Days 17 & 18

Wednesday, June 19th

Corbin helped us pack for Leipzig!

We got our things packed up Tuesday night and we headed to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in Chemnitz a little after 10:00 a.m. We had been borrowing Joseph and Linda's car while we were in Chemnitz so we drove the car there and Joseph met us and picked up the car. We also met Chris and Krista at the train station and they went with us to Leipzig. It was very helpful since we had 3 suitcases, 3 backpacks, 2 kids, one stroller and a partridge in a pear tree. :) It was also nice to spend a little extra time with them on the way there.

The train only takes 59 minutes from Chemnitz to Leipzig so it wasn't too bad. We bought some food at the train station to eat lunch on the train so that pretty much took up a big chunk of time. In no time, we were in Leipzig! Larry picked us up at the train station and took us to his house. We tried to get Corbin to take a nap, but unfortunately, he never did. At least we just had time to rest and relax when we got there so it was ok.

It has sometimes been interesting getting the kids to sleep when we want them to. The kids are sharing a room and they think that is pretty fun. They usually laugh and play and "talk" for quite a while. One night we let Heidi stay up a little later and put Corbin down first and that seemed to work well because Corbin was already asleep when we got her in bed and she was very quiet and went to sleep easily. Last night we tried to put them both down at the same time and I guess we now know that isn't going to work. We ended up taking Heidi out of the room and putting her in our bed because they laughed and played for about 1 1/2 hours after we put them to bed. :( When we went to bed, we took Heidi to the bathroom and took her back to her bed. We will have to do something like this again for the other nights, I think.

Wednesday was just a good day to start to get settled in at the Sullivans and talk and catch up a bit.

Thursday, June 20th

Larry and Pam had some appointments and/or work on this day so we also spent this day getting organized in our rooms and resting up from our busy busy time in Chemnitz. They apologized that there wasn't a lot to do on that day, but we told them we were happy to have some down time so it worked out very well. In the morning, three interns that are here helping do some LST (Let's Start Talking) and other activities came for breakfast and we had a morning devotional led by one of the interns, Jon. We had met them in Dresden at the singing, but it was good getting to see them again and getting to talk a little more. We also got to know the neighborhood a little bit, by going around the corner to a little shopping center with a few stores. We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. In the afternoon was just nap time for Corbin and the rest of us relaxed a bit. After nap time, Larry came back from an appointment and we walked to a nearby playground. Heidi was having a fun time playing when Larry, Clint and I were discussing if the sound we were hearing was thunder or jet planes. It had started getting dark and we knew there was a thunderstorm warning so we finally decided that it really was thunder and we should probably quickly leave the playground. We walked to a nearby restaurant where we planned to meet Pam after her class was over to eat dinner. We were there only a couple of short minutes, when it started to pour so heavy. We were glad we were inside. We watched as it poured for quite awhile and we heard some very very loud and close lightning and thunder. I have to mention that I can only count on one hand the number of big thunderstorms that I have witnessed in Germany. I don't think that they happen that often. Sure, it rains a lot, but not very often can it compare to an Oklahoma thunderstorm. This one was every bit as strong as that. Also, the rain came so hard and so fast that some areas were flooded, including the Abercrombies cellar. :( They lost some things that were destroyed in that, unfortunately. But I think they didn't have a lot of things down there because it is mostly just for storage and not part of their actual apartment. We waited out the storm and by the time we were done eating, it had thankfully let up enough so we could walk home. The good thing about the rain was that it cooled things of a lot! It had been very hot the past few days and we were pretty much constantly covered in sweat.... nice, huh? :) At the restaurant I took Heidi to the bathroom, and it was downstairs in the basement. As soon as I went down there, it suddenly got about 30 degrees colder! It felt amazing! I could have stayed in there for a long long time! I went up and recommended to the guys that they go to the restroom at some point while we were at the restaurant. Everyone enjoyed it a lot. Also, while we were waiting for our food Heidi made a new friend... not surprising! She pretty much is making friends with someone everywhere we go, which is completely normal if you know her. She played with another little girl who was about 2, I think. They had a great time running around and dancing. :) It was quite an interesting evening!