Captain Roth

Phillip is now a Captain! He had his promotion ceremony this past Friday. The ceremony was really nice. It was held at the officer's club and Phillip's current commander gave him his oath and I pinned on his new rank. Two other officers also got promoted, one to Captain and the other to 1st Lieutenant, who actually also happen to be husband and wife. The Lieutenant also works with Phillip in Finance. Then afterwards there was a nice reception with hors d'oeuvres and cake.

Pretty soon Phillip will be moving down to the Budget Office to be the Budget Officer. Plus in about a month the other Captain in the office will be leaving for a new base, so Phillip will then be second in command. Lots more responsibilities to come...pretty scary! :)

Congrats to my little Captain!! I'm very proud of you!

The start of the ceremony, all those involved.

Phillip's commander, Major Stevenson, talking about Phillip.

Taking his oath.

Pinning on his new rank.

It's a tradition to give the spouse flowers at the ceremony. I like this tradition, a lot! :)

1st Lieutenant Smalenberger, Captain Smalenberger, and Captain Roth

Scheveningen, Den Haag, and the North Sea

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to the Netherlands. When we went we stayed in the Carlton Beach Hotel, right on the North Sea shore.

Unfortunately when we arrived late Friday night we got stuck in this itty bitty corner room. The previous tenant had complained to the front desk about the noise from the Rave going on down on the beach, so we think he got switched into what would have been our room.

But....check out the view!! Sea view room for a basement price!!! Lucky for us we brought our earplugs to drown out the Rave music, and even better that the Rave only took place on Friday night. We slept with the patio door open the other nights to listen to the waves crash!

Gorgeous!!!

Phillip and I on Saturday morning after we went for a run on the beach!


Closing down the hotel bar Saturday night. Good thing Phillip and Drew have each other since they basically have the same job and can vent about the same problems! That leaves Rhiannon and I to chat, which is also good since we have the same job too!


Sunset Saturday night


So Pretty!!

Toes on our balcony!! :)

Dad, your jerky also made the trip to Holland!

Windmill!!

Overall, a great trip!

Amsterdam at High Speed!

While we were up the in the Netherlands for the Tulip Fields we decided to also spend a day in Amsterdam. We took the train in from Den Haag, which only took about 50 minutes. So worth it, because one should never, NEVER, try to drive in Amsterdam. It is absolute craziness!! Just by walking I still almost got run over by a Light Rail Train, a Scooter, and numerous bikes!

So to explain why I titled this post, "Amsterdam at High Speed," is because we basically got to Amsterdam around noon and only had a half day to see everything. We bought the I amsterdam pass, which allowed for us to enter almost all the museums and sights for no extra charge, plus unlimited transportation on public transport, and a Canal ride. We wanted to get our money's worth so we packed as much in as we could!!

The Oude Kerk. The oldest church in Amsterdam built in 1260.

The floor of the church is made up of tombs, where approximately 10,000 people are buried.


The Bulldog; the most famous Amsterdam coffee house. Completely legal, but being government employees we couldn't partake. More than likely you will get popped as soon as you get back! Maybe we should go back after I leave my job right before we leave Europe. :) I do think it's really funny all the little old ladies standing out front!

It's basically right by the Oude Kirk, right in the center of the Red Light District. Now that was an interesting experience! Seeing scantily dressed prostitutes standing in windows like dogs in a pet store was really weird! Then you see the red light turned on above some of the windows, which means someone is in there getting serviced, even weider! And these weren't attractive women either, they were scary and had no problem glaring at you! Absolutely no pictures there!!

In the museum district.

Van Gogh museum. Really neat, but a little bit of let down. Many of his paintings were not on display since they were doing renovations. We saw his famous Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, his Self-portrait, Blossoming Almond Tree (my favorite!), and many others, but Starry Night, The Bedroom, and his Self-portrait as a painter were all missing. It was still interesting to learn about his life, and extremely interesting that he was never an appreciated artist until after his death. He only sold 1 painting ever, and that was to his brother.

I loved the Canals!

Bikes!!! And do not walk in the bike lane! Where is the bike lane? Can you see it? It's that smooth strip of pavement right by the rear end of those bikes, that has a redish grey tint. It looks exactly like a sidewalk and runs right next to the sidewalk, only if you walk in it you could get killed by a bike or scooter (yes, they cheat and ride in the bike lane!).

Heineken Experience in the original Heineken Factory.

Group Picture!

More Heineken to drink, this time in Bar #2!

Riding the light rail, after we figured out we were headed in the wrong direction and only had 15 minutes to make it to the Anne Frank House. There would soon be running involved so that we would make our reservation!

We made it!

Unfortunately no pictures are allowed inside, but it was so neat to see. They allow you to tour through the entire house, and while the house was emptied by the Germans after the raid and Otto Frank wanted it left that way, there are still posters and markings on the wall from Anne and her family. You walk through the same entryway hidden by the bookcase and go through all of the secret annex. You aren't allowed to go into the very top attic, but you can still look up the staircase and see what it looks like with mirrors that they have set up. Through the mirrors you can also see the window and the tree that Anne often wrote about. You also see the original diary on display, right up close!

We were told not to keep our expectations too high as other people have said there is not really much to see, but I think they have really made this a nice museum. This ended up being my favorite sight we went to in Amsterdam!

To end our trip in Amsterdam we took our Canal Cruise.

Really pretty!

So as you can see we packed a lot into essentially a half day! But we got our money's worth and had a great time!!

More pictures are on facebook. Copy and paste to check them out!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2345914&l=eda53f72c6&id=17019382

SUCCESS!!!

I have done it! It took me around 14 hours, a sleepless night, a pinched nerve in my back and now I am walking around hunched over, but I did it!

I wrote my first Final Exam for my BIOL 101 course I am teaching!!!

In the process of writing the exam I also finished all materials for the rest of the course, mainly so I would be sure that what I tested the students on I would be teaching them. This thus hopefully means the rest of the course will be smooth sailing!

And now to go have dinner and off to bed, because I haven't really eaten or slept for the last 24 hours!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Flower Parade Pictures

Here are my pictures from the Flower Parade! I have tons of pictures, so these are some of my best. As you can see, we were right up next to the street and there was no crowd control. This was both good and bad. Good because you got to see the floats right up close, bad because everyone kept running in the street to get pictures, so lots of my pictures are right up close after all the people finally moved. It was pretty crazy! I plan to post more pictures to facebook later. Enjoy!!