Mom and Dad's first week in Germany

(As you can tell by the date on this blog, it was started sometime last week, but figured I'd post it anyhow. )

Mom and Dad arrived here safely last Friday. They flew into the Frankfurt airport, so Sam and I drove there to pick them up. Frankfurt's just a couple of hours drive from Stuttgart. Being concerned about morning traffic, we left very early only to find out it was a German holiday and we had clear roads the whole way. We got there pretty early and the flight ended up being about an hour late, so we had a bit of a wait. It was so nice to see Mom and Dad again. I was suprised they weren't more tired, but it was only midnight Alaska time, so they still felt pretty good. The jet lag would hit them later though.

I've been looking forward to sharing our lives here in Germany with them. It's been fun seeing their impressions of life in Europe. Alot of what they point out are things that struck me as odd when we first arrived too. I think they like it better than they thought they would. Mom keeps mentioning how green and beautiful the landscape is. It really is gorgeous here. Lots of open fields. The German's do that right. The houses are close together, which allows for lots of open country.

Mom and Dad brought their cat with them. Mom has always called him Papa Kitty, but Sam is convinced he should be called Konishiki, after a famous Hawaiian Sumo wrestler, due to his size. So, at this point we still call him both. Poor thing must be terrible confused. Because of Dad's allergies they couldn't let Konishiki have the run of the house, so we decided to bring him here. I've been concerned about it though because of how Gabby has always been with other cats.

We kept them separated for several days and then Sunday we decided to see how they would do together. Gabby's always been such a little bully, so I was a bit concerned. Any cat she's ever seen she's chased or tried to attack through a window. Bringing these two cats together is the first time I've realized that it's fear on Gabby's part that makes her so agressive. She's never really been around another cat since she was taken from her mama at around one week old.

There's been quite a bit of hissing and growling, but we just need to let them work out their differences. They pretty much keep to themselves and when Konishiki gets too close Gabby tells him to back off. They're so curious about each other though. Even though she's not very welcoming to him, Konishiki still follows Gabby around and she, in turn, follows him around too.

Before we let them out together Gabby was very agressive to me. She kept hissing and slapping at me. I think she smelled Konishiki on me, but didn't know what it was. All she knew was that it was different and didn't belong. She's really settled down alot since we let them out together. I think it's going to take awhile, but I believe they'll work it out.

We've been staying pretty busy. Tomorrow we're heading to Venice for a few days. My Italian friend, Marika, and her family came over this evening to talk to us about what to do there. Marika and I have become really good friends working together at NAF. She took my Venice book over the weekend to write notes in it. She and Jason have two little boys that Sam seems to tramatize every time we're together. They love playing with him, but it seems to always end in tears. Thankfully, Marika and Jason are easy going and don't seem to get upset about it. Tonight the tears started when Sam acted like he was going to put the rolladens down with the boys still outside after they sprayed us with the water hose. They and Sam had been teasing each other back and forth all evening, but that really scared them.

Here are some pictures from Mom and Dad's first week in Germany -

Mom and Dad on Panzer Kaserne

Waiting for the train to Stuttgart Stadtmitte

Mom and Dad in downtown Stuttgart

Konishiki out of the room for the first time and investigating everything

Getting some love from Sam

Mom and Dad are coming to Germany!!!

We're having problems with our internet, so I haven't been able to post for awhile. Of course, that's only been this last week. Prior to that I really don't have an excuse other than I've been busy. Mom and Dad are on their way here today and we'll be picking them up at Frankfort in the morning. I'm so excited about them coming! It's going to be fun showing them how life is over here. I'm also excited about 3 weeks off of work :) I kept thinking they were going to arrive here this morning and had taken the day off work for it, then on Tuesday I starting thinking about it and realized they were coming a day later. The 10 hour time difference got me confused. So, I worked half a day today and still had this afternoon to run to the commissary and finish getting the house around.

I miss blogging more, but there's been a distict lack of time for it since I started work. There's a big change coming in my job too. Just today I accepted another position. I've had two job offers I've been weighing the pros and cons on, but finally decided to go with the Civilian Personnel Advisory Center (CPAC). It's still Human Resources, just for another part of the Army. Anyhow, I'll probably go back to my current position for a week or two then start the other job. Should be interesting.

Our lives are going to be changing too with adopting Mom and Dad's cat. Since Dad's so allergic, it's best for them and the cat for us to take him. We're just hoping Gabby eventually accepts the idea of having another cat in the house. She's always been so spoiled by us.

We were having beautiful weather just a week ago, but it's gotten pretty chilly and cloudy. It'll be nice to have Mom and Dad here regardless of the weather, but I do hope it clears up again so they have a nice vacation. Well, I need to finish up the house. Until next time...

Frulingsfest and Ludwigsburg

I've been very lazy lately about posting to this blog. To be quite honest, my life has not been incredibly exciting or blog worthy for awhile now. I will try to get back to posting more regularly though.

We finally had a "real" weekend. It's been ages since we've taken time off from the house to just get away and do something fun We finally did that this last weekend. A friend has been staying with us since last Tuesday. Julie works for Sam, but recently accepted a job in Korea. So, she's staying with us until she flies out. It's been nice having her here. She's a very easy houseguest.

It's that time of year when I start thinking about flower boxes for our balcony and windows. It's warmed up enough so that I'm not concerned about it freezing again. So, Saturday morning we headed to Hornbach to get the planters and dirt. I found another rose bush to plant. We (meaning Sam) have planted so many trees, bushes and flowers in our back yard that we're running out of space. That's unfortunate because we always find another one to buy. On the way home from Hornbach we stopped at a local garden shop to buy some flowers. I don't feel very creative when it comes to putting flower boxes together, but they somehow end up looking pretty once they're in full bloom. So as not to waste a day of awsome weather, when we got home I went out on the back patio to transplant the flowers. It's going to look good once they have a chance to settle in.

Saturday evening we went to the Frulingsfest. The Frulingsfest is basically like a big fair back in the states. We met a friend at the train stop and rode to downtown Stuttgart. It's about the easiest way to go so we don't have to find or pay for parking. We met up with another friend of Julie's and had a very enjoyable evening. The only thing I could have done without was the roller coaster I was convinced to ride. I knew I didn't like roller coasters, but now I'm more convinced than ever. The minute we were locked in I felt this fear come over me and was desperately wishing I'd made a different choice. I knew the only way I could make it through was to keep my eyes closed, which I did for the entire ride. Next time I even consider riding one I told Sam to just slap me.

We did go on a couple of more mild rides which was fun. Of course there was some good food there. It's always interesting here in Germany because even the fair food is far different from what we're use to. I didn't see one vendor selling hotdogs, hamburgers, fries or elephant ears. Of course they had 100 different kinds of bratwrust, but not a good American hamburger. In the states you can't go to a fair without seeing several places selling cotton candy or candied apples. Well, I didn't see any candied apples and the only cotton candy I saw was in tiny little bags. Very weird.

Me and Julie at the Frulingsfest

Jessica, Julie and John on the Ferris wheel

Me and Sam on the Ferris wheel

The infamous roller coaster

We finally left the fest at about midnight. Good thing we left at that time because the train stops at 12:30 and doesn't start again until about 5:00. We didn't get to bed until 2:00. I can't remember the last time I went to bed that late. I guess I'm getting old because I'm in bed by 9:30 every night anymore. I can't handle those late evenings like I use to.

Sunday afternoon Sam and I went to Ludwigsburg, which is known for its palaces. Back in the early 1700's that area was chosen as a summer residence for royalty. We didn't visit any of the palaces, but instead just walked through all the gardens at the residential palace. I have never seen such beautiful and huge tulips. They really had some beautiful flowers. There was also a garden flea market set up on the grounds of the palace which was fun. It was an awsome day to be outside. I think our incredibly pale skin actually got a little color to it. Here are just a few pictures from that.

Sam and I in front of the Residential Palace

Me in a patch of tulips

My sweet husband

Me on the backside of the Residential Palace.

Our Saturday

Sam worked all night at the lock-in for SAS and didn't get home until 9:00 this morning. Ever since our house got robbed in Hawaii it's been hard for me when Sam's not here through the night. I sleep with lights on and the bear repellent spray next to the bed. Anyhow, I made it through just fine. Sam's someone who really needs his sleep, so he went right to bed when he got in and didn't get up until about 2:00. I think he would have continued sleeping had someone not called needing to talk to him.

I didn't get as much done on the house today as I'd wanted. Last weekend I started painting the living room area. There was only so much of all that white I could take. Surprisingly it went pretty fast, but I had a little bit to finish up this weekend. I got that done this morning. We went with yellow. At times I love it and other times I wonder if it's too much. Regardless, it's definitely an improvement over the white.

This afternoon we went to a couple of furniture stores. We're looking for some pieces that would fit in the living room better than what we have, but I'm really not too crazy about what we find. I like the old style German furniture, but a lot of what's in the stores is very modern looking. It looks more like furniture you would find in a business rather than comfortable furniture for a home. Every time we sat on a chair or couch it was like sitting on a board. Definitely not comfortable. So, the search continues.

The last few months have been so overshadowed with everything that needs done with the house that I'm really looking forward to putting it all aside when Mom and Dad get here. I'm so excited to share our lives with them. I've been trying to decide on what we want to do while they're here. There's so much to see and do here that it's quite a decision to narrow down our options. We don't want to be traveling the whole time, so I'm trying to keep the longer trips down to just 3 or maybe 4. There's still lots we can do within a day's drive of our house.

Mom's bringing her cat to stay with us. He was a stray kitty that she couldn't turn away, but Dad's allergic so it's not the best situation to have a cat in their house. It's going to be very interesting since Gabby attacks every cat she's ever met. At times I wonder what I could possibly be thinking and worry that it's going to be all out war between the two. But he's a big boy and so sweet. Sam calls him Konishiki, after the Sumo wrestler in Hawaii. I'm really hoping for the best. If Gabby would be nice I think she would enjoy having another cat to play with and keep her company when we're not home. We'll see how that goes.

Well, more to be done tomorrow, so I better close for now.

Still working on the house

The weeks go by so quickly. One week turns into two...then into three...and the time just slips by. I realized just a few days ago that in only 6 weeks Mom and Dad will be arriving here in Germany and I panicked. I thought back to 6 weeks ago and realized how little headway I've made in the house in that amount of time. At this point I'm not sure how I'm going to pull it all together, but I'm really excited about them coming. No matter where I am in getting the house around I'll stop and just enjoy them being here then hit it again when they leave.

This past Saturday Thomas arrived early in the morning to start painting the stairway. Picking out a color had been stressing me because that's a big decision, especially when it's going to be through all floors of the house. If we didn't like it, we'd be stuck with it until we decided to repaint. If we went with too conservative a color it may look really bland, but too dark of a color may be overwhelming. Of course with the whole house being white, any other color is going to look drastically different. We finally decided on an olive green thinking the earth tone would warm up the place and would go fine with our tile color (which I would not have chosen, but was already in the house). When we showed Thomas the color we had chosen, he thought it was too dark for the stairway. We went back to the color cards and came up with a green that's just a little lighter.

Ok, so I don't know how the German's ever get the same color of paint twice. Thomas brought in his paint tinting kit which amounted to a few bottles of color. In my experience with paint we pick out the color hand the card to the guy at Walmart, Lowes or Home Depot and they proceed to add so many CC's of green and so many CC's of yellow, etc. Not Thomas....he just started squirting color into the white paint and mixing it. The color that came out of that fiasco was something similar to auqa blue or as Sam put it "Toothpaste blue". It was horrible. There was no way he was going to paint my stairway that color. He painted a little part and wanted to know what I thought. Unfortunately I don't speak his language and couldn't tell him what I really thought, but I got the card and said "I want this color" pointing to the color we chose. Well, by this time he had run out of a color he needed so he packed up the paint and headed back to the office to get the color he needed.

He came back a couple of hours later with the color we wanted. He had taken it to a store to get the right combinations of colors(thankfully). Sam and I had some errands to run so we left Thomas here to paint. While we were gone I kept thinking about the green we chose and worried that it would be too green, but when we got back and saw the stairway I was very pleased with the color. It looks really warm and magnified in my mind the need to paint the rest of the walls. I probably shouldn't take the time to paint at this point, but I figure better now than after the curtains are hung. So, that's something I'll be working on.

The stairway after painting

Another view heading up to the top floor

Sam's been getting the tiles in the bathroom finished so he can hopefully get the medicine cabinets up over the weekend.

Back in March I interviewed for a position at Patch Barracks and haven't heard anything from them so I figured it had been filled. On Monday I got an email from Human Resources asking for preliminary information for this position. I'm still not sure what it all means, but it appears that I may still be in the running for the job. I'm hesitant starting a new job, but the pay would be much better and would probably not be such a stressful workplace, so we'll see what happens with that.

Well, that's about it from here. Until next time...

Stairwell renovation

We were up at 6:00 this morning because Thomas was coming to redo the wallpaper in the stairwell. It would have been so nice to sleep in, but...not today. Sam asked him if he wanted anything to drink. Well, wouldn't you know he asked for coffee. Neither of us drink coffee, but I do have a coffeepot just for our parents or company that may want some. I make it so rarely though that I had to call Mom because I always forget how many scoops to cups. After making it he said that he only drinks it cold. I guess he's a true construction worker because I don't know many people that enjoy cold coffee. Oh well, I turned of the coffeepot and let it get cold. He had some later in the day.

Since the walls in the stairwell are going to be repainted anyhow, Thomas asked if we wanted a different color. Sam and I have talked about that anyhow and now is our chance to get it done for free. All of our walls are painted white and I'm not thrilled with it, but we just don't have time to repaint them at this time. We thought since the stairwell runs through each level of the house that by painting it a different color it might "warm up" the entire space. We're trying to decide on which color to go with.

Here is what the stairwell looked like as he tore out the wallpaper

Since we had to be at the house today with Thomas, Sam decided to put the medicine cabinets up in the master bath. Everything was going along as planned until he was drilling into the wall and the power went out. He thought maybe the hammer drill has just tripped the breaker so he tried it again. When the power went out the second time he realized he must have hit a wire. He thought he better be on the safe side and check how bad the wire was cut. Good thing he did because one of the three wires was cut in half. He replaced the wire, but since we now how to replace the tiles that job will have to wait until next weekend.

In past posts I've mentioned this old barn that sits at the back of our place. Well, Friday night we noticed they were starting to tear it down. I hate to see old buildings like that torn down to make way for new modern houses, but I guess that progress. Anyhow throughout the day yesterday we saw the rapid destruction of the barn. We found out that it was built in 1870. I guess here in Germany that's not considered very old. I found the rafters interesting. It didn't have the symmetry of modern day construction. Here are a couple of pictures from that.

Looking out to the barn behind our house.

A construction working cutting pieces out of the rafters.

Sam in the backyard

When Thomas was finished with what he could get done today he and Sam went to the backyard to watch the barn walls come down. Gabby was out with them and I guess one of the neighbor cats wandered close enough for her to see and she was off chasing it. I think she bit off more than she could chew though because the other cat whipped her little tail. I heard Sam calling for me and I opened the front door to find a dirty, disheveled Gabby crouching by the door. The other cat got the better of her and she was angry about it for quite awhile. She wouldn't let me touch her for at least an hour. On one hand I don't like to see my baby get beat up, but on the other she actually deserves it.

That was our Saturday. We didn't get as much done as we had hoped, but it's slow progress.

One year anniversary

Just a quick note to say that while at work yesterday I realized it had been one year since we arrived in Germany. It doesn't seem like it's been anywhere near that long. We arrived last year on the 26th of March. It's been a crazy, full and exciting year. Everything seemed so strange at first. I still feel like a foreigner here and probably always will, but that's alright because I am. I still haven't learned the language like I said I would. I truly was making an effort when I was in class, but I didn't get to finish that and then we started the whole ordeal of buying this house. It's a little harder now with working, but I'd still like to go to classes and learn to communicate a little bit in German.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I love this season and what the Easter celebration means to us as Christians. We had a really good church service this morning. I like that our church sings hymns. So many churches have moved away from singing them and that's one reason we've chosen this church. There's a richness to hymns that I don't find in a lot of the newer songs. Of course, I'm partial to them too because they're what I grew up singing. There are certain songs that I hear that make me think of home and hearing my Dad sing while getting ready for Sunday morning service. I miss those days. I miss my home and family. I'm so thankful that I come from a rich Christian heritage. During holidays I miss my family even more than usual. We always had so many traditions that accompanied each holiday. Probably since we lived in a small town and pretty much had just each other we really made events out of the holidays. I haven't done so well at bringing those traditions into my marriage. Maybe that comes with having kids. I definitely want to pass those memories on to my kids. This morning I had an instant message from my Mom talking about having company for dinner and making the traditional ham and potatoes. I know exactly how the day will go back home. I'd love to be there.

This is what we woke up to this morning. I haven't been able to figure the weather out here. Back home in Alaska I know what to expect - we usually get snow in October and have it until April or May. It's a different story here. We've had some really warm days lately and then this snow comes out of no where. I'm not complaining because I really enjoy the snow days. I do like our Alaska winters better though. In Germany I think the winters are more like the East coast. Really wet snow that rarely sticks and just turns to slush.

Some of our flowers covered in snow. I'm amazed at how hardy the flowers are here in Germany. It snows and they keep on blooming.

I don't know if I mentioned this in an earlier post or not, but one of the things we've been very frustrated with in this house is the cracks in the wallpaper. To us it seems like a strange way to cover walls in a house, but most German houses have wallpaper on the walls then it's painted. We were pretty disappointed with the job done in our house because all through the stairwell the seams have moved apart and there are actually cracks in some of the corners. We noticed them when we first moved in and were going to have the painter come in to do the repairs, but he said just to let him know when we were done moving furniture in so he could do touch ups to the walls at the same time.

Finally last week Sam was able to get in touch with Thomas (the painter) and he came by Friday evening to look at the walls. We were happy to hear him say it was a terrible job and needed to be completely redone. He said they tried to tell the contractor that the wallpaper should not be hung until the walls had more time to dry, but they were being pushed to get it done. Anyhow, we're very happy that the wallpaper will be replaced and it'll look good again. Thankfully things are slowly getting done.

Well, that's about all that's going on with us right now. I hope you had a wonderful Easter celebration. Until next time...

Still getting settled

I know it's been awhile since I posted. It's a little harder to get time to write with working full time. When not at work, any free time I have is spent still trying to get us settled. I don't like to make a habit of it, but last Sunday we ended up not going to church. I woke up feeling like the house would never get put together. It's hard to explain why it's taking so long to get finished with the move. I think the main reason is because of working full time and just not having the time I need to get everything unpacked and in its place. The other reason it's taking so long is because the house came with no built in storage. I think it's hard for Americans to understand, but in essence we bought a house with four walls and basically nothing else. I'm not crazy about the way they do things here in Germany, but that's what we're dealing with. We're buying closets and cabinets as we go. Storage is something we take for granted in the states. You just expect a house to come with closets (and a kitchen, lights, showers, etc, etc....).

I'm so thankful that we finally have our kitchen. There are a few things that need finished and I think they're coming back for that at the end of this month. I've put most everything away and we've even cooked a few meals in there. Of course, we've found a few things that we wish would have been done differently, but overall we're pretty happy with it.

I feel really good about what I got done today. We finally have a living room again. Until now, we've had a chair and a couch cleared, but boxes everywhere. We just had a path through the boxes. Today I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. I've been able to get my plants out of the top floor and put back in the living room. I love live plants in my house. I think it brings life into the space. I got that from my Mom. She has a much better green thumb than I do though.

Sam's doing a great job with the outside. He has the fence completed and has planted trees along the fence line. We bought some black raspberry bushes and planted them along one of the fences. We have a cherry tree, apple tree and today he bought a plum tree. In a few years we should be set in the fruit department. Today he put in some pavers for stepping stones going out the back gate. He also planted some flowers. It's looking really good outside.

Painting the fence

The finished product. It should grow out through the summer and look really good.

Last weekend he installed cabinets in the laundry room. I was so happy about that because I can finally clear everything off of the washer and dryer. It gives the room a much more finished look. There are quite a few pipes running down the wall and he was able to cover them with the cabinets.

My Mom and Dad are coming over in May for three weeks. I'm so excited about that! There's still a lot that I need to get done before then. Even though it's still a couple of months away the time goes quickly. We're trying to think about what we should do while they're here. Everyone we speak to has a different idea of must-see places in Europe. No matter where we go I think they're really going to enjoy seeing the different culture over here.

Sunday - 9 March
I started this yesterday, but obviously didn't get it posted. It's a beautiful day in Germany. The weather is getting warmer even though just last week we had snow that stuck for a day or two. After church we came home and worked on the yard a little bit. I got some seeds planted. I'm going to try to get Grandma Thorne's Hibiscus seeds to grow. In both Hawaii and the house in Plattenhardt I had them planted, but we left before they had time to grow. I'm hoping that now we'll be here long enough to see them mature.

Sam was so cute the other day. He came home from the greenhouse with a couple flats of flowers. He's really been enjoying fixing up the backyard. He was so excited about the flowers he bought. They really were beautiful. He just planted them yesterday. The flowers are pretty cheap right now, so I should be getting my window baskets together before long.

Ok, it's now Wednesday morning and as you can see I still have not posted this. I need to get ready for work, but first want to get this posted. Through the week it's just so busy that I don't really get the time to do much other than work and sleep. I can't wait to have more to talk about then the house. Pictures haven't been too plentiful lately. Hopefully, one of these days we get back to living and I'll have more interesting pictures to share. Until then...

We're still here!!!

Wow! What a month this has been! It feels like it's been so much longer than just one month since we moved into our new place. So much has happened and we've gone through so many changes during that time. I've felt out of touch with the world and my family since we've been without phone or Internet until just recently.

Don't even get my started on why it took a month to get phone and Internet up and working. I'm convinced that "German Customer Service" is an oxymoron. It's so different than America where in just a day or two you could have everything working in your new home. The phone company came three times before we were set up. We finally got our Internet back yesterday. I'm so happy to have that connection to the world again. Going through so much frustration with getting everything working in this house has really made me miss the States. It's difficult to get anything done here. Nothing is done quickly or easily. Oh well - enough about that.

My last post was right before we made the big move, which seems like ages ago. That Saturday, Julie, Michelle, James and Larry (who all work with Sam) came out to help get us moved to the new house. We were so thankful for their help. Even with everyone helping we were at it until late into the evening. We didn't get everything moved, but most of it. That was our first night sleeping in the new place because we no longer had a bed at the Plattenhardt house.

The guys working hard to get us moved

Julie, Larry and Michelle after a long day of work

That next week I spent every day moving the rest of our things and cleaning the house. It was a long and tiresome process, but we successfully cleared with our landlord on Thursday, January 31.

Of course the job was just beginning at the new house. We had paths in between all the boxes. We cleared off the couch and Sam's chair, so we at least had a place to sit. We were without phone, Internet or TV for quite awhile. All of my time was spent emptying what boxes I could and putting things away. Which ended up not being very much since we had no storage other than our closets at the beginning. It's going to take awhile to get completely settled. We're slowly getting closets and storage.

The mess of moving

The following Monday, February 4th, I started my job at Panzer. All the house work came to a screeching halt. I'm so tired at the end of the day that it's been hard to put a lot of energy into the house. We still have a mess, but it's a slow process and we'll get everything put away eventually. We're doing all we can on the weekend, but I would love to just have a month free to get everything in its place.

About the job - I can't say that I love where I work, but I am thankful to have it while I look for something else. That's all I have to say about that :)

Last Thursday and Friday our kitchen was delivered and installed. Whoo-Hoo!!! I am so thrilled to have a kitchen again and one with so much storage is a huge blessing. I'm very happy with our decision. My project this weekend has been cleaning out the cabinets and putting my kitchen things away. One thing the German's do absolutely right is kitchen cabinetry. I'm so impressed with it. I'm also very happy with my HUGE oven and stove top. Finally, I can use some of the baking dishes I brought with me from the states. I still have a lot to do because I'm washing all the dishes that have been packed away and trying to figure out where I want everything.

A look at our kitchen. There are still a few things that need finished, but we're on our way to a complete house.

Sam's been putting up a fence around our yard. He has just a small area left, but I think it looks really good and Gabby will be happy when she's able to run around outside again. We'll still have to watch her, but the fence will deter her from getting away too quickly.

Sam and James working on the fence out back

Update: Ok, so I started typing this on Saturday and it's now Tuesday. I'm just getting around to posting. We've been so busy with the house that any free time I had was spent emptying boxes or putting things away. I'll be so happy when we have a clean, comfortable home again. We are so blessed though and love our new home. Pictures will follow, but it may be awhile. I don't think they would do it justice at this point. Until next time...

Final post in this house

This will be my last post for a little while. I'm not sure how quickly we'll be set up with phone and Internet in our new place. I'm hoping it won't take long, but you never know. The phone company is coming out on Monday, but it's probably too optimistic to think we'll be all set up that day.

We've been so incredibly busy these past couple of weeks. I've been packing boxes here at the house and any chance we had we were working at the new house to get things in order. Thankfully, Sam has gotten all of the lights installed except for the dining room light which I haven't decided on yet. I still haven't given the house it's first good cleaning. Several days I started, but then realized how pointless it was while we were continually working there which was just causing more dirt.

Now I'm down to the wire. I went over today and started on the floors. There's a fine white dust covering everything and I just discovered that the vacuum picks most of it up. So, I broom swept then vacuumed, now I need to mop it a couple of times. I know it won't be perfectly clean for awhile, but it's a start.

Saturday we have several of Sam's co-workers coming over to help move. I'm a little stressed about that because I still have packing to do. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to the house to finish cleaning, then I'll be back here to finish packing. I'm really thankful that they are coming to help.

Something else that didn't help this week was being without heat or hot water for 4 days. Sunday morning Sam was showering and yelled for me. His water had turned cold. We called the furnace guy several times, but it always quit working again. Finally, yesterday a different repairman came and spent several hours working on it. The end result was that we finally had heat and hot water again. What a blessing! We truly take those things for granted and don't even think about it most of the time.

In the back of my mind starting a new job has been weighing on me. I don't mind working and I really do want to get back into a job. This March I'll have 10 years with the Federal system and I want to continue to gain time for retirement. However, I just feel heavy about starting. It's probably a combination of being right in the middle of our move and things I've heard about the boss. I don't want to go into it with a negative attitude though. I'm really thankful to have the job, especially right now when we're having to get so much for the house.

There is an ongoing situation with the driveway at our new place. The neighbors (the grumpy elderly couple I mentioned before) are fighting with our contractor about what access we have. From what I understand we have the legal right to use part of their drive to get to our garage (where I park), but they are keeping a chain up and making it difficult for us. At this point, our contractor has contacted his lawyer and they'll be fighting it out in court. Oh joy! I just want to be able to easily get to my garage without having the neighbors stare out their windows or yell at us. Is that too much to ask???

I think I've mentioned it before, but our garage has two parking spaces right on top of each other - you just lift or lower it to access the spaces. Anyhow, Sam's truck is too long and heavy to fit, so we've been using that space for storage. I didn't want boxes in the house until I had a chance to clean, so whatever we've taken over has been stored in the garage. I think we'll probably continue to use it as storage and I'll use the other space to park. The picture to the right is Sam with one of the loads we took over to store in the garage.


Quick update - I wrote the above entry Thursday night, but didn't get it posted. Now it's Friday evening and I'm exhausted. I spent a good 5 hours over at the house today scrubbing those dirty floors. My knees, shoulders and hands are talking to me from spending so much time on my hands and knees. It's such a reward though to see the finished product of a clean house.

Sam and I took a load over tonight. It's going to come together, but I still have a lot of packing to do. I'll be up early tomorrow morning trying to get it done before everyone arrives.

Our neighbor didn't disappoint. Right on cue, as I was putting the chain back up, he was walking out his door - I guess to let me know he saw that I moved the chain. I don't want issues with our neighbors. I just want to be left alone and able to park my car in the garage. I really hope that situation gets settled before too long. On a bright note though, we have a really nice neighbor in the multi-family home in front of us. He's from Bosnia and owns the house. He made it into 4 apartments. He and his family will live in one. Anyhow, he's been very nice.

Well, wish us luck with our move tomorrow. We want to get everything out this weekend, so I can clean and be out of here by Thursday.

Lights, closets and a new job

I need to learn to spread life events out over time. I always manage to either have absolutely nothing going on or the complete opposite where everything seems to happen at once. The past 9 months I've been jobless with plenty of time on my hands and wouldn't you know it, now that we're in the middle of a move I get a job offer. That's the way my life goes.

In all honesty I'm not terribly excited about the job. I have some reservations about where I'll be working, but I did accept the offer on Tuesday. I start on February 4th. They wanted me to start on January 28th, but there was no way I could with having to be out of our current house by the 31st. I'll be working in NAF Human Resources, which is what I did at Ft. Wainwright, so it should come back to me pretty quickly.

I really do need this job with everything we're having to buy for the new house. I love how many windows it has because it lets in a lot of light, but with that come lots of curtains. Then there's the kitchen, light fixtures, shower stalls, closets.....and the list seems to keep growing.

We've been having some frustrations with the new house. We had the final walk through 3 weeks ago and as of yesterday none of the repairs had been done yet. Meanwhile, we're waiting for them to get done and change the locks so that we can start moving in. Last weekend we were able to get in to put up some lights and start assembling our bedroom closet.

As I've mentioned before, they do things a lot different here than in the states. One thing that's very different is they don't leave you with a clean house - at all. Inside it's covered from top to bottom with white dust and the contractors have left trash and cigarette butts all over the house and grounds. Isn't that nice?

Since the house is so dirty it needs to have a complete cleaning before anything can be moved in. I'm sure it'll probably need to be mopped several times to get all the powder up. We had planned for some of Sam's co-workers to come over on Saturday to help move furniture, but that will have to be postponed since I haven't been able to clean yet.

A few nights ago Sam emailed the contractor and told him that we absolutely needed them to get done and out of the house so we can start to move. We have two weeks as of today, which is cutting it just a little too close for comfort. This morning we met the contractor, painter and electrician at the house to go over everything that still needs to be finished. Sam set up for them to change out the locks tomorrow and after that if anything still needs done they'll have to make appointments with us. I felt much better after meeting with them. At least we know that this weekend we can start the cleaning process and moving boxes over.

Thankfully, Monday is a holiday so Sam will be off work. We have a delivery for the washer, dryer and refrigerator set up for that day too. Also, the electrician and painter will be back in to finish up some projects that we requested. So....it's been a slow process, but it seems like we're finally getting somewhere.

I just can't wait for about 3 months down the road when we're finally settled and have our phone, Internet, satellite and kitchen installed and working properly. My poor, sweet husband has to set up most of those appointments since we're dealing with German companies. We're so thankful for Sam's secretary, Huri, who helps decipher our bills and even calls these companies for us. She's wonderful and really should get paid extra for all the help she gives on the side.

Back to last weekend - We had about 12 lights that Sam was going to install on Saturday, but his drill wasn't up to the job. These houses are built out of concrete and the drill just couldn't make any headway. So, Sam called James, who is the Asst. Director at SAS, to see if he could help out on Sunday. Sam works with some really nice people. James came out on Sunday with his hammer drill and they got all the lights up that day. We still have around 7 lights to buy and install, but it's amazing how much easier a job is when you have the right tools.

We lucked out on the closets. We thought they would fit with our ceiling height, but when we started putting them together we noticed there was only about 1/4 inch leeway between it and the ceiling. It'll be great once they're complete because it'll look like they were built into the room. If they ever have to be moved though we'll have to take them apart somehow.

Oh, one more thing...on top of everything we've have to buy for the house we can add one more thing - a door that fell over and broke in half. Technically it was my fault, but I was actually very frustrated with that situation because if the door had been on the hinges like it's suppose to be it wouldn't have been knocked over in the first place. I was mopping a floor on my hands and knees and bumped it with my foot. I didn't hit it hard, but it was enough to make it fall and split right in half. This morning the contractor told us they would be charging us for that door. No surprise there....

Well, that's what we've been up to lately. Once we move, we may be without Internet for awhile. I hope not, but I don't know how quickly things get done here. Here are a few pictures from last weekend.

Sam working on our closets Saturday evening.

The partially finished closets. We have to go back to Ikea for pieces they had to special order.

James helping Sam install the lights on Sunday.

The dirty living room cluttered with boxes that the closet came in.

Getting ready to move

I don't have any new pictures to post, but thought I'd refresh the page since it's getting a little boring seeing the same blog for more than a week now.

Last Thursday we had the final walk through with the contractor. There were a few things that needed to be finished, so he said we would probably get the keys this coming weekend. I'm very excited for it to be "ours" and be able to start moving in. We've had two families come look at the place we're in to see about renting it. The family that came yesterday said they definitely want it, so we're going to try to be out by the end of January. That would save us a month's rent and we're ready to be done with it anyhow.

During the walk through we found one more thing that's not included in the price of the home - shower walls. Go figure! The two bathrooms that have shower stalls have all the plumbing, shower head and floor in place, but we were told that we have to buy the shower walls. It's really unbelievable that after paying what we did for the house we still have so much to get. The entire kitchen, closets (there is absolutely no storage at all in the house, we have to buy it all), light fixtures and now showers. All I can say is I'm so thankful we sold our house in Hawaii. I just feel bad for people who buy a house here expecting to get it complete, then to find out all they still have to buy.

We're hoping to get the key by tomorrow so we can be in there early Saturday morning. Last weekend we bought quite a few lights, so Sam can start installing them. We're going to get a closet at Ikea and I'll start putting that together, then I'll clean the floors. There's white dust covering them, so they'll need to be mopped several times I'm sure.

Tuesday I had an interview for a job. It's not one that I'm terribly excited about, but my Leave Without Pay will be expiring in a couple of months, so I'd probably take it if offered. Although I'm in no hurry to start because now we're in the middle of this move. I had eight months without a job and now the month we're moving I get an interview. Isn't that the way it goes??

Well, I need to get busy. I have lots of packing to do and several errands to run. So, until next time...

Happy New Year - 2008!

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe it's already 2008...seems like it was just the other day when we were hearing all of the concerns about Y2K. Remembering how scared some people were about changing to the new millennium and everything we were being told could go wrong makes me want to trust a known God to an unknown future all the more. Things like that teach me not to worry or get too concerned about the future....God has it all in control.

Time sure does fly. I'm looking forward to great things this year. We're at a wonderful time in our lives. We'll be moving into our new home, we're looking forward to both of our parents coming for visits though out the year, we're happy, healthy and in love. I say that, not to boast in the least, but just because I know it has nothing to do with our goodness, but the blessings of God. There are times I struggle with feeling lonely and separated from everyone (and everything) I know and love, but I try to focus on what a wonderful time in our lives we're at. I really miss my family, but it's such a blessing to have a family to miss. It's because I have such a wonderful family and we love each other that I miss them so much. Sometimes I still can't believe we're living in Germany. What an awesome opportunity though! I will always love the States and that will forever be my home, but while we're here I want to experience everything that we can.

New Year's resolutions always come to mind this time of year. I don't think I've ever sat down at the beginning of a year and truly thought about things that I wanted to focus on changing. It's always in the back of my mind because that's part of the tradition...making New Year's resolutions just to abandon them a few weeks into the new year. Well, this year there are a few things that I want to focus on. Nothing I want to write about, just a few things in my life that could be better and with God's help they will be.

We didn't do much for New Year's Eve, which was kind of sad. Back home, I knew Mom and Dad were planning for their annual New Year's Eve party. I love standing around the bon fire behind the house as we watch the fireworks display. Well...maybe next year. But for this year we just watched a couple of movies and then at midnight stood on our bedroom balcony and watched fireworks going off all across Filderstadt. It was probably one of the nicest fireworks displays I've seen because we're up on a hill and can see the entire area. The Germans really go all out with the fireworks. It was loud and went on for quite awhile. So, when it was all said and done we felt like we had taken part in a celebration of the new year.

Here are the latest updates on our house -

Today at 3:00 we were going to have the final walk though at our new place, but just as I was heading out the door Sam called and said it's been postponed until tomorrow. There are a few things that the contractor was not satisfied with, so he wanted to make sure everything was in order before we met.

There's been a delay in ordering our kitchen, but I think we're back on track now. Since we're Americans living here covered by the Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA), we are not obligated to pay the 19% tax that the Germans do. This is a huge benefit, but has been the reason our kitchen hasn't been ordered yet. After the fact, we found out that the VAT office will only approve a kitchen up to $15,000 because more than that is not considered removable and if we decide to sell down the road and a German buys it they will not have paid tax on the kitchen. Thankfully, Someone was looking out for us and we were able to break it down to have two separate payments. One for the cabinetry and the other for the appliances. All of this had to be approved and with the holidays it's taken quite awhile. I just took the first VAT form to the kitchen store today, so I think it will now be ordered and we should have a kitchen in the house in 6-8 weeks. We'll do just fine with a microwave until that time.

Friday morning we have an American family coming to look at the house we're renting. Basically, we're required to pay rent through February. If, however, we get someone to rent it -say the beginning of February - then we would only have to pay through January. That would be wonderful since the rent for these next two months is coming out of pocket because we have the house payments now too. Of course if they want to rent this house we'll have to kick it up a notch and get moving into the other house as quickly as we can.

I am amazed at the bureaucratic red tape we've gone through with buying this house. We've been getting bills from the Notary almost every other day it seems. If I understand it correctly, each house here in Germany has its own book, called a "Grünbuch". This book will be in the house records - down at city hall....forever. Each person that owns it must pay to get their name written in as the new owner. So, for our new place the contractors name has been written as the owner. Part of the fees, taxes and registration we've paid was to get our name in that book. Not only have we paid to get our name in the book, but we first had to pay to reserve a place for our name. It seems like we pay for every single step in the process. The way they do things here seems so ancient and hard for me to understand, but they certainly do keep good records. We will be so glad when it's over and I'll breath a long sigh of relief when I realize it has all worked out and we're settled. Until then I'm a little uneasy.


In closing...this is just one of the many things I absolutely love about living here. We were driving home last night and along side the road was a shepherd with his flock of sheep. I love watching a shepherd with his sheep, it's such a beautiful, peaceful scene. I could sit and watch them for hours. The sheep dogs are amazing to watch. This one kept his eyes on us and kept himself between us and "his herd" the entire time. As we drove by he kept moving so he was between us and the sheep. I would have liked to get a better close up, but I didn't want to bother them.

That's about it from here, so I want to wish you all a wonderful, happy new year. Until next time...

Visiting Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I should apologize in advance because this ended up being a pretty long post. I didn't have to post so many pictures and I know a lot of people may not be interested in them, but I know my Mom will be and after all that is my original reason for starting this blog. So, feel free to skip this one if you don't want to hear me rattle on and show pictures from our weekend.

We just got home from church not too long ago. We stopped by Patch Barracks to get a couple of movies for the next few days, then we went to eat at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. It's a place we first discovered when we made a few wrong turns in Sindelfingen. The first day we ate there we felt like we were in an Italian commercial, sitting out on the cobblestone courtyard with people walking along the streets. We've been back there several times and we always enjoy it.

Usually at some point during the weekend we stop in at our new place to peek in the windows and see if anything new has been done. We have our walk through with the contractor on Wednesday, so everything should be done by then. We're very excited about it. The only thing that stinks about the new place is the parking situation. That's not so good. We share a garage with the neighbor right beside us. We have two parking stalls on top of each other. So, it's a double-wide garage with two levels and it can be raised or lowered depending on which level your vehicle is parked. They do that here to save space I guess. Sam's truck won't fit in though, so he'll be parking down the street

The driveway is shared with one of the neighbors who has lived there for many years. Our drive is very narrow to begin with then he puts up a chain to mark the property line, so we can't back into his side of the drive to help us get turned around (even though he doesn't use that area to park in - he has a large parking area further back). We're hoping for the best, but I'm concerned he could end up being someone that's hard to deal with. I don't really blame him for being frustrated about these townhouses being built right beside his house, but it's done and hopefully we can all just get along.

Yesterday we were planning to drive to Rothenburg ob der Tauber to explore that city. Before leaving though we called the post office to see if we had any package slips in our box. There was but the lady Sam spoke to said they weren't opening the window for another two hours. Well....we decided to try our luck and stopped by Patch on our way and there was not one...but TWO slips in the box. Sam persistently kept knocking on the window until someone opened it, had pity on us and handed us our boxes. I was thrilled to get the boxes, but did feel really bad that we pushed our way through. It's hard for me not to follow the rules. Anyhow, we got a box from my Mom and Dad and one from my sister. Of course we waited until we got home that evening to open them.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is an old 16th century medieval town. Old town Rothenburg, which is in the center of the modern city, is still surrounded by the original stone wall. It's really awesome and we didn't have near enough time to go through the whole place. It was mostly cobblestone roads with lots of shops and bakeries. Lots of old buildings. During the summer we read that the town citizens re-enact life as it was in the 1600s. I'd like to go back to see that. At this time of year it was pretty chilly, but we really enjoyed seeing it all.

This is at one of the entrances to the city. On our way out we realized there was a walkway on the wall that we could have explored.






People actually still live within the old town too. We were taking a shortcut through some of the houses. It's crazy how close together they built them. This walkway leads between the buildings.

Sam at one of the town entrances

This is a Schneeballen or Snowball. We saw these everywhere and had to see what they were like. Basically, it's dough that's been rolled out then sliced and crumpled into a ball before being deep fried. Some have marzipan, vanilla cream or nougat in the center. They come in a variety of flavors. Some are covered in cinnamon & sugar, powdered sugar or chocolate. We had a hard time choosing. We didn't think they were the best dessert we've ever had, but it was interesting to try.

I'm not sure what building this is. Perhaps the Rathaus or city hall.

These horses were just beautiful. They had long hair down their legs. This wagon gave tours around the city. Maybe next time we'll have to try it out.

There were lots of Christmas stores with beautiful nutcrackers, smokers and ornaments. Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas stores began business in 1964. The stores can be found all over Germany and they have beautiful decorations. This vehicle was parked in front of the Käthe Wohlfahrt store here in Rothenburg ob der Tauber which has been in business since 1977.

We visited the Criminal Museum while we were there. It had medieval instruments of torture and law enforcement. Some of the items on display were incredibly creepy. Whoever created a lot of the torture methods had to be somewhat demented. Anyhow, it was still interesting to see. This is one of the displays with the spike chair and I think that's an arm twister in the back. I know....it's sick.

Sam posing with some of the dummy masks they used for humiliation purposes. It was amazing to me the things they had to discipline/humiliate quarrelsome women. Like a piece of wood with holes for two women's heads and hands (also used for a married couple). They would be put in this contraption until they worked out their differences. I am SO glad not to be living in those times. Women didn't have much of a say in anything it seemed.

Sam standing under a human cage in front of the museum

My own personal knight in shining armour

Stairs that lead to the top of the wall. Next time we'll have to walk around the city this way. It was getting late at this point so we wanted to head home. We still had two Christmas boxes to open when we got back which we thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you Mom/Dad and Kristy! We really enjoyed opening everything.

Well, there you have our weekend in a nutshell. Seems like there's always something to do or see here in Europe. Hope you enjoyed the little tour of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Sam has to work tomorrow, but then has New Year's Day off. I like it when he's off work and we can be together. I wish everyone a Happy New Year. Talk to you next year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you! I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends. We enjoyed our day, although I always miss my family around this time of year. It's so much better when we have family to share the season with.

This was only the second Christmas we've spent truly by ourselves. Other years we've either been with my family or Sam's. We both have traditions that we grew up with and so we're trying to incorporate both sides into how we celebrate the season. Sam grew up with the German traditions of setting out the boot or shoe on the eve of St. Nicholas' feast day (Dec 5) and the advent calendar (both of which we'll probably do with our kids). They also have dinner and open gifts on Christmas Eve where my family primarily celebrates Christmas day with opening gifts in the morning then having dinner in the afternoon. We want to combine our family traditions so we can both feel like a part of us has been brought into our new family.

So, this year we were going to open a gift or two after coming home from the Christmas Eve service at Patch, but through poor planning on our part we only had 2 gifts each. We just decided to do stockings that evening and waited on the gifts for Christmas morning. We still have gifts coming in the mail for each other as well as from our families.

We planned on having my friend, Carmen, and her family for Christmas dinner, but they've only been in Germany for 2 weeks and didn't feel like they could get to the train station and on down here. So, it was just us. I still made the full dinner of turkey, dressing, potatoes, candied yams, squash, cranberry relish and bread, but it would have been nice to have others to share it with. We'll just be eating leftovers for the next week, but then isn't that normal?

On another note, Saturday on our way home we stopped in at our new townhouse. Pathetic?...maybe, but we just like to look in the windows and see the progress. I was so excited to see that the wooden stairs had been installed, as well as, the hand rail and bathroom door (we can only see the ground floor). We also saw the hardwood stacked downstairs waiting to be put on the floors. We have our final walk through on January 2nd, so we're pretty excited about that. The townhouse next to ours has been sold to another American couple and the other unit has been looked at by Americans. We just might have little America there by the time it's done.

Last Friday, I heard a thump upstairs and when I went to see what it was I saw this bird on our balcony with Gabby watching it closely. It must have flown into the window hard and stunned it. It was pretty chilly out, so I went to get a box with a towel in it to put out by the bird. Thankfully, by the time I got back it had flown away. Gabby could hardly contain herself though when that bird was just feet from her. How exciting for the little hunter that she envisions herself to be!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve. Try as I might I have not been able to figure out the timer on our camera, so we had to resort to individual pictures or seeing who's arm was longest(hence the funny angle of the pictures). We're both pretty short so those didn't turn out as good as we wanted, but here they are anyhow.

I wanted a picture of us in front of the Christmas tree, but this was the best we could do.

We wanted one with Gabby although she doesn't look too excited to be in the picture.

Me in front of the tree.

My sweet husband in front of the tree.