Fast or Slow?

I can't decide whether the last 10 months has gone by fast or slow... I guess both depending on the day! We are wrapping up our 'first year' in Austria and headed to the good ole USA on Thursday morning.

The kids and I fly to Chicago for a few days and then on to BOise and Tri-Cities. Eric flies straight to Idaho to spend some additional time with his family. Kirk (Eric's brother) and Cherish get married on July 7th and we are all VERY excited! Julia woke up this morning and began another bride and groom drawing - complete with flower girl and ring bearer! :)

After our NW swing, we will head back to Chicago for 2 weeks. The kids and I fly back to Vienna on August 7th. All and all, we are ready for family, friends and food!! :)

We have all made some nice friends here in Vienna and we will look forward to seeing them again in the Fall... they have mostly left for their holidays already.

If you have been following the blog, I am sure you have felt a little of the roller coaster that this year felt like. When i first moved here another Expat Mom on her 4th year here said, back in America it seems like life is sort of on a straight line and here there are more dramatic highs and lows. I would agree with that statement.

My favorite part by FAR has been the travel and also the exposure to new cultures and views from other parts of the world. Such an eye opener for me and I loved every second of that. I can talk your ear off about this if you are ever interested.

My biggest low was watching my kids struggle to adjust and not being able to fix it. I still struggle with this as I try to teach myself that I cannot fix everyone's feelings and I cannot take them on as my own and let them shape who I am or how my day will go. I have not mastered this and wonder if I ever will. Is this possible for a Mom? I still pray daily that this experience will enrich our kids and help them to become more passionate, tolerant, worldly citizens. The jury is still out on this one :)!

Evan and Eric went for a huge day hike on Saturday in the mountains. After missing the last train 'down', they had to hike/run down the mountain to get their train back to Vienna. They did 29 Kilometers that day - Evan is a gamer!

Julia and I took a day trip also -- to an outlet mall about 30 minutes away and then on to Bratislava Slovakia. (about 50 min from Vienna) It was a beautiful little town that I look forward to taking another day trip to with Eric and Evan. We didn't stay long, but had a great day. Our intent was to shoe shop and to add one more Country to our list prior to traveling home! We came home shoeless, but did add our 9th Country!

One last thought for today, thank you for reading our blog. It was a form of therapy for me when we first moved and a great way to keep people updated that were interested.

Auf Wiedersehen!

P.S. I passed my German 2 exam, but have a lot of studying to do this summer to actually be comfortable moving on to German 3!!