home sweet, home

it is odd living outside of the USA this week... first there was groundhog day- which i usually celebrate in full fashion- HAHA! no seriously, it is always fun to hear the chit chat about the little guy and hope for spring to come quickly. but we missed out on all that.

and today- it will be SO strange to watch the superbowl at 12am! yup- that is what time we will watch it live here in germany. it will be tough for me to stay awake, but we are headed to our friends house (at like 10pm!) and with some good ol' bud light and lots of junk food- i think i will manage to at least make it to half time- i hope.

we found out a few exciting things this week...

first- we will have more visitors next month! my god daughter is riley. her mother is kristen. kristen's parents are lynn and bob. now that you know the family tree... lynn and bob are coming to see us for tate's birthday! they are like our "bonus in-laws," we love them dearly and are so lucky to be part of their family- and apparently they feel the same, since they are treking all the way over here to see us! it will be a sort trip- they will be with us just thursday thru monday, and then they will go off traveling on their own. oddly enough- they were stationed here about 30 years ago, so we cant wait to show them around now and see what they remember.

secondly- we have 3 trips coming up ourselves! these are all for brian's work, but the kids and i get to tag along. tomorrow we will head down to snowy garmisch- a small, mountain town in southern germany- until thursday. there is an american military resort there where we will stay while brian is working this week. it is called 'edelweiss' and looks like a wonderful place.

then on sunday feb 28 we will head up to ramstein, the large air force base here in germany, for the week. the base has lots of shopping, a newly built hotel and spa- so i am looking forward to that trip! plus, two of our friends (hi jenn and nikki!) also live there and i cant wait to see them too.

mid-march we will head down to garmisch again for a couple days, right before all of our visitors start arriving!

lastly- we are all (hopefully) headed back to the states this spring! brian has been selected to attend a 10 week school in norfolk, virginia and if he is going- so am i! the plan is that we will fly as a family, leaving here mid-april into baltimore, rent 2 cars- he will go to school and i will drive to knoxville where i will stay for a month. then the kids and i will fly to cali and stay there for a month, before meeting up with brian again to head home late june. in order for this to happen though- we need a dog sitter! so keep your fingers (and toes) crossed and say lots of prayers so that someone volunteers...

i am SO excited about the possibility of being in the states for 2+ months and seeing all of our family- and friends i hope! for those of you who dont live in/around tennessee or california- come visit me while we are there and we will find a place for you to stay... seriously.

all of this travel talk is making me tired already. suddendly i just realized that we are now planned out until almost the 4th of july- wow. and there is another american holiday which is odd to celebrate while living overseas. which brings me back to the beginning of this blog- hope you all had a fantastic groundhog day!