Halloween 2012

I know it was 2 weeks ago already, but I can't let Halloween go by without a few pictures.  Remember last Halloween? We had just had a new baby, moved to Germany, and threw together a last-minute Halloween celebration.  This year, there was no holding back.  I got my Halloween on, big time. 

 

Cowgirl by day . .



Bo Peep by night

 

 

 

 

Boo!

In a small town

At this time last year, I thought I lived in a small town.  I was in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, population 40,000.  I had never lived in such a small place and, having come directly from Boston, my mind was convulsing with the shock of the big-to-small adjustment.  Never mind that this "small town" was connected by bus and rail to Braunschweig (pop. 150,000) just 10 minutes up the track, had at least 7 bakeries within 10 minutes walk, a giant grocery store, and castle across the street.  It was small, and it was different.

Little did I know that less than a year later I would find myself living in a small town in Kansas, population 11,000.  There are no great bakeries, our giant grocery store is Walmart, and needless to say, we don't look at a castle out our front window.

I had never been to Kansas until we rumbled into town with our giant Penske truck.  This is the 5th place in a row I've moved into sight-unseen.  We arrived on July 30, in the midst of one of the worst droughts and heat waves this area has seen in years.  It was 103 degrees on move-in day.  I sat at Dairy Queen that afternoon with my family, trying to cool off, silently cursing the fact that I was sitting in a Dairy Queen in Kansas.

Since that day I have had my fair share of  moments of horror.  There are no beaches, no swimming lakes, and the only place to get decent cilantro or tofu is Walmart.  The restaurant scene is grim-- I may need to seek therapy to deal with my memories of one of them.  There is no curbside recycling, and the county recycling center is manned by an old man in bib overalls who points out every mistake I make in my sorting. I have to drive 35 miles to take my kids to the pediatrician, and occasionally get stuck on the highway behind a truck pulling a double-wide.  Some days I feel like everyone here could be Cousin Eddie from "Christmas Vacation" (who, my brother pointed out, is from Kansas).

I feel a sort of burden to be THAT person who, being forced to leave her city lifestyle, is won over by the charms of small town life on the edge of the prairie and spends the rest of her life raising goats and writing her memoires.  I just don't think I'm going to be that person . . . yet.  Although the moments of horror have mellowed into a general feeling of acceptance and adjustment, I'm far from being swept off my feet. 

But hey! Enough of that. Remember these two?

I'm back

It only took me 3 months and a lot of separation anxiety from "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolfenbüttel", but I am slowly transitioning this blog to follow our new life in Kansas.  Oh, I know it's a stretch after 9 months of European adventures, but stick with me. We'll find something.

What I did during summer vacation.

Where do I even start?

I am writing today, August 29, to start bringing this blog back to life to chronicle the next adventure: life in Kansas.  I have been MIA for 2 months, and now you will see why. 

We left Germany 2 months ago, which in reality feels like about 2 years.  Our carseats were lost then found. Jet lag was awful. Seeing friends and being back in Boston was great. Elsa ate 4 bowls of Cheerios in our first 8 hours back in the country.  Clara got sick, and we spent the 4th of July in the ER to get diagnosed with pink eye. She got better, I got pink eye. We spent 7 beautiful days of homelessness renting a cottage on Cape Cod, soaking up the ocean before moving to landlocked Kansas.

 

 

In the span of 7 days, Clara got 4 new teeth, started crawling, waving, pointing, signing, and feeding herself.

We stayed with friends. Elsa spent half the night throwing up the night before I started a new job. I started a new job. 3 days later we loaded a truck. We left Boston with everything we own, for the first time in 8 years. I forgot to say goodbye until we had already passed Fenway, and then I wanted to cry.  But I was driving. We stopped in upstate NY, then on to Erie, PA . . .

Happy to be out of the car!

 and on to Cleveland . . .



                                                                 Yep. That's our ride.
.
to New Buffalo, MI . . .

. . . to Milwaukee, where we blew a tire and got two new ones (why not blow a tire while we're at it?), and finally to Minnesota, where we stayed in one place for 6 whole days before we made the inevitable trip to Kansas. As we drove to our new town, we were passed by a truck full of pigs and all I could see were 5 snouts sticking out through the bars of the trailer. I wanted to turn around. When we crawled into our own bed the night we moved in, we realized that our new house was the 12th place we had stayed in the month of July.  Elsa asked, "How many nights are we staying in this house Mommy?"

And here we are, in Kansas. 

The Rainbow Connection

I have been thinking about rainbows a lot since January. 

I was always told that rainbows were supposed to be a sign of hope and promise.  During the dark, rainy, and emotionally draining months of late winter and early spring, I needed signs of hope and promise. 

Our adventure here in Germany was always intended to be temporary, ending in June, with the thought and hope that we would be transitioning somewhere new, somewhere over the rainbow that would be the promised land of an academic job.  Of course we knew that there would be a possibility that this wouldn't happen, given the abyssmal state of the academic history job market, but we just didn't think that would be where we'd find ourselves.  And then, after months of interviews, hopes, frustrations, emotional rollercoasters, tears, that's where we found ourselves. Skunked. Bitter. No plan. Sick of picking up the pieces and moving on.  There were good days where I could see how this process was good for us in some ways . . . but then there were the other days, when it seemed too big to handle.  Did I mention tears? Oh there were tears.

Somewhere in there, I started thinking about rainbows . . . listening to "Rainbow Connection" sung by Kermit the Frog (and only the Kermit version would do it for me) on repeat.  This little symbol and the tremendous moral support I got from family and friends were the only things that kept me grounded and sane.  My friend Maureen has been sending me sheets of rainbow stickers in regular installments since February . . . some I give to Elsa and let her stick them on anything and everything, and some I just keep, to look at and just stick on something randomly when I have one of those days. 

So that's where we have been, with everything coming to a head around mid-April.  Which is why I sort of disappeared for a bit . . . suddenly we had to face the fact that we needed to put together a plan, quickly. So we did.

And then.

Just when we least expected it, at the last minute, just like the rainbow chasers always say it will, something happened.  Erik was offered a job, he accepted, and we are putting on our ruby slippers and moving to Kansas for a year. 

I had grand visions of what it would be like the day this happened . . . I pictured screams, making an emergency run to buy fancy champagne, tears of joy . . . but mostly we were just stunned. Relieved, happy, terrified, and stunned.  Since then, corks have definitely been popped and the reality of it all has set in as we make plans to move forward with yet another adventure . . . with some trepidation of course.  And a few nightmares about tornadoes.

Only after several weeks of sitting on this news did I realize that it all comes back to rainbows.  What is the most famous rainbow song of all? Of course. Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Where does Dorothy sing this? Of course. Kansas.  It may not have been how I pictured my pot of gold, but who knows. 

Ad astra per aspera- "To the stars with difficulty"
-Kansas State Motto

9 Months!

I know . . . I missed 7 and 8 and now I'm late for 9, but only by a few days. There have been just a few things going on . . . but . . .
Happy 9 months Clara! I'm in denial that we are 3/4 through her first year already, but my little baby is getting big. And squirmy.

In the past 3 months, Clara has been to Paris, Munich and Austria, and Belgium. Where will she go this month?
Home. To the U.S.A., where she hasn't been since this picture was taken:

It's been a wild ride, Fräulein. 

Wine and roses

We knew this day would come . . . all through the long, dark winter we knew that summer would arrive and bring light, life, color, and phenomenal day trips that cause Elsa to say, "This is the BEST ausflug I've ever had!" (ausflug = getaway).

Today was this day.  Heading just a few miles up the Rhine and into the lush green hills, we visited the medieval monastery of Kloster Eberbach, which now produces some fabulous wines.

Medieval wine cellar

Unlike our last trip to this area, we found ourselves with a couple of very cooperative little travelers this time around. 

Then it was time to head to the hills, through the vineyards, and back to Eltville to catch our train home.

Except that it is the Rosentage (Rose Days) festival in Eltville. . . on second thought, let's give Elsa a lollypop and take the later train.

And Clara. You have a lot to learn, my little lady . . . a rose is to be smelled, not licked.  But as long as you're happy . . . why not.



Munich and Innsbruck

Ack.  I am so so so so behind.  I'm not sure what has happened to the last 2 months OR to my faithful blogging, except that maybe it's now summer and I have senioritis. Or it could be that we have had a steady stream of visitors and some travels and birthdays and oh yeah we have been trying to figure out our life. More on all of those things later, but before I get even more behind, I present to you . . . Munich.

We knew we had to take a trip to our old stomping grounds at some point during our stay in Germany, and we also knew that it should be during beer garden season.  As you can see from this picture, Munich provided us with the perfect weather to enjoy a scene not easily found in the rest of Germany.

Big beer! Big pretzels! Big beer gardens! While every part of Germany has it's charms, this thing that Munich has going on with the beer gardens is pretty awesome, and unrivaled by any other city. But of course, it's not just beer gardens. Munich is just a beautiful city to see with gorgeous parks, gardens, palaces, theaters . . .



Okay, next stop: Innsbruck! After way too little time in Munich, we took a train to Innsbruck, Austria . . . breathtakingly situated in the Alps. Erik has lived in Innsbruck twice, so it was another nostalgia tour to a former home. Clara got to see mountains for the first time, and Elsa was initiated into the love of Austria.

Everyone is happy on vacation!

Erik has, on occasion, expressed concern that being the father of two girls will mean all ruffles and bows all the time.  I hope that introducing them to a hike in the Alps at a young age will calm his fears.

Especially when followed by a giant schnitzel at his favorite mountain hütte, which Elsa happily helped him with.



So, while we saw a lot of familiar sites,

traveling with kids leads you to some places you never knew existed, like the Alpenzoo.



And then, at the end of the day, this wasn't such a bad view to have from our balcony.





Go, Mommy, Go!

OH NO. Where did April go? Where have I been? What have I been doing? I have some catching up to do. I am going to start with the most recent, because today my legs are a little too tired to travel too far back in the past. 

Yesterday, for the first time since 2008 and therefore the first time as a mom, I ran a 1/2 Marathon. 

Why? Well, as Elsa says repeatedly as she insists on taking off down the sidewalk, "I have to run, because I'm a runner!" Exactly.  Let's just say that after nearly 8 years of marriage, Erik knows that it's in everyone's best interests to give me time to run.  Especially when it's the only time I have to myself (that's right...bathing and going to the bathroom no longer count).  So I picked something big to train for and registered for the Mainz Half-Marathon. Elsa's reaction? "Why not the whole marathon, Mommy?" Seriously.  When you and your sister get together and decide to sleep all night, every night, then maybe we can think about it. 

Erik braved the rainy morning with my enthusiastic cheering section.

Oh wait, that's a little better. . .



And at the end, a big beer (alcohol-free, which is probably a good idea) and a little girl running at me were great rewards. 

So was the giant ice cream on the way home.



10 years ago I ran a marathon 2 days after my 25th birthday. This year  I ran a 1/2 marathon 3 days after my 35th.  I like to tell myself that the shortened distance is only due to sleep deprivation and not advancing age.  We'll see.  As for the difference between running a big race in Germany vs. the U.S.? I like that our first names are on our race numbers, so I can see that I'm surrounded by Franz-Josef, Wilhelmus, Bjorn, Ute, Wolfgang, Andreas, Axel, and Norbert.  I love the race being marked in km instead of miles . . . more markers makes me feel like I'm making faster progress.  More body odor at the start.  Pretzels and beer as post-race refreshments instead of bagels and Gatorade. People stripping down to their skivvies out in the open pre-and post-race to change clothes.  Otherwise, it's the same intense energy and comraderie and Van Halen pump-up music and post-race high. Mission accomplished.



If you've ever been to Paris . . .

. . . you might know that Jardin du Luxembourg has this,

but did you know that it also has this?

And of course you know this side of Notre Dame,

but you might not know that just around the corner, you will find this:

And Jardin des Tuileries?

Right. Beautiful, with the Orangerie, Place de la Concorde, some giant art museum with a big glass pyramid and fountains nearby, blah blah blah . . . BABY DUCKS!

Of equal excitement, but not pictured: great public bathrooms and a trampoline park. Who knew?

Did you also know that at the myriad quaint cafes and brasseries around Paris, you can find not only coffee, amazing wine, and beer, but 7-10 varieties of juice?

Apricot or pineapple juice can be just enough of a novelty to a 3-year-old to buy you a little bit of time sit and sip your beverage of choice as you watch Paris pass by. Just make sure to know where to find your next WC, because she will inevitably pick a vast, open space to announce, " I have to go POTTY!!"

In case you were wondering, this is Paris through the eyes of parents with small kids.  Not so much art, lots of playgrounds.  Our cultural experiences come in different forms these days, but it's okay.  I think we're all getting what we want out of our travel experiences, and learning valuable lessons along the way.  I leave you with this pearl of wisdom: a well-timed Chupa-Chup sucker can buy you over an hour of whine-free sightseeing.