March 15, 2010

All Moved In

After many exhausting weeks and a wonderful visit from my mom, we are officially moved in to our new house. I would even venture to say that we are all set up as well, save for a few small items that include a new desk for our office and a glass cabinet for our growing beer glass collection.

Mom came at the end of February, spent two days in the old house, then jumped right in and helped us with moving boxes and cleaning and taking care of the kids. It was not a fun task at first and we had some wild weather, but we managed it all that first weekend and were able to take a break and show her many of the places and things we do that make up our life here in Germany. Much to her surprise I think was how much time we spend in The Netherlands! We are constantly driving between countries like one may drive through states if you're living on a border.

She was also a little harried by our driving here...and not on the autobahn! Driving through the villages in our area is full of twists and turns, enough to make any passenger car sick. The Netherlands is famous for its traffic and bajillion roundabouts making even a 10km drive take upwards of 30 minutes!

All in all, I think she enjoyed herself and loves our new house. She got to see the kids and their schools, spent time at their activities and they loved having her here. Rhiannon showed off her cheerleading group and Brad developed a fear of the toilets in our new house for about a week. We took mom to Aachen, Brussels, Maastricht, Sittard and of course Geilenkirchen to name a few. We enjoyed German and Dutch food and I made her try the delicious Brotchen (bread stuffed with anything from garlic to ham and cheese or chocolate). Koln was elusive as we tried to get their several times, but a sickness ran through our family and then a train accident prevented us from ever making it off the platform. Hopefully next time...

And now, on to the pictures!!

Dr. Seuss Party



Bowling...Brad's Favorite!

Brussels and Natural History Museum
Evolution?

A New Exhibit!


Aachen


Valkenburg, NL at King Henry VIII Pub

Yes, it's Mustache March

New House
Office From Two AnglesJim's Studio with Sauna (not shown)

Danielle's Art Space

Master Bath with Bedet

Back and Side Yards
Lots of Gardening Space!

February 18, 2010

Karneval Time

We were so busy with Jim on leave and having Karneval that my Valentine candy gram was overlooked at the office. We got it Tuesday...

It's been a fun week. We are exhausted and READY to move. The sun is finally out and the snow is almost gone. Spring is coming and so are bigger and better things... Lots of goofy Karneval pictures to look at.

February 11, 2010

Our New House...in Two Weeks

I just noticed that the last posting of my blog has a Christmas tree in it and we are now into February. So as much as I am trying to resist updating until the move...here we go.

We've been busy packing and planning our move and the weather here has been relentlessly cold and snowy. We are so sick of it! The house is all boxed up, Karnival is this week, school vacation is coming, and we are awaiting word of Jim's potential deployment, all right in the middle of a crazy and stressful time. But let's be honest, when is life ever really calm and smooth sailing anyway?

The kids decided to help me pack...

Rhiannon has started cheerleading for the base basketball team.
Just like her mommy...

Team Mascot Maybe?

So right in the middle of all the mess, Jim received word from home that his Aunt Sheila is not in good condition. From about a week or so after Brad was born she has been in a coma and/or permanent vegetative state. She was bitten by a mosquito that carried the EEE virus. It is a virus common to New England especially in the heavily wooded areas. It causes swelling in the brain and spinal cord from high fevers and usually people will die from it or be permanently disabled. Jim found out there was a tanker flight going to New Hampshire last weekend and thought it a good opportunity to go home and pay his respects to his aunt and hopefully soon she will be free to get the peace she deserves.

At the very last possible minute, I decided to join him with the kids. We surprised all of our parents and got to spend the weekend at home, completely unplanned and completely content to see our families and friends, celebrating new lives and wishing the older ones a peaceful rest.

Jim and Luke Playing at the Union Villa

Family

Sunday night, we caught the first half of the Super Bowl and then hopped the flight back to Germany. We landed in the morning and drove Rhi across the street to school and got right back to the daily stress. It was one of the best trips home so far despite the winter weather and the sad news because it was unplanned and it was over the weekend, a perfect time to visit. Now we are home and busy as ever.

Coming up this week is Karnival. Brad's school celebrated today and our village will celebrate this weekend with a parade and lots of debauchery. In fact, we have three Karnival events to attend this weekend alone. Then it's time to finish up the packing and move on out!

January 15, 2010

A New Year and New Beginnings

The last month has been physically draining for all of us and really really cold and snowy here. We continually alternated being sick and managed to get it under control for the restart of school. Over the break Brad decided he did want to use the toilet after all and I am happy to report a 97% potty trained child. He has also been telling me to "chill mom" rather frequently. He started saying "Oh I almost forgot..." and will run off to do something, and "Remember this day..." and proceed to tell me a story about a day or event he remembers.

Rhiannon and I were reading a story about a farmer complaining that his wife has an easier job than he and she told me "Boys do not naturally know how to take care of the house." How very insightful she is!!!
Jim hit a curb with his car which resulted in a seemingly minor blown tire and faulty airbag and turned into a six week long visit to the BMW shop and repeated chats with USAA about whether the car would be deemed a total loss or not. In the end it was repaired and has only just been returned to us.

We had a mishap with our heat, where I forgot to turn it on one night and we had to spend an entire day freezing as it is a system that only operates at night and blows out little by little during the course of the day. Did I mention that is has been snowing about an inch or less almost every day since New Years? Also during this time we have been keeping our eyes open for another house; which brings me to the new beginnings part...

September was our one year anniversary of being in Germany and our beautiful old farmhouse. At the end of every year of your rental, the utility companies send a statement and you either owe money or get money back depending on your energy usage and your monthly payments. We owed... a lot of money to the electric company. Our heat is electric and rather tricky to operate and we were constantly fiddling with it and thought we had it figured out, keeping the house at about 68-70 degrees. Long story short, electric heat is not as economical as gas or oil heat and by living in an older house, we probably lost a lot of energy... I feel my frustrations rising again as I write this.

Anyway, our first thought was to move immediately and find something newer, but we love this house and the pain of moving was too much for us to think about having moved six times in six years. So we sucked it up and paid our bill and proceeded to reevaluate our electricity usage. When it got cold we started monitoring our heat wattage per day conserving as much as possible and not heating the rooms we don't use or the hallways and bathrooms and in December it still started looking like we were going to have another off the wall bill come next fall (and we were freezing in our home). The kids were/are always laying on the heaters and wearing bathrobes (us too) and it has become too much for us. We decided to move (because we still have at least 2 more years here) but only if we found the perfect "dream" house. A few weeks ago, we did.

After some serious thought, we are going to move on March 1. A major drawback is that we have to do it and pay for it ourselves but we have many wonderful friends who are willing to help. At this point we are still in the beginning stages of packing and chaos and we just want it to be over. It is still freezing outside and it is sucking the motivation right out of me. We are also sad to be leaving our current landlords. They have been such wonderful people to us. On a positive note, our new house is also "newer", has (gas) floor heating and a backyard with a pond, a fireplace, sauna and plenty of rooms for us to play and sleep in. It is a little pricey but we think the benefits outweigh the risks especially as far as our future heating bill is concerned. So wish us luck with our hopeful new beginnings...and our streak of not living in any one house for more than two years is still intact!

Christmas

New Years