Day 212

Like I said yesterday this could get repetitive. The doctor's visit woke us all up this morning, well, everyone except Robert, who as usual was up at the crack of dawn. I think he was sat in bed, playing on Nanna's Nintendo DS!
Nothing to report from the doctor though, he just checked in Robert's throat and then was on his way again.

Florian and Richard were quite late getting to us, at last Richard got his long overdue lay in! They both never woke up until 10am! Alright for some! ;o) (can you tell, I am jealous!)

Whilst they were here, the boys got their game of table football with Daddy, and I got a picture!!
After lunch and Florian and Richard had gone we went to see the ice-cream van again. Robert had a green ice cream this time - Waldmeister, hold on, I'll look that up for you, well it says "woodruff" if that means anything to anyone. Robert enjoyed it anyhow, and I got a picture of that too.After that it was an afternoon of more fun and games for Robert and me

This evening he started sniffing a lot, so I now have some nose drops for him and so far that seems to be helping. What is not so good though, is that for the second night in a row, he is having nightmares, he keeps crying in his sleep, not having much luck finding out what it is all about though...I hope it passes and it has nothing to do with me not being allowed into theatre with him...
Off to bed now, the doctor will probably be by really early again...
CU tomorrow

Day 211

The next few days on the blog could get very repetitive and slightly boring, but bear with me, this will help me keep my sanity!
Robert needed some pain medicine in the night and he got it in his arm, amazing how quickly it can work then, I think he was back asleep within minutes. Unfortunately at 6am he was wide awake and already asking about going to play table football...
But he wasn't allowed to go walkabout until he started drinking more. But as we only had water here he was reluctant to do it, but the thought of table football got some water into him. And in the afternoon Florian bought the apple tea from Kindergarden in, so tomorrow should be much easier on the drinks front.
When Florian came in the morning he got Robert an ice-cream from the cafe, it was in a little tub and had vanilla and chocolate, Robert only ate the vanilla, but at least he ate something.
After Florian had left Robert and I spent most of our time playing...we are going through quite a lot of the games from the playroom, but I must say it is really tiring for me, but he seems fine with it. On one of the breaks I insisted on (after lunch), I was looking out of the window and spotted a bright van with a palm tree painted on the side near the entrance...so we went to see if it was the ice-cream man! And woohoo it was! Robert had Vanilla and I had Straciatella (cream-flavour with chocolate chips). I asked the man if he was there everyday and he said yes, so this too will be a regular feature on here until Wednesday! I doubt if even the flavours will change!
Robert did well, but he only managed half, now that part I can see changing, hopefully even tomorrow!
After that I let him have a little go on the little playground outside, here he isIt is quite a walk from our room to the entrance, so he was quite exhausted when we got back, so we stayed in the room and played somemore. His favourte game today was "Das Verrückte Labyrinth" I quite enjoyed that one too.
At 4.30pm we went downstairs and he finally got his game of table football, when we tried directly after lunch it was "midday break" and the football was "closed". I had tried to hold him back from playing until Richard and Florian came as I could see his energy was wearing thin, but he wasn't having that. And when Florian did get here, he was again exhausted, hopefully tomorrow he can give Daddy a better game of football.

Well being so exhausted he did go off to sleep more or less instantly today, and I am sat in the dark again blogging. I am going to now see how good the connection is, and see if I can watch some TV on it, I feel the need for some grown up TV...
CU tomorrow

Day 209 and Day 210

Well, who would have thought that I would be online blogging on the day Robert has his tonsils out..not me, I had left instructions with Florian to keep you all updated, BUT the hospital not only has WLAN it is FREE!!! Unbelievable!

So yesterday we came into hospital, I had to drag Robert in, he soooooo did not want to come! But none of the appointments yesterday were too bad, so once we got our room he was OK.
We had a bit of a problem when he had to have the needle in his hand, but I let him squeeze my hand and he was determined to make a good job of that, so I think I was in more pain than him! ;o)
This was taken with my mobile, I don't have the camera with me (only the laptop)
And once all that was done all we had to do was to pass the time until bedtime. And wow, the new childrens clinic here is BRILLIANT (aside from the internet access). There are playrooms on each floor, with more toys than a toyshop (well, nearly) and downstairs there is a huge open area/room with tabletop football - Robert was in Heaven!

It is also new here that brothers and sisters can visit, so Florian bought Richard in in the evening and they both got to play the football game.

Today we were third on the list of operations, but that still meant 11.30am - what a long wait when you aren't allowed to eat or drink. But surprisingly he was really good about it. We played lots and lots of games (a very good way to try the different things out without buying) and at 10.45am I started getting him ready - well I tried to put the gown thingy on him, but what a fight. Whilst doing that the sister actually came in an said they had phoned and were waiting for him, so she helped me get him dressed, and we gave him his "Scheißegal medizin" which is something that is supposed to make you feel indifferent to it all...shame they hadn#t given it to him early, as we left our room with him screaming "I don't want to go" all the way down to the operating theatre. There I was not allowed any further, and I swear this was the most difficult thing I ever had to do (I'm even welling up now as I type), he was by now screaming, crying and clinging to me. The sister had to prize him off of me, and I had to run in the opposite direction. By that time, I too was in tears, I felt like I was letting him down, as all he was saying at the end was "I want you to come with me"! HEARTBREAKING!
Back in my room I was a wreck too. I knew him in safe hands, I wasn't worried about the operation, it was the feeling of having let him down. I am hoping that the medicine will make him forget that bit!
Anyhow 2 hours later I was picking him up downstairs again, and I was fully expecting a repeat performance of when he had his last operation, where he screamed for a full 90minutes. But it seems that this time the anaesthetic did not have the same effect. Phew! infact down in the "wake up room" (if that is what it is called in English) they said what a good brave boy he was, and not just for his benefit either!
Back upstairs he slept off the anaesthetic until about 2pm, here he is doing just thatand then it was a lot of UNO (a game), TV and watching the building site. Ooh forgot to mention that, what more can a little boy ask for, a full working building site right outside our window with cranes and everything. Even I was a bit fascinated! Its like cinema for him!

Now everyone here in the room is asleep except me (we are sharing with a little girl and her Mum) its a bit dark with only the computer screen for light, but I didn't want to go to bed at 8pm!
tomorrow Robert gets to eat again, we'll see how that goes, so far he has not complained at all.

Oh one funny thing, the first words he said to me: "have I had my operation?" "yes darling its all over" "can I go and play table football now?" Too funny!

CU tomorrow

Day 208 (and Day 183)

So first of all I will tell the story from the beginning of our holiday..
if you remember on the last day at home I posted a blog of how well it was all going and that we were on time and everything. Well after pushing "post" on that, I decided to check our passports. Mmh, only mine and Robert's in my handbag, my heart dropped to my stomach and I ran upstairs to Florian, who was showering. I asked him if Richard was on his passport - Yep! My heart returned to where it belonged, and I went back downstairs to turn the computer off. Florian came down and said he was going to check his passport, which was already in the car and off he went to the barn...I waited...and waited...ok, he's taking to long, my heart drops back to my stomach, and I go to find him. I found him in the barn studying his passport with a worried look on his face "He's not in here, it's new" - OH SH.....!!!
We then went in search of his old passport, and there was Richard's name, just not on the new one. The new one was from August or September last year, and probably then they told us, that we had to get Richard a passport, but we forgot. AGH!!
And now comes the part where I thank God for the internet and google. We tried to find out, what options we had. Could Richard travel on Florian'S invalid passport? Would having his birth certificate with us be enough? etc.. we found a few pages but most of them said that most countries in Europe would either except the old passport or such, but not the UK! AGH!!! Then we found a message in a forum about a similar problem and the girl there got an Emergency passport from German Border Patrol. So we googled "Bundesgrenzschutz" who are now called "Bundespolizei", where we read up on the emergency passports, and then we saw a support number, a 24hour 365 days a year number. Wow! A really nice policeman told us to take all that we have with us (as in old passport and birth certificate) and we should be OK. We asked about the emergency passport and he told us that we could get that at the border..
Well needless to say I did not sleep a wink after that, I kept tossing and turning, I had visions of having to tell the boys, that we weren't going to England..NIGHTMARE! Well at 3.30am it was time to get up and set off. I was in no state to drive, apart from lack of sleep I was just too nervous to concentrate on driving so Florian drove. I couldn't even nap in the car.. We got to the border police at about 6 -6.30am, it was really empty there and the door was locked, we rung the bell, but no one opened for us. We were just about to ring the 0800 number for the hotline and find out when they opened, when a policeman opened the door for us. He filled in the forms for the Emergency Passport and we set off on our way again, but before we left Florian had to sign a form that said that we had been informed that the UK did not have to accept this passport. So still I couldn't relax! I worried all the way to Calais and passport control. When Robert started saying "we are never going to get to England" when we were stuck in traffic near Brussels, I nearly lost it. That was when we stopped and put the new DVD player on for them!
We got to the docks and I asked Florian whether he thought I should own up to the emergency passport or just hand all of them over. We opted for the "just handing them over" - oh in the meantime I noticed that Robert's passport was still in my maiden name, another AGH! Anyhow I handed them all over and prayed - hard!
The passport person took them all, and then opened them all up in front of him, I really thought this is it...he went through all our names and we had to wave when it was our turn, then he folded the passports up again put them all into one, handed them back and wished us a safe journey...guess what I cried.. with relief!
But what a start to a trip! I had originally planned that by now I would have new passports for both boys BUT Robert injuring his chin put pay to that. So now I am waiting until I can get pictures taken without plasters on their faces and then new passports. But believe me, I won't be forgetting this time!
This is Florian and Richard outside the border police after picking up the emergency passport
And now on to today:
Work, a horrible text about wind energy which they needed translated into German, but judging by the English it was already a translation from German into English and I was putting it back into German...oh well, I did ask and maybe by the time I go back, they will have found out, whether the German version still exists.
Richard was still "Grumpy Richard" when I picked them up from Kindergarden, we had a full-blown paddy whilst out riding bicycles. He kicked his bike, threw his helmet across the road and sat down with his arms crossed infront of him screaming! And all because Robert kept driving through the puddle...no we don't have to understand that one!
Unfortunately to top his poor day off, he "hopefully" forgot to pack Baby Sheep when he left Kindergarden, and at bedtime he wasn't there. HUGE drama. I pretended to phone the cleaning lady at Kindergarden to tell her to tuck Baby Sheep in, and then Mum (the cleaning lady) phoned me back to try and help me calm Richard down. It worked - luckily, Richard is now upstairs dreaming about Baby Sheep having a party at Kindergarden with all the toys there -cause maybe they come alive at night, Baby Sheep will tell him all about it tomorrow.
I just hope he is in Kindergarden, Richard threw his bag around A LOT when I picked him up, so if he fell out, he could be anywhere. Fingers crossed for us please, cause with me and Robert gone tomorrow night, without Baby Sheep Florian could be in a pickle!

Robert and I go into hospital tomorrow for Robert to have his tonsils out on Thursday. I will try and get Florian to post on here whilst I am gone.
And if you could think of us and my Mum, who goes into hospital to have her gall bladder removed tomorrow, that would be GREAT!

And now for todays photo, this is the picture Richard drew whilst still in a stropand this is what he drew after talking to Nanna on the phone, I would say Nanna calmed him back down again!CU soon

Day 207

Back to work today, so nothing to report about this morning. The kids were their usual "full moon" selves today, so we all got together and let the kids get on with it, whilst we sat, chatted and ignored their fighting! (well, unless they got too physical!)
Unfortunately it started raining whilst we were out and it still hasn't stopped, good for the garden, but not so good for the kids, who missed their cycling spree before tea-time!

Cause of the rain, I didn't have any TV channels this evening so I watched "Wimbledon" (the movie with Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany), I enjoyed it - again!
As usual on a work day I forgot to get a picture, and my stand-in model wasn't very obliging. This is Sunny letting me know what he thinks of being second best! Sorry Sunny!CU tomorrow, with a good story about our trip to England, Florian keeps reminding that I need to post in on the blog, so we don't forget it, but when you read it, you'll know that it is a story I will forever be able to tell in all details as it has burnt its way into my memory! CU then!

Day 206

Again the boys were up much earlier than I wanted to be, but they don't care really. I put the TV on for them and went back to bed, but I didn't get much longer there...I tried!
I spent the morning catching up on the ironing - shame the washing is already starting to pile up again!
And guess what we did lunchtime...we BBQed again, only today it was warm enough to eat outside. It was all delicious. I tried a new salad this time, a couscous salad (German recipe here) even the boys liked it, but I might try it with vinegar instead of lemon next time.

In the afteroon my friends were round again, and we did my fingernails. (Not a good pic of me, not sure what I was looking at, probably one of the kids up to mischief!)And here the finished thing!A colleague of mine came around she gave Florian a session of autogenic training, which will hopefully help with his tinnitus.

Oh and as we did my fingernails in the afternoon Florian did my toenails this evening. Much easier than me doing it, thank you Florian!
CU tomorrow

Day 205

Where did the summer get to today? It was grey and overcast for most of today, and we had to get our fleece jumpers out again. Still I got a nice new one when we were in the UK (a lovely shade of bright green, so bright I think it probably lights up in the dark!)!
But we were determined not to let it spoil our plans, we had decided on Tuesday that we would BBQ at the weekend, on Thursday when the weather changed, I froze our meat, not believing we would BBQ, but we did!! And it was delicious! Thanks Florian, I would have probably given in to the weather!

In the afternoon my friends came round and we let the kids play all together, a much better idea than us all separately trying to cope with them!
We took the bench out the front and let the kids ride their bikes - my friends will never forgive me for posting this picture, but it is funny really - even more so when I tell you that it was time for church and all the neighbours came by on their way!!!
And here is what we were watching!And tomorrow we plan to do the same again! It was great fun!
CU tomorrow

Day 204

This morning I had a photography assignment. I got to take pictures of all the kids in Richard's group at Kindergarden, so that we can make a leaving present for their Kindergarden Teacher.
The kids were really cooperative and I got some REALLY great shots of them all. Unfortunately I can't show you them. But I can show you what we made with them this afternoon.
My friends came around this afternoon the kids played and we got creative!What do you think. The yellow dots are of course the kids, we cut them out and each got a petal of the flower. It's not quite finished yet, as Richard's group are called "ladybirds" we had our kids do some fingerprints which tomorrow we will cut out and turn into ladybirds. I think the teacher will like it, she will get it on Friday next week, but I won't be able to give it to her, so I am going to send Florian instead!

Speaking of which, the poor guy is stuck on the train still, it has at this moment in time 70 (!!!) minutes delay, he should be here about 11.30 pm if we are lucky!
CU tomorrow

Day 203

Lots of ironing waiting for me today, but it's still waiting, I spent the morning having breakfast with friends. We were also sorting out Kindergarden business, but the chatting did us all good. So much so, that we arranged to meet up in the afternoon too.
Today the weather was soooo different to yesterday. The morning was OK, but as the day went on more and more clouds came, and by the afternoon when we wanted to play and chat outside it started raining and it hasn't stopped yet. Nature really needs it, but it would have been nice if it had only been in the evening!

So instead of chatting and playing outside, we all sat and played in the barn instead! We are so lucky to have that luxury! Here are the kids lined up watching the rain and raking stones (don't ask!)(the boys are in yellow)CU tomorrow with probably more rainy weather pictures...

Day 202

Hot hot hot today, but apparently tomorrow they have forecast rain, so we made the most of the weather. and this afternoon we went with friends to the water playground in town.
I was a bit wary of going, as Robert was supposed to keep his plaster dry, but we thought that the water playground would only be a case of splashing and not diving, and I thought we would be OK. But just in case we had another of the plasters with us, to do our own first aid, if need be...
and you guessed it, we had to!
Robert somehow managed to fall and bang his chin again, it burst open, lots of screaming and lots of blood again! I held him tight whilst my friend "Stitched" him back up again!Luckily this all happened about the time we were supposed to be packing up anyways, so most of the afternoon was more like this - Robert was walking on that thing, which lifted the water up the corkscrew thing, and then it went down various bits not on the photo!I took this with my mobile, cause I forgot the camera! Which really annoyed me, cause I missed so many good shots of all the kids together! Next time!
And now for a nice relaxing evening, scrapping and tv! Sound good? It does to me!
CU tomorrow

Day 201

Today nothing went according to plan. It started off OK, I got up on time to get the kids to Kindergarden, Robert didn't have a fever, I got 2 loads of washing done, and then we set off to the shops to restock the cupboards and fridge...and on the way to the shops we got a phone call..

Robert had been playing and had been pushed by the bully of Kindergarden and had injured his chin, could we come in and take him to hospital for stitches! So we turned around and drove to pick him up.
Once there it wasn't quite as bad as I had expected, still looked sore though. After a call to the paediatrician we found out that we needed an "accident doctor" (they document any accidents that take place at Kindergardens, schools or work), so off we went. It was very busy there, but we were allowed to push in.
He didn't have to have stitches after all, instead they have used a plaster that brings the edges of the wound together (Klammerpflaster in German and according to my dictionary "Butterfly stitches" in English). This is what he now looks like:
We have to keep it dry for 5-6 days, which rules out any swimming this week, which is a shame as it is really hot here.

The other thing that didn't go according to plan, was Florian's train ticket. No problem booking it, but we also have to print it out. Yep, you've guessed it the ink in the printer ran out and we had no refills...So we had to dash to Staples to get a refill and get back in time to print it out, and get Florian to the station.
We made it on time only to find out the train was 10 minutes late! :o)

CU tomorrow

Home Sweet Home

I'll work out tomorrow what day of the year today is, tonight is "post and run"! I'm really tired now!
We got up at 3.30am this morning and left just before 4am! We were on the 6.40am ferry, which was great, as it meant we got home at a good time. 5pm (4pm English time). But it was still a VERY long journey

Here is Richard doing what the boys did from Calais to home!And now for some sleep!
CU tomorrow

Last Day today!

Well, that went fast, today is our last day of our holiday, tomorrow VERY VERY early in the morning we will be heading home, but before we do that, I thought I would post the last days of our holiday.
First up on Monday was canoeing, most of us were the picnic crew this year, but Florian and the kids along with Dad made up one canoe.This year it didn't rain either, so it was much more fun for all of us, and it was also Richard's first time canoeing, as far as I could tell he loved it!
Here they all are on setting off again after the picnic.Tuesday I didn't take a single picture. My SIL and I left the men in charge of the kids in the afternoon and we set off for Gloucester for the cinema, and some girly shopping. Meaning we spent over an hour in Hobbycraft! We could never have done that with the men and/or kids!
Then we had a delicious Chinese All you can Eat buffet, and then it was time for ECLIPSE! I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Whilst we were out, the men took the kids to the Butterfly farm, but both left without charging their batteries...so the choice for the blog was limited...Wednesday another day for me with less of the kids. Florian and I got to go shopping without them, we went to Gloucester again, and this time after the shopping centre we went into town to see the cathedral (where apparently some of Harry Potter was filmed)Thursday it rained just before the boys went on their Golf Tournament, but as they set off the sun came out, so all was well. And in the afternoon we went into the forest to a play area. Here are the boys on the playground there.
Friday we packed up and left the cottages. We then went to St. Albans to stay for the weekend with another uncle and aunt. On our way here we stopped for lunch in a prison...
Saturday we went into St. Albans, and took the boys up the clocktower
In the afternoon we saw one of my cousins and family, and another cousin took Florian to the pub in the evening, I didn't go, cause Robert has yet another dose of tonsilitis, and I didn't want him waking up and me not being here. As it happened, he didn't wake up at all!

And today we had a picnic in the park, by the Lake, all my cousins and their families were there, except the one we saw yesterday afternoon, it was great fun.
Here are my boys with my uncle feeding the ducks.
Off to bed in a bit (after re-packing the car again!) CU back in Germany tomorrow!

Back again!

Well, we are back at my uncle's today to watch the Grand Prix and the World Cup Final tonight. We are a really big crowd today, so those not interested in any of the sports on TV can have a good chat and such. Which is why I am writing this offline at the cottages, so that when I get there I can post and run (and chat!)
We are still having a great time, the weather this year is really on our side (but I didn't say that out loud, don't want to jinx it!). We went to the beach for a second time and we couldn't believe it, but we actually had to put our shoes on on the beach, so we didn't burn our feet on the sand! And the kids and Florian and my brother even went swimming in the sea! I still can't believe that.

Yesterday we went into the woods for a barbecue, the barbecue wasn't quite the success we hoped for as the barbecue that is there was built so no one pinches it, but not really for barbecuing sausages, but the lads succeeded. The other problem we had was "no forks" so we ate our noodle salad with our fingers and had our sausage in a roll! I thought it was great fun eating salad with our fingers, I think I may have even enjoyed that more than the kids did!
In the woods, the kids got to build a dam and play in the little river there, they had a smashing time!

Here are some pics from the last few days:
My uncle's homemade tree-house:The kids sunbathing on the beach (didn't last long, maybe only as long as it took to take the picture!!)The kids swimming in the sea:
And the boys working on the dam:CU when we get near an internet connection again, don't know when that will be!
PS: Dinphy, good luck tonight! We are all wearing orange for Holland, I'll post a pic of that when we are online again. And Mum says pink was the closest she could get to orange!

Stopping by!

Just wanted to pop in and say hi! We are having a GREAT time in the UK! So far we have been to the Beach, Thomasland, the railway, and lots lots more!
We have no internet where we are staying, so I don't know if I will be back again..
Now for a few pictures from the 1000s we have taken!

Perrygrove Railway
Porthcawl Beach
Drayton Manor Park (Thomasland)
CU soon

Day 181 and Day 182

Oh dear, I'm slacking, I never thought it would happen, but it did, two whole days and not a single photo! Strictly speaking that isn't completely true, cause when I have finished blogging, I will be packing up the laptop and putting it in the car with the rest of our luggage, and I will be taking a picture of that, so maybe sometime soon I will come back and post Day 182's picture...

So yesterday Robert was still at home, I decided that rather than use up all his energy on the Kindergarden picnic, that he should save it for "England". He didn't mind, I think he prefers home to Kindergarden. Richard however LOVED the picnic in the woods yesterday. The best place to be, the last two days have been so hot...we are not used to this heat at all!

Luckily our house stays nice and cool indoors, so to keep it that way, I did yesterdays ironing in the garden, then the extra heat just joined what was already there.

Today was packing day, so Robert went back to Kindergarden, so we didn't accidently put him the suitcase. Then in the morning Florian did all the car stuff (petrol, tires, etc.) and I packed the clothes.
After lunch I packed the car (learnt the fine art of packing from Dad, and I won't let anyone help me! Much more goes in this way.)
And now we are all ready for the off in the morning, not sure when I will get to blog again, but I'll try to stop by now and then!
CU soon