Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Luxembourg: American and Germany Military Cemeteries from WWII

While Kylee was in school one day we took a trip to Luxembourg where there is an American Military Cemetery. This is just 45 minutes away from our house. It is just one of 14 American Military cemeteries on foreign soil. Most of the soldiers buried here died North and East of the city, as well as other parts around the region during the winter of 1944 and the Spring of 1945. 

The cemetery was in the middle of being renovated, so we were not able to visit everything. We plan on going back this summer. 

Luxembourg American Military Cemetery and Memorial.



The memorial of those who gave their lives in the service and those who rest in unknown graves. 

Wyatt placing a white stone on a soldier's grave. See info on Star of David above :D





General Patton's grave


The Germany military cemetery just 1.5 km away from the American Cemetery. The graves are those who died in WWII. Notice the difference between the two cemeteries appearance. 

This explains the reasons for the Germany cemetery and American cemetery being so close to each other. 




Each cross had 4 Germans buried under it. This one says 'Zwie Deutsche Soldaten' which means 'two unknown soldiers'. The other side had two more unknown soldiers. 

Our House

Yes!! I'm finally posting our house photos... FROM MY HOUSE! Because my 3G on my iPhone is working at full speed (it will be reduced if I use it ALL the time) I was able to use the iPhone as a hotspot and give my computer internet! Last time I tried it, the internet was way too slow. Hopefully this will last long enough to get a few blogs in :D
Anyhow... enjoy the photos :D


View of our front door. To the right is the entry for the bathroom (lots of German homes have a bathroom as soon as you walk in. I find it strange.) To the left is the living room. 

This is the view from the front door. The stairs going up are just past the door on the left (which is the bathroom again)

We set up a little cubby area for shoes and backpacks. Behind the grey door is the laundry/utility room as well as the backdoor to the backyard.


This is the bathroom. Its actually pretty spacious, but hard to tell in photos. We also use it to dry our clothes (I hang up almost all of our clothes now. The only ones that get dried are mine because they are too big (yay!) and need to be shrunk) Also, do you see the white box on the upper left side? Thats the water heater for this bathroom only. 

Germany toilets are strange. The button to flush it is right below the window. 

Living room/entry to kitchen from the window. 


View of living room from kitchen. Love the new couches, but they are much smaller than what we are used to.


View of living room from the hallway mentioned above :D Don't mind the box next to the tv, its got coupons in it that I went through that day. 


View of kitchen. The fridge you see is the one that the base gave us. Still pretty small, but smaller than the german fridge in the kitchen. Its not pictured, but its to the left of all the cabinets, and looks just like a cabinet too. 

View of the stairs from the living room

From the top of the stairs on the second floor. Bathroom and second set of stairs are to the right, play room in the front, and both the kids room on the left. 

Kylee's room. Its huge and she has SO much room left. 


View of Wyatt's room from the hallway. Its a smaller room, but still bigger than his old one. 

Each room has one of those white heaters under the window. Really nice as they heat each room perfectly. Its heated by oil, which our landlord pays to fill. We just pay a flat rate each month. 


Second bathroom view from the hallway

We bought the storage unit as the bathroom had none. Works out nicely. 

Another white water heater above the toilet.

Kids' play room. Nice bright orange (sarcasm) But its HUGE!


Toy storage we bought from Ikea. Love it! And their art work hanging above it.



Set of stairs leading to the 3rd floor where the spare and our bedroom is. 

Spare bedroom (without sheets on the bed). Didn't take a picture of the other half to the right since it currently has some boxes that need to be broken down. 

These are the 'closets' the base gives us. Each child gets one, and each adult gets two. We put two in the spare room for storage. There is also another large closet that came with the house in this room. 

View from the third floor. Love our backyard. Below the bushes on the right side is where our garden is going. The storage shed in the right corner is also ours. Apparently we are getting a terrace this summer, but not sure how that is going to work. I assume its going above the garage, and access will be through the backyard. 

We've had deer jump the fence in the field to eat our nice green grass. 

Our room, view from the bed. We have lots of space behind the tv, so we use that for hidden storage. 

Lots of room on either side of the bed. Its a really lard room. Behind one door is an unfinished storage area. I think we might mention to the landlord that if he finished it off to be a bathroom or REAL closet, he could probably make more money off the house after we move. Actually, there are lots of things we would change if it was our house; particularly the floors. They don't match throughout the house.


Sunday, April 8, 2012

Frohe Ostern!!!

I hope everyone had a great Easter day. We enjoyed hunting eggs this morning, coloring them, and hanging out with some wonderful friends we have here. It really has been one of the best Easters since I have been home!!!

Frohe Ostern!

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Meet Barnaby

It's Spring Break here in Germany. The kids are off until the the 16th. Kylee's class has a few pets, including Barnaby- the most adorable Belgium Lionhead Rabbit. We got lucky and will be keeping him until the end of Spring Break.

I'm not going to lie, I really like him. He's the sweetest thing. He loves to hop around the living room when we let him have 'play time'. He will hop right on us and give us a few licks. The kids are crazy about him (as well as James and I).

I'm going to be sad when it's time to give him back :(

Where did the church bells go?

On Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) the church bells in each village are silent. They are said to have flown away to Rome to be blessed by the Pope. Three times a day (when tge bells would normally ring) the village children walk around with wooden noise makers to let the people know what time it is. Sometimes they will come by your door as well. Traditionally, we should thank them with eggs, candy or even Euro. The children will do this until Easter morning when the bells return.

As the bells fly back to their respectable churches they scatter chocolate eggs (or other chocolates) in the yards for children to find on Easter morning.

This year we are going along with German and Traditional Catholic traditions. I want the kids to learn about other traditions and customs, so I figured this would be the best way. The Easter hare will bring the kids a simple basket with German items children would normally receive around here as well as a few other items. The Easter hate will not be hiding eggs this year, that's the American Easter Bunny's job and I don't think he will be making a trip here. The church bells will drop plain white boiled eggs on its way back to the church. Easter morning the kids will find them and we will color them that day. I think the kids are excited for the Easter Hare :)


Please excuse the poor quality iPhone picture, but here are the children walking past with the wooden noise makers.