Sorry, no pictures. Just a stinkin update.

We have been in our house for two weeks now, and still do not have the internet. This means no online banking (the only way we do things), no blogs, no email checking for sometimes IMPORTANT information, no google, and no calling home because our skype phone connects over the internet. Such a pain in the butt. We are "supposed" to have it connected by this Friday (we were told the same thing about this past wednesday, so we'll see). Anyways, I'm here at the airman and family readiness center writing this just to feel connected with the rest of the world. Other than the whole internet thing, everything here is going really well. We totally unpacked (one box left in the bathroom), Hallie started preschool today (I'm so interested to see what she thought about it when I pick her up...they are only going to be speaking German to her), I'm just starting with a group called "Mama Hawks" where you go to the Gym on base three mornings a week and work out and people watch your kids for you. YOu have to volunteer a few times a month to do the watching of kids, but totally worth it. Time to firm up this post two babies body. :) We are planning a trip to Autstria right before Christmas to see where Matt served his mission, go snow boarding, and take the sound of music tour. Who knows what else we'll do there. We might even hit up Paris somewhere between now and Jan 2. Anyways, I'm rambling. Life here is really good. It would have been a way harder move if we had not done it with the military. There are so many American wife groups and what not that we have been able to meet people and make friends very quickly. Oh Yeah! almost forgot, Matt and I made a salon out of an empty room downstairs and it's SOOO cute. I'll take pics and post them when we get the stinkin internet.

Pretty Pictures

St. Martin's Day

Google it. It's a fun holiday here where the kids all have lit up paper lanterns and we walk through the streets in a parade then get bags of homemade bread at the end of the parade. The kids had a blast, EVERYONE in the town was there. It was really cool.

Hallie and Chase in their winter gear

Hallie's paper lantern

Matt and Chase Posing for the camera.

Sorry I haven't had more pics of Germany itself, things here have been so crazy trying to get our lives set up here that taking pictures have kind of been the last thing on my mind. I have to go and take my driving test for my German drivers license today (i failed mine in the USA twice, don't even want to imagine how many times I'm going to have to take this one). We're moving in to our new house on Monday (HOORAY for being out of the guest house). We need to get Dr's check ups for preschool, immunization records from our last base, leases drawn up, refrigerator and washer and dryer ordered, buy rugs, etc. We still have SOOOO much to do. But I promise I'll get more pics up ASAP.

Getting into the groove

How cool is this? There is stuff like this all over this area. All the churches bury their priests on the church grounds. Some of these are hundreds and hundreds of years old. Amazing to see just walking down the street to the bakery (bakerys are everywhere...the most delicious food imaginable).
So we're really starting to get things moving along here. We have a house that we get to move into a week from this monday. Our furniture and all of our other stuff that got shipped from Florida will get moved in that day also. We picked up our car on Thursday so it's also really nice to have our independence back. I'm going to start looking to German PreSchools on Monday for Hallie. I figure that her best bet of really enjoying our time here, is if she can speak the language. From what I understand, she is the perfect age for learning a second language and the best way for her to learn it is through play with other children. I bet she will come home very confused for the first few weeks, then she'll come home speaking German to me and I'LL be the one who is confused. :)
The jet lag is still a problem. We are so stinkin tired all the time. I have a feeling it will get a lot better when we are in our own house, with our own stuff, and our own rooms.
That's all for now, we're headed off to a Bazaar on the base....we need rugs for our new house BIG TIME. They tile everything here.....

We can't seem to sleep right, and we're really cold. But we love it here!

This is Hallie modeling one of her winter hats that I bought for her right after we found out that we were going to be moving to Germany. Such a fashionista. So we made it here on Sunday morning (late saturday night for most of you in the states) and it was 9am by the time we got to the guest house that we are staying at. The problem here was this, 9am in Germany is midnight in California. Soooo, we were VERY tired. We immediately went to bed and all slept for 8 hours, waking up at 6 pm Germany time. I'm sure you see the prolem. For 3 days now we've been trying to beat the jet lag with little success. Hallie and Matt both woke up at 3 in the morning last night and were just done sleeping. So they hung out together, which equaled 5 hour long naps for everyone this afternoon. ANYWAYS...no idea how correct it, hopefully it will just fix itself soon enough.
On to the next subject, we found a house! It only took two days and we are really excited about it. Originally we thought we wanted an older, historical-ish, house with some history. Well, those are VERY strange inside with weird agles, narrow steep stairs, lots of weird rooms, and scary sellars that were used during war time. They also have a lot of houses that are heated with oil heating that you have maintain and get filled once a year, also a pain. So we found a brand new house and we will be the first people ever to live there. It's really nice (we're talking heated towel racks nice) and actually has screens on the windows and doors (VERY rare out here). Apparently, new houses are also very rare out here...so we got really lucky. We have four bedrooms (that means one HUGE guest bedroom people! Start planning your trips out to visit us) and absolutely NO closets. Euporeans don't build closets in the bedrooms, so we have to get wardrobes for our clothes. We have a great backyard and horses in a pasture right around the corner (Hallie will be in HEAVEN). We are going to meet with the landlord tomorrow to pick out what colors we want the inside painted and sign the contract. So as far as housing goes, things are working out beautifully.
Did I mention how gorgeous it is here? I want to take pictures of everything. Every building, every field, every old woman riding her bike, every cute village. I love it all. So get ready for lots of scenery pics people.


You are probably wondering about his guy. I almost died laughing when I saw this. In Germany when people turn 50 their family will put a manikin on the front lawn that they feel is a good depiction of the actualy person. You can't see it very well, but this man is standing on a toilet, so it is safe to bet that he is a plummer in real life. They even put this canope up over the dummy to protect him from the rain. They do this EVERY time someone turns 50. How funny is that? I'm going to love it here....