Weekends end too soon!

Ugh! It's Monday already. Happy last week of October everyone. Can you believe how time flies? I was out doing some shopping over the weekend and thought I had better start getting Christmas gifts bought and sent out. With living this far away from the fam one must put packages in the mail a couple three weeks in advance. That only leaves a little over a month to shop and mail. Wow! Unbelievable that another year has almost come and gone.

1st Loss

It's Saturday, and it's game day! All are nervous, stomachs are all fluttery, adrenaline rush a flowing, and game on. Seriously, a group of women who range from the ages of 25 - 40 playing football. For years I just loved playing softball but I have found a new and exciting thing that I wished I had taken up many years ago. This flag football stuff is so much fun and talk about competitive. Put two teams of Powder Puff Football ladies on a field and see how much competitiveness you get. I have never seen such a thing in all my life. I'm not so sure that whoever invented the name "Powder Puff" shouldn't change it to something a little more mean sounding. I don't believe there is anything about these two teams of women that is Powdery or Puffy. So. . . . . the game well let's just say that a normal game has been an hour to hour and a half long but yesterday it was over two hours and went into overtime 4 times. Defensively our team was strong but offensively we stunk up the field. Luckily for us the other team offensively had a few receiving errors and when they didn't our defense was pulling flags like no other. Unfortunately, our team started giving up around the second time of trying to score in overtime and by the fourth time we were pretty much done. With that said we lost our first game 6 - 0. Sad, sad day for the Lady Sharks. I just hope that when we face this team in the tournament all of us ladies bring our "A" game. That team we played will be ready to just pound us into the ground right off from the start, so we are going to need to have it together. And some say they play this game just for fun. RIGHT!? I believe that.

Amazing Dog! & Guess this Sport?

I know this is not a picture of Germany in the Fall. Soon, I promise! This pic of our German Shepherd, Shugar was too good not to share. I stumped upon this pic this morning looking for any fall pics I could blog about. I just didn't find what I was looking for. Instead of not blogging at all I decided to put this pic on here and just do some rambling. Not much going on here in the world of the Heslers. It's been fairly quite and uneventful. Chad is almost finished with all classes for this term and Kaylin is finishing up her studies as well. For myself, well . . . . I guess I could blog about the sport that I got recruited to participate in. Let's see, I will start out by giving you a hint to see if you can guess what sport it is. Last Saturday within the first 10 minutes of the game "I got penalized 5 yards (by my husband nonetheless) for unnecessary roughness. " You see, Chad had brought to my attention from the game two weeks ago that if he would have been the official he would have called me for either unnecessary roughness or pass interference. So last Saturday unfortunately for me they asked Chad to officiate the game. So, with that being said he was watching me like a hawk. Little stinker! How fair is it to be playing a sport and have your own husband on the field officiating? If you ask me not fair at all! Well. . . . okay so I admit I was a little rough but this is a contact sport we are playing. I actually told the other ladies that I totally agreed with his call. It's all in fun and while our team is out there having so much fun let me just add that we are undefeated. Yae! Go Lady Sharks! The question of the day: What sport is it?

Autumn

The sun is rising, air is crisp, leaves are turning, and Fall is here. It amazes me how fast it seems the seasons come and go. I love Fall! The other day I was driving home from work just admiring God's Creation, realizing that almost all of the leaves have started to change into their fall attire. How quickly it came upon us. I was trying to imagine those leaves of orange, yellow, gold, red, and browns staying attached to the branches throughout Fall and Winter. What a sight that would be to see those colors peeking through all of the falling snow. Although, a bare tree with snow and icicles hanging from it looks beautiful too, I just love the fall colors. We are studying about trees and nature in Science with our 4Th and 5Th graders so I guess that is what has been on my brain lately. I mean, as if you can't tell by reading my blog.

School/job is going great. It is already time for midterm progress reports. Our students continue to be wonderful individuals and just thrive to learn more each and every day. During the course of the day I sometimes just sit and watch them and you can almost see those wheels turning inside their expanding minds. The 4 spec ed students that I am assisting are getting to the point where they are working on their own. I am so proud of them and their already achieved accomplishments in only 5 weeks of school. They make my job exciting and easy. This school year has been off to a great start and I foresee it progressing into a wonderful and very successful year.

Chad made it through the 6 weeks of Airman's Leadership School. Great Job Honey! He received an award for Distinguished Graduate and his Diploma. We are very proud of him. Now he is working very hard to get through his classes which are an Inductive Bible Study course and Theology 202 course. Chad after much praying and discussion with the perspective people decided to go for a Bachelor's Degree in Science of Religion. That might not be quite right but it is very close if it's not. Again, Kaylin and I are very proud in all that he has accomplished this last year (really through the years) but this last one has been very busy for him. The amount of hours he has put in with his schooling, work changes, being a patient and understanding husband (sometimes I'm hard to undestand), and supportive father. Thank you Chad for the sacrifices that you make to lead our family in God's ways.

I hope this blog has caught all of you up on the Hesler's life in Germany. I do apologize for not writing more often. I do want to add one thing. A prayer request for our Grandpa Hesler. He recently come down ill and just want to pray for his health and salvation.

itchy, scratchy hives!

Hello to all. First, I just want to brag on my husband for a minute. We found out last Wednesday that he made rank so he is now a Staff Sergeant. YEA HONEY! Kaylin and I are very proud of him!

Secondly, my work has been interesting. The fourth and fifth graders are great in every sense of the word. The other teachers and I were so impressed by them this first week of school. Hopefully their strive to get all their home work and in class work finished will continue throughout the year. Last but not least I have HIVES! I believe it all started on Wednesday when I was stressing to what I thought was not much at all. I have taken on a full time position at the school this year and with full time comes a lot more responsibilities. It is not that I don't think I can handle more responsibilities, it must have been when I was fretting about falling behind on paper work. Anyway at about 11 am on Wednesday I started feeling a little itchy. I just continued on with my daily routine and didn't go check out why I was itchy. By the time I got home from work (3:30 pm) I was a red, welted, and hived up mess. Then, Thursday wasn't so bad and I thought maybe it was just a one time thing. WRONG!! That night I was up pretty close to the entirety of the night itching, scratching, bathing in aveeno oatmeal bath treatment, and being very irritated. Of course the irritation caused me to not be able to go back to sleep plus made my hives worse than before. I decided last night that if I was not better by morning I would call the doctor. So. . . that is exactly what I ended up doing. Doc says, "I know your hives are uncomfortable but try not to scratch them." HA! What a joke! My reply to him was, "Have you ever had a problem with hives?" I am so bad when it comes to not scratching something that itches. Anyway, I asked the doc to prescribe me some steroids (Predinisone) and thankfully he did just that . Awwwwe. . . . what a relief. Between taking a cool bath with my aveeno or baking soda (Grandma B recommended that, thanks Gramms worked like a charm) and taking meds I am hoping I have this thing under control. Stress: absolutely, positively, without a doubt need to learn how to deal with stressfull situations better.

Stop Running Please!

Well new school year has begun, lots of new faces to see and get to know, and new sets of rules to follow. New, new, and more newness but if there is one thing that hasn't changed about students is that they always think it's necessary to run full blast down the hallway to get to their next class. How many times can one person try to instill in these students that running inside the building can cause very bad end results. I have been run into, pushed, my poor feet stepped on, and last but not least given dirty looks from the so called "upper classmen." What age are these upper classmen you ask? Try 12 - 14 yr. olds. Whew! Is that a crazy age for kids or what. Hormones and attitudes jumping everywhere! Why am I getting dirty looks? From what I have been told in only the first two days of school, I am A LOT stricter than the lunch/recess monitor from last year. Oh yes, I am not only an Educational Aide for 4th and 5th grade but a MM (mean monitor) for all grades 4 - 8. Lovely label to have put on you, but someone has to be the bad person and I have been told that I do it well. For some reason last year our 7th and 8th graders were aloud to move around and do anything they wanted during their lunch room time. Well, this year that is no longer an option and lets just say they (mostly girls) are having a bit of a problem with that. Oh, and lets not forget the groups of girls that want to be released to use the restroom together. Aaaaa. . . WRONG ANSWER! One at a time please. Our new principal is very impressed at how we (2 lunch/recess monitors, Lisa and myself) are handling these little tyrant ladies. On another note our little 4th and 5th grade students and teachers have been nothing but wonderful and we are going to have a great year. Hopefully I will have some really cute stories to share with all of you very soon.

Memory Game

Got this from my cousin's blog. Thought it would be fun as well. Memories are the best!
God Bless and I pray everyone has a great weekend.

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together (or my husband). It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

My Swans!!

OKAY, I know you are going to say, "why in the world would you take a picture of a swan"? I will answer by saying that they were just so pretty and relaxed in the water. The three of them were just swimming around our boat and looking up at us. Soooo that's why!! I love swans. Especially since the sun was shinning on the water that made it even better. I have a few more pictures of them and the one has his leg sticking straight up in the air. But it is kind of blurry so I didn't put that one up here.

Well I hope that everyone is doing well and is in good spirits. I had a very fun trip in Delaware. Although I was very happy to come home cause the states is so much different then over here. When we first moved here I was like oh its not to bad over here it is pretty much just like the states. Well it's NOT!!! I was so ready to come home like the third day I was there. But other then that I had a lot of fun. I can tell you guys one things I sure do miss playing softball in the states. That was probably the hardest thing to get over. I was there thinking man I could be here playing in the states with more compitition. GOT TO LOVE THAT!! But it has been a very good experience over here so far.

Anyway, I just got done with my lunch so I better get back to school. Hope to hear from all of you shortly.

Love
Kaylin

Delaware and Softball

Hey everyone, sorry it took me so long to blog about Kaylin's trip to Delaware to play softball. The girls from what we heard through the grapevine did fairly well considering that 95% of them have never played softball in the states. That is a big deal if you are not prepared for what competitive softball consists of. Here in Germany they have great opportunities for the kids to get involved with playing softball on high school, travel, and dad's club teams but it is just not the same as ASA, NSA, or Little League teams in the states. Our girls only had to win 3 games or play 3 games to get to the Little League World Series, whereas the teams they played against in Delaware played at the least 10 games and on up to 20 games at the most to get to Delaware. Below are the scores and teams we played us being EMEA. (Europe, Middle East, Africa) You can log onto www.distric3.org and see pics if you so desire. Kaylin's team is Royal blue and she was # 15. Click on any icon that says EMEA vs. ?

Games and scores:
#1 EMEA vs. Asia Pacific (Bacalod City, Phillipines) 1-3 Lost
#2 EMEA vs. Central (South Bend, Indiana) 1-16 Lost
#3 EMEA vs. Southwest (Albuqueque, New Mexico) 10-3 Won
#4 EMEA vs. South (Virginia Beach, Virginia) 7-8 Lost
#5 EMEA vs. Canada (Windsor, Ontario) 12-2 Won

Growing Up

Well. . . . I will share no pictures today. I only have "reality" to blog about. The Momma bird has lifted her wing and baby bird has left the nest. Sigh. . . . Hmmmm what will Momma bird do now? I have officially decided that Kaylin can just take online courses or go to a community college when that time comes. Why leave? Really? I see no point in pushing her to go away for college, not if she doesn't want to. I am fully confident that the child is plenty prepared for life without her parents, when God calls us home. She cooks, cleans, does laundry, knows how to pay bills, will make a great wife and mother(a long time from now), and a very smart shopper. What else is there to learn? Oh, responsibility or being independent she has that mastered. I know, I know I'm not being realistic. Children must leave their parents eventually, all I am saying is there is no need for it to be as soon as she graduates from high school. Right?

I know the kiddo will have a great time in Delaware and will probably play softball better without the company of her parents critiquing her every play. That my friends is the "reality" of it all, me admitting that I know our daughter has reached the age of independence and responsibility of being out on her own. Sigh. . . . and Ugh!

Roaring Thunder

Check these clouds out! They rolled in and rolled out, had a little thunder, a little darkness, and fairly strong winds but no rain. Well, okay so it sprinkled maybe just for a minute. By the looks of the clouds and the sound of the noise that was coming along with them we thought we were in for quite the storm. God's creation is AMAZING!

Butterflys

We bought a camera for Kaylin as a birthday gift in May and she has become quite the photographer. I thought I would share a few of her masterpieces since I see she doesn't put many of her pics on here. I am quite impressed with her photo abilities. I told her she might want to think about entering some of her photos in contests. Who knows she might win!

Anyway. . . . on another note, I thought I should probably clue some family members in on our daughter's softball team's progress in their tournament. They played Italy and won, Poland and won, then took Poland again in the Championship game. Sooooooo, all this means they won a spot to play in the "Little League World Series" in Delaware. YEA!!!! Go GERMANY!! Our girls are representing all of Europe, Middle East, and Africa better known as "EMEA" next week in the World Series. It starts on the 3rd and ends on the 9th, so all you sports (softball) fans be watching for news articles, news broadcasts, and radio announcements for coverage on the big tourny. Kaylin is really excited and can't wait to get back in the states and play some real ball. My sister and brother-in-law are traveling to Delaware to support Kaylin and team. My sister can hardly wait, for she has not seen her niece in over a year and a half. I've been told that the only game televised is the Championship game which will be on the 9th of Aug. I pray and hope that Germany makes it that far, what an experience this is going to be for the girls. We are so proud of them.

Kaylin's Busted Lip

Equation of the day:
2 hr. practice + 1 hard infield + 1 bad hop = 4 hrs. in ER.

Cause and Effect: We have had very little rain therefore the ground is relatively hard and softballs tend to take really strange and unexpected hops. Causing one softball player (Kaylin) to take a ball to the upper lip resulting in a very swollen mouth, cuts on the underside of her lips, and 3 stiches on the outside of her upper lip. All and all she was a real trooper. She didn't yell, scream, cry or show any kind of pain what so ever. The day after all of this happened she put a helmet on and got back out on the field as if nothing ever happened. That's our girl! Takes after her momma, "what a tough little cookie." We are praying for quick healing, her All Star team has their Regional Tourny in about 11 days. We need her behind the plate and at bat.

Strasbourg, France

This is pictures of a Cathedral in Strasbourg, France. The Cathedral is one of the biggest structures I've ever tried to capture on film. It was virtually impossible to get the whole structure in one picture. It literally took up about a 1/2 a block all on its own. I apologize for not being able to show it's beauty a little better. Strasbourg is only a 2 hour drive from where we live in Germany, isn't that amazing. It was a very interesting and beautiful city. France was as I thought it would be. Lots of people, cars, bicyclists, mopeds, and noise. Driving on the streets was not an easy task for foreigners. Chad did an awesome job trying to respect the French driving rules even though we really didn't know what they were. Way to go honey! Our vacation was a success and very fun. I am pretty sure our family had a good time while they were here. I am most sure they had to return to the states from their vacation to get some rest. We were very busy and went to bed very late at times but enjoyed every moment of it.

Cathedral in Worms, Germany

This the whole Cathedral
My favorite part of the whole Cathedral
Look it's Gold

Heidelberg Castle

Pic Above: Heidelberg Caslte
Kaylin sitting on the wall that overlooks Heidelberg.

The opposite side of Castle from above picture.

Stars and Stripes News Article

Hey everyone this is a news clip from our Stars and Stripes Newspaper here in Europe. Just thought I would share it with the fam. Our little Kaylin is in the bottom right corner of the pics. Enjoy!

Vacation Time!

School is out and it is officially vacation time. Our visitors arrived safe and sound, YEAH!!!! We are very happy and delighted to have familiar faces in our home. I am blogging now because as usual it might be a few days before I get to do this again shhhh(they are all sleeping). I am sure sometime next week we will blog about places and things we are going to try and go see/visit. We will take plenty of pictures to blog about so that should keep Kaylin and I busy after our visitors leave. Laurie, I bet you can hardly wait to see and hear about some of our trips we take. : ) I am going to try and get a couple good pics of Castles, they are sooo cool. Mostly around here it is scenery that is breathtaking.

Off the beat and path of vacation time. . . . Tuesday before I left from work the secretary made it a point to hunt me down asking if we was going to still be here for SY 08-09. I dumbly asked why? She said because if you are interested we definitely want you back as an Educational Aide. She continued with the fact that the teachers that I worked with this year absolutely loved me and wanted to make sure if I was here next SY they got me in their wing/rooms. WOW! What a way to end the school year, I was speechless and felt really good about my work. I had doubted myself all year because this was something I had never done before. When I went to thank the teachers that I assisted this year they preceeded to tell me that I had been the best Educational Aide they had ever had. I was speechless! All the doubting and second guessing myself and all along they were thinking the opposite. I give all thanks and glory to the Lord is all I have to say. It is because of His grace and strength that I was a success at this position that I had no experience with. God is Awesome!

EXCITING NEWS!

SO.......... the Hesler household has some events to be very excited about this weekend. Actually a couple things; First, we have our first family visitors arriving next week and I can't hardly wait. Chad's mom and Aunt Joan are coming and staying for about 10 days. It has been a year and a half since we have seen any of our family members. Secondly, we found out yesterday from Kaylin's high school softball coach that she was voted " All European" which means: That she was voted the most talented softball player within the our European district for this softball season. YEAH Kaylin! She also received a plaque with about 9 other players for "All Tournament" which means that these 10 girls were selected from each team that played to be very important key players for their team in the Euorpean Tournament. Nothing else too exciting going on here for the moment. I am off to the laundry mat today to wash comforters and sheets for our upcoming visitors. Then clean, clean, and more cleaning! The best part about having visitors is that our house gets the best cleaning ever. Very good feeling! I think I might even go buy some flowers to plant, that will be the "icing on the cake." Well, for me anyway. I hope everyone has a grrrreat weekend.

WEEKEND!

Awwwwe, Saturday! I love Saturdays, why becasue it's cleaning day. It's such a good feeling to know that in just a few short hours our house will smell like Mr. Clean. I know what you all are thinking "Windi is so weird" why would she want to clean on a Saturday? Well, since we are never home M - F, Saturday is the only day of the week where we are home for more than two hours of the day. I refuse to do any work on Sundays! That is Mom's day OFF!!!! I don't clean, I barely cook, no driving anyone anywhere (Kaylin), no softball, and no stress.

Anyway. . . . I thought I would throw a little braggin' rights in here about our daughter. Last weekend they had their tournament for the High School softball teams. Which by the way is called "Europeans". Kaylin's team as a whole lost all three games in the round robin. Boo Hoo! That was sad considering all of the parents really thought they had the talent to make it to the Championship game. Lack of coaching and that was very frustrating. But. . . . Kaylin on the other hand had a great weekend in softball. She played outstanding defensively and offensively! We found out last night at a meeting for the All-Star team that she was voted as "All Tournament Player" for her Team! Yeah, Kaylin!!!! This is the second year in a row that she accomplished this award for her dedication and outstanding ability. We are very proud of her and I just wanted to share this with all of you. I wish all of you could see her play. Our dream is for all of you family members to see her on TV someday playing softball. If this All-Star team wins their Regional Tourny in July (came close last year, lost the Championship game by 1 point) they will play in the "Little League World Series" in Sussex, Delaware in August. Then all of you who live in the states could watch that on TV. How exciting is that?! Okay, I will stop bragging now. Sorry, we are just so very proud of her.

CRAZY people!! :D

Okay. . . . . . . . I know that these pics are a lil on the weird side but this is what happens when mom and I get bored. LOL :D Not much is going on here. I do wish that we could of joined the family at grandmas b-day party but oh well. Maybe next time!!I hope that everyone had fun thats all that matters. :P

My other softball team starts in a few days. I am pretty excited about that. If you are wondering I do play on three softball teams. Hey I am use to it by now but I LOVE IT!!! This is my 12th year playing and I have enjoyed for the most part every year. LOL There has been some iffy coaches here and there but you are going to have that. :D Well I hope that you all have a great rest of the week and a wonderful weekend!!!

Love
Kaylin

Job Title

So once again my cuz Laurie brings something to my attention. Gee, since I live way over here in Germany a lot of our family members don't know what I do for an occupation. Great guess by the way about me being a teacher. My official title is "Para Educator" or better known as a " Teacher's Aide". I absolutely love it! I think I love working with 4th graders really more than the job itself. My responsibility is to shadow a student with autism but there are 3 other students in the class that were in need of a teacher's aide. So I ended up with four students that I help with language arts (grammar), any subject where there is a lot of reading, and math. My workday starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 12:45 p.m. and I have a 45 minute lunch in there. The hours are great since we home school Kaylin. She does her studies while I'm at work and then we go over her homework when I get home. You would think that I like teaching or something?! LOL I remember that I really didn't like school all that much when I had to go but now I just can't get enough of it. HA! Well. . . . that is all I really have for today. Man, I am getting good this is two days in a row that I've blogged.

L-o-n-g Weekend!

Okay, to all you family members who keep sending messages through my daughter (Sherri & Laurie) about me NOT blogging. . . . LOL How do you find something to write about everyday? I just must have a really boring life compared to you two, that is the only thing I can figure out. I am lucky if I can sit down and write up something once a week. I go to work for about 5 hours, come home take a 45 minute power nap, take Kaylin to softball practice, go to the gym, and back home again. Usually nothing to crazy exciting happens within those events of my day.

I guess I could blog about my 4th graders and some of the things they say to me in the course of a day, I call them "humorous one-liners." Like. . . . Teacher: Johnny do you know what it means to have "general knowledge?" Johnny: Well, I think it means that it is knowledge that a General in the military has. Teacher: Trying not to laugh hysterically because it might hurt Johnny's feelings. Says "NO, it means to have knowledge about everyday stuff that happens around you or in the world." Johnny: Then how does a General in the military get to be a General if they don't have a lot of knowledge? Teacher: I'm not saying that a General does not have a lot of knowledge, I am just saying that is not what it means to have "general knowledge." Johnny: Well, I guess I will go home and tell my dad that he might not want to become a General. Teacher: Okay, class it's time to get out your MATH! This conversation could have went on and on and on so we just deterred them (him) in a different direction. So that is what kind of conversations I have during one of my workdays. It is rather refreshing some days but others are very frustrating.

I pray all of you had a great time at Grandma B's party.

Kaylin's B'day Sad and Exciting

Well our daughter is 17 now and boy is that hard to cope with. She is all grown up and 17, I just can't believe it. We spent her birthday which was Saturday, at softball games. I think every year since she was around 10 she has had to play softball on her birthday. It is usually a tournament or a really important team. Like Ramstein High School which in this case is Kaiserslautern's rival school. The kiddo did very well! She treated herself to an over the fence homerun, double (which hit the fence and was only a double because the person running infront of her was a bit slow), and a single just in the first game. She ended up driving in four out of 11 runs that game. NOT BAD! Chad says that the fence at this field is about 250 feet (it's a men's league field.) WOW, what power she has at age 17. Better not let her know that she might think she could beat her ol' momma up or something silly like that. LOL All and all she had an awesome weekend at bat and defense. Hey she even got something really cool for her birthday from us a new camera. I don't think she has stopped snappin' that thing since she got it. Of course I did not get Kaylin's homerun on video. The reason being that every time I set my camera up to tape her she gets walked or something unexciting. It happened to be drizzling on Saturday so I didn't want my camera getting wet. What happens she has a slammer of a hit. Go figure! I guess I have boasted about our daughter enough for one blog. Happy Birthday, baby girl and we are very, very proud of you.

Here I COME!!!

Okay so I hope that this works. If it does you will just get a KICK out of it. This was a few weekends ago when the girl up to bat hit a foul ball. I jumped up from catching ran over dove and caught the ball. If you cant tell my face was about an inch away from eating the fence. LOL It is really funny once you watch it a few times. I hit the fence I beileve with my arm but the I fell off it to catch the ball. So now you know how aggresive I am when I am playing the sport I LOVE!!! This year or shall I say in two days I will have played softball for 12 years. WOW that is a really LONG time. But what can I say I love the game :) But anyway I though you would enjoy watching me catch a foul ball. Oh ya almost forgot you like moms taping job. LOL she never moves the camera for the good shots she always is watching them and not taping. Well whatcha going to do? LOVE her.

Love you all and hope you enjoy
Love
Kaylin

Ending story on BRAT dog. . . . . .

Well I don't have any pictures again. LOL I am sorry about that, but you do get to hear about my boring life. :) I talked to you guys about the brat silhouette thinkin that she had to have fun in the bathrooms. We tried to put her in her cage when mom left. But of coarse she new that I was still home in bed.(where she wanted to be) She was not having that. What does she do???? You got it she barked, howled, and whined pretty much did everything possible to get on ones nerve. I had to get up "SIGH" and take her out of her cage and bring her into my room. After that I shut my bedroom door so that she couldn't go anywhere. Yes, I have two bedrooms. One is really just for guests and or friends. So, that is what situation we are in right now with brat dog.....

I have a game today!!! I am excited. I wasn't able to play in the games last week cause I wanted to take a week off cause of my wrist. Man alive was that hard!! I am excited to play even though I now that we will get our rear ends KICK!!! :) That is a fact. I might be mistaking but, I doubt that. :D We are playing Lakenheath, England. Which is a very good team and it is a 16 hour drive including the 4 hour fairy. We had to go there last year so I KNOW. It was NOT a fun ride. With two softball teams that are girls, German bus drivers that don't speak a lick of English, a 17 year old kid that is asking my mom a question every 5 minutes, and coaches. LOL Long story short we had to fill up on gas which was 1,000 Euro in gas. They tried "KEY WORD" tried to use a debit card. HA HA HA they didn't speak English and when it was asking for a pin code they didn't understand and they didn't know what it was. So we spent 2 or so hours at the gas station. The cops also had to show up cause we couldn't pay for the gas. he he he:) Anyway after 2 very very looooooong hours they got it all figured out. But 1,000 Euro is roughly 1,546 DOLLARS for GASSSSS. I thought you guys might want to know how expensive gas is here for the Germans. But anyway it was a trip that one will never forget.

well I think that, that is all i have for today. I will get back to you on the games. Probably in a few days cause we have games tomorrow too. But with a team named Alconbery. I will have to post some of the softball pics that mom will try to take this weekend.

God Bless and I love you all,
Kaylin <><

Learning a Different Language

So. . . . . after much demand from my cousin, I guess I still need to keep blogging. I do apologize (LAURIE) we are just never home long enough for me to actually type more than a three sentence email. This kid of ours keeps me hoppin'.

Anyway....................................Continuing on from my last blog about "Culture Shock" we have since then started to learn German. After about 6 months of feeling like we stuck out like a sore thumb here in this foreign land we started feeling comfortable enough to shop on the economy. Mind you only being here 6 months we still did not know a lick of German. Going shopping in the German stores is always an adventure. You know how when you go to look for a new car and you dread seeing the salesman head in your direction because you really just wanted to look. Well, when you are in a foreign country and try to go shopping in places where you can't really ask questions or communicate with sales people. It seems to attract sales people even more when you have this dumb founded look on your face trying to figure out what a product is for or what it costs. So when these very polite people approach you all that you can think of at the time is " Can I please just hide in a hole now?" When this person starts talking you have no idea what they have just said to you and don't know how to respond. Daaaaaa! We got very good at using the expression "Nine Deutsch" or "Sprechen sie English, Bitte?" Which means " No German" and " Can you speak English, please?" Something interesting we found out is that all Germans have to take English in school. So most Germans can speak some English or enough that they can make out what we are saying. We are very fortunate of that, I don't think that some of the Americans over here get that. The German people are very considerate of the fact that all of us Military people are over here and DON'T speak their language. Kaylin and I have been trying to learn enough German to have small talk or at least go shopping and not feel intimidated by not knowing how to communicate with them. They actually appreciate you a lot more when you try to speak their language but sometimes they just revert to English because we completely enilate theirs.

So for a quick lesson in German (Deutsch). . . . . .
Good Morning ---------- Guten Morgen
Good Afternoon -------- Guten Tag
Good Evening ---------- Guten Abend
Good Bye -------------- Auf Wiedersehen
Til' later --------------- bis bald
Good Bye ------------ Chews!
How are you? --------- Wie gehts
Very good! ------------ Sehr gut!
Thank You! ----------- Danke Shane

Ich Liebe Disch! Windi

Just a lil something!!!

Hey everyone,

I don't have any pictures to put on here today. SORRY :'( We did here back from the doctor about my wrist and thumb a few days ago. The X-Rays didn't show anything. That is always a relief. We are just thinkin that I bruised my thumb and sprang my wrist some how. I am back playing just not to the fullest extent. Which is okay cause I don't want to hurt it anymore then it already is.

We have had really really pretty weather lately. It is suppose to be in the 70's the rest of the week. YIPPEE The sun is finally out and I got BURNT. That felt good. OUCH!! :S

Oh ya forgot to share this news with ya. . . . . . The brat which is Silhouette got into some trouble this morning. Mom lets her loose in the mornings cause she normally goes back to bed with me. Ha ha ha not today. She went to both bathrooms. Daunt daunt daaaa....... what is she up too. She felt the need to have fun with the toilet paper and a few other things. That dog about lost her head. What was she thinkin???? :D Mom will get this news and Silhouette from now on will be put in her cage in the mornings. Cause especially today since I had a head ache I am not going to clean that up every single morning. You now know that if that door is open and she is unattended she is going to go and have some FUN!!! But that is all I have for today. I hope that you guys enjoyed reading about the brat dog. HA HA HA HA :)

Love,
Kaylin <><

Just another day?!?!?!

The water picture at top is pretty cool also. That is approximately a mile away. The sound is very peaceful and calm. You can see the little creek that is flowing into a bigger portion of water. The bigger area of water actually is pretty deep when you get close to it. But other than that it is just nice and quiet there.

Okay, so the dogs in the
picture to your right would NOT get in the house. They were making me so made cause they still wanted to play ball. I was like Shugar you better get in this house right now and look what face she gave me. LOL What??? WHY?? That little stinker. Then you have Silhouette that is just going along side Shugar. LOL They are characters that is for sure.


Then you see Shugar and I. We are in a little hole next to these huge holes that the miners use to mine in. But this one is just on flat ground not actually in any certain hole or anything. The end of the hole (meaning coming towards you) is a small drop off to a bigger hole. That is why we are so far back in this little passage way. Not to SCARE you or anything. LOL :D Well I hope that you enjoy the rest of your week and God Bless <><

Love,
Kaylin

WAVING HELLO FROM GERMANY!!!!

Hello family,

This is me a few minutes after I climbed down or shall I say fell down the rock. As you can see me TRYING to climb back up the rock. These rocks are not easy to climb and or walk down. That is obviously why mom stays at the top. It is just soo much fun climbing and walking through our many mountains here in our little village of Imsbach. Our street name takes after or should I say means blacksmith. The reason that is, is because our village use to be nothing but miners. It is pretty cool. You get half way up some mountains and there is a board or post which tells you were you are and what happened there. It is pretty neat. Our house actually use to be a manufacture business. We have a sign on our house that tells you all about the history about the house. It is really interesting. Of coarse I can't tell you what it means unless I write it all down and translate it to English. I can pick out a few words but not enough to tell everyone what it is talking about. Well I have to go get ready for my game so I will catch you all later.
Love
Kaylin

OUR WONDERFUL DOG'S

Hello from German,

I know you are going to say abuse towards the dogs. LOL But it was soo much fun. You know they loved it too. :) They are soo darn cute sometimes and they don't even know it. :D AWWW The one that Shugar is in the tree's she is playing hide and seek with her stick that she had found. Then after we took the picture of Silhouette she bit my flower. How dare her!!! She is soo dumb I am not so sure that, that flower really even tasted that good. But of coarse there is mom yelling; KAYLIN GET THAT OUT OF HER MOUTH AND HURRY BEFORE SHE SWALLOWS IT. Why me it is her stupid dog that ate the flower in the first place. LOL :P That darn dog doesn't know anything and just like a kid you had to stick your finger down her throat. That wasn't something that I was to pleased about and never have to do again. Since of coarse she doesn't know any tricks, so it wasn't like you could EASILY say Silhouette drop it!!!! HA HA HA That would be a miracle if she did BUT NO!!! Well I better let you go and I will catch up to you guys later.

Love ya,

Kaylin

Flying like a bird!!!!

Wie gates es enen? (How are you?)

Okay, so I wanted to see what it was like being a bird. LOL I am on a tree stump and to top that off on the edge of a rock. The edge of the rock stopped where I was balancing. Talk about scary. Mom was like ok time to get up here now. :) What can I say I love to explore. :P It is sooo much fun!!!!!

Well how is everything going in the states? How is the weather? The weather here needs to make up its mind. One day it will be in the 70's the next it will be cold and raining. Well I guess you could say welcome to the spring. :D Softball is going good I guess. I am ready to go back to the states and play competitive ball. :D The competition over here is not that good, and I like to have some competition anyway. Well I better let you guys go so that I can eat my lunch. Hope you have a fantastic day and I hope that you have a great rest of the week and GOD BLESS!!!!! <><

Love,

Kaylin

Our House

Just a quick blog for this day. It is everything but bedtime here so I will have to blog about more interesting stuff at another time. Kaylin and I went on a nature walk this weekend to take some snapshots of our house from the mountain. When looking at this photo our house is the last white house on the left, going towards the woodsy area or end of the street. I thought this would give all you family members a good picture in your head of where our house is located. I can explain over and over but seeing it in a picture is so much more explanatory. We have a stream that runs down the side of our property and it sounds so peaceful and refreshing. I love walking out our front door and hearing the rushing water of the stream and the birds chirping. It took Kaylin and I about 20/30 minutes to get up to this awesome spot on the mountain to take pictures. Hey Laurie, you want a workout?! Come and visit us, we have all these mountain trails to walk and it is a great cardiovascular workout. I will try to keep posting pics as we get news ones and blogging when I have time. Kaylin is keeping me pretty busy with softball and home schooling. Not to mention that I choose to have a part time job on top of everything else. God Bless!

Culture Shock

By request of my dear cousin Laurie, I need to start blogging about our life here in Germany. In that case I guess I should start off with our very first day here. Wow! It has been a whole year and four months since our arrival. How time flies when you are trying to adjust to a culture shock.

We arrived here on January 1st of 2007. Yep, that's right New Year's Day, I will probably never for get it. The one thing that stands out in my mind most if our first few hours here at the Frankfurt Airport. We landed at 7:30 a.m. Germany time and with very little sleep at that. Our flight was about 12 hours but we had been up for apporximately 26 hours. NOT FUN! Oh, did I forget to mention that we were traveling with our German Shepard who's name is Shugar. So we get to the airport and we first have to get our luggage and our dog, right? Ha! What a joke they pulled on us, not only were we in a foriegn country but little did we know not one piece of our luggage made it. As we stand at the luggage belt patiently waiting we hear our name being called over the intercom. Let's not forget that we are in a foriegn country and about the only thing we recognized that was being said was, "Herr Hesler please go to baggage claim." Immediately I start to go into panic mode about our dog, which by the way was what I feared most about making this trip across the ocean. I just had this feeling that our dog was going to be lost or sent to a different airport than us. Kaylin and I wait and wait at the luggage belt and still no luggage. So then I get to thinking that maybe they were talking about just our suitcase luggage. Chad finally makes it back to us and says, " Dear, I have some bad news." Uh Oh panic mode again! He continues with, "Shugar didn't make the flight." My response was, " I knew this was going to happen!" " So now what do we do?" I ask. Chad tells me to be calm and that she is suppose to be on the next flight. Okay. . . was that suppose to make me not be in panic mode cause it didn't work. We proceed to walk to go find our sponsor and tell them that we had to wait an hour for the next flight to land. Let's see been up for 28 hours now, no dog, and I forgot to mention to Chad that our other luggage didn't come either. About 30 minutes goes by we haven't found our sponsor and Chad looks at our luggage cart and says, "Where is our suitcases?" Ooops, "Did I mention that our luggage didn't ever come around on the luggage belt?" "My bad!" We finally find our sponsor and tell them we aren't ready to leave because of the dog coming in at 9 a.m. Chad goes back to the luggage claim and tells them that none of our luggage was here. At about 9:30 we see people and luggage coming through the customs line and Kaylin finally sees Chad, with Shugar. Yeah! I was so relieved to have our family pet in our care once again. For the next several hours we had to find a place for Shugar to stay, get some food, buy some clothes, and go to our hotel. All in all we ended up being up for about 36 hours and I was having major separation anxiety from our family, the good ol' USA, and our dog. The greatest thing about our first day here was that God was right there by our side giving us the strength to overcome our first day in this foriegn land. He was ever so faithful, loving, and provided everything we needed to get us through one more day.

More mountainous areas :)

SORRY!!!! These are the last set of mountainous pictures I promise. I just wanted to share some more of our many mountains with everyone of you. Hope you enjoy and God Bless!!

Love,

Kaylin :D

The CRAZY Yahoo's

OKAY, so this is what happens when you take the two yahoo's for a nature walk. LOL They have sooooo much fun together. Shugar normally climbs all the mountains and rocks with me. She likes sitting at the top of one and looking down at mom. Silhouette of coarse just goes along with everyone. She isn't sure what to do most of the time. But they do love to run together from one end of the trail to the other.

This fenced in area that you see behind them is a huge rock that miners have dug HUGE holes in. We haven't went into any of those yet. Maybe one day though. You can see some of them from the fence but it isn't the same when you see them up close.

Well everyone take care and God Bless!!!!

Love,

Kaylin :P

Yes this is me climbing up one of our many famous rocks. I LOVE climbing them they are soo much fun!!! WHEW it is very very tiring though. You get a very good work out!! LOL Just when you think you are almost to the top you realize that you still have a long way to go. Well I hope you enjoy watching me climb this mountain. I also hope that everyone is having a very good week and God BLESS everyone!!!

Love,

Kaylin <><

The giant HOLES :)

These holes are what some of the miners did back when. It is pretty cool to look down in one and try to manage that long time ago some one was down in that creepy thing. We have a lot more of these sort of holes around our house. Some of them are blocked off and some you can go and see. They are pretty interesting to read about also, that is if you read GERMAN. LOL We have one right outside our door. But this particular one you have to go inside to be able to see anything. I haven't went down in it yet but one of our friends did and he said that there is a big DROP off. AHH that is never good. Well I just wanted to share some of our holes with you guys. LOL Talk to everyone later.

Love,
Kaylin <><

Princess of the Mountain

Okay, so imagine to my surprise when I saw this picture that our daughter is rather gutsy. My first question was are you crazy?

Up on the mountain

Here are some more pics up on the mountain. The girls love to spend time up on the mountain taking pictures as you can see.

Scenery on the Mountain

These pictures were taken by Tiffany and Kaylin on one of their many nature walks.

Our Mountain

Awwwwe aren't they just gorgeous.

Florida trip