home | our apartment

Here's a little photo tour of our apartment here in Deutschland!  It's a short tour as our home is rather small, but we love it, and the space suits our family quite well.  Actually, through the process of living out of our car for the summer and now living in a 1 bedroom apartment with a family of 3 (soon to be 4), I've decided I actually prefer living in a small space as opposed to a large one.  It naturally limits our possessions and everything is a lot easier to maintain.  Even when everything does inevitably spiral out of control, it doesn't take insane efforts to get it all back together.  Especially with destructo-toddler on the loose, it's handy to have natural limits on how much she can destroy at a time. :)

Here's a photo of our building.  It's the one on the right, and it connects to the classrooms/library on the left which Isaac is quite thrilled about.  Our apartment is the right half of the 1st level.

Our front door decorated for Christmas.

What you see when you walk in the front door.

On the immediate left from the hallway is our bedroom.  Here in Germany it's most common to have two twin size duvets on a full size bed.  Each person gets their own.  It took me a bit to get used to this practice, and if anyone has any tips on how to neatly make a bed with two separate duvets I'm taking suggestions.

I do really love the pattern on our duvets though!

On the right hand side of the hallway is the bathroom.  We're probably a contender for the most colorful bathroom in Germany!

We have a one bedroom apartment, but there is a second family/living/office room with a couch and desk.  It also functions as Elise's room, the playroom, and our guest room (please still come visit anyway).

Our office/project area.  Note the sewing machine I'm borrowing from a friend!  I've been missing mine so this is quite the treat.

Elise's book and toy box.  We brought a few beloved items from home, and we we've also received a few hand-me-downs from friends here and a few presents in the mail.  Elise will also be receiving a few new toys/puzzles for Christmas that I bought at a children's bazar here in Oberursel!

Straight ahead from our front door is the kitchen area.

Elise was getting into the trash can on a regular basis so Isaac fashioned a barrier from two beer crates.  Recycling is BIG here, and as a result we don't end up throwing away much so our kitchen trash is the same size our bathroom trash can was in the US. 

Also, here's a quick pregnancy update!  Things are going very well, and though my morning sickness is still hanging on, I feel so much better overall than I did during my pregnancy with Elise.  My morning sickness ended up going away around this time with Elise so here's hoping this kid follows suit!  I've been feeling movement for about a month now, but it really ramped up over this past week.  I had almost forgotten how fun it is to feel all those little kicks and movements.

Here's a 20 week photo:

You can already tell this kid is (hopefully someday) going to be a middle child - with Elise we took weekly or bi-weekly bump photos, and this baby has gotten 2 photos snapped on the ipad so far. :)

celebrate | st. nicholas day

December 6th is St. Nicholas Day, and it is widely celebrated here in Europe.  You can read a bit about the history here.  From what I hear it's starting to gain popularity in the US, too! We celebrated with Elise for the first time this year, and she was so excited to find her boot filled with treats this morning when she woke up.  I filled our shoes with a few little goodies before I went to bed last night, but there were several new additions when we woke up this morning thanks to our neighbors.

I don't think Elise knew what the chocolate was because she completely bypassed it in favor of the clementine.  Though she quickly realized it doesn't taste quite as good if you don't let mom peel it first.

Elise and I spent the afternoon making gingerbread houses and ornaments with our friends.  We also got quite a bit of snow today (the first "real" snow we've had this year so far), and we snapped a quick Christmas photo outside while it was falling.

Also, we're almost to the half-way point of the pregnancy, and we just found out on Monday that we're having another GIRL!  We're so excited!

baby news | 17 weeks

In case you haven't heard, we will be welcoming a new baby in early May!  With all the craziness of moving to Germany and finding a doctor, I wasn't able to get an appointment right away, but I finally had my first OB appointment about 3 weeks ago.  Baby J measured at a little over 14 weeks which puts my due date right around the first week of May. Judging from my track record though, I'm not holding my breath that I'll deliver a day before 42 weeks. :)  Everything looked good on the ultrasound, and baby J was moving around a lot which was fun to see.  We're looking forward to the big 20 week scan coming up in about a month, and we're hoping to find out the gender at that time.  

I really like my doctor a lot, and her English is quite good which is incredibly helpful!  A few of the nurses speak some English, too.  I had a very nice nurse who did my blood work and medical history, and we did pretty well with our communication except when I was trying to explain that I had my gall bladder out a few years ago.  The nurse understood that I was talking about surgery, but I didn't know the word for gall bladder in German, and she didn't know the word in English.  At first she thought I was talking about my appendix, but I told her I still had that one.  Finally I ended up showing her my scars from the surgery, and she confirmed with the doctor that we had the right organ figured out.  It was pretty entertaining all things considered.

While I'm sure there will be a few challenges along the way, I'm actually really excited to have our baby here in Germany!  Having already had one baby in the US, I'm curious to see the similarities and differences of how pregnancy and labor/delivery are handled here.  Plus, this is kind of a "vacation" year for me since I'm limited on how much I can work, and I can't imagine a better way to spend it than enjoying lots of time with Elise and preparing for the new baby to arrive!  Neither of our families will be able to visit when the baby is born, but thankfully we'll be returning home just a little over two months later (the end of July), so they will get to meet the new baby without too much delay.  This upcoming summer is going to be quite exciting for my side of the family - my younger sister (Meghan) is due about 3 weeks after me at the end of May with her first baby, my youngest sister (Sarah) graduates high school around that time as well, and my middle sister (Hannah) is getting married on August 1st (about a week after we return from Germany)!   We're so thankful for the blessing of new life, the joy of a wedding, and an ever-growing family!

Deutschland im Herbst (Fall in Germany)

Overall we've adjusted to life in Germany pretty easily.  Life is different in many ways, but most of those differences have turned out to be positive.

We canceled our cell phones shortly before leaving the US, and I'll be honest, I was not looking forward to being without my phone.  I had a smart phone for the past two years, and if I'm completely honest I was really attached.  So it was absolutely shocking for me that I haven't missed my phone at all.   While I am enjoying the many benefits of not being tied to a phone, there are inconveniences, too.  One day we were wandering the streets of Frankfurt trying to find the Apple store (my laptop charger died), and I thought, "my Google maps app would be really handy in this situation".  Also, when we were traveling to Berlin, it dawned on me that we had absolutely no way to contact our friend who would be meeting us at the station if we were delayed for some reason.  But those are bridges that you cross when you have to, and on a daily basis I just don't require a phone at all.  We may have traded our cell phones for wristwatches and pocket-size notebooks, but we aren't completely without modern communication!  We use Skype a lot, especially with our families, and I also pay Skype a few dollars a month so I can call landlines and cell phones.  That part was necessary for InfinityMOM because I need to be able to call boutiques and my manufacturer on a regular basis.  Skype has really low rates for international calling, and since we use the free video option for talking with our family members we spend at most about $5/month for communication.  That is a huge savings on our former $80/month bill for two cell phones with data plans!

We are loving the food here, but there are a few "American" things I will not take for granted once we return to the US:

Jiff Peanut Butter

Godlfish Crackers

Cheddar Cheese

I realize that out of all the things I could miss these three are pretty lame.  But sometimes you don't know what you have until it's gone, or something like that.  Peanut butter is not commonly enjoyed here, and while you can get it, it's not really the same as the creamy goodness you can get back home.  I didn't even eat THAT much peanut butter before, and when I did I would usually go for the slightly healthier Trader Joe's stuff.  Maybe Jiff peanut butter reminds me of home right now, but whatever the reason I desperately want peanut butter.  Same story with the goldfish.  It's not like we bought them all the time in the US, but they're a fairly cheap and tasty snack, and I loved them when I was pregnant with Elise.  They helped a lot with my morning sickness and took the place of saltine crackers (which didn't do a thing for me).  But the cheddar cheese is what I miss most.  I love mexican food - fajitas, enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas, you name it!  I love that little sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese on top.  Not being able to find cheddar cheese at the grocery store - any grocery store - surprised me to say the least.  They have an insane amount of cheese here - blocks, slices, fancy cheeses from the glass case, cheap (but delicious!) pre-packaged options.  You know how you walk into the dairy department of a grocery store in the US and there is always an entire wall of shredded cheese varieties to choose from?   Shredded cheese isn't as big of a thing here, but you can buy it.  Though there are usually only 2 or 3 options, and from what I have tasted so far they're all about the same.  Which is to say, they taste good, but they're not at all right for mexican food.  It's always some variation of really mild cheese meant for topping pasta of pizza.   So with all these cheesy options there's still nothing even remotely close to what we know as cheddar cheese.

*Update* I wrote this a few days ago, but never got around to posting.  Yesterday I had the glorious experience of finding a little hunk of aged Irish cheddar at the grocery store.  The cheese was almost 3 euros, but we made beef fajitas last night topped with fresh shredded cheddar and it was so delicious.

I've had to learn a few new cooking tricks since some of my favorite recipes call for things that aren't available here.  For example, my all time favorite comfort food recipe is my mom's baked chicken and stuffing.  It's tastes like my childhood, but I haven't been able to find two key ingredients 1) anything remotely close to Pepperidge Farms stuffing mix and 2) a can of condensed soup.  So I looked up recipes for those two items and made my own.  The first batch of soup was lumpy and awful, and I had to throw it away, but the second batch came out lump-free and full of flavor.  However, a formerly "quick" dinner now takes almost 3 hours to make start-to-finish.  Still worth it.  I've also figured out how to roast a whole chicken so it tastes exactly like the rotisserie chickens you buy from the grocery store.  Rotisserie chicken is one of my most favorite things, and I love how a whole chicken produces enough meat for several dinners! Unfortunately grocery stores here don't sell them, so I've had to improvise.

I'm feeling a lot more confident on the grocery shopping front.  I can order (in German!) from the butcher counter, and so long as they don't ask me any questions besides "Is that all?" we get along just fine.  Same story at the bakery, though I tend to mispronounce things a lot more often there.  Thankfully everyone has been very gracious with my poor attempts at German.  I've also started shopping at the Aldi here in Oberursel.  It's too far to walk, but the bus stops right across the street, and I even caught a ride with a fellow mom a few days ago.  I've recently started trying to make it to Aldi once a week for fresh produce and non-perishable items (the prices are fantastic, as is the produce quality!).  While Aldi is great from a cost standpoint, they don't carry everything (just like in the US).  For the things I can't get at Aldi, and items I need to buy more frequently like milk, fresh bread, and meat, I walk to Lidl and Edeka.  This usually works out to grocery shopping about every other day, and I tend to visit each of the three stores once per week.

We're really feeling settled in our rhythm and routine here.  Elise recently switched from two naps to one, and that has freed up our mornings for walking to downtown Oberursel to visit the library, outside playtime with the other little girls who live in our building, and (of course) grocery shopping.  We love the community and culture here, and except for our families being so far away, this already feels like home.  

Four little girls playing in the leaves in the backyard of our apartment building. 

Carving a pumpkin!  With her teeth....

My friend Christina (they live above us) pushing her daughter Lotta and Elise on the "big kid" swing.

My big-girl helping to sweep the floor.  

             

travel | home at last

We're here in Germany!  We arrived, exhausted but happy to be home, late Tuesday night after more than 20 hours of travel.  Elise did very well overall, but there were a few unpleasant moments.  Elise usually goes to bed between 8 and 9, and since we were set to board in Chicago around 9:15pm I was hoping she would be able to fall asleep quickly.  Alas, Elise was fascinated by all the people and activity as they prepped for take off, and once we were up in the air they served dinner and drinks for a few hours.  The food was fantastic, but due to all the commotion and excitement, Elise wasn't able to fall asleep until they finally turned the cabin lights off around 1am.  Thankfully she was pretty happy during that entire time, just wide awake.  Though there were a few other children on the flight, I was the only parent flying solo so the flight attendant kindly moved us next to the only extra seat on the entire flight.  It was a huge blessing to have that extra space for such a long flight.

Once Elise finally fell asleep, she slept until we arrived in Istanbul, and I was able to sleep for a few much needed hours as well. 

There was one small hiccup when we arrived in Turkey.  I had gate checked our stroller in Chicago so it should have been waiting by the plane when we debarked.  However, due to heavy flight traffic, they had us debark way out from the terminal and ride shuttles to the gate.  There was some confusion about whether the strollers would be available when we got off the plane (there were a few others who had gate checked as well) or if they would be available when we got off the shuttle at the terminal (the buses were packed so there was no room for strollers anyway).  We were finally told that the strollers would be waiting for us at the terminal but, you guessed it, they were not.  I had a flight to catch, and we still had to go through security at a very busy airport, so I was told to go ahead and the stroller would meet me in Germany.  So I loaded up Elise in the Ergo and managed to haul her and our 3 bags through the airport.  We made it through security and to our gate with time to spare, and Elise was perfectly happy to run around and explore the airport while we waited for our connecting flight to Germany.  

The second flight went well up until the final half hour when Elise had her first official tantrum.  Yes, on the plane with a full audience.  Those are the moments that ensure you remain forever humble as a parent.  I can't really blame Elise, she's teething, it had been a crazy 24 hours with not a lot of sleep for either of us, and very little mobile time for her.  She proceeded to freak out in one way or another for the final 30 minutes of the flight, and I kid you not, fell sound asleep the moment the tires touched the tarmac in Germany.  I think there may have been a collective sigh of relief from the entire plane at that point.  Thankfully I was seated next to the nicest couple (probably a bit older than my own parents) who were helpful and sweet the entire flight and especially the final 30 minutes.  Once we got off the plane in Germany, we made it though customs without any trouble, and gathered all our baggage....except the stroller.  Turns out it got stuck in Turkey.  I was able to file a missing luggage without too much trouble, and I was assured it would be on the next flight to Frankfurt and delivered to our apartment as quickly as possible (and it was!).

On the jet lag front, I was able to recover rather quickly.  Even though we arrived quite late in Germany, it was only around 4pm Chicago time.  Despite my body telling me it was only 4pm, I was so tired that I had no trouble falling asleep, and I slept for nearly 12 hours.  I woke up late the next morning around 10:30am Germany time, and I haven't looked back.  Elise has had much more trouble adjusting, but I think we may have finally turned the corner last night.  She slept a full 8+ hours during the night for the second night in a row!  We've been trying to guide her in the proper direction, but it's difficult with a baby because you can't explain to them why they should try to sleep now even though their body is telling them it's time to be awake and play.

Over the past week we've been exploring the city of Oberursel and adjusting to a slightly different way of life.  A few things I've been getting used to:
1) The ovens here are rather complicated compared to their American counterparts.

Instead of only having a few settings (bake, broil, clean) like we do in America, they have around 10 different options (the middle knob in the photo).  Convection, low broil, high broil, top heat only, bottom heat only, top and bottom heat, etc.  Funny little pictures indicate each setting and require a graduate level knowledge of hieroglyphics to decipher.  Only kidding!  I think I have it figured out, or at least I haven't burnt anything yet.  Since convection bakes a bit faster and hotter than regular ovens in the states, you need to reduce the cooking time and the temperature in all your recipes.  Between the time and temperature conversions and my lack of math skills it's a wonder our dinners have turned out at all.

2) The washing machines here are "high efficiency" and a small load takes over 2 hours!  The washing machines also have a billion settings (including the exact temperature you want your water), and I had to google everything and take notes the first time I did a load.

3) While some things at the grocery store require no translation (carrots, onions, apples, etc.), some things are a bit trickier.  Yesterday I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to find cinnamon in the spice section because all spices of a redish/brown hue look about the same when you don't know the German name (Zimt, in case you're curious).

4) We shop for groceries every day or almost every day.  Almost all refrigerators here are the size of dorm fridges in the US.  Everyone buys their groceries on a daily basis and uses them immediately.  There is very little waste or spoiled food this way, and while it does require more shopping time, everything is incredibly fresh with very few preservatives needed.  

Speaking of food, here are a few photos of our daily walk to the grocery store:

The seminary is set at the edge of a forest and up the hill from the grocery store, so the easiest way to get there is to cut through the forest. 

 The forest path leads to a set of stairs that take you down to the residential area.

 Which leads to a little path that goes to the main road.

The main road takes you to Edeka!  This is one of the two grocery stores we visit each week.  The other is called Lidl, and is basically like an Aldi.  We do a decent amount of our grocery shopping there and supplement with Edeka. 

 You have to insert a coin to use a shopping cart, and there are no disposable bags.  You can purchase bags at the store, but it's much cheaper to bring your own.

Yesterday we got a few things to make chicken noodle soup, and of course you can't forget the fresh bread (in the paper bag)!  There are fresh bakeries in most grocery stores as well as on almost every street corner in the downtown.   

          

        

Isaac made it to Germany!

This update is about 3 weeks overdue, but Isaac did make it to Germany!  He flew out of Chicago on the 26th, and he arrived safely in Germany the evening of the 27th.  He had a few days to get settled in our apartment, and then he started at the Goethe Institut for his 4 week language intensive.  In order to get to the Goethe Institut, Isaac rides the U-Bahn from Oberursel into Frankfurt every morning (usually about a 40 minute ride).  The first three hours at the Institut are direct classroom instruction, and after lunch they have time for practicing conversation, working on homework as a group, and other group projects.  Isaac is really enjoying his class, and he learning German at an incredible rate.  It also helps that he is living on the seminary campus, because even when he is not at the Goethe Institut he is still able to speak German almost exclusively.  He has also found time to set up our German bank account, figure out the grocery store, start the process for his student visa, and get to know a number of fellow students at the seminary.

Taking off for the airport.

After dropping Isaac off at the airport, Elise and I drove overnight from Chicago to Omaha.  We've been enjoying time with my family these past few weeks, and we are so thankful for this last opportunity to see them before we take off!  Speaking of taking off, Elise and I fly to Germany on the 30th!  We are beyond excited to join Isaac in Germany, and we've been missing him a great deal.  We have been able to talk and Skype pretty regularly which definitely makes the time apart a little easier.  Elise loves Skyping with daddy, and she has started kissing the screen whenever she sees his face pop up.  Sometimes when we are saying our goodbyes she will start to cry - it's absolutely adorable and a little heartbreaking all at the same time.

Elise is officially one year old!  She has gotten four teeth through in the past two weeks, and from what I can tell they are the top and bottom molars.  Those things are HUGE!  It's been a little rough, but she's finally feeling better and slept wonderfully last night which was a much needed respite for both of us.  It's also amazing how quickly her walking has progressed.  Just a few weeks ago she could barely take a few steps before falling over, and now she rarely falls and walks around the house like she's been doing it all along.  She's also started "talking" a lot.  She has a few discernible words, but most of it is hilarious baby babble.  She has a little toy cell phone, and she loves to walk around the house, chatting away, with it pressed up to her ear.  Hmm, I wonder where she has seen that before?

One year old photo

We only have a week and a few days left here in Omaha, and the time is flying by faster than ever.  In addition to packing our bags and tying up all the inevitable loose ends, I also have two-thousand InfinityMOM scarves arriving here on Friday.  All of the scarves need to be banded, bagged, labeled, packed, and shipped before we leave.  My parents have graciously offered their babysitting services and donated their living room to be used as warehouse central for the next week.  We were originally hoping this batch of scarves would last us through the Christmas shopping season, but I recently pre-sold over 1/4 of them to a company for a Christmas special.  Great from a business standpoint, but it means a lot of extra work before we leave for Germany in addition to all the normal packaging and shipping I was planning on.  We would greatly appreciate your prayers for safety in travel, speed in my work, and no major hiccups in our plans.  I look forward to updating next from Germany!!    

traveling | august update and packing

Here's what we've been up to since the last update:
We've driven about 1,700 more miles - which is more than 28 hours in the car.  This brings our total up to approximately 5,200 miles and 84 hours of drive time.  Now that's what I call a summer road trip.  We've done a lot more day-time driving this half of the summer since our trips have been shorter.  Elise continues to be a mostly happy traveler, though she has moments/hours where she totally loses it, and it reminds us why we love overnight drives with kids.

We're currently listening to Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.  It's fantastic and loooong.  We've been listening to it for a month off and on, and we've barely made a dent.

Amazon

Isaac leaves for Germany in less than a week (with Elise and I following a few weeks later). It's hard to believe the summer has passed this quickly, but here we are packing our bags for Germany.  We're having a little party on Sunday to celebrate Elise's birthday (only a tad early) with our Michigan friends and family.  It's also our opportunity to say one last goodbye before we leave for Germany.  I've been getting more interested in graphic design because I need to have some competency for the business side of things, but I've been wanting to try a more fun/colorful project.  I designed this invitation for Elise's birthday using Pages on my Mac:

front

back

Besides work, my constant project lately is deciding what items and how much overall we should pack for Germany.  My philosophy on packing has changed a lot as we've been traveling this summer. When I first packed our bags for our travels back in June, I gathered what I thought were only the absolute essentials.  Turns out we had so many "essentials" they hardly fit in the car.

We had three huge bags of clothes, and I packed for all three of us, so really the blame falls squarely on me.  Yet, I was so proud - only one bag apiece for the ENTIRE summer! I was significantly less proud when, at our first stop, we carried three clothes bags, a bin of toiletries, a travel crib, a diaper bag, two laptop bags, a camera bag, and a purse inside. Did I mention we were only going to be there for one night?  We surveyed the giant pile of luggage completely consuming all the available floor space in our room, and we decided we had to find a way to travel with less.  So at our next stop (my parent's house), I started sifting through our bags to see if there was anything I could eliminate.  I ended up buying two large rubbermaid bins to hold the stuff we decided we didn't end up needing, and my parent's graciously offered to store them for us.  I crammed 2+ weeks worth of clothing for all of us in one of the large bags, and we got back on the road.

Fast forward a few more weeks: we were still traveling with a lot of laundry, and it was getting rather burdensome lugging all our stuff from place to place.

I've heard one thing repeated on travel blog after travel blog: you should pack the same amount of clothing whether you will be traveling for one week, one month, or one year. So I finally decided to try it, and I packed the three of us, two adults and one child, in a 40L travel backpack for the rest of the summer.

It's been over a month and a half since we started traveling with only a week's worth of clothing, and for the most part it's been great.  There isn't a lot of wiggle room for laundry, and I don't always get the timing quite right.  Isaac may have had to wear the same shirt he wore the day before a time or two because I forgot to switch the load around before bed. Whoops.

When I first started reducing our stuff I wondered if I could be just as content with one week's worth of clothing as with two or three weeks worth.  Could I be even more content with less?  Every time we have reduced our luggage life has gotten a little easier.  Less to carry, less to unpack, less to wash, less to deal with.  I haven't missed anything we left at my parent's house, and if I'm completely honest, I can't even remember exactly what we left.  I have my favorite pieces with me and apparently the rest wasn't too important.

We've been using these packing cubes, and they have been great for the constant packing and repacking that has been our summer .

The large one holds Isaac and my jeans, shorts, and long sleeve shirts, the medium one holds our short sleeve shirts, and the small one holds all of Elise's clothing.  The mesh bag holds undergarments, and the loose items you see top left are our sweatshirts.  We each have a fleece jacket that we keep out because they're pretty bulky and would never fit in the bag.

This is how everything looks tucked into the backpack.  The large and small cubes fit perfectly in the bottom while the medium cube and mesh bag sit on top along with the sweatshirts.

All zipped up.  This is legit carry on size for all major airlines!    

Please keep us in your prayers as we finish up our preparations for Germany, and for Isaac as he travels on Monday and Tuesday.  He will be flying out Monday evening, and arriving at his final destination in Oberursel sometime Tuesday evening.

          

traveling | 3,500 miles

I still have my other blog, abandoned though it may be.  However, seeing as I currently have no kitchen to cook in, no coupons to use, or tools with which to craft (save a crochet hook - you don't want to see what projects I've managed to butcher so far), instead I'll be writing here for a while.  I will probably pick back up with the other blog once we're arrived and settled in Germany, but until then you can find me here.

Isaac finished classes at the seminary this spring, and I worked on tying up loose ends with InfinityMOM so I could manage the business from the road while we travel.  Thanks to help from a few good friends and my parents, we packed all of our earthly possessions save what we need for the summer and Germany in to a storage unit.   On June 11th we packed up the car and left Fort Wayne.  Fort Wayne was our first real home as a married couple, it's where we brought our child home from the hospital, and where we made a number of very dear friends.  We likely won't return after Germany so saying goodbye was tough.  Actually, we don't know where we will be going after Germany.  The seminary will assign vicarage (internship) churches next April, and at that point we will find out where our home will be when we return from Germany at the end of July 2014.

Life has been busy since we left which has definitely made the transition easier.  Who knew living out of our car could be so fun?  From the day we left our home in Fort Wayne until we expect to be in our apartment in Germany we will have been homeless traveling (it sounds better, right?) for 110 days, give or take.

Our car/home for the summer.  My dad graciously handed down one of his Thule cargo boxes which we've been adorning with stickers from our travels.  Thanks to the cargo box, living out of our tiny 2-door car has been downright comfortable! 

Here's a map of where we've been so far.

We've been on the road for one month, and so far we've driven 3,500 miles in 8 states.  All in all we've spent approximately 56 hours on the road -- the grand majority at night.  We've become huge fans of overnight drives for trips longer than 6 or 7 hours because Elise will sleep pretty much the entire way which makes things easier all around.  Isaac and I take turns driving and sleeping, and we are working through our 6th audio book of the trip (Unbroken by Laura Hildebrand - FANTASTIC!).  It's amazing how well a good book will keep you awake at 4am!

Amazon

We have a few more days in Pentwater before we take off for some more traveling.  I plan to post more travel updates along the way along with posts about packing and preparing for Germany.

Speaking of Germany, Isaac flies out on August 26th!  Originally we were all going to fly together, but Isaac will be attending the Goethe Institute 4 week super-intensive for German language study before he starts classes at Lutherische Theologische Hochschule. The language intensive is full immersion - no speaking, writing, or reading English during the program.  It would be incredibly difficult for Isaac to be truly immersed with all three of us there together in our apartment for the duration of the language intensive so Elise and I will follow when the intensive is done.  Additionally, it is saving us several hundred dollars to have Elise and me fly a few weeks later because we will be flying during the tourist low season.  It will be difficult to be separated for so long, but Elise and I will be visiting family and saying final goodbyes before we're gone for a year which will be good.  That also means I will be doing the 12+ hour overseas flight by myself with a baby.  I'll let you know how it goes....

Enjoying the ferry ride from Manitowoc, WI to Ludington, MI.