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| Pics of our apartment-- there does not appear to be any logic as to the way Blogger lets me stick these in here, so they are quite random. |
It's already been one week since we arrived in Germany! I'm really disappointed that I didn't get a picture of the kids near one of the signs in the airport. (Well, as we walked in I said, "wait-- lemme get a pic" and Tom just kept walking. Hmph.) I assumed maybe we'd come across some other interesting welcome-y or "you are here" type sign... and maybe we will, but this last week has been spent pretty much entirely in our apartment. We don't have a vehicle, and it's been too rainy and chilly to do much exploring. We did walk to the grocery store one day (in the rain, boo) and spent a little while at the playground behind our building another day. But mostly we're here, trying to keep busy. We have several Army channels and several German channels. Oh, and one BBC, but not a good one. No Masterpiece or Doctor Who to be found. Anyway, it turns out German TV is just as terrible as American TV, what with bad game shows and things reminiscent of TLC. The Army channels sometimes show watchable reruns of old sitcoms, but the commercials are all PSA's for domestic violence and other military self-promotion. So it's pretty much streaming Netflix and one local kids channel.
Tom has been getting his in-processing stuff done all week, and has also started looking for houses. An interesting development we've come across is that many landlords will not rent to families with more than two kids. We did not think it would be so difficult, but we're allowed to stay here in temporary lodging for up to 30 days. Besides, our furniture isn't here yet so I'm happy to be here in a furnished apartment instead of in a house sitting on the floor!
Jet lag took until Tuesday night to get over. Tom adapted the first night, but the rest of us have all been suffering from random bouts of sleeplessness from 2-6 in the morning. I think I could have adjusted faster than five days, but the little ones would wake up, then wake each other up, and I couldn't let them stay up by themselves because they were so loud. Then we'd all be so tired during the day that we'd fall asleep, and the cycle would begin all over again at night. It was brutal for a while, but I think the kids are finally fine. Once they were straight, I busted out the Tylenol PM and was snoozing away.
Over the course of our November vacation, Tom and I ate waaay too much and packed on a few pounds. I don't have a scale now, but the last weight I saw was a good seven pounds more than when we left Killeen. Ew! The morning we left for the airport, when Wyatt barfed in his bed and I accidentally sat in it (Oh, I forgot to write about that... well, there it is) I grabbed a pair of pants that fit when we left TX, but that day I couldn't even get them up over my butt. So now that we're eating at home, with limited cooking supplies and no pantry stock, we're keeping it really simple and trying to cut back. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies, cheese, and lean meat. Like I said, I don't have a scale, but I certainly feel better. No more bloaty self-loathing for me, thank you very much!
And finally, Jacob and Brynn started school today. I don't know if we'll end up living in this school district, but they've been out of school for nearly five weeks so all that matters is that they don't lose any more time. The school is nice enough, though for some reason it's in like six different buildings. But all the staff couldn't have been nicer and more helpful-- though I noticed a tendency of talking to me the same way they talked to the Kindergarteners. Oh well, I guess I've met plenty of parents who need that :) As the older kids were being introduced to new teachers and the principal (who, BTW, was from Minnesota!), Norah was sure to get in there and introduce herself as well. The counselor who was giving us the grand tour noted that she was "precocious, and so adorable". I might have used the words "attention fiend", but she was well behaved so it wasn't worth mincing words. Walking to school only takes about 15 minutes (maybe less without Wyatt's stumpy little legs), though how much I'm going to love doing it twice a day remains to be seen. Wait, it will help with the November weight gain-- I shall embrace it! (From here on my couch; I'm sure I'll grumble all the way there and back later).
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