at Sausenburg ruins

May 30, 2012. We hiked up to Sausenburg castle ruins today with the English speaking students from our school. I took some time to make a sketch of the tower, while the kids cooked hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire for me. This may be my last time up to the ruins, and is one of those places I will miss. A few years ago I used to hike up to this tower every day for exercise.

end of May

May 29, 2012. A beautiful day in Kandern. After school, I took a couple of art students out today and sketched this familiar scene by the stream. Feels good to draw again. We packed up our entire house and sent every worldly good off to California today. Our crazy month of May is nearly over, and I'm looking forward to finally being able to take a breath and look around. My daughter was just turning 3 when we got here to Germany, and now she's graduating from high school. The years have been good, but they have flown by.

from the balcony

May 21, 2012. After a very busy weekend, I took the last hour of daylight to enjoy the cool air on the balcony. One more full week of teaching. On Saturday we will pack everything into a container. Despite the craziness of life these days, we thank God for our energy and his provision.

flower pot

May 14, 2012. While walking through the center of town last week, I saw my lime-green Diamond Back bicycle at the bike shop. My bike had been stolen about a year and a half ago from my house, and it had been a sad day. I bought the bike in 1988, after getting out of the army, and I was sitting on my bike in 1989 when I met my wife. I don't consider myself overly sentimental about things like bikes, but this was a special thing. In just a few days we are packing up our house into a container to take everything back to the States, and the bike showed up just in time to make the trip.

countdown

May 3, 2012. The end of the year surge is upon us. Our basement is filled with packed boxes, we found renters for our house for next year, everything we're not taking is nearly sold, our container is ordered, job applications are going out every other day...life is a bit on the crazy side, but we're still having fun along the way.

in Barcelona!

May 2, 2012. Barcelona was great. Here are a few scenes of the trip. We met up with Lapin, met his wife Isabel and baby Louise...they cooked dinner for us, and we got to sketching in the city. Our time in Barcelona was amazing. Another couple, the Carlsons were with us there, and we traveled with my daughter and seven of her friends.