alla hopp!

Searching for fun playgrounds is something that would never have crossed our minds the last time we were in Germany.  This time around we have a little different agenda!  alla hopp facilities were first introduced in 2015 in the Rhein-Neckar Region to promote healthy and fun movement in both young and old.  They are huge outdoor park/recreation centers created by the Dietmar Hopp Foundation.  Dietmar Hopp is the co-founder of the Company SAP and has donated 19 of these facilities to date.  They are free to visit and loads of fun.  

We visited the one in Hemsbach just about 10 north of where we live.  There are a handful more that are not far either.  We could easily have packed a picnic and spent all day there.  We spent about 2 hours and that was enough for our first visit!

They called this a mini ninja course

At the dead end of a maze we found cool mirrors

Careful on the beam

Log swings

Taking a break from the sun

Having a snack

Mommy could do about 2 jumps max, darn bladder!

These two could've jumped all day!

We will look forward to visiting more alla hopp locations to see how they differ.  Next time we will take a blanket, food/drinks and sand toys to be able to hang out a little longer.  The bathroom facilities were nice and there is a kiosk for drinks and snacks.  There were quite a few people there but with the park so large everyone was easily spread out - except at the large sand pit - that was packed quite full especially with super little kids.  It was also a Sunday morning so I'm sure a weekday would be a lot less busy.  The Hemsbach location is nice because it's right next to the Freibad Weisensee which looked like a nice little swimming area.  That would be convenient as long as we plan ahead because pre-purchased tickets are required to get into the swimming areas now, as per the Weinheim website I believe to control the amount of people on a daily basis.  Oh thank you Corona Virus for always keeping us on our toes!  

Bis zum nächsten Mal,

 Tschüss!

    

Almost 6 Weeks Into The Move

It’s hard to believe we’ve been in Germany over a month now. Sometimes it seems like it has been longer and other days not. After our quarantine time we’ve been able to settle in, venture out to walk among the people (while wearing masks of course), go into stores and most importantly get Eis. 

We’ve gotten all of our furniture needs (thanks to multiple Amazon/IKEA orders!). It’s been a lot of putting stuff together but I think we are finally complete. Everything is relatively organized. The only item left will be a sun umbrella for the terrace. As the summer gets hotter we need it!  We will just put it out of our minds that mostly all of it will have to be sold before we return to the states since we would be way over our original container weight. 

The kids love exploring, although we need to build up their stamina a bit to endure the amount of walking we do. The big challenge I feel for the kids is the street safety. The streets are narrow and the sidewalks small, cars drive so close to where you walk and pull out of blind drives every next building. Every time we are out we have to keep a careful eye and be very cautious at our littles who like to race ahead.  Now we are incorporating scooters for the kids when go out to help them keep up a little longer.  

Well it helps a little bit. 

The kids love window shopping and looking around in stores.  We need to learn that we can’t expect to go into to a store and buy things. It’s just fun to browse!  It has been so fun going back into the supermarkets to see all of the things available.  I’ve taken the kids a few times but with their short attention spans it’s usually a quick trip and not one for browsing. Half the time we are checking out from someplace I end up finding things that mysteriously ended up in the cart i.e. Smurf gummies, Spider-Man collection cards, dino shaped puffs- the list goes on but it is fun to try new stuff. 

It is overwhelming with the amount of yogurts, cheese, meats, bratwursts and breads to try! All so good, still trying new ones and finding favorites.  Some of the small wursts the kids have found they like to eat them cold, a mini frankfurter like a hot dog!  We’ve definitely found some of our favorites like cheese sticks, Danimal (like) smoothies, different chicken nuggets and of course tons of pommes frites - french fries! 

No Iowa State Fair this year? No problem! 

We can still eat on a stick!

Coming back to Deutschland for me did not seem strange by any means, there are so many things I just need to get used to again.

1. Heavy wallet - with 1¢, 2¢, 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, 1€, and 2€ coins it adds a lot of weight to the zip portion of the wallet or god forbid you don’t have a change pocket you need to carry a change purse too!   It takes time to dig through all of those coins, and you MUST have patience in stores because as fast as the clerk speeds through your order it takes a while to find the EXACT change. Or use your card - cards are widely accepted more now than when we were here before. 
2. Quiet Hours - yeah, hard to do sometimes with a 5 & 3 year old. 
3. Recycling - How many bins? What goes where? Oh my, the first week was a brutal reminder of ultimate kitchen organization to accommodate all of the different garbage bin!
4. Cleaning - If you know me you know I’m a clean freak anyway. It was a good thing we used the shower squeegee everyday in our last house because it’s a must here. With the hard water you basically have to wipe down the entire shower, glass, walls and fixtures or the residue is super hard to remove. We don’t have screens and half our wall space is usually open to the outside so cleaning the floors almost daily is a thing now. I have a great steamer!
5. Traffic - I remembered why I liked walking/taking the train everywhere because it just seems to take so long to get anywhere in a vehicle!
6. Little darkness - in the middle of the year the sky is still light at 10pm and the again at 4:30!  We had complete blackout (manual) shades before so our rooms were always pitch black but our electric shades now do not block all the light and that makes it hard to fall asleep some nights and hard for some little people in our house to stay in bed!

It’s been so lovely to hear the church bells ringing everyday, the peacefulness and quietness of our penthouse is wonderful!  We do get quite a lot of traffic on the street below but it’s not bothersome, in fact sometimes it’s fun to to listen and people watch!  We are right next to a doctors office and high school as well as many businesses on the Bismarckstraße so there are quite a few people around all the time. 

We’ve also experienced the ease of delivery - something we definitely didn't have before. Lieferando is a food delivery service that offers over 25 different places we can order from. From a Döner to Schnitzel to Pizza, Gyros, or a delicious Salad - we can get anything. Honestly it’s the best thing. Ever. We loved dining out before but remembered that service was so terribly slow and with two small kiddos it’s just not as peaceful to hang in the bier garten any longer with impatient/hangry littles!  Plus we save a ton of €€ not ordering drinks 😉. 

AND grocery delivery - REWE service is wonderful and again so easy! 

From Janni - right around the corner 5⭐ yum!

From Pizza No. 1 - really good!

Gyros Salad from Hellas - SO GOOD! I💗Greek Food

We’ve met the neighbors (3 families) that live on each floor directly under us on our half of the building plus a few more from the other side.  Below us is a very nice elderly couple that brought us a box of chocolates to welcome us. The neighbor below them is also from Iowa! He is married to a German Frau. The ground floor family has boys around the same as Evie and William so we are excited to have some playmates!  Their dad is an engineer at JD - such a small world in our little building! There are two apartment houses in our complex connected by the parking garage. 

Our balcony (3rd floor), two balconies below (floor 2, 1) and  Erdgeschoss (ground floor)

View in the other direction of other building and where the Saturday night concerts took place. 

We’ve had a great couple of weeks settling in. Still finding our groove really and I'm sure we won't be in any major routine until we start schools in August.  The COVID has put a bit of a damper on some travel plans.  It's sad that our first house guests would've been here in a few weeks but had to postpone their trip till next year (fingers crossed!).  We do have confirmed guests of Grandma and Uncle Mike for Christmas time and can hardly wait for that!  We're in the process of planning some summer fun trips.  There is SO much to see and do right here in Germany.  The kids have certain places that they'd like to see based on pictures that they've seen of ours from our previous time here.  I don't mind at all going back to places we went before, it's going to be awesome seeing the kids reaction to some huge castles! 

Bis zum nächsten Mal! 

Tschüss!!

Losing a pet in the states while you’re an expat

Our fur babies were born in September of 2004 in North Carolina to a stray cat that Dave’s sister was taking care of. She was in the process of moving up to New York (where we were at the time, in Upstste) and had to find homes for the kittens and I said if she couldn’t find anyone there that Dave and I would take them.   Needless to say we were parents to two cute little kitties a few weeks later 😻

When we got the sisters they were so little, a calico and a black and white long haired that was a little plump. We didn’t name them right away, they had to have the perfect names. One night it occurred to me in the middle of the night - Jarvis Marylebone and Thistle Kensington - these two strange names of places (hotels) Dave and I had been in London a few years prior.  There I knew it, the cats were to be named Marley and Kensie and their names fit them so perfectly. 

After we had the cats only a few days we realized they were filled with fleas, so we bathed and bathed them and kept them in our laundry room while we tried bombing the house. I remember going to bed one night and actually asking Dave if we could get rid of them because I was so grossed out by the fleas!  I feel so guilty saying that now as I look back to what a short time that was and what a special part of our lives they were. 

Marley (calico) and Kensie (b&w) were my buddies the first few years because Dave was so busy working in his Masters/M.B.A. that anytime we were home from work he was locked away doing schoolwork.  It was nice to have the girls to talk to or hang out with! 

In 2007 we got the opportunity to move to Des Moines, IA and I will never forget that 16 hour drive with the cats in a cage and my mom and brother along for the trip. It was the 1st time they’d been in the car that long since their trip from NC to NY 3 years prior. For the 1st 2 hours before daylight, all we heard was Marley screaming and after a while all it sounded like was, “mom, out” over and over and over!  My brother covered their cage with a blanket to block out the sights and that seems to do the trick. They weren’t happy about the ride but they tolerated it. 

These were the most well traveled cats you’ve probably ever met, in 2009 we moved again to Sidney, NE an 8 hour drive west of Des Moines. Then in late 2010 we moved to Shawnee, KS another 8 hour drive away. They have always adapted very well to their new surroundings. Exploring a new house, finding their new favorite hideaway. Only 6 months later we were headed over to Germany on our 1st expat assignment but the girls would not be making that trip. Instead they were headed back to NY to live with Grandma while we were overseas. 

It was a huge change for my mom who is actually allergic to cats but we were very grateful for her taking them and she did fine with them for the 2 1/2 years we were gone. They had a bad habit of clawing and unfortunately had their way with mom’s sofa so we were happy to replace that when we got back to the states. 

After their time with Grandma, Marley and Kensie were off to Bettendorf, IA. We underwent treatments for IVF and soon found out Marley and Kensie were going to have a baby sister, a human one! It was a long road of infertility and the girls were always there with me, comforting me on a negative pregnancy test day or cuddling when they knew they needed to. Well they would cuddle 24/7 if we let them but they seemed to sense when it was really needed ❤️. In July of 2014 Evelyn was born and the girls were certainly curious. I was nervous about having cats around a baby but everything went perfectly fine.  They never bothered Evie but were happy to sleep by her and wake when she cried.  

Almost 2 years later we were moving back to Shawnee, KS in the spring of 2016.  The girls were 12 now and still doing great.  We found out that Marley had a thyroid issue so adding in a daily medicine was part of the routine.  We were also surprised to find out that we were adding a little boy to the family now too!  William was born in January of 2017.  The girls did great with both kids, in fact they were quite comfortable to just hide most of the day until the kids were asleep 😊

In December of 2017 we moved 3 hours back north to West Des Moines again.  Another new house to explore and find their favorite hiding place.  This was a ranch style house with a very large storage area and for the first time we actually had a cat door installed in the basement door so the girls could go in and out and the kids could stay out!  In Iowa we went back to the same Vet that we used when we were there 10 years before.  Dr. Young remembered us and was happy too see the girls back and doing well.  Here we did find out that Marley was in early stages of kidney disease but easily manageable with prescription food.  Both girls were not very excited about eating the kidney diet food.  It was a struggle to find a combination that they would eat!

At the end of 2019 when we found out about expat assignment we knew that the girls would not be going to Germany with us, they were 15 now.  Grandma now lived only 15 minutes away from us and graciously said she would take the cats while we were gone.  Our plan was to stay with my mom only a few weeks before going to Germany but when the news of Covid hit we actually ended up being there a little over 2 months.  Marley and Kensie always had a quiet hideaway everyplace we lived and being in mom's townhouse with the two kids around them 24/7 might have been a little much.  They tried to hide but the kids loved being around them.  At night after the kids were asleep the girls would surface for good and look to be comforted by mama!

In April I took Kensie into see Dr. Young because she was very lethargic and could not eat, drink, walk or stand.  I was so nervous I thought it was going to be the end but she ended up having an infection and was treated with antibiotics and an IV of fluid and in a few days was back to herself.  Dr. Young did say that she had advancing kidney disease and wasn't going to get better, she may bounce back for a while but it was inevitable her time was numbered.  Great, we were leaving soon and I didn't need to think about that!  Luckily the girls were doing well by the time we said our goodbyes on May 13th.  

Only 3 and 1/2 weeks later mom let me know that Kensie wasn't doing too well again.  It was very similar to the last time except she lost control of her bladder and was just about completely immobile.  Mom called Dr. Young and took Kensie in on Monday, June 9th.  It WAS the end this time.  And the guilt I felt for not being there was very difficult.  It was ALL so difficult, mom took such great care of her and had a very hard time with this.  She cuddled her right till the very end.  We would just cry to each other on the phone.  I cried so hard, honestly I can't remember crying so hard about something.  One of my original babies was gone.  

The reality of having pets is extremely hard then they get older or sick or something happens to them.  It just plain sucks.  Knowing that Kensie had a fabulous, very cushy life gives me comfort.  Knowing shes not in pain anymore gives me comfort.  Now we pray Marley holds out for a while longer, we just can’t go through that again too soon!

Evie wanted Kensie cremated so that she can live with us forever ❤️ we have her in a beautiful little box and even have a plaster paw print that Grandma is making into an ornament for us to hang. We will miss this sweet old girl like crazy and remember all the joy she brought to our lives. Rest In Peace Kens.