Life at the House

If you see my facebook, you'll be aware that we have had snow. Lots of snow! I woke up to a world of white (think Amy Grant's Christmas to Remember) and as soon as I was out of bed I was running around taking pictures. I went out with Brad to walk Sam, and we walked up to the end of the village. Everything is just so picturesque, especially with the fresh snow blanketing everything. I asked Brad if he ever felt like he was living in a postcard. He said that on trips to Rothenburg and similar places, he felt more like he lives in Disneyland for free. It's a fairly accurate description. :)


Yesterday I went shopping with Debbie at a German market (Globus is the closest Germany comes to Wal-Mart), and I picked out a few of my favorite things, including pepperoncinis stuffed with goat cheese and some Bresso. I covet a German grocery store at home, simply for the vast variety of meats and cheeses and jogurts they have! I'm sad that it's now illegal to bring home any kind of meat, but believe me I will be laden with chocolate and cheese and other deliciousnesses. If you want something specific, let me know!

Sunrise happens here about 8:30/9 am, and it's dark again by 4:30, which really is messing with my brain. By 9pm, I'm exhausted, which I put up to a combination of leftover jet-lag and sheer internal clock confusion by the early darkness. In the morning, I enjoy my tea with Brad and Debbie before we split off to our separate occupations. Debbie's not been feeling well, so today has turned into a very quiet one. I've been working on the videos, which are coming along quite nicely. It's weird to have been elevated from slave to intern and now to contractor, perhaps the highest level achievable in this house. Contractors get all kinds of perks, hee hee.

I am loving the snow. People were rather aghast that I had never before shoveled snow, so I seized the opportunity to do so this morning, and Brad obliged by narrating a video about it, thinking his filming was a fair trade for my shoveling.

The chill outside really makes my room seem even more delightfully warm by contrast. I also love the new wood-burning stoves that have been added since my last visit, one in each living room. We sat around last night, Brad knitting a scarf, me writing a letter, Debbie chatting on the phone, listening to Christmas music.


I am loving being here, even if it is cold. Still holding out for a White Christmas. Love and miss all of you at home! And eine froliche Geburstag für Matt!

Three More Weeks to Go!

Wow...I cannot believe the time has gone by so fast! I remember thinking before I left that three months was a long time, my whole summer would be here. Now I'm down to two weekends and I'm wondering where the summer went! I am excited to come home, yes, but at the same time I know I'm going to miss Germany and all my friends here!

On Thursday, Brad and Debbie headed off to Belgium for an overnight date, so I had the House to myself. After doing chores and playing phone tag with Nellie for a few hours, I went and picked her up for a girls' night in. We had pizza and chips and watched a ridiculously girlie movie and just generally enjoyed having no boys!

Friday people came over early for dinner and Bible study, and I got to babysit two perfectly adorable little girls. I was in charge of the meal, and it was a success! Yay. :) On Satuday we went to Glan-Munchweiler for a Volksmarch. We did the 5 k route up some hills and then back around in a loop. It's a bit of work, but a lot of fun, especially with German summer being as beautiful as it is. After an afternoon of MarioKart and naps, we went out to Burg Lichtenberg for a castle tour by our very own Docent Brad. Unfortunately, our tour was cut a little brief by a sudden chilly rain, and we headed down to the Greek restaurant in the town below.It was probably one of the best dinners I've ever had. The food was good, yes, but the company even more so. We had a very large group, so they seated us out on the patio under a tent-awning, and I'm sure by the end of the evening they were very glad they hadn't put us inside. We weren't being rude Americans, but we were very loud and probably a little obnoxious. Our table was enveloped in hysterical laughter for a good portion of the evening. Michelle stops breathing when she laughs and really does begin to turn blue. Gordon laughs very loudly and enthusiastically slaps his knee. I her-hee when I laugh. Now, all three of us were seated next to eachother in the center of the table. Whenever one would start to laugh, the others would join, which would draw in the rest of the table. I actually laughed to the point of pain, something that hasn't happened in a long, long time. It was SO much fun!!On Sunday, we had people over after chapel for a cookout. We went to the comissary first, and the guys generously provided most of the meal, with many bags of chips along with hamburgers and chicken and brats and steaks. Despite the weather being perfect for volleyball, we mostly stayed inside playing the Wii and cards and napping and just hanging out together and enjoying one another's company.

Apple Pie and VBS

What says summer like those two things? Maybe not necessarily together, but that works too. Anyways, I feel accomplished - yesterday, I baked my very first apple pie! And it was GOOD, too! Under Debbie's expert tutelage, I peeled and chopped apples, rolled out crust, stuffed a pie, and fluted the edges. :) Top it off a few hours later with vanilla ice cream, and yum!!

VBS training and set up has started, too, since Baumholder's VBS (vacation Bible school, for those that have never experienced the fun of this acronym) is next week. For the two days I'm still here, I've volunteered to work with - guess - the pre-schoolers. Among regular duties, I'm doing Chadder's Theater, which is showing them the movie, doing a little science experiment (oh yeah, our theme is Power Lab so we're all a bunch of wacky professors), and reiterating the day's main theme and verse. However, Sherri (the director) asked me on Monday night if I'd be willing to lead the singing and teach the songs, too, since the lady scheduled to do that is still in the States. So, I've spent this last week learning the songs and the motions, and always having one of the 10 stuck in my head on constant repeat. :) I had to teach the main song to all the adult volunteers today, which was weird - in front of kids, no problem! But you have to do these things all different when your audience is older than 10.

So, for the first two days, I'm the first "professor" they see, so I get to kind of MC everything. Welcome, songs, skits (with my wacky scientist friend "Professor Wilma"), and the first mention of the day's theme and verse and story, and prayer. Cool! I'm really kind of excited for this, even though there's a lot of talking to do (I hope I can remember everything I'm supposed to say!) It's gonna be fun!

20th Birthday

I'm 20! It hasn't sunk in yet - not that 20 is such a huge step up from 19, but I'm no longer a teenager - I'm in my twenties. I'm more 'officially' an adult. It's kind of a fun thought. But it will take some getting used to.

Anyways, last night was my birthday celebration. Mac came over to the house and joined us for a dinner of Raclette, which is kind of a delicious cousin to Fondue. After dinner we opened presents: I got four books of a very wide variety from B & D, and a movie from Mac that he'd been trying to find for me since last time I was over here. I also got cards from home! And piano music that my wonderful mother sent me. :) Then there was the cake - Debbie made me a red velvet cake, and the recipe was actually one she got from my great-grandmother! And boy howdy was it delicious. I made my wish and blew out the candles - and actually blew one of the candles off the cake. I don't know if that enthusiasm means my wish HAS to come true, or if I blew all chances of that away. I guess we'll see! :) After enjoying our cake, we went downstairs and watched a movie, before Brad had to take Mac back to post.

It was a very fun night. I was especially glad Mac got to come, because he is headed back to the States very, very soon, and I am going to miss him something terrible.

Easter Weekend

And what a weekend it was!! Busy days, and it was a four-day weekend for most of the guys, so it's been crowded. People came over Thursday night after getting off work, and the house was pretty much full from then on, to the point that we used every single available bed, which has never happened before.

Friday was hole-digging day. Brad had decided that Sunday was going to have baptisms for some of the soldiers, and it was going to be a field baptism. That means, we went out and dug a hole in his back yard big enough to dunk people in. During the digging process (and by we I mean Mac and Will, with myself as supervisor, photographer, and coffee-fetcher. When I offered to be on digging detail, I was told that I could go play with my little sandcastle set. Brad has his picture here digging, but he only turned up the tip of a shovel-full for the sake of a photograph), it snowed, and hailed, and sleeted, and the sun shone. O spring weather in Germany, how strange thou art. In German there's a saying, "April, April, er weiss nicht was er will," (April, April, he doesn't know what he wants) and it's sooo true. The weather is crazy!! Anyways, as they started, the guys were like, "It's been raining so much the ground is nice and wet, this should be no problem, as long as there aren't really many rocks." A few shovel-fulls later, they discovered the boulders. We were out there for 4 hours before it was finished. I got sick. :(

Saturday was Easter-preparation day, but included a hike to the castle. Much of the day was spent cleaning and cooking and getting ready for the next day's invasion. I made a potato salad, the recipe of which I must remember to brink home with me. Mmmm-mmmm. Yummy! One of the hams was cooked, and a bunch of other stuff prepared. We did take a nice hike up to Brad's castle, and I got to sing. Gordon even sang with me, which always makes things more fun. There were snowball fights on the way, and another once we actually got to the castle. Jonathan and I ran and locked ourselves (literally) into the castle to get away from the onslaught. Mac had to use his 'key' and free us again. That night we watched Ben-Hur, and I managed to stay awake for the whole movie!

Sunday morning, snow had fallen, but I was determined to still where my little Easter dress, and I did. People looked at me like I was crazy, but that's okay. I was determined. The service was good, and when we came home there was a mild frenzy of getting ready, and then sort of a calm before the storm spent playing Left Right Center and the piano. There were over 50 people for our Easter meal. Tables and chairs upstairs and down, tons of food (about 40 lbs of ham and a turkey and tons of potatoes and deviled eggs and so much more), people on couches and oustide and everywhere. After lunch, we sang some songs and then went outside for our field baptism. We'd filled the hole up with hot water from the downstairs shower so that the poor soldiers wouldn't freeze to death, and the sun had come out and melted the remains of the snow. Five soldiers were baptized, and wrapped warmly in towels as soon as they got out. Next came an Easter Egg Hunt for the little kids (of which there were many!) and I got to be Chief Easter Egg Hider (woo-hoo!). Once that was over people started trickling home, and when they'd left, there were still almost 20 people staying here. Having 50+ people over makes a house a mess, so we set to work doing a basic cleaning before watching our movie and then saying our goodnights.

Today was re-clean-up day, with a thorough scrubbing of the house from top to bottom, helpful since there were still 12 of us. All the beds full, plus people sleeping on couches! Incredible. After clean-up and some down time, some of us took another hike to the castle. Then came dinner, and the soldiers were back off to post. Most of them have four-day weekends coming up again, and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again soon. The house seems so empty once they're gone, especially after such a full weekend as this one was!

Sorry for the long read, folks, it was a long, fun, and busy weekend! And I'll be home in 2 weeks!!!

Christmas Can't Be Very Far Away

Which is funny, because I was just thinking seemingly yesterday how far away it was still, and now I only have one week left to find the last two gifts on my list. Eek! Then next Friday, I GET TO SEE LARISSA!!!! Isn't that a THRILLIFYING THOUGHT??? I'm a little excited, in case you couldn't tell. I'll get to spend 10 days with her and Brad and Debbie. Woo-hoo!!

So, what's happened since I've written last. It's been a busy holiday season so far, with Christmas parties everywhere - school, kindergarten, work, and this week I have two for my house-group from the church and for choir. Yesterday was our choir concert, J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium. I sang it two (three?) years ago with Phoenix Symphony Chorus, too. It's a fun piece - and a harder one you're not likely to find. But I officially have the first three parts memorized! Yay me? We sang with an orchestra from Osnabrueck and four professional soloists. They were all wonderful, but the tenor and the bass - woah. Astounding. The whole thing went very, very well. It was sad not to have anyone in the audience to watch me, though. :(

What else has been going on...last Friday was fun, Celeste and I went out to the Weihnachtsmarkt and the movies. She's an Aupair from my German class, she's from South Africa and a Christian, too! What more could I ask for in a friend over here? It's so exciting to have a friend! haha (no, really...) We went and saw Der Goldene Kompass (try translating that one, it's realyl hard), which was really good, even in German. I was watching specifically for any anti-God whatnot and didn't find any, so I don't really see why people were putting up such a big fuss about it.

Other than that, there's just been fun with baking! Warning for all who dare attempt this recipe: Marshmallow Creme Fudge is sticky business!!

On the first day of...

SNOW! YES, SNOW! I LIVE SOMEWHERE WITH SNOW!! Isn't that exciting?!?! There we were, sitting in German class, when the teacher looks out the window and says, oh, it's snowing. What?!? Celeste and I (my fellow desert dweller, shivering here in the frozen north) ask for permission then run outside. SNOW! It was too warm for it to stay on the ground, but it was coming down pretty thick, and it was beautiful! Sadly, I didn't have my camera dabei any of the times it snowed, because I was either in class or driving. But still! It snowed! And I have high hopes for more! I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....

Then, today was full. We made cookies! Watching four kids (Lena was over) and trying to bake cookies and clean up all at the same time is a handful. And tomorrow I get the kids all alone, all day long. Eek! A true test of my abilities. But yes, the first cookies of the season! Woo-hoo!! I love this time of year!!!!!