Oh my gosh I think my brain is going to explode. This is either due to the weight of 148 things I have to do in the next four hours or the four diet coke’s I chugged in the last two hours.
I walk around my house frantically painting white on white and monologuing all the things I need to blog about in my head. I tried to get on earlier this week to write something but I forgot my password and after three attempts got locked out. That’s a sign.
So here’s what is happening in my life and my brain in no particular order. Also I’m typing really fast so forgive the grammatical errors, I think my fingers might start shooting sparks from all this caffeine.
1. I got kicked out of Harrison’s principal’s office for telling her her skirts are too short and she dresses too immodestly. I wasn’t trying to be mean or rude, but if all the moms were secretly taking snapshots of my outfits and talking about me behind my back I think I’d want to know. Apparently she didn’t feel the same way. Whoops.
2. I’m having Target anxiety. Here’s the thing about Germany. Say your kid is having a birthday party and you want to buy cute straws but you’ve only got four days until the party so there isn’t time to order them off Amazon. You then have to comb the countryside for a store that sells party supplies only to come home strawless at the end of the day and decide the kids can just tip the stupid cups if they’re thirsty. This scenario happens all. The. Time. With everything. I don’t even want to talk about trying to find a wreath. That was a two week shopping trip I never want to take again.
But in the states all you have to do is fall out your front door to collect the mail and you come back inside with $150 worth of pointless crap from Walmart. It’s terrifying. Shopping over here isn’t fun. Spending money in euro and trying to convert everything to dollars hurts my brain. Thinking you’re getting a good price until you see the exchange rate is exhausting. Germany has lots of things to buy and I know it’s all here somewhere, but half the time you go into a warehouse and try to tell someone what you need only to come out with a shower curtain instead of a shovel because things got lost in translation and it was just easier to buy the darn thing.
I’m afraid to go home. I’m afraid of the commercialism. I don’t like the way America makes me feel like I should be constantly redecorating my house and my children and my makeup counter and my life.
3. I’ve been stuck in the German countryside for three years. I remember when I first came we spent a year and a half without television. I’ve filled my days with things like sewing doll clothes and quilts and cleaning cleaning cleaning my big jolly house. We eat dinner at the table at least four times a week, the kids and I have the best and the worst discussions during our 30 minute car rides into base where we talk about school and God and animals and fights and singing. Sometimes they argue during the trip in. Sometimes we just listen to the South Pacific soundtrack. But the point is I have this guaranteed time where my kids have no distractions and they’re locked in the car with me to talk about whatever we want to talk about. I’m going to miss this. Germany has taught me how to be a stay at home mom with no one to yammer on the phone to during the day. My cell phone is frequently ignored on a pile of laundry for hours at a time, there is no daytime talk show routine or play date routine or Michaels runs. It’s just me and my kids and our big German haus.
4. I have like four vacations I need to blog about so we won’t forget them. Later. Please, later. If my brain can just hold on to those memories a little bit longer…
5. We’re currently trying to paint and fix and move out of our Germany house, sell our Utah house, pack for our gap summer in Washington, and find a Las Vegas house. Brain explosion right there.
6. I’m leaving my girlfriends. I’m leaving my favorite three years. I’m leaving my pastries and flohmarkts and Mediterranean cruises and long drives through the German countryside. I hate leaving.
7. I’m coming home to my family. I’m coming home to wide open highways and Costco and oh my goodness, the English language!! Give me a country filled with people who speak American English and I’ll give you a happy girl. I love coming home. I don’t know. After 3 years I’m just really excited to take my puppies back home to frosty’s and dollar drinks at McDonalds. Do they even still have those??
5 days left…there’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…