LARGO DI GARDA

The first week in September we went on a Mediterranean Cruise. We stayed a couple days in Italy before our ship left out of Genua (Northern Tuscany). I was certain we didn't need to book a hotel beforehand as we would find a place to stay anyway. WRONG! We looked everywhere around Lake Garda and there was NOTHING! So we had no choice and had to sleep in our car (note to self: always bring camping stuff). We stayed at a tiny little campground directly on the water. The gate to the water was right in front of our car and it was perfect...except the hard floor in our car! Aua! It was an adventure! More pics of our cruise coming...

The Vacationist

Since Devin's summer break started 3 weeks ago I have hardly seen him. The first week he stayed the nights at friends houses, the second break week my mother and stepfather took him and his cousin David to Austria for a few days to hike. When he came back we were lucky that we had some appointments in Frankfurt, where he had to come and stay with us (very close to us!! :)) for 3 days. Lucky us! First day back home a call came in from my uncle Karli asking to take Devin to the Bavarian Forrest hiking. That's where he is now - on a man's camping/hiking trip on the very south-east corner of Germany. Today they are going on a 7 hour hike! 7 hours! Devin thinks he can do it, so I must believe him. From the top of the mountain (called 3 country border mountain) they can look into Germany, Austria and Cezch Republic. They come back tonight...pictures coming!

JUST A MOM


A woman, renewing her driver's license, was asked by the woman at registry to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself. "What I mean is", explained the woman at registry, "do you have a job or are you just a ...?" "Of course I have a job", snapped the woman. "I'm a Mom". "We don't list 'Mom' as an occupation, 'housewife' covers it", said the recorder emphatically. I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation.
`
The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, efficient & possessed of a high sounding title like, 'Official Interrogator' or 'City Registrar'. "What is your occupation?" she probed. What made me say it?, I do not know. The words simply popped out. "I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development & Human Relations". The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair & looked up as though she had not heard right. I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words. Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written, in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire. "Might I ask", said the clerk with new interest, 'just what you do in your field?' Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself reply, "I have a continuing program of research, (what mother doesn't) in the laboratory & in the field, (normally I would have said indoors & out) I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord & then the whole family) & already have four credits (all daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities, (any mother care to disagree?) & I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it), but the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers. The rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money". There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she completed the form, stood up & personally ushered me to the door. As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants - ages 13, 7 & 3. Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model, (a 6 month old baby) in the child development program, testing out a new vocal pattern. I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy! I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished & indispensable to mankind than 'just another Mom.' Motherhood! What a glorious career! Especially when there's a title on the door

My Precious Children



This is how I found them in my bed tonight. They are going to hate me tomorrow for posting it! But seriously, doesn't that melt every mothers heart? This picture is extra special to me. We have worked soooo hard on bonding them together as siblings, to make them a strong team, that seeing them like this is so very encouraging. Their relationship has really blossomed the last year and I am more then happy for them. Strong, positiv bonds between siblings are one of the most beautiful things in life!
I love these 2!

GREECE

A couple weeks ago we came back from our Greece vacation. We went to the Island of Crete for 10 days. It was our 10 year anniversary gift to ourselves (we hit the 10 years of marriage in Dec 08). We had such a great time and were really sad to leave.

Playing For Change: Song Around The World "Stand By Me"



I had to steel this video from Susan's blog, because it's sooo wonderful. Watch it, it'll change your day! Please make sure to turn off my music at the bottom of this page!

Valentine Surprises

Yesterday was fun. It already started in the morning, when Christian noticed his manicure I gave him while sleeping. Must spoil your loved ones on Valentine's!
Since I could not get back to sleep from laughing after painting his nails, another great idea of mine came flying by. So, I made breakfast, got ready, packed our bags and passports and woke up the crew. I let them inhale a toast real quick, before I took them on a 2 hour ride to one of the most romantic European cities. PRAGUE! Here are a couple of pics from our day!

Dear Dana's Blog Readers,

This is Dana's hubby, guest blogging for the first time here on the blend-o-matic. When Dana asked me to be a guest blogger I showed my enthusiasm by saying, “Sure, when I think of something.” Nine months later I finally have that thought.

It's Friday, Presidents' Day weekend. The young 'uns are in their room playing “Let's Pretend We're on the German Version of American Idol,” and it reminds me of the last time I played “Pretend I'm Someone Else.” It was on our trip to Turkey, which happened to coincide with some less-than-favorable political goings-on between the Middle East and Upper West. We wondered at the soundness of an American Soldier and his family vacationing in that region, but of course the tickets were non-refundable. After much deliberation the decision was made that for vacation purposes I would become an Australian expatriate living in Germany; our reason being that while there may be some animosity toward Americans out there, nobody doesn't like and Australian.

Armed with this meager back-story and vague memories of Crocodile Dundee sequels I marched into Turkey as a new man: Dirk McCallister from Ipswich (kidding, of course). My basic plan was to have only brief interaction with locals, generally free of social niceties. Well, if you've ever been to Turkey, you'll know that this attitude just won't cut it. Theirs is a culture rife with social niceties and intricate, subtle interactions.

Everywhere you go in Turkey there is a smiling face offering a seat and a glass of tea. (In the faux pas world, nothing is lower than refusing a steaming glass of apple tea.) Along with the tea comes conversation, much of which starts with the question, “Where do you come from?” Almost immediately our little subterfuge started to head south as, one after another, our hosts would offer a quizzical expression or outright double-take every time the answer was, “Australia.” It seems not a lot of Australians visit Turkey; so in reality we were attracting more attention than we were avoiding. More questions were to follow such as: “How long is it to travel from Australia?”; “Why would you come to Turkey all the way from Australia?”; and “Why don't you sound like and Australian?”

I guess by and large nobody really cared where anyone else was from; but there was this one gentleman by the name of Mammoud. Mammoud, it seems, had been to Australia. Mammoud apparently knew quite a bit about Australia and couldn't resist showing his knowledge by asking a series of progressively detailed questions. At one point I just gave up and said, “¿Què? No compreno. Ich komme aus Puerto Rico, nicht Australien.” I don't think Mammoud actually believed I was from Brisbane, but he never let on about it. In fact, we ran into Mammoud at a farmers market the next week; he was selling fruit and nuts and appeared very pleased to see us. He greeted me as his 'friend from Australia' and offered a hearty, guttural laugh and a bag full of bitter almonds.

The whole act came crashing down when we were on a bus-ride to the Manavgat waterfall. Devin, sitting in his much coveted window seat, turned to me with his angel face and in all sincerity asked, “Daddy, are you really from Australia?” Apparently he had been stressing a lot about it, as he had always been under the assumption that he is half American. The prospect that he may have to redefine half of his identity was undoubtedly weighing heavily on the boy and he nearly broke down in tears when I said, “'Course ah yam, mate.” Right then and there I saw the error of my ways and spent the rest of our vacation as good old Christian Michael Allen, a low-level manager at the BMW factory in South Carolina who got transferred to headquarters in Germany and settled down with a local girl. Kidding again, I was myself; which I guess is kind of the moral of this story: Be Yourself.

Until next time; God bless,

Christian.

Caveat: so as not to offend anyone, let me say that I am proud to be an American Soldier. The interactions above did actually happen, but it was really just a joke between Dana and myself and we only did it a few times. Mostly I said who I really was if asked and nothing bad ever came out of it. Turkey is a lovely country with a rich and vibrant culture and I'm not being coerced into saying that. A good time was had by all.

The Thoothfaerie is about to file Chapter 11



Shilda losing 2 chompers in 1 week.






Since this picture Devin lost another one. Unfortunate looking maw.




Mara's smile is still the prettiest at the moment, don't you think?!

Something to think about!

A Day In The Bavarian Forest

I have been Tagged! (Yeah, thanks Susan!)
7 random facts about me. Here goes my privacy...

1) I have this secret dream of having a really large family
(about 10 kids). I would love to homeschool, cook, bake and
play with the youngens all day long. BUT Christian got neutered,
I don't have the nerves for another adoption (at least not right
now) and Devin's daily homework almost always ends with a call
to the psychologists helpline. And homeschooling in Germany is
illegal anyway. Lucky psychologist!

2) I went to a catholic all-girls (nunes included) High School.

3) I have very poor eyesight. Before wearing contacts, I thought
Christian was a 6 foot tall African.

4) I used to be in a gang in Kansas. In a German-Women-Kidnap-Poor
Dogs-And-Cats from the ghetto of Junction City kind of gang.
(Story safed in head for another day)

5) I love to play tricks on sleeping people. I have been known to
draw glasses, red nose and a beard on a friend of mine in his
sleep. Another friend of mine and me woke him up after our
beautiful painting was finished and send him to the store. For
some reason he does not know me anymore.

6) I pray daily.

7) Darkness. I am really afraid in the dark. I will not go in the
basement myself in the evening. Fortunatly I have kids. Even
they negate my fear. But my kids and husband are deep sleepers,
so in the night I have the real problem when I have to use the
bathroom. I turn all the lights on around me with my eyes
closed. Then I go (read: doing the scared jumps) and turn every
single light on in the house (thank God we have a small house
right now) and then comes my bladders turn. It's not easy. I
am not sure how I function either.

So, there it went...MY PRIVACY. If you read this consider yourself tagged. Let's have a look into someone elses bizzare life.

Shilda's Birth Place

HAITI

Please help! Haiti was hit by 4 storms in the last 4 weeks and there is another one on the way. My heart has been so heavy for these poor people. We have not heard from Shilda's Haiti Mama yet.
Go to Licia and Lori's blog. You can donate with paypal or send a check to:

REAL HOPE FOR HAITI
PO Box 23
Elwood, IN 46036

Here is a slide show from the destruction of Chabaret Haiti, which is near Cazale where Licia and Lori live.

This might be my last day on earth!

Before I explain myself let me just say: It feels soooo good being a kid sometime. No worries!

Ok, here is the story. For the last week Devin and his friends have been coming home again totally muddy after playtime. We remember this miserable time from last year, so us mom's decided to check on them more often to get things under control right from the start. It has been raining a lot and it just started "freezing" here in Germany. In warm weather it isn't such a problem because we hose them off with everything on right outside. Nothing against some dirt, but these guys dive into every mud-hole they find, throw it at each other and have been known for putting it in their underwear so it's looks like a huge blow-out. Anyway, so today was my turn to spy on them. That's when things went terribly wrong! Of course, it was already to late to stop them anyway. So instead of pulling their ears for misbehavior, I went back home to get my camera and Shilda's mud clothes and had some fun with the nutty children.
I just couldn't resist...
And if one of you mom's is reading this (I know S. probably will), don't call me because I have a lot of muddy laundry to do now, don't come by because we have a pretty dangerous dog and don't leave me a comment because...hhhmmm aammm oh yeah, because you would have to write in english! AND btw I got pretty nasty, too. So back off...:)

The New Olympist (new word?)

Every day last week Devin took part at the School Holiday Olympics. My guess is that he wished he wouldn't have with a bloody murder screaming mother on the tribune cheering for him!

MEET OUR NEW KIDS


In Duvernard is 6 years old

Fadia is 4 years old

Mirlande is 2 years old


Aren't they just adorable?! They are siblings from Cazale, Haiti. No, we are not adopting again (at least not yet). They are our sponsorship children. Originally, Devin came up with the idea to sponsor a child. He wanted a boy around his age and was willing to share some of his allowance money to help pay for his school. Since Shilda just started to get some pocket money from my mother and grandmother also, we thought it would not hurt for her to share some of that too. So we started to look for a boy around age 7 and a girl around 5. The same day Licia in Haiti posted about this family with 3 kids looking for a sponsorship. Right away their pictures stole our heart and we agreed to sponsor all 3 of them. We are so exited! I just can't wait to go to Haiti and meet our extended family (Shilda's birth family), lots of internet friends we have there and now these 3 cuties with their family!

OUR LAST COUPLE OF DAYS
The kids are still on school break until the middle of September. I am taking them on different outings every day so they won't drive me insane at home. Honestly, we are having a great time!



Still having fun...5 minutes later Devin got biten and Mara attacked by a goat:( So what did we learn from the day? Goats suck!

we can not just walk by a fountain :)



Ice Cream in Regensburg

Dinner tastes so much better in cupcake forms

Short Haired Devin

I was almost crying the ugly-face-cry when Devin wanted his hair cut, but I had to give in and I am kind of getting used to it now. But still trying to talk him into letting it grow again!