Am I that old already?

Last week when I went to the daycare to pick up one of the little girls I babysit/teach English to she was in another room playing, so the teacher went to go get here so I could stay in the doorway with my wet, wintery shoes. There was another little girl sitting right there with a teacher's helper making something. After she proudly showed me her art creation, she looked at me a bit harder. I knew what she was thinking,"who is this person picking up my friend? I've seen her mom, and this person is not her mom." But I sure didn't expect to hear what came out of her mouth: "Are you Joelle's grandma?"

Though I didn't want to laugh at this little child and embarrass her, I couldn't help but chuckle. The teacher nicely told her that I wasn't old enough to be a grandma and I explained that I was Joelle's babysitter. Ahh, the innocence of kids...or was it?

Joelle's parents are the ones building a new house that I've mentioned before. It has been a VERY slow process; they started with the ground breaking last November. But there is an end in sight: they're moving in next week, though one would not get the impression they are going anywhere by the state of their current apartment. Nothing is out of place, there aren't any boxes anywhere... They said they're doing all the packing and a moving company will do all the hauling. I am curious to see what will come of all this.

I've been to the new house several times since Joelle has already started going to the daycare in the new neighborhood. It's quite a long drive for me; what used to be about a half hour has turned into 1 hr. 15 min. when all said and done (i.e. walk,train,bus,walk). The house has been a true construction site every time I've been there. What I missed with my own parents building a house all spring and summer, I'm making up for by seeing the whole process with this family.

They have had some funny decorating styles, in my opinion. It is typical German to not use carpet but rather tile flooring. But not to worry that a tile floor could be uncomfortably chilly in the cold months, for their heating system comes though the floor itself, totally forgoing air vents and registers, or even slippers. But their choice of tile is a little funny, especially in the basement.

There are several small rooms: laundry room, hobby room, canning room, storage room, and office. Each room has its own "tile theme," and of the two ever-present colors, a burnt orange and cream color, the patten of each room is different. One room has checkers, one room has cream with an orange border, one has orange with a cream border, etc. The hallway is cream with some tiles sporting an orange star on them, which they designed themselves. I suppose it's good to keep things interesting, but to me it just looks wacky!

I taught English to the other family today. The kids ended up getting sick with a fever and while I was there they were both really quiet and lethargic. It's the quietest I've ever seen them. I just hope I stay healthy after being around them! Since the mom didn't want to put the kids in the car and drive me to the train station like usual, she asked if I'd take the little tram to the next village over which has a train station.

So I took a ride in the old, antique-looking tram. It's a really cute old streetcar-type thing with wood finish on the inside. It is never full leaving their village, and for half the ride I was the only person in the entire tram. I felt a little silly because the cars drive along side it and can look in, as well as leave me in a cloud of dust since tram putts along so slowly. But it's a fun little experience.