Blessings!!!

This year, the Lord has given us so so many blessings. Some of them even blessings that I didnt ask for but He knew was in my heart's desire. Today was absolutely no exception! We are in love! We took a trip to a little village called Weil der Stadt (click on the link there to read some facts about the town), it's called the gateway to the BlackForest, to see a house we were considering to rent. We were told, on paper, this was a roomy house but only had 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. The house had lots of potential to us but we were holding out hope for another house we were told about. This other house wasnt going to be available until mid September AND it was further out and off of the school bus route. But it was bigger and sounded very nice, that and we were able to see pictures at least of that bigger house. Today, all that has changed.

This house we looked at today was severely misrepresented LOL, but in a good way. The first thing we noticed was that the neighborhood is VERY quiet. There was a large front and back yard, both fenced in, lots of room for kids and dog to play. :) The inside is VERY roomy, three floors plus basement and a garage. The basement has an possible extra bedroom and another bathroom - lots and lots of storage, which we appreciate. :) The ground floor has the living room/diningroom mix and kitchen. The kitchen is a bit small but there's a lot of counter space and it's "workable". Upstairs has three bedrooms and a balcony that leads out one of the rooms. They're "ok" size, big enough for the kiddos at least. There's also another bathroom (thankfully another misrepresentation, there is more than one bathroom lol). Finally upstairs, the "attic" is one GIANT room, wooden paneled walls and floor, gorgeous room. This is one we're planning to make the master bedroom. We've counted a possibly 4-5 bedroom house. I have no idea why they're advertising as a 3 bedroom lol. It's a duplex but you, honestly, cant tell. The houses are connected in a caty-corner sort of way so you dont even see the other house. We were just completely impressed with this house and on Monday we should be making it final that yes, we want to live there.

After viewing the house, we decided to take a look around the village and get a feel for it. We went over to the "old town" area and since it was Saturday morning, it is also market day. The town?! GORGEOUS!! Oh my gosh, it looks like something out of a story book. I took pictures but it really doesnt do it any justice. Cobblestone roads, storybook looking houses, a giant church in the middle. I feel like writing a postcard to all of you with "wish you were here".

Here are some pictures of the beautiful town we will be calling home for the next three years, God willing: (remember, click the pictures to enlarge them for a better look)

Here's a picture down one of the cobblestone streets in the city center area.

Here is an awesome fountain we found in the town. It has all kinds of fun and cute characters in it. If you look off to the side there are even a few sitting in benches or standing on the stairs.

Today was market day, you can see some of the vendors here set up selling their VERY fresh fruits, veggies, eggs, etc. The peaches were the size of melons!!!! I plan on visiting this market quite a bit. lol :)



Here is a view from the Markt square, you can see the church tower in the backdrop. We werent sure what the white building in front is, we think it might be a town hall.



And here's a view on our way out of the city wall, just gorgeous:



For a small town, there's no shortage of shops or places to get what you need, especially icecream parlors. LOL There's even a main hub train station so if we need to get to town and we dont have a car... OR... even if we want to go travel anywhere by train, it's within walking distance. I wish I was able to get pictures of the house, but I would have felt awkward doing that with the landlord there. I promise pictures when we start moving in. :)

And one final note, I just wanted to say Happy 33rd Anniversary today to Mom and Dad! You two are amazing and I love you very much! I hope you're having a great time together today!! :)

Catching Up

I realize I've been a bit slack on the posting the last few days. Really, there hasnt been much to post about.

Last Sunday, the weather turned out better than expected so we decided to so some walking around with hopes that we'd run into a fest. It didnt take long to find one. LOL We started seeing signs for a Kinderfest (children's festival) in the next town over so we asked a few people and with much pointing a nodding we found our way to the fest.

We arrived JUST in time to see a parade. Lots of children marching down the road with their little clubs and orginizations. There were schools and preschools represented, some swimming clubs and let us not forget the all important Football (soccer) clubs. Everyone in the parade were dressed up in little costumes and pretty much every group had candy or a toy to throw out to the children standing on the sides. The boys' pockets were flooding with candy!

After the parade was finished, everyone flooded into the town square and promptly stood in line for all the food and beer you could get. There was a playground off to the side so we shuttled the boys over there to play while D. went off to locate the beer stand. :) Tons of children were playing in the playground and as children always do, language barriers never stop them from playing together. The boys had a great time.

Through the week, not much happened. We went to housing, hoping to find a house, unfortunately the jury is STILL out on that. We made two appointments to visit houses while we were there. One of the appointments was yesterday, but we were supposed to wait for an email confirmation before we could go see it. That never came. Thats ok though, I wasnt overly excited about living in a 3bedroom apartment anyway. The 2nd house is another 3 bedroom but it's a duplex and further out into the countryside - at the verge of the Black Forest. We are due to see that tomorrow afternoon. This one I'm more excited about.

We rented a car so we could easily get out to these places to see these homes. Today we decided to take a trial run out to the village of the house we're going to see tomorrow, and I'm glad we did. The exit we were supposed to take on the Autobahn (like an Interstate for the US) was closed so we got NICE and lost in the country side. HAHA! BUT, it was a good lost! We got off at the next possible exit and sure enough we see backroad type signs that pointed toward the village we were destined for. It was soooooooooo gorgeous out there!! Farm houses, country settings, TINY little roads LOL. I just enjoyed all of it. I tried to take pictures while we were on the road. They didnt turn out the best but there are a few below of some of the buildings.



Click on these to make them bigger.



This here is a HUGE farmhouse we saw on the side of the road:

And these are the signs that were posted outside of it. They had eggs, onions and potatoes.
Here is a road up into one of the little towns we came upon (I dont remember the name to be honest, Mirklinger? maybe)


And some pretty little houses along the side of the road

OH! and I almost forgot, before we took this little road trip, we had to take the dog out of the hotel for about an hour so they could paint some things in the room. We took Copper and the boys over to a playground on base. They had a good time and I was able to snap a few pictures of them. :)

Trip to town with PICTURES

Yay!! I finally remembered to bring the camera with us to town!!

We had a good day today. We took the train back into the center of town - to the Schlossplatz - where they were having a United Buddy Bear exhibit. I mentioned it before in another post, but a quick recap, they have bears painted individually representing all the nations in the world. They're beautifully painted and on display for you to take pictures and look at. They travel with this exhibit, apparently, all over the world. We got lucky to catch them in Stuttgart.

After looking at the bears we took a walk around and looked at some places we didnt get to see last time. Today was market day but unfortunately we missed most of them but we did get to go into the more "prestigious" (ie expensive) one LOL. The food in there was FABULOUS. It all looked like it was plastic. They had fruits and veggies and meats and cheeses from all over the world. It was a food connoisseur's dream, Dad, I think you would have loved it. I was tempted to buy something but I mostly just wanted to look for now. Of course, I'm not regretting it because I cant get the thought of those rasberries out of my head. LOL

Ok, I took TONS of pictures. Most of them I put in a slideshow at the bottom of this post here for you all to look at. If I put them up individually, this post would be FOREVER long. But I will point out a few here and tell you about them. :) (remember you can click on these pictures to view them in full size)

Here is one of the many Buddy Bears we took pictures of. Of course, this one is the bear representing the USA.



These two here are Schlossplatz. The bears are all lined up around these fountains. There's also a lot of nice lush grass to lay or sit and have a picnic in. :)




This is a gorgeous little market square right next to the Schlossplatz. The church, the building on the left, is both a protestant and a catholic church all in one. D. was told on his German orientation class about this building. The instructor pointed out that at the top of the church is a cross and a rooster. The Cross represents the Catholic and the rooster is for Protestant (because of the cock crowing 3 times before Peter betraying Jesus). You can just see them on the top of the church there in this picture.



Below is the slide show, it might take a few minutes to load there are a ton of pictures in it. Each picture is labeled with a title to give you an idea of what it is. :) Enjoy!

An Unexpected Suprise

Alright, it's official, as soon as we're financially secure over here and setttled, I'm getting a small camera to fit in my purse.

Today, after the pouring rain had passed, we took the train out to the shopping plaza where the doctor's office is located. We wanted to make sure we knew where we were going and how long it'd take to get there. All the shops here are closed on Sundays so I didnt expect to be doing anything but locating the office and heading back to the hotel before the next rain wave came through.

As we're walking towards the plaza we hear the faint sound of music but dont think much of it. We walk into the square and there's this little "fest"going on. There's some children's rides and a bouncy castle. There's even a human game of Fooseball. The children were holding on to these large poles like they were the plastic pieces to the game and they were kicking the ball, trying to get it into the goal. It was adorable!

The boys got to jump around in the bouncy castle for a while. They really enjoyed that. There was this other boy in there, he looked like he was about S.'s age but twice the size. He wasnt fat but just a big, strong, looking boy. I was wishing I had my camera. Just the way he looked and in his over-alls, he was like the poster-boy for Germany. Very cute! hehe

Then in the center there was a stage and music playing with some folk dancers in traditional style dress. They actually had several different "shows"while we were there. There were some children dancing to what looked like an Alice and Wonderland story and another was what looked like some dancers to a traditional Greek or Turkish style dance.

They had a bunch of food vendors there too. This was very different for us in the way that you ordered and payed. They had a central cashier where you ordered your food/drink and then she gave you a ticket for each item. You then take your ticket to the booth that serves the food and exchange it. One of the things D. ordered was a beer and he got 2 tickets one says it's for the beir and the other says it's for the beirglas (beer glass). So we're confused now and think, well maybe it's for the glass, they give it to you to take home. Of course, I think we were the only English speaker's there but the people are very patient with us and through sign language and lots of pointing and nodding we find out that you are supposed to turn the glass back in and you get your 2 euros that you paid for it back. Kind of like insurance they get their glass back. :)

It was a surpisingly good day. Here we thought we'd be dodging rain and just running out quickly and we find a hidden little fest and get to mingle with the culture a bit. Who says there's nothing to do here on Sundays?!

Baby News!!

Nope, sorry, we dont know whether the baby is a he or she just yet but we should know very soon. :)

D. took time off his special German orientation class and we went to base to get a few things settled. One of which, was to get my referral from Tricare (the military insurace) so I can see a doctor in town. They got me all set up! I have my very first appointment on Monday morning. I'll be seeing a female doctor and... get this... they have the 3D ultrasound so I'll be able to see pictures of the baby in 3D!!!! Yipee!!

This is NOT our baby (I repeat, NOT OUR BABY) but incase you didnt know what a 3D ultrasound picture looks like, this is an example I found on the web:


I promise, as soon as we get a picture, and have internet access again (since we'll be losing the internet just a day short of the appointment), I will post a picture of our baby. I think we will be getting the internet again. Maybe not quite right away, but soon after we get some pay sorted and things all figured out again.

Also today, while we were sitting in the Tricare office a big ol'storm passed through. It was funny because we got held up because of some computer glitch and she had to wait for our referal to pass through. Good thing too because this was quite a storm. It just started pouring and then all of a sudden the outter doors few open and we saw ALL this hail coming down. I wish I had my camera (again another instance where a tiny camera for the purse would have been great hehe). I've never seen hail come down like that - only on TV have I seen that. Even the German lady helping us with the Tricare referal said she's never seen that before, it's very rare in Germany. I laughed and said we must have brought the storms with us. Yep, ma, the storms are still looking for me, even across the ocean. hahah!!

Our Hotel Room

Well since I've been lacking on the pictures side AND it's another rainy day. I decided to share some pictures of our hotel room with you all :). (You should be able to enlarge the pictures by clicking on them)



This here is the living room/boys' room. You can kind of tell in this picture how big the room is. Just outside the big window there is the balcony with a table and some chairs.







Connected to that room is the dining/computer area. You see the boys there doing their favorite past time. ;)




This is the cute little kitchen I was telling you about. It's cozy and we've finally figured out ways to make decent microwave meals so we dont have to go out to a restaurant everynight.






Here is our bedroom. Those comforters folded on the bed are the only sheet/blanket we have but they are SUPER warm and comfortable.







This is the view from the terrace. There's a nice park out there to walk the dog and let the boys run around... when it's not raining :)







And last but not least... Copper :)

Brrrr!

It's a chilly day today so we're mostly staying inside again. Plus D. has to work so we're keeping the exploring to a minimum today. :)

Ok, so the plan to go to the zoo yesterday fell through. Sorry, guys, no pictures again. SIGH. Instead we decided to kill two birds with one stone: save some money and get some checking in things done on base.

We finally got me registered on base so that I can easily get inside. Before being registered, I had to make a mad dash from bus to guard shack, get signed in a log and rush back to the bus hoping they dont leave without me. Now I get to stay on the bus like everyone else hehe.

We also went to housing and got started on the countdown to getting a house. The good news is we're on the list for a 4 bedroom, senior enlisted house... bad news... she said it's probably going to take 30-60 days. *sob* I'm not exactly thrilled about staying in this hotel for that long but I suppose it could be worse. At least by the time we get the house our furniture should be here. (trying to stay positive, here) ;)

July 4th Weekend

On the 4th we went to the base festivities - I was kicking myself the whole way because I forgot the camera.

We had to walk to Kelley (the closest base to our hotel, about a 10-15min walk) and then take the free shuttle they have on base to where the fun was being held (on Patch). There are actually 4 bases here in the city, all spread apart, but connected with the free shuttle system, which is nice.

It was a gorgeous sunny day. They had tons of food and games and some kiddie carnaval-type rides for the boys - they liked that best. The boys even played a ball toss game and won themselves their very own balls. Fireworks weren't until 1030 at night so we didnt stay for that. Mainly because Copper wouldnt be able to do the pee-pee dance for that long (he was still in the hotel) and I was still struggling with the jet lag and all the walking on top of it.

Walking! Oh my goodness! haha! I had a "big plan" before we left that I would "make sure" I got up each morning to walk and get my exercise in. HAH! I certainly dont need that!! It's great! (trust me, I'm not complaining) We walk EVERYWHERE unless we need to take a train and then we walk after that!

On Saturday we took the U-Bahn train - kind of like an above ground subway train here for the city- and went into the heart of town to the main shopping district. We ran into another American couple - thankfully - who helped us figure out the ticketing machine. We probably would have missed a couple of trains if it werent for their help! LOL

We got to the district, no problem. The boys loved the train btw!! This area is like a huge outdoor mall. The street - more of a pedestrian street, no cars allowed - was lined with all kinds of stores and restaurants (even McD's and Pizza hut). And right smack dab in the middle is a big park with fountains and a famous building that you see in all the pictures when you google Stuttgart (I have no clue what this building is yet though ROFL).




Everyone was out loungin in the grass. The boys played in the fountains for a bit while we looked around and tried to figure out all the events that were going on. There were some kids games and a concert going on one side and then around the fountains they were setting up some sort of art display. They were these big bear sculptures each painted to represent a different country. We didnt see the American bear - there were a lot still in their boxes - but D. and I started joking that it's probably painted like a war monger (joking about the attitude that the press claims Europe has about us). Honestly though, we havent seen any negative attitude at all. Everyone has been so very nice and COMPLETELY patient with us esp since we know nearly NO German at all past saying hello and goodbye. :)

On Sunday, we decided to take the "day off". We just stayed in and rested. It was good timing too since it rained all morning. The rest of the day the weather was nice though. We went out out for a short walk and enjoyed the weather for a bit before dinner.

Today (it's very early morning now), we're planning on going to the zoo, I think. HOPEFULLY I'll remember to bring the camera this time ;).

**Baby Update**

Obviously, I havent seen a doctor yet. Hopefully that will be soon but I have no idea when. It's making me a bit nervous and anxious but I keep telling myself, it'll be fine.

I'm feeling the baby move a lot more now, which is helping ease my worries even more. Before, I would feel something and then go days without feeling anything again. Now it seems to be more regular - or at least so it's been the past few days

I'll keep you all updated as soon as I see a doctor. And maybe one of these days I'll get brave enough to stand infront of a camera and show a belly pict. ;)

Adventures of the clueless Americans in German cuisine

So yesterday, we asked the front desk at the hotel for some local maps and where there are some good places to eat within walking distance. Basically, where we're staying is a huge multi-hotel complex. There are about 3 or 4 different hotels, a healthspa/mineral bath type place, a couple theaters one of which puts on broadway style musicals and a small shopping complex with several places to eat inside. So we decide to walk around a bit and go have dinner at one of these places. We chose a restuarant that had an appearance like an old traditional German pub, and it appears to have traditional German meals. The menu hung outside is all in German so we're mostly guessing at this point. lol

We walk in, a bit dazed and confused, wondering, do we seat ourselves or wait to be seated. Thankfully a waitress took pity and told us go ahead and find a seat where ever we'd like. We get settled in our seat and then question number 2... do we order from the table? or do we go to the bar and order? You see, in England, when you eat in a pub, you order and pay at the bar then the food is brought to your table when it's ready. D. was just about to get up and go ask, when we see our waiter coming to the table, menus in hand. To our relief, the menu he handed us was translated in English and he spoke in better English than we did. LOL

Now, when I say the menu was translated, I use this term very loosely. And we dont find out until after we get the food, just how loosely that is. LOL The descriptions of the food were very vague and you were expected to already know what a "schnitzle" and "Sosse" (sauce is the vague translation). We also take for granted that WE know what these things are as well... so we're too ignorant to ask the waiter. Haha! So we're looking at the kids menu and we basically have 2 choices: Schnitzle with fries or noodles with sauce. D. and I look at each other.... "what the heck is a schnitzle?" "I dont know, do you?" So we decide on the one that looks simple.... I mean, what can go wrong... noodles and sauce? who doesnt like spaghetti?! This is when the narrator pauses the film and says, "here is where our victims make their first mistake". We assume that sauce is your basic run-of-the-mill tomato sauce. Oh boy were we ever wrong!!! HAHA! I bet those waiters/waitresses had a big laugh over us that night. Not only am I sure we butchered the names of the food we ordered but our faces, when they brought out the boys' dishes, had to have been priceless. The noodles were a homemade German style noodle that tasted a lot like egg noodles but they were in the shape of a fat spaghetti noodle. The sauce was basically a gravy brown sauce that covered the noodles. The boys instantly turned their noses up as we all know, they're not very adventurous when it comes to food. I mean, the dish wasnt something horrible and it tasted fine to us... but is DEFINATELY was not what the boys were expecting (nor us) so they wanted nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, it was only their dishes that were an unpleasant suprise. D's and mine were delicious and of course we were frantically cutting up pieces of my chicken and his steak to give the boys so they had SOMETHING to eat. And to give the boys credit, they did reluctantly taste the noodles and ate some... they just didnt enjoy them. lol Unfortunately, S. didnt get enough to eat so he was sick all this morning.

On the good side, I found my German phrase book and inside there's a whole section on food and has REAL descriptions of what things like Schnitzles and Sosse are LOL. If I had that book on my last night, I would have know that Sosse is, in fact, brown gravy, and a Schnitzle -breaded chicken or pork - would have been the better choice. Ah you live and learn and I'm sure we'll make many more mistakes, but that book is now a permanent item in my purse. :)
Tonight we had much better luck. We decided to take the safe route and went to an Irish pub LOL. The boys gobbled up steak and fries, D. had his Guiness and some Shepard's pie and I enjoyed a chicken sandwich.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July so we're hoping to go to the festivities on base. It'll be the first time the boys and I have been to base so hopefully we can get a glimpse of housing there too. :)

We Made It!!!

We made it! Well, actually, we made it yesterday but I was too tired to write anything about it. Oh! it's beautiful here and the weather so far is perfect! It is actually 430 in the morning right now and I'm sitting outside on the terrace (in my pj's) sipping kaffee listening to the birds. For a city it is so quiet where we're at. No sounds of sirens and no loud mouthed party animals keeping us up all night long. I should know, because we had the windows open all night and I've been up since 2am, thank you jet lag. lol

Speaking of that, the flight over went well and Copper made it safely, despite all the flight attendants constantly calling him Cooper. :) Going through customs was a breeze, all of our worries were unneccessary. The customs officer barely looked at our paperwork. Copper sure was happy to see us again!! Right now he's cuddled up on a blankie, dreaming of bones, I'm sure.
Our hotel room is amazing! It's huge! They even set up a place for Copper. They gave him bowls, a super comfy blankie that he loves, and some treats. And they even gave us a supply of *ehem* baggies with scooper. D. commented that they must only have small dogs in Germany.... the scooper isnt quite big enough for Copper's business. ha! ha! Anyway, back to the room, the beds are supper comfy - even the sofa bed that the boys are sleeping on. There's a separate bedroom for D. and I. The kitchen is cute, no stove but there's a microwave, and of course a mini bar with tons of over-priced temptations. The shower, the down-fall of many-a-rooms, has officially passed my test. ;)

I'm so happy to be back in Europe... though the English would argue they are, in fact, NOT Europe. This lifestyle, stop and smell the roses and have a glass of wine (or in my case, at the moment, glass of water), this is what I love. Granted we got reminded very quickly that personal space is very different over here than it is in America haha! but that's just another thing we have to get used to again. :)

We havent had a chance to try much for food yet. We were all so tired last night so D. ran across the street to a gas station and brought back some panini sandwiches and chocolate milk. Oh my gosh they were so good!!! and that's from a gas station!! ROFL! I nearly forgot how good these sandwiches are over here. They use butter on the bread instead of mayonnaise and cucumbers instead of pickles but it tastes so fresh and crisp. Yum! The chocolate milk was to die for! I think they just took a milk chocolate bar, melted it, and put it in a bottle. haha! I feel silly talking about gas station food like it's som sort of gourmet feast but compared to what you might get in an American gas station, I suppose it is! :)

Well I think I might make myself another cup of kaffee - even though I probably shouldnt- and sit out here a little while longer until everyone else starts to wake up.