World travele

Hello USA. I got back here to the states on Wednesday and have been busy with family and friends since I've been back! Well lets not waste any more time, here's the spark notes version of my trip!

So Flew from Madison, to Northern Kentucky, stayed a night, got some bank and other last minute stuff together and left for Frankfurt Germany on the Friday after 10:00 clock mass. My sister was leaving my house at the same time I was, and as she drove away she yield, "Have fun storming the Castle"! Now I hope most of you know what this is from, if not I'm judging you and will show you the clip.

So I got my seat ( in business class), meet my seat mate ( who was a big help later on) and ordered my main Entree for the flights dinner. Now in business class you get a real pillow, a full blanket and the seats that lay completely flat, and your own TV with movies that are only a few weeks old. You would think that on an 8-hour flight, in the middle of the night, I would be able to work my eyes closed and go to sleep...not the case. I tried for an hour or so but it just wasn't going to happen. So I filled my flight night with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, X-Men: First Class, and Something Borrowed. The movies weren't bad, but I didn't sleep at all.
So plane lands, customs, baggage claim, my seat buddy helps me find my train, we ride it to Mannheim and then I worry. I needed to find a train to Heidelberg but I couldn't find one on the train list...that I was looking at. I finally asked someone what train to take and got to Heidelberg. By the time I got to the Heidelberg station I was ready to go back to the airport and go home...then I found Eric. 

My friend Eric is studding over in Heidelberg, and allowed me to take some space on his floor, of his room that is basically a broom closet. We got to his place by 9:30 or so and I pulled out my sleeping bag and crashed till about 3:00. We walked around the town with his friends and took a trip up to the castle.

Eric and I over looking Heidelberg!

The Castle that I stormed and visited in Heidelberg.

Next day we took a trip across the river and up the hill to old ruins of a monastery and a look out tower. Wonderful. He hiked up the trails but coming back down we thought we would be late for pizza with friends. We decided to take two shorter paths that went straight down and only had a couple of trees to catch yourself on....it was Fantastic.

                            During our hike, we found a little park with this crazy teeter-totter thing...Eric and I had to try it out!

        

                        This was an amphitheater that was built by the Nazis that we found before we got the the ruins.  

Old monastery ruins that we got to check out.

Third day I chilled in Starbucks and did some shopping while Eric was in class. We meet up for lunch and chilled rest of the day. When the sun went down though, we went and had some over 18-year-old fun. We went to a restaurant that had mix drinks really cheap, so we drank. We took a trip to the grocery store ( really small by the way) picked up some other drinks. As we were drinking back at his place one of his friends invited us to go out to some other local watering holes. We joined her and partook in the fun! After a couple hours of hydrating ourselves, Eric, the friend, two other girls and I found ourselves in some heated debates about Catholicism, ways of life, gun rights, energy technology, and other heated political topics. We had a three hour debate that kept use up till 4 o’clock in the morning….it was fantastic.

 The next day we slept in, hung out around town some more and made brats for dinner ( You have to have brats while in Germany). I packed up my bags and went to bed thinking of all the fun I would have trying to get to the airport in the morning.

Eric said goodbye to me in Heidelberg as I got on a train to Mannheim. Mannheim I got on a train that was suppose to take me to the airport, instead it took me to the main station of Frankfurt. I get off and start freaking out, I ask the information desk how to get to the airport. I get on the train he tells me to and the train keeps stopping, at each stop I’m wondering if it will get me there. I see a flight attendant get on and feel some relief. We finally get to the airport, I check in, go threw security ( which was kind of weird) and wait for my plane to Rome. Goodbye Germany!

My super fancy accommodations for my time in Germany...Thank you Eric for the floor

Part Two of Euro trip coming tomorrow!

A little bit of Time!

HOLY COW!!! I’m alive, I'm well and I have no babies around me, or at least any that I have to take care of (there's one at another table but his mom's with him). I got a night out at Starbucks in the dells and I plan to spend some time here! So I hope you enjoy my return to the blog as much as I'm enjoying my caramel frappuccino (be jealous!) (Oh and the baby is leaving!).

So the past two weeks have been pretty normal around the camp house with the three little ones. The nanny left me for this past week, which made things a little crazier at the house. Nap times were sometime not around or very short lived, meal times were a mess (nothing new there), but play times have been pretty fun. 

Instead of Andrew only playing with his train table all the time (he still does but has moved on to other toys) we have brought out the blocks! These are blocks that I remember playing with when I was his age. We enjoy making zoos with the block and filling in the "cages" with all his different animals. He insists that the monkey's go and live in the water habitat with the whales...silly kid!

Two weeks ago or so one of my fellow staff members brought some apples from her house for Jeff, Rebecca and I to make some applesauce. No she didn't just bring one huge bag, or two huge bags, it was more like 8 or 9. We were able to start working on the bags this past Friday night. 

      The process is pretty easy. You cut up the apples, put them in a pot will a little water and heat them up till they mush. You then strain the mush of its stems, carpels (the hard parts where the seed is), seeds and any worms that might have been in there (hope not to many). I had the job of cutting up the apples, so with any of the bigger ones I would cut through the middle on the horizontal axis. If you do this just right you'll cut through the 5 seeds and produce a star...seen above. This was the best one I had from the night, pretty cool huh! So now the next step we'll take on will be to can the roughly 6 gallons or so of applesauce we mad from just two of the bags of apples, we have a little ways to go!

The only other things that I’ve been busy with are my plans for Europe! I'm getting excited and nervous all at the same time. Excited to travel, to see something new, see some friends, and go out in the world by myself! I'm nervous about some of those same things, traveling by trains is a little nerve racking trying to get to the right place, traveling by myself scares me a little, and just the hope of me not saying something dumb and "American". We'll see how it goes, plans are coming together well and that helps ease the nerves. I'll give you all (probs not many of you) the low down of my adventures before and after. But till then...Zamboni

Good old days!

So today my nephew didn't want to change out of his pj's. I understand why, he's got some pretty cool spider man pajamas. Now I don't like spider man but I'll support my nephew and his super hero favorite, that being said, these are some sweet pj's. 

That's right, the kid has wing-things! I think stellar pajamas are an import memory for children. I had Batman (my preferred super hero, the best, hands down) pajamas with a detachable cape! I use to run around, pretending to be Batman right before bedtime. I can't remember if there was a morning where I wanted to stay in my Batman pj's, I wouldn't be surprise, but I can't remember!
Every day I'm a "manny" I get to remember/relive memories that I had when I a little kid. Seaseme Street brings so many memories. Some of the sketches are the same, but most are different or a variation! They've redone the pinball 12 count but the music/counting is the same! Old and New. You never know when an episode of will have some older stuff, but when they do, I get get a little more excited that the little kids.

Even some of the new stuff is funny and memorable. Abbey's Flying Fairy School is probably my favorite part of the show. Its funny, has some good puns and isn't as little kid as you might think. Super Grover 2.0 and Bert and Ernie's Great Adventure are two shorter segments that are fun as well. Altogether Seaseme Street is different these days; it still provides something fun and entertaining for the whole family...and the manny!

Recap!

Oktoberfest (St. Tim's style) ran super smooth this weekend. The guys all last week did a great job setting up. Crowds weren't bad, lots of food was had by all and made by even more. A great man name Joe and his crew worked every day down in the kitchen making the best pork loins and even better potato pancakes. We had John, Jim, and Glen wire all the booths, light all the fryers, and keep everything else running. Then there's the lady in charge, Jen runs the whole place, has ever answer and is able to keep her cool when things get a little sketchy. It was a great weekend and I'm so glad I could come down to help out.   

So the first night I was home, my sister had three of her friends over at the house hanging out. They left around 1, and about 1:02 my sister calls me from the driveway and tells me one of her friend’s car was broken into, an says that they see two punk kids run out. The other friend chased after them but lost them pretty quickly. I grab some protection and a flashlight and headed outside. Now don't jump to conclusion and say, " Kevin, you didn't need to bring any protection out". A) I didn't know the whole situation; B) we later found a can of law enforcement strength mace...so I'm happy with my choice. Sheriffs came took a report and looked around but nothing has come back. It was an exciting night, no one got hurt, but some sense of safety was taken away.

On a happier note, I have been working some on a plan. Not anything for my future education or life plans, but a little trip I hope to talk in the next couple weeks. I have been looking at taking a jump across the pond to Europe; visit a couple friends and some cool places. A little more prep time is needed to figure out flights, trains, places to stay and really what I want to do. It will be the first time I go over, and I’ll be going by myself. So if anyone has any tips or suggestions about things to do or see please, I’d love to hear them. I’m headed back up north today, back to many jobs. I miss the little kiddos so I’m pretty excited, I just don’t know how I’m going to get all my winter cloths packed!      

Oktoberfest!

My Church in KY is St. Timothy Catholic Church. I love working there and love the community. I flew in yesterday, came home for two hours and then was at church for the rest of the night till 12:30. Didn't go to sleep till 2 on account that two punk kids broke into my sister's friend's car...more on that later. I'm heading back up there today, and for tomorrow. So posts are a little shy but I'll be back after the weekend.

I got a hair...actually all my hairs!

First welcome back, been busy around these parts. Second, pictures. I understand there nothing special, but its the easiest way I can do it and I'm looking for possible (aka cheapest) ways to fix those. OK so yesterday Jeff and I took Andrew to get his hairs cut...and he needed it!

The little little guy did great. Now the barber shop is in the middle of Baraboo, on the town square. This town square is so cool, nice little shops, funny shop owners and all around great feelings. So after the well behaved hair cut we walked to the toy store, coolest toy story ever. Old school toys, train going around the store, and the greatest board games you can find.
As we walked back to the car, a side walk sign advertised $1 cones of any flavor. So at 11 o'clock in the morning we had ice cream. You walk into this parlor and it looks like classic soda shop on one side and a full candy wall on the other. It was neat and classic. So we ate our ice cream, headed the the library, St. Vinnie's, and then to Cousins subs. It was a fun day out with the boys.

Headed to KY tomorrow to work at church for the weekend, then back up here to put on my "Manny" shoes and help care for some babies!  

This is where I was!

 As it is being Sept. 11th, I would like to share with you where I was ten years ago. First with the picture! 

This is my water bottle, now I didn't have this on 9/11, but it represents where I was. I was in Mrs. Foscus's (didn't know how to spell it then and still can't now) forth grade class, at St. Joseph's Academy. I had just walked out of class to get a drink at the water fountain ( see the connection to the water bottle now!) across the hall. I turned around to head back into class to see our Principal, Sister Patricia Jean, walk into our room. I followed her in and sat down at my desk, watching Sister talk to my teacher. I don't remember what they talked about, only that after Sister left we turn the TV on and saw the smoke rising from the Towers. 

For the past ten years, I think of that water fountain, and now when ever I drink from one, I think of 9/11, the victims, the heroes, and the patriotism that came out of a tragedy. 

Joe Biden (don't like him at all) had (for once) some good words to say today at the Pentagon. He talked how this tragedy lead to the greatest volunteering of young men and women to join the military to save and protect our freedoms as Americans. I thought it was a good speech and really did give honor to all American Heroes. We need to continue to pray for our fallen, or warriors, and our enemies...its the only way we can continue to move along.

Dirt Dishes

  So as many of you know (or don't know),  I am not in school right now and am helping my brother out as his Manny (that's a male nanny). I'm really enjoying my time up here. My time consists of baby's eating, crying, playing, maybe sleeping, always being cute (ok except while they're crying), and cleaning around the house. One meal I enjoy cleaning is dinner. Yes its the biggest meal, usually with the most dishes and at the end of the day. Jeff and Rebeca are busy with the kids and it's a quiet time for me to get some work done. The thing that has puzzled me is this.

This bottle of DAWN dish soap is half way full. Now its not full of the rich blue dish soap that many of us know (and may love) and that's my problem. My brother refiles this bottle from a larger Kirkland dish soap bottle, the soap works well, no real problems with it, just that it's not DAWN. It's funny how I have a personal problem with this soap and bottle, yet I still use it every night. Every time I have to add a little soap, I think " Mr. Bottle, you are lying to me right now and I don't like it". Now it would take me more effort, time, and money to change this than me just dealing with it so...is this an example of laziness or acceptance? Tonight when I do the dishes, I'll give the bottle the benefit of the doubt, that it doesn't want to lie to me and it wishes it was a little more blue!

I will say, this is going to be a common type of post, something random, from a normal day that I have an opinion about and would like to share with you all...hope you enjoy

Lets do this, day by day

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a little while. I've thought about how a blog is for a bunch of people to read and maybe be entertained about the life of one person ( or a couple or family). Now to keep the audience happy, you need to post good stories and good pictures ( I hope to provide both). So to get things off started on this new blogging road, lets put on our shoes and head out! 

These are the shoes I'm putting on today, and most days to come. Good price and interesting color...works for me! I've had some comments about these, what do you think?