Headaches

After a miserable Friday night, probably the worst I've ever had, I've awoken to a terrible headache this morning. What makes for it be more fun is that Matthew has a birthday party this afternoon at the bowling alley. Oh that should make for a fun time had by mom, NOT. And do you think my husband would be around to help me out? Of course not! He's being selfish today after screwing up last night, and is at a shoot this morning.

The main headache I have aside from actual pain is getting ready to move in about 4.5 months. Where has the time gone? It seems like David just got home from Iraq and now we're getting ready to finally move back to the states. I'm actually ready at last, other than missing out on some of the sites I want to see, to leave Europe. It's a fouled up place and makes one value what we have in the states. It doesn't help my mood that the government is screwing us more in the COLA goes down as of our May and June paychecks. The euro to dollar exchange rate has dropped over 10 cents since our arrival in May 05, yet we continue to lose money. Our economy as a whole must truly suck back in the states. It's to a be 4% drop in COLA. For some over here, COLA is hard and fast actual income. In our case, fortunately, our only "debt" is that of our new Saab, so the COLA is travel money.

Did I mention our Saab FINALLY showed up just in time for us to start paying the loan back? It was in country by the end of February and I had it in my hands March 1. :) It's beautiful! I love it! Heated seats, sunroof, even back heated seats! Guess I'll put a picture up of it. She is a beauty to drive. I've taken a couple trips out to the Ktown area and talk about smooooooooooooth. Now to get used to the low, long snout on it. I sit up so much higher in the van compared to the car so it's taken some getting used to and apparently a few nicks in both ends of the car. (one by me, one by David) Check the picture out! She's SWEEEET!

Travelling... AGAIN

We spent our last days at Garmisch (most likely last) last week. Travelling there was quite the experience. Left the A5 to go on the A8 and shortly hit a stau. (Stau for you non-German speakers, including me LOL is a traffic jam - frightening to hear of 10+km staus!... that's about 6 miles) Driving around in the dark in an area we don't know is interesting, but thank goodness for GPS. How did we ever get by without it? More the question should be how did MEN get by without it? Coming back wasn't a lot better as we hit one little village that was still in the midst of its fasching parade. Yikes!

Nonetheless, it was a good trip. I relaxed and stitched. We went on a bus ride to Innsbruck to see the altstadt and Imperial Court Palace. The mountains from Garmisch to Innsbruck are just AMAZING! One must come to Europe to just see the wonders. The older boys (DH and CG) went skiing over the weekend. I insisted they go ahead and do the Zugspitze on Sunday. Not many can say they've skiied the tallest mountain in Germany back in the states. Driving home, we came up the Romantic Road. If the Amish one time were from Germany and came to Ohio, they got it right in settling in Holmes County. The rolling hills and fields west of Garmisch are just beautiful and remind me of driving up Ohio Route 39 out of Dover towards Sugarcreek and beyond.

We stopped at an interesting Rasthof along the A7. See picture above. The "old days" of travelling the states and finding odd places hasn't died in Germany it would seem... It looks like an ice cream stand. The bathrooms had birds chirping (tape or CD I HOPE! LOL) and it just gave one the sense of a carnival or something in that stop. It was a fun place. I bet it's a nice place for the kids in the summer. There's a playground outside and an indoor kinderspiel of sorts as well.

Future travel plans... Koln to do chocolate, Netherlands to get to Amsterdam, HOPEFULLY Madrid, and maybe Venice. Those are the big things to do. There's a restaurant I want to go to but can't remember the website at the moment, outside of Frankfurt. The schnitzels and burgers (yes! burgers) are the size of dinner plates! Yes, we continue our eating and drinking across europe :)

Speaking of drinking I went to the bazaar on post this morning. My fave wine seller was there, with my favorite wine, GLUHWEIN! White gluhwein. Yes, they do make a white version. I had to buy 6 bottles. He goes to Rhine Ordinance Barracks in two weeks... guess where I'll be in two weeks. :) Gotta get my fill before going home. We may have to go ahead and commercially ship our wine collection home. It keeps growing in spite of our drinking it up.

Living La Vida Loca

Let's see... two weeks after dropping a line here, I'm still waiting on my Saab to arrive. It's not on a boat. It is in the port at Sweden. They SAY AGAIN, hopefully two weeks. They have said they will try to get us approved to rent a car. That would be great because we need the second car in our busy lives.

Things have been hopping along. Digging thru more boxes. Getting rid of lots of recyclables and trash. Finding old things I've wondered where they went to. Finding old things to just pitch! At least one box has gone out to charity. Of course, none of this stops me from buying more stuff. :D I'm trying to stop that income of stuff so we can get rid of stuff in the house. I can't see having to let people start looking at the house come June/July/August timeframe. I imagine we should probably check with the landlord if he's planning on more Americans renting or selling the house. It's a great place, just a little too far out for a decent commute. We had our first snow about 10 days ago and I had to drive David up to work. A normal 20-30 minute drive in the morning traffic took almost 1.5 hours. The roads were horrendous! forutnately it doesn't snow THAT much to make this a bad place to live. But it's also lack of Americans in the community that makes me feel a little alienated. I'd hoped to be more firendly with the neighbors but between our lack of knowing enough of each other's language and the lack of friendliness in general here, it's just not worked out. But I can shop on the economy and get by when needing to order something. THAT is good! The backerei and metzgerei make out well when I come in.

Listening to AFN radio can drive one nuts. Listening to their attempt of balancing what they provide, I caught the Ed Schultz show the other night. He had Hillary Clinton on for about 15 minutes. Needless to say, had I ever thougth of voting for her (and I would only do so if under incredible pressure to do so), I'd not be doing so. Talk about someone who doesn't sound presidential and grates your nerves with her voice and attitude. Get me a basket ready because if she actually wins, this country will not ever be the same and will continue further downhill than we already have ventured! Then again, there aren't many choices out there. I hate presidential elections. We don't vote til next November and CNN has a debate (the 1st democrat party debate) in April THIS YEAR. The campaign started as soon as the polls closed on the 2006 election. Oh to live in days gone by... no press in your face daily... news took weeks if not MONTHS to travel. I think that was a blessing. Maybe moving to the remote prairies of North Dakota will be a huge blessing come next fall :)

Digging Thru

The boys and I at Christmas in Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, Garmisch, Germany. This is where we will spend President's Day Weekend... minus the Christmas decorations I imagine! :D

Still digging thru the junk! I swear when David is around, he finds more stuff to put in "my room" ... isn't he just great in SHARING? We might be under weight after all!

David is doing his financial thing again today. "How much do we really use?" "Do we really need this?" He wants as much junk as I do and doesn't question his stuff. I should have known money would rear an ugly head again after being comfortable for so long. (by our standards LOL) I'm going thru my stuff thinking "how long have I had this and NOT used it" and pitching it. I can always go buy more when I get back to the states, but we need to downsize and spend less. We have a $500+ car payment starting March 1. Maybe he should have thought about this stuff BEFORE having me order a new Saab. We'll be ok... it's just a long weekend (he took Friday off and the boys were off yesterday) and it's too cold out to go do something outside, so instead we turn on one another. I love winter.

Our Saab... 95 sports combi... ordered in mid-November... told it would be here by January 15... notice me not going on and on about new European car... it's still on a boat! They SAY 10 days. I Won't hold my breath. I've become disillusioned with this experience. I need to have David double check on the fact of 30 days stateside count toward the 6 months we needed to have it to avoid taxes going home. Personally I think the salesman owes us when it comes time to go back and we find they will screw us - 10 more days puts us past the two weeks give or take he said when we ordered the car. This all reminds me I need to have David call USAA to get the insurance set up on the new car so we can go register it next week and when we FINALLY get the car from the Canadians, we can just take it and run. It's been paid for with a loan and part of our own money.

I'll have more to share today I'm sure... it's another day in paradise around here. I'll pass! :D

Travelling

Growing up with nomadic grandparents (Dad's parents) gave me the bug to want to see as much as I could before I die many years from now.

I've checked a few of those places off my list in 2006. We took a cruise in April that included a day in Rome. We were able to walk in St Paul's, walk the plaza in front of the Vatican, see the Colusseum and the Forum. Talk about WOWS! In October the boys and I marked London off my list. While we flew cheap and stayed relatively cheap, we certainly paid for the trip in other ways. The train ride into town (we stayed about 30 minutes out by train from mid-London) was about $30 for all of us daily. Then of course, the $ sucks big time to the British pound. Fortunately it was still >$2 a pound when we went. Today it's over $2! We got to go by Buckingham Palace (don't waste the time, it's one UGLY building and quite a disappointment when you actually see it in person), Tower of London (WELL WORTH THE MONEY TO GET IN!), Madame Toussad's wax museum (another one of those, don't waste the $100 for two people - Matthew was free), lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, Harrod's Department store (minus the tacky display for Di and Dodi, it was a fine, fun shopping trip complete with Krispy Kreme donuts... most expensive ones I've had but by far the best since leaving the states - a dozen's cost? $25!), Westminster Abbey (an OK thing to see, wish I could have taken pics... the Basilica in Rome let you take as many as you wanted), Hyde Park, British Museum (Rosetta Stone is neat to see up close!). There's just one thing I really have to go back to London for and that's to get to Windsor Castle. That's the one thing we missed out on.

This year we have travel plans already to get going on. Since missing the Paris trip at New Year's, I'll be going on my own in mid-February. I can't wait! An overnighter without kids or David in a room to myself :D Worth the extra 75 euro for the single room :) Venice is still in the mix - want to see it before it sinks away one day. Berlin is something we're talking about for Spring Break this year. CG has mentioned going to Auschwitz - we're thinking of making it a long trip over Spring Break to hit it and Berlin in one swoop. No cruise this year. :( Maybe in another 4 years when we celebrate 20 years marriage, retirement (the following year) and getting one of the baby birds kicked out of the nest (CG will be 18 in 2011) and off to college. I still want to go to Madrid, just not sure if that'll happen. It's the one real big trip of MINE that I might not get to make. Naples is one other place we'd like to go to as Pompeii is there... we'll see if that one works out. Doubtful but I figure i can make a list for David to look at and let him prioritize HIS list and find how much time we can take off to get these trips in.

I'm off to stitch. Been sitting here and cleaning the other room too long this evening.
Later Taters!

Crazy!

Sometimes I have to think if my head weren't screwed on, that I'd forget it were there and leave it behind. Bless my friend for sending me a note saying another spot I'd set up for blogging was dead and dieing. "Set up one at this site instead." Lo and behold, imagine my surprise that I had one already LOL And that I'd not written on it but twice and that was last year. Gotta love it!

I am crazily packing or unpacking boxes in preparation for our move back to the states. I've already filled (most of the 2nd one) 2 huge moving boxes with PAPER RECYCLABLES alone. That doesn't include the other recycles stuff that has gone directly to the recycle can. I've got to go to the recycle center on post next week to drop those two boxes off and start the fun over again. I spent so much time in that room the one day this week that it nearly paid off, literally, and it felt like Christmas! I found $10 in a birthday card of one of my children from when they turned THREE YEARS OLD. Then I found a HUGE stash of overdyed threads that I have NO CLUE what project they're supposed to go with. At least I know I have some if I should want to do some serious stitching and can't get my order to Deb's in time to start it NOW. :D I've come to decision that I have WAY too much junk in my house. But I "need" it LOL Maybe having that one show come in and do my house would be good. "Clean Sweep" I think it is. My friend (above mentioned) always talks about it. I think tomorrow I'll drag out the Christmas stuff and start parting with it. We move this summer and were close to our weight limit COMING. I still need to buy a schrank and that's just a little bit heavy!

The boys are going to go skiing one more time before we go, at least. President's weekend we are off to Edelweiss again for a long weekend. I couldn't believe they weren't filled for the long weekend, but hey! I TRY to not look gift horses in the mouth most of the time. I won't be on the skis this time. NO need to find my way to the ER AGAIN this trip. I'll sit in the hotel and enjoy a beer or take a tour of Linderhof on Sunday before we leave. It would have been nice to be over in Garmisch this week because they were hit hard with snow. We had our own fill, which I will comment upon another day.

A funny from Matthew this past week...Ok, not a funny, but sometimes he just says something to amaze me. This week we walked to the backerei and metzgerei Tuesday night. On our way home, he talks about the parade coming. :) Matthew seems ready to celebrate Fasching! It's coming soon... can't wait to see the parade this year.

4 Day Weekends

... can be a GREAT thing or an incredibly long battle of wills with one's family. Thankfully?!? Mine is almost over and two of three men in my life will be back doing what they do second best... getting an education and earning a paycheck. :D (first often times being annoying me) Mail delivery goes back to its haphazard, ne'er do well existence as well tomorrow. Why on earth the USPS is still in business the way it runs, who knows! Throw in the fun of military postal options and it gets really really hairy.

Today is to be spent retail therapy-ing myself on the economy and hopefully getting some cleaning done around the house. I host a group coffee in three weeks and I look like a tornado victim. Yes, this is what children (and a bad maid) do for you. WARNING: like a clean home? Just skip the part of marriage where you have kids, buy a home (or rent) and accumulate crap to decorate it with. Saves you a great deal of the heartburn associated with cleaning. You might wonder why the maid is still working for us... it's me. I can't or won't be fired. I'm here for life : )

That's it for the moment... back to your regularly scheduled internet madness.