Oh, my peeps, moving day has arrived. Or at least it will in the morning (it's almost midnight as I type). I may be offline for a few days (GASP!). I'll be back soon though and I'm sure I'll have loads of stories about the movers, what got broken and what a pain in the arse it is to move. I may just have to spend the next few days with a few bottles of wine. Cross your fingers. I hate to move.
One of the great things about military life is moving. You get to go new places, see new things and meet new people. It's also one of the bad things about military life. You have to leave your home, all the familiar things and your friends.
We've been here in Heidelberg for almost 3 years now and our time was coming to an end (most tours are 3 years). We were hoping to stay in Germany and last night we got the word that we will!!! We will not be staying in Heidelberg as it is shutting down (sadness), but will be moving up to Wiesbaden (just over an hour north of HD). Wiesbaden is pronounced Vees-bah-den BTW. James Bond is very excited because he wanted to got to V Corps and now he will. I don't know what's so exciting about V Corps (we can't talk about his job), but whatever. I get to stay in Germany, so yay V Corps.
Indy is excited because he's got "more traveling to do." My boy is almost nomadic in his love of travel. He says we need to go to Greece (he thinks we should cruise around the islands), Egypt (of course), England, Scotland, back to Rome and Naples and maybe (meaning definitely) do another Disney cruise.
We've been it Wiesbaden a handful of times and found it to be a lovely city. Mainz, which is only a few minutes away is also beautiful.. I don't have any photos of my own on this computer, but here are a few I found on the interwebs.
Wiesbaden:
Remember a few months ago when I showed you what my house looked like? No? Here's a quick refresher:
Part of the life of the military family is moving. A lot. Usually about every 3 years, but often as much as every 12-18 months. It's such a hassle. We've done 2 short tours, one 18 months and the last one a mere 10 months. Oddly enough they were both the longest tours ever because they were in truly wretched places. The 18 month tour was at Ft. Stewart, GA (shudder) and the 10 months was at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. I've mentally blocked much of that though. When the military packs and moves you it can be very disconcerting and very surreal. A bunch of strangers come to your house and touch all of your stuff while you just sit there and watch. Weird.
After it's all packed, tagged, and inventoried, they load your stuff on a truck and take it away. A few weeks (or months) later it shows up on a different truck and different strangers unload it. They'll even unpack it if you want. I usually have them unpack the kitchen because I need to get all the packing material out of the way so I can put stuff up. My philosophy is that if the kitchen comes together the rest of the house will follow.
We spent 2 months sleeping on an incredibly uncomfortable bed waiting for our stuff. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a bed. It was more like a be...
Given this, you can imagine how happy I was to see this a week before Christmas:
Germans are clever and have quite a system. You wouldn't want to haul 7 crates of furniture and boxes up to the 3rd floor would you? NO! And neither do they. They took the screen from one of our windows (the master bedrom) and hooked up this awesome elevator system that with the push of a button, brings boxes up from the truck directly into the apartment. Cool, huh?
Things were unloaded. Life was good. I was getting my stuff! I was getting my bed! Life was wunderbar! Oh, but it wasn't. Go back and look at the first photo of the truck. See the box lying on its side towards the front of the truck? Know what it contained? I'll tell you. My beautiful, brand spanking new entertainment system. Need a refresher? Have a look see. Isn't it lovely?
Oh, yeah. Go look at the box again. Do you see the damage to the bottom of the box? Guess what happened? Guess? They put a forklift through the box. Yes. Through. The. Box.
Know who wins when wood and fiberboard meet a forklift? Yeah, that would be the forklift. Exhibit A: 
Exhibit B:
It's lying on its side because there was no structural integrity to the sides and it couldn't be put upright. Interestingly, the glass doors, which were just above where the forklift hit, are in perfect shape.
I don't have a photo, but they also put our dish packs (really heavy in case you were wondering) on top of my desk. My desk with very thin legs. The desk now bows in the middle and the drawers won't open without a fight. Well, there went my wunderbar day.
The shipping company will pay full replacement value, which is good, but now we have paperwork to fill out, we have to wait for a check, and blah, blah, blah. Other than that we had pretty much no damage, which is actually quite good for a military move. Now we just have to go buy new side pieces for the entertainment system. Know what that means? IKEA!!!! Woohooooooooooo! You know how I loves me some Ikea.
I hope you all had a lovely Halloween and for those of you that celebrate it, a Blessed Samhain. Indy dressed up as.....Indiana Jones. Are you surprised?
This is a group of our neighbors. Like the Fraulein? Lovely, isn't she? And so.....buxom.
We had a great time. Children are not allowed in the stairwells, so people handing out candy sit outside in front of the stairwells. It's like a big party. People barbecue and have all sorts of activities. One quad had a Halloween movie projected onto the side of the building and another had turned their gazebo into a very scary haunted house like thing that the kids had to go into to get candy. Spooky! One of the stairwells was even passing out cups of Gluwein to the grown ups. This is a warm mulled wine and perfect for a chilly, drizzly night.
This morning I went outside and took some photos of the new digs. This is our building. See the windows on the 3rd floor to the right? That's our apartment.
Let's get closer. This is the front door. We have a back door too. We park behind the building.
Oh, look! Who could have made this lovely fall display? ;)
So, up the stairs we go. First floor. Second floor. Buns of Steel! Third floor! Here we are. Welcome! This is our entry way.
Into the living/dining room. It's a large room. Rather messy right now though. I'll post a new pic when I've made it all pretty with my stuff. That furniture is gov't issue. It is NOT pretty, but I'm thankful for it as it is far better than sitting on the floor for 2 months.
The kitchen is just to the right. It's big and chockablock full of cabinets. The cabinets directly above and below the counter open to the other side as well. Handy for setting the table.
Here's the other side. It's all very....beige.
If we go to the dining room window, we have a lovely view of the quad.
There's more to see, but I'll save that for another day.
Hurray! We aren't homeless anymore! It's very disorienting to be without a home and not knowing when you'll get one. We went to the housing office on Wed and the housing gods smiled upon us! Smiled! 1000 watts worth of smile! We got a house that day-almost unheard of. And it's awesome! Awe-some. Most housing in Germany is apartments, and that's what we're in. It's on the 3rd floor (Walk-up people! Buns of steel here I come!), has 3 bedrooms, 1 bath (big bath), a large kitchen, with tons of cabinets and counter space(woot-woot) and a HUGE living/dining room. Two of the bedrooms are really large, which is fantastic. The master is roughly 17x16 and the second is roughly 14x16. The smallest bedroom is about 12x16. It has parquet floors throughout, except the kitchen and bath, which are ceramic tile. The only really downside (and this is a biggie) is that there is no washer and dryer in the apartment. They are in the basement. Four flights down! Holy guacamole! Can you imagine hauling laundry up and down 4 flights of stairs? I'm thinking about making M and Indy wear their clothes twice before washing. Not me, of course, because, ewww....but they're boys. They won't care. Oh, oh! Want to know what the coolest part about it is? Okay, maybe YOU won't think it's cool, but I do. We can see the General's house from our windows. When I say the General, I mean THE top General in Europe. 4 stars. He lives in a big house behind an even bigger wall and guarded (with armed soldiers 24/7). You cannot get near this place. He also has a fleet of cars that they change to plates on frequently. Several of the generals have been targeted int he past, and one was even car bombed (he lived though), hence the multiple cars and plates. Scary, huh? So anyway, we can see over the wall! The house IS huge. Wowzers. I'm thinking about taking some pics, but I'm kind of afraid the guards will see me and come banging on the door. I will be taking some pics of the house in the next few days, so check back!
We arrived in Germany yesterday! I'm deleriously tired. Seriously. I'm exhausted. M and I did not sleep at all on the planes. I tried, but it just wasn't happening. Indy slept about 7 hours of the long flight, so he was good to go the moment he stepped off the plane. M and I were ready to drop. Until we found out our dogs were missing. Then we were wide awake. Oh, yes, missing dogs. I remained relatively calm (mostly because I was too tired to be crazy) because I knew they had made it on the plane, so I knew they were somewhere. It took 3 very long hours to find them. My poor babies. They had been in their crates for 21 hours by the time we got them again. Talk about having to pee! I took them outside (once we got through Customs and Vet services) and they pee'd for like 5 solid minutes. They were so happy to be out of their crates! I think if Dutch could have, he's have gladly pushed his crate out into traffic so he'd never have to see it again.
Germany, is....well, prety much the same. It's chilly and drizzly. Kind of like it always is. It's so lovely though. When we were driving down the A5 Indy saw a couple of real castles up on the mountains and absolutely squealed with delight. That's my boy! He was so excited. He is handling the 9 hour time change far better than M and I are. He's a trooper. M and I are ready to drop. Yea jet lag! So not. I'll catch up more (and post some pics) after I've slept. Tchuss!
I'm sitting in the Denver USO right now in a big, comfy, leather recliner. Bless the USO!!!!!! There are at least 20 theatre seat recliners, HUGE flat screen TV's, tables and chairs, a sleeping room (I wish!), computers, video games and free food and drinks. OMG, do I love the USO. They are a fantastic organization and a welcome place in a cold airport. If you are looking for a worthy organization to donate to, please consider the USO. They are completely funded by donations. Please click the banner below to donate.
Anyhoodles, our flight from Tucson to Denver was.....interesting. We sat in row 12. It was the last row of the plane. I thought they were going to have to pull some sort of rip cord to get us going. We also encountered a lot of turbulance. I hate turbulance! Hate it. M took some pics, but I haven't got the faintest idea where the connecter cable is. Boo. We arrived at a very chilly Denver (I know this because we had to walk from the plane to the terminal because it was too small to pull up to a gate!) and headed straight to the USO to wait out our 5.5 hour layover. Wheeeeeeeee! Aren't you jealous? In about an hour we will be boarding our next flight to Frankfurt. A 10 hour flight. I may drink. Heavily. I'll check in when I get to the other side of the pond, as it were.
OMG, this move is never going to end! We had packers in our house Wed, Thurs, and Fri last week. They are loading tomorrow. All the boxes are making me nuts. It's all too brown. Can you imagine looking at this all day for a week??????? I want to pull stuff out and put it away. I want my pretty house back!
Dutch and Arf are not letting the move interrupt their napping.
One week from today I'll be sipping (free) alcoholic beverages and watching a movie I've probably already seen as we cross the Atlantic. Oh, Lufthansa, how I adore thee. Bring on the drinks!
So, after much red tape, a billion forms, more appointments than I can remember, faxes, photo copies, and signatures galore, we are almost set for the big move to Germany. Almost. It's such a hassle. We had to change our flights 3 times to get space for the dogs. We originally supposed to fly to Dallas and then on to Frankfurt, but if the weather is over 85 degrees the airlines will not allow the pets on board. While I understand this policy because I certainly don't want anything to happen to them, I questioned the airline what we would do if it were too hot. Their solution? We're going to have to just leave the dogs behind. Um, what? That is not a solution! I can't just leave my babies. I was so mad I could barely see straight. We finally got a flight through Denver, so we're pretty sure all is going to be fine. Probably not going to be over 85 in Denver in late Oct. Dallas? Maybe. Denver? Unlikely.
We are scheduled to fly on Oct 20. We have a 6 hour layover in Denver (where we can get the dogs and let them potty-very important) and then a 10 hour flight to Frankfurt. After that it's an hour car ride (driving very fast on the autobahn) to our final destination. It's a total of about 19 hours of traveling, not including getting to the airport and checking in 2 hours before our first flight. Aren't you jealous?
First though we have to pack out. The movers are coming on the 2nd to pack our unaccompanied baggage. They're coming back on the 3rd to pack our permanent storage items (stuff that we can't take with us because a) it's not allowed b) it's too heavy or c) we're not going to have room for it). They will store it at gov't expense for the entire time we're in Europe. Then they're coming on the 8th, 9th and 10th to pack the rest of our stuff and will then load it on the 14th. It's scheduled to arrive no later than Dec 17th. I hate moving around the holidays!
Anyone willing to let me come visit until all this is over???? Please???? I'm going to need more Zoloft.
Are you guys sick of fall posts? I hope not! I fall'd up my house a wee bit yesterday. I guess you could say I "POOPIE'd" it up. Man, that does not get old! Or maybe it's just me. Whatever. I haven't done a lot, because, well, we're moving in....2 weeks? 3 weeks? A month? Who knows? With transatlantic moves, we probably won't get our stuff until, oh, January or so, which means I won't get to do much decorating for the other holidays either. :( Can you all imagine what it's like to have Christmas without all your Christmas stuff? It stinks, I tell you. We've done it once before and it was depressing. I wanted my stuff! I hate moving around the holiday season. Boo! Okay, meaningless rant over, on to my pretties, however temporary. If you want to see the originals (pre-fall), you can click on the original POOPIE post.
Remember my lemon jar, that so many people liked? Tada! Black beans, POOPIE pumpkins and POOPIE leaves:
Here's another POOPIE jar. (I'm so laughing on the inside at that):
More black beans, POOPIE leaves and some candles. I forgot to buy candles for the two side votives. Gah!
I moved my eucalpytus to this urn and put some POOPIE leaves in the little jar.
This vase held my green onion grass. I flipped it over and put a POOPIE leaf garland inside and a pumkin (POOPIE approved) on top.
And now, like everyone else in blog land, I have this awsome little decoration that Indy absolutely loves. I also added a POOPIE pumpkin and some leaves to the birdcage.
Remember the second biggest of my POOPIE offenders? The PLASTIC plant? Oh, I fall POOPIE'd it up.
And finally for my BIGGEST POOPIE offender, the ivy. 
And now, for something totally not POOPIE (unless I'm mad at him and then, maybe):
He doesn't like this pic because his uniform is all bunched up and he says it makes him look fat. He's not. BTW, he was watching crazy videos on YouTube. Productive!
Hello! I had a loverly time at the mistreatment party the other day. I enjoyed looking at all the sites and seeing how other people live. I'm nosey like that. I did a new mistreatment yesterday so I thought I'd show you. This is the window in the master bath. It's tiny and weird and yes, the walls are cinder block, but I think the mistreatment makes it pretty. Or as pretty as cinder block can get, I suppose.
So, guess what? We're moving. Again. You might recall a little 1600 mile road trip C and I recently made. If you don't know what I'm talking about, scroll down. It took 3 days and more than a few zoloft, but we made it. Keep in mind, this was just last month. A few weeks ago, M logged on to his AKO (military email) and saw that he had orders (orders tell you where you're going and when). We knew we would be getting them at some point because he will be finishing his very long schooling (he's been at it since Jan) at the end of September and then he'll go to his next duty station. When he pulled the orders up and we read where we were going, we both literally stared at each other for a full five minutes before saying anything other than "no way." Want to know where we're going? We thought we'd be going to either the DC area or maybe to Ft. Lewis (near Seattle), but we are so not. Not anywhere close. Not even on the same continent. We are, for the 3rd time, moving to Germany! We're going back to Heidelberg. I'm crazy excited. We lived in Heidelberg from 97-00 and again from 01-04. It is so beautiful! All of this will be about 15 minutes from where we'll live!
This is the famous Alte Brucke (Old Bridge) and Schloss Heidelberg (castle). A friend of mine got married in the castle about 10 years ago. It was so beautiful!
This is part of the Marktplatz:
This is a view from a side street of the Rathaus (like a court house):
And this is a view of some of the cobbled streets and gorgeous architecture:
Are you totally jealous? Don't be. You can come visit me and crash at my place! Just call first. :)
On to other stuff. C wanted to know why I refer to him as C on my blog. I told him it was for privacy reasons. He said he didn't like being called C and that I should call him something else. I asked what he would like me to call him and he thought for a minute and said "Indy. You should call me Indy because I'm an explorer and and archeologist, just like Indiana Jones. I even have the hat, whip and tools. You should call me that. Because it's cool." I agreed, so now, C shall be known as Indy.
And finally, I took a ton of pics around the post last week (some covertly) to give you a little tour of Ft. H. Here's just a little sampling of the housing. Isn't it nice? DId you know military housing could be so nice? Check back if you want to see more. I should have it up either tomorrow or Thursday. You don't want to miss this!
Our lives are about to be in an upheaval again. We have decided that I'm quitting my job. I'm scared. I'll be honest, it's about the money. I make a lot. Six figures, a lot. When I first got the job I was embarrassed to tell people I made six figures (not that I flaunted it, but sometimes people ask), but then I realized that I had nothing to be embarrassed about. I should be proud! I am proud. I like making a lot of money. I like not having bills. I paid them all off! I like being about to buy stuff. I like having money in the bank. What I don't like is being apart from my husband. Because of his job (he was in Iraq) and then my job, which transferred me to another state, we haven't lived together in over 2 years. We've of course seen each other, but we haven't actually lived together. It wasn't too bad when we were only about 200 miles apart, but the Army has sent him off to the vast wasteland that is lower Arizona. There is now approximately 1500 miles between here and there and it's getting old. Real old. M and I discussed it and decided that I would quit my job and C, the dogs and I will pack up and head to AZ. When is all this happening, you might wonder? 15 days from now. In just 15 days I will be officially unemployed. If you consider a mom unemployed, that is. I personally don't. A couple of weeks ago the story got a new twist. M is only going to be in AZ until mid-Sept. That's right, C and I will only get to enjoy 100+ degree heat for 2.5 months. Are you curious about where we'll be going in Sept? So are we. As of today, we still don't know where we'll be living. We know where we'd like to go, but where we want to go and where the Army sends us are often miles apart. Stay tuned.
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