Regular Life in Germany

Since we are going on a big trip next month we have been laying low on the travel front lately.  I have absolutely nothing exciting to talk about or show you.  {Sad face}  The travel opportunities are incredible here, but in between those incredible opportunities & experiences, life is just..... regular....normal.  

I like life, so regular & normal are just as great as when we travel!

Eric has been busy with work, per usual.  He has been in a new position since coming home from his mini-deployment in December and loves it!  It's still stressful as he learns and adapts to a new position, but he enjoys this kind of stress much more than before, and we're even averaging two nights every work week where we get to eat supper with him!  The Army comes first in our world now, so this little Army family thinks that two week nights is pretty great, and we're grateful for whatever we can get!

This weekend has been low-key.  Eric went to his first soccer game here in Europe yesterday with the same group of work friends that we went to Oktoberfest with last fall.  Soccer is a HUGE deal here!  I got an inclination from the World Cup last summer that all of Europe absolutely loves soccer, but I know that Germany does not mess around when it comes to soccer!  And our "home" town, Kaiserslautern, won!!!!

While Eric went to the soccer game, Isabelle and I went to the craft bazaar on base.  I had gone to the bazaar last year with my friend, Melissa, but all that was there to browse and buy from was baby stuff... and the last damn thing I need in my life is anything baby.  I was hesitant to go to the bazaar this year because I am nursing a deeply broken heart, but a good friend of mine had a booth there and I wanted to check out her amazing things, but specifically, her aprons (go HERE to see her amazing stuff!).  But after walking around for just a second, my heart was relieved to find that there were so many cute booths that had nothing to do with babies!  
It was nice to have girl time with Isabelle- after being grounded and full of attitude lately, I'll take a happy shopping day with the bestest, most frustrating, putting-a-whole-lot-of-gray-hair-on-my-head girl in the world!  
Isabelle and I found an early birthday gift for a good friend (I buy what I can, when I can), a "willkommen" (welcome in German) wooden sign and a vintage painting of Rothenburg  that just had to go in our entry way!  

I don't know how long you've been reading my blog, I started this right after finding out that we were moving to Germany and boringly documented our preparation.  Eric & I had 9 months to prepare for a ginormous move across the ocean, and during those months we decided to leave some of our bigger and more expensive furniture in a storage unit in the States to save from possibly getting damaged.  Our gorgeous curio cabinet that we got as a wedding gift from my in-laws is a piece of furniture that we put in storage, and I miss it!

Our curio cabinet before the movers came.  Offutt, AFB housing, 2013. 

April 2013; before the curio cabinet was put into storage but after the movers packed up the furniture we decided to take to Germany. 

We bought a cheapy cubby shelf thingy from Target to use as a curio cabinet until we get back to the states, and the cheapy cubby shelf just isn't the same (no offense, Target).  A little more than a year and a half from now and I will have my furniture back and can decorate appropriately!  For now, the painting of Rothenburg will have to fancy up the cubby shelf that we have in our entryway, and I think it does a great job of it!

Today, Eric is busy in the kitchen, I am resting, and Isabelle is working on a book report.  We've got a chicken pot pie from scratch (Isabelle's favorite) in the oven, steel-cut oat apple oatmeal in the crockpot, and are pretty darn content right now.  We're slowly doing a little bit of spring cleaning, Journey is begging for a walk, and I'm starting to pack for our next trip.  So basically, life is just regular right now.  
I try to keep y'all updated but I promise that if things are quiet it's just because there is absolutely nothing going on that is worth blogging about.  Just like this post ;o)  But I'm glad you read it anyway!