Due to a lack of funds...

The Murnane Family stayed local this weekend, but much fun was still had! Michael started the weekend off right by doing our taxes!! Who says that can't be fun? Here he is trying to figure out my filing system. While looking for the file for our new red Volvo (there was no "volvo" file), he asked if I had filed it under "P" for "red car". It was not by the way, I checked!

Gracie and Jack played spy games. I don't know what made them think that this is how spies dress, but this was their take on being spies. They spyed on Michael and I but that didn't last too long, not much fun spying on people trying to file and do taxes.

For the past three days Jack has refused to wear underwear. His reasons: 1. my older cousin Brit does not wear them...thanks Brit 2. underwear are disgusting 3. I don't want to. So instead of battling that I just let it go. Yesterday morning Michael got Jack dressed to go to do "boy stuff" at the hardware store. When they came downstairs Michael quietly pointed out to me that Jack was wearing underwear. Yippee! Later that day Jack was in the bathroom and yelled for someone to come help him wipe (one of the highlights of a parents' day). Michael went in to help him. After completing the mission Jack tried to pull his pants up without pulling on the underwear. Michael said, "dude, pull your underwear first". With a look of shock Jack looked down and said, "What? I'm wearing underwear?"

Then we come to today...Jack made his own breakfast!!!

Kisses to you all...

Flashed on our way to Brussels...

I thought that would get your attention!! I'm gonna make you read more before I tell you about "the flashing"!
We decided this weekends trip would be to Brussels, Belgium. We didn't tell the kids we were going and took the day off Friday. Molly woke up frantic on Friday morning because it was already 6:30 and they needed to leave by 7 to get to school on time. It was fun to tell them we had already talked to their teachers and dad had the day off!
So we set off on our 5 hour drive. On the way there we were "flashed". Now you would think Michael would be excited to be flashed, but this time it wasn't a good thing. The German police have these things that look like a miniture street light set up on the sides of roads. They "flash" cars (there is literally a flash of light). It takes a picture of the driver/car license plate and send ya the ticket for speeding in the mail. Right away the trip started out expensive! Lesson learned ( I hope).
We arrived in Brusssels at about 4 and decided to take the bus down to the center of Brussels. French and Flemish is spoken in Belgium, but Brussels is mostly French. Luckily Michael remembers some of his French so he was able to get the bus tickets.
The bus ride was about 20 minutes, and of course the kids kept asking how much longer it was going to take. Finally we got downtown. It was funny because my first impression of Brussels was not a good one. There are beautiful old buildings in the center and then surrounding this medieval architecture are modern buildings that ruin the skyline...very strange. But then we came across St. Michael's cathedral (pic number 1). Of course Michael told the kids it was his church...blah, blah, blah...:) We came back to see the church the next day because it was so impressive.
On the way back to the hotel on the bus Jack insisted on holding Michael's hand across the aisle while the girls goofed around in the back. After about 10 minutes of the bus ride Jack looks at Michael and says, "dad if the bus driver misses our stop, I'll be a broken man"! Michael asked him what "broken man" means and jack said, "sad dad". Have NO idea where that came from . He says he learned it in school, but I"m not thinking the Germans are teaching him about being a broken man.
Saturday was a rainy day to begin with. We had plans of heading back into Brussels to hit some shopping and catch some of the sights. So we started out with rain jackets (all but Jack, poor kid forgot his) and prayed for good weather.
Once we got to downtown the weather got better. We hit the markets and Molly shopped for her Belgian doll, while I checked out some of the Belgian jewerly (out of curiousity only, just wanted to compare the quality to American jewerly:) Jack and Gracie got another stinkin' stuffed animal to bring the total number of stuffed animals in our house to 78,634. For the love of god, please no more! But how can you say no to getting a stuffed animal in Belgium? I mean that's something you can't get anywhere else in the world!
Michael's church, beautiful. It started as a chapel in the 9th century. We got to go to the basement of the church which was dug out recently to reveal what they believe to be part of the original chapel! We also lit a candle for Big John!!! (Get well soon Big John)
We walked around more, took in some chocolate (1 chocolate bar, and 6 pieces of dark chocolate = $14, but dear god is that good stuff), couple beers (yes, there are 400 National beers in Belgium, one of them is 12% alcohol), and a little more shopping.
Gracie's highlight was the street preformer dressed as a statue. He was great. Molly and Gracie loved him and Jack was terrified of him. The first time we encountered him Gracie gave him 1 Euro and he gave her a high five and motioned for Michael to come over so he could shake his hand. The rest of the day Gracie insisted we pass by him again so she could give him a high five. Everytime he remembered her and kept giving her high fives and blowing her kisses. First thing this morning she asked if she could go back and see him.
By the end of the day the kids feet were hurtin'. They were troopers. I don't even know how far we walked but we saw soo much! WE stopped for the kids to get an ice cream and Michael and I decided to split a Perrier...check out the picture...that little bottle was 2,80 Euro!! Insane!
One of the greatest food decisons was made by Gracie. There was an ice cream truck next to one of the places we were. She asked if she could get something other than ice cream so I agreed. She picked out a waffle...oh dear god, home of the Belgian waffle!! We had to go back for two more. Words cannot describe the deliciousness of that. However, I think I felt the bite I took go directly from my mouth to my hips. Honestly, there was a waffle print on both sides of my jeans when I peeled them off last night.
This morning we headed back after an awesome breakfast at the hotel. What kid wouldn't love what Gracie and Jack had...hot chocolate, cocoa krispies, Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) on toast, and chocolate sprinkles on the toast. There were other things too, but it's obvious that chocolate is a staple there!
Once we got home the weather was nice so we headed to the park near the house. The kids had a great time. All the neighbors were out with their kids riding bikes and playing. When it was time to leave Jack got on his bike like a bat out of hell. There were a bunch of people out on the sidewalk so Michael pulled jack aside and said, "hey buddy, don't run down any of the Germans". Jack took off to catch up with his sisters and said, "AHHHHH run down the Germans". I wonder why no one has invited us over yet?

Another first...the German dentist

Now I'm not sure if this was as hard as finding someone to cut my hair, but this has to be right up there.

I cringe everytime I have to do something new here, because it's never easy and quite frankly I'm a scardy cat. However, what are you gonna do when your KIDS teeth need to be cleaned? Grrr...so to follow "military protocol" I tried to make an appointment with the very friendly lady in the dental clinic on base who spoke in a monotone I don't think I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. She just sounds so eager to help. (Thick, thick sarcasm there). Anyway, she says, "are you active duty or dependant (I still shutter when referred to as a "dependant"...really what is up with that?). So I tell her it's for the kids and she says, "we're not taking anyone but active duty right now" and starts to hang up. Hmmmm, lovely. Before she hangs up I say, "ok can I take them out to a dentist in town?" To which the princess says, "if you want" and that is that. What a peach, what a gem. Someone out there should be very proud of the manners they taught their little princess. :)

I finally get help and find a dentist out in town. Luckily, the office spoke English and I was able to make an appointment.

Today was the day. Michael takes the girls to school. I take Jack to school then drive 30 minutes to base to go to my German class. Finish class drive 30 minutes to pick up Jack, feed him lunch, get in the car drive back up to base to pick up the girls for Irish Step, leave Irish Step early to try to find the dentist. Thank goodness for my handy dandy GPS. I find the dentist, but have no idea where to park. I try to turn into a parking garage and immediately forget all the German I know and can't decide if I am driving in an entrance or exit. I decide by looking at the man's face standing next to me that I am entering the exit (come to find out later, that was just his normal face that was where I was supposed to park).

So I go in the next parking garage and am driving around. The whole time Jack is crying because he can't find his reflector, and Molly and Gracie are yelling at him because their tired of his crying. Thinking I'm gonna lose it I finally find a parking place. We park, take a mental picture of where we are and head up the stairs...Yeah, wrong garage, we walk into a mall! So now Jack wants to play on the car ride and Gracie asks if we can stop for a bite to eat!!! I JUST WANT TO FIND THE DENTIST!!!!

We find our way outside and find the number 25 (the office) but every entrance I see is into the mall again. So I give up and call. She tells me "go in the metal doors, then ring the buzzer for the clinic"..hmmm sketchy but Ok. Finally we are there. All is well and I am thanking the Lord I don't have to do this with all 4 again for another 6 months. No kidding 2 minutes after I think that I tell her, "oh I forgot their xrays, do you want me to bring them in later?" She says, "oh you can just bring them in when you have your appointment with the dentist, this is just the cleaning" HUH? So yep, we all get to go back April 7th to see the dentist! Yippee!

By the way, no Switzerland this weekend...gotta save up for that. Cannot believe the prices of the hotels...Gonnna try Belgium!

Willie Wonka got nothin' on Ritter...

We had no plan when we started off today. Got a VERY late start and decided to stay local not really knowing where that would be! We tried to go to Boblingen (seriously 10 minutes away) and suffered "my eyes hurt", "I'm hungry", "I'm tired", "she's touching me", "he's looking at me", "when are we going to be there", "where are we going", "I have to go to the bathroom", "he's looking at me again", "he hit me", "she started it"...UUUUUGGGGGG...so after getting to our destination and having no idea where we are going to get out and walk to, we decide to go home and get an address for the Ritter Sport Chocolate Museum.

The Ritter Sport Chocolate Museum was small but perfect for what we needed today. If we had the kids in the car any longer we would have dropped at least one off at the curb. The Museum showed how the family owned business makes the creamy delight. The kids got a kick out out of the little truck you see that drives around in a circle, picks up a piece of chocolate and drops it down to you. Now Michael brings up a good point...we get free chocolate, but we have to pay to pee out on the streets? What's up with that?

Next we had to visit the Ritter cafe...we heard they had beer and had to check that out!!! The girls got crossiants as big as their heads and hot chocolate with a little chocolate nugget in the bottom. Jack just laid on my lap and said his feet were hot and begged me to take his shoes off. I had to explain that it's really not all that polite to take shoes off in the restaurant, no one wants to smell feet while trying to enjoy spatzle, or a bretzel. MMMMMM, stinky feet and bretzels...

When we were checking out the kids of course got free chocolate from the cashier. Michael and I attempted to use as much German as we could so we too were "rewarded" with chocolate. That is the picture of Molly and I holding up our "rewards"...although she didn't do anything to get hers...not fair...:)

All in all a great day. The kids enjoyed it and we got a ton of chocolate that you can have if you just give us your favorite flavor :) We even have some that Ritter has not released to the rest of the world...it's soooo good!!

Switzerland next weekend we hope?!

Love to you all...

The things that keep you sane...

As I wrote before Michael was gone this past weekend. Poor guy had to fly to the dessert for the weekend and work straight through. It's not a fun place to go, even still I was very upset that he did not bring "trinkets" back for us...:) However, the guy always ends up doing ok. On his way there he hit 3 continents...Europe, Africa and Asia, saw the pyramids from the air and even got to stop in Cairo for gas. Now I wonder, wasn't there some sort of gift shop or something in Cairo?? I'm sure that if he let the crew know that he needed to pick a little somethin' up for the light and love of his life, his reason for breathing they would have understood. :)
So the kids hung with me over the weekend. Molly had a friend spend the night Friday and Gracie spent the night with a friend that same night. I was not a fan of sleepovers before and let's just say this past weekend did not change my mind. :)
Molly is doing great in school. Keeping busy with anything that comes her way. Every time I suggest doing something new, she is right there ready and willing to try. If she could she would do something everyday after school. For now she is in German lessons and Irish Step dancing. I'm convinced that if I asked her if she wanted to try joining a group that cleans the sewer systems of Germany she would "give it a shot". God love her!!
Gracie is keeping us laughing and pulling our hair out. The girl has a very strong will. On our trip to Austria she wanted to stop at a store and buy a toy. We had already bought something and it was time to leave. She refused to leave. So I walked away and turned a corner. I peaked out and the that girl was standing her ground. I walked back to ask her what she would do if she got lost and she calmly said, "I would find the politzei" what if they don't speak english I asked, she said, "I'll find someone who does". All planned out..no big deal if you get lost in a foreign country...grrrr...but there will come a day I will be glad she is as strong willed as she is.
Jack is surviving German preschool. He told me he met a new friend at school who helps him with his coat everyday. I was so excited and asked him what his name was. Jack said, "Oh I dont' know, I just called him Johnny". Way to adapt Jack! So some poor little kid at school is now referred to as Johnny by Jack. I still have no clue what his name is.
I think we are hanging around here this weekend. Michael needs to catch up on some sleep so we're going to Herrenberg (next town over)...
Still looking for visitors....

Salzburg, Austria

Awwww Salzburg!!! Mozart's birthplace, home of the Von Trapp Family (and parts of the movie were filmed here) and it is AMAZING! This trip started off with a 3 1/2 hour trip turn 5 1/2 hours. Now really, we have no idea where the hell people are going. Seriously there are "staus" every time we travel. Got a pic of it for you this time. When you see this sign Michael's real colorful language comes alive! Keep in mind, that's 60 kilometers per hour! So I took advantage and got some great shots of the cars infront of us and oh those mountains...breath taking!

On the ride to Salzburg I was trying to be the good mom filling the kids in on the history they were about to experience. I mean really what 8, 6, and 4 year old wouldn't want to hear about Mozart, WWII, the Von Trapps..that's good stuff. So on the way we pass a McDonalds. That god forsaken place is all over here, but we try to avoid even seeing it. Jack sees it and freaks out..."mom, dad, look McDonalds..I want to go there". So to get him to pipe down we tell him, "OK Jack on the way home" (with no intent of course). So he says to me with his hand pointed out like Bill Clinton in a speech about Monica Lewinsky, "OK, can we do Salzburg quick, because I want to get to McDonalds"

We headed into Old Town to the Alter Market to do some shopping first. We missed getting our beer stein in Garmisch because all the shops were closed early on Sat. and we were not going to make that mistake again!!! The kids did not have the same desire so we had to drag them through the streets and buy them something to keep them on the stake out with us. Mission accomplished! We passed by a sushi place while walking through the market. Jack has not had sushi since we got to Germany and has requested it several times. It's hard to find near us, so as a special surprise we stopped into an Austrian sushi place (Nagano)...it was GREAT, and Jack was thrilled. Sushi grosses out the other two so Gracie had Miso soup and Molly (surprise, surpise) had water! But no one whined!

We chilled at the hotel that night and Sunday morning Gracie was dying to go swimming so at 8:30 the family was in the pool. It was cold, but Gracie was the first in and the last out. In the picture she is "enjoying a nice swim on Sunday". After getting out and toweling out she says to me, "mom, it's always nice to get a good swim in on Sunday morning". Where does she get it?

Mistakes are bound to happen in a foreign country right...Ok remember that before calling DCFS on us for the next part: We stop to get some chocolate in the Alter Market. Jack and I get caramel filled, Molly chocolate only and Gracie picks out the "pink one" (strawberry). As soon as we step outside Jack and I are diggin' on our chocolate, Molly wants to save it (yea, she doesn't get that from me) and Gracie tries hers. She bits in and there is a liquid in the middle...yep liquor! Immediately she's afraid of what she has just ingested and begins to gag..I wonder if she'll do the same thing when she's 16? OOPS! Gave the 6 year old alcohol. Later we get some ice cream on the street. Jack and Gracie get delicious strawberry, and Molly picks vanilla. All three were amazing, but Molly's had a little kick to it. We glance at the sign again and it says "vanille bourbon" Ohhhh..we didn't tell her. Learned from the first mistake. She ate the whole thing, we just didn't let her drive us home. At lunch that day we ordered from the kids menu for all three. Molly had steak (ok normal), Gracie had chicken wings and pasta (doin' good) and Jack had crepes. Now we assumed that the crepes were like German pfannkuchen (pancakes filled with cheese, veggies, or sauce)..Not so much. His came with a side of ice cream, filled with a sweet cream, topped with caramel. Gracie was pissed! So we gave two of our kids alcohol, and the other a very healthy lunch. Not bad for one day!

We visited Mozarts house (literally where he was born). It was very interesting. Even the kids liked it. The picture of the old room was their kitchen. It was amazing to see. They even had his first violin, letters he wrote to his kids and wife, music he wrote, paintings of the family, the actual room he was born in labeled..incredible. There is a pic of the girls leaning out the window looking at a church. That is in Mozart's house looking out at that amazing building

We did a small Von Trapp journey. It was hard to do the whole tour because it was 4 hours long. The pic of the cemetary was the cemetary the Von Trapps escape through at the end of the movie. The movie was actually filmed on a set that was built to look like that cemetary. I would love to go back and do the full tour in the summer when more is green. Learned alot about the family though. Very interesting.

Church was the Salzburg Cathedral. Mass was just getting out as we got there. Jack freaked out and did not want to go in for fear that we were really "going to church". We've raised a good catholic family!!! Inside was unbelievable.

And last but not least...Michael pays homeage to a beautiful sight. I think there were tears in his eyes if you look closely..
Love you all...no trip next weekend, Michael has to work throught the weekend...booo!!!!