Around the House - Early August

I turned away for a minute and when I found Michaela, she was playing with this hat on. She has been wearing it around the house a lot lately.



Found herself a nice little seat in the pantry/closet.



Has been loving wearing our shoes around the house lately. This was the first time she tried to put Daddy's boots on....oops wrong feet!

Okay, let's try this again and concentrate a little harder...

Yes! I did it! :) And you can too!

4th of July

Michaela loved her giant soft pretzel.

Then, she thoroughly enjoyed waving her flag and dancing to the live music.

and I like this photo...

Yes, it is the end of August, and I am just finally blogging about Independence Day. Sorry!

Fun Pool Day

It was a nice hot, sunny day, and we spent the afternoon with some of our new friends at the local pool (which was sooo nice).

Michaela started out like a true German girl, eating a pretzel on the blanket...

She hadn't been to a pool since she was 3 months old (and it was her nap time when we arrived), so it took her a little while to warm up. First she sat at the side, then got her feet wet...

Then, she dove in and really loved it, but of course, I had to be with her so I couldn't take pics. There was a little sliding board in the middle of the baby pool that she loved and did over and over again. Of course one of her favorite parts of the afternoon was trying to get her hands all over baby Ethan. She rocked him and gave him kisses (and had to be redirected when she started clawing his eyes out trying to pick him up)...

House

We lived in 1/6 of this building (the top right apt) for almost 2 years...



In March, we moved into ALL of this house...

We LOVE having 2-3X the space and especially being able to let the dogs out the door and not take them down 3 flights of steps with baby strapped on several times a day. However, with Mike gone for the past month, I am definitely missing the community of the latter. The neighborhood in which we live is cute and surrounding area beautiful, but communication with neighbors is difficult. We are enjoying having another (and more) German experience.

P.S. I was experimenting with placement of flowers....they are not in that random placement anymore. :)

40 straws, $200, 200 Q-tips, and 20 pairs of socks

What in the world do these things have in common you ask?

They have all been strewn on the floor in various rooms of my house in the past 2 days! Of course, these are only a few examples of the hundreds of things strewn on the floor everyday. Whatever the 13 month old can get her hands on will be emptied, examined, and tossed aside. She is very into taking things out and putting them back in (and especially into other things) right now. So this money was tucked into the wet bag (where dirty diapers go) and other nooks and crannies. My wallet is emptied several times a day, so that was nothing new.

The little thing got her hands on the box of straws and carried it around the house with her randomly throwing straws throughout the whole first floor. The Q-tips were my favorite, though. We have a huge bathroom upstairs with shower with glass door. Yesterday while I was showering, she managed to pull the box of 750 Q-tips (biggest box I've ever bought) down from a high shelf. She then pulled q-tips out by the handful until I quickly wrapped up my shower and jumped out to get the box from her. Of course, I didn't want to waste all of the ones she had already gotten, so I leaned over, picked one up, and used it on my ears. She watches EVERYTHING I do VERY carefully and copies immediately these days. So, she then started picking one up, putting it in (or around) her ear and tossing it, on to the next one, in the ear, toss, etc.... She is now obsessed with Q-tips (even more than before) and has been putting them in her ear (only the right one) all day.

Not all things that she throws on the floor (and herself) can be quantified or else the list would be MUCH longer...

Oh, and I almost forgot the dog food. How could I forget that one (all the time!)? Instead of eating the dog food herself or merely dumping the bowl all over the floor, she's getting more creative in her old age. SOUP! And they ate it too.

P.S. I still plan to update a bit for the last few months that are lacking. I just know that I will never be able to keep up with backlogging if I don't at least add a few recent things as they happen.

Completing the Story

Well, I sure left you hanging, didn't I? If you are still checking in with us, then you deserve some updating. My plan was to get all caught up during my break between semesters, and now I have one week left, so hopefully I will be all caught up by the end of the week! ;)

To finish the story from the last post...

The plan for Michael's return with that aircraft changed again...he was supposed to fly to Greenland then Iceland, sleep there, and then continue. On Feb. 14, they attempted to carry out the plan. However, he was about 45-50 min. out from Greenland airport en route to Iceland when the entire cockpit quickly filled with smoke and he saw foot-long flames from the engine on his side. By the grace of God (and all your prayers, thank you), my Valentine survived an engine failure and made it safely back to the airport in Greenland. He then got to fly commercially back to us a few days later (just like I had wanted a few days prior). So, that trip ended up being 3.5 weeks instead of one, but he made it back in one piece and we praise God for that!

Yay! I finally finished that story. Now tomorrow I can give you some updates on Michaela and finally post a recent photo like EVERYONE has been asking for! :)

Crazy Little Adventure

called LIFE. I know I have so much to update with the past few months and all the milestones Michaela has hit, etc., but we are just going to jump in with what has been going on for the past couple weeks. Michael went to Arkansas on Jan. 25 to pick up a plane (he flew commercially to fly back as pilot of one of their RC12s). This trip was supposed to take 1 week....leave, take time to adjust to time zone, then a few days to get back with several stops for refueling and sleeping. He has been super excited about this as "this is what fixed wing is all about" - flying over the Atlantic, that is. Well, this 1 week venture has turned into several. When he got to Ark., the plane was not quite ready when supposed to be, so he got stuck in good old Mena, Arkansas for the weekend with 6 inches of snow. When he and his friend/co-pilot test flew the thing on Monday, they found some issues that needed fixed, so they finally get out of Ark. on Wed., stop in Lancaster and spend the night at my in-laws, and continue onto St. Johns, Canada. This was supposed to be a 1 night stopover also. However, they get stuck there for the blizzard. He starts flying to Greenland on Sunday and has to turn back because of indicator light and maintenance issues. After another day or two in Canada, he then takes the plane to Bangor, Maine (with indicator light on) to get the issues addressed. The mechanics there are fixing the plane as I type (maybe), and he thinks he will be leaving there and heading back to Canada tomorrow. If this next attempt is successful, he will sleep in Canada tomorrow, continue to Greenland to sleep the next day, and then stop in Iceland and Scotland to refuel and arrive back here in Germany on Saturday night (just a day shy of 3 weeks since initial departure). So, we will see if this happens, but we will also be excited to see him.





Meanwhile in Germany, Michaela and I (mostly Michaela) have been sick pretty much the entire time he has been gone (except for about 1-2 days in between). After a week and half of diarrhea, loads of snot, and high fevers, we have antibiotics on board and are on the mend, I think. Please pray for her to continue healing and for Michael's trip back.

Baby crying again...must go...to be continued...

8 month photos

So, where to begin after such a loooong lapse of no blogging is hard, but hope this makes up for some of it. While we were home we had some professional pics taken of MJ (last minute at JCPenney). Some of them were very good. Here are a few...