To celebrate that first month...

Since I promised the family I would publish some pictures on the internet, where everyone can see pictures of Joy-Joann and the family, I thought today would be a good day to finally finish the project. Today Joy-Joann is one month old. You can see pictures on the website below:

Joy-Joann Picture Website

With the exception of the PDF files and movie, clicking on the small pictures opens a new window with the photo quality picture. I would recommend downloading this picture to your PC, and printing it out from there. That should provide the best quality. The photos are prepared to be printed in photo format and photo quality paper.

Time really flies...

It is hard to believe that Joy-Joann will be one month old on Monday (in two more days). In this short time you can really see the difference in the little baby that only slept the entire day.

To provide a small idea, I did a small test with our video cam. Although it only lasts a minute, it takes up about 16MB of space. So depending on your connection, it may take a while before it starts. Here is the link:

Joy-Joann Movie from October 10, 2008

Let me know what you think.

Joy-Joann comes to the world....

Joy-Joann Caffe was born on September 15, 2008 at 10:14 a.m. (CEST - Central European Summer Time). She bounced the scales at 3,710 grams ( 8 lbs. 4 oz.) and was 53 cm long (about 21 inches). She was born at the hospital in Weinheim, Germany, about 15 Km (10 miles) from our house. Both the mother and baby are doing well and should be coming home tomorrow (Sept. 20th).

Naturally with all the excitement about the new arrival, we took a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, I have not yet found the time to publish them in the internet, but will be doing in the coming days (or weeks). For the impatient, I have published two posters containing most of the pictures that will appear on the website. These are




Day 1 with Joy-Joann, Anja, Vera, Annabella, Grandma Irmgard and Aunt Claudia. If you would like to download this in PDF-Format, permitting it to be printed in different sizes, just click here.




... and ....







The PDF File for Day 2 can be found here.







Once Anja and Joy-Joann are home, we will update a few pictures more.

Baby Update....

With the renovations in the office and simultaneously in the house, it has been a while since I have updated the blog. Of course school summer vacation is now finished, and school has been in session for over a month now....

Four months ago I posted the first ultrasound picture of the baby. Now the ultrasound shows a rather detailed image of the face. Astounding that you can actually see the baby smiling.

Both mother and baby are doing fine. The doctor estimated yesterday that the baby is already over 3Kg (6.6 lbs.), so it will be a "relatively" big baby. The only disappointing news is that a natural delivery will most likely not be possible. On Monday we have an appointment with the head of OB/GYN at the hospital to discuss the best way to proceed, and to see if they agree that a c-section is the best alternative. Naturally we will keep everyone posted.

Germany in Soccer Fever

For the last few weeks until this past Sunday, Germany has been in soccer fever. The European Soccer Championships, which occur every four years, have been taking place in Austria since the middle of June. There were not a lot of expectations for the German national team, but a lot of hope that perhaps they could build upon the performance in the World Championships in 2006, were they finished third.

The German national team built upon these hopes, won in the group matches, played an outstanding game against Portugal in the quarter finals and won, beat Turkey in the semi-finals qualifying for the Championship round on Sunday against Spain. Spain had not won a European championship since 1964, whereas Germany had already won three times. Spain was the favorite going in, since they had not lost any games (Germany lost against Croatia in the group matches), and the Spanish team had scored more goals than another other team. Germany played a good game, had several scoring opportunities they were not able to capitalize on, or the results may have been different. They lost 1 - 0, but that in itself is an accomplishment against a team that played extremely well together and made very few mistakes. While everyone is disappointed that Germany lost, they can still be proud that the German team gave 110% until the last minute.

The team spirit not only affected the adults, but also the children. Many of the children, like Annabella, painted their faces in the national colors to support the team.

After months of preparation, the day finally arrived...

Vera has been taking preparatory course for her Confirmation for the last several months now. Almost every Thursday evening she met with the other members of her group and their "spiritual counselor" to help them prepare for the sacrament of Confirmation. They also spent a weekend on retreat together to get to know one another better and be able to talk freely.

Along the way the group achieved some positive accomplishments. Among these, was a lunch during Lent for the church members. This generated 800 EUR (approx. $1,200) which the group donated to a mission in Mannheim for homeless teenagers. The mission provides shelter and a warm meal for homeless teenagers, plus counseling to help get themselves "back together".

The group also produced a "commercial" for Christianity (I used this word instead of Catholicism to reflect the Ecumenical philosophy here in Europe) during their retreat weekend. After doing the initial TV shooting during the retreat, they worked afterwards editing the cuts into the final film and recording the sound track. The final result was played at the Confirmation services. The key message was reaching out to help those in need. It was simple, but well done and well received by those in attendance.

Since most of the family around the world was not able to come and celebrate, I set up a web with some pictures from the day. You can find the photos from Vera's Confirmation (June 15, 2008) on:

>> to Vera's Confirmation Photos

This page contains all of the small pictures (thumbnails) for a quick overview. Clicking on the thumbnail opens a larger version of the picture, this time formatted better for printing (in 5" x 7" format).

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

New surprises when you least expect them...

Not all surprises in life are good ones, but this one turned out to be.

My wife Anja celebrated a post 35 birthday in January. Since then she has been on a diet, eating less but not losing any weight. Combined with a few other regularities, something did not seem to be working right. Being a registered nurse, you also don't go running to the doctor with every little problem, since most small problems correct themselves. By March when there was still not improvement, we (the girls and I) finally convinced her she needed to go to the doctor for a check-up. With Easter coming so early, and the Easter holidays here (almost 3 weeks off from school), she decided to make an appointment once school started again.

The little surprise can be seen in the following picture:


We are expecting a little girl sometime around the end of September or beginning of October (depending on which doctor you ask).

Anja is now relieved and has stopped with the diet. We are all excited about the new addition to our family.

Both Anja and the baby are doing well, so everything is on course for a normal pregnancy.

We'll keep things up-to-date here for all our family and friends.

Grandma Irmgard Celebrates Birthday

Irmgard celbrated her 71st birthday last week, but we were not able to all get togther to celebrate it. Ian was able to get four days off, and was able to come and join us to celebrate the Easter holidays. (He is on assignment here in Germany) That was a perfect time to celebrate Irmgard's birthday.


Since not everyone could be there, we took a couple of pictures so everyone could enjoy the celebration.

Anja and Irmgard sharing a little joke.

Grandma with the grandchildren.

Of course, what would a family event be without a picture of the grandchildren together (at least those that were present)

And the snow continues

As you might expect, as the snow continues the snow man increases in size. As you can see in this picture, he made a real jump in height.





To put it in perspective, take a look at Annabella next to him. That on Easter Sunday 2008!

Sometimes there is too much of a good thing....

The snow continues. We woke up this morning and found 5 new inches of snow on the ground. As my neighbor told me yesterday, sometimes you think we are in the Rocky Mountains of southern Germany. The other neighbor also reminded me that the two ski slopes within 5 miles are not there without a reason.

At least Annabella got to enjoy the snow. Here you can see the results of her building her first snowman alone.

A Weather Surprise

With Easter approaching on Sunday and April showers around the corner, one would expect warm weather and sunshine to be controlling the weather front. This is especially true, after the rather mild winter we had this year. When we moved here last summer we were told to prepare ourselves for the heavy snows in winter. A small ski slope is just on the other side of the mountain. The result was just a few inches lasting a couple of days.

The last few days the weather has again gotten very cold. On Wednesday and Thurday morning we woke to snow flurries. It covered the grass, but the streets and sidewalks were just wet. This morning we woke up to this surprise:

At the time I took this picture, we already had five inches of snow. In the following two and one-half hours we got another two inches. I think I shoveled more snow today than I did for the whole winter.

The snow is only falling at altitudes above 1,000 feet (we are at almost two thousand feet) above sea level. The temperatures will not go above freezing until either Saturday night or Sunday. At least we are getting a chance to catch up on the winter we missed. Hopefully the tulip bulbs and other flowers with survive the cold the weather and snow.

Man's Best Friend

If you like dogs, you might enjoy some pictures my sister took after the new addition to the family. You will find the pictures here:
Rosanne's Dogs

The Joy on Children's Faces

Unfortunately this year we could not all be together with the family. It is a special treat for Vera and Annabella to open and try out the presents from the family in the states. So that everyone can see "how things fit" and the joy and happiness that the gifts brought, I prepared a small collection of pictures with the different outfits. To make it easier to find, here is the link:

Link to Christmas pictures.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as the girls enjoyed having them taken. By the way, javascript needs to be activated for you to see the big version of the pictures.

Decorating the Christmas Trees

We decided this year not to put a tree inside of the house, since we have so many pine trees in the garden. We decorated the three trees on the side of the patio, as well as put out our "electric" reindeer.

Here you can see Annabella checking our work.

Has it really been 36 years....

Last month we were not able to attend the annual reunion of my old high school alumni. It is hard to believe that the school actually closed 36 years ago.

The schoool closed after our class graduated. So it what is also hard to believe that the graduation was so long ago. The time at the school holds many fond memories for me, especially in consideration of the turbulent times we were living in (1967 – 1971). The school found new friends, many of whom I had stayed in contact with after graduation. Today there are still a few that we stay in touch.

The last reunion I attended was shortly after the 20 year graduation anniversary. That reunion holds a lot of favorable memories as I was able to catch up with many classmates I had not seen since graduation. It was enjoyable to see pictures of the last Alumni reunion, put together by Richard (Dik) Ganahl (Class of ’69) on his blog. You can see the reunion at the following link:

http://rganahl.blogspot.com/

Thank you Dik!

A little time invested can make a big difference

It has been almost a month since I last worked on the blog. I was motivated by an old high school classmate, who published a reunion on his blog. [more on that in a separate entry]

Today we have added a new banner, showing the theme of the blog as belonging to the family. In the banner the photos span 3 generations. The pictures of my father were taken during his visit this summer. Also added are two polls about St. Louis. We will have to wait and watch for the results.

Return visitors may notice a small change in the style.

Hope you like it.

The wonders of Photography

Since we moved to Abtsteinach, we have taken thousands of pictures. To my surprise, I could not find one where Anja and I are together. Probably has something to do with me taking most of the pictures, and when I am not, it is Anja.

So we had to do a little maniplulation, but it finally worked. Now we have a picture together from the summer of 2007. The only thing is, the housing in the background are actually in Lohrbach and not Abtsteinach. It is the next little town on the way down the mountain.

Hope you enjoy it!

The wonderful world of Cyberworld

It works now. That is what is really amazing. Without any changes, coming back a few days later, and the weather shows up exactly where it should. Great. Now I just need a little more time to work on this.!