Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Life Is What Happens While You're Busy Making Other Plans

A long, long time ago, I can still remember when... well, okay, it wasn't that long ago, but it has been FIVE MONTHS since I published that blog post all about how we'd be finding out soon where we'd be moving.  We expected to know by the end of the month.  Then by the end of the year. Then by the beginning of the year.  I expected that at this point in my life I'd be busy sorting through piles of old baby clothes, 220V appliances and pantry items.  That we'd be coming to America a la Eddie Murphy.

But alas, that is not to be the case.  After a number of false starts and tempting opportunities that could have led us down new paths, Colby got offered a fantastic job here in Germany that will not only be excellent for future promotion and professional development purposes, but will also keep us here in our little village for yet another year.

I'd be lying if I said I was over the moon about it.  I've said goodbye to a lot of my very close friends here over the past year, and have started feeling a little bit like old fish--that person who just doesn't know when to leave.  I miss the conveniences of America, the little things like a Target shopping trip and drive throughs  not to mention the big things like moderately affordable and conveniently located childcare options.  And as I mentioned previously, I've become addicted to this nomadic life of ours, and I've felt the itch for a change for a while now.  And yet, here we stay.  And I've come to terms with it.

Suspecting that the likelihood of staying at this base a bit longer was a more and more probable outcome, I've worked to build relationships with new friends.  I'm a natural introvert and I have to work hard to overcome my innate shyness, but I no longer worry so much about being left behind with no friends to spend my days with.  We upgraded our internet provider to a new company that wasn't available in our village when we first moved here, and while it may sound silly, faster more reliable internet will go a long way to improving my mood on a daily basis!

I've also given myself things to look forward to this year that I couldn't have experienced if we were moving back to the States.  We're taking a week long trip back to Italy for the first time since our honeymoon there in 2008.  I've registered for a half marathon in Iceland and am eyeing a 10K in Switzerland.  And I'm living for the long trip back to the States that I've promised myself.  One that will come with lots a family time and perhaps a little tour around the US of A to see some friends that I've been missing way too much.

So, there it is.  Another year that will undoubtedly go by in the blink of an eye.  Another year that will bring us to a total of four years spent living in Germany.  Starting to feel kiiiiiinda silly about the fact that I still haven't learned to sprechen das Deutsch!

Meanwhile, Back At the Homestead...

Despite the fact that all I've been talking about lately is traveling, there have been some breaks from the excursions for us to have a little bit of a life at home this summer.
I never talked in any detail about my half marathon, but it was a really great experience that has only left me wanting more!  I enjoyed my training a great deal.  I was fortunate to have family in town for the latter part so that I was able to do my longer runs without the jogging stroller.  As physically tough as it is to get out there and run for hours, it was an amazing sanity break.  No one crying, trying to climb my leg, asking for a snack then pushing it away and shouting "NO!".  Ahhhh, blessed peace!

The run is a very popular one, so I had no worries about being the last one across the finish line.  It was almost entirely flat and paved, and I liked that I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn since it was a night race.  The drawbacks were that there were a couple of parts on the course that weren't terribly well marked, and there was one sickening half mile where I was reasonably certain I had missed a turn and ended up on the full marathon course.  Then once the race was over and the runners were funneled into the finisher's festival, it was very difficult to figure out how to meet up with Colby who was not a part of the race.  It took us about 45 minutes to find each other, and by the time we got home it was close to midnight, and everyone else was snoring peacefully in their bed while I was trying to quell the endorphin rush I was still riding!
But bottom line was that it was a great experience and I met my goal of running sub 12 minute miles.  I finished in 2:36:09, averaging 11:54/mile and beating my previous half marathon PR by over 2 minutes (previous PR was 2:38:37).  Yay me!

In the realm of big life events, Colby and I have been having lots of talks about where life and the Air Force will likely be taking us next and what our long term visions are for the next ten years.  It's so hard to believe that this summer he reached 12 years in the Air Force.  I can still vividly remember watching him swear his oath of office for the first time.  It's remarkable to me that we're likely closer to his separation from military life than the start of it.  So, no news on that front yet, but we hope we'll have some answers or at least narrowed down the options within the next couple of months.

We enjoyed the remainder of my parents' visit to Germany, and had to say goodbye to them on Tuesday.  Of couse, that was also the day that Coby left on a trip, leaving the girls and me to try to remember how to function with just the three of us!  Answer:  Lots of help from Elmo.  But that is not to last for long as Colby gets home tonight and MY SISTER ARRIVES TOMORROW!!!!  I'm just a wee bit excited.

Her arrival kicks off our last furious explosion of travels as we wrap up a pretty epic summer.  Brittany and I are taking Charlotte and Annabelle and heading to Marseilles next week, and then after a week of recovery and on the job training at home, Colby and I are ditching her with the girls while we jet off for a kid-free vacation to Croatia and Bosnia.  I am feeling equal parts glee and terror at the thought of being without my babies for 9 days.  I'm not sure I remember how to eat dinner without a meltdown from one of my table companions (usually a toddler, sometimes me) or how to go to bed without at least two snuggles and a rendition of Old MacDonald sung in three part harmony.

So, it may be another bit of time before I get my next post up.  We had a terrible incident with the SD card containing the majority of our Copenhagen and Baltic cruise photos, but hopefully we'll be able to complete at least a semi-recovery soon so that I can write up that recap as well as my trip to Garmisch with my parents and the girls.  I should have plenty of time for all of that come September when we have nothing planned.  Nothing... nothing... nothing... I almost find myself looking forward to it!

A Multitude of Celebrations

Phew.

We survived the fun!  Fun is such a joy, but it's downright exhausting at times, isn't it?  Particularly when you're the self-elected president of your one-person introvert club.

The end of last week right on into the weekend was one exciting event after another.

We kicked things off with a celebration of candy, zombies, and Despicable Me minions (pop culture costume phenomenon of the year, don't you think?) with Halloween on Thursday.  We went to Trunk or Treat on base with some friends and their adorable little girls, then came back home for a street party in Little America.  We couldn't hang for too long as it was pretty chilly and Charlotte and Annabelle's fun-o-meter had about hit its limit, but it was a really great first Halloween.  No melt downs and everyone kept their hat on--I call it a win!

Friday, we got ourselves all cleaned up and presentable and went to Colby's promotion ceremony where he finally got to pin on Major after finding out he'd been selected for the rank almost two years ago.  It was a lovely, and more importantly, short, ceremony, and we followed it up with a party in the squadron, and later went to a schnapps distillery for dinner with some friends for some more celebration.

Saturday we spent the day cleaning, decorating, and doing food prep for... the girls' FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!  Yep, on Sunday, November 3, 2013, they made the transition from infants to toddlers.  I suppose they've been toddling for a while now, but I feel like it's pretty official now.  I was actually awake, staring at the clock at 12:17 am, thinking about how exactly a year ago our lives were turned upside down, inside out and made epically more fantastic.  Surreal.

We had a bunch of fabulous friends over on Sunday to help us celebrate, and it couldn't have gone better.  The kids all seemed to have fun, and Charlotte and Annabelle were first birthday party champions.  They went to town on their birthday cupcakes, played with their friends, and went an astoundingly long time maintaining a cheery disposition sans-nap.

As if that weren't enough excitement, last night, right after Colby got home from work, Annabelle took her first real steps.  Both girls have been cruising around using their walker and the furniture for a while now, but last night, AnnaB took the couple of steps from the ottoman to the sofa without holding onto a thing.  Colby and I sat in silent shock for a moment, then looked at each other and simultaneously shrieked, "DID YOU SEE THAT!?!"  

Y'all, this parenting gig.  It's pretty freaking stellar.

There's No Place Like Home, But This Will Do

Somehow, the time has flown by at such an astoundingly rapid pace that we have been living in Germany for almost a year and a half.  I typically find that with each move, it takes about a year before I feel truly settled in to my new community and at "home" there.  I feel that I'm only just now approaching that point with this assignment.  In all honesty, I still frequently feel like we just got here, but I find that it's easier to answer newcomers' questions, and while I wouldn't say my questions have gotten any less numerous, it's at least become easier to track down answers on my own.

I think there are a few reasons for this--number one being that I'm in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, so obviously I'm going to feel a little more fish out of water than I would anywhere in the States.  

Second, a huge part of feeling at home anywhere is making yourself at home there--again, fairly obvious.  But with two babies, I have not felt particularly inspired to avail myself of what's available "on the economy" as we military folks abroad tend to say.  If I were a bit more footloose and fancy free, I would be making a much larger effort to shop at the local stores, try more restaurants, attend more festivals.  But with the girls, honestly, my main qualifications for going pretty much anywhere are is it 1) fast and 2) navigable with my 18-wheeler double stroller.  And sadly, it's much faster to just shop on base at the commissary and BX than the local stores.

I do still make it down to the grocery store down the street, and of course my beloved Cora, in France, on a semi-regular basis, but our weekly grocery trips are done at the commissary.  I've found some local clothing stores that I like, but haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what is available.  We do like to try restaurants, and my big goal for this upcoming year is to invest in a babysitter more often (or really, ever, for that matter) and have more date nights so we can expand our culinary horizons.  

That said, I do truly enjoy living here, and don't fantasize about returning to America any sooner than we have to.  Given the opportunity to extend another year, I don't think I would want to turn it down.  There are things I miss--drive through Starbucks, easy parking and running into stores, understanding what people are saying to me, signing up for a service like internet and not having to wait two months for it to be activated, just to name a few.  But I'm still riding the high of absurdly easy access to a huge number of foreign countries and the adventure of being a quasi-ex-pat.

However, with our trip home less than a month away, I do find myself creating a mental list of "must dos' while in 'Merica:

• Go to Target, if only to wander around empty handed in a haze of wonderment and joy (but also probably buy everything in the store).
• Go through a Starbucks drive through for a Nutella latte, because evidently, that is a thing.
• Eat at an amazing Mexican restaurant, Raisin' Cane's, Izzo's illegal Burrito, and get a Frosty from Wendy's.
• Turn right on red, even without a green arrow.
• Engage in conversation with cashiers and restaurant employees, just as a refresher on how to engage in small talk without using sentence fragments and mispronouncing basic words.

I'm sure more will be added to the list in the next few weeks, but I feel like that's a pretty solid start.

The Story of A Week

A dramatic reenactment by Charlotte and Annabelle.
One day, Colby returned home from work. "Angela, I have bad news.  I have to go on a trip to the States for 10 days."  Angela was perturbed.

The next day, Colby returned home from work.  "Angela, I have bad news.  My trip is actually 15 days."  Angela was horrified.

Colby left.  And everything was TERRIBLE AWFUL for a couple of days.

Then a wonderful neighbor came over to watch the girls so that Angela could leave the house and go for a run. (Because she has never loved running so much as now--no one is screaming! Or attached to her boob!)

The babies had been waking up every 2-3 hours at night for weeks and weeks.  Angela hit her breaking point.  Dr. Ferber was released upon her world.  The little ladies were less than impressed.

After three days of "training", Angela put the babies to sleep at 9:30.  They cried for less than 10 minutes then slept until 6:30 when Angela had to wake them or become her own personal boob milk fountain.  They immediately went back to sleep and woke up for the day at 11:30.

~End Scene~

That brings us up to now.  We're still only about a third of a way through this TDY, but I feel like I've gotten into a bit of a groove, and I think this next week will go by pretty quickly.  I've got a couple of quiet days today and tomorrow, but then I've got plans almost every day until Colby gets home.  I'm incredibly jealous because he's getting to hang out with one of my very best friends while he's Stateside, but he let me buy a jogging stroller and he's bringing it home with him, so I can't be too mad.

The first couple of days of this were truly terrible.  I really look forward to Colby coming home at the end of each day for the assist, and it was tough getting used to the fact that I was it--not for a few days, but for a couple of weeks.  I am so incredibly thankful that we have a very different military lifestyle than we did in either Washington or South Carolina.  I can't even begin to imagine coping with two newborns while Colby was gone almost constantly.  Or dealing with a deployment.  Ugh.  It makes me all shuddery to think about.

With ten days left to go, I still have moments of anxiety about how we'll get through this, but the days keep on ticking by, and I know that soon this will be in our past.  When Colby gets home, he'll return to work for a week, but then we're taking a week and heading to Amsterdam, so I have that big light at the end of the tunnel to look forward to, and one way or another, I know we'll survive.
And, I mean, look at these faces.  There are surely worse ways to spend fifteen days!

Fall Has... Fallen?

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that today is the first day of October.  It is officially fall.  One of my all time favorite seasons, made all the more special by the fact that it is the season in which MY BABIES WILL ARRIVE!!!  It's so unbelievable.  And so wonderful.  And so terrifying...

Last week was pretty hectic with trying to get the house in decent shape for my mom's arrival.  I've gotten to the point where just running the vacuum cleaner on one floor just about does me in, so I've been majorly slacking in the "cleaning house" department.  I've got to get serious about finding a cleaning lady.  I try to keep up with the dog hair tumble weeds, run a dust rag around every week or so, and wipe the bathrooms down with a Lysol wipe when they start getting scary, but this place definitely needs a deep clean before I bring the girls home.  But happily, my mom made it in safe and sound and is firmly ensconced in the basement.  We're not going to let her leave for a very long time... and I promise the basement is actually very nice!

The first couple of days she was here were pretty yuck, but fortunately the sun decided to grace us with its presence starting over the weekend, and we've had some beautiful days since.  Friday, we had some friends over for dinner.  Then on Saturday we enjoyed the beautiful, crisp weather at the Gartenschau Pumpkin Festival in Kaiserslautern.  We walked around the park, admiring the award winning pumpkins, beautiful flowers, pumpkin sculptures and, of course, the food!  I had to try the pumpkin soup, and my mom and Colby each had a wurst and there was flammkuchen for all.

The theme was "Under the Sea" and all of the sculptures were made out of a vast assortment of pumpkins and gourds, with accents of rocks, wood and wicker.  At one point, while we were walking around I was "accused" of trying to smuggle a pumpkin out under my shirt... oh, people are just hilarious!

Sunday was more of a bummer, as we had to drop Colby off at the base to leave for an eleven day trip.  We're very happy that due to some scheduling changes, he won't be gone a full two weeks like we'd originally thought, but I'm still not thrilled about him leaving so late in the pregnancy.  I'm sure there's still plenty of time before there are any signs of imminent arrival, but he installed the carseats before he left, and we've been giving my mom driving lessons, just in case we need to head to the hospital before he gets back home.  But hopefully they'll stay in there baking for a few more weeks!

Sunday Social

I've been seeing this little blog hop posted on a few of the blogs I read, and I always enjoy the questions and answers.  I finally decided to give it a try myself!  If you'd like to play along as well, you can link up here.

1. What is something you have wanted to do but are afraid of?
Hot air balloon ride!  I am absolutely terrified of heights, but still, the thought of soaring over the earth with the wind in my face is incredibly appealing.  I figure it's one of those things I would either love or hate, but I'm dying to try it out someday. 

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
This is a tough one because our lives are so unpredictable.  Heck, I don't even know for sure where we'll be a year from now!  We'll be living some place new, probably back in the States and hopefully close to our families for the first time in years.  We'll have two almost five-year-old daughters (!!) and, in my fantasy world, a two-year-old.

3. What are you looking forward to before the end of 2012?
This has to be the most obvious answer EVER.

4. What are your hopes for your blog?
I don't think of my blog like a business, so I just hope that I continue writing here fairly regularly after the girls arrive so that I'll have those memories captured in words to look back on in years to come, when the early newborn days are just a hazy memory. 

5. Do you always see yourself living in your current town/city?
Definitely not.  Germany is an amazing place to call home for a few years, but I know we'll land back in the good old US of A eventually! 

6. What is your morning routine?
I don't have much of a routine right now.  If I don't have any plans for the day, I'll usually roll out of bed around 8, put on some comfy clothes, make a cup of tea and some cereal and catch up on email, Facebook, Twitter and blogs for a while. If I do have plans, I sleep in for as long as possible, spend about an hour getting ready, and try to squeeze in some breakfast or grab a cereal bar on the way out the door.

An American in Deutschland

Most of my posts lately have been about my two most recent obsessions--my girls and our travels around Europe.  But there's been another topic that I've been wanting to write for ages, and haven't gotten around to.  I want to write about life in Germany--just day to day living as opposed to the country and city-hopping we've been up to.  How although we really haven't suffered much in the way of culture shock, it's so very different here than the States.

I would certainly say that out of all the countries in Europe, Germany is the most "Americanized", probably due to our huge influence here post-World War II.  Sometimes it seems like we have more US military bases in Germany than there are in the States!  But as much as some things feel like a bizarro version of home, just about everything is wildly different.  Driving.  Going out to restaurants.  Shopping.  Speaking.  Paying utilities.  Home ownership.  Disposing of garbage.  Energy alternatives.  Banking.  How sometimes living here is like being transported back to 1992, and how, as much as I love America, there are SO many things that are done SO much better here.

So, trying to process all of that into a blog post has been sort of daunting, not to mention how epically long it would be if I tried to include everything.  Instead, what I've decided to do is break it all down into a series of sorts.  I want you all to be able to experience this world with me, and I want to remember it in the years to come, when we've left Europe.  How crazy it was to be driving 100 mph on the autobahn, only to have an Audi blow by us at seemingly double our rate of speed.  What it's like trying to decipher the products in the aisles of a grocery store and sometimes accidentally trying new things!  How we didn't realize that it takes a German bank up to two weeks to deposit a check, meaning almost all of our utility and rental payments were suddenly made of rubber.

We've learned a lot since moving here, and there are fewer and fewer hiccups each week, but we're definitely still learning, and attempting to fully understand Germany.  So, my question for you is, are there things that you wonder about life overseas?  I think when people hear "Germany", the immediate question is about the autobahn.  But what are the topics I could cover that would interest you?  I'd love feedback on this, and I'll kick off my series next week with the most obvious topic, and the thing I was most terrified about upon moving here: DRIVING!!!

From A Distance

What an absolutely phenomenal weekend.  I'm absolutely dead tired, but it was so worth it to pack in so many amazing events over just a couple of days!

We did kick things off with a lazy day on Friday since Colby had the day off, but Saturday life got a little more exciting.  We went in search of a second grey paint option for the nursery since our original grey magically turned blue as soon as we put it on the walls.  The paint selection here is pretty laughable--there were about 8 different greys, but that was ranging from pale, almost white, to dark charcoal, so there were really only 2 or 3 that could possibly work in our color scheme.  Oh, how I miss the infinite number of paint colors available back home--or the ability to see a color you like in the magazine and just go pick it up at the store!

That evening we had our maternity photo session with the insanely talented Jess Fountain of Jess Renee Photography.  It was a bit touch and go as some pretty massive storm clouds were hovering just before our session time, but we holed up in our car for about 15 minutes waiting for the rain to pass, and it ended up being a perfect evening.  I had a lot of anxiety about how the photos would turn out.  I am ridiculously self-critical and almost always hate pictures of myself, but this pregnancy is so special to me, I knew that I wanted to document it and have tangible reminders of it.  Then the weather seemed to be against us and I was a little nervous about how much wind there was while we were shooting.  Then I got home and realized I NEVER PUT ON MASCARA when I was doing my makeup.  For me, this is like... forgetting to put on pants.  I never, ever leave the house without mascara, even if I'm wearing yoga pants and have my hair in a ponytail.  And I'll freely admit that my eyes are my one vanity, so I was pretty distraught upon this realization.  However, the pictures are PERFECT.  I've only seen the sneak peek so far, but I already can't pick a favorite, and I am so amazed at how Jess captured such a special time in our lives.

Sunday, the weather was still blustery and rainy, but we pulled out our fall sweaters and rain gear, and headed out to the Pferderennen (horse racing) in Miesau with some friends.  It was a pretty charming event with the track consisting of a mowed field and race horses mostly between 10 and 15 years old, but despite the wind and spurts of rain, we had a great time.  Plus, they had delicious flammkuchen, so my tummy was happy.
Finally, we wrapped up our day with a wonderful international baby shower held in a Google Hangout!  My sister, Brittany, and sweet friend, Jessica, co-hosted and did an incredible job of making it feel like a party, even across thousands of miles.  I received a box last week filled with baby shower decor, treats, and gifts, and we had eleven people who were able to either phone in or participate in the video hangout, and so many more who couldn't "attend" sent gifts and their love across the pond.
I realize how lucky I am to have this experience living abroad, but it's bittersweet to do it during my first, and possibly only, pregnancy when I would give anything to be surrounded by my closest friends and family.  But the way we are all scattered around the globe, this was the perfect way to celebrate our little girls and spend time together in a crazy, chaotic video chat!

Highlights Reel

Wow, thank you all SO MUCH for your responses to my cloth diapering post.  I'm still processing all of the comments I got here and through Facebook and email, but I can honestly say that you all made me feel tons better about my current "plan of attack".  I think the two most frequent and most helpful comments I got were:

1. Don't commit fully to one system before the baby comes--buy a lot of different options and try them out because different diapers will work for different babies.  How sad would I be if we spent $500 on BumGenius 4.0s and then they didn't work on our kids?
2. It's not only okay to start out with disposables, but pretty darn smart since most people had lots of leaks until their babies got to be bigger (8-10 pounds).  And have disposables on hand for emergencies--they aren't The Devil.

There's been a lot of baby talk around here lately, and obviously that's something that's going to happen with more and more regularity, but there has been a lot of other stuff going on in mah life, and I thought I'd rely on my favorite lazy writer's crutch, bullet points, to get through it all.

** The seemingly never-ending moving process is actually getting pretty close to ending.  After four trips to Ikea over the course of four weekends (ugh), we finally managed to cobble together a linen closet, meaning that I was able to unpack my last box.  We've gotten lots of pictures and decor on the wall, and I think one or two more dedicated weekends will finish up the rest of the house.  Well, aside from the nursery.  But that's another post for another day. 

** We painted the big open great room over the weekend, but sadly ran out of paint about 80% through, so we'll finish that this weekend.  But it's a delightful pale greenish-yellow and I think it'll keep things bright and cheery through the long dark German fall and winter.  I finally feel very much at home in our house.

** I've been taking a German class for the past 3 weeks and I'm having so much fun being back in the classroom.  Learning a language is such a different experience when you're a) not in highschool and b) actually living in a country where the language is spoken.  I don't think I'll be fluent or anything by the time we leave here, but I really want to be able to understand more of what I'm hearing on the radio and out and about.  This was just an introductory class (telling time, asking for directions, numbers, colors, etc) and it ends next week, but I'm planning to continue my education with online lessons and maybe some vocabulary books.  I love languages, and it's really nice to start understanding the very foreign world around me a little better!

** The Air Force is making me exceptionally grumpy in that they STILL haven't paid us all of the money they owe us following the move.  To put it in the simplest way, each paycheck we get BAH or OHA which is a housing allowance set according to the costs of homes where we currently live, as long as we live off base.  Also, in Germany, we get a monthly utility allowance since it's so much more expensive over here than in the States. They still owe us all of our OHA and utility allowances for June and July, as well as a one time "move In allowance".  That comes to a LOT of money that we're owed. It's amazing how long it takes for them to pay us money owed, but if they make a mistake and overpay us it's snatched back fast enough to make our heads spin.  

** But the good Air Force news is that it looks like Colby won't be going TDY (Temporary Duty Assignment for the non-mil folks), to DC for the entire month of October and into early November like we thought.  The current plan is still for him to go for a few weeks in October, but at least my mom will be here and hopefully I'll be able to keep the babies inside until he gets back in mid-late October.

via 

** And the most exciting news--we're going to Turkey in  just a little over two weeks!!!  Colby's squadron dicked around just long enough on approving his leave to ensure that we had to pay higher prices for airfare and hotels than we would have if they didn't suck, BUT, we're still going and I CAN'T WAIT!  We're going to spend four days in Istanbul and three days on Cirali beach, laying around enjoying the sunshine and the ocean.  There's a pretty good chance this will be my last big trip before we have the babies--we *might* be able to fit in Belgium in September if I'm still feeling mobile, but I'm not counting on it--so I'm planning to enjoy the heck out of it and really appreciate my diminishing days adventuring with Colby as "just us".

Goodbye, Horrid Week

This week.  It has not been my favorite.

I have been really, really trying to put on my best Pollyanna smile and push through all the crap we've been dealing with for the past month.  I feel like I shouldn't complain.  So much about my life is SO GREAT.  I have been dreaming of living in Europe for all of my adult life.  I have wanted babies for ages, and now I have two adorable, healthy girls on their way.  Colby's current job gives us so much more quality time together, and is such a wonderful opportunity for us.  This is supposed to be the happily ever after part.  You're not supposed to ugly cry during your happily ever after.  Three times in one week.

The downhill slide started last Saturday when we got home from Ikea and started to assemble our furniture.  I was so excited because we would finally have a place to put the piles of linens, office supplies and winter gear that were looming all about the house.  I don't do so well with piles of crap and chaos, and we've been living with exactly that for almost two months now.  So, I was overjoyed to have a desk, coat closet and linen closet.  Everything went perfectly until we got to the linen closet, and realized that the system we had purchased was 100% customizable and every single piece had to be purchased separately.  We'd done so well--we had the cabinet portion, the door, the doorknobs, the wire baskets... but no shelves.  We didn't have the fucking shelves.  I know it's so stupid, and it was really about so much more, but that was just the final straw.  I broke down and sobbed over the $15 Ikea shelves that were 45 minutes and at least a few weekends away.

Once I finally calmed down, I checked my email, and we had a message from our realtor.  You see, I've been keeping a secret from you.  A secret that I was protecting because it seemed to good to be true and I was so terrified it was all going to fall apart in the end.  AND IT DID!  Pessimism rules the day!  While we had taken our South Carolina house off of the market in May and decided to rent it out, we found some great renters who fell in love with our house and decided that not only did they want to live in it, they wanted to buy it.  HUZZAH!!!  They offered our full asking price and only asked us to pay about 1/3 of the closing costs, and it was amazing.  We weren't going to have the stress of being landlords times two, and we were actually going to walk away with a nice bundle of cash in hand.

And then there was the inspection.  Where they found termites.  And an issue with the air conditioner.  And a gas leak.  And we racked up close to $2500 in repairs.

And then their loan fell through.  Even though they'd been preapproved.

And we weren't selling our house anymore.  Ugly cry #2.

The family is still planning to move in as renters, though we're still awaiting a finalized contract, but this has been hanging over our heads since May, and we were so ready for June 28th to arrive so it would finally be over.  Instead, we're renting out the house on a month to month basis while the buyers pursue other financing options, and we get to continue having it hang over our heads possibly until the end of the year.  Wonderful.

Then, yesterday I decided to break out my fabulous new steam mop and do a little cleaning since the floors are finally becoming visible.  We left most of our appliances at home, but brought over our television and DVD player to use with a transformer.  It's been working beautifully, so when I saw that the steam mop needed 1500 watts to work, and the tv and Bluray combined took less than 200 watts, I switched out the 7000 watt transformer that they were plugged into and used the 750 watt transformer instead.  I blissfully mopped the floors, then decided it was time for a Sex and the City break.  I made sure everything was plugged in properly, double checked the wattage, plugged in the transformer, switched it on and... KABOOM.  The plug exploded and there was the festive smell of burning in the air.

Ugly cry #3.

I called Colby, who immediately panicked because he thought I'd hurt myself, and I could barely choke out the words that I was pretty sure I'd just destroyed our 1 1/2 year old $1500 television.  Because he is amazing, he immediately came home to figure out what had happened because I was too scared that if I touched anything I would fry myself and our unborn children.  I spend the next 20 minutes sobbing on the couch, furious with myself, with the world for refusing to make my life easier and convert to a single voltage, the Air Base for giving us a shitty transformer... pretty much the world in general.  In the one stroke of good luck we've had all week, Colby discovered that I had only blown out the $7 surge protector, and miracle of miracles, the televison is fine.  We're still not sure what happened except that we probably had a defective transformer, and we shouldn't trust anything from the Air Force lending locker.

So, I am more than ready to see this week out the door.  I don't know for sure if next week will be any better, but it is at least starting out with the advantage that it isn't THIS week.  And at this point, that alone is good enough for me.

Please Send Internet

So much to tell you about and I have no idea where to begin...  Let's see.

We're still without internet at our house.  We have determined that it's not a T-Mobile issue, and some of our friends who successfully set up their phone and internet through T-Mobile came over to try and set ours up and failed, so at this point, it seems like it's a house issue.  But our property managers are insisting that it's NOT a house issue.  They're coming over tomorrow to do the house inspection with us, so I plan on presenting them with our computer, telephones and modem, and not letting them leave until they've either got our system online or agreed that the landlords will pay the EIGHTY EURO service fee that T-Mobile will charge to come out and do it for us.

In the meantime, I'm still doing most of my internetting from the phone--pain in the ass--or at the Business Center when I come on base to run errands.  It is... less than ideal, but it keeps me from feeling entirely disconnected from the world.

We made the Incredible Journey to Ikea last weekend to get a crap ton of furniture and organizy type solutions, but it's still taking forever to unpack.  We've got all of the boxes, aside from our wall art unpacked, but it's reached the stage of unpacking where I feel like I'm just moving piles of stuff from one place to another place.  I try to remind myself of how horrifying it looked last Monday after the movers left, and reassure myself that we're getting there, but oh, how tired I am of piles of stuff and bare walls.  Once our loaner furniture is gone on the 9th, I think we'll feel a lot better about our space, but that seems sooooo far away.

Our 18 week OB appointment was awesome and came with the lovely surprise of finding out that our little Frankensteins have little lady parts.  Colby dealt with some initial disappointment which I fully understood, because I would have felt the same had we found out it was two boys, but I think he's really come around, and he talks about "his girls" all the time now.  I melt.  It also means that I can plunge full steam ahead in my nursery plans.  I had a theme in mind that was pretty gender neutral, but I now I can girly it up just a little and finally update our registry with items that aren't all yellow, green or white.  I have tons of pictures and updates to share with you from the appointment, but they'll have to wait until we get internet at home so I can get the photos from my computer to the World Wide Web.

I also still want to tell you all about Switzerland, but that involves photos.  And we went to a Medieval Festival at a local castle (we have a local castle!!), but again.  Photos.

I went to my first spouse social last week, and met some nice girls, but oh, it made me miss my friends.  Again, I just remind myself that it took time to bond with the other wives in Washington and Charleston, and I know I'll get to that place here as well, but it was definitely a different vibe than my amazing Charleston spouse group, and it made me feel a bit homesick for the first time.

So, I suppose the bottom line is that we're doing well, still loving Germany, still hating the moving process.  We're going to look back on this time fondly some day... right??

Yep, Still Moving

This has been the longest, most ridiculous move I've ever experienced.  It's hard to believe it all started a month and a half ago with the sorting, then the packing, then the physical relocation, then the waiting, and the more waiting.

The past two weeks have been simultaneously wonderful and insane.  I can truly say I love living here--even with all of the crap we've had to deal with on-base and from time to time on the economy.  It's an amazingly beautiful country, I know once we're settled into our house it will be perfect for us, and I'm nearly drunk on all of the travel opportunities we've already had, not to mention the ones that are yet to come.

We're still internetless and phoneless at our house--TMobile did their part in turning on the service, but there's a disconnect between that and what we're getting at the house.  When I call our phone number, it rings on my cell phone, but it doesn't ring in the house, and there's no internet signal.  I tried calling customer service, but shockingly, everything is in German--there is no "Press 1 for English"!  So, we'll probably be making our weekly stop by the TMobile shop some time soon so we can ask our questions and hopefully get everything worked out.

We're really enjoying living out in our village and being away from the Little America feel of the Air Force base.  Last Sunday, we did like the Germans and took the puppies out for a long walk through fields and up and down hills.  One of the things I love about the Germans--and most European countries I've experienced so far--is how active they are.  If it's a nice day, you're going to see scores of people out walking, biking, and running, and bicycling is HUGE here.  There are bike lanes almost everywhere, and bikers are treated like equal vehicles on the road, unlike in the States where in most places you're still taking your life into your hands trying to bike on the streets.

Our neighborhood is wonderful.  I think I mentioned before that there are a couple of Germans on our street, but it's predominantly American military families.  Both of our next door neighbors have come over to introduce themselves, and last week the other wives invited me out to a little street party to celebrate the kids' last day of school.  It's been such a new experience to feel welcomed by our neighbors, and they're all so excited that we've got two babies on the way.  I'm really looking forward to getting to know them over the years.

I also got to experience some interesting local cuisine.  Evidently, there is a huge Turkish population who has settled in Germany, and they brought with them their food to spice up the typical schnitzels and wurst options.  I finally got to try out a doner kebab, and though people make fun of them, I actually really liked it.  It's basically just a gyro, so like any time you're eating meat off a stick, you want to make sure you're getting a quality product, but I don't know why they have such a bad reputation.  I ate the heck out of mine and am looking forward to another!

This past weekend, we ventured down to Switzerland and explored Luzern and Bern.  Switzerland is an INCREDIBLY expensive country, but luckily the exchange rate between dollars and the Swiss Franc was almost 1:1, so it wasn't as financially painful as it could have been.  And we LOVED it.  I still have to go through our photos, but I can't wait to share our adventures with you--it was an absolutely amazing few days

And yesterday, we had the great excitement of welcoming all of our stuff into our home!  We got an email on Friday that our household goods were available for delivery on Monday, and we actually managed to respond in time to lock it in.  Unfortunately, when we called to schedule the pickup of our loaner furniture, the soonest the Air Force can come is July 9th.  JULY NINTH.  Uggggghhhh.  Have I mentioned recently that this base is ridiculous?

So, anyway, we've got all of our furniture and boxes PLUS the hideous Air Force furniture crammed into our house, and I'm going more than just a little crazy from the chaos.  We worked from about 5 until 11 last night unpacking boxes, and I worked from 9 to 12 this morning and that is still an accurate representation of what our main living space looks like.

But hey, it also means that I was finally reunited with my Tempurpedic last night after many, many weeks of sleeping on the shittiest beds imaginable.  I'll take all of the unpacking if it means I get to sleep on a cloud of comfort every night!!!

Getting Settled, Going Crazy

After a very long 2 1/2 weeks of feeling almost constantly frustrated, I think we're finally past the worst of this move to Germany.  We still haven't moved into our house or had our furniture delivered, but I honestly think that unpacking boxes is going to be a breeze after the ups and downs of these past weeks.

Moving to Germany is amazing, make no mistake about it.  The scenery here is gorgeous.  Over the course of two weekends, we've visited three countries.  The people are friendly and for the most part speak beautiful English (even though they seem to think it's only "okay").  I haven't once had a moment of doubt that this is exactly where I want to be right now, but I have had an awful lot of moments of wanting to rip all of my hair out.  It's just hard, because we feel as though we're starting over completely from scratch on "Life".  It's like we just graduated from high school or college and entered the world.  To give you an idea of what I mean, here are some of the things we've had to do since waking up as residents of Germany on May 17th:

• Open up a German bank account
• Find a house
• Have the Air Force base approve our housing contract
• Set up temporary furniture delivery at our house for use until our own things eventually show up
• Search for an affordable, reliable used car
• Research rates and get approved for a car loan which involved opening another bank account
• Set up internet and landlines at the house
• Sign cell phone contracts
• Sign up for the tax avoidance program because we aren't liable for the 19% utility tax here
• Learn German rules of the road and pass a driver's license test
• Go to Customs and/or the gas station on base to get our fuel ration cards so that we don't have to pay the staggeringly high German gas prices
• Have our new car registered
• Apply for a new credit card that doesn't charge international transaction fees

And of course, we have to do most of this while dealing with a language we don't understand, while thinking in Euros and Dollars, and most of these events took hours and hours plus several different trips to accomplish.  For example, while the process of setting up our German bank account was fairly simple, it took three trips to the bank, and we've been back twice since to transfer money since they charge for online banking.  We decided on the first house we looked at, but not until after ruling out three others, and spending about four or five hours in the base housing office trying to get the contract and our furniture delivery approved.  Then there were the various newcomers briefings that we've each gone to, the fact that we have to go to the post office to check our mail now, and scads of other errands that just take SO MUCH LONGER than you would ever think possible.  In comparison, for previous moves, we've just found a house, had our utilities turned on and moved in.  The end.

So, it's been a fairly complicated move in comparison to our previous experiences, but as of last Friday, things started to feel a little more secure as we finally got the keys to our house, the keys to our new car and the Air Force decided to start reimbursing and compensating us for the terrifying amounts of money that we've had to spend to get to this point.
I am madly in love with our car.  We took a day trip to Luxembourg this past Saturday, and as we were cruising down the autobahn, I told Colby that it felt like we were riding in a hug.  First, he laughed at me, then after a moment he said, very seriously, "Yeah, actually, it does."  She's a 2006 Mercedes, so it's like we were super fancy six years ago, but she rides like a dream on the autobahn and is so quiet and smooth that it's easy to see how these Germans easily get up to and over 150/160 kilometers per hour on the autobahn.  Colby went 160 (99 mph) yesterday on one of the unrestricted sections of road, just so we could see how it felt and it seriously seemed like we were going slower than when we would struggle to go 120 in our rattletrap rental.

Since I sold my Mazda Tribute before we moved here, I was supposed to be the primary driver of Colby's Honda Pilot while he drove something more fuel efficient back and forth to work.  But I am absolutely terrified about driving and parking that massive car in tiny villages and the fuel economy of the two vehicles actually isn't that vastly different (the Pilot gets pretty great mileage), so I've been lobbying hard for Colby to let me drive the Mercedes, or as she's become known to us, Heidi, instead.  We'll see how that goes.  For now, we've still got a few weeks before the Pilot even arrives in country, so there's lots of time for me to wear him down.

In the meantime, Colby has started going into work, and I'm stuck in our TLF all day, every day with crappy internet, about eight English tv channels, and some equally stir crazy dogs.  But by Friday, we'll be in our house, we'll have some furniture, and I think we'll start to feel a lot better about life.  Now I just have to get through four more days...

Another New Home

After an INSANE week of packing, working, running last minute errands, spending time with friends, cleaning out our house, driving to Baltimore, dropping our car off at the port, spending 12 hours in an airport, and 7 hours in an airplane over the Atlantic... WE HAVE MADE IT!  No more countdowns, no more preparation... we live in Germany.

I still can't quite believe it.
Last week went pretty well.  At one point we had all three moving companies in our house, and it was hectic trying to direct them all toward the right piles and making sure the right things were leaving with the proper trucks.  The pups started to get a bit overwhelmed when the house started to empty out, but they found consolation when we ended up sleeping downstairs on an air mattress for our last few nights in the house.  They got the special treat of climbing on the bed and curling up with us--usually a huge no no in our house since I can't stand dog hair in my sheets!

Some of our good friends were kind enough to rescue us from our air mattress hell (I was waking up at least once an hour and completely stiff with pain every morning--I'm getting too old for this shit) and we stayed at their house on Saturday and Sunday night.  Saturday, a few of my amazingly wonderful friends hosted a beautiful going away/shower for us.  The theme was our "Journey to Parenthood", and they had peeked at my Pinterest to get an idea for decorations!  The house was decked out with banners and hearts made out of maps, the food was all based around the places that we have lived together over the years--apple pie for Washington, jambalaya for Louisiana, benne wafers for Charleston, Kaisespatzle for Germany, etc--and all of the colors were my front runners for the nursery, aqua, green and yellow.  It was so, so fantastic and we had a wonderful evening with our closest Charleston friends.
Monday, we woke up early, loaded up the car and took care of all our last minute to-do's, then hit the road toward Baltimore around 9:30 am.  We hit some DC traffic that delayed us about an hour, but we made it to our hotel around 7, then went out for a quick dinner.  We went to a really yummy sushi place, Sushi Q for all you Baltimore folk, and I got called out for being pregnant by a stranger for the first time ever.  Guess these babies are starting to make their presence known!
Tuesday was a very long day as we had to complete the intricate dance of dropping our car off at the port, picking up a rental car and reloading everything in the hotel back into the car, then getting to the airport, heading to a wonderful lunch with my very good blog (and real life now!) friend, Lynn and her adorable kids, dropping Colby and all of our stuff at the curb while I went back to drop the rental car off, shuttled back to the airport where we checked in... and then sat for 12 hours.  We checked in at 3:45 and were supposed to take off a bit before 10 pm, but there were mechanical issues and the plane didn't even arrive until 9:45, so we finally took off at midnight.
Although we couldn't talk our way into the first class seats--even playing the pregnant card!--the check-in agent got us some good seats on the top level of the 747, and I had more legroom than I've ever had in a non-bulkhead seat.  There was also a little shelf between my seat and the window where I could put drinks, books and other airplane paraphernalia and not feel squished against the wall.  We both slept for most of the flight and landed around 1:30 pm on Wednesday Germany time.  It took us a while to get our bags, and while Ellie seemed to endure the flight without too much trauma, Jack spent the flight trying to chew his way out of his airline crate.  He even managed to bend some of the metal on the door with the force of his chewing.  He must have been absolutely crazy with fear, poor little guy.  He chipped one of his canines, so we'll need to get him into a vet soon to make sure his teeth are okay.

Our friends picked us up at the terminal and brought us over to our temporary living facilities.  We're set up very nicely for the next few weeks until we can find a permanent housing solution.  We've got two bedrooms, a nice bathroom, a washer and dryer, a very big (for Germany!) kitchen with a dining area and a living room.  Colby spent today inprocessing and I slept in then got unpacked and did a little organizing.  When Colby got home from work we went for a long walk with the pups to enjoy the beautiful weather.

We've still got a long road ahead of us--we have to find a car to buy, a house to rent, set up cell phone service and all of our utilities, figure out a local banking plan, have our household goods delivered, unpack... it's overwhelming, but I'm so excited to be here, and I'm just hoping things start to fall into place soon.  Here we go!

One Week

One week from today, we leave Charleston in our rear view mirror as we set off for our next big adventure.  We both have very mixed feelings about this move.  Of course, I'm incredibly excited to have the opportunity to live in Germany.  We're so lucky to keep going from one amazing assignment to the next, and I think Colby will have a much better work environment with a lot more time at home in Europe.  But, we've really come to feel at home in Charleston.

I never really fell in love with Seattle.  It was a lovely city, and I made some absolutely wonderful friends there, but it never felt like home.  I would recommend it as a vacation destination in a heartbeat, but when we drove south from Washington to South Carolina, I was elated.  I had no qualms about leaving Washington as a memory, and I was unreservedly excited to move.  Now I want to cry when I think that I won't smell the pluff mud anymore, or be able to drive downtown to my favorite restaurants, or feel the salty breeze when we sit out on our back porch.  Charleston has my heart, and as amazing as I know it will be to live in Europe, I'll miss this place desperately.

Two weekends ago, we put off packing for a little while and headed downtown for a stroll and a picnic on the Battery.  We got our delicious sandwiches, chips and a brownie at Caviar & Bananas, then sat on the steps of the gazebo in White Point Gardens.  It was a perfect day--warm, with a slight breeze, the sky was perfectly blue and the water a gorgeous sea green.  This past weekend, we took a short break from packing to meet some friends for brunch at my favorite breakfast place, The Fat Hen, and this coming Friday we'll have our one last date night in Charleston at Hall's Chophouse.  I feel like this is the perfect farewell tour, and the only way leaving won't break my heart is if I keep telling myself, we'll be back again someday.

Attempted storage vs. Germany shipment organization based on neon stickers and piles.  We'll see how it goes.

So, today is our final, frenzied packing day.  Our house looks like a tornado came through--a relatively organized tornado, but still.  We've done our best to sort out what will be going into storage, what will arrive in Germany in a couple of months, and what will be delivered as soon as we find a place to live.  I have goodbye dinners and lunches lined up most days of the week, I'll work my last day as a nanny on Thursday, and by the end of the day Thursday all of our stuff will be gone.

This is my fourth military move, and by far the most difficult on every level.  I long for the days when the movers just showed up and did all the work for us!  But by tonight, we'll be done with our portion and we'll let the professionals take over in the morning (though with heavy supervision so that, with any luck, everything ends up going to the right place).  And in a week, we'll be Germany bound.

I'll miss Charleston, but I am looking forward to our next step.  This year carries with it so much potential for awesomeness and as sad as I am about saying goodbye to this chapter of my life, I'm ready to grab on to the future with both hands and take full advantage of all of the opportunities and adventures that await!

Counting Down the Days

Two days until my first hair appointment in WAY TOO LONG.  These roots are seriously out of control.

Four days until I drive to Baton Rouge, then onto Houston with my parents to visit my sister and her family, and my aunt and cousin.  It'll be the last time I get to spend with them in the States for who knows how long, and I'm already sad about leaving them.

Eleven days until Colby finally gets home from his training in Seattle.  He'll have been gone for 7 weeks--hardly our longest separation ever, but almost as long as he was gone for his last deployment since he got to come home early!

Twenty one days until the first day that the movers show up.  They're scheduled to pack and load over the course of three days, and I can't wait to have it behind us.  We have to separate all of our possessions into three categories: Storage, Household Goods (which will arrive in Germany 2 or 3 months later), and Unaccompanied Baggage (900 pounds that will be shipped by air and should arrive within a couple of days--so everything we'd need immediately).  Of course, since the house always has to be "show ready", I haven't been able to start separating things out, and I have a feeling it's going to be an incredibly chaotic few days making sure all of the right stuff goes with the right people.

Twenty seven days until we load up our car and leave Charleston behind.  It's incredibly bittersweet, and the reality that we're actually leaving has started to really sink in.  Yesterday, it was in the upper 70s in Charleston and there was snow falling in Germany.  Yikes, never ending winter!

Twenty nine days until we will be residents of Deutschland!  And then the adventures will really begin!

Radio Silence

Y'all.  I am wiped out.

Between work, social obligations, trying to keep the house "show ready", and the early stages of true stress about this Germany move, I am seriously lacking the energy to read any blogs, let alone write a post.

Last week, I worked every day during the week, and also had tons of fun outings with pals.  On Wednesday, I went to see Titanic in 3D with one of my besties, and it was EVERYTHING I hoped it would be.  It's actually the first movie I've seen that I really thought benefited from 3D technology.  The movie really is gorgeous, and the glamour of the Belle Epoque is truly enhanced by the multiple dimensions.  Then the awful sinking scenes are so much more dramatic and literally in your face.  The only part I hate about 3D movies is how I'm constantly shoving my glasses up my nose and I get a slight headache.  But I have no doubt that someday soon we will all have computer chips implanted in our heads rendering 3D glasses redundant.

Thursday, I was very excited to meet Erin for the first time!  I discovered her blog and immediately was hooked when I learned about our common love for Ireland.  She moved to Charleston shortly after I started reading her blog, and we've been talking about getting together ever since, so I'm so happy we finally made it happen.  I enjoyed a delicious duck confit fried rice at Two Boroughs Larder in Charleston and really hope I get the chance for a return visit before we move.

Friday, I met a pal at my favorite local Greek restaurant, Papa ZuZu's , and it was nice to catch up and decompress a bit after a long week.  Saturday, I actually had a day of freedom, then Sunday I met Erin again and another friend for a delicious Easter Brunch at Charleston's Cafe and went over to a different friend's house for her family Easter dinner.  It was a fantastically tasty day, and my thighs are still trying to recover!

This week, I'll probably rack up something in the neighborhood of 50 hours of work--maybe something to scoff at for many people, but for this part time gal, I'm already worn out!  Yesterday and Monday I had 4 am wakeups so I could be dressed and over to my client's house by 5:40.  The little girl is mainly sweet, but she is 4 going on 16, and by the end of our 13 hours together yesterday, she was tired and I was about at the end of my rope with her attitude.  We have one more really long day to get through together on Friday, but I know things will be fine up until nap time, then once she gets up I'll have to deal with the grouchies until mom gets home around 9.

Next week should be a little quieter, but I don't have another "day off from life" until I get home from visiting family in Houston on the 27th.  Then I'll have a couple of days to relax before life gets utterly crazy again and the movers show up on May 8th.  Exactly 5 weeks until our first full day living in Germany.  Ack!!

Major Steps Forward

It's been all Air Force all the time around here, as our move draws closer.

We're down to 46 days before we drive to Baltimore, then catch our flight to Germany the next day.  Now, if we were footloose and fancyfree non-pet owners, we'd just fly up to Baltimore and after a layover, hop on the overseas flight.  However, the planes that fly from Charleston to Baltimore are too small to send dogs in the cargo hold.  So.  Enter complications.

After a great deal of head scratching, price comparisons, and not a little whining (on my part), we've come up with the following plan.

Early May 14th: Load the car and make the 10 hour drive up to Baltimore, check into a hotel around 7 pm.

Early May 15th: Split up after breakfast.  I'll take the shuttle to the airport and pick up a rental car that will fit all of our crap, including aforementioned animules.  Colby will take his car to the port to have it shipped to Germany where it won't arrive for another 6 weeks or so.  I'll take the rental back to the hotel, do another round of loading, then head to the port to pick Colby up, and back to the airport where I'll drop him at the curb with all of our stuff, bring the rental back, then God willing and the creek don't rise, check in to the AMC terminal with plenty of time to spare before our last possible check-in time.

First order of business when we arrive in Germany will be to buy something fuel-efficient that Colby will use to drive to work and we can share until his car arrives by boat.

The joy of this all, is that the Air Force would have covered our flight from Charleston to Baltimore, but the best we're going to get out of them in this scenario is if they MAYBE cover our rental car.  Seriously, after having dogs I don't see how kids won't be an absolute breeze.

So, it'll be a hassle, but at least the plan has been made and solidified and it's not hanging over our heads anymore.  Next order of business is getting the dogs vaccinated and micro-chipped, and I have an appointment to get that ball rolling in a couple of weeks.

The other big excitement lately is that the Air Force major promotion list came out yesterday, and Colby made the grade!  We weren't really too worried about whether he'd be selected or not, but major is the first rank where a promotion board meets to review the candidates and more than just a pulse is required from the eligible ladies and gentlemen.  Colby and all of the other captains who commissioned in 2003 submitted their Promotion Recommendation Forms at the end of 2011, and we've just been waiting around these past few months to hear the results.

I'm so proud of him that he was one of the 90% selected from the pool of applicants, and eventually there is a nice pay raise that will come with this promotion.  Unfortunately, due to the way Congress budgets for military salaries, we won't reap the benefits until mid-2013.  Each officer who is selected for promotion is given a line number based on their date of commissioning, and that line number dictates the order in which they are allowed to "pin on" their new rank and begin receiving their pay increase.

It's all very confusing and much more labrynthine than it probably needs to be, but alas, tis the way of the military.  Now it will probably be another 6 years or so before we have to run another promotion gauntlet, so Colby will be able to just sit back and relax with his oak leaves for a little while!

The crazy thing is, I can remember sitting in my ROTC classroom in college, watching while our Commandant of Cadets taped cardboard bronze oak leaves onto the shoulders of our instructors who had just found out they made Major, and I just thought they were SO OLD.  So.  I guess that makes us old now.  Rank and forehead wrinkles don't lie.

Ups and Downs

Down: I'm running on energy fumes after babysitting for six out of the last seven days.  I was substitute nannying for a friend, working for one of my regular families, and picked up some hours for a sitting service resulting in 40 hours of work--full time for one week!  The amount of time wasn't so bad, but the hours were pretty brutal.  I had to wake up at 4 am for three of those days, and 5 am on another leaving me pretty much wiped out all week.
Up: I made some good money, and really did have fun with the little ones.  At the sitting service job, I worked in the baby room and spent hours and hours just cuddling and cooing over teensy tiny little humans.  Oh, how I want one!!

Down: We've been spending so much money lately, I'm starting to feel like our savings account is hemorrhaging.  Between our fertility meds, the IVF cycle, a new mattress and finally replacing my 4 1/2 year old Macbook that had been on its last leg for about a year, our credit card can't catch a break.
Up: We are insanely lucky that my parents were kind enough to offer us a loan for our fertility treatments so we were able to pay off our credit cards and avoid going through a creditor that would charge us outrageous interest on a loan.  Plus it's amazing to have a working computer (oh my goodness, I can't believe how lightning fast and spectacular a Macbook Pro is!), our Tempurpedic is making sleeping my favorite new hobby, and hopefully some of those thousands will help bring about a precious bundle of joy in about 8 months!

Down: We never heard anything back on the original offer on the house, so we're assuming the financing just didn't work out for the buyer.
Up: We have another showing today, and my house is under specific orders to sparkle and shine in an effort to seduce the prospective buyers.  The original offer was a totally crap lowball anyway, so hopefully everything will work out for the best.

Down: Colby left on Sunday for six weeks of training in a simulator for the aircraft that he'll be flying in Germany.  I already miss him dreadfully and it was even harder saying goodbye this time than it was for the deployment.  It's been a very emotionally and physically draining couple of months, and I was really relying on him to help get me through the days.  I'm not looking forward to the weeks ahead on my own.
Up: We'll earn a nice chunk of cash in per diem which will really help us toward fattening up that savings account again.  And fortunately, this go round he'll still be in the States which means good cell phone reception and a strong internet signal for Skyping.  And, with his next assignment being a non-deployment gig, it will hopefully be our last long separation for a long time. 

What about you?  Hopefully your ups have been outweighing your downs lately!

The Other Stuff

So, despite the evidence shown by my blog posts lately, I have had a lot going on in my life outside of Operation Frankenbaby.

Our house went on the market just over a week ago and we've already had a showing, an offer, and the financing fall through on the offer.  It was all terribly exciting, and then the weather turned to crap.  I'm hoping that March brings a lot more warm, beautiful, sunny spring days and that all of these people allegedly flocking to the Charleston 'burbs decide to take a twirl through our house.  And then decide to pay us lots of money for it.

I've also been working quite a bit, which is helpful being that we just paid off the credit card that included the payment for Operation Frankenbaby.  Still mainly my regulars, but this week I'm "substitute nannying" for a friend who is on a mission trip.  So, I've got a super precocious four-year-old this week for 3 days starting between 5:45 and 6:45 depending on the morning.  Yesterday, I had her from 6:45 to 4:30 and we managed to squeeze in a trip to Barnes & Noble, the county park to play at the playground, and Chick Fil A for lunch followed by ridiculous amounts of time in the Playplace.  By the time we got home at 2:00, I was utterly wiped and she agreed to some quiet time in her room with a DVD.  I'm pretty sure she was asleep the minute her head hit the pillow.  Anyway, the days are long, but she's fun and I'm looking forward to having her for another couple of weeks in April.

Also yesterday, a representative from the moving company came out and took a look at our house so they'd know how much time to allow for packing and loading.  Despite the fact that Army Wives last weekend made it look like military wives are solely responsible for packing their entire house, I completely embrace the moving company approach.  We've got a few things packed away and labeled in case they end up in storage, but I fully intend to spend a couple of days chilling on the sofa while people around me pack my shit.

Colby is leaving this Sunday for six weeks of training for his new aircraft, and if we're lucky and things go according to plan, that will be our last long separation until we leave Germany.  Of course, the Air Force is always trying to pull a fast one on us, so we'll see how that goes.  But during that time, I'm just planning to soak up every last bit of Charleston that I can and spend lots of time with friends and family.  When he gets home, the movers come pack up our lives and a few days later we'll be flying from Baltimore to Germany!

Only 68 days left stateside.  Wow.

 

 

Good Things

Last week was a whirlwind of events, and this week looks to be even crazier... followed by another busy week visiting my sister in NYC, then another busy week with multiple family members in town.  Fortunately, I had an incredibly low key weekend to recuperate and prepare myself for the onslaught.

But I'm really not complaining, because things have been going so much better than I thought possible.  We made our payments for our IVF cycle and my fertility medications, and much to our great shock, the total came to just a little over half of what we had budgeted.  Partially this is because we were initially planning on the multiple IVF cycle payment plan, so deciding to just go with the one cycle dropped our payments by about $5000.  Then there was the fantastic news that Tricare will cover part of the medication, dropping that payment about $2000 from our estimate.  Then, when we went to the clinic last week to sign some consents and get our finances in order, we were told that they had had a meeting with Tricare just the day before and the company had agreed to cover the $900 room fee.

It's funny how when you're preparing yourself for a bill in the five digits, a total in the four digits seems like pocket change in comparison.  I mean, a LOT of pockets full of change, but you know.  It softens the blow.

Still, we haven't quite cleared the financial obstacles ahead of us, so we aren't blowing our ravaged, but still intact nest egg on a round the world cruise or anything.  We hope against hope that we'll be one cycle wonders, but just in case we aren't, it's good to know that we've got a small buffer to help us through another cycle.

Then there's our beautiful, beloved Charleston home which we're planning to put on the market in mid-February.  We met with our realtors last week, and while they helped us feel a bit more optimistic that our house will sell fairly quickly, there's always the chance that we'll be responsible for two stateside mortgages as well as a steep deposit (usually one or two months rent) and rent payments in Germany.  But they seemed reasonably confident that we'll be able to at least get our money back on the house, and if we're lucky maybe a little more.

We've been spending each weekend for most of January going through each room of our house and making brutally difficult decisions about what will come to Germany, what will stay in storage in the US and what can go to consignment shops or Goodwill.  It's absolutely astounding the massive amount of stuff that accumulates with time.  We have only been here for two years and don't have an attic or a basement, so I honestly have no idea how all of this extra stuff has been floating around our house all this time.  But we are making progress, and I only have a few closets left to purge and plenty of time before the movers arrive.

I've also been working quite a bit, and still enjoying every minute of it.  I'm nannying four days a week, and with additional as-needed babysitting jobs, I'm typically working five or six days each week.  I'm very proud to say that with just a couple more weeks of work, I will have earned enough just from my jobs to cover our fertility meds.  The only regret I have is that I didn't get into this business a long time ago!

This week is full of more work, more home improvements, and lots of fun times with friends.  We've only got a little time left before our life changes dramatically in multiple ways, so I'm trying very hard to live each day to the fullest and not wish away the now in exchange for the unknown future.  Times they are a'changin'!

My Heart Is Going Pitter Patter

Oh, what a spectacular two weeks it has been.  My world has been completely turned upside down, but so far in only the best ways.

I would be lying my butt off if I said I wasn't the least bit nervous or anxious about moving to Germany, but so far any negative feelings have been completely trumped by my excitement.  I can hear the happiness in Colby's voice when he talks about it too, and it's so good for us to finally have something amazing to look forward to and help pull us out of the slump that we've fallen into this year.  I've already been hitting the German phrase books and (probably annoyingly) been dropping random German words and phrases into conversation.  I've been pestering friends with multitudes of questions and have justified the purchase of a few new items based on the fact that I will TOTALLY need new winter clothes for Germany!

On top of that, we found out that Colby will be coming home soon.  I can't say exactly when, but when I tell you soon, I mean SOON.  As in I just placed a call to our IVF coordinator so that we can start figuring out when we'll fit in our procedure between January and March!  SOON!!

I've been wandering through the house all morning thinking about how we'll stage it to sell, what items will come with us and what will go into storage, and all of the organizational projects I have in front of me to make this move as painless as possible.

And then, even in the midst of all the craziness, I made myself relax and enjoy a lovely Christmas at home with my family.  In past years it has become an all too rare incident for all of us to be sitting around the tree on Christmas morning, so I try not to take any of it for granted, and as fantastic as all of my gifts were, I spent most of my effort on imprinting memories into my brain and enjoying our time together.

Of course, I'm also another year older since the last time we met here in blogland.  On December 20th, my life calendar rolled over from 28 to 29 and I am now staring boldly down the barrel of 30.  And you know?  I'm not the least bit worried about it.

2011 has been a rocky year, at best.  There have been countless good moments for which I am truly grateful, but overall, I'm not sorry to be saying goodbye to this year.  2012 will bring with it so many adventures and dreams come true, that I can't help but look forward to it with hope and great expectations.  A new country, a new home, new friends, a new decade of life.  Bring it on 2012.  I'm ready for you!

Deutschland, Deutschland

It's hard to believe that just a little over two years ago I was excitedly announcing our assignment to Charleston, South Carolina.  A week and a half ago, I was still laboring under the delusion that we would be living here happily for at least another year--probably a bit longer.

Then Friday we got the news that we will be moving to Germany.  In May.

It's been three days since that shocking, sweeps week reveal, and things are finally starting to sink in.  We knew there was a chance that it would happen--we did put our name in the hat, so it wasn't entirely unexpected, but I don't think either one of us expected to actually get picked for the assignment.

There is so much to think about.  Colby will be coming home early from the deployment so that he can go to training for the new aircraft from March through April, then we'll be on our way to Europe a couple of weeks later.  We have to find out if we can squeeze in a round of IVF.  We have to sell our house, we might sell a car.  We have to decide what will go into storage while we're overseas, what will come on the quick shipment to live with us while we're in temporary housing.  We have to learn some German.  We have to get the dogs microchipped and injected full of various substances so that they can become international travelers.

And so, so much more.

But I am so, so excited.  Both of us have been dreaming of moving to Germany since we joined the Air Force.  We had really accepted that it probably wasn't in the cards for us since there are such limited opportunities there for someone on Colby's career path.  Then with our baby plans, it's not the best timing in the world, but one thing I've learned is that there is no such thing as perfect timing and you have to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.  Because they may never come around again.

So.  Anyone want to come visit me in Germany?

Poor Unfortunate Soul

It has been way too long since I blogged.  I've kept myself quite busy since my last post, and kept thinking, "I really must blog this," but now that I'm sitting down to write, I'm having trouble remembering all of the terribly interesting activities I've been getting up to.

Well, for one, I had my hysteroscopy last week, and the doctor removed a polyp from my uterus.  I'm proud to say that I have been polyp-free for four days now.  It was actually surprisingly painless, though I'm a little concerned that I may be a drug addict now.  My anesthesia was absolutely dreamy--literally, I had a wonderful dream having to do with a large Christmas tree and angels--and for 20 minutes I enjoyed the best sleep of my entire life.  I actually managed to wake up from anesthesia feeling remarkably rested.  Well, after it took 2 nurses to transport me from the procedure room to recovery.  For a minute there I felt more like I'd just downed three cosmos and a panty dropper than like I was recovering from minor surgery.
As a side-note, ever since I discovered that I may be rife with uterine polyps, I've been imagining that inside of me is a tiny reproduction of Ursula's garden of unfortunates in The Little Mermaid.  I imagined mine as a sort of greying, mustachioed little man--an unholy combination of a polyp and the Lorax.  I kind of miss him now that he's gone.

My parents were in town for the week, to ensure that I did not have any sort of anesthesia related emergencies, not the least of which included perusing the underbelly of Craigslist for enterprising doctors who may be convinced to ply me with a steady drip of propofol on a nightly basis.  They kept mentioning Michael Jackson.  I got the message loud and clear.

When we weren't spending quality family time at the fertility clinic, we managed to have a little fun out on the town.  They treated me to a mouth-wateringly delicious anniversary dinner at Hall's Chophouse in downtown Charleston, my mom and I spent a day knocking out our Christmas lists, and we even squeezed in a matinee of The Muppets.  I still tear up when I think about The Rainbow Connection number, though that may have still been the remnants of drugs giving me such a warm, glowy feeling.

They headed home on Friday, and I spent the weekend recovering from all of my non-hermit behavior with a full DVR and a new book.  I even managed to squeeze in a little money-making, babysitting for a new family with three adorable kids.

All in all, it's been a good few weeks, and my mood has been, for the most part, pretty elevated.  I feel like I've finally gotten into my deployment groove, and have somewhat acclimated to my routine of single spousehood.  Obviously, I really wish that Colby could be here for all of the holidays and, well, everything, but I'm in a pretty good place, and it seems like time is going by a little more quickly now than it did a few weeks ago.  I've still got plenty to keep me busy with my favorite hobby of uselessly stressing and fretting, but at least now when I cry I generally have a pretty good reason!

Ups and Downs: The I'm Still Here Edition!

Down: Clearly I abandoned NaBloPoMo.  I was all excited to participate, because when I did it a few years ago, I found lots of fun blogs and got some extra readers round these parts.  Sadly, this time it just feels incredibly impersonal, and I've had all of ONE hit from the extensive list of over 2000 participants.  I've also been feeling like blogging has been a "job" and I always promised myself that I'd never allow that to happen.  Blogging should be footloose and fancy free.  Unless someone starts paying me.  Anyone?  Bueller?
Up: That doesn't mean I've given up blogging altogether, just that I shan't be clogging up your Reader/Facebook/Twitter feed every bloody day.  I think we can all toast to that!

Down: Colby and I have had really rotten luck with the phones since he deployed.  He's been gone for just over three weeks now, and we've only managed to have one successful phone conversation.
Up: At least we got one phone call!  I try to remember how lucky we are to have all of the methods of communication that we do have available to us, and how much harder it would have been in the days of only being able to write a letter to the last known address and hoping it got there.  We got to talk for about 30 minutes on Wednesday, and it was glorious!  Here's hoping the internet continues to cooperate and we can do that again before another 3 weeks goes by.

Down: I've been so busy, I've really been letting the house go instead of sticking to my daily housekeeping chores.  I had some time to get things together today, but I've got a ways to go before my parents get in town on Monday.
Up: I've been so busy!  And my parents will be here in three days!  It really is amazing how much faster the time goes by when I'm not sitting around feeling sorry for myself.  Instead, I've been babysitting almost every day, spending time with friends, squeezing in lots of runs, and working on my Thanksgiving and Christmas to-do lists--I even made room in the budget (because I bought the tickets a month ago before there WAS a budget) to go see the national tour of In The Heights.  It made me wish I was a super sexy Latina!

Only Up!: Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm SO excited to be hosting the big dinner at my house next week!  My parents will be in town and a few of my "single spouse" friends will be coming over with their kids to help us celebrate and feast!  I'll be talking more about my Turkey Day plans next week, but for now I need to hit the road for a seven mile run (hold me) and gear up for a working weekend.  Hasta luego mis amigos!

Eleventh Hour Eleventh Day Eleventh Month

I cannot remember a single moment in time when I haven't had identified with the military.  I have no idea how old I was when I got my first actual id card--twelve maybe?--but even before that day, I knew that I was a part of the military.  My father had spent 20 years in the Air Force, and even as a child, I was pretty proud of that.  Once he retired, and we had moved to Louisiana, not many of my friends had parents who had served in the military, so I always felt that it was a pretty unique defining characteristic.

Then, in high school, I decided to take a couple of years of JROTC so that I wouldn't have to take a phys ed course, and four years later, I was accepting an Air Force ROTC scholarship and signing a contract to commission upon graduation.  I traded in my dependent id for a reserve id.  Another four years down the road, I was once more signing on the dotted line as I accepted my commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and began active duty as a personnel officer at Little Rock AFB.

While I was proud to serve my country, being on active duty never felt like the right fit for me, so when I got the opportunity to separate and join the inactive ready reserves, I once again traded for a reserve id.  Not too long after that, I came full circle when I was issued the dependent id card that came with marrying into the military.

I'm incredibly proud of my family's military tradition.  Three of my four grandparents moved to America from other countries, in search of the American dream.  But in that short time since we were established in the United States, each generation of my family has served in the military.  My grandfather as a part of the Army Air Corps in WWII.  My father in Vietnam.  Me in Operation Push Papers.  And now my husband in Operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn.

I'm celebrating Veteran's Day by giving thanks for all of the men and women who get up every morning and protect our country.  And I'm also giving thanks for the life that the military has afforded me.  It is far from perfect, and at times it can be downright miserable.  But it has given me a sense of pride and honor.  It has given me the opportunity to travel and to call so many places home.  It has brought so many wonderful people into my life.

And I'm shipping this off to my veteran who is far from home on this day that honors him.  I'd rather have him here, but if we have to be apart, I'm so proud that this is the work he's doing.  Thank you, Colby.  Thank you, daddy.  And thank you to anyone else who serves or has served.  America is a better place for having you.

The Impossible Dream

I'm reading Don Quixote right now, and I'm finding it surprisingly funny and touching.  I have been wanting to read it for a while because Man of La Mancha is one of my favorite musicals.  Or at least, it's one of my favorite soundtracks.  I've not yet had the chance to see it performed, but I've listened to the music while reading the libretto, and much like the book, it is both heartwarming, sad, and absurd.

So, as I make my way through the novel, I usually end up singing the music to myself as I read, and the songs get stuck on repeat in my head throughout the day.  Tonight, I decided to take a break from Christmas music to listen to the album, and when it got to The Impossible Dream, I stood frozen at the sink, hot water running, dirty pot in hand, listening to the lyrics.  Really hearing the words.

I've always thought it was a beautiful song, but as I listened this evening, my eyes filled with tears because it resonated in a new way.  It says everything I've been trying to tell myself over the past few months.  To be strong in the face of oppressive disappointment and sorrow.  To keep love alive when distance is a near constant companion.  To follow dreams into a world of fear and uncertainty in the hopes that we will come through intact.  To keep believing that despite seemingly endless setbacks, dreams can still become reality.  Clinging to those beliefs like a life raft to get myself through the bad days.

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right, without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm, when I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable star.

What Goes Down Must Come Up

Down: It has been an incredibly long week since Colby left, and I still have moments where I just want to stop whatever it is I'm doing and throw a good, loud tantrum.
Up: We're one week into this and that's one week less to get through.

Down: Colby's internet connection in Overtheristan is complete crap making it impossible for us to carry on a phone conversation over Skype.
Up: I finally figured out how to use the Skype app on my cell phone, so we're able to use the chat option like text messaging.  It's nice to not feel chained to my computer in order to hear from him.

Down: I left quite possibly the most embarrassing voicemail in my history of embarrassing voicemails for a propsective babysitting client.  I managed to 1) say "um" about seventeen times 2) refer to the two children of unknown gender who I would be watching as "her son" 3) sound as though I were about to hang up before launching into a whole new series of ridiculous sentences and 4) forget to say anything along the lines of "goodbye" before hanging up the phone and launching it across the room in sheer terror.
Up:  She called me back.  And I've got three other parent meetings set up for this weekend and early next week, as well as a job that will give me 15 hours over the course of Friday evening and Saturday.  Woo!

Down: On my Tuesday run, my knee started to feel twingy around mile two.  I kept running, and the pain was gone by the time I got home.  But then it started throbbing while I was in the shower, and has been sore ever since.  I've been scared to run on it, and tried wearing a brace yesterday, but the brace just hurt even more.  The pain has abated, so hopefully this is just a one off incident and I'll be back in business for my run today.
Up: My runs have been getting much better and are verging on enjoyable.  I've also been working on improving my speed, and am so close to getting my pace under 10 minutes, I can taste it!

Down: It's been about seven years in internet time since the new Facebook was released, and I still hate it.  There are so many posts from people I love that I never get to see, and while I used to get tons of hits and interaction on my blog from friends, now I get about 20-30 click throughs a day.
Up: I'm spending a lot less time on Facebook these days! 

What are your ups and downs this week?  I hope the ups are vastly outweighing the downs!

Off To A Good Start

I decided to begin this deployment as I mean to go on.  No... not crying alone in my car.  Not inhaling an entire carton of Pringles and a bag of Twizzlers in one sitting...  Maybe let's just not actually take Thursday into account at all.  But from Friday on, I was bound and determined to have a Good Weekend.

I kicked things off on Friday evening with a girls' night at a friend's house.  We ate tons of junk food, played corn hole in the dark (I still don't fully grasp that game), watched YouTube videos, and generally just helped take each others' minds off the fresh absence of our husbands.  I had intended to spend the night, but around 2 in the morning, I felt an overwhelming wave of homesickness and just wanted to be at my house.  Fortunately, I didn't have to call my mom to come pick me up--being 28 is SO much better than being six!

Saturday, I got the house in order, went for a four mile run, and made a sizeable dent in our DVR backlog.  Then, yesterday, I tried out Barsa, a tapas restaurant downtown, with a friend.  We've both been facing a lot of the same obstacles over this past year, so it's always nice to hang out and know that the other person just "gets it".  Also, the drinks and food were delicious!  I was thrilled to see "Pisco Disco" on the cocktail menu.  When I had my bachelorette weekend in New York many moons ago, we went to a swanky club where we ordered and subsequently fell in love with, Pisco Punch.  It's not a liquor I see on a menu often, but when I do I always try it out and bask in the fond memories.

I also uploaded a profile to a couple of babysitting sites, and have even booked a couple of jobs with a friend!  I'm really focused on trying to make some money over this deployment to put toward our Baby Buying Fund, and I like that with babysitting I can still retain some flexibility and make about the same hourly wage (if not more, which is pretty sad) than I would in many local office and childcare jobs.  Hopefully the jobs start trickling in soon.

This upcoming week is also pretty full, and I'm looking forward to brushing off the Alice in Wonderland costume for some Trick or Treating at the Outlets this afternoon!  Happy Halloween!!