Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland!

TOP 10 THINGS (not in order of preference) I AM GOING TO MISS ABOUT LIVING IN GERMANY:

1. Peter's Crepes! Peter and I are on a first name basis now. He is at every Stuttgart market and fest and his crepes are better than any others I have ever had, to include the ones we ate in France. Even when the kids are starving, we hold out until we find Peter.

2. Nurofen. Nurofen is a German brand of ibuprofen for children and I love the bottle that it comes in. It is a glass bottle that you attach the medicine syringe to, tip the whole bottle upside down, and fill the syringe. The whole bottle gets used, no waste, and it is so easy to fill. Picture a needle syringe being filled. Motrin needs to learn a lesson from Nurofen.

3. The Kinderklinik (both in Stuttgart area and Wiesbaden). Basically, an emergency room/urgent care room for kids. After a couple of head injuries for Jordan, Ava sticking a bead up her nose, bronchitis, Beckett's multiple ear infections, and his pneumonia... I cannot express how awesome and quick these places are. We never waited more than 15 minutes to be seen and the care was phenomenal.

4. Kinder Eggs. Watching the kids unwrap a chocolate egg the size of a real egg that has a mini toy in it is priceless. They love them and unfortunately they are banned in the U.S. because they are a choking hazard.

5. Half-timbered houses. I love them and will miss walking through our little village and thinking about how cute they are.

6. Apfelschorle. A mix of apple juice and bubble water.

7. Listening to our kids play "Smart Car" while riding in the car. Think "Punch Buggy" from when we were kids. They invented smart car on their own when we first got here and it will be missed. Smart Cars are slowly coming to the states, but I highly doubt we will ever see one in Alaska.

8. Bike trails and walking trails. They are all over the place. Makes riding bikes with kids less stressful because you can almost guarantee that they are not going to get hit by a car.

9. Biergartens. Beer Gardens are big outdoor seating areas that serve lots of beer and food. They almost always have a playground for the kids to play on while the parents drink beer and socialize. In Southern Germany they are often on a farm that grows quite a bit of their own food. Some also have indoor seating, but it's more fun to be outdoors.

10. Christmas Markets. They are all similar in that they have vendor huts that are all decorated for Christmas and the vendors are selling products, food, or gluhwein (hot, sweet, wine). Just beautiful and fun.

11. This one is from each of the kids: Ava said she liked going to other countries and Sensopolis (indoor play area). Jordan said that he is going to miss Smart cars and the trains. Brady said he was going to miss Annabelle. :(

TOP 10 THINGS THAT I WILL NOT MISS:

1. TRAFFIC!!!! Oh my word... the traffic here is horrible. Now, I admit that I drove like I was training to become the next Danica Patrick on the autobahn. But seriously....what is so great about driving so fast when you can hit a Stau (traffic jam) and just inch along at 5 mph for miles. I think we lived about 15 miles from Charlie's office and some nights it would take him an hour to get home.

2. Feeling like we always have an audience because we have 4 kids. Germany's reproduction rate is at 1.2 children per family, so having 4 kids gets lots of stares or comments. Even after living on our street for 14 months people would still stop and stare into the van and watch us get in our out of the van because we parked parallel to the street.

3. Their shopping carts. They have carts that all 4 wheels turn on. Maybe it is because I am not used to them, but I find them extremely difficult to push. Much easier to pull.

4. 1/2 gallons of milk. The military makes special 1/2 gallon cartons of milk that are actually called and labeled: Armed Forces Milk. With my super tiny fridge and a family of six, we were constantly opening them and they don't open easily. The kids fought over who's turn it was to go get another one out of our refrigerator on the ground floor.

5. Traffic cameras. Although there are parts of the country that have no speed limits on the autobahn, on the roads that do have speed limits they have traffic cameras that take your picture and you get a ticket in the mail. I have never had so many tickets in my life. I had 4 tickets here and all were for going less than 10mph over the speed limit. My most recent was on the way home from France. I got one in France that I had to pay on the spot. I was going 8km/h over the speed limit. That is about 4.5 mph over the speed limit. My ticket was for 42 euro (about 60 dollars).

6. Stores are not open on Sundays or past 8 pm usually. In the past, I have always enjoyed running out to Target or grocery shopping late at night when the kids were in bed. I could get it all done as quickly or as slowly as I wanted without having to drag them all with me. I am ready to be able to do that again.

7. The EURO. It has been a crappy exchange rate since we got here. Right now, 1 euro will cost you $1.41. Not great when you are paying rent in Euro, any shopping you might want to do, and traveling costs.

8. Schnitzel and bratwurst and curry ketchup. I am not a fan of any of it. I will eat a bratwurst if I am starving, but otherwise... no thanks.

9. My lack of German. I admit... I had high hopes of learning when we moved over here. Living off post helped grow my phrases but other than that, I didn't do very well. Which makes lots of things a big pain in the bum.

10. The lack of lines and the way they line up as a culture. They stand right on top of you and they don't really form lines. You have to fend for yourself and make sure that you are not getting cut out of the line.

I know I have thought of lots of other things that I am going to miss or not miss... but these are the things that came to mind as I was writing this. See, I already thought of one I will miss... the markets. Yummy, fresh fruits and veggies.

100th DAY of HOMESCHOOLING

Today we celebrated our 100th Day of Homeschooling in our hotel. In regular school, the 100th day of school has become a benchmark to celebrate. Although, I don't remember the school even talking about it where I grew up. During Jordan's first 2 years of school there were big celebrations that included projects and treats for the kids. There is even a song about it being the 100th Day of School on Starfall.com. So, we've been keeping track of our homeschool days and today is our 100th day. We finished up our last day of school before our trip back to the United States today, boxed up all of our homeschool books and supplies to mail to NH, and bought 2 big bags of M & M's to celebrate. They each counted out 100 M & M's, sorted them by colors, counted out their colors, made pictures with them, figured out the our 2 bags of M & M's had very few yellows, and Jordan did fractions with his. Lots of fun and then they got to eat them all.

B-Balling with the Bailey Kids!

Just a few shots from the kids' basketball games this past weekend. We were able to get in half of the season before we move and it was well worth it.

Ava and Brady are on the same team and Jordan is on another team.

Ava dribbling and the ball was getting away from her. Brady is number 10 in the picture.

Brady getting ready to pass the ball.
Jordan looking for a pass after dribbling down the court.

One Foot Out the Door

We conquered some larger hurdles in our move today and for that I am relieved! When we first moved into our off-post German house 14 months ago we heard horror stories of Americans not getting their security deposits back from their landlords when they moved out and before they leave the country. Security deposits are big chunk of change in Germany. Ours was 2700 EURO (about 4,000 dollars). Even though we have had a good relationship with our landlord, we were still sweating the move-out inspection.

I went back to the house last night at about 6 pm and finished up the cleaning at about 11:00. I felt like the house was ready. Every appliance was cleaned out, the floors were clean, windows, etc. Charlie went today and met with our realtor (you use a realtor in Germany to rent a house or apartment), landlord, and U.S. government employee from housing to get out of our house and find out if we would be getting our deposit back. We PASSED and received our paperwork to take to the German bank to get our deposit back. A huge load was lifted! I suspected that we would get our money back... but you just never know.

Apparently our landlady (she's in her 70s) raved to our realtor about us and asked if we were sure we wanted to go. I guess she wasn't too upset with us when Ava told her that her soup tasted "a little bit yucky" the day before. Most of you know that Ava is my child with absolutely no filter when it comes to her thoughts and feelings. Very good quality to have because I know she will tell me everything, but not so good when you need her to hold her thoughts for a few seconds. The landlords invited us to lunch on Tuesday afternoon and I gave the kids the typical speech about eating whatever she served and not saying it was "yucky". We were served a traditional German soup for fasching (big celebration before Lent season). A few bites into it Ava said in her most polite tone, "Excuse me, Mom. This soup tastes just a little bit yucky." Very nice....

Charlie headed back up to Wiesbaden today for his last big work HURRAH. He has a change of command thingy tomorrow and is working on clearing up some paperwork that is still messed up from when he got injured almost 4 years ago. We'll work on our paying our final utility bills and closing out our German bank account where our house deposit is sitting on Friday when he comes back. Then all we have left is spit-shining the car and shipping it before we fly.

Time is flying by and I survived my saddest good-byes already. (sniff-sniff).