You know you need a break when...

• While pumping gas, you notice how quiet it is.
• You accidently spray your kid's hair with febreze instead of spray-on conditioner. (It actually worked pretty good.)
• Your daughter claims she is going to pee her pants in the car and you tell her to go ahead and do it.
• While driving home you miss your exit and don't notice until you are halfway to France. After turning around you miss it in the other direction.
• You are so used to ignoring annoying noises that you don't notice the microwave beeping two feet away from you.
• You hide in the bathroom to talk on the phone.
• Breakfast-cold cereal, lunch-cold cereal, dinner-cold cereal.
• Going to the dentist feels like the spa.
• You come home and discover that you left the front door wide open all day.

Taylor at the Park

Puppy Love

Yes, these are my kids. After dog-sitting last summer and moving next to this loving dog, my kids love animals. It is so nice they don't scream every time a cat walks by.

Strawberries

My neighbor came over this morning and invited us to go strawberry picking. I tried to decline, but the thought came to me....you can do it today. So we went. We drove all the way to Kaiserslautern to the field, which was closed when we arrived. We were a little disappointed only for a moment, until it started pouring. Instead we headed to the local grocery store and spent a little more money on some berries from the produce aisle. We got some jars and sugar on the way out. When we got home, she showed me how to make strawberry jam. It smelled like summertime in our house. So much fun.

Now we have 10 jars of jam and it is so yummy. Maybe I will make some rolls and call it dinner.

Brugge

We took our first officially trip out of Germany. We decided on Brugge Belgium, because it is a smaller town and we felt like it would be more our pace. We were right. It was perfect for our family and the kids admitted to having a fun time, which is not usually the case.

Some of the locals. A painter.... A tired dog....

On the boat ride, which was another highlight of the trip. We had a guided trip on a boat that took us around Brugge on the canal system. At the chocolate museum, where we learned about the orgins of chocolate, the refining of chocolate and history of chocolate in Belgium. The best part was the demonstration and the free samples at the end.

Another one of the locals in the chocolate shop.

What is that thing....we never figured it out.

One of the many canals in Brugge that make up the 14 km of waterways. They connect Brugge to neighboring Gent and the North Sea.

Greg and I on the carriage ride, taken by Micah.

The kids sat opposite us on the carriage ride. They were all very happy. This was one of the funnest parts of the trip

Looking for waffles in the large market. We sat at a nice cafe in the market place and enjoyed the atmosphere of the town. Not for long though....Taylor was on the move. but long enough...

Brugge for the bell tower in above the market. Greg went while I entertained the kids. I later went to a museum to find a Michealango scupture, but never found it. We soon fizzled out and left for home. Pleased to have enjoyed the trip up to that point.

On the way...

to Belguim we stopped to get gas. Our GPS sent us on what seemed like a wild goose chase. It dumped us into the Mosel River valley. We came around the corner to this beautiful scene. You know when the kids gasp, the view must be breath taking.

Of course these pictures are taken from the car while moving, so the scene was much prettier in real life.

Harvest Time

In the Marshmallow fields.

Treasurer

So, I went to my first meeting as the Kindergarten Parent's organization treasurer. It was more of a traininer meeting for me. The old treasurer handed off the books and gave me instruction on how to do things. Let's just say that I am a little stressed out. Seriously, why did I let myself get talked into this?

Not only is there a language barrier, (I don't use accounting and banking terms much in every dayly conversations.) but there are culture ones too. The world a banking here is a bit different. For example, they use transfers more here, than deposits and withdrawls. I have a huge list of everyones account numbers and get to withdrawl money from their accounts to collect their yearly dues. What about paying in cash and then me making a deposit?

Also, I have never been in a German bank before and if any problem comes up with someone's account, I don't have the command of the language to diplomatically deal with it.

Today I get to do my first job as Treasurer. I am headed to the bank this morning to make some transactions. I am so stressed about it, I have been up since 5am. We are also taking a trip to Belguim this weekend and I can't get excited about it until I have taken care of this. To make matters worse, Micah came downstairs to ask if you could get out of bed! Does an alarm go off in there room as soon as my feet him the floor in the morning?