Schloss Ludwigsburg

We wanted to go and do something on Saturday but it couldn't be too far a drive.  And it had to be something the kids would be interested in as well.  So we chose Schloss Ludwigsburg.  It should have been about a 30 minute drive but I managed to mess up the GPS directions and then parking was, um, interesting until we found a parking garage about a block from the palace.

Once there, we realized there was a small fest of some sort taking place that day.  Which worked out fine for us as it meant there were people in period costume, performances on a stage in the courtyard and, most importantly, food and beverages available! 

Our first stop was the Kinderreich, or Children's Realm.  For 2 hours, children (of all ages!) could dress up and get a taste of what life in the palace might have been like.  It all began in the ulitmate dress-up closet room:  Lots of clothes for boys and girls, wigs, hats, jewelry.  Big Sis chose not to dress up (being too old and cool for that sort of thing now she'll be starting middle school) but Devil Pup had a grand time of it.  She loved sitting on the throne, looking regal.  She learned to curtsy and had to approach the "king" (one of the dads was recruited for the role), curtsy and make a request.  Then we were shown a miniature theatre where the kids were shown how to change the scenery, change the lighting (including making lightning), use a wind machine (to make the sound of wind), and make thunder.  Then they got to get up on stage and put the skills to use.  After that, we were taken into a dining room, set with real china.  There the kids were taught about royal dining etiquette.  Since Devil Pup had seated herself at the end of the table, she was the "queen."  She quite enjoyed making everyone else pick up their glasses to "drink" everytime she did!  Then it was time to return the dress up clothes.

Afterward, the families were given a tour of the king's and queen's chambers of the palace.  Due to the fact that all of this took a little over 3 hours, we made a huge tactical error in not feeding everyone before-hand.  As soon as the tour was over, we made a bee-line for the food stalls!  There we found bratwurst in brochen and Big Sis found heaven in meat on a stick.  While we ate, we watched a sword fight between some Musketeers and villains followed by various little girls performing on the stage.  By the time we were done eating and ready to explore the gardens, there was a pirate act performing. 

 Then it was time to explore the Marchengarten, or Fairy Tale Garden.  The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, the Magic Mirror from Snow White, Ali Baba, and more were to be found here.  And of course, as you can see by this picture, one had only to shout, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel,... Let down your hair!" and down came the tresses from this tower that overlooked a baroque garden.

We spent almost 7 hours at the palace and in its garden and I'm sure we didn't come close to seeing it all.   Even though I know we'll be living here for the foreseeable future, I can't help feeling that there's so much to see and do and so little time!

Tourism: The Eagle's Nest

Today's adventure took us to Kehlstein, otherwise known as the Eagle's Nest.  We boarded the USO bus a little before 5 a.m. -- yes, that was a wee bit painful!

We had a large group so we split into 2 smaller groups with one going up to the Eagle's Nest first while the other group toured the Dokumentation center.  After lunch, we switched places.

We were lucky enough to be in the first group to ascend the mountain via bus to the tunnel that led to the elevator that took us to the Eagle's Nest perched on top of the mountain.  The skies were pretty clear and the views were amazing!  I was particularly grateful for this since the forecast had called for a 70% chance of rain!  I'm not sure how much of the history the girls absorbed but Stretch and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

It was clear enough that we could see Salzburg, Austria, in the distance.

Later, we toured the Dokumentation center with audio guides in English.  While familiar with World War II and the atrocities committed by the Nazis, it was still a horrifying and sobering reminder of what occurred.  The tour also included exploration of a bunker system under the center.  Frankly, the place gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Our adventure continued after we left the area.  Clouds began to move in and it finally began to rain as our bus made it's way homeward.  And we got to experience our first stau, or German traffic jam.  I was particularly grateful that neither of us were driving and we could sleep through it!  As a result, our return was later than planned but it was still a great trip.

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!

Dragonfly has landed in Deutchland!

We arrived Sunday morning and have tried to hit the ground running.  Well, as much as possible while still jet-lagged!

Our first stop Monday morning was the housing office, where we updated our status and were given the possibility of an apartment on Patch Barracks, our first choice!  We were given keys to look at a similar apartment in the same building but the one we were offered is still occupied and will be until the end of the month, so we'll be in the hotel for at least a month.  Stretch started his check-in process and we got all 3 ID card holders entered into the system here. 

In the afternoon, we took the bus to Patch to check out the new neighborhood. The kids fell in love with the apartment (we kept reminding them that it was NOT the one we'd be in!), the neighborhood and the post.  And we kind of liked it, too!  Afterward, we wandered the post a bit before meeting our sponsor who took us to downtown Stuttgart for the Fish Fest.  While fun, it made for a late night (well, late for those dragging with jet lag!). 

That was just our first day and a half in country!  We are already signed up to take our first USO tour this weekend and hope to have at least one licensed driver and our car by next week.

My record with housing difficulties continues to hold (and I'm not even in housing yet!).  We had a leak in our room due to issues with the A/C unit and its drip pan.  Stretch is finally a believer in my gremlins!  I'm not complaining, though, as it led to us being moved to a larger room!

Photo Book

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Xmas Card 2010

I'm running late this year.  I finally ordered our Christmas cards today.  By this time, I usually like to have all our cards ready to mail, stamped and addressed!  What can I say?  It's been a busy year!

Cool Peppermint Dots Christmas 5x7 folded card

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Boys and their toys...

Stretch bought this for himself today:

He and Devil Pup have already broken it out of the package and started playing with it.  My mother-in-law would be so proud.  When I was pregnant with Big Sis, I remember her suggesting that if we had a boy, perhaps we could not allow him to play with guns.  Yeah.  While living on a Marine Base.  That would work. 

Well, we didn't have a boy.  We had two girls.  And they love to play with toy weapons: swords, nerf guns, whatever.  To be fair, she only mentioned keeping the toy guns away from a little boy.

The Marine and both Devil Pups fend off zombies.

Thank you to all our Veterans, past and present!

Happy 235th Birthday, Marines!

Team Marine has raised more than twice what we set out to raise!  But let's keep it going because our Wounded Warriors are growing in numbers and the need is great.  Click on the button in the upper right hand of this screen to donate to Valour-IT.

"Journey Home: A Marine Tale"

This is a story written by our newly minted 10 yr old (Big Sis) at school.  I haven't corrected her misspellings or grammar but I have highlighted a phrase she wrote.

I saw the ship that had taken me here, Iraq, 1 year ago.  It would now take me home.  To my family and home.  It had been a long year.  I was ready to go to my abode.

I stepped on the ship uncertain it would survive the trudge west.  But hopefull to return to my kin.  I was given a room key for my cabin, below deck.  My number was 303 .  The blue paint forming the numbers were nearly completly chipped off.  I instantly pictured the room dank and sad, with spiders and cobwebs.  I got half right.  It wasn't gloomy, but it was cobweb filled. 

For the first couple of days it was splendid, but then a storm hit.  I felt like I needed to abandon all hope, of seeing family and living.  The boat rocked uncontrollably.  Passengers were throwing up and screaming.  Two waves so high you'd think their water mountains, hurled them selves on deck.  One wave had caused a hole and the Captain was plunging lifeboats into the angry sea.  (which wasn't bright if ya ask me.)  I threw myself into the murdurous sea, trying to escape the yelling and the rocking of the boat.  That was a big mistake, 'cause I fell unconcious.

Next thing I know I'm bobbing along in a calm sea... above water.  I'm a top 3 planks of wood from a ship, perhaps the one I was on.  I look around  my compass is broken and I'm wandering in the ocean.  What could be worse?  Oh, great.  I see a fin, it's proboally a shark.  To my surprise it's a dolphin.  I take the rope around it's tail, and I glide after it.  Dolphins are popular in FL where I live.  There just might be hope, again.

Finally, I saw the shore.  My luck must have been with the dolphin, because this was the beach that was 2 mi. away, from my house.  Unfortanantly, it's a long walk, and would be tough without shoes.  My luck ran out.

The hot sand was burning my feet as I walked toward the wooden ramp.  I braced myself for the tiny, pointy, rocks in the parking lot.  The pain was standable, though it stung.  My feet were red, cut, and bleeding.  But, I continued walking.  When your a Marine, you learn to stand the pain and think about what's important.  In this case reaching home, I continued walking.

Yes, I see my house!  I wanted to run, but my feet were too sore.  I was laughing and celebrating.  As I knocked on the door and embraced my family.  For the first time in a year.


****
The need is great. Dig deep and support the Marine Team for Valour IT by clicking on the button on the upper right of this screen.  And tell your friends and family to do so, as well!

Devil Pups rock!

First off, we live on an Army post.  In an apartment building made up of mostly Army folk. 

The other day, I brought our USMC flag in because of the wind and the fact that it looked like the bracket was about to come out of the wall.  This morning, Devil Pup decided to take it downstairs for a one-girl parade.  She later talked our neighbors' little girl to join her with their USMC flag (we are the only 2 Marine families in the building).  She tried to get our other neighbor's daughter to join her but was told, "I can't:  We're an Army family!"

So there she was (and she's back out there again as I type), marching around with a Marine flag that's bigger than her.  And probably freezing her little patootie off, too.

If a 6 year old has that much Marine Corps spirit, how can you refuse to donate to the Marine team in our efforts to support Valour IT?  Click on the button in the upper right part of the screen to donate and support our Wounded Warriors!

Nice to know we're still needed...

Last night, we found our 10 yr old sprawled out in our bed.  Usually, it is her younger sister who tries to invade us in the middle of the night.  We're lucky if Big Sis asks to cuddle at bedtime, so it was something of a surprise to find her in our room.  And it was clear that she intended to stay the night since she'd brought her alarm clock with her.

Big Sis used to regularly join me at night in 2003 (she was just 2 yrs old at the time), during Stretch's first war-time deployment.  But in recent years, she's been quite the independent type and she's never been a particularly touchy-feely child. 

Last night, I know she was feeling vulnerable for a few different reasons.  So when we found her in our bed, we left her there despite the crowded conditions (she's almost as tall as me now!).  It was nice to know that she still needed us.

And she'll always be my baby.

"Don't talk about it!"

The Devil Pup lost her first tooth 2 nights ago.  It had been loose all summer and her permanent tooth was already coming in behind it.  Every time I tried to wiggle it, she would clap her hands over her ears and scream, "Don't talk about it!"  It all came to a head 2 nights ago when she brushed her teeth.  The tooth was SOO ready to come out that she started bleeding when she brushed it.  Which completely freaked her out.

Oh, the wailing, the screaming, the hysterical caterwauling!  She covered her ears and screamed and cried.  After her bath, we continued to try to calm her down and convince her to let us remove the tooth.  Finally, she grudgingly allowed me to try.  My first and second attempts to get the floss around her tooth were both unsuccessful except the second time, it came close enough that she had to spit her tooth out.

I've never seen anyone transform so completely, so quickly.  Instantly, she was talking about how cute her tooth was.  She was so proud and happy and showing everyone her tooth. 

Oy!  Hopefully, the next tooth will be easier...

Worst housing karma. EVER.

Seriously, people, I have to have the worst housing karma.  In Monterey, our house was literally condemned.  It was going to be torn down after we moved out to build new housing.  But before that could happen, we lived in it.  And had a major leak in our master bedroom.  Over our bed.  Through a light fixture. 

Then there was the house in North Carolina.  I refer you to our lovely indoor waterfall and the rockin' party for of maintenance men I had in my house.  This house was reroofed not just once but twice while I lived in it.  And I only lived there for 16 months.

Now, while we are really enjoying our new duty station, my housing karma has struck again.  Just yesterday, we discovered a problem with our air conditioning.  It really is a problem with the heat and humidity we've been experiencing.  Two maintenance guys came by and determined that our compressor was kaput, they'd have to order a new one, and would get back to us about it.  In the interim, they installed 4 window units.  Then, today, we had a pretty heavy rainstorm.  Afterwards, Stretch discovered that we had a pretty bad leak in our master bedroom (hmm, this sounds familiar somehow).  He put a bucket under it and called housing.  Every time I go in there, it looks worse!  Now it is going across the ceiling toward a corner, sprouting new leaks AND in the corner, the wall and corner are completely wet.  Someone has come by and they're "working on it."  But they can't do anything to the roof until tomorrow.  And then they have to wait for everything to dry out before they can repair our ceiling. 

On the bright side, I hadn't gotten around to hanging anything on the walls in that room yet.  And this time, the maintenance guy tried to exorcise the devil from our apartment.  Yes, I'm serious.  I couldn't make stuff up like that.

*sigh* 
Yay, me!

Between homes...again

See this big moving truck? 

Yeah, we filled up about half of it.  Which might not sound too bad for some of you out there.  But once upon a time, Stretch and I only needed a half-day pack-out and another half-day to load the truck.  Those days are long gone!

For the past 2 moves, we've needed 2 days to pack us out (that's the pros doing the packing, not us!) and another day for them to load the truck like a giant game of Tetris.    I was informed by Stretch that "we're packing too much, Troop!"

Our girls have been on vacation during this process.  (Does that make us their PCS fairies?).  We took our girls to Stretch's parents in another state before the packers arrived.  There were no little hands digging into boxes as they were being packed and pulling things out.  Plus, they get to have lots of fun with one of their cousins and their grand-parents.  From the sounds of it, they are having a great time, with every day being a field trip day!  As you can see, Devil Pup approves!

Perspective

I found this over at The Lemon Stand.  In part, she wrote:

"Revolutionary War Dead  ............ 25,000

War of 1812 Dead  .................... 20,000

Indian Wars Dead  ...................... 1,500

Mexican-American War Dead  ........ 13,283

Civil War Dead  ....................... 625,000

Spanish-American War Dead  .......... 2,446

Philipine-American War Dead  ........ 4,196

WWI Dead  ............................ 116,516

WWII Dead  ........................... 405,399

Korean War Dead  ..................... 53,686

Vietnam War Dead  ................... 58,209

Beirut deployment Dead  ................. 266

Gulf War Dead  ............................ 382

Iraq War Dead  .......................... 4,404

Afghanistan War Dead  ................. 1,087

------------------------------------------

                                                  1,331,374

According to the Department of Defense there are approximately 3 million Military Service Members both Active Duty and Reserve serving today. According to the Census Bureau web site there are approximately 310 million people living in the United States. Which, if you calculate the percentages, approximately 1% of the population protects the rest of us on a daily basis."

Remember

Don't mess with me...

I had a lovely chat with the girls' assistant principal this morning.  (It would have been with the principal but she's out until next week.)  I explained to her how rude and condescending their registrar had been with me yesterday about obtaining records for my kids to hand-carry to their next school (4th for the soon-to-be 5th grader and 2nd for the one going into 1st grade).  I went on to tell her that the registrar had initially informed me that they didn't give out copies of records.  Then she backtracked and said that if they did, they'd have to charge for them.  I told her I'd be happy to pay for the copies.  Then she said that it was too "time-consuming," she'd be gone for 2 weeks after school let out, and that it would be mid-July before she could get to it. 

Um.  No. 

I checked the policy and they are required to provide me with copies of anything in my kids' records that I ask for within 30 days of my request.  Oh, and I don't really care how inconvenient it might be for her to do her job.

Dude, this is getting old really fast

See that lovely, large box of books on top of my washing machine?  It's not being staged or stored for a moment or anything like that.  It's being utilized.  You see, my 12 year-old washing machine decided that it just wouldn't drain without a little, um, encouragement.  The lid has to be "popped" down and then a heavy weight put on top to get the thing to do it's job through all the cycles.  We found our tool box too light for the job.  My sister and her handy-man husband found it hilarious that our wee box of books was heavier than the toolbox.  At any rate, short of me sitting on the thing to get the laundry done, I have to finesse it, a la Fonzie, then shove the box into just the right spot. 

My husband's not even gone right now, Gremlins! 

Can you smell the stress?!

It's that time again.  In 3 weeks, the kids will be out of school.  In 6 weeks, all of our "stuff" will be either in a truck or in the back of our vehicles.  And I still don't know, specifically, where we're moving.  Oh, I know the general area.  But I don't have an address. 

I have a potential address.  The housing office has assigned a house to us and I should count us lucky for that.  But my luck is holding pretty steady with housing.  It will be the 3rd condemned house I've been invited to use as my residence.  (By condemned, I mean that these places are/were scheduled to be either completely razed to the ground or to be gutted for renovations.) 

So I'm just not completely sure we will take them up on the offer.  While there would be so many positives to living on base, I'm not sure we can take the living conditions.  The place is TINY.  I've lived in some pretty small places, so I don't say this lightly.  The next tiniest place we've lived would be the doll house/apartment we lived in while in Korea.  I only lasted 2 months in that place before abandoning my husband.  This newest offering is less than half the space we have now, maybe closer to a third.

So now I'm frantically trying to consider all options while simultaneously trying to work up lists of all the items we'll need to put into storage if we take this place.  I'm also trying to figure out how to dump at least half of my kids junk stuff without them noticing too much.  Added to all this, my husband is insisting on having a yard sale, despite his scheduled trips between now and the truck pulling out of our driveway.  I hate yard sales.
 
Gotta love PCS season!