Finally in our house

Free at last! I have my car!! I love having my freedom back.

We met up with Stacy at Panzer on Monday morning to sign over the title and get the safety inspection done. Before that, we met with Herr Muller at the Housing office to finish the contract for the house. Then we went to sign the washer and dryer over to us. The ones that are in the house belong to the Army and were in Stacy's name, so we just left them there and signed them over to Sam.

We also went to the telephone company to change the number at the house over to our name. What a fiasco that was! One would think it should be a pretty simple process, but not in Germany. Even though Stacy was out of the house as of 30 April, it will take the phone company 3-4 weeks to change the line over to us. On top of that, they were trying to push us to take a different (newer) DSL plan. In the end we didn't, because it wouldn't have worked with the modem in the house and it's not as simple as plugging in a new one. You can't even just buy a phone and plug it in. It has to be programmed. So, to save us the headache we stayed with the same plan Stacy had.

We went to Robinson Barracks to pick up our mattress. We tried to go a faster way and ended up lost for 2 hours. That was frustrating, but seems to happen to us a lot over here. Thankfully, the PX had a box spring on a truck that had just come in. So we loaded up and took the bed to the house. We won't have our household goods for awhile, but at least we have a bed.

When we got back to the Romerhof, we packed just about everything and loaded the car. Yesterday morning we got up early and took that load out to the house so I could finish the rest after Sam went to work.

I stopped by the PX to get some things to clean the house and to hold us over until our household goods get here. Even though I know Stacy cleaned the house before moving out, I still like to clean it all before I feel like it's been christened by me and it's ours.

I didn't expect Gabby to react the way she did when I let her out of her cage. She crept along the floor looking for a place to hide. She was so scared. I picked her up and she hid her face in my arm. I gave her a tour of the house and she was beside herself. It really is big and seemed even bigger after running up and down the 3 floors all day long. Yesterday I felt like I was running constantly, but didn't really accomplish much. I did get some laundry done and starting cleaning. I really am happy that we're finally in the house. I want to get some flowers planted in the pots for the balconies. I'm sure I'll keep myself busy.

Today, a couple of workers came to do some repairs around the house. I needed to leave so I left Gabby shut in the room downstairs. She should be fine, but I always worry about her.

Bills are paid differently here and no one will accept cash or check. Everything is wired through bank accounts. So, we set up an account on base in order to pay our rent and utilities. Since the bills have to be paid in Euro, we had to get a local account.

We got an email yesterday saying that our house in Hawaii is finally closing on Friday. We can't wait to get that over with. It's been a headache, but we're thankful that it sold. Especially after hearing that the market is declining there.

Well, no pictures for today, but maybe tomorrow I can post some. I have to finish our last Temporary Quarters paperwork and get that turned in by tomorrow, so I better get busy.