Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was very army-ish.  It wasn't bad at all & honestly, I'm kind of glad it happened the way it did because it absolutely sums up our life right now. It is a really ususual, but fun memory. 

We are, as you know, living in a hotel in Germany while we wait for our new awesome apartment to get finished (only about a week left of waiting!).  In our room there is only a microwave & a mini fridge, but our friend's room has an actual stove.  I guess a dog trumps a baby in determining who gets the penthouse :)  We were originally going to spend Turkey Day in Prague, but at the last minute changed or minds & our friends invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner in their room.  We brought a pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream, some wine, & bread (all bought of course!).  They provided turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, gravy, & bread as well.  It was sooooo yummy!  Baby Girl had sweet potatoes for the first time & loved them (later, she threw them up, but she loved them at first).  She wore her "First Thanksgiving" bib & was decked out in her cute fall clothes :)  It is such a fun memory!  After we fed Baby Girl we put her on the bed & let her play while we enjoyed our adult meal.  She was perfect!  Just played by herself while we ate.  We had such a good time. 

The next morning, we caught a train to Prague which was amazing as ever.  We just love that city!  It was different being there with a baby, but she was, once again, perfect!  We stayed right dowtown about a 5-minute walk from the Charles Bridge so when it was naptime we just went home & let her nap & then back out again.  We had delicious food, went to the Christmas market, had warm mulled wine, & roasted chestnuts while surrounded by Christmas lights & American Christmas carols!  It was amazing & I loved it.  It was COLD, but we all dressed appropriately & stayed comfortable.  We have this snowsuit for Baby Girl & it is hilarious.  We call her the "pink marshmellow" or the "toasted marshmellow" :)  It didn't matter how cold it got outside, when we took her out of that thing she was toasty warm! It's magical.  The only thing that got cold on her was her nose :) 




Note that this was the ONLY color they offered so although Pepto Bismal is not my favorite color, it was our only option.  I told Hubby I'm glad we have a girl because they seriously did not offer anything else at the PX.  But Baby Girl looks stinkin' adorable even in Pepto Bismal pink :)








Hat & coffee are a must!


A happy duo :)
Our favorite Eastern European candy!!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Sooo...last night

Last night Hubby & I fell asleep at 8pm & woke up at 4am wide awake! But guess who was still asleep?  Thank goodness that kid sleeps in.  I made some coffee (in the pitch dark of couse) & read while Hubby   watched Seinfeld..  Then we watched an alien movie that was on TV called "The Day the Earth Stood Still". 

It was unusual, but kind of fun! I felt like a teenager :)

Monday, November 22, 2010

Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Different Sort of Living

No, I'm not talking about the Germans, silly.  I'm talking about living out of a hotel room!  Different? Yes.  Awful?  Surprisingly, not really.

I don't know if it's God's Grace or my low maintenance, but it could be a lot worse. The biggest issue we have run across is Baby Girl sharing a room with us at bedtime.  She knows we are staying awake & she wants to hang out.  We didn't have any problems at my mom's or Hubby's mom's house.  I guess because I would take her into a dark room & sing a song to her & she would just be so sleepy.  Maybe back then she thought that I was going to go to sleep too, just in different room?  I don't know.  But, now, she looks over my shoulder at her daddy & smiles & waves (her lastest trick) & then when I lay her down, she cries.   She's very inconsistent with her crying.  She doesn't cry every night.  Night before last she went down without a peep.  But then last night she cried for like 10 minutes & that was after I had tried to comfort her about 3 times & she had stayed up 1-2 hours later than normal.  The good thing is that once she's down, she's down. She is back to sleeping between 10-12 hours a night.  Of course she still makes all kinds of baby noises that make me hold my breath because I think she's going to wake up.  Those of you who sleep with your baby or allow your baby to sleep in a basinette in your room or whatever, I seriously don't know how you do it!  Babies are loud sleepers!!

Another issue living in a hotel raises is it's amazing shrinking abilities.  Did you know that hotel rooms shrink?  I did not know that.  It's a phenomenon that only occurs if you live in one longer than a week.  It was plenty big a week & a half ago when we got here...but now?  Definitely shrinking.   There is one chair.  One wardrobe.  2 dressers thank goodness.  2 sinks (one for the bathroom & one for washing dishes).  It does, however, have the one main thing I cannot live without: a coffeepot.  Yes, yes, yes where there is coffee, I will be ok.  I even bought some "Seattle's Best" with a ration card!  Coffee is rationed along with gas, cigarettes, & hard liquor.  

The only other thing I miss is a bathtub.  Generally speaking, I do not take a lot of baths.  In fact, the only time I really take baths is when I'm freezing.  Which I was last night.  Baby Girl & Hubby were grizzly bear warm, but I could NOT get comfortable.  So, instead of taking a nice hot bath & drinking hot cocoa, I crawled under the covers & went to sleep.  Voila! An hour later, I was warm :)

To counteract the missing bathtub is our very friendly German housekeeper who is now my friend.  She loves Baby Girl so I love her.  That's how it works right?  You work your way into a woman's heart through her baby?  :)

And, of course, I have books.  Lots & lots of books.  That last sentence just makes me feel warm & fuzzy.

There is one sort of problem living in a hotel with your army husband & your infant.  It's called PT (physical training).  And it starts next week probably at 5:30 or 6.  OH NO.  Currently, Hubby leaves at 7:45 so it's no biggie if he wakes us up...which, coincidentally, he does every morning. I'm not sure if he is loud (but I think he is) or if the room is just too small to not hear him (maybe), but if Baby Girl starts waking up at 5:30 I am going to be one miserable momma.

We'll see.  But for now, I have coffee & I have Internet & I'm pretty happy!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Move Across The Pond

I thought giving birth was the hardest thing I would ever have to do.  Nope.  I would rather have 5 babies than try to repeat Sunday's events. 
AWFUL.

Let's recap.
At Hubby's parents', before leaving the airport, everything went pretty well.  My dad didn't eat, but that is normal when he is nervous.  We had to say good-bye to Bella, but that was expected.  At the airport, my parents, Hubby's parents, & Hubby's godmother all cried when we left to board the plane.  That was expected, but still very hard.  I almost cried, but held it together.

Then the real fun started. As we were going through security, we were informed that they had closed the gate.  Were we late?  No.  Were we dawdling?  No.  Apparantly at that particular airport it is ok to leave early if they feel like it.  Anyway, so we dont have our shoes on & our stuff is still being scanned & we have to grab everything & RUN!  We almost got left!  Were it not for Hubby's godmother coming to the rescue, we wouldn't have made it.  Stressful already!

The plane from WV to DC was teeny tiny & hot & noisy.  Of course Baby Girl didn't sleep; so Hubby made her bottle while I held her (BTW: I had to start supplementing my nursing with formula).   It just so happened that the can of formula we brought was brand new.  So when he popped the tab it exploded from the change in air pressure and he got coated in baby formula!  :-)  We just looked at each other and laughed.  It was kind of a stress reliever after rushing onto the plane.  At that point we were still laughing at the bumps in the road.

Then we got to DC & boarded a much nicer plane.  At this point, I still had hope.  The plane was laid out with 2 seats near a window, an aisle, 5 seats in the midde, an aisle, & then 2 more seats by a window.  The 3 of us got the 3 middle seats in the row of 5. YAY!!  (That was sarcasm in case you missed it).  So we were wedged in the middle seats.  Baby Girl wouldn't sleep.  Instead, right before dinner was served & right after everyone got their drinks she pooped!  A green nasty poop.  So I then asked the awkward foreign pre-teen next to me to please let me out.  She was compliant, but unfortunately spilled her apple juice.  Just on the tray though, so it's no crisis.  OK, has anyone ever changed a diaper in an airplane bathroom?  Not fun.  Not even alright.  It's actually a total drag.

However, we got through it & headed back to our seat.  Baby Girl was getting sleepy at this point so we put her in her carseat & gave her a bottle in hopes that she would sleep.  It worked for about 2 hours.  She woke up sweating like crazy! We had a carseat blanket thingy on the carseat & I guess it works really well! She was burning up in there poor baby.  It will come in handy for Germany at least.  Well, that was all the sleep she got.  We played with her for awhile & let her watch some TV (desperate times call for desperate measures).
 
Then we landed & were the last people off the plane & the last people to get our luggage.  We had to go wait in this holding area with all the other army families arriving in Germany.  They told us that there would be somebody along to brief us very soon and that we needed to stay in the waiting area.  No time for food or phone calls.  So we wait & wait & wait. Wait for the briefing, wait for orders, wait and wait for the bus.  Baby Girl still hasn't slept.

Three plus hours later we got on the bus.  Guess what Baby Girl did?  She pooped.  AGAIN! yay.  I had no more clothes in her diaper bag & the rest of our stuff was under the bus.  She pooped SO MUCH that it leaked through her clothes.  So we changed her & just wrapped her up in a blanket. Then a little later, Baby Girl lost her cool in a big, big way.  She SCREAMED her little heart out.  I felt so bad.  I felt bad for her because she was so exhausted & I felt bad for the entire rest of the bus trying to sleep.
 
Hubby finally calmed her down by standing in the aisle and singing to her till she fell asleep.  So she FINALLY took a nap.  When the bus stopped for McDonalds, we (ok, Hubby, not me) dug through her clothes under the bus to find something to wear.  Because of her nap she was in a good mood at this point, thank goodness.  About an hour later I realized that I was sitting on butt paste.  Yes, the tube of butt paste was under me and I got butt pasted.  It was not only all over me, but all over the seat and even on Hubby.  Great.  Then when we're cleaning up the mess, we ran out of wipes.  Great.

FINALLY, like 8 billion hours later, we arrived in the place where we are temporarily staying.  Luckily there was someone there to drive our stuff, but unluckily me & Hubby & Baby Girl had to walk 3 blocks in the cold to our hotel.  I know, it's not that far, but all 3 of us were so tired we could barely drag our feet.  And, THEN, when we got to the hotel we were talking to Hubby's sponsor and found out that Hubby has to go to the field for 3 months before he deploys.  Excellent.  I lost my marbles.  I just wanted to go back home so bad.
 
One last thing.  This actually put things in perspective for me.  When we called home from the hotel to let family know we made it safe I found out that a very close relation of mine has melanoma.  Suddenly, living in Germany didn't seem too bad after all. 
  
Now, we have orgainzed our hotel home & we're ok for awhile.  Hopefully, we will get an apartment before Thanksgiving & also meet some people soon!   

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Army life thoughts

As I am still trying to record our trip from America to Germany, this post is a fill-in.  Today I met some army wives & hung out with them.  They were very nice & helpful & talked about army life & details that I need to know.  I am thankful that they took the time to hang out with me & get to know me a little bit.  I had a good day.

But what I'm thinking is that maybe I am just not cut out for the army life.  In a way, I think that doesn't make sense because this is where God has me.  But in another way, I can't do everything well so maybe this is a temporary period in my life that will be a challenge.  I just don't like the army life.  I don't mind the hotel & I can deal with Chris being gone (not talking deployment here, I mean just gone for weekends or whatever), but I really don't like army bases.  I really don't like all the rigid structure of the army & how masculine it all feels.  I don't like how my husband has so very little freedom to do what he wants when he wants, etc.  I don't like the alcohol or the crude jokes.  I don't even like how because I am a wife (with a baby no less!) I get all this special treatment.  It makes me feel like a child. 

So maybe this isn't for me.  I mean, it is for now because it has to be, but maybe we are just supposed to do the 4-year thing & then God will take us somewhere else.  I sure hope so! Today, the girls showed me their neighborhood & I thought "this is nice housing, but I don't know that I would want to live here".  It's ALL army families.  It's like a cult or something.  I think it's a great theory-put people together that are dealing with the same things.  Great theory, but not for me.  I want my family & I want my best friends.  Am I wrong?  I want to be with people who are different than me.  I am still jet-lagged so I may be doing a poor job of explaining things, but I want diversity.  I don't want to be surrounded by friggin' army everything!!

I really miss home right now so I probably have a bad attitude.  I just wish the 3 of us could go home & settle down near our friends & family.  I want to have another baby & not worry about deployment.  I want my dog & my cat to be able to live with us.  I miss everyone so much.  Things will get better. 

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Up late packing

Holy. Guacamole. 

Packing up our life.  Again.  It's like that Tim McGraw chorus "over & over again"...

When will the madness stop?????? 
I am so so lucky I am married to a man who takes responsibility for me & our baby daughter.  It is midnight fifteen here & he is packing, packing, packing.  I would help him (and I am when he asks me to) but he is by far the best packer I know.  He is fitting a lot of life into our luggage :) 


So far, army life has been major crap.  So far, it is totally not my thing.  But I remind myself that this is what God has chosen for me during this season of life so I guess it is my thing!  This is my army life as far as living situations go (as best we can tell...it may change):

1 year-ROTC
6 months-BOLC
6 months-overseas
1 year-back to the states
6 months-back overseas
6 months-captain's career course (back in the states)

Friggin' ridiculous if you ask me.  Not that anyone is or anything.  *sigh*

We are leaving very shortly to go to Europe.  I think I will like it once we get over there.  It is kind of a bummer that I will only be there for about 6 months (nothing is in stone yet).  It's like I want my life to be somewhere-either here or there.  Traveling overseas for half of a year with an infant is a DRAG!  Of course, Hubby is worth it.  OF COURSE!  I would never choose to be apart from him just for convenience sake.  I hope Baby Girl adjusts ok to the time change.  We will be uber-dependant on God those first few days with her schedule plus finding an apartment, etc. 

I am so tired that this post may not even be making sense! I will probably read it tomorrow & see how it is total gibberish :)

On another front, we are hopefully going to be getting pregnant sometime in the next year!  It is so funny because with our first we were super secretive about it & now we are announcing it to the world.  Funny how things change.  If we do get pregnant, then we would have 2 babies & I love the thought of that!  We would have a little baby & a big baby.  Baby Girl will always be my baby though!  Of course, God may have other plans for us.  Only time will tell!!