Alone at last, alone at last, great God a’mighty…

Okay, let me start with an apology to those of you who actually read my blog (hi mom) for my not writing in the past two weeks. We’ve been in class, house hunting, and staying really busy. But the main reason is that I have not had one single second alone except what I have stolen away in the tub. And my laptop doesn’t so much like bubble baths. But tonight my dear husband has taken the kids to Jolo’s for some fun and I have some glorious time to myself without listening to Alice im Wunderland or Zach und Cody blaring in German on the TV.

Jolo’s is kind of like Chuck E. Cheese’s, except without the Chucky. It is basically a big warehouse full of cool climbing structures, bouncy things, giant Legos, bumper cars, a little train, and even a giant crocodile into whose mouth you climb only to crawl out his nether regions as croc poop. My kids love it. And Dave likes that he can drink a beer while watching them play (grown-ups are not allowed on the play equipment or else he’d be in there with them). In fact, all of the indoor playgrounds we have seen have a bar right beside them for the parents.

Today we had a meeting with a really cool builder named Lothar (I think of the SNL skit “Lothar of the Hill People” every time the poor man says his name). We are working with him through an American realtor to possibly build a house for us. Actually, I think the way it works is that he builds the house how he is going to build it and we can just pick tile, flooring, etc. We have certainly come a long way in a month, although at times it has seemed like slow progress. We have looked at homes in nearly all of the major little towns south of Stuttgart. We have considered buying, renting, penthouse condos, doppelhausen (duplexes), row houses, you name it. We were working with a German realtor who was showing us some great houses for rent, but who was adamantly opposed to showing us anything for sale. She showed us a house we liked a lot in the town of Schonaich (“Beautiful Oak”) but only for rent. She told us it was not for sale. Then on our own we saw it advertised for sale and it sold on Easter Sunday before we could move on it. So we were going to rent with this same realtor a house that we saw with her in Waldenbuch. We had given her a list of criteria and this house fit them all in theory, so she was really pushing us to go with it. But something just didn’t feel right about it. So we finally contacted an American realtor who was recommended to us by friends and she has been great. We feel a lot better about our search now. As I mentioned, we are considering renting Lothar's house while he builds one for us a few streets over. We are still researching that idea.

I’ll try to be better about checking in. I’ll let you know when we have a home.