Marissa

My Daughter-In-Law Marissa went shopping the other day for shoes. She ended up buying five pair..."hey, a girl's got to look good"! So, a couple of days ago Chris came home from work and Marissa was cleaning the house... as they sat down to talk about their days; she told him that she had bought another pair of shoes, just one more! Chris' being a bit annoyed said "what?" Marissa explained to him that it was just one more pair...to Please open the box and just look at them. So he did...and this is what he found inside:

Yes, it is indeed a pair of Baby shoes with TWO pregnancy test sticks {she wanted to make sure} On the bottom of the shoe it read's: Hi Daddy, baby Fish coming soon Feb 2011
love Mom
I'm sure you can imagine his surprise.
Rich and I are so excited for them, they are going to be Wonderful parent's!! Also able to share in this amazing news is Craig and Trista who are there visiting this weekend with Shealynn and Brady. They sure picked a good weekend to visit!!!
All in Gods plan.
Hummmm...two test sticks.....one for each baby?????

Move Up-Date #1

And Good-evening everyone! All I can tell you right now is that while at work today Rich was told the letter of exception went through, and it would "probably" be approved. He was told to go ahead with plans to fly on the 17th, so here we go again! The list will get long this weekend; but we'll get it done and be ready.Visa application went in today. And we'll have to get Mikey's paperwork together.Set-up another pre-inspection and move-out date. I have two weeks to get thing's in order and organized for the move. Piece of cake! I'm looking forward to the move. Tomorrow I shall begin in the closets.

Dinner

We had a wonderful dinner this evening..alright, the company was better! It was so nice to see Rachel- it's been more than a few months. Although she's here in DC for class with the State Department, she is now Posted in Vancouver Canada.
Wow, we have quite a "thunder/lightning" show going on outside right now. Hope I'm able to finish this Blog before the power gets taken out. I know a couple of you have asked about Rich and jobs. We haven't heard anything yet; about the jobs in Germany or Bern. Just lost power..so will write more tomorrow night.

Class

Rich had his meeting with the Language Department today. Everything he had to say was well received and he seems to think "hope" his recommendations will prevent other students from the same problems this class had. That's one of the things I admire most about Rich; he doesn't complain without offering a solution.
Tomorrow evening we're meeting with a friend we were posted with in Tel-Aviv. Mexican Food will be on the menu.

Chris

Big Relief, Chris just called and he's "safe"! Now I can fill you in. This week he is working with Detective Division, and today they went on a drug-bust "somewhere in Ca". They "13 Police Officers" raided a Meth House and took them out-of-business. {now you know why I was worried}
When he first told me my response to him was: don't go in there...call the Police! Of course right after I heard the words come out of my mouth- I realized what I said! As a Mother, I guess I'll always think of my boys as Little. In fact, although their quite grown up, two with a family of their own..somewhere in my mind they will always be little. Needless to say I'm very proud!!!      This was taken of Chris just after the raid:

In His word's:     They love their Meth, but I love my job more!! 
In my word's Chris: I love you more than you love your job!!

Travel

Still no word on our travel problems,but Rich did find out that if he took another job "he would NOT have to pay back for any classes taken. So that's some good news. I'm still not sure what he will decide to do but as long as he's happy with what he does everyday, will be good enough for me! Chris called us on his way home from work this evening...and although I'm not at liberty to discuss what he's going to do.....I can ask you to please say a special prayer to keep them safe. I will be waiting in anticipation until he calls us.
Mangos....I can't stop eating Mangos , if I didn't know better I'd swear I was pregnant~! There just so sweet, tender, and jucy. That plus the clean feel of your mouth after eating one. What can I say except yummm.

Re-Stock

Today was wonderful! Rich and I were able to speak with all of our boy's, our two daughter-in-laws and our two beautiful grandchildren!!! I miss my family.
This weekend was a "re-stock". After a trip to Costco to re-fill the freezer and add a couple of things to the pantry; they can now change their minds and send us to Bern on time! It was nice to have a somewhat quite weekend. "It will be interesting to see what this week will bring."

TGIF

Still no news for you- except the whole German Department has been extended! Rich wrote to the Embassy in Bern to let them know what's going-on, so now the ball is in their court again. Meanwhile we wait. 
We're showing the house tomorrow mid-morning. The homeowner Andy stopped by on his way to the airport today, he brought us a gift from Africa "a beautiful statue". He also gave me the green light to make a few little improvements. I've had a busy week cleaning and waxing floors, they came out beautiful though. Tomorrow I'll run to Costco "must get a few thing's" Corey and his friends will be attending a chili cook-off, and we are still trying to decide what to do next weekend.

Richard and German

Hello everyone....what a night AND day!! My poor husband is being yanked around by the FSI German Department "yet again". I feel so bad for him-yet there isn't one thing that I can do about it. I can tell you that he is on top of the situation and working his way through Management to try to change thing's for future classes. Anyone that knows Rich can tell you that he doesn't just complain; he has a solution as well. "He's good that way"
However right now {unfortunately} I have no-news to report to you. I'm not sure how this will turn out but I know everything will be fine in the long run. I'll definitely keep everyone up-to-date...when we know, you'll know.
[I can tell you that he has applied for two jobs in Stuttgart Germany.]

Graduation Day

Wow, it's been a day or so since posting. "I'm slipping" Anyway I have some pictures of Corey's Graduation for those of you who couldn't attend.

                                Before leaving we also took a picture with Uncle Chuck: who drove all the way down from Georgia, and Aunt Robin: who came in from Delaware.

W

We were so happy that they were able to come and share Corey's Day!

C

Corey friends have named this the Nerd Picture.... it's alright Corey....you just go save lives!

And last but not least we have Mikey who had to get-in on the fun..

Baby

My Baby Graduated this weekend with a degree in Neuroscience. Next up...Medical School.
I know time is getting close "again" for our move to Switzerland, I feel bad about it: I'm just not excited about it...in fact I'm having trouble even getting motivated about moving there. I don't know why the change...perhaps I'll be able to figure it out soon. Just ...... would like to know why I feel this way.

Here we go, Again

Have you ever had just "one of those days: Mikey got his stitches out, Corey is working hard and just took his last final today. Rich is studying German almost non stop and I've been getting ready for the packers....Again. We received an e-mail from the housing in Bern, they are looking for our perfect home. hope we sleep well on the plane, I have a feeling we're going to hit the ground running. It's been almost four years since I've seen any of our household items. It will be great to get back home to Europe!

Corey

Corey is still busy studying, his last final is tomorrow morning. Graduation for Neuro-Science is on Friday and for the University...on Saturday, so it will be a busy weekend!
I heard on the news tonight that Air-Travel is being canceled again for parts of Europe. "interesting".... Well, we do have some time before leaving- hopefully the world disasters will calm down a bit. Although I am worried about our oceans!!

Visitors

Hello everyone! First I want to thank you for all the Mothers Day wishes, Craig couldn't get reception {they were camping in Yosemite} but he and Trista texed a lovely message this morning. Chris phoned on his way to a Commander Training course this afternoon and Corey made it home from studying to wish me a happy Mothers Day. My husband sent beautiful flowers! 
My Brother and his girlfriend drove up from Tenn. for a weekend visit, we had a wonderful time. We took him to see The American Indian museum; he also wanted some good Korean food. So Rich did some checking on line and found just the one...it was amazing food-they really did an amazing job; in fact the whole atmosphere mad me a bit "homesick" for the area. Today I took Barbra shopping {we didn't purchase too much} but we had a nice time. It was really great of him to drive all their way here just to spend a weekend. It's nice to have him in my life again, we where having fun reflecting back on our childhood and just getting reacquainted again!

MPS Awareness Day

May 15th is MPS awareness day, for those of you who are "lucky enough" not to have heard of this terrible illness- here is a brief explanation:

What is MPS IIIA / Sanfilippo Syndrome

Sanfilippo Syndrome is a recessive autosomal genetic disease. Children with Sanfilippo Syndrome are missing an essential enzyme needed to breakdown and dispose of long sugar chains in the body called mucopolysaccharides. also known as GAGs. Because these sugar chains cannot be broken down and disposed of they accumulate in the cells causing progressive damage. Babies and young children with Sanfilippo Syndrome appear normal, but symptoms begin to appear with age as more and GAGs build up in the cells of the body. There are 3 stages to the disease. Stage 1 the child begins to lag behind peers and begins to display difficult behaviors. Stage 2 the child losing his/her language, becomes hyperactive, chews on everything, and has sleeping difficulties. Stage 3 the child slows down, becomes dependant for all mobility and loses the ability to chew/swallow. There is no treatment or cure for Sanfilippo. Life expectancy varies. 

Now, I know of another Foreign Service family who not only have one but two children who suffer from this illness. In fact we were in Israel when we got word that they needed help in getting back to the US. "at the time they were posted in England" and had just found out that their little boy Oliver tested positive. They already knew of their daughter Waverly. Two beautiful children who are regressing everyday. I can't even imagine what it must be like as parents watching your children decline everyday; they never know what tomorrow will or will not hold. If Waverly will be able to smile or if Oliver will be able to walk without help.

The color for MPS is Purple. Please try to raise awareness in your community.

Decision

I decided not to go to Uganda at this time. It was a very tough decision but in the end, there were just too many obstacles to complete along with our up-coming move to Bern. Although disappointed, I will be able to join the next group going. "I'll be looking forward to it" 
I think the only problem I'll have is leaving the children...
I'm going to want to bring them all home with me!