Sad news

My Grandma Grace died yesterday of congestive heart failure. She had been in an out of the hospital several times this year and had been on supplemental oxygen since last spring. She stayed mentally sharp though, and I'm glad I was able to visit with her 3 times since February. Our most recent visit was last month, when we spent some time going through photo albums I took to Florida with me.

Here's a picture of Grandma and Dave from their wedding in January of 2005:



Dave, thank you for taking such good care of Grandma! It takes a special person to keep up with somebody like her, with her busy schedule and her sense of adventure. I'm glad you're part of our family!

What's next? Locusts?

Oh, I have so very, very much to blog! My trip to Florida, buying the new car for Mike, roadtripping back up to Kansas with my mom and stopping by Graceland along the way, not to mention sharing some of the pictures Mike has put up on Facebook of his fun times so far in Dresden. That will have to wait until tomorrow though, because first I have to tell you about this afternoon.

You have to keep in mind that on the afore-mentioned roadtrip, we went right through a part of Alabama that had been devastated by the storms of the previous week. One minute we were cruising along, and the next minute there were helicopters sweeping around in the air and houses blasted to smithereens and giant trailers with pallets of bottled water.

Then the following day we went through Arkansas, most of which is a disaster area thanks to flooding. At one point our 4-lane highway turned into this:



Today Mom and I went out to pick up Annabelle after school and to run a few errands. It had been a cold, rainy morning, but when we left the house the sun was shining, and it was starting to warm up. Then all of a sudden huge gray clouds rolled in from the west, and the sky opened up. I made the decision to blow off the rest of our errands and go straight home. When I got to my neighborhood, however, I found the main street blocked by firetrucks. I tried to go around back to the alley, but there was a firetruck there too. Turns out that a bolt of lightening had struck the chimney of a house down the street from me. Everybody there was fine, but the remains of the chimney were scattered along the alley and on and in their next-door neighbor's car.

I took these photos with my phone, so they're not the best. This is the scene from the front of the house. You can see the firetrucks, and if you look at the house in the middle of the picture you can see an intact chimney and then one that looks like it disappears into the glare of the sky. No, it's just not quite there anymore:



This is how it looked out back:



And this is what happens if you dump bricks on an SUV:



Enough with the crazy weather already!

And THAT is how you pack a Sentra

I have to admit: There were moments when I didn't think it was all going to fit. But it did wind up fitting in the end, although things were a little tight when we gave Mike's roommate Chris a ride home from dinner:

New member of the family

This is Mike's new car:



We tied the purchase into my trip to Florida to help him pack out of the dorm and get him ready for his upcoming trip to Europe. We went through the USAA buyers' program, and it was about $1000 cheaper in Orlando than in Kansas City.

Mom and I drove it up to Tally to deliver it. Here's Mike driving it for the first time:

Brava, Annabelle!

This will be short and sweet, as I have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to get to the airport for my flight to Florida. We just got home though from the Leavenworth High School academic banquet, which recognized the top 2.5% of the freshman class, the top 5% of the sophomores, the top 10% of the juniors, and the top 15% of the senior class. This is what the top 5% of the class of 2013 looks like (Annabelle is on the far left):



And here's Annabelle with her swag:

Housework

It's been a while since I posted any pictures of the house. As of yesterday, the third floor is done, with the exception of Annabelle's bathroom. Maybe this summer!

When you go up the stairs from the second to third floor, you come out in an open L-shaped loft area. We have taken one part of the loft and used it for storage for games, DVDs, and such:







I keep thinking that it would be a great area to use as a workout room if I could force myself to, you know, work out.

The other part of the loft is what we call the "man cave." This was Fred's post-deployment present to himself, but Annabelle probably uses it the most. We bought a couple of super-comfy loveseats with drink holders:



and a nice, big TV:



Annabelle's room has been done for some time now. Both her room and Mike's are painted a subtle gray. She has chosen to pick up the orange stripe in her bedding to add a splash of color:









Mike's room got pushed to the back burner since he has really stayed in it for only a few weeks since we moved here. We went through this weekend though and put up curtains and hung stuff up on his walls:









Remaining projects are Annabelle's bathroom and the guest room on the second floor, plus I'd like to finish organizing my office. I have made a promise to myself that I will not hang Ceiling Cat up until my office is finished.

Two all-beef patties, special sauce . . .

Make that 12 all-beef patties and you'll be closer to Mike's triumphant feat on Friday night. He became the third person to complete the Quint Quint Double challenge at the Tomahawk Sports Bar. That's 12 burger patties, each with a slice of cheese, plus a pound of fries. Finish it in 30 minutes, and it's free!

Here he is at the beginning of his quest. Note that the burger is held together with a knife that is almost fully embedded in the beast:



Here he is at the 10-minute mark:



He started with a couple of friends, who bailed out at the 7- or 8-burger mark, but Mike marched on to completion at 29 minutes:



When I spoke to him later Friday evening, the high of achievement had worn off and was replaced by some pretty severe intestinal distress. One of his friends drove all over Tallahassee trying to find some syrup of ipecac so that he could "un-eat" the burger, but apparently you can't get that over the counter anymore. He never was able to throw up, but he found that he was comfiest in this position:



Amazingly enough, he woke up Saturday morning feeling great. Ah, youth!

Successful completion of the Quint Quint Double challenge nets the victor bragging rights only and his photo on the restaurant wall. Some of Mike's friends, however, decided that such an epic feat was worthy of a special shirt and so they had this one made for him:

Spring flowers

Who's a pretty girl?

Ginger after a rare trip to the groomer:

Ice cream at work!

Good times at the reference desk:

You never know what you'll find . . .

. . . when you're walking the dog.

Today, for example, when I walked out the back door, I heard the sound of bagpipes wafting through the air. I followed my ears and found a bagpiper (bagpipist?) in the gazebo in the park:





Turns out that he usually practices in the chapel, but the chapel was locked today. He decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and play outside.

Speaking of beautiful weather, as soon as I post this, the weather will take a turn for the worse, but we have been having some gorgeous days lately. Spring has finally sprung!

Harvey is watching you

Honors, honors everywhere

When we landed in Dallas on our way back from Europe, I checked my voicemail and had a message from Annabelle's guidance counselor. Turns out Annabelle had been accepted in the National Honor Society, and the induction ceremony was being held that very night! The ceremony started around the time we landed, and even if the timing hadn't been an issue, we were looking pretty weary from the road and not in any condition for a ceremony of any sort, so she picked up her t-shirt and certificate later that week at school.

It's a really active program. They meet every Wednesday at 7:00 before school, and she has already participated in her first service project: helping out with Special Olympics on Saturday morning. It's a great group of kids, and I know she'll get a lot out of it!

Meanwhile, Mike's grades last semester got him into FSU's honors program, which means that he'll have access to some special classes and--the biggie!--get priority like a senior for class registration. That already came in very handy when registering for next year!

Fred and I went down to Tallahassee last week to see Mike inducted into FSU's chapter of Phi Eta Sigma, the freshman honor society. Along the way, we spent the weekend in DeLand where we hit Stetson homecoming. I caught up with a classmate from both high school and college:



and Fred got together with his fraternity brothers:



We also had a lovely Sunday brunch with my grandparents before heading back up to Tally.

On Monday we finally got to meet Mike's new roommate, Chris, who joined us for lunch at Mike's favorite FSU dining facility, which is located in a building on the outskirts of the football stadium:



That night we went to Gordo's for some amazing Cuban food:



After supper we went to the induction ceremony, which was very nice. There were several hundred students there, and I was a bit nervous that it would take forever to recognize each one, but they were very efficient. Afterward, we stopped by the reception at the University Center Club, which looks out over the stadium. You can kind of get the idea here:



We didn't stay long at the reception, because Mike had PT early the next morning, and Fred and I had to get up to catch our plane home. So we stopped for one quick photo and then headed out:



We are proud of our amazing kids!

Found while walking the dog

How cute is this?



Gnome home!

Germany: Auf wiedersehen!

The first solo trip the kids and I made out into the community after moving to Mannheim back in 2003 was to visit the lovely Luisenpark. It was also one of our last "field trips" after Fred returned from Iraq in 2005, when I took this photo, possibly my favorite one ever:



It felt great to cap off our European adventure by going back to the park on this beautiful day.

Caroline enjoyed eating hot pretzels with Janna and Annika:



Exploring the Chinese pavilion:



Pat and Elke at the Chinese garden:



Pellet and Cheezer took this picture to convince the rest of the rodents that they visited China over spring break:



I had been looking forward to seeing German squirrels again, but this is the only one I found:



We stopped at each and every play area, but the castle ruin was an especially big hit with the kids:



I even got in on the fun at one playground:



It took at least 3 people to get me into and out of that thing! (The video cuts off the tale end of my comment, which was: "This is cheaper than champagne!")

After we left the park, we went to our favorite Mannheim restaurant for a farewell dinner. I almost couldn't find the website for Zur Kurpfalz, because we just always called it "the schnitzel house." It felt so good to be back that I couldn't resist taking pictures of some of the food. This is Elke's salad:




I can't remember what Pat's dish was called, but it smelled wonderful:



And my beloved Schnitzel Wilddieb:



We stopped by an ice cream parlor on our way home where Annabelle attacked her apple strudel with great gusto:



Michelle got the Spaghetti Eiss she has been waiting 20 years for:



I had Spaghetti Eiss myself, which was the perfect end to a perfect vacation!