No news was not good news..........

I apologize for my lack of blogging as of late.
Things have been very busy. Some days were mundane, to say the least, and some brought new experiences and revelations.

Well here goes the bad news........ We are no longer moving to Germany. We have choosen not to be in the waiting game any longer. The stress level was too high here. This was a very hard decision for us. Not done very easily. We've put a lot of time, work, and emotion into the idea and notion that we would be moving our family to Stuttgart come July this year. Now that is no longer an option.
It required a whole new train of thought to get use to the idea of moving and now I must retrain my thoughts to the idea that I am not moving. Easier said than done.
Goals were short and simple when thinking of moving. It was simple to just say purge out the things you can't take or don't want and not sign up for things that would conflict with the moving process. Now I don't have to get rid of things like foam stickers or my fishtank and Now I have to plan for summer vacation here. As much as I'd love to take the kids to Germany, we can't afford to fly a family of 5 there. It was much simplier when the employers paid for it :)

The good news, I don't have to learn German :) ha,ha,ha. I don't have to find homes for my fish and our gerbils!!! My Mom is extremely happy!! I can crop with my gal pals all I want.

So it's back to where we started. Our 11th Anniversary is coming up this Wed. I surprised the H. with a romantic get away a couple of weeks ahead of schedule because we needed it.
We had a great weekend with the kids at the circus not too long ago. We had seats really close up.....what a great time we had.

I plan to stay in touch with my blogging friends in Germany. I hope to visit there soon. If all goes well my husband will be going to Frankfurt in May for business and I will join him for a week.

Bye for now..............

Take time to smell the roses.......

Or a carnation in this case.

Just a pretty picture and a pretty thought. Reminding us to slow down and enjoy life.

Children get enjoyment from such simple things.

We can too!!!

Just an update and a few silly questions.......

For those of you who may be interested, I guess this will just be a blog to catch people up with my boring little life :)

Girls night out was a blast. We ate at Panera bread.....sandwiches, salads, soups and sweets and coffee/tea are always nice when shared with friends. We stayed until they closed and Dawn even got bread for free that they were going to throw out to make way for the fresh bread baked the next morning. We were too late to get the Asagio Cheese bread....it already hit the garbage can. Maybe next time :)
The time always go by fast when you're chatting with your gal pals.
We saw the movie Music and Lyrics and I must say that Hugh Grant looks very smashing in his tight pants :) The movie was perfect for our age group.......we are a product of the 80's (he,he,he). It was easy to picture yourself as the "groupie"!!!
We tried to get an attendant to take our picture, but they tried twice with no success.....therefore there is no picture to post.
Maybe this Sat. we'll have better luck taking pictures at our crop/movie night at Dawn's. We convienced her to have a movie and treats after the crop........Lake House!!! Looks like a good chick flick:)
What am I ever going to do in Germany?

Well we managed to get the basement spray painted. It's so white and bright. I'm going to try to paint in the bathroom down there once my son goes to school. Wish me luck. This is going to take a few days because I move pretty slow.
We're hoping to get carpet installed this week, hopefully by Wed. so we can play down there when our friends come over Thursday to play!!!!!
My Gal Pal Kim had her birthday this past Sat.......in case you're reading this Happy Birthday again!!!!! Can't wait to see you Thursday.........you get to come play at my house for a change:) Of course I'll be missing the home improvement shows at your house, no cable TV here.

The weekend was busy as usual........painting, gymnastics, soccer, and we went bowling Sunday. Duckpin. The kids had a blast. They were really getting the hang of it by the end. I wonder if they have duckpin bowling in Germany?

Here's some questions for all my blogger friends that live in Germany.........
Are there movie theaters with English speaking films or subtitles?
Are there places like bowling alleys and billards there?
What are the entertainment places around Stuttgart? For Children or Adults? I know there is the Wilheim Zoo near there.

Time to go finish getting my little guy ready for school.
Hope I wasn't too boring!

Looking forward to Friday!

Friday is Girls Night Out!!!!
I'm so excited. Dinner and conversation at the Panera Bread and a movie, with my 2 best gal pals. I can't wait.
I'm leaving the husband home with the 3 kids!!!
I'm going to miss my friends here so much. I know that I can keep in touch through e-mail and visits home (can't afford many of those, hopefully they'll come visit me:), but it's just not the same as being here . Not so spontaneous and personal.
There's lots of the "I'm going to miss you so much" thing going on right now.
It makes me very sad and I'm starting to realize how much I'm giving up here to go live in Germany for a few years. I'm going to miss them too!!!! It's nice to know that people care so much for me and value my friendship so much.
I know that Germany will be a great experience. How many people get this kind of opportunity? Or even take it if given the chance? It's just hard to say goodbye to what's familiar and secure to go to the unknown and foreign. (really foreign:)
I could go on and on about what I'm giving up and what I'll be gaining. But I won't bore anyone with all of that. Fact is, I want to go and I'm going. It's not easy, in fact it's very stressful and scary. But along with that is an excitement about seeing something new, experiencing something new, learning something new. It's my choice to do this with an open mind, ready to take this on or sit and be sad about it and what I'm leaving behind. I choose to be open to the new experience.
Trust me, after last year......nothing could compare to that stress and anxiety. This is a breeze. I'm fairly laid back about it all..........the only thing that bothers me is the waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting.
We are very impatient in America.......it's the gotta have it now syndrome. Things are so easy to get that we don't have patience anymore. I hear it's much more laid back in Germany, so I'm looking forward to that. It's very fast paced here, and I live in Suburbia/border line city.
Well there's just too much to do today.......
Playdate at the library, Volunteer work at the school, and carpet man coming for an estimate later on tonight.
Basement walls are up. Spray painting this weekend, carpet next week. We should be moving stuff back in there and out of our garage by next weekend. I can't wait. I promise to take lots of pictures. The kids are already planning sleepovers in the new family room :)