The future's looking golden

Really, it is!! As our move gets closer and closer we are turning our thoughts to our future in this little town we will soon call home. We have always rented and so look forward to settling down and maybe, actually...hopefully owning a home!! I know, I'm in shock too.
We have looked around at the current home market and there are some possibilities but our list of "must haves" is a hard one to complete. We want something that is big enough, but not a monster (I don't want to have to clean all the time), it needs to have room to spread out, land (at a minimum 1 acre). Needs to be close-ish to town and in our price range. Easy peasy, right? We're not asking for much. :0)
With all of this in mind we have yet to find THE house. So our thoughts turn to property and possibly building. Land is pretty cheap out there and well so are building costs. It's actually a possibility, as scary and exciting as that is.
We have found a property that suits most all our needs and has the perk of nice neighbors! My bro and sister in law purchased the plot next to the one we want, lol.
It's five acres of relatively flat prairie land. It has enough of a rolling hill affect to make it interesting. And its golden, sigh, so pretty. I love the colors out there. The sky is so big!! The biggest I have ever seen and the land just stretches out around you. The air is clean and crisp you feel healthier just for having been there.

As with everything in our lives it comes with a catch. We have to wait (we all know how good I am at that) because since we will be getting out of the military we will be technically jobless, or newly employed, SO we have to wait to get financing before we can stake our claim on a little piece of earthly heaven.
Until then we have pictures and memories. And the excitement of where we would put what.

In this picture we are chattin with my bro and sis about the pros and con's of the property. The girls were bug hunting I believe.

The view of the closest neighbor. He is about 15 acres away. Not bad considering we haven't lived in a house without sharing at least two walls with other families in about 10 years.

Standing at the back of the property looking down the slope to the cars that are parked on the gravel road. Mind you the truck? ya its huge!!! So that will give you an idea of how much room there is on 5 acres.

 Another shot from the back, the cars on the left and in the distance the black/bluish smudges are the downtown area. Its about 10-15 minutes away from town I think.

 Rosie running around, enjoying the outdoors time and the bug hunting adventure!!

 A little pond situated on the property behind us. They run seasonal cattle through this area but the pond is full of water year round.

 The cool old fence line. Its useless when you have kids or dogs... or wild animals in the area (which you would be surprised how many roam that area) so it will have to be replaced, but I think its pretty.

 The road up to the property. Da Bro's is straight ahead and ours would be to the left of it, at the end of the road of course.

 Pretty view up from the road, nice gentle slope, pretty grass, ahhhh sigh, happiness! This would be the Bro's property.. ish. Its hard to tell when there are no real markers. Now imagine a sprawling lodge with huge windows, a nicely manicured forest of green and a shop to rival Top Gear's... yep that's our neighbors!!

More goodness. This would be our property. Cant you just picture our Victorian farmhouse with greenhouse and big shop? our orchard of fruit trees? my lilac lined driveway??? I can, just squint your eyes and use your imagination, its there I promise!

As promised

I know I promised to update you to what we did while in Germany, and I did find those pictures. (thank you Jim!!) But as our life goes on, right? I still promise to give you a peek into german life, promise... but onto new fun stuff.
As you all know I have wanted a dog for ages, and after years of research, debate and thought we got a bundle of fluff at the beginning of Jan. Now, I can hear you all gasping in disbelief, "You just moved into a house at the beginning of January!" Why, yes your right. Actually it worked out that we signed for the new house at 1pm and at 6pm we were picking up our little boy. We were setting up air mattresses while trying to acclimated the puppy to us. Good times.
Now to the fun stuff, our puppy is a Great Pyrenees. Never heard of them? I know, I stumbled upon the breed myself and have fallen head over heals for them. Fully grown they are big BIG bundles of white fluff. Our little love came to us through our breeders, breeder. Its a long story, but I fully believe that he was meant for us, he fits in perfectly personality wise. Now before I start getting phone calls from you guys about going with a breeder, there were a few reasons for this decision. Mostly because the rescues kept turning us down, it seems that military families with young children are not good places for this breed. (I think our little man would disagree, as he is sleeping on my feet right now) We knew we would get emotionally attached to our dog and wanted him/her to be around for years so having a health certificate was a nice reassurance too.
Ok, back to the fun stuff.

INTRODUCING THORN HILL STIG MAROON LAWSON!!!

Isn't he cute??? Stupid name, I know.. honest most all of it wasn't my choice. Lets break it down. "Thorn Hill" is the breeders name he came from, since his is registered with AKC we had to keep it for official reasons. "Stig" is to give him at least one manly, boy-like name. And "Maroon" is the name he goes by, well there is a story behind that piece. When he was born he was given a maroon ribbon to tell him apart from his siblings. So they called him "Maroon boy" which was shortened to "Maroonie" and eventually shortened further to "Roonie". He knew his name before we got him and so decided to keep it for simplicity reasons.

Now, Roonie is an active part of our lives. He is taking puppy kindergarten and learning new things everyday. He loves the girls, all kids for that matter, but has a special connection with Carmen. Most mornings he can be found sleeping with her in her bed. He is incredibly funny and goofy. He fits in perfectly!!

When we got him, at 9 weeks he weighed 20 pounds and could be held (as you can see by the picture above. It was taken the day before we got to take him home with us). At 14 weeks he weighed 36.6 pounds. He is hard to hold now, well most impossible for me. Its not just the weight but also the size. As you can see by the below picture he has grown a ton already!

I have video of him playing around the house but I need to find the links. I will post them soon to add to your puppy enjoyment!

Puppies Rock!

Changes are the way of our lives..

Well, since its been a while I will give you a quick update to our lives and what has happened since I wrote last. First off, Jim made it safely back home from deployment and we tried to get back to life as "usual". After talking to our neurologist, our primary care giver and lots of thought and prayer we decided to try to get what the military calls a "compassionate reassignment". Which essentially means that we were asking to be sent back to the US because we felt that the appropriate medical facilities for Carmens health needs were not available to us. We started the process in June I believe, we didnt know if it was going to be approved till the beginning of December. At that time they said yes, you can go to the states (Fort Eustis VA) annnnnddd your leaving in two weeks. Fun times let me tell you.
But lets step back a few steps. While the request for compassionate reassignment was going through, my mom came and visited, my dad came and visited and we saw a bunch of Germany. Where are the pictures and video you ask? Good questions, I dont know.. I just looked on my computer and they are missing. So give me some time to try to find back up files, I know I backed them up.. its just a matter of finding them.
We didnt know if we would move at all, so we decided to live our lives like nothing was going to change. We visited very cool places, castles and monuments. Again, pictures to come soon. We visited Christmas Markets, each special and unique in its own ways. Magical times, each and everyone of them.
So, back to our timeline. We decided to go home to the NW to see family instead of sitting in a hotel room over Christmas as we were flying out of the country on the 19th. It, in itself, was a challenge because we got snowed in, in Germany and got stuck at the airport overnight. We did eventually make it home to see family and friends for a much needed break. Then headed back to VA to start setting up shop.
We, as you can see by the video we got a townhouse style home. We got what the managing company called "older". I think they were being generous. Its ANCIENT!!! some of the outlet plugs are not even polarized.. sigh... the things the military puts us through. The manger said "well, think of it this way, its temporary. We will be moving you out in 6 months to renovate these homes and will be moving you to a newer home." Oh yippee.. move again? how lucky can we be??
So our household goods were delivered the other day, making the house "cozy". We are now shuffling through boxes trying to figure out what we are going to need for the next few months, because in 4.5 months we will be doing it all over again. Can you hear the joy and excitement in my voice??? strain a little more and you just might hear it.

I think that gets you mostly up to date. I will add pictures and stories of Germany as I find the pictures and videos. As we explore what Virginia has to offer I will add those too, so we might be jumping back and forth. Ready for the ride???

(This is the only family picture from Germany I could find. It was taken at Eagles Nest, you can just see the roof between us all. We went there Oct. 2010)

A few things... thats all

*sigh* Another big hurdle cleared... if not a tad slowly. We recieved our household goods today. The movers arrived at 7:30am, we literally rolled out of bed to answer the door. They were here till around 2pm. Remember, three flights of stairs carrying everything that we own. There were only two men doing this and they hand carried everything in! No snazy way of getting around carrying each box up. But its done, and now the large task of unpacking begins.

This is about 1/2 way into unloading.

This is the Girls hanging in our bedroom to stay out of the way of the movers. Note the bed that we borrowed, yeah they didnt come to pick that stuff up till the poor movers were bringing up the last three boxes. Talk about over loaded!

This is the second bedroom, most every box went in there, and this is only midway through. We ended up filling the room up and just shut the door and started loading things into the middle of the living room.

You might not be able to tell but at the base of my couch is a smattering of rice, yes I said rice. It would seem that the magical rice fairy visited our couch while on the boat on its way here. All my boxes were intact and the couch was completely surrounded by seran wrap. Plus, there was about the amount of two boxes of rice in it, I dont own that much rice. We still dont know how it got in there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acFyyUnU0j4

K, so I video taped the progress of the move, this would be the first installation, about an hour into the move. I was still perky, I just had a cup of coffee I am sure. :0)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYcBM6hjvA0

This is later in the day, I will explain in the video how things are going. I think this was around lunch time, which would mean my coffee buzz is worn off AND I am starving. Fun Times!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiX516n2aAo

Ok, this is later in the day... much later, around 5pm I believe. We shut the front door and I crashed on the couch, once I could find it. Jim was adorable and headed in to play trains with Carmen. Rosemary was, thankfully, taking a nap. She was super tired having missed both normal nap times.

Home Sweet Home

Ok, so we moved in, well in a sense we did. We signed for "the" apartment (that we have talked about so much). The place isnt too bad. Not that I enjoy walking up three flights of stairs mulitple times a day, the kids are already starting to complain about it. They do however, enjoy the view. Out our balcony is one of the airfields (which at this moment a chinook is doing hovering manuevers) and Carmen gets really excited everytime something flies in. I am sure with time that will dim some, but right now she is in seventh heaven!

We are borrowing beds and couches and a table from the Lending Closet. They are not the best out there, I would much rather have mine, but at least we have something to sit on and sleep on.

There isnt much else to say, we arent too happy with the situation, but have exhausted our last option and will just have to make the best of it.

I took a video tour of our apartment, its rather large but I am still going to try to load it on here. If not then maybe youtube and then attach a link to it... we shall see. (ok, so I had to put it on youtube, so you should be able to click on the link below and it should take you to the video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWwVL2maEr8

Also I added my first touch to the place. Not many will care about it, but my girl Em will like it. :0) I miss you!!!

Where EXACTLY are you?

Good question, and one I have been getting from a few people so here goes. We are in Katterbach Germany. There... thats all you needed right? lol... Ok, here goes. I had Jim capture some images from google earth just for clarification purposes.

This one shows you where in Germany we are located at, its in Baveria (Bayern) which is the southern half of Germany. The lines in yellow are the borders of Germany and the yellow tack is where we are at.

Next is a closer picture, zoomed in as it were. You can see Nurnburg off to the right, its a big city out here and you should be able to find it on any map of Germany. We are between Ansbach and Nurnburg (which can also be spelled Nuremburg).

Again we zoom in to our relation to Ansbach, which is to the west and kind of south of us. There are a few labels on this one. Bismarck Kaserne and Katterbach kaserne (by the way kaserne just means barracks) are pretty much the same city cut into two by the major road out here, not impressive but it is what it is. The last label simply says "our place" which is actually where our future apartment is at. (we sign on it tomorrow, further updates to be posted soon).

Last but not least is a picture of our kaserne area. Ok, lets start at the top. Our hotel is located in Bismarck Kaserne north of the "highway" 14. Katterbach is south of the road, and below the air field if our apartment building. And dont even get me started about the apartment situation right now. I will fill you in more after we are in it and I have a proper rant ready. :0)

I hope this helps you with finding us on a map, or just getting an idea of where we are. We love and miss you all!!!

Hotel Blues

I havent updated in a few days because there hasnt been anything of importance happening. We are still in a hotel, going on 11 days now. We arent any closer to getting a house, Jim had an appointment on Tuesday, but unfortunately the lady (the only one in the whole town) who can help Jim decided not to show up. There was no heads up or anything. He ended up sitting with about 7 other guys who all had appts. with her that day for about 6 hours and then he just gave up. Typical military I am sorry to say.
As with everything its a hurry up and wait situation. We had a rush to get things done the first couple of days and now we just wait for the military to grace us with answers. If we get them at all. You might had noticed but I am a little pissy with the military right now.
The only thing of importance to happen all week was Carmen's doc appointment went well. We got her a new perscription for her meds, got her assigned to a neurologist in town and have started the process to get her the therapy she was getting in the states. So that is a huge hurdle taken care of.
Now we sit and wait till Jim takes his test to get his international liscense and then we can purchase a car. Oh and then getting a house... dont get me started.
Anyways, thats the news. :0) I will add more when it happens!
Toodles

Grettings from Germany!

Hello again! We are here, we arrived late yesterday evening at our hotel. All of our baggage in tow, all limbs accounted for, brain cells? well lets just say.... we are here. :0)

The trip was a long and tiresome one. I will give you an account of what went down, minus the ass numbing bordness that we had to go through.

We got up at 3am to leave the house at 4am. We couldnt do curbside valet-luggage-deal because we were going international military style (of course couldnt be easy) so we waited in line behind a rather large russian family (who didnt speak a lick of english) for about 20 minutes. We got checked in, bags to baggage claim, oh and a potty break for carmen. We get in line (we were there for about 30 minutes) to get through security and about 10 minutes into that carmen had to pee again... imagine my joy at that announcement, and her need to grab her crotch the WHOLE time in line. Luckily, it was early in the morning and the people around us who overheard our conversation just laughed along and kept reminding me "when you gotta go, you gotta go"... if I wasnt so tired I might had hit them.. oh well, onto the next section of the story.

The flight to Atlanta was rather uneventful. When carmen stepped onto the plane she said "Mommy, Im on a PLANE!!!!" it was rather cute. They flew pretty good, Rose slept a bit of the way. Neither kid ate much of the breakfast, I dont blame them. It was this odd combination of crousant, cheese, apple bites, turkey bacon and apple butter.. now normally that would be a yummy combination, but nothing was rather fresh... actually it all had a "chewy" way about it.


So we jump to lunch at the airport. Carmen didnt want to get off the plane, but after hearing we were getting on another even bigger one she was ok with taking a break. We had lunch at an overly small TGIFridays that smelled like tired passengers and BO...lucky us. Carmen had to pee three times during lunch and then again as we wondered the terminal waiting for our boarding zone to be called. Jim was embarassed by the "leash" that rose wore. It was a dog-shaped backpack with a leash hanging off its butt. It worked great and just like Carmen, Rose usually was holding my hand, so the leash was just a nice insurance plan, but not really needed. Men.. if I wasnt so tired, I might have hit him....



The plane to Frankfurt was larger, it seperated us into Jim and Carmen, Rose and Me. Carmen was overjoyed to be on another plane and she told everyone about it, like she was some traveling pro. it was cute, but again.. I was tired. We drugged the girls as we were walking onto the plane but unfortunately it took them 45 minutes to pull away, then another 30 to get us in the air, so both girls were out long before we took off. They ended up sleeping about 45 minutes of the beginning of the flight. Thats all.... now I might need to say this as a reminder, the flight was 9 hours long!! Not the kind of flight you want young children awake and bored on! Oh well, thats how things go. Rose fell asleep in my arms and almost got bonked on the head with the cart, the flight attendant told me that i should switch her around so her feet hang out in the aisle. I reminded her that I could barely get her upper body on my lap and her feet would get smashed if I left them in the aisle. (If I wasnt so tired, I might have hit her!) Beyond the normal fussiness and bordeom that comes with long plane rides the girls did surprisingly well. We even got compliments from some older women who sat behind Jim and I. They said that we had well behaved children and that we were great parents... We looked at each other and wondered at the same time if they werent too tired to realize who they were talking to. Sweet and unexpected... but still supisious. :0)



We gathered our luggage and headed to the check in area. The lady there said that they would take us to a bus that would drive us to the Sheradon hotel where Jim would in process then we would be taken to our respective forts and then to our hotels. Well to be specific, she was correct, but her original esitmation of 5 minutes for inprocessing was a tad off. We ended up being stuck in a small conference room for 6 hours! They didnt staff more people to help with the larger than normal load of incoming soldiers (and their families) plus they hadnt even finished with the people from the day before and there was people that stayed the night in the hotel!!! I was shocked, but not really surprised, this is the Army after all. Anyways, we sat, and sat... and sat. Oh and they stocked us well, about 100 family members with two WHOLE gallons of water... such the first class treatment!

Well, to make a long story short, we finished, rushed to the next bus (which was hard considering Carmen was in meltdown mode, Jim and I each had to push an overloaded trolly with baggage and Rose was still asleep in her stroller) We get downstairs, finally, ready for the bus to Ansbach and learn its going to be a 5 hour drive... if I wasnt so tired I really was going to hit that guy!!!! We get loaded and off we go.

Germany looks surprisingly like the NW. I kept forgetting that we were in another country, not just in a farming community in middle washington. it was weird to say the least. We were so groggy that minutes after the bus started the girls were alseep, Jim was snoring and I was staring outside thinking "Oh how cute, theres a car with an europian liscense plate.. oh theres another... oh wait... they all have that... oh yeah, I forgot we are IN europe." Yeah... no sleep was getting to me. And to our patience, at this point we were getting on each others nerves. Luckily the long bus ride, with nice reclining chairs, gave us a nice time to nap. THe girls slept the whole time and had to be wakened to get off.

So we were in better moods to greet the poor soldiers charged with getting the newbies to their places. The gentlemen helped get some bags on the sidewalk ready for the girls and I to chill out on, because there wasnt anywhere for us to go. They took pity on me and kept me talking for the next 45 minutes while we waited for them to do yet more "inprocessing". The soldier assigned to us loaded our bags, bought us burgerking, and drove us to the Inn. The room we got, well technically its two rooms, is rather nice. I was surprised at how simple things are, its not like they dont have what we will need, but German design itself is simplistic. I rather like it. The rooms do have a small stove, microwave and refrigerator. THey are connected by the kitchen. The girls are in a room with two twins, our is one queen bed. We unloaded, it only took two hours to get out what we would need for the night, bathed the girls... oh did I mention that they dont have bathtubs, only showers.. yeah it was a ton of fun for a baby who HATES water in her face.. poor thing. We put them to bed around 10pm and zonked out shortly after that. Jim woke me up this morning to tell me that he was going to meet his sponsor this morning and that he had made me coffee (how sweet is that?) Its now 10am and the girls are still out. I am going to go wake them up in a minute, as much as I am enjoying the quite, Carmen needs her meds and the girls really need to get on the new time schedule out here. Which if you didnt know already is 9 hours ahead of NW time.

A storm rolled in about an hour ago and I was reminded how blessed my family is. We made it across the world with only each other. We didnt fight (not much more than usual), didnt hit anyone.. heehee, tempted as I was at times... Our luggage made it, we only lost sippy cups on the plane, and the sun is just coming out. Carmen hasnt yet had a siezure, but we are still holding our breath, she is most likely to have one today after she is more relaxed than anytime. But hopefully for the kids it wasnt too stressful, we tried hard to make it fun and exciting, not scary and stressful.

I have a couple pictures from the plane ride, I was too groggy and could only think "I should take pictures as we drive past this beautiful German countryside" on the bus.. sorry. But I am sure I will make up for it in the future.

The town we are in is very cute, its green everywhere!! The houses are all brick slated roofs, and pastel yellow, pink, and blushed on the outside. So as time goes on, we will take tons of pictures and leave equal enough updates so check back often. You never know when I will write. :0)

We love and miss you all. Please stay in contact. I havent figured out how to call yet, but we do have internet in the room, so emails will be sent. We cant use skype in the hotel though, too bad. But its only my first day here, I am sure with time, we will be communicating just as if I was only a state away!

Toodles everyone!

The Fam

chaos to the extreme

Again my house is filled with strangers, this time three large samoan gentlemen packing up all my belongings in dusty cardboard boxes. One is currently packing up my shoes, another loading random toys in the girls room and another in my kitchen wrapping my dishes.

Unfortunately they didnt show up till 10:30am, a tad off of the original estimate of 8am, but not my problem. They are paid to pack my stuff correctly and my only irritation is that I will be stuck in the house till late tongiht as they finish packing every picture, sock and piece of paper.

Jim will be heading to my mothers house (where we will be hiding till we fly out next week) with the girls to give them a break from the madness, and so they can take naps this afternoon. So, here I will sit... attached to my computer, maybe working, maybe playing solitare, maybe just watching random video's on youtube.

Last night was my time of internal madness. I had managed to pack the girls, prod Jim into packing himself and gather papers that we need, but I couldnt get myself packed. I hadnt even started by 7pm last night. I cant explain my delay, other than to say I was dragging my feet. Very unlike me, I have always been a list maker, planner and all around preparing fool. This move is the first time I didnt go through and organize, seperate and prepare everything in the house for the movers before they got there. I just didnt have it in me. Again, I dont know why. I am sure the packers who are here today have seen worse, and will in the future, but I still feel guilty that I didnt do more to help them along in their job.

Plus I didnt have a list of how many socks we needed, how many pairs of pants we should bring. How odd for me. But I kept coming back to, how do you pack for over a month? How do you know what the weather is going to be in a month in another country? How will I know what I need? Jim took pity on me and helped out more than he ever has. I usually take the reins of most everything and this time he had to step up to the plate and make me pack. I have always wondered if I wasnt able to do as much as I usually do, if he would be able to stand up to the stress of a move and I am happy to report that he did quite well! With the knowledge of another move or two and he could do this without me involved at all!!! I am so proud of him.

Last night, sitting in the middle of the livingroom floor I was crying, sad, pitiful, I know, but I was so worried that if I forgot anything that I would screw us up completely. So I asked Jim, "what do we need, absolutely need to make it to Germany?" His reply was food, clothing.. blah blah. So I asked the question this way, "What do we need that would mean life of death to us?" The simple reply was Tickets, Passports, Orders, and Carmens Meds... well I had those packed and have for days... so the rest can be replaced if need be, stored if forgotten, and well we will still be on our way to Germany. After this realization I had a glass of wine, watched the last tv show on my DVR and sat on the couch with Jim, now it was 11:30pm and we had 6 large luggage bags filled sitting in the middle of the living room, but at least it gave me peace. We will get there, even if I forget a sweatshirt or extra diapers. We will get there.

The beginning of the End

Well, the first set of movers are here today. I can hear them banging around my garage packing things away.
Ok, let me back track a moment. We have two set of movers coming this time around. The first set are here for what is called "unaccompanied baggage". This stuff will go on an airplane and should reach us in about 30-45 days.
The second set of movers (who come Tuesday and Wednesday) will be here for our "household goods". That will take 2-3 months for us to get.
So, the things that are leaving today are things that will get us by till we get our household goods. Things that will make life easier. When we get to germany and get a house/apartment we will be able to borrow things from the lending closet. Things like a couch, chairs, table, refrigerator, washer, dryer we should find there. Unfortunately I just contacted a friend who just arrived in Ansbach and she said that alot of people are moving into the area right now so there are slim pickings in the lending closet. So... who knows what we will really find or be able to use.
I keep reminding myself that it will all work out in the end, right? right.
Carmen has taken this part of the move rather well. She heard the movers this morning and thought the "imagination movers" were here moving our things, so now the battle is trying to keep her out of the garage so they can work. She went into her room and started to dissemble her toys and boxes so she can take them down to the movers to pack. We tried to explain to her that these things are getting ready to go to Germany and the rest of our stuff will be going in a couple of days. She was more bothered that SHE wasnt going with our stuff. Everytime we even mention Germany, airport, luggage she gets excited and says she wants to go to Germany right now. Its cute, but getting old, telling her "we are not going to Germany today, soon, but not today".
As we get closer and closer to leaving stress levels are getting higher and higher. Jim and I work well together in these kind of situations, but usually there is only one day of stress not three or more. I am not excited to go anymore, just resigned and anxious to be settled.

Dream Home

The house that I have dreamed about for years has finally been found. And its for sale!!! Lets not get bogged down with prices and focus on how cool it is!!!

You can check out all of the pictures on the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeniferlawson0117/PalmquistHouse?feat=directlink

sacrifices

Ok, so every mom knows what its like, you bend down to kiss your little one and they surprise you by springing up at the exact same time! *crack* Well, true to form Wednesday evening Rose and I did just that, unfortunately her forehead won. I broke my nose, well not officially, I was not about to go into the doctor for this. After the swelling went down, most of the bruising is gone... we are doing good. I have pain (sinus pressure type) most all the time, but its managable. And just to prove that I love my little one, even with the pain that comes along with her, we sat on the couch and hugged... heres the proof. (you can still see some of the bruising, it was the right side of my face that got the most bruised.. but its mostly gone)

On the road again...

Well technically it will be in a plane, but you get the idea. We have received orders, as some of you already know, and (drum roll please) we are off to Germany!!!!

Yes, its true, orders have been cut, plane tickets purchased and appointments made. Now this might sound like a shocking place to move to, but we have been asking for this destination for years now and finally got what we wanted. Its a three year tour and we leave June 9th. So.... no I'm sorry, we cant come to your family picnic on 4th of July... we will be unpacking our house in Germany... sorry. But as a consolation we give you an open invitation to come and visit us. All you need is a passport and a wad of money. :0)

Its amazing how fast things are moving right now. Jim is in full move swing as he prepares to leave Korea. He has to take care of all the details for his return to the states, his schooling in VA and then the eventual move of the whole family over seas. So far it just seems like we are swimming through a sea of paperwork.

We are excited, well Jim and I are, we haven't told the girls and don't think that they would understand the gravity of this move. We have always moved to new places and usually they are big moves so the only difference with this one is that we will be going by plane and not by car.

We just learned that we will only be able to take 1/4th of the total weight for household goods that we are normally allowed (9000 pounds). This leaves us in quite a pickle as 3000 might sound like alot, but trust me, it isn't. Its more like the kitchen stuff, clothing and garage stuff. No big furniture or extras will fit into that pile. The military will store what we want to keep but cant bring. But that begs the question, what am I going to want after its been sitting in storage for three years? What will the girls be interested in? what will rot or mold, or get mice in it? ewwee...

But back to Germany, its a beautiful country and the more I learn about the area we will end up in the more I am looking forward to exploring it. So, you ask, where ARE you going? good question, we are heading to southern Germany, in Bavaria. I cant figure out if its upper or lower, as different maps say different things but its down south.

The town that we "think" we will be stationed in is called Ansbach and is a pretty large farming community and should be easy for you to see on a map. The closest airport is Nuremberg airport, you can also see that on pretty much all maps of Germany.

I will add a few to give you an idea of what you are looking for. I couldn't find a good close up map that marked where we will be going and still makes it easy to see in relation to the whole country. Oh well... give me time I will find one.

That's the news for the moment, I will keep you updated on our progress. Please keep us in your prayers as we make plans, prepare to move our lives overseas and that we can find a good neurologist that speaks english over there for Carmen. And if anyone has any tips or suggestions please feel free to heap them on us!! They would be greatly appreciated.

Crystal Ball

Merry Christmas everybody. I received an interesting gift this year, the gift of a glimpse into my future. I got to see what Christmas's for the next few years will entail. At first it was awe.. then disbelief, then frantic screaming, laughing, then yells of "Mine!", "Mommy, shes touching my toy!", and my favorite, "NOOOOOO!" So again I repeat, I have seen my future. My mother promises that this too will pass, that as they grow older they will understand more and be less likely to interfere with each others toys. I am not so sure, having the same sex kids has produced unforeseen problems. They both gravitate to similar toys, I think we will have many more Christmas's with this same problem. (Jim misses out on all the fun..)

That being said, it was fun for the kids. We video taped them coming into the room for the first time for daddy. There is about a minute of nothing (other than commentary if you can hear it) where there was a misscommunication with when we were coming down the stairs. Oh well. its still fun.

Carmens big gift was a tea table and accessories. Rosemarys big one was a rocking lion. Both were under-impressed but eventually warmed up to the whole idea. After a while (and a time out in her room) Carmen even shared her tea set with Rose. Now THAT is Christmas for me...

Carmen showing off after giving Rose a teacup.

Rose on her rocking lion

Climbing in her box... well the box the lion came in, its the simple things...

Carmen all dressed up and ready for her first tea party!

Chillin in the box, what a cutie!Sitting like good sisters do, chatting over tea and cake.

Rosie Cheeks and Wet Bottom

Cabin fever won out and we headed out this morning into the 2 feet of snow. The girls did surprisingly well. More specifically Rose liked it till she bent over and fell face first into the snow, poor thing, the snow was just too deep. Carmen loved every minute of it. She tried to make snowballs the way Uncle Travis taught her but the snow was just too light to do anything with. She kept picking up pieces of ice and telling me what shapes they were. We walked the block distance to the mailbox and back, by that time it was time to go inside. Hot chocolate and cookies called our names.