I called Joelle last Friday and caught her on her way to Ames, Iowa (where Dane went to College) and were Joelle and I spent many weekends hanging out and listening to Damon Dotson (one of our favorite bands). Before I graduated from college I officially made Ames one of my most favorite places in America…don’t judge until you go there. J Needless to say, I got really sad while I was talking to Joelle and said that I wanted to be in the car with them. We both kinda laughed about how silly we are about missing each other and then I let her go. (The worse part about being sad about this incident is that no one else understand except for Joelle because we were the only ones to make the trip. Josh never made it to Ames so it is hard for him to get what was soo great about Ames.) Once I hung up the phone the tears started rolling. Josh was already asleep so I ran into bed and told him I was sad and HAD to wake up to make me feel better. He tried to wake up but just couldn’t so I told him he would be in trouble and then laid there thinking. When I woke up in the morning Josh had no recollection of me coming to bed…he knows what to say to get out of trouble :).
We picked up one of Jim’s (Josh’s best man) friend, Johnny, from the train station last night. He is coming in for a couple nights to see Jim who we are picking up on Saturday to be here for a week. Jim and Johnny met while studying abroad in Spain. Michael, another one of Josh’s friends from Officer Training Course is coming in on Saturday to visit also for a week. Both Josh and I have to work but the two of them (Jim and Michael) are going to travel around via Train. Next weekend Josh is taking Friday off to head to Munich for Octoberfest with his guys. I was told this was strictly a Man’s event so I agreed to stay back. A week later I got an email from a couple neighbors saying they were heading there so I jumped on the idea and bought own my train ticket to Munich. We are only heading up for one day but it should be pretty fantastic. Josh will take the train back with me while his Friends will head to the airport….this week is going to go by fast.
Tonight I have to bake Jim a b-day cake. His birthday is tomorrow and we are picking him up so I have to make it as special as possible. Mary Jo if you have any tips send them my way. I will update you all after the man’s week adventure. I am happy because I get to ask unlimited questions to the boys about life and love. :)
Sorry this blog was short. I was trying to think of what to write and couldn’t really think of too much. All I could think to write about was work, eat and sleep….I need to become more exciting. :)
Talk to you all soon. Love and much missing from Germany.
Gretchen
Friday, September 18, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Happy September 1st!
Josh drove his fam to the airport yesterday morning. They were visiting for 2 wks and 2 days and I am not going to lie I thought that it would not be nearly as fantastic as it was having them here. Right before they came, I have to admit that I was having a hard time imagining now sleeping in my bed….even though it had just as soft of blankets….does that make me high maintanence? I also had to give myself little pep talks that it would be “okay” if the house wasn’t always spotless. For the record though I told Josh the last night that I was really starting to like the guest bed.
The Saturday they came in I begged Josh to let me come to the airport too. (It was going to be a very tight squeeze fitting 6 people into the highlander with luggage.) But I woke up trying to reason with him that I would sit on the floor. He gave in after a couple of hours…so I was very happy! When we picked them up we had a 6 pack of Belgium beer waiting for them. When we got back, we grilled out and just caught up.
The first week they were here Josh had time off so he got to travel with them and just hang out. They were able to go to BernKastle-Keus, Idar-Oberstein, Ramstein (to see how an Air Force base compares to Army….really no comparison) Belgium (I am spacing the name of it) and Luxumbourg. I am sure they went a couple more places but I can't remember them. The next weekend I took Friday and Monday off so we flew to Cinque Terre, Italy. This is a place in Italy that has five small villages scattered throughout this cliff. To get to each village you can either travel by train or hike village to village. We spent most of Friday traveling but ended up getting there and heading straight to the water to swim. Afterwards we had a late night Italian dinner….I am obsessed with Italian food. The next day we got going early in plans to hike until we couldn’t take it anymore. (We were staying in the farthest town, Monterosso). The first hike took a little under 2 hours to complete. Joelle had warned me how beautiful it was but no words could really explain how unbelievable it really was. At times, we were walking right along the edge of the cliff with only 2 ft of walking path….the key to survival was Josh carrying a backpack of 3 Nalgeen water bottles for us. Without the water we would have all passed out…no exaggeration. When we made it into the 2nd town around noon we went right for the beach. After cooling down, we had some lunch and the kids hiked one more town. The rest of the weekend was filled with eating, relaxing and more site seeing….too much fun!
When we got back to Germany, Josh had one day off while I went back to work. Each night we either grilled out, made dinner or went out to eat. Josh’s fam got to meet all our favorite friends. J Once Josh started going back to work, things changed a little bit. He started getting more tired and the first night he came to bed and got really quiet. I asked him what was up and he said he just really liked his family. I smiled and agreed with him. I told him he should go hang out with them more so he got right out of bed to go read his book in the living room. Each night after that he expressed at least 1 time how much he really liked them. After awhile I got sad too.
So Josh’s family came and went….at times I got tired but the fact that I had so many people to ask questions to made it all worth it. Being so far away, Josh and I both agreed that we get caught up in work and Germany that we forget how much we really love and need our friends and family back home.
Today I got told that I get to go TDY (temporary duty) to a conference for 4 days in the beginning of October. The best part is that it is in Garmisch, a gorgeous place in the German ALPS. (When Joelle and her sisters came to visit we went there and it quickly turned into Joelle’s favorite place of all.) Also, I found out that most of the providers are going as well as myself and another nurse….so it should be good hang out times. Josh said he is going to turn the place into a bachelor’s pad for a week.
Well I should go now. I wish you all a happy 1st of September. Miss and love you all!
Love,
Gretchen
The Saturday they came in I begged Josh to let me come to the airport too. (It was going to be a very tight squeeze fitting 6 people into the highlander with luggage.) But I woke up trying to reason with him that I would sit on the floor. He gave in after a couple of hours…so I was very happy! When we picked them up we had a 6 pack of Belgium beer waiting for them. When we got back, we grilled out and just caught up.
The first week they were here Josh had time off so he got to travel with them and just hang out. They were able to go to BernKastle-Keus, Idar-Oberstein, Ramstein (to see how an Air Force base compares to Army….really no comparison) Belgium (I am spacing the name of it) and Luxumbourg. I am sure they went a couple more places but I can't remember them. The next weekend I took Friday and Monday off so we flew to Cinque Terre, Italy. This is a place in Italy that has five small villages scattered throughout this cliff. To get to each village you can either travel by train or hike village to village. We spent most of Friday traveling but ended up getting there and heading straight to the water to swim. Afterwards we had a late night Italian dinner….I am obsessed with Italian food. The next day we got going early in plans to hike until we couldn’t take it anymore. (We were staying in the farthest town, Monterosso). The first hike took a little under 2 hours to complete. Joelle had warned me how beautiful it was but no words could really explain how unbelievable it really was. At times, we were walking right along the edge of the cliff with only 2 ft of walking path….the key to survival was Josh carrying a backpack of 3 Nalgeen water bottles for us. Without the water we would have all passed out…no exaggeration. When we made it into the 2nd town around noon we went right for the beach. After cooling down, we had some lunch and the kids hiked one more town. The rest of the weekend was filled with eating, relaxing and more site seeing….too much fun!
When we got back to Germany, Josh had one day off while I went back to work. Each night we either grilled out, made dinner or went out to eat. Josh’s fam got to meet all our favorite friends. J Once Josh started going back to work, things changed a little bit. He started getting more tired and the first night he came to bed and got really quiet. I asked him what was up and he said he just really liked his family. I smiled and agreed with him. I told him he should go hang out with them more so he got right out of bed to go read his book in the living room. Each night after that he expressed at least 1 time how much he really liked them. After awhile I got sad too.
So Josh’s family came and went….at times I got tired but the fact that I had so many people to ask questions to made it all worth it. Being so far away, Josh and I both agreed that we get caught up in work and Germany that we forget how much we really love and need our friends and family back home.
Today I got told that I get to go TDY (temporary duty) to a conference for 4 days in the beginning of October. The best part is that it is in Garmisch, a gorgeous place in the German ALPS. (When Joelle and her sisters came to visit we went there and it quickly turned into Joelle’s favorite place of all.) Also, I found out that most of the providers are going as well as myself and another nurse….so it should be good hang out times. Josh said he is going to turn the place into a bachelor’s pad for a week.
Well I should go now. I wish you all a happy 1st of September. Miss and love you all!
Love,
Gretchen
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Happy Tuesday! :)
Josh and I sent Harvey, our temporary pup, back to his owners on Saturday. We spent all of Sunday cleaning to carpet and house (well Josh did) and then last night we babysat for Josh’s Platoon Sargent’s two girls. Last night when I climbed into bed at 10 pm (1 hour later than normal- you can say it, I’m a loser) I was EXHAUSTED. So when Josh came in later and turned on the light and wanted to talk and hang out, I was not a happy camper.
And then this morning my bad karma turned on me because about 0545 I was stung by my first hornet. I was minding my own manners running on the treadmill at the gym when all of a sudden I felt shooting pain in my arm. I went over to Josh and asked if I had a bite….sure enough I did, the hornet ended up on my shirt where I swung it to the floor, got scared and ran. I made Josh go kill it on the floor…even though it already dead. He picked the hornet up and stated that the hornet was whispering to him that he was sorry. Since Josh has returned from deployment he has this thing with insects. Every time I see a bug in our house I ask him to come kill it and EVERY TIME he tells me that the bugs are our friends and were created by God so we should let them live. Unbelievable.
I’m not sure if you guys remember my blog from February when I was really excited because we had ordered our coaches for our house. After a huge ordeal they told us it could take up to 6 months to deliver. 6 months down the road still no furniture. So this past Saturday Josh and I went to Volgeweh (where we bought it) to look for new one so we could cancel the order. We found nothing that we liked so we turned around and walked out with the decision to just wait till our order comes….they said no later than the end of August. We then decided to walk into Volgeweh’s Powerzone to look around….shortly after Josh was looking at Mountain bikes and decided he was just going to get one. I have been telling him over and over again he needs to just get it but he always wants to find the best deals and research the features of each bike. He found 2 he really liked but decided we should go to Ramstein (another Air Force base nearby) to make sure they didn’t have any. When we walked into the Outdoor Reaction store this cute little bike mountain bike kept staring at me. I told Josh that I really loved it. He of coarse supported me getting one as well in order to avoid grief giving per me for going biking after work….so today after work Josh and I get to go pick up my cute little pink mountain bike :).
Josh’s family will be arriving in Germany this Saturday for 15 days or so. Josh and I are both looking VERY forward to seeing them. I, myself have to learn (very quickly) to conquer the work hard, party hard attitude. Lately I have just been a work and sleep kinda gal…Josh was even teasing me last night because one of my favorite things of all is crawling into my bed at night and get all snuggled in. Josh says I demand too much sleep…not true.
Josh has been on a role lately making jokes about when his parents and two sisters arrive. He has even stated that wanted to create an agenda for his family…his main point of the spreadsheet was to get across the idea that woman will clean and cook while the men enjoy their vacation. I told him it was forbidden but he continued to have waay too much fun with ideas for the Excel spreadsheet. I will admit that he even had me laughing a few times at his jokes. Mary, Danielle and Britt please come prepared and bring your feistiness.
So I should get back to work…although it’s been a slow day I should go find something to do! Hope you are all having a great week thus far.
Love you all and miss you guys!
Love,
Gretchen
And then this morning my bad karma turned on me because about 0545 I was stung by my first hornet. I was minding my own manners running on the treadmill at the gym when all of a sudden I felt shooting pain in my arm. I went over to Josh and asked if I had a bite….sure enough I did, the hornet ended up on my shirt where I swung it to the floor, got scared and ran. I made Josh go kill it on the floor…even though it already dead. He picked the hornet up and stated that the hornet was whispering to him that he was sorry. Since Josh has returned from deployment he has this thing with insects. Every time I see a bug in our house I ask him to come kill it and EVERY TIME he tells me that the bugs are our friends and were created by God so we should let them live. Unbelievable.
I’m not sure if you guys remember my blog from February when I was really excited because we had ordered our coaches for our house. After a huge ordeal they told us it could take up to 6 months to deliver. 6 months down the road still no furniture. So this past Saturday Josh and I went to Volgeweh (where we bought it) to look for new one so we could cancel the order. We found nothing that we liked so we turned around and walked out with the decision to just wait till our order comes….they said no later than the end of August. We then decided to walk into Volgeweh’s Powerzone to look around….shortly after Josh was looking at Mountain bikes and decided he was just going to get one. I have been telling him over and over again he needs to just get it but he always wants to find the best deals and research the features of each bike. He found 2 he really liked but decided we should go to Ramstein (another Air Force base nearby) to make sure they didn’t have any. When we walked into the Outdoor Reaction store this cute little bike mountain bike kept staring at me. I told Josh that I really loved it. He of coarse supported me getting one as well in order to avoid grief giving per me for going biking after work….so today after work Josh and I get to go pick up my cute little pink mountain bike :).
Josh’s family will be arriving in Germany this Saturday for 15 days or so. Josh and I are both looking VERY forward to seeing them. I, myself have to learn (very quickly) to conquer the work hard, party hard attitude. Lately I have just been a work and sleep kinda gal…Josh was even teasing me last night because one of my favorite things of all is crawling into my bed at night and get all snuggled in. Josh says I demand too much sleep…not true.
Josh has been on a role lately making jokes about when his parents and two sisters arrive. He has even stated that wanted to create an agenda for his family…his main point of the spreadsheet was to get across the idea that woman will clean and cook while the men enjoy their vacation. I told him it was forbidden but he continued to have waay too much fun with ideas for the Excel spreadsheet. I will admit that he even had me laughing a few times at his jokes. Mary, Danielle and Britt please come prepared and bring your feistiness.
So I should get back to work…although it’s been a slow day I should go find something to do! Hope you are all having a great week thus far.
Love you all and miss you guys!
Love,
Gretchen
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Only a babe
So I guess after my emotional night my immune system decided to crash on me. It started as a horrible sore throat that switched to a lot of nasal congestion accompanied by pounding headaches. I came home from work at lunch on Friday and decided to clean all the dog hair from our floor…Josh and I went to town and even bought a vacuum….that kept us pretty busy for the afternoon. That night I didn’t feel like doing much so I made us wine with coke blended with ice. For those of you who don’t know, it is a drink that the Cressman girls (Joelle, Jen and Jessica) brought back from their adventures in Europe. In Spain they put wine with coke and it is called calimocho. I wanted something cold for my throat and since it was a Friday night I figured that a glass of wine couldn’t hurt. Josh stayed in with me and we hung out….I was in bed early.
The next night Josh had an Army party and so he went out while I stayed in….at that point I was really not doing too great and couldn’t imagine going out for a night. He called me at 11:30 to come pick him up and when I got there at midnight he wanted me to come in with my pajamas to say hello to everyone. After I convinced him that we needed to just go home and that I didn’t feel well his talkative self fell asleep in the car. :) He’s only a babe.
So the rest of the weekend was a lot of laying low. I slept A LOT and it seems no matter how much sleep I get I still wake up feeling like I’ve been hit by a big bulldozing truck. Last night Josh and I got invited to dinner and I told Josh that I wasn’t in. He decided to stay back to take care of me and when he was on the phone telling the LT that he was going to pass I ran into the kitchen telling him that he was the greatest. He smiled and told me that he thinks he has perfected the art of “reading woman.”
Josh has started to get very invested (time and money) in watching the TV series “The unit.” It is about the Special Forces and their missions…there are a few love stories here and there with the families at all so occasionally I will keep my eyes open to watch some of the show. When I have to go to the bathroom he always offers to pause the show. I tell him that he doesn’t have to he just has to pause it if the show skips back to the love part with wives. J. The past couple nights he has watched 2-3 episodes a night on the labtop. I try not to watch them because I tell him it doesn’t make me very excited knowing what they do. He tells me it is fake and not how SF works. I disagree. Nonetheless he loves the show.
So this weekend we will be around. It is our last weekend of watching the pup, Harvey. And it is already the weekend after that that Josh’s family is coming to visit for 2 wks….very excited!!! Josh has been threating his poor mother that we are going to drink all the Belgium beer we bought (for when they come) before they make it over. He said he talked to his mother last night and she said that's all she thinks about during the day is coming over here. I said "oh sad" and he replied with "yeah and pretty pathetic too." We both got a good laugh in...Mary, we love you! :)
Hope everyone is doing great! Miss you all lots!
Ps. Meg, I was just informed that they are hiring a chiropractor at our clinic. You should really think about it…free healthcare, Germany, meeting your future Army husband..and most importantly unlimited time with your sister!!
The next night Josh had an Army party and so he went out while I stayed in….at that point I was really not doing too great and couldn’t imagine going out for a night. He called me at 11:30 to come pick him up and when I got there at midnight he wanted me to come in with my pajamas to say hello to everyone. After I convinced him that we needed to just go home and that I didn’t feel well his talkative self fell asleep in the car. :) He’s only a babe.
So the rest of the weekend was a lot of laying low. I slept A LOT and it seems no matter how much sleep I get I still wake up feeling like I’ve been hit by a big bulldozing truck. Last night Josh and I got invited to dinner and I told Josh that I wasn’t in. He decided to stay back to take care of me and when he was on the phone telling the LT that he was going to pass I ran into the kitchen telling him that he was the greatest. He smiled and told me that he thinks he has perfected the art of “reading woman.”
Josh has started to get very invested (time and money) in watching the TV series “The unit.” It is about the Special Forces and their missions…there are a few love stories here and there with the families at all so occasionally I will keep my eyes open to watch some of the show. When I have to go to the bathroom he always offers to pause the show. I tell him that he doesn’t have to he just has to pause it if the show skips back to the love part with wives. J. The past couple nights he has watched 2-3 episodes a night on the labtop. I try not to watch them because I tell him it doesn’t make me very excited knowing what they do. He tells me it is fake and not how SF works. I disagree. Nonetheless he loves the show.
So this weekend we will be around. It is our last weekend of watching the pup, Harvey. And it is already the weekend after that that Josh’s family is coming to visit for 2 wks….very excited!!! Josh has been threating his poor mother that we are going to drink all the Belgium beer we bought (for when they come) before they make it over. He said he talked to his mother last night and she said that's all she thinks about during the day is coming over here. I said "oh sad" and he replied with "yeah and pretty pathetic too." We both got a good laugh in...Mary, we love you! :)
Hope everyone is doing great! Miss you all lots!
Ps. Meg, I was just informed that they are hiring a chiropractor at our clinic. You should really think about it…free healthcare, Germany, meeting your future Army husband..and most importantly unlimited time with your sister!!
Friday, July 31, 2009
An emotional night :)
Last night Josh and I went out to Mexican. On our way home, we decided to swing by the movie store and get a movie. I stated that I was just going to fall asleep so he could pick out the movie. It turns out that whenever I go into a movie store I always want to get one quick and get out. I hate looking around for a really long time. I tried to be patient but after a little while I told Josh that I was going to go wait in the car…he said he wasn’t going to be much longer so I waited. As I was standing there I saw this movie that I had remembered someone telling me about. It was called “Bridewar” and I then remembered Joelle telling me that she watched it one night and it reminded her of me. I went up to Josh and said, “This movie reminds Joelle of me, so we have to watch it sometime.” He said “okay, lets get it.” I was in a little shock but said “okay!”. In line he stated, “And this is why you don’t bring your wife into the movie store with you.” :)
So we started watching the movie. It is about two best friends who grow up together, get engaged around the same time and end up breaking apart during the planning of the wedding. The day of the wedding comes around they run into each other again right before they are going into their chapels to get married. They both look at each other and smile. One of the girls decides that she isn’t ready to get married and calls it off. She goes over to the other girl and tells her how sorry she is and how much she has missed her. The 2nd to last scene in the movie is the two girls meeting up 1 year later and breaking the news to each other that that they were BOTH pregnant and ironically had the exact same due date. The final part of the movie states how important companionship is and how many times the most important companionship is the friends that you grew up with.
Of course I started crying and told Josh that I was sad and that I left my friend that I grew up with back in Minnesota. At first he just smiled at me but after I started crying a little more he escorted me to the bedroom and told me to lay down with him. I went on about how Joelle and I always said that we would have babies together and that sometimes I thought about how that wasn’t going to happen because the Army wasn’t going to allow us to be in the same place again. He then said, “You find out where Joelle is going to be, tell her that you would like it to be near an Army base and we will go there.” I then asked well what if Joelle and Dane have babies before we get to the next station. He said, “When Joelle has a baby, we can have one.” I said, “So if Joelle gets pregnant tomorrow, we can too? “He smiled and said “yes.” Josh was going to stay up late but crawled into bed with his clothes all on to try to put me to sleep.
This morning I woke up and started thinking about last night. I came to the conclusion that the Lord has blessed me in all the areas of life. I may be pretty dramatic and emotional at times but somehow the people I love most know how to deal with me best.
I wanted to write this blog for you Jojo….one day we can play again friend.
On top of that I miss you ALL a lot a lot! Josh deals with a lot from me being so far away from friends and family so you can all ask him how much I miss you guys!
Hope you all have a great weekend!
Love you,
Gretchen
So we started watching the movie. It is about two best friends who grow up together, get engaged around the same time and end up breaking apart during the planning of the wedding. The day of the wedding comes around they run into each other again right before they are going into their chapels to get married. They both look at each other and smile. One of the girls decides that she isn’t ready to get married and calls it off. She goes over to the other girl and tells her how sorry she is and how much she has missed her. The 2nd to last scene in the movie is the two girls meeting up 1 year later and breaking the news to each other that that they were BOTH pregnant and ironically had the exact same due date. The final part of the movie states how important companionship is and how many times the most important companionship is the friends that you grew up with.
Of course I started crying and told Josh that I was sad and that I left my friend that I grew up with back in Minnesota. At first he just smiled at me but after I started crying a little more he escorted me to the bedroom and told me to lay down with him. I went on about how Joelle and I always said that we would have babies together and that sometimes I thought about how that wasn’t going to happen because the Army wasn’t going to allow us to be in the same place again. He then said, “You find out where Joelle is going to be, tell her that you would like it to be near an Army base and we will go there.” I then asked well what if Joelle and Dane have babies before we get to the next station. He said, “When Joelle has a baby, we can have one.” I said, “So if Joelle gets pregnant tomorrow, we can too? “He smiled and said “yes.” Josh was going to stay up late but crawled into bed with his clothes all on to try to put me to sleep.
This morning I woke up and started thinking about last night. I came to the conclusion that the Lord has blessed me in all the areas of life. I may be pretty dramatic and emotional at times but somehow the people I love most know how to deal with me best.
I wanted to write this blog for you Jojo….one day we can play again friend.
On top of that I miss you ALL a lot a lot! Josh deals with a lot from me being so far away from friends and family so you can all ask him how much I miss you guys!
Hope you all have a great weekend!
Love you,
Gretchen
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Cruise plus a little more
So as you may all know Josh and I just went on our honeymoon/year anniversary cruise. I am not sure how to keep this post minimal to tell you all the places we stopped at, so I am going to state the dates we were in each port and the highlights of the day.
Marseille, France (27 June 09): We took off from this port. We got in the night before and walked/took a taxi to the port site...it was very interesting bc with the French language barrier (Josh knew a little from HS) it was quite interesting getting to the port. One taxi dropped us off at the wrong port so we had to take another taxi to the right one...at the time we weren't sure what was going on, we just got in the cab and prayed. It worked out but when we were dropped off it was still a little over a mile walk to the ship. We could not believe how HUGE the ship was. It was built in 2008 and held nearly 4,000 people.
That day we got on the boat early and just explored. Once we got our bags we put our swimsuits on. Josh noted that before we left the port that evening he was sunburnt to the max :).....I coudn't talk him into tanning with me before. The boat took off around 6 and we just lounged because we didn't have dinner reservations till 9:30. Josh decided to pick the 2nd seating for dinner so everynight we ate dinner with the same two other couples.
We were a little nervous as to if the people we would sit with would speak english but found out that dinner was always a top highlight of each day. One couple at the table (Faye and Steve) were older and stated they had children our age and the other couple was a few years older than us (early thirties). The great part was that we found out that both guys were engineers and Steve was on a short stent in Paris as a project manager for an oil company. It was fun though because while the guys told their engineer stories, us girls found ourselves looking at each other rolling our eyes at their grand little world....Mary, you would have fit right in at dinner. :)
Genoa, Italy (28 June 09): It was the first port and we were there on a Sunday so we just walked around. The coolest part about this city was there were tiny tiny allyways (where you almost felt clastrophobic) and there would be the door opening to a GINORMOUS church inside and you wondered how such a great big church even fit in the small allyway. It was very interesting. We bought a couple really cheap bottles of wine (the wine in Italy is ridiculously cheap) and some Fococcia bread (with olives) and camped up at a park bench. I of course couldn't stop talking about how amazing the bread was....I really like to talk about food and sometimes it can get a little bit too much for some people but I never get how other people don't talk about how good it tastes too. After a bit more walking around we went back to the pool to go swimming. Dinner that night was another great time and of course with the 6 courses I kept telling Josh how amazing it was. Typically we would get done with dinner around midnight and go right to bed.
Naples, Italy (29 June 09): Here we got some advice from Faye and Steve to take the train up to Sorrento, Italy and on the way back stop at Pompie, Italy. So we headed out to the train station (by foot) and I can't say that I felt that overwhelmed in awhile. The city was absolutely crazy, there were people everywhere, vespa (scooters) racing ever which way...half the time I thought they were going to kill me and a protest (the italians called it a manifesto) going on in the middle of the street where they had traffic at a hult. So there was lots of honking of the horns. I told Josh I was going to go into a couple stores to get away from it and gave him my camera to take pictures. Once we got to the train station we took the train for an hour all the way to Sorrento. We met a pretty neat man on the train (I have found that while traveling you hear some pretty neat stories from people...he was on his way to meet his wife...she had came over to teach pilates for a week). Sorrento was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. We did what Faye and Steve had recommended and walked right into a hotel and went to look at the drop off. Sorrento lies on a cliff right on the beach and they have tons of hotels built into the cliff. To get down to the water they use lifts (elevators) and the water is the bluest of blue. There were no sandy beaches but you could see the huge rocks right through the crystal clear water. It reminded me a lot of Lake superior rocks but with crystal blue water.....Tons of tourists were laying out on rafts....and there were laters leading from the big rocks down to the swimming area (which looked to be about 20 ft deep). It was unbelievable. We said we would go back and spend a whole weekend in Sorrento. We admired it for awhile before heading to Pompei. I had no idea that it was soo big (we could have used more time there) but soon got tired walking and knew we had to get back before the ship left. Pompei is an old Roman city that was preserved by ash from a volcano. That was amazing to see. On our way back to the boat Josh and I stopped and shared a bottle of wine.....Josh gets really fun after a little wine :).
Palermo, Italy (30 June 09...10 month anniversary): We ordered breakfast to our room and sat on our balcony and ate. We recommend to anyone who does a cruise to definately do the balcony...we spent a good portion on it reading and watching the ocean. A lot of times when going at night we would see a small island all lite up and it was pretty neat to see. I would always talk all about the dolphins and how they must have been having so much fun playing underneath the water. Josh laughed and just rolled his eyes saying "I would do anything to just be inside and see what goes on in that head for just a day." I told him that dolphins were smarter than humans and he didn't buy that....I did hear that once but admit I am pretty gulible. We loved Italy!
Tunis, Africa (1 July 09): This was the stop that Josh was most excited for. After the trip Josh started a travel journal were he marks the stops we have been to and what to see. For Tunis he wrote two lines, "We have a map -Do not go back. It's worthless." It was different to see but it was not fun. We took a taxi into town with Faye and Steve and while we were there we were told to see the market. It turned out that it was a small SMALL allyway that went on forever with the locals trying to sell anything and everything. People would bombard you asking you to buy stuff. Many times locals would tell us to follow them and would just lead us to their market...they would want us to pay them for showing them the way. One guy started taking us some where and I told Josh to just stop walking....not to follow him. Josh stopped and told him we just wanted to do our own thing. He got very mad, said some not very nice words and called josh crazy...Josh said, "Yes, I am crazy." It was humerous. We found this one famous site where you pay to go to the top of this store to see a lookout but it turned out that the building top was just the same height as the other building so all you were looking at was the other old buildings....dissapointing...but we all got a good laugh out of it because we tried so hard to find this stop. This day was fun because we got to travel with Faye and Steve. Josh really grew to like Faye because she took notes and planned her days very thoroughly....many times before we took off we would see Faye at breakfast with a couple maps infront of her taking notes of what she wanted for that day.
Palma de Mallora, Spain (2 July 09): That day was the one day we did one of the boats excursions. It took us out on a catamaran to the ocean to swim and sunbathe. The boat stayed close to shore so we were able to see a lot of famous sites and a couple really beautiful beaches. Josh did a lot of swimming, I did a lot of sunbathing. When we got back we went into town for a little bit to walk around. Palma de Mallora is arguable one of the biggest party place in europe(so we were told) so we had to see what it was all about. We didnt stay for long but we did stop by a few local places to have some beer and sangria. We ended up at an American country bar for a little bit because Josh wanted to hear some country music....we love spain!
Barcelona (3 July 09): Okay this was our favorite stop. We had our whole day planned out by Jim (Josh's best friend from hs who spent 4 months studying abroad there) and after visiting I CAN'T believe he came home. Everything about barcelona was amazing to me and I told Josh we had to move there some day. We walked up along Rambla street and every first friday of the month they have this HUGE market. It was the greatest market I had ever seen....I could have walked around it forever. La rambla had a lot of street preformers so it was really cool to just people watch. WE took the Metro up to Sagrada Familia (one of the largest churches I've ever seen). They have been working to build this church for over 150 years now so it was a pretty fantastic site. We then headed to Parc Guell where we walked around and went up to the top to see the city from afar. Again it was breathtaking. It was about 85 degrees out so it gave us a little time to catch some of the breeze. We headed over to a small restaurant in the park where we had a couple beers....Josh took out his maps in order to get us to our next location which was this local sandwhich restuarant Jim had recommended. We found that withough Josh's handheld GPS we would have never found it because it was in this middle of a deserted allyway. When we turned the corner we saw the place was soo packed (at 3 in the afternoon) that you had to gently push yourself to the front to order. We ordered something off the menu (we had no idea what it was...menu was in spanish) and got a bottle of their Cava (kinda like a sparkling wine) for 2 euros. If we hadn't ordered it we would have been the only peopl not drinking this crazy pink juice in the place. The experience was pretty neat and Josh was very happy we found it. When leaving he said, "I could just picture tall Jim standing in the middle of that bar with a great big grin on his face." Jim, you rock for giving us such great places to see!
The last night at dinner when we were all saying goodbye Faye gave me a huge and said, "We really enjoyed your company. Steve and I were talking last night and decided you were quite the character and that your Dad must have had his hands full with you." I smiled and said "Thank you" but wasn't sure if that was what I should have said. I asked Josh after leaving the restuarant and of coarse he laughed and said, "that means you are high maintenance." I didn't understand why a stranger who pretended to like me would call me high maintenance so I tried to prove Josh wrong but after laying in bed for 30 mins continually asking Josh over and over again what he thought it meant I could not figure out what that comment was in reference to. I am still very perplexed. :)
On Saturday we woke up and headed back. The day was interesting because we started out walking (after finding we had no cash on us). After about 45 mins of walking...I was drenched with sweat...I got mad and flagged down a taxi. We somehow verbalized to him that we needed money so we took us to a cash machine before he brought us to the airport 10 hours before our flight took off. We really had no choice because we had so much baggage to carry around. It was very interesting and perhaps we realized we needed to plan our travels arrangements a little better next time.
So I am sorry this is getting so long but I still have to tell you my favorite parts about the trip.
First off, I found that if I let Josh do his whole map and GPS thing (and stay quiet) that we get along quite well. I took a lot of pictures of him at times and numerous different street corners...after awhile I found it pretty cute how much he loves to navigate. I told him in the end he is great to travel with because I just get to go along for the ride.
One night on the balcony, I started talking about dolphins and monkeys and how they were soo super cool. I stated, "there would be nothing better to see just one dolphin playing...it would make my day....okay week....no month." Josh looked up from his book and said, "Look, what is splashing over there." I looked over, thinking he was playing with me and sure enough there was a school of dolphins splashing away. I was soo soo happy and couldn't stop talking about how much fun they were having. There were about 15 of them and they were doing flips everywhere....I was speechless (at least for a good 30 seconds).
I started reading some Nicholas Sparks books...and found myself addicted. Josh even finished his book and I told him my story so a couple nights I read my book out loud to him. The first one I finished "Dear John" I cried like a little baby and even read the ending twice because I couldn't believe how good it was...so I cried twice.
So now Josh and I are back to the world of working. Today I was a little stressed at work and at lunch Josh admitted that he hadn't seen me like that....I am not sure what set me off but after the day was over and Josh and I made dinner, we took a nap and found that was just what I needed. Josh had his first full day back at work as well...and he was given a project so that made him really happy.
I am sorry to let you know that Josh and I have been trying VERY hard to post pictures but for some reason our computers won't let them download the pics to the computer so we will have to keep trying....but you all have to see the places we went.
Okay, my book is done...sorry soo long!
Miss and love you all!
Gretchen
Marseille, France (27 June 09): We took off from this port. We got in the night before and walked/took a taxi to the port site...it was very interesting bc with the French language barrier (Josh knew a little from HS) it was quite interesting getting to the port. One taxi dropped us off at the wrong port so we had to take another taxi to the right one...at the time we weren't sure what was going on, we just got in the cab and prayed. It worked out but when we were dropped off it was still a little over a mile walk to the ship. We could not believe how HUGE the ship was. It was built in 2008 and held nearly 4,000 people.
That day we got on the boat early and just explored. Once we got our bags we put our swimsuits on. Josh noted that before we left the port that evening he was sunburnt to the max :).....I coudn't talk him into tanning with me before. The boat took off around 6 and we just lounged because we didn't have dinner reservations till 9:30. Josh decided to pick the 2nd seating for dinner so everynight we ate dinner with the same two other couples.
We were a little nervous as to if the people we would sit with would speak english but found out that dinner was always a top highlight of each day. One couple at the table (Faye and Steve) were older and stated they had children our age and the other couple was a few years older than us (early thirties). The great part was that we found out that both guys were engineers and Steve was on a short stent in Paris as a project manager for an oil company. It was fun though because while the guys told their engineer stories, us girls found ourselves looking at each other rolling our eyes at their grand little world....Mary, you would have fit right in at dinner. :)
Genoa, Italy (28 June 09): It was the first port and we were there on a Sunday so we just walked around. The coolest part about this city was there were tiny tiny allyways (where you almost felt clastrophobic) and there would be the door opening to a GINORMOUS church inside and you wondered how such a great big church even fit in the small allyway. It was very interesting. We bought a couple really cheap bottles of wine (the wine in Italy is ridiculously cheap) and some Fococcia bread (with olives) and camped up at a park bench. I of course couldn't stop talking about how amazing the bread was....I really like to talk about food and sometimes it can get a little bit too much for some people but I never get how other people don't talk about how good it tastes too. After a bit more walking around we went back to the pool to go swimming. Dinner that night was another great time and of course with the 6 courses I kept telling Josh how amazing it was. Typically we would get done with dinner around midnight and go right to bed.
Naples, Italy (29 June 09): Here we got some advice from Faye and Steve to take the train up to Sorrento, Italy and on the way back stop at Pompie, Italy. So we headed out to the train station (by foot) and I can't say that I felt that overwhelmed in awhile. The city was absolutely crazy, there were people everywhere, vespa (scooters) racing ever which way...half the time I thought they were going to kill me and a protest (the italians called it a manifesto) going on in the middle of the street where they had traffic at a hult. So there was lots of honking of the horns. I told Josh I was going to go into a couple stores to get away from it and gave him my camera to take pictures. Once we got to the train station we took the train for an hour all the way to Sorrento. We met a pretty neat man on the train (I have found that while traveling you hear some pretty neat stories from people...he was on his way to meet his wife...she had came over to teach pilates for a week). Sorrento was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. We did what Faye and Steve had recommended and walked right into a hotel and went to look at the drop off. Sorrento lies on a cliff right on the beach and they have tons of hotels built into the cliff. To get down to the water they use lifts (elevators) and the water is the bluest of blue. There were no sandy beaches but you could see the huge rocks right through the crystal clear water. It reminded me a lot of Lake superior rocks but with crystal blue water.....Tons of tourists were laying out on rafts....and there were laters leading from the big rocks down to the swimming area (which looked to be about 20 ft deep). It was unbelievable. We said we would go back and spend a whole weekend in Sorrento. We admired it for awhile before heading to Pompei. I had no idea that it was soo big (we could have used more time there) but soon got tired walking and knew we had to get back before the ship left. Pompei is an old Roman city that was preserved by ash from a volcano. That was amazing to see. On our way back to the boat Josh and I stopped and shared a bottle of wine.....Josh gets really fun after a little wine :).
Palermo, Italy (30 June 09...10 month anniversary): We ordered breakfast to our room and sat on our balcony and ate. We recommend to anyone who does a cruise to definately do the balcony...we spent a good portion on it reading and watching the ocean. A lot of times when going at night we would see a small island all lite up and it was pretty neat to see. I would always talk all about the dolphins and how they must have been having so much fun playing underneath the water. Josh laughed and just rolled his eyes saying "I would do anything to just be inside and see what goes on in that head for just a day." I told him that dolphins were smarter than humans and he didn't buy that....I did hear that once but admit I am pretty gulible. We loved Italy!
Tunis, Africa (1 July 09): This was the stop that Josh was most excited for. After the trip Josh started a travel journal were he marks the stops we have been to and what to see. For Tunis he wrote two lines, "We have a map -Do not go back. It's worthless." It was different to see but it was not fun. We took a taxi into town with Faye and Steve and while we were there we were told to see the market. It turned out that it was a small SMALL allyway that went on forever with the locals trying to sell anything and everything. People would bombard you asking you to buy stuff. Many times locals would tell us to follow them and would just lead us to their market...they would want us to pay them for showing them the way. One guy started taking us some where and I told Josh to just stop walking....not to follow him. Josh stopped and told him we just wanted to do our own thing. He got very mad, said some not very nice words and called josh crazy...Josh said, "Yes, I am crazy." It was humerous. We found this one famous site where you pay to go to the top of this store to see a lookout but it turned out that the building top was just the same height as the other building so all you were looking at was the other old buildings....dissapointing...but we all got a good laugh out of it because we tried so hard to find this stop. This day was fun because we got to travel with Faye and Steve. Josh really grew to like Faye because she took notes and planned her days very thoroughly....many times before we took off we would see Faye at breakfast with a couple maps infront of her taking notes of what she wanted for that day.
Palma de Mallora, Spain (2 July 09): That day was the one day we did one of the boats excursions. It took us out on a catamaran to the ocean to swim and sunbathe. The boat stayed close to shore so we were able to see a lot of famous sites and a couple really beautiful beaches. Josh did a lot of swimming, I did a lot of sunbathing. When we got back we went into town for a little bit to walk around. Palma de Mallora is arguable one of the biggest party place in europe(so we were told) so we had to see what it was all about. We didnt stay for long but we did stop by a few local places to have some beer and sangria. We ended up at an American country bar for a little bit because Josh wanted to hear some country music....we love spain!
Barcelona (3 July 09): Okay this was our favorite stop. We had our whole day planned out by Jim (Josh's best friend from hs who spent 4 months studying abroad there) and after visiting I CAN'T believe he came home. Everything about barcelona was amazing to me and I told Josh we had to move there some day. We walked up along Rambla street and every first friday of the month they have this HUGE market. It was the greatest market I had ever seen....I could have walked around it forever. La rambla had a lot of street preformers so it was really cool to just people watch. WE took the Metro up to Sagrada Familia (one of the largest churches I've ever seen). They have been working to build this church for over 150 years now so it was a pretty fantastic site. We then headed to Parc Guell where we walked around and went up to the top to see the city from afar. Again it was breathtaking. It was about 85 degrees out so it gave us a little time to catch some of the breeze. We headed over to a small restaurant in the park where we had a couple beers....Josh took out his maps in order to get us to our next location which was this local sandwhich restuarant Jim had recommended. We found that withough Josh's handheld GPS we would have never found it because it was in this middle of a deserted allyway. When we turned the corner we saw the place was soo packed (at 3 in the afternoon) that you had to gently push yourself to the front to order. We ordered something off the menu (we had no idea what it was...menu was in spanish) and got a bottle of their Cava (kinda like a sparkling wine) for 2 euros. If we hadn't ordered it we would have been the only peopl not drinking this crazy pink juice in the place. The experience was pretty neat and Josh was very happy we found it. When leaving he said, "I could just picture tall Jim standing in the middle of that bar with a great big grin on his face." Jim, you rock for giving us such great places to see!
The last night at dinner when we were all saying goodbye Faye gave me a huge and said, "We really enjoyed your company. Steve and I were talking last night and decided you were quite the character and that your Dad must have had his hands full with you." I smiled and said "Thank you" but wasn't sure if that was what I should have said. I asked Josh after leaving the restuarant and of coarse he laughed and said, "that means you are high maintenance." I didn't understand why a stranger who pretended to like me would call me high maintenance so I tried to prove Josh wrong but after laying in bed for 30 mins continually asking Josh over and over again what he thought it meant I could not figure out what that comment was in reference to. I am still very perplexed. :)
On Saturday we woke up and headed back. The day was interesting because we started out walking (after finding we had no cash on us). After about 45 mins of walking...I was drenched with sweat...I got mad and flagged down a taxi. We somehow verbalized to him that we needed money so we took us to a cash machine before he brought us to the airport 10 hours before our flight took off. We really had no choice because we had so much baggage to carry around. It was very interesting and perhaps we realized we needed to plan our travels arrangements a little better next time.
So I am sorry this is getting so long but I still have to tell you my favorite parts about the trip.
First off, I found that if I let Josh do his whole map and GPS thing (and stay quiet) that we get along quite well. I took a lot of pictures of him at times and numerous different street corners...after awhile I found it pretty cute how much he loves to navigate. I told him in the end he is great to travel with because I just get to go along for the ride.
One night on the balcony, I started talking about dolphins and monkeys and how they were soo super cool. I stated, "there would be nothing better to see just one dolphin playing...it would make my day....okay week....no month." Josh looked up from his book and said, "Look, what is splashing over there." I looked over, thinking he was playing with me and sure enough there was a school of dolphins splashing away. I was soo soo happy and couldn't stop talking about how much fun they were having. There were about 15 of them and they were doing flips everywhere....I was speechless (at least for a good 30 seconds).
I started reading some Nicholas Sparks books...and found myself addicted. Josh even finished his book and I told him my story so a couple nights I read my book out loud to him. The first one I finished "Dear John" I cried like a little baby and even read the ending twice because I couldn't believe how good it was...so I cried twice.
So now Josh and I are back to the world of working. Today I was a little stressed at work and at lunch Josh admitted that he hadn't seen me like that....I am not sure what set me off but after the day was over and Josh and I made dinner, we took a nap and found that was just what I needed. Josh had his first full day back at work as well...and he was given a project so that made him really happy.
I am sorry to let you know that Josh and I have been trying VERY hard to post pictures but for some reason our computers won't let them download the pics to the computer so we will have to keep trying....but you all have to see the places we went.
Okay, my book is done...sorry soo long!
Miss and love you all!
Gretchen
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