Moving In Tomorrow

Finally tomorrow we get to move into our new house. It will be so exciting to get out of this hotel. We have been eating fast food for every meal. Just switching between McDonalds, Burger King, Subway and Popeyes, so it will be nice to finally eat a home cooked meal.

Today I finally got some sun, actually a little too much sun. I am sure I am going to be pretty red tomorrow morning. I layed out at our house because we had to wait for them to deliver our rental furniture. That pretty much took up most of our day. But besides that we went to the fair on base. It was ok, nothing special.

Might be out of touch for a few days because I don't know when our internet is getting hooked up at our house, but as soon as I can I will write and let you know how things are going.

Fair Time

There is a huge fair going on right now on base for the Americans and they let the Germans on base for the fair too. It is a lot larger then Father Hennipen Days, so I am pretty excited to go to it. We are planning on going to it tomorrow night and hopefully meet up with another couple from David's work. Then, sometime this weekend head out to Ramstein to meet up with Blue to go to there 4th of July fair. I am sure that fair will be just huge.

Tomorrow morning we have to go and sit at our house and wait for them to drop off our rental furniture. They don't give us a time, they just say be there all day. Then, on the 11th they will be back to hook up our washer, dryer and dishwasher. It is so nice that you are able to borrow these appilances from the military or we would have to buy 220 appilances we would only use for 3 years.

Good News

I finally took my drivers test this morning and YEAHHHHH... I passed!! I was scared to take it when David took his because I didn't think I was ready; so I study a little more and passed it with no problems! Now I am a legal driver in Germany.

In other good news, we heard back from our insurance company about David's bike and they are going to give him the replacement cost for his bike. That made David's day.

Tomorrow is David's first day of work. I will probably just hang out at the hotel and maybe do some sun tanning.

There's A Thief In Town

Last night David's bike got stollen. Not just any old 10 speed bike, but a $1500 bike. So David has been pretty bummed all morning. And David just had met some friends that were mountain bikers and he was going to go mountain biking with them this week.

The guys David just met invited him and I to go skateboarding and BBQ. It was a lot of fun and have a chance for me to meet some new people.

Met Up With Some Friends

This weekend we explored some more around Germany. We also got ahold of Blue because he is stationed in Ramstein, Germany. It was about a 40 minute drive for us to meet him and his family. They took us to a really nice restuarant by there hotel. They also found a house, but haven't moved in yet. They have been staying in a hotel for about 3 weeks now. We are hoping to be out of our hotel by the end of next week.

Today we went for a small hike to find a mountain bike trail for David. The weather here has been so nice, it is great to be outside. And we finally found a laundry mat, it has been a long time since we were able to do our laundry.

Loving Germany

We have been super busy since we have gotten to Germany. This base is so huge we have had to find where everything is. It has been really nice to have had our car right away, I don't know how people get all there inprocessing done on this huge base with out a car.

We are still living in the hotel. And we are hoping to be in our house the 29th of June, but we will know for sure on Monday. Our landlord is putting a kitchen in for us since there wasn't one in the house. Most Germans take there kitchen with them when they move. So we got lucky that she said she would put on in for us. Hopefully they put a complete kitchen in, because right now it is completely empty...no cabinets, counters, sink, fridge...nothing. We also have to get a washer and dryer. But the military will loan you some appliances because we wouldn't want to buy anything because everything is 22o volt and wouldn't work in the states.

David started to learn some German. He bought some software from the PX. Hopefully, I will start to learn it this coming week. It seems a lot easier then Turkish or Icelandic.

The 1st One We Looked At

We found a house!!

The house is so cute and beautiful! It was just what we were looking for. It has 4 bedrooms, wood floors, fireplace, nice backyard with a garden, and 2 bathrooms. The house is also in the cutest neighborhood and our landlord is really nice and speaks really good english.

Tomorrow we are going to sign the papers for the house and hopefully move in before the 1st.

Germany...

We have been staying in a hotel across from the base where David will be working. It is a pretty nice hotel and the plus is that we get breakfast every morning and they also clean our room for us. Mannheim is a huge base! It is like a bunch of smaller bases put into one. We are definitally not use to such a huge base. But it is going to be nice to have everything we need finally. And I was really excited to see they have an IKEA right outside the gate. Also, at Ramstein (the base about an hour away) they are putting an Old Navy and a Sears right on base. So that is just going to be wonderful for us.

Tomorrow morning we are going to start house hunting. We are hoping to find a house right between Mannheim and Ramstein. Also, tomorrow morning David and I both have to take a written drivers test so we can drive here in Germany. We had the class this afternoon and we have been studying all night. David isn't too worried, but all these new laws seem a little hard for me.

The weather is great! So both of us are happy!

Journey to Germany

Arriving in Germany was wonderful! It was so green and the weather is beautiful! And everyone is so nice to us. David found out that our jeep is governed at only 105 mph on the autobon. Cars were passing us when we were going 1oo mph, I am sure they were going around 120. We found a hotel in Kassel. The first hotel we tried to stay at had the Mexico soccer team staying at it. We thought it was going to be hard to find a hotel with the World Cup going on here, but the 2nd hotel we tried we got a room. Today we will get to Mannheim and hopefully tomorrow start to look for a house.

We're in Denmark

Our journey to Germany started Wednesday (14 June) morning. We got up pretty early so we could have breakfast with one of David’s friends so he could say good-bye to him. On Tuesday night, we said our good-byes to our other good friends. It was pretty hard. Of course I was crying. But we know we will stay in touch with all of them.

After breakfast we put the last few things in the jeep and picked up the house. We wanted to be on the road by 10:00, but we got a late start, we weren’t on the road until 11 something. It was raining and super windy the whole day we drove. I tried to read some of the magazines I brought, but it made me get car sick really bad. So basically I just tried to relax the whole car ride.

We did get to see a lot of animals on our drive to the ferry. There were tons of sheep and they had just had babies. Everywhere you looked you would see a mama sheep and its little baby sheep right after it. And they liked to hang out in the road, so David had to be very careful driving. We also saw a group of caribou. When David saw them he almost died of excitement! They were so close to the road. He got out of the jeep with his video camera to try to get video of the caribou; it was like he was on National Geographic. We also stopped at Glacier Bay. That was such a neat sight! We got to see all these huge glaciers. There we got to see seals. I was pretty excited about seeing the seals so close. I wished we would have had a nicer day because maybe then the seals would have been hanging out of the water more.

We couldn’t make the drive to the ferry in one day. We drove for about 7 hours before we got to our hotel. It was pretty nice, but our room was small. The next morning we had to get up very early because we had to be to the ferry by 10:00. The ferry is a lot nicer then I had expected it to be. Our room is very small. Two twin beds and a very small bathroom is all that fits in our room. We are on the 8th floor, so it gets pretty rocky up here. I didn’t think I got sea sick, but I was wrong. I started feeling pretty sick yesterday after being on here a few hours. Thank goodness they had some motion sickness pills you could buy. There is a lot to do on the ferry though. There are about 5 different places to eat, gym, pool, casino, shopping, bars, dance club and they have schedule set up for actives during the day. Yesterday (Thursday) we really didn’t do much, but eat because I was feeling sick and today I am just taking it easy. I am scared to stand up because the boat is moving a lot today.

The first stop the ferry made was at the Faroe Island, at 5am, to pick –up and drop-off more people. Then, we stopped in Ireland. From what we got to see of Ireland from the ferry, Ireland looks really beautiful.

Arriving in Denmark today was amazing! The weather was perfect and everything was so green. I was also so glad to get off the ferry. The last day on the ferry wasn't so bad though because the ocean waves had calmed down a lot. We drove for about 3 hours today and stopped at a McDonalds to eat. It took us a little while to find a hotel, but it was worth the extra time because the room we got is nice. And we needed the nice and extra big room because we have been cramed up in our shoe box size of a room for 3 days.

Tomorrow we are going to get up early and hope to make it to Germany. We have been taking a lot of pictures, so I will get them up soon.

Also, Happy Father's Day Dad! I love and miss you!

And David Happy Anniversary! I love you!

Out to Eat

My friend Misty surprised me today by taking my out for lunch so we could spend sometime together before I leave. It was so nice of her. It was fun to go out to eat because David and I have been so busy with packing and getting ready to leave on Wednesday. We have made such good friends here in Iceland it is going to be really hard to say good-bye to them.

The Plans

Our house is pretty empty now, all that is left is the few things that we are packing in our jeep for the ferry ride to Germany. We will be leaving Wednesday morning and heading to the other side of Iceland to Glacier Bay and spending the night there. Thurday morning we will get up really early and drive another 4 hours to get to the ferry. We should be on the ferry for about 3 days before arriving in Denmark. We heard the drive through Denmark is really easy. We should arrive in Germany on the 20th or the 21st. We already have a place to stay on base in Germany while we look for a house, so we don't have to worry about that. I will try to keep you updated as much as I can as we travel. But I am sure it will be hard to get internet service.

Saw the Divinci Code on Friday night. David and I both thought it was a good movie...The base threatre was packed. I swear everyone on base went to see that movie.

Tonight we are going over to our friend's house for dinner.

It's A Good Day

My day couldn't be going better.

First, the movers got here early this morning...actually on time and with only 2 hours in they are pretty much done. By the time I get home from work everything will be gone and there will be rental furniture there instead.

Second, when I went to turn in our DSL hook-up, the internet lady refunded me $46.00. I am not sure why, but I wasn't going to question why she was giving me money back.

And finally the best part of my day, it is my last day at my job!!

Change of Plans

Early this morning we got a call with great news saying that our pack out date had been changed to tomorrow. How great is that? The movers are just going to love us because we already have most of our stuff already packed up because we thought we were going to have to leave all of our stuff behind us for our July pack out. I guess they squeezed us in because David didn't complain when we were given a July pack out because David knew they were doing there best to get everyone in before there departure date. So tonight we just have to finish deciding one what we want to bring in the car with us and we will be all set. I am sure it will be a late night, but it will be worth it to get our stuff packed out tomorrow.

1 More Week In Iceland

Well we only have 1 more week left here in Iceland. I am sure our last week here will fly by, we have so much to do and we still want to spend some time with our friends before we have to leave them. Of course it will be hard to say good bye, but that is just apart of military life. At the end of June we would have lived in Iceland for a year. When I look back it actually went by pretty fast. We met so many good friends that I am sure we will stay in contact with for the rest of our lives. Even though Iceland wasn't our dream spot to be stationed at, atleast we got to say we lived in Iceland, not many people get to say that.

Last Week

Just got into work and I am pretty excited because it is my last week of work. Hopefully it will go by fast and smoothly. I actually had to get up pretty earlly this morning because I had to go with David to this briefing. It was pretty boring and pretty pointless. We were both hoping we could get more done there, but ended up getting a lot done after the briefing, like picking up all of our medical records and even a little stop for shopping.

We finally heard that my medical clearance was approved this morning, which is good news and one less worry.

It has been raining here all morning and it was cloudy pretty much all weekend. I am guessing it has been in the high 40's...I know JohnPaul....Nothing compaired to your light wind, blue skies, no clouds, 85 degree....Perfect Day!

Graduation Day

Today is my brother's graduation ceremony. I still can't believe he is done with High School and out living on his own. He had his graduation party yesterday. I was able to talk to him for a bit yesterday and tell him we wish we were able to be home to celebrate with him. I am so proud of him!

This afternoon we started to pack up some of our stuff. We actually got pretty far.

Congratulations John....We Love You!

Pack-Out

David finally got his orders yesterday, but I still haven't been medically cleared. They just put some sort of note on his orders saying it was ok for me to travel with him to Germany. They figured I would get medically cleared for Germany because if I got cleared for here and Turkey they were sure there would be no problem for me to get cleared for Germany. And why hold up David's orders for this small thing.

We got our pack out date this morning and it isn't until July 2nd or 3rd...I can't remember. Anyways, it isn't until a couple weeks until after we have already left. That is a bummer! We were really hoping they would pull some strings and get us packed out before we left. So this morning David had to get Power of Attorney for our friends so they will be able to be there while the movers pack us out.

We are going to try and have most of our stuff already packed up so the movers can be in and out and so our friends don't have to worry about much because they are also going to be packed out at the same time as us. Once you have a pack out date you can go pick up boxes from the moving company so that is what David did this afternoon. This was David's last day at work today so all next week he is going to start packing up our stuff while I am at work.

Daylight All Day

Here are some pictures I took this past weekend of what it looks like at night around here. June is when we have the most daylight. I believe in the summer months we add 6 minutes of daylight each day, so by the end of June it will be 3am and looking like my 11 pm picture. It is really hard to fall asleep or even get tired. 9 pm
11 pm
Midnight