Time flies when you're traveling!

Becky here, bringing you the latest news after nearly a month of silence! If you've been following along, you may remember that I took my trip to the US last month, so I spent most of the month overseas. I had a fabulous trip, thanks for asking! :o)

It was such a thrill and an honor to help Margaret through that last pre-wedding week, and to be present at her marriage to Mike. They met just a few weeks after Josh and I met, so we always say that the summer of 2005 was a lucky one. Their wedding was beautiful and heartwarming, not to mention a ton of fun! I'll write it again, because it merits repetition- many blessings to you, Margaret and Mike!

After the wedding in Chicago, I headed back to the east coast for some quality time with my family. The scheduling worked out perfectly, so I was able to spend time with my grandparents in Philadelphia, and then head to the Jersey shore for the Lomady family beach week. It was great fun and relaxing, as always. I got a bit of color, but was very careful to use my sunblock! My beach cover-ups (very cute dresses that I can wear all summer) still smell like the beach. I am tempted to avoid washing them altogether!

I was also able to visit a few friends in Maryland, which was wonderful and refreshing. Seeing so many friends and family members, who have been with me through all stages of my life, really made me feel grounded, renewed, and above all else, thankful. I returned to Germany with a new, more positive outlook and with excitement for everything that our future holds.

Oh, I also returned with a puppy. :o) Yes, thanks to the hard work of many people (including receptionists, vets, parents, and airline workers), Maggie made it to Germany. She was a bit shaken when I found her in the baggage claim, but soon after she saw Josh and was allowed out of her crate, she seemed much more relaxed. I've been keeping a close eye on her- big changes could cause chaos, but she seems quite well-adjusted now, and is as comfortable as ever with sprawling her tiny body across as much surface area of a couch or bed as is possible.

Josh recently celebrated his 5 year mark- that's five years devoted to the Army thus far. Only three years and some months to go! Congratulations to him! He impresses me because I have never held one job for that amount of time. I guess that college life and then military spouse life doesn't really lend itself to long-term employment, but still, I think his commitment is to be applauded! As far as employment for this writer goes... well, I had an interview the day before I left Germany, and later this week I get to fill out the paperwork! I will be working in a coffee shop once again, and I'm excited. I see it as a way to get out of the house, make some spending and traveling money, and most importantly, to meet some new people! Perhaps we will buy a second vehicle down the road (hopefully a Smart Car!). For now, I'll work around Josh's schedule and be happy to be working at all!

In closing, it is bloody hot in Germany right now. Today our indoor/outdoor thermometer said it was 102 degrees outside. I don't know if it was completely accurate, but it certainly felt like it may have been correct. I will welcome fall with open arms, if this is going to continue!

Christmas come early (and other things)

So, you're probably wondering why Christmas came early. Well, I got an XBox 360 last week! I love it. I can't do everything with it that it can do yet, but I hope that I'll be able to soon. I'm still really happy about it, though, because I've been wanting one so long. If you have an XBox 360, let me know what you're gamer tag is, and I'll send you a message when I get online.

In other news, Becky is leaving for the States soon. She's going to be there for a few weeks, so I'm pretty much going to be by myself for a little bit. I hope she has fun though! She leaves in the middle of my next set on, which kind of stinks, but I really think she needs to go back for a little bit, so she can see some people/relatives that she didn't get to see before she left. I would like to go too, but I can't.

I also have a story to tell. Becky, a couple friends of ours, and I went to downtown K-town to see the carnival. While we were there, I went on a ride that flipped upside down. A lot. And what should happen during the last set of flips, but, of course, my PHONE should fall out of my pocket, where I forgot it was! When it came out, the back came off, and the rest fell, mid-flip, to its DOOM! Fortunately, it wasn't quite the doom I had thought. I went up to the counter, and they went to look for the phone. They came back with it, sans the battery, which is kind of important. So I get home, and try to order another one online, but they don't ship to APO addresses (even though their web-site says they do!) So, I called my Dad, who I thought could get me a replacement battery for my phone. As it turns out, he can (thanks, Dad), when he gets back from Mexico in a week. So I had to hunt down an über-old phone that I'm now happy I didn't get rid of. So, yeah, that's my story.

Last but not least, when Becky comes back from the States, she'll have the supplement check from the IRS. So, hopefully, with a little extra saving, we'll get a new TV when she comes back! Yea, HDTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, on to the travel portion of my post. Recently, we went to Stuttgart, which was cool, although, kind of an odyssey. We kept getting turned around, and semi-lost, which is fun. Especially with another car following you around (full of friends, not stalkers). But we eventually got everywhere we needed to go, and we ended up staying the night in a hotel there. We walked around downtown with our friends, and saw the castles there, along with the museum in one of them. The next day, Becky and I went to another castle there, which was away from the city proper, which was nice and calm. Before that though, we went to the Mercedes-Benz museum, which was sweet. I got a whole bunch of awesome pics, which are on our picture site, so you should all go see them. After the castle, we started home. And proceeded into yet another odyssey, through the smallest, curviest roads in all of Germany, Thankfully we ended up home all right.

Well I think that's all for now. I'll talk to you all later. Leave some comments.

Health, news, and pins.

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm on another health binge, and this time, Becky's coming with me. We both joined this cool website called Sparkpeople.com. They enable you to track the calories you are consuming, the calories you are burning, and they let you make goals to those ends. You can also find people with similar goals and plans, and commune with them in the ways of healthiness, as well as hear a helpful and encouraging word or two from those that were once in the same place. I find it very helpful. You should check it out if you are wanting to lose some weight.

In other news, I have one more day of in-processing, and then I'm done with it. I'll be back to my regular job after that. I did learn some cool stuff while I was in-processing, like a little bit of German. Living here is definitely a bit of a change, I'll say that much. I'm walking a lot more than I used to. Of course, we don't have a car yet, but I don't think that'll change too much once we do. It's real nice overall, and Becky and I have met a lot of new people that I hope we'll stay friends with for a long time to come.

We actually celebrated Becky's birthday last night with most of those people. We all went to Chili's for dinner, and then bowling afterwards. We all bowled for about 4 hours! It was crazy. I actually tried out a new style of bowling (where you spin the ball), and it actually seemed to work pretty well for me. When I didn't gutter ball, that is. I think it'll do me good once I practice with it for a bit, though.

Well, that's all for now, I think. Watch for new pictures on our Picasa site.

Send us a line

If you want to contact us by mail we have an APO mailbox now. I'm not going to say what it is here but you can email us here with a request for the address, and we will send you the address in a reply as soon as we can. Thanks.

p.s. If you don't have your computer set up to use "mailto"'s, don't worry, just take a peek at the address line, and that's where the link would send the email to.

And the Odyssey begins...

So, we are finally here; after all the months of waiting and prepping. But now I have to inprocess, which will take about a month to do, and in the mean time, I can't do my real job. That's bad, because, for now, I don't know whether or not I'm on a good squad yet, and I'll have to be running around to everywhere, which is annoying. It's also good, because it means I have a predictable schedule to spend time with Becky.

But there's other news also. It seems as though Becky and I have made friends in the two days we've been here: the Heard family. SPC Heard was my sponser while we were in Maryland, and we've hung out a couple times (Becky and I with him and his wife), and we all seem to get along together. They have a couple of dogs, a German shephard and a Belgian shephard, which turned out to be very well trained, and big babies to boot. Becky and I really like the apartment they live in (even though it's on post), and we might look at one in the near future. I hope I end up on Heard's squad, so we can continue to hang out, and also because I heard it's a good squad. I don't know if I will though, because his squad doesn't have the least amount of people on it. Oh well. Here's hoping, anyhow. But, since it's 5 something in the morning, now, I think I'm going to go.