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

Feldberg

Here are some pictures I took from Lindsay where we went skiing a couple weeks ago and where I was supposed to go today with Philipp in the kids. Instead I was stuck in bed with the Flu.

At the top of Feldberg!

Ski bridge! Susanna got suck on this one for awhile, because of the steep decline on one side. Hehe.

So I am sick. Again. What is up with that?? I went to the doctor today after a rough night's sleep and she says I have a cold. Right. Last time she said I had a cold a week later I had bronchitis. Hmm.. Symptoms are very cold like I guess. Maybe I'm not used to being sick? Except my friends tell me I have no immune system because I am always sick. Could it be from eating milk products, bread products, and corn products that I shouldn't eat? An to those who say I need to eat meat - I have fish multiple times a week now! Frustrating. Someone doctor me.

So it's been a four day weekend for me. My school is closed today and I had a sick day on Friday. A perfect time to be sick. Or not. This weekend I was supposed to go to a soccer game - the two Frankfurt games played against each other. Didn't make it to that. Was supposed to go to the spa yesterday with friends. Didn't make it to that. Today is Rosenmontag of carneval/fasching aka a big ol' party and I am inside. Made some veggie soup. Inhaling tea. Literally inhaling water with onion in it with my head under a blanket. Or chamomile tea.

This week shall be an interesting week at school - we are having "theme week" aka no normal classes. Hopefully I will be better by next weekend, because I am going to go skiing with Philipp and the kids most likely at the same place that I went last weekend. Yay for skiing!!!!!!

Just in case you didn't know it is the Europameisterschaft this year. Yay for football!! Just thought I would educate you on that.

Just SNOW!!!

It's been so cold but it has only snowed once! What is the deal with that?!


Went skiing this weekend with friends in the Schwarzwald! We were on Feldberg, which had some nice hills - blue, red, and black slopes. Susanna and I stuck to the blue and red. :) It was SO cold - 10 degrees plus wind chill. My scarf was frozen solid and hitting me in the face by the end. The sun was shining though and besides the freezing wind there was very little to complain about. Although I did complain about the loss of feeling/pain in my toes from the uncomfortable ski boots about 100 times. Took one boot off at a ski break to see if I could loosed up the toes. I couldn't even feel them! Creepy. Then I couldn't get my darn boot back on. Thankfully Susanna was able to help me finally shove it in. The Grog (Swedish Glühwein) that ended up being just hot rum helped my toes get through the next few hours. :) It was only a 3 hr drive there so in retrospect we could have driven down just for the day, but we ended up staying the night in a little town nearby. Cleanest place I've ever seen! Went to dinner in a nearby village and after waiting an hour and a half and then being delivered over cooked Schweinshaxe the boys were pretty pissed so I got to "talk" very angrily to the waiter. In Germany you don't complain about your food. Or if you want to return something you don't think tastes good you can do that, but then you pay for both meals. Basically, you eat what you are given and too bad if you don't like it. I told the waiter it was the worst tasting Schweinshaxe that we have ever had and that he should go try it himself to see how dry and over cooked it was. In the end, the expensive piece of meat was removed from both the bills. Granny would be proud. :) And yes Dad, the conversation was all in German.

Got home Sunday afternoon and then left right away again to meet some friends to go see The Vow. Nice ol' tear jerker. Channing Tatum is yummy. Got back home and was able to skype with my Mom and then Granny. Tears.

Gramma successfully completed round two of chemo I hear - need to talk to her soon! Mom goes into surgery tomorrow. Send the prayers their way.

Nur Noch Kurz Die Welt Retten...

Foggy.

Trips. I am planning trips to distract me from the home sickness I feel. My brain is foggy. I would love to be at home right now. Helping out while my Mom is out of commission for a while. Comforting everyone as Gramma goes through Chemo. Alas, I am here and can not be of too much help and that is hard. To distract myself I have been planning trips.

Skiing in the Black Forest

Köln for Fasching

Zurich - skiing and sight seeing

Luxembourg

Eichstätt for Easter

Rhodes, one of the larger Greek Islands

London (still in the process)

Barcelona/Madrid in the Fall

And a few three day weekends open for more traveling experiences to be planned.

What have I been doing? Besides working with a staff I am so grateful for, being with this German family I love, and seeing cute little kids that I adore everyday, I have been making Paleo-ish treats (i.e. trying to avoid eating things I shouldn't), reading books (surprisingly devoured The Host), working on my crafty side (making cards, knitting, cutting and pasteing), and hanging out with friends. Sunday nights have become game night at my friend's. Had parent teach night for Reception this week and for the 2nd grade this coming week. Some people shouldn't have kids. Thank goodness for some parents and their willingness to step up with other parents are acting crazy. 

There are plenty of people I would love to skype with. I find myself disappointed in friends, but I just need to learn not to expect as much. Always difficult for me. 

I am thankful.

For you Dad

Here is a copy of what I sent Mal.
My last weeks- I've been sick since thanksgiving and been to the doctor now three times and was finally diagnosed w bronchitis so that is awesome. Finished my antibiotics NYE and hopefully now I will be better. Was supposed to work camps this week but have a doctors notice out of it which is super awesome. I've spent the holidays w Johanna's family and then NYE at Johanna's cousin's SWEET apartment in their college town. Their friends w a DJ so there was some interesting LOUD beats going on.  Not my type of music (ie techno), but it was fun to mess around on the DJ program a little bit. :) He was an interesting fellow. Told us about his distant relative will ferrel who he described as really weird. Of course. At midnight everyone goes out an shoots off fireworks out of their hands. They call them rockets and they are basically big huge fireworks in the hands of normal people aka really scary. I'm sure a lot of people get injured. No one in our group though! The DJ forgot to let go of his so I got an awesome picture of his face being sprayed w fire. I stayed out till 245. WILD CHILD.