Spoiled American (Vicki's Thoughts)

Here I am in Germany. It's been a week and a half. I miss home more than I thought I would. Today was Gerard's birthday so we decorated, Stephanie got him a BBQ. She had to buy the floor model because they were putting them all away, it is practically snowing here, after all. You can put the man in Germany but you can't take all the Southern California out of the man. We had great BBQ steaks on the grill tonight. We went to the public pool which is actually quite nice. It stays open year round so I can imagine when it's below freezing with 2 feet of the snow on the ground, you can put on your bathing suit and visit the pool!

Tomorrow we are planning a day trip somewhere although the forecast is cloudy and rainy. We went to the Toys R Us here and got Gerrit a late birthday gift, Thomas the train set. He loves trains. It's hard to believe the baby is already a week old tomorrow. A week ago at this time we were packing up for the hospital. I have to give Stephanie credit though, we went to this big market today and I didn't know what was what, couldn't find diet drinks, except for coke. Even the sugar is not what you would think, they have flavored, some for baking, etc. It must take twice as long to shop, between figuring out what things are and how much they cost.

No T.V. is really getting to me now. I have been watching a DVD every night on the little DVD player. Until we finish unpacking everything there are limited movies to pick from (except for kid stuff). Apparently the 32 in TV will be here on November 6. I realize how really spoiled I am. You can't even wash your clothes every day here, it is too wasteful and there is no room in the washing machine anyway. Will be glad to be back in the land of plenty . I'm proud to be an American, spoiled as can be! Later......