Nur Bilder ( just pictures)

On a lighter note.
We have our house and will move in Monday.

Bryton made friends playing in the school yard.

The kids were able to rock climb for free at the outdoor rec center.

We played at Toys R Us

I bought onions and they are tiny

And we have a crappy can opener in our hotel, and I sliced my finger opening chili. And we don't have Band-Aids.

Ughh (ughh)

This week has been so hard.
I don't mean to complain but really....I could have this week swiped from my memory and be perfectly content.
Honestly I can't even remember everything so at least there's that.
Okay so Friday evening Jason received an email with an offer for a house on-base. We do not want to live on base but a family with only 2 children has no wait for housing. Because we declined housing we were told we would have to be out of TLF (Temporary living facility) and into a rental by the 24th or we would have to either pay TLF out of pocket or move into a house on base temporarily.
Moving in temporarily to an on-base would mean getting our loaner furniture delivered there and wasting one drop off and one pick up thus leaving the final drop off and pick up as a cost to us.

So Saturday we went out and found a house (and it is fabulous).
Saturday we did some exploring and had a good time. We wanted to get our housing contract all figured out on Monday but it was a holiday. So come Tuesday we went to housing to get our contract signed. Due to the staircases not having railings on one side, housing would not allow us to sign. Also it was by then, the end of the day so the people that could help us sign a waiver were out and we would have to reach them on Wednesday day.
Also we made appointments to meet the administrators of the German schools for Bryton and Gavin. For Wednesday.
Wednesday I wake up and call the inspectors so we can sign a waiver, and of course she is gone for the day....I then get a call from a German property management office. It turns out that our landlady decided to use them because she speaks no English and it is much easier for her. They wanted us to come in and sign a new contract. This can be bad news as a lot of "property management" companies in Germany will take advantage of Americans.
So now we might not be able to get the house because 1) the railing and 2) a possible sketchy property management is involved.
And if we don't get the house our kids don't go to school in that town. So we had to cancel our appointments =c

So I called the housing office and they verified the legitimacy of the management company and that was fine. We then had to reschedule a housing appointment and then schedule an appointment to meet with the property manager.
Also we finally stopped by the bank here to get an account open for all of our bills, utilities, and rent. As it turns out it takes 10 business days to get any money from our US account to our German account. So as of now we have an ATM with a max €300 withdrawal limit a day and credit cards....lame.

Thursday I get a phone call in the morning about a car we had inquired about and I made another appointment to meet them at the end of the day.
So we met with our property manager Petra and had everything squared away....kind of....we have all of our money in states for 9 more days. So to move in on Monday we have to keep withdrawing our funds from an ATM everyday in order to get enough Euro to pay for February's rent and the deposit. This is so much fun .....no not really, we are super stressed.

Next we went to our housing appointment and this took forever and again we were almost NOT allowed to sign our contract because of the railing! But after waiting for 45 minutes or so we were finally able to sign!!!!
Next appointment was for FMO (I don't know what it stands for, but its where we get our borrowed furniture until our own arrives in Germany)
The soonest they could make it to deliver furniture to us is the 26th. So there will be two whole days of living in a house with no furniture. No beds, no chairs, no tables, no fridge, no microwave. Nada, nothing, zip, keinen...
Ehhhh,
Next the meeting for the car. We met at the local Burger King and did a test drive. Now we had originally thought that we would just tell them no because we wanted a cheaper car but OH BOY we love this car.
So we said yes.
Do we have the car now? No. Why? Because all of our money is stuck in the US!

Friday. We go straight to the bank with the hope of some how getting money for the car. Luckily we had the nicest teller. She totally waived the 10 day waiting period period and allowed to withdraw more than the maximum.
So hooray! That's a  good thing :)
Then we headed to our cute little town to meet the school teachers.
This was great, we met the teachers, the kids met friends and played.
So it really broke our hearts when they told us that it would be close to impossible for Bryton to get into middle school because registration ended last week and they wouldn't have room for her.
Also, she would be out of school at 12:40 everyday, and would go to school during American holidays and have no school on German holidays. So this schedule would be impossible if I wanted to work. Which I do.

So we were all very sad to come to this decision, but it simply won't work for us 

:(

Ugh

We then had the joys of trying to buy car insurance, over the phone, long distance....
I tried the regular number, the German number, the deployed number and even Skype.
I finally reached them through the German number.  Got insurance, unfortunately there is no way we can register the vehicle until Monday. Well the sellers of the car were already waiting at the registration for us. So I had to call them and reschedule for Monday....

Seriously!!!!! This has been a rough week.

Now to move in, cancel with the German schools :(, do a walk through with the property manager, receive a very small shipment of goods, and then register the car. Also somehow register Bryton for American school. Monday, don't even start with me.

Closed Mondays Pictures

Montags geschlossen (Closed Mondays)

Today we wanted to visit the nearest castle and get a mattress topper. We're still in the TLF which has the world's worst beds. I don't know when we became old fragile people... Our bodies hurt, our joints ache and we wake up cranky after 10 hours of sleep. Bleh

Trip to the massive BX (base exchange... on base mall/department store) found an over-priced, but totally worth it, mattress topper.

We then found our way to the Burg Nanstein castle. Now our GPS is super, and we would quite literally be lost without it. That being said it really only works with an exact address, so just typing in the name of a place....ya... doesn't work. So we made it to the city and then... Just looked for the castle:)

We found it! (Eventually...)

There must have been a natural gas source around or... dead sheep nearby because WOW did it stink! Gavin plugged his nose the whole time haha!
We walked around a bit, took some pictures, and enjoyed the view. Then walked up the stairs to go in... and saw this on the door...

Since it was closed, we stopped at a playground down the street, then it got cold so we headed to Niederkirchen (the city of our new home).

It's such a nice drive... I know I've said it before, but it's so true.

We met some of our neighbors this time. Old German men (one from next door and one across the street) who spoke as much English as I speak German.

We have a small market down the road, so we stopped in. We grabbed some snacks, Leberwurst (Liver Wurst), rolls, and cheese, and had ourselves a small tastey Mittagessen (lunch).

The whole reason we visited our town today was that I really wanted to get Bryton registered for school but the Rathaus (Town Hall) is closed Monday... As well as every other day of the week.... Except Wednesday, from 6pm-8pm. And was also.... Very hard to find! I asked directions from a restaurant, pharmacy, and at the market! 

So we'll have to figure out how to get Bryton to school and soon...

Not much of a day but still new. :)

Abenteuer pictures

Wir hatten heute Abenteuer! (We had adventures today!)

15 February 2014

Today was awesome!
After looking for houses this week (and the past several!) I started making calls this morning...Auf Deutsch!!!!
It was so fun/scary/rewarding/embarrassing trying to speak German to Germans on the phone.
I did fairly well between my very broken and terrible Deutsch and their ein bißchen (little bit) Englisch.
Our first two calls were a bust 1: no dogs :( and 2: already rented.
My 3rd call was so difficult!
The person who answered the phone wasn't the actual owner of the house listed, and he took down my number, said he would call his friend (for whom he listed the house) give her the number and  would have her call me back....
...
...
No call
...
...
Did my hair and make up...
...
...
Still no call
So I called the same person. Turns out he wrote down the wrong number ...fixed that.

 and then....someone called...

The lady who is renting the house ...Sie spricht kein Englisch. (She speaks no English)
So her friend who speaks gut Englisch called us and we arranged to meet!
(This story is long, sorry)

Met them at the house (thank you Garmin GPS) which was a good 25 minutes on back roads, over country side, and through quaint neighborhoods.

Two little old ladies were waiting for us there. Adorable, old, and German! Lovely lovely ladies!!!
We walked through the house with them plus a cute 6 yr old girl. The house was huge and adorably German. 3-5 bedrooms (not sure what makes a bedroom here and what doesn't), a large living/dining room, nice back yard with patio, stove, fountain, and PARTY HOUSE!  I'd call it a guest house but it actually does have a bar haha :)
Its not crazy fancy like the new houses we've seen but it has a lot of storage and shelving. It also belongs to a crazy cute town!

So the land lady said yes to the dog and yes to our family and come Tuesday  we will have a signed contract.
We have a move in date of March 1st, and we are so excited!!!
Throughout the tour of the house and speaking with the ladies I used as much German I could muster!

They were so pleased and said that "Americans that learn the language are the nice Americans".
She also asked how long we have lived in Germany. When I explained we had only arrived this week, she asked when I lived here before...
I told her this was our first time and she was really surprised. Apparently, my German isn't absolutely terrible!!!


Ah, this story is still going, hang in there!

Anyways, the little girl Emilie, and Bryton were hitting it off so well that the English speaking old lady Helle, said she would like to bring Bryton over to her house so they could play and she would give Bryton and Gavin Gummi Bears. So after the papers were signed we followed her to her house.

We had Gummi Bears (AS PROMISED!), the kids played and Helle talked our ears off.
• Her favorite places in the US (which she visited 17 times) are San Fransisco and BRYCE CANYON!!!
•She collects forein cookbooks and (stolen?) Restaurant menus
• She has 4 children and like 8 grandchildren and 3 grand grand children (that's what she called them) This was her very large family
•She loves American white bread and chocolate chips!
•and every Christmas she makes her family a 40lb Butterball turkey.

I told her that I was 6 of 7 kids and she said, " You're Mormon!"
Ja....I told her
Then she shuffled off to another room and came back with several German Books of Mormon!!! Haha the Missionaries found her after a visit to Temple Square. She said she's never seen boys eat so much haha!
She also said she was happy being Protestant, and that the Missionaries eventually stopped coming over every 4 weeks.

After about an hour visit we left our new friend Helle (and Emilie) and went back to base.

After we relaxed at home for a bit we decided to venture out to the local area and go shopping at Globus. Globus is like the Wal-mart of Germany, but way cooler. It has so much to offer there, including a food court, and mall like clothing stores as well.
No worries I took picutres! Like one or two ....

Turns out I am a huge fan of German shoes so I will be buying several of those.
Um, the shopping carts are like the ones we had in Japan in that they turn with all 4 wheels. Its not the easiest of skills to learn °~°
Jason and I loved looking at the deli and meats department, and between our ooos and ahhhs a German man stopped us and told us something we were looking at was delicious. (I don't know....it looked like bologna meatloaf to me).
We found a candy isle (score) and each picked out something.

I also spotted some soda with Ron Burgundy on it, stayin classy Deutschland;)

At checkout we realized that we were suppose to have our own bags, so I bought a very large blue shopping bag with stars:)
Hopefully we won't forget them every time, buying shopping bags at €3.50 a pop will get expensive fast.

After a very long Time of shopping/meandering we stopped for Abendessen (dinner) in the food court. It was much like a subways/cafeteria, everything behind glass and you had trays...
Hard to explain...
Guess I could have taken more pictures....sorry

I ordered everything in German! How cool is that?
2 kiddie meals (1 chicken nugget meal and 1 schnitzel) as for Jason and I, I asked what something's were and got one of each. 1 schnitzel and one fisch (fish). (Pictures included.)
Everything was delicious!

When we came home (almost died BTW going the wrong way on an Einbahnstraße (one way street!!!)
We ate our candies and they were fabulous!!!
I bought dickmann's chocolate (couldn't resist *-*)
Pictures also included.

Anyways, it was a good day with lots of fun things to do. And we will continue having our adventures and posting them.

Our visit to Ripley's and flight to Germany

Gavin's first flight!

Wir sind angekommen! (We have arrived!)

We did it, we made it to Germany!
Starting our trip by leaving SLC with 7 over-stuffed suitcases and a very large dog kennel we headed to Baltimore.
Gavin had a great time on his very first flight! Jason and Bryton sat behind us a few rows and Gavin kept shouting to the entire cabin, "daddy! We're flying!"

We landed in the crab cake capitol at about 3 o'clock local time and announced on Facebook that we made it to Baltimore!!!!
We followed the advice of the hotel front desk lady and ended up freezing our butts off walking to a restaurant which was supposed to be  kid-friendly for $30 crab cakes and froze our butts off again walking back. -_-
On a very good note, it turns out that everywhere on the East coast is super close to everywhere else on the East coast. Our wonderful friends from Okinawa the Consolvos saw our facebook post and drove all the way from New Jersey to see us in Baltimore!!!
We went to eat at Bubba Gumps, visited Ripley's Believe-it-or-Not Odditorium. It was a lot of fun and the mirror maze was a blast. We finished up by spending our life savings buying admission to the aquarium. The kids loved it!!!
Had we known our geography better Jason and I would have planned more time on the East coast and stayed with Chris and Melissa  Consalvo and their beautiful babies for a few more days...

We went back to the airport and after spending over an hour checking in our dog (seriously... This took so long, we were one of the last people to board our plane, I was not happy).... after all that we were settled on the plane at about 10pm.
Gavin didn't fall asleep until about 1 am Baltimore time and only slept 3 or 4 hours, but Bryton was out almost from take off to landing!
Yesterday February 12 2014 we landed at Ramstein at about 11am. About a 6.5hr flight not to bad at all.
The kiddos did wonderfully on the plane rides and throughout the airports, so did our puppy.

We had three friends meet us at the airport Brian (Gonzales, aka Gonzo), Jeremy (Day), and Dustin (Longfellow)! Both Gonzo and Day were in Cheyenne with us and Longfellow was in Okinawa with us.
It was so nice to have so much help when we arrived.
Gonzo and Day took our stuff (our hotel wasn't going to be ready for a few hours) and Dustin took us to his home to relax for a while.
We were totally pampered at Dustin's with his wife Nomi feeding us and giving us gifts from Okinawa!!! as well at putting up with our excited puppy dog!

We are all settled now in our TLF, which is pretty nice. Gavin is, unfortunately, sick. He started puking this morning poor guy :(
So today we will be cuddling inside on a rainy day.