More Adventures in Germany

We had an interesting weekend.  We went to the German schwimbad, swimming pool.  Speedos are NOT cool.  String bikinis are NOT cool.  That's what they wear here.  I felt incredibly modest.  The children (girls included) run around shirtless with mini-speedos until age 7 or 8.  That didn't bother me much, though.  The Speedo inventor should be flogged.

Caylea did a front flip off the high diving board, 13 feet.  Keep in mind that this child, when she quit gymnastics, was doing front flips on the balance beam and landing them.  She could do all kinds of crazy flip things on the floor and bars and beam and her only injury, although severe, was her ankle last year.  Well, she does a simple single front flip off this diving board and, because it was so high, she over-rotated and ended up doing more like a 1 1/4 flip.  She landed on her FACE and chipped 3 of her permanent teeth.  She was quite upset, not because she hadn't properly landed the flip, but because her teeth weren't even.  (It isn't noticeable.)  The chip was more of a peel than a chip, so her tooth is thinner, but there was no chunk missing.  The dentist filed the 3 that were injured for her and you can hardly tell, but, boy was she concerned!  "Are my teeth going to be crooked?  Can they fix this?"  I had to try really hard not to laugh.  

It's only funny because, 3 years ago, Josh severely chipped his 2 front teeth.  I mean, he broke them both almost in half, but we weren't concerned because they're not permanent.  We had just moved to Alabama and there was a severe thunderstorm that shook the house and set the alarm off.  He was only 4, went screaming through the new house, which he wasn't used to, and ran head first (because it was pitch black) into our steel bar stools.  The bar stool won.  It took almost a week for his teeth to quit being sensitive.  THEN, he and I were wrestling about a year later and his head took on my teeth.  His head won.  I had to have my 2 front teeth filed to make the chip less noticeable and keep them both even.  Finally, when we were in Florida a few months ago, Caylea and Chloe were horsing around in the pool and Caylea jumped away from Chloe and her foot came up and clocked Chloe's chin, causing her to clamp her teeth down, which chipped HER front tooth.  Again, we had to go have her 2 front teeth filed to keep them even.  Yesterday Caylea was saying her teeth just don't feel right and I said, "Don't worry.  Josh got used to his.  I got used to mine," and then Chloe piped in, "I got used to mine too."  We're a bunch of chipped-tooth people.  It's even MORE funny because Joe is such a teeth kind of guy.  He can't stand crooked, yellow, nasty teeth.  He's always asking, "What did the dentist say," when we take the kids, so now he's all but given up.  Yesterday he said, "You are the most accident prone people I've ever met."  :)

Speaking of accident prone...Murphy's Law was written for me.  (Anything that CAN happen WILL happen.)  Joe and I took the family on a bike ride.  I was lagging behind with Jana, who is staying with us this summer.  She's a little slow on the bike but we were having a blast.  Anyway, Joe rode by and smoothly grabbed my tush and kept going.  I enjoyed it, so I thought I would return the favor as he rode by the second time.  I'm not quite as athletic as he is, though, so instead of a smooth grab I ended up pushing him into the grass, where there just so happened to be a piece of glass and we heard this "POP...shhhhhh."  As my Dad would say, "What are the chances of that?"  So, Joe had to walk home.  I apologized while laughing because we had just talked about how I somehow manage to hurt myself without ever trying.  He didn't appreciate my laugh and got a little cross and told me, "Go catch up to our kids while I walk with Jana."  I said, "You don't have to get all mad.  It's not like I did it on purpose!"  I rode away and, apparently, Jana said, "I think Auntie's just grumpy."  So, I got our kids settled and went back to the 2 of them where I heard what Jana said, so I told her, "No, Uncle Joe is the grumpy one.  It was an accident and he got all MAD."  I have a tendency to say things in a very exaggerated way, so she giggled and we all giggled.  We had a nice walk home.  His bike tire is still flat.  :)

The weather here has been perfect.  The hottest it has been is 91 degrees.  WE have no air conditioner, but it's not terrible because it's not hot all day.  It's relatively cool in the morning, heats up by mid afternoon, then cools off again.  In the hottest part of the day we just stay down in the basement, which remains quite cool.  When we build our dream home, we're building a basement!!!  It hasn't rained much at all, but it will cloud and sprinkle every 2-3 days.  The days are finally getting shorter, although not by much.  I think the longest day was 430am until 11pm or something like that.  It just seemed like the sun would never go down!  It's the opposite in winter, though, so we're enjoying it while we can.  I don't think the kids have gotten to bed before 9pm yet, but we don't mind.  It's summer!  All too soon it'll be over, we'll be doing school, teaching piano, and wondering where the summer went.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says "There is a time and a place for everything."  This is our time and place to PLAY!  :)