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.