Volunteering

Okay, I will resist the urge to catch you up on all things Munich in order to write about my humorous tale about volunteering at Dawson's school yesterday.  I promise I will do my best to catch you up on all of the other adventures of our trip, but keep in mind that most of my days involve work, sweatpants, Spotify, and Shelly.

In order to keep up with Dawson's learning progress I decided to volunteer at the school every other Wednesday morning.  The first volunteer event was perfect as I got to watch Dawson's amazing teacher break the class into small groups for projects so she could do the lesson with 4-5 students instead of the whole class.  My job was to help them sort out word sounds and write the words.  I loved seeing the kids from countries around the world trying to figure out the English language. So yesterday I was excited about my second trip to help out in the classroom.  When I arrived I was told that we were going on a walking tour in small groups around the community to see and document ,with pictures and words what these places do to help the community.  I had 4 kids in my group, Dawson, Mitchell, Anabel, and Alexandra.  Our locations were the gas station, bank, town hall, post office, and dentist.

I should have known there may be issues when I couldn't  get all 4 of them to sit still to take a picture before we left.  As we went towards the town they were jumping, running, pulling, etc.  No big issue..excited 6/7 year old kids outside on a field trip.....or so I thought.  Let me start by saying that my own son was bad, but not at the same level as the others.  I often took him aside begging/threatening him to listen and set a good example.  The behavior continued throughout our trip through town.   No one listened as I tried all my tactics that did not involve screaming (okay towards the end the screaming made an appearance).  Here are a few highlights:
 - One boy kept hiding so I thought he was lost
- They all kept running into the streets to pretend to be hit by a car
- When told that wasn't a play toy they all looked at me and said...yes it is...for us.
- Climbing on statues
- Hanging upside down from whatever straight item they could find.
- When lined up to discuss my disappointment in their behavior I advised them that I may have to tell the teacher they didn't listen and they may not be able to go to the fire department field trip the next day.  They looked at each other and then the spokesman of the group nicely informed me that it was the German teacher taking them so it wouldn't matter.
- At the dentist office their was a nose blowing break and the tissues were promptly put in the slot mailbox of the dentist
- I advised that they may each get a time out once we arrived back in the classroom.  All but mine looked at me and said Time Out, what is that?
- On the way home their was a path that one of the girls told me was the way they went to the school when she was dropped off from the bus.  On our way to the other side I was promptly fussed at for trespassing.  When I looked at the angelic face of the little girl and said, "so I guess you don't take this path every day?"  She shrugged her shoulders and said "no, but I have always wanted to".

Once back in the classroom (where I was promptly wishing for a shot of Whiskey) they were perfect angels and talking about all the things they learned on our trip..so maybe they had listened?  When Jason asked Dawson at the end of the day if the kids talked about how mean mommy was, he said "no, we were really bad".  

It seems funny to me now because I am picturing what I must have looked like walking through town with these four crazy kids and me telling them Nein, Nein, Nein (which one girl told me I should just say no).  In the end they all had fun and learned even though I had NO control over the group.  So what did I learn from all of this?  ....NO MORE VOLUNTEERING FOR FIELD TRIPS!!!!!

Big Sister

As most of you know, our road to creating our family was a bit more difficult then some but we wouldn't have had it any other way.  We have often thought and actually began to attempt to add what we hoped would be a sister for Dawson.   Luckily for us we got to experience a family of four for a little over a month while our precious niece Brittney visited with us here in Germany.  Just as anticipated Dawson loved having a 'sibling' if even for a month.  It was nice having another girl to talk too and nice to see how cool or uncool we were on the teenage meter.   Dawson and Brittney even enjoyed pestering each other as time went on.   So a family of four isn't too bad after all...That is if we could be promised a girl as sweet as one of my nieces which I don't think is even possible.  Ciao Brittney.  You will be missed!!

New Home

I married a terrific guy over 17 years ago.  Yes I know this most every day, but I don't always acknowledge it so here's your shout out Mr. Jason Nodine!  Why am I waxing poetic about my husband when the title to the post is home you ask?  Well, because that is what it felt like when I walked into our apartment in Germany for the first time...Home.  We have been blessed with being able to visit/live in Germany several times but this is the first time we haven't been living at a hotel.  So although 900 square feet may seem small to some for me it was a huge blessing.

Jason got to start the adventure ahead of Dawson and I and he was determined that I wouldn't have to do all the unpacking since I had been in charge of most of the packing.  I asked him (not always nicely) to keep some things for me to do/pick out so that I could feel part of the fun too but the majority of the furniture/lights/etc were in place by the time we got there.  That is even more impressive since the stuff arrived 3 days before he left for the states.

I love our apartment.  My sweet hubby even let me decorate the living room in light purple accents and we jointly chose Clemson Orange and Purple for the kitchen.  See that is the fun of living somewhere for just a year you can enjoy these fun colors and know you don't have to live with them forever (I know dear hubby you want Clemson kitchen all the time....).  Check out the pics on the sidebar and keep  an eye out for updated pictures.

Flying "Home"

The time had finally come for us to fly to our new home in Germany.   We were blessed to be able to fly our niece Brittney over for the first month and use our miles to bump her coach class ticket to business so that we could all fly together.  After 3 visits flying with Dawson by myself in coach class it was a nice change to have two helpers and business class seats.  The flight started out with the attendant asking my son some general questions in German.  He listened intently and then proceeded to look at me as if I could translate it the whole thing.  She quickly realized that we are not fluent in German and quickly changed her speech.  Brittney and Dawson enjoyed checking out all the cool things they could do with the seats, tv, and extras.   Right before take off they showed the safety video and Dawson looked over with a happy smile asking when in the flight we were going to get to do the slide and special air masks.  He was sad to realize that it was not standard on every flight and we were all praying that we would never ever have to use any of those things.  Finally we were ready for take off.  They were excited to feel the plane head into the sky and watch their world get smaller and smaller.  Dawson even asked for me to please roll down his window so he could touch the clouds.

After a nice meal we all laid down for some quick shut eye.  My loving husband got to figure out how to get Dawson to sleep even though he was just too excited.  We landed no worse for the wear just a bit tired.  Let the adventure begin!

Here we go

I think I am ready for our new adventure....  As I type this we are leaving in less than 12 hours for a completely different life for 13 months.  Most of the good-byes have been said and surprisingly with no tears (on my part) but as excited as I am for our new adventure I have a spot in my heart that is very sad to be leaving behind all of the ones that we love.  Mix that with a almost 6 year old that is feeling that same emotion and a husband that is now back in our lives after 6 long weeks apart and it is a mix of emotions that I am just 'going' with and letting myself feel and enjoy.  Now for the fun part of finishing all of the last minute details of life on this side of the pond (sorry Britain stealing this for my Germany adventure too.)

From 3000 to 900

Okay, I may regret these words but sometimes smaller is better.  I am actually excited about moving from our large home to this small 2 bedroom apartment with only 900 square feet.  Part of it is knowing that its not forever and that for one year I will (okay should) know where stuff is and that I can't bring something in without getting rid of something else.  So while the process of organizing and sorting is tedious and not always fun, I am looking forward to the results.

House Hunters International

I have always loved the show House Hunters and especially loved the international version.  I was excited to finally live that out during our search for a home in Munich.  I quickly realized that it is much more fun on TV than in real life.  First off apartments in the city are limited so the owners can pick from the cream of the crop.  Second, we weren't cream of the crop because we were coming with one child and one furry member of the family.   We flew home after a very stressful week with 3 options and contracts not knowing which if any would be ours.  Option 1 - Great size, great location, but we had to buy the kitchen at 2400 Euro.  Our contract stated we would pay 1500 and they could have it back after our lease.  Option 2 - New building in the general area of where we wanted to be but a little farther out.  It was great size and had lots of play areas for Dawson and Shelley.  Option 3 - Great location right next to a park and really had the old world charm of the city.  Was a bit smaller than the others and had no outside porches or sitting areas.   Which did we choose (or which chose us)?  We went with option 2 for the size, newness, and closeness to friends.  Check out our pics on the sidebar!