the bathroom stall door

"unless something is bleeding or on fire, i will not discuss it through the bathroom door" is heard at least daily at our house.   i joke about it as much as the next mom.   it is funny, but honestly, every single time i have to say it, another picture comes to mind.   every single time.   

i look at that bathroom door, which i hopefully locked, and hear the calls of "mom!" but i see the door of a public campground bathroom stall.   i feel cold, unfriendly, public tiles that i share with complete strangers beneath my feet.  every single time.   it makes me smile.  every single time.

let me explain.

a few years ago, we came to germany and lived with family.   family that was not used to having 3 kids and crazy, loud, silly, romping, laughing, chaos around.   it was not good.

some friends saw the situation and offered us their camp trailer to live in.   we took it!   we moved into a travel trailer in the german equivalent of a aok or koa camp site in america.   a place to park and a short walk to the lake any time we wanted.   it was also a walk to the bathrooms.   a walk with a wagon full of dishes to the washroom.   a walk to the showers with enough change to pay for hot water.   a walk with a wagon full of laundry and change to the laundry room.    a walk with empty bottles to fetch water to cook with.   

we spent 6 months in that campsite.   mostly winter months.   it was small.  it was hard.  it was cold.   we had hurricane force winds come through that year.   i remember laying in bed praying that the straps would hold everything down as i watched and felt the whole trailer shake wondering if the tent that was our front room would still be there in the morning.    it was better than where we had been.

we were fortunate to be near the bathrooms and in an end site where there wasn't much traffic.   living in a camper the size of most living rooms with no yard and an active 2 year old is crazy.   we were also fortunate to be able to get a stove and larger fridge about half way through.   no more just cooking on a hot plate, i had a fridge large enough for more than that days meals and oven to cook them.   whoo-hoo!   

we did finally move into a house.   whenever i stand at the kitchen sink that is lower than any american sink i have ever seen, washing dishes with a sore back, i think about how grateful i am that i'm in my kitchen.   my kids are playing in their rooms, or in the yard, or in the living room . . .there is a whole house and yard for them to be in!   seems silly.   we always had all those things before, but i never appreciated them until i didn't have them anymore.   

whenever i hear the kids whine about their rooms, i am glad they have rooms and not bunks that they call their rooms.

whenever i send my youngest out to play, i am relieved that he can go play in a yard and not a driveway full of gravel i share with the camper next door.

whenever i work on the ever present mountain of laundry, i am grateful that i only have to haul it from one room to another and it doesn't cost me 6€ to wash and dry one load.

whenever i turn on the sink, i feel so blessed for running water in my kitchen.   dumping noodles into a colander in the sink to drain them is a privilege we did not have for a while.   

every time mother nature calls in the night and i stumble to the potty, i am grateful i don't have to put on a coat and robe and shoes to trudge out in the night with key in hand so i can use a cold public stall.

it's been a few years, but i still see that camper and campsite as i move through my normal daily life.   i know that camper was more than a lot of people have and i was always grateful for it.   we grew as a family, we came to appreciate what we had.   i can put an end to most of the kids complaining with , "but it isn't . . . .".   

life is busier.   there is a lot more to do.    i still get caught up in the rush of life and forget how much i have sometimes.   there is one things that keeps me grateful.   there is still one thing that lifts my heart every time.   it's the morphing of my white wood bathroom door.   i hear a knock, or the call of "mom!" and that door changes before my eyes.   i see a metal stall door hanging there, like a ghost that materializes before me.   a piece of me just smiles and sighs with relief and  thanksgiving.   

one day, i looked around me.   the streets, and cars, and trees always the same and i thought, "what if tomorrow it was gone?"   what if tomorrow i lived somewhere else?  what if?   the trees looked greener that day.   i noticed the little beautiful hidden surprises that always hide in our hurried lives.   i saw the whole world as if the first time and i realized that it was new again.   

i'm still busy.   i'm still unorganized and chaotic.   lots of things still make me crazy.   i may never appreciate some of the annoying things of life, but now i see the really great things all around and it kind of overpowers the irritations.   not always, but sometimes.

close your eyes and imagine that you will have to leave everything tomorrow.   now, look around, walk through your day as if it's the last day that you will have it.   might not miss going to work, but i bet you would miss the paycheck.   might not miss the traffic but i bet you would miss the car.  you might not miss somethings, but there will be much much more you would. 

the next time you go into a public bathroom, imagine that being the only bathroom door you have.   when you say, "i just want to "go" in peace", imagine those other people's voices, strangers being on the other side of that door instead of your kids calling for mom.     you will still tell them that you are not discussing anything that isn't bleeding or on fire through the bathroom door.   you will also be grateful that you can. 

biking thankful thursday

in honor of thankful thursday, today i am grateful for bicycles. i ride mine to school every day. it's cheaper on gas and better for my figure than driving. plus, no parking problems. 
here are a few more reasons i am grateful for bikes -
bicycle mechanics helped the inventors of the airplane which made travel really fast and brought my husband to me across the ocean. (how's that for a jump?)
mr. mcfeely would look silly on a horse.
bikes can be hooked up to power all kinds of things. i did that in school and just powering a light bulb takes some serious leg muscles. 
bike inspired motorcycles and i love those.
and just as an irony -oprah started my gratitude thing -i am grateful for bikes today - lance armstrong is a bike racer - he admitted to doping for his races to - - - -oprah! that's just a bizarre realization i made while typing. i am easily amused. 
have a great and grateful day!

just for fun -
6 person bike at faschings

another faschings bike - this one is technically a trike but it's all wooden!   ok, mostly wood, but still cool! 

  

a nine person bike in berlin that my son used to get around with his class.   nine people pedal and the rest stand in the middle for a free ride!   how funky is this?

faschings!

at the beginning of february, when the rest of the world is having mardi gras and karneval, germany is having fashings.   it's all the same thing.   basically, it's the bad spirits getting a get out of jail free card for a week and then getting swept out for a nice clean start to the year.

here in germany, there isn't the flashing for beads though.   but, being germany, there is lots of drinking.  we are not drinkers but we love the parades.   

the week of fashings is a huge party!   the weird thing for me, is the amount of drinking that goes on.   it's crazy.   the parade goers and the paraders.   for this idaho girl, having paraders hand out candy to the kids and cups of alcohol to the adults, was the craziest thing i had ever seen

  if you can get to a good foot parade, those are awesome.   we went to one last year.   this year, we missed it.   the costumes are sometimes freaky but amazing.  you are going to have the good guys, the bad guys and the other guys.   good guys are chasing the bad guys out.  the other guys are just there to have fun.

some of them are pretty scary for the timid.   my daughter was pretty scared at her first one.  the people were great about it though.   they would loift their masks and talk to her and my little guy from far off and kneel down to talk to them.   by the end of the parade, they were enjoying it all.

you never know what your going to see at german parades.   

we go from this wooden bike, to this bike made for 9!   how much fun is this!?

the thing i love at the parades, is the bands!   they are loud!   you can feel these guys coming and they are cool.   they are not like the american bands that all march together.   it's a party for them too ya know.

this is just another crazy thing that we saw this last time.   this whole board, is covered with bottle caps!

if you visit germany at the end of february, look up faschinigs, umzugs, nachtumzug.  you should be able to find one close to you.   they are tons of fun and definitely not your typical american parade.  don't forget to buy a pin while you're there.   some of the bigger parades have some awesome looking necklaces and pins, the smaller one just have plastic ones.   it's about the collecting though.   come join us next faschings!

barefooted freak.

this was my day in a nutshell.

ok, the nutshell needs explanation.

first, i have to go to class to learn german.   the german government requires anyone outside of the euro zone that comes into the country and wants to stay, to take the classes and learn the language and some of the culture, government and laws of the land.   i really wish america had this.   the classes are intensive.   if you're not working, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.   the classes cost 1.20€ per hour.   if you show up regularly and pass the course, you get half of that money back.   it is fascinating!   not the language.   the language is hard and sometimes, most of the time, makes no sense.   the people that i go to school with, however are very interesting.   i have people from all over europe and africa.   

here's where my recent awakening and the revelations of the day come in.   i have for a while, being in a very different culture, that is more . . . hmmm. . . . less. . . . . well . . . the culture here finds me. . . .stranger than the american culture finds me, which is actually saying quite a bit.    europe is more free with fashion, not the quick moving fads.    more free with the body but less free with the bare feet (weird).   more art, more self expression in dress, hair, piercings, music,  but less free with what kind of behaviour is socially acceptable.   hard to explain.   but my bare feet are weird.   my sliding on the ice patch on the sidewalk is weird.   my joking and being silly is weird.   so, although i am used to being the strange, weird, odd, bizarre, etc. freak, i am not used to a culture trying to change it and being so very shocked by it.   i am not used to so much pressure and i'm not used to so few people that are the same crazy, fun freaks.    it's stifling.

now that i am interacting with more people on a more regular basis, i feel it more.   and, it cannot be.   i refuse to be something other than what i am.   i am not trying to stand out.   i am not trying to be weird.   i just am.   i do what i do for my amusement.   if others come along, fine.   if they don't, which happens a lot here, i go alone.

that brings me to today.

in class, i have started to throw things in for my amusement.   when asked to guess what another student ate during the day, i said bread and butter and ostrich eggs for breakfast, dino meat and veggies for lunch and alligator with noodles and gravy for dinner with a side of vodka to wash it all down.   today, when we were supposed to practice telephoning work to tell them we were unable to come in for the day.  i gave everything in perfect grammar and said i couldn't come in because i had to shave my legs.   later, while listening to explanations of things i understood, i put my face between my hands and squished my face.  i didn't try to attract attention to it, i just sat there listening, and doing pudgy faces.   it amused me.   

a friend of mine told me i forgot to grow up.   and yes, i told her, "no, i refused, there's a difference."   then i told her i would remain a child as long as possible because adults are boring.

later, as i was riding my bike home, i smiled and greeted as many people as i could.   i just think it's polite.   i happened to be wearing a earwarmer thing i made.   it didn't turn out the way i wanted, but it keeps the wind out of my ears.    anyway, as i greeted people, i got a familiar look from many of them.   it's that "socially unacceptable, non-conformist, what a freak" look.   i realized that it didn't bother me.    i realized that it gave me freedom!  i mean, if i'm going to get this look, i can do anything.   it's like being afraid of catching because you're afraid of getting hit with the baseball.   once you get hit once, you're not afraid anymore, it's happened.        there is nothing more to be afraid of.    

i realized that the people that have to be around you, school, church, whatever, will get used to it.   the people that don't, who cares?   the people that have to be around me, find that i am generally a good person and can put up with my quirks, even if it's just because they have no other choice.

here's what i learned as well.   i can't allow myself to sink into gray.   it's not what i am.   i am respectful, kind, intelligent, loyal, resourceful, witty, and helpful.   i am also a goofy, silly, weird, odd, bizarre, strange, barefooted freak.

i don't fault anyone for being what they are.   if people want to be tight and straightlaced, fine, be it.   own what you are.   don't hurt others on the way, be honest about what you are, change what you don't like, but keep what you do.   be true to what you are and all of the wonderful things you can become.   you are the only you that this world gets, don't let us miss out on that.   don't let you miss out on that.

have a great day

and smile

even if the world sneers back

someone important needs that smile from you

even if no one else does

you do

churches of germany

 one of the things that has struck me all over germany, is the church towers.   i love the older ones.   they are beautiful.   when you drive around germany, there are a lot of little towns dotting the country.   cities don't usually grow together like in the states.   one of the great things about these little towns, is it's individual church.   as you drive around, you pass towns and can see the main church bell tower sticking up out into the skyline.   you can always see the church tower.   larger cities grow up and over them, but the towns, always have this high point in their skyline.  

here's another piece of interesting history.   i noticed that in our town, there are a lot of large crucifixes on the road side.   just driving down the road, there is a 4-8 ft tall crucifix.  a friend of mine was finally able to explain it.   germany has had freedom of religion for a very long time.   but back in the "old days" this meant that you could be protestant or catholic.   many towns, especially small ones, divided into those religions.   you could not be a protestant and live in a catholic town.   so catholic towns had the familiar crucifixes erected all over the town.   if you watch as you drive around, some towns have them, others not.   the ones without, were one of 3 things: a protestant town, a mixed town, or a newer town.   the town we live in celebrated it's 850th birthday last year!   yeah, seriously!   the tallest thing in this town, is the catholic church, there are crucifixes all over the town.   it was a catholic town.   it now has an evangelistic church in it as well.    

 this is a more modern church tower in a little town near us.  all of the old churches have church towers.   there were not many new churches until recently history.   but now, modern churches almost feel incomplete without a bell tower.   a friend of mine was telling me about her church 's fund raisers and excitement over getting a small bell tower for their church.

 this is actually the bell tower of the bruchsal palace.   it's not actually very old because it has been destroyed and then rebuilt from wars.

 this is another bell tower in bruchsal.   obviously an older one. 

another beautiful church in bruchsal

 this is michealsberg church.  it sits up on a hill and overlooks the whole valley under it.  it is a favorite picnic and evening walk spot.   we walked up part of the hill one time.   it was a really long walk.   the view is amazing!   there is actually a stone with a plaque pointing out in all directions to all of the various towns you can spot from there.   it's pretty cool.

 

this is actually a little, and i mean tiny, church tucked into a back road on the way up the hill to michealsberg.

 some of these, are just pictures that reflect my church tower obsession.   i have drug my kids though a few of them.  most have just been snapshots while running through the town for some other reason.

 this is actually the church in our town.   when we first got here, i took a video of the church bells.  here's a quick description of what that's all about.   church bells traditionally were the way to keep the town on time.   they still ring every quarter hour.   most have a specific way to ring so you know if it's 15 after, 15 til etc.   our bells are a basic ding ding dong for each 15 minutes and then at the hour, it tolls once for each hour.   the cool thing is at certain times of the day when the bells signal special things.   this was the original wake up call.   at 6 am, the bells toll like i show in the video.   then they do it again at noon to call lunch time and again at 8 pm to signal the end of the day.   obviously, this was traditionally meant for the farmers and towns people before the time of every household having a clock.

the other time these bells toll like this is at the time of someone's death, birth, or marriage.   they also toll on sundays to call people to services and on other special occasions.

i will add pictures as i find or take more.   i also want to put in some from inside.   the inside of these places are amazing to me.   just stay tuned.   same bat time, same bat channel . . .hee hee, batman and the bell towers.  

riesenrutcschbahn (big friggin' slide)

this last spring we went to the riesen rutschbahn in poppeltal.   it's really just a great big slide, as in, you get hauled up a hill then slide for a few to several minutes down, depending on how fast you want to go.  since we went before the tourist season, we never had to wait very long.   it did sprinkle a bit so we had to wait until it had stopped and was dried off before we could go back on.

it's 3€ for a ride, 4.50€ for an adult with a child, a little less if you buy several at a time.   it sounded like a lot to me too for just a big slide.   it's totally fun though.   there are several smaller rides, bumper boats, mounted air guns that shoot foam balls, just little stuff.   they are all more expensive than i think they need to be as well.   the boats were 2€ i think.   it's a tourist spot so it is a little more.   but, it's so much fun, we're probably going to go back.

first you get your little sled, they have singles or doubles if your taking a little one with you.   our little blonde curls was able to ride with me, daddy, and our towering teen.   you go sit on the track up the mountain and they hook you up to a cable that hauls you up the hill backwards.   it's a long ride up because it's slow.   your riding up through forest though so enjoy the scenery.   there are some pretty steep places, if you see a sign, it means it's going to be steep, don't lean back and don't tip forward.

then you land on a flat spot at the top and dismount.   someone will probably grab your sled for you but we just took them ourselves and set it on the top of the slide.   they push you to start and you are off!

you have a brake, use it.   some of these turns are really tight and if you hit them at full speed, you'll go up and over the edge.   wheeeeeeeeeee!

i went with the curly boy mostly and didn't really speed down with him.

then, i went with my daughter.   she wanted to do one with daddy because she thought he'd go faster.   really?   she hasn't been paying attention.   we flew!   still had to brake a bit on the curves, i'd like to stay on the track, thank you.   we di go sideways on some  of the curves though.   she laughed all the way, ok, so did i.

overall, you see some beautiful scenery and feel the wind blowing through your hair.   except my husband, he doesn't have hair.   still fun. 

it's not a cheap family outing but not horribly expensive either.   it's worth it to buy a bulk package.   we got 6 singles for the bigger kids and 6 doubles.   that keep us busy for half the day.   we brought lunch and ate before we went in.   we did get an ice cream there before we went home though.

ok, we're at the end of the track . . . i wanna go again!

paris in a bubble

last week we were able to drive to paris.   we actually went to look at something for my husband's business but figured we might as well take in some sights while there.   it was supposed to be a 5 - 6 hour drive but for some reason it took 8.   such is traveling i guess.   we left at 3 am so we saw the sunrise in another country, at a rest stop, with weird toilets.   one of the things we noticed is that france has more open space than germany.   germany is all forests and towns.   there are farms but they are tucked in between trees and buildings.   sometimes there are small patches of trees and or huge power poles sticking up in the middle of a field.   france landscape was more like idaho.   large spaces of open farmland where the skyline is flat except distant hills.   it felt like i was sprawling out after being cuddled up for a year.   funny, i hadn't thought about it much until we were driving through something that seemed so familiar.   

 same rest stop.   i love watching the farmer.   i'm sure he had been out there since before sun up.   i caught him taking breakfast from his lunch box before going back to plowing.   this was definitely like home . . .until the rocket train went whizzing by right there on the at the end of the field.   your not in idaho anymore, girl.

 on the road again, road construction is a bit different here.   they use moles to do the digging evidently.   at lest the signs are more interesting that the plain ones in idaho.

 this was our first glimpse of the tower.   i think it's interesting how the skyline goes from a city full of tall building to nothing to the tower sticking up out of nothing at this distance.   it doesn't seem that way when your inside the city.

 you can just barely see the tower sticking up over the apartments between the light poles.   this picture actually shows something else that i thought was interesting.   there were always zippers crossing the sky there.  the constant crossing of contrails was fascinating to me.  

 i just loved this conglomeration of cranes.

 this is how they clean under the eiffel tower.   i'd love to see the vacuum they use while the tower picks up it's feet.

 just a fun building

 finally, the tower!   we parked in a garage and walked over to the tower.   it was just easier.   the parking, as well as everything else was expensive.   the opportunity to see a major landmark was worth the 13€ to park for a few hours

 there was a young man making huge bubbles under the tower.   he was very cooperative with me and made them over my camera.   the structure is really beautiful but everything is better when viewed through a soap bubble.


















  there is a bridge and then a fountain in line with the bridge.   all beautiful, even more so together.

 we hung out at the foot of the bridge for a bit and watched the barges floating past.

 and the animals play in the water

thsi huge fountain was amazing.   it's like a park with everyone gathered around, swimming in the fountain and just hanging out having lunch.   there were kids that walked down with their sack lunches.   it made me wonder if they think think it's as cool as i do.   

my husband grew up in germany and never saw any of the sites.   he said that he never thought about it until he moved to the states and had kids.   he wanted to show them the things that he grew up near but never saw.   now that we live in europe, we are trying to see things.

   

it made me wonder what things i missed.   what things did i have near me and never saw because it had just always been there so wasn't important.   what opportunities did i have that i never took?

stop for a minute and think about what things are near you.   what things do other people come and see?  have you seen it?   do you appreciate the world you live near, the opportunities you have and the things you can do?

 just a thought.

 we got a few more shots of the tower.   if you go, everything is expensive.   a hot dog is 7€, soda is 3€.   just be ready for it.   worth it, but be ready.   we brought our lunch but forgot it in the car.   so much for planning.

we couldn't stay the night so we headed back around 5.   paris has rush hour too so avoid that.   rush hour was interesting.   everyone just went and zipped in where ever they could.   places that were marked for 2 lanes had 3 lanes of cars with 2 lanes of motorcycles and mopeds stacked in between them.  everyone was pretty mellow about the chaos though.   the only honking was the 2 wheelers honking to let you know they were coming between the lines.   it was fascinating.   it was the most organized, rushed, patient, chaos i've ever seen.   amazing.

the good thing about the stop and go traffic was that we got to do some clicking on the way.   i call this drive-by photo shootings.   alas, this is what we must do sometimes.

the glass topped grand palais 

horse sculpture atop the grand palais

 i wonder if the people that live her think the light poles are as cool as i do.

 i've always, like since i was 3, wanted to go to the louvre.   well, for now, this is as close as i've ever been.   someday, maybe i can spend a week in there but for now, her it is.   it's huge!   it takes up more that a city block and is at least 3 stories.

 one day, when i don't have crazy blonde curls to entertain, i hope i can go in.

 this was an interesting street market.   there are several of these that lock up at night.   people seel all kinds of things out of them.

 out of the city, we got a glimpse of some more country side before dark.

that's our quickie in paris and france.   a couple more observations about france.   

there is a lot of litter, france is a dirty place.   

don't walk in the grass around rest areas.   people have no problem using the bathroom on the side of the road, the white you see in the grass is tp, nuff said.    little bit gross.   

paris is expensive.   it's a huge tourist attraction so of course it's expensive.      there are people walking around asking for donations for things, yeah, i'm sure the money is going to the handicap or whatever.    the guys walking around selling eiffel towers didn't seem as expensive, but we didn't get one.    i might next time.   

have lots of change for toll and for the restrooms, they are free but you should still leave a tip for the people running it.   there are performers, like the guy with bubbles, leave them a tip as well if you stop to enjoy their performance.   it doesn't take much.   although, if your used to dollars, be aware that the 1€ and 2€ are coins.    freaked me out when we first got here.   you don't want to give people a hand full of change and have it be full of 1€ and 2€ pieces.   that would get spendy quick.

take the opportunities that are around you.    take the time to see the world around you.   and when things look around you, at the things, the people and life around you . . .look at them with new appreciation.   when things look their worst, look at the world through a soap bubble.