We Take Care of our Own

34 Days until Joe is home!

I too will walk the political "tight-rope" as THE BOSS does in his latest song, We Take Care of Our Own.  Springsteen has always commanded a certain wonderful sentimentality in his beautiful ballads mashed together with his rugged appearance (much as his fatherland).  I continue to find him as current and in touch as I did the first time my high school boyfriend played Thunder Road for me on a 32 vinyl.   What this song speaks to is a higher calling; a calling to put past differences aside, look at the soul of our fellow Americans and realize these people are our own.  Americans forget that undying spirit that makes our country great; the spirit of unity. 

Looking forward to the album release on March 6th and the individual tracks between now and then.  :) 

Parade of Champions

In Eindhoven, Netherlands, the EFSL Championship began with a Parade of Swimmers.  The Ktown Kingfish Swim Team decided showed up in grand style with red, white and blue hats to show their spirit!!  Colin and Jonathan came bedecked in "funky chicken" twin hats!!  The swimmers crowd round pool side ready for two full days of events.  This year Ryan qualified in 50 meter Breast Stroke with a super fast time of 44 seconds!  Jonathan qualified in both 50 meter Back Stroke and 200 meter Free Style.  Colin (this is his first year swimming for the team) got selected to swim the 200 meter Free Style.  The boys' races were full of fast times and big smiles.  Go KINGFISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Days of Our Lives

Phew....what a week, wait a minute it's only been 4 days. Between Friday, September 23 and Tuesday, September 27 here's what's taken place at 2 Valentinusstrasse: On Friday we said good-bye for now to Dad as he begins his 6 month deployment and subsequently spent the rest of the day eating ice cream and watching movies. On Saturday, we had our second home swim meet where Jon qualified for 50 meter Free with a time of 46.49 seconds. Totally awesome time. Ryan is only 3 small seconds away from qualifing for 50 meter Breast with a time of 48.45 seconds!! His new time, shaved off 13 seconds from last season, it must be all the push-ups he's doing! Then on Saturday night, Jonathan had his first overnight campout with the Webelo I's and Troop 243. On Sunday, we strolled along the Wine Strasse with our good friends the Hendricksons. Then yesterday, we had our Celtic History class with the kids from the HS co-op group. And to round out the day, Ryan advanced in rank at the Boy Scout Court of Honor. See baby you aren't really missing anything because we are even at the house ;}

Ireland 2011

The views along the western coastline of Kerry County are so beautiful and breathtaking. With settings and weather like this you feel like a lucky Irish laddy or lass. One of our very best and most favorite trips to date!

Giverny, France -- April 2011

Giverny, the home to the Father of Impressionism, Claude Monet, sparkles in the spring sunshine. Here we are enjoying the gorgeous spring flowers that inspired Monet's masterpeices. The boys make some of their own sketches of the water lilies in the Japanese Garden.

Volcanoes

Making Our Own Sunshine

Winter days in Germany can be a bit dreay and gloomy, so I decided to spread a little sunshine today in our classroom.  The before and after pictures show our classroom with and without the "happy lite".  It tricked us so into believing our rainy day was a sunny one.  Just goes to show how important light is to our hearts and minds.
Just for reference, it's 9:45 AM.

Egypt 2011

Egypt 2011



Our history text this year, Story of the World Volume 1 Ancient Times by Susan Wise Bauer, begins with Ancient Egypt.  As the boys excitedly studied about mummies, Egyptian Myths, King Tut the boy king, and of course, the Great Pyramids of Giza, Joe and I anticipated our Eastern Mediterranean Cruise to Egypt in January 2011.   The Pyramids at Giza are truly a spectacular sight.  Given the recent uprisings in Cairo, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to see the pyramids.  The Egyptian landscape makes for an uncomfortable situation for a foreign visitor.  There are the romantic images from movies and books that lead your metal travels very far from the actual images a real traveler experiences in Egypt.   Egypt is plagued by poverty.  Her streets and canals are filled with garbage, her buildings remain unfinished, and her people are desperate for help.  After driving through just a small part of the country one can understand the anger, frustration, and fear that drives the revolts in Cairo today.  The Egyptian peoples’ suffering is a tangible thing.  At the Great Pyramids of Giza, you are bombarded with eight year old barefoot little boys selling you postcards for 1 euro.  Everywhere you turn someone is shoving their desperation at you, begging you to buy something from them.  But put that aside, they are a fun loving people with sense of humor (just see the pictures they had us pose for).  This quality makes me believe they continue to remain a hopeful people.   

The Egyptian people's ancient history continues to captivate the world.  The lure of the Great Pyramids and there Sphinx bear witness to thousands of years filled with both war and peace.   Our children’s children's children will still study them and hopefully have this wonderful opportunity to see them with their own eyes. 

Missing Christmas

I just read a wonderful blog of one of my former students and was impressed by her talent and depth.  She writes of wanting nothing more than to be amongst her family on Christmas, watching her neices and nephews opening packages, listening to the clatter, drinking wine, and enjoying each one of her family members.  I too want that for Christmas more than anything!  We can not go home for Christmas this year, but I am going to be there if only in my dreams....

Merry Christmas, Momma, Daddy, Jenny, Michael, Danny, Heather, Myah, Delaney, Hutton, Becket, Robby, Di, and Gia Marie -- love to each of you.

Missy