School's Out, Ranger Camp, and a Funeral

The past week has been a very busy one for our family. Finally on Wednesday (yes, July 23), the kids had their last day of school. Before school let out, though, there were plenty of good-bye parties and school festivals which was complicated by the fact that our three kids are in three different schools. Grades?

As soon as school was over, the twins left for a week long Royal Ranger camp. In fact, I'll pick them up next week in Bavaria on the day before we fly to the States.

Speaking of flying to the States, we are schedule to fly with Lufthansa airlines. Unfortunately for us, several of the unions have voted to go on strike next week. On Monday, the airports in in Frankfurt and Hamburg wil be affected. (And we fly from Stuttgart to Dusseldorf to O'Hare).

And today we said good-bye one one of Claudia's aunts - Frieda Schäfer. Although she had been ill recently, her death this past Tuesday came as a surprise. In fact, she was to be transferred out of the hospital to a nursing home - her bags already packed. She and Uncle Jakob had just celebrated their 50th anniversary. The death affect Claudia's family in two ways: Frieda was the sister from Claudia's mother (Lisl) who married the brother of Claudia's dad (Robert Schäfer). On the positive side, Frieda was a committed Christian who was very active in her church - and we have the confidence of seeing her again in heaven. It was also a good chance to see many relatives whom we had not seen in a while, too.