Odds and Ins!

Sorry I haven't been very good about posting. We have been very busy the past month. Dennis's parents came to visit for about 2 weeks. While they were here we celebrated Ada's 2nd birthday, and made our first trip to Paris. We had a great time while they were here. This past month we have had many different doctor appointments from my eyes and the girls well check ups.

Ada is still in gymnastics on Fridays and loves it. The girl has no fear. She walks up this bench that is propped on a dresser looking thing. Well I wasn't looking today and she decided she was going to walk up it all by herself and she fell off. She fell on the ground and landed where she hit the back of her head. She cried for a little bit, then she got back up and did the beam and that obstacle again. Crazy girl. I will post recent pictures of the girls soon.

Ella is growing like a weed. She is now 8 months old. She is sitting up and smiling a lot. She has started talking a lot. When we are in the car she usually talks the whole trip to and from where we are going. No crawling yet but I am sure that will be soon. I have started making my on baby food and Ella seems to like most of it. Hopefully I will continue making it. It is so easy to make just need the time.

SO many people have asked what I miss about the states. Well I have realized over the past few days while Dennis has been gone that I really miss drive thrus. In the states it was so much easier being a temporary single mom. Cause if I was tired or it was too late to go home and cook I could swing by any drive thru I could imagine. I could have Chick fil a, barbecue, arbys, hamburgers, Wendys, SOnic, I could even run into Moes, McCalisters, Panera. You name it I could get it. I could even get a Starbucks on a crazy day when a need some caffiene to make it through the day. Well here you have the choice of three drive thrus McDonalds, Burger King, and Popeyes. If I wanted to run in somewhere and get something my choices are Donner's, Italian, and more Italian. SO when I arrive in October I will enjoy my drive thrus. I can not wait to have a Melvins BBQ sandwhich and a big Sweet Tea. I am still a southern girl. Hope you guys enjoy reading this. I would love for you all to come visit and see our wide spread of food choices. LOL

Getting Settled

So I have been slack on updating my blog. We just got internet today. So I can actully use my computer instead of my iphone. At the begining of December we moved into our house. We like it a lot. We are almost unpacked. Trying to find a spot for everything is very challenging. In Germany they don't have closets that you can throw things in and hide them. We have these things called schranks the are like wardrobes. We are lucky we have at least one in every room. We have one closet for coats and storage so we are having trouble finding a place for every little item.
During the week of Chrismas Dennis took leave and we did some traveling. We went to the Vulkenberg Cavern in the Netherlands to see there Christmas market. It was very neat. Several little booths in this cave. We had a good time in the cave. Then we drove to Brussels. Brussels is a very busy town. We stayed in a shady hotel, we have learned our lesson about hotels after that trip. We went to theChristmas market at night, it was very cold. We will never go to a Christmas Market at night with the girls again. Very crowded. We also tried a french restaurant. Since we were in belgium they speak French so we were definetly lost there. We went to a restauant where the guy was very nice. He was helping us with the menu and then he said "I make a combo for you of meat and seafood", so we were like ok. Dumb Americans we ended up spending 125euro which is close to 150 dollars on one meal. He brought us an appetizar, salad, drinks, and our plate had different fish, shrimp, mussels, lobster, filet, chicken. It was very good but really pricey. We learned our lesson there to. Don't let any waiter make a combo up order off the menu. We saw the Royal Palace, the manacian P( which is just a ststue peeing but its famous), and ate a belgium waffle. We had a fun trip but Brussels was not what I had imagined.
On CHristmas we opened presents as a family and Ada had a great time. She opened every ones present. She liked the unwrapping. For dinner we had 13 adults and 4 children. We had a lot of fun but I was exhausted from cooking all of the food.
Janurary has been good so far. The girls and I stay busy by going to MOPS, storytime and Ada is in gymnastics on Fridays. She is doing great and loves every minute of it. I am still waiting on the civilian board to hire me. When I get hired I will be work at Landstuhl Regional Medical center in the pediatric clinic. It will be a whole different ball game then i am use to. I am ready to go back think but wish it was part time. Ada is ready to play with other kids. She sees kids playing at a playground and gets very sad. Ella is growing up fast. She is rolling over and like to talk. She is such a smiley baby. Oh yea and Dennis has began flying. He went to Greece and a few other places already. We are slowly adjusting. Well that is it for now. Hope you enjoy reading about our adventures.

New Adventure

It is extremly appropriate that I changed the title of my blog to our adventures. We definetly experienced an adventure this weekend. We drove on friday to Bremerhaven which is 6 hours drving 80 - 90 on the autobahn. We arrived in Bremerhaven at 130 on Friday afternoon. We got the car everything went smoothly. We were on our way back to Ramstein. Dennis was in the BMW with the girls and I was in my car by myself. I heard a couple of pops and the next thing I know I see low tire pressure in my info box on the dash. So I called Dennis and told him we needed to stop then all of a sudden i heard kaboom kaboom. My tire was completly flat on the autobahn. So we pulled over it was 32 degrees and around 430 so it was getting dark. Dennis had to get out in the cold and change the tire on the side of the autobahn without any emergency gear. No triangle, no reflective gear, no flairs. Just Dennis in a black jacket with his back against the white line of the autobahn, It was so very scary for me sitting in the cars with the girls and people flying by and the car shakey and knowing Dennis is outside right beside the autobahn. Well an hour later it was fixed. We were on our way to the next exit to get help. We found a volvo dealer on that exit. They were closed but some nice guy came to the door with me panicing for someone to come to the door. He looked at our tire and did not have one. So we decided to go get food and then find a hotel. Went to mcdonalds to get food and I had no euros and Dennis was trying to still get the tire fixed. He made it and we got food, then drove about 160 kiliometers to a hotel. We stayed in a nice room with two double beds pushed together dennis and I and both girls were in the bed. After two hours we slept all night.
On the way home we drove about 60mph all the way home. It allowed us to enjoy the scenery. We saw several castles. If we were going the normal spped we would have missed all of the scenery that God created. It reminds me of a verse Be still and know that I am GOD!
We made it safely. We are all fine. Just recovering from the long trip. So we learned our lessons make sure we have the required safety equipment. Before our next trip we will have that.

More pics

Ada showing off something!

Smiley Ella!

More of smiley Ella!

Random Pictures of the girls in germany

The lion Ada made at storytime!

Ada playing in Baileys kennel!

Ada and Ella on Halloween!

Ella holding her head up!

Thanksgiving week

It has been a long time since I have written a entry. We are still in temporary housing waiting for the house that we will be renting to be ready. We will not be able to move in until Dec 10. We will be moving on Tuesday Dec. 23rd to a temp house that is really nice a very spacious. We are excited. We will be spending thanksgiving just as a family as of right now. It will be kindof sad not to spend it with friends or other families. But we are thankful we have each other and a nice place to actually cook a meal.

WHile we have been in Germany I have tried to keep us very busy. I have started a MOPS group and taking the girls to story time. I have also attended a spous social so slowly getting involved. I like it here so far but I do miss all my friends and family.

We are ready to be settled into our house and actually feel like we live here. Right now I feel like we are temporarly here. The girls are adjusting well i think. They both sleep ok at night. Ada still enjoys playing with her dolls and stroller. Ella is growing like a weed. SHe weighed 12lbs and 15oz last week. The picture at the top of the blog is Dennis and Ada on Halloween. We haven't done much traveling. We are hoping to go to Belgium around Christmas but we will see. Most of our traveling will be next year sometime. So overall we are doing well. I will post more pictures soon.

Andrea

Made it to Germany

After many months of preparing to move we are finally here. Sorry for delayed updates. It has been hard on us and the girls to skip 6 hours ahead.

We left Baltimore on Wednesday night the 20th and arrived in Germany on Thursday 21st at 9am Ramstein time. So we had to sleep on the plane land and be ready for the day. Well Ada slept maybe 2 hours on the plane with constant jerking of her head and Dennis was beside her so he only slept 45 minutes due to the constant jerks. Ella slept great in carseat however I did not. We made it here with a very tired little girl and a mad passenger in front of Ada. She constantly kicked his seat and he happened to mention it to the guy who picked him up once we landed and I was standing right there. I wanted to tell him. SHE IS ONE!!

So once we arrived we checked in and the girls and I slept for several hours and then it was time to meet the squadron at dinner. Perfect night to meet them. I'm exhausted and my contacts would not go back in so I went in glasses and a very red eye. Dinner was good typical German food. But we missed seeing our fellow 16th friends. I think Ada was looking for Brad when we arrived she just kept looking around. The few wifes that were there fell in love with Ada and held her so of course she enjoyed that.

You would think the commisarry in a different country would be better then the one in the states. UMMMM NO! We have 3 choices for bread. No 45 calorie bread or sara lee. There are just not many choices for things. Such as kids yogurt. Doesn't really exist except go gurt. It is going to take time to get use to the food selection. The BX is really nice and HUGE. We have been there 3 times in 2 days and we will be returning today.

Since we have been here we have already seen some Charleston people. Lindon and Ryan Daughtry. It was great to see them. Now if Lindon could have packed Ana in his suitcase that would have been great.

We our currently shopping for a house to rent. All the good ones are snagged very quickly. We looked at one yesterday and I was not impressed. We will have phones today so excited to have the internet at my fingertips again.

Sorry the delay in posting. Funny note. I log on to post and its all in German. So I had to figure out which word meant post. Pictures will be added later. The girls are doing good and so is Dennis. We are all trying to adjust.