Almost Halloween

Today with my piano students I played "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and gave them halloween candy! I love my piano lessons.

We're going to a halloween party at Camana's, he and Chris sit next to each other at work and are deploying together. Chris is going to be Shaggy from Scooby Doo (his all-time favorite cartoon) and I'm going to be a kitty! Yes, I know, I have kitties on the brain.

We were finally able to hang our stained glass wedding clock! We found a stronger drill in our utility room that worked perfectly, and now we can tell time on the first floor!

This is not my life, I am not a military wife. Particulary because I'm a woman who just happens to be married to an airman. The only reason I'm okay with it is because Chris was originally in my hometown, and now we have the amazing opportunity to live in Germany. The rest of it I dislike. Now Chris is going to Washington state for a month for training. Then his six-month deployment. I know, I know, he signed up for it to serve our country. But I haven't always been the biggest fan of the way our country does things.

Strasbourg and Colmar

We spent a lovely weekend in France! Saturday morning we drove to Strasbourg, on the way passing through beautiful French countryside. Arriving at our hotel, we walked along the riverbanks of the Ill to the city center where we explored Petit France, Saint Thomas Church, Cathedral of Notre Dame, Place Gutenberg, Place Broglie, and Place Kleber. We spent a lot of time walking the river banks, partially because they were everywhere and a great way to get around! The cathedral was amazing. We ventured into a fabric store, but I was highly disappointed :-(. We spent the night in a cozy hotel, and this morning drove the short distance to Colmar.

We loved Colmar! It was smaller, and there were much less people. The city was so beautiful, every street we turned down had something new to show. We walked around all morning exploring side streets and the streams.

Europe went off of daylight savings time today, and it's very dark at 6:15pm. When we arrived in June it didn't get dark till after 10pm! It's interesting living farther north, and chillier!

Strasbourg and Colmar

Married 6 Months!

Today Chris and I have been married for six months! Our big plan to celebrate today is to hang out - I've been sick with a flu-like virus for 1 1/2 weeks. But next weekend we will celebrate properly with a trip to France! We will spend the weekend in Strasbourg.

Callie has been taking care of me while I'm sick, she's always right next to me. I think she can sense that I don't feel well. Chris has been doing a great job taking care of me too, now he realizes how much effort I put out around the house to keep the dishes clean, keep up with the laundry, and so forth.

I finally started feeling better yesterday, and I sewed together half of my quilt top! I think the other half is in store for today. Now when Callie lays on it the pieces don't move around, I win!

Chris is still working hard, and he's been chosen to do more training. Pretty soon he'll be able to do every job in finance!

Music Fun

Yesterday I gave my first piano lesson! It was lots of fun, and I'm excited to be teaching kids music. I even practiced a little myself! One of the girls I work with has a degree in violin performance, we're thinking about putting together a duet for the bank Christmas party. It's a much more positive experience to make music now that I can do whatever I want with it.

Chris received the award of airman of the quarter for the wing staff agencies! I'm so proud of him. He was honored with a big fancy plaque that has two silver pens on it.

I stayed home sick today :-( so Callie and I lounged in the living room watching Grey's Anatomy season 2 all day.

As I hang more pictures on the walls, I get better and better at nailing into stone. I did try to put a screw in the stone, that obviously didn't go so well. I want to hang my fancy wedding clock from my Aunt Lois and Uncle Basil! It's too heavy for nails, and Chris said we could get a thingy-thing from the hardware store and be able to use screws. Yes, thingy-thing is a technical term.

Chris and I voted with our absentee ballots! I was quite surprised with the differences in voting between Missouri and Georgia, Chris had to mark his ballot with pen! I always get a cute little pencil in the package with my absentee ballot.

German Thanksgiving Day

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Germany. To celebrate, Ramstein village hosted a huge farmer's market! We went, had yummy food, and bought some apples!

German Thanksgiving Day

Oktober

October in Germany is a little cold and rainy but the countryside is beautiful with trees turning all sorts of colors. Fall is my favorite season! We took a walk in our countryside and through our town today to explore and get some exercise. We like to walk through the fields, but when we came to a corn field we saw men in orange vests ringing cowbells. This did not make sense until we reached the other side of the field and saw the men with guns, then we realized that the orange vest guys were scaring birds for the gun guys to shoot. We hightailed it back to town after that. We meandered down streets with beautiful houses, some decorated for Halloween! We found the cemetery, which I loved and Chris was not terribly pleased to be in. It was so beautiful and peaceful, and the afternoon fall light was just perfect! We continued on and came across the church we drive by everyday so we explored the outside and enjoyed the pretty trees.

Chris made it through closeout! He gets Monday and Tuesday off for all of his hard work. The budget office and the customer service side keep fighting over him, he has no idea where he'll be. The only thing he can do is go where the highest ranking person tells him to go every day, and it's budget that usually wins because there's a captain in that office. We found out that he is going to Iraq, and he'll be at the posh base. That makes me feel a little better.

I did a little browsing at my favorite antique store on Tuesday and fell in love with a pine kitchen cabinet, which we ended up buying on Thursday with a super duper sale! This weekend is a holiday celebrating German Unification Day, on October 3, 1990 East and West Germany united. Our cabinet was delivered today, and Callie promptly climbed in it to explore.

I finally kneeled in the flower bed this evening and pulled some weeds and my annuals I planted in July. My next task is to get daffodil and tulip bulbs to plant for a festive spring!

In November we're going to spend a week in Bavaria! We will explore Munich, Innsbruck, Neuschwanstein castle, and the Alps! In December we will be visiting different cities in Germany to experience the Christmas Markets! I'm not ready for Christmas yet, but the BX sure is, Halloween stuff is long gone already and there's Christmas stuff everywhere. I haven't noticed this problem off base in Germany, the Germans must have a better grasp of reality and seasons. Let's get through Halloween before we do Christmas!

Steinwenden