Family Picture 2008

we needed a family picture to put in our Christmas cards and we couldnt all seem to get together.

so. Travis was helping Santa out and dressing like him and listening to kids requests at the BX this month so he could pass on the word to the real Santa. ;)

well, last Saturday was the last day he would be there and I decided we would try to go there and get a pic with him. I didnt tell anyone- and I waited to tell Robert until we were already in the car. so, no one is really dressed up. I didnt care.

we got to the BX and when SantaTravis got into his seat, we all got around him for our pic. And this is what is going into our (Late) cards this year! I need to go back and see if I can get a bigger one to put in our big frame hanging on the wall that holds our yearly family pics. I figure if this is the only way to get us all together, then so be it. :)

the pic here is grainy.. its a pic of the pic. I dont have a scanner so couldnt scan it in. but, you get the idea.

Stick a fork in me

where to begin? I havent updated because I have been having issues getting into blogger. I can read peoples blogs- including my own, but couldnt get into making a new post or editing or even commenting on anyones blog. frustrating.

so last Wed, we took the suburban in to be fixed. the check engine light has been on for awhile and we needed to have it looked at. the guy hooked it up to the fancy Chevy/GM whatever it is machine that tells them whats wrong with it.
so they figure out that some 5 and 6 thing are misfiring. ok then. well they said it probably needed new spark plugs and wires. ok, fix it then. so we had to bring it back in this morning to be fixed.
or not.

we dropped it off first thing in the morning. this means I have to follow Robert to the place because one of us needs to drive the other one back home. well, my car has been broken for months now and we just havent taken it in to see what the problem is with it. Roberts car is a stick shift which I cant really drive. I sort of know how, but not well enough to actually drive it anywhere. :p
so we go out there early this morning. drop off the truck and then I get dropped off back at home. no biggie.. the kids are out of school for the holidays and I dont need to go anywhere today so I dont have to have a car.

the car place calls Robert this afternoon- he calls me with the bad news.
the spark plugs didnt help the problem, so they took something apart on the engine and discovered its some valve thing that connects those #5&6 things. okee dokee. well they could put it all back together and we could drive it, but that could also break something else which would be much worse and cost twice as much and still have to get this part fixed too.
so we leave it there. we go in, get a rental car from them.

$1500 euro estimate on the truck. today thats $2174 dollars. OUCH!
we had a 20% coupon and we get the tax off of it.. although I dont know if that estimate is before or after the tax. I only hope and pray that the exchange rate gets better before we have to pay for it. and the only reason we even have money to pay for it is because we have money sitting aside to buy heating oil when we need it. which, thank goodness isnt right now.

yeah. so Im now driving this little car. so if the whole family needs to go somewhere we will have to take 2 cars. ugh. this also means no trips next week when Robert is off work. not that we would really have the money to do it now anyways.

ok.. other news.

Trace hasnt been feeling well all day. I gave him Motrin and he seemed better, then bad again. gave him more. feels better. goes to bed. its 1 am and he came in feeling bad again and hot. so I gave him Tylenol. we'll see how it goes but I hope hes doing better tomorrow and that this doesnt go through all 8 of us. :(

Roberts mom had surgery on her hand last week. she was in a car accident and broke it bad. has pins and a plate and stuff in there. so, she cant drive for a long time now (did you know its illegal to drive in Germany with a cast on??) well, we were going to go get her and bring her here for Christmas, but now she doesnt want us to. so we wont see her until our truck is fixed and we can all go to her for a day.

Travis has been considering joining the AF for a little while now. so he talked to a recruiter and he took the ASVAB test and he scored pretty good on it. he did one part of his physical already and goes to do the other part tomorrow. I guess Ive been in denial or just didnt think he would really do it or something. he is not the type that I would think would join.. Im not sure he could handle basic training.. anyways, the recruiter called tonight and told us that we need an officer to do the enlistment on WEDNESDAY! huh???? its a delayed enlistment so he wouldnt leave until spring.. but I had no idea we were looking at enlistment so soon! holy cow.

I know I had a lot more to talk about but now I cant remember what. maybe tomorrow Ill post another long rambling of things.

Stick a fork in me.. Im DONE

so far behind

the goal was to post a bunch of posts all at one time so I could catch up on things.. but itll never happen, so Im skippinig over some stuff.

Tyler turned 17 at the beginning of the month. how is it that I have a 17 and 18 yr old??? not to mention the others.

so back to trying to post more often..

I am not ready for Christmas. its in 5 days and in my head I still have a month or so to go!
we finally finished making the cookie plates and giving those out- though I missed a couple people that I would have liked to have given plates to. This year we made almond roca, some kind of chocolate/butterscotch candy things, a chow mein noodle chocolate thing, turtle cookie bars, and sugar cookies. We also made a huge batch of jello cookies but they were nasty! even with frosting on them. blech. I need to get in touch with Doreen and find out what her recipe is. I might have added too much lemon extract- seems to me like I used vanilla before.

I still havent done my cards, but I have got the letter done. No family picture taken yet. Maybe we can arrange that tonight. Then it will have to be in the living room, but its better than none at all I suppose. At this point, we could wait until Sunday to take one .. Travis' work schedule really makes things hard to plan.

I havent wrapped any presents yet, but I think we finally bought them all. I do need to get a few small things for Robert.. dont know what though! why are men and boys so hard to buy for? and I have 6 of them to shop for every year. so frustrating.

the kids get out of school for winter recess today. I love my kids, but I do not enjoy listening to all the fighting and bickering that goes on when theyre all home for weeks at a time..so Im not really looking forward to the break.

ok, off to balance the checkbook.. fun fun

German Christmas Market

ok so between Abbys actual bday and her cake bday (haha) we went to the Christmas market in K-Town.

This really isnt the best example of a Christmas market I dont think.. this one is mostly drinking and some foods.. not so much with the booths of things for sale like Ive heard they have at the bigger, nicer ones.

Hopefully we can get to one or two this month and see what they are really supposed to be like.

Anyways, the big drink at the market is Gluhwein.. its some kind of wine drink and its hot. I dont know what it tastes like, but it seems to be a big hit! they also sell Kinder Punch which isnt alcaholic and its also hot. so we go and get that. it comes in mugs usually with the year and town on them, so we go and just get the drinks so we can keep the mug. (If you dont want to keep the mug, you get your deposit back)

This year we also got some hot chocolate. I love german hot chocolate.. and Belgium hot chocolate.. its like a given that it will have whipped cream on top and sometimes chocolate shavings too. Yummy!

one of the foods we have seen at the few we have been to are these potato pancake things. they serve them with or without applesauce. I like them without applesauce and Travis likes them with. I cant eat a lot of them now though... so I just had a bite of one of his. :)

we also get french bread pizzas when we go.. MmMmMm

the night we went it was COLD! we didnt stay long!

Abby is 6!

the Day after Thanksgiving, Abby turned 6!

I cant believe its been 6 years since my youngest was born!

I was horrible and never got around to making her a cake.. so we bought her a pretty one with pink roses on it at the commissary.

how bad am I?

but... it gets worse.

we gave her presents that day, but held off on the cake until the next day!

Thanksgiving

so, to continue playing catch up...

the day after the pin on ceremony, was Thanksgiving.

Like last year, we decided to go to Baumholder and eat at the chow hall.

it was crazy crowded and we ended up sitting in the same section, but not all together.. but it was ok. the food was good and we saw a lot of people from church that we knew.

my favorite this year was the chocolate fountain that i dipped a lot of strawberries in LOL

the only pic with me in it has my eyes closed as usual, so Im not posting it.

Making up for lost time

NEW RANK!

Robert finally got to sew on SMSgt on Dec. 1, but he had his pin on ceremony on Nov. 26 since that was the last duty day before the 1st.

woohoo! It took forever for Dec. to get here! ;)

very proud of him!

I took all the kids and Roberts mom came and we all punched one side of him, and his old commander did the other arm.













horrible pics in the theater lighting. :( Hoping the professional pics look nice.





then we had to take his uniforms in to have the new stripes sewn on.. here he is after picking them up.