No Babies :)

Last night our life jumped forward 20 years. We took on two kids and a dog all in one night. Josh had agreed to watch his Platoon Sargents children; two girls, an 8 year old and 14 months and on top of it we are watching our neighbors Lab while she is on emergency leave. Turns out that the kids loved the dog and vise versa. At one point in the night, the dog started to get a little hyper and so the kids started winding up. Josh and I weren’t sure what to do so I looked at him and said “Lets go on a walk and maybe stop by the park.” The night turned a little ugly when the 8 year old started crying and running home (we were almost home at this point). Josh just looked at me and said “What the heck happened.” Turns out she was upset because she had to go home soon. So when mom and dad knocked on the door at 9:15 PM and she started crying again….we had to laugh about it. Right after they left Josh said “I need a beer,” and the next look he gave me was priceless. He admitted that he wasn’t ready to have children or take on a dog. He said he liked having our apartment clean with no hair on the floors/carpets. I got a kick out of how tired and stressed he was. He even gave me a hard time because I told the oldest that we could play again before she took off back to the states. So no babies for us for awhile. :)

I made Josh a blueberry pie for his bday last week. He said he didn’t or need want much so he went online to order some Army books to read. We went out to Mexican and afterwards came back to sing happy birthday. We ended up crawling into bed around 9 Pm and as we were laying there he said, “Do you think anyone around us knows we are sleeping this early.” Apparently bedtime plays into popularity factor with Josh. I laughed but we both got a good night sleep that night.

This past weekend was awesome. We stuck around Baumholder and was able to get the guest room ready for when people come visit. It was hard for Josh to do but I was very proud of him. I will admit though when we first walked into the store, I was a little nervous so I warned him that this may take a little money out of our account to do. Once we made it into the store, Josh stopped pushing the cart looked at me and said “I need food, I can’t think or concentrate.” Wowzers, I told him that he is unreal when he gets stressed. After some food, I told him to go pick out 4 pillows and he actually picked out VERY nice ones and didn’t consider the price. It was a very interesting shopping experience but the more weird things us two go through the closer we get….many times I just think about the way he reacts to certain things and it makes me smile.

On Saturday we did a Volksmarch. A new nurse at work was telling me about them, so we tried one. They have them all over Germany (and I guess they have them back in the states but not many people know about them) They are every weekend and you can go and walk. This one had the option of walking a 5 km, 10 km or 20 km. We decided to walk the 10 km and it was absolutely gorgeous. We went past tons of fields and up into paths into big wooded areas. At one point we walked down this large hill on a small windy road that looked over the entire town we were in. It was remarkable…one of the best things I’ve done in Germany. Afterwards they had food served at the start and served drinks and homemade desserts. So we had a beer and a pizza….it was pretty tasty.

This past weekend, Josh and I called Gregory (my oldest brother). It had been awhile since we have got to talk to him on the phone (we play phone tag a lot). Josh and Greg were talking for a little big about his Girlfriend and Josh asked Greg if he makes sure to put the toilet seat down after he uses her bathroom. Greg said, “Yeah dude, that is bathroom 101.” I laughed because that means that so far Josh as failed bathroom 101. Josh said, “you know what you have to do? Put saran wrap around the toilet seat. I thought for a little bit and asked “what is the point of that.” My brother and Josh got a big kick out of it and after there good laugh they were nice enough to explain my stupidity to me…..I hope you all are having fun laughing too. Not okay.

So this week we are dog sitting. We will be around this weekend again, we are probably going to go to a few cook outs….but hopefully we will get to skype or get a hold of a few of you to chat.

I hope all is well back in the states! We miss you a all a lot!

Love,

Gretchen