Germans have crazy medieval festivals too.

This was another first for us.  Lots of people dressed in costumes since you got in free if you dressed up.  Even my husband wasn't cheap enough to go that far.  Luckily there was a family price regardless of how many kids you have.   

See the salmon hanging above the fire behind Isaac?  The kids and Brian love this kind of salmon.  I'm not a fish/seafood person.

Ordering the salmon

There were some traditional fest foods, but we had a few new things as well, like a pita filled with meat and creamy sauce on top.  I also had a Knobibrot that was different looking.  It is a grilled round bread that they pile sauce, cheese, veggies, and meat on.  We had roasted nuts too.  The good thing about having all thee kids is we can try a bunch of foods at these fests without getting too full.  We also had Flamkuchen and the salmon.  I had some Mead, AKA honey wine.

There were a couple of ladies walking around with owls you could pet.  Hannah was not brave enough  to touch them or get any closer than this.

Look hard for the tiny owl here.

We walked around looking at the crafts and wares for sale and the medieval tents to observe.  Then there was the torture museum, sword fighting, archery, and that was about it.    No giant turkey legs like in Texas.  It was different.

This guy was brewing beer over and open flame in a cauldron.  He offered Brian a taste by pouring it into his hands from a wooden spoon.

This was very creepy.  There were these ghoulish people randomly throughout.  Not sure why my husband wanted a picture of our children with them.  Bleh!

Sword Fights

I need one of these at home, huh?

They even had a torture museum which was just weird.

Archery:  Genna and Isaac were the only ones interested in this.

Another long day for Bobby to tag along in the Ergo.  He's not a good stroller rider yet because I am usually wearing him on these adventures.  He was a good boy in the Ergo but happy to be home.

Bobby's becoming quite the little man.

That smile gets me EVERYtime.

Is this just a streak of bad luck or what?

It all started back at the beginning of May when our van windows shattered.  Then Drew got sick in the convent where St. Bernadette died and was buried.  Next was a terrible run in with a weed whacker. 

The boys were jumping on the trampoline while Brian was mowing and doing yard work.  I was down in the school room doing some work on the computer when I heard hysterical screaming from Drew and Judah.  They've been fighting a lot, so I waited a moment giving Brian time to turn off the weed whacker and deal with it.  Screaming and weed whacker sounds continued so I headed upstairs and outside.  The girls come flying down the stairs asking what happened.  They had seen Drew holding his arm from their windows.  By this time the weed whacker had stopped.  When I got out there, Brian saw me and turned to go back to his yard work.  Drew is still crying and holding his arm.  He told me he was hit by a weed whacker string and lifted his arm to reveal a good cut across his arm.  I won't to into all the hairy details, but it took me a minute to even see his precious face that was all cut up too.  Judah was still crying and holding his head.  Turned out he did get nicked just inside his hair line so we couldn't see it at first.  When I was cleaning Drew up, he started saying his eye was hurting.  Turned out he had a pretty bad corneal abrasion.  Luckily those heal quickly.  Children are no longer allowed to be outside at all when Brian is weed whacking.  The ridiculous machine flings broken plastic string pieces left and right.

Next up was the return of he stomach bug.  Hannah and I felt really nauseated and lost our appetite fr a couple of days, but when Genna said she didn't feel good and her tummy hurt.  I knew what was coming.  She threw up for around 8 hours.  She ended up sleeping in between on the floor of the bathroom.  After the worst was over, I made her a bed on our floor with an extra mattress.  

The next day when I was reading Judah his nap time story he told me his mouth hurt.  Not two seconds later he turned and threw up all over the floor in his room.  He only felt miserable for about 3 hours.  After the last time he puked (in his hair) I put him in the bath and he started to play and tell me he was better...and so he appeared to be.  That was two days before we were supposed to fly out.  That was a tough decision to make.  I was so afraid someone else would get sick on the plane or at our friend's house.  It ended up being fine and that was the end of that bug.

Just wait.  There's more!  We were blessed that we were able to go to our old homeschooling field day and see many people we might otherwise not have been ale to see.  However, as we were leaving in the rental van, I was backing out so slowly thinking about all the kids around and the fact that I didn't have a back up camera in the van.  I am rolling backwards when I hear a thump.  I hit the brakes hard.  I say a prayer that I didn't just hit a child and look out my driver's side window.  A lady I know has her hand out to tell me to stop and her eyes wide with fear.    I get out of the van and run around the back of it to see our stroller on the ground with two wheels snapped off.  Phew!

I was so happy that I didn't hit a kid or a car that I didn't even care about the stroller.  The witness said something along the lines of, "Oh no! Your stroller!" when I was thinking, "I'm so glad it was just the stroller."  

And so it continues...

Isaac had to go to the emergency room while in Maryland because I was unsure if his arm was broken or not after he fell out of the swing and landed on it funny.  It turned out to be just a sprain, but still a trip to the ER makes the cut for the bad luck streak.

And finally, or at least I hope it is finally, on our attempt to fly space available on the way back to Germany we were waiting to decide which air base to drive to and try when three flights to Germany opened up on one day in Dover.  There were two flights with 53 seats firm released and one unknown.  I thought it was a sure thing.  I rented an expensive one way mini van there.  We said our good byes and we got on the last flight of the day...taking 7 of the last 8 seats on the plane.  We were on the bus next to the plane when they pulled us and our luggage back into the airport sending the cargo flight on ahead due to a computer issue without the 53 passengers hopping on.  That was the end of all hope getting out of Dover.  

It was after 11pm.  We had no transportation of any kind.  We had no hotel room booked.  We spent the night in a private lounge in the airport sponsored by a very nice family.  We had two wing back chairs and two couches.  We had no pillows, blankets, or anything more than a sweater a piece.  I made a pallet on the floor for Judah with my sweater.  Drew and Isaac both took a chair.  Hannah and Genna shared a couch and I had the other couch.  Bobby's makeshift crib was the funny part.  I used the wall and our bags to form a crib, albeit shallow, with the one baby blanket that I brought on the floor.  We turned out the lights and Bobby and I were up with the sun since the room had a wall of windows.  The rest of the kids slept in though.  Drew slept all the way until 9am with all of us awake and moving around in the room. 

There were two flights scheduled the next day.  One was cancelled early on and the other had only 19 tentative seats.  Guess who was never going to get those seats.  The last 7 people on the flight from the night before with about 45 people ahead of me who also did not fly out the day before.  I hung out anyway because you just never know for sure until you try.  I didn't get on the flight and was trying to figure out what to do since the on base lodging was full, the hotels off base required a taxi or rental van that was going to cost a minimum of $70 just to get to the hotel, not to mention the cost of an extra big room for us.  Just when I had resigned myself to spending the night in the not so private "kid's room" where there were cribs and couches, the Holy Spirit stopped me as a walked past this mom who was playing a board game with her son.  I asked if she got on the flight, and she said that they did.  I was just telling her that we had no where to stay and that we stayed in the airport the night before.  She said she had a hotel room on base that she could give us since they were flying out.  It was 15 minutes until the shuttle stopped running to the hotel.  I caught the last shuttle and her husband even drove over to the hotel, taking some of my bags that wouldn't fit in the shuttle, and personally handed the room over to me at the front desk.  Then he even offered to leave the keys to his van with me, to which I refused politely.  A total stranger!  We slept in the cheapest nicest lodging ever.  I had run out of diapers and was able to walk to get some more.  Plus, we ordered pizza.  There was screaming from the two and four year old...a lot, but we had a place to sleep and food to eat.  It was a blessing.  It was the next morning that I found out that Brian had found cheap one way tickets back for us.  I went ahead and tried for the one more flight to Germany out of Dover that day, but knew it would take a miracle.  We didn't get on, more and more people (in a higher category than us) were showing up coming from other air bases that had been cancelling flights due to the computer issues.  He booked the tickets and we headed to the rental car place again to pay an insane amount of money to drive a one way rental mini van back to whence we had come just three painful days earlier.  

Even through all our "bad luck," you could see the good that came out of it and in spite of it.  I am thankful that none of these things were actually catastrophic.  We survived and hopefully will be better persons for all our experiences.

I have been loving this quote lately by St. Sebastian.  "At the end you will not regret having suffered, but having suffered so little, and having suffered that so badly."  Amen to that!

Flying Crazy

So I was actually crazy enough to fly back to the states with the kids alone.  My cousin was getting married and my children were dying to see their friends that they so dearly missed.  My mom was planning to come to the wedding.  And to top it all off the wedding was a short eight hour Space Available flight away with no stops.  How can you pass up going to your cousin's wedding when it only costs you $32.50 per passenger?  You'd have to be crazy, right?  So I did it.  Why is it I can just close my eyes and jump into a situation like this, but the high dive is impossible for me?

It wasn't too bad actually.  The flight there was pretty easy.  It just made for a very long day when you get up at 5:30am to be at roll call at 7am with all your bags.  We waited a long time just to sign in for roll call.  Then the roll call doesn't actually happen until 9am.  Checking bags truthfully was the roughest part, but we were still on our high that we actually just took the last seven seats on the flight and we were actually going to the US to see friends and family that very day which made it bearable.  I think we were in line for that for an hour and a half.  Then we had to go through security and passport check even though we'd had our passports checked three times already since arriving that morning.

So we board the plane and our seats are not even together because we took the last seven seats.  Hannah and Isaac had to sit four rows in front of me.  Genna and Drew had to sit on the row in front of me.  Bobby sat on one side of me and Judah on the other.  I clearly did not get the good end of the deal here, but to minimize problems this was the best way to arrange everyone.  Bobby had his infant car seat that I wanted to get him to sit in for at least one nap and for meals.  As we were getting settled, Bobby was falling asleep on me, so I laid him in the car seat and he stayed asleep.

Judah fell asleep after take off.  He slept for close to two hours.  Bobby didn't sleep that long but he was happy after I nursed him and fed him lunch.  He took one other nap, but he was mostly awake and happy the whole time.  Drew had one time I had to deal with him, but he was mostly happy to watch Star Wars on the back of the chair in front of him and do the activities that I brought in his backpack.

The first four hours went by quickly, but I was counting down a little closely for the last four hours.  When we got off the plane they so kindly took our stroller that I had gate checked over to the baggage claim.  Do they not know what they are doing here?  I am flying solo and was relying on that stroller to help me carry a child and a few carry-ons hooked on the back.  I had to carry the car seat, my diaper bag (which is big,) my messenger bag with my lap top, and have Bobby in the Ergo.  We first had to go through the crazy long customs line.

We picked up our two bags at the baggage claim.  Yes, we only had two bags to check.  I know that is shocking because so many people kept commenting how little luggage we had for so many people.  I just know from experience that the baggage is most of the trouble.  Reduce the baggage and you reduce the stress factor by a lot.

After going through yet another checkpoint, we were welcomed by a huge USO group and hailed as heroes which I totally felt bad about since I'm not the one in the service.  They gave us care packages and helped direct us to the terminal that I needed to sign up at for our return flight.  After we got in the elevator, Genna turns to me and says, "Mom you looked really awesome when we were just walking out of there with Bobby on you, the car seat in one arm, and a big bag in the other."  What a sweetie!  I needed a compliment like that.

After signing up, we waited for a shuttle to the rental car place where Brian had reserved a van for me at the last minute once we were on the flight.  The first three shuttles were full and didn't stop, but just as the children are giving up all hope a shuttle stops and we pile in.  As we are sitting in the shuttle, our conversation was making the men around us chuckle.  At one point (Drew had asked so many questions already) Drew asks me, "Who was the best on the trip?"  My response was, "Bobby, because he didn't ask me any questions."  That got a good laugh out of our shuttle audience.

We had a little trouble with car seats in the rental, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with.  Then we get in the van to head to our old house, aaaaand I realize it's five o'clock.  Peak traffic time.  Only an hour of traffic later (not as bad as I' have thought) we arrive, and happiness and bliss consumes the children.  All travel blues exit their little bodies, and I take a big sigh of relief that we got here.  Half the traveling is over and now I can relax with my friends and family until it's time to repeat this in reverse...if we are just as blessed to get on the first flight again.  If not...well, I can't think about that yet.

I Spy with Judah

Judah plays I spy in such a cute way.  First off he can't say many of his "s" blends so he pronounces the game, "I fy."

A Judah-in-the-Box

Second, he loves to spy something, but he always tells us immediately what he spies.  "I fy somefing blue.  Pshh, there!" pointing to the blue object.  It's pretty humorous, but tends to make the game go too quickly when using it to kill time in a line or at a restaurant.

We are giving potty training a real go this week.  First day halfway through and he's only had one accident, plus he pooped for the first time ever on the potty without any real coaxing.  So far he going au naturale because the minute you put those underwear on him he forgets he's not wearing a diaper.  I'm hoping he's more like Isaac than Hannah here and figures it out after a week or so.

One of the stranger places this guy likes to play is in my bathtub.  He just crawls right on in or slides down the side and sits in the bone-dry bathtub and plays with the toys while I get ready.  He is usually very happy to play on his own unless he sees something really fun the other kids are doing that he doesn't want to be left out of.

And, in other news about Judah, he is going to start German kindergarten in September with Drew.  We'll see how that goes.  I hope it helps them to bond since they are the two that are not getting along currently, but hopefully, doesn't slow them down too much from learning that German.  I am really hoping that we can get a lot more schoolwork accomplished with two munchkins out of the house every morning.

Special Visitors

It seems I have lost a post completely.  I don't think that has ever happened before.  I wrote this whole post and even thought I posted it, but all that I can find is the skeleton post with only the pictures.  So this is the redo of the post.  I have surely forgotten all the good stories that go along with it by now, but here it is nonetheless.

Right during our one week break between our trips to Italy and France, we had visitors come.  Brian's mom, grandmother, and uncle all came to visit.

Brian took part of the crew sight seeing the first day because I had appointments and Drew had kindergarten to get back to..

Adult Dinner Out

We also went on a Rhine River cruise.  It was a chilly day to be out on the top deck, so the adults mostly stayed inside the dining area.  The tea was ridiculously expensive, but the view was breathtaking.

Braving the wind and the chill.

We got off the boat and walked around a quaint village before the boat came to pick us up again to take us back to our van.

Oh my, what a cutie pants!

Gelato break!

Bobby loves that gelato!  Great Nanna was holding out for some Black Forrest cake because it really was too cold for ice cream.

We couldn't get enough of this guy.

We did a great many other things together, and their visit came to an end just the night before we left for Lourdes.  Here are our last minute group photos.

My favorite memory from the trip is when I was thanking Great Nanna for making the trip over to see us, and she said to me, "I wouldn't have missed it for the world, Kelle.  Not for the world."  What a heartfelt and precious thing to say to me!

She asked for a cutting of one of our lilac plants in the front.  As we walked them out to the car, Brian hastily grabbed a piece, and he was worried it wasn't a good enough cutting.  Great Nanna became so animated and excited, insisting that she could make it grow.  The joy that we saw in her face was such a gift for us.  

11 Months Old: Bobby Pants

Here we go getting all close to his one year birthday before Mommy is even ready for it.  He seems so young for 11 months since he isn't walking along furniture yet or really even pulling up regularly.  If he does pull up on something he is too scared to get down and does a terrible screechy cry.  He will try, but then he gets shaky and pops back up to call for help.  He is crawling very well on all fours more often than the scoot.

Anyway, he is moving along in some areas, but not as much as I had hoped.  He has learned to say a few new words.  Here are all his words to date.

Mama
Dada
Hannah
Ball
Up
All done (with sign!)

"All done" has been the biggest deal because he does the sign with it and has done it the most consistently of all the words.

He is playing peek-a-boo by holding something in front of his face and moving it away while I say, "Where is Bobby?"  "Peek-a-boo!  There he is."

This is a very special picture.  Ann helped bring Bobby into this world AND this is in front of our old house in Maryland!

Just a week ago, Bobby handed me something.  This was on his evaluation test, but he had not done it before and wouldn't do it for the evaluators.  He also will show me his tongue when I ask most of the time.  And he learned to clap today at exactly 11 months old!

His eating has been a little tiny bit better.  I have given him a meltable solid (i.e. Baby rice cracker that gets soft when gummed or chewed and breaks off.)  He did not throw it up, but neither did he swallow it.  He moved the pieces out of his mouth with his tongue.  I am still giving him the mesh baby feeder with a variety of foods in it that he can chew and suck until there is not much left inside.  A few times there have been banana strings or weensy pieces of food that are normally gag inducing sized things for him.  He has not thrown up those pieces, but has pushed them out with his tongue as well.  The times this month that he threw up were due to me feeding him a baby food that he can usually handle in possibly too big of bites or too quickly.  He did have some very smooth guacamole successfully.  He also learned to suck the food out of pouches which is great because that is much faster.  Another new thing that I am trying is to incorporate more spice and seasoning into his food since he has such a bland diet with baby food.  So, I am adding crushed pepper or hot sauce to his baby foods.  He has even pushed out of his mouth a piece of cracked pepper that was too big for his liking.

This little guy loves his brothers and sisters.  He lights up, squeals, and sometimes has a near conniption when his siblings walk into the room.

Bobby has perfected his "stink eye" look that he gives just about all adults and some older kids.  It's a pretty mean face, but somehow endearing and adorable at the same time.  If he doesn't do the stink eye, then he looks down so that it looks like his eyes are closed and frowns.  These looks are usually followed by burying his head in my shoulder and sometimes going so far as to hook his arm under my bra strap.  It's a crazy shy behavior.  I wonder if he'll grow out of it.  It seems to have mostly replaced his weird blinky thing that we thought was a seizure.  I much prefer this to the blinky thing.

He's been an excellent traveler.  He recovered from the jetlag remarkably fast, in four or five days he was back to sleeping through the night.  Although he's turned over a few dog water bowls and cannot seem to leave the robot vacuum alone, he is doing pretty well being away from home for so long.  Most of this month and last has been spent away from home.  This probably is affecting his development as well since Bobby seems to be a timid, shy, laid back little dude.

As laid back as he has been as an infant, in just the last week he's started this screeching and thrashing about randomly.  I imagine this is frustration with not being able to tell us what he wants yet, but suddenly very deeply wanting things.  He really hasn't cared much one way or another, but now he cares.  He is also biting me on the arm or shoulder when I am holding him.  I am putting him down if he does this if it is possible to take away attention and hopefully stop the behavior before it gets too habitual.  When I do that he usually screams for about 10 seconds and then crawls off to play.  No sure if it's working.

I didn't mean to end on a bad note.  Bobby is a precious angel most of the time and he LOVES to go outside, bubbles, and splashing in the tub or pool!  His smile is amazing even if his stink eye is more common.  And of course, his laugh is to die for.  Love you, Bobby!

Nevers, France

On our way back home from Lourdes, we stopped in Nevers.  We decided to stay in the convent where St. Bernadette lived out the rest of her life after becoming a nun and was buried to complete our pilgrimage.  We had to get two rooms.  Brian and the boys were in the room with bunk beds, and the girls, Bobby and I were in the room with three single beds.  They were across from each other at the end of a hallway with a table in between.  We arrived so late and had not had dinner yet.  At the table was a lady who spoke German.  She started a conversation with us and couldn't believe that we hadn't had anything for dinner.  She asked if the girls could go with her down to ask for some bread.  She took them, and Brian went to order a pizza with the man who checked us in.  The German lady came back with the bread and the girls.  Then she went and retrieved some jam and wine from her room to give us.  She was so very kind and helpful.  The pizza arrived and it was Dominoes!  How funny to have Dominoes pizza in France.  It was delicious and a welcomed taste of America after many months of only having European food.  Drew, however, didn't eat but a corner of his pizza before saying his stomach hurt and he didn't want anymore.  After we finished our pizza, we went to our separate rooms to go to bed.

The boys' room had the bunk bed, the trundle bed, and a full sized bed too.

This was Judah's first night ever in a real bed!  I just didn't want to lug in two pack-n-plays for just one night.  He did great!

The Girls' Room

The next morning when I went to get the boys up for breakfast, I found a very sick Drew and a very tired husband.  Drew had thrown up while Brian was brushing his teeth right after we had went our separate ways the night before.  He threw up for around 7 hours at least once an hour.  My amazing husband let me sleep through the whole thing!  Poor guys.  Alas, our plans to walk the grounds of the convent that morning after the complementary breakfast were foiled by the rain (pouring down rain!) and our plans to go to Mass there and visit St. Bernadette's incorrupt body now turned into a quick visit of her body after packing and loading the car.  We put Drew in Judah's stroller and stopped in the chapel on the way out.

St. Bernadette

After we all were in the van, Brian made a quick run around the grounds in the rain in search of this statue.  He took some pictures for us.  It really was raining, but you can't really tell in the pictures.  I think it must have slowed down a bit.  I just remember running to  the van in the rain and being really cold.

This is the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that St. Bernadette thought better represented the woman that appeared to her.

And that was that.  We headed home with a quick grocery store trip to load us up with some lunch and snacks.  Drew didn't throw up anymore, but he wasn't too hungry and he slept a lot of the way home.  That sweet boy never complained.  We were so proud of him being so tough in a hard situation.  Our only other adventure was when the tape came loose from all the rain and the plastic on the window came loose.  We had to pull over and tape it back up again.  Hannah kind of panicked, but it was really no big deal.  We joke that we all have a bit of PTSD from the whole window shattering shenanigans, but Hannah has it the worst.

I lived in fear that someone else would get the stomach bug all week.  Hannah and I had a stomach ache and lost our appetites for a few days, but then just when I thought we were in the clear being a whole week out from Drew's bug Genevieve got it.  Same thing, puking for about seven hours.  The next afternoon Judah got it, but only threw up and felt bad for about two hours.  The last time he threw up it got in his hair.  When I put him in the bath tub he told me he was all better, and though he didn't have an appetite for a few days he was done with the bug.  As I write this no one else has come down with it.  That is a total miracle.