Soccer ends for Cody!

Another great season of soccer for Cody has ended. They had a little Start Smart Jamboree, but not too many kids came out. So instead of playing team against team we just sent them all out. Cody ran up and down the field after the ball and made several goals. A couple of the parents joked how it was the one man Cody team out there. He was the only one that didn't get tired, bored or anything. He definately made Uncle Shawn proud today! After every goal he would cheer then say "mama you watch I make more goals." It was so funny. It amazes me how far he has come since I first put him in soccer last fall. We spent every practice with him crying and clining to my leg. Now he is one of the few kids who actually plays! It was a cold morning, but we had so much fun and a great end to our season as each child was presented a certificate and medal.

Patriots are 7-0!

Ryan has his last flag football game today ending his season with the Patriots with a 7-0 record! It was an awesome game complete with an interception and 4 touchdowns, one in the last minute! Ryan got one tackle and almost a second, but got knocked over trying to get the flags. The kids played really well all season and I think Ryan improved. He had an awesome coach to thank for that! Congratulations Patriots on an undefeated season!!!

PS. Cody took this picture of Ryan.

Cody's class and the farm

 

Not too many came out for this muddy adventure, but it was still a lot of fun. Today was the big day for the pumpkin patch and farm! We started out waiting for the farmer by looking at the big cows in the field by the pumpkins. Now the hard job....finding the right pumpkin! There were a lot of small ones that were perfectly round and a nice orange color, but this was for Cody so I had to use self control and let him choose. Well he couldn't settle for one, he had to have two. For 5 euro I didn't think that was a bad deal at all! he was very proud of his choices and now they are displayed on our front porch! After searching for the perfect pumpkin the tractor came and we went on a ride to the farm. We saw cows, horses, chickens, baby cows and pigs. The funniest part of the afternoon was when we were with the chickens. They were running from the kids of course when Cody throws his hands in the air and says "They not like me mama. They just run fast away!" We all about died of laughter. It was fun afteroon and we can't wait to go back with the family to pick out more pumpkins to carve!

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!!

Eight years ago today Ryan joined our family! It was definately an interesting morning! The friend that was going to watch Tyler had gone out of town so the single guys at work volunteerd to be on call. Now this would not be a problem if I had Ryan during the week, but unfortunately he came Saturday morning so trying to track one of these guys down made the morning even more eventful. Finally our friend Kevin answered the phone and as soon as we said baby he was on his way! He had not gone to bed yet at 5am! so we put on Blues Clues for Tyler, made his bowl of favorite cereal and left for the hospital.

The hospitl was very busy and had delivered over 20 babies that night so when I came in they were scambling to find a room. The doctor that had seen me earlier in the week was there and already passed her shift, but wanted to stay to deliver me. I was already a 10 so she told me to hang on while she checked on a patient. Not the best thing to tell a woman in labor! I tried, but soon realized that either Zach was catching the baby or he had better book it to the hall to find someone else to! The doctors scrambled to set things up while a technician totally screwed up my IV. I am not sure what he was doing, but I looked over and my hand was covered in blood! And then he had the nerve to tell me to quit balling my hand into a fist, another bad thing to tell a woman in labor! For those that know me well know I hate and I mean HATE needles so always try to get out of the IV to begin with so to see my hand covered in blood did no good at all! They finally had another person get the IV in and then told me the first guy was in training and they were sorry.

Within an hour of getting to the hostpital Ryan was born. All of my babies have been given directly to me, but Ryan was even more special. The doctor had Zach finish delivering him and give him to me. We hadn't had an ultrasound to know if we were having a boy or girl so I kept having to ask what the baby was! I was not surprised when they said a boy. Ryan weighed 7 lbs .7 ounces and was healthy and screaming! Because there were so many babies being born there was not a recovery room for me. Zach went home to get Tyler and let our friend go home to sleep. Tyler saw Ryan just hours after being born and was so good with him. Only a few pokes in the eye just to see what Ryan would do, lots of hugs and no one else could hold him! After about 6 hours they finally had a recovery room so I was transferred. At this hospital you didn't have a bathroom of your own, no private shower and no nursery so it was completely different from having Tyler. And it was my first military experience as well.

Ryan is such a funny kids, always making us laugh! He is so much like Zach and very stubborn like me. Without him our family would not be as interesting or fun! So Happy 8th Birthday Ryan! We have loved every minute (okay not every minute, but most) with you and can't wait to see you grow more!

The Black Forest

Saturday we decided to take a little trip to the Black Forest and what a beautiful time of year to do that! We drug our friend David along who is here TDY for 4 months. We saw the world's biggest coo coo clock, Germany's tallest waterfall and had black forest cake! It was a nice day, not too hot, not too cold and the kids did great. We also found a castle along the way that is now a youth hostel, but stil a very pretty sight! We didn't make it to mermaid lake, but we can do that another time. The town of Triberg is a nice little place with lots of shopping and friendly people. No McDonalds for Cody though so he had to settle for pizza at the restaraunt we found. It was a fun day and nice to get out for a little bit. Driving in Germnay this time of year is so pretty. The leaves are changing and the colors are just amazing. It is something I will definately miss when we leave!

We knew it wouldn't last......

Zach got the final word Friday the he isn't going to keep this current job until we move like we had hoped. It's good and bad. He doens't really like his job, he's used to a fast paced busy day and this job is really boring! However the options are to send him to the flight office or back on the line. I told him I would rather he go back to the line because the flight office is basically where all the crap gets dumped. Anything that goes wrong someone in the flight office takes the fall for and he would be the lowest ranking so I don't want that. He doesn't want it either! He was hoping for a production job, but that isn't going to happen.

So in January it's back to the flight line for him which means no more steady schedule. He will be working 3-2-2-3's and 12 hour shifts hopefully not midshift! He will get to do more TDY's which is nice. It is really hard for him to watch all the guys come and go knowing he can't go too. That also puts him higher on the list for deploying in January. The good part is he will be back to doing what he loves. He has learned he is not cut out for a desk job. We have enjoyed the time we have had with him being on a regular schedule, but we always knew it wouldn't last forever!

Hooray for Ryan!!!!

For those of that I have tortured with my venting over Ryan and his struggles at school.....this is for you! I am not sure how good my scan will work, but Ryan finally passed a spelling test! I realize it's early in the year, but Ryan has really struggled and I suspected last year he was, but he had a pretty laid back teacher that always assured me he was doing great. The start of this year was very rough! He was put in the German immersion class so I worried from day 1. The first week of school went okay, but the second week he had a note home about not completeing work in class so he had extra home work. Then came more emails and notes. The teacher asked for help in the classroom so I volunteered. I needed hours for my class (that I just finished) and I really wanted to see Ryan at school. Sure enough all my fears were true. He sat very quietly in class not listening to a word the teacher said and refused to read when she asked him to. Everyday after school homework is a fight and it was last year too. I finally told Zach that I had to do something so he would not fail 2nd grade and the fighting had to stop. We tried talking with him, taking things away, everything!

Finally I decided it was time to make up my own homework for him starting with spelling. He was getting maybe 3 words right a week and mispelling half of the others words in the sentence (the teacher makes up silly sentences with their spelling words to work on the site words they should already know).

Well after the first week of "mom's homework" Ryan got a 100% on his test. And this was not the end. The next day he took his pre-test for the new list of words. The night before he had written each 5 times for me and the sentences 3 times each. It paid off because he got a 100% on the pre-test which means he doens't have to take the post test! He was so excited and said "Mom I just have to say thank you for my homework. I didn't like it, but I am so happy I got all my words right. It makes me feel good." I am so proud of Ryan. I knew he could do it, he just needed a little more help. I bought him workbooks a the BX to help him with math and a few other areas and he has really had fun with them. We will keep writing the words out each week until he thinks we can do a practice test like the teacher gives to study them.