Waldfeuchter

Belgian Beer and Margraten Cemetery

2010-03-30T13:08:00.001-07:00

Karen and I recently made a trip to my favorite Belgian Beer store and took a detour to Margraten, I've been wanting to go for some time. It was a nice, bright sunny day, but still quite cold so we didn't stay long! The sun was so beautiful over the countryside, we just had to stop and get a picture.

The cemetery was sobering, to see all those white crosses and read the names. We walked through to the end and back, but I'd love to go back sometime when it's warmer and just walk around. It's so quiet and it really makes you think about the sacrifices that are made by the military. I'm glad those brave men and women are honored in Europe still. It's too bad we don't show them that much honor in our own country sometimes!

We ate lunch at the Mother Goose Restaurant, my favorite!! I just love their cheese plate, except for the smelly cheese. We didn't go in the smoke house afterward because there were some teenagers hanging around and it would have ruined it. Karen is such an easy/fun travel companion, we'll be doing a lot more in the weeks to come as it warms up!

KARNEVAL 2010

2010-02-19T11:00:00.000-08:00

What a great party at Karen's in Langbroich! The amazing thing this year at the parade was a leprechaun float with two male leprechaun's doing something that leprechaun's shouldn't do. Even the German's were caught off guard and were covering their

kids eyes. You'll have to call or write to me if you want to know what it was, it's not appropriate for this family friendly blog!

We all posed in front of this giant tire, it seemed like a great idea at the time. Just so you know, the bottle of alcohol in my hand was not for me to drink, I was pouring it for the members of the parade who had shot glasses around their necks. It's pretty normal for kids as young as 12 to be part of the parade and drink beer. By Sunday night at my town they were all drunk and exhausted!

Jim and Rich decided to join the Pippi Longstocking group for a little dancing to Cotton Eyed Joe. They twisted and twirled right down the road! Nice dancing guys:) It has been amazingly cold and wintery here. Even my neighbor said she hasn't seen this much snow since she was a kid! Last year I don't think I even wore a coat for the parade and this year we had gloves and hats. I was definitely tired the next day though and only stayed out for my town's parade until I had greeted all my neighbors, then headed home to hot tea and warm kitties!!

Polish Pottery Trip

2009-10-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

Amber and I had to try to make the most of her last few months in Germany. We both had been wanting to make the trip to Poland to shop for pottery and see the sights. She found the most amazing guesthouse to stay at, the Blue Beetroot. The story goes: there was a time that alcohol was banned. farmer of this place used to smuggle alcohol underneath the beets that he took to market. One day the cart went out of control and rolled into the lake, beets, alcohol and all. Occasionally, a beet will float to the surface and magically it is soaked through with alcohol. Regardless of the truth of the myth, it was a beautiful place to stay. I'm not sure I've every shopped so much in my life! We must have gone to about 7 different shops. Most of them had new stuff, but some were very close in their patterns and it was a bit boring after awhile. That didn't matter though because we just had so much fun together filling my entire care with pottery. I even had the chance to speak Korean with a couple of women who were shopping! I listened in and once I determined they were speaking Korean I snuck in the few words I knew....it was so cool to speak Korean in Poland!

On our way home we stopped at Buchenwald concentration camp. It was a bit out of the way, but we both agreed it would be worth it and boy was it ever. It was extremely sobering to walk where so many had died. It was also exhausting because all the exhibits were in German and I had to spend so much time translating. We finally just stuck to looking at the pictures. The ironic part was all the letters that were written in English were translated into German, but not vice versa. At Buchenwald the most moving aspect is the zoo that the Nazi soldiers built just outside the fence.

The "prisoners" were a zoo on one side and the animals were a zoo on the other side. The animals were probably fed better when you consider the deplorable conditions the people were forced to live in. Also, it is situated on a hill so it was impossible the villagers below didn't know what was going on above them. Yet when the camp was liberated and the villagers were force to walk through, many of them were astonished at what they saw.

Beja, Portugal

2009-10-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I'm bad about updating and this is actually from quite awhile ago, but I had the opportunity to go to Beja, Portugal and it was gorgeous! It's not a place we normally get to go for trips so I jumped at the chance to be on the crew. We had great missions and even better freetime. We just walked downtown, although it was quite a hike.

We visited a castle in the center of town....I know, how amazing, a castle in Europe! It was cool because you could see from the top of it and there was a bull fighting ring down the street. Also, there was a Geo cache sight on top of the castle as well. I'm not really into the geocaching scene, but one of the guys was so we went to find it. Apparently there were quite a few in the area, but I only found the one. I was, of course, there with a really great group of people who were willing to take lots of pictures and go see all the historic sites with me!

Whenever we fly we practice Emergency Procedures so we will know what to do if the real thing ever happens. We decided to have a photo shoot. This is what our oxygen masks look like. With them on we are capable of still talking on the radio so even if we have a fire or loss of pressure we can still safely control aircraft. Not that we ever would have to do this in real life of course, but it's important that you practice it as often as possible so if the time EVER comes that you need to do it for real you won't hesitate.

Luxembourg

2009-07-06T00:15:00.000-07:00

As we headed into PCS season we had to ramp up our trips and tours. One of the places on many peoples list is Luxembourg, so Rhonda, Amber, Ryan and I decided to take a weekend and go. Okay, you all know I'm very type-A, but I really dropped the ball on this trip and did hardly any prior planning except to make sure the GPS was charged and ready to go. I did look up Luxembourg on the internet the day before we left and read it is the place to go vacation after your vacation. That was definitely the case!

When we arrived we did a quick tour of the city. I wrote down some sites worth seeing and we just followed the signs and enjoyed the sunlight. At one point though Amber bit the dust on a curb and we decided that was enough for us! When we booked the hotel it made it sound like it was really close to downtown...not so much. It was out in the middle of nowhere, but we were tired so we quickly checked in and got settled. We went out to get dinner at a great Chinese restaurant and then settled in for a little movie action on the laptop, the bed just fit us!

The next day we had a bit more energy and I was able to pose for this shot. For future reference it is better to just follow through with a jump shot like this because it's really hard on the wrists to stop! This gate was so quaint and, at least for me, a favorite spot to walk through to enter downtown. We had no agenda and it was nice to just wander around, enjoy the weather and people watch.

The absolute only priority we had on the entire trip was to make it to the American Cemetery. I am so glad we did, it was really moving and sobering to be there among the graves of so many brave men and women. One of the reasons we made sure to visit was because we'd missed the chance to visit the cemetery in Normandy and we wanted to get pictures for Chuck. I can't say I know how it would feel to just anybody to visit this place, but for me I was extremely moved and I could feel the sacrifices they made in their fight for freedom. It was just one more reminder that I am where I am supposed to be.

Chief Chuck

2009-07-06T00:04:00.000-07:00

Right after the Czech trip we celebrated Chuck making Chief, what an accomplishment!! I'm so proud to be your friend and I know you will be the most awesome Chief ever!! I know Amber will be a great Chief's wife too, she's demonstrated over and over that all those young wives just flock to her for guidance. I hope you guys don't forget the "little people" as you move on!

The kids will have a lot to live up to, but you girls continuously surprise me with you maturity. You are great daughters no matter how often your dad is able to say it and Tate is growing up to be just as obnoxious....I mean great as his daddy!

Turnov, Czech Republic Service Project 2009

2009-04-23T12:17:00.001-07:00

My first Club Beyond Service Project definitely convinced me I want more!! While the awfully long bus certainly left something to be desired, even it was not all that horrible with the great people on board. Here you can see Ryan, Stephanie and Mark "enjoying" the ride. That is NOT 5 O' Clock shadow on Ryan and Mark has the ability to sleep anywhere, anytime.

We did all kinds of work in the Czech Republic from teaching English, playing with preschoolers and tearing out bushes, to running a carnival for about 2000 schoolkids!

This little girl was at the preschool, the kids were so cute and I had no idea I would need so many games to fill 1 and 1/2 hours of playtime! We did ring around the rosy, parachute play with balls and duck, duck, goose. The kids showed us a version of duck duck goose they play with a little stick. In the Czech Republic, during Easter, the boy goes around with a braided switch and hits the girl. If the girl likes him she gives him a sweet treat, like chocolate or candy, if the girl doesn't like him she throws cold water on him!! The kids would carry the switch around and lightly hit another kid, then chase them around. Also, they gave us cake and tea while they played a little chick game where the teacher is the momma hen and has to hunt for her little chicks:)

The second photo is at a castle we visited, Stephanee and Casey are "confessing" to Paul, the most awesome sound guy in the whole world!!

After the preschool we spent some time on ESL classes with 15 year olds. It is actually quite difficult to get teenagers to talk, no matter what country they are from. We had an interesting time with one of our translators who spoke better Germany than English so I had to translate English to German so she could translate it to Czech! Bethany, Casey, Stephanee and Erika did an awesome job even though it was well outside their comfort zone.

On one day we did a short version of our normal "club" night, the picture on the left is Chris, Caleb and Will demonstrating the proper stance for Hunter, Bear, Ninja. On our last day we were mostly outside and in the church that sponsored us. In the right picture Bethany and Casey are carrying away sticks from the bush from hell we pulled out of the ground. The pic on the bottom is Pam and Erin's group with Catherine, Jillian, Ari and Sierra working their tails off at the Carnival.

All in all the trip was amazing, exhausting, rewarding and fulfilling at the same time. I will do another post of just some more pictures later, but you can tell from these that we had a blast!

Duisburg Zoo

2009-03-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I decided I HAD to go someplace, I've been busy every weekend and I wanted to go see something new. I told Amber we should go to Gelsenkirchen zoo, which I'd been to before, but she thought it was too far away. Soooooo, we settled on Duisburg about an hour away. It only cost about 15 Euro for their whole family!!! Of course, it was that much just for me, so take your whole family:) They had my favorites, otters, but it turns out they kind of look like rats when there's a bunch of them. Also, they sound like little birds and I'll try to add a video at the end of this too. Here's the otters:

I even convinced Chuck, Amber and the kids to pose for me in the Chinese garden!

Here's my artistic shot of the elephant, what a great enclosure they had for them. We felt so close we could almost touch them! The same could be said with the giraffes, you could even see them outside of the zoo. What a great time together and we are definitely looking for more zoos so pass your ideas along!!

The dolphin show was amazing and they are definitely not as scared of being sued as and American zoo would be. They put a little kid in a boat and the dolphins zoomed him around the pool extremely fast. He bumped into the sides and almost fell into the water!! I couldn't believe it. Then he got to hold his hand out and the dolphin came up out of the water and took a fish out of his hand. Amazing! In the monkey house they had a sloth that could wander the whole room on a series of ropes and trees, but the cute thing was there were mice everywhere. I got this picture of one checking out the sloth's food. The final photo is an iguana that smiled for me. I took his picture first with a flash and it turned out grainy, but the flash got his attention and he turned his head so it looked like he was posing!

Wow!

KARNEVAL 2009

2009-02-23T06:58:00.001-08:00

Wow, it's been a long time since my last update, sorry family and friends!! This is one of my favorite parts of being in the Air Force, experiencing something for the second time at an assignment. It always makes me feel like I'm finally not the new kid on the block. Karneval was just as much fun this year as last, although this year I hung out at Chuck and Amber's house and it was AWESOME!! I got to see all my neighbors who were in the parade and each one ran up for a hug and then stuffed my pockets with little bottles of liquor and candy. I am always amazed at just how much candy is thrown and how much alcohol is drunk. Plus, Chuck and Amber let all the parade members use their bathroom so we had a steady flow of vikings, musketeers, ducks, and pirates parading through the house and hanging out with our group.

Tate was so cute, once he got settled he just sat still and waited for them to come to him! He was totally surrounded by candy when it was all said and done and got upset when we had to put in in my candy bag because his was full:)

These ducks were so drunk and just continued drinking. It is absolutely amazing to me to watch these young teenagers drinking and staggering along the parade path, you can see a definite age line of the participants.

Prevaza, Greece

2008-11-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

I know I waited quite awhile to update, but it's been crazy lately! I'm so busy and I'm definitely ready to head home to the United States of America next week!! These are photos taken from the cockpit on one of our flights. We stayed at quite the hotel, one guys room even had a possible murder take place in it! It was about 45 minutes by foot to the downtown area so the second and third nights we took taxis.

There were cats everywhere! Each time we ate dinner we had to share it with the cats. Okay, maybe that was just me because I'm a sucker for a cute cat. I ate my fill of Greek salad and I was actually sick of olives and feta cheese, but I'm already hungry for it again!!

Oh La La....A Paris Adventure

2008-10-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

As many of you know I am currently in France, with work of course. I'm sure you're saying the same thing as me....man, NATO life is rough! Yes, I was force to spend the weekend even. But we made the most of it and managed to spend some quality time in Paris....YES, Paris. I bought Rick Steve's Paris tourguide before we left and it was a lifesaver, plus I saw quite a few more floating around while we were there and made instant friends. We left Friday morning and got there around noon. After lunch at a Bistro down the street from our hotel we got a quick metro intro and were on our way to Notre Dame.

While on the island we also saw the

Deportation museum, honoring the French who were deported during the Holocaust, not to be confused with the Holocaust museum that we saw on Sunday. We also hiked to the top of Notre Dame and got some shots of the most photographed gargoyle in France. We next headed to Champ Elysees, the fanciest Shopping street ever and visited the Arc De Triomph.

At the Arch we got right in and saw the sights from on top, I highly recommend paying the money to see the view, it's gorgeous! Every night at 6:30 they symbolically relight the eternal flame underneath. On this particular night there was quite a crowd and we couldn't see what was going on. All of a sudden, to my surprise, I heard the Korean National Anthem being played. It was a Korean contingent helping relight the flame! I couldn't believe it and I finally put my memorization of their anthem to use and sang along. Afterwards Javier and I split from the others and headed over to see the Eiffel tower lit up, while enjoying one of my new favorite foods...crepes. You can get just about anything in your crepe, but the ham, cheese and egg is especially filling.

Day two, Saturday, we started off a bit early to avoid the crowds, although we didn't have long waits anywhere we went. We got to the Eiffel Tower about 9:25 or so and got in a very long line, but then realized a new line had opened and only ended up waiting about 15 minutes. Of course, on our clear beautiful day it started getting foggy once we reached the top so I don't have many good shots. The cool thing that happened though was

after we got back down we looked up and the clouds were being split in half by the tower so there was a streak of blue. All in all we decided we had accomplished one of the must do's of Paris and pressed on to the Orsay museum, which is in an old train station and I'm sure I will be giving that whole scoop to Dad if any of you area really interested.

Next was the Louvre, because no visit to Paris is complete without the Louvre. We were exhausted so we only visited the must sees and about a quarter mile of the nearly 12 miles of art. Luckily, I had been warned in advance about the size of Mona Lisa so no surprise there. Thanks to Rick Steves I got all the background on the painting while were walking and was able to fill the guys in. We stopped at a few other pieces and tried to make out what was going on, but finally gave up and headed out to the gorgeous sunshine and took the Metro to Sacre Coure. I was getting a bit cranky so we stopped for lunch first and did a speed tour inside because there was a wine festival going on and it was sardine packed.

That evening we ended our tour at the Moulin Rouge and headed to the hotel where we collapsed, throbbing feet and all, into our beds and slept hard the whole night. Sunday we headed out a bit later and saw the Bastille monument and after that headed to the Holocaust memorial. It was extremely moving and we spent more time there than any other sight. Also, it had Fort Knox security with metal detectors and X-rays and they had to unlock each door for you before you could enter. To leave you went through one door that had to lock behind you before you could unlock the second door. Both Javier and I were exhausted be we trekked to the Latin Quarter for Chinese food for lunch and then went to the Cluny museum, George wasn't there and I was sad, but we did enjoy the tapestries. We rounded out the trip with a short break in the Luxumbourg park before driving back to Bourges and one more week of work. If you're interested in anymore photos I'm trying to figure out the whole Picasso thing and hope to get them on the web, available for viewing, soon.

Oktoberfest 2008

2008-09-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a long time since my last blog! This is the most recent event, although I'll try to add some back trips. I promise to do better:)

My second Oktoberfest!!!! What a great one and I was a little bit more prepared this year. This year I went with some friends from my town, Amber and Chuck Cottrell, and we met Mike and Karin beforehand at their Guesthouse for a bit of pre-drinking to get warmed up. Mike, Karin and their friends were all dressed up in traditional dress, it was AWESOME! This is a picture of Amber, Karin and I with our new "boyfriend" Dieter. He bought all of us Ich Liebe Dich hearts, a traditional gift in Germany.

Here is the table I was with the whole time. This is fairly early on, you can tell it was a great group to drink with and sing with and dance with and....

Aside from the band, which was awesome and played traditional as well as current hits, there was another group that performed. The Men in Tights danced to Heidi and it was soooooo funny! They tried to do girl kind of moves, but watching guys do that is hilarious, of course beer makes it even funnier:)

Nordstrasse Strassenfest

2008-07-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying I live in the most awsome village ever!!! Last year when I first arrived I experienced my first Strassenfest. I guess the best thing to compare it to is a block party in the U.S. Everyone on my street gets together and drinks, grills, eats, cooks, sings, toasts and enjoys each others company. It was an amazing way to meet my neighbors, although I hardly spoke any German.
Fast forward a year and I have now taken one German class and done some online work so I can communicate at least 30% better than last year. This years Strassenfest was held at an old restored windmill that a couple now live in.

We sang Karaoke in the living room, it was all english words though so somehow I kept ending up with the microphone in my hand!

Saturday was quite rainy, but Sunday was beautiful. On Saturday night we start around 6 p.m. with grilling and beer drinking. Funny story: I invited my friend Amber to come down around 11 p.m. and she brought a bottle of wine with her, everyone kind of looked at it like they didn't know what it was! Beer is definitely the drink of choice in Germany. Small fires are kept burning to keep away the chill, even though it was extremely humid after a rainstorm. Saturday goes really late, I left just after midnight because I had to sober up enough to drive to Dusseldorf the next morning and go to Chapel. Sunday is usually a bit of the same, but with cakes (Kuchen). Germans know their cakes and I tried a bit of everything, just to be fair of course:)

All my friends are extremely jealous, mostly because I talk about for about 2 weeks prior like it's my birthday or something. I don't know of any other person whose street gets together like this and, consequently, not many of my friends get to practice their German on a daily basis or even really get to know their neighbors. Okay, without further adieu, here are my nachbar (neighbors) and friends!! If you are a neighbor and friend and want copies of pictures, just stop by!

So Many Men, So Little Time......or, The Avord, France Airshow

2008-07-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

I first have to say that airshows are such a trip. Okay, sure there's the standing around in the hot sun sweating and dehydrating all day. Okay, and there's the "Sorry, I don't speak French" thing, but it's the rest of it that's fun! Here's the flow of events, as they generally play out:

Arrive at the host base at least one day prior to the event. In our case we originally planned for the airshow to be Saturday and Sunday, but were pleasantly surprised to find it was Sunday only and Saturday was a practice day. The first night the host base sponsors a Beer Tent where all the aircrew members can get together and....drink beer! Okay, of course it is also about international relations, blah, blah, blah. Mostly it's just hanging out having a good time with your friends and the party never really starts till NATO is in the house. This picture is with Ingo, from our squadron.

After the beer party we boarded the bus to drive into Bourges, the nearest big city. The "boys" of course were looking for a bar, I was lucky enough to find a couple folks who wanted to see the sights so we checked out the Cathedra...gorgeous!! There was a blue light tour around the town at night showing all the historic religious sights and there were slide shows playing with music. We followed the music down one dark alleyway which led into a convent courtyard and had a music and light show.

Saturday I was up bright and not so early to catch the bus into town again and see the sights in the daylight. I was joined by the two other women on the trip and we took the Cathedral Crypt tour. Unfortunately, it was all in French and we only understood none of it. They did give us a booklet, but it told about 4% of what the guide told the group.

After the Crypt tour we headed up 350-some odd stairs to the top of the Cathedral. The walk up the stairs showed graffiti from the 1800s!! It was amazing and quite the view, but we were exhausted.

Sunday was, of course, the airshow. The French demonstration team performed, although I have to maintain U.S. pride and say the Thunderbirds are MUCH better:) I had a great time "talking" to folks, but if I never say Bonjour again it will be too soon!

After a grueling day we headed to the invitation only, which we managed to snag about 20 invitations for, cocktail party. While I understand French champagne is good and it's best served with small snacks, drinking it after a long hot day is not as great as you might imagaine. On the left is Timo and Shrek, I don't know the other two guys names, but I traded patches with the one on the right so he wanted in the picture. Trading patches is the biggest pastime at the airshow and I somehow ended up with less than I went with. I'm not sure how that happens, but I've been told champagne cloudss the senses.
Overall, another successful NATO venture and fun to boot! I had a great time and if any of you make it over here, there is much more to see than just guys, I PROMISE!!

Labyrinth

2008-07-19T04:58:00.000-07:00

In a magical place called the Dreiland, Three Lands, you can be in Begium, the Netherlands and Germany all at the same time. The Stahlbaum's, Erin and I have been having Sunday adventures for awhile now and since Tiffany's mom was in town we went all out. Rachel, Justin and Nikki tagged along too! It doubled as a going away trip for the Reiser's before they PCS'd.

The traditional Dreilands pose, or Dreiland's Twister if you will, with on body part in each country. You can see the lines on the ground signifying the divide.

There's also a tower you can climb, or ride the elevator up, and overlook the three countries. Erin is posing in the Netherlands...I think.

Rachel, Justin and Nikki at the entrance sign. It took us 10 minutes just to get into the park because we had to get pictures of everyone at the sign!

The Stahlbaum "girls" pose for their picture right before one or the other girls ran off to explore some "amazing" tree or item they found on the ground. You have to be quick to get them all together, but they never seem to take a bad picture!!

The Reiser's led the way for this trip and even took us to a Pannenkuchen Mill for lunch beforehand. Pannenkuchen are like crepes, only thicker and you can get ANYTHING on them from cheese and bacon, to fruit and whipped cream, to ice cream and chocolate sauce!

Mondo Verde

2008-07-19T04:43:00.001-07:00

Just across the border in the Netherlands there are a series of parks and Mondo Verde is one of the newest. We recently had a trip there after chapel for all the sunday school teachers. What a blast! We spent almost 5 hours there and only saw about HALF the park. I will definitely be going back, although it won't be as much fun without the crew:)

There was this giant cirus tent looking thing set up that you were supposed to climb up. It wasn't blown up or anything, it was really just like they took a tent and tacked it to the ground. It was quite an accomplishment to make it to the top though and we almost all had a go. This is Dave and the Chaplain celebrating their victory!

Jayson, Bryan, TJ, Saverio and Dave. The park is set up into different themed gardens and we decided we needed some group photos in this one. This isn't the whole group, we split up after lunch and went our own separate ways. We ended up checking out the dinasour park first, of course!

Me, Chris, Beth, Renee, Angela and Emily. What a great bunch of women and we had such a wonderful time together. Sometimes it's fun to just play in the park and pretend you're a kid again!

FOB Konya, Turkey

2008-07-19T04:20:00.000-07:00

I have never been to Turkey before, as I can say for most of the countries I've visited so far with NATO! We had gorgeous facilities and even a movie room where I got to see Kill Bill for the first time, with James and Letitia. We snacked on Pistachios, a well known product from Turkey apparently. We were only in Turkey three days, but we got one day off to enjoy the sights.

James stares lovingly at Letitia before they move tables to be together by the window...awwwww. This cafe was really nice and overlooked a park so we sat and enjoyed some chai tea, not the huge chai you get at Starbucks, but real chai served in a tiny glass.

Meike is the one who found the cafe. We actually were looking for another cafe,but this one turned out just fine. We all got a little ice cream aftward and just wandered around looking at shops. He also took us to a shop where they make things with pressed wool. Gorgeous! I will definitely go there again the next time I'm in Turkey!

Florennes, Belgium

2008-07-19T03:57:00.000-07:00

I spent a total of 3 weeks in Florennes for a CSAR exercise and a training program. We stayed one week in Dinant,where the saxophone was invented. The second week we stayed in Dinant, but at a hotel set back in the woods with nature trails, but no access to the downtown bars and restaurants. The third week we stayed on base, by far the worst! It was night flying and we landed really late, then stayed up drinking beer and visting. We went to bed probably around 1 a.m. and the mowing started promptly at 7!! Let's just say we were not well rested that night to fly.
JD and Sean at the Ibis hotel having a quick drink before dinner. The Ibis is right downtown Dinant overlooking the canal and old monastary type building across the canal. It was gorgeous and I will definitely be staying there again.
Peter, Ioannis, Sean, JD and Axl at dinner at the Mercure. This hotel was beautiful and I had a room with a balcony overlooking the grounds. It was our shortest of the three trips unfortunately, but Letitia and I did get one nature walk in before we left.

Poor Abby

2008-07-19T03:32:00.000-07:00

My niece Abby was playing at the park and went down a spiral slide. She got her foot caught and continued down the slide while her leg was turned behind her. Of course, her aunt thought she had hurt her ankle and the hospital ONLY took X-rays of her ankle and found nothing wrong. When she still wasn't able to walk three days later Mary took her to the hospital and it turns out she had a spiral fracture!! Mary and Jim felt horrible and poor Abby has to have a cast. She sure is cute though:)

Kaiserslautern Zoo

2008-05-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

Erin and I took off to Ramstein for the weekend and I used, yet again, the handy dandy "attractions" selection on my GPS. I recommend it to anyone who's looking for something fun to do. I just hit that button, select "all attractions" and see what is within the distance I'm willing to travel. We went to Trier of course, which I'll post later, but first I wanted to show you ANOTHER fun zoo. This one was definitely not as large or spectacular as the Gelsenkirchen zoo, but definitely a good 1-2 hour place to enjoy and very kid friendly. There were camels, lions, a bear, petting zoo with lots of cute goats and numerous domestic animals. There were two rather mentionable things: first, there were raccoons. I think that's pretty cool, most zoos don't have raccoons and they were very active searching for food.

Second, there was a nature walk that had educational stops for the kids that were, mostly, translated in English. It showed all the local trees and animals and had benches to sit and try and identify the things you saw.

They are still working on the zoo, but the most impressive area was the reptiles. There were quite a few iguanas, frogs and snakes. Not to mention a couple small monkeys, sloths and tri-colored squirrels.

If you are interested, here is the website for more information:
http://www.kaiserslautern.de/leben_in_kl/freizeit_und_sport/zoo/index.html?lang=en It was only 4.50 Euro to enter and there was a playground and Grillhut. Parking was free, next to a beautiful pond you can spend another 25 minutes or so enjoying. If you take bikes, the trails right there are beautiful and trek off into the woods.

Keukenhof Gardens

2008-05-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

I recently went on an MWR trip to Keukenhof Gardens and saw the GORGEOUS flowers! It was so beautiful, but we spent way too long there. The trip has us there for 6 hours. We only needed 3 at the most, it took about 1.5 hours to tour the entire garden, but then we did a second tour and took these awesome pictures. We even got to listen to a great choir singing in English, German, Dutch and French!

Jen was on the trip too, doesn't she look so cute with her pink jacket in the sea of pink flowers?

Erin and Jen pose on the winners block. The theme this year was China, specifically the Olympics of course.

My First Hedgehog

2008-04-16T06:52:00.001-07:00

Today I was out with the cats in the backyard and Sam raced to the back gate between my yard and the neighbors. I, of course, raced back to because he has a tendency to run through said gate and then I have to sneak over and catch him. This time though he was intently staring at this cute little guy. I've been trying to find a hedgehog since I arrived, preferably one that wasn't smashed on the road, which are all over the place!
I couldn't believe how docile he was and I got really close for the pictures with the macro lens. He did start flinching though when the camera clicked so I just got a couple pics and left him alone.

Zoo Day

2008-04-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh!!!! The Gelsenkirchen Zoo is by and large one of the most awesome zoos I've ever been too, except of course Toledo Zoo! Currently, the Gelsenkirchen Zoo has to themed areas, Africa and Alaska. It is about 1.4 hours from my house and we spent 5 hours there, with two little kids even! I think the fact that we could spend such a large amount of time there says a lot about the quality. In the Alaska exhibit, pictured below, all the signs are in English, just like you'd see in Alaska. You walk through a mine with Sam the holographic miner, who speaks German, telling you about mining in Alaska. There were polar bears, moose, reindeer, skunks (brown which I've never seen before), porcupines, beavers and 3 beautiful lynz. Oh yeah, and my favorite, the otters!! They were sunning themselves and looked like my cats lazing around.
This is the Alaska entrance called the Tlingit gate. I think Tlingit is the native language of Alaska.
These are the cute little otters, the one on the left sleeps like my Sammy and the one on the right sleeps like Angel. I can't believe how cute they were and that they were right out where we could take pictures!

Then we headed to Africa where we saw lions, and lemurs and chimps, oh my! The Africa exhibit had extras like an African hut exhibit and a huge playground complete with and African hut swing that kids climbed right up inside to swing around.
The meerkats were lying in a huddle under a heat lamp. They were so cute and I couldn't help but think of everyone back home and the Meerkat Manor craze while I was in Korea. I thought it was funny the one on the right that's laying on it's back being smothered by the others!
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes! I petted a lemur!!!! No kidding, they had lemurs jumping around on a littl island and if the lemur came down on a certain area you could pet it. I was a bit apprehenive because they have pretty sharp teeth and don't always look all that cuddly, but I will definitely mark this down as a way cool experience.

These are the friends I went with, Erin and the Bruces (including the two little cuties Ava and Cruz). The kids were great and Cruz's dad Doug is going to be so sad he missed this since he's TDY to the U.S. doing absolutely nothing on the beach!

First Snow

2008-03-31T06:41:00.000-07:00

We finally had some snow in Deutschland! I was so excited when I opened the windows and saw the snow on the ground. Of course, it was gone before noon! The cats got to enjoy it though and it was beautiful. Now it's sunny and in the 50's again.

Marsala, Sicily

2008-03-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

This was by far the BEST TDY I have ever been on in my life! Weapons always treats each other rather badly and we tend to make life difficult for each other. It's the "I have to go do this boring thing so you have to as well" mentality. Well, once we got to Trapani and took the bus to the hotel we settled in for a free drink at the bar. After we decided on dinner plans the FA came over and said he didn't expect me or Heiner to show up the next day for mission planning! The mission planning room is really small and it didn't make sense to have us there if we couldn't do much to help. Heiner and I spent the whole day walking around and shopping and even walked to the ocean. Then we took a bottle of wine back to the hotel and drank it by the pool.

NEW NIECE

2008-03-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Julie Lynn Hutton arrived on Friday, at 21 1/2 inches and 7 1/2 pounds. Mommy (my sister Mary) and baby are doing great, and Daddy (Jim) is still breathing as well:) I'm so happy for Jim and Mary and they will have quite a housefull now with Andrea, Blake, Abby and Faith! Mary has been one of the greatest blessings of my life and to see her beautiful children makes me so happy. I have been so blessed with all my wonderful nieces and nephews, although if any of you are my siblings reading this, slow down with the kid making!!!! It just makes mom that much worse about asking me to have some:)

Gran Canaria

2008-03-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

I went on my first TDY with NATO and I have to say, it ROCKED!!! We flew to the Canary Islands on a Friday and had all day Saturday to enjoy the sunny beaches. On Saturday night we had a crew dinner at a Go Kart park and I entered my first Go Kart race, I LOVE IT!!! It was so much fun and I'm working on setting up an outing here in GK as well. On Sunday we had to mission plan for the better part of the day and then I flew on Monday and controlled Spanish pilots, very polite (they called me Ma'am whenever I told them a turn). On Tuesday the jet had blue smoke fill up the cabin so they other crew didn't fly and on Wednesday we had a hydralic leak so my crew didn't fly. Thursday the instructors controlled so I didn't fly and then we returned on Friday. In between I ate at least 4 new kinds of fish and had about half my dinners with the Italian's in the group. The cows were in front of La Casa Vieja where we ate dinner. What a memorable trip, even the Nude Beach part:)

Karneval

2008-03-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Karneval was the most amazing experience and I will definitely be buying a costume next year. For all intents and purposes it is a chance for teenagers to walk in a parade, drink themselves senseless and do it again the next day. I have never seen young people drink so much, but have so much fun in the process!! Each town has a float to advertise their town, soccer team, local establishments, etc... These pictures demonstrate how they will decorate the "float" and then all the people with that float dress in the same costumes. Over the course of three days they travel all over to the towns in their region and take part in up to 3 hours of parade, culminating in a party at the local Hall.

New Year's

2008-02-02T01:05:00.001-08:00

Okay, I know it's way past New Year's, but I had to tell you about the party I went to with my good friends Doug and Liz Bruce! We went to a Blue's party at Karin's Guesthouse in Gillrath. That's the guesthouse I stayed at when I first arrived in Germany. They had what can only be described as a tent house set up with one main tent and a couple tents leading off from it, all connected and all heated. The band was a German Blues Band that plays American style Blues. Your ticket price included all you could drink with beer, wine and sodas available. The white wine was great since I'm a white wine drinker, but I figured I better give the red wine a try. It was Macedonian wine, one I'd never seen before, and Liz and I are hooked!! It was the smoothest wine I've ever tasted. It was like it was coated with something to just slide down your throat. It turns out they bought it at Aldi's and it only cost 1.30 Euros!! I couldn't believe it was so inexpensive and tasted so great. I have an Aldi's right down the way from me and of course rushed out and bought a bottle so you can all try it if you come over this way:)
In Germany it is legal to have fireworks, all kinds no matter how dangerous they look. After hanging out and listening to music we sat by the bonfire and enjoyed the fireworks everyone brought and then headed home through streets littered with the evidence of other folks celebrations. Poor Doug, he drove, had to stop a few times even because people were setting off fireworks in the middle of the street! All in all a wonderful German experience and thanks Doug for driving us crazy girls!

Norwegian Night

2008-01-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

I am a member of the International Women's Club on base and each month another nation hosts. For Christmas it was Norway's turn to host. They organized each nation to sing a song or do a skit demonstrating Christmas from their nation. We did a reenactment of the Night Befor Christmas with Tiffany Stahlbaum reading, her mom doing the mouse, reindeer and various assundry additional parts, Erin was the main character in her cap and I was Santa!

My House

2008-01-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

This is my house, front and back! This was during one of our coldest days when we had frost, no snow though. I love my house, with three rooms on the ground floor and 6 in the basement!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

2007-12-25T13:48:00.000-08:00

What a great Christmas I've had!! I pray all of you are having a wonderful one too. On Sunday I went to Brussels with A.J. and Macaira (in the picture) and we enjoyed the Christmas market there. We also had dinner at a beautiful, and warm, restaurant. The highlight however was the music and light show in the square. It was gorgeous with opera music and they change the lights to fit the mood and tempo of the music. After dinner we went back to the square to catch the end of the show and the final piece of music was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody! We couldn't believe it, quite awesome.
On Christmas Eve I saw the Pinto's again at another friends house, Mike and Kathy Radle, for a great Turkey dinner and a little Catch Phrase, my favorite game ever. That night I went to the Midnight Mass at the chapel on base, absolutely beautiful of course. I had to sleep till 1100 though on Christmas day to make up for the late nights previously. Finally, today I had dinner at another friends house, Drew and Karen Wilson, and had some more turkey, YUM!
I am thinking of you all and I pray you're enjoying your time together. Have a wonderful New Year!!!!

Bastogne

2007-12-16T07:36:00.000-08:00

On Saturday a group of us travelled by bus to Bastogne for the yearly commemoration of the Battle of Bastogne. If you've seen Band of Brothers, this is the exact area it was filmed and it is a very accurate portrayal of what the men faced. We left at 0430 in the morning, quite early and very cold and dark!
Upon arrival we met with others to register and pick up maps, use the bathroom (or face the cold woods) and stretch out a bit. We had the choice of a 7km, 13km or a 20km walk. We, of course did not want to wimp out and do just 7km, but we also didn't want to spend our entire time on the 20km, so the 13km sounded just right. A.J. and Macaira Pinto, Andy and Jen Greenfield and Drew Wilson and I set off on our journey, only to discover we had misread the map! We went the wrong way and ended up at the memorial, although that was great to see:) We turned around and joined the rest of the masses as we watched the sunrise.
All along the walk there were reenactments and soldiers in authentic era uniforms. As you can see from the foxhole picture, even I got in on the fun! There were tents, foxholes, jeeps, first-aid encampments and even a chow truck set up. We also were treated to two Gluhwein stands and a hot chocolate stand, which we skipped to keep on towards our goal. About halfway through there was a large field where a parajump was done with old style round chutes. I have never parachuted myself, but I've talked to many people who have and I commend the folks who took part in this jump! It was freezing cold, extremely windy and they don't have much control. Not to mention, once they hit the ground they were at the mercy of the wind, which dragged more than one man a good distance across the field.
We finally limped our way into the city and enjoyed coffee, tea and ice cream (okay, only A.J.). Finally, we met at a small cafe and had a sandwich, then collapsed onto the bus for the ride home. I wasn't able to stay up past 9 p.m. and today my calf muscles feel like they are detached from my legs. All in all though, a wonderful experience and I look forward to next year!

A "MAJOR" PROMOTION

2007-12-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

The Major's list came out today and I made it!! I just thought I'd let you all know, although the parents got the first call obviously:) My line number was 1083 so I'll probably pin on about this time next year. It was very exciting for the four of us that were present waiting to find out. Our Commander came over and congratulated each of us, then presented us with our first set of rank. We were all surprised to receive that and it made it very special.
Of course, it's also special to share this day with the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD release! Plus, I just received my Hogwart's Trunk set of first edition books.
I didn't do much celebrating yet since I had a really long day of sim and debrief, but I did eat out at one of my favorite restaurants and all of the selectees will be pitching in for a big party probably the first week in January.

What does Waldfeuchter Mean?

2007-12-02T10:42:00.000-08:00

In case you were wondering, Waldfeuchter means "a person who lives in Waldfeucht." The word "wald" means forest and the word "feucht" means mist.

Addtion to Wedding Photos

2007-12-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

It was brought to my attention that as gorgeous as Holly and Kevin were in their wedding photo, there were some other cuties there as well! Here's my nephew Joshua and niece Hayley as the ring bearer and flower girl. Insert "ahhhhhh" here!

OKTOBERFEST

2007-12-01T03:54:00.000-08:00

I have to say it was quite exciting to experience Oktoberfest in Germany. It was, of course, nothing like what we see in the U.S. I did not make it to Munich or any of the other large celebrations, but I did go to the Geilenkirchen, NATO Airbase celebration. There is a special kind of beer brewed just for our celebration!
I went with A.J. and Macaira Pinto, who graciously offered to drive, and we ran into quite a few people we knew. There was dancing on the tables, swaying with the music and cross dressing Germans. That seems to be one tradition I can’t quite understand yet.
I sampled the beer, which was quite tasty, and we enjoyed chicken, sausage, French fries and pretzels. I can’t wait for next year!!!

FESTIVALS, FESTIVALS AND MORE FESTIVALS

2007-12-01T03:51:00.000-08:00

There is never a lack of celebration in Germany, there is a festival for any conceivable holiday or event. I’ve been to a wine festival, a pig festival, a beer festival, a shooting festival and a Christmas festival.
A few of those festivals were near Spangdahlem with my friends Mark and Jan McClay and their daughter Kaylee. We even met up with Matt Wittnam, who you may remember from some Korea connections. Matt and I enjoyed a NICE bottle of Ice Wine at Bernkastle and even bought souvenir shot glasses you wear around your neck in a leather pouch.
This is Matt Wittnam, whose name you may recognize from Korea Connections. He is displaying a beautiful bottle of Spatlese, which means late harvest. That lets you know it is a sweet wine.

CONGRATULATIONS KEVIN AND HOLLY!

2007-12-01T03:47:00.000-08:00

I had to add in that I got to come home to see my sister Holly get married and it was an absolutely beautiful wedding. She and Kevin got married at the DC Ranch.
All of our siblings and Kevin’s sister and brother were a part of the ceremony. We even got there in time to get our hair done with Holly’s mom, Marge! It was quite an event and I’m so happy for them. I wish you both a joyous and beautiful life!
As everyone knows I will now probably be the LAST of the Tusen/Taulker/Balduf family to get married/have kids!

2007-12-01T03:36:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Sam and Angel when I first moved into my new house. They are napping on the Shinnen furniture. Schinnen is a support base in the Netherlands and they provide furniture and big appliances when we first move in.

Welcome to Germany

2007-12-01T03:31:00.000-08:00

As you all know, I am now settled into my new NATO world here in Geilenkirchen. I actually live in a little village called Bocket in Waldfeucht with a few other American families. When I first started asking folks about moving here they told me the houses were pretty small and most American furniture would not fit. I found that to be completely false! Homes in Germany are taxed by the number of rooms so they do not claim “rooms” in the basement or attic. That also means there are no closets and we make do with shrunks instead, kind of like an armoire. The house I ended up with was advertised as three bedrooms, which is plenty big for just me. There was an added bonus when I went to the basement though, seven more rooms! There is a laundry room, of course, and an oil room with the furnace/oil container and another room that is set up for storage. In addition to those three though, there is one that could be used as a small office (now my wrapping/packing station) and three others that are bedroom size or larger that have heaters and everything. One of those rooms is currently the toy/play room for when kids come over and another is the scrapbooking room. The third is ready for when I have multiple quests who choose to stay at the quaint Balduf Bed and Breakfast!