What we've been up to...

There hasn't been much going on around here, but I thought my blog might be looking a bit boring with the same post for more than a week now.

Today is Halloween, which doesn't mean a lot to me. Probably after we have kids of our own it will have more meaning. I know some people don't celebrate it at all for reasons I can understand. We didn't do much on Halloween growing up, but I think mainly because we lived out so far and there really wasn't anyone to go trick or treating to. I remember a couple of times getting dressed up for a church party of some sort. I think there is a middle of the road. I certainly don't like the evil/gory costumes that some people wear, but I really don't see anything wrong with putting on a cute costume and going around collecting candy.

We received a package in the mail last week and neither one of us knew who this person was. Well, we opened it and found a card along with a cat toy. Here... it was from the girl who stayed at our house for a few days with Michelle while we were in Alaska. It was very nice. She sent a thank you card and a cat nip toy for Gabby. The cat nip must be very fresh because Gabby goes crazy over it. We say she's high on her 'weed'. It's so funny to watch her play with that little pouch of nip. It does seem to knock her out for awhile after playing with it.

Speaking of my rotten cat...I don't know if you can see it very well in the picture, but Gabby told on herself the other day. I made pancakes for breakfast, but we had to leave soon after so I left the pan sitting on the stove top. When I came home later, I saw little paw prints all over the counter. She must have jumped up to see what there was and stepped in the pan. She knows better than to get on the counter when we're here, but I'm pretty sure this is not the first time she's investigated while we were gone. She's just sneaky about it.

I am finally signed up for German Language classes. I start on Monday. Just by coincidence, I found an announcement for the class. They weren't planning to have another one until the end of December, but I'm really glad they did because after I start work it won't be quite as easy to get to classes. I don't have any hopes of being fluent in German, but hopefully, one day, I can communicate beyond my few words and phrases.

On the subject of getting a job...Sam had to go by the NAF office this morning on his way to work. The NAF Chief asked if I would be interested in a job there. She has a position coming open in January. It would be exactly what I did as a HR Specialist back in Alaska, so that would be interesting. I have no guarantee that I would even get it, but I'm sure I'll apply when it comes open. Human Resources can be pretty stressful, so I don't know that I'm real excited about that aspect, but it's certainly something I'll think about

I finally received my official passport last Friday. I sent for it before we left Hawaii and it's taken this long to get it. Sam still doesn't have his, but it should be here soon I would think. We really haven't had any problem travelling on our travel passport. I guess we just need both so that, if needed, we could prove that we are in Germany on official business.

A few weeks ago I found out that one of my friends/co-workers from Hawaii is going to be moving here in a month or two. She and her family will be a couple of hours away, but I'm really happy that she's coming. I know she's wanted to get a job here for awhile and selfishly it'll be nice to have someone pretty close by that I know and am friends with.

I love pictures. For awhile now I've been planning to get some enlarged and framed to put on my walls. I'm much more into having family pictures throughout the house then something I can go buy. Anyhow because I usually have the camera's date stamp turned on I now have those yellow numbers show up in all my pictures. I've been working with Corel Draw to get those dates out of the pictures I want to enlarge. It's enjoyable, but a little time consuming. Hopefully, one of these days I'll actually get them done and put up so my walls don't look so bare. It's difficult here in Germany because there is no where to print them out. I have to do it all online. I used to run down to Walmart and pick them up in an hour. It certainly makes it more difficult not to have that option.

Well, I think that's about it for now. Until next time...

Pottery shopping in Poland

We're back from Poland. We arrived home yesterday afternoon. It was a wonderful trip. It was very interesting to experience yet another country. It was 3:00pm on Friday when we finally got on the road. We printed out Mapquest directions because we hadn't used our Tom-Tom yet and just wanted to be sure we had directions in hand. I cannot say enough good about that Tom-Tom though. A couple of times we missed an exit and it just rerouted us to the next exit and got us back on track. It was awesome! We put it to the test with getting lost several times and it passed with flying colors.

We decided to get a hotel room in Bautzen, which is a small town on the German side of the border. We've heard that theft has gotten really bad in Poland, so we just felt better about staying the night in Germany and driving the hour into Poland the next morning. It should have only been a 5 hour trip to Bautzen, but it turned into 9 hours because of the traffic. There is lots of construction going on and I think we hit Friday night rush hour. On top of that we ran into some nasty weather along the way too. It was sleeting at one point and since it was already dark out that didn't make it any easier to drive. But...we made it and were very happy with our hotel.

Bautzen is a really neat town that we want to go back and visit some day. We should have planned to spend a whole day there, but we ran out of time. It's over 1000 years old and is called the City of Towers. Right outside the Holiday Inn, where we stayed, was the Reichenturm Tower, otherwise known as the Leaning Tower of Bautzen. I'm sure this would be an incredible town to spend some time in and explore.

Saturday morning we headed to Boleslawiec, Poland, which is rather famous for the pottery made there. It was only about an hours drive. I knew Poland was a poorer country than Germany, but I didn't really think I would be able to notice. I'm sure the rainy weather did nothing to improve the view, but I was surprised at how poor many of the places looked. It was sad to me that just across the border there could be such a difference.

With that in mind, it's very obvious to me that they market the Polish Pottery for the Americans. Some of the pieces seemed expensive to us and the U.S. dollar is worth 2 1/2 times that of the Polish Zloty. We actually asked one of the store owners who buys the pottery and she said the Americans. They really know who their market is. It was interesting to see so many Americans in the stores. We probably went to about 10 different pottery stores and most of the other customers were American.

The little beggar kids know where to get money from too. There were a couple of young boys begging for money out in front of the stores. When we first pulled up, Sam was very wary of them since we've heard the problem Poland has with theft. Later we realized they seemed quite harmless and were just begging for money. It was impossible to walk by without giving them some money. We were cautious though and made sure we didn't leave anything in view when we left the car. I felt very safe there though and would definitely go again.

About the pottery - they have the most beautiful patterns you could imagine. I went planning to (maybe) get a set of dishes. Well, after looking through a couple of stores I was overwhelmed with all the patterns and had no idea which one to pick. Another problem I was finding was that each store did not necessarily have whole sets of a particular pattern. That made it even more difficult because I didn't know if I would find enough to finish a set if I had to get bits and pieces from different stores. So then I decided to not get anything this trip, but just take it all in and maybe next time I would get something. I did buy a couple of items here and there, but there were so many beautiful dishes that it was hard to choose. Next time, we will have a calculator with us which will make figuring prices much easier. To get the dollar price we had to divide by 2.55. I'm not that good with math in my head and so I just guessed at alot of the prices.

With some large pieces of pottery outside one of the stores

Sam inside one of the pottery stores

On our way out of town later we went by quite a few more pottery stores and stopped at several. Throughout the day I saw some patterns that I liked, but Sam didn't and then some that he liked, but I wasn't crazy about. One of my concerns was that I might get tired of a really busy pattern that is so common on the Polish Pottery. Anyhow, at this one store they had quite a few pieces of a pattern that we both liked, so we decided to go for it. They still didn't have all the bowls, but it worked out that I found them at another store. This is the pattern we bought. I'm pretty happy with it, but I must say that when we got home and saw some of the other pieces I bought I second guessed myself because they were all so beautiful. In the back of my mind I'm wondering if I shouldn't have gone a little more bold on the pattern.

We ate lunch at a little Polish restaurant. We wanted to experience real Polish food. Basically, I've determined that I really don't care for much of the European food. It's much richer than American food and doesn't set very well in my stomach. For example, we were brought a basket of bread with some sort of a spread. I tried it, but it tasted to me like cold grease (maybe bacon grease??) that had a few other things mixed in. We enjoyed our meal though because it's interesting to experience different cultures. There were a couple of cats in the restaurant. One was just a few months old and so cute. He was make a scene rolling all over the floor trying to catch a bug or some other unfortunate creature. I snuck some of my meat to the older cat who really seemed to appreciate it. Our bill here was another reminder of how much the prices are inflated for the pottery. We had a very nice meal and it only cost about $11 for both of us.

Sam outside the restaurant we ate at

The weather was rainy and cold, so we headed back to Germany when we finished shopping. We thought about exploring Bautzen, but it was just too chilly to enjoy that. The next morning we headed home. It was a much better trip back. Only took 5 1/2 hours with stopping twice. We really enjoyed our trip and I look forward to doing it again. Here are a few more pictures of our trip.

Some pottery scoops I bought for my flour and sugar jars

Spoon rest for the stove

Pottery displayed in the traffic circle

Gabby enjoyed playing in the paper the pottery was wrapped in

Keeping in touch has never been so easy

Living so far away from family I've gotten into using Yahoo Messenger alot. Usually that's how Mom and I communicate on a daily basis. She'll leave an Instant Message for me and the next time I'm on I'll leave a message back to her. Sometimes we don't get to the computer at the same time, but we still manage to keep in touch.

A few days ago I finally got my web cam up and working too, so that's been a lot of fun. We can virtually talk and see each other at no cost. We call each other using Messenger and see each other on our cameras. It's really been nice to have an actual "visit" with Mom lately.

Something else I'm very thankful for is we can now call anywhere in the States for about $3 a month. Sam's clerk's sister works for the phone company here and she told us about this phone plan. We switched over, so as of today we'll be able to call anyone we want to without it costing much of anything. Up until now, when we call the states we've dialed an access number first in order to go through another phone company, so it hasn't been terribly expensive, but this is just so much cheaper and easier (less numbers to remember). We're very happy about cheaper phone bills :) (Although, maybe I should wait to celebrate until we get this next bill )

We're off to Poland this weekend. We've heard from a lot of people that we should not leave our car unattended in Poland. I guess theft is terrible there, so we decided to get a hotel room on the Germany side of the border then the next morning we'll head into Poland. It's only about 45 minutes to Boleslawiec, which is where lots of Polish Pottery is made. I don't know if I'll actually get much pottery, but I've been wanting to go and see what it's like.

A couple of weeks ago we finally bought a Tom-Tom GPS Navigator. What that means is we shouldn't be spending so much time lost anymore. WHOO-HOO!! We'll take it with us to Poland and try to figure it out on the way. Well, that's about it for tonight. I'm working on getting a pile of papers sorted and filed away. I don't know why, but I've never been good at keeping the house uncluttered on a daily basis. I wish I was. I have no problem cleaning, but then I don't keep it up daily like I should. I'm trying to get on a schedule so I can finally learn to keep in clean every day. Until next time....

Visiting Burg Hohenzollern

I hope no one's getting tired of seeing our castle visits. We've gone to several here in Germany, but we just haven't gotten bored with it yet. They are all different and we really enjoy seeing such beautiful examples of history.

Sam found out that we have a castle just up the road from us in Hechingen, which is only about 40 minutes away. It's called Burg Hohenzollern and was the home of the ruling family of Prussia, the Hohenzollerns, from 1871 to 1918. There is still an heir living that has some private rooms in the castle.

I looked up some of the history on Wikipedia and it said that the original castle was built in the early 11th century, but was completely destroyed in 1423.

The second castle, which was larger and sturdier, was built from 1454 to 1461. It was a refuge for the Hohenzollern family during wartime. By the end of the 18th century the castle had fallen into disrepair so some of the buildings were destroyed.

The third version of the castle, which we visited, was constructed by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV between 1846 and 1867. Because the castle was built to be merely a family memorial, no member of the Hohenzollern family took residence in this third castle until 1945, when it became home to the last Prussian Crown Prince Wilhelm. Prince Wilhelm and his wife Crown Princess Cecile are buried there. Anyhow, that gives a little bit of history on it.

After going to church in the morning we changed our clothes and headed to the castle. It was such a beautiful fall day. Gorgeous blue sky, crisp air and perfect temperature. It surprised us that a castle this big could be just down the road from us. We hadn't even heard about it. As we got closer we saw it standing out against the sky on top of the hill. They really knew how to strategically place those castles, so they were pretty much protected on all sides. They are really amazing pieces of architecture to see.

Once we parked we were told that we could walk up the hill to the castle or take a bus. We decided to take the bus up and walk down later. This ended up being a really good idea. The hill would have been quite a climb and I have blisters just from the walk down.

This castle is in awesome shape. It's really been taken care of and is beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time walking around the grounds. Later in the afternoon we took a tour of the inside. It was interesting, but I didn't get much of what the tour guide said since it was in German and I didn't get a lot from Sam's interpretation. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so here are some pictures from our walk through the castle grounds.

This is the entrance to the castle. This walkway spirals up to the next level.

We asked someone to take a picture of us. Unfortunately it turned out a little blurry.

There's a courtyard that surrounds the whole castle. Sam was sitting on the courtyard wall and you can see how high up this is built.

These statues of all the former kings line the walls of the castle.

Sam and I standing in the courtyard.

Looking out the window of a guard tower.

A castle tower in the background (I think this was the tower the church was in).

This knocker was on the door of the church located on the grounds.

This shows how 'pet friendly' Germany is. These bowls are specifically for giving the dogs water.

Standing in line waiting for the tour to begin.

Going down a spiral staircase to the underground rooms.

Walking through the underground rooms.

The end of our castle tour. We were on the path heading back down the hill.

Gabby

Well, as promised, here is a post about Gabby's escapades while we were gone. My Grandma has always said that for as much as I love that cat, she has had to go through more than her fair share of trials. Starting from one week old she's been in and out of the vet office. At first I tube fed her (had to put a tube down her throat to feed her) since she wouldn't take a bottle. She finally got the hang of sucking a bottle, but then would get constipated and have to go to the vet for that. Something I didn't know before raising her is that kittens cannot urinate or defecate on their own, only when the mother cleans them. Obviously, I wasn't as good as a mother cat, so she had some problems in that area. One time she got bad formula (outdated formula that a vet gave me) and kept throwing it up until I figured the problem out.


From early on we started the process to get her ready to go to Hawaii. Hawaii has very strict quarantine rules, so she needed lots of shots and a microchip. She was only 3 1/2 months old when Sam and I got married, so she stayed with Mom and Dad until she was 9 months and could come to Hawaii without going into quarantine.

On one of our trips back to Alaska we had the neighbor watching her. I put her collar on with the ID tag in case she got out. Big mistake! She scratched at the collar until it was so tight around her neck that it rubbed all the fur off and she had sores that surrounded her neck. The guy watching her didn't realize it because she doesn't let anyone near her.

Finally, to come to Germany, she needed a different type of microchip and shots, so she had to go through all of that again. My poor baby!

She has a really hard time when we leave her for any length of time and in the past we've set up for someone to come in each day to feed and check on her. This time we asked one of Sam's employees, Michelle, if she would stay here at the house while we were gone. She agreed to that, so we felt pretty good about leaving knowing that Gabby wouldn't be alone. I did have some reservations about how Gabby would treat Michelle, but we had her over a couple times for dinner prior to us leaving so Gabby would know who she was.

Everything seemed to be going fine even though Gabby still hissed and didn't want to be too friendly with Michelle. Then one evening in Alaska we came home to a phone message. It was Michelle telling us we needed to call her as soon as we got in no matter what time it was. I believe it was about 3:00am Germany time when we got the message, but called anyhow. Michelle said that she had one of her prescription pills sitting out and was going to take it after eating, but when she went back later she saw that Gabby had bitten it and was eating the little balls inside of the capsule. (Michelle later found out that cats actively seek out this particular medication - Who knew??)


At the time we were speaking to Michelle, Gabby was at the vet clinic being given IVs and being observed. We were glad that Michelle took her in right away. She may have been fine, but then again she may have died from it.

Sam called the vet clinic to find out how she was doing. They kept saying that she was being very aggressive so they needed to keep her for observation. That concerned me because I knew she would not calm down or be friendly to them.....EVER. Besides the fact that she's just not friendly with other people, she also has had bad experiences at the vet. So, I knew she wouldn't just calm down. The next day she kept throwing up her food. I wanted them to let Michelle bring in some of her normal kibble because she's only ever had one kind and with her nerves being spent probably just wasn't keeping the unfamiliar food down. They said no. I felt like my hands were tied and we were so far away I couldn't do anything.

Now that it's over it may seem irrational, but not knowing how German vet clinics work, my biggest fear was that they would say she needed to be put down because she was so aggressive. I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but that was my fear. I couldn't speak to them, because of the language barrier, so I didn't feel like I was getting across to them that she's just naturally aggressive with strangers.

Well, thankfully, after two days of being at the clinic and numerous calls from us, she kept some food down and Michelle was allowed to pick her up. She got home just a few days before we returned. When we came in Friday evening she looked skinny and disheveled. She has a bald spot on her front leg where they drew blood and gave her the IV. She's been extremely sweet and loving and is getting back to her ornery little self. So...though it cost us close to $600 (OUCH!) we have our baby back and she's fine. I realize that to anyone else she's just a cat, but to us she's our baby and we were really happy that she came through that whole ordeal virtually unscathed.

The Black Forest

It worked out really well that we had a 3 day weekend as soon as we returned from Alaska. It gave Sam a chance to relax and get over the jet lag before going back to work. We didn't do too much on Saturday and Sunday, so Monday we wanted to get out and explore.

We hadn't been down to the Black Forest yet, so we decided to drive that way. I didn't know what there was to see and I didn't really understand that it's just a mountain range, so there is a large area that's considered the Black Forest. I guess in my mind I imagined we'd see 'the forest'. It wasn't quite like that, but it was really beautiful.

Since we didn't know exactly where we were going we drove to the town of Baden-Baden, which we knew was part of the Black Forest, and stopped at an information center. They told us of a specific road that goes down through the forest, so we decided to drive that. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped at a couple of places along the way. The picture on the bridge was taken when we followed signs to a waterfall (which we never found). We did, however, find this quaint little covered bridge. It was the perfect setting for a picture.

Sam at the covered bridge

We stopped at this place, called Mummelsee, to stretch our legs since we'd been driving for awhile. There was this lake with a walking path all the way around it. It never ceases to amaze me how much the Germans walk. It seems to be their favorite past time and the path had people on it all the way around the lake.

The Black Forest is known for their Cuckoo Clocks, so we walked through the stores here then got something from the bakery before heading back out.

By the Mummelsee Lake

Standing in front of the oven that baked the bread we bought at the bakery.

We couldn't go to the Black Forest without trying a piece of Black Forest Cake. Honestly - it's not my favorite, but we had to check it out. We were getting ready to head home, so we stopped at this little cafe beside the road and went in for cake. Thought you might like to see what Black Forest Cake from the Black Forest looks like :)

On a different note, I've been trying to get into conversational German classes almost from the time we arrived and I keep missing them. I can't believe that it's happened again!! I called a couple of months ago and there were no more classes scheduled until the beginning of October. So, when we returned, I called to see when they were going to start and come to find out they started the middle of September and will go through the end of October. The next class is not scheduled to start until after the holidays. I really do want to get myself into some language classes, but can't seem to get there.

Before leaving Alaska we shipped about 6 boxes to ourselves, filled with things we bought there. Nothing too exciting to speak of, just some items that we haven't been able to find here. The boxes started arriving yesterday and you would have thought they had been sent by someone other than myself. I had so much fun opening the packages to see what I sent myself :)

I just spent about two hours on the phone with my Mom this morning. We've recently discovered Google Earth and had the most fun checking out different places. We looked at their place in Delta, then at my Grandma's in West Virginia (which didn't come in too clear), and my sister's in North Carolina. It's really amazing and would probably be even better if we paid for the upgrade, but the price they want is out of the question.

Well, I should get busy. I have lots to do and shouldn't spend anymore time playing around on the computer. Have a wonderful day!!

The last of our Alaska vacation

We returned from Alaska Friday evening and I'm just getting around to posting about the rest of our vacation there. That jet lag really got the better of us with the 10 hour time difference. (I took this picture as Sam and I left for Fairbanks. This is the view at the end of Mom and Dad's road. I think it's absolutely beautiful)

We had a pretty rough trip home - it ended up being 18 hours of travel time before we got to Germany. I was so happy to see Gabby when we got here. I'll have to do a post about her escapades while we were gone which got her in lock-down at the veterinarian for a couple of days and ended up costing us about $600. I'll try to do the whole story in another post, but let me just say that I was very happy to see her. She looked a little skinny from not eating during her time at the vet and she seemed to be in shock at seeing us again, but she's getting back to her normal ornery self. She's been incredibly loving to us though - we'll see how long that lasts :)

Well, let me see if I can remember what we did that last week we were in Alaska. We didn't do too much the first week Sam was there because he ended up getting really sick. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday my poor husband was practically on the couch all day. Anyone who knows Sam knows that if he's laying around all day then he's really sick. He's usually on the go. It drives him crazy to lay around and not get anything done. I keep telling him he needs to learn how to relax.

Thursday we went to Fairbanks for a couple of days. Living in Germany, we have a hard time getting some of the things that we're used to, so we planned to buy some items to bring back with us. I love the town of Fairbanks and just enjoyed being there again, shopping at stores I'm familiar with and eating at American restaurants. We stayed at Ft. Wainwright's lodging that night so we didn't have to make the trip back to Delta.

Saturday we all drove down to Tok. It's about 100 miles east of Delta going toward the Canadian Border. I worked there at a hotel my first summer out of high school. It had been quite awhile since I'd been back and Sam had never been, so we had a nice drive there and back and ate lunch at Fast Eddy's.

I thoroughly enjoyed being back at my home church. Dad pastors The Last Frontier Church. It's a very small, but welcoming place. There have been new people coming in and God has really been moving in the services.

We've had a hard time finding a home church here in Germany and it was just so wonderful to be back in some good services. We had a potluck after the morning service. It was a really nice time of fellowship. I so enjoy being back with people that I know and feel comfortable with. Here are a few pictures from last Sunday.

Dad, me and Mom

Me and Sam

Being silly - Michele(young lady I use to babysit for), Sam and me

Christian, Grace and Abraham

For awhile now, Sam and I have been interested in buying some land in Alaska and an opportunity presented itself while we were there. There was a 7.5 acre plot of land on the same road I grew up on selling for a really good price. So, on Monday we closed the deal on that. It's really a great piece of land with an acre already cleared. We're very excited about it and are in the process of making plans for what we want to do with it.

Art and Dad went moose hunting on Tuesday and Dad got his. In Alaska that's a very exciting event. Moose is a staple food and if you get one you know you'll have plenty for the year. Hopefully I don't have too many gentle readers that would be offended at these pictures. This is everyday life for us, but I know it may seem a little gross to others. Anyhow, here are a few pictures I took while the guys were hanging the moose quarters. Moose season is such a busy time that the butchers can't take it until the Oct 10, so it needed to be hung. It's cold enough outside at this time of year, so it'll keep with no problem.

Sam posing with one of the moose front quarters

Sam and Dad hanging a bag of meat

Sam

Tuesday evening, our last night in Delta, we went over to my cousin George and Gaylene's place. Sam wanted to shoot some guns, so we all tagged along and Gaylene made dinner. Her parents were there too and we had a really nice time. We wanted to be able to spend more time with everyone, but between being sick and having things we wanted to get done, we just didn't have time. We squeezed this visit in at the very last moment and I'm glad we did. Of course, the guys had to get some pictures with the guns.

I find it hard to take them too serious when George is wearing that moose hat

Here are a couple of the many faces of George

Our time back home flew by way too fast. It seems like we just didn't have time to get everything done that we wanted too. I'm never ready to leave, but this time I think it was even harder. Before we knew it Wednesday was there and we were on our way to Fairbanks. We went out to eat at the Turtle Club that evening. Chad, came with us and we had a very nice evening. We stayed at Ft. Wainwright lodging that night since we were scheduled to fly out the next afternoon. The next morning we went out to breakfast at The Cookie Jar (one of my favorite places to eat).

Coming back to Germany was not a depressing thing, but I do really miss my family and my country. It was so nice to not be a foreigner for a few weeks. We so enjoyed our time there and I'm already starting to make plans for when they come over here next year. I'm getting back into the swing of things. We really do have a good life here. We have so many blessings. I'm thankful for the time we had with Mom and Dad and would love to be able to spend more time with them, but at this time in our lives it's just not possible.

Here are just a few random pictures from Alaska -

This was the evening that Sam arrived. He wanted to read the newspaper, but Lucky had other plans. Sam really enjoyed playing with her. She's such big baby.

Sam did some things around the house that really helped Dad out. Here he was fixing the tile under the wood stove

Sam cleaning the chimney

Me and Mom at our land

Sam and Lucky