Christmas...

We are as set up as we can be.  We are really excited to get our furniture.  I think in the mean time we might paint a little bit as it's really white in here.  We downsized before we left Washington so now we are having to purchase new furniture.  We have already purchased a queen size bed which will be our future guest room bed and now we are looking at a couch.  I would really like to buy some great chairs on the German economy so we will just have to patient with those.

Rick and I had an okay Christmas.  It will be nicer next year.  We didn't have all the spices that we needed to make our favorite dishes and they don't carry them here at the CX (Combined Exchange).  We played some scrabble.  We didn't get to cribbage last night but our hope is to get to it this week (thanks Mom).  I missed my family this year; it's my first Christmas without them.  It's tough starting new traditions but we all knew it was coming!

We have some really loud neighbors.  Since we live in a stairwell (apartment style living) we get to hear them walking up and down and it sounds like they are rearranging their furniture all day long.  I always say that nothing is perfect and that would be the downfall to this awesome housing.

Today we decided to go get some groceries and we walked down to a little German restaurant right outside the base.  They had a beautiful view of Stuttgart.  We were under the impression that it was a little casual restaurant.  Man, we were wrong.  Number one, everyone was dressed up excluding Rick and I.  The entire menu was in German so they translated it for us.  Number three, they don't take mastercard or visa unless it is linked to a German account.  We weren't sure that we would have enough in Euro so we were just going to cancel the order and leave, but the staff was so nice and said just come by tomorrow and pay.  WHAT?  How awesome was that?  Needless to say Rick and I were super embarrassed not only did we stick out like underdressed Americans but we can't even pay our bill!  Ughhh!  We were really impressed with how understanding and kind they were at the restaurant.  As it turned out I did have enough Euro to pay our bill... I should really start wearing a cape!

Hopefully New Year's Eve will go a little more "smoothly."  We are going to be having some of our new friends over.  Wish us luck!

Here is the picture of the sunset as we were walking back to our house... gorgeous!

Moving day... again

Well we are off to RB tomorrow morning.  They have some furniture in the house now from the previous people that were living there.  So, we had to go buy some linens today since our household goods are not here yet.  We had a very limited selection but hopefully we can make it work when our other stuff comes.

We have continued our search for a car, but so far no real luck.  Nothing is really jumping out at either of us so we are not going to rush into anything.  They have a free shuttle bus service between the bases.  It's takes a lot longer but it will be easier then being stuck with a car that is a "lemon."

Since we are going to be living up on RB we will be having to change our APO address.  I will let those of you know what our new address is once we get it.  We also might be out of our internet access for 3 weeks!  What a slow process!  There are a lot of things that can be done a lot better here, but that's okay I am really trying to roll with the punches but this PCS (permanent change of station) is really testing out my patience.

I went and received a sub packet today so that is another project that I can start working on.  The packet is like 50 pages long!  Well I hope that I am not boring all of you!

Talk to you when I talk to you!  :  ) (hopefully not 3 weeks!)

Rothenburg

We went on our first USO tour yesterday.  We went to Rothenburg, Germany.  This town is a medieval town that actually has a stone wall around the entire city.  The stone was actually taken from the Emperor's castle.  The city people destroyed the castle to build two towers and the wall.  It was destroyed during the bombing of WWII, but they are continuing to rebuild it.  Some of the neat things we learned on our tour was that in Rothenburg they used pulleys and the used the pulleys to lift heavy loads.  If their husbands came home after midnight the wife would send down a sack.  The husband would get into the sack and if his wife was happy with him then she would have the servants hoist him up.  If she wasn't very happy he would stay in between the floors.  Here is a picture below.

They also had certain fixtures on their shutters that would indicate whether their mistress/ mister was able to come in, or if their wife/ husband was home they would be asked to stay away.  The town had a great Christmas market as well.  They had white Gluewein... we didn't partake in any but it was there nonetheless.  This town is pretty special because General Tilley came in and wanted to destroy the city.  He said if one of the counsel members could drink a gallon of wine that he would not destroy the city.  As the legend goes he drank the gallon in one gulp.  They are both featured in the market square on the town clock.  Picture below. 

We really enjoyed our tour, and are ready for our next tour.  The housing office told Rick today that we might get our house by Wednesday.  It would be nice to be at Robinson Barracks (RB) before Christmas.  We are still looking at purchasing a car for me.  We had one that we liked but he sold it today.  Hopefully this weekend we will be able to walk to downtown Stuttgart (if we are living at RB) and try out some nice restaurants.  We met some nice people yesterday who might also be moving up to RB so we are going to try and get together with them.  Everyone has been so friendly here; we have really enjoyed ourselves.

In our initial training we received pedometers.  Saturday I walked 17,424 steps, yesterday 12,884 steps.  I am enjoying all the "free" cardio!  I think my legs are starting to get used to all of the walking.  

Our little Reno....

I was taking a picture of my shoes and then Reno wanted in on the action!  Isn't she just the cutest?  Love this little pup!

European shoes...

Today was a great day for me and my feet!  I purchased 2 pairs of European shoes.  They are beautiful!  They make my feet so happy!  :  )

Off to Rotenburg in the morning.  The boots are going to make their debut!

Our new pad... for the time being.

A view of the bed

My closet, Kitchen storage, Reno's storage and desk.  Underneath the desk is our pull out kitchen table.  

Our little kitchen

The biggest room here... the bathroom with heated towel rack.  Rick loves that!

A view from our front door looking into the entire room.  

Settling in... for now

Well we had another moving day yesterday.  Our third in seven days!  We still have one more.  Our house should be ready in 10 business days.  We have decided to live on Robinson Barracks which is near the downtown part of Stuttgart.  Although it will be a 20 minute drive for Rick to work; we just feel that it is better to be closer to the action instead of the base.  Many people look at us like we are crazy but yesterday we went on a hospital tour and we actually got to see the area... so worth it.  The base is up on a hill so it overlooks Stuttgart.  It's surrounded by vineyards that are open for you to walk through and we can take Reno.  Our tour guide, Rosie, was telling us that we could go and hang out on the base and for New Year's you can see the whole town and have a great place to watch the fireworks so hopefully we are living up there by then but maybe we will just have to go up and visit.

I have had the pleasure of sitting in on some of these Army briefings.  Wow!  Is all I can say.  Some actually have some good information, but others really should take a course in public speaking... boring!  Today we have a 2 hour delay due to snow, but this morning Rick and I are going to check out the education center and see about some of the online programs they have available for me.  We are also having to go to the finance office so that we can start to get reimbursed for our other hotel rooms.  Friday we are going to try and take our driver's test.  We have been studying every night!  Hopefully all the studying will pay off although we do have to sit through a four hour class on Friday before we can take the test.  On Tuesday, I have an appointment to find me a job!  There have been some rumors that they need some SPED teachers on the schools around here yet I can't find it listed anywhere.  The man I am meeting on Tuesday works to help spouses find jobs.

Rick and I went and visited the USO the other day.  We got to rent some movies and we signed up for our first trip.  We are going to Rotenburg on Sunday.  It's a medieval town that is still fenced in.  We are going to go and see their Christmas market and enjoy their white Gluewein.  Yum!  It was on 40 euro each so we decided to go for it.  We might do some volunteering at the USO; it seems like a great way to meet new people.  The base's logo is, "I am glad I live here." So you know we have to get involved somehow.

Last night we were able to walk down to the little commissary here on Panzer and buy some groceries.  There is a German bakery here so we are going to pick up some fresh bread today so that we can have sandwiches for lunch.  It's been hard eating out on the economy (buying food off base) all the time; it can just get so expensive.  Last night I was preparing our dinner (Chicken Enchilada Casserole... yum.  Are you surprised that my first meal has to be Mexican?) and we heard a loud crack.  Yep, cracked the baking dish in half.  Ha!  At least we could salvage the meal and it was delicious!

I think Saturday we are going to walk down to the mall near the Marriott. I need to get some different shoes and maybe some warm tights to wear with my shoes and Rick needs some other shoes as well.   It gives us another chance to go walking around.  At one of our briefings the other day they gave us a pedometer.  Yesterday I had almost 7,000 steps.  I'm telling you... walking galore!

I will post pictures of our new pad later on.  I hope you are all getting ready for Christmas!

Us at the Stuttgart Christmas Market!

And it begins...

Well as most of you know; we have made it to Stuttgart, Germany. Let me just say that I know in a few months life will be great but at this moment everything is harder. For example, it took me 5 minutes to figure out how to post a new blog. Trying to decipher all this German is rough. We tried to study the language, but we obviously have a lot more practicing to do. Everyone has been really nice to us so far. The Marriott staff has been fantastic and thanks to my brother we are able to stay under our allotted per diem rate. We have been here since Wednesday and so much has already happened. We have placed our name on a waiting list to get a house, we have already moved hotels (from Mo. Hotel to Marriott), got our German cell phones, checked out Panzer Kaserne and Patch Barracks, got our military IDs registered, I have applied for a job and am working on updating my DODDs information, and we have gone to the Stuttgart Christmas market.

Rick is on his in-processing work schedule so that means that his hours are a little different each day. Next week we both have some in-processing to go to and I plan to go and check in with some people about some employment opportunities. Wish me luck! We have to start studying for our German driver's license which seems to be a little intense. I plan to try and get mine done this coming week. Once that is out of the way we plan on purchasing a little European car for me. In the words of Ashton Kutcher in Just Married I will be Flinstoning my ass everywhere which should be a goofy site. I will make sure to post pictures for sure, that way you can all have a great laugh at my expense. : )

Today I think I am going to try and walk down to Panzer and wash our clothes. We are also going to try and see how far Patch Barracks (where Rick will be working) and Robinson Barracks (where they want us to live) are from each other. They have free shuttles/ buses from base to base so hopefully it can work out. Robinson is closer to downtown Stuttgart which would be nice. I don't want to become a base rat.

Rick and I have done so much walking in the last couple days! We are both sore. I had to take a hot bath this morning just to give my muscles a break. I hope to keep up the walking as it would be a nice way to balance out all of the pastries the Germans eat, and man are they good. Who knows maybe I could come to Germany and loose some weight! Ha!

Reno has been great in the hotel! First couple of days there was some barking but she seems to be doing better about it. We try and take her on a long walk a day. Today her and I walked for about 2 miles at around 5 this morning (yep still have a weird sleep schedule). There were a couple of guys who were walking home from the night; they must have enjoyed a beer garden! Here in Germany dogs can go anywhere. The other day we saw about 5 dogs in the mall. You can even bring your dog in the restaurant with you as long as they lay down. We are going to start practicing with Reno in the bar downstairs so that she doesn't have to be in the room all the time. Yep that's right we will sample German beers and train our dog... can you say Americans?

Well, I better get going if I want to get everything done. It should take at least 30-45 minutes to walk to Panzer... told ya lots of walking!

Miss you all!

Love,

Damasa