Meeting some of the team

Today is the Monday before Thanksgiving.  I just have to write that because I can hardly believe that November is almost over.  Thanksgiving!  A week from today Chris will be in Germany for 2 1/2 weeks.  When he comes back it will be almost Christmas, and then it will be time to go.  Just like that.  Wow.  Note to self; live in the moment.  

This last weekend, we met some of the members of Chris’ team.  On Saturday we had 4 families over for a buffet here at the house to get to know each other a bit, share wisdom/trials about moving, and for me to have the kids meet other kids that are in the same boat.  Here are a few of the people that came- Adam and Sheryl (no kids), Joette and Russ with their kids Chloe and Jonah,  Jon and Kerrie with kids Cody and Anna, Sandra and Sinisha with their kids Vanessa and Stephan.  All are about the same ages as ours.  The kids played super well together downstairs, basically wrestling the whole time.  (Will’s idea.)  Only one came up crying- Maggie.  She was the youngest, and it was basically late in the evening.  And that’s kind of the way Maggie is right now.  So all in all a pretty good evening!  It was fantastic for the kids to meet other kids that they won’t be saying good-bye too. 

For me there were several highlights- one of my favorites and one I’m going to keep an eye on- Sandra can read Russian.  Wow!  Wouldn’t that be something to have a girl’s weekend in Russia??  Another great highlight- several of the families took 50 pounds of bread flour.  In general I make all the bread for the family.  I wanted to bring over 200 pounds of flour, but the moving company said that it was remarkable similar to “another substance” and that our shipment would get caught in customs.  Don’t want that!  We pulled most of it out and gave it to a church.  Ah, but my smart husband asked if we could stash a bit in other people’s shipment.  We bought more and away we go.  Yahoo!  More than one way around a problem.  Yes, flour is different.  Everything is different.

Of course we had a captive audience to share our stories from the first assignment.  I only hope I was a help. And as it always is, we had way too much food.  We will be eating tacos for awhile, I think!

Creativity

A couple of weeks ago I asked my friend, Karen, who  lives in Dusseldorf to help me get in touch with the current occupants of our future house.  I wanted to ask them about possibly buying their light fixtures.  We learned from the first time moving to Dusseldorf that light fixtures aren’t a given.  For about the first month we had one lamp that we moved from room to room until we could get someone to come and help us put the lights up in the cinder block house.  (Another thing we learned- they don’t make the houses out of wood.  The weather is too wet, and the wood rots.  i.e. bigger drill needed)  I wanted to avoid that mistake and see if the current occupants would sell and then leave the light fixtures.  This has been one of my better ideas!  Not only are they leaving the lights and making sure that the owner doesn’t take them, they are going to sell us lots of their stuff- like a washer and dryer!  An extra Fridge!  A bed!  And lots of shelves, portable lights, and fans.  The best part is that we don’t have to haul it/have it delivered to the house; it can stay in the correct spot, all hooked up and ready to go.  The current family is excited for the same reason.  We are also going to look into possibly taking over their internet service, so that would be good to go from day one.  This requires a lot more effort.  However, football is on the line, and that is a big motivation for Chris and the boys.

We have a Move Date!

Just to let everyone know, looks like we will be moving to Germany December 30.   We will do Christmas here and then get ready to go. 

Maureen Here!

                After taking a few days off after the shipment has gone, we have now begun to work on the last details.  Right now the dog is front and center.  Since the leaves have been falling from the trees, Autumn can see more of the yard and has begun to run- anywhere at any opportunity.  Time to look into identification tags and micro chips and might as well look into all the red tape that Germany wants for, well, just about everything.  I called our Vet yesterday and she seems to have some experience with this.  Woo hoo!  We have ordered the 15 digit chip and have an appointment during the 10 day window before we leave the country.  Chris has done lots of research in this area as well.   I think that we have a good handle on it.  Now if we can keep Autumn in yard….. that would be helpful too.

Shipment has left

OK - our household goods have shipped and are on their way to Germany - woo hoo!.  

Clarification on previous post  and the house pictures.   We have HALF of the house.  It is a duplex.