Vacation is over :(

And man, is it over! First of all, they came home with 4 large suitcases full of dirty laundry which I now get to do. Hooray. And then there's the constant noise. The family was here for maybe an hour last night, and as soon as Gustav got into bed he started in with the milk bit. Not joking, within the span of 1 minute, he (loudly) posed 3 questions regarding his milk bottle from his bed: "I want a milk!"...pause..."Mama, are you making my milk?!"...pause..."When is my milk ready?!" Ok, so the first comment wasn't technically a question, but you get the point. You would think that, at midnight, when they just got home from a 2 week vacation and everyone is exhausted and wants to go to bed, he could let the milk bit go for just one night. Apparently not. Then, at 4:15 in the morning, I was woken up by Pauline yelling and crying and screaming at the top of her lungs because she had "Beinschmerzen." By 8 am the kids were fully awake, and at around 9 am I was again awakened by the obnoxious sound of a child screaming and yelling and crying. This time it was Gustav, sitting on the toilet (which, by the way, is directly across the hall from my bedroom door) throwing a fit because nobody would come to wipe his butt for him. So my brief sojourn in the realm of peace and tranquility has come to an end, and its passing has been "commemorated" with a 21-gun-salute, fired into a nitroglycerin plant during a nuclear blast while the world's worst marching band plays "76 Trombones" and Jim Carrey belts "the most annoying sound in the world" into a megaphone. Awesome.

That being said, it was nice to see the family again. The kids were so excited to see me when I picked them up at the airport. As soon as they came through the door from the baggage check, the kids (who were both half asleep, since it was 10 pm) came running over to me to give me a hug. Pauline immediately wanted me to pick her up, and she stayed on my arm until we put her in the car. She even came with me to go pay the parking fee (here you usually pay at a machine before you get in the car instead of paying at the exit) instead of going with Esther and Olaf to the car. She and Gustav both held my hand the whole way home, too, even while they were sleeping.

Amelie and I really enjoyed our little vacation. We went jogging almost every morning, we were walking in the woods, and I took her to a lake nearby in Hürth a couple of times, including yesterday afternoon. She loves the lake, probably even more than she loves the woods. She always has a stick that she carries around with her, and at the lake she's actually willing to hand it over, which she otherwise never does. That's because I throw the stick into the lake, and she gets to go swimming. She has such a blast in the water, and it's perfect for her in the hot weather. Even though it's now officially fall, we basically just got our summer weather. We had a pretty mild, somewhat cool and occasionally rainy summer, but at the end of last week it started to get warm, and now we're supposed to have hot, sunny days for at least another week. That's not so fun for Amelie because she get's too hot and then doesn't have the energy or desire to go for walks or play. But at the lake, she can go swimming to get cooled off, and she gets her exercise in the water instead of having to run through the fields in the hot sun. And it's also wooded there, so she can still go running through the trees and I can enjoy the beautiful leaves, which are starting to turn.

On another high note, I'm actually allowed to play soccer now! I've been playing for over a year, but "officially" I haven't really been allowed to. At first I never registered with the club, because I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to be in Germany and I really was just happy to be able to kick the ball around and participate in practices with the team at all. Then I didn't register because the coach stepped down and we weren't sure if there was going to be a new coach at all. Then, once that all got figured out, I finally filled out the application to become a member of the team. The only problem was, in order for me to be permitted to play as a member of any soccer club in an official league in Germany, I first had to get clearance from a central agency. Man, the Germans are ridiculous with their bureaucracy! Anyway, that took probably about 2 months, because they first had to contact my old soccer club in California to verify that I was no longer a member and that there had been a long enough period of time between now and the last time I played with them. Shouldn't have even been a question, considering that I haven't played soccer in 8 years, but whatever. At first we worried that it was going to take forever to get the clearance, since god only knows who, if anyone, in the Temecula-Murrieta Soccer Club has my player pass or knows anything about my involvement with the club anymore. But we got the word last Tuesday that I was cleared to play, and I played in my first official German soccer game Sunday afternoon. I was terribly nervous, as I always was when I was playing soccer, but I got to start and I played the whole game. I didn't do too bad, either. We tied 1:1, which was kind of crap because we should have had at least 4 goals in the first half alone. But it was a lot of fun, and I'm super excited that I get to play every week now.

Aahh, vacation!

Ok, so technically I'm not actually on vacation. But the family is, which basically means I am too. Sure, I have a few small tasks here around the house, like watering the plants, mowing the lawn, and, most importantly, taking care of Amelie while they're in Djerba for the 2 weeks. But really I'm probably having more of a vacation than they are. First of all, since the kids refuse to go to the FlipperClub, where they would be fully entertained for the entire day, that means 24/7 parenting duties for Esther and Olaf. Not vacation. Second, Olaf sent me a text last week saying that Esther (along with about 50% of the guests at the hotel) was sick with some sort of stomach flu and was lying in bed for several days. I'm guessing that it was probably food poisoning, since such a huge percentage of the people there had it, but either way, that really sucks. I, on the other hand, have had complete and utter quiet here at home. I get to sleep in the morning because the kids aren't screaming and fighting with each other or with Esther. I can also sleep through the night because they're not waking up screaming and crying that they have to pee or want another bottle of milk. Amelie and I go jogging in the morning and then walking in the afternoon, sometimes in the woods, when I feel like it instead of sometime around 3 so that I can pick up the kids at 4. I'm also able to make it to soccer practice on time, since I don't have to wait for Esther to get home and I'm able to take the car instead of having to catch a train. And the best part: this doesn't count as vacation for me, so I'm still getting paid for these 2 weeks without it counting against my 4 weeks of vacation time. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I just got a text message from Olaf, too. He said that Gustav misses me. Apparently he tried calling me at around 11:30 this morning but I was out jogging with Amelie so I missed it, and I can't call him back because he has it set up that all calls go directly to his voicemail because he's on vacation and doesn't want to be bothered. But then he sent a text saying that Gustav misses me, so I sent one back saying to tell the family hi and to give the kids a kiss from me. Maybe they'll call back and I can tell the little guy hello myself.

This is why I still love the little bastard :)

Some of you may already know that Gustav and I have not been the best of friends for the past few months or so. That's primarily due to the fact that I'm usually the only adult in this house that tells him there will be consequences and actually means it. For example, when I tell him that we're all sitting down to eat dinner now, and that if he would rather fart around and be a pain in my neck than eat his dinner (which generally only happens when he has friends over) then he can go to bed without dinner because there will be nothing to eat later, I actually send him to bed without dinner. Or if I say that he needs to hurry up and get ready for bed so that he can watch Sandmännchen (which comes on every night at 6:45) then he better do it, because I refuse to record it on the DVR while he screams and cries and tries to hit me so that I can later reward him for his crappy behavior by allowing him to stay up a half hour longer to watch the show he wants but doesn't deserve to see. But I feel it's necessary to show him that there are consequences for his poor attitude and complete disrespect, because he's really become a little turd. The fact that I have been so "strict" with him has caused him to tell me that he hates me, or that I should leave and never come back, or that he wishes I had never come here, things like that.

But things are starting to look up. Of course we still have our problems, but he has been doing things recently that really remind me of what a good kid he actually is, and why I love him. First, Esther had a dream a couple weeks ago that we were all sitting at the table and I said, "Btw, I quit. I'm leaving tomorrow." When she told about the dream, Gustav told her how horrible that would be if I were to leave. Then, last week we were in the car and I was driving a group of kids to a birthday party. Gustav (who has always been extremely opposed to anything involving English) asked me what "Liebe" was in English. Then he asked, "Wie heisst 'Ich liebe dich'?" So I told him, and he responded, "Ja, das wollte ich sagen. I love you, Amanda." He told me he loves me. In English! It almost brought a tear to my eye, it was the sweetest thing ever. And yesterday, he drew me a picture in Kindergarten. A real picture. He usually just puts a few blobs down on a piece of paper and has no idea or explanation for what they are. In fact, since he drew the Easter Bunny and St. Nick when he was 4, I don't think he's even attempted to make a real picture. But for me he drew a hill with 2 cherry trees, a couple flowers, a man, a sun, clouds, and even a mushroom. And you can totally tell what each thing is, too. And he drew it just for me! No matter what kind of hateful things he sometimes says, I know he loves me, and it's things like this that will make it impossible for me to ever not love him.