A lil' o' this... n' that.

New Years Eve is tomorrow (true story: I honestly had to double check..) and I've been catching up on my blog reading from over the last few days (yes, I've actually been busy... but we'll get to all that). Everyone's been blogging about post-Christmas craziness, or their Fav's from 2010 (everything from TV show's to pictures to books), or what they hope for out of the fresh start the new year brings. I'm a huge list maker. I don't venture out of the house to buy more than 1 or 2 things without a list, something would surely be forgotten and I'd have to go back, and who has the time for multiple trips to the store... that's just crazy talk. I've seen a few ladies out here in Bloggy-Land recapping their lists from 2010 (what happened, what didn't, what turned out to be an epic fail). I'm starting to ponder this idea. Keep you're eyes out for that. I like that it's not a resolution to lose 10 lbs, it's more of a bucket list for the year... and I dig it.

I know I missed Wednesday but I've been busy (I'll recap what I've been doing next) I have to let everyone know I desperately WANT a massage! My back has been killing me. Either my boobs are getting bigger (Lord help me) or this bed has really taken it's toll on me. Either way... the back is aching.

Monday, I went with the girls down to the gym- we were ready for a Volleyball throw down! Sadly, no one showed. You see what had happened was, the ladies' husbands failed to register for the tournament in time to play and the other two teams that did take the time to register felt like they had better things to do- and didn't show. That makes us the undefeated-first place champs! HA... We showed up an hour early at 1 to practice and wound up staying until 4.... I hurt afterwards (could have something to do with the back pain huh? But that was 3 days ago... Anywho. Fast forward a day (Tuesday) a new couple we like took pity on us. We squished into the car and jumped on the Autobahn and headed over to Ramstein. The Autobahn out here where we are isn't too crowded- we're in the middle of no-wheres-ville, but it was still an experience driving 120MPH and it being legal. eeeek. Ramstein has the biggest PX (pardon me, "Exchange") in the world! It's a mall- straight up. Last week I told you all I wanted the Jack WolfSkin Ontario Parka in Black.. they had it at in Ramstein. No I didn't get it. I have a perfectly suitable winter coat. :( I still want it though. It's something to be excited over when our "exchange" here is the smallest I've ever seen and the Commissary only has 6 registers. We had Chili's for dinner and headed back in the snow... we made it back and all in all had a great time with our newest homies.

Today I'm off to schedule my hair appointment, take my USAREUR drivers license test (wish me luck), and get our application submitted for our travel passports. Do you know thanks to RyanAir the hubs and I could have flown to Dublin (Ireland!!) on this 4-day weekend for 127 Euro total, no each (round trip)?? Yes, we'll be getting our Passports ASAP!

Happy Thursday All.

Volleyball and Surprises

I bet you didn't know that I played volleyball in Middle School, once upon a time I was actually pretty good. Betsey suckered asked me to play with her and some other wives from her husband's company (completely different unit from Kevin) are playing in a double elimination tournament tomorrow. I really thought it'd just be good ol' times, with a general goal of getting the ball back over the net. Well, I come to find out that these girlies will be playing against their husbands, so their all rather revved up over the idea of kickin' the boys' asses which makes for more competitive play. It's ok, even though it's not what I expected I'm still really enjoying myself. I'm trying to convince the other girls that we should start a team and play ever Sunday. So far they seem interested.

I love how people surprise you. I've been blessed since arriving in Germany. Blessed with perspective. Friendships that I've cherished for a long while have faded, people don't make an effort. While others who I have to admit, I honestly had lower expectations from, have made the effort and come through in times I would have never thought. I always say when it comes to relationships you should really lower your expectations or try not to have them at all because if you don't expect anything (or much) from people they can't let you down. It's easier to maintain relationships when you don't weigh them down with expectations.

Looking forward, the countdown is on for our apartment! Spoke to housing last week and they said it should be ready "on or about 25 Jan." I'm trying to optimistic about the 30th, seeing as how they originally told Kevin our place wouldn't be ready until 1 Feb. T-minus 37 days, AND COUNTING!!! Our household and Unaccompanied goods have both arrived, which is great news: means when we get our house we'll also have all of our own things and not crapola from they let you rent from the Lending Closet on post.

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve here in Germany. There's more snow falling outside- it's beautiful. I can't help but wish I were:

Or just generally:

Today seems unsettled, thus far (in all fairness it's on 9 AM) and I hope to make peace with the day soon enough. But I can honestly say today is the first day I've been seriously homesick since arriving here in Germany. You see Christmas Eve was always the bigger deal in our house. Amazing meals were had on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but there was always much more since of family on the Eve. So today I'm definitely missing the since of family (again, in all fairness Kevin's had CQ all night) and wanting an amazing meal (I've been craving Spaghetti and Lasagna like a crazy person over the last week). Such is life, right? I'm sure the hubs and I will make the best of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

A fellow blogger, ABW raved about how much her and her family enjoyed their Thanksgiving at the DFAC so I'm hoping to try that out for tomorrow.

I hope you all have the Merriest of Christmas Eve's wherever you may be and whoever you may be spending them with!

I Want it Wednesday...

I know I haven't done this in a while... and everyone misses knowing exactly what I want at any given moment. Well here's a Christmas Edition of "I want.." for ya:

I want....

Jack Wolfskin- Ontario Parka for Women. In Black please!

I want... More than anything our apartment to be ready on post. I want... to unpack our dishes, pots and pans. I want... to make my bed and climb into it at night. I want... to cook- I miss my pasta. I want... to be in a different room than my husband, not only because he's at work but because I have the option.

I still want... diamond earrings I asked for last year.

I want... my sister to start using her camera, because it's virtually band new and never been used before. Also, because (hut-umm) I'm half-way around the world now but still want to see what's going on (for example, the kiddo's at the Zoo for Christmas fun!).

White Christmas

OK, so I attempted to post our 5-day weather forecast as well as the above photo. Alas, it didn't work. Since we arrived in Germany the amount of snow on the ground has doubled! The day before we landed in Frankfurt, they had to close the airport for a few hours, due to the weather- that's saying something, considering folks in this neck of the woods are used to the snow! All the same, there's anywhere from 3-4 feet on the ground. 

Over the course of the next five days the temperature will not reach 40 degrees (f) and a snow/rain mixture is 60% likely (or more) each day. Hello, White Christmas. 

I have to say that in all my years (I'm so dramatic, aren't I? As if, I am so old, haha) in Colorado we very rarely had White Christmases. Yes, it's Colorado and one would assume, Mountains=snow. Well, not all of Colorado is covered with the beautiful Rocky Mountains... a good chunk is honestly plains. My point is that I finally have a white christmas looming and it's very bitter sweet. 

First, I'm so blessed to just have Kevin home with me and that him and I are together for this Christmas. However, we're halfway around the world from all of our family, we have none of our belongings, no real options for making a nice meal, no decorations. 

So while I'm looking forward to celebrating with Cup O Noodles, a game of cards and a lot of webcamming with the families! 

More of Wiesbaden..

Friday night we discovered all the beauty and joy Wiesbaden's Christmas Market had to offer. Saturday morning we wanted to get out and see some of the other sites. We happened through Warmer Damm Park (I couldn't make that up- I'm not that clever):

The park was just gorgeous. I loved all the snow- something so pure and easy about it. The last picture, with the lady feeding the ducks was just amazing to me- they all attacked her!

St. Bonifatius Church, is the oldest Catholic Church within the city limits. It was beautiful. The stained glass windows were like nothing I'd ever seen before. The architecture was amazing as well, the towers, the interior ceiling of the church was just breathtaking.

This photo is quickly becoming one of the favorites that I've ever taken:

For all my Catholics out there, you can back me up: kneeling in these pews through Mass would be boarder-line torture! I did it though... well, in truth I just said a small prayer while inside the church- no I didn't attend Mass, but it was still not something I'd love to do for any extended period of time.

I know this is quickly becoming a very picture-heavy post, but I have just a few more I HAVE to share with you:

Aquis Mattiacis- "dedicated to the springs of the Mattiaci". Aren't the fountains majestic? Interesting fact: This building is now home to a CASINO.... hmmm.

Just a fun picture:

That's it now.. promise! :) Happy Sunday Everyone.

Wiesbaden!

Kevin and I had our first official adventure in Germany! Physically getting there was kind of a chore: taxi to the bus station, bus to the train, swap trains, then walked some 6 or 7 blocks to the hotel. All the same, we made it to Wiesbaden. Honestly it wasn't so bad, we got there in one piece together, and got a glimpse into the public transit system over here. So not all bad.

After we found a suitable hotel we hit the streets. Our main mission and goal was to visit the Christmas Market!! We chose our hotel (Crowne Plaza) because it was two blocks from the Market. (lets just keep in mind it's Germany people, and it's been snowing for WEEKS, everything is covered in snow) Me, in my (cough, cough, knock off Ugg) boots and Kev in his leather shoes went venturing toward the market. First stop, Gluwien!

The pretzel came later but was delicious!

Next we tooled around the Market, taking in all it had to offer:

It was really a great time discovering all that the Market had to offer. It was the perfect setting; snow was falling and there was plenty of Gluwien to keep us warm. 
We even scored some good loot:

Our Gluwien mugs

Hand-painted glass Ornament. 

Heading out

So my last post wasn't very promising. Yeah, I was starting to get depressed, I felt that setting in. But I fought it! I got up and I got out. Ran some errands with Betsey, we went off post again, saw half the "town" (aka street) of Baumholder and she showed me where to get my hair cut and some other necessities! Her and another friend of hers invited (desperately needed) me to play Volleyball with them, they needed a 6th player. So that's something to put out there on my social calendar! :)

We're also planning to get to a Christmas Market this weekend. I feel like a 4 year old, relearning to walk and talk. Sucks. I have to figure out APO's (I was ordering some shizzle on shutterfly and couldn't figure out where to put what info )=...) the language, the customs, ect... But I'm taking everyone's advice and just getting out there. I WANT to experience this great German tradition before it's not an option anymore. Ummm, did you guys know that Christmas is 10 days away? crap! I got some rolls of cookie dough, pam and there's a cookie sheet in the shared kitchen area so I'm going to bust out some Chocolate Chips and Sugar cookies today! Get into the spirit a little bit and all that! :)

Reality

I live in Germany! Umm.. can anyone else say "duh"?! Seriously, it's been the only thing I've blogged about (practically) since August! Well, it finally hit me after the craziness of the last 4 days; We're here.

In all fairness this "new" awakening may have something to do with the fact that today is the first day I've seen the sun/skies since we arrived. Strange how cloud-cover can make things feel so small and confining. The clouds have cleared for at least a few days, another 4-6 days of snow is expected to start this Thursday. Which is a-okay by me. I love the snow and it's nice that I'm not responsible for doing anything with it.

I really just expected to be inspired and fall in love with Europe immediately. But really all I know if thus far is the Lagerhof Inn, which isn't saying much, housekeeping doesn't even make the bed, and they encourage you to use the towels more than once (which doesn't bother me, but just goes to show the differences). But I think the stress of the last month (more specifically the last two weeks) caught up with me... I hate that I'm starting to feel depressed, versus reveling in my surroundings; you know, diving in head first and all of that. No offense or anything for this next part to fam and friends back in the good ol' 719, but it's not even that I'm home sick. So far that isn't the issue. So far the issue is stress and feeling of being trapped. Oh, and I'm nervous. I have that "new kid" syndrome. Beyond all of that "how do I make friends" crapola I'm scared of offending the locals which is keeping me from venturing off post, I don't know any of the customs and honestly I don't even understand where to start. Generally I'm overwhelmed.

Here's what I do know: Today is December 13th (i think, haha) a meer 12 days before Christmas Eve, I have no Christmas tree, no gifts to exchange, no car and no language skills (given my current geographic location). I can call a cab to take me to downtown Baumholder, which I'm told doesn't have much to offer. I really wanted to get to a Christmas Market this year. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and participate in something new... all of this is hard without a car. A cab is 60 Euro (roundtrip) to the train station plus fare to where ever we head, just kind of spendy right now.

I'm not one to wallow, I really try hard not to isolate myself but currently I'm finding it difficult to finding reasons not to retreat....

Landed!

So we made it to Germany, to Baumholder and into our hotel room. The flight was no where near as awful as I had imagined it would be- thank the Lord. Honestly, I had a lot of anxiety about it. Thanks to two .5 Xanax I was good to go. I did, however, have a problem with the flight attendent waking me up to ask me to lift my chair so the gentleman behind me could eat.... hmmm, now I have no room to eat and it was like a domino everyone had to lift their chairs to eat. I thought the plane, and the chairs were designed a certain way for a reason. Whatevs. Moving on I slept 80% of the flight so I was extremely happy with that.
Next we waited and waited for our baggage then trapesed all over the Frankfurt airport where we waited for 5 hours for the busses to make their way through the ridiculous amounts of snow. You see it's been snowing for weeks in Germany and the first half of the day road conditions were Red and the busses didn't get to the airport for a while. We were so blessed to have a friend who stepped in as our proxy-sponsor (who was better than any of the other actual-IRL-sponsors we heard about.
She got our reservation at the hotel (which was crusual), and when the buss didn't get in when expected she stuck around on post and waited for us in horrible weather! I never would have expected that, we had actually just called a cab to take us to the PX to get some necessities and as we walked down the hall way to the reception area we ran into her in the hall! She was coming to our room which bread, plastic utencils, paper plates and PB&J! She's so thoughtful and sweet and was a total life saver! Not only did she run us all over post but she also took us to a local restaurant off post for dinner! She helped us through some German nuances that are obviously new for Kevin and I and we had some delicious food.

We did find out what unit Kevin is assigned to, which is good info to have (usually) but we were not expecting to hear the entire unit has just finished deploying last week; that there are only 6 soldiers from the unit remaining on post. I'm nervous to find out what is going to happen with that.... but you know we just have to roll with the punches for the time being. It is what it is right?

Kevin also got to the housing office in the one day they had to begin in-processing, we have a housing assignment but it's in the maintenance stages and our projected move-in date is 1 February... yeah you read that right! FEBRUARY! That's New Years and Christmas... Yea, swell. Maybe it'll go more quickly? Who knows, all the same, we plan to make the very best of our 63 days here at the Lageroff Inn.

That's all for now. I've been sick for over a week (through all of our traveling, ugh!) and I'm hoping to feel better soon so that I feel up to being out and about a bit more and taking some pictures. Maybe I'll figure out how to see a doctor this coming week... I see a z-pac in my future!

Sharing

...is caring!

Lola, you know her- my homie from L+S's Cupcake club!? (yea, where's that been btw... I know it'll be back in January, eeek!) Has been going through quite the rough time the last few weeks. She's such an amazing Mil-spouse blogger and someone I consider a friend! Lola was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. She has a tough road ahead but she's strong and surrounded by great friends and family! Please offer her your support!

While you're at it please visit BeTheMatch.org and register to become a Bone Marrow Donor. You could be a match for Lola or someone else!

I posted here, about registration and some specifics pertaining to military and their dependents. While my life has been turned up-side-down with this PCS, this is still a cause I feel just as strongly about and will be registering upon our arrival to Baumholder. Which will be (surprisingly) much easier than if I had done it from Colorado (since they're set up at the medical facility to do the testing).

---

Logan
Last night in Colorado



Nathan

I'm missing these boys! Such handsome fella's in their own ways, aren't they?

Only A Day Away

Tomorrow, you know how the song goes right?
Anyway, tomorrow we'll be off on our whirl-wind journey to Germany for at least three years!

Kevin and I have been in-transit since September 27th when they came and got all of our things. We've been surviving out of 4 suitcases, in guest rooms and bathrooms, and have been on 6 different airplanes since the end of October, down 1 dog {insert pouting here}, down 1 car (well technically 2 since we dropped our Jetta off to be shipped to Germany this morning), rented our home and generally turned our lives up-side-down. I'm ready to get to Germany and get settled! With that being said I also have to be ready for that not to happen right away. We all know that things (with the Army) usually do not work as quickly or as smoothly as we want them to. Assuming I'll be in temporary housing until after the new year isn't pessimistic it's realistic. No need to get my hopes up for something that won't happen, right!? All the same tomorrow we'll be one step closer to our things! You have no idea how much I miss my things: my bed, my couches and tables and dishes and pillows! I can't wait to have a bathroom, bedroom, living room, and kitchen all of my own again!

I am so ready for this in-transit business to be over!

Who knows when I'll have access to the inter-webs again but I hope to be back ASAP! (there may be a scheduled post or two in your future- don't judge me haaahHA!)

On the road

Gotta love the iPhone. I know I do and I know I'll miss it. Hopefully, maybe I'll be able to find a way to keep once we get to Germany.
All the same we said the hardest goodbyes and we are road-tripping it to Missouri as I write this. Hello 14 hours in the car! Woooo.... Some people love road trips. I'm not one of those people. Tonight we'll be in a hotel room which BETTER have wifi so I can catch up on my blog reading.
I'm off to nap now. Hittin' the road is hard when you're sick and emotional! Yea, I must have forgotten to mention over the last few days I have developed a pretty nasty cough. I'll update when I can!