Koln

I miss this.

Traveling around Europe.

This is the last getaway we took before we left Germany.

If we had a three or four day weekend, we would load up and the car and find a new destination. Usually, we would decide on Thursday night where to go. We'd pack and load the car on Thursday morning and then drive there. Many times, we did not have hotel reservation, knew only a little about our destination. We'd get there, find a hotel, and start walking. And those turned out to be the best weekends. The ones with no plans.

This is a picture from our last weekend getaway. Cologne, Germany. We spent a couple of nights in a hotel near the Dom and walked and walked and walked all weekend.

We Left Europe

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

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

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!

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

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!

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....."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

(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

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

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!