Sprechen sie Englisch?

The tween and the husband are in Germany right now without me, having a great time. I'm happy for the bonding experience this is providing them. It's an amazing opportunity for the tween (hubs has been there many times) and I know it will be a life changing trip. Travelling Europe will open up the world to him in a way reading history books will not. I am so jealous proud of him and his adventurous spirit. Germany is one of my favorite places in the world, and I'm not there I'm excited for him to develop the same passion.

We hope to move there someday. The husbands job while he is there is to investigate the reality of moving. I'm pretty sure he's more focused on enjoying all that German beer.

The day they left was a little lonely here. The oldest has gone off to college and is having wonderful adventures, meeting new friends and learning how to conquer the world. With the other two boys gone, it left me and the toddler to hang out for a week. That first night was a little pitiful. Oreos and vodka for dinner helped.

Here are some of the pictures they've texted me, so you can see how much fun they are having without me.

From left to right, the tween is enjoying his first schnitzel (omigod yum). The tween enjoying the Rhine river scenery. Hubs and tween in Nürnberg at Zeppelin Field (Hitler's rally grounds) after touring the Documentation Center (now that is some first person history!)

In the above pics they are getting ready to go up the Zugspitze (the highest peak in Germany) in a cable car. The one on the right, you can sort of see a tiny little spec that is the husband, right by the cross.

To me though, the highlight of this adventure was today. He spent the night with some family friends (their daughter comes out here for a month every summer, so she's like his big sister), then he got to go to school with one of the boys! He got up with them and took the bus to school (mind you, he doesn't actually speak German, and the boys don't speak very good English) and went to four classes - German, English (he said he was the best student in the English class!), Biology ("mom, they only spoke German, it was pretty boring") and Sport (where they played soccer, yay!). We planned ahead and brought some candy that is very American (thank god it's Halloween and the bags of candy are easily found and cheap) to share with the kids in the English class and they were apparently very much looking forward to having him there.

I just think this is so cool. How many kids get to fly all the way to Germany for a sleepover and a one day adventure in a German school?? What memories!!

I got the picture (below) via facebook once he was all settled in, just to let me know he was happy and comfortable.

I love these two!!

Anyway, my boys only have a couple days left. I've mostly gotten over the fact that I'm not there with them, and know I will get to go back one day. Plus, they went shopping at the Adidas outlet today (they are in the town that Adidas and Puma were founded!!), so I know they are bringing me some goodies.

That helps.

Well, that and the vodka. Of course.

Prost!!

Can we get a new car?

Toddler: "Mom, can we get a new car? Because I want one that flies."

Me: "Ummm ..."

Toddler: "So we can have three cars, because I need one that flies. Let's go to the new car station now."

In My Mind

It's World Suicide Prevention Day (you should know, for the record, that I am NOT suicidal). It makes me sad that we have to have a day to acknowledge that this is a horrible thing we must stop. That to somebody, you are everything. It sucks that everyone can't see how important they are.

I am going through some crazy stuff right now and depression and suicidal thoughts are definitely something the doctors are watching me closely for (side effects of the medication - yeah, it's been fun). I've had to check out of my life this last week, which has been tough for all of us. But we'll survive. I am not going crazy. Depression lies. The panic attacks can be managed.

It's all worth it.

Today the bloggess posted this piece, and the picture on the right ... I can't stop looking at it. Click the link. I want to do that, is that weird?

And then the song.

"How strange to see that I don't wanna be the person that I want to be."

She speaks to me.

Also, I love her hair. I'm totally chopping mine off.

Hug someone today. Tell someone they are important. Be there, look around, notice the little things. Live in the moments, not the minutes. Because its all worth it.

Mom, I need to clean my thumbs

In the car on the way home from the grocery store ...

Toddler: "Mom, I need to clean my thumbs" as she holds them both up in that "thumbs up" sign.

Me: "Umm, okay. We can clean them as soon as we get home."

A few minutes later, as I am unbuckling her from the car seat, I look closer at her thumbs.

Me: "Are those buggers?"

Toddler: in her sassy, 'duh' voice, "Yeaaah"

Me: "Did you pick your nose with your thumbs?"

Toddler: "Mmm-hmm"

Me: "With your thumbs? Weird"

Toddler: "Well mom, we were in the car."

Me: "You have to pick your nose with your thumbs in the car?"

Toddler: "Duh"

And thus, the life of a mom.

Kidlet gems

Tween: "Mom, do we have anything we can pawn?"
Obviously we've been watching a lot of Pawn Stars, Auction Hunters and Storage Wars.

Toddler: "Moooom, I don't have to eat dinner! I'm just going to eat junk food and get fat."

Me: "What do you guys want for dinner?"
Tween after a lengthy list of ideas that I shot down: "How about drumsticks?"
Toddler in her exasperated, 'duh' voice: "Those are for playing Rockband."

Tween: "Hey, can we do this to our barbecue?"

Its on my bucket list to go to the shooting range and fire some guns, so there have been a lot of conversations recently about the various aspects of when and what kind of gun. During the Olympics, we were discussing the shooting competitions.

Me: "I'm really fascinated watching these events, I can't wait to shoot a gun."
Tween: "I want to shoot a bow and arrow."
Toddler: "I want to shoot an animal."
WTF?

Tik Tok

I can't stop watching this. And I'm not even a big Trekkie. Take a moment, please, and enjoy it with me.

What a week!

It's been a hell of a week. Full of emotional ups and downs, tears of joy and of pain ... I'm exhausted and it's only Wednesday.

The fun started Saturday night. First there was this:

Watching, from the comfort of the upper deck, a wedding at a venue that friends of mine own. Isn't that an awesome campfire pit? Once the wedding was over, we went down and roasted marshmallows ourselves. Awesome.

Then it was time to go home. As I was walking back down the stairs, I tripped. And now, this is how I spend my days:

With a broken foot.

We spent Sunday morning in the ER (because I refused to go when I got home Saturday night). The orthopedist doesn't want to see me until next week, to let the swelling go down. That's all I know. It sucks. But the pain is lessening, so that's good.


So then Tuesday rolls around, and this happened (as you may have seen on facebook, twitter, yesterdays blog post, or even the Times):

which was pretty freaking amazing. I feel I've gone on quite a lot about this in various forms of media, so you all get the drift there.

Not to be out of the spotlight for long, the tween had his own way of getting attention. After two eight hour days of intense soccer camp, he came home Tuesday afternoon not feeling well. We'd stocked him up, we thought, with Gatorade and water and the right kind of foods (this is not our first rodeo folks), but he was clearly dehydrated. We were on him the rest of the night about drinking more fluids, but at that point it was too late. About twenty minutes after he went to bed he started violently vomiting and off he and hubs went to the ER.


Which, by the way, just about killed me. Damn broken foot.


So today, recovery for him looked like this:

Follow up doctor visit. No camp. Note the messy hair, bags under his eyes, and the two ER bracelets on his wrist. Conclusion - either a stomach bug or dehydration. Presents the same. Treats the same.

Quite a week. Let's hope it settles down a bit. I'm not sure how you top watching your kid meet the President. And let's not even think about how it could be worse - we just know that it is possible and hope the good mojo stays and the bad juju goes far away.


Cheers folks. I'm ready for bed.