Our Apartment

Robin is working hard to get everything moved in to our new apartment and set up before he leaves for the US. Here are some pictures of our apartment. We are pretty excited about it - there are some nice things that I think we will enjoy there... there is a cellar, a pantry for in the apartment, a room in the basement for parking bikes, a room in the basement for drying laundry (on a line), the view is nice, the bedroom is big... all in all, I think it will be a nice place for us to live. I am excited to see it when I get back :)

View

Balcony

Kitchen


Kitchen

Bathroom

Bedroom

Bed (Robin is putting it together... and yes, having two mattresses is normal)

Living room

Back in the US

I got back to Utah about 4 days ago. I am still getting over the jet-lag a bit (I have been waking up at 4am every morning). There is still plenty to do to get ready for the wedding reception. Here is a picture of me spray painting something for the reception. What is it, you ask... Well, that is a secret until the wedding, but I promise it will be cute. The outfit I am wearing is my pyjamas. I tried to pack as light as I could when I came back because I knew there were still several things I wanted to bring to Germany. So, I didn't pack any clothes I could get paint on... except my pyjamas.
Robin is doing well. He will come to Germany on the 5th of July. He is busy moving into our new apartment, working, and getting ready for the reception in Germany. All in all, he is very busy. We are both looking forward to when he gets here... We miss each other :)

The Ring

Good news. We found a ring for me :)


Bad news: We still need to find a ring for Robin AND my ring won't be done in time for the wedding. In every jewlery store I went in to, they told me I have a very special taste. The rings here in Germany are a different style than I am used to, so it was hard for me to find things that I liked. So... that means my "special" ring needs to be "specially" ordered. Normally that takes 14 days... but, it is vacation time in Germany. So, they won't have it done for 6-8 weeks. I guess I will wait....

Wedding Registry

We weren't able to set up a Wedding Registry in the US because I knew I wouldn't be able to take gifts with me back to Germany... but here in Germany, Robin and I are able to set up a registry. It is a little different though. We are setting up two registries - one in a store and one online. At the store it is called a Hochzeitstisch or Wedding Table. It is literally a table that will be set up with all the gifts we are registering for. For guests to buy something from this registry, they can only go to the store we registered at, none of the other branches of the store will have any record of what we have registered for. We also set up an appointment for our registery time - June 14th, not before.

Today we were able to start our registry. What a HUGE task!!! We were there almost 4 hours and aren't even finished yet. Most people here live together and start their household before they get married. Robin and I aren't doing it this way. These couples already have many of the things they need to start their home, so they don't need to register for too many things. We don't have all those things because we haven't lived together... this led to some interesting situations in the store:

Robin and I were talking about pots. We weren't sure what sizes we would need, so we discussed it. There happened to be a man standing next to us. Robin was saying something like "Well, we haven't lived together, so I'm not sure we know exactly what we will need". The man turned and looked at us like we were from Mars. I think he understood enough English to know what we were saying. He seemed VERY surprised to hear such a statement.

The other situation - we took our first load upstairs to where they set up the tables. The two employees there looked at everything and asked if we expected lots of family at the wedding (or people who would buy gifts).... All of the other tables there were not nearly so full. What can I say? We need a lot of things to start our house. Between the two of us, we don't have much.

We also thought setting up a registry online might also be an interesting idea. We decided to register on http://www.wunsch-galerie.de/. It links to several stores, including Amazon.de (all in German). The idea is that our guests could also go there to purchase something for us. I haven't seen anything like this before, so we will see how it works.

First Harvest - Strawberries

Our little garden grew some yummy strawberries. Many of the berries were eaten by bugs, but there were a few that hadn't been eaten yet. So I picked some and Robin ate them. He said they were very good.

Hay Sculptures

A bride and groom made out of hay. That takes creativity. So cute.

S'mores in Germany

I haven't been able to find Gram Crackers here yet. Marshmallow can also be hard to find, but when I saw them on sale at the grocery store the other day I could not resist. We must find a way to make S'mores. I decided some yummy cookies with chocolate filling would be a good substitute for Gram Crackers.

First we needed an open flame. A candle worked.












Then we needed to roast the marshmallow. A fork worked










Then put it all together and eat. Yum.

Sick. Day 6.

Robin has been sick since last Thursday. I have been sick since Sunday. We have been to the Doctor twice. We have been to the Pharmacy twice. We have 4 different prescriptions. We haven't left the house much. We have been eating lots of pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches. Ice cream was good medicine until you realize... I'm SICK of eating ice cream and I am STILL sick! No More Ice Cream!
The good thing is, it can only get better from here...and it is only a month until the wedding :)

Lead foot

I like to drive fast sometimes. I was driving some one somewhere once and when we got there, they said "The race car driver taught you to drive, didn't he?" The "race car driver" is my dad and yes he did teach me to drive. I can't seem to help it... I start driving and want to go a little faster... then a little more, before you know it I am well over the speed limit.

Robin let me drive home from the temple the other day. While I was driving he took some pictures. He also happened to catch the speed I was going. First of all, there was no speed limit on this part of the freeway. Second, I wasn't going nearly as fast as the Audis and BMWs that were passing us. I was only going about 80 MPH (130 KPH). Robin also did a nice job of getting a picture of both of us in the car.

On the topic of cars and speed, here is what I have learned about speeding tickets in Germany. Cameras are set up in different places - sometimes they are portable, sometimes they are permanantly installed. If you drive by going over the speed limit, radar senses it and a picture is taken. You are sent the picture and the bill in the mail. Done deal. I have driven by these cameras a few times now. Luckily, I believe I was going exactly the speed limit at the time. I hope so at least... thus far, no speeding tickets have appeared in the mail.

Sick Day

Well, starting yesterday, Robin felt sick. This morning he wasn't any better. He called in sick to work. Yesterday was a holiday, so most Doctors (by most I mean all) took today off work. That meant we had to find the place designated to say open for medical problems area... so, from what I have learned today about the German medical system there is a place designated to stay open for those who get sick on weekends, holidays, and in the night. If I understand correctly, it is usually at a hospital and doctors take turns covering the shifts. So, we took the half hour drive to the hospital in this area that was open to receive patients needing to see a doctor. We waited in line to register to see a doctor. Then we waited some more until our name was called. Finally it was our turn to see the doctor. All he could really tell us is that, yes, Robin is sick. He should rest, and maybe take some aspirin for the aches. He could also write Robin a pass to say he was sick and wasn't able to work. That's right, if you miss work because you are sick, you need a doctors note (I think you can be gone two days before a doctors note is required). So, my introduction to the German medical system has begun... first experience hasn't been too bad. Lucky me, I wasn't the sick one.
Right now, Robin is asleep on the couch. He has had some soup and ice cream. He has said a few memorable things while he has been sick:
"Can we have ice cream? I'm sick. It's my medicine." also "Ice cream is the best medicine. Maybe we should increase the doses...."

Cake Topper

I finally found an idea for our wedding cake topper. In Germany they make lovely wooden toys. Mostly, these toys are for nativity scenes, but there are also figures from fairy tales. The other day we were going somewhere and Robin said something like "Let's go princess". I started thinking we could have a prince and princess on our wedding cake. I looked online and found this pair. They came in the mail today :)

Only 39 days until the wedding... 21 days until I fly back to the US. I'm excited :)