Just thinking and writing

... Found this quote today on the web while searching for something on Meriweather Lewis' death. FYI: LOTS found on the actual Lewis & Clark trip, but little on their lives. Not good when one has to write a 5 paragraph paper on whether or not he was murdered or committed suicide.

Oh the quote. :D I get a little sidetracked. "The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had." -unknown author (if you know who, please share!)

Time in my life is flying by without much in the way of speed bumps. Another 3 weeks and we mark 2 years in Germany. We're gone this summer. (did I say that yet? LOL) So much to do. Packing out the house, shipping two cars, siteseeing, sending CG to summer scout camp in Switzerland again. How much can we possibly cram into 3 months? How much will we actually get done with the house in mind? After my run to Ktown tomorrow I plan to pick up where I left off on Friday with the basement. I got alot done, then did laundry and it's falling apart again. If we just didn't have to live in the house, it'd be clean all the time! I'll touch more on time tomorrow or the next time.

Today's picture is of CG at the Jewish Memorial in Berlin. It's just a block away from the Brandenberg Gate and couple away from the Reichstag. If you're going to the first two, you can spend a few moments walking thru the memorial.

Berlin

That checklist of places to see while in Europe is getting smaller by the moment!

Spring Break week we took the train to Berlin for a couple of days of siteseeing in the old city. Man! If planes had legroom like 1st class trains, I'd not mind flying in a sardine can for 8 hours at a time! Room for Matthew to get up and stretch those little legs full of energy. Someone comes to get my drink order. Just a little much for the cost. (we paid a little over $500 for us to all go up there)

Next on our list? Amsterdam in May. With winter non-exsistent in Europe this year and flowers having bloomed so early, I think we'll really miss out on any tulips. :( Isn't that main reason to visit AMSTERDAM and the Netherlands? We are also knocking Madrid off the list the month before we're scheduled (in our minds anyways!) to head back to the states. 3 full days in Spain, including a trip to Toledo. I've wanted to go since high school spanish class (all 4 years of it LOL) and now I'll get to live it. A day in the Prado... what more could I ask for? SEVERAL days? A month? I am SOOOOOOOOO very excited to be making this trip.

The picture today is from Berlin. It is the boys in front of the Reichstag on the marker stating this is where the Berlin Wall once stood.

Some travel tips for Berlin:

1. Take the train, first class. (see above note)

2. If you're starved for some American touches, you can find BK, McDs, even DUNKIN DONUTS, in town. Actually the donuts were in many of the train stations. And our lunch on Thursday was at Schlotzsky's. That's just down the block from Checkpoint Charlie! Filler on their sandwiches is ONION though. I think they had the sourdough type bread, and a limited menu, but it was just a touch of home I needed.

3. Reichstag tourist tip: Take a child under the age of 7 with you to stand in line. We were probably an hour from getting in. Gentleman in a Bundestag jacket came and asked David how old Matthew was. (of course, he's just 5) We followed him down to the handicapped entrance and were at the top in mere moments! The new dome is quite a place to see Berlin in panarama. Little scary if you're not fond of heights but worth the walk up the ramp to see from there. Today's history lesson is this: Reichstag is the building where the Bundestag meets. Bundestag is the parliament body of Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_building has some basic info on the building.

4. Pay the couple euro to go up in the Victory Monument. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_victory_column Another view (I didn't go up as the stairs were a little much) but the picture around the first level upstairs is amazing. It's like a mosaic. And something I didn't mention of til we left this site, was a monument to Bismarck. If you go thru the park near the column, there is a monument to Bismarck.

5. Get that picture of the Brandenburg gate. It's just a block or so away from the Reichstag.

6. Get the pass in the Hauptbahnhof to ride the buses and trains for the duration of your stay. For 48 hours, we paid 34 euro for David and I with the boys free.

7. If going to Berlin in summer and going to the Olympic stadium where Jesse Owens shined in 1936, be sure to arrive before 7pm. They close then. ALSO, if you want to get their audio tour, (I don't think they did regular tours in English), arrive before 530 as they will NOT give you the tour if you're there after 530. We arrived at 540 and were denied the audio tour. No point in paying to go on the grounds if you can't learn more about it! Lady was quite unfriendly. Do you think mentioning I went to Ohio State would have helped get me the tour? Might have run me off quicker I imagine!

8. Our hotel was minutes from Schloss Charlottenburg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Charlottenburg We spent a couple of hours walking the gardens and the palace. Much like American plantation homes, it's a big wooden farmhouse. Well, with some luxuries, but it the thought I had when we were walking up the stairs. (we went to the San Francisco in Louisiana and when CG ran down the hall there, it just was wooden boards thudding) They have musical performances in the palace on different occasions and sounded like something I would have liked if we'd had somewhere for two boys to stay while we went.

Speaking of the hotel, it was the Econotel. It was quite nice with a European continental breakfast (pricey but pretty good) The rooms were actually nice sized considering many hotels in Europe are much smaller than what we find in the states. And when you read reviews about hotels here, that is one major complaint about European hotels. If you come over with the knowledge of smaller rooms, it might still be a good experience. You're only SLEEPING there! An underground station is just 1.5 blocks from the hotel. An Edeka markt (grocery) store is just around the corner, next to the hotel. So if you don't want to drink the water, they have bottled water and lots of other beverages there. A nice pizzeria was down near the station. Decent food for not too bad of prices.

That's my review for now. If I think of anything else to share, I'll pass it on!

Where Oh Where!?

... are we going? And WHEN are we going? It's April, we're overseas, and we have no orders yet. Just over four months to the requal class for David and here we sit. I don't know how people do it... MOVE WITH NO NOTICE or just a few weeks. I've known since late last year that we "had" to move. Yet, we're overseas, have to ship not one but TWO cars home and get packed out.

Did I mention that the bright idea now David has is to STAY UNTIL HE CAN GET THE JOB with the AGR? Meaning that my kids aren't up to date on shots and in jeopardy of not being allowed into the school come September. Right now, my biggest complaint is with DODDS. "We follow the shots requirements of the states." Guess what! Some don't require Hep A. "It's not a third world country." Whatever. So now registration is next week. Do I bother going to register the kids? Hmmmmm cattle call registration? I might just call and ask about it. I see no need to go thru the frustrating part of that situation if we're not even sure. The fact that they lose the paperwork each and every year (in the same school) and make you go thru the stupidity (orders, shot records, so on) each and every year to register the kids. I asked last year for the Bonfire Superintendent job and they didn't seem amused. Then WTH happens to the paperwork I first filled out in 2005??!?! CG has been in the same school for two years now. We've not moved. The only thing I needed to REALLY update was the emergency contact info.

Oh back to David and his growing up issues. :D Peoria, Ft Drum, God only knows where else he's discovered a place to try and get a job. At this point, I'm like JUST SIGN THE CONTINUATION PAPERWORK and go to Minot and get screwed by the AF a few more years by being forced to retire out of Minot. He's 5 years from retirement.

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.