What a difference a year makes!

On March 1, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of moving to Germany!  In some ways it feels like we just got here, but in other ways it feels like we've lived her forever!

We've certainly seen and done so much since we moved here, yet there is still so much more to see and do.  We are getting our next travel spots in order and have a "Bucket List" of places we want to see before we move back to the States. 

Our next big trip planned is a cruise in May through Venice (Italy), Athens (Greece), Izmir (Turkey), and Split and Dubrovnik (Croatia).  We are cruising with Rick's parents and we couldn't be more excited to visit all of these amazing places!

We just had a fantastic SURPRISE visit from my family!  I thought they were coming to visit at the end of March, but they showed up at my door on March 9, the day after my birthday.  My Mom, Dad, and Grandma all came and we did the usual sight-seeing and just enjoying having family around.  My Dad is staying for a month (living the retired life!), so it will be nice to have him around for a while. 

As I look back at where we were a year ago, I can't believe how much we've learned and how far we've come.  When we moved here I knew 1 word in German, Danke.  Haha!  Now I can order in a restaurant, make appointments, read signs, and so much more.  I'm still far from being bilingual, but I'm happy with what I know, and I will continue to keep learning as long as we are living here.  I also learned how to drive a stick shift, which was a huge challenge (mentally) for me.  Now, I actually like it :).  I look back at my pro's and con's list and I see some changes.  I can actually move a few things off of the con list and on to the pro list :).  For example...I actually like paying for my shopping cart at the grocery store...you never have to worry about someone leaving a cart right next to your car, they are always put back where they belong! 

I'm sure my lists will have many changes as the days go on.  It's always fun to look back and see how much we've learned!  I'm looking forward to year #2 :)

Happy 2012!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's been a while since I've updated this...that seems to be a recurring theme here :)  Oops...

I thought since it's now 2012, that I'd take a moment to reflect on 2011 :)

What a year!  In January we put our home in MN on the market in hopes of a quick sell, so we could move across the world to Germany in March.  Well the house sold and we (the moving company) packed up all of our belongings and made the long journey to Europe.  Rick and I laugh at how my first time in Europe was to move here!  Talk about a leap of faith!  But, we are all very happy with our decision and we've had a blast learning new things and meeting new people.

We've been taking advantage of being so close to so many amazing places in Europe.  In 2011 we traveled to Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and other parts of Germany.  Rick took it one step further and has visited almost every country in Europe and has even been to Russia! 

We were able to meet up with my parents in Florence Italy in June.
We had a visit from our best friends from Minnesota, Katie and Christian Miller, in July.
Rick's parents, his sister Amy, and our nephew Carson, stopped by for a visit in August.

In October we headed back to the States for a month long visit, including a stop in Disney World!  We were lucky enough to visit Purdue and take in a Basketball and Football game!  We made a quick trip to Wisconsin to visit my sister and her family, and also to visit Rick's grandma.  We, of course, squeezed in a Packer game and got to use 1 game of our season tickets! 

At the end of November we headed back to Germany!  We spent Christmas here, just the 4 of us, and enjoyed going to some Christmas Markets and keeping up with some German Christmas traditions.  On New Year's Eve we relaxed at home and enjoyed the fireworks (while praying that the kids would sleep through them) from our front windows! 

This year we are looking forward to a visit from my Mom, Dad, and Grandma in March/April, a wedding in Rome in September, and hopefully a visit from my parents and Rick's parents in September or October!  This summer we hope to do some more traveling and are looking forward to taking the kids to Legoland and Playmobil Park here in Germany. 

Shall I make a New Year's Resolution to keep up with this blog more?? 

Here are a few pictures from our visit "home" and Christmas!

Quick Update...

It's been a while since I've blogged.  This summer is flying by! 

We've had a great first summer in Germany!  We've visiting a lot of sights in the Munich/Southern Germany area.  We had our first visitors, Katie and Christian Miller come and stay with us for a week!  We did a lot of sight-seeing, catching up, and just enjoying having some company.  Drew loved the change of pace and seeing some familiar faces.  We had a blast and it sure made me miss home :(. 

Our next visitors will be arriving next week.  Rick's parents, Ron and Kay, and his sister Amy and my nephew Carson are all coming for a week.  They are currently in Italy and Switzerland on an Adventures By Disney trip, and will be making a stop here in Munich before they head back to the states.  We plan on doing some sight-seeing, visiting Kay's penpal in Baden Baden, and just enjoying having some family in town.  Drew is so excited to have his cousin Carson here, it's all he's been talking about for weeks...make that months!!

The kids are enjoying their time here also.  Drew has started his preschool, going once a week for the past month.  He will start going twice a week (full days) in September for the 2011-2012 school year.  He loves it and we think it will be really great for him.  He loves playing with his baby sister, but he also loves going to school to play with other kids his age. 

Anna has finally started walking!  She's been taking steps for about a week and today walked across the living room floor.  She still crawls most of the time, but she's definitely getting more confident and loves to walk.  She gets so excited when she makes it to Mommy :)  She had her first birthday on July 8th, it's hard to believe she's 1.  She adores Drew and even says his name when she sees him!  She now says Mama, Dada, Drew, Bye Bye, Ni-Night, makes some animal sounds and is almost off the bottle!! 

We've been enjoying the wonderful "summer" weather in Germany.  It's been mostly in the 70's, with higher temps here and there.  We've had a lot of rain, but we love the cool weather!  We're looking forward to the fall and even winter when hopefully we can get out and ski the Alps! 

We'll be traveling back to the States in October/November, and my parents and Grandma will be visiting us for Christmas!  We are beyond excited!

And...we just started our German lessons...so maybe I'll be able to blog in German at some point :)

Here are a few updated pictures :)

Feeling Sluggish...

I hate worms!  I always have!  When I was little I wouldn't get on the school bus one morning because there was a giant worm in my way.  My mom had to drive me to school :)  I remember it vividly.  But worms are nothing compared to....

Slugs and Snails!!! 

Ugh...apparently slugs and snails are German, because there are a ton here.  After a good rain they all come out.  I'll take worms over slugs any day :)  Some of them are big too, ewww...they are so gross! 

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Investigation!

When we moved in and unpacked, I realized that I had 2 bags of Nestle Chocolate Chips that made the trip :)  We were really hurting for a good, sweet, gooey cookie, so I made a batch.  The one ingredient that I didn't have was baking soda.  What difference could 1 teaspoon make right?  I used baking powder instead, no harm no foul.  The cookies turned out great!  All of the dry ingredients were things that were packed from my pantry in the States, I even was smart and bought a big thing of Vanilla Extract from Costco before we left :).

The cookies went fast, so a week or so later, I made another batch.  I did the same baking soda/baking powder switch and this time (using all the same ingredients) the cookies were flat, paper thin!  I did a little research and sure enough, you can't switch baking soda and baking powder...no clue why it worked the first time??

So the search began for baking soda.  I thought it would be easy to find.  I mean, you wouldn't even have to label it in the US and most of us would be able to spot it on a shelf!  Well, no luck.  I couldn't find it anywhere!  I did a little online research and found what to look for.  Something called Natron.  A little tiny packet in the baking section (which is Germany, is like 2 shelves) at the grocery store.  I finally found it, my baking soda problems have been solved!

So I whipped up another batch of cookies and they turned out fabulous!  Granted, I had to chop up some baking chocolate because they don't sell chocolate chips here and I ran out of my stash.  But still, they were even better that way, home made chocolate chunk cookies!

Well, now I've run out of flour.  Had I know this was going to be an issue, that last trip to Costco probably would have cost me $1000 in "supplies"!

Anyway, I bought some German flour and made the recipe again.  And once again...flat, paper, cookies :(.  So I did a little research (online again) and have read that I need to sift my "dense German flour" and I need to mix my Natron with some water to help it "react"!

I need to find a sifter and try this again.  But in the meantime, I'm working on getting some normal baking soda from the States too.

I WILL get these cookies right...even if I have to make 100 batches :)

PS.  The dough still takes the same, so once we realize the cookies are going to be flat, Rick helps and just eats all the dough ;)

Happy May Day!

May 1st is a holiday here in Germany (and many other countries as well).  It's May Day!

One of the traditions here in Germany is the May Pole.  Each city has a May Pole in their City Center.  Sometimes rival cities (mostly based on the school system) will steal each other's May Poles, but they are always returned after :)  Sometimes the May Poles need to be replaced and they town will wait until May Day to put up a new one.

We visited a very small town about 6km from us called Aschering.  They were putting up their new May Pole and had a big celebration!  Everyone was dressed in traditional German clothing, Lederhosen (mostly for men) and Dirndl for the ladies.  Even the small children were in their traditional dress...so cute!  (Yes, now I'm on the hunt for them for Drew and Anna!)

We watched them lift the May Pole and set it in place.  When they were done, everyone clapped, and a group of men shot some guns!  We were standing right next to these men and could not figure out what they were doing...we thought they had flasks or something over their shoulders (certainly they couldn't be guns), but we were wrong...they were guns!  And they were very loud and unexpected!  They must have shot them off 6 or 7 times too.  It was tons of fun and very neat to learn about their traditions!

Here are a few pictures from our morning!

The May Pole

People in their Traditional Clothing

The May Pole in Place

The Men with Guns

A Steel Frame 7 Person Bike (this thing was hilarious!)

Visiting My First Castle!

On Saturday we visited my first real castle!  Other than my girl Cinderella's of course :)  It's actually considered a Palace, but I'm counting it as my first Castle :)

King Ludwig II's original idea was to have a copy of Versailles Palace in honor of King Louis XIV of France.  They began construction in 1878 and it was never finished because the King ran out of money.  The palace was intended purely as a monument and had no practical function.  In fact, the King only spent a few days in the palace.  He planned on spending 10 days there every September, but after his first stay, he was found dead in Lake Starnberg (the lake we live on!).  To this day no one knows the cause of his death...suicide, murder, or accident. 

We toured the Palace and unfortunately you are not allowed to take any photos inside :(  It was incredible!  All of the floors were made out of real marble and the walls were made out of a fake marble that is actually more expensive than real marble (and can be colored to your choice).  Almost everything was covered in gold, but it was all gold leaf, therefore there was only about 5 lbs of gold combined in the entire palace.  The Palace has not been touched since the King died, so we got to see some of the unfinished area's as well. 

Here are a few pictures that we took of the outside!