E-8

Today Allan was promoted to Senior Master Sergeant of the United States Air Force!  We could not be more proud of him!  It's such a huge accomplishment, especially since only being in the service for 14.5 years. He's done exceptionally well for himself and he is such a dedicated Airman.  Just thought I would brag on him for a bit :)  The boys got to punch on daddy's stripes too! 

I also included a picture of the boys in their Halloween costumes (Molly too)

Organization

We finally received our household goods last Thursday and Friday and since then we have kept ourselves very busy unpacking.  Since it's been two and a half months since we have seen our belongings it was like Christmas morning around here.  The kids were on fall break last week so they were thrilled to be home for the big delivery.   They busied themselves playing with all their "new"toys, but then came the realization that everything needed a home.  Those little boys worked hard too!  Maybe a little to hard because Z said to me," Mom I'm done cleaning my room." " oh really?  Already?" I asked.  Z responds, "You know when are are eating dinner and you don't want anymore?  I'm that kind of done!" Oh that boy can make me laugh! 

So, here we are on Tuesday and things are still all over the place.  Imagine trying to shove all your stuff somewhere, in an manner, with no closets!  No place to hide anything. So my mission is to try very hard to organize the chaos.  I did a little project today and organized my spices with these super cute containers.  I have one nice shelf and the rest of my house looks like a disaster area.  Tomorrow is another day though! 

Another fun filled weekend...

Yesterday (Saturday) we all anxiously awaited a visit from our friends Cameron and Christina and their little boy Landon.  We were stationed with them at Buechel and they are now down in the Ramstein area which is about a 3 hour drive from here.  So they took the trek up to see us and we couldn't have been more excited!  Matthew and Zachary were entertaining themselves outside in the backyard and then I heard M come inside crying.  I look at his head and he has a small hole in it.  Apparently M was climbing in the tree and Z was taunting him one way or another and M fell out of the tree onto the bricks underneath =(  Poor baby boy.  Not only did he get scratched up on his leg, arm, back, and ear but now a hole in the head too!  So our friends were only about 25 mins away and M and I had to head off to the hospital.  I have to say though, they were pretty great.  We spent longer in the car driving to and from then we did in the emergency room.  They shaved up his head a bit and then glued it up and we were good to go.   He was really calm about it and so it was a nice experience, not that I want it to happen again any time soon, but it was nice that he was so laid back and that they were so quick on their end.  

After we were done with our quick trip to the ER we went back home and our friends were waiting for us!  I was so very excited to see their faces again after 4 years!  Christina and I headed into The Netherlands real quick real quick to grab some things at the farmer's market and then we all went to dinner to a Greek restaurant in town.  They started us off with these filled with ouzo.  

Then we had some wonderful food and fantastic conversation.  At the end of the meal I was given the check to pay and our total was 57.70 euro.  So I reached into my wallet to pay and then I tell the waiter that he can keep the change.  He looks at me and says "Oh, thank you!  How about another drink on the house?  Another round of ouzo?"  I'm thinking wow I only gave him an extra Euro or so tip, but since Germans don't usually tip here that must be a big deal.  It wasn't until after he left that Allan pointed out that I gave him 77 euro, not 57!  WHAT??!!  No wonder he was so gracious and then wanted to bring us another round of drinks.  I felt like a huge idiot and I'm not sure what I was thinking, but one thing is for sure, next time we go there we will be remembered.

Tour of Europe?

Just a fun little fact... the kids ride on tour busses to and from school.  Talk about riding in comfort! 

Back in Germany

Allan's career has once again led us to beautiful Germany.  We will be stationed here for the next 4 years and while most of my family is on Facebook these days there are still some old fogies (I'm talking about you Grandmother :)) that have not launched into the social network craziness.  So, here once again I am going to try very hard to keep up with our European adventures.

As I type this, Matthew is currently in the 4th grade and 9 years old while Zachary just turned 8 last week and is in the 3rd grade.  Both boys attend AF NORTH Elementary school in the Netherlands.  Yes, the boys cross into a different country to attend school.  Good news is though that it's only about 15-20 mins away.  We are stationed at Geilenkirchen NATO base which is on the west side of Germany bordering both the Netherlands and Belgium.  We just moved into our house Oct.1.  It is a big, beautiful, single family house with a nice sized back yard that has a pond and backs up to a corn field.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our household goods that we shipped out from Missouri August 9th.  We can't wait to sleep in our own bed and relax on our own couch and cook a meal that doesn't revolve around the 1 pot and pan that we currently have in our kitchen.  We spent the first 3 weeks at a guesthouse, which was a fantastic set up.  It had everything that we needed including a trampoline to entertain the kiddos (and adults as well), some backyard space for Molly, and 3 bedrooms.  It's been a great experience thus far and have had made some great memories already.  One of my personal favorites was our car situation.  Our sponsor, who is a fantastic guy by the way, let us borrow his car for a few weeks until we bought one here.  His car is an old VW  polo I belive, John Bon Jovi edition car.  We took it house hunting and ended up getting lost with the car stalling out in the middle of the street.  Of course the car wouldn't start back up, but luckily it was a stick shift so I had to give it a push and Allan popped it into gear and off we went.  Well unfortunately that was just the beginning.  From then on out and it wouldn't start up again.  So every time we had to go somewhere we had to push start the car.  It really embarrassed Allan, but I thought it was hysterical!  Boys would argue over who's turn it was to push the car.  Makes me smile just thinking about it.  Those are the kind of memories that I hope to hold onto.  Just wish I would have thought to take a picture of the action.

Front of House

View of backyard from my bedroom window

The birthday boy and me at the Gangelt Wildpark

The boys feeding the goats

Picture day at school

Does this really need a caption ;)

Castle turned nursing home

Boys' first day of school