Snow on Thxgvg? Why can't we be in the South of France???

For Thanksgiving we still got to spend it with family, even though we are in Germany this year!

Have I mentioned that we found a cousin that the J man didn't even know he had? Long story extremely short, a lady with almost the same name as me friended me. We started talking, my mom started digging, and low & behold! The J man and AKA-Kevin are related, their gpa's are brothers! Not only that but they both married the most marvelous, amazing, beautiful women with the same name! It is the craziest thing! They moved to Germany around the same time we did, although they're about 2 1/2 hrs away.

Now back to the previously scheduled post already in progress....
....we piled in the car on Thursday and followed Heather’s directions. Heather is the name of the voice on the GPS that we borrowed from the J man's office.

****side note: we had to borrow one because, if you remember my previous posts, our free one is about 100 years old and gives directions like a 90 year old man. We have learned not to really trust it, and have thus added a new GPS on the Christmas list for this year****

She got us to their city alright, even though she made us get off the autobahn and meander thru a city and over the woods to the cousins' house we go. But as soon as we got within 2 blocks she suddenly started repeating "make a left now, make a left now, make a left now" as we drove around the same block twice before we realized she was sending us in circles! We parked at a store, called them, and they walked over to get us.

There's really nothing too traumatic after that. They live in the cutest apartment over a business on the marketplatz. We were able to park the car in the garage and not use it again until we were ready to drive home. They had a great Christmas market just up the block with a medevil theme. The kids had a wonderful time dipping candles, riding on a man powered ferris wheel, and shooting bows and arrows. AKA-Kevin even took the J man to try the 'break the egg' game. The soup was THE BEST EVER! I know people say that, but it's really true. We had a nice dinner with very nice guests, and enjoyed many card games with them. Corn Niblet attached herself to Just K, AKA-Kevin's daughter. Sweet Pea actually seemed to enjoy the break from being the big sister for once. And I definitely enjoyed being around people I feel so comfortable with and could easily socialize with.

Prepare yourself for corny. Ready? I am just so thankful that we were able to have such a wonderful family based Thanksgiving where I thought it would be an impossible task. The only problem? The J man developed a cold on the drive over and felt like dog doo almost the entire trip, but for once he was a super trouper lights are gonna find him shining like the sun, smiling having fun, feeling like he's number one! (if you did not sing that last bit to urself, go back and sing it loud and clear ABBA style!)

Now I really feel like kicking my dog and being depressed!!

Whoa, put the phone down! Don't be calling my psychologist just yet! This is just yet another rambling, I must vent this out before I go crazy, post!

With that said, AFN commercials here are friggin' RIDICULOUS!! I understand that there needs to be a way to get the word out to the masses about:

* the Domestic Abuse Help Line. This is an important one for me, I mean it's hard enuf for people to get out of those kind of relationships when they are in the US only a drive away from family. Here they would really have no where to go, I get it.

* the different ways you can take off the big old "I'm a Stupid American" sign hanging around our necks. Face it, we're loud, demanding, irritating people and stick out like a sore thumb most of the time!

* German laws. There really is a speed limit here people.

* How not to be a sucker. I personally am not really sure that you can actually teach this to people. It's kinda like common sense, you either have it or you don't!

Luckily they are changing the commercials for the kids shows. We were watching Seasame Street and a commercial came on with a guy talking about his heroic actions during battle, with a mini-reinactment! Really?? Do you think small children need to hear how he pulled a burning man from the humvee and they both barely survived??? Being a kid connected to the military is hard enuf, why should they be worrying about their daddy's (in our case) safety? I talk really loud and jump up to make the kids pick up their things during a commercial. They probably are starting to think I'm psychotic!

Now they just show the little girl playing with Barbie and Ken saying "You can't do anything right, your ugly and useless" and making Ken hit Barbie. Then the speaker comes on and says something like "Domestic abuse hurts everyone". THAT was a lovely conversation in our house explaining how not everyone lives in a nice happy house like ours and it's meant to remind the mommies and daddies that their children are the most important thing to them.

These commercials have sparked SO many conversations in the car with sweet pea and corn niblet! Luckily I tell them the truth, and explain things as detailed as possible in a kid oriented way. J Man would just say crazy things like "the stork brought you!"!! So we've had the stranger danger talk, mommy will always love you talk, no one can hurt mommy talk, domestic abuse talk, and so many more!

So anyway, I don't mean to belittle the public messages, they are really needed. But when that's the ONLY type of commercials you see................
............you'll be ready to kick something around and sit on your couch in a state of depression!! Why do they have the opposite effect they intended?

Here's a little sample, I tried to get one that wasn't controversial, just stupid.

30+, cool lab coat, my snarkisms, AND MORE!

So who knew that a part time job at a photo lab would turn into 30+ hours a week and a barely functioning family/personal life? Oh hush all you full time dual income families and full time single working parents....it was a rhetorical question on my part!!!


No really, do THAT many people really not own a computer and/or a digital camera? There's so many things that make me go hhhmmmmmmmmmm at this job!

1) The amount of disposable cameras brought in to be processed.

Customer: "Do you have any specials on developing? I have 20 disposable cameras I need to bring in" Me: \thought\yes, it's called a digital camera, buy it once for $60 upfront and then only pay 25 cents for the one picture you manage to get worth printing\end of thought\. Me: "Sure 10% on Mondays"

2) The amount of requests for photo Christmas cards.

Customer: "Why is the 4x6 Christmas card 60 cents each when it only costs 30 cents to print a regular 4x6" picture?" Me: \thought\Well, I take your crappy family picture snapshot and drop it into a card I just spent 3 hours designing from scratch, change the wording, and probably the color so most people won't notice your husband's tacky shirt and then print them out. Try asking some other company how much that costs!\end of thought\. Me: "It's a small built in price for the semi-custom work."

3) The crazy requests for photo shop.

Customer: "Can you make this guy's closed eyes open? And while your at it, can you change the background of the wall paper from a green plaid to a purple plaid? And if you don't mind printing a vertical 8x10 picture from this closely cropped horizontally taken group photo?" Me: \thought\ ____ NO! There's no amount of photo shop that can help this picture!\end of though\ Me: "Well, I could, but there is a $10/hr. fee for photo shop and that would take quite a few hours."


Gosh I'm feeling rather snarky tonite, wouldn't u say?!?