You're Gonna Miss This Moment

My blogger friend at You're Gonna Miss This that got me started blogging (See, Pam, I am trying!) has a post that she publishes on her blog called "You're Gonna Miss This". It basically gives us a place to share the things in our lives that we know will miss one day and gives us a chance to immortalize it forever I guess! I though I would play along....finally! I've been telling her I would, so here goes! That is her son on the bike! Cool, huh?

No, I won't miss the no pooping signs! I will miss the humor that my boys seem to bring to me every single day! The fighting, the arguing and the yelling seem to fade when they do something silly like this!

I know that one day, these nice family trips will be a thing of the past! This day was a lot of fun. The kids had fun, there wasn't much bickering, and I am not so sure that I will get to experience this again. Haley graduates in less than 2 years and that will be it! Look at Haley and Thomas...they actually look like the might like each other!

On that note, I have a You're Gonna Miss This Moment for your all, but no picture...just a story! Here goes....

Haley and Thomas have to ride the bus because their school is about 5 miles or more away from where we live. Well, because of the security that we now all live under here in Heidelberg (It feels like a prison most of the time!) the kids must have bus passes to ride the bus home from school (apparently it is not necessary to ride the bus to school because, according to the bus office, they have an obligation to get the kids to school, but not home...you can see where this is going!). Long story short, Thomas lost his wallet last weekend and of course it had his bus pass in it. He was allowed to ride to school without the pass, but when he went to get back on the bus that afternoon, he was denied access. This wouldn't have been so bad had another kid not had his pass, but was allowed to get on the bus. Well, here's the moment that I will miss....Haley, the big sister, the queen of the world.....are you ready? SHE STOOD UP FOR HER BROTHER!!!!! She went to the front of the bus and asked why he wasn't allowed on the bus and when she got the wrong answer, she "went off of the bus drive" Her words, not mine! Of course, I quietly reprimanded her and then loudly praised her fro standing up for Thomas. It took Thomas almost three hours to get home. He had to wait for the shuttle bus to get home and missed it twice, received blisters on his feet from trying to walk and then changing his mind. My kids are pretty savvy for the most part....they seem to be able to use their heads when the moment calls for it. I am proud of them both, Haley for standing up for her brother (just a little side note, she ratted him out for something he did at dinner that evening, so he love didn't last!) and Thomas for using his head to get home safely and not trying to walk that entire distance.

One more "Moment"!

My little boy, Thomas, is not such a little boy anymore! He would not be happy if he knew I was putting this here, but I just have to share it because it is a first for us that we will never again share with him! He has been having a scratchy voice problem the last couple of weeks and Travis and I just thought that he had a sore throat....we are changing seasons here dramatically as you can see in my post about Heidelberg. We have been noting that his moods are changing drastically too. We started putting two and two together and we have discovered that his voice is changing!!!! He is growing up and that is so sad and bittersweet all at the same time! I love you, son! My wish for you is that you grow up well!

What's going on right now in our journey.

Most normal people never move from where they live. They don't uproot their families and change addresses every 3 yrs or less. I guess we're not normal! Travis is in the army and that means that we get up and move quite often. In 18 years, we have lived in more than 7 communites, not including the different moves in each town due to military housing not being made available right away.

Before I go on with this blog entry, let me say that in no way do I or the kids blame Travis for moving as much as we do! As a matter of fact, it is part of who we are now. We are all actually a little nervous about his upcoming retirement and going back into the civilian life. EEKKKK!!!

Everytime we move, the kids are uprooted from school and must adjust to a new way of life, Travis must switch jobs, but he has a job waiting on him always, and I, well, I have to quit my job and look for another one. This is tough and this is what we are going through right now. I have been unsuccessful in finding a job right now. Every bite I get on a job here ends in disappointment. The latest situation is that I may have a full-time admin job working in the CDC, but I just found out that MWR may "give" this position to one of 13 persons who were promised a job by the director of MWR here. This is very disconcerting to me. He says that these people need jobs. What about me? I need a job too. So, now I am waiting and praying and hoping and a little crying from being once again disappointed about this. Heidelberg, so far has been the hardest place to find a job. Military spouses should not have this kind of trouble finding work anywhere. I have had thoughts of trying to figure out what I can do to fix this problem, but it seems very difficult. I will update here if I can find a way to make a contribution to why military spouses have such a difficult time finding employment.

I could use a prayer from anyone willing to say one! Love you all!

Heidelberg Castle Trip

Hello!

I have a very good friend who blogs quite a bit and she uses a program to show her pictures off. I copied her and used it here! If--and I am positive that there are--there are duplicate pictures, please just enjoy them twice! Once I figured out that I could do all the pictures in one show, I decided that I had had enough and just posted two!!! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I passed the impossible test!!!

OK, so maybe it wasn't actually impossible, but this is only about 3/4 of the signs you are tested on!!!! Germany has so many signs that mean so many different things than what we are used to reading in the states, as well as rules of the road, that they make us Americans take a driving test! I think it is a great idea, but boy was I nervous! There are 75 questions and 25 road sign questions and you can miss 15. I missed 8....this time!!!! Yes, I had to take it twice!!! But, the good news is that I passed and I can finally drive! Woohoo! Wish me luck out on the Autobahn!!!

2008 Heidelberg Volksmarch

Well, we did it!!! We walked our first Volksmarch! Maybe next time we'll do the 10K! We actually felt like we could have gone on, but my heel is still recovering from anouther long walk we ended up making about two or three weeks ago! Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Even Sassy had a good time!

This is the little park where it started.

Thomas and Sassy waiting for Travis and Colin to get us registered.

Little German House

Travis, Colin and Sassy walking through a German neighborhood.

More German houses. notice they are all built together, but they are all different! No two look alike!

This is looking up the mountain behind Heidelberg. We went part of the way up the mountain!

A Vineyard! Germany is known for it's wines and its vineyards! You'll see some grapes on the vines below!

Some foliage that we saw on the walk:

This is a grapevine growing over an arch. These were everywhere!

Pictures of the counryside. We're up on the mountain now....not too far up, but a little ways up!

Some animals that we saw along the way! There was a miniature horse, a sheep and a goat! Oh yeah! And a hedgehog that we came across! He wanted some ice cream really bad!!!

Now, last but certainly not least, we came across this cemetary. Now,
normally cemetaries do nothing for me, but this one was just beautiful.
Notice how close together the graves are and notice the chapel in the
background! this reminds me of a puzzle picture!

Well, that concludes our 5K tour of Heidelberg! More will follow I assure you! We hope to trek up to the castle soon and the river as well! Haley is going that way this afternoon with some of her friends, so maybe she will take some pictures of what she sees! See ya soon!

The "House"!

Our new "house" if you want to call it that! It's actually one of six apartments in our stairwell and there are three stairwells in our building. This is "before we get our furniture" pictures! I will take more after we get in our furniture and I get it cleaned and organized! You may never see those pics!!!

This is the entryway and through the door where the window is the kitchen. For some reason, I didn't get a good picture of the kitchen.

This is the dining area right off the living room and you can see the kitchen some in this one too. The cabinets in the background go through to the kitchen as well.

The main bath in the hall. It's not as nice as this photo gives it credit, that's for sure!!!

The hallway. On the right hand side are two bedrooms (Thomas and Haley's rooms). On the left hand side, Colin's room, the hall bathroom and then the master bed and bath and laundry. At the end of the hall, there is another half bathroom....no tub or shower in that one. We chose this apartment for the number of bathrooms it has. This is what we were basically used to having in Junction City...three bathrooms. The other apartments we looked at only had one, maybe two bathrooms and that just doesn't work well with 4 adult sized people and Colin!

I will send more once it looks more like home!

OK, so I warned you guys when I started this blog that I am not good at keeping up with these things. I think this is my fifth post since that time....ugghhhhh!!! It's not that I don't like to post, I just don't always think about it....even though everyday I read one of my really good friends blog that she is wonderful about keeping updated!!!!!



Anyway, we made it to Heidelberg! That is a picture of an old bridge that runs across the river. I didn't take that pic, but we have seen it before!










We are going to a Volksmarch in the morning. Travis and I have vowed to start walking more and this is one way we are going to take advantage of it. It will get the kids out and about and give them exercise as well! If anyone doesn't know what a volksmarch is, it is a kind of marathon, but you walk. They normally have several distances that you can take advantage of. This one tomorrow has 5K, 11K, 22K and a 42K distances. We will be taking advantage of the 5K! Surely you didn't think we would tackle anything more yet?!? Maybe by the time we leave we can try the big one! HAHAHA! Yeah right!

School is back in session for all of us!!!! WOOHOO! The kids started on the 25th of August and they seem to like it alright. I started back this Monday and I seem to like it! I started a new school that offered more of the degree that I wanted. I am in the Business Management program. Travis is back to work sort of! He is inprocessing right now, so his hours are sporadic. I have not found a job yet, but I am pursuing it heartily!

See you guys soon!

We're leavin' on a jet plane....don't know when we'll be back again!

Well, we are officially out of our house and Junction City. We have our daughter back with us, we finally have internet again and are FINALLY sleeping in a real bed! Life is good! At least for a little while!

I realize that I never finished our vacation saga that I started! I apologize for that. Here are some pics that we took that I wanted to post for you all....

Yes, this is an Arkansas Razorback! In pewter...I think!!! Cute isn't he?

Here are the kids, posing with the cute pewter Arkansas Razorback! These pics were taken on the University of Arkansas Campus. Travis and I wanted to visit the campus while we were in Springdale. We got some pictures of the red and white flowers that they have growing all over the campus....they are beautiful! We played Putt-Putt!!! Of course...Travis won, even though Thomas looked like he had it goin' on!!! Leave to a Wewers' boy to make it look like he actually knows what he is doing!!!! I came in second though!!!! A close second I might add!!!

Then we got to visit with my brother's family....well, my bother and his boys. Paige, Jimmy's wife, could not make it this time.....we miss you Paige!!!! They were having as much fun as it looks like!!!












So, from here, we are headed to Heidelberg. Am I tired? oh yes....already. We will more than likely be in a hotel for at least the month of August. It's only the 9th......I am tired.....oh well, I guess that this isn't the first time and won't be the last time we have to go through this....so I am off to rest! See back here soon! The Wewers....

Wewers family vacation 2008, Part 1

The next leg of our journey to Germany is our summer vacation to visit family that we know we won't get to see for some time! It has been an interesting one I must say!!!

Our first part of the trip was to DeGray Lake just outside of Arkadelphia, AR. Now, before we actually got to the lake, we stopped at this roadside sunglasses vendor and we all got out of the vehicle....except the dogs! Well, you can probably see where this is going and if not, I will continue! We naturally left the van running because the dogs were in the car and we were only 6 feet from the van! Lacey, one of our dachsunds....decided it would be a funny joke to hit the lock button...now, this wouldn't be so strange if the doors actually locked the first time you hit the lock, but you have to hit them twice for the doors to lock! You guessed it, she hit it twice and locked her and Sassy in the ice cold (thankfully) running (we had just filled up...thankfully) van! After prying our door open enough to get a metal rod down through the opening and unlocking the doors (finally, after about 30 minutes or so!) we were once again on our way! (Lacey is pictured to the right!).

We had loads of fun at the lake. The kids and Travis tubed behind Travis' brother's boat. This is Ashley, the kid's cousin on Travis' side and Colin.

We visited with Terri and Tom and our neice, Liana and their dog, Cocoa. They came up from Pearland, TX, just south of Houston to visit with us. We really appreciated them making that long trip just to see us, even though we didn't get to see the fireworks!!!! Those lightening bugs sure were fun to watch, though! ;-)

Part two will follow in a few days!