We are Back BABY!!!!!

We’rrrreeeee Baaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

Hello again, I know it’s been awhile since you last heard from us and for that I apologize but we had some pretty important stuff to take care of. When we last left off we were in the midst of moving back to the States from Germany in mid-February for reasons that include we couldn’t find jobs in Grenzach-Wyhlen and the situation we were in had to turned to runny poo. I was very happy with my squad and was learning and playing a lot but they could not find me a job. Jen was playing less and less for no apparent reason (she was one of the best on the team in everybody’s opinion, not just mine) and her coach’s and managers had fallen through on many promises of jobs/better living arrangements’, etc.

The last five months have been a little crazy. The first four months were spent working as hard as possible to make enough money to pay for our (See: Jennifer) dream wedding on the coast of Maine. I bartended, surprise surprise, managed to get fired for the first time ever (thanks Katherine) and painted houses. Jen acquired a spot in a gym, training and helping people become the person they want to be. Despite her degree in Financial Economics, Jen has always wanted to impact people’s lives in the way of motivating and personal training so she somewhat enjoyed her four months of work and learned a lot in the field that she hopes to work in when we are finished playing Handball.

The wedding almost didn’t happen. Six days before the event, some of our wedding party joined Jen’s family and I at her grandparents lake house for a few days of relaxing. The first day everybody was there was the Saturday before the wedding. We were all sitting on the dock, playing Baggo and enjoying the sun. All of a sudden one of Jen’s bridesmaids, Kate Townley, got the idea to attempt to push me in. She failed miserably and ended swimming by herself with a little help from me. Next up came Jen, she took a running start and tried to push me in (I was standing on the edge) but as you all know, she is little and I am big and she didn’t so much as budge me. So, I took my time playing with her and than through her in after Kate. While all this had been going on, Jen’s father had been watching. As soon as he saw me toying with his daughter he sprung from his seat across the dock and started sprinting. He hit me so hard I had no chance, I went in right after Jen. To be more precise, I went in on top of Jen. Right on top of Jen, like my knee going into the water meeting her face coming out of the water. Full on, CSI calls it blunt force trauma. Her dad and I call it the scariest moment of our lives. She came out of the water gushing blood. By the time she had climbed out of the water and walked around the house her nose had swollen so much we thought we broke it sideways. When we told Jen this (Never, ever tell a soon to be bride you think you broke (displaced) her nose, just trust me) she freaked, she went into shock, effectively blacking out for what felt like hours but was less than a minute. We took a trip to the hospital to assess the damage and after X-Rays, the Doctor brought us the news and I quote: “Well, you didn’t break it (huge sigh of relief from Jen’s father and I, only to hear this next) you shattered it!” He said that my knee hit so hard it broke her nose in 8 places on the top side and those shards blew backwards and broke the inside of her nose in anywhere from 4 to 6 pieces. Exciting! The Haubrich family loves a good black eye, it’s a pride thing showing off black eyes at Christmas time but this was one time that Jen wanted as little color as possible. However, one of the neighbors at the lake house is a make-up artist and between her tips (potato skins get rid of/drain color) and Jen constantly icing it, her nose and eyes looked like usual come wedding day.

From all accounts of the wedding, everybody had a lot fun. There was dancing and singing, drinking and eating, some crying and hugging and even a little standing (as in, I will proudly stand up next to you and defend her still today!) that’s right, the highlight of the wedding festivities, other than marrying the prettiest woman in the world, was when 135 people joined hands or hugs and sang Proud to be an American at the end of the wedding. Just an incredible moment, one of those moments that make one realize how awesome friends and family and a good DJ really are.

So, we painted a few houses, made a few drinks, helped a few people lose weight, got married and than went to Mexico. Honeymoon in Mazatlan, it was incredible. Unfortunately, my coach had sent me an email explaining that I should be running all month and Jen saw it so, yeah, I ran several 5k’s on my Vaca. Unbelievable huh, might have been a mistake marrying a personal trainer, only joking! But seriously, she made me exercise on our Honeymoon! She had me doing laps from the swim up bar to her lounge chair.

After our wonderful time in Mexico, we spent a week in Kansas catching up with my family and than we headed back to Bow, New Hampshire with a little under a week to pack our lives into three 50-pound bags and move back to the D-Land. Wanna give a big thanks real quick to the in-laws, who let us live rent free and even covered the food bill while we were back for those five months, we would have never made it otherwise. Thanks Tom and Katherine.

The D-Land met us excitedly. We managed to not sleep a wink on the flight over, 5.5 hours to London and than 1.5 to Frankfurt doesn’t give you much time. We arrived groggy and tired but excited about being in a better spot than last year and knowing that very shortly we would be playing the sport we love again. Hans Self, my teammate and friend picked us up at the airport and brought us to his parent’s house where we will be staying until we find our own place. They had a wonderful lunch awaiting us, prepared by none other than Hans' grandma. It was very, very good and led Jen and I right into a four-hour slumber. We slept so soundly the dog thought we were dead.

Our (Hans and I) first practice was last night. We were welcomed back for the new year with five 1 Kilometer sprints. For those of you who don’t care for the metric system, that’s over a half mile a sprint for a total of almost 3 miles. Hooray!! After the running however came the good stuff, just throwing a handball and doing handball things was exciting. We threw and put up some shots and had another good hour of handball training before calling it quits. It felt great. Being that I have only played Handball for 2 years, I still get excited to go to practice and to learn and to play, I love it. Jen was even able to get in on the action; she ran with us (dominating all the guys, excluding one who was running like 4.5 minute miles) and participated in a few of the drills.

We met with a local reporter today who wanted to do a story on the American’s playing Handball and about the prospect of playing with the U.S National Team. We talked about needing to find jobs and what it takes to play in Germany when you are an American. She said she would put in the article what we studied and that we are actively seeking employment. She promised to send us the article when it comes out and made us all the more excited and determined to do the best we can to improve ourselves for December’s showdown with our Northerly Neighbor.

During the interview we Hans received a call from a coach who is actively pursuing Jen. He coach’s a 3^rd Division squad who Jen trained with once last year. They want her badly but we are not sure they can give us financially what we need and they may not be good enough to challenge Jen enough. She would like to and has a few opportunities join a second league team, which would ensure that she is pushed, and continues to learn and improve on a substantial curve. We are hoping that by mid-week of next she is settled in with a squad.

The first two days here have been great. Han’s niece and nephew are currently staying with his parents so we are learning German again with kids (6 and 8) who are not way above our level. They are also helping me get my Wii groove back, which does not fascinate my wife, but keeps me entertained.

Just want to put a small announcement out: I don’t know exactly who is back over yet or when and where they are going to be but Hans and I are willing and think it necessary that we get together as much as possible to train and play together. I know Mark is trying to organize that a little bit but make sure that when you get back over to let everybody know so we can start meeting up.

Hope all is well with everybody back home. We are excited to be back over. Our first scrimmage is this Saturday followed by 10 more in the next month before our first real game the weekend of September 11^th. This should be the first of many more to come, planning on attempting to write one once a week but we shall see. Until next time.

Jordan, Jen and Hans

P.S. I just found out one of my great friends passed away. Blake Reed was only 21 and had Muscular Dystophy. He was an inspiration in my life and many others. I know your upstairs playing football and having a blast buddy! Our prayers go out to the Reeds. Love you Terry and Ronnie!