Grey Hair

The little girls upstairs had a small lice outbreak. This is one of those childhood things that happens to everyone, but it's also one of my greatest fears!! Anyway, Keith was checking my head and in the process found a grey hair! GULP! Surely it was an isolated incident! Today I went to get my hair colored and the lady told me I have several more!! OMG!! I could have been greying for years but have never known because of all the coloring. This is the longest I've been without color. Being German, she is forced to be very direct and blunt. So I'm blogging: today I'm a greying, almost 38 year old chick. Sniff. Sniff. It was bound to happen.

Bedtime

My kids have always been super easy to put to bed. I've been very lucky in this field. They're old enough now to bathe, dress, brush their own teeth, clean up the bathroom and get in bed all while I'm up here working candy crushing. How did this happen so quickly? I clearly remember the chore of getting toddlers ready for bed. The baths, bath toys, soap in the eyes, the very stinky and unwashed superman pjs, aquaphor, brushing their teeth with the baby toothbrushes. Now I yearn to smother them in baby lotion. We just have a different kind of routine here. I'll tell them if they can shower and be in bed in 20 minutes, I'll rub their feet. My high maintenance lads don't mess around with that promise!! They lay in bed and talk to me while I massage their feet for 10 minutes each. I'm basically creating monsters and their girlfriends and spouses will one day hate me. When they run out of things to talk about, they want to hear stories from me! They ask very good questions for conversation starters. They ask "how did you meet Daddy?" "tell me about your first pet" "what was your first car" "who was your best friend growing up" "tell me about when I was born" "how did you pick my name"??? If this is how they date girls, I'm in trouble! We talk about everything under the sun. It's my favorite time of the day. We say prayers and Cole always wants to snuggle. I'll lay with him and he says the sweetest things. Tonight this conversation happened... C - I love you so much mommy. You're the best mommy in the world. Me - I love you baby bear. I could do better. I fail you more times than I should. C - No, you're the best you can be. Me - You deserve more. You're great kids and I'm a lucky mommy. C - We're lucky kids. God, thank you for this kid. Please don't let me screw him up too badly!!

Easter 2014

This Easter we had to leave very early in the morning for a soccer tournament. We thought this would be the right time to really explain what Easter means for believers. We sat down on Saturday night and we watched Passion. We told the boys there is no such thing as the Easter bunny. Parents hide the eggs and buy treats for the kids. Cole asked me "so you got us our stuff?" Yes, Cole. He said "thank you mama" Sweet kid.

I thought their natural inquiry would lead to questions of Santa and the tooth fairy but they didn't. I'm sure we will cross that bridge soon.

We didn't dye eggs or hide them. Part of me is ok with that. We talked about the meaning of Easter and it's importance. Stripped down to the truth. It was perfect.

Lost Phone

Hahaha... remember that time Keith lost his wallet? Yeah, that was fun. The day was March 7th. Keith's birthday! Keith was on his way home from a trip and I was at the mall with a friend. As I'm leaving I get a email from Keith. It reads: "Jen, someone stole my phone. Change all the passwords immediately. Start with USAA." Crap. I rush home and start changing every password I can think of. I'm amazed how much more a cell phone is besides a phone. All our bank information, dropbox, itunes, paypal, ebay, amazon, all the apps we have where you can buy it now..... had to be changed immediately. I'm so mad, but trying to be understanding as he's commuting back and so tired after flying all night. He put it in his backpack and fell asleep waiting on his flight home. When he woke up, he noticed it gone from his bag. Happy Birthday. His plane was late and we bought him tickets to the FC Koln soccer game. He was going to miss the game too. :-( We left him cupcakes on the counter and his ticket in case he made it. He was able to catch up with us and made the game. FC Koln won. It was a small upswing on a pretty crummy birthday. The next morning I was checking FB and I noticed a friend request by a lady in Barcelona. I found it odd. Keith was just in Barcelona. I accepted and what do you know.... SHE FOUND HIS PHONE! She refused any reward or payment and only wanted to do what is right. She asked for our address and shipped Keith's phone back to him. Can you believe it? We have a lot of paying it forward to do! And I'm going to staple Keith's phone to his forehead.

Lost Wallet

My husband is a very bright man. Keith is funny, charming and very smart. He also has a habit of misplacing things. Normally this isn't a big deal because I am a very good finder. I like to think if forgetting where he placed things keeps important plane flying information in his head, then I'm happy to do my finding part. Most of the time. Keith was about 20 minutes out from leaving on a trip. Suitcase packed, id badge, uniform..... then I hear it "Hey, Jenn... have you seen my wallet?" We started searching high and low. The clock is ticking and he has to leave. No money, credit cards, missing military id, and most importantly his residency card. That little thing that lets him back in the country. He rolls the dice and heads off on his trip anyway. I assure him, his wallet HAS to be in the house and I'll find it. I turned the place upside down. I can't believe we've acquired so much crap in the small amount of months we've been here. I searched everywhere. I tried backtracking every step. I made phone calls. Our neighbors were in on the hunt. We didn't leave a stone unturned. I went to bed worried it was gone forever. ****** DING DONG ****** The doorbell rang at 1:40am. I laid in bed panicked. Surely I was hearing things. ****** DING DONG ****** Gulp. I'm in a foreign country. My husband is gone and somebody is at my door. A slight feeling of logic hit me that maybe it was the neighbor upstairs and they were having an emergency. (that was my hope! - what kind of logic is that!?!?!) I run upstair sot the door. We have this fancy camera on the wall that shows us who is standing at the door. It's not my neighbors! GULP. He rings it a third time. As I look at the camera, I can see him holding a wallet! Keith's wallet!!! I refuse to open the door, so I not-so-bravely call out "hello....." In perfect English he says "Yes, I found your mate's wallet". I was so excited and scared all at the same time. I asked him to please place it in the mailbox. He said sure and walked away. Then my crazy set it. I was sure it was a ploy to push his way into my house. I waited and waited without making a peep. I couldn't hear a car drive away. I didn't see which way he went, but I was dying to open the mailbox. The only problem was it required me to open the door!! I waited about 15 minutes and did a quick ninja grab of the mail! And there it was. His wallet with EVERYTHING intact. Including the 200 Euro. I wish I was thinking clearly enough to tell him to take the cash, ask him where he found it, or not be such a sissy to tell him thank you in person. I probably won't ever see him again. I can't erase the picture from the monitor from my mind. I hope our paths cross again. We've had such a crappy adjustment here, this slice of humanity is just what we needed to turn a new page. Thank you stranger. Your good dead will be paid forward. And I'm stapling Keith's wallet to his forehead.

3 years

It's been 3 years since we lost our little girl. I don't quite know what to say. It still leaves me speechless. All I know is that I was surrounded by people who loved us. I'm sure I will never know the depths people went to help us out. Thank you.

Consistancy Sucks

I'm terrible about keeping a routine about blogging. Here we go again. I watched a documentary last night, Mortified Nation. It was about adults taking the stage and reading their journal entries they wrote as kids growing up. They were funny. Not in a make fun-of sort of way, but funny how teens think their whole lives are of that moment. We all thought we were alone and the only one going through it. As adults we can all relate, it's universal. A few people read their journals who were struggling with understanding themselves, struggling with their sexuality, trying to pray it away. It was so hard to hear their shame when there shouldn't be any. There was also a man who took so much comfort in his mother's journal entries. He didn't get to say goodbye to her before she died and he takes comfort in reading her thoughts. That's kinda why I started journaling anyway. One of Keith's commander's has shared his life, his wife's life and his new life through journaling. He posted her old journal entries and I found it amazing how he could reflect on her exact thoughts. She was an amazing woman. I am no where near as wise as her, but I thought I would be worth wild to be able to reflect back one day. These are the days... The dogs are play fighting. They aren't tiny. When they play like this it's wild! Hair flying, growling, teeth showing. They wrestle, and flip over each other. They take up the whole living room. It's also bedtime. The boys are on edge, tired and refusing to listen. They are fighting too. The tv is on, Keith is yelling at them to calm down. Just another school night. It's the end of their 2 week spring break. We had a fun one. I really don't look forward to the routine of school. We were able to go with Keith on his FedEx trip to Basel, Switzerland. We spent 2 days there. It was so nice but the cost of food alone put a sting in the trip. We went to the Basel Zoo and to the Art Museum while we were there. We rode the bullet train first class each way. Not a bad way to travel! We came home to two days of soccer camp. It was Brad's first attempt over here. He was teased a bit the first day, but by the second day he had made friends. Cole had soccer tournaments all Easter weekend. We had to be in Amsterdam by 9am on Easter morning! The tournament was brutal. 24th out of 24 teams. It made the 3 hour drive each way that much worse. The second week Cole had training everyday. They were slow practices with only 3-4 kids at practice. They had to cancel the tournaments Cole was scheduled to play in. The neighbors upstairs hosted 2 Russian boys for the tournaments. They were EXCELLENT! I'm constantly shocked at the level of play when you stop to remember these are 11 year olds!! Keith and I had a bit of a date night too! For Christmas he got me Justin Timberlake tickets!! They were fancy tickets in a "box-like" setting with a backstage dinner. We went with Craig and Laura. It was so much fun! I'm glad we went. The boys are down and Keith is back from walking the dogs. Tomorrow back to the grind. The gym is calling my name.