there’s nothing wrong with kids that trying to reason with them won’t make worse

Saturday, October 31, 2009

For the record


Wheat flavored activia: weird

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Milestones

I was having a minor sort of pity party on the way to Isaac's baptism tonight, because it would be the first baptism of one of our kids where no relatives would be there to celebrate with us. However, Mom's cousin Lorana came, so there was no reason for me to be like that. I'm still a little sad that we are so far from everyone, but you're all going to come and visit, right?

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

the crafty one

D loves to make things, and this year she is taking Home Ec (yes, I know it isn't called Home Ec anymore, but I can't be bothered to care what they are calling it nowadays). First project was this little pillow, which she made out of scraps from my sewing box and spare buttons from the button jar. See, it's a good thing I dragged my sewing stuff overseas!

Monday, October 12, 2009

blahbidibibbidy

The autobahn has no billboards. Actually, the only place you really see billboards is in the city (in our case, the 'city' would be Kaiserslautern)

I don't ever remember how to close ellipses

Even when I am bombing down the autobahn at 160 there will be someone coming along behind me even faster, blinking lights to tell me to get my slow self OVER.

The dial tone sounds different here, I wonder if I'd even recognize a busy signal?

Phone mail is really challenging when the instructions are all in German.

I love, love, love hearing the church bells every day at 11am and 6pm. It's just so. . . something.

All the -bach, -den, -sten, -ern, and -weiler named towns blend together in my head.

It only has taken us two months to realize that the sign by the fountain: Kein Trinkwasser means you shouldn't drink the water.

The lady at the bakery told Birgit that Ben is simply adorable. Even bald, he's adorable!

Most sidewalks are brick rather than poured concrete. Ben says it's for drainage purposes.

Rolling a stroller over cobblestones sounds cool. It sounds even cooler when the cobbles are loose--but the best sound is the van over loose cobblestones.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Noah's favorite time of day

Actually, his favorite time of day is whenever we go anywhere, but since we go every day to the bus stop it is a time of day to look forward to!Here he passes the time waiting for the bus to show up by reading 'Chuck the dump truck'. I have read this book about a billion times and I don't love it anymore, but boy, does Noah!
BUS! BUS MOMMA! BUS COMING! (the fact that the kids didn't ride the big yellow school buses came as quite a surprise to us, but they enjoy riding in the cushy seats of this one)
See how excited they are to see us? Such love as my children are brought back to me.
After we make it safely across the street we pass the town fountain, right next to the picnic benches and May tree. Isaac checks it every time we walk past to make sure that it is draining properly. There are two drains, you see, and he has taken upon himself the responsibility to clean them every day. I love the little dragon head fountain.
It looks like we are just walking in the road, doesn't it? In reality the sidewalk is only about two feet wide and in several places it is less than that. It makes for an interesting walk with me yelling about every 2.6 seconds: "Walk on the INSIDE of the sidewalk, please!" This particular corner gives me nightmares. That plus the speed of the cars coming around the corner makes me wonder why the houses on either side are still intact.

Home is the white house directly ahead, only you can't see our half.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Gr8


Zak is now 8. For his birthday he got 2 cakes--because he asked for an ice cream cake, and when I saw the little one in the bakery display I thought that it was too small to feed us and the party guests. So, he got 2 cakes and all the other kids whined about how unfair life is. Let us hope they retain this example of my favoritism to tell their therapists. The candles were the re-lighting trick candles, and I wish I had video of all the laughter around the table as he blew and blew and blew and the candles kept re-lighting. Hilarious!

Baldy

Ben has always been a little worried about the thinning state of his hair. Now that I've joined him in hair loss I've been a little more sympathetic, but my mother still teases him about balding and has told him that when it is time for him to shave it all off she will be the one to tell him. And, even though she did not instruct him that it was time to loose the remainder of his hair last weekend he shaved it all off. He asked me to give him a haircut that evening, but because I am a bad wife I was disinclined to acquiesce to his request and he simply took matters into his own hands. Result: He has a lumpy, bumpy head as a result of scars received in his misspent youth. The neighbor actually screamed a little when she saw him. I don't think he'll keep shaving it. Luckily it grows fairly quickly. Unluckily, we are scheduled for a family photo this Friday.

Blog Archive