Livecam Schlossplatz

When we found out we were moving to Stuttgart, I started reading about the history and layout of the area. I came across this webcam of downtown Stuttgart, which covers an area called the Schlossplatz. (Go ahead and watch it pan for a minute. I'll wait.) "Schloss” means “palace,” the large building on the left. I set the webcam to be a part of my desktop background, so for months I watched a few minutes of Stuttgart every time I logged on to my computer. I watched it change from windy to rainy to foggy to snowy to more snowy to sunny; saw festivals and protests and the gigantic Christmas tree they put in front of the building on the right; and watched people lounge on the grass when it was warm and walk as fast as they could when it was cold. I even imagined Tom there, knowing he often walked downtown on his days off.

Fast forward to today. Tom and I left for our Saturday shopping trip, but since we are finally settling in a little bit and only needed to hit one store instead of three, he suggested driving into Stuttgart and walking around a bit. Sure! I hadn’t been into Stuttgart proper yet. Our house is a good 30 km/20 miles away, and all of our destinations are in outlying areas. We followed the GPS route, parked in an underground garage, and came out to get our bearings. Pretty soon we came around a corner, through a throng of people, and out from under some trees, and I stopped and said, “I know this place!” We were coming from behind the circle of red flags on the right, and I was finally seeing in person a scene I knew so well. I almost teared up! I am just so thankful to finally be in this place. First thing I did was locate the webcam – it is situated in a little white ball on the roof of the building. We walked around the perimeter of the plaza, then near the tall monument, and let Vienna sit and put her feet in the fountain. The water was cold! We then spent a couple more hours just walking around the markets and in and out of stores, stopping for a pastry here and an ice cream cone there. Because the trip was unplanned, and because my batteries died during our walk in the woods yesterday, I had no camera with me and therefore no pictures to share. I thought about finding pictures from the web to post, but since I know we will be going back, I want to wait and share my own. Hope you don’t mind!

If you are not on Facebook (as you should be!), here are the pictures from yesterday. Tom and I and our little lady went out to dinner in the next town over, stopped for ice cream (they make it so easy here), and drove around until we ended up on a narrow road heading into the country. We got to a place where the road split into three, none of which allowed cars, so we stopped and went for a walk! It reminded me of a movie, because there was a sunny, open, well-lit path on the right,

and a dark, spooky, overgrown path on the left.

We, of course, went left.

This was relatively a pretty small patch of forest, surrounded by farmland. But gorgeous! It was actually very dark in there. My dinky little point-and-shoot was trying its best to lighten things up. I plan to go back with my better camera, a little earlier in the day, with someone who wants their picture taken, and see what we can capture. And can you imagine it in the fall?!?

Tom picked up a walking stick along the way, so naturally Vienna needed one, too. Tom broke one off to be the right height for her, and it is actually pretty cool looking – it has a handle shape on the top, so it looks like a cane. I kept trying to take a picture of it, but she would move it at the last minute so it cut off the cool part. Plus, she thought it was better to turn it over and make it a foot-stick. Whatever. We held on to it for future outings.

Random Observations:

• Dogs are allowed in many stores and restaurants.
• Smoking is very prevalent here.
• Many drinks (water, soda, juice) are sold in 1.5 liter bottles – as tall as a 2L soda bottle, but skinnier.
• Commas replace periods in decimal points, so the volume on the bottles above is listed as 1,5L.
• Periods replace commas as digit separators, so if you have a million of something it would be 1.000.000.
• A dash is used in money to indicate “zero cents.” So something that costs 5 euros exactly is written as €5,—.

Tschüss!

Wir sind in Deutschland!

We moved to Germany.

One month ago today, five months after Tom left, the four kids and I landed at the Stuttgart airport.

For the first few days, I had high hopes of journaling about our new and exciting adventures every day and turning that into blog posts. After about a week and a half,  I remembered that I am me, and no such ambitious or meaningful project would be forthcoming. So then, how do I summarize the last month?

We love it here.

First, let me say that for the most part, the kids and I have been housebound. It was another two weeks before our van arrived, so our only transportation was Tom’s small car, and he of course is at work most of the time. I also haven’t been able to take the class and test to get my license, so even with the van here we are limited. But is hasn’t been too bad. I am a homebody by nature anyway, and there has been a lot of cleaning and settling in to do. We will be here for a while so there is no rush to see and do everything right away. Our house is large inside and out, and though it is in an unusual “neighborhood” (a story for another time), we have plenty of options for taking walks, including a couple of stores where we can get bread and treats.

Speaking of which, I love our house! It felt like home right away (to me) and I already know it will be hard to leave it when the time comes. It has so much character. Lots of natural light. No carpet. A big kitchen by German standards. A pond. A sauna. Lots of nooks and crannies (and spiders). I plan to do more in-depth posting about it with lots of pictures, but here is one to tide you over…

The weather here has been uh-maz-ing. The high is normally in the 60s-70s F. There were only two days at the end of June that I would consider hot – approaching 90. I know you Arizonans have no sympathy for me, but keep in mind that we have no air conditioning and had no fans at the time, there was no breeze, and we have a skylight that lets in lots of direct sunlight, so the house got hot and stuffy. Other than that, it has been beautiful. We get some precipitation almost every day, ranging from light sprinkles to heavy downpours, often times with lightning.


Some things that have happened since we’ve been here:

*Tom surprised all the kids by getting them themed bedding: Dora for Vienna, Mario Kart Wii for Elijah, and Star Wars for the boys.

All I got was red and blue. We’ll just say it is a U of A theme.
These beds are loaners that we will give back when our household shipment arrives, which should be in a week. We also have schranks, or wardrobes, that we will keep since there are no closets. Other than that, our house is devoid of furniture.

*The second day here, Elijah found a piece of white-painted popcorn wall that had fallen off and asked if it was a tooth. It was a valid question – we have been losing a lot of teeth lately. We explained to him that it was not. That night as I was tucking him in, I saw the “tooth” under his pillow. The next day, he didn’t say anything about it. I looked under the pillow – no fake tooth. Finally, at bedtime, he was acting a little strange and didn’t want me to lift up his blanket. I heard a rustling sound and demanded to see what it was. Looking very guilty, he pulled out a small note that said, “This is not a real tooth! NICE TRY! –The Tooth Fairy.” He was very worried about getting in trouble with us for trying to trick the Tooth Fairy. I just hope she doesn’t skip over our house when he has a real tooth up for grabs!

*At the airport, Tom presented Vienna with two Zhu Zhu pets, a prince and princess. (She had a camo one back home.) You can see her holding one in the airport picture above. They roll around and make noise and keep her entertained. She has loved them – almost to death. The pink one is paralyzed now, and you know how they have a big sticker on the bottom that says to keep away from hair? It’s for a reason. She got a good chunk of her hair wrapped around the prince’s wheel, and as I was trying to free her from it, the chunk pulled away from her head, painlessly. Instead of being a lesson, she thought it was pretty funny. Do I count that as her first haircut?

*We joined the modern age and bought a 50” plasma TV. We weren’t able to bring our TVs with us, so we had to get something. We also needed something to play DVDs and watch Netflix, so we ordered an Xbox 360 with Kinect, which we did not tell the boys. More about that in a second….

*My baby boy became a teenager. How did that happen? Jonah’s birthday was on a Thursday, but we waited till Saturday to celebrate by going to see Cars 2 (not exactly his choice, but that is what was on) and then coming home for cake and presents. We bought a chocolate bundt cake, which Vienna had to decorate. Oh, yeah, and we didn’t have candles.
For presents, a Kindle gift card from the Petersons and an *awesome* shirt from me (because I am *awesome*).
Now for the fun part: Jonah had asked for a video game for his birthday. Real original. What he meant was a game for the Nintendo DS. What he got was this:

What’s this? It an Xbox 360 game. “But we don’t have an Xbox 360!” “Oh, Dad and I thought it said you could play it on the DS, too. We could have sworn we saw that on there somewhere.”

“But you can clearly see that it is for Xbox. This is the wrong kind of game. Do you people not understand?!?” (I’m paraphrasing, but you can see it on his face.) “Oh, in that case, we can take it back. Or give it to someone. Or… we could order a 360 and have it mailed to us, like we DID!”

Gotcha! Now he’s happy.


I have decided to end each blog post with some random observations. Some of these might seem obvious or common sense to you, but I thought they were interesting to note. Some things I remember learning in German class from high school and it is just interesting to me that they are actually true. And some are just to educate those uncultured swine out there who don’t know much about the world. (Haha, I am SO just kidding!) I welcome further questions or corrections if necessary since my experience is still limited…

Random Observations:

• The Autobahn has speed limits (on parts).
• Germans drive on the right side of the road.
• Clocks run on 24-hour time, so 6:30pm is 18:30.
• Germans put the day first when writing dates, so today is 15.07.2011.
• Though it is much better than it used to be, shopping hours are very limited. No 24/7 shopping here. We are glad to be near a small grocery store that stays open until 8:00pm (I mean 20:00). And just hope you never need anything on a Sunday!
• Cashiers sit down while they are checking you out. (Not “checking you out” but checking you out - you know what I mean.)
• To use a shopping cart, you insert a Euro coin into a lock that connects your cart to the one behind it in line. When you return the cart, push the lock back in and your Euro pops out. Result: No stray shopping carts in the parking lot!
• Shoppers bring their own bags or baskets to the markets, or buy one there for a small fee. I have also seen people take a cartful of items to their trunk and just load it up, without bags at all. The mall stores bag items, but I still saw a lot of people with their own baskets.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Halloween and Birthdays

Halloween and birthdays - these seem to go together in our family. One nephew's birthday falls right on Halloween and both T's and V's birthdays are three days later. Next week birthday season continues as E has his on the 12th and any day now we will be adding a brand new niece into the mix.

This year we had a clone trooper, a boxer, a vampire, and a Dora. I didn't get a great picture of them in full costume, but they had a good time wearing them to school, the Fall Festival, a friend's party, and the Trunk-or-Treat at church.

Spooooooooooooooooooooooky!

 

V was tired and grumpy when it came time for the Trunk-or-Treat, but when she saw that people were tossing treats into the bucket that I made her carry, she changed her tune. She kept trying to stop and take a treat out instead of moving on to the next car. When we finally sat down, she had to have an open treat in one hand and one in the other hand as backup. She would not wear the unruly wig that came with her costume but T held it on her long enough for a picture (and then he wore it).

On Sunday we had a combination Halloween/Birthday celebration at T's parents' house. His mom made these monster hamburgers and gave the kids Cheetos that turned their mouths blue. Spoooooooooooky!

We then moved on to the birthdays. V turned two and T turned a number much bigger than two. I was really surprised when she blew out her candles right on cue after the song - I guess watching the Blue's Clues birthday episode a million times has finally paid off. She fell asleep eating cake and almost missed present time, but we jostled her till she woke up.

T got a party Spongebob for his birthday, among other things. There is a reason for this, and you will have to ask him the story next time you see him. (By the way, T is the one on the left.)

Tuesday was T and V's actual birthday, so we celebrated again! (No, I am not complaining. I am just warning you that there are more pictures to come...) My parents came over for dinner and our dear friend Sabra stopped by as well. What is the best part of opening presents? Turning yourself into one!

 E gave his dad a homemade card and one dollar! We are so glad he decided to tape the bill to the paper instead of gluing it. My mom gave him some sauces from her recent trip to Japan. I am looking forward to eating whatever he ends up making with them. Yum.

Sabra gave V a cute doll that moves and coos and sounds remarkably like V! It came with a toy bottle and V alternated "feeding" the baby and taking a swig herself. I since found that I have to be careful where I put the doll - it has a motion sensor in its forehead and will start moving and making noises when I am not expecting it. Spooooooooooooky!

Finally, here is one last picture just for the fun of it and to make you say, "What?!?" Come on, say it with me: Spoooooooooooooooooky!!!

Trip to Pinetop

Every summer my parents escape the Yuma heat and head to their trailer in Pinetop, AZ. We have not visited them there before, so the kids and I snuck a long weekend getaway into the last few days before school. We drove to Phoenix and stopped for a rest and a visit with our good friends the Farars before heading into the higher elevations. We watched anxiously as the car's thermometer showed the outside temperature getting lower and lower, finally dipping below 100. I was nervous about making the trek by myself with the kids, but they all did really well. Thank goodness for portable DVD players, Uncrustables, juice boxes, and chocolate milk! Jonah had his camera along on the trip and took many, many pictures similar to this:

 After a good night's rest (Well, kinda - V decided against sleeping in the pack-n-play I brought for her and ended up in the bed with E and me. Why do little kids always have to sleep sideways?) we started our mountain adventure. The first stop was the Sunrise Park Resort, where the boys and I took our first trip on a ski lift! It was so beautiful and relaxing - once we got on the bench without falling and were safely tucked under the bar. It was such a long way from the bottom to the top. The kids enjoyed waving to the people who passed us on their way down.

Once at the top (and after disembarking safely on two feet) we enjoyed the amazing view and even cooler air for a while. There really wasn't anywhere to walk to unless you wanted to hike the paths down to the base, and I didn't bring any money to buy us a snack at the little shop, so we just looked around and I imagined what the place would look like covered in snow and busy with skiers. I was surprised at how many mountain bikers there were. They would ride up on the lift with their bikes, race back down, and then start all over again. Pretty soon we descended again to where Mom and Dad were entertaining V at the base - and that is no easy job!








That afternoon we went to the family fun park which had go-karts and mini-golf. We had a fun time, but we weren't prepared for the heat (it's the mountains!) so we pushed through the golf course as fast as we could. I got a nasty sunburn on my neck that day. This is the last hole of the course, and it took so long that I finally told the boys to just drop their golf balls into the hole.

The next day was Sunday so we went to church with Mom. Their chapel is a beautiful building surrounded by pine trees.

After church and the obligatory Sunday rest, we went to Mom and Dad's trailer for dinner. They have a nice set up there in the RV park. In their yard is a fountain, and we had a hard time keeping V away from it. She loved to put her fingers in and splash around. That was fine, but when she started putting her fingers in her mouth, we had to put a stop to it. Well, we wanted to put a stop to it.

Monday was an exciting day. The two older boys and I got to go horseback riding! This was a first for them and the first time for me as a grown-up. I think I have been on a horse twice before in my youth. We had a wonderful guide (named Willow - how cool is that?) who even held the camera and took pictures so I could concentrate on staying on the horse. Most of the time we walked at an easy pace, but a few times we let the horses trot while we bounced up and down and held on for dear life. I wonder what it would be like sitting on a horse going full speed, or having to ride a horse day after day as my main means of travel like in the olden days.

While we were on our adventure, Mom and Dad once again had the privilege of watching little V, who eventually fell asleep, as well as E, who got to take a couple of pony rides around the stables. It was one of our favorite parts of the trip, and we had sore bums to remind us of it the rest of the day.

We also drove up to Snowflake to see the LDS temple that was recently built there and have lunch.

We finished off the day by going swimming in the hotel's indoor pool and going out to a nice dinner. The next morning we packed up and headed out for the long drive back home, which again included a visit with friends (this time at Peter Piper), and made it back without any problems. It was such a great way to end the summer and the kids loved seeing where Grandma and Papa go when they aren't here. I am very grateful to them for their generosity that made the trip possible and created such good memories for us. Thanks, Mom and Dad!