As I mentioned before, I had a little surprise for them.   I’m horrible at surprises and have done really good at protecting this one.  As you can imagine from the title of this post, I messed up, and I was SO close to making it!

Before I tell you what happened, here are two collages.  In the first one you will see the boys running to their Nana and Papa at the airport.  I always love that moment!  In the second one you will see mom and dad opening their gift, even though I had already let the cat out of the bag.  See if you can tell what the surprise is by the things in the photos.

Here’s how it went down:
We were in a friend’s van when we picked my parents up at the airport and we all commented on how nice it is to be able to fit in one vehicle together.  I actually said once that I had been tempted to ask to borrow it for Edelweiss but the owner actually needed it for her own trip to Garmisch.  That comment brought Hayden flying out of the van saying something that I couldn’t understand, so I brushed it off as him being silly.

Five minutes later the van topic came up and I said something else… and it was over!  I realized I had told them we were going to Edelweiss and the kids were fake-mad that I had told them!

Regardless, Nana and Papa are very excited and looking forward to this part of their vacation.  In fact, they had come to Germany with hopes of seeing Neuschwanstein and Linderhof, specifially, and were going to research how to get down there for a few days!

We’re thrilled and love how God planned this trip to be a fun surprise for them and also fulfill part of their wish-list.  We get a week of fun here, celebrating Hayden’s birthday this weekend, and then we go to Edelweiss to celebrate Mother’s Day.

Inside the bag was a miniature replica of Neuschwanstein, two postcards of that castle, and a deck of playing cards with the Garmish card sticking out.  I hate I didn’t get to see their faces reflect surprise as they opened these gifts but as you can see, their faces did reflect excitement and joy.  While I am kicking myself for spilling the beans, I’m just happy they’re here!

I drove around the neighborhood for 15 minutes looking for him, making three loops.  Our neighborhood is not large but it has several playgrounds, and I didn’t see him at any.  Just about the time I started to worry Matt called and said that Bailey was home.  He had been at one of the playgrounds that is not visible from the road.  I was very glad to know that he’d been with a friend the whole time, not out by himself.

That incident prompted me to act on an idea I had recently to get each of the bigs a nice watch that has an alarm.  I set each alarm to ring at 6:30 pm and told them they had five minutes to be home once it rang.  They can make it home from the farthest corners of our neighborhood in that time so there was no excuse to be late.  The only day since they got their watches that two of them didn’t return on time was he third day.  The reason?  They had been playing around with the features and accidentally turned off the alarms.  I had to teach them what symbol to look for to make sure the alarm was set but I also reminded them that they could keep checking the time on their watches to see how late it was getting.

I put three command hooks up by the door and if they aren’t wearing their watches they must hang them there.  We’ve given them watches before and told them to keep them in a safe place.  Within days some had lost theirs and these watches were not the $5 kind.  I want to have my eyes on those watches!  At night, when I go to bed, I stop by the door to check to see if it’s locked.  I can see who has placed their watches on the hooks and who hasn’t.  As I go to each boy’s room to turn off his iPod, I check his wrist for his watch if his wasn’t by the door.  Once, I found Bailey’s under his covers, not on his wrist.  He has the hardest time with his watch…  the others wear theirs pretty much around the clock.

Hopefully we’ll have more success at getting them home at a decent hour, and with keeping up with their watches!

The point Matt made with this picture is that when Hayden was first playing soccer he was unsure about what to do… where to run.  Matt was the coach but also his father, so if Hayden wanted direction he knew he could look to his dad and find it.  Sometimes, his dad was actually on the field with him, walking him in the right direction.  Christians also have that exact same luxury… when we don’t know what to do, we can stand on our identity in Christ, look to the Father, and He’ll provide direction for our lives.

I couldn’t resist going through the CD myself and looking at old pictures, taken the first year we were in the Army.

Funny story about our sweet little carson.  He has always preferred to be in the background, quiet, not in the spotlight.  For some reason, wearying the jersey made him feel like he stood out.  I would say he felt as nervous in his jersey as someone with a fear of speaking in public felt about standing in front of a crowd and speaking with a microphone.

Anyway, his solution to either wear his coat or not wear the jersey.  What he didn’t realize was that he stood out more by wearing something different from all the other kids!  Silly boy.

And every kid’s favorite part of soccer:  THE SNACK!!

He did a great job of watching his mouth and, even when he felt like talking back, he kept control.

Such a simple method to help them watch their tongues and it worked!  I was pleased.

Week two, this past week, was just as good!  As they get better I may reduce the number of strikes before they lose FNMN.  By Friday morning, all three boys were right around six strikes.  We were looking GOOD and had seen an improvement from the week before.  And then something happened.  Carson had a hard time while watching Parker and Parker was not too happy.  I went back to Parker’s room to help and I could hear through the door that Carson really was doing his best to change Parker’s mood, but by this point, there was no consoling him.

I sent Carson to do Math for the remaining 15 minutes, something I never do… usually if I have to intervene I just let the big brother involved read or do math facts.  However, we are in a push to finish our math sooner rather than later and I wanted him to get as much done as possible.  As his teacher I have that right.  As his mother I have that right.  He didn’t like my suggestion and four times he let me know.  (Actually, I gave him four strikes even though he probably deserved eight.)  Needless to say there was no way he could have FNMN after that episode, which actually also included him slamming his door.  For that he earned the exciting privilege of opening and closing his door correctly fifteen times.  It was a huge fit, one I rarely see from any of them, thankfully, and it lasted all of five minutes.  Five minutes and it ruined his favorite night of the week.

If I can say this without judgement, I’m sort of glad it happened.  For one, it let the all of the boys know that I’m serious.  I will not tolerate back talk and I will not hesitate to take away something that matters.  And the other reason I’m glad is because it let me see a side of Carson that I am extremely proud of.  He handled his discipline like a man.  He came out at one point during the afternoon and asked a simple, even-toned question.  “Did I lose just the ‘sleeping-in-the-living-room’ part or did I lose the popcorn, movie, and sleeping-in-the-living-room?”  Two weeks prior, on the way home from Easter, I had told them that if they got ten strikes they would lose the entire evening. Anyone who got ten strikes would eat dinner with the family and then go to bed as if it were a school night.

My heart ached as I told him that he had lost all of it and he turned around, walked back to his room, crying.  Not weeping-and-wailing, but crying… feeling the pain I had hoped to inflict by taking away FNMN.  He needed to feel the pain of his own actions, and he did.  He didn’t complain any further.  He was nice and pleasant at dinner.  His demeanor was no different from any other night. That evening both Matt and I told him we were proud of the way he was handling himself and that we were really going to miss him during the movie.  We prayed with him and he went to bed.  He came out a few times to get something and went right back as soon as he got it.  I went back once to check on him once (and to make sure there was no temptation to watch TV) and found him reading a book on famous musicians.  He told me all about Mozart and Chopin.  My little musician!

I once again reminded him that we were missing him and that I was proud of how he was handling his discipline.  How to word this…  His spirit was not hard.  He wasn’t being stoic or difficult.  He wasn’t having an ‘I don’t care that I’m being disciplined” attitude, which is the part of Carson I was so pleased to see.  Not that he usually has that attitude, but it would have been one possible way for him to handle his discipline and I was glad to see he was humble about it.

We now start our third week of Talk Back Boot Camp and we’re also beginning three weeks of SUPER AWESOMENESS in our schedule.  (Think England then Nana and Papa!)

Demnig manufactures a concrete cube of 10 cm (4 inches), which he covers with a sheet of brass. Then he stamps the details of the individual; the name, year of birth and the fate, as well as the dates of deportation and death, if known. The words “Hier wohnte” (“here lived”) grace most of the memorials, though others are installed at the individual’s place of employment and refer instead to the work. The stolperstein is then laid flush with the pavement or sidewalk in front of the last residence of the victim. (wikipedia)

As a family we wanted to take the walking tour that would take us past a few of these stones, as well as the location where the Old Synagogue used to be located, and the train station where the Jews were loaded and taken from Wiesbaden.

We stopped for a snack break at a random playground we ran across on our walk.  Later, a friend told us that that playground has been featured in Popular Science Magazine as one of five especially awesome playgrounds in the world!

Standing by the bench you can see in the large picture above I took the following of our beautiful city:

(Look at the large church in the center, then look to the right at a tall, gold-windowed building {don’t go past the tree trunk}.  That’s about where we started our walk from, and, therefore, where we had to walk back to.  I’m guessing about a five-mile round trip walk.)

We made it  halfway through the tour before storm clouds rolled in and we headed straight home.  We will go see the last few things on the list soon.

This website has some neat pictures featuring the Memorial Slaughterhouse Ramp, one of the sites we didn’t make it to that day.

Here is a very interesting, though sobering, story of one Wiesbaden Holocaust survivor, Eve Gerstle.

This documents one man’s experiences as he walks through the Stumbling Stone tour with an actual guide.  He includes a lot of informative links within.

Bailey loves the gifts he got and enjoyed having his friends over.  He definitely missed two special friends who have since moved away, but he thought of them that day.  (Nathan and Owen, we missed you!)

It’s a special rite of passage in the Hamrick household to receive a pocket knife for your 8th birthday.  Here is Bailey with his:

I will say that he’s gone a month without losing it due to misplacement or mistreatment.  I’m pretty pleased with that!

Here is the video from the birthday party Bailey shared with Parker.  It’s the same video on the link called, “Parker’s 2!!“

Watch Bailey as he actually enjoyed watching PARKER more than the song himself.  Also, pay attention when Bailey opens a present and yells, “SPLITFACE!!” You’ll hear Matt say, “Whoa!  Hero Factory,” and Bailey’s friend replies, “Again.”  (Bailey had received a few of these and he was thrilled.  He’s really into these things right now.)  Bailey’s reaction cracks me up every time I watch it.  (In case it’s hard to hear, he tells his friend, “That’s what I wanted, you know.”)

Bailey’s actual birthday was on March 18th.

The first week was fine, but then on the sixth, Matt started feeling bad.  It was the start of the four-day Easter weekend and Matt was home.  The boys and I went to a birthday party in the middle of the day, and had another one that evening, so we were off schedule to begin with.

Matt was really sick all the next week and, I have to be honest, when he’s sitting in a recliner beside me, I’m more apt to stay in my recliner than to get up and be productive.  My house stays cleaner when he’s gone, not because he’s messy, but because I actually work when he goes to work.  If he stays home, I switch into veg mode and do little.

Yesterday was the first day back to normalcy, but not really.  See, we have a massive trip coming up next week to and my parents arrive the day after we get back.  (They are actually traveling here from the US on the same day we will be traveling back here from England.)  I have a list of things to do that is quite extensive.  For starters, I wanted to do the huge grocery trip to get the food for the next month as well as the snacks and such for the trip, but I wanted to go through the thousands of coupons I had on hand before.  It took hours, but was very worth it, as I saved $67.13 on my bill.

Yes.  I just wrote that.  Sixty-seven dollars and thirteen cents!!!

I also wanted to cook for the next month so that while my parents are here we can spend more time visiting than working.  Therefore, yesterday we spent two hours in the commissary and then an hour unpacking everything at home.  Once that was done I sent the boys to do an hour of math each.  They did not do well with this and complained the entire hour.  They NEED their schedules.  Usually they work for four and a half hours with no complaints but asking them to do one about killed them.

While they worked I prepared six pounds of meat for a meal I’ll be serving to a HUGE group of people.  Aimee’s family and mine will converge on my house for a traditional German meal and I’m excited for our moms to meet!  I had to get that job done before rushing the boys to the clinic for a well visit.  We had two back-t0-back appointments at 2:00 and 2:30, but tennis practice was supposed to start at 3:00.  Dr. S was AWESOME and got them both done by 2:40 and we made it to tennis practice on time.  While I waited for  Carson’s and Bailey’s tennis practice to end I sat and watched Hayden play with Parker on the playground.  My heart smiles at their relationship.

As soon as 4:00 rolled around I rushed home, leaving Hayden at his 90 minute practice and started cooking dinners.  Yes, dinners.  I made calzones for last night’s dinner, but also prepared and froze four pounds of ground beef for tacos and made four pounds of meatballs for “Down Home Meat Ball Subs.”  Matt picked Hayden up on his way home and we had a nice family dinner.  First time in a while!  (“Off schedule” means “fix your own dinner” most of the time so it was great to sit at the table with all six of us together, feeling well.  Plus, all six people like calzones so there were no complaints about the food.)

After dinner and a game of dice which Bailey won by rolling 2600 on his last roll, I left the kitchen clean-up to Matt and went for a short run.  2.5 miles and it was WONDERFUL.  Honestly, the only thing I like about the sun staying awake so late at night is running once Matt gets home from work.  I prefer the winter, dark evenings, and miss Christmas very much!  Here’s a side note that I may or may not have mentioned before:  I’ve found that with my 2012 life (exercising 6 days a week, MOTH, Cooking by the month) I have a hard time doing all three.  It seems I can get my exercise in but I can’t seem to get the dinner done.  What I need to do is SCHEDULE a day to do coupons/shopping/cooking, but I just haven’t done that.  So I end up cooking on a day we’re scheduled to do other things and it just hasn’t gone smoothly.  Last year, exercising only three days a week was easy… adding three more days in has made it a lot more difficult.

After my run I spent time with my hand in a toilet, but that’s another blog for another day.

All of that to say that being off track has made the value of the schedule even more apparent.  I miss it and need to get back on it, but something tells me it’ll be a while.

To be completely transparent, I’ve only check the boys chores four days this month.  They’ve had to do them, but I haven’t checked them.  That bothers Hayden because he’s doing work that he’s not getting paid for.  In my defense, I can tell that the quality of work has decreased, making the following statement true:  ”You must inspect what you expect.”

I am eager to be back on schedule.  Tomorrow, maybe?  Regarding tomorrow, we’ve had to add a new schedule to the list.  When we started MOTH back in January we had the following schedules:
1. MWF;
2. Tuesday/AWANA;
3. Thursday/PE.

Now I’ve had to add in:
4. MW/Tennis and
5. Independent schedule.

We use the Independent schedule on days when I need to work on other things but don’t want to just cancel school.   I’ve replaced the subjects that I teach or work directly with one of the boys with something they can do independently.  I LOVE these days because they remember how much they like me teaching them.  In fact, when we did a few of these days in a row while Matt was sick, they started asking during breakfast if we could please go back to our normal schedule.  They actually LIKE it when I teach them!   Ahhhhh….  that’s my paycheck, right there.

So that’s what’s going on with our MOTH experience.  Hope those of you trying it out are having success and finding joy in managing your homes well!

To read the previous installments in the MOTH series see these links:

MOTH 1

MOTH 2

MOTH 3

MOTH 4

MOTH 5

MOTH 6

MOTH 7

Kelly snapped a picture of Aimee and I doing our best to get the above shot!

Parker found a few treasures before the hunt even began.  For starters, he spotted Connor’s Easter Basket that had “Ca-chow” on it.  I didn’t see how this went down but all I can say is that Connor did a very nice thing for Parker by letting Parker use it.  Connor is a good friend!  Secondly, Parker found this Pooh figurine somewhere in Kayla’s house and he carried it in the “Ca-chow” basket all afternoon.

Parker bent over too far and bonked his head.  Ouch!

Oh my.  He melts my heart…

Here, Parker is thinking, “What IS this gross thing?”  Apparently he does not like yellow jelly beans.  It didn’t remain in his mouth very long…

Wednesday of this week was the low-point of Matt’s illness and he was barely able to move from the couch to the bathroom when needed, much less see their first few moments as tennis players so I took my camera and documented the moment.

Note:  It is a good idea to keep an extra SD card in your purse/camera bag for moments like this.  I had left my favorite one plugged into the card reader at home and was very thankful for a back up!

Before I remembered I had that extra card in my purse, I snapped a picture of Carson and Bailey with my iPhone before practice.  This was taken a full three minutes before Carson dropped his water bottle and it split in four places, creating a really neat looking, though annoying, water fall.

Once I remembered I had it, I went back to the car to retrieve the extra SD card so I could get better pictures.  We were a little early for practice since I wanted to be sure to find the right courts with this being the first day of lessons.  I let them play on the playground while we waited for the coach to arrive.  I wonder how long these rackets will look so crisp…

On their way to their first practice.  Notice Carson is lacking a water bottle…

I have no idea how I’m supposed to take good pictures during tennis matches with this green mesh all around the courts!

Carson and Bailey warmed up before their practice actually started.  This consisted of Bay hitting the ball to Carson and then Carson nailing a home run.  Then Bailey would have to  go outside the fence to retrieve the ball.  I think Carson has confused baseball and tennis…

Fun game:  See if you can spot the ball in the following image:

With Matt and Parker being so sick, I left Hayden at home with them while I dropped Carson and Bailey off.  I returned to the house for a brief time and it was about then that Parker woke up, earlier than expected, from his nap.  He usually takes a 3-4 hour nap and he had only been asleep for two.  I knew Matt was in no condition to care for him so I loaded him into the car with his snuggly and took Hayden to practice, picking up the other boys.

While Hayden was practicing I took the other three with me to run a few errands, including to the clinic to get one additional medicine for Matt.  We returned to the courts and there was, I thought, 25 more minutes until practice was over.  I released Carson and Bailey to the playground and sat with Parker.  When the hour rolled around I wondered if I had missed something and went back through old emails on my handy-dandy iPhone and found that Hayden’s practice is in fact, 90 minutes.  Parker was starting to get really uncomfortable and so I had to get him home.  There was no way he was going to make it through another 25 minutes.  I called for the other boys to come with me and I dropped them off at home, putting Parker in the bed and giving Carson the “you’re in charge since Daddy’s sick” speech.  I hated leaving Parker…  and Matt, for that matter, who was reaching a new level of sick.  I rushed back to get Hayden and found he was LOVING tennis practice!

I really think they’re going to enjoy this sport and I look forward to the upcoming season of practice.  I would have LOVED for all three to practice at the same time but, as they have the same coach, that would have been difficult.  So, from now until June, twice a week we will be at tennis practice for two and a half hours and they’ll have matches on Saturdays.  I really do love having boys!

—   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —

And because I think he was the cutest tennis player on the GWU Runnin’ Bulldogs Tennis Team, here are a couple of pictures of Matt in his tennis playing days:

This talking-back thing has gotten worse and worse the past few weeks and I really don’t know why.  My reprimands are not working so I’m about to take things to a whole new level.  After a particularly annoying situation on Easter where Bailey was asked by another parent in our “village” to not wrestle with one of his brothers, Bailey said, “I wasn’t wrestling.”  A.  He argued with an adult.  B.  He basically called the adult a liar.

On they way home I discussed my rudimentary plan with them.  I know their favorite moment of the entire week is our traditional Friday Night Movie Night where we watch a movie, pop popcorn and the boys then get to sleep in the living room.  I told them that they’d have ten strikes and when someone reached that point, they had lost FNMN for themselves.  No movie.  No popcorn.  No camping out in the living room.

By the end of Monday Hayden had one strike, Carson two, Bailey five.  He had managed to rack up three in a 10 minute battle over cleaning up one of his own messes.  He’s half-way to losing his favorite event of the week and there are still 4 days left.

I hope this works but you can bet I’m pulling out my handy-dandy “Creative Correction” book.  I’ll take suggestions and hints.

And then when I arrive I see this and the drive is forgotten:

As Aimee says, it never gets old.

Remember me mentioning that I had dyed eggs a new way?  I am really pleased with how well they turned out!!  Next year I’m going to try purple, too.

Christy had organized an egg hunt for the kids, one for the bigs and one for the littles.

They really had fun with that even though they’re BIG now!  Bailey even found the golden egg which had $10 in it!

While I took pictures of the bigs finding their eggs, Kelly was down at the porch snapping pictures of Parker.  I can’t wait to get the pictures she took!  For now, I stole a few off of Aimee’s FB page.  Here’s a few pictures of the view I had up in the back yard:

Hey look!  KELLY FOUND SOMETHING!!

After the egg hunt Parker wanted to go up to the back yard where the bigs had hunted for their eggs.  I let him and before long we noticed he had gone beyond the fence!  Kelly ran and saved him, I ran after her, while Aimee snapped pictures of the whole affair!  It was quite humorous!

Yesterday Matt woke up quite sick.  He’d been feeling slightly sick for two days but I really thought he was just being a typical guy with a cold and was not handling it well.  But he woke up yesterday, went to the bathroom, coughed a little and came back to the bedroom and said, “I can’t make it.  I am not going to be able to go.”

Matt never says that.

I asked him if he wanted me to call one of the other two chaplains at our chapel to preach and a guy on the praise team to lead worship and he immediately said yes.  That told me that he was REALLY not feeling well.  I went to the kitchen to get some medicine for him and when I went back we prayed that he would feel better.  He got up, took a shower, and felt much better.  He ended up having just enough energy to lead worship and to preach but started crashing during lunch.  He slept the entire day away and then all night.  I went on with our Easter activities because, honestly, he’d get more quiet and rest without us here.

We got a few fun family pictures at church and then had lunch at our usual spot, the food court.  When we got home Matt and Parker both went straight to bed.  The original plan was for the boys to get their baskets that morning but they had not completed their chores nor had they cleaned up their mess from Friday Night Movie Night (which happened to fall on a Saturday this week).  I wasn’t about to take pictures of them getting their treats in a living room that looked like a blanket store and a popcorn machine had a fight and both sides lost.  Their baskets were held hostage until we got home and they could finish their chores and straighten up from the previous night’s festivities.

Once they were done I sent them to Bailey’s room to hide out so I could set out the goodies.

Tape, Sharpies, art supplies, and more tape.  I know my sons so well!!

(And look at those clean floors!  Spic and span!  I wouldn’t dare let you see what they looked like 15 minutes prior to this picture being taken.)

I sent the bigs to their rooms with instructions to NEVER draw on anything other than paper (yes… I know they’re 10, 9, and 8…) and went to bed myself.  This is what I woke up to two hours later:

When Parker woke from his nap Hayden had gotten him up and videoed him opening his Easter Box.  While disappointed I didn’t get to see his reaction, at least Hayden recorded it for me! He’s gonna be such a good dad!

As soon as we finished watching Parker enjoy his boat we loaded up the car to head over the river and through the woods…

Stay tuned for Easter Happenings Part 2.

Their knowledge of the scriptures has increased over the years as they have studied in AWANA, Rangers, and listened to sermons, lessons, and Adventures in Odyssey.  Each boy raised his hand to add in thoughts and comments regarding the subject and I was thankful that they grasped what this weekend represents to us.

After our devotion we dyed three dozen eggs. We were happy to have found a cute kit that had sports decorations and stickers.  They talked amongst themselves about the people they’ve dyed eggs with in the past: Grammy for several years and Nathan last year.

I don’t usually do much as far as Easter treats go, as I truly want their focus to be on Christ and His sacrifice.  Because of our great discussion that morning, and the fact that one of them even said, “Easter isn’t about chocolates and baskets,” I actually got them a little more this year than I have in recent years.  I went practical. Instead of baskets, I got boxes that they can reuse. I bought each of the bigs his own roll of packing tape and scotch tape, as well as a Sharpie.  And, of course, a little candy to go inside some cute plastic eggs. I’m really excited about putting them together!

Before I went to bed I noticed something really cute on a friend’s Facebook page.  I asked her for the instructions (thanks, Lisa!) and today I set about working on the most colorful deviled eggs I’ve ever seen!

I’ll be filling them with the good stuff tomorrow and will be sure to share a “finished product” picture of both the deviled eggs and the boys’ Easter “Baskets” next week.

Here is the video of his performance along with him playing his recital piece and another song at home.  At the end is a two-minute clip of his teacher playing a song for us.  We always enjoy hearing her play as it shows the students what they’re working toward.  (It doesn’t hurt for the parents to see just how talented the instructor is, either!)

Here’s a link to his first recital.  He’s improved so much in the past 3 months and I’m excited that he’s about to start Theory.  I don’t even know what that is!

I’m slack and never taught my boys formal table manners, but it was a fun topic and I had a good time coming up with some ideas to help her in that overwhelming task.  (A task I guess it’s time I undertake.)

I got home from our Thursday dash-around-Wiesbaden and found a message on our homeschool FB page that includes a link to a free e-book download on Amazon.

The title?

I downloaded it and will be sharing this link with my friend!  How timely!

I knocked on the bigs’ doors and told them that I had a surprise for them but that I wouldn’t tell them about it until we were in the car.  I had them grab coats but forgot my own.  I didn’t worry much about it because I figured the place we were heading was going to be indoors.  It was not.

I found the location with no wrong turns, which was an achievement in and of itself as I didn’t have the GPS with me.  With the combination of my iPhone’s map feature and the directions I had read on the event’s website I was successful even without my GPS, and I thought of my friend, Heather, who lived here for five years and never had one at all.  I consider her quite the hero for that!

As we drove I told the boys bits and pieces about a man known as the “Candy Bomber” and that we were going to see him in person.  (I will share some of his story with you in a later paragraph.)  He was speaking at the Berlin Airlift Memorial at the Rhein-Main Air Base.  When we pulled up I realized we were going to be outside for the duration of the speech and I was thankful for Parker’s bundle-me in his stroller.

The guest of honor rode up in a Willy’s Jeep and when they came to a stop he stood and waved at the excited crowd.

This was the kind of aircraft he flew.

The lady waving was one of the first people to help him create candy parachutes after hours.  They would work all day at their real jobs and then spend hours making candy bombs.

He told a neat story about how he met children at the Berlin airport.  They were standing behind a barbed wire fence and when he gave them gum, they were very appreciative.  He only had two sticks of gum on him the first time he went and he half expected a riot among the thirty children who had not had candy or sugar in months.  Instead he saw gratitude in their eyes.  He split the gum  into as many pieces as he could but not all the children got a piece.  Those left out asked for the gum wrappers.  He obliged and they tore the wrappers in tiny pieces and just smelled them.  Grateful for gum wrappers to smell.  It tore his heart and blessed it at the same time.  He longed to do more for them so he told them to watch for him.  He would come with a treat next time.  I’m sure there are details and other visits left out of my brief synopsis, but he told them they would know it was him flying the plane when they saw the wings wiggle.  That became a trademark of sorts and he received thank you letters addressed to “Uncle Wiggle Wings.”

Before long people in the US and Germany got involved and he started receiving handkerchiefs and candy specifically for his personal candy mission.  At the memorial a few of the German speakers shared about how they feel Gail Halvorsen is personally responsible for the great relationship Germany now has with America.  I was honored to be an American while hearing about this hero.  I was so glad I had woken Parker from his nap and made the trip to hear the 91 year old candy bomber speak.  

A fun little side-story:  As we went up to have the boys shake his hand and snap a picture, another guest handed Gail Halvorsen two small candy bars as a gift.  He smiled and then handed Hayden one of them and another little boy the other.  Hayden received candy from the candy bomber!!

Parker was great the entire time and rarely made a peep.  The only time we really heard from him was when a plane would land.  They were VERY close as we were right along the runway of the Frankfurt Airport.

I had packed a few things in my purse to tide him over.  Woody and his snuggly were two of them.  I couldn’t help but snap a picture when I saw him giving Woody snuggles!  He’d take his snuggly and rub it gently on Woody’s face the way he rubs the snuggly on his own face, and then he would hug them both.

Back to the reason we were there.  Gail Halvorsen had made two points that I thought were very important.  He said that service-above-self caused him to go above and beyond his stated mission.  He thinks that the world will be a better place when people begin to serve others before they serve themselves.  He also said that the gratitude in the children spurred him on to give more.  If people can live grateful lives and serve others, they will be genuinely satisfied at the end of their lives.

Powerful message and one that I reiterated on our journey home.

For a few additional resources about Gail Halvorsen and the Berlin Airlift, check out the following links:

A YouTube Video of Charles Gibson honoring the Candy Bomber (ABC World News).

A 90 second video of Gail Halvorsen.

Operation Little Vittles 2 minutes trailer.

Army.mil article about a previous Berlin Airlift memorial event.

A history of the Berlin Blockade.

A couple of random facts I remembered from the guest speakers:  The first flight of the Berlin Airlift was from Wiesbaden, where we live!  Though there were nine basis that supported the air lift, one third of all the goods dropped were from the Rhein-Main Air Base where we attended the memorial.

If anyone wonders why we homeschool, THIS IS IT!  On a whim we drove a few miles and, during the school day, had a history lesson from a real hero who had changed history.

It was during a lively game of tag when he and a friend collided and Hayden’s head bounced off the pole, knocking him flat.  I walked up to find him holding his head, half breathing, half crying.  I could tell he was in real pain.  Poor guy.

I checked for blood and found none.  I had him remain still while I assessed the damage.  The guy who bumped into him felt so bad and I could tell he wished he could have made Hayden feel better immediately.

Every sound sent excruciating pain through Hayden’s head and standing was difficult at first.  He was very dizzy and had a hard time getting off the playground.  As soon as he was  able to walk, we went into the shade where I could check his pupils.  He was happy to be out of the direct sunlight as well as away from the noise of the playground.  By the time we had gotten to the shade his ear was swollen and blue.  I could see his skin had been split open but wasn’t dripping blood, thankfully.

To make sure he was fine I called a nurse-friend of mine.  After just a few minutes of conversation we determined that he was probably fine (as he hadn’t lost consciousness nor had he vomited) but that if he were still experiencing dizziness later on that day I would need to have him seen.

30 minutes after the event he was much better and the only remaining pain was the throbbing ear and the knot on the side of his head.  Now, three days later the bruising has spread and turned black.  Looks gross but he’s fine.

Ahhh… the joys of being a mom.

And since I mentioned his head trauma from when he was three and a half years old, I thought I’d show you what I was referring to.  Be warned… you will see a tiny amount of blood .

Thanksgiving 2004:

The bigs, however, play fast-paced chase games with other big kids.  I can’t keep up with them though I believe I’m going to set for myself a new challenge this spring:  get quality photos of each of my bigs in their own elements.  Could be interesting!

I snapped these the other day and, while they’re not great, I was happy to capture all three bigs in the same frame several times.

Parker trying to keep up with his brothers.

Parker learned a rough lesson, pun intended.  If you go down the playground hill on your tummy and you have no onesie on, your belly will get scratched.

(I know this was supposed to be about the BIGS at the park but I couldn’t resist adding these of Parker!)

Our guests gathered around the table and someone asked the same question our boys had asked the day before.  ”Whose name do we sing first?”  I replied that when we get to the part that would have said, “Happy Birthday dear Bailey,” we would instead say, “Happy Birthday, Bailey and Parker.”  It worked out beautifully!  I can’t wait to have a few minutes to edit the video and share it later.

When Parker heard his name he pointed at himself.  SO CUTE!

What joy it brings to this mommy to know that so many people love my kids and were willing to come and celebrate them with us!  Thank you to each family who attended the party.

Though it’s hard to see the captions below, these are some very special pictures.  The first family picture, the first three-brubs picture, and the first pictures with Hayden and Carson with their newest little brother.

So many friends came to the hospital to meet this big, blue faced baby boy who took us all by surprise nine months prior.

The cord had been wrapped around his neck during delivery and he was born so fast (delivered in one contraction) that he bruised horribly.  His face was blue for a week or so and his eyes were bloodshot for a few.  I took most pictures of him during those weeks while his eyes were closed because the part that was supposed to be white was red.  It looked pitiful.

This is Bailey last year around this time when we were in England.  He had just lost a tooth in Hard Rock.

And here he is a year later while we were in Bruges, Belgium.

Bailey is a very active kid who loves to run and play outside.  It’s a good thing he’s so active because he could eat all day long.  It never fails…. thirty minutes after a meal he asks how much longer till the next.

He has improved in his reading so much in the past six months and recently finished his very first chapter-book all on his own.  He enjoys reading even if it didn’t come as naturally to him as it did to Hayden and Carson.

Bailey has a heart for the homeless and prays for them often.  He still loves the memory of his prayers being answered in Colorado… he had prayed that the homeless who camped along a major road we often drove would have food for Thanksgiving.  I happened to post that prayer of his on my FB status.  One of my friends replied that their church had done a food drive for them and taken them tons of canned goods but also a hot Thanksgiving meal.  So much food that they had to turn the donations away for having no way to keep the fresh food refrigerated.  Bailey’s prayers were answered and he loves that!

I recently saw a rare tender spot on his heart (he’s mostly “all boy” so tenders spots don’t show through his exterior too often).   I had heard someone in the hallway say something really rude and I thought for sure it was Hayden.  Sounded just like his voice.  I called Hayden to me, telling him to give me his iPod for a week, and sent Bailey to his room.  Ten minutes later Bailey came out asking if I had taken Hayden’s iPod.  He confessed that it was he who had said the mean comment and didn’t want Hayden disciplined for what he did.  (Fortunately I had discovered this while talking with Hayden and had not, in fact, taken the iPod… but it was so wonderful to see Bailey’s conviction and then, in turn, his confession.)

Bailey is very social and loves to talk and play but he loves to be home.  It works out well that we have such a great neighborhood full of boys because this affords him the luxury of being home when he wants but also at the park playing when he’d rather do that.

His SPD is still hanging around but is so much easier to handle now that he’s older.  I still brush him occasionally but for the most part, he understands when things feel bad that, given some time, he’ll get used to it.

Our family looks slightly different from what we had planned:  2 kids, then 5 years later, 2 more kids.  Bailey’s earlier-than-planned arrival provided us with a lot of excitement but I wouldn’t change anything.  So thankful for my family!

After we got all of our stuff settled in to the Orange Tulip we promptly left again in search of the neon lights that Matt had been anxious to see.  No, not THOSE neon lights.  We didn’t venture anywhere near the Red Light District. I’m referring to the lights of Hard Rock Café.

Our meal was wonderful, and I admit I, was surprised by that.  I am not a big fan but that hamburger was probably the best I’ve had since I arrived in Europe.  Its tastiness equaled the ribs at the Hard Rock in London, which is saying a lot.  The boys enjoyed their meals as we ate overlooking a canal.

Our walk back to our hotel was nice and the weather was great.

Below is a picture of the boys at Dam Square.

The above picture was taken in front of the Royal Palace, which you can see more clearly below.

A canal at dusk.

A canal after dark.

Our big family is ever-fascinated by the tiny cars in Europe!

Once we were back at the Tulip we put on “ca-chow” and put Parker in the pack-n-play.  Though our hotel was on the dingy, out-dated side, we were fairly comfortable.  I felt like we were getting what we paid for and I was fine with that.  Until Carson decided he wanted a shower…

We had no hot water in the shower.  He actually “showered” by filling a cup of water with warm water from the sink and walking back and forth between the sink and the shower stall.  We told them about the problem and the next day, after a couple of hours of working on it, we finally had hot water in our shower stall.  It was interesting.

While I would probably not stay in this hotel again, I don’t necessarily regret the choice.  We saved a lot of money by staying here, but I’m pretty sure that if I went back, I’d stay somewhere a little nicer.

Regarding sleep, I was actually impressed with how well we slept, even in a hotel I just said I wouldn’t stay in again.  The very first time I put Parker in the pack-n-play he was quite unhappy with me.  We really needed him contained for a few minutes while we got sorted out so he eventually just had to get over it.  After that initial complaint, he did great in his containment device.  Both nights he slept through the night without any trouble; it helped that I played his familiar “mountain lake” on an iPod.  It actually helped all of us as there were people talking in the alley outside our window and in the hallway.  White noise.  I simply can’t say enough good things about it!

Normally you might be able to expect Amsterdam – the next installment – to be posted tomorrow.  But guess what?!?  Tomorrow is a special day around here!  Somebody’s having a birthday and turning TWO!  It’s so hard to believe!

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Before I start this series, let me tell you that in no way am I complaining.  We are really having a nice time, though some of the stories may lead you to believe just the opposite.

It’s actually been quite relaxing in spite of the few things that have not been perfect.

Let me start out by stating our mission for this trip because, if you keep that in mind, you can see how this trip has been mostly successful.   Our goal in coming here was to see the Anne Frank House, to possibly ride on the canals, and I wanted a Starbucks Mug for my collection.  That’s it.  Oh, and Matt wanted to eat at Hard Rock.  We really wanted this trip to be a budget one, in that we didn’t want to spend a ton of money.

I booked a “budget” hotel and found cheaper parking outside the city (8 € a day as opposed to 21 € a day) which promised a free ride into the city center and back.  As I mentioned here I tried something new regarding our food so that we could spend less eating out.  Also, before we left I determined what each activity was going to cost us and got that out of the ATM.  (Sure, many of you don’t like to carry that much cash with you, so I’m not suggesting YOU do this.  It’s just what I wanted to do for this particular trip.)  I had actual envelopes marked “Gas; Orange Tulip hotel; Hard Rock Café;” etc.

When friends all over the world gave us suggestions of things to see we looked at each one to determine the location and price.  Having already spent what we wanted to spend “on paper,” we really didn’t want to add anything else in.  There was nothing else we saw that made us think, “Oh man, if we leave Amsterdam without having done that we will regret it for the rest of our lives.”  I can assure you, had I left Europe without having gone to the Anne Frank House, I would have regretted that for the rest of my life.

We are going to the Corrie Ten Boom house and I’m very excited about it.  Glad people mentioned it to us because otherwise I wouldn’t have known it was so close.  I will say however, that Anne Frank has a special place in my heart since I studied her story in depth high school.  I never dreamed in my junior year while sitting in Mr. Walker’s International Studies History class that I might one day get to visit the actual house where Anne hid for 2 years.  Not saying Anne’s story is any more special, but it captured my heart while I was a young girl, not much older than Anne was while she was in hiding.  That explains my deep desire to visit that place.  I intend to teach the boys Corrie Ten Boom’s story in more detail when we get back into our school schedule.

So, with all that said, let me begin my journal of our trip.  Remember, the stories I am telling you are funny and we see them as that.  Frustrating, maybe.  But ultimately, funny.

6 March 2012 – Tuesday morning and afternoon

We woke up and packed up the last of the things that couldn’t be packed the night before and got on the road 35 minutes late.  (We know this about ourselves so we always plan to leave earlier than necessary so that, when we leave “late” we’re still on time.)   Matt strategically put the Thursday and Friday snacks and lunches in the stow-and-go compartments so that they wouldn’t take up valuable car space, and left Tuesday’s between our seats, easily accessible.  We didn’t overload our car as we’ve gotten better at packing light.  Nothing like my backpacking friend by any stretch of the imagination (what she does is admirable!!), but lighter than we used to.  It was here that we made our first mistake.  See, I had planned for us to park at a P+R just outside of the city.  I imagined us getting there, pulling everything out and doling out things for each boy to carry while riding public transportation.  I expected us to be able to think and for me to be a part of the thinking process.  I was going to look through all the things in the car, leaving nothing behind but the snacks/lunches in the stow-and-go compartments.  Only, this isn’t how things went down.  Not at all.

Detour #1:  Park and Ride location was great.  Perfect, actually.  Before we unloaded all our stuff and four kids I decided to walk inside to the P+R kiosk to ask a few questions.  I described our situation and the two attendants shook their heads.  They explained to me that they thought it would be better for our family to take a taxi, which would cost us about 20 €.  When I got back to the car, we decided that we would just park at the hotel’s parking which was stated, and I quote:  “Parking on site is available for 21 € a day. No reservations necessary.”  Glad we had that as a back up plan!

Detour #2:  Off to the city.  I had heard horror stories about how dangerous and difficult it is to drive in Amsterdam; “Worse than Paris,” they said.   We were half a kilometer from our hotel when I said, “It’s not really that bad.  Just have to watch out for the people riding bikes.”  Never say that.  Never.  We were doing really good and were very VERY close to our hotel.  A two minute walk, max.  And then the GPS told me to turn right.  I didn’t think I could as the road looked like a one-way in the wrong direction.  I went past it thinking I’d turn around at the next one.  Thanks to the fact that we were at Central Station which meant a lot of “no U-Turn signs,”  it was a full four minutes before that happened.  Ten minutes later we had gotten straightened out and were ready to turn right onto our street again, as my GPS was insisting that it was legal to do so.  But this time Matt and I both confirmed that it was a one-way, going the wrong way.  We drove around trying to get to the other end of that street but it was hopeless.  We called every variation of the hotel’s listed number that we could find getting error messages each time.  Finally I decided to park at any spot I could find and walk there, asking them to give me directions to the “on site” parking.  When I arrived (thanks to my iPhone’s map function… dread seeing my bill next month but it was worth it) I asked them what to do.  “Oh, just stay right there, a driver will come and pick your car up and park it.  It’s 21 € a day plus a 10 € driver-fee.”  So basically they don’t have on site parking and it’s 26 € a day.  Annoyed, but what could I do?!?

I asked how to get the car any closer to the hotel and she said, “No, No, just leave it there.”  I tried my best to tell her that it was a good distance away (five blocks or so) and that we had four kids and luggage.  ”No, No, just leave it there.”  Her English was better than my Chinese so I just left it as it was.  So when the drivers arrived and we filled out the paper work, we walked the five blocks back to the car and squished Matt into the back row with three boys, I was beside Parker, while the two drivers sat in the front seats.  (No idea why there were two drivers.)  He pulled up two blocks and said that this was as close as he could get us.  We hurridly unloaded without me thinking about the food that was packed in the trunk.  I had breakfast foods as well as treats for snacking on while walking around the city.  Those all got left behind in the rush.  “On site parking” my foot.  I was annoyed about this for the entire three days we were in Amsterdam.  Not only was the hotel’s website misleading about the price of parking, it was also misleading about the location of the parking.  Were it “on site” I could go out and get whatever I needed from my car.  So, I had budgeted 25 € for parking total and it ended up costing 52 €.

Isn’t this exciting and we haven’t even gotten signed in to the hotel, yet?!?

Detour #3:  As we arrive at the hotel we walk up the narrow flight of stairs to the lobby.  We had read that all of the stairs were going to be very narrow, as many of those who commented about the hotel had mentioned that.  I got our key and the lady told me something about the bathrooms being in the corridor but at this point I was tired and didn’t catch it.  I thought that maybe our room had a corridor in it and that’s where the bathroom was, because I had specifically booked the room with three bunk-beds and a bathroom.  We climbed a flight of stairs that were a third narrower than the first flight.

Then we climbed another flight of stars, even narrower.  Then we got to our room:  309.  Just beside our door were two doors… a bathroom and a shower room.  Hmmm….  Not exactly what I expected.  By this time I was thankful I had done insanity for a few weeks because when I opened our door, I was faced with yet another FLIGHT OF STAIRS!  IN OUR ROOM!  We got to the top to find 6 individual beds and that we were in the attic.  There was no way to block the stairs to keep Parker from falling down them.

About that time Matt arrived with a load of our stuff and I said, “I’m going back to the lobby.  This is not the room we reserved.”  At the desk the girl said, “I think this room better for your family.”  I said, “Can I at least see the other room?  The one with a bathroom?”  She gave me the key and I went directly to it.  Instead of up a total of four flights of stairs, this one is up only two flights.  And, guess what?  It had a bathroom inside and NO stairs.  Who in their right mind would see a toddler and think that the room with a flight of stairs inside was better than a room with no stairs?

More tomorrow… most of the detours occurred on this day, I’m happy to say! The rest of the trip was great, except for the fact that I got annoyed anytime I had to pay for food when I had perfectly good food sitting in my car, unaccessible.  (There is one more funny hotel story I will share but not in this post. Somehow this one turned out to be so lengthy I had to split it and share the rest of today’s experiences in a completely separate post!)

So imagine my surprise when I glanced over at him last week to see him EATING a lego.  A BIG one, at that.

Upon further investigation I realized it was actually a candy bracelet watch that had mistakenly found its way into the Lego box.  My question, however, is, “How in the world did he know that that piece was edible?”

I’ve reserved a few books from the library and the first one to come in was “Willie and Max: A Holocaust Story.”  The boys know a little about WWII and Nazi history but I have a feeling my boys are about to have their little worlds rocked.

I’m glad “Willie and Max” was the first book we read.  It tells a side-story with no details about the actual Holocaust.  Yesterday as I read it to the boys, even Parker was intrigued by the beautiful pictures the illustrator had created.  ”SEE!?!  SEE?!?” he would say when I turned the book back my way.  He was on blanket time and wanted to “SEE!”  As we learn more, I’ll gauge how much information they will need and what they are able to handle.  I’m easing them into this subject, one I didn’t study in depth until high school.

After we finished reading “Willie and Max” I opened the Anne Frank museum website. This thing is FABULOUS!  You can virtually walk through the entire house.  In each room you can click on special icons to hear information about what occurred there.  We spent 45 minutes listening to excerpts from Anne’s diary and learning additional information about life in hiding.  The boys were captivated and when I told them that it was time to change subjects, they were all disappointed!  We will be spending more time “inside the house” today.  I highly recommend you check out this website!

(Bailey’s just now telling Matt about it.  I really think this is going to be a long-lasting lesson.  The part of the story he is sharing is about when the green-grocer who always delivered potatoes to them was arrested for also hiding Jews in his home.  This was a huge problem because the people living in the Annex heavily replied on potatoes during their time in hiding.  I love how he just told Matt that when you click on a door to go into another room it becomes “add-i-mated.”  Also known as “animated.”)

As the boys were eating breakfast I read a really great blog post by a dear friend.  Christie, who writes at “Smiling at Tomorrow” is a fellow Chaplain’s wife and mom to boys.  She wrote about how she’s trying to be intentional in her attitudes, words, and actions so that her boys see her heart of gratitude instead of what so easily comes out during moments of difficulty and frustration.

I was inspired to have a great day and give the boys the best example of gratitude and positivity that I could muster up.

And then 8:05 rolled around and none of the boys were in the living room for our devotion time.  I whistled and said, “You’re five minutes late for devotion.”  I continued to straighten the kitchen and three minutes later, whistled again.  ”Boys, you were supposed to be here 8 minutes ago!”

“We heard you!”

Oh, no he didn’t.

Tell me my oldest son did NOT just tell yell at me that he heard me.  That was rude enough.  But tell me, also, that he did  NOT just tell me that he heard me calling for him and yet chose not to come anyway.

Thus began a rough thirty-minute period where two of the boys were angry with me for taking their iPods.  The rule is that they must get their breakfast eaten and chores done by 8.  They wake up at 7 so they have a full hour; no reason to be late.

Today, when H&C weren’t done with their rooms by 8, naturally I took their iPods, which they use mostly to listen to Adventures in Odyssey.  They get one hour a day to play games on them and my taking their iPods is the worst possible discipline I could impart.

As I checked through the chore-list I discovered several of Hayden’s chores he had done half-way.  These are chores that I check daily and with the same level of scrutiny.  Today I was no more strict than I usually am but you would have thought I sprung these expectations on him today without warning and with only 10 minutes to complete them to perfection.

Attitudes went flying and I didn’t follow my friend’s advice.

I even got mad at Matt for not being my backup even though he was behind two closed doors shaving and didn’t know I was in the middle of a battle-of-wills with a toddler preadolescent young man.  As soon as Hayden finished his room I went to check the bathroom, also his responsibility.   I could list the half-dozen things he had neglected to do but the one that bothered me the most was the bright yellow puddle of dried urine that he was supposed to have wiped up.  How in the world he could have considered this chore done was beyond me.  Again, these responsibilities have been his since the beginning of December.  We started MOTH two months ago.  By now I expect almost perfection and what I got today was sheer laziness.  It made me mad.  I used a less-than-sweet voice to express my anger.

Thankfully, I did (barely) regain my composure in the midst of my anger and suggested that tomorrow, when he gets his iPod back, that he set the timer to beep at 7:55, giving himself a five minute warning so that he finishes everything within the allotted time and is in the living room when he’s supposed to be.

We started school and all was going well, until Parker started screaming in pain.  Poor kid had a stomach bug last week that created so much poop no diaper could contain it.  Today, it seems as if his body can’t get it out.  I normally have some mommy-tricks for this kind of thing but nothing has worked.  He fell asleep on me while I sent the boys to work independently for a while…  Parker NEVER falls asleep on anyone.  He loves his bed too much.

While holding him I flipped through this little e-folder I have of blogs I want to read but never get the time.  One caught my eye.  It was titled “Talk About Failure.”

That pretty much summed up my day, so I clicked on it.

By talking about our own failures, we honor the experiences of others, and in the end, that binds us together.  It’s not about wallowing in the failed.  It’s about connecting in the acceptance of our truth.Our failures will unite us as humans, far more than our successes ever will.  ~Lisa Whittle

I encourage you to go read the whole thing.  It really was what I needed today.  After hearing a good word from one of my friends, reminding me to live a life of gratitude in front of my children, I failed.  Then I read another good word from another friend not only giving me permission to fail, but the challenge to share it so that I can be encouraged, but also, encourage others.  One of Lisa’s commenters said something that touched me as well:  The more people speak of their failures, the less others will feel like they ARE their failures.

So, though I don’t ever want to wallow in my failures, I also don’t want to ever give the impression that I have it all together.  I don’t.  I fail and then sometimes I REALLY fail.  But I will continue to try parenting with gratitude and with a good attitude.  (I’m still looking for my mulligan for today.  I just failed once again by getting frustrated at one of the boys for not focusing at his school work.)

I am going to pick up and move on, asking forgiveness from the boys for my short temper, remind that their behavior can set the tone for our day, but that ultimately I am responsible for my own behavior.  Lesson within a lesson.

I am tagging this as MOTH, though it’s more about parenting.  I just wanted all of you who are interested in doing MOTH to realize there are days it doesn’t work perfectly.  Days when the kids are just lazy and push your buttons.  It’s not a sign to quit, but, rather, a sign to retrain, refocus, and remember that there are days we fail.  It just makes us normal.  It just makes us real.