Everything and the kitchen sink..... fixture....

If I were to identify something in my home that drives me batty, it would be my kitchen sink.  Not only is it rather unsightly (circa 1979 I would imagine) but the sprayer doesn't work (yes, they had sprayers back than) and you cannot turn it on with one hand, much less get hot or cold. 

I will surely admit to be spoiled by the lavish life of a homebuilder and having the rescourses to change out sinks at the whim of any homeowner and at a moments notice (notice, I have easly forgotten the pain of tracking down a plumber).  So when my husband says "what wrong with it?  it puts out water and goes off and on right?".  It makes me tuck my head and walk away knowing there is nothing I should do about it.

Enter this man.  He is my dad.  All my life he has wanted nothing more than to make my life the best it can be.  He loves to know I am grinning at his latest purchase or recent efforts.  One of the many reasons I love him.  SOOOOO........ 

He manages to score a BEAUTIFUL kitchen sink fixture.  Moen of course.  Purchased in American.  Does anyone see where this is going???

Let me first say, I didn't fall into this trap easily.  Chris referenced that after WWII much of Germany was rebuilt with American specs plumbing.  So I figured it was worth a shot. 

Now remember, I have stated many times, that my ALONE FOCUSED time is quite valuable so I opted to try and contact a plumber. 

Call #1,      I think the lady on the other end said she would schedule time for a plumber to come back. (her german, my english)

Call #2,      (4 days later) reconfirmed that someone will come over. (no date or time specified) 

Call #3,      they called me and she spoke english!!  She said the plumber would be here tomorrow at 8AM (no discussion of cost - seriously, that's pushing my luck)

Visit #1      promptly at 755AM - Sweet, goofy, good smelling german plumber arrives at my door.  Looks at the fixture, a little puzzled.  I leave the room hoping he will figure it out instead of asking me where the fixture came from.  5 minutes later he calls me back downstairs saying he must leave to get a fitting.  Yippee!  He will make it work

Visit #2      returns with said fitting - no go.  He calls his office in hopes they will explain to me why it doesn't work (as if I don't know this) but their solution is to go get another fixture and bring it the following day.

Visit #3      Plumber comes back with a fixutre that is thankfully hideous.  I say thankfully becasue I finally asked what it costs...  300 Euro!!  For just the fixture!!  Gosh, my nice to have thing is now going to cost me $500 at least.  I appologized profusely and said I will have to try something else.

Again, enter my dad - who wants nothing more than to make my life easier right?  Well this photo is for him.  He wants to see what fittings are under the sink.  Can you see the german threading?  Well gosh, I hope so.  Cause now I really want that beautiful sink fixture that is boxed up sitting next to my sink.  Someday.....

I know there are some of you that check this blog to see if Shane is walking of if Nick can spell Mississippi, but maybe I have hooked some of you on my plumbing entertainment.  Its always something right?

The Shane face

The faces of Shane.  Generally when faced with a camera, Shane lights up with his signature smile.  However recently he has developed another face.  We have interpretted this face to mean - I am done - no more - STOP what you are doing.....

We were at our favorite outdoor beer garden practicing the Shane Face.

Nick was explaining to Oma Sue how to make the Shane face (and how to push him higher)

On the way home, I had the pleasure of sitting in the back seat while Shane finished his milk.  My camera was at the ready position.  The face appeared!  It might be blurry, but I captured it!  Check out that upper lip =) 

I'm DONE mom!

There is always room for one more

I just got these photos from Margaret and was thrilled to add them. 

First I must thank Benjamin for being Nick's biking buddy.  We think Bejamin was the real catalyist behind our gathering - they love teasing him that Nick is his only buddy (as he is forever hanging out with his brother and sister's friends) so they traveled over the big pond just to see Benjamin's Buddy!

Loved getting a photo with Margaret.  This was AFTER our fun filled day at the park.  What you don't see are four other about to be sleeping kids.  What you do see is Elizabeth clutching her camera which reminds me of Elizabeths awesome photo skills and superbly amazing camera.  She video'ed several times at the park to include the mini train ride.  If I had done that, my memoriy card would've been blinking FULL for sure.  But not Elizabeth's.  Her camera kept tracking.  I offered to video her at one point and she instructed me on how to do it.  She knows her camera!  Margaret was telling me how awesome it is to see life through her eyes.  How magical.

We were so fortunate to spend another day with the Schuck family.  This time it was in Germany.  Gosh, twice in one summer!!  Margaret and Patrick were able to hop a space A flight to Germany.  They are spending a month traveling around with their family and experiencing all the things they love about Germany.  From pretzels to playgrounds, the kids are loving every day and are exhausted at the end!  Monday we spent the day with them at Killesberg Park. 

The 5 kids fearlessly scaled the tower.  Patrick and I were slowly behind.

Every seat was taken

Train time

And, of course the carosel!

We were thrilled to be part of their Germany Itinerary.  The kids included Nick immediately.  I loved watching Jacob and Elizabeth teach him how to play 'pop corn' and sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall.  Nick and Benjamin biked all over in their flashy bikes.  Nick called them all his 'new friends'.

A special thanks to Margaret and Patrick who make life seem so doable.  Surely its no easy task hopping a train from Ansbach with 5 munchkins.  They truly enjoy the adventure and this is reflected in their children.  Now if we could just get them stationed here......

Wine tasting along the Mosel

We arrived in Piesport around 9:20.  It was an hour extra when considering the German traffic.  No one slept during the entire 4 hour car ride!  Wine tasting commenced immediately =)  Chris gave it a shot at putting the boys to bed while my mom and I enjoyed a bottle downstairs at our Pension.  After a glass of wine and we could still hear Shane shouting, I opted to help out.

 

The next morning we headed along the Mosel in search of yummy wine.  The scenery was amazing and incredibly relaxing.

I was totally fascinated by this machine that washed, filled, capped and packed the bottles.  I was mezmorized.  It also reminded me of the beginning of Laverne and Sherly.........  I'm gonna do it my way..... your singing it now right?

Too much wine tasting for the boys.......

Starting to wonder if Nick needs glasses.  Check out those legs.  At least 3 bruises on each leg.

This photo is for Barbara - you can canoe to your wine tasting - the perfect day!

Ah, the scenery

Chris and I enjoyed a late night ride together.  Its 9PM in this photo.

The next day we hit Trier.  The oldest city in Germany and truly beautiful.  Here is the Porta Nigra, the oldest Roman gate.

Instead of hopping on the nearest sightseeing tour bus, we hopped on the sight seeing TRAIN.  Choo Choo.

The bath house....  I know I know, you want us to the posing right?

Next, onto the church, clearly two different sections constructed at two very different time periods.

Nick is playing Airplanes in the garden.

Chris has a famous Trier story - for those that have heard the story, just know that this time, we didn't have to throw away the stroller =)

Ice Cream to end the trip - YUM!

It Takes 3!

To this day, I am not sure how single parents do it.  With my mom here for the next several weeks I am convinced that 3 parents are the way to go.  Each one has a kid and the other is cooking, cleaning, whatever.  How can you do it anyother way??

Who wants to clean this one up??

Even Cayman is getting 'babied'!

This is the life!

The World Cup

I would be remiss if I didn't take the time to blog about the world cup in Germany.  Its amazing and like nothing I have ever experienced in all my Michigan fan fare. 

If I could schedule my stateside visit again, I would schedule AROUND the world cup games.  For those of you who know me well, know that I love SPIRIT.  Spirit of the game, spirit around the game.  Who cares what we are watching, but hey, we LOVE every second of what we are watching right?!?!

Living in Germany for 18 months now, its rare to see a German flag.  Heck, in the US, 50% of the houses seem to have them.  Car dealerships in the US show their pride.  However in germany,  its not the case. 

We left Germany June 12 when they beat England to begin their world cup journey.

Tonight they beat Uruguay.  They won 3rd place.

When I returned back to Germany on 8 July after their loss to Spain (thus commiting themselves to a 3rd or 4th place finish) there were flags hanging from windows,  cars sporting the national flag from their windshield as well as cool covers over their rear view window mirrows (who would' ve thought right?), and folks talking about the games in every language.

Tonight we watched the final Germay game in our down home bar.  The idea of exposing our friends to this bar gets me giddy.  Monica, Steve, Chelcy and Deakon - we hope it lives up to our hype....  Every seat was taken.  Cheers were heard throughout the game.  Equal misery & excitement as the score was final after a stressful penalty kick that Uruguay missed.   Germany won!

The bar was thrilled.  We got free beers and a shot of Ouzo!  Many folks left to hop in their cars and drive around flying the German flag.  Fireworks exploded randomly!  But the greatest complement was the owner sat down with us at the end of the night.  It was his birthday.  (perviously, the entire bar sang happy birthday to him - in english!)  He had recently moved his restaraunt (which we were also regulars of) to this new location (closer to our home!).  He asked us where Nicholas was (sleeping of course) and he engaged us in conversation that with our few english words and his german words would allow.

I love spirit!!  

The last days at Camp Carlson

Our time is coming to an end at Camp Carlson and we had a blast.  It was packed full of swimming, fish feeding, biking, and all around partying. 

Shane loved his time with Goomba, who is always a hoot.  We discovered that they both have a double cowlick.  One of many things I believe they have in common =)

Goomba is teaching Shane the arts of good beer

Nick is sticking to pineapple juice

Ah, the corvette again.....

Thumbs up as we RACED up and down the driveway.  Nick squealed every time Peter hit the accelerator.

Lightning McQueen even got to join us.  Thanks Peter for sprucing it up for us! 

As if we needed more excitement,  Goomba schedule a backhoe on Wednesday morning to dig a hole in the back yard.  This wasn't 'fruitless' digging as the backhoe was charged with creating a hole for the new propane tank.  As with any construction project, this one was filled with a few challenges that increased the excitement.  The back hoe dug two holes (wonder why that happened....) and a dump truck even headed out to the sand pit for some 'cushion'.  A true construction project.    It was complete just in time for our departure.

During the time in CT Nick made major strides in the swimming department.  He will jump in with his noodle.  He loves riding the jet =) and he even spent some time underwater (mostly involuntary)

Shane drew a line in the sand and began crawling!  He's able to get to what he wants to play with.  No more, plop and play for us.  Looks like we will have baby gates in our future.

Here's a quick video of life on the Trans Atlantic flight.  About an hour after the video shane racked out in the bassenet (that wouldn't fit him a month later) and Nick stretched out on the floor at our feet.  I am convinced Nick logged the most hours in the sleep department.  We BARELY managed to make our transfer in London.  I am convinced that airport is a MALL.  as you have to weed through the Gucci, Tiffanys, and other stores just to find your gate!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcYWeWD4zM8

Its nice to be home.

Who needs JCPenny when you have Oma Sue's yard =)

One of the things on my list of 'while in the states' was hit JCPenney for some photos of the boys.  Well, we found plenty of other things to do, and never quite had time.  So the morning before we left, we dressed them up and found a beautiful spot in my folks's yard (not hard to do as its beautiful!)

Here's the kind of smooch that really knocks you over =)

This one is my favorite

Nick making sure all is well in the pond

We had about 2 seconds to take this photo as we didn't want Shane is fall into the pond.

So what would have been a 2 hour process took 20 minutes in the back yard.  In a matter of seconds they were back in their swimming suits and in the POOL!

4th of July

Party time with our 2nd family.  The Brinkerhoffs.  Back in 1989 we met them as Jill responsed to our Yankee Flyer ad in search of mini lop bunnies.  Through the years, our families have grown closer together sharring in holidays, weddings, travels etc.  Spending time with them is like being with family. 

This was a great celebration and also a 'send off' Party for Pete and Sally. They are packing their bags, leaving Portsmoth NH and headed to Lake Tahoe. They both have loved that place since the day they left. We all knew they would go back, it was only a matter of when.

Rad bikes! 

Guess there isn't a weight limit

Nick was pretty pumped to see his mom on the bike (since he couldn't yet...)

Shane got to spend time with lots of pretty ladies =) Hey Jodie!

Pete and Mark did a great job of wearing Nick out playing 'keep away' with his hat.  Nick barely took a break all night.  At one point, he finally went potty, but was yelling from the potty, I want to go back out with the big kids!!

Any more space on that grill?

We were all watching a soccer game, put on by Nick and Ivan

Croquet anyone?

Nick was delivering his first wedgy!

Smiley bunch =)  We could never catch Meredith....  Guess those modeling days are to come...

Onto the back yard fireworks.  Pete is normally in charge of those.  However after a few years of 'close calls' and stern suggestions from his family, he threw in the towel.  Thankfully their neighbor brought a few =) 

Looks like the Party is winding down, Swimming anyone?

Seriously, who wakes a sleeping baby??

Thanks for a great evening - love you all!