All settled

So I've now gotten every box unpacked and everything put away! Here are some pics from our new home. :-)

Our garden

Living room

Kitchen (where I spend 75% of my time)

The next pictures are from our Saturday afternoon bike ride through the mountains (big hills). It was a heck of a ride up but it was a great day for it. Perfect fall weather!

This is Mike in front of the Rathaus (Court House)

We saw this sign about half way through our bike ride...we thought that maybe they were cutting down trees in the area, but apparently it just explains the benefit of having forest...sounds dampening.

And here I am at the top of the hill.

All settled

So I've now gotten every box unpacked and everything put away! Here are some pics from our new home. :-)

Our garden

Living room

Kitchen (where I spend 75% of my time)

The next pictures are from our Saturday afternoon bike ride through the mountains (big hills). It was a heck of a ride up but it was a great day for it. Perfect fall weather!

This is Mike in front of the Rathaus (Court House)

We saw this sign about half way through our bike ride...we thought that maybe they were cutting down trees in the area, but apparently it just explains the benefit of having forest...sounds dampening.

And here I am at the top of the hill.

bring on the vitamin D

Due to the wet, cold and grey weather that we've been having in Frankfurt the past few weeks Mike, Jason (another Clt expat) and I spent a long weekend exploring Croatia. We flew into Zagreb and drove immediately to Plitvice Lakes. This is probably the only place that I've ever been that the scenery looks just like the photos in the brochures. It was simply amazing!

This is the hostel we stayed at. Super cheap but really nice! The owner was a sweetheart and very helpful!

Climbing through the caves.

After Plitvice, we headed to the coast which was absolutely amazing. We did some cave swimming, sea kayaking, drove to the tallest mnt in croatia and ate seafood until our heart was content. It was just what the doctor ordered!

Some new pics

Since the last post we have lost our "ok" internet and exchanged it for much better speeds, so I may actually be able to post a bit more often AND add pictures as last time I tried 7 times before giving up. So here are some pictures from the adventures since we've been here. (btw, our shipment has still not arrived...German customs are rediculous)

Our Stroll through the Taunus mountains...giving lost a new meaning :-)

Self portrait at the top of the Clippern (cliff)

The Clippern, we were expecting a bit more but oh well

The dinner cruise on the Main River with a bunch of Mike's co-workers

We're back....!!!!

So for all those that don't know, Mike's Deutsche coworkers requested him back and we've decided to go for it...so we are back in Germany for a year and a half this time. This go around will be a bit different as we brought our dogs with us and AREVA is shipping our household goods here also. So we have a bit more room (3x to be exact) and we are quite a bit more out in the country this time, which is a nice change of pace. Mike and I both realized that we are not city dwellers the last go around. So now that i got that all out, here's how our first 2 weeks have gone...

Flew out of the QC on Tuesday, arrived in FRA on Wednesday morning. The pups did really good especially for being on the plane for a total of 15 hours! YIKES! But I was very impressed by their potty holding skills, no accidents at all :-) So Wednesday we got to our new home (completely empty home might I add) and realized that there was no hot water in the house...at all! So the next two days were spent getting the proper heating oil into our house. Errons, errons, errons and now it's Friday. Spent the evening with a good friend or two and drank a few too many biers at the Feldberg Platz. I forgot the punch that the German bier packs so the next morning was spent sleeping in until almost 11. ha. Saturday afternoon was spent getting my new iPhone...as was Monday morning. Let's just say that Saturn (Germany's equivalent of Best Buy) was a complete pain in the behind...but I now have an iPhone for all of my internet needs.

Last Sunday, we met up with a group of English speaking expats from all over the world for a nice Sunday stroll, that ended up being a 5.5 hour hike through the Taunus mountains. We may have been a bit lost for a moment or two but we eventually found our way through all of the wheat fields. Monday we took a nice dinner cruise with Mike's coworkers on the Main which was quite nice. Tuesday was spent celebrating a friend's 30th birthday at the Beach Club in Offenback. But other than that last week was dedicated to finding light fixtures (those are not std in homes here), washing machine, dryer, bathroom cabinets, cars, etc., etc.

We've done a bit of hiking, a meeting new friends and connecting with the old ones. This past Sunday, our German friends made us pins with the German and the American flag, played the national anthem and pinned us yesterday, initiating us as German-Americans :-) Now we are just waiting (and waiting) for our furniture to arrive so that the dog kennel can retire from being used as our desk :-)

So all in all things are going rather smoothly.

Soooo....

So, I realize that it's been for-e-va since I last wrote...and alot has happened since then. A majority of my absence was spent having fun with my father and my sister. They came to visit pretty much all of December. We had a GREAT time! We went to Paris, Ireland, Belgium and also putzed around Germany a bit. The pictures above are from our adventures :-)

Turkey Day

So with Thanksgiving over with, I will say that I am beginning to miss home. This is the second turkey day in a row that has gone by with out pumpkin pie or some good homemade stuffing or playing tonk after dinner, turkey coma, well I guess I'm just missing the whole experience... We are going to be celebrating the holiday here tomorrow with some fellow Americans and it seems that we will finally be getting our fill, I can't wait. Don't get me wrong, the seared ahi and mahi-mahi, from last thanksgiving were amazing but this year just wasn't right (we had chicken nachos) hmph. Well wish us luck as none ofus have ever roasted a turkey before...we may just be having pizza ;-)