Home Sweet Home

I made it home safely yesterday morning and couldn't have been happier to sleep off my jet lag upon entering my house! The flight was good and seemed amazingly short. This might have had something to do with the two movies I watched and my self prescribed dose of Tylenol PM that put me to sleep for a couple hours, but short all the same. I watched Tyler Perry's "The Family That Preys" (it was okay) and "Twilight" (awesome). I was really hoping for a chick flick...but the airlines never have those :(. I got in around 5:30 in the morning and scooted right past customs and got my bags in all of 25 minutes...which is kind of amazing in Frankfurt. Then I ran out hoping to see the dog and TJ and...they were no where to be found! We had daylight savings the night before and T forgot! No worries as they were there in about 5 minutes and were able to drive up and get me. The little boy (Tut) couldn't have been happier to see me...his curled up tail wagged at a phenominal rate and he whined with excitement! We got home about a half hour later and I hit the sack hard until 2:30 when Tut woke me by tapping me on the forehead with his paw. We then joined TJ downstairs for a well deserved lazy afternoon!
Today I feel fantastic! We got up early and got ready for the day as the workers are now here finishing up the balcony. The rest of the day calls for unpacking, laundry, changing the closets for Spring, and of course a pasta dinner. I loved my time in the States with family and friends, but I am very happy to back in Germany with TJ where I belong!
Auf Wiedersehen!

The Paco's Experience

After I returned from Davenport on Wednesday, my family and best bud Rebecca went to dinner at Galleria de Paco. I would certainly say that Paco's is a very special restaurant in Waterloo that should not be overlooked. Our meals and desserts were fantastic, and the staff was wonderful. I love that when you make reservations that they make them for the entire night so you can have a relaxed dining experience. It was great! A little background...the family that owns them are the Rosic's, a Bosnian family that was relocated here during the war. As far as I know the son's name is Paco, and he and his parents own and run the restaurant. It is called the Galleria because Paco is an amazing artist. He has recreated the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by using spray paint, and the restaurant also showcases some of his other creations. He is truly talented. In the next picture of Bec and I you can kind of see the ceiling he recreated...
I really wanted to get a picture with Jackie (the Dad) as he runs the front and was certainly a highlight for me. He is so funny and such a doll! He found out that I lived in Mannheim and told me he lived in that area for seven years...and this of course led to me being introduced to all of the Germans dining in the restaurant...and there were quite a few. TJ's company had representatives dining with company guests from Germany and then there was a group from Hochschule Mannheim. I haven't spoken or attempted to speak that much German in quite a while! Any way Jackie loved me enough to ask me to write in the hospitality book which was really sweet. He is also very funny...we wanted a picture with him and he happily agreed but told my mom she could do better after taking this photo...

The result was my Dad following Paco's direction that made Rebecca and I almost lose our dinner from excessive laughter. Needless to say the picture did not turn out. It was a great experience and I highly recommend anyone dining there...its a fabulous place!

Auf Wiedersehen!

QC Excursion

I spent a few days in the Quad Cities and had a great time with old friends and great shopping. I had to go for a doctors appointment, but made my time there even longer by coming early and staying late! It started Monday night when I first stopped by the Kremer's to pick up some stuff to take back home and see their adorable little girl. We LOVE this family! I have known Nick as long as I have known my hubby and they are essentially a life line for us as they house our sling box (DVR)...and to me they deserve sainthood just for that. I wasn't able to stay long as I had a hot date with Angie and Missy in the East Village to get to. They were gracious enough to let me crash for a few days while I was in the area. That was a blast...there is never a dull moment with these two! Here is a photo of us from that night...

Tuesday brought me stimulating the economy a little by visiting some favorite hot spots before meeting my former boss, Amy, for lunch at Chic-Fil-A (another on of my favs). It was so fun to catch up with her!
Those who know me will not be surprised that I planned to exercise while I was there for later that day at the West and Downtown Ys. It was so fun to see everyone, but the highlight...three Les Mills classes in a row!!! It started with RPM, the BODYSTEP, and then I wrapped it up with a BODYPUMP. At home, I can RPM and STEP on my own as my gym in Germany lets me use their stuff...but they don't have PUMP equipment so I hadn't done that in over six months. The result is a very sore Annie! Here is my friend Jen teaching that PUMP class, this is a view of only part of the participants though...

I was ravanous by the end of those three hours and looked forward to some very delicious Happy Joes at Jen's. It was fun to catch up there as well...miss you Jen!!! I think the classes wore me out as I was exhausted the next day, but it was well worth it! Before I left town I stopped by to see my cousin Kim and her baby Drew as they couldn't make it to the family gathering last week. It is always so much fun to catch up with Kim, and Drew...HE IS SO CUTE! See for yourself, this is Kim and Drew...

What a heartbreaker, right? And the icing is that he is such a good boy. Good times in the QC had by all, I think! I will certainly make time to go back in October when I am home :).

Auf Wiedersehen!

Busy Saturday

Saturday was fun but very busy. It wouldn't have seemed so busy if I had gotten more than five and a half hours of sleep the night before...and really any day here seems busier than most of my days in Germany. It started off with a family get together at my parent's house with my Mom's side of the family. It was fun to see everyone and catch up on family happenings! We had great food (Four Star pizza from the OP), and fantastic conversation. My Mom took some pictures, and yes all of them are candid.
In this one...me, Lynn, Aunt Toni, and Maggie...

My Uncle Joe and his girlfriend, Lynn (and yes we drink at our functions)...

It was very fun that my cousin brought her yellow lab (Hawkeye) to hang with my Mom's dog, and they were a huge hit amongst the Grandkids. This here is Jackson with the pooches...

It was such a nice day and the kiddos spent a lot of time in the backyard. Here are Jackson and Jacob hanging out...

Here is my Aunt Toni helping her Grandson climb a tree...

The ladies catching up over pizza...

And my cousin Maggie's adorable daughter Allie...she is so cute!

Some key people were missing, but all in all it was a great afternoon! Following the get together, Kelly, Rebecca, and I decided to hit up The Brown Bottle for some Italian food (delicious), and then saw "I Love You Man!" at the movies. It was the perfect movie for our tired moods...funny, funny, funny! Today I am just laying around watching TV and thinking about what I don't have to do today, and I am loving that. In fact, I started watching The Real Housewives of NYC. Those women are crazy, but I kind of like them!

Tomorrow calls for a trip to the Quad Cities to see friends and visit the doctor...and all my other favs (Chic-Fil-A and Cafe Express) so stay tuned!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Good Hair, Great Friends!

I have been waiting for my cut and highlights since about 7pm November 8, 2008 when I got butchered by the German stylist and Friday was the big day. I couldn't be happier...thank you Nicole at Jiva!!! This entire event was the beginning of the best day so far this trip. Why? Because three out of my four besties and I got together that night for dinner and drinks and it was super fun! But first, I was able to catch up with two of my out-of-town friend's kids. I haven't seen Kelly's kids in close to a year and I have never met Carrie's son (which I find sort of shameless), so it was a special time for me. My buddy Bec also has a son that wasn't there, but lucky for me I get to see him the most :)!
Here is a great picture of Kelly's boys...

And here is Carrie and her son...

Kelly's youngest and Carrie's son are only about a month apart so I thought this was a super cute photo of them sharing a chair.

Then Rebecca and Kelly's eldest spent some time catching up...

A few hours later the gals came back for dinner and drinks. We wanted to catch up and I love to cook so I thought it would be a fun and different thing to do! One thing that always happens is laughter...dinner wasn't even in the oven yet and here they are laughing and keeping me company in the kitchen.

And more laughing...and drinking...

After dinner we were off to Main Street for drinks, laughter, and great conversation at the Stuffed Olive. We had a nice waitress that agreed to get a photo of all of us, which was fantastic! We also had a great DD (my Mom) so we could all let loose and have a couple cocktails...thanks Mom!

Then we were off to Jokers. There was a lot going on there...these three were the prettiest ones there, but I guess that is no surprise!!

Girls night plus cocktails equals dancing...

Carrie and I had one hell of a dance to "Pour Some Sugar on Me", unfortunately I was too busy dancing to get that picture! But I promise we were fun!
Following our night out and a quick drive through at McDonald's, we continued our night in with a slumber party at Rebacca's house. What did that consist of? Laughing and playing celebrity until 3 am. It was fantastic! So much so that Kelly, Bec, and I are available for a low key dinner and a movie tonight. We will miss Carrie tonight as she had to head home! The only drawback this weekend was missing our fifth girl as she lives in Arizona and couldn't make it- next time in October we will all be reunited again...can't wait! More later...

Auf Wiedersehen!

Back in Iowa

I have been absent from blogging most of the week due to the fact that I am not in Germany right now. Here is what I have done so far...
Shopped (went to VM, Target, and hit the Chicago outlets), got my brows done, got my laptop fixed, went to the eye doctor, went to the dentist, got my new drivers license, and of course hung out with family and friends. Pretty good, huh?
Some have warned me about coming back as some things might be a shock or a disappointment as I have been away for so long and now used to the German lifestyle. This has been true for some things, but the opposite is true as well. For example, the roads here are terrible and I have an obscene amount of road rage. I much prefer driving in Germany...for sure. Also, I am amazed at the lack of traffic and lack of people out and about walking or whatever. In Germany, there are always people out even in bad weather. With that is noticing that more people are overweight here, not that I didn't know that before but now I just see it. Other than that the biggy is the amount of waste. I have one trash bag about every two weeks because we recycle everything. Even though people recycle it just isn't the same. Other than that I am good. I love that the sun has shined everyday all day. That has been great! And I also love how easy everything is...I don't have to think about when something will be open or how to communicate what I want- and it happens to be a nice change!
Tomorrow will be a great day as I get to have my hair cut and highlighted...and because it is my girls night. Four out of five of us will be together again and it should be fun!!! Although we will miss you Laura :). I will post pictures of that as well as my family get together on Saturday sometime this weekend. Until then...
Auf Wiedersehen!

Last Weekend in Dusseldorf

I almost forgot to upload the rest of our Dusseldorf trip last weekend...whoops! On Saturday after The Killers, we decided to bum around Dusseldorf and see the alt stadt (old city) and check things out. Dusseldorf is very close to Koln (Cologne) and sits on the Rhein River. It is known for fashion, architecture, and and of course the longest bar in Germany. We didn't do anything special other than walk the streets, but I really enjoyed it. There aren't many sites but the city is a beauty, and we had nice weather.
Here is a look at a small harbour area near the Rhein where this cute little boat was decorated... My all time favorite photo was of TJ and Tut on the river walk over looking the Rhein. It is a great picture of the boys...if you know Tut it wouldn't surprise you to see that he needed to see the Rhein as well!

A look up the river...

and down the river walk...

Here I am in the Market Platz.

Then we have a church. It is the original city center as the first settlements here were in the neighborhoods around this church.

Dusseldorf is extremely clean and very well landscaped. It is not full of sites, as mentioned, but it has a great old town that was really bustling in the afternoon...and we have heard is really fun at night! It also has a fantastic bahn system with two different train systems...street and underground. We took the U-bahn to the concert and it was so clean and very fast...I welcome both of these things!

We also had the most wonderful outdoor lunch at a Spanish tapas restaurant. TJ, Tut, and I really loved it, and it got us excited for our Spain trip in a couple months...we can't wait!!!!! Bottomline, Dusseldorf was a very nice city.

Auf Wiedersehen!

The Killers Killed

The Killers were freaking awesome in Dusseldorf last night! I cannot explain to you in words how great the show was. It was one of those shows that was so good that you couldn't believe it was over at the end...I thought they hadn't played long enough and TJ explained they were playing forever- but they are that good. They immediately started with "Human" and then wrapped it up with "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine". The Killers fans out there know that I need not say more.
Here are a few pictures of the show...

I am surprised TJ and I have a voice today! The first time I saw them was on their first tour in Myrtle Beach at the House of Blues (with great friends) and it was a completely different show...not necessarily better or worse, but a completely different performance. They even jazzed up the sound effects, chanting, crowd participation, and techno stuff for the Euros...they love that stuff. It is hard to even pick out a the best song of the night, "Human", "Neon Tiger", and "Mr. Brightside"were up there...but I also loved "I Can't Stay"! I am glad we had a show, the last one they had in Amsterdam was cancelled because of a bomb threat. Too bad so sad Holland because they rocked!!
The venue was also fantastic...you could get as many beers as you could carry at a time (and they provide carriers that hold six). TJ and I were very happy fans. Can't you tell?

All in all, great time!

Auf Wiedersehen

Pay Dirt

Wednesday I picked up my friend Hazel and we headed to the Rhein-Neckar Zentrum as she told me there were some yummy American products at the Rewe (grocery) there. Before we got to Rewe, I found the place extrememy interesting...its like a mini shopping town with outlets and stuff. We didn't do anything besides head for the grocery, but I promise to go back and see what other things I can find after I get back from my trip.
Another funny thing I found was Frauen and MK Parking. So you know how in the US there is expecting and new mother parking up front near the handicap parking spots? We have something similar but different. I was approaching the front and Hazel said to park in the "frauen spots". I was like no way as I don't have kids and certainly not pregnant so no way. Then she mentioned that there were other spots for those women labeled MK (Mutter-Kind). I couldn't believe it! Front row parking for only women? I didn't know whether to jump for joy or question the matter. Crazy!
Once we got in Rewe and made it to the "International Aisle" I found some good stuff. The best hands down was the tex-mex stuff...Old El Paso. I said to Hazel..."let me introduce you to Texas"! She laughed and we stocked up. Other things purchased were Campbell's soup, hot tamales, Pam, and a bunch of Betty Crocker. It wasn't a bad section, and I will return!
For now I must pack the car for our Dusseldorf excursion complete with Killers Concert. Can't wait!
Auf Wiedersehen

Graduation Dinner

I officially finished school last Monday, as many of you know so TJ and I wanted to celebrate by having a fun night on the town. And it was very fun...so fun I didn't feel normal until this morning. I got to choose where we went and decided on a sushi restaurant we have had our eye on for a while. It is called "The East" and sits on the Parade Platz in the heart of Mannheim. Here I am, and you can kind of see it behind me. We had the cutest little server and we had pretty good service there for Germany. We started with a pair of my favorite drinks, the caipirinha. I love them and can't get enough of them...as you can see!

The sushi was fantastic!!! We decided to get the sushi platter full of everything delicious...it was so pretty. And yes we ate everything (except for the salmon eggs) including some miso soup and a large helping of edamame.

The server seemed happy that we ordered the big one and even shocked when we ordered our saki. I think the saki is what made me not feel so good the next day. We were full, so we decided to drink our dessert instead at a bar upstairs called the Starz Cocktail Lounge. It is up in a tower on the top of the Bio Center and it is all glass with some good views of Mannheim. Here was our view of the Parade Platz...the building on the other side is a department store called the Kaufhof, and then you can see the tall apartments lit up behind it in the distance. It was nice to have a clear view.

We even got glow sticks in our drinks- we had some fun with this...

After three caipirinhas and a lot of fun we decided to catch the midnight train back to Seckenheim. We waited a little bit...you can see the train maps behind us at the stop. I like this one!

All in all it was a great night and a fun celebration. The rest of the weekend we just hung out at home as I hadn't done that in nearly two and a half years. It was so nice!

Next weekend should also be fun as we are headed to Dusseldorf, Germany on Friday to catch a Killers concert. Aside from the concert I am excited to see the city as it was listed as the 5th best city in the world to live in by BusinessWeek. We will see...stay tuned!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Avalanche!

I forgot to mention one thing about where we stayed last weekend. There were avalanches happening all day around where we were staying, but not where we were boarding. We knew something was up because we couldn't make it to the original slopes we wanted to go to because the road was closed because of an avalanche. Also, our German friends that were going to snow shoe said that there was a high risk of them. We were sticking to the slopes and a little off piste so we weren't concerned.
We didn't realize anything else happened until we were driving back and we actually saw a couple of avalanches that happened while we were on the slopes. Here is a look..

We learned even more once we got back and heard the helicopters searching for people right near where we were staying. Our friends that snow shoed could only go for about an hour and some of them even got stuck and had to be rescued by their guide. What is worse was what we heard at dinner. We found that the Germans we were sharing the attic with went on an ice climbing or something tour with a guide and their guide was the one of those who died. We were all very shocked...but then again they should have probably gone out in those conditions. Scary stuff! It was certainly a learning experience! Avalanches...no thank you!

Auf Wiedersehen!

How to Bust a Snowboard, by TJ

I couldn't see the screen because it was so sunny, so this isn't the best...but it does capture the fall that broke his board. There are a couple people that go before him- he is the guy in black on the left of the screen...you will know it is him when you see the fall. Poor TJ :(

Auf Wiedersehen

TJ's Snowboarding Collision

As promised here is TJ's wipe out from his point of view when some guy crashed into him and he never saw it coming. This video is a little long, but the last 30-45 seconds shows the crash and the few seconds following it.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Snowboarding in Axamer-Lizum, Austria

Despite our less than desirable situation in neighboring Praxmar, we had a blast in Axamer-Lizum snowboarding. It was a perfect day with fresh powder, warm weather, and the sun complete with bright blue skies. Here is peek from when we arrived.
Axamer-Lizum was the site for skiing events in the 1964 and 1976 Innsbruck Olympics, so it was pretty cool to be able to snowboard on those slopes. On site they have both lifts labeled that were made for each game. The first is a chairlift and the second was a sort of train. Here are pictures of each...

It is a decent sized area and here is a look in the common area down below.

And the Olympiabahn...it was very efficient. It took up about 125 people every 5 minutes. It was super awesome.

One of my favorite things was the view we had of part of Innsbruck. We could see this from the top where Olympiabahn left us off. You can see it better in person as the toen sort of glistened in the sun below. Isn't it pretty?

There were so many views! Sometimes we would just stop on the slopes and just take it all in. It was a perfect day to look out over the alps!

Love this sky...and you can see the lines of where people went off piste. That was definitely something that we loved about this place. It was wide open with a lot of opportunities to go off piste and on different trails.

This is off the southern backside of the slopes.

This is one where we were taking it all in sitting on the side of the mountain. I love this picture because it wasn't posed and spur of the moment...not like our usuals.

We had lunch at the top of where the Olympiabahn stopped at this huge and very cool place that looked out both sides of the mountain.

And the food was delicious! We were so thirsty and hungry too. It did not disappoint and there was so much to choose from!

After lunch...more boarding! We had a very eventful second half of the day, well at least TJ did. His ankle was still a little sore from two weeks ago when he injured it but he did really well until another boarder collided with him and sent him flying! Poor TJ he didn't even see it coming and it happened so fast! I was right behind him so I saw it happen- not pretty. He is okay though and lucky for you he was video taping so I will post it from his prospective for you later. The commentary is great. Here I am right before that happened...

TJ's fantastic luck did not stop there. At the end of the day he went to the terrain park to check it out and was doing wonderfully. He was hitting jumps and doing his thing when catastrophe struck...the result was a limping TJ and a broken board. Lucky for you again...I got it all on video. I will post it seperately later as well. Here is the after picture...

Aside from TJ's bad luck, we had a great time and will certainly go back to this spot again! Stay tuned for video!

Auf Wiedersehen!