Time just keeps flying

I can't believe how fast time keeps flying by. We seem to always be so busy. Larry has been very busy at work, often not coming home until 8:00 pm. Alianna has several school functions and playdates and Landon is beginning to build his own little social life. I'm just trying to keep it all together! I am waiting for the day I forget to pick someone up from something!

We are currently planning for the kids birthday parties. Landon will have a small party at home some of his friends. I will let him skip school that day and we will celebrate with a Winnie the Pooh theme! Alianna will have her party a week later and we have invited 12 children. The party will be at an indoor play place with trampolines, climbing wall, bumper cars and bouncy things. She has been planning it in her head since last year. Her theme is horses. I think both parties will be great and I will post pictures when the time comes.

This past weekend I went with my German teacher and some of her other students on a 14 km hike in the Eifel region of Germany. We took the train about an hour south and hiked through a wide range of terrain. We stopped in a couple of small villages along the way to warm up with hot chocolate and coffee. It was a fun day, but my legs are still sore this afternoon and I am very tired. I wish there was time for a nap.

Larry misses the opening weekend of football. Even I miss taking the kids to Ann Arbor and walking around the stadium before the game starts. Opening weekend of football here just wasn't the same. We send our hugs and kisses to everyone and hope all the kids have a great start to the new school year!

Summer Vacation

Southern Spain was a wonderful change of pace. I was finally hot! It has been so damp and chilly in Germany. In Spain we had 80 degree weather and sunshine each day! We stayed in a great apartment. For us apartments are the best way to vacation. We have room to move and a kitchen! When we know the kids just won't make it in a restaurant, it's nice to be able to cook and eat at home. Alianna made several girlfriends at the pool. There were many British families staying there the whole summer. So Alianna had a chance to speak English and swim all day long.

Landon loved swimming as well. He loves jumping in! He spent hours jumping in and climbing out, jumping in and climbing out. He slept great at night! He speech made big improvements on our vacation as well. He has started saying small sentences. My favorite is "Ah, come on..." which he says drawn out when he doesn't get his way.

We didn't do much, which is what we wanted, but we did manage to take a few drives in the mornings. We walked through Marbella (we loved), Estepona (just OK), and Torremolino (very touristy). It was something special to be sitting at a beach side restaruant and staring at the rock of Gibralter. Then just past that was the coast of Africa. The views were beautiful.

We have 3 weeks left of summer vacation before both kids start school August 17. Alianna will start 2nd grade and Landon will start German Kindergarten. During the 3 weeks we hope to have lots of play time, bikes rides and maybe one more mini vacation. I am currently planning our next trip for October when my parents come to visit. We are very excited to be having family stay with us. It great to go home and visit but it is also nice to share our life here with family and friends.

It's all the same in a very different way...

June 25, 2009 is just a few days away. That day will be exactly one year since we left for our adventure abroad. It has passed so quickly in a very slow way. There were several days at the beginning that I never thought I could do this. It was so difficult; the hardest, biggest change I think ever in my life. Even harder then going from a couple to a family. Everything changed all at once and we were on our own.

But now, a year later we are a stronger family unit. I still don't feel like this is home, but there is a comfort level I wasn't sure I would ever have. When we return from a vacation out of Germany there is something about crossing the border that feels 'normal'. We don't spend so much time talking about all the things we miss; instead we've started enjoying the things we have here. We have even talked about things we will miss from here once we return home! I will always have bad German days, but I also always had bad Michigan days. So one year later we are stronger, wiser and a little fatter from all the bread! No matter how much time passes though, my German will always stink! I will never get use to the language.

I was thinking about the year and then the question that has come up so often by friends. "What is it like there? I just can't imagine what your daily life is like." I came up with it's really all the same, just different. Let me explain...

1. We wake up to church bells ... instead of an alarm clock.
2. We eat breakfast ... called frühstück and eat brotchen instead of toast
3. The kids go to school each morning ... no busses, we drive them
4. We go shopping and run errands ... just not on Sundays or after 8:00 pm. The stores are closed.
5. We have clocks ... but they are in military time. I pick up Alianna from school at 16:15.
6. We drink coffee with friends ... yep! Starbucks is here too.
7. We drive or take public transportation ... just with different signs, rules, speed limits and in metric.
8. We have Park and Ride lots ... and actually use them!
9. We watch TV ... Grey's, Lost, House is just not the same in German!
10. We use debit cards ... they are called EC Karte.
11. We get money from an ATM ... it's called a Geldautomat
12. We take weekend trips ... instead of going up north we go to the Eifel.
13. We go on vacations ... instead of Chicago we go to Paris, instead of Mexico beaches we go to Spain, instead of skiing out West we go south to the Alps and instead of the Caribbean we go the Canary Islands.
14. We have trash/recycle day ... 3 times a week! Yellow day is plastic, Blue is paper, Brown is Bio, and Gray is regular trash. Glass is recycled in a different container that we have to drive to.
15. We go grocery shopping ... several times a week because our refrigerators are so small.
16. We go grocery shopping ... we have to put money into the cart to use it and bring and bag our own groceries.
17. You have one-stop shopping ... we go the butcher, baker and the getranke shop (for drinks only)!
18. You have Buschs, Country Market, Hillers, Sam's Club ... we have Edeka, Aldi, Rewe, Kaufland.
19. You have Target ... and we have nothing even close!!!!!

So those are just some of things to help you understand what things are like here. The best way I can describe it... it's all the same in a very different way!

Spring and Friendship

Things have picked up speed around here lately. Spring hit and we have been busy, busy, busy. Larry had a weekend with the boys in Pfalz wine region. I had a weekend in Amsterdam and Den Hague with April, Christine and Veronica. Now we are packing to leave for Euro Disney!

So here are a few pictures...

Alianna's Circus Day

Alianna had a wonderful circus week. She trained hard all week to learn her trapez act. As you will see in the video, her practice paid off! All of the children did wonderfully. Great job Alianna!

Making the most of our time here!

Our time home flew by! We were able to see some friends and luckly all of our family. We loaded up our suitcases and ate our way through Michigan. Sabor Latino, Chop House, Red Robin, Noodles, LaShish, Prickly Pear are just handful of our favorite places. We were able to spend our first morning at Zion and celebrate Palm Sunday. Doctors, dentists and other necessary activities also had to be fit in. Hopefully our next visit home will be a little more relaxing.

Alianna's favorite tree has survived so far! We were told the fire department is holding off on riping up our garden! We do have new smoke detectors and fire doors. The hofladen (vegetable/fruit stand) is up and running and it is strawberry and aspargus season! Landon is enjoying his time in school. Alianna's school has a special week coming up; Circus Week! They will spend 4 hours a day for 5 days training with a real circus family. They will then perform a real circus (2 hours), under the circus tent! It will be very exciting I'm sure.

My german lessons have resumed! Ok, maybe I'm not that excited. I hate having the pressure of the language hanging over my head all of the time. But for the sake of setting a good example for the kiddos, I'm hanging in there.

So last weekend was a long weekend and I finally made it to Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands. It is the world famous spring garden. It was amazing! It beat all my expections and I can't wait to go back next year! We have many vacations coming up too. Larry just left this morning for a quick trip to a friends family vineyard. The guys are hanging out for the weekend touring the vineyards and wine tasting. In two weekends I head out with my girlfriends to Amsterdam. The following weekend we are surprising the kids with a trip to Euro Disney and then in June we are heading back to the North Sea followed by two weeks in Marbella, Spain in July! Life is good!

So following is a new slide show of our recent travels since we've been back.

Busy Month

March has been a busy month and has flown by! Alianna has started piano lessons, Larry finally found a basketball league and Landon has lots of playdates! We have been to a natural history museum in Belgium. I went for a shopping day at an outlet mall, also in Belgium. Alianna has had two birthday parties and also her painting class on the weekends.

We have been counting down our days until we visit home and have a huge list of things we want/need to bring back. While we are gone our house will be undergoing some fire protection changes. Our favorite birch tree will have to be removed (Alianna is very disappointed because that is where her fairy has a playhouse). We will have new smoke alarms wired throughout each level and possibly a few other things that have never really been made clear to us.

I have one final German class before I leave and then Ford has currently suspended additional classes. They consider it discretionary spending. Apparently they have never sat through a school meeting in German.