Don't Blink!

One winter down, one more to go.

The start of this Spring season marks the beginning of our last year in Germany!  And I can already tell that this year is going to whiz by... so I'm taking a deep breath and already starting to chant this year's motto:  Don't blink or you might miss it!

As our time in Germany winds down and "the next step" looms on the horizon, I'm going to start to get really annoying. I'll try my best not to be too obnoxious.  But I'm sure that half my blog posts will be gushing with the things I love and will miss about Germany.  The other half I'll be whining/counting down till we're back in the good old USA.

Oh, and I'll probably have a sprinkling of whining about the stress and fears associated with another PCS.  Uprooting and starting again who-knows-where is scary.  It's a big part of our life and totally normal/fun/exciting... but still scary.

When Julia Child and her husband were moving from Paris to Marseilles, he told her, "Honestly, I groan when I think of starting over in a new place... no wonder newborn babies cry so much.  If variety is the spice of life, then my life must be one of the spiciest you ever heard of.  A curry of a life."  

Amen Paul, I feel the same way!

Our first trip to the Japanese Garden last week was just gorgeous.

But I stopped short as I watched my girls run and play together... I remember a conversation Jesse and I had on the first plane ride over here, with both our babies (3 and 16 months old at the time) sleeping in the car seats next to us. We talked about how funny it was to think of them being 3 and 4 years old when we moved back.

THEY WILL BE 3 and 4 THIS WINTER!!!  

When we moved into this house Lily could barely walk and Lilo would scold me for walking down the stairs to the car with a baby on each hip.  Life is so different now!

We have a lot of friends and family visiting us this year.  I'm excited for that in many ways, but specifically because I know it will help prevent the extreme homesickness from setting in!

And it will keep the excitement level high!  It's hard to whine about the "hard parts" about life in another country when you're busy whisking your sister around to all your favorite local spots... bakeries, stores, gardens and parks, restaurants... there's just so much fun to be had!

We have a lot of trips to check off of our bucket list, too.  To say we'll be busy this Spring/Summer/Fall is a crazy understatement!

So I'm trying to pump myself up to stay fully present in each moment... each drive in this beautiful area (even to the grocery store!), each trip we take, each moment shared with friends, each visitor that comes to enjoy our little corner of Germany with us.

I love our life here.  And having a countdown clock running in the back of your mind really helps keep you aware that, despite the difficulties of being half a world away from your family and not speaking the language of your host nation... it really is amazing to live in Germany!  

One more year...