Project 52 – Week 38 – Friends, Family, Travels

It’s time for Project 52, Week 38!

2002_06 20 Friends

38 weeks ago, on my 52nd birthday, I began Project 52. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, each week I’m taking one year of my life and blogging about it. This week, I’m covering the year I was 38 — June 14, 2002, to June 14, 2003. Once again, the challenge is summarizing, not posting all the wonderful pictures, and trying to get it down to one post.

Last time, I mentioned that on my 38th birthday, we were in Chicago, where Jade (then called Josh) was competing in the National MathCounts competition.

Now, the two previous years when Josh had done very well in MathCounts but hadn’t quite made the national DoDDS team (6th when they needed to be 4th), those years the team had gone to Washington, DC, to compete. So my heart had gotten set on the year that Josh made the team we’d go to DC. And then when Josh did make the team — the competition was in Chicago!

So — we decided to make a trip to DC on the way home from Chicago. Steve had to get back to work, but Josh, Timmy, and I made a stop in Virginia to see my dear friends Kathe and Darlene.

We stayed at Kathe’s house. Kathe now had two kids, Tim and Ben. They are the same distance apart as Jade and my Tim — only my Tim is the youngest and Kathe’s Tim is the oldest. (First Timothy and Second Timothy. Back then, my Tim was Timmy and Kathe’s Tim was Tim. Who knew they’d ever live near each other?) Here are Kathe and Ben.

2002_06 1 Kathe and Ben

And we spent a day in DC.

2002_06 2 Tims Smithsonian

2002_06 3 Tims

2002_06 4 Tims

2002_06 5 DC

2002_06 6 DC

2002_06 7 DC

Oh look! Darlene’s oldest, Ryan, was born by then, and was with us in DC.

2002_06 8 Ryan

2002_06 9 DC

2002_06 10 Smithsonian

Here’s an extra cute one of Kathe and Ben.

2002_06 11 Kathe and Ben

This was another day in DC. We wanted to go to Ford’s Theater (because of Tim’s project on Lincoln), but it was closed. We did see the room where Lincoln died.

2002_06 12 DC

(Kathe was such a nice hostess, taking us all around!)

Finally a picture with Josh! Later, Kathe took us to Shenandoah Caverns. Next to the caverns, there’s a parade float museum. We explored it for awhile.

2002_06 14 Shenandoah

2002_06 15 Float

2002_06 16 Shenandoah

Back at Darlene’s house, little Ryan was at an adorable age!

2002_06 17 Ryan

2002_06 18 LeVaults

Our friends the Ciufos (from Germany and Illinois) were now stationed in DC, so they came to see us at Darlene’s house and all the kids played together.

2002_06 19 Ciufos

2002_06 20 Ciufos

It wasn’t quite the 4th of July, but we set off fireworks while we were in America.

2002_06 21 Fireworks

And that was the second time I got to visit Gateway Community Church, then meeting at Rachel Carson Middle School!

2002_06 23 Friends

2002_06 24 Barsottis

Josh enjoyed Kathe’s dogs.

2002_06 25 Dogs

A Group Picture before we went back home.

2002_06 26 Group

Back home, Germany was doing well in the World Cup! This picture was taken out our window.

2002_07 1 Deutschland

We’d spent our money on the trip to America, so we did shorter trips that summer. Here’s Schloss Dhaun.

2002_07 2 Schloss Dhaun

2002_07 3 Schloss Dhaun

2002_07 4 Dhaun

2002_07 5 Dhaun

2002_07 6 Dhaun

It’s always fun to fill a doorway! (Or window?)

2002_07 7 Timmy Window

2002_07 8 Dhaun

We did an overnight trip to go to LEGOLAND Deutschland, which was quite new.

2002_07 9 Legoland

2002_07 10 Legoland Lion

2002_07 11 Legoland

2002_07 12 Legoland

Now that I think about it: Josh is probably missing from the LEGOLAND photos because that was when they were in Ireland! Josh again went to the Ireland Centre for Talented Youth program at Dublin City University. This time we put Josh on the plane and didn’t get to take an Irish vacation ourselves. So it seemed like a good idea to do something special with Timmy. (My 2002 calendar is missing is why I had to remember that.)

Timmy turned 8 years old at the end of July.

2002_07 14 Timmy's Birthday

2002_07 15 Timmy's Birthday

Josh was back. They did not like getting their picture taken and had painted their fingernails in Ireland. (Perhaps there were some clues about their true gender? It was soon after that they grew their hair out.)

2002_07 16 Jade

We also took a trip to Detmold in northern Germany when my sister Marcy toured there with the Continental Singers.

2002_07 13 Detmold

2002_08 1 Detmold

Detmold had some amazing rock formations. And now Josh is the one letting me take their picture.

2002_08 2 Detmold

2002_08 3 Detmold

2002_08 4 Detmold

We visited Hameln on that trip.

2002_08 5 Hameln

That Fall, Timmy started 3rd grade and Josh started high school!

2002_09 2 Timmy 3rd grade

2002_09 Josh 9th grade

In October, my cousin Jani came to visit! We took her to stay with her former college roommate from Switzerland, traveling through the Black Forest.

2002_10 1 Jani

The Swiss family was charming, and fed us Raklete. We liked it so much, I bought Steve our own Raklete grill for his birthday that year.

And one of my favorite translation stories happened there. Jani’s friend was married, with an adorable two-year-old son. I mentioned how adorable the boy was. The father got out his dictionary and said, “Yes, he’s cute, but he gets this… raving madness.”

I laughed so hard, because I knew exactly what he meant! But I’d never before heard a child’s temper tantrums called raving madness. The perils of dictionary translation!

After dropping off Jani, we went back home by way of “Heidi’s Alp.” So beautiful!

2002_10 2 Switzerland

2002_10 3 Heidi's Alp

2002_10 4 Heidi's Alp

2002_10 5 Heidi's Alp

2002_10 6 Heidi's Alp

2002_10 7 Heidi's Alp

2002_10 8 Heidi's Alp

We drove through Liechtenstein on the way home, simply to say we’d been in another country.

2002_10 9 Liechtenstein

Jani came back to us before going back to America. Steve was on a trip, but I took her to Heidelberg.

2002_10 10 Heidelberg

2002_10 11 Heidelberg

2002_10 12 Heidelberg

2002_10 13 Jani

And another favorite, Burg Rheinfels:

2002_10 14 Rheinfels

2002_10 15 Rheinfels

2002_10 16 Rheinfels

Here’s the Raklete grill we got for Steve’s birthday. It’s a party and a meal both! You grill at the table. Put meats and veggies on top, and melt Raklete cheese underneath. Also boil some small potatoes to serve with it. So yummy! And it’s a lot of fun as each person cooks their own. (It’s making me hungry just thinking about it. Steve got to keep the grill when we left Germany.)

2002_11 1 Raklete

And in January 2003, we moved to Sembach Village. This was our fourth and final home during our 10 years in Germany. We’d never been crazy about the Alsenborn house. The Sembach house was no Gundersweiler and had no view, but it was very large with five bedrooms, a storage room, a living room, a huge den, and two kitchens. (For awhile, it had been rented as two apartments.) And we could still walk to great hiking.

2003_01 1 Moving

2003_01 2 Moving

2003 did not start well. I purposely planned to take two weeks to move, thinking that would take off the pressure — but it just prolonged the pressure. And on the day when we had rented a truck to move the big stuff — It snowed six inches.

We had a fiasco with trying to get our ID cards renewed — multiple trips to Ramstein. We all caught the flu that year and were each sick for at least a week. I got a sinus infection that stayed with me for weeks more. And lots and lots of headaches to go with that.

And then my Mom had a heart attack, at 61 years old. That took me by surprise. Her grandmothers were both long-lived. I hadn’t realized that one of her grandfathers died of a heart attack. Fortunately, it didn’t kill her, though she had bypass surgery, and we later came to think that surgery may have caused her Alzheimer’s to start sooner.

In 2003, though, I did sign up for a writing course with Gotham Writer’s Workshop. I ended up starting my second children’s novel, which I eventually did finish. It was nice having a course to work on — kept me doing it.

We didn’t do anything for our anniversary that year, since we were moving. But with Josh old enough to babysit, we went on dates more often. Steve started taking me to the opera in Kaiserslautern. The first one we saw was MacBeth by Verdi. It was an interesting experience to see an opera based on a play written in English, sung in Italian, with a German translation flashed on a screen above the stage. I could read German well enough to follow along what was happening.

In March, we started traveling again. We went to the Mathimatikum, “The World’s First and Only Math Museum” in Giessen.

2003_03_01 Mathematikum

2002_03_01 2 Mathematikum

2002_03_01 Mathematikum

2003_03_01 4 Mathematikum

2003_03_01 5 Mathematikum

2003_03_01 6 Mathematikum

2003_03_01 7 Mathematikum

Josh turned 15 on March 19.

2003_03_19 1 Josh's Birthday

2003_03_19 2 Josh's Birthday

But sadly, right around Josh’s birthday, the war in Iraq started. Which meant that all field trips for DoDDS schools were cancelled. Which meant that the big Brain Bowl competition, which Josh had been working toward for months — was cancelled. I did get to see Josh play against the faculty, and they were awesome. Each Brain Bowl team has to have one student from each grade (as well as I think two alternates who can be any grade). That year they had an outstanding team because the Senior who had been on the team four years was super good — and Josh, the Freshman, was super good. But alas! They didn’t get to prove their prowess that year. And the next year, they didn’t have Seniors who were quite as strong.

We were planning to send Josh to Ireland the next summer, and this time we were paying, so we didn’t do a big trip for Spring Break, either. We did some day trips.

We went back to Rheinfels — but this time Josh wrote a script and filmed a movie there — the Monster of Doctor Flugenstein. It was tremendous fun, and I enjoyed seeing the kids be once again enthusiastic about visiting a castle!

2003_04_09 1 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 2 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 3 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 4 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 5 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 6 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 7 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 8 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 9 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 10 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 11 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 12 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 13 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 14 Rheinfels

2003_04_09 15 Rheinfels

On April 13, we drove out to Verdun.

2003_04_13 1 Verdun

We touched Castle #136, the medieval Porte Chausée.

2003_04_13 2 Porte Chausee

Here’s what I wrote in my journal:

Sunday we drove two hours out to Verdun. It was another glorious day. We got a snack at the lovely Meuse waterfront and touched Castle #136 — The medieval Porte Chausée. Then we went to the Underground Citadel and did the ride that takes you through a re-creation of war time in the citadel. Finally, we drove out to the now nonexistent village of Fleury to the Battle of Verdun Memorial and Museum.

We learned about the horror of World War I. It’s no wonder the French are not in a hurry to go to war again!

Our new home had lovely Spring flowers.

2003_04 1 Tulips

2003_04 2 Crocuses

2003_04 3 Bubbles

Then when June rolled around, Steve’s parents came June 4-11. One of our trips with them was to the Rose Garden in Zweibrücken. We had a wonderful lunch featuring fresh Spargel (asparagus) there.

2003_06_07 Eklunds

2003_06_07 Gram E

2003_06_07 Roses

2003_06_07 1 Roses

2003_06_07 2 Roses

2003_06_07 3 Steve and Gram E

2003_06_07 4 Roses

2003_06_07 5 Roses

The next day we went to a Medieval Fest at Castle #139, Burg Satzvey.

2003_06_08 1 Burg Satzvey

2003_06_08 2 Burg Satzvey

2003_06_08 3 Burg Satzvey

2003_06_08 4 Burg Satzvey

2003_06_08 5 Burg Satzvey

They even had a jousting demonstration.

2003_06_08 6 Jousting

2003_06_08 7 Jousting

For my 39th Birthday, we had to go to a castle. I chose Neckarsteinach on the Neckar River, a town with four castles, the “Vier Burgen” above it. There was a hiking trail to all four castles. So we visited Castle #140, Hinterburg, Castle #141, Mittelburg, Castle #142, Vorderburg, and Castle #143, Burg Schadeck.

2003_06_14 0a Zu den Burgen

2003_06_14 1 Castle

2003_06_14 2 Castle

2003_06_14 3 Castle

2003_06_14 4 Castle

2003_06_14 5 Castle

2003_06_14 6 Castle

2003_06_14 7 Castle

2003_06_14 8 Castle

2003_06_14 9 Hiking

2003_06_14 10 Neckar

2003_06_14 11 Castle

2003_06_14 12 Castle

2003_06_14 13 Castle

Looking back on that year, I remember a lot more tension with Steve than I was willing to admit at that time. My journals still go on about how wonderful my husband is and how much I loved him. But I may have been convincing myself that everything was fine. When he does show up in photos, he’s just not as thoroughly enjoying himself. He went along, but his heart’s not in it like it used to be. Which makes me sad, looking back.

But — our kids were getting older, we were still traveling, I still loved my job, and I still loved living in Germany. We were now very close to the base, which added many levels of convenience. The bus stop situation was better, so I believe Josh was able to watch Timmy after school again. I was writing my second book, and this was the year I converted Sonderbooks, my e-mail newsletter of book reviews, into a website of book reviews.

Life was good! Next up was our vacation to Scotland the summer I was 39!

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