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November!

Well again with the time! But it could have been worse.
So since July not a lot has happened. We are now expecting our second child (Apr. 9, 2012). Jackie has been in Florida since August her great grandpa died in September. But she will be back in December if everything works out. Thanksgiving is coming up, Halloween has passed, and we are closing in on Christmas. All of Jackie's presents have been bought and wrapped, even one birthday present! We are now working on organizing our home and weeding out things we do not want to keep.
We are attempting to gather all of our donation information and get a head start on our taxes sort of. Since filing does happen around the time our baby is due (we find out the sex on black friday).
We are also in attempt of rehoming the cat that found us back in February, it's been harder than it should have been at this point.
But this is whats going on currently, and I will be adding more here and there since things are getting more eventful.

It's July!

Not much as been going on lately. We are pulling Jackie out of daycare next month, and hopefully finding more things for her to do outside of daycare. We have been painting the apartment trying to make it more home like and I think it is going well. Next up is buying the rest of our bedroom suite set, and hopefully saving more money so we can make a big trip out to Disneyland Paris in the winter.

So in life things either get easier with time or much more difficult. Lately things are just sailing on through without a second glance. Jackalynn is becoming more and more independent and speaking more and more every day. Her new class ( she was switched since I work in her old class) is nothing like the old one. She enjoys the classroom for the most part but I can tell she's still uncomfortable which is terrible for her. I wish I could figure out what I want to do because the job is so stressful and I don't really like dealing with how dramatic it is. However I did take today off not only because my back is killing me but also because of stress, I really can't take much more of certain children, they are beyond help and only two.

Anyways we have decided to rehome Butch, he attacks Jackie far too much. But in return we are playing with the idea of adopting a dog. I am unsure if that is a good idea but we will see how things pan out.

Again, we forget about this because of life taking us further

Though it has been some time I am back, and hope to be back on more and more than usual. Today John asked when the last time I updated was, since I could not remember I checked and I haven't been on here since we got back from the US back in January! Like I probably previously said our little lady turned two, and so did her attitude. She is now not too fond of anything especially taking photos, baths, listening, cleaning or even getting into the car. But we are working with her figuring out what she wants and trying to get her to understand rules and boundaries a little bit better not only for her own safety but our sanity too! So there will be more updates on that for sure.

But on to what it new. Jackie got a new bed (again) this time a twin sized bed just big enough for her and her cats. Speaking of cats we found a new one crying outside of our balcony in February, which we did pick up and both him and Morgen got fixed within weeks so they will not be having kittens. We named him Butch due to the fact that when we found him his ears were a bit butchered. He's a pretty good fit into our family now only having a few issues, the biggest attacking Jackie from time to time for no reason. But I did mention February, Jackie started daycare at the child development center on Ramstein on Valentines day and well though it was a rough start she got used to it and ended up having a great time and made a lot of new friends! I did start working at the CDC in April and can say its a great place when its being run correctly. 

    But enough about that. Laura came to visit in March for a week and we did a bit of traveling. We did make it out to Paris, France but had some mishaps along the way and a very long ride back home. Paris is dirty and the people are for a fact fairly rude when you're trying to find your way to things. I would highly recommend tour guides and not walking the city, or really using the metro either. But all around the trip wasn't really all that bad but since we went on March 19, 2011 when France decided to take up beef with Libya it wasn't all that great either. But alas we will be going to France again as a family for a trip to Disneyland Paris sometime at the end of the summer beginning of fall. Hopefully we will end up in a better mood with France by then!

A few months have gone by!

The past few months have just flown by, with our families first thanksgiving together, christmas, new years, birthdays and flying home!
It has been a great transition into the new year. I hope that we can post more adventures here soon. So stay tuned and know that everyone is in our thoughts for the new year! :)

I knew I would forget!

Well hello again, even though I attempt not to forget about writing I do! However not much has been going on lately. We are STILL getting situated in our apartment.. There is so much to do for this place and we lack the money currently since we are saving for our trip back to Florida.
However I can say that we have plans to paint and put up pictures and shelves. Jackie's room is the most important thing to get finished so we are gearing up to do that during the end of this month start of December. we are still figuring out how to keep this place clean, apparently it's impossible with a toddler.. Who knew?

Anywho we plan on going to a Christmas market next Tuesday (they have live animals there on Tuesdays) which we think Jackie will enjoy. We also are planning more trips for next year, or at least figuring out where we would like to go. For sure we are planning on going to Paris since we'd like to take Jackie's friend Emily to Disney with her. Now it's just to figure out other places we'd like to see before we leave in April of 2012!

All moved in!

It's official we are moved into our apartment from that overly huge home! Now we are just waiting on our new bed to be delivered tomorrow and to schedule our couch to get here! Then it's onto painting this place and making it feel like a real home! :) Jackie is already becoming more comfortable in her new room (probably since I started putting her things back on the walls). It's just really nice to be in a place that we are allowed to change. A place where we aren't feeling cornered by old German folk! haha.


There will be pictures of this place soon along with a farewell photo of the other home since it was Jackie's first house with us. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's only October 22nd and when Jackie woke me up and I looked outside the grass and roofs were covered in ice! I say welcome to Germany it's about 27 degrees out and there were warnings of black ice being on the roads along with areas of patchy fog in the morning that was just the formula for car wrecks to happen!

But over all it looks as if today is going to be a beautiful day complete with our kitten eating Jackie's breakfast (eggs with bacon) and probably being sick later.


We are in the middle of figuring out money to pay for tickets to go back to Florida for new years. Lets just say my credit sucks! and John doesn't have enough. Which isn't a good combination. So I think it's time for me to get a job and keep it for awhile and work on fixing my credit score so we can actually accomplish things in life! But from the past day I have realized I should have been much more careful with money and jobs that I previously had. But this is also about three years too late to realize this!


So onto Halloween it's coming up fast! Jackie is going to be Minnie Mouse & she carved her first pumpkin with the help of me and John! She of course was really into tasting it and not so much into trying to help us rip the guts out of the pumpkin! But that is okay we finished it up with her and it came out very well. Even our cat was impressed with it. :) But our current count down is eight days until trick or treating! But of course nine days until Halloween is actually here!

Which also means eleven days until we get the keys to our apartment and can start moving in! Which is the most exciting thing that is coming up.. Though getting free candy is a close second! We will be completely moved in by the 7th and I start giving lessons for violin on the 10th which will help a little on our current financial situation. I currently will have three students ages 16, 11, and 7. I think it will be absolutely amazing! I love teaching children and I think these three girls will be great.

But now to think of Thanksgiving and what we are thankful for along with what I am going to cook! Only about a month until it's here!

Cha Cha Cha Changes!

Day 2 of the toddler bed.

Well yesterday we had to convert Jackie's bed into a toddler bed, luckily when we went shopping for a crib here we spent the extra money and made sure we bought something that would last her. So on October 9, we changed her bed. It took a long time to get her to sleep that night. Her nap on the 10th was however a little easier, getting her to bed on the 10th not so great. It took well over three hours of saying "go to your room" and "get in your bed" which is fine because she's learning but I now think I feel like my parents did many years ago! Anyways with everything we know this is going to take some time but we are happy that Jackie is in a toddler bed now and not climbing out of her crib and risking getting seriously injured.


Another change of course is we are moving the count down is now on. T-minus 23 days until we get the keys to our apartment. :) Meaning 28 days left to vacate this horribly large home! Now we need to get our act together and get a bed, and kitchen table!