Chim-Chiminey-Chim-Chim

Yesterday the chimney sweeps came to clean our chimney and I had to take a picture of their outfits. It must have been 80 degrees here and they still wore the traditional chimney sweep outfits--all black with a heavy black, gold buttoned jacket and top hat. If you see them in town the guy is twisting the chimney cleaner-thing (resting on his right shoulder) around and around--it must be like twirling the umbrellas in Seinfeld to drum up business.

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day I bought my mom and mother-in-law the latest book from "The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series. I know, I know, we're in Germany and I send a book from Amazon.com--how lame, but all three of us truly love this series. I highly recommend these books. Some of my favorite people have told me that they "couldn't get into it" or that it "was boring" which illustrated personal character flaws that I am working on forgiving. I love you guys, but are you kidding, these are incredibly insightful, clever, humorous and morally sound literature which give us insight into the heart of Botswana and its people. Let's not be so shallow, shall we? Anywho, imagine my delight when I received a package for mother's day from my mother (she always gives us, her children, presents for mother's day. Isn't she cool?) which contained the entire series, including this most recent addition. Between the Lindt chocolates in my room that are screaming to be eaten and my new book, I might not sleep tonight!

So I just realized that I didn't tell you a whole lot about my whole little family and what they did for me for mother's day. This was the first year that each of my boys did something for me for mother's day. I got a card (which I couldn't read--it was all in German) from Mason and a card from Jacob. Jacob also made me a weaving project at school. It was done on nails on a wooden board with string which he has since "borrowed" back to use as a trampoline for his lego guys and Sam made me a heart ashtray, and Joseph has been picking me flowers all week and telling me happy mother's day. Garrett and I made homemade Greek pizza for dinner and listened to Elvis songs. I love cooking with Garrett because he likes to experiment with whatever spices he can find in the cupboards-- I'm much less exciting. It was a great day!

Snail races--the new spectator sport

Rain, rain and more rain...I'm having flashbacks from my childhood in Washington state. Everything here is incredibly green, but the rain has been pretty constant for the last few weeks, with intermittent sunshine. So what do boys do when they're bored inside, but everything is soaking outside? They invent games, like "Snail racing" This is how it works: When it rains, all the snails come out of hiding and the boys walk around the yard, looking for the prime competitors. the put the snails in a row, and they're off--I think they're off, no, maybe they're sleeping right now. For added fun they like to put obstacles in the way, like sticks or rocks. To cheat, they put a wet sponge out and the snails seem to triple their speed across the wet surface (which is still incredibly slow!)

In the winner's bracket Jacob's "Old Timer" tied with Mason's "Garrett". Sam's "Shift" won the obstacle course. Sadly, Joe's "Darth Vader" had an off day. After the boys finished racing the snails the first day, they took a black Sharpie marker outside and wrote their initials on the shells so that they could find them in the next rain. They've continued to do snail races nearly every rain. If that gets boring, what else could they do? Invent a new game, we like to call it "Snail stacking" How many snails can you stack before your pile falls over?

P.S. can you believe that I could figure out how to change the backgrounds? What's next, using the Ipod that Garrett bought me 2 years ago? It's a technological miracle! Thanks Angie!

Happy Birthday Sam and Jacob

I can hardly believe that Sam and Jacob are ten years old. Last night I kept thinking about ten years ago--discovering I was pregnant with twin boys, having the boys 2 months early and their month in the NICU. Bringing the boys home and not sleeping for a good year. Going in to get them in the morning to see that one or the other had rolled over to the other side of the crib and was laying his head on his brother's chest. Hearing them babble to eachother. Having the fire department, police and all our neighbors out looking for them when they decided to play hide and seek one day. The end of naps when they both worked together to push their chest of drawers over during nap time. Waking up to find the boys had managed to climb up on the kitchen counter and reach the bag of 1500 dum dums on top of the fridge and had systematically taken the wrapper off each one and given each a single lick before moving on. Taking Sam to the emergency room for a bump on the head and the twins being separated for a few hours, then the boys running to eachother, arms outstretched down the hall "Sajjy!" "Jatob!" for a big hug. The boys getting on the bus to go to their preschool because they did so much twin talk and couldn't stand being apart. Sam and Jacob starting kindergarten and Jacob tapping on his classroom wall, sure that Sam could hear him in the classroom next door. The boys taking Tae Kwon Do and Sam helping Jacob at home to learn all the moves. Listening to the boys in their room talking late at night as they lay in their bunk beds. Spending hours jumping together off the roof of the shed to the trampoline and back again. Working on a tree house using our neighbor's sapling, much to his dismay. The boys getting baptized and putting their arms around eachother. Creating havoc at scouts together while mom was the den leader. Braving a new school in a foreign country together. Helping eachother with German homework.

Sam and Jacob are very different. From the time they were born we could easily tell them apart and we've had our fair share of brother fights, but for some reason they were meant to come together--maybe they needed eachother to handle me as a mom, but we feel so blessed to have them in our family. Sam's cute laugh that comes rumbling out in a "Huh" and Jacob's grin ear to ear. Sam literally climbing the walls and Jacob's boats constructed of paper and straws and a roll of tape. Hours of lego creations. Thousands of hugs. We love you guys!

The beatings can now begin!

Jacob requested a strawberry cake with vanilla frosting. Sam requested chocolate lasagna (that would be my choice too). Both of them wanted army men on their cakes--atleast that was the same!

About a week ago I told Sam he could choose the dinner for his and Jacob's b-days--he chose spaghetti and meatballs. I told Jacob he could choose their breakfast--he said he'd make me a list. This is what he had on his list:

Pancakes, butter, syrup, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, hot chocolate, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, ice cold pineapple, wild cherry Coke, and bacon. Well, we indulged the child and he got everything except raspberries, which I couldn't find in the stores.

One of my friends from my German language class is Chinese. She brought me a Chinese birthday candle. It starts out all closed up and then when you light the first candle, it lights the rest of the candles and opens up the flower. The heat sets the flower spinning and plays "Happy Birthday" over and over and the grand finale is a fireworks display coming out of the middle of the flower. It made trick candles look amazingly dull. Thank you to our Grandmas who sent us so many wonderful birthday presents!

Moving up in the World?

So, this is what our driveway has looked like for the past 6 months--2 minivans in the driveway. Our van got to Germany about 2 months after we did. In the meantime, we bought a used van to get us all around. I know our German neighbors must think we're whacked in the head to drive two minivans with the price of gas here--and we wholeheartedly agree with them. Since the arrival of our second van, Garrett's been scrupulously checking the German ads for a good deal on a car. Finally, Garrett found a ten year old stationwagon that he bought from a Bosnian. Some Bosnians had to do some extra work on it under the table to pass inspection, but today Garrett got it registered. When I think of an old stationwagon I think of this:

Hip, hip, hooray for the better gas mileage to come!

My dream car is a white Jeep Wagoneer with wood panneling.

So, anyone interested in buying a minivan in Germany?

Leprechaun Madness

On St. Patrick's Night Eve I considered feigning ignorance about the whole day since Germans don't celebrate it, but my motherly guilt took over and I did our traditional "Leprechauns Gone Wild" stuff. St. Patrick's day morning my kids always wake up to see green foot prints somewhere in the house. This year, not only did the Leprechaun pee in our toilet and forget to flush, he took a bath in the sink. He also turned the milk, muffins and eggs green. We had the added bonus of Jewel and Andreas Weigand sharing in the fun. We get to have them with us for 11 days, and my kids are loving it.

Every year we put a trap out in the hopes of catching the Leprechaun. The trap consists of a box propped up on one side with a stick and decorated with pictures to entice the Leprechaun inside. We haven't caught one yet, but each year, he leaves us some gold coin chocolates. The pictures changed a little this year--in years past the kids have drawn pictures much like Joe's this year--a leprechaun friend, pot of gold and rainbow. Their salesmanship techniques have really improved--this year Mason drew a girl leprechaun to entice her male counterpart, Sam added a sign to his pot of gold that reads "frei (free auf Deutsh) gold" and Jacob lost the battle with mom--he wanted to do a leprechaun lady in a bikini, so he settled for the same old tricks as before. Again the Leprechaun foiled our get rich quick scheme, but left us some chocolate Euros!

Waiting out the Winter

The weather here has been miserable--nothing to compare with the cold of Iowa, but cold and slushy snow and the last time I saw the sun shine was last Thursday. Every time it starts snowing again we all groan--when is Spring coming? Friday was another yucky day. I took the boys and 2 of their friends, Andreas and Cristofer to a huge Home decor store that has the hugest "McDonalds Playland" in it upstairs that you can drop your kids off in and go shopping without them and the cost?--It's free! This concept wouldn't work in Utah for obvious reasons--too many kids and we're all too cheap to buy anything, but here with an average of 1.3 children per couple, I'm the exception to the rule. So, I got the perks of doing my "turn" of having friends over and they all played at the playland while I looked around and then found a comfortable chair and got my book out and read. Next confession: I'm reading a book entitled "Faberge's Eggs". It's about the Romanovs, Russia's last czars. You could call it my "Princess Di" obsession. I don't know why but I am fascinated by the Romanovs and Rasputin and that whole thing. I was telling Garrett about how Rasputin was poisoned, shot, beaten and finally drowned to kill him and Garrett's reply was classic if you've seen Disney's Anastasia--he asked "But what about the bat, did he get killed too?" Second confession: I bought a package of Cadbury Creme eggs from the army base and ate them all by myself while I read. I've always loved Cadbury Creme eggs, but I have to admit, I was so disappointed when I bit into it and there was no toy surprise in the middle. We are huge Kinder Eier fans. Kinder Eier are chocolate eggs with a toy surprise in the middle (the cheap man's version of Faberge eggs, I guess). We've bought little shadow boxes for each of the boys' rooms that they put their kinder eier toys in. The eggs are kind of pricey, so they only get them for special occasions. Still I have to admit that I get as excited as they do for the cheap plastic toys they have inside.

I've been pretty worn out lately and my patience level is dangerously low. I'm taking a German class every weekday from 8:30 to 11:45 and I really love it--I'm learning so much, but it leaves absolutely no personal time which I've realized I'd gotten very accustomed to. My class has 1 Syrian, 2 Italians, 3 Turks, 1 Tunesian, 1 Spaniard, 1 Peruvian, 1 Romanian, 1 Pollock, 2 Phillipians (that's a book in the Bible--I must have spelled that wrong!), 2 Chinese and 1 Hawaiian. The only language that 1/3 of the class has in common is broken English. It's fascinating that so many people around the world speak English. I finish class and hurry to pick up the kids from school. Mondays we do piano lessons. The first question people ask is "Is Garrett teaching them?" When I tell them that I'm teaching them they always respond that they didn't even know that I played, which is about right. I'm really not that good at piano, but for now they haven't passed me up, so I'll do it, since a good price for a piano lesson is $25 here--I get sick to my stomach every time I think about $75 a week for Sam, Jacob and Mason which would be $300 a month. My sister-in-law, Jennifer teaches piano in Utah and I'm betting it's not that lucrative there. I only wish I was good enough to teach other kids and make some money! Jen Fletcher taught my kids piano in Iowa and now that I know the going rate I think we royally ripped her off. Sorry Jen! A big thanks to Dan and Julie who got us the clavinova as a wedding present--the best features are the volume control and the headphone jack--wonderful inventions for frazzled mom nerves. All the boys are doing really well and loving it. We go pretty slow, but they don't hate it yet and that's huge.

On Friday we got a package from my mom--yeah! I've just gotten into quilting and my mom sent fabric and a quilt magazine. So exciting! Fabric here is about $10-30 a meter. Yuck! Everytime I start cutting fabric for a quilt I think about what my mother-in-law Julie said a few years ago while she was making a quilt for my sister-in-law Shanna: "It's funny that we take a perfectly good piece of fabric and cut it up in alot of pieces to sew it back together again." Too true.

The next guilty pleasure--listening to "Wicked". I've listened to it so many times that Jacob said this morning "Don't play that again mom. The songs just keep going around and around in my head!" The rest of us still like it. Garrett's favorite song is "Defying Gravity", Sam's favorite song is "Popular". I have too many favorites--definitely worth getting the soundtrack. I've already decided that whatever money I get for my b-day (yes, it's not until August!) is going towards seeing it here in Germany with Garrett. I'll have to work a little harder in my German class!

My final accomplishment lately is learning how to put pictures from the internet on my blog. Those of you who know me well know that I have a Technology Disorder. Just last year my friend Shayla taught me how to e-mail more than one person at the same time and how to "reply all" instead of just "reply". These were huge steps for me and I feel I can rest at ease knowing I have made my technological improvement for this year with these pix on my blog, pardon my smugness, but I'm a genius.

Hopefully this winter will end soon. The very first bulbs bloomed in my neighbor's yard and my sweet boys picked them for me. Do you think he'll notice?