Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow

This weekend we started taking out the Christmas decorations and getting ready for the Main Event. The kids have been so excited for Christmas for the past few weeks, and loved opening boxes and pulling out decorations. It was especially fun since we haven't seen these things in two years. I found a bunch of Christmas piano music on line for Colton and he has been practicing every day in preparation for a Christmas eve concert. Information on ticket sales is coming. The kids all played together with legos. Nicely. For a whole half an hour. Wow.


We had another Thanksgiving dinner at Christy's house Saturday night and all I can say is, That girl can cook!!! She brined a turkey and it was scrumdeliumptious. She is kinda like a cooking King Midas: everything she touches turns delicious. I picked up Jaxon Saturday night from his campout. Remember how I thought they were going to be camping in a cabin? WRONG!! My son turned mountain man for the night and braved the sub freezing temperatures in a sleeping bag and tent. Take that Bear Grylls!! Needless to say, Jaxon's teeth were still chattering when I picked him up. But, he had a great time, got to take down the flags at Patton's gravesite, and saw the Battle of the Bulge site. He is destined for a tweed jacket with elbow patches with all this history he's been soaking in.
On Sunday, we all slept in. Yes, even me. And it was GLORIOUS!!!!! I can't remember the last time I slept in til 8:30, but it was fabulous. I just need to keep the kids out late eating Christy's yummy food in order to lull them into a food induced sweet slumber.
Church was good, my first week in young women's and it will be wonderful getting to know these amazing ladies a bit better over the next few weeks.
Monday morning was a SHOCK!! We woke up to some serious white powder, EVERYWHERE!! The snow was falling when we awoke and didn't stop all day. Here's Excited Mason as we got in the car to take the kids to the bus stop:


I drove Sean's car, which was a big mistake, since the Durango has rear wheel drive. Can you say "Fishtail?" Can you say, "Slip and Slide?" Well, that's what I did as I drove Mason to the Bishop's house so his sweet wife could watch him during my German lesson. I can't count the many prayers I offered up this afternoon as I drove to and from German class. I thought, wouldn't it be ironic, as soon as I get the minivan back from the repair shop, I need to take the Durango for repairs thanks to the wonderful snowy road conditions. The kids were soooo excited about the snow when I picked them up. Their number one wish is that school will be delayed tomorrow, since their teachers were talking about this possibility in the afternoon. Mason started eating the snow as soon as we got home, and I quickly reinforced the number one snow eating rule:
DON'T EAT YELLOW SNOW.
All the kids played outside in the snow, throwing snow balls (at me through the window), making snow angels, and sledding down the street. Between you and me, I am a bit shocked that it is snowing already. It's only November. We are in for a LONG winter. But, I say, BRING IT ON!!! I'm ready with gloves, scarves, boots, chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate.




For FHE we talked about the four foundation stones of our religion: The First Vision, The Book Of Mormon, Temples, and the Priesthood. Then we built a gingerbread house. Each wall of the house stood for one of the four foundation blocks. We are big into recycling here in Germany, so we pulled out our leftover Halloween candy to finish decorating our Knusperhaus, which, I must say, turned out fabulous. If I was Gretel, I definitely would have been tempted by this one:

Thanksgiving and SNOW!!!

We woke up on Thanksgiving morning to a glorious sight: SNOW!! We hadn't looked outside as soon as we woke up; working out took priority so it was about an hour later that the kids and I came upstairs and looked outside to the marvelous scene of snow. The kids were so excited. They rushed to put on boots and coats and play outside; for about 5 minutes, until they realized that it was REALLY cold and wanted to come back inside and warm up. Ella lasted outside the longest:

We (I mean, I) finished the last minute baking and cooking for our Thanksgiving feast and headed over to the Wilkenson's house for dinner. The food was fabulous, the friends were fantastic, and most importantly, the desserts were divine. We ate, talked, ate, joked, ate, and hung out around the gorgeous new dining room table for about 3 hours before realizing that we needed to go. The kids ate so little so I felt it was my parental duty to make up the difference and eat enough for all 5 of us. Only Jaxon ate a worthy plate full of delicious food. We rolled our way out of the door and headed home. I am very thankful for wonderful friends who have adopted me while Sean has been gone and treated me like family, maybe even better. I am so thankful for my children who make life worth living. I am excited that this is the last holiday we'll be celebrating for a LONG time without Sean. He better be back in time for the jolly fat guy to make his appearance. On Friday, there were no stores to go to at 3am for Black Friday deals. We're in Deutchland: no Walmart, Target (moment of silence) or Best Buy. There's online shopping, but it isn't the same. But that's ok. I will take living here over super special deals on stuff that I really don't need but end up buying because it is such a good deal that I must need it somehow, sometime, right? So, I saved a bunch of money, which I will later put to good use at ECL or another favorite German store. German stores have awesome Christmas decorations. Friday morning, my cleaning lady came and I got to practice my German with her a little bit. That was fun. We dropped Jaxon off at the commissary parking lot for another fun filled Boy Scout camping trip this weekend, this time to Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge site. We bundled Jaxon up as much as he would let me, loaded him up with chocolate, and sent him on his way (with his toothbrush and toothpaste, which he keeps 'forgetting' to pack). We started to take out Christmas decorations in the afternoon and the kids were sooooo excited to see things we haven't had in two years. That is one of the biggest downfalls of moving at Christmas time, we kinda miss out on Christmas every third year. I took the kids over to Christy's in the evening so Colton could go sell Christmas trees on base with Cameron and Dennis for the Cub Scouts. Danielle watched Ella and Mason while Christy and I escaped, I mean, went shopping at some German stores for some final Christmas presents. All in all, a great last few days, and a few extra pounds that will have to be taken care of pretty quickly. Curse that extra helping of fudge!!
Here's some fun pictures from the last two days:
Mason calling Batman on the phone:

Ella learning to read and reading some words for me:

And a picture of the white stuff outside my front window:

It's Beginning to Smell A Lot Like Thanksgiving

So, what have I been up to these past few days? BAKING!! Yup, our kitchen has transformed into a German bakery with yummy desserts being produced almost hourly. Yesterday we mastered fudge and a pumpkin pie, today was pumpkin bread, pumpkin bars, chocolate caramel bars and brownies, and tomorrow morning we are scheduling an oatmeal cake. Aren't you getting hungry just reading this? I don't need one of those Yankee Candles that is scented for the holidays, like pumpkin pie or sugar cookies. My house is smelling like that for real for the past two days and it's awesome. I think I'm gaining weight just through my nose. I love to bake and this is such a fun time of year. Last night, Colton wanted to make something special for his class for Thanksgiving. Since he has a male teacher, the idea of a Thanksgiving feast or party wasn't gonna happen, so we decided to make today a little more festive for his class by sending in some Pilgrims' hat cupcakes. Here's Colton with his cupcakes:


On Monday, Ella and I worked on a project of hers for Kindergarten. Each student needs to decorate a box that will become their special treasure box to carry reading books to and from school. Thanks to my artistic and creative friend Christy who loaded us up with cool craft supplies Sunday night, we were prepared for this project. Here's Ella, Mason and I working on her box:


Yesterday I was lucky enough to borrow Aedan for a few hours to come over and play. Mason stayed in boy clothes for a majority of the time, which I consider a step forward in the progress department. I found Mason at one point, hiding in his closet, dressed at Batman, but with a pink purse. I asked him who he was. The answer? Baby Bat Girl. I know the picture isn't great, (I'm STILL waiting for my new camera) but here is Baby Bat Girl:


The best part of the past two days was this morning when I caught Mason chasing Colton around the house, wearing a Santa hat, wielding a toy knife, shouting "I'm Evil Santa!! Watch out!" Here's Colton before the attack:


I wasn't fast enough to catch a picture of Evil Santa on the loose. I put out an APB for him and eagerly await his return. So, tomorrow we are off to the Wilkenson's house for some serious turkey eating. I learned how to say turkey today in my TWO HOUR German class. Class was cancelled on Monday so we had a two hour session today. My head still hurts from trying to understand and speak German for that long. The class was small though, which was great, and I really like learning the language, although I feel I am making very S L O W progress. Oh well, guten abend!!

Happy Monday!!!

I've got to backtrack for a moment and share pictures of the birthday party Colton, Ella and Mason attended on Saturday. It was at Kinderspiel, an indoor German playground with trampolines, inflatable slides, a ball pit, electric cars, and tons of things to climb on and fall from. The kids were in heaven! Of course, they spent half of their time looking at the things they couldn't do, like the climbing part that is for kids over a certain height or the train and swings that weren't running at the moment. How come we can't just be happy with the 4 million things we CAN do, and not focus on the three things that aren't available at the time? We brought along a little girl, Katie, who hit it off right away with Ella.





The kids all loved riding around on the electric cars the best. Mason was perfectly content sitting behind Colton and being chauffered around the track. Katie held on to Ella and perfected the princess wave as they did their laps.



I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but not in this house. I put Colton to work helping me make a cake for Mr. Dennis. I needed egg whites whipped and knew Colton was the man for the job. He was a little disappointed when he found out he wouldn't be using an actual whip on the eggs, but he was a trooper and did a great job with the beater.

The Primary Program was fabulous. My personal favorite part was when Mason ran up to the Primary chorister, Bro. Price, who was trying to get his music stand situated in the aisle way, and didn't notice Mason for a moment who had run up to him and was waving frantically up to him saying "Hey! He's my teacher!!" (Side note: Mason loves singing time in Nursery. It is his favorite part of the experience.) And, I might add, isn't it cool that our ward has a male Primary chorister? We are so out-of-the-box here in Germany!

And the new calling is.......

Have you been up all night wondering what my new calling is? Have you been so in touch with the Spirit that you knew what it would be and didn't have any moments of nail biting wonder and anxiety? Well, put your mind at ease because all is right with the world again: I am back home, where I belong, in Young Women's. I was called as the first counselor in the Young Women's Presidency and I couldn't be more thrilled or excited. I LOVE LOVE LOVE working with the young women. They are awesome. They rock. I love it. I must have bribed the right person or delivered homemade goodies to the right house to get this sweet calling. I can't wait to get to know the girls better and serve them. Now Jaxon has no excuse for not going to Young Men's on Tuesday nights because his good old mom will be there to drag him with her. The only problem is, I am so out of the loop on what is cool in the mind of a 12-17 year old girl. I don't know the cool musicians, actors, tv shows, or movies. I'm not up to date with the latest slang phrases or text messages. I will just have to show up and wing it for a while, with a big ol' smile on my face, and a batch of homemade brownies to make up for my un-cool-ness. I'm a quick learner so hopefully in no time I will be dishin' with my girls and sharing personal secrets. Wish me luck!!
I have some cute pictures from the first of our two birthday parties that we attended on Saturday, but since I just devoured half of an Italian Creme cake that I baked for Dennis' birthday but personally ate most of, I will just roll over to my bedroom, read some scriptures and call it a night. I will post pictures tomorrow. Oh, I get to go share lunch with my favorite girl, Ella, and her classmates as they have an Italian Thanksgiving Feast for lunch. Aren't you jealous? As you sit down to a boring pb&j sandwich, I will be sharing stuffed shells, (that I personally made) with the cutest 5 year old around. Stop by Mrs. Waldrup's Kindergarten tomorrow around 11:30 if you're not doing anything. I'll try to save you a shell.

NEWS FLASH!!!!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast with this important announcement:
I have been extended a new calling at church. Yes folks, Sister Friendly is retiring. The Bishop nabbed me in the commissary parking lot this morning while dropping Jaxon off for the temple trip. He asked if this was ok, instead of asking me to come in tomorrow for a meeting. SInce my last calling was extended to me in European Country Living, which in my opinion can be a very spiritual place, I had no problems talking in a parking lot. NOW, what, you may ask, have I been asked to do?



I shouldn't say anything til tomorrow, when the call has officially been extended and I've been sustained. So..............















you're just gonna have to wait!! Or call Christy, since you know I called her as soon as I drove off base and could reach my phone. Hee hee! Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of:


AS THE WARD TURNS or
THE OLD AND THE RESTLESS or
ALL MY KINDER

Happy Friday

We had a good day on Friday. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was Friday. Maybe because I got to talk to Sean. Maybe because my cleaning lady came and made my house sparkle. Maybe because I was able to almost have a conversation with her in German. Maybe because I got to pick up Mason's best friend from preschool and he shouted "Miss Angela!!!" with a big smile on his face that would warm anyone's spirits. Maybe because Mason spent at least half of the day in boy clothes. It's all good. Here are my favorite two chefs this morning, helping me make some cupcakes:

I found at the commissary a new squirting canister of frosting that looked fun, so Olivia and Mason liked frosting their cupcakes. I had extra cupcakes, of course, and shared with Aedan when he came over to play later with Mason. Here's Aedan replicating a gross sneeze with his green frosting:

And here are my boys directly spraying the frosting into their mouths post-dinner for a little sugar high:


We have two birthday parties on Saturday, both involving Ella. Yup, she's excited. I'm dropping Jaxon off at 9:30 am in the commissary parking lot to meet up with church members for a temple trip this morning. He gets to do baptisms. Sweet. It's Dennis's birthday tomorrow, so I think that ensures an adequate quantity of cake consumption between his party tomorrow night and the two parties today. All I can say is, it better be buttercream frosting on the cakes, none of that whipped cream/Cool whip junk.

Wednesday and Thursday

Ich brauche eine pause. Translation: I need a break. Things have just been busy. Busy is good. Busy is also tiring. I want a day where we have to do nothing and go no where. No cleaning, no driving, no picking up clothes and toys, no laundry, no whining, no dishes, no cooking, no whining, no folding, no washing, no wiping, and no whining. That to me is the celestial kingdom in a nutshell. But for now, I will keep in constant motion. Yesterday, Mason hung out at Amy's while I went to German. Which is getting harder and harder. Curses to the stupid doctors who told my mom to stop speaking German to me. After German I took Mason to get mail, where I found two packages returned to me that I had just mailed on Monday to Sean. First thought: The postal police caught me sending clothes to the Afghanis. Oops. WRONG! I was just silly and wrote the wrong zipcode on them. Oops. Hope I didn't do that to all the packages I sent out. We will see. Then Mason and I headed over to the middle school for an awards assembly. Jaxon is on the honor roll and there was a big assembly honoring all the kids who earned good GPA's. Honestly, I wasn't gonna go. There were a ton of kids getting an award, I didn't think it was a huge deal, and Jaxon said not to worry about it, but Christy went and told me I should go, so off we went. Plus, I thought it might provide me with a good opportunity to embarass Jaxon somehow. What cute pet name could I shout out to him? He came in the auditorium along with scores of other seventh graders, and I finally caught his attention. I gave him a big smile and wave. He looked shocked. His eyes got huge and he shook his head fervishly. Translation: Not cool MOM! I'm with my friends. Don't acknowledge me.
Well, that made me want to embarrass him even more. But then I realized that one day, he may be deciding which assisted living home I end up in, so I was nice and no longer tried to stare him down and smile. We waited for him to get his award and clapped loudly when he received it. Here he is among the masses going up to the stage and receiving it:

Here's Mason waiting patiently for the assembly to start:

Then we walked over to Ella's class to make sure she got to the flagpole alright. Today was her first day of pre Girl Scouts: Daisies. Every 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Wednesday of the month she will meet her Daisy troop at the elementary school flag pole, walk over to the girl scout hut, and have a cool meeting. She was soooo excited to start today. We were all invited at the end of the meeting for a special ceremony, kind of like an induction ceremony. They got a certificate and lit a candle, all held hands and sang something like Cumbaya. Here's Ella during the ceremony:



And here's Mason and Colton at BK using their kids' meals toys as forks to spear their french fries:


SO, Thursday is German at my house day. We had three ladies show up to practice German. We actually did pretty well for a good hour before we broke down and just started talking about pregnancies and kids. Mason has been, well, a bit difficult these past few days. We are probably doing too much and need to just slow down and spend more time together at home. Here's Mason starting off his Thursday:

I could have taken at least 5 more pictures of him today just like this one, but at different locations and times. He had a beautiful temper tantrum at the commissary, all because he wouldn't say please for some water. And, if you happen to be the commissary baggers and checkers who kept trying to get him to stop crying, you obviously don't have kids of your own since you don't realize that talking to kids while they are throwing a huge temper tantrum doesn't work. Trying to get them to smile and poking fun at them, doesn't work. Asking them "What's wrong?" doesn't make the 3 year old stop his insistent crying and fussing to explain in detail the reasoning behind his fit. It just ticks him off even more. Just sayin'. So, Mason didn't have the best day today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I know it will be for me. My cleaning lady is coming at 9am. Woo Hoo. Here's a good picture to end on. Ella's diva fashionista self coming through as she bundled up to take the boys to piano tonight:

Making Lists and Checking Them Twice

Monday and Tuesday have been busy. On Monday, Mason and I left the house at 9:30 and didn't return til 6:30. We went to the BX three times in one day. That is three times too many. I am determined to be completely done with Christmas shopping and shipping before Thanksgiving. I want to enjoy December and focus on the true meaning of Christmas, instead of buying, buying, buying. Mason and I started off at the post office, mailing Sean packages for the Afghanis. Last time I got caught because you are not supposed to mail humanitarian aid through the mail, or at least not through the Military Postal System (aka the free way to ship things from one APO to another APO). The mailman said, "Uh, just FYI, you can't do this next time", and I said, "OK, no problem, these clothes are all for my husband who is very very cold". The mailman said, "RIght, good thinking". SO, on Monday I shipped the boxes to different people in Sean's unit so it wouldn't look so suspicious. Am I honest in all my dealings? Well, sure!! What is more important? Being completely honest on a customs form or clothing cold poor people? Yeah, I thought so, the latter. So, if any postal employees are reading this: SORRY!! Come and get me with the cuffs!! I'll be waiting with warm chocolate chip cookies to bribe you. Here's Mason on the dolly going to my car to pick up all the packages:


After the post office, I took Mason to Sister Adams house so I could go to German class. Class was hard. We learned how articles change depending on their role in a sentence, subject or object. Only masculine articles change though. Hmmmm....I'm sure I could say something biased about that, but I'll be good. After picking up Mason, I took him out to lunch. Nothing too fancy for this guy!!

Yup, Burger King. Then we went back to the BX for more Christmas shopping. We picked up the kids in the rain:

Look how excited Mason was to pick up Punky Brewster, I mean Ella, from school!
He couldn't wait to hug her.


We went BACK to the BX to see the new movie, MegaMind. Yeah, it was cute. The kids enjoyed it. Here's Ella eating her dinner from Subway. Can you tell what she's eating?


She would make Atkins proud!! Bacon and ham. That's it. No bread, no veggies, just MEAT!
We picked angels from the angel tree so we could count the evening as FHE and add a little moment of selflessness to the evening. I let each kid pick an envelope and we'll buy them each a present and return them to the tree in a few days.


Now, on to Tuesday...
I had packages to finish and needed some time to wrap them up, so I enlisted the help of my favorite four year old: Aedan Turner. He came over to play with Mason and keep him happy while I settled down to work. They played well all day, unfortunately most of the time Mason was in a dress. Even Aedan referred to Mason as "she" at one point. They played superheroes and I tried to explain that Batman is most comfortable in pants, not a dress. Here's Mason and Aedan in Ella's room:

On the way to return Aedan to his rightful owner, I followed a German truck for a while. And guess what? I could translate what it said on the back! Not too exciting, but I was happy. Here's the truck:

I know you're dying of curiosity, so I'll tell you, it was a window and door truck. Exciting, huh? Do YOU know the German words for window and door? No? Go look it up and get back with me...
Oh, here's a picture of Pinkerella this morning getting ready for school. Do you have that book about a little girl who only wears pink? Ella channeled her today in her clothing selection:

On the way home from Aedan's, Mason and I stopped off at Wasgau to purchase some chocolate for our packages. Here's our loot when all was said and done:

And here's Mason trying to scale the kitchen cabinets in order to get a Kinderegg that was denied him since he didn't finish (or really touch) his dinner: