Birthday Boy, Bike Rides, and Being Grateful for our Freedom

I love Memorial Day Weekends. As an Aussie, it is kind of like ANZAC Day weekend- in other words, a long weekend that includes a Federal holiday and a chance to reflect on our troops and be thankful for their sacrifices and our freedoms. This Memorial Day Weekend was the first we have spent in Germany, so it was great for Zev to have a few days off while the rest of Germany was still at work (although Zev did not get the German holiday off earlier in the week). We celebrated Zev's birthday on Saturday by heading up to the historic town of Heidelberg, where we did some Trap shooting at the Rod & Gun Club, and then walked around the city for a little bit and watching people go by. Sunday we went to Church and then enjoyed planting more flowers and herbs in our little flower boxes and our garden out back. We were continued to be blessed with good weather in Monday, and so we set off for a 22 mile round trip bike ride to downtown Stuttgart, where we ate our packed lunch on the beautiful grounds of the Schlossplatz. What a wonderful, special weekend together. We hope that all our family and friends back in the States also had a lovely Memorial Day weekend, and that they are enjoying the sunny weather. Love and hugs to all! Fifi xoxo

"Calling all Green Thumbs" and "Wandering through the Vines...."

So, it turns out that my darling Zev has a green thumb (in addition to his incredible culinary talents). This past weekend we took advantage of the beautiful Spring weather and planted some herbs and flowers in window boxes, that will hang from a special rail that our sweet landlord is having made for us. Did we mention that God has blessed us with this amazing experience here in Germany? Our landlords are also our next door neighbors and treat us like family. We love them. Our little town also held it's famous walk through the vineyards where we got to sample some unique southern German specialities like radish on pesto bread. Yum!! We will continue to post pictures on the status of our little garden! Take care, Fi xoxo

A lovely but short visit from Down Under!

Auntie Charo and Uncle Jorge dropped in to see us this past weekend! They have been traveling around Europe for 4 weeks and Stuttgart was one of their last stops before heading back home to Sweet Sydney. It was wonderful to catch up, and even though we are having typical German Spring weather (beautiful sunny mornings, thunder and rain in the afternoons and then sunshine again), we were blessed with beautiful weather for most of the weekend. We look forward to our next guests coming soon in July!! Love and Hugs, Zev and Fi xoxoxoxo

Spring has Sprung, German Men's Choir and White Asparagus

Moving around a lot as a military family means that we get to experience various "seasons" of the year and of course seasons of life. A lot of military families say that living overseas allows you to strengthen family bonds, because, well, you really have to rely on each other especially when you are in a country that does not speak English as the first language. Zev and I have enjoyed running together during the week and exploring our beautiful surroundings on the weekends. It is Spring-time in Europe; "Fruhling", and for those of you that have visited or lived in Europe during the Spring, you will be able to relate to the things I describe in this post. It is truly amazing and beautiful to see life literally "spring" all around us- new flowers blooming; people wearing a lot brighter colors now than in the Winter (Zev was the first to point this out- the first warm day we had all of a sudden the Germans were wearing white pants, white shoes- and it was only 12 degrees Celcius outside!! Funny). We found out that the tree in our backyard is actually an apple tree and apparently yields an abundant load of apples (which is good because I have been "sneaking" apples into Zev's lunch box- I cut them up and he eats them with a little peanut butter at work- at least I have him eating an apple once a day, right!!?) Spring-time also means lots of festivals in Europe. Today is May Day which is a public holiday (except for my poor husband who has to follow American holidays!) But there are lots of "Maibaums" or May Poles all across the little towns. I'm not sure if they do a May Pole dance here, but if I see one, I will take pictures and post them on this blog!! We have also noticed that Germans really love their "seasonal" dishes- for example venison in the Fall, and now in the Spring, every restaurant and cafe is serving "Weiss Spargel" or White Asparagus. I have been blessed with a gourmet chef for a husband, so Zev cooked me up, what I believe is restaurant quality, White Asparagus this week. He wrapped them in Spanish Prosciutto and drizzled home-made Hollandaise Sauce over the final dish- am I lucky or what? Our next door neighbors (and our wonderful landlords- yes the Lord has blessed us with INCREDIBLE neighbors at every place we have been stationed at- very grateful) invited us to attend a German Men's Choir Concert last Sunday. Our neighbor has sung in this local choir for the past 40 years, and his father sang in the choir before he did. It was really neat to be a part of this, and then to hang out with our neighbors and their friends in the "local"- which is 2 minutes up the road from us. It is a soccer club that also has a German Restaurant in it. I has Maultaschen- a local Swabish speciality that my other neighbor, Magda (who is in her 80s) wants to teach me to make. She makes hers from scratch and it takes her about 3 hours to make. But they taste wonderful- think spinach and meat filled giant raviolis. Zev ordered the German equivalent of "bangers and mash"- Wurstchen und Kartoffeln. All good. We hope you enjoy this little insight into life in Germany. We love our friends and family and miss you all very much. Take care and keep in touch! Fi xoxo