Mom has finally arrived!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
After Dog Comes Mom
Mom has finally arrived!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Cautious Connie
There is just something about looking at my speed and seeing 140 (km/hr) that makes me freak on the inside. My brain just can’t convert the 140 and panic starts to set in. I am sure that I will lose control. At a time when I could guarantee that I’d never be late anywhere, I instantly become a Cautious Connie (only alliteration that I could think of) and ease up. Even worse is when I see a car coming up behind me. RACING! I can’t get out of the way fast enough for them. I don’t know how they can drive so fast. Germany does make up for its autobahn speed by having the slowest city streets around. The speed limit in the city is 50 km/hr. I am late everywhere! Even worse is when a village has a 30 km/hr zone. Walking speed! What happened to my happy medium speed; the one that gets me there right on time?
My mom would LOVE driving in Germany!
I am happy to report that Curry the van just arrived! We paid around $1500 to rent a “mini-van” for the last 6 weeks. Hurray for Curry! Now let’s see how fast it can go!
My mom would LOVE driving in Germany!
I am happy to report that Curry the van just arrived! We paid around $1500 to rent a “mini-van” for the last 6 weeks. Hurray for Curry! Now let’s see how fast it can go!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Another Week-August 29-September 4
(This is a long one.)
Every week it starts to feel a little more like this is home and not just a visit to the local Campingplatz (a favorite word). The boys started school; another bit of normal was added. They seemed to like their first week of school. Both Davis and Christian think that it will be a good year. I was nervous just walking them to a bus stop on their first day, but I wanted them to learn the “ropes” with all the other new kids. I loaded up the other three kids and walked to the bus stop for the first 3 days, but then I’d had enough waking kids up and it was time for the boys to do it alone. Davis has a phone for all the traveling so that we can keep in touch. He is funny and likes to call me all the time. “Mom, we just got to the bus stop.” “Mom, we are on the bus now.” “Mom, I’m at lunch.” “Mom, school is over and I am heading home.” “Mom, we just got off the bus. See you in a few minutes.” He isn’t one for long conversations, so really that is the length of each call. I had to finally give him direction. Just call when you are on the bus in the morning and when you are off, then I’ll know when to look for you. I’d told him the phone was to keep in contact with us; he is diligent about it.
Speaking of bus stop. The stop that the boys wait at is one of the few places where you see graffiti. The words are in English. I want to paint the bus stop so that my boys, who speak English, aren’t surrounded by the bad English words. I asked our landlord who I needed to contact about getting permission to do that. After we talked in circles, he finally understood that I wanted to paint the bus stop. He laughed and laughed. “You want to paint it yourself?” Then he said, “OK paint it.” I said that I wanted to make sure that it was OK. He said that nobody should mind if I was doing something like that. I told him that they may hate the color that I picked. He said just pick brown or gray and all would be OK. After thinking about it for awhile, he decided that he would try to find out who he needed to talk to. I guess that the Germans didn’t care that the graffiti was there, but it is funny that an American would move into town and want to start painting the village.
Davis is taking the regular classes. He has pre-algebra, advanced band, and finally on Thursday got into German I and out of a lame creative thinking class. I need my kids to all speak German to make up for their mothers’ dumb head. The rest of his classes are the usual. He happens to have the same science as last year, so I don’t know what to do about that yet. Christian has a teacher who has been teaching for 38 years. Who knows if that is good? He likes his host nation (German-ish) class and the other extra classes. Both boys seem to have a bunch of friends that they eat and play with from church. They have also gone out of their way to make some new friends. That makes me feel better about sending them. I am hopeful that this will be a good year.
Jaggy and I started bright and early on Monday as well. We did our German lessons before Noah went to kindergarten so that he can benefit from them. We now know the words for table, fridge, rug, window and door, none of which my neighbor mentioned when he was trying to talk to me. This is going to be a long, painful process. We walk Noah to kindergarten, come home and put Anya down for a nap and have 3 hours to just work. It is a great schedule. After we pick up Noah then they do science and reading time together. I think that it will work out well for us. He has asked to home school until he is as old as Davis. I’m not sure about that, but this year should work out for us. He hates to leave the house. He hates to go to the store, base, or run errands. He really likes to stay home. He doesn’t have anxiety, but rather thinks that everything is boring and takes way too long.
We finally got internet in our house! It took the guy 4 hours and it still didn’t work. He wanted to leave but Darin wouldn’t sign the papers until it was working because it took 3 weeks to get him here. The poor man had tried everything, but it still wouldn’t work. He said that he was going to call the company and then call us and tell us what to do, he left and never came back or called again. Darin went through a set up disk after finally finding it in English and eventually got it working. Our phone, however, still doesn’t work who knows if it ever will. Everything takes a lot longer around here. I am very grateful to have the internet in the house again. I finally am connected to the world. All those people who want to “turn off” their lives for awhile are messed in the head! It is impossible to live without the conveniences of the internet, Ok not impossible, but I really don’t want to do it again.
I spend time cleaning and doing laundry just to re-clean and then toss our clothes into a pile on the floor. We don’t have hangers, but we do have wardrobes. I have 1 bowl and a spoon and a small pan. I have been washing my dishes in only cold under a small trickle of water (that was supposed to be fixed 3 weeks ago, but hopefully tomorrow). I have made dinner and bread with only a few items. I have a limited menu and not a recipe to use. Actually I have a few recipes now, but I don’t have any spices yet. It takes awhile to rebuild your stock of basic cooking supplies. I am done with this campingplatz. It kind of feels like home, but nothing is put away (I don’t even have a garbage can yet) and everything is limited. However, we got a super surprise and all our stuff is going to be delivered Monday. I honestly didn’t expect to see anything until October, but with the large amount of people moving in the summer, things moved a bit faster. It will be fabulous to have our stuff and get hot water in the same day. Good bye camping.
This weekend we went to the nearby town of Kusel for the Autumn Fest. We found a fun parade. I love a good parade and this was one we will remember. It was full of colorful dancing groups and bands. There were weird entertainment groups like a karate guy who broke boards with his head or the “gymnasts” that swung on metal bar carried by other guys. About every other float was one handing out beer to the watching crowd. Half of the people in the parade were carrying large cups of beer. In Germany the drinking age is 16, so even the HS floats were filled with drinking kids. They threw tons and tons of candy. Even the beauty queens were throwing candy in between their parade waves. They didn’t just toss, but THREW candy that pelted the crowd. I laughed and laughed. I danced and smiled and LOVED every minute of it. Davis said that he thought it was the best parade he’d ever gone to, but kids measure the worth of a parade in the pounds of candy they scrounge. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sit through a Henefer parade again without thinking about and comparing it to the awesome German parade. Even Darin liked the parade, now that is saying something.
Every week it starts to feel a little more like this is home and not just a visit to the local Campingplatz (a favorite word). The boys started school; another bit of normal was added. They seemed to like their first week of school. Both Davis and Christian think that it will be a good year. I was nervous just walking them to a bus stop on their first day, but I wanted them to learn the “ropes” with all the other new kids. I loaded up the other three kids and walked to the bus stop for the first 3 days, but then I’d had enough waking kids up and it was time for the boys to do it alone. Davis has a phone for all the traveling so that we can keep in touch. He is funny and likes to call me all the time. “Mom, we just got to the bus stop.” “Mom, we are on the bus now.” “Mom, I’m at lunch.” “Mom, school is over and I am heading home.” “Mom, we just got off the bus. See you in a few minutes.” He isn’t one for long conversations, so really that is the length of each call. I had to finally give him direction. Just call when you are on the bus in the morning and when you are off, then I’ll know when to look for you. I’d told him the phone was to keep in contact with us; he is diligent about it.
Speaking of bus stop. The stop that the boys wait at is one of the few places where you see graffiti. The words are in English. I want to paint the bus stop so that my boys, who speak English, aren’t surrounded by the bad English words. I asked our landlord who I needed to contact about getting permission to do that. After we talked in circles, he finally understood that I wanted to paint the bus stop. He laughed and laughed. “You want to paint it yourself?” Then he said, “OK paint it.” I said that I wanted to make sure that it was OK. He said that nobody should mind if I was doing something like that. I told him that they may hate the color that I picked. He said just pick brown or gray and all would be OK. After thinking about it for awhile, he decided that he would try to find out who he needed to talk to. I guess that the Germans didn’t care that the graffiti was there, but it is funny that an American would move into town and want to start painting the village.
Davis is taking the regular classes. He has pre-algebra, advanced band, and finally on Thursday got into German I and out of a lame creative thinking class. I need my kids to all speak German to make up for their mothers’ dumb head. The rest of his classes are the usual. He happens to have the same science as last year, so I don’t know what to do about that yet. Christian has a teacher who has been teaching for 38 years. Who knows if that is good? He likes his host nation (German-ish) class and the other extra classes. Both boys seem to have a bunch of friends that they eat and play with from church. They have also gone out of their way to make some new friends. That makes me feel better about sending them. I am hopeful that this will be a good year.
Jaggy and I started bright and early on Monday as well. We did our German lessons before Noah went to kindergarten so that he can benefit from them. We now know the words for table, fridge, rug, window and door, none of which my neighbor mentioned when he was trying to talk to me. This is going to be a long, painful process. We walk Noah to kindergarten, come home and put Anya down for a nap and have 3 hours to just work. It is a great schedule. After we pick up Noah then they do science and reading time together. I think that it will work out well for us. He has asked to home school until he is as old as Davis. I’m not sure about that, but this year should work out for us. He hates to leave the house. He hates to go to the store, base, or run errands. He really likes to stay home. He doesn’t have anxiety, but rather thinks that everything is boring and takes way too long.
We finally got internet in our house! It took the guy 4 hours and it still didn’t work. He wanted to leave but Darin wouldn’t sign the papers until it was working because it took 3 weeks to get him here. The poor man had tried everything, but it still wouldn’t work. He said that he was going to call the company and then call us and tell us what to do, he left and never came back or called again. Darin went through a set up disk after finally finding it in English and eventually got it working. Our phone, however, still doesn’t work who knows if it ever will. Everything takes a lot longer around here. I am very grateful to have the internet in the house again. I finally am connected to the world. All those people who want to “turn off” their lives for awhile are messed in the head! It is impossible to live without the conveniences of the internet, Ok not impossible, but I really don’t want to do it again.
I spend time cleaning and doing laundry just to re-clean and then toss our clothes into a pile on the floor. We don’t have hangers, but we do have wardrobes. I have 1 bowl and a spoon and a small pan. I have been washing my dishes in only cold under a small trickle of water (that was supposed to be fixed 3 weeks ago, but hopefully tomorrow). I have made dinner and bread with only a few items. I have a limited menu and not a recipe to use. Actually I have a few recipes now, but I don’t have any spices yet. It takes awhile to rebuild your stock of basic cooking supplies. I am done with this campingplatz. It kind of feels like home, but nothing is put away (I don’t even have a garbage can yet) and everything is limited. However, we got a super surprise and all our stuff is going to be delivered Monday. I honestly didn’t expect to see anything until October, but with the large amount of people moving in the summer, things moved a bit faster. It will be fabulous to have our stuff and get hot water in the same day. Good bye camping.
This weekend we went to the nearby town of Kusel for the Autumn Fest. We found a fun parade. I love a good parade and this was one we will remember. It was full of colorful dancing groups and bands. There were weird entertainment groups like a karate guy who broke boards with his head or the “gymnasts” that swung on metal bar carried by other guys. About every other float was one handing out beer to the watching crowd. Half of the people in the parade were carrying large cups of beer. In Germany the drinking age is 16, so even the HS floats were filled with drinking kids. They threw tons and tons of candy. Even the beauty queens were throwing candy in between their parade waves. They didn’t just toss, but THREW candy that pelted the crowd. I laughed and laughed. I danced and smiled and LOVED every minute of it. Davis said that he thought it was the best parade he’d ever gone to, but kids measure the worth of a parade in the pounds of candy they scrounge. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sit through a Henefer parade again without thinking about and comparing it to the awesome German parade. Even Darin liked the parade, now that is saying something.
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| German Gymnastics. I don't think they'll be making it to the Olympics anytime soon. |
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| Each group/float was followed by the Red Cross in case of problems. Darin said that he wondered who was going to be following and helping the Red Cross |
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| Drinks anyone? Just wait, someone will be right over with a sample. |
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| Like father, like daughter. That is some face! |
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| We weren't prepared for the candy throwing, so the boys had to fill their shirts and pockets. |
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| A truck full of tiny french horn players. Tiny horns not tiny players. |
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| Christian with his candy stash. We were hoping the pants wouldn't fall off. |
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| Darin holding my purse. He said it was Ok, we are in Europe now. Next, Manpris are coming. |
Boy's Eye View-Jag
I am going to start putting posts from the boys about the way they are seeing our travels and home. It is funny to see their personality in just a few words.
I have been to two cool castles. They were awesome. One was a medieval one with lots of deer heads on the walls and lots of killed animals.
I have been to two cool castles. They were awesome. One was a medieval one with lots of deer heads on the walls and lots of killed animals.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
First Day of School
This is the first day of school for Davis and Christian. They are waiting for the bus to come. This is as good of a picture that I could take because there were about a dozen German kids waiting for their bus on the Left and a handful of American kids waiting on the Right. They have to be cool sometime...Mom's can be so lame sometime. I would have taken pictures at home, but I was too stressed that we'd miss the bus. They have about a 7 minute walk to the bus stop and if they miss it, I have about a 30 minute drive!
Aren't they so cute? Christian is in an intermediate school with kids from 3-5th grade. Davis is in the middle school with kids from 6-8th grade. The schools are side-by-side and all the grade levels ride the same buses. Our bus picks up kids in Altenglan, the town before us, and then 2 villiages after ours before it heads to base. It isn't too bad of a route. They leave the house at 7 and return home around 1545.
He is just playing, I didn't have him sorting farm animals.
Yes, I decided to homeschool again. He wanted it, but I couldn't decide what would be best. I kept thinking that he needed to find friends. Then, Darin pointed out the fact that so many little villiages make up the schools, you have to really go out of your way to have a get together with anyone from school. The way things are layed out, you just don't have neighborhood school friends. At least not where we chose to live. If we'd lived right by base they may have had a few, but this is so much better. Besides, he has about a dozen kids his age at church. It really just came down to what felt right. This is actually working great. Noah is in kindergarten from 9-12 and Anya is sleeping, so Jag and I have some great time together.
Another Week-August 22-28
I guess that it is the start of school and the end of summer that have me procrastinating this post, but both events will come so I might as well post something. Our last week of summer was way too busy with a bunch of dumb school stuff (How’s that for an end of summer attitude?). On Monday we actually got our first shipment. I was so excited because it had sweaters and long pants in it. I’d also purchased school clothes and they made it before I was forced to buy BX and have my boys look like everyone else. I wish that I’d have sent more stuff. I really need to make a list of things that I need/want early for when we leave here. Towels, sheets, blankets, and pillows made it here about 2 weeks late, I had to buy all new in order to live these past weeks. It wouldn’t be a problem to have extra normally, but for now they don’t have a place, other than an extra table to call home. We still don’t have any way to organize our bathrooms because we don’t have a car big enough to haul us and any purchases back from IKEA. Darin dealt with the shipment because I was busy with Davis’ 7th grade orientation and math test. He was excited, but I don’t know that I like having a 7th grader.
Christian had scout day camp Tuesday through Friday. It wasn’t at a cool location like I would have hoped, but getting him there and back every day was inconvenient enough. He seemed to have a good time, but wasn’t busting out with excitement each day. He had a dentist appointment and although his gums still need some time to heal and teeth are still a bit wiggly…it looks like they are still alive and we have managed to come out of this with two live, crooked teeth. Hurray. I had his orientation for school on Wednesday and then his “Meet the teacher/Open house” on Friday. I drove to and from base too many times. I don’t mind the drive, but I don’t like to haul 5 grumpy kids there daily. AND since we were on base we HAD to run a billion other errands, go to the library, BX, get groceries…dumb, dumb, dumb. As you can tell the kids weren’t the only ones that were grumpy.
Saturday was better. We decided to go to about an hour and half NE(ish) to the Romantic Rhine. Just the thought made me happy. We drove to Bingen and then up a cute curvy road that was right next to the Rhine River. It was amazing because as we drove to the cute village of St. Goar, we were able to spot castles on both sides of us. There are around 15 castles in the area. It was raining off and on and that just added to the Romantic nature of the drive (I had 5 kids in the back seats of the car, so keep romantic in the right context). We walked around St. Goar and touched the Rhine. We then went to climb a castle, Castle Rheinstein. It was nice to get out and take it easy after a busy week.
Sunday, the Lord let me know that he doesn’t care about short notice PCS’s and I was called back into the Primary Presidency. Fortunately I am only the Secretary. I should have paid more attention to what my secretary did. I think that the real challenge will be keeping up with the bazillion kids in the primary. At least I get to be in the Primary. I don’t know how many more adult classes I could stand. I am sad about leaving my Sunday School class. I liked teaching Davis and the 15 other 12/13 year olds, and I liked teaching with Darin.
On the way home from church we stopped in at the post office and were THRILLED that the brand new French horn FINALLY showed up; the day before Davis starts his advanced band class. Cutting things a bit close for us. The horn box was big. We were responsible to recycle the box ourselves. We couldn’t fit the empty box in the car, no matter how Darin smashed the box. No matter how much Darin yelled and growled and pushed. We couldn’t break it down because it was filled with packing peanuts, and every time we moved the flaps peanuts went blowing in the wind. Davis and I were running through the parking lot trying to catch them. I was laughing hysterically. Darin was not. Anya was crying until she almost threw up. Finally, I sat on the curb with our 2 other long missing boxes and waited while Darin took the big box to his office. We only got to walk the boys to their bus stops for our Sunday walk, (We need to time it so we don’t miss the bus on the first day.) and then early bedtimes. No church wonderings or forest adventures, I guess summer really is coming to a close.
Christian had scout day camp Tuesday through Friday. It wasn’t at a cool location like I would have hoped, but getting him there and back every day was inconvenient enough. He seemed to have a good time, but wasn’t busting out with excitement each day. He had a dentist appointment and although his gums still need some time to heal and teeth are still a bit wiggly…it looks like they are still alive and we have managed to come out of this with two live, crooked teeth. Hurray. I had his orientation for school on Wednesday and then his “Meet the teacher/Open house” on Friday. I drove to and from base too many times. I don’t mind the drive, but I don’t like to haul 5 grumpy kids there daily. AND since we were on base we HAD to run a billion other errands, go to the library, BX, get groceries…dumb, dumb, dumb. As you can tell the kids weren’t the only ones that were grumpy.
Saturday was better. We decided to go to about an hour and half NE(ish) to the Romantic Rhine. Just the thought made me happy. We drove to Bingen and then up a cute curvy road that was right next to the Rhine River. It was amazing because as we drove to the cute village of St. Goar, we were able to spot castles on both sides of us. There are around 15 castles in the area. It was raining off and on and that just added to the Romantic nature of the drive (I had 5 kids in the back seats of the car, so keep romantic in the right context). We walked around St. Goar and touched the Rhine. We then went to climb a castle, Castle Rheinstein. It was nice to get out and take it easy after a busy week.
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| St. Goar with castle (burg) in the background. |
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| Me eating a giant piece of German black forest cherry cake (That is what the sign says in the background). I am laughing because Darin kept telling me to put the cake closer to my face and people on the street were looking at me. This was about 3 seconds before Darin took a bite of the cake and told me that it tasted like alcohol. I guess the chocolate cream was a bit tainted. I ate everything else. Yummy. |
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| See the Rhine and the castle in the background? |
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| A neat orange church |
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| Rheinstein Castle |
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| Up in the highest tower |
Sunday, the Lord let me know that he doesn’t care about short notice PCS’s and I was called back into the Primary Presidency. Fortunately I am only the Secretary. I should have paid more attention to what my secretary did. I think that the real challenge will be keeping up with the bazillion kids in the primary. At least I get to be in the Primary. I don’t know how many more adult classes I could stand. I am sad about leaving my Sunday School class. I liked teaching Davis and the 15 other 12/13 year olds, and I liked teaching with Darin.
On the way home from church we stopped in at the post office and were THRILLED that the brand new French horn FINALLY showed up; the day before Davis starts his advanced band class. Cutting things a bit close for us. The horn box was big. We were responsible to recycle the box ourselves. We couldn’t fit the empty box in the car, no matter how Darin smashed the box. No matter how much Darin yelled and growled and pushed. We couldn’t break it down because it was filled with packing peanuts, and every time we moved the flaps peanuts went blowing in the wind. Davis and I were running through the parking lot trying to catch them. I was laughing hysterically. Darin was not. Anya was crying until she almost threw up. Finally, I sat on the curb with our 2 other long missing boxes and waited while Darin took the big box to his office. We only got to walk the boys to their bus stops for our Sunday walk, (We need to time it so we don’t miss the bus on the first day.) and then early bedtimes. No church wonderings or forest adventures, I guess summer really is coming to a close.
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