Like sand through the hourglass...

Except unlike soaps, I only remember to update quarterly or so, and try not to bore you with every minute detail.
The Mikayla/Alex deal is ongoing, though at least I don't hear about it daily. I have witnessed hugs on more than one occasion, though, as well as the giving of candy after school.
Both kids are doing great in school, though. Some of Aaric's ADD genes are showing up, but we're on top of it. Mikayla is reading. She was reading before any of us even knew she could. Aaric gets books in his folder every afternoon to read, and Mikayla would steal them and sneak off to read. Then we couldn't find the books and hysteria would ensue. Then I started paying attention and realized she was reading them aloud. Well, I figured she was just reciting, because she's always had a knack for reciting books after hearing them once. But then I started pointing words out randomly, and sure enough, she was reading. The books were above her level, so she took forever to sound them out, so I let her teacher know about all this, and she started sending home K level books for her to read.

The whole family was illness-free for all of Sept and Oct, then in early Nov Mikayla started coughing. It all went downhill from there, and everyone has been sick this month. Xander is currently the worst, with cough and crusty eyes.

Xander, by the way, is past walking and on to running and climbing. He climbs into my dining room chairs and shakes the backs. These chairs have been with us for 7.5 yrs and 87 moves, so they're not in the best condition, so this concerns me a bit. I'm just waiting to hear one crash to the floor. Pushing them in does no good, he can pull them out. Or climb in with them pushed in, and then scream because he's stuck.
He's also the cutest thing known to man.
And as a preschooler, he'll most likely know as much German as English.
(Like that segue?)
Yep, we're moving to Germany! We'll be moving in about a year, a year that will be filled with organizing and decluttering and throwing away and giving away and selling and figuring out what to store and what to take and so forth. It will be pretty busy. Michael, of course, will be away at various schools for most of the year. He's home for the next 3.5 weeks, then he'll be home for 6 weeks in the spring, and that's it. I'll most likely be out of this house completely by the time he's done next fall, so after that 6 weeks, he won't be back. He'll sign out of Bragg in the spring. THIS will be our lovely new home. It appears to be a gorgeous city.
If you know me at all, you know I can't resist the pre-planning, even long before it's logical. So of course, I can tell you all about the rental houses currently available, how much they cost and what the floor plan is like, and what small neighboring town I'm strongly leaning towards. (Also quite lovely and home to a big honkin palace and just 10 minutes from the base)
Today I'll be visiting the Relocation office here to get all the official lowdown and find out what all I can start on from the technical side of it. As in, can we go ahead and get the ball rolling on our passports?
Our brains are seriously in overdrive. The whirlwind has slowed considerably in the past week since we found out. I swear, we both spent the first 48 hours within a foot of the computers, googling our little hearts out. We're the proud owners of 1 German language CD, and 2 downloaded (legally! from the library!) German learning programs, and we've got one other CD program checked out from the library. Our goal is for all of us to be able to carry on a semi-decent conversation upon our arrival.
We're uber-excited.

Of course, the one big drawback is that we're just not going to be able to travel home while we're there. Plane tickets for 5 (6 eventually) cost quite a pretty penny. And really, to be honest, I think if we're going to spend 3 of our 80 years of life in Germany, we should make the most of them. So we'll be staying put in Europe. Plus, it's a 9 hour flight. Nine hours. On a plane. With 3 kids. I've taken long flights before. South Africa was a doozy. I've traveled with kids before. I've even flown with 3 kids before! (Mikayla at 6 mo, Aaric at 2.5, and my niece at 3.5) And let me tell you, THAT was a whole new brand of fun. Okay, it honestly wasn't that bad. But nine hours with 3 kids on a plane? That's what I'm looking forward to the least. That and going through airports with 3 kids and luggage for 5 and 1 carseat. Fun, fun.

So let the shopping begin. I'm now on the lookout for inexpensive but good quality luggage (most of ours is falling apart and suitable for putting into the van but could easily fall apart when being tossed around the tarmac by airline employees), and winter clothes (it's snowing in Bamberg today! with a high of 1C!) and gadgets to keep the kids entertained for 9 hours on a plane (DVD player, leapster, valium... okay, kidding on the valium). I'll be all over the after-Christmas clearances this year!