Good-bye September!

Where have I been?  What have we been doing?  Where did September go?  I think that I have been running for the past month.  I haven't had any time to blog about the crazy month called September.  I think that I am the only person that hasn't posted pictures of the First Day of School...it came, it went. 

Let's see, last I remember it was August.  School and soccer and grandma's visit all came at the same time.  Davis is now in 8th grade and Christian is in 6th.  They are both in the middle school, and it is nice to have them in the same school.  Jag is being homeschooled another year, 3rd grade.  I had thought about sending him, but whenever I thought about it, it just didn't feel right.  Yet.  Noah is being homeschooled, kindergarten, and also continuing to attend the local German school.  Anya is 2 and likes to throw tantrums. 

Yes, they are part vampire and can't stand the sun.
Enjoy the sun boys it won't be back for 9 months.

I drove the kids to school on the first day because the school had this stupid fabulous idea that parents should take their kid to Every Single Class!  How is that for a great open house idea?  I was debating which parent to be.  The one that didn't care enough to show up with the kid OR the one that has the 2yr old that throws a tantrum in every class while the 2 other brothers play with dinosaurs all over the floor.  I was really, really close to being the one that tossed a brick in the direction of the Principals office, but alas, grandma was here and watched the kids and Christian really wanted me to go.  Davis being an 8th grader has his reputation to keep, so excused me from attending any of his classes with him.

Homeschooling has taken some time to get used to again.  I've been trying to do Noah's school work both before and after his German school and then Jag's is taking most of the day.  I always have to find the balance that will work for our family and still keep me sane.  It is slowly coming along and the boys are resisting it less and less.  As for Noah's German school, it is great.  He was still young enough to attend 1 more year. He is making great progress with the language.  In fact I wish I could keep him there until we leave.  He really enjoys it and I LOVE to hear him speak.  German is actually cute when he speaks it.

Soccer started and has taken over our lives.  I have all 4 boys playing on different teams.  I have 4 practices on Monday.  2 practices on Wednesday. Noah's game Thursday.  Jag's game Friday.  Davis and Christian both have games on Saturday.  My 2 free days, Tuesday and Sunday, I get to spend sitting at the church for meetings, scouts, or mutual.  That is it.  I make dinner at 3:00 daily and pack our basket and we eat at the fields in between ball kicking.  The older boys walk to the library after school so that they can get a jump on homework, then I pick them up and they run play, eat.  Then home to shower and finish homework by 10 and do it all again the next day!  November can't come fast enough.  I actually love watching them play.  I don't mind sitting through practices.  I dislike making and transporting food.  I get tired of being gone and running in the door right before bedtimes.  [On another note, it has rained non-stop this week and we have had all practices cancelled!  I needed a little breather to get me through the next week.]

My grandma and her sister came and visited/toured Europe via train for 2 weeks.  We went to the Black Forest together.  Seperate post coming. 

There.  Good-bye September.  I hardly knew you were here!  I am back to blogging now that I have caught my breath.

Deutsch Dienstag-Muhlbacher fest

 

Our little village had its fest this past weekend.  It was little. 

 

Each village puts up one of these big, colorful "sticks" for their fest.  I think that they are made with somekind of tissue paper stuff.  They don't rip in the wind, because they leave them up all year, but they turn grey-ish with the rain.  After talking to the landlord about them and their purpose, I am still in the dark as to the "why" of the stick.  Apparently a bunch of youth, late teens and early 20s, get together at nights and drink and make these to hang on the fest weekend.   There has got to be an explanation that is being lost in translation.  They are kind of fun to look at.  When we first moved here, the boys and I were thinking that they were advertising for Chimney Sweeps.  Kind of looks like a large bottle brush.

Darin in front of the fest. 

 

It consisted of a trailer selling food and a little 'throw the darts at the balloons' booth, music and the local Gasthaus.  We walked near, but it wasn't really necessary to go to the fest.  Nobody was really around making merry.  We must have gotten there in between festivities.  Maybe.

 

One of the funny things about the week after the fest is that a group of youth go door to door collecting for the fest or future fest...I don't really know, lost in translation again.  They want either euros or wine.  Last year they also collected eggs, which I gave.  (Landlord said that they sit around and eat all the eggs one night.  I am thinking that the German sense of FUN is a bit different when mixed with the wine.)  This year they only wanted euros or wine.  I gave wine.  I remembered this stash that we had gotten from our neighbors at Christmas time and ran and grabbed a bottle. Darin said that I shouldn't have given wine to youth.   I told him that they were already carrying bottles (drinking is legal at 16)  and they were just putting it all in the trunk of an old car.  I know, sounds really legit, but hey, they didn't ask for eggs this year.  I started to tell Darin that I didn't want to give euros because....then he interupted me and said, in his I'm a funny guy voice, "because, what?  They may buy alcohol with it?!"   I have no response.   Eggs.  Next year I'll give the drunk kids eggs whether they ask for them or not.

Deutsch Dienstag-Narrow

German roads are a bit narrow. 

 

 It isn't uncommon to "take turns" driving and waiting.  The Autobahn is a different story.  I am talking about the roads in the villages.  The ones that I drive the most often.  Sometimes it is really hard not to flinch when a car is driving towards you.  It is like one crazy game of Chicken every day.  If a car wants, it can just stop in the middle of this narrow road and be parked.  Yep, right in my lane.  So then I wait for any oncoming traffic and go around it.  Swerve. Drive. Swerve.  Straight.  Add narrow to twisty and you have a real driving adventure. 

This is the street that we live on.

I drive these S-curve streets daily.

Berchtesgaden

 

 After our travels to Slovenia, we came home by way of Berchtesgaden.  It is in the corner of Germany and Austria.  The very corner.  It is one of the most beautiful places around.  It is home of Hitler's Eagles Nest, but we didn't visit there this time.  It was a foggy day and we'd like to see the views, but we also plan on going back.

Here is a quick overview of our 2 days there.

Camping.  What a beautiful place to camp.



Dinner time. 



Packed in. 
 Europeans don't really observe the whole personal space thing.  Like in elevators, tables in resturants, or camping...there is always room for one more.



Rained at nights.  Yep, tent leaks a little!

 

Downtown Berchtesgaden Center.  Lots of shopping and food. Yum.

 



In Bavaria the houses and buildings are painted with neat scenes.

We are unable to go anywhere without a bakery stop.  I love bakeries.

 

 

Konigssee.  The highest lake in Germany.  Beautiful place for a skinny dip.

 



We didn't have time for a boat ride, but we did have time for a little hike down the side of the lake.

The boys wanted to swim.  Actually most of them wanted 1 euro.  I told Davis that I'd give him a euro to swim in the lake, but that he couldn't get his clothes wet because we were packed and going home that night.  So off came the clothes, but they didn't go full European, they kept undies on.  The men next to us did not.  All boys soon followed suit.  It was cold.

We couldn't put on dry clothes with wet undies.  Christian loaded them on a stick and "hobo'd" them back to the van.  None of the boys wanted to walk by him.

Going Commando for the rest of the day.



 Ramsau an der Ache.  Church, river, bridge, valley, and cemetary.  Beautiful.

 

 

 



The churches are usually connected or near a cemetary.  We like to walk through and see which people died in which war.  This was a very unique cemetary with all the house looking headstones.

Deutsch Dienstag-Painting the Bus Stop

 I couldn't start another year with my boys sitting at a bus stop that looked like this.  The side that you can't see, nearest Christian, is full of the worst words. 



Before

I asked my landlord to look into it again.  He said that he would try to find out who to ask.  I just wanted permission.  It took him awhile, and then I decided that nobody would mind if I fixed something up.  Besides Darin was out of town and we were looking for projects to do.  I find the need to fill my days with projects while he is gone, as if being a single parent of 5 isn't project enough. I may need to talk to someone about that one day...anyway...

We stopped waiting and bought paint.  We went and removed the graffiti from the metal and also a window, then painted it.  The boys got some scouting service hours and a much improved bus stop for a new school year. 

Davis and Christian painted and scrubbed with me.  Noah kept Anya from running in the road.  Then the two of them painted the ground with all of the water.  Jag was at scout day camp. 

We didn't do this without an audience. 

Nobody asked us any questions, but many watched.  We clearly weren't from the city because we weren't wearing the blue jumpsuits that are typically worn, also the addition of a stroller and young ones may have drawn the attention. 

Leaving our mark on Germany one bus stop at a time!

 

After
We bought this great spray that takes paint off of plastic and metal and just scrubbed the bad words away,  then painted over the wood.

Slovenia, a hidden gem!

"Why didn't anyone ever tell us that Slovenia is so amazing?"  Darin and I were wondering that the entire day that we were there.  Nobody around here really talks about Slovenia.  They should.  It was only a 2 hour day trip from the Venice area and so we had to go. (Davis is all about crossing off as many countries as he can.) I googled Things to do in Slovenia  and found a cool looking castle and a cave that were in the same area, so that was the plan.  Slovenia in one day. 

First of all Slovenia is very green, but not like Germany green because it was also hot.  It has tons of pine trees and Darin thought it looked like the High Unitah's.  Mountains.  Really pretty. 

 

Predjama Castle

Predjama castle first mentioned in 1274. Home of the knight Erazem.  The boys liked learning of Erazem and learning of his fate.  He was a sneaky, yet loved robber baron who would trick the soldiers.  Heres the story:

For a year and a day, Erazem was besieged in his fortress. But, much to the dismay of his adversaries, he continued to survive and taunt the attacking soldiers by pelting them with cherries. They couldn't figure out how he was getting his supplies. As far as they knew, there was only one way in and out of the valley, and the castle. But the cunning knight knew better. Unbeknownst to the soldiers, Erazem knew of a secret tunnel leading from the castle, which allowed him to travel to the nearby village of Vipava and collect supplies, including hoards of fresh cherries when the season was ripe.

But it seemed that the soldiers were to have the last laugh. With the strategic placement of a small signal flag, a servant of Erazem was bribed to reveal when his master was in attendance at that place where the elusive knight and even the noblest of men needed to go after consuming lots of cherries and wine: the outhouse. Unfortunately for Erazem, the toilet, situated on the top floor and at the very edge of the castle, was the one place that wasn't so impregnable. When the moment came, the flag was placed there by the treacherous servant. A single cannon ball was launched, and the errant knight was literally caught with his pants down.

Yep, they thought that it was funny that he died on the toilet.


First glance at the Predjama Castle.  It is half in a cave and half out.  Really cool.

The family in Slovenia.

Isn't that a cool castle in a cave?

Under the castle there is a cave that you can tour,but the cave is only open for 6 weeks because of the bats that live there. The thought of all that bat guano gave me the creeps and so we opted for the cooler cave down the road.

Climbing around in the castle.



Noah walked though the castle shooting "arrows" at everything.

 

This picture reminded me so much of one that I had taken in an underground city in Turkey when only 3 kids existed.  I wish I could find it and put it side by side with this one.  Davis is pulling that face on purpose because I made him climb up in a hole when he is 13!

 

On the drawbridge.  More arrows being shot.

Postojna Cave

 

Slovenia has dozens and dozens of caves.  I guess that with all the mountains and a perfectly placed river or so, tah-dah, caves.  This is the largest cave in the area.  First of all we got on this train to travel into the cave.  It was like a Disneyland ride.  Quite quick and we were surrounded by beauty everywhere.  We weaved around and through the cave for 3-1/2 kilometers, then we got out and walked around for another 1-1/2 kilometers and ended with another train ride for 5 kilometers.  The cave was the most amazing, sparkly cave ever.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to take the kinder, or myself for that matter, to another cave again.  Miles and miles of stalactites and stalagmites. 



 

Ready for the train ride.

It wasn't permissable to take photos in the cave.

My illegal photos don't do justice to the amazing sites.

 

Here is a picture that I found online that shows more of the things that we were able to see in the cave.  One of the strangest things was a room that had a huge chandelier hanging and lights all around.  An amazing location for a wedding reception or grand ball or something.  

We would have loved to go farther into Slovenia and explored more, but we just didn't have the time.  Slovenia is awesome.

Deutsch Dienstag-Out to the Wood Pile

Germans have wood piles. 

 But, to me, the most amazing thing about the wood piles are the way that they are organized and stacked.  They pile tons and tons of logs so neatly.  The wood piles don't fall over.  They are amazing. 

 

When Darin was a kid, to keep he and his brother busy, they would have the job of UNstacking and then REstacking their family wood pile.  He doesn't think that they ever used the wood, just stacked it...in case.  This would be a wood pile to keep a group of 4 boys busy for an entire summer.  Maybe Darin's dad had the right idea!