For whom the bell tolls...no really....whom?

This is the kirsche (church) that causes great joy and grief in my life. It is to the left of us, only 2 houses up the hill.

Picture if you will, a sweet little German neighborhood (like mine of course!) with German people walking up and down the hill to the market and the bakery each morning and afternoon. Birds are constantly singing here, and on all but the really chilly days I can be found with my front window wide open to allow me to view the whole scene. Almost every day I can hear the church bells tolling throughout my house.

Sometimes it's almost magical.

Most of the time it is a scene strait out of the movies. Especially around 4 or 5pm. Most evenings at this time I can be found futzing around the kitchen getting dinner started. The kitchen window is open, people seem to be milling about on all kinds of errands (this isn't a normal dinner time here, most likely people are walking home from kaffee und kuchen at a friend's house instead. They eat dinner closer to 7 or 8pm) and music is usually playing probably a little too loud at my house. Then the Church bells start to toll the hours. I really haven't been able to discern a pattern to their ringing, it's not like a little song and then bells strike to count the hour. These are like 4-6 bells are being pulled on by different people at different intervals.

-dong-dang-bing-dong-ding-bong-dong-dang-dong-bong-bong-dong-dang-bong-ding----and on and on and on. I'm not kidding, sometimes for longer than 5 minutes!

It's story book romantic, sometimes I just lean out my window and look at the sights and listen to them. A part of me just can't believe I'm standing in a kitchen in Germany. At that moment, everything really does feel right with my life.

Suddenly it's Sunday morning. I'm feeling blurry and slightly irritated. Who is making that sound? WTH! ggeeezzz, it's the stupid bells, maybe if I ignore them I won't wake up. But they keep going! And going! AND GOING!

If I (and everyone else in my house) happen to be so tired that I don't actually break thru the coherency veil covering your dreams, not more than 30 minutes later the entire scene will present itself again. This time I am NEVER lucky enough to be able to sleep through it. Even if I could, this is the point that I will always hear the pitter patter of feet on the wood floors, (then they stop and stare at you, then they go in the other child's room, then they come back to your doorway, and on and on until someone gets out of bed!). For those of you keeping track it is now 8:00am.

At 8:15 the whole thing happens again, sometimes I haven't even had my 1st cup of espresso yet "Shut the heck up, it's too early on a weekend", then at 8:30..."Really? I'm outta bed already!"...then 8:45..."I wonder if insulation can be cut to fit into the windows?". Around 8:50ish, this is the crescendo, the bells become possessed. I believe they ring continuously until 9am at this point. This is when I'm saying some really not so nice stuff in my head. The bells are ringing, the J man is shouting about how we'll be late for a 10:30 service less than 5 minutes from our house, the girls are hard at work on their own agenda which they keep giving me blow by blows of and requesting help (or help in the future with what they plan to do) or trying to plan the day's events.

Take a guess what time the church service starts? Now, you must trust me when I tell you this...there is nothing magical about those moments!