The Adams Army Life

Well, it’s official. The Army just approved my early return to the States. In January we made the decision for the kids and I to attempt a move back to Texas, as Christian will be deployed very soon. He will be away for 15 months (or more?) and when he returns, we are overdue to return to the States. So…instead of the kids and I sitting here and waiting for our move, we are going to go ahead and move back now. It’s not easy to get the Army to approve an early return, but we did get our official “yes” just yesterday. This is such a bitter-sweet decision for all of us (except for maybe Rowdy…he’s just happy to be where there is food!). The German way of life is a quiet one, but it has taught me to be still, which is a lesson I needed to learn. The coffee is wonderful, the chocolate divine, and Lena will never be the same without her German bratwurst! We have loved traveling here. France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and England were our destinations. I have completely fallen in love with France (we were not friends at first), but we are neighbors now and I so wish that I can visit my special Metz over and over throughout the rest of my life. Those frenchies are just too cool! Of course, more than anything, I will miss the most wonderful friends that I have been blessed with meeting here. God truly can put great friendships together in a short amount of time, and without these girls, my life would never be the same. I must end this for now, as this is one of the craziest weeks of our lives. Christian leaves here in just a few days.
Pray!
Blessings!
diane & monkeys

Tonight I got an amazing deal on Gemany ebay....a 1930's kitchen sideboard for a whopping $24.10!!!!!!!!! I've been bidding on these for weeks and kept losing, but this one didn't get away. Christian caught my reaction on camera....I was a LITTLE excited!

Here's my purchase...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180224344514&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=008


And you can view the "winning scene" here on this page!

Too much fun!

Well, this is an interesting story. Today was Lena's first day of gymnastics. She's been very excited, just waiting for this day to finally get here. This morning we put on her leotard, ate some quick breakfast, packed up some snacks & things (for Rowdy!), grabbed the CAMERA (this was a "first" that I had to capture!)and headed out the door. The village where they have the class is only 10 minutes away, but we left a good 35 minutes ahead of time, to make sure we were there early -I wanted to give Lena some time to look around at her school and get comfortable with things before her first class started.

On the way out of town, there was a light covering of snow. (Yesterday, Mathilde told me that it was supposed to snow today, and I laughed.) So anyway, I gave Christian a call on the way out to ask him about how the roads were for driving. My fancy schmancy BMW rental doesn't have snow tires, so I just wanted to make sure that was okay. Christian laughed at me for being so "snow paranoid" and we continued on to Neubrucke for our class.

As I got closer to our destination, the snow came down harder and cars were beginning to slow down. When I got to the Neubrucke gate, I asked the guards which building to go to for our class, and they pointed me up the hill. The hill was looking pretty snowy, but other cars were plowing right through, so on I went. As we climbed the hill, my fancy schmancy car started to slide and then stall in the snow. I finally got it somewhat unstuck and kept up our trek to gymnastics. After drifting everywhere through Neubrucke housing, I finally ran into the elementary school to ask for directions. "Oh, the guards gave you the wrong directions. The activities building is back down the hill". DOWN the hill?! The hill that I could barely climb?! So now I call Christian again (I had called him several times during the sliding/stuck scenario) and now I'm yelling because we're stuck in Neubrucke housing and gymnastics is down the hill. Poor Christian.

I found a place to park the car (I think it just kind of skidded into a space all on it's own), bundled up the kids, and we began walking down the hill to gymnastics. WE WERE GOING TO GET TO GYMNASTICS!! I had a PROMISE to full-fill!!! We got into her class about 15 minutes late, soaked from head to toe. The other Moms got us blankets and snacks for Rowdy and I got Lena dried off and ready to join her class. Well, poor sweet Lena Jane was a little overwhelmed by our morning and decided to hide behind a trash can and not join her class. Her teacher was very patient and finally picked her up and then Lena warmed up to her. Lena ended up loving her class and was sad when it was over. She's very excited about going back next Tuesday, so yes, it was worth the "trip".

I guess I should mention that we did get home safely! Christian came out to Neubrucke and picked us up. It took him 20 minutes to get out of Baumholder because of all the cars stalled in the snow. Who knew that our biggest snow of the year would be in MARCH!?

Oh, and let me add that after all of this, I left my camera in the CAR!!! I guess next week I'll have to add another post with pics titled, "The 2nd Day of Gymnastics".

Okay, for those of you who read our Myspace blog, you've probably already read this...for everyone else, read on!

I thought I’d quickly blog @ all the many places we’ve been in the past few weeks. Mama mia – we have been on the ROAD! In late January, Christian’s parents got here (woohoo!!! Free-babysitting service and a little taste of Texas!) and Christian’s leave (vacation) started, so we all took off. First on the list was a trip to Rome. Christian and I had been there on our honeymoon, but for Nana & PopPop it was a new adventure. I so so so love Italy, so I was wayyyyyyyyy excited about the trip. We got cheap flights via Ryanair, got a great apartment in the heart of Rome, and we saw some fun sights… The Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Vatican (complete with Sistine Chapel) and of course Lena Sr. and I hit up Rome’s finest flea market. While walking around in Vatican City we actually ran into Christian’s company commander and his wife – too funny.

After Rome, we took a few days off, then Christian and I headed to Holland for an alone trip. Nice…. Holland (the Netherlands) was beautiful. We’ve concluded that it’s the land of greenhouses, bicycles and ponies! There were stinkin’ ponies on every corner. I’m still trying to figure that out… Anyway, the whole point of going to Holland was to hit the Cuijk flea market (poor Christian – but he was a good sport!). We found some incredible furniture there, but with the stupid stupid Euro, it was still just too high. Oh – and on our night in Holland guess what we had for dinner? Chinese food! Now we can say that we’ve had Chinese food in Germany, Luxembourg, France and now Holland! On the way back from Holland, we stopped in Koln (Cologne) and saw the monster size cathedral there. It was massive like all the other cathedrals here. I overheard a tour guide saying that if they built these type of cathedrals now with modern-day tools, it would still take over 90 years to complete just one of them. That’s a lot of work…

Okay, so after Rome and Holland, we did a day trip to Metz, France (my personal frenchy-favorite). And yes, we did hit an antiques place while we were there…On Thursday we had to say good-bye to Nana & PopPop… and then got on the road to Switzerland! Brenda (from college) is still there and we still love to shop together, and our kids love to play together. So on Friday, Christian baby-sat (isn’t he incredible!?) while Brenda and I took a train into Zurich for serious shopping. Fun, fun! And yes, I will admit once again, that on the way out of Switzerland we stopped at an antiques place…do I need an intervention?

Now we are back home in tiny, rural (super rural) Rohrbach. It was great fun to get out for a while. The winters here are not my thing. My toes are aching to be in flipflops again! That’s it for now….sorry if it was too wordy….details, details…

Blessings to each of you and chat with you soon!
-diceydo and family too

Sorry that the video below is side-ways! My techie-husband is at "soldier school" right now (that's what Lena calls it!) and I have no idea how to turn the thing right-side up. Oh well... The important part is that you can see WHAT Rowdy is doing! Woohoo! Go Rowdy!