And your measuring your minutes by a clock thats blinking 8..

"This is incredible, starting insatiable, yes this is love for the first time. You'd like to think that you were invincible yeah, well weren't all once. Before we found love for the first time." Dashboard Confessional.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Outside, the sleepy town of Baumholder is coated in a dusting of snow..on cars, over roof tops...this little piece of the world is blanketed by white, transforming it into a glittering picture inside my window frame. As I type this, snow is drifting lazily from the clouds and it feels oh so cold outside. Winter truly has finally arrived in Germany.

Inside, our house is a mess. After a frantic yesterday evening everything is unplugged, packed as best as we can and waiting for the duty day to end so that we can move it back to John's barracks room. Household goods comes tomorrow to pack it properly. Everything except for my trusty old laptop and his PS3 along with our router which will be shipped to their respective places by John and myself soon.

We received some excellent news on his car. It is fixed and running, and his parents are going to go get temp tags for us (thank you, thank you, thank you!). We are getting insurance tonight, and we will be ready to go come Sunday for the long drive to Mesa.

I think our current car is beginning to sense it's fate. The locking system on the doors broke yesterday due to ice we believe. Seeing as it won't be able to pass another POV inspection for us to sell it, we are just going to scrap it Thursday. We are going down hopefully today to reserve a rent car that we will be able to pick up Thursday and drop off Sunday at the airport. If we can do it..then that saves us the headache and expense of taxis and trains.

John is finishing up his clearing today (Yay!!). Household goods comes tomorrow which potentially could take all day (he has to be there when they come), Vehicle Registration Thursday (scrapping our car, turning in our license plates and discontinuing our insurance here), and Friday he finals out with the unit. Saturday at 10 am our landlady is coming to the apartment to make sure its clean so that we can turn in our keys, and we will be spending our last night in Germany in Hotel Statkrug (the last hotel we stayed in), and we fly out at around 10-11 am from Frankfurt International on Sunday.

Wow! Just reading all of that makes me want to jump around and cheer!

My birthday is Friday (Happy Birthday to me!). We have already kinda celebrated it seeing as how hectic this week will be for us. I am also finishing up my school stuff Friday as well (Woohoo!) and I will let you guys know where my grades fall. We are so excited to be leaving Germany and returning home in time for the holidays to spend with our family and friends.

This will be my last post from The Fatherland.

Aufweidersan, choos, and guten nacht Deutschland!

America, here we come!

And if you knew how happy you are making me..

"Who's gonna call on Sunday morning, who's gonna drive you home? I just want one more chance to put my arms in fragile hands." Anberlin.

Holla!

I am so sorry that I have been so lazy in updating this blog. Truth is, between school and other stuff it has been hard to find the time. I would have kicked the responsibility over to John...but I don't think blogging is on his interest list.

The weather has turned from crappy, to even crappier here in the Fatherland. It used to be cold and wet...now its bone cold and constantly raining. There as been few rare days of decent weather, but those are few and very far between. It seems as if the days string into never ending cloudy, windy, wet messes. It doesn't really effect me, seeing as I have little reason to venture out from our apartment here except on errands or to just get out of here. It is John instead that has to suffer it, and I can't help but feel bad every time he comes home from work cold and wet.

John and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving together this past week. We had turkey, ham, and all the trimmings. John wasted his time happily on the new COD game, and eventually fell asleep watching a newer western movie. We spoke with our families throughout the day, and I know that both were excited to be able to hear from us. John got lucky, because his platoon has had duty all weekend. Instead of having to sit through a 24 hour shift on his 4 day, he just has to do flag detail twice a day. It sucks cause we really can't go anywhere far..but it is definately better then the alternative.

Earlier this month, I received word from home that my Uncle Mark passed away. He had Hepitatis C, and we had known for awhile that he wouldn't be much longer on this earth. It has been a tough dealing with this and everything else on the other side of the ocean away from my family. I was not able to go back due to immigration stuff which sucked. I wish I could have been there for my mom.

I also received word from home that myself and John will become an Aunt and Uncle here in the next couple of months. My sister is pregnant and although we have no word of the gender we are both happy and excited for my older sister and this newest addition to the Littrell clan.

I have been working my butt off with school. My semester ends December 23rd but since we will be in transient I am attempting to finish all of my school work a week early so that I won't have to worry about it. I can not guarantee our internet connection after December 20th, so I would rather not take the gamble. I am doing very well..I am carrying a 90 average in all of my classes.

John bought plane tickets for us. He has all the ticket information which I will forward to his family once I can get a hold of it. Alex, his cousin is beginning to work on his Jeep to get it in running order, and we have a shaky itinerary for the 12 days of leave that he will be able to take. He begins to clear this duty station Friday, December 3rd and he is extremely excited about it. Bertha, our Nissan Sunny will be sold to one of the guys in his platoon and we will move out of our apartment December 19th.

It goes without saying that we both are looking forward being able to come back to the United States.

I am planning on keeping this blog up and running once we get back to the United States. Even though the Army wife stuff is beginning to get figured out...I think it is a great way to be able to stay in contact with our families, especially the ones that we do not speak to on a daily basis. It will also serve as a useful means to keep everyone updated if and when John gets deployed again, although I am hoping that that situation does not arise again.

Thank you again for your patience, I promise to keep you guys updated more often

We'll just laugh along because we know that none of them have felt this way..

"The only one who's ever known who I am, who i'm not, and who I want to be." The Fray

Ola!

So after a not fun bout with sickness, I am semi fully recovered thanks to John shoving vitamins and other pills down my throat for the past few weeks. The weather has been crazy here, so that is NOT helping. Yesterday it was a beautiful 60 degree day, and barely a cloud in the sky. Today, it is grey, looks like rain, and is super cold. I think its all of 53 degrees right now. Yay for crazy weather patterns and their effects. Not.

Everything is dying. The brilliant colors that once surrounded us when we went into the countryside are no longer there. The trees are either green..or naked. It is only a matter of time before everything is coated in shades of grey, white, and muted greens. The once vibrant countryside is now pretty dull.

John and me played it low key this weekend. Just mainly hanging out around the house and enjoying each others company. I think we both needed a second to just catch our breath before this next week started.

I start classes Wednesday afternoon (can't log in until 5 pm) and even though its a short week I will still have to turn in 6 assignments by Saturday night. So, the fun/pain shall begin. Needless to say, I am going to rush to get done with class stuff so by the end of the afternoon when John gets home I can enjoy time spent with him, and not with my head in a book.

Apparently John has spent his entire military career on a perminate profile. This means that he was never supposed to be a scout, and he was never supposed to deploy to Iraq. The Army finally caught it after 3 years last week when his orders for El Paso started to come in. He has received a waiver however, and will be put on blood pressure medication. If he hadn't received that waiver, then John would have had to go before a medical board and probably would have been given a medical discharge.

Still unsure about the entire Christmas thing. I know John and me are kicking around some ideas for Thanksgiving plans since we will be unable to come back to the United States for it. It is so nice that we are finally going to be able to spend the holidays together. Hopefully next year, we will be able to spend Thanksgiving with our families.

Happy Halloween all, and try to stay out of trouble with those tricks.

You never really change, you just become more of yourself..

"A thousand miles seems pretty far, but they've got plans and trains and cars. I'd walk to you if I had no other way. Our friends would all make fun of us, but we'd just laugh along because we know that none of them have felt this way." Plain White T's.

Aloha! I *wish* we were somewhere warmer. Lol!

So, John had the pleaseant experience of waking up this morning to find that we had finally received ice on our car and well..everything. It has been in the air for awhile, but it finally came today. I am looking forward to the day when snow starts hitting the ground. Being from Texas I never really got to enjoy snow for longer then a day, so I am looking forward to being able to form snowballs without bits of dead grass and leaves in them.

Which these snowballs will be enthusiastically hurled at my husband as he gets out of the car from work. I dare him to get me back.

Not much has been happening with us lately. Generally exploring castle ruins and watching episodes of Smallville together. Work has been exhausting for John. His unit is gearing up to redeploy to Afghanistan (which thankfully John will NOT be apart of) so last week was spent at the rifle range requalifying and shooting. They had their vehicles reissued to them, so days spent at the motorpool is becoming regular as well. It makes for long, hard, and cold days for John. He is often going to PT formation at 5:30 and not getting home until 5:30-6:00 pm at night.

Wednesday John attended his first out briefing to begin to start to out process from this unit. He is thrilled, especially since we got the news that we would be leaving Germany the 20th of December. So, we will make it home in plenty of time for Christmas. Which I am still trying to work out the plans with both families so no concrete plans just yet. But by landing the afternoon of the 20th it gives us some extra time.

Today we received some amazing news about my stay here in Germany. We were afraid that I was on a purely tourist visa, however it turns out that isn't the case. I am here under the US-German military partnership. In June, when we went to Ft. Hood to get me 'enrolled' in the Army I was not supposed to get my military ID, or military passport until they had word that I was command sponsored. However, I was still given them. So I have all the benefits of being command sponsored, including being able to stay as long as John is stationed here. We are incrediably relieved at this turn of events.

As relieved as I am, I have come down with some weird cold or flu bug. I have been pretty sick this past week, which sucks. However, I have an excellent nurse in the form of John. He has taken excellent care of me. I am hoping that I will start to get better so me and John can go out exploring this weekend. John has told me that he really enjoys our weekend excursions together, and so do I. I have planned a huge day for us tomorrow, and now I am hoping that I am well enough to enjoy it. I will probably just bundle up really well and deal with the cold.

We are looking forward to being back, especially 3 days earlier then what we thought. We love and miss everyone.

It's not enough to say that I think about you right now..

"Hands down this is best day I can ever remember, always remember; the sound of the stereo, the dim of the soft lights. The scent of my hair that you twirled in your fingers, and the time on the clock when we realized it was so late and this walk that we shared together. The streets were wet, and the gate was locked so I jumped it and let you in; and you stood at your door with your hands on my waist, and you kissed me like you meant it, and I knew that you meant it." Dashboard Confessional

In my former blog (I deleted it ages ago..I am no newcomer to the blogosphere) I usually began my post with lyrics from a song that fit my mood, and would open to the topics in which I would write about. I have decided to begin to do this once more, and as much of a music junkie that I am...feel comforted in the knowledge that I will never repeat lyrics, nor will I ever run out of them.

This past weekend was quite amazing..and I am still running off the high of it. Saturday, John and myself chilled out around the apartment catching up on our various video games together and just generally lounging and enjoying each others company. Sunday we went to Landstul to Scholssruine Nanstein (Nanstein castle ruins) and had a wonderful time exploring the supposedly haunted ruins of the once great castle. The weather decided to take a turn for the worst (it is not the first time that the weather has not cooperated, we were hailed on coming down from Devils Head), but even the rain did not dampen our exploits. The castle was first mentioned in 1116, but is thought to be much older. It offered gorgeous views of Landstul, Sickington, and the surrounding countryside. We capped off the trip with a visit to Ramstein and Chinese food for dinner. We had a wonderful time and it was an amazing way to spend the day.

Yesterday was the grand opening of the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center in Ramstein. There are a bunch of smaller posts/bases in this region and for the most part..our exchanges are pretty limited in their selection. The KMCC is the second largest shopping center in Europe for the US forces stationed here, and it is a huge mall. I convinced John to take me to go walk around the mall when he got off work. It was a madhouse! I have never really seen that many people gathered in the same place. It took us about 40 minutes to find a parking spot. It felt nice walking around together and just looking at random stuff.

It has become harder for me to stay all day in this apartment. I am used to being free to come and go as I please and go outside and wander around. I like to explore the world around me (which sometimes causes John to call me a pain in the ass when I start bugging him about where we will go for our ritual weekend sightseeing). It's not like John locks me in the apartment by any means...it's just that it isn't exactly safe for an American to be wandering around. So to cure my restlessness John and myself go for short walks in the evening to that little lake in the center of town. Sometimes I even take a old loaf of bread with us to feed to the ducks during our visit. Some brave ducks even come to within feet of me and I can toss pieces of bread straight into their mouths.

The trees are beginning to turn more and more brilliant colors. On the main road coming from post it is lined with small chicken wire pillars that hold up a type of ivy. This ivy has turned slowly from green to a bright, beautiful red so small little red pillars line the streets. The mornings are colder now, and the afternoons turning less warm. The air is so clean here and the smells of fall pierce the air and make me want to throw my arms out and welcome it.

Except I remember the fact that I only have 2 sweaters and no coat with winter weather fast approaching. Oops.

John is starting to schedule his various briefs for him to start clearing. He is actually having to reschedule one he was supposed to go to tomorrow because the Army is deeming it necessary for him a group of others to go scuba diving in the pool in the Wetzel part of the post. It is hard to believe that I have been here almost 3 months now, and that we have been married for almost 4. It seems longer somehow.

I have given up trying to upload all the pictures I take onto Facebook and Blogger. I am just going to find a photo sharing website and just throw them all onto there for our families and friends and share the link here and on facebook.

Oh! Lastly, John baked his second cake a couple of days ago. It turned out delicious, and with no sinking in the middle. He was quite proud of himself. Haha.

We miss and love everyone, and hope that everything is doing alright on the other side of the ocean.

And even when your hope is gone, move along...move along 'til you make it through..

Guten Tag!

I do have to apologize for the delay in updating our blog. My attentions have been divereted into other tasks, in which I will expand more on later in this update.

Around the first of this month, we finally got everything straight with Deutsche Telekom and had our internet hooked up. We are no longer surfing the web on the ghetto network that John had rigged up with his prepaid internet stick. From laptops, to gaming systems it works wonderfully fast. It is so nice to finally have real internet again, and John was incrediably excited to be able to play XBox Live and Star Wars Galaxies (SWG).

Last weekend, John finally talked me into giving SWG a try. It is an online roleplay game set during the first couple of Star Wars movies. I actually have been playing pretty consistantly for the past week and have become hooked on the game. It is pretty addictive. John also has been playing World of Warcraft (WoW) for the past week as well. Again, it is an online roleplay game set into a entirely fictional world. I refuse to give WoW a try, instead opting for SWG. I am not a huge gamer, and SWG fits my tastes just well.

We both recieved the packages from our familes. Mine was a bunch of super important documents (marriage certificate, drivers license, and passport plus a bunch of mail), and his included gaming stuff and his birth certificate. Thank you to both sets of parents for putting them together for us and sending them off. You guys are pretty much amazing.

John had CQ a week ago yesterday..and it allowed for us to have a nice, long 5 day weekend together. We spent it playing video games, watching movies, and just generally enjoying one anothers company. The weather was far too icky and cold outside (even for John) for us to want to adventure out too far past our front door. This weekend is a regular 2 day weekend and we have already made plans. Tomorrow we are going to travel to Idar-Oberstein to explore this gorgeous castle and church. The city is famous in Germany for its gem mines and jewelery stores and is just a stones throw away from Baumholder. We are planning on going out to eat in Ramstein as well, so it will be an awesome day. Sunday is laundry, grocery, and just chilling out day around our casa. We are planning on taking a walk down to that little lake to feed the ducks some old bread and just enjoy our quiet day.

My friend Mandy has returned from the states. It is nice to have female chatter again. She and her fiance got married during her visit to the states so now she is an official Army wife too.

This post should be named Ode to my Laptop in it's memory. The laptop that I put through so much hell and travel has finally gone to computer heaven. It had been giving me some major issues all through August. I had convinced John to do a reinstall on it and it really didn't work. I think it just needs another Windows key for the Vista OS and some solitude (and not so much travel) for awhile. I have a replacement system, a wonderfully fast and cheap little Vaio by Sony. I am grateful for it, seeing as my computer is my link to America for the most part.

Earlier this week I recieved my acceptance letter (with in-state tuition as well) to Community College of Aurora. I will be beginning online classes starting the summer semester. John is also talking about going back to college as well, starting the same semester as me. He has yet to apply, but I am hoping for it.

In Army news, John was pretty much given little choice but to promote to E-5 by his Section Sergeant, Sgt. Steffin. He was told today to start getting enough promotion points through correspondence courses and to start preparing to go before a promotion board. He is reluctant to promote just yet, but personally I think he would be happier as an NCO because he would have to deal with a lot less stupid stuff. The downside is that he would have to attend a 2-3 week leadership school. So..seperation. Which of course, being a military relationship is inevitable but we aren't ready to be parted again so soon. Especially being so newly married.

The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are starting to turn beautiful colors outside our windows. You can smell the coldness in the air, and I am beginning to not want to get out of our nice and warm bed into the morning. I am usually only lured out by the promise of hot coffee. Lol. Coffee on a cold morning, is indescribably amazing.

Other then that, we have been both happy and healthy. We are starting to look into travel plans for Christmas. We PCS in 3.5 months. How fast time has flown! We need to start discussing with our families Christmas plans...so I will be getting in contact with both moms for this. Should be an interesting 30 days. Until next time.

And I don't feel right when your gone away..

Howdy!

First off, I would like to apologize for it not being so long in between posts. I have by no means any less news or stories to share with both the families and our friends, it's just hard because I now have limited access to the internet. Ever since we moved into our apartment, we lost the WIFI signals that we were getting from the hotels and now we are using John's prepaid internet stick. Or, I make the hike up to the posts library to use their WIFI.

Mind you, the internet issue was already supposed to be fixed by now. John and myself got set up with Deutsche Telekom for internet and phone. The phone is a really good deal, because we can make unlimited amounts of calls to American landlines. Just..we can't accept calls from cell phones or make calls to cell phones because the cost is pretty expensive. Our install date was August 25th, and well..they didn't show. They are now supposed to come out the 31st to do the install, considering some equipment didn't get delivered how it was supposed to. Since both John and myself primary mode of communication to the states is by internet, this is going to be huge for us. Plus, he is excited about playing Halo 3 on XBox Live, and Star Wars Galaxies without the lag that comes from the internet stick.

There hasn't been too much going on here however. John had a nice, long 5 day weekend due to having CQ last Thursday. So, we played video games and hung out around the house watching TV and enjoying each others company. We went to Hanau, Germany and walked around for a bit. Hanau is right around where the Brothers Grimm were given birth to.

John actually baked his first cake the other night. I do have a picture, and I will be posting it (probabely to his embarrassment).

The sunsets have been so gorgeous here lately. It's pretty hard to resist taking pictures of them (I do not have that strong of a will. Lol!). So I have a bunch of sunsets on my camera. I think in part it is due to a lot of the late day storms we have been having lately. It will rain a bit late in the day, and then stop right before dusk. However, today is beautiful, cool, and not a cloud in the sky. The cool/cold mornings are back in season, with it burning off during midday. Fall is arriving like a thief in the night. As I wake up in the morning, slowly I see more and more colors other then green appearing on top of the trees that are outside of our window. It has become cool enough to close the window some nights now. John is in heaven, whereas I am the one curled up underneath the blankets cursing the weather change. I am a North Texan. There is no such thing as 4 seasons to us. It's a myth told to us by northerns. Lol.

We both can't help it. We are looking forward to going back to the states. I am not relishing the thought of a full winter in Germany, and John is obviously sick of this country. We love and miss everyone though, and are looking forward to December and being able to see everyone during his leave.

Until next time.

I wanted you to know, that I love the way you laugh..

I can't say how nice it is to finally have our own place. Even if it takes 3 steep flights of stairs to reach. Once I can finally get my computer fully working, I will download the pictures I took of the view we have. We are at the very top, towering above many other buildings and able to see a birds eye view of Baumholder and Wetzle, the second part of the military post.

It was a very unproductive weekend, and it was even harder for John to want to get out of bed at 5 am for PT then most Monday mornings. He came home from supposedly a trip to the CMR with Guitar Hero and 2 guitars in hand Friday and we played all Friday afternoon, all of Saturday, and most of Sunday. We have a certain riveraly between us, which is odd considering that I am the competitive one whilest he could care a less.

Which is why him playing basketball probabely didn't work out so well Deb.

As far as the dancing is concerned, I am the one with the ability to do most folk dancing, two step, and now swing. John...can swing, and only if that is if I beg him to do it.

We called our families last Monday, I hope that you guys enjoyed hearing from us as much as we enjoyed hearing from you.

You'd like to think that you were invincable yeah...

Ola from the Rhine land!

Just when I thought things had finally settled down for awhile, my normal turned upside down for the second time this week.

Monday when I had checked into that new hotel for us, and moved John's and my stuff over to it I had made the comment to the owner (who was very nice and helpful by the way!) that we had started to look for an apartment but didn't really know what we were doing. Peter, the owner said that he would help. Thursday, he came up to our room and told me that he had found a cheap apartment for us through a friend of his, and what time would we like to set up an appointment with her.

So all things said and done, we moved into our new furnished studio apartment last night before a mandatory fun event and are now in the middle of unpacking. We need to go grocery shopping today seeing has half of our food got crushed in the move and do laundry today. As well as clean and finish unpacking. However, John is sick so I don't know how far we will get on any of those tasks today.

The apartment has the basics. Couch, tables, a lamp, mismatched dishes/pots/pans/utensils. It has a microwave and a TV..and a way for us to hook up internet. It is actually really reasonable a month and is paid on a month to month basis. Which is great, considering we are leaving in December.

Last night, the Family Readiness Group (FRG) held a Hawaiin themed party as a welcome home/have a fun block leave type of thing. It was mandatory fun time, so John and I made an appearance. Of course that not being his scene, he made sure enough NCO's saw him before we left so that there was no question of him having been there.

Thursday, John was awarded the Army Achievement Award/medal during final formation for his outstanding dedication to duty, professionalism, and selflessness during his assignment to 2-6.

Also, Thursday John and I attended our second swing dance class. John has actually become quite good at it, although he says he hates it. He looks great while doing it, although he is convinced that he looks like a retard/gay while doing it.

So much has happened this week, it is hard to keep track of it all. It feels nice to wake up in my own apartment again. We had frozen pizza last night...using an oven was exciting! It's not much, but it is home to us. Anywhere is home to me, as long as I have John right beside me.

Just when i'd thought i'd reached the bottom..

Hola!

Things are starting to look up towards the bright side of things over here acrossed the Atlantic Ocean. Thursday John managed to pass his German drivers license test, and we went and bought a car that same day. Bertha is a '89 red Ford Sunny, and looks like she has seen way, way better days. However, she drives great and was able to surive a trip on the Autobahn.

Saturday we traveled to Trier, Germany which is the oldest city in German. It used to be one of the capitals of the Roman Empire. We were able to find the Pink Palace, and the Imperial Baths. We took LOTS of pictures, and I will be posting them soonish. Trier is gorgeous but huge! It sits on the banks of the Mosuel River, and has several different parts of the city. We came back and proceeded to watch Star Wars after our adventures.

We had been meaning to try to find a cheaper hotel for some time, but everywhere else was booked until yesterday. So yesterday morning while John was at work I moved us from one hotel to the next. I have gorgeous flowers on my windowsill now..and its cheaper by half. We also made the investments in a hot plate like stove top, some pots/pans, and a mini fridge. With a stop at the local commissary and finally lugging everything up a steep set of stairs..we were in business. Burgers for dinner, and bacon and eggs for breakfast.

I am slowly adjusting to this normal. Now that we are in a cheaper room, and cooking our meals things just got infinitely easier.

We are planning on doing a little bit more exploring this weekend. I am opting for the castles and sights around Landstul and Kaiserslaturn, while John wants to go back around to his previous post. So we shall see. I would rather stay close this weekend, but who knows.

I had the weirdest moment with my friend Mandy the other day. We were filling out forms, and when it got to residental address we looked at each other and laughed. I am not so sure where to declare my residency anymore. Texas? Germany? The hotel? I am a US citizen..but where exactly do I declare where I live?

I chose Texas, cause I will always be a Texan girl at heart.

The homesickness is starting to fade away. I no longer get tears after I speak with friends or family back in my Lone Star state. It has become easier. I have come to accept this..the hotels, the cooking in the rooms, walking everywhere, hurried conversations at weird hours to fit the time differences, as my normal. I need some sense of normalcy or else I will go insane.

We have had more cooler days then not lately. I think the weather is slowly starting to turn. My first sight of real snow will be coming here in the next few months. Thank god John will not have to go to the month or so long field training come November-December.

Another place where the faces are so cold, i'd drive all night just to get back home..

I think I have finally begun to shake off the culture shock and grow accustomed to life in Baumholder. I know to prod John into waking up from an afternoon nap before it gets too late..or else we will have to go to the Shopette (24 hour gas station on post) for dinner. My German is getting less rusty. I was able to successfully order and pay for a pastry in German for now 2 days in a row. I am growing accustomed to walking everywhere, and dodging bicycles and cars (because pedestrians don't have the right of way here).

We were able to find out some news yesterday concerning our options now that our command sponorship has been denied. The only thing that John can do, is take up to 30 days PCS leave. So, he is going to do that. They won't authorize early reporting, so this is the best that we can do. Come to find out, my visa expires October 12th so I have a lot less longer then I originally thought. Right now I am in the process of applying for an extension to my 90 day touriest visa, or to become a resident of Baumholder...without paying the taxes.

I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride..

Bring on the rain, bring on the thunder..

I wish I had good news to report right now.

Yesterday John talked with S-1 about our command sponsorship, and it was needing just a few more signatures before it was going to get pushed through. It looked like we were going to be able to get the final (good) word sometime before August block leave about it.

However, stuff changed.

His platoon sergeant called him this afternoon asking about his report date to Ft. Bliss. So we made the journey up to S-1 to see what was up. John came back outside with some good and bad news.

The good news is that his report date got pushed up about 2 months to December. Meaning, he will start clearing sometime in late November. The bad news is that because of this, our command sponsorship got denied. My visa is still good until December 7, so we have some time. Even if I over stay my visa by a few weeks..if I leave after that, there is no way I could come back for another 6 months. He is happy that he doesn't have to stay in Germany for an extra 2 months, when John has already been here for almost 3 years. It is possible to get his report date moved up as well. That is if it is authorized by his recieving command, and is signed off by his departing command.

So, that means another few months of living out of hotels for us. Also, possibly the unability to take August block leave.

Right now, the final answers and solutions will be up in the air until next week. That is when John will be able to go back with his platoon leader and try to work things out and get questions answered.

I am disappointed and worried, I won't lie. The good thing is that we will be able to return to the states sooner then expected. The bad thing is that after 90 days, the Army won't recognize my presence here.

I think we are planning on laying low this weekend. Laying low and doing some research on the possible alternatives so that Monday John will be able to go to S-1 well armed with information and questions.

I just wish I could be completely hopeful about the situation; however we were counting on the sponsorship to go through. However, when we return to the states there is really no way that they can deny us sponsorship there. It is just that there is so much that goes into an overseas command sponsorship.

I believe in us. I know that we will make this work in whatever way possible. We have been through worse, and we are going to fight to be able to stay physically together for as long as he is over here.

I just wish right now that we had some concrete answers instead of all the new unknowns that we face.

Your voice was the soundtrack of my summer..

Guten Tag!

It's a wonderful and lazy Monday across the ocean. Today was John's first day back to the Scouts, and so far so good it seems.

Today has warmed up quite a bit from yesterday's chilly breeze that sent me crawling for my only sweater and real shoes. (Sorry flip flops..but you just weren't enough for that cold air!) It was a cool morning, and Mandy and myself took advantage of it to explore Baumholder a bit. We walked down to the little lake about 5 minutes from the hotel and walked around it after breakfast. Of course, we had to indulge in these incrediable pastries that we got from this little grocery store on the way and they were fantastic. I think I could really get happily fat here. There was some fishermen and a couple of moms with babies, but other then that it was just us and the ducks.

John came back for lunch and told me that we had had more errands to run. I thought that we had covered all the bases..and nope. Since he has a Class A inspection on Thursday, we walked up to post and had a quick lunch of more Tex Mex before beginning. We ran first to Clothing Sales to pick up stuff to sew onto his uniform, before dropping it off at alterations. He realized AFTER we were done at Clothing Sales that he needed to get another set of ACU's.

I love his memory at times.

After deciding that it could be dealt with at a later time, we made a stop at the bank before coming back to the hotel for a an hour before he had to report back to work.

The homesickness is beginning to settle in fully, but it will soon get better. Especially now that we are settling into a routine. Tomorrow, we go down to test for our German drivers licenses so thats good.

No word on command sponsorship. The guy at S-1 who is tracking our stuff, was on staff duty today and has tomorrow off. So we won't have any news until Wednesday. I hate having to be patient sometimes.

We are talking about possible trips for next weekend. So far it's either Paris or Rome if the rumor proves correct about the 4 day weekend. Lots of pictures will be taken of course, and I am excited to get to see some really cool old stuff.

Especially Rome.

To answer Joe's question, breathing is a foreign task is a lyric taken out of a song that has been stuck in my head for quite some time. It seems to fit well with the situation, with everything being so new and foreign to me. With the culture shock from Germany, and the getting used to life as an Army wife. I am not completely unfamilar with the military..but sometimes it is like John is speaking another language to me. I need him to translate into Navy terms..or better yet, English sometimes.

I often use lyrics as blog titles too...because I am weird like that. ;)

And we'll have Halloween on Christmas..

Wow!

I am so not used to this weather! It is my first chilly day/evening in Baumholder. My Texan senses are telling me that it is entirely not normal to be running around in long pants and a hoody outside in the middle of July. I am starting to feel the first pangs of homesickness. At least for my big, open, and beautiful Texas skies and sunshine. I even almost miss the heat.

John was given a 4 day weekend this week due to the change of command. Meaning...it won't be until the middle of next week before we hear anything about the command sponsorship. There has been no news about it, yet no news is good news at times so it's just staying patient and crossing our fingers. We really have no set plans yet as to how we are going to spend the time however. Right now, we are just enjoying spending our first weekend together in each others company. We accomplished some errands today though. John needed a haircut for Monday, to make the best of impressions on his return to the Scouts. Also, he needed some uniform stuff as well. So we walked up to post and first paid a visit to the Clothing Sales, before following up with a trip to the barber. We had Taco Bell for lunch (Ah!!!! A taste of good ol' home and Tex Mex).

The ceremony Wednesday was long. I felt bad for them standing at attention and parade rest for almost 2 hours with the sun on their faces. Like all military ceremonies, this one was no different. Every officer it seemed had something 'important' to say and to contribute, but really wasn't saying much of anything. There were cannons involved, which thrilled my red neck side to death. However, later on when I talked to John afterwards he mentioned that they had made no comments about there being cannons involved. He said that the guys were like 'Oh god, artillary' upon first reaction...and most jumped. Typical military. Mix cannons and vets who have just came back from Iraq...without warning. That would have been entirely too easy. Haha.

John has another 4 day weekend coming up next weekend, which is amazing. I am getting far too spoiled with him getting off of work early and all of these long weekends. Next week though, its a trip for us to the place where they test for German drivers licenses. He's already failed once, so we will see how this one goes for both of us. Walking isn't so bad here, as long as it isn't raining, but we both need a drivers license.

To answer some of the questions from last time...

-Yoga, is amazing Deb. You really should try it.

-I got the nickname of Baby Squid by my love of the Navy. Sailors are called squids, and I wasn't fully enlisted, so hence...baby squid.

I really appreciate the comments and feed back from everyone. I will try to get those pictures uploaded Monday when John is back at work. Until then, we miss and love everyone.

And breathing is a foreign task...

This is the blog that I created to keep both John's and my families and friends in the loop with everything that is going on. Boy, there sure is a lot too!

After a hectic week of through hoops and even 2 road trips to Houston, TX for my passport; I landed safely in Frankfurt, Germany at about 5 am Texas time. I had a short 3 hour layover at Denver International from DFW. I am sorry that I missed everyone from up that way. By the time I got through everything, I ended up waiting at the gate for about an hour. The last leg of the trip wasn't so bad, just really long. I sat next to some knuckle heads from the German military and they made it really hard to sleep straight through. The food looked questionable, but all in all it was a uneventful flight. John met me at the airport and we successfully made it to Baumholder and reached the hotel. It's definately weird and a major culture shock for me. I am definately not in Texas anymore.

Monday John was able to take the day off after PT and morning formation so we could do the last few things that we needed to get done. He turned in the command sponsorship packet to his team leader first thing, and we are both very positive about the outcome. We have heard nothing but how it was going to go through without an issue so we have our fingers crossed. Monday we got me into the IAX system so I can get on post without him, went to housing, and got me a cell phone. I will be sending the number out to those who want it, just let me figure it out first. Lol!

In other Army news, John goes back to the Scouts Monday. There is also a new Battalion CO, so there will be a change of command ceremony tomorrow. John was selected, or rather voluntold to be apart of it and I plan on posting pictures from it. It is looking like John's leave will begin August 7-27th, so we will be heading back stateside. We have a couple of things to get accomplished so we will be updating the families on which parts will be spent where as soon as plans become more concrete.

While John has been at work, I have actually kept myself busy. I met a friend in the form of an Army fiancee named Mandy who also stays here at the same hotel as us. Her fiancee is actually in the same battalion as John, so it actually works out quite nice. I have discovered with her the joy of yoga on post, and of late breakfasts after they leave for formation. So, I am not going stir crazy.