We've learned and grown a lot in 2008 and we're hoping the same for 2009. This year Julia will start Kindergarten, we'll travel to many new places, and this will be the only non-transition year in our stay. Our chance to just live and enjoy the experience. As I'm writing this journal 2009 is nearly over, I'm hoping that's a reflection of how much time we've spent enjoying our experience!

January 2009: January was slow and cold. John was able to get in a weekend trip to __________ for snowboarding with some co-workers. We made a family trip to the Black Forest to do some sledding and boarding with the Frank Family (Eddie, Bittina , Leon , and Antonia). I spent my Monday nights playing Volleyball with the Kleinglattbach team. And we spent a lot of time encouraging Julia on the toilet and she was "potty trained” by the end of the month. Julia was getting more and more comfortable in mini-kindergarten and I continued to go to the gym.

February 2009: February was also slow and cold (not surprising). For the second time we celebrated Fasching with Helmet, Petra , Liena and Janic. We had a great time. Mackenzie dressed up as a Tiger and Julia put on our little alien hat. It was much colder this year but we all had a great time. We stayed in the party tents until 11pm, walked to a pizza parlor, then drove back home. Mackenzie also got to celebrate Fasching in Kindergarten; she dressed up as a princess and they painted faces at school. John and I also started talking about the possibilities of making a trip to Hawaii when we flew home for Marty's wedding in August. We knew if we wanted it to happen we needed to plan early!

March 2009: Julia celebrated her 3rd birthday on the 1st. She wanted a birthday cake with a purple dragon on it. She really likes the purple dragon from the Shrek movies. So I found a beautiful purple dragon at the mall and put it on her (otherwise) very basic birthday cake. She loved it. After her birthday we took our first trip of the year, we traveled to Egypt . Click Egypt Vacation to read about it. Mackenzie got into a bit of trouble at Kindergarten. I met with Barbara, Mackenzie's teacher, she said that Mackenzie needed to work on fine tuning her social skills and she asked if we play classical music for Mackenzie. She said that Mackenzie has a musical ear and shows a strong interest in music at Kindergarten. After the meeting I felt that Mackenzie must be fully comfortable speaking German because her strong personality is shining through. And I also felt under pressure to get Mackenzie involved in some music program. It's hard when a child is 5; you really don't know how much time they will dedicate to learning an instrument and if the interest will last. After doing some research John, Mackenzie and I decided the piano would be a good instrument to start with. We have a piano in the house and we read that it's easy for children to learn to read music when learning the piano. I took Mackenzie to the Vaihingen Music School , where I asked the secretary if they took children 5 years old for piano lessons. She didn't know and she started calling around asking co-workers. She finally called a private piano teacher (that in the past worked at the school), her name is Frau (Mrs.) Erhart. Frau Erhart wanted to interview Mackenzie and test her before she would accept her as a new student. All went well and Mackenzie started taking piano once a week! Frau Erhart lives in Kleinglattbach, right down the street from Suesanne so I asked Suesanne where her Svena took piano and Susanne said with Frau Erhart and that Frau Erhart was one of the best piano teachers in the area. We felt really good about the situation.

April 2009: Things got a bit busier in April. Mackenzie started taking piano once a week, I started spending one morning a week with our local goldsmith and also started teaching an English conversation course. My schedule started to wear on me a bit. I had volleyball Monday nights and taught English Thursday nights. For some reason once John comes home from work, I don't like to leave the house. So two nights away per week was too much. We took a day trip to the Bodensee . The weather was starting to get warmer. We had a sunny and warm Easter. We celebrated Easter alone this year. During Easter break Julia got her first two wheel bike. We went to the sporting goods store to look at end of the season sales on snowboard gear can came home with a pair of rollerblades for Mackenzie and a new bike for Julia. Julia really surprised us when she got on the two wheeler at the store and rode around without a problem. Mackenzie's kindergarten group, the Dragon Group, put on a “Rainbow” presentation for the parents. The kids sang “Red and yellow and pink and green, orange and purple and blue, I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too.” This is a very popular English song for the kindergarteners to learn here.

May 2009: We're always so happy when May rolls around! The pool opens, there are Maintag festivals and summer is getting closer. For Mother's day the Kindergarten had a program and the children made plates the said “Ich liebe dich” (I love you) with a hand print in the middle of the plate. As a family we spent Mother's day with the Katrin, Matthias and Max. We went to a Biergarten and castle. The weather was beautiful the atmosphere perfect and the company was great! We had a good time. I had a volleyball tournament on the 16 th ; this tournament was quite large, had a bar and music playing throughout the whole tournament. John's mom, Lydia , arrived on the 27 th We walked with Lydia up to our castle. There was a great view of the Maintag fest down below. Spent a couple day at the Maintag fest and had a double date with Matthias and Katrin one evening at the festival.

June 2009: The beginning of June we spent in Rome with John's mom, click Rome Vacation to read about it. From the 11 th to the 14 th John took his mom on a tour of Paris . John's mom stayed until the 17 th of June. On the 22 nd of June we left for our Baltic Sea Cruise, click Baltic Sea Cruise to read about it.

July 2009: The cruise finished up on the 4 th of July and we made our way back to Vaihingen / Enz by train. The following weekend we had the Kindergarten festival; there were a lot of games, music and food. I worked the food stand for one shift. Oh, that was something. I had the first shift with a long line of hungry people speaking German. It really tested my German skills, I just got by, I was quite thankful when my shift was over! The following week my dear friend Michele came for a visit. We went to the Porsche museum, the Hohenzollen castle then flew to Split , Croatia for the weekend. It is always wonderful to spend time with Michele, time with her is a treasure for me. I bought Mackenzie and Julia Disney Princess swim towels as a souvenir of Croatia .

August 2009: Kindergarten got out on the 10 th of August and we left for Ohio on the 13 th . Marty's wedding was on the 15 th . The wedding day was beautiful, hot and remember able. Marty's wedding ceremony was outside. Vanessa played the violin for the wedding procession, all the chairs were white and the skies were beautiful a blue. We were all still jet-lagged during the wedding; I remember my eyes feeling so heavy during the reception. But we couldn't slow down just because of jet-lag. Sunday (the day after Marty's wedding) we went to church at St. Jude's and did some much needed shopping. Monday we did a little more shopping and hung around mom and dad's house. Tuesday John and I flew to Hawaii . Click Ohio and Hawaii to read about it. It was way too much travel for my body. The day we returned back to Ohio we gave our gifts to everyone then went to the beach with the kids, (without John, he had to go to the medical clinic to get checked for his month long cough) the day was in its 30 th hour when my head felt like it was going to explode. By the 32 nd hours I couldn't take the pain. I went outside, curled up in a ball on the glider and put as much pressure on my head so that the pressure would create more pain then the headache. 45 mins later my headache was gone and I could finally sleep. We were leaving the next day for Germany . God blessed us with a cancelled flight, one more day with the family and a chance to rest before the long flight home. Thank you God! The flight home was uneventful. Upon our arrive back to Stuttgart I was ready to stay put for months; please no travel for the next few months.

September 2009: Kindergarten started back up the week of the 14 th ; as did teaching English, piano classes and turnen. John started talking about making one last trip this year, I was against it but reluctantly starting to do some research. We went to the Volksfest with Matthias, Katrin and Max. It was fun. Mackenzie and Julia wore their Lederhosen, on the way there we happened to bump into the Lips on the S Bahn . It was crowed that day because there was also a Stuttgart Soccer game. The kids went on many rides and then we found a beach in a beer tent. The kids were running around, dancing and having a good time while we sat had a beer and talked. My birthday was on the 30 th ; I made myself a small cake, just because the girls would ask me where my birthday cake was, I didn't really want to bake my own cake, it doesn't seem right. Katrin brought me over a centerpiece and as she was at the door, I just started crying. My birthday was on a weekday so the house was empty and very very quiet. To see Katrin's car pull in the driveway was a surprise and meant a lot to me.

October 2009: We decided to do a driving trip to Vienna , Budapest , Bratislava at the end of the month. Click Vienna , Budapest , Bratislava to read about it. On the 16 th the Kindergarten had their Lantern Fest at the Enz River . I accidentally dropped a lantern in the river, Julia got scared on the bridge and Mackenzie got her picture in the paper. It was a fun night. We spent time with Sybille's family, drank a gluewein and then made our way back home. Halloween came quickly after our trip. I made the girls costumes; they wanted to be Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo. I stayed at the house passing out candy and John took the girls out with neighborhood friends. While trick r' treating one of the neighbors asked John if Mackenzie could speak English. What? Of course she speaks English, that's all we speak in the house. Our friend said that Mackenzie's German is so good that it sounds as if it's her native language. I can't imagine a better complement.

November 2009: I had no idea how busy November was going to be. I started teaching a English playgroup on Thursday afternoons – which means I bring Mackenzie and Julia with me. The group has 5 (sometimes 6) German children and then my two children and the room can get pretty crazy! I started this class on the 5 th of November, later that same day I had a meeting on the English book I'm helping write with some other ladies then on the 6 th we had to wake up at 4am and drive to Frankfurt to renew mine and Mackenzie's passports. After the time at the US embassy in Frankfurt we went to the Natural History Museum then drove back home. On the 8 th I had a meeting with Barbel's (a lady I play volleyball with) son to help him with an English project. Barbel is very nice and while I was helping her son she gave Mackenzie and Julia a few Princess Lillifee magazines to color in. On the 13 th Mackenzie and Julia went to Caroline's birthday party at the puppet theather. Julia had an allergy test done on the 17 th . Some where in Oct or Nov I also started a new English conversation class on Thursday mornings. I was up to 3 English classes by this time. Then the next week brought my goldsmith class. Every Tuesday afternoon from 2:30pm until 7:30pm. The same week goldsmith school started was the week of John and Katrin's birthday. Really? I'm thankful I didn't realize how busy this month was on day 1. For John's birthday I baked a cake frosted it with peanut butter then coated it with semi-sweet chocolate. It smelt like a reese peanut butter cup. It ended up being really heavy so we couldn't finish the whole cake. Katrin's 30 th birthday was the day after John's birthday. I drove to her house early and baked her birthday cake. I gave Katrin her birthday gift ( I made her a necklace ) then came home to pick the girls up from Kindergarten then we returned to Katrin's in the afternoon for her Bday party. Oh yes, John' birthday was on Thanksgiving this year. Sorry to say, we had no turkey. We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving this year .

December 2009: Mackenzie's birthday was on a Saturday this year, as was the turnen Christmas festival. So for Mackenzie's birthday we spent the day in the Vaihingen hall watching the girls on stage. Mackenzie group did a routine as soccer players and Julia's group did a routine as snow owls. It was really cute. On Sunday we celebrated Mackenzie's birthday at Jump Inn with Matthias, Katrin and Max. We also went downtown Stuttgart with Mackenzie and Julia before Mackenzie's birthday. John's mom gave Mackenzie 100 Euro to buy whatever she wanted. (we gave a little bit of money to Julia too so she wouldn't feel left out) After shopping we walked around the Stuttgart Christmas market. The market was so beautiful with lots of decorations a few band, good food and refreshments. Something unique about the Stuttgart Christmas market is the decorations above all the market stalls. My goldsmith classes continued and I made rings for the girls, a ring for Jennifer, rings for Svena and Sabrina and a pearl necklace with matching earring for my mom. I also decided to donate my hair, the week before Christmas I went from having very long hair to having a bob hair cut. One other important event was that Mackenzie was in our church's Christmas play. All the main roles went to 2 nd graders who would be making their First Communions but Mackenzie got the only other speaking role. She was the Inn keeper's child and showed Joseph and Mary to the stall. She did a fantastic job. Christmas was spent at home. It was peaceful and quiet. The kids were so happy with the things Santa brought for them. Julia so much so, that she hugged one of her gifts. (the racetrack set). John ran in the Bietieheim 11k race with Matthias on New Year's Eve then we went to the Lips house to celebrate New Years. John couldn't make it to midnight but Katrin and Matthias and I did and went outside at 12 midnight to watch the fireworks. We spent the night and had breakfast the next day with the Lips. It was a great way to bring in the New Year!