always kiss me goodnight

Today, I'm showing off our bedroom! Well, showing off may not be exactly the right phrase. If you were visiting, and I were taking you on the "grand tour" I'd definitely be showing it off. But as I'm here and you're there, we'll have to do with photos. And sadly, the photos don't really show the richness of the fabrics or the warmth of the room. Instead, you see a lot of white. And while there is a lot of white, you'll have to take my word for it that the room is inviting and warm.

This is the view of the bedroom from the hallway. As with all of the rooms in the apartment, we get lots of great light! Almost all of the artwork is Monet, whose palate really brings out the color of the duvet cover (a blue/green/grey).

Here's a view from inside the room. On Jerry's side of the bed, we have one of our favorite pictures of him and his daughter (Elyssa, we miss you SOOOO much!). More Monet and one of our favorite wedding presents, the metal sign that says "Always kiss me goodnight." Even before we got the sign, it's been an important rule in our relationship from the beginning. And aside from the time apart, I'm pretty sure we've missed fewer than five kisses goodnight...not bad!

Brace yourself for the white!! So as not to scare you, I'm only going to show one of our walls of closet! At least this side is broken up by the mirror and the vanity. The fourth wall is all white closet. Great for storage, but not so interesting to look at. We're trying to find a creative way to break it up, though. You can see the vanity is sporting a fan. It's been incredibly hot in Germany this summer and most places (including ours) don't have air conditioning. This little fan has been a life saver!

Here's the last view of the room. Hanging above the television is one of my favorite pieces, a photograph of a lone tree...so beautiful and strong.

I've been putting off putting up photos of the living room because the movers broke our DVD shelves. While the rest of the room looks pretty great, the 300+ DVDs sitting on the floor ruin the whole look :-)

Speaking of trash. Which I wasn't. But now I am. I am living in recycling heaven. Sort of. I've always been an avid recycler, so I was pretty excited to be moving to a country where recycling is the law. In fact, if you live on the economy, you can be fined for having recyclable items mixed in with your trash. Each household is given a locking trash can, the contents of which are removed every two weeks. If you put all of your trash, including recycling, into this receptacle, you will quickly run out of room. Theoretically, this should help get people to walk their recyclables over to the central recycling center. Walking around most neighborhoods in Germany, the trash collection and recycling methods seem to be working. Most areas are clean and well cared for. But here at the military housing complex, recycling is not enforced. And when people run out of room in their trash cans, they just throw bags of trash all over the ground. It's really disgusting and makes this such a less desirable place to live. Why do people have to be so trashy?