HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!!!!

My little sister is 23. Wow. Haven't been around her too much for the past 3 years. Maybe that will change next year?? It will according to this dream I had...

Can I handle sitting still? Yes, people I can. I like to read a good book. I like to watch movies. But most of all, I like to be surrounded by my friends and family having a good laugh. These past few weeks have been filled with plenty of good laughs!



Sarah and Sebastian got married a couple weeks ago and their son, Johannes (Jack), was baptized. The wedding was at Sebastian's parents house and it was beautiful, touching, and a lot of fun. We danced, cried, ate, and laughed a lot. Sarah's mom was there for the festivities and she did quite an amazing time with all the German that was being thrown at her. I got to play with a lot of babies, including the largest baby I have ever seen who I danced to sleep.

Went on the Rhein River Tour to Loreley with some friends last weekend. The weather behaved in the sense that it did not rain, but it was chilly! We braved the top deck of the boat the whole time so we would have the best views of the castles. We left from Assmannshausen - the best named city out there obviously. We ran up the super steep hill between the wine bushes to get to the sign for the town.  Best short cut ever. 3 and a half hours, a couple glasses of Glühwein, and plenty of castles later we were thoroughly impressed with the tour.

Had game night last night at Charlotte's and drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of cheese. This morning got up nice and early to go meet friends to run in the Breast Cancer Run. Had a lovely brunch afterwards and came home to bake and organize and enjoy the sun rays.

Babysitting little Johannes tomorrow so Sarah can go out with her hubby for her birthday. Beer bike on Tuesday night, because we don't have to work Wednesday (Germany Unity Day) so 20+ of us are getting together to drink beer and apple wine and ride around the city. Good start to the week.

Adventures planned up till Xmas: Oktoberfest in beautiful boss man's village (I might eat meat), hopefully meeting up with Tyler and Kim in Paris (they are doing a month long Europe tour starting like tomorrow), Madrid/Barcelona, Regensburg to visit Johanna and then home to her house in Walting, London with "The Women," day trips to different cities for the Weihnachtsmärkte (Xmas markets), and possibly Hamburg or Amsterdam, and then to Walting to be with my German family for Xmas... PHEW! And then Kayleen and Jen are coming to visit me the first week or so in January!!!! So excited for them to come and experience why I love Europe so so much. Gah!!!

Last year?

Got back at 8:30AM Monday morning. Andrea picked me up at the airport and I dropped my bags off at home, washed my face, and then raced out the door. Andrea was a little disturbed that I wasn't showering! Hitting the ground running works best for me I think. School that day was a whirlwind of getting around to my new classes (I sound like a student!), saying hello to everyone, and meeting all the new faces. My schedule is so much better than last year and it takes me 10 minutes to bike to the school aka I am loving it. Seeing Oscar and Emily was also fabulous. My little siblings!! :)

Just a couple more exercises after the run.

On Friday I headed out after school (I get to leave at 3!!) to catch a train to Bavaria to see my German family AND Kyle who had flown in that morning. Train delayed, missed next train, etc so I didn't get in until late. We headed straight for a party at the cousins house for birthday celebrations. Esther's bday was Friday, Kyle's was Saturday and mine was Monday so we had plenty of cake over the weekend (I got my own special gluten free peach pie). It was great seeing the whole extended clan of cousins! Johannes (Johanna's fiance) came also to stay the weekend. Saturday we got up and went for what was supposed to be a 30 minute run, but with a little persuasion I turned into an 80 minute run so we could go see a cave where mammoth bones had been found 100 years ago. I thought it was a great way for Kyle to start his birthday! :p It was a beautiful, leisurely jog through the woods with Johannes, Kyle, Johanna and Esther. Johannes and I decided we needed to race up the hills, so there was a bit of a challenge involved as well. :) Played games in the afternoon, visited a possible venue for the wedding at a remodeled stable, and then had delicious dinner, more games and drinking, and then bed. Sunday we had a nice calm morning before heading out to an "adventure park" where we met up with Susi (my original exchange partner) to go zip lining and to a ropes course. It was awesome. I love doing it! Then they dropped me off at the train. Such a quick weekend. I will be back soon though bc a neighbor of theirs just moved to Frankie so I can get rides with her back and forth! AWESOME!!

I've eaten plenty of chocolate this week because of my birthday. One class sang me Happy Birthday and one of my classes threw me a "surprise birthday party" where they sang for me, made me a sign, and we had cake and a dance party. Pretty special! The weather has been pretty perfect as well. Had a nice workout around my park before celebrating with the family and then I headed out to meet friends for a lovely dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. It was a great birthday!!

Settlers German style. For Kyle's birthday I lost terribly.

Met Sarah's baby! He is already one month old! I haven't gotten to snuggle him too much though because he is always sleeping. Boo. Her mom got in on Monday and we had sushi yesterday so I got to meet her. Sarah and Sebastian's wedding is next weekend! And the baby Johannes's baptism - where I am the Godmother! AH! Now I can't leave, right?

So many birthday cakes

 Kyle, Johanna, and Esther come to Frankie tomorrow to hang out for the weekend. YAY!! Excited to play with them some more.

I've been back for almost two weeks and the question keeps jumping around in my head: is this my last year here? For now? I am loving my new location, smack dab in the city, and the people are great. Although I am terribly missing Lindsay and her side kick. :) Johanna is getting married in August so I have awhile before I leave, but the thought is there...

Home.

I've been home for a week. Seen the extended family twice now, which was a definite highlight!! Membership at the Nike gym. FABULOUS. Playing with Amy who came in town. Going on runs with friends and family. Eating chocolate. Eating out at least once a day. Church. Visiting with my fabulous friends. Yoga. Laying out by the pool. Megan comes in tomorrow, Johanna on Wednesday and Granny and PopPop on Saturday. It's been busy, but I am loving being home and seeing everyone!!!

Sorry...

Once I get out of the habit of writing, it's hard to jump back in! These past three months have been a blur of activity! I was kindly allowed to skip out on my week of work during the Easter Break so that I could go home and help out at home. Having Esther there was, of course, a huge help since she is such an outstanding person. The two weeks I was home was draining mentally and physically in the sense of lack of sleep and a lot of running around, but I am so glad that I went home. I don't know how they were functioning without me there! No matter how much my Mother likes to be in control of things and likes to pretend that everything is okay, that was very much not the case. It was hard to see her in so much pain and being able to do very little about it, except advise her to stay away from foods that are inflammatory, which she stubbornly ignored. It's hard to be so helpless in helping someone, especially when they are unwilling to change the way they think about things even though, in the long run, it will benefit them. I LOVED seeing my friends as well and was fortunate to have Kayleen and her lovely daughter in town for most of a week. Went on runs, met up with friends for food and drinks, visited my Grandma and Grandpa multiple times (another blessing), and had fun seeing Esther interacting with Daniel. They are so similar and also so different at the same time. Very good for each other. :)
Back in Germany the busy schedule continued - sushi dinner's with the women, knitting club i.e. gossip club, biking around the city, and German class (work pays - yay!!!). Went on a day trip to Würzburg with Susanna and Ning and got to be taken around the city by the fabulous Maria and Julian. Love them. More sushi nights and drinks. BBQ's at friend's once the weather got better. Overnighter trip with the second graders, which was SO much fun. Love playing football with them - Andi, Seb, and I against a torrent of second graders. Marshmellow's. Bon fire. A long weekend in Rhodes, Greece with Susanna, Jennifer, and Will. Beautiful old town city surrounded by a fortress. WONDERFUL long weekend in Walting with my FABULOUS German family plus boyfriend/fiance. Open air concert on the hill over Eichstätt. Canoeing down the Altmühl. Eating, eating eating. Running. Biking. Street festivals in Frankfurt. Popcorn. Apple wine. More BBQ's. Helping a friend move aka going up and down stairs carrying heavy objects for 5 hours and being called a boxer, because of my strength. EUROCUP. Germany has won it's last two games and hopefully kicks butt on Sunday. Going away party for Alana. Another rotation of Au Pairs finishing up their year.
Today: Went on a team building adventure in a "climbing forest" - my direct translation. Zip lines and obstacle courses up high in the trees. It was so much fun. Tomorrow is our school's own euro cup with the kids all playing against each other. Scavenger hunt party with friends around the city.




Coming up: Zoo trip with the Reception class and 2nd graders, baby shower for Sarah, weekend trip to Walting, Summer festival at the school, more street festivals, dentist, and then HOME for the summer. 16 days. As always, time flies.

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