Moving... and Getting Settled

Moving.  This is never fun but always a fact of life for our family.  Moving is a stressful event in anyone's life but especially stressful when the move is overseas. 

We finally made it through the movers packing up all of our stuff into crates (*that is a whole other stressful event in itself!) and we camped out in our house for a week before it was time to move so that the kids could participate in their school field days.  (Thanks to our friend, Mary, and my parents for helping us through all of that!)  After a tearful goodbye on Saturday with my parents, with our van packed with 12 large pieces of luggage and and three children squashed like sardines in the second row, we drove to Atlanta to spend a few days with our good friends, the Heaths. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you Heath family!  We sooooo needed that time to unwind and relax before the next leg of our trip.  The kids had a ball!  Katie and Ellie would have to say the highlight of their visit was the trip to the American Girl store, while Justin would disagree and say it was the Atlanta Braves game he and Jeff went to.  :)  I was just glad to have some grownup girl time with Kelly! 

On Tuesday, we loaded up the van again and checked into a hotel near the Atlanta airport.  Justin drove our van to the port to be shipped overseas and then returned to the hotel.  What to do with three kids in a hotel room on a rainy afternoon?  We debated on taking a taxi to a movie theatre to watch a movie but decided that would be a bit expensive.  Instead, we paid $13.95 to watch Gnomeo & Juliet on the pay per view service on our hotel TV.  Much cheaper than a trip to the theatre!  We ate dinner at Ruby Tuesdays next to the hotel and then watched ANOTHER movie before bedtime.  Ugh... I do not recommend Yogi Bear! 

The next morning we got up early, early and took a shuttle to the airport for the next leg of our journey.  Thank you Delta for not charging us for our two extra checked bags!  We took our seats on the plane with Andrew next to me and the girls next to Justin.  We fastened our seatbelts and boom!  Justin was out like a light.  How does he DO that?!  *exasperated sigh*  When the girls needed something, I kept having to have Ellie "nudge" him with her elbow to wake him up.  ;)

We landed in Baltimore and loaded up our bags to store at the USO.  Wow, this was a terrific USO that really tried to make service members feel as welcome as possible.  This is an airport that sees a ton of military go through it so the service this organization provides is extremely valuable!  As the day went on, the place got packed!  We ate some lunch and then took the light rail from the airport down to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore.  After walking around the harbor area a bit, we headed toward the National Aquarium.  This may be the best aquarium I have visited yet.  It had several levels that had spectacular exhibits as well as fantastic views over the harbor as you ascended the building.  My favorite sight was watching the giant sea turtle with only one front flipper getting fed by volunteer divers in the giant ray pool.  He was enormous and so graceful in the water dispite his missing fin that he injured in the wild.   

By the time we were finished with the aquarium, it was about dinner time so we walked over to Little Italy and found a quaint restaurant called "Ciao Bella". Oh. my. word.  Talk about some fantastic Italian food!  Justin's favorite part of the meal was the two Aleve that the waitress gave him for his splitting headache.  Poor guy.  At least his pain was down to a dull roar by the time we left the restaurant.  We headed back to the airport to wait until it was time to board our next flight. 
Thank you, AMC, for not charging us for our two extra checked bags! 

We boarded the rotator around 10:30pm and packed ourselves in like sardines.  When we looked at our seat assignments, there were only 4 seats together and one across the aisle so darn!  Justin had to sit with the kids.  ;-)  I thought, "Gee, what a quiet and relaxing flight I will have!"  Justin and the kids fastened their seatbelts and boom!  They were all out.  How do they DO that?! 

I sat next to a retired couple that were taking a hop over to Italy.  He was retired Navy and she was from Slovenia.  They spend six months of the year in America and six months of the year in Slovenia.  Now I am a quarter Slovenian so we talked about that a little and talked potica, etc. but then I was ready to settle down and get some shut-eye.  No.  Not possible.  I sat next to the woman who wanted to proselytize to me all night.  She spent a great deal of time letting me know that because I was Catholic that I was not a Christian and would not be going to heaven. I really wanted to say, "Hey lady, five years ago I had a near-death experience and I saw plenty of Catholics as well as Episcopalian and Baptist sightings, so guess what?  We are all going!" But that is a long story for another day...  So now I have my little pamphlets about what it means to be a Christian and how will I know if I will be going to heaven so I am set!  ;-)  

Bleary-eyed, we got off the plane in Ramstein the next day.  It was a beautiful sunny day in Germany!  Ahhh... so good to be back!  We waited and waited in the customs briefing area where the gentleman told us, "No meat may be brought into Germany!"  Quickly, we all scarfed down the SlimJim sticks we had packed in the kids' snack bags.  No meat from America in Germany!  (I went to the Commissary on base the next day and what did I find?  Slim Jims.)  
We gathered our luggage and found our welcoming party.  Thank you Treva for all the wonderful goodies you brought us.  Never has brotchen tasted, oh, so good!  J.R., the current commander, also was there to greet us.  We found our shuttle driver and he loaded us up and we got on our way.  The shuttle driver looked at me and said, "You know, you look really familiar to me..."  As it turns out, he was one of my former students in the science class I taught 9 years ago.  What a small world!  It was really cool to talk to him and find out what had been happening in his life in the years since.  I love hearing about former students. 

On base, we are currently living in TLF (temporary lodging facility) which is an apartment that used to be part of base housing.  It has four bedrooms and a washer and dryer and a kitchen so we are set!  One of the sweetest things waiting for us in our room was a welcome basket from the squadron.  It had all kinds of goodies in it and was really touching.  That is yet another kindness that we will not forget.  :)  Ellie loves the apartment!  Wow!  Look at this apartment, don't you love this apartment?  I think this apartment is so cute!  We should live in an apartment!  When I grow up, I want to live in an apartment!... that's our girl!  :)

Now we are just getting settled in.  The kids are enrolled in school and they have some pretty great teachers.  Already, I think they are fitting in.  I love military kids!  We found a house to live in a little village off base but it won't be ready until mid-June so we will just have to live in TLF until then.  That's okay since our furniture won't be here until then anyway. 

It is so good to be back in Germany!  It is almost as if we never left.  Some things are different around base but still so much the same.  We are so excited about our newest adventure... stay tuned for more to come!