I know, I know... it's been forever!

The post title says it for me... I know that it has been forever since my last blog! I apologize for such a long hiatus... this fall was incredibly busy. Though there has definitely been plenty of stuff to blog about, I could never seem to get around to it. Mainly, I was very busy with coaching soccer at the Frankfurt International School. I served as the JV girls head coach and the Varsity assistant from the end of August through mid-November. In addition to daily practices and home games, we also traveled quite a bit, including away games in Munich, Dusseldorf, Paris, and Zurich. Furthermore, we hosted the league championship tournament here in Frankfurt, which was a lot of fun. Overall, coaching was a great experience, and I hope to be doing it for many more seasons in the future!

Here are few shots from the soccer season... one of the whole team (both JV and Varsity), action shots of the girls playing, some of me coaching, and a group photo of everyone at the end of the tournament.

I cannot think of a better group of girls to coach for my first season... I miss them already! Although the school soccer season is over, I am still getting my soccer fix a couple times a month by coaching the ODP Europe U15 girls team, which is a developmental soccer team for American youth living abroad, and I am very grateful for the experience I am gaining with that team as well.

While I filled my days with coaching this fall, as always Daniel stayed busy with work. He was actually back in North Carolina for training from mid-August through the start of September. Thankfully, after the training he had a chance to visit his parents for a few days, which he really enjoyed. Then at the beginning of October, when I had a weeklong break from soccer, Daniel and I took the opportunity to attend the quintessential German festival... Oktoberfest in Munich! We then went down to Pisa and Florence for a few days and enjoyed relaxing and some warmer weather in northern Italy. After that trip, it was back to soccer, soccer, soccer until November 14th... as soon as the last game of the season was over, Daniel and I headed to Luxembourg with some friends for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball there, which was a very nice evening. With soccer now over, I have also been substitute teaching almost everyday. This past week we went to Istanbul over the Thanksgiving holiday, which was an absolute blast... and then yesterday we hosted a belated Thanksgiving celebration for a bunch of our friends. Somehow we managed to fit 17 people into our apartment for dinner... it was a full house and quite the feast!

So as you can see, we have been very, very busy lately! I promise to get caught up on the blogging in the near future with posts about all these fun events, so please stay tuned. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying the Christmas season so far! Until next time....