It's official

They confirmed it today and sent us home with a picture :)

They calculate my due date at the 17th of december, but she will adjust that if needed at the next visit in 3 weeks. Then I get my mutterpass :)

Homemaking binder - section 2 Contacts

Hey guys-
Here is the next tutorial on our contacts section of our binder.

As I previously mentioned, use this as a guide, tweek it to your needs, as this is your book.

We can obviously draw from the title that this section is going to have our contacts.

So for starters we are going to start out with some brain storming, I will then share my method.

What contacts method works best for you? Are you an a-z kinda gal, or do you prefer to bundle by category?

Take a moment to think about what you want to include, do you want every contact you possibly have in your binder so you always know where they are? Or would you rather just have your commonly used contacts?

Will you enter people as family units, combing all info, or as individuals?

Now jot down a few notes and we will reference those in a bit.

So here is what I am going to include in this section:

1. Our divider- remember this can just be store bought, personalized, or even hand made.

2. Birthdays and anniversaries list. I did cover this under the calendar section, but I choose to include mine under contacts.

Donna young has a nice simple birthday list here 

3. A important number reference sheet- This is just going to be those top priorities- mom at work, dad cell, poison control. These are our emergency number we can just flip to at anytime, without having to scavenge.

A really nice important number sheet can be found here at Donnayoung

4. Our contacts section (s)
Here we have to think about what fits our needs. While I can see why many people use a-z, that just doesn't work for me, so instead I group by category. Now this works best for me, as we have a international marriage meaning contacts in Germany and in the US. So when planning a birthday party here, I don't want to dig out everyone and Germany, or on Independence day the same for everyone in the US. I also want to be able to find financial and medical contacts easily. Now you also have the option if going this route to put your contacts under the applicable tabs- ie medical under health, financial under budget. I find that most helpful. Then at any time you open the section you need and everything is right there. For the sake of the tutorial, I will go ahead and list how I group my contacts.
a. Family in the US
b. Family in Germany
c. Friends in the US
d. Friends in Germany
e. Financial in the US
f. Financial in Germany
h. Medical in the US
i. Medical Germany

Now you can add any other tabs you need- business associates, church, school.

a+b, I wanted to have all family members available at a glance. I do not alphabetize, but since everything is grouped, I can just flip through a few pages and find people. I group as family units that live under one  roof.

c+d I keep all friends grouped together. I dot break things down further into grade school, church, ect, but you could if that fits your needs

e+f All financial contacts- banking, creditors, student loan companies, anything regarding finances. (placed under financial tab)

h+i All medical contacts- that is doctors, insurance, and the like (placed under medical tab)

Now there are tons of telephone contact sheets on the internet. You can choose what you would like under each listing. Here is what I like to include:
a. All family member names
b. Address
c. Home telephone number
d. Cell phone number(s)

Some people include work numbers, fax, email. It is really up to you. I do not like things cluttered and seeing as not everyone uses those mediums, I include a separate sheet.

A nice telephone list can be found here at donnayoung

5. Email contacts.
I just use a spread sheet. Handwritten. Since so many people have multiple accounts or each family member as their own email, it is easier for me to have an email list I can reference. I do group the same way, as listed above, friends, family and so on. Everything is viewable at a quick glance.

So your homework for the week:
1. Find or make a divider
2. Birthday list (If you decide, it is currently in our calendar section)
3. Important number reference sheet. (place this directly behind the divider for quick reference)
4. A contact section based on your needs and preferences
5. Any additional contact sections such as emails, or websites
6. Anything else that you think would benefit you in this section.

See you next wee, up next is our Family tab

OK, update time

So I kept trying to wait until I got 100% said confirmation from the doctors, but seeing as they have a totally different system here, I will just go ahead and post before someone comments and spills the beans.

So there is a reason behind the recent madness and chaos with my blog upkeep.

Last week we found out that we are 99.999999% expecting out first.

Now to understand the whole situation, I gotta give you a bit of a back story.

So on Tuesday I went to our GP, because I had a abscess on my skin that was not healing by itself. After checking me out she sent me to consult with a surgeon (they do all lancing here).

So Wednesday morning I head out to the surgeons office. After taking a look he says its to infected and needs to be done under general anesthesia, he tells me to go directly to the hospital in a neighboring city.

So then I call my poor husband who takes the day off work. He comes and gets me and takes me to the hospital. We consulted with the head surgeon there, who planned to keep me overnight and send me to surgery in the morning. Well as normal they ran pre surgery blood and urine samples, at which point all plans changed since my test came back positive.

So I was sent home with strict instructions to come to the ER if I have a peak in fever or pain.

Thursday, I was sent to the Obgyn. She did an ultrasound and saw a flicker on the screen, but said it was to early to confirm by ultrasound. She took blood and told me to come back monday.

Well monday rolls around, she confirms the hormone levels are increased, but still on the lower end so they took more blood to use as a point of reference. They then consult that the hormone levels are doubling as they should be.

So I am set to go back Friday for the next ultrasound, and hopefully will then get the medical confirmation I had expected last week.

:)

Pay Attention while using amazon.de

So, first I wanted to say, that I had promised a major update in the next few days. That will come tomorrow :) I have already ran my mouth on Facebook and don't want to jinx myself, so after an appointment tomorrow that will clarify things for certain I will post publicly here.

So, I noticed some changes on amazon.de that I wanted to warn you about.

I had mentioned before that amazon is a great way to buy english books here, and since all international sites are linked you just sign in with your preexisting amazon account.

Well today I was super excited about finding a very famous american book I was looking for. Since in my situation I needed it sooner rather than later, I decided to go ahead and pay a few bucks more to order from Germany and have it sent directly to me. Since sending to someone stateside, or from the UK would take a lot longer.

However, the checkout process has changed. As many of you know the germans mainly use the leiferung system. That means a bill is sent to you with the book and you pay via bank transfer. Normally when ordering a second page pops up asking how you would like to pay.

Well amazon did away with that feature and I guess a small box is on the side with your established payment methods. What that means is if you have a card on file, even if on your us amazon. Unless you catch it it will charge that card.

I noticed to late. I hit the button expecting to go to the payment screen and instead got a thank you for your order.lol.

So just watch out for that. I am not sure how to switch to leiferung, as I noticed mine to late. Next time I order I will make a not on here about that.

And one final note, for some reason amazon is putting 2 books in your basket when you order. Thank god I noticed that and removed one additional copy before hitting next. I have no idea why it is doing that, but any time I put a book in my basket it shows up as two copies. One time I missed it and had to cancel and redo my order.

Happy shopping

Sundays in my city

Normally I space my posts out, but due to procrastination, three will post today :)








So we are back for the next round of Sundays in my City.

Bad Wimpfen

Bad Wimpfen is situated on the left Neckar bank around 15 km in the north of Heilbronn. The town is divided in two parts: The olderWimpfen im Tal (Lower Wimpfen) situated at the Neckar and Wimpfen am Berg (Upper Wimpfen) containing the town centre. Besides of the town itself the village Hohenstadt also belongs to Bad Wimpfen.

[edit]

Wikepedia

Altdtadt with a view of the Blue Tower

First traces of settlement on the communal land of Bad Wimpfen are proved at the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. An old trade road running from France forks here towards Nürnberg and Öhringen resp. the Danube. It has already been used in prehistorical times proved by several finds.

Around 450 B.C. the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii settled at the Neckar, Kocher and Jagst around Bad Wimpfen. Presumably the Celts had been given names to the rivers as they are today. Wimpfen presumably comes from "uimpe" (umwallt) = "surrounded" and "bin" (Berg) = "mountain".

Wikepedia

The Blue Tower - See those windows on the top? Yeah someone actually lives there. Pretty sweet aye?

The most important monument of Bad Wimpfen is the Kaiserpfalz. Its symbol is the Blauer Turm (Blue Tower) where an attendant lives for 650 years. Even the tower can be visited. The Roter Turm (Red Tower) is a second tower of the Pfalz.

Wikepedia 

Red Tower

Stein Haus

Protestant Church Courtyard

The Protestant Stadtkirche was built in the 13th century in Romanesque architecture and ended in Gothic architecture. Next to the church there's the calvary.

Make sure to head on over to the Unknown Mami and check out the other great posts

What's so special about Ikea?

So this is my 200th blog post. Kind of exciting lol.

Any who I wanted to talk to you about our Saturday excursion. Let me first start by saying I have never been in an Ikea in my life. I know, I know, how so very unAmerican of me lol. We got an Ikea in Portland a year before I left, but I never got around to visiting it.

So I asked Hubby if he was up to driving down to Ludwigsburg to check out Ikea. This is a sub city of Stuttgart. So we set out to Ikea. Now upon arrival we had a hard enough time figuring out the parking lot lol, that should have been red flag number one. Red flag number two is that Germans in terms of shopping and bargains are mass chaos. Hubby describes it as a Nato camp when the food shipments come in, rather un PC I know, but not a bad description in and of itself.

So we get into Ikea, and can't figure out where the hell to go in. We figured out we were in the wrong when the arrows were pointing towards us rather then guiding us. And walking against the arrows in Ikea, is like driving the wrong way on a one way street. People are not too accommodating. So we ended up starting in the warehouse section. I was totally confused and overwhelmed by the mass crowds. Mind you Germans are very pushy, they ram you with there carts, mutter rude things at you, and stop smack in the middle and just stay there so you have no way to pass them. And you thought Americans in walmart were bad, ha.

So we just wanted to check it out and see the price ranges and quality of things. We did pick up a few odds and ends: a apple cutter, a egg cutter, a toilet brush and holder, two plastic bins for my spice packs, and a small spatula set for 12 euro.

Now in terms of their furniture It was not bad, but the prices were not all they are cut out to be. Some items like beds, baby furniture, and kitchen furniture were really well priced. But there couches seemed really low end and over priced. I mean for less then 100 euro more you could get a full sized sectional couch from neckarmann or otto. And there stuff was really like a cheap futon quality. Not impressed.

I also did not like the layout, it was very user unfriendly. Things were not well grouped together. Many were not even priced. It was so packed together that it was near impossible to get into any isles with your cart.

But it was still a fun experience. And thank god by the time we made it to the second floor we were going with rather then against the flow of traffic.

So my final verdict, they have good prices for odds and ends and small furniture. But I would surely compare with other companies before assuming ikea is the cheapest. They also don't deliver, you have to rent a truck from them and do it yourself.

So after checking out Ikea we headed over to the Brueninger shopping center. It was huge about 130 stores. It did remind me of American malls. We did not stay too long we just checked out the bookstore and electronic store. Maybe some other time we can go back and look around more. I really hope to also head down to the outlet center.

We then concluded our day with a healthy lunch at Burger King :)

And I have to say I was rather amused by the parking lots. Not only did they have handicap spots, but also family, and women only spots. Ha. Never seen that before.

Till next time

Mexican week at lidl woohoo

You can check out the site in German here

Sale starts Thursday, and one thing you should note, go the first day, once it is sold out it will not be replaced and running around to every lidl in the area is no fun, and often times unsuccessful.
*note, germans are not the most accurate at ethnic food, but I settle for what I can get :)

Here is a look at what is available:
Mexicanos with sweet chili sauce (in other words chicken nuggets with dip) 500g 2,49
Filled tortilla wraps (pre-stuffed and nummy) 2 per pack 150g 1,79
Fajita or Burrito kit 1.99
Fajita Sauce 1,59
Chili Beans ,59
Mexican Baguette (who knows, but I will try it) ,85
Mexican pizza (pepperoni with kidney beans, not the best) 2,69
Jalepanos canned 1,29
Pikante tomato juice ,89
Hard taco shells 1,19
Dip mix (nacho cheese, guacamole, and salsa) ,99
Tortillas ,99
Tortilla chips (sweet chili, or burrito flavor) ,69
rice crackers ,69
roc and rolls (rolled tortilla chips???) ,99
Mexican style beer (not mexican style made in germany) ,49
Tequila silver 7,99
cachaca (some kind of alcohol) 7,49

They also have festive plates 2,99 and cups 1,69

Let mw know what you try and what you think of it. I have found ethnic foods here are really hit or miss, but some are great.

My tip, buy one and try it if you love it, next time buy a bunch.

I love the tortillas, tortilla wraps, and burrito kits so I will be stocking up.

Happy Mexican week :)

Adios