Jason's sister Emily

Jason's sister Emily just gave birth to her 5th child, her 4th daughter. On Tuesday,a couple days after the birth, her femoral artery ruptured and almost killed her. She coded on the trip from her local hospital to Dallas. She is stabilized now after 2 surgeries but not out of the woods yet. Needless to say, it has been a very difficult 3 days for us. Jason's entire family is in Dallas or Quinlan to help her husband Luke and the the kids and to be with Emily. It is difficult to be on the other side of the world and feeling so helpless. It is a very similar feeling to when my best friends came to Prague and had to leave after 6 months to return to Texas for their son to undergo chemotherapy for a bone cancer. They have since returned and it was a wonderful reunion but during the over a year they were away, I felt helpless. I am a servant by nature and I want to help by doing. Give me something tangible to do, work, that is helpful. So, with all this going on in Texas I can "do" very little here. I know prayer is very important, and I am doing that but as a servant I want to be there to watch the children, clean the house, drive someone somewhere, cook a meal, anything to feel like I am helping.

I am reminded in this situation how quickly things happen, and people go from this world to the next, or go from healthy to sickly. Life is a very tenuous thing. It is fleeting. We are reminded of our mortality. Do I need to do something now that shouldn't wait,because I may not be here tomorrow.

Please pray for Emily. She is a wonderful mom, wife, daughter,sister, and friend and she has a precious new baby, Sarah, waiting for her at home.

Randomness (that's allowed even with OCD)

During the summer here, since we are fairly far north, it stays light till almost 11 pm. The sun comes up at about 4:30ish. For this reason, Europe has these great things called Rollladen. Yes, I know there are 3 L's, but that is the correct German spelling. Anyway, they are usually built into the wall on the outside and have a band inside on the wall for moving them up and down. They can come all the way down and block out ALL the light, or anywhere in between. They are one of the best inventions ever! Unfortunately, we don't have them on the windows in our room (we have 2 door windows and 2 smaller windows) so our room is very bright and hot during the long summer days.

Here is a pic from the boys room, with the rollladen half down.

Here is one window with it down and the other with it up.

Also, When I first showed pics of the house, I showed one from the front door looking out at the auto shop across the street. It is rather unsightly. But after a couple weeks, he has made some improvements. I am not sure I like the new paint job, though.

After, with a fresh coat of neon yellow. The pics don't do it justice! It is hideous. I think I liked the old brown better! But, what can you do. I hope it fades with time.

People really like to paint their buildings bright colors and I usually like it but this is a really ugly yellow. (and I like yellow)

Floor 3

Here are some more pics from the third floor. It is the kids' floor. It is Ashlyn's room, the Boys' room and the bathroom. Here is a shot from the stairs into Ashlyn's room.

Her loft bed, desk, and dresser.

Looking into the hall from Ashlyn's room

Straight shot from hall into boys' room. On the other side of the windows is the balcony.

Jonah's and Logan's bed

Caedon's and the guest bed

Everything is "color-coded". Jonah has orange sheets, and picture frames, Caedon, red and Logan light blue. All the toys are in bins under the beds.
Stairs going up to our floor. I will probably wait till after Christmas for our room because it is in transition. I am changing the bedding and colors. I want to paint but won't because I don't want to invest the time and money for only a year or 2. That and I don't have the money right now!!!

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

I don't have a camera this week (it is in Spain with Jason) so I cannot update with pics from the kids' floor. But since Jason is gone, it reminded me of something Caedon said the first time Jason went on a trip since we moved here. It must have been about a year or so ago. Jason went to Spain (Barcelona this time) for a meeting and so we were on our own. I went to pick up the boys from Kindergarten and they asked about their daddy. I said he was on a trip. Caedon then said, "are we going to have to get a new Daddy?" It was pretty cute. I asked him if he wanted a new daddy and he said "no". Jason's job security is good for now!

Floor Two

Here a few pics of the house. I will start at the opening of the stairs from the basement. Some would call this the first floor, other the ground floor since it opens up into the back yard. As you come up the stairs there is a small foyer with 3 doors. Straight leads into this tiny bathroom. The sink is so small, I have a hard time washing my hands in it without spilling water everywhere. On first look it probably looks pretty normal, but for anyone who has not traveled to Europe might notice that there is no tank to the toilet. The tanks are built into the wall and the large white thing on the wall is how you flush the toilet. Thankfully, our toilets are fairly similar to American toilets, that means they don't have what we affectionately call the "viewing shelf".

That is a whole other post.

Another thing that is very different to America, is when you move into a place,you literally get 4 walls and a floor. Houses come with nothing! No closets, no kitchen counters, no light fixtures. There are outlets, light switches and wires hanging for the lights and that is it. No bathroom counters or cabinets either. There isn't really room for a cabinet in this bath, so we haven't bothered doing too much with it. I put in a light fixture and a mirror.

On the left of the stairs behind door number 2, is the kitchen. This first pic is a straight shot from the door. I painted it a really bright yellow so that it is not so dark during the LONG winter nights. It begins to get dark at about 4:30, so while cooking dinner the kitchen is pretty dark. Germans love bright colors and I have gotten quite a few compliments on the color. On the left wall, above the "coffee bar" are paintings from most of the cities we have visited in Europe. Some are from street artists and others are prints from street artists paintings. On the wall are paintings from Prague, Barcelona, Venice and Salzburg. Behind the door is the refrig. and a cabinet.
Here are the cabinets and sink, etc. I decorated with the colors of the rainbow. I found canisters and then used the colors from them to decorate with.
The last pic is the corner to the right, with the stove and oven. All appliances here are pretty small and it can be difficult to cook more than one item at a time. Thanksgiving and Christmas can be a challenge! But, we are lucky to have a large kitchen by German standards. It is called a "Wohnkuche" which means that there is room for people to eat in it.Literally translated it means living kitchen as in living room and kitchen. It is just large enough for a table and chairs that seat 6.

That is Jason's computer cord and pigs in a blanket beside the stove that I was making for our Bible study group last night.

Floor Two/2

Here are the rest of the pics from the 2nd floor. This is a view from the door,looking into the room and to the backyard. It is really just a garden.

We painted only one wall red for several reasons, the biggest being that it would be too much. Most Germans think it is too dark. I have seen it elsewhere though and this was a pre-mixed paint I bought.

My dining room furniture that I brought from the states. The table, china cabinet and our bed are the only 3 pieces of furniture we brought over here.

The postage stamp backyard. We have the biggest house but the smallest yard. It is enough for hanging out my laundry (that is what the blue thing is. It opens out into a square with lots of lines for hanging clothes.) and letting the dog out to get some sun and do his thing. We fixed up the bed you see, it was just dirt before.

Neu Frisuer

It finally came. The day for my haircut! I am pleased with the cut and color and if I can afford her after she starts charging me, I will go back! She works in a very plush hotel (it has an outdoor guard) and I am not sure I can afford her but we will see!

As I was in the chair, I thought of a few cultural differences I thought I would share with you. First, at this salon, I was given a shirt and robe to wear. I went behind a curtain and changed out of my shirt, into the borrowed one and then put a robe over that. She didn't use a cape. Next came tcolor and then the wash. I love to get my hair washed, it feels sooo good! Especially here in Germany. I think they must have to massage your scalp ( or maybe just the women I go to) because both times they massaged in addition to the wash. Today the women (Katja) even used the little round thingy with the tines that massages your scalp! I also got to catch up on my american and german celebrity gossip with a couple magazines! Anyway, after the wash came the cut and cut and cut. She was very thorough. I was a little scared when I saw her go for my bangs (they're called pony here). I was afraid I was going to have to go around with a mullet! But after she was done it looked good. She did what I had wanted and so I am pleased. No blue or purple hair and no mullet. A couple things a conspicuously missing from beauty salons here though, curling irons and cleaner for the scissors and brushes. They only use a round brush and a hairdryer for styling and I am not sure what they do about cleaning their brushes. I just try not to think about it. Anyway, Here is a pic, judge for yourself.
Excuse my tired face, I was awakened at 5 am and am extremely tired!

Here are the first of the pics of inside our house. I am starting at the bottom, front door and working my way up. That makes the most sense, to me anyway. Our house is only one room wide and two rooms deep (or about) so getting pics is a little difficult. The bottom floor includes the entryway, Jason's office and junk room, and the storage room and laundry room (what they call the Keller.) It is not the first floor. That is above the ground floor. Anyway, here goes.

Looking in from the front door. A cabinet for coats, etc. and a rack for current jackets, shoes,etc.

Each kid has his own "cubby" for shoes and a basket for winter hats, gloves, and scarves.

Looking toward the front door. Germans always take their shoes off before going into the home. We have house shoes for inside and most everyone has a few available for guests. With the yucky, rainy weather here, this is a very nice custom. I also call this area the sandbox, because after preschool, the Caedon and Logan dump out all the sand from their shoes. Caedon can literally make a small pile, I don't know how he walks in them with so much sand!
One pic from Jason's office.It is always a mess! The kids put their school things in here and anything else that doesn't have a home! It is Jason's room and I don't touch it, even though my OCD side really wants to do something about it.
This is the "area" for the kids school stuff. Each has a box for their stuff. Kids here don't have lockers, so they have to keep everything at home and repack their backpack each day according to their class subjects that day. (It is like a college schedule.) Each kid got to decorate it as they wanted.

The stairs up to the rest of the house and a small storage area for skates, shoes, and bike.

At the back of the house is a large storage area with a smaller room for my laundry area.

Just two shots into the storage area. It is a mess and very hard to keep under control. Thankfully, I got a bunch of "hand-me-down" cabinets to organize and hide all of our junk.