Today I woke the boys up at about 9:30 or so. I usually let them sleep in, but 9:30 is kind of late. It was a big mistake to wake them up. They were soooo fussy all morning, and they looked tired too. I tried playing with them, but Rowan would just cry and cry over every little thing. He is so sensitive sometimes. I could only imagine that his throat hurt or that his nose was too stuffed up. They are still coughing and have super stuffy noses. Elijah hates whenever I wipe it, but he doesn’t mind me picking at the edges, which is so weird.

It was a little easier in class today since I’m getting back into the swing of things. But I still had a runny nose and it’s so embarrassing to have something coming out of your nose when you’re trying to read some German text and then have the teacher get a kleenex for me…

So pretty all wrapped up!

Look at all the cool stuff I got!

When I came home, I had a surprise package in the mail from my Secret Pal! Remember I mentioned the SP8 thing that I was participating in? Well, my SP spoiled me early! And it was the right day to do it too, when I have two irritable kiddos hanging off of me! I took some pictures and will post them soon. All this time I thought she was in the States, but it turns out she is from England! I am so lucky to have a nice and thoughtful pal who has the unfortunate task of reading all of my mundane daily business. So, in the package…She got a really delicious bar of organic dark chocolate with some orange in it. I have never had that before and now I’m officially hooked. It’s good. I have to eat it quickly before Michael discovers it. Darn…too late. She also got me a couple of knitting magazines and a kid’s knit book, as well as a book of literary shorts about twins, cute potporri hearts that are now hanging in the kitchen, and a set of matching necklace and ankle bracelet that reminds me of Hawaii. They were all carefully wrapped in pretty wrapping paper! I’m so lucky, thanks again SP!

Elijah has really gotten good with “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. I usually sing it pretty fast, but today I sang it really slow and he could follow along pointing to his body parts. I was so surprised! Usually he just points to his head and that’s it. But when I sang slowly, he pointed to his head, knees and toes and also to his eyes, ears and mouth. He still has a hard time with nose, I don’t know why. Rowan thinks it’s a dumb song and it is beneath him.

We also finished 24 tonight. Kind of a lame ending, but whatever. It was a nice distraction from the disappointment that we’ll have to wait 3 months for the next Lost episode. Man, where did May go? Can’t believe it’s over already.

So today I started my first private lesson and a new babysitter. We seem to be going through them pretty quickly. The problem was that I didn’t have anyone available M-W afternoons. I guess it comes with the territory when employing students. It’s ok, Riki found one through another au pair. Her name is Kati, and she is from Peru. She is really nice, although I felt kind of bad because I just zoomed through what needed to be done and then left. BTW, she doesn’t speak English very well, only German and Spanish.

I had a hard time finding the teacher’s place though. First I went out the wrong exit and got kind of lost. It took awhile to find someone who knew where her street was. At least I left early enough to accomodate these kind of mistakes. And then I thought she told me that her apartment was on the 1st floor, but it turned out it was on the 4th. All is good though. We had a good lesson! It took me a little while to get back into the swing of things. It’s amazing how rusty your brain gets when you don’t exercise it a few days. I have a bunch of homework to do tonight! Speaking 1 on 1 is so hard, I can’t just get away with sitting back and tuning out when I don’t understand. I have to actively listen and understand everything.

Needless to say, I was extremely tired after coming back. I only had to watch the boys a little while longer until Michael came home. I always feel like I’m being “rescued” when he comes home. Isn’t that sad?

Michael’s boss told him that he can hook up the laptop to our TV to watch our iTunes stuff so we bought a connector but had a heck of a time getting it to work. I gave up after about 30 minutes, and then Michael fooled around with it and got it to semi-work. The colors are just barely there and the sound was muffled since it was coming from the headphone jack. So, we just played the sound through the laptop and displayed the picture on the TV. It was ok, we had a hard time deciding if that was better than if we just watched it on the laptop. I think I prefer the laptop since we can take that anywhere and it’s in color.

We’re still sick, I’ve been getting a little worse, but we’re managing…

Today was my first time to do a wedding as a paid photographer. I usually shy away from this kind of responsibility, but our friend Lisa didn’t really want to have a German photographer and wanted something low key. I did do their engagement pictures and they liked those, so she asked me about a month ago if I could do their wedding. With Michael’s encouragement, I agreed.

This morning Michael lovingly woke me up at 9 and I immediately broke into a panic. I thought he was going to wake me up at 8 so that I had enough time to get everything together before I left. Luckily, I stayed up late last night putting mostly everything in one place.

I met Lisa at the salon and I immediately started taking pictures. Then we went from there to her friend’s place to finish getting ready, then went to the florist, then finally to the place where they got married. I can’t even remember where it was, since I was so busy just taking pictures and I just followed them. After the wedding we all walked to this pub near the English Garden and had cake and champagne. I took in total 385 pictures! I don’t think I have ever took that many pictures in one day. The flash turned out to be completely necessary, I am so glad I bought it. It made the dark and dingy pub into a seemingly bright room.

I was exhausted but happy when I came home and then immediately started the post-processing. I didn’t realize how much time this would take up. I guess I didn’t realize I would take so many pictures. I was very pleased with the results, a lot of the candids were outstanding! The ceremony pictures were just regular stuff, all of them sitting in chairs in a plain room. I can’t wait for them to see it. I am so glad they came out well.

In the evening we had a sprach duo session with Angelika. She didn’t have class so she came early as we were about to make dinner. I had enough supplies to make for her, so it was an impromptu dinner. I felt kind of bad because it was just the empanadas, no extra stuff and no frills. She is always fun to talk to though and we had lots of fun.

We did absolutely nothing today. Babies sick, weather bad. So, instead, Michael got caught up on all the 24 Season 5 episodes that I saw. This season is great!

Don’t know what this is all about, but apparently it’s funny.

OK, so I’m writing this like 2 weeks later, so I have no idea what happened today except for one event. Rowan was a pretty sick little boy, and in the morning he threw up on the floor and was pretty upset about it. I scrambled to get something to wipe it up with and during the 2 seconds I was gone, he managed to slip in it and fall, hitting his head on the couch (the soft part). He was still shaken up with throwing up, but then to slip and fall in your own vomit. Well, that has to be one of the worst experiences ever. I had to clean it up and then clean him up. Poor baby.

Of course, I immediately got hooked on 24 already. The rest of the day is a blur.

We were awoken to the beautiful sounds of a baby screaming at 5:30. Poor Rowan, he was running a fever and just wanted someone to comfort him. I went down and slept with them. Well, just barely. Elijah was so excited to have someone else in the room that he just wanted to play, play, play. Sometimes he would sit on Rowan’s head or leg or whatever and would start another cry-fest. I stayed down there until around 9am (we did manage to get a little sleep in between Elijah’s antics) and then Michael took over for a little while. Today was a holiday (some sort of religious Catholic thing) so Michael didn’t go to work. Because tey didn’t sleep very well from about 5:30, they were sleepy within an hour and a half. Then it was my turn again, and Michael went out for a hike. The boys slept very well during their nap, about 3.5 hours, which is highly unusual. I figured they should get all the rest they need. In the afternoon, they were pretty lethargic and I got worried. Of course they get sick during the holidays or on the weekends when no doctor’s office is open. Rowan’s temperature was 103.5 and I gave him some Tylenol and a lukewarm bath. After a couple of hours his fever actually went up, so we decided to take him to the emergency Kinderklinik. Right before we left the house, Rowan threw up his food. It was so gross and I had to clean it up. Michael quickly took Rowan to change his clothes so that he didn’t have to deal with the stink that nearly made me throw up. Next time he won’t be so lucky!

We went by car, which was really convienient because there was parking right in front (for FREEEEEE!). There was no one else waiting, so we got helped right away. The doctor was very nice, I liked him a lot. The boys checked out ok, they just had some kind of virus and he gave us a prescription for the fevers and pain. Then we had to find an emergency Apotheke, luckily they had a couple listed on the wall. We went to the Euro-Industrie Park, which was our first time in that area. It was like we were in the US. Lots of big stores with big parking lots! The Apotheke was next to a huge Toys-R-Us. We’ll have to come back sometime. It’s nice to see places with plentiful and free parking. The actual Apotheke wasn’t open, but you could go to this little window and they take your prescription and fill it. The great thing about Germany and their prescriptions is that everything is pre-boxed and ready so they just grab the box off the shelf. They don’t have to measure and check their computers and what not, so it’s really quick. And for kids it’s all free.

We’re glad that they are ok and that we found this nice kinderklinik (I like it a hell of a lot better than the Isar klinik, which was unfriendly). They aren’t open 24 hours (the next door regular hospital is), but they are open every day for a good chunk of the day (until 8pm). And also that we now know where a 24 hour pharmacy is. And where a big Toys-R-Us is.

I was so mad this evening that ITunes didn’t post the season finale of Lost at their usual time of about 7pm our time. I didn’t see it until about 11pm and Michael was already too tired to watch, so I had to watch it myself. It was pretty good. I was all riled up after watching it that I downloaded the 1st episode of the 5th season of 24. It was pretty good too. It’ll cost me almost $50 to watch all of it, so I’ll download an episode here and there. I’m sure at some point I’ll get addcited to that show and download 5 or more at a time. I still haven’t completely seen all of the 4th season, but it’s in my rental queue.

We watched the movie “Guess who’s coming to dinner?”. Really good, what a classic.

I found out this morning that we are going to get a big tax refund! WOW, first time in years. Some years we were so happy just to not have to pay. So, we’re going to immediately spend most of it to buy our tickets to visit family and friends during Christmas time. I didn’t go to the morning session of the class because really, what’s the point. I even contemplated not going at all, but figured I should, just for “closure”. I thought hardly anyone would be there, but it turns out that almost everyone (except the other Americans) were there. The teacher was actually teaching lessons too. I thought that kind of sucked. We were learning something pretty important too, which I’m kind of mad that it was saved for the last day when everyone is distracted and not really wanted to pay attention.

For lunch we went with Josef to this place around the corner. I had a pasta dish that was pretty good. It was nice to visit with him again.

After that, me and the boys spent the afternoon at home. The weather was pretty crappy (I got soaking wet on the way home). Towards the evening, Rowan was feeling a little warm. He probably caught whatever Frederik had. Poor baby! I also confirmed everything with my German teacher and she gave me some homework - read an article in the newspaper or magazine (w/o a translator) and be able to answer some questions about it. Ack! I think I will pick up one of those celebrity gossip magazines so that at least it will be fun. Oooh, Britney almost dropped her baby or Brangelina’s baby is coming soon!

We were about to start making dinner (Michael had to run out 3 times to get stuff that I forgot!). When Michael got back from one of his store trips, he suddenly remembered that we were having Antje over for our sprach duo. We had 10 minutes to clean up. Luckily, our living room is pretty easy to clean up, just pick up all the toys and sweep.

We had an OK sprach duo sesson. For some reason, it was really hard for both of us to speak in German this evening, it must be that we were too tired. She was fun as usual, but I think it was heavily English tonight. She loaned us a “Tim and Strummpi” comic book and we loaned her a couple of movies and a Calvin and Hobbes book.

Made Chicken Katsu for dinner. Mmmm…. We saw the movie “Cellular” and it was actually really good. A lot better than we expected.

So today we got back the scores from our test yesterday. I am sad to say that I didn’t do so well. I got a 36 out of 50. It’s pretty bad, but when I asked other people what they got, I only found one person who got higher. The oral test was ok, I was paired with Stefano, who walked out 1/2 way of the interview because he got a phone call. So I had to scramble to make up stuff about him. I did pretty good on the oral test, which surprised me. So out of a total of 75 points, I got a 57. It is normally a “3″ grade, which is like a C I guess, but everyone else got lower. So, if we graded on a curve, I would definitely get an A, that’s for sure. I’m glad that it’s over and done with…On to my private lessons!!!

It still made me depressed all day thinking how awful I did on my grammar and hearing test. I complained that we didn’t really have any preperation for the test, but the teacher disagrees. I think she should look at all the scores and really think about if she prepared us adequately, because I think not.

Anyways, in the afternoon, Michael couldn’t meet me for lunch, so I went to the big Tengelmann’s to pick up some diapers and stuff for tonight’s dinner. I bought a berry cake that looked good.

Riki and Arne (our upstairs neighbors) invited us over for a nice dinner with German style empanadas (can’t get enough of that stuff), Gazpacho, a really good potato tortilla, and then of course we had the cake dessert. The cake turned out to be pretty good, actually. We were super stuffed when we left and they are always good company, never a dull moment!

When we got back, we almost immediately fell asleep, we were so tired!

So today we had the big test. And after all my efforts in getting to class on time, the test didn’t start until around 9am. Geez, I could’ve taken my time. Anyways, the test was very hard, the listening part was excessively hard. The speakers spoke really fast and it was hard to figure out what they were saying. We should be prepared for this more, I think. At one point, I was still processing what I heard when the next one started, so I mised half of that one. The reading comprehension though was pretty easy. So, hopefully I did ok overall and will scrape by with a 1. But I’m more likely to get a 2. Tomorrow we have our “mundlich” test, which means an oral test. It should be ok, we’ll see. It’s not something you can really study for.

After class, I took the boys to the playground. They did pretty good. They like to play with everyone else’s toys except their own, even when it’s the same toys. Go figure. We only stayed about an hour since Rowan started to get really fussy. Michael came home early and he took them on the roof and down in the basement so they could ride their cars all though the storage spaces. That storage area is becoming a playground for us. The boys are so cute, they really like going up in the elevator. It’s so bizarre though, because once they leave our apartment, they start crawling. They will wait for the elevator, then crawl in and sit on the floor with big smiles on their face. Then when we reach the top, they’ll crawl out. It’s like herding cattle.

For dinner, I decided to try a recipe from our neighbor Riki. It is for Empanadas German style. We made Empanadas before, but it was the south american way. This way was the German way. And it’s super easy to make too. The best part about it is that we can get all the ingredients from our local Tenglemanns! I don’t have to go to some special store. I have this frozen pastry dough called Blätterteil. It’s rectangular and I cut it in half. Then I put schinkenspeck (smoked bacon) and then put some dates on it, then put the other 1/2 on top and “seal” it. I then take a beaten egg and brush a light layer on and just pop it in the oven. It was really good. During dinner I imagined all the possibilities we can make - ham and cheese, tomato and cheese, etc. But it’s probably like croissants and super fattening. I don’t think it’s quite as buttery, but I’m almost positive it can’t be too good for you…

This evening we had another sprach-duo meeting with Angelika. We had so much fun talking about whatever. Before the meetings I’m always nervous that we won’t have much to talk about so I write some stuff down. Then when we actually meet, we have lots to talk about! She told us about this song contest in Europe called the “Grand Prix”. We haven’t really heard about it, but we did know that there was some really weird band from Finland, and they are dressed up like Orks from Lord of the Rings and sing really badly. Well, they won! Everyone was shocked. All the other countries had nice songs, pop, folk or rock songs. But Finland was waaaaay out there. She thinks that the countries feel bad for each other or have some kind of alliance, that’s the only reason they won. It couldn’t be because of their song! I wish I had seen it now, but it was funny when she was talking about it. She also said that my German has gotten better since the first meeting, and that was only 3 weeks ago. I was very shocked at this compliment, and it’s making me hopeful. I guess it’s a lot like the boys growing up. You can’t really tell when they grow, but all of a sudden they are bigger! I hope to reallly improve once I start taking my private lessons. In fact, if my German improved just from this sucky class, then it will REALLY improve. Hoffentlich!