A Review of my 'Year in Review'

One last post of 2009...

Each year I create a scrapbook of the past 12 months. A few years ago I converted from the traditional hand-made scrapbooks to Shutterfly digital ones. I love the convenience of them but more than that, the ability to replace them if lost as well as the ability to order an extra for my mom (or for Matt when he left for Iraq).

The next few paragraphs are comments I put on the last page of the 2009 Year in Review, comparing '08 and '09. Below that are some additional thoughts on this past year.

Last night I flipped through my 2008 Year in Review scrapbook and noticed quite a difference in those photos and the ones I took this year. It seems I had a lot more time in '08 to look around me and take pictures of things I simply found beautiful. Random things, inanimate objects. I had that time because my favorite person in the world was half a world away. He was proudly serving our Country in Operation Iraqi Freedom while I stayed behind raising our boys and tending to the proverbial home fires. That scrapbook is one I am very proud of and some of the images are soon to be framed and placed in my home as many of them are really quite beautiful. This year's pictures, however, have a much different feel. They are almost utilitarian. I took pictures of our reunited family doing things together, being together. My focus during the past year has been more on the time I had with my family and simply documenting our adventures. This scrapbook is much longer than last year's, by 20 pages! There are more images per page in this one. But it's not as fancy. So, how do I feel about that? Just fine. I can honestly say that our family has relished being together again and has taken many opportunities to "get out and do." My camera was with us almost everywhere, but it was not at my eye as often. When it was at my eye I was doing my best to save memories for later viewing and not nearly as focused on the quality of the image that would later be viewed. So, what about 2010? How do I want to see my next "Year in Review" after a full year in Germany? I want both. I want to increase my skill level to be able to document fully our adventurous year which will include learning a new language, adapting to a new culture, and adding a new member to our family. At the same time I want to see those moments of beauty around me and skillfully capture it for future appreciation. As far as New Year's Resolutions go, that's mine.

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As I was getting ready this morning, Matt was at the Vehicle Registration office officially becoming a car owner again. We are getting this car THE DAY we had to return the car we've been borrowing for over a week. Also, the same day we have (tentative) plans to go to Ramstein to visit friends in from the states. (I say tentative, because the trip hinged on whether or not we got this car.) Tomorrow we have plans, again, hinging on whether or not we got this car, to go visit my close friend, Stephanie, in Stuttgart.

My thoughts turned to the way God has ordained the events of this entire year, from Matt's return from Iraq to the timing of adding to our family. I was able to enjoy Disney World during the most comfortable trimester and before developing Gestational diabetes. Every doctor's visit I've needed to make has been made possible by the generosity of others: either by loaning us a car or by new friends who were strangers to us 30 days ago taking me. I feel hugely blessed by how He has just worked everything out and made straight our paths.

I could write more giving you more proof of His love for us, but Matt's on his way home right now in our new car. We have a little more packing to do as we're going to live in the lap of luxury for one night. The Air Force has an AMAZING hotel in a town called, "Little America." We're going to stay there tonight before going to visit the Bailey's tomorrow.

We pray God places his hand on your lives as He has ours. We also pray His blessings continue in the next year as we excitedly welcome new adventure and a new baby!

With Love From the Hamricks

Some thoughts on Germany...

This entry may be a bit scatterbrained, but at least I’m admitting it up front. The past several weeks have been a complete whirlwind and I’ve loved almost every bit of it. Six weeks ago today we entered the Colorado Inn at Fort Carson since much of our stuff was in boxes and it was next to impossible to be comfortable in our house. We loved that place very much and hated to leave it at all, but with me being pregnant and the boys being, well, boys, we needed to get away from the boxes and on to a place that would house us. Staying at that hotel afforded us the chance to still be on post, near our friends, and among our familiar surroundings. We had a great view of our mountain and the boys had plenty of room to run around. After six nights there we loaded up our van and drove across the country. We chose a southern route in order to see new sights! We stayed in Amarillo and Dallas TX, Lafayette, LA, Pensacola, FL, and finally made it to Orlando a day early. We stayed in a non-Disney hotel for 3 nights before the grandparents arrived for our real vacation and we got settled in Port Orleans, Riverside for six nights. Great hotel with wonderful food, on site with a convenient shuttle bus system to take us back and forth to the parks. That trip was a dream come true, one we had waited and waited for. I so appreciate Disney for offering the Military Discounts that made the magic possible! The only disappointing part was Animal Kingdom but Matt and I had suspected that and, as it was our last day, all of us were pretty much ready to be done and none were too sad to leave the park early. (Not much on animals in the first place.) After we completed our stay at Riverside we moved into a hotel I had selected along with the help of our fabulous Travel Agent, Melissa Sims. It was within walking distance to the POV Processing Center where we were to drop off the van for shipping and it had a free shuttle to the airport. We spent 3 nights in this hotel waiting for our flight to Germany. I’ve written about our experience getting to the airport, about the flight, and our first night in the German hotel in this blog.

So I want to write a bit about our time here in Germany with some pictures I’ve taken of random things I have found neat or interesting.

I’m going to start with some things I noticed at my doctor’s appointment.

* When they had me drink the sugar water, it was not an “orange soda” kind of drink at all! It was 75 g of water that they had mixed up probably the day before with some serious sugar or something. It was just in a mason jar and the nurse poured it into a Dixie cup. I had to drink it all right then…no 5 minute window.

* There is only one chair for giving blood in the offices that I saw, so when they needed to take my blood and the chair was occupied, the nurse just took it in the lobby.

* When they take a vial of blood, they take it to the lobby and put it on the receptionist’s desk. You’d never see that in America. (Not saying there’s anything wrong with this, but it just doesn’t happen in America. Blood doesn’t come to the lobby for any reason!)

* They do an ultrasound at every visit, and the dr. does it herself. She was very quick and I’d say she was better at it than any technician I’ve ever had in America. Got a beautiful picture of Parker in just seconds!

(I took a picture of myself at the request of a few friends wanting to see the baby bump. Here it is at 25 weeks 5 days.)

Here are some random things I’ve experienced:

* Drinks in restaurants – they don’t give you ice in your drinks and since I was prepared for this, I just accept it. I don’t try to order ice, I just drink my coke as it comes. There are no refills so we tell the boys to go easy on it. There is a neat concoction that I had been told about before we came that my boys really like – coke mix. It’s a mixture of sprite and coke! The boys love to go to fountain machines and get a little of everything (GAG) so this is like a toned down version of that!

* It stays dark until 8:30 am and is dark again at 5 pm. I have heard that the summer is the opposite, with it light at 5 am and still a bit bright out at 10 pm.

* It rains almost every day. This leaves everything, sidewalks, streets, playgrounds, benches, etc, soggy and moist all the time. I am using a LOT of stain remover on their clothes and washing their coats all the time due to moss and mud. But at least they’re playing outside. We are currently borrowing a car from some friends and it is SPOTLESS. They don’t have small children with muddy shoes so we’re putting walmart bags on the boys’ feet before they pull their feet in the car. Works pretty well! (And, of course, they don’t get in with muddy clothes. We only get muddy at the playground and if we’re going somewhere in the car, they change into clean clothes.)

* The dollar is very weak. We had to pay 50 Euros for something and we can just use our debit card. The receipt always shows the Euros and the dollar amount, which was something like $76.00. (This pic is of our first ATM withdrawal of Euros - I blurred out important info...)

* The windows are strange here. There’s a handle on the side that turns ¼ of a turn to open the window like a door or ½ a turn for the window to crack open from the top. Odd, but effective

* There are water shut off valves on wall above sink and toilets in my house and they were in the hotel as well… strange placement.

* The houses around here are beautiful and very old! Most were probably single family homes for very wealthy people years ago and have been converted into multi-family apartments. (Wiesbaden is an upscale town, very wealthy. We have seen stuffed animals in store windows downtown that cost 700 Euro, and that is $1025.19!!!!)

* Most of the cars are SUPER small! They look hilarious to me, considering I have 4 kids and these cars often don’t even have a back seat or any storage at all.

* There are few bathrooms in public, if any, and those you run across might require a fee to be able to use them. This picture was taken in a restaurant we ate in. The sign says that if you are a customer of the restaurant you don’t have to pay, but if not, place 50 Euro Cents in the box.

So, to wrap up the past few weeks since arriving in Germany:

We got here on the 25^th of NOV and had Thanksgiving with friends we had met in Columbia a few years ago. We spent 9 nights in the American Arms hotel, ready to be home. We had no trouble sleeping the first several nights after just being so exhausted. But then the time change caught up with us and we needed to “help” our systems adjust so Benedryl became our friend. (I even had to give the boys some two nights… wide awake at 11:00 pm is not my idea of okay, but their systems thought it was somewhere between 3-5 pm…not sure if their body’s were on Mountain time or East Coast time). I also started having my annoying issue with hives again, though until this past Sunday they were not severe. During the time in the hotel Hayden felt Parker kick, and was the first one other than me to feel him. Matt felt him a few hours later. Bailey asked the funniest question: (he's 5 years old) "When Parker comes out, are you gonna love him?" Me: "Oh yes, I will love him so much." Bailey: "If he's not our color, you'll still love him." Me: "I sure will." (But if he's not our color, I'll have some serious explaining to do to Matt!)

And we purchased iPhones after waiting years for them. Very pleased with our purchases and haven’t regretted it for one moment!

We moved into our house with just the things we flew here with on 4 DEC and have felt at home ever since. The Army had placed beds, couch and chairs, and a dining set in the house for us to use until our goods come. A friend in Matt's new unit loaned us enough bedding and linens as well as some curtains to tide us over, and CH Kesling loaned us a TV and DVD player. My what a blessing! Since I can’t purchase coffee yet (must have a ration card for that) Heather gave me some from her house. I think Matt and I would have been growing beans out back if we hadn’t had that gift given to us! He’s going to try to find out about getting our ration cards tomorrow, his first official day on the job.

Our Unaccompanied Baggage (that we had shipped 7 OCT) was delivered 10 DEC and I put our tree up right away. (Our Unaccompanied Baggage in front of our Colorado house being packed for shipping.) (Our baggage being unloaded here in Germany.) Found out that night as I was putting lights on that half of them were out. Matt bought more the next day and we’ve had a beautiful tree up since then! We are lamp people, using overhead lighting very seldom. Being in this house without our belongings, however, has caused us to have to use overhead lights. Now that we have the tree up we can turn off all the rest of the lights and watch TV by the light of the tree, which gives a much more homey feel. LOVE those moments! Oh, and I had asked my facebook friends to pray that my sentimental ornaments arrive unharmed… they did! Not a single one damaged! These are so special to me as Matt and I have been collecting them since we met.

We have had one crying spell with Hayden (8 years old) because he misses his friend, Jeremy. It breaks my heart but at the same time, I know this is part of the experience. He’s learning hard lessons and how to handle them well. He’s written several notes and now I just need to get them stamped and in the mail. We have a trip planned to visit our great friends, the Baileys, for New Years. Stephanie is one of my closest friends and our kids are close as well. I have missed her since she left Colorado ahead of us back in the summer. We’re only 2 hours apart and once I get my van (and driver’s license) it’ll be MUCH easier to visit. For now, we’re excited about getting to see them soon!

I failed my one hour, then my 3 hour glucose tests, so I have to go to a diabetologist. Never heard that word before, but I’m going to see one.

Love the milk… Army milk and its organic. Who knew?!?

Carson lost his 3^rd tooth and he says, “I have an “L” in my mouth!”

I got my internet and phone turned on yesterday and feel SO much better. Access to the outside world and the ability to type with both hands makes me happy! It’s the little things in life…

Well, I’ve been under the weather for the past 4 days and the boys have had to fend for themselves for the most part. I think I’m feeling better so we may attempt a walk around the neighborhood. Tomorrow I go to WAAF (the Army post where Matt works) to schedule my diabetologist appointment and to see if I can get my glucometer. Yuck. Glad to be feeling better!

Merry Christmas, my friends and family! If you celebrate a holiday other than Christmas, then Happy Holidays! (But I must say I'm a bit annoyed that so many TV stations are ignoring that this is actually a Christmas Season and refuse to say that word. I don't mind if they want to add the other Holidays to their well wishes to their viewers, but I wish they would recognize my holiday!) At least they're still showing movies that say Christmas, like 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.' Off my soap box for now!

~Jennifer

From hotel to home...

This very long entry journals the process of our family getting from the hotel in Wiesbaden to our new apartment.

Before I left the states I emailed the Assistant Housing Manager of Wiesbaden Army Air Field (where we are stationed). She was able to tell me that they had several units open that we qualified for and no one with 4 kids, at the time, was scheduled to come here. We arrived here on the day before Thanksgiving, which meant we were not going to be able to go to housing until after the 4-day weekend. Matt headed to work bright and early on Monday and began in-processing, to include a trip to housing. Because we didn’t have one piece of paper (a statement of pregnancy) they had to put us on the list for a 4 bedroom unit. No worries. The next day I was off to run a few errands, to include a stop at the Clinic to get that ever-so-handy piece of paper that would give us an additional bedroom. Since we don’t have a car, our Sponsor brought Matt back after he finished what he was doing, arriving around 3 pm. This would be PLENTY of time to get the piece of paper signed and over to Housing by 4 pm. The lady who was responsible for getting the paper generated did a more than thorough job and explained so much to me. Quite helpful information, but I missed getting to housing by 5 minutes. I had Matt take the paper over the next day (Wednesday) and they put us on the list for a 5 br. As far as giving us an estimated wait time, all they would tell Matt was that there were several empty but they were on hold, needing something else done to the before they were going to be made available. At this point we had been in the hotel one week. Not that a week was a long time, but after having been in hotels for the past month, we were pretty anxious to be home. That night I had a girls’ night out with a new friend, Heather, whom I had met at the PX. (On our 3^rd day here in Germany I noticed a lady nursing a baby and she was using one of those fancy nursing covers I’ve heard about. I wanted to ask if she thought it was worth the price, so I asked. Well, we’ve become fast friends and she’s been invaluable to me since that meeting!) During our dinner at Vapiano’s Heather, and another hotel guest, Katy suggested I stay on top of the housing office because Katy had already been in the hotel almost 4 weeks. I decided to be proactive, so Thursday morning I packed my boys up and we rode the bus to the Airfield. I walked in and immediately was introduced to “G” who checked the list again. I had a few questions about the houses we could get into and sat there leisurely asking my questions while the boys sat in the hallway coloring. After hearing the same thing, that there were houses empty but still on hold waiting something like painting, cleaning, etc. I informed “G” that I’d be back on Monday to see. Her first comment was, “No, that won’t be possible.” I thought maybe Housing was going to be closed or something so innocently, I asked why? She got a bit flustered and I said that I didn’t mind coming back out to check. We stumbled over a few sentences, and I don’t really remember what she said but basically, she was trying to get across the idea that nothing was going to change between then and Monday so there was no use even coming back. After this strange exchange of jibberish, she said “Hang on.” She reached over and placed a phone call. She told the person on the other end of the line that she had a mother in her office with three sons, one on the way. That we were still in the hotel and that the houses that we qualified for were on Hold status. She asked if she could find out what exactly they were waiting to be completed before releasing the houses for availability. I sat there hardly breathing, trying to keep my composure. The boys were getting restless at this point so we started a game of, “I SPY.” I was trying so hard to act interested in that silly game while hearing what I could of the conversation on the phone. After she hung up she said that the person who was in charge of the contractors, the same person who had the keys to all the houses we were qualified for, was out to lunch. She’d be back in 2 hours. I said, “I’ll be back here in 2 hours and we’ll call again.” “G” didn’t seem to mind that, so I headed to the clinic to get my OB appointment scheduled and a prescription refilled. Waiting those 2 hours was difficult, but we managed. When we returned, we found that “G” was missing. I about had a heart attack, but her desk-neighbor, “S,” was willing to help. She said that she knew “G” had called but that the houses were still on hold. She decided to get into the system, as I looked pretty comfy in her chair and the boys were back to their coloring. As she pulled up the screen she noticed that the statuses had changed for two of the units. (Air from the room was sucked out by a preggo lady trying not to get her hopes up.) I tried to breathe normally as I realized that there was a chance we were going to be moving into a house within the next couple of weeks! The only catch was that Matt was taking his driving test and not able to sign the paperwork. She let me do that, and told me that I needed to get the keys. The next catch was that we didn’t have a car and the keys had to be picked up within 30 minutes, as the lady with the keys was leaving for the day. No worries… “S” found someone willing to drive me over there. As we were walking to the car, the kind gentleman realized I was not alone. That I had 3 kids in tow. He was either worried about his car or their safety, as I didn’t have their booster seats…most likely the former which doesn’t bother me at all! He decided he’d run over to get the keys and meet me at the Food Court in a few minutes. He returned and handed me the keys to two apartments that I got to take my choice of. I was speechless, which is pretty much a rare occurrence. Eventually I found my voice, well, my fingers, and typed that as my Facebook status. We had to have the keys returned by 4 pm, as all Civilian offices close at 4 (that may be a sarcastic remark…not sure). We were hungry and the bus back to the housing area where these two apartments were located wasn’t due to arrive for 30 minutes. I got the boys settled with pizza from Anthony’s and ordered a steak and cheese from some strange place that severely pales in comparison to Charley’s Steakery. (We have one of those at Mainz-Kastel, but not at the Airfield.) I determined that if Matt didn’t finish his test in time that the boys and I were leaving for the house without him, as we needed to get to the house and back by 4. Fortunately, Matt finished (and passed) his test in time and we were off as a family to see our possible new home. Before we loaded the bus I bought a box of 9 Cinnabon’s fresh out of the oven and dropped it off at the housing office. My new friends were out to lunch but the lady at the front desk said she’d give it to them when they returned. The address was 29 Merkurstrasse 1. We had never had to read a German address before and so we tried our keys on 2 houses before we got to the right one. Fortunately, either the incorrect houses were under construction or the tenants weren’t home. When we saw our house it looked better than the two we had mistaken for ours, which was good, but we still had no idea what the inside looked like. We tried the key and for the first time, the lock turned! We were in! I really wanted to be on the bottom floor, so that’s the one we tried first, as the other option was in the same building, one floor up. We walked in and were absolutely amazed at the sight. Our house is huge. Bigger, even, than our house in Colorado! We had expected to gain a room and lose a few hundred square feet. We actually gained several hundred square feet! The kitchen is 3X the size of my CO one, my dining room is over 2X the size, and my living room is at least 3X the size. The boys’ rooms are average size and ours is pretty big! We don’t have 3 bathrooms but you won’t hear me complain! Just two to swish-and-swipe every night! We were thrilled and didn’t want to leave. I let Matt go explore the basement, which turned out to be huge, as well! What had originally served 4 families is now shared by two. We have the space under half our building, and the apartment above will have the other half. There are 220v outlets inside the basement so I’ll be able to put a chest freezer down there. PUMPED about that! Matt also ran upstairs to make sure that apartment was the same and didn’t have something we would really rather have than the 1^st floor apartment. They are identical, so we decided we’d take the lower level. This particular house was originally a 4-unit building and they’ve converted it into a 2-unit building, and for now, we’re the only family in the entire building. We look forward to when another large family moves in above us and are praying for good friends for the boys.

(This picture shows 2/3rds of our house. The far left balcony is our living room, the two windows to the right are our bedroom, and you can see the balcony that stretches the rest of the way to the right side of the building in the edge of the picture. In that balcony are windows for our bathroom and Hayden's room).

We got on the bus back to the Airfield where we reluctantly turned in the key. We accepted the lower one and declined the upper level one. Matt could come in at 8:00 am and get them for real! Less than 24 hours after I made my first appearance in front of “G” we had keys and full access to our house! God really paved a way for us and we were thrilled!

Friday morning came and I couldn’t sleep past 5 am! SO excited to know that I had spent my last night in a hotel for a while! It was a crazy day, with Matt at work for the first couple of hours, my first OB appointment at 10:00, housing inspector at 2:00, Matt was going to purchase a car at 2:30. Our sponsor took me to the apt just for me to find out that I didn’t have the one sheet of paper I needed. I rescheduled and he had to turn around to get me back. He dropped me off at the PX so I could purchase a few things. He finished getting the boys and Matt, as well as the last of our belongings, over to the house before coming to back for me. I picked up $40 worth of Burger King (gag) and we had our first meal in our house. As of yet, I haven’t mentioned that housing put a kitchen table, 6 chairs, a living room set, and 5 beds in the house so we would be able to get by until our goods come. So we ate lunch with our Sponsor in our new dining room on borrowed furniture. And it was grand!

Matt left after a while to buy the car only to call me later saying that the deal fell through. We prayed for wisdom and discernment and we both feel a peace about not having made that purchase. While riding the bus is getting old, it is doable and sufficient during the week. And God has provided me with a friend, the previously mentioned Heather, who took me to my rescheduled OB appointment.

So there is our journey from hotel to home! More to come as I find the time to write!

(This is a 3-minute walk-through video of our house as we saw it the first time we saw it. We moved in less than 24 hours later.)