Jet lag sucks

So when I flew to Germany, I spent the first few days napping all day long and still able to go to bed at night. It wasn't great use of my time, but at least I was able to sleep through the night. Now that I'm home? Everything is all screwed up. 7:00 last night I couldn't seem to keep myself awake on the couch. I did wake up every 10 - 15 minutes, so it wasn't exactly *good* sleep. About 9, I came around again and was able to stay up. I finally went to bed at about 11, and woke up about an hour ago. 4:45 is not an acceptable time to be up and going for the day when I don't have to go to work. I'm tired, but not exhausted enough to crash.

I'm also having a difficult time just...resting. It's funny, I usually have no problem just being lazy when I get home from work. Now that I *should* stay down, I have far too much that I feel like I absolutely need to get done around the house. Don't get me wrong...it's true. I can barely walk through any room in my house at the moment. I have a LOT that I could do to stay productive while staying down, but of course I'm in the mood to do the physical stuff. The grass is always greener, right?

I had a lot of problems with pain yesterday. Wednesday was a very long and trying day. We apparently brought back WAY too much stuff, so we had to pack some of the heavier stuff in our carryons so that our checked luggage wouldn't be over the weight limit. My mom has issues standing for a long time, let alone carrying stuff. The result? My packing a good 75 lbs worth of stuff all through the Atlanta airport. As a result, I've found 10 bruises and I feel muscles that I didn't know I had. My plan was to stay down yesterday, but instead I apparently needed to grab my stuff from my parents' house and shop. Silly need to have food at my house :-)

So, I promised myself that I would stay down today. It's difficult when I wake up feeling a little better, but I know if I'm up and going it'll just get worse again.

This is why I'm happy that I planned my trip for the beginning of my sabbatical, and gave myself plenty of recovery time before going back to work :-)

Getting ready to go home...

So it's 4:30 am, and I'm still not in bed. Trying to tie up a few last minute things before jumping on the plane to head home in about 5 hours. Man...time flies! I've really enjoyed my time here in Germany, and it's been SO nice to see Tammie, Gardner, and the kids!! I still have SO much to write about!! I'm excited to get home, though. I have SO MUCH to do for Christmas, I don't even know where to start! We'll see if I can sort through my thoughts on my way home and get a list started :-)

In the meantime, my Dominic started talking while I was gone!! This is the longest I've gone without seeing him, and I miss him SO much (I did have my Ian as a replacement...but that was a different happiness all together). Since Julie doesn't blog (YET) I feel the need to post the video of it :-)

100 lbs!! Wow!!

So we're getting ready to head home. I have a lot of updating to do still, and a lot of pictures to post. I had to mention this exciting moment for me, though. A lady from Tammie's ward brought over a scale for us to weigh our suitcases. I was stuck at the same weight for about 2 - 3 weeks before coming over here, and with all the junk I've had I was SURE I had gained or stayed the same. I, of course, had to check. I stepped on the scale, and found that not only did I lose...but I finally passed my 100 lb mark!! YAY!!

I would post before and after photos, but 1) I'm not at home and don't have a "before" picture here, and 2) I'm still WAY too embarassed about the "before". Maybe one day I'll be able to :-)

An update

Well, I've been trying to keep everything in the order that we've done them. This is getting me further and further behind, hehe. So...I decided to just go with yesterday. Tammie keeps mentioning that I haven't updated...I just want to note that she hasn't updated at all since we got here :-P Thank goodness for Gardner!

First, we went shopping yesterday at a store called Ratio. It's kinda like a WalMart. Food and sales on all kinds of random things. I spent about 60 euro, and it turned out that they didn't take my Mastercard. There went all the cash I had left (before the day even really started!) I DID get 2 pair of nice boots and a pair of shoes that I could wear. That's amazing! 40 euro for a pair of shoes and 2 pair of boots? Yeah...I was a happy girl.

Yesterday, we just went during the day to a couple of nearby cities. We first went to Venlo in the Netherlands. A lot of people have mentioned to Tammie about crossing the border to shop because everything is cheaper because of taxes. Venlo is the "across the border" city that people go to. So...off we went. I'm still amazed at how beautiful all these little towns are. You get to the city center, and everyone is just buzzing down these little narrow roads, and everything is all decorated up for Christmas. I find myself taking pictures of the same type of thing over and over again. There are so many beautiful buildings! We went into a LOT of shops! The first one that I kinda made Tammie & my mom stop at had fuzzy socks for 1 euro a pair. Seriously...my FAVORITE socks ever! So I bought a bunch, and convince my mom and Tammie that they wanted a few also :-)

We moved along, and just stopped in at all kinds of different shops. I loved it!

We then went to Kevelaer in Germany. There were some beautiful churches there! Tammie and I went inside 2 of them, and it's just amazing. We also found a Euro Shop (Dollar Store, hehe) and we were able to pick up a bunch of random stuff. Grabbed Belgian chocolates for people at work, more fuzzy socks (yes, I know I have a problem), and just all kinds of stuff. It was fun :-)

We then headed back home, and settled in for the night. Dinner, I spent some time reading, then Tammie, Gardner, & I watched some Joan ("Joan of Arcadia"...I still love that show).

I'll put of pictures later :-) That's another thing that was holding back my posts, but I figured it's better to get it written so this part is here at least!

12/1 - Brugge, Belgium

We had a new adventure today. We headed out to Brugge, Belgium. Tammie mentioned to someone that we were thinking of going to Brussels, and she was told that we should try Brugge, instead. It's apparently a lot prettier, and there's just a lot more to see and do. Having never been to Brussels...I can't agree or disagree, but I *loved* Brugge. There was a LOT of confusion as to where we were supposed to go, and what we were trying to do...but we finally made it to the center of town. We also took Hannah with us to Brugge. We decided that as long as we were going on day trips, it would be nice to take one of the kids with us each time so that we would be able to spend that much more time with the kids one on, well, 3. There were a few rules about coming with us. Hannah wasn't allowed to say that she was bored, she couldn't complain about walking (cause hey...if Grandma can walk, Hannah can walk), and I don't remember the other rule right off...lol. It was an interesting drive in. About halfway through, Hannah was saying something about drinking a lot of water. At that point, Tammie pointed out that meant that she would need to go to the bathroom a lot. Hannah didn't seem to get it, so Grandma clarified with "What goes in must come out." That opened up a whole new set of information from Hannah! We learned all about what comes out your "tinkle place" your "poop place" and even the "baby place." Wow. We got quite the education! It was quite a trip. We quickly changed the subject, and Hannah then fell asleep.

Once we finally made it to Brugge, it was all kinds of confusion trying to figure out where we needed to go. Even with the navigation system, we couldn't seem to find parking, or which streets we could go down, or anything. We finally found a parking spot, and headed out into the cold to find Market Square where we could catch a carriage ride and a canal tour. We started walking towards a cathedral and the bell tower. We got to the cathedral, and sat to rest for a bit. We then realized that we had no idea where we were going, still. Someone who spoke English walked by and asked us if we knew where the canal tours were, so we had the chance to figure otu where the tourist office was (they had just been there). We left my mom and Hannah on a bench by the cathedral, and Tammie and I headed to the tourist office. We boguht ourselves a map, and got a better idea of where we needed to go. We hurried back to let my mom know that we were almost there.

We walked up a few more blocks and finally made it to Market Square. It was unbelievable! The clock tower, they had an ice skate rink set up, a Christmas Market, and all kinds of old & beautiful buildings. The Burg was the next area we had to go to. It was a couple of blocks away from Market Square, but wow! It was beautiful! I really wish we would hae had more time to look around, but we were trying to make it to a canal tour before it started raining (or got too dark!) We made it to the canal tour, and got just a little bit of rain during it. I was able to videotape some of it, but I don't think that the video does it justice. The pictures are pretty, but there's nothing like being there. We came out of the tour, and went back to The Burge for a bit. I took a few more pictures, but we got to the point where my mom was just done. On the way out, I kept thinking that I should buy some Belgian chocolates at least...cause...well...we WERE in Belgium. I never did buy any from the little shops that were there, though. We were just trying to get my mom back to the car. We stopped in one more little shop to try to get some chocolates, but they were so much more expensive than any of the other little shops. I keep thinking I should have just picked some up there anyway...because if I'm going to eat chocolate, it might as well be the *really* good stuff. I stopped myself, though. We made one more stop on the way out of town, and I bought a small box and a small candy bar there. I haven't eaten them yet...but I kinda wish I would have bought a few boxes at the cheaper price to take home, even. I also wish I would have picked up a Diet Coke with Lemon (since we don't have that in the US anymore). It's good, though...I definitely didn't need the Diet Coke!

We made one more stop on the way home. We needed potty and dinner (definitely in that order). We found a Pizza Hut Express which was apparently just what Tammie wanted. The good news was, it was only 30 cents to use the restroom instead of the usual 50 cents. YAY! It was very interesting to see wine offered in little bottles with the pizza, heh. Just..different. We ordered our pizza, and were on our way!

I tried to stay awake on the way home. Really, I did. I've had issues all week with staying awake unless I'm up and doing something. Jet lag has just completely kicked my butt. Not only did I sleep part of the way home, I also tried to stay up late enough to be able to sleep in tomorrow morning (which makes no sense because I need to get up early enough to shower and get ready for church, but that's a whole nother story).

Ok, I don't feel like playing around with the placement of pictures on the blog tonight...so you guys get a link. YAY!!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v138/cocomo78/December07/Brugge/

2am

Well it's 2am here in Germany, and I still haven't posted about our trip to Brugge last Saturday. I have it all typed up and everything! I even finally posted the pictures to my photobucket! I also still haven't gone to bed. I was all set to, then someone from work emailed me to let me know that I had been selected to go to our conference in D.C. next month like I was hoping. YAY!!!

Ok, I guess I'll put up my Brugge post since I'm up :-) *posts again NOW*

11/30 - Amsterdam

Today we were going to rent a car and go to Amsterdam. Well...we still did, but just the car rental alone ended up being more of an adventure than we expected! Gardner and Tammie went to get the rental car that we had reserved online last night. My mom and I hung out with Emma and Ian while they went to get the car. Man, I thought they would never get back! I've never seen 2 kids so upset about being left with their aunt and grandma, hehe. I got them settled down with a movie, and they were finally settled by the time Tammie and Gardner got back to let us know that they weren't able to get the car yet. Wow! They hadn't taken their passports, which they apparently needed, as well as a bill or something to prove that they live in Germany (we got a deal on the car because of their residency here). We packed up and all headed back to the airport to get the car and take off to Amsterdam.
We got back to the airport and just waited. The machine went down, and we just had to wait. Come to find out, they actually upgraded our car, so we ended up with a hybrid. That was great (considering gas comes out to be about $6 a gallon here once everything is converted over)...but turning it on proved to be a challenge. They already warned us that the car wouldn't make any sound when it turned on, but Tammie also couldn't get the car in gear at all. It was...interesting. The car doesn't take a normal key, it's a big square key that you have to put in this big square hole. I'll have to take a picture before they take it back...lol. Once we got everything going...we were on our way. It took us just over 2 hours to get to Amsterdam. It was interesting to see all the old farmland all throughout Germany and the Netherlands. Also, I noticed that in The Netherlands, I saw exactly 1 advertisement along the freeway. The same one over and over again...lol. It was also interesting to see a bunch of buildings with the name "Visser" on them. Back in my chatting days, I used to talk to someone with the last name Visser, so it kinda threw me off. When we finally got into Amsterdam, the streets were very narrow, and the buildings with the apartments in them were just huge and close together. Tammie was telling us that you don't often see those places for rent or sale, either, because most people live in the same place their entire lives. Also, I swear *everyone* in the city rides their bikes, and they were all out today!

The Anne Frank house was our first stop. We were VERY lucky to get a parking spot *right* by it, as there wasn't much parking downtown at all. It was very interesting, but not quite what I expected. It was still nice to see, though. Makes me want to read the book again. We were then going to try to go on a canal cruise, but we couldn't find it. Tammie and I left our mom in the car and walked around for a bit. We ended up finding a little stand with hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries so we were able to grab lunch/dinner. Right next to out lunch/dinner stand...we had the gay and lesbian info center. Not sure what kind of info they were handing out...but I thought it was interesting that they had an entire kiosk...lol. It was and interesting city to see, and I would have liked to walk around more but it was *freezing*. We were going to look for the red light district as well, hehe, but decided to just move on to The Hauge the temple. Much better choice, hehe. We headed up there and the temple was beautiful. It was dark really early, so we weren't able to get too many good pictures, but you get what you can. It was definitely a good day trip, and we had the chance to talk a little about our plans for tomorrow.

You can see the rest of the pictures from Amsterdam here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v138/cocomo78/November07/Amsterdam/

I was kinda selective, so I may be adding more later :-)

11/29 A day at home

Today was mostly a day at home. A *very* busy day for Tammie. We went in the morning to take their mini van to get winter tires. Tammie, Emma, & I then walked home. On the way home, we stopped at the bakery. Tammie decided that we needed to start sampling what they have available at the bakery. We got brochen, a raisin snail, a pudding pretzel, and Emma got a Shokobrochen. The pudding pretzel was my favorite, I'd have to say. Emma had her Shokobrochen almost gone before the rest of us had a chance to sit down.I ended up falling asleep again off and on all afternoon and evening. Tammie went to parent teacher conferences for all 3 kids, and picked up the car before one of them. Not much else to say for the day, I just kinda hung out.

11/27 - 11/28 - The flight, and day 1 in Germany!

Well, we made it :-) After working Monday night, I went to my parents' house and slept for about an hour before we had to get up and head to the airport. There was *no* line at all for ticketing or security. It was nice. The flight to Atlanta wasn't bad at all. I used my mom for a pillow, and slept the entire way. In Atlanta we rode one of those carts to our next gate (thankfully, not sure my mom woulda made that trek otherwise!). We grabbed lunch at Panda Express, and the layover was over before I knew it. I do have to mention...the Atlanta airport had these odd vegetables all over. I didn't notice them anywhere else...but the gate across from where we were had this random giant carrot with a lima bean rotating on top of it. Just...odd. There was also an ear of corn shaped like an airplane. Yeah...we couldn't figure them out *laugh* but it gave us something to laugh at while we were waiting.
We were very lucky for the flight from Atlanta to Dusseldorf. It was empty enough that we were each able to have our own set of seats. Spreading out over 2 seats makes a HUGE difference when you're flying for 9 hours. They gave us these little kits with blindfolds, headphones, earplugs, a toothbrush & toothpaste, lotion, and a few other things. They also fed us tons of food (well...tons for me...lol). I slept lots, and tried to watch the movies ("Mr. Bean's Holiday" isn't my kind of movie...then "License to Wed" was on and I was so tired I couldn't stay awake). So overall, not bad. The sunset even looked WAY cool when I woke up in the middle of the flight. I tried to take a picture of it, but the picture couldn't capture how cool it was.We made it to the Dusseldorf airport about an hour early, and hung out waiting for Tammie to pick us up.

Tammie showed up with Emma, and we headed back to their house. We did have our first experience on the autoban. Ok, I have anxiety bad enough when other people drive...but going 90 on the curves? I had to not watch. My mom kept telling Tammie to slow down. It was pretty funny. We got back to their house just in time to say hi to Spencer and Shantal just before they had to leave for school. We sat up and talked for a bit, then my mom went downstairs to sleep. I tried to stay awake, then slept on the couch for 4 hours apparently. It didn't feel like that to me, but then again...it never does! I still had a pretty bad headache when I woke up, and I fought sleep the rest of the night. Tammie and I ran to the grocery store to get more bread, and she wanted to show me the grocery store experience. Wow! If you don't watch it, you'll get left behind. They check out the items, and you have to bag them as fast as they check them out. You also have to deposit a euro to use the shopping cart. Then, when you lock the cart back in, you get your euro back. We had dinner, then I went upstairs with Gardner to try to figure out the wireless internet (they didn't know their security key...then when we figured it out...it still wouldn't work because Vista hates wpa-psk security, apparently.)

I then just completely crashed. I was SO tired. I tossed and turned a bit, but was up for the day by about 7 in the morning. That is SO not like me. Here are some of the pictures from the flight/airport & my first day :-)