Day 58

Work this morning, and for the first time in EDAG history (I would think) the women of the firm didn't take over on "Weiberfastnacht". Normally no one can get much work done on this day where women rule in carnival Germany. I was worried that I would get dragged into it all, but nothing had been organised, there was no party, no donuts, no one in fancy dress - I know I don't like it all, but this didn't seem right either. Times change I suppose!

Well with no party going on I got all my work done, then it was time to go home. As usual I was supposed to pick Richard up from Heike, but he invited himself to lunch again!

After lunch he did his homework there and then at 2ish came running home and got changed for the birthday party he was invited to. I was going along to, to get lots of pictures. I hope Heike doesn't get bored looking through 166 pictures! I won't bore you, I'll only post a couple (or more!!)

Yep, she took the kids climbing. It was a really impressive place, and they kids loved it. Richard did too, once he got over his full blown tantrum!

CU tomorrow!

Day 56 and 57

Couldn't blog last night, Telekom doesn't like us much and I had no internet and no wi-fi for my phone! It was pretty quiet around here yesterday evening, but it does leave me with catching up to do again, so here goes!
Day 56 - Tuesday
I got a phone call about 9am and my English lesson was postponed until Wednesday, that meant I didn't have to rush getting the bits and pieces ready for it. To get things ready for it, I had to take my laptop upstairs to the printer to get it attached directly. Luckily that worked, and I have colouring sheets for the kids ready to go.
At 10.30am I went and picked my friend up and off we went to sport. After sport I joined Richard at my friends house for a birthday lunch. Her girls turned 8 and we were invited for lunch. Heike had not only made Lasagne but also a great cake for the girls too!

We stayed until the girls were picked up by their Dad to go to their next birthday party, then it was back home for us, to do homework and things. At 4pm Robert went to his friends to play and Richard and I started making a window decoration.

Like I said the internet was completely down after the boys were in bed, so I couldn't even reset it all. Marcel has since suggested that next time I just turn the fuse for the room off, I'll have to remember that!

Day 57 - Wednesday
I'll have to be careful tomorrow morning, cause today was too much like a Tuesday, so I might be confused in the morning. Once the boys had gone to school, I got busy tidying up Richard's desk, I decided that if I did it, I could throw a LOT of things away, and if he did it, everything would have need to have been kept!

By the time I finished that it was time for my English lesson. The kids are loving learning the nursery rhyme, we will be doing this EVERY lesson from now until the summer, so that when it is time for the summer party, the kids can perform it without anyone hearing me!

After English I picked up my friend again and we went to sport again. Today we worked out on the machines there. I had to use heavier weights this time, so I know I am going to feel all muscles tomorrow! I arrived back home just in time. Robert was just heading for Heikes but he had only got two houses on from us!

Robert went to his friends again this afternoon and Richard and I went to art school.That was after I had spent some time on the phone with the Telekom to check our router. Whatever the guy had me change in the set up seems to be working but according to Florian we are not using the router to its full potential and it was a cheek of the guy to make me set it up like that! I think they will be getting another call from Florian on Friday! Too bad he wasn't here today!

CU tomorrow!

Day 55

A busy day here, as always on a Monday, I just seem to be driving back and forwards to places! But it was nice to start the day with Florian home for breakfast! Plus he took one of my trips off of my hands and took the guitars to where the boys need them for me!

First stop on my to do list was the bank this morning. We got a check from our health insurance at the weekend, they have decided to give us some money back, and I went to cash the check. (Lovely surprise that was!) and seeing as I was in town, I went around looking for some finishing touches for my carnival costume! I am going as a cowgirl, and I need a gun (or two)!

Whilst out looking I found a Dirndl instead. It needs some finishing touches to it too, but I like it, its comfy and I can move and take pictures in it, with no problems whatsoever! Not sure how I feel about the fact that I need green or blue shoes to go with it, but I'll tackle that problem another time!

After that it was a trip to Aldi for the weekly shop, then back home for lunch. Ironing after lunch, until it was time to pick Robert up from guitar. Richard came with me and we from there to Toys R Us to get the girls their birthday presents for tomorrow.
Back home then for about 30 minutes, then it was time to get Richard off to his Karate lesson. Florian wasn't back from his business trip when I got home and I got a bit nervous, cause he had a taxi booked within the hour to take him to the station as he is on his way to the UK (update, just had a message through that he is now IN the UK). I had just sent him a message to find out where he was, when he walked through the door!
Robert was pleased to see him and after he had eaten, and admired my Dirndl, we all played a game of Skipbo. And throughout that game the taxi was sat outside. He had got there too early and we made him wait!

CU tomorrow!

Day 54

No lay ins this weekend, Richard had a football tournament at 9am. I chose taking him to football over painting the ceiling the boys room again. Florian did that whilst Richard and I were gone. Richard's team didn't do too well this time, they were the 5th winner out of 5. Never mind, it was good exercise for the kids! I didn't have the camera with me today, so I didn't go down and take the group shot, but I got this one from the distance.

Back home we decided to go out for lunch again. Today the weather there was much nicer than last week, so we let the kids have 10 minutes on the playground, whilst we enjoyed the sunshine!

Back home again after lunch, Robert went to his friend to play, and Florian, Richard and I went for a walk with our friends. My toe is a bit sore now from all the walking, but it was nice out at the time.

CU tomorrow!

Day 53

So much for a weekend, I was up and showered and downstairs by 6.45 am and guess who I met down there - the boys! During the week they moan at me for waking them up at 6.35, why can't we sleep longer, etc. And now when they can, they are both up at the crack of dawn, grrrrr!

I was up early as I was off with Heike to a flea market to try and get rid of some of the kids stuff! I had boxes and bags full of things

I came home with boxes and bags still full of things, but I must have sold something, cause I had 55 Euros in my purse that weren't there when I went! I have to deduct 10 Euros that I paid for the table there, but 45 Euros for our old "rubbish" is really good!
I gave the boys 5 Euros each, seeing as a lot of what I sold was their toys and jigsaws! Here I am in the midst of all my stuff - everything left of the fence was mine, except for the pink stuff on the hangers they were Heike's!

It was fun, but really really cold there, even though it was indoors, when people came in they reckoned it was warmer outside than in! Oops! I spent most of the afternoon then at home trying to get warm again. Thank goodness for our fireplace!

Robert was at a birthday party this afternoon (they went bowling) and Richard spent the afternoon on the tablet listening to his mp3 player (a child of the modern world).

CU tomorrow!

Day 52

This morning Robert got up complaining that his throat and ear hurt and that he had a bad cough. BUT mean Mummy that I am I made him get up and dressed and then spent the next 30 minutes convincing him that the medicine would soon do its magic, and that he was going to school.
I made the mistake of giving him my phone number at work - just in case, cause at 9.20am I got a call at work, Robert wasn't feeling good and could I come and get him!
Heike went for me, so that I could finish my work. The teacher at school told Heike, that he had said "Mummy said when I finish the test to phone her to come and pick me up" - I did no such thing, but he got away with it. Little monster!
OK, he does have a cold, but he would have been alright at school for the morning.

This afternoon the boys went out and played with all the animals, I went out with the camera and got pictures of them cuddling Zoe and Mia's rabbits! Too cute! (Perry is Mia's and is the white one, Lola is Zoe's and is the brown one)

Other than that I was in baking mode, I baked fresh bread for tea, and I baked a carrot cake for the flea market I am going to in the morning. The fee there is 10 Euros and a cake!

Ooh, I got my christmas present from Lee today - well I spent my gift voucher yesterday and today I got two new CDs. Both the boys and I enjoyed them!

CU tomorrow!

Day 51

After a short night, I got up with the boys and sent an email to work. I had different plans. Both boys were complaining of not being well. Both had sore throats and their ears hurt, Robert had hardly any voice left and was coughing bad. So I phoned the doctor and we got an appointment for 11.30am. I am not really sure where the morning went then. I know that much to Robert's disgust we didn't have the TV or the Wii on. Richard did some maths but Robert and me, no idea!

We went to a different doctor and he said that he wouldn't have prescribed antibiotics for Robert but as he was already taking them to carry on and finish the bottle. We got a different cough mixture for him and instead of nose spray we now have nose drops. When he looked at Richard's throat it seems that his problems there were just to keep Robert company, he does however need nose drops too, as his ears are inflamed too.
They were full of mischief at the doctors and showed themselves from their "best" side. Luckily the doctor has a sense of humour and said that at least we know they are not seriously ill (as they were both crawling across the floor) and that school should be no problem!

As spring was definitely here this afternoon we joined our friends at the playground (we went by car as my toe just did not want to walk that far!). I don't think I have ever been to that playground in February before!

The kids had a great time and we'll see tonight or in the morning, just what it did for Robert's cough (hopefully blew it away!)

This evening I took a trip down memory lane and watched the documentary about Torvill and Dean winning Olympic Gold way back in 1984. Still amazing!

CU tomorrow!

Day 50

Robert is still home today he didn't actually mention his earache, BUT he has been coughing all day (or should I say barking) poor thing.
But he didn't complain when I left him on his own this morning with total control over the remote control and TV. I had to go to the library for the first two lessons of school, and then Heike took over from me there and I came home.
I got home just in time for us to watch the ladies curling semi final together. Shame they didn't win their game, but it was fun to watch it together.

After lunch Robert had to get busy doing his homework. He wasn't too happy about that and had a little melt down. I swear he thinks I only find mistakes to annoy him and make him walk back and forth correcting them. I did try to explain that I was just helping. Eventually he apologised and let me explain things to him. We are getting there slowly!

At 4pm I had to leave him home alone again and take Richard to art school. I stopped off on the way home and picked up some cough mixture for Robert, cause the antibiotics don't actually target the cough. My friend brought Richard home from art school.
When he got home, he didn't want to watch the Men's curling semi final, so I watched on my own in the kitchen, until the last two shots then Robert joined me, and we watched the men WIN! Friday they will be playing for a silver or gold medal, I am sure we will be watching that too.
Here is Robert cheering after they played their winning shot! (sorry its out of focus, I was excited too!)

CU tomorrow!

Day 49

Robert woke up with both ears hurting this morning, so another day of no school and plenty of nose spray and calpol for him.
My toe is still very black and blue, BUT I can walk much better today - phew! So at 9.30 I headed to Kindergarden for an English lesson. The kids enjoyed doing the nursery rhyme "Teddy bear, teddy bear turn around,..." Even the little kids tried to remember the different lines, so cute!

When I got back Robert and I watched the curling on the Olympics before we had a couple of games of SkipBo (our new favourite card game!) and then it was time for Richard to get home from school.
He had a good day at school, and he actually seemed to enjoy his homework today. He had to look for words in a dictionary, I remember I used to enjoy that too!

This afternoon the only one of us who actually did something was Richard, he went to play with two sets of twins. First he went to my friend to play with her girls, then when they had to go out, he came home, only to go out again an hour later to play football with his other friends (boy twins!). He certainly got his share of fresh air today.

I have just realised that I didn't take any pictures today other than new ones of my toes, and I don't need them on here again, but I did take some yesterday that should be here.
Here is Richard in his new Karate suit, he certainly looks the part now. He also said that it was more fun in his suit, too cute!

A proper Karate pose

A being silly for the camera pose!

CU tomorrow!

Day 48

So I picked a good day to start blogging again! I have some lovely pictures of my toes to show you! But I'll start at the beginning of the day, cause I know you have missed my detailed daily posts - hihi!

I got the boys up this morning and Robert was in bed whimpering - he has earache again. So after breakfast Richard went off to school and Robert stayed home with me. As my friend was working today we went to visit her there (she works for a doctor). Robert has the start of an ear infection and we have a prescription for nose spray, calpol and antibiotics if it gets any worse!
Back home I had to start to work out when to get Richard's guitar to him and to pick the guitars up. I decided to go directly in time for his lesson wait for him and bring him and all the guitars home again. That involved an early lunch for me and Robert. Before starting to cook. I went out to feed and chat to the rabbits.
This is Lola trying to plan her escape! Note the top of the hutch that has slipped down the back.

Well, to go back indoors I had to put the top back on the hutch. I am too short to get it out the way it fell down, so I pull it out to the side and start again. I have done this often, so no problem really. NOT today, when I pulled I dislodged a HUGE block of wood and that fell onto the toes of my right foot. YES I screamed and cursed. Really need to practice that though, I curse like a 3 year old! So the air around me wasn't too blue! My toes are though!

And it is very painful.
All plans for guitars and such went out the window, then and there and more organising of a different kind started. The result of which meant I was able to put my foot up for most of the afternoon. Robert looked after me well too. If I did need to get things he was there to do it for me, and without moaning too!

Like I said a fun day to start blogging again on - as you can see nothing changes, never boring round here!
CU tomorrow!

Day 33 - Day 47

Ok this one is going to be the catch up post! And I may or may not add to it, as the week goes by. For now it is just a space holder!
So where have I been - NOWHERE!
My computer has been playing up, it had two speeds "dead slow" and "stop" but mostly stop. The last few days I was lucky if it stayed on for 3 hours! I was close to throwing the thing out the window some days! But at the weekend Florian googled "overheating, dell and whatever number my laptop is" and found a page about taking it apart and removing all the dust! It included a detailed description and pictures of how to do it. So Florian did. We had to go out and get some air in a can to clean this up!

But that was money well spent it seems, as since then it is running like new! I can finally get the benefits of the new high speed internet that we have had for a week now! Fingers xed it continues working as well as it is!

Later I'll go through my pictures and give the highlights of what you have missed whilst the computer was broken!

Back soon!

Day 31, Day 32

AGH!!! This computer is on its way out I think, it is not playing nice at all these days! Hopefully it will let me catch up on my blog! I'll try!

Day 31 - Friday
Today was the day Richard had been counting down to, but first he had to go to school! today was also "Zeugnisse" (report cards) Robert was pleased with his. I was a bit annoyed with his English teacher again, but as the other day he wanted to be more like the other kids, I won't be putting up a fight, because he has been marked just like the other kids!
Richard didn't get a report as those in the 2nd year don't get their first report until the end of the school year.

Robert came home with his report and then after showing me, he left to go to his friend for lunch and for the afternoon. Which left Richard and me waiting for his friends. Three of his friends came for lunch. We had one of Richard's favourites Spaghetti Bolognese. I am quite pleased with myself actually. Cause two of Richard's friend's are VERY fussy eaters, so much so, that they even asked if they could have spaghetti without sauce 5 days before the party! I told them then, that they had to try my sauce first, cause it is the best sauce ever, and that if they didn't like it, they could have "just" spaghetti! Well, I was in luck, they loved it! Phew!

After lunch we had time for a game of musical statues, then they decided that they would have 30minutes of Lego Star Wars on the Wii, and then it was time for the cinema.
They were little darlings whilst we were out. 4 boys and all on their best behaviour! I couldn't believe my luck. We all enjoyed the film (Famous Five Part 3 (a German production)). And afterwards I took them all home again. I would definitely do this sort of party again and I can highly recommend it!

Day 32 - Saturday
Talk about a busy day! Robert had to go to his football tournament in the morning. He went with his trainer and son. About 20 minutes later I got a phone call from his trainer about why I hadn't packed his team shirt and trousers. Easy - we don't have any. Uhoh, neither did the trainer! Good mummy that I am, I phoned around found him the stuff he needed and instead of going straight shopping, we took him the stuff to the tournament, and then he was able to play!

We then went to the shopping mall, and got wallpaper for the boys room, and Richard got to spend his birthday vouchers! He got some Lego Ninjago and a Lego Ninjago DVD.

We got back in time for Robert getting home from his tournament (6th out of 6) and then it was time for Richard's football tournament. I took Richard and I was on sausage selling duty for the whole time. Unfortunately it was set up in the hallway of the sports hall, and I was frozen, even though I was still wearing my winter coat!

Whilst Richard and I were there, Florian took Robert to the cinema to see the film we saw yesterday! I think they really enjoyed their father/son afternoon.

And that is two days of catch up - I'll try and be back tomorrow and catch up on the rest. And add photos, the upload to the cloud from my mobile hasn't been working since the 30.1. and I don't have the photos I need for this post now! Grrrrr!
CU then