SO BUSY!!!!

What a busy couple weeks! Two weekends ago I went to Luxembourg for a 'girl's weekend' with the two girls who are friends with Susanna who we stayed with in Belgium and then Lindsay Susanna and Jennifer, another colleague of ours. The weather on Friday in Frankfurt was amazing and we were expecting the same on the weekend. Nope. Cold ad overcast and drizzly. Boo. We stayed at a super clean hostel in the lower part of Luxembourg city. We took the train/bus to Luxembourg (about 3hrs) and after we had dropped off our stuff we went and found a tour that Lindsay had read about. We were a big group of about 20 with almost everyone being from Mexico. Our 65 year old tour guide didn't pick up that they weren't from Spain until maybe 3/4 of the way through the tour. What we learned in the 2.5hr long tour: Luxembourg was invaded, destroyed, rebuilt, invaded, destroyed, rebuilt, etc, etc, etc. And generally the countries involved were France, Germany, and I believe Spain. My favorite part was this concersation: tour guide to obviously Indian man: You should know this because your from Spain. Oh no, thats right you are from Mexico. Indian man: No. I'm from India.

Yep.

We went to a couple different bars that night in our green for St. Patrick's Day. A lot of people rockin giant guineas hats for the occasion. I was glad to get my hands on one to cover my head from the rain.

Other favorite part of the trip: The Chocolate House. 'nuff said. :)

Last week I went to a town called Heilbronn from Wednesday to Friday to do Assessments for a new school opening. I went with two colleagues of mine and we had a jolly ol' time soaking up the sun in our free afternoons. I was pretty shocked with the food pricing and realized how expensive Frankfurt is. We had fun trading prices back and forth with the head of the school and her assistant. A giant ice cream cone was .90 cents and in Frankfurt that would cost at least 4 Euro.

Last weekend I went to Sebastian's parent's house with Sarah, Lindsay and Andrew. His parent's live in an amazing house in a small dorf. We layed out in the warm sun, read our books, played w his adorable nephew and relaxed. Then we rode their bikes over to the soccer field and watched Seb played on his local team. They won! Big event since they normally lose. We bring luck! We got a lot of stares given we were in a very small community speaking another language. Foreigners!! Dinner w Seb's friend from school. Ate a lot of chocolate. Watched part of The Last Boyscout. Wow. Next day we went to Kassel and climbed up to the Hercules statue. Soaked up some sun. Said goodbye to his nephew who had grown very attached to Lindsay I am guessing. They had a cute game of "Wer bist du?" going on where he continually called Lindsay Andi. Pretty darn cute between all the giggles.

I had assembly on Monday and "hid" about 160 mini chocolate eggs all over the playground. I ate about 20 of them plus more. Now I am so phlegmy and have an awesome cough. Oops. Most important is that the kids had fun. A blast actually! :) Went and saw The Hunger Games with Sarah and Ning. I liked it! Definitely had to close my eyes a few times though... Tuesday had sushi at Ning's with Charlotte and baby Elliot in tow. Emily's birthday yesterday!

 

This week had been so crazy busy!!! Got all my shopping done for my camp next week! Can't wait for this Easter break to begin, although the weather isn't looking too great as of now.

There are no Cheetos in Germany.

Last weekend I.... I don't remember what I did!

Hmmm.. Why is my memory so bad? Oh I got it!

Waterfront Walk

On Saturday I went and hung out with my friend Susanna in the city and we went for a walk and just relaxed. Sunday I went with Ning, her husband Dirk, and Adriana to the Netherlands/German border and went shopping at a huge outlet center! It was a lot of fun and Ning found some really cute things like a shirt from Prada for 25 Euros that said don't wash on the tag. Hahahaha. On our way home we went to Bonn, a city in Germany, for a Chinese dinner on the river and then the restaurant decided it was a boat and we did a one hour loop on the river. Such a pleasant surprise! Adriana had a minor freak out since she gets sea sick so she downed Dramamine real quick. Ning and Dirk had been to eat at this restaurant twice before and it had never done a loop so Ning thought it was a joke at first. Nope! Not at all! We went on the deck for a bit to enjoy the fresh air and the non existent view. Naja.  I was so full afterward. It's so much fun going out for Chinese food with Ning, because she just orders all the food since she knows it. And then we get a discount, because she is Chinese. And then her husband pays for the meals while the rest of us argue with him and he won't take our money. Oh dear.

Ning, Adriana, and our other friend Nobia went out for Sushi on Monday. Tuesday I went out for "Mexican" with Sarah and Jess-A, Yesterday I went to Susanna's with Lindsay for "knitting night," but we just ate cookies and veggies and gossiped.

Tonight I am HOME! Phew. The weather was GORGEOUS today and tomorrow should be as well. Had fun running around with the kids outside in the SUN! Doing a lot of pull ups on the monkey bars and impressing the kids with my gymnastic skills.

Today was "Manners day" in the 2nd grade class, so all the kids were dressed up in suits and dresses and it was pretty darn adorable. I wore a skirt and my toms. Naja. I tried! :)

Luxembourg

Saturday and Sunday I am going to Luxembourg with Lindsay, another colleague Jennifer, Susanna, and two of her friends who we stayed with in Belgium. Should be a fun girls weekend! Fingers crossed for good weather.

Ate a chocolate bar and a half today. Ate a bag of banana chips. SUGARRRRRR. I need a day off. :)

That's a first.

So I called the police today. When I got home from work today to dark empty house I assumed that the Grandma and taken O and E out for food. Or picked up O from a play date. I was starving so I made some food. Then, for some reason, I decided to look at the back door that goes out to the garden. When this house was broken into two years ago they had a cross bar installed across that back door since it was the one broken into. When I peeked at the door tonight it not only did not have the cross bar on it, but it was also open. Minor panic attack. I stayed in the kitchen making my dinner, picking out the biggest knife to chop my salad with, keeping the glass bottle of balsamico next to me, and getting out my book to read, because I sure as heck was not leaving the kitchen. Every so often I would hear a noise and then I would make the cursory cough to inform all who wished to know that yes indeed I was there. Then I stared out the window where I could look to see if the kids were home and also have a reflection of the hallway. Geez louise am I ridiculous. After about 30 minutes of panicing I decided to wait two more minutes and call the police. Two minutes passed. I called the police. They were very polite - asked if anything had been stolen and I told them heck no I hadn't moved a muscle to make any observations except for the fact that the back door was open. They said they would send someone by to check it out. Two seconds later the kids get home. I quickly run to the door (in case anyone was going to jump me) open it safely and yell out to ask if they had left the back door open. Yep. E had opened it and forgot to close it. WHY would she open the back door when there is no reason to go outside when it is so cold and then forget to close it? To torment me of course. Thankfully the police called me back 2 minutes later to check if everything was still fine and I could report to them that yes indeed everything was fine and they needn't come by.

My Mom goes home today for the care clinic!!! Now who wants to volunteer to make sure that she doesn't do anything? ha! Gramma had round three of Chemo on Friday and I have yet to hear how it went. No news is good news, right?

Going to paint some pottery this week with friends. Going to file my German taxes this week and hopefully get a lot of money back. Going to get a massage once these snuffles go away. Got a blood test done last week and everything is good! Iron was a little lower than normal, but I expected that for numerous reasons.

Practiced the piano yesterday for a bit. Need to do that a little bit more. Went for a run on Saturday - my first run in forever. I am pathetically sore. Did 15 plus half pullups today ie I was standing on flat ground reaching up to the bar and pulled myself up without jumping. I'm pretty proud, seeing as I could only do half of one when I first started trying with the kids on the playground. Trying to boost this weak immune system of mine.

Miss my friends and family. Can't wait to get home and visit!

lovelovelove