Life: Idiotropic

Valentine's Day came early this year. Of course, the girls parties had to be on the Friday before, so Elise had her party and then we went over to the school to celebrate with mounds of goodies in Luci's class - the parents brought so many assorted sweets in that we loaded up their Valentine's envelopes with all the candy and then even after the 20ish kids went through the sugar buffet line twice and were completely pin-balling around the room, there was still enough left over for the vulturous parents to munch and then take home for their Valentine boxes. One of the parents had made about 50 cute little red rice crispy treat hearts and then wrapped each individually in baggies and tied them with a bow (yes, she only has one child) - so I grabbed a few of those to regift and each of my girls got one the next morning in their V-day box. More sugar in Arianna's class. Elise had already had her own party and sugar in Luci's, but walked into A's class, said, "I'm hungry," and was immediately given another big cupcake by A's teacher. Elise has spent so much time in her sisters classes that she is perfectly comfortable there as are the teachers with her, so she played with Luci's friends at recess and hung out with Arianna later while I ran around taking yearbook photos.

Arianna's class had so many cupcakes that only half got eaten, so she ran all over the school to teachers and staff handing out treats - she even delivered treats to teachers she doesn't know. Such a sweetie.

Kirk got home with roses for everyone. The girls each got two beautiful roses and he spoiled me with a huge bouquet. They are gorgeous! Totally surprised me. Then we went out sans kinder to a new sushi restaurant in Sittard called TR&TA. Cool name, huh? They pronounce it "Trenta."

Sadly, I can't take credit for these pictures. My husband had his fini-flight today - his final flight here before he moves to Belgium - and, per tradition, the fire truck awaited him in the 2C weather (32 degrees) to hose him down with equally cold water. I was so excited to be there. All four girls were hyped up about riding on the firetruck and spraying daddy. It should have been a beautiful moment. But, my medical clearance appointment went long and his plane landed early. :( So we missed it and the kids whined and I whined and poor Kirk was beside himself with 5 mopey girls, so he did what any considerate (not to mention brilliant) man would do in his shoes and he brought home not 1, but 3 containers of Haagen Daaz ice cream and a jar of maraschino cherries.

I'm still quite sad, but the good news is that we got our medical clearance (a prerequisite for the move to Spain), AND... I have it on good authority that we may be able to hose Kirk in May. :) He won't mind. It should be warmer then.

In just a week, the "Crazy Days" of Karneval will begin. This is the time people are getting together their costumes and decorating their windows with colorful balloons and clowns. It's also a time when odd things start to show up in the ads.

Look at this one carefully. Thomas Philipps is a large chain of stores that have a large selection of random things at good prices. I've gone there for little things before.

If you look in the bottom left corner, you'll see a "little" thing that I won't be buying this year. Takes the candy necklaces of my childhood to a whole other level.

Stereotypes be what they may, it's always good to see one broken - to see the sometimes overly serious Germans here play just a little. Karneval's coming soon, so this morning I awoke to the sound of drumming coming from the church. This afternoon I saw a slow but steady trickle of people walking home with instruments, swords, or costumes. A louder round of drumming brought me back to my window to see this group assembled near our house - just talking on a nice afternoon. The drums started when they saw their friend walk near. He played it up, pulling his sword ceremoniously, then bowing to one side, then the other, tipping his hat, returning his sword, and walking away. They drummed "Happy Birthday" after that. It was cute and fun to see the locals just being silly.

The bird is another local - one that kept returning to our empty field today. We saw him flying circles overhead and saw him return about 6 times.

Which brings me to Luci's most recent bit of wisdom, something she said to me after completing her drawing of a bald eagle in an apple tree.

I don't say much here about the military side of our life. My girls go to the school on base, my milk is "armed forces milk," I see airplanes every day. It's just the norm.

But tonight we got to do something special. This was the third Chief Induction ceremony that I've attended and by far the best. The personnel wore their mess dress - their formal uniform. Spouses wore formals from simple black to ornate with sequins.

The occasion: the promotion of three amazing guys to the rank of chief.

The room was filled with fancy people and all the VIPs. The food was great. The tables were nicely set. A small table sat in the corner set, but empty to recognize the soldiers who could not be with us - a symbol explained thoroughly in previous ceremonies but not in this one.

It was a nice party - as it should be. Chief is the highest rank in the enlisted forces. Only 1% of the enlisted personnel can have the rank of chief. These are the backbone of the force - the men with the knowledge, the leadership, and the experience. It's amazing. They are the guys that get things done.

One of our friends was being honored tonight. He was there with his wife and daughters and when it was his time to speak, like the two before him, he gave his thanks to God, family, friends, and mentors, and gave roses to his wife and girls. Chuck's the unassuming "country boy" who had us all in stitches with the quote of the night referring to his wife as his "smokin' hot internet bride."

Before the evening began, we gave a series of toasts

• "To the flag of the United States of America"
• "To the Chancellor, Bundesrepublic, Deutschland"
• "To the President of the United States"
• "To the Secretary of the Air Force"
• "To the Chief of Staff, United States Air Force"
• "To the Chief Master Sergeant of the United States Air Force"
• "To Our NATO Partners and Allied Services"

It went so fast, we all felt a bit like part of a college drinking game.

The Airman's Creed came in the middle as they spoke about the role of a Chief.


And, after a beautiful evening of friends, food, and short, but poignant speeches, we finished with the Air Force Song which I, embarrassingly enough, still need to read the words to.

Just behind the blocky, grey, architecturally out-of-place US military base at Schinnen is a castle with horses, a narrow country road, and endless walking/biking trails. It's quiet and beautiful.

Today, the only sunny day in longer than I'd like to think about, was supposed to be my day out - a couple errands and then a photographic walk through the village. But, Elise has a strange rash - nothing, according to the MD, but not something she can go to school with - so... by beautiful day walking ended up being more errands and a 30 minute photographic drive. Drive slowly, stop, angle van, roll down window, snap, snap. Repeat. Elise is quite used to this and humors me. Thank goodness. We had fun with the horses.

The house is decorated for Karneval. Looks like Schinnen's prince lives here.

A dreary cold day inside being Wonder Woman around the house cleaning shelves I hadn't looked at in, well, a while and reorganizing part of the playroom... it wasn't the most exciting day here, but a day is rarely void of photo ops. Really, if all else fails, Elise would ham it up for me and Tiara has plenty of teen-style self-portraits making strange faces at the camera. Today; however, I got to spy on Kurt and Bonzai from the playroom window. They are the ones who taught me the German word for fat: dick. Bonzai is certainly a dick little horse. Love him though. He's a sweet little pony and so fluffy now in the cold.

... sounds an awful lot like "A laugh," which is what you hear these days when people get dressed up for Karneval. While the real parties are still a couple weeks away, I was able to test out my new look at the American Women's group tonight. A traditional Dutch Limberber outfit. (Not the cheese, the region)

So today was errands, coffee, errands, taxi service for children, packaging up door prizes, taxi again, event setup... you know. A regular day in the life of a woman who's first word may have been no, but somehow lost it along the way.

I missed two things tonight while I was away.

1. Elise gave herself her first haircut. A small clump - 3" long.

2. Arianna spent an hour sulking, upset and distraught that the groundhog saw his shadow (or didn't- I get confused). She's been talking about Groundhog's day for the last week. This morning she popped out of bed wishing us all a very Happy Groundhog's Day! And this afternoon she was crushed that she would have to face another long dreary 6 weeks of winter. Think she'll like Spain? Definitely.

Our friends are coming over this evening for dinner - they are friends that we rarely see here sadly enough, but they sponsored us here and had us over for dinner in our first couple weeks in Germany and now, as they are leaving in a couple days, we're doing the same.

We've known them since our Oklahoma days, so while I wasn't sure what I felt like cooking for dinner, I knew exactly what to cook for dessert - the amazing, delicious, can't-eat-just-one, Peanut Lover's Nanaimo Bars.

I got this recipe from my Aunt Jackie years ago, made them for the first time while living in Oklahoma, then quickly learned not to make them because they are the kryptonite to my will power and I will eat the entire pan if not physically restrained. Freezing them doesn't help. They are SO good.

So, here it goes. Throwing a little temptation your way.

Peanut Lover's Nanaimo Bars
Base:

• Place in a bowl over boiling water: 3/4c. sugar, 1/2c. butter, 1/2c. chunky peanut butter.
• Melt and stir
• Beat 3 eggs together with 1 t. vanilla. Temper them with a little of the hot butter mixture.
• Add eggs to the hot mixture and stir until thickened. (5 minutes or so)
• In a large bowl, mix: 3c. graham cracker crumbs and 1.5c. coconut
• Mix the hot mixture into the crumb mixture until all the crumbs are moistened. Press into a 9x13" pan.
  
• Chill.

Filling:

• Beat together: 1/2c. butter softened, 1/4c. peanut butter, 5T. milk, and 3c. powdered sugar.
• Spread evenly over the chilled base layer, cover, and chill.

Topping:

• In a microwave on low heat of in a double broiler, melt together: 6oz. semisweet chocolate and 1/4c. peanut buttter. Stir until melted and smooth.
• Chill until the chocolate is firm, but not brittle. Slice and serve

Notes:

• In the original recipe, it calls for 3/4 cup peanuts in the base layer, but I use chunky peanut butter in all the layers and it works great.
• Do not serve these on a hot day. They'll make a melty mess all over the place. They are definitely better served chilled or not left out long.
  
• Though there are three steps, it goes fast and really is easy. Also easy to double for a party.
• They freeze WAY too well.
  

Todays day trip plans were thwarted by a bitter, bitter cold - the east wind that Tinny came in complaining about this morning. I was disappointed at a sunny day in, but felt better about our decision after talking to a friend whose husband kept slipping on the water turned ice as he was washing his car.

So, other than cleaning, and doing pre-move stuff here, the only "interesting thing" happened this afternoon when I finally decided to try the candy that I got during December's Spanish night.

Mazalmendra's Cerezas al Licor.

Looked like a chalky black truffle. Very round. It was, in fact, a marachino cherry enrobed in a thin shell with an inner layer of chocolate and a licorice flavoured outer layer. The chocolate/licorice combination is something that I've had before and really like, so I didn't mind that thin shell. The cherry... well, that was a surprise (yeah, the wrapper said cerezas, but I wasn't paying attention!). And I'm not a fan of candied cherries. Yuck. This is one Spanish treat I won't be loading up on while in Spain... but you may get them in your Christmas box! :)

Jessica has found a home.

Who's Jessica, you ask? Not a stray dog. Not a cat or a mouse or a hamster. Not even a goldfish. Nope. Jessica is a bear. A little brown bear, actually. And, what am I doing with this wild beast? Building it a house, of course. Wouldn't you?

And it's a lovely house created lovingly by Arianna and I from a large brown box. We partitioned it into 4 rooms, a front yard, a attic play room, and a roof patio. We made it a toilet and even provided little toilet paper on a roll. She has a refrigerator that really opens, a stove with burners, a nice large sink (I'm a bit jealous of her sink - it's bigger than mine!), and a beautiful blue bookshelf full of books. We have art, a vine crawling up one wall, nice lace curtains that open and shut, and a broom to clean up the wet pawprints she leaves on the floor after her bath.

Jessica has been living with us since the beginning of January. Arianna is very proud of her and has even made her some nice clothes. You can see her sitting in her swimming pool in the photograph - Jessica, the stuffed bear.

This was Arianna's 3 week project that "taught" construction and recycling. They'll do measurements and "study" other aspects of the houses. Fun and creative, yes. Educational? The jury is still out on that one.

With heightened awareness of my limited time here, I'm beginning to feel the twinge of "too many photo ops, too little time." So in the last couple days I've found myself randomly swerving off of the road with increased frequency to capture that image of the area that I don't want to forget. This, of course, drives my children nuts and probably causes my friends to question my sanity, but I will not leave here with photo regrets - at least I hope.

This morning I revisited one of my favorite cafes for the first time since true winter reared it's ugly head. Seems they've copied the Beecker cafe and started serving a breakfast buffet - eggs scrambled and hard boiled, breads, meats, cheeses, veggies, jams, cereals, and juice. It was a nice time and uneventful. I took the photo above on the way out since I have multiple views of this place in the spring, summer, and fall, but none, until today, of the frozen over winter pond.

Post cafe we did a quick trek to IKEA noticing these white mounds that I've seen a million times before and mentally noting that I "needed" that photo too, so on the way back, I turned in to a opening in the gate and parked on the muddy plateau overlooking a deep pit of water and these piles of white. Walked to the edge slipping, squishing, and totally mucking up my beautiful boots. Someday a photo op is going to get me seriously injured.

I've tried to look this up to see what it is. A mine? After all the Netherlands is pretty much at ocean level. It's not completely inconceivable that there wouldn't be salt or sand here. But, I don't know what I was looking at. It's just pretty, interesting, and part of my memory of here.

While most Gillrathians are quick about getting down Christmas decorations by the first of the year (there aren't that many - just the occasional wreath or the inflatable Santa hanging out of upper story windows), the autoshop here isn't so efficient. Their gaudy red car covered in lights held on by clear packing tape is still sitting there in front of the shop, in plain view of passers by, and in plain view of my house. Thank goodness they don't turn on the lights. It's quite garrish.

In contrast, my tulips are still pretty! :)

My first year here I griped continually about the weather and vowed to keep my mouth shut a while and just deal with it. Well, let me complain just this once that while I am extremely grateful for our last few days of sun, the painful, bitter cold has lasted long enough and I am done! Go away winter! I'm ready for spring as are the farmers who have all lovingly preaned their fields and perfumed them with cow poop (gotta love the smell of spring).

Today I did warm myself with a latte at my favorite cafe and enjoyed a visit with an Italian and a Turkish friend. We talked about Christmas, family, and universities. I learned that in Turkey there is one day each year when all the students take a test. All students prepared take the same test on the same day. This is THE test. If you score very high, you can choose what you want to do. If you score low, then your choice is made for you. What was explained to me is that you look at where your score falls on the list and that will essentially tell you what your choices are for career and if a university is in your future (so careers are ranked according to difficulty and your score determines what jobs your capable of?). If you can't live with your score, then you can wait a year, study harder and take the test again. My Italian friend said that unlike our system where you can take a test like the MCAT and then apply for several schools, they also all take the same test on the same day and you can only apply for one. So, if you don't get in, too bad. It seems harsh. There's also a limit of how many doctors can be trained - we have a limit too, but it's a bigger number. She said theirs is something like 100.

Yesterday while I was in the shower, Tante Tinny came over, cleaned my kitchen entirely, then left. Elise came running upstairs when I got up pulling on my hand and telling me to come see what's in the kitchen. I was scared it would be something scary.

So, in the evening I picked up a couple bunches of tulips as a thanks you. Elise gave them to her, but she would only accept one - she was happy to clean my kitchen. She said she was bored and just needed something to do.

Today it's sunny, but hazy and cold, and I've been busy indoors cleaning and sorting. Had to stop and take a few photos of my flowers. Tulips are out again in the markets now and so pretty.

And the buddies. Misha and Elise have a very special relationship and love each other very much. Elise may be the smallest, but she's very gentle and Misha trusts her. :) BTW, Misha will be 21 years old next month!

This morning I woke up to sun! Beautiful glorious sun! Which completely cheered me up. Not that I was gloomy, but those sun rays pouring through the windows infused me with energy and contentment. And I could actually feel it as if I'd been injected with some warming medication. It was good. We've needed sun. I wanted to run outside, but we were in need of a few things at Schinnen and I'm not supposed to be walking a lot. (plantar fasciatis - not a big deal, just an annoyance)

So, my treats for the day were these photos. Looking out my window to see Kurt and Bonzai in the field next door. Bonzai has a tooth problem that has made him refuse to eat for 2 weeks, so Kurt is getting him out and exercised and hoping to encourage him to eat. I think it's sweet. Kurt with his giant cigar hanging out of his mouth looking like he looks ever day of the year. And Bonzai, old and sweet like his owner, and with an especially furry coat this year.

The second treat was coming back from Schinnen. This chapel lies in the middle of a huge field just at the corner of a roundabout. I've never figured out how exactly to get to it... probably would have to bicycle and use the farm roads. Anyway... this special chapel disappears almost entirely in the summer when those trees are full of leaves, so today was my opportunity while I was thinking of it to pull over and snap a few pictures. Pretty, isn't it?

Fashion and Spaezle.

One of the local sports shops brought clothing for 5 of our German members to model for us this evening. About 20 different outfits were modeled including a lot of items by Nike which they pronounce Niyk. No "ee" sound on the end. "And here's another nice pant by Niyk..." Over and over. It sounded funny. The ladies had a lot of fun modelling and really played the part well, peeling off layers like they were on a real runway! Thank you ladies!

Dinner was kaesespaetzle - a noodle they make in southern Germany. It's similar to the Hungarian dumplings, but the Hungarians serve it more with sauce. The Dutch serve it with sauces too. Cheese makes it heavy - like macaroni and cheese.

I sat with the Norwegians and we all tried a bar of Finish chocolate that I brought. It was spicy. We think it had Cardamon in it. Odd, but oddly good.

The recipe provided by the German ladies:

Luci has been studying China in class and today was the cumulation of all the learning with a Chinese New Year party. They did a parade with the dragon in the morning, wore hats, and had Chinese food this afternoon trying to eat with chopsticks. I have great pictures of her friends attempting chopsticks and smiling with noodles hanging from their mouths, but my Luci was NOT in the mood for pictures and wouldn't even pose with me for her teacher. :( So, Luci's class, Luci's party... and the picture here is of Elise who is lucky enough still to go to almost all her sisters parties.

Signs of Karnevel... colorful confetti and streamers are showing up in shops... balloons adorn shop windows... and the bakeries are selling special treats.

I bought one of these treats when I went to Schleypen today. You won't find these all over Germany. Not all of Germany celebrates Karneval, in fact, we're really living at the epicenter of it all. Cologne is the big celebration, but Karveval is celebrated in the Limburg area of the Netherlands as well.

I saw one of the bakers bring out 4 large trays heaped with these crunchy diamonds of deep fried dough. Covered in a thick layer of powdered sugar, these Geldblaeters (money leaves) are a specialty of the Rhineland made only at Karneval time.

Sadly, they look better than they taste. They're pretty, but a bit bland.

This morning in Mrs. Chmeylar's 2nd grade class, there was an inauguration ceremony.

In November, days before our election, the students ran for president giving short campaign speeches. On our election day, they voted. And now, on our Inauguration Day, they also swore their leaders into office. President, vice president, senators, court justices, etc... One student administered the oaths. All the students raised their right hand and took the oath of office, then they were all given a medal to wear. Arianna was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice! Then, instead of a fancy dinner, we were all treated to punch, cookies, and chocolates. (Photo: Arianna and her Italian friend, Martina.)

During the party one of the containers of mealworms fell on the floor. So I turned around to see about 8 kids swarming under a cluster of desks - all looking for the mealworms and trying to clean up. Kudos for the initiative - but ewwww! I have told Arianna that this is one class pet that absolutely won't be coming home. She can sprinkle them by the birdhouse.

We spent our evening watching the US inauguration on the Shanks tv. Alice made a delicious lasagna soup which I still don't have the recipe for (hint, hint Alice) and we all watched and listened as another piece of American history took place before our eyes.

Between Karnival and Easter, on a high hill in Sittard, a special Kroombroodrapen committee throwns 15,000 crescent shaped rolls down the hill to the children waiting below. This tradition has been going on since 1923 and commemorates the Biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with just one simple lunch of bread and fish.

This statue in front of DeGats - the oldest building in Sittard and home to a cafe that serves delicious coffee and soup - depicts this special day - something that only occurs here in the mainly Catholic town.

Tiara and I had a mother-daughter shopping day in Sittard today... we came, we spent, and we had a cup of good coffee and a bowl of soup at DeGats. They serve their coffee with a chocolate cookie and a truffle! Mmmm.