Tuesday, December 21

This morning I got up, dressed, got the girls up and out the door, drank my tea, and said goodbye to Mark and Nancy. I opted to stay at the house because I had my own things to get done. 

This morning the internet wasn’t working, so I went to Mark’s computer to try to get online and that wasn’t working either, so I looked at the wireless modem and didn’t know what to do so I just made sure everything was plugged in right. I guess that did the trick because it started working again.

I listened to music as I hung the laundry up to dry and figured out how to start the dryer. Not sure what I did, but it started working. J I ironed clothes for a few hours and then worked on the computer for a while. I heard the weather in London right now is pretty bad. All the airports are closed. Germany roads are pretty bad, but I think worse weather is on the way: rain followed by cold temperatures.

Stacey had a two hour delay so we were able to skype for close to an hour and a half! 

I had just enough time to finish my journals and post them on my blog (a huge accomplishment in such a small amount of time) before the girls arrived home from school. Unfortunately, Mark and Nancy had taken both sets of house keys with them, so I couldn’t unlock the gate to open the front door for the girls. I was able to reach through the gate to open the front door so Helena could help me find the keys, but they were gone. We got ahold of Mark who told me how to open the side door. I felt like I was in a prison, looking out the gate at the girls trying to figure out how to open it. It was hilarious.

We played a game similar to Scattegories. We took turns picking a letter of the alphabet and had to think of a word starting with that letter for every category (country, name, animal, plants, food). We did it in German, so I had to use the dictionary for help. The problem was that the words I thought of in my head started with a different letter in German. It was interesting. Helena won, but only by 5 points.

Helena played solitaire on my computer, while Gloria worked on some school work and I worked on labeling body parts in German (leg, head, arm, feet, tongue, etc).

When Mark and Nancy got home, they set to work on dinner, making homemade Schnitzel. I’ve never seen anyone beat meat like Mark did. He cut the pork into thick slices, then took a special hammer and hammered the pork into flat pieces of meat. He floured the meat, dipped it into an egg and milk mixture, then covered it with corn meal powder before frying it in oil and butter. I helped make the rice. Dinner was wonderful! After dinner, the girls got goofy and put peas in the front of their mouth so Nancy could squish them against their teeth. It was hilarious!

I helped Gloria memorize a “phrase” (it’s actually a poem) for school. I read the poem and she laughed uncontrollably as my pronunciation. It’s so hard to pronounce words accurately, but I’m trying! I finally kicked her out the room so she wouldn’t laugh while I read it for Helena, but she laughed too. J Gloria also had to practice a short exercise dance to music. She thought it was funny when I got up and did it with her. Eventually the whole family was in my room. I was saved from having to read the poem again in front of the whole family. It's one thing to do it for the girls, but totally different in front of Mark and Nancy!