Gamerdinger

We never made it to Switzerland over the weekend. Hans had Friday off, so we decided to run some errands. When we went out to get in my car, we realized that it had a flat tire. We ended up switching the carseats over to Hans' car and making a quick stop at the Volkswagen dealership to make an appointment to get new tires. My car has almost 35,000 miles on it, it was time anyway.

May I break and say that I thank the good Lord that we are financially fit enough so that an event like a flat tire doesn't make me want to vomit in dread? I mean, a few years ago, as a single woman living pretty much paycheck-to-paycheck, a flat tire would have had me in tears. I would have been trying to figure out if I could patch it to get by for another few miles while scrambling for the cash to replace it. I'm just very thankful. Being debt-free is awesome.

Back to the story, which is dull and predictable, so I will make it short. We ended up taking the car in for new tires on Saturday morning, so Saturday was shot. Plus, the weather was dreadful all weekend. It was cold and snowing one moment, then sunny, then sleeting, then raining, then sunny. Over and over in a bizarre and annoying cycle. We wouldn't have been able to enjoy the scenery in Switzerland. So--we will try again at some point.

The kids were so bored all weekend. Limp and bored and whiny. Nothing I suggested, activity-wise, was satisfactory. I could have suggested eating ice-cream sundaes in a bubble bath while watching "Cars" and they would have writhed on the floor with the agony of my stupid, stupid suggestions. Our excitement for the day on Saturday was going to the commissary! Wheee! Because we're not there every third day anyway! So new and exciting!!!

Yesterday we got out of the house a little bit. During a period of sunshine, I hustled Josiah out the door, praying that the sun would remain for a few minutes, long enough for him to burn off some energy running around. A bunch of my neighbors came down with their kids and we all ended up going on a trek around base, jumping in mud puddles. Annika, unfortunately, missed all of this because she was here in the apartment with Hans, fast asleep. Josiah borrowed a pair of Carson's boots and happily got himself completely muddy and wet. I would have let him roll around buck naked in the puddles if it meant he would stop whining and clinging to my leg.

Today we tried to go to Jolo's again with Jen, Nick and Carson...no luck. They changed their hours and are no longer open on Mondays. Jen suggested Gamerdinger (say gahmehdingah), which is a store...a bit hard to describe. It reminded me of Livin in Yokosuka. Furniture, housewares, linens, candles, plants, kitchen stuff. Plus the best play area for kids I've seen yet. I recall that a lot of the Japanese stores had these areas where you could let the kids play, but not too many of them enabled a parent to leave the children and go shop. The play areas in Germany allow you to check your child in and leave them for a couple of hours. Absolutely free of charge. I knew they had such a place at IKEA, but apparently, they exist in almost every bigger store. FREE. And it was a very nice place, too--ball pit, gigantic slide, trampolines, riding toys, dolls and strollers, playhouses, all kinds of tunnels and crawlspaces, a movie room with bean bags, a craft area. Very clean and well supervised. Carson, Nick and Josiah had a blast. Annika was there for awhile, then she got upset (strange, I know) and they called us to come and pick her up. So, the ladies shopped and the guys jumped on the trampoline.

That's about it for now. Not too interesting, I know, but I know a couple of ladies who still love to hear about the boring, mundane details of our everyday life. Hi Mom! Hi Donna!