The Heymann Family Journal

I was named after my Grandma. Nicole is working on a painting of her. It's a dimensional painting made with paper mache on cardboard. She is going to add gold paper to it. It will be in her art portfolio. I love it! Oh, it is my Christmas gift...so it is my painting! I think I'm going to be really rich!

Thomas told the kids in his class that he will change schools. He has a hard time telling the kids why, but it's a done deal! We basically said he should say he is moving because the school is just too big. He is in a class with nearly 40 kids, and moves to a class of 20. It's just too big for him...he is such a small fish in a big sea! I think the change will do him good. He also gets to drop French. That will take some stress off.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com I'm not sure who else will run but I like Tim! I thought McCain should have picked him as a running mate.

OK, I'm thinking out loud on my blog. But here is what I'm thinking.... The house in St Ilgen-Leimen has a East facing garden. It will never get full sun. It's a great place to grow flowers, but not good for vegetables! I loved the garden in Bad Schönborn. What's more, I loved the location , the price and the house. Everything is good there except the size. We need more space. So Juergen found a company near Frankfurt that builds home additions from Shipping containers. Juergen found it(can you believe it)! And they can build us a custom addition at a good price. So Maybe it can work? I know 2 other families looked at the Bad Schönborn house yesterday. I'm not sure if they are interested in buying it? But maybe we will contact the Realtor and ask about adding on to the house. Maybe it will work? Here are the photo's I took of the house.

This is the house in Leimen-St Ilgen that has a busy street running in front of it. It's a cool house at a very good price. Maybe if we put a tall fence around the back yard I could consider it? Don't you just love the covered porch? It has everything I want and need. I just wish it was one street back? Picky,Picky, Picky! I should look at it!

We saw farm house number 2 in Bad Schönborn. It was in great shape. I think they did a wonderful job renovating this place. It has an awesome garden. A family of 4 or 5 would love this place. We just happen to be a family of 7 (and I want an office and guest room too). It would be too small for us. We could add some rooms to the place, but that would cost a chunk of change. So sad! I just love the garden, and the location! I still think my first farm house is the best thing I've seen. I took Juergen around to see the out side of houses on the market. There is a really cool house built in 1922 that is rather large. It has a low price, bigger yard (not super big but big enough) and enough space. I do not care much for the location. It's on a busy street, next to the train line. It's loud. Personally I hate the location! Love the house, love the yard, hate the location! You know the saying "location, location, location"! Sadly you can not change th...

Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the "gotta have it" scale. Zig Ziglar I found a really great house in Sandhausen. It could be perfect except for the small matter of cost. It's 100,000 Euros more then our house. Maybe we could get a loan for it (I'm pretty sure we could) but we would have to give up so much to pay that loan off. I want to get 100% out of debt, not add 100,000 Euros to my debt! So I'm going to pass...I'm not even going to look at it. I will instead be looking at a house in Bad Schönborn. It is already renovated, and it has just as much land.

I gave Juergen a few hours in a real flight simulator as a Christmas gift. He finally took those hours today. He brought Thomas along with him. He came back really excited. It was one of those roller coaster highs...AGAIN...AGAIN!!!! So I'm glad that was a hit! It's not so easy to find a man who has everything , anything. The photo's are all of Thomas. Thomas took a few photo's of Juergen, but he is a much better pilot then photographer if you follow my meaning!

Some of my earliest memories are picking black eye peas on my grandpa Moreno's farm. My grandparents grew vegetables, and so did my parents. Gardening is a passion of my dad. Sometimes I think I love plants so much because I miss him so much. I often think of what my parents would think of my garden. Someday I'm going to grow so many vegetables I'll need to sell them or give them away. And I believe that's just the will of God for my life. I see a garden like an artist sees a blank canvas...I see the potential. And I have already bought seeds for this years garden. I'll start the seeds, and trust God to give me the ground I need to put them in. I love this women in the video. She knocked on a door and asked for a yard! I did that last year. It wasn't ideal...but it worked..

I can see farm house number 2 on Saturday. If we get it, I'm thinking about renovating the barn into a large living room. I could extend it out with a straw bale winter garden. Then I could include a rocket stove. Basically use some of the very cool natural building techniques I've been learning about. The present living room could then become 2 bedrooms for the boys. Anyway, I love the look of this 2ND stove in the video. I love the look of natural earthen plaster. And the guest house could be a cob cottage. Nicole could sculpt the walls. It would be a piece of art!

This is an old farm house built in 1922 and totally renovated 4 years ago. They still need to put the insulation and stucco on the outside walls. That work is included in the price. It has 5 bedrooms (we would need to add on 2 more rooms to get our guest room and a room for each of the kids). As you can see from the slides there is a barn, and maybe that could be converted for the boys? The garden is awesome! I hope to see the house on Saturday. It's not as charming as farm house number one, but also not as much work. Imagine raised garden beds next to that wall, with roses growing up the wall! The place has good potential. It's Bad Scönborn, not Sandhausen. But I love both places...we will see.

I don't care what you've heard, impossibles not a word it's just a reason for someone not to try!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaU6zQSZKwI&feature=related I watched The Blindside today for the first time. I loved it! This scene really got me!

My baby brother Rickey is having a birthday today. I hope it's wonderful! Almost 2 years ago he came to visit us. We took him to Cyprus. I would love him to come back with his family. We can go stay in the Lemon Tree House and enjoy the nightly music! Love You Rick! Here is the website for The Codbaba in Northern Cyprus! They sell fish and chips. Rick is Sarah's God father. We gave him a codbaba tee shirt.

I prayed with a friend today about Thomas' school. We prayed that he would want to change schools now, not later. So when I picked him up I asked him how it went. I decided not to push a change, I decided not to even ask. So Thomas starts telling me about the day, and he says the teacher said they all want me to come to school there. So I asked him, so what do you want? He said he wants to change schools now, but he just doesn't know what to tell the kids in his class. I think we can figure that out...and I hope he will change schools at the beginning of the next term (only a week away). If we can figure it out He will change schools. I told him it's good to be loyal to your school, but he needs to invest in friendships that are good for him. The class is smaller at the Christian school. And the entire 6Th class at his school has as many students as the Christian school has (there are 8 over crowded 6 grade classes). Thomas feels like a number. He is shy and ge...

Thomas had another good day at the Christian school. I asked him if he wants to change schools. He said yes, next fall. I asked him why wait. He didn't know. He was very happy to move, but not in mid year. I guess it's good he wants to finish the year out. His whole class will be moving in the Fall. He wouldn't need to explain why. Maybe it just needs to grow on him? On the one hand I want him to change now, but maybe the Fall is better. I'm happy if he moves...and that he feels good about the timming. So I'm pretty sure he will move, and next Fall.

Thomas tried his new school today. He goes there 2 more days and then we will decide. Juergen took him there and I picked him up. First of all, it's a private Christian school. It's one of the only Christian schools in our area. All the teachers really believe in God, they pray with the kids and teach from a Christian world view. The school is small, and there are only 20 kids in the class. There are close to 30 kids per class in his present school. I actually like his present school, I just don't like the values of his classmates. All his friends are allowed to play video games we don't allow, watch movies we don't allow, and carry cell phones loaded with pornography. The Christian school has very strong rules about cell phones and the parents share our ideas on certain video games, Internet , music and movies. Thomas for example was excited about getting Lego for Christmas. He told his friends at school and they called him a baby. Lego is so uncool! H...

I stayed up until 2am scanning old photo’s of my good friends mom. She passed away last week. The funeral is on Friday. It’s sobering to see the photo’s of one persons life. You can see from the photo’s how fast a life can pass. In one photo she was a school girl (during the war), and then she is grown, married for 50 years, a grandmother. She reminds me so much of my dad and my grandmother. She had a love for her garden and she made dolls. I think it is impossible to measure a persons life by a few photographs. In fact none of us can begin to imagine our real worth. Only God knows how priceless we really are. The world tells us this is not true, but one day we will see clearly how beautiful we are in His sight.