Where has the time gone? Update Time.

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.

Reflections

Well the time has come for me to update again as I haven't done to well of a job in the past. Though it really hasn't been that long since I wrote my last post which was just over a month ago.
We are nearing the end of Rick's deployment of 3 months. It has gone by fast and the kids are starting to count down(especially Amina who actually took Rick being gone harder than we thought) to the time when Daddy comes back. I just hope that Rick will return before our 13th wedding anniversary which is on April 10th. For the most part these past 13 years doesn't seem to be that long. There are times when it feels like just yesterday that we walked out of the Salt Lake Temple as husband and wife. If that was the case then where did 3 children ages 12, 10 and 4 come from. I am truly lucky to have Rick in my life. He is a great provider for our family and a wonderful husband and father. I have been doing some thinking during our absence and am realizing how truly blessed I am in my life to have my husband. I have great parents who rasied me in the gospel and taught me that the only true way to happiness is by following the example of our Savior. I know that my mom was a great example of that throughout her life and I thanks her for that example. I miss you mom. My dad continues to teach me that through service in the Church we will be blessed. I have wonderful siblings and in laws who even though I am not close to them where I can see them very often they do still make me laugh and smile even my cute neices and nephews. Aiden I love your Stephen joke. We miss all of you and Kristyn I hope that we will be able to come and visit you in WA before you move. When I saw the pictures of the tulips that you posted on your blog I thought it was from here in the Netherlands. So I guess we need to visit you there during the Tulip Festival and you need to come to the Netherlands to see Keukenhof and then compare which tulips are better Washingtons or Hollands.
I am looking forward to my reunion with my husband when he returns from Afghanistan. I really do miss him when he is away even if it is for a week or less. I am glad that we do have theses times apart though so that I do realize what a blessing he is in my life.
I even love my kids even though they may fight about stupid things, like who has eaten more Nutella sandwiches and how much is put on the bread each time. I am tryingto teach them that it is silly to fight about things like that and to cherish the times that they spend together. My favorite sound is to hear all 3 of my children laughing and playing together.
I hope that I have not bored anyone with the reflecting that I have been doing. Thanks for reading.

Small Change in Address

Though I am not sure why this is happening we are getting a new postal zip code. I guess they (whoever they are) fell that we need a new one and decided to change it now. So if you are wanting to mail anything to us here is the new zip code effective Feb 1, 2009.
09752. The old one was 09703 so they just changed the last 2 number but it is still a pain to make sure that all of our subscriptions etc all have the new address change.

Happy New Year

Well since it is a new year I figure that I need to update my blog. This year so far has brought some changes to our family. No it is not those kind of changes I am not pregnant. Lt me finish what I am writing before you all jump to conclusions.
Our son Alex also known as AC turned 12 on Dec 31st, so on Jan 4th he was ordained to the office of a deacon.
On Jan 7th(Wed) at 0500 int he morning I drove Rick to the Brunssum NATO base where he got on a bus and headed to Ramstein to catch a plane to Afghanistan for a 3-4 month deployment. I am hoping that he will be back for our 13th anniversary which is April 10th. Rick called that night from Vogelweh saying that there were no flights out of Ramstein due to the cold weather. Thursday night around 11pm Rick called saying that he finally left Germany and was in turkey for a few hours until the next flight left. He called again on Friday to let me know he had made it to Krygystan. For the next 6 days everytime Rick called the question was asked if he had made it to his destination yet and the answer was always the same "no I am still here". Finally on Jan 15th I got a call from Rick and the question was asked"Are you there yet?" this time the reply was yes. So Rick is finally in Afghanistan in Kandahar. If you would like to correspond with him through email and are not a member of my immediate family (siblings or parents on both mine and his side) then send me an email and I will forward on his emailaddres that he can be reached at. I know that this deployment will be a quick one (compared to his previous ones) and he will be back before we know it. I have many offers of help from friends here so ia m in good hands. It is also a nice feeling to know that with AC having the priesthood we will always have it in our home unless both Rick and AC are gone like this weekend.
Ac is in Kanderstag Switzerland at the moment for a Boy Scout Winter Carnival. I am greatful to be in Europe at times like this when he can participate in Boy Scout activites and go to places such as Switzerland and Normandy for a weekend to do scout things and have fun with his friends.
I am trying to keep busy as always with the kids in school and Rick gone I make sure that I get seom time to myself as often as I can. I finally got all of our Christmas decoartaions put away. Actually I have some boxes to still put in the garage but I need to tape them up first and don't have the tape for it.
At least I can say that my Living room is clean(we will see how long that will last with my kids)
I hope that everyone has a healthy and happy new year.

Update way past due

Well as I was looking over my blog I realized that is has been quite a while since I have posted anything. A lot has happened since I last posted. So I will start since my last post. School started for AC and Shania on August 18th, and Amina started on Aug 21 attending school for the first 3 weeks on Thursday and Friday. The 4th week AMina went Wednesday-Friday and since then she has gone Monday through Friday. Amina loves school and loves riding on the bus. She gets upset if she can't ride on the bus for example on the 4th of September Rick and I picked Amina up from school on the way to soccer practice so that after soccer practice we could go shopping for cleats for AC. Amina was upset and mad that she couldn't ride the bus home and them have me meet her at the bus stop and then go to soccer practice. We did this so that we wouldn't have to come home and not have 2 vehicles at the practice. Rick had been coaching soccer this season which ended on November 8th. The next sport that he will coach is Basketball which starts in December. AC played pretty good this year and even scored 3 goals in 3 different games. Rick does a great job with the kids and the kids seem to like him as a coach. We will see how basketball season goes.
On October 17thwe headed as a family to Frankfurt to meet my dad and brother Andrew for their trip to Europe. After pickinghtem up at the airport we drove around a little bit in Frankfurt and then stopped in Cologne(Koln) on our way home to see the Cathedral. I am in the process of posting pictures from our trip on my Facebook profile and will post a few here as well.
After coming back to Heerlen we headed to Brussels for Ac's soccer game on Saturday and began our trip of visiting 12 countries in 2 weeks. We went to Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Leichtenstein, Switzerland, France and of course the Netherlands. It was a lot of fun and we had a good time seeing things that we had already seen on our own and new things as well.
After we came back from our 2 week trip we(my dad and brother and I) took the train and headed to England for 9 days. We mostly visited towns and churchs and cemeteries where our ancestors lived but I was able to go and see the saloon car that my great, great grandfather Richard Bore designed and built for Queen Victoria. I had seen pictures of it before but it was cool to see it in person. While we we re in England we stayed with distant relatives so it was fun to meet people who I am realted to that I didn't really know about. Thanks David and Sue Fisher and Martin and Marie Thompson. You were all great hosts. Now I am back and trying to get into the swing of things again. I will hopefully post more again sooner than last time.

Change in callings

Both Rick and I have had a change in our callings that we have in the Church. Since it has been a while since I last wrote (besides the recent update) I will tell you. The end of March/beginning of April I was called to be 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency and Rick was called to be a Primary worker. Rick now teaches the class that I was teaching at the beginning of the year. I can't speak for my husband but I really enjoy my calling. Once a month I conduct Primary Opening exercises and also once a month I am in charge of doing the Sharing time for the month. Speaking of which it is my turn to do Sharing Time this week. Rick and I are also speaking in Sacrament Meeting this Sunday.
Should be fun. My topic is on Creating Zion within our home. I need to go now and do some research for both my talk and Sharing Time.

Is it Spring yet?

I guess that it is time to update my blog, and since my brother thinks that I really need to do it I guess I will. Thanks Andrew. Saturday was the best day of the year so far. It was gorgeous. Perfect weather to be outside for an Easter Egg hunt with the local military Community, which is what we did. What a way for Shania to celebrate her 9th birthday. The Easter event went from 1000 until 1300. There were egg hunts(a whole lot of eggs laying on the ground in a roped off area) for 3 different age groups, and a scavenger hunt for the older kids 10+. Amina and Shania each got to fill their Easter baskets with lots of candy filled eggs. Alex was in the scavenger hunt group and after having a miserable time last year we were prepared with items for the hunt as Alex got 2nd place and a large chocolate bunny. Next year we will have to have 2 times the items as Shania will be in the scavenger hunt age group. After the festivites we came home and got ready to go to a baptism. Chase Wilstead is a boy in my primary class that just turned 8 on the 14th. It was a nice baptism. We came home from that and Shania opened her birthday presents and then we went bowling as a family. We had a good time. Sunday was rainy and the past few days have been cool even with the sun shining. Stay tuned for more reports in the lives of the Norris family. We are taking atrip on Thursday to Bremerhaven, Germany to go pick up our Brand new 2008 Dodge Caravan. I will write about that trip when we get back.