Where we've been: part 2

The second and last of the catch-up posts. After this, it'll be back to writing about our day to day life as it is happening, the way this blog usually is.

For those just here for the pictures: all of the pics in this post, as well as plenty more, can be found in the Flickr set here.

On September 11th, Pete picked us up from my parents' house and brought us to his house to stay for a week. The next day, we attended the wedding of Greg's cousin Tim and our new cousin-in-law, Abbie.



With all of our time abroad, we've had to miss many weddings of friends and family, so it was great that the dates lined up so well for us to be able to be at this one.

On Sunday, we went to a Classic Car Drive-in/Show in Pete and Jill's town.



And spent time at Grandma and Grandpa D's.









On Monday, we celebrated Andrew's birthday yet again, this time with little cupcakes, cream puffs, and cannoli from Wegmans.



Greg set up our new cell phone plans, and got us both these cute little LG enV3's. I'm rather besotted with mine.



See? Like a tiny little computer! OK, we're going to pretend that I wasn't just gushing about my adorable, fab little phone. (There I go again...)

Andrew and Elijah are playing on a soccer team this year, so Pete, Keith and Greg spent some time teaching the boys a little bit about the game.



Greg took Andrew and Elijah on a camping trip out in the woods, which involved learning to build a campfire, and some target practice with some cans (in one of the pictures below, you can see Andrew showing me the hole he shot through the can).



Everyone had a lot of fun outside, all week.















Keith showed us his handcrafted sawmill that he's been working on this past year.



One night, Greg took me on a campfire date. It was a lot of fun, although I got a little nervous about being out in the dark, in the middle of the woods, at night. I know, I'm a total wuss. And don't worry, Greg told me that too.


But it was a beautiful night.

Overall, we had a great visit with both my family and Greg's, and we look forward to the next time we can fly home. The children are already asking where everyone is, and why they can't see all of the extended family right now.

We love and miss you all!!

For more pictures, and all of the individual shots that I've got grouped together in this post, click through to the Flickr set by clicking here: PA visit Sept. 09

To come in future posts: beginning our new life in Texas!

Where we've been: part 1

The past three weeks have gone by so quickly; much has happened, and I have so much to say that it's hard to think of what I should even write. There are too many pictures to share, too many things to say. Instead, I'm going to give you the highlights. First: our visit with my parents. (If you're here for the pictures, they're all in Flickr in this set: Visit to NY Sept. '09)

On September 4th, we flew from Germany to the Baltimore International Airport, and my dad picked us up. We then spent the next week with my family. Unfortunately Greg and all four of our children came down with the flue on the 1st day, so they all spent a lot of the time sleeping, and I spent most of the time holding a sick Jonah. Fun times. At least I didn't get sick myself.



We may have passed it on to a few of my siblings as well...



My cousin, Becky, her husband Daniel and their baby Moriah also visited at my parent's house during a few of the days we were there, and we had a lovely time together.









(This is most of the family, plus Uncle Henry, my Grandma Claire and Grandpa Mark, and Becky with husband and baby, although my dad happened to be at one of his college classes when we took this, and of course Jonathan is in Germany.)

At some point, while everyone was feeling just a little better, Andrew opened some gifts for his birthday (which had been on Sept. 3rd):



Andrew says "Thank you, everyone!", especially to Aunt Terry & Great-Grandma Annette, and Aunt Mary Ann & Uncle Bob, who couldn't be there for this visit, but sent him gifts anyway. We love you and miss you very much!!

Isaiah also opened a very belated gift from us for his 1st birthday (in July!)



These are wooden ABC blocks, painted with non-toxic paints. You can find them here: A-B-C Alphabet Blocks.

I made Andrew cinnamon cupcakes with green cream cheese frosting at his request as his birthday "cake".



I followed the recipe found here, although I omitted the orange zest, and creamed the butter and sugar together instead of melting the butter with milk. I added the milk in cold when I was adding the eggs.

For the frosting, I just did my usual: equal parts of softened unsalted butter and cream cheese with just enough confectioner's sugar to make it mildly sweet but still tangy.

To get that perfect Shrek shade of green, Andrew and I added an entire florescent green bottle of food coloring, as well as 1-1/2 squeeze bottles of classic green. He was very pleased to have his favorite color on his cupcakes.

Everyone seemed to love them, and a quadruple recipe had vanished without a trace within a few hours of making them.



I call that a success.

During the week there was also some pumpkin carving:



And I recorded duets with both Caleb and Joy, just for fun.



We got to watch a logger truck stack up my parent's wood pile for winter.



And just because they're cute, here's some pics I stole off of Becky's Facebook page:



(Thanks Becky!)

Remember, for more pictures (or bigger ones, in the case of all of the mosaics in this post), click through to the Flickr set to see them all!

Next post: a week at Greg's parents' house.

Oasis of calm

Because plain socks, knit 2-at-a-time, are a beautiful thing.

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Clean house

Moving: busy at best, stressful and hectic at worst.  By the lack of blogging this past week, you may assume (rightly) that it has been the the latter two.  I am so bored of the details now, and so tired of even thinking about all of it that I don't want to drag you all through it.  The bright part: the movers did, indeed show up the next day (early!), and packed us out in about 10 hours.  They were brisk and efficient, and respectful of our things. 




The dark part: we are significantly lighter in the wallet, due to some crooked dealing by the landlord and his wife.  A word of advice to friends near and far: when you move into a place, take pictures of ANYTHING that might be even slightly worn or damaged.  Even slightly.  Print these off and write clauses into your rental contract, if possible, or at least save them in your own files.  It may be the only thing standing between you and 2000 Euro.  Especially if you happen to live with little people who look like this.



Just sayin'.

I am still reaching within myself to find forgiveness for the woman who has personally scorned my housekeeping skills, the man who has forced us into funding the remodeling of his house.  Truly, I think that forgiveness and grace will have to be a divine gift in this situation.  We will move on now, because sincerely, I have nothing more to say about all of that.  I am bored to tears by the whole mess, and don't want to leave Germany with a bitter taste in my mouth.





Looking beyond all of that, it's hard leaving.  Living in Europe has been, largely, a great adventure for us.  I wish I'd made it more of a priority to learn the German language, and it would have been nice to have Greg with us more often, but other than that, I have to say that I have no regrets.



(Our last visit to our favorite restaurant in town -- a French pizzaria called Toucy)


It was sad to take a last walk through our little town last week on our way to the Friday farmer's market (on Aug. 21st). 





We said goodbye to the Egg Lady, and to the Cheese Truck Couple, and then, at last, to the dear lady at the local yarn shop.  I had told her a week prior that we'd be moving, so when we stopped by, she ran to the back room and brought out little gifts (unexpectedly!) for each of us.  Andrew, Elijah and Lavella had little packets of gummy bears, bubbles, stamps, etc., Jonah had a hand-crocheted stuffed ball, and for me, she crocheted a beautiful summer-weight scarf, in the perfect shade of blue.  She and I both had tears in our eyes as we said goodbye.  It's kind of hard to say goodbye forever.




(Jonah was napping at home with Greg, while the movers packed out our things)




On Sunday night (Aug. 23rd), we moved into the hotel.  It's cramped in here, but at least all of the cleaning and the packing and the sick feeling of inevitable disruption is past.  We're living out of suitcases, and we still have a trans-Atlantic flight ahead of us, but it feels really good to have all of the most difficult bits behind us.

This past Saturday, Greg hung out with the children while I went to my very last Stitch 'n Bitch knitting group.  It was strange to sit around the table, knitting, eating lunch, chatting as usual...but knowing that this would be the very last time this particular group of ladies would share time together.

When we arrived in Germany, we had two children; we are leaving with four.  The memories we are taking with us are precious, and while it is sad that it is time to go, we look forward to the future adventures to be had at our new home in Texas.

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You Get What You Pay For or Why Moving Is Super Fun

This past week has been a time of nearly constant motion. We paced ourselves so that the work didn't become overwhelming, but it did seem, at times, that it would never be done (at least to me. Greg has been incredibly confidant and relaxed for the most part. I just like to tweak out sometimes for the sheer joy of it).

When the Army moves an individual or a family, they pay movers to do all of the work. You don't actually have to do anything besides packing your suitcase for the flight (which they also pay for), and cleaning up the empty house afterwords. However, personally, I'm not a fan of opening a box at The New House, and discovering that it really should have been labeled Desk Clutter Pile... and another named Nightstand Junk Yard... etc. Also, within the rooms themselves, there were certain areas that needed to be organized. This pretty much meant that I had to weed through and re-organize ALL of my things, since I don't live a terribly ordered existence. You could say that the places I live in have a tendency to look...er...lived in rather quickly. There are even some people who say that perhaps I have a bit of a Saving Stuff problem that kind of looks like I'm decorating with piles of junk. Kind of. But that's just some people's opinion.

Moving right along.

The moving company overseer (chief?) came by a few days ago to see how many boxes and time they might need for our household. We were scheduled for a pack-up today, and a pack-out tomorrow. This morning, Greg and I woke up at 6:30am to do the finishing touches on the house; the movers were supposed to be here sometime after 8:00am. Several hours later, the transportation lady (who coordinates the move) arrived, and was surprised to find no workers packing our house. A few phone calls and about 2 hours later, we got a return call from the moving company overseer, matter-of-factly stating that "Of course, we're coming tomorrow, and it will be no problem to pack you up and out on the same day. Of course." Of course.

Seeing as it's quite fun to be functioning in a holding pattern of manic cleanliness and organization with 4 small children, we see no problem with this, and we look forward to future moves. Heck, let's do a move every weekend! YAY!! International moves are so inspiring. The way people work together, communicate, and function as a unit. It's really quite beautiful.

I'm going to go cry into a giant mug of mocha. If you need me, I'll be rocking, arms over my head, in a corner somewhere in the attic. God help us all.

A photo-post: Date Night

Since Greg got home on Wednesday morning, we've been in full-force Clean And Organize mode.  I have several posts floating around in my head, half-formulated, but I don't have the time to sit down and write them out properly just yet.  In their stead, here are some pictures of a rather lovely date that Greg took me out on just before he left for Texas a few weeks ago. This is our absolute favorite restaurant in the area, run by a three-star chef with an in-house Metzger (Butcher).





















(The waitress always serves ice water to Americans -- most restaurants here don't even have ice!)

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If you're happy and you know it...

In answer to the questions about where to put the groceries with so many Helpers filling the cart: Haha, I wonder the same thing myself.

******

Some of you have already heard this quote, but I need to share it here for posterity. Elijah has been biting Andrew and Lavella lately, leaving full sets of teeth marks. It's awful. This morning, he bit Andrew, and afterwards, we had the following exchange: "Elijah, you may never, never, NEVER bite anyone." Elijah answered, deeply distressed and with great feeling, "But then my teeth won't be sharp and fast enough for lunch!"

******

Greg found a house for us in the Austin area (yes Jill, it's the one he told you about), and has nailed down other details about our new life there as well. Back here in Germany, however, I've been feeling figity and anxious. I feel like there's so much left to be done, yet I have no energy or drive to do it alone. I also can't help but feel slightly put out that I'm the one that has to stay behind with the children, while Greg has this adventure off by himself. Of course, this is a completely unreasonable feeling -- there's no way we could have traded places; neither of us would have been very successful if we'd swapped jobs -- but the feeling's still there all the same. Thankfully, he'll be back in three days. Three days and counting. Every day, Elijah asks "but when will Daddy be coming home?!"

To add to my own personal complications, I've been knitting a difficult lace shawl that doesn't seem to agree with me; I've had to fix errors in it so many times now that I'm ready to throw it out the window. I won't though, because I like the yarn. I'll try not to throw anything else.

Overall, however, homelife here has been running along smoothly, and I've managed to keep things interesting and fun for the children so that the time goes by quickly. Today, we went for another walk. Since we were taking the same path to the Sandbox Playground, I brought along a little crate so that we could pick blackberries along the way to take home. We managed to fill it all the way to the top.





There were also plums, I think, growing along with the blackberries at some point.





Can anyone verify that a plum is, indeed, what this is? (I don't feel like poisoning anyone.)





All of the little cowboys and cowgirl had a good time at the playground (and Pete, you will be happy to know that it was freshly mowed this morning!)













Lavella rode on this bouncy horse with Andrew:




Then Elijah thought that it would be fun to do that too:



Lavella felt that it was a little bit too exciting.

We blew Dandelion seeds to repopulate the earth with everyone's favorite weed (I know, I know, the gardeners out there are wincing):




(Elijah wanted to take this picture of me)




Jonah sat and watched everyone, feeling superior now that he can sit up All By Himself.




When we got home, we all ate Blackberry Fools and snickered at the name.




Whipped cream and a little bit of vanilla sugar boosted these tart berries into a rather lovely little treat.




Yummy.

Well, maybe today wasn't so bad after all. Maybe it was just the knitting that was bad. Screw that shawl. I'm going to go knit a sock now.

In the meantime, the rest of you can watch these two videos of Lavella.

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