L O V E you, Seth

My incredibly-candid and amazingly good-looking brother just sent me a super-sweet email posing the following question, "Do you ever take a day off from blogging?" Always excited to hear from either of my brothers, I didn't think too much about it... at first.

Then, he got me thinking. Maybe, I do write too much. Why do I blog so often? Am I obsessed? Should I get a life?

My answer- this is my life and I'm working to document it. I keep wondering if the newness of this crazy country will wear off. Will I forget this time here? Do my {German} neighbors notice my laundry as much as I take note of theirs? I'd guess probably not since they've been hanging laundry their entire life. Will I ever pass an old Grandpa sweeping and not slow down to have those extra few seconds of watching him?

This last weekend, we had our new great friends over for dinner. Fun times. After we ate and were sitting around talking, I noticed our German neighbors outside. I tried to express to our friends {Sam & Martha} how I hate the fact that I still feel like I'm trying to earn these Germans respect or acceptance. For some crazy reason, I'm not nearly as concerned about our American neighbors. Why? I know, I'm stupid.

Immediately, Sam told me to take some brownies {that his wonderful wife baked} over to them. Awesome brownies {a Paula Deen recipe, yum} Martha said she hadn't met anyone who didn't like them. Taking his advice, I put them on a {real} plate and covered them with Saran wrap. I headed out our side door to meet her and talked for 30 MINUTES.

I couldn't believe it, I was so excited. That's more time talking to her than we have talked this entire five months. I felt like I could finally let her know some of the things that have been going over and over in my mind since we moved in. We do respect your country. I want to learn your language and I'm working to teach our boys. We think your yard is beautiful and we are HARD-WORKING people, not lazy Americans. The way you and your husband work is how WE used to work in our yard and on our home. We are grateful and want to learn what we can learn from you.

I still don't even know her first name, but I don't care. Just being able to chat with her for a minute and let her know a little of who we are was huge for me. She said she'd return our plate with a German cake. I don't care if she sends it back empty and I told her, "No hurry." Whether she understood or not, I'm not sure. I just wish she knew how much just talking to me meant.

Seth, if you're still reading this... does this answer your question? Jim asks the same question. I know, I'm just your crazy older sis- I can't help it... love ya.