Our 1st Week in the House...

Our Internet is up and running, praise the lord!  I don't know how we survived before the Internet, it's amazing what you get used to.  Well we've been here for almost a month now and life is good!  There have been ups and downs of course and we sure have has a boat loads of rain which didn't do too much for my mood but we're getting along just fine and enjoying our time so far.  I've kept a journal on my iPad for my days without being online and I hope that I don't bore you with what I've been up to for the past month!  We've had a few fun day trips and explored our immediate area as well. 

Happy ready and there will for sure be more ahead!  Tschüs!


Tuesday July 12
The day started off with Dave and I taking a walk up to the little bakery for some coffee and a pastry, pretty yummy I must say :) the coffee thou...not so much. I went and bought a coffee pot later on which Dave thinks is the coolest thing since sliced bread since you can pour a cup right from the pot by pressing it into the front of the machine. By the end of the day I actually had counter space for it too!

I talked to myself a lot today! I have a mini radio from the American red cross that I was able to tune into a few stations that played a mix of songs from the US. The first floor boxes are empty, yippee! The 1st floor consists of an entryway, guest bath, dining room, kitchen, and living room which is sort of 2 rooms...we were able to fit in the couch, 2 love-seats and 2 chairs with ottomans as well as 3 end tables! Now granted some of that will be moved upstairs when we have room to put it after the boxes are out of the way.

I spent the most time setting up the kitchen which is usually what I like to do first. It's been a bit of a challenge going to a kitchen that is probably a 1/3 of our last one and I actually did put quite a bit of storage away in KS too! I think it's pretty complete now and I can actually cook in it!

It was a pretty successful day unpacking and cleaning. I somewhat dread the upstairs because I have so much stuff that went in closets and now I have none...and I hate piles...so Tuesdays plan is to come up with a solution or just stare at it wondering what the heck I should do :) that seems to be pretty typical of me sometimes!

Dave got home and we had some sandwiches for dinner, watched a lightning and thunder storm and then went to pick up some groceries. There are 4 groceries in walking distance, Aldi's, Netto, Lidl and Wasgau. I found they're all quite similar but I'm sure in time I I'll have my favorite things from each place. Tuesday I'll cook up some Frischfleisch (also know as chicken :) and have salad with shredded Gouda....I love Gouda and was so excited to find it in a bag all shredded! Oh the little things. Dave got a new case of beer, not Hefeweizen this time, something else but he loves the big glass 500 ml bottles and you can take them back for a refund just like in NY. I got Coke Light and Reisling. The best part though, I drove the Beemer everywhere and I did pretty good! We took a nice long bike ride around the streets in town and rode by a neighborhood of all new houses. They are so different looking - so European!

It's getting late and I had a mini breakdown. We tore apart almost all the boxes upstairs looking for sheets to the bed, it looks like there was a paper war :). We found them at the bottom of a box in the bathroom under my stock pile of items the US It's late and I'm tired and I'm really feeling homesick. I guess that was the downfall of being with my family for a month. I cried every time I looked at my pics of Marley and Kensie today but I know they're happy with G'ma. I felt like I was on a remote island with no phone and no Internet and no one to have a whole conversation with. I heard a neighbor talking in English behind my house today so I walked around looking for her but didn't see her! I'm such a stalker. I'm a little nervous to try to talk to the other neighbors till I know a little German to get by, I at least say hello though!


Wednesday July 13
It's a gray day almost looking like it will rain...again. We have such a quiet neighborhood, lots of birds singing. I love that I can open all of the windows, although I'm afraid a bird might fly in sometime. Yesterday there were a bunch of flies and dragonflies :) but oh well no screens. Back to the unpacking grind.

Well it did rain...all darn day! At least I was able to stay in and get more unpacked and put away. I'm still struggling with the closet thing-lack there of that is. I did get creative with a shower curtain rod between our dresser and the wall though :)

Dave surprised me and was home for dinner, he was supposed to be with coworkers that are here from the states. It was nice that he came home thought because I was anticipating being home alone till night time! After dinner the rain died down and we took a walk around the Alsenborn side of town. We discovered a community pool type of place so I will have to get some info on that! And we found another bakery, DHL, 2 T-Moblie places and a few Bistro's we will have to try out.

Back to my book, The Help. Man is this a good book, I'm almost done I just can't put it down. It makes me think of my Grandpa working in Mississippi back in the 60's and he treated all the "colored help" equally. Sure not like how they were treated in the book!


Thursday July 14
SUN SUN SUN! It's great to wake up to sun, it changes my whole mood. I of course stayed up much to late reading but like I said before, I'm almost done! I think today is garbage day but no one has their containers out. When we walked last night I peeked into some other containers to see if I put the correct recyclables in there :) but it was hard to tell because they were chuck full. Oh well I've been bagging garbage and if it doesn't get picked up I will know I did something wrong and have to ask Dave's coworker who lives up the street!

I've got to walk up to one of the stores and look for a tablecloth for a little table that's in the kitchen. Currently there is a bright pink plastic one on there that doesn't really cut it with my red decor. I have to find a hair dryer and curling/flat iron too and a converter for the computer but I don't think I have enough €€€ for all that! I better take my German-English dictionary with me!

Well no luck on finding any of the above :( I did find a flat iron but had no room to carry it at that point because I bought groceries instead. I walked up to the Enkenbach part of town ( we live on the Alsenborn side) which took about 25 minutes, wandered into a few stores and then went to a Turkish Kitchen for some lunch. I felt safe with curry worst and pommes and it was pretty good. Basically hot dog and fries.

I did some laundry and ironing when I got home, trying to get our bedroom in somewhat order. I still don't know what any of the settings on the washer and dryer mean but things seem to be turning out ok :)

Dave picked me up after work and we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner with a large group of his co workers, both German and Americans were there. It was a lot of fun and....socialization for me! Desperately needed may I add. I talked with people I had met in Dave's office here as well as ran into familiar faces from Iowa, it was a good time. I even got roped into playing Foosball which they seem to be pretty obsessed about! They have a table right in their office in K-Town! We didn't get home till 11:00 which was fine with me but rough for Mr. Routine :). Oh well weekend is almost here.

One of the guys from the office let me borrow an Internet stick that I can plug into the USB for one gig at €7,99/week, now if he isn't my saving grace?!?! So now I HAVE to find that converter for the computer and that should get me by until our hook up happens next week, yippee!


Friday July 15
No luck on the converter in town so we will have to go to the big Mobile Mart on Saturday for that as well as some of the organization things that we need like a coat rack, bathroom storage, some type of closet rack, etc. We have to get our large garage shelves set up in the basement so that we have space to store all of the stuff that we brought that we are not going to use :) as well as use it for our own commissary with all of the things that I stockpiled before leaving the USA.

It was a really nice day, cool but sunny. I took a nice long bike ride around town today, unpacked some more, organized some more! We have an upstairs porch outside of the office that we set one of table and chair sets on so sat out there this afternoon and finally finished my book. Earlier I heard a cat meow outside my window so i went out to look for it but didn't see. Dave said that he's seen a black cat so I'm keeping my eyes and ears peeled for it :). I need my kitty fix, I miss my girls so much.

We went to the Greek restaurant for dinner, it's really good just so much food! The taziki sauce is sooooooo good I just eat it plain. I have to stop getting fries though, they come with everything i just need to ask for something else. When we got home we rolled out a huge map of Europe and just studied it looking at all the possibilities we have of places to go! Where to begin? Oh by getting Internet so that I can research...that's where! Soon enough. It really is amazing to look at how many countries there are in an area that is smaller than the US.


Monday July 18
Our 1st weekend has come and gone! We stayed close to home and did some more organizing around the house (this house is definitely taking me longer than normal to settle). We were unsuccessful in our hunt for the converters, we did find adapters but that won't help with the voltage. At Media Mart I purchased a cell phone with a sim card - which is a whole new experience for us! No plan, I can pay €9,99 a month for browser access because I did get an Android phone but I just really wanted it for the security of calls. It's .09/minute to call anywhere really so we didn't think that would be too bad since it isn't my sole line of communication. I just have to add € as needed.

We ate lunch at the top level of Mobile Mart where we were looking for closet solutions and found just basic rolling racks that will substitute as our closets for the time being. It works! That store is the European version of Nebraska Furniture Mart to me! I'm sure we'll be back in the near future, it's right behind Dave's office.

The weather Saturday was beautiful and Sunday was a rainy mess! It's been pretty cool for the most part here and I'm especially cold all the time. I think it's because we live in a stone house. For the middle of July I'm wearing an awful lot of jeans and sweatshirts! I don't think I would be back in KC where it's 100 degrees! I'm kind of glad I'm not in that heat! I'll take my cool days here :)

I think I have figured out the garbage and recycling. We have all these different bins and yellow "Gelb" sacks so Dave found a site that explained all the things that you can put in each one and since I had it wrong before I did some garbage picking....omg....that's the last time I will go thru my garbage. I sorted out everything as best I could but when I opened a bag that had maggots crawling around in it I was done. I will just do it right from here on forward!

Sunday we went downtown K-Town to meet one of Dave's former coworkers for lunch who is here this week. One place that we keep going back to is The Brauhaus and yesterday we had a perfectly English speaking waitress, that was fun! We got home and the rain let up so we took a nice bike ride and discovered some more little eateries in our 'hood. A little bit further walk than the Greek place right up the street but we will definitely have to try. I attempted to use the oven for the first time last night and cooked really really really well done pork chops, I threw some BBQ sauce on them to soften them up :). I really need to learn my Celsius conversions!
After dinner we watched the movie Knowing with Nicholas Cage and that was pretty good. Dave gets movies from his gym which is nice since we don't have tv :)

Well not too exciting of a weekend but it was only our 1st one! I'm finishing up my coffee and listening to the huge military planes fly overhead, they are really something! We got our large shelving set up in the basement so on to that project this am. Then I need to homey this place up and put some stuff on these bare walls!