The Adams Army Life

It's Been a Long Time!

2009-01-10T16:29:00.005+01:00

Wow...my last post was in April? Seriously? I can say that a whole lot has happened since April! In my last post we were saying goodbye to Christian for his long and dreaded deployment. We are now 9 months into this deployment, with 6 more months to go! I have to say that we are actually pretty good with all of this! You see, the Army is always talking about "surviving deployment" which sounded pretty dismal and hopeless to me. In my opinion, it's all about attitude. I could make the decision to countdown each and every day that he is away and attempt to "survive" the time, or I could take 15 months to have a good attitude about each and every day that I am blessed with two beautiful children and make the most of each day with them, while also missing my husband in the quiet moments...there actually aren't too many quiet moments around here!
Christian is doing great. He is in Salman Pak, Iraq, which is a fishing community, just a few feet off the Tigris River. It's very quiet there now (they are southeast of Bagdad), so although he does get bored, it makes me very happy! The highlight of his week is mail day, so even if you can drop him a quick note or send a small package, he would be SO grateful! All packages sent to them are just basic priority postage (no international shipping fees), so it's all very reasonable. Here is his address for anyone who wants to make his day:

SGT Adams, Christian
A CO 2-6 IN
Task Force 2-6
COS Carver
APO, AE 09322

Christian did come home for his 17 day R&R in November/December. Some days we stayed at home in our pajamas, and other days we would visit with family or go to a movie. We took the kids to SeaWorld and also had an early birthday party for Lena Jane (#4!). Some great friends in Austin had a party for us so that we could hang out with a lot of people all at once, and that was great fun! And of course we made sure that Christian got lots of good and tasty food - I think we ate at the Grist Mill three times! Christian and I also had a mini-vacation in Austin together (no kids!), which brings me to my last bit of news...we're now expecting baby #3! A lot can happen in just 17 days!
So that's us for now. I will post pics as soon as I can find the time. You can also catch up with Christian and I on our Facebook pages. We are both on Facebook almost daily! Hopefully it will not take me a full 9 months to post again...I'll find some time here and there!
Blessings!
-diane and monkeys

So hard to say Goodbye...

2008-04-10T23:12:00.001+02:00

Wiedersehen, Deutschland.

2008-04-02T10:07:00.001+02:00

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

I LOVE a good deal!

2008-03-23T00:10:00.001+01:00

I LOVE a good deal!!!

2008-03-23T00:06:00.002+01:00

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!

The 1st Day of Gymnastics...

2008-03-04T16:36:00.004+01:00

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".

February '08 Travels!

2008-02-28T21:19:00.000+01:00

Travelin’ Fools!

2008-02-28T21:14:00.001+01:00

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

Note about Mr. Rowdy

2008-02-06T21:49:00.000+01:00

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!

Watch Rowdy!

2008-02-06T21:45:00.001+01:00

2007-12-25T20:04:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T19:44:00.000+01:00

Most of you receiving this are probably getting ready to have your Christmas dinner, while we are drinking coffee and will be heading to bed within the next few hours. We did have a fun-filled Christmas with our monkeys. This was the first year that Lena really knew what was going on, so the excitement level around here was HIGH! We had an overwhelming amount of packages sent to us this year - what a blessing!!! Our living room floor was covered and we had the best time opening all of our treats. Among the many many fun things that arrived, we got a play castle, a Tonka ride-on toy, a set of yummy luxurious sheets, beer glasses, tons of princess dress-up stuff, scrap-booking supplies to last through the next decade, a Raclette grill, a new watch, lots of Country CD's, books, magazines, a Raggedy Ann, scrumptious jacquard towels, and the list goes on. Christian and I were looking at each other, just laughing at the amount of fun STUFF. Thank you ALL!!!

As I've told most of you, being away from you all during the holidays is very very hard. Last year I cried all Christmas day (what fun!) and this year I cried most of yesterday. At least this time I got it out of the way the day BEFORE Christmas! I'm almost assured that next Christmas the kids and I will be in Texas with family and friends, but sadly Christian will be in Iraq. So, it will be bitter-sweet.

We love you all and thank you so much for staying in touch with us, whether through phone calls, email or VISITS to Germany!

Blessings to you ALL and have a wonderful Christmas!
dicey, Christian, LenaJane & Rowdy boy

The Globetrotters & More!

2007-12-07T20:32:00.000+01:00

Hello All,
Something fun FINALLY came our way yesterday! The Harlem Globetrotters came to our post here in Baumholder! They are still the greatest show for kids! I had never seen them in person, so it was just as much fun for me. Lena watched about 2 seconds of it and then went and played with some other toddlers, but she still had a good time. Tanja brought Emi, Niki and another German boy and they flipped over the show. They had never seen anything like it, so it was really a treat for them.

This event was such good timing and really a blessing (it was also FREE!) for the families here. The guys have been gone for about 6 weeks now, Mom's are bored to death and worn out, and we just got the official word that the guys will definitely be going away for "extreme training" in early 2008. Yuck. So...let's just say that the Globetrotters really made our day. Soooooooooo much fun. Oh, and here's a bit of trivia...did you know that they have been touring since 1926?! (obviously they've changed some players since then...)

Hope all is well with each of you! We love email (hint, hint) so write when you can!
blessings!

Americans, Count Your Blessings!

2007-11-22T22:45:00.000+01:00

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Hope all is well with each of you.
We just celebrated our second Thanksgiving here. We had 12 adults and 6 children – a full house and lots of food! I successfully made my FIRST ever turkey and it was pretty tasty – I was so relieved! I didn't want the single soldiers to go back to their barracks, wishing that they had eaten at the cafeteria!

I have to say, this has been a rough few weeks here in Germany. It brings me back again to how wonderfully SPOILED Americans are (whether you know it or not!). To start, we got our electric bill reconciliation statement. You see, the electric company sets your bill at a set monthly rate. After you've been living here for 12 months, the electric company reads your meter and calculates how much either they owe you or you owe them. We have tried to be ultra thrifty w/our electricity, and we were not even in the country for at least 9 weeks of this past year. Our heat is not run on electric and there is no such thing as A/C here. So….our bill shouldn't be bad at all, right? Wrong. We owed the electric company 1000 euros – that's $1600.00. And to top it off, it's due by the middle of the SAME month that you receive it. They don't make payment plans here. So, a month before Christmas, I paid our electric bill settlement of $1600.00. errrghhhhh…

Now onto Christmas shopping. Please, please, please don't tell us about the horribly long lines or how crazy the parking was while shopping on "Black Friday". Of course there is no such thing as that here – tomorrow is just another day. We are trying to not purchase gifts in regular German stores now, as our horribly sinking dollar is SO low, it costs just too much to make purchases. No big deal – just order from Overstock, Amazon, Target & Toys R Us. Wrong. They are all not shipping much of anything to APO addresses this year. I'm not sure why, but they're not. errrrghhhhh….

So, we're a little homesick for the good ol' USA. Big fat parking spaces for your SUV, cheap gas, amazing holiday sales and a HUGE variety of things to choose from, Christmas lights and décor everywhere, and NO worries of going to Jail because you decided to run your Christmas lights throughout the holiday season (jail, meaning that the electricity could cost you so much that you'll have to go to jail rather than pay it!).

Bah humbug. Pooey. Dukey doo. We miss you all and can't wait for you to VISIT us as soon as possible!!!! Enjoy your Thanksgiving and remember that you are living in the LAND OF PLENTY!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!

I Love Mushy Minty Peas!

2007-11-15T17:59:00.000+01:00

Well, I’ll start this blog by surprisingly saying, “I love mushy minty peas!”. I went to London yesterday on a quick (quick!) day trip and loved it! I love London! Woohoo!
My old roommate Liz will be in London for a week, so I flew in to see her for the day. The entire travel cost me only $50 ($20 for flights and $30 for airport shuttle), so a day trip was easy to do.
We saw Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, The London Tower, London Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. The funniest part of the day was a little incident we had with some of the queen’s guards. At St. James Palace (just around the corner from Buckingham), there are always 2 guards standing out on the sidewalk. These are the traditional guards that stand at attention or march, and you can’t do anything to make them crack a smile. I don’t know how they do it! Well, while I was standing next to one to get my picture taken, one of the guards screamed, “STAND BACK!!!!!!!!!!” and Liz and I both screamed and ran squealing out into the street. We thought we had done something wrong, but he was calling the other guard to attention so that they could begin to march. We laughed at that for a while – you would have thought we were 8 year old girls the way we screamed and ran. Some things never change…
We ate fish & chips at a pub that Christian would have LOVED. It’s called the Hung Drawn & Quartered and it has a huge noose hanging over the bar. I’ve actually had better fish & chips here in Germany (Germans make some mean & tasty fish!), but the BEST thing ever were the mushy minty peas!!!!! (okay, this is where Jennifer Joy may pass out…). These peas were kind of like mashed potatoes and they were divine!!!!!!!!!!!! OH YUMMY!
I cannot wait to go back to London with Christian. The British are happy, friendly and helpful. There is Starbuck’s on EVERY corner, and they even have Krispy Kreme (although I don’t like donuts, but I thought that was pretty cool!). The stores are also amazing, but the pound is so high, that they are sadly just for looking…
The only icky part of the trip was my drive home from the airport. The airport that I flew out of is out in the middle of nowhere and when we flew in, the roads were completely covered with snow & ice. I have NEVER had to drive in either, so I was really really nervous. The Germans driving behind me were VERY frustrated with me as I was driving so slow, but there was literally NO road! Mama mia…. I did get home without any icy incidents (as Christian told me I would) but I decided that I was NOT up to driving today! So…it’s now 6pm and we are all still in our pajamas!
Glad I could share this with you all – come see me and we will hit London together! Mushy Minty Peas could be waiting for YOU!!!
blessings!
diane

Uncle NuNu

2007-10-30T03:55:00.001+01:00

As some of you may know, my Uncle Noel (Uncle NuNu) had a very early, and unexpected departure from us. We love him dearly and he will be greatly missed. He was the best story-teller I’ve ever known, the greatest cook to grace the state of Texas, and was often a father figure both to my brother and I during our tumultuous teenage years.

I have to share two quick stories about growing up with him…I lived with my aunt and uncle during my sophomore year of high school. Their house was on the 18th hole of the country club golf course, and the backyard had a huge pond full of golf balls from shots that had missed the 18th hole. One day, two friends of mine rang the doorbell and asked if they could borrow 2 of my uncle’s drivers. I said sure and handed them over. A few hours later, the doorbell rang again. It was the golf pro from the club, asking to speak with my uncle. As it turned out, my two friends fished out about 3 dozen balls from the bottom of our pond, then used the borrowed drivers to hit EVERY single one of them back onto the golf course. Golfers who were out enjoying a quiet game of golf, were suddenly pelted by golf balls flying all over the course. The golf pro was livid. LIVID! This did not go over well, but I have to say, my uncle NuNu gave me a lot of undeserved grace! Another test of his patience was when I was water skiing with some friends after school (or during school???) and our favorite skiing pastime was soaking fishermen as they were peacefully sitting in their boats. There were only a few fishermen on the lake that day, so we soaked each one of them well. As we were making another swerve by a small fishing boat, I looked a little closer to see that it was my Uncle Noel that we had soaked several times over. I stupidly yelled, “Hey Uncle NuNu!!!!”, and then realized by the look on his face that I had just busted myself. It took me a while to live that one down….

None of us were surprised that his memorial service was standing-room only. I believe there were well over 200 people there. I’ve attached a brief (way too brief) slideshow of his life that I made for my mother, and below is the obituary that was written for him.

TEXAS CITY — Noel Byerly of Texas City, Texas passed away of natural causes while vacationing with his family and friends in Mexico on Saturday, October 13, 2007. He was surrounded by his loved ones and friends and was having a wonderful time snorkeling! He leaves cherished memories with his wife and best friend, Marla; his daughter Sunnie; his son Colin; grandson Keller “The Critter”; his wonderful in-laws Betty and Norman Snapp; sister Linda Davies; his special puppies Miss Chloe, Mr. Roux, Mr. Tic and Mr. Spike; as well as his many friends and additional family members. He loved life, fishing, his business, his friends but most important his family. He was a loving husband, devoted father and loyal friend who will truly be missed.

My Uncle NuNu

2007-10-30T03:53:00.000+01:00

Who Wants Pie

2007-10-09T22:06:00.001+02:00

Pie Now, Paris Later

Pie Now, Paris Later!

2007-10-09T21:40:00.000+02:00

Wow....what a whirlwind of a weekend! I can't believe this is Tuesday already - what happened to Sunday?

On Thursday we had our company fundraiser, Pie In the Face. We auctioned off pies to be thrown at high ranking NCOs & officers, and let's just say that it went well. Really well! Most random fundraisers we've had made @ $150-$200. This one made $2500.00. Yep, that's not a typo! We took bids for pies throughout the day, and I was estimating that we would make @ $700. Well, once the pies were ready and the soldiers saw the first pie thrown, they went CRAZY!!! Bids started flying and the money got bigger & bigger. Some soldiers put their money together and spent $1000.00 just to put a pie in the 1st SGT's face. It was hysterical!!! By the end of the event, my jaw hurt from laughing so hard. We made a ton of money, but the best part was watching the soldiers have so much fun. They loved it, so we loved it.

My friend Kathleen posted this video of the event on utube, so I've included that on here as well. You will recognize our little monkeys Lena & Rowdy in the video - they were there for the whole thing!

Before I post the video, just a few more things...Christian also went to his promotion board on Thursday and did outstanding. Let me repeat that...outstanding. At least that's what I was told by Captain Phillips and several other NCOs!!! This means that he will most probably be promoted to Sergeant by early December....woohoo....just in time for Christmas shopping $$$!!!

Tonight I ran my first FRG meeting with Captain Phillips. There were @ 45 people in attendance, I was nervous, but I survived!

Hopefully tommorow I can get our Paris blog posted...we had a WONDERFUL time. The more I visit Paris, the more I love it, but we'll get to all of that later.....

blessings!

dicey, christian (boyfriend), & sweet baby monkeys

Lookie here!

2007-10-02T23:14:00.000+02:00

Hello all,

Welcome to our new blog spot. I hope to update this weekly, along with a few photos or a quick video blip here and there. I thought this would be a quick & easy way for each of you to catch up with us and our growing monkeys, here in rural Germany.

What's up for this week?....Well, Mr. Rowdy boy started crawling. Oh My! I really really have to watch him now (not that I wasn't watching him in the first place....). Lena girl has been in panties for 2 weeks now. She's pretty excited, but I am thrilled!!!!!!! Christian goes to his promotion boards on Thursday - we are praying that he will walk in there as Specialist Adams, and stroll out of there as Sergeant Adams!!! I have my first FRG fundraiser this Thursday as well. We are doing a Pie In the Face fundraiser where we auction off pies to be thrown at high ranking NCOs and officers. Our commander gladly signed-off on it (I'm hoping that he understands that he is a KEY target!), so I'll let you know how it goes!

On Friday, we hop on the new ICE speed train to Paris for the weekend!!! We are taking the monkeys to Disneyland Paris!!! Christian leaves to train (blow things up) for 2 months in late October, so this is our big family event before his departure. We will have lots to tell you about this trip upon our return!

Blessings to each of you!!!