Trier

Hello again,

This weekend we went to visit Trier, the oldest city in Germany. Unfortunately I deleted all of the beautiful pictures I took while we were there! We will go for another visit but in case you want to see what we saw here's a link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Trier.

On a sad note we blew up another electronic device. The kids Wii AC adapter! At least they got to play with it for a few hours before it blew. That comes to a total of five; a printer, clock, hairdryer, microwave and the Wii adapter!

I'm in the process of planning Olivia's b-day party. She's sad that she won't have any of her friends here for her big day. But we are planning something very special. We going to the Neuschwanstein castle! This is the castle that was the model for the castle at Disneyworld/Disneyland! You know, Cinderellas' castle! We plan to stay overnight, I just have to make the reservations.

I heard on the radio today it's going to be a high of 60 degrees! Time to bring out shorts.

Jorge is staying very busy and working very hard at his job. He's always on his Blackberry or as his co-workers call it the "Crackberry"! We've made a rule that he has to turn it off by 8pm on the weeknight and completely off during the weekends.

I've met a very nice lady and her two kids at the library. They also homeschool and have invited us to join their homeschooling group. And we found a chess tournament in May for the kids. They can't wait. Lucas has gotten really good and now he's actually studying his chess books on his own. Olivia is just a natural, she almost beat her Dad the other day. Lucas is also writing busy writing a novel about a boy and an orphanage. He's an amazing writer, I can't wait to read his next chapter. Hope you are all doing well. Send us a note, if you get the chance! Love & hugs, JCLO

Do you want to receive an email when we update our Blog?

If you would like receive an email each time we update our blog, let us know by sending me your name and email address. We finally figured out how to do it!
Thanks, JCLO

Test

Did you get this post?

Thursday

It's still very cold here. It snowed most of the day yesterday. Lucas is doing much better; back to normal, constantly eating and always hungry. We found out from our nurse yesterday back in Dallas that the Dr. here in Germany gave Lucas 10 times the prescribed dose of medication. No wonder he had an allergic reaction!! Hope you are having a good day. Love & Hugs, JCLO

March 24, 2009

We had a very big scare with Lucas yesterday. I took him to get his regular allergy shot at 8 in the morning and he had a terrible reaction. He was just starting his first maintenance dosage. About 5 minutes after getting the shots his eyes started to turn really red and were watering. So I went to ask for a Benadryl and thought it would stop. Well it didn’t, it only got worse. His nose was completely stopped up and he was having a little trouble breathing. The doctor immediately started an IV and was giving him an antihistamine. Before it was all over they had to give him four doses of antihistamine intravenously , 1 bag of electrolytes, 4 puffs of Albuterol, nose spray and eye drops. About an 1 ½ hours after the shots his whole body began getting blotchy starting with his face. The reaction went from the inside out, it was freaky! I almost thought he was going to have to be taken to the hospital the way he looked. Very scary, I must say, but I held it together! Thanks to our Blessed Mother. She was right there watching over us all. We won’t be continuing the allergy shots while we are here needless to say. The doctor sent us home with a couple of prescriptions to make sure he’s okay. We knew he was feeling better when he started asking for food! We finally left the office around 11am. We got the shots at 8am and his feet were just beginning to clear up by 3pm! I had my Flip video camera in my purse and I took this video when the worst was over. Hugs to all, JCLO

New Friends

Sorry for the double posting of pictures. I can't figure out to take one of them off! Hope you all are well. It's been a few days since my last posting... What have we been up to? Last Saturday we went to Heidelberg to visit the castle http://www.hd-fuehrungen-mit-flair.de/neuedateien/schlossfuehengl.html and walked around downtown. The views from on top of the castle were spectacular! Although I had to hold on Jorge and/or the kids when they got too close to the edge. I'm terrified of heights! We took the guided tour and saw how the king and queen lived in those days. They lived exactly how you think a King and Queen should. You should have seen the GINORMOUS wine cellar they had. There's a pic at the bottom of this blog, look at the one with Jorge's head just sticking out at the bottom of the picture. Then you can see how big it really is! One curious thing we found out was that we had to pay to use the bathroom. Good thing I had some Euros on me when Olivia and I had to go for the first time, otherwise... well use your imagination. :) Downtown Heidelberg was a lot of fun. Tons of people, lots of shopping and eating. Lots of people eating ice cream and gelato, which seemed a little strange to me because it was so cold. Eating out here is always an adventure. You better not be hungry when you order! Before it's all over you've spent a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the restaurant. No one is in a hurry, you can stay as long as you want. It's kinda expensive with no refills on drinks, no ice, you have to pay for all your sides and you have to ask for your check at the end of the meal. Oh and dogs are welcomed! One of the wives here brought her dog and she goes out to dinner with us. They also have WONDERFUL bakeries and pastry shops. I noticed that a lot of the pastry shops had tall tables for you to just stand while you eat/drink. They also sell the most beautiful flowers here, they look so perfect they almost look fake! Another thing we noticed is that TONS of people ride bicycles everywhere! You see a pic of all the bikes on the slide show at the bottom. That was Saturday. Sunday we went to Mass on base and then ate at a truck stop in Ramstein. They had the most fabulous food there. It was delicious! This week we've really tried to stay focused on school. It's been really hard, but the kids are doing a great job. Tuesday we spent the day moving into our new apartment. It's much bigger, a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath, two story apartment in the same building. It took the kids and I most of day to move everything but we did it. We bought a family pass to use the pool on Base and we've been swimming twice. We go during the day when it's not crowded and get in our exercise. We also had a little escapade yesterday. I tried getting gas on Base but I wasn't allowed because I didn't have the "right" papers. So I thought I could make it to the gas station at the hotel we stayed at. I punched in the wrong address on the GPS and ended up at Lucas' doctors office! The tank was on O at this point so I couldn't go back. I asked where the closet gas station was and was told "oh it's just around the corner!" So I went and came to place with nothing but houses, so I ended up turning around and parking at a grocery store. I was on - O at this point. I called and left a message for Jorge. He has a meeting every morning from 8-9am. So we waited patiently in the car for him to call. Finally our Knight (along with his boss) came and saved us! I vow to never go below 1/2 a tank again! This weekend we are going to Trier, the oldest city in Germany. I'll be sure to post some new pics. Have a wonderful weekend! Love and hugs, JCLO

Our New Apartment

New Slideshow

I finally figured 0ut how to add a slideshow. Scroll all the way down to the bottom to view some new pictures from this weekend. Have a great week! Hugs! The Wylie Castros, JCLO

The Side View

Here's the field right next to our apartment.

Street View

Here's the view down our street.

Our Apartment Building

We live on the first floor.

Here's our rental car.

Plugs

We have to be VERY careful with our plugs, we've already blown up an alarm clock, a hairdryer and a printer!!

Video

Hi, I know I promised you a video of where we live today but we're probably going to move again! Trudy, our landlady, offered us a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath in the same building. So we'll most likely take it, but it won't be ready until the 15th. We wouldn't mind staying here except that we really need that extra toilet with 2 girls in the house! Today we learn about the trash. What an ordeal! We have to separate everything. Separate bags for plastic, paper, glass and regular trash. And it's only picked up every 8 & 14 days!! Yellow bags are just for paper, green for plastic and white for trash. We realize we are very spoiled and could be doing a lot more recycling at home. We would love to hear how you and your families are doing. Love & Hugs, The Wylie Castros JCLO

First Day Back to School!

The kids finally started back to school today. They weren't thrilled but knew they eventually had to get back to work! Jorge and I will have some studying to do ourselves. We both have to take and pass the German driving test. Ugh! I thought I was done with studying!!! We're all settle into our new apartment. Tomorrow I hope to take some video and to show you where we are staying. Olivia wasn't too happy at first because she has to share a room with Lucas. There might be a chance we move into a 3 bedroom, but we'll see. I'm having American Idol withdrawl. We aren't able to see American TV here. I think we have one channel, CNN. We don't watch TV at all really... there are some questionable channels here even during the day! We brought lots of books and already have a library card to the Library on base. I'm getting used to driving Jorge back and forth to work. It's only about a 10 minute drive and I have the GPS so it's a breeze. Just need to work on getting my new license. We're hoping to go site seeing this weekend. Maybe to a castle. Hope you all are doing well. Love & Hugs, The Wylie Castros, JCLO

auf Wiedersehen! (Goodbye)

p.s. Why, you ask are there so many pictures of Olivia? Because she's the only one likes to pose for the camera!!!

We found an apartment!

Today we moved into a suite at our hotel. And we were hoping and praying we find an apartment soon. Well it happened! We found a place in Mackenbach called Trudy's apartments! She a sweet older lady that was so helpful. Her accent is so thick we thought her name was Fruity! :) We would have never have found it without the GPS. It's about 5 minutes to the base where Jorge will be working. The town is beautiful and looks really old. The first thing we noticed was how clean it was. Just beautiful! We move in tomorrow and can't wait!

Guten Morgen (Good Morning)

It's 3:29AM and we all decided to watch Fiddler on the Roof. Jorge and Olivia have been up since 1:30am! It's going to take us a while to get use to the time change. Our plan is not to go to sleep until 10pm tomorow night. We'll see how that goes. Love & hugs. The Wylie Castros, JCLO

It's Friday

Today, I woke up at about 2am and thought it was around 6. Then we all got up around 4am, wide awake and ready to go! The kids and I got to go on base with Jorge this morning and I got my ID card. So now I can get in on my own. We got a short tour and it has everything we'll ever need and more! Tomorrow we're going to check out the library and wash clothes. I spent most of the day contacting apartment and rental houses. We're hoping to hear back from a few very soon. We really need to get out of this one room. It's quite a mess! Hope you all have a great weekend! Love & hugs. The Wylie Castros, JCLO

We've landed.

We landed in Frankfurt about 7:15am, which was 11:15pm Texas time. The flight was great, we each had our own TV to watch and ate dinner and breakfast. Olivia watched the Disney channel the whole way there. Jorge and I watch "Slumdog Millionaire" which was suprisingly good. Lucas watched movies on his commuter and got kicked out of first class when he got up to walk around. It's about 39 degrees and rainy. Our hotel room is tiny especially since we have over 25 pieces of luggage with us. Our first priority is finding a furnished apartment or house. Jorge spent the afternoon at the Ramstein Air Base and renting a car. We (the kids and I) spent the afternoon sleeping, I'm hoping we are able to sleep tonight! When I finally got the kids to wake up we ventured out to McDonald's, our first "GERMAN" restaurant! :) LOL We plan on going to a real restaurant for dinner. Jorge wants to try out the beer. Hope everyone is well. Thanks for all your prayers! Love & Hugs....The Wylie Castros, JCLO

We're on our way!

We did it! We finally got out of the house. Thanks to Marco and Esther who came and help us clean at the last minute. We're staying at a hotel tonight so we can get to airport on time. God bless Rod and Laura who brought us to the hotel along with our 20 bags of luggage AND then had to go back to our house and pick up a credit card we forgot!! We're exhausted but excited to begin our new adventure.