8:01 pm

It is 8:01 pm right now and my house is quiet. Except for the gurgling sounds from my dishwasher. Both Ella AND Mason are asleep. No Benadryl or Sudafed were required. They have been waking up a little earlier these past two days for the boys to get ready for school, so I am trying to get them to sleep a little earlier too. And tonight it just might have worked. Mason is doing great with potty training, so since he's had a dry diaper the past three mornings, tonight we decided to try sleeping in big boy underwear. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. My morning started at 3:30 when Ella woke me up to tell me she didn't feel well. Makes for a long day. She was fine by 7:00 am when she re-awoke. This morning we spent a lot of time cleaning the house in preparation for Ella's kindergarten teachers' home visit. When I say 'we' I really me 'I'. Ella and Mason just played and kept messing up whatever area I had just cleaned. At 1:00 pm Mrs. Waldrup and her assistant Ms. Hampton came over to meet Ella and talk to both of us. Mrs. Hampton worked with Ella for a few minutes while Mrs. Waldrup talked with me and asked me some questions. Meanwhile, Mason took this opportunity to act as if he had been injected with some hyperactivity medicine and was bouncing off of me and all over the room. Both teachers were wonderful and fun with Ella and she was so happy and excited to talk with them. Here is a picture of Ella with her teachers:

Mrs. Waldrup was telling Ella about her pink toenails and pink rubber bands in her braces. (She fell last year and broke her face, so she needs braces. She was running and tripped. Exercise can be harmful to your health.) Anyways, she asked Ella if she likes pink, to which Ella answered with a resounding "YES!" and showed Mrs. Waldrup HER own pink toenails. Then Mason got involved and showed everyone HIS pink toenails. Mrs. Waldrup told Ella she also really likes purple and will get purple rubber bands next time and paint her toenails purple too. So as soon as she left, Ella wanted to do something with purple.
"Let's make a purple cake Mom!"
You know how I am about baking. Ella didn't have to ask twice. And when Ella found out that I now am the proud owner of an apron (Christy made it for me at Homemaking a few weeks ago, THANKS CHRISTY!) Ella was so excited to wear it while she baked.
Here are Ella and Mason deciding that they both like the cake batter better than the finished product:


Ella wanted pretties in her hair, and not just any pretties. I had to do them a specific way. I think I finally did it the way she wanted them done. Here's Ella with her new hair do while she sucks applesauce threw a straw.

The boys had another good day of school. Jaxon was the perfect example of a middle schooler in his attitude and behavior this afternoon. Slightly hostile, a bit arrogant, and a tad rude. It is nice to see such classic text book behavior of preadolescence in my own living room. Amy Parish is AWESOME and picked Colton and Jaxon up for Scouts/Young Men's tonight. Jaxon was mad he had to wear Sunday dress because there is a fireside and a white shirt with blue jean shorts is NOT Sunday dress. Next time he tries to pull that I will put him IN a Sunday DRESS of mine to wear. Hmph!
And here's a fun note to end on. This is how we caught Ella last night while I was reading scriptures at the dinner table:

She was trying to read my German book for class tomorrow: Essential German Grammar. I think she'd have better luck with the writings of Isaiah than the German book. Wish me luck tomorrow!

First Day of School

I gotta admit, I was more nervous for the first day of school this year than the boys were. I know the schools they attend are good ones, but I want them to have great teachers who motivate, inspire, and encourage them to reach their potential and do their best. I was really worried for Colton. We found out on Saturday that he has a male teacher. I asked two ladies from church who volunteer at the school about him, and both said he was fine. They both said they hadn't heard anything bad about him.
"But have you heard anything GOOD about him?"
"Well..."
Both ladies said he really focuses on Science and Math, which Colton LOVES, so that's good. And maybe since Sean is gone it will be good to have a positive male role model in Colton's life for 6 hours every day.
So, my day started at 5 am so Tony and I could do 282 push ups together (full ones, none of those sissy girl-ones-on-your-knees-ones) and 32 pull ups (without a chair folks, take that Dreya!). Then I made Colton's lunch, woke the kids, poured some cereal, and we were on the road to school before 7:10. We had to leave super early since I figured most parents would be driving their kids on the first day of school, and with over 2,000 students between the elementary, intermediate, and middle school, I knew parking would be at a premium this morning. We got to school early, did a run for hash browns at BK, and watched a movie in the car before venturing out in the cold and dreary world at 7:45 am. It was a whopping 49 degrees this morning, cloudy and drizzly. Perfect weather for the first day of school. I think the weather reflected the kids' mood as school started again.
Here are Colton and Jaxon before leaving for school:


Jaxon took off as soon as he left the car. I was gonna embarass him by shouting across the parking lot, "I love you smoochie bear!!" but figured he may decide my retirement home one day, so its better not to tick him off too much when he's young.
We found where Colton's class lines up, and waited patiently for his teacher to come. Once I saw him, I felt better. He looks nice. He looks laid back, like he knows what he's doing, and enjoys doing it. Here's Mr. Johnson with some of the class:

Here's Colton in line, freezing in his new Ramstein Intermediate School sweatshirt, while he waits for the rest of the class:

I tried to get Colton to profess in front of his new classmates how much he'd miss me after being with me for the past 2 1/2 months nonstop, but he wouldn't do it.
"Not even a little tear for dear old mom?"
"Nope"
Oh well, Ella, Mason and I said bye to Colton, walked over to the commissary, bought donuts for the kids and a chicken for dinner tonight, saw Christy there and discussed how well we felt about leaving our kinder in these new teachers' hands.
Then we ran a TON of errands. We went to the hospital to pick up mail. Here's Ella being an awesome helper and carrying some of the mail for me:

Then we all needed a pee break, and since Mason is doing fantastically awesome with this whole potty training thing, I quickly located a bathroom so we could keep up with his 100% success rate and three-day-dry-undies record. Here he is taking care of business:


Potty training in Germany rocks because everything here is so clean, including their bathrooms.
Then we had to go to the Rathaus (not a place for rodents, but for taking care of town business) and check on our electricity bill and pick up more recycling bags. Oh the joy of living in an environmentally conscious country. Wonderful for the environment, but sometimes inconvenient for us lazy Americans.
Next we went to SBK, a little German store to look for lightbulbs and vacuum cleaner bags. Oh, and of course German candy. We found everything we needed, plus some things we just wanted, like Kinder Eggs. If you don't know what there are, and you have kids, you're lucky. My kids love these things and we have the little plastic eggs from the inside of them all over the place. They are chocolate eggs around a plastic egg which is filled with a little toy. The toy is usually pretty silly, but my kids love them nonetheless. Here is Mason professing his love for Kinder eggs in the shopping cart. He seriously grabbed the package of them and kept saying over and over, "I love you Kinder eggs!"

Here he is hugging the eggs:

Then we went home where I got the joy of cleaning two bathrooms while the little ones played with new Playmobil guys from SBK. We went visiting teaching at the play ground at the food court on base, bought new ear phones for Colton so he can't hear bad words being said on the bus ride home, and met the boys at the bus stop.
It seems my worrying was for nothing. Both Jaxon and Colton had good days at school. Colton said his teacher is very nice and likes him. Colton is only worried about making friends since he doesn't know anyone in his class yet.
Jaxon likes all his classes and is even in 8th grade math. He got to be in Intermediate Band even though he didn't take Band last year by convincing the teacher that since he plays piano he should get to stay in that class. So, guess what instrument was left and he is playing? Yup, a manly masculine xylophone. Sweet. I think reggae music and dreadlocks may be in his future. I am excited for him. He has good classes and likes his teachers so far. So, once again, all is well in the Burke household. We did a quick run to Rofu Kinderland because I promised the boys to take them there today. They are both searching for certain Lego guys, but the store didn't have them. Darn. Then we did FHE about the Plan of Salvation. Thank you Friend magazine for the pictures. Now it's story time, so I have to go. Later!

Mrs. Waldrup

Today was busy. Come to think of it, most days are busy. We have been rearranging things because of the new furniture, cleaning things out, organizing, and cleaning some more. I had bought Ella some fun crepe paper flowers for her room a few weeks ago and today I finally got around to hanging them from her ceiling. I thought that would be a fun touch to her room.

While I was cleaning and organizing Ella's room, one of my children was having a temper tantrum. I won't post names but he got quite grumpy and whiny when asked to do certain things, like practice piano, make his bed, and bring me my duster that he left upstairs. Here he is grudgingly returning it to me:

It had rained last night and into the morning, so what better time to put on those rain boots, stomp around outside for a while and end up on the wet trampoline?


Since you can usually find all sorts of fun creepy crawlies after a rainstorm, Ella was the first to discover this little snail outside our wintergarden.

Then I was off to Ella's Kindergarten orientation. I didn't really know what to expect, I thought it would be like Colton's orientation where the principal talks for a while and we look around the school. Not so. The class lists were posted as I entered the school. I found Ella's name under Mrs. Francis Waldrup's name. Now to be perfectly honest, I was a little worried at first. I was being prejudiced and thought a name like Francis belonged with an 80 year old lady with support hose. I didn't envision a fun, energetic lady that could keep up with 22 five year olds with a name like Francis. Francis's were ladies who gardened and dyed their hair blue, not teach little kids fun songs about reading and math. I didn't recognize any other children in her class, but since Ella is not lacking in the social skills department, I wasn't worried that she would make friends quickly. The principal addressed all the parents, and then introduced us to the Kindergarten teachers. That was cool. I thought at least we get to match a name to a face. But then it got better. Each teacher took her students' parents with her back to the classroom to talk to us and show us around. (All 14 kindergarten teachers are female, FYI) Mrs. Waldrup looked super friendly and nice, and once she started talking to us, the reality set in: she rocks. She IS super friendly and nice. Not sooo nice that she is a push over, but nice enough to make each child feel special and loved. She talked for almost an hour and I REALLY like her. She has been teaching for over 20 years but really seems to still enjoy it and is excited for this upcoming year. I was completely relieved when I got a chance to meet her. I feel really confident that Ella is going to have a great year. After hearing Mrs. Waldrup talk about her plans for the year, it really makes me wish I was 5 again. Here is a picture of Mrs. Waldrup and the classroom:




After Ella's classroom, I went to the grocery store by myself. Heaven. Pure bliss. I was so fast without any little ones around that I think I was just a blur to the other shoppers. The kids were at home being supervised by the competent and capable duo: Jaxon and Spencer. I figured two 12 year olds were better than one to watch the kids. Since there are only two months til Halloween and it's still August, I should have been shocked to see tons of Halloween stuff already out in the BX and commissary, but I wasn't. There was Halloween hair spray for sale as soon as I walked into the commissary, and since one of my favorite books to read to the kids is Crazy Hair Day and involved Halloween Hair Spray, I had to buy a few cans for future, or not so future, use. I got a bunch of fun colors and as soon as I got home, I showed Ella. Big mistake, since one of the colors I bought was pink. Both she and Mason wanted me to spray their hair. Why not? It's good practice for the real deal. Ella's hair is a lot darker than Mason's, so it didn't show up as strongly on her hair as on his. But here they both are as my little punk rockers:


Remember all that Halloween stuff that I mentioned the commissary had? Well, I bought the Halloween cupcake and frosting set that I buy every year, and for every holiday. We make the pink ones for Valentine's Day and the red and green ones for Christmas, pretty much any excuse to bake, we are all over that. And since it had been almost a whole 48 hours since we had baked anything yummy, we HAD to make the cupcakes this afternoon. Here are Ella and Mason frosting and enjoying their masterpieces:


After dinner we went outside to ride bikes and write with sidewalk chalk. At this point Mason had been in Big Boy Pants for most of the day, accident free.



Mason told me he needed to pee, and the phone rang, so I didn't go right away with him to the bathroom like he asked me to, so OOPS! Accident #1 for the day. Not bad. He did really well the whole day, up until the very end. I'm getting kinda excited. Huggies may not be getting a good portion of my grocery money any more in the near future!
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am the luckiest mom in the world and do what I do. Not for the big bucks, the fame, glamour, success, riches and treasures untold. It is for big smooches like this one:

and big smiles like these:

It's Time

It's time. I doubted it before this week, but the past few days have confirmed the inevitable truth: the kids are ready to go back to school. This is the first week that I've heard the 'b' word from all three school aged children: "I'm BORED!" Which is hard for me to believe since I have really and truly tried to rival Toys R Us with the amount of toys we have, but the kids have "been there, done that" for the past two and a half months and are ready for something different. Their idea of something different is a trip to Toys R Us to find the one thing that we don't currently have in our possession, but my idea of change is school. So, today was the start of the orientations. Colton and I headed off this morning to check out his new intermediate school. I remember it from when Jaxon was in third grade here a few years ago, and although they have done some renovations, it's still familiar. Colton didn't seem too nervous and saw a friend at the orientation so he was happy. Getting new school supplies right afterwards excited him too and there's nothing like a new box of crayons and some mechanical pencils to get your heart racing for the start of a new school year. Ella's orientation is tomorrow. It's Kindergarten orientation, but the kids aren't supposed to come. Just the adults. Hmmm. Do you think I should tell someone that I've already been to kindergarten? And that I actually did pretty well in it? Maybe since Ella hasn't been yet, SHE should be the one going to the orientation. Just a thought.
SO, I packed up all the Barbies and Polly Pockets last night. I am officially done with those two things being the only toys my daughter and almost 3 year old son play with. I want a little variety in their play repertoire so I hid them and have been encouraging everything else under the sun to play with. Ella, Mason and Colton played together with Legos for a while this afternoon. Here's Mason playing with Legos. Even though he's playing with the only girl Lego figure Colton has, it's a slight improvement.



Colton was bored because his three amigos from up the street were MIA until about 3:30 this afternoon. They played until we had to pack up for piano lessons. Then he got a special treat as his old friend from across the world, Max, came over to play. Max and his family surprisingly ended up moving here from Hawaii 6 months after we did, and it's been fun to see familiar faces half way around the world again.

Max recently broke his arm falling from a tree but don't worry: it has not impeded his ability to play the Wii.
Oh, and you remember Jaxon's quest for a stronger work ethic and a desire to keep busy today? Well, didn't happen. He spent ALL day reading a new book or on his I touch. So much for "I love to work" and "Give me something to do Mom". Hmmm...and he really wants to go to Westpoint. Me thinks he might need to practice the following phrase instead "May I take your order please?".....This is how I found him after piano lessons:

And last but not least, here's a picture of the new bookshelf. Yeah, I like it too.

Reunited and It Feels So Right

Yup, I keep changing the look of the blog. I can't decide what I like, so I'm just gonna keep changing it every few days.

So after 73 days of being separated, the kids were finally able to see their daddy through the wonders of Skype. The quality of picture was less than perfect and we lost the connection three times, but they were so happy and excited to see Sean. Talking on the phone isn't the easiest for Ella and Mason. They did much better seeing Sean on the computer and talking to him that way. Here are some pictures of the kids talking with Sean:



Mason wasn't able to sit still for long, so he decided that an ice cream cone was necessary for the completion of a successful evening.

Today was day #2 of the start of Potty Training. Yesterday Mason was fussy and not wanting to wear anything, so I suggested big boy pants. That was a hit. He wore Mater and Lightning McQueen on his rear for most of the afternoon. Sure, there were accidents, like today when he actually peed on me trying to take his underwear off on the way to the bathroom, but no big deal. Little kid pee ain't nothin' like old smelly beer-drinking German guy pee that we can find anywhere if we really want to. Here's Mason in his big boy pants:

I know, you can't really see his cute lil bum in this picture, but that wouldn't be very appropriate now, would it? So, trust me, he's wearing them and is diaper free in the picture.
Today we were reunited with some long lost friends: my furniture that we had stored at Sean's parents house for the past 3 1/2 years. It was a happy reunion to see the pieces again. I think they missed me a little.





And here are some other highlights from the day:
Ella teaching Mason the song "Book of Mormon" stories along with the hand motions. Mason loved singing and doing the actions for it. He kept saying, "We do this in Nursery!" (Thanks Brother Price!!)

And, have any of you seen my son, Jaxon? The kid living here today looked like him but said a few things that made me do a double, or even triple, take. First off, this kid finished the Book of Mormon last night. We have been encouraging Jaxon to read it for years, but not forcing him. We really wanted him to want to read it on his own. Since Sean left, Jaxon has challenged himself to read about 10 pages every night, and last night he finished. Way to go, Jaxon. I'm so proud of you. Then, this kid who looked like my eldest, said: "Mom, what are we doing tomorrow? I want to do some work. Today was boring. I need to be busy. I want work to do."



"WHAT?????? WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH JAXON? WHERE IS MY SON THAT SLEEPS IN TIL 11:00 AM AND CAN SIT STILL FOR SO LONG THAT MOSS SERIOUSLY HAS STARTED GROWING ON HIM AT TIMES? YOU WANT TO DO WORK?"

So, needless to say, I was impressed and pulled out my "To Do" list. We have some projects we are going to work on together tomorrow. Here's Jaxon after telling me he finished reading the Book of Mormon.

These are a few of my favorite things:

Some things I just love to see; such as my kids happily playing, even if the room they are playing in is a MESS:

And I love to see my kids actually working, doing chores, TOGETHER!!

I love to see my kids all sit down together for dinner, especially after Jaxon and Colton actually worked together to build something, in this case, a Lego ship:

I love that there are rose bushes right outside my bedroom window which can brighten my day when I wake up every morning:

Oh. And there's one more thing I love.




Trucks.





Delivery trucks to be more specific.






From European Country Living.






They didn't just need to bring the van, they had to bring the truck. Sweet!!
Colton was the first to spot this magnificent sight coming up our street.
All kids had been prepped and ready for the big event.
"MMMOOOOMMMMM!!!! It's here!!"
"Ok!" I yelled. "Everyone in position! Colton, open the door! Ella, grab the camera! Mason, stand there and look cute!"

Here they are getting the first piece, a hall tree, off the truck.


And here is Ella posing with it in the hallway. She was sooo excited it has a mirror so she can check her lip gloss status several times a day.



Then we watched as the movers took the Spanish bookshelf off the truck.



I had thought putting the bookshelf downstairs was a good idea because that room needed a little extra special something to make it feel finished. The movers took the shelf down the outside stairs to see if they could bring it into the family room that way, since the stairs going down from inside the house were too narrow and twisty. They brought it down outside and then reality set in: TOO TALL. Oops. Note to self: bring tape measure next time you buy big furniture. Ok, so they were nice and weren't too worried. They looked at the window downstairs next to the door and said, "We can carry it through this window."
"Sure!" I replied. Except that was Jaxon's room and the floor was covered with Legos. Covered. Well, not anymore. I ran in there and pushed everything over to the side. Sorry Jaxon. Then the movers decided it would be better to come through the window in the family room. So they took the bookshelf through the back yard, laid some blankets in the windowsill, and brought that bad boy right on through. Whoopie!!


I know, I don't have a picture of the bookshelf once its all up and beautiful. I'll take one today and post later. We are off to the swimming pool today for some last summer vacation fun. I'm bringing my sunglasses so I can't see all the hair around me so clearly and razors that I will be liberally passing out to all the women and their underarms and all the men and their backs. Wish us luck!!