Bright Side

I know it has been a while since I posted but in honor of "Look on the Bright Side" Day, you should be happy I am posting now! :) Anyhow, I am officially on my winter vacation from school and I am reminded of one of the reasons I love teaching- breaks. Do not underestimate the love your teachers have for your kids because we anticipate these breaks. But in case you are unaware, teaching those rugrats can get exhausting and we need that little break to recharge our batteries and go restock on patience! :)

This how I have spent the past few days of my break. Saturday morning Jon, Doug (our friend), and I drove about an hour and a half to pick up our new addition to the family, Trooper. Doug insisted on calling him money since our other furry boy is Cash! So silly! Anyhow, on the way there I desperately needed to stop at a restroom. I am not sure if you remember me mentioning way back when we first got there that you have to pay to use the restroom sometimes here in Germany! Believe me- I find it just as ridiculous as you do that you should be charged for something you have to naturally do. Anyway, so here is my story. We pulled into a place after being on the lookout for one for a good thirty minutes so I was not the most delightful person. I jumped out of the car as soon as we parked ans discovered the bathrooms were around the other side so I start a light jog- so as not to look like a complete idiot. So I finally see the door with those blessed little figures on them showing restrooms and go through the door. I am immediately met with one of those metal turn things you have to go through when entering the subway, a baseball game, or six flags. This was not your everyday-you-pay-bathroom. Normally, when they want you to pay, they put a bathroom attendant there to give you a cold deathly stare if you do not put 20 euro cents in the bowl. NO- you had to insert your money in this machine in order to get to go through the little turn in order to even get into the restroom! I wish now that I had taken a picture of this to show you how ridiculous! So I am forced to do a slightly more idiotic jog back to the car to beg for euro change, and not 20 cents- 70 euro cents!! That is basically equivalent to our dollar! We had nothing!! SO my sweet friend Doug had to go in the little shop, buy a sandwich and get me change so I could go to the bathroom. I, totally idiotic jogging by this point, return to the darn bathroom and put my euro in and it spits out a ticket!! Like seriously!! What am I going to do with a ticket saying I had to pay to go to the bathroom!!! UGH! So yea by the end of the whole ordeal I was quite ill but relieved at the same time. So next time you have to make a bathroom stop and want to complain about the bathroom- remember this story and think, "I am glad I didn't have to pay!"

OK, so back to our new addition. We brought Trooper home and Cash wanted nothing to do with him at first but they are wrestling, playing, and getting along quite nice now. Sunday evening I hosted a cookie swap party. Some of the girls I invited were unable to make it but we still had a lovely time with those who did. We laughed, cut up, and just had a plain old good time- plus got yummy cookies. I will put up the recipe for the cookies I made later because I have to admit- they were pretty darn good! Other than that we have been switching off between relaxing and cleaning!

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning and into Tuesday afternoon we had our first snowfall of the winter. Sadly Jon didn't get home before nightfall to play in it with me and the dogs. Most of it has turned to ice by now and is already surrendering to the grass below. It was still nice to finally get the first one!