July 4th

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!! Ours was amazing - I hope yours was too! We had perfect weather: warm and clear and lovely. Saturday morning, we got up for breakfast as a group - a large group! We managed to fill almost every bed at the Festaburg this weekend. The morning was full of some preparations, and when afternoon came, it was time for a party!

Families and soldiers joined us, as well as our American neighbors and some of their friends. Joel brought over some huge speakers and a sound system, and we filled the air with classic American music. Some people milled around talking, but most of us headed out to the volleyball court for some games. While much of the time was just trying to keep a volley going, we did play a couple "serious" games, with eating first being the stakes. Because, what is July 4th without a barbecue? We grilled brats and hamburgers and hot dogs and pork steaks on our hanging grill, and enjoyed fresh HUGE watermelons and potatoe salad and chips and all kinds of good American foods.


After lunch and several more games of volleyball, we loaded up into our caravan and headed for Kapoun Air Base over by Ramstein and Vogelweh. There was a carnival there, so we headed over and walked around enjoying the cotton candy and hot dogs there before settling down on a grassy hill to wait for fireworks. (The Air Force has more funding than the Army, so their pyrotechnic display promised to be more spectacular.) It was worth the drive and the wait! About half an hour of amazing fireworks, shot from the middle of a baseball field. We were close, and could feel the ground shake with some of the explosions. It was a great ending to a wonderful holiday. This is the first American Fourth of July I've had in the last 3 years, so it was a blast!

Fun day!

After PWOC Bible study this morning, Kristen (my running buddy!) came up to me and asked if I would like to go to Rammstein with her today. I felt a flashback to junior high asking, "Mom, mom, can I go to so-and-so's house to play? Pleeeeeease? I'll do all my chores when I come back home!" But instead it was, "Debbie, Debbie, can I go with Kristen to Rammstein? Pleeeeeeease? She'll bring me home before dinner!" And she said yes! So, off I went with Kristen - dropped her kids off at the daycare and away we drove!

Rammstein is an Air Force base not to far from Baumholder. We went to go shopping :) because Baumholder is NOTHING compared to Rammstein. They've got a huge foodcourt, and a pretty base, and nice barracks, and lots of shopping, a big chapel, a nicer BX, all kinds of wonderful ammenities. The joke (not really the funny kind, since it's true) where Mac is in Cleburg is, "why does an Army soldier have to get injured in order to be treated like the Air Force?" (in WTU [warrior transition unit, where all the hurt soldiers go] their job description is 'to heal,' which means they get spacious quarters, free internet and a DSN line, TVs, and allll kinds of things that the Air Force just naturally gives it's airmen.) Anways, we had fun shopping, then decided to head over to Vogelweh, another Air Force/Army base, where we had lunch and did some more shopping - Kristen bought a couple of cute dresses, so we're gonna dress up for dinner & discussion tomorrow night.

It was just so much FUN, talking and laughing and joking and just being girls. It made me miss my girl friends at home, but it made me so happy to realize I have a friend here. After lunch, she suggested driving over to see Mac at Kleber, since it's really close to Vogelweh. When we found him, he said he'd actually been trying all day to get to Baumholder so he could buy some tanker boots, since there's no armor on Kleber, so we loaded him into the car and headed back. Picked up Gabe and Josh from pre-school, then Kristen dropped us off at the Festaburg. We sat around on the balcony talking till Debbie came home, then she and I made dinner and the four of us enjoyed it. We got to sit around on the balcony again after dinner and just enjoy the absolutely GORGEOUS day that God made for us, until Kristen came by to take Mac home again. And I get to see them all again tomorrow! What a great place is this - and how great to have such good friends!Sadly, I didn't get any of me and Kristen, but I CERTAINLY will tomorrow when we're all dressed up and cute! And I don't know why this is written as a link like this...oh well.

One Week!

That's right - this time next week, I will be HOME! What an incredible thought - it's still hard to believe, because it seems that this world right here is the only one that exists, and that home is something I've dreamed of for so long that it couldn't possibly be real.

Brad and Debbie and I went to the pre-deployment ceremony this week. Not all of the soldiers were there, but there were quite a few. It was a good ceremony, but sad at the same time. Then Friday started what would probably be one of the last weekends. :( I got to babysit five adorable children Friday night, ages 6, 5, 3, and two just around a year old, one walking and one not. Fun stuff.

Saturday we took a trip to Trier and then to Rammstein Air Force Base. This was my third time in Trier, but it was a first for a bunch of the guys. We saw Constantine's Basilica, the Dom, and went up in the Porta Nigra, an old Roman gate. After spending most of the day there, we drove over to Rammstein to eat at Chili's (a real American restaurant in Germany!) and to go to the PowerZone, which is slightly larger at Rammstein than in Baumholder. Rammstein, being an Air Force Base, is in almost every way superior to the post in Baumholder. Mac, being prior service in the Air Force, left no opportunity un-seized to remind us of this fact. The sad thing is, it is quite true.

Sunday was church. I managed to fall down the stairs, and my left leg is now bruised from my knee down to my ankle. Ouch. The service was combined with the traditional and gospel services, and the Chaplain was . . . quite unlike anything I've ever heard. I was only able to understand about half of what was said, as it was delivered at such a volume that individual words were no longer discernible. After lunch it was back to the Festaburg for lunch, movies (or naps), and games.

Monday was a nice lazy morning, since about half the folks left to go work out. The rest of us just lazed about, enjoying the sunshine and the chance to do not much of anything. That afternoon we took a walk up to the castle with a large group. We brought a hymnal this time, so that we could enjoy singing a bunch of songs and actually know all the words. We sang for quite a long time, and it was really very cool. We hiked back and had dinner, and then played Catchphrase until it was time to take the soldier's back to post, which is always a sad time. Right now, you never know which hug you give out will be your last one before they're gone.