Living In Germany

Pictures of Shantal In America

2008-07-22T10:46:00.004+02:00

Just a fast blog entry today. Thought I would share some pictures of Shantal's time in America. Visiting with Friends Lagoon Amusement Park in Utah Playing with her Cousin Mini-Golf Sparklers The Plane Ride from Chicago to Salt Lake Drive Inn Movie Jumping on the Tramp with Aunt Coco And with Mom

Potty Training

2008-07-17T22:35:00.002+02:00

Emma started Summer Break from Kindergarten Yesterday. And with that, came the time for me to start Potty Training her full force. Today we are on day #2. Yesterday I had been having a conversation with my friends online throughout the day about this experience. I am just copying and pasting what I wrote, not what they wrote. DAY 1 Me: Why oh why did I ever have more kids. All mine

We Are Home!

2008-07-14T00:37:00.003+02:00

So, after 3 different plane rides which included 26 hours and a 2 hour car ride, we were back home in Germany. We have been home now for 2 days. And I have to just touch for a minute on a few things that I noticed. First off, when we pulled up in the van, the kids were not home. The babysitter had walked to pick up Emma from Kindergarten. They came just as I was getting out of the van. And Ian

Conversations with Shantal

2008-07-04T18:29:00.002+02:00

So I had a conversation with Shantal yesterday. We were leaving my mom's house to go out to lunch together. We were just pulling out of the drive way when this conversation started: Shantal: Outside at Grandma's house it always smells like snails! Me: Snails? Shantal: Yes Snails. Me: What do snails smell like? Shantal: Like Snails of course. Me: Of Course. Then later down the

America

2008-07-02T14:51:00.003+02:00

Shantal and I arrived safely in America on June 26th. By the time we got here, I had been up 27 hours. I can't beleive I drove three hours after not sleeping for so long. We stayed in Wisconsin for a few days. Shantal stayed with friends and I stayed at a hotel with a bunch of freaks. Seriously, I stayed at a hotel with some online scrapbooking friends I was meeting for the first time. I

Blogging Mama

2008-06-27T21:51:00.003+02:00

Well, I'm back. This is Gardner. I've taken over the nest here at the Wheeler household. I am holding down the fort as Mr. Mom while Tamara & Shantal are playing in America. Well, Tamara is actually working at a scrapbooking weekend she organized in Wisconsin. She is very excited to do this again. She did one every other month (I think - could have been every month) when we used to live there, so

Driving Slow

2008-06-23T22:59:00.003+02:00

So something funny happened on Friday. I had to drive Gardner to work and then after I dropped him off, I was running to a store called Real. Well, I was driving on a highway, instead of the autobahn. And the speed limit is 80 Kilometers and I was driving 90. (remember, I have a tendancy to drive a little fast). 90 Kilometers is roughly 55 miles an hour. All of a sudden, Emma, who was

Spencer's EM Podcast

2008-06-19T22:08:00.004+02:00

While sitting here enjoying a great European Cup match with Spencer I realized that I hadn't posted Spencer's recent podcast. Germany looks good right now - 3-1 in the 78th minute. Hopefully they can keep up the energy. Otherwise no chance. Portugal is too talented. Of course, check in on our Living in Germany Podcast for more fun from Germany.

A quick Update

2008-06-19T11:35:00.004+02:00

I never seem to find the time to update the blog. Or, I don't feel like our lives are exciting enough for an update. But I know it has been a bit since I updated and decided just to share some pictures we have taken the last two weeks. Earlier this week, I made new play dough for the kids. They were so excited for the green play dough. They couldn't believe how soft it was. They have all

Shantal's School-wide Project

2008-06-14T08:46:00.008+02:00

Shantal and I did another podcast together - Episode #32 of our Living in Germany podcast. The podcast is about the school-wide project and she asked me to do the podcast. Very cool. I copied in some pictures below the podcast pickle player.

Shantal's Class Projects

2008-06-09T08:03:00.002+02:00

Shantal and I did another podcast together - Episode #32 of our Living in Germany podcast. The podcast about her recent class projects was fun even though Shantal was very tired. One interesting thing was how Shantal kept switching back into German. I think this was due to being tired, but I found it interesting that she switched back into German.

The Autobahn

2008-06-08T20:40:00.003+02:00

This morning, I had to run out to Hinsbeck to pick up Spencer and a few boys from his Soccer Team. They were away all weekend and I was the one designated to pick them up. As I started to get on the autobahn, I was amazed at how empty the autobahn was. And then I remembered it was Sunday. But even still, I drive on the autobahn every Sunday to go to Church. But for some reason, today it hit

Our Week Part 2

2008-06-07T11:00:00.000+02:00

So to continue on with some things that are happening here with us.......................... Today, I went out to Real to Grocery Shop. It is a bigger store where I can find things I can't find at our smaller Grocery Stores in town. I end up driving 20 minutes each way and I try not to make this trip too often. I usually go when I want WHITE eggs. I have a problem, a big problem. I don't like

Our Week

2008-06-06T22:01:00.002+02:00

WARNING.........It is long. {laughs} So I know I need to blog. I know I need to update. And then there are times I think I am already so far behind, no one will know what I am talking about. But if I think like that, I will never blog. And then family and friends will really not know what is going on in our life. So I am just going to start in and assume you know everything. {giggle} I

Spencer's Jedi Training podcast

2008-06-04T00:25:00.009+02:00

Spencer and I did another podcast together - Episode #31 of our Living in Germany podcast. The podcast was not quite as organized as I would have liked but Spencer added hilarity to the show by quoting a mini cartoon movie found on the internet about training to be a Jedi and blurting out random thoughts throughout the show. And here is the flash movie Spencer kept quoting: View the flash

Here Birdie, Birdie, Birdie!

2008-06-02T22:55:00.004+02:00

We live in a Townhouse. And there are 4 houses all connected together. We are the third house coming down the walk. And the house next to us, has all these bird nests up by their rain gutter. It really goes all the way across. LOTS of bird nests. They are fun to watch fly in and out. But they can be real noisy. OK, now we will jump a bit. It is getting to be pretty hot here in Germany. Or

Emma's Big Week

2008-05-31T00:31:00.004+02:00

Emma had a big week this week. It started last Saturday when she jumped into Spencer's soccer game a couple of times. We're certain she had only the best of intentions - support Spencer as a 3rd defender. She was on the field twice while the game was going on. When we got home that night we found that Tamara had caught one of them on video. Then Emma was able to get into a pre-school and start

THE blog BREAK UP

2008-05-30T00:33:00.003+02:00

Hi and bye! Probably not forever as I'm sure Tamara will invite me back to her blog as a guest from time to time. Before I go I wanted to post my take on the blog break up that Tamara and I have decided to undergo. We've talked about this a few times over the past few months, but I was a bit reluctant. Tamara tells one side of the story about our lives here in Germany - the interesting side, and

Emma Started Kindergarten!

2008-05-28T15:40:00.004+02:00

This is a three part blog entry. It is something I started last night, then added to it this morning, and then added more this afternoon. LAST NIGHT So we have been trying to get Emma into a Kindergarten here. Kindergarten is a bit like Preschool. But more. Not quite a day care. And kids go when they are 3 years old. I decided late to send Emma this next coming year and couldn't find her a

A Tough Decision

2008-05-27T22:35:00.003+02:00

Well, it is official. It is something that Gardner and I have talked a lot about over the last few months. And tonight he has asked me to post and announce our blog seperation. I started this blog back in December 2006. And at one point, I stopped blogging for a period. Gardner kept telling me I needed to blog and I didn't feel like it. I simply told him to start blogging then. So I added him

I'm A Big Girl Now!

2008-05-25T15:11:00.002+02:00

OK, so I can't help but think of the Pull-ups Commercial in America when I say the title of this blog entry. {laughs} Anyway, I am talking about Emma. She is a big girl. She is now 3 after all. But many things have happened over the course of the last two weeks with Emma that I find myself in awe at how big she is now. First off, we took her binky away. I should say that I did it, and

Dachau - The Final Straw

2008-05-22T07:51:00.020+02:00

In late April I saw a documentary on how Israel commemorates the holocaust. The show followed a couple of children as they prepared for the commemoration. It was in Hebrew with German subtitles and very well done. Many of the preparations were organized by the school and at one point a teacher asked the students why they should remember the Shoah? Or, why was there a Shoah, or Holocaust? The

German Ads are Funny

2008-05-21T23:40:00.001+02:00

I Found this hilarious video over at Planet Germany and just had to post it as well. It's a great little advertising trick about an older husband and wife getting even. Enjoy.

Dachau - the Museum

2008-05-19T22:00:00.002+02:00

After seeing the Jewish memorial I showed the kids the barbed wire fence, which still had some of the old electrical equipment attached. We walked back towards the Museum to meet Tamara. Along the way, as we passed the foundation for barracks 32 we found another token. The language was Dutch and we tried to guess what it said. The camera was full so I could not snap a photo. At the museum exit I

DSDS

2008-05-18T22:36:00.009+02:00

Here is our podcast about the finals of DSDS (Deutschland sucht den Superstar - English: Germany seeks its Superstar) the German version of American Idol. We've enjoyed watching the show together every Saturday night over the last several weeks and talked about some of the differences between the U.S. and German versions the show in our podcast. One note from the podcast: Gardner was wrong. As