Oma

Meet Oma



Saturday Kyle and I took the long drive to pick up our new puppy. I have never spent so much money on a dog...all I can say is she better not die. Our German neighbor told us we got our puppy for a good price...haha, funny when we paid $18 at the pound for Suesse. Oma is a wired haired dachshund. She is 8 weeks old. She did pretty good her first night only waking up twice crying. We just gave me a little attention and he got quiet again and went back to sleep. Kyle took care of her once, then the next time he handed her to me...I think this is what the future may hold for me. She loves chasing Suesse around...Suesse acts scared of her and runs. Suesse is tolerating her, Kyle wants them to cuddle with each other, but not is not happening right now. Maybe with time. The neighbor kids had fun this afternoon carrying Oma around, they only dropped her once and she seems to have survived! Right now she is dragging her new stuffed animal that is the same size as her around.
We named her Oma (German for Grandma) because she is already getting her whiskers. The dogs look old even when they are young. Plus Suesse is German for "cutie" so we thought we should stick with the theme. Kyle will be out on the sidewalk calling "Oma" and he will have the puppy and a bunch of old ladies following him.

Are you my family??? I think she likes the shoes since they are the same size as her.

This is about as close as it comes to cuddling for the two of them.

Baby Shower

Tonight my girlfriends, Fran and Lacey put together a shower for me. It was really hard finding a time that was good for everyone, but a perfect little group of friends showed up. We all had a good time, and all the gifts were great. I was very surprised to find gifts from my sister, mom, and grandma in the lout. I couldn't read their cards or I was sure I would cry...sometimes it is harder than others to be so far away.
Thanks girls for putting on a great shower and thank you to those of you who came. I really appreciate each of you. You all make being away from home a little easier!

Lacey, Me, and Fran...thanks girls!

5.5 lbs. and growing

Well today was our doctor's appointment and things are going well.
The little bugger wouldn't cooperate again with the heart monitor. The technicians wanted to know if I could get him to stop moving so they could get a reading, they had me on it about 20 minutes and could get nothing expect him rolling around and kicking. I was informed he is going to be a football or soccer player. They then didn't like that I couldn't tell them where his head was. After I tried over and over again to explain that he was moving around to much Kyle took over explaining that he moves so much I don't know what is his butt and head. Sometimes the language barrier gets a little frustrating, Kyle handles it much better than me. They did finally get the heart beat for about 3 minutes and it sounded good and strong. Then he got to busy moving so that was the end of that. My mom thinks I should start taking ritalin now...get him an early start.
The ultrasound is always fun, he is such a little chubber! He was busy looking around and I guess he got shy after a minute or two because he covered his face with his hands. Gunnar is weighing in at about 5.5lbs, nice and "healthy."
We were the last appointment of the day and I think everyone was flustered with the kid not cooperating again and we walked away without a picture the second time in a row! I ask for one, but it was to late, everything had already been deleted.
--Well, I am finally finished with the two courses (one graduate one a professional development) that I have been taking online...thank goodness. Tomorrow I am teaching a Tech Wednesday class to the staff at my school, and after that, it should be smooth sailing to my last day April 24th. Right now I am just looking forward to Spring Break.
--Kyle is doing good, he had his first check-up since the initial eye surgery and his vision is better than 20/20 so he is very satisfied. He has to go back two more times before he can submit his Warrant officer packet. But as far as his eyes are going things are good. He is on 24-hour staff duty today and tonight.
--Suesse is really smelly tonight and I am hoping Kyle reads this and gives her a bath sometime tomorrow while I am at school (hint, hint;) We get our new puppy Saturday...I am not so sure I am wanting to be house training a dog right now, but I guess we will deal!

Murder Mystery

Tonight our friends, Dan and Sandra hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner! We had a great time with our friends, and Kyle walked away a murderer!
It took place in the 90s (we thought it was suppose to be the 80s...oh well) and Kyle is my French Mobster of a boyfriend, and I am an Italian Floozy Gangster! Kyle ended up being the one that murdered my father.

So my costume description said I should be wearing a tight black mini-skirt and a tight black sweater with gold jewelry...I did my best. I wanted to crimp by hair but we have a busy day and only about 25 minutes to get ready, and it would take me that long to crimp 1/4 of my thick hair. I felt more like a pregnant hooker walking down the street than anything else. Kyle was to be wearing a casual sport jacket with a black t-shirt and wine stained hands...we passed on staining his hands!

In other news we got the crib put together last night and then got the mattress and everything set up today. It is the only part of the room that is ready, we still have to clean out all our stuff...we just need some more time to do it. Plus we have to decorate, but the crib is done, one less thing!

A Chocolate Eating Adventure

Tonight has been crazy thanks to our dog! When Kyle got home from work we decided to go and pick up the crib...it is finally here, yipee! Well Kyle loves taking Suesse with us everywhere, so she came along, and the adventure began!
As we were leaving the PX Kyle looked in the back seat and noticed that Suesse got into something. Then he realized he had left a chocolate bar sitting back there and the wrapper pieces were all over the seat he got very concerned. I wasn't to worried because I have heard that it takes a lot of milk chocolate to hurt a dog and that the chocolate thing is a myth all together. But, Kyle was very concerned, he loves Suesse way more than me I guess, he thought I was being insensitive to the dog.
Once we got the crib on car, Kyle pulled Suesse out of the car and decided that he was going to make her puke. This didn't go over very well with me or her. Needless to say, it didn't work, sticking your finger in a dogs throat is not effective, and we headed home. When we got home I let Suesse out of the car, and instead of following me to the door she decided to go on a run. So now Suesse is a sickly, chocolate eating runaway. She is very, very fast, and there really is no catching her, and she doesn't like coming when you call her name...that is why she is always on a leash! So I walked all over, and Kyle joined me after unloading the crib from the car. After about 45 minutes of walking and looking around for her, I started back home, sad without our dog. Apparently she saw me and sprinted home in front of me and was waiting to coax her to him with treats.
For once Kyle instead of me started getting worried (I am usually the one who is worried) about the chocolate eating. He called a 24 hour vet clinic and they said we could bring her in and they would give her medicine to puke, but we only had about a 45 minute window before it would be to late. Well, the clinic is about that far, so we kept researching on the internet to see if she was really going to die. All signs and things we found told us that she would be okay, maybe just a little sickly. But wanting to ensure she did not die, Kyle decided he needed to make her puke. So he googled it and then gave her a teaspoon of salt, put her in the bathtub and waited a minute or so. It definitely worked. She puked everything up, and is now a happy dog again. I don't think he would have given the salt to her if she hadn't started whining. But since she started whining and didn't want to eat or drink anything, he decided it was time for an intervention.
I am glad that everyone is better now, Suesse is sitting here enjoying herself, drinking water and eating a raw-hide.

Please don't call the Humane Society. He watched and video and it said to put the salt on the back on the tongue, so he was using the Ice Tea Spoon to get the salt back there.

This is what he does when I am puking too...he just laughs it up!

Kyle thought she needed to look more sickly so he put some water on her hair, trying to make it more dramatic I guess.


Well, our poor dog has survived...at least she is still truckin' at the moment.

--We have a busy weekend, coming up, hopefully Suesse survives it! Tomorrow around 1400 I get to go with Kyle to some more mandatory fun. This time it is a mandatory Platoon Softball game. Then in the evening we are going to a Murder Mystery Dinner at our friend's house...I have to get our outfits all ready. Plus, I have homework to finish up!

32 Weeks!

I guess I am on a blogging frenzy the last few days!
Today I 32 weeks pregnant. I am feeling pretty good. I am so thankful the doctor gave me something for the heartburn, it is great to be able to eat again without getting sick! I am starting to get a little tired, but that could just be me trying to do to much. We just got back from church, and I am ready for a little bit of a nap, then I have tons of homework! I do have to find time to go over to the grocery store since it is closed tomorrow!
Since there really is no child birthing classes here offered English, I ordered a DVD set off the internet, so I have some clue of what is going to be happening. Kyle and got a good laugh out of them last night. They are a series called "Laugh and Learn," so I guess it is okay that we were laughing. We both were actually learning new things too, so hopefully we can remember some of it when it comes time!
Here is a picture of me at 32 weeks!

A Long Drive!

Kyle and I took a really long drive (we were about 30 minutes from the border of Luxembourg and also very close to the French border)to check out a puppy today. We decided that we were going to get another small dog. However, this one is really small, probably only going to be about 9lbs. Suesse likes having the company of other dogs around, and I think it will be good for her. The poor dog has a lot of changes in her near future...not only are we bringing her a puppy home that she has to share her house with, but a baby soon too!
Here are some pictures of the the puppy that we picked out. We didn't realize it, but we picked the runt! She was the only one not whining...we are hoping she stays like that. We go pick her up in 2 weeks.


Here is a picture of the mama with two of the puppies. The mama has a mohawk. Kyle really liked that about her!

This is the farm that we are getting her from. I call it a farm, but really it is just a huge house with a barn and lots of dogs. I am pretty sure this older woman lives here alone and just breeds dogs. She had French Bulldogs and Beagle puppies too!

Here are what the two doggies were doing in the back seat. We are dogsitting Nutmeg again this weekend. Her and Suesse would take turns going between the kennel and the seat. At home like like to sleep in each others kennel. They are silly!

We hope that when we go to pick the puppy up that we have the time spend a day or so in Luxembourg. We were so close it would be a shame not to visit!

Why Babies have Mothers

A friend from back home sent this video to me in an email. Kyle and I got a good laugh out of it! I can't wait to see him change a diaper. Enjoy!

School House Rocks!

Kyle and I got invited by our friends Dan and Sandra to go to the community theater with them tonight. We saw the musical School House Rocks! We had a good time, it was a good production and was a fun night out. Thanks for inviting us Dan and Sandra!

Kyle is now on a 5 day weekend...I am jealous! He is heading to a gun show tomorrow with some of our friends. Then Saturday we are headed to go pick out a puppy. Kyle has really been wanting another dog, and he has comprised with me and has agreed to a small dog. Then Sunday will be a day of homework with me.

60 days to go!

Somedays I feel like it was just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant and others it feels like I have been pregnant forever! We are on the downhill strech and have about 60 days to go.
Today I had another check-up with the doctor. Gunnar decided to be uncooperative and he made the appointment last way longer than it should have. I was all hooked up to the fetal heart monitor and they had me moving all over the table for a good 10 minutes trying to find his heart beat. They would hear it for a second then he would quickly move and we wouldn't be able to hear it anymore. The doctor was ready to see me, so I moved to the other room for an ultrasound.
Dr. Schwind said everything is good and that Gunnar is above average in size, but is very healthy. We had a very hard time getting a clear picture of him because he would not stop moving. Gunnar weighed in at 2050 grams which is about 4 1/2 pounds. We had a much longer than normal ultrasound because they all enjoyed watching him move around so much. We saw him grab the umbilical cord, suck on his fingers, yawn, open and close his eyes, do a somersault, and we saw (I felt) many punches and kicks. They didn't give us a picture this time, but saved the video clip for us for next time. We didn't bring a CD in, we have to wait for the next appointment to burn it.
After the ultrasound we went back to the fetal heart monitor were he still refused to be heard. I had three people gathered around me trying to find the little stinkers heart beat. Finally after putting me in the most uncomfortable position, and having me hold the monitor in the correct place firmly we got a heart beat. I was told I had to stay like this for fifteen minutes, but Gunnar insisted on not letting us hear him and kicked the monitor I was holding and was moving so much that we never could get a good reading, and I only had to stay uncomfortable for about five minutes. Kyle had moved his chair over by my bed and was sharing my pillow with me, and slept through all of this. The nurses had a good laugh at him.
I have felt pretty good, expect for this never ending heart burn. It has actually gotten much worse and I haven't been able to keep food down for the last couple of days. Well, come to find out milk is now off limits, and may be a major colporuit in this heart burn...a sad day for me! I love milk and this will be a very hard change. He also gave me a prescription to help. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I hardly slept at all last night because of feeling so sick, and not sleeping doesn't go over well when I spend my day with 20 kindergartners.
In other news, Kyle's eyes seems to feel much better. He has good days and bad days when it comes to seeing, but we were told that it is normal. He is currently standing out our window with his new airsoft gun (that looks very real) shooting to test it out. I am waiting for the military police to be showing up anytime.
I started my master's and am already wanting to quit. It isn't hard, but very difficult for me to be doing online. I am much more of a go to class person. This first class is only 3 weeks so I am suffering through it and will take a break until after the baby for my next class. Only 2 more weeks left, I can't wait for it to be over.
I will try and get some new pictures posted soon. I am not feeling up to a picture today as I am just exhausted. I think instead I will go take a bath and then watch the latest 24!

Wacky Wednesday

We are having Read Across America week at school! Today was Wacky Wednesday. We had to dress wacky and my kids also got to play wacky games based off of Dr. Seuss games for about a hour and half. It was a fun day, tomorrow we wear green and I will be serving my kiddos green eggs and ham, yum, yum!
Here is me dressed wacky.

Apparently I offended a lot of my fellow co-workers today. First off, my top was not wacky to them, they all loved it and told me they wore stuff like that when they were young. My kids don't think wearing rain boots is wacky at all, even if its not raining. Almost everyone one of my kids told me how beautiful I was today..."I love your dress Mrs. Pettit and your boots are so cute!" Things you can't see in the picture are my seashell necklace and my non-matching earrings. I also only curled half my hair, but you can't really tell. I tried, but apparently wasn't wacky enough for everyone's liking! I felt silly walking around in that outfit, that has to count for something.

Slates

One of my good ol' high school friends was looking for a new hobby. I am someone who has few hobbies and started decorating slates this last year when Kyle was deployed. It helped keep me busy. Kyle thinks I should make an instructional video to put on here of me making a slate, but I will settle for written directions and not having to hear myself on the video camera.
Please know that I am one of the most non-crafty people in the universe. I cannot paint at all, and my kindergarten students make fun of my drawings on a daily basis. No painting talent is needed, just a little patience.
When it says napkins it is not talking about everyday dinner napkins. It is the fancy, fun kind that you buy at at craft store, we cute designs and pictures on them. This is a great craft to do with friends, so that you can swap napkins. My friends and I here go crazy anytime we see pretty napkins! Just be warned that if you start making these, you will become a crazy napkin hunter!

Slate Making

Items Needed:
Roofing Slates
Power Drill
Primer & Finisher
Napkin
Modge Podge-Matte Finish
Folk Art Acrylic Paint
Paint Pens
Leather Cord or Wire
Paint brushes
Paint trays

Directions:
1.Scrub the slate to get excess bits of slate off before you start painting. If you don't scrub the slate, after you are finished painting some specks might fall off and ruin your finished product.
2.Drill Holes in the Slate. Place holes where you would like to place the leather cord or wire to hang from.
3.Spray the slate with white spray paint. If you don't have a white background on the slate the colors in the napkin will turn to pay.
4.Most napkins have three layers. Usually the cheaper ones are only 2 ply. You need to take the all the layers off the napkin so you have a very thin, one layered napkin.
5. Tear the napkin or cut out the design you want to be on your slate.
6.Place your napkin on the slate and carefully modge podge down. Make sure there are no bubbles in the napkin and that it is laying down flat. It is best if you start is a corner and work your way up the napkin. (The napkin will rip if you are not very careful)
7.Once the napkin is glued down and dry you are ready to paint. Paint around the napkin and/or on the napkin to make it personal. You may also use paint pens to write a message or saying on the slate.
8.Once you are satisfied with your slate spray on a Crystal Clear finisher.
9.Put leather cord or wire through the holes you drilled.
10.Enjoy your new piece or art.

Here are a few samples of slates that I have made:





I guess I have never taken a picture of my welcome sign. It is my favorite slate that I have done. I will have to get a picture of it. There is no paint on it, just all napkin!

Eyes and Food

Kyle and I returned from Landstuhl this afternoon. It is such a long drive, I was hoping to make it home for a half day of school, but a 2.5 hour drive turned into about a 5 hour drive with all the road construction and traffic jams. We made it home safely and really that is all that matters.
Kyle had his last eye appointment that requires us to drive so far today...thank goodness! The doctor said things are looking good, but we won't know how his vision has changed for another 2 weeks or so. Right now he can see, its just blurry, his eyes are still healing. He goes back to work tomorrow, but with very limited things he can do. He doesn't even have to show up until 9am...not 5:30 like usual, yipee. Most the guys are out in the field so it should be a couple easy weeks for him.
I was reading that the Ramstein military base is the largest concentration of American's outside the Continental US with about 48,000 Americans. They even have a Chili's there! We had planned on eating there Sunday evening after we arrived, but we couldn't figure out where it was on the huge base, and settled for sandwiches instead. I guess we were to embarrassed to ask for directions. Oh well, they also had a Cinnabon that I planned on getting dessert from after dinner, and we were right by it, but I my stomach had no room after dinner. But just knowing they had them seem more like home. I can't believe Kyle hasn't been to the US in over 2 years, and it has been a little over a year since I have been there!
I have had a difficult time sleeping the last two nights, so I am hoping that tonight I get a good rest! I am going to need my rest, tomorrow I start my Master's program online. I am already dreading going to class and it hasn't even started yet, luckily going to class only requires logging onto the computer!
We are still waiting for our BMW to get fixed and/or the Ford to arrive. Hopefully not to much longer, right now we are car-less. Kyle gets to ride his bike to work tomorrow, I am thankful I work right across the street!