Every day life and occasional adventures of Emily Snow and Family

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Pretty & Shiny is NOT Always Better!

I have been trying really hard to get my winter tires taken off. We wanted to keep them on until after our trip to Italy just in case we hit snow as we crossed through the Alps (we did). Since coming back, I have taken my car in twice to get the winter tires taken off, but, alas they are still on.

The first time I took it in, I was under the impression that if I left it the night before, they could fit me in for a simple tire change and oil change (because this is what I was told last Fall), only to find out that fast-forward six months later, I needed an appointment, which they couldn't give me until the next week.

Well, next week was this past Tuesday. I dropped it off the night before and got a call as I was on my way to the gym at the 9 AM hour that there was a big problem and those tires weren't coming off.

It turns out that my chrome valve stem caps have completely rusted onto my tires! With as much snow as we had here in Germany and the fact that road salt is used so much, it makes sense that corrosion occurred. It also turns out that my car has a Tire Pressure Monitory System (TPMS). In order to get those caps off, they are going to have to use a lot of force and will most likely break all four of the tire sensors...which they don't have in stock.

So, I found a new set of sensors at amazon.com ($139). Only they (the company) won't send it to my mailbox out here. So, I opted for overnight shipping to my mom, where she will then go to the post office and send it to my mailbox. And it will take at least 6 days to get here. Once they arrive, I will take my car for a third attempt at getting the tires switched. What a pain in the neck!

Therefore, a piece of advice, if you have chrome or metal valve stem caps, consider replacing them with the cheap, basic plastic ones. That's what we had to begin with and the only reason we replaced them with the shiny, pretty ones was because the plastic valve stems didn't get replaced during the last oil change so we bought what was available at the first store we went to.

Until later,

Emily

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Enjoy the Little Things


I have a plaque in my house that says:

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."


I absolutely LOVE this saying. I think it is so true.

My kids like to pick flowers for me. They don't distinguish between a tulip, a clover blossom or dandelions. They bring them to me with excitement on their faces. They are trying to brighten my day, which they are.

Truth be told, I hate all this moving nonsense. If I could wiggle my nose and be done with it now...I would. I hate it. James is just as bad, actually worse, because not only is he worrying about moving from here and all that that involves, but he is also trying to tie up loose ends at work.

So when the boys brought these to me, I thought of my beloved saying. Trying to enjoy the little things. Accepting my boys' bright, cheerful bouquets and giving my little guys some big hugs!

Until later,

Emily

Monday, April 26, 2010

Camera Hater




You may have noticed that I have recently changed our header picture. This is our most current "family picture". This was taken in Venice, Italy earlier this month. Some people may think that Toby's grumpy expression ruins this otherwise decent picture, but I have to say, I actually LOVE it! This is truly him! He HATES the camera and he does things HIS way (he's our free-spirit). Smiling at the red light blinking on the camera set on our tripod was not on his agenda that day.



Until later,

Emily

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Bye-bye Naps!

Well, it has been eight days since Toby has taken a nap, so I think it is official. He has dropped the nap. No more quiet time for me in the afternoons. Kind of a shame, really. I liked that quiet time. Quite a bit.


Until later,

Emily

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Moving Process

Well we have started our moving process. We were able to secure our pack-out dates last week. We got the exact dates we hoped for and everything worked out as far as that. Which will be in just over one month from now (time to get serious)! We are packing out early and then bringing in loaner furniture and living another month in our home. We have our hotels booked while we are finishing up here. We will be staying in a hotel in our town for five days and then we will go stay in Frankfurt for the last week. We have our appointment to have my car agriculturally cleaned inside and out (not a grain of German sand can go home!) The next day we will drop off my car and have it shipped back to the U.S. They are expecting it to take about 45 days to get back to Baltimore.


James still has to look into shipping his car, it won't be going through the military channels, so we don't really know what to expect about that. Shipping it back to the US was built-in to the price when we ordered the Mini.

I have made some of the travel arrangements for Tailer, but most of her "out-processing" can't be done until 10 days before she leaves (she has to be checked out by a vet and get a "Health Certificate" not more than 10 days before our flight).

We have our flight reservations. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from Frankfurt to Salt Lake but we're going to go all the way to Denver and then take a short flight into Salt Lake.

Oh, yes, in case anyone missed that...we're going to UT for a while before we settled back in Frederick, MD.

And speaking of Frederick, MD...

I have contacted the principal of the school that Thomas will be attending next year. I can't register him yet, but they can assign him a "student number" and know that and count on that he is coming. He also has to come with a current physical but I'm still waiting to hear if that can be from my German pediatrician, if I can get it done while we are in UT or if it needs to be done in MD. Thomas will be attending school in the school that is within the neighborhood that I would really like to live in one day. So I guess if you can't live in the neighborhood that you want, at least your kids can go to school there (I love that we're probably considered the "un-desirable" families!), at least that's the way it's working out for us!

I was also able to get Toby into preschool for next fall. Thanks to a friend and a friend-of-a-friend, funny how it's sometimes harder to get your kid into preschool rather than real school. It's the same preschool that Thomas went to his first year, so in the end, Toby was "grandfathered" in after said friend and friend-of-a-friend plead his case. He'll go four days a week, but it's only for 2 hours and 10 minutes each day. But the starting time is great. Plenty of time to get Thomas on the bus and then I'll drive Toby to school. I probably won't go home much but will run my errands or hit the gym while he's there. I'm hoping that there might be a class at the YMCA on the other day that I can enroll him in. I always enjoyed that day with Thomas. I took him to class and then we went out to lunch every single Monday.

Until later,

Emily


Thursday, April 15, 2010

Just One of Many Signs That We've Lived in Germany for Too Long!

We recently returned from a vacation to Italy. I will post more about that later. However, I wanted to share a cute little story that happened with Toby while we were on that vacation. More than likely, it's more of one of those stories where "you had to be there" to appreciate how funny it was...but here you go:


We were sitting in a restaurant and we ordered our drinks along with a carafe of water. All four of us associate restaurant dining with soda drinking but sodas are very expensive in Europe and they don't come with refills. So, what we do a lot of times is order the sodas and then drink water as our second drink. The water is also expensive, and we drink the non-carbonated water, so you know it most likely comes straight out of their tap, but we get charged nonetheless.

Anyhow, we ordered water, Toby had finished his soda, and I poured him a glass full of water. Toby took one look at that water and noticed ice! You see, in Germany it is not customary to drink your drinks with ice, but apparently in the Italian restaurant we were at that night, they serve ice.

Toby noticed the ice. And started laughing and pointing to his glass. He said, "Ice in the water?" Giggle, giggle, giggle. "Why did they put ice in the water?" Giggle, giggle, giggle.

James and I turned to each other and reminded ourselves again that Toby was only a mere 7 months old when we moved here. Sure, we did spend two months in the summer of 2008 in the States, but Germany is really the "home" he knows. It's some of the little details that will be different for him. If I said the "grocery store" I know he wouldn't know what that is. It's "the commissary" or it's "Tengelmann's" which is the German grocery store as an example.

Until later,

Emily