Duesseldorf

It was really nice to head back to Duesseldorf to see friends--even if it was a very quick trip. And even if it rained for most of the International Festival and in to Saturday night. If the weather had been beautiful with the sun shining, it might have been harder to leave. But we were reminded of why it's not more fun to live in Northern Europe. There are lots of fun things to do and beautiful things to see, but the weather is a real barrier to enjoying these things a large portion of the time!

After a week of sun, this weekend (in Germany and in London) was cold and rainy. We're talking jacket, scarf and closed-toe shoe weather. On the first weekend of June! Ick. But we didn't go for the weather, we went to see friends.

The Robinsons are almost going native there in Duesseldorf. They are going on a local contract and have even sold their house in England. Their girls are continue to flourish at ISD and Karen is going to go back to work part-time starting in the fall. They are getting ready for a huge US vacation, and I find it kind of funny that Maddie's English friends will see the Grand Canyon before she does.

Our friend Mary is getting ready to move back to Delaware. She and her girls will be in Oklahoma quite a bit this summer, so we may get to see them again depending on everyone's schedules and when the shipment of all of our stuff arrives.

We briefly visited with a number of people. A couple of folks are looking at moving to London and are going to be in touch about info on where to live, schools, etc. Another friend and her family are getting ready to move to Brisbane, Australia. Still another is about to head out to the Philippines. There are quite a few folks who have been in Germany for as many as five years who are getting ready to make the move home. It will be interesting to see how they and their kids (who don't remember living in US) will make the transition.

Skip and I did get to go back to our favorite Italian restaurant while Maddie spent the night with the Robinson family. It was nice to see the staff and have one last really great meal there.

It's time to hit is this week to get ready for the move. Still two-and-a-half weeks before the movers arrive, but we'll be gone part of that time. So really only the next week-and-a-half. Though the packers pack it all, I still have lots of stuff to go through. I also have to complete the inventory of stuff (which really brings it home how much stuff we have), get rid of all our food (going to have some interesting meals), finalize bunny transport plans and make the transfer of Maddie's fish to her new home. And I also want to see friends and hit some of my fav London spots one last time. We'll see how it all goes.

Maddie's last day of school is a week from Wednesday. She is awfully weepy these days. Excited to go home, but sad to leave. And without a whole lot of tools on how to handle mixed emotions. So, she just cries. Which is better than screaming or being mean or throwing things.