Week of February 12

Sunday was the big day of Amber's b'day party!  She was so excited!  We had a nice outfit picked out and she wanted to put it on the minute she woke up, but since her party wasn't until after lunch and her top was white I made her wait until after lunch.  She must have asked me like every 15 minutes when she could put on her pretty outfit, too funny!
So we had 13 kids and it was at her Little Gym place.  All the kids had so much fun, and even Jacob and Sean participated with all the little kids.  Then we had brought a bunch of snacks and cakes for the food since it was after lunch.

The cake didn't quite look like the 3 layered checkered cake in the picture, but it was a nice layer cake that people thought was neat and enjoyed.

This is a picture of it after the party.  The people at the party place cut the cake wrong so it ended up falling over when they were done cutting all the pieces, so this is 2 of the 3 layers.  The layers ran together a bit in the pan, so it is more like a tie dye cake!

So these are the cupcake favor boxes, that we put the cupcakes in and gave away as favors!

After the party she spent the rest of the afternoon playing with all her new toys.  She had so much fun!


Monday Jason got up around 3:30am to get ready and fly out to the states.  Two states in 3 days and then a flight back.  Talk about time travel!
After I dropped the kids off I went to the ER, or what they have here to get my ribs checked out.  I have had this pain in the bottom of one of my ribs for a bit and it just seems to be hurting a bit more so I thought I would go and see if they could x-ray it and see if they saw anything.  They said everything looked normal so that is good, and he gave me some anti- inflammatory medicine.  It seemed to help right away, but still don't really understand why it was hurting. 
The hospital is just up the street from me, and they have a small underground 3 floor parking garage.  Since I was there early in the morning I was able to get a spot, but if you drive by there later, you will see a line down the street of cars waiting to get a spot in the garage.  They just wait until someone leaves and then the gate will let one car in.  So then you still have to walk outside to get to the hospital and once there I asked if they had an emergency room and you wait in line to get a ticket.  Then you register with the lady when she calls your number. Then you go to the urgency secretary and she checks you in and then you wait in their waiting room until you are called.  Then once called they take you back in a little room for evaluation.  Then I just walked around the corner for the x-ray, waited about 5 min. then the dr. came back and saw me.  So it was a good process and I was there for a little more then an hour. 
I use my phone to take most of our pictures here and then just send them to my email to download on the computer.  Well they just aren't going through.  So I tried something new.  I sent them to myself and then put my phone on the window sill facing the window and whala!  My picture arrive right away in my email.  Crazy houses here!
This afternoon Amber was just having so much fun playing with her new toys!  We played games, playdoo, barbies and crafts.  I actually lost track of the time and was almost late getting back to school.
One of Amber's girl friends is having a party this weekend, but we won't be able to make it so we gave her her gift, a bright pink dress up dress!  When she comes over here she loves getting into the dress up clothes as she didn't have any yet.
In Sean's class today it was someone's b'day and he brought in a pinada to do in class!  I haven't even seen those here at all. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  The kids were excited to see little Valentines gift for themselves this morning!  Amber was so excited to bring her valentine's cards in to school that she had done for her friends.  Only the American's at school were dressed in red and valentine clothes.  No one else did valentines in her class.  In preschool they did make some valentine crafts and cookies.  Here there really were no valentine decorations anywhere, and not really any special treats in the stores.  They did have a few of their type of small cakes in pink hearts. 
Jason called me from Walmart today.  He was there at 6am shopping for a few things.  I am jealous he got to go shopping there, although not at 6am!  He was down the barbie aisle looking to bring a little something back for Amber and was completely overwhelmed by the choices.  Then he went over to the girls section since I wanted to see if they had any valentine clothes left that he could pick her up something for next year.  They didn't but he said that it looked like a pink bomb had exploded there!
Today it was snowing those really big pretty snowflakes, but not as cold.  There is a little bit of snow on the roads, but not much and it seems to be melting on the roads since it isn't that cold.  My French teacher calls me, before 10am thank goodness, and tells me it is too dangerous to be out on the roads today she would prefer to stay home.  Ok.  Guess she wouldn't do good in the midwest in the winter months!
Just yesterday at school someone was talking about the smell coming up from the drain in their laundry room. I had that same thing happen in the fall and I poured vinager and hot water down it and then it was fine, but haven't had to do it since.  Well then today we had that smell as well.  It must be at certain times of the year or something!  So I dumped the vinager and water down it today and then the smell goes away.
At school today Jacob was saying that one of his friends brought in flowers for a girl he likes.  Jacob also said that the upper school was selling flowers and then would deliver them to the person.  So I guess one of the girls in his class got a flower from her sister that way.  I asked if he did that who would he want to send a flower to and he said "Amber"  so I thought that was nice of him.
One of the gifts Amber got for her b'day was the book The Original Velveteen Rabbit.  The boys even each borrowered her book and read it which I thought was cute.

Wednesday Amber got to dress up for Carnival at school since the preschool was going to do a parade through the school.  She dressed up as snow white, just a costume I had bought here.

The kids all looked so cute.  It was like Halloween!

Amber's teacher dressed up as a princess, so funny, and he even had a long Rapunzel like braid.

Then later in the morning her class put on 2 little plays that had gone along with the books they were reading, The Three Billy Goat Gruffs, and The Mitten.

They did a great job and it was very cute.

In the afternoon I received another package for our neighbors.  I took it over in the evening and stepped inside their house.  It is a very nice house, compared to our very basic house right next door.  She was very polite and we talked for a few minutes.  They are both from here.  And they also have a house in the south part of France near the ocean. 

I am loving my new alarm clock I got.  No buzzing, and this one you can wake up to nature sounds.  It is nice to wake up to the birds churping on my alarm clock.

Thursday I ran to the store for a few quick things since my coffee was canceled, but don't get me wrong I still stopped there and picked up my little cinnamin pastry to eat as I walked over to the store!  Although I must admit it does taste better with tea!  When I went to check out at the store I had 17 items.  There were 3 lanes open and no other people waiting to be checked out.  So I go up to the first one and it says less then 10 items, I have 17 but there is no one around.  So I ask if I can check out here, she makes a funny face and points that I have to walk down to another one.  There are 20 checkout lanes across the entrance to the store but only the 3 are open, and I see that the next one says 10 items or less as well.  The last check out line open says priority for handicapped, elderly and pregnant.  So I go in this one.  I guess I am elederly today, annoyed!

Then I decided to try and talk to someone at the cleaners to see if they do sewing.  I have not seen it written on their board, but I thought I would try.  I have seen 2 stores that do repairs on one of the main streets closer to downtown, but this is easier.  I don't know the word for sewing, but it is pretty obvious what needs to be done since the coat is completely ripped open from the arm pit all the way down.  So the lady there gets what needs to be done but says it will be 2 weeks, something to do with the holiday I think.  Ok.  And I have to have the coat cleaned as well in order to get it sewed.  So for $24 I will have a cleaned, and sewed good looking coat, hopefully!

Amber went to a friend's house after school so I didn't even have to pick her up from school.  I got a whole afternoon to myself!  I didn't even think of it until I was eating lunch that I should have seen if a friend wanted to do lunch!  So I ended up driving out to the import store to get our Cheerios and things we can't live without (: (Like Pop Tart Fridays for the kids!)

After school the side of the car Sean needs to get in on didn't have enough room so I told him to crawl in through the trunk, not too uncommon of an occurance here!  His boots were all dirty so I pulled them off as he climbed in the back.  When I look at his socks I see the same hole that was in his sock yesterday that I had told him to throw away and change his socks before bed anyway.  So I ask him "how many days do you think we wear the same pair of socks for?"  Needless to say they were off his feet once at home!

Jacob had his last bball practice after school and then the coaches celebrated with them by buying them pizza.  The older players will continue on for about 2 more weeks in the finals, but they are all away games and 4th grade can't travel.

Jason got back tonight after his trip to MI and NY in 4 days.  So of course I want to see what goodies he brought us back.  He told me he couldn't bring much back b/c he was just bringing his bag via carry on.  When I look in his suitcase he brought back the couple things I had asked for and like 5 different kinds of bags of candy.  Are you kidding me?  You go to Walmart and this is what you bring back!

Week of Feb. 5th, 2012

Sunday it was still so cold out.  It has been one of the coldest winters here in Europe.  Many people in the Eastern part of Europe have died due to the cold weather. 
Today we took the kids to an indoor play place that is right next to the bowling alley we went to a couple of weeks ago and that was how we found it.  We had lunch there as well and the kids had fun climbing. bouncing on the trampolines, and the boys even played pool.  One of Amber's friends from school was there as well, so she enjoyed having a girl to run around and play with.

Once we got home Amber again fell asleep on the couch for a nap.  She napped most days this past week as well. 
There was something I was reading the other day that talked about why French woman tend to not be heavy.  The reason being is that they tend to walk more.  More people take the bus, even if you drive there are no parking lots so you find a place on the street and have to walk to your destination.  There are no elevators in buildings so you have to walk up the stairs.  This is true of here as well.  I see people out walking their dogs and their children, even babies all bundled up in this cold, cold weather.  And people are thinner here as well.  Unfortunetly it doesn't seem to be helping me.  Could be I am probably eating too much of the delicious bread here!  Oh well.
Today I saw a woman walking her beautiful dalmation dog in her long fur coat.  Then a bit later I saw an older man wearing a fur coat out for a walk.  I had never seen a man wearing a knee length fur coat before!
Tonight is the super bowl.  A few bars were advertising they would be broadcasting it from 11:30pm-6am due to the time change.  One of Jason's friends invited him to a friend's house to watch it but Jason thought it might be a little difficult to go to work the next day after being up all night!

Monday morning was the PTO meeting, so that was my morning.
This afternoon while Amber was busy in her craft area, I got everyone's Valentine's gifts put together for next week.  Here they celebrate it, so there are some cards out, but I didn't see any Valentine's bags or wrapping paper, so everyones gifts are wrapped really pretty- in left over Meijer/Walmart bags from one of Jason's trips home!  I don't think they will mind, especially since they each got a packet of candy from home that Jason had bought.  They also do not have children's valentines here like we do at home. 
This afternoon my one friend told me they were moving next month to Sweden!  They were always planning on moving this summer, but they decided to move it up.  They have a little girl Amber's age, and then a boy between my boys.   So we will be sorry to see them go.   They have lived here for like 10 years.  She is from the states and he is from Norway.

Tuesday during my French class the teacher told me that here European's only wash their hair 1 to 2 times a week- yuck!  She asked me how often I wash my hair and I said everyday.  She made some American comment, and I thought well at least our whole bodies are clean!
Amber's gymnastics class had a few more kids in it today, and this class has mostly English speakers in it, so I was excited for Amber.  Her friend from last week was not there, but another girl was there and the 2 of them were playing and hanging together during class.  So that is nice b/c otherwise she doesn't seem to enjoy it unless she feels like she has a friend there.
After school Jacob and his friend had bball practice and so his mom and her kids came over for a little playdate while the boys had bball.  So that was nice.
When Jacob got home he told me his winter coat got stuck on something today and it ripped all the way down the side and just sliced his coat open!  It was getting a little small on him and I have another one ready for him thank goodness especially with this cold weather.  But so much for passing it on to Sean!
Tonight it really started snowing again.  It has covered the ground, but not sure how much more it will accumulate.
I called Amber's gymnastics place to ask them a question about her b'day party, and when I call anywhere my first sentence in French is always do you speak English.  So tonight when I call and say this, Jacob tells me I am not saying it right b/c I am saying it with an American accent.  Ah ya,  this is how I speak French!

Wednesday I had a coffee at school with some preschool moms and then to work out.  I also got Amber's cakes made for her party.  We are going to try a triple layer checkered cake.  So she picked out pink, purple and yellow.  So I got the cakes made, but some of the colors ran together a bit, so we will see how it looks when we cut into it.  I froze them and will decorate them later.
We had a last minute luncheon here with one of Amber's other little boy friends, his mom and the baby for lunch and a playdate.  So that was nice. 
This afternoon a delivery truck came to my neighbors with a box and they weren't home so he dropped off the package at our house.    He didn't speak much English, but was pointing to the neighbors house next store.  I am really suprised he just dropped it off with me.  He definately didn't want to bother coming back.  Here people don't really know their neighbors that well. So I took over the package when I saw her in her car later in the evening and I gave it to her.  And let me tell you she spoke English perfectly.  So now I know that she is not ignoring me b/c she can't speak English, she is just ignoring me!
Today I went online and ordered some winter things that are half off what they have left in stock.  Since Sean will now be needing a new winter jacket for next year, thanks to Jacob!
I am finally getting around to reading this good book called Playing with the Enemy.  So awhile back I went to this luncheon and the author of this book was the guest speaker, so of course I bought his book and he signed it as well.  He said it was going to be made into a movie but I don't know if it ever did.  But it is a true story about his father.  It is suppose to be an inspirational story about his life and what happened and how he turned it around.  I am only half way through it right  now.  It is not what I normally read, but I am really enjoying it.  His dad was a great baseball player and at 15 the Dodgers wanted to sign him.  But then WWII came and he was enlisted at an early age to play baseball for the milatary.  It talks about different parts of the war, and now we are living close to some of these places.  It talks about Normandy Beach ( someplace we want to go, but friends have already been), and Cologne, Germany was the first German city to be captured by the Americans and we went there in the fall.  It talks about General George Patton and we saw his grave in the American Milatary Cementary here.  It is a sad, but beautiful area of all white cross on the lawn.  General Patton didn't die here with his troops but he requested when he died to be laid to rest with the rest of his troops here.
So maybe there is a reason I never got around to reading this book a year ago or so.  This month last year was when Jason decided to take this job.  What a year!

Thursday was a quick coffee at the mall with a friend and then home for French. 
Today during Sean's lunch he turned around right into a teacher carring a tray and got a huge bruise on his forehead.  He ended up in the nurse's office for an ice pack!
A friend of mine is doing something cute for her husband's birthday and collecting different beers so I gave her 3 different kinds that we had.

Friday I bought a new alarm clock.  The one I have is from someone who moved away and every 10 days or so the buzzer on the alarm goes off instead of the radio.  It scares the crap out of both of us and sometimes wakes up the kids.  Why in the world anyone would purposely set their alarm to wake up to that boggles me! Jason keeps saying that it is user error, but I keep telling him that there is a certain button for buzzer and I am not turning it on!  So I have had enough of that alarm clock, and we will try a new one and see.
Today I also got the re-enrollment forms for school next year already.  They increased their prices for next year.  Since Amber will stay all day next year- it is called the 1st year of Kindergarten, her prices are almost as much as the boys. So for my 3 kids to go to school next year it will be a little over $50,000, just for tuition!   Thank goodness the company pays for this!
We had a busy afternoon then.  We brought 2 of Amber's friends home for a playdate and lunch.  And one of them, today was her b'day.  So I had gotten a little fairy cake and we got to sing to her and have some cake after lunch.  Then dropped them off and we picked up the boys and Jacob went to a lazer tag b'day party and so my friend and I each took our 2 younger ones to the indoor climby/play place just down the road.  Then after Jacob and his friend finished with the party we met Jason at a kind of American restaurant with them as well for dinner.   My friend ordered a salad for dinner.  It was called a mountain salad, and it said something about chicken, potatoes and we really weren't sure exactely what kind of salad it was.  So she gets it and we are all dying laughing.  It is a lettuce salad with a big, cold baked potato in the middle of it with salsa on top of that and then sliced chicken on the lettuce around the potato.  Never heard of this one before!  Jason was trying to ask for salsa for his dinner and the waitress had no idea what he was talking about, and he was like I should have just pointed to her salad.  But the kids all loved their meals most of the boys got bbq chicken wings.

The boys got their report cards today.  They are longer and more in depth then the ones at home, but graded the same.  Then each extra teacher does there own section, Art, French, Gym, music, not only checking boxes but each writes a paragraph.

Sat. was a busy day getting all the cakes and cupcakes frosted and things ready for Amber's party tomorrow.  The handyman came in the morning and saw the 3 layer pink frosted cake and said with his British accent "Wow that cake looks smashing!"  So I thought that was nice.  Even if the kids didn't like it the handyman thought it looked smashing!  I was cracking up and all I could think of was Austin Powers, smashing baby!
Jason took the boys and one of Sean's friend and went to the reptile show that was in town this weekend.  They had their picture taken with a big snake around all of their necks- yuck!  They saw a 2 headed snake and a 2 headed turtle.  Sean's friend then came over and had lunch with us and had a nice playdate with Sean.  After lunch we realized that the heat had gone out and there was no hot water, nice.  So we called the relocation agent that works for Jason's company and she got a heater person out within about 2 hours.  The guy only spoke Luxembourgish, so Jason had no idea what he said was wrong, but he seemed content that is was fixed.  Ok.  Which was good since we had a sitter coming over in a bit.  We had a new girl coming over to babysit.  She is from South Africa and is a senior at the kids school and lives pretty close by.  Jason and I went out to dinner with another guy that he works with and his wife is one of the girls I have coffee with at the mall.  We had a very nice evening.  We went to this Luxembourghish restaurant in the downtown area.  It was a very neat looking restaurant.  There was brick built into the restaurant all over and it was I think 4 floors, but cozy little areas, not just a big floor.

Here is a picture of the brick going into the bottom floor and this is where the wine cellar is as well.

So if you ask if they have more wine then what is on the wine list they will give you a key and you go down here and open this narrow door into their wine cellar which is just built into the stone and everything is all dusty.

So here is a picture of the wine cellar with Jason inside.  It was neat. 

Unfortunatley this family will be moving back to the states this summer as they were here for 5 years.  Another one bites the dust!

Week of Jan. 29th, 2012

Sunday was a nice low key day.  Jason took our friends to the airport early in the morning to catch their flight.  Later in the day Amber got some cleaning bug in her, and I didn't even ask her to clean things up, and went crazy cleaning up the basement playroom and then her play area on the first floor as well!  She did a great job.  Boy, too bad she can't do that every time I ask her to clean up.
 Later in the afternoon I asked the boys to empty the laundry basket and put their clothes away.  So then at dinner I asked if they had done that.  Jacob answers "Well I did part of it"  I said "Ok, next time I am only going to give you part of dinner.  The part I am not going to give you is dessert!  Ugh!
Tonight the boys were messing around while they were suppose to be getting ready for bed and Jacob ends up hitting his head against the door frame.  He had a huge bump on his head.  No dilated pupils or throwing up so I think he will be ok.
 The enter key seems to be broken on my computer now- lovely!  Tonight it started snowing.  The kids saw it right before bed.  

Monday morning the snow came back and it fluried all day.  Not alot of accumlation, just enough to make it a mess to drive in and harder to park on the streets.  After school Jacob and Amber shoveled the driveway! 
Here everyone has 2 sets of tires, one summer, one winter.  My friend told me the other day that the police were walking down her street making sure all the cars had on their winter tires and were fining those who didn't.  The fines could be as high as 130 euros!
This morning I had an appt. at a Dr. office.  My appt. was at 8:15 and so Jason took the kids to school.  It was the first appt. of the day.  I got their around 8:05 or so.  At 8:35 I asked the receptionist if the dr. was in yet and she said that she was coming from the hospital and should be here soon.  A little before 9am she starts by calling in a patient.  Then 10 min. later another patient is called in.  So I go back to the receptionist desk and ask why I haven't been called yet.  She said oh the dr. called you and said you weren't there.  I was not happy.  I said she never even came in the waiting room.  She is calling people from the hallway and I am sorry but I must not have heard her and you know I was in there, so how could you cross my name off the list without even checking the room.  Did you ever see me leave?  So by the time I left it was close to 10am!
From here I went to the tennis club close to our house to see about lessons for the kids.  The boys had been taking tennis now for 3 years and Jacob more then that.  The lady told me that tennis school runs from Sept. to July and they are full for the boys ages, but have room for Amber.  I couldn't believe that they don't have different sessions that you could sign up for throught the year.  So they got put on a waiting list I guess.  I think sign up is in July for the whole next year!
I volunteered in Sean's classroom this morning as they were doing a craft activity. 

Tuesday it was very icy in the morning and after I dropped the kids off I was walking back through the gravel inbetween the cars parked and slipped and almost fell on the hood of the Mercedes next to me with my keys in my hand- that would not have ended pretty!
My driveway is a little bit icy on the top part and I was worried the car would slide down it since it is so step!

This is a picture of the driveway in the fall, so no snow.

Before I picked Amber up I ran over to the Woman's club.  I was there a few weeks ago and had picked up some cake mixes for Amber's b'day cake.  I am making a 3 layer checkered cake.  And I picked up 2 white cake mixes and one lemon by accident instead of white.  So I found the other white one I needed and then got Jason a nice Luxembourg picture book for Valentine's day as well. 
After I picked Amber up and we had lunch we went to her gymnastics class.  Today was the start of the new session and I switched days to Tuesdays.  On Thursdays the class was full at 16 kids.  Todays class had 4 kids.  And normally it was only around 8 or so.  So it was a nice small class.
I had met a woman before that had her daughter in this class and the mom spoke English great and for some reason I thought they were from the UK and I told Amber she would have a little girl in the class that would speak English.  So when we get there and I start talking to the little girl I guess English is the only language she doesn't know.  The mom speaks Danish to her, the father French, with her one set of grandparents she speaks German, with local friends she speaks Luxembourgish!  Oh my- 4 languages she knows and she is only 4- pretty cool!  Unfortunalty for Amber, English is not one of the languages the little girl knows.
Here I have met a few people who don't really believe in marriage.  They live with their partner and have children together but never want to get married.
Tonight Jacob came home from school and said that one of the boys in 4th grade was leaving for boarding school.  He just found out about it and said goodbye to everyone today.  He is suppose to be like one of the best swimmers here for his age group so I think it was something to do with that?  Of course Jacob didn't really know the details.  He didn't really play with him much.

Wednesday morning Amber woke up with a cold and drainage coming out of her eyes.  So she stayed home from school.  Her eyes were completely crusted shut this morning.   My friend had refered me to a pediatric clinic close by.  I called a little after 8 and got an appt. for 8:45.  So of course there is no parking so we had to walk a bit to get there from the car, but it was a nice office with quite a few dr.s there.  We even saw another friend there with her 2 younger ones as well.  So Amber has a virus and she got some cough medicine and eye drops.  The eye drops do not go over well, so we will see how long this takes to heal! 
We had to go to the pharmacy to get all the stuff, and she prescribed a dose of Vit. D as well.  She said children until age 5 get a vit. dose in Nov. and Feb.  It is a tube of liquid that I just dump in her drink.  So I bought the medicines, a fever/pain reducer and a thermometer and my total bill was 33 euros!  I don't have any insurance here b/c we have to submit everything back home so I just pay out of pocket and then submit it later.  But considering how expensive things are here, this was cheap and the dr. visit was 44 euros.             
So Amber and I had a nice morning.  We did her valentines that Jason had brought back from the states and we put stickers and lollypops on them.  She is so excited to give them to her friends.  The week of valentines they will be celebrating Carnival at school, and she gets to dress up and do a parade at school.  This is kind of like Halloween.  So now all the costumes are out at the stores.  I got her the snow white dress for this.   Then she took a nice 2 hour nap this afternoon.  Sure, 2 years ago I could barely get her down for naps, now when she stays home I ask her if she would like to take a nap she glady goes upstairs and gets all cozy in her bed!
Jacob's guitar teacher had to cancel lessions tonight so I didn't mind not having to go back out in the freezing cold.  It is 10 degress and windy!

Thursday Amber was crying and crying for an hour this morning about her ear hurting.  Oh no, we were just at the dr. yesterday and they didn't say anything about her ears looking infected.  So she stayed home today as well.  I give her some tylenol, drop the boys off at school and call the dr. back to get another appt.  It was later in the morning and we got in and saw a different dr. Another woman, but I liked her a little better.  She said that Amber doesn't have an ear infection but that her drums were red, so she gave her some ear drops.    So back to the pharmacy which has 3 parking spots.  Today they were all full so I sat right by them with my turn signal on and waited until someone left.   This street goes into a round about and then onto a major road so not a lot of street parking.  Amber was a little more willing to take the ear drops verse the eye drops.
Then today I could go back and pick up Jacob's passport at the Embassy.  It was still so cold out and last time we were there we had to wait outside for 45 min.  So I bundled Amber up in her snow pants, scarf, etc.  With her being sick and I had no idea if we would have to wait.  The street over I found one spot that my car barely fit in, so the tail end of my parallel parking was sticking out a bit, oh well.
We got there and hallelujah there was not a line!  You can only pick up passports from 11:30-12:30 so this is about 5 till 11:30.  The lady took our passports and let us right in.  So we were in and out in about 10 min- whew!
Today was groundhogs day.  I don't think they really get into that here, but Jacob's class was waiting to hear if he saw his shawdow and of course he did.  But they had to wait until early afternoon to see the video due to the time difference!
Jacob's good friend here started writing a blog about all places they have visited here.  Jacob enjoyed reading it!
Today, here is a tradation that they have a celebration of light.  Basically a celebration that the days are starting to get longer with light- thank goodness!  So you will see kids go around to houses with candles in a lantern and singing and then of course they want candy or a little something in return.  We saw a group of boys walking down the other street doing this tonight.  And so when we got home after bball practice Jacob got out some candy and put it by the door, but unfortunately no one came by.  But my friend here did come by with a plate full of homemade good old usa chocolate chip cookie bars!  The kids were very excited about that!  That was very thoughtful of her, especially since they don't sell chocolate chips like that here.  They were yummy!

Friday Amber was back off to school, yeah!  I had coffee with a few moms and then off to the store which is not fun on a Friday since it is super crowded.  On Friday's I normally go to the superstore since I always need something more then groceries.  Here in the stores in addition to having meat, deli, fish, and bakery counters, they also have a big cheese counter.  Here people just buy chuncks of cheese.  It smells so bad by this counter.  I am not a big cheese fan so I haven't bought any chuncks of cheese yet.  Of course they have a refrigerated section right next to the counter with package cheese as well.  They do sell packets of cheese for cheese fondue.  That I like and we eat every once an awhile.
This week in Amber's class they have been reading the book The Three Billy Goats Gruff and doing crafts, playing and doing things related to the book.  So one day when Amber was absent it was cooking day and they made toast and put on goat cheese and some honey on it and baked it.  I guess the kids liked it!
When I picked Amber up from school she asked if she could have a friend over and I said not today with her being out the last 2 days.  So then she starts crying.  We get home, have lunch and then I find her in a little bed she made for herself on the couch ottaman falling asleep.  Good thing we didn't have that friend over!  So she got a little over an hour nap in.
Jacob went to a friend's house after school and then the mom brought them back to school for their basketball game.    One of Sean's friends was there and he came up to talk to Sean and stared at Amber and then said to Sean "Your sister looks nothing like you."  So funny.
Tonight we watched Tangled (Disney's Rapunzel ) for our movie night.  Can you guess who picked it out?  Sean.  So Amber got the Tangled movie for Christmas along with some other Rapunzel toys and just loves this right now.  Every time Amber goes to watch this movie the boys always end up watching it with her.  They both like it as well.  I don't blame them.  It is like a musical with all the singing and dancing and I enjoy it as well!

Sat. Jacob had another bball game and he didn't get much playing time, but he was able to score a basket so we were happy for him! 
My nice friend from home had shipped us a box of things and I had gotten the notice this week that when they tried to deliver it I wasn't home.  So that means we have to go to the post office in a busy area and pick it up.  So I left that for Jason (:  So we were mailing them something as well.  It was one of those padded envelopes and it cost almost as much as her bigger box she had shipped - crazy costs here!  Someone also had ripped the side of her box to see what was in there.  Good thing for us they didn't like the foam stickers and things (:
After the game we went to Aldi in Germany.  It is about 30 min, away.  You cross the border and then it is just a few minutes away.  Some people had been talking about this place where things were so much cheapier.  So we got an almost full cart and it was only 82 euros! Here in town just about one layer in your cart will be close to 100 euros.  It is a smaller store, and they only carry some things and of course everything is in German. 
Tonight Jason and I rented The Help movie.  I had gotten to see only half of it on the plane ride home so I am glad I got to see the other half.  It is a good movie.

Week of Jan. 22nd, 2012

Sunday we made it to church.  Amber was sad her one friend wasn't there, but she saw another friend who then came and sat with her at the end of mass.   Then we went out to lunch.  At one mall nothing is open but this upper scale cafeteria style restaurant.  So we tried it out for lunch.  It was ok.  It is always hard with 5 of us to do cafeteria style with the trays and all the food it gets a little crazy.
Then Jacob had some school work to do and Jason got ready to head back to the states.  I don't have too big of a list for him this time since we were just there.  But there are some things that got shipped there, so he needs to bring those back.  So it is like christmas when he gets back.  Everyone is into the suitcases to see what goodies are in it!
Today Jason was vacuuming out his car so I told Sean that once Dad was done to vacuum out my car.  When I go down and look at it later, he only vacuumed the trunk?  Did he not think the rest of the car was dirty?  So now I have a nice clean trunk and that is it!
So have I mentioned lately how much I hate my laundry machines?  Today I did a load of light colors which had a lot of cream colored tops in it.  I switched awhile ago to only white laundry detergant since it was starting to color my clothes blue.  And today my tops came out grayish- ugh!!!!!

Monday morning my Aunt passed away from Parkinson's disease.  She was a cute, spunky little lady before the disease took over.  May she now rest in peace.
This morning at the grocery store I was excited to see something that looks like tator tots. We will have to try it out.  And they also had frozen Belgium waffles.  So I got those to try.  The kids enjoyed Eggo waffles once in a while at home, now the only time they can have pancakes/waffles during the week is if there are left overs from the weekend.
This afternoon Amber and I made cookies and fruit kabobs to take to a friend's house for lunch tomorrow. 
Jason made it over to the states ok, but I guess the guy that was sitting next to him was a bit smelly and keep tooting the entire flight!  Jason was not pleased.

Tuesday my French teacher showed up and I told her she needs to call me 45 min. at least before the class starts if she can't make it.   We will see!
Later after I picked Amber up we went to a friend's house for lunch.  The girls had so much fun playing and making necklaces! 

Later I made zucchini bread and a chocolate chip coffee cake for this weekend with our guests.

On Wednesday, my Aunt who passed away earlier in the week, her mother passed away today at 100 years old!  Everyone called her Grams whether you were related or not.   May she rest in peace with her daughter now.
I joined a friend for coffee at school and then off to the store to finish getting the last of the food for this weekend. 
Amber had her little boy friend over for lunch and a little playdate as the boys' RE class was cancelled today so they didn't have their usual lengh of playtime and Amber knew it and was upset!
Then Jacob's guitar teacher moved up his lesson time so that was nice.
I talked to Jason and he was busy packing up the suitcases and weighing them, seeing how much stuff he could fit in!

Thursday I met my friends at mall for coffee and we had a nice time. 
This afternoon was Amber's last Little Gym class for this session.  So the parents got to be in the gymnastics room with them watching and taking pictures.  I told her earlier in the day that they would be giving out medals at the end of the class.  So she kept asking me when was she going to be getting the diamond.  Too funny!

Jason got back in town this afternoon with our guests for the weekend.  They are here for business purposes but since they are friends they are staying with us. He is from the states and she is from Brazil and that is where we met them.   So they had some things to do in the afternoon.  The kids got into Jason's 2 suitcases he brought back and were excited to see things!  My parents had shipped Sean's Alvin build a bear he had made over Christmas to Jason and he brought it back here, so Sean was happy!  And Amber got some foam craft stickers and such- she just loves to do arts and crafts.  Jacob had gotten a book he had wanted and then the kids had some clothes in there that I couldn't fit when we flew back at Christmas time.  And of course our favorite food items we need too!
Amber's friend came over in the afternoon after I picked up Sean.  Then later in the evening we had a nice big dinner with everyone! 

Friday I had coffee at school and then took our friend that is here to the mall.  We walked around, stopped and had coffee at the Oberweis Cafe there.  Then showed her the store and we picked up a few items.  We drove around a bit and showed her the other mall/store and then just pointed out a few other things on our way back.  We went and got Amber at school and went out to a Italian place over by school I hadn't tried yet.  We liked it.  Amber and I shared one of the pizza that are very common here, thin crust and just a bit bigger then a normal size plate.
Jacob had a friend over after school, and we just dropped him off at home when we went out to eat since the restaurant was across town by his house and then I had a sitter for the kids.
We tried this Portuguese restaurant for dinner and it was wonderful.  Jason and I had flaming scampi/prawns.  They had a lot of garlic and butter on them but otherwise they were so good!  The menu only had about 10 things on it, but our friends ordered 2 other things that were good as well.
Then we walked across the street to this area with a lot of bar type restaurants and went to the Brazilian restaurant/bar and had our favorite Brazilian drink!  Then went to a cafe that is across the street from the hotel where we first had to stay and they have these wonderful chocolate little volcano cakes with ice cream.  We were stuffed by the time we came home!

Sat. morning after breakfast we took everyone to Trier, Germany.  It is a cute town about 45 min. from us right on the border.  It is actually Germany's oldest city and former Roman outpost.  This city has over 2000 years of history.  Their famous structure that we saw was the former Roman city gate, the Porta Nigra.  It is called that now with porta meaning door and nigra meaning black because over time the structure has turned black.  This structure is from around the year 180.

After that we took a little tour train around town, then walked around and visited their great church- Trier Cathedral.  We had lunch under ground in this big cellar looking German restaurant.  Everything was very good, but fried.  My potato soup was very yummy, and not fried!
They have a great square area with many, many stores, a really nice flower market and such so we walked around that.
Villeroy and Boch was having a great sale and so I got a life size gingerbread man for christmas decoration!  It was bigger than Amber, but made out of a thin piece of wood.  You should have seen us trying to get that in the car with the 7 of us!  It almost didn't make it home!

For dinner we had a big BBQ at the house.

Week of Jan. 15th, 2012

Sunday Jacob finished up his poster for his book report and started the outline for his oral presentation.  We also took the kids bowling.  It was fun, but a little smoky):  It took us a few minutes to figure out the kids shoe sizes since they are the european shoe sizes here.  Some of the kids shoes had that sizing in their shoes, but not all of them.  I of course already new my size as I have bought shoes here (:
They didn't have that medal ball rolling thing for young children, so Jason and I took turns helping Amber roll her ball down the lane.  She did very well, getting 3rd place out of all of us!  After that we went out to lunch. 
On Sundays since nothing is open but some restaurants and a few other places there is not much traffic on the roads.  So we drove around another part of town that is by the train station so a busy and crowded area during the week.  Lots of buildings and shops in this area too.  But there is the main post office there too so if you get a package via just regular mail you will have to pick it up here since the mailman walk around they don't take any packages with them.  They also don't deliver mail here on Sat.  We were looking for parking garages and could only find one of them.  It was a big area outside the city, and I had no idea there was so much there.
We got Jacob's goodie bags ready for his b'day party on Sat.
We made our gingerbread cookies today since we never got to it before christmas (:

Monday morning we had our PTO meeting to finish up things for the wine tasting this Friday night.  These meetings are once a month and pretty much take up my whole morning since I have to be back around lunch time to pick Amber up.
In gym class Jacob is now starting his gymnastics unit and he said they don't need tennis shoes at all. 
Tuesday I found some cleaning products that my friends had told me about. They are special bottles each for certain things.  One bottle for blood, chocolate, ketchup, etc.  What cracks me up is the name of the cleaning product- Dr. Beckmann.  It cracks me up b/c it is similiar to that guy in Ghostbusters, Dr. Veckman.
In French class one of the words I learned was for horse.  Later in the day I am looking at the menu for this new restaurant we want to try and it has horse on it- not for me!
I had to pull Jacob out of school early today for us to go to the Embassy and get his passport renewed.  It requires paperwork, pictures, form, passports and both Jason and I to be present.  So Jason picks us up at school and we have Amber of course with us.  Well I didn't even think about needing her passport just to get in the Embassy. I didn't say anything and just handed over the 3 passports-oops.
Also I didn't realize that you have to wait outside until it is your turn.  So I had made an appt. so we wouldn't be waiting forever and even with the appt. we had to wait outside until 1/2 hour past our appt. time.  It was about 33 degrees here today, so cold to be standing outside for almost 45 min. since we had gotten there before our appt time, but at least the sun was shining.  Then since it is running so far behind I am getting worried that I will not get back to school in time to pick up Sean and his friend that is coming over after school. Since we haven't even gotten in yet and this could take like 1/2 hour inside.  So I call the friend's mom and ask if she is going to be at school and she says no, but she will go and get the boys for me.  I feel horrible since she lives way across town from school. 
As soon as I get off the phone with her they get us in and we get it done and are back out in no more then 10 min.  I quickly call the mom back and luckily she was just about to leave so I tell her I can still make it now.  All is well.
Jacob tells us that today during recess he was playing soccer and was goaly and got the ball right in the face and his nose starting bleeding.  So he spent a bit in the nurse's office. 
Jason drops us back off at school.  Jacob goes to bball practice and I run and go and get the boys.  They were coming down the stairs just as I walked into their building, phew!  In second grade the children have to stand with their teacher until the teacher sees the child's parent and then they can be dismissed.  So by the time I go back to pick Jacob up from bball practice, I have now been at the school 5 times today!

Wednesday Amber had a girl friend over after school and they had fun dressing up and playing.

The girls helped me make cupcakes for Jacob's class.  Here we are allowed to bring in food for their birthdays so that is nice. 

Tonight Sean was reading to me from his Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.  Then he stopped and said "he was going to get his a... kicked"  talking about the boy in the book.  I just looked at him and then we had a little chat.  Jason and I don't really use that word, plenty of other bad words we have instead, so not really sure where he got it from and of course he wasn't really sure where he had heard it either.  Oh dear!

Thursday it came back!  The wind and the rain were back in full force today- ugh!

After school drop off I met 2 friends for coffee at a different mall then we normally go too.  I of course leave early to get back for French, walk in the door and guess who is calling?  My French teacher telling me she can't make it.  I am going to have a little chat with her next week!  She needs to call me earlier then the start time of class to tell me it is cancelled!  This is crazy and incredibly rude!

After Amber's gymnastics we pull in the school parking lot and of course the rain actually starts coming down harder.  So we get soaked going into school.  Then I took one of Amber's friends back here and her mom brought Jacob home after bball practice.

I came across a new saying today that I like-  Cleaning the house while the kids are growing is like shoveling the snow while it is still snowing!  So true, so true!

We frosted Jacob's cupcakes for school tomorrow and put on some sprinkles, and made his yummy chocolate cake for his party on Sat.  Here the cakes are not what we are used to and don't taste as good at least not to us and then of course they are extremely expensive.  So I am going to be making a lot of cakes.  I bought and have ordered some more new cake decorating things.

Friday was the day that Jacob got to bring in his b'day cupcakes.  Good way to end the week of school, right!  He said everyone enjoyed them, so that was good.

Today was a friend's b'day and so she invited some of us over for coffee and cake.  It was very nice.  She had quite a few ladies coming and going all morning.   The house they are renting got painted a lilac color.  I said Amber would love to live in this color house!

After school Sean went to a friend's house and had a sleep over and then I had a sitter come over and Jason and I went to the wine tasting event I was helping put on.  It was a very nice evening.  There were over 60 different wines and champagnes combined to sample.  There was also bread, cheese and appetizers.

We came home and decorated the house and Jacob's door for his b'day!

Sat. was Jacob's day to get breakfast in bed.  I told him I wasn't getting up like at 6am to fix breakfast, but I would get up at 8am.  So I know Jacob is always up before then so I said you can just wake me up if you want and go downstairs and then once I have the pancakes and breakfast ready we can go back to your room and you can have it in bed then.  He said "what's the point then if I already have left my bed!"  So he brought the Ipad in his room and woke up a little before 8am and just layed in bed playing that until we brought in his breakfast. 

He was so excited when we brought in his breakfast, so cute.  I made him a big pancake with choc. chips lined up in the number 10.   You can't see them in the picture.  Then he got fruit, one being choc. covered strawberries, and the a birthday cupcake on top with a candle!  Only my kiddos would actually eat all their breakfast first and then the cupcake last! 

Amber giving Jacob his b'day hug!

After breakfast he opened his presents.  The rest of the morning we spent finishing up preparing the food for his b'day party.

Today was also his b'day party.  He had chosen to have it at Lazer Tag.  He was so excited.  He invited his friends from school. 

 One of Amber's friends was nice enough to have her over for a playdate while we did the party, since she wouldn't have enjoyed it.  You have to be 7 to play and it would have been harder with her there, so instead she had a great time at her friend's house.

We came back from the party, picked up Amber and came home and Jacob enjoyed opening his presents. 

 Then soon after we left as Jacob wanted to try this American Sports Bar/Restaurant and go see a movie.  So we had dinner there and then went and saw Hugo.  It was a good movie.  Amber made it through the first 1 1/2 hours barely, so then we just sat on the exit steps and we finished watching the movie from there- long movie. 

So Jacob had a wonderful day of doing things all for him!  It is so great to just see your child so happy and smiling with excitment throughtout the day!  As Amber put it "This is one of Jacob's best days ever!"