In the life of me.

No, not the George 2 and George 3 but the real George! We went on a walk today and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a grill and on the side of it lay George. I looked at Bry and asked, “Babe, is that George?” He went over for closer inspection. Indeed, it was the one, the only, George. The one horn sucked longer than the other, the tag that was mostly torn off but a strand of thread hanging there. When we got home Bry showed it to John and he had such a huge smile on his face. In the morning George shall have a bath and then he can return into the arms of the little boy that loves him so much!

*hugs*
~Jen

P.S. G2 and 3 are in the mail now.

Last night, four hours into sleep, John decided to wake up. After several attempts in a two hour period, we had, had it. We even did the let him cry in the crib for a while thing and that really didn’t work for long. He cried it out, woke up and screamed again 15 minutes later. Bry decided to sleep on the couch so I brought John into our bed where within 30 seconds he was passed out on my chest so I rolled him onto his back on our bed. Despite it being a frustrating time for the whole family, the sweetest thing happend twice through the whole ordeal. In two different attempts to have him sleep on my chest and then lay him back in his crib, he laughed in his sleep, the type of laugh he gives when he’s being tickled. Too friggen cute. Needless to say, we all slept a bit better after the new arrangement. I just hope it does not become a habit. Usually he only snoozes with me when Bry’s pulling a 24 hour shift.

In another part of the day…driving + bad German drivers = very irritated me. Bry decided to carpool today and leave me the car. Which was nice since I needed to get out to MZ Kastel to get a b-day present for a friend’s kid. I really shouldn’t have gone out today…seriously. First off, despite me going the speed limit or about 5km/h faster than the limit, I got tail gated to and from my destination. While leaving there, two lanes merge into one. The left lane (the one I was in) merges to the right. Germans have a nice zipper rule that they sometimes follow. Today happend to be the day when the person behind me on the right decided to not follow that rule (mind you, she also toyed with me, slowed down first and then sped up rather quickly to cut me off at the end of the friggen merge). I held back my finger and I held back blasting my horn. Then about two exits away from where I was going to get off I get behind some slow trucks and signal that I want over to the left, I look behind and all is clear. This nice black car was far enough back that I could get over. Soon as I start to move over, hello black car, you almost hit my side! I had to swerve to the right and just take some deep breaths knowing my exit was soon. I endured being behind the slow moving trucks because it just seemed safe at the moment…and it was. I’m considering vowing to never drive here again. C’mon, we had an accident (wasn’t our fault either, whole other rant entirely) this time last year. I’d rather not have another one.

May the rest of the day got a bit more smoothly. It’ll be busy but it’ll keep me from fuming even more.
*hugs*
~Jen

Well, for the past few days I have been working on getting a flower garden started outside our stairwell. It is finally done! It’s all fenced in so the gardeners won’t weedwack them this year. We only bought a few flowers, the rest are the free ones from self help. I’m quite content with our snapdragons, our fairy looking flowers (forgive me, I do not know their names), and marigolds.

Yesterday, I get home from RCIA to find a note planted on our door about housing cleanup…that someone from every household has to be out there at 9am. Well, Bry had Staff Duty last night, today is his day off. So I called our Building Coordinator to let him know what’s going on. He said that someone still has to be out there. John’s managed to time things to where he’ll have his nap here in about a half hour so I can’t be out there at 9am. My hubby needs his sleep and I did the garden as our share. It’s only us and one other family in the stairwell so I don’t see what the big deal is. I guess we’ll see how it plays out when Bry gets home. I will get photos up of the garden soon.

*hugs*
~Jen

Saturday Bry and I went out for a walk and when we got home John’s favorite blanket went poof. Bry drove around where we walked 4 times and no luck. Maybe his Oma and G-pa can get him a new one since they were the ones that got it for him. Poor Classic Pooh Bear blanket.

Then today I went to the store and when I got halfway up the hill from there I noticed George the Giraffe was gone. It was another one of John’s favorites. Being that the sucker is $16.50, he won’t be getting a replacement one. John will have to find a new replacement.

I’m not too worried about it. He’s got tons of other toys and blankets. It just sucks when the ones your kiddo and you love most disappear.

On another note, I caught two boys playing in a construction zone on Virginia and kindly asked them to not play there so they wouldn’t get hurt. One asked me if I had a daughter because she said that she hoped he got hurt and died because he was playing there. Apparently this girl looks just like me. Frankly, I think I’m too young to have two kids. Anyway, I reminded them to not play there and went off to the store. On the way I found an MP, so hopefully those kiddos won’t play there anymore.

*hugs*
~Jen

Yeah, you read correctly, for the first time, in what Bry and I narrowed down to about a year, we went on a date. I was anti movie my last trimester due to needing to pee every 15 minutes. We were long over due for some alone time. It felt strange not carrying/pushing a baby along with us, but it was really nice after a while. We were out for four hours, the longest either of us have spent away from him. His longest time in care with someone other than Bry or I has been one hour when we’re at church.

We went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles. I loved it! My favorite character was the lil’ brownie who hulkifies in an instant, but calms on down with a bottle of honey. Too cute! And of course, I loved the fairies. Bry and I want to get the books. Our bookstore only has the 5th one.

After the movie we went to the mall and Bry bought me chocolates. Yay Hussel! Since we were already in the downtown area I suggested we try to find an Italian place I know I saw before on Rhine Main Strasse. Granted, that was about two years ago I saw it there…it’s not there anymore. It was supposed to be a pizza date because I got him Valentine’s Scratchcards and that was one particular thing he won. Instead, we decided to try out Asia Family for their Sushi. It all tasted lovely, but most of my Sushi fell apart. For that reason alone, I like Sushi World better. I even relaxed a lil’ more at dinner thanks to a Tequila Sunrise. I kinda wanted to try a Sex on the Beach but I likes me my tequila better than vodka.

When we got home John was screamin’ his lil’ head off. The sitter thought he was too hot and started stripping him down. I asked how he ate and he barely ate with her, like a half ounce, so I had Bry make a 9 ouncer. John’s never had that much before in one feeding and he sucked it down in 5 minutes flat. He was in a better mood after that.

We want to make going out a once a month thing. Hopefully, we can go out twice this month. At the end of the month is the Brigade Ball, that’s if we can get tickets…I hope so. I have a nice dress and shoes picked out on Amazon, cheap too. John’s Godmother will be watching him then.

*hugs*
~Jen

Today I went out with John to take care of my friend’s cat. Soon as I get out the door it starts to drizzle a little. No biggie at the time, just stuck the cover over the stroller and I dealt with getting pelted, hoping it’d end after I got done with the cat. That didn’t happen. Needing to go to the store, I did it anyway. Hey, I had no other option, no car and the umbrella was at home, goodie heh. So many people walked by with umbrellas and coats, I did my best to smile at them and not one smile back. Along the way, George the Giraffe, took a spill into a mud puddle as did John’s favorite blanket.
Then I slip and slide through the store and decide that since the rain has picked up that it’s best to wait at the covered bus stop. I saw that the bus was due to come in 2 minutes and I prayed that it wasn’t running ahead of schedule and that maybe, just maybe someone would help me out (I saw people there when I got to the store and then they were gone when I came back out…I took like 2 minutes inside). Thank goodness it was on time. A highschooler helped me get everything on the bus. You have no idea how much I appreciated it. Granted, the stroller was not in the safe spot and I had to climb over a rail to get in a seat, but it was ok. I was soggy and in the same kind of mood. When we got to our stop, the bus driver and the kid helped me get John out. I wanted to tip the kid, but he sped off in the opposite direction. My mood definately improved after that. That and I had yummy home made apple cinnamon muffins to come home to.

*hugs*
~Jen

Now Bry will let me be proud of him publicly for his promotion. A few days ago he got a call saying that he made points for Sgt. Then he was all paranoid that his name wouldn’t be on the list even though his points showed on his ERB. Quite a few times a day he’d check to see if the name list was out. Last night, before bed, it finally did and his name was on it! I’m so proud of him!!!! It’s been a long time coming. Things happend in our unit last year that just couldn’t have been prevented so people weren’t sent to boards.

With all this good came some bad. John didn’t nap well yesterday and I was tired all day, focused on me time while he did half naps instead of napping with him. Last night I couldn’t sleep and John was up just about every hour. Then he decided it’d be great to get up at 5:40am. He eats a lil’, and spits up on the couch. I go to clean it up and blow dry the suede on the couch and I blow a fuse. I have no hair dryer and I have no light now. So ignore this paragraph. I am really happy, just tired and grouchy. I need a break.

*hugs*
~Jen

I volunteered to cat sit for a friend of mine who will be gone for the next 6 weeks. We believed it to be a good idea to have her cat be at our place that way Salem won’t be all alone the whole time. Yeah, after many kitty tizzies and Cinnamon being ticked at everyone we thought maybe it wouldn’t work out. Come about 10:30 last night we had to call her to get her house key and give the kitty back. The cats were in a huge fight as we laid down for bed. Now Cinni is ticked at Hunter for no good reason. He just looks at her and she growls at him. Yes, that mini cat has a growl the size of a pit bull.

So now we are all drowsy. Yay for us.

*hugs*
~Jen

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each blogger answers the questions about themselves.
3. Something about tagging other bloggers. Ok, how about KC, Becca, Jackie, Tracy, and Caiti?
***
What I was doing 10 years ago:

Wow, 14…I was in Junior High, in choir, dating my first serious boyfriend…or was that at 15? See, my memory already fails me.

Five Snacks I would enjoy in a perfect, non weight-gaining world (Chili’s [and Derek's{and Jen's}] note; pshaw! I enjoy these in THIS world!)

1. Chocolate chip cookie dough
2. Girl Scout Thin Mints, gotta be frozen though.
3. Wheat Thins
4. Cheese
5. Dark chocolate (this one needs to be up in that number 1 spot)

[Note: I have removed a redundant part of the survey here regarding what foods I would eat in the real world. See above for explanation.]—That would be Derek’s note.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Have a home in CA, NM, ID, and SC.
2. Donate to more charities
3. Get the Cockatoo I want. You’d think after having a cockateil before, I’d never want a bird again.
4. Pay off debt
5. Take care of my family.

Five jobs that I have had:

1. Newspaper deliverer
2. Babysitter
3. Assistant Secretary (in three different places)
4. Child care assistant
5. Mommy

Three of my habits:

1. Praying
2. Singing to my son
3. Reading to my son

Five place I have traveled (I changed this question - it originally read “five places I’ve lived” but that’s not very exciting, since I’ve never lived more than about 70 miles from where I was born [ditto])–From Mrs.Chili and Derek. I, however; have lived in many places. I’ll go with travels though.

1. Lorain, OH
2. Williamsburg, Virginia
3. Disney World in Florida
4. Clovis, NM (I know I lived there before, but when I moved away I sure as heck had to go visit!)
5. San Luis Obisbo, CA

(I added this question)–another Derek thing, or maybe Chili, dunno
Five things that can be found in/on my bedside table:

1. Always a book
2. Candles
3. Lamp
4. PJs
5. The control to my half of the electric blanket.

*hugs*
~Jen

Today something smacked me in the head. I realised that Bry’s schedule changes shortly and that we’ve pissed away our past two weekends, one of which was a four day. Last weekend was movies and yardsale. This weekend he’s been totally engrossed with his new beast of a computer (so friggen tired of hearing about how awesome it is and what other stuff he’s got to do with it.). I brought up my irritation of our poor quality weekends together…that we didn’t take advantage of the 4 day and take a small trip. I get the bland “I’m sorry” while he continues poking around his new toy. I just feel like we’ve really missed out on a lot here. C’mon, we live in friggen Europe and we only have Christmas Markets to show for it. That’s all we’ve been to. I want to see Trier, Garmisch, Neuschwanstein, and so much more…like Paris! Now we really won’t get the chance. Oh well, guess I better just suck it up.

*hugs*
~Jen

P.S. What the heck is up with the layout all over this site. I’m really not liking it!