A Novel About Nothing

*warning: this will be the longest post about nothing truly interesting you've ever read*

This week has been incredibly unproductive. Actually, probably the last two. Peyton has been sick. He has croup, which basically makes him sound like a baby seal every time he tries to breathe "too hard". An adorable baby seal, though. He's also cutting two teeth (that I know of), and oh yeah...he's turning TWO this month. So yes, I've spent my days running around after him, resetting the things he touches, diffusing his tantrums and wiping snotty noses. I've managed to leave the house a handful of times (including once alone!) but for the most part, we've been holed up here. Therefore, friends, there isn't much to talk about except the mundane. And since you clicked and read this far, it's too late for you to turn back now!

Breathing treatment...He actually kind of liked it. Weirdo.

                                               

A few weeks ago I had a situation with Peyton that made me question overall safety of our house. As a mom, that's not good. As a compulsive worrier, that's devastating. It was early in the week a few weeks ago, and I wasn't feeling well. I could also tell that Peyton was getting sick. I slept in, which was amazing, but he was sleeping in, which is very unusual for him since he likes to be up at the crack of dawn. At about 8:45, I poked my head in to check on him, only to find the room STUNK. Not in a funky way, in a chemical type way. It was horrible. But as I got my vision to focus, I noticed it was pretty foggy too. I quickly pulled him out of his bed and into fresh air, then proceeded to check the house for a fire. I seriously thought my house was going to burn down! Turns out it was the table fan in his room. It had stopped working at some point in the night, but the motor continued to burn. Luckily all was okay after a few days of airing the room out, but very scary. 

Do you ever think about the factors that led you to do something or make a decision? The reason I poked my head in instead of just using the baby monitor like usual is because the monitor all of a sudden didn't work. It is saying it's out of range when it's not. Who knows what would've happened if it was still working! Maybe I would have let him sleep a little longer. I shudder to think about it. Long story short(ish?): we clearly have an electrical issue in our house causing multiple things to burn up, blow fuses, stop working and flicker. Also, why the heck do we not have smoke detectors?! Two things that will be getting remedied in the very near future. 

On a brighter note, the girls have begun their basketball cheer season. We have four games under our belts, and the squad is looking pretty awesome. I decided I would help out this season as assistant coach. Even though my only cheer knowledge comes from one season of youth cheer and Bring It On. Would you believe they didn't know what spirit fingers were?!! I feel like I'm really learning a lot, and coaching may be something that I continue to do. I love kids, so it just kind of works.

K&J teach Peyton the basics of stunting. Khloe spots.                                 

Yesterday was one of the few nice days we've had here in a while. Apparently there is no set rainy season--it's all rainy season. I tell people that we basically live in Washington State or Florida, where it rains at least some small portion of every day. Since it's winter, I'm guessing more like Washington than Florida right now. It's not so bad-most days we really don't even notice the rain. But the sky (which I'm obsessed with) isn't quite as pretty in the gloom. So, yesterday it did rain, but it cleared up quite nicely mid afternoon. Once I saw the sun pop out, I slapped some boots and a coat on the boy and dragged him out to 'our' fields. I realized that his attitude and behavior vastly improved once he was able to run out some of that energy. He's just a boy, and sometimes I forget how different he will be from the girls. Trucks, trains, destruction, dirt, and songs about bodily functions. Got it. (The song really is quite catchy)

"mommy-take a picture. I touch wadder"

In addition to the germs and wonky electrical, we managed to make some fun. We had a Super Bowl pre game party with the kids. They were really missing Virginia and the usual Super Bowl/birthday get together we usually have with our family. So, we tried to make it fun. We had some appetizers like faux-Moe's Queso Blanco and chips. We tried to make it like normal, but since Hooter's wings are in short supply here, we had to make due with some store bought stuff. Not the same, but still tastes like chicken! We also made some chocolate dipped pretzel sticks-yum! Too bad the kids couldn't actually stay up for ANY of the game since it started after midnight our time. I barely stayed awake myself! I did manage to catch Bruno's show, and football Peyton's (as we call him in this house) loss.

Like I said before, I was able to get out of the house all by myself recently. Josh's coworkers have a "guys' night" and "ladies' night" every few weeks, and they are nice enough to invite me along for ladies' night. I've spent more time with his coworkers here in 10 months than I did in the few years he worked at the old office! It really is like a big family when you move overseas. Well, for this ladies' night, they decided on Croatian food. My taste buds are sooo unsophisticated, so every time I go out with them, I look up the menu beforehand. Just to scope out something "safe" to eat. This time I did look at the menu ahead of time, but I decided I needed to branch out of my comfort zone. I ended up ordering a mixed grill platter which came with pretty much every meat you could think of, including lamb, which was new to me. I tried it. That's all I can really say. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad. It was just kind of blah. And of course I ate it at the end of my meal, so I had already consumed half my body weight in meat products! The restaurant we went to was fantastic--so hip and kind of modern, right in the square of Mainz. I could see the Cathedral right outside my floor length window I sat next to. It was too rainy (of course) to take a picture of my view, but I managed to snap one when we left. Just gorgeous.


And then I did cartwheels through the square. Steer clear of blue drinks, they sneak up on you!