From Gibson to Jasmine...

Well, gosh, how time has a flown by! I can't believe we already went home for Christmas, came back and I've been at work for three days.

We had an absolutely amazing time at home though. I am sorry I haven't updated, but I figured since most of the family was with us for the past week or so, I could wait till we got back to update.

I will try to not write too much since I know that no one really likes to read those super long posts.

Our flight over was pretty grand -- we had awesome seats in the front of the coach section that gave us super extra legroom. We also had Delta on demand movies, tv shows and games on these little tv screens on our seats, so I watched four girly movies and Carl watched five guy movies, so the time went by pretty quickly! We arrived back in the States the evening of Dec. 18, in Orlando. It was neat because we got to spend the evening with my brother who had flown in a little bit earlier in the day as well. We had an amazingly yummy Mexican dinner and hung out talking for a while before we conked out. The next day we got up and had breakfast at the hotel, did some shopping (ahhh Target!!!!) and played a round of mini-golf at a course near Disney. (I won, of course, since I had the highest score.... haha, that's a joke). We checked everyone into our hotel and waited for the others to arrive. Our rooms were really awesome... albeit at the farthest end of the hotel they could possibly be! It was nice though because two of the rooms were adjoining and we were the only ones on our little hallway so it felt like it was our own private suite!

A few hours later there we were standing on the front slope at Shades of Green as my parents pulled up with the sis-in-law and nephew along too. We all made it safely! yay!

Our first day at the Park was much like all the rest of our days at the park -- crowded!! We started at Epcot and hit the big ones like Soarin (my favorite) and Test Track (my other favorite). We visited all the countries, ate a nice food sampling and watched some of the shows. Then we headed back to the hotel to take a break before dinner at the hotel. (For anyone heading to SoG anytime soon: The Garden Gallery is really good; Evergreens Sports Bar & Grill is not so good). Later that night we decided to attempt a trip to the Magic Kingdom to get a jump start on the next day's activities. Carl got sick so he had to stay behind, but the rest of us ventured to the MK and dealt with the crowds. It was awful - we kept getting stuck in the stupid parade crowd! So we stayed for a little while, rode It's a Small World and the Carousel and decided to call it a night.

The next morning we ventured back to the MK and rode some more rides. All the days and rides sort of run together for me now, but I do remember that night we went back to take advantage of the Extra Magic hours (a huge perk if you are staying at a Disney resort. Each night one of the parks stays open up to 3 hours later just for resort guests. nice!) So, we basically got to walk straight on to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (my favorite) and Splash Mountain (my other favorite) with no wait! It was awesome! We were there till almost 2 a.m., all of us crazy party animals. :)

So the next morning it was time to head to the Animal Kingdom. We got there around 10 I think and headed straight to the Safari adventure ride. That ride is awesome - it is like you are actually on an African safari and the animals are real and so close. We even had a traffic jam at the rhinos as they were blocking the road and running around playing! Very cute! We got our fast pass for Expedition Everest and headed over to Dinosaur. I loved Dinosaur last time we were there, but for some reason I didn't remember it being so scary! I was terrified and screaming but it was fun. The picture was hilarious. :)

Soon it was time to head to Expedition Everest. Oh. My. Gosh. This ride was being built still the last time Carl & I were at Disney, four years ago, so we've been dying to get back and ride it. That is, until I saw that it is a super fast rollercoaster! Eeek! Carl was determined to ride it and forced me to go. I wouldn't go if my mom wouldn't. My mom wouldn't go if Dad wouldn't go, and Dad wouldn't go without Matt. So, it was settled, we were all going. (Jennie and Jacob stayed behind as Jennie couldn't ride any of the rides with Red Triangle warnings. More on that later.) So, yeah, we waited for about 5 minutes thanks to our Fast Passes. I tried to get on and get right back off again but they wouldn't let me. All I can say is I think my hands are still permanently clenched from holding mom's hands. None of us could even scream we were so scared!! We all (except Carl) had our eyes closed the entire time. It was awful!! Once we got off and we all realized we were alive, we admitted it "wasn't that bad..." hahahaha! We are such daredevils!! Good thing we dragged Carl on that ride since we all ended up liking it so much.

Later in the day we split up for a bit and Matt, Jennie & Jacob headed to Hollywood Studios to watch stunt shows while Carl, Mom, Dad & I headed back to Epcot. We met up back at the hotel for dinner and called it a night.

The next morning they headed out on the road home while Carl and I battled the crowds at Hollywood Studios one more day. It was too crowded to ride anything or see any show so we headed out and did some shopping. Our flight to Nashville was the next morning.

Once we landed in Tennessee, Grandma Ger's flight was due a few hours after hours so we ate at Cracker Barrell (My favorite!) and then got her at the airport and headed HOME. My Aunt Nancy and the kids and their ice-mobile finalllly made it to join everyone after spending two days driving through the wicked winter storm all the way from Minnesota. We were all together finally and it was Christmas eve.

Family time in our family means lots of games and trivia contests. Dad made a really great trivia game for all of us and we spent time having "Family Idol" using the Wii American Idol game. It was absolutely wonderful to have everyone together again and be home, sleeping in the bedroom I grew up in. We opened presents later in the day on Christmas Day after M, J & J rejoined us. We all got some nice little things even though we had agreed we weren't doing presents this year since we all went to Disney!

The biggest surprise of all came when M, J, &J handed out their gifts to us. Remember the Red Triangle rides Jennie couldn't ride "because her back hurt"? HA! Turns out they're expecting! Yay for them!!!!! They handed out a riddle for us to all open and read and then we all got little baby-type gifts like booties and bibs (I got an ant necklace in honor of being an aunt! haha). We are all super happy for them. I don't want to post too much since I don't know what they want out there for the world to see. So that's all I'll say is that we are all very excited and can't wait to see the little one.

Now for the blog title... .that goes along with our Family Idol matchup.... that's a joke that you probably wouldn't get unless you were there. :)

Whew! That's a long one and I said I wasn't going to write much. Oh well. I am at work all alone today (well, Scout's with me) so I had some free time to write this. Basically, the trip home wasn't long enough, but no matter what a trip home probably will never feel long enough. Our flight back was decent enough but we didnt' get much sleep and we're still readjusting.

Tonight is New Year's Eve. Wow. What a year 2008 has been. I loved my 2008 and I hope you all can say the same. Here's hoping 2009 is even better.

Not a lot of news, but I figured another update was due

Well, not a lot of news lately for us here. Everything's going well and we honestly just can't believe how time is flying by! We leave next week already to head home for Christmas and we can't wait!! We're headed to DisneyWorld with my family and I am totally pumped!

For the past week and a half or so I've been completely involved with work day and night. Kelli's gone on a work trip, so we've had extra duties as well as I got to be in charge of a briefing. Some of our NATO Soldiers wanted some follow-up media training, so every night for about a week and a half I spent at home working on putting this briefing together. It went very well, I have to admit, and we have a great base to build on for future briefings!

Tonight, Carl is at a championship boxing match in Mannheim. I guess you could say he's having a guy's night because he's there with about six other guys from work. They've been very excited about it for weeks and I think I am happy that I didn't go -- now I get "me time" at the house with just me, the doggies, Churro, the tv and a good mug of fruit tea. :) That reminds me, we have really become addicted to tea as of late because there are so many good tea shops here! We went downtown to the Christmas market last weekend and bought some fresh teas (can teas be "fresh"? Well, you know what I mean!) and they are very yummy. So tonight I've spent some time catching up with my favorite charities online... everyone needs to go to http://www.grpmrt.org/order.htm and order one of the golden retriever puppy mill rescue team calendars. This group stems from the group we used to volunteer so much with in Oklahoma, and also where Noel and Scout were given their second chances at life! While you're at it, also check out http://advocacy.jdrf.org/ and please become an advocate of the juvenile diabetes research foundation - this is helping make life better for all those who are living with diabetes, which is something that is very close to my family's heart.

So, that's about it. Just lots of the 'daily grind' going on here for right now!

Photos from our weekend trip to the Alps

Here's a sneak peak of pictures from our trip!

Me and the doggies in Austria.

The Zugspitze.

The cable car to the top of the Zugspitze... notice how it kind of disappears!

Me in my cute new snow bunny outfit, at the top of the Zugspitze.

Carl in Austria.

Isn't it beautiful??

Now, read the post below to get all the details, and don't forget to check out our Flickr page for all the rest of the photos! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristenandcarl

Thanksgiving in the Alps!

First, sorry for the delay in this post.

Last Thursday (Thanksgiving day) we took Col. Collin Caliber (our car, a.k.a. "The Colonel") on his first official road trip! We packed up ourselves, the dogs and of course, the camera, and headed to Bavaria. This trip was extra special for me since that is where my family heritage lies.

It only took us around 3 hours or so to get there and WOW, was it beautiful!! We stayed at a cute little hotel in Oberau, just outside of Garmisch, Germany. Basically we were at the foothills of the Alps.

Thursday also was our 4th anniversary. Our hotel (the Hotel Forsthaus) was serving a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but we decided since it wasn't buffet-style, I probably wouldn't get enough to eat since pretty much everything had meat in it.

So, instead, we headed over to the Edelweiss, which is the Armed Forces Recreation Center resort for military personnel, and feasted on their giant buffet dinner. It was delicious! Expensive, but delicious, and we figured since it was our anniversary and a holiday it was okay to spend the money and knock both out of the way with one meal.

Friday we explored the area and went on a super shopping spree for new winter gear! Carl and I each got a new winter coat, ski pants, hats, gloves, scarves, sunglasses and I don't even remember what else. That night, we went to a yummy restaurant around the corner from our hotel that was owned by a German guy and his Irish wife and they were so nice! The food was delicious too! I had spinach dumplings with parmesan... yumm!! Carl had some sort of meat dish, of course. We also were with two of Carl's co-workers and their wives. After we ate dinner we all went back to the hotel and headed to the downstairs game room to play a game. We all had dogs, so we had six people and five dogs sitting in there. The dogs actually got along quite well. We played 'Apples to Apples,' which is a word-card game. Now, I am not a huge fan of games sometimes because I get a tiny bit competitive, but, ahem, I just want to say that I was a good sport and decided to play that night -- and I had a clean sweep of all three games to none over everyone! :)

Saturday, we headed up to the Zugspitze, which is the highest peak in Germany. Shane (Carl's co-worker and work BFF) and his wife Buffy were with us. To get up to the peak, you have to ride this cable car ..... oh my gosh, I was terrified! The view was gorgeous because here we are riding this little cable car up like 9,000 feet, but I was scared, I'll admit.

The Zugspitze is also a ski area, and this happened to be opening weekend. So, we decided that since we were now outfitted in our awesome new ski outfits, that must mean we were ready to ski, right? It's only the Alps, and we sure looked ready!

Umm, yeah.... so, ten minutes after getting the skis latched to my feet I was pretty much in tears and throwing my poles back on the ground.

Let's just say, the Alps are a tiny bit higher than the hills of North Carolina I learned to ski on! Carl tried snowboarding and also decided that maybe next time we should get some lessons first.

Even though the skiing wasn't the best idea, it was stil absolutely breathtaking to see the beauty in the mountains and the snow. It was cold, but, I decided to play the part of snow bunny and just sit and sip hot chocolate to keep warm.

Sunday we headed home, but took a different route, this one that took us through Austria part of the way. It was really pretty in a different type of way than the Germany side of the mountains. Less tourist-y, maybe, or something. Either way, we made it home just fine.

I unfortunately got pretty sick after the trip, just a bad cold, and I'm still getting over it. I guess being 10,000 feet up in the Alps will do that to you?

We are definitely excited to go back and try skiing again, but I think I'm even more excited to go back in the spring and summer and try hiking and biking and see how beautiful it looks without all the snow.

I was sad to miss out on Thanksgiving with the family, but at least Wednesday before we left we were able to get on the Skype and talk to my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, nephew, aunt and uncle. That was really neat!

Today is my dad's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!

Snow Days and Skype

We had snow over the weekend! It was so fun! Well, poor Carl still had to drive to work in it, but it was fun for me since I got to stay at home and recover from my week. The doggies really enjoyed the white stuff. We didn't have much, but it was enough to definitely cover the ground and make it awfully pretty around here!

Another fun thing that happened this weekend is that we got our Skype downloaded and the Web cam hooked up. I have had so much fun already talking to my parents and seeing them again and I know it's been fun for them to see us too. Even the dogs (ours and theirs) have gotten in on the act, as well as Jack the turtle and Churro. My mom was even able to remind me to go get my eyebrows done again! haha! ( I already had that appointment scheduled for Tuesday of this week, by the way! haha). We hope to get other friends and family hooked up with it too. It's nice to have our Vonage phone number for regular phone calls, but the Skype is pretty cool to be able to see them too. And it's completely free if both people have it. I've been able to talk to my dad every day as well during the evenings for me and the daytime for him.

As for those eyebrows, I went yesterday and got my hair trimmed and the eyebrows manicured again -- she took longer on the eyebrows than she did on my hair -- but the end result looks good. :)

Today we had a little community relations project at work. Kelli, Lira and I, along with one of our Command Sergeants Major and three other Soldiers, went to a local German school to help the English classes there learn about Thanksgiving and practice their English. It is actually Dan's class. He teaches third and fourth graders at a German school. So we worked with his 4th graders for about two hours today, making turkey hats, talking about what we were thankful for, reviewing the story behind Thanksgiving, and letting the kids try pumpkin pie for the first time. It was really fun.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we are headed out of town for the weekend. I can't wait. We are going to Garmisch, which is one of the favorite vacation spots here. It's on the border with Austria and it's in the Alps. We can't wait!!!!

Here are some recent pics:

The red babies enjoying the snowy backyard.

Here is Carl's new car. I took this Saturday morning at about 5:30 a.m. as he was leaving for work. My car, naturally, is in the garage :)

The Wife is back

Well, I made it safely to, from and all around Hamburg last week. I am exhausted, too. It was a lot of fun but by the end of the week I was definitely ready to be back in my own house and away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

I will have to say that it was really great having Jen along with me, Carl was right on that part of his blog! We were able to have a whole girls' week almost; well, in the evenings anyway. We were at a seminar at the 'Haus Rissen Hamburg Internationales Institut fur Politik und Wirtschaft'... or as we quickly learned, "Haus Rissen." The seminar was titled "Germany's new role in Europe: Political and economic challenges."

It was for German and American military officers and some civilians. We covered topics such as aspects of the German political system, the German security policy, the social market economy, the historical background to contemporary Germany, transatlantic relations, and the future of the European Union. It was: interesting, boring, intriguing, and boring. Lots of lectures from some really intellectual people. I did enjoy myself though and despite the fact that I admit I was bored mindless part of the time, I really did learn a lot! :) I knew nothing about any of that before I went, so all I could hope for was to come away slightly more knowledgeable, and to that I think it was a success.

On to the fun stuff. Monday, Jen and I successfully managed to get lost in Hamburg! Of course, who else but us? We somehow missed our bus stop and then about 30 minutes later we finally realized we should get off the bus.... I know, great logic there huh?.... so I practiced my Deutsch on a nice lady on the bus and busted out with my best "Sprechen sie Englisch?"... thankfully, she got off on the next stop with us and put us on another bus headed in the right direction. We still got ourselves lost after that one more time, but somehow, finally found our way (all were were trying to do was find dinner!!) In our defense, we did not realize that the original stop we were trying to find was not accessible by the bus we were on; we would have had to get off at one stop and get on to the subway. We finally figured that out about four buses and 45 minutes later.

The rest of the week, we headed downtown each evening after the seminar ended. We were normally in class from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and then had the evenings to ourselves. Of course it gets dark by a little after 4 here, and everything closes really early, but nevertheless we got really good at the bus and train route to the downtown shopping district. Hamburg was pretty much destroyed during WWII, so downtown is now a very modern and upscale shopper's mecca. We had a blast!

Mostly, our logic was that if were are in Hamburg for a seminar on the German economy, we really ought to contribute to their economy while we were there...... well, it sounds better saying it that way anyway. :)

One of our favorite parts of the seminar was the cake break in the afternoons. We really did take a 30-minute break each afternoon for everyone to drink tea or coffee and have some cake. It felt so... European! haha! The funniest part was that during our morning coffee break, Jen and I would head in to the restaurant and get a soda. By the end of the week, the ladies saw us coming and would immediately say "zwei cola light?" and run and get two diet cokes for us. I guess they could tell we needed our caffeine!

The eating was good, the shopping was good, and the weather was cold. Wednesday afternoon our whole class (around 30 of us) was scheduled for a city and harbor sightseeing tour. We went on a bus tour through the city and a harbor boat cruise. Hamburg's port is gigantic and it was actually quite interesting to be out there on the water next to those giant ocean-going cargo ships. To be honest, I think "giant" is an understatement on the size of those things.

Friday morning we woke up to snow!! I was completely giddy! I even tried to hang out my room's window to try and take some pictures. Unfortunately by the time class ended that day at noon most of the beauty of it was gone and it had turned into the slushy, mushy snow. It was still super gorgeous though! We got back to Heidelberg around 10 p.m. after another long train ride through the countryside (the train system here is really great; I did enjoy that part even though it took a long time!)

So, now I am back at the house and this morning when we woke up at 5 a.m. there was snow here too! Poor Carl had to go to work all day so I rested up a little bit and did some grocery shopping. I also posted a bunch of my Hamburg pictures on our Flickr page so please go check them out!

While the Wife is away, the Husband will play....RockBand!!

Okay everyone, here is my first and probably last blog entry. I know that the whole family is very tuned-in with our blog so, I figured since my lovely wife has left me all alone, it is my husbandly duty to carry the torch for her. I want to start off by saying, I am insanely bored! There is one benifit to being here by myself, and that is the fact that I can bang my new drumset to my hearts desire without getting yelled at for being too loud. I can also say, that I can now sing Bon Jovi's Dead or Alive in my sleep! The doggies have both told me that I am a dead shoe-in for American Idol season 8. Churro, however, doesnt agree. He thinks that his mommies' rendition of Ice, Ice Schaby Baby is the cream of the crop. I take everything Churro tells me with a grain of salt though, he is sooo tone def.

Other than the fact that I have been alone for the week, I have actually been pretty busy at work. I have recently been working 10 hour days for 6 days a week. Yesterday we were all told that we will begin 7 day work weeks at 12 hours a day. There are many more drawbacks to this than what you actually think. I am working as a German, and German labor laws are pretty strict about overtime. Germany is a socialist country and although I get free healcare I get taxed for my healthcare at 14%. That tax is on top of the other 30% tax for everything else. Even worse, after I work 52 hours I jump into another tax bracket. After 52 hours my entire check will be taxed at 60%. So to sum it up.....If I work 84 hours a week, I will make less money than if I work 52 hours. Basically, I will be working for free for 22 hours. Under German law, I cannot be forced to work more than the 48 hours a week that is in my contract, however, I am in a 6 month probation period where I can be fired for anything. So, if I anger my supervisors for not working, they can find any other reason to let me go and bring in someone who is willing to work the hours. I guess you can say I am in a pretty tight bind with work....UGHHH!! I just want to let everyone know that I am open to suggestions, right now I am leaning toward becoming a househusband again.

One last thing, Kristen is in Hamburg right now, and she is doing fine. I talked to her tonight, and she is also bored out of her mind in her class. I will let her fill everyone in on the details. The only thing that she has going for her is that she is with her friend Jen, and there are plenty of places to shop. I dont really know if that is a good thing, but I suppose I really dont have a choice in the matter. What man wouldn't want their wife to do some shopping in Europe without being able to say when enough is enough. Lets just all be glad we have already bought our Disneyworld Plane tickets. I hope Matt and Jenny can spot us a few dollars for some churros! HAHA! Well, I suppose that will be it for my first, last, best and worst blog!

Got the car, and I'm hittin' the road... well, the tracks anyway

Carl was able to officially buy his car Friday! Yay! That's good news. He spent most of the morning getting the inspection completed and getting the registration taken care of. It's great because now we can both drive ourselves to work. It's bad though because the driving here still scares me just a little bit, since I haven't done it too much. I will get used to it though I'm sure, the more I do it.

Yesterday afternoon I drove over to Kelli's house to pick up our first overnight guest at our house -- little miss Bailey. She's a cute (and slightly overweight) beagle mix. Dan and Kelli were headed out of town for the weekend so the K&C Winery and Bed & Breakfast has now had our first overnight guest! It's been interesting, but everything has gone well. Carl actually beat me home too yesterday because he got off work at 3:30 and I didn't get home with Bailey till around 5 p.m.

Today we headed up to Mannheim to check out a kennel for the doggies for when we head home at Christmas. It was gorgeous! It's a cute little building right next to this couples' house... very elegant, yet still down to earth because they only had about 8 or 10 spots for dogs. We left feeling very comfortable with the doggies staying there, and they really liked Noel & Scout too (here at some kennels, they want to meet your dogs before they agree to board them). It's quite the blessing that I was able to find a place that still had openings this late in the game! Especially, a place so nice!

We also did a little bit of snack shopping at the commissary this afternoon, because tomorrow morning I am hitting the tracks (the train tracks, that is) for a 6-hour train ride to northern Germany....Hamburg, to be exact. I am going to a seminar up there all week. Jen will be going with me, and Bruni from my office, along with her husband George, will be there as well. I'll write more about the actual seminar after I come home, but all I know is that it's a political and economic seminar about Germany. It looks pretty cool. Monday we also get to spend the afternoon sightseeing and going on a harbor cruise. I'm taking my camera, don't worry!

So, I won't be updating the blog most likely until next weekend, as I don't plan on taking my laptop and I'm not sure if we have any computer access at the hotel. Carl will be holding down the fort here with the red babies and Churro. I have a feeling he may try to update the blog while I'm gone because he just asked me for the log-in info... hmmm... stay tuned!

I wish everyone a great week ahead! :)

Pictures for Jennie

I have been receiving several requests from the President of Jennie's Boss-atorium, Jennie herself, to post pictures of the inside of our house. I haven't felt comfortable posting pics yet because the house is still such a wreck and not fully furnished or decorated. However, tonight I decided to at least post a couple, since Jennie has been so faithful in reading and commenting on our blog. So, thanks Jennie! Enjoy!
P.S. I am also posting my favorite pics from my camera-practicing session on Friday, as I waited all afternoon at home for the dryer guy to show up! See more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristenandcarl

My three kids, hanging out in the backyard (and yes, those are the stairs I slipped down)

Scouty flashing his cute little grin

Miss Noel

Noel's beautiful brown eyes

This is the main bathroom of the house. You can't see the extra storage to the right. The window opens up to a storage room with our American fridge. Churro loves to sit at the window and meow to come in whenever someone is in the bathroom!

This is our desk area as it sits now, although we are going to be moving it within the next few weeks, probably to closer to where I am actually standing to take this. The doorway to the left leads into the rest of the house. The windows on the right look out the front of the house.

This is the main living room area. (Notice the drum set for Rock Band is still set up-- yes, he was playing it again tonight!)

If you're gonna buy a car from a pregnant lady...

...be prepared for the inevitable!

Yep, so we found a car Saturday! A cute little BMW on the lemon lot at one of our military housing areas. We drove it, loved it, and planned to buy it. The lady who is selling it was super nice but was due to have a baby last Thursday. Do I even have to say it? ... Carl took the day off work today to meet up with her and finalize the purchase, and we got a text from her at, oh, 1:30 in the morning saying "on my way to the hospital, not going to be able to meet you today." Of course! Lady, couldn't you hold her in for one more day?!?! Just kidding. It just figures, but of course we don't mind. The funniest thing is... she actually called Carl this afternoon from her hospital bed and apologized! Isn't that hysterical? She is so sweet! Carl told her we absolutely don't mind one bit and that she needed to go ahead and get herself and her new daughter home healthy.

Ah, yes, just another one of our adventures. :) It's a little bit of a bummer, but at least we know that hopefully by the weekend we'll get to pick up the car. For those of you wondering, it's a blue-ish color, two door, BMW 316i. It's a 1994, and we're getting it for $3,500. What deal! It is German specs so we won't be bringing it back to the States, but should be able to turn around and plop it back on the lemon lot for a quick 'n easy resale before we PCS back home.

And now for a wrap-up of our weekend. Friday evening we went to dinner with Danelli and Jen. We all met at the Danelli residence and walked to a very nice Italian restaurant in their little town. It was delicious! Italian food here is quite yummy considering we are so close to Italy!

After dinner we walked back to their house and Carl and Dan hooked up Rock Band. They proceeded to entertain themselves on that stupid game for the next three and a half hours!! Jen, Kelli and I sat in the other room and had "girl time," i.e. looking at dresses for the upcoming winter military balls, talking about the guys, online shopping and discussing books. It was so nice to have girl chat again. We finally left their house at around 2:30 in the morning! We got home and got in bed by around 3 a.m.

Saturday, we did the loop around the Heidelberg and Mannheim lemon lots (they are nicknamed "lemon lots" but are also known as a POV sales lot -- basically, a place for us in the military communities here to buy and sell cars from each other). We did some grocery shopping and then that evening met with the lady to look at her car. Then, we met up with Danelli and two of their German friends at our American restaurant on post, Winger's, because their friends wanted to eat there and have an authentic 'American experience.' Unfortunately, the holiday bazaar was also going on so the wait at Winger's was unreal -- believe it or not, we were there for 3 hours! The wait for the table was only 40 minutes but the rest of the time we were waiting on food! It was pretty stupid but we stuck it out. The German couple were really nice and didn't seem to mind the wait.

Sunday, Carl had to work, so I drove with him to work and then dropped him off and kept the car so that I could go to church. I was a little nervous since I haven't been doing much driving. I remembered the route to get there, but of course my exit off the Autobahn was shut down because a car was on fire or something! Thank goodness for Mona Garmin (our GPS) who figured out another way for me to get to church. I was only 20 minutes late (cringe!!) Oh well, at least I went! Our church is great; it's a little International Baptist church that is attended by Danelli, Lira and her kids and also Jason and his family, one of my other co-workers. It's mostly Americans but there are also other English-speaking families from other countries who attend.

From church, Kelli and I headed over to the Holiday Bazaar on post -- helllllllooooo shopping!! This place was awesome. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 vendors from countries all around Europe, some even from Asia and beyond. It was so cool. I bought stuff from Italy, Poland, Germany, and Holland!! Carl went there today and bought some more stuff from Holand and something from Portugal! (and honestly, the stuff I bought was actually gifts and not for us). Next year we will start our collection of cool stuff from around Europe. :) It was really fun to wander the booths with Kelli. From there I dropped her off at her house and found my way to pick up Carl.

I went to work today and will take Carl to work tomorrow. I will probably take Scouty with me and go to the office for a little while to get caught up. Next week I will probably be gone all week to a seminar in Hamburg, but I haven't gotten the details yet so I'll post that later.

Tonight we walked out our door and down the street about one block to the Sauerkraut Markt, a festival that our town is hosting right now. Lots of people everywhere on the main road through town, which is blocked off and filled with food booths and vendors selling random stuff. For dinner I had an apfelssum crepe (applesauce crepe) and Carl had some sort of feuerwurst (brat)thingy. We also had a giant order of pommes frites, which are french fries, and they are awesome. It is pretty darn cool to be able to walk out our door and walk to a festival like that!

Tomorrow we must work on finding a kennel for the babies at Christmas. Carl went to one today and the lady laughed when he mentioned Christmas -- she said they've been booked for four months already for that time frame. Ugh. That's just great. So, hopefully we will be able to find somewhere that still has openings! The good thing is that this country is so dog-friendly that every kennel is going to be good. Get this: the dogs get their own little rooms complete with couches and chairs and rugs! Nice, huh? Only the really expensive ones in the States have that. But here, it seems they're all like that. Let's just hope we can find one with openings!!

Well, I am headed to bed to read. I have started a new book, "Twilight," by Stephanie Myer. It's in a series that I think is on the best-seller list right now. My mom is reading it too so it will be fun to read together. I borrowed this one from Kelli, who has already read the entire series twice! Off to bed! (p.s. the time that is listed on here for when I post these blogs is completely wrong, I just haven't figured out a way to change it yet!) :)

Kitchens are not our friends

As I sit and write this I am being "serenaded" by Carl trying to sing on Rock Band for the Wii... whoa... umm... yeah.

Anyway, so another weekend has passed. No festivals this past weekend, but I do have a few updates and funny stories.

Friday, I stayed home from work because the dryer guy was coming to fix the dryer and our temp furniture was getting picked up. Well, the dryer guy is coming back again this Friday to fix it since he didn't have the part with him. Ugh. It was nice to be home all day, although it was a little boring at times, too.

Friday night we went out to eat with Carl's new work BFF, Shane, and his wife Buffy. It was fun. I was a little apprehensive because I was having another of my "I want to go home, I don't like it here" evenings, but, in the end we all really enjoyed ourselves. They are both Carl's age, both former Army, and only arrived here a month ago. They live in Mannheim and don't know anyone. We think they'll fit in pretty well with Danelli and Jen and all of us. We took them to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in Leiman, right up the street from where our temp housing was.

Saturday, we got up really early and headed up to the Ramstein area to look for cars. We checked the lemon lots on Ramstein and Vogelweh Air Bases, but didn't really find anything. Ugh. We had to rush back to town but also went by the Mannheim lemon lot and saw a few possibilities, but now Carl just has to find the time to actually call and go look at them. We hit the commissary once back in our town and then headed home to make our dishes for my office dinner party.

Well, let's just say, the kitchen disaster fairies were definitely on our side Saturday. I don't even want to go into too much detail, but I at least made the watergate salad and that's what we showed up with. I can't screw up watergate salad, but I did forget to double the recipe so there wasn't very much. We ended up being 45 minutes late with what was supposed to be a green bean casserole but was... disgustingly unrecognizable. Who screws up a green bean casserole??

Just know that when we have visitors, no worries... we know where to find some great restaurants!

In my defense I did make a pretty yummy dinner of green (meatless) schnitzel tonight and even Carl loved it. :) (and no, he wasn't making it up, because I know the difference).

We had a very fun time at the dinner party. The food was delicious and everyone was even very accomodating with a ton of meatless dishes. We brought the Wii so the kids could play, and Carl and Dan got Rock Band hooked up. If you aren't familiar with that game, it's a group game where one person sings, one drums, one guitars. The kids loved it but I think Dan and Carl (who are now also BFFs) really enjoyed it the most. Let's just say.... the singing needs improvement!

Sunday, Carl had to work so I had yet another day of relaxing around the house with my red babies and Churro. We slept in a little bit and then the doggies and I took a nice long walk past the outskirts of town. It was super fun and they really enjoyed themselves. I can't describe how nice it was to be able to sleep a little and relax in preparation for another week of lonnnggg work days. Today, however, Kelli was nice enough to let me go home with her after work and Carl picked me up there. Tomorrow morning I'm going to their house first too since she's up that early, and then I can ride in with her. It's still a long day, but at least it's a little bit less time at my desk.

Carl's working again

Carl is officially a working man again. As of Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. That should be great news! Well, it is, for the most part. It is nice for him because he was bored with being a househusband and he now gets to work on Blackhawks again. He has missed it since getting out of the Army.

So far, he likes it, too. He has met some nice people, and really likes the team he is working with more than any of the others he met before he got his team assignment. He will be making very good money, as well as get all the German and American holidays off. He got a German bank account for us last week too; since he's being paid in Euros, we won't lose any money on the exchange rate to have it just deposited straight as Euros.

The only bad thing is that we don't have another car yet. We have been looking around but really haven't seen anything cheap enough to buy. So, that means he drops me off at work on his way in, and picks me up on his way back. I just have to either walk, hitch a ride with someone, or take the shuttle during the day if I have to go cover a story. Sounds simple enough, right?

Only bad thing is, he goes in at 7 a.m., and doesn't get off 5:30 p.m. And he works about 30 minutes away from where I work.

So, this week, I've been getting to the office around 6:15 in the morning. He picks me up about 6:15 p.m. I hate it.

So far I have learned how to sort of fall asleep in my chair in the mornings. There are Soldiers outside doing their PT, but if I leave the lights off and keep the door closed, it's still dark enough and very quiet for a couple hours. I brought a blanket from home and just sort of twist my way into a semi-comfortable position in my desk chair, sometimes with another one pulled up in front of me to stretch my legs out on. NOT FUN! Next week Kelli will be back to the office though, and she comes in at 7 or 7:30, so I won't be alone for too long in the mornings. (but that means less napping at my desk).

Don't ask about co-workers taking me home either, because I can't write about it on here. I have had a few offers, but not from anyone who lives close to us. And taking the bus is an option, but it is about an hour-long trip with all the stops and I don't know which stop is closest to us!

It's okay though, soon enough we will just buy some sort of hooptie for him to drive and it will all be okay.

On another note, Tuesday was costume night at bowling. We had big plans for our costumes but never got around to making them, of course. Then, with Carl starting work Tuesday we actually wouldn't have even had time to go home and put them on.

Some of our teammates did dress up though!

This is Lira, my boss! She was dressed as "a Tennessee Co-Ed"
And this is Regina from my office with her husband Dan.

Carl dressed as a Mexican and wore my Chevy's Sombrero from Washington that I got at my birthday lunch! I dressed as a tourist with my Grand Canyon sweatshirt and camera. Okay that wasn't actually a real costume but it almost worked.

And here's another funny photo I just have to share. I took this today at work. I was covering the Book Character Parade at one of our elementary schools here. The students dressed up as a character from their favorite book. The Grand Marshall was our commander (my boss's boss!) dressed as Mr. Incredible.

And here he is with his command sergeant major, who dressed as a Transformer.

I thought they were so funny!

Tomorrow is Friday and I get to stay home all day. Our dryer broke two weekends ago, and they are finally coming to fix it tomorrow. Did I ever write about that? How we had to start hang-drying our clothes? Thankfully there is a room in our basement that is already rigged full of clotheslines and clothespins. But, since our house is heated by oil, the clothes kind of started to smell like oil. Normally in the winter we can leave the door open and fresh air will blow into that room, but it's too cold here now. Also tomorrow our temporary furniture is also finally getting picked up. It will be nice to get rid of it but we are still sort of using it in our extra living room, so that just means some furniture purchases are in our near future too!

Saturday we are having a big get-together for my whole office at Regina & Dan's house. It is kind of our pre-Thanksgiving dinner together as everyone is bringing some sort of American Thanksgiving dish. Any guesses on what I am bringing? Green bean casserole and, of course, watergate salad! My favorite! Lira is bringing my other favorite, the cranberry mush. MMM!!!

Well it is about a quarter to six here now and Carl should be here in about 30 minutes. We had daylight savings time last weekend. It gets dark very, very early here now. It is pretty much already pitch black out there. Kind of depressing! Oh well! I'm still smiling! I will be smiling more when I get home and plop down on the couch for the evening!

Wrap-up of our week

It's around 10 p.m. on Saturday night here in Deutschland, and here I sit eating my dinner -- a yummy bowl of Honey Nut Scooters (yes, we buy the cereal in bags, and yes, it's good! Same taste for less money!) Today was a very nice day overall. I haven't posted anything throughout the week because we haven't had a lot of things going on besides the ordinary day-to-day activities. We have finally sort of fallen into a routine!

Let's start with today. The weather was beautiful. Sunny skies, light breeze, but a little cool, so I was in a sweater and coat. We started out by heading to the high school football game for a little while. I wasn't actually covering it for the paper, but since I'll have to write a small blurb for it, I wanted to go see a little of it. From there, I called Jen to see what she was up to and see if she wanted to hang out with us. She happened to be a block away, and very Jen-like, was of course up for an excursion with us. We picked her up and headed back to Speyer, the cute town I wrote about in the last entry. We just wanted to be outside and wander through some of the shops. Jen hadn't been there yet. We had a great time just strolling and doing some shopping. There was also, of course, a festival going on! So we walked through all the carnival rides and games and smelled the brats cooking. As for shopping, all three of us got a new pair of shoes and we got a really nice camera backpack bag for toting the new camera. We also enjoyed some yummy goodies and sweets, of course. Far be it from any of the three of us to pass a sweet shop or bakery! It was a fun day, capped off by a brief commissary visit and then back to the house to relax for the evening.

Last night we went to the community theater's opening night of their play season. The first story I wrote here was about the fact that the theater is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. We enjoyed going to the auditions and talking with the directors for that story so much that we decided to go ahead and buy season tickets. Last night was "Sweeney Todd." It was a good show, and an enjoyable way to spend the evening. A nice change of pace. It was really neat to see members of our little military community up there and how talented some of them are! One of the actors forgot some of his lines, and just about one whole song, but it was still okay. It was his first play so I was just impressed he was up there! The theater is doing the Sound of Music in the spring... I'm thinking of trying out! Ahem.... (imagine my singing voice....) "The Hilllls are Aliiiiive, with the Sound of Muuuusic!" Okay, so no, there's now way I am trying out, don't worry. Still working on convincing Carl to try out though...

The rest of this past week, as I said earlier, was pretty routine. I've been doing some new and innovative stuff at work and have been working with some of my collegues in Korea, so that's been pretty cool! (I am not going to write about it just yet since it is still in development).

I did have one pretty bad mishap this week though, on Thursday, when I ever so gracefully fell down our stairs in the backyard. Yep. On my way out the door to head to work. It was not fun, I cried and thought I was dying, but I am doing fine now. I bruised my tailbone (OUCH!!!) and my left elbow got pretty swolen as well. Let's just say, I stood a lot at work and have been learning to shift my weight to the right elbow if I am typing or leaning. (sitting at the play for three hours last night wasn't all that comfy either). Here's the kicker, that only I could pull off -- not only was I headed to work when it happened, but I was headed to help out with none other than... Safety Day. HaHa!!

In other big news, we finally booked our airline tickets home for Christmas!! We had planned a family trip to Disney World way back in March, booked at Disney's military resort, which is always full for the holidays. We are so excited. I am kind of ready for a trip back, believe it or not. The flights will not be fun and, ummm, not cheap, but it will definitely be worth it.

Tonight, we finally resolved an issue that's been a thorn in our side for a while. Before we left the States, we sold some things on eBay to help us build up some funds. Well, to try and make a long story short, one of our buyers recently opened a transaction dispute against us and was asking for a reversal on funds. So, I had to send PayPal the tracking information for the item, and I also pointed out that this guy had left positive feedback stating he received the item. Well, PayPal still took the money back from us! As it turns out, this guy is one of those fraudulent people who was apparently using someone else's bank account to purchase items. Carl called PayPal and gave them the information again, and finally they agreed that we were not responsible and will get our money back. What a mess. Bottom line: If you are going to sell on eBay and use PayPal, you must keep your tracking information or else you risk losing your money if something like this happens to you. I was reading through the eBay forums and apparently this bank reversal thing is a huge mess with PayPal. Anyway, we got it worked out and will get our money.

I just finished a wonderful 70-minute phone conversation with my mom! Isn't technology amazing? We are able to talk and it sounds just as clear as if I was right there with her. Amazing.

Tomorrow it's off to church and maybe a nice dog walk or something like that. I am almost finished with my most recent books, these two by Karen Kingsbury. They are wonderful. She's a Christian fiction author. I also recently finished the most recent Nicholas Sparks book. I recommend both authors. Definitely lots of reading going on here, with our limited TV channels and lack of DVD player hooked up yet. Oh yeah! Our Wii got here this week too!! We ordered it off the internet way back in September and it finally arrived. We've had fun figuring that out, although I must say I quickly hurt myself by doing too much boxing and baseball. I am, however, pretty good at Wii bowling and tennis. Carl is really good at the tanks game and some of the games of skill.

That's enough for tonight. I'll try to post more often so I don't have to post too many of these super-long posts.

Speyer day trip

Today, we went to this cute town that is only about 15 minutes from where we live. It was so awesome! We had fun and the weather was simply beautiful yet again.

We began at the Technik Museum Speyer, which includes a ton of aircraft, classic cars, old fire trucks, old organs and carousels, basically 'technical' things that you can tour and explore. It was fun. A lot like some of the Smithsonian Museums in DC, except that of course most of the displays were in German. They are good about putting up English versions on some things, but mostly we just wandered around and took lots of pictures.

After that, we went to the "Imperial Cathedral of Speyer." This place was truly unbelievable. For starters, it was built during the years between 1030-1124! Seriously! It was amazing how huge and beautiful it was and just the thought of it being soooo old was incredible. We looked through the cathedral and altar portions, and then went downstairs to the crypt and tomb areas -- yeah, that part got a little bit creepy. But it was still awesome nonetheless.

After we left the Cathedral we wandered up and down their main pedestrian area. We actually enjoyed this city a little bit more than that downtown Heidelberg area to be honest. It was wider and less crowded, and felt a little more affordable and down-to-earth. More locals than tourists, perhaps? Who knows. We were total tourists today though and didn't care one bit that we were toting around the camera and taking pictures of everything in sight! (see www.flickr.com/photos/kristenandcarl to see them all!)

We had pretzels and Cola lights and then wandered down along the banks of the Rhine River. It was mostly just a relaxing day. We have many things still there that we know we will go back to see. It's great to think that it was so close and yet still felt like a mini-getaway.

New photo page

One last blog for today (this has been a busy blog day! Wow! You can tell I've missed updating it too!)
I made a Flickr photo page for us tonight so that you can look at it and see all the extra photos that I don't post on here. It would be pretty much impossible to post everything on the blog, so I'll post some on here and let you go to this new photo site for the rest!

It is www.flickr.com/photos/kristenandcarl

Right now, it has more of our castle photos. I spent forever uploading them tonight so please check them out! I'll be able to update that regularly now too!

Pictures from the Castle

Monday was a holiday, so we were able to visit the Heidelberg Castle. Wow! It was awesome. We truly enjoyed being able to just be tourists.

The hike up to the castle was quite an experience in itself (note: if you are going to hike up to the castle, don't try to eat an ice cream cone at the same time. It doesn't work very well). We took the audio tour and the english-language guided tour so we could learn all about it. I won't post it all here because soon enough you'll all be here in your own time and will go there with us. :)

The past couple weeks have been very eventful and busy, of course. Work has been going great for me. We had our garrison Hail and Farewell last Thursday night which was fun to get together with the leadership and all the other newbies and learn about each other. Carl got a bigger cheer than I did though when they announced he was on Army Wives! It was fun. I also attended my first German "press conference" last week. All I can say is thank goodness I had one of our local nationals with us to translate! It was odd - we were at a very fancy restaraunt on the Hauptstrasse, and I was the only one who spoke English! I made it though and that story is in this week's paper.

We also tried out our bikes and found a beautiful bike trail off into the woods right around the corner from our house. It reminded me a lot of the Virginia Creeper trail we rode with my parents, only not quite as steep! I love the fact that people here bike so much. It will be fun to bike to the grocery store up the street or just go for a ride through the fields.

We made our way to the Ramstein and Landstuhl areas over the weekend too. Driving there Sunday was gorgeous, as we could look out and see all the fall colors as they have changed. It really reminds me a lot of home, except when you pass a castle amidst the trees! It's too cool!

Other than those little tidbits, we've just been doing our usual stuff! I'm going to set up a photo account for the rest of our photos so I can post more! I will post that address later.

News Flash!

We interrupt this blog to bring you this special news bulletin.... Carl got a job!! Yea!!!!!

He will be working on Blackhawks again. He will probably start in about a week or so, after the tax paperwork goes through. (In fact, the guy asked him if he was ready to start today, but then remembered there was a little more paperwork to go through). He's going to be hired as a German, so he'll be paid in Euros and will get the German benefits (such as health care and 24 paid days of vacation per year -- but all that comes at a cost of 19% tax on the salary). There are lots of little intricacies that we don't quite understand yet that are involved with him being hired as a German, but we'll figure it out as we go. We're not worried. The only thing we care about now is that pretty soon he'll be working again. Praise the Lord!

side note: I'll update later today again with pics from our trip to the castle.

Finally, internet and phone again!

Whew, what a long couple weeks it has felt like with no internet and phone at the house! haha. I'm sorry I haven't updated this but Thank You to everyone for being understanding that it has been so completely crazy here, and I haven't been able to update regularly. Just today we finally were able to get internet hooked up here at the house, and that means our American phone number works now too! For those of you who had our old Oklahoma cell numbers, yeah, those obviously haven't worked since the plane took off to fly us here in the first place. However, we do have an American phone number through Vonage. Of course I am not going to post that out here for the world to see, but if you are a family member or friend who doesn't have the number yet, drop a comment on here and I'll be able to email you the number. Or send one of us an email. Or ask one of our parents, because they have it and so far I think immediate family are the only ones who have the number.

Things are still going well. Tonight was bowling night and Carl's game is getting better each week. Yesterday was an American holiday so we finally got to be tourists! I have had to work many weekends so far, so we unfortunately haven't had much time to sightsee. We checked out Heidelberg Castle yesterday and it was awesome! Tomorrow I will have more time to write and post pictures.

We love this house and are sort-of settled. The entire downstairs is livable and will be where we spend all our time. The basement and upstairs are definitely still full of those semi-unpacked boxes, but those rooms won't have to be ready until we have our first confirmed guests. As a reminder -- we have three extra bedrooms in this house! And a basement with another guest room. No excuses! Come on, visitors!!! :)

Well, that's all I'm going to post tonight as it's getting late and I need to wrestle the phone away from Carl to call some of my family. Guten Tag everyone and thanks again for reading! :)

All our stuff is here!

Our stuff has arrived!! Yea! Yesterday, all of our unaccompanied and household goods were delivered at the same time to the new house. It was all kind of a surprise as normally the unaccompanied goods are supposed to arrive about a month before the household goods, but somehow ours all arrived together!

Yesterday was a long day of dealing with the German movers, who were not really too enthusiastic about opening boxes or listening to which room they were supposed to go to. However, everything is here, and it all seems to be in good shape on first glance. We have a house full of boxes now. This weekend (and probably for the next few months!) we will be unpacking and sorting and trying to get settled.

The only bad thing is that we have not yet been able to get internet access in the new house. That should hopefully happen next week sometime. Then, we'll also have our American phone number, finally!! :) I will keep you all posted, but for now just realize we are fine, just really busy opening boxes and re-discovering all our goodies!

Video of the house

Well, I tried to load some videos tonight of our house. We got the keys from the landlord today, so this evening we headed back over and made a bunch of videos of the inside of the house and the yard, etc. Unfortunately the inside-the-house videos are apparently too big to load on here or something! Boo!! So, tomorrow our loaner furniture is delivered and we'll be able to officially start living there. We will try again to make more video clips so you can all see what the house actually looks like inside. I apologize. Until then, enjoy these smaller videos of the yard that actually were able to load!

Driving, Voting, Bakeries and another Festival

Guess who arrived here last week? Our car! Yea! We picked it up Friday in Mannheim. How exciting. It took exactly a month from the day we dropped it off to the day it arrived here.

For the most part, everything went well. We got some insider tips from my co-worker Jason on how to get through the registration process quicker, so that worked out pretty well. We did have a little bit of an issue with a guy who couldn't understand that a female can be the sponsor and the male the dependent. So, there was a big hassle, and yes, I got crabby with him a little bit, but the good thing is that we got it all worked out after a while.

We did our walk-around inspection to check for damages. We were a little concerned about that since the car was completely new -- if there were any damages, the loss of value would have been much more than the compensation value. The only thing we found was a small spot where the clear coat is missing. Unfortunately, we can't claim it as a shipping damage, even though the Vehicle Processing Center manager even came out and agreed it was not a manufacturer's defect and that it did indeed happen sometime in transit. Now we just have to decide if we should accept it or try to visit the claims office and put in a claim for it through them instead of the shipping company. We haven't decided yet.

Well, in picking up our vehicle, that means one big thing had to happen as well -- my first time driving in Germany. And, to top it off, not just driving in Germany, but driving on the Autobahn as well! I only eeeked a couple times and got passed by one moped, so I wasn't going that slow. Just kidding! It was just fine! Carl was in the lead in our loaner car and I drove the Caliber. I wasn't too nervous. Honestly, driving here is not that much different than in the States. The Autobahn also is not all that crazy (sorry to disappoint). It's actually nicer than interstates in that trucks are only allowed to drive in the right lane, and the only time you can be in the left lane is to pass. So, that went very well and I can now say I am on my way to eventually being able to drive myself around here (we will only have one car until we can get another one here for Carl, so for the time being we will still be sharing.)

Friday, we also exercised our great American Right to Vote. Go us! Here are pictures of us after we have completed filling out our absentee ballots for President, VP and a few local South Carolina elections. If you look closely please even notice our "I Voted!" stickers we are wearing. :)

This morning being Saturday we woke up around 8-ish. Well, I was awakened earlier by Noel-kisses on my face and Scout trying to wake me up as well by nuzzling me. So around 8 I let the doggies hop up on the bed and have cuddle time, and then we all got up and headed out to the bakery up the street. We figured since this is our last weekend here in this little community we ought to go to the bakery one last time.

Below you will see the doggies parked in their little doggy parking spot. We got zwei apfelstruedels (2 apple struedels) and zwei other thingies that I am not sure what they were, but they were yummy. The doggies enjoyed the brisk morning walk and then ate their breakfast back at the house with us.

Today was, surprise, another festival!! I am not even sure what festival it was, but I think it was Heidelberg's fall fest. It is a one-day fest that occurs on the Hauptstrasse. We met up with Danelli, Jen and their friends Sonia and Bryce. Then, Dan's German co-worker Johanna and her husband Jan arrived. We had a lot of fun and it was very nice to get to know some more people. I am sure we'll be spending lots more time with them. We've already got a ski trip in the works in January for all of us!

Anyway, it was a neat festival with booths up and down the entire Hauptstrasse (which is a verrrrry long way). It was so disgustingly crowded though! We got there around 3:30 and walked around for about an hour before meeting up with everyone else. At one point, Carl and I were fighting our way through the crowd and there was a huge traffic jam. I mean I have never seen pedestrian traffic like this. We were stuck. No one could move forward, backward, sideways, anything, but everyone sure was trying to push their way somehow. We felt so violated!! Seriously! Everyone was literally pressing their bodies into everyone else just trying to push-push-push their way through. That part stunk pretty bad. But, other than that, there were lots of bands and stages and, of course, the food! Mmm! My favorite today was a banana-chocolate crepe. Yummm! Carl enjoyed some German beer and brats.

I also have to give a special shout out to Jen for saving me by running up to her apartment and grabbing a sweatshirt for me. The weather today was gorgeous, much warmer than it has been lately, and I somehow forgot to bring a warmer layer (I never leave home without at least a hoodie draped over my arm for later. I am not sure what I was thinking today). So Jen saved me and let me borrow one of hers. That is the beauty of her living downtown -- how convenient!

The above picture is me, Sonia, Jen and Kelli.

Two empty beer glasses in front of Carl -- both his! Yes, he kept both of them as souvenirs too.

So, overall, we've had a great past few days. The best news came on Friday in that my advance of pay came through finally to pay for the deposit on our house. We were really beginning to worry. See, when you make one of these overseas moves, you can request a special advance of salary for a certain amount to help offset the move-in costs. Here, when you move into a rental house, you have to pay two months rent as a deposit, plus the first month's rent. For us, that equals out to almost 5,000Euro -- that's around $7,300. Plus, we owe another $2,600 on Tuesday for this temporary house. I was totally going to Eeeek out on Tuesday if the money hadn't come through yet, but, thank the Lord, it came through Friday. We also will be getting our loaner furniture on Tuesday now instead of Wednesday, so we get to move in one day sooner. Yay!

Tomorrow we are going to Danelli's church and then owe the red babies a trip to the dog park. Guten Abend!

Grapes from our house!

Grapes from the vine at our new house!

Carl showing some of our favorite German yogurts!

Tonight, we visited our house and met with the landlord briefly so we could exchange our information for some of the utilities. She showed us around the house again and it looked more beautiful than we imagined. She has been working on it pretty much every day since we signed the lease: weeding, painting, cleaning, scrubbing, fixing things. We never even thought it needed work! But, she has gone above and beyond in making it impeccable and gorgeous. We are so excited to move in!! The house is more amazing than we imagined and could have dreamed for. It once again left me with the thought of "We seriously get to live there?!"

She also took us back to the garden again and gave us our first taste of the grapes growing on the vines! The picture above is me holding some here at our temp apartment! How cool is that? We got to eat the grapes that grew in what is soon to be part of our own backyard! She said they are edible right off the vine -- no chemicals, etc. -- but we opted to bring them back and at least rinse them off. They are very sweet yet tart at the same time. Delicious! And so fresh!

We also of course stopped at the Rewe (a grocery store, pronounced "Ree-vah") right around the corner and replenished our yogurt stock. There were new brands we hadn't tried yet so we are super excited to chow down on more yummy German yogurts! Don't worry, we got real food as well.

Over the weekend we rented a couple movies at the PX, one being the John Adams mini-series on DVD. We are only three hours in to the eight-hour show, but we love it! We've watched a little bit each night and highly recommend it.

On to real news: There is a VERY strong hope right now that we've found Carl a job. He did get a job offer to be an AAFES stocker, and will do that if need be, but this other job is just what he's looking for. We're keeping fingers crossed and praying it will work out. I will write more about that once we know something for sure.

Other big news is that apparently we are trendsetters! Thanks to faithful blog readers Jennie (Dude Sis-in-Law) and Whitney (Dude's Co-Worker Dude) I have been informed that the 'eyebrow string thing' from the last blog is actually a very popular European trend known as 'eyebrow threading.' Huh! Who would have thought that while in Europe we would ourselves become trendsetters and participate in something that is making its way to Hollywood as I write this!!

As for this past weekend, well, it produced some dumb results for work at the football game. I will spare the details in much length except to say that I met some very unappreciative and unprofessional football coaches, but the problem is on its way to being solved.

Tomorrow, I am participating in some media training with NATO troops. It should be fun!