Allergic Reaction

I once again took Emma to the doctors today. This time, it was due to an allergic reaction she is having to misquito bites. She has 4 different bites, all the sizes of ping pong balls to a base ball. The baseball size one freaked me out a bit and that is what made me decide to take her in.

While we were walking from where I parked my car to the doctors office, I noticed her ankle was swollen. So upon getting in a room and waiting for the doctor, I started looking at it and decided she had yet another one on her, and it was big too. The one on her ankle is infected. The doctor ended up drawing around it so that in the morning, I will know if it has grown or not. She also wrapped it to help stop Emma from scratching it. Thing is, I don't think it was from Emma scratching it. I think it was from her shoes. She wore flip flops that had straps yesterday and sandals today. Both of which lies right were it is "scratched". Anyway, if it has grown, she has to go back in and they will start taking action to kill the infection. For now, they gave her some syrup that I want to think is like benadryl for allergies.

I swear, the doctors office is my 2nd home right now. The pharmacy just laughs now when I walk in with a prescription letter.

Hello Out There

Well I am a bad blogger. And as much as I think I should write at times, I feel like I lead a very boring life and what is the point. Gardner assures me my life is anything but boring. He tells me I had over 500 hits to my blog last week alone, and I have not written for months. So what is a girl to do? Write, I suppose. To appease the one who says I should write. :)

School is winding down here in Germany. We still have a month left, but all the end of the year activities are in full swing. It enough to keep one busy and feel insane on days. July 15th can't come soon enough for me. Every year, the school year goes longer and longer into summer. Next year, it is July 27th.

Emma had her 5 year check up yesterday. She did really great at the beginning. But then the nurse left and we were waiting for the doctor to come in. She started playing with something and the Doctor came in ready to do his thing. Well, Emma did not want to stop playing. So we dealt with an Emma melt down where the doctor left. Not just once, but twice. I handled the first walk out in stride trying to talk Emma into doing what we came there to do and she could finish playing afterwards. But the second time he walked out, I got angry with her. There was no more playing with the toy. And the bakery stop that was promised was also taken away. The end result of the doctors appointment was she is growing great. She weighed 19.3 Kilos and was 110 Centimeters Tall. She can hear the quietest of whispers (better than the average kid), but her eye sight was not so good. We get to see an Eye Doctor in August. This will be a new adventure for us here in Germany.

Since it has been awhile since I posted, I will add a few recent pictures.

We went to the Netherlands in May to play at the beach. Had to get our "standard" Beach Photo.

Gardner and I went to Dublin, Ireland for a few days the end of April.

Spencer and Gardner went to their first Pro Soccer Game here in Germany in April.

Took the kids to a Park called Blauer See. No one wanted to go on our little family outing on this day. But once we got there, they were all happy.

Fall Gymanstics Meet

On November 17, Hannah had another Team Gymnastics Meet. We were not sure that Hannah would be able to participate. Her Gymnastics Meet ended up being on a Sunday, and it was on the very same day as the Kids Program at Church, which she had to be at.

Lucky for Hannah, it ended up being in the afternoon. So she was able to do both the Kids Program and her Gymnastics Meet.

So I finally figured out how they score the Teams. And it is very interesting to me. There are 6 girls on the team. Each girl does each station. They take the three highest scores and that is the team score for that event. For example, six girls did the floor routine. Only the top three scorers on the floor counted towards the teams point total.

As usual, I took all the pictures of Hannah during warm up. During the actual event, I video taped her. So some of the pictures are real dark, from being so far away. And she always has her black pants on during the warm ups.

In the team competition, Tus Homberg (Hannah's Team) always has taken 3rd place. And Hannah's team had 2 girls out sick. So they had two girls who were brand new to Gymnastics take their place so they could still compete.

When it was all said and done, the kids were standing there waiting to hear the results. As they called 5th place, then 4th place, you could see the girls just nervous to hear what the result was. Finally, 3rd place was called and it was not Hannah's team. The girls were so excited. They were all giggly and smilie and they new they had done something they had never done before.

Then they called the 2nd team...Tus.....but it wasn't Homberg. They got first place. It was so amazing. The girls were so excited, especially Hannah and her best friend Debbie.

Hannah and Debbie were the top two Gymnasts at the Meet on that Day. Not just from their team, but from every girl there. We got a list of all the girls scores that day, and if it had been an individual competition, Debbie would of taken first place and Hannah would of had second place, with a difference of .10 . That is it. So close between Debbie and Hannah.

And her is another brag about Hannah. She once again got the highest score on the bars. There is a 15 point possibility. She got 14.70. She seriously has some talent. And I am glad she has something that makes her happy.

Gymnastics Meets are only two times a year here. Sometimes I wish they were more often.

But I have to add, that as a Mom, there is so much sitting around and waiting involved on these days. We were there for almost 5 hours. And of that time, I watched my daughter for perhaps 15 minutes.

Oh and I just remembered one more thing. It was very cute. So Hannah got a Gold Medal on that day for winning first place. She also has a Bronze Medal for winning third place last year. She says next year they need to win 2nd place so they can have a Silver Medal. Her logic of thinking was just too cute.

St Martin's

This years St Martin's was a little bit more Special for our family. It is the first time that Emma and Ian got to enjoy it too.

Emma and Ian are in a new Kindergarten this year, and they do a little St Martin's walk as well as the Elementary School. They created their own lanterns in Kindergarten. This years theme was a fish.

We gathered at the Kindergarten and headed out walking through the streets of South Homberg singing St Martin Songs. Afterwards, we were back at the Kindergarten where the kids were able to eat some Weckmanner and drink some Hot Kids Punch.

A few days later, our city, Homberg, actually celebrated St Martins. Spencer and Hannah participated in the Lantern Walk. Afterwards, all five of the kids went door to door singing their St Martin's songs to get their candy.

Ian loved getting the candy. But Emma was sure to tell the people handing out the candy that what kind of Candy Ian would not like. As they would go to put in black licorice, Emma would quickly say, "Ian doesn't like that kind." I was a bit embarrassed, but Emma was just trying to help Ian.

As we came home, the kids dumped everything out. They made their piles: Definately keeping, don't care if we keep, and lastly, get rid of it. All the kinds the kids did not like, got baggied up and taken to the candy drop. And the ones they were indifferent to, got split in half. Half we kept, half we got rid of. It is part of the St Martin Tradition.

St Martin gave part of his cape to a beggar in the cold in hopes to keep him warm. So the kids give part of their candy to the poor.

OK, so maybe my kids should be giving more than just the candy they don't like to others. But, I am proud of them just for giving up some of their goods. Coming from America, where they get to keep all their Halloween Candy, it was a very hard thing for them to learn.

I failed to get pictures on the actual St Martin's Day. I had all 5 kids and Gardner was not around. I was too stressed out to even think about it. But at least I have pictures from the Kindergarten Celebration a few days before with Emma and Ian.

Shantal Turned 12!

Shantal turned 12 on November 10th. So amazing to think there is a 12 year old in our family.

I remember back so long ago and thinking we could never have children. After trying for so many years with nothing working out, we had all but given up on ever having our own Children. Adoption was the route we were looking into taking.

And then out of the blue came such a fabulous blessing. I was pregnant. I was very sick. But I was pregnant. And even though I hated almost every minute of being pregnant, I loved knowing I was going to have a baby.


Here Shantal is on the morning of her Birthday!





And she opened up her present from Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler. An Ipod.




Now Shantal has had many problems making friends here in Germany. And since she moved to a new school in August, I was very hopeful that she would make friends. Well, she did make some. But I was a little shocked to know they were all boys. So when it came time to have her birthday party, the invited list consisted of only boys. And with it being a boy party, the slumber party could no longer happen. So, she decided to go swimming instead.

Gardner took Shantal and the four boys that came to Dusselstrand. We were quite shocked on how inexpensive it was to do this. Gardner payed 12 Euros for 5 kids and 1 adult to swim for 3 hours. Duesselstrand is an indoor water park, with water slides, lazy river, ect.

After the swimming, everyone came back here for Pizza and Cake.

It was a fun party for Shantal. So much fun, that Spencer decided he wanted the same party for his birthday.

Yes, I'm still Blogging

OK, so I usually have good intentions on writing. But I don't prioritize well enough to get everything done. And I end up playing stupid games on facebook and neglect a few things that I should not.

Looking back and seeing my last blog post was on November 6th, really makes me sad. So much happened since that time.

• Shantal turned 12
• St Martin's
• American Thanksgiving
• St Nikolaus
• Spencer turned 11
• Gardner and I celebrated our 16th Wedding Anniversary
• Trip To Venice, Italy
• Christmas
• New Years
• Lots of Snow Fun

As you can see, so many things. And yes, I am hoping to blog about all of it. Better late than never, right?