Back on the Wagon

For the past few months I’ve had some sort of weird mental block when it comes to blogging. Maybe it’s partly because a girlfriend showed me a semi-nude photo of herself that she had framed as a gift and said, “You aren’t going to mention this in your blog, are you?” (which I guess I just did, but I didn’t use her name and I won’t tell you who she is, so don’t ask). I started to worry that I was talking too much about people’s personal lives and I didn’t want to be a space invader. Or maybe it was that winter depression thing. My brain mimics the sun. When the sun shines, so do I. When clouds cover the sun, then my mind fogs up too. It was a cold, gray winter and we have had a lot of gray summer days too. But no, that’s not really it. I think that my mother really nailed it when we talked the other day. I was whining about “needing to blog but not having time” and she said, “It’s Facebook. Now you tell your stories on Facebook so you don’t have to blog.” By George, I think she’s on to something.

Nearly every day I catch up with friends, update my profile, or upload pictures to Facebook. Because I have told my stories in snippets to various people, I feel like I have told them to everyone. But each person I speak to only gets a facet of the tale. I need to sit down and write a narrative of these special years so we can look back later on. I’m just too busy living this life to write about it. Or so I tell myself.

So let’s see...highlights...

Well, we went to Malta in November, which was fabulous. We spent nine days and just barely saw everything we wanted. My only recommendation would be to go at a warmer time of year. We did enjoy two good beach days, but the rest of the time was gray and windy. More on Malta another time.

We got to the States over Christmas, which was great but exhausting. We crammed five states and seeing both sides of the family into a three-week trip. Add that to the fact that we had to lug half of Santa's sleigh in our suitcases, we had to pack for two climates (Wisconsin and Alabama) and the fact that Claire had to go back to school with jet lag the day after our return, and you have one tired family. We decided that this year we’ll stay here in Germany for Christmas and visit the States in the summer next time (sadly, not until 2010).

We spent a week in Italy, including Venice. That was a dream come true. And we loved our week in Malaga, Spain this May. We spent time on the beach, in the mountains, and at Alhambra and other amazing historical sites. That was exactly the "chillaxing" kind of vacation we wanted.

The exciting news is that many of our loved ones have been able to visit us this past year.
In March enjoyed a visit from Dave’s brother Chris and his family. They stayed for nearly two weeks and we took them on excursions to Bavaria and Switzerland. Luke and Claire loved playing with their cousins. They were sad to see them go. Then my folks came out for three weeks in April. We also took them to Bavaria and to Strasbourg, France, and I planned a train trip for them to Vienna and Venice. They had a ball. I cried like a baby when they left, knowing it would be a year and a half until I'd see them again.

Then our niece Alice (Dave’s brother’s daughter) is coming for the month of August. She has offered to be a live-in babysitter in exchange for travel opportunities. I’m not sure yet what adventures we’ll take her to experience, but we are looking forward to seeing her.

My sister says she is trying to plan a trip here, and my cousin Patrick is coming here next year too for a sporting event. The Newberry Inn may not be five-star, but it’s clean (mostly) and comfortable. The food is pretty good (if I say so myself), and you can’t beat the price (helping with dishes). So y’all come. We’re still keeping the steins cold.

Okay now, I'm gonna post this before I lose my nerve. It's like dieting or exercise: You just have to start somewhere. So here I go.