Saturday, January 26, 2013
Traveling
Posted by Tamara Wheeler on Saturday, January 26, 2013 2 Comments
Moving Back to America
This post is a little late in coming. But I needed to write this to finally cap off and finish our big adventure in Germany.
In March of 2012, Frau Plassmann, our Landlord, came and visited us and told us that she wanted to sell the house we were living in. After thinking about what to do, we decided to move back to America. It was so hard to find a house the first time around with having 5 kids. And I personally did not want to go through that again. And even if we found a place to live, would the kids have to switch schools? I did not want that. And how long would we still stay? One maybe two years? Well, then it was not worth the financial part it would of taken to move, as that is also very expensive in Germany.
The draw back: Not all of us were going to move to America. Without a job, Gardner needs to stay behind. Gardner decided it would be best if we moved to Utah. With me being alone with the kids, I would have family support there.
The end of April, I flew out to Utah to house hunt. Ended up not finding anything in our price range that was decent enough or big enough. Everything that was big enough had major damage to the house. So I looked at new homes, one that still needed to be built. Ended up deciding to build a home with Richmond American Homes in West Jordan. And ended up building a home right next door to my sister, Julie.
In July, I took Shantal, Spencer and Hannah to Paris. It is somewhere Shantal wanted to visit since we lived in Germany and we never made it there. So the day school got out, we drove to Paris and spent 2 nights there. We climbed the Eifel Tower, saw Notre Dame,and got rained on the whole time. It would of been nice to see the Eifel Tower when it was dark out and it was all lit up. But our hotel was so far away, and after long days, I was just too tired.
Shantal and Spencer spent two weeks in Sweden for a Youth Temple Trip. They both came home and said it was not the last trip they thought it would be.
The kids and I moved to America on August 19th. We flew on Air Berlin from Dusseldorf to Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, we had a 5 hour layover. In Las Vegas while waiting for our next flight, almost all the kids were sleeping. And once we were on the plane, every single kid was out. The flight attendant came by and was shocked. But by that point, the kids had been up almost 24 hours.
We spent the first three months living with Julie and Roger while our house was being built. And finally on November 7th, we closed on our house and we were able to move in.
The kids are thriving at school and adjusting really great. We skype and talk with Gardner as often as we can. And Gardner came out at Christmas for three weeks where we had a great time together. We surprised the two younger kids at school when Gardner arrived. They were so surprised to see him. Emma ran up to him, with a huge grin on her face, and jumped up on him. Just melts my heart to watch the video.
We are hoping that Gardner will find a job soon and join us here in America. It is just not the same having him there.
There are things we all miss from Germany. Our friends, chocolate, the
autobahn to name a few. But I am so excited that my kids have the
opportunity to get to know their cousins and their Grandmas and
Grandpas.
Posted by Tamara Wheeler on Saturday, January 26, 2013 0 Comments
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Am I Finally Back?
Well, Here I am, almost a year later, writing again. Sometimes I have missed writing on my blog. Other times, I felt like it was just too time consuming. And then there are times I feel like sharing things, but did not like the fact that the world can read what I am writing.
We are now in Summer Vacation here in Germany. We got out of school on July 22nd. That is so late in the year, but we finally made it.
We just spent a few days at the temple. We took Hannah, Emma and Ian. Shantal and Spencer were on a Youth Trip for the week, so we took advantage of the time and went to the Temple. It was one of the best experiences I have had up until now at the temple. The three kids were old enough that we left them alone in the Hostel. We left them with Movies, Games and Coloring things. Not to mention a few snacks. Gardner and I were able to go to the temple together three different times. We did Sealings twice and an Endowment Session once.
One thing that happened at the temple, is I recognized an older couple that was there. Their last name is Villwock. They live in Dortmund and is someone I knew from while I served my mission in Dortmund 20 years ago. We were able to talk about certain people. And floods of memories came back from my time there. Things I have not thought about for a very long time.
Also, While we were there at the temple, I had a feeling of coming to the Temple with Gardner when we are the age of Brother and Sister Villwock. Not just any Temple, either. What does that all mean? That we will be here in Germany forever? Who really knows. I certainly do not. But I do know that I enjoyed being at the Temple for the first time in a very long time.
Posted by Tamara Wheeler on Wednesday, August 03, 2011 0 Comments
Thursday, June 24, 2010
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.
Posted by Tamara Wheeler on Thursday, June 24, 2010 6 Comments
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
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.
Gardner and I went to Dublin, Ireland for a few days the end of April.
Posted by Tamara Wheeler on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6 Comments