Deployment Positive Thursday- Weeks 25 & 26

So we meet again. Things have been slightly busy around here the past two weeks to say the lest. Between a Trans-Atlantic vacation, getting caught up at work, and trying to get back into my routine, some things (eh hem, my blog) have seemed to fallen by the wayside. As we begin to gear up for the second half of this deployment (YUP, this is really happening!) I find myself getting more and more excited for the fall! The poor kids must be so sick of me asking them how excited they are to start school up again, but what's a girl to do? I've got to have things to look forward to.

Maybe it's foolish, but as we hit the 6 month mark, I keep having to remind myself that it's not over yet. I guess this is the beauty of having midtour leave late in a deployment. Not only that, but I have been planning lots of smaller milestone trips as well with friends and family. Plus with the Holidays seemingly right after midtour is over, it'll be 2012 before we know it. And I couldn't be happier.

I also wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from my visit to Germany. We crammed a lot of fun (and food and beer) into 5 short days, but it was great to see family again. These are mostly in random order, but I tried to just pick my favorites. Hope you enjoy:



Cemeteries in Europe are a lot different than in the states. There is something so beautiful about families owning a plot and taking care of their loved ones and making it their own.




My Omama and Opapa Hilsbos & Opa Jakob





Creative "Tombstone"... this was one of my favorites.





The house my mom grew up in just outside Dusseldorf




My "single" hotel room. 




Gut Hahn for lunch





At Gut Hahn with my Oma and Dad




Ein Pills, Bitte




Empty Beer





My favorite meal; Filet mit Pfefferlinger und Rosti







German Countryside




Kaffee und kuchen





My Oma and Opa on their wedding day in December 1943




A rainbow on our last afternoon




And a beautiful sunset walking back to the hotel



Spring Has Sprung!

FINALLY!!!

I just got back from my first outdoor run of the spring and it felt great! Don't get me wrong - for the most part, I hate running - but it just felt good to be outside without being hunched over under the protective shield of an umbrella or hood of my jacket. The weather in Central Pennsylvania was nothing short of perfect today! You could smell chocolate in the air (yes, this really happens!) and not a hint of cow manure on the farms, which is rare.

The beginning of the week was so miserable and rainy and cold that today's mid-sixties sunny skies completely brightened up my day! It'd have to say today's weather has been the best day of the year thus far!

They have these trees in this region (that unfortunately I can't ever remember the name of) but they only bloom for a few days each year. It's similar to a Cherry Blossom Tree, but with much bigger flowers. I was determined to capture this mystery tree in at least one photograph, but the weekend had gotten away from me and yesterday I feared I was running out of time, so even though it was lousy weather out (the rain had stopped momentarily) I went out and got some pictures incase that would be the last day it was in bloom.

These are some of the shots I got yesterday:

(and I couldn't resist getting this close up of the beads of rain, it looks so cool)

Today I was pleasantly surprised when I came home for lunch and the tree was not only still in bloom, but thousands of time more beautiful than it had been yesterday! After my run, I came back and got some shots and boy, what a difference a day makes!

(sorry, I couldn't pick just one- making decisions is not my strong suit)

If my wedding colors were pink, you bet your boots you would have seen these babies in my bouquet. Honestly some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen!

Passing the Time

As March came to a close, I was excited to flip the page for good on yet another month of this deployment. I'm the type of person who loves to have little (and big) things to look forward to to make the time go by faster, so each month I have key days that are just a little bit special when I get to cross them off the list. 

I have a calendar that I originally made for Andrew for Christmas on Shutterfly, but recently made myself a copy and named it my "Deployment Countdown Calendar 2011". I love crossing off each day as it passes and it's super exciting when I forget a day and I get to cross off two days at the same time, even though this only happened once when I went up to Boston.

For whatever reason, I don't have a picture of my March page, but here is February completely over!! 

All those colorful little symbols mark an important day (two circles, our wedding date, yellow ribbon: deployment day, pink heart: first kiss day, purple ?!: proposal day, green box[random but I couldn't think of anything else]: Ranger School Graduation Date). At the bottom of each month I wrote "By the end of this month XX DAYS will be behind us!" I also noted the big "countdown" days, like Day 25, 50, 100, 150, 200 (which happens to fall on our pre-versary: August 4th of this year, exactly a year before our wedding day), 250, 300 and 350. I pray that I don't have to count much higher than that, but there is no "rule" that a deployment will only last 365 days. Some are shorter, some are longer; it's just the luck of the draw and we won't know for sure until he is home again and in my arms. 

April's calendar is really exciting with lots of extra dates! I drew a little baseball on yesterday's date (for Opening Day; which I have avoided talking about for a reason. I'm actually in an utter state of depression at this point and it has absolutely nothing to do with deployment) and a little Cross for Easter. I took this picture last night of my calendar (planning ahead for this post, and I just love messing around with our new camera). This little guy sits next it on the shelf (along with Cami, the Ice-Ice-Baby-singing-Camouflaged-Camel) and I just can't seem to get enough of him. I just love looking at him and can just picture this little boy in his Daddy's gear waiting for him to come home and wanting so badly to one day be just like him. It makes me love America a little bit more than I already do; which is a lot!

I also have some news to share from the Sandbox! While I am finding crafty ways to pass the time and have things to look forward to, Andrew is passing the time in an entirely different way. He's been going on more patrols and missions lately, and according to him "being outside the wire is 100 times better than being in the TOC". There is not a doubt in my mind that he wasn't born to do this. Here he is on his most recent mission with a Polish Platoon:

That's about all the news we have to offer from our world. It feels great to have another month swept away, never to return again, and with a few more flips of the calendar I'll have my solider home again! 

Our New Toy!

A few weeks ago, Andrew saw a deal on this awesome camera that we had had our eye on for a while so he sent me off to the mystical and far-away land of Costco to get it (this is when the money transfer woes from Citizens bank started up again). I was so excited to pick it up because two of his relatives have the same cameras and they take beautiful pictures! It's Andrew's second big purchase for us and for our married life (the first, of course, being my beautiful Engagement ring) and I get so excited thinking of all the places we will take it and all of the fabulous pictures we will take along our journey together.

Welp, life has gotten away from me recently and the camera and all of its accessories sat in my room, in a box for close to a month. I didn't even open the box a single time until earlier this week, and even that was just to appease Andrew when he kept asking me to make sure all the parts he paid for were there. But this afternoon, I sat down with this baby, and boy oh boy is it a cool camera! I didn't have any cool subjects to take pictures of today, so I was just messing around with the settings and different functions with things I found around here (including my favorite-ever gift; the ring!) So here goes nothing, my first shot at "serious" (yeah, right) photography! Can't wait to see what other kind of memories this amazing camera will capture!

My rings, a spare Helmet Strap, my wish hear-shaped stone that Mom gave me during Ranger School (from the Eat, Pray, Love store) to keep under my pillow, and my miniature ACU pillow (that serves more as a cuddle buddy than actual head support while sleeping)

Pay no attention to the late-night post; I've got a soldier to talk to in Afghanistan, people! When I'm struggling to stay awake at the wee hour of 0100, he is already done with breakfast and well into his day at work 1030. Can't believe we almost have two full months of this deployment behind us. What a great feeling that will be!