More Pictures

Here's some pictures from while my parents were here. These are all of my parents and the boys, I'll do ones of just the flowers and other sights we saw later. I still have to download pictures from the Black Forest onto the computer too, but that will happen later. Enjoy! There's a lot!

Jacob and Jack at Schloss Linderof

 

Jacob goofing off at our favorite restuarant downtown Garmisch-Parternkirchen

 

Jack looking quite sweet, although he was being very ornery that night!

 

My parents outside of Edelweiss (in Garmisch) in front of the Bavarian Alps

 

 

My parents with Jacob and  Jack their only grandson's

 

The boys up at Eagle's Nest playing in the snow.

 

The boys up at Eagle's Nest, one of the views we had from up there, directly behind the boys is the city of Salzburg, Austria!

 

The boys inside the house of Eagle's Nest, which is now a restuarant, in front of the fire place.

 

Jack and Jacob at the North Sea in The Netherland's (or as English speaking say..Holland)

 

Jack,Jacob, and Chad in the North Sea...brrrrrr

 

Jacob in the Yellow Tulips at Keukenhof!

Jacob and Jack in front of Orange Tulips

Jacob and Jack in front of my favorite purple tulips

Jacob feeling a little chilly and Jack just chilling in front of a fountain in Keukenhof

Chad,Jack,& Jacob by the Yellow Tulips

Jacob at Keukenhof

Jackson (he was squatting the hydrangia's are not that tall!)

Jack and Jacob

 

I LOVE this picture of the boys

Our family at Keukenhof

Goofy Jacob (aren't those tulip's gorgeous!)

 

My boys

Silly Jack and sweet Jacob

Update on Chad's surgery

It went great. We were home by noon. He just took some pain meds about 4:45. He's feeling pretty good. Jack has his last tball game in 30 minutes so I have to make this short since Mr. Sunshine just woke up from his nap and is sharing his ever so cheery disposition with us! LOL (He's GRUMPY!)

I'll write more later after everyone's in bed this evening!

Update on Pregnancy

Well I had my glucose test today. I had one early on in my pregnancy at my request and so today was the reg. scheduled one. I have gestational diabetes. It should be able to be managed with diet. I'm going to do everything in my power to control it that way. I go Friday to a specialist and will get my tester and talk to the dr about my restrictions, etc. When the guy at Tricare called today for me to make my apt they said to try eating salads and lots of protiens. I'm a carb girl, always have been...so please pray for me that I can do this without any struggle.

I have diabetes all over in my family, so it has always  been something I've known could happen and then with me overwieght it really upped the chances big time. I am going to start walking more, so

I had an ultrasound today and the baby is measuring right on target and my fluid levels are perfect as well. The ob said that if the baby was bigger (something I did know) that'd be a sign and if I had extra fluid it'd also be a sign (something I didn't know!), so the fact that both are great is a GREAT sign that this was caught early on.

The baby is "breech" which isn't a big deal for me since I'll have a c-section but it explains why it was so hard to get a good heart reading today during my non-stress test! Every other u/s the baby has been head down, so since I had the stress test before the u/s I guessed that she was still head down and we put the dopler where we THOUGHT her heart would be, we were getting readings but it was really hard and I had to keep pushing on the doppler for the 30 minutes of the test, and lets just say I was not comfy at all during that! :) I think ultimately we had the doppler on aprox. her little tushy! LOL So I'm actually impressed we ever got a reading, she obviously has a strong heartbeat! hehe

Ok, I have to be up in about 6 hours. Chad has knee surgery in the morning, so please keep him in your prayers. We're dropping the boys off at a friends at 6:30, then off to his drs for surgery. Hopefully we'll be home by early afternoon! They're calling for rain tomorrow so I'm not sure if Jackson will have his last game tomorrow or not! We'll just have to see!!!

God Bless

Tags: Gestational Diabetes, Knee Surgery, Tball

Picture Time

Ok so bare with me as I figure out the new way of adding pictures onto the journals! There will be more to come I'm sure!! :)

 

Jacob,Jackson, and my dad aka Papaw

 

Jackson TRYING desperately to finish his fresh strawberries and ice cream (he was STUFFED!)

 

Ok more later! :)

 

 

Tags: pictures

They're Gone

We took my parents to the airport this morning. It was extremely hard to say goodbye. I thought it'd honestly be easier than it was. The boys did not take it well, and watching them sobbing just made it that much harder for Chad and I. We both were crying anyways, but to see our babies crying just adds to it.

It was a really great visit though. We started off by going to Edelweiss in Garmisch. We visited Schloss Linderof, then the next day we were off to Eagle's Nest in Berchesgarten, Germany. We came home then on Friday we headed to The Netherland's. It was wonderful up there. We went to Keukenhof, which we all loved. We also went to the Noth Sea, which was about 20 minutes from our hotel. We did a little walking around Haarlem where we stayed and it was really beautiful. I was hoping to go to Corrie TenBoom's home, but we just didn't have time. Chad and I want to go back up there. It's a 6 hr drive, but I think that next time we go we can do it in about that amount of time. We did quite a few stops on the way there and on the way home with 6 people.

We had planned on going to Rothenburg odt, but we decided instead to rest. The boys definately needed it and enjoyed the day riding bikes...which btw..Jackson can now officially do! He inherited Jacob's 1st bike and just couldn't get the whole thing about going forward and when he'd try he'd go backwards and of course that's a break...well he has it now and we can't keep the kid off his bike! :)

Tuesday we headed to Triberg, Germany which is in the heart of the Black Forest. It was absolutely beautiful! There is a waterfall there that we walked up and looked at. No description of mine could ever do it justice! The water that was flowing down it was amazing, it was so strong. It's the tallest waterfall in Germany! The city of Triberg is absolutely beautiful. My parents bought a really beautiful coocoo clock and Chad and I found one we really like and plan to go back after the baby is born and get it! We'll look at Grandfather Clocks while we're there too and start putting money back for that.

Jacob's t-ball game got moved from Friday to Wednesday since this is a 4 day weekend. So instead of going to Poland on Wed., my mom and I pushed it back to Friday (yesterday). Jacob had an AWESOME game and told me that he played EXTRA HARD because Mamaw and Papaw were there watching and cheering for him!! It was Jacob's last game. Jack has his last game next Thursday which yours truly will be coaching since our Head coach (Chad) will be home recovering from surgery and probably pretty drugged up, that's my guess! ;) But Jack's game was a blast as well, which was Thursday. Thursday afternoon we took my parents to our 2 local castles. Oh and Wednesday we went downtown so they could get some gifts for friends and family.

Friday my Mom and I got up at 4 am and we left at 5 am and headed to Poland. We got almost there, like literally 1 mile from the town we do our shopping at there was a fatal accident. Thankfully the friends who were following us, the husband asked a truck driver for another way into town and he gave us directions for a back road. We got into town about 11 and started shopping immediately. We left town at about 3:30 and got home in 4 hours!

We sat outside for a good hour, while the boys played. We went upstairs and showed everyone our finds! We got tons and tons of pottery.

We got up this morning at 6 and were on the road by  7 am and got to the airport at 9. We said goodbye for the last time about 10 am.

I'll work on my pictures over the next few days. It's really, really nice here and we plan to spend most of our days outside and at the pool which is open. I'll do it when I have spare moments.

Jacob and I will be picking up back on school, but from here until the baby is born it will be one subject a day. I think we're all just needing a break and we plan on doing some local things so we can do learning that way as well.

Ok time to make dinner.

Quick Update then off to bed

It's 1 am. We got back from The Netherland's (Haarlem to be exact) about 6 this evening. If you're ever in Europe I highly recommend going to Haarlem. It's very close to Amsterdam, but well it's NOT Amsterdam! LOL I haven't been to Amsterdam, but lets just say the ease of drug use there is not to my personal liking, so the desire to go there and the reviews from many, many friends has been "good for a day but that's about it" where Haarlem is full of so much history and beauty all in and of itself and it's VERY close to Keukenhof AND The North Sea! We all went over to the sea and we all stuck our feet in the water. It was soooooo cold! We expected it to be frigid! It took our breath away! We had dinner at a beach restuarant. It was an Australian one. The people there were great, so friendly and a huge perk, they spoke English. We don't speak any Dutch, Chad and I speak a very, very small amount of German so we were a little worried...but The Netherland's everyone speak's English! The hotel was good. I'm planning on next spring going back up there and will most likely stay there again. We had a buffet breakfast at the hotel and well all I can say is, it wasn't worth it. It was already paid for so we ate there, but um lets just say it wasn't my cup of tea so to speak! I think the one thing that could have improved things was to have had at least a mini fridge in the rooms so the turkey and ham we took wouldn't have went bad sitting in our cooler. :( Next time I'll just buy some breakfast items, like donuts or bread for us to eat for breakfast and safe our money).

We're having a good time with my parents. We've been going so much. Tomorrow we decided to not to go to Rothenburg. The boys have spent so much time in the van, as have all of us that we all agreed it would be good to let them have a break! Tuesday we're going to the Black Forest. My parents are going to buy a Coo-coo clock and Chad and I are going to pick out which one we want and then put some money back each pay day for a couple months and go pick it up. We know aprox. what we want, but it's going to really cost us so I'd like to just put money aside and then it gives us another reason to go back! LOL I'm wanting to look at Grandfather Clock's too and we'll probably start saving for that as well. It might be our next deployment buy. At least if we pick it out together if I go and buy it on my own while Chad's deployed next time it'll be a nice thing for him to come home to! :)

Wednesday my mom and I are going to Poland! We're both looking forward to it, although I think both dreading the drive. We're planning on being out of here no later than 6 am. It's a good 5 hour drive. Last time I went was with a friend who got nervous going ovber 65 m/h and it doesn't bother my mom going faster so I'm hoping we can cut the time down at least a little, so we'll see! We should only have to make maybe 2 stops and they will be no more than 10 minute ones (gas and rest) so hopefully we can do it in 4 1/2 hours, but we'll see! I am going to finish up I hope my colection of plates, bowls, and saucers and will be getting my friend some coffee cups and if I can find her one a cake plate and I'd like to find myself one. I'm also going to get the boys a sword and sheild. They have ones from my last trip and they have others as well, but these will be a surprise. Before I give them to the boys I'm going to have Chad paint on the shield a Dragon and going to have him Carve their names into the swords and the shield as well. Chad has a wood burner so they will turn out nice I think! I also want to get my nieces a couple more tea sets and of course our little girl who's cooking still. I am thinking I'll get a friend of mine's little girls a set and my best friends son's swords and shields as well and have Chad paint and burn their names. It'll be good Christmas presents and will put me ahead of that shopping!! :)

I think I'm all caught up on reading journals. I think I might have commented in one or two, but well time's limited and I'm just glad I got read through them all. I still have so many emails it's not funny, but I'm doing what I can.

Oh I've taken tons and tons of pictures. I have read that AOL has changed how pictures go on here so I may be sending out an email and seeing how to deal with that change if I can't figure it out next week when I have time to sit and figure it out!

 

Oh and people...seriously slow down on the journals!

Tags: The Netherland's, Poland, Black Forest, Traveling

The Christian ABC's...Thanks Gretchen!

 

 

I hope this shows up...

lthough things are not perfect ecause of trials or pain ontinue in thanksgiving o not begin to blame ven when the times are hard ierce winds are bound to blow od is forever able old on to what you know magine life without His love oy would cease to be eep thanking Him for all the things ove imparts to thee ove out of "Camp Complaining" o weapon that is known n earth can yield the power raise can do alone uit looking at the future edeem the time at hand tart every day with worship o "thank" is a command ntil we see Him coming ictorious in the sky e'll run the race with gratitude alting God most high es, there'll be good times & yes some will be bad, but... ion waits in glory...where no one is ever sad!