Our New Place

We feel very blessed to be where we are now. After many long nights of scouring the Internet, weekends of apartment visiting, much prayer, and help from some friends, we have found a really nice place to meet the needs of our family. Many people have asked, "How did you land here?" Or have said things like, "We looked for 2 years before finding our place here."

It was challenging to find a place near 3 different schools, a grocery store, and a train stop that allowed 3 children and was in our price range! Before we could thank our landlord enough, she showed up with an apple peach cake for US!

We have nice neighbors all around, and have met some really nice kids and moms since school has started. There is a weekly open-air market in the cute, little downtown area just a few blocks away, and a park within a few steps. Some of the buildings in the pics. may look like big houses. Most of them are divided into 2 buildings and then into apartments. We have a 2-bedroom.

Saying Goodbye to the City

What we miss:
So much shopping so close by
Fantenella Ice cream
Fresh, hot pretzel stands
The children's library
Myles being able to walk to work
Lots of parks close by
Frau Pisch
Klara and her boys
our balcony and view of the castle

What we don't miss:
the noise
the crowds
worrying about being hit by cars
living on the 4th floor
knowing so few people

It's been fun to be able to experience life in the city and now life in a village.

I Believe I Can Fly

I Believe I can touch the sky!

We found this fun teeter totter while Myles was getting his hair cut. They seem really big into balancing here. At school for recess, Carly gets to try out Pogo balls, Pogo sticks, stilts, and other fun toys. At PE, they balance on benches and do other "crazy" things. "Only one kid fell on his head, but he was OK."

Singing in the Rain or Sunshine

When we take the umbrella, we don't need it. When we don't take it, we do! Oh, well. We decided that this day that turned out to be sunny would be a fun day for a photo shoot.

This fountain and town square was just a few blocks away from our first apartment in the city. We also took a few in front of one of our fav. places there--a children's library. The kids thought it was so cool that they each got their own cards, and I didn't get one!

one BIG fun park!

We have gone multiple times to this park and have still only seen a small part of it. Here Carly is in the "jungle" with banana trees and other tropical plants. You can also visit a desert area, butterfly house, reptile house, etc.

We get to try out cool playground equipment here that we've never seen before. Above is a teeter totter/swing/merry-go-round combo. Below is a zipline that I even tried. There are also trampolines.

At this park, you'll find storks walking around. Next summer, we'll have to go back and check out the water play areas. We also haven't seen the Chinese gardens yet...

Catch up from Robyn's B-day

My favorite part was how excited Carly and Macy were to buy and give Robyn her presents. Playmobil is really big here, and they found some cute ones for her.

They had fun making a German cake.

This one reminded us of milking the goats at Aunt Becky's.

Robyn had been asking for rollerblades for a very long time, so it was fun to get them for her. She's caught on pretty fast and rode all the way to the lake on the bike path by our new place. She was nice about letting Carly try them out, too. (They're adjustable for a few sizes, which is nice).

It's all relative

I remember thinking when I got braces that I could hardly stand the pain. After having a baby, I felt like I could probably do anything.

I remember thinking some things in The States were hard to do or hard to find. Now, I think, "I could do anything in English!" I am understanding a little bit more every day.

Before we sold our house, we thought our kitchen was small and our closets were tiny. When we came to Germany, our kitchen was smaller than our bathroom, and there were no closets.

Now that we've moved from that downtown apartment to our 2-bedroom apartment in a suburb, everything feels so spacious again! Although, the room for the kitchen is bigger, but we have to put everything in it. Maybe that phrase, "They took everything and the kitchen sink" originated here because when people move they literally take everything, including the kitchen sink, oven, fridge, cabinets, light fixtures... And, we thought we were wiping our hands clean of all home-improvement projects when we became renters!

Our latest date nights, besides assembling and installing things, have been translating the kids' notes from school. Words like "Zusammengehorigkietsgeful" or "Einschulungsunteruchung" are always fun. Google translate is helpful, but sometimes still leaves us wondering like when it says the kindergarten couldn't take the money out of our bank account because there was a lightning strike!

The whole school system is very different here. More on that later, but, overall, the kids have done great.

Carly is not only learning German, but also cursive because the kids already learned that last year in first grade (with a fountain pen). She's doing really well. She has the most fun at Sport (PE), Musik, recess, and English!

Robyn has really grown up, riding her bike to school and having to keep track of a different schedule with different books everyday. She's a good sport about having to translate her Latin homework into German and then into English!

Although this has been a bit challenging, we have been blessed with super friendly, helpful, and generous people from church, our neighborhood and the schools. People have shared furniture, food, and even Kleenex with us.

Just a few examples:

One family was storing their son's furniture from college, but he got married and moved to the States. They let us have it all, including a freezer, which was so nice to have when we were without a fridge! (We bought a skillet and someone else let us us a burner you can plug in). The wife helps kids with reading and has spent time helping Carly and Robyn read German.

One woman picked us up and all of our laundry so we could do it at her place before we had our own washer. (She and her friend also fed us dinner and sent us home with treats and hand-me-downs for our girls).

When the washer was delivered, the man was only supposed to leave it outside. You were supposed to pay a lot of extra money for him to bring it inside, but for no extra fee, he brought it all the way downstairs for me. Once we had the washer, Myles' wrist hurt and he didn't have much time. I called him at work to see if we should ask someone to help us hook it up. A couple hours later, a neighbor stopped by to see if we needed help with that very thing!

Macy had a great first week at kindergarten, but refused to go at the beginning of the second week. She was crying, and after awhile I started crying, too. A mother from England had her daughter play a game with her and speak English with her. Then, she invited me over to her house for tea.

Another family helped us get our apartment, which is in a great neighborhood.

The pediatrician have the girls bracelets he brought back from his vacation to Turkey.

A couple nice moms arranged for their kids to pick up Robyn for school so they could ride their bikes together. One of them is originally from Bolivia. So, we were sitting in her German kitchen, speaking Spanish, and eating cookies from Holland!

We've always said we could live anywhere, as long as we had each other. I think this is true. I also realize more than before that we all need each other, whether we're getting our braces on, having a baby, or just having one of those days.

We might not all speak the same language, but we're all human. Like I said, "It's all relative."

Everyday

Some every day fun in our first apartment. I liked our pretty well established routine of a post lunch quiet time with books and possible siesta. Maybe a sign I'm becoming more European.

Chillin' in the Courtyard

Before I can even write much about our last apartment, now we've moved into another one! It is nice to have more space (2 bedrooms) and be in more of a neighborhood. At our last place, we did enjoy the courtyard, a bit of green space that you can't see from the road.

Double Digits in Deutschland!

Where has the last decade gone? Yesterday, I was holding you in the hospital, and today, you're holding our dinner you made! Ever since we got here, you've been extra helpful in the kitchen. Daddy says, "Maybe because it's just her size."

This is our courtyard, one of your fav. places.

Here you are with Carly. It has been fun living across the street from the palace.

Although, you're happy as a queen at the children's library! Your only complaint? The English section is too small. I'm sure you'll be able to read that German Harry Potter before you know it!

We love you. We're so glad you're in our family.

Thanks for being such a good sport, and Happy Birthday!

love, Mom

Our First Month

It's hard to believe we've been here for over a month now. Some of the days, especially at the beginning, seemed really long, but now the weeks seem to be zipping by.

We're starting to feel more comfortable, especially as we've started making some friends. At first, I'd get a stomachache whenever we went out in public because I had no idea what people were saying to me, and I was super hypersensitive about the kids being too loud or in other people's way. There are few children here, especially in the downtown area. Even though the grocery store is very crowded, you could still hear a pin drop. We're getting used to going shopping every day, where things are, etc.

People at Myles' work, as well as people at church have been really friendly and helpful. Thanks to their suggestions and help, along with scouring the Internet for months, and much prayer, we finally sealed the deal on an apartment! It ended up being a bit more expensive and farther away from Myles' work than we'd hoped, but we love everything else about it, especially the location. It is in a nice neighborhood just steps away from a park and the train stop, a few blocks from Macy and Carly's schools, a short bike ride on a bike path away from Robyn's school and a lake, and within walking distance of shopping. We feel really blessed that it worked out in time.

Now, we get to start shopping for a kitchen (not included), beds, etc.

Talk about a Welcoming Party!

We arrived in Germany just in time for one of the biggest concerts of the year, right in our own front yard!

Fans and bands came from all over the world, including Ricky Martin (not our fav.) and Foreigner (fun to sing along with).

We liked this band called Sunshine Ave. from Finland the best.

The 8-hour concert ended with phenomenal acapella singers on the balcony of the palace, timed to an amazing fireworks show, right out our window. Myles and I were so pleased to have such a fun date right off the bat, and we didn't even have to get a babysitter!

The Best "Eis" around!

This famous Italian ice-cream is mm...mm...good! I love hearing the Italian families' accents and trying new flavors like apricot lavender, walnut fig, cinnamon, etc. We like getting different flavors, trying each other's, and voting on the best.

German Playgrounds

There is a lot of playground equipment here that we've never seen before. Someone told us, "In The States, there are lawsuits. Here, people are just expected to watch their kids."

This mentality provides much more free entertainment! This is a teeter totter merry-go-round all in one was fun for Myles and I as well.

Although the girls have not been super excited about apartment hunting ever since we got here, they have had fun exploring new parks at each new area we visit. They know the towns better by "the park with the..." than their names.

Good old-fashioned merry-go-round

A "spider web," as the girls like to call it. Unfortunately, Macy got stung by a wasp here, so she doesn't want to go back. We had no ice or baking powder and were really grateful for a neighbor who shared some baking powder/water paste with us, along with the chocolate cake she'd bought the baking powder for.

They seem really big into balancing things here. There's usually some kind of balance beam at most parks we've been to. This school playground has several balance beams and even tighropes several feet off the ground!

This is a lower one without handrails.

"P" is for Pretzel!

One of our favorite lunches is freshly baked soft pretzels from a street vendor and yogurt from the grocery store. Since Myles and I were here in Feb., the price of pretzels has gone up twice. We're not sure if this is a sign of inflation, just tourist season, or both.