Month one in Germany

So, our first month in Germany has been quite an interesting one. I still do not have my internet up and running properly and am forced to go down to the basment on our old (slow) computer to check emails and update my blog. What have I learned thus far about Germany.......nothing gets done quickly. I have been waiting for the internet/telephone man to come and move my phone jack (yes, you only get one per home)to my main floor for 3 weeks now. He and the garbage man who is suppposed to bring me my trash bins for rubbish and for bio trash must be hiding in the same place because he also has yet to show himself.

I am posting some pictures of my home, these are all from the main floor. I haven't taken any of the upstairs or downstairs yet but will post those later.

























Maggie and Owen are doing great.

Owen is not crawling yet, but has no problem getting all the way across a room by a combination of rolling/army crawling. I don't figure it will be too long. He had his first taste of cottage cheese last week and loved it. I went to the market yesterday and stocked up on lots of fruits and veggies to make for him. His friend Carlyn's mommy told me about this great appliance called the magic maxx (magic bullet in the US) which makes up his baby food in literally 10 seconds. It has been great....Thanks Kirsten! Anyhow, Maggie has adapted great to Germany and enjoys walking around saying chees! and Danke! to everyone she sees. (these mean goodbye and thank you) some people seem to think it's cute, others just look at her with a strange look on their face.
The weather has been really nice this week, mid 60's to 70. We have been outside alot playing which the kids love. There are several older kids in our neighborhood who are really sweet to Maggie and let her join in kicking a soccer ball with them. She also has become pretty fond of chasing and trying to feed and pet all of the dogs, cats, and birds in the neighborhood. She has one particular bird named Harry (basically any black bird with a orange beak) that we are always trying to hunt down and throw peanuts at. I have her Mimi to thank for the naming of Harry and the feeding him. She told me today that she missed Megan, Emma and Mary and wanted to see them. I told her that they were too far away to see right now but we would visit and she looked at me and said, "I need some new friends then." I told her I was working on that.....I have 3 playgroups lined up, 2 are english speaking (one of the two is american) and the 3rd is german speaking. We also have another american family from Illinois moving here in June that have 2 kids the same age as my kids so that will be great.
German lessons are going good and I reallly like my instructor. She is super nice and has been really helpful with everyday things in Germany which has been reallly nice since Germany and helpful don't really go hand in hand for the most part. I had my first conversation in German today in a grocery store and it went rather well. I left the grocery store knowing to go back on tuesday and they will have ordered plain cheerios for me to pick up. (well....at least that is what I think I know...we will see on tuesday i suppose)
well, here are some new pics. I put all my other pictures from our first few weeks on our computer upstairs so I will have to post those after that computer gets up and running. We miss you all and hope you all come to visit us!!