Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

Inside the Coleseum Inside the Forum And people say my son looks like Hans.... Before total boredom paralyzed him Inside the Forum And...I know how much my huge audience has been waiting for the next installment in the great Rome 2008 Saga...Part Three or "The Great Gelato Fiasco": Day Three was ours and ours alone. We had decided not to take the tour's option to visit Pompeii. It was a wise decision as we later found out it was a three hour bus ride, two hours in Pompeii and a very lame supper. We figured that the kids would be bored with Pompeii. Strangely enough, they were bored with the Coleseum and the Forum, too. Hmmmm . Really weird that a 4-1/2 year-old and an almost 3-year-old wouldn't "get" the marvels of Roman architecture. I know, I know--you're all saying "Well, whaddya expect?". I remember my parents taking us to some places that we did not appreciate. Case in point: the hours we spent in the car to go see the battle...

The Pantheon Trevi Fountain This is a war memorial--don't recall the exact name of the building Trajan's Column The Coleseum (and Josiah and me in the background) I was disappointed not to see Russell Crowe there! Part two of day two...this is like a TV miniseries. Actually, I thought about "The Thornbirds" a lot while in Rome. Don't ask. Anyway, after our papal blessing, while we were still feeling all warm and holy, we hopped on the bus and proceeded to drive into the heart of Rome. Home of all things ancient and touristy. As you can see, we saw the Coleseum (which Hans informs me should properly be called Flavian Ampitheatre--boy, it never gets old being married to the world's foremost authority on everything ), the ruins of the Forum, Trajan's Column, Trevi Fountain (yes, we threw our coins and in the correct direction), and the Pantheon. Too bad it was Christmas and everything was closed. Another valuable lesson learned--Hans and I should have re...

Yep, that little white thing is the Pope As close as we got to a good picture of the Swiss Guard In St. Peter's Square The view of St. Peter's Square with the Vatican in the background Josiah In our hotel room in Rome, having supper Here is the first part of day two--Christmas Day. Our hotel in Rome was very nice, actually it was very good-sized, which is not something one finds in Europe very often. Hans and I had a large room with a king-size bed and the kids had a little room down a hallway with two twin beds. The only bad thing about the rooms in Pisa and Rome is that they only had showers and not bathtubs and certain members of our party scream like they're on fire when a shower is suggested. It's Hans. I have the hardest time keeping that boy clean. I kid. Anyway, we got up early again on Christmas Day and tried to have breakfast. As usual, the European breakfast consists of various meats, cheeses and breads. Great for us, not so great for the kids. This t...

The sun came out just as we were leaving... The leaning tower and the Duomo Front facade of the Duomo Doorway detail - Duomo Early morning fog on the Baptistry Josiah and I in the plaza Here are the pictures from Pisa. We made just one stop at this location, at the famous leaning tower. When we first arrived, the three buildings in that plaza were shrouded in fog, but it burned off after an hour and the sun came out, illuminating these beautiful buildings. Unfortunately, the tour company only allowed us an hour here, and it was the hour before the three buildings opened, thus we weren't able to see the interiors (but we got FOUR hours in Florence...I'm not bitter!).

It took us almost 16 hours to get home on Sunday night/Monday morning...this is why no one has heard from us. We are still trying to recover from the almost comic events of Sunday evening. I am going to blog about Rome in bits and pieces. I'll just mention Florence here because that was our last stop on Sunday. We left Rome early in the morning and arrived in Florence around 10:30 a.m. For some reason, the tour guides decided to leave us in downtown Florence for four hours. Now most of you are probably thinking "Wow, four hours in Florence, what a thrill". Um, not so much. For starters, there isn't that much to see in Florence. Yes, it was once the home of such amazing people as Machiavelli, Galileo, Dante, Michelangelo. After we saw the church that houses their crypts...well, there's not much to do. Shopping, yes, but after paying so much for this trip, we weren't exactly eager to drop a load of cash buying leather purses--though they were very beaut...

We are here. What is it about me and underestimating distances in Europe? For some reason, I have the hardest time with this. What I thought would be a six hour drive turned out to be twelve hours on the bus. Of course, the bus doesn't travel as fast as the D4s would and there were three stops for meals totalling around three hours. But still...it's the same as Normandy. I thought it would be five or six hours to France's coast. Not so much. Next time, people, remind me to do the Mapquest so that I have a realistic idea. The kids did great. We had the iPods, books, Leapsters and they both took naps. The only bad thing that happened is that Annika wet herself at about hour ten. At one of the rest stops in Italy, she developed a terror of Italian toilets and refused to use the potty. As I feared, this resulted in an accident. Luckily, I had a change of clothes along and changed her very quickly. The carseat...well, we soaked up as much as we could, but it's ...

Bear with me, as of course, these are in a random, scattered order--Esslingen on the ferris wheel Josiah, Annika and random German girl on the ferris wheel (the two men standing next to it actually turn it--this was in the "medievel section" of the Christmas Market). Esslingen's Rathaus Gigantic pyramid in Esslingen Booth with traditional frosted cookies (they look like gingerbread, but I'm not sure)... Scene from the Christmas Market Hans opening his present - now if the Bears just lose and the Cowboys lose too and the Steelers win, but the Chargers lose...maybe the Vikings will go to the playoffs. Hey--it could happen (and yes, I'm aware that I'm using random other teams not even in the same league). I bought Annika a recorder. Why did I do that, why? The best shot of me in my new dirndl...

Downtown Garmisch, near the Christmas Market Live music at the Christmas Market A cafe--note the seats each have a sheepskin and a throw blanket, to get cozy! Hans, Josiah & Annika with the boar in front of Grasegger Grasegger, the store where I bought my dirndl Typical cafe/restaurant in Garmisch--jealous, Scuba? Do we go to typical Garmisch restaurants? Nope, we go to McDonald's. But you have to admit, a very charming-looking McDonald's!? Josiah at the PX, with the Zugspitze in the background Hotel room view

I read our local paper every day. For the last week or so, this ad in the classifieds under the "Person to Person" section has caught my eye: "Looking for a strong single Man to protect petite woman in case of Zombie uprising! Must be good with chainsaw, motorcycle and have Ninja skills. Ages 40ish-50. No weirdoes please." It makes me laugh every single time. I wish this petite lady all the luck in the world finding a man to fill these specifications. And I'm guessing she's going to get a few weird ones, don't you?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28269290/from/ET/ What. The. Hell? There are unique baby names and then there are baby names that are just WRONG. It is wrong to name your child after a man who ordered the genocide of 6,000,000 people. Maybe the unique name could be forgiven if they didn't also ask for a nice swastika on the cake, too. Oh, nothing screams "fun and heartwarming children's party" like a swastika. What sorts of games did they play, I wonder? Pin the tail on the Gypsy? Did they build a snow fort and pretend it was Leningrad? Which of the children had to be the Russians? Wheeeee!!! What fun! Thank heavens they had all had some of that nice cake so that they didn't also have to pretend that they were starving to death in the seige. Disgusting. And what disgusts me more is that when this couple was turned down by the original grocery store (which had denied the request on this kid's first and second birthdays also), they got WAL-MART to make the cake for ...

Woah you guys. You will not believe this, but when I left the apartment on Saturday I forgot to make Josiah's bed. That's right. I left the house in a state of imperfectness. And the earth did not explode!!! Woah. I am still in shock. Does this mean that (gulp) I could maybe relax a little on the neatness factor and the sun will still rise and set? On a completely unrelated note, do you believe in karma? I do. I believe in the Golden Rule. What goes around, comes around, do unto others, etc. If that seems cryptic, that's fine. There's a situation in my life right now that is really bothering me, but unfortunately, I can't come right out and blab about it on my blog. All I can do is try not to let it bug me and think about karma. But that's cool about the bed, right?

Trying out the built-in webcam on the super-computer...not very good quality. Yeah, that's the excuse for why my roots are so dark, too. Poor picture quality. Well, we're enjoying our second night in Garmisch. We were supposed to come down on Thursday, but as I mentioned in the last post, we had bad weather both here and in Stuttgart. By the time I packed up and headed out on Saturday morning, most of the snow had been dealt with with the customary German zeal and neatness. I also stuck on the A8 Autobahn all the way to Munich and then came down to Garmisch instead of taking the scenic (read: probably more slippery) route through rural Bavaria and Austria. The roads were completely dry all the way. I guess it has been slippery here. My husband called me in a panic on Friday to tell me that he was taking the Audi in to get snow tires put on it. He had a scare when he slid through a yield sign. No one was hurt (like on the Island of Sodor), but he was convinced he had to go and...

I was supposed to join Hans in Garmisch today and stay through the weekend, possibly into the week. He's down in that area going to school, and since the military is paying for the room and Garmisch is one of our favorite places, we were looking forward to it. However, it has been snowing here since yesterday and we now have between 6-9" of snow with more coming down. Hans said it snowed in the Alps, so I can't imagine that the conditions are much better there...so we will be staying home. As Hans said "I've been cut out of one car in my life and I don't intend to have that happen again". I feel the exact same way. Why take the chance? I feel certain we'll get to Garmisch again. One of Hans' co-workers called me today to let me know that if I need anything, to just give them a call. They wanted to make sure that I had groceries and that the car started...it was very nice. I was certainly never taken care of like that while Hans was on the ...

Here are Josiah and Annika, admiring our German Christmas pyramid over the weekend. We got out our Christmas tree and ornaments. I love getting our ornaments out because I try to buy one from every duty station each year, so taking them each out brings back a lot of memories. I have a few ornaments from my years as a single girl too: the Waterford crystal angel from my trip to Ireland, for example. It was rather a long day today as we had a series of doctor's appointments, a trip to the pharmacy, which is never quick and easy, and a trip to Hans' office. We had news that our car is on the way to the port at Bremerhaven and so should be here soon. Even though they are built in Turkey, the vehicles have to officially enter Germany at a port. I know, doesn't make much sense to me, either. Anyway--Hans is gone, so I have to quick take care of some last paperwork and get the loan in place if it does show up. I should know more tomorrow...maybe our next pictures will be our new r...

So, first of all, I realize that I didn't say much about my trip home to Minnesota. It was nice. I was thinking this morning that it was nice...I didn't have any arguments with my sister, which sometimes happens when we're in the same room. It never happens on the phone, just occasionally when we're within 10' of each other. Also, I was thinking that I really enjoyed talking to Eli almost every day while I was in St. James. I will be the first to admit that I don't do nearly as good a job at keeping in touch with him as I do with Gen, so it was nice to get time with him too. Oh, and my new nephews are wonderful as are my nieces, too. And that one old nephew is pretty good (that would be Sam). Now we have just one more new nephew to meet at some point and we'll be all up-to-date on the meeting of new nephews and nieces. No more babies until we get home, OK guys? I have a feeling Heidi will agree to that, but I'm not so sure about the rest of you ...

No, not more celebrities. Today, while I was waiting in line to drop off my car at the shop, the enormous guy in camo in front of me whipped out his floss and proceeded to...well, floss. Is it me or are there more appropriate places to floss? When I floss, crud inevitably goes flying around. He was working with the customer service rep at the time, too. Said CSR had gone to hunt up a part or something and was away from the counter. It's not like he was third in line or anything. He was in the process of checking-in. So basically, this guy's between-molar crud was getting sprayed all over the counter. Yuck.

Forgot to mention that I saw Garrison Keillor getting off the plane at MSP yesterday. He was wearing red shoes...he's pretty distinctive looking, but I didn't notice anyone else gawking at him. I tried to be covert in my staring. He actually stopped at a trash can about 12' from us to rearrange his bags. Hans asked me why I didn't get up and give him hell for being an "incoherent old liberal who sucks" (that's a direct quote from Hans). He had red shoes. Also, I guess Richard Anderson, the CEO of NWA (or is it Delta now, whatever) was at the desk just before me. The female attendant was practically licking his shoes, which were neither red nor expensive looking. He drives a Volkswagen, so he's OK with me. I noticed this because he had the key fob hanging from his briefcase. I wouldn't have known it was him, a name I've actually heard, but the salivating attendant was like "Oh, my God that was Richard Anderson". Now if it was R...

So we're here and I feel like death, so if I make lots of spelling and grammar errors, please excuse me. The flights were awesomely awesome. I cannot say enough about the good people of Delta Airlines. I may have to write them an effusively nice and pleasant e-mail complimenting the niceness of their people and the fact that their airplane bathrooms remained clean and sweet-smelling for the entire intercontinental flight. Backtrack to Saturday...details are on Gen's blog as well. We had a great time. I am still impressed that we managed to get everyone organized and lured up to the Cities. We spent the afternoon at the Minnesota Children's Museum and the evening at the Holidazzle Parade in downtown Minneapolis. Could it have been any better? Not really. One part of the day in downtown St. Paul, the other in downtown Minneapolis, with my best buddy and a few other little people. We even somehow managed to drive past Como Conservatory...on our anniversary. Awwww... ...

My apologies to anyone who read my post yesterday and was left scratching heads and wondering when our anniversary changed from the 29th to the 28th. I can only blame it on the fact that I'm on vacation here and one tends to lose track of the date. I have confirmed through several sources that it is indeed November 29th today, so Happy Anniversary to my husband, who got his adoring post yesterday and due to time constraints and lack of creativity, will have to make do with this basic post today. I have a card and I'm coming for you...see you in 48 hours. Yes, let's try this again. I'm up for another year. I'll re-up. Do I get a bonus?

More have fallen...the plague has not stopped its rampage! Mom got sick yesterday afternoon, Dad fell during the night. I slept through the night but awoke to a nauseous feeling and no more than made Josiah and Annika their waffles then had to throw up. It happened a couple more times before I was done. The good news is that it is a fairly quick-moving bug, whatever it is. As I write this at 9:00 p.m., I feel a little tired but otherwise sound of stomach. Eli reported that Lindsey was getting it. Gramma Kuehl came down with it and there are reports from up north that Uncle Phil ended up with it as well. Hang in there guys...as I said, it's fairly short-lived. Hope to go to Mankato tomorrow and do a little more shopping. Time is running out, I've got to get the shopping bug out of my system. Josiah and Annika are doing well. They were very understanding today of everyone's illness...thank God we were doing it in shifts so that Mom and Dad were able to care for them wh...

Brought to you by Pukahontas and her brother, Sir Pukalot. Yeah, it's been one of those kinds of days. Woke up at my Grandma T.'s house at 3:00 a.m. with Josiah throwing up on his makeshift bed. When he was finished (loudly) throwing up, he wanted to come and sleep in Grandma's small double bed with me and Annika. It felt like a scene out of "Planes, Trains & Automobiles"...there I was, with 6" of space to my name. I ended up letting them sleep at the head of the bed and I curled up across the end of the bed. He woke up at least two more times during the night, oh joy of all joys. Did I mention that I contracted a sweet cold yesterday too? One of those colds in which the nose seems completely plugged and incapable of passing any snot whatsoever, then all of a sudden, there's rogue snot trickling down your face? And you've wiped your nose so many times with your Grandma's cheap, rough tissues that you can hardly feel your nose and upper l...

I forgot to mention in all the Tatertot Hotdish talk that Genevieve is still as amazing, funny, patient and lovely as ever. I could hardly wait for her to get home on Wednesday evening. It took all of my self control not to jump on her when she came through the door! Thanks for having us, Gen, for taking me to the Apache Mall and to Dairy Queen. I'm so glad that we got about 45 minutes of peace and quiet to carry on a truly adult conversation!

OK, so I went out and bought this new computer for Hans...he picked it out prior to my leaving Stuttgart, researched it, checked to make sure Best Buy had it in stock and wrote down the model and SKU numbers for me. You guys should see this thing. Seriously. For starters, it's bright cherry red with flames on the cover. Next, it's enormous. It has a ten-key pad it's so big. When one opens the cover, red lights flash. I keep thinking of game shows every time I open it, like that spin the wheel game on The Price is Right. It's definitely eye-catching. I think my husband will like it. I guess it's pretty fast and everything too and will be good to play games on...I wouldn't know about the technical stuff. All I know is that it's uncommonly good-looking. And it has the most sensitive touch pad ever. If there are all sorts of typos in this post, I apologize...I have to keep my hands super-arched to type over the touchpad...it keeps skittering the cursor...

Well, we made it! As I've always said, the things that I fear the most usually turn out to be nothing at all. Since I spent three weeks of sleepless nights worrying that the kids and I would be thrown off the plane due to their bad behavior, it did not come to pass. Josiah and Annika were extraordinarily well behaved for the first nine hours of the ten hour flight. They played with their Leapsters, watched TV on our iPods (Hans generously loaned us his for the trip), colored and ate. They did not sleep that entire flight. By the time the tenth hour rolled around, they were starting to get a little antsy, but hey--who wasn't? Delta treated us very nicely. They didn't hit us or poke us with cattle prods or yell at us. They fed us a lot of food and came down the aisle with water every 20 minutes. The flight attendants brought Josiah and Annika their two meals before they started the meal service so that I could help them eat while waiting for my own meal. We had lunc...

Angela, Jennifer, Micah, Celine and me at supper for Jen This probably won't be enough Yeah, I think Hans will be fine while we're gone, don't you? I went to the commissary yesterday and picked up "special" food for him to have in our abscence. I was truly embarassed to go through the check-out line. There wasn't a single vegetable, green thing or piece of fruit in the entire cart. It was all mac-n-cheese, Hormel chili (without beans), Chef Boyardee and Oreo cookies. The cashier was probably thinking "Would you look at the horrible stuff this woman feeds her child?" and shuddering. Oh, if only you knew my friend, that it is actually all for my 38-year-old husband... Last night was Jen's going-away dinner that was rearranged from Saturday to Friday and from this time to that time and from this location to that location, in the end for no good reason. Oh well. We had supper at a little Italian place in Boblingen...when I say Italian, I mean t...

Wow, are these kids bored today! I tried, really I did. We sat down and played with Play-Doh, we went to story time at the library, we played in the basement playroom with our stairwell family. Story time was pretty much a disaster because Annika didn't feel like sitting still and listening. No, it was much more fun to drop books on her brother's head, causing him to scream in the middle of a story. It was much more fun for her to fall, writhing in torment, on the floor because she wasn't immediately issued a safety scissors for the craft project afterwards. She was just generally being obnoxious. I was getting a lot of those combination "You poor thing/what a brat, get her under control" looks today. Yesterday Josiah was riding his bicycle on the wheelchair ramp and somehow fell off and knocked his head. I didn't see it happen as I was around the corner. Of course, the time that I let him ride for a few moments without his helmet on...it was totally p...

Kind of a cunning costume, actually: dress up like bum, collect change in can, buy drinks. Even more cunning: telling 34-year-old women they look like they're 20 and feigning astonishment that they have two children. I gave him a whole dollar for that fallacy. When good German girls go bad. Prrrrobably not what Donna intended when she loaned me her gandl...though she took it in stride when I told her someone spilled a beer down the back of my dress! The provacative Mrs. S. strikes a pose Notice my nice braids