List of things we no longer have:

• Beds
• Wardrobe (which means closets for the Americans reading this, because apartments usually don’t have closets)
• Winter jackets (already packed somewhere, perhaps prematurely as it is still winter here apparently)
• T.V.
• Lots of furniture

List of things we still have:

• A very uncomfortable and way too small couch
• A still-sold car (YAY!) for 500 euros more than we originally asked, even with a bad clutch (which has also been disclosed)
• New bite-free hoses in car
• Lots of love (which is very important when sleeping on the couch mentioned above)

I took the car in to the garage this morning and had it checked before we try to sell it. A few things have my head spinning.
1) Some kind of an animal has been munching on my hoses. There are small bite marks in them all that need to be replaced.
2) The clutch is bad. $$$$$.
3) The car is actually worth a lot more than we were planning on selling it for. Which is good, but I already have a buyer at a lower price. So now it’s back to wheeling and dealing, which I hate.

Here’s a sad fact: the guest beds are gone, less than 24 hours after my mom’s body left them for the last time.

And even sadder? The beds are gone and my mom hasn’t even made it home yet! Because of a freak Denver spring snowstorm, she got stuck at the airport and has to spend the night there. They are sending her to Chicago tomorrow and then to Iowa. POOR MOM! She is probably miserable. 36 hours of travel - I hope I was worth it.

I’m taking mom to the airport in a couple of hours, which means about 22 hours from now she’ll be home. She has a tough schedule today, flying nonstop from Frankfurt to Denver and then BACK from Denver to Iowa (after four hours in Colorado). It’s been a great visit, and I don’t think I’ve worked her TOO hard. At least I hope not.

Tomorrow we have someone coming to take her bed away, and the t.v., and a number of other items. As of now, most of the “big” things in our house have sold and if they haven’t, I’m not too worried about it yet. We’re making progress. Can’t believe three weeks from today will be my last day at the office!

Today is the last day of mom’s visit, which means not only am I losing my best cleaning lady, I am also losing my part-time writer on the blog. Oh yeah, and the fact that MY MOM IS LEAVING! Life is tough.

We are deep in the process of selling all of our stuff, which is moving along about as well as can be expected. It’s really depressing when you think about the fact that we paid nearly 20,000 USD (including the car) for all of this stuff two years ago and now we’re not even close to pulling in half of that. Note: not a good investment. Oh well, who cares if I can’t retire until I’m 80 because of two years of living abroad? It was still the experience of a lifetime.

Hey, it’s Mom again. The Hess’ treated me to a wonderful Easter weekend. Erin had Friday and Monday off for Easter, German style, so she planned adventures for me. She and I left for Amsterdam on the train early Friday morning. Travis was on the US work schedule, so he was to join us later. The really amazing thing about Amsterdam is the bicycles. Rick Steves says that 40% of the traffic is bike traffic. There are bike lanes all over and it is hard to stay out of their way as they whiz around fearlessly. I say, fearlessly, because no one wears a helmet and it seems that everyone is supposed to look out for them. By the train station, they have a multilevel parking garage just for bicycles. Amsterdam has more canals than Venice. We bought a canal boat ticket and had nice, relaxing, and informative trips around the city via the boat on the canals. (This is where I (ERIN) needs to chime in - Mom says it was relaxing only because she fell asleep! I knew I worked her too hard…) Erin took me to the Van Gogh museum. It had over 200 original works of art by Van Gogh. We used the audio tour to inform and entertain us. Van Gogh had written many letters and those were interjected throughout the tour, as if he was talking to us. Very impressive! The next morning we went to the Anne Frank House. To see their hiding place was very interesting. We bought The Diary of Anne Frank at the gift shop and it is fun to reread it once you have actually been in the space.

On Saturday we headed back to the train to go to Brugges. Erin had not been there before, so we were both excited to see this fascinating city. As always, Erin knew how to figure out the bus schedules or ask the right questions and we got to our hotel with no trouble. The thing that really amazed me was that Travis was coming in later on the train. They had no phone contact. Erin decided to go back to the train station to meet him and help him to the hotel. I had just been at this very busy train station with thousands of people so I was a bit skeptical. I got to stay at the hotel as a back up and if Erin missed him, she would just return and we would all be reunited. Anyway, Erin found Travis, who had no idea she was there. They have to have some sort of magnetic attraction.  I have some Christmas bears at home who grab and kiss magnetically, and I think they have the same kind of thing going for them.

I’ll just highlight some of the Brugge events. It was a very entertaining place. It also has canals and bicycles, though fewer of both. It has lots more chocolate, though. Erin thought it might be fun to buy a piece or two at every chocolate shop we saw. There were hundreds of chocolate shops, with all shapes and sizes and flavors. The smell, itself, was intoxicating. We managed several shops and some wonderful treats, but soon gave up on Erin’s idea. I had insisted on going to Easter mass, so E and T found the church, The Church of our Lady. I had to smile when our hotel receptionist interpreted it as The Church of the Madame- just didn’t sound quite right. This church has an actual Michelangelo sculpture in it. We went for the 11:00 mass and it was beautiful. There was a little English, every now and then, and a little Latin and lots of Alleuias for the Risen Christ. We understood none of the Dutch homily, but the priest used really great expressions. It was special for me and extra special that Erin and Travis agreed to go with me. The church seemed very welcoming, we were given a special card and note at the offertory and a yummy chocolate egg as we left.

Our hotel was awesome! It was our first to have a swimming pool and a coffee pot. The coffee pot was a hot pot with instant coffee, but I was thrilled to be able to make and drink as much as I wanted. Do you know they don’t give refills on coffee around here? And you get about a half of a tiny cup the first time?

Oh, back to Brugges. We had a boat ride there on the canal, climbed over 350 steps to go up in the bell tower, had a Belgian waffle on a stick, dredged with chocolate, and famous Belgian French fries (who knew that was a famous Belgian specialty?) Oh, and I almost forgot, The Beatles had a live concert when we were there. We spent too long eating supper and only heard the end, but it was pretty darn exciting. All in all it was a marvelous Easter weekend, one I will never forget!

I did offer her the chance to leave the house today, I SWEAR.

Yes, it was after I asked her to scrub the floorboards, make dinner, and do laundry. (What? She asked for chores!!) And then I felt guilty so asked if she wanted a ride to town so she could wander around and she turned me down. I’ve got her locked up, working! What a bad, bad daughter I am.

But tomorrow I take her to Amsterdam and Bruges, so I guess she’ll earn her freedom.

In case you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from mom lately, we’ve put her to work. Not just any work, hard, forced slave labor, nearly.

Yesterday she baked cookies and cleaned our upholstery. Today she’s scrubbing the balconies and washing windows. The day before, we demanded a home-cooked dinner. I am a harsh master.

We also packed our first box yesterday, which was somewhat monumental. I am going to try to do a box a day and see how that goes.

We heard word that dad not only made it back home but was also upgraded to business class. BUSINESS! In the THOUSANDS of miles we’ve flown across the ocean, never once have we been upgraded to business on a transatlantic flight.

I’ve been really lazy over the last few weeks by letting my mom be the writer, but now I guess it’s time to get back to work! We’ve had a great time and done a lot, but now dad is off at the airport (hopefully getting ready to board a plane any minute) and mom is off wandering around Neu Isenberg (hopefully not getting lost). The next few days will be ripe with picture taking (to sell off our furniture - again, hopefully), cleaning, and maybe some cookie baking thrown in there.

It’s hard to believe that we have a little over four weeks to go and we have so much to do in this time that I can’t help but break out into sweats when I start thinking about the logistics of it all.

I’m not sure if it was the canned pumpkin leftover from a US trip or just a desire to celebrate, but Erin declared the fourth Friday in March Thanksgiving. We got a turkey and potatoes, red cabbage, and something that Jim thought might be sweet potatoes. We couldn’t find cranberries, but strawberries were plentiful and the right color, so we substituted. I made the pie and the gravy and the sweet potatoes that weren’t (maybe yams… maybe ?). Erin and Travis handled everything else. They invited some German friends. Tom Turkey was in roasting when one of the friends, Sherry, called and told us that she was a vegetarian. We laughed and carried on. It didn’t take, Sherry, the vegetarian, long to break down and enjoy Tom along with the rest of us. Sherry was young and funny and was showing off her full Tom tummy afterward. Both Sherry and Jenny seemed to enjoy and we enjoyed their German stories, as well as the great meal. Thanksgiving was a rousing success and we were very thankful to be here enjoying this fine holiday in March.