April 23-28

Tuesday April 23

Well, I've been too busy to write as much as I would like. Writing also makes me think about leaving... I'm also starting to feel the stress of all that has to be done before we leave. How am I handling that? Procrastination! I have a list of companies, schools, city departments, etc. who have to be notified of our departure, but I have no desire to do the actual calling. Bleh.

When I picked GE up from Kindergarten her teacher handed me a form and said that she had passed the language evaluation that they did with all the 4 and 5 year olds! She wasn't even at the bottom of the pass range, but right smack solid in the middle. Her teacher said with a chuckle: "She doesn't need any language/speech therapy! She'll be just fine for the start of school if she keeps on like she's doing." The teacher knows, of course, that we are leaving, so she said this all tongue-in-cheek. I think she's been fairly impressed with how quickly GE learned German--even beyond how well young kids typically can pick up the language. Part of that is probably because we did try to speak German at home and corrected her when she used it. If we'd be staying longer, there would have been more of a push to speak English at home so she would continue to learn her mother-language, but under our circumstances, we wanted to cram as much German into her little brain as quickly as possible!

She needed a 47.8-75.0 to pass and got 56.25. Not sure what they did with her exactly but they played games and that sort of thing. "Braucht keine zusätzliche Sprachförderung" means she doesn't need any further language/speech support.

HR stayed home with a stomach ache (really? I think more likely she wanted to spend time with Grandpa and Grandma but that plan sort of backfired.) My in-laws took the train to Köln for the day, visiting the Dom and the Markt in the Altstadt. I had planned to go running with my friend, SL, but when I had to stay home with HR, I invited her over for Kaffee instead. After visiting for a while, ME came home and I could make a mad dash to the grocery store. Didn't need much since we were going out for dinner at the Afghani restaurant in Bad Godesberg. Dinner was delicious and the chef sent out two platters of a special lamb dish (guess they heard us speaking American English and wanted to make an impression!). Yum.  I was pleasantly surprised that all the girls found something at the buffet that they wanted to try and liked. I'd half expected them all to balk at having to choose between curried vegetables and spicy chicken! Maybe my international cooking is starting to wear off on them after all... We walked home in the late day sun. The weather has been just stunning the last few days and today was no exception. We made park stops along the way to let the little girls play on the swings, in the sand, etc. They both needed to be thoroughly washed when we got home...

Wednesday April 24

Spent the morning doing my shopping around Friesdorf (Pennymarkt and Der Leyenhof). In-laws just tagged along. Grandma has been walking the middle girls to school and came with me one day to drop GE off at the Kindergarten. Grandpa came this time. The weather is lovely. In the afternoon we took the girls back to Der Leyenhof because we'd seen that there were baby bunnies!

Riding bike down our street to Der Leyenhof.

Checking out the pigs too!

Notice the roof! My FIL pointed out that it was growing stuff too!

GE got to help feed the pigs (the pot in the foreground had the farm worker's leftovers from lunch which got mixed up with leftover greens.)

Happy, grunting pigs.

From there we headed over to the Klufterplatz and suddenly HR exclaimed that right over there is the Schulgarten (school garden). We parked the bikes and had her walk us over. Luckily a teacher was just leaving with a group of students and parents who had been working on one of the flower plots. She let us go in (it's gated and locked) and see HR's Schulgarten, then we walked over to get Eis at the Klufterplatz.

She planted this one. The classes each have one or two plots. The children, teachers and parents all help to maintain the garden. They go during school hours and sometimes meet after school or on weekends. Can you imagine?!

Abendbrot for dinner and then the little girls went back out with Grandpa to the "Ship Park" because the weather just screamed to be enjoyed outside. I met my running group friends for a run at 8 p.m. It stayed light the whole time!

Thursday April 25

Today we took the train to Ahrweiler (about 45 minutes total travel time). We let the little girls come along, but MK went to school. We've been to Ahrweiler twice so she wasn't missing anything new, but we wanted to show J&K one of our favorite old villages. We poked around the church (which we haven't ever managed to see before because it was closed or being used for a wedding) and the shops. J got a Jagdhut to match his traditional Trachtenmode Jacke. We ate lunch in the little Altstadt, then took the train home. Later we enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Club Galicia (the local tapas soccer club joint that we like).

The vineyards on the hill overlooking the train stop where we got off.

The historic plaque on the gate (previous picture) explaining when and how the watch tower and gate were built (13/1400's). The stones are from the Drachenfels quarry near Bonn.

GE kept hiding in the doorways. Here I caught her hopping out of one to run over to another.

HR pulling the heavy wooden door of the church open to go in with me.

Gorgeous frescoes on the ceiling.

Lighting a candle--this time she said it's for her Oma and Opa (my parents).

Saying a little prayer that my parents arrive safely for their visit in a few weeks.

There was a special story about the large metal doors in this church. I couldn't find the information in the short amount of time we were there, but found them fascinating. I imagine they are based on something in Revelations? Anyone recognize what it might be? HR thought the eyeballs in the doorhandles were particularly cool.

Spring time has invaded Ahrweiler!

Checking out the baked goods while we sat out for a little Kaffee und Kuchen.

Frescoes in the plaster of the Fachwerk.

Busy streets and blue sky.

The restaurant had a patio for eating outside AND a place for the little girls to play. Perfect.

While waiting for the food to come, ME and Grandpa sat in one of the cabanas to chat.

J in his Jagdhut. Isn't he a stunner? We're going to have to put up a hat rack when we get home to VA! He's gotten a new Stetson here, the short brimmed one for his birthday, and a tweed cap when he was in Ireland in February.

Friday April 26

Grandpa rode bike with MK to her school. The clouds are moving in and the temperatures are supposed to tank over the course of the day. All the girls went to school again. My FIL came along to drop GE off at Kindergarten and then rode with me into Bad Godesberg (BG) where I got my groceries. My in-laws leave today in the afternoon, so there were lots of "lasts": last walk to Grundschule to pick up the middle girls, last lunch together, squeezing the girls one last time. I raced to get GE from Kindergarten so she could see them as they left. It was raining and I had to put on all my water-proof gear and took Matschhosen and raincoat along for GE.  After they left, I headed into BG to watch MK at her dance class, then raced with her over to a place that supposedly does ear piercing (they close at 4 and her class goes until 3:45) only to discover that they don't do it anymore, so then into Bonn instead. Mission accomplished! She has also outgrown her clothes from last summer, so we shopped for gym shorts, some more short sleeved shirts, and some capri jeans.

Then home to spruce up for my celebratory dinner with my running group at Tuscolo in Bonn! At 8 I met my running friends at a house down the street and we drove in to Bonn together (originally we were going to bike, but the rain nixed that plan).  There were 10 women plus our trainer! I took my camera but had forgotten to put the SD card back in after downloading pictures. It was one of those gatherings where we talked and talked and I suddenly looked at  my watch and saw it was past 11 p.m.! The food was wonderful, but the company even better! We were some of the last to leave.

Saturday April 27

This morning's running group was the finale to the "course" that started in January (you thought it was the 1/2 marathon, but that would be wrong!). Our trainer, HW, called it the "Sparta 1000". It was hard, but good! I made it through (can't believe I did 100 pushups!). Points to anyone who can read the introduction!

100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats with cinder block overhead press, 100 leg lifts, 100 pull ups (lying down under a chair, feet up on another chair), 100 twists (seated, cinder block held outstretched and passed side to side over knees), 100 bicep curls (cinder block in each hand!), 100 burpees, 100 dips (triceps: hands on a stool/bench, feet up on another, lower self between the chairs), 100 leg pulls (seated, stretch legs out as far as possible at 45 degree above ground, then pull knees in to shoulders as fast as possible). Then 10 km run while carrying a weighted ball.

Came home, lunched, showered, grocery shopped, napped!

The big girls had gone over on Friday evening to ME's friend's house to spend the night and then went with them to Phantasialand, a theme park near Bonn. It was a lot colder today and rainy at first but they still had a great time.

Sunday March 28

A quiet morning (the big girls spent the night again at ME's friend's house!). We slept late, the little girls played nicely together (why is it so much quieter when MK and ME are gone?!), I cooked and baked. My friend SL had planned to do a barbeque today and we were invited, but she postponed it due to the cold weather, so I took the opportunity to invite them over for Kaffee und Kuchen this afternoon. I made my chocolate mayonnaise cake recipe but put the batter in my mini-muffin pan so I wouldn't have to go to the neighbor's house to bake it. The first pan stuck to the muffin forms, but then I oiled them a bit and the second pan turned out great! I also have some fresh fruit and Quark.

Had a lovely time talking SL and her husband O. Their son, N, is also in the 4th grade at the Bodelschwingheschule but in another class. SL had told me that he was interested in the computer game, Minecraft (having heard of it from other classmates), but that they didn't know much about it. I offered to have MK show him some of things you can do (it's sort of like Legos on a computer, if you're not familiar with it). So, they were busy with that while the grown-ups (intermittently interrupted by GE or HR) visited over Kaffee. We'll get together again for coffee/tea tomorrow morning.