Germany/England…the overlap….

Cleaning off the old phone with my sneaky pictures on it yesterday I came across a few I hadn’t shared.

Oh Germany there are certain things about you I definitely miss..like the Hollister store in Frankfurt.

We didn’t go to Frankfurt often but it was always fun when we did…mostly I miss the “Frau on the street”.  The everyday lady just going about her day, no nonsense with just a touch of the WTF?

This dear old bird I used to see all the time at the bus stop in Seckenheim.  She always matched head to toe…literally HEAD to toe, even her hair colour.  On this day, it was pink.

Met this dear on the tram one day, not sure how you look so dour with this hair colour.  I mean, it just puts a smile on my face.  (this was one of those times i was praying the flash didn’t go off)

And my favorite, this lady plucked her chin with NO MIRROR from Heidelberg to Seckenheim.  That’s amazing, I mean I used to be able to put on liquid eyeliner in a moving car but I had a mirror!  And to be completely fair, I went home and immediately took action on my chin activity.  So she inspired me!

Just in case you think I’ve stopped my sneaking pictures once I hit the Isle, I haven’t.  On the way to school Friday with Mr. Magoo I spotted some of my favorite shoes. Not full 5 toe vibrams just 1 toe is separated, but still in the category of ‘if they were the last shoes on earth, i would cut off my feet’.

And a big ass spider web with a spider in the middle on the way to the school.  I hate spiders but I love when I can take pictures of them outside (inside I just scream like Ned Flanders and call DH to kill them).  Right after I took this picture I thought, ‘what if this guy is a jumper’ and walked away backwards very quickly.

Dropping Mr. Magoo at school.  The old Victorian in the picture is actually the early education building for his school.

Now I have space on my phone to continue my sneak attack photos.  You’re welcome.

I’ll tell you a secret.

OUR STUFF IS IN GERMANY!!!!!

I have no idea what that means and if I still have weeks until it gets to our door but our stuff is here.  I received an email from the company (in German, natch)  stating that they want money to clear it through customs (natch) and that we have to send some paperwork translated into German (once again, natch).  I’ve sent it to the school and hopefully one of the delightful ladies in the front office will decipher (dear god if you knew how long it took me to remember to spell decipher you’d laugh your ass off) it for us.  The only part I understood completely was the passport requirement.  Since I’d already sent it to the moving company I’m a little pissed that I have to do it again and apparently it has to be a registered copy and the list of items in the boxes has to be in German (oh god, my side HURTS from the laughter).  But I’m happy to know that I have 25 boxes of crap I couldn’t let go of showing up at my Strasse sometime in the next millennium.  I think I’m most looking forward to Nadia’s skinny jeans getting here because the ‘sullen-wispy-oh-god-where-are-my-skinny-jeans-that-I begged-for-3-years-to-get-until-my-parents-broke-in-a-moment-of-weakness” look is getting old.

Not as old as Elijah asking where his train set it or Emmett wondering allowed (dear god I cannot believe I wrote allowed instead of aloud, jesus)  where his 360 is or me wearing the same 4 pair of pants old…but old just the same.

Oh and about the decipher thing….I’ve decided that spell check is making me stupid so I am refusing to use it.  So I just sit there trying to remember how to spell things until the red line goes away.  Unless it’s colour or labour or neighbourhood.  Cause I AM spelling them correctly and spell check is just another American propaganda tool trying to spread their incorrect spellings on the world. Oh and learnt….cause they don’t ‘believe’ it’s a word….silly Americans….

Things that confuse me….long list, here’s one.

I had to post about the dryer.  I think I mentioned it before, or maybe on facebook but we have a washer and dryer that I picked up for 199 Euros each.   They work like a charm.  We had them before we had chairs for obvious reasons.  There are 5 of us and 4 of us smell quite a bit after a few days in the same clothes.

Soooo anyhoodoodles,  after running both a couple of times the dryer stopped working.  Like completely wouldn’t work.  I would turn it off and turn it back on, nothing.  There was a light blinking and beside what looked like a droplet of water.  I looked at the manual all in German and thought, well what the hell is going on.  I search the internet for an english page about the dryer and only found one in Mandarin.  I honestly though I was going to lose it because to get any answers I would have to take the train to Media Markt with the stupid manual and ask a sales person what one blinking light meant.  I was not happy.  I voice my displeasure to my loving husband and went down to take a look.  Here is what he came upstairs with….

Okay for all you north american readers.  Go run and look at your dryer.  I’ll wait.

Okay see that hose that goes from the back and leads outside.  You know, where lint gets stuck and lets mice in your house if your not careful to clean it every so often so the lint trap isn’t permanently open in September when it starts to get cold (bet you didn’t know that the number 1 way mice usually get into a house did you)  Well that hose is for the evaporated water to escape.  I remember when we hooked up the dryer to the electricity half thinking “gee I wonder where the hose is” but knocked it down to brilliant German engineering that had discovered a way to dry clothes without the vent.  Or maybe not.  Maybe instead of the water drawn from the clothes being sent outside as a gas, it accumulates in a little tray underneath the dryer which you then must dump when it gets full…

But then again, that solves the problem of mice in September, now doesn’t it.

Somethings are the same no matter where you live.

Two blog posts in one day!  This is what happens when you mix early morning, coffee and the excitement of the Internet man coming to my house!

Turns out that when the Ikea catalogue comes to the mail box, it doesn’t matter if you can read the words it’s still just as exciting to go through page by page and see what’s new from last year.

I meant to show pics of our free couch from the neighbour, it’s not in the best shape but it’ll work in the hobbyraum downstairs.  Once the kids are playing inside cause it’s raining all the time, we’re going to be very grateful that we have something in that room so they can go and play out of the main livining area.  The couch is in three separate pieces which I think I’m going to try to attach together once we move them to the basement.  If you look closely you’ll see that there is actually knitting on the back of the couch!  (remember when this was a knitting blog, and I KNIT!)

Following is the corner of the couch where Elijah’s toys wait for him to come home from school.  Somedays they are at a movie and need me to make them popcorn at lunch time.  Today Uppsie Daisy is reading to them so the books are on the back of the couch so she can reach them.  It’s a very elaborate morning ritual which cannot be rushed just because “the trains are coming Elijah, hurry up!”  Uppsie is a bit of a floosy, she hasn’t worn a top in quite some time, the little minx just wants to be the center of attention all the time.

It’s INTERNET DAY!!!!!

I can’t believe the day has finally come!  No, our stuff isn’t here yet, it’s Internet day!  We have been accessing the internet with Internet “sticks” for the last few weeks because we couldn’t have NO access.  But today the Deutsch Telekom guy is coming to install our wireless internet in the house!  Oh dance of joy and glee!  These sticks have been great but they don’t offer the fastest service.  As you can tell I haven’t been uploading a crap load of pictures because it takes forever to get them on the site.  Well no more!  Oh and he’s putting in our phone too.  I suppose that should be exciting too cause I haven’t talked to anyone but my mother from back home in WEEKS.  Oh and I can call my girlfriend in Greece too.  We decided to get the plan that has unlimited calling to Europe, the States and Canada for 3,90 Euros a month.  I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark and say it’ll be worth it.  The unlimited doesn’t actually start until September 9th but that’s okay.

Dear God, the Internet man is suppose to come between 8 and 1.  I sent the kids with Scott to go to school (we’ll see how THAT pans out) and here I sit.  Anxiously awaiting his (or I suppose it could be her) arrival.  Crossing all my fingers and toes that whichever it is speaks even the slightest amount of English.  Just realized it would probably be best if I had on a bra.  Geez, I’m an idiot.

Edited to add:  I just realized that my blog still thinks I’m in Edmonton because I never adjusted the time zone.  So this post thought it was September 1st which it was NOT when I wrote it.  I’ve now adjusted for where I am.  Included when it was posted….at least I think I have…this might take some work….

Something cool happened to me…

Someone (Rebecca that someone is YOU) just spent some time reading my old blog posts.  That someone (again YOU Rebecca) started commenting on old posts and dug out my list of things to do that I posted on my 39th birthday.  At the time I had NO idea what changes were in-store for me.  I had a list of things I wanted to do and really there were only a few things on the list.  Imagine my surprise to re-read the post and see that I had ACTUALLY done them!  For those of you new to the blog the post is HERE. I think the lesson for me here is that dreaming big can lead to big things and more importantly if you want to make your dreams come true the action can do it.  I’ve heard that writing your intentions is an imperative part of getting them done.  If there was ever a doubt in my mind before, it’s gone.

I got shoes!

I bought some Keen’s today.  They are really nice and look fantastic!  I’m going to need some other pairs but I’ll wait for my orthopedic foot thingie to get here.  Although this pair will allow for mine I want to actually have it to try with other shoes before I get another pair.  These are the ones I went with
MY NEW SHOES!

They aren’t something I would have bought back home but they are perfect for all the walking that we do here.   I need something that I can wear with jeans or a skirt and run the kids to school.  These definitely fit the bill.  As I was shelling out 69 Clams for them today I was thought that it’s nice to know that my lovely father passed on not only his horrible metabolism but also his flat feet.  Thanks Dad!

Lions and Tiger and Wooden Bears.

Ever seen a donkey with dread locks.  No really, have you.  I have.  We went to the Heidelberg Zoo yesterday and the weirdest looking donkey of all times was there.  I’m not sure how to describe him so here’s a pic (even though I know just by typing that the pic will take forever to load and I’ll be forced to do some housework while I’m waiting but I’m a giver)

And for all of you who had nasty comments in your head about me and my dreadlocks, shame on you!

Wolfie is coming so I need to go clean up my damn basement before he gets here!

Every day can be an adventure…

The first week of school is finished and the kids are exhausted.  Nothing wears a kid out like having to get up in the morning and think.  Both kids enjoyed their respective classrooms and both kids will have an interesting year to say the least.   Nadia’s class has 5 students until October when the 6th one joins.  There are 3 girls and 2 boys so far and the other student coming is a boy (his dad plays hockey and they don’t land until October for the season) .  Of all the places in the world her teacher is from Victoria British Columbia.  How hilarious is that!  Elijah is completely in love with his Australian teacher and quite thrilled that there are GIRLS in grade 1.  Kindergarten was all boys so these creatures are quite interesting to him.  If given the choice he’ll partner with a girl every time!  The German teacher told us that he picked up the numbers pretty darn quick (not a shock) but lost interest when they moved on from the number stuff…

Today is Saturday and we HAVE to go shopping.  I cannot grocery shop for anything super heavy during the week because it’s a 2 km walk home and the shops are closed on Sunday so today is the day.  I needed my own person Sherpa so that I could buy a toaster and  a kettle.  We decided to take the kids to the farmers market in Mannheim first thing this morning then while they had quiet time we would head to the Real.  All I can say about the Farmers Market is Wow.  The marketplatz is a whole square closed to traffic (except the tram) .  There are merchants every where selling everything.Olives and mushrooms like I’ve never seen them and so many types of cheese we just bought some by pointing and hope to go back again soon.  In fact I could catch the tram after dropping the kids off at school on Tuesday or Thursday and take it straight to the Market, hmmmm sounds like a plan!

On the way to the market we met a nice German lady on the bus.  On the way home the same lady was on the same bus in Seckenheim (weird)  THEN as we were walking to the grocery store she passed us on her bike!  I think she’s a witch.

Oh and I made an amazing discovery in Mannheim!  I found a yarn store!  The lady was quite curt when I said I didn’t speak German but then when she started speaking English and I explained that I’d been in Germany 3 weeks and this was my first Yarn store, she opened right up!  We laughed and giggled.  I tell you there is a camaraderie amongst knitters like no others.  I even saw a lady on the tram yesterday making socks on 5 needles and had quite a point and giggle fest with her over the perils of knitting.

We had the BEST lunch at this Turkish restaurant.  We’ll definately be back there again.  Loved it!  The menu is so huge it took us forever to pick.  We ended up with lamb.   YUMMO!

Off to make supper but there will be more pictures once we have internet at the house, uploaded with this internet stick is a pain in the ass.  I lose my wit when I have to wait for 10 minutes for one picture.  Trust me this post was going to be hilarious.

School starts tomorrow.

Okay you people who know me, know that I love my kids, would step in front of train for any one of them (even elijah!) but i’m soooo glad summer vacation is over.  Our kids go back to school tomorrow, weeks ahead of the German school and before they would have had we been back in Edmonton.

This year camps were limited because of our crazy move across the pond so I did get to spend a ridiculous amount of time with them.  I’m grateful for them, really.  Nadia usually goes to at least 4 weeks of day camps and an overnight camp and this was Elijah’s first year with no Nonna at all for the entire summer.  This year Nadia did a 3 week camp with an at risk group from her elementary school and Elijah did a week at the Y.  It was not enough.  Granted we had more together time and the kids have done amazingly well considering that we spent two weeks living at my friend Aimee’s and packed up everything they love and shipped it to a foreign country without even giving them a vote as to whether or not they wanted to come…but I’m done bonding.  I ready for them to come home from the first few weeks of school so tired that they can barely keep their collective heads from dropping in their dinner plates.  I’m ready for someone else to listen to their oh so amusing stories about stuff I don’t care about. (shut up, as if YOU care about the CARS movie so much that you’ve memorized every last detail of every last character and think it’s fun to ‘test’ you parents or the intricacies of Hannah Montana’s outfit that she wore on a show where no one knows she famous cause she wears a wig, sure you do)

Anyway, all the love to the parents out there who are getting weepy at the thought of little Johnny Underpants going back to school but I’m not like you.  I can’t wait for the door to hit their asses on the way out!