Taking Care of Myself – Day 3

Day 3/100

Monday, August 25th

Exercise:

Today, instead of getting dressed for work, I got dressed for exercise! I put on my running outfit, put my work clothes on a hanger and packed a bag for freshening up post work out. The clothes, the bag, and my work shoes all went into my car. I then made breakfast for the kids and  myself, though I saved mine for after the workout. So that also went into the car, along with my lunch. I did eat a few slices of pear and made coffee for the drive. After horrendous back-to-school traffic, I finally dropped the boys off at school and went to the park to do my 5K Your Way training. My kids have been in school since last Wednesday, but the rest of the city's schools started today, so traffic was extra crazy. Oh how I miss my 30-35 minute commute as it took us close to an hour today. I hope that settles a bit during the course of the week. We will see.


Not far from the boys' school is the a trailhead of one of several greenways here in San Antonio. The school itself is just one mile from my job while the trailhead is maybe another mile away. So I drop off the boys, walk/run on the trail, then go to work. I would not have time to go back home and shower, so I bring my change of clothes as well as some essentials to freshen up with (wash cloth, towel, deodorant) to work and lock myself up in the restroom to get ready.

I could, of course, work out before I leave to take the boys to school, but since we already leave the house at 6:30 and I get up at 5:30 for that, I really don't want to get up any earlier than that. Besides, I like that particular trail a lot and by then the sun is out while it is not hot yet. The perfect way to enjoy the outdoors, get some sun and not get scorched. You will get eaten alive by mosquitoes though, should you forget your repellent. I was glad I had mine! As soon as I opened the car door, one of those little boogers flew right in. Oh no. I was not going to be your breakfast. Let's just say I got out of the car pretty fast to access my little bag in the trunk and spray on  the repellent.


My 5K Your Way training was the same as yesterday on the treadmill: 3 minutes walking, 1 minute running, 4 times for 20 minutes total. I covered 1.1 miles this morning, plus 0.2 miles warm up and cool down. So I walked 1.3 miles total. I felt great, having started my day with exercise and outdoor time! The trail is very tranquil and relaxing. I even saw a deer, which always excites me. I actually see deer quite often when in the parks or on the trails. On Sunday I actually saw a doe with her fawn on and later on a young buck. I was glad he seemed relaxed and did not pay me much attention, I sure do not want to meet those antlers up close.


Back to Monday. While eating my lunch, I had this crazy idea: Let's go for a walk in 100+ degree heat and lots of direct sunlight. Yeah,  crazy idea. I should have known better. I actually ended up walking 1.3 miles around the neighborhood of the office in 27 minutes. I returned to the office drenched and did not have another change of clothes. I also caught a very light sunburn. Yes, I burn in less than 30 minutes of sun exposure. Again, crazy idea. Lesson learned. No more walks during lunch hours. At least not any time soon while it is hot and sunny here, which is most of the year. I live in South Texas, after all.

For Me:
My lunch walk actually was my "me time" for the day. I wanted to do something to purposefully leave my desk and work area during my lunch. Since I always bring my lunch, I tend to eat it at my desk, which is not good. I need to get away from the desk during my lunch and actually relax. So the idea was to eat my lunch at the office and then walk for 30 minutes. While it was a nice break, it was too hot outside, so I need to figure out something else for future lunches.

Taking Care of Myself – The First Weekend

Day 1/100
Saturday, August 23rd

Exercise:

Today I slept in because this week was exhausting. By the time I got up it was too hot to walk outside (above 100 degrees). In the evening I got on my treadmill and walked:



1.571 Miles

31 Minutes and 36 Seconds

For Me:

I finally watched a movie I have been wanting to watch for a while: The Hours. Powerful and thought provoking. I started while on the treadmill and finished it on the couch. :)

The Hours

Day 2/100
Sunday, August 24th

Exercise:

I finally got new running shoes, professionally fitted for the first time. I broke them in with a 1.3 mile walk in the park (27 minutes and 23 seconds). I would have went longer, but it was too hot (it was mid day and the sun was merciless even though I was mostly in the shade of trees). I also got insoles that I could mold to my feet (I have low arches and need extra support). I decided to give SparkPeople's 5K Your Way program another shot. This is similar to C25K (Couch to 5K). I started it twice before and never finished because of foot pain The new shoes and insoles should help with that and this time I will modify the program to doing each phase twice as long to adjust better. I hope this will help me stick to it. After my resolution of soon starting this program again I just went for it and started it today on the treadmill. It consisted of four intervals each of 3 minutes walking and 1 minute running for a total of 20 minutes and 1.1 miles, plus cool down.

My New Shoes: Saucony – Hurricane 16

1.211 Miles

23 Minutes and 15 Seconds

For Me:

Finally getting professionally fitted running shoes. I went to Soler's Sports at Old Bandera Road, which was a great experience. If you are looking for a running store, this is a good one. They are a local business with four locations in the San Antonio area.

Also, some Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey – banana ice cream with walnuts and dark chocolate chunks. It is one of few gluten free, corn syrup free ice creams I could find (note that most Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors contain gluten, either as an ingredient or possible traces due to shared equipment – this one does not). The bananas, cocoa, and sugar in it are also fair trade which is wonderful. And then it was on sale, so yeah, I got some.

Good Stuff

Taking Care of Myself – A 100-Day Challenge

So it has been quiet around here again for a while *sound of crickets* Well, I am back now. :)

I have just recently realized that what I have been struggling with for the past year and with increasing difficulty is in fact depression. I have been experiencing major struggles in life as of the last few years related to professional growth, family life, health conditions, and some other quite essential things. In many ways I feel trapped. Last weekend I had a very long Skype chat and phone call with my sister in Germany and I finally opened up about a lot of my struggles I had previously kept to myself. I am trying to learn to talk to people without telling myself I am a burden. I am still working on this while trying to figure stuff out before making any decisions on how to change my life for the better.

One thing that is known to help with depression is regular exercise. So, other than the physical health benefits and getting me closer to my goal of becoming fit and healthy before I turn 30 years old, it also helps me with my depression. I have felt this effect before several times. I am going to be honest. Since being at my all time highest weight (again) earlier this year, I have lost 16.4 pounds so far (12.3% of my total weight loss goal of 133 pounds). This did not happen fast, but slow and steady. I attribute 95% of this weight loss to my healthy eating habits and I give 5% credit to exercise, maybe even less. See, I love the feeling after working out. I even enjoy working out most of the time. Somehow I don't do it consistently. I usually have a phase of about one or two weeks where I work out every day or almost every day and then I just stop. Why? No clue. Well, hold on, I might actually have a clue. In recent years, I (almost) always put others first, mostly my children and my husband. The same goes for other people as well, just not to the same extent. I have realized that I am not taking the time to take care of myself. I have made everyone else a priority and told my own needs and wants to wait in line. Then I let others' need and wants skip the line, pushing taking care of myself toward the back again ...and again. Having realized this and the fact that, to be able to care of others long term, one has to take care of oneself first, I am determined to work on taking care of myself. This starts with regular exercise.

My friend Amanda created a 100-day challenge in which participants exercise at least 10 minutes each day. I was hesitant at first and that showed me just how much I need this challenge. So I am in. For me personally, I am expanding this challenge. Not only will I exercise at least 10 minutes each day, I will also do one thing strictly for myself every single day. This can be anything. Reading a book, working in the yard, doing something creative, treating myself to some gelato, cuddling with my cats, writing in a journal, meditating, planning a vacation, working on my Spanish skills, reviving my French, learning something completely new. Anything. As long as it is for me and brings me joy.

I hope that, by doing this challenge, I can create healthy habits which will become natural by the end of the challenge. I am starting the challenge this Saturday, August 23rd and will finish on Sunday, November 30th. I chose a Saturday to begin the challenge so that I can start it off with a long walk or hike in the park and so that both my start day and finish day are on a weekend.

I will update here on a weekly basis with a summary of my workouts and feel-good activities. I will try to snap a picture for each one and include them in my post.

Fußballfieber & Fourth of July

Fußballfieber – rauschhafte Begeisterung für den Fußballsport
[ecstatic enthusiam for the sport of soccer]

I am so excited about this year's soccer world cup! Admittedly, I always get excited about the soccer world cup. This time has been especially exciting though, because Germany and the USA were both in the same group (Group G), which was considered the "Group of Death" during this year's tournament. Of course, I am rooting for Germany, but I have long been a supporter of the US team as well. They have been the underdog for quite a while and it seems they improve a bit with every world cup. I love seeing an underdog team becoming more and more successful and getting more attention.

Now, that the US are my home, I root for them even more. I was thrilled that they made it into the Round of 16 alongside Germany, even though we beat them in the group game. ;-)

For the longest, soccer has not received much attention here in the US, aside from being a popular team sport for school age kids (mostly girls). Funny, because in Germany soccer is considered quite a manly sport, if not the sport of men. Anyway, the US men's national team and the soccer world cup as a whole seem to have received more attention than usual. I like that. I like soccer.

I love the world cup and how it brings all kinds of people from all kinds of countries and all walks of life together.

I also like basketball and have become a San Antonio Spurs fan. How do you not love this team? They really play as a team and I love that they are such a great mix of players from all over the world. This year they finally won their fifth NBA championship. The Spurs have a pretty solid fan base here in San Antonio and  this city went crazy during the finals. So much fun!

I might enjoy baseball and even American football one day, provided someone explains these sports to me (I am clueless).

Back to the soccer world cup. Unfortunately, I was only able to watch one game live so far (Germany vs. Ghana), because all the other games were usually played while I was at work. I had a live feed on my computer though and my coworker Rob and I got a little crazy during the US vs. Germany game. I was working on a report, not paying attention to the live feed when Germany made their 1-0 goal. I heard Rob in his office next to me exclaiming, "Nooooooooooooooooo..." when I realized what happened. So I walked to his office, saying, "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss!" to "rub it in" and tease him a little but also to let him know that Portugal was not making enough goals to beat the US in terms of goal difference meaning the US would advance alongside Germany. So the Teuton (me) and the Texan (Rob) were both happy.

Too bad that the US lost against Belgium yesterday. They should have put Julian Green on the field sooner; I think he could have made more goals had he been given more time to play. Tim Howard did an outstanding job of course. I believe the US national team will continue to improve and hope they will advance at least one more level in the 2018 world cup!

I am really happy that the quarter finals game Germany vs. France is on July 4th and the semi finals and final match are on weekends, so I can actually watch them. If  When they win, it will be a double celebration that day. We plan to go downtown to watch fireworks at an event called Stars and Stripes Over San Antonio. Due to the drought here in South Texas, we are not allowed to pop our own firecrackers so this is as good as it gets. We will probably ride the bus to get there, since I anticipate parking will be packed and expensive ($8.00 or more). The bus might take a little longer, but it is cheaper than parking alone (not even factoring in gas prices) and I will get there and back home relaxed.

What are your plans for July 4th? Will you watch the quarter finals? My American friends, will you celebrate Independence Day at home or will you go somewhere?

A Dozen Moves

I just realized that I have moved a dozen times in my life already and I am only in my 20s!

1986/1987 - Move Number One
Oppenheim. A bigger apartment for my Mama, my sister, and me. I was still in diapers and have to ask my Mama to verify the year. Not that I could remember...

1999 - Move Number Two
Oppenheim. From the apartment to my Mama's own house. I was 13 and learned how to lay down laminate flooring, PVC flooring, strip old wallpaper off walls, prime walls for new wallpaper, apply wallpaper, paint walls, and so much more. This was actually a lot of fun. Can you believe I laid down PVC flooring in my bedroom with a black and white cow pattern? Being 13 years old might explain that. I have to give my Mama credit for allowing such a thing. After all, we left the original hardwood floors underneath.

2005 - Move Number Three
Mainz-Marienborn. Out of the nest into a shared "apartment" (basement) with my friend Steffi. We were both 19 and pretty naive. This was a horrible learning experience, thanks to our wicked landlady. More on that later.

2005 - Move Number Four
Bodenheim. My own place. A small subterranean studio in the home of a really nice family.

2006 - Move Number Five
Nackenheim. A rental home with N whom I was dating at the time. This was a gradual move-in. He rented the home through the Army housing office and I stayed there with him. I still had my little studio but was never there.

2008 - Move Number Six
Wiesbaden. N had to go back to the US on military orders. The boys had to go, too, and stayed with their Grandma while N was deployed in Afghanistan. This was the hardest time in our family history. The deployment was hard enough, but not having the boys with me was the worst. Unfortunately there was no way for them to stay in Germany since I am not their biological Mom and there was not enough time for me to legally adopt them. The military orders came (almost) out of nowhere and were very short notice, because the post where N was stationed in Germany was being shut down. There had been rumors about the post being closed for a number of years, but it never happened. Well, it eventually did happen and N was one of the last soldiers at that post. I was staying in Germany for two reasons, one being that I was still in the process of getting my visa, two being that I was almost done with my professional training (I had less than a year left). I figured I should finish what I started and also gain some actual work experience before moving to the US. I moved into a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate to be closer to my workplace.

2009 - Move Number Seven
Frankfurt. After I finished my training and having commuted to Frankfurt (new job location within the same company) for almost half a year, I decided to move there. This was my own apartment in a high rise and actually pretty neat.

2010 - Move Number Eight
Fort Campbell. This was the big one. Leaving Germany and moving "across the big pond" to the United States. This move is what motivated me to start this blog.

2011 - Move Number Nine
San Antonio. After N got out of the Army, we moved in with his Mom until we would find work.

2012 - Move Number Ten
Live Oak. Our first rental (duplex) once we both had found jobs and sufficient income.

2013 - Move Number Eleven
Live Oak. A similar rental which was slightly better and slightly less expensive, yet still a duplex, just up the street from the previous one.

2014 - Move Number Twelve
San Antonio. Our current move to an actual single family house which is a lot nicer and slightly more expensive. This home is also literally across town. We are moving from the far northeast area of town to the far northwest area and back into the actual City of San Antonio.

Looking back, I realize that I have moved every single year since 2008. I guess I can say that I am a pro by now. I definitely learned how to prepare, pack, disassemble, load, unload, unpack, and deep clean a home. Am I tired of moving? I would say so, but the last place has become unbearable thanks to an extremely unprofessional, rude, and incompetent property manager. I am glad when we are gone and this ordeal is over with. I hope we will not have to take legal action because of some unresolved issues. Maybe she will come to her senses in time. I sure hope so.

The new place is very promising and I will post more details about it soon. We have already cleaned the new home, moved a bunch of boxes, and will move all the big stuff on Saturday with a rental truck. I cannot wait to be done. We are trying to finish it all up this weekend.

Here is to a New Year

So we had a pretty awesome start into the year. Riding roller coasters and watching fireworks while riding a ferris wheel. We actually went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for New Year's Eve this time and we had a blast!

Here they are, my obligatory new year's resolutions:

1. Further my education. I would like to enroll in college and study Business Administration (AA), followed by Real Estate Finance and Development (BA) in order to advance with my career and eventually become a commercial real estate appraiser.

2. Get healthy. Eat better and exercise more to essentially lose weight and improve my overall health and fitness.

3. Make financially smart decisions. I would like save more for retirement. There is no such thing as starting too early. I have already been saving a bit every month, but I would like to increase the amount that I am saving.


I hope you had a great start into a happy, healthy new year as well. Do you have any new year's resolutions? If you do, what are they?

♥ ♥ ♥

Why three hearts? Today is our 3rd Anniversary and actually the first one we got to spend together. Today is also Mother's Day which reminds me how lucky I am to have my three guys.
The boys surprised me this morning with "Best Mom in the World" certificates which they had made for me. Melts my heart. For the most part, we just stayed at home today spent some quality time.
Later on, my dear husband and I went out for dinner. He let me pick, and I chose Joe's Crab Shack. I always wanted to go there, but we have never made it, until tonight. We picked a table outside on the porch and had a wonderful evening. I love seafood, but I have never tried crab before, so I learned how to crack some crab today. It was delicious. I had a "steam pot" with snow crab and king crab, with an awesome cocktail on the side. Hubby had, well, steak. It was really good though. He was hesitant to try seafood that was not fried, but then he loved my crab, so we ended up trading a little. For dessert, we went to a small ice cream place where I got the best dairy-free pineapple ice cream ever.
After all, it just felt really good to spend our anniversary together for a change. I do not need any big gifts, I already have the biggest gift I could want and that is being with my husband and children, the loves of my life. What more could I ask for?

New Chapter Ahead

Time to "let the cat out of the bag": We will be moving to San Antonio, TX by the end of April.
Hubby is getting out of the Army in the end of May and will be on terminal leave starting early April. He actually wanted to reenlist and stay active duty, but that was not possible. Right now it looks like he will be in the reserves and get a civilian job. We are looking for jobs in the San Antonio and Dallas areas. I would prefer Dallas, as it is a lot bigger and has many more opportunities, but if we both find great job in San Antonio, we just stay there.
Earlier this week I turned in my notice at my current job. I hated to do that, I have barely worked there for half a year now and I am already leaving. But we do not have an option. There is no point for us to stay here once hubby is out of the Army and my job has neither regular/guaranteed hours nor benefits. So we will stay with my in-laws in San Antonio until we get some decent job offers.
I am still working on my resume and finally received some great help here at the ACS (Army Community Service) from a really nice lady called Kristen. I truly appreciate her advice and help, as I was having trouble with wording some of my German education and professional experience.
So this past week, we have been sorting our belongings and started packing again. We will hold at least two yard sales before we leave as we have many things that we do not want to take with us. I will also post several items on Campbell Yard Sales. Today we looked at moving trucks at U-Haul because we were not sure if we should rent a 17-foot truck or a 20-foot truck. After looking at a 17-foot one, we decided to rent a 20-foot truck, as we do not want to be standing in our drive way unable to fit everything in the truck. We have been comparing prices online already, but the guy at the U-Haul place gave us an awesome deal on a 20-foot truck, so we grabbed it! We also looked at moving equipment at The Home Depot yesterday and found the dollies we need. We are still comparing prices on boxes and packing materials. As you would assume by now, we are moving on our own. The Army calls it a DITY move and we will get reimbursed for the moving expenses. They would also pay for a full-service move, but we rather do it on our own as our last full-service move was a horrible experience (water damage of several boxes and a whole crate of our belongings missing).
So we are busy bees again, zooming around the house and garage, sorting and packing.

Shedding Pounds

Have you seen my weight loss tracker?
Since the beginning of this month I am on a weight loss journey. I started with changing my diet and adding exercise.
Four years ago I lost quite some weight by following the New York Body Plan by David Kirsch and I decided to to this same plan again. So I decided to start it again this year. Well the dieting was no problem for me, but the exercising was a disaster. I am out of shape so badly that I could not even finish the work out session. This was a serious wake-up call for me! I could not believe that I allowed myself to get in such a bad shape that I could not even do the same exercises that I did only four years ago. So right now, my work outs are rather moderate, consisting of power walking and light weight training. By mid-month I found this great group on meetup.com: Fort Campbell's "Operation Slim Down" Army Wives Club. This is a group of overweight or obese army wives at Fort Campbell who meet twice a week to exercise together and share weight gain and weight loss experiences along with tips on healthy eating habits and so much more. I joined the group and absolutely love it! Thanks ladies, you are awesome!
Another thing I do is going to a ZUMBA class twice a week after work. I have to say that I am far behind with the moves and need to go many more times before I can really catch on, but I am having so much fun when doing it and I am already "addicted". It is great! I heard about for a while and was reluctant to go for the longest, but as I found out that some of my fellow obese army wives go to ZUMBA too, I decided to give it a try. Now I am hooked!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! I wish you health and happiness. May you set big goals and reach them this year. What are your goals? Mine include losing weight and being healthier, as well as finding a fulfilling carreer instead of "just a job".

Happy Halloween!

Getting Settled

For the longest, one word described my recent job hunt best: frustration. I started looking for jobs and applying as soon as I had my SSN (wich was in mid-July). However, I did not even get an interview until mid-September. I sent out over twenty applications in less than six weeks and no word from anyone? Now that is what you call frustrating.

You can probably imagine how happy I was when I was invited for an interview. So of course I went and hoped for the best. I must have made a pretty good impression, because I did get the job. After all, I am finally back in the work force.

At times, I felt so useless and my self esteem took some serious hits from my job hunt, as I started to feel that no employer would even be interested in me, despite my skills and qualifications. I knew it was going to be hard to find employment as an immigrant and I assume that many American employers had no idea on how to interpret my German education and training. I decided to have it evaluated and I should receive my evaluation soon.

Meantime, I was finally able to start working. I had a lot of paperwork and screenings to complete before my start date. However, my biggest worry was finding child care. I was very relieved when I found a solution for our family and I know my children are well taken care of. It is an adjustment for all of us, but it is worth it.

Having work is priceless to me. Besides finally being a dual income household again, it simply gets me out of the house and I am meeting people. Being in a foreign country and missing your family at home is hard enough, but the hardest part for me so far was not knowing anyone over here for the first two months. It takes time for me to warm up to people, which does not make it any easier.

We do have some really nice neighbors across the street and I also met with another German lady who also lives here on post and our husbands actually work together. It seems things are finally working out, it just takes time. One thing I am definitely learning is being more patient. Not everything can happen overnight, especially not the really good stuff! :-)

Oh, in case you were wondering: I am an administrative assistant in a daycare center. So I get to work my kind of job and get to be around children which rocks!

dangerous beauty

I have never had as many spiders in my house in all my life, as I have here. We kill between two and three spiders in the house daily. To top it all off, I had an encounter with a black widow today. She was sitting less than three inches away from our door, on the outside wall. I took a large piece of mulch and moved her away. Normally I leave spiders alone as long as they stay outside, but this one I killed with insect spray. I am not taking chances with a black widow. Even though I am freaked out by any kind of spider, I was really fascinated by this one. I actually thought she was beautiful. LOL. I never thought I would say that about a spider.

Butterfly Festival

Today we went the 2nd Annual Butterfly Festival in Oak Grove, KY. I met with two other german ladies and their children there, which was really nice and we had a great time. At the festival they had all kinds of fun things for the children to do: games, arts & crafts, a petting zoo, and much more. Elijah was actually riding a pony today! We were also able to go in a tent full of butterflies. In the end, they released 400 live butterflies into the air, which was beautiful to watch. I took pictures, of course and I will post them soon.

More pictures coming soon.

It has been a while...

...since my last post. I am trying to catch up as soon as possible and will post some entries I have been writing on for a while now. I am doing OK, just very busy hunting for a job, which is a true challenge over here. We are also preparing for my husband's training that is coming up soon. The boys have been in school just over a month now and are finally getting into a routine. I will update soon. Promised. :-)

Driver's License

Woohoo! I finally have my driver's license. I just took the road test and I was so freaking nervous it was not funny anymore. I did pretty good, and the examiner was really nice and laid-back and helped me overcome the nervosity quickly. Before I took the test, I was so scared I might be tested in parallel parking. That is one thing I am absolutely unable to do. I actually practised up until last night, but thank goodness I did not need it. So, I officially have a Driver's License now and I am allowed to drive on my own. Yay! One word: Independence. I hated that I could not go anywhere without my husband. I was basically stuck at home while he was at work. This also is a milestone in finding a job. Now, if I do get hired somewhere I can actually drive to work. There is barely any public transportation available over here. So before today, it would have been either bus (if there was one going) or my bike.

Road Trip

So it has not even been a full month since I finally got here, and we already went on our first big road trip. :-)



We took Mom's car (2004 Kia Optima) and went down to San Antonio, TX, to exchange it for mine (2010 Mazda3), which she has been driving since we bought it in January. And of course, the most importans thing, we finally got our boys and took them home at last. It has been so long since we actually lived together as a family.

We left Fort Campbell at 4 AM for our 936 mile trip and our scenic route took us all the way around the post and through a lot of woods at first. We then went through an area called the Land Between the Lakes, a popular recreational area in this region. Definitely want to go hiking and camping over there some time. We then drove through Tennessee in southwestern direction on I-40 and passed Memphis. After Memphis, we drove through Arkansas, passing Little Rock and the birth town of Bill Clinton, Hope, AR on I-30. Then we went through Texarkana (yes this is the name of a city), which is, surprise, on the border of Texas and Arkansas, hence the name I guess. Later on we saw a bit of Dallas, driving through it. It has some beautiful areas with big lakes, might want to live there one day. We will see...

So, Nathan was stubborn and decided on driving the whole route without an overnight stay halfway. By the time we almost got there (Austin) it was raining really hard and we stopped at Whataburger (Yum!) to grab a bite and then took a 4 hour nap in the car. We were just exhausted and did not want to drive in that heavy rain at night. Once we had enough rest and the rain wore off, we continued our journey and finally made it to Mom's house around 2 AM.

The following days we were busy packing the boys' things and donating anything obsolete to the Goodwill. Love that place! You can donate pretty much anything from furniture to clothes to toys etc. They create jobs for people who cannot find work in the regular job market due to disability or other reasons, by selling donated goods. So we went there with bags and bags of clothes and toys. I am always glad to help others. http://www.goodwill.org/

After we knocked out all the packing and getting rid of things, we finally had some time to kick back and relax. We actually spent our last couple of nights at a hotel, where we were barbecueing and the kids (the boys and their cousins) had fun in the pool.

We also met a "Texas sized" spider, as Mom called it. I believe it was a trantula. It was huge, hairy, and creepy. I was walking to my car, parked in the cul-de-sac, where Mom's house is at, wearing sandals of course since it is summer, and what do I see slowly strutting down the street next to my car? This big old, fat spider. Eeeek! I literally jumped when I saw it. I wanted to run, but then I was fascinated to see a spider of that size roaming freely and not behind glass in a zoo. I did keep my distance, considering my open shoes. That spider was walking extremely slow, not in a hurry or anything. Then comes the kitty of the neighbors, a tiny but bold little feline, attacking the spider and playing with it until the spider disappeared under a trash can. That kitty had some balls, I was afraid for it to be bitten and die or something, but that little furball was fearless.



Talking about crawling things. San Antonio had a plague of crickets this summer. Parking lots, store fronts, entire gas stations literally covered in carpets of black crickets. That was just crazy. I haver never seen anything like this. The boys were grossed out by them. I did not care, just hated the crunch everytime you stepped on one, which you could not avoid as they were everywhere, including the hotel grounds. Unfortunately they also made it into our room, through the A/C, but what could management do about it, a different room would not have made a difference. So every night we hunted the crickets (about 15 to 30) in the room and got rid of them. So, yeah, I had my share of crawling creatures this summer, not to mention the occasional roach you encounter in a Texas home. LOL. Roaches really are the worst though. One thing I love about Fort Campbell: I have not seen a roach here, yet!

As we, or should I say Nathan since I cannot drive yet, learned our lesson, we decided to split the trip back home in half and stay overnight at a hotel in Little Rock, AR. In Little Rock we also went to a BBQ place called Backyard Burgers, one of the best grilled chicken sandwiches I ever had. Delicious! I later found out that it is a chain restaurant. I am not a big fan of chain restaurants, which are a big deal in America. This place was different though and I love it! I need to find out if there is one close to Fort Campbell, too.



As we arrived at Fort Campbell in the early evening (this time we took more time and longer stops throughout the trip, I could not help it and had to take the picture of the squirrel just relaxing in the shade at the gate:



More pictures coming soon.

Learner's Permit

I passed the written test for my driver's license almost 2 weeks ago. Now I have a learner's permit and I can finally practise driving. I hope I will be good at it soon, so that I can take the test. Driving sure is fun, but I am still nervous when on the road, hope I will get used to it better soon and become a little more relaxed. But so far, I guess I am doing OK, when we were in San Antonio, I even got on the expressway (voluntarily!).

study time

Good news: I found out that I can apply for my learners' permit for the drivers' license without an SSN. I need to fill out an affidavit and get it notarized. I am glad we have legal assistance here who can do that for me. So now, I am studying the drivers' handbook like crazy right now, hoping I will be ready to take the written test next week. I would like to have my learners' permit soon, so I can practise driving... watch out, here I come, ha ha :-)

Also, I am getting my certifications translated, so I can get my German education evaluated. I hope that helps me with finding employment. Otherwise, college/university is also an option...

Goodbye Germany. Hello Fort Campbell.

Today, I left my home country Germany for good.

I flew from Frankfurt via Dallas to Nashville. Strange feeling. I am so so happy to be finally back with my husband, who has been waiting for me for a long time, and we will also be able to pick up the kids from their grandma soon. Yay! However, I know that I will not be able to see my mom in a long time. That also goes for my sister and my little niece. My sister and I had our goodbye yesterday already and my mom came to the airport with me. She took it very hard, letting me go. After all, being her youngest daughter I am her baby. It broke my heart when we said goodbye and she started to cry. For some reason I did not cry, I guess, it does not feel real yet. Still feels like just going on a vacation, but it is not. So far, I feel pretty darn good and I do not miss home at all. I hope it stays that way. I do miss my family, but prior to leaving Germany I was already used to not being around them very much as I lived in a different city. Only time will tell. Right now I just enjoy having my husband back and I am all excited to start my new life here in the United States.

When I arrived in Nashville, it was already dark, but I noticed there are many trees around here. Our house on post is really nice and a lot bigger than it looked like on the pictures my husband sent me. I love having a yard now (front and back) and cannot wait to plant some lavender bushes in the flowerbeds by the front windows. It is very warm and humid here, it will probably take a few days for me to get adjusted to this climate. I am glad that I generally handle heat better than cold. :-)

Starting tomorrow, I will be unpacking my 37 boxes I mailed over here. LOL. I hope everything survived the long journey across the ocean. Some boxes look pretty bad, I will find out when I open them.