Frühlingserwachen - spring finally seems to have arrived in Germany and Austria...

[LinzerTorte]

... or at least I hope so.

For everyone in Germany and Austria, and anyone else who would like to chat!

I'm just in the process of applying for ds passport - in fact it's not arrived back which is getting me a bit worried as previous times they've been very quick, but yes, the passport itself is about 120, plus courier, I think about 10, plus photos, so it must've added up to not much change out of 150 euros! Every 5 years! And we were stupid enough to have 4 kids. I had to get ds1 last year, ds2 this year, me next year and the year after ds3 & dd. bloody licence to print money! (grumpy old woman)

Hi all. I've lost the plot with everyone it seems with a new thread and holidays and stuff...It didn't seem like I was gone long, but my preggy brain is even more feathery than usual.

Got a wagon to pull Moo in during the weekend and took it out yesterday. It was lovely and she didn't fight as much about getting in it (when she would have rather been doing something else) PLUS I don't have to lift her into it as she can climb in the back when I pull out/off the side. Such a bonus.
Dh had/has a half day today; I told him to have a nice long ride in the sun rather than hurry home because he's been quite grumpy lately (I think he's stressed).
I figured we'd have some pancakes and bratwurst for supper tonight as a special treat. However, I learned the shops are closed this aft. Good thing I didn't really need anything, just was going out to get out.
Bank is sorted.
Phone is suddenly working (so I'm hoping to call abt play groups tomorrow if I don't end up to anxious).
Bought Moo all sorts of toys during the weekend (we went to Ausgang to a big baby store and there was a toys store next door) as her 2nd b-day is coming up...however Daddy, the pushover, has given most of them to her already. I saw a really lovely hippy preggy top that I wanted SO bad, but it was 85euros!! Even with the exchange rate I was like 'yeah right' Wish I could find some nice preggy tops and leggings tho as I'm wearing the same things over and over and I feel I need a few little things to perk up the wardrobe for spring/summer (assuming it actually comes).

Anyway Moo is throwing her cup at me and using her deep voice 'JOOOOOOOS'(i.e. do it now) so I'd better go. x hope everyone is enjoying the sun

Good to hear things are going well, Bebe! I thought I hadn't seen your name in a while (maybe that's just me being feather-brained though!)

Has anyone heard anything from Tallpoppies?

Linzer - multiple layers of socks - it's the way to go :)

Oh and has Tallpoppies popped on? I hope she and babe is well!

Ah BananaM- you beat me to it

Mission accomplished. My passport photos look like I've just gone through a 10 hour flight and used the sick bag so I guess they're fine! Ha ha I get them done at the optician's in our town and usually the owner is there and gets them right, but only his silly assistant was there today and she fiddled around for ages and had to print the pics twice because she got the size wrong. I think it's OK now so I'm just going to send them and hope for the best. The last time she did the photos for one of the kids they sent them back so I just marched down there and made her do them again at no charge. I should really make sure the owner's there next time because she's useless.

Ad - I've had good success with Ebenol cream in the past. It comes in two strengths. I always think it's best to get the strongest and then just use a little bit to wipe the rash out before it gets even worse. Last time I was at the pharmacy they didn't have Ebenol and sold me Fenistil Hydrocort cream instead and it doesn't seem to work very well at all, no idea why. I think the Fenistil gel just has an anti-itch agent in it, some kind of antihistamine, but that wouldn't really help if it's some kind of eczema.

Thanks westvan, will look for ebenol next time - finistil is useless for eczema. That finistil for insect bites is a joke, I could dip my whole hand in a bucket full of it and it won't help against mossie bites.

We should try and meet up again soon. I now have exactly half the sum of Christmas money left to buy something for myself. I've wasted the other half on this and that and the dc probably ended up with most of it. I also have to go back to Fielmann soon, remember I got the glass put back in last time we met? Well, it popped out again the a week later so I'm going to ask them if they can maybe check if it needs cut slightly.

Bebe, sounds as if everything is settling down atlast if you've got the phone and bank sorted. Why is everything closed today? Is it for Fasching? It's completely passed me by this year except for seeing the small primary school dc walking home from school dressed as witches and clowns.

Linzer, hope you stay warm - have you got thermal ski socks or something? I remember the sweets in south Germany at carneval. Our dc used to go to the parade and get a big bag full of sweets, far too much. In school here and in Berlin they also always handed out sweets as rewards. I was surprised because in south Germany where ds went to year 1 primary school they were very against sweets and weren't even allowed nutella, cake or any buscuits in their snack boxes.

That Christmas money must be burning a hole in your pocket, Ad! That's not good about the glasses, you'd think they would fix them properly. Yeah, we should get together soon, I'm up for it. Just say the word.

Hi Bebe! Sounds like you're doing well. I'm glad Moo agreed to ride around in the wagon. LOL about the "JOOOOOS!"

Thank goodness Fasching is over for another year. It wasn't actually too cold to start with (we were standing in the sun, and the warming glass of punch I was handed definitely helped too!) but DS was soon complaining that he was cold and had earache. Keeping track of five children (seven at one stage, when the friend I was with popped into a shop to buy some more sweets) was quite exhausting as well.

bebe Glad to hear you're getting things sorted and that your DD is enjoying her wagon!

Banana I took your advice and had no problems with frozen toes. Now if only I could have got DS to put his gloves and extra jumper on...

westvan Sounds like normal passport photos to me. Hope they turn out to be acceptable - we've never had to have any redone, although did have the person who countersigned our application deemed unacceptable once.

admylin They're quite strict about snacks at kindergarten here (no chocolate, sweets, etc.) but it all seems to go by the board once they start school.

Must start thinking about tomorrow's English lesson. I'd been waiting for a handout that the teacher told me she'd give to DD1, but no sign of it today. Will assume she won't have it tomorrow so will plan the lesson from scratch (I don't like being given things/told what to do at the last minute anyway; the worst was when the teacher asked me, at the start of one lesson, to talk about funerals in Britain).

This thread is moving fast today! Spring is definitely here as far as hayfever symptoms go, but I've also found it hard to believe when it's so cold.

Took dd swimming today. The local pool isn't open in the mornings, so we drove to one in a nearby town. The water was really cold, even in the baby pool. I mean British cold, not unbearable. Very odd, considering how hot everyone's houses around here are. My friend's son was blue by the time we got out, dd was completely fine. Must be the genes.

I also have a lesson to prepare for tomorrow. How many of you teach English and what ages do you teach? I've just started doing kindergarten lessons and it's a real challenge. More interesting than doing the same old stuff over and over at Berlitz though.

Have just found out I don't need to prepare the lesson for tomorrow after all, as DD1's religion teacher is ill so she'll be finishing at 11.50 tomorrow and Thursday (the lesson would have been at 12.20). Will ask the teacher to suggest another day instead and to let me have the worksheet she wants me to do with the class.

silken I teach DD1's and DD2's classes English on a voluntary basis, so 6-7 and 8-9 year olds at the moment. For the first two years, I was more of a classroom assistant and just helped out with whatever DD1's teacher wanted me to do, but I've taken over the teaching more or less completely since she's had a new teacher. I found it a bit daunting to start with but don't mind it now; teaching isn't really my vocation, though. Luckily a friend of mine is an English teacher (she teaches kiga children and primary school age children as well as adults) and she's been a great help, recommending websites for handouts etc.

is there a german equivalent to 1471 does anyone know?

I don't think there is a 1471 number here in germany Ernest but I could be wrong. I've never found it anyway. We're with telekom and I find their information and website quite confusing.

Good that you managed to get through carneval without freezing too much linzer. How many sweets have they eaten today then?

I dashed into the supermarket after the tennis meeting this evening and just grabbed some bread, a couple of types of cheese and a packet of brownies that dd saw and it all came to 22 Euros. We must have expensive taste in cheese.

I don't remember there being a 1471 equivalent in Germany, at least not when we lived there. There isn't one in Austria either. I want a phone with caller ID, although we do seem to have had slightly fewer telemarketers calling recently.

Apart from a couple of lollipops that they got from school (which I might try hiding to see whether they actually notice they're missing), the DC have eaten all the sweets they got yesterday - there weren't actually too many in the end, despite the extra that my friend bought. The DC have been invited to two birthday parties over the next week though, so I doubt we'll be sweetless for long.

It was -3.5° here this morning, so is gradually warming up! It looks very spring-like outside, just doesn't feel it.

Morning. Cold here too but bearable!

I have a pile of papers waiting to be sorted. How do you decide what to keep? Dh's work always send so many pages with info and stuff but I have to read through it before I throw it out just incase. Usually it's information for nursing staff or other emplyees. If I left it to dh he's just keep it all preferably in a pile on top of my book shelf or soemthing.

Yesterday afternoon he called to ask if the clocks had changed yet (hmm) as he had a meeting and thought he might be late/early! Typical mad scientist.

i agree wholeheartedly Linzer - fasching is over!!!!!! were many sweets here too!! apart from an apple yesterday, I'm not sure my kids had anything nutritious!! they had pancakes for lunch, some chips at their party and Krapfen for dinner!! will be veg all the way today! glad you had a good time at the umzug and that you werent too cold!!!

Bebe - glad life is getting organised!!

Admylin - funny about your dh!! i really picture him in my head as a mad scientist!! think you need to throw the stuff that you couldnt care less if you never see again!! and sit down with the kids later and get them to do there stuff!

Silken - i was surprised that the pool was so cold - the indoor ones are usually quite nice here! Its the outdoor ones that normally take my breath away but think its still way too cold for them! but glad your dd enjoyed it - she must be made of hard stuff!!

Ernest - never heard of a 1471 type service here but i've never looked! have a good time in the UK!

not sure what to do today - dd is happily sitting on her bum watching tv or playing ds but i feel we should do something!! but its also nice to have no plans!

Glad I'm not the only to be relieved that Fasching is out of the way, Canella! I also enjoy days where we don't have anything planned as we seem to spend so much time rushing around normally. It made such a nice change not to have any activities to go to during the Semesterferien.

admylin Paperwork is one of my bugbears, especially all DH's! He just refuses to get rid of anything and seems to have a ridiculous amount. I forced him to clear out one of the drawers in the chest of drawers in our bedroom at the weekend as it was buckling under the weight. Needless to say, he discovered on Monday that he needed something I'd got rid of - photocopies of his degree certificates - so I had to retrieve them from the pile of photocopying paper (although he could always have copied the originals, so it wouldn't have been a complete disaster if I'd got rid of them completely). I am also under strict instructions to leave his file of university paperwork alone (I say file - there are dozens of them), as he's just found out from the Pensionskasse that he needs proof of every semester that he was enrolled at the university.

It's not just the fact that he refuses to throw anything away, it's just that there seems to be more paperwork and bureaucracy to start with. DH has a thick file of Zeugnisse from university (about 50 Lehrveranstaltungszeugnisse - there are probably files of other types of Zeugnisse somewhere else). I think I've only got my degree certificate and that's it! I was also trying to persuade him to throw out a Mitteilungsheft from primary school that I came across (he seems to have kept every single school book) as the ink is so faded that you can't even read it any more, but he was having none of it.

Rant over - can you tell that his paperwork is driving me mad? At least I've found out in the decluttering process how long we need to keep tax documents for (10 years), but it seems that everything else needs to be kept indefinitely (if DH had his way at least).

LOL at the paperwork wars! I am going mad looking for my A level certificates (from 1989 - last century that is!)and can´t find them. I have moved house/country over 20 times since I did them, I must have done a de-clutter at one stage and thrown them out. So I am with your dhs on this one today - keep it all!

Unless I get a job before then I am thinking of going back to uni in October (to get an Austrian qualification, some further German input and hope to get a job at the end of 3 long years...eek).

Back to stick head in filing cabinet

Paperwork wars...we have them in our house too, tho currently we're not because everything is at home...

Have no idea why things were shut. I guess it was for holiday. We didn't even know Dh was to have off until Monday...I find it strange getting off for religious holidays, for all America being said to be religious fanatics it is just not 'acceptable' to have national days off for religion.

I hate complaining so much, but goodness gracious I am struggling with things. I get so little sleep with dd getting up in the middle of the night (and me not being able to get back to sleep once she wakes me). Today I'm just moments away from tears as I've got such a headache on top of all the pregnancy issues and the tantrumming toddler. (You guys must laugh as you're all beyond it now) Dh offered to stay home so I could sleep, but we cannot really afford him to take time off work.

AND where is my blasted EHIC card??? I need to get in to see someone soon abt this parasite growing in my bellly to make sure it's growing properly with all these stress hormones whrilling around I worry for it's well-being.

I think our main problem is not having an office - although if we did have one I'd never sort the papers out, I'd just throw it all in there! In teh old days we had an office as the dc shared a room but now they need one each and 5 room flats are non-existant in Hannover.

I know what you mean linzer, dh has his certificates and university Scheine plus about 5 photo copies of each one and I'm not allowe dto touch them! Often though, he'll need a copy and can't find it so he makes a new one.

He also has telephone numbers written on bits of paper everywhere. The dc got him a nice adress and phone book for Christmas but he still hasn't started writing them in. Trouble is I can't do half of them as he writes in 3 different alphabets and I can't read the names!

Bebe, missed your post while I was writing. I know, sleep deprivation is one of the worst things. Does your dd sleep during the day? That's how I survived the younger years, dd didn't sleep through for ages but in the afternoon after lunch, blinds went down and we all went to bed from 1 to 3pm!

Hope you manage to get some sleep today.

Sorry to hear about the lack of sleep bebe - sleep deprivation is horrible. I have a 6 year old who can still throw an impressive tantrum btw, so am certainly not laughing.

A few of the shops were shut yesterday afternoon here too, but I suspect it's because they didn't want to be overrun with mad Fasching revellers! It wasn't a religious holiday here, at any rate (and we get plenty of those, with Austria being a Catholic country).

admylin The problem with having an office is that you have even more room to accumulate paperwork! DH has boxes and boxes of stuff in our office/spare room/general dumping ground, a chest of drawers groaning with papers in our bedroom and boxes, files, chests of drawers and bookcases full of the stuff in the cellar. I don't even dare to go down into the cellar most of the time, as all the clutter just drives me mad.

bananas Going back to university sounds exciting - what are you thinking of studying? How's the job hunting going otherwise?

There's been a lot of forced naps in the bebemoo house lately...not functioning otherwise, but then the night routine gets long as she's not ready for bed until 9 -or later!! On Monday I kept dozing off while she played with lego bricks...it was only the sound of the plastic clacking together (what an annoying sound) which kept me awake (thank goodness for annoying sounds) or I'd have been out cold...
I'm praying the next few days go quickly; on the weekend Dh takes over the morning routine and lets me sleep (as much as I can with them ramming around).
Today I've opened all the windows and pulled back all the curtains to let the sun in... hopefully the chill air and light will help tire her out while we're indoors and help reset my body clock a little too...though we're out in a bit to the store for our daily walk.

bebe...oh, sounds like you need some sleep and a bit of a break too. Maybe having a snooze while little one watches a dvd next to you? Like Linzer I am not laughing either...my 8,6 and 3 year old can have fantastic tantrums. Not to talk about my tantrums and I am nearly 40!!!!

okay, I am back with you, no longer a traitor. Throw out all the papers! In despair I rang the admission office at the university and they said that I should bring my certificates along because if I have a Masters and Phd then cleary I did have a school leaving certificate. Fingers crossed! Sounds very flexible for Austria

Seriously, I do feel your pain regarding paperwork. I did a huge clear out when we left the UK...it took me about a week just to do paperwork. grrr...good luck with it admylin!

admylin - dd is eczema prone...has a dust-mite allergy which makes eczema. We got some really good stuff from the dr on prescription (one with cortisone, one without). Might be worth going to the dr for something.

Linzer- I am trying to study social work. Social work fits my background and my interests and I need an Austrian qualification which slots directly into a job, iyswim. Job hunt otherwise is depressing. How is your work going? What have you got to translate this time? Hope it is going well and you are feeling better.

canella - hope you have a good day, busy or not. are the othet two dc at kindergarten?

What medicine did the doctor prescribe for your DD, bananas? DS gets patches of itchy skin on his legs (he has atopic dermatitis and is also allergic to dust), but we haven't really found anything that helps. The doctor has prescribed a couple of things, but nothing that seems to make any difference.

I've just finished a translation for a jewellery company - not something I normally translate, but I think the agency's regular translator for that company is away. I got really stuck on one term, but fortunately discovered the company's website is also in English. Otherwise, work is still fairly quiet but I'm quite enjoying the break.

bebe It's difficult when they (and you!) still need the daytime naps but then end up going to bed late. I tend to have tantrums if the DC are in bed much later than 7.30 (actually, even 7.30 is too late for them - they're so grumpy in the mornings; DH has promised to try and come home a bit earlier tonight to help put them to bed, as I'd ideally like to have them in bed by 7 pm) and, like bananas, am nearly 40! (Any plans for your "round birthday", bananas? Mine is in October, so I assume yours is before mine if you did your A levels if 1989).