October came early this year

October came early this year. Like, on August 15th! Actually, we had a few days of sunny, warm weather in Germany but August has been mostly cold and dreary. It started raining last week and on Friday, it rained cats and dogs most of the day. MK and I were supposed to leave on Friday afternoon to go camping and canoeing in Grafenwoehr with our Girl Scout troop. But, my co-leader and I decided to postpone our trip and held a sleepover at the GS Hut instead. Saturday was sunny but cold. And today is Sunday and I am still freezing. When we headed to Mass this morning, the temperature was 56 degrees Fahrenheit and hasn't gotten much warmer since then! The bushes in my yard can't decide what to do. Some of them are already starting to turn colors and drop their leaves. Some bushes just want to keep growing. So, really, we are already experiencing October. I wonder what October is going to be like this year.

The Sad Times We Live In

Matt and I have been watching the news very closely the last few days. As you know, he was in the Republic of Georgia for most of July for a multi-national training exercise and came home only one week before Russia invaded this small country. We are thankful that he is home and feel great concern for the handful of our soldiers who were still there wrapping up the end of this exercise. They are safe but I am sure their families are anxious for them to come home, too.
We, too, feel great concern for those Georgian soldiers that Matt came to know during the training and wonder and fear for their safety as well.
Please pray for a quick and peaceful resolution for this hot-little area of the world. And also remember all of our soldiers, sailors and airmen serving in dangerous places around the world.

Everyone should go to Chiemsee

We spent our four day weekend at Chiemsee in Southern Bavaria. Chiemsee is one of Germany's largest lakes and is absolutely gorgeous. Everyone stationed with the military in Germany should try to go to Chiemsee at least once. The last time we were at Chiemsee was the summer of 2003. The Army had announced earlier that summer that they would be closing the Chiemsee Resort -Lake Hotel at the end of the season in order to build one large, modern resort facility in Garmisch, Germany. Matt and I still have a hard time trying to understand why the Army would choose Garmisch over Chiemsee. Don't get me wrong, Garmisch is a beautiful area and is a premier place to go skiing in the winter. And I am sure there are more Army politics than we know about involved in that decision. But, the Lake Hotel was right on the Chiemsee and offered summer lake activities as well as winter skiing and snow activities. Being a water person, we much prefer hanging out at the lake during the summer.

We drove over to the area where the Lake Hotel was. For us, it was very sad to see this magnificent hotel, built in the 1930's, deserted, fenced in, and overgrown with vegetation. This hotel was one of Hitler's first Autobahn hotels. Remember, Hitler invented the autobahn system which we know in the states as the Interstates. The US Army took over the resort after WWII and made it a recreational facility for Americans stationed in Europe.

This is not the Lake Hotel but our hotel for the weekend, the Sport Hotel Achental in Grassau. The hotel was probably triple this size. German breakfasts are the best! Notice the multi-colored petunias. They were pink, white and purple, my favorite colors! And smelled wonderful right after the thunderstorm we had on Thursday night.

Also on the Chiemsee is one of Mad King Ludwig's unfinished castles called the HerrenChiemsee. It is located on the HerrenInsel and was designed to look like Versailles in France. King Ludwig never finished this castle. He ran out of money and bankrutped his country trying to build his two magnificent Shloss'. This one and the Neuschwanstein. He lived here for 10 days in the Fall before he died.

We took a ferry ride from Prien to the FrauenInsel and HerrenInsel. The Fraueninsel (ladies Island) is home to a convent from the 9th century and a monastery was built on the HerrenInsel (men's Island). Images from the FrauenInsel below:

Of course, being Germany, it rained on us for two days. However, the sun came out on Sunday and we were able to spend the day at a lakeside beach before heading home.
MK on the slide at the pier. The water was FREEZING but didn't deter her any. I went in up to my waist and Matt took a refreshing swim.

Lazy Daze of Summer!

It has been awhile since we have posted. We have been enjoying some really lazy summer days. Last week, we had five days in row of above 80 degree weather. Mk and I made the most of the sunny days and headed to the Parsberg pool. Parsberg has a really cool pool with a wave pool. MK's favorite thing however, was the diving boards. Although she doesn't dive she had a great time jumping. She started with the spring board, then moved to the blue diving board that was about 10 feet higher. She experienced a little nervousness but managed to fling herself off into space eventually. That accomplished, she wanted to move onto the high dive, about another 10 feet in the air. She stood at the edge for a veeerrryyy long time looking down, everyone below yelling words of encouragement. And finally, jump! The first words out of her mouth when she came back up: "that was fun, I want to do it again!" So, up she went again. This time, she stood for just a minute, looking down, and then leap! However, she did not hold her arms in and the inside of her arms slapped the surface of the water. You could just hear everyone around the pool with their, ooowwww's! Such sympathy. This time, when MK came back up, she was done jumping. She sported a nice bruise on the inside of her left arm from the wrist up past the elbow. Ouch. Alas, the weather did not last and we are back to the cold, dreary, rainy Germany again.
Matt came home from the Republic of Georgia on Wednesday. He was participating in a multi-national training exercise. He also brought back a little of Georgia with him. 500 soldiers came down with some form of dysentery. Unfortunately, the living conditions were pretty harsh. His building barely had running water and only had Turkish toilets. If you don't know what Turkish toilets are, then do a Google search. Basically, they are holes in the ground that you have to squat over to do your business. Not a good thing when everyone in your building is having stomach problems. I can tell you that Matt has never been more thankful for porcelain in his life! It's the simple things, folks.
And next on our list of things to do: a possible trip to the beaches of Slovenia! Slovenia, not to be confused with Slovakia, has 30 miles of coastline and is adjacent to Italy. In fact, its about 60 km from Venice. We'll let you know about our next adventure!

Best Friends Forevah! or my BFF's

Tracy, Becky and Mary

Here we are, 17 years ago (I think) in Corpus Christi the week before Tracy's wedding to Charles. I've known these two girls for over 20 years now!
I met Becky freshman year in the dorms at University of Oklahoma and then we both met Tracy a year later when Tracy and I pledged Kappa Delta together. Tracy has always been with Charles as long as we've known her. Becky and I took a little more time to find our soul-mates!

And no matter how long it's been since we've last talked or seen each other, it's always just like old times. Whenever we are all in the same time zone, we try to get together. The last time was six years ago in Savannah, Georgia. Since I've been overseas it is harder to see each other. I will always cherish Tracy and Becky! Mostly because of all the things they know about me and they still love me! Plus, I know a few things about them, too! We did a few crazy things in our younger days!

Tracy, Mary and Becky

Here we are 17 years later in Virginia Beach in July. A little older, a little wiser, a little grayer (well, one of us anyway), seven kids between us and no divorces! Amen!

Hooah Army Moment from Matt

(photo courtesy of the US Army Joint Mulitnational Readiness Center)

These are the news releases of what I was doing the day before I left for the wedding. See the links below. If the links don't work when you click on them then just copy them into the URL window.
This is an annual event we conduct with a German reserve unit that we have a social relationship with. We do a lot of things with them and they are good Bavarians and very supportive of us. In the pictures... I am in the second aircraft of the formation and the camouflage one (we call them the HITS or HIND birds) in the close-up. For anyone who may be confused... No this is not my normal aircraft that I fly. It is the one that we use to tag along and observe the training units that come here to Hohenfels and will be replaced after I leave with the new EC 145 LUH around 2010. The old Huey is finally being put out to pasture. She's been a grand old lady and a signature of US Army Aviation.
Obviously the articles are cheesy but the pictures are alright.

http://www.army.mil/-slideshows/2008/06/27/10410-us---german-army-partnership-air-assault-training-joint-multinational-readiness-center/

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63018&archive=true

http://www.oberpfalznetz.de/zeitung/1430545-100-im_teppichklopfer_ueber_hohenfels,1,0.html

Visit to Our Nation's Capitol

We had the opportunity to visit our Nation's Capitol. Matt's cousin, Elizabeth works for Oklahoma Congressman John Sullivan and arranged a Capitol tour for us. Here we are with Elizabeth in Congressman Sullivan's office while he was in Oklahoma on recess. The coolest part was getting to go in the tunnel system that runs under all the Capitol buildings. Pretty neat. And we got to sit in the gallery of the room where the House of Representatives meet. You know, the one shown on CSPAN?

It is quite simple to tour the Capitol; go to your Congressman's website and request a Capitol tour. Very worth it.