Happy 2009 Everyone!! 2008 just flew by for us as I am sure that it did the same for most of you as well. Let's see if we can do a quick re-cap of what the year 2008left us. Back in February of 2008 Matthew turned 4 years old. It is hard to believe that he is growing up so fast! In March the boys and I snagged a hop out of Spangdahlem Air Base and flew home on a cargo plane. Allan needed some quite time to study for his promotion test so we escaped for about a week and a half. It is a short trip with a lot of shopping and family time stuffed in. Zachary spent the majority of the trip with a double ear infection and a nasty cold. We went to go see Uncle Chase at his fire station for a personal tour and Zachary threw up every 10mins or so. That was fun! Poor Uncle Chase. I am sure that they were ready for us to leave! About a week after we got back to Germany Allan's mom and dad made the long trip over here from Wisconsin. They packed in a lot of sightseeing in the 10 days that they were here and of course the boys LOVED seeing grandma and grandpa. It was also nice to have them here for Easter. In April we went to our first big amusement park here in Germany and Matthew rode his first big boy roller coaster. He loved it and rode 2 times. Germans aren't sticklers for the rules, hence the 12 year olds drinking and buying beer at the local joints, so although he didn't make the age restrictions he certainly was tall enough. Also in April my brother Chase popped the question to his longtime girlfriend Lauren so we are now anxiously awaiting their nuptials in 2009. The end of April and most of May took Allan to Ramstein Air Base for the NCO Academy for 6 long weeks, but now that he is a graduate he can sew on Master Sergeant when the time comes. Over Memorial Day weekend we made the 9 hour trek with 2 other couples to Normandy, France and we went to all the major hot spots from World War II. Talk about a history lesson!
June was one heck of a month in the Sell household. It started off with our first middle of the night ER visit. Zachary was climbing into our bed at about 3:30am and he slipped on the side rail and hit his chin on our solid oak bed frame. Poor baby = ( So I was the lucky one that got to take him to the hospital where he got his chin glued up. Allan did a good job putting some strips on his chin to stop the bleeding and to pull the skin together so when I got there the Doc looked at me like I was some kind of over protective mother that likes to take her kid to the hospital at 4 am when he falls down and get a scratch. However, when he took the bandage off he did the little "ah ha" nod. Allan did such a good job that he didn't realize that the cut was so deep. It took me and a nurse to hold him down so that the doctor would glue him up. What an ordeal. I am certainly not looking forward to our first broken bone which I am sure is just around the corner, or any more hospital visits for that matter. On June 20th Allan turned the big 29 so this is his last year enjoying life in his twenties. He is catching up to me fast ;) I also finished up the last of the classes that I needed to complete my Master's degree so that was quite a relief. On June 26th we found out that Allan got a test score high enough that will promote him to Master Sergeant. Since he has only been in 9 years, he will be one of the last people to sew it on, but we'll take it! He will officially be a Master Sergeant in July of this year (2009). June 26th was also the day that Allan (and our family) reconfirmed our dedication to the Air Force and he re-enlisted for 5 more years. For the July 4th weekend we went to go see our friends Jason and Cheryl Sawyers in Italy. Jason is stationed at Aviano Air Base and Jason and Allan were both at Dyess AFB in Abilene together. It was nice to catch up with them and to see some of their area. They were great hosts and took us to the beach and also watched the boys while Allan and I snuck away to Venice for the day. It was fantastic and so nice to spend the day with just the 2 of us. We also fell in love with gelato (Italian ice cream) and couldn't get enough! In August Allan decided to go home for 3 weeks as his grandfather was getting very ill. After about a week of being back home Allan and his family lost Grandpa. Grandpa died at almost 91 years of age. Matthew still talks about him and asks lots of questions about his great grandpa. I am so glad that the boys got to see him the summer before ('07) and spend some time with him. Grandpa was a very tender hearted man with lots of love to give. He is deeply missed. On a brighter note, Allan got to say goodbye in person to his grandfather and got to spend a lot of time with his family in Wisconsin. Allan came home at the end of the August, the same day that Chase and Lauren came to visit so Matthew and I had a big pick up at the airport! We didn't have enough room for Zachary in the car too so he went to school that day. We had a great time with Chase and Lauren and did A LOT of sightseeing. Our good friends watched Matthew and Zachary for 4 days while the 4 of us went to Athens Greece to visit my Aunt Irene. She was a wonderful hostess and let us all crash at her small apartment. We had a terrific time and went to the Acropolis and the beach and other wonderful places. It was a much needed vacation! The day after we got back from Greece Chase, Lauren, my friend Felicia and I took a quick road trip to Paris. Chase and Lauren ended up staying about an extra 4 days since they were to leave the same day that the Hurricane was to hit Houston. We loved having our "roomies" and we miss them =( About a week after they left, Allan and I went on another wonderful trip. This time we were off to Oktoberfest in Munich. We went with our good friends Adam and Sarah and about 15 other people from our base. We had a BLAST! It was such a good time and I had no idea that it was so huge! I would definitely recommend that everybody, especially the beer drinkers, take a trip there. Lets see, now we on to October. On the 6th Zachary turned 3 years old. He is a sassy little 3 year old, much more terrible that the 2's, but such a joy to be around. He can be a sweetie when he wants to. On the 15th I got my COMPS exam for my degree. Basically it is 2 questions that are to be answered in 10-12 pages with 7-10 resources each. A lot of work to say the least! I had 1 month to complete it and send it back in and then it takes another 6-8 weeks to get the results. So that pretty much took up all of October. In November came a trip to Luxembourg to visit Patten's grave and to watch a re-enlistment. We also celebrated Thanksgiving and then on December 1st I turned the big 31, YIKES!! I also found out that I passed my final. So, sometime in the next couple of months I should have a pretty diploma hanging on my wall from the University of Oklahoma. I got my Master's degree with a focus in Human Relations. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. Then came Christmas, New Year's Eve, and now today, New Year's Day.
This wasn't the quick update that I had envisioned. It turned out to be a little bit longer than I anticipated ;) You can find pictures for about all that I talked about in the blog archive to the right of the screen. I hope that all of you have a very prosperous 2009 filled with many wonderful things! We are anxiously waiting to see what the New Year has in store for us. We know that we are moving in May, but don't know where yet and we also know that we will be going to Euro Disney in Paris in April. Other than that we will just go with the flow and see where the Lord brings us in the New Year. Love to all of our family and friends and we look forward to sharing all of our adventures in 2009 with you as well.
