The kids website

I made a website for Thomas and Hayden.

http://thomasandhayden.blogspot.com/

I update it monthly.

please help!

myspace.com/impactawards

Faceless International Impact Award Video


i made this homemade video for the impact awards about Faceless International. faceless hopes to motivate people to get educated and experience firsthand issues needs here in the US and other developing countries. we work heavily in the issues of fairtrade and human trafficking. come along with us on a trip, and be the change you want to see in the world!
please vote @ myspace.com/impactawards
-stephen

Arnold Update

Hello family, I wanted to update you on our family. We are doing great. This new year has been an exciting beginning to our lives. Paul has started a new job and really enjoys it. I am still teaching 9th grade Biology and hoping to work at the same place next year, but because of budget cuts I may stay home this fall. Thomas has started home child care with five other kids his age. That has been a blessing to us because the person caring for him is wonderful. I am really happy about it. We had a wonderful Christmas in Texas. Hayden's favorite gift was a barbie cash register. Thomas was his toy that he can speak into like a mic with a book. Paul's was his 37 inch TV and mine was my trek bike. We are all getting use to the swing of things since we have been back. It is very busy around here with two kids. Paul and I love our life and really appreciate it. We hope everyone is doing good and would love to hear from you!

4 Brauchler Boys 2008

turkey day!

well this is julia and my first thanksgiving together, last year i was on tour so this year julia went all out. i arrived back in the united states on thanksgiving eve and when i got home julia had everything ready to go complete with decorations and a HUGE turkey.

we invited some friends over who couldn't go home to see their family, and everyone brought a dish or three. we had so much food, but im not complaining because i have had the best leftovers!!! hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and hope everyone is on a workout plan to get rid of the lbs we just put on!
love you all,
mr. & mrs. arnold

Praise God, I have 5 jobs! As of today, I am a nanny, a personal assistant to three doctors, I am writing up a manuscript for a local author, and a volunteer for hospice. I need more. I have too much down time yet. Thank you Lord for work. Love, Ruth Marie

This summer I read "The Unquiet Ghost." This amazing book is about a journalist traveling through Russia and talking with people about the Stalin years. He interviewed people who were prisoners, servants, guards and others who had unique perspectives of those years. Stalin was extremely paranoid and suspected everyone was an "enemy of the people." Neighbors betrayed each other and families kept secrets from one another. In one servant's interview, she said that Stalin never slept in the same bed. He was afraid someone would come and kill him during the night. His secret police had conviction quotas and they were good at getting confessions. People who were not shot on the spot were sent to Kolyma, a camp in north east Siberia. Life for these people was torture.

This book made me think about Oma and Opa. In 1937, Opa was my age and I can't help but wonder what he was experiencing at that time. Why did opa think it was good to move from a communist country to a Nazi country? What year did they move to Germany? Did opa see any of secret police or know people that were sent off to Kolyma? Was the Ukraine too far from the hand of Stalin? Oma and opa met in a work camp. What kind of a camp was it? Was it the horror camps like Kolyma or were they like the CCC camps in America?

I thought I had an interview between my mom and oma concerning her courtship. But it was a very short interview about how oma loved school when she was little.

I was talking to Paul the other day and he was telling me some stories about opa that I have never heard before. I would love to hear your favorite opa/oma story. Or any answers to the questions above.