Challenge

I am doing a challenge and would love to see some of you join with me! I will be memorizing one bible verse each week. I will be starting this Sunday and will share the verse here.

Let me know if you'll be joining me. I will be doing this challenge throughout the month of December. Let our focus be on the LORD and not shopping.

GOD Bless
Christy

Grab The Tissue's

I'm so thankful Chad's home this year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm also thankful this song was not out last year, I'd have been a bigger mess than I was just watching this tonight! The first is the news video and the 2nd is the video of her singing without the news over her.

Indecisiveness

Ok, now I can be as indecisive as the next person, but well there's a limit. Have you ever met either IRL or online those who can never make up their mind and ALWAYS ask for opinions, yet never and I mean NEVER want to take them, make their life harder, complain, complain, complain, and then ask for more advice to fix their original problem, plus now a new one as well! Ahhhh! I can only handle so much!

Why ask for people's opinions when you've already made up your mind, but you're not confident enough, or just so needy for attention that you won't just do what you want to do in the first place. Sorry, I know here I am complaining, when without a doubt this gets on someone's nerves! LOL I try not to do it often, we all have to do it sometimes though when someone drives us bonkers.

Oh, the person I'm talking about, has an online blog that I read....lately she's been getting on my last nerve! Could you guess?! ha!

God Bless and I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Home Sweet Home

We're back. We had a great time in Garmisch. We really love going down there. We went on a horse and carriage ride the first night, it was a surprise to the boys and Chad, of course Jack fell asleep during it. Jacob really loved it and Chad and I enjoyed it as well. The other 2 families who were with us were really nice. One of the husband's took a family picture of us, unfortunately he missed a little detail or well action that Jack was doing (see above). It was a great picture if only Jack's finger would have not been busy. :)



Tuesday we went swimming, Chad had a massage with hot rocks which he really enjoyed! We went downtown for lunch and did a little shopping and just enjoying one of the most beautiful towns IMO. We found out while on the carriage ride Monday night that the paintings that's on so many of the homes and buildings cost for just ONE picture between 20-30,000.00 Euro! They're beautiful, but my goodness!!!




This is just a picture of down the street in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, I ended up loving the sky the most in this picture! :)



This was taken once we got back to Edelweiss, I just love this picture!


Wednesday we went to Partnach Gorge. I had walked through here in August with friends when we were down there for a retreat, and wanted to take Chad and the boys. Jack ended up being scared while walking through it. I think it was the combination of the dark area's and the rushing and at times very loud river. Jacob thought it was "cool" and Chad loved it!













Wednesday night Jacob ended up sick. We're not sure if it was a nasty bug or food poisoning. Either way he didn't eat dinner. It was Tex-Mex night at the buffet resturant they have at the hotel, and he LOVES Refried Beans, this is his absolute favorite food, and he took two tiny, tiny bites and then just layed his head on the table. I knew he wasn't feeling good, but about 30 minutes after we got upstairs he got sick. He tried to get to the bathroom, but Daddy was in there and the door was closed (he was changing so we could go swimming) and before he could get the door open Jacob was sick. Poor guy. We called the front desk and they had house keeping come and steam clean the carpet. He layed down and about 8:45 he got sick again, but couldn't even lift his head in time and it got all over his side of the bed and of course we needed new sheets, but it also soaked through the mattress cover, so we called down to the front desk again and they had them bring up new bedding as well as a new mattress. I felt so bad for him, he was miserable. Jack actually fell asleep before 7 pm and he slept all night long (no nap). Jacob slept when he wasn't getting sick. Jack slept with Chad and I slept with Jacob. I was up most of the night, watching Jacob. As soon as his eyes would pop open, I'd grab the trash can. The last time he woke up to get sick was about 4:30 am. I guess we ended up getting about 3 hrs of straight sleep after that. He woke up abotu 8 or 8:30 feeling great! Thank goodness. It was a long and I mean long night. I felt horrible for him. I will say though, it's much easier having a little kid sick vs a baby or young toddler who just doesn't quite get the whole "get sick in a trash can or toilet". Jack's in that in between stage right now, where he's starting to figure out that you should do it in one or the other, but the few times he's been sick he just can't seem to make it.

Thursday we ended up going to Schloss Linderof (Schloss=Castle). It's beautiful. The castle is the only castle that King Ludwig finished and actually lived in. I do like the castle, but honestly I love the grounds. Unfortunately although it was prob. 60 degree's, being that it's November all the flowers were pulled up, the fountains were all covered so the pipes wouldn't break, and November is the month they clean the castle ( you can still tour it, just have to step around some things). Everything "extra" on the grounds was closed, well except for the pond. We still enjoyed our day, but I felt sad thad Chad didn't get to enjoy the beauty of this beautiful place. When my parents come in the spring we'll be going there then so he can see it. It's still obvious to tell that it's beautiful there, it's just very bare.





Here's a few various pictures from the week..






I love the fall colors!




The snow-capped mountains




I love how the clouds look over the mountains


Another shot of the clouds over the Alps



I really love this barn! The little details in it. I also have different features on my camera and it pulled out the greens and the rest is black and white.




Me and Chad...I love him so much and I'm so thankful he's home safe and sound!

We're Outta Here!

We're off to Garmisch (Edelweiss) for the week! I'll be back next weekend to post lots of pictures and share of our travels, which we plan to do plenty of!

New Camera!

I got a new camera yesterday! I had a Kodak Easy Share which I really liked! It took great pictures, but the other day the battery lid got broke and now of course without the help of possibly the ever classy duct tape, I don't know how it'd stay closed. We're heading to Edelweiss in Garmish next week and I was feeling a little disappointed that I was going to be stuck using Chad's camera, which although it's new it's range isn't very good and I wanted something at least to the same quality if not better. We went to Power Zone yesterday to get a gift for a friend and while in there we decided to just look at camera's! They had a couple ones I was looking at. I finally decided on the Canon Powershot A640! I love it! It's got a 10.0 mp. So far the pictures are turning out wonderfully! There are 21 different shots I can use! It's really an awesome camera and I feel like I got it at a steal for only $349.00!

Here's the link to my new camera!!
http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/psa640/index-e.html

Letter From Iraq to John Kerry

I got this from a friend and it's just too good not to share.



Letter From Iraq
A MARINE IN IRAQ RESPONDS TO SEN. KERRY.

{This was written by my husband, Aaron, who is currently deployed to Iraq, in defense of a recent comment made by Senator John Kerry. Pass it along, it might inspire someone else to speak up! ~ Michelle}

Yesterday John Kerry said, "You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, and if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq...

So I wrote him a letter:

I am a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. I am currently on my second tour in Iraq, a tour in which I volunteered for. I speak Arabic and Spanish and I plan to tackle Persian Farsi soon. I have a Bachelors and an Associates Degree and between deployments I am pursuing an M.B.A. In college I was a member of several academic honor societies, including the Golden Key Honor Society. I am not unique among the enlisted troops. Many of my enlisted colleagues include lawyers, teachers, mechanics, engineers, musicians and artists just to name a few. You say that your comments were directed towards the President and not us. If we were stupid Senator Kerry, we might have believed you.

I am not a victim of President Bush. I proudly serve him because he is my Commander and Chief. If it was you who was President, I would serve you just as faithfully. I serve America, Senator Kerry, and I am also providing a service to the good people of Iraq. I have not terrorized them in the middle of the night, raped them or murdered them as you have accused me of before. I am doing my part to help them rebuild. My role is a simple one, but important. You see Senator Kerry, like it or not, we came here and removed a tyrant (who terrorized Iraqis in the middle of the night, and raped them and murdered them). And we have a responsibility to see to it that another one doesnt take his place. The people of Iraq are recovering from an abusive relationship with a terrible government and its going to take some time to help them recover from that. We can't treat this conflict like a microwave dinner and throw a temper tantrum because we feel like its taking too long.

Senator Kerry, you don't have to agree with this war. You don't have to say nice things about those of us who choose to make sacrifices for the rights of every American rather than sit back and simply feel entitled to it. But please, Senator Kerry, if you're going to call me a stupid murdering rapist, stick by what you say. Don't tell me that I misunderstood or that you would never insult a veteran because you are one too. Having been there and done that does not give you a free pass to insult me.

My suggestion for you, Senator Kerry, is to remember that your speeches are recorded, and broadcast to us simpletons over here. You may want to write down what you want to say before you say it, maybe have somebody look at it before you say it and tell you what others might hear. Remember that we can't read your mind, if there are any misinterpretations in what you say, it's because you didn't communicate clearly.

Good luck to you Senator Kerry, if nothing else it's always entertaining to watch you try and climb out of the holes that you constantly dig for yourself.

Sincerely,
Somebody who is watching his daughter grow up in photographs so that you can have the right to say whatever you want about him.

If You Have Children You NEED to watch this

He's Home!

Waiting for Daddy!

Our Hero's of HHC are home! This is Chad's company, he's somewhere int he sea of soldiers on the far side! There's 126 soldiers thrilled to be back in the land of Germany! :)

Daddy and his boys! My mom made the boys shirts! Jack really was excited, I just couldn't seem to capture his smile! Everyone was pretty tired at this point! They didn't get home until 7:40 pm, and Chad had been up since about 4 am!








Our family together again.


















And...just for Linda....Banner Row. There are banners on the other side of the road, and much farther down the fence on both sides, but this gives you a small idea.