Hispanic Heritage Celebration was really neat. Some people spoke and they had a band and singer, all people from the community, soldiers and their families. The food was REALLY GOOD, and they had a GIANT cake! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!!
AND they had pinatas! Several of them were Dora the Explorer pinatas, reminded me of my Theo. And anyone ever heard of pulling strings on the pinatas? Well, I guess swinging big sticks in crowds, not exactly safe, so each child pulled a ribbon from the bottom of the pinata, and then the candy fell out.
No word yet on the job front. I don't know when I might find out. I'm trying not to get my hopes up...but it would be great!!

ok, gotta run, hugs!~h

Me again! We went to the house this morning. It's BEAUTIFUL!! I love it! I was a little concerned at first as it is about a 25 minute drive to post. Just being that far from the all English speaking, all American acting people made me a little nervous. HOWEVER...Seeing the house, after living in on-post housing for two weeks has completely changed my mind.
It is 2 story, upstairs are 2 bedrooms and a 1/2 bath. The ceilings are slanted in the bedrooms, you know, as the roof is slanted, the carpet is blue and the bathroom tile is white.
Downstairs, when you walk in, our bedroom is on the right, then the stairs, then on the right is the dining room and if you turn there and walk through that, you hit the kitchen and the downstairs bath (separate tub/shower/potty). If you go straight as you walk in, go up a couple stairs, there is the living room. The entire downstairs is white tile. It is awesome. And all the rooms have either track lighting or some cool fixture, or both! You can walk from the small stairs at the living room to the bathroom through the dining room, or through an outside walk, a sliding door in each room.
I teased Stephen that he only got it because there is blue in every room. :) It really is so so nice. I can't wait to move in Saturday. Our furniture from the Army won't get there until Monday at least, so we might not actually spend the night there until then, we'll see. I was very surprised at how big it is. There are no closets, but the kitchen has a nice sized pantry and plenty of cabinets. Part of our Army furniture includes 2 wardrobes and 2 chests of drawers, so we should be fine for storage. Also...though the truck would fit in the garage, it is a sharp turn in, so we'll be parking in the lot next door. So, more storage in the garage.
I can't wait to plant some things in the flower beds, there is a nice yard, a big front porch, and it is all down from the street/sidewalk a few steps, so no one can see over the gate!
Stephen is giving a brief right now, and he'll be here (to the library) in a few minutes. We are going to housing to tell them to bring our furniture and to transportation to see if they are going to go pick up the rest of our stuff in Austin!
Love and miss all of you!!! us

This is going to be SO random. It seems I have so much to tell, but I'm pressed for time, and can't get my thoughts organized. So I'm going to just tell blurbs!

* Stephen is sick with a cold. I think it started Monday, and he is better today, but yesterday was miserable.

* I am in a hurry because I am going to the Hispanic Heritage Celebration! It is one of the things Stephen is in charge of doing. This one is being put on by another EO person, but he'll do the next one. Women's History Day!

* Yesterday morning was suppose to be my job class, but the person who does that is out for two weeks. The person who told me this proceeded to ask my background, and when I told him he said that he was asking for his own selfish reasons! He has a contract in the Family Advocacy Program available! (it is for training and prevention of child abuse and spousal abuse, etc) It is just for 5 months unless it gets picked up for another year (they only have $ for 5 months right now) and I had to bid on the contract! I had NO IDEA what to put, so I just guessed. It would be great, I SO hope I get it. 730-430 daily, so I could ride in with Stephen and ride home with him, not worrying about the train or anything. If I don't get it, it won't be the end of the world, but I'd SURE like it! pray, pray, pray!!

*Yesterday was also my driving class. The right-of-way is going to be the hardest part. I'm going to study tonight, and try to take the test tomorrow morning. That way I'm still on post. I'll have to make a special trip in if I wait because...

* WE MOVE THIS WEEKEND! to our new house. know what, I just remembered, can't take the test tomorrow because we are doing a walkthrough at the house. So I get to seee the house tomorrow! yaye!!

*on post housing SUCKS!! The housing is 3 floors, apts on either side for each stairwell. But they are long buildings. it is HORRIBLE. You have to have the windows open since there is no a/c, and it is nice weather, yes, it was rainy a couple days, but not all humid and gross. but the windows are open and kids are screaming and shouting and people horn honking etc. the other day some guy was running his little remote control car. argh! and it isn't just me, hater of noise. SB is annoyed by it too! half the time you can't hear the tv for the yelling children! We were seriously making fun of Race Car Harry! it was funny.

* what else?? OH, we drove around Sunday, went to the mall. There were a ton of cars in the pking lot, and the mall itself was open, but none of the stores were! Seriously, though, there were quite a few people! what is UP with that???? I think that is the day we also went to IKEA. It was open and while we only got an apple corer and a funnel (for making gatorade and crystal light in our bottles of water) we had a good time!

* I got a fan at the Thrift Store. But someone took the 2 lamps I wanted to get!

* OK, I guess that is all. I am sure you are tired of reading anyway! I'm headed for Hispanic Heritage Day!! Let's see if someone can make some AUTHENTIC Mexican food!


Heather Barthelme~

Hey!! Well, it has been almost a week. I got here one week ago tomorrow. I am FINALLY getting on the time schedule, learning my way around, and our 500lbs of unaccompanied baggage got here. I guess we should be happy, only one broken bowl, one broken (like completely cracked to pieces) rollerblade, and some scattered earrings. All of our clothes are pitifully wrinkled because we hung them in wardrobe boxes and the movers took them out and jammed them in other, smaller boxes. But no biggie.
They are suppose to be setting up a shipment time to pick up the rest of our stuff from storage, and we'll move from temporary housing to our house in Burstadt 10/1. We can't wait! We went there (its about 25 minutes from post) Thursday, and walked all over the little village. It is small and very quaint. To get there, we drove 80-85 in the super slow lane on the Autobaun! Geez, some of those people MOVE! They just go whizzing past in the left lane like it's nothing! eeeeeek!
I have had several "briefings" from different departments, and everyone is very helpful and supportive. 10/16-10/18 I will go through a 3 day class for spouses to learn all about the ins and outs of the post, surrounding communities, etc. I'm looking forward to it.
Tuesday, 9/26, I'm going to a job information class, to see about getting paid! I'd kind of like to be jobless for a couple months, but the fiscal year starts 10/1, so I'm thinking I should probably at least get started on it, and get something sooner than wait and try when everyone has already done their hiring.
Stephen and I rode the streetcar (the straussenbaun) into Mannheim last night, ate dinner at a great steak place, I had the BEST Sangria I've ever had, and we walked all over the city.
That's it for now. Stay tuned for further updates.
~h

Heather has finally made it to Germany and we are together. She arrived yesterday (Sunday) morning and has been sleeping ever since. We did a little bit to get her processed into the Army system over here and now we are getting ready to go shopping. Also, the other member of our family, the Nissan Frontier, got here today so no more walking around for us!

We are currently living in some temporary quarters until we move into our house on October 1st. When we move in we will post some pictures of it.

Peace out America!

~sdb