First view of Heidelberg

We went to the old city of Heidelberg on Saturday and you can see our little journey below. Sorry not too much blogging, it is just a sit&watch show! ;0) More later.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

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FIRE!!!!

OMG!!! My heart is ready to explode; my lungs are ready to burst out!!
I was just typing along this evening, in a nice quiet night. All the kids were asleep and hubby just went back to bed after a drink of water and a kiss goodnight. So I was just minding my own business trying to share my pictures with you all! And suddenly an unexpected smell tickled my nose. I was thinking!? Hmmm!! Who is making a bonfire at such a late time at night?? Looked out, and saw some pretty cool flame!! Sweet!! Then I register! WTH?? Bonfire isn’t supposed to get that high?? Looked again: 2sd floor of the opposite back building was on fire. ORANGE FLAMES fire!! OMG! I grabbed my phone!!
Call 911!! WTH is 911 in Germany? Ran out to the first available staircase in front of our building. LOCKED!!! Ranged all the doorbell and started screaming FIRE FIRE!!!! Call 911!! I don’t have a phone!! WAKE UP!!! 911 call 911!!!!
OMG, then I ran to the building on fire under the window on fire 2nd floor, I knock on the window of the first floor and screamed, FIRE WAKE UP GET OUT!!!!

Ran to the front of the building to try to get in. people are out!! Or so we thought. We get close to the door, and the first floor neighbor is trying to get the third floor neighbor out. The SMOKE is amazingly BLACK! Matt and one of the neighbor in our building try to get up to wake them up… too much smoke come down again, and finally we saw the father from the third floor pocked his head out. Took his entire family of 5 kids plus wife to the opposite window and waited until the fire department showed up. Then the big truck with the ladder came and took them down. When I went to get the kids out of the basket, I took a little girl in my harm and she was shaking so hard, I almost cried with her. They all came out alright! God was with them tonight. And THANK to all the fire department it is now out. Just another big scare and some family that lost everything!
So pumped up, can’t sleep now!! OMG!! I can’t believe I just did that!! It is like running from the law or something. (Like I know how it feels right?) So this is the reason why my heart is about to get out and my lungs feel like I smoke 3 pack of cigarette nonstop! I can’t believe that!

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disclamer: those pictures aren't pictures of the actual fire, I just found them online and wanted to show how sick it kinda looked. I lost my reporter aptitude with my running around screaming! ;-)

StLouis Children Museum

Well I haven’t mention that when we were on our little road trip, we did stop at the CITY MUSEUM in St Louis, MO! If you ever go to St Louis. STOP there. Park your car (I know it is a little pricey) and get in the museum, it was AMAZING! Kids and my mother and I loved it. Not just for the fun of it. Here are a few pictures that I took all over the museum. Hope you like them!

De July 2009 Travel and Fun

De July 2009 Travel and Fun

De July 2009 Travel and Fun

De July 2009 Travel and Fun

De July 2009 Travel and Fun

De July 2009 Travel and Fun

De July 2009 Travel and Fun

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Weird rule/customer services

Just a little story for you all!!
Matt has been waiting for an internet box since … 2 weeks ago. He was supposed to receive it last week before our arrival. Can you guess that he didn’t receive it? Well the reason he didn’t get it was that since he didn’t know his postal address (German one) he went online and search on the map. He saw that it was on N “G” Street. So he gave those guys this address. Ended up that we don’t live on North we live on SOUTH… Oh boy. One will assume that the “village” where we live is HUGE because you know South and North. Well no actually it isn’t! But the German post delivery guy I guess couldn’t find it. So it never came.

Oh wait it isn’t the post it is DHL! Dear dear DHL!!! Well anyway.
So last week (Before I arrive still) he called the internet provider company and they realized that they screwed up the North/South question! They said: “Das ist Nicht a Problem. Zue will rezeeve die box zoon.” OH YEAH!! RIGHT!!!
So yesterday I was at home since we were suppose to receive our unaccompanied luggage shipment. (and they were right we got it on that day… trust the American to deliver thing on the date it is suppose to be delivered.)
And the Post delivery guy from the german post office shows up at my door:“Sie haben eine postpaket!”
Me: “OH cool!! Danke”
Him: “Nein, sie haben eine postpaket im die agentur im die zity”
Me: “OH!! OK!!” big grin on my face “Danke”
Him: “Nein sie nuff nufff nufff blabalbala nuf nuf nuff, im die zity”
Me: “OH!! OK!!! Danke SCHON!” “Tchuss” “Danke schon”
Him: “Yah… Tchuss!!”
So if you speak half German like me, you will understand that we had a package waiting for us at the agency in the city office!! YA??
SO I call matt and tell him with my funny German/French accent. "Du aben eine paket im die agentur im die zity!!" LOL! So he laughs and say. ALRIGHT I’ll go pick it up during my lunch time.
He come home at night and we are ALL excited, we have been hacking our internet signal and it is a PAIN (even though I will always be thankful for the nice neighbor who let us do that) I was really really looking forward having internet access when I want even if it rain. (When the signal isn’t strong enough) so he come home with the box and starts right away to set up the box…. After 1 hour trying to read the German instructions... he gives up. “Can I use your phone!?” Oh if you must!! After 2 hours on the phone with multiple customer service person who are telling him, you need a password/id that we send you when you signed up… well no he actually need some technician to come and set up the box at home for us! WTH???
So my question is the following: Can you explain to me why on earth this company need to ship the internet box via DHL (probably make you pay for it) then… oh then they will send you a letter that will tell you when to expect the technician… and then you will have to wait for the guy to actually show up! WTH??? Are you insane? Why can’t the bloody tech guy show up with the box the same day and set it up. Just let us know we’ll be there waiting patiently and you will save money on DHL delivery fees? Can you explain to me what the logic in there is? I guess it must be because I am French, but I DON’T GET IT!
Anyone? Any ideas? Any logic that one French woman can understand? If you understand that… please PLEASE explain to me, cause I am lost and getting annoyed at that company, even though we are not using them yet! RRRAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! My accent is getting thicker by the minute!! Darn rule maker weird German box delivery/tech/customer service people! No offense intended to any other nice German people!!! Just venting here!!

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Call me Weird.

During my entire life I have been know of getting stupid over people. My mother always use to tell me that I shouldn’t be friend to this or that person cause they were just “lost” cases (or that they will get me into their weird way of living). The funny and “Weird” part is that, most of the time, I didn’t listen to what my mother will tell me and I just followed my guts. And in MOST of the cases, I end up having the best friends possible in a “weird” kind of way. So what, I am eclectic! I love having friends who might not have anything in common. I love meeting people who can show me a different perspective on life. Teach me something that I didn’t have a clue existed. Show me that no matter what I do, as long as I follow my guts I will be alright.
So for the past year, I have been followed and have been following in the blog world by a chick who I find hilarious. She moved in Germany a while back and I have laughed at her blog entry with shock and pure glee. Not because this is her, she doesn’t want to shock, she just is true to herself. And I respect that in a human being. I always try to be true to myself, to follow what my heart tells me so I can only relate to other people blog that are like that!
I finally met my new Friend and I was so glad that she came with her daughter and husband to meet us yesterday at our house. I can’t wait to meet her more in a face to face relationship and I hope that this is the beginning of a cool friendship. Too bad we are not neighbors so that we can see each other every day, but I guess being only a few miles apart will help with the “building” of this friendship!
To us “weird” girls!! ;0)
You know who you are!!

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“If possible make an “Illegal” U-Turn as soon as you can!”

Matt is so sweet. I love a certain brand of cookie that you can only find in France. The “Figolu” cookies. It is kind of like the American “Fig Newton’s” but it just is MUCH MUCH better (Not because it is French, mind you , but because it is crispier) You’ll have to try it one day to agree with me (Cause of course you can ONLY agreed with me!) ;0)
Anyway, Matt tried to get to France to buy me some of “my” cookies before I arrived so that I would be super happy. I guess he doesn’t know that I am happy with him without my cookies! So he tried to get to France, couldn’t make it and decided to wait until we got there to do it as a little family trip. So on Rafael’s Birthday we left the base after 3pm to get to France before 7pm time that the store closes for the day! Well here is the little story of our adventure to France.
To order to get to France you need:
* A husband who claim to know his Germany geography, because (as he said himself) in Germany the roads are not marked like in the US with the direction of “North-South-East-West”. They only show the next town exit. So if you don’t know where you are going, you should actually know what big town is around the direction you are heading. Matt of course being a “Pro” in German Geography was set to get to our destination without any problems.
* A “British Accent Navigation System” who want to make you cross the Rhine via a Ferry Boat even though you specifically ask for no boat crossing. (I guess being English she doesn’t know how not to cross water on wheels, so indicate the same water crossing even after you reset the navigation etc…etc...)

* Third but of MOST importance: A French woman with a lot of patience (with her husband and the British chick who is trying to drawn us all) and a starving stomach. The reason being is that she can wait and wait until her husband is so frustrated with the “British” chick and then she can drop a “I am Starving can we stop at a gas Station?” and when her hubby take his baby boy to the bathroom, she can be sneaky and go buy a map of Germany and the neighborhood France, so that the group can actually make it to the destination before closing time.
So now that I have done that: I am now calling myself “The French Sneaky Patience Wife who is married to a German Geography Professor who is trying to follow a stupid English Chick who doesn’t know anything about direction in Germany.”
OK it is a little long for a title, but I couldn’t come up with anything else! Any ideas??
So, for the rest of the adventure in France. We did finally cross the border (thanks to my 9Euro map) and we did make in on time to a supermarket, not the one that we were heading for at the beginning, because it was too late to even go toward it when we cross the border. But we found a “Bigger and Better” store called “CORA” and we did get a LOT of cookies. In the matter of fact, we got so many boxes of those cookies that they weren’t any boxes left! 8, all together. Good thing that it isn’t too much either. So 8 boxes of my favorites cookie = 8 euro (well a little less, but I always round it to the highest number, cause it is easier to calculate the conversion)
Well after we got the cookies and all the extra stuff like the “Chocolate Éclair” that I have been dreaming for the past 2 years, and some French Bread (you know the real kind) we went to eat at the Store’s “cafeteria” even though Rafael wasn’t very happy about it, we FORCED him to come along and he ate with a big smile on his face! “Maman, food in France is good!”
Oh yeah baby it is Yummy!!

Here is also a little Detour that we took, because I saw it on the map! Had to make it Diane, I will have to go back and take the BIG sign, as it also said “BAD Steinbach” ;0)

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My “French derriere” is hurting:

So now that the movers are gone. We needed to get to Chicago to rent the car, so off I drop off my kids at my friend Esther’s farm! (Thank you Esther) and I drive with my mother to Chicago. We took the back road because she doesn’t really care for the Interstates countryside view!
We arrive in Chicago, went to thrifty rent a car and went to the hotel with the 2 cars. Slept there and came back. I am driving ahead of my mother in the rental car and I see her flashing the van’s light!?? Hmm what is going on?? I stop.
Mutti (my mother): “I am yawning, I need to sleep!”
Me: “What?? Are you kidding, we need to get home so that we can get the house cleaned up and go tomorrow.”
Mutti (my mother): “I am telling you that when I yawn, I fall asleep on the wheels, so it is either me sleeping now for 15mn or me crashing your van in the ditch!”
Ok then, we will let Grandma rest! ;0) so off I go to the Fareway and get some fruit and some Diet (got to have my bubbles) 15mn I am out and she is ready to go, I give her some of my grocery and off we go!
We get to Esther just in time for me to hug her before she is running late to Dylan’s music lesson. Thank you Esther, love you, miss you already!!
We go home and start cleaning up; my “cleaning lady” (Melissa with Helping Hands in North Liberty IA) came in the afternoon and cleaned the carpet and the floors. OMG, she rocks! I was, OMG we don’t even have much to do no more!! Whoohoo!
My other friend Melissa started the kitchen, OMG she rock too!! Thanks girls!!
SO by the next day in early afternoon we were ready to go, the house was as clean as it could be. Mutti and I were both sick and tired to have our hand in a perpetual nastiness, so we just gave up. Thank you to Melissa (my friend) again because she finished up the last touches!!
So we left. On our way to St Louis, MO to drop off the van in front of the “Shipping/Transportation/whatever you call that place”. We were kind of excited as we were going to spend the 4th of July in St Louis, and you know they have the entire cool firework there! ;0)
Well I will go back to the 2 days in St Louis in a later post but the title of my post was to share with you our trip detail.
Friday, left North Liberty, IA to go to St Louis, MO. hotel
Saturday St Louis, MO to Pontoon Beach IL (about 1 hour drive) van drop off
Sunday St Louis, MO to Chicago, IL Mutti is leaving the States on Monday afternoon, so we need to drive her back
Monday Chicago IL to Troy, IL after dropping off Mutti, we drove back to St Louis (area) to be able to give the paperwork to the transportation/shipping office
Tuesday Pontoon Beach: Went to Transportation/Shipping.” Is your car clean?”
“How clean do you need it to be?”
“In and out clean!” OK then, off we go! Clean it! Check!!!
Return to Transportation office: “How much gas do you have left?”
“Oh I don’t know about 70miles left! “
“Mister so and so, can you see how much gas this lady has?” Too much, go take a ride around the block for about 30mn and come back! The little thingee need to be below the 1/8 of the tank!
OK then, now I am FUMMING!!! Going around the block 30miles West, 10miles south, 20miles East, 10miles north.
“Here are the papers I need to have: 8 copy of your orders… this and that!”
Me:” You also need this paper and that papers don’t you?”
“NO, those papers are only needed when you ship a car on your own!”
Me:”well yes it is what we are doing, if you read the orders it doesn’t give us the authorization to ship any car!”
“Well you could have said that before!”
Me: “???” (EXCUSE ME)
Off she goes out of her beloved chair and called someone.
“Follow that lady”
HMOKAY!!
Go in the office of a very happy smilee lady! She already has Matt’s file, ID copy etc… Call me Anne and explain to me the entire thing that they are going to do with the van!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH LADY!! We chit chat with each other while filling up all the paperwork. She send me to the “inspection” and then “you will be done”
HMOKAY!! Thank you so much!!!
Inspection. They are taking the van and make me sign my life away. Hopefully it won’t sink in the ocean on the way here!
Tuesday afternoon: off we go back to Chicago to catch our plane on Wednesday!! ALMOST THERE!!!
Wednesday: plane to Germany arriving on THURSDAY!!
OH!! Did I mention that my French Derrière is hurting because of too much sitting! AH!

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