...and some more diaper bags and purses I made :)

back from Germany

So, we made it back home after our flight to Phoenix was delayed 6 hours in Atlanta. The kids did great, no tantrums, the only person throwing temper tantrums was me
We had a great time in Germany, sadly we didn't manage to meet with all the people we wanted to but 4 weeks are not that long if you have so many places to visit. I still have mixed feelings, I'm really glad to be back home but I'm also very sad not to see our extended family for quiet a while now, you just never now how long exactly it is going to be.
We are all still very exhausted from the traveling, I guess it's going to take us a few days to get over the jet lag and to recover.

Another diaper bag

A friend of mine is expecting a baby in October so I decided to make her a diaper bag and try out a new pattern.

It was so much fun to make this one, it took me longer though than the bag I made for my sister. I love all the pockets this bag has, my favorite diaper bag I made so far :)

Here's the link for the tutorial:

http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/2008/12/free-diaper-bag-tutorial.html

diaper bag

I just finished a diaper bag for my sister. She was complaining that hers wasn't big enough, I found this pattern and I think it turned out really cute! http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/diaper-bag-pattern.html
The pattern is free and really adaptable, I love it, I think I'm gonna make another one for myself soon. It would make a great gift for a baby shower too...

Baby in the house :)

My sister and her baby are here to visit, yay!
It's so nice to have a new baby in the house, I really enjoy it. Anika reminds me so much of Leeann when she was that age and they really look alike. I can't believe Leeann is turning 5 this fall, seems like yesterday when she was such a tiny thing.
Tyler is starting to talk a lot more now, he is building his first little sentences, he's getting so big. When I was little I hated it when people told me how fast time passes, it seemed to take forever to grow up and now I know exactly what they meant, as soon as you have kids yourself time flies.
Jan and I are still making plans for our Germany visit in June, maybe we'll be able to book the flights later tonight. I am really excited, feels like we haven't seen our families in a long time and it has been 2 years for me and the kids and 3 years for Jan. That really is a long time.
I want to make the best out of every moment, we don't know when Jan has to deploy again, times like that really help you enjoy the time you have together a lot more.
I really want to go to Sea World with Jan and the kids, they still have the military special this year and you can get in with your family for free. Now the kids are old enough to really enjoy pretty much everything they have. And maybe this time we can spend an extra day in San Diego so we can go to the zoo or the beach.
For now I just want to enjoy Ute and Anika spending time with us though :)

Miss Anika II

So, Anika finally officially joined our family yesterday! She was born at 2.41 pm and she is beautiful, healthy and as perfect as a newborn can be :).
They induced my sister on April 14th but for some reason she wouldn't progress at all, so she had a c-section on the 15th.
Today is Jan's birthday but he is still sick, so we'll see if we can still go out like I was planning on, he went to work today so that's a good sign. I'll bring him over some chicken soup for lunch later, I don't think he has eaten at all since yesterday morning. I'm not even sure if he did eat yesterday morning.
I hope we'll be able to book our flights to Baltimore soon, we'll be trying to fly space A from Baltimore airport but I really want to book the flight to Baltimore asap so we can make plans for our Germany visit :)

ABC's and 123's :)

I just thought about how easy it was for Leeann to learn her numbers, letters, shapes and colors. Tyler is doing pretty good with number recognition and I know it's not because of anything I taught them, at least not knowingly. There is just so much great preschool stuff out there that makes learning really fun. I'm a big fan of the preschool prep series: http://www.preschoolprepco.com/h/i/index.php that's how Tyler learned his numbers, they also have DVDs for learning letters, colors, shapes and sight words. It really drives the parents crazy but my kids love it :).
Leeann learned her letters with the leapfrog "Letter Factory" DVD: http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Factory-Roy-Allen-Smith/dp/B001TKUXUC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1271205303&sr=8-1 Even I like to watch this one, it has a really cute story kids can relate to.
Oh, and then we have all kinds of Usborne books and flashcards: http://usborne.com/
OK, I just thought I'd share, I always appreciate other Moms sharing that kind of information with me :).
The weather is beautiful again and I think I'll take the kids for a walk now!

back home and the earthquake

So we made it back home to Arizona safely. The drive back from Mountain Home to Surprise was a lot easier since Jan was with us. I'm not gonna do another 15 h drive with the kids by myself if I don't really have to. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it was sure exhausting.
I enjoyed the time with my sister although the baby obviously changed her mind as soon as we got there and decided to stay in a little longer. I'm glad to be back home now, I missed my friends and my routine, I'm a creature of habit I guess :). I wish I could have been there for Anika's birth but I'm perfectly content as long as I know my sister doesn't have to do it by herself, her hubby is gonna be with her.
Our church had the big Easter Party at the Goodyear Park today, it was a lot of fun like every year. I love celebrating Easter for what it is: Our Savior's victory over death.
Jan and I had another date night last night, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for cheesecake and cocktails to celebrate my birthday. No, actually I was the only one having cocktails, Jan was the designated driver, haha.
Oh, and we had an earthquake today, just a very light one here but it was 7.2 in Baja, California. I didn't realize it was an earthquake, I was at the grocery store with Leeann and I thought I had balance issues and I felt a little sick. When I came home Jan told me that he actually saw the walls of our house move. We turned on the news and found out that it was a lot worse in California and Mexico but it seems like nothing really happened besides a few tourists getting stuck in an elevator at a Disneyland hotel for a few hours, at least that was the only thing they reported in the news.
Anyway, here I am back home, watching Dirty Jobs with hubby :)

Miss Anika

I'm in Mountain Home, Idaho with my sister right now.
Her Baby is due on April 17th but for a little while it seemed like she was planning on coming out early so I packed my kids in the car and headed towards Idaho. Well actually I first headed towards Las Vegas, we spent the night there in a hotel and then the next day I drove the remaining 10 hours to Mountain Home.
The drive wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be, the kids did pretty good. Mainly because we had the little DVD player with us in the car so they were entertained most of the time. Thank Heaven for portable DVD players :)
Anika (my sister's baby) seems to take her time now and I'm almost sure that she won't come the next few days, that means I probably won't be there when she's born :(.
We really have to head back, we just have too much going on at home we can't be gone for more than two weeks.
I'm gonna pick up Jan from the airport here on Wednesday, I'm so glad he's gonna drive back with us. Like I said, the drive is not that bad but you're going through the Mojave Desert for hours and hours without seeing a single house, car, animal or human being, it's beautiful but you get very tired after a few miles of nothing. It's gonna be a lot easier on the way back when Jan is with me and we can take turns and I have someone to chat with.
Tomorrow is my birthday and for some reason I am really excited. We're thinking about going to Boise and eat at the Cheescake Factory tomorrow unless Ute goes into labor of course, that would be absolutely fine with me too :)
I'm soo excited to have a new baby in the family soon and this time I'm not the one who has to go through labor, hehe. As soon as Miss Anika decides to come out I'll let you know and post some pictures!
There is one more thing: I made some washable nursing pads for my sister, they are such an easy and fast sewing project, really inexpensive and they work at least as good as the expensive ones you can buy at the store! Here's the link: http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2009/04/homemade-nursing-pads.html

I finally...

... have a few minutes while the kids watch Strawberry Shortcake.
Things are crazy right now. I know, I say all the time that things are crazy, but for some reason they really are most of the time :).
Jan has a lot of work and he started taking classes again, we hope he'll be able to finish his Bachelor's Degree this year. But that means right now that he doesn't have a lot of free time.

It is only a few weeks now until Ute's baby is due. I'm very excited, it's gonna be great to have another baby in the family! Ute asked me to sew her a changing pad and I did, Leeann helped me pick out the prints for the fabrics. I used one layer of fleece, quilt batting and a layer of regular cotton (quilting) fabric.

We're still making plans to go to Germany this summer and I am sooo excited! My mom has only one more round of chemo to go next week! I hope things will calm down a little here and I'll have more time to write next time...
Here some pics of the changing pad I made for Ute's baby:

Tyler's new backpack :)

I finally had my sewing machine repaired :)
The first little project I did was a little backpack for TyTy.
He loves backpacks but until now he had to carry around Leeann's and they are usually pink or purple :S.
Anyway, we went to Joann's and Tyler picked out the cars fabric.

It's a really easy project, it took me about an hour and I was talking to hubby and watching TV while I did it, without distraction I guess it'll take no longer than 20-30 min.
Tyler really likes it and uses it to take his little toy tools everywhere, we also use it for church or playdates to put a change of clothes or snacks in it.
Excuse the bad quality of the photos, I took them with my phone since my camera disappeared mysteriously (I have an idea who made it disappear)...

Here's the link for the tutorial I got the idea and instructions from:

http://mamaurchin.com/pats-tuts-and-how-tos/how-to-sew-a-string-backpack/

Valentine's Day :)

Wow, it's been over a week since I last posted something! I've just been extremely busy, mostly in a good way. The weekend was great! We had a CCV neighborhood BBQ at the park Saturday afternoon, then we had our night out Saturday too. It was great, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for the first time. The food was just delicious, and the cheesecake...yum! It's not cheap though, we paid about 70 $ in the end, it's for special occasions only :)
Then Sunday, Valentines Day, was beautiful too. Our church had the official grand opening party (we just moved into a new building) with a BBQ and bouncy castle, it was fun! We had A LOT of hot dogs this weekend, I think I'm done with those for a while.
Our church had childcare for Valentines Day from 4 to 8, so Jan and I went out again. I have to tell our children's pastor what a great idea that was, I think it was the first time since we have kids that we actually got to go out on Valentine's Day. We went to Ground Control first and had coffee and appetizers which were great, real Italian, like the food I remember eating as a kid when I was on vacation in south Italy, not easy to get that kind of food here! After Ground Control we went to the West Gate Area and I had a waaaay to expensive Martini that wasn't good at all. Anyway, Jan and I had a lot of time to talk and I think we both enjoyed it a lot.
Talking about Jan, he just got home so I have to go. Both kids are napping btw, I can't believe it!

Dirty Jobs

I can't tell you how wonderful it is just to sit on the couch and watch Dirty Jobs with hubby. It's not even half as funny without Jan. If you haven't watched it yet, you should. Mike Rowe is just hilarious and I didn't even know there were so many dirty jobs out there. Today Mike is working on an ostrich farm.
Slowly we're getting back into a routine here, last week was just complete chaos. Jan went back to work on Wednesday and for some reason in the 3 weeks he has been back, I already forgot what to do with the kids and myself all day. So I kind of let the house go and myself. Now everything is getting back in control. I can't stand a messy house. At least not any more, before Leeann was born I didn't care, I don't know what changed but I just can't stand it anymore and I'm glad I can't.

We're trying to figure out right now when we'll finally be able to go back to Germany for a few weeks. We'll have to see if/when Jan will deploy and when he'll be able to get leave long enough. My cousin is getting married this summer, so it would be great if we could make it to the wedding. I have a huge extended family and I'm pretty sure all of them will be invited. In the summer Jan hasn't been to Germany for 3 years, I haven't been there for 2 years.
I can't wait to see my mom again for the first time after her diagnosis. Another reason why I can't wait to go home and see everyone again: I realized how fragile life is, how fast it can all change. People keep telling you this but you don't realize it until something happens to you or your family. I'm thankful that this something was something curable these days. And for some reason I believe that my mom will fully recover.
I'm just happy, content and grateful right now to have Jan back by my side :)

pets

For years now we've been thinking about a pet. We always wanted a dog because Jan and I both were never allowed to have a dog when we were kids. When I was little, the apartment we lived in didn't allow pets, at least not dogs and cats and my dad didn't want to have pets at all. I HATED it, I was lucky enough to get a bird and later a turtle but I always missed having a pet to touch and play with. I remember I daydreamed for hours about having a dog.
But we're not sure about getting one now since we are moving a lot and that's probably not gonna change for another 15 years or so.
Leeann just started asking for a Bearded Dragon because her friend Hailey has one. Bearded Dragons are pretty high maintenance though and we are traveling a lot (to visit family in Tennessee, Idaho and Germany) and it's gonna be next to impossible to take the dragon and I'm not sure if we could just ask someone to take care of such a complicated little lizard...Asking someone to take care of a dog would probably be less complicated and demanding (especially if that person has a dog too, and A LOT of people do).
So, we have no idea what to do, for now it seems like a good idea to not get a pet at all. We just wanna make sure whatever little animal we chose will have a good life with us.
I think we're gonna wait a little while but at some point we will go ahead and adopt a puppy. I know that my husband feels the same way, we're just gonna wait another few years or so, we'll be fine :)

a few updates

I was busy the last few days, Jan finally found a truck, a 2001 Dodge Ram. Things just don't work out with just one car around here, so I'm really glad we can just get rid of the Honda now , it's not working since June.
We watched the book of Eli yesterday and I was really surprised that you could almost label it a christian movie. I say almost because there is a lot of violence and it is rated R, but the violence is only supposed to reflect the difficult and violent times it plays in. We really thought it was a good movie.
Leeann had her Spiritline (cheerleading) Promo Night on Friday and I can't wait to see her in her little outfit! She's gonna have practice every Tuesday afternoon and then games Friday nights in April and May, I'm really excited and I think she is too!
My mom just had her 4th round of chemo of a total of 6 rounds, so only two more to go and it's over! Her hair can grow back and hopefully she can be her old healthy pre-cancer self again :).
Well, actually it's not completely over yet, she will still have to go through radiation but that won't be a big deal, I hope.
Jan is going back to work this week. I'm a little sad that he won't be able to spend that much time with us anymore but I'm excited too that everything is going back to normal like it was before he left.

Date night

My husband and I used to go out a lot before we had kids, like everyone else does probably.
We still went out at least every other week, probably more after Leeann was born. My parents, my sister and Jan's brother all just lived about 2 hours away and we either drove down to visit them or they came to visit us, so there was always someone there to watch Leeann.
When Leeann was about 1 my sister moved to Kaiserslautern only about 20 min away from us, so we always had an instant babysitter, poor Ute.
Anyway, that completely changed when we moved to the states in 2007. Leeann was about to turn 2 and I was 7 months pregnant with Tyler, pretty much over night there was no more family living anywhere close to us. The closest family was in Tennessee, a 26 hour drive away.
I hated it. I hated the heat, I was used to spending most of the time with two very close friends in Germany, Nadja and Ramona. I met them both in birth prep. class, they were about my age and had kids pretty much exactly the same age Leeann was/is.
We went hiking with our strollers or we let the kids play in the backyard while we watched them and had coffee. We talked about everything and it really broke my heart when we moved.
So there I was in Phoenix in August, pregnant, moody and very lonely. It was so hot that you couldn't go outside until it was too dark to do anything and I had no one to spend the time with when Jan was at work. I felt very sorry for myself. It didn't get better when they moved us in roach-infested government housing.
I started praying and Jan started taking me to church. I found all my strength in God and I realized that this move had been a way to pull me closer to him. And now I'm glad I went through this. I'm not sure I have had the strength for a lot of things if I wouldn't have learned how to cling to the Lord at this point.
On November 14th 2007 I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and the first thing he did, before he even cried, was peeing on me, just like his sister 26 months earlier, so the first thing he did was make me laugh, and he still does :)
We have found many great friends here, we got back what we lost and then some. But what we didn't get back was time with each other. After Tyler was born, me and Jan hardly ever spent any time together alone. Babysitters cost money and we just didn't feel like it was important, we were spending time with each other, but the kids were always around.
When he was deployed for a total of 7 months I realized how much I really missed that. So we decided to hire a babysitter every other week so we can have a date night. I need time with my hubby, I don't want us to lose touch along the way. I love him and he is my best friend, I need to spend time with him alone. And what greater gift can you give your children than happily married parents?

I'm getting ready to move

And we're not really moving, at least not yet. We don't have orders and we don't have any idea when it will be time to move again. But I catch myself preparing the house and myself for a move all the time.
Is that a military spouse syndrome? Or maybe it's because we moved after 3 years from our last base in Germany, and now we're here for 2 1/2 years? I sort through stuff, thinking about what's worth moving and what is not, every time we make new friends I think "I'll sure miss them after the move." And here is the weird thing, right now moving is not a scary thing for me at all (I'm sure it will be as soon as it gets real, there are movers in my house and I have to say goodbye to all the people who are like family to me). Right now, I'm actually excited to move. It's hard to explain, I really like it here, we have great friends, I love our church, we just moved to Surprise and I really like the house and the neighborhood, I even like the base (although it's a lot smaller then Ramstein of course). I'm not so sure if I like the weather but that's not enough reason to actually want to move.
I think it's just because I know that moving is part of military life and I want to be ready, I don't want to be taken by surprise, so when Jan comes home with new orders I can say "okay" and be actually excited about starting over some place else.
I never liked it when people are complaining all the time, don't get me wrong a lot of people have reason to complain but if you chose to marry someone who is active duty you just have to try and make things work. Right, I say that now, I probably whined my friends ears bloody while Jan was gone.
Anyway, I'm trying, I'm still complaining too much but hey, I'm German, what do you expect :)

our last name is very entertaining...

At least it seems to be. It is pretty long, it doens't mean anything funny, it's jutst very long. 15 letters long. So every time someone asks us for our last name, checks our ID to get on base or sees it on a credit card they seem to follow the same little ritual:

1.) They look at it in total disbelief.

2.) They're still looking, trying to make sense out of it.

3.) They start trying to pronounce it: "Rhy...Rie...man...men..schnied...schnay..."

4.)They usually give up and ask:"How in the world do you pronounce that?"

5.)Even if they do not follow the first four steps exactly, that one is always the same:"Oh my gosh, that is one lonoog name!" Really? You think so?

6.)Some of them ask me for my maiden name and then tell me that my husband is lucky to have found someone who will voluntarily deal with that 15 letters every day, lol.

And still we're never gonna change it (well maybe ask us again in another 10 years or so ;)). It's a very old name, we have a fancy crest from the 15th century and Tilman Riemenschneider was one of hubby's ancestors. Doesn't tell people here much, in Germany that's the first thing people ask: "Are you related to THAT Riemenschneider?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilman_Riemenschneider
We saw some of the altars he made and are totally fascinated, especially since they are about 500 years old now.
This name, even if it's a pain sometimes, okay pretty often, is part of our history, of who we are as a family and of where we come from.
So I have to admit that I love it, I really do :)

Back to normal, I mean the good normal :)

Things are getting back to normal I guess.
The kids pretty much act like Jan wasn't gone at all, but Leeann gets nervous when he leaves the house, she keeps asking me if he's going back on a plane to "Ghanistan". It's so hard to explain that he's here for now but not forever. Does a 4 year old have any concept of time? Do I get the fact that he's not here for that long? Do I wanna get it?
For now I just pretend there is no such thing as future deployments and enjoy the time together as a family.
Tomorrow we're planning a little trip to Wickenburg. I just love Wickenburg, it's such a small cute town with a lot of little shops and restaurants and we all really need to get out of the house.
The last week was rainy and we had to stay inside for way too long, we all have a little bit of cabin fever. Rainy is an understatement, the backyard and the playground around the corner were totally flooded, you could have gone for a swim on the playground, I'm serious, Leeann would have if I had let her!
Jan is going back to work next week and everything is going back to normal like he wasn't gone at all. I can't believe he was gone for 7 months... Thank God it's over :)