Three Fitters in Europe

We Left Europe

2012-02-12T22:46:00.000-08:00

Well, the time had to come eventually.
We had to leave Germany.
Although that happened almost two and a half years ago, the Fitters are still very, very sad.
And we did move to a wonderful new vacation spot, Hawaii.
However, living in Germany was such an amazing experience for us. And all three of us talk about it over and over again. We soooooo want to go back.

Although I haven't used this blog in a long time, I've decided to revisit it. Just because we don't live in Europe anymore doesn't mean I can't continue to write about our experiences.
So, that is what I am going to do.
We will relive all of our favorite moments of living and traveling in Europe.

Get your GPS'es. We are going for a ride!

The Fitters are Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

Here is the Christmas letter Matt and I created. I printed off a bunch of copies and used up all of my printer ink. Alas, they are still in a pile in my secretary. If you click on the image, it should make it a full size image.
I resolve to keep our family blog up-to-date from here on out for anyone who may actually read this!!!

Our Tax System Explained

2008-11-25T23:31:00.000-08:00

I don't take credit for writing this. It's from a forwarded email I just received.

Our Tax System Explained: Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!''Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I got' 'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!''Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!
'The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill! And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of EconomicsUniversity of Georgia
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

An Early Thanksgiving for the Fitters

2008-11-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

Because we will in Ireland for Thanksgiving, we decided to have and early feast on Sunday. With our neighbors, the Keelers (with whom we will be travelling around Ireland) we enjoyed a small version of Thanksgiving with a six pound roasted Turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, salad, dinner rolls and Pumpkin Pie. I missed having stuffing and cranberry but we can make that up later!
We are thankful for our friends near and far, our family far away, this beautiful country we get to live in, and wherever the Army decides to take us next.

Snow Much Fun!

2008-11-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, our Girl Scout troop held a sleepover in the Hut. Amy Keeler and I have 15 very energetic 8-11 year olds in our troop and we like to do a sleepover about every other month. We get lots of badge work done and have a great time getting to know the girls better and letting the girls learn more about each other. This time, we worked on the "Looking Your Best" and "Stress Less" badges. We did facials, as you can see below, played with hair, played Bunko, and cooked all of our own food. During the facials, we had the girls lie down for 10 minutes while we practiced elevator breathing from the stress less badge. They were so funny all lined up on the carpet! They loved, loved, loved the facials!

MK gets a special hair style from her friend Morgan.

While we were having our sleepover, it snowed ALL night! Hohenfels received about three inches of snow and it continued to snow through the rest of the weekend. MK came home and got into her snow gear to play in the first snow of the season!

Here she is pretending she is sitting on a cloud. This is right outside of our front door.

MK and our neighbor, Delaney worked for about two hours building their snowman! In this case, it was a Minnie Mouse snowwoman. When they finally came in, their faces were SO cold. MK has played in the snow every day and she thinks that it is her right to receive a cup of hot chocolate the minute she walks in the door.

Things I Love About Bavaria

2008-10-25T02:07:00.000-07:00

We will be moving back to the States in less than a year. Although we are ready to move back and enjoy all the modern conveniences again, like 24 hour grocery stores, 7-11's on every corner, hundreds of TV channels to choose from, American restaurants! There are so many things about Germany we are going to miss; Like hopping in our car on Friday and spending the weekend in another country. Or how the Catholic Faith is celebrated everywhere. It's beautiful here!

I just wanted to show you a few things that our family loves about Bavaria. Hotels, buildings and homes around Bavaria are not afraid to show beautiful images of their shared Catholic faith. This is an image found above the door of a hotel in Ettal, Germany. Firehouses usually have an image of St. Florian, patron saint of firefighters, painted on the side of their buildings.

There are shrines all over the countryside in Bavaria. Shrines to Mary, shrines to Jesus, Stations of the Cross. As you are walking along, it is not uncommon to come across several different shrines during your walk.

I love the flowers that hang from every building in Bavaria during the Spring and Summer and early Fall! Above is a hotel on the Chiemsee Lake. Below is a Gasthof (kind of like a guest house) just outside of the Vilseck Army Post. The photos do not do either of these buildings justice! The Gasthof Stroll is a historical building in the Vilseck town. On a side note, all of us Americans start out the Spring season by planting numerous geraniums, petunias and other hanging flowers but ours are never as beautiful and full as the Germans. I have since learned their tricks; first, they use a weekly flower food. And then they use rain water and not water from the faucet to water everyday. Faucet water is so high in calcium here in Germany that all those minerals just kill our flowers. But the Germans will set a large barrel under their drainpipes to collect rain water so they can water their outside plants and flowers. There are many more things we love about Germany and Bavaria and I will save those for later posts so you can journey with us this Winter!

Buda, Buda, Budapest!

2008-10-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

It was a holiday weekend, Columbus Day to be exact, and in typical Fitter Family fashion, Matt and Mary decided to go away for the weekend on Thursday. We had actually been talking about hitting another country since we will be leaving Germany next summer and there are still a few places we want to see. Budapest, Hungary was on the list. So on Thursday, we went to expedia.com, booked a five star hotel, loaded up the mini-cooper on Friday morning and headed out of town.
It was a very easy seven hour drive. The Fall colors are out which made for some delightful scenery. And believe it or not, the roads in Hungary are actually much better than the roads in Austria.
We stayed at the Ramada Plaza hotel situated right on the Danube and across from Margerit Island. The hotel was quite posh but not close enough to all of the sightseeing we wanted to do. But the high speed internet connection, the fabulous three pools of varying temperatures and the most modern exercise room that we have ever seen in a hotel (as if we actually used it) more than made up for the small inconvenience.
Tips before going to Budapest: Study about this city because I was certainly overwhelmed at the size, 2 million people and all the places we wanted to see. We started out by booking the hop-on, hop-off bus. In most cities, when you do these kinds of tours, that usually means you can hop-off the bus, explore the area and take pictures and then hop back on the next bus thirty minutes later. Not so in Budapest. Hop-off means they are stopping for five or ten minutes to take pictures and they will hold your seats. If you are trying to get back onto another bus, you could be out of luck! We barely made it onto another bus! With the purchase of our tour, we also got a free one hour Danube River Cruise.
I've posted some pictures below of this amazing city. And if you are counting, Mary and MK have now been to 24 countries since moving to Germany! Of course, Matt has a few more countries courtesy of the United States Army.

"Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit....."

2008-09-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

We made it to Oktoberfest this year. School was out on Wednesday for a teacher work day and Matt was able to take the day off as well. So we hopped a train in the morning and headed to Munich with some friends and no plans!

Here is MK and some Hohenfels friends on the train to Munich. They are wearing their traditional dirndls to the Fest.

One of the first things we saw upon entering Oktoberfest were these Bierwagons. They are loaded down with a number of Bier barrels and pulled by six to eight large working horses. All of the major Breweries have their own Bierwagons.

Here we are in the HofBrau Bier Tent. There are over 30 of these giant tents, and a number of smaller tents as well. They hold anywhere from 2,000 to 11,000 people and are extensively decorated. Our group mangaged to find a table to seat all 16 of us. The Hofbrau tent is known as the "Foreigner's tent" to the Germans. This is the tent that all the tourists to migrate to. Just like us! We enjoyed a special Oktoberfest Bier, brewed especially for the Fest, and some lunch.When you go to a Oktoberfest, you must enjoy one of these giant pretzels, or brezens in German. They take the edge off your hunger while you are waiting for your food to arrive!This is Aloisius. He is an angel sent to Munich on an errand from God. The legend was that Aloisius was a train porter in Munich. When he died and went to heaven, he was very disappointed that there was no beer or snuff in heaven. God got tired of all of his complaining and sent him back to Munich to be an emissary between heaven and the government. When he got to Munich, he made a beeline to Oktoberfest and there he stayed, drinking beer and enjoying his snuff! Aloisius hangs from the middle of the tent and as the Fest goes on, somehow becomes covered in underwear! We didn't see any underwear this trip. However, we did hear that if you are seated under Aloisius, you may get sprayed with beer!

Here is the Hofbrau Bierwagon.

After enjoying our lunch and bier, we made our way over to the Fest part of Oktoberfest. We were able to get in three of four rides before having to catch a train back to Parsberg.On the way home, everyone is pooped! We had so much fun this Oktoberfest! We would really like to go back to Oktoberfest one more time before it is over.

The Issues

2008-09-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Father Frank said "Are you choosing your candidate based on your pocketbook or are you choosing your candidate based on your moral ethics and conscience?" I loved this statement so much that I decided to use it as a quote on my facebook page. I don't intend our family blog to be about politics but the abortion issue is really weighing on me and the choice that some of my Catholic friends are making.

I keep hearing that John McCain is pro-abortion so I finally decided to look it up for myself. And guess what? He's not, he's as pro-life as one can get according to his voting record. I found the following website about all the candidates and their records or stands on this important Christian, ethical issue.
And also, the USCCB's (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) statement on Catholic politicians and their support of abortion. http://www.usccb.org/bishops/catholicsinpoliticallife.shtml
Joe Biden’s stand on abortion
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Joe_Biden_Abortion.htm
Obama’s stand on abortion
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Abortion.htm
John McCain’s stand on abortion
http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/John_McCain_Abortion.htm
Sarah Palin’s stand on abortion
http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm

Updated on September 10th:
Archbishop Charles Chaput (Denver) and his auxiliary, James Conley, issued a letter to their people on the importance of proper moral reasoning in public life, especially when it comes to Catholic politicians (specifically, Nancy Pelosi and Joseph Biden). The letter swells the chorus of bishops speaking out: Public Servants and Moral Reasoning.

Yes, MK, there is a Santa Claus

2008-09-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

Friday, 29 August 2:55pm A conversation between Mary and MK while driving home from school:

MK: "Mom, I know the secret of the tooth fairy."
Mom: "You do. What is the secret of the tooth fairy?"
MK: "Well, the tooth fairy is really your parents and they sneak into your room after you are asleep and leave the money under your pillow. So, the tooth fairy is really your parents."
Mom: " Oh, and what do you think about that?"
MK: "I think it's pretty funny. Your parents are tricking you!"
Mom: "Well, if the tooth fairy is not real, then what does that make the Easter Bunny?"
MK: "Mom! The Easter Bunny is just a man dressed up in a costume!" (notes of sarcasm here)
Mom: "Well, if the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny are not real, then is Santa Claus real?"
MK: "Yes, Santa Claus is real."
At this point, she turns to me with wide eyes.
MK: "Mom? Is Santa Claus real?" (real terror here)
Mom: "Well, what do you think?" (me, trying to be serious)
MK: "Yes, Santa Claus is real! The Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy are not real but Santa Claus is."

I am glad we were able to clarify that issue.

The 1st Day of 5th Grade

2008-08-25T02:12:00.000-07:00

MK is a 5th Grader. Apparently, this is a real milestone at Hohenfels Elementary School. 5th and 6th graders are in a separate building called "the Atrium" and they also have lockers! This year, the 5th and 6th grade classes will have a home room teacher and rotate around to the other teachers for the different subjects. Just like in Middle School. MK has been anxiously awaiting for school start for at least four weeks. We've been buying "5th grade" clothes and she is wearing a women's size 6 shoe! She's been practicing "5th grade" hairstyles and spending hours in front of the mirror practicing her smile for her "5th grade" school photo. She is carrying a grown-up lunch bag this year and has her American Girl backpack. Now, if mom and dad would just give to her her very own cell phone life would be complete for this Tween Queen! Sigh, look at our little girl growing up.

October came early this year

2008-08-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

October came early this year. Like, on August 15th! Actually, we had a few days of sunny, warm weather in Germany but August has been mostly cold and dreary. It started raining last week and on Friday, it rained cats and dogs most of the day. MK and I were supposed to leave on Friday afternoon to go camping and canoeing in Grafenwoehr with our Girl Scout troop. But, my co-leader and I decided to postpone our trip and held a sleepover at the GS Hut instead. Saturday was sunny but cold. And today is Sunday and I am still freezing. When we headed to Mass this morning, the temperature was 56 degrees Fahrenheit and hasn't gotten much warmer since then! The bushes in my yard can't decide what to do. Some of them are already starting to turn colors and drop their leaves. Some bushes just want to keep growing. So, really, we are already experiencing October. I wonder what October is going to be like this year.

The Sad Times We Live In

2008-08-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

Matt and I have been watching the news very closely the last few days. As you know, he was in the Republic of Georgia for most of July for a multi-national training exercise and came home only one week before Russia invaded this small country. We are thankful that he is home and feel great concern for the handful of our soldiers who were still there wrapping up the end of this exercise. They are safe but I am sure their families are anxious for them to come home, too.
We, too, feel great concern for those Georgian soldiers that Matt came to know during the training and wonder and fear for their safety as well.
Please pray for a quick and peaceful resolution for this hot-little area of the world. And also remember all of our soldiers, sailors and airmen serving in dangerous places around the world.

Everyone should go to Chiemsee

2008-08-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

We spent our four day weekend at Chiemsee in Southern Bavaria. Chiemsee is one of Germany's largest lakes and is absolutely gorgeous. Everyone stationed with the military in Germany should try to go to Chiemsee at least once. The last time we were at Chiemsee was the summer of 2003. The Army had announced earlier that summer that they would be closing the Chiemsee Resort -Lake Hotel at the end of the season in order to build one large, modern resort facility in Garmisch, Germany. Matt and I still have a hard time trying to understand why the Army would choose Garmisch over Chiemsee. Don't get me wrong, Garmisch is a beautiful area and is a premier place to go skiing in the winter. And I am sure there are more Army politics than we know about involved in that decision. But, the Lake Hotel was right on the Chiemsee and offered summer lake activities as well as winter skiing and snow activities. Being a water person, we much prefer hanging out at the lake during the summer.

We drove over to the area where the Lake Hotel was. For us, it was very sad to see this magnificent hotel, built in the 1930's, deserted, fenced in, and overgrown with vegetation. This hotel was one of Hitler's first Autobahn hotels. Remember, Hitler invented the autobahn system which we know in the states as the Interstates. The US Army took over the resort after WWII and made it a recreational facility for Americans stationed in Europe.

This is not the Lake Hotel but our hotel for the weekend, the Sport Hotel Achental in Grassau. The hotel was probably triple this size. German breakfasts are the best! Notice the multi-colored petunias. They were pink, white and purple, my favorite colors! And smelled wonderful right after the thunderstorm we had on Thursday night.

Also on the Chiemsee is one of Mad King Ludwig's unfinished castles called the HerrenChiemsee. It is located on the HerrenInsel and was designed to look like Versailles in France. King Ludwig never finished this castle. He ran out of money and bankrutped his country trying to build his two magnificent Shloss'. This one and the Neuschwanstein. He lived here for 10 days in the Fall before he died.

We took a ferry ride from Prien to the FrauenInsel and HerrenInsel. The Fraueninsel (ladies Island) is home to a convent from the 9th century and a monastery was built on the HerrenInsel (men's Island). Images from the FrauenInsel below:

Of course, being Germany, it rained on us for two days. However, the sun came out on Sunday and we were able to spend the day at a lakeside beach before heading home.
MK on the slide at the pier. The water was FREEZING but didn't deter her any. I went in up to my waist and Matt took a refreshing swim.

Lazy Daze of Summer!

2008-08-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since we have posted. We have been enjoying some really lazy summer days. Last week, we had five days in row of above 80 degree weather. Mk and I made the most of the sunny days and headed to the Parsberg pool. Parsberg has a really cool pool with a wave pool. MK's favorite thing however, was the diving boards. Although she doesn't dive she had a great time jumping. She started with the spring board, then moved to the blue diving board that was about 10 feet higher. She experienced a little nervousness but managed to fling herself off into space eventually. That accomplished, she wanted to move onto the high dive, about another 10 feet in the air. She stood at the edge for a veeerrryyy long time looking down, everyone below yelling words of encouragement. And finally, jump! The first words out of her mouth when she came back up: "that was fun, I want to do it again!" So, up she went again. This time, she stood for just a minute, looking down, and then leap! However, she did not hold her arms in and the inside of her arms slapped the surface of the water. You could just hear everyone around the pool with their, ooowwww's! Such sympathy. This time, when MK came back up, she was done jumping. She sported a nice bruise on the inside of her left arm from the wrist up past the elbow. Ouch. Alas, the weather did not last and we are back to the cold, dreary, rainy Germany again.
Matt came home from the Republic of Georgia on Wednesday. He was participating in a multi-national training exercise. He also brought back a little of Georgia with him. 500 soldiers came down with some form of dysentery. Unfortunately, the living conditions were pretty harsh. His building barely had running water and only had Turkish toilets. If you don't know what Turkish toilets are, then do a Google search. Basically, they are holes in the ground that you have to squat over to do your business. Not a good thing when everyone in your building is having stomach problems. I can tell you that Matt has never been more thankful for porcelain in his life! It's the simple things, folks.
And next on our list of things to do: a possible trip to the beaches of Slovenia! Slovenia, not to be confused with Slovakia, has 30 miles of coastline and is adjacent to Italy. In fact, its about 60 km from Venice. We'll let you know about our next adventure!

Best Friends Forevah! or my BFF's

2008-07-18T14:05:00.001-07:00

Tracy, Becky and Mary

Here we are, 17 years ago (I think) in Corpus Christi the week before Tracy's wedding to Charles. I've known these two girls for over 20 years now!
I met Becky freshman year in the dorms at University of Oklahoma and then we both met Tracy a year later when Tracy and I pledged Kappa Delta together. Tracy has always been with Charles as long as we've known her. Becky and I took a little more time to find our soul-mates!

And no matter how long it's been since we've last talked or seen each other, it's always just like old times. Whenever we are all in the same time zone, we try to get together. The last time was six years ago in Savannah, Georgia. Since I've been overseas it is harder to see each other. I will always cherish Tracy and Becky! Mostly because of all the things they know about me and they still love me! Plus, I know a few things about them, too! We did a few crazy things in our younger days!

Tracy, Mary and Becky

Here we are 17 years later in Virginia Beach in July. A little older, a little wiser, a little grayer (well, one of us anyway), seven kids between us and no divorces! Amen!

Hooah Army Moment from Matt

2008-07-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

(photo courtesy of the US Army Joint Mulitnational Readiness Center)

These are the news releases of what I was doing the day before I left for the wedding. See the links below. If the links don't work when you click on them then just copy them into the URL window.
This is an annual event we conduct with a German reserve unit that we have a social relationship with. We do a lot of things with them and they are good Bavarians and very supportive of us. In the pictures... I am in the second aircraft of the formation and the camouflage one (we call them the HITS or HIND birds) in the close-up. For anyone who may be confused... No this is not my normal aircraft that I fly. It is the one that we use to tag along and observe the training units that come here to Hohenfels and will be replaced after I leave with the new EC 145 LUH around 2010. The old Huey is finally being put out to pasture. She's been a grand old lady and a signature of US Army Aviation.
Obviously the articles are cheesy but the pictures are alright.

http://www.army.mil/-slideshows/2008/06/27/10410-us---german-army-partnership-air-assault-training-joint-multinational-readiness-center/

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63018&archive=true

http://www.oberpfalznetz.de/zeitung/1430545-100-im_teppichklopfer_ueber_hohenfels,1,0.html

Visit to Our Nation's Capitol

2008-07-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to visit our Nation's Capitol. Matt's cousin, Elizabeth works for Oklahoma Congressman John Sullivan and arranged a Capitol tour for us. Here we are with Elizabeth in Congressman Sullivan's office while he was in Oklahoma on recess. The coolest part was getting to go in the tunnel system that runs under all the Capitol buildings. Pretty neat. And we got to sit in the gallery of the room where the House of Representatives meet. You know, the one shown on CSPAN?

It is quite simple to tour the Capitol; go to your Congressman's website and request a Capitol tour. Very worth it.

Up Close to the Liberty Bell

2008-07-13T11:24:00.001-07:00

After the wedding, we had an extra day in Pennsylvania before Matt flew back to Germany and MK and I went on to DC. We hopped a train to the historical center of Philadelphia and went to visit the Liberty Bell. Normally, to visit the Liberty Bell you have to pick up timed tickets at the Information Center and then wait for your turn with a few hundred other tourists. On this day, we walked right into the visitor center without a ticket and was able to get up close and personal with the Liberty Bell.
We also went to Independence Hall and saw the places where George Washington and John Adams were sworn in as Presidents; George Washington's personal copy of the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jeffeson's copy of the Constitution. This wasn't very interesting to MK but Matt and I could have stayed all day. We also took a ride on a horse carriage and realized that we could use another day to see all the historical sites of Philadelphia. Sadly, we didn't have the time but would love to go back again some day.
More posts coming later about mine and MK's trip to DC and Virginia Beach!

The Wedding

2008-07-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

We just returned from our nephews wedding in Radnor, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. The entire Fitter clan came from various places to see Aaron marry Stephanie. Our MK was a flower girl. She has been waiting her entire life to be a flower girl and her wish finally came true! Above, she dances the night away with her daddy. Below is a picture of her $85 updo. I made an appointment at the hotel beauty salon to get her hair done for the wedding. I never asked how much an updo would cost, my mistake. However, she looked beautiful and felt like a princess.

A picture of us before the wedding. The location was the Radnor Country Club in Bryn Mawr, PA. Just want to say thank you to Aaron and Stephanie, the Wilson's and the Kaplan's for a wonderful weekend!

The Lemonade Stand

2008-06-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

Remember when we were kids and you had the bright idea to set up a lemonade stand? And you were happy with the few bucks that you made? And then you had to split that few bucks with your siblings or your friends? And you were still happy?

We had a community yard sale this past Saturday and MK and the neighbor girl Delaney showed entrepreneurial skills and opened a lemonade stand. I donated some banana muffins and chocolate brownie muffins and Delaney's visiting grandmother donated chocolate chip cookies. The girls were up at 8am with lemonade and snacks ready to go for the hordes of customers that were going to come through!

Well, we didn't have hordes of customers and most of the families that were participating in the yard sale never broke $100 that day. But, MK and Delaney brought in $102!!!!! At a lemonade stand!!!! Of course, there were a lot of sucker neighbors who grabbed their lukewarm lemonades and tossed in a few bucks, too.

So, MK and Delaney split their $102 and then MK was most disappointed when she found out she had to pay some overhead expenses. All of $8.

Here she is making a sale to a sucker, I mean, customer!

Toulouse, France

2008-06-22T07:49:00.001-07:00

I realized that I have never written about our day in Toulouse, France. If you read an earlier blog, you'll know that we were stuck in Toulouse for an entire day before we could fly out. We made the best of the day by storing our lugguge at the hotel, taking a free shuttle from our hotel to the airport and then catching a city center bus from the airport to the downtown area. Not many Americans visit Toulouse so the French assumed we were British. When they found out we were Americans, they were very surprised and delighted and then started asking lots of questions! So forget everything you've heard about those rude French! It is simply not true................

When you are an American travelling in France, there is only one place to eat lunch; McDonald's!
No really, this was the last day of our vacation and we were broke and looking for a cheap place to get something quick to eat.

I wish I could remember the names of all the places we visited. This is the first Cathedral we stopped by. It was closed for lunch so we had to come back later. Look at that tower; this was very typical for the towers we saw around Toulouse.

On our walk, we passed a small park with some play equipment. It must have been lunchtime for the Toulouse kids because it was packed with student groups. MK wanted to play on this merry go round and these French teenagers were happy to oblige as long as Matt kept spinning them around, too!

This stop was another old church and former monastery converted into an art museum. Here we take a break in the inner courtyard where monks used to take daily walks. The museum featured architectural items from the various churches in Toulouse from the different time periods. The statues and columns were mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries. There was also a modern art gallery featuring impressionism and post-impressionism works and marble statues. What impressed me the most was all the school children groups. When you grow up in a city next to a world class art museum, you get to take daily field trips with your art teacher and practice drawing the art that you see.Every city in Europe has a city center, or markplatz, or town square. This is the Toulouse city center and the building is a former royal residence. The town hall is located directly across. Toulouse was a delightful little detour on our travelling home day. If you're ever in the area, stop on by!

Mary's rant on ignorant people who should keep their uninformed thoughts to themselves

2008-06-14T00:52:00.000-07:00

Recently, a "friend" posted a video on the bulletin section of myspace page. I started a myspace page as a way to keep in touch with the many cousins and other relatives I have out there. This particular "friend" is the babydaddy of one of my cousins. For those of you who don't know, a "babydaddy" is the father of your children whom you are not married to.
The video he posted was the seventeen second youtube video of two marines on patrol in Iraq who threw a defenseless puppy out over a ravine. His title for this posting was "our us army at its finest". I wrote to him to let him know that these two individuals were not US Army but instead were two US Marines and both were disciplined for this action. One was expelled from the marines and the other disciplined and demoted. His response was "marines or army, they are still out there protecting our country, or whatever."
And here's my response: While I am not going to get into a debate on myspace with a half-grown kid about the US Military and its service I will state my thoughts here. Yes, just like in any organization, group or society there are a few bad apples that will make the rest of the organization look bad. For those two marines who made a poor choice and did not represent the military very positively, there are hundreds and thousands of honorable men and women in uniform who are serving this country well. There are thousands of our soldiers out there going on patrols, being shot at, getting bombed, losing limbs, losing eyesight, losing their lives and all so you can have the right to make fun of them.
So while you feel safe in your homes across the midlands, just remember this: Terrorism has knocked on our doors and it was called 9-11. These same terrorists and their "friends" will not be happy until all infidels are wiped out. If you are not sure who the infidels are, that would be all Christians or people who believe differently than them. The US military's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is fighting for our freedoms at the source of the problem. Would you rather our soldiers were fighting terrorism at our borders? Or how about letting them hijack a few more planes and wiping out 3,000 civilians in say Kansas City or Omaha or Oklahoma City. I didn't think so. So, while you sleep snug in your beds at night, and smoke your illegal drugs, and father children out of wedlock, just remember this, these guys are out there protecting you and your rights a half a world away. They are separated from their loved ones for months and fifteen months at a time. They come home with missing limbs, hearing loss, vision loss and traumatic injuries inside that you cannot even imagine. The memories of things that they saw and did while on patrols will haunt them for their rest of their lives. So yeah, "marines or army, they are still out there protecting our country, or whatever."

The Convent with her name on it

2008-06-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here she is...........our little sister in waiting.

MK and I attended a Mother/Daughter retreat in May at the Schoenstatt retreat center in Schoenstatt, Germany. MK was most impressed by all of the Sisters she saw. We attended Mass at the Adoration Church with about 300 Schoenstatt Sisters. We sat near the front and during the whole Mass, she kept looking behind and smiling at all the nuns. This was an amazing site for her to see!

The interesting thing about Schoenstatt Sisters is that they are a secular society and do not take Consecrated Vows. Instead, they take Secular vows and are thus not really "nuns" but secular sisters. They can leave the order at anytime they wish but few do. These women just glowed with joy!

When it was time to leave, MK did not want to. She asked Sister Angela, our guide, how old do you have to be to a nun. Well, its still a toss-up between being a nun and having three children someday!

Girl Scouts and Berchtesgaden

2008-06-01T11:23:00.001-07:00

Call me crazy, but I just spent the weekend with 18 girls between the ages of 10-12 in Berchtesgaden, Germany. We sold those cookies last February and bought ourselves a bus to the Hinterbrand Lodge for the weekend, see below. The Hinterbrand Lodge is an Army owned facility open to student groups from Europe. It's free and completely self-catering. We had to bring our own food, cleaning supplies and bedding but couldn't have picked a better location for a bunch of Girl Scouts. The Hinterbrand Lodge was built in the 1920's and sometime in the "30's taken over by the German Nazi party. A man named Dietrich Eckhart hid here in 1926 from the Weimar Republic. Later, Hitler later dedicated the second part of his book "Mein Kampf" to this man whom he considered his mentor.

Our plans included visiting the Eagle's Nest, Hitler's hideaway in the Alps; the Berchtesgaden salt mine tour, and hiking around the Lodge. We worked on GS Badges and had a fabulous weekend!

The girls returning from a two hour hike and the Hinterbrand Lodge on the top of our hill. We were at 3200 ft.

Who needs an alarm clock when you can wake up at 7am to the noise of cowbells? We ran out of our Lodge to see and hear the cows being herded to a different pasture.

The view from the balcony of my room. Breathtaking! Would you ever want to leave?

Later, we took off on a hike around the Lodge and found the cows! We tried to talk to them but they didn't speak English, only German!

A view from below of the Eagle's Nest. We spent the morning hiking around the top of this mountain. There was still LOTS of snow and I was constantly screaming at the girls to "Get off the snow!" The highlight of this trip for me was having lunch on top of this mountain with its 360 degree panoramic view.

Tobacco-free Week

2008-05-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in our travelling to Lourdes travails that Matt forgot his roll of Copenhagen. He was not a happy man! He had one can of Copenhagen and managed to make it last for three days. He bought some cigars to tide him over but MK was scared for his life and worried everytime she saw or knew he was lighting up. You know how they teach in school to "say no to all drugs"?

50th International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes

2008-05-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

Every year, we attend the International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. For 50 years now, Militaries from around the world come together to pray for peace. This year was the 50th anniversary of the pilgrimage and the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to the peasant girl, Bernadette. We were crowded in the streets with over 25,000 soldiers and their family members! It was truly awesome!

MK's favorite thing in Lourdes is the Mary water. Before we can do anything else in Lourdes, we have to go fill our bottles with Mary water. We drink the water all weekend and save some to bring home to give to our friends.

We stayed with the Heidelberg Military Community in a family-run hotel. Our room was very tiny. Literally, only one person could be standing at a time. However, we were on a pilgrimage and were grateful to have a room. Did I mention that the food was superb and served family style. And look below; this was the view from our room.

U.S. soldiers line up for the Opening Procession. Matt is in there somewhere! We've been attending the military pilgrimage for five years now and this was the largest group of Americans we had ever seen. For the first time ever, the Army sent the USAEUR Army band. On Saturday, the bands from the different countries performed in places throughout Lourdes. The Irish pipers gave impromtu performances all through streets. Truly delightful!

Soldiers marching through the streets. These are Croatians. The view is from our hotel room.

We attended Mass on Sunday in the grotto where Mary appeared to Bernadette. It was a beautiful Mass with the Irish.

I am going to be so sad when we finally move back to the States and won't have the opportunity to go Lourdes so regularly. Despite all our difficulties, we received so many graces.

Rain, rain, rain in the South of France

2008-05-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

We just returned from our annual pilgrimage to Lourdes, France yesterday. We had a wonderful pilgrimage but met with so many challenges on our journey there! It's amazing that we made it all!
We purchased our plane tickets in January, got a really great deal; $346 roundtrip for three people from Munich to Toulouse, France on expedia.com. However, I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize until three days before we flew that we were leaving Toulouse on Monday at 9:20pm and not 9:20am like I thought. Matt was hot! That put us back in Munich at 11:00pm and home at 12:45. oops.
We made hotel reservations in February. The military pilgrimage to Lourdes is the biggest pilgrimage and rooms are very hard to come by. Our hotel was perfect! Only 100 meters from the St. Michael's gate, A/C, breakfast and dinner included. However, the hotel did not hold our reservations, they booked the Slovenian Army instead. So, we were leaving on Wednesday and on Tuesday, I was calling around to some of the other military communities trying to find a room. The Heidelberg community graciously took us in. The hotel was a family run hole in the wall. The room was tiny, the shower was even tinier. We had to set our shampoo/conditioner/soap on the toilet in order to have room to shower! But we were on a pilgrimage and grateful to have a room and beds!
And then, our plan was to fly into Toulouse and take a two hour train ride to Lourdes. France is famous for strikes and the day we were travelling was no exception. Yep, a train strike. So we had to sit all morning and afternoon waiting for the ONE bus to Lourdes. But, we made the bus and made it to Lourdes!
And then, to top it all off, it was cold and rainy the whole time! The South of France this time of year is supposed to be beautiful but we had Germany weather. And guess what else, it was beautiful, sunny and hot back in Germany!

There were many obstacles and challenges getting us to Lourdes, however our desire to get there was much stronger.

Pictures coming later when I download them from my camera!

Back from Schoenstatt

2008-04-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

I spent last week at the Schoenstatt International Retreat Center in Vallendar, Germany. I am part of the Regional Board for the Military Council of Catholic Women-Europe and serve as the Secretary and Grapevine Editor. Each year, we put on two conferences; a Leadership Training Conference in the Spring and a Spiritual Retreat Conference in the Fall for all Catholic Women affiliated with military chapels in Europe. This was the first year to have a Conference at Schoenstatt with Sister Angela Macari. Schoenstatt is a movement within the Catholic Church to help Catholics become better educated in their own faith and through Mary become closer to Jesus. I have attended 7 conferences over the past 5 years and this conference and location was the most spiritual and moving! I feel as if I have left a new and better person!

Schoenstatt was founded in 1914 by Father Joseph Kentenich. He was a young priest put in charge of a bunch of rebellious seminarian students. In 1914, he and the students put themselves under the protection of Mary. After WWI, the Schoenstatt movement continued to grow and an order of secular sisters was added in 1926. Fr. Kentenich was imprisoned during WWII and survived to help his movement grow across the world! There are Schoenstatt retreat houses all over the world now. You can see a picture of the original Shrine above. This Shrine is copied at every Schoenstatt Retreat Center.

The best description I can come up with for Schoenstatt is gentle, quiet peace.

Sister Angela is holding a Mother-Daughter retreat this next weekend so MK and are back in the minicooper so she can experience the quiet, peace, too. I really want to spend the time to help her re-center her faith. She's entering those wonderful pre-adolescence years and we need all the help we can get! MK is very excited to have our very own Nun taking care of us!

To see more images from Schoenstatt, go to http://www.mccw-worldwide.org/ and follow the link on the left side of the page for europe grapevine. This is the most recent Grapevine I have published and there is a beautiful photo essay put together by our Publicity Chair.

80's Rocker Girl

2008-04-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post the other day about the SNOW!!!! Wednesday was a beautiful, sunshiny day. We were wearing sweaters and no jackets. Just a perfect spring day. Woke up Thursday morning, looked out the window and was almost blinded by the snow! We received over 6 inches of snow overnight and it caught everybody by surprise. By 8:30, half of it had melted and today most of it is gone!!!! I just want it to be spring!

I made a homemade CD to rock out in the minicooper. Mostly chick music and a couple of Van Halen tunes. MK really likes "Jump" by Van Halen and asks me to play it over and over again. The other night, when Matt was putting her to bed, she asked: "Daddy, can you make me a Van Halen CD?" He just about fell on the floor. He didn't realize we had an 80's rocker girl on our hands! It's kinda fun to be able to influence her musical tastes right now. Anything to not have to listen to Miley Cyrus over and over and over and over.......................

Yeah! MK likes to Read!

2008-04-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

After four years of struggling to get our daughter to read, she is finally reading for enjoyment! I couldn't be more excited. Of course, American Girl has a lot to do with it. But, hey, whatever it takes! Yesterday, after school, she started reading "Meet Felicity" and wouldn't put the book down until she was finished. She read the whole book in one sitting! I was such a bookworm as a kid and I am glad to see MK really getting into these stories!
So rejoice with us! MK is reading just for the fun of it!!!!!!!

The Long Awaited Holland recap!

2008-04-13T03:20:00.000-07:00

We've been trying to make sure MK had a fun Spring Break and Birthday Week. Yes, we are still celebrating "the Birthday week". So, I havn't gotten around to posting about our trip to Holland last weekend. This time, my cousin Ralph was not in the country so we made our own arrangements.

Friday:

We left Friday morning and drove all day. Of couse, we spent a couple of hours trying to get around the "staus" (or traffic jams) outside of Koeln (Cologne) and Dusseldorf. Our girlfriend, (the GPS) finally gave up on us. She kept trying to reroute us to avoid the staus but would just take us right into another stau. It didn't help that we reached this major city on Friday at German quittin' time which is about 3:30-4:00 for the Deutsch! MK was camped out in the back seat of the mini with her books, her nintendo ds lite, her three American Girl dolls with clothes and accessories and a DVD player with Seasons 1-5 and 7 of Little House on the Prairie. Yep, she's missing season 6 to her great consternation. We finally arrived at our hotel in Lisse, the Netherlands about 8pm. Since we had already eaten at a rasthof (rest stop), we checked in and Matt took MK to the pool.

Our hotel was 1 km away from the Keukenhof Gardens and right in the middle of the tulip fields. Holland received snow about two weeks ago which kind of stopped the tulip growth briefly. Mostly, yellow tulips and daffodils were out but the red tulips had not bloomed, yet. We took a walk in the fields on Saturday evening and it was very muddy but still beautiful!

Saturday:

On Saturday morning, we got up early to enjoy the hotel's all you can eat breakfast buffet for just 14,90 euros which is about $23.00 for you Americans. It was really good but not worth going back to on Sunday and Monday morning. We left our hotel to meet up with our friends Karl and Lissa in Kinderdijk, a little over an hour away. Kinderdijk (kinder-dike) is a historic Watermill area. There were about 20 mills up and down the canals. And when we started walking out on the trail, it started pouring down rain! Of course, all of our friends were on Mediterrean Cruises this week but we could only take 4 days to go to Holland since Matt's team did not get the week off like everyone else! So as I was berating the fact that we were stuck in beautiful but rainy and cold Holland, we managed to run into the one mill that was open to the public. MK had a blast climbing up and down each level of the Mill and asking a million questions about what it was like "back in the old days".

The rain finally stopped but it was still windy and cold. We left Kinderdijk and decided to drive to Delft. Lissa wanted to do some more pottery shopping. As if she and I don't have enough pottery as it is! After Matt and Karl spent the next 30 minutes in the parking lot trying to coordinate their GPS's to go to the same destination, we were finally on our way! Our first stop was the Royal Delft Porcelain Factory. We decided to not do the factory tour and insteady went straight to the shopping in the Factory store. Okay, I don't recommend shopping in the factory store because it is more a show room than a factory store! We found the same stuff in the city center for significantly lower prices than what was offered at the Factory. Delft is a charming city and I highly recommend stopping her for an afternoon if you ever make it to Holland. We headed back to our hotel and dinner at a Steakhouse in a nearby town. The Dutch eat red meat! Yeah! We all had the spare ribs and MK had a cheeseburger.

Sunday:

Up early again to go eat at the McDonald's instead of the hotel buffet. Guess what? Holland's McDonald's don't do breakfast! So we headed to the Keukenhof Gardens to see if they had a restaraunt that offered breakfast. We ended up eating muffins and drinking tea and coffee. Keukenhof Gardens is only open from March 15th to May 15th each year for the tulips blooming. The park is beautiful and I think we must have taken 200 pictures! Keukenhof Gardens was the whole reason we chose to go to Holland for our mini-Spring Break trip. Ever since I was a little girl and studied about Holland and tulips, I have wanted to visit this country. So after six years living in Europe, we finally made it to the tulips!

After the Gardens, we finally had our lunch at McDonalds. And then drove into Amsterdam. Our mission was to visit the Anne Frank House. After parking and walking over, we found the line to get in was wrapped completely around the building. The menfolk, Matt and Karl, were a little daunted. But Lissa and I were determined to wait. It only took about 30 minutes to get in and the experience was worth driving all the way to Amsterdam. Many of Anne Frank's and her families personal artifacts are housed in the Anne Frank House. When I read the diary as a girl, I had imagined they lived in an attic. They actually hid in the top two stories of a house that was attached/behind Anne Frank's father's place of business. They were able to keep it secret for so long because the house was not visible from the street. It was very sad and moving.

We decided to walk and see a little bit of Amsterdam city. We saw some beautiful architecture and a lot of hippies, folks with dreadlocks and smelled some interesting smells. Karl had a walking GPS and it was time to head to the Hard Rock Cafe' for dinner. He offered a route through the busy street we just passed through or a lovely walk along a canal in a quiet neighborhood. The quiet neighborhood turned out to be "the Red Light District". Yow, they really have red lights outside their doors. And scantily-dressed women sat in show windows in the front of the house. Fortunately, MK missed most of the "girls" but she did see one sitting in a window. Lots of questions, "Daddy, what was the woman doing sitting there? Why was she wearing her underwear?" You should tell a 10 year old girl how important it is to always keep your curtains closed if you are going to run around the house in your underwear!

Thank goodness, Hard Rock Cafe' took her mind off those things, whew! We had a birthday meal for MK with a candlelit icecream Sundae.

Monday:

Up early to leave the hotel and go to see "Panorama Tulip Land". I thought it was a place to pull your car over and take panoramic photos of the the tulip fields. Nope, it was a store. That you had to pay admission to get into. We didn't pay admission.

We decided to stop in Gouda on the way because I love cheese and we probably won't come back to Holland again. We found cheese, we found beautiful buildings and a gorgeous church and stained glass windows.

And then home we went. The trip home was much faster than the trip to Holland.

In a nutshell, we love Holland. Don't care for Amsterdam.

MK is 10!!!

2008-04-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

MK turned 10 on Monday, April 7th. We let her open presents on the Thursday night before since we left for our trip on Friday. Some of her comments are posted below:

Aunt Lesa gave here a cute outfit with a shirt and short skirt with shorts underneath:

"It's a matching outfit! I can wear it for tennis!"

She starts tennis lessons next week.

While unwrapping presents: "Ooh, this is really pretty paper!"

Nana and Papa gave a variety of things.

pink house slippers: "I've always wanted house shoes like these!"

underwear: "Underwear!"

She equates receiving underwear with that line from "The North Pole" "all I got was some stupid underwear!" But she liked them.

She did get her American girl:

"I knew I was getting an American girl doll!"

This was after weeks of begging us to tell here what we were getting her.

When I told her that we were going to give her a Wii, she said: "Good, I didn't want a Wii!"

She's 10 now. We are still celebrating her Birthday week. Did you know that girls celebrate their birthdays for the whole week? We were in Amsterdam on Sunday night and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. They gave her a Hard Rock Cafe birthday pin. On Tuesday, she had two friends for a sleepover and I made her favorite dinner: barbecued chicken legs, shelly cheese, salad and garlic bread and a Birthday Brownie. No cake for this 10 year old, she wants brownies now! The actual birthday party is Sunday at the bowling alley. This time, she is only allowed to invite 7 girls. It was easy since we are still in the middle of Spring Break and just about every one is gone!

There was a fingerprint on the camera lense so all of the pictures we took of MK opening her presents are blurry. Thanks, everyone for helping to make MK's birthday week extra special!

April Fools!

2008-04-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since we've posted so I thought I would catch you up with what is going on with the Fitter's in Europe.
It finally stopped snowing and has been beautiful and sunny for several days now. We are hoping for a beautiful weekend since we are traveling to Holland again. This time to see the tulips in bloom! We are going to the Keukenhof gardens in Lisse, Netherlands with some friends. I am hoping to post a lot of fabulous pictures.
MK's birthday is Monday and our Spring Break starts on Friday. Since her b-day always falls during the DoDDES Europe Spring Break, we have been in a different country almost every year. For her 6th birthday, we were in Tunisia; her 7th was the Isle of Capri, Italy; 8th was Austria; 9th was home because it was Holy Week and I had to work at the Chapel. Her 10th will be in Holland!
We leave on Friday, so she will be opening presents on Thursday night! The birthday party will probably be on Tuesday during Spring Break and we are going to Playmobil Fun Park on the following Friday.
Our time in Europe is almost up, only one year left! We still have to get to England, Ireland and Scotland. I would like to go to Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia and the dream trip is ICELAND!
Who knows what the next year will bring!

Easter Sunday

2008-03-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

We did wake up to snow on Easter Sunday but the day was mostly sunny and the snow was starting to melt a little. Although, it was still bitterly cold!

We woke up early to cook the Breakfast casserole that I made the night before. We gave up meat for Lent so I really wanted to break that fast! MK slept a little longer than the rest of us, surprise, surprise, but rushed down to see what the Easter bunny brought. Our Easter Bunny brought lots of chocolate for MK and Matt. And the "Enchanted" DVD to MK. We found out later at Church that the Easter Bunny brought "Enchanted" to a lot of little girls in Hohenfels. ("Enchanted" came out on the previous Tuesday).

MK wore a beautiful new Easter dirndl to Mass. MK loves the traditional German dirndls. She is obsessed with Little House on the Prairie and the dirndls remind her of what Laura and Mary wear in the shows. After Mass, all the children ran outside to play under the tall pine tree. All the little girls looked lovely in their pretty, new Easter dresses. So much so, that the little boys probably thought they needed to chase them and throw snowballs at them. That's what MK told us in the car on the way home: "All the girls had on new dresses and the boys kept chasing us and throwing snowballs at us! They were ruining our clothes!" Rightous Indignation! And as always, boys still continue to chase girls, and girls still continue to run and squeal!"

We came home to a quiet Easter Sunday. Matt and MK began dyeing the Easter eggs about 2pm. And we had dinner about 3pm. Our Easter dinner consisted of a beef brisquit, sour cream and chives mashed potatos, green bean casserole, and salad. As I said earlier, we gave up meat for Lent so the brisquit was too good for words. I think our brisquit leftovers were even better than the original!

The Easter egg hunt began about 4pm when MK went and got her neighbor friend. Matt hid the eggs the first time but the girls had so much fun that they stayed outside for about an hour hiding and finding eggs over and over again.

It was a quiet Easter Sunday. But a very peaceful day that this family really needed! Happy Easter to all of your friends, family, loved ones!

And it keeps snowing

2008-03-21T12:32:00.001-07:00

Here is MK leaving for school this morning. It is still snowing Friday evening and will snow through the weekend. Can't wait to see where the Easter bunny hides our Easter eggs on Sunday!

I'm dreaming of a White Easter

2008-03-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

It started snowing yesterday. The forecast calls for snow on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will be hunting for brightly colored Easter eggs in the snow this year.

2008-03-17T16:25:00.001-07:00

I love you too.... more than life itself!!

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day and Matt's Birthday!

2008-03-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

The birthday celebrations began yesterday. It was a long weekend here in Hohenfels. I worked all weekend on our annual Hohenfels Community and Spouses Club Wild West Night. WWN is a casino/gambling type event we hold every year to raise money for our scholarship fund for the Spouses' Club. This year I served as the Country Store Chair. The event was Saturday night but required lots of setting up on Friday and Saturday and clean-up on Sunday.

Matt also had to work this weekend but did make it to the WWN for a few hours on Saturday night.

On Sunday, while Matt ran to get Chinese take out for dinner, MK and I wrapped his presents and wrote out our cards to him. I didn't let MK see the big present because I knew she would give it away. She's very good at that. All you have to do is ask her what it is not and she will tell you, "well, it's not a Wii". The Wii has a long story, I actually bought it before Christmas because I won a lottery to buy a Wii at the PX. Matt and I had decided to put it away for MK's birthday in April because she was already getting too much! Anyways, she is now very much into American Girl dolls and not so interested in receiving a Wii. About a month ago, I asked Matt if he would like a Wii for his b-day and we could get MK more American Girl doll stuff. He thought I was joking and was very surprised to open up the very heavy package! So, it is his Wii and he will let MK use it, too!

You'll note the picture of Matt and his teepee cake. I wish I had made it! I won the cake in the silent auction at WWN on Saturday. I decided it would be Matt's birthday cake since this was a crazy weekend with me volunteering and Matt working. The cake was all edible excluding the toothpicks used to hold the tent flaps together and a foil cone at the top of the cake. It was three layers inside, chocolate on top, marble in the middle and yellow on the bottom. It was covered with regular frosting on the surface before being covered with the marzipan layer on the top. It was truly delicous! MK couldn't wait to taste the fire pit and the bearskin rug which were also made of marzipan. We are not big marzipan people. Right now, we are all trying to get over our sugar-induced comas!

Happy Birthday, Matt! Your three girls love you very much, Suzy, MK and Mary!

Observations from Matthew

2008-03-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

I sit and watch the news a lot. As I take in the days events and thank the good Lord for all my blessings (ie. walking away from another flight), I wonder and many times stew about how people can really suck. The cynical aura that is so pervasive in our nation and the 5 year old mentality of the news and people who make the news. No wonder our kids are so disrespectful. They see it every day not only on TV but in their towns in how adults interact right in front of them. I find it comical to see grown men and especially women who still act like its high school forming their power cliques and socially bullying those they think they can either manipulate or intimidate. Women are definitely their own worst enemy in that sense. But, y'all know me... I don't give a flippin' tinkers damn. I've gotten old enough and senior enough that I can control my existence for the most part.
When we moved to Hohenfels my wife was so relieved knowing that at least for the next 3 years I would not be shot at... at least on a daily basis. We both took stock of our lives and we did not complain about where we lived or what we have had to deal with in our daily lives. Yet we see many who constantly complain that their husbands work too many long hours and are not home at a decent hour and on and on yadda yadda. Many have avoided combat or have forgotten the ordeal of deployments and the affect on the family and they exude such a pessimistic and negative persona that it eats like a cancer at everything and everyone around them. This is not so unlike the country today. Everyone expects something that they think is an obligation of the government to provide. We have become so offensive toward each other. Examples you say? I can buy that 300,000 dollar home and new car and Uncle Sam will bail me out. Parents running on a ball field to attack the coach for a bad play call or another player that smacked his kid. Candidates for public office who act like a couple of 3rd graders on a playground. Kids are self explanatory. Parents who refuse to discipline their kids or hold them accountable. No one can have a simple disagreement without being compared to Hitler, be called a racist or you are derided for being a Christian. (When I was in Iraq it was well known that the small Christian minority was being systematically exterminated. Not one story was published about it.) Those who scream racism have become the racists and those who are expected to fight tyranny and crime have become stupid pacifists.
I guess my point about all this is that in my humble opinion we don’t have a lot of time here. There are forces in this world that are out to completely destroy us. I don’t just mean diminish the USA. I mean annihilation. In this case alone I think it will be our own fault unless we snap out of it. The problem is that the serious times we live in have not really touched the population of the country. We are so focused on political correctness and what has transpired over the last 5 years that we are blinded from what’s right in front of our ugly faces. Can anyone please ask the freakin' question that if/when we pull out of Iraq what next? Or, we know that you want to negotiate with rouge regimes but do you have the nuts to actually fight them when the time for war comes? Can anyone honestly tell me that we won't have to go back in after we pull out due to the simple fact that Al Qaidea IS THERE NOW regardless of the calendar day they actually arrived? Who cares? Am I really the only one that sees this? Remember the sentence above that we are blinded from what's right in front of our ugly faces? How can a society move forward when we are constantly walking backwards concentrating on what we already passed by? There is a movie quote that I like to use in these situations. It's from The Two Towers and it goes something like this... There is a scene where the two mischievous Hobbits, Merry and Pip, were trying to get the trees to fight against Sauroman the wizard and were unsuccessful and Pip says: "Merry, lets just go home. We'll always have the Shire." Merry quickly responds with this profound statement: "Pip, there isn't going to be a Shire!" I think that the American people are totally in the mindset of Pip. We can just go home and live our lives but I think in this case we don't realize that all that crap WILL come to our shores. Those who do not believe that are just extremely naive or they are a waste of my oxygen. Ladies and Gentlemen, the phrase “we support the Troops” is nothing more that a cliché… empty rhetoric from hacks when the camera is on. People, pundits and politicians say it so much that it has desensitized the folks and the Troops for that matter. Almost everyone in the Federal and State Government is so on the take that the prison system is going to have to have an early release program so we can just govern the country. Where is the leadership and the attitude of polls and pundits be damned and why is there such a problem with the people who are supposed to be leaders working to solve problems instead of creating nonexistent problems for the sake of a campaign issue? My guess is that this desensitization has caused almost the entire population to lose its moral and ethical compass and we better figure it out damn quick. The way I have seen things work in our government is that we don’t even attempt to fix a growing problem until it has spiraled out of control and then we are fighting on our backs. And who pays the price? Furthermore, if there is one thing I know it’s this: The US Government is the worst custodian of your money that it is given to run it. The more you give it; it just wants more so it can be spent on another “good idea fairy” program that redistributes it to someone that will just waste it ensuring the job of a politician that believes the government is better at taking care of you than YOU are. I know this because I work in the government. We need to get over ourselves and realize that life in our Country is really pretty great, worthy of pride and definitely worth fighting for. We have so much that we have become fat, lazy, self loathing, impatient Britney Spears clones. Stop blaming your own country for the worlds problems you moronic nincompoops!!
Ahh blessed satiety. If we could only hold our heads high and let ourselves enjoy our success and prosperity and be satisfied with it. When you have a spoiled rotten kid, how do you fix him? Super Nanny says you must pay attention, give them rules and boundaries, enforce them consistantly and give the proper reward for the proper behavior. Our problem as a society is that we have lost the boundaries of societal norms that we used to have in years past. Anything goes and the more shocking the more betta.
What the hell... make me king for a day and I'll fix it. Remember, I'm always right and it's such a burden sometimes!!
Sleep well America while rough men (who don't give a crap what you think of them) protect you!!

Hey, Culligan Man

2008-03-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

So, if you bust open a 5 gallon bottle of water in your house, exactly how much water is that in surface area?
Ask Matt.
Today was Culligan delivery day and I asked Matt to make sure he changed out the water bottle. The new bottle was wet because it was stored outside and it's been raining for DAYS! As he lifted it up, it slipped out of his arms and busted on our kitchen floor. Our water stand is by the kitchen door going into the living area. The water spread about 8 feet into the living room, soaked our dark red oriental rug and completely covered the kitchen floor about one inch in depth. We used six beach towels and a mop and had to pull out the refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and floorboards. We also have a very heavy china cabinet/hutch full of Polish Pottery. On Monday, I have to empty all the Polish Pottery to the table so we can move the hutch and get the water out from underneath.
Ironically, the cleaning lady was upstairs doing the bathrooms. When she came downstairs and saw all the mess we made cleaning up, she said "no need for mopping today!"

They won't be offering Matt a job delivering Culligan water anytime soon.

Coupon Clipping Ladies

2008-03-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Check out this story about elderly ladies who clip coupons for military living overseas. At the entrance to the commissaries, there are usually piles of coupon flyers and boxes of clipped coupons. Sometimes I go through and pull the coupons that I know I am going to use. I didn't know where they came from but I do now. What an uplifting story! And thank you to all the dedicated, loving ladies who suffer cramped hands and carpal tunnel to send us coupons!

follow this link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23571516/from/ET/

The other lap top

2008-03-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here she is; our other lap top. We met Suzy when we were living in Schweinfurt. She was a stray in the bushes around our apartment and she decided that we must need her. So she came to stay. At the time, she only spoke German but now she is bi-lingual. She rewards us for being such great people with offerings of headless mice and an occassional bird. I have learned to keep the door closed and check her mouth before letting her back inside.

Oh, the life of a feline, she sleeps all day and decides to join the rest of the family in the early evening. The first order of business is dinner which must be served at the first meow. After that, she must have some lap top time. Preferably, Matt's lap. Suzy will sit at his feet and meow until he moves the real laptop, or she will meow at me until I make him move his laptop. Or she will just make herself comfortable on top of the laptop. At anyrate, noone gets anything done until she has had her laptop time.

And like any cat, when she's done, she's done.

Job Shadow

2008-03-07T10:52:00.000-08:00

MK's school held a job shadow day recently. For the last two years, she came to my job when I was working as the Catholic Parish Coordinator at the Chapel. Pretty boring stuff. This year, she got to follow her dad around his work. I remember a statistic out there when I was pregnant with MK that most pilots have girls. If you had been at Matt's work on job shadow day, you would have agreed! There were 12 daughters and 1 son running around the hangar and following their dad's.
The kids had a really great time. I think the dad's did, too. They got to go up in the tower and watch a helicopter take off and fly by. What a sight it was when it was lunch time and everyone headed to the DFAC (dining facility for all you civilians). The dad's pulled together one long table and filled it full of girls and pilot dads.
I drove up later in the day and all the girls were outside on the runway washing a helicopter. Yes, it is the beginning of March and March came in like a lion and the girls were outside with long brushes and the power hoses having the times of their lives. I think job shadow day for the Falcons and their daughters was a success!

...Note from Matt...
The helicopter you are looking at is one of our OPFOR (Opposing Force) aircraft. It is used to replicate a HIND which is a Soviet era attack aircraft. Yes it is a Huey but the paint scheme is old Soviet bloc style. It is equipped with offensive laser system that allows us to play. We also use it to insert OPFOR troops on an objective during high intensity rotations. It's great fun!
Around 2010 the Huey will be replace by the new UH-72 (EC-145) Lakota, otherwise known as the LUH. The Grand old lady UH-1 will be gone from the Army inventory around that time.

Welcome to our First Blog!

2008-03-07T10:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our First Blog!

Thanks to a friend at Church, I am figuring out how to create a blog and hopefully stay connected with friends and family.
I am looking forward to publishing my thoughts and sharing pictures of our family happenings in Europe.
I have been trying out Myspace but I get a little offended by what some people put on their pages. I guess Matt and I are a couple of ultra-conservative, ancient, stuck in the mud, old fogies!
Let's get started!