Hello from Germany

Hello all, this is Holger!

Let me start by saying that this is a great, great honour for me and Katie (actually her correct name is “Katharina”). I already said this to Tim when he called and told me about this invitation. I hadn’t heard before about this so I guess I have to familiarize myself a little bit with this platform at first. Thank you Tim, we really appreciate that. Secondly I would like to excuse the lots of mistakes, I’m sure I’ll do by writing this. Could we please agree on that we always keep in mind, we’re not talking in my native language? Sometimes for me English is really hard to speak or write and to understand as well. I comfort myself by thinking that German is even much harder allthough I am German. Isn’t it funny that sometimes people are not able to understand their native language? I think it is, specially when politicians are talking. :-)

Well, Tim has been so kind to introduce Katie and me allthough I must say that I’m not amused :-) that he said I’ve terrified Jodi by driving on the “Autobahn”. This was never my goal. I just wanted to give her the opportunity to tell Tim: “Well, I drove more than 200km/h!” To be honest, I actually drove slower than I usually do while Jodi was in the car. Seems that I’m always in a hurry!?! I think I have to think about this carefully, specially because Katie and I will have a baby boy in June this year. This is much more amazing because we were told (we have this in hard copy!!) that this never is going to happen. So I think you can imagine that it “hit us like a hammer” (of course in the most positive way). We are so happy and thankfull and other positive things are in my mind which I currently can’t tell. I’m not a real religious man and I have no idea what it was, but deep inside I think perhaps it was God’s coincidence (hope this is correct in English?).

Tim has attached a picture of Katie and me so I thought it would be a good idea to show you something about our home. Obviously it is not in your neighbourhood and if you’d like to see it in real, you’ll first have to come over the big pont. The picture was taken on a sunny day and I think that Tim will enjoy this as well, because as far as I remember, he never saw it in the sun. When he’s here, it’s always raining. Tim, have you thought about your opportunities in Nothern Africa (Sahara)? If it works there as well, you probably could be a rich man :-). (Money is not everything!)

Thank you, and I hope to “talk” to you soon.
Holger

Happenings around This part of the State.

Well it is me again,Josh.
Well I have an update for yall. Diana, my friend Chris White and I entered into the Social Science Fair for a simple grade in History Class. We won for the school in the caterogory of Political Science(Fair Tax). We then went on to county felling a little good about it. We then proceeded to win state for our age group and in Political Science. We are now on our way to Regions which is held at Kennesaw State University. We are so excited about it and can't wait to go on to state. If we make it to state we get a scholarship and hopefully we will win state if we do I believe that I major scholarship is awaiting us there. So that is a little update on all the events happening in Woodstock.

Ohh by the way Graduation is May 30th. At 7:00 at First baptist Woodstock. (God Dome).

Introducing Holger and Katie Schneider

Many of you have heard Jodi and I talking about our trips to Germany and our great freinds Holger and Katie. I have invited them to join us here, so I thought it was a good time to formally introduce you.

The map shows where they live in the small town of Neunkirchen (Ninechurches), Germany.

This picture is taken in the city of Siegen, about 30 minutes from their home on the first day of my trip in March 2007. It was cold, rainy and I was tired, but I was also excited to be back in Germany and to spend some time with both of them. Holger and Katie are the same ages as Jodi and I. Holger is my equivalent in our global office in Herborn, Germany and Katie works in a health insurance office near their home.

They have been kind to have both Jodi and I as guests in their home and treated us like kings and queens, though Holger did terrify Jodi on the autobahn. :)

Holger spent almost a month here in the Springfield with me in September of 2006 & we got to spend a lot of time with him.

Give them a warm welcome and say "Guten Tag" when you see their posts,

Tim

Boston, There We Went!

Better late than never. Here are some highlight images from our trip to Boston last fall.



First stop.....Concord and the old North Bridge...something was shot here and heard everyplace that counted...I'm sure you know the story.








Right next to the bridge is this statue of a Minute Man...bet his wife isn't too happy about that, but it was beautiful with the purple field of flowers going on forever.











Next up is the house on Goldsmith Street. They closed in the porch where we tried to kill the priest, and the bushes are over grown, but it pretty much looks the same as when we lived there.

This is the beach on Long Lake. It hasn't changed at all. There was even an icecream truck in the parking lot. I kept remembering swimming lessons at 7am, freezing with nothing but towels to keep us warm.

We stopped at Kimball's Farm for ice cream. It was delicious, but so hot that it melted faster than we could eat it. The place is huge with resteraunt, gift shop, putt putt golf, etc.

Going to Cali!

On February 16th Josh, Myself and my good freind Mark are all flying to San Fransico for a week of sight seeing and general mayhem. I am going to bring a laptop and the camera so we can keep you posted on our daily adventures.

If you would like us to pick anything up for you while we are out west, just let me know.

Tim