Koln....Another day trip adventure!

Our opportunity to sightsee is getting away from us so every chance we get we are going somewhere. Saturday was Koln and Bonn. I had seen pictures of the big cathedral there and knew I had to see it! The city of Koln was pretty much destroyed during WWII, but this church wasn't. It has over 10,000 square meters of stained glass, beautiful mosaic floors and just so much to take in. We didn't get to go to the top like I wanted. For one Zach is not fond of heights and two it was a lot of stairs that I knew Cody would probably have thrown a fit about 10 stps in resulting in me carrying him. WE walked over the bridge and enjoyed the view looking down the Rhein River. The train station was right there so Cody was very entertained by the trains. I have more pictures, lots more so will try and get a collage done later. I have to get homework done and study for my final that is Wednesday! So for now this is it! It was a great day, not too cold, just a bit windy.

Flowers always brightens the day!

This last week I have been dealing with a kidney infection and for any that have had one knows, they hurt....bad! It feels like I have been kicked repeatedly in my kidneys and the only realy pain free way to be is curled in a ball in bed! Wednesday and Thursday were the worst days. I had so many things to get done so did what I normally do, ignore the pain and move on. By Thursday afternoon I was miserable! Zach called to see if I needed anything from the commisary and I was pretty grouchy with him. He came home a little bit later with these flowers for me. Everyone always said flowers were cheap here, but not that we have found! We must be looking in the wrong place. Oh well, they still birghtened my day and Friday I was able to get to the clinic for some antibiotics to hopefully get this infection under control. The strange thing is I only take this stuff for three days. Can it really be cured in that short of time! Guess we will see!

Wolves in the house!

This week the scouts made dinner for one of the Fisher Houses on base. I am in charge of coordinating the meals our ward bring in each month and live right by them so when the wolves needed a backup destination on where to make thier dessert my house was it! We have a small pack so our wolves den consists of 4 boys right now. Their part of the meal was dessert and man did it look good! Zach took a few pictures when he got home, but none of the final product. The boys learned about mixing, measuring and while waiting for cooking and chilling, they went over the food guide pyramid and created their own healthy menu for a day. Well I guess healthy is stretching it when it comes to 8 year old boys, but they tried! The bear den came over as well when they had finished their bread and salad. Mrs. Beaman, their den leader, even prepared homemade bread for each boy to take home! It was so yummy and went perfect with our dinner! Thanks Heather! The Fisher House is a great opportunity in our area to serve others and I was happy to open my home to help them with this service project.

Baking Gals

I was talking with a good friend the other day and we were counting all my current obligations, callings, school, etc. Sometimes I wonder what I do with all my time! So anyway as if that list was not long enough I added more. I joined a team from Baking Gals. I tried to add a link for their site, but who knows if it worked. Someone needs to tell me how to have the word highlighted so others can click and go right to it!

Anyway back to Baking Gals. The team I joined was in charge of baking goodies for two soldiers so they could then pass them on, eat them all or do what they wanted with them! How fun is that! Since I know both of these soldiers I was on board the minute I heard. So the kids and I made some cookies and peanut butter balls to send. It was a little chaotic at first so next time I plan to do things a bit different. Cody loves cracking eggs so he was in charge of that with Tyler's help. I didn't get any pictures, but Tyler helped dip all the peanut butter balls in chocolate. The boys love to help me in the kitchen (except clean up) and it was a chance to teach them about serving others. And since our wonderful soldiers are dentists I threw a bunch of our Halloween candy as well! They can stay busy by handing out candy to all the others that come in and ensure one or two will be back! Actually it was a nice way to get my boys to get rid of most of the candy so I don't eat it all!

So anyway I look forward to another round of baking for our guys down range. It is nice to know who you are baking for, but even if you don't know them personally it's still fun to know that you are making someones day brighter by getting a box of goodies. Everyone loves mail espeically when they are away from family!

The thinking of a child.

Today after school I told the boys to do homework then clean rooms. I went upstairs to start more laundry now that I had softner and soap. Zach comes up a few minutes later and says Ryan is sitting at the table talking to himself. That is pretty common so I asked what was he saying. It was something like this.

"Man if I would have just not passed all those other tests and done so well. This is so hard I just should have not been so good at this." Zach had no idea what Ryan was doing or talking about. I said well he mentioned that he passed another math speed test and today the one he was on was much harder so he didn't get very many correct. So I guess he is rethinking passing the other speed tests. Now he actually has to work at it and for Ryan, well that is just asking too much! He is such a lazy kid! I have to laugh just thinking about him sitting at the table scolding himself for passing the previous tests. Why would anyone want to do that!

Ryan's baptism

Ryan was baptized yesterday afternoon. It was a little crazy to plan and several friends that wanted to be there couldn't, but all in all it was a good day! I ended up having someone there to play the piano so I didn't have to butcher the songs and Cody said the last prayer even though he was very hungry and not really wanting to be there. Tyler gave a talk and shared some things about his baptism day for Ryan. This is a very special day for Ryan and our family for many reasons. Zach was the one that baptized Ryan so it will always be a special memory for them. Ryan is now officially a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and is now 100% accountable for his actions. In our church we believe that at the age of eight you know right from wrong and are able to make decsions for yourself. Ryan chose to be baptized and had a nice interview with the Bishop to ask any questions and share what he had learned about baptism. Tyler was baptized at eight as well, but I was still a bit emotional and really felt the spirit as he was baptized. I feel very blessed to have an opportunity to see my boys grow and make decsions for themselves. I am so proud of my boys and happy that I have the gospel to help lead and guide them.

Happy Halloween!

Another Halloween is done! This whole week has been crazy with Cody's birthday, class parties, trunk or treat at church, and then trick or treating of course! This year I did more than normal. I made "halloween food" like gigglers in the shapes of pumpkins, ghosts, bats and such. I also made mummy cookies for the classes at school which ended up being a lot more work than expected! For dinner before trick or treating I made mummies (little smokies wrapped in crescent rolls to look like mummies) and now know why I don't usually bother It was a lot of work, but I think the kids had a good time. The Terry's went trick or treating with us. We were so happy the rain had stopped and it actually wasn't too cold. Cody had a hard time carrying his bag, it was just too heavy. Maddy insisted on carrying her basket no matter how heavy it was! It was really cute. She only put it down to check out the dogs that people had with them. Here are the pictures I got last night. As we were trick or treating I took quite a few, but not very many came out. After all the choas of trick or treating Tyler and Ryan went home with the Terry's for a sleepover. Hopefully trick or treating wore them out for her! Happy Halloween everyone!