ooohh LA LA.

love. its what gets us through it all.

So, since our last post, we've done so much. Chad and I actually are pregnant again!!! WOOP woop. (its really just me--because that would be weird if he was pregnant considering his condition..being a man) We actually got pregnant again within the first month after our last miscarriage and we are very excited!! :) :) :) As of now we are about 18 weeks and we are rolling. Next week, we will figure out the sex--and let me tell you--we are VERY excited. Chad bets its a boy and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a girl. We both really would like a HEALTHY baby--boy or girl--healthy is all that is important. :)

We've definitely enjoyed the german goodies!! We absolutely LOVE the brotchen, meats, and cheeses. By the way, Globus is the next best thing to Wal-Mart

This is our neighbor Karin--She is a sweetheart and Im not sure what we'd do without her and her husband Dirk. :) They take such good care of us. They run a stable rental and lesson place for horses so they were (when the sun was out) always our working their buns off. Karin also delivers bread and little bakery goodies to our house every morning and she has been wonderful!

We've made it to SEVERAL fests and markets.. absolutely LOVE them! :) I took the photo above at a 'Stadtfest in Landstuhl' We f

ound an entire graveyard with these crosses, all marked with the same date. Not sure exactly what it was from..but it says 1940 was the date of death--hmmmm.

Since the last time, our travels have taken us to the lovely PARIS! We took a USO bus tour, so it was very hard to get out and on our feet to run around as much as we'd like--but it gave us a wonderful 24 hours in Paris..which we love.

Oh, and belly photos are pending.. :)

The Sun is SHINING.

Today was the best day, and it is not even over yet. First of all, its a Saturday--which means one of my only days to get a few hours in morning time.. BUT, I woke up early to make it to breakfast. Honestly, the freaking breakfast was crap. (AKA, dont go to the KMC Sports Lounge for their breakfast) but, the company was great. It was really good to get a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with a friend/person/female as opposed to just talking to people at work. Chad is a wonderful conversationalist--but, I sometimes just need a little 'girl-time'.

I had lunch with my Doc, who has be great since the beginning of the entire miscarriage. She has been wonderful and understanding and we could'nt have gotten luckier.

THEN--
Chad and I went to Homburg for the once-a-month flea market (FLOHMARKT) and found some really great buys. I got this cute German chest, and a few records. I also found a great bargain, a TEA POT for only 1 Euro, its b-e-a-uuuuteeeeful. I love it!

We also got our housing contracts for the house across the street, and it shouldn't be long before we are moving our stuff next door.Aaaaand, I am hoping to a be a proud MAC owner within 2-3 weeks. I CANNOT WAIT.


;)
I am thinking the new MacBook Pro 13inch. WOOPWOOP.

Miss all of my family back home-Chad and I are always talking about how wonderful it would be to have you guys come and visit. Our lovely friends are welcome too.

<3 Ciara (and Chad in spirit! :) ) haha

Back to the Future

JULY 5th 2010 is the date that Doc set the DeLorean time machine car to travel 25 years into the future. Im not sure why I started with that, but I'd say thats a pretty awesome random fact. Speaking of future, Chad and I have been thinking about ours a lot. I have been doing a lot of research since my miscarriage and I've really considered becoming a midwife-certified nurse. :) Who knows, It could be really fun. Ofcourse it would be hard, there is no doubt about that, but im just saying..I've been thinking about it.

There are a few programs I could look at: the AECP and the NECP. The AECP, is a ROTC program where you are enrolled in an ROTC program at a school and then you come back in as a commissioned officer. THE NECP is the nurses program where you stay active duty only you have school-orders, and you basically go to school the whole time. They both seem NOT EASY AT ALL...but its soemthing I am definitely interested in. I have to look into how soon I will become an E4. It could be like..a year, or 2, but..I look at that as time to get my pre requisits done. ...we'll see.

And CHAD, is still going to turn in his package for OTS and see where that goes. Luckily, another opportunity arose, where he could possibly be very qualified for the MCS, Medical Corps Services and basically would go to BOT instead of OTS, which is a very condensed verson for only 6 weeks and you just learn what you need to and then you are good to go. That sounds like a lot of fun :) I hope he gets one of those, but we are just praying for what is best for the both of us.

We'll see. Love ya'll

Wowza

Well, so much has changed since we wrote (And it wasn't even very long ago). The day after our last post, we went in for our sonogram appointment, and found out that I was still pregnant, but the baby had died. We had to decided which route to take to get everything taken care of, and I ended up having surgery at LRMC on Friday. The surgery was called a suction D & C and wasn't too painful. Infact, most of my pain the next day was from where I had all my shots/IVs/and then where they drew blood. Its safe to say, Chad and I were blessed with a great doctor. She took such good care of me while I was under..and she was helpful afterwards with getting us the right resources we needed.

Its been a week and just a few days and I am doing a lot better. I can actually get through the sentance "We had a miscarriage" without bursting out into tears...which is great because I know, once I get back to work on Friday people will be asking.

This weekend, we are to go on a trip--to Anneweiler, I beleive is the name. We signed up for a USO tour a few weeks ago to go to this castle fest celebrating Richard the Lionhearted. So, we'll see how that goes.

Oh also, we are moving across the street into the house connected to our neighbors. They will actually be our landlords..and THEY are great. We cannot wait. ;) Plus (4 bedrooms!!!!)

"ach bahhhh"

Well if there is one thing that we have learned so far here in Germany is this common expression.

"Achhhh Bahhh"

haha. Usually, the Germans use it when they are asked about something they know nothing about. So instead of responding quickly like us Americans, they respond with:

"Achhhh Bahhh...... Ich weis est nicht."

Which means, I dont know.. If you are wondering what that sounds like, feel free to call us and ask for an example. haha

So, Chad and I have been rather busy lately. Chad has recently gotten a job, and is learning quickly how to be the 'fixer upper' in his office. He was hired as the manager of the VAT office. VAT stands for Value Added Tax which is in pretty much anything you buy here in Germany. Its at 19 percent, so including utilities--you're being taxed an extra 19 percent. The VAT offices allows us as Americans to take that extra tax off. So, Chads job is to fix all the boo-boos that people make after they use one illegally or people dont pay their bills registered through the VAT program.

My job is starting to pick up a bit too. I've already had 2 stories published. One made it to the USAFE website and the other to our website, RAMSTEIN. So, Its been very tricky trying to take what I've learned in tech school and mold it into what I am tought here at the new office.

Now that I think about it, we haven't even mentioned it on here--but WE ARE EXPECTING. We are very excited.....wish I would've known sooner because I probably would'nt of had such a good time at those bars the first few weeks..hahaha

We've gotten settled in (SORT"VE) into our house and actually just met our neighbors. They are really sweet. We brought 4th of July cupcakes to their house and they offered us food, beer and schnaps. SCHNAPS IN GERMANY IS NOT THE SAME AS SCHNAPS in the US. :) haha..

Schnaps, aka-----moonshine, that puts hair on your chest.

Its strait up fermented fruit.

ehem, not to mention our doggies are doing great. LUCY and TOSH are both shedding a lovely amount.hahaha..just getting rid of that winter coat. Im pretty sure that Lucy is a human trapped in a dogs body. I can't tell you how many mornings I wake up to her inbetween Chad and I, laying just like us with our heads on our pillow, and our arms rested on top of the blanket. She lays on her back too.. ;) such a freaking cute dog.

We've been watching FRIENDS every night before we go to bed, and...its becoming highly addictive. If you're a previous FRIENDS-watcher, you'll know what I mean. <3>

Also, we have done a bit of traveling since the last post:

Rothenburg ob der Tauber. (one of the only cities not touched by any of the wars)

Homburg (for the 1st Sat of the month flohmarkt-flea market)

Nanstein castle (its in Landstuhl, but its on our list. :) )

Tschuss.

Das Boot

Why hello, hello....Looks like we've arrived in the land of beer. So far, we absolutely love it. We got here yesterday (may 5th) and as soon as we arrived in Frankfurt we took a nice hour and a half drive to the base. Ciara's family friend from when she previously lived in Germany picked us up and volunteered to be our chaffeur for the day. Everyone so far has been absolutely wonderful. Chad is picking up on things too...he really really likes it so far. When we arrived at our hotel, Hotel Garni--we came to our room and found that it looked identical to an Ikea store add. Everything matching..with all new furniture. The bed is a typical German bed (a double flat, low to the ground bed.....its very cute!! :) We have a kitchen, a table, a living area, a bed, nice TV and a bathroom..now we just cant wait for a house. We've been searching but its been pretty hard to find a house. We are going through papers and looking at the listings. Its hard to find a house available for large pets and..still in an area close enough to Ramstein.

Last night we went to one of Rodenbachs few 'pubs' for dinner and we had wiener schnitzel and Jager Schnitzel. Both of which came with a delicious salad and pommes. Pommes are fries if you didnt know. :)

They were uhhhhhmmmmmmmazing. We also had 2 biers each and..they were delicious.

Today, after we were done with everything on base, we went walking around Rodenbach..and came to find..one of Ciara's old french teachers lives in Rodenbach..infact, we walked right by her house.

Guess what we are doing tonight? Dinner at the pub again.. WE LOVE GERMANY.