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
Karneval Time
Our New House...in Two Weeks
Team Mascot Maybe?
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
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.
Christmas 
New Years
Speaking of reflection...Our kids are now about the ages of Alyssa and I in this picture. Time really will get away from you if you don't stop and enjoy it once in awhile. That being said, I am about to venture out into the cold with the kids and watch them play in the 2cm of snow that just fell! Get that hot chocolate ready for us Jim!
