Happy New Year!

Hi everyone.

It's been a long time. I thought I better quickly write and say Happy New Year!

Life has been busy so blogging hasn't been a priority but hopefully I can change that in 2010.

Chris has added some new pictures to his web site at http://www.macgowan.com and here is our PDF Christmas card http://www.macgowan.com/christmas_card_1_20091228.pdf.

WOW!!!! I can hear the fireworks going off already. It's a big deal here in Berlin to shoot them off on New Year's Eve.

I've got more to share but will do this when I have my pictures downloaded from the camera.

I wish all of my family and friends a wonderful and blessed New Year!

St. Faustina, Pray for US!

Tropical Islands and Dresden

Chris, Logan, Connor and I had a mini-vacation to Tropical Islands and Dresden from August 5th to the 10th.

Our pictures are located here http://www.macgowan.com/PhotoIndex.php. Check them out.

TROPICAL ISLANDS
Tropical Islands is an indoor water park/tropical forest/spa. You can read more about them at their web site http://www.tropical-islands.de/en/visitors.html.

Logan and Connor had a blast here. There are several pools including a beach, water slides, and restaurants. They have a fun kid park with go-carts and mini-golf (18 holes).

We didn't get a chance to explore the tropical forest or the spa/sauna. Maybe next time.

Chris and I thought to really experience Tropical Islands in all it's glory would be to stay one or two nights inside the bio-sphere. They have tents or huts to rent.

We stayed in a nearby hotel that was about a 15 minute drive.

Tropical Islands is about 45 minutes to an hour away from Berlin. We had rented a car and the drive went quickly.

AUTOBAHN
I DROVE ON THE AUTOBAHN for the 1st time and let me tell you folks, people DRIVE REALLY REALLY FAST. I stayed to the right most of the time and let everyone fly by me. Eeek! I must say though it was FUN! My top speed was 250 kph which is about 155 mph. More EEEK!

DRESDEN
On Friday, August 8th we headed for Dresden. What a great city. It's about a 2 hour drive from Tropical Islands maybe a little less.

We stayed at the Westin Hotel right on the Elbe river. We had a wonderful view of the old city. There is so much history here. Dresden was completely bombed by the allied forces in WWII. Many of the historic buildings and bridges were bombed to their foundations. You can read about it on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden.

Again we have lots of pics on Chris' web site at http://www.macgowan.com/PhotoIndex.php.

Chris, Logan and I (we took shifts hanging out with Connor) took a bus tour which was very good. There was so much to see and we just couldn't get to it all in only a couple of days. We hope we can go back maybe next summer.

Body Worlds

Last Friday Logan and I went to see the "Body Worlds" exhibit.

All I have to say is WOW!

If you haven't seen it it's pretty amazing.

Check out http://www.bodyworlds.com/.

The big "to-do" at this show is the plasticized couple posed in the "sex" position. It was at the end of the exhibit and to be honest was no big deal. In fact, I had forgotten all about it until I was in the "special" room where it was being exhibited.

Logan was a little freaked out by it all (except the animals) so he didn't look around too much and just focused on the animals being displayed. He would then sit down at the end of each section/room.

The exhibit was about the human life cycle from birth to death. Each life cycle had it's own section and in each section there were topics on the various parts of the body like the heart, lungs, kidneys, nervous system, etc.

What I thought was cool was the transparent slices of a giraffe. It was life size. Logan thought it was neat too.

The other thing that was cool was the 4 reindeer and Santa plastinates. Just amazing. Logan thought this was creepy. He just gave a quick look and moved on to the next section.

I would have stayed longer but Logan was ready to leave.

I'm glad I got to see the exhibit and would highly recommend it to those of you who haven't been yet.

If you've seen this show already let me know what you thought.

The Hurt Locker Review

Hi folks. Just went to see THE HURT LOCKER. Check out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/ and http://thehurtlocker-movie.com/. Pretty darn great movie. Here is a review from my friends at Screen Rant http://screenrant.com/the-hurt-locker-reviews-pauly-17207/. I would give it a 4.5 too. PLEASE GO SEE IT!!!!

It's one of those movies that makes you think about a lot of things. As I was walking out of the theater at the Sony Center here in Berlin I was thinking WOW this place was bombed out too. Twenty years ago before the wall fell it looked the same as it did after WWII. Pretty crazy if you think about it. Now there are lots of pretty things and happy people around. Will Iraq be like this in 20 years? One has to think........

GO SEE THIS MOVIE and tell me what you think. I'll be looking for comments on this blog!

Connor's Officially 2 Years Old

So today is the day. August 3rd, 2009 and my little boy is 2 years old. Wow!!! That went fast. It's currently 10:30 a.m. here in Berlin and 2 years ago I was laying in the operating room looking at my newest edition. He was so little. Now what a big boy. Walking, talking, learning all kinds of new and cool things.

We are enjoying Crepes for breakfast. It's a rainy day so not sure what we'll do to celebrate.

On Saturday, August 1st we took two of his friends; Emilia and Lea (and her sister Sarah) to the Berlin Zoo. We've got pics and will post soon. Emilia's Mom and Dad; Annerose and Oliver came with us as well as Lea and Sarah's Mom Olivia. Logan was at hand to help supervise the kiddies. Yeah right :-) Emilia and Lea are from Connor's Montessori class. Our dear friend Jia Hu joined in on the fun.

It was the 165th year celebration of the Berlin Zoo. It's amazing that the zoo has been around that long. Pretty cool. We saw lots of animals, had a little lunch, ate chocolate cake, opened gifts (Connor got 4 trucks, a book, and bath and sand toys--Jia even bought a Lego Star Wars set for Logan--how nice), and played at the zoo park (huge and very cool). We got there around 9 a.m. and left the zoo around 2ish. We were all very tired when we got home. Naps for everyone :-)

We had a very nice celebration and I think everyone had a good time.

Well my banana chocolate crepe is getting cold so I'm going to sign off.

Happy Birthday Connor. Hope your 2nd year of life is filled with wondrous and amazing adventures. May God shine his light upon you!!

Tom Out the Window

Well a week ago my little kitty Tom fell out our 1st floor window. Poor guy. He was okay just a little shaken. Chris took him to the emergency vet clinic at the Frei Universitat and they gave him the A-OK. A week later no problems. Thank GOD!!! I was really worried. I'm sure it's because we are only 1 floor up and that he went tail/butt first and landed in a bunch of weeds and bushes. It cushioned the fall. I haven't let him out on the window ledge again since but I suppose I should. I think I need more than a week to recuperate. :-)

Part 6: A Love Story...A Beginning

The night was ending quickly. He wrote his number on a slip of paper taken from a First Ave event calendar sitting on the table in front of them. She did the same. Numbers exchanged, a date obtained, and now the painful ritual of saying goodbye yet again. The evening was a blur of happiness and little did they know 23 years later they'd be living in Berlin with two kids and a cat.

There will never be an ending to this story. It will go on and on long after Chris and I are floating in Heaven with God. Praise be his name.

As Chris and I reflect as we do every year on how we met (and our lives together up to this point) we consider ourselves so lucky to have found each other. I knew from our first date that I would love this man forever. It took awhile to get it all worked out in our hearts but on July 30, 1994 we said our vows and made our relationship a lasting bond that would live on for eternity. How cool is that?!

Thanks to all our friends and family for enduring my day long reminiscing here in my blog and on Facebook. It was a pleasure to write and I hope a pleasure to read.

Thanks for all the well wishes and the "side" story by my friend Paul Jones. Paul I can't wait to read the next installment.

Peace and Love to all!

Part 5: A Love Story...The Conversation

The guy in the black beret asked the black-eyed girl if she wanted a drink. She immediately accepted his invitation and they climbed the balcony steps to the bar. Drinks were poured, sips were taken and they scanned the area for a cozy place to talk. Hours had gone by effortlessly. Soulmates had been found. But could a date be secured before the night was over?

Part 4: A Love Story...The Meeting

A young man dressed in black with a matching beret upon his head dances to the beat of The Suburbs song "Love is the Law". A hand taps him on the back and as he turns around he stares into the eyes of the woman he longed for only just a few weeks ago. She was back and smiling at him. "David?", she said. "No, it's Chris", he responded. "Remember me?", she said. How could he forget?

Part 3: A Love Story...The Introduction

"I'm sorry," said the young woman, "but I can't. My ride is leaving." The suitor said, "How about next weekend?" The young woman explained that she was going on vacation with her family, but she would be back and would look for him. They said their goodbyes and the young man watched as his bride left. Would he ever see her again? He hoped he would.

Part 2: A Love Story....The Introduction

The black-eyed girl was startled by her suitor's approach. Little did she know that he had stalked her all night. Watching in the shadows, wanting desparately to ask her to dance but scared she might say no. Now standing before her he quickly said hello and introduced himself. He commented on the fact that she was leaving and asked if she might have time for a dance....

A Love Story...The Introduction

Below is from Facebook...Follow along on Jennifer Hays' Facebook page or get it here on my blog.

The Love Story begins......

Happy Anniversary starts at midnight tonight!!! Fifteen years of marriage ain't bad! However the story doesn't start there.....Let's go back to March of 1986 First Avenue Dancerteria (is that really a word???). A young man of 24 introduces himself to his future bride of only 19. As the young woman prepares to leave the establishment via the coat check area, the straping young hunk jumps out of the darkness...

Want more? Well you're gonna get more whether you want to or not. Stay tuned as our hero tries to make contact with his beloved. What will happen next???

New Apartment

Chris, Logan, Connor, Tom the cat and I are moving come October 1st to a new apartment here in Friedenau. It's only about 4-5 blocks away from our current place. We looked at a number of different places here in Friedenau and in Licterfelde (which is not far from Friedenau). Chris took some pictures of our new apartment at http://www.macgowan.com/PhotoIndex.php. Click on Berlin, Germany, July 2009 (Apartment: Wielandstrasse 13). Our new address as of October 1st will be Wielandstr. 12 (it's not 13 as noted above in the link) 12159 Berlin Germany. We hope we don't have to change our phone number but if we get a new one we'll let everyone know.

Our new place is larger and cheaper and we are excited to have a yard again. We did give up having a balcony but we can live without it.

The owners of our new place will renovate it as the folks that lived there before had lived there for 9 years. Don't get me wrong the place is in great condition but needs some sprucing up. We also get a new kitchen and bathroom including a shower. We are so excited to take a shower again as we haven't had the luxury in over a year. I don't mind a good soak once in a while but overall not a bath person.

Well as it gets closer to the move we'll post pictures of the building, yard, apartment, etc.

One Year!

As of July 4th we were officially here in Berlin for a year. It went very very fast.

Logan finished 3rd grade after a challenging but successful year. He made lots of new friends and got hooked into Pokemon. He loves to trade his cards and play the game. Not to mention watch the animated series. Anyone out there want to trade with him? Let us know. Logan will go back to the JFK School for 4th grade on August 24th. We hope to take a little holiday before he goes back. Logan really wants to see some castles and ride on a ICE (fast) train. Not sure we can accommodate the train ride but there are lots of smaller castles not to far from Berlin. This might be more within our budget. We really wanted to go South and see the big castles but maybe another time.

Connor finished Montessori and music class for the year and made lots of new friends. He's mastering walking and running. He loves to chase Tom all over the house. He's crazy about balls and loves to throw and catch them. Connor says lots of words which include both English and German. His favorite word to date is NO. ha ha Connor will go to Kindergarten in the fall. We are very excited for him and he loves hanging out with kids around his own age or older. He'll probably go for 1/2 days every day. We've checked out a few places and all seem great. We have appointments mid-August to meet teachers and get tours.

Tom is doing better but at times misses his brother Ted who died a couple of months. His favorite thing besides eating fishy is to sit on my bedroom window sill and look outside at all the people, cars and birds that go by.

Chris continues to look for work. He has some new leads on jobs and is trying to take advantage of the contacts he's made here. Hopefully after summer break he'll get a break and get a job. He does have a film job this coming week as a boom on a short film. It doesn't pay much but could open some doors for him, and of course it looks good on a resume. Chris also has been doing a number of late night bike rides throughout the city. He really enjoys it.

I'm doing well. I was having some issues with my thyroid that I hope are resolved. I'm now back on my regular dosage of medication. It was tough being tired all the time.

I'll continue my German language studies this fall. I'm excited to get back to class. I haven't had much time to study but I do my best to speak German when I can.

My Mom sent me a book called The Shack and it was really great. She just sent me Run by Ann Patchett and am looking forward to reading this book too. I saw the latest Harry Potter movie (it was okay) and now am curious about how it all ends, so I may have to pick up the last Harry Potter book and read it.

Ted "Teddy" the Cat

I was writing an email to my Mother telling her about the death of my beloved cat Teddy today and I thought it would make a very nice blog entry.

Sad news Ted died this morning at 10:15 a.m. I held him in my arms until he took his last breath. He was really messed up and Chris and I just couldn't watch him get worse and worse. The meds we gave him just didn't help as he was too sick. We'll keep an eye out now for Tom and watch his levels. Hopefully now that I have some knowledge of this disease (Chronic Renal Failure) and I can make sure that if Tom gets it he'll have better managed care. Here is a great site I found http://www.felinecrf.org/index.htm.

Ted will be cremated and given back to me in an urn.

Ted had a little food before we left this morning. His favorite fish. He didn't eat much. We walked slowly to the vets and the warm spring air hit his face as we walked. He enjoyed it. The sun was shining. He turned to me and meowed as if to say this is great. I was having second thoughts about putting him to sleep today as this walked seemed to perk him up. I let him walk around a bit before we said our goodbyes. I prayed and whispered "I LOVE YOU" before the vet gave him the meds that would put him to sleep.

He got to see the face of Jesus and God today :-)

It's weird coming back to the house without him. We left him on his blanket at the vets. He looked so peaceful. Just sleeping there. I made sure this morning to brush his hair and take the junk out of his eyes. I told him he looked beautiful.

Logan, Connor, Chris and I will go out today and enjoy the sun and warmth and think fondly of Ted. He loved being outside.

We'll take Tom out for a run this evening as he is too scared to be out during the day. Too many people around.

I'm so very sad.

Loser

Once again I am the big loser as I have not posted a blog in such a long time. Life as been busy and crazy. Sorry no new pictures either. BLAH!!!

This past week Chris went out of town to answer a casting call for the movie, "The Ghost" starring Pierce Brosen, Kim Cattral and Ewan McGreger (sp??). Chris was an "extra" and was transported to the West Sea via bus/train for the shoot. He had a great time and met some interesting people. He also made some good contacts and hopefully one of these may turn into a job.

I had an interesting few days with the kids. Connor got sick the day Chris left (bummer for us) and Logan earned 5 Euro for being a HUGE help to his mother.

I went out Wednesday evening with friends from the Goethe-Institute to the Lucky Star for some good Chinese food. It was fun to see Jia, Anmar and Fernando. Anmar got a job teaching in Washington, D.C. and leaves to go to the US in May. It will be sad to see him go.

Chris and I continue to look for work. Thanks to all who have sent good wishes and prayers our way. We really would like to stay here another year or two and would hate to come home in August of this year. It was a huge effort on our part to get here and it would be a shame to have to leave so soon. It's been a fast 9 months. Keep praying that we find work soon :-)

Connor and Logan are well. Logan continues to do well in school and is looking forward to having a couple of weeks off for Easter. Connor has a cold. It was really bad earlier in the week but he's getting better thank goodness.

Can't have a posting without a comment about the weather. It's been weird here. Winter still trying to hang on. I looked at the 10-day forecast and it's supposed to be in the upper 40s the rest of the week and into next week and then by the end of next week in high 50s and low 60s. If this really happens I'll be so happy.

Sicknesses & Jobs

Well everyone in my clan got sick this past week. UG! It's started with Connor getting a cold and turned into the flu. Chris got sick next, then me and then Logan. I haven't had the flu in a long long time. Logan and I used to get flu shots but this year we didn't for who know why not. Once I'm well I think both of us will go get one. There is still a month or two left of the flu season and I really don't want to get sick again. We are all slowly feeling better. We all have coughs with junk in our chests and hopefully this too shall pass soon.

Since I started looking for work about three weeks ago I've had some successes getting interviews. I've had one at Nokia for a job that I wasn't really qualified for but I wanted to go check them out anyway. If I did have the necessary skills I think the job would be exciting but also a handful. I'm currently working with the CTO of Pixeltex. I hope to have a face-to-face interview in the next week or so. I've been talking to them via email over the past couple of weeks. It's seems like a good job and company. I hope to learn more soon. I also have had other groups at Nokia interested in me and have been working with their HR over email to set up some phone and face-to-face interviews. They have a lot of job openings at Nokia. Chris has also applied at Nokia. Maybe one of us will get a job there.

Alfred Zimmerman

My dear friend Alfred Zimmerman died on Monday, February 16th after a long battle with cancer. He was 81.

His funeral Mass will be held today Friday, February 20th at 2 p.m. at the Church of St. Peter's in Mendota Heights (old Mendota). http://www.stpetersmendota.org/


Alfred and my Mom Marilyn Hays had been together for more than 20 years after remeeting at a high school reunion in the late 80s.

Alfred was a kind and generous person. He loved my kids Logan and Connor so very very much.


He loved Ely and we spent a lot time up there with him and my Mom. We have many wonderful memories.

Alfred was always there to help Chris or I with anything we needed.

He will be greatly missed and is deeply loved.

Alfred pray for us!!!

Time Off

Logan has the week off from school; winter break.

Since Chris and I are hard at work looking for jobs we'll be sticking around Berlin. Lots of our friends are going skiing for the week. Gosh it sounds nice.

Anyway, we don't have any big plans. Today Logan, Connor and I just played. It was cold out today so we stayed in. Later in the day we went outside to a park nearby for a 1/2 hour or so.

Tomorrow we'll try to go out for a walk and maybe head over to the big part if it's warmer than today. If not, we'll see what the day brings.

Wednesday Logan and I will go out for breakfast and then head over to KaDeWe for boxer chips. Don't ask me I don't know what they are but Logan says everyone at school is using them for this game so we'll go check it out and we'll see what it's all about.

No Montesorri this week and maybe no music class either. I have to call Lifelines and find out. We missed music class last week as Connor was napping. He didn't go down until real late and I just didn't want to wake him. So we'll hopefully make it up at the end of our session. We get one makeup.

Not much else going on other than working on finding a job. I updated my resume a week or so ago. Now I have to work on my web site. I also need to get my resume and cover letter translated. So much to do. BLAH!

I can speak German?

This past Saturday Logan, Chris, Connor and I went to our friends house in Magdeburg. It's about 2 hours (on the train) southeast of Berlin. Here's a little Wikipedia for ya http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdeburg.

The family Grunert (I really need to get some pics up here) live in Magdeburg. Chris was friends with Volker Grunert. Volker died of a brain tumor back in 1996 or '97 I believe. He was only like 28 years old. He is missed. Volker is survived by his sister Annchia (sp?) and parents; Christal and Gehart (sp?). Sorry I'm bad at writing German names :-( Volker's sister Annchia is married to Andreas and they have two boys; Christian (12) and Henrich (8).

We love this family so very much. They are good good friends. We are lucky to have them nearby. It's always wonderful to visit them. On this visit I was armed with lots of new German words. I was determined to speak German.

We had a tough train ride. Connor usually naps from 11-1/2ish and we didn't leave our flat until noon. Once on the train he was crazy. Over tired and hungry. We feed him but getting him to nap was going to be difficult. All he wanted to do was walk or run all over the train. Chris and I took turns chasing him down. Logan sat back and laughed.

Once we got to Magdeburg we met up with Andreas. He took us to their house. They have a lovely home btw. Immediately I began to speak German. Slowly of course but I was speaking German. The Grunerts understand English pretty well and like me with German are slow (and a little shy perhaps) to speak. It was fun I think for all of us. By the end of the evening I was tired and was looking forward to the quite ride home on the train (knew the kids would both sleep and they did).

Chris said I did well. He said I was much more confident as the day/evening worn on.

Today Chris and I spoke some German to each other. It was fun. Again I'm slow to speak but he understood what I was saying which is of course important.

Berlin goes Ghost

Another film is being shot here in Berlin. We are such a popular city
:-)

The Roman Polanski film "The Ghost" is being shot here starting Feb. 4th. Chris and I will have do some searching around. Check out this article http://www.mcnblogs.com/mcindie/archives/2009/01/pr_polanski_goe.html.

A New President

We have one and I'm hopeful :-)

Chris, Logan, Connor and I had a little party last night while we watched CNN.com via Facebook. It was fun to watch President Obama get sworn in. We started watching at 2 p.m. our time here in Berlin and finally turned off the computer at midnight. I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. What a great day for the US. What a proud moment for us all.

New Post for the New Year

I've been bad. I've been playing myFarm like a crack addict on Facebook. What's wrong with me??? I must say it's fun to play but I've gotten a little carried away. It all began when I visited the myFarm discussion forums. I learned too much and went bonkers. Instead of one nice steadily growing farm I have 5. All in various stages of development. Logan is helping me with one but can only farm on the weekends so that leaves me to tend 5 during the week. I've got to get a better hobby :-) So if you want to take a look at my most properous farm go here http://apps.new.facebook.com/farmgame/visit.pS?sid=822758894 I'm saving up for a 2nd chicken coop and a barn. The barn allows me to be able to sell animals. The coop protects the chickens. The developers of the game have promised fences and for the chickens to lay eggs.

Okay I didn't want to fill this post with my latest addiction. What's been happening these past few weeks you ask? Well,

LOGAN
Logan is back at school. He started winter semester and is doing well. In fact we have a book report to do this weekend. It's about robots and humans and their battle with each other on this mountain. Fun stuff! He'll have winter break the first week of February which he is looking forward to already.

CONNOR
Connor is on the bullet train to two. He's a running maniac. We'll have to take some video and post here. We had our last music class yesterday but will continue on for another 8 sessions. It's our Friday afternoon fun time.

Connor's also having a great time in Montessori class. He really enjoys the kids and the teacher. I wish I could take video of him but it's probably not allowed. I suppose I could ask. The room is set up into different stations and the kids walk around the room going from station to station learning and experiencing new skills and objects. For example, one of Connor's favorite stations consists of two metal bowls. One bowl has a spoon in it and the other a bunch of large chestnuts. He uses the spoon to transfer the chestnuts from one bowl to the other. At first he couldn't work the spoon so he would just dump them in. After some practice with the spoon he can use it to transfer the chestnuts. His new favorite thing is to find other cans, cups, boxes, bowls, etc. in the room to put the chestnuts in. It's fun to watch him explore and figure things out for himself.

Last week all the kids were running around the room. Talking to each other in baby language, patting each other on the head or just laying on the floor looking at each other. It was really fun to see. After 5 sessions they really haven't paid much attention to one another so this is really a treat. They also began to work together at different stations by helping each other figure things out. It was a really good class. Chris was able to attend with me and wants to come again on Monday. Connor often walked past us and smiled looking for praise at what he was doing.

CHRIS
Chris continues to hunt for a job. He's got a few headhunters helping him now which is good. He can use the help :-) He's had a few good interviews unfortunately one fell through already but he's still waiting to hear from the others.

JENNIFER
Besides playing myFarm; I'm still working on my German. My class ended prior to Christmas so I'm hoping I can go back in March with some of my other classmates. I've been hanging out with a few folks from class which has been nice. Trying out new restaurants and speaking German. Last night some friends of ours came over to deliver a table and some chairs for us to use and I was able to speak somewhat okay with them. They can understand English but don't speak it too often so I broke out the German. I felt I sounded bad but they said no, and where I didn't use the correct grammar they did understand what I meant and told me the correct way to say it. It was tough but fun.

This week I'll start working on my resume and begin the task of looking for a job myself. I'm going to have to plant 3 day crops on my farm so I don't have to check it every day. ha ha