Kylee's first T-Ball game and a weekend of Softball

Go Red Sox! Kylee played her first T-ball game on Saturday. Unfortunately it was rained out after the first inning. 

Waiting her turn to bat. 

Lets go Kylee! She hit the ball the first time. She's actually pretty good with hitting off a T. We bought her a nice t-ball set for practicing, but its ALWAYS raining so we haven't used it yet. 

Kylee running to first. 

Kylee waiting to run from third to home. Cloee (her best friend) is the one in pink. She's on Kylee's team, but Cloee had to field for the other team because they didn't have enough players at the start of the game. 

Kylee looks to be the only one with the correct 'ready' pose. Nice Job Kylee!

Its so cute that she knows what she's doing out there... at least she's ready for the ball.

James and I had a softball tournament a couple weekends ago. I had a one-day tournament in Sembach (about 70-80 minutes away from us). We only played two games. It was a lot of sitting and waiting. The tournament was really an 'umpires clinic' to help them learn all the rules. We did pretty well.

See, lots of sitting and waiting. Good times :D

The softball team. We don't have our real uniforms yet, but they are pretty awesome looking. Horrible picture quality by the way, someone else took these photos.

This is me :D Up to bat. I believe I hit a triple on this one 

James' tournament lasted 2 days. He had a intramural tournament on our base. His squadron did pretty well. They ended up playing 8 games and placed 4th or 5th out of 12 or so teams. Its was ridiculously cold, but hey, we are from Minot so we are used to it. Everyone was bundled up in their winter gear and wrapped in a blanket or two. 

Brrrr.... It is cold. 

If someone on James' team strikes out, they have to wear this pink skirt. This is Dan, one of our friends. His wife, Heather, also plays on my team.

James about to get a pretty awesome hit! 

I've created a monster...

But a cute one :) Kylee has been obsessed with American Girl for a while now. She is finally getting one for her birthday. We got a catalog in the mail the other day and I made the mistake of letting her look through it. Let's just say she has circled many MANY items for her wish list.

Speaking of Kylee and a wish list... Can you believe she will be SEVEN in less that two months?? Her birthday is sneaking up on us. At least I already bought her present and won't have to do shopping last minute.

She has a small list of ideas that she would like this year:
American Girl stuff
Books: The Magic Treehouse, the A-Z mysteries, Cam Jansen series. (She loves to read!) Anything about science and Nature.
Art stuff: paints, paper, brushes, etc.
Dresses
Monster high dolls

Kylee is a big book worm and a fan of anything artsy and crafty- so anything along those lines would make her day.

Yikes- I still can't believe she is going to be 7!

Cloth of Jesus in Trier, Germany

The cloth believed to be Jesus' seamless garment worn shortly before or during his crucification will be on display in Germany's oldest city, Trier from April 13th until May 13th. It is believed that this garment was brought to Trier (then an important Roman city) in the fourth century. It was built into the alter of a Trier Cathedral, and very rarely is it on display. It was only on display three separate times between 1900 and 1996. When it is on display it is a huge pilgrimage for Catholics.

Did I mention Trier is only 30 minutes away? Yes, we will be going to see it. We will probably take a train as I am assuming parking will be nearly impossible during those 4 weeks.

Nearly done with school

I took this semester off to transition the family to Germany. I didn't want to have to worry about finding a place to live, adapting to a different environment and having to worry about internet problems while finding a house. Good thing I took time off, because I only planned to be lacking internet for maybe a few weeks... not several months.

Anyhow, Summer semester is coming up and I had to enroll in a couple of classes. At first I wasn't looking forward to it, but now I'm excited. I enjoyed the time off but its time to get back into the groove. Plus, if I waited any longer to take another class I would have to start paying back some of those school loans... I'm trying to hold off as long as I can for that!

I originally thought I only had a couple more classes to complete until today when I looked at my student records. I only need 4 more mandatory classes, but the system is telling me I still need an additional 9 credits! Yikes! Thats three more classes, so I will still be able to graduate as planned (Spring 2013), but I was really looking forward to only two more semesters with light work, not full time. O well, it is what it is.

I also realized that my 'student teaching' I have to do for 12 weeks, is not student teaching after all. It is observing a classroom setting for 90 hours. I will have to plan a lesson and teach that to a class, but that is something I have already done multiple times. I was really confused as to why I had to 'student teach' for my bachelors (when its not a licensure program) and then student teach again for my masters (which I have to have to get my license). Thankfully, its not student teaching after all. I was really nervous about that because I know I am not ready to be a co-teacher. When I start my  masters (Fall 2013!) I will have to do co-teaching then, but I will be ready for it :D

I'm just so excited this will be my last year of school! I'm officially in my Senior year (although I was a senior last year, but didn't took things slower because of James' time in Korea and our move).

Anyhow, just wanted to let ya'll know I do not have Senioritis and will be going back to school in May :D

Luxembourg: American and Germany Military Cemeteries from WWII

While Kylee was in school one day we took a trip to Luxembourg where there is an American Military Cemetery. This is just 45 minutes away from our house. It is just one of 14 American Military cemeteries on foreign soil. Most of the soldiers buried here died North and East of the city, as well as other parts around the region during the winter of 1944 and the Spring of 1945. 

The cemetery was in the middle of being renovated, so we were not able to visit everything. We plan on going back this summer. 

Luxembourg American Military Cemetery and Memorial.

The memorial of those who gave their lives in the service and those who rest in unknown graves. 

Wyatt placing a white stone on a soldier's grave. See info on Star of David above :D

General Patton's grave

The Germany military cemetery just 1.5 km away from the American Cemetery. The graves are those who died in WWII. Notice the difference between the two cemeteries appearance. 

This explains the reasons for the Germany cemetery and American cemetery being so close to each other. 

Each cross had 4 Germans buried under it. This one says 'Zwie Deutsche Soldaten' which means 'two unknown soldiers'. The other side had two more unknown soldiers. 

Our House

Yes!! I'm finally posting our house photos... FROM MY HOUSE! Because my 3G on my iPhone is working at full speed (it will be reduced if I use it ALL the time) I was able to use the iPhone as a hotspot and give my computer internet! Last time I tried it, the internet was way too slow. Hopefully this will last long enough to get a few blogs in :D

Anyhow... enjoy the photos :D

View of our front door. To the right is the entry for the bathroom (lots of German homes have a bathroom as soon as you walk in. I find it strange.) To the left is the living room. 

This is the view from the front door. The stairs going up are just past the door on the left (which is the bathroom again)

We set up a little cubby area for shoes and backpacks. Behind the grey door is the laundry/utility room as well as the backdoor to the backyard.

This is the bathroom. Its actually pretty spacious, but hard to tell in photos. We also use it to dry our clothes (I hang up almost all of our clothes now. The only ones that get dried are mine because they are too big (yay!) and need to be shrunk) Also, do you see the white box on the upper left side? Thats the water heater for this bathroom only. 

Germany toilets are strange. The button to flush it is right below the window. 

Living room/entry to kitchen from the window. 

View of living room from kitchen. Love the new couches, but they are much smaller than what we are used to.

View of living room from the hallway mentioned above :D Don't mind the box next to the tv, its got coupons in it that I went through that day. 

View of kitchen. The fridge you see is the one that the base gave us. Still pretty small, but smaller than the german fridge in the kitchen. Its not pictured, but its to the left of all the cabinets, and looks just like a cabinet too. 

View of the stairs from the living room

From the top of the stairs on the second floor. Bathroom and second set of stairs are to the right, play room in the front, and both the kids room on the left. 

Kylee's room. Its huge and she has SO much room left. 

View of Wyatt's room from the hallway. Its a smaller room, but still bigger than his old one. 

Each room has one of those white heaters under the window. Really nice as they heat each room perfectly. Its heated by oil, which our landlord pays to fill. We just pay a flat rate each month. 

Second bathroom view from the hallway

We bought the storage unit as the bathroom had none. Works out nicely. 

Another white water heater above the toilet.

Kids' play room. Nice bright orange (sarcasm) But its HUGE!

Toy storage we bought from Ikea. Love it! And their art work hanging above it.

Set of stairs leading to the 3rd floor where the spare and our bedroom is. 

Spare bedroom (without sheets on the bed). Didn't take a picture of the other half to the right since it currently has some boxes that need to be broken down. 

These are the 'closets' the base gives us. Each child gets one, and each adult gets two. We put two in the spare room for storage. There is also another large closet that came with the house in this room. 

View from the third floor. Love our backyard. Below the bushes on the right side is where our garden is going. The storage shed in the right corner is also ours. Apparently we are getting a terrace this summer, but not sure how that is going to work. I assume its going above the garage, and access will be through the backyard. 

We've had deer jump the fence in the field to eat our nice green grass. 

Our room, view from the bed. We have lots of space behind the tv, so we use that for hidden storage. 

Lots of room on either side of the bed. Its a really lard room. Behind one door is an unfinished storage area. I think we might mention to the landlord that if he finished it off to be a bathroom or REAL closet, he could probably make more money off the house after we move. Actually, there are lots of things we would change if it was our house; particularly the floors. They don't match throughout the house.