You Know You Have Too Much...

...stuff when you can't rearrange into other boxes! I'm digging out of my attic. I'm ripping up old magazines, pitching the leftovers, inventorying the stamps, throwing out old paints, and on it goes. Really haven't figured out yet just WHY I'm worried about getting this done. We don't have orders yet! ARGH!

BUT, the problem is moving the things from the pile of inventoried to the pile in a box to be sure it's put out of the way of the other stuff. Someone has to cut me off from the stores! LOL I could be a junkie of other things besides craft goods. Then again, I don't have time to be obsessed with other things LOL

Van is still broken. Got it over there to be fixed yesterday and found it's got another broken part. Gee! Wonder if that has to do with driving it on crappy German roads while waiting a week to get the ORIGINAL broken piece. I really think it's the roads here. We didn't have so many problems with vehicles and alignment/bearings and so on until we got here! Oh well! Another 5 months and I'll be moaning about the snow up to my arse. Remind me of that when November rolls around - "You wanted snow in Germany! Why not NOW?"

Today's picture is of Matthew and his Dutch gal. She's a little stony, not much on moving. Even the flowers were stiff. Oh, did I mention she's a perfect Matthew sized STATUE? We told him to go stand by her, and he kisses her on the cheek. LOL Such a doll! I had to have him do it again because he was so quick in doing it. LOL I always ask him if he kisses girls to make them cry, and he says, "I kiss the girls and make them VERY HAPPY." Oh yeah! He's a lady's man in the making.

I get a phone call this morning from the daycare... Matthew's still here, and it's 1150. Oh no! I apologize, "we only have one car" blah blah blah. I tried to call David, and of course, his phone is OFF. He finally shows up there at like 1215. Did he pay to get Matthew out of hock? No. Guess who gets to do that next week!?!?! Geee thanks for the help today! At least they're home (and David on his way back to work) safe and sound. :)

Will write more later... I'm making headway up here. Now if I could just get ahead of the ants downstairs! :)

Crunch Time

And other assorted things occupying my mind...

We are just back from a super weekend in Amsterdam. Might not have seen many sites, but it was relaxing and we got cultured. A visit to the VanGogh museum did that for us. Brought home some prints from that too! Got to see the Anne Frank House. Wanted to go to Haarlem to see the Corrie Ten Boom house (recommended by someone at the gun club), but we didn't have the time to make it there. The Anne Frank house was definitely worth doing anyways. It definitely moved me to tears while reading the info of dates the annex inhabitants died and where, and seeing their pictures again. And to see the actual diary in a case in another room. To feel so enclosed if only for a few moments while walking thru the rooms they lived in for so many months. The picture is of me next to the statue of Anne Frank, that is just a minute or two walk from her hiding place.

We stayed in the town of Soestduenin, or something similiar in spelling. :D Several little villages with the Soest part are in the neighborhood of the hotel. It's a resort of sorts. 9 hole golf course, indoor pool, trails to bike and walk. Kind of pricey but beautiful scenery. It's just moments from the Dutch airbase that our folks do altitude chamber stuff in. Not sure if we'll go, but David has to do his chamber next month. I might have to go back up with him so I can see a few more things in Amsterdam! The houses are beautiful! The streets remind me so much of America vs Germany. It's the drive to and from that kills you. It wasn't bad: give or take 4-5 hours depending on where you're going. We went to the Hague first to see the miniature city of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madurodam That is a cool place to explore for a couple of hours. It's like Legoland but more grown up in the presentation of buildings! Here's another link for more info. http://www.hollandvoice.net/madurodam2.html

Well, it's another busy week in my life. CG is going Scout camping this weekend. Waiting on the part for the van STILL to come in so it's legal to drive and then we can ship it eventually back home in a few weeks. Still NO ORDERS. I just can see me being stuck in Germany til sometime next fall waiting to get packed out. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants. After trying to get out of here so we could get housing in Minot then get screwed about orders. It never ends.

Here's to a good Tuesday! It's a holiday shortened week so we'll be busy this weekend.

Another Day in Paradise

Actually I get to go out tonight! Sarah and her hubby and David and I are going to go to one of the little restaurants in their village of Rettingheim. :) It's literally from my house to theirs, about 2 miles! If the big hill wasn't in between, I'd consider walking over so we could stumble home from wine drinking! Sarah and I had mommy time yesterday. I brought hanchen (chicken) and dessert in exchange for my VERY DEAD ends being chopped off. Not really a big cut but enough to make my hair not so fried looking. :)

The throwing out of junk is still ongoing. It's looking like 3 more months and we'll be gone. Still no orders, nothing in stone. With gas costs, I'm thinking we ship the car to ND and just fly into Minot and then drive home to Ohio, ONCE, to visit and go to my 20th HS reunion.

Speaking of the reunion... where did the last 20 years go? Time crawled, painfully slowly, when we were kids! Now, I'm sitting here on 4 May 2007 and can't figure out where the last 4 months went. They're gone! And I'm still far from being ready to move. All this time wasted.

Today, Matthew and I met up for a playdate after preschool at the Kids' Zone at the bowling alley on post. Was nice to get to know Ryan's mom much better. Much like the neighbors the other night, I seriously wish we'd met sooner or gotten together sooner! Kori's oldest son is going to West Point next year and she sounds excited for him :) That's awesome! Two of our Heidelberg kids are going to West Point next fall.

David seriously says last night "It's going to snow in Germany next week." Ever just want to swift kick him? :D I'm sure he means like in the Alps, or like last year JUNE FIRST, in the Black Forest. Sad thing is I'd like snow, say two months ago, and it sure as heck won't stick if it does snow. I don't think it's been cold here since December. :D I have a picture dated from FEBRURARY this year, and the daffodils were in bloom WAY BACK THEN! Imagine the tourism business in Amsterdam this spring... wonder how badly it's off when the tulips were likely done blooming in February. :X

Children... I wish I had grandchildren first! Mine don't know but one volume, pissed off mommy level because they use the whiny pain in the hiney child level. I love them! They're really good kids, but man... the two still do not get along. Oldest just teases baby and baby screams at the older antagonist who just won't learn "DO NOT TOUCH, LEAVE ALONE, STOP TALKING"!!!!

I'm off to clean some more out. Found some stuff I forgot about. :X Say it ain't so! One day I'll have it together and we'll be retired and no where to move!

Oh yesterday looked to end on a bad note but when I got home a little after 9, my neighbors were walking around the corner. :) They stopped and were talking to me for a little while. They built a new home and moved in last summer. They speak super English and have always been warm to my family. Anyways, I asked the woman about knocking on their door, and she says "Oh please, do! We can have coffee." Well, but for next week, when she goes to BORNEO for work. LOL She's a travel agent. But when she returns, she said she'd ring or knock on the door to let us know she's home and that David and I could come over for coffee. I'm quite excited! I love their house. It's bright and open and has a CLOSET!!!!!!!!!!!! No! Normally, German homes do without that luxury, thus the invention of the schrank. Theirs is a full sized huge walk in. :) And their kitchen is huge, not a cracker box like so many I've seen in our two years here. Counters! Huge Frig! Lots of storage! Soooooooooooooo not German! (mind you from what "I" have seen, or not seen LOL) So that perked up my night. :)

At the PC party I went to last night, my friend was there who does hair. I had to ask about going over today to get mine chopped at the ends, at least that much. She said SURE! So after Matthew is on the bus to school, I'm going to go over to her house for a couple hours of adult conversation and a new do! It's the little things that excite us so. :D So, should I go boldly where I haven't before and chop it all off? Or just go for the ends and go on being a little bit BORING? Yeah, probably the boring.

Last Saturday we did some siteseeing. We drove up to Ramstein on the iPod mission, without success there, Vogelweh or Mannheim's PX. AAFES sucks if you don't know that already or have any experience with them. Employees there to collect a check and be of little help as possible. Anyways............. BURG NANSTEIN sits on the hill above Landstuhl and looks out over the valley where you can see the flightline at Ramstein. It's BEAUTIFUL up there! Green green green! (God bless an early EARLY spring and not much rain in weeks) The boys had fun walking around the grounds and climbing various stairs, and even a wall. This castle can be seen lit up at night as well. Still more castles to see! Lots to do. Maybe Saturday we'll drive up to Koln and check it out. They have some music festival going on this year that happens every 3 years. (per David) I haven't been to the Cathedral there yet so it'd be nice to get up there and to Aachen. The picture today is of the boys at Burg Nanstein.

Well, I'm off to battle dustbunnies and piles of crap. We hope to have orders shortly as I want to ship the van June 1 or so. And we hope to fly stateside August 1 or so. We shall see. Patience is something I missed out on! :)