"Unofficial Moving Day"

"Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response."

To be perfectly honest, I am still adjusting to this new place, this new house and this new… life. Not adjusting in a bad way, just in a normal person put into a new situation way. ha ha. Clint is busy at work and will begin taking his last online classes in the next month. I have officially applied to two jobs and will begin volunteering with the Red Cross at Landstuhl Hospital in the next month as well. With a little time, I have no doubt we will be back into our normal groove. I also use "we" loosely… I am pretty sure Clint found his groove the minute we landed. :) 

In fact, we hit a German milestone a week and a half ago. We finally got internet and a landline phone! It makes me feel slightly closer to reality and slightly closer to home in a weird kind of way. I got to speak to my mom for the first time since leaving the states, which was great (except for her usual mom tears).  Hopefully we will get into a routine of calling back to the states very soon.

On a seemingly similar positive note, the weather is warming up ever so slightly. It is still overcast most days, but I can finally step outside with normal winter gear and not fear that I may get frostbite on the way to the car.

And … (insert drum roll)…. our household goods are being delivered THIS Friday! And they are picking up the hideous temporary furniture Friday as well. I am already decorating in my head and pretty much have it all sorted out. I usually have this crazy OCD way of unpacking and decorating an entire place in only one day. I know Clint is already planning on having a few breakfast beers to make it through the day with his lovely, type A wife. This means that by Sunday you should expect a facebook Album titled Euro Trip: Our New German Palace. I have also been working on a few crafty projects that will hopefully be unveiled as well.

As far as travels go, we have been to Luxembourg since our last post. Luxembourg, known officially as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country surrounded by Belgium, France and Germany. It covers less than 1,000 square miles and has the greatest concentration of banks in Europe (over 220 of them).  It is now the world's only remaining sovereign ruled by a grand duke. Pretty cool huh? We went to Luxembourg City and found a really cool military museum in a nearby town. We also got to see the Grand Duke's palace and took pictures of their hardcore "palace bouncers". Lastly, we found The Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial. It was created in 1944 during WW2. I added some pictures below… it was amazing.

Downtown Luxembourg City

Grand Duke's Palace

Luxembourg from our walk

The Luxembourg American Cemetery

The Memorial

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"Family of the Week"

Good afternoon from the gloomy, rainy, snowy country of Germany!

I don't want to sound negative, but I do miss the 360 days of sun that Colorado had to offer. Clint and I were talking the other day about how exciting it was when we saw snow in Colorado and now even the mention of snow makes us want to punch each other. This too shall pass. Soon?…Right? :)

In the meantime, I decided to load up on extra Vitamin D, open the curtains and drink Sunny Delight.  I hope this will pull me through the next few winter months. Luckily, I heard the summer days are amazing. Hot, but not too hot (thank goodness because the houses do not have air conditioners) and long. The rumor on the street is that the sun is out from 7am to 11pm some days. I have a sneaky suspicion our new grill and new neighborhood butcher will get a lot of use.

Clint and I went to the city of Trier with our new friends Liz and John this past weekend. It was a neat town with a lot of character. There was a downtown market filled with cute shops and little German restaurants. The city itself was founded in or before 16 BC. We toured several beautiful churches, to include the Trier Cathedral and the Aula Palatina. The Trier Cathedral was originally built by Constantine and is the oldest church in Germany. It was gorgeous inside and housed (or so they say) the Holy Robe of Christ. The Aula Palantina was built in 310 and was built solely for the purpose of housing Constantine's throne. It was not as glamorous as the Cathedral, but interesting nonetheless. And finally, we got to see the infamous Porta Nigra, a Roman city gate that's been around a day or two.

Clint and I are still waiting for our household goods and I cannot wait for the day when we can return our temporary furniture. It's hideous to put it lightly and when I combine that with the weather, I sometimes go into an instant "funk". However, it should be here by next week at the LATEST so I'm learning to calm down and let it be.

Lastly, we were selected as the Family of the Week in the paper. Of course if I had known we would get such a huge honor I would have never shown up with my hair back. :)

The Trier Cathedral! 

That's us!