Deutsch Dienstag-in the name of safety

10 more months until Christian can get out of a carseat!  Good thing, because I don't think that they want carseats at YM activities.  Germany is a little crazy with their carseat laws.

May 21st

 May 21st is one of my most favorite days ever!  Two of my favorite people ever were born on that wonderful day.  May is, however, a crazy month for me and often makes question my family planning so many years ago. 

My brain has been replaced with my passport and I am unable to plan very far in advance.  It makes the planner in me cry when another birthday or holiday sneaks up on me.  But I am usually in the middle of some fantastic travel plans and so I don't cry until it is too late.  Once again, looking ahead to the Memorial Day weekend, I forgot about the special days that would come first.  I tried to find a day for Jag to have a party, but kept running into the holiday, Davis' birthday, the end of school, or visitors.  So without any advanced warning I called Jag's 2 friends and tried to find a time in their busy day to send the friends over to play.  It all worked out wonderfully making me think that planning ahead really isn't necessary (actually Davis and I are already working on his party).

Jag wanted an Under the Sea party

My cute 8 year old with his cake.

With his friends Sage, Ryan, and Noah.  They ate octopus hotdogs, goldfish crackers, played games, and watched a movie.  Honestly one of the easiest parties ever and Jag still thinks his mom is awesome.  Little does he know.  Jag got to have Saturday as his birthday alone. 

Anya holding up 2 fingers -or 5.

I cry and cry to think that my baby is 2 already.  Oh, how we LOVE this little girl.

I am almost done with birthdays!  I still have leftover cake on my cupboard and no motivation to make another.  It was going to be Elmo, but I needed better food coloring so he wouldn't be pink.  Then cookie monster because I did have blue, but that was feeling like too much work.  So it ended up being a flower.  Not a pretty flower.

For the second year, Anya refused to even taste her cake.  She only wanted the chocolate chips out of the middle.  Actually she got this doll that says annoying phrases and that is all she wanted all night.

Blowing out the candles on his leftover cake.  A kid just can't do that too many times!

She had it all figured out this year.  Blow the candles, sing 'Happy Birthday', and rip open the gifts.  She's getting so very big.

Bye-bye Binky

I found myself thinking one day that Anya could keep her binky for awhile longer.  I've always said that they couldn't have a binky at 2.  Sure her birthday was only 4 days away.  But, really what was the harm in it?  Then a light bulb moment...Oh, no!  I was doing it again.  (This is the same attitude that had me finally weaning her at 16 months.)  Oh, my baby. 

Right then and there, I took her beloved binkies and cut the ends off.  She cried about them being "broken" for a few days, but actually did better than I expected.  I'm still sad that she is growing up, but I do like hearing her talk without that dumb binky in her mouth.

Just seconds before I took it away.  I really am so mean.

Deutsch Dienstag-Yellow fields of flowers

Spring has brought these gorgeous fields of yellow flowers to the green country side.  Huge fields of tall yellow flowers.  They are so pretty to look at.  They remind us of living in Moscow, Idaho with all of the yellow canola fields.

This is the view just over the hill from our house.

Not our village.

For me, they are beautiful from afar because they make me sneeze like crazy when we are close. Darin, who loves me dearly, quickly rolls down his window when we are near and takes a big sniff. He thinks he's funny. I show him how funny by sneezing in his general direction.

Camping in the Luxembourg Cemetery

Father's and Sons Camping Trip

Luxembourg Military Cemetery

May 2012

Patton is buried in this cemetery...remember?  here

Look past the headstones to see our gray van.  Jag had wanted to know if he was going to be sleeping next to the "dead guys" in the cemetery.  I said, "No way, Buddy."  Looks like it was pretty close though. Oops.

The German military cemetery that is near by.

This is a mass grave site with over 4,000 German soldiers buried.  The names are listed around the outside (where Davis is reading).

I was thinking that a girls night with my little Anya would be fun. She agreed and was up all night! Fever. I haven't spent that much time awake since she was tiny.  She wasn't too thrilled without her boys either.  Crying, "Noah.  Jag.  Noah."  We were both happy when they all came home.  The whole girls night thing must be way overrated!

Our Smelly Mess

The sewer backed up into our basement.  Everything was gross and covered.  I  gaged.  It wasn't just our basement, but also the outside drain as well.  We spent days going through our stuff to see what was OK, what was going to need to be cleaned, and what would be trashed.  At first the basement smelled like the pigs at a fair; moist, yucky poopy.  Then after some initial cleaning like a swimming pool, but with a smelly foot problem.  Finally, just like bleach.

This is the big truck that came to snake and suck out the drains.  Turns out there was a separated pipe in the front of the house.

Inital digging with some of our plants still in.

Good-bye plants and tree.  Good-bye bricks.

They had to drill a hole into the house and start with new pipes there, then take it under the road.

It was such a mess and I was sure that our yard would be messed up for a long time.  But, surprisingly, 9 days after the "flood" the yard, bricks, and tree were back.  We are still missing the plants and flowers (we'd planted just 3 days earlier), but it is finally over.  We still have to go through our yucky stuff and clean once more before we move everything back into the basement.  I never want to experience that again.  Just dip me in bleach!

Herr Cappel's Garten Help

Darin, the boys, and Gunter

We have the cutest little neighbor, Gunter Cappel, he doesn't speak any English, he is always smiling, and cheerful.   He always watches out for us and helps us.   (This is the neighbor that Darin had to race in the winter to get to the walks first, because he'd shovel our walks if we weren't fast enough.)

We were trying to get a garden area ready.  Gunter has a beautiful yard and garden!  He came over to help Darin and show him how to do it correctly.  When Darin understood just how to turn the ground over, he let him try.  After two shovel scoops of dirt, Gunter couldn't stand it and took the shovel back.  It was hard work, but he made Darin watch as he made it perfect for us. (I sat in the house, looked out the window, and laughed.)  He made Jag put the worms he was playing with back into the dirt because they are good.  He told us when to plant and then took plants out of his own yard and planted in our garden area.  He tells us when to cover our plants so they don't freeze.  He helped the little boys plant flowers in our front yard making sure that they didn't give them too much water and pushed down hard enough on the dirt.  We managed to plant only 6 of our 60 plants without him knowing and helping out.  If he sees us, he comes to help.  Sometimes we try to be sneaky because we don't want him to feel like he has to come over.

He came in the backyard to explain what needed to be covered for tonights expected frost.  This is only after he brought over the newspaper to show me the expected temps.  When he saw the weeds in the garden, oh the look on his face.  He said they needed to be removed.  I said, "Ja,  Mein Sonn."  I was hoping that he would be a little more understanding of the weeds if he thought that the kids were supposed to weed.  Guess what we are going to be working on this weekend.  The pressure to not disappoint Herr Cappel is great at our house.

We are so lucky to live next to such great neighbors.  I am so glad that he doesn't mind living next to a herd of Americans. 

I hope our plants live.  Maybe next year we'll skip the garden.

Deutsch Dienstag-Black

We live just down from our village cemetary.  Every day the widows and widowers walk up to the cemetary.  Every day.  I can tell when someone has recently lost a loved one, because they wear all black to show their mourning.  They wear black for months.  Sometimes navy blue is substituted for black.  Everyone in the family wears black to show their mourning.  My little old neighbor died of liver cancer a week before Easter.  His little wife has traded in her white sweater for a black one that she wears daily.  Even accessories like pants, scarves, and jackets are black or navy.  It is a very interesting cultural thing.  They aren't typically church goers so although it may have started in religion it is continued in culture.  I don't know how long they wear the black, but by watching the parade of people that daily visit the cemetary, it is quite a long time.  I'll be looking for the little white sweater to return.

The Holy Robe of Christ

Trier is the oldest city in Germany.  It is a great place with cute markets and Roman ruins.  It is also the location of the Holy Robe or Tunic of Christ.  It is stored in the Trier Cathedral, but is not on display.  Only 3 times in the last century has it been out; last time about 20 years ago.  We, with a billion other people, made the pilgrimage.  I totally underestimated the size of the crowds.  I knew there would be a lot of people, but really my mind wasn't even close.  Smashed like sardines, with people who line up like Turks (don't), for almost 3 hours! 

The door to get into the Cathedral.  We were so close and yet so far.  Stuck here for at least an hour.  Just grateful that the rain had stopped for a moment.  Anya was really mad and I was fortunate to find jelly beans in my bag.  I think that the man near Darin would like a jelly bean.

People everywhere in lines?

People were singing and carrying banners.

There it is!  Christ's seamless robe under glass.

The boys and the robe. 

It is here that I about let loose on all the people around me. I was tired of being pushed and having people move in front of my stroller. I was grateful for a couple of sweet Germans that tried to make sure that I wasn't smashed too much or that too many people got in front of the stroller. They kept me moving forward. Everyone was supposed to keep silent in here. Just as we got to the robe, after 3 hours, Anya desides that enough is enough and starts to cry and yell. I quickly took my peek and tried to move out of the way avoiding any further melt downs from either of us. I was quickly stopped by a "robe worker" who was letting some important (didn't have to wait in a line) people through to touch the case and pray. I thought "really" you stop a stroller? Anya started to fuss and the "worker" turned and shushed her. I had been thinking for 3 hours of everything that I would like to growl at people and it almost came rushing out....if it weren't for that stupid language barrier! Maybe it was better that the language barrier kept me in check, I was near the robe of Christ (maybe? ).

Here is some background information from our pamphlet on the Cathedral:
"The most percious relic of Trier Cathedral is the Holy Robe, called the Tunic of Christ.  According to tradition, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, Helena, brought the seamless robe of Christ to Trier.  The Holy Robe is first mentioned int he 11th century; its history is documented for certain only since the 12th century, when it was brought from the west choir and walled into the new altar in the east choir on May 1, 1196.
In 1512, the high altar was opened in the presence of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian by Archbishop Richard von Greiffenklau, initiating the first pilgrimage to the Holy Robe.
Occurrences in the past and unfavorable storage conditions have caused the original textile to change, as it has undergone frequent restoration efforts. (Darin thought it looked like clay) The question of the authenticity of the Holy Robe cannot be answered for certain.  For believers, it has symbolic meaning: The relic points to Jesus Christ Himself, His incarnation and the further events of His life leading to His crucifixion and death."

We walked out and the boys said, "That was so not worth it."  Darin told them that one day they'd think it was cool.  I don't know if they believe him.  Looking back, I am glad we waited in line.  It did take a bit for me to cool off though.

For the Relic Count, we have seen:
*Christ's tunic
*Christ's blood
*Christ's swaddling clothes
*The 3 magi
*John the baptist's beheading cloth
*
*
I can't remember...I'll have to ask Darin.

My Mother's Daughter

I am my mother's daughter. 

 My hands are skinny and bony just like hers. 

Our hair dye is almost the same "natural" color.

We can do anything.

We are the funniest and smartest people that we know.

Crafty (ish). Creative (definately).  Festive (to a fault, is that possible?).

We can throw anything in the direction of a trash can and make it...usually.

We love chocolate and chick flicks.

We think hot fudge is the perfect breakfast food.  (that may just be me)

We usually do 50 things at a time.

Sometimes we are called clumsy, but only by the mean and laughing people.

Sometimes when we move too fast and do too much we end up looking clumsy, but it is really wasn't our fault.

I may or may not have slammed my face in the rear van hatch, causing great pain and slowly blackening eyes.  One of the boys should have grabbed some of the groceries from my hands.

It wasn't my fault. 

I am my mother's daughter. 

(We can totally blame this clumsy gene thing on grandma, right mom?)

I love you mom!!

I miss you terribly.

Happy Mother's Day!

San Antonio river walk

Deutsch Dienstag-Beauty

This Noah's school class.  I laughed for at least 10 minutes.

Reason #501 Why I Need To Learn German

So I can give people of piece of my mind.

I am tired of the pent-up anger that I get sometimes, and I need to get it out.  This may be the greatest motivating factor for my language studies.  If I weren't just so dumb with this learning stuff!  Seeing that I've been keeping my mind to myself you'd think there would be plenty left to hold the German.  Ugh.

(We spent Saturday in enormous crowds, reason still to be posted about.  Crowds bring out the best in us all.)

Deutsch Dienstag

Recycling is an artform here in Germany. 

When my toaster died this past week I couldn't just toss the junky item into the trash.  I needed to wait for the special collector man.  You see he drives this beat up pick-up truck that looks like it is from the 50s.  You never know when he is going to be driving by.  He drives really slow up the street while the passenger in the truck rings a "school bell" out the window.  Ring, ring, ring.  My days of watching Monty Phython have me saying, "Bring out your dead" everytime I hear him.

 I heard the bell.  I grabbed the broken toaster and walked out to stand on the sidewalk and wait for him to drive by.  I catch his eye, yep, nod and let him know that the toaster is junk.  He stops and I toss it into the back of the truck.  Danke.