We learned something today-

Another outing and making the kids stand to take a picture of this beautiful church! There are SO many beautiful churches here- They are so beautiful!!

-Deep thought- I know I occasionally have these but here I go:



One thing that I hadn't thought about but totally love that we are learning is being open to other peoples choices. In Utah, especially Utah County nobody drinks or smokes and if they do they look like "Girl with the dragon Tattoo" wannabe. The first week here was a serious culture shock for my kids:

Bridger: "Oh my gosh! MOM!! MOMMMY!! MOOOOOM!!"
Loudest "whisper" EVER: That guy is smoking and drinking beer! Is he a "Bad" guy Mommy?!

Everyone and when I say EVERYONE I mean EVERYONE smokes here. We explained that in Utah we don't see anyone smoke or drink very often uh? But here its different, people smoke and drink and that is THEIR choice and we choose to NOT do those things to keep our bodies healthy and strong. BUT that doesn't mean they are "BAD" people. It means they are making different choices than we are and that is ok. As long as we know what WE want and what choices WE want to make then it doesn't matter what OTHER people are doing and its NOT our job to tell them how to take care of their own bodies.

But after being here for 2 weeks the kids don't even think twice about it anymore. Its not this TABOO or "judgment" per say which was a surprise to me how we naturally portrayed people that smoke and drink as bad guys. But I guess it shouldn't since Utah County does have its magical bubble of its own. - I wouldn't trade our bubble for the world, I love it- just learned something about ourselves that we didn't know about.

Yesterday we were trying the BUS route and there was a guy was taking a smoking break having a beer, Bridger said to me, lets ask the man as see if he knows when the bus comes. Totally oblivious of the beer and cigarette in his hand. We asked him for directions and of course he was the nicest guy ever. 

We have been VERY lucky, every single person has been nice to us (Expect the old hag from the welcome center that told me to be quiet when I was obviously going through a nervous breakdown) and giving us treats, numbers to call for help, this guy gave me his card telling me that he has cell phones for my kids for free that used to be his kids now they are in the states and he doesn't need them anymore.The doner owner gave us his number to come help me cook my favorite sandwich.
everyone seems to be SO nice and just trying to make our arrival easier and welcoming. I'm truly blessed to be here and have meet so many friendly warm people.

Gotta put some pictures of my little munchkins- 

Fridge and Washer = LOVE!

 So back home in Utah I had a laundry room with a Washer and Dryer, it took 20 minutes to wash clothes and another maybe 20 mintues to dry them. I never did Laundry it was my most hatted chore! Well HELLO Germany- Here they have dryers but they are " condenser" dryers. Meaning it steams the clothes dry, after a few hours you dump the accumulated water in the sink for the next set of clothes or you hang dry them. There are Dryers that have the vent, but none of the homes are equipped to have a vent so you have to put the vent out the window when you are drying clothes.So IF your "cellar" has a window which ours does but has a screen over it- you can't do that option either.

So after looking and having 3 weeks of dirty laundry we purchased this beautiful piece of machinery:

 

Don't know how to work the thing because all the setting and manuals are in German so we pick a setting and push start. Maybe this weekend we'll look up the words to see what we are actually doing. But our clothes are coming out clean and smelling good so whatever setting its working. 

 

Following our beautiful Dryer came our GORGEOUS Fridge, isn't it a beauty! Its been so hard not having a fridge the last three weeks, because our Miss Kate thinks she still needs a bottle at night.

 So our new little fridge is only 60 cm wide and 190 cm tall- I know right! I sound all German with the talk of all these "cm". So in the USA we can buy "GALLONS" of milk, here you buy liters of milk so yeah Jed and I are hauling 4-5 of these little life savers for our little minions. =)

This is Jed's favorite feature. The slide out chill tray, its actually pretty awesome.You could put a deli Tray or a casserole and store it here until its ready to serve or be cooked. Jed found the perfect fridge for us.

This is the freezer- sorry its sideways.. But for the freezer there are just 3 big boxes. So you can't buy a ton of frozen food either but keeps us active right?! ..yeah ...I just keep saying that to myself. =)

Here are the kids (and random ladies that got in my picture) eating a bratwurst and loving it- I on the other hand passed, and took a picture of myself instead.

Its been such an adventure and now that we are in our apartment I have a TON of pictures to share along with stories. I will be loading up more tonight so stay tune!

P.S. I need to take a picture of me going all domestic hanging clothes, ON A CLOTHES line ...CLOTHES! I know, right?! ME?!? But I think of my mom every single time I do it, I can hear her disciplinary tone in my head: "Well don't you just wish you could do laundry like you did in the states now don't cha!! See I TOLD you, you had it easy." Mom I will say it only this once...Yes you were right I had it easy! =)

We're not in Utah anymore!

April 2nd 2013, sleep deprived, exhausted, emotionally and physically DONE we got onto a plane with our three children and took the biggest leap we have ever taken in my life. We are moving to Hamburg, Germany.



We went from this beautiful mess and chaos :

 To this beautiful city of Hamburg, Germany-

 

But one of the most amazing finds of Hamburg, is the  döner!

What is a döner you ask? Let me SHOW you!! Here are TWO different kind of döner The first picture is my favorite, it consists of a lightly grilled, toasted to perfection pita. Then sliced directly from the spit ( a huge skewer of chicken rotating from all sides so each bite is nice, crisp, and juicy), they fill the pita with TONS of meat. Then you get to add toppings, I choose ALL of them, there is red Cabbage, White Cabbage, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, peppers and feta cheese. THEN you get to pick a sauce they have like 6 different sauces garlic sauce, herb, a yogurt sauce..my favorite is the garlic one. It tastes like ranch but better... the one on the right is the same except its on green salad, and they add corn on top. BUT its soo delicious!! I'm wishing I could have one right now..but its midnight so ...moving on...

 We are in the city town hall called the Rathause. This is such a beautiful building I am going to come back with my Canon and play with it in my Adobe Suite. Beautiful!!

 Last picture, will for sure update on all the LITTLE steps we had to take to offically make it a home here. =) Enjoy!

This has been Crazy!

Been crazy!! The hotel we have doesn't have TV or Phone so we are watching movies on my laptop, which means I can't use it! We arrived in Hamburg Wed at 12:00pm got to our hotel long enough to shower and change then we went off to look at our apartments.

We had 2 that we liked and our first choice got taken hours before we put our papers in! SO frustrating, but our option 2 is a newer home but a lot smaller, but we put in our papers in for that one and got it. I tried to find the online pictures and its gone, so I will have to wait until we are in to post some pictures. Honestly even though its newer, it just doesn't feel like home. =( BUT at this point we will get what we can.

Yesterday we got a bank account and as for transferring money over, sheesh you would think we were all the way back in 1990's its insane how "wiring" funds over can take so long! We are hoping to have funds and move into our apartment next Friday. Which is hard cause Jed only has this week off and then he starts work on the 15th. So I guess I will be doing all the heavy lifting! 

Next thing is over here you look at school firsts and when you find a school that has availability you search for a home around that school. Out of the 12 schools only 1 had availability for both Bridger and Jocelyn. The house we found is 16 minutes away from that school ( which apparently is SUPER close) and the S-Bahn ( which is the subway station) is 21 minutes away from our new home. The closest store is approx. 25 minutes away, So I am finding that I am going to be doing a lot more walking than I anticipated. We took the kids to the Lego store today and they had a blast building individual guys, they were doing a promotion where every child got a baby sheep and mommy sheep for free. When Jed got to the front of the line, and the clerk saw he had 3 kids the guy said, you made bank! lol. See its nice to have a "BIG" family every once and awhile! 

Until later! 
-Catherine-