Where is....

So the girls want to send post cards to their friends in the US. They (and I) thought it would be neat for them to get cards with a German post mark on them. It just seems more legetimate than a letter that looks like it could have come from down the street, which is how it looks when we take mail to the base and mail it with US stamps. Don't get me wrong, I do like the convenience of having an address that is more or less a US address, makes it easier on my mom to send packages to the girls. But it does lack a certain authenticity to the distance and cultures that are separating us at the moment.
So here I stand with post cards filled with "missing you" thoughts and no frickin' idea where the post office is!!! It's been a week now, and I keep meaning to try to look it up on the web but keep forgetting about it. That is, until this morning. I was walking home from the bus stop, after the girls had gotten safely onto the bus, doing my normal inspection of the homes I pass. I look at flowers and plants, cars, window decor, try to decide if an American is renting there or if it's a German family, and generally just trying to find new things that interest me. I see a yellow postal box and note to myself that when I find a post office to get stamps from I can drop things off in this postal box. Then it dawns on me, i see the same little swirly loop logo on the box and on the house behind it! Voilà! I think I've found a post office!!!! But I only have an hour a day to remember to stop by and buy stamps, think about THAT the next time you are complaining about the hours of the Post Office in the states!!!

School update

Well, I just got back from another successful send off at the bus. Both children are on their way to school and still seem to be happy about it. Yesterday (their 1st day of school) I drove down to the bus stop and we waited in the car until a few minutes before the bus was scheduled to be there. Dang it was cold! I use to go to school on the 1st day sweating, not even looking at my jacket until at least October! It was August 30th and we had coats and sweatshirts on. I keep having to remind myself that we are on the same latitude as Winnipeg Canada (for those of you keeping track, that is WAY past my "D" line!)! When we walked up to the bus stop, there was mostly just older kids there so I said "OK, I'm counting on all you bigger kids to watch out for my little kids", they all smiled but I kept looking at them, then one of them said "yes, we will". THAT's what I wanted to hear! I was the only mom there (I guess 8th graders and H.S. kids don't need their moms at the bus stop!) and I had to play it up and take pictures and slightly embarrass my kids, if I didn't they might think I don't love them anymore!
Here, they charter the city buses for the school. So up pulled a city bus with a orange picture of kids in the window and a piece of paper with the number of the bus they were told to take. They got on while I took pictures, then I jumped in the car to get to Corn Niblet's school. I actually got in front of the bus and never saw it behind me, so I thought I was good to go. When I got to school I kept looking at the bus numbers and never saw them, then someone told me that bus had already been there! I ran over to wear Corn Niblet was to be standing, called out her name and heard a calm "mommy, I'm right here" behind me. She had to have someone help tell her where to go, but she was in the right line. She was nervous, didn't want me to leave, but seemed happy. I got to walk with her to her room, take a couple pictures and then I left.
Meanwhile, Big J met Sweet Pea at a pre-ordained location and made sure she got to her teacher. He said it was organized chaos at her school, and her teacher wasn't outside yet. Once her teacher came out, he said his goodbyes and said Sweet Pea seemed fine.
When I met the bus at the end of the day, They came off with smiles and full of stories...
"I met 2 friends"
"I met 3 friends"
"If ur good u get a name on a smiley face, if we get all of them we get a party"
"I'm the smartest girl in math"
It was so nice to hear all the happy stories, and have them eager to go back! Now I just worry that they make friends with good kids, and not the mean ones or ones that will introduce them to things I would rather they wait to know! But isn't that every mother's worry?
I also worry that my girls while fall behind at this school. But I am prepared to keep track of the standards at their old school, and to make up any differences that start to show. Ultimately as long as their happy and healthy and safe that's all that matters!

DOWN WITH THE BED!

Here I sit at 4:30am. I don't normally have insomnia, my version is child induced. Not only did Sweet Pea only sleep for 20min. at a time when she was a baby, and the 1st time after she was born that I was able to sleep thru the nite was when she was 3 yrs. old, and she sleep walks, and is scared of the dark, and is worried that we are partying it up after she goes to bed so that she is missing the best things while she sleeps (which I know is what every child thinks happens when they go to bed, I think they believe that their parents can't really be this boring all of the time!), but for the last 1 1/2 yrs. she's also been afraid of her stupid bed!
The Christmas before last we gave her a loft bed, one of the twin beds that you climb a ladder to that has a desk underneath. Big J is constantly thinking about college...how to get it paid for before she's 16, where she'll go, what she'll study, etc. He was so excited about this bed, how she can even take it to college with her (she was 8 or 9 when she got it for Christmas by the way). Well come to find out she's scared of the damned thing! You think that she would feel safer up and away from any "danger" but no. Tonight was no different than many nights here at the Leave it to Beaver household. Sometime around 4am it seems as if Sweet Pea had gotten down and gone in to Corn Niblet's bed with her. This of course woke Corn Niblet up and Corn Niblet came in to wake me up. I let her in my bed and then tried to be patient as she tossed and turned and twitched for the next 15 min. After hearing Sweet Pea standing around our room, and telling her to get in bed, I couldn't take it anymore and went downstairs to sleep on the couch. But as I layed there with visions of ripping the bed apart with my bare hands in the morning, I realized it was close enuf to count as morning and just got up.
Thank goodness for the espresso machine! (Did I mention I go to bed at midnight?)Today I will, at the very least, pull the mattress off of the bed and onto the floor. It is like we live in a house with only 2 beds and 4 people! Ideally I will get the mattress off of the bed, tear the stupid thing down, and move both their beds into the same room. They will eventually have a room with their beds and a room with their clothes and toys. Tonight they will have a room with all of Corn Niblet's things...and a mattress on the floor for Sweet Pea! Hopefully this will be the end to my sleeping woes, and to my half mad daydreams of a ceremonial bed burning where I'm dancing around the burning bed in my nightie chanting sleep inducing prayers!
But after the big move of furniture, I will then be posting my musings on sharing; when after months of them fighting over their things in their shared rooms, I have taken a large black marker and wrote their names on everything they own (including across their foreheads)! But then again, there is always hope that my family will eventually learn to act more like the perfect family I dreamed I would always have!

and another question...

This one is a faux pas to mention aloud. But as you walk around Germany, you can't help but wonder what the older people (and the older relatives of others) did in Nazi Germany. It's definitely something you don't ever ask. It always comes to my mind when I'm watching a little old lady shuffle along up my street as she comes back from the market. What was it like for her?
I know that most people were just trying to live their life, and it was probably a scary time for them. I'm sure the little old lady was young, was trying to find someone to marry and have kids with and still be in by curfew. I know when I missed my curfew (which was often) my parents would often put me on restriction. I wonder if she missed her curfew if she was risking a much more important personal freedom. Did she even feel like she had any freedom on a daily basis, or was she afraid to speak to anyone on any subject deeper than the weather? I can't help but wonder. The unspoken-ness of it all hangs in the air here, the houses and land even seem keep what they saw to themselves. So as everyone goes back into their homes and shuts their doors, my questions remain unanswered. Maybe the subject will come up one day, I do hope.

What year is it?

OK, so I didn't really think that when I moved to Germany, I was moving back through time. But it appears I have, although I'm not myself in the '80s, I have gone back as my mom!
Can someone tell me what is up with 80's music in Germany? I mostly listen to local German stations (but this also applies to the US station and the Canadian station that we can get in too) which seem to all play a variety of music. French, Spanish, and German songs are mixed in with alot of American songs. And although there is the frequently played Nickleback song, Katie Perry and some current hip hop songs; the majority of the music is from the 80's. So as you all drive around listening to the most up-to-date music available, take a moment to think of me. I will be driving my mom car with my young kids in it (just like my mom did) whippin it good, pouring some sugar on it, with the cat in the cradle and men at work and there [will be] always something left to remind me!

And we're back

We finally got internet installed at the house Aug 14th. They were suppose to just push a magical button somewhere and we would have internet on the 10th without any hassles! I should have known that for Germany something like that definately IS too good to be true! I called on the 10th to say it wasn't working, they said "well it can be set up anytime between 8-4pm" (which oddly enuf sounds just like the answer u get in the good old USA!). So on the 11th, when it still didn't work, I called again. This time they said it should be working, and that they would have to put a request in with the local telephone company to come out, that someone would call first. At around 7:30pm that night I recieved a phone call during dinner at our friend's house, I of course didn't answer it since that would have been rude and there was no way it could have been the telephone guy that late. (remember that I'm at M's house, who incidently speaks german. Just remember that for hind sight purpose.) There was no message left, but the next morning the same phone number called me and started speaking german. I politely said "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" and he said "nine", then continued on in german. I said the internet company's name, but didn't get any response I understood, if I did I was just going to tell him to come. Finally I understood that he would have someone who does speak english call me back. The next day I called the internet company to explain all this and relay the fact that no one had ever called me back. Martin (we were on 1st name terms by now) told me that the phone guy had put in another ticket to have someone who speaks english come out on Friday. Martin was a little put off, since everyone knows that TKS mostly serves the Americans in the area, he thought it was odd that a german who did not know english was given one of TKS's customers to call on. Well, I didn't care if they spoke english, I would have let ANYONE in the house if I thought they were there to get the internet hooked up!!! So Friday, I am waiting for a phone call, when someone rings my door bell. I threw open the door to discover a man who didn't speak english, but I welcomed him in the best I could. Showed him the wall outlet, then he asked something and made a box shape with his hands...we went from room to room in the basement, then outside. He found what he needed, came back in and said "ist gut"...yeah some German that I knew!!! We repeated "ist gut" to each other a few times, and many Dankeschön's were exchanged. I do have to say though, after he left I had to spray the house with some spray to get rid of the lingering body odor...but that was a small price to pay to be able to get back online and to call the US for free!!!