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!

Morgen's first vet visit!

So we assumed Morgen's first vet visit was going to cost an arm and a leg and take forever to get in and out of. But we were mistaken. We arrived fifteen minutes early like we were asked to and sadly our appointment was 20 minutes late (we assume there were issues with animals from earlier in the day). So we took a seat and got comfortable. Of course John and Jackie couldn't and would not sit still they were both walking around and getting to know the dogs on the other side of the wall that were waiting for an appointment.

Anyways so we finally get called back and the Doctor takes a look at Morgen, checks her temperature and takes her back to draw blood and give her the first shot and dewormer she will need. Jackie was freaking out the whole time because she knows it's a doctor office and wanted the heck out of there! However Morgen was perfectly calm and came back to us without an issue. She weighs two pounds, and is now scheduled for a booster shot on the 28th of October, hopefully we can get her micro-chipped during that visit too.

On another note we bought these things called softpaws  they are available for both dogs and cats. We bought the kitten size for Morgen since she has been clawing us since the day we got her. We understand she is a kitten and that is what she will do. But we want to save Jackie from some nasty cuts. They took about five minutes to apply, I only had to trim down two of them, and they're supposed to last about 6-8 weeks. The pack contains four application of nail covers, two tubes of glue, and some applicator tubes. Morgen didn't mind me putting them on and has yet to chew on them or show discomfort. I am so far impressed with this product.

Killarney, Ireland July 2010

Kerry

We definitely had a blast in Ireland we stayed there for a few days in the middle of July I believe the 14th through the morning of the 19th, taking Ryan Air  up there from the Frankfurt-Hahn airport and renting a red beemer (click that link if you're interested in seeing the car Miranda drove) through Hertz, it was the most amazing car, I didn't want to take it back! 6 speed and right hand drive! Anyways enough about that right? So we stayed at The Killarney Court Hotel which we 110% recommend! They even upgraded our room on arrival to a much bigger and better suite than we had booked.

Dingle Harbor

So we spent most of our time in the general Killarney area coming into the Kerry Airport which is very small but in a great area. Very close to where we stayed and very helpful people. We did spend a few days in and around Dingle which is a peninsula on Ireland. Everything was beautiful. We went to the Kerry Museum, along with a Celtic Museum, along with the Aquarium in Dingle. Jackie loved seeing all the fish at the Aquarium, and it was another well behaved few days while we explored that area. We also took Jackie to a fantastic play zone near the hotel we stayed at Buddies. It was very clean and very organized. Jackie loved playing with the toys there and we loved the tea and coffee they served there!

Also we went to Cork, and did some light shopping at Mahon Point which was lovely, the mall we went to was beautiful and reminded us of the states. We then looked in our GPS for entertainment nearby and found a Jameson factory on the list, needless to say we were off to drive out there and take a look. It was the Old Midleton Distillery and it was a really great tour even Jackie behaved during it. We bought her a personalized bottle of whiskey there and we bough a magnet, a bottle of crested whiskey and a magnet for ourselves.


Over all if we could do the trip over I doubt we would change a single thing, we had an absolutely wonderful time on our first official family vacation. Though Miranda lived on bread pudding and Caesar salad while John took the more adventurous approach and tried out a few new foods. Jackie was 100% satisfied with her Gerber graduate meals we brought along.

If anyone wants more information on any of the things we did while in Ireland feel free to ask and of course click on the things we linked. :]

-Miranda & John

A few small stories and then onto the journey!

First of all Jackalynn Elizabeth, Born January 15, 2009 at 6:15am Brandon Hospital weighing a huge 5.14 pounds! Just kidding she's not huge but very small and very lovely! I found out I was pregnant pretty late in the game but after a car accident in August of that year I started prenatal care and had a perfect little lady in my arms after only a few hours of labor. My mom and best friend Branden Boully were there with you when I was giving birth to Jackie and I wouldn't have changed that for the world. Jackie's first year was full of love from my parents and grandparents, sister and her boyfriend at the time. She made friends with my friends children who were around her age, and loved all the pets she came into contact with during that time. She's now working her way towards two years old and the terrible twos have already arrived!

Second is Morgen Pikachu Hippo Belcher, we decided to try to find a kitten for Jackie in September, I posted a wanted ad and not even a day later we were driving about thirty minutes away and picking out our little monster. She automatically bonded with Jackie and even rode home in Jackie's car seat with her. They are now best friends. She was 9 weeks old when we picked her up on Sept. 14th, and now she's nearly doubled in size in under a month! Her first baby appointment is tomorrow October 7th, we will let everyone know how that goes!


-Miranda & John

A little catch up time is needed!

June 2010

Hello everyone, and welcome! I have decided to create a blog to keep everyone updated and of course share some of our finer family moments.


For those that are kind of out of the loop John and I got married March 20, 2010 in Brandon, FL at his parents home (will post a little story of this soon). I previously have a daughter, Jackalynn Elizabeth who was born January 15, 2009 (story to follow) who has a new kitten born in July of 2010 (again another story to follow).


John was already stationed here in Germany before we got married, so Jackie and myself moved here in May. We currently live in a village, Neuhemsbach in a home that is much larger than we hope to ever need. We are about 7km away from Sembach where he works at the Weather Squadron. We did get our move in date for Vogelweh housing though it will be Nov. 3, 2010! We will be moving into a small apartment which is just the right size for our family.

We are also currently getting on our feet most of you will understand this if you're married especially with children. we are creating a home, learning new things and teaching our daughter everything we can about the world. We hope for many of you to help us with this journey, and become part of it.

We hope to be able to keep up with this to share our experiences with everyone (since this can be much more personal than facebook) and I hope to have some of you visit us here before we leave in Spring of 2012!



 Love the smaller much newer Belcher family
P.s. We should mention the purple text are links to what we are talking about so it's much easier to understand!