German Mom

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Summer Fashions

We have had some warm weather days here lately so I was able to put some summer clothes on Sarah that Grandma Benjamin sent. Sarah loves to show off her new fashions. I think she just loves the camera.



Anna helped Jeff wash our other car the other day. We are getting some minor repairs done and then TUV so it will be driveable and ready to use for our many guest coming to visit us! Did you know in Germany that there is a 19% tax on everything. It really makes everything expensive when you need repairs done.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Spring Party

Last night we went to the High school Spring Party. It was originally suppose to be held at the local pool but Plane "E" went into operation when the speedo rule became inforced. It's too bad too, because last night was really warm and humid. Jeff and I are Freshman class sponsors so we were required to attend and help with serving the food and crowd control. The students were all well behaved and enjoyed the woodsy scene of a nearby village. The theme was a toga party. But I think it also had a tropcial/ surviver theme as well. Jeff was asked to take part in the group game of the night. He had his face painted and was given a sock full of flour to fling at High school students as they ran past him. It reminded me of a primitive form of Lazer Tag. Here is what Jeff looked like after the game when he came up to see Sarah.

Anna played in the game too and showed off her marks on her arm as finding the hidden staff members.






The highlight for me was the yummy ice cream that was made and brought in from our local Italian Eiscafe. Somehow, ice cream taste better in the great outdoors. Here is line of students waiting to get their two scoops of ice cream.









At the end of the night, there were some class tug of war games. The Staff was paired up against the senior guys. Even though they tried hard, the seniors couldn't beat those buff staff guys like Jeff.





Anna helped add to the mood of the evening by beating the drum with some other High Schoolers. I didn't understand how this was tied into the toga theme but it was festive.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Trading Spaces

The time finally came for us to give Jacob his own room. He and Anna had been sharing a room together off and on for the past 8 years. We felt that Sarah was old enough to move to a big bed. Even though she is only 16 months old, we placed Anna in a big bed as soon as we moved here to Germany and she was only 13 months old. Sarah had no problem with the switch. Jacob loves his own space and even though we don't have an actual bed for him yet, he is making due on the fold out bed. He folds it up and makes it every night on his own.




Every morning when Sarah wakes up, she just sits up in her bed and yells "Momma, Momma" until someone come and gets her.








Anna seems to enjoy her new roommate. She is happy to have graduated to the top bunk now. She gets to sleep alittle longer in the mornings as I wait to get Sarah up.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Eight More Days

We are coming down to the wire for the school year here at BFA. There are only 8 more days of classes. The weather has become very warm so it is very hard to keep the kids focused. On Sunday, I went to pick up our babysitter and Anna came with me in the car. Heidi is a Senior and I asked her on the ride to our home if she has "Senioritist" yet. We were talking about that and later Anna came up to me and said, "Mom, I think I have 2nd grade itist." I asked her if she knew what that meant and she said that she was ready for summer vacation.
We have most of our summer activities taken care of. Even though we are not going back to the States this summer, it will still be busy for us. We are going to sign the kids up for a tennis camp the first week of vacation. This will keep them busy every morning. Then we are looking forward to some good friends visiting us for two weeks. We are going to take them to Paris- I have never been in seven years of living here- it should be a great time to show them our area. We will have a few weeks of down time after that to catch our breath and then Jeff's brother will come for a two week visit toward the end of summer break.
I am noticing that Jacob and Anna are getting more independent and wanting to do more activities with their friends so they may be going to the local the swimming pool - if they have the right attire! It should be a nice change of pace for us and is always welcomed.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Stay away from the Schwimmbad

Today I went to get some groceries from our local store and ran into a friend from BFA. We were having a nice chat out in the parking lot planning a play date with our girls when my friend shared some big news from our little town that will affect our summer plans. It appears that the "Swim Meister" at the local pool just passed a new rule with the city of Kandern that all patrons are only allowed to wear speedos. Anything else will not be tolerated and you will not be allowed to use the public pool. Apearently when BFA caught wind of this a represenative was sent to the council and tried to over turn this ruling stating that BFA gives most of the business during the summer. Sorry, those Germans are stubborn- the decision has been made. Even women are not allowed to wear shorts style swim suites. As a result, BFA has cancelled their annual Spring party at the swimmbad and I have a feeling that many staff members will forgo the coolness of the pool as well this summer. OUr only hope is to find another local pool who does not enforce this silly rule! Perhaps BFA's next building project will be our own out door pool only for Staff members and a no speedos rule enforced there!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Mothers Day

We heard a report on the German radio the other day that Mothers day is 100 years old this year. It was started in a rual church in America and now in most parts of the Western world, it is celebrated on the second Sunday of May.

Well, my family did their part to help in celebrating Mothers day for me. I got my special gift yesterday- A Dishwasher! I have never appreciated something as much as it, now my kitchen doesn't look as cluttered. My wonderful husband spent the majority of the afternoon working on it.



For the Grandparents, here is a cute picture of Sarah as we left for church today.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Goodbye to a Friend

Last night, we decided to drive up to Frieburg which is about 45 minutes from our home. It is the largest City in the Black Forest Region. There we can find a Starbucks, several Subway Sandwhich resturants, a Burger King ( which now will give you one free drink refill!!) a Toys R Us and Wal Mart. We went specifically to shop at Wal Mart to find a dishwasher. I have been living a year without the luxury of having a dishwasher- my poor dish pan hands! This was going to be my mother's day gift. As we drove into the parking lot and saw the normally full lot of cars and people streaming in nothing seemed out of the usual. Once we stepped inside, however, we noticed that the store was about to close down for good! We all went into immediate depression and quickly scanned for any last remnants of seven years of familiarity to us. I went to the loan aisle of "American foods" and grabbed the last box of bisquick off the shelf. Jeff ran upstairs to the appliances to search for the dishwasher- non anywhere. We spent the next 40 minutes roaming around in a fog knowing that this was our last time in a Wal Mart until we went back to the States in a year. I know for many of you, you are thinking big fat deal. For us it is! This was the only small connection that we had to something familiar to home for seven years and it was suddenly taken away from us. As we left the store I did something that caused all of my family members to forsake me until we were in the car. I stopped turned around and loudly said to everyone- "Goodbye Wal Mart, see you in America!"
Now, we really have no big draw to go to Frieburg no great excursions to get some fun products from "home" . Now we feel like we are in a foreign Country and it never gets easy to deal with.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Cover Girl

Jeff and I recently had some professional pictures of Sarah taken. Mainly because when Jacob and Anna turned one, we had some nice colages made. We finally got around to doing the same for Sarah. When we went to pick up her pictures, the photos weren't cut properly so we will go back next week and pick them up. We were able to get this one of her to place next to Jacob and Anna's school picture. Isn't she adorable?

Friday, May 04, 2007

Bike ride

We have been enjoying four weeks of beautiful summer like weather. We have been so spoiled here that I know one day we will wake up and it will all be a distant memory. But before that, we are enjoying walks, and bike rides as a family. Sarah got to go on her first bike ride with Jeff and Jacob. She was so excited.




Sarah actually got to ride on the back of Jeff's bike like a big girl. She thought that was the best thing since ice cream.




Back on!

Sorry for the delay, I have been having problems with blogger. Hopefully now, I have everything taken care of. It wasn't letting me use my old password and Jeff helped me to get back again to being able to post. Thanks Jeff- I knew German would come in handy one day!




Now, getting back to Jacob's birthday, he had a great time with his sleep over. They did everything from roasting hotdogs, to pillow fights, and seeing who could stay up the longest. Jacob was the first one to fall asleep. Here are a few pictures from his night with the guys.