FourHandsFull: November 2008

Last month was a hard one for us. Lincoln was on OB call every 3rd night (30hr shifts), still had to do his clinic stuff and somehow had to catch up on sleep. We saw him rarely, but visited him as much as we could in the hospital.
We also had some bills we had "forgotten" about and needed to somehow come up with the money, which is so hard on a tight budget. We ended up selling a bunch of stuff and are fine now. I hate feeling stressed out by financial burdens. This has not been the first time of course. Budgeting came to a whole new level when we moved to the big city. Everything is more expensive-which we somewhat knew before, but it's different in reality. (At least gas has gotten down to 1/3 of the price, which saves us a whopping $90 per month).Rent is the biggest burden, but we're still glad we live where we live, b/c it's so close to work for Lincoln and we feel safe here. Lincoln was able to use his bike all summer (and most of fall) long. The parks close are so nice and we love our church ward. And thank goodness it's only for one year! I hate financial burdens (who doesn't) and they take a big toll on me. Our next city is almost as cheap as rural Missouri. AND, the car insurance is paid off! They will leave us alone for a year now! :)
I've definitely learned one thing from being on a tight budget- only buy what you NEED. There are always a lot of WANTS, but lately those have needed to be sacrificed.

That said I was so happy for a few surprises this last month.

1.) Lincoln's mom showed up one Saturday with a trunk full of groceries for us. I knew she was going to get something for us from Costco, but that something ended up a month worth of freezer groceries and all kinds of yummy fruit and other healthy things. It took my breath away. THANK YOU SO MUCH, SUZANNE!

2.) With the weather getting more and more inclement, it was difficult for Lincoln to ride in the rain, but we worried more about the soon to be coming snow season. His parents kept having the feeling that their son wouldn't be safe getting up and down the hill, so they wanted to see how they'd do with only one car and lend their humongous Tahoe to us. I drove that thing once, never, ever again. I felt like I'm stearing a locomotive. Anyway, it turned out to be just the right time, because from then on, it kept raining. THANK YOU SO MUCH, GREG!

3.) Luca has been taking violin lesson for a few months now. Well, Leea started out but she got "stuck" and thus got frustrated and Luca just took over her lessons. We still practice with Leea, but she's so stubborn, we really have to be careful to always make practicing fun for her. We don't want her to lose interest in it by being forced into it. Luca had practiced with Leea and showed an interest in playing the violin, so we thought:"Why not?" When you're ready it's never too early to start. (We asked Leea ns she seemed to be interested at first) His teacher goes to the same church ward as we and is such a nice person to be around. Her sons are friends with Luca and her little daughter is friends with Ava and Noa. After the lesson it's so hard to get home, since we always have such good conversations, plus the boys want to play together. Her husband has been gone for a few months, starting a new job far away and getting is trained for it right now. I feel for her, since I know how hard it is and how talking to adults is so important.

Anyway, she lend us her cute mini violin, while we were searching for a good priced one. One time another friend, whose two kids are also taking violin lessons from her, made us an offer for a violin that they weren't using. Actually they had bought one, couldn't get it for a few weeks, ordered another one and then both of them arrived at the same time. They weren't able to return one of them, didn't want to go through the hassle of reselling it and offered Luca a violin scholarship. For every day Luca practices, he can earn himself a dollar towards the new $250 violin. We made a little chart with the first $25 on it and for every practice time he puts a sticker on for one dollar. After the chart is full he's supposed to report to our friends and show it to them. I'm so thrilled about this. First it was so hard to accept, but then I thought:"Well, they offered it, so it is o.k., otherwise they wouldn't have done it." I'm excited for Luca to earn himself a violin. I think it'll teach him a great lesson and that he can never take things for granted. It takes real work to earn oneself something special. He does so well playing his violin. Once we have another external hard drive, I'll post a little movie. THANK YOU SO MUCH, JOHN & NIKKEI!

4.) My good friend Katrin called and we had a wonderful time catching up. I lived with her family (husband and a little boy back then) for some time as a nanny, after I finished high school in Germany. She's German, which I especially liked. Before I lived with them, I had never been to the States and she helped me transition a lot better than I ever thought I would. When I'd feel home sick, she'd pull out some German chocolate (she always has stashes of good chocolate hidden somewhere) and we would just talk. Ah, I love to think about those times.
I think it was all "planned" that I was supposed to live with them. i did not only get to know their wonderful little family and learned so much from them, but also met my future husband. I first was given a family with 3 girls in KY, but they had to decline, as they needed an AuPair sooner last minute. So I ended up in Pittsburgh and met Lincoln in church a couple months later. It was a wonderful time. My host family was the best host family ANYBODY had, in my opinion. So many people complained about their families and how much work they had to do. I got along with my family so well, enjoyed living with them and just adored their little boy Kieto, who was 2 1/2 at that point. Katrin and her family have done so much for me/us. They have been so generous many times, including buying my wedding dress, that I feel so enormously blessed. Not to mention the life lessons I learned while living with them, especially getting to know residency life, as Katrin was a first year resident, when I first lived with them. By no means I felt as worn out then as I feel now, (actually I don't know if I ever felt worn out, as I didn't have any parent responsibilities) but I knew what to expect. Katrin has been such a trooper, I really admire her.

Anyway, after we had talked, Katrin said she would send another package. Katrin's packages are some of the most awesome packages you can receive. Hers are always stuffed with wonderful (European) clothes from her kids, German books, CD's and chocolate, and other fun stuff. When it arrived we were totally blown away by the wonderful things she send. THANK YOU SO MUCH, KATRIN!

5.) Right before "Nikolaus-Day", December 6th, I found a yellow package on our front steps. Yellow "packset" package means it MUST be from Germany. I was totally surprised that it came from my wonderful childhood friend Ulla. It had little gifts and a couple German books for the kids, German MILKA chocolate, a chocolate advent calendar and Euro money for Lincoln's graduation in it. Now, Ulla has ALWAYS been one of my favorite people in the world. She moved right next to us when I must have been around 8 or so. I really don't remember. She and her husband didn't have kids yet and it seemed like we were over there every other day. She seemed to have endless time for my brother Matthias and me. We played games, made cookies with the all time favorite Bosch mixer, and just had fun together. She's such a wonderful mom now, which doesn't surprise me at all. Her boys are in their teens now, and they have a wonderful relationship together. You probably don't know this yet Ulla, but when you became a nanny, we were super sad and a little jealous that we couldn't spend as much time with you anymore. And then of course you had to move away. Ulla also made our wedding cake in Germany and has always been so generous! Even though we don't see us much at all anymore, I think about you often and cherish the time we spend together when we go to Germany.

We were so happy to find an advents calender in the package. Usually I wrap little presents for the kids. This year it would have been 96 little packages, but I didn't have enough time or energy. They didn't seem to mind. Each one gets to open a little window with chocolate every fourth day until Christmas. Next year we'll continue the our tradition of having a calender for each kid. THANK YOU SO MUCH, ULLA!