Very Exciting March!

Finally spring had started and it felt like it. On March 21 a blizzard from DQ felt very appropriate. 

We also had a chance to watch one of the twins baseball games. They are both quite good. Here is Colin already pitching. 

But here is most exciting news. Where Helen and William lived in Nashville was not ideal. That townhouse was on the east side and way too small. No garage or storage to leave the 3 bicycles, no place for Helen to teach her online classes but on the dining room table. William's school was on the west side and the time to drive to school was of course when the traffic was the worse. Nashville traffic is not pretty, believe me.

It was time for a move. A place was found and on Monday March 24 we were on our way to help. Any excuse to see our children. As we used to we started very early when it was still dark. And it was still dry then but that changed later and we got quite some downpours. 

A photo for Helen to see were we were. This is in the Tennessee welcome center. 

The next few days were a bit strenuous for us older people but still fun and rewarding. Helen had to work (in the old place) and William had to go to school. James and I tried what we could to get the new place ready to move in.

First on the list was the delivery of Helen's pod with her stuff which had been in storage. Finally. Helen said it would be a little bit like Christmas to see the things. The driver who brought it was first class and very friendly too. It was fun watching him do it with such precision. We were lucky too with the empty spaces.

The new place has three floors and three bedrooms. Yesssss, a guestroom for us. Woodfloors throughout the house but the top bedroom (Helen's) is carpet. Sarah had lent us her carpet cleaner and it was excellent.  Not a 5-minute job though at our age and doing it for the first time. Sarah had given me an excellent lesson though and all the things I needed.

James' teak wood chairs from his flat in Singen have now made it to Nashville. The loveseat should be in the pod. We had brought a little child's table just for now to have our lunch. 

Oh, but the best: we got to help by picking William up from high school. From the new place it is so easy. My map said it would take me 8 minutes to get there. Helen reported recently that he can sleep 1 hour longer because of the move. So important for a teenager. 

Of course in a situation like this one doesn't know how things would work. I had brought some twin beds for the guest room but had miscalculated. They did not fit but one of Helen's friends was very grateful to have them for the kids. 

It took us a bit longer to sort things out, order mattresses, etc etc. So James and I staid in hotels. Yes, plural. The first I had booked online Helen did not approve off. Not in a good area and way to dangerous (what do we know). She really worried about us. It had been easy to drive to and a reasonable price. We had to promise to go there before darkness. 

Well, it was ok. The next night we went to a different hotel. The same known chain and at the airport. Strangely enough I had booked it buy calling and it was even cheaper. They had plenty of rooms.

The following night we didn't pre-book but this time they didn't have that many rooms and we actually had to stay in a suit but for the same price. Could not book it at the same time for another night though because we were close to a weekend and a school team was booked.

As you can tell, we didn't worry and took it one day at a time. Yes, our card game in the hotel room.

You wonder about this picture? Once the pod was delivered and Helen was done working, she tried to open it. It had two locks on it and she had the keys but the locks were rusted shut. She consulted google about it. I got a text when I was picking up William from school to stop and buy rust remover or whatever would help. It took a while but she did it.

A celebratory moment of her and William opening the pod. We carried what we could into the garage and tried to sort it by importance to be needed first. But we did need a second day. 

One of the two stairs between the floors. 

So many decisions to make for Helen. She bought these chairs which we could pick up for her at one of the stores who carried them. She put them together and we had a meal at the island. They are very comfy. Good buy!

William got a mattress delivered. He likes it and is very happy.

He helped Helen pick out some flowers for me which I put on a window sill so not to forget. William took this photo which I thought was very clever.

Yup, the empty pod, left open so the neighbors knew it will be gone the next day since it took two days (the parking!).

On Thursday James and I thought we had done what we could do to help. Helen had to work that day in the evening so we would not see her anyway. We had asked whether Ben, William's dad, would like to meet for dinner in Mt. Juliet. This is one of William's favorite places because the boy loves sushi. 

We had seen Ben earlier because he too helped Helen move some things on his truck bed from the old to the new place. It was nice though to have time talking at dinner. 

To get to the dinner place was a perfect example of Nashville traffic. It took us 3x as long as it should have. The online map would send us the fastest way but still red lines here and there on the map. =

This is my curry. Oh was it good.

And since we had not pre-booked a hotel room and we would not see Helen anyway since we had planned on driving home on Friday, we decided to drive on after dinner and see how far we could go. We made it all the way through Knoxville which was so great. We had pulled over and looked on the internet for a hotel and found something easily enough. We were tired and fell into bed right away.

We woke up early and didn't even bother to shower. We were eager to get on the road. We were before the (included) breakfast time but at check-out we were offered a coffee for on-the-road. Nice!

Luckily it got light soon and I asked James to take some photos of the sunup. 

Tradition: a photo at the Virginia welcome center.

Home Saturday March 29 and having a soft-boiled egg breakfast curtosy of William and Ben's hens (and Helen who shared them with us). 

Had to ask William whether he knew what this means. Oh, he knew right away. Our family game of "sharing" the empty egg. 

Home in time to see our redbud bloom.

Home very happy to know that Helen and William are very happy too about the change.

Shall we talk about the weather?

Last time I wrote a blog we were snowed in. Well, we really try not to talk about the news on TV right now. The weather is a better subject. More days are now warmer. Even though we bundled up in a coat for our walk today, I was able to just have my "walking sandles" on. Temp: 53 F or 12 C. If the sky is blue and the sun shining it can be quite ok. Just 2 days ago we had a tornado warning. Luckily only for 30 minutes. And only 2 weeks ago on a Sunday morning we had a tornado warning in the middle of our church service. We were asked to go into the hallway of the education building where there are no windows. That too only lasted a short time and we could return into church for the communion. The sermon was skipped that Sunday.

I ended my last blog with hyacinth poking through the snow. Well, just a few days later ...

We also had this visitor! We were still in bed when James spied this through the window. I hurried and was lucky to get these photos. The bird was on top of our rose trellis on the back patio. Quite majestic!

Saturday March 1 ... we were watching the news very early in the morning and they started of course with announcing what day it was. Yes, March 1, and we suddenly realized that it was the day James and I met 50 years ago. Oh, we decided that we needed to celebrate that. 

Just a few days earlier we had been at the Vietnamese restaurant Mekong and on the menu was "make your own spring rolls". By chance Sarah had a business dinner the same day in that restaurant and we had talked about the spring rolls because a colleague had ordered that and it seemed a lot of fun. So, we got some take-out orders. Our friends Martha and Jerry came over to play cards and we all tried our best on those spring rolls. 

Lidl had also provided some baked goods like German Brötchen for our more-than-foot-long hot dogs and sweets and with the cookies Martha brought nobody ended up hungry.

 

The next day was the 2nd of 3 season tickets for the Virginia Opera, always Sunday afternoon matinees. It was very nice.

This Tuesday (in Germany Rosenmontag) was the day before Ash Wednesday and our church youth group is always inviting the congregation to a pancake supper (the breakfast kind). It is a fundraiser for their mission trip and always very nice. The closest we get to Mardi Gras (Fashing).

But one of my favorite things are potato pancakes e.g. Kartoffelpuffer. They are savory and some of my favorite food. Well, that's what we had that day for lunch. Altogether a pancake kind of day!

And here are photos from our camelias along the garage from today. It's the little things which can bring a lot of happiness. 

Are they not gorgeous? 

School is out

February 12 - a Wednesday - no school for our three. Most retired people don’t like to drive on roads like that so Sarah dropped them off on the way to work. It’s mostly highway and quite well taken care off. 

It was early so they wanted to watch a little tv. 

I had written in the last blog about snow ice cream. I had made a little and the boys wanted to try it. They thought it was good but I didn't think so. I gave up on it. 

We had brought the bagatelle game down from the loft where it is wrapped up on top of a bookcase. The boys are always in awe about it because we can tell them that it is probably older than Papa and may be even older than his father. We don't know. It was always in a spare room in my father-in-law's house when we visited Windsor and our girls (and I) always liked playing. 

Needless to say we had a tournament. They are quite good doing the math.

Monday February 17 - President's Day - no school

This time I was better prepared because it had been on our calendar for quite a while. There had been an offer of gingerbread cake/cookies boxes at Trader Joe's and that seemed a good idea. The boys were all in favor. Caleb was the one who wanted to mix the dough. He told be that this is how he likes to crack eggs, ha-ha.

The dough had to be in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so we had lunch first. When James and I were on our last trip we saw half-meter long hot dogs at the Christmas Markets. These were organic etc from Costco but we thought the boys would have fun. Yes, they used my measuring tape. 

After lunch it was back to the cookies. The dough (from two boxes) was divided into 4 equal portions. Since I had only one mat and one special rolling pin the boys took turns. As long as they wanted or they had their dough.

I like my rolling pin because it is the same diameter all along. I have these rings to put on each end which are color coded. The green rings let you roll out the dough to the thickness of a quarter inch. It is perfect because you can't do it wrong. 

I also have the whole alphabet in cutters and at lunch time they thought what "message" they wanted to make. Oh yes, and hearts, cats, dogs etc etc. No shortage in this house of cookie cutters.

And in case you wonder about the message on my t-shirt.... I bought it on our last trip on Peascod Street in Windsor. Could not resist. 

When there was a little time before Wade picked them up I placed a FaceTime call to my sister and luckily  her daughter (my niece Maren) was with her. I think the boys like the call to Germany once in a while and it was fun. I tried to change my camera view to get them all in and chaos arose. Here are two screen shots. I must have pressed the wrong button because Ute and Maren are not in the picture. 

Today Thursday Feb.20 we are snowed in again but without the boys. We have fun watching the birds. Even hung up a suet block in a cage I found in our reserves.

I thought the birds looked fatter than usual but of course it is because they puff up their feathers because it is so cold.

I told James that next time I look in the mirror I will just say that I puffed up my feathers. Yup, we do have fun.

Hope you all stay nice and comfy. Spring must be here soon. Our hyacinths are already looking out of the ground. Of course right now through the snow.