I'm an AUNT again!!

Exciting news...

My sister had her third child... in China! ALEXANDER TY was born on Sunday evening. He's a big boy at 9 pounds. He has black hair and chubby cheeks. Don't know much more. We're patiently waiting for more pictures. Everyone is doing well!!

CONGRATS ANDREA AND DAN!!

Back Home

We are back home to Germany after a wonderul honeymoon in Ireland. We spent two weeks there and enjoyed every minute of it. We saw so many mountains, beautiful views of the ocean, and many other sites that were just breathtaking. We were able to see Irish Riverdancing, rode horses through the mountains and along the water, watched a production of Beauty and the Beast, climbed a mountain, and walked on several trails. We also enjoyed sitting in a pub and listening to Irish music in the evenings. It was a great way to end a busy day. We traveled the entire country clockwise, following the whole coast. We were a little nervous when we got into Northern Ireland as it is still a bit unsettled. We spent a couple nights in Belfast and had to be careful about where we stayed. I stuck really close to Jay's side as we walked down the street. Now we're home and have to get caught back up. I feel like I need a vacation now from the vacation. We were so busy that we wore ourselves out!

I have tried going to the school to turn paperwork in to be a sub a few times now, but haven't caught the right person yet. I am going in Tuesday afternoon again. That's the time they gave me, so hopefully I will catch the HR director. They said it will take at least two weeks to get me started because they will have to do a background check, but they also didn't know I already have my license. I had to do a background check to get that, so hopefully things can get sped up. I want to get in there as soon as I can. I don't know what I'm going to do at home every day. I'm going to get bored real quick. I told Jay if I can't sub at least 3 days a week, I'll have to get another job. I'll go nuts!!

Jay starts his normal routine again on Tuesday. His month leave is over. He's a little sad about that as we've had a great month of enjoying ourselves. It's going to be hard to get back into the swing of things. He really isn't looking forward to PT at 6:00AM on Tuesday morning. I told him I would go with him and head to the gym. Hopefully that will be incentive for both of us.

Ireland

Jay and I are in Ireland on our honeymoon and absolutely loving every minute of it. We have been so busy seeing everything around us. We spent two days in Dublin, then traveled south along the coast, and are now heading north up the Atlantic coast. The views here are immaculate! Being on top of a mountain and looking down is a reminder of how awesome God's creation is and how blessed we are to be in such a wonderful place. We have taken the time to visit several castles, enjoy Irish music at the pubs, and stop in many shops in the small towns. This has been quite an experience so far!!

These are the famous Dublin Doors. There is a block in which all of the houses have painted their door a different color. This helped them to know which house was their's.

On our first night, we went to Riverdance. It was a dance performance that was outstanding. We danced our way back to the hotel after the show!

This was a monument we saw in Phoenix Park. This park housed the President of Ireland and the US Ambassador.

We have seen many different castles throughout our trip. This is just one of them. They are all beauitful and unique in their own way.

We drove around the Ring of Kerry, which took us out along the Atlantic coast. Seeing the mountains beside the ocean and watching the waves come in was so neat!

Learning to Live Together

Two funny stories to share as we are slowing learning how to live with each other.

Last night as we were sleeping, we had a little mishap. I like to sleep with my hands above my head. Jay was right on my side sound asleep. I went to move my arms down and ended up hitting Jay in the face. He didn't really care to much and just rolled over. I realized it wasn't the pillow and felt really bad. This morning I looked at him and noticed he had blood under his nose. Then he saw it all over his shoulder. So... apparently I gave him a bloody nose. Oops!! That will teach him to sleep on his side!

Second funny story... this morning I was up and ready to go. I went to go wake Jay up by jumping on him. He was half awake and saw me coming. His reflexes kicked in and he brought his knees up to protect himself. I ended up getting a knee to the rib and got the wind knocked out of me. I guess I'll stick with a glass of cold water to wake him up!!

Sooner or later we'll learn how to deal with each other!! Nonetheless, our stomach muscles sure have gotten a work out lately as we love to laugh!! especially at each other!!

Married life is treating us well!! I love it!!!

Getting Settled

I've been here for almost two weeks now and am finally feeling settled. Our walls are still bare and we have no decorations, but everything else is put away. Our shipment won't be coming until October, so we will get used to the white walls until then. We want to paint, but need to ask the landlord. Hopefully he'll be ok with it. It's just too blaa for us!

We took Friday to go to Wurzburg and look at two castles. The first one stood on a top of hill that overlooked the town. It had amazing views of down below. It was overwhelming just to stand and look at the site. The second one was in the middle of town. We didn't get to go in, but were able to walk around the building. It had a beautiful garden of flowers in the back, along with several fountains. I could have sat on a bench and enjoyed it all afternoon. We also took some time to do a little browsing through some shops. They scrunch so many stores into little spaces. We spent 20 euro and were done for the day!

In the courtyard at the castle. It has a beautiful view of the rest of the city.

Climbing down the steps to a new view of the city. The castle had several layers to it.

We don't really know what this is, but thought it was neat.

We leave for Ireland on Thursday. We are getting so excited. We have watched a couple documentaries to figure out some good places to go. We received our plane tickets, car rental and hotel vochures this week, so we are set. We'll have to work on packing our bags this week and Thursday will come fast. Two weeks later, we'll be back and be ready to start full speed ahead. Jay will have to go back to work and hopefully I'll be able to start subbing.

We have realized this week that we must seem pretty stupid to the Germans around us. We have to ask for help with everything. We went to the internet store twice to get help getting connected and still couldn't figure it out. Then we had a guy from downstairs, Ole, come to help us. He was able to get on the phone and call customer service for us. We tried that, but they couldn't speak English. They said they would call us back and still haven't heard back from them. We have also been trying to get our tv hooked up so we can watch the Olympics. We couldn't figure it out so we had the same guy come up to help us out. He wasn't too sure either. The funny story.... we received an electricty bill in the mail... in all German of course. So Jay asked Ole what it said. He explained to us that it was a bill. Jay asked him what to do and how to pay for it. Ole said "you have job, you get paid, you use that money to pay bill." I was in the kitchen laughing to myself as Jay was still trying to figure it all out. Eventually we'll catch on to all of this. Until then, we'll continue to look stupid. Ohs wells!!

The weekend already!

I have arrived safe and sound! After a very long flight, Jay met me in the airport to take me home. Ever since we arrived in Schweinfurt, we having been going at lightening speed. There are so many things to get done. Our first goal was to get our apartment into shape. We have spent a lot of money buying the essentials needed. A few of the big things were a tv, microwave, rugs, vacuum, etc. The place is finally starting to find some order. We have to wait for our last shipment to come in before we can do much decorating.

I have been doing my best to learn the roads and what's located on the different posts. I can't wait to get my license and start doing thing on my own. Our apartment is located close to the business district. There are many little shops down there that sell anything you can imagine. Lots of restaurants around. We ate out my first night here. I was really nervous about what I ordered, considered the whole menu was in German. Jay is awesome at talking with the Germans, by speaking a few words, but most using hand gestures. They really do know a lot of English, so they make it easy on us. We are spoiled!!! This business district is also the home to a lot of music festivals. We have attended two. They have a big stage for the music and there are vendors all over the place. We have enjoyed buying a bratwurst and listening to 80's music...in English!!!!

This weekend, we made a trip down to Dachau Concentration Camp. It was a gorgeous day to be out. We spend several hours looking around the grounds and through all the buildings. It was nice to get away from the apartment and settle down for a bit. We have been running wild that we haven't really taken any time for ourselves.