Internet Sweet Internet

Drum-roll please...

That's right, folks, we're live in Otterberg!  Back to my regular scheduled broadcast!  The [well documented and photographed] adventures of The Jesses and The Girls continue!

I just read through *some* of the comments on the measly 5 posts for this month and I had quite the chuckle!  I can almost feel Mom and Toni's blood pressure rising with each comment! ;o)  I love you guys.  And you all make me feel very loved!

So the guy from Kabel Deutschland (German Cable) was our BFF this morning.  He came right on time and though he only spoke a little English (he's mostly a French and German fella) he got everything straightened out for us and here I am!  Sitting on my couch on my laptop with INTERNET! :o) 

*Happy dance all around* 

And whew can I just say how overwhelmed I am with all that I feel I've missed this month?  It's crazy... I'm so back-logged in the communication and photo-sharing department!  And I have much emailing and facebook-stalking to do! ;o)  So bear with me while I try to play catch up for a little bit.  I have to get back into the swing of regular posting... but I have SO MUCH to tell that I'm sure it won't be hard!

For now, here are a few PICTURES! 

Front view of the house.  We live on the top floor(s).  You can't see from here, but there is another story up there.  So we have the 2nd and 3rd floors.  Our downstairs neighbor is the 85-year-old mother of our landlady.  She's great.  More on her later :o)  Also, we took down the ugly satellite dish from the previous tenants.

Living room.

Kitchen.

The view from one side of the balcony.  This is a terrible shot... I need to get some better ones!

Side yard.

Back yard.  And laundry ;o) 

Back patio.  And lights!

  

Jesse and LJ on the balcony.  There's an entrance from our bedroom (pictured) and from the living room.  Jesse is laying facing the only corner where we could get internet! ;o) 

Many more stories, pictures, and explanations to come!  But I can hear Double Trouble upstairs telling me that that blessed time of day (when they nap together!) is coming to a close!  

Till next time... which will be much sooner than a week from now! :o) 

Good News

Good News #1:  My Love has saved the day and is getting us cable internet and phone... soon :o)  We were referred to this cool place called The Comm Shop and they basically function as the middle man to help all us dumb English-only-folk navigate the contracts and such with the cable company.  So Friday he got us all set and now all we're waiting on is for them to call (they promised it'd be by Wednesday of this week) to make an appointment to come and install!  I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be by the end of the week so I can actually get some pictures up this weekend... but let's not get our undies in an uproar if it doesn't happen ;o)

Good News #2:  On a related note, I'm hoping my Mom and MIL will forgive the long internet silence when I tell them that Jesse got us UNLIMITED CALLING TO THE STATES on our land line!  So I'll be able to chat your ear off nonstop till I catch you all up on all the grandgirls goings on.  Also, our cable is going to be lightning fast (supposedly) so we should have some rockin' skype dates on the horizon! 

Good News #3:  Our car situation is much improved!  First, our Mercedes was fixed in a day and it cost us less then $200 (whew!).  The mechanic was within walking distance and they came and towed the car down for free.  They informed Jess that there are a few other things "going" on the car, so we know not to expect it to last us that long or anything... or at least we're bracing ourselves to put a little money into it if we feel we still need two vehicles.  AND our other car (the Saturn we already owned) is here.  It came late last week and we're hoping I can get in on Wednesday to take my license so that we can go pick it up together.  YAY! 

Also good news: the sun is bright and beautiful today so I think I'm going to hit the pavement with the girls and get our jog on again.  It was a little rainy this weekend (hence the lack of blog posting... can't *really* sit in the rain on your balcony with your laptop... I guess... *some* people in this family frown on such things...) but it's nice now so I'm determined to start exercising again! 

Hope you have a great week and I HOPE I'll be posting soon with lightning fast cable... and pictures... from my comfy couch! ;o) 

Hello from My Balcony

Hi!  Jesse found out we can pay a few euros a day for internet from the hotel down the road.  But the signal is bad and so the only way we can get it is by sitting on the very corner of our balcony!  And the sun just went down so it's getting a little cold... gotta hurry...

Jesse was bound and determined to get internet this week but our CAR decided to crap out on us after only a WEEK of being adopted into our family!  We were not happy with her... but thankfully all she wanted was a new fuel pump, which the nice mechanic down the road says he'll have by tomorrow and will install for us as soon as he can fit us in.  In the meantime, Jesse is bumming rides to work and being kind of stressed.

Well, he's not stressed now that we know we aren't carless... for long ;o)  But that's the reason I'm not so sure that he'll be able to get us internet by this weekend, like he'd hoped.  Maybe he will... we shall see. 

Also, we have a fully fridge/pantry of food, so no worries! 

I walked around Otterberg today and got lost.  It's got a lot more twisty-turney streets than Ramstein.  I wasn't technically lost... just stuck going the wrong direction! :o)  Also, the sidewalks are NOT double-stroller friendly.  At. All.  Thankfully, the drivers are very pedestrian-minded. 

I don't really have much else to say tonight and that's good cause my teeth are starting to chatter and I want to go snuggle on the couch with My Love. 

But I did want to say that I love you all.  I love reading your comments when I get the chance.  And I can't wait to show you how much fun we've been having!  PSCing to another country is stressful and tough... but we are starting to catch our breath now... and once we have internet we'll be good to go! 

Have I got some pictures for YOU! ;o)

XOXOXO!

This Week

THIS WEEK we tried (again) and failed (again) to get cable internet.  Boo.  Jesse played a lot of phone tag... which in one case meant calling only to discover the associate didn't speak any English.  Uh... sorry... guess I'll call later?...  So we're really hoping this week.  We may have to get satellite or dsl... but from what we heard it's worth the hassle to try for cable.  (Faster skype dates anyone?)  :o)  So please bear with us while we wait another week or so!

THIS WEEK Jesse started working on his CDCs.  (Career Development Curriculum, I think?)  Basically, it's the material of the three month class he has to take.  And since they couldn't fit him into the class starting Monday, he's got over a month to wait.  And while he waits he's mostly sitting in an office studying.  Not a bad deal... he goes to the squadron, studies, works out, etc.  He can even take off for a quick lunch break with his girls, run some errands (like electric... or cable!), or even come to his sick wife's rescue!

THIS WEEK the girls got their "big dipey butts" back on... cloth diapering strikes again! ;o)  No one seems to notice the difference but the washing machine! 

THIS WEEK I was sick.  The weirdest thing ever... we think it was food poisoning!  (Subway.  On base.  You've been warned.)  So I woke up the day after with blurred visiona nd a headache... Jess left me with the phone (don't worry, we're getting another one soon) and within hours I was calling in an SOS.  I was a mess... couldn't keep any food or drink down for 24 hours.  Thankfully I had My Love to take care of things while he regimented my diet and made me sleep it off.  He kept both girls happy and quiet and fed and alive and all that jazz AND he did the dishes!  MY HERO!  Oh yeah, and the next morning I was up and basically back to normal... a little weak at first, but still able to tidy up the house in time for friends to come over! ;o)  (Yeah, we're crazy!)

THIS WEEK we had friends over!  Finally!  We had about seven friends from work over to christen our new grill.  Good times! 

THIS WEEK we bought a GPS.  The hubs didn't want to shell out the cash, but unfortunately for him, it's a little trickier to find your way around here... especially when you get lost!  But we have our trusty GPS by our side now so we shall never get lost again! :o) 

OH I almost forgot... THIS WEEK we bought a car!  (Silly thing to forget but it happened on Monday...)  The tenant before us didn't have time to ditch it before he left for Guam so he offered it to us for $1000!  It's a 1992 Mercedes! ;o)  More on that, and the unveiling of her name, later!

Alright... time to go.  *Sigh*  It's hard for a three-a-day blogger to cut down to once-a-weekers like this!  I couldn't even download pics for ya (tried, promise!) cause the connection is too slow!  So it's off to go find my man and girls and get our grocery shopping done.  Till next time... know that I love ya and miss ya! ;o) 

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey everyone!  I just read through *some* of your comments and got a good laugh!  Unfortunately I don't have time to answer them all, yet... Jesse's wandering around the BX trying to keep two baby girls happy while I grab me some wifi and a coffee at Cinnabon! ;o)  So here's the quickie update from this week:

Internet:  not yet (obviously).  Hopefully by the end of this week... *fingers crossed*  If not, I'll visit the coffee shop again over the weekend.

House:  AMAZING.  So so so amazing.  I've been taking "process shots" to show you the mess and how it has slowly morphed into a home.  We'll be done and feeling pretty well moved in by the end of the week.  I haven't explored Otterberg, yet.  But soon!

Girls:  LJ's loving the space to play.  SJ's super thankful to have her own room again so her sissy doesn't wake her up during naps!  Developmental milestones include LJ adding numerous words to her sign-vocab and also babbling more.  SJ is getting up on all fours and also scooching like crazy.  Still puking all over ;o)  

Jesse:  finished FTAC on Thursday and might possibly start "class" tomorrow.  It's basically more school... a pre-training before the on-the-job-training.  If they can't squeeze him into this class he'll have to wait around and twiddle his thumbs (at the squadron) for awhile (maybe a month?) till the next class starts. 

Me:  enjoying the sorting and organizing.  I missed having work to do!  Loving being able to cook again!  I wish we had internet, but the forced "unplugging" of my life is probably a good thing... not that I want to keep it this way!!!  I miss connecting with friends and family regularly! 

Mother's Day:  I have the best Mom and Mom-in-law in the world.  I also love being a Momma (duh!)  And Jesse is spoiling me by being "Prince Charming" today! ;o)  It's a good way to end a nice weekend.

Okay... bye for now!  Promise to check in again soon!

Auf Wiedersehen For Now

Alright who knows when we'll have internet again, so I'm declaring an official blog break starting... now!  Don't bother checking till at least Friday and don't hold your breath even then ;o)  I plan to spend all of my free time this week moving in and cleaning and exploring our new neighborhood.  Hopefully we'll have internet by the weekend, but no promises! 

We're packing up our bags one more time and *hopefully* ending our month and a half stint of living out of suitcases!  I say hopefully because I'm learning not to count my chickens till they hatch! ;o) 

As in, we haven't yet heard from the old tenants of the apartment to arrange for them to give us the keys.  (The landlords had to leave and the tenants hadn't finished cleaning yet so they told us they'd call yesterday... but... yeah... we're still waiting!)  And I'm planning on all our stuff arriving at the house tomorrow but Bonnie had a situation where she was all ready for the movers to come and they didn't.  The whole day.  Cause they hadn't received all the paperwork! :o) 

SO long story short:  the *plan* is for us to leave the hotel this afternoon.  We'll be dropping Lily off to spend the night at the Oglevee's and have a playdate with Mila on Monday.  Jesse and I will spend the night (with Sam) in the apartment... camping out on new sleeping bags that we have to buy still! :o)  Then Jesse goes to FTAC in the am and I wait till the movers come to start unloading and unpacking.  Jess comes back to the apartment around noon to meet up with the inspector from housing who needs to make sure everything's okay with our loaner washer/dryer and wardrobe/closet things that we get to keep while we're here.  And THEN after everyone leaves and we go get Lily...

...we'll. be. HOME. 

Here's the (Most Recent) Deal with the Move

I got an email yesterday morning from our shipping company saying that "our shipment" had arrived from Biloxi.  I was a bit confused... I didn't think it could *possibly* be all of our HHG (household goods... the main shipment of everything we own in the whole wide world!) already!  I mean, most people say not to expect it before two months, or even three!

But sure enough, they confirmed that it was our HHG!  In just over 6 weeks it was here already!  They wanted to arrange for a delivery on Monday!  SO I frantically got a hold of Jesse at FTAC (thankfully it was his lunch break and he was able to make some phone calls) and he made all the arrangements.

Let me just explain just how great this really is!  We weren't even going to move into the apartment until Tuesday... cause that was the earliest that they could get us our loaner furniture.  So we'd be sleeping on borrowed twin beds and have an old couch and kitchen table.  Then when our HHG got there, we would have had to arrange for them to take the loaner furniture away. 

So with our HHG being here already, we were able to cancel the loaner furniture drop and we'll just get to have our very own stuff brought right to our apartment right away! 

The *only* downside to this (and you could hardly call it that) is that I don't get the chance to see if I packed right.  I spent all that time splitting our shipment (hold baggage and HHG) and now they're just going to drop it all off at once!  (Cause our hold baggage got here while we were in Mass and they've just been waiting for us to give the word to drop it off.)  Oh well... could be worse! ;o) 

So there you have it folks... this is working out perfectly.  Coincidence?  I think NOT!

Apartment Update

Keys, originally uploaded by Richard-G.

Jesse is going back to the apartment after FTAC today to meet up with Dianna and her husband and do a walk through. Housing makes you and the landlord go through the house and write down any damages before you move in... then you both have to sign it. Pretty smart if you ask me! Then there's no worries when you get ready to move out... "did we do that or was that there?"

German landlords are notorious for being really picky at the end... it's considered amazing if you get your whole security deposit back!

Interestingly, though, we seem to have scored Germany's coolest landlords! Because they aren't even requiring a security deposit at all! Some of the apartments we were looking at required TWO MONTHS RENT as the deposit! Ouch! But not here! (YAY!)

Since the other tenants have moved out at this point and Dianna and Harold are heading back home today, Jesse may come home with the keys!

But this doesn't mean we're moving in just yet! :o) FMO can't bring us any furniture until Tuesday the 3rd. Which is fine. Then we might have our hold baggage dropped off on Thursday or Friday.

HOW EXCITING!!! :o) :o) :o)

Home Sweet Home... Almost

Welcome Mat, originally uploaded by VerdeSam.

We got it! "Apartment #2" is unofficially ours. I have to say unofficially, I guess, because the base's housing office has to "approve" of all contracts.

But our landlady Dianna signed it on her end and told us it was ours. As far as I understand, by German renter's law, a spoken agreement between a landlord and tenant is just as binding as a written one. But because the military likes everything in writing, we have to wait till the end of the week to know "for sure".

But it's basically ours!

In Dianna's words, "Well, I like you, so why bother showing it to more people?" :o) She went on to tell us all the fixing up they'll be doing this week to get it ready for us! Fresh paint and new dishwasher and all sorts of sprucing up outside.

I am one. happy. girl!

This apartment is perfect, guys! Seriously... I can't wait to give y'all a virtual tour! It's in a quiet neighborhood in the city of Otterberg. It's actually up on the hill a bit, so we can look right out our windows (and off our BALCONY!) to the city! The house has so much character and so much space (which we're fortunate to have found, as most German houses have little to no built in storage). There's a fireplace and a yard and lots of big bright windows...

And I could go on and on already and I've only seen it once! :o) I'll *obviously* fill you in more once we inhabit the lovely premises.

Oh, and did I mention it's the perfect distance to all the important bases? Less than 10 minutes to Sembach, less than 15 to Vogelweh, and less than 25 to Ramstein!

The current tenants are in the process of moving out and the apartment will be empty by the first. But we aren't sure if we'll move in exactly then (it's long and complicated to explain...) but we will definitely be in by next weekend!

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers! We're about a week away from putting this hotel behind us! :o)

The Top Three Things I am Looking Forward To...

...When I have a house again:

1.  Separate rooms for the girls to sleep during the day.  We don't even have to have three bedrooms, as long as one of them can nap in my room and I can be in the living room or something.  They share fine at night, but neither of them sleep soundly enough to avoid interrupting each other's naps (since they don't nap at exactly the same time in the mornings).  Poor kids!  They're handling it okay.  I just look forward to better daytime rest for both of them!

2.  A kitchen.  With a stove... and oven... so I can cook in a way that I can COMPLETELY avoid a microwave!!!  I might even say I'd be happy never to see or use a microwave again after this! ;o)  But seriously.  I want to cook some chili.  And honey-curry chicken.  And spaghetti and meatballs.  And rice.  And chipotle orange tacos.  And pizza.  And veggie soup.  And salmon.  And sweet potato fries.  And... and... okay.  I'm gonna go microwave some mac-n-cheese for lunch ;o)

3.  A washer and dryer.  It will be nice not to have to map out how long we can wear our clothes so as to avoid doing laundry more often than once a week.  And cloth diapers, how I miss thee... I know, I'm a freak ;o)  But seriously.  It'll feel so great to be able to do laundry more regularly!

Also, I'd like to go on record at this point to say no, I don't regret coming over with Jesse.  (And as I type that, I'm wondering if I ever even mentioned that it was an option for me and the girls to wait in the States till he found a house?  Well, it was.  But we decided we'd rather stick together... mostly cause I was a chicken about flying alone with both girls!)

But no, I'm not regretting being here.  This hotel is great (there are many other hotels I've been in that would be far worse for an extended stay) and you can't beat the location.  I'm thinking of going the other direction today and exploring the walking/biking trail that goes through a meadow (or so I've been told!).  The breakfasts are amazing (I may gain ten pounds, but I'm freely indulging in daily brie!) and the staff is super friendly.  

And I'm glad to be able to experience *this* whole thing (even the stressful parts!) WITH Jesse rather than having to go through it apart!  It's definitely better to be together in a hotel, no matter how long, than to be half a world apart while you wait for a house.

Speaking of houses... HOPEFULLY WE'LL KNOW THIS WEEK :o)

House-Hunting Mayhem

We are so confused!  We thought if you offered to take a place, the landlords usually said yes... so we were thrown a bit when the landlady from apartment #1 said she'd call us Monday with her decision.  And THEN we found a place today that looked REALLY amazing... so we went to see it... and it WAS really amazing! 

The current tenant showed it to us and she told us we were only the fourth people to look at it and only the second to seem interested, so to call the landlords asap (they live about an hour away).  This place is way bigger than the other one and is also in a better location for Jesse's commute.  It's in a bigger city, too.  It has a great kitchen and tons of storage space (unusual for a German house) so we'd really like it! 

So we just decided we'd offer and if they accepted we could call apt #1 and say sorry, we're no longer interested...

But what does apt #2 say?  "Sure, sure... can we meet?  We have lots of people looking at it this weekend, so how about we meet Tuesday?"  Uhhhh... sure. 

More waiting :o) 

Now the tricky part is what to do if apt #1 says she wants to give us the place on Monday?  Right now we're leaning toward asking her to give us 24 hours to think about it.  She may say no, but we're willing to take the risk... cause apt #2 suits us much better.   (And apt #3, that we've always been interested, isn't even available to be seen till Thursday... which could confuse us even MORE!) 

*Sigh*  So stay tuned... more on this next week! 

In other (good) news, we got our "gas card" today.  It entitles us to getting gas for American prices (roughly).  Currently, the gas prices around here are almost (or over) twice what y'all are paying!  So we basically have a voucher saying we can get it for less.  Two more points for the AF being AWESOME! :o) 

Looking, Looking, Looking... Hopefully SOON

Last night I unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) got to be reminded of AF Wife Lesson #1.  Not only did Jesse get home after lunch (when he thought he'd be home by lunch) but he got home to tell me he had to go back in for a meeting!  So we weren't going to be able to start house hunting like we'd planned.  And then I found out that he had to go in today for a different meeting that won't be over till 1:30pm at the earliest.  And tomorrow is a German holiday, so no house hunting then.  Maaaaybe Friday and Saturday?  And then he starts class on Monday.  (Yes, more class... I'll explain later... when I get more info from him.  It's two weeks.)

Boo Air Force, BOO! 

Here was my thought progression: "Great.  How are we supposed to find a place to live with no time to look?"  "We're NEVER going to find a house!"  "I'M SICK OF LIVING IN THIS HOTEL"  "I WANT A HOOOOOOOME"  "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" 

Poor Jesse :o) 

I snapped out of it though, and took a nap.  And looked at the sunshine.  And remembered that Jesse is going as fast as he can and this is to be expected (the wait).  And this hotel isn't a bad place to be stuck... and I can walk right into Ramstein every day.  And I need to stop whining :o)  And trust God's timing.  We'll have a house soon.  It's going to be okay!

(Also, Jesse got home from his meeting in time to take all his girls out to dinner... :o)  So it wasn't *that* bad of a day, even if we couldn't start house hunting!)

The map shows all the places we're interested in looking at.  BUT we've been talking about a new possibility... moving into a temporary apartment.  These are available month-to-month and are usually fully furnished.  It might be a better option for us because then we can take our time looking for a house.  Especially since it looks like we don't have much time to look around before Jesse starts the two week class.  It might be easier on us to have less pressure (we really want out of the hotel) while we look around (we really don't want to rush a decision). 

I'll keep you posted on what we decide... we should know today or tomorrow because he's going to talk to Housing and SGT G. to make sure it's okay to look into temp housing.  Stay tuned!

House Hunt Update

Jesse and I spent over two hours on AHRN.com last night (aka the automated housing referral network).  We sorted through all the housing listings in the area and narrowed our search down to... twenty!

*Only* twenty places we need to try to go see in the next two weeks :o) 

Okay, so we aren't probably going to go to all of them.  The way it works around here, with so many Americans constantly in and out, is that houses pop up for rent and then *poof* - gone.  So it's likely that some of the places we're interested in already have contracts, or will be taken by the time we call, etc. 

But at least we have a list to start with.  Jesse only has a partial day of in-processing today and tomorrow, then off on Thursday and Friday.  So we'll be house hunting in our spare time!  I'm going to write out a list of all the houses on paper so that we have the numbers and addresses to plug into the GPS.  Then you basically just call up the landlord and ask to set up an appointment at their earliest convenience.

We have our hearts set on one house in particular... but we're trying to keep in mind that it's not likely we'll get it.  It's in a perfect location (not far from Sembach or Volgeweh or Ramstein), in a really cute neighborhood, and has a lot of character.  But it's not available till May first and when Jesse talked to the landlady yesterday she explained that she has a lot of interest but can't show it till the 28th when her current tenants move out.  So it looks like it's first come, first serve.  But sometimes they don't choose the first people who come to see it... so we'll see!  We're still going to keep in contact with her and try to get that place... but we need to look at other places, too.

And if we find a place that even sort of fits for us, we've been told by numerous people we should just take it!  So that's the house hunting plan so far!

Breaking News

This just in: our lost bag!  It was returned to us yesterday!

We are all THRILLED to have it's contents back! :o)

Tour of the Room

The view.

There are lots of trees... even in the middle of what seem to be good-sized cities.  I like it :o) 

LJ keeps slipping on the lack of carpet.  She's going barefoot today... hopefully that will help.

The bathroom in the girls' room has a tub, which is nice.  

 Above the bed.

Above the microwave.

Now let's talk about the bed.  Are we in a 50s sitcom or what?

I call it "The Great Divide".  Jesse calls it "The Butt Crack" :o) 

Germany, Day 2

Today we all woke up late.  It was splendid!  I almost grouched at Jess for opening up the blinds, but he interrupted my thoughts ("What in the heckity-heck are you doing waking me up this early?") to tell me it was almost 10am and we better get the girls up or we'd miss breakfast.  Now, breakfast ends at 10:30 and as I was curious to see what a breakfast at a German hotel was, we scurried off to check it out. 

DELICIOUS!  I had brie with grapes, rye bread, sausage (wurst of some sort I'm guessing), scrambled eggs, and the most lovely cup(s) of coffee I've had in awhile.  Jesse even agreed, and he's not much of a coffee drinker!  They also had some American fare... cereal and bagels and such.  All in all, I'm very pleased with the selections!  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day so I'm glad we'll get to start it out deliciously... and free!

Then off to meet up with Quentin and Tiffany Oglevee and their 2yo daughter Mila (friends we hung out with a few times at Keesler... they've been here about a month).  They showed us all around and helped us get a bunch done: we got an adapter for our computer charger, a local checking account, a local pay-as-you-go cell phone, and some groceries.  We also dropped that bag off at the airport. 

Oh, and we also met up with a couple at the kid's play area: Sam and Brandi Strider.  They have a 15mo boy who's name I currently can't remember.  I got invited out to girl's night tomorrow (dinner at a Mexican place) but I don't know yet if I'm feeling up for it (or if the girls would be nice enough to Daddy ;o)  We'll see.) 

It was quite a long day of errands and visiting.

Apparently SJ wasn't too happy with our crazy day, as she screamed violently in the food court for 20 minutes then passed out and struck this pose.  Sorry.  I couldn't resist taking (and sharing) this pic ;o)  All in all they were both actually really good (AGAIN!) considering neither of them really got a good nap in all day.  We still put them to bed at the normal time (around 7) so we can all start getting used to the switch.  We'll see how tonight goes!

(Side note - all of our errands today were on base at Ramstein... it's the biggest base in the area and it's where we flew into.  We're only 5 minutes off base in our hotel.  The BX there is ginormous... the size of a decent mall.  Plus the Commissary!  I should be well supplied with anything "American" that I'm needing... whether it be my favorite brand of hair color or some Burger King!) 

Tomorrow we're heading to the O's for lunch and a load of laundry (we'd have to pay for it on base, so they said we could come to their place).  I'm excited to see where they live and what it's like! 

I'm also hoping to get out for an exploratory walk with the girls.  The hotel owner said this is a safe neighborhood to walk in.  And the sidewalks seem plenty wide for the double stroller! 

Okay, kept myself up long enough.  Maybe now I'll be able to sleep through the night?  Who knows!

Lost and Found

Lost:  One bag. 

Found:  One bag that doesn't belong to us.

Dangit.  Are we missing anything important?  Why yes, in fact, we are... almost all of Jesse and my clothes.  And Dolly.  Thankfully, we have enough clean undies to make it through till we can wash some of our clothes at our friends' house tomorrow ;o)  And Dolly's absence has hardly been missed, thanks in part to us keeping LJ super busy... and supplied with Wally's company! 

We dropped the not-our-bag off at the airport today and they're trying to contact the girl who has our bag.  I find it a little troubling that she hasn't turned it in, yet.  I mean, what does she need with a Dolly and all my clothes anyways? ;o) 

Hopefully we'll have it back tomorrow!

Germany, Day One

(Day one as of last night when I originally wrote this, but didn't have the energy to figure out the internet situation without Jesse... who was alseep... so "tonight" in this post refers to Friday, German time (which is six hours ahead of Eastern Time), the first night we were here.  Right now it is Saturday night... day two.)

Things I Don't Know How to Do:

1.  Talk in German.  This is a shame... since I could have at least figured a few phrases out ahead of time.  But alas, time got away from me!  So I need to remedy this quickly... it's embarrassing that I can only say "I don't understand"... and even that I'm too chicken to try for fear I'll say it wrong!

2.  Call out using our hotel phone.  We tried tonight, but couldn't figure it out... even with the hotel's instructions!  We found out that the apartment we're interested in is still available and we were going to try to make an appointment to check it out tomorrow or Monday.  But the phone was too much of a mystery for our tired brains to handle.  We'll try to figure it out tomorrow. 

3.  Open the girl's room from the outside.  The lock hates me, I guess.  It's a real key, not a hotel swiper like in the States.  Thankfully, I realized I had locked myself OUT of my BABIES' room at a time while Jesse was still here.... and the lock doesn't hate him, apparently.  I'm leaving the door between our rooms cracked from now on!

Things I Have To Adjust To:

1.  The Sergeant who picked us up from the airport ("Sergeant G") informed us that the OWS (Operational Weather Squadron - our squadron) is now on 12 hour shifts.  I wasn't *that* upset, 'cause I suspected the fabled 8 hour shifts were just a rumor!  (Too good to be true!)  They've been on 12's since everything started in Libya.  Oh well... I'm used to him working long days, right? ;o)

2.  Our hotel.  Again, I'm not too shocked to discover that our hotel arrangements aren't what we were "told"... i.e. we thought we were getting a suite on base with two rooms and a kitchen.  Nope :o)  What we HAVE are two rooms in a hotel off base.  No kitchen.  So looks like more microwave cooking and eating out for us... blech!  (Apparently there wasn't room on base... I'm starting to see a pattern here with base hotels!)  But this hotel is very clean and nice... so if no kitchen is my biggest bummer, I can handle that!  (Just another reason to find a place asap!)

Things I'm Extremely Thankful For:

 1.  Safety and sanity.  Our flight went great!  Wrestling two babies and their gear onto the plane was a little nerve-wracking (for me) but we did it and they both slept almost the whole flight!  There were periods of tears but nothing compared to what some mommies were dealing with!

2.  Sunshine and Spring.  Not only does it feel like Spring here (though a bit brisk when the sun's not out), it looks like it, too!  So much beautiful green out the window!

3.  A hubs with a driver's license AND rental car!  One of our Lieutenants helped by driving Jesse where he needed to go to get some important errands taken care of so now we're all set for the big things!  It's a relief to know we won't have to bug people for rides.

4.  An APO address already!  Here it is... so the goody boxes can start flooding in at our moms' earliest convenience ;o)  (But my Mom - hang tight till I have a chance to end the forwarding to your house.  I'll drop it in the mail early this week and let you know when it's gone through.  Gracias!)

Jesse and Jessica Aiduk

PSC 3 BOX #153

APO AE 09021

Last Shout Out from the States!

 

Alrighty, folks!  We're packing up and getting ready to check out of the hotel...

This has been a lovely road trip... but I'm not going to be sad to settle back down and feel like I'm "home" again.  (But who knows when that will actually be!)

We got confirmation from our sponsor at Sembach, who will be picking us up and getting us to our temporary lodging.

Though I'm pretty sure our hotel in Germany will have internet, no promises... so this is Jessica, signing off for now.  I hope you can survive without pictures of my kids for however long it is :o)  (Though in reality, I'll probably be back here blabbering away tomorrow night!) 

Ready-set-LET'S GO TO GERMANY!!! :o)

He Did It!

Jesse scored a 91 on the German driver's test!  That's my man! 

And he also had time to get to the vehicle processing center before it closed so our car is on it's way to Germany now.  (Or it will be shortly)  They say to expect it in 30-45 days.  We've been thinking of picking up a used vehicle over there anyways, so we may do it in the first week or so to avoid renting a car for a month. 

We had a lovely dinner at Ruby Tuesday's last night.  And the girls slept really well (and long) so we all got good rest!  Still trying to decide what to do this afternoon... we definitely want to get out of the hotel :o) 

Flight leaves at 9pm tonight. 

I can't believe we'll be in another country, halfway around the world tomorrow!