Sprechenze Deutsch?

Okay, so I've learned a few colloquial phrases that I THOUGHT I was pronouncing correctly. I wondered why eyebrows kept being raised, but you all know me well enough to know that I just keep on keeping on until someone turns me by the shoulders and points me another way. So, I've been saying, "My name is Tori," except in German, of course, and getting those weird looks. One landlord today FINALLY corrected me and I didn't even feel sheepish. I just said, "Thank you," and moved right along. (My shoulders turn easily.) You should see my Amer-Asian husband speaking German. It's pretty funny, and my kids just follow along like ducks in a row, repeating every incorrect thing I say. They're so perfect. :) We think we have found our house in a great location...plenty of trees to climb, cows come right up to the back fence, and the streets are quiet enough for the kids to ride bikes. Now if they'll just lower their price...seriously. Renting is SUPER expensive. Thank goodness for Uncle Sam! He's my favorite Uncle. Sorry, Uncle Steve. We did all of this with the help of our Lieutenant, Luke Romans (his Dad is a pastor, hee hee hee), one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, and he was born in the 80s. We also went out on our own using a wonderful tool called GPS that we purchased. We wonder why we never bought this instrument before. We feel like the commercial where the guy says, "I love you Tom-Tom" or something like that, and his GPS system says, "Turn left here" and the guy says, "Yeah, you're right. We should keep this professional." I can't tell you how many times we said, "I love you, Garmin." That's our system's name. It, too, said, "Turn left here," in response to our amorous feelings. I'm grateful that something on this planet butchers the German language even more than I do. You should hear a computer pronounce "Kaiserslautern." Don't ask me. I'm from Texas and I just say it how I spray it. I figure if I put enough "Oomph-ah" into it, making it sound like I'm coughing up last year's lungs, it'll be more believable. Please keep the house situation in your prayers. It's not final until we sign a contract (and verbal contracts ARE binding, so you have to be very careful.) Oh, and all of the houses are multi-level, meaning 2 or 3 stories because they have no room to build horizontally. They don't want to take up their farm land (Cows up to the back fence was no joke). My legs will be beautiful in 4 years. One of the houses was so close to the pasture, it smelled like cow manure. The > kids all said, "Ewwww," and I actually liked it. It smelled like home, which is gross, I know. The things that bring back fond memories... Let me know if these lengthy emails get on your nerves and I'll permanently cut you out of my "blog" list. It won't hurt my feelings. (Shoulders turn easily, remember?) I'm just having fun, the kids are having fun, and we're so tired we don't know our left from our right, but even that has been much better today. By tomorrow we'll be mostly adjusted, at least to the time. I don't know if a person like myself can every truly be well-adjusted.