Mozart & Berchtesgaden

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Our family trip to Austria

For the boys short break in October, we decided to drive down to Austria to check things out. It was approxiamtely 5 hours of driving, but a beautiful drive it was. We took Lolli with us. Her first journey with us to a hotel. I'm still amazed that hotels take pets. We arrived at our quaint little hotel in Salzburg, just in time for dinner. We didn't even unpack, but went straight to the restaurant and all stood there, starring. Do we or don't we go in with Lolli? It was a descent Asian restaurant that had many patrons. We finally decided that we were hungry enough to go in and take Lolli with us. To our surprise, someone else had their Golden Retriever with them. This made us feel better. We sat down to negotiate for dinner. I say "negotiate" because we only speak English at this point. Our waiter speaks Mandrin, Deutsch, & a little English. Amazing! We order. Lolli is comfortably situated under the table. We enjoy our meal and dessert. I tell Jody that I'll go check us in and get the boys situated for the evening if he'll pay the bill. He calls me back and says to take Lolli too. I say that I will. Jody looks under the table...the perpetual joker that he is and says, "Where's Lolli?" I ask him if he is joking, but then realize that he is not! Where IS Lolli? She has been busy visiting the other tables around us. No one has mentioned anything, but we are quite embarrassed. We have learned a good lesson...."always attach your dog to something that isn't going anywhere...like a table leg or YOUR leg." Anyway, we got to visit many things while in Salzburg. We went to the Eisreisenwelt...the world's largest (discovered...Jody might add) ice cave. It was so cool. (Pardon the pun.) We wern't allowed to take pictures inside. We walked through it with little flaming laterns. Lolli was quite nervous, Tab's feet were cold, and Zane thought it was neato that the guy that discovered it was buried there. We also visited a really neat medival castle. It was beautiful and amazing. The boys, all 3, thought the torture chamber was terrific. We traveled into the heart of Salzburg the next day. We got to see where Mozart was born and the house that he lived in later in life. We ate dinner at the Mozart Cafe and strolled along the shopping district. Tab wandered off at one point and scarred us half to death. Jody hollered and the world stood still, but he found his baby boy. Another good lesson learned...quit daydreaming and stay close to mom and dad. On our way out of town we stopped by Hitler's vacation get-a-way. His officers had it built for him as a birthday gift for his 50th birthday. He didn't visit it very much because he was afraid of heights. It's in a beautiful area. It is surrounded by a 360 degree view of the Austrian and German Alps. Amazing. After the war, the Chancellor asked that it not be torn down. Most all of the other buildings were, but this remains for the public's viewing. A fun trip all in all.

Salzburg, Austria Oct., 2007

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I love?/ I hate? IKEA

I keep saying that I am going to blog about my experience(s) at IKEA. I'll have to say that I was pretty excited about living close to IKEA when we first moved here. They don't have them in Colorado or anywhere near by for that matter. Since Jody's work was helping with our large furniture expenses I thought it would be the ideal place to shop. At first, it was. It kind of became my home away from home. I was there so often, the workers called me by name and I called them by their name(s). Some knew English, others were a challenge. It seems as the days went by, I began to sweat just knowing that I had to go back there. See, trying to explain your needs to someone who speaks a different language while the line behind you grows longer and longer can be quite embarrassing. It probably shouldn't be, but it was for me. Most the time, I'd get what I needed, but then would have to return because I was missing one piece of something. It got to be very frustrating. I'd have to build something in order to put something away. Jody and I ordered 4 closets. That doesn't sound like much, but boy howdy, it is!!! We asked that IKEA deliver it to our house and set it up. They said they could deliver it, but that set up was 3 weeks out. We didn't have 3 weeks. Our stuff was due to arrive in less than a week. I begged Jody to take off work to help me assemble the darn things. He graciously complied. Some things I'm capable of doing by myself....but closets require at least 2 people. The big, burly delivery guys marched our loads up 3 flights of stairs. The biggest one and I played charades. The translation went something like this....
Big Guy....You assemble this????
me...yep.
BG....NO WAY...must have help!!!!
me...yep...I've got my man and we will do it.
BG...walks away with his shoulders slumped, snickering to his self.
This instills confidence, yes? Anyway, Jody and I did get them put all together and we were amazed at our capabilities. I'm sick of screwing however! My wrist is like jello. We have said that IKEA funiture is "disposible" furniture. I can't imagine taking this with us when we leave. I just hope it all lasts for 3 years because I don't want to have to do this again.
All that to say...I'm grateful for IKEA and the ability to have "things". I hope you all laugh at this, because it's meant to be funny!

Geimeindefest Sept. 2007

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SG Oftersheim Sept. 2007

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Heidelberg Castle Sept. 2007

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Journey to Germany August 2007

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Disney World August 2007

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Cire/Oliver Goodbye Aug. 2007

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A Day at the Schelly's Aug 2007

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Goodbye Colorado Friends Aug 2007

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The Davis-Angus Ranch Aug. 2007

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Where's my suit?

We've had some fun experiences lately. This past weekend the boys and I went to the Geimendefest. I'm not sure if I'm even spelling that correctly. Basically, it's the local town festival. We went for the parade portion. We rode our bikes to the center of town. Amazingly, it was packed out. We worked our way into the front of the crowd so that we could see better. The streets were lined with people hanging out of their balaconies. The banisters were overflowing with beautiful baskets of geraniums. The beer was flowing and people were clapping. The parade started with a history of Oftersheim (our little town)....it started in the 1500's and moved it's way toward 2007. People were dressed in period costumes. They were acting out different things the town had been through....wars against the French and Spanish. There were horse riders and drum & bugel corps, marching bands, and flag throwers. (You probably had to be there to understand the last thing about the flags, but it was really, really cool.) The parade showed different industries that were represented by the town....tabacco, forestry, traditional house building, cheese products, sausage making, bakers, etc. It also showed local transportation beginning with a wooden bike, horse & carriage, fun cars, etc. We loved it, but wished we could understand more. Maybe next year.

The other interesting experience happened just yesterday. Jody asked if I had seen his suit's. I preceeded to check all the remnants of unopened boxes. Nope, couldn't locate them. Come to find out, he needed one for a business meeting with the CFO of SAP. Oops. It's amazing the resources that one can pull out of a hat to get one's needs met. Jody went down to the Hauptstrasse to locate a suit shop. This is no easy task when you don't know the language. He did extraordinarily well, all things considered. We will be billing insurance soon. One of the joys of moving over seas. Did they fall into the ocean? Is someone in Germany enjoying American made suits? Who knows? All I know is that my husband looked pretty darn good as he left for his meeting this morning. Hopefully, he'll have had a successful meeting today!

September

It's Autumn! You can feel it in the air. The leaves are changing on the trees, it's raining some, and the temperature is notably different. Our stateside shipment arrived this past Friday. We had a good crew helping us to unpack. We are continuing to unpack in hopes that we will find everything a home soon. It's a tad bit overwhelming to have a lot of stuff and no where to put it. Jody took off last week to help me assemble all of our IKEA closets. I could work for them. I've assembled just about everything there is to assemble. Lolli arrived yesterday. She had been staying with our Colorado neighbors who graciously took her in and cared for her while we've been away. (Thanks Field, Laura, Zack & Ellie!) Lolli really misses her dog pals, Shadow and Parsons. Lolli's paperwork didn't show up with her, but thankfully everything got taken care of. Poor Jody. What was supposed to be a few hour excursion, took almost 8 hours. Like I said before, everything, andI do mean everything seems to move on "turtle time" around here.

We've Arrived

We made it to Germany in one piece! The flight over was a little bumpy, but the boys slept relatively well. It has been somewhat of a rough start, but now that we are here things seem to be improving daily. We like our little row-house and we are looking forward to making it our home. The boys started school this past Monday (8-27-07) at HIS school. Heidelberg International School. Zane loves it and Tab is warming up daily. It's a huge change, but I hope the style change will really benefit both boys. Jody is enjoying his job. It's a lot of change for him too, but he says that it's enjoyable. He's been taking the bus to work and returning on it. He is eager for our shipment to arrive so that he can use his bike. He's only about 15 or 20 kilometers to work. It's a beautiful road with a bike lane. He's pretty excited.