Nürnberg

The next day I left for Nürnberg by train: I had a presentation to give at a nearby University. I arrived early in the afternoon, dropped my things at my hotel, and ran off to explore the Altstadt or old city.


Old Nürnberg is surrounded by an incredible wall. I can't believe the view of it I had from my hotel room:


On my return flight, I sat next to a gentleman who remarked that Europe is filled with churches, any of which, were they located in the US, would be national treasures. Nürnberg is no exception.

St. James the Less, in Jakobplatz. I attended an English-language service here (Episcopal) on Sunday night.


St. Lorenz.


And others.


This particular church has a special place in my heart. Or my stomach, depending on your perspective.


The reason is that it overlooks the Bratwursthausle where I had dinner my first night in Nürnberg. The waitstaff was ... unappreciative ... of the fact I was American. However, the sausage, beer, potato salad, and pretzel (with mustard!) were fantastic.


Like Dresden, Nürnberg is situated on a river (the Pegnitz).


Nürnberg is also home to a remarkable fountain, dating to 1385 (the original is now in a museum, pictured is a replica).


And so ended my adventure in Germany! Nürnberg is definitely a city I'd like to return to when we can all go and see some of the sites, for instance, the Playmobil theme park and Train Museum!

Another day in Dresden

My next chance to go out into the city was the following Friday, after my conference was over. I hadn't had a chance to go shopping for goodies for Sarina or Micah yet, and so it was time to see what I could find before leaving for Nürnberg the next day.

It wasn't a terribly nice day out: it was cold, windy and rainy. I started out by walking along the opposite of the Elbe from my convention center. I came across the spot from which the artist Canaletto captured the view of Dresden back in 1748.


Things look a bit different 250 years later, though some features of the painting remain.

Greetings from Dresden

I'm in Germany this week. Back in September, I submitted a paper which was accepted for presentation and publication. This was great news, of course, as this was the first time I've been able to publish results from my dissertation. On Sunday, I started traveling, from Charlottesville, VA to Dresden, Germany-- over 4000 miles!

My trip started out quite well, with a free airline ticket! Apparently the flight from Charlottesville to Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, was ''overweight.'' I checked in, I was asked if I wanted a free ticket in exchange for taking a cab instead (and of course, United paid for the cab, too).

I had a nice cab ride, and got to Washington about the same time I would have if I had flown.

Next up was my 8 hour flight to Frankfurt. I arrived in Frankfurt just after 7 AM local time (6 times zones different from EST), somehow needed to be able to stay up the whole day to beat my jet lag.

I finally arrived in Dresden at 10:30 AM local time, and by early afternoon had collected my conference things and eaten lunch. It was time to walk around a bit to try to stay awake.

The convention center (congress center, as they are called in Europe) is right on the Elbe river.


Snow? Yeah. It's been cold, ha.

I walked along the river toward the old city center. The architecture is quite different from what I'm used to in the US. There are a lot of statues.

Statues on the museum,


and statues on the church,


and some gold statues someplace else.


During World War II, Dresden was (without cause, it is alleged), firebombed by the US and I'm told that the old city was essentially leveled. Then started in 1989 and over 20 years, different parts of the old city were rebuilt from photographs. A stunning example of the restoration is the Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady. This was all that was left standing after the war: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frauenkirche_Dresden_1991.jpg.

This fragment still stands in front of the restored church, as a reminder of the war that brought its destruction. The church now looks spectacular.


The stained stones are from the original church, stones gathered from the rubble.

After my walk in the cold, I still needed to take a nap to get through the rest of the day. There was a reception in the evening and the conference proper started the next day. It's Thursday now, and the conference is over. If the weather cooperates, I'll go walking around a bit more in the city tomorrow. On Saturday I take a train to Nürnberg.

Whoa, snow!

We're experiencing a major snow storm in Charlottesville. I honestly don't remember when I saw it snow this much. I think we've gotten at least two feet, but it's honestly hard to tell. Naturally Micah and I went outside to play.

First, we had to figure out how to get outside. This wasn't trivial, as a fair amount of snow fell right in front of our door.


At first Micah didn't really know what to do. The snow was up to his waist, and at times higher!


He had a fun time trying to follow me on paths I created. We rolled down the hill in the backyard, and I of course had fun putting in whatever large snowbanks I could find. Micah also got buried a couple of times.




We don't own a shovel. Ha! And we weren't going to make it to the store today to buy one. I started clearing some snow using our plastic garbage can, and piled it all up in one spot.


Sarina suggested using the lid of the garbage can to sled down it.


Later on, we borrowed a neighbor's shovel to try to dig out a bit. This was hard (and I'm still not done) because by this time we had stomped a lot of the snow down.


Micah, of course, wanted to use the shovel too, so I got stuck with a blue shovel from his sand box, which we had extracted earlier.


I think we played for about two hours, and we were both soaked by the time we went in for lunch. It's still snowing out. I don't know that we'll get out to play again today, but if the weather is nice tomorrow and our clothes are dry, I think we'll be out again.

Hiding under the bed

Micah has recently discovered that he can crawl under his bed and hide there.

First snow in Charlottesville

When we woke up this morning, it was raining. It's rained a lot here since we moved. However, by the time Micah was done eating breakfast (Sarina and I had barely started), something had changed: it was snowing.

Immediately, Micah wanted to go outside. So we did, and had a lot of fun. We made snow balls, threw them on the ground, and stomped on them. We also splashed in a cold, muddy puddle.






My fingers started getting cold from taking off my gloves to take pictures. I suggested that in a little while, we should go inside to have hot chocolate.

Immediately, Micah wanted to go inside. So we did, and had a lot of fun then, too.


The snow will all melt tomorrow, but I'm grateful for it while it's here.

Recent Events

I want to update you all on recent events in our lives. I was recently pregnant and went in for an 18 week prenatal appointment where we discovered that our baby had died. Rachel Elizabeth was born still on September 5, 2009.


20 min after we returned home from her delivery, we unexpectedly rushed Micah to the ER at Children's Hospital for severe croup with strider. He was admitted for three days. On the third day we were discharged and that afternoon went to a funeral home to make decisions about Rachel's remains. A couple of days later we left for Wisconsin to bury her. Rachel was buried on September 14th.


We are now back in Pittsburgh. However, we are scheduled to move to Charlottesville, VA on October 26th so that Brett can start a new job as a post-doc at the University of Virginia on Nov. 2nd.

Given all the trauma we have been through and the stress of moving very soon afterward we are doing OK. We take each day one at a time, sometimes moment to moment. The most amazing thing about this experience has been God's presence with us. Psalm 23:4 has been true for us, that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we should fear no evil for God is with us. It is amazing to feel God's love and care in the midst of a nightmare. It doesn't mean that we don't have questions for God or sometimes feel angry with God, but it does mean that we have a very strong sense that God did not abandon us even though we have suffered a terrible loss. And even though we wonder why God didn't save Rachel, we know that God was with Rachel as she died and that Rachel is with God now. That gives us great hope and is a great comfort. We are terribly sad not to be able to raise Rachel and to show her our love in this life, but we are so glad that one day we will see her again. Even though I want to live this life to the fullest and die old, I am looking forward to the day when I will see my daughter again, hear her voice for the first time, and have the opportunity to get to know her.

Eating with a Spoon

Hello Everyone! We're back! I survived retaking two of the PC(USA) ordination exams and Brett passed his proposal. Brett is now in the middle of writing a paper for submission to DATE (a conference) and preparing for SRC TECHCON (another conference, in Austin, TX and we're all going). I am recovering from the craziness of the last month...whew!

We thought we'd update you with the latest and greatest in Micah's life tonight since we've been away for so long. Micah is now successfully and messily eating with a spoon. It is still just a new fun activity more than an eating process, but we are both impressed with his dexterity. He is also babbling up a storm. He'll rattle off whole sentences of babble very earnestly, looking you right in the eye. It's so hilarious and cute! The following capture both of these things.

This picture is Micah's I-live-in-the-'hood-and-I-eat-from-a-spoon picture.


Here's a video of dinner tonight. :-)

B-day Party

Micah is ONE (as of 07/17/08)! I can't believe that we have a one-year-old. We threw a small party for Micah's b-day a week late. We wish we could have invited everyone we know and love, but we just didn't want to overwhelm Micah. Here are some pictures of the event, courtesy of Bethany Lomelino (formerly Sunquist).

Micah's cake was SO GOOD! Peggar Dixon made it. If you live in the Pittsburgh area and need cakes (or food for any event) she is the person to contact. When I was little my Mom decorated my cakes for my birthday. I drew the cow on Micah's smash cake.


Micah ate his cake with reckless abandon! He finished off almost the whole first layer. Amazingly, he went to bed at the normal time that night and fell asleep right away.


Here is a family pic. :-)


Happy Birthday Micah!

On another note, which will be very sad for most of you, we are going to take a break from posting until the end of August. We are going out of town, then Brett's proposal defense is happening on August 18th, then I take my (hopefully) last two ordination exams starting the end of that same week. There's just too much going on to keep up with the blog! We will miss you all, but don't worry...we'll be back!

Flashback filler: Look at the mess I made!

As Micah's mobility has increased, so has his capacity to make a royal mess. Here's a look back at the beginning, when he was just beginning to hone his make-making abilities.


At least there is a strong indication that Micah will be a voracious reader.

Flashback filler: I see you!

Micah discovered some time ago that he can look through objects at other objects. I'm sure there's probably a fancy name for this. I refer to this behavior as simply cute.

Flashback filler: A baby in motion

Soooooo there wasn't a post on Friday, nor one on Monday! Sorry. There nearly wasn't a post today, either. Our lives are a little busy. Is that surprising? Anyway, here's a picture from a while back to fill in the space until we can start pictures from "up north" and, of course, Micah's first birthday!

When this picture was taken, Micah didn't know how to crawl. He could pull himself up on things, but didn't know very well how to move (cruise) in that position. One day, Sarina sat him down in the middle of the living room, because she needed to go and do something in the hall or bathroom, thinking that Micah would be fine sitting there.

All of a sudden, Sarina heard an "uuuuUUUH" noise, and turning around, saw this:


So ended the days of putting Micah down someplace with any expectation that he would stay there: Micah had most likely scooted (half-crawled) across the carpet, pulled himself up on an end table, and cruised along the wall around the corner into the hallway.

Micah now crawls very, very fast. He's also pretty close to walking: he's willing to take both of his hands off of support to turn, and such. He's testing his balance, and falling a lot as a result. We're having a lot of fun, but I think we're probably also more tired. If that's possible.

The OC, Part 10

With this post, we conclude our pictures from the OC. This post is mostly made up of pictures that I couldn't figure out how to otherwise group.

Out on a walk, Clara wanted to push Micah's stroller.


Jeremy and I, however, got stuck pushing back up the hill.


Two serious moms hard at work (100% of moms featured in this post love Apple laptops).

The whole gang.

The OC, Part 9

Micah and Ruthie in particular spent a lot of time together, since they enjoyed playing with the same sort of things. You know, Micah liked to chew on plastic corn, and Ruthie liked to play with plastic pots.


Micah also liked playing with this farm. A lot. Every morning. More on the significance of this later.


Anyway, before long it really seemed that Ruthie and Micah went everywhere together. They sat on the floor for drinks.


They were held or carried by the same person at the same time.




This was a bit of a challenge, of course. Who needs hand weights with these two around? Anyway. Micah loved the barn so much, that he invited Ruthie along once. It was a pajama-paci-date.

Could it be, love?