Silliness

I so hope that I am NOT the only person in the world who does really silly things...

Well today was a whole marathon of silly things. It started off really nice, the kids let us sleep until 9 (okay Cedric wanted to say hello at 7 but we ignored him and then he decided to go back to sleep as well) and when I got up I was greeted by sunshine and blue skies, so I thought: "GREAT!!!! Lets go for bike ride today!!".

We have two kid's seats so no problem... until I remembered that Cedric did NOT have a bike helmet... great.

Still not wanting to let go of the idea of a little bike tour I thought I'd take my bike and quickly ride to a shop to get a helmet while Ben was in the bathroom. So I left after breakfast but halfway there I remembered that my wallet was still at home, hmmmm. So back home I went, quickly ran in (and noticed that Ben still wasn't in the bathroom to get himself decent looking) and rushed out again and off I went again.

At the shops I locked my bike, and when the lock clicked shut I thought: "Gosh!!! Where's my key?". Well, my key was back home where I left it when I rushed in and out to get my wallet. Great!!! So I bought the helmet and walked back home (luckily it wasn't very far off).

At home Ben still hadn't been in the shower and I got bit.. uhm... impatient with him, by now it was around 10:30am. But finally we... or better I got the kids ready while Ben got himself halfway decent and off we went, back to the shops of course. Ced was on the back of Ben's bike and Ned and I walked, carrying his bike seat.

I had also bought a new bike pump so once we reached my bike at the shops Ben wanted to pump up the tires and in the process broke the new pump ( or as Ben phrases it: "The pump broke in his hand due to poor construction!") and sliced open parts of two of his fingers.

I think it was 11:40am when we were finally ready to rock and roll. But man, Ned felt heavy. It felt like I was carrying a ton around and while sweating away I wondered aloud: "HOW in the world did I manage to bike with Ned on the back when I was pregnant????" I felt like I was getting nowhere and Ben wasn't even pedalling his bike. We went for maybe 4km and I said to myself: "This is the end of my biking carrier... and I thought I'm kinda fit with all my running and roller blading... great!!!". When we finally arrived at the part of town we wanted to go to I had to push the bike through a pedestrian area and all of a sudden realized, that somehow something seemed to be wrong with my breaks.... as it happened, when I put on the kids seat I managed to lock on the back break without noticing... so the entire time I was biking with "pulled" breaks!!!! No wonder I was getting no where... once we solved the problem it felt miraculously easy to pedal, but I almost fell off... because of laughing.

Memorable Moments

Some of them are BIG moments... like, when he proposed or when we got married, but other memorable moments are tiny ones, but nonetheless you want to treasure them for the rest of your life and never forget... the problem with me is that I seem to suffer memory loss or just bad memory capacity and often I forget those memorable moments IF I don't write them down... so I thought I share with you the last memorable moments:

As part of our going-to-bed-routine for Ned, Ned and I send Ben and Cedric out of the room and snuggle up in his bed. Then he tells me to sing... pretty predictable songs actually because it's the same 3 songs... every night. First the elephant song, if you're German you might remember the old "Benjamin Bluemchen" theme song (ahh, those were the days... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6lB9aXE-wM&feature=related)

The next song is the crocodile song... it stormed the charts a couple years ago although it's a German kid's song (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7055235710129334638#)

And last the hedgehog/cat song, which is also German (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeMfMawMPg8).

I thought singing about an elephant, a crocodile and a hedgehog/cat is okay, but singing about the creator of those animals is much better, so I introduced singing a German song about God loving children and he loves that one too now. My collection of kids songs is rather limited though (I'm REALLY NOT into kid's things at all!!!!), but I remembered the good old classic "Jesus loves me this I know" so I added that one as well to our going-to-bed-routine. And usually it was him requesting and me singing, but now I ask him to sing with me as well... which he does, if not with accuracy or any sense of melody BUT with lots of enthusiasm and volume :o)))).

Another part which seems to creep into out routine is wanting to go "peepee" again once he's all tugged in and I'm ready to leave the room. And there it happened.. the memorable moment.

He was sitting on the toilet and all of sudden started "singing" (which for him is rather "rapping") "Yeeeees, Jesus loves me" with this biiiiiiiiig huge grin on his face :o)))). And yes, Jesus DOES love him, hallelujah!!!

Bush fire

Bush fires are one major difference between living in Germany and living in Australia. We do not have bush fires. Its way too wet for it. So I am not used to bush fires, but I was told by Ben that the last bush fire in Western Australia was caused by a spark of an angle grinder... and it escalated.

This reminds me of what's happening in Northern Africa presently. We were there. We were in Libya. We were there not 4 months ago and I told everyone that travelling to Libya is rather safe. And now I sit here and watch in dread what's happening there... I watch the news on Al Jazeera... I mean, ME,... I am watching the news... I hate watching the news, I never watch the news if I can avoid it, but now I do.

Things hit closer to home if places are involved you've been to... and people you know. We haven't heard from our friends there. Ben tried calling their mobiles, but all communication links are down. He's able though to write on Skype with a South African lady working there. She's doing okay and is safe, PTL. This whole situation exploded... and you wonder what will happen... and all you can do from safe afar is watch... and PRAY.

There is a hurricane blowing through Northern Africa and the Middle East and nothing will be how we knew it.

Weird, the last time I was watching Al Jazeera I sat in a house in the middle of the desert in the middle of Libya...

Thoughts concerning Australia

We sat down today and planned the rest of our time here in Germany... I mean, I normally don't work according to a plan, but it somehow helps to have some sort of a time frame. It is slightly scary though, we plan to leave in 5 weeks time... and one eye cries as the other one laughs.

It is scary to uproot your family and start anew somewhere different. Okay, Albany is HOME for Ben and I've been there a couple of times so know my way around and know people, and of course Ben's folks are there, but still... I'm a bit reluctant to leave. Once I'm there, I'll be fine, but right now I don't want to leave, AND I don't want to pack my life in boxes once again, sigh. I hate packing with a passion, but on the other hand, I am grateful that I do have stuff to pack... you know, not like other people who are running for their lives and can't take anything with them, so I should be grateful.

Many people ask me if I do look forward moving to Australia, so the answer is NO, I am NOT looking forward to the moving part, but I'm looking forward to the living there part, although, we'll arrive at the start of winter (whereas everything inside me longs for WARMTH and sunshine and greeeeen!!!!). God has been so good to us, I really don't deserve His goodness and hope that I will remember when I feel that He "never" helps me and everything goes wrong "always" (do you have those moments s well???).

We have a place to stay in for the first couple of months. A very kind couple leave for an extended caravan trip and are happy for us to house-sit for them. I am so humbled and grateful that almost strangers let us live in their home and let us take care of it (I so hope that there aren't so many plant I could kill, as my abilities with green growing things are rather limited... we used to have a plant graveyard on the balcony). We also do have a set of wheels... who in their right mind would have thought we'd ever drive a FORD (as we have rather HOLDEN tendencies... if you don't have clue what I'm talking about ask the next Australian you meet), but FORD or HOLDEN, as long as it gets us from A to B and doesn't break down on us I don't complain and am very, very, VERY grateful!!!! We plan to send ourself a palette full with our things, so for a while we'll be living out of the suit case again (so to speak, I WILL unpack mine as fast as possible, as I HATE living out of a suitcase). And to be honest, I also plan to use the move to.. uhm... loose, several items along the way, e.g. as good as ALL of Ben's socks... most of them are black... but I never imagined how many different shades of blacks there are and how annoying it is to get the right socks back into appropriate pairs... my ward robe cries out for a change as well... moving around the world, having been pregnant twice and having baby fat to fight off again afterwards has definitely not improved it, and often I stand infront of the cupboard with the cry for "HELP - I have nothing to wear".

So, what am I looking forward to in Australia (besides cloths shopping that is:o) )

• Brown's supashake :o)
• our family
• Brown's Supashake... I love that stuff :o)) I want one... now.... or driving down from Perth, pleeeeaaaasssse?????????
• bush walking
• beaches
• nature
• getting involved in church
• finding friends... although I'm not very good at it
• having more kids of Ned's age around
• relaxed attitudes
• the adventure of doing something new and different
• the chance of a new start, starting afresh
• and there are many more things I thought of but can't remember right now... (I REALLY should go to bed)

There are things though I'll miss from Germany, where things and ways are so familiar to me and growing up here it's just normal and build in

• Many of my favourite foods :o)
• My family
• Many of my favourite foods which you can't really get outside Germany... or do you know Knoedel or Schwarzwurzeln or Maultaschen over there??? Sigh :o)
• my running track... I've grown rather fond of it... and by now it has two steeper hills in it for challenge
• not having to worry about poisonous snakes and other deadly things ("Ned you are NOT to ply with that spider, DON't touch it... PUT IT DOWN, DROP IT, NOOOOOOO!!!!!"... last autumn he tried to pick up living wasps...sigh). And don't tell me that you hardly see them, I almost ran over a tiger snake while roller blading and the snake didn't think it funny... neither did I.

So here we are... I'll go up to Frankfurt tomorrow to have a medical and a x-ray done for the visa application and Ben will deal with the boys all by himself for the morning :o)))) It is just after 9pm right now, but I'm off to bed... RIGHT now (aren't I a good girl???).. night, night!!

And jsut for the fun of it.. a couple of pictures of my little boys :o)))

Sick

You know, Ned's a very healthy little fellow, he's hardly even been sick (okay, he's been literally sick in 3 airports... puking sick I mean, but besides that). And although it IS very hard to watch your sick kid struggle it also has a very gratifying aspect to it: he's so cuddly... and I have to admit, I do enjoy it immensely. The weird thing is, that he still is quite active and fit, despite having a temperature of 40,6C... but the eyes are flat and a bit lifeless... poor little guy, I hope he'll get over it soon.

Ced's sick too now... and wants to be carried around as well, sigh... I'm so sorry for them and try to be as patient as a lamb... Ned refused to eat biscuits today, so that tells how sick he is.

This and that

I am so deadly tired. I'm having sleeping problems again... last time I had it I was very early pregnant with Ced, BUT I am NOT now, so don't worry. I hate laying in bed not being able to sleep. I'm not worried... okay now and then my mind wonders about this whole moving-to-Australia-business but I'm not worried... YET (okay it hit me yesterday when I realized that we'd like to leave in SIX WEEKS... that does make me want to run around in circles like a headless chicken and yell: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH). So I'm just laying there awake... and when I finally start to drop off Ned starts to yell out... it's a bad habit he's started the last couple weeks... do almost 3 year olds have nightmares already?

Today I wanted to go to bed early because I really feel like I could sleep like a rock tonight (I guess my body comes to the point where 4 hours a night aren't good enough) BUT I can't go yet... I'm making a photobook for my dad's 60th birthday (don't tell him... as he can't read English he can't read it himself, hahahaha) and being me I started doing it way too late but still wanna do a detailed and perfect job... so, many of my sleepless nights I spend on that thing... but now I wanna place the order and something doesn't seem to work... and now I'm waiting and trying it again, changing things and try again.. and again... I have to get the order out, because the birthday is way too soon anyway... so here I am sitting and waiting and longing to go to bed and SLEEP!!!

If you look at our calender you'll see that we are quite busy doctor-goes this months... I guess I wanna be up-to-date with all the vaccinations for the kids AND I have my teeth job still going on. I'll have my next dentist appointment on Wednesday and as it will only be to make a mould thing for my new fake teeth it won't hurt, so I thought I'll bring Ned (and Ced ... and Ben) along for him to experience the dentist... we'll see how it goes.

Ned himself will show you very proudly his "war injuries", if you ask him; he's been to the doc and got two shots, and I was SO proud of him, he only cried a little bit and behaved just great... but he'll still tell you:"Doctor, aua, gummibaers!!"

Also this week I'll finally go to have my medical examination and Thorax scan done for my Aussie residency. Hopefully I don't get the cold Ned has... or the fever he developed today... he just yelled out for us again and had a temperature... now he camps out in our bed... just what I needed additionally to not being able to sleep myself: have a sick kid to take care off...

Somehow I started to enjoy running. I'm not very fast, in fact I'm always a bit scared that when going uphill a granny with her walker help would overtake me, but so far no one has, due to the fact that I mainly run at night... no one is that silly to go running in the dark in the forest, right??? But I enjoy running in the dark in the forest, no matter if it snows or rains... my running path is as muddy as a pig pen, and so are my running shoes... and my socks... but somehow it makes you feel good that your running shoes look dirty and used, right??? And I seem to get better with my running. But to be honest, I think I could not be so fond of running without my audiobooks... it helps me be distracted and not focus on the thought: "I hate running!". I own my favourite books as audiobooks: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Ivanhoe, The Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, Little Women. And yes, I have listened to them a trillion times but still, I love them and they help me run... okay, yesterday "Little women" put me in a bit of a breathing problem: there is this part when one of the sisters dies and although I know the book, it makes me choke every time again and again... and choking and running isn't the best combination...

I bet none or my rambles make any sense.. I just try to fill the time... please Lord, can you make that problem disappear so that the book's ordered and I can go and sleep?? I so wanted to go to bed at like 10pm... but now it's almost one again... and I'm so spend... I can't even think of any amusing thoughts to share anymore.... ou well.. I'll call it a night and if my last attempt to get the order through doesn't work out, the work of I don't know how many days was in vain...

The throne

I have said before that I think toilet training is one of the most trying part of raising children so far and I still stand to it. The peeing part works pretty good though by now, the problem is on the other end.

BUT I had this most precious experience just now. Ned ran to the bathroom and I went after him thinking he had to go, but when I arrived on the scene he insisted me going back to the kitchen while he was busy removing his undies. Well, I stopped in the hall and watched the process. He succeeded in getting out of his undies eventually, then he climbed onto the little chair infront of the toilet and finally managed to sit down on the big throne and successfully empty his bladder... all by himself... that was precious :o)

A post about little nothings...

I wanted to send this post yesterday already but then some great technical problems occurred (.... I forgot to push the PUBLISH POST button.. oops):

Spring showed up, and it felt wonderful!!!!! If your body is used to minus degrees, 12C seem REALLY warm!!! And the sun was out... I was almost tempted putting my laundry on the outside cloth line for drying, but then I couldn't be bothered:o)))

Ned's been away for the weekend at my parents so we felt like we had a little holiday ourselves, but I miss my little big guy and look forward having him back. We went for a good loooooong walk... if Ned's around the walks are long as well, but well, the distance isn't.... aaaaaand I used the time of him being goon to go roller blading again, the first time this year, in fact the fist time since before going to Logos Hope in October. It felt good.... except for all those people who were out and about to enjoy the sunshine and block up the path with their slow walking or with little kids trying to ride their bicycles... I almost made one little boy driving into the bushes, but I only wanted to get past him and he basically over reacted... well, he's alright

We just had a friend over for dinner and watched a movie afterwards: Young Victoria!! If you like costume films like Pride and Prejudice and the like you'll like this movie too. I like it a lot, it's clean, funny, slightly cheesy at times (a bit TOOOO cheesy for me at some parts) and, ach ja, also romantic... but I think even Ben enjoyed it, at least he stayed until the end of the movie although he only wanted to see the beginning:o))))

Bumper stickers

I'm not really the bumper sticker kind of girl. You'd never catch me with a sticker on the back (I mean the back of my car OF COURSE!!!): "Ned on board" or "I use my breaks for animals as well", BUT I am a great fan of reading bumper stickers!! In fact I'm one of those people who loves reading alllll sorts of things, like street signs, or shop signs, T-shirt logos or whatever happens to cross my eyes (My all time favourite sign is the one in Australia saying: "WRONG WAY!!! TURN BACK"... I always wonder how they want to know that this really isn't the way I want to go... but I digress )... and if you're unfortunate enough to be next to me while I discover different kind of read-ables I would also let you know what I can read somewhere... so that's where bumper stickers come in.

Some are so ridiculously stupid and don't make any sense whatsoever... others are rather funny but the problem is that the ones which are annoying and even offending are the ones which stick to my brain like honey to a bee.

There is this one car parking sometimes here in the area and every time I walk past, that stupid bumper sticker jumps in my eyes, freely translated into English it's something like this:
"No [BEEEP] kid on board with [BEEP] name"

(Censored version because it isn't nice to even write the word)

It makes me want to stick a yellow sticky memo underneath with a rude reply, something like:

"...but stupid driver driving!!"

(I know, that wouldn't be very nice nor "the" Christian thing neither, so I haven't)

But today I could NOT believe my eyes... I think I even stopped in my tracks and stared at it for a while. In a rather cute and sweet looking font I read:

"Jesus LOVES you, but everyone else thinks you're an [BEEP]hole".

I always like reading Christian messages as bumper stickers so at first I was rather bamboozled because I got stuck at the "Jesus loves you" part, and then shock!

I started wondering.... is it a believer with a very odd sense of humour or is it someone who makes fun about Christian messages on bumpers??? To be honest I haven't even worked out yet what I would like to write on a yellow sticky memo in reply, I just know if you're serious about Jesus you shouldn't put the dirty word and Him in one and the same sentence...

And now it's just like with a bad movie, it is stuck in my brain (so many aweful movies I watched I can still remember quite well and now and then they come to my mind and I wonder why in the world someone would create a movie like this) and now and then I'll think about it because it's so stupid and rude and I'll wonder why the person chose or maybe even designed this sticker... why drive around with this message stuck to your car.... and it makes me sad, so sad.

It isn't enough to tell people that Jesus loves them but we have to show God's love in loving them ourselves... maybe I should take it as a challenge to love people more.... maybe I should create my own bumper sticker saying: "Jesus loves you and I love you too"?????... naaaaaa.... as I said, I'm not the bumper sticker kind of girl.

Night night