Chris and Gennie are Married!

I got to spend last week in warm, sunny Texas! I met my family in Austin TX for a lovely week of wedding festivities and fun. It was so nice to see my family, I miss you all a lot! We ate lots of good Texas food, played Wii, and went to the Austin Symphony which was amazing. The most important event was Chris and Gennie's wedding! They married on Thursday in their pretty, lush backyard.

Chris and Gennie's Wedding

Rhine Trip

Yesterday I went on a trip along the lovely Rhine river. We started at Reichenstein Castle which is better described by my photos than words. The second stop was at Stefan's Wine and Christmas Paradise where we sampled eiswein, the top wine in Germany. It is made when the grapes have received their first frost, but not thawed yet. On the drive to Stefan's we passed the Loreley rock on the Rhine, so I purchased a Loreley shot glass and a Bavarian music cd. The next event was our Rhine river cruise. We sailed up and down the river enjoying the many castles, vineyards, and adorable Rhein towns. After the cruise was lunch in an awesome restaurant. Old instruments were everywhere - hanging on the walls, hanging from the ceiling, it was neat to look at them all. The meal was schnitzel and fries, but since I ordered the vegetarian meal I had a potato schnitzel and fries. Very carb-filled. After lunch we walked next door and had the most fun wine tasting I've ever experienced. Hans, our wine director, was hilarious. We tried his red wine, rose, riesling, and another white wine. Germany is more known for white wines than red. I bought some wine because I had so much fun! Our final stop for the day was in Rudesheim am Rhein, where I went to the Music Cabinet Museum and wandered the streets. The music cabinet museum was so cool! I have lots of pictures for that too. Of course, on the way to the museum I start talking to Ramos and we end up getting lost, but we found the museum eventually. We had a large puertorican group on our tour, they are training at a nearby army post. He was practicing his English on me, and I practiced my Spanish. After the museum I walked along the Drosselgasse, the most famous street in Rudesheim, so I bought another shot glass to remember that. I shared a piece of cake with the tour guide and another passenger in a fancy cafe until it was time to go. It was a fun day, and though it would have been great to do it with Chris, I'm proud of myself for trying something on my own, succeeding, and having such a good time.

The Rhine

Quattlebaum means fruit tree!!!

Our name has been redeemed! When Chris and I moved here the German ladies in the housing office told us that "quattle" meant some sort of skin pustule, but actually that is "quaddel" with 2 d's!!! Our name is spelled with 2 t's! Quattel is an old German word that was regional, and this particular word did not make it into modern day German. Quattel is a type of fruit in the plum family, it is yellow and sweet. Our name means fruit tree! I found this out from the nice Germans at my furniture store, they were very informative.

Apparently the original Quattlebaums originated in the German state that Chris and I live in, Rhineland-Pfalz, also called the Palatinate. Here is a little tidbit I found from a genealogy site:

The name Quattlebaum is made up of two words. The latter word, "baum", or "tree"
presents no difficulty. The word "quattel", denoting the specie, seems to have
been a provincial word that has not found its way into the present-day German
language. There is a family tradition to the effect that the quattel was a
fruit, belonging to the apple, or quince family. A late informant says the word
"quattel" denotes the pruneplum. The original sturdy stock of the quattle tree,
most likely, has through grafting or budding become a more modern fruit. It is
said that the quattel was a slow-growing tree, so slow-growing that the planter
seldom lived to reap the fruit from the tree he planted. Hence, a man was said
to "plant his quattels" when he did something for posterity. (Family tradition
regarding the name traces back to "an old German scholar" who taught at the
schools of Saxe Gotha about a century ago.) During the first 2 generations in
America, the family spelled the name Quattelbaum. In the third generation, the
spelling under English influence, became confused. The fourth generation
eventually settled on the spelling in use today - Quattlebaum.

In other words, today has been a good day. The weather is sunshiny and springy, I have all my windows open. I ran errands, had lunch with friends, and cleaned the house. In a little bit my piano student will arrive. I've been listening to flute music all day, it makes me want to practice. *gasp*

Chris arrived just fine in the middle east yesterday. He sent me a short message to let me know. He is training for the rest of this week.

Round 2

Chris left for the middle east today :-( It was harder to say goodbye at the airport, but easier to come home to the empty house. I don't think it has really set in yet. I treated myself to a little retail therapy in K-town, I found some great quilt fabric. My neighbor across the street invited me over for dinner and we had a nice time.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day, we are in Fasching which is the German version of Mardi Gras. There will be lots of parades all afternoon, I hope I'll be able to get home from work!

My new favorite holiday in Germany is Easter! Remember all those Christmas markets I posted about? Germans also have Easter markets! There is a fantastic one the first weekend in March at a very historic monastery, I'm excited to check it out.

It was great to have Chris home for a week. It was nice just to be together again, even for just a little while.

Chris leaving

Chris is home!!!

Much to my surprise, Chris came home over the weekend! It is so so great to have him home, we are enjoying our time together very much. I've been cooking his favorite foods, doing his laundry, and letting him nap :-) Callie is enjoying attacking her daddy's feet. We decided just to stay home and spend time together while he's here for a week, instead of traveling. I'm planning a big trip through Italy for when he comes back in September!

For Valentine's day Chris bought me a new printer, it's awesome. It's an HP photosmart so now I can print my own photos! That's very helpful since I'm a scrapbooker. It's wireless too, so we put it on our network and don't have to hook it up to our computers with a usb cord. Newfangled technology that I understand, yay!

We tried to do our taxes on base at the legal office, but all the computers were down. Confused and sick of waiting, we decided to go to H&R Block in Ramstein and I bet it only took the guy 20 minutes to do our taxes! We are so relieved to have that done. We tried to file online the other day, but my Missouri stuff was iffy and wouldn't let us. I have special things because I have foreign income, and the nice man got everything squared away and ready to go! That's a big weight lifted off my shoulders. Hopefully taxes will be easier from now on.

Callie is super cute, as always. She's gotten used to sharing the bed with only me, so now I wake up trapped between Chris and Callie with hardly any room to move! I've been quilting a lot, and trying to teach myself guitar. I checked out a book from the library and bought a book yesterday, but I really need help with the hand positions and guitar-specific information. I'm trying to find a teacher, so far no luck. One of my piano students wants me to play the Peanuts theme song (Linus and Lucy) for her, I guess I should practice and set a good example ;-)

Here are photos of Chris's adventures in training.

Chris Training

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!