One Last Euro Adventure

my bag is packed and i'm ready for my last European adventure - this bag felt like 1000 pounds after my marathon

an ariel view of the marathon expo (took place in an old airport in Berlin)... the rest of the expo was in the building to the right - THE biggest expo i have ever attended!

a picture of one of the pillars in the Brandenburg Gate

the Brandenburg Gate at sunset...the next day I overheard a tour guide saying that several gates were built around the city of Berlin ... one side of the gate had a building that housed police officers and the other side of the gate housed people who collected taxes on items being brought into the city. The only gate that remains in the city today is the Brandenburg Gate. it became the center of Berlin where many marches, weddings, and ceremonies took place throughout history. It is amazing to think how many historical events and figures have marched through this gate! The finish of the marathon was just on the other side of the gate

a view from the finish line looking back to the gate

it got too dark but this is a picture of the finish line from the viewpoint of the gate.... during the marathon -i thought i would NEVER get to the end!!

cool arrangement of passports at the CheckPoint Charley Museum in Berlin

The Holocaust Museum in Berlin

A view from the outside of the Holocost Museum - an AMAZING museum! Words cannot really describe this museum.... if you are in Berlin - i think it is a must see. I'm so glad i took the time to visit this museum

we visited a lot of museums over the past 20 months - but i have never seen an ipod audioguide - pretty cool!

a beer bike!

the official results - I QUALIFIED FOR THE BOSTON MARATHON! yes - i am so happy about this achievement. i had tears in my eyes at the train station in Berlin as i was leaving. i could not believe i qualified!! I have made several attempts to qualify for Boston in the past and come very close in some of those attempts - but this time i DID IT!

it was the perfect weather conditions for running. i attribute my time goal to the pace feature on my Garmin. i do not know why i did not get one of these sooner! although i still found myself doing the math in my head throughout the race "if i run xx/mile then this would be my final time" i guess the engineer in me never rests. i was so nervous before the race but the night before my race i was sitting in a restaurant reading a few magazines that i had grabbed from home. one magazine happened to be a natural birth magazine (not sure how that one got in my stack) but this magazine reminded me that when i was pregnant with jillian - i wanted to give birth naturally and i did it. it was at that moment that i realized in my race the next day i was determined to qualify for Boston and that i could do it!

i was completely restless the entire train ride home... i was so tired but couldn't sleep...i even encountered 5 men who were on their way home from Bavaria where the celebrated Octoberfest for the weekend. one man had lederhosen on :) he said he bought them in Bavaria.... his friends were making fun on him for wearing the lederhosen. they didn't speak much english and i made my best attempt at my German i leaned in high school :) we were able to communicate though. they continued their Octoberfest celebration by consuming several beers on the train - they were very nice though but they did want to take my marathon medal and i said NEIN! :)

keepin' busy

jillian poses after her "mommy and me" swim class... i love her chipmunk squinty smile and her bodybuilder arm pose :)

my monkey figured out how to swing on this bar without any assistance... monkey sounds included!

look at me!

jayden at football training

graham at football training

jillian was very confused about this little boy who was laying on the top shelf... not sure if she wondered why he was up there or if she wondered how she would go about getting up there too

the little monkey continues climbing

she does not want any help!

chipmunk smile!

whee!

my squirrels gathering nuts

oops - the cart tipped over!

bye bye blonde

i'm posting this picture for my friend anne - this photo was taken in june by a friend of mine at the boy's school..... i had my hair blonde for the summer and now have gone back to dark :) one of these days when i actually fix my hair - i will post a picture of the "winter dark" hair :)

the real question is - where did jillian's blonde hair come from? her hair is not even blonde - it's white! i love her blue eyes and blonde hair.... and she's even showing some favoring of her left hand....we'll see .....

oh the things a 4 year old will say...

me and my sweet 4 year old, helen

mosquito in my mesh contraption! ha! nice try buggy!

my contraption..... so i had to take the "mesh project" one step further! we (yes - ross helped me with this one too) figured out that the mosquitos are coming in mainly from the firplaces in our house (and the occasional door that gets left open too long after the kids come in) and tonight i have the evidence! haha! i have outsmarted a mosquito (not sure if i should really be proud of that...hmmm or should i say buzzz - i REALLY hate the sound of a buzzing mosquito in my ear at 4:30am!) i killed a mosquito that was buzzing around in the mesh net --- trying to get in for a taste of our sweet blood.

today marks the beginning of my short runs as i start week 18 of my Berlin Marathon training....NEXT sunday is the BIG race!!!!! normally i would venture off on a run by myself trying to focus on my pace and destress at the same time - but tonight i decided to see if anyone wanted to come along with me. jillian was going to "help" ross grill some dinner and the boys were busy playing soccer in the backyard.... my sweet girl helen said "i'll ride my bike next to you mommy!" so off we went together! and let me tell you - the conversations started immediately as we let the house..... you can probably imagine all the things we talked about.....

1. she told me that she saves her burps for home so that her friends to not hear her burp (where this thought process came from - i don't know!)

2. she told me when she gets older she going to drink cola and pepper (i think she meant dr. pepper)

3. she told me that her legs were getting tired so we needed to stop and rest for a moment

4. she had to stop to make sure the air was good in her tires

5. she spotted some glass on the bike path - so we stopped so i could (safely) clear the glass of the path because we didn't want a flat tire on my bakfiets tomorrow on the way to school

6. she told me that only cars get pulled over for speeding - not bikes and that mommy must always go the speed limit so that she doesn't get a ticket

7. she told me she wants a pink and purple motorcycle when she's 5 because she'll be able to safely drive one by then

8. she told me that plastic doesn't break --- she told me that she explained this to her lunch mom at school ... hmmmm... i think she may have thrown her lunch box into the basket

these are just a few of our conversations during our 3.5 mile run. today i'm so glad i chose to run with my sweet helen :) even though it was a very SLOW run from all that talking


yes - my 365 project is still going..... barely.... didn't know we were going to be moving again when i signed up for this little project! - what a year it will be to look back on for sure!

http://365project.org/sarac/365

my buddy and me

we've been "sorting" through some of our stuff lately in preparation for our move and jillian found these rainboots...she loves wearing them... they are a little big as you can see the tops of the boots come up to her knees. she gets very frustrated trying to walk around in them. tonight after her bath (while i was helping the other kids finish their showers) - jillian found these rainboots and put them on.... let's just say she's missing everything but the boots :)

earlier this evening she had on the rainboots

yea - this is one of my tie dye shirt gone wrong - oops!

jillian and i spent some time outside one morning this week... we gathered some nuts that were in the driveway.. i made her keep them outside on the bench

saying "goodbye" to the nuts before we went inside

carefully putting the nuts down... can you guess how many times we put them down and picked them back up again?

the leaves are falling!!! crunch crunch

like every curious little toddler - jillian takes a lick of the nut ... just to see how it tastes

doesn't taste so good!

my sweet little baby is growing up so fast! we have really been enjoying our time together while the others are in school for most of the day now.

true blood

we've had a very wet summer here in Holland and the fall is proving to be no different. with a wet summer comes the most blood seeking mosquitos i have ever seen! it's taken us some time to figure out where the mosquitos are coming from - i haven't had the windows open in about 3 weeks and the lack of "fresh" air is killing me! one morning, jillian woke up with 4 bites on her face and 3 bites on her hands... the only parts of her that were exposed the night before! the bites were so bad and caused so much swelling that i had to give her Benedryl (i rarely give my kids any medicine!). i can sympathize with jillian because i keep waking up with bites on my arms and the occasional 4am BUZZING in my ear! we suspect the mosquitos are getting in through the fireplaces in our house (one fireplace is in jillian's room) and the other in the family room. But just to be sure - i made this mosquito net tent to go over her crib! then i took the left over fabric and taped it up over the fireplace opening.

take that! you vampire mosquitos!

my birds

helen had her first day of dance yesterday - she's now in the 4 year old group!

my four munchkins on the first day of school! (graham - 2nd grade, jayden - 1st grade, helen - preK, jillian -stuck at home with mom!)

helen meets her teacher

helen gives her daddy a big hug (i love the look on her face!)

when i picked her up this afternoon - her teacher said "helen is not a shy girl"... yes, that's my helen

graham in his classroom

jayden in his classroom

miss helen received a special treat from her german friend, david when we visited brachbach this summer ... it is a traditional gift that children receive on their first day of school in germany. they must wait until they get home from school to open up the gift and see the surprizes. david also started school this year and shared one of his gifts with helen for her first day of school.

jillian looks to see what helen got in her present

today my birds flew out of the nest and off to school. jayden and graham said a very quick goodbye and went off to find their classrooms. ross and i dropped helen off in her classroom and it was only a matter of minutes before she was off putting a puzzle together. later i stopped by her classroom to see how she was doing -- she came up to me and said "i've colored 2 pictures, put 3 puzzles together, and now i'm ready for my snack!" jillian spent the rest of the morning walking around our house saying "Helen? Helen? Helen?"