I saw this list on Facebook this afternoon, and though that it was spot on!  I added some comments in parenthesis!

Having three kids back to back to back will obviously do a number on your body.  There’s a muscle in your abdomen called the transverse muscle that stretches (or tears) while pregnant to allow for growth.  Mine had torn either with Briana or Mikey, but through PT it had gotten back to decent shape.

Fast forward to this past August, and the kids and I were at Donnelly Park on Ramstein Air Base with some new friends.  I was chatting with the mom, casually watching Evie climb the stairs to the top of these slides:

A decent hike up for a 2 year old, but she’s also my adventurous one, so I wasn’t worried.  Well, she chickened out at the top….and of course, it was about time to go.  Short on time and patience, I walked up the steps to get her and thought, oh why not, and squeezed myself into this slide with Evie between my legs.  The kids love this slide because it is fast and shoots them out the bottom

Picking up speed I spread my legs while in there to slow us down (I didn’t feel like shooting out the bottom onto my butt!).  At some point after that I felt (and swear I heard!) a very gross tearing sound.  Flying out the bottom of the slide, I got Evie to her feet and then proceeded to roll around on the ground like an injured baby seal.  I stretched a little and the pain and cramping in my right side of my abs subsided and I went home.

The next few weeks were pretty painful–if I got out of bed too quickly, my whole right side of my abs would seize up, and I became the baby seal again.  I’d have to get down on the ground to stretch it out until it “released”.  This also would occur if I bent down to pick something up to my right side, or awkwardly.  Finally, after our trip to Chicago and other events, I found a German doctor that was recommended by the base (remember, we really only have ER privileges at the American hospital) and saw him to figure out a solution.  As he poked and prodded, he informed me that my transverse muscle was torn from below my navel (around my C-section scar) up to my ribcage!  Surgery was necessary, and thus, scheduled.  A pro to a great doctor is that he’s great!  A con is that he’s hard to get into…he wasn’t available for surgery until January!

Last Thursday, a friend picked me up bright and early and dropped me off at St. Johannis hospital in Landstuhl!  I had no idea what to expect really, other than I was estimated to have my surgery at 11a.m.  Unlike an American hospital, after I filled out my paper work, I was taken to my room which was fitted with a wardrobe and personal space (despite it being a room intended for 3!).  My roomie, Jeanetta, soon arrived as well and we both sat around and chatted for a couple hours about how it was odd to be in our rooms first!  A huge blessing to have an American as my only roommate who was very entertaining!

The view out of our window

The Dr. and his wife (also in his practice and assisting on surgery) came in and went over the surgery with both of us.  Good news for me, I got bumped up on the schedule because my roomie’s protein levels were a little high and they wanted to redo her blood test.  So I got comfy in bed, and was wheeled down to the ground floor.  There I was asked to scoot over from my bed to this hard, black rubber table.  They said, “Hold still…” and soon, that rubber table was actually a conveyer belt that slid me onto a sterile operating bed.  A bit of entertainment!

My funniest memory from all this would be as I’m laying there talking to the anesthesiologist about my M.S. before he was knocking me out.  All seemed well, I sucked in one nice big puff of sleepy gas, and then in a rush, I had four faces suddenly hovering over me!!  I knew exactly what they were exclaiming in German–when very relaxed, my left eye dilates far larger than my right eyes.  It’s called Physiologic Fleeting Anisocoria, and is very benign in nature.  I explained what it was and there was some very relieved laughter (my anesthesiologist was the Chief at the hospital and had never seen it before!).  Ok, back to business, and I was asleep.  Two and a half hours later, I was awake in recovery and soon wheeled back to my room.

I’ll currently be wearing a girdle/brace for 6 weeks that makes me feel like I’m stuffed into a sausage casing, but it prevents me from exerting too much pressure on my stitches on my stomach muscles.  While opened up (this wasn’t laparoscopic, I have a scar from hip to hip bone), the doctor found two MORE hernias than originally thought and repaired those as well as sewing close a four inch wide tear up my whole abdomen.  Do you know what he said to me too?  “I tightened your muscle in the center and I took it in a little on the sides too.  You’re welcome.”  Um, thank you!?  ;-)  He also removed all the scar tissue from the 3 C-sections and my emergency surgery back in 2011 from an ectopic pregnancy, as well as my belly button which was now considered scar tissue since it had torn away from my muscle.  Yep, I have a new belly button too.  It’s tiny, and cute, and cracks me up all at the same time.  Still not sure what to think of it.  But it can stay.  In my philanthropic donation of the year, I signed a waiver to let the good doc donate any removed tissue and skin to a lab in Frankfurt to use as testing on chemicals instead of “baby rabbits” as he told me.  Cousin Mandi, I had you in mind when I said that was perfectly fine and happy to save the bunnies.

Now, I knew my stay would be at least 3 days from then.  My experience with the nursing staff was nothing short of wonderful.  Most spoke a little English and were tickled with my little bit of German.  They got a kick out of seeing our kids too, when they came to visit.

While there, I also took pictures of my meals.  Breakfast was always tea and bread and a meat of some kind.

Lunch was always very hearty and hot and incredibly fresh.

Dinner was always a couple pieces of rye bread, mystery meat, and cheese if lucky.

On night two, I asked for the vegetarian dinner…thinking that had to be better.  It was way, way worse.

I mean, seriously, what IS THAT?!  Thankfully, that night, the Commander of the squadron Steve works at visited with his wife, who is a friend, and she asked if she could bring me dinner.  I was NOT about to turn that offer down!!

The night before, my friend Sarah had brought me a wonderful meal with dessert and treats to last me a five night stay, so those also helped stave off hunger.  I just ate it too fast to get a picture!  Thanks Amber and Sarah!!  I also had the pleasure of having my very funny friend Laura visit.  Probably not a good idea to have someone hilarious visit you when laughing hurts!  It was nice to have the company!

{GROSS ALERT BELOW}

The biggest factor that determined when I got to go home was how fast the fluids from surgery became clear and slowed.  I had four tubes that were placed near my incision that drained into four little containers… Try walking around with these hanging out of your shorts for 5 days!!

I also have been taking blood thinners since two days before my surgery, and I did a number on my first try, bruising myself up real nice.

There’s nothing cuter than wearing compression socks on your chicken legs!  Got to waddle around the halls in an old pair of short shorts and this sexy number.  But all in the name of avoiding a blood clot.  I’ll take it!

       But I’m home now, and resting for the week.  Kids are happy to have me home, Steve even more.  Though, I feel very aimless because I can’t do too much this week.  I go back in on Friday for a follow up and can slowly resume my usual schedule.  The pain is very minimal, and for the first time in a long time, I don’t feel like my insides are about to burst out through my belly button and the pain in that area is long gone!

Ever since I learned how to quilt last October, I’ve felt a fire for this hobby like none other!  I really do love it, and try to sew every day.  I spent a lot of my spring and summer in our old local fabric store in Purcellville called Webfabrics.  I picked up a lot of tricks, skills, and know how from these wonderful ladies!

The year started off making a memorial quilt for my Aunt Judy and Uncle Clark; I loaded a picture of my cousin Jake into a program that makes a quilt pattern!

Then I found a great collection of fabric from the Downton Abbey line, and made my mom a very lilac quilt so she’d have it just in time for Lilac Time in Lombard.

Next up was making sure I finished quilts for my twin nephews soon enough for their first birthdays.  I had no idea that their parents were such big Dr. Who fans, but I found 8bit pictures of some of the characters online and just substituted them for 2.5″ square blocks!

At the end of February I had already joined a crafting forum online out here in Germany, so I was contacted by a gal who needed a patriotic runner made.  I was happy to make for a future Germany gal!

In true BFF fashion, my best friend Jaime and I never give each other birthday presents on our actual birthdays.  The distance usually has a great deal to do with it, but most times we try to find really awesome ideas for each other and that doesn’t always come around birthdays.  I like that excuse   Well, since I knew we were moving, I wanted to give her a quilt that was very HER and reminded her of me.

Many of the ladies already stationed in Germany told me that they wish they had bought more fabric before moving, because it is expensive here.  So while I was out shopping to stock up on fabric one day, I came across a chicken themed fabric line that reminded me of my mentor Diane, who collects all things roosters and hens.  And then in March on our last hoorah trip to Chicago, I was able to give it to her in person before saying goodbye.

All while shopping to stock up on fabrics, I got a request from Briana for a quilt for her 5th birthday.  Nothing like squeezing in one more before our impending move!  But I was able to finish it just in time for her birthday and our move!

While we were in Chicago visiting, Steve’s auntie Dawn had mentioned that she’s been wanting to make a t-shirt quilt from her husband’s shirts.  Uncle Bob died in February, and had a great t-shirt collection, so both Steve and I both offered to get it done for her.  It turned out great, and it was one of my first projects where I put to use free motion quilting that I had learned.

There were a few people who were none too pleased that we were moving an ocean away.  One of those was my dear friend Cam; but despite this she graciously housed us in her basement after our house sold.  So a quilt was in order to make her feel a little better (and to thank her!)

Well, it was time for us to leave the U.S., and from May to July, I didn’t see my machine.  It was tragic.  When our house hold goods finally arrived, it was like an old friend had returned.  But I needed to get busy because not only were two very special couples getting married 6 weeks from then, but we had two sets of friends expecting babies around the same time!

First was a quilt for my cousin KT and her husband Cam–we were attending their wedding in Colorado in September and wanted to bring it with.

We were unfortunately going to miss our old next door neighbors’ wedding which was the weekend after we were in Colorado for the wedding.  We still keep in touch with them and they are such a special couple.  After asking Lisa what her wedding colors were, and her reply being, “Colors!” I had to find something as fun and funky with lots of “colors!”

Once we arrived home from Colorado, the babies started to arrive!  First was Baby McKay, who has a Dr. Who fan mommy, and he’s also an XI!!  I had to make her, um, I mean the baby, a Dr. Who quilt!  He gave it the baby drool of approval!

Next was baby Claire, born to some of our closest and first friends from Virginia.  She’s such a sweet baby, I was so happy to get this picture sent to me later!

While we were visiting in Chicago, I walked down the street to my mom’s neighbor that had made me baby quilts when I had Briana.  We talked quilts for a little while, but then she said she was cleaning out her stash, and I shipped home over 25 pounds of fabric!  So very generous and helpful for my hobby!

Also this fall, there were a few Stoffmarkts, which are outdoor fabric markets!  I went with a friend and her daughter to the one in the city near us and walked among over 80 booths of different kinds of fabric.  I bought a couple little bundles, but the rumor was true that fabric is very over priced here–someone was selling their calico for 27Euro a meter!

I made an attempt to make little mini quilts (10″blocks) for all the little people in our life; I made an Elsa one for my niece, a Toothless one for our little UK friend, some Star Wars characters for a couple boys back home!  I also made another Elsa and a My Little Pony one for our friends back in PA for Christmas!

I also helped out a few new friends here with their Christmas gifts.  One was a Ph.D. candidate on base who had all her fabric, had the pattern, but was so swamped with full time work and finishing up her doctorate AND being a mom, that she had no left over time to finish the quilt.  I was able to get it finished in a week for her and her daughter was thrilled at Christmas!

I also made another Frozen quilt for a fellow crafter

And a Nemo quilt for a mommy to be who wanted a quilt to match her baby’s theme

My very first friend I made here is also very crafty, so we decided to pick something from each others’ pinterest pages and make them something! She picked a bed runner, and I picked a “Family Rules” painting.

Sometime in November, Mikey made a quilt request.  Well, one night he was up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep, so he and I perused Pinterest and he asked for a Batman/Spiderman quilt.  Nothing like being particular!  Well two days before Christmas I finished his quilt, and he was thrilled!

 My friend Noelle and I were introduced by a fellow crafter this fall, and she mentioned that she had a quilt her husband’s grandmother made him as a small boy, but never finished and died before she finally could.  This beauty was hand stitched!  Noelle can’t quilt, so she asked if I could help her out.  She too had all the material needed, so this took me two days flat!  She sent me a video of her husband opening this up on Christmas and his shock to find his granny’s quilt finally done.  Priceless!

Trying to get a little ahead for 2015, I finished a quilt for my landlord this week.  His wife is due with a baby any day soon, and they’ve been very good to us, so I wanted to make them something special!

I also was playing around and have started on some springy things (because I need to get something bright and sunny in these grey winter days!)!  I made a PEEPS runner top.  Still not done, but it makes me smile!

Last but not least, Steve’s birthday is just after the New Year, and I made him a “wood” quilt!  We both often comment that we don’t have any of my quilts in the house–so hopefully this will help to remedy this problem!  I free motion quilted the grain into each wood plank!  The back is a grassy green, and the border is an actual fabric with the wood grain!

I wonder if I’ll make this many quilts in 2015, but either way, it has been a productive 2014!

Talking to multiple people this summer, we heard things like, “It snowed once last year” “It has been so mild the past few years” and “There’s so much fruit on the trees, we might be headed for a harsh winter”.  So we really weren’t sure what to expect.

Most days since late November, we’d wake up to fog, mist or drizzle, and the sun would poke it’s face out…oh wait, nope, the sun doesn’t really shine much here! Around 8a.m. we can tell that the sun was up, but it was just a brighter grey or fog.  The sun sets and gets dark very quickly around 1630.  You can feel a huge difference from not seeing the sunshine!

Well, we got a lovely surprise a couple weeks ago, when we got our first snow!  It melted by the end of the day, but it snowed again two days later!  The kids were excited to wake up to white!

Evie loves being out in the snow, but she enjoys being inside without a shirt on and snuggled under my covers midday!  Ok, and Mikey too once he realizes we’re not around!

It was a dry couple of weeks after that and over Christmas.  But the day after Christmas, we got quite the dumping of snow (probably 4-5 inches), and it’s been flurries ever since!  We even headed over to our friend’s house this weekend to play out in their backyard!

Our area is gorgeous in the snow, but the driving on the hill (our only way out of our village) is quite the feat if it’s not been freshly plowed.

Today, I had to pick up a riding helmet for the kids at the Army post nearby and left fairly early.  It wasn’t a horrible drive (I think I wasn’t far behind a plow), so I decided to make use of our early morning and head to the grocery store at the Air base.  Only took us about 40 minutes, and we headed back home.  Well, in those 40 minutes, it had been snowing in our area 15 minutes away, and because I took the crazy, curvy road downhill so slow, I had no traction nor speed once I hit the bottom to make it up the two curvy hills ahead of me that led to our village.  It took me 30 minutes to drive what normally takes 5–and I had people passing me on the one lane road because I was holding up those with far better tires!  I was praying out loud (and so were the kids!), and at 5kmph we finally made it up those hills and back home.  I was ready for a nap and possibly a glass of wine to relax!  Growing up in Chicago, I never really feared driving in the snow, but I think with how narrow and curvy the roads are here, I may rethink my ventures out next time it snows!

For now, I’ll sit by my little fire place with some eggnog and watch the kids play outside with each other–a monumental parenting moment when you don’t have to go out with them and they’ll still survive!!

We were excited to travel and visit our first Christmas Market here!  After our trip to Ludwigsburg with the Stevens’ family, we knew we wanted to a trip with them again! Nothing says crazy like 4 adults and 7 kids–yet it seems to tame our group down the more kids we add to the mix!

It’s about 2 hours drive to Strasbourg, France, and then about another 40 minutes (ugh) to find parking for our two cars!

Steve and Mike took the lead once we made it into the city and decided we needed a bit of an adventure and drove us down a bus lane only past the Police!  Once we found parking, in a sketchy part of the city of course, we rode a tram into the central part of the city and began our tour of one of the 14 markets!

The kids are getting quite used to public transit when we’re out!  This is Mikey patiently standing in a packed train car!

The kids were enthralled with all the food, trinkets, and lights!

Best part was a quick lunch of flamkuchen on baguettes, sausages, and pretzels!

We made our way into a second market that was around the Notre Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg.

We toured the inside of the Cathedral as they were prepping for Saturday mass.  Gorgeous!

  We could’ve climbed the 300 some stairs to the top of it, but opted for chocolate instead.

And then, after what seemed like just an hour, we realized it was turning dark, and the need to head home became evident.  We made it all the way to our car when the “80%” chance of rain finally showed up!  We had perfect weather, perfectly behaved kids (whoop whoop!!), and a great first experience at a Christmas Market!  Because the kids are still pretty little, it’s the only market we went to this season.  I’ve heard that they’re almost identical at each one, except for the big ones and a specialty one here and there.  So I think we’ll stick to finding the ones in big cities where we can experience the sites there as well as the market!  Next year might be Rothenburg ob der Tauber, home to Käthe Wohlfahrt items, and a city with a very well preserved Medieval history!

We’ll be back to visit Strasbourg this summer–it has so much character that we can’t wait to see it in warmer weather!

For my birthday, Steve bought me Michael Bublé tickets (not bubbles, Bublé)!  He went a step further and said that he knew I’d have more fun going with a friend instead of him.  Not sure that was true, I’d have the same amount of fun with Steve or a friend, but I’m sure my friend Wendy had more fun than Steve would’ve!

So we hopped on a charter bus arranged by the base, and headed to the Festhalle Frankfurt!

(gorgeous on the inside and out!)

Wendy and I enjoyed a two hour conversation, uninterrupted.   But we were excited to see MB start his concert.  We had amazing seats just to the side of the stage

We were pleasantly surprised by the opening act, Naturally7.  They were an a capella group from NYC.  What was so great about them, was that each guy “played” an instrument (think air guitar, air bass, air piano, air drums, etc.) as he sang.  They were incredible.

Michael Bublé was such a great entertainer though!  He engaged the crowd (of mostly women, yes), and was so funny in between acts.  At one point, he had signed a few posters that people had been waving in the crowds, but got permanent marker on his face.  He stopped mid intro to the next song because people were waving him down trying to tell him he had black on his face!  So then as he sat and tried to remove it, they did band intros.

Despite not getting home until 1:30a.m. the next day, Wendy and I had a spectacular time!!  Cheers to my husband, who continues to give incredible gifts that I never ask for!

We’ve found ourselves settling into a weekly schedule here, which provides for a bit of familiarity for us all.  Most of our week revolves around school–Briana in the morning and Mikey heads off to preschool in the afternoons.  Briana is fervently reading now, and I often find her stowed away here with a new book!

But squeezed into our week are some fun activities that the kids seem to enjoy!  Briana, Mikey and I have started horse back riding at a small winter barn not far from our house.

Evie goes to day care that day because she’s terrified of horses still, and it’s enough work for me to get Mikey to stay on a horse as it is!  Briana seems to be enjoying it tremendously, and our instructor, Petra, seems to love working with her too!

(Anyone notice that we’re all riding bareback?! Oh my booty…)

We also go swimming once a week–both to teach Briana to swim, but also to get swim therapy for Mikey.  Over time, it should help with his coordination and muscle tone.  His swim instructor is so sweet–she came over to the house last week to play so he’d know her better and not associate her with the fears that come with water.

Also, once a week, we go to occupational therapy for Mikey.  I’m so glad we found this place–his OT is fantastic, super observant and patient!

But it’s hard to not have the girls want to climb all over the play equipment and distract Mikey from what he’s supposed to be doing.  A few times, we’ve had a friend watch them, but sadly, they’re moving back to the U.S. next month!

So this week, I treated the girls to a trip to the Eiscafe around the corner from our OT.

We shared ice cream, crepes, and a cappuccino.

It was a fun time to break away from the hustle, and sit and watch a large group of Italian men heatedly discuss!

We’re excited for the Christmas season to begin! We’re heading to Christkindlmarkets in a couple weeks, so until then, we’ll enjoy what autumn we have left!

     In honor of Halloween approaching, I thought I’d share a few pictures of the cemetery in our village.  I saw one in another village and it peaked my interest if they were all like the one I saw.  I was right!

German cemeteries seem to place a high value on a plot.  Look at how beautiful some of these are kept!

Ours is just on the outskirts of town, but has a gorgeous view all around, and is surrounded by a very old stone wall and iron gate.

I see an old man here a couple times a week–and there are probably others who come frequently to tend to their loved ones’ graves as is seen by how clean and nicely kept they are!  There’s even a water supply to use for free to keep the flowers alive.

Definitely not a spooky place, but a very beautiful and respected place in our village.

Happy Birthday to our sweet little boy.

My biggest cuddler.

My earliest riser for the past 4 years without fail.  He does not sleep, he charges.  When his batteries are full, he is awake and ready to go and expects us to be too!  He is showing that he is a lot like his daddy and memorizes songs in just one go around, and then repeats it in the best timing sometime later!  He loves to make friends, and has even memorized each kids’ parent’s name at his new preschool, and it’s only been 3 weeks!  I peek in on him, and watch him play with puzzles and let other kids in his space, kindly.  He has overcome hurdles that make us super proud of him, and we’ve seen him take what he’s learned and share it with his sisters (“Evie, just take a deeeeeep bweaaath”).  I’d say he has a pretty great relationship with them, and has really blossomed in how he plays together with both girls differently!

He’s really loving exploring our area and constantly asks if we can “go on an adventure” today

He spent an awesome day at LEGOLAND Deutschland as his present, and even daddy won him a purple minion!!

He opened up his gifts from grandparents this weekend, Skyped with Grandmas, and spent the rest of his Sunday assembling Legos and playing with Grandpa Tufano’s old matchbox cars he sent him along with a Blackhawks Zamboni!!

This year will be busy for our growing boy, but we can’t wait to see what he learns, accomplishes, and teaches us.  We love you big guy!!

Germany is home to the largest pumpkin festival in the world!  With it being a mere two hour drive away, we couldn’t miss it!  We joined up with two of the three other Microsoft families, and headed out in a big caravan.  Girls in one car, boys in the other–a great decision by the wives

Once we found street parking (free on weekends, yeah!), we started our trek to the palace of Duke Ludwig.

Wow.  It is the largest Baroque palace in Germany, and it’s stunning.  The gardens are meticulous and no detail is overlooked.

Like most places to tour, children under 5 are free, so for our family, a little higher entrance fee is worth it!

We decided to head to the right of the palace which is the Märchengarten–Fairy Tale Garden.  It was a windy path down the hill side–first it began at Rapunzel’s tower where her hair lowered and raised up every few seconds.

It was great to hear the children call for her!  Then as you head down steps, you enter more garden and fountain areas with a carousel and café.  Once you stop to make sure you’re not lost…

 …you keep heading down the winding path which had a small hut every few hundred feet.  Inside each hut was an animatronic recreation of many different fairy tales.  At the end was a wishing well that had a voice coming out of it

By the time we made it to the bottom of Märchengarten, it was almost 1p.m., and the adults were hungry!  As you can see from the pictures above, there were many a carried children at any given point–regardless of the family they belonged to!  So we sat down at the biergarten and of course enjoyed chiliwurst, brats, bier, ice cream, bread, and schnitzel!

We are so thankful for each of the Microsoft families here in at Ramstein with us.  Mikey has befriended Holden, and they have a hysterical time together every time!

Briana has befriended Lyric and Ryder too, and enjoyed having a slightly older gal pal around!  And of course, Steve and I really like Mike and Wendy!

The other family that came has older children–and only half the family is here, but his oldest daughter Alex was a HUGE hit with Mikey.  I think we’ve found our new babysitter!  She and her older brother are professional ballerinas, so I can’t wait to see Briana get into their minds!!

Alright, after food we were off to see the pumpkins!  At the start, we passed by the pumpkins waiting to be judged

What was more impressive, was the theme–Royale–and the different stations that kept with that theme!

Chess Kings

King Frederich the Fat

Even the King of Rock and Roll made an appearance!

King of the Dinosaurs, with a couple of mini dinos too

And our little trio in front of the Frog Prince

I think that everyone had a great time!  The kids all behaved well together–so much so that us wives are planning a Christkindlmarkt trip to France for us all again this winter!  No one even complained that we walked over 11km that day!

Happy Fall from our family!