Yup, my mom is here. We picked her up at Trier train station. Didn’t do anything over the weekend. Couldn’t really do anything since there are now seven of us and the truck only seats 6. Made going anywhere imposable, especially entering the base. So the weekends were spent here at the house.

Today (Monday), we picked up the rental vehicle, it is a 9 seater van, Mercedes Vito. It is actually a pretty nice van. Because how long it took to get the van and get on our way, we realized we wouldn’t have the time to really go anywhere out of town. Which really sucked. Ok, in all honesty, we could have picked the van up earlier, but I had a 9am hair appointment to get the tips of my layers dyed again. I went with the blue/black again, but Kevin says the black is darker and seen easier…

After picking up the van, Kevin and I met at the Shoppette and got around $60 worth of snacks. Came home and got out the swimming suites and towels. Ok, my towel was actually MIA and so was Kevin’s swim shorts. The two of us headed to the BX real quick while my mom got the kids ready. Found him a set of swim shorts, but they had NO swim towels. UGH. So we head back home, pack everything up, load the van up with kids, and off we went.

Made it to the Cascades, which is really nice! It houses 5 indoor pools and 3 out door ones. Kevin took the three oldest while Mom and I sat with Derric. One of the indoor pools is a wading one with a small slide for little kids. Derric had a BLAST. He went down the little slide several times. But I will admit, it was a bit boring just sitting there watching him. We had been there for around 45 mins or so. The kids had gone down the black hole slide about twice each. We headed outside to see what was out there. But it was rather cold, so Kevin, mom, Derric, Xavier, and I headed in. Dokota and Kauchana stayed outside in the big pool. The big pool has this big float that kids were trying to climb up on, which didn’t look easy. It also had two slides, but the water was too cold, mixed with the chilly wind to warrant taking Derric down it.

Back inside, we all played in the main pool. Mom brought out her camera, and I got to scare her by taking the camera into the pool to take pictures of the kids. I managed to get several good pictures.

But we are home now. We spent about two and a half hours at the pool, two hours actually swimming. Poor Derric didn’t want to leave. Ok, non of the kids wanted to leave. Kauchana met a little girl there that was really sweet. Xavier the big flirt met up with a girl also, this one MUCH older then him, like preteen/early teenage. I mean, even blind as a bat that I am, I could see this girl without my glasses on… The kids had lots of fun. Mom even made it into the pool for some swimming.

In a way, I am glad the day messed up so we could do this. We had a really good time. Here are a few pictures of the day.

(more…)

It is hot, both inside and out. Without A/C, it feels even worse.

Germans, don’t believe in A/C much, so military housing, doesn’t come equipped with it. I am thankful they at least believe in screens on the windows, at least in housing they do…

But my mom is here, Kevin and I headed down and picked her up from Trier. One thing about Trier, so many one way roads that just end at a building, and you end up not 100% sure where you are. Thankfully, TomTom knew, and was able to direct us to parking. Paying 2€ for an hour parking, really isn’t that bad, especially when you don’t know just how long you will be…. Even when you don’t need more then 15 minutes of that hour. LOL

Derric was ecstatic, he got to see a real live train, in person. All he would say is “ride train?” over and over again. Sadly we didn’t get to ride the train, we were busy looking for mom, me having a death grip on Derric’s hand. He wanted on that train sooo bad.

Got mom home and it was off again we go. Needed to run by here, needed to run by there, head out to eat, head here, head there. But we got our plans made, schedule set, and mom’s spending budget down. And I should be in bed so when mom wants to get up and moving come 6am, I can. But instead, at 2:22am, I am up, slightly tired, but so freaking hot and sticky, sleep is the last thing on my mind. UGH. What I would give, even for a noisy A/C unit…. But how the windows are set up, we can’t even get a window unit… So it is fans and fans, but fans are only good for cool air already there… Not warm air…

Oh, and did you all know, the 1st is Derric’s Birthday?! He is 5 years old!!

But he doesn’t understand that. He doesn’t understand birthdays. He doesn’t understand this is his day, his special day. One with cake, presents, etc. To him, it is a day. We tried to tell him it was his birthday tomorrow, and he kept saying NO. We tried to tell him he will be turning 5, but to him, he is 4 and only 4. It took so long for him to learn that, and now we are saying he is 5… He is not excited. He is not happy. He is just not understanding birthdays. I wish I had the money to throw huge birthday parties. I wish I had the money to buy lots of gifts and a fancy cake and invite tons of friends over for the kids. But personally, I can’t stand other people’s kids. Too many of them around and I start to get nervous, edgy, and I lose all forms of fun and move right into ‘lets get this over with NOW’. And the friends they are making now.. I can stand even less. They are good friends to the kids, but they just come off as kids I wouldn’t care to be around, for longer then 2 seconds.

Ok, I am rambling. I think I will attempt sleep… even though it feels 100 degrees with 100% humidity… I hate this feeling…. I am sticking to my desk…. UGH.

The weather has been on the sucky side lately. It was cold, rainy, and just plan ugly outside. Then, Sunday, the weather turned hot. I mean, open every window, turn on every fan, and pray for a breeze to cool you down. Outside play is in the shade and you hope the sun goes down, fast. Monday was pretty much the same way. Today we got that breeze we all have been praying for.

But I don’t get to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. My mom will be here come Thursday and my house is no where near ready for her to arrive. My office is still utter chaos, but it is becoming controlled chaos. My living room still needs to be organized and rearranged. The downstairs… that is something that will take a week or more to work on. The downstairs is the kids’ domain. Besides laundry, I don’t go down there, and if there was a way to bring the washer and dryer upstairs, I wouldn’t go down there at all… But I need to get it presentable for my mom. She is staying in the eldest’s bedroom, and I would like it if there was an easy walk way for her to get to the bathroom and such. I hate still having boxes in the house, but I am running out of room of places to put anything, so they just stay in boxes…. I have no clue what is even in the boxes… I hope some are more of MY books… I am still missing a box or two worth.

The kids, honestly, have not been that much of help. Asked to clean up down stairs, and all they do is shuffle the junk from one corner to the next and call it done… They know they are doing wrong, but they just don’t care. I shouldn’t let them be out at the park right now since they have yet to make that downstairs look nice… But at the same time, I am sooo sick of hearing them come and ask me twenty times where to put their stuff…. Uhm… away?! They trashed my laundry room, and when I tell them to pick and organize it back up, they just toss more stuff everywhere… So I need to go down and work on that, but I can’t until the upstairs is done….

Well, I should get back to work… I have had a long enough break… I still have soo much to do.