Baby Deaner

Look at how much bigger Baby Deaner is getting!! Apparently all that peeing really is the result of a growing baby! Everything went great at the doctor today. I am just so happy to have found a doctor here in Germany that I actually like and trust. I am a little weary of her anti-medication mentality but I'll get over that part. The baby was measuring exactly on schedule and I even lost a few pounds from a few weeks ago. And before anyone goes lecturing me about that, let me assure you that I have PLENTY of pounds to spare a few. The doctor asked if I was having trouble keeping food down and I laughed. The only problem I am having is that I want to eat any food that isn't NAILED to the table. No super wierd cravings or anything as of yet even though last night my mouth was watering for some Varsity onion rings! But really, that probably has nothing to do with pregnancy. Fried foods and I have always had somewhat of a love affair going on. Unfortunately the doctor says that there isn't much I can do for the insomnia. This is where the medication restrictions make me a little annoyed but oh well. She said that we probably had to wait another 8 weeks or so to find out the sex. UGH! I will never make it that long. When I stated this she said there was a chance at finding out in 6 weeks. Guess we will see. I don't have to go back for another month and I am sure that that time will crawl by. At least we might have some time to actually get reimbursed from our insurance company for the last visit. I never appreciated the fact that American doctor's offices billed your insurance for you. I will NEVER take this for granted again! Get this, we have to pay for the hospital admission/delivery out of pocket as well! Guess we aren't spending another dime for a long time! That and the long list of baby items that we are going to have to purchase are about to give me a stroke.

Anyways, we are heading out the door in a little bit for dinner at Steph and Jon's house. Which means that I have to go wrestle myself back into my normal jeans. These pj pants are really a lot more comfy! :) It's almost Friday!!!!!

Happy Hump Day

I really can't wait for it to start staying light longer. Darkness at 5:00pm is just depressing. Today has been a productive day. I met Deaner for lunch since he was in a training class in town. We went to the hotel to eat at Little Italy, a restaurant where we spent A LOT of time before moving out of the hotel. I have to say that it was a little sad that both guards at the front gate stopped us to chat, the lady at the front desk told us it had been too long, and we were greeted like old friends at the restaurant. I would say that means that 4.5 months living in a hotel is just too darn long!

After a nice lunch I came home, took a nice walk in the 22 degree weather, almost froze to death and then cleaned the whole house. Top to bottom. Everything is vacuumed and dusted and straightened up. I dare Deaner to come home and mess it up!

Tonight we are trying a recipe that I got from D.A.R. over at First Comes Love, Than Comes Marriage. We are having Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches that I have had in the crockpot since this morning. Can't wait to try them because they smell REALLY good! I'll let y'all know how they turn out. I really wanted to make the Hearty Tomato Soup recipe from One Preppy Day but of course the Commissary was out of Cannelini Beans (or any substitute like Navy Beans). What a random thing to be out of. I doubt that there was a run on these beans or something! I will have to try it once the beans are restocked. I was really excited about it too! Monday night we had a new recipe for Beef Burgundy and it was awesome! It was the perfect cold weather recipe and plus, it was MUCH easier than the Julia Childs recipe! Here it is for anyone who is interested!

Beef Burgundy

3 lbs. round steak, cubed
1 can tomatoes
5 carrots, quartered
2 onions, quartered
pkg. mushrooms
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 can beef consomme
salt/pepper
1/2 c. red wine
broad egg noodles

Brown meat. Add all veggies etc. Cover and bake 350 degrees for 2 hours.
Serve over noodles.

Promise, it was divine! Happy eating! I'll be posting more baby pictures tomorrow!! My appointment is at 11:45am and I am SUPER excited about it!

Sleepless Nights

I think that one of the worst things you could wish on someone is insomnia. It has been the battle that I have been facing lately. I have always had sleeping issues and Ambien has been one of my best friends for a long time now. Unfortunately the Ambien is out the window now that I am pregnant and sleeping at night has been a huge problem. I have never been more tired in my whole life. All I want to do during the day is nap but I don't let myself because I am scared of being up all night. The funny thing is, it doesn't really matter if I nap during the day because no matter what, I can't sleep at night. It is like we turn off the lights and my mind starts spinning. I can definitely think myself into a tizzy. Today I am SUPER sleepy so I am hoping against hope that I can sleep tonight. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday so I am hoping that perhaps the doc can shed some light on what I can do but since she is so strict, I'm thinking she is going to tell me to gut it out. And what is up with having to pee so many times during the night. Really? Three trips to the bathroom a night? Not cool. Off to cook dinner! Before I doze off on the couch.

Making Our Way Home.....

To say that our trip home on Friday was stressful would be a great understatement. Traveling between Germany and England is one giant pain in the ass but Friday was a new level of awfulness. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 12:30pm with the gate closing at 12:00pm. It takes roughly 1 hour to get to the airport from the base we stay at and we have to return the rental car. We decided to wake up at 8am, leave the hotel by 9am, arrive at airport by 10:00am so that we had time to sit down and eat breakfast/lunch before heading to the gate. Good plan right? It's worked for us multiple times before now. We did everything right and were out of the hotel and on our way by 9:00am. The GPS said we would be at London Stanstead airport by 9:51am. Perfect. Or so I thought! As soon as we got on the M11 we came to a grinding halt. We have never had any trouble before with traffic but this traffic wasn't even moving. The ETA on the GPS kept moving further and further back. There wasn't anything we could do because there were no exits to even try and take a detour. When we finally came upon our exit, an hour later, we found out that the cause of the whole traffic jam was that the exit was closed all together. Oh lord! We were funneled onto another highway and the GPS made us get off on the first exit. After flying through several small towns we were sure we were never going to make our flight. The worst part of the journey came when Deaner got just a LITTLE too close to a car parked on the left side of the road. Our rear view mirrors collided and the noise made was not a good one. Our rearview mirror was dangling by a wire off the side of our car and was flapping against the door. Did I mention we were driving a BRAND NEW MERCEDES?!!? I was crying, Deaner was hollering and it seemed like we were not only not going to get home, but that we were going to owe a million dollars to fix this mirror.

Deep breath. The trusty GPS actually got us to the next exit onto the M11, where we needed to be and we pulled off at the normal gas station where we always fill up. Do not ask me how, I believe God was looking down on us, but Deaner fixed the mirror. He shoved the wires back into the car and threw his body weight against it. I heard a loud pop and somehow someway the mirror appeared to be fixed. We didn't test it and we didn't try to adjust it. When we returned the car to the rental company we held our breath while they inspected the car and signed off on it! I truly don't know how we got away with that one. We even had time to eat lunch before running to the gate. After our awful morning, we joined the line to board our flight. When we got to the front of the line I said to Deaner, uhhhh, why does the TV say this flight is going to Katowice? Hmmmmmmm. Long story short, we almost boarded the wrong flight. We would have ended up somewhere in Poland for the weekend. Thank god that didn't happen.

Thankfully we made it home. We had a nice relaxing weekend. Saturday we ate at a fantastic Thai restaurant and it was nice to get out of the house. I just can't believe the weekend is over already! I have been productive today already having been to workout, hit up the post office and the commissary. I'm about to start cooking dinner right now. When I was heading into the gym today a huge pile of snow (yes, it snowed about 4 more inches last night) decided to fall off the roof of the gym, three floors above, and fall straight onto the back of my neck and down my shirt. Nice. If I had seen this happen to someone else I would have peed in my pants laughing. Needless to say, it is not as funny when it happens to you! :) Anywho! I am going to start my new recipe for dinner. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't turn out to be a disaster!! We get to have another ultrasound to see Baby Deaner on Thursday and I CANNOT wait til the appointment!! Happy Monday everyone!

Interesting day so far........

Today has been a little bit different. Deaner got to sleep in more than usual and his morning meeting was over before 10:00am even rolled around. Which means that he busted me still asleep when he came home afterwards! Thank god it wasn't THAT late!! :) We got to hang out this morning and then had lunch together at a restaurant on base where I actually had a pretty good buffalo chicken wrap. Afterwards I returned to our room while he went out to another school for a meeting. I went on a short walk and came back and jumped in the shower. I was a little more than surprised to find the bathroom floor completely flooded. And it just so happens to be on the day that I got undressed IN the bathroom and left all my clothes on the floor. Ughhhhhhhhh. I called the front desk, who I might add was VERY rude, and they sent maintenance over. Unfortunately we had to switch rooms which means that I had to be the one to pack up all our crap and move rooms. Here is the best part.........Deaner has no idea that any of this has happened. He will arrive back at the hotel and I won't be in the room in which he left me! I left a note on the door but there are maintenance people in and out of there and I hope it doesn't fall off! It isn't like I had any tape to put it up! Moving on........

We have dinner reservations tonight at my favorite restaurant in Icklingham. It is called The Plough and I know I have told everyone about it before. I can't wait to eat a delicious steak with good company. Assuming my "company" is in a good mood. Who knows how long he will wander around this hotel looking for me!

I'm already looking forward to going home tomorrow. I have decided that I am done with England for a little while. Deaner has to come back in a few weeks and I am not allowed to come!! I mind only because he will be gone for a whole week but he will be traveling to all his schools here in England and I can think of things I would rather be doing than riding along in a car with a bunch of engineers!! :)

Alright, I am signing off to go and finish reading my book, The Help. And hope that my husband finds me sometime today!

Jolly Old England

Well we are finally here. I get more and more concerned about these Ryanair flights each time I take them. I'm just not really sure how they can be safe. I always feel like the plane is going to rattle apart in midair. Not to mention these pilots are a little sketchy. I seriously wonder how many hours they have to log before being turned loose to fly a Ryanair flight on their own. 10 hours? 20 hours? :)

In other news, I really got a kick out of this guy last night in the airport.The first time I saw him I figured that he must just be rolling that pink suitcase for his wife or girlfriend. Then I saw him again.and I realized that no, it was just his suitcase. Anyone else think this is wierd? I'm just saying. It IS a pink suitcase. I'm pretty sure my husband wouldn't use one. He'd rather carry his possession's in a brown paper sack. And don't laugh, because I think he has done that before! I was cracking myself up trying to take these pictures on the sly. Deaner said I would not be a very good private investigator!

I understand that this is a very random post but I was just sitting here on the bed in the hotel room typing on Facebook to my mom. I heard a weird rumbling noise outside the window (where I might add I have the blinds WIDE open). All of a sudden this buckets raises up and is right in front of my window with a man in it, who starts caulking the window!Thank god I was dressed! You don't see that happening everyday! Today has been a pretty boring day. I walked over the to PX to grab lunch and buy some shampoo and conditioner, which I forgot. Now I am back at the hotel watching TV, typing on my blog, and surfing the internet in general. Hopefully this afternoon will go by quickly!! I am readying a new book called The Help and I am REALLY enjoying it!! I would recommend it highly to anyone looking for a good read. Definitely better than Pat Conroy's South of Broad!! Also, way to go Massachusetts! Finally the country is coming to it's senses! Way to go Scott Brown. Happy Wednesday! :)

What the???

How is it that I'm sitting in an airport and there is not one single ticket couter open? And that we are two of about 6 people total in the airport? Oh yeah, thi I not Hartsfield in Atlanta folks! We are in a hanger, in the middle of nowhere (at least 100km from the actual Frankfurt despite this airport being called Frankfurt-Hahn) waiting on our death trap Ryanair flight. Say a little prayer for us if y'all have a chance. Our last flight on this airline was not pretty!! Maybe they won't forget the landing equipment this time!! :)

Happy Holiday Monday!

It feels like we have been lucky enough to celebrate several holiday weekends lately and I am certainly not complaining. It is always nice to have an extra day to spend with my sweet husband even if we don't have much to do! I wish that I had had the energy to blog on Friday after my day of subbing for Kindergarten but unfortunately they really took it out of me. Deaner says that around 5:30 or so I asked if we could go to dinner. He said we needed to wait at least another 30 minutes. I apparently announced that I would never make it, laid my head down on the couch, and was passed out within 1 minute. He let me sleep until 6:45pm before waking me up to go out to eat but the night was shot. I was totally disoriented and too sleepy to enjoy anything. I think I went to sleep as soon as we got home that night. Have I mentioned that despite feeling really good so far during this pregnancy, that I have been utterly exhausted? The bigger problem is that no matter how exhausted I am, I haven't been sleeping very well at all. Before I got pregnant, I had definite sleeping issues that required me to take Ambien to sleep at night. Now that I can't take it anymore I have had some serious issues sleeping at night. Of course I forgot to mention this to the doctor last week so it is on the top of my list for our visit next week! Hopefully there will be something I can do to catch some zzzz's!

Saturday we were up bright and early and heading to meet some friends of ours near a base called Ramstein. Deaner has been wanting to see the movie Avatar in 3D and it was playing in English at this particular theatre. It was a nice treat because we got to eat lunch at Chili's first! Yum! Chili's would typically be my LAST choice when we are in the States but it is nice to enjoy some American food while being here. The unlimited refills are really what gets me! Avatar was fine, but I didn't love it. I knew I wouldn't but I wanted Deaner to be able to see it. The worst part? The movie made me really motion sick. Which is odd becuase I don't get motion sick EVER. There were several parts when I just had to close my eyes and chill out. I did NOT feel so great afterwards and it was a long ride back to our house! I didn't feel like eating much for dinner so I had some mac and cheese and relaxed on the couch. We finished up watching the second season of True Blood and started watching the new season of Friday Night Lights.

Yesterday was a LAZY day. After lunch at the PX and a quick trip to the Commissary we found ourselves back on the couch watching Friday Night Lights. We only had to take a short break when I fell asleep for 3 hours! We had frozen pizzas for dinner and it was great! Nothing like a good lazy day. Today has been more or less the same. Lunch at the PX again just to get out of the house. I am making French Dip sandwiches for dinner so the house smells nice. I am also doing some laundry. But don't think I haven't just napped for 1.5 hours on the couch. This baby is draining me!

Tomorrow Deaner has to work a normal work day. I'll be around the house cleaning up and organizing. We have a late night flight to England which I don't think even leaves Germany until 11:50pm or something. Yuck. But it means that we won't have to wake up at like 3:00am to make the morning flight. I have a feeling it is going to be a long boring week for me in England but at least I will have a chance to rest up and enjoy some meals out. Deaner's boss will be there most of the week so I'm sure he will be joining us for dinner some nights. Get this, because it is worth noting, it is actually SUNNY here today! The temperature went above 40 and the sun is out! Snow is melting everywhere around me and it is a glorious sight! I think the last time I saw the sun was in Atlanta so I am counting my blessings! I'll write more tomorrow and perhaps I will have the energy to tell you about my day in Kindergarten. Got to go fold clothes!! Happy Monday!

Big Ole Baby News

So this is the post that I have been waiting to write for what seems like FOREVER! I promised that I would be less boring and try much harder to be more exciting, so without further ado, Deaner and I are going to be parents! How much more exciting does it get than that?? If this news doesn't solicit comments than I don't know what else I can do! :) I have been wanting to post about it for a long time now but y'all know how that goes. All I know is that I would never have been able to wait til 12 weeks before spilling the beans. Here is a long story made short!

Back in October Deaner and I decided that we were ready to start tying to have a baby. We both knew that it might take awhile and we were in no rush so we were fine with whatever happens happens. Imagine my surprise when I found out in December that I was pregnant. So much for it taking awhile! We are both SO excited. We found out about the baby a week before we were heading home to Atlanta for Christmas. Somehow I managed not to spill the beans until we got there. Deaner was really surprised at this but honestly I was scared my mom would be MAD at me since we are living so far away! Ha. My parents were anything but mad. We told them on the way home from the airport and then we told Deaner's parents at dinner that night. Of course most of our close family and friends found out while we were home because I wasn't drinking. I can't think of a more screaming detail than not drinking to give away the fact that you are pregnant. Especially when that someone is ME.

We had to wait until today to go to the doctor because we didn't get back from Atlanta until Jan. 4th and the doctor's office was closed until the 11th. I was so nervous to finally go! I decided to go to a doctor here that is American but went to medical school in Germany. She is not affiliated with the base at all but I had heard several good things about her and I like that she is American. Today went smoothly, minus the hour wait where I nearly hyperventilated, and we got to have our first ultrasound!! It was really unbelievable. I think even Deaner was impressed and I was worried about him! We could see little arms and legs moving and the doctor said that everything looks great! Here are the pictures! The doctor said the baby is the size of a gummy bear right now. How appropriate! My favorite!!I do wish Deaner did a little better job at the scanning but he said he was trying not to draw attention to himself at work. Y'all can click on them to make them bigger. Anyways, we go back in two weeks for another ultrasound (I get the impression this doc likes doing them a lot!) and I am already excited!

Keep us in your thoughts over the next 7 months! Oh yeah, did I mention the baby's due date is the day before my birthday on August 25? Can't wait. Also think about me tomorrow as I am subbing for the aide in a kindergarten class! Yikes! I'm scared about that! And sorry for any spelling mistakes, has anyone else's blogger spell check function quit working??

Working Woman

It has officially been 9 months and 2 weeks since I last had a job. I cannot say that I regretted leaving behind my position in Atlanta because, well, it was the pits. I have never for one minute missed working for my former employer and there are also very few people I worked with that I miss (disclaimer, there are a FEW and they know who they are!). For some time now Deaner has been tapping his toe about me doing some kind of work even if it is only part time. We agreed that I would sign up to substitute teach because it would be flexible and would allow me to continue to travel with Deaner when he has to go out of town. After FOUR hideous months of getting the run around from the school, I am finally cleared to substitute. Last night I got a call around 9:15pm to work a half day today subbing for the music teacher. I agreed and then didn't sleep a wink because I was so nervous! I had to be there at 7:50 this morning so I was up bright and early. Thankfully the school is really laid back and I was allowed to wear jeans.

I got to my room around 8 and thankfully the teacher had left pretty detailed instructions about what needed to be done. And it was easy. All four classes got to watch a movie. Woooo-hoooo! If there is one thing I can do, it is push play on a VCR. Yes, I said VCR. My second class of the day was of kindergarteners. When they were lined up to leave my room one little girl turned around to me and said "You look really pretty". I was totally caught off guard and thanked her. Then in a tone that sounded really mean and ugly she said "Aren't you going to tell me that I look pretty too"?!? Hmmmmmmmmmm. A little wierd. In another class a little boy was having some issues controlling himself. I asked him repeatedly to stop talking and then I moved him. When I asked him what his name was he told me that he didn't know. Little twerp wouldn't tell me his name! Luckily there were several tattletails in the class that filled me in. When his teacher arrived to pick up the class she asked if I had any problems. I told her about my issue with "C" and unfortunately for him, he lost his recess priviledges for the day! The same class also told me that their regular teacher always lets them lie down while they are watching movies. I thought this sounded a little fishy so I said no, you have to sit up. Later I was reading the posters on the wall and one very clearly stated, "Always Sit Up While Watching Movies". Thank god I didn't fall for that!

All in all it was a pretty uneventful morning. I have a feeling that it didn't accurately prepare me for what subbing can really be like. I am subbing again on Friday as the aide to a kindergarten sub. Should be more interesting and hard, especially since it is all day. Ugh! For now, I'm just hoping that nothing bad happens to me on Friday. I'm already nervous but at least I have tomorrow to relax!

Just a side note, has anyone else read Pat Conroy's new book South of Broad? Did anyone else think that it was totally the most ridiculous book they have read in a very long time? I thought the whole thing was outrageous. I only continued to read because of the absurdity! Any comments on that are welcome!

Another One Bites the Dust

I might not have even noticed it but when you go from a nice round even number of 100 followers to an ugly odd number like 99, it is a lot more noticeable!! Have I offended anyone? Or is it that I am just truly a horrifically boring person these days? I am going to venture to say that it is latter. Trust me, if the temperature never went above 20 degree, you hadn't seen the sun since your last trip home to Atlanta and it hadn't stopped snowing for a over a week, you would want to stay home and be boring too! I mean the most exciting thing I did today was meet Deaner on the base to have lunch and that is hardly newsworthy material! However, I can promise y'all that if you stick with me, I am about to become a lot more interesting and exciting! Is this a bribe? I guess so, but I can hardly allow myself to get down to 98 followers or else I might go into a deep depression! Plus, this will be worth the wait!

Case of the Mundays!

Well not really, but since it is Monday I just thought I would say it! Today hasn't been too incredibly boring. Of course, it is still snowing here. Not enough to create havoc on the roads but just enough to make your car REALLY dirty and to make it nearly impossible to see out of your windshield. I can't wait for this to stop so we can get the cars washed! Somehow Deaner always seems to brush his dress pants against the car and arrive home with filthy pants.

Today has consisted of lot of laundry. It is amazing how much laundry accumulates in our house when I manage to ignore it for a solid week. I guess I thought that it would wash itself but it definitely did not! Along with the laundry I cleaned up our disasterously disorganized house and now it is to my standard. I'm sure Deaner will get home from work soon and mess it all up again! Speaking of, Deaner just called to say that he was on his way home from work. He went to the gym, got all the way to the locker room, opened his gym bag only to find out that he didn't bring his workout clothes!! HA!! I am sort of wondering what WAS in the bag that made him THINK he had his clothes!

So I also made a trip to the commissary today. I know I know, no day would be complete without going to the grocery store. I feel like I go there everyday. Anyways, I have always found it obnoxious that the commissary doesn't pay the baggers ANYTHING and that the patrons are supposed to supplement their wages. First of all, I have no problem tipping a bagger who carries my groceries out to the car. However, I resent the fact that my $2 or $3 dollar tip never seems like enough because it is the only money that these people make. I mean since I go to the grocery store all the time I never have that many bags and it takes the bagger all of about 2.5 minutes to get them bagged, out to the car, loaded and return to the store. Today took the cake. This dude was bagging my groceries and I had all of about 5 bags. We started towards the car in the snow and I made a comment to him about the snow just trying to be friendly. The guy just looked at me like I was retarded and made zero response. When we got to the car I picked up three bags and he picked up two and put them in the truck of the car. He then turned to me and held out his hand for his tip. I begrudgingly handed it over. He didn't thank me and he turned around and walked away not even closing the lid to my trunk!!!! HELLO??? I was totally put out and annoyed. I could have carried those dang bags myself and not tipped the mute a dime. I was really annoyed. From here on out, unless I have heavy drinks, I'm going thru self checkout!

I'm already looking forward to the long weekend coming up! Now I only have to get through the next four days! Next week we are going to England for the week. It's always pretty boring there but maybe this time I will be surprised! Alright, time to start dinner! Then we get to watch the new season of True Blood! Cannot wait!! I need to do a better job of taking pictures so that I can have some to post on here. I will try and do better tomorrow!!

Things that make you go, hmmmm.......

So, for the last six or so years, I have sponsored a child in Equador through a program called Children International. I have always had the same child and have always been in contact with him through letters etc. Each year I am sent an annual picture of my sponsor child as part of the program. Imagine my surprise when the picture of my sponsor child came this afternoon and he is wearing a LACOSTE SHIRT in it!!!!! WHAT? I think I might need to conduct an audit to figure out exactly how much money I am sending to this charity! At least I know they are clothing him, just hope he is being fed as well!

As promised, Deaner blew up the picture of his speeding ticket mug shot for me! He didn't do as good of a job as I might have hoped but I think you will get the drift.I wish he had managed to get a closer up of himself but the look on his face is still pretty funny. I got a good laugh out of it!

We are getting ready to head out to dinner in a little bit with Steph and Jon and this great German brewery. I can't wait to eat me some delicious food! I hope that everyone is ready for a nice relaxing weekend. I am!! Happy Friday!!

Winter Wonderland

This is what I woke up to this morning. The difference between the U.S. and Germany is that I didn't hear any sort of hype at all that it was going to snow. In the U.S. (well, particularly Atlanta) we would have heard about this inch or so of snow that was coming for days and days in advance. The grocery stores would have sold out of bread and milk (who even eats plain bread and drinks milk? I say go for the junk food and beer!) and people would have started to act a bit hysterical at the thought of a few inches of snow. Deaner and I have both heard rumors that starting tomorrow night we are supposed to get between 5 and 18 inches of snow. I know that is a big difference but the people around here just don't seem to care enough to make a better guess than that! So I did what any good American would have done and I went to the grocery store today to make sure we had enough food JUST IN CASE it did snow 18 inches! I don't think it will happen but you never can tell around here.

In other news, remember me telling y'all about Deaner getting flashed by all those speed cameras way back when? Well the first ticket came last week. It was for the Jeep and there was no picture attached so he has spent the greater part of the week lobbying that it COULD have been me that got the ticket. Nice try, I know it wasn't me. So yesterday the mail comes and there is ANOTHER ticket in the mail! For the Jeep again! And this time there is a picture of Deaner driving attached! SO FUNNY! I am going to try and get Deaner to blow it up and scan it for me but something tells me he won't be as into it as I am. He looks stunned and his mouth is hanging open!

Tomorrow I actually have a few things on my schedule! This has been a very boring and uneventful week for me! I am having lunch with a friend of mine and it will be nice to get out of the hosue. Then we are having dinner tomorrow night with Steph and Jon at one of our favorite places, Brauhaus Castel. Deaner's birthday is on Sunday and Jon's is today so I'm sure we will do some celebrating! Then hopefully we will catch up on some sleep this weekend and finally be back to normal!! What in the world are we going to do with no more college football? I swear, this is the saddest time of the year for me. Perhaps my husband will start coming to bed earlier than 5am now since there won't be any football games to stay up and watch! Happy Thursday to everyone! Friday is right around the corner!

Nothing to Say

When you don't do anything all day long, it is hard to blog about eventful things going on. I woke up early this morning to fetch Steph and Jon at the airport. That was pretty uneventful. I am happy to have them home! After dropping them off I picked up a few things at the commissary and then headed home. And that is pretty much all I did today. I took a nap, read my book, watched Gene Simmons and cooked dinner. Boring, boring, boring. Oh yeah, I did take a shower too. I need a project. I don't think that it has helped my productivity that I am exhausted from the jet lag. I don't remember it being this bad last time!

Perhaps when I start being productive again, I will have something to write about again. Wish me luck!

Jetlag Sucks

I can hardly keep my eyes open even though it is only 3:30pm here in Germany. I was up at 4:00am this morning and it was not pretty. I am hoping that tonight is better! I think that part of the problem might be that our room is FRIDGID at night. I am going to have to get Deaner to look at that tonight before bedtime! In other news, we are having some issues with the Jeep. Deaner and I drove it yesterday and couldn't figure out why the heat wasn't getting hot very fast. I probably wouldn't have thought about it again but when we pulled back in the driveway last night there was a weird dinging sound and we couldn't figure out what it meant. Thank god Deaner ended up taking the Jeep to work this morning or else the issue wouldn't have been apparent to us until I took it to pick up Steph and Jon at the airport in the morning, which would not have been good. Deaner said that by the time he got to work the Jeep was about to overheat. Not good. After thinking we wouldn't be able to get it fixed until Thursday Deaner found the part that we needed at the Jeep dealership in Wiesbaden and found someone to install it. Thank god that it worked and that it was actually the problem. I was getting really nervous that I wouldn't be able to fetch Steph and Jon at the airport tomorrow! Too bad we had to spend money on something stupid like that. That always seems to happen to us!

Today I have unpacked all six of our bags. Everything is put away and organized. Dinner is in the slow cooker. Now all I have to do is stay awake until bedtime. It is not going to be easy!

I know this is random, but we really need a coat rack. Any suggestions about where to look will be appreciated!! :)

Home Again Home Again

I think that this picture gives a basic idea of how much STUFF we brought home with us but the sad part is that you can't even see me carrying my pink LL Bean bag which is the same size as that green duffle that Deaner has thrown over his shoulder!! We had 4 suitcases, 2 duffle bags and 2 carry ons. Not pretty! The only thing that kept me from having a nervous breakdown when my parents dropped us off was the fact that my mother was foolishly snapping pictures of us trying to wheel all our luggage to the Skycap! Even I was appalled to find out that our biggest suitcase weighed 62 pounds! I mean, I thought there was no way we would be anywhere NEAR the 70 pound limit (thank you medallion status!) but apparently we managed to get closer than I thought we would!

When we arrived at our gate we were so early that they hadn't even turned the lights on yet! Guess it is better than being late! I noticed that there was a kid asleep on the floor by the window but I didn't think much of it until I saw something start moving underneath his sweatshirt. Turns out it was a tiny dog who then got up and drank out of its water dish that was set up by the window as well and then peed on it's pee pad that I hadn't noticed was there. Is it just me, or does anyone else think that this is totally uncalled for? I understand that the dog is small and I also understand that some people consider their dogs part of the family but this was a little over the top. A dog should not be allowed to pee on the floor at the airport even if it is on a mat. That just doesn't seem very hygenic to me. And where does the dog pee once it is on the airplane? What if it poops? I would be furious if I had to sit next to that dog and had to smell it's poop the whole flight!

The flight home was completely uneventful. We had no tailwind like we normally do so the flight wasn't as short as we were hoping. And neither of us could manage to fall asleep at all. George, our neighbor, picked us up at the airport (thank god we didn't have to navigate the trains with all those bags!) and we got home by 8:30am or so. There is snow everywhere here and it is super cold! Welcome back to Germany I guess! We took a 5 hour nap, showered, ate a small lunch, went to the grocery store and came back home. In order to stay awake, I took down the Christmas tree all by myself! It was a total pain in the ass but at least it is done and I don't have to worry about it tomorrow. Just have to worry about unpacking all the luggage! Now I am sitting here on the couch blogging with my new PINK snuggie keeping me warm. I'm not going to lie, I'll probably be asleep within the hour. Tomorrow I will work on my recap of 2009 and get to play with all my new toys, including my new camera! Sorry if this is rambly, I'm exhausted!!

Over Already?

Is it really possible that we have already been home for 17 days and that it is time to head back to Germany tomorrow? Time really does fly when we are here. There are enough things to do, people to see and family to entertain to keep us busy for months! It is too bad that two and a half weeks was all the time that we had. Time for Deaner to get back to work and for us to get back in our normal routine back in Germany. I'm still wondering how it is possible that we have 6 bags going back to Germany and I STILL have a GIANT box of clothes to ship back. I really thought that we would be able to make it back in our suitcases but no such luck.

This weekend has been really busy. Starting with New Year's Eve, we have been on the run ever since. We rang in the New Year by renting out the top floor of a beer brewery in town, Gordon Biersch, which also happens to be where we hosted the "after party" of our wedding. It was a good night with great friends and Deaner and I got to celebrate our 4th anniversary of being together. I realize that our wedding anniversary is now the "official" anniversary but New Years Eve will always be special to us. New Year's Day we spent at Deaner's Dad and Stepmom's house. They have an open house every year and we hung out all day visiting with family friends and watching football. Today we had lunch with one of my oldest friends and her family. It was nice to catch up and see her two children and husband. I got to watch Ole Miss win the Cotton Bowl today even though it wasn't a pretty win by any means! And tonight we had dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house and I got to play with Baby Thomas, who was as cute as ever!

Now we have spent the past two hours trying to pack all our crap up into our suitcases! Hope it all makes it back to Germany! Deaner's parents are coming by in the morning to say goodbyes and then we are heading to the airport. Keep us in your thoughts tomorrow while we are making the transatlantic flight home. I'll be posting again once we are home and unpacked. I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and here's to an exciting 2010!