Becca's Exciting News!!

So Becca had her doctor's appointment today. She is having a...drumroll...BOY! His name is David Alexander Henry. They will call him Alex. Both Jason and I are so excited she is having a boy. We both kept trying to tell her we thought this one was not another girl. We are excited they will have one of each.

We are moving a little slowly this week. Jason is working mids and I am trying to gear up for my ECON class which starts next week. I have so many theories swirling around in my head, I am having a hard time keeping them straight.

It is official... I filled out the paperwork to change my major yesterday. If I get accepted, I will have a double masters. One in Human Relations and one in International Relations. Say some prayers they will let me into the IR program.

Michelle has made it home from the hospital with Robbie. It looks like things are going well for her. And it seems Emma Clare is doing well with having a little brother and is helping her mom out.

Jessica, Becca's sister, is due in two weeks, but there is some talk she may go this week. She is also having a boy, Matthew. Which means Alex and Matthew will only be a few months apart and should be great friends! We are praying that she has a smooth delivery!

Our nephew, Christian, is beginning to talk and is saying mama and dada. It won't be long until we can teach him to say Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Jason. We can't wait to hear those words out of his mouth.

Our prayers are going out to all of our friends and family. May God keep you safe and we hope to see everyone soon!

Addicted to Facebook

I am finding it hard to study since I discovered Facebook. What a fantastic web-site! I can play games with friends and find people I haven't heard from in years. For instance, I am incredibly happy tonight, because I finally found my long, lost friend Janey Stoddard. Janey was a friend of mine from high school and I haven't spoken with in almost a decade. It was so good to hear her sweet little voice! Yay for Facebook and finding long, lost friends!

Papers, Papers, Papers

Since Monday I have been working on nothing but papers to finish up my class. I had to write three of them. Finally my last one is in my editors hands, Becca. Without her I would be lost. Reviewing is not one of my strong points.

Jason is a little under the weather from the Flu Mist. But he gets to spend the weekend recovering.

Becca stopped by today so I could see Cara in her Halloween outfit. She's just so cute. The monkey outfit is perfect for her since she is constantly pulling up and climbing on everything.

Here's a picture of Becca and and the little monkey:

Welcome to the World Robert Doepke, Jr. !!!

So our house is buzzing this morning. We just were informed that our friend Michelle delivered her baby on Wednesday.

She writes:

"We welcomed baby Robbie into the world today at 1:49pm. He is a beautiful young man. He weighed in at 9 pounds and 10 ounces and is 21 inches long. Daddy and Nana were wonderful coaches along with our nurse and doctor and Mommy did it without an epidural!! We are all doing great."

We are so relieved everything went so well for her!

Book Fair Pics

As you know, I was able to attend the World's Largest Book Trade Fair on Sunday in Frankfurt. I now have a little more information about the event. Originally, the Fair was held in Leipzig, but when Germany split it was moved to Frankfurt. There are over 900 vendors that attended this event each year. The doors are only open to the public on the last day and the expected 40,000 people on Sunday. Some of the vendors were willing to sell their books at half-price so they don't have to pack them up and take them back. I only bought one book. It is a book on prophets and the guy sold it to me for 20 euros. It normally sells for 40. It's a nice coffee table book and I look forward to reading it when I have some downtime. Luckily it was in English. There was one book I really wanted to buy about the Google Empire, but it was only published in German.

Here are some pictures of the event:

The class poses outside the entrance

A vendor demonstrates an old fashion system of printing books

Dean (OU site director) and I look at art that has been painted on recycled newspapers

Dr. Solomon makes his own print on a lithograph machine

Art that looks like a book



People dressed up as their favorite Anime characters for the Comic book exhibit

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our 3rd anniversary. It's hard to believe it has already been 3 years and Jason is still alive. Ha, Ha. Of course I am kidding on that.

Unfortunately we both were a little preoccupied with school and sleep, but did manage to go out to dinner to celebrate.

We already bought our anniversary gift to each other when we were in Prague. We bought a nice decanter with matching glasses. We hope to be able to settle down one day and put it to use in our dream house. For now, it sits on display.

The end of the month is an exciting time for us. Becca finds out if they are having a boy or a girl and Michelle will hopefully deliver Robbie into this world (if he's finally ready to come out). We are anxiously awaiting both arrivals.

Jason has been selected to attend a Professional Development Seminar at Ramstein later this month too. There are a few of them that get to go and he is one of the lucky ones. I am extremely proud of him and all his accomplishments.

We found out the other day that our nephew Christian is talking. He is saying mama and dada. We share in his parent's excitement. We really wish we were closer to watch him grow into a young man.

Wiesbaden

This week I have been driving back and forth to Wiesbaden for an Introduction to Graduate Studies class. Wiesbaden is about an hour away from our house and it is a beautiful drive. The class is going well and I am enjoying it.

Jason has been working and going to school. Both have been a little stressful this week, but it will get better. He just took is midterms and seems to be on track to definitely pass all his classes this semester.

Sunday the class is going to hop a train to Frankfurt to attend the world's largest trade fair for books. Here's the link if you would like some more information: http://www.buchmesse.de/en/fbf/. It sounds exciting and a great way to get out of the classroom.

It will be a few days before we have anything to post, but please check back often to find out what is going on in our lives.

Invite

Many of you have now been invited to begin viewing our blog. We are still in the developing phase and did not want to wait to roll it out to everyone. Only those who have received an invitation will be able to view and read our on-line journal. I just have a problem with someone we don't know reading our thoughts and experiences. Thank you for accepting if you have choosen too.

Welcome to our new site

Welcome to our new web-site!

It is so difficult to keep up with everyone, so we thought we would give you a web-site to find information on what is going on in our world.

We will try and up-date it at least once a week, but no guarantees.

We hope each of you will take time to click on it and post a note or two.