BBQ in Walheim

Cora - 8 Months old

Cora is eating solids and "on the move" as of this week.  She can scoot herself off the rug.  We officially need to baby-proof.  A little blanket does not contain her anymore.

June and July

We attended the Kornelimunster Jahrmarkt

 Had fun on the swings and checking out all the booths.  We got a scooter for 6 Euros....sweet!

 Checked out the happenings in town for the Heiligtumsfahrt and also the World Cup!

This was an art display with video in the church about Faith.

 Every cafe and restaurant in town had flatscreens with the game on.

 Dad's home from church!

 Timmy and I had a "date" to Floriansdorf, a little pretend town where they teach you about fire safety.

 Here the kids practice exiting a window with the Fireman.

 I bought some cheese while Allie and I were in Amsterdam, and asked if my neighbors wanted to taste it by having cheese and crackers with us.   He decided to bring a cake with him.  THIS is his cake people!  It was amazing!  We'll just say that my crackers and cheese wheel paled in comparison.

 The kids bid a fond farewell to their Kindergarten.  They have been here two years, and it is sad to say goodbye to their wonderful teachers and many friends.

 The playground.

 The kids going into grade school were handed their homemade "Schultüte" as a farewell with their "Mappe" with all their favorite art projects and homeworks.

 I bought the kids neoprene wetsuits for swim lessons because Timmy was shivering and shaking so badly when they swam in the colder lap pool, he could hardly swim.  

They were so excited that they wore the suits EVERY DAY for three days, all day long.

 Princess has been attending church with us, and the boys are over the moon about it.  Aaron sulked and pouted for an hour after she went home with her daddy after this picture was taken.

 One last goodbye to Gulay, Aaron's first year teacher in the Blue Group.

You can see that he cut his OWN hair!  Scott had to buzz it short short afterward.  But we let him walk around looking like a goon for a couple of days anyway.

 "Gimmee That!"

 "I.....want....."

 4th of July BBQ with our American friends, Sheri and Linda and their kids.   (Notice the short hair)

 Lots of farewells this month!  We bid adieu to Emma, Susan and Björn, who are moving across country to Braunschweig.  They had a lovely little gathering on the lawn tonight, and we had fun chatting and snacking. 

Such great neighbors!  Sad to see them go.

Like a rockstar...

Do you ever have those dreams where you are at school in your underwear, and somehow no one notices?  You realize that you are on extremely shaky ground: if you play it cool than no one will know that anything is wrong, but even the slightest sign of insecurity and you are absolutely sure that everyone will know.  You feel like a tightrope walker who has to concentrate at every step.  You think "Hide behind things, but don't look like you are hiding behind things.  Smile.  You're cool.  Everythings cool.  No worries!"  You wake up to realize how fragile your ego actually is, and that it seems to manifest itself in giant ways in your dreaming sub-conscious.

Now would it change anything if you had actually had an underwear-at-school type of experience?  Would you feel more entitled to have such dreams?  More secure?

While you ponder that, let me share my underwear-at-school experience.  Since it is now over, I can freely talk about it.  So it was the first warm day of the year.  At least the first really warm day.  I was quite pleased that I could finally pull my dusty shorts out of the closet again.  It was going to be a great day.

Oh, and a little background information for those who don't know me: I'm kind of a dirtbag.  Not a big-time dirtbag: more like a casual dirtbag.

OK, back to the story.  I rode my bike to work, and as I hopped off my bike the front of my shorts caught on the seat and ripped a bit.  Not a big deal, but upon further inspection, it was rather clear that the fabric was worn pretty thin in select locations.  Should have been a red flag for me.  Should have....

We had a little BBQ at work, with some volleyball. (this story pretty much tells itself from here on out.) It was kind of lame BBQ-Volleyball, but I haven't touched a ball in a while so I joined.  Fairly early in the game, I reached down to grab the ball and heard the infamous rrrrrrrrrrip!  Oh.  No.  I pulled a self-butt-check, and things were definitely out for display.  Which wouldn't be a problem if was wearing the type of underwear rappers wear when they are low-riding.  The type of underwear that says "I mock your traditional system of underwear-hiding man!" and somehow says "Check out my drawers, their pretty awesome" at the same time.  No sir.  I had on the type of underwear that you would not wear with low-riding rapper-pants.  I was wearing the type of underwear that, when seen, causes the viewer to instantly know that your underwear was not meant to be hanging out.  What kind of underwear that is: I'll leave to the imagination.  But don't worry, it's not anything scandalous or anything.  Just not rapper-fancy underwear, that's all.  

OK, enough talk about underwear.  On to the story about my underwear showing:

So rather than freezing up at that point and going into some kind of inner-panic, I immediately sprang into action-mode.  It would take a miracle to pull this off.  Luckily my pocket full of miracles was not ripped open. So first things first: the volleyball game.  A sane person would have just tapped out and gone home.  But not me.  I could do this.  It was luckily 2 vs 2, and there was one corner of the court without a bench full of beer-sipping onlookers.  That was my corner.  I asked my teammate if I could remain on that side, because, of course, I hit better from that side.  Not that one needed to hit anything, seeing that the net only went to my chin and we were pretty lucky to hit the ball over the net a couple of times.  I played awesomely, and with my backside always in the safe direction.  Ball out of bounds? No problem! I walked backwards, calmly picked it up, and got back into the game.  Totally natural.  Nothing wrong here.

I played the entire game that way, even won.  There were around 10 people watching on one side of the court and 3 or 4 on the other, and no one saw anything.  Or at least no one made any indication that they saw.  No pointing.  No whispers.  No giggling.  But hey, it's Germany, so if someone would have seen, they would have skipped the niceties and just blurted out "Hey, that guys' Unterhosen are totally showing!"  But no, nothing.  Maybe I have the spectator's alcohol to thank.  Maybe I'm just socially so weird anyway that people just thought: "Hmm, so that's what the Americans are wearing these days."  Who knows, but in any case, I pulled it off.  But that was just the first hour...

I was in charge of a youth activity for our church on the same evening, so all of the teenage boys were meeting me at my work where I was to take them on a tour.  And I did.  About an hour.  We all walked back to my place, and while they were eating dinner I changed.  I couldn't help but take out the shorts after I was not wearing them anymore, and brag about my accomplishment.  I asked them if they noticed anything, and none of them had.  Well done me.  Well done.

So next time you have that dream where you are in a crowded hallway at school in your underwear, just remember this:  Stay cool and no one will notice!

-Scott

Happy Birthday Bryant

Happy Birthday to my baby brother Bryant.  Although he passed away 20 years ago this year, he is still sorely missed.   I have only these little poor quality baby pictures to post, but will share a few anyway.   I still remember him and think of him often.  

Bryant loved to ride the motorcycle with Dad.  He loved his hand-pedal bike that his friends in the ward pooled their money together to buy him.  He loved to sit on the stone walls at the cabin and throw rocks in the water for hours.  He loved long walks in the stroller or wheelchair, and to walk to Dan's for a treat, or Hardees for an ice cream & Hamburger.

He loved to read "Hand, Hand, Fingers Thumb" and would squeal out loud when the words got louder and louder.   He liked peek-a-boo, and other games and songs with hand actions.

He loved to wheel the huge black rolling dining room chairs down the stairs.  They made great holes in the wall.  Fantastic!  Also mom's sewing maching, and tape-videos, and anything else that crashed and made great noise. 

For many years, he liked to hop on his knees to get around, and could spring up pretty high!  On the trampoline, knee jumping was even more fun. He didn't mind hopping on his knees around the cabin in the dirt.  Mom patched and patched his pants. :)   When he was walking, he loved to sneak upstairs and run out the door and down the street, us all only noticing when we realized the house was unusually quiet. 

He loved to sing songs and wave his arm with the music.  At church in sacrament meeting and primary he liked to copy the music director and wave his arm with them.  He could fold his arms to pray.  He loved snacks and board books and playing at the park.  

He loved to swim, both at our backyard pool on Mt. Rushmore and at the Life Center in Sandy.

Still miss and love you Bryant!

your big sis, Katie

 Kent opening his presents with Dad, Baby Bryant, me, Scott and Melissa

Me and Bryant in the swing.

 Baby Bryant with Scott and I