm 99% sure I had to walk there. It wasn't a long walk, just across the hall. At this point I'm pretty sure I was asking for my epidural. The anesthesiologists were both in surgery so I had to to wait on one to arrive. Oh, I remember one embarrassing moment. You hear of women screaming all sorts of interesting things during labor. I didn't do that, but I had lost my "filter." At one point while my midwife was helping me get situated in the delivery bed I said, "I smell cigarettes." Either she smokes or had recently been outside with friends who were smoking. The pregnant nose is SUPER sensitive, though normally I would have smelled it and kept my mouth shut about it. I was embarrassed that I had spoken without thinking first. (Epidurals do wonders at helping me keep my filter in place... no epi, no filter.) Regarding that missing filter, I remember telling Bettina a rumor I had heard: that the L&D staff in Germany doesn't think epi's are necessary and often don't let American women get them thinking that if German women can do it al naturale, American women can, too. Bettina assured me that that is not so and true to her word, the anesthesiologist arrived at 4:15.

By 4:30 my epidural had been put in. I had Matt "brush" my back with the brush we use on Bailey, to help me be less ticklish. I don't think it really worked, and I still jumped a few times. When the epidural was being inserted I felt a strange sensation in my left leg, felt like a prick or something. I didn't say anything about it as I was trying to be still. The doctor said he would stay until I was comfortable. I was so relieved that relief was on its way but the contractions in the meantime were pretty strong. I have long nails and I didn't have good control of my hands during contractions so mom made me a "squeeze-ball" out of a glove stuffed with paper towels. I used this in my left hand to squeeze and I squeezed Matt's hand with my right. During contractions my arms would tense up and shake uncontrollably. They were pretty rough, and I remember being close to tears (and I'm sure I shed some) after every contraction, saying "I want my epidural to work!" The doc would walk over to me and administer more drugs. I was not hooked up to an IV drip bag of meds like I had been during my other three deliveries. He would just give a shot of medicine into a thingy near my left shoulder. I guess because they knew I wasn't going to be hooked up to it for a very long period of time, though I STILL thought I was in for a long wait.

The next 30 minutes are quite a blur, and I'm sure when watch the video I'll remember more. (I wanted to journal from memory first, THEN add to it after I've watched the video.) Later mom told me there came a point when the midwife and anesthesiologist spoke in fast German and the doc left, after telling me that he was sorry it hadn't worked. (At least I think he did... if that's a figment of my imagination, I'll correct this later... I need to ask Mom and Matt...) I remember telling them I needed to pee. Someone (Bettina, I think) inserted a catheter and assured me that my bladder was empty, confirming that the pressure I was feeling was Parker, not urine. Next thing I know Bettina was telling me that if I wanted to push I could. I can't wait to go and watch the video because time was standing still and I was really focused on getting through each contraction. They were horrible, but nothing like what I expected "real labor" to be. Looking back I am sure I could have delivered all 4 of my boys without epidurals as had I not had Pitocin (with Hayden & Bailey). On one hand, the pain sucked, was the worst, strongest pain I'd ever felt, but it was not nearly as bad as I had always imagined. On the other hand, if I were to go back and have all these babies again, I'd have 4 working epidurals. No need to feel that pain if not necessary, but on the other hand (what's that make, three hands now?!?!) I am glad to know I can deliver naturally.

At some point, not sure the exact time but I'm guessing around 5 (I can correct that after watching the video) Bettina told me that very soon I could push if I felt the need. I remember I was getting to the point where it hurt SO badly and I could hardly bear it any more. I think this might be called, "transition." (In fact, I just googled it and it was, in fact, transition.) I remember mom telling me that I was going feel much better as soon as I could push and relieve some of the pressure. I was not convinced, but listened to Bettina as she told me to get turned on my right side. I was confused by this as I had delivered my first three babies in the traditional, "made for t.v." position. She explained something I had never heard before... My spine ran from my neck to my tail bone and when seated in the traditional position baby had to come down the canal then back up over the tailbone that was being pressed upward by the pressure of me sitting on it. If I were to lie on my right side and rest my left leg on her right shoulder, that bone would bend out of the way making it much easier for baby to come out. I was down with that. I felt bad that my leg might weigh 100 lbs and break her clavicle but she assured me that it was fine. I pushed and, just like mom said, felt much relief. When I was in the pushing stage with Hayden they brought me a mirror. I would push and see his head make ever so slight movements, then when the contraction ended, he'd go back in a bit. Well, that was discouraging so I had them remove that mirror. I wanted to "think" that every push brought him closer to deliver and that he did NOT go backwards at all. So, during my pushing stage with Parker I naturally assumed that he was making very slow progress and quite possibly going back in with each break. After one of the contraction they said, "freeze." I had never heard that in labor before and wanted to know if that was what I really heard, meaning to STOP PUSHING or if they were yelling to "PUSH" in German. I asked and I remember mom telling me to stop pushing. Not sure why they told me to stop but before long I was able to push again. After the 4th contraction he was here. As soon as he was born they placed him on my chest and he didn't cry for a long time. I though he was choking but everyone assured me he was just fine. He eventually did cry and I remember saying at one point, "I'm GLAD you're a boy!" Guess it's a good thing! He was warm and gooey, but absolutely beautiful. He was quite swollen, which made him look much bigger than he really was. (Pics taken at delivery and then a mere 12 hours later show just how swollen he was!) Matt got to cut Parker's cord and eventually Bettina gave him a quick bath. He weighed 3430 grams. Bettina had a cheat-sheet that had rough estimates for quick conversions revealed he weighed 7 lbs 10 oz. He was 50 cm in length and his head circumference was 35 cm. These were posted to FB while in the delivery room. Julie, from FCBC, had made Parker a sweet handmade cross-stitch. It was ready except for the weight. As soon as she saw the stats added the weight and shipped it, to later find out that the weight was slightly different. When I was put into my room I did an online conversion to find out that he was actually 7 lbs 8 oz. His length was 19.7 inches and head circumference was 13.8 inches. What a neat story he has to tell!

Mommy and her newest prince.

Daddy holding Parker!

Sweet moments before Daddy goes to get Papa and the brubs.

Bettina, my awesome midwife!

Nana holding my little papoose. Interesting way to swaddle a baby!

I remember asking Bettina about how long before the placenta was going to be delivered and literally, 30 seconds later it came. It was in tact and I was fascinated to see it. Matt took pictures of it, though I will not be posting those! I can not believe there are people, doctors especially, who do not believe in God as creator. There is no way that pregnancy, labor, child birth, and life could happen without God. How that beef-steak-looking thing housed and fed my baby for 9 months amazes me.

Instead of being moved into a recovery room (the same room I was in to labor for the first 2 induction attempts) Parker and I were allowed to just stay where we were and rest. I nursed him right there and he knew exactly what to do. The nurses were very different here. They encouraged me to feed him for only 10-15 minutes per side every three hours. In the states, they wanted my babies to nurse for 30 minutes on each side every 2-3 hours meaning I was CONSTANTLY feeding them (it was only an hour from the end of one feeding to the start of another). After a while I figured out that they weren't going to starve and I set my own schedule for them...

Matt held Parker for a while and the he left to get Papa, the big brubs, and some real dinner. (Dinners at the hospital are sliced bread, deli meat, a slice of bread... I wanted something more substantial. As it turns out the PX only had pizza available by the time Matt got there.) While he was gone I called Grammy (Matt's mom) and Anna. It was sad that they were not able to be in the delivery room with me this time.

After about an hour hospital staff came in and told me that soon I would be taken upstairs. They rolled me up on the same bed I'd had since yesterday morning to the new-mommy ward. AND THIS TIME I WAS A NEW MOMMY!! I was not going back upstairs still pregnant! I was helped from the delivery bed to my bed, which had been moved from the labor room into the hallway. (At this point I was dressed in my clothes, but I do not recall putting them back on. I need to ask Mom when I got dressed.) I needed to pee and they let me go into the bathroom alone, in the room I had labored in, just asking me to not lock the door. (Not invoking a lot of confidence in my post labor, post epi legs.) It was at this time I realized just where the epidural had "worked." My left quadricep was as numb as could be, a lot like having a novocain shot in my leg. That did NOT help relieve pain during delivery, though I probably don't need to tell anyone that! Fortunately it did not affect my ability to walk and I was able to pee unassisted. It was surreal to look into the trash can and see my used bedpans. It was like time was split. Before Parker. After Parker. I still could not believe that he was here and had come so quickly. (Though "quickly" is a strange word to use considering it took 3 attempts at induction for him to arrive. I think my impression of "quickly" was simply because I had fully expected to be there in for many more days trying to get him to come.)

The "transport team" wheeled me to my room and I can honestly say I don't remember if I was holding Parker or not. I'll have to ask my mom... I think I was... When the family arrived I went to the cafeteria (on the floor for new mommies) and tried to feed Parker and eat pizza at the same time. We were not quite ready for that and I soon realized we would need to practice a bit before attempting that! :) I headed back to my room and really enjoyed introducing my newest son to my first three. We got some great pictures of them and enjoyed our time.

At around 10:00 I kissed my husband and boys and sent them all home. Parker and I were left to get to know each other. It was a truly beautiful time and, instead of being lonely, I enjoyed this time. (Had Matt left me alone after having any of the other boys I would have been miserable. The blues hit me with each of the other babies during the first night, but they never really came this time. Praising God for that!)

The bleeding was much less severe this time, they say due to having a smaller baby. Recovery was much easier and I enjoyed being able to bend over. The first time I dropped something on the floor I, out of habit, said, "Oh crap." Then I remembered that I wasn't pregnant anymore, bent down, and picked it up! It was really cool! As was the first time I put socks on and could continue breathing the entire time! The only remnants of pregnancy that followed me out of the L&D room was swelling. That stayed with me for a week.

They came to prick Parker's foot to check his blood glucose levels and while he was gone they told me that his temperature was too low. They needed him to sleep in a warming bed for a few hours. I thought for a minute about being disappointed but realized that with Matt not here it would be a good time to get some sleep. I took the opportunity to do so and they brought him back to me around three a.m., I guess. Their English was okay, but I love the translations. The nurse who brought him said, "He is looking after the breast." Hehe... They start early, huh??!?

I hope to add more memories after watching the video. For now, these are my most vivid memories from the day Parker was born.

Quick Stats:

Parker Madison Hamrick

(First name chosen simply because we like it. Second name, we wanted an "M" name to match daddy's and brubs' "M" middle names, and "Madison" means, "son of Matthew." It was a boy name until the 80's when Daryl Hannah's character in "Splash" saw the sign for Madison Avenue and adopted that name as her own. Many girls have used that name since then and most people consider it a girl's name. We're reviving it as a boy's name. It's interesting...we know girls with each of our sons' names but to us, they all sound masculine.)

Born: March 13, 2010

Time: 5:10 pm Central European Time

Weight: 7 lbs 8 oz

Length: 19.7 inches

Head: 13.8 inches

Induced, round two...

2010-03-25T13:39:00.008+01:00

12 March - Friday morning I woke up pretty early and made my last diabetic breakfast ever. Because I knew it kept my numbers in line and it provided me with a fairly healthful meal, I had eaten two eggs, sunny-side-up, two pieces of whole-grain toast, and water for breakfast every day for three months. Nothing else kept my numbers in the safe zone so I just lived with it. After I had eaten and waited the appropriate hour to test my blood sugar levels I would then enjoy a cup of coffee, if the numbers were right. I was happy that this morning, the numbers were right and I really enjoyed that cup of coffee.

After getting ready for the day and having a large prayer circle with Nana and Papa, Mom, Matt, and I loaded into the BMW and headed to HSK, arriving around 9:00 am. We were met in the Labor & Delivery area by "Prickly Pear" as we called her. She kept telling Matt to go downstairs to get me admitted but the only guy working didn't speak English and tried to send Matt to the OB ward. (We had already gone there on another occasion and Matt knew that wasn't where we were supposed to go. And, last Friday when I was there for the first attempt at induction we dealt with a great lady who admitted me from her desk and I was sent back upstairs to L&D... why this guy was sending Matt on a wild goose chase, we'll never know.) Matt returned to the waiting room where Mom and I were still sitting (which we didn't have to do last week) and joined us in the wait. "Prickly Pear" came out and sent Matt back downstairs again, implying that I was not going to be seen until admitted. Matt went back back down to find that all the employees were in a meeting. A grumpy Matt decided that he was going to wait on our Host Nation Liaison (German-speaking Army-provided liaison who also happens to be Carson's and Bailey's AWANA teacher) before he attempted anything else.

"Prickly Pear" came back out and rolled her eyes when Matt said that they were all in a meeting. At last she took me back for observation, but would only allow one extra person to come with me. Since Matt had experienced last week's 20 minute fetal-monitoring session he stayed in the waiting room and mom joined me. By the time I was in a room with an IV inserted into my hand (not my wrist, which I would have preferred) it was 11:40. We had wasted precious hours in the waiting room due to "Prickly Pear" but I must say that I am very pleased that this was the last of my interactions with her. From the moment I got into the Labor room I was treated by the sweetest staff imaginable.

Because I wasn't close enough to delivery for Pitocin to be effective they decided to do Cervidil around noon. I had never experienced this before and was really hoping something would happen. When they administer Cervidil you have to lie flat for 2 hours. Um, this coffee-loving gestational diabetic had had a cup of joe and who knows how much water. Can you see the recipe for disaster written on the wall? I was miserable after one hour and thought I might not survive lying flat on my back feeling no labor pains! Forget the pain of delivery! I had to PEE! (Without going into detail, let me just say that I had to ask for assistance!)

I remember at one point a familiar face from the week before came into the room to help another laboring mother and when she was finished I asked her to explain how the cervidil was supposed to work and when/if I might be given Pitocin. She came over and, whether or not she was supposed to be "my" midwife or not, I adopted her right then. When my two hours of confinement were completed, I was instructed to go for a walk around the hospital to return at 4:30 for another round of monitoring. I was, at this time, having regular, mild contractions, but I was able to easily talk through them.

We went downstairs to have a snack, though I was not able to eat due to pretty strong contractions. I was convinced this was going to be "the day."

As we went back upstairs the contractions were strong enough to cause me to want to stand in order to find comfort. The best place to do so was in the hallway where Mom and Matt could sit at a small table and we could all chat. I would talk until a contraction came, then pause. Once it'd pass I could carry on with what I was saying. At one point they strapped me up to a wireless fetal monitor which is how I was able to stand in the hallway rather than lie in the bed. Loved that thing! I could go into the room every few minutes to check on the heart rate and the strength of the contractions. Those earlier in the day had been topping out at around 20 while these were going past 100!

While we were out there Matt pointed out a new daddy looking at his freshly born baby. It was someone we knew from Wiesbaden but I had a hard time at first believing it was him... his wife wasn't due for another month! But sure enough, their baby had been born while we were downstairs in the cafe! She came in and within 4 minutes of getting into a delivery room she had delivered... When dad and baby were whisked off to NICU the mom and my family had an impromptu prayer session in the hallway asking God for protection and for a strong baby. While baby stayed in the NICU for several days, I know for a fact that she's home and all is well at the present! God answers prayers!

Back to my own story, my amazing midwife started pitocin at 5:00 pm. I had found out that she was to get off at 10:00 and my hopes of delivering before then went up! I really wanted her to deliver, but I can't force nature... we'd been trying for a week! :)

Just one hour later they took me off pitocin because nothing much was happening. Plus, there were so few ladies laboring that it was best to send the bulk of the staff home for the evening and the few of us upstairs for a night's rest. I was so disappointed. (Looking back, I'm happy with what they did and am glad I was ultimately able to labor and deliver without Pitocin but at the time, I was quite disappointed.)

I was moved (bed and all) to a room upstairs on the new-mommy floor and placed in a room with another Army wife. She was on bed rest due to preterm labor. We enjoyed quiet conversation for a while before I had to go back downstairs for further monitoring. Here is what I posted as my status when I returned to the room:

I just returned from my last 30 min of monitoring for the day. Had "piggy-back" contractions for the first time ever. (2 that were 2 min apart then a 4 min break, then 2 that were 2 min apart then a 4 min break, etc. ) Going to sleep now. Thanks for your sweet words of encouragement!!

As I am writing this, I'm having to go back and look at my "Wall" on Facebook to get the details and times right. I have waited too long to post this journal! VERY thankful I kept updating my Status as now it is the only way I can remember certain things! I also loved having the ability to receive the love and encouragement from family and friends all over the world in real-time. That was not possible when I had the other boys... I so appreciated knowing that people were praying for Parker and me!

I went to bed half expecting to be pregnant for the rest of my life. I had serious doubts that he'd be born the next day. Pitocin had worked wonders with both Hayden and Bailey. With both boys, they had arrived only hours after the medicine was introduced. I had now been given Pitocin twice with Parker and neither time had it worked. Those irrational thoughts that one has at the end of pregnancy feel real... like, "I will still be pregnant with this kid 3 months from now! He's never going to come! He's going to be 14 lbs! I'm going to be on insulin for the rest of my life." I was disheartened, but a good night's sleep was ahead...

Count down continued...

2010-03-16T08:35:00.006+01:00

I could write for hours on my experiences over the past week! I do hope I'm able to journal my thoughts because they are priceless to me. Over my time as a mother I have learned more and more the meaning expressed in Luke when he wrote that "Mary pondered these things in her heart." I bet she would have been a journaling lady... I want to remember every detail but do not trust my memory to do so.

8 March - Monday was one of the worst days I've had in many years. I believe it may have been influenced by normal pregnancy hormones but amplified by the pitocin still coursing through me, as well as the fact that instead of holding my infant I was "doing school" with the boys. Anticlimactic may be a word to describe it, but either way, it was rough. Bailey struggled with reading which sent me into a crying spell which could compete with any rotten two-year-old. During another part of school, after I had composed myself, Hayden came over and told me that an MP was writing something near my car. I went outside in socks, big belly, and pj pants, and a tee-shirt the boys had made that said, "World's Best Mommy" on it. We've been parking facing traffic every since we got here, along with 10 or so other cars on our street. I like to do this as I can open the automatic van door and my boys jump right out of the car onto the sidewalk in front of our house. They don't have to cross the street at all when we park like this. Well, when I kindly asked what was wrong he explained that "there have been complaints" about all the cars parking the wrong way. I asked if I could simply turn it around and I think he may have detected a wildness in my spirit that he was safest to avoid and he said, "I think I can do that." He quit writing my ticket and went on to the next car. I felt so bad the rest of the day for all the other car owners who had pink tickets flapping in the breeze. So - Hayden saved the day, as did Parker, whose presence reached the MP a full minute before I did! Something about a pregnant belly can speak volumes!

Later that day I ran to the commissary and while there used the restroom (can't make it in and out without a stop in the restroom). I got home with my loot and tried to find my phone. No where. I called it three times hoping I'd hear it in one of the bags. Eventually someone answered it. She was in the restroom at the commissary! I thanked her for answering and asked if she'd leave it with the manager. She did better than that... She brought it to me! And as it turns out, while I was thanking her and we were getting to know each other, she and Matt sat together at a recent function and her husband is in our unit. Small world and God put her in the restroom "for such a time as this." Never thought I'd put the word "restroom" and that scripture together...

So on a day that was as difficult emotionally as I could have endured God broke through and intervened on my behalf, saving me a ticket and a lost iPhone. In the midst of my hard day He reminded me that he's still here and still cares about my life. And if he still cares about the silly stuff I just described then he MUST still care about my baby, the timing in which he arrives, and the health concerns related to the pregnancy.

Tuesday and Wednesday were much better days but Thursday was beautiful! We had prepared the house once again for Parker's arrival so when we woke up on Thursday all 5 of us were able to just relax and watch TV. The boys had put in a "Dirty Jobs" on high-rise window washing and while I had planned to get ready to go get Nana and Papa I got engrossed in that episode. It was a fun, spontaneous, relaxed moment in which our very last few hours as a family of five were just perfect. We laughed till we hurt and then we loaded our van and headed to the airport. We got there in plenty of time and after only about 30 minutes of waiting we saw Nana and Papa!!!

Because it was close to noon, the Hamricks were ready for lunch and, though they were arriving at 5 am on their body-clocks, Nana and Papa were up for a quick lunch at the PX. We decided to keep it low-key and let them get settled in at home so we headed there after we ate. It was a great day of talking and of me showing mom all the things I had done in an attempt to make our lives easier while they were here and I was not working at 100%. We all went to bed early as we had had a big day and the next held hope of meeting Mr. Parker...

Down to days...

2010-03-07T21:52:00.007+01:00

We are at a point where I can count the number of days left until we meet Parker on one hand! He will (barring any unforeseen complications) be here on Friday, March 12th. The best part b about this news is that Napa and Papa will arrive the day before and therefore will be able to be a part of his arrival! I am SO excited about that! In fact, that news is what has kept me from being disappointed at Parker not making his grand entrance last Friday.

In order to bring my journal up to date, let me recount the events of the last couple of weeks.

(Warning: This post may have more information that some of you want to read. I will not be offended if you quit now. I'll never even know!)

25 Feb I went to my 37 week appointment with my OB and she estimated Parker's weight at 7.5 lbs. Later that day I went to the hospital where I am going to have Parker to meet with the Chief Doctor who schedules inductions. After looking at my blood sugar numbers, Parker's weight and the size discrepancy between his head and belly, and my swelling, she wanted me to stay that day for a stress test and to possibly be induced. She did give me the option to wait one week. I chose that because I needed a chance to get my boys taken care of. By that evening two friends had stepped up and were willing to take care of the boys for the weekend. It took a few hours for me to get over the disappointment of Parker not arriving on Bailey's birthday, or even after my parents were to arrive. But eventually the excitement of having him in my arms took over and I began to accept what was to be.

4 March I went back to my OB and gave her the report. After my exam she concluded that Parker was close to 4000 g. (which translates into 8 bs 13 oz) still 2 full weeks before my due date. She was fully in support of my being induced the next day, which is a big deal as German doctors do not typically favor induction at all, especially prior to one's due date. As far as natural progress toward labor, there was not much. I was not dilated at all and his head was still VERY high up, but I was softening . In fact, if my water were to break I was instructed to call the ambulance to get me to the hospital as there is concern about him plugging his umbilical cord as he descends. Last bit of good news was that he was in perfect position to begin labor and delivery. He had been sunny-side-up for a few weeks, then turned 180 degrees, which was better, but still not quite right. As of the 4th he was perfectly positioned.

After such a good visit and with the very real probability that this was my last day as a pregnant lady, I had many thoughts running through my mind. The first of which was that tomorrow could be the day I get to STOP testing my blood sugar. You may wonder why in the world this was among my first thoughts and my explanation is simple: we pass by a great bakery on the way to and from my doctor's office. We pass by this bakery on foot because there is no parking within a mile of her office. If the boys have been great in the waiting room we stop by on the way home for a treat. Our favorite treat is a small bag of what I can only describe as "donut holes." Only they're not quite the same as what you're probably thinking. Not nearly as sweet and covered with a mild sugar crystal. I want to enjoy one of these one day without concern for my blood sugar. (I usually only allow myself one, if any at all.) On this particular day, however, we opted for fresh pretzels as a reward...okay, THEY got pretzels, I got nothing. ONE MORE DAY...ONE MORE DAY... that's what was going through my mind.

We met Daddy for dinner and really just had a great time celebrating our last night together as a family of five. I had gotten SO much accomplished and was ready for Parker to arrive. (Boys' hair cut; a few more meals frozen; boys doled out; floors cleaned. And let me say, that last one, was a BIGGIE! For some reason it was a big deal to me that I head for the hospital with my floors clean. Thanks to Matt for vacuuming so I could dust, then mop... I was ready. Oh, and not to mention that I found a freezer in the Stars and Stripes that was perfect for us. Matt literally picked it up after we had our "last family of 5 meal" and stored it in our basement... the sellers lived in the neighborhood right next to ours! HOW PERFECT?!?)

5 March I woke up early and got my shower. I also woke the boys up earlier than they normally get up so that we could get on the road. We had a LOT to pack up because we had to take a load of stuff to the Evans' house for the boys' overnight stay and then we also had to pack the car with all the stuff we would need for an extended stay in the hospital. And here one must pack her own towels, washcloths, and snacks. (That was a tip I received from Heather, and let me say, it was invaluable. The food there was AWFUL!) If we had not had the food I packed I would have starved (and my blood sugar would have been really screwy!).

So, after dropping my boys off at the Evans' and seeing their surprise that Wyatt was not at school after all but was taking a day off of school, Matt and I headed to the hospital. But not before Elizabeth presented me with Parker's hand-made baby blanket that just so happens to match the color scheme of his room! It's beautiful and I will be sure to have pictures taken of him snuggled in it!

We arrived at the hospital on time and headed up to the Kreißsaal (L&D). The midwives began my exam with fetal monitoring and inserting the IV into my wrist that was to be used for the pitocin. After the monitoring they did a check which revealed that overnight I had dilated to 1 cm! This was encouraging as I really thought that the pitocin would take over and finish things up. During the monitoring I had a single contraction even before having any meds administered! Another sign of good things to come!

Because my mom and friends are so far away I was happy to update my Facebook status via iPhone throughout the day. I was so thankful for the entertainment my iPhone provided me!

After my initial exam I was sent downstairs to be admitted and then when I came back upstairs, they put me in a room with 2 other beds. I was hooked up to the monitor which revealed another all-by-myself contraction and given 3o minutes to get the baseline established. Then they came in every now and then and upped my pitocin by 10 units. (No idea how much that is in what length of time, but it started at 10 units at 10 am, and by 3 it was at 90 units.)

At this point I was a bit discouraged because my contractions had an hour to go from Braxton Hicks-like to SERIOUS STUFF or they were going to send me home. After getting all that stuff packed and loaded, including the boys, I didn't want to go home without Parker. Being perfectly honest, this was the most disheartening part of the whole day... all the work it took to get to that point for nothing. Not that I wasn't ready to meet my sweet new addition, but waiting a week would allow my parents to get here! That's GREAT news! But I had gone through A LOT to get many bags packed, snacks purchased, boys scheduled out not to mention the family who was taking care of them for 24+ hours! Needless to say, my contractions barely worsened when they bumped me up to 100. After a while at this level a doctor came in (one I hadn't seen before but would be responsible for my labor and delivery) with an ultrasound machine. He checked the size of the baby and got a smaller size than the two previous doctors (whose measurements had matched perfectly). He really felt it was best that I just go home and wait a week. And after an exam that revealed that six hours of pitocin had left me at 1 cm and Parker still very high, I had to agree. (And I have to say, when I had pitocin with Hayden it left me doubled over in pain within an hour. I asked the dr if having two prior experiences with pitocin would leave me less sensitive to the drug and he said, "Oh No!! It would make you MORE sensitive to it." In conclusion, Parker was not ready to come.)

I was told to walk the hospital for an hour and then they were going to do one last fetal monitoring. During this hour we enjoyed a snack in the cafe and I made plans for the evening: Pick up the boys, go shopping for a friends' birthday present, and had decided that the next morning we were going to try to make it Orrin's birthday party a couple of hours away. Imagine my surprise when they hooked me back up and told me I was staying overnight!! I was still having regular contractions that matched those while I was on pitocin, due to the meds still being in my system.

The hospital staff showed me to my room on the new-moms-floor and I was left to enjoy a private room for the night. Matt ran to get some dinner and Tums (which I had forgotten to pack... I wouldn't have needed them if I had had Parker!).

When he returned we watched a movie on his laptop and he headed home. No sense in paying 50 Euros for him to sleep in an uncomfortable bed when there's no baby to help me with.

6 March I got up around 6:30 the next morning to a beautiful, snowy view. I got as ready as I could for the day (having an IV in my wrist put a kink in my "shower" plans...). I went back down to L&D and they monitored me for 30 minutes seeing no contractions at all. Matt arrived during this time and within an hour I was released.

We got our sweet boys who had had a BLAST with Wyatt, and headed home. A quick lunch and we were all off for a 3 hour nap! I had to wake Hayden at 4!! The boys played in the snow for a while and when they came home, I had a plan. After 2 days of being cooped up I needed to get out so we piled in the car and drove along the Rhine River and saw at least 10 castles! I can't wait to find information about these castles and take my parents there! This was a sweet time with our boys, added time as a family of 5, which is kind of hard to explain. We're ready to met Parker but treasuring these last few days which are "life as we know it."

Before he went to bed Hayden told me his head hurt. He had a low-grade fever, sore throat, and headache. I worried about strep throat and Matt made a decision I fully agreed with. Since he already had tomorrow's church service covered and we needed to rest, we were going to stay home. We rarely do that, but it was a good thing.

7 March Hayden still had a slight fever this morning but his throat only hurt when he coughed, which was not often. He BEGGED all day to go outside so I can tell he's feeling okay. I'd say it is probably a little cold that will be better tomorrow and we're praying no one else gets it. We cancelled a play date all three boys had today in order to not share it. (I spent the entire day putting together a "build-a-mummy" thing I had bought for Carson's birthday... SO glad I was able to get that done before Parker arrived!) I also made the lesson plans for M-W. We will welcome Nana and Papa to Germany on Thursday and most likely Parker into the world on Friday! It's a big week!!!

Now, I'm off to bed. I must say I'm so thankful for the many prayers people were praying for our health on Friday. I can honestly say I believe they were answered. If pitocin is pushed too hard before the baby is ready, it can lead to c-section. If that can be avoided, I'd like to. We'll try again this week and will pray for more progress.... like, say, DELIVERY! :)