Our departure from Atlanta and the subsequent arrival in Germany was really more drama than I care to remember anytime soon, but hopefully, some day - we'll laugh about it.
However, arrive in Germany we did on Friday, February 29th in the wee hours of the morning. It was dark, cold , and raining - exactly as we remembered and it felt like coming home.
We all arrived safe and sound, minus any luggage at all except the backpacks we carried and the kids carry-ons. It took us all day and a couple of bus trips , but we arrived in Vilseck at Rose Barracks by Friday evening. And so the adventure began. No car, no clothes,hungry, and nothing open on the small post, so misery was the description of that 1st weekend.
By the next week, though, we had a home in a beautiful town called Auerbach, in the OberPfalz ( UpperLand) and because it is VERY far away from Vilseck - a rental car as well. Life was much improved. We spent the next 30 days trying to get settled in and getting a routine for the kids. They started school ( horrible schools! very far behind where the kids were at) and got signed up for soccer, dance, and karate.
By the next month our furniture had arrived and so had my car. Was much happier to see car than all those boxes... We should have unpacked the house straight away, but one excuse or another kicked in and we only got the bare minimum done. First there was a bit of traveling to do - our former home in Schweinfurt, our favorite medieval town of Rothenburg,The zoo at Nurnburg, the nearby beautiful towns of Pottenstein, Pegnitz, Amberg, and Neuhaus. Not to mention the towns of Vilseck and Grafenwohr, where the Army posts are...
THEN, there was the weather - it was either raining or snowing. Easter weekend was a huge snow storm which made for beautiful pictures, but lousy egg hunting. Our last "snow day" was April 22nd. Kailey and Colby would have been happy if it had snowed forever....I LOVED the fact that they could come home from school everyday and go sledding in the back field until dark...
Finally, summer arrived. With a vengeance! It went from mild to hot in just a week. Now, mind you, it's not Southern US hot by NO means - but we have glorious, expensive air conditioning in the South and in Germany there is NONE! No air, nada, zip. There WAS however, still hot water running under the floors to provide heat for our radiators, that had yet to be turned off. So, it was like living in a sauna.
We bought a few fans, opened the windows, and Colby moved down from the 3rd floor to Kailey's room on the 2nd - where we spent ALL of our time. Nothing ever got done at home, of course. We never even ate at home during that time...
Before long, Steven got his departure date for his latest 'vacation' and we had 3 weeks to get the house unpacked and get him ready to go. It was chaos and craziness and we made it - but it was a miserable way to spend that time together. The kids had their last day of school - and Steven left that night to go play in the sand. Again.
Peace and quiet returned to the Griffin household and so began OUR summer vacation. All activites for the summer stopped , except for K & C's Shotokan Karate class 2x a week. Most of our friends and neighbors went stateside for the summer... We shop a lot. We discovered our local schwimmbad (pool), a few blocks away,which is like a small water park and had started going everyday. Then summer took a vacation, I guess. It's been too rainy, and/or chilly to go for the past 3 weeks.
Loving the new cooler weather, but now I'm stuck with whiny, bored 8 yr olds...
School starts back in a month. Thank Goodness!
So that's our story so far. Sounds boring, but it really HAS been adventurous - just not always in a good way. Now that I'm caught up on our tale - Posts will be shorter, but more detailed. I also should be able to include pics and video.
Hope everyone is doing well - we miss you all! Take care and keep in touch,
Chelle
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