As you can see I am not doing very well keeping this blog updated. Life happens and we get busy with our kids etc and put aside things like this blog. I will try to do better at keeping this blog fairly current but won't promise anything. A lot has happened since the last time that I posted anything. So I guess I should start where I left off last.
Rick finally arrived back from his deployment on the morning of April 11th. So needless to say we weren't together for another anniversary thanks to the military. We were however able to still celebrate a week later than the original plans so that was all good. I won;t go into details but we had a nice couple of night to ourselves thanks to some great friends who watched our kids for us. Shortly after Rick got home he was called to be in the Young Men's presidency of our ward which he still serves in that calling. Now he has an added calling of scoutmaster in our ward. The scout troop was started about the same time that rick got home so we have had a ward scout troop for over a year now. I am still a consultant for Pampered Chef which allows me to bring in some extra money and still be able to take care of my kids during the day. Our Christmas Present last year was a 12 night eastern Mediterranean Cruise. We left from Barcelona which we drove to an dhad stops in Rome(Civitavecchia the port), Italy, Athen's Greece, Izmir Turkey, Alexandria Egypt and Malta. I loved it. It was so relaxing, I thought at first 12 nights was going to be too long but it went by way too fast. Before we leave Europe we hope to be able to take a Baltic cruise and visit countries like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia and Russia. I think I am hooked on cruising as a way to vacation, too bad it costs so much.
This year our kids are back in school at AFNORTH International School. AC is in 8th grade, Shania is in 6th grade and Amina is in 1st grade. At the school Shania is in what is called M2 and Amina is in IY3. At the end of the school year last year I had the opportunity to accompany the 5th graders (M1) on a week long trip to Arnhem, where we biked for 3 days of the 5. It was a fabulous experience. I ended up being a chaperone for a different class than Shania was in as they had to draw names for chaperones since so many wanted to participate. Rick went 2 years ago with AC's class and said what a great time it was and encouraged me to find a way to go. So I approached the other 2 teachers, after being notified that I was not selected to accompany Shania's class, and let them know if they needed a chaperone to keep me in mind. It really was a great time even if I was sore for a few days after riding bikes for about 70 km in total. It was such a neat experience to listen to some people talk about the Battle of Arnhem and beign a child (12 or younger) during WWII. They have a fabulous Airborne museum that we were able to attend and walk through, with a diarama that makes it feel as if you were a part of the actual battle some 60+ years ago. We were also able to walk through and old castle and we biked through a huge nature park and to the Kroller Muller museum which holds the largest private Van Gogh collection. It was fun to see the kids spot the artwork that they were trying to replicate in art class this past year, and exclaim "that's the one I'm painting!"
The biggest news of 2010 so far is the fact that my dear husband is now a SGT in the US Army. He was finally promotoed on May 1st. What a relief after such a long wait of 6 plus years due to various different challenges preventing his promotion. It has now happened so time to move on forward. This summer we didn't do much since we were waiting to hear if Rick will be attending Sgt school. We are still waiting in case you were wondering. We just hope that it happens before we are scheduled to leave the NL. We did go tp Walibi World in the NL which is an amusement park on July 6th since rick had taken a few days off because of Independence Day. After the day spent at the amusement park we took a drive to come home on a road that is built on a dike. It was pretty cool to only see water around you as we drove along. I can't remember how long it was though.
This fall all 3 kids are playing soccer, or football as it is called over here in Europe. Rick is coaching AC and Shania again and Amina is playing on a younger team being coached by 3 single female soldiers. One of whom happens to be our neighbor. I think they are having a good time. Amina has her moments when she doesn't want to play. Today was one of those days. Though when she does play she looks like she is having a lot of fun. This is her first year so I am not pushing her too hard to go and play.
I still am keeping busy with my calling as 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency in our ward. I also volunteer as the secretary for the American Spouses Club. I am also taking training through ACS(Army Community Services) that they are offering since they are standardizing all the ACS programs. With the training that I am taking I will be able to teach any ACS class at any ACS in the world. There are 3 main training courses that they offer Instructor, Facilitator and Briefer. I have taken the Instructor so far and will take the Facilitator on October5,6 &7 and then the Briefer will be offered in Nov. My goal is to become a Master Trainer through ACS and then I can teach these classes that I am taking, no matter where we will be stationed in the world. It will also look good on my resume should I ever decide to go get a real job outside of the home.
I think most of our family members know this but not many of my friends do. We have orders for our next duty station. We will be heading to Ft. Lewis in Washington State. As sad as I will be to be leaving Europe which has been our home for the past 8 years( almost 9 by the time we leave) it will be good to be closer to family. Well closer than an 8 hour plane ride minimum, at least we will be able to drive to visit instead of having to pay $$$$ to fly. we know that wherever we are stationed is where we need to be. So since we have less than a year left we hope to be able to cross off a lot of the countries that we would like to visit before we leave. So if there are any of you who were wanting to come and visit us in Europe you have until June of next year to do so. Even though we won't leave until July we might not have furniture for you to sleep on.
I think I have rambled on enough. I hope that you have enjoyed this update and that it won't be over a year for the next one.
Bye for now.
