Truce?

Hi,  I'm Kami, and I write this blog.  Kind of.  Not really.  

I have good intentions, I swear.  Some of the stuff I think to write about.... I think, "Well, that isn't exactly appropriate for some family to read." or whatever the case may be.  A lot of ideas come to me about writing while I am laying in bed at night, and by the next morning, poof.  They're gone.

So, take it or leave it. ;)  We are in and settled to our apartment, and are much much happier.  Bryant has a 15 minute commute, instead of an hour commute.  We see him SO much more, and we are all happier about that. I feel like I have a husband again, and don't feel like I am going to go off the deep end on a daily basis.  And locking myself out of the house isn't such a big deal now. HA!  

Do you all realize that it's November?  MID November?  We, the Hines' have been in Germany almost a year.  Can you believe this?  The year has honestly went so incredibly fast I can't even believe it.  I am finally starting to make some friends and settle in.  We are starting to get out more and travel, and things are starting to get better.  Although, I think in the next few blogs I will go ahead and write a little more in depth about Germany, the Germans, and the views of people around here.  It's very interesting.  

So as for Bryant- his deployment got pushed, and as of now, it looks as if he will deploy to the same location around the April time frame.  His job has been pretty tough on him, as a lot of people are lower ranking, and needing babysitting basically. They don't seem to want to work, and therefore are needing hounded constantly to get their job done.  A lot of late nights have been spent so he does not have to work weekends.  Hopefully things will start changing here soon for him.

I am still doing my normal mommy thing.  Cook.  Clean. Run errands.  Clean, Cook, repeat.  ;)  I am able to do a lot more though during the day with Austin in school so that really has been nice.  And I am working on putting together a photography business over here, and after the new year I am thinking about getting my German Business License so I can legally operate in the country. We will see how things go, but that's my plan right now.  I am also making a few cakes here and there, and really loving it.  It's fun, frustrating, but the end result is always satisfying and I love that.

Austin.  He just makes me smile.  He is doing incredibly fantastic in school.  I can't even convey to you how well he is doing.  He love love love LOVES school.  Every day he's excited.  Excited for school, and excited to learn.  We just today had his parent teacher conference, and his teacher sang nothing but praises for him.  She is so impressed with his ability.  So much so, that she impressed me just talking about him.  She said he is excelling in every single subject that they do.  He's writing his numbers well.  He is the only one that she lets write the number of days they've been in school on the board because he's the only one that can write his numbers well enough to read consistently.  He's moving up to the next reading level.  He's doing advanced patterns, and creating advanced patterns, on his own, without any prompting.  They were given a sheet with 7 lines.  Each line had heart shapes going across.  They were to color in a pattern.  His teacher said that most kids stuck to an ABABABAB pattern, meaning they just did like, red/blue/red/blue/red/blue.  All the way down the page, just changing the color combos.  On Austin's sheet she showed us, every line, he had a different pattern, none of them being an AB pattern.  All of them were, say, aabbc/aabbc/aabbc  and another was abcd/abcd/abcd, and another was abccd/abccd/abccd.  She said that is very impressive for a kid his age.  They have a literacy chart that they have to do every day during reading.  They recite every letter of the alphabet, and what sound each letter makes.  So if a letter makes 2 sounds, they have to make those sounds before they continue to the next letter.  Austin recited the entire chart to us, with only two areas of help.  When he was finished, his teacher told us that no other child in the class could do that.  That most kids get to maybe 6 or 7 of the letters and then can go no further.  And Austin did the ENTIRE alphabet.  Prodigy.  He's a freakin prodigy.  hahaha!!  Ok, so obviously I am incredibly proud of him!!!!  
                Other than school, he just finished up soccer a few weeks ago, and is signed up now for BASKETBALL BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH BOY!  I about jumped out of my skin when he said yes I was so excited!  He is still VERY MUCH into Star Wars, as he told his teacher today, "I don't know what to tell you, I'm just addicted."  HA, that's my boy.

SYDNEY.  Cute.as.a.button.  HELL ON WHEELS.  And I am not even kidding.  She is everything you could think of...spitfire, fire cracker, whatever- she's nuts.  I got dealt a hand with her.  She tries me, and tests me, and pushes my buttons every second of every day.  She can really be sweet as pie, but when she's done, she's literally done.  And she will let you know.  She growls constantly. (Usually when you tell her No, or not to do something she shouldn't be doing, which is constantly, haha)  Has the highest pitched scream I've ever heard- or maybe it's a squeal? She does it mostly when she's pestering her brother, (which she loves to do, and does relentlessly) or when she's playing.  Her absolute favorite thing is painting.  She LOVES LOVES painting.  So much so in fact, that about 30 minutes ago I just finished mopping up the floor because she had splattered it all over the dining room floor (thank god for hardwoods) and table.  She loves drawing circles too.  And I will tell you what, she's incredibly serious about them.  I have never seen a little girl focus so hard in my life.  She gets her face about half an inch from the paper, but I'll be damned if it's almost a perfect circle and those lines meet up every.single.time!  She also has an odd love for all things tiny.  ANYTHING tiny.  A tiny toy.  A tiny rock.  A tiny piece of rice.  She holds it carefully in her hand like it's a newborn and so sweetly says, "Awww, look how caaaauuuuuutttteee it is!!!!!"  And then is completely devastated when she loses it 10 minutes later.

So a couple fun things.  

I go to Paris, France on Saturday for a day trip with a few girlfriends! WHAT?!?!  I am so over the moon excited!!  

Another- we are traveling to the Bavarian Alps-Garmish, Germany for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  WHO CAN SAY THAT?!  

We are SO blessed.  

Life is good.

xoxoxo,
k.

Wordless Wednesday

It's Just Funny

It Will Be Good

The housing list hasn't come out yet for the last of the month yet. It may or may not be driving me insane.

However, what I have been finding as a hassle, something came over me.

A little prayer can go a long ways... What I saw as something moving so slow (in reality it's only been a few weeks) I have been able to stop and think. Think about things that I will truly miss about living here. And also about things I am very much looking forward to by moving on base.

What are my thoughts, you ask?

Things I will miss:
• walking out my back door to TRUE Germany.
• the space. While its a PIA to clean, it is nice to have room to put stuff.
• the heated floors.
• the rolladens. If we get a town home, they come with. Stairwells do not.
• the master closet. It's huge. So huge in fact that I don't even use any of my space in either of our two dressers.
• the church bells that ring daily in our village.

Things I am looking forward to:
• being on base (commissary, bx, friends, etc)
•English speaking people
• closets for the kids
• smaller space to clean. You might laugh but these days my back can only take so much.
• seeing more of my husband. And the kids their daddy.
• friends for the kids with no language barrier.
• less money spent on gas.
• a better overall mood for myself and Bryant
• no stress about having to unplug every single appliance right after each use.
• not having to use a transformer to run our tv!!
• a bigger kitchen!

So obviously those aren't all the Pros of on base living but its a pretty good list. So in the end we know that moving (again) will be a good thing for us.

Xoxo.
k

Gloomy

It's been gloomy for about a week now.  It sure doesn't feel like spring.... but I guess it is.  That's what they say anyway.  It rained for 3 days straight, and yesterday it POURED all day long.  I feel like I live in Seattle, or Eugene or something!  I mean, I thought we moved to Germany, but maybe not? And as I type this, the first day that it hasn't rained a lick, it just opened up and started pouring again.

Austin's T-Ball practice got canceled on Monday because of the rain.  We were both pretty bummed.  I was so excited to take pictures of him and watch him learn and laugh.  I hope that next Monday won't be rained out. 

Things are kind of a stand-still around here as we wait for a house on base.  We have stopped unpacking things, and are just waiting for something to open up for us.  We don't really think we should continue to unpack if we are just going to move again.  It would be a lot of work for basically nothing.  I will admit though that I hate still seeing these boxes, but at least we feel somewhat settled now that we have "our" things.  We moved up 6 spaces on the housing list in 1 week, so hopefully this process will move quickly.  They publish the list online only twice per month, so I will know again next Monday where we stand.  Hopefully a lot closer to the top!

Anyhow, I really don't have much to yak about, but figured it would be nice to start writing a little more for a change.  See ya'll soon!

xoxo
k.

Easter Success

We had a great Easter this year.  It was our first real Holiday away from home, and it was a little tough for me.  I spent the day before making all sorts of goodies, and kept finding myself wishing that I was with my mom baking. 

The kids loved that the Easter Bunny came and left them each a small gift- a game for Austin and a movie for Sydney along with some chocolate.  Austin then got a haircut and we all got ready and headed off to the Hammonds for Easter. 

We had to many snack foods that we were all stuffed before dinner was even ready.  It was an awesome time- the kids had a BLAST playing with all the other kids, and hunting their eggs. 

We are so thankful that we have friends here to spend holidays with- it makes being away so so much easier!

We got home a little later than anticipated, and went to call family, and of course our phone was dead- go figure!  I did get to Skype with my mom and dad, so I went to bed with a smile on my face.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!!

 Sydney opening her Easter gift

 Austin excited for a new DS game

 Snack snack snacking!! 

 Austin coloring Easter eggs!

 Sydney coloring her eggs--- Notice her hands!

 Proud Austin =)

 She's so silly!

 Daddy and Sydney

 She obviously thought that using utensils for eggs was over rated.  Hands work better!

 All the kiddos getting ready to go hunt eggs!

 This is the best I could get from them =)  They are

so adorable!

xoxo
k.

Ostermarket fun.... or not

Soooo today, the fam gathered up and went to the next village over for the Ostermarket.  Which just means Easter Market.  I was pretty excited to go see all the neat things, and buy a couple cutsie German Easter things.  Not the case!  There was a total of ONE Easter themed booth!! The rest were tents and tents full of clothes, purses, jewelry and scarves.  We weren't real thrilled!  However, they had a little kiddie roller coaster and the kids loved that!  We also tried out our first German Crepe with banana and Nutella inside.  It was pretty good!  The kids also saw the Creepy Easter Bunny on the way out, and they got Easter Eggs from him.  A real egg!  Dyed all pretty and all.  So they thought that was pretty cool.

We came home and played catch with Austin, while Sydney moved all the rocks out of the rock bed "worked".  That's what she said anyways. 

Afterwards, we made the kids go clean up their playroom.  It was about a 15 minute job, and it took them exactly 2 hours.  ;o)  At one point, Sydney even came down and told on herself, saying "I'm not helping Bubba clean up".  So that was pretty funny! Between the two of them, they definitely keep us laughing!

On another note, we have some news.  We weren't exactly expecting it, however, we've decided it will be the best for our family here in Germany.  We've decided to put our name back on the Base Housing list.  Our current house now, we absolutely love.  We love the house. However, it is about a half our away from base, which, already is proving to be a lot.  The gas alone between our two vehicles is killer, it's about $4.15 a gallon right now here.  Although- I am very thankful we don't pay German gas prices- they're paying over $9 a gallon. 

Another reason, our biggest reason, is the kids.  Austin will be starting Kindergarten this coming year, and will have to ride the bus quite a ways both ways.  I'm really just not comfortable with that at his age.  Another, the biggest reason, with the kids, is that there are literally NO American kids around here.  The one German boy across the street doesn't speak any English what so ever, and just stares blankly at Austin when he tries to interact with him.  I feel bad for him, he's so bored, and asks all the time why the boy won't play with him, and why he isn't making any friends here.  On base, everywhere you look there are kids running around, playgrounds galore, etc.  There isn't a play area in our town, nor the neighboring town that we have found so far.
 
With not having Americans around us, it's lonely.  Very lonely.  I love how beautiful it is here, seeing all the German homes, being immersed in the culture- but it boils down to the kids and I being home alone all day from 5am to about 5:30 or 6:00pm when Bryant comes home.  Dinner time, bed time.  It's just lonely. 

So, we will be putting our name on the housing list tomorrow, and hope and pray for the best.  I know we will go where we need to be, but we are praying we end up in a town home.  They are duplex style, like we had in Mountain Home, however, units are in high demand, and not many are available.  So it is possible we will be in Stairwell type housing.  I'll definitely keep you up to date on this, just maybe pray or cross your fingers or whatever you wanna do for us, that we get to the top of the waiting list quickly!  One of my friends was called within 2 weeks of putting their name on the wait list, however, we've heard of it taking up to 3-6 months.  I just want to be settled.  And enjoy this amazing country!!!

ANOTHER bit of SUPER exciting news that we have is................

 We booked our trip to Garmish Germany for Thanksgiving this year!!!!!  We are incredibly excited, and cannot wait.  Of course we hope to travel between now and then, but still!!  There is a military resort there that we will be staying at: http://www.edelweisslodgeandresort.com/home.html

So you can go check it out if you'd like!  We are going with another family, possibly two.  It is going to be such a blast.  Right at the base of the Swiss Alps- who can argue with that?!  Definitely not this girl!

 Oh! Austin also is learning to tie his shoes!

 A canal in Schonenburg-Kubelburg that we walked past today

 The Ostermarket

 The one, lone Easter booth. Real eggs though- they are painted very intricately!

 Our Handsome boy

 And our beautiful girl

 This is pretty much their enthusiasm at the Market today =)

 We may or may not have threatened them for this picture.  And still, look at them! ha!

 Our Crepe!!

 Practicing for T-Ball!

Sydney doing her work!

Hope you all enjoyed this!  We love & miss you all like CRAZY!!!!

xoxo,

k.

Nothing new, really

I always lack coming up with fun, interesting blog titles.  Nothing ever comes.  Ever.  So, you're left with boring ones..... however that's been our life lately!

We finally got our HHG shipment on the 12th.  It took pretty much all day for them to unload everything, and put beds together, ect.  We had the option of having them unpack everything for us- but we obviously decided against it.  Instead of the boxes we have stacked up, we'd have everything out of boxes piled in every nook and cranny. 

The houses in Germany have NO storage.  Like, none.  We are very lucky to have a closet downstairs that's fairly large.  We use it for a "pantry."  We got a shelving unit that we put ALL our food on besides one "snack drawer" in the kitchen, and a cereal shelf.  Everything else goes in there.  Teas, canned foods, boxed goods, sodas, juices, everything.  It also stores a couple of our bigger baking dishes, crock pot, blender.... you get the idea.  Oh and can't forget the mop and bucket too.  A catch all if you will. 

So anyways- yes, we don't have any storage in the house.  So needless to say, we are unpacking, but very very slowly.  Our dining room table still has stuff stacked on it, boxes filled with packing paper are stacked in a corner, and so far, we have no where to put our beloved recliner that Bryant HAD to have.  ;o)  Luckily, we do have a large house, so we do have places to put our stuff the boxes.  The third floor is packed with boxes we have not gotten to yet. 

April 14th, we are going to go to Homburg, which is only about a 10 minute drive from where we live.  Supposidly, the biggest flea market in Southern Germany happens there on this day.  We are hoping to be able to get a couple things there- as far as furniture goes.  We are looking for a couple hutch type things, and possibly a coffee table.  We aren't afraid to re-finish things, so we're hoping we find some treasures!

Next week I go in to sign Austin up for Kindergarten. I'm in shock with that one.  I'm a little freaked though- because he will be 6.  We live about 25 minutes from the base he will go to school on, and there is a bus that services our village to take him there.  So he's 6, and will already be riding the bus to school.  On the A6.  (Which is the "fast road") So needless to say, mommy fear and worry kicks in, and it all makes me a little uneasy.  I can't show him that though- because he's already skiddish about riding a bus.  He will love it once it starts though, I know he will. 

Sydney is about 90% potty trained.  She's completely potty trained during the day, and only wears dipes for nap and night.  She continually wakes up dry from naps, so that will be our next step as soon as I get a cover for her mattress. 

I really don't think I have much other news to speak of yet.  It is finally getting warmer, so adventures and trips look to be in our future.  Pretty excited to finally get out and see things!!!

 This, here in Germany, is called a Doner.  It's a pita flat with shredded meet inside (which they put on a stake type thing, and it cooks right there in front of you... when someone orders, they shave off some of the meat.) cabbage (2 types), onion, feta, and some sauce.  It was just okay for me.  They are Bryant's favorite here.  I could of handled less meat and more sauce personally.  So I will try it again!

 This is a picture of the kids (obviously) in K-Town (Kaiserslautern).  We were doing a project for a friend stationed in Japan, and this is them with Flat Stanley. This area we are in is a huge shopping area.  It's a few streets closed off (although random cars drive down it sometimes).  And you can just walk around, eat, shop, ect.  It's a fun little place, although very very busy. 

 Sydney was finding treasures in the boxes as we unpacked and made herself a cute lil outfit

 Ugh.  Did your stomach just roll?  Our downstairs was a MESS for awhile.  It doesn't look like this now, however, I still wouldn't opt to have anyone to my house right now!

 The kitchen during some of our unpacking.  UGH!

Kiddies on St. Patricks Day! It was late and they were tired! haha

xoxo

k.

Pictures have arrived!

Long overdue, I know.  But here they are!! 

As we go into our second month in Germany- I feel like we are starting to settle in some.  We found a house off base, it's about a 25 minute drive to work for Bry, but he's okay with that.  It's a little further out than we'd planned, however, the house is amazing.  Here in Germany, usually the rent contract is on a month to month basis.  So, in a year, if we decide that it's just too far for us, we can always move in closer to base.  We wanted to submerse ourselves in Germany, in the culture and see how we liked it.  So far, so good.  Our home (pictures of the house are at the very end of blog) is adorable.  And huge.  So much bigger than what we could afford in the states- which is polar opposite of what we had been told about housing here.  We live on a side street, so the only traffic is the cars that belong to the homes- which are 3 other homes besides ours on our street.  Kind of like a dead-end cul-de-sac if you will.  There's a walking trail literally one block from our front door, and so that is awesome.  We have went on a couple walks- but it's been so cold that we haven't done more.  Cannot wait for Spring when we can go a few times a week. 

The kids have been doing great.  Aside from a few issues that we sort of expected (listening, testing, etc) they have adjusted pretty well.  They love our house, and are use to it I think now.  Petey hasn't adjusted as well as I expected he would.  He's still pretty whiny and paces a lot.  I've noticed just in the past week that he's started settling down some and is a little less high strung during the day- so hopefully he will chill out.

Bryant has been super busy at work.  The first couple weeks we were here, he only had to go in a handful of times- but was off for the majority of the first 2 weeks.  Since he's been back, he's been putting in a lot of hours.  He likes the shop he is in, but says it is very very disorganized and lacking any real leadership.  It's a large shop, with almost 20 people working in it.  It's the biggest shop he's been in so far, and he is use to max 7 people- so it is an adjustment for him. 

I've caught a cold.... second since we've been in Germany.  I am hoping the kids don't catch it this time, but I guess turn about is fair play (haha).  I caught it from them last time.  I'm really liking the house, and the area.  I'm not real fond of how far it is from base- remember- we haven't lived off base in a LONG time.  So getting use to living off base, in another country is a bit of a challenge.  I have been to the German market a few times- and have only ran into a problem one time when looking for paper plates.  No one there spoke English.  They had no idea what I was asking for, and I had no idea what they were telling me.  So they kept showing me tortillas.  We finally got it figured out- if you are good at the game Charades- you'd be a pro here in Germany. 

I'm having a hard time adjusting to being here though as well.  I'm pretty homesick, and craving familiarity and comfort.  You can't just run down to your local Target or Fred Meyer, and everything off base is priced in Euro.  If I pull 40euro out of the ATM, we get charged almost 55 American dollars. 

I can't just call my family or friends whenever I want to, it's a large time difference so that's been hard as well.  I know once our things get here (MARCH 5TH! yay!!) things will be easier, I will have my "stuff" back, and things to do.  The weather has been pretty crummy, so I have been in the house with not much to do. 

Anyway- enough of that pity party! 

A couple weekends ago, we went with some friends to try our hand at Indian food.  A first time for both of us- and we LOVED it.  The kids enjoyed it as well- which was shocking to us since they haven't been liking much here yet.  (even American food- so they're just being picky!)  It's definitely a place we will take family, and a place we will return to.  Last weekend, was our friends daughters birthday, and she chose Mexican for her dinner.  We went to a place off base called Cantina's.  NOT what we were use to, but it was good.  The chips and salsa, in Bryant and my opinion, was definitely the best part- they were GOOD. 

Other then that, we have tried one German restaurant with those same friends in their town of Weilerbach. (All w's are pronounced as a V) It was delicious!!  We were very thrilled that our first German meal was amazing- so we are anxious to try more.

 This is a little pond in a park in the town of Weilerbach, which is where some of our friends live.

A zipline in that same park.  Kids loved it.

 Sydney's turn.  That is Mike with her, one of Bryant's good friends. (We were stationed with this family at Shaw AFB in South Carolina.)

 First German coffee from a Bakerei- it was delish!

 The kids waiting on breakfast one morning a few days after we arrived.  This was in our TLF kitchen. (Temporary Living Facility provided by the military)

 Driving through roads of Germany. 

 This sign means Exit.

 This is 20 euro.  Their money is all different colors depending on the amount.  Also- they have coins for 2euro and 1euro.  Weird!  If you pay for something with a 5euro bill and it only cost 1euro, you will get two 2 euro coins back. 

 We got this sign shortly after we got here.  LOVE LOVE it!

 We took a trip to Rothenburg ODT, Germany.  This was our group. It was a blast, and SUCH a beautiful place.  We will definitely return there once it warms up. It was freezing this day.  It's about a 2.5 hour drive from us.  Following pictures are from Rothenburg.  The city is surrounded by a stone wall from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when.  There were even bowman's points and such that they used.  It was unreal to see, and even harder to imagine it in use.

 This is the entrance to the city.(above)

 These pasteries are called "Shneederballen" (no idea how to spell it) but they are famous for these.  We all tried them, and were NOT impressed.  No flavor actually.  They are basically a pie dough rolled in a cool way, and then cooked and topped with chocolate, sugar, ect.  Not impressed!

 This was amazing.  I'm assuming it's the center of town.  I believe it was 5 o'clock and the bells started chiming and little "people" popped out of the windows.  It was like a real life coo-coo clock!

 This is a picture outside our window at our home. 

 Picture (zoomed in) of our town from our 2nd story window

 On a walk on the walking path I wrote about above.

 There was another dog playing and Petey would NOT look at me!

 Our home! (not our cars)

 Side of home

Back of home.  It's a duplex home- but you'd never know it.  We never hear our neighbors, ever.  So that's very nice.  I guess it helps they are a quiet couple- maybe they hear us?? haha!!

Anyway- that's our life so far!  Check back soon for more updates!

xoxo

k.