Life with a newborn...

Wowee!!! Who knew a newborn was so time consuming??!! I mean I knew they were to some degree but never ever in a million years did I know all I was getting into. Not that I regret it one bit!!! I am absolutely in love with my role as mommy, but boy oh boy I was in for a surprise.

I am convinced that the past six weeks have been stuck in some type of time warp where the days blend in with nights and sleep has been sucked away by flesh eating warlocks(sorry "big bang theory. reference. i am sleep deprived, dont judge me lol)! But as crazy as it sounds, although I never knew it was physically possible to be THIS tired, the last six weeks have also been the most blissfully amazing six weeks.

My problem is though that with time flying by SO fast I am beginning to forget those little details I never wanted to forget. So I am going to start blogging about them. I hope you are all ready! Haha I will blog all about the hilarious moments along with the frustrating or nauseating ones. So beware. Being sleep deprived leaves a pretty interesting-possibly lack of-filter in my mind. I will probably share moments about newfound motherhood that you will be questioning the need for it to be shared. But to me-this is all new and exciting so why not?! Lol but just so you know. I warned you. Bahaha! Well it is four thirty am-my child has been asleep for almost an hour now so it's my turn to sleep. Well.... until the next time I am up at a ridiculous hour(hint-you only have to wait a painstaking 24 hours)- i leave you with a picture of very possibly the cutest baby on the face of the planet!!!- not that i am biased by any means. TOODLES!

Neuschwanstein-Part 2 of the Garmish Trip!!

Ok I know...i know...I promised these posts about two or three weeks ago but life has been crazy! In the past three weeks, we have lost internet for a week, the army is sending us on an emotional whirlwind, we are taking classes and preparing for this precious baby girl and ALL of our stuff arrived in Germany! So we have also been unpacking. But along with unpacking comes unpacking and setting up my pretty computer!!! Now that I have my favorite piece of electronics, I cannot put off posting the rest of our trip we took a few weeks ago to Garmish-Partenkirchen!


The day we arrived in Garmish, we went to go figure out what we wanted to see in the two short days that we were there. One of the things on the must-do list was to see a real castle!!! :) Since being in Germany, we had driven by many castles and seen them from afar but this particular castle is special!! This castle is called the Neuschwanstein (pronounced new-sch-fawn-stein) castle and just so happens to be the very castle that Walt Disney designed Disney's Cinderella castle around! And boy can you see the similarities! It is beautiful!! So without further adieu, here is a couple pictures of the castle!!

Now they are doing some construction on the castle so please ignore the scaffolding on the castle but isn't it pretty!!! And boy does this castle have an interesting history so everyone, grab your popcorn and drink because here goes your history lesson ;) 

A very young King Ludwig had this particular castle and two others built during his reign. 

On August 25, King Ludwig was born. Ludwig loved to read and his favorite thing to read were the german fairytales. He was fascinated with them! So Ludwig would go around telling everyone that when he was King of Bavaria, he was going to build a "fairytale" castle. In 1864, Ludwig's father died very unexpectedly, leaving Ludwig to be the king at the very young age of 18. Now Ludwig was not ready to be king, who would be that young?? I know I could barely be queen over my responsibilites as  an 18 year old, I cannot imagine being in charge of an entire country! Now Ludwig's father had not prepared Ludwig to be a king or taught him his responsibilities to rule a country so this poor boy was left to his own devices. What does he do?? Goes into debt 45 million marks(now I tried googling what that is equivalent to the present day's currency, but couldn't find much. But leave it up to your own imagination- its ALOT of money!!! ) and starts construction on three different castles at one time!! This boy was not kidding about his castles! The other two are nice castles, and one was used as the family "get-together" spot but Neuchwanstein is his favorite! He kept true to his word and designed the entire castle around fairytales. Every room is designed around a different fairytale and has some of the most elaborate paintings on the walls that you could ever imagine. Unfortunately-they do not allow you to take pictures inside the castle so despite the REAL STRONG desire to break the rules...I was well behaved and didnt. hehe! So you will have to make a trip to Germany or google the castle to see if you can find pictures of the inside. Anywho continuing on.... So this young king blew through his inheritance money like it was monopoly money to build these castles. Around this time, the country of Germany started moving into a more democratic government and although the King was still "King" he didn't have many responsibilities or say in what was happening throughout the country. This truly upset Ludwig and he became quite depressed so he put everything he had into his castles. Ludwig supposably really liked his privacy because NOBODY was allowed to visit this castle. Not family or relatives, no girlfriends and he was never married. He lived there alone with his servants. 

This castle was under construction for 17 years before more tragedy hit. On June 10, 1886, King Ludwig was declared by the government as mentally insane(which from my understanding was not true. They did not like that Ludwig was young and irresponsible-I mean come on! What did you expect?! He was served his ruling on a silver platter with a ton of money and no guidance?! Of course, he did what any VERY young adult would do....he spent it!! haha.) and they took him from his beloved castle and institutionalized him. He did not last long there. Less than 24 hours later, King Ludwig went on a walk with his doctor and they never returned. They were both found dead in a nearby lake. The tragic fate of the doctor and King Ludwig was never discovered. To this day, they have no idea how they died. 

Because King Ludwig owed SO MUCH MONEY, the government people canceled all contracts and stopped construction on the castle immediately. This beautiful castle was never finished!! The even more tragic part is that it took 17 years for the castle to be "liveable" so King Ludwig lived in an "apartment" attached to the castle. By the time he was able to move into his beloved home, he only lived there 7 months before he was dragged away from it!! How depressing!! Out of his three castles he had being built simultaneously, only 1 was fully finished and that castle was used for family gatherings and such. 

Well that is the story of the castle. What do you think? I am not a history person by any means but actually found this really interesting!! :) As you can tell by the above pictures, the castle is built into the side of a mountain. When we arrived there we had three options to get up to the castle. We could walk up hill the two miles to the castle-and at 34 weeks pregnant I very quickly declined that invitation. I was trying NOT to go into labor on this trip. hehe. You could take a horse drawn carriage-and although this appealed to me and the "fairytale" aura of the trip. But it was AT LEAST a 45 minute wait for the horses and we didn't have that kind of time! haha The third option is the option we took and we took a bus to the top of the mountain and then walked to the bridge where I took the above pictures of the castle :) On the way back though, since it was downhill I agreed to walk and boy, I cannot get over the beauty of Germany! Its gorgeous! So the three pictures below were on our hike down. :)

The last few pictures were from our trip up to the castle. Because we took a tour bus to the castle, there were other things that we stopped and saw and one of the most spectacular was this little church! Now honestly, I don't remember the history story behind this particular church but as you can tell by the pictures, it is one of the most elaborate, intricately painted churches I have ever seen. We walked in and just jaws were on the ground!! So enjoy the pictures of this BEAUTIFUL church!! 

Last but not least (and I am a bit backwards in talking about this, because this was actually the first place the tour bus stopped us on) was a town called Oberammergau. They are known for two things, the first being their woodcarving skills. They have carvers from the black forest that carve some of the most beautiful pieces of out wood. They are most known for their "cuckoo clocks. Now for those of you who don't know the history of these clocks, the people of the black forest, in 1640, were desperate to find a source of income for their often bigger families because the small income of farming was not sufficing. So they started manufacturing simple wooden clocks that only had one hand to tell the time. About 100 years later, the first "black forest" cuckoo clock was made and quickly made an incredible and triumphant march across the world and very soon began to supply the bread and butter for thousands in the community! These clocks are CRAZY expensive but amazingly made and Julian is well determined to purchase one before our time in Germany is over... hehe. Here are a couple pictures of us at one of the "black forest" shops. 

I have pictures among pictures of carvings from the shop but i can't upload them all, so check facebook. I will post more there :) 

The other interesting piece of history that Oberammergau known for is what is called the "Passion Play." Here is a very quick history lesson behind this very special play. 

During the black plague, the mayor of Oberammergau became very concerned for his townspeople, not wanting his little town to be wiped out by the plague. He posted guards around the entire town and the residents were not allowed to leave and no one was allowed back in. One day, a young man, who was from this town but living in a neighboring village was homesick. He decided that he had not yet been ill, so he couldn't possibly have the plague and wanted to go visit his family. He found a back way into the town, snuck in and went home to see his family. They were very happy to see him but very shortly after his return, the whole family became ill. As we all know, the black plague spread very very quickly and soon many of the townspeople became very very ill. They mayor was desperate to find a solution and he invited the entire town to the local church to pray. The mayor prayed to the Lord and asked God to heal them. If He did this for them, they would share the life, death and resurrection of Christ. From that day forward nobody else in that town died and the town came up with what is known today as the "Passion Play." it is held every 10 years and is a HUGE production. It occurs for 5 months and is a seven hour play-with a meal time break. The last one was held in 2010 from May to October and is performed 6 out of 7 days a week. Audiences come from all over the world and the play in 2010, was 99% sold out each and every day it played-a total of 102 performances. Only members of the town are allowed to participate in the play. The town believes that the play should be as authentic as possible so nothing artificial is allowed-no makeup, no wigs. So for the year prior to each show, you are not allowed to cut your hair or shave. 

I thought that was a very interesting piece of history and Julian has also made plans to hopefully attend the 2020 showing. We shall see what happens :) 

Well that is all I have for now. I really need to go continue unpacking this house!! We are hoping to have it completed by Sunday at the latest. Have a wonderful day everyone and I will have Part 3 up sometime in the next two days!! Part 3- Dachau Concentration Camp! 

Now for our family update....

Well Vodafone(our internet provider) is failing me and has completely crashed. We haven't had internet in four days and its driving me nuts! its crazy to think that I survived so long without it when we first got here! But I have gone back to my "pre-internet germany" days and am using the army internet and computers. The bad news: All of my pictures from the trip a couple weeks ago are on my computer at home and I have no way of uploading them until I can get our internet up...The good news: I can update about how we personally are doing!! haha and of course most of this post will be revolved around baby Illianna! Because honestly-she is the most exciting thing occuring in our lives right now. haha.

Well lets start with Julian. As most of you have found out by now, unfotunately we did get the news that he will be deploying 10 days after our Illianna arrives. Its making delivery and her arrival pretty bitter-sweet. Although it will be extrememly difficult that he has to leave so soon, I am SO thankful that his command is at least allowing him to stay behind until the birth of our daughter; because to be honest: that doesn't happen in the army very often. So on that topic, he has spent a lot of time lately trying to get everything in line for deployment so that the ten days he gets after she is born, he will get to spend that with us and not having to work on "army stuff." He is doing great otherwise though! He is getting back into shape and enjoying life! He is getting very very excited for his daughter's arrival.I think that is one thing Julian and I have come to an agreement on. Although we know that her arrival will mean a departure is on the horizon, we have agreed that we can't focus on that. We have to be happy with the happy things and just not focus on the other. We are feeling so blessed knowing this little feisty bundle will be joining us soon and can't wait to meet her!! Julian has also been thinking long and hard about what he wants to do career wise. Whether that be stay in the army as a career and get his doctorate through the army, or get out and just do "normal life" again and go about school that way, i don't have any idea what he is going to choose but we have been talking a lot about it and seeing where the Lord directs us. The Lord has been so faithful with laying a path in front of us and taking care of us that I know that this will be no different. We are just looking into all of our options and know that the right one will present itself in due time.

I know a lot of you are probably wondering, what I am giong to do after he leaves...well be patient that is coming...hehe

As for how I have been doing...well the best way to describe it is.... I am 36 weeks pregnant. I have officially hit the point of "being tired of being pregnant." I have LOVED being pregnant my entire pregnancy. It has been amazing seeing my belly grow and to know that there really is a baby in there. I have loved feeling her move inside of me and trying to figure out what she likes and doesn't like. Trust me when I say, this child is already quite opinionated, knows what she likes and doesn't like and isn't afraid to tell me!! haha! She makes me laugh though. Anyway, so in the grand scheme of things, i have loved these last nine months. Now that i am in my 9th and final month of pregnancy, knowing that she can come anytime(starting in about a week anyway) I am tired. I hate that I feel 80. I hate not being able to bend over to pick anything up, I have officially listed the help of my husband to tie my shoes and I might as well forget about a good nights sleep now. Everyone says "Enjoy your sleep now!! You won't ever get it back!" Well what those well meaning people forget to mention is that you can kiss your sleep away when you can no longer breathe at night, which for me started around 32 weeks and has only gotten progressively worse. And thanks to this amazing child, as soon as i finally get comfortable and begin to think about sleep, she starts, not so kindly, letting me know that my bladder is in her way and needs to be emptied.  Although I know that once she is here, I will probably miss feeling her move inside of me and will miss being pregnant, as of right now I am ready to get this show on the road!

As for baby Illianna, she is one happy camper! Most of the time. She gets irritated when she is getting squished, which is almost daily now that she is almost out of room. I also laugh because she will get herself all worked up inside me trying to move around, flailing and kicking around ( I swear she is still trying to stretch me out!!). All that movement results in her getting hiccups about 90% of the time. Then she gets mad at those!! I start getting kicked as if I gave them to her!!! haha She is hilarious! The one thing I learned about this child pretty early on is she LOVES her space to be able to move around and do as she sees fit and without that room anymore, she tends to get frustrated. I do have to say though that less room for her does mean less violent kicks for me! I don't get kicked nearly as hard!! hehe. Other than the space issues she is having though, she is amazing! I absolutely cannot wait to meet my little pumpkin. At the last doctors appointment she was weighing 5 pounds 11 ounces!! I think its safe to say that we will have no problem with this baby not being underweight!!! She is also super-duper long!! The doctor is shocked every time she measures her femur bones because of how long they are! The last appointment she also just happened to have her little foot in the right position that the doctor was able to measure the bottom of her foot and its measuring 3 inches long already! I was a very long baby when I was born so I know she is getting that from me!

Julian and I have been doing little things to get her room ready for her arrival. Obviously we can't do much because we have yet for our stuff to arrive from the states; but I have finished the cherry blossom tree, we have hung pictures that my mom got us, she has a pink rug for her room, and has curtains! So we are most defintely getting there! I can't wait for our stuff to actually get here( it is supposed to be in the next two weeks at the latest!) so I can finish her nursery. We originally didn't have a theme for her room but as we have gathered items a theme has kind of just formed...So the theme is like whimsical birds and trees and flowers....if you can count that really a theme! haha but its what we got and its looking amazing. Again, as soon as I can access my pictures I will post them! :)

Well OK, you have waited long enough for the other piece of news! Julian and I decided that it would be best for me to come home as soon as possible after Illianna is born. Now "as soon as possible" is dependent on how fast the government wants to work on paperwork and get her passport and we all know how fast they like to move ;)Hopefully, we have heard it takes around 8-10 weeks. Coming home will allow me to be around family and get some help adjusting to motherhood but it also presents the amazing opportunity to allow our family and friends to get to meet her and spend time with her! So the plane ticket is bought and Illianna and I will be home from December 16-February 28!!! And then if all goes well, Julian's unit should be heading home shortly after that! So that is what is in the works for us. Illianna and I should be home just in time for the holidays! :)

Well this is crazy long post(as most of mine tend to be....haha) so I am going to end it here. But we are all doing well and just preparing for the changes to come the next month or so. Please just keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we begin this new journey into parenthood! Hope you enjoyed and as I said, I PROMISE I will finish posting the story's and pictures of our trip as soon as I can get on my own computer again :) Have a great day everyone!!

Our trip to Garmish (Part 1 of 3)

Well well well... I have been promising to write these posts for about a week now...but we got really busy last week. So please forgive me. haha! Julian and I had been wanting to do a little trip somewhere but had NO idea where. We were put on restrictions since I was 33 weeks pregnant at the time, that I was not allowed to leave the country just in case something happened. Well... that still means we have a whole country to explore! BAHAHA!

So last weekend Julian and I decided last minute(literally-we booked our hotel the night before we left....) that we were going to go to a town called Garmish-Partenkirchen. I really didn't know what to expect or really even where in Germany we were going...(for those that know me...my geography stinks...royally. haha) Its a good thing I trust my husband, right?! lol Come to find out when we arrived there that we were actually located on the southern border of Germany and Austria!

For a little reference, you can see down at the bottom the border of Germany and Austria and the Red A is where we were! (the blue dot is a dang advertisement from google...lol)  So anywho we decided we were going to make a trip down to Garmish and spend the weekend doing little tours around the area. Now let me paint a picture of what we saw when we got to the hotel. Julian and I got an amazing deal with the hotel we stayed at and although it was rated pretty well, we didn't know that what we were really getting was a five star hotel with amazing ammenities. What we didn't expect AT ALL was that our hotel backs up to what is called the Zugspitze-the highest point in Germany! They say if you stand on the top of this mountain( and its not foggy out-this is key. its always foggy there....) you can see into four different countries at the same time. Despite Julian asking once or twice, I told him that his pregnant wife was not going to risk going into labor to hike this mountain, but that I would take pictures from the bottom ;) It was beautiful and to think we could look out our window everyday and see this magnificent mountain. It was definitely one of those moments that makes you really realize your size and the magnificence of what the Lord has created around you. It was breathtaking. Now my pictures on my silly iPhone do not do this mountain justice. So you will have to either google Zugspitze to get a better idea of this mountain or just take a trip to Germany to see it yourself :) 

The whole area was just this forestry, green, mountainy area and it felt like a dream. It was utterly gorgeous! 

Well there is so much to tell about this trip as we had our fun little mishaps getting around Germany, we took two tours-First was to the Neuschwanstein castle (pronounced new-sh-fawn-stein) , which for those of you who don't know is the castle that Walt Disney designed Cinderella's castle around for Disney Land! The second day we went to what was the first concentration camp in Germany and it is called Dachau (pronounced doc-cow). That day was not nearly as cheery as you can imagine but was a great history lesson and I definitely learned a lot. So yes-this blog post will have actually three different parts to it. 

Part 1: this one! The overall trip! 

Part 2: Your own personal history lesson on Neuschwanstein castle and the king that built it(trust me, its actually kind of interesting :)

Part 3: Also a history lesson about Dachau, Germany at the time and all that stuff. Also interesting, and I will try and make it as non depressing as possible-but again-It wasn't a happy time in history. lol 

So for the rest of part one I will start with that morning we left. So I had a doctors appointment that morning and straight from there headed to the bus station. We caught a bus out of Bamberg around 1040. Now when you travel on train around here-they ask you:"Do you want the fast train or the slow train?" 

Julian says the proper response to this question is, "how much is the fast train?" 

They tell you 150 euro, 1 way. Julian's response to this: "We will be taking the slow train!!" 

The "slow train" cost us only 68 euro round trip for the both of us. So much much cheaper than 300 euro. haha. And although its the slow train, it really doesn't seem like that long of a trip. You tend to do a lot of changes and train hoppin (no not like the movies show where you are running and jumping on a passing train...haha) bouncing back and forth but its really not that bad. Not nearly as confusing as you would think it is. So we get on our first train that takes us to Nurnberg-this is about an hour away. Then we got on a train from Nurnburg to Munich. Lastly is from Munich to Garmish. Now inbetween Munich and Garmish, there was a bit of construction on the railroads so we also had the added adventure of getting dropped off in a town I do not remember and having to hop a bus to Garmish. haha but its an adventure right??!! Well going back, We get to Nurnburg, go to our next train, hop on and voila. Well halfway to Munich Julian asks the very daunting question- 

"Babe-Where is my wallet??" My heart stops. 

"What do you mean where is your wallet??!!" 

"Well I am hoping you have it because its not in my pocket or the backpack." 

Well come to find out, my husband fell into a deep slumber on the train from Bamberg to Nurnberg and it fell out of his pocket as some time or another. You all know me-I found someone on the train who spoke english and I was off chattin with her! I was sitting about 3 seats away from Julian and wasn't paying attention to his wallet! So to say the least we get to Munich and have our panic moments trying to call lost and found and talk to people who can't understand our English. Which is frustrating, because we are trying so hard to speak German but we are no where near good enough to communicate what the problem is. So we board our train from Nurnberg to Garmish and we are still trying to talk to Lost- And-Found. It was a MESS let me tell you! luckily-my husband is super smart and knows that when you pull out large amounts of cash/euro you divide it into different areas. So I had some on me, he had some and we had some in our suitcase. So LUCKILY! we had divided it up and Julian only had about 60 euro left in his wallet. So anyway:to make a long story short, we get to the hotel that night and Julian is reporting all of his cards and cancelling everything. I jokingly teased that "Well everyone says how honest the German people are, I guess we will see if its true!" 

So we wake up the next morning and begin our first adventure heading to the castle. On our way there, we get a call from Julian's sargeant. His wallet had been turned in! Not only to the lost and found at the train station but someone actually took the time to find it, bring it back to the military post in Bamberg and take it to the MPs(Military Police)! I could hardly believe it!!! It was amazing! Now-the money was taken out of the wallet but Julian teases that it was the finders fee! He didn't care that the money was gone, he was just glad to have his wallet back and get this: The darn boy was more excited to get the wallet back because of all his business cards he had aquired!! He didn't care that his US drivers license, his military ID and all his bank cards were lost: He was distraught that he had lost all of his business cards! Silly boy!

So that was our adventure on our way to Garmisch. I don't have much else to say in general. So give me a couple days to get all the pictures uploaded and the story written down and I will post part two for you all!! Thanks for reading!

just getting used to living here...

Oh my: I know I am due to write another blogpost but in all honestly nothing big and exciting has happened. haha A lot of little things have happened though so I guess we can start there...

All the magical things I have learned about Germany!

1) I have made myself promise to start REALLY trying to learn the language and although it is a slow process (...and I mean SLOW) I am definitely trying. One of my new rules for myself is I have to learn one new word a week and ACTIVELY use it and everything else that I have learned thus far. My word for the week:  
                                                                      Schönen Tag
When I asked a very nice german lady how do I say " Have a nice day in German" she stated it would just be "nice day"-in terms of "good day" and that is what she told me. If I am wrong, german friends, please correct me but thats what I have been using.

This week I was a bit ambitious and learned a couple extra ones. I also learned...
                                                                      Entschuldigung
This means, "excuse me" "pardon me" 
                                                               eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf
Yeah Yeah I know I am a bit behind in learning how to count in german HAHA but this is simply "1,2,3,4,5" and I have only learned up to five...lol But I am getting there.  :)


So adding this list to the list of five or six words I knew before, my vocabulary is....slowly developing! lol my survival German is a bit more developed and I have a little more confidence in functioning when asking for something. I still cannot say any full sentences but, although I get Germans that kind of giggle when I ask for something in a very chopped sentence, at least they see that I am trying and they really appreciate that. I have even been able to help a couple Germans with english words! hehe that is fun too! Little words get lost in transition or they forget a word here and there and when they ask me how to say it, it is nice. :) I at least feel I have something to contribute!


2) I have been much more comfortable with traveling downtown by myself and using the bus to get there. This sounds really inconvenient, but as I said in a previous post, almost everyone walks, rides bikes or rides the bus to get around town. My OBGYN is located downtown so I have to get myself down there every other week for my appointments and I feel quite accomplished to be able to navigate myself there!!.....Ok Ok....you caught me. I have a very specific route I have to take, I get dropped off in the same spot, I walk through the very same store and walk directly on the same path through the market to get to my doctor. If you dropped me off in a different place than normal or messed up my route in any way  there is a good chance I wouldn't know where I was going but hey, again, its a working progress! :) Doing this also requires me to walk EVERYWHERE! So anytime I do go downtown, I am walking about 5-6 miles a day and when I stay around post it is about 3-4. All this walking better help me with labor! haha


3) Julian and I used the train for the first time!! My that was fun! hehe there was nothing too exciting involved but hey I had never been on a REAL train before! (according to my husband, the little kid train that goes around Freestone park doesn't count...haha!) We traveled to Ansbach and Katterbach where a couple really good friends that we knew from the states live! It has been so nice having the Brennan's here as we adjust to life in Germany. They have helped us get settled so much and honestly its been the biggest blessing. Even cooler, Diane is due one week after I am! So we are able to go through the last part of our pregnancy together and that has been really neat. 


4) Although it wasn't the hospital that I will be delivering at, I was able to visit a German hospital-labor and delivery suite and see how things operate generally. I understand there will be slight differences as there are with all hospitals but from what I learned about the general concept of how labor and birth are perceived and how things are done, I am SO excited to have the chance to have Illianna here! Just about everything I believe with labor, delievery and post partum is supported by the German beliefs so knowing I do not have to fight to have things the way I want them is such a blessing. They complete support me and agree in my decision to have an all natural birth and I am very excited about that! It shall be a very very nice experience! The hospital that I am choosing to deliver in will also have a NICU in the same hospital so if Illianna needed anything when she was born, she would still be in the same hospital with me, instead of being transferred anywhere. So that brought a great piece of mind! 


I think that is all that has happened ...haha as I said, nothing too crazy exciting. Julian and I DO have a trip planned next weekend with his unit to do the "Tour under Bamberg." Honestly, I don't know what it entails...haha besides again, a lot of walking. We are looking at a couple different other trips also. We are looking to head to Prague(the capital city of the Czech Republic), we are planning a trip to Poland around the first week of December and we are looking at dates for places such as Rome and Paris. So there are definitely exciting things to come! 


Other excitingness....we only have one more full month and then like 20 something days to get through until our precious bundle of joy joins us!! I absolutely cannot wait!! :) 7 more weeks! Julian and I painted her room this weekend and had a lot of fun doing that! We have been deciding the details that we want in her nursery and I absolutely CANNOT wait for our stuff to arrive so I can set up her nursery! We are still waiting on all of our House Hold Goods and those aren't expected to arrive until the middle of September sometime....But hopefully they get here before she does! lol 


Well that is all the updating I have for now. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I will have something more substantial to write. haha but I hope you enjoyed this little update on what is going on in Bamberg, Germany!
Schonen Tag!

 

The German way of life...

Well we have now been in Germany for about...four days? (haha i absolutely CANNOT keep track of the days yet. Every morning I have to ask Julian what day it is....) It is Friday the 13(oh dude i didn't even realize it was Fri/13 today! haha weird...) and I have to say, I am falling head over heals in love with Germany. The first couple days were rough. It was a major culture shock and I spent most of Wednesday crying...haha. I think it was finally hitting me that we were in Germany whether we liked it or not, I didn't (and obviously still don't completely) understand the culture differences and I HATE being confused and lost. But after I got over my mini pity party(Yes dad, the small little violin was playing quite loudly ;) I changed my mindset to just wanting to learn everything I could about this culture and the German people. And let me tell you-The things I have learned in the last 48 hours have completely blown me away. So here it goes...everything (that I can think of) that I have learned lately.

1) German people are so nice!!!! I didn't want to accept this at first because in my head they were foreign and mean. haha i know thats not very nice but i am telling you, my first 24 hours here, i was bound and determined not to like Germany (I blame it on my hormones because now I for the life of me cannot understand that mindset.) As long as you try to understand and be respectful of their culture and their way of doing things, they are more than willing to help you. They tend to kind of come off as being short with you, but they are just straight to the point people. They don't mean anything by it. Most of them have a pretty funny sense of humor.

2) German people make me laugh when you ask them "Sprechen sie englisch?" (means-do you speak english?) German's (along with a lot of European people) speak more than one or even two languages-and this includes english. Especially the younger generation, they are taught english in school. Well when you ask them, they look at you and say"little bit." The part that is funny is they are completely fluent in it for the most part but they just don't want to let on that they know english. But it is great too because its been a great learning tool for Julian and I. I have learned these words in German:
Hello- Hallo
good bye (see you later)- auf weidersehen
please- bitte
thank you-danke

yes- ya
no-nein
hospital- krankenhaus

So basically- I know survival German...haha but hey I am learning!! I am getting there!!! :)

3) Germans are very healthy people! For the most part, their food is all natural. They don't have the preservatives and stuff that we Americans have in our food. A big difference that I have noticed since getting here is, in the states, the last three months of my pregnancy have been plagued by HORRID heartburn. To the point that I know I am going to regret it if I leave my tums at home. They have a permanent place in my purse. But since we have gotten here and have been eating the food here, I have had 1 bout with heart burn and it was so minor I didn't even need a tum. Well yesterday we needed a quick and easy meal so we stopped at burger king here on post. BAD IDEA! I had heartburn for about four hours after that. The food here is so much healthier.

Breakfast is their big meal. They go all out for their breakfast. But its different than ours. Its a cold breakfast. It consists of lots of bakery goods(the Germans love their bread! There are bakeries on EVERY CORNER!) Things like breads and pasteries, lots of jams, chocolate spread and honey. They also do some sliced meats and cheeses if you want a deli type sandwich in the morning. Now as I discovered the first morning here-there are so many types of bread to choose from.(Germans have over 300 types of bread) and trust me-not all of them look very appetizing...haha I used to tease my mom about her "sticks and twigs bread" but the Germans may have her beat on that one. The darker the bread the better it is for you. My personal theory-the lighter the bread, the better it tastes...haha Oh and anywhere you go for breakfast, they ask if you would like tea or coffee. I go for the tea. Its amazing.

As far as lunch and dinner go- we haven't really had an authentic German lunch yet as we are so busy during the day. For dinner, I have discovered a little authentic Italian restaurant right outside post (and for any of you that know me real well-feed me pasta every night and I will be one happy camper!!) so we have eaten there almost every night now. :) So I have yet to have a German style dinner.

 4) One thing I love about the German community is everything is based off the honor system. People trust one another. This is so vastly different than the States.  In a lot of places you go they will have little refrigerators with drinks and such. If you want one, you can take one but are expected to go to the front desk at some point, tell them you took one and pay for it. They trust each other here. You can't do that in America. Its the same thing when you head downtown. People don't chain up their bikes here. They park them on the sidewalk or in a bike rack but they aren't chained up. People really don't steal here. The crime rate is extremely low. And unfortunately-the crime that does occur, occurs because of American's causing problems. Its sad really. In the same category I think, the German community is also very respectful of their land. They don't really litter here and if you do, its some hefty fines. There isn't trash all over the place. Bamberg is very clean and very well taken care of by its community.

5) Now speaking of bikes, that is one of the main forms of transportation here. Again, Germans are very healthy people and tend to walk places or ride bikes if they can. Although there are still a decent amount of drivers here, most Germans tend not to drive and are much healthier because of it. Bikers are also EXTREMELY protected by German laws here so if you hit a biker while driving...you are in MAJOR trouble!!

5) This is something that may offend some of you and if it does I am sorry but this is one thing I have really become aware of since moving here. Americans are an obnoxious group of people a lot of the time... and this is why. Although not always- most of the time any problems that are started here are because of a group of Americans. A lot of them are not respectful of other cultures and way of doing things and don't care to learn(and we wonder why people dislike us so much!) Julian and I try very very hard to be conscious of what we are doing and whether what we are doing is something that is acceptable. Even if its something we naturally do in the US, we are still in Germany and I feel we need to be respectful of their culture. But not all American's here have that mindset. Here is an example: Julian and I went out to dinner the first night we were here and there were two young American soldiers eating two tables in front of us. We were in a quiet Italian restaurant and they were speaking so obnoxiously loud and cursing every three words. This really bothered me. They did not care that they were disrupting everyone around them. They were extremely demanding and just all around rude. Now I understand that this can happen anywhere and it happens in America too but I just don't understand how you cannot be aware of your surroundings and trying to be respectful. Although I will explain this more later- people here are overall pretty quiet people, so they stuck out like sore thumbs!!  idk-that is my little rant I guess. I have just become much more aware of our actions and how they are affecting everyone around us. And while I am trying to do this, it makes me more aware of those people who do not care to fit in. They will do whatever they want, no matter how they are being perceived.

6) As I was saying above, Germans are for the most part a quiet group of people. Yes they have their fun loud party moments but they very much enjoy their quiet also. Germany actually has what is called "quiet times." The actual times vary from place to place, but they are times in the day that you are expected to be quiet and respectful. No loud music, you aren't supposed to do noisy tasks during this time(mowing your lawn etc.) It is actually pretty nice.:)


So overall, the one thing I love about Germany is they have an amazing mindset of what living is. they love to have fun, but they aren't necessarily about convenience like we are in the states. Yes certain things may be faster by hopping in a car, but you also miss out on the beauty of things. You can take in a lot more of your surroundings by walking or riding a bike than you do in a car. Same thing goes with eating here. When you go out to eat, nobody is in a rush. You sit down and are expected to talk and enjoy yourselves. They serve your drinks and will take your order when they can but nothing is rushed. The servers don't rush around to your every demand. You are expected to just chill and enjoy your company. They are all very respectful to each other and disrespect to one another is not tolerated. Profanity is not used and there are actually parts of Germany that have no profanity signs. Children are viewed as a blessing and the parenting style is different here. Most German parents(of course not everyone but a lot) are much more patient and allow children to just be kids. Unlike what we are used to, where some people view children as an inconvenience. An annoyance. It isn't that way here. I am not saying the children aren't disciplined, because they are actually really well behaved, but they are absolutely LOVED here!! It really is an amazing community and I honestly love it here. I am not saying that they have everything right because of course in every community there are faults. They are not perfect. But they very much have a great mindset on what it means to just enjoy life. To take your time and enjoy what is around you and what you have. I know I am going to learn so much here.

Well I know this was a really REALLY long post but I had a lot to share. :) Hopefully I didn't offend people to badly but if I did this is what I have to say: The bible states over and over again that the golden rule is to treat people how you would like to be treated. Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 7:12 "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." I have seen this more in practice in the past four days than I think I have in 22 years in the states. People here are kind and loving. They are more than willing to reach a hand out and help you. They will put you, a stranger, before themselves.  I really think this is something that needs to not only be taught more, but acted upon more. To care for one another. 


Wow, I really didn't mean for this to get preachy but it was what the Lord put on my heart to share. I absolutely LOVE it here. It is a beautiful country with SO MUCH to teach and show. And I cannot believe that I was given the amazing blessing to get to live here, learn all that I can about another culture and to get to share it with you. Our pastor in El Paso used to tell us "You are blessed to be a blessing." So I really hope that as I was blessed to get this amazing opportunity that I am also sharing with you all that I am supposed to. I hope to show you as much of Germany as I can through this blog!! (eventually I will start uploading pictures. hehe) Have a great day everyone!!

Welcome to Germany...

Do you all remember the movie "The Princess Diaries" where Princess Mia is flying on her own private jet into Genovia for the first time? She looks out the window to see rolling green hills and a castle? Joseph comes to her shoulder and says "Princess Mia, welcome to Genovia...." all big and dramatic?

Well minus the castle and the private jet, that was the moment I had when we first flew into Germany.. I had just woken up from a quite uncomfortable, but still well desired 3 hours of sleep to see rolling hills of huge trees. It was absolutely beautiful!...

As Julian and I were waking up and trying to convince our minds that it was 10 am in Frankfurt- although in NC it was barely 4 am- we were being shuffled off a plane into the Frankfurt International Airport. I told Julian that the baby was having a hayday with my bladder and I really needed to use the restroom, only to get into the restroom and not know how to flush the toilet or turn on the sink....eventually I figured it out but it then hit me...."Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore...." Haha jk jk (I don't know where all these movie references are coming from. Evidently this is what being sleep deprived does to me.) It really hit me that we were in a completely new country about to start the next three years of our lives here.

It has been a very crazy 24ish hours as we traveled from Norfolk VA, into Charlotte NC and then finally to Frankfurt, Germany. We are now trying to figure out how to get to Bamberg, Germany-hopefully our resting area(there is still a chance our orders will be changed to a different location. We will find out in about an hour.) We are sitting in the USO within the airport and were told that a bus will be taking a group of us to various posts around Germany. The bus will be arriving at 1330 and we have about a 2 hour bus ride to arrive in Bamberg.

Currently that has been our entire experience here. Nothing too crazy exciting has occurred yet but we have only been here about two hours. We have arrived safely though, all of our baggage made it just about in one piece(one suitcase is slightly torn but nothing too dramatic). We did get delayed stateside causing us to miss our first flight to Germany(we were supposed to arrive in Germany at 7:20 am) but we made it in one piece and that is all that matters. Overall everything went extremely smoothly and the Lord really helped work out all the messy details, and for that we are extremely grateful. Illianna has been kicking around all morning trying to figure out what is going on. She is doing really well though and growing nice and big. Hopefully within the next two weeks I can get a doctors appointment and get this little one checked out because it has been six weeks since my last appointment and I will be about 32 weeks before my next one if I had to guess. So please be praying for an easy transition into Germany as well as finding a great doctor here that can take over mine and Illianna's care. Thank you everyone for all your support and I will be talking to you all just as soon as possible!!

Alyssa Julian and Illianna