1st Week in Country... Come On, Weekend!

It's Friday!  And what a full week it's been!  Since arriving on Sunday we've managed to check off the following items from our to-do list:

• Check in with Housing
• Procure Housing
• Entered our IDs into the local system so that we can enter US installations here 
• Unlocked Stretch's phone and have a local number with prepaid minutes
• Start the check-in process (Stretch), which has included a lot of classes for Stretch
• Register kids with Child and Youth Services (CYS)
• Sign kids up for School Age Services (SAS) for 2 days next week so I can attend Stuttgart Newcomers Orientation (SNO)
• Enroll kids in school (this involved going to 2 schools at 2 installations), including the eldest at middle school for the first time.  This mama is still having a issues with that one!
• Stretch passed his drivers' test (I'll take mine next week)
• We have our vehicle!  Albeit with temporary registration but that will be rectified next week.
• Attended a local festival downtown Monday night with our sponsors
• Spent an afternoon moving rooms (while Stretch was in class, of course) because our first had sprung a leak, while simultaneously doing laundry.  Of course the laundry rooms were not on the same floors as either our first or second rooms.  But while my gremlins have struck again, I got the last laugh.  They moved us to larger accommodations allowing the girls to sleep in a bed instead of a sofa-bed and also giving us 2 bathrooms (hey, this is important for a family of 4!)



Water on the floor of our room from the leaking A/C unit




• Ventured out to a local Italian restaurant (it's German serving Italian fare and was the only one we'd heard of within walking distance of our hotel!) where we practiced our non-existent German and enjoyed a lovely meal that was NOT fast food!

(at right) Big Sis peruses the phrasebook while Devil Pup decides whether to try Dad's sparkling water or Mom's spezi first.  She tried both and decided the spezi was tastier.  Mom agrees!  It tasted just as good as I remembered from my childhood time in Germany (when my dad was stationed in Bavaria).


I'm tired... bring on the weekend!  And our tour of the Eagles Nest on Sunday!