Mainberg Castle Christmas Party

Not to many people can say their work Christmas party was in a castle. This year my fellow teachers and I had our Christmas get-together at the Mainberg Castle. I didn't even know there was a castle so close to Schweinfurt. The castle is only about 10 minutes from my house. It was very cool. We got to go on a free tour and the history was very interesting. I didn't get many pictures, partly because it was so dark and you couldn't see much. When Kyle is around we will have to go back and check it out, it was very cool!
Here is the link to the castle webpage...http://www.schloss-mainberg.info/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1. It is all in German, but you can see the outside of the castle.

This knight was right inside the front door of the castle.

Gail and myself. She teaches in the classroom right next to mine.

Apparently castles are expensive to heat. The bathroom was so cold! I had to stop at the fire place before going back to the party. I had goose-bumps the entire night!

Just being a fattie!

Tonight I walked into the kitchen and looked at my counter and said, "man, what fattie lives here?" That fat-so would be me, considering I am the only one home at the moment!!!
I have been trying to eat so good because of my pregnancy, mind you, eating good consists of very light things that don't send my stomach turning. I guess I am doing okay considering I am now 18 weeks and have only gained 1/2 a pound.
But...now that I am able to keep food down a little better, (although I have horrible heartburn) I have started eating everything that is bad for you. Notice that every package in the picture is open. I just walk into the kitchen and munch on each a little at a time. So much for my 1/2 pound weight gain, that won't last long with this bad diet!
I do open up the fridge and eat a piece of fruit here and there to help me justify these bad eating habits. I also think that since Kyle isn't here I really have no motivation to cook and just eat whatever is handy.
The reason I share this is because I figure if I told everyone what a pig I was being I might be a little more motivated to stop being such a hog! I pray for self-control.
--By the way, this is the first frozen pizza I have EVER had. Being allergic to tomatoes never allowed me to eat frozen pizzas, I have only had homemade. So I am anxious to see what it tastes like. I imagine it won't be close to my dad's or like Kyle and I make, but I really want to see what this German, tomato free frozen pizza tastes like! By the way, the getting back to eating healthy thing starts tomorrow of course! :)

Missing Kyle!

Today I have really been missing Kyle. I thought that seeing him Thanksgiving day would help, but it probably only made it worse. Plus, a long weekend without work to keep me busy doesn't help, it leaves a lot of time for sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself. I always thought there would come a point when being away from each other would become more normal or easier, but that really it isn't happening for me. We have spent more time in our 3 1/2 years of marriage apart than together. I try not to complain to much, but that is often easier said than done! I am very proud of my husband and what he does, however, that does not make being apart easy. We do it because we have to, and because we love each other!
I only have 11 more days till I get to see him for about 3 weeks then he is off training in Italy for 2 weeks...yuck! I am thankful that he is somewhere safe and not and in immediate danger.
Kyle and I have learned to cherish the moments we have together and deal with the days we spend apart. I look forward to the time with Kyle will be home for good...haha, even if that is 25 years from now!

Here we are on one of our many adventures in Germany!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I decided at the last minute to bring the laptop and I am glad I did. I have a bit of free time today and there is free internet in my room, so it gives me something to do.
This is how my Thanksgiving day went...I got up and found my way out to the NCO academy and waited in the car for about 30 minutes for Kyle to be released. After we found each other we went and sat in the Chapel from 0930-1210. At 1210 we went and stood in line at the chow hall. It wasn't even close to the best Thanksgiving meal ever, but it will do. Plus, I didn't have to put any work into it, so that helps with the amount that I liked it! After Kyle's dinner time we had about an hour to walk around, so we walked our turkey and stuffing off. We then got to leave the NCO academy compound from 1400-1715, however we had to stay on the military installation. We had a chance to hang out and go get Kyle a pillow at the huge PX (it made me feel like we were back at Ft. Campbell...the PX was so nice). It was nice to see him, but definitely not long enough. But I will be thankful that we even got to see each other at all. I am staying the night at the hotel and leaving for home in the morning. I decided with the weather it is best not to drive at night, plus even though I have a GPS I hate driving when I don't know my way! I just got back from Subway and am now eating my sandwich and watching the Macy's Day Parade.
It is always hard on Holidays to be away from my family back in the states. I really do wish them and wish it was easier to get home. I am so thankful for them and really miss them. I hope you guys are having a great Thanksgiving!!!
One last note...Today as you gather around your tables with your family, please take time to think of all the soldiers protecting our country who aren't with their families this Holiday season. Here in Graf and back in Schweinfurt there are soldiers leaving for Iraq today, Thanksgiving day. I admire them and pray for them as they say goodbye to their families today and over the next week to protect you and me. Plus there are already so many deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and I pray from them and their families as they are apart this season.
Here are a few pictures from my Thanksgiving Day:

I thought this was funny. I didn't know where I was going, but when I saw a much of guys behind the chain link and barbwire fence in formation I knew I as in the right place. Kyle says he is in prison...it kinda does look like it.

This is Kyle all nice and full after his Thanksgiving meal!

This is the desk of Generals Rommel and Patton. It is located in the headquarters building at the NCO academy.

Nothing to exciting!

Paris, here we come! I made our reservations last night. Kyle and I will be bringing in the New Year in Paris. He seemed a little more excited about it than I thought he would be. I can't wait to go check everything out!
In other good news, tomorrow morning at 0645 I am dropping the dog off at the kennel, then after school I am headed to Grafenwoeher. I am excited to spend the evening enjoying food and good company with my friend Daisy and family. She was my aide at school for most of the year last year and we became great friends. I am so excited to get to see her again. After dinner I go to my hotel and will anxiously await 0900 Thanksgiving Day morning so I can see my hubby!!! Kyle and I get to spend from 0900 to 1800 together. It should be nice to see each other and enjoy the mess hall making all the fixings for us. Anything you have ever dreamed of having on Thanksgiving they will be sure to have. I can't believe all the stuff they cook up. This will be my second Thanksgiving in a row in a Army Chow Hall. Last year my friend and I decided that since it was just the two of us and our husbands were deployed there was no point in cooking. The dinner was pretty good, so I am looking forward to another year of not cooking the turkey! But, more than dinner I am looking forward to spending some time with Kyle. I will stay the night in Graf and leave Friday morning.

Friday I have a doctor's appointment and if we are lucky I will be able to find out the baby's sex! I can hardly wait...hopefully the baby will cooperate! After the doctor's appointment I think my friend Lacey and I are going to do some hanging out. We never get to hang out anymore with our husbands home and her new baby, so it should be fun!


I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and takes time to remember all they have to be thankful for!

First Snow of Year and Thanksgiving all in one day!

Well, it is official it has snowed in Schweinfurt. I think we have had some snow flurries last week, but nothing that stuck. Mind you, there wasn't much snow this morning either, but a little, so I am counting this! While I do like the snow, I hate driving in it. I am hoping the roads are good tomorrow because I think I get to spend the day with Kyle. However, it is suppose to be snowing the next 3 days. When I talked to him last night he said they have Sunday off and he thought they were allowing visitors. It would be so nice to spend the day with him.
Here is a picture of the "snow."


Tonight I am headed to Thankgiving dinner with my Schweinfurt Elementary School Family. I am bummed that Kyle can't be there, but I really do enjoy my co-workers and it will be nice to celebrate Thanksgiving with them, even if I don't have Kyle at my side. I signed up to make a salad and take a dessert. So I made a seven-layer salad and pumpkin pie. Hopefully they both taste good, I think they both look like they have the potential to taste good!

Bringing in the New Year in Paris?!?!

So, I am hoping to have Kyle convinced to bring in the New Year in Paris. Bringing in the New Year has never been a big deal to me. The most exciting thing I have done (that I can think of) is gone to our church's game night on New Years. Usually I am bed in sleep, so just sitting on the couch watching TV. So I decided that since we aren't going back to the states for Christmas we better take some special trips around here while we have the chance.
I don't really have this strong desire to go to Paris, but I do want to go, especially since we are fairly close. Kyle has no desire to go what-so-ever so that is a biggest challenge in getting us there. However, I found a tour through the travel agency on post and it is a reasonable price and they do all the planning for you and provide the group with a guide...my kind of planning. Plus, I can't imagine a more memorable way to bring in the New Year than being in Paris on Concorde Square. We would be there two nights and during the day see tons of sights.
I ask Kyle about this last night, and he didn't say "no" he just changed the subject quickly. I am going to try again tonight, he has a really busy day, maybe he will be to tired to know what he is agreeing to! The only problem is that I am pretty sure Kyle has to be back early from his Christmas Block leave to work on his Expert Infantry Badge, let's hope that doesn't start until Jan. 4.
Wish me luck tonight! I should be hearing from Kyle is a few hours and I am hoping for solid answer so I can reserve a place for us!!!

Christmas Shopping

I look out my window and just about every apartment across the road is decorated for Christmas. Most of them were decorated the day after Halloween. I think the rush to get decorated was due to the deployment that is coming up for most of the families living here in Schweinfurt. (Kyle is part of a unit based out of Italy and he isn't leaving as he just returned from a 14 month deployment in July. But, the Brigade that is stationed here is getting ready to go back to Iraq after being home for a little over a year) Some husbands have already left and others are leaving in the next couple weeks. So most families are having an early Thanksgiving and Christmas. Working with the kids of these parents is very interesting, for some of my kids this is their dad's third or fourth deployment. It is so hard on them, I can't imagine saying goodbye to my dad for a year or more.
Well, all their Christmas decorations got me thinking I should probably start shopping. Today I finally finished getting gifts for Kyle. We are really bad at suprises and we want to get the other one what they want, so usually Birthday's and Christmas leave little suspense. This year we decided to make a list of at least 10 things that the other person could pick and choose from. This way, we couldn't be sure of what the other one got us, so at least there is a little suprise. I made my list and gave Kyle 13 ideas. However, the other day I opened his list and found 1 item on his list. I was pretty peeved because I took a lot of time and thought into coming up with 10 things that I thought I might like for Christmas and Kyle only had 1. I think he only had one due to wanting guns and I kept telling him I couldn't get him a gun. We are not allowed to have Guns here in Germany, he had to leave his at back in the states, so why he wants more to store at my parents is strange to me. Anyways, he did give me a few more ideas over the phone due to my pestering and luckily I saw his original list with guns and more before he deleted it and left one item, so I was able to remember a few things he had said he wanted. Most of the things I got him he will know about or could easily guess. But...I am very proud of myself because I thought of something we were going to buy a long time ago, that he really wanted, but thought it was a little to spendy. So, Kyle will have at least one suprise on Christmas! I am really hoping I don't spill the beans to him between now and then, it is so hard to keep a secret from him, but I know I can do it!
Now, he is going to have to be creative. He thought he would have internet access to order my gifts while he was at school. But, he has no way to use the internet, so I am going to be very interested to see what is under the tree for me on Christmas morning, it really is going to be a suprise.
On a different not, this is a big bummer, but just our luck...his school is not allowing visitors until further notice. Apparently someone was abusing the system. I am still hoping I can at least go enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner in the chow hall with him!

Good Job!

I have talked to Kyle for about 5 minutes each night since he left for school. So far things are good. He didn't meet the weight standards (according to him, its my fault, I cook for him) so he had to be taped. He passed the tape which he was really excited about. He was 1% over as of Friday, and was concerned because he didn't really eat any less, probably ate more than usual over the weekend! I had a message on the house phone when I got home from school saying he did good on his Army Physical Fitness Test today also. He has been having a hard time with push-up form. He will do like 75 push-ups and only get 40-60 counted....talk about annoying. So, these are the two things that he was most worried about with this school. So, hopefully the rest of school is smooth sailing. I am glad he got the part he was worried about out of the way! Good Job Kyle!!!
Oh yeah, he also thinks I can come and visit him. He is like a prisoner. I go to the chow hall and they will ask if there are visitors for each company. When the call Bravo Company, I have to then let them know his student number 220 so they can call him out of formation to visit with me. I then get to eat with Kyle and spend his dinner hour with him. Haha, I will be really embarrassed, but oh well. I am thankful that I get to see him even if it is only for an hour. To bad it is a total of 4 hours in the car there and back for an hour worth of a visit. Luckily I have some friends that live around where his is at school so hopefully I am able to go and see them too!

Hurry Up and Wait

Today has been a memorable Veteran's Day. I got to spent it with about 23 soldiers waiting. This morning I thought I was dropping my husband off to go to WLC for the next 30 days. I decided I would wait with him for the bus, so I could spend as much time with him as possible before he left. Plus, I had the day off, so its not like I had anything to rush home to. We arrived at his work around 10 am. It is now 1800 (6pm) and I just got home. Apparently the bus didn't get the memo about picking them all up. So, as it seems to happen ever so often in the Army we hurried up just to wait. He was released at 1300 and told to come back at 4 tomorrow morning so we decided to go get new tires put on the car while the mechanics weren't busy. While we were getting tires put on Kyle was called back in. So we rushed the mechanics (hopefully the tires don't fall off or anything) and got Kyle back to work in a hurry, just in time to wait another 4 hours. Well, I was hoping Kyle might get to come home tonight, but no such luck, I just said goodbye, so now it is me and the dog for a while. Please pray for Kyle and these next 30 days, he is going to school for non-commissioned officers, I don't think it is going to be much fun.
Now as far as veterans day is concerned...Being a military wife has really made me appreciate the sacrifices that veterans have made. I think life is hard as a spouse now, but I can't imgaine what life was like without cell phones and internet. The most I have ever had to go without talking to Kyle is about 3 weeks. I can't imagine going a year or longer with no communication, maybe an occasional letter. The scarifies the soldiers and their families made is unfathomable. I also appreciate those serving today. I am amazed to all that goes into being a soldier and all the little and big sacrifices they make every day to protect us. So today, I just wanted to say "THANK YOU VETERANS." Saying "thank you" really isn't enough for all they do, they deserve
so much more.

-Kyle on top of a mountain in Afghanistan.

A Crazy Week

It has been a crazy week. Kyle has been preparing to leave and I can't believe everything he has to pack. He is leaving for a month for a non-commissioner officer training. I spent two night in with him at work helping him pack. We went back to his work after dinner and worked on finding and packing all this stuff until after 2200 each night. We have heard WLC is like basic training for NCOs. Haha, it should be lots of fun. All I know is that a lot of money has gone into this school. His stuff getting stolen could not have come at a less inconvenient time. Being in Germany presented a couple problems finding replacement gear. We have ordered a lot off the internet, but of course it doesn't get here that quickly so he is borrowing a lot of stuff. We aren't really excited that he is going to be gone for a month, but it should hopefully help him get a long awaited promotion. His school is about 2 hours away and we have heard rumors that I can go and have lunch and dinner with him. I hope this is true, but we will wait and see. I am at least hoping I can drive up and have Thanksgiving dinner with him in the chow hall. We were suppose to have a bunch of company, but now it will just be me at home alone if I can't go see Kyle. And I won't be making Thanksgiving dinner just for myself.
While Kyle has been preparing for WLC, I have been preparing for the dreaded Parent/Teacher conferences. I always say I have to come up with nice ways to say not so nice things about people's children, their pride and joys. I never thought after last year, a class could get any worse, ha! I was wrong, this class is like 5x as bad. I have decided that I will be honest with everyone and say something like "You know, your child is out of control. Being disciplined at home would really be helpful. Have you ever tried spanking?" I wish I could say something like that, my aide suggested stratigically posting the Bible verse Proverbs 13:24 "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." To bad I would lose my job if I did any of these things, and some parents might think I am for beating children! I am pretty worried, because by the end of the month, I will have 3 girls in my class and 16 boys in my class. I will need some major prayers come December. I really do love these kids, they are just really naughty, and way to many boys plus I have been in need of this little break. By the time I see them next I will have had a 6 day break, which is so sweet!

Well, I just thought I would share about our ever exciting lives. Oh yes, we have decided nothing to serious must be wrong with Kyle, the doctor's have yet to get back to us.

Sneaky Kids

For those of you who don't know, I teach kindergarten. It is a very interesting group of children, I have a very wild group this year. I have never meet so many children who just don't care, and that their parents don't care either.
Well, I always knew kids were sneaky, but this group is particularly good at it. Today I was casually talking to a parent and to end the conversation I said "well, I look forward to seeing you on Monday for conferences." This mom stopped and gave me a very puzzled look, and I reminded her about the conference and thanked her for returning the form saying she would attend. She looked at me more puzzled. She explained that she never signed a permission form much less even saw one. She said her daughter empties her folder before she gets a chance to look in it and whenever she looks in it, it is empty. (This explains why homework is never done, something that was going to be talked about at the conference.) I informed the mom I would send home a permission form again the next day.
When I got back to the classroom I looked at the returned forms and found the one from this particular student. Sure enough it had "yes, I will be attending" checked, and it had a date. The date was more interesting... in about 5-7 year old handwriting it said 11/03/08/2008. Then I realized there was no signature. I checked them off quickly that morning as I received them, I guess I wasn't looking at the signature section to carefully. So, I am concluding that Ms. Sneaky Pants returned this on her own. She has been in some trouble lately and I believe to avoid getting in trouble at home she takes my notes out before mom and dad see them. She is smart and can read, but I am amazed that she was smart enough to keep the top half, check yes, and date it. Her parents need to watch out, once this girl masters their writing they won't know anything that is happening. I have decided emailing and calling her parents will be best in the future.
Aren't kids so cute???

Quick Pettit Family Update

In one day I will officially be done with my first trimester! Thank goodness, I am hoping that means the sickness will soon go away. I also have a cold which doesn't help.
Today we had our last first trimester doctor's appointment. The doctor said everything looks great with our alien baby. I don't have to go back for another month so that is nice. I included two pictures from the ultrasound today.

I hope this doesn't mean our baby is going to be a thumb sucker!


The 3-D photo of our alien baby!

Other than baby news, life has been interesting here. On Wednesday Kyle got over $1000 of military gear stolen out of his locker at work. It should be tons of fun replacing it all. I have a feeling he will be getting gear for Christmas!
He also went to the doctor because of his cold, plus he has been having these horrible night sweats. I wake up to go pee and I am usually soaked in his sweat. The bed feels like he had an accident come morning time. The doctor had such positive news regarding this. He said it could be one of three things...
1) Tuberculosis. Kyle has been a carrier of TB since his last deployment to Iraq. But just because you carry it, doesn't mean you have the disease. Well, apparently night sweats is a common sign that the disease is no longer dormant.
2) Malaria. Three of the people Kyle was deployed with and worked closely with in Afghanistan have already come down with this disease. So this is a very possible answer also.
3) Thyroid Problem. Now, this is a more positive outlook. It's not good, but better than the other options.
I am sure you can all guess which option number we are hoping for. Plus they can't do anything for this cold until they figure out what is wrong with him. He had blood work today, which could take up to a week to process. Jokingly I told Kyle that with his luck his results would be "well you have malaria, which weakened your immune system and then allowed tuberculosis to become active, and yes, you also have a thyroid problem." I just say that because he has horrible luck with everything. The doctor also took back x-rays because they think he has fractured vertebrae in his back...oh the goodness is just overwhelming.
We also found out great new that Kyle will be leaving Nov. 12-Dec. 11. I am pretty bummed that he will be missing Thanksgiving, but "thankful" he will be back in time for Christmas. He is going to Warrior Leadership Training for a month.
Even though life is a little rocky at the moment we are trying to stay strong in our faith and continue to pray that God will see us through it all. It is hard sometimes to understand why with have to go through so many unpleasant things at times, but we know that God has a reason for everything. (I just wish He would fill me in one the reasons sometimes)