Technical difficulties and life lately

I just wanted to write a note to explain the lack of blogging.

My computer has not turned on since February. Last week Sam's computer also died. The computer guy came to fix them and now mine works but his doesn't. We can only upload pictures to Sam's computer so unfortunately I have no pictures to share until that is fixed (which should be tomorrow, cross your fingers).

There really hasn't been too much to blog about though. Life has been slowly returning to normal around here. It's hard to believe that it has been exactly one month tomorrow since we left the hospital in Dresden and that Sam really did have brain surgery!!! You wouldn't guess it if you saw him now. It's a surprise to everyone that he is doing so well.

Me- I've been back at work and the kids have really been trying to help me with my German.There is a Summer Fest coming up at the Kindergarten and they asked me to choreograph a cheer/dance for the girls to perform! I'm honored and nervous. We'll see how it goes : )

Sam- Who you are probably most interested in- is getting fewer headaches every day. There have actually been two or three days recently when he hasn't had to take any pain meds! Usually though, he has to take at least a couple Advil. Other than that, he has been back on his feet and getting back to work. He is giving a paper in Munich in June as well as a presentation here at the Institute so he has a lot of work to catch up on. He went for a 6 mile run with a friend last week. Way to ease back into it right? He also gives English lessons 4 times a week. So his schedule is basically as it was pre- subdurmal hematoma.

Us- The weather has FINALLY gotten nice here in just the last few days. We have missed the sun so much that we couldn't resist laying outside for too many hours the last couple days and now we are both lobsters : ) Hopefully it will turn into a nice base tan for all of our trips coming up! We have been spending as much time as possible with our amazing friends here because slowly but surely, everyone is heading back to America. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we are the last to leave so we get to send everyone off. We are more sad than we expected to have our time coming to an end. Only 7 1/2 more weeks till we are HOME!

Travel agenda-
May 26th-June 3rd, ITALY
June 11th-June 15th, MUNICH
June 25th-June 28th, PARIS
July 1st-July 8th, GREECE

The rest of our weekends are booked with events in Mainz such as going away parties for friends, the festival at the kindergarten, a charity event with our church and a Rhein River cruise (we live in the heart of the Rhein Valley, known for its castles and wine).

So, that's our lives right now. When we get back from Italy I'm sure I will have a billion pictures and stories to share so check back in a couple weeks!

New Post

There is a new post but it is below Sam's post for some reason... scroll yourself on down : )

Thanks From Sam

Dear Friends,

It was three weeks ago today that I underwent brain surgery to relieve the pressure and possible systemic danger resulting from a subdural hemotoma. My CT scans indicated I had accumulated a sizeable pool of blood on the left side of my head located between my skull and brain tissue. Doctors informed me through translators that an immediate operation was necessary to drain the growing bleed and mitigate the pressure forcing my brain against my skull and stifling the blood flow from my heart. Because I thought I had only suffered another concussion, something that had become almost routine for me in college, I was shocked at how serious my injury was.

As many of you already know, this past February I began to train with a German football team across the river from us called the Wiesbaden Phantoms. Despite rolling over a new decade (I’m now 30), I was energized by the opportunity to play again and found it an exciting disport to acquire more of the German language and meet new friends. The coaching staff and players were a lot of fun to be around and after an initial scrimmage against a neighboring team, I began to feel more confident (perhaps reckless) with my play. That all came to a halt towards the end of the fourth quarter of our first game when I puttered off the field in just enough time to collapse on the sideline. I remember the dizzying effects of a headache, nausea, and my hearing and vision going in and out. Long story short, after a quick ambulance ride and a couple of CT scans, I found out that I had done some serious damage to my head and only surgery increased my chances of avoiding further complications. This, while Jamie was marooned five hours away in Mainz.

Three weeks later and I’m back safely in Mainz with Jamie as things slowly return to their normal ebb. I want to finally take the opportunity to write a concluding blog to the thread Jamie began requesting prayers for my recovery. I think the most pertinent and important thing for me to say now is “Thank You.” Jamie read, and I have since reread, many of the prayer emails and diverting anecdotes that were my only source of levity in the hospital. And though Jamie could only whisper these stories to me (anything above a whisper in my room was tantamount to an alarm), we made them the centerpiece of our days together. Every bit of news sent our way, barring some unruly headaches, we devoured—from the latest on the Twins, Tebow’s new home in Denver, and Obama slamming Wall Street, to more personal stories of home renovations, falling off rooftops, victorious potty-training, and a spate of meaningful prayers and meditations. This tremendous outpouring of random, sincere, and remarkably uncensored emails brought us tears and smiles and even courted my 70+ roommate over to hear some translations in our remedial German.

Predictably, I’ve happily given up football and am grateful I made it out of the game without lasting injuries. Jamie and I have never witnessed first-hand the powerful and undeniable effects of concentrated prayer. I was originally pegged for a craniotomy when doctors first saw my scans, a procedure that involves removing a large portion of my skull to let my brain “breath.” This naturally would have been a far more invasive surgery with its own roster of risks and protracted recovery. Instead, as so many prayed for, the doctors opted for a simpler procedure that involved drilling holes in my head and attaching three tubes to drain the remaining blood and monitor brain activity. Rough as it sounds, this surgery seems to be old hat for most neurosurgeons and is actually quite common and relatively safe.

Finally, aside from my sincere gratitude to everyone for their consistent prayers—and I don’t want to shortchange that—I want to laud the efforts of my wife throughout the ordeal. Who’d have thought ten months after taking vows Jamie would be sitting alone at my bedside in a foreign country following brain surgery? With the support of some very helpful friends in Mainz and constant uplifting emails, Jamie very creatively juggled murky German medical instructions and insurance forms, fielded incessant phone calls and emails, made daily food-runs to satisfy my quirky appetite, and prayed fervidly for my complete restoration. In short, she was unflappable and I am lucky to say she is mine.

Thank you, again, old friends and new, for your compassion and assistance in our hour of need. And please stay tuned to our modest travel blog for somewhat lighter sketches of our time in Germany.

Sincerely,

Sam

Matt in Mainz and my 23rd

As you may have read from Sam's previous post, his recovery has gone much faster than we first were led to believe. We are so blessed to have had such an unexpected week of quality time with Matt. As much as Sam was feeling up to it (we were at the mercy of his unpredictable headaches) we really tried to take advantage of the opportunity to show Matt around. The past 9 months we have been wishing we could share some of our European adventure with our family, so it was wonderful to have him. We did our best to give him a taste of the epitomy of German culture in his short time here. I think we did pretty well; he got to eat a Doener, a Frankfurter brat, German pastries, schnitzel and, of course, try some beer. We also took him to the Market, walked along the river and most importantly, introduced him to some of our best friends here.

This was the view from our window the first night when we had some friends over for a game night. Of course, everyone went to go get their cameras and come to our window. We are lucky to have this view of the Cathedral!

The next day, we took a nice drive in our rental car across the river to Wiesbaden (home of the Phantoms). Here is our favorite park.

This is the Marktkirche (church). Never fails to impress me.

One night we went to the the Rhein River "beach". It is so blatantly fake but I love it! They do a pretty good job with the sand, tiki huts, lounge chairs, palm trees and even a sand volley ball court! The night we were there the moon happened to look like a carribean sunset!

Our amazing friends, Jen and Evan : )

Thursday was my 23rd birthday and even though my husband had brain surgery just the week before, he still insisted on planning the most wonderful day for us!

He began by making me a delicious veggie omelet. We waited for Matt to come over and then Sam packed us a pic-nic lunch and we went to the Volks Park to eat, lay in the sun and play frisbee (I know, too soon after surgery - doesn't phase him).

For dinner Sam told me he gave Matt some money and told him to go explore Mainz so we could have dinner alone.

However, when we showed up at the restaurant...who was there? Matt - along with our friends Evan, Jen and Stewart : ) Sneaky, sneaky!

This is the resataurant; the permanently docked ship on the other side of the bridge from us. You can see the Mainz cathedral across the Rhein.

When we came back to our place for games our friends had brought homemade french silk pie...

Cupcakes...

AND Gummie bears!

A fabulous birthday, I must say! Thanks everyone : )