Quick two year update

We returned to the U.S. in July 2010 after living out our first year of marriage in Mainz, Germany (you can look back through this blog archive to see our adventures). It is hard to believe we have been back for two years!
Since our return, we lived in Texas for the Fall through Christmas '10 to be with the Lacy's for awhile and then stayed in Minnesota with the Gervais' and MN friends from January to August '11.

Sam applied to several schools for Ph.D programs and we had a few offers but ended up choosing the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. So here we are in the city of brotherly shove. I mean Filthadelphia. I mean Killadelphia. I mean we are doing our best to adjust to this crazy city.
I think I might devote an entire post later on to our love-hate relationship with Philly.

Sam just completed his first year of coursework toward a Ph.D in American religious and legal history.
He will spend this summer taking a German reading class and studying for the LSAT. Yes, he is applying for law school. The reason we chose UPenn is because they have a dual Ph.D/J.D program. If he gets accepted to the law school he will be able to complete both programs in a shorter time and they will wave tuition for law school while continuing the stipend for the Ph.D.

In October I started working for a non-profit employment agency for individuals with disabilities. I spend about 40% percent of my time helping people search, apply and interview for jobs. The other 60% is spent coaching employed individuals at their work place. For various reasons, the people we serve could not maintain a job on their own. It is a very rewarding job, the agency does wonderful things for this city and I'm proud to work for them.

Finally, the big announcement, and the reason I started up this blog again, we are expecting our first child!! We could not be happier. We have been talking about starting a family pretty much since we got married. We just had to wait until we were settled in one place for more than 10 months and had a little something called health insurance. Due date is October 28th and it can't come fast enough. Being pregnant is an exciting blessing of it's own but really we just long to hold our infant in our arms.

Another post to come will be my adventures in pregnancy. In true Jamie (and Lacy family) fashion, there's never a dull moment. Baby is healthy as far as we know and we pray every day for a healthy delivery and child!

Here's the baby bump so far.

I'll do my best to update at acceptable intervals without boring the readers with insignificant growth spurts and uninteresting pregnancy details.

Sam says, "Feet up, waving like he/she owns the place!"

Home sweet home!

We made it back safe and sound to the good ol' U.S.A.

It's great to be home!

We hit the ground running. We've been super busy getting organized here and catching up with family and friends.

Sam is amazing when it comes to organizing and taking care of business! Driver's license renewal, car insurance, health insurance, car registration, bank accounts, money transfers, cell phones and much more I probably don't know about...Sam has taken care of it all!

I leave on Thursday for a week of backpacking in Colorado with my Young Life girls from Madison. I am so excited!

We'll be in MN until October and then we will move to TX to spend time with the Lacy's until we move to where ever Sam gets accepted to a program (PhD and/or law school).

Life is good in America. I'm sure I will make a post sometime soon of all the things we miss about lovely Germany. For now, we couldn't be happier to be in Bloomington, MN. Especially with all of my mom's home cooking : )

Auf Wiedersehen Germany!!!

It's time, it's really time! We are going home to the U.S. It's been quite a year. I can't believe it's over. The last few months flew by especially fast. We really lived one whole year in Germany and boy did we live the German life.

Here's a list of things we did here that really immersed us in the culture...

Worked at a German kindergarten
Attended a German church
Played for a German football team
Had German brain surgery
Stayed in a German hospital for 10 days
Attended a German wedding
Attended a German baptism
Experienced the true German Fastnacht/Carnival/Fasching
Experienced German Weinachtsmarkts
Learned the German language (it's hard! we're really not very good but still, we tried)
Traveled Germany until we ran out of time and money(Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Augsburg, Nuremburg, Dachau, Neuswanstein, Heidelberg, Dresden, Worms, Marburg, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt)
Visited a German concentration camp
Went to the museum of the old German East/West border
Experienced the World Cup in Germany (we all know America doesn't appreciate soccer) Attended German Abshieds parties (good-bye parties)
Lived in a German Institute
Lived WITHOUT air conditioning in the German summer (only grocery stores have AC here) Fully utilized German public transportation
Went grocery shopping in tiny German stores about every other day
Appreciated the amazing fresh German markets (like our "Farmers' Markets)
Grew to love German cuisine
Loved German wine from the beginning
Tried lots of German beer

I think it's safe to say we have learned a whole new way of life here.

Now I can say with enthusiasm...WE ARE READY FOR HOME : )
See ya on Wednesday America!!!

GREECE- Rhodes and Santorini

Our Greece trip was largely spent working on our tan : ) We spent 4 days on the island of Rhodes and 4 days on Santorini.



It was fabulous. The beaches with the most beautiful views are in the Mediterranean if you ask me. We were amazed at the color and clarity of the water. One thing we didn't expect though was the rocks. We were kind of expecting sand. No sand. It didn't make for the most comfortable walks on the beach but we made do.

Walking around the island was exactly what you imagine when you think of Greece; white buildings with blue accents and bright pink flowers.




Someone told us to go on the less windy side of the beach but that was just too boring for us. We had so much fun swimming in big waves!

Diving platform that was a really, really long swim from shore.

The whole beach was covered in lawn chairs and umbrellas. Unfortunately, you had to pay to sit in them : ( We just roughed it and put out towels on the least rocky area we could find.

Sam's knowledge of the Greek language was fun to test out. This says "Greece".

Our first night in Rhodes we took a walk to the port. We got very, very lost on the way back.

Smart idea!

There are castle walls all along the port on Rhodes.

St. Paul's gate

The guy at our hotel in Santorini recommended a restaurant to us. We went, we loved it and we went back, 3 times!

Sam discovered his favorite beer of all the places we went, a Greek Mythos.

View from Charlina's, the restaurant.

Church near our hotel

One year anniversary!!!

Free drinks at the hotel bar because it was our anniversary : )

Hotel shuttle van that brought us to and from port

We rented an ATV for a day- best decision we made the whole week! It was the perfect way to drive all around the island of Santorini and see more than just the beach.

We saw many churches like this while driving around

The Red Beach

We had to park the ATV and hike a bit to get to the beach. It was so worth it! The water was perfect temperature and we climbed on big rocks and jumped off into the perfectly blue water.

After the Red Beach we drove to the very end of the island to see the light house. Of course, Sam had to climb to the very farthest point!!!

Trying SO hard to keep our eyes open while looking into the sun

Coast of Santorini

Man in truck with Goat in tow passed us on the road

These plants were all over the island. Someone said they were Grapes?

Had to watch the sunset while we had the ATV to get us on the right side of the island.

Last day on Santorini we took a boat tour. It took us to the volcano where we hiked to the top, some hot springs and another small island for lunch and swimming.

Looking at Santorini from the volcano

Apparently, this is what the top of a volcano looks like

Our boat on the right

We like the Greece flag

Hot Springs- Had to jump and swim from the boat

Coming into port for lunch

Swimming by the boat at the small "beach"

The white cities make the island look snow-capped

Pretty sure our hotel hosts thought we were nerds. We did a lot of reading.

We tried a new restaurant for our last night on Santorini.

That wraps up our time on the Greek islands. From the time we stepped in the airport to begin our return journey until the time we finally made it back to Mainz we were in a living NIGHTMARE! Yet another travel travesty : ( I will not go into details because it is simply too much for this blog to handle. All I can say is we are thrilled beyond words to be standing on American soil and to not look at a plane, bus or ferry for a very long time.

My $8.00 sunglasses from Target lasted the whole year until we were in the airport on the way back from Greece, not bad!

How I tried to sleep on the plane

After lots of yelling and tears directed at airline staff...we're finally about to board our last plane to Germany

NO MORE EUROPEAN TRAVELS (for now)!!!!!!!!!! Is it weird that I'm relieved?