Bad Neighbors

I woke up this morning to an email from my landlord's representative. Seeing her emails always make me nervous. There's a million rules, laws and customs in Germany and we try to stay abreast of them and not be ignorant Americans living in another country but sometimes we fall short. Today was no different.

Germany has very strict and mandatory rules about garbage. Almost everything can be recycled or composted. I LOVE this rule. I think it's great. I embrace it willingly. The problem comes in when I have too much restmüll, or residual waste. Residual waste is what's left over once you separate out the compostable items, as well as the recyclables. It happens alot since diapers fall into this category and I used to have two boys in them. Thankfully, I'm down to one boy in diapers, but that still produces a lot of waste. Consequently, our garbage can at the curb is always too full.

We thought we solved this problem by throwing our extra bag (it's about one bag per week) into a neighbor's bin. There's just two of them and their bin is never full. We only put the bag in at the end of the week, on the day that trash is scheduled to be picked up. We didn't think we were imposing since it was space that they themselves weren't using, and it's not like our bags were ripped or leaking. We were wrong.

Apparently our neighbors resent our intrusion into their trash bin. I didn't realize it was such a big deal until we got an email from our landlady about certain complaints. It didn't cost them extra, it didn't leak into their bins and create a mess, and it didn't infringe on their rights. But apparently it's a big deal. Big enough to complain to the landlady behind our backs, rather than just asking us not to do it. I understand (sort of) that they don't want someone else's trash in their bins; that's fine. We should have asked them first if they minded. We won't do it again.

But is it really that big of a deal? Am I missing something here? I'm actually pretty upset about this. We've been doing it for awhile, and they just now mentioned something. Have they been sitting in their house (we live in a small complex of five townhomes) quietly begrudging us our trash? We had no idea. I feel like such a bad neighbor. Maybe the reason they don't come over and visit is because of it. I wish I had known sooner. I honestly didn't know that this sort of thing would upset anyone. I'm already lonely over here in Germany since I don't know anyone and this just makes it worse. Someone I don't even really know (but should) apparently really dislikes me. I'm too shy to just go to their door and ring the bell and chitchat. Maybe I should have. So my question is: do you think what we did was so bad? Should I apologize? Maybe write them an "I'm sorry" letter?

Arts & Crafts

I'm a firm believer in creativity. Much of the artwork around my house is homemade, either by myself or other creative people. I installed a simple string with clips on it to display Drake's artwork and his worksheets that we've been working on. He's always really proud of whatever he creates and wants it to go straight on the wall. Most of his work I take photos of, then trash it. I save his best work or stuff that I'm unwilling to part with. Go ahead, call me a packrat (the husband does) but I prefer the term "sentimental."

Today was arts and crafts day with some paint in bowls, some construction paper, and simple but easy to use brushes consisting of q-tips. Drake had a blast, and Link was interested too for a little bit.

School is in Session

Here's some things I learned today about Drake and trying to do my own version of preschool with him:

1. Safety scissors are not all that safe. In fact, they can cut skin, specifically, Mommy's finger.
2. Cutting Mommy's finger is apparently HIL-A-RI-OUS.
3. Drake will sit not sit still for more than one book to be read in a row. Good to know.
4. No matter how much planning you put into making a schedule and a curriculum, it's not really up to you. It's up to him.
5. Glue makes an excellent hair gel.
6. ...and last but not least, he has a voracious appetite to learn things and I really need to cultivate it.

To that end, we're starting our own little version of preschool here. Complete with useless schedules, fun crafts, loads of coloring, and the alphabet. Tomorrow we're going to head to the library to pick up some books that are on our schedule this week. I know I said that schedules were useless, but they do give me a good jumping point for the day's lessons. If he happens to show more interest in craft time, or coloring, or whatever, then I'm going to be flexible.

In the meantime, I'm looking around on the web for more coloring sheets and worksheets. I didn't realize we'd go so quickly through them. Now..if only there were more hours in the day to do everything that needs to be accomplished around here and become Drake's teacher...

Oops - aka I should post more

So I've been really terrible about keeping this website updated. I know, all the crickets out there have been really upset about my lack of correspondence. But I made this blog when we first moved to Germany as a way to keep family and friends updated on our life, so we wouldn't seem so far away. It turns out I'm terrible at keeping up with things. I know, shocking!

I saw my last post about the kids was when Link was 10 months old. That seems so far away now. He's over 18 months old now. He's talking, mainly still babble, and walking, and running, and getting into things. The last he really excels at. He's spoiled rotten, too. He puts out that pouty lower lip and starts wailing whenever things don't go his way, which is pretty often actually. I guess that happens a lot when you're born in a house with an older brother.

Speaking of older brothers, Drake is now three, and a handful. In a good way. Mostly. I mean, he's a toddler. A very opinionated toddler. Sometimes his personality is bigger than his britches. And yes, I did just say britches. You can make fun of me later for using antiquated words. And using words like antiquated. Anyway, he's a sweetheart when he wants to be and overall he's pretty helpful around the house...when he's not beating up his brother.

Anyway, enjoy the cuteness from bathtime tonight:

Paris - Part One

One of the biggest perks about living in Germany is that I live so close to the French border, and to Paris in particular. My wonderful husband decided that he should take a day of vacation and we'd make it a three-day weekend and do a Paris trip. It was absolutely amazing. We had so much fun and saw so much history and iconography that my head is still reeling.

We decided to head straight to the palace at Versailles. I've been in love with this city and the sun king since I first heard about it when I was in the eighth grade. The palace lived up to and exceeded my hopes, even though I had such high expectations. There wasn't a ton of things to see in the castle, since most of the areas are cordoned off to visitors, but the most important parts are open.

This is the personal church of the King at Versailles. It's absolutely amazing. It's just too bad that I wasn't holding the camera in an orthogonal position. My favorite part of the castle, though, was the famed Hall of Mirrors. It's absolutely breathtaking, and I can only imagine how resplendent it must have been back when the court held royal balls there.

As you can see, Link and Drake were really impressed to have been sitting on floors that queens and kings once walked upon. Actually, I'm pretty sure Drake just enjoyed the sound his shoes made as he stomped about on the hardwood floors and Lincoln just liked all the shinies.


The grounds were just as, if not more, impressive than the chateau itself. The grounds are absolutely breathtaking in their scope, from the reflecting pools to the fountains, to the immaculately trimmed hedges and the beautiful surrounding structures. Marie Antoinette's estate, especially her Hameau, was like something out of a fairy tale. It's hard to choose just one photo to elicit the general feeling of the place, but I think this is a good synopsis of her Hameau.

Stay tuned for part two (and more, if I'm feeling ambitious) of our Paris trip. This was only the first day (and few hours) of our trip, and we saw so much. I highly recommend going to Paris, if you're ever in the need of a vacation suggestion. After all, there's a reason there's a saying that you can "see Paris, and die."

Lincoln - Ten Months

It's really hard to believe that I haven't posted new pictures of my kids since Link was two months old. He's really changed a lot since then. He's deliciously chubby now. His personality has certainly developed and I'm convinced he's brilliant. He's been playing peek-a-boo since he was six months old and he says words on command already...all except for momma, which I won't go into (grr!). He loves to yell, "dada!" Oh well, one of these days he will. He does love to blow me kisses, so that makes up for it. Since he's been concentrating so much on language, he's not really gotten the hang of crawling yet. He does the "low crawl" fairly well now, and can roll himself around to get wherever he wants to go, but just a month ago he was pretty funny at his attempts at crawling. I know this is evil of me to post, but it makes me laugh and hopefully you will too.

government issued

What is a Military Wife?

They may look different and each is wonderfully unique,
But this they have in common:
Lots of moving---MovingMoving far from home
Moving two cars, three kids and one dog----all riding with HER of course
Moving sofas to basements because they won't go in THIS house
Moving curtains that won't fit
Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours
Moving away from friends, moving toward new friends
Moving her most important luggage; her trunkful of memories
Often waiting-
Waiting, waiting, waiting for housing; waiting for orders; waiting for deployment; waiting for reunion; waiting for phones calls
Waiting for the new curtains to arrive; waiting for him to come home for dinner----AGAIN!
They call her 'military dependent', but she knows better
She can balance a checkbook
Handle the yard work
Fix a noisy toilet.
She is intimately familiar with drywall, anchors, and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes, sell a house, buy a car, or set up a move, --all with ONE Power of Attorney
She welcomes neighbors that don't welcome her
Reinvents her career with every PCS;Locates a house in the desert, the arctic, or the deep south and learns to call them all 'home'
She MAKES them all home
She is fiercely IN-dependent
Military wives are somewhat hasty
They leap into decorating, leadership, volunteering, career alternatives, churches and friendships
They don't have 15 years to get to know people
Their roots are short but flexible
They plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them
Military wives quickly learn to value each other
They connect over coffee, rely on the spouse-network and accept offers of friendship and favors and record addresses in pencil
Military Wives have a common bond.
The military wife has a husband unlike other husbands
His commitment is uniqueHe doesn't have a job, he has a 'mission' he can't just decide to quit
He's on-call for his country 24/7
But for you, he's the most unreliable guy in town!
His language is foreign TDY PCS OPR ACC ABU
And so, a military wife is a translator for her family and his
She is the long-distance link to keep them informed - the glue that holds them together
A military wife has her moments----
She wants to wring his neck, dye his uniform pink, and refuse to move to Siberia
But she pulls herself together
Give her a few days, a travel brochure, a long hot bath, a pledge to the flag, and a wedding picture
And she goes
She packs
She moves
She follows
Why?
What for?
How come?
You may think it is because she has lost her mind
But actually it is because she has lost her heart
It was stolen from her by a man
Who puts duty first
Who longs to deploy
Who salutes the flag
And whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her military husband,
She will remain his military wife.

I didn't write this, but I love it nonetheless.