Where did January go?

This was a busy week, and of course at work I got to help all the crazy customers. It's not even a full moon, it's almost a new moon! But I suppose it was payday.

I've talked to Chris a few more times, we like to pick out houses in Georgia :-). He still doesn't know anything more. He actually has orders, but they are classified so he can't even read them, they are in code. 3 weeks down, I don't even want to count how many more. Check out the photo album, he sent me a photo to post!

I've been a quilting machine! I've posted lots of photos of the Callie cat quilt Callie and I made for my Granny. I was worried about Callie spending so much time on it, as Granny is allergic to cats. But I washed it and Mom washed it, and Granny has been snuggling under it sneeze and watery-eye free. Last night I finished the top of my next top-secret quilt, stay tuned for pictures in the future.

Callie and I have been playing, organizing, cleaning, and relaxing at regular intervals. I'm going to make our house all decorated, cozy, and organized. It doesn't quite feel like home with Chris gone, so I'm going to make it look like home and we'll be cozy when he returns.

Surprise, surprise, it's a cloudy cold day in Germany. Apparently this winter is colder than winters in Germany have been for years, which I find odd because I thought it would be cold in Germany anyway. I guess it's usually milder. Maybe it will snow again soon!

Chris and Quilts

Maggie Has a Little Lamb

I got to play with a lamb yesterday! My pal Maggie lives on a farm, and I go to her house on Tuesdays after work. Last week after I left, a sheep gave birth to two lambies! Apparently sheep only take one of their young, so Sophie the second lamb is living in Maggie's basement while it's too cold outside for her to live in the barn yet. We went downstairs and played with her, she likes to jump around. She was so soft! Right before I left it was feeding time so I was able to feed her milk from a bottle, she was so precious.

I have been doing lots of cleaning and organizing. I need to go to Ikea this weekend and pick up a few essentials to help keep our belongings in order.

Work is busy! Lots of people are moving to Ramstein right now so we have lots of accounts to open, and the audit to prepare for. Now we're supposed to move into the new KMCC by June 1, last time we were told May 1, and as I understand this delay has been going on for 2 years. Supposedly it will really happen this time. I have a feeling we'll be in the middle of the huge building with no windows, I'll have to run outside now and then for some sunshine and fresh air!

Sewing is going well, I finished my recent quilt and hemmed 3 pairs of my pants (I'm short and pants are long). I'm about to start on my next quilt, it will be super cute!

Chris is very busy at training, learning the gamut of army life. This week he is learning how to drive a humvee. He was supposed to stop at Ramstein on his way down range, but just this morning I saw a note that he won't be, I haven't heard the details yet. We don't get a chance to talk very often, just a few times a week. When we do talk, we look at houseplans together and talk about how nice it will be to move to Georgia when we're done with our exciting 3 year european adventure.

Callie has been great at keeping me company and entertained, we play and snuggle a lot. She was feeling under the weather for a bit, but she's perked back up. The other day another cat was in our yard and she meow-howled! It was hilarious. I'm pretty sure she was defending her yard.

Lamb!

Rainy Day

Today the weather was decently warmer and very rainy. I spent the day quilting, scrapbooking, and quilting some more. Yesterday was more of the same. Though my scrapbooking subject was different: I volunteered on base to scrapbook memories of a family whose mother suddenly passed away last month. She had tons of pictures but hadn't scrapbooked them yet, so a huge station was set up in one of the school gyms for people to come help. I went in the morning and took the donations we collected at the bank, and I went back in the evening too. While I was there, a nice lady was sewing a quilt the mother had bought fabric for. I talked to her, and she's in the local quilt guild. She emailed me with details of when the guild meets, and I'm excited to go!

Piano lessons were super fun this week. Nicholas was nice and calm, a new change. He kept me on track this week! Ashleigh rocked at her lesson, she did extra theory work last week and it really clicked for her! I love giving piano lessons.

Wednesday was a fun day. It snowed all day! It was more like snow chunks than snow flakes, the pieces were large! I went to see a counselor, who I think is really going to help me stay sane while Chris is gone. I also went to my favorite furniture store and picked out my sofa set which I bought on friday! I went to downtown Kaiserslautern for the afternoon to walk around and shop in the snow. I went to base to check the mail, and I visited with my friend Nate who is the OU representative, we talked about masters programs. They have a Human Relations masters, which is psychology with a business world name. That means the bank may pay for my degree! And you know me, I can never have enough school or degrees. It's pretty cool though, the degree is exactly the same as the stateside degree because OU actually flies out their own professors to teach the classes!

My friend Melanie invited me over to her place for dinner on thursday. Her husband made us swedish meatballs, and we watched the American Idol auditions in Kansas City. I was hoping to see someone I knew, but maybe it's better that I didn't ;-).

Work has been okay. I've been getting weirdos lately. I guess it was a full moon last week, maybe this week will be better. I'm working on my first US-spec used car loan, it's exciting. Is it odd to think that loans are exciting? It's pretty powerful to be a loan officer.

Everything I See is Camou Green

Chris arrived safely in the states. He called me the other day, and we're able to talk through email and skype. I've been keeping very busy so far. I worked friday and saturday morning, spent saturday afternoon and evening with great friends, and today I made soup and my pal Val came over to do her laundry. My laundry room is in the middle of the house, but her's is on the edge and her pipes froze. She brought her Wii Fit and we played, it's super fun! Now if only stores would get it back in stock. As for Germany, it's very very cold.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

So It Begins

We had a deployment briefing this morning. Chris ran around all day still trying to outprocess, which won't be done before he and JR leave. Lopez can't get Wed or Thurs off to spend with JR or take the guys to the airport. We decided today that I wouldn't be able to take them, though I offered. There's no way I could make it back home, so they're going to take a shuttle. This afternoon I did laundry and started organizing Chris's stuff so the packing process goes easier. While sorting through his military gear I dumped out his chem bag and burst into tears. It's so weird because I always just see that stuff in the movies, but here it is in real life belonging to my husband and he's going to be in the desert using it. He's leaving so soon, it feels so real and so unreal at the same time. Tomorrow we'll be buying some last minute items and packing up Chris's life for the next 9 months.

Snow Day

It snowed all day today! It was so beautiful. Snow is the most peaceful precipitation in the world. I unfortunately stayed home sick today, so I opened the window shades in my bedroom while I napped all morning, then I opened the living room curtains to see the snow as I watched Gilmore Girls on DVD.

Chris ran around like crazy all day! He now has to completely outprocess because this time they've decided again that he won't come back for a few days in February. They change their minds so much I've decided to quit trying to figure it out. It just doesn't feel real, though I'm sure it will on Thursday.

Snow Kitty

Happy New Year!

Alas, 2009 has begun. Today I feel okay about it, but my feelings are on a rollercoaster with Chris being gone for 3/4 of the year. We had a nice New Year's eve, I drank sparkling grape juice (red and white mixed together, the best) and Chris had beer. We snuggled on the couch watching the first season of 24 till midnight. In Germany the tradition is to set off fireworks for the new year, so we opened up the blinds and watched a beautiful show in our town. It reminded us of the 4th of July.

We received more Christmas boxes in the mail! Annie and Chris sent us the sweetest family plaque, I love it! The Quattlebaums sent us lots of cool stuff as well. Callie received a new laser pointer from Bandit, her new favorite toy! She loves it!Thank you everyone! We did finally take down the Christmas tree. As luck would have it, I started feeling better once it was gone, now we know not to get that kind again next year, if only we could remember what kind of tree it was.

Chris is leaving this week, so we've been spending all our time together. The other day we bought toiletries and necessities, and I found a few sudoku books for entertainment while he's traveling. He still has to pack, but he has to have his nametapes sewn on his new uniforms first. That will be tomorrow's project. He's leaving out of the Frankfurt airport, and I haven't decided yet if I will go with him to the airport or not. I'm not sure I will be able to make it home if I go. I have a list of things to do to keep myself entertained while he is gone, but it will be very hard not having him around. I have lots of quilts to make, lots of scrapbooking to do, lots of things at work, and I have lots of friends to keep me company. Everyone I work with and that Chris works with says I can call anytime, as well as our sweet neighbor across the street and a super nice friend that Chris knew at Whiteman who is here. Callie cat will be there for me always, my fuzzy little best friend. I don't know what I would do without my kitty!

Christmas #2