Black Forest trip

We went on our first little road trip this past weekend to the Black Forest in Germany. The Swaymans (another Steelcase ex-pat family from GR) invited us and we thought this would be a good intro to exploring outside of Strasbourg. It is a good thing we went with other people because we found out that when we crossed the bridge into Germany, our GPS stopped working - not ideal for traveling around Europe when your GPS only works in France!

I drove on the way there because Ken had a work call and it is illegal to drive and talk on the phone. It's a good thing I don't drive often because I would have a huge problem with this! I did get to drive on the Autobahn for the first time, although it seemed pretty much like 196 to me. Ken had to tell me that I was driving on it.

We left on Friday afternoon and stopped at a little park called Tannenmuehle. It would have been nicer if it was a little warmer and a little less muddy, but the kids liked seeing the animals and running around.

Ava and Ella

Beckett loves swinging!

On Saturday, we drove out to Hohenzollern Castle. We got off to a little bit of a late start (the Moms fault) and didn't plan for meals as well as we should have, but we made some memories! The girls loved the castle, but the boys were not impressed. We were going to go on a tour of the castle, but forgot to ask what language it was going to be in. We ended up having to go on the Dutch tour because the English one wasn't for another couple of hours. It ended up being 30 minutes of torture because the girls lost interest after 2 minutes and we couldn't keep the boys quiet no matter how many Cheerios we fed them. When we finally left, we thought we could get lunch at the bottom of the hill, but it was closed. We typed in "restaurant" into the GPS and found a closed Country Club. We ended up finding a mall with a bar that agreed to make us pizzas. We were so hungry at that point, we didn't care!

It's a bummer getting a timeout in a castle!

Happy boy!

On Sunday, we went to the Rhine Falls in Switzerland. It was a shorter trip than the castle and we planned the day much better. No major meltdowns = a successful trip!

Keith lost a bet to Ken!

Ella thought the water looked so inviting, she would try to climb in. Ken caught her in time!

Beckett loved the view!

The hike up to lunch.

Family restaurant that we had lunch at - it was a great meal!

The boys were getting tired of being in their strollers.

He loves his paci!

We left on Monday morning to drive back to Strasbourg. On our way we found a ski hill that we could do some sledding at. The hill was almost completely ice and was difficult to walk up, especially dragging a kid and sled with you.  Beckett wasn't feeling well on Monday but we made him do it once. Ava loved going down, but wasn't a huge fan of hiking back up. Ken and I loved it - maybe that was because our only other sledding "experiences" were at Pando or Eldridge Park! We are going to hopefully make it back next winter!

 



A month in...

It is really hard to believe that we have been here a month already. We feel settled into our new home and are getting adjusted to the new routine out here. For the most part, the past month went better than I expected, although not without a few obstacles!

There have been some challenges for me adapting to this new life out here. There are so many days that I can't believe that this is my life and and I actually live in France. There have also been some days that I just wanted to cry and go back home. Not many, but a few. So, here are some of my challenges.

- I thought that I would love not having a car. When we had originally talked about this, it was summer, so I pictured myself in shorts and flip-flops, biking with the kids all over Strasbourg. I was so excited to walk to the park and have picnics. Sounds great, right? Well, the past 2 weeks have been really cold here and not having a car stinks. On Tuesday when I walked Ava to school in the morning it was 8 degrees and when I picked her up at noon it was only up to 12.  It takes less than 10 minutes to walk to school, but it can seem like an eternity with Ava complaining and Beckett sobbing because they are so cold. I also have to walk to the grocery store. There is a small supermarket between Ava's school and our house that I have been stopping at with Beckett on our way home from dropping her off. There is no way to fit groceries for a family of 4 for the week in a stroller. I usually have bags tipping over and things falling out, plus Beckett usually starts crying once we get out in the cold again. There have been numerous times I wished for my big SUV (with heated seats!)  that I could just pile the kids and groceries into.

- Our apartment here is much smaller than our house in Grand Rapids. For the most part, I love it. We made good use of the space and everything fits. There is also a lot less to clean than our other house! The downside is that we have gone from 3 bathrooms to 1. Having little kids, I usually have company in the bathroom with me anyways, but in our house in Grand Rapids, I could at least sneak upstairs for 2 seconds. Ken and I also had our own shower in Grand Rapids that was only ours. Before we left, I bought Ava letters for the bathtub because we had them at home and she loves them. Dumb idea! Now we have to shower with them too.

- I have never spent so much time on grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking. In Grand Rapids I would try to cook a couple of times a week, but we would always go out to eat on the weekends and usually something like Chipotle 1 or 2 times a week. Restaurants don't open until 7 pm here and most aren't kid friendly. Take-out is also not very common here. So, I have been forced to learn how to cook. I took my cookbook from home and I am not able to make a single recipe from it because they don't sell those ingredients here. No cream of ... soup, no chicken stock, no taco seasoning, no brownie mixes, no ranch dressing!! I have spent ALOT of time on pinterest looking for new recipes. I feel like we eat better out here because everything is fresh, but it also takes more time. The first couple of times I went to the grocery store I wrote out my list in English and in French. I still do it with some things, but things are starting to get easier. 

Helping me cook. Her new picture face with no teeth showing. 



- I miss my friends and family at home. I really don't know how people did these assignments before facebook and skype. It makes us feel not so far away. Thankfully I also have a great cell phone plan (for the first time in my life I don't have to worry about going over my minutes) and a home phone that I can call the States whenever I want. This morning Ava got up and told me she dreamed of going back to Michigan so that she could see Grandma and Jack.  Things like that make me so sad, but I know we are where we are supposed to be. Thankfully, she was able to skype with Jack this afternoon and all is well with Ava again.

Watching a show (totally spaced out) after a long day at school. Beckett still doesn't watch tv - he got up right after the picture was taken.

Beckett loves watching the washing machine.

My poor pink-eye buddy. Thanks to the meds, he is doing much better.

Doctor visits

Tuesday morning Ken and I had to go downtown to get a medical exam to get approved for our long term residency here. We basically spent almost 3 hours waiting to get a chest x-ray and have the doctor read it to make sure we didn't have TB. In France, you get to keep your x-rays, so we now have 2 huge x-rays of our chests. Ken wants to hang them on the wall, I want to throw them out!

Ava has still been complaining about her teeth, so I knew that I had to take her in. Ken kept asking me to make an appointment, but I kept putting it off because I didn't want to have to call someone on the phone here. I had gotten a list of English speaking doctors, so on Monday I went through the list looking for one that was pretty close to our house. After about an hour of practicing what I was going to say, I made the phone call. Lucky for me, the doctor herself answered - something that NEVER happens in the States. She spoke perfect English and set up a time for Tuesday afternoon. Perfect! On Tuesday afternoon I found the building. It was an apartment transformed into a doctors office. There were tons of pictures on the walls and a small playset and toys on the floor - pretty inviting even though we were the only ones there. There was no receptionist or nurse. The doctor came out to get us and took us into the exam room which also was her office. There were about 200 Micky Mouse figurines on the walls and on her desk which Ava thought was great. She had a basket of toys for the kids to play with in the room, except for Beckett only wanted to play with this pink elephant that she had on her desk. She told me 3 times to show him the toys on the floor that he could play with, but Beckett had no interest in them, only the elephant. She took down all of Ava's health information and did a quick physical. When I asked about her teeth, she said to wait a couple of more weeks and see if she forgets what happened and maybe they won't bother her anymore. Interesting advice. At the end of the appointment, I paid, she gave me some paperwork for our insurance and we left. It was nice that I only had to communicate with her (especially since she spoke great English), but I didn't feel like she really liked the kids very much. She was fine with Ava, but just acted super annoyed with Beckett. She also wants us to schedule another appointment for Ava (and Beckett) to get tested for TB. France is apparently really nervous about a potential TB outbreak. Maybe next week...

On Wednesday night Ken started to not feel so well, so on Thursday morning he decided to go to the doctor. Lucky for him, he has French employees working for him that volunteered to call and make his appointment for him. He was able to get in on Thursday morning and get on some antibiotics. He thought that he may have had strep. They didn't do a strep test, but prescribed him antibiotics. Thankfully, he is feeling better and we can hopefully have a break from doctor appointments for a while.

Everything is pretty much unpacked in our apartment and it is starting to feel like home here. Ava has had a couple of rough drop-offs at school last week. The "newness" has worn off. She has always been very independent and never cried whenever we have dropped her off someplace. Not so this week. There were a few tears on Thursday and big sobs on Friday. I am praying things go better tomorrow. Beckett is doing great. He loves having his crib back (he loves his sleep!) and loves his Mommy time. In the next couple of weeks I have to work on getting him into some kind of daycare for a day or two a week. I love my time with him, but he needs a little time away from me!