Peace on Earth - Merengue Style

Christel-Ann asked to make her own sheet of Merengue

Travelling

The little Doener Tier is waiting for his departure. He is not quite sure wether to feel protected by that M16 in the background or be worried that he will end up as a Kebab?

Paul's Address

Won't be published here.
But if you want to know where to send coffee to, send me an e-mail.
He layed over in Ireland and Mannis (I am not sure where that is, but when he called upon google, it came up with google.kg) and was moved forward earlier today.
Time difference to Eastern time is +9 1/2 hrs.

The Adventures of the little Doener Tier

Doener's Dad is leaving tonight. The brave little Doener is going on this adventure with him. From time to time you will be able to read about the adventures this little fella as he will accompany Doener's Dad to Afghanistan.
Emma-Louise has actually adopted Doener from Doener's Dad, but since he is leaving she wanted him to take Doener "and send pictures". To ease this deployment for the girls and help them see that he is "at work", what he does and where he lives.

News, News, News

I have accepted a job offer in a different organization of my current employer.
This is very exciting news, it is a big promotion for me and a completely new challenge.
I will be working very closely with major airworthiness authorities, for the most part the FAA and EASA, and support the certification process of our engineering division.
It means that I will be moving away from Product Support and the Main Campus, it means that I will never occupy the new office I was supposed to move to that had a view of the runway, but it also means that I will move into our Research and Development facility that is only about 10 minutes from our house, my new office has a window overlooking the woodlands. Not a bad view either!

Opposites attract!

No words needed?! The Mini Cooper and MC's Kat. I wanted a pictures of these 2 since we realized that the colors are almost identical.

CRCT Test or Grundschulabitur

In the State of Georgia, all 5th Grade students have to pass the CRCT test in order to advance to 6th Grade, regardless of their GPA.
The students are tested in the following subjects:
English, Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies
5 days of intense testing has come and gone and 3 weeks later the preliminary results are in! She passed, and passed "exceeding the standard".
Christel-Ann is going to Middle School next School year.
Now we are looking forward to the end of the school year, Emma-Louise is "almost a Kindergardner" and will celebrate that with a Party on June 4th. And June 12th will be Christel-Ann's "Bridging" ceremony marking the end of Elementary School. But to me it seems like yesterday that Paul came home from Iraq at 2 am in the morning and surprised Christel-Ann with his presence on her first day at Wuerzburg American Elementary School in Germany. Emma-Louise was still 6 days away from being born!

Care to guess?

Which one is Georgia and which one is her brother Gasper?

Our Lanai

My little piece of heaven, especially on a cold evening. The Lanai with our Hot Tub. It's still a little bit plain, but the plants are one step in the right direction....

Family Picture

There we are! All 4 of us at Bree and Dustin's wedding!

Cutting up the dancefloor

Notice that Paul is dancing with his two Girls but there is not a picture of him and I dancing? We did, but the Girls were busy taking pictures of other things when we were on the dance floor. They took some crazy pictures! Christel-Ann had such a good time that she has requested to go to "adult parties" more often now.
Emma-Louise is dancing with Bree. Finally. Finally Emma-Louise could show Bree that the color of her fingernails matched the wedding colors (PINK!). And she just wanted to "uhh and ahhh" over the dress and dance the night away.
No one was safe from dancing with Emma-Louise. I believe she had every willing soul on the dance floor at one point and time. And if nobody was willing to dance with her, she danced by herself. Here she is with the father of the bride.

Key West Impressions

White Sand, turquoise water, life is good in the Florida Keys!
The Lighthouse in Key West
One of the many, many colorful flowering bushes
Bahia Honda State Park


This was our first Sunset in Key West

In charge....of the bubbles

After the ceremony Emma-Louise's job began: she handed Bubbles to all the guests. All the guests. No exception. She did not take "no thanks" for an answer. Think she looks sweet? Looks aren't everything. You just don't know how dedicated and serious she can be. She means business! If she has a job, it will get done. Unless it has something to do with cleaning up her room....

Violinist

5 months of practice have come to an end. The wedding was yesterday. During the seating of the guests she played "Waterfall", the prelude was "I whistle a happy tune", processional was "Simple Gifts". The bride was walked down the aisle to the "Canon in D" and the finale was the "Ode to Joy". It was an amazing process to see the excitement in her face when Kathy asked her to play at Breee's wedding, then the dedication with which she practiced her songs and she was not the least bit nervous about her big performance. More pictures to follow....

Georgia Dawg

Don't even think about the University of Georgia Bulldog!
Here she is at 3 months old.

I have pictures

But they have not been downloaded on my computer.
We are doing well. April 1st friends arrived from Germany and we went to spend part of Spring Break in the Florida Keys. Key West is a piece of paradise. White sand beaches, turquoise water, balmy weather (90's when we were there) and just simply island life attitude! We watched some amazing sunsets, relaxed, chased Iguana's (Emma-Louise) went kayaking and enjoyed every moment we were there. The kids were good sports on the way to and from the Keys (no short drive!)
But now we are halfway back to reality. Only half way because Paul is still on vacation, the Girls still have Spring break, our friends are still here, but at least I went back to work. Oh and Georgia, who could not go with us and stayed at her brother's house, is back home. She doubled her weight, now 18 pounds and counting.....
I went back to work, means that I still have a job. Certainly not something that is to be taken for granted. My department has seen the first rif (reduction in force) of a full-time employee in 20 years.
But on to happier things. Week-end! It rained overnight, we are planning on going to the Flea Market, color eggs, possibly spend some time at the beach (need to check the weather forecast, it rained early this morning) and some more relaxing.
The Girls have had a great time with their friend "Emilie". Emilie is exactly 2 weeks younger than Emma-Louise. They have played countless hours on the beach, enjoyed some good shopping, a few nights in the Hot Tub, a Baseball game with Fireworks, a trip to Build-a-bear for each to have a memory of this special time together, and tomorrow will be a fun-filled Easter!
As I am typing this the rest of the family is still asleep, it's just me and the dog who is going nuts with a toy.
I hope everyone has a great week-end and I promise that there will be pictures soon!

Meet Georgia:

Georgia is our almost 10 week old Golden Retriever Girl. She is a sweetheart!

ERAU

ERAU stands for Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
I have been accepted into their degree Program and will be pursuing a degree in Professional Aeronautics with a minor in international relations. Yay me! Yay me?
The semester starts next week.
Someone very special pointed out to me that one of my favorite quotes is:
"The impossible is often the untried"
So true.
I am going to manage raising my daughters, being a wife, maintaining house and property, working full time, volunteering, hobbies, friends as well as living a more scholarly life. Not in that order, but something like that, guessing that priorities will shift, especially as Paul deploys again.

Grosstante-Grandaunt

I bet that when you read the title of this blog post, you didn't think of me.
It's me. Grandaunt. Something like that anyway.
The daughter of Paul's cousin had a baby. I remember Victoria as a little girl when I was visiting with her dad and wife and Paul's Aunt and Uncle. Paul is even more spooked because he remembers Victoria being born! Grandma Louise missed becoming a Great-Great Grandmother by just a few months. I think she would have liked that. It would have supported her view of herself as an "old, old lady".
Welcome to the world Luis!

What's happening?

Lots!
But where to start?
Emma-Louise is enjoying Pre-K very much. She is such a curious child, a real sponge when it comes to information. Her brain must resemble that of an elephant. She does not forget. Anything. Ever. We had a parent-teacher conference last week, no surprises. She is doing a great job with her letters, sounds and her numbers. She is much more mature than Christel-Ann was at her age, but let me attribute that to the fact that she has an older sister.
Christel-Ann can use some prayers. We turned in her Middle School application. Slots at our Middle School of choice are lottery only. 100 available slots and over 400 applicants. Luckily our zoned Middle School is our second choice for her, if Christel-Ann does not win a slot at Oglethorpe, then she will be going to Mercer. Christel-Ann is in the middle of a big science project. She doesn't want me telling "the entire world" about this, but I am allowed to say that it is a "marine themed science project". She is busier than usual practicing her violin. In just a few weeks, okay a couple of months from now, she will be in a wedding. Not just in a wedding. She will be the violinist. While the guest are coming in, taking their seats, she will play "Whistling a happy tune". The wedding party will walk in to "Simple Gifts". The bride chose the Canon in D major as "her" song for her Daddy to walk her down the aisle. Once pronounced Mr & Mrs, Christel-Ann will play the final movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the Ode to Joy. Christel-Ann hasn't been able to take her C-Ayak out much, the weather has not been pretty here lately. Last week-end she had an opportunity to volunteer, while Paul and I were running the Tybee Island 5Miler, she was staffing the Half-Marathon Finish line and handing medals and water to the finishers. Just prior to the start, I introduced some of my running coworkers to her, and once they finished, they looked for her and let her give them their finisher medals and water.
Myself, I am plenty busy keeping up with the 2 girls, and working, making plans for upcoming visits. Most exciting news from the past few weeks, one of my best friends from High School is expecting a Baby! I ran the 5 miler and have a 10k coming up in 2 weeks, and then 2 5k's in March. I am really ready for a vacation! We will be heading to Key West in the beginning of April with friends from Germany.
Paul is keeping a odd schedule these days, he works "part time". Mondays he works whole days and the rest of the week he does half days and spends the other half going to school (Troy University). His unit is not doing much, he has a couple of great NCO's that work for him (and some not so great...) and sometime in the near (?) future the training will begin again.
That's all from us for now. I wish I had pictures to share but I don't.

My Boss...

..is not a people person. That's ok, he's on the road most of the time anyway and we do not see him much. When he is around and comes by your office, it usually means that your workload just doubled. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Especially appreciated: randomly assigned projects. Most of them really special projects! I have a method to my madness. I volunteer before I am voluntold. Makes life a lot easier, a lot of times. I really like volunteering when it makes sense (does that make sense?)...and so I did just that about 10 days ago. Not saying that I shouldn't have, but I was plenty busy and then took work home. Now the project is complete, just has to be sustained (guess whose job that is). Along the way "the boss" and I exchanged some emails that didn't always have the friendliest of tone (neither his nor mine), but while there is a lot to say about him, one can tell him just about anything (I know, I do!). Today he shows up at my desk and hands me an envelope and dissapears again. I looked at that envelope for quite a while before I decided to open it. It was a handwritten "Thank You" note and a Gift Certificate for the Chart House, a local Seafood Restaurant. Very nice! Happy eats to me!

Fairy Godmother

Christel-Ann has her own, very own, laptop. She has an e-mail address and will get a messenger account, since she has an integrated webcam. She is doing research for her science project right now, but I think she really wants to webcam with her buddies!
I think I mentioned before that I want to be Christel-Ann when I grow up!

Here is my favorite quote from her:
"My favorite birthday gift is the laptop, but I like my kayak too"

11

Christel-Ann is 11! It was Tuesday, it was cold and rainy. Just like today.
She had her choice of breakfast (Biscuit, Eggs, Bacon and Cranberry Juice) and went to School. Paul took Snacks to her Classroom and I got off early to make some preparations for dinner.
In lieu of family we had a few friends over, ate dinner together and ice cream cake for dessert.
Just as Christel-Ann started to unwrap presents, UPS rang the doorbell and delivered a gift from her Grandparents in Germany. Perfect timing.
Christel-Ann got what she asked for: a kayak. Actually she got the paddles today, we are going to pick it up together on Thursday. The kayak is all that she asked for and that's what she got, a pair of comfy lounge pants and tickets to the movies. Emma-Louise bought her tickets to go see "Hotel For Dogs". She asked for money and gift cards to a popular outdoor store (Bass Pro) because she wants to pimp her new ride (the kayak) with a comfortable seat, cup holder, paddle harness etc.

Just a picture

Summer of 1977 is my best guess for the date on this picture.

After the deployment is before the deployment

If you are stalking me on Twitter you already know. Paul will be going on his next deployment later this year. November. Paul called me right away and while the wheels were turning in my head, and I know I don't "like" deployments. It is working out just as good as it could. Paul will leave right before our 14th anniversary but he will be BACK right before our 15th. We can put Christmas decorations up together, the girls and I can go to California for Thanksgiving (one of my best Thanksgiving celebrations ever was in 2007). He will be here during Christel-Ann's first few months in middle school and be back (or gone again) when she goes on to High School. He can take R&R during Spring break and we can meet up in Germany. And all else will fall into place as well. It always does.

Insurance Hassle

I should feel very lucky to not only have health insurance, but also have primary and secondary health insurance and rarely having to pay out of pocket. Typing this I am already feeling guilty to even feeling the least bit hassled by my latest adventure.

As I started typing I started to feel worse about complaining about such a blessing. I am very grateful to have health insurance for my family.

That's all.

2009

Happy new year!
Frohes neues Jahr!

Emma-Louise

While in utero, I referred to Emma-Louise as Emma-Lou'. I have not called her Emma-Lou' since the da before she was born. To me she doesn't look like Emma-Lou'. It's either Emma-Louise (e not silent), Louischen oder Emmalise (leftover from times when she couldn't say her name right).
Funny thing, now that she can write, she writes her name likes this:
Emma-Lu or Emma-Lou. Almost never the -ise.