Summer 2012

Thursday after school I set down the kid's book bags and all their stuff and we headed out to Germany.  We met one of Jason's friends for dinner there and then spent the night at a hotel.  The next morning we got up and flew home!  It was a long flight, but the kids did well.  Here they are crashed in the limo on the drive home from the airport.

We had a great summer at home.  The kids got to see their friends and have lots of playdates and sleepovers. I got to visit with my friends as well!

We got to see our families.  Here are some photos with my family.

Jason and the boys and his parents went to see a Cubs baseball game.   We got in all our Dr. and Dentist visits.  The boys went to a waterpark.

We also went to WI to visit with my Grandma

and then spent the weekend with some good friends that moved there. 

Some pictures of the kids on some rides at an amusement park we did in WI.

Other things we did at home, was eat all our favorite foods, probably too much!  We did the annual pub crawl, and I had my high school reunion as well. 

Here are a few pictures from dinner before the reunion with friends.

We went and saw a bunch of movies, and we didn't have to wait for them to come out in English!  My wash got done so fast I couldn't keep up with it, loved that!

I did enjoy not having the blog to do as it is quite time consuming, but of course I will still do it when I go back.  I took all the blogs and made them into a book and had it printed out.  It turned out very nice and something to remember what we did while we were here.

 

I did spend quite a bit of time at home putting all this year's pictures into everyone's photo books.  I think each of the boys had around 700 pictures, Amber had to be more around 800 and ours probably 900 or more.  So that is over 3000 pictures I put into books!  I ended up running out of time and wasn't able to label any of the pictures.  So next summer hope I remember what they were of!

I got to do lots of shopping.  I only went to target 3 times, I couldn't believe it!

We had hot weather and no rain for days.  We got in lots of pool time.  Amber did swimming lessons and finally put her face in the water and learned how to swim!  That was great to see!

The boys did a Bulls basketball camp which they loved and I also signed them up for an educational class as well.  And we did BBQ's at friend's houses.

Unfortunatly Jason didn't spend much time with us besides the weekends as his company's office is not the same place we went so he would drive there and stay during the week and then drive home on the weekend and only once did he have to fly back to Europe for a week. 

We went bowling and to a fun center with friends.

Then the day finally came when I had to pack up our suitcases and get everyone ready to come back.  I had everything crammed in there so tight.  All the kids would have rather stayed there, but our life is here so we had to come back.

On the flight back we got split up and I didn't remember to give Sean his retainer case.  Can you guess where this is going?  So dinner was served, fine.  Breakfast in the morning was served and he must have put the retainer on the tray and then was watching a movie and they picked up the tray and he didn't realize it until a bit later.  Jason went through the trash but the little blue retainer was no where to be found- welcome back to Lux!

Friday we landed in the morning in Frankfort, Germany and then had to go back to the hotel and pick up the car and drive 2 1/2 hours back to Lux.  Well that was a hard drive home.  Jason and I had to take turns b/c of course we didn't sleep much on the flight back and so we are having a hard time staying awake.  We got in in the afternoon and stopped at the gas station grocery down the street and picked up a few things.  We just had an early dinner, relaxed and went to bed!

Sat. I had to start empting the suitcases as we were leaving for vacation the next day and I needed the summer clothes and some of the suitcases for the trip.
I also needed to get a new washing machine as mine had blown up and blown the plug as well before we left.  So we headed to the store where I had bought the dryer and we found one.  It is a 9kg drum.  I don't know what mine is at home, still larger then this, but this is nice.  The prior one I had here was a 5kg one!  So I ask when they can deliver and he shows me either 2 of the days we are on vacation next week or not for 3 weeks!  Are you kidding me?  So Jason said we will just pick them up as we had bought a small freezer as well.  So he picks everything up and unloads it and plugs everything in.  I do one load empty and one load with clothes as I was running out of time.  The machine moved around a bit, but since it was the first time with clothes in it I didn't think too much of it.  (wait until later)
In the afternoon I had signed us up to tour the Grand Duke's Palace here.  It is only open for a few weeks in August to visit while they are on holiday.  So it was a nice tour.  It is in the middle of our city center so it isn't huge like a castle.

It is the building here on the right side.  In front of the main entrance you can see 2 blue guard houses where a guard will normally be walking around.
We only saw the first 2 floors as the third is their private quarters and we couldn't go up there.  They did have some china on display and it is the same Villorey and Boch Luxembourg pattern that I have started collecting as well!  I finally finished packing everyone at 11:30 and went to bed, exhausted. 

Last week of School 2012!

Sunday, today Jacob had a b'day party at his friend's house in Germany.  It was a pool party even in the rain.  They go to our school, but live about 40 min. away in Germany.  I am sure it takes even longer to get to school with traffic.  Jacob had a great time at the party.  They had a BBQ and then there was a festival in town that they walked to and did the bumper cars.  It was a long party, but fun!
I spent a lot of time still working on pictures.  I don't want to take any more pictures for awhile!
I got Amber and Sean to play Twister.  It was so funny.  Amber couldn't actually reach the far colors at the same time.  She was sitting down on the mat doing it.

Monday I took the boys to the chiropracticer in the the morning, so they were a little late for school.  Jason took Amber to school.  When I brought the boys back to school we had a hard time trying to find where Sean's class was.  They had gone to watch a presentation by the 1st graders so they were in a 1st grade classroom.  Sean also got to go and see 3rd grade today.  It is in the building that Jacob is in, but a different floor.  So Sean enjoyed that.  After the boys got where they were suppose to be I went downstairs and checked on what Jason had done with Amber's bag.  Her bag goes in her cubby hole, but I pull out her snack box and water bottle so she can see them in her cubby.  I was afraid that if Jason hadn't done that she would open her cubby and think she didn't have a snack and not look in her bag.  I was right Jason hadn't pulled them out.  But she and her friend were actually at their cubbies when I went in getting their water bottles.  So she had found that in her bag.  She is such a big girl!
Then once I dropped the boys off at school I went home and the room mom from the other preschool class came over with the labels and we tied them on all the sand buckets for the kids end of the year gifts.  We got the buckets all divided, and bagged up.
Amber went over to her friend's house today and the mom took them to McDonalds.  Amber had a great time and was so excited! 
I got to go to the store and then do a little shopping since I didn't need to be at pickup.  They have great sandwiches here you can buy at the bakeries or these little sandwich shops, so I just picked one up at the mall and brought it home.  I got my car washed and vaccumed it out as well.
After school Sean had a friend over.  This friend is moving back to the states at the end of the week.  Sean has 4 people moving from his class this year.  Two are going to the States, one to the UK, and one to Singapore.  Both Jacob and Amber I don't believe have anyone moving from their classes this year.

Tuesday was our anniversary!  Happy Anniversary!
After school drop off I had organized a preschool end of the year coffee at the mall at my favorite place.  We had a small turnout, but it was nice to get in a last chat with some friends (:
My last French class was today and my teacher called and canceled b/c she was sick.  I wasn't surprised it had been awhile since she had canceled class.  I didn't mind.
Amber and her friend had their last gymnastics class today.  They really had a good time doing it together and also enjoyed having lunch and playing here first.

Today Sean went on a field trip and did a nature walk.  They found frogs, slugs, etc.  At the end of the day those kids that are moving from Sean's class had a going away party.  So the kids all enjoyed that.
Jacob had his last tennis class today.  It was nice since it was just 2 kids instead of 4.

Wednesday was the kids last full day of school! 
I had to run to the store to pick up just a few things and then as I am coming home I see workers outside the house.  We had told the owner last April that the stucco was falling off one side of the house and just now she is getting it fixed!  Then the relocation lady calls me and says that now the scaffolding is up the workers will start and they need water and electricity.  So I have a water hose outside and an outlet, but it looks like the previous renters must have broken a plug off in the outlet and the owner never got it fixed.  So now she wants to know when can an electrician come and they are going to need access to the house- ugh!  I don't know why the lady didn't try and cordinate this with me if she needed things done.
So I am annoyed by this, then I go downstairs to see if the load I put in before school was done.  It was done all right, the stupid washing machine blew up!  There are no lights on the machine and I can't get any power to it.  When I go to unplug it sparks fly and one of the prongs is black.  Lovely!  I open the drum and it is full of very wet, hot clothes and a drum full of water.  I ring out each piece of clothing and it took 2 hours for the dryer to dry them!  Then I am taking a cup and scooping water out of the machine for like 10 min! ugh!!!  Great now I need to buy a new washing machine.  I wish I just would have bought one when I did the dryer.  The washing machine Jason had bought used so it is now like 6 years old.
Jacob had a field trip to the park in the late morning and then they had a picnic there and ice cream.  So they invited the parents along.  So I met him there, but could only stay for a bit since Amber had her end of the year little concert for the parents.  So after the park I went to school and Amber and her class did a great job singing about 5 or so songs for us.

I gave the teachers the cute book we had made for them and then we passed out the sand bucket sets for the kids.  The teachers had given the kids a couple of books they had made.  And they were neat b/c they were books of pictures of all the things Amber had made, etc.
Since today being Wednesday is their shorter day at school and they don't have RE anymore we only had like an hour at home before we had to be back at school to pick up the boys.  One of my friends asked if Jacob could come over today.  I said sure, can he bring a load of laundry too!  So I picked up the boys and her son and met them at the park where she was from the other kids field trips there and she took my laundry and Jacob home.  I took another load over to another friend's house, she has 2 washing machines (a couple of my friends have 2 washers and dryers!) and got my towels all cleaned.  So we hung out here for a bit and then Amber stayed and played while I went across town and got Jacob and then we came back and got Amber and that load.  Ugh!  Then since I got all my stuff washed there was a lineup to get all of it in the dryer.  I was afraid my dryer would over heat with all this drying!
After dinner I took the kids to the park for a bit and then home to get cleaned up!

Thursday was the kids last day of school! 

They had a half day and were out before lunch. 

So my friend and I had our last coffee at school after drop off.  I came home and finished washing a laundry load in my tub, ha to put in the dryer. 
After school we hung out in the blacktop/playground area and said our goodbyes to friends.  Some people moving and others just traveling.  Back at home you would say goodbye to people and tell them to have a good summer, but you would see them the next day at the pool.  Here people travel and you don't see them again until school starts.
Jason came home early and we got ready to start our summer vacation!

Overall we had a good year here.  It was frustrating at times to deal with some of these things here that we had too, but we made it through.  It is a beautiful country and the ability to travel from here has been great.  The places we have been just in the 10 months we have been here have been amazing!
Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great summer and I will start up again in the fall (:
Au revoir!

Week of June 17th, 2012

Sunday was Father's Day!  So Happy Father's Day to all the fathers!
After our late night out, Amber was in my room at 6:30 poking me that she was hungry for breakfast.  I tell her we never eat breakfast at 6:30.  So she goes back to her room for 1/2 hour and the whole time I could hear her talking and then she came in at 7 and just climbed over me and fell back asleep for an hour.  Silly girl! 
So when the boys were making a lot of noise and woke us up after 8am  Amber and I got up and started making a nice Father's Day breakfast for Jason.  We made pecan rolls, scrambed eggs and fruit slushies.  It was very yummy! 
The kids gave Jason his gifts and then we decided to head out a visit a castle, what else would we do!  It was a nice and sunny day today, too.  So the one we went to today was about 25 min. away but was having a craft fair there as well.  It was very busy.  It was people selling a lot of jewerly, hats, scarfs, wood things, etc.  There were booths set up along this stone cobbled walk up to the castle.  It was neat.  We had packed a lunch and just ate it walking around.  Amber and I got some jewerly and the boys got a wood bow and arrow set.  Here is a picture of them in the grass next to the castle with them.

Then at the castle there is a really nice expensive restaurant and then a normal priced restaurant which has a great view out over the town/country side.

The castle has been restored and is very pretty. 

Inside there were more exhibitors selling things.   So you could just walk through some of the rooms in the castle, but you had no idea what they used to be.  I like it when they tell you what this room and that room used to be used for.  From here we walked back down and up another street in the town that had more exhibitors and then we stopped for some ice cream. 
For dinner we ate my expensive kabobs!  They were good, though!  And green bean casserole and then we grilled potatoes, mushrooms, onions, and Jason added some garlic with his new garlic press.  Everything was very good.  Oh, and Jason made garlic bread with his garlic presser too.   Can you guess what the kitchen smelled like?  So we sat outside and have a wonderful BBQ.
We have garlic coming out of our pores!

Monday Jason got up early and headed back to the states.
Today was Amber's preschool class Princess and Knight party.  So they came to school wearing their costumes.  The room parents brought in a special snack for them.  I got up at 6 am to cut out finger sandwiches with cream cheese and cucumbers into shapes for them.
The kids looked so cute.

This morning as I turned on the car I only heard the end of the news and this guy was saying that there is a road closed between these 2 towns.  The towns are where I need to drive to get Sean to his Ortho appt. this afternoon.  Great. 
So here I literally know one way how to get places and when they close a whole road it is frustrating.  You can't just go around the block, you have to go to another town and try and find another road over.  So there are 3 ways to get to the ortho. from my house as I am googling it.  Of course the road I know is the one that turns out to be closed- ugh!  So of course I am just following other people as my GPS just keeps telling me to turn around.  We finally make it there.  The ortho tells us that we are only the 2nd person to make it on time today b/c of the road being closed everyone else was late and her day has been a mess.  We were going to be early, but by the time we got there it was time for his appt.

Tuesday I got home after running an errand in the morning and I walk in the kitchen and there is water all over the counter, running down the counters and all over the floor.  I actually was looking around to see if something had leaked and then I realized what had happened.  Jacob was taking an extremely long time this morning to come down to the car.  And I figured he went to fill up his water bottle and must have spilled it.  He didn't even tell me.  Then I found the rag he had tried to wipe up some of it with,  which I can't believe there was more and he hung the rag bag up so there was a huge puddle under the rag.  The water had even run inside the drawers and cabinets- ugh!
Amber and her friend had their gymnastics class today.  Her friend's mom had dropped off some cupcakes for the girls so they enjoyed those before class!
I was talking with a friend who is from Norway, and they bought a summer house in Norway on a fjord.  Ok I have no idea what this is.  So she is explaining it to me and then my other friend didn't know what it was either so I didn't feel so bad!  But it is a long, narrow, deep inlet of sea between high cliffs, as in Norway or Iceland, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley.




They look beautiful!

Wednesday morning we had to be at school by 7:45 for Jacob to practice with the band.  So the rest of us went to the cafeteria.  Also this morning I had to cut up a bunch of apples to bring for Amber's preschool field trip, but surprise, surprise it was raining today.  All of her field trips that have been outside we have been rained on.  So they canceled the trip for today and moved it to Friday.   They had an indoor picnic with all the snacks the room parents had brought in.  The 2 preschool classes had it together.  I had organized a last preschool morning coffee out at my favorite place in the mall for Friday morning, so now I had to cancel it and we will try and do it next week.
So now I had a free morning.  So my lawyer friend is in the process of moving into a new house not too far from me so she showed me her house.  It is nice and similiar to ours here.  But things are so expensive she said it cost a little under 2 million Euros.  For that price it should be mansion! 
Then I got some other things done with my unexpected free time!
After I picked up Amber we went to a friend's house for lunch.  We had a good time! 
The boys had their last RE today and Jacob had his last guitar practice tonight.  I got some chocolates and cookies from one of my favorite bakeries for these teachers today.
This afternoon the relocation lady had gone to the commune for me and gotten me the sticker that goes on my car letting me park around town on the streets for 2 hours free with the sticker and then a little time card I put in the windshield.  I was very happy we finally have all the car stuff done!  So now I don't have to keep looking for a parking machine to buy a ticket.
Sean had his friend over tonight with the cast on.  They had to find calm activities to do.  I feed all the kids dinner and then for dessert we had brownies. When we were at my friend's house for lunch she sent us home with some brownies.  Jacob opened them and says "American Brownies!"  They all dug in and they were gone.  Too funny he has labeled the brownies!

Thursday Jacob had to be back at school early to get ready for their concert they were performing this morning for the lower school.  Amber had an assemble as well today. It was just the 4 yr. old preschool class and maybe Kindergarten and she did her dance they are going to perform for the parents next week!  Busy music day!
This morning I went to this one store that sells just a bunch of different things, no food.  Well they actually have a small parking lot and it is closed, figures.  They were doing something there.  So next to it is another little grocery store kind of like an Aldi I think.  I haven't been in it.  So I try and park in their parking lot, what a mess!  Their parking lot is tiny and there is a line of cars waiting to try and park and another line of cars trying to leave, but there are big semi's and trucks around blocking the lanes.  I drove around for about 10 min. trying to see if there was any other place but there wasn't so I went back in the car line to park.  When a spot opened I backed the car all the way in to make sure I wouldn't get my front end hit with all the cars everywhere.  When I go to get my bags out of the trunk there is a huge bush/tree that is in the way and I get it opened but can't get it closed.  So I close it the best I can but now part of the bush is stuck in the trunk. 
I go to the store and try and buy 36 bucket/shovel sets for the 2 preschool classes that the room parents will give out to the kids for the end of the year.  What a mess!  Since the buckets have the shovels and things in them you can't stack them so I was trying to pile them in a cart and the bags I had with me.  When I go to check out I tell the lady that I have 36 buckets and here is one to ring up.  She said, well I don't know exactley what she said but here is what she did,  I needed to seperate them by design and she had to ring up each design separte.  I had princess, hello kitty, toy store, Nemo and Winnie the Pooh.  Are you kidding me!  You should have seen me in the check out line totally backing up traffic trying to go through them and put them in piles- ugh!
Then I go back to the car and I am just throwing buckets in the car while people are fighting over my spot.  I can't get the bush out of my trunk so I just drive away and part of the bush came with me too!  Ugh.  Missing Target!
Once I got home I had to take the bush out of the car, what was inside and out! 
Tonight at school was Jacob's concert for the parents. 

The school has a really strong music and art program here.  This year Jacob did a musical and 2 concerts.  Sean did a musical and a play.  Amber did a musical, a play and some mini concerts.  Tonight it was 3rd and 4th grade. They sung songs, played their recorders, came up in groups and played different instruments like the bongo drums, bells, shakers, etc.  Jacob played the sticks.  Then the band played some songs and Jacob joined them for this so he was exicted!  They ended the concert with a few kids from band playing and the rest singing the Bruno Mars song, You Can Count on Me.    They did a great job overall!
It was a long concert for Amber.  Sean was sitting in the back with some friends.  Amber did well. I brought the Ipad in for her so after about 45 min. of the concert she was fading so she got to watch a movie.  Near the end of the concert she made a big sigh thank goodness only the people around me could hear her!

Friday was the day that Amber's canceled field trip was rescheduled for.  The boys had their sports day today and were excited!
So for Amber's field trip we took a bus to a big park area in another town that also had some animals in a fenced in area that you could walk around and see.  Well the bus driver got lost and only spoke German.  Thank goodness one of the mom's with us was German.  It took us almost a half an hour to get there.  And a lot less time to get home. 
The kids enjoyed seeing the animals, but there weren't too many.   It was cold outside today.  I put my mittens on.   Middle of June!

There were deer, a pig, and big wild boar/hog things,

 ducks, chickens, geese, a buffalo looking cow.  I guess they are from Scottland. 
After this we went to the park part of this area and the kids had their snacks and then on to the big playground.  The kids had a great time and some of them were falling asleep on the way back to school.

There are no yellow school buses here like at home.  All coach busses.
I went back to the dr. today b/c I have again for like the 2 or 3rd time this school year a bad sore throat and cough.  He said that the acid problem looks like it isn't going away so I can either take pills or go get it check out to see what is wrong.  So put that on my to do list!  In the mean time I got some medicine to hopefully clear things up.
The Dr. office was running late and so I wasn't going to get to school in time to get the boys so my friend picked them up for me.  When she dropped them off she was picking up Amber for her 1st big sleep over at a friend's house!  Amber was so excited.  She had to put on a pretty dress right after lunch to be ready to go to her friend's house. We got her bag all packed.  When my friend pulled up Amber just ran out and hopped in the van (after the picture).  Too funny!

Jason got back from the states this afternoon and he had flown through Paris and they lost his luggage.  I had heard that this happens with connections through Paris all the time.
So since we didn't have Amber we decided to go downtown and walk around and have dinner at this yummy Chinese place by the Palace I had been to with friends.  Tonight downtown the big festivaties were starting.  Tomorrow is Luxembourg's National Holiday, they call it the Duke's b'day.  It isn't the current Duke's b'day but one Duke a long time ago it must have been (:
So we went down early since our reservations weren't until the restaurant opened at 7pm.  All the bars were setting up shop in the streets.

There were DJ's and bands all over.  We walked around and then went to dinner.  When we finished dinner the bars on the streets were open and it was getting crowded.  We stopped and got some ice cream and then came home.
Tonight at around 10 or so was a big parade and then the grand fireworks were at 11:30pm.
I talked to Amber before bed and she was doing good and having fun!  She said "This is the best sleep over ever!"  My friend was like "Amber where else have you had a sleep over!"  Too funny.
They were all asleep before 9:30- best sleep over ever!
Around 11:40 I woke up to the fireworks and was able to see them great from Amber's room.  They lasted for about 20 min. and were neat.  They had some shaped like, hearts, smiley faces, airplanes going up, and ones that looked like floating lanterns.   The rest of my family slept through them.

Sat. morning I went back and picked Amber up.  Here are some pictures of the drive there and back by back roads to my friends house.  She lives outside of the main town in another small town.

The girls had a great time and no problems at all with the sleepover!  She was just so happy and had so much fun!
Today I spent a lot of time working on pictures.  Downloading them from my phone, to computer, to the website and then ordering them.  A lot of pictures to go through!
Jacob had a b'day in the afternoon.  Amber took a 2 hour nap!
After dinner we had tickets to go to the Circus that was in town. It was a tiny circus.  Really just a pitched tent and bleacher seating.

It was a really neat and a great show, but the kids were asking where were the elephants?  This one is quite different then the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus that we normally go to.  It was more of amazing acts by people.  The only animals they had were a dog, some ponys and a Clydesdale horse which looked huge in this small stage.

The show started at 8pm and we didn't get out of there until almost 10:45.  A long show!