Finally Moving In--and it SMELLS (so bad)

 

We have been in Germany for a few months but we were living in temporary quarters until our permanent place was 'ready.' That was both good and bad...It was good because we were able to get to know another neighborhood that we would not have otherwise. It was not so great because although all of our items were ready to be delivered, we could not accept it until we had them delivered. That also meant we were unsettled until we could move in. (It is amazing what you can live without when you do not have it).

We were so happy to get our house. It was a typical run around and there were several time we did not think we were going to make it on time. However, we did make it and the trucks delivered our stuff. It had been packed up in India and sitting in storage for the last year and a half. It was like Christmas day seeing all the things we did not realize we had. 

BUT IT SMELLED SO BAD!! 

The cardboard in India smells bad. They do not bleach their cardboard like they do in the USA. So the bacteria smells bad. AND it is worse in Monsoon season. We packed out in the middle of monsoon, so our items percolated in these bad smells for that whole time. I made the movers open all the boxes outside and none of them came in. But everything still smelled bad. 

The Muggles were so happy to see all of their toys. SO MANY TOYS. Clearly, too much stuff. But they were happy. 

Madre and Kell were already planning on visiting us and just happened to visit us the day after we recieved our items. That meant they had to endure the smells too! HAHA. They were great help as we sorted, cleaned, washed and tried to make the place home. 

If you cannot tell by the photo, he was SO excited to see "American Food" when we went to the US Military Base. 

All of our beautiful rugs from Turkey and India smelled bad. So they stayed outside for a day on the driveway just airing out. 

The blankets--especially the blankets that are synthetic--still smelled bad. It was so intense. Even after a weekend outside and several washes, it still stunk. They may just have to be donated. 

This girl is so crazy. She is always on the 'go.' But the first several weeks of school she went with bandages. One week she had scrapes all over from a scooter wreck (she had gone hell-bent down a bridge and the concrete at the bottom won the fight), the next week she tried to sneak a cookie as her mum was baking and burned her arm, the the next week she hit a curb while riding her Segway and fell. I told Koala Bear her teacher is going to wonder what we do to her if she keeps showing up on Mondays with new bandages! She just laughed at me and jumped right back on whatever contraption she was riding at the time. 

I cannot tell you how much it makes me happy to see the FLOOR in these two rooms in the basement! They started out as piles of items that had been unboxed but needed to be organized. 

The last few days we were finally able to get out and explore our neighborhood. It is a cute little village. 

This was a honey station where you could buy honey from the family that lived in the house. 

We were so surprised to have some more family stop to say hello! They were traveling through and took some of their precious time to stay longer in Frankfurt and see us. It was fun to have them here.