Waking up with God

Good Morning Blog … I’ve listened to an incredible sermon of Andy Stanley yesterday, taking about how we use our time wisely. And he reminded me of the importance of starting out the day on the right foot by spending my first few minutes of the day with God and His word. I had not done that in a while – because I was too busy or thought I didn’t have the time for that.

So here is what I read this morning.

Jeremiah 24:1-10

And what struck me is that no matter where we are or what we are facing – we can be sure that God is with us as long as we are doing what he wants us to do. And sometimes that means we are being sent into “exile” – a place where we’re not sure about why we’re there or what we’re supposed to do there…. He sent us away but he also promises to protect us and to eventually bring us back to this land.

So why are am I worrying about what I am doing or why I am where I am? As long as I stay on His path for me I know I am doing what He wants me to do and that’s all that should matter.

So, here I am God – ready for you to lead me and direct me into this day. Let it be to Your glory!

Technorati Tags: Jeremiah 24,God,Waking up,Guidance,Direction

Well, hello there ….

Well hello there, it's been a while since we talked so I figured it's time for another update. Seems like so much has happened since we talked last. Deb and I went back to Windsor the beginning of June for vacation to celebrate Laurel's High School graduation (now they're all out of High School - yeah !!!), Deb's parents 50th anniversary and to spend some quality time with our kids. We had a great time, even though it was a strange feeling to be on vacation in the place where you used to live. Then when we were back for about a week Deb returned back to the States for an unplanned trip to help our oldest son Chris with his move (and to walk alongside of him to help him through a tough personal time - isn't that in the Mom handbook...?). She got back a few days ago and is currently trying to convince her body that the time zones changed yet again ... In the meantime we had near 100 degree temperatures, along with lovely humidity - something we just don't experience too often here in Germany. But hopefully we're past that now. Things at work are progressing nicely. Business is doing good, we're always busy and don't know at times how to get all the jobs processed - guess that's a better challenge to have then the other way around But I did realize that working with numbers all day is quite different then working in a restaurant But you had probably figured that out already ... so I am trying to find a way how to combine people and numbers so that I won't be stuck in my office all day. I'll keep you posted on how that's going

Quick update on our 4 legged daughter Sophie - she is struggling hard right now. What we thought was her progressing arthritis actually turned out as another form of nasty cancer that is slowly eating away at her bones. Now she is fighting 2 different forms of cancer. So far she is still happy but has an increasingly hard time to get up and walk. We promised her that we won't let her suffer if her quality of life isn't there anymore. Guess she'll let us know when the time comes. No fun times ...

While Deb was helping Chris I had a fun couple of days with our two daughters Julia and Laurel that came to visit on their way to Berlin. Julia will study at the Freie Uni Berlin through an exchange with UC Davis until March next year and Laurel came along to help her get settled in. I enjoyed having them here - our first official visitors from the States - so who's coming next? Is it you who is reading this right now? The guest room is ready - just let us know when you're coming - we're already looking forward to it!

Well, so much for today - we'll talk again soon.

Later y'all

Vacation … in Windsor …?

Well, we’re back “home” in Windsor for our first visit since we left last December. In some ways it seems like time stood still and not much changed since we left. I am sure those that have been here during that time would probably disagree but at least to us it seems that way. It is a strange feeling to come back to the place you have been living for so long and to  not have to do anything, no job to go to, no errands to run. Then you try to connect with as much family and friends as you can but inadvertently can’t connect with everyone you want because there just isn’t enough time in the day…   but you do your best to fill the days with as many get togethers as you can, fill up your emotional tank and enjoy the time you have.

We celebrated Laurel’s High School graduation last Friday from Calistoga High School.  It was great to share this time with lots of our family that had made the effort to be there to celebrate Laurel’s achievement. Now she’ll spend the summer preparing for her move to San Francisco, where she’ll attend SF State university in the fall. Exciting times for her. Then the next day, Saturday afternoon, we all met again to celebrate my in-laws 50th anniversary. Another fun get-together with lots of good memories …  These days it’s a pretty amazing achievement to celebrate 50 years of marriage so we were happy to be a part of that celebration.  Sunday morning we headed back to Calistoga to help host a brunch for Laurel. It was a beautiful morning in Calistoga, not too hot or windy, just right. A good day to celebrate. After that we headed over to Nick’s house in Santa Rosa for a BBQ (Oysters and Hanger Steak – yum!). Later in the evening we enjoyed (at least for the time being) a nice Scotch and some Cuban cigars Chris had brought back from Iraq. Somehow that combination along with the couple of beers I had before just didn’t agree with me too well and I spend some considerable time letting the one or other thing go back through my head … But, good times with our kids and their friends anyway. The things we do …. Guess you only live once …

Aside from that we had a couple of nice days here in Windsor, with a trip to San Francisco, a day at the beach and we’ll spend the next few days packed with family and friends and then we’ll head back home to Germany mid next week.

Is there such a thing as taking a vacation from your vacation? It sure seems like we could use that. I am also sure that we’re probably not alone in that department.

It's Mother's Day

It's Sunday and Mother's Day so Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms Grandmas, Aunts and other women that have or are influencing children (there are more of you then you think). You are awesome in what you do. We husbands, fathers, grandfathers and children deeply appreciate it - even if we don't always show it or are to dense to voice our gratitude. So Thank You!



Another week has passed. It rained overnight so our garden looked nice and clean this morning. We had finally gotten our lawnmower (it had been on order for over 2 weeks) and so we spent all day yesterday mowing and edging and cleaning up. Yesterday was the first day without rain in quite a while - nice that it was on a Saturday :-). I'm sure you know the feeling when you sit down with a nice cold beverage after working all day and you can see what a difference it makes - so rewarding. Now, waking up the morning afterwards when everything aches ( hey, no oldtimer jokes ...) that's a different story.

Here are Sophie and Charlie, enjoying the clean garden!

When we got on the train this morning to go to church there were quite a few people waiting to take the train south in to the higher altitudes to go hiking. That is definitely a preferred pasttime for lots of folks here. And Nordic Walking is very popular as well. You don't want to mess with people with the sticks. They always look like they are on a mission. The funny thing is, Deb says, that all Germans look like they're on a mission. I think we're just focused on the task before us.
Mae it a great week everyone!

What a beautiful day it has been ....

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon here in good ole Deutschland and we have escaped in to what will most likely become our “home away from home” for the months from late spring through fall. Just about a stone’s throw away from the house, across the street and the railroad tracks, is our beautiful little garden. Well, it’s not that little actually, it’s about 12,000 sq ft in size, with a little shed to keep the necessary things protected from the elements. We are connected to the water system but there is no power so we have to “rough it”. Guess we’ll have to break out the BBQ frequently. We spent the last couple of weekends with the help of a friend to clean it up. It was pretty overgrown, with lots of brush and bushes and we filled a 180 cubic feet big container full (yes, that big orange thing and no, it’s not part of the decoration …) with cuttings and other thorny things. Now we are sitting here trying to decide what to plant and where to plant it. There are two established cherry trees (one bigger and one smaller) and an old apple tree along with a few other trees that we haven’t identified yet. The apple tree and the big cherry tree were already here when I was a kid. I remember my Mom getting us up at 6AM during summer vacation to pick cherries “cause it wasn’t too hot yet for the day”. Needless to say we loved those mornings. But now as adults we have a different kind of appreciation for these trees. We’re actually looking forward to see what the summer will bring. Then we have some raspberries we think, I guess we’ll see for sure as the year progresses. There are a few rosebushes, lots of ornamental shrubs and a few color spots as you can see from the pictures. We are trying to figure out where the best spot for the compost area is, where we should plant the sunflowers, tomatoes, pumpkins, corn, zucchini and other vegetables that we’re looking forward to enjoy – not that we brought any seeds from our old Windsor garden with us or anything like that …. The unfortunate part of it is, that during the years where the garden wasn’t so actively used it was frequented, mostly in the evenings, by groups of teenagers that felt it was cool to make holes in fences and find “hiding spots” in the brush and under the trees. We found lots of lovely evidence (including some DNA …) as we cleaned up. But we got rid of all the hiding spots and now we hope we won’t have those visitors anymore. Sophie and Charlie are absolutely enjoying the garden as well; they especially like saying hi to anyone walking by. There are lots of birds around us constantly serenading us with their “Gezwitscher”. Now there is a great German word for you… . To finish off the beautiful day we just had an early dinner at a nice beer garden overlooking the river. Now it’s time to settle in and get ready for the new week. Make it a great one…

Cody has been found

Just got word (as I woke up this morning... :-)

..."Cody was found safe by rescuers! Thank you all for your prayers and support!" I want to thank all of you who helped spread the word. It's nice to have a happy ending!!!

Now have a great day  ... :-)

Haircuts, Brain and fishing for words ...

Just finished getting my hair cut and now I am waiting for Deb to be done. She got brave and is getting it cut really short. I think it'll look great on her :-)- It does by the way ... :-)
We are having a beautiful week with our weather here in Gernsbach, makes it really hard to have to sit inside at a desk all day. It sure has been quite a change from working in the restaurant business and being on our feet all day to sitting in front of a computer most of the day. But at least I am enjoying my job. I have learned a lot so far, from better understanding what we do at the company, working with lots of new software to getting used to the way the business world functions in Germany. It certainly took me a while to get used to the more formal approach between people in general and colleagues at work. I still find myself fishing for the right word more often than I would like and the weirdest thing (Deb thinks it's probably the funniest thing ...) is that when I am in the middle of a longer conversation or the opposite when I am very relaxed, I respond to a question in English and get usually greeted with a somewhat blank stare. Sometimes I even ask myself "did I just say that in English or in German?". The brain is an amazing concept. :-) I wonder what God thought about when he designed it ....