Another week, another post. :)

Just have to say that I have 100 pageviews. Which for some reason I find totally cool. Anyhow...

Saturday morning (okay it's 12:30) again and here I sit. Coffee, croissant, nutella, music, and my blog. :)

I had my first "Girls I'm about to be totally protective and try NOT to freak you out at the same time" moment yesterday. We went out to the playground which is normally pretty deserted. There was a guy sitting on the bench but a woman and her child were headed in before us so I thought maybe he was waiting on them. Nope. He had a large brown bottle (which means beer here just like it does in the US). He kept watching the kids playing. I kept them very close to me and tried to not use their names. I used nicknames (like I call Yael Goose half the time because she's a silly goose and I just called Nuria Baby Girl etc-Noemi wasn't with us). The other woman left after a few minutes and this guy kept staring at my girls. I tried to covertly get details so I could describe him later if G-d forbid anything happened. (How tall, hair color, age, what he was wearing, etc) Yes I was probably being paranoid but this guy was creepy. When he decided to have a cigarette, he kept staring at me as he rolled it. So he's licking the paper and looking at me. (At least he wasn't looking at the girls I guess...) I was very glad when he left but of course this jerk had to leave his bottle behind (which as I put in the trash I looked at and at 10am this guy had a large alcoholic beer (I think it was comparable in size to a 40 back home)!

Thursday when we were out Nuria was so tired but she fought sleep until the last possible minute. I tried to put her in the wrap to head home and she squirmed so hard I was honestly afraid I was going to drop her. I gave up on the wrap, sat down for a minute to think about possible solutions, and finally called Kathrin to get her to help me bring the girls home. (Yael had brought her stuffed husky-which she calls a Dachsi (short for Dachshund) in a toy stroller and we didn't have the normal stroller since I had assumed Nuria would be asleep in the wrap before we got there.) She didn't answer the cell so I took a deep breath and was about to just carry Nuria home across my arms when I decided to try one more time. This time she made it into the wrap and was asleep within two minutes. We got home and she was still out. When Kathrin had to leave to get Noemi from kindergarten (which if I haven't said before is the German equivalent of pre-school), she looked at Nuria still asleep in the wrap on my chest and I simply said, "She's staying here." It was difficult enough to get her to fall asleep I was not about to risk her waking up whether I had to deal with a cranky baby or Kathrin did. So I stayed sitting down in the kitchen with her on my chest asleep and just hung out. She was still out when Kathrin got home. She only woke up when I started moving around because the older two girls wanted to paint their salt dough creations and I had to set things up. She'd gotten enough sleep though that she wasn't a total terror as any child can be when a nap is interrupted. Without realizing it, I had no alone time all day Thursday. I spent the morning with Yael and Nuria, my "break" with Nuria asleep on my chest, my afternoon painting salt dough creations with Yael and Noemi, then went out for ice cream and to the park with Kathrin and all three girls. That was a lot of fun but when we got back, I was supposed to go to a dance performance at the theatre that Daniel had gotten me a ticket for. As soon as I was alone in my room, I sat down on the bed and tired hit me like a ton of bricks along with the need for some time alone. I fell asleep around 7:30 that night, in my clothing with my contacts in and without setting an alarm and woke up the next morning at 8:45 to Kathrin knocking on my door and my internal monologue going "Crap!". I brushed my teeth and went downstairs without changing or anything else. I headed to the playground with the girls and that was when I had that overly protective experience.

I get to Skype with Mary Beth tonight which I'm really looking forward to. It's been a month since I've heard her voice and six weeks since I've seen her. I cannot even believe that. I've been in Germany just over a month. I'm pretty much acclimated. There's certain things I'm realizing I like better in German, phrases and such. Garnichts is better than nothing. Nicht in dein Nase boren is better than don't pick your nose. But shower is better than Dusche. I figured out you can get baking soda (I think) from the pharmacy. I'll have to check that one out before I have mom send me some.

I started working out this week. I went for a run Monday and Wednesday and did a few exercises while the girls played in the backyard yesterday (crunches, etc). I'm going to do some yoga either today or tomorrow. I was going to just run but I've realized that I hate running and it's boring. So my goal is to work out three times a week with at least one of those being a run. I think that sounds reasonable. And the yoga program that I used to do I just found two episodes of online so I'm super excited about that. It's tough and it's an hour long but it's so worth it. Great music, very inspiring, etc. I'm definitely going to do that soon. I also need to go and get some stationary supplies today (permanent markers, big envelopes, stamps-but that'll probably wait until Monday).

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Of course I closed my laptop and walked away so now I'm back. I've got the supplies I needed, got the mail in the envelopes, and got some fun markers. :) Of course while buying my envelopes, the woman asked if I needed a "Briefmarke" and I could not remember the freaking word! She pointed to the corner of the envelope and I realized "Uh duh. Stamp!" Then I explained I didn't know how heavy they'd be and she smiled like "Okay you're not a total idiot who doesn't speak any German." She had awesome pink hair. :) Then I went to the discount textile shop and bought a few little things. I tried to buy two longer sleeved shirts but for once left my change at home so I was a bit short. I managed to get one of them though. :) Then I bought a white mug at the euro store that I'm about to change into a super cool awesome personalized Doctor Who mug for a total cost of two euros and fifty-nine cents. :)

See y'all next time with a picture of my mug. Because mugs are cool.