Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Germany

Leaving Germany is a bittersweet thing. This has been my home for my entire married life, I spent both of my pregnancies here, both of my daughters were born here, I have friends that I hate to leave, and I will miss the traveling. I love that everything is closed on Sunday, that people walk to the bakery for their bread, that the church is the most prominent building in town, and that every town has paths through the fields and woods for wandering. I'll miss the eis cafes, the chocolate, rolls with pumpkin seeds, the white asparagus, and the sweet, white wine. Living here has been a wonderful experience and I hope the opportunity presents itself again in a few years.

At the same time I cannot wait to celebrate Christmas with my family. I have not been in Oregon for Christmas since 2005. I want to sip peppermint mochas as Starbucks, throw snowballs with my family, and see all my old friends.

Moving to New Mexico will be an adventure. It's our first time living in a desert climate and we're a bit afraid of the spiders and scorpions. I'm not a big fan of dry skin and chapped lips either. We do love small towns and we'll be buying our first home there and we're very excited about that. I can't wait to paint walls and decorate a home that is really mine. I'm looking forward to good Mexican food, sunshine, real camping, and cheap flip flops at Walmart. Even though I'm not a big fan of tv I like the idea of being able to watch the ball drop at midnight instead of 6am, seeing superbowl commercials instead of AFN commercials, and letting the kids watch Sesame Street occasionally. I want to watch streaming videos online and listen to country music more than once a week. It will be nice to not have to pay to use a public restroom and to use a changing table for the baby instead of my lap when she needs a dry diaper.

Germany, thank you for all of the wonderful memories. I will miss you and I hope to be back again someday.





Friday, December 11, 2009

The move has officially begun

Yesterday a 3 man moving crew packed up almost all of our belongings and crated them all up in a truck.


They were so efficient! It took 6 hours to pack it all in boxes, label everything, and get it all on the truck.
They did have a little helper


and took some shortcuts


We are now truly living the minimalist lifestyle that I aspire to. Eric and I (and Emily for most of the night) are sharing an air mattress. Anika is in Emily's crib with the side rail off, and Emily has a pack n play. Thankfully, a couch, chair, kitchen table, and 3 chairs came with the house so we don't have to sit on the floor. We have one 4 serving dish set, silverware, a few basic utensils, and a pot, a pan, a cutting board. I should have kept my potato masher, but it turns out that a fork works just as well (a little harder on the wrist). The laptop is now our dvd player, music player, and computer. The girls love all the open space.


We now have until Monday to get this house spotless before the movers come for our unaccompanied baggage and we move into lodging on base. Eric took Anika this morning and they are trying to get the VW to pass inspection so it will sell. It should be easy for me to clean with just Emily, but she has discovered the joy of climbing so it's a struggle to keep her in one piece.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

my little chatterbox

Emily says "bubbles" now :) We don't count a word until she has said it a few times so officially she says "mama", "papa", "hi", "hatzi", and "bubbles". I think she says "sissy" and "more", but am not sure those weren't flukes. Her big sis was all action and slow to talk so having one talk at such a young age is new for me. It's fun to see how much alike and how different they are at the same time.