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.