Week 1 without hubs

We are on day 5 with Chad being gone. I was doing great until I found myself staring at a light bulb thinking "what happens if that burns out? Im gonna be sitting in the dark. screwed." But I have been able to keep my sobbing to a minimal volume, and only between the hours of 10pm and 1am. Go me.

On a lighter note, he's doing good out there. Has a room with some privacy and internet so we can Skype as much as we want.

Back to me! Thanks to my AMAZING family (mom, dad, amy, terry, jill and ron) I am going home for a much needed long vacation in about a month! Couldnt be more excited to spend the holidays at home. Dylans going to have a blast.

In the mean time, Im focusing all my time and energy on decorating my bedroom now that I dont have anyone here to tell me no :). Since our bedroom is the one room that STILL isn't finished after a year of living in Germany, I think its about time I get started. I found this awesome girl and I think everyone in Germany especially should check out her website. LOVE it!!

http://www.wix.com/happygirl3/happygirlmackenbach

A week to remember

This past week has been a special one. My husband and I celebrated our first anniversary a little early by taking a trip to Hiedelberg. We took Dylan to see Sesame Street live on stage. We spent time as family, and then said goodbye. Here a collection of pictures from this past week.

Up top is the Hiedelberg Castle that we got to tour, HUGE!!

The best thing in Germany..SCHNEEBALLEN!!

 



Dylan was really into Elmo on stage, he never looked away!

Xander, and creepy Dylan at dinner after Elmo

Playing in the creek



And then a departure...




 

Everyone please take a moment and say a prayer for our handsome Airman. We love you Chad.



xoxo

YPHGM - something else to ponder.

I hate that everyday there is a new abreviation for something. Are we all supposed to be mind readers, and know what your talking about just because you used the first letter of every word in a sentence?!?! GOOHSALHTW!!!!!!!!! If you can figure out what THAT means, I'll un block your annoying posts from my facebook homepage.

So yesterday I bought Dylan a toy truck from a yard sale because he is obsessed with cars and trucks and everytime I see one I have to buy it. He instantly fell in love with it. But this morning when I got up it was already broken! Poor guy. He is so confused still trying to play with both halves. The wires are even sticking out the end. Looks like we're going to do some more truck shopping today, but I'm thinking I'll stay away from yard sales.

By the way, a friend of mine recently brought up a pretty decent question, and I would like to keep it going. There are very few things out there that the FDA hasn't "approved". Does anyone know what the FDA actually does?! If something says "FDA approved", we automatically think "well, this has to be safe because the FDA said so." I'm thinking I will do some research and find out who the FDA actually is before I continue to trust their opinions.  

Gym time

I started going to a gym on base, that has a section in the front for kids to go while you work out. Its isnt supervised but there are mirrors all around it so you can see in from almost every machine. Dylan doesn't mind it as long as he has a snack, and Cars is playing.

Its always annoying when some girl will come in and start complaining about how tired she is while shes dragging her feet on the treadmill. Not only are you incredibly annoying, but your definitely not getting a workout by doing that so just go back to bed. Or when the person next to you is constantly craning their neck to try and read your machine to see if they are doing better than you or not. Keep your eyes on your own machine! I don't know you, and I hopefully will never see you again so who cares if you are doing better than me?!

In the midst of my eye rolling at all the other people around me, I get interupted by a tap on my shoulder. "Excuse me ma'am, your son has something in his mouth." DANGIT!!!! Can't catch a break with this kid.

I have a charity 5k to get through on Sunday and all these interruptions aren't helping me prepare. I wonder if they will have on-site emergency vehicles.

Forgiveness

So lately I have been finding myself seeking Jesus more and more. And I keep learning that it is never entirely enough. There is always something more I can be doing to get closer to him and live a happier life. This morning in church I felt like God was speaking directly to me. Pastor was talking about forgiveness, and how even the ones who have hurt you most in your life need to be forgiven by you. And without getting it out and letting it go you will never truly get over the hurt and get closer to God.

Even though its hard to forgive someone who has taken away so much from my life, I know it's what I need to do. I have been carrying around a hate for someone that I dont even know, and I dont want to carry it anymore.

So I'll make this short and sweet.


I forgive you.


Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. – Colossians 3:13

Motherhood Nonsense

Once when I was pregnant one of my friends had accused me of being forgetful, and I blamed it on my pregnancy (it was proven!), but anyways she thought I was full of crap. Well I am here today to say to her that I am NOT full of crap! And it didn't stop when my son was born. Being a mom has seriously done things to my mind that I will never comprehend or learn to appreciate.

All the time I find myself searching the house for something I was just holding in my hand, calling my son by my dogs name, calling my dog by my sons name, and trying to remember what I had originally came into the kitchen to do. Once I found my car keys in the freezer and I know Dylan didnt do it because he cant reach that high.

I remember my mom doing crazy things throughout my life too although I can remember exactly what right now, aside from her math skills but thats just a whole other issue on its own. (Love you mom.). And my Grandma Clara once left the house to go to church wearing only a slip,  and another time flew all the way to Florida to meet a friend on the wrong day. Dont even get me started on my great Grandmother Louise, I'm pretty sure she thinks my Grandma Kays name is Judy and my Aunt Judys name is Kay.

So the next time you make fun of your mom for being nuts, just remember that it is because YOU are driving her so crazy that she is slowly losing her mind. I know there have been times in my life that have just been a "hot mess" as my friend Jeremiah would say, all on my own (i.e. My wedding night - first blog post Ive ever written, and pretty much any time Jack Daniels was involved). But I would like to give a virtual high five to all the great moms out there who do act a fool sometimes. If your kids are driving you crazy, you're obviously doing something right. And even though I cant wait for the day I can take my son to the park and not have him eat a gallon of sand, I will gladly state that I would never trade motherhood to have my sanity back.

June 13, 2011

My husbands away for a couple of week for his pre deployment training, so Dylan and I have been spending some quality mommy son time. Not that we never do that..but now we dont have a choice. As much as I am currently trying to ignore the child in front of me covered in blueberry sauce and waving a limp piece of toast in my face, i'm grateful for this trial period. Its incredibly hard to be away from my husband, because we do have an amazing relationship and I love him more than anything. But its giving us a chance to see how its going to be without him around.

God has blessed Dylan and I with some amazing friends and opportunites here, and I dont think he will let us fall just because Chad has to go away sometimes. At first I thought that him having to leave every couple of years would be a reason to get out of the military as soon as possible, but now I'm learning that its not. Some of the strongest families out there are military families. Dont get me wrong some of the most broken families are in the military too, but I think that has more to do with them and their own issues, not the military. And I realized exactly how lucky we are. Even though it doesnt pay all the money in the world and we sometimes have to seperate, we get to live in different places around the world- and most of them we get to choose. I dont have to work and can spend all my time with my son, and I wont have to worry about education or insurance.

From moving here I've learned that even some of your closest friends will forget to keep in touch, and even though its hard leaving at first, it gets easier, because we get to meet new people everywhere we go. And these people will stay friends forever because they are used to picking up and leaving. They have the same lifestyle that you do, and you get to walk away before your friendship dies.

Army Wives

So I started watching "Army Wives" the other day since all my friends back home always talk about it. Amazing show - but not really what military life is like. From the wife's shoes anyways. Your all crazy if you think I answer the phone saying "Airman First Class Bunda's residence". I say "hello". And so do all the other wives. I dont know why that gets on my nerves while watching the show, but it does.

There is no such thing as a Jodi bar. And if there is one of those somewhere - im sure it came to be that way because of this show. Actually a jodi is a song that the soldiers sing while walking in formation together - mostly during training or boot camp. There are a lot of similarities from the show though. Like the officers having fancy dinners and ceremonies - but those dont involve the community.

Living on "base" or "post" is just like living in any other community - except your constantly yelling over the loud airplanes flying over your home, and you don't have to pay tax on anything you buy. Oh and you have to show your ID every time you come and go - which gets really annoying.

The hardest part about military life is your constatly letting go of the people you love. I can never take my family and friends with me, and the friends I make here will eventually move away also. Not even my husband can always be there, but you get used to it and you make it work. My son is the only constant person that will always be there every morning when I get up, and every night when I go to bed. For him I am very thankful.

Rapture talk

So I'm sitting here watching the news and eating peanut butter out of the jar when a couple of things cross my mind. One- has everyone in this world gone mad? Two- Who allowed this old man who obviously knows nothing about Jesus to preach in America? Three- I wonder if I will be sitting here eating peanut butter when Jesus does come? How embarassing.

Matthew 24:36 Of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but the Father only.

Although I really would like to know when that is going to happen so I can buy a new outfit, not even Jesus knows when the rapture will happen. And also, people arent just going to magically dissapear. Everyone will know when its happening. So everyone needs to stop listening to some senile man who quite clearly belongs in a retirement home. And I honestly have no idea what people are talking about Zombies taking over.. but really people?? I dont think I need to do any sort of explaining when it comes to that theory.

Personally I think your all nuts.

May 19th

These are a couple of questions about marriage answered by kids I read in an email forward.

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck.

- Ricky, age 10

WHEN IS IT OK TO KISS SOMEONE?

The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with

that.

- Curt, age 7

When they're rich.

- Pam, age 7

These are obviously some smart children. In this "smart children" group, I would also like to include a little girl from the playground who told me that girls dont have guts.

Anyways nothing interesting has happened this week. Other than me spending an unhealthy amount of time watching Glee, and Dylan getting his hand stuck in the dishwasher. You know, the usual.

My dog is all the rage

I have decided not to take Shelby to the playground anymore, since there always seems to be a kid who wont leave her alone so that I can leave. The other day we took her and Dylan out to play, and not only did this little boy get her to chase him around the jungle gym so that her leash got all tangled around me- its a retractable one, and does NOT feel good on bare skin- but he also took my bubbles and spilled the whole tube on the floor.

One of the little girls who lives in our building always whines for her to come out and play-but she cant go without me and I always have to run WITH shelby and the girl since shes on a leash so thats just out of the question. There have been countless times where I have had to sit through her foot stomping tantrum because I wont let the dog go out and play with her.

Now the little boy who always walks around by himself and blows "sleeping spells" at her through a hollow broom stick is someone I can get along with. He's cool. Mostly because he has a mind thats out of the norm, mostly because he doesn't beg us to stay-actually he begs us to leave- but mostly mostly because he drives Chad crazy, and I just think thats funny.

Dont get me wrong, I do like kids. I have one of my own. I just don't have a whole lot of patience for people in general-no matter what size or age. Especially when they spill my bubbles.

Patience Is A Virtue

So yesterday morning I got up and went to get Dylan out of his crib. He was already up laughing to himself so I figured he would be in a good mood for the day. As soon as I open the door I was hit by an all too familiar smell. At some point he took off his diaper and made a huge mess...all over EVERYTHING. Probably one of the worst mornings I have had in a while. Later we went over to his friend Xanders house to take some Easter pictures in the grass by a cherry blossum tree, but both boys were extremely cranky and Xander was terrified of our dog Shelby who acted as the Easter Bunny with pink ears and ribbon. Not the photo session we were hoping for, but we still had fun doing it even through the frustration.

Today I went to the post office to pick up a package that came in for us from my mother in law. Once I got there I actually had two packages waiting instead of one, and carrying both of them plus Dylan and my wallet was a huge disaster. The top package kept sliding off and everytime I bent over to pick it up my walled fell from my pocket and all of my cards spilled out. Finally I decided to make Dylan walk on his own, but once we got in the middle of the street he decided to sit down and laugh. When I bent over to pick him up my sunglasses fell to the ground and I didnt have enough hands to get them so I set the packages down on the grass and walked back to get them. But as soon as I turned around a car came speeding down the street and ran them over! Luckily one of Chads sergeants saw me struggling and helped me to the car with all of my stuff.

So this is the list of things Dylan is no longer allowed to do:
-Eat apples
-Sleep without pants
-Accompany me to the post office

Im sure I will be adding a few more things as the week goes on.

Gartenshau, and apples

Now that the weather is getting warmer here, i've been staying pretty busy with a couple of friends that i've made, and trying to get dylan out to play as much as I can. The other day we went to Gartenshau (Garden show) which is basically a big park with life size dinosaur models and beautiful scenery. We had a nice picnic and Dylan got to play with his friends Xander and Aurora! He ate a couple handfulls of sand, but I saw that coming so wasn't too surprised. Since he's the only one who cant walk yet he mostly got really dirty sitting in the sand and crawling through mud. There's also a stream that runs through and the boys got to play in that a little bit.

Chad and I went to a nice furniture store the other day and it made us totally rethink about our ideas for our place so we will probably end up selling the furniture we have and starting over again. Too bad we didnt go there in the first place.

Today I cut up an apple and gave dylan some pieces, but of course he shoved whole pieces in his mouth, and I ended up having to put my whole hand down his throat and push an apple piece down his pipes when one got stuck and I couldnt pull it out. Dylan isn't allowed to have apples anymore.

Ice cream

So I sent Chad to the library to print off his paperwork so we can do taxes this afternoon, since we've procrastinated long enough. He leaves, and about 8 minutes later I look out the window and see that the car is still parked outside. I'm thinking to myself, "what could he seriously be doing in the car for this long?". So I call him and ask why he hasnt left yet. His response: "Oh....ummmm....I'm standing in line for the ice cream truck." Seriously?!?! I look over and see him standing with all the kids in line waiting for ice cream.

THEN another 5 minutes pass and he comes in the door with a bowl of ice cream, and says "here I got it for us to share, just leave me some i'll be back." YEA RIGHT! Of course after he gets busted he brings it up to share with me. At least he attempted to cover it up ;)

Happy Monday!!

Dylan broke our digital camera the other day and I swear I have picture withdrawls every time he does something cute! He was such a good boy today while I cleaned the house and organized his room. He played with his toys all day long and sat in his Thomas the Train tent with our dog, Shelby, and looked at his books. He did get into my colored pencils though. I found one chewed up and spread all over the living room rug. Atleast he stopped eating paper.

He finally got back on his regular sleeping schedule, only to awake the next morning to a daylight savings change. Of course that would happen. An hour shouldnt really make that much of a difference, but to a baby who has been on a time zone from the other side of the world it does. Now its 7:30pm and it looks like its 2 in the afternoon outside.

One thing I have enjoyed since we got back from our trip is the weather. It is such a change for only 2 weeks! Its beautiful. It would be nice if Arizona was like this all the time, a little warm instead of the equivalent to stepping inside a brick oven. But I tan faster in the Arizona weather and I'll take what I can get.

By the way, this is  picture of Dylan the day after we got home from our trip. He never falls asleep on the living room floor. He was obviously jet lagged.

Facts and memories

*When we were little my brothers and I were obsessed with playing "school". Sine I was the oldest I would always be the teacher. Once when we were playing in the backyard I found a rusty nail and carved names into our playground slide as I called them out and pretended to take attendance. Everytime we slid down, the carvings would hurt our butts and I was always terrified my dad would go out there and see that I had defaced our property until the day we moved.

*I hate heights and you will never get me to go on any rides that I can picture myself dying on.

*The past few weeks I have been trying to remember to go into our storage and get my bible because I couldn't for the life of me remember what some of the 10 commandments were. Everynight when I realize that I forgot again, I would pray and tell God I'm sorry and that I would get it tomorrow. I assumed by now he was tired of hearing it. My son got a daily bible for his birthday. I opened it up yesterday and flipped to the date, and it was on the ten commandments. I couldn't do anything but smile to myself.

* I love my husband more than anyone will ever understand. I could die today and still have lived a full and wonderful life all because of the short time I have been with him. I truly believe he was Gods plan for me.

*I probably take about 65 pictures of my son a day. I never want to forget anything.

*I really want a daughter and plan to start trying the day Chad comes home from Iraq.

*I am terrified of birds and cats.

*I dont do new years resolutions because everyday I try to be a better person than I was the day before, not just once a year.

*I have always had an obsession with even numbers. I chew my food an even number of times on both sides of my mouth, and take the same amount of steps on each food between the cracks in the sidewalk, even if I have to jump. I've been doing it since I was a little girl and I'm not sure where it came from.

*I love my family. Intermediate, extended, and by marriage.

*I will never forget the day I went up north with my family and fell head first into the little colorado river. My grandma had to pull me out by my hair. I remember jumping on my grandpas bed and telling him what happened, even though I was only like 3 at the time.

Trip home

We just got back from a much needed trip home. Dylan got to celebrate his first birthday, and get lots of love and attention from his family and friends who have missed him so much! Chad and I also enjoyed all the grandparents that kept him busy the whole time. It was a much needed break!

We were supposed to arrive on Monday the 7th, but accidentally drove to the wrong airport and missed our flight. Luckily the lady at the front desk felt bad for us and changed our tickets to the next day for free instead of charging us the 800 dollars it is supposed to cost. The next day we drove to the right airport, but our first flight was delayed 2 hours, so we ended up missing our connecting flight as well. We eventually did get there and then crammed as much in those two weeks as we could!

Family lunches and dinners, aloha festival, tattoos, zoo, family pictures, dylans birthday party, my birthday party, spring training game, shopping, a beautiful wedding and reception, bowling, movies, breakfast, lots of coffee, and ordered my bridesmaid dress for my best friends wedding.

It all went by WAY too fast. Dylan and I will be going back in 4 to 5 months, but the reasoning makes it bitter sweet, and i'm not so sure I want it to come as quick as everything else has. For now we're just going to be a family and live our lives. Try to do as much together as we can before we have to spend some time apart.

At the moment Dylan and I are getting mommy and baby time since its 2am and he wont sleep because he is now on Arizona time- thanks Dylan. Did I mention that today is my 21st birthday?

Just an update

These past few weeks have been pretty uneventful. We had a small celebration at home for Dylans first birthday where he got to shove cake in his face and wear a hat that he complained about the whole time. We started going to a couple playgroups and he seems to enjoy that even though he doesn't really interact with other kids yet he just does his own thing. Its more like an hour that I get to chase him around a big play yard than social time with other kids. But he seems to like it and I've also had the chance to make a couple of friends there and thats a definite plus.

We're getting ready to head back to the states for a couple of weeks to visit family and friends. I am hoping to get away from the depressing weather here for a little while, lets pray the cold doesn't follow us. I have decided that when we get back I am going to look for a job and a babysitter for Dylan. Mostly because 6 months of being trapped inside equals out to 10 to 15 extra pounds that really isn't needed and I would really enjoy some scenery other than the inside of this apartment.

I've been thinking about what to put in my next post for a while but I really don't have any interesting stories this time. Unless you want to hear about all the gross things Dylan has eaten lately but I'm pretty sure we already covered that a couple of times.

Just a quick statement

So I have to say that it's really annoying to hear people freak out about the world ending in 2012. Probably the same group of people who think Tupac is still alive, or that smoking pot is healthy because its a "natural herb". I am pretty sure that God is the only one who can end the world, and he has some pretty big plans to fulfill before that ever happens. Why are people SO obsessed with finding out exactly when they're going to die anyway? Living in fear isn't a good way to live... in my opinion anyway. We aren't supposed to know the future. We're supposed to take what God gives us and enjoy it. Count our blessings instead of worrying of whats to come. Have faith in him and he will have faith in you.

Shelby

Well last time I wrote about how we finally decided to give up Lady (Cujo), and she went to a good home right down the road. We were half expecting them to show up at our door after a few days and ask for a refund, but they never came. Personally I think it's lonely without a dog in a home especially when away from friends and family and being a stay at home mom, so of course we had to try again. This time my husband picked the dog. 

This is Shelby. Our newest attempt at a kanine companion. A far better dog than Lady, and house trained. I am in heaven. She also scares off a lot of kids during our walks which comes in handy. Even though she's really friendly, people take one look at her and think she's a pit bull. This is a bulldog for anyone who isn't dog savy.


We also were informed that the other half of our couch is in (finally) and is going to be delivered in a couple of days. Thank goodness we're going to have a complete living room...if my husband ever decides to mount the T.V. to the wall. Right now we have pieces of styrofoam that came in the original packaging holding it up. It doesn't look very nice. And Dylan keeps pulling pieces off of it and sticking it in his mouth. As lazy as it sounds, I will be relieved to not have to stand right next to the T.V. and angle the remote to change the channel. The styrofoam is blocking the censor and you have to be right up next to it to get it to work.

Hopefully this week holds big things. Such as my new workout shoes that I ordered arriving, or maybe winning the lottery. I'll settle for either.

Q-tips, socks and so long furry..frenemy

I love that my son is so low maintenance in the morning. I put on cartoons, put a bottle and a toy in front of him and hes occupied until nap time. I even go back to bed most of the time after I get him out of his crib, which is probably very lazy of me since he doesn't actually get up until around 9 or 9:30.

Last night I walked past his bedroom, did a double take and walked backwards to his door and saw him sitting in a huge pile of Q-tips. He was picking them up and laughing at them like they were performing a circus act. Its amazing how he can be so amused with something so ridiculous.

I decided it was probably time to completely baby proof the house. As in outlet covers and cabinet locks. About an hour after I covered up all of the outlets he started noticing that they were there and tried to put a few of his toys in it. Perfect timing I guess.

We got rid of Lady, our 'fore mentioned kujo dog. I wasn't actually expecting it to be hard giving her up, and I definitely wasn't expecting to miss her but of course I do. After her leaving I continued to cry for a good hour and simultaneously throughout the next couple of days. I had been emailing her prospective new owner before giving her up and when she showed up at the door with a girlfriend who was dressed in punk rock clothes and had hair like Joan Jet I was a little worried about where Lady was going. But they were actually really nice and the normal looking one was her new owner anyway.


Two days later I got an email from her saying that Lady was doing very well and was loving all the attention from the 3 kids, and spending a lot of time playing in their big back yard. It's relieving to know that she's happy.

Merry Christmas

When I was younger, I used to be terrified of Santa Clause and the tooth fairy and the easter bunny and all those crazy characters that people made up to get kids to enjoy these occasions. I used to hide under my blanket and shiver myself to sleep. I didn't want to catch a glimpse of either of these things or else I'd probably have a heart attack. I was sorta a chicken when I was little. When I told Chad this he made fun of me for hours.
Now let me just defend myself about the Easter bunny. I believe there was a year when I was younger that my parents told me that the Easter bunny has a special way of hiding the eggs. They said he would put them in the middle of the table, pull out a gun and shoot at the egg carton and they would scatter all over in different hiding spots. A gun!! I'm pretty sure they said BB gun..but its all the same. How am I supposed to be happy about a bunny with a gun? Anyways I'm sure to the normal kids who weren't afraid of loud noises or heights it would have been a cool story.

Now Santa is a jolly fellow, but the whole "he sees you when your sleeping, he knows when your awake" thing is just kind of creepy. And I was always afraid he was going to crash land into my house. Someone who eats that many cookies is bound to have a heart attack at the wheel. Or sleigh.

I'm surprised I never caught my mom putting a dollar under my pillow in place of my tooth, because I used to be too scared at night to go to sleep sometimes, waiting for the tooth fairy to appear in my room. Lets recap. Bunny with a gun, puffy red man who see's everything, little fairy who collects old teeth. All of this sounds too much like a twisted adult cartoon, and that's just not my cup of tea.

I think I hate my dog

My Kujo dog that I talked about in my very first post, is about four months old now. And she is still very much the most annoying thing I have ever known. I took her outside the other night to go to the bathroom and a guy came out of the building next to ours and asked if he could pet her. I told him at his own risk. So anyways he starts petting her and I dropped the leash on accident since she was squirming all over the place and he ended up grabbing it. After about a minute of having her on the leash he asked me if I had ever watched "The Dog Whisperer" on tv, and suggested I give Ceasar Millan a call.

She makes my son look like the best baby in the world. He is going to be 10 months old next week, and is very busy cruising the furniture and rolling around in his Whinnie the Pooh walker. He also enjoys knocking over the dvd rack and watching the movies fall everywhere. Mostly right after I finish cleaning.

My husband is great about taking them into another room when I need to rest or get something done. He also talks in his sleep which gives me another source of entertainment. He talks about lunch trays, and asks if i'm afraid of the monsters in the closet.. you know, normal things. And its a good thing he has me to tell him to get back into bed when I wake up and find him getting ready for work at midnight, thinking its time to go.

I would just like to know if everyone else's life is as unpredictable as mine or if I just belong on a late night talk show like Chelsea Handler. I have a few more stories, but those i'll save for another day..

12/3/10

This week we have been busy getting settled into our new place. I love it, but of course its right across the street from an elementary school, so there are usually at least 20 kids running around the dog walking area right in front of our building. First of all my dog is terrified of everything that moves besides the three of us, and second of all kids that age are loud and rude. Too young to know it, but too old for it to be cute. No offense to anyone reading this, but seriously.

My first example is the two boys who always play in the snow right behind our building. Everyday at about the same time they're out there sledding down the 5 foot slope and throwing snowballs. But while they're doing this they see who can yell the F word loudest. And then they sit across from eachother at the picnic table and fake a really loud fight acting like theyre stumbling around wrestling and joking about each others mothers while actually theyre just sitting there sucking on a juice box.

Yesterday I was walking my dog out front when school let out. She just wanted to sit there and shake to death because she was scared of all the little kids running around. But I was freezing and she already went to the bathroom so i pulled on her leash and told her to come on. But she was too scared to move so she just sat there while I drug her about two feet before saying "seriously lady? do you want to stay out here with all the children by yourself or do you want to come inside where its warm." Right after that some little boy yelled "HEYYY! Don't hurt the puppy!!" I asked him if his mother ever taught him not to talk to strangers. Apparently she did not.

Oh and we have 1/2 of a couch in our living room now. (Only the left side was ready for delivery until the end of the month.) But on the plus side we just finished cleaning everything up and getting rid of all the boxes. And our place is almost ready. Only one more room to go.

Happy Thanksgiving

I would just like to take a moment and list some of the things I am thankful for.

I am thankful that my little family is together today, even if we cant cook a nice meal in this hotel. I am thankful that the housing department finally got off their asses and got us our house. I am thankful that I woke up to snow this morning, and was again reminded of how much I love my warm Arizona. I am thankful that I caught my son before he put the rest of that dog turd in his mouth. I am thankful that we found the liquid tylenol since I am bad at swallowing pills. I am thankful for tylenol period. I am thankful for car keys and water bottles, because both keep Dylan occupied for more than 2 minutes. I am thankful for 2 for 1 drink specials when I really need them, and I am thankful for google translator.


But really I am thankful for my friends back home. I am thankful that I found the one person I am truly supposed to be with at such a young age. I am thankful for my son and that he got the amazing father that he deserves. I am thankful for my family, and my new family by marriage who were so supportive and accepting of me. I am thankful that God led me down the right path. I am thankful for our health, and even my Kujo dog.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Search for furniture

So a few days ago my husband and I recieved news that our home is ready to be moved in to, after staying in a hotel for over 2 months. Last night we went to buy the furniture we had picked out since we finally had a place to put it. Of course, they didnt have it in stock. And since we did not want to wait 3 months for furniture, we decided to drive out to IKEA which is about 50 minutes away from our hotel. After a long drive, and a few wrong turns we pull into the parking lot and its completely empty. OF COURSE it was. Because it was Sunday, and Germans cherish Sundays and refuse to any sort of work. Wonderful. So we head to a gas station to fill up and head back to the base onc again. We decided to go with our second choice. A nice big wrap around couch that matched everything else we picked out for the living room. This seemed like a better choice now anyways. After an hour of walking around and sitting on all the couches and chairs, we finally took the label up to the front and gave them our decision. But of course, they were out of this one too. Just our luck. So now we have to wait for it to come in since all of the other furniture is either ridiculously colored or just not our taste. Who knows how long it will be.

I guess I should just be grateful that we finally have our place, and all of our belongings will be delivered this weekend. To finally be able to sleep in ONE big bed without a crack in the middle, and to have all of my sons things to keep him occupied. I have gone through the stores countless times and picked out exactly what I want, and where I am going to put it. So getting everything will take very little time. I am thankful I decided to save a good amount of money for when we did get into our home, and waiting so long has given us plenty of time to have money to buy everything we need. That takes a lot of the stress off.

Finally I can get situated, settle down and adjust to life here overseas.

Adjusting to life in Germany

Living here in Germany is so much different than it was back home. People here are rude and they only let loose during parties or festivals (this is probably why there are so many alcohol fests and parades here.) Restaraunts don't care about customer service, and they really coudn't care less if you like your food or not. All the shops and markets close whenever the workers feel like going home, so you never know if where your headed is even going to be open for the day.

There are no restrooms in any of the stores or the small restaraunts and we usually have to walk way out of our way to find one if we ever go shopping downtown. And there are no changing tables when we do find restrooms off base. Does no one here have babies?!

You can never see the sun set, its pitch dark outside by 4:30pm, and every other person on the street is holding a cigarette making it impossible for me to get any fresh air. Smoking is fashion in Europe.

Everything here seems old. All the buildings, furnature, electronics. Even if its brand new it still looks old. They treasure things here. Not like America where everyone has the newest phone or HD television as soon as it comes out. There are no beds bigger than twin, and married couple have either two seperate twin beds, or two twin beds pushed together so that theyre still seperated by the crack down the middle.

There isn't a million different flavors of soda. They simply have Coke which they call cola, or sprite. And you can buy Pepsi in some stores too. The american dollar is only worth 67 cents here right now, and it goes down all the time. Soon it wont be worth anything.

There are a lot of things that make this place beautiful also, and in some ways better than America. Like the crime rate. The capitol of the state im from is number 2 in the world right now for kidnappings. People here say there have been maybe 3 cases of murder in the past 3 years that they've been here and back home there are probably more like 3 murders everyday just in Arizona alone. Some things are good and some are bad but either way its different.

My son eats paper.

How is it that a baby could be so addicted to paper? What flavor could it possibly have? Every time my son sees a piece of paper on the floor, even if its the size of a raisin he is crawling towards it faster than a dog will run to a slab of meat.

Yesterday we were shopping around on base and he pulled something out of the cart and started sucking on it, just like he does to everything he sees. He ended up biting off the tag and swallowed some but ended up just gagging on the rest of it. I had to stick my finger down his throat and make him puke it up! It was ridiculous and he was seriously angry that I took his paper away. Needless to say I couldn't give that as a gift anymore so I just kept it for myself. Thanks Dylan.

shut up you german!

Every time I take my son out in public I get stared at by some old woman or a group of women even. They look at me as though I shouldnt have him outside at all in the cold weather. What am I supposed to do keep him locked up in his car seat in the closet while I go run errans?? He is always warm because my husband and I put him in a million layers and always make him wear a hat. What else do these people want?!?!

Once we got into a cab heading home from the grocery store, and the cab driver made a big deal because Dylan wasn't wearing stockings. I thought those were only for girls? Anyway she made a fuss about the gap between the ends of his pants and the tops of his socks, which I cant control. Thats why we had a blanket over him but she didnt seem to care. I felt like saying SHUT UP YOU GERMAN! He's MY kid and hes fine. Then we got back to the hotel we unloaded our things and nosily she picked up our dog crate that Lady had to be in while the maid came to clean the room if we werent there, and she got mad about that to. "THIS IS ILLEGAL!" she said. "not good!" Then why the hell do they sell them here?!?!?!?!??!

Although I think at this point she was just making things up becuase she told us they werent allowed to be on leashes either.

Wedding Night(mare)

Well I got a request to blog about my eventful wedding night because they hadnt yet heard the whole story. I suppose its blog worthy..and dont worry parents, there is no need to shield your childs eyes.

My husband and I got married just a few months ago, and for the wedding night reserved a room at the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, Az. As you all know I am a mother, and my day started a lot earlier than it should have, so by the end of the night I was really ready for the reception to be over already so I could just go relax with my new husband.

We start our trip to the resort, but must stop for gas first. We pull off into the first gas station (we didnt have much back up fuel since my husband was running LATE to the wedding and drove around on E to get there) anyways, none of the pumps would read his beaten up credit card and the store was closed so we couldnt pay cash, so we chanced it and headed to the resort. We didnt have that far to go.

We did make it, but there was no parking by our room, so we had to park all the way on the other side of the resort, and walk the distance. We finally get there, and the key will not open the door. We have to call the front desk and ask them to send someone with a master. When the man arrives, his keys wont open it either. Turns out the battery for the lock was dead, and the maintenance man had left for the night, so we had to switch rooms. But since Chad had already been there earlier to decorate and make it all romantic and what not, all of our stuff was in there and we still needed to get in.

We are driven to the lobby to wait while the man figures out a plan of action, and decides to climb a ladder to the back balcony, and break in through the back arcadia door. He then comes back to get us and let us in to get our things. The room did look really nice though, I must give my husband some credit. Anyways we make it into a new room and change out of our wedding gear. By this time it has come to be around 11pm and we are both starving. We had a party the night before at Chads mom's house and still had plenty of food there from it, and it was only about 3 minutes away, so he decided to run there and grab some and bring it back for us. But as he is on his way back, he runs out of gas completely. Of course you remember we weren't able to fill up earlier that evening. His sister ends up having to drop him back off at the hotel, and by the time he finally made it back, I was passed out and well on my way to dreamland.

As you can imagine we were one frustrated couple the next morning when we woke up just in time for check out.

Lady

Having an 8 month old, and a puppy at the same time, is NEVER a good idea. When the baby isnt crying or knocking things over, the dog is chewing on something she isn't supposed to, or trying to terrorize me by jumping up and nipping at my knuckles. Ironically, our dog is named Lady...even though there is nothing lady-like about her. This little terror was supposed to be my fairy tale dog. The cocker spaniel named after the classic Disney movie that cuddles with me in the evenings, and lays by my feet while I read. Instead, I got a spawn of satan wanna-be pup that cant go 5 minutes without ruining a pair of shoes, or running off with one of my sons toys.

I even put an add up for her in the local newspaper, got several calls on her, and when finally someone was coming to look at her, changed my mind and decided I could not give up this thing that was completely opposite of my dream dog. I emailed the lady back and told her the puppy had become ill, and we were no longer selling. I blame it on irrational thinking, due to migrane caused by teething child and kujo. I think they are working together.