29 Weeks!

How far along? 29 weeks!

Total weight gain: Holding steady at 23! Maybe I've gained all my weight... haha yeah right
Maternity clothes? Yes. 
Sleep: Pretty good!
Best moment this week: I think it was probably getting our main living areas put together so that it's actually feeling more like home.
Miss Anything? I miss being able to lay out on a blanket in my back yard in the sun! I can't lay on my back or my stomach, so sitting in a lawn chair is my extent of sunbathing.
Movement: She's moving a lot and I am definitely feeling it now!
Food cravings: Hummus! I forgot that we don't have a food processor here (yet) and I haven't found anything at the commissary. Hopefully I'll take care of that this week, though!
Anything making you queasy or sick: No .
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: No more carbonated drinks without heartburn.
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Pretty happy.
Looking forward to: I'm hoping to get out and drive around more this week

A Mini Tour of Our Home

Our house is in no way totally finished, but a couple of the main rooms are done enough that I'm comfortable taking some pictures to share. We are still searching for curtains to really finish off the spaces, but it could be a long time if I waited for that. The curtains we had aren't long enough for the windows here. I don't know if the 1980's just hit in Germany, or if they refuse to leave, but either way the choices for window treatments are either of the neon or heavily patterned floral variety. Surprisingly, neither of those will work for me! Anyway, here is what we've put together so far. Please pardon the picture quality, I should have used our good camera but my point and shoot was handy so that's what I went with.

As you can see, it is a VERY open floor plan, and you can see into much of the house as soon as you step in the front door. We have 4 additional bedrooms that aren't shown here, and I didn't take pictures of any of our 3.5 bathrooms. The bathrooms here don't leave much space to really decorate, as there is no need for shower curtains (the showers are little cubical type things with 2 sliding doors) and the tile on the wall goes up so high that it would be hard to put up any wall decor. Our additional bedrooms are a giant closet, the office, the baby's room, and the guest room. The closet is actually done, and the office is pretty close to finished. As soon as the drawers we ordered online arrive and the wall hangings go up, we'll close the book on the office. The guest room won't take but a few hours. And then.... there is the nursery.... and THAT will require daaayyyyysss and probably a few pints of ice cream to make it through! I'll save that for later, though. Thanks for touring!

The stages of moving in

I think there are stages of moving in, just like stages of grief that a person goes through. Moving into this house has been so different, and I'll have to detail some of the reasons in another post because they really are country related and deserve their own special post. I've gotten a bit behind in updating the blog, but today I'm finally enough settled in at least a few rooms to post some pictures. Anyway, here are my proposed stages of moving in.

Stage 1. Blind Excitement! Ohhhh my gosh my things are here and I'm so excited that I'm going to take a picture of a truck and the movers because I'm just so happy!!!!! I'm going to unpack everything today and it's going to be so great to be moved in and it's going to be even better in this home than in the last one and I know everything made it in once piece and I know the movers actually labeled everything right so I'm going to be able to find everything when I want it!!!! YAAAAAY!!!!

 Stage 2. Confusion (?) I know my kitchen at my last home was smaller than this one, how did it all fit? Where did all of this stuff come from? How will we ever make this WORK?? And where are my dish washing gloves and drying rack....

Side note: Not all of the cabinets you see are actually cabinets. The upper cabinets above the oven are only 2 inches deep- just barely big enough for spices. The cabinet to the right of the oven is actually the dishwasher. The middle cabinet in the bank of cabinets on the far right of the screen is the fridge, and the cabinet above it is so high it is really just storage.

 

 Stage 3. Denial. Those things belong in boxes and on the counter tops. That's actually where they go. Yep. No picture. Because it's a mess. But it's supposed to be and things will put themselves away when they're ready. Just like I'm sure my gloves and dish rack will show up, there must be another box labeled "kitchen" somewhere!


Stage 4. Panic! We're out of dishes and I want a bowl of cereal and I can't find another bowl- AND I STILL CAN'T FIND MY DISH WASHING STUFF!! No time to take a picture because I'm running around like a crazy person!!!!!!


Stage 5. Calm Satisfaction. My kitchen has always looked this clean and put together, what are you talking about? Everything fit perfectly right out of the box, I think it really only took me about 45 minutes to unpack. And it made total sense to me that my dish gloves and drying rack would be in the box labeled "Master Bedroom Closet" that contained my wedding dress. Don't know why I didn't check there first.

Daisy and I have been reunited!

Well, she's a little dirty and broken, but she's still beautiful to me! My car made it!

The ship Daisy was on got into port on Tuesday, May 1. I was FINALLY able to pick her up on Wednesday, May 16th!  We paid a little extra to have the car brought into Kaiserslautern (the nearest "big" town) so we didn't have to make a more than 6 hour drive each direction up to the port. I was less than happy to see this on the side of my car, however

B has epoxied it back on and I'll take the duct tape off tomorrow to see if it's holding. This was one of the many, MANY hiccups with the company I used to ship my car. Should you be shipping your vehicle for some reason, my advice is to NOT use DAS Global Services.
Anyway, the point of this post is my car made it, we are fixing it, and hopefully I will be able to start driving it again tomorrow! Just driving it back from the drop off point was fun- it feels like a race car after slowly inching around the roads in Big Red (not that I don't love the truck, the village roads are just ridiculously itsy bitsy).
Love from me and Daisy!

28 Weeks

How far along? 28 weeks

Total weight gain: As promised, I have a truthful response this week. 23 pounds. Ouch. 
Maternity clothes? Ha yeah. 
Sleep: Sleeping in my own bed is every bit as magical as I thought it would be! I'm sleeping so well now.
Best moment this week: Sleeping ranks up there, but ultimately the best moment was a birthday lunch and afternoon spent with Cece :)
Miss Anything? I know I'm whining here considering I posted about it this morning, but I very much miss my walking trails in Dayton. The one that looped around the neighborhood, the trail I would run with Katie, and all of the wonderful Dayton Metroparks.
Movement: She's moving! I saw it on the ultrasound, but I just don't feel it very often.
Food cravings: DQ Blizzards. Einstein Bros bagel sandwich. Chickfila. Phantom Canyon Brewery Gouda Soup.
Anything making you queasy or sick: I'm sticking with onions here.
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: I get heartburn after drinking a 1.5 liter bottle of carbonated mineral water, but then again so does B so that might just be too many bubbles in general.
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: This week has been peaks and valleys again.
Looking forward to: Getting the rest of this house put away! I need to feel at HOME!

A tick?! On MY dog?

Thumper and I have been wandering trails together for a few years now, and it's one my favorite ways to decompress, especially during the last few months when life has been less than "normal". In Ohio, we walked on the wonderful neighborhood path. From our hotel room in Germany, we could walk the on base housing neighborhoods. While we were in our apartment, we found a trail that wound along next to a railroad track and was flat, well lit, and well traveled. It was fantastic. Now that we're in our home, we've had to get a bit more creative! The trail behind our home is at a steeeeeeep incline,with deer bounding across the path, and is very secluded- not a place I would feel comfortable walking by myself, even when I'm not pregnant. So, we've found a couple of other places to wind through to try and get some exercise in. There's a spot that follows a little creek, with tall grass that Thumper likes to plow through, finding different scents.
Last week, while giving Thumper a belly rub, I noticed something sticking out right by her paw pad. Something brown and creepy looking...with legs.. ewwwww! Now, I realize for some of you readers this might be something you deal with on a regular basis, but for this Colorado-raised girl, it was very new! We don't really have them in Colorado, and never encountered them in Ohio, either (probably because we lived in a very populated area). B helped pin her down while I used tweezers to remove the dead tick, and then we combed her over thoroughly to make sure it was the only one (it was). I comforted myself with the thought that the tick probably had come from a volksmarch through the  woods, and that we would only have to worry about them after more adventures like that. The tick was dead, after all, which meant that K9 Advantix had done it's job and she was protected.
And this would be the part when I find out that we're in for a bigger treat than originally anticipated. I noticed Thumper scratching a sort of strange spot- under her arm pit- and decided (with tick fear in the back of my mind) to check her out. Sure enough, there was the little bugger- this time ALIVE and with legs kicking! Ickickickickickickick......ICK!!! Cue me shrieking for B to get the tweezers NOW! He grabbed a match first, as he had heard that with a live tick you should use a hot match to force the tick to back out before removing it. Note: do not do this, it actually will cause them to regurgitate whatever they ate back into your pet, and you definitely do not want this. It didn't work, and instead the tick died and I was able to rip it out with tweezers. Two ticks within a week? Not acceptable. So, as a part of generation "Google it!" I took to the internet.
After some investigating, we dispelled old wives tales (the match trick, for example), found out that most diseases are transferred in about 48 hours, and I posed a question about it to the local spouses group I'm part of on facebook. As has been the case with many things here, the spouses provided the most quick and helpful feedback! If you are a military spouse- link up with your local network! If you can weed through the sometimes-gossip heavy posts, you can really get some good help. Apparently brown ticks here are a year round problem (can you hear me adding this to the list of things I "love" about this country?) and are bound to happen at least a few times despite use of anti tick treatments. They are also found much more commonly in areas where there are deer, cattle, and tall grass, and ESPECIALLY tall grass around water! Oh hey, wait, that's everything around me!
So, we have every contributing factor in our immediate area, and are now looking for ways to provide added protection. During the warmer months, when the ticks are at their worst, we might be able to double up on the treatment. We will of course not be going back to the creek side trail, and will continue to look for some where to walk. So, if anyone who reads this has some suggestions for what has worked for them to get rid of ticks, please let me know!

27 weeks!

Next pregnancy post will be from our new house!

How far along? 27 Weeks

Total weight gain: Next week I will be posting a real number, no matter how scary it is 
Maternity clothes? Yes
Sleep: Really bad, but I KNOW next week will be better!
Best moment this week: During a 4 mile walk with Thumper, I was able to jog about a half mile of it, got a tan, and thoroughly enjoyed just being outside in the perfect sunshine.
Miss Anything? I miss my friends and my family. Fiercely.
Movement: Yeah... I keep thinking it's going to be more defined. Maybe in the next few weeks
Food cravings: I crave being able to go out to eat and know what I'm ordering. The last few meals have ended up with me leaving more than half because it was not at all what I thought it was going to be.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Onion. Always. My whole life.
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: Zero
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: I've been swerving between happy and frustrated.
Looking forward to: Like ya have to ask- MOVING on Monday! Still holding on to that pipe dream of seeing my car again...

I know they're just material things...

but they are OURS.... and they will be here on May 14th!
B received word this morning that our household goods (HHGs) could be delivered as soon as tomorrow if we want them! Our lease doesn't technically start until May 15th, and we didn't want to push that boundary by too much, so we arranged to have things delivered on the 14th instead. This means we can skip the delivery of temporary furniture, as well as have a full day to move out of and clean the apartment we have been staying in which has been a concern. I am so excited to be able to move in and set up my house! We were so lucky to find a furnished apartment that would allow us to stay for a full month with Thumper. Despite that, there are some things that just couldn't be substituted for. There are so many things that I'm looking forward to, and to help me remember that when I'm surrounded by stacks of boxes, piles of papers, and total disarray, I'm listing them here!

- My bed- the mattress, frame, blankets, multiple pillows, just everything about it! My back and hips have been aching since we moved into this apartment from sleeping on the deflated old mattress, and the thought of getting one good night of sleep has pushed me to the point of paying for the hotel on base out of pocket for a night.
- Our couches- the one in the apartment has a slip cover that pulls off all the time, and sags down to the ground in the middle. It just feels dirty!
- Our grill- A grilled steak or pork chops or (dare I say) chicken breast around these parts is hard to find! I am really looking forward to grilling out a delicious dinner and enjoying the fantastic outdoor space our new home has to offer.
- File cabinets- Anyone who is in the process of moving can attest to how much paper work there is to keep track of! Right now it's taking over the kitchen table, or is packed away in 2 very heavy folding files that we carry with us. Putting all of that away where it can be easily found when needed will be so nice.
- Our kitchen items- non stick pans, more than 4 plates that can go in the dishwasher, good silverware... you get the idea. I enjoy cooking, and I love to bake, and it's just so much easier to do with all of the right stuff. Some chocolate chip pumpkin bread will be in the oven within the week!
- Pictures- of my family, my friends, my life. I need daily reminders (other than flipping through facebook albums) that even though we all part ways, we will always get back together again, even if it is for shorter times than we would like. This is to include my scrapbooks, which I really need to catch up on... wonder where I can print pictures around here...
- Cleaning supplies! Vacuum, swiffer, a good broom, dusting stuff- I like a clean home and it's hard to do with very limited things.
- Last but certainly not least- all of baby girl's things! We kept everything in boxes in the garage in Dayton so it could be safely shipped in the original packaging with all instructions, but I'm ready to break it out and set up a nursery!

Ok well that's probably enough about that. Note to anyone reading my blog- once we move out of this apartment on the 15th, I will have VERY limited internet access for 1-2 weeks while we wait for the phone company to come to our house- it is not a quick process here (seems to be a recurring theme!)  I'll go into base to use the library internet, but that is around a 20 minute drive and for the first few days my focus will be unpacking. So, if you don't hear much from my from May 15th until maybe the beginning of June, I am alive! Just imagine me in a house almost at the top of a hill in Oberstaufenbach, Germany, surrounded by boxes, with Thumper hopping through our back yard, catching sometimes very strong odors of the cattle below us, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing :)

26 WEEKS

I decided to take a picture this week with a shirt I was wearing earlier in pregnancy, but I guess it wasn't that long ago since it was the picture I was wearing at 20 weeks! It was actually the last picture we took in our Dayton home. Anyway, here I am at 26.5 weeks!

I am cracking up in this picture because in the ones we snapped right before, that beam of light you can see on the back door frame was hitting right across my belly, making it look like I was glowing with an alien light from within. I am not, I assure you. At least, I'm sorta counting on this baby being human!

How far along? 26 Weeks

Total weight gain: I'll be able to actually measure this in the next couple of weeks!
Maternity clothes? Yes
Sleep: This week has been terrible. The bed is bad, and B has been needing to get up by 4:30 for work.
Best moment this week: Celebrating our month mark in Germany with dinner at our new home
Miss Anything? Walking around Target!
Movement: Yep
Food cravings: Buffalo Wild Wings. Spicy Garlic sauce, dipped in some ranch. Or Mango Habanero. Yesss. There are no wings places here, and I so badly want a basket of them!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nooo
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: Zero
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Ehhh.... not too sure on this one. Hungry? Can I count that as a mood?
Looking forward to: Crossing my fingers that the car thing actually works out this week! It didn't make it last, so hopefully by the end of this week I'll have Daisy back.

1 month down, 35 to go!

A month can feel so long, and so short all at the same time. Just 30 days ago we were landing in Germany for the first time. We had NO idea what we were in for in the next 30 days, and I think it's probably better that way. Otherwise I don't know if I would have ever left the plane! I decided we needed to celebrate this milestone, even though in the grand scheme of things it is rather small. So, I packed up everything we would need for dinner (frozen pizza, drinks, and plates), dragged Thumper to the truck, and picked up B from his very long 12 hour shift, and then careened around the curves to our new home. We ate frozen pizza, toasted to our future, and watched our dog act like the happiest dog in the world to have a yard again. There are two doors to the back yard, and we opened them both. She ran in one side and out the other the whole time we were there. It was sad to have to pack everything up at the end and return to our apartment, but I know it will be only 11 days until we can stay there.
When I compare the first 30 days here to our first 30 in Dayton... well, there is no comparison. By the time we had been in Dayton for a month it was home. Everything was unpacked and in its place, my mother in law had come for a visit and brought us Thumper, we had visited Chicago and my best friend there, had a dessert party with our neighbors, I already had met several girls who would become very close friends, and I was incredibly happy. My first 30 days here have been chronicled on this blog, so I won't rehash everything, but it has been just about as different from the bliss of Dayton as could be. I do have hope, though, that once we have moved into a real home, have our own things (most importantly, my BED and a couch that doesn't sag so badly in the middle that it's actually on the floor), and have found more ways to connect with people, things will be better. And if not, then my favorite part of Germany can be Italy! Or France...England... Poland....

Our most productive day in Germany so far!

WE SIGNED OUR LEASE! Now we just have to wait until May 15 to move in to our beautiful new home. Here are a few pictures of where we will be living for the next few months... or years...

This is the front of our home. I love the front porch area, and I cannot wait to plant flowers and really make it lovely. You can't see it from the picture, but down to the left side and under the home is a 1 bedroom apartment/guest quarters That's right, people. Your own bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. We expect visitors- LOTS of them! On the right side, next to the 2 car side load garage, is access to our back yard. I am so excited to pull up to this house!

Off our our kitchen is one of the entrances to our backyard. It will be wonderful to be able to put Thumper out in this fenced space instead of walking her several times a day! Around the left side, the brick patio continues and wraps to the space off of the living room. Our laundry room access is right where I'm standing, so it will be a little strange having to go onto my porch to do laundry, but I'm ok with it!

 For those who suffered through the Prairies kitchens with me... I do NOT miss it! What about you?? There isn't a huge amount of cabinet space, but there is definitely more than I've had for the last year and a half. The space to move around in the kitchen is fantastic, and I've already started shopping for an island. We have 2 fridge/freezers- the built in German set(you can see the door open) which are very small, and an American set that you see on the left. B has claimed the German fridge as the beer fridge ;)

 So here is the view when you enter our happy home! Things to note: 1) this is a VERY open, very American floor plan! Most homes we viewed were very chopped up with strange little rooms all over the place. 2) The boxes you see sticking off of the walls are heating radiators and cannot be moved 3) We have carpet throughout the home, except where you can see the ceramic tiles. This is only important because my spastic dog has a hard time functioning on hard surfaces- she looks like a cartoon trying to run and it is funny/pathetic.
Just out of view on the very immediate right (to the right of the radiator that is part way showing) is a powder room. The doorway on the left side of the screen leads to two of our bedrooms and a full bath. The open door on the left rear is to another room, which will probably become the shrunk room (a walk-in closet to be shared by B/me/Baby Girl). The glass doors right in the middle lead out onto the back patio area, where I cannot wait to sit in the afternoon and have gchat dates with my friends!

 Here is basically the opposite view of the picture above. The front door is the glass door, and we plan to put our dining table in front of that large window. I'm so glad we decided to bring our dining set, I love it and it will fit so well here! The door way on the right is that same door leading to the two bedrooms/bath. On the left, the darkened doorway is our mudroom with garage access. It will be wonderful to have a space to hang up our coats and dry our feet before coming into our living space! I'm also already shopping for bar stools to set at the kitchen counter- guess I could have bought those for our home in Ohio after all!

And here is the least exciting picture, really. It is just a view of our master. The entrance is right by the kitchen, and that's a bit odd since everyone who comes over will see straight into our bedroom, but the location in the home is made up for by the view of the garden and how quiet it is back here! It's a good thing I keep my room very neat!
The rest of the rooms are very generous sized, and will be used for an office, shrunk room, and Baby Girl's room. We don't move in until May 15th, and I am crossing my fingers that our HHGs arrive not too long after that! They are "guaranteed" to be delivered by the 28th of May, but we all know there are no guarantees in this PCS game. Thanks for touring!

As I said, this was our most productive day so far! We signed our lease, filed the paperwork with housing, set up the tax avoidance paperwork for utilities, moved money to our Germany bank to pay our German landlord (who runs the most adorable hotels, by the way), picked up the keys for the home, registered my car in anticipation of its arrival this/next week, arranged for drop off of temporary furnishing for the home until our real things arrive, took a family 2.5 mile walk.... and I think that sums it up! I think tomorrow will be much less productive. Yep.