And These Are the Days of Our Lives. . .

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Beach at the Netherlands

When we were driving away from the Keukenhof, we noticed on our GPS that the ocean was close by. We decided to take a little detour and see the ocean. We told Thomas that if we swam to the other side of the ocean we would find Maryland. Of course, after we told him this he thought we should try so then we had to explain to him that it would be a very, very, very long and cold swim!

We were surprised to find that many of the cars and floats that participated in the parade that we couldn't see because of the masses of people, must have been staying in many of the hotels along the boardwalk.

Until later,

Emily

Batter Up!

April 18, 2009

I made a cake. Not for any particular reason other than to eat a cake. However, my boys take after me and they LOVE cake batter, cookie dough, etc. James thinks it's gross and the three of us think he's weird.

Until later,

Emily

Opel Zoo--May Day

May Day--May 1, 2009

Today, was a German holiday, May Day, so Thomas was out of school. I asked my friend, who is German, what the holiday was all about and she told me, "I think it's just another excuse to get together with your friends or family and drink." She said it, not me!

Well, I bought Thomas and I season passes to the Opel Zoo about a month ago (Toby is still free) so I thought it would be a good day to hit the zoo. I invited my friend G and her son D. G has a season pass too, so we figured we'd go early and once it got too crowded, we would go home. It was a good plan, we only stayed a couple of hours, because by noon it was very crowded so we went home.

You might be wondering, this is a zoo, correct? It is, but it also has some really fun playgrounds. These pictures of of one area, there are three or four other play areas as well. We mainly hit the playground parts on this day.

Until later,

Emily

Friday, May 15, 2009

What's Dat?

Toby has started the phase where he's asks, "What's dat?" continually. He's like a broken record all day long. It goes a little something like this:

Toby: What's dat?

Me: Bread

Toby: Bed

Toby: What's dat?

Me: Cereal

Toby:Ceril

Toby: What's dat?

Me: Noodles

Toby: Noonles

Toby: What's dat?

Me: A sponge

Toby: ponge

Toby: What's dat?

Me: Flower

Toby: fower

And this is how my conversation goes all day long. Although sometimes he changes things to "What's dis?" But you get what I mean.

Until later,

Emily

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

All That for Two Keys!

Today, I was on a mission! I had to complete a task that I had been putting off for 2 or 3 weeks. I had to go get copies made of our Relief Society closet key. In the States, this would be a tiny errand, one that you could take care of at Home Depot, Lowe's, even WalMart and it would be no big deal. Not so here. Well, if I have to do it again, it will be easy but it was a huge hassle the first time!

First off, I thought I would see if Hornbach's cut keys, after all they are the closest thing to a Home Depot that we have here. They even sell door knobs and mail boxes with keys so at first I thought I might just get lucky. Not the case. One of the sales associates told me to go down the road to a German store called Hit. Well, before I ventured out to find this store, since we were close to the US military base that has the only food anymore that doesn't taste like cardboard to me, and Toby was getting hungry, I thought we'd make a detour and get some lunch. While I was there, I thought I might as well go into our little garden store/home repair store and see if they just happened to cut keys. The guy working there told me that they do not, but there may be a place on that base that did, he had heard that one of the concession shops above the Power Zone cut keys and he also told me that there used to be a German store close by that did it, but they went out of business, of course, this would be the store called Hit.

So, Toby and I walked to the building that has the Power Zone and all the concession shops above it. Just my luck, all those shops are closed on Monday. When we were eating lunch I ran into a friend and asked him if he had ever made keys on-the-economy. He told me that he had not, but his wife had, at the Real (which is close to a WalMart) that is closest to our church house. Great--I don't know exactly how to get to this Real because it's not the one that is closest to my house. I tried punching it into my GPS but couldn't find it. I was starting to get discouraged. Well, I was trying to decide if I should just go and try to find it, since I had a general idea of where it was and didn't need to pick up Thomas from school for another two hours, I still had some "wiggle time". But, first, I needed to go to the air base and check my mail. Then I thought about the really nice Asian guy at the window where you pick up your packages--I bet he would know where to go or all the guys in the post office, every one of those guys is nice. But really nice Asian guy must have had the day off, so I walked into the post office where my favorite of all postal workers was working, but without a single customer. I told him of my problem and then he told me to go to the Real in Nordenstadt (praise the heavens, this is the Real that I know how to get to) and that there was a little store outside of Real that could do it.

I found the store easily. This store makes keys, fixes shoes and engraves trophies! Germany is weird. They have all these crazy licensing rules and sometimes this is what you find, three very different "specialties" grouped together. The guy working there didn't speak great English but we got by. I showed him the key that I had and asked him if he could make me a duplicate. With his best charades, he explained to me that I needed some little rectangular box that was the mold to the key. And then he started saying something about "security, security" and I'm thinking, "Gr-reat, I've gone through all of this and now he's going to tell me he can't make the blasted key!" But, all of the sudden he told me he could make the copy from the key that I have and he quotes me a price: 13,60 euro a piece (that's about $18 a key). I was originally going to make four, but I only really needed two, so I went with two. Five minutes later I walked out the door with two keys!

This is one thing I know, and all my American friends have found, too. ABSOLUTELY nothing is easy to do in Germany! I started this quest at 10:30 AM and ended it at 2:00 PM.

Until later,

Emily

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mother's Day 2009

This Mother's Day has been a wonderful day for me. This morning, the boys woke up pretty much "on time" neither early nor late. Thomas gave me his present that he made me at school which was a laminated book mark with his own illustration. After the kids bounced around in bed, James took them downstairs and let me go back to sleep. I came down an hour and a half later, and James had been cleaning the kitchen. The last four days have been the kind of days where lots of messes have been made but not much has been cleaned up. I made myself a little breakfast and checked all my online addictions, let me clarify: email, Facebook and my newest, Farm Town. Then, I came upstairs and got to open my other Mother's Day presents. The kids got me a new pair of earrings and James bought me a smoker with a gray cat on it and an Ann Taylor Loft gift card is on it's way! Then I spent some time with the kids and picking up the house also, and went upstairs to get ready for the day. James was busy making a cheesecake and doing more dishes. We went to church and everything went smoothly. We came home, and James started making us dinner. He made pasta, garlic bread and the cheese cake. It was yummy, and he cleaned up! We also got to Skype my mom before she left to celebrate with her mom! Now I am downstairs again (right now my laptop is not wireless because the battery died and I'm awaiting a new one in the mail) "vegging" out on the computer. It was a good day! Thanks Thomas, Toby and especially James!

Until later,

Emily

PS: I should also mention that yesterday afternoon, I got to take an afternoon nap, James brought home a bouquet of fresh tulips and I got to go to the movie with my girlfriend.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Wolverine

Tonight, I went to see the movie "Wolverine" with my friend K. The movie was excellent...if I do say so myself! I really like going to the movies, and I don't go nearly as much as I would like to living over here. Just another "thing" that I am missing right now... However, one cool tidbit though, a memory that I would like to keep, is that before the movie starts the entire audience has to stand while the "Star Spangled Banner" is played while footage of soldiers being soldiers is played. It's also neat to see all the soldiers in the theater standing upright, while they are not in uniform, you can certainly tell who is and isn't in the military.

Until later,

Emily

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Today I Realized...

Today I realized that it has been 28 months since we have sat through an entire Sacrament Meeting and not had to go out at least once with Toby. In other words--yes, we finally made it! To say it was a relief, would be an understatement. He's also had two Sundays in a row where Nursery wasn't major drama although he still puts on quite the show when he's dropped off. After nearly 10 months we're finally making progress. I'm so glad his birthday is in January and he'll get a whole extra year in Nursery before he has to move on to Primary. When Thomas was his age, it took him a long time before he "liked" Nursery too, and it seemed like he only liked Nursery for about 3 or 4 months and then the new year began and he was three so he moved up and then he had a really hard time in Primary, too.

Until later,

Emily

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Keukenhof--One Million Flowers, One Million People!

We just spent the last four days in the Netherlands. We went down to see the tulip and daffodil fields. Unfortunately, most of the daffodils were "done". It was still amazing to see all the flower fields, I am used to seeing hay, grain or corn fields but it was a bit odd to see entire fields of flowers.

We also went to the famous Keukenhof. Unfortunately, I think we went on the busiest day of the year! It was also the day of the big flower parade in that area. I have never in my life seen so many tour busses--never! And, I don't think I've ever been to a place that was so crowded, either. Luckily, surprisingly, although it was terribly crowded, the weather was beautiful the day we were at the Keukenhof and everyone was in a good mood--everyone meaning us and all the people all around us.

I will post pictures soon...

Until later,

Emily