Trick or Treat!

Tonight was trick or treat night on base and it was PACKED out. Seriously, I've seen fewer people at Disney World in the summertime. There were LINES of people waiting to get candy at some houses. LINES. What are they giving away money at those houses? Waiting in line for a Blow Pop or a Snickers? Come on folks! We bypassed all that nonsense and went to a less crowded area in the back of housing. Colin was more concerned with eating his candy than collecting it. At the end of the night it looked like he only had a few pieces in the bottom of his bucket. That's because he ate three times that amount already and cleaned the bucket out! We brought along the neighbor family and Colin's best buddy. Here are the few pictures I took...

Colin and Baby Addison


Isn't she stinkin adorable?


Colin & Christian


Christian's baby brother, Sebastian. Isn't his costume hilarious?

Halloween Party

Colin's Preschool had a little party this afternoon for Halloween. The kids all got to dress up in their costumes and parents were invited to join the fun. This week the kids put together and decorated a haunted gingerbread house that was served at the party. They also painted pumpkins and made spooky candy necklaces. Colin had a blast and pigged out on all the candy, cookies and cupcakes. Here are some pictures from the party.
Here are most of the kiddos. The two older boys are after school care kids, one is the teacher's son. There is another little girl that is full time but she was camera shy and not wanting to get in the picture.


Pigging out!




Making candy a necklace


Painting his pumpkin.

Pumpkin Farm Field Trip

Field trip to punpkin patch

Today Colin's preschool had a field trip to a family farm and pumpkin patch. I got to go along too and all the kiddos had a blast. Colin loved feeding the cows and petting the pigs. I think the highlight of the trip for him was the chickens. The kids got to chase them and they were able to pick them up. Most of the kids were afraid to pick them up, even the older kids. Not my kid. Once he saw that you could pick them up he was all over it. He had himself a chicken in no time. And another. And another. I had to run him out of the hen house more than once! It was really amusing to me considering that when we visit the zoo here in Kaiserslautern Colin is terrified of the chickens. Remember this? Well today his fear of chickens was nowhere to be found. After the chickens it was time to load up on the tractor for a ride down to the pumpkin field and pick our pumpkins. Our pumpkins were actually already picked for us, we just had to choose them from the big pile. It's been freezing here at night already, I'm talking 25 degrees when I wake up/ice on everything kind of cold. That makes pumpkins crumble and explode. So the farm owners had picked them all before the frost started about a week ago and has kept them safe so you can still go "pick" a pumpkin from the patch. So we chose our pumpkins and the headed back to the farm to load up and head home. Colin had a blast and when we got home we carved two smaller pumpkins I have had at the house for a few days.


We'll wait to do the real carving until Shelby is home. After carving I made us jack-o-lantern face grilled cheese and worm (chicken noodle) soup...Colin loved it!

Wordless Wednesday

Take that shot and stick it

Tonight is my LAST shot for a while and I couldn't be happier! It's no secret we've started the IVF process again, the second time around I'm a lot less nervous and more comfortable sharing the process and journey than I was the first time. Things in Germany are a bit different from cycling in the States, but overall I'm liking the German approach to treatment better (much less invasive and not nearly as many shots). The hormones (aka ass fattening drugs) haven't been too horrible this time around. One of my shot meds my body really hates though and it burns like acid everytime Shel shoots it into my stomach. That one sucks.

I have had headaches a lot and the other day I had the worst headache I've ever had in my entire life. I don't really get migraine headaches and thank God for that, because what I suffered through that day with one was enough to make me never want to deal with that again. Of course I was working. I no more ran back to my classroom after dropping my class off at lunch before the pain made me nauseous and I puked. I threw up a few more times before the class came back and thankfully one of my friends came upstairs to get a jacket for her son (who is in my class) and saw I was dying. She volunteered to take my kids in her PE class for the rest of the day since all our substitute teachers were booked that day so I could go home. I am not sure how I made it home, I didn't even make it off base before I was puking into plastic bags in my car. I spent the rest of the day in bed and I have a whole new respect for people who suffer from regular migraines....that crap sucks!!

I'm SO glad to be done playing pin cushion. I have pictures of the bruises on my stomach from all the injections...my battle scars...but I'll spare you that lovely sight. :) Monday morning I go in for surgery so they can harvest my eggs and then later in the week I'll go back and have embryos transferred back to me. Sounds a little more like Farmville than real life; currently I have to have my eggs harvested, then I'll become an incubator and later on turn into a milk cow (hopefully!) Since we had success the first time around last IVF, I'm overly optimistic about this cycle and I'm not really prepared for anything other than two pink lines in two weeks. Right now I'm just glad to have this first (painful) step behind us and we are looking forward to moving on in the process. Cross your fingers for us :)

Wordless Wednesday

Family Fun

Kürbisfest 2011

The rain has finally left us and the last few days have been sunny, cold and absolutely perfect fall weather. Today we went to the Gartenschau park because all month long they have their awesome Kürbisfest where they decorate with pumpkins. The theme this year was fairy tales and all the pumpkin art had to do with that, mostly Grimm Brothers tales since they are very popular here (they are German after all!). Colin also thoroughly enjoyed the dinosaurs and pointed out the stegosaurus, brachiosaurus and triceratops...he knows those well. We played at the park too.

After the Gartenschau we headed over to the base bowling alley for some lunch and to bowl two games. Colin loves to bowl but he doesn't like taking turns or waiting. He had a great time and the bumpers made sure he knocked over a few pins. So long Sunday...tomorrow it's back to the grind for everyone. Work for Shelby and I and preschool for Colin. He's totally better by the way. We know because yesterday and today he hasn't stopped talking. We had to drive to France yesterday to buy some medications and the entire hour long drive there and then back again he did not stop talking once. He talked to Frankie (who went with us), he talked to us, he sang, he did everything in his power to prevent any form of peace and quiet on the car ride. Yep...he's well again for sure!

Wordless Wednesday

In the doghouse

Shelby has been busting my chops to get another dog. I'm not going to lie, I was not thrilled by the idea at all. I have enough to feed/clean/care for and I'm really not down for taking on any more mess. But, we all know I'm a total sucker when it comes to animals and protesting was pretty much futile. So Shelby stalked the yard sale site for some time trying to find a small dog that would be just right. We didn't want a puppy (I'm done potty training for a while!) and needed something small and less maniac than boxers. (Don't get me wrong, I ADORE boxers and we'll own them again, but right now we don't have enough hours in a day to wear out a boxer.) Shelby found a diamond in the rough with Frankie. He came from a family that had recently moved to Germany and is living on the fourth floor of stairwell housing on base. That means no elevator, lots of stairs, pain in the butt. The couple had two dachshunds, one older and one younger, and the older one was ok with a walk to potty and no yard. Frankie, the younger one, was not taking well to no yard. Base rules also say your dog must be on the least at all times and there is no where on base for the dogs to run off leash. So poor Frankie was just not getting his exercise and wasn't loving it here.




We found Frankie while Colin was in the hospital recovering from surgery. When we were discharged we drove up to visit with Frankie and see if he was a good fit. When we met Frankie he was super sweet and he and Colin hit it right off. Frankie is so calm and gentle and loves playing with Colin. He's well behaved and house trained, he worked out perfectly. He's an Isabella Dapple Dachshund, he has a very pretty greyish spotty coat and he doesn't shed much at all. He's a little snuggler and each night he takes his blanket to his bed and rolls himself up like a burrito.

So long tonsils!

Today was surgery day! Colin was very excited because at his pre-op appointments yesterday we showed him the very cool "special bed" he'd get to sleep and ride around in. I was doing just fine until the pre-op stuff when I had to sign the consent forms and all the horrible "what if" scenarios are listed on there. Then I started getting nervous about him and seeing him in pain and all that. My back and neck were in knots and I barely slept. I was almost relieved when the alarm went off at 4:45 so we could get up and get this show on the road.


We were given a report time of 6:15 AM and told they took kids back by age with the youngest first. I was also told that Colin was second in the line. Clearly they were mistaken or plans changed between yesterday and today, because we got there and waited, and waited, and waited. Patient after patient was rolled on down to the OR and we sat. Thankfully Colin was not grumpy about no food or drink, or I would have had to turn on mean mama bear mode and start growling. They finally came in and gave some Versed to relax him. (I was wondering where mine was!) He quickly started acting like a drunk and was stumbling around, slurring speech, and laughing at nothing at all. He even had the hiccups, it was pretty funny. Just about 9 they finally came to take him to the OR and with that they took my baby and told me they'd take good care of him.




About an hour later they came to get us from the waiting area and told us that he was not yet awake, but he did great and the tonsils and adenoids are gone. He took a little bit to wake up, and was a tiny bit grumpy when he did come out of it. He was highly pissed off about the pulse ox monitor on his finger and the IV in his arm. He wanted both out NOW. We soon distracted him with a popsicle, which he killed in record time and asked for another. After he ate his popsicle and kept it down they transferred him from the recovery area to the pediatric unit. Right before he was about to get his big ride in the special bed he fell asleep again! LOL Poor kiddo waited all that time and went though surgery to ride in the bed and then missed the ride! He woke up after arriving in the peds unit and ate another popsicle. After keeping down three popsicles we moved on to jello and he ate a few of those. Clearly the child is feeling just fine! Now with his belly full he got some pain medication, took a little nap and rested up.




When he woke up about 2:30ish and was WIDE awake. He played games on the computer, played dinosaurs in the bed, beat Mommy in Memory a time or two and then wanted to walk the hallway. He visited the nurses station and stole a stethoscope to bring back to the the room and play doctor on Mommy and Daddy. Then he discovered that race cars can fly really far and fast down the slick hospital hallway. I'm sure the other patients really appreciated Nascar outside their rooms. He was bored with TV pretty quick and wanted out of his room and was asking to go to the playground. Yep, the kiddo is just fine.


Here he is after far too many popsicles, jello and juice, his teeth and mouth might be stained for more than a few days!


He tye dyed his own shirt with popsicle drippings


More Jello with Mommy!



He had some pain medication at 4:30 PM, Tylenol with codiene, and I thought maybe we'd get another nap and a little break. Ha! Who was I kidding?! The medication did not make him tired one bit and he was awake and ready to go until 9 PM when he finally crashed for the night. He refused to take the pain meds just before 9, and again at 11, and 1 AM and slept like a log all night long. So apparently he wasn't too uncomfortable. He did take the meds at 5 AM and then was up and at em again and asking for breakfast. Mommy was not so much up and at em and was very ready for Daddy to get back to the hospital (lucky Daddy went home and got some real sleep!) with my coffee. Now we wait for the doc to make rounds so that we can hopefully get Colin discharged (I can't imagine them keeping him, he seems fine!) and get out of here. My little man is such a trooper! Love that kid!

Flying

Shelby dug out his remote control plane and has been getting it ready so he could fly it again. It's been a really long time since he's used it and Colin has never seen it before. Today we got it ready to go and loaded it in the baby trailer for the bike (Colin can now ride his own bike!) and we all rode out to a big open field to give it a try. Colin was beside himself with excitement and ran all over the field chasing the plane in the air. He was ready to go retrieve it when Shelby would land (or crash) it and get it set up to go again.
His expression when it took off for the first time..."whoa!"


Helping Daddy pick up the plane...





It was all fun until Shelby flew the plane into a tree. Then he had to climb the trees to get it out. Then he got stuck in the tree. LOL

Ramstein Fall Farmer Fest

Shelby had to work today so Colin and I headed up to a fall farmers fest in a nearby town to check it out. They had ponies, baby cows, sheep, rabbits and chickens to pet and visit. There was plenty of delicious food and lots of good stuff to buy. Colin rode a pony and became the proud owner of a new wooden sword that will go perfect with his knight costume for Halloween.