Cultural observations

Erlend has made some funny observations about German culture and language over the past weeks, like the fact that German pets need a passport when they travel and that he had to plan three weeks ago that he is going to sleep in tomorrow (he has a few days of school due to a German holiday).

But concentrating on the positive, I want to mention one thing that has thrilled me about Germany from the moment we got back and that is the selection you find in every bakery (which you find on every street corner). I just wanna take this moment to declare "I LOVE German bread and bread rolls!" No, it is not a pregnancy thing, I have liked bread all my life and missed it every time I lived in another country. Germans sometimes have (due to history) a problem with being proud of their country, but we sure can be proud of our bread! :-)

Any non Germans out there who don't believe me? Come and see (and taste) for yourself!

Happy Birthday, Chrissi!

Today my little sister celebrated her birthday - Gottes Segen zu deinem Geburtstag, liebe Chrissi! Es ist so schön endlich mal wieder in deiner Nähe zu wohnen!

I feel like I profited a lot from her day because I was invited to the birthday brunch at my Grandma's house, then the birthday coffee and cake with family and the Raclette dinner at Chrissi's house.
So basically a day full of eating - I liked it! :-)

 my probably favorite picture of the two of us, taken on her wedding day

while the girls prepared dinner, Erlend and Chrissi's little boy worked on a project of their own :-)

Stuttgart

We visited my sister in Stuttgart this weekend and it was so much fun to hang out with her. We went to see the number one attraction of the city (well, besides my sister) and that is the Mercedes Museum.
But of course we also had really nice meals, got a good deal a a baby store, stopped by a Gummibear store and drove home tonight during snowfall. Praise the Lord for getting us home safe!

Danke, Doro (und Mama (Papa):-)) für ein super Wochenende! 

 loooooots of gummy bears

 can you see Doro and Erlend waving - they were waiting to get into a race car simulator, which I was not allowed into (because of a little kicking reason)

 we learned as much about Mercedes Benz as we did about German history, very interesting museum

in the parking garage we did not feel one bit ashamed about driving a Skoda! 

Hello...

... Kitty is something that our youngest niece in Norway learned to say very early. So when we found Hello Kitty cookies today we missed her so much that we just had to buy them in honor of her.

learning how to...

... take care of a baby and what you need to get when it first arrives. That was what todays "birth preparation class" was about and both Erlend and I figured out that we already know quite a bit about how to handle a baby thanks to nieces, nephews and kids of friends. But we also realize that we did NOT realize how much stuff you are supposed to have for when the baby comes - oh my!

So here a shout out to all the parents who are reading this blog: What were the things you were really thankful for having when your baby joined our family and would recommend getting? And what did everybody tell you that you needed and you did not use it? Any inside you can give is appreciated (hehe and also I love getting comments on the blog)

The last days we have been thinking about different offers and options of strollers and it gets really complicated and now we were given a whole list about things we should get for the baby. I wonder if she knows (or cares) about how much fuss we already make about her :-).

some of the visual aids at the class

feeding ducks

We went for a wee walk today (on the supposedly last nice day for the next, well, 6 months :-)) and we wanted to feed the ducks at a nearby pond. But my nephew did not quite get the concept, he ate the bread himself, rather then giving it to the ducks.

Couples retreat

This weekend we got to enjoy a very nice couples retreat in a beautiful place about an hour away from Hof. 

 the house used to belong to a knight is what I was told

 It had a beautiful park all around

 it was fun to hang out with our sister and brother-in-law

 But of course there was also lots of serious work sessions with very good presentations and impulses for good one on one talks

 since everything was in German, Erlend was quite exhausted at times

oh and did I mention that we were served lots of awesome food?

hobby

Erlend has decided on a hobby and is taking it to a serious level. He is very interested in geography, politics and history. One thing that combines all of that is currency from all different countries. Since it looks like we will be moving a lot in our life time Erlend has decided to only collect the paper bills, not coins.
He had quite a spread of cool looking bank notes, that people had either given to him or that he himself had gotten in the country. But then he found this website where they sell rare or hard to get bank notes like some from North Korea and so on.
Today a few came in the mail and I have not seen Erlend so excited since he felt our baby kick for the first time :-).

By the way, we will be on a couples retreat over the weekend, so earliest update will be Sunday evening...have a great weekend everybody!

lots of pressure

It was supposed to be the last warm day of the year today, so Erlend had big plans for working outside after school including changing the tyres on my Oma's car and cleaning several different areas around my parents house with a high pressure cleaner. Well, it is not very warm, but Erlend is still going strong outside, soaking wet and I bet half frozen. I think I will go outside, help him clean up all the equipment and then make some hot chocolate for him. Gotta spoil a hard working man!

2nd hand

My sister (who is also expecting a baby girl) and I were very excited about this huge 2nd hand "basar" that was supposed to take place in a town near by. So we got all hyped up, ready to make some good deals, getting clothes for our wee ones, maybe even a stroller??? But when we got there we only found a woman who told us that the basar had already taken place on the 15th of SEPTEMBER not October.... big disappointment. In fact I was so disappointed that I went to two 2nd hand stores in the area and still got some good deals - who can resist when it costs 1-2 Euros per piece?!?
So now I feel a little bit more prepared for the arrival of our little one, no stroller yet, but I guess that is what ebay is for, right?

that is only part of what we got today, cool to think that we got all of this for what we would have paid for one piece if we had gotten it new

youth group

We had a youth group meeting tonight and it was lots of fun as always. We are considering changing the name of the group to something else as some of the people attending (myself included) are almost a bit too old to be called youth. Any ideas for a good name anybody? We are very open for suggestions!

 playing a fun card game after the Bible study

look how well Erlend and I have (re)adjusted to the German culture - we are wearing Hausschuhe (house shoes or what does one call that in English?)

personal shopping assistant

I went shopping with my little brother - well, he is not that little anymore actually. Do you call your younger brother who is A LOT taller than you still little brother? It is hard to believe that that cute little guy in the picture is almost now hitting the 2 meter mark and has an astonishing shoe size of 49,5 - no need to mention that shoes shopping with him is somewhat frustrating...

check up

Today we had check up for the baby. Everything is totally fine - praise God! Got to hear the heart beat and see her (yes, it was confirmed again that it is a girl!) move around on the ultrasound. Head is down already, 29 cm tall (long?) - and the due date might have moved up a bit some where in the early 20s of January - so around 15 weeks to go!

going all out for the blog - even posting an non-flatering picture like this

fall and cleaning

I am not talking about falling down in the title, even though I did do that today, not very gracefully down tree steps, but, all thanks to God, I did not fall on my tummy, but on my knee and hand.

I was actually about fall as in the season. One of my favorite things to do this time a year is to drive down this one avenue in our town. The leaves on the trees are changing into the most beautiful colors right now and it is so amazing to think that the reason why God created the trees in a way to change their color in fall is just so that we can enjoy the beauty of it - now how awesome is that!?!

 in front of our door

 can't get enough of those colors

 pretty cool hair color for a tree :-)

 I had to take this through the car window -  so it does not do the street justice

also did some cleaning in the family van - was a lot fun to spray the seats with the foam spray

different things

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but that is not due to the fact that nothing has happened, but because I haven't taken pictures, or if I did they were not very good once...
But just to recap the last few days...lots of rain...played inside with our favorite German nephew... root canal treatment (Anne).... German classes (Erlend)... invited for Philippino dinner - delicious - thank you, Sina!...felt lots of baby kicks... prepared a sermon and preached the sermon this morning in Norwegian (Erlend)... first time translating a sermon from Norwegian to German (Anne)... missed our niece on her 2nd birthday especially much... realized during our skype conversation that she does not remember us :-(... are determined to skype more with family in Norway ... yeah that is pretty much it in a nutshell.

 only cute picture of the the past few days

Day of German unity

A wee history post today because it was a special day yesterday (would have posted it yesterday but the internet was down.)
Yesterday we had a national holiday here in Germany. We celebrated the day of German Unity, which reminds us of the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990. Contrary to popular believe it is not the same day that the Berlin Wall came down, that was November 9, 1989.

Weird to think that today most people in Germany seem to be happier about the day off they get than that Germany is actually one country again....

a good deal

Look what came in the mail today! Our latest steal from ebay - we got this Maxi Cosi for a fraction of the price we would have paid in the store. We can't wait until we get to take our little girl home from hospital in that thing.