Upon reflection

I'm in a better mood already.

I knew my bad mood wouldn't last long.

I'm sitting in the house, for the last full day that I'll be in it. Across the yard, I see a cherry tree that I had never noticed before. How did I miss that last year?! They're not quite ripe enough for me to pick, which means I won't get to try any, but their little bursts of red amidst the bright green leaves are pleasant enough to look at.

I'm not at work today because I'm waiting for the second movers. It's a small shipment, and I'm a little bit worried that I am over my weight limit. I hope they'll be able to be a good judge of that for me. Tomorrow I return the loaner furniture. Thursday we drop off the van to be detailed and then shipped on Monday, and we also do the walkthrough to move out of the house. This is our last night in the house, which is kind of great because last night I hardly slept at all for how hot it was. The Wiesbaden Army Lodge is air conditioned. That will be lovely.

I have a list of top things since I've been here. I will share it with you.

Here we go, in no particular order, based on our events and the places that we visited:

1) City with the most character: Bratislava, Slovakia 

2) Most beautiful city: Vienna, Austria

3) Best place to go for Roman ruins: Trier, Germany

4) City with the most diverse types of things to do and see: Mainz, Germany

5) City most worth visiting in your lifetime: Paris, France

6) Friendliest area, especially for families: Tuscany, Italy

7) City with the most impact on my life: Jerusalem, Israel

8) City with the highest concentration of rude people: Wiesbaden, Germany (I realize I might have that impression since I live here, but I don't think so. Even Berlin had a lot of rude people, but it was pretty nicely balanced with kind people who went out of their way to be kind. Also, I've heard from other Germans that Wiesbadeners have a reputation of being rude. I wonder why that is?)

9) City with the best cathedral: Cologne, Germany

10) City with the best museum: Frankfurt, Germany

11) David's favorite place we visited: Tuscany, Italy

12) Most stunning natural area: Bavarian Alps (specifically Garmisch-Partenkirchen--we will miss that place and the thought that I may never go there again in my life makes me a little bit sad. Thank God for the Rockies!)

And here are some numbers:

1) Number of strep infections from September 2018 to June 2019: 26

2) Number of miles driven from mid-August 2017 to end of June 2019: (I'll have to update this on Monday when the van gets shipped.) UPDATED: I have no idea! I thought some documentation would tell me how many miles we started at, but I never found any. So it's a mystery!

3) Number of countries visited by the entire family: 9 (Germany, Poland, Netherlands, France, Spain, Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium)

4) Number of additional countries I visited without the family: 2 (Israel, Czech Republic) UPDATED: 3, including my 1-day trip via train / bus to Luxembourg.

5) Number of surgeries / hospital stays: 3

6) Number of Germany's border countries we missed entirely: 3 (Denmark, Switzerland, Luxembourg)

The thing about it, that the numbers show, is that while we were living a beautiful life here in Germany, the ugly parts of life showed up, too, mainly in the form of sickness for us. I don't know why that kind of took me by surprise. I guess usually when you're on vacation, you're healthy, and I was really focused on all the great travel we would do while we were here, and not the facts of everyday life. (Although I was very excited about the job, too! And rightfully so!)

It is Thursday, now, and we are in the air-conditioned Lodge on the Army post in Wiesbaden. Thank God! It is supposed to be 99 degrees on Sunday! That is pretty rough with no air conditioning. We know because we did it last year!

We had a very difficult two days! We didn't finish moving out of the house until about 0100 today. I could have taken more time, except that the van was scheduled for drop-off today, so we didn't have use of it this morning, which had been my intent in scheduling an afternoon walkthrough. David and the kids were AMAZING. Seriously. I'm so proud of and impressed by all five of them. I caught a glimpse of how this family will be when the kids are older and we all work together on something as a team. I secretly daydream about buying a project house in Waynesboro someday, and using it to learn and to teach the kids about things in life that you can do with your hands. Maybe someday!

In the meantime, I'm glad we're out of the German house! I'm really excited to be going home, especially since we just had the toddler grime painted over with a color of my choice (hopsack), and a new fan installed in our bedroom. It's going to be so nice to see our house again!

God is good and I am so grateful!

An empty house!

A photo of the house for the sake of nostalgia. I wonder if I will miss it?

It had a pool, but we never filled it.

Lilly sleeping with her face on the hard floor!  She was so tired yesterday that she slept like this for about 2 hours! How is that even possible?

Griffin entertaining himself in the empty house by drawing. What a good boy!

Costa Brava, Spain

Girona

Our household goods move went perfectly. I was able to organize the most important things that I wanted to organize (only the most important, and no more) and at the same time, doing the big shipment this early is helping me get out of the house at last!

We spent Monday and Tuesday getting ready for the movers (more accurately, Friday through Tuesday), and they packed us and moved us on Wednesday and Thursday. Woo hoo! Our loaner furniture came on Thursday afternoon, so we were never without beds. The movers were great this time! Thank God!!

Friday night at 9:07 we hit the road for our 12-hour journey to Spain. That was quite an undertaking! David started us out in the drive, and I wrapped it up. We drove through so many downpours, it was actually quite challenging, but we got there. We arrived at Castell Montgri at about 9:00. They didn't get us into our room until about 2:00 in the afternoon, which is understandable. The plan was to take the kids to the on-park playgrounds and have lunch on site. Unfortunately, two of the three playgrounds were wooden and full of splinters, so we didn't use the playgrounds too much while we were there.

We got into our mobile home and promptly took a nap. We were all so tired! The next day, we took the bus to the beach, and it was nice and sunny and the kids had a great time. Later that afternoon, we took the kids to the pool. That day was all about the kids!

The next day we also took the kids to the pool, but it was a different pool for them to enjoy. Then later we went out and found a nice place to eat dinner. I thought we were going somewhere specific, which turned out to be closed. It was a happy accident, though, because we got to visit castle grounds that were still intact and quite beautiful. We finally went to dinner in a nearby town. I tried the ham. David had steak. His dinner was much better than mine!!

The next day, we went to the Dali museum in Figueres, and then we visited the lovely little city of Girona. It was pretty and enjoyable. We had tapas and then headed over to the cathedral.

The cathedral was impressive, but unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there. You MAY recognize it from the Game of Thrones. Girona appeared many times on that show. But it was interesting because of its architecture and history. As we were heading home, Alex was starting to feel ill. By the time we got home, he was running a fever. I was praying it was not strep.

I had booked a tour to Barcelona for Thursday, so on Wednesday, I decided that instead of filling the day, we should take it easy and let Alex rest. We stayed around the home in the morning. I had thought about a glass bottom boat tour, but the kids were so tired and not very interested. By Wednesday afternoon, I couldn't stand sitting around, so we went to the pool again.

Alex seemed to be all right, but at the same time, he felt warm to me. It was hard to tell if he still had a fever, but he was still complaining, and he doesn't usually fake it.

Thursday morning at 0730, I called the tour company and cancelled our tour. No Barcelona for me, which was the one thing I had my heart set on. I'm disappointed still. Alex seems to be okay, but we drove home on Thursday (it took us 15 hours since the kids were awake all day) because I was still feeling worried about him. Today, Saturday when we were SUPPOSED to get home, I think Alex is fine. I don't know if I made the right decision.  There's a SLIGHT chance that Alex exaggerated how he felt because he wanted to go back to where the tablet was working. I'm disappointed by the vacation. No Barcelona! We only went to the beach once after driving 12 hours to get to it! It was a big drive for a little reward. And overall, I'm just ready to go home.

So much has happened in my extended family since we've been away: death, cancer, marriage, babies. I'm ready to see the people I love and be part of their lives again. This week we are shipping our van and moving out of the house and into the lodge. Life will be so easy for a little while after this week, and I am really looking forward to moving out of this house. It is hard to believe that we have less than four weeks to go!

Don't get me wrong, we are so blessed that we have been able to be here, and to see everything we have seen, including our vacation to Spain. I fell in love with some places I never expected to see to begin with. Two years was a great amount of time. I am simply not very good at being in limbo, and we have been in limbo for a very long time!! It's been a wonderful limbo, but limbo nonetheless! My time here has also been adversely affected by all of the sickness. I think we're up to 26 infections of strep. The Army hospital will be my hospital of choice until we leave. I'm hoping we don't need to visit them again. I'm optimistic, even.

I kind of feel like I'm leaving Germany on a bit of a sour note. So much sickness. I'm so tired of this house with no hot water in the kitchen and a fridge that freezes or spoils everything. Our last vacation was disappointing.

I feel guilty for my negativity. I know it won't be my attitude overall about our time here. All I really have to do is think about the Schirn museum or the blue windows in Mainz, and I am grateful. But today, I missed a big event in someone's life, and it will still be a month before I can celebrate with her. That is so hard to take!

Life as an expat? Difficult. But I honestly hope I get the chance to do it again someday. Maybe in Japan or Australia. :-)

Castell Palau, where we thought we would eat dinner. So pretty!

Restaurant Camelot, a good recommendation from a very friendly local.

Yum!

Girona.

The outside of the Dali museum. Interesting!

This was in the church that was significant to Dali.

One of Dali's creations.

Lilly was so excited to go to the beach. She carried the shovel and bucket around the house for two days before we left.

Alex is getting good at swimming underwater!

Livvy LOVES the pool!

This is the cathedral in Girona. Pretty impressive!

Poland (but not London!)

One of the things on my list was to visit a Polish pottery outlet that a friend of mine had told me about last year. It wasn't far across the border, but it was about 6.5 hours away, so it would have to be an overnight trip.

It was in a very remote place in the countryside in Poland, and I had a lot of difficulty finding a place that could fit the entire family. We could always stay at a hotel in two different rooms, but that usually costs twice as much, and it splits up the family, which defeats the purpose of a family vacation.

Accidentally, I booked us an Airbnb in someone's house. We still ended up sleeping in two different rooms, but the kids enjoyed the couple's cat, trampoline, and tree swing. I enjoyed the homemade pierogies and goulash soup!! They were a very sweet couple originally from Poznan, and excellent hosts.

We made a nice day trip out of the pottery outlet and a rhododendron park in Germany that had an interesting man-made bridge from the 1800s. I'm glad we got to go to Poland, and I'm glad we got to be part of the Polish country culture for a couple of days.

I'm also glad everyone was healthy for that trip. Actually, Livvy started running a fever about two hours before we got home. I swore off that awful pediatrician, and ended up taking her to Landstuhl because she had strawberry tongue again, which meant more strep.

A couple of days later, David started complaining about a sore throat, but I was holding onto hope that he didn't have strep but tonsillitis not caused by strep. It was not to be. That Friday, we went to Landstuhl, which is over an hour away, and got there at about 1630, and finally David got discharged at about midnight. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and strep throat. Poor guy.

At about that time (midnight), Alex said, "The bad news is that my throat kind of hurts."

So we checked him in. And then to be on the safe side, I checked in Griffin. Both were positive for strep.

When David was diagnosed, he graciously suggested that we keep the babysitter so that at least I could still go to London. It wouldn't be the same at all without him.  Our marriage needs us to have a weekend alone, but I certainly wasn't eager to throw away all that money. However, I couldn't risk infecting the babysitter with the infectious boys, since they needed to be on antibiotics for at least a day in order to not be contagious.

So, no London for me. I was very sad and disappointed. I don't understand why we've been riddled with sickness for the past 8 months. But then again, I don't really need to. This kind of adversity is part of life. It makes you appreciate what you do have, and it makes you appreciate your health when you have it. I can live with that. God is still good and always faithful, and He will always have my praises.

Soon, our trip to Spain (and the beach!) is coming up! Please say a prayer for all of our health! Lilly was complaining about her ears yesterday. I'm thinking it was allergies and have started her on the allergy medicine for children. I hope that's all it is.

On another note, my computer died completely, as opposed to the half of a life it's been living for over a year, and I can't seem to upload photos to this post through the app. So you'll just have to take my word for it that we were there. Lol.

And on another note, today they took our household goods away! Only 36 more days! Woo hoo!

...Updated with photos!

As soon as we go anywhere, all of the kids take over the place like it's been theirs for years.

I think these were mustard fields. A beautiful bright yellow was everywhere.

Devil's Bridge. Interesting form, but I'm not so sure about the function.

Delicious goulash made by our hostess!

Awwwwww.

Awwwwww (again).

At Devil's Bridge.

It's nice to get out of the city!