Nina Elly Hermes

It always amazes me how quickly life can change the path we're on. We think we know what we'll be doing the next day, week or month, but sometimes something happens that spins us off in a totally different direction. We thought we knew where we would be for Thanksgiving, but it turned out quite differently.

Nina last year at Christmas

For those of you who don't know Sam's family he has a sister, Stephanie, who has three children. Their middle child, Nina, has been bravely battling cancer for two years. When we were out last Christmas she was in remission and we were all praying for the best. Just after the holidays, though, they found that the cancer had returned.

On the evening of November 15th, (the Thursday before Thanksgiving) we received an email from Sam's parents saying that Nina was not doing well and was not expected to make it. We made plans right away to go to Virginia to help out in whatever way we could, even if just for moral support. We had just bought our tickets, when we found out that she had already passed away. She was only 8 years old. I wish I could have known Nina better. She seemed so sweet and wise for her age.

As you can imagine this has been a really hard time for the whole family. We wanted to be there to support Stephanie and Patrick, so we flew out on Sunday morning. Although we felt incredibly helpless once we were there, because there was nothing we could do to change the situation. Nothing we could say to make it better. We were just so sad for the loss of Nina. The funeral was Tuesday. Nina loved the color red, so they asked that everyone wear red to the funeral. It was really beautiful to see so much red in honor of such a special little girl. Sam's dad gave a very loving eulogy. Nina will certainly be missed.

It was a difficult place to be in this time. The real reason we were there was always on our minds, but we felt so helpless to do anything and the family really just needed their space. Since we were there for 10 days we tried to enjoy the time we had with both of our families.

We just returned home and I wanted to update this blog. I'll do a post later about Thanksgiving and our time spent with family.

Snow in Germany

It's been looking a lot like winter around here. It snowed almost all day yesterday, but was not cold enough and just kept melting off. Last night though it stayed a little colder so we woke up to a blanket of snow covering the ground. It's still snowing today. I love this weather. It's really beautiful out and not that cold. It's hovering around 30. This picture was taken off our bedroom balcony looking toward the backyard.

Gabby loves going outside, but she's been having second thoughts since it's gotten colder out. This morning, she was satisfied with just sitting in the open window watching the snow fall. There's no screen in this one, so she could have easily jumped out to the balcony, but she's decided that she doesn't like to get here little feet cold.

My pampered cat

View from the office balcony. It would be nice if the snow stayed around for awhile, but I have a feeling that in a couple of days it will be gone. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Well, I have lots of studying to do for my German class, so I better get busy. We cover so much in each class and are suppose to have all the words memorized by the next class. Thankfully I have until Monday. I just wanted to share some pictures of our weather. Have a wonderful day!

Busy, busy, busy...

I didn't realize it had been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. We've been really busy and have had lots going on and I guess I just neglected to share it all here. Since my last post winter has knocked on our door a couple of times. Any snow that fell melted off quickly, but at least it looked like winter for awhile. Just this morning it was snowing again, but it's all gone by now. I would rather have an Alaskan winter where once it snowed you knew it would stay until breakup. Here, it is a mixture of very wet snow and sleet, which makes it really messy and dirty looking. It actually seems colder too because of the dampness and wind.

I started my German classes last Monday. I'm glad to be taking them, but it's much more intense than I expected. Being advertised as "conversational German", I didn't expect to delve right into German grammar. I would love to, one day, be able to communicate in German, but right now that seems like a very distant possibility. But we'll see how it goes. Even with just two classes under my belt I've found myself deciphering signs better. I guess maybe learning a few key words and phrases tends to help. We didn't have class yesterday because of Veteran's Day, but we start up again tomorrow. I have some studying to do....

We had our first guest this last weekend. Our friend, Kris, from Schweinfurt was down here on business and ended up staying two nights with us. We really enjoyed her company. I don't know what possessed me to try a new recipe out on a guest, but I did. Kris gave us some rhubarb when we visited her over the summer. I froze it at the time and hadn't used it yet, so I decided to make a strawberry/rhubarb pie. It didn't turn out as pretty as it could have because , wouldn't you know, I just put the top crust on when I realized I forgot to put some butter on top of the strawberries and rhubarb. Thankfully, it tasted better than it looked.

Last Friday, we went to the MWF factory outlet, which is just 30-40 minutes away. I love that store! They have the most incredible cookware, silverware, etc. We've been wanting to get a new set of silverware since before we got married, but I never found what I was looking for in the states. We found a set (service for 12) that we both liked. I'm very happy with what we bought and I'm sure it'll last us for many years. I've been wanting to replace our cookware too, but that will be done a piece at a time considering the prices.

MWF has a really nice cafe in the store, so we had lunch while waiting for our VAT forms to be completed. For those of you who don't know what that is...I'll explain. 19% VAT (value added tax) is added to almost everything bought here. As Americans working for the government we are not required to pay that, since we do not benefit from it (medical, schooling, etc). We can buy VAT forms for a small fee on post and when we make a big purchase we use it to get a refund of the 19%. It ends up saving us quite a bit.

Friday evening we stopped in at our favorite antique store in the town of Schönaich. It's where we bought our treadle and we just love browsing through the rooms. I could spend hours there. I think of my sister every time I'm there because of her love of antiques. I saw this old cast iron mold last time we were there. I just loved it, but wasn't willing to pay the €40 she was asking. It just happened to still be there when we were in on Friday and I also found an old butter churner that I liked. My wonderful husband worked his magic and we came away with both of those items for €40. I was so happy!

We had rotten weather the whole time Kris was here, but we made the most of it and really enjoyed her visit. Saturday we were going to go by the furniture store at Robinson Barracks, but they were not open yet, so we stopped in at the post thrift store. We met the nicest elderly couple there. He's American and she's German. They've been married for many years and have run the thrift shop for 15 years. They were so interesting to talk to and had alot of antiques in the shop. We will definitely be going back there.

Another thing that has been taking a lot of our time is looking for a house to buy. From the time we arrived in Germany we planned to eventually buy a place of our own. We knew we would be here for awhile and thought it was only wise to put our monthly rent into a place that we could turn around and sell in the future. Sam's been looking from the beginning, but we've gotten serious about it since returning from Alaska. Sam's been talking to people to learn all he can about buying over here.

We played with the idea of buying the house we're in if our landlord was interested, but we haven't heard back from him and even at that decided it would need quite a bit of renovation since it's over 30 years old. Instead, we're leaning toward buying a place that's being built in a little village just about 10 miles from here. We wanted to get a single family house, but they are few and far between in our price range. So, we're strongly considering this row house or what would be called a townhouse back home. It isn't quite finished, so we can have input on the finishing touches. We haven't bought it yet, but we're leaning heavily in that direction. If we do buy it we'll be moving in January. More to follow on that subject I'm sure.

Here is the cast iron mold that I bought at the antique store.

The antique butter churner

I just thought this was cute. I had wood burning in the Kachelofen and Gabby was up in the chair feeling the warmth.