This Just In

Some photos from our Friday evening...
You can see Chris's new glasses, Cole trying to drink from our bath water cup, and how much Cole loves to grab our shower curtain while I'm running the bath water. He loves that fuzzy green rug underneath him, too. He really shakes his arms and legs when we lay him down on it.
We went to watch the VCS high school boys soccer team play this afternoon against the American International School of Salzburg. The VCS guys lost, but it was a great game to watch, and a fun way to spend a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Hi

Just wanna give a shout out to Keith DeVries. What's up man? Long time, no talky.

OH, and also a big CONGRATS to my semi-pro in-law golfers. They've won a handful of tournaments recently at their country club. Sehr beeindruckend! (very impressive)

g'night

Food Dilemma Part 2...and our view

Cole and I visited Dr. Stein today. After weeks of worrying about her response to my defiance of her advice, I'm happy to say that no neck ringing or condemning took place! I told her the truth about feeding Cole solid food before 6 months, and her response was "okay" and so relaxed. She told me to keep going with the food, and that was that. All that stressing out for nothing!
Cole is growing and growing...19.5 pounds. All of our stairs PLUS a baby to carry a couple times a day is keeping me fit!
So here's my next dilemma: Dr. Stein says no dairy before 1 year old. No yogurt, cheese, or milk (of course!) BUT my Super Baby Food book says yogurt is good after 6 months. So...as I learn from my mistakes...I might try yogurt in a week or so. After the acorn squash, pumpkin, papaya, mango, zucchini, and carrots that I have waiting in the wings!
Lastly, above you see a most familiar view of our stroller and orange building up in the distance. This is the way Cole and I walk home from the Prater park after walking or playing in the baby swing. The other photo is the view, which I'm sure we've posted before, of downtown Vienna from our spot along the canal. The Danube Canal is across the street from our building, so we visit it for flip flop walks often. The longer we live here, the more I think of that view as MY view. I wonder if others do, too?

Staff Retreat

So this past weekend we had our annual Staff Retreat with the entire VCS staff. It was great fun! Chris dressed up as India Arie and did a lip sync with some other staff to her song I Am Not My Hair. Cole won the hearts of yet more people, especially his high school babysitters. They wanted to steal him from us! We played ultimate frisbee and I learned a new card game, Pit. It's full of shouting... perfect for me! It's a wonder the Luginbills haven't discovered this game yet. Maybe next summer?
The speaker this weekend, Donovan Graham, was the highlight of the retreat. He's a retired professor, and now he and his wife, Wilma, are missionaries with World Harvest in Dublin, Ireland. He spent the weekend talking about living redemptively. Basically, this means living your life like you really believe the truth about Jesus. It gave us lots to think about, and related a lot to a bible study I've been doing about the book of Galatians with some girls on staff. Just this week, I read this...
The gospel (good news about Jesus) teaches us to say:
"I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe" AND "I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope."
All in all...a super weekend!

sick, six months and six teeth

Cole Frank is sick and six months today. As the snot creeps out of his nose and he coughs and coughs, we are celebrating six months of fun life with him! He also has a total of six teeth. Two on bottom, fully out. Four on top, two halfway out and two sprouting. A new favorite toy we have is the jumper in our kitchen doorway. Cole likes to pull the magnets off the door frame.

iPoo

In the picture below of Cole sleeping, his shirt says iPoo, just to clarify since the last letter is hidden. It's a true statement, almost every day. He doesn't own a Nano, Shuffle, or Mini. He just poops, so he's a part of the iPoo club. Bet you're wishing you had an iPoo shirt right now, too, huh? Ask Dan and Andie Hanna. They gave Cole this gift!

Exciting Things!

Wake up, Daddy! Cole doesn't know the difference yet between weekdays and SATURDAY!
What a BIG boy! The green blanket in the crib is a new thing.

Since our last post, a few exciting things have happened. Our friend Heidi turned 28, so we celebrated with her at Go Wok, an Asian place in Vienna. Our friends Laura and Mayson had their 2nd baby girl on Sunday, Kayley Gayle Morrissey. Cole has pretty much ditched his 3rd nap of the day. No more powernap before dinner. AND...Staff Retreat is coming up this weekend. Every year our staff takes a retreat to a sports training facility outside of Vienna. A speaker is coming this year from Ireland, and there will hopefully be lots of time for ultimate frisbee, soccer, volleyball, naps, and of course game night and the Not So Talented Show. Stay tuned for highlights next week.

What else? Chris has been doing high school chapel announcements every Friday, and is ever so funny. He plans songs and quirky costumes to shock the kids in effort to get them excited about that week's happenings. He's perfect for the job, and the kids are learning his crazy ways.

Hmm. We had a meeting with the 9th grade parents last week, and Becca & Chris met with the 9th graders yesterday during lunch. They're psyched up to be in high school and can't wait to get involved. I hopefully will be able to help from home with things like baking for bake sale fundraisers, having kids over, and organizing activities. Chris & Becca see the 9th graders every day at homeroom, and Chris hopefully will be able to start hanging out with some of the 9th grade guys after school sometimes.

I think that's pretty much it for us lately. OH! The grocery stores and the Naschmarkt have PUMPKINS! If you didn't know, I LOVE pumpkin everything. Think the shrimp scene from Forrest Gump and insert pumpkin instead. I'm not sure pumpkin gumbo exists, though. I can't wait to get baking and carving. I recently found frozen pumpkin chunks at the grocery store, too, which means I don't need to cook my own or get some generous soul to send me cans from the U.S.A. Whew!

Nalgene Outdoor

I found this cool new Nalgene for kids today as I explored the Nalgene Outdoor website.
Pretty fun!

Back To School Night

Well, I'm sitting here at the front desk of VCS on Back To School Night. My "duty" tonight is to watch the front door and push the buzzer with my foot to let people in the front door. It's slow right now, because all of the parents are here and are roaming from class to class, finding out what their kids do every day. It's cool to see so many parents that I only see a few times all year, plus the ones I've never met and the ones I see regularly.

In about a half hour, Anne and I (Cole is home sleeping with a babysitter) are going to join Becca West in a short meeting with parents of the 9th graders. We're going to talk a little about what the goal is of having the class do activities together, service trips, the big senior trip, etc. There are a bunch of activities and fundraisers that will have to happen along the way so we'll talk about that also. We really want to emphasize that the students and parents initiate and lead most all of those things, mostly so the students learn some new skills of communication, planning, organizing finances, etc. Should be fun to get to know these kids better and have fun with them over at least the next 2 years - ideally for them, all 4 years of high school.

That's all for now. Tschuss.

Time Flies!

Time is sure flying around the Frank household...or apartmenthold! Cole supported the Indianapolis Colts on Monday morning after learning of their season opener victory. He's sitting up pretty well on his own now, and loves to reach for toys. I love the image above because you can see the smile on his face as he grabs. The other day we went to the Naschmarkt, a huge outdoor food market, and I bought sweet potatoes, pears, and sunflowers. Cole was hungry, so we bought a banana for 35 cents and I fed it to him while he sat up in his stroller and smiled at the passers by. Such fun!
Today is elementary chapel day...a day I get so excited about. I get to see the kids at VCS and teach them about Jesus. Today we're studying the first line of the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father in Heaven." I'm looking forward to it.
Last week I wore pink shoes to chapel. All the kids commented and questioned eagerly. I told them I bought the shoes 2 summers ago in the USA, and they wowed at them even more. One Phillipino fourth grade boy asked me, "do those shoes still pass even though you bought them so long ago?" That's the English translation of a German way to ask that type of question. They use the word "pass" for a lot. Anyway, I said, "yes, my shoes pass because when you get to be an adult, your feet stop growing." Puzzled, he looked at me and said, "well, my shoes just keep getting smaller." The conversation continued back and forth like this until finally I gave up trying to explain that really his FEET were getting BIGGER. Sigh...someday he'll get it! I wonder which shoes I'll wear to chapel today?

Relaxing Weekend

So we took Cole to the playground at the park in our neighborhood on Saturday, and we tried out the baby swing. He just relaxed in it, which surprised me. I guess that's good! Chris and I played cribbage at the park, too. It was a gorgeous day in Vienna.
In other news...we're sad we're going to miss Eli Manning's NFL debut tonight. His team, the NY Giants, is playing his brother Peyton's team, the Indianapolis Colts. Cole has a Colts outfit...he'll wear it proudly!
Last thing: Cole LOVES avocados, bananas & rice cereal all mixed together. We call it his magic food because he gobbles it in about 2 minutes, and before I can get the spoon back into the bowl for the next bite, his mouth is agape waiting for the next morsel of goodness.

The Newest

Our friends Mike & Kathleen Fox welcomed their 3rd

baby boy last weekend, Griffin Krueger Fox!

Cole is sitting up sometimes now on his own. Today he was mesmerized by Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?

Good Weekend

Our weekend included:

Saturday - we went to the grand opening festivities for the extended U-Bahn (subway system). This particular line was extended right by our school so now there is a stop across the street from VCS. Makes our commute much easier! Anyhow, Austrians know how to have festivities. At 5 or 6 different subway stations there were all kinds of live music with big Austrian names, stands with food and drink, free balloons for kids, free pastries at some of the new bakeries in the subway stations, etc. It was crowded with people because it's usually a good time when Austrians throw festivities like this. Tomorrow morning (Monday) I'll get to enjoy the true benefits of this extension!

Then later on, Thomas, Mollie, and Thad came over to hang out and have dinner. A good relaxing time for all. They are new to VCS and are from Mississippi. They have a blog too!

Sunday - We hung out at home with Cole, went on a walk through Prater (local park), and went to church. We've been going to a new church since the summer called C.I.G. After the service tonight, a lady approached me and asked if I was the Business Manager at VCS. I said yes and she thanked me deeply for allowing her child to come to VCS. Her son already graduated from VCS and was the first Austrian to go from Kindergarten through 12th at VCS. Now her daughter is going to VCS, starting tomorrow. There were some special circumstances that the school administration and I worked out for her to come and the mother was thanking me with teary eyes. Anne saw this and almost started crying too. (I didn't cause I'm tough). Then the daughter came up to me later and thanked me herself - pretty mature for a new 7th grader. I'm not sure if Anne will talk about this, but this was a big encouragement for her to see how it really is important that we are here and that God really is using us. Well, me too. :)

Smooth

Life has been running much more smoothly since my food dilemma post. Thankfully! We started rice cereal earlier this week, and yesterday Cole ate bananas for the first time. He gobbled it right up! He slept through the night last night, too. All this stress, though, has caused me to think about what I'm really doing this for. Why am I striving for Cole to sleep through the night and not demand to be fed every two hours? When I achieve these goals, then what can I stress about next? I'd like to say that my pure motivations are to put Cole's health and well-being first, but honestly, a lot of it has to do with my own selfishness. I don't want to lose sleep and have my milk be constantly on call. I want to protect my own agenda as much as the next guy. Cole came around and now our agenda has faded away into the distance, except for the brief golden time between 9 p.m. and when we hit the sack for the night. So...the bottom line is this. What I really want is for God to continue to change me and Chris by raising Cole, selfish agenda aside. Cole is now the practical way for God to remind us that HE really is in the driver's seat. We want it that way...when we're thinking straight!