Welcome March

It's now March and our sub sub freezing Siberian temperatures are a memory of the past. Recently we've had temps between 5° and 15° Celsius. Which is between 40° and 60° Fahrenheit.

It was cold outside

Work has been really busy these past 3 weeks. These past weeks have also been fairly uneventful. In our last post we told you about Grandpa Dick going to be with Jesus. On Monday February 13^th we were able to attend his memorial service via skype. It was really neat to be able to “be there.” We are so thankful for modern technology. It was fun to also see some of you at the memorial service.

Last week we dealt with a nasty seasonal cold in our home. First Stanley was sick, then Holly got sick, and finally Heather. I was able to avoid it during that time, but then on Monday it began to get me too. Fortunately, with the help of some EmergenC, Gatoraide, and lots of water I was able to avoid getting sick. Now we are all well except for the occasional drippy nose.

Our sick King Stanley and Queen Holly.

Our sick kids about to enjoy a muffin tin lunch.

This week has been interesting in several ways. First, Stanley is beginning to get more comfortable at Kindergarten (Praise the Lord J ). We’re seeing him grow more comfortable with the German language. We recently rented some Caillou movies from the library, and Stanley has wanted to watch them auf Deutsch, and he has been singing more songs auf Deutsch as well! At home he is talking more about the other students at Kindergarten, and this last week he actually shook the assistant teacher’s hand when he left. Hopefully this continues and he becomes more and more comfortable in these situations. Three weeks ago at church he absolutely refused to go to Sunday School. Two weeks ago he went with me and he actually had a good time when I explained what was going on. No my German is not that good, but I recognized some of the songs, and our friend Erik was leading Stanley’s class and told me what the story was about ahead of time. This really made us think that his refusal tantrums are due primarily to the fact that he doesn’t understand what is going on and is therefore quite uncomfortable. When he knows what is happening he likes it. He didn’t go to Kindergarten or church at all last week because he was sick with fever. And going back to Kindergarten this whole past week was so much better.

Stanley focusing on an drawing. He's really into drawing pictures now. He even took it upon himself to redecorate our living room with his art work.

Stanley tracing the letters of his name.

This past week Heather has had some neat interactions with different ladies in Weimar. It is fun to see how God is bringing these ladies into Heather’s life, or bringing Heather into their lives. However you want to look at it. J She has had the privilege of praying with one friend on the bus and having others really open up their hearts to her.

For me, this past week has probably been the most exciting. It started off with me winning a pair of running shoes! I entered a contest on my favorite running website letsrun.com. The entry question was “why I should get a new pair of Puma FAAS running shoes.” I entered a few weeks ago, and then readers of letsrun.com were able to vote on the entries. This week I found out that I was one of the winners! How fun. You can read my entry here. I’m the third one down. Also this week I finally got back to running again. I wasn’t able to get out much in February due to the extreme cold and the family illnesses. I ran with the kids Saturday and Sunday, and then Tuesday through Friday after work. Now for the really weird news. I hurt my foot Friday afternoon. After all the good things happening regarding running I hurt my foot. Now here’s the real kicker. I hurt my foot while kicking the presenter at our staff meeting Friday afternoon. Yes that sounds strange but the meeting was on bullying and the presenter was focusing on physically bullying and it almost became a self defense class. I was the one that he chose to help show how to protect yourself in a physical conflict. So he first asked me to slap him harder and harder on the cheek. I got one slap in and then he showed how to deflect the slap. After that he asked me to kick him in the arm showing that a kick in the arm isn’t a big deal compared to a kick in other sensitive areas. Anyways, it was weird and the kick in the arm did me in. Note: he was once on the German National Karate Team, and is a master karate instructor. Now my right foot is slightly swollen and hurts when I push off my toes. Hopefully it isn’t broken. L

So there you go, that’s what we’ve been up to in the month of February. What do we have coming up? First, Heather’s good friend Elizabeth is coming to visit us on Monday! Her husband Matt works as a commercial pilot so she was able to get tickets to visit us. Unfortunately Matt is working so he won’t be able to come out too. But we are really looking forward to having Elizabeth here. After that we only have another 4 weeks and then I have two weeks off for spring break! We really like these breaks during the year. The down side is that I’ll have a much shorter summer vacation.

We hope and pray all is well with you. Please feel free to leave a comment.

From Germany, Scott, Heather, Stanley and Holly

A note from Stanley while I was writing this.

Stanley says “I love Germany love Katey.” and “I really love you love Blake. I really liked when you gave the turtle Blake stuffed animal.” and “I really love you Grandma Sue and I’m drawing pictures for you.”

Holly says, “Hallelujah!”