**BIG NEWS**

We have very exciting news that most of you have already heard, but for those who haven't..........We Are Moving Back To The States! Steve was offered a job about 3 weeks ago that will take us to Ft. Stewart Georgia. We will live about 45 minutes from Savannah and are excited to have the ocean so close. We know it is not as tempting as Germany, but we fully expect visitors to come and take a trip to Disney World with us. :) He will be working for the government and they are moving us believe it or not, so all this crap we have acquired can come back to the states with us. We do have a lot of electronics to get rid of though. We plan on leaving here anytime in the last two weeks of May. The movers will come and pack us out a couple days before and we will clean and paint and then we get to go find a suitable house for us to live in in Georgia.
I have had a lot of thoughts about this move. First and foremost, I know it is what we should be doing. Second I am very excited to be living in the USA again where English is the preferred language, and there are so many more conveniences. But, I also feel a little sad to leave my life here. Why would I pick up and move when I love my house, my friends, my ward, my neighbors, the schools, and Steve loves his job. Plus the travel has been so much fun and the list goes on. I have had such a wonderful experience here in Germany and have really come to love this country. Now, I have been told that if I could understand what is being said around me, I would have a very different view of the German people. And I don't doubt that is true, but seeing as I can't understand everyone or be friends with anyone I choose, I have come away with a very positive feel for Germans and this land.

I had two experiences today that made me happy to be going back and a little nervous about going back all within an hour. We had playgroup at a bounce house type place today where the kids could run and be crazy. I had ordered two slushy drinks at the counter and was attempting to carry them both back to the table at the same time I was carrying Brandon who is at that horrible grabbing age. Well I did pretty good most of the way to the table, but right before I got there, Brandon tried to put his hand in to the slush and in my attempt to get the cup away from him I squished the plastic cup and the whole drink splashed all over the floor. I quickly threw the cup in the trash behind me and went back to the counter to tell them that my cup was kaputt. The three ladies there saw the mess in the middle of the food court area and made a dramatic sound and then HANDED ME a roll of paper towels. Here I am holding a 7 month old with slush spilled all over their business establishment in a place where everyone is running around in socks, and they hand me some paper towels to clean it up. I was very shocked even after living here for 4 years. Now grant it, it was my mess so I guess I should have to clean it up but how would I do that with a baby, and did they not care about their customers enough to come and clean it up so people didn't step in the sticky juice? So, I did the best I could after passing Brandon off to a friend and thought the whole time how nice it will be to go back to a country where they will come out with a mop and clean up my mess and then they will ask me if they can get me another drink. Customer Service has become a very valuable thing to me.

Shortly after this incident I am talking to my friends who are all American(one is British) and I ask Tracy how old her oldest child was when she left her home alone. Her oldest Lauren is 8 I think. She looked at me surprised and said she only left her home for maybe 15 minutes once while she ran to the train station down the road. Well, this surprised me since I leave Steven home alone (without any brothers) for about half hour or so occasionally. This got us in to an hour long conversation about how our mindset is going to have to change when we move back to the states, because that kind of stuff is so not allowed. Tracy was saying that if I left Steven home alone in the states I would have child protective services at my door so fast it isn't even funny. That scares me!! Our conversation taught me that it is probably not safe for Steven to walk to school alone, which he has done everyday this year and he is in first grade. It wouldn't be a good idea for me to let my boys go to the bathroom by themselves at McDonald's or a bounce house type place, which I do all the time here. I could get arrested if I leave Steven (who is 6 1/2) home alone for half hour, or if I leave kids in the car to run in to the gas station, which I do quite often. Can I really not send my kids outside to play with the neighbors without being there to watch them?? What a horrible way to live. I am sure it won't feel so bad once I am there, but it does make me sad that I am leaving the safety of this country for one that is much less safe.

Anyway sorry about the long story, I have just constantly been doing the...."I am so excited for this, but so sad to be leaving that" ever since I found out we were going. I am going to miss this place terribly, but I have no doubts this is what we are suppose to do. So... all of you that paid the money to come and see us this year, be glad, cause we are outta here.