Our little family in the great big state of Texas

We went to Dinkelsbuehl today, it had an Easter Market going on. It is a walled city similar to Rothenburg O. d. Tauber if you are familiar with that. Very beautiful, and not to far from the house. A nice drive to get there, through a lot of little towns, woods and green fields. There was a lot to look at and buy! I got a basket from a man that was sitting there making them, and a pretty wreath for the front door. There was a fellow using a chainsaw to carve wood, and some animals for the kids to look at. We also walked through a little of the town, and visited St. Georges Minster church, it was breathtaking.

Here is a link to go see the pictures, there are too many to put on the blog.
EasterMarket Pics
The blog doesn't have the capacity to hold a ton of photos so this will be a better place if there are quite a few pictures. When you go to the page, if you want to see a photo bigger just click on it, also be sure to click on the "next page" button, there are a few pages. The link above will take you directly to the Easter Market photos, the link on the sidebar of the blog (Photo Albums) will take you to the main page, and you can choose the album you want to look at. As time goes on there will be more and more albums. Enjoy the photos, without experiencing the chilly weather, it was still quite cold out!

Another cold and rainy day, but it is bearable since Spring is just around the corner. Our women's group at church had a "Moms Day out" again so Jacob went there for a few hours, while I did some errands and then went to window shop at the Bruecken Center. It's a small mall that was built the last time we were here, on land that used to have an American military base. Hindenburg Kaserne was the name I believe. I mainly window shopped, and then went into an Italian place for some lunch before I picked Jacob up. You get your food at the counter, and then look for a seat. The place was packed but there was a man and older lady sitting at a table for 5 and they offered me a seat. (The Germans often share tables, a nice custom I think). The man spoke some English and was very nice, as he was leaving he said, "Have a nice day and don't do anything I wouldn't do!" I thought that was pretty funny, considering he tells me he doesn't speak alot of English, but he knows that. I thought the lady was with him, but she wasn't, so she stayed at the table. We exchanged a few words and she taught me a few German words, and I noticed she was all done eating. But as I finished up I realized she was waiting until I was done so I wouldn't be alone. How sweet was that? So we said Auf Weidersehen and went our separate ways. It was a nice ending to my morning. When I picked Jacob up he presented me with his art work that he made, he really is in to the arts and crafts they do. So he had a nice time too!

What to do with a giant bag of balls for the ball pit? Dump them in the living room of course! The dogs and Jacob were having a great time with them, they will eventually make it into the playroom where his fire engine/ball pit is. We are still unpacking, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. Kenny has had to build yet more shelves, but we really have filled all of them. The weather was gray over the weekend so we unpacked and hung around the house, not a whole lot of "blogworthy" material. Kenny is starting his final week of fishing class, then he will be licensed. I have to say that this trip to Germany has been so much better than the last one, I guess because we came back to a place we knew. Not so much of the getting used to everything, and trying to figure the simple things out. We know how to use the parking machine, that you have to put a coin in the shopping cart to unlock it, that there is more to German food than schnitzel, and while some Germans can be intimidating, they are really very friendly and happy to help. The shops are always friendly, Jacob has gotten more free food when we are out shopping! At the metzgerei (meat market) he gets "gelbwurst", at the fruit stand he got a banana, at the bakery he got a little cheese puff. And then of course there's always the candy they are giving him. It's a nice gesture and makes us feel welcome!

Jacob and I took the train to Nurnberg again today, the weather was awesome and on Wednesday it's market day. (Like Saturday, although a little smaller.) We picked up some flowers and some herb plants, some of the biggest basil I've ever seen. And some huge strawberries - they are easily 3 or 4 times the size of "average" strawberries. Kenny thinks they must put something weird on them to make them grow so big. Jacob had an ice cream - they have lots of gelati stands here, which is an Italian version of ice cream. It's not as "milky" as American ice cream, but the flavor is stronger. All of the cafes had tables out in the squares, it was so neat. There were lots of street musicians out too, this link is to one of them. It is just a 5 second sample attached with a still picture of Jacob watching them. (dial up may take a minute to load) Music and Photo of Street Musicians They were from Russia, as I found out when he tried to sell me one of their CD's. It was really bustling down there, you could tell everyone was out just soaking up the sunshine. Our thermometer at home was close to 80 degrees by the late afternoon, I could hardly believe it. After Kenny came home and left again for Fish School, Jacob and I took the dogs out for a walk, we met some more of our neighbors who seemed very friendly. This really seems like a nice neighborhood!

Oh, and I have managed to put off more unpacking, it just doesn't seem important when the weather is so nice. So this room I'm in now is full of boxes, but there is always tomorrow to go through them!

Well, we still have quite a few boxes left to unpack, but we have done most of the main boxes. We had beautiful weather this weekend so it was hard to stay in and work. We managed to get outside quite a bit, and went for some nice walks around the neighborhood. Jacob helped Kenny build some of the furniture, he thinks he is "Bob the Builder" it seems. Here he is helping out, he has his assistant trapped in the closet with him.He is actually pretty good with a screwdriver, you would be surprised. Kenny started his fishing class tonight, it is a 2 week class to get your German fishing license. Yes, two weeks on fishing, 5 nights a week. A lot of it centers around being kind to the fish and the bait. Things like you can't use minnows as bait because it is cruel, and you must kill the fish immediately. There is a nice lake that is at military rec area here in town, it is well stocked from what Kenny hears. So once he gets his license he can see what they have in there.

Jacob and I decorated one of the bushes outside with Easter eggs this afternoon, it looks Eastery is about all I can say for it. Jacob thinks it's pretty cool though. While we were out there we saw a lot of our neighbors, everyone is out enjoying the mild weather. I wonder how long until we get another snow, it is too early for this to be the real "spring" I think.

Well, the movers showed up at 7:30 am and were out the door by 9 a.m.! Everything went rather smoothly, all of the boxes are here and I've only seen some slight damage, just your normal expected wear and tear from such a long move. I obviously haven't gotten into all the boxes but I must say this seems to have been one of our better moves. The delivery guys were great, very friendly. Here is a glimpse of our weekend ahead.....


I actually think it looks worse than it is, it shouldn't be too hard to get it done. Well, that's enough time sitting at the computer, I've got work to do!

Our household goods are being delivered Friday morning! Hooray! I can't wait, then we can really get settled in. Today Jacob went to a "Moms Day Out" playgroup for a few hours and I found some cheap "Kleiderschranken" (clothes closets) at a new store that just opened. One for the entryway, one for our room, and one for Jacob's room. They are cheap because you have to assemble them yourself, Kenny is going to be thrilled when he sees them (he's been assembling furniture since we arrived I think). And some orchids to set in the window, to add a little life to the house. (as if Jacob doesn't add enough!) Also some easter eggs to decorate the trees outside, you see a lot of that around here. I guess everyone is so excited to have spring coming, they really go all out. We will probably do it this weekend, and we'll take some pictures. The table we bought in Belgium is perfect, just what we needed. So no more dinner served on the floor, it's much easier to fend off the dogs when you sit at a table. Cross fingers that all of our stuff arrives and is in decent condition!

Over the weekend we went to Belgium to check out our favorite antique market in Tongeren. We went a few times when we were here before, and we wanted to see if it was still as good as we remembered. Saturday morning we headed out of Wolframs-Eschenbach with a couple inches of snow on the ground and more coming down, and dropped the dogs off at the Hundepension with Frau Krut (who treats them much better than they are treated at home). Then we hit the autobahn amid quite a bit of snow and slush. We stopped after a while for a snack and to stretch our legs, it was a very snowy rest stop. Then back on the road we went. It was a long trip up, and we got lost in Maastricht (Holland) but made it on into to Belgium and Tongeren and got a room at a great hotel. We had stayed there once before, it is basically right in the middle of the market. It was still sprinkling and cold so we ordered some food from the hotel downstairs. A "Croque Monsieur" and a "Croque Hawaii" which were grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, the Hawaii having pineapple also. Served with a little salad which Kenny promptly declared too fancy, although Jacob and I enjoyed it. Then we settled in for an early wakeup the next morning, since they start setting up at 4am right outside our window! Here are Kenny & Jacob hanging out in the room

We were up early and although it was still sprinkling there were a ton of vendors set up, I took a picture out of our hotel window before we headed out to look around.

We saw quite a bit of stuff, some really pretty and some really horrible but didn't linger too long due to the weather. The market was set up by some of the old Roman walls, Jacob thought those were pretty cool. He climbed up the hill and attempted to climb the wall!

Our find of the day was a gateleg table and some windsor style chairs, which will serve as our dining room table. Kenny managed to get it all in the back of our truck, and we were off again. If the weather would have cooperated we would have hung around a little longer, but Jacob was muddy and it seemed to be getting colder. Off we went, a different way home than the route we took there. Much more to look at on the way home, and the rain stopped so it was a better drive. When we stopped at a rest stop on the way home Jacob was playing in the kids area and hung out with a little girl from Holland, she was really cute. They really just stared at each other but it was cute!

Well, just so you know I am still updating the blog I thought I would add a short post. Nothing too exciting going on here, just normal day to day life. I did check out the PWOC meeting at the post and it seems really nice, lots of ladies involved in it. Word from "Michael" at ETSA is that our household goods should be delivered next week, they are working their way off the ship and through customs. Snow off and on, and sunshine off and on -- A nice mix I think. We got our SOFA (Status Of Forces Agreement) official document today, it means we are legal to be here, and come and go as we please. Jacob even got one, I guess just in case he is traveling without us LOL I've been telling everyone how quiet it is where we live, very peaceful. I spoke with a gate gaurd at post that happens to be my neighbor and he said "wait until summer, it is not quiet at all" So now we are wondering what summer is like here? Are they really going to be that loud? Or maybe it's just him - we'll have to wait and see what summer brings......