2010 - Can you believe it?

As promised I'm back even if it's three weeks later. My goal is to try to remember to post at least once a week but I'll be glad if I can remember to post once a month. ha ha

So on with the show.
P.S. My spell check isn't working so forgive me for not spelling certain words correctly :-)

NO PICTURES
All our new pictures are either on the camera or Chris' computer. I'll make it my goal this weekend to get some up here for your viewing pleasure.

NEW ADDRESS
The Hays/Macgowan clan moved from Niedstr. 19 to Wielandstr. 12 in November 2009. We initially started looking at the end of August for a cheaper place to live. This would help in our quest to stay in Berlin a little longer.

We spent about three weeks looking around Friedenau (the area we've been living in) and a few areas close by. We found two great places; one in Friedenau and one in Steigliz. It was a tough decision as both places were really great. There were three exceptions. The place in "S" was on the 5th floor (no elevator) and was smaller than "F". "F" didn't have a balcony. Both had many many pluses but in the end we decided on "F" specifically Wielandstr. our current home. We all love our new place a lot and am glad we moved.

We have three huge rooms; two are bedrooms and one is our living/family room. We have a smaller room that is our office. It fits four desks nicely. We have a new bathroom that is just HUGE. We have a stand up shower, tub and lots and lots of space. We are able to fit our washer and dryer in there too. This is without a doubt my favorite room in the house. I missed taking showers. It's nice to have one again. We also have a new kitchen. It's pretty nice.

We have really nice neighbors and the house itself way nicer by like a 1000% from our last place. A few of the neighbors will gather this spring to do some gardening in the yard. I'm excited for this as I haven't done any gardening since moving to Berlin. I miss my yard in MN.

We are truly blessed to have such wonderful digs.

TOM TURNS 15
Our kitty Tom turned 15 in 2009 on December 5th. We celebrated with a can of tuna and various other treats. He was happy. We are looking forward to bringing him outside in the spring. He's comfortable in the flat and enjoys walking the halls as long as no one else is around. I'm hoping in a few more months he'll want to venture out. A neighbor in the next house over has a kitty and hopefully Tom can make a new friend. He misses his brother Ted. It will be a year in March that he died. We miss him. Love you Ted.

WEB CONSULTING
Chris and I have taken matters into our own hands and have started doing some web site development. We currently have a few clients and are hoping to get more. I'm working on getting business cards made as well as a web site up. The consulting company is called PBC Consulting which is short for Pretty Black Cat Consulting. Our new web site is at http://www.prettyblackcat.com/. There is nothing there at the moment. I just got it all set up in the last couple of days.

We are pretty excited about this opportunity. If you know of anyone that needs a web site built tell them to give us a call or shoot us an email. Until I get our site set up our resumes are online at http://www.macgowan.com/SoftwareConsulting.php.

KIDS
Connor started nursery school (Kita) in September and has been doing well. He got a nasty eye infection just before Thanksgiving and was in and out of Kita until winter break (around Christmas). He just went back this week after being home for 4 weeks. His English language skills have grown but his German not so much. One of his teachers mentioned that he doesn't understand anything but I think in time it will come back. He was so happy to see his teachers and his friends at school. It was great to see.

Connor is just as feisty as ever and is always getting into trouble or beating up on poor Logan. He says the funniest things and is making sentences out of the English and German words he does know. I finally had to cut Connor's hair as it was so long that it was unmanageable for him. I only had the guts to cut it straight across the back and shorten his bangs. He looks cute and the curls stayed. YEAH!

Logan started the 2nd half of 4th grade after the winter break. He was happy to go back and see his friends. Hey don't get me wrong he really liked having two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's but he missed his buddies. Logan really enjoys most of his classes. His favorites are Math and Science. He likes German too and is really doing well. His pronunciation is just great. Almost as good as a native speaker. He's talking more and more without help and can pretty much understand most Germans. We are very proud of our eldest son.

Logan is still gaga over anything Star Wars and Pokemon. I think I remember him telling me that he has something like 500 Pokemon cards. He does a lot of trading with kids at school. Logan and I like to play the game the cards were intended for and he usually beats me everytime. Logan's other new favorite pastime is playing his DSi. He loves it! My brother Sean and his wife Paula gifted one to Logan. He just can't seem to get enough of it. Sean, Paula and my Mom have supplied him with a nice mix of games. He seems to conquer them quite quickly. I'm hoping some day soon he'll let me play it.

SNOW AND MORE SNOW
Berlin has been blasted with cold weather and snow over the past couple of months. This is not the norm. We think the snow is great (not the cold), so we took the kids sliding a week ago. There is a hill near our flat so we took a few plastic trash bags with us (no sleds) and headed over there. We had a blast. The bags were a hit. They were used by other kids in the park that day. Who knew that a plastic bag would make such a great sled.

BOOKS
I've been reading a lot lately (unfortunately my eyes are getting bad -- old age). I read "The Hobbit", a few novels by Ann Patchett (currently reading "The Patron Saint of Liars"), all 7 of the Narnia books and Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga. All are great and I highly recommend any of these. I'm also reading "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold and so far I've had force myself to put it down. I could sit and read it all day like I did the Twilight Saga books (read all 4 in a week) but I would never get anything else done. I plan to read all the Harry Potter books after I finish the two I have started. I can't wait. I was hoping I could read them all before the last two movies come out.

MOVIES
I haven't been to as many movies as I would have liked to go to but since I last posted I've seen "New Moon", "Moon" (rented from iTunes), "9" (rented from iTunes) and "Avatar". Eeeek! That's not many at all. Oh well. I'm saving my money for some big ones coming out this summer. If you haven't seen "Avatar" you should go see it. The tech is pretty awesome. The story is average but the tech is just wonderful. Be sure to see it in 3D as it was intended. I liked all the Twiligt books so of course I liked "New Moon". It wasn't as good as the book or the 1st movie but I still liked it. "Moon" and "9" were interesting movies. I had heard about them from my Screen Rant guys http://www.screenrant.com/. Both were really good movies. "9" was a bit scary and Logan didn't want to have anything to do with it. I don't blame him. Not really a kid movie even though it was animated. I really liked "Moon" but it was sad. Great story and I'm a fan of Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey.

THE END
No, I'm not talking about the Black Eyed Peas' new album even though it's pretty good. No, I'm saying goodbye. Hopefully I've given you a fair amount of update since my last postings. I hope everyone is healthy and happy. Please come and visit us or email or call or comment. We'd love to hear from our family and friends. We miss you all and hopefully we'll be back this summer for a visit. That's the plan anyway. XOXO