Catching Up

So there is something about 11 posts... I can never seem to get past it. In all the blogs I have ever had 11 is the death of them. So sorry about the delay on my last week's report.

So Wednesday and Thursday were nothing special. Except that on Tuesday night Nico's bike got a flat tire on the way home from Finni's gym class. I didn't realize what was wrong with the bike until we got home because we both had to walk our bikes the rest of the way. So on Wednesday and Thursday we were on foot. Patrick wasn't able to fix the tire until Thursday night so for the 2 days the I had to pick up the boys from school and take them to their activities via the train and walking. Finni was not happy with the situation because he is never a fan of walking. Thursday evening Nico had a playdate at a friend's house and Patrick was home on Thursday because he had night duty on Wednesday so he had the next day off. He ended up going to pick up Finni from music on Thursday and also getting the Trio bike from the shop. Thursday night Koko had meetings and so she wasn't home until late and Patrick worked on the bike tire.

Friday Koko went to London for the day for some meetings. I was in charge of the morning routine. Patrick had said that Nico's bike tire was fixed so we didn't have to take the train and walk to school. So in the morning Nico got on his bike and I was pulling the buggy. We got across the second set of tracks and Nico started saying that he couldn't ride his bike anymore. He hadn't wanted to ride in the first place that day so we had a talk about how it was a good thing to ride to school in the mornings and such... well then he showed me the front tire of his bike and explained to me that it was flat again. So we rushed home and I put the boys in the Trio bike... the bike was locked and I couldn't figure out how to release the brake so we had to rush to the train and take the train to Nico's stop and walk the rest of the way and then Finni and I had to hurry back to the train to go to his school. Finni was such a trooper... he walked the entire way! I was so proud of him for not being upset about it. As soon as I dropped of Finni at school it was time for me to get Nico and drop off his backpack at home and pick up the violins. We took the violins on the train to get Finni. Luckily Linze had e-mailed me the instructions on how to get to the boys' violin group via the train and bus. We went straight from picking up Finni to violin group and made it on time in fact we were a little early. (While we waited I got my toes smashed by a big wooden bench that fell over and my big toe now has a major bruise but that is beside the point.) We came back home after violin and Patrick got home soon after.

Saturday was a wonderful day. I got to sleep in and work on my stocking and watch a movie. I came downstairs and hung out with the family for a while and Koko asked if I had any plans for the day. I told her that I was going to go into Bonn and pick up a few things and explore a little on my own. She said that was great and was glad that I was not afraid to get out on my own. She said that the family was actually heading that way soon and I could ride my bike with them so we could all ride and chat together. Bonn is not really so far but it took about 20 minutes biking. They dropped me off right next to the Haupbahnhof and pointed me in the right direction of the pedestrian area. I spent about 3.5 hours just wandering around in stores and got a Rindwurst at a stand. It was so much fun. I headed back to where I had locked up my bike and decided to take the train back home... I had no problem navigating the station even with my bike. I was very happy with my first adventure into Bonn. I skyped with Natalie Saturday night for about 2 hours... I hadn't talked to her all week and had so much fun catching up!

Sunday was interesting. My alarm failed to go off again... I am still figuring out my phone alarm. The boys were being loud downstairs which woke me up thankfully. So I hurried and got ready and came downstairs. Patrick and Koko were getting the boys ready and explained that it was ward conference this week so church wasn't going to be until 10 instead of 9:30. But Koko was going to take the Trio bike if I wanted to take the train I should start heading out. So I went over to the stop but I had missed the early train which was going to be fine. I caught the next one to the Haupbahnhof and found my bus. When I was on the bus I knew that it was supposed to take about 20 mins and I knew the name of the stop I was supposed to get off at. Well there are sometimes when I really hate the German language because I heard the system announce my stop... I got off and by the time I looked around and realized it wasn't my stop the bus was already gone. And since it was a Sunday the bus only came every hour. So I looked at the route and saw that I was 12 stops early... so I started walking. It took about an hour but I finally made it to church and was only a half an hour late. I couldn't see Koko or the boys in the congregation so I sat in the back while listening to the translation headset. After the service was over I found Patrick who asked me where his family was... I had no idea and hoped they were at home. I also got to talk with Dana and we made plans for later in the week. I met Jackie who is in charge of YSA and she said we will have activities in a few months once she gets back from her internship. I headed to the train and got to talk with Yves who was on the same train with me. When I got home Koko and the boys were eating lunch... Koko hadn't felt so good and had decided to stay home. The rest of the evening was really relaxed. Koko, Patrick and I had our parents meeting to plan the week. I talked to Natalie for a few minutes and called Mom and Dad to wish them a Happy Anniversary.

Yesterday I had German class and it is going really well. The teacher is nice and the other ladies in the class have taken me under their wing. I get to sit next to Coreen who is from my ward and there is another lady named Mary Ann who is really nice as well. The teacher understands more now why I give her a look of confusion and fear whenever she talks to me in German... she hadn't realized that I have only been in Germany for 2 weeks. The teacher says everything in German then explains in English and repeats it in German again for us. After class I stopped at the post office and headed into Bad Godesberg since Monday is the day that Nico gets out of school late I had some time to kill. I stopped at a convenience store to get some survival snacks for the week. I got the boys from school as usual and then we played together before heading to Nico's gym class. When we got home the cleaning lady was here and I was about to start cooking when Patrick got home with tons of groceries and took over. I skyped with my mom in the evening for the first time in days because the computer at home has been on the fritz. I filled her in on my week and she told me about how the kitchen remodel is going. We also discussed what I can do in my freetime because I don't want to get my counter cross stitch dirty but can't buy any books since they wouldn't be able to make it home. Our solution is looking into a Kindle... so I have been doing some research on that last night and this morning.

I will hopefully be better about writing... Things just got a little busy last week and I was exhausted in the evening when I usually update my blog. So hopefully a report on today will be coming tonight!