The Best Apartment Ever

After two weeks, that's what we're calling her. There is still a lot of work to do, but we are already feeling very much at home in our new apartment. With the help of Ralf's parents, we managed to get the kitchen moved and reinstalled in working order and our old apartment completely renovated in two days. We really couldn't have managed things without them! Tuesday night Ralf recruited some guys to help with the heavy lifting - they were all relieved when everything, including the couches, fit in the elevator, saving them the hike up 5 stories. Since then we've been busy unpacking and decorating. Sunday we took advantage of the great weather we've been having and hosted our first grill party. Monday we hosted all our neighbors over for cake and coffee. I am in entertaining heaven!

Grayson Paul joins the Harms Clan

As of April 19th, we are the proud Auntie and Uncle of a 7lb 11oz nephew! Of course we are super jealous of all of you who get to be there to welcome him in person - please take a long deep whiff of that intoxicating baby smell for us. Congratulations Dan and Tia!

Celebrating One Year!

Thanks to the early timing of Easter this year, our anniversary fell over a long 4-day weekend. We took advantage of this and redeemed the gift certificate for a weekend at Lake Lucerne that we had received as a wedding gift. From our hotel room balcony we enjoyed the ever changing weather and scenery of the lake and mountains - everything from sun to snow! Sunday we celebrated the Easter at a beautiful nearby church - constructed entirely out of thin "see thru" layers of marble - no windows needed - a stunning place to reflect on Christ's resurrection! We arrived home to more snow - reminiscent of our wedding weekend a year ago. With snow falling outside we thanked God for seeing us through this first year and committed the next to his provision and protection as well.

Munich's Newest Citizen

Little Paulina Rolland decided to make her grand entrance into the world on Wednesday, March 12th - in plenty of time for us to get a look at her during our trip to Munich for Silke's wedding. Tanja and Ralf are doing well and in addition to becoming parents have become avid bloggers....in German of course...but photos can be understood in any language! http://dierollands.blogspot.com/

Wedding Munich Style

This weekend it was Ralf and my chance to experience a Kallenberger wedding from the other side - as producers instead of as the honored bridal couple. We enjoyed our role as decorators, hair and make-up consultants, purse carriers, video- and photo-graphers, and of course skit-makers. Now we know first hand how much effort our family and friends went to to make our wedding day special! Silke and Rüdiger enjoyed a beautiful wedding celebration and we with them. No snow for them, just sunny skies...here some photos from the big day!

Introducing Frau Hillmann

Gain a Kallenberger lady in 2007, lose one in 2008. On Friday Silke took the new name of Hillmann.

The New Digs

Our second look at the apartment was even better than the first - it was a beautiful sunny day - so we could really imagine all the possibilities the giant terrace has to offer us. We have the contract in hand and can move in anytime after April 1st. Anyone want to help?!?

The Apartment

All Fun and Games

Ok it's not really all fun and games here - but that just happens to be what gets photographed. In addition to some long work hours over the past couple of weeks, we're gearing up for Silke's wedding and have plenty of related projects to work on, and we've started the search for a larger apartment. We've fallen in love with a "penthouse" apartment (which just means that its the top floor!) with a spacious terrace and a great view of the city. We'll take a second look at it tomorrow and if we're still smitten we'll sign the lease and start packing.

In January we got away for a weekend retreat with my GEM colleagues from around Germany - where we experienced a nice time of encouragement and refreshment. We kicked off this year's Karnival celebrations with the annual "day-on-the-town" with Ralf's office. No worries, the long hair tickling his face and the challenge of blowing your nose with a "piercing" were sufficiently annoying to Ralf to ensure that this look won't be permanent!

Fun and Games

Happy New Year

New Years

With the help of Ralf and Tanja and Ralf and Grietje we rung in 2008. In honor of my first New Years in Germany we kept things very traditional - spending hours at the dining table eating Raclette (a special Swiss or French cheese that is heated under a grill and then scraped onto your plate to be eaten with potatoes, pickles, etc.), watching Dinner for One, and then enjoying the fireworks on our street at midnight. Our Italian neighbors put on a great show for us! After our guests headed back home we spent the rest of New Years day walking back through the pictures and moments of 2007 and thanking God for a seeing us through another year. He has certainly been gracious to us and blessed us!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Ralf and I are back from celebrating our first Christmas in Beilstein. Christmas Eve is the big event in Germany. During the day Ann-Katrin and I decorated the Christmas tree, complete with real candles (which must be very strategically placed so the whole tree doesn't go up in flames!) In the late afternoon we visited Volker and Sibylle's church for their Christmas service and then after some Wurst-salad we got down to the opening of presents.

Christmas morning we awoke to the sounds of a brass band which plays Christmas carols every year from the tower of the castle for the whole town to hear. A thick layer of frost gave everything the "white Christmas" feel. Later in the day Silke and Rüdiger joined us and we enjoyed traditional holiday foods, and a nice stroll through the frosty vineyards. It was for us a very merry first married Christmas. Often we found ourselves reminiscing about last year's Christmas with the Harms family and were glad to be able to Skype with most of them and share at least a bit of the day together. Of course our photos are not nearly as cute as Santa Ruby or Adorable Elizabeth, but we hope you enjoy them none-the-less. Frohe Weihnachten!

Christmas 07