We're moving in - and up

We got our household goods on Friday and spent Saturday driving around looking for a couch and another table. See the movers lost one of our couch cushions, so we need a new couch - oh and they tore the back and side of the couch worse than it already was. Also, to their credit, they bent the legs and scratched up my Great-Grandfather's dresser, then they gouged, scuffed and scratched up my Uncle Ron's Cradle (one of my most prozed posessions). Today we found a box and when I opened it I found a previously unopened box of Computer software. It had been torn open and the software was gone, in its place was a bunch of junk from a drawer we had in the kitchen - nice. The door of our entertainment center is bent, the TV has a crack on the housing portion of it, my cedar chest is scraped up, we are missing pieces of Ceilidha's toy box and some of our books are bent out of shape - and we've only opened up half the boxes. I know we will get reimbursed for it all, but knowing the Army, it will take a stack of paperwork 6 inches high and 18 months to get it done.

The good news is that last night we checked out of our Temporary living facility and last night was the first night we spent in the new house. It isn't bad if you don't mind being extremely cold, listening to a church bell ring for 2 straight minutes every 15 minutes - oh, and we live right under a flight path, so planes fly a few hundred feet over our roof as they get ready to land at Ramstein. Oh, and did I mention the ceilings before - or the fact that they don't have shelves, cupboards, drawers, closets or pantrys? I'm sure I did.

Joe is in an EMT refresher course this week, so it is up to Ceilidha and I to get things unpacked - and with Ceilidha's help I think in the next month we will have it done. Without her help we may have it done in a week or two!

For those of you who don't know the Oakley Valley Art's Council is putting on "West Side Story" and my sister Lisa is playing one of the leads - She is "Anita" and Ian, my little Bro, is playing a gangster named "A-Rab." They are both going great and opening night is this week and the play will run for 3 weeks I think. So, if anyone of you happen to be around Oakley, Idaho and want to see my family in an AWSOME play - showtimes are at 8 p.m., so check them out. And Good Luck Lisa and Ian!!!

One month in, two countries down

My friend Shalene, from Georgia, sent me a link to her blog and I liked it so much I decided to make one for myself. This way I can put blogs up about all our adventures and post photos for everyone to take a look at.

We have been in Germany for just over a month now and things have been crazy. We are still living in a temporary lodging facility (TLF) for now and it isn't so great. It is a one bedroom, basement apartment with a fridge the size of a cooler. We have been fighting to get our pay situation straightened out, but that seems to happen alot when you PCS - even in the states.

On Friday we plan to move into housing for the next four years. It is a 4 BRM house in Huechenhausen, a little town about 10 miles from Joe's work. The problem is these houses don't have closets, so they give you portable ones, like the walmart wardrobes. That isn't so bad, but are in the top floor of a house, and the houses here have extremely pitched roofs and they have rooms in the attic area, so you have no wall space. There isn't any room to put up our canopy bed because it won't fit due to the pitch of the roof. - at least there is a lot of floor space. Here they don't have kitchens like we do back home. They have portable kitchens and you can buy a kitchen at the local hardware store - like a Home depot. They are particle board and you just buy the cupboards and assemble them, they get yourself a stove and oven (which are about half the size of american ovens - can't put a large cookie sheet in it or any pan larger than 9x13). The army has to give us refridgerators because they don't really have them here, they are just small ice boxes.

Anyway, aside from housing we have had some fun adventures.

Last week I was hanging out with my cousin and his wife and we thought - Hey, the Olympics are only 7 hours away, let's go to Torino - and we did!

The guys had a 4-day weekend, so we went to Torino and Milan, Italy and then went sightseeing through Switzerland on the way back. We saw a medal's ceremony in the heart of Torino and went to see the Olympic torch and then had some Pizza. Oh, the the pizza in Italy is definately -- well -- unique! They had hotdog and french fry pizza. That is right, hotdog slices in cheese topped with french fries. We also got a green pepper and artichoke pizza when the guys asked for pepperoni.

We saw some great places in Milan, Italy and even saw a bunch of transvestite dancers putting on a show in the town square, in front of a 900 year old castle. That was unique.

In Switzerland we ate tons of chocolate and pasteries and got to see some of the neatest midevil castles. On, and it snowed 18 inches of wet sloppy snow overnight, so we were visiting castles in shin-deep snow. It was awsome - not a single tourist in sight!

We really had a lot of fun, and next month we are planning a trip to Berlin and in May I am gonna get Joe to take me to either Paris or Prague for my birthday!