Sunday, October 28, 2012

Life With No Internet

The move went great, and the house is in order. Vic and I are back to work, and E is slowly adjusting to life in daycare.
We won't have Internet or phone until November 6th. I have so much to update, but I'm sitting in the USO on post, and growing increasingly annoyed with the amount of crying children in this place.
Once we get Internet, I will add pictures of our new place and include tales from my new job - which is quite interesting.
Here's our new address for now, and I'll update as soon as I can!

SPC Rosario, Victor
CMR 415 Box 9141
APO AE 09114-0092

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Eli Crawling ... and Farting ...

This isn't his best crawling effort, but the fart at the end makes it all worth it ...


Wertheim Castle

Yesterday we set-off to do a little shopping at an outlet mall about 45 minutes away. The shopping ended up being a bust ... no good deals, and we left empty-handed - except for the big pretzel I devoured. Our next stop was the nearby town of Wertheim. I hadn't heard much about it, and not much turned up when I tried to research the town, but we knew there was a castle - so decided to give it a shot.

It was an awesome little town! It is very medieval looking with small cobblestone streets, and half-timbered houses.


Well in the town center ...


The town had tons of cute little cafes and restaurants, but we decided to go for doners. You can never go wrong with a doner.


After lunch we headed for the castle! I pulled this picture off Google, because we weren't able to get a full-scale shot of its massive-ness. It is one of the largest stone castles in Germany ... mostly in ruins now ... but, still pretty cool. The history surrounding it is less than thrilling ... so I won't bore you with that ...


The hike up was a little rough. We hoisted the stroller up several flights of medieval type stairs, and then realized there was a stroller path right next to us ... which we used on the way down. This would have been the perfect opportunity to use our new baby back-pack carrier, but Eli was asleep most of the trip - and I also left it in the car. Fail.

Anyway, this was much different than any other castle we had been to. There were no workers there, so you pretty much had free reign over the place. You could climb anything you wanted, and the lack of tourist made for a perfect trip.


Checking out the views from the castle entrance ...


He had just woke up from his nap ...


Entrance to the castle ...



Standing in the castle doors.


Views from inside the castle courtyard ...






Peering out the little castle window ... whenever we visit castles we try to decide where they would shoot arrows/cannons if they were under attack ...


Banished to the dungeon ...


You could climb up anything you wanted, but nothing in this area was stroller friendly ... the steps went straight up, and they were teeny-tiny. I got about half-way up, before I was too scared to go any further ... and, I was also out of breath ...


Main frame of the castle ...


We were trying to take picture with the timer on the camera, and none of them came out good. Luckily, a nice little German lady happened to show up and took this great picture for us! Eli looks thrilled ...


We decided to park the stroller, so we could climb the guard tower ...


View from the top of the tower ...


Vic resting his arms ... Eli is getting heavy!!!


Another view from the top. You could also hike all over this area, but there was no way we were getting a stroller up there ...


More views from the top of the tower ...



Heading back down ... this would not have been a fun trip for a claustrophobe ... the stairs were very steep and spirally ... and it smelled like a wet basement.


We climbed that!


He loves exploring ...


That was about it for the ol' town of Wertheim. We tried to grab a couple of postcards and/or souvenirs  but apparently nobody in the town works past two on Saturdays - must be nice!

Friday, October 5, 2012

Busy, busy, busy ...

We are less than a week away from our big move! I have barely packed a thing, but I work best under pressure ... so I'll get started in a couple of days. We are driving to Grafenwoehr on Wednesday to pick-up our keys, and then we will return to Schweinfurt because the movers are coming on Thursday. Friday morning Vic will need to do a final out-processing, and we'll be on our way!! This move cannot come soon enough for poor Roscoe. We had to re-paint the living room, and have started to move some stuff around in preparation to be packed ... which has thrown him into anxiety over-load. He is driving me absolutely crazy. I took him to the vet for his yearly shots, and he has gained 15 pounds since we moved here :( ... hopefully the new yard, and bigger house is just what he needs to get his life together.

So we get to Graf on Friday, and will have to go the weekend without our stuff (it is being delivered the following Monday), but after surviving without it for three months - it will be a piece of cake. Plus, we will be plenty busy exploring the new town and surroundings.

I am supposed to start work on October 22nd, but with the way things are going with daycare, or a lack-thereof, my start date may get pushed back a few weeks. The daycare on post is full, and there are no in-home providers available ... so, that's making things a little stressful at the moment. I'm sure it will all work out though ...

Anyway, stress = baking (and then eating all of what I baked). I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I attempted what appeared to be a recipe for Mimi Sue's Coffee Cake. Well, she kindly sent me the real recipe from my Big Mimi ... so I gave it a shot, and it turn out pretty well for my first try!!! It didn't taste exactly like Mimi's, but pretty close!

Side note: a couple people asked for the recipe for the no sugar, no oil banana bread ... here it is ... http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/11/makeover-banana-nut-bread-3-pts.html ... delicious!

My kitchen helper ...

The finished product ...


I also threw a baby shower for our neighbor Kim, which turned out great (this picture was taken after the food had been eaten). I love a good baby shower, but I can't stand playing the corny games. Lucky for me, we had a small group of fun girls ... who seemed fine with just lounging around, gossiping (Army wives can gossip all day-it's fantastic), and drinking wine (except for the pregnant girl - no wine for her).


Eli Has started to crawl, and he cannot be contained. He's everywhere, and into everything. I've been trying to get a good video, so stay turned for that.


It's getting cold here! We went on a long walk last weekend, and forced Eli to bundle up ... clearly he wasn't excited about it ...


Vic scaling an old scary wall during our walk ...


I stepped into the bedroom for no more than a minute, and Eli had made his way from the living room to the kitchen!! Scary stuff ...


We have a serious teething problem on our hands, and of course, he refuses to use any of the toys designated for teething. I thought Eli was quietly 'reading' his favorite book - when I realized he was being a little too quiet. I went over to investigate, and saw that he ATE a chunk of the book!! Like, he ingested it! The irony of the book he chose to eat is just too much ...


He is also getting better at standing/pulling himself up. It's been a busy week for ol' Eli ...


Today we had to go to the doctor to test his iron levels ... just a routine test ... nothing to worry about. He did great, and even got this elaborate band-aide. He milked the situation for a good hour ... he's very dramatic ...


In other news ... since coming to Germany I have been attempting to make the most of my free time by getting my Master's degree ... after researching my brains out - I was coming up with nothing. Either the program wasn't accredited, or just seemed like a scam. I even visited the Education Center here on post, and the guy looked at me like I had three boobs when I told him I wanted to get my Master's. He handed me a couple pamphlets on Computer Science, and basically told me to get lost. Well, a few weeks ago I received an e-mail from my alma-mater Ball State University. Usually I immediately delete these because they are often asking for some kind of donation ... seriously, I already owe you guys twenty grand ... call me in the year 2035. Anyway, something caught my eye, and I decided to open it. Apparently they have started a whole Distance Education program, and their Master's in Educational Administration is exactly what I have been looking for. I e-mailed the Department Chair with my current situation, and she got right back to me saying they have dealt with plenty of military wives stationed overseas. That sealed the deal for me. I start classes in January, and will be done by the time we leave Germany. All I will need to do when we get stateside is sit for the Principal's Exam in Florida! Woohoo! It is going to be a lot of work, but it will pay off huge when we get home. Lucky for me I have a very supportive family (morally and financially) to make this whole thing a little easier. I'm really excited to use my brain again ... it has turned a little mushy this past year.

That's all that is going on around here. Tomorrow we are headed to a little town about an hour away - they have an awesome outlet mall with American stores, and we need a couple of things for the brutal winter that we're about to face in Grafenwoehr. The town is also home to the largest stone castle in Germany, so we're going to check that out as well!!

Hopefully I will have time for one more post before our phone and internet is shut off on the 9th ... unfortunately, there's no telling how long it will take them to get it set-up in our new place. If you don't hear from me for awhile that's why!!