Football Season

During the fall months our lives are football, football, football. Being a Texas girl, it just feels right. Jason is coaching his second year as coach of the JV football team at RHS. He feels so much better going in to this year having one year under his belt. He knows most of the players, most of the plays for the game and how the whole thing goes. 

His team finished the year with only one loss. They did great and I couldn't be more proud of Jason and the leaders that he is making of these high school boys.

                                      

Jackson played his first year of flag football. He is on the same team as his friend, Lucas. Jason coaches with Lucas' dad so you can imagine there is always a lot of football talk going on. Their team lost every game, except for the last one. It was very exciting to end the season with a win! Jason did fantastic at getting the flags, punting the ball and most of all encouraging his team mates. He is a great team player who hypes the team up and makes sure they are all in line and where they should be.

Not sure if he will do football again next year as he mentioned that he likes soccer much better. But we will see when it comes down to it.

      

                                         

                                         

Pictures of Mom

Grace draws pictures for and writes letters to us all the time. I treasure a lot of the things she makes us, but this one I truly love. 

(Sorry for the crooked pictures.)

She has become quite the artist!

Grace's ER Visit

Well we knew it was going to happen at some point...Grace's first ER visit. 

It started with her dropping the milk container and splashing milk ALL over her face and hair. It was actually pretty funny right after it happened!

So she got in the shower to rinse off her milk explosion. While I was vacuuming she was spinning around in her towel and bumper her head on the entry table. It didn't think much of it at first and thought she would be okay...and then I saw her head. So off to the ER we went!

Thankfully, they glued it up and it will heal fantastic.

Halloween Festivities

The kids had fun carving their pumpkins this year. I helped Grace a bit, but Jackson on the other hand wanted no part of me helping him and did it all by himself.

They turned out great!

For Halloween night we went to a friends house to hang out and eat fun food.

Abby, Lucas, Jackson and Grace.

Grace checking out her loot!

AJ Pig Eye Dissection

Jackson has a great science teacher this year who had the kids dissect a pigs eye. It was great to be able to help out and spend some time with Jackson for this. Jackson actually did pretty good considering he had to cut the muscle off, cut it open to get out the lens and invert the eye ball.

RES Wanderung

We took a wanderung (hike) aaround the base with Grace's class. It was great that it was during Jason's prep so he could join us as well. 

Grace and her sweet friend, Ava. They are just too much!

Garmisch Trip

Since Jason was in England for football, I went on a road trip with the Greens to Garmisch. I loaded up the car and took the 6+ hour road trip by myself with them. (The GPS lied at just over 4 hours).

We had a great time getting away and enjoying the beautiful fall scenery in Bavaria. 

37th Birthday

We spent my 37th Birthday low key and with the family. Jason was going out of town for football that weekend, so we enjoyed a night in. So thankful for another year with my favorite people.

16K Paris to Versailles

My friend Jennifer and I committed to running the 16K Paris to Versailles Race. Being that I hadn't run a race in a while, I figured it was time to set a goal and make it happen. Believe me when I started running in the beginning it was HARD WORK...but now I have found the love of running again and sometimes crave to hit the road and just run. 

At the expo they have a huge wall with every name that is registered for the race. So of course, we had to find ours. With the 25,000+ runners it was like "find Waldo" on that huge wall.

Race numbers claimed...

The race started at the Eiffel Tower and ran up to through the city and ending at the Palace of Versailles. 

Of course we had to get a before race selfie under the Eiffel Tower. 

The crooked picture below (wouldn't let me rotate it) shows the elevation change during the race. Eek!

The run was so much fun...but wow for those hills! Neither of us really paid much attention to the elevation changes on the course before hand. The beginning of the race was up, and more up, and them more up! But the bonus of dealing with the brutal hills was turning around and seeing a view of Paris from above. (I would of taken a picture, but there was no stopping for me, so a mental picture was taken). 

There were 3 different terrains that we ran on; cobblestones, road and trails. The one I least liked was the cobblestones...eeek! Thankfully it was only a little bit so it didn't do my knees too much damage.

The stretching after the race is just what the doctor ordered.

The next day we celebrated by buying macaroons for us to enjoy as well as to take back to our friends at work.

I would love to do this race again in the future. Great course, fantastic scenery and most of all company that I love.

Wein Wanderung

This time of year means it is festival season! We love doing the wine/culinary hike every year in our area. It was a perfect weather day, mid 60's sunshine and no wind. 

Plus the great thing about it was no kids! Jackson and Grace hung out with Mason and Willow so we could take our time and enjoy the 10 km trail.

                                           

                              

                              

(Flag) Football

Jackson is so excited to start football this year. He played playing German soccer in the past, but wanted to take a break and try out flag football. He has been practicing for a couple weeks and excited would be an understatement. Today was opening ceremonies and we woke up to before 7 o'clock him fully dressed in his uniform ready to go...and the opening ceremonies didn't start till nine! He did great on his first game, scored a touchdown (although there was a penalty on it) and ran lots of plays on the field. This boy is definitely fast and ready to play the game!

First Day of School

And so it begins...school!

We had a fantastic summer full of visitors and a lot of travel within Europe. 

I have been lazy with the blog and playing "catch-up" with our events. I have made a promise to myself that I will be better at blogging and documenting life with the Scherden's.

These kids were excited (even though they wouldn't truly admit it) that the first day of school was here. We had prepared them for about a week of early bedtime routines to get them used to going to bed at a decent hour. Thankfully it paid off and waking up for the first day wasn't too bad.

Jackson: 4th Grade

Teacher: Mrs. Chrisman, Mr. O'Connor and Mrs. Knoblauch. He has a cluster teaching system where he travels to three teachers for different subjects. This is a great group of teachers who have a great system down to teach the kids. We are so thankful for them!

Grace: 2nd Grade

Teacher: Ms. Speraw

Amanda is a friend of ours (and her daughter, Alyssa, is a friend of Grace) who we trust and know that she will have a great year ahead of her. Grace knows her, loves her and will do great this year in her class!

Burg Eltz

One of the last day trips with my parents was a visit to Burg Eltz. It is about 2 hours from us and an easy day trip. 

We were hungry along the way and happened upon this little restaurant that was tucked way inside the forest. The menu consisted of one 2 things on the menu that were made fresh and not previously prepared. If I can remember correctly the frame of the building is from the late 1400's.

 The hike to Burg Eltz from the parking lot takes about 20 minutes. Once we rounded the corner it was so neat to see the castle.

 You can see how they made the castle around the rock at the top. Very unique!

 Before we took a tour, we visited the museum where a lot of the artifacts that were found there are housed. Some of these guns were from the 1500's. 

We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside during the tour. The tour took us through the main rooms in the castle such as the dining quarters, meeting area, bedrooms and the kitchen. The most expensive thing inside the castle is a painting of Madonna and child that was commissioned by Martin Luther as a gift to the king.