What A Week #1

(This is long, and only family may care to read this.  Please excuse my spelling mistakes, spell check says that it is all wrong due to the fact that spell check is in German.  Also, I'd like to insert several pictures, but the internet speed is too slow at the hotel.)

This has been quite a week.  It is hard to believe that a week ago we had loaded up the cars and boarded a plane.  It was only 3 hours and both Anya and Noah slept for most of the flight.  Awesome!  When we got to Baltimore we were going to have an entire day layover before flying to Germany.  We gathered our luggage, without the help of a little sherpa which was quite a feat, and headed to the Double Tree.  I knew it was going to be great when we walked in and the kids were handed cookies.

Double Tree turned out to be our stress free vacation of the summer.  We went to the rooms and just sat.  Big fluffy beds. To quote one of the boys, "This is no La Quinta!" 

We had nothing to pack.  We had nothing to clean.  It was heavenly!  We slept in and stayed in jammies most of the next day.  Only changing to put on swimming suits.  (On a side note, that was the last time I think I've been warm.)  We spent the afternoon showering and getting ready to make the next jump of our trip.  We had an 1130 PM flight, and needed to show up ONLY 5 1/2 HOURS early to get our seats!  The military likes to make sure that you are not checking in at the last minute.  We wondered the airport, ate dinner, hung out at the USO eatting the free girl scout cookies, and then boarded the plane an hour before take off.  Just making sure we'd be on time, awesome military.  Of course we were about 30 minutes delayed. 

As it got closer to midnight, Anya got meaner and meaner.  Loudly protesting her lack of a decent crib.  The plane was filled with guys deploying, and I kept thinking that they would be begging for the cots in Afghanistan before the flight was over.  The kids finally slept and Darin and I enjoyed dinner at 1 AM.  Eating airplane food at that time is really pretty messed up.  But, hey everyone else was doing it.  We slept for only a brief time before it seemed that the sun was up way too soon.  We lost a day somewhere around Iceland and landed in Germany in the early afternoon, Tuesday.

Darin picked up our rental van while the kids and I waited at the terminal.  The van is a crazy smart car meets van hybird.  It has 7 seats, but absolutely nothing else can fit.  We found the little village of Eulenbis and our cute room. 

We spent the next few days sleeping in until 11 AM and staying up until 11 PM.  The kids had lost all sense of schedule.  We froze and went on walks around the village.  Darin, poor guy,  was on base inprocessing all week.  We ate at Taco Bell and Burger King!  It was terrible!  We were so disappointed to have been in Germany, but unable to eat anything decent.  The third night we went to a pizza Pirate joint in a tiny Germany village.  It was run by Italians that took way too long to feed my starving family.  The pizza was really good and gone in 60 seconds.  So my first mealoff base in Germany wasn't even German.  Friday night we went to the little cafe run by the lady who owns the hotel we are in.  It was homecooked German food.  It was really delicious.  I had some swine shinetzel that was yummy...I actually don't remember what it was really called, but I think I'm close.  :)

During this time we saw 2 houses.  We decided that we loved the second one that we saw.  It is way in the German countryside.  It was huge (Yeah, came to Germany to find my biggest house yet.).  It is in the school district that we wanted. And there was both a kindergarten for Noah and a bakery for me.  However, we struggled because it is 20 km from base.  That is only about 12 miles.  But it will take about 25 minutes for Darin to get to work due to the cute, twisty, tree lined roads and villages that he'll drive through.  We were talking to a lady in the library that just kept telling us that it would be terrible.  We would hate it.  It is too far and we will want to move. (I hate it when people are negative like that.) We thought and thought and the only downside was the drive.  We decided that we would be driving at least 15 minutes from anywhere, and that house was worth 10 more minutes.  We will move in on the 8th.  We will be surrounded by Germans.  We are excited.  The village is North of Ramstein in a little place called Muhlbach.

We tried out our ward today.  It is HUGE!  Something like a billion people.  15 families just moved out and last week they apparently read in 8 new ones.  Primary has 250 kids (so glad that isn't my job) and it is all really loud.  I instantly missed my Branch in Turkey.  Small and intimate.  This is anything but.  We'll have to travel about 40 minutes from our house to get to the church.  I am going to really have to think about any RS/Ward extra activities, like I really need the excuse.  The good part of it all is that there are a ton of youth.  The boys will have lots of kids with them.  All the boys have over a dozen kids in their classes.  I hope that it turns out well, but with the nature of military, we know there will be constant transition in the ward. 

A couple of favorites from this week:
*YOGURT!  Finally we have decent yogurt again.  How I have missed it.
*The boys are very happy.  All of them have said that they are really excited to live here.  They all LOVED the house.
*We feel that it is a blessing to have found our house in such good time.  We expected to be without one for at least a month, but will be living in it just 2 weeks after arriving.
*Wondering through the German grocery makes me smile.  It also made me miss our friends from Turkey.  It seems that certain things and experiences just go with certain people.
Bads:
*German washers and dryers
*Small sinks without garbage disposals
*68-70 degrees in July

Like A Native

Darin decided to take me to a bakery.  Hurray for me.  Then he said something dumb like, "You're going to do this on your own.  It is time for you to order."  I quickly freaked out and reminded him that I didn't even know my numbers yet.  He is heartless and the pastries were deliciously tempting, so I smiled and pointed like a baby.  Yep, I am awesome. 

Pretzels?  Yes. [nod, nod] Hold up 3 fingers and forget the word for three. [Totally embarrassed.] Point to the delicious, chocolate, twisty, things. [Smile.]  Finally, remember the number 1. 

Then, she asks if that was all... and I answer her in Turkish, evet!

LAME!  Moving makes me feel so stupid.  Darin hasn't stopped laughing at me.  I spent the rest of the night learning to count to ten.  I will be able to do it the next time, because those chocolate, twisty things are worth the embarrasment.

Done!

9 checked suitcases.  7 people.  1 carseat.  1 stroller.  4 carry-on bags.  2 days.  10 hours on an airplane.  We all made it safely to Germany.  It wasn't as terrible as it could have been.  The boys were great.  Anya had her moments, and I am really glad that we won't be flying anywhere until she is older.  We are trying to get settled, but we keep falling asleep whenever we stop moving.  I still can't believe that this is real.  It should be an amazing adventure, if I ever wake up.  More to come later.

The Tornado of July 2011

July was the month that the tornado hit our family!  Actually, it all started on June 3rd when we received the official notice that we would be moving to Germany the following month, but that is ancient history.  With official orders finally in hand (it was tough to get official orders due to the fact that whomever touched them became an incompetent fool) we RACED to Utah for a quick visit.  (Raced is relative.  Texas is an enormous amount of nothing and takes days to cross.)

Here is our rest stop entertainment while Darin continued to make phone calls to movers and others.

 First stop...Sterling, UT.  Home of grandpa, grandma, Drew, Jazzy the dog, and grandma's ice cream store.  Anya was so excited to be out of the car.  She chased the dog around and got her first (and last?) mouthful of dog food.  We spent a fun day on jet ski's and the lake.

 Next stop...SLC.  Then up to Henefer for the visiting and 4th of July Celebration!

 Darin and his grandma.

 Back to Bountiful to play with as many cousins as possible.  Here we are at the church visitor center and the Family History Museum.  For any who haven't been, the museum is wonderful for kids, AND free with A/C.  Couldn't be better.

 Next, camping in the Spruces with the Allred Clan.  Yep, I think that we are a clan.  Anya's only playpen.  It is hard to camp with a scooting girl and not a walking girl.

cousins.  That was a good year for babies.

 Yes, Noah pulls a dumb face in every picture we take.

 Siblings!  I think that I may be the only sane one of the bunch. :)

 Hiking to Donut Falls.  Noah would rather ride on grandpa.

 Last a BBQ with family and friends before heading back to Sterling for more visiting and ice cream.

 We had to rush home.  Once again rush is relative.  It means driving 24 hours in 2 days with 5 kids in the car.  As soon as we made it home, we needed to ready the van so that Darin could then drive 5 more hours to Dallas (the next day) so that Curry (van) could start the trip to Germany.  I stayed home (No way I was going to be getting in a car again.) to meet the first movers and get our first shipment on its way. By Monday we had more packers, Tuesday loaders, Wednesday more packers....they were terrible for the most part.  So very slow and the loaders were lazy.  Imagine my shock when they decide it would be easier to just roll my boxes down the stairs...shocker!  We weren't OK with that.  Darin had to politely tell them to carry the boxes.  We will be VERY lucky if our stuff shows up in one piece without major damage.  We could go on and on about the terrible movers, but there isn't anything that can be done now.

Dinner.

During this time we moved twice in our hotel rooms, I had the flu once, and we sold the Durango.  We spent way too long cleaning and boxing.  Packing and repacking suitcases to see if we had enough (or too much) stuff.  We also were able to spend time with wonderful friends.  Be fed by wonderful friends and get away from the chaos for bits of time.  Darin continued to go to work at nights.  It is now midnight.  Darin is at work again trying to take his Germany Driving Exam so that we can drive our rental car when we arrive.  We leave in the morning and after a stop in Baltimore we will head to Germany on Monday. 

We have an address:  PSC 2 Box 14949
                                  APO   AE   09012

*Just a reminder, it is the same to mail to that address as it is to Texas with the exception of a customs form.  Prices are the same. 

I hope that we make it in one piece.  We have all been stressed and really grouchy.  We may make it, but what I really hope is that when we do get there, we all still like each other.  That may be asking too much.

My posts from now on should be more interesting.  I think even talking about walking down a German street would be more interesting than this stuff.

 But that was what happened in just 3 weeks of July...a tornado hit my life.


[I have a ton, can you say 156, pictures from our UT visit and we were only there 7 days.  Davis is a sentimental fool and wanted to capture everything.  So ya'll (still a Texan tonight) are lucky that I only posted a 17 pictures.]