Some new pictures

The three little ones were really strong. They carried their backpack all the time and did not complain.
Die Kleinen haben ihren Rucksack die ganze Zeit egtragen und haben nicht gejammert.

Beautiful place!

How cute! Wie suess!

The campers at a nice stream. Unsere Ausfluegler an einem kleinem Bach.

My four cute campers! Teri, Lucy, Leah and Gabriel went to Mt. Katadhin and had a great time camping:)

Meine vier suessen Camper Teri, Lucy, Leah und Gabriel sind zum

zelten gegangen und hatten viel pass

May

The Gogan May letter,

We are finally in he most beautiful month of the year; MAY! Of course I am a little biased because I was born in May, but I still think that no one can argue about the beauty of this month. Even here in Maine the flowers are all out and the trees are budding. We are almost ready to plant our vegetables, but have to wait just a few more days.

We had a lot of fun during spring, due to the fact that we have three birthdays and all the “parties” in school are going on during spring as well.
We had Pages’ birthday; she is 15 now!! Teri turned a year older and I grew a year wiser. Yes I am already in the age where you do not get older, only wiser:)
Thomas had his prom and will graduate in two weeks! What an event. He will go to Husson Collage to play football and to study sports (what a surprise:)).
Mario is doing school for fun next year because he needs only one more credit to be able to graduate.
Page is doing well and is looking forward to summer. I think she believes she will get a break from school. I have to think about that:)

Jesse is a fine young man and became the Deacon’s quorum president. He is still very sweet and loving and he turned out to be a very good helper around the house.

Jeramy will be teenager #5 in a few months and we are thrilled! No, just kidding! One more teenager? Because we do not have enough drama in the house? What were we thinking? Nothing apparently!!! I am sure everyone who has a house full of teens understands what I am saying, and all the others……you will get there and then you will understand:)

Joey is our little genius. He is so smart it even scares him. He is doing 7th grade math and has an 87% avarage. Wow, that is just super. He feels good about it and is a determined little fellow.

Lucy is loving school and playing outside. Lucy plays with Leah and Gabriel all day long and Sami starts to join their group. They are having a great time and enjoy the freedom of having a back yard. Leah is as wild as she can be and sometimes literally runs into a wall because of all the energy bursts she has. Gabriel is still the cutest and loves his daddy. There is no one like Daddy for Gabriel. It is cute to see especially because they look so much alike. Gabriel got sunburned last week and that was no fun because he was crying all day long. Poor little fellow!

Sami is getting bigger. Since he discovered that he has legs and can actually walk he is into everything. He tries to run after his siblings and he runs after Emma. Of course he never catches up with neither one of them, but he tries.

Emma is our puppy. 7 month old and almost 110lb heavy, we still call her our little Emma, but no one understands why. She has a shoulder height of 28inches and needs a lot of space. She is cute and sweet and loves the kids. We had to teach her that the children are NOT her toys, but she can play with them. Her mouth is so big that she carries a tennis ball and a softball around at the same time. A soccer ball fits comfortably in her mouth.

Teri is doing great. He is on summer break since 3 weeks and will be home most of the summer. He will go to LDAC in July but will be home in August and parts of September. We enjoy this because we know this will be the last time we have it so good. We feel super spoiled and we feel a deep gratitude for our Savior and all the blessings he bestowed upon us. Teri still enjoys to study and is super excited that he has only two more terms.

I am at home all day long. Teaching the children, cleaning the house, running errands, studying and doing stuff. I know it is a wonderful blessing for me to be able to be with my children all day long and I am so grateful for that. Since Teri became 2nd. Counselor in the Bishopric and I am in the RS presidency we have some transportation issues sometimes, but mostly we are able to work it out.

We cannot complain; it would be a sin. We are tremendously blessed and we are grateful for it. We hope and pray all of our family and friends are doing as well as we do.
You will hear from us again in summer. Enjoy the spring!!!

With Love,

The Gogan's

Who is the boss?

Well, when we look at the pictures we will notice that Emma is sitting ON Teri. That is actually a sign of dominance and shows that SHE is the boss. BUT, when you look closer you will see that Teri has her leg in his mouth, biting her. So we can only hope that at the end he will win and we will keep the balance between humans and animalsJ
In all reality she is the boss. She is so cute that no one can resist her and of course she thinks we are all her servantsJ

Wenn man sich die Bilder so anschaut dann sieht man das die Emma auf dem Teri sitzt das ja eigentlich ein Zeichen der Ueberlegenheit darstellt. ABER wenn wir etwas genauer hinschauen shene wir das der Teri den Fuss der Emma beisst und wir hoffen jetzt einfach mal das er das Gleichgewicht zwischen Mensch und Tier wieder herstellen kann.
Aber um bei der Wahrheit zu bleiben, Emma ist so suess das ihr keiner wiederstehen kann und sie denkt natuerlcih das wir alle ihre Leibeigenen sind.

Tine is running and we are late with our update. We had so much going on that I never have time to do anything besides my daily routine. Teri had a back injury but recovered quickly. He also had two weeks of from school and that was great. Of course the two weeks passed too fast and he is back to school and so are we. The kids are doing well. Thomas was in the Newspaper again because he got selected for the Maine Lobster Bowl. That is super exciting. Mario is still having fun and is not doing too much. Page is doing a lot. She is doing Zumba and Tumbling and we just had her start Aikido. So she is very busy, besides her school work and her choirs she is gone and doing sports all day long. She likes it and we are glad she has a good time. She will turn 15 on the 23rd of March! Jesse is doing good. He is finishing his sports at the Y and he is still enjoying basketball. Jeramy and Joey are busy with school and sports like all the other Gogan kids. I guess that is all we do. We study from 8:30 until 2:30 and then we clean the house, after which the kids go and do their sports. The same routine every day! I am buss taking care of all the children and I enjoy spending time with all of my children. I love the home school stuff and the kids like it too nowJ Joey is doing 7 grade maths with Jesse and Jeramy. Of course he likes that because he is only 11. He is just very smart and super highly motivated, that is a great help!

Die Zeit vergeht so schnell und wir sind echt spaet dran mit unseren “Update”. Es gibt immer soviel zu tun und ich hatte fuer nichts Zeit ausser meiner taeglichen Rutine. Teri hatte sich am Ruecken verletzt aber zum Glueck hat er sich gleich wieder erholt und es geht ihm schon sehr gut. Er hatte zwei Wochen Ferien aber die sind schon wieder vorbei und er ist wieder in der Schule. Thomas war wieder mal in der Zeitung weil er fuer den Maine Lobster Ball ausgewaehlt wurde. Das ist echt ein grosser Treffer weil der nur einmal im Jahr stattfindet und nur die Besten Spieler aus den Schulen ausgewaehltr werden. Jede Schule kann nur einen oder zei Spieler schicken und Thomas wurde aus seiner Schule ausgesucht. Er ist natuerlich super begeistert! Der Mario macht nicht recht viel. Nur Schule und Freundin. Die Page macht um so mehr. Schule und Sport! Die drei J’s machen das auch. Es sieht so aus als waere das das einzige was wir hier machen. Von morgens bis Nachmittags Schule und dann aufraeumen und dann Sport bis Abends. Der Joey ist super in der Schule und macht die gleichen Klassen wie Jesse und Jeramy. Er ist hoch motiviert und wir werden ihn bald einen Tert machen lassen in dem er offiziel zwei Klassen in Mathe ueberspringen kann. Er ist natuerlich auch super begeistert.
Ich mach was ich immer so mach; meine Kinder betreuen und viel Spass mit ihnen haben. Ich frag mich immer wo die Ziet nur hinrennt, aber jeder Tag ist ein Geschenk und ich freu mich darauf und darueber!

February 2009

I can't believe it, but it is already February. We are super busy like always. Children, school, church, just the regular stuff.

Ich kann es nicht glauben das es schon wieder Februar ist. Wir haben immer was zu tun und die Zeit rennt uns davon. An meine Familie moechte ich besonders liebe Gruesse schicken. Ich ruf Ende Februar an wenn wir den neuen Tarif haben. Im Moment kostet mich eine Minute nach Deutschland 3,20 Dollars und das kann ich mir nicht leisten. Also seid bitte geduldig bis Ende Februar!

Emma is growing like crazy and has gained already 10 pounds since we got her. She weighs now 53lbs and has a little more than 1/3 of her adult weight. I am just happy that someone will weigh more than I do:)

Emma waechst ganz schoen. Sie hat schon 5 Kilo zugenommen seit wir sie haben. Sie wiegt ungefaehr 25 Kilo das ist 1/3 von Ihrem Erwachsenengewicht. Wenigstens wird ein Familienmitglied schwerer sein als ich:)

The kids are doing great. They work hard in school and have a lot of fun with their friends and their sports activities. We still have way too much snow but at least it was not so cold the last few days. Teri is having a great time going to school too. He also would like to be home schooled, but they do not allow me to home school him (ha,ha) I am always doing the same stuff, running in circles and all of that. Every day the same old; it gets old after so many years, but I do not want to complain; I got it good. I have a beautifull family and a wonderful fun husband.

Den Kindern geht es prima. Die arbeiten fleissig in der Schule und haben viel Spass mit ihren Freunden und beim Sport. Wir haben immer noch zuviel Schnee aber zumindest war es die letzten zwei tage nicht mehr so kalt. Dem Teri geht es auch super, dem macht das studieren wirklich Spass. Natuerlich moechte er auch gerne zu Hause bleiben so wie die Kinder aber das darf er leider nicht:)

Ich mach immer das selbe, das kann ganz schoen langweilig sein. Ich will mich mal nicht beklagen, es geht mir gut; ich hab eine tolle Familie und einen netten lustigen Mann.

As you can see in the pictures, Gabriel is outside working hard while Daddy is inside playing with the pupppy:) (just kidding:)

Wie Ihr an den Bildern sehen koennt, arbeitet der Gabriel fleissig draussen, waehrend der Daddy mit dem Hund drinnen spielt (ha,ha hab nur Spass gemacht, natuerlich hilft der Daddy auch beim Schnee schippen)

Gogan January Update

The Gogan update January 2009


Well, it looks like that we have to write another update. We thought that we could keep in touch with everyone by having the blog, but it seems like that we do not ever get any feedback or any mail from our friends. We would love to know how you are doing. It is important for us to know that our friends and family are having the chance to stay in touch with us. So here is the new plan. We will send you an update and then you just go to our blog for the pictures. How does thins sound? Good? Great, let’s do it!
First of all I have to ask Cory and Andre to write us back. We really want to know how our deployed friends are doing and of course we would like to know how their families are doing.
Let’s get the update done.
Well, January started with the birthday of Mario on Jan 1st. He had a great time at a friend’s house whose birthday is on Dec 31st. They celebrated and had a great time. Now he is 17! The next exciting thing was the visit at the State house in Augusta. We went to the swearing in ceremony of the State officers. It was a good experience for the children. We had refreshments at the Governors house and that was very exciting for the kids. We had Eissi’s birthday which she had to celebrate aloneL on the 6th of January and we had Gabriel’s birthday; he turned 3!! Yeah! He had a great time, but on the other hand when doesn’t he? We had Joey’s birthday and that was a very exciting day. I have to confess that I was not strong and did not stay true to what I said. As you remember Rigo died three month ago and well, I said I would not get another dog. Well, I did not, but Daddy and the kids did. So on Joey’s birthday we drove 8 hours through our snow storm to pick up our new dog from Portland. She is cute. She is 12 weeks and we got her and she was already named. We like the name and decided to let her keep the name. Her name is Emma. The kids are doing well with taking her out and feeding her. We will see how long this will beJ
Teri is back in school since two weeks and he likes it. He is enjoying the studies and his ROTC program. They expect a lot of him because he is the only active duty soldier there and they think he knows it all. Off course he does, but he does not have to tell them that, right!?J He has a lot of field training, not really in the field but in the snow. Ah, this reminds me; snow…did the kids complain about not having enough snow while we lived in Germany?? Well, now they do not complain anymore. We have so much snow it is not even funny anymore. And cold weather…brrrrr. Why does anyone call Maine the vacationland? I would call it the snow and ice land. I think we are all getting the cabin fever and I do not know to cure this sickness. I need some civilization, some human live activity, some fun and action, live, just people and animals on the street, or something that indicates that I am still on the planet earth here (ha,ha, I am getting all of Teri’s family mad now, because they are Mainers and think it is the best) Well, I guess it is not so bad, but for anyone who knows a different way of live it is a very drastic change and I can tell you all the kids and I are board out of our mindJ
Thomas is getting ready to finish his school, and today he told me his plans for his future, BUT I will not tell anyone until later in the year. I can only say one thing; I was very proud of him and it has something to do with 2 yearsJ Mario is doing great. Page is getting older and becoming more and more like me – no don’t worry, I was just kidding! Jesse is happy as usual. Jeramy too and Joey loves to be the brain in the family. Well he has to share this title with Mario, so I guess he loves to be half of the brainJ
Lucy and Leah together with Gabriel destroy the house every day and Sami climbs the stairs just to scare me. Emma is still getting adjusted and tries to figure out what she can and can’t do.
Lets see did I forget anyone…..ah, me, myself and I I am doing good. I am busy doing school with 6 of the children. It is a lot of fun and keeps me busy. I can’t wait until spring comes so I can leave the house and run some miles. I run on a treadmill but this gives me the feeling I am a hamster in a cage and get to do my circles. No fun! However, I have no reason to complain; we have it good. We have a beautiful large house, all our children are healthy, Teri is doing great in school, we have more money than we could ever ask for (no this was just a joke, a really big jokeJ.
So, that was it for now. Now it is your turn, let us know what you think of our blog and make sure you go there to see some pictures, especially to see our new family member Emma.
May the Lord bless you and may you continually remember all the great things he has done for all of us.
Love,
The Gogan’s

Emma - the newest Gogan

Hello, I am Emma. I am a Great Dane and I am 12 weeks old. I arrived in Portland on Joey's birthday, which was also the day of the snow storm in Maine. The Gogan's had a great time driving all the way from Old Town to Portland just to pick me up. I had a long flight and was exhausted and cold, very cold. Nobody told me that there is a place where it is so cold. I have very short hair and needless to say that I was in shock after coming from a warm area. Everyone loves me because I am so cute and clumsy. With my gigantic paws I walk like a toddler in size 12 shoes. It looks funny and makes funny noises when I walk. I dread going outside, because it is so cold and there is so much snow, but my owners make me every hour. I saw the vet already and got many shots. Fini was allowed to listen to my heart and she said it sounds loud. I am excited to be part of this family because even that they have no clue what they are doing they are so much fun and there is always someone to play with or chew on.

Hallo, ich bin die Emma und bin die neuste Errungenschaft der Gogan familie. Ich bin ein 12 Wochen altes Doggen Maedchen. Ich bin an Joey's Geburtstag gekommen. Das war leider auch der Tag als wir hier in Maine wieder mal einen Schneesturm hatten. Die Gogan's durften 8 Stunden durch den Sturm fahren nur um mich ab zu holen und heim zu bringen. Ich hab viel Spass und bin froh das ich immer jemanden zum spielen bei mir habe. Ich war schon beim Tierarzt und die Fini hat mein Herz abgehoert. Sie sagt das es sich laut anhoert aber es ist alles in Ordnung mit mir. Bis bald.

Gabriels's 3rd Birthday

Our little cute Gabriel turned 3 on January 15th.

He was so cute. He opened his presents but did not really care for them because he wanted the chocolate we had got him.

He is the sweetest and loves playing with his siters. They taught him how to be a good mommy and how to take care of babies:) (Teri is not too happy about that)

He got a CD player, a Leo Lausemaus book from our friend Eissi in Germany, some books from Grandma G and lots of Goldfish crackers:)

He had a great day and listened to his CD's all day long.

Field Trip to the Maine State House

On January 6th the swearing in ceremony of the legislative officers took place in the Maine State House. We had been invited by the Secretary of State, Matt Dunlap, and had a great time. The children learned a lot about the American Government and about Maine in particular. After the ceremony, which was held by Governor Baldacci, we were all invited to his house to have some refreshments. This was most exciting for all of us and I have to say the children behaved GREAT! We are so proud of them. They sat still for the entire time and listened. They talked with the people very nice and politely. We were impressed and happy to see that all the work we put forth in raising them proper really paid off.
I like the pictures with Teri and Governor Baldacci. He was very friendly and open and talked to all the children (Baldacci not Teri:)

Am 6. Januar hat die Vereidigungs Zeremonie fuer die Mitarbeiter der Regierung hier in Maine stattgefunden. Wir hatten eine Einladung und sind mit den Kindern hingegangen. Das war ein tolles Erlebnis fuer uns und fuer die Kinder. Der Governor von Maine hat die Zeremonie abgehalten und uns alle danach in sein Hause eingeladen. Das war toll vorallem aber zu sehen wie super die Kinder sich verhalten haben. Sie waren vorbildlich und haben nett mit jedem gesprochen und sich einfach vorbildlich verhalten. Das tut schon gut wenn man sieht das all die Arbeit die man reingesteckt hat sich auszahlt:)

Schoenes neues Jahr fuer Alle!

Was es ist schon 2009??

Wir koennen nicht glauben wie die Zeit verfliegt.

Im Jahr 2008 ist sehr viel geschehen in unserer Familie und wir hatten viele Erlebnisse.

Natuerlich wollen wir uns auf die guten Erlebnisse konzentrieren. Der Mario hatte nochmal die Gelegenheit nach Italien zu fahren. Joey ist nach Frankreich gefahren mit seiner Klasse und hatte viel Spass. Wir haben unseren Umzug gut ueberstanden und haben uns auch gut eingelebt. Die Kinder waren das ganze JAhr gesund und die Erwachsenen auch, meistens:)

Teri hat wieder mit der Schule angefangen und wir haben uns ein schoenes Haus gekauft.

Das waren nur einige Ereignisse von 2008.

Wir hoffen ihr hattet alle ein gesundes und erfolgreiches Jahr.

Viel Glueck im kommenden Jahr.

Bis bald,

Die Gogans

Happy New Year Ein Gutes Neues Jahr

WHAT??? It is 2009 already?

The Gogan’s Chronicle of the year 2008

This year just flew by. I don’t know how everyone else feels but I certainly cannot believe that another year just passed. This was a very eventful year for us with many good experiences. The not so good experiences we just count as blessing that help us to learn and grow. How can we start to pack a year full of events in one page, maybe two? Well, I guess I will give it a try and start at the beginning.
1st of January 2008 was nice. I felt a little better than the other weeks before and Grandma G and Grandpa G were still in Germany to celebrate with us. We were so excited to show them how we celebrate New Year’s Eve with all our fireworks. Living in Wuerzburg on a hill was great and we thought we could show them the show of shows. Well, this evening was the foggiest night ever. I had never seen so much fog in my entire life and we had a hard time seeing our own fire crackers. It was disappointing; we could hear the fireworks but not see one of them. However, we had a good time and just moved on. The next few weeks were packed with fun and good times with the grandparents. I was still recovering from my sickness and preparing for my surgery. I was great full to have mom there to help Teri and the children. My little Sami thought she was his Mama because she was the one taking care of him day and nightJ My surgery went well and now I just needed to be patient for the next 6 months to recover completely. The grandparents left again in February and we started to prepare for the big move. Everyone who is familiar with the Army knows that moving is a major stressor and one has to be prepared for changes. Well, we had a lot of changes. I think we have never seen, nor will we ever see so many different orders than we did during the spring of 2008. Teri had previously submitted paper work for the Green to Gold Active Duty program and waited for their decision. Our unit was moving back to Texas and they prepared already to receive us (12 people in one family). They starting counseling SSG Gogan that he better shows up or else.. We sent our van in beginning of May towards Texas because we needed to do something. We received our orders to go to BELGIUM in June (ha,ha). We laughed; I have to say I thought it was hilarious! We sent our household goods in June to Texas and lived in an empty house until 31st of July. That was torture because of the echo..echo…echo Having 9 children run around and play and laugh and scream made it almost impossible for the adults to have any sort of conversation. During all this time we had a great helper in our house; Michaela. She was our helping hand and came every morning. That gave me time to run errands and to do all the tedious stuff without the children. NICE! I think we became best friends with the housing and transportation personnelJ To continue the story about our orders; well we got orders for Texas and were suppose to show up one week after we received the orders (ha,ha) SO the orders needed to be changed. Finally we got the right orders to the right place for the right time. I think 4 days later or so we got the conformation that Teri got selected for the Green to Gold Active Duty program. Now we needed new orders. ( I am sure all the Military member laugh already, right Christina!?) So, now we had the right orders and only needed to figure out how to get our van and house hold goods to Maine instead of Texas.
During this time of confusion we had a lot of fun with the children and our friends and family. My brother and family came over to visit us several times. My mom and dad came several times and Eissi my friend came, which was sad because we had to say good bye after being together for 21 years.
The Wuerzburg community closed everything and we had to go to all the closing ceremonies. That was sad. We had a gigantic sleep over with about 20 teenagers which we held outside the apartment intentsJ (we are smart) They had a great time and we had a sleepless night. Mario went to Italy again for one week and Joey went to France for a week. Page and I went to all the festivals we could go and Lucy had her last days in her German Kindergarten. We walked to church every Sunday for 3 months, which I liked totally because I love to walk or run (which we had to do sometimes to make it on time) The church is about 2 miles away from where we lived. It was a good experience for the children, they learned that we can still go to church even if we have no vehicle; wow, amazing!
In July I flew to the States to find a house for us. I have to say I enjoyed the quiet time I had. Time to read, time to go running, time to eat and talk without anyone calling my name or asking for something. We went on a house hunt; Grandma G, Grandpa, Sheri and I. We found a house that was big enough to accommodate all of us. We started all the paper work and it worked out just fine. In August we signed the closing papers and one day later we moved in. Ah, this reminds me of our flight to the States. We had a wonderful trip to the States. We got picked up by a Commercial bus and we drove to Frankfurt to the airport. In the airport things went well and we managed not to loose anyone. Once in the plane we felt reliefed. The flight was smooth and not too long. At the end of the flight I have to say our little Fini got sick. She always gets car sick and therefore I was not surprised that she started vomiting. I had my hands full to clean her up when Samuel just joined her. They both were sitting next to Teri so I ended up cleaning the two children, Teri and the seatsJ
We stayed for 10 days in a hotel and had a lot of fun. It was like vacation. We went swimming as often as we could. We went to the mall and we just spent time together. It was really nice. I like spending time with my children, they are so much fun. We moved to our house and started …. I don’t know what did we start? Nothing basically, because we had no furniture. We just stayed there and waited for our stuff to arrive so we can continue with our live.
School started and the children got to know some people. Thomas and Mario started their football season and Thomas became one of the captains. The house started to look like a home and we made ourselves familiar with the area and the people there. Teri was in College and loved it. I was busy at home and missed Michaela to help me with all the work.
Rigo flew to the States alone (kind of). We had to send him earlier because it would have been too much to take him with us, besides he was too big to fly with us anyways. So he was already at grandma’s house waiting for us. We picked him up and he loved being with us again. He was excited to see some squirrels and he seriously thought he could catch them. In October he ran away again just, over the street to the fields to chase some squirrels. He got hit by a car and suffered some serious injuries. We brought him to the vet clinic where we had to put him under because he was badly damaged. Even if they would have done surgery (which would have cost a total of 7000 dollars) he probably would not have made it. His lungs were ripped and that is just a really bad thing. Now we have no animal in our house and we still miss our big black dummy.
Time passes by and before we knew it we had Thanksgiving and then Christmas. I don’t know why, but it seems like it does not matter how much I prepare for Christmas, I am never prepared. It is frustrating and I decided to start preparing for Christmas in January! So if you have not gotten a card or email from us, please forgive me. I will make it this year, I promise.
As for now we are all busy as usual. Teri is getting ready for his next semester. He is taking 7 classes. Thomas is finishing high school. Mario is having funJ and preparing to be a senior. Page is doing a lot of sports and discovered her love for Zumba. Jesse is just as happy as he can be. Jeramy has lots of plans and frustrates everyone because he is so good in math. Joey is our gentleman and very popular. Lucy and Leah play and together with Gabriel destroy the work of my hands (the clean house) in 2 minutes. Sami is the sweet baby still and I am keeping busy home schooling 7 children and cooking and cleaning and all the other stuff. I go with Page to Zumba so she can laugh when she watches me try to do the hip moves they do:)
Live is good, we are grateful for all the blessings we received last year. The Lord is always mindful of us. We have received so many great blessings from Him through you. Through each and every one of you who stayed in touch and wrote us or send us cards or pictures. We have been blessed through those of you who surprised us with presents on Christmas and made us feel so loved and cared for.
Thank you for all you do. Please do not stop just because we might be thoughtless sometimes. The Lord will bless you for all you do.
Love,
The Gogan’s