Benediction

For Don and I 2006 has been an amazing year of discovery and unity at the core of our marriage. Not all of it has been easy, but all of it has been worth it! We look forward with anticipation at what is to come in 2007. We pray God's blessings on you in this new year! I find these words to be a fitting end to a year of blogging (albeit sparse at times). May the following words create a spark in your mind and heart as it has me. Happy New Year!

Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world.
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
-Source Unknown

My, how time flies!

Okay, I doubt that I have any readers considering it has been 4 months since my last post but I will go ahead and fill you in anyway.

September 2006

I turned 29 (shudder) at 9:51 p.m.on the 22nd of September. Don and I went out for Mexican food (big surprise here) with a few friends and played my favorite game RISK until the wee hours of the morning. My garden flourished throughout the summer, but I didn't see much of a harvest because of a cold and wet fall. I did enjoy a dozen cherry tomatoes, a few potatoes and about 6 yellow squash. I will try again and hope for a longer summer!
September also brought good news that my job was extended for another year! Yay! I really enjoy my current job and the people I work with so this was very exciting.




October 2006
I don't remember much of October, except that Don and I actually dressed up this year to attend a Halloween party at a friends house. I have posted a picture for your amusement.



November 2006
November was another busy month for the both of us. We were however, able to spend Thanksgiving with our dear friends Jim and Virginia who are stationed in Sicily with the US Navy. This was our first trip to Italy (including the mainland) and it was FABULOUS. It was such a breath of fresh air from Germany. Don and I noticed it right away, how expressive Italians are. It seems to me that you always know where you stand with an Italian, if they are happy you will know, if they are unhappy you will know that too! I don't think I will ever grow accustomed to German stoicism. Even if they like you it is hard to tell! Here are a few of my favorite pics from our trip. Notice Virginia's growing belly!


December 2006
So far this month has been unusual to say the least, but we are thankful for God's presence through out the last few weeks as we have been faced with unexpected news and health concerns for family members in the states. Don and I will be flying to the states to spend time in Idaho with my parents (a planned visit for me) as well as Don's Dad in California. We would appreciate your prayers for this visit.
Don and I will be staying close to home this Christmas, but we hope to take a short getaway for New Years. We are missing the beach and are considering heading north to Holland. Don and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2007!

Robin
robin

Please, wipe your feet.

Summer is fading here in Europe. We had a viscious heat wave the end of July- it brought flashbacks to 2003 when 3000 french people died, but it has rained every day for the last 3 weeks. I can feel autumn in the air, which is bittersweet for me. Fall means that winter is coming, and winter in Germany is long, grey and cold. I do not escpecially enjoy winter in Germany.
This summer we have been busy working on projects around our house. We are fortunate to have a wonderful landlord that has given us free reign in our house. For Don and I it allows us to enjoy the rights and privledges that homeowners have, which we are except that the home we own is in the states and not here in Germany! I posted a few pictures of our house and my summer painting project. I know, it's a little invasive to have pictures of our home plastered on the internet, but it's not like I can invite you over for tea. I painted the first floor living space while Don was in the states at a friends wedding last month. He knew that I had a project to work on while he was gone, but he didn't really know what I had planned. Thankfully he really liked it. Now if I could just get him to hang my curtains, the room will be comlete. I may have to learn how to work the power drill!
We were off line for a few weeks due to computer problems, but we are up and running again. More posts are coming, I promise.

robin

4th of July Weekend

Germany has seen more sun since the start of the World Cup Games than I can remember of the previous 3 summers. I have enjoyed watching the World Cup, even though I admit I do not know much about the game (except that I played it a lot in the 5th grade). I have especially enjoyed watching the fans who are so passionate about the game, I have even seen them weep when their team loses. Germans are by nature a very reserved people and it is rare to see them express emotion freely. I have enjoyed watching the German fans cheer and rally for their team, waving flags and filling restaurants and Gasthaus' to watch the games and cheer their team on.
Kasierslautern hosted several of the early games in the tournament. The USA team played Italy here in June (a very exciting and exasperating game if you saw it). The "World Cup Mile" is located in downtown Kaiserslautern, or K'Town to the Americans. You can find all sorts of food vendors, beer tents, and meet people from all over the world. Don and I started the long 4 day weekend by watching the Germany vs. Agrentina game at a friends house. Saturday night we ventured downtown to watch Brazil (the reigning world Cup champions) lose to France. I have posted a picture of the big screen where you can watch the games live.


On Monday Don and I took a day trip to Rust, Germany on the French/German border to Europa Park, our favorite amusement park. Europa Park is broken down into different countries: Spain, Greece, Switzerland, France, Portugal, etc...
All of the rides,and buildings reflect the architecture music and food unique to that country. Don and I ate lunch in Greece, had a snack in Spain, another snack in France and ate dinner in Italy. We rode the SilverStar, a Mercedes Benz rollercoaster in Germany and the bobsled run in Switzerland. Here are some pictures from Greece and Portugal. The one of me near the waterfall was in Austria. You can check out the website




We had a blast!

Don and Robin

Recap

Oh wow, I can't believe I haven't posted for almost 2 months. Here is a brief recap of the Rigadizzle house happenings.



We wrapped up our trip to Southern Germany with a day trip to Salzburg and Halstatt, Austria. I have posted a few more pictures of our trip from April. This first picture is of Don and the giant pretzel, we both ate one for lunch that day.






The center photo is in Salzburg, you can see the Medieval Fortress that sits above the old town. I love Austria and Salzburg is one of my two favorite cities in Europe so far (the other one is Prague)..


The last picture is of Halstatt, one of Europe's oldest towns (800 B.C), in fact there was Halstatt before there was Rome! Until 1875 you could only travel to the town by boat and it still has this peaceful far away feeling to it. Both Don and I agreed this was our favorite day of our trip, we will definitely be visiting Halstatt again. We planned to visit Switzerland the next day, but we woke up to rain and fog and knew that we wouldn't be able to enjoy the view like we wanted, so we stayed in Garmisch and shopped and rested instead.

Since then, we have been extremely busy. I planted my garden in late May. Early June brought freezing temperatures that zapped my little plants. They are slowly recovering.

Don had the awesome opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. with several other service members from Ramstein to accept the Installation Excellence Award. He toured the Pentagon and several other National Monuments. This was the second time he has been to the states since we moved here 3 years ago and he really enjoyed being on home soil! He also had a chance to visit his sister KT who lives near D.C with her husband and 2 boys.

June has been a busy month with Don's always unpredictable work schedule. I am also super busy taking 2 classes right now, and after this term will be 1/2 way through my Master's program! I am finding 2 classes and working full time to be a heavy load, but I am still able to enjoy everything right now.

Don and I are taking golf lessons at the golf course on base. It is a basic introduction course that covers etiquette, and the basics. So far we have worked on putting, chipping, and of course our swing. We wanted to find a sport that we could learn together and we are really like it so far.

That brings us to the present, we are enjoying the summer and hope to make a day trip to Europa Park, our favorite amusment park for the 4th of July. I will keep you posted!

Castles to cream puffs: Day 2

Our second day included a tour of Neuschwanstein castle, near Fussen, Germany. The castle sits above the town of Fussen, about half way up a mountain. You have 2 options to climb to the castle, either hike up or you can pay a few Euro and a horse drawn carriage will take you up. We only had 30 minutes before our tour started, so we decided to take the carriage ride. We sat in the front next to the driver...right behind the team of horses. The horse that Don sat behind had some serious gastric problems...well, you probably get the picture. The driver, who spoke broken english kept saying " ist cologne!" and would take deep breaths. I found the whole situation hilarious...I know that Don was laughing on the inside. Actually, he found it funny to...Probably even funnier if it was me instead of him.


Neuschwanstein Castle, built from 1869 to 1886. Neuschwanstein was designed by a painter first, then an architect. Construction stopped at King Ludwigs death, only a third of the rooms were completed, and within six weeks tourists were paying to go through it. King Ludwig was declared mentally unfit to rule Bavaria and was taken away from Neuschwanstein. He was found dead in a lake 2 days after his eviction. Even today people debate whether the "Mad King" was murdered or committed suicide.


The second half of the day we planned a hike through the lodge we were staying at. Our guide told us that we would be hiking above Garmisch to the Alte Hutte, a restaurant in the mountains that serves an authentic Bavarian Cream Puff. Along the way we would be stopping at a War Memorial. I assumed that this memorial would be either to remember the victims of the Holocaust, or to the allied troops that liberated the country of Nazi rule. This was not the case, however. It was a memorial to those Nazi soldiers that died in the war, who came from the village below. It was quite disturbing really, I have been to Dachau and to Auschwitz Birkenau, as well as the Anne Frank House...but I have never seen this. I kept asking "where is the memorial to the Jewish families that just 'disappeared one day?'" I decided not to take any pictures of the memorial... a large stone structure with over 200 plaques and photographs of those who died, along with dates and places. Several had fresh flowers and pine boughs draped over their plaques...which also left me feeling unsettled. We did take a picture of us at the memorial, with the view of Garmisch behind us.



Our reward...a GIANT Bavarian Cream Puff. It was filled with ice cream, cream (duh), chocolate syrup and sprinkled with hazelnuts. Don and I shared one...but we couldn't finish it.

Bavaria: Day 1

Hello Everyone, it has been awhile. I wanted to share with you our recent trip to southern Germany and Austria. We have been home for a few days, but work schedules and more traveling for work have kept us from updating the blog sooner. We had a wonderful time! The weather cooperated with us for the most part, however we did cancel the day we planned to drive to Switzerland because it was so cloudy and overcast...until next time.

Check out our hot ride. I wish that I could say it was really our car, but it was a rental...a real treat for Don to drive. We had to leave the "Battle Wagon" and the Thunderbird, a.k.a "The Chicken" at home (otherwise we never would have made it). This car was a blast...it was warm and sunny enough that we were able to put the top down and drive through Austria- fun!

Our first stop was the see the Weiskirche, Germany's greatest rococo-style church in southern Germany. It is a beautiful church set in a meadow in the countryside. According to our loyal tour guide, Rick Steves, this church was built around a statue of Christ, which supposedly wept in 1738. People came to see this miracle, and so 2 of Bavaria's top rococo architects, the Zimmermann brothers were commissioned to buid the Weiskirche (White Church)

A view as we cruised through the countryside.

Euro Trip

On Wednesday April 26, Don and I celebrate our third wedding anniversary. May 9th marks our third year living in Germany! To celebrate, we are hitting the road visit our favorite part of Germany. I have attached a few photos of what we will be seeing.















We are traveling to a small ski town in southern Germany called Garmisch- Partenkirchen. This small village sits at the foot of the Zugspitz, or the highest point in Germany.





One of the day trips we are planning is to Neuschwanstein Castle that you see in the picture. This castle may look familiar to you, it was the inspiration for Disney's Fairytale Castle. It has a fascinating story of a mad King who became obsessed with building this castle. He died before it was finished, and no one has ever lived in it.

Although we are not staying at the American Lodge/Resort in Garmisch, you can check out the website to learn more about the area and what we will be seeing. Too bad we weren't stationed here...we would never want to leave!

Happy trails,

robin


http://www.edelweisslodgeandresort.com/home.html

Who could forget the dancing vampire bodybuilders...

Sorry, I was still in shock after learning the truth behind the tampon I forgot to mention the last thing I saw at the festival. After I walked through the different vendors in town I started to make my way back to the main courtyard on my way home. I came upon a large crowd watching this guy in a cape who was slinking through the crowd trying to be scary. My first thought was that fasching is over- why is this guy still dressed up in a costume? He slowly made his way up to the stage as the music faded out. I started snapping pictures because I had a feeling that something was about to happen. Another techno song started up (Germans really dig techno music) and you can see above what followed. My friend Shawna and I were laughing so hard that people around us(who were actually enjoying the show) started giving us dirty looks. We had to leave because we couldn't stop laughing. Hope you enjoy.

robin

P.S. I should mention that when Shawna and I got home and told our husbands about what we had just seen, Don looked at the pictures and said- "Hey they vampire is our mailman!" They're you go...now you have seen a picture of our Bunderpost Man.

Beer, Ghost Busters and TSS???

Today I went to a spring festival in my village. I love going to these type of events, because you just never know what you are going to see. The theme of this festival was spring. The center of the village is a 6 minute walk from my front door, so I grabbed my camera and set off to capture a few of the unique things you will find at a German festival. I hope you enjoy!

(Below)A favorite way to spend a Saturday afternoon- sipping a beer, listening to music, visiting with friends.

Check out the local talent. Here is a local ompa band playing a really hot rendition of Ghost Busters. They had the crowd fired up for this one!

Here is a picture of the center of town...the Fools Fountain is decorated with Cherry blossoms and easter decorations.

I'm saving the best for last. For the last 3 years I have wondered what the heck these long poles with strips of paper are for. Yesterday I learned the story behind them, and I just have to share it with you. The picture you see above is called a tampon. I am really not kidding you...each village has one on display, and the tradition calls for young people of neighboring villages to try to steal another villages tampon. If, at the end of the year the tampon is hanging in place...well, that is quite a source of pride for those who live in the village. For some reason Ramsteins' tampon has a donkey hanging from a noose. I really don't want to know why.
Auf Wiedersen,

robin

Lasagne anyone?

Spring has finally arrived! This weekend I had a mission. With Don at work I was left home alone to conduct an experiment (Don is used to coming home to my experiments). I am logging this on my blog because, oh I don't know why, but maybe you will find it interesting--or you could just humor me a little!



For Christmas my Dad gave me a book on organic gardening called Lasagne Gardening. I know what you are thinking (what?), but the philosophy behind it really makes sense. Why do back breaking work digging up the ground and using machines and chemicals to grow things when you can use all natural materials that will do the work for you? I will spare you the details of the book, but is requires a mix of organic materials...grass clippings, leaves, organic kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, manure, etc. I have been anxiously awaiting the time when I could try this out in our backyard.



Saturday I realized that I needed to collect more materials before I could lay out my garden. We live at the north edge of our village, just behind our neighborhood is a small forest and open countryside. So, yesterday I grabbed a rake and some bags hopped in my car- a rent a wreck (I will save my soon to be car for another time...it is worth sharing) and headed out to collect my organic materials. I pulled up on a fire road behind our neighborhood and collected six bags of leaves. Germans are known to be curious people (I think they're just nosey), and before I knew it I had 2 older men standing on the road staring at me. I had to laugh, because I am sure that it did look a little strange!

Today I layed out my garden, and I took a few pictures to show you. There are 6 layers (like a lasagne) underneath the plastic: newspaper on the bottom covering the grass that was there before, then leaves, grass clippings, peat moss, compost (I already made last fall/winter), and more leaves. It will stay covered for about 6-8 weeks to "cook" or breakdown. The ground under the plastic will actually heat up and steam due to the microrganisms. I will be able to plant in this garden without lifting a shovel. Novel idea, don't you think?

Hopefully this summer, I will be able to enjoy fresh home grown fruits and vegetables, and share them with my neighboors. I will keep you posted (whether you care or not).

robin

Kehrwoche

By now you may have noticed that our life in Germany is normal for the most part. Sure, we live a days drive to the several of the western worlds cultural centers of art, history and fashion. We enjoy the unique opportunities we have to visit these places. For the most part though we lead a very normal, unexciting life. Weekends are spent doing the usual things: laundry, grocery shopping, dinner with friends, sweeping the sidewalks outside every Saturday. "What's that?" you ask "sweeping the sidewalks on Saturday?"

Ah yes, let me share with you one of the many interesting traditions you adapt to while living in another country. It is called Kehrwoche, and basically means "sidewalk duties." If you were to drive though our village on a Saturday afternoon you would likely see the streets lined with people, brooms and dustbins in hand sweeping the sidewalks and gutters in front of their homes. Driver's have to maneuver the streets carefully, because there are people in the streets literally sweeping the gutters.

This isn't just expected of the young, you will see men and women that look like they stood up from their wheel chairs just to fulfill the Kehrwoche!

I used to have a cynical attitude towards it, sort of like "oh please, I have better things to do with my weekend." Over the last year however my perceptions of this have changed. What I see today is a tradition that fosters pride in ones home, and provides an opportunity for neighbors to get to know each other ( I think this is a lost set of values in the states). No, I am not always very faithful to my sidewalk duties, I'll forget about it until Sunday night- which is too late because to sweep the sidewalk on a Sunday is a big No No (another value Americans have left by the wayside...not working on Sundays). It becomes a social event usually, and I can say that I do know who my neighbor's are.

If you would like to read more about some of the unique traditions in Germany check out this website. It has answered a lot of my questions about why Germans do the things they do!

http://www.serve.com/shea/culture.htm

Welcome to the World!

Katelyn Elizabeth

03.09.2006

Welcome to the family!

We're glad that you have come

to share your life with us.

May we always be to you

what God would have us be,

a family always there.

To be strong and to lean on.

Proud Mom and Dad, Judy and Bryan

A few of my favorite things...

Please bear with me, I am just feeling a little homesick. So I decided to post a few of my favorite things...


A picture of my hometown, Mountain Home (because Mom and Dad are somewhere in this picture)

Idaho sunsets. I used to count the colors in the sky when I was a kid...actually I still do that!


My sister Deanna and her now husband Bryan, in their mountains doing what they love.


And of course, a picture of me with my most favorite thing...what a hunk.

Peace,
robin

Snow Day!

This weekend this part of Germany was hit with a huge snowstorm that left behind a foot and a half of snow. This is our third winter in Germany, and it is definitely the longest and coldest. Since Don was raised in sunny California, snow for him is like a giant playground. He loves to shovel it, drive in it(actually doing donughts in empty parking lots), any excuse to go outside, and I love watching him run around laughing like a little kid (he has an infectious laugh- one of the first things that I remember when we first met). He tried to convince me to run outside in our backyard in the middle of the night with him and join the polar bear club, but in my old age I'm just not up for catching pnemonia! I attached a couple of pictures. The one without snow was taken last weekend. The other two were taken today. My tulip and daffodil bulbs had already started poking through the soil (a gardner's nightmare), I really hope they hang on until the snow melts!