Cooper's New Do!

Cooper would normally go to the groomer and great a nice hair cut and his nails trimmed. That was in our last life! Now that we are living in Germany we decided that this was something that we could take on for several reasons. 1. We really don't know where a groomer is in Attendorn and 2. why not save the money and do it our selves. So last week I decided to use our new buzzer clippers and trim his body. it took about 2 hours and cooper didn't like one minute of it, but in the end it turned out pretty well. Then we still had his legs and face that had to be cut with the scissors. We decided to so this few days later so he could have a little break. Cooper hates the scissors so his part was a bit more difficult. I held cooper and cut around his face and ears while Jeff entertained him with treats. It was quite a project! So now Cooper has a new haircut, it's a little short around his face and a little long around his body. But with time and practice we will get better at it. I have a new found respect for Groomers. I am not sure how they get everything so neat and perfect or how they get the dogs to hold still! Here is a photo of Cooper after the haircut. He is still the cuttest little guy!

The disappearing Passport

On Saturday Jeff noticed that my passport was not with his in my purse. Sometimes I have a tendency to put things in places and forget about them. In this case I had NO clue where my passport had gone. We searched the flat and determined it must have fallen out of my purse and we would have to go to Frankfurt and apply for a new one at the US Embassy. I was totally angry with my self! We went for a walk to get my mind of the passport and when we arrived home I had this weird urge to look under the armoir in the hallway. Believe it or not there was my silly passport. Needless to say we are no longer keeping our passports in my purse. Here is where we found it!

The Smell of the Rain...

Thunderstorms in Germany are truly amazing. The sky turns from a bright sunny blue to a dark green in a matter of seconds. They are intense, powerful and very exciting. Before you know it they have blown away and all that is left is the smell of the rain.

Germany - on to the Semifinals!

Last night Germany beat Portugal 3-2 in the Euro 2008! We watched the game from a nearby pub with several of our friends. It was a very exciting game and no one expected Germany to win! Germany will play the winner of the Turkey/Croatia game, in the semifinals next week.

Practicing Patience

Patience is not something that Jeff or I come by naturally. Things here just seem to take a very long time at least for us. This week we are waiting to hear about a flat that may or may not be available and waiting for the company to accept the proposal for our language classes. So here we are another week just waiting…UGG!

Cooper's New Friends

Everybody is making friends! These are Cooper's new friends Enox and Oscar. He may be small but he has very BIG Friends.

Driving in Deutschland

Driving here is quite an experience, but very complicated. The roads in and around town are winding, sometimes very narrow, and are generally difficult to navigate…… but can be very fun after learning the roads, what the signs mean, and where the “blitz boxes” are located – green boxes next to the road equipped with radar and a good camera all for speeding tickets.

The autobahn is similar to driving in town but at much higher speeds. It consists of long curves that smoothly integrate into the terrain that are also difficult to navigate - because there is no direction posted (such as I-75 N, just a city such as Frankfurt aM). In order to get around, you have to know if the city on the sign is in the same direction you want to go…. we now have a nav system and no longer have to worry about this though. For me, the autobahn is all about a round white sign with black lines crossing it diagonally = no speed limit.

This sign is not to be taken lightly though, there are many associated responsibilities on the autobahn and these must be carefully followed in order to return in one piece. Some quick rules to follow:
- Always drive right, even when driving really fast.
- Pay close attention to the road, not the radio or the bottle of water next to you
- Keep a good distance from cars ahead of you
- Don’t drive with your knees, people in the car will get nervous!
- Make sure you have good brakes before driving above 160. It is amazing how often the brakes get a hard workout, and at high speeds – no time for failure
- Make sure you have good tires – think about it…. at a 220km/h cruising speed, the only thing holding you to the road is gravity and a small contact patch of rubber
- Vehicle dynamics are different going 160 km/h and above, don’t go that fast if you don’t know how to control your vehicle.
- Get out of the way quick for Porsche’s doing 250 or more!! (always look in your mirror for twinkling blue lights, they come up very quick)
Really, there is nothing more exciting (and scary) than driving on the autobahn at 240km/h. Its something every auto enthusiast should experience once.

More than Nutella & PB...

Although it would appear that we have spent the last 2 weeks doing nothing but eating Nutella & Peanut butter, we have been up to a few other things.

We are continuing to search for a place to call home. This has been a pretty frustrating aspect of our every day life. Our realtor here is making us promises he shouldn’t and continues to show us places that we are not interested in. So the house hunt is consuming a lot of our time and thoughts. Hopefully we will find something soon! We never imagined it would be this hard. Keep your fingers crossed, maybe this is the week:)

Work is going pretty well for Jeff. He is getting adjusted but the language barrier continues to be a challenge. We are waiting for Mubea to approve our language lessons, so hopefully we can start our classes soon.

Cooper and I are walking a lot and becoming very familiar with Attendorn. It is a very nice area to walk with a lot of neat sights and fun trails. I am reading a lot and am finding it amazing how many books I can read when my time is pretty much uninterrupted. I have found a few book stores with English sections and Aimee has been sending me lots of good stuff!

We have made some really great friends who we have been spending a lot of time with. This Friday they took us to the Attendorn disco. We walk by the disco all the time and never realized that at night, it turns into a techno hot spot for people of all ages. It is a bit weird going to the bar and seeing kids that are like 15 and 16. It makes us feel a little old. Then after the disco we went to the American equivalent of a Coney Island. It was a Turkish restaurant that served some sort of pita sandwich with pork and all sorts of other stuff. It tasted really good at 3:30 a.m. Our new friends have really taken us under their wing and we are having a great time with them. They are very kind and fun and we feel very luck to have met them!

It was really cold and rainy here this weekend. On Friday night is was under 40 F. We could see our breath when we were walking home. Now we understand why they don’t have air conditioning in Germany. Next week the forecast says it will be in the low 70’s and the Germans think that is really HOT!

A most wonderful discovery…

Peanut butter and nutella…The 2 mixed together on a warm slice of toast are just great. I am thankful they have PB in Germany, but I suppose I could live with just Nutella if I had to. But the 2 together…delicious.

A day trip to Düsseldorf

On Saturday we decided to take a little adventure and check out Düsseldorf. It was a bit rainy and dreary but still a very cool place with lots of people and lots to see. We went to the recommended Uerige for an altbier. Düsseldorf is well-known for its altbier, a dark beer, which is brewed only in the region. We also explored Altstadt (the old city), there were hundreds of restaurants, bars and people. There was a beautiful market with lots of fresh things to buy. Then we wandered around the uber shopping district known as the Königsallee (King's Avenue). The "Kö" is a popular shopping destination that reminded us of Paris.


It was a very busy area even on a very rainy day. We are excited to go back when the weather is better and maybe take some visitors! So far it is our favorite city that requires more exploration.