Ode to a Garbage Disposal (among other things)

One thing that has slapped me in the face (sometimes more gently than others:) are all the differences between the countries we've lived in - it feels so foreign here! I knew it would be like this initially, until we get used to it, but it is still a hard adjustment!

Some of the difficulties include:

• The lack of a garbage disposal. Never have I missed it as much as I do now!
• The recycling/garbage system here. So many different colored bins and rules for sorting, I'm almost afraid to throw anything away...
• The fact that we live on the 3 floor of the apartment building. No elevator. Bringing the groceries in suddenly becomes an aerobic exercise!
• The teeny sized washer and dryer. We can't even fit one day's worth of all our laundry in one load! And the loads take quite a while to run...

BUT, before I get carried away, we've been so fortunate to find things that make us happy, or make it feel a little more like home. Here are a few:

We still have access to Amazon. Which makes mail day SO exciting!

Tyler joined the school soccer team - new friends, and an activity he's good at!

A giant park close enough to walk to, where we can play soccer and other kids join in

We found a store carrying all of the school supplies Owen needs for his weekly "forest day" at school - rain boots, rain pants and a rain jacket

The local grocery store has the best little plant section - I may not have enough dishes for everyone to eat on without washing them before every meal, but I have a new selection of house plants to brighten up the house :)

The apple juice - my number one favorite drink, and the stuff here is AMAZING!

The shop owner at a nearby pizza place is an Arab who speaks both Arabic and Spanish - we were so excited to have someone be able to understand us we talked his ear off for a while. He'll be getting a lot of business from us! 

The TV tower near our house (which reminds us of a mosque minaret) which means I can't really ever get lost going home - just follow the tower! Those of you who know what an "awesome" sense of direction I have know this is a blessing...

And the fact that every single one of these beautiful people are trying their hardest to stay upbeat during this transition! I'm glad to have such a great family.

Birthday Bash - Colby

Happy Birthday Colby! Anyone who meets Colby is immediately charmed by his loving personality and bubbly conversation :) He already has a clerk friend at the grocery store remembers his name and hugs him every time we go through her register, he chats with anyone who sits by us on the bus using whatever German phrases he remembers, and just loves life in general.

  Colby's birthday wish was to walk a dog, so we borrowed our friend's cute little dog Benny, and took him around the complex. While I'm sure we provided lots of entertainment for those who watched us drop the leash, almost lose the dog, try to coax him to walk once he sat down and refused to walk, and listened to 5 kids excitedly call his name for 20 minutes straight, the most important part was that Colby was thrilled with his "present." (and don't worry, Benny was never actually in any harm, only of being overly loved)

With a dog print shaped chocolate birthday cake and some new friends to come play, Colby was as happy as can be. Four is going to be an exciting year!

Saving Sanity

When all the kids start tearfully questioning us ("When are we going back to VA?" "Why did we have to ruin our life by moving here?" "I miss the Bairds" "When are we going to have friends again?") I figure there are 2 courses of action: (a) start sobbing and admit that I too am wondering if we just made a REALLY big mistake, or (b) DISTRACT!! Trust me, option B gets better results. I would know, I tried both... So this Saturday we lined everyone up and marched them (amid many a complaint) downtown yet again to go to our 1st German festival. 

The first thing that happened to us is 50% of the family almost got run over by an apparent Tour de France hopeful in what we now know is the "bike lane" on the sidewalk.  So THAT'S what the change in concrete color on the sidewalk means! (I know it looks super obvious in the picture, but in real life IT WASN'T!)

We're now all paranoid of even setting foot in the bike lane. Nothing like near death to get your blood pumping! 
We didn't know what a harvest festival would be like, but we loved all the fall produce.

And this, kind of like a meat merry go round...



Ken insisted we try one of everything. It was a good plan!



The salmon was pretty tasty.



Mushrooms in cheese sauce! The kids all dubiously tried a bite and Tyler even went as far as to say it "wasn't that bad," in tones of shock.





I've learned that Germans have a love of all things gardening/plants/flowers. Which makes me pretty happy! So many pretty wreathes.





Happy Fall everyone!

Just the Two of Us

Everyone started school/work right away, so that left Colby and I lots of time to explore and figure things out together. Despite only having the things from our suitcases, Colby had the essentials covered. 

Day to day clothing - check.

Enough legos to keep him busy - check.

German Netflix with Paw Patrol - check.

And a trusty balance bike, ready for an adventure - check! (ok, the bike came in our air freight, but you get the idea :)

We checked out the local Tuesday morning market, where Colby was cute enough to score free samples and I confused everyone with my attempts at German...

Colby enjoys helping me recycle our plastic bottles - he likes feeding them into the machine, I like the money we get back to use on groceries!

This is the "American" section at our local grocery store. I had to laugh.

A sweet friend at church took us around the small village she lives in. It gave us an opportunity to figure out the metro system, and I got to see my first picture perfect German village!

And like any good village, there was a castle to hike up to!