A Georgia Girl in Germany

Zachary and MacKenzie were both excited when we woke up yesterday morning and noticed another 1 to 2 inches of snow. We had some shopping to tackle before they could jump into their daily snow fun, but they were good sports as I enjoyed searching for bargains at a local sale. Afterward, they opted to climb a snow mountain left by a snowplow in the parking lot, and played a short game of “King of the Mountain.” After lunch, they made a fort with the snow left at the end of our parking lot...complete with a slide down the side. Apparently, MacKenzie was the first to the top of this mountain, and therefore was crowned “Queen of the Mountain.”



Benjamin was down for his nap when they first went outside, and he opted to remain inside after he awoke. I think the coldness of the snow from his earlier foray (when it snuck onto his unprotected wrist between his mitten and his jacket sleeve) swayed his decision. I didn’t mind staying inside with him though since he’s battling a cough and it was too cold to stay out very long. Even Zachary came inside on his own. MacKenzie stayed out a little longer so she could sled down our hill a few times, but soon decided to warm up with a cup of hot cocoa while wearing dry clothes. As always, they both said they enjoyed their time playing in the snow. I suppose they're trying to make up for the first half of the season without snow.

It looks like my prediction that whatever snow we would receive last week wouldn't last until the weekend didn't hold true. I suppose the weather forecasters have to be right some of the time, if for no other reason than to keep us on our toes.

Labels: Benjamin, MacKenzie, Zachary

Benjamin took time out a while back to read a few books to his sleeping buddy, “Baby Puppy.” Since this photo was taken, he has expanded his alphabet recitation from “A-B-C-D-E-F-EEE” to the entire alphabet with the variation of “H-I-J-K-L-O-O-O-P” in the middle. He’s very proud of himself for mastering it with the help of his refrigerator magnets that sing the alphabet song and letter sounds to him. The best part of his song is how he varies the ending: “Now you..know my A-B-C’s, next time won’t you sing with me.” I love his..“A-B-C’s!”

When I picked up Benjamin yesterday, I noticed that he’d been coloring with markers. He didn’t realize what he looked like until we told him to look in the mirror. He got so tickled when he saw his clown mouth reflection, and nearly fell off the stool from his silly giggles!

Labels: Benjamin

Zachary had been bugging me almost all year to let him build a computer. After much research and consultation with my brother (who works for Dell and is MUCH smarter about these things than I), we ordered parts for him to assemble a new computer. It didn’t hurt that our old computer was slowly dying and needed replacing, so the timing was right.

He worked with a high school boy from the computer repair class to assemble the computer, and it only took about two hours to complete. It’s now our primary computer, with internet capability and SimCity 4. He’s proud of the fact that it’s in a gaming computer case...complete with flashing blue neon lights as it runs!

As a bonus, two of his classmates wrote an article on his accomplishment and submitted it to the garrison newspaper. He’s been waiting patiently for the story to come out, and it finally did this week. He was definitely excited when he got his hands on the paper last night, and quickly scanned each page looking for his photo. You can see the article online at http://www.stuttgart.army.mil/sites/news/documents/Citizen/2007/012307.pdf. After following the link, scroll down to the bottom of page 13 to read the article.

Labels: Zachary

With our snow news of late, I can’t neglect to share some other important news. Tuesday morning, Zachary participated in the 5th grade spelling bee. This year’s competition was set up by grade-level, with the top four contestants in each grade progressing to the school-wide spelling bee next week.


There were 19 5th graders who entered the competition, and most of them had met at lunchtime during the past few weeks for study sessions. They were all well-prepared. Zachary’s first words included “fiesta,” cobalt,” thermal,” and “hearth.” After the first four rounds, half of the students were left standing and ready for the fifth round. Zachary correctly spelled “metaphor” during that round. The other eight students all spelled their words correctly too, so I thought the spelling bee might last several more rounds.

By the end of the sixth round, however, the tempo had changed and there were only four students left standing. Since Zachary correctly spelled “pentathlon,” he is one of the four 5th-graders moving up to the school-wide competition next week. You can bet I'll be there next week supporting him in the next round of competition! No matter how he does though, I'm proud of him for the effort he's put into it thus far.

Labels: Zachary

I woke up this morning expecting a little snow on the ground. However, I shot right of bed when the radio deejay said all schools in Stuttgart were closed today and everyone else had a two-hour delayed reporting. I quickly looked out the window to see a massive amount of the white powder covering everything in sight.

If you look closely at the ruler MacKenzie’s holding, it shows we have at least seven-and-a-half inches of snow. That was first thing this morning...before an additional eight hours of non-stop snow! Granted, it didn’t come down at the same rate as it did overnight, but it was enough to keep adding to what we already had. Thankfully, we weren’t planning on driving anywhere today!


Since I had an extra two hours before I had to be at work, we headed out to make the most of our free time. This early outdoor adventure helped get everyone’s day off to a good start. Granted, Benjamin didn’t care much for the cold that accompanied the snow, and let me know every time snow touched his skin.

We found a small hill and made a few runs down on our sleds. Benjamin wanted to sled, but wasn’t ready to go solo so opted to ride in my lap instead. The snow was very powdery, so you can barely tell that we’re on a sled!


The kids were good about staying bundled up for warmth. I love this shot of MacKenzie with the fresh snow in her hair despite the hood. Benjamin’s hat is a little big, and he would regularly remind me that it was covering his eyes. There was a fine line between his hat being too low that it covered his eyes and too high that it didn’t cover his ears. We fought that battle most of the day, but he was a good sport about it.

Zachary liked the fact that he could eat the snow as it fell from the sky. I remember Lucy from "Peanuts" commented that she never ate the first snow of the season because it wasn’t ripe yet. Even though this was our first snow of the season, I think it was pretty ripe and well overdue!


After a few downhill runs on the sled, Benjamin was ready to head inside. It was also time for me to start getting ready for work. He made a brief stop on the way home to pick a few berries off the bushes outside our apartment building so he could drop them in the snow and bury them. However, once we got back home, my boss called to let me know only mission-essential personnel had to report to work today. Translation: stay at home and have fun in the snow. I hadn’t had a snow day since I was in junior high!


After lunch, we all headed back outside for round #2 of the snow fun. This time we tackled the more popular hill behind our house. After riding down the hill a few times in my lap, Benjamin decided he was ready to sled solo. He really enjoyed it -- especially since he didn’t wipe out at the bottom. That probably would have changed his mind about the fun factor! He didn’t even want anyone to give him a push to get started down the slope. After a while, he informed me he wanted to go over the “bump” at the bottom of the hill, and after a little persuasion agreed to ride with me to do so. I could just see him going airborne and wiping out, so thankfully he didn’t push the going solo issue.


In his typical over-exaggeration fashion, Zachary buried himself and his sled in the resulting powder after one of his runs. Yes, his sled is underneath him!

At this point, Benjamin was getting tired of the snow. He had just trudged through a field where the snow was at least as high as his knees, and he was getting tired of battling the powder just to walk. He complained with almost every other step that the snow was “too big.” It didn’t help that his hat was winning the battle against his right eye either. Fortunately, once we got inside it didn’t take much for him to fall asleep and get a good nap.


After supper, MacKenzie was the only one interested in round #3 of the snow fun. In fact, she was adamant about wanting to build a snowman and make a snow angel. The snow wasn’t very conducive to making a snowman since it was very dry and powdery and therefore didn’t want to stick together. As a result, her snowman wasn’t the only one that was short and squatty. But she didn’t mind.

She tried to make her first snow angel in very fresh, undisturbed snow...and could barely get up afterward since the snow was taller than she was (when lying down, that is). Her second attempt was in an area that wasn’t quite as deep and had been trudged through a little already, so it was easier to create. Her added bonus after all her outdoor adventures was that she had hot chocolate twice today. It was a perfect treat to help warm her up after playing out in the cold! She's already decided that she doesn't want to go to school tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see what the morning holds in store though.

We're expected to get more snow during the next few nights, and through the weekend. More importantly, the high temps for tomorrow and Friday are predicted to not break above freezing! Brrrrr!! Good thing the kids have learned to bundle up!

Labels: Benjamin, MacKenzie, Zachary

Before describing the Schoss Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival, here's tonight's snow update: there ain't much. Zachary was disappointed with how little of a dusting we woke up to this morning. We could still see the green blades of grass under the white powder. Yes, it's been so warm that the grass is still green! We're under another weather advisory for up to 5 inches overnight, but I'm not holding my breath after yesterday’s forecast. It sure is cold though--I don’t think we even broke freezing today. It was 29-degrees when I went out for lunch, and the wind was brutal so it felt much colder!

Now, on to pumpkins...

Since I missed out on taking my traditional October pumpkin patch photos with the kids last year, when I heard that Schloss Ludwigsburg was holding a pumpkin festival, I jumped at the opportunity to grab my camera and snap away. I don’t know what it is about the orange gourds, but I love taking photos of the kids surrounded by orange. This year was no exception, especially after what we discovered at the castle.The grounds in front of the castle were minimally decorated with pumpkins around the main decorative pond, but the real treasure was tucked away behind the castle. You can’t see it very well from here, but the top of the hill where the kids are sitting was lined with pumpkins. Nearby were the 4-H type pumpkins: displays of the largest pumpkins in several different categories. Boy, were they massive! Just down the hill from there was the main attraction: TONS of pumpkins and gourds of all shapes, colors and sizes. What’s more is they weren’t simply laying around in piles or bins to be purchased, but instead were parts of elaborate works of art. Totem poles, horses, buffalo, cowboys, stagecoaches, cacti…the traditional American west created with pumpkins!

I’m sure you’ve all heard of ice sculptures and butter sculptures…well, welcome to the world of gourd sculptures. Benjamin liked this swan, complete with several eggs in her nest.

I thought the punked-out cow below was trying to give Zachary a kiss.

MacKenzie liked this giraffe, as well as the elephant behind her.

Of course, I had to get at least one traditional shot with the multitude of orange surrounding the kids.
There was also a display of nearly every type of pumpkin and/or gourd imaginable. The display wrapped around all four sides of this building. There were several entries from unexpected places around the world (several from Asia, even).

After we explored the pumpkin display and the kids burned off some energy jumping off several hay bales, we entered the Märchengarten (Fairytale Garden) and nearly got lost discovering numerous mechanical figures acting out various fairy tales. We figured out most of them, but not quite all. There was even a boat ride that follows the story of Pinocchio, beginning in Geppetto’s workshop and ending after riding through the belly of a whale.
We even found a shrub maze to navigate. At the center were two frogs that shot water at anyone who walked across stone blocks between them. Benjamin was surprised when they squirted him...and froze as they continued squirting him. Fortunately, I had a change of clothes for him, and we quickly got him out of his soaked clothes into something dry. After that, he refused to walk near the frogs again.

Labels: Benjamin, Germany, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary

I didn’t know Germany could be subjected to hurricanes, but apparently that explains the wild wind and weather we had late last week. Actually, the storm should be more correctly called an "Orkan" or "Sturmtief" (low-pressure system), but one way to translate it into English is “hurricane” because it packs hurricane-force winds. In either case, according to an embassy summary of news reports, the storm had quite an impact:

All papers are full of reports on Hurricane "Kyrill" that blasted Germany on Thursday, forcing flight cancellations, the shutting of schools, and prompting authorities to warn people to secure loose items on balconies and gardens. Deutsche Bahn ordered its high-speed ICE trains to slow down to 200 km/h and later canceled all trains and asked passengers to leave all trains for security reasons. Tens of thousands of people were stranded all over Germany. All papers also reported that Secretary Rice cut short her visit to Berlin due to the storm canceling an interview with ARD-TV in order to leave for London before the winds worsened.

The wind blew down a tree in the elementary school playground, and several roof shingles apparently were blown off (at least) one of the three-story buildings on post. Tree branches were strewn all over the place. Stuttgart had sustained wind speeds of nearly 38 mph (61 km/h) with gusts of 58 mph (93 km/h) during the storm. Fortunately, the worst of the storm hit during the night, when we were already at home and bunkered down. But, I definitely heard the wind howling as I went to bed!

Other coverage of the storm is at: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/18/germany.storm.reut/index.html and http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2317752,00.html?maca=en-tagesschau_englisch-335-rdf-mp.

After surviving what Kyrill dished out last week, it looks like winter is finally on its way here. We are under a severe weather advisory beginning tonight -- for snow. Yes, snow! More correctly, the first snow of the season. Last winter, our first snow came in mid-November, so we’re more than two months behind that timeline. Then again, this is the warmest winter Europe has seen in more than 100 years! Depending on which forecast you believe, it could hit us with a vengeance...up to 4-8 inches tomorrow and another 5-7 inches on Wednesday. Guess Mother Nature could make up for the past two months without snow!

These photos are from last year, the first from on post, the second looking at the valley below Schloss Neuschwanstein. It will be interesting to see how thick of a white blanket we have during the next few days! I doubt it will last until the weekend though.

Labels: Pam's thoughts

To celebrate my birthday, I decided to take the kids to one of the largest parties in the world: the Bad Cannstatt Volksfest. How fortunate that my birthday fell on the final day of the 16-day party!

I had a blast simply watching the kids have fun on the rides at this huge fair of fairs.

Of course, we had to go on the log ride. Even Benjamin enjoyed the ride, and (fortunately) none of us got tremendously wet from the culminating freefall.

After getting a quick bite of pizza (the kids didn’t opt for wurst this night), we made our way to the ferris wheel. I can’t recall the last time I’ve been on a ferris wheel, so it was a nice treat to get an aerial view of the fest below.

We were even fortunate enough to watch the moon rise over the city while atop the ferris wheel. Benjamin loved that since he’s always pointing out the moon to me when he sees it. It was the night after a full moon, so it was a beautiful site--big and orange as it climbed into the sky. We were all in a good mood after the soothing ride.

After riding through the Haunted House, Zachary and MacKenzie wanted to ride this outrageously wild ride with three simultaneous spinning actions combined with vertical movement and fog. Benjamin and I safely watched from the sidelines.

After his experience in the Haunted House, Benjamin decided it was safer for him to drive a school bus for his final ride of the evening.

Our last adventure before heading home was walking through the House of Mirrors. Unfortunately, toward the end of the maze, MacKenzie thought she had found the way out and plowed face-first into a mirror. Oooops. Other than that, we all had a very enjoyable evening. Next year we’ll have to head out to the fest grounds before the final evening though.

Labels: Benjamin, Germany, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary

At this month’s Cub Scout Pack meeting, the boys had a "ranks" type inspection by Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Melvin Spiese, EUCOM’s Deputy Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy. So, Zachary made sure his uniform looked sharp and he was prepared to answer any questions asked of him.

The pack was divided into two formations after the honor guard presented the flag, and was soon standing at attention, ready for inspection. There were about 75 boys at the meeting, and Gen. Spiese took the time to ask each one of them several questions. Then his executive officer. Then one of his sharp noncommissioned officers. Talk about impressive! Then again, I think Marines are always impressive.

Gen. Spiese asked Zachary how long he’s been involved in Cub Scouts and where he participated in scouting before here. The other two Marines were interested in his vest and all his patches on it. The first questions were about his patch from the USS Lexington -- where is it (in Corpus Christi) and was it docked or out at sea when he slept aboard it (docked)? The final question was “How many patches do you have on your vest?” Zachary thought about it for a while, but since he wasn’t sure (we’ve never counted), he guessed around 30 and opened up his vest to show the additional patches on the inside that don’t fit on the outside. Pretty good improv answer.

After the inspection, Gen. Spiese gave the boys a few words of encouragement and motivation as they travel along their scouting paths, adding that most Marine recruits who perform best at boot camp have one thing in common: they were all Eagle Scouts. I’ve heard similar comments about the other services as well. What a wonderful testament to the scouting program!

When we got home, we counted 49 patches on Zachary’s vest, not including the three more still to add.

What a wonderful opportunity for the boys to take pride in the Cub Scout program and further build the concepts of citizenship and community.

Labels: Cub Scouts, Zachary