it's raining so i guess i'll blog

everybody's pictures are wonderful with the exception of the three pictures darla posted of me. darla i'll give you a dollar if you take off at least the one of june and me at the lake. it is scary and hard on my ego i don't feel that old and am surprised when i see myself sometimes. ever since arriving in germany i haven't been able to wear any make-up. i have developed an allergy to either my eyeliner, eye shadow, or mascara. in desperation i put on some neosporin last night because they are so swollen, red, and my eyelids itch like crazy. i probably would have healed faster but my vanity kicks in and i put on some makeup when we are going somewhere. after sunday i decided i had better get serious and give it up completely for a while because the reaction has been so miserable to live with. the up side is it takes me half the time to get ready in the morning and half the time to get ready for bed. the other advantage is i am basically invisible so i can go anywhere without being seen. another blow to the ego since it's always been fairly easy to describe myself--i'm the redhead. i am virtually nondescript. it's funny. i have been mistaken for being german several times. it's not often i have been able to blend in when i have traveled to another country. i think it has something to do with the fact that germany is not exactly the fashion capital of the world and we are in the sticks of germany so that says it all. next on my list of getting back to basics is to just let my hair go to frizz. i don't look this bad on a back pack!
ok moving on. germany is more beautiful than i imagined. if i had a bike with a really comfortable seat (and wasn't here to help with a new baby) i would ride forever. the roads are narrow and windy, the cars speed down them, but they are generally very courteous to bikers. everyone bikes here. you will see more old people biking than young. it is green and they are plowing the fields to get them ready for some kind of winter planting. there are patches of woods and i swear hanzel and gretal are out there wandering somewhere. then there are the fields with deer hides along the edges. (picture the towers on the show "the village".) out there in the midst of the gently rolling countryside are all the little villages. it is amazingly picturesque. there is plenty of new construction, and the houses are different, but they all have an old world look to them.
i went on a volks march through the countryside with janie's school friday. it was so fun. the entire school went. the way was marked with orange tape like your crime scene tape only on it was printed in big black letters "wander weg" which is pronounced "vawnder veeg." there were 100's of elementry through middle school kids. the older kids did the 10 k route, the little kids did 5 k which is quite a ways. they are tough little kids. almost all their dads are in iraq. the mps followed along behind us. we started at janie's school which is about 25 min on another post. it is a training post for the men going to iraq as is vilseck where brooke is. going through the woods the sound of artillery was constant in the background. i could feel the percussion. i asked the kids about it. they said they don't even hear it any more. at night in vilseck it sounds like a giant beast snoring because the bursts of the machine gun fire seem to take on a rhythm. brooke informs me most fighting is done in the dark and so that is when they practice--duh. so it sounds like we have clifford the big red dog sleeping next door. we were near grafenwohr no it is not pronounced grafin wore, but grafin veer. i am so visual i have to really concentrate on saying it correctly.
brooke and baby are doing beautifully. brooke has already lost 30 lbs. nights are crazy between ellyn and sawyer and i can do nothing really to help, but take over as much as i can during the day. currently getting the baby registered is taking all the time. that and getting all 3 girls out the door for school at 3 different times and 2 hrs later starting the process in reverse with them all coming home. in between times mike kindly left me the garage to do because he knows i need something to do to stay happy and then there is the storage room and cookies to bake and washing--always washing--where is jack when i need her? and holding sweet babies and watching movies and playing games and reading and trying to get my run in each day and oh yeah a shower. such is life no matter where you are--making anywhere you live a home.
i've left out lots of things, but as i look at all those pictures read your blogs i think how happy my mom must be with all of you and your beautiful little kids.
love you all, aunt le anne