January 19th, 2016
I’m sitting at OUR kitchen table here at the new house enjoying a peaceful moment after an incredibly full week of cleaning, moving, furniture assembling, painting, unpacking, and shopping for household needs and wants. Though we are currently living in rooms full of unpacked boxes, we are grateful to be here…pretty overwhelmed…but still grateful!
Hubby took the day off last Wednesday so we could team up and prepare for our move. We went shopping for a few household items, which always takes us longer when we are in German stores. It was a rainy, gloomy day so we bought this umbrella to remind us of the sun! 
Afterwards, we headed to the house to start a deep clean of the kitchen and the floors. As I mentioned in my last post, the house was in need of some serious cleaning and a little TLC. Black water flowed down the tile walls in the kitchen as we scrubbed. The floors were similar. It was gross to see how dirty it was yet rewarding to see the transformation and true color of the kitchen tiles. Ha! It took us hours to simply get the kitchen and floors done. We realized then that we had our work cut out for us!
The moving truck arrived on Thursday. The boys LOVED the idea that their toys from home were finally arriving!
On Friday, we received a second delivery containing the washer, dryer, wardrobes, microwave, and transformers that we are borrowing during our time here. We are so thankful to not have to purchase all of these items! We received five wardrobes to help make up for the lack of closet space. I never realized how creative and organized you need to get when you move from a place with closets and shelving to one that doesn’t have either.
We also moved out of our apartment on Friday in a mass whirlwind of last minute packing and tidying up. It was a good place to call home when we first arrived. We were incredibly blessed by the kind and thoughtful landlord we had. She asked us to come back and visit her. We are planning on it!
When I drove over to E’s school to pick him up on Friday afternoon, he showed me his Alien Bird he made in art class. He is quite proud of it! Our kitty, Adi, really likes the feathers and has already attacked it once. 
Friday night was our first night sleeping in our new home. I think hubby and I actually passed out from exhaustion! When I went to check in on the boys, this is how I found E and Adi…
On Saturday, we ventured to a German home improvement store. It was massive! Navigating the aisles with signs in German, a giant kid cart and a long list of items we needed was more than we bargained for. At one point, lil S needed to use the restroom. “Really? Now? Can you hold it?” The answers were yes, yes and NO! I quickly found a female, German employee and began to say every word I knew for bathroom…except, of course, the one in German. Then I moved on to charades and started washing my hands and pointing to my lil one. No luck. Not wanting to get more explicit in my charades game, I changed strategies and looked up the word for bathroom in German. I showed it to her on my phone and she said, “Oh! Pee-pee?” Yes! The correct German phrase is now seared in my memory after this moment. “Wo ist die Toilette, bitte?” We left the store stressed out but with several items checked off our list. Oh man! We also visited IKEA. Praise God for the person who thought of putting a children’s play area in that store so parents can shop. Its such a win, win!
We spent Sunday afternoon painting our living room the wrong color (bummer!) and unpacking. Making quick paint decisions is never a good idea. However, when you are in a German home improvement store and it feels like you are going to start to break out in hives over the stress of it all, you lose your reasoning. We ended up with a grayish purple when we were going for a light tan. Hubby calls it Freesia. We may try again depending on how adventurous we feel!
On a sweet note, it started snowing and the boys LOVED playing outside with the tractor that the landlords brought over for them. The yard has a large area that is paved in the front of the house directly in front of the living room window. There is a gate that we can lock and a fence that surrounds the perimeter of the yard which provides some good boundaries for them. We are continually thankful for the yard!
Playing outside and then coming in for hot cocoa and marshmallows in their mugs from Grammy Julie may become our new routine. We welcome it! 
The other side of the yard has a large grassy area where the boys can play soccer or simply run around. On the backside is a little fire pit that beckons us to roast marshmallows! Backyard camping may be in our future this summer. We will see…
