Busy!

Whew this week has been busy. We've worked hard, and Chris has tomorrow off! He's going to sleep, and replace our brake lights because a nice lady today informed me that they are burnt out.

The other day I dragged Chris to a local furniture store because I could not stand to look at the tv and it's accessories piled on the coffee table any longer. He picked out a nice tv stand, which was very difficult to put together! We finally ended up turning it upside-down and building it backwards, which was successful. Our experience at this lovely local store was so much better than at the evil German IKEA! Everybody we talked to spoke at least a little English (don't get me wrong, I do not feel like all the Germans need to speak English so that the Americans don't have to, it's just easier to communicate since we haven't had a chance to learn that much German in our short 2 months here). They were all friendly and helpful, and the store has pretty much the same products. Forget IKEA in Germany! We are still waiting for our refund, which we were supposed to receive in our bank account tomorrow. Well I had a phone call from IKEA today at work telling me they cannot directly put money in our account (which makes sense, they deal with euros and we deal with dollars, and the routing numbers and requirements are different) but she had mailed us a check, which had just been returned in the mail. She double-checked our address, which was exactly right, so she's going to send our refund again. I sure hope it gets here this time, this is the silliest thing ever.

Today I signed my contract for customer service! Ironically enough when I did so, I found out I have 10 days of paid vacation that I have to take before December 31, this job just keeps getting better and better! Today was really busy, because we were closed yesterday for all-day meetings, and tomorrow is payday but it is a family/down day on base so most people don't have to work. I'm ready for next week, I have the 1030 to 330 shift all week, yay!

I finally made it out to the big pet store and found Callie a fancy kitty cat water fountain. She loves it! Now maybe she won't always be in the sinks, or stand in the shower with me but on the other side of the shower curtain so she doesn't get wet but can lick the water.

This weekend Chris and I are just going to hang around the house and rest. I have some plans to update the organization of certain areas here and there, so maybe the house will be presentable enough for me to post pictures of it with furniture! I would like to start hanging pictures too. Our walls are stone, so I imagine I'll be much more successful with my collection of command hooks than trying to hammer a nail through stone. We do plan to venture out to the bakeries in our town though, we drive by two amazing bakeries every single day and have not yet gone in. I've been buying loaf bread and bagels, but recently I realized that is so silly when the Germans are such amazing bakers! Forget wonderbread, I'm going to the local resources! I must say we do most of our shopping at the commissary, but it's convenient, tax-free, and familiar, it's like a Hy-Vee. I have been in a few of the German discount stores, like Penny Markt and Aldi, and everything is very different, they have a different eating style. Chris definitely noticed this when we had breakfast in the Black Forest, the buffets always consist of breads, meats, cheeses, and jellies. He felt like he was having a sandwich for breakfast.

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