Thursday, October 9, 2014

This and That


We shipped all our household goods about a month ago. It takes about 6-8 weeks to arrive in the States, so we really wanted to send it out early to make sure we would get it in time on the other end. I do feel like I have gotten more used to moving and I don't stress out as much anymore. It is hard seeing a bunch of men come in your house and start going through all your personal belongings and pack everything up. I find it easier for me to handle if I just sit in a back room and ignore what is going on in my house! We are also allowed to do a smaller shipment, so we decided to leave a couple toys, my computer, some dishes, etc and will ship those out next Friday when we move into the guest house. Luckily we are able to rent (for FREE!) furniture from the nearby army base. So we all have a bed, a table to eat on and some couches to sit on. Life without stuff has actually been quite nice. We hardly have any toys, but the girls really haven't been bored and have been playing a lot. I'm sure I will be missing my stuff a lot in about 6 weeks, but so far, so good.

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Since we have packed everything up, time is flying by. I thought maybe I would have the luxury of feeling bored for at least a couple minutes, but my life still seems to spin out of control and I never have enough minutes in the day to get everything done that I need to. Norah and Adeline are in a good routine with school right now and I get to spend more quality time with Meika and Anders. Anders is being super social lately and is such a great addition to our family. The girls are still constantly giving him undivided attention and he is just the happiest, most handsome little man I have ever come across. Meika is super fun to be around and is such a little sweetie. Not only is she sweet, she is funny, entertaining and very easy to have around. I can take that girl anywhere and she is always happy and well behaved. Roni gave us some Magni-tiles for Christmas last year and my kids are obsessed with them. Meika always says that she is going to build her "ice castles" and then she will sit on the floor and play for hours making houses/castles and putting her littlest pet shops in them. Norah and Adeline also love playing with them, but we are pretty sure that Meika is the most creative at what she builds. It is fun watching them. Since we don't always have a lot to do in the house, it also forces us to get out with the kids more. Last Friday was a German holiday and the kids had that day off. We went to the pool at a NATO base in the Netherlands and had the entire thing to ourselves!
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Abe likes to get Anders to "exercise" and gets him to do all sorts of things to strengthen his muscles. Captured a couple pictures the other day of Abe playing with him!

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And a random picture of Norah being Norah.

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Ramstein with Friends

I had 3 dentist appointments in one day down at Ramstein almost two weeks ago. I had something weird going on with one of my back molars and they had to do a root canal on it at the end of August and I had to finish that, prep for a crown and get a crown put on my tooth. While we are overseas, the military will pay 100% of my dental work, so I might as well get it all done while we are still here! Unfortunately Ramstein is 3 hours away and we already shipped our car. We do have our little "beater" that our friend loaned to us to drive around, but I don't want to drive that thing very far! My friend Lara thought it would be fun to come with me and we could bring our girls to have a little getaway. Not sure if it was very fun for Tawney and Norah, because they were mostly stuck with us while we shopped around! We enjoyed getting to eat at our American restaurants, shop around and we even got to attend a cute Pumpkin Festival in a nearby town. I'm going to miss these girls when we leave!!

It was fun to spend a little more 1 on 1 time with Norah. I feel like it is Adeline that always gets to do things like this, so it was fun to take Norah. Adeline about lost it since she wasn't able to come with us and was really upset. When we were at Ramstein, I let Norah pick out something little to bring back to Meika and Adeline. She also was concerned about getting the girls little pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. She was so excited to get home so she could give them her presents. This little girl has a heart of gold. She would give the shirt off her back to someone.


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Bocket Farm

About a month ago my friend and I brought our kids to the Bocket farm, which is in the village right next to ours. We celebrated Adeline's birthday there a couple years ago, but hadn't been back since. It's a shame, because the kids love it and it is super cheap! The owner gave each kid a head of corn so they could take the kernals and the green parts off to feed the animals.

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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Secret Garden Playground

Remember how I mentioned that behind the house of the people that own the cute little ice cream shop down the street, there is a cute little playground the kids always beg to play on? I had several times seen the front of the playground, but had never ventured through and behind it. If you climb up the stairs at the entrance, you walk through two different bridges of sorts that lead you back through the trees and hedges.

A couple weeks ago I finally decided to climb up and back there to see what all the fuss was about. I fell in love with it and could see why the kids always scarf their ice cream so they can run back there and play make believe. It reminded me of when I was a kid and all of the fun we would have had!

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