One Year

"The past is but the beginning of a beginning."
--H. G. Wells

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life."
--Federico Fellini

Today we have been in Germany for exactly one year. It has flown by and for the sake of my friends with deployed loved ones I hope the next year goes as quickly for them. Sometimes I wish I could slow time down. There are so many places I would still like to visit and it seems like time is running out. My daughter is growing so fast. I know I need to treasure these moments because all too soon they will just be a memory of a wonderful time in our life. I would like to dedicate this blog to the things that have changed in my life over the past year.




* Ok, well for the first one I'd like to state I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have! I'm looking back through my folders organized by month and I've got nada as far as milestones to share via pictures!
*I guess the most obvious change would be that we moved, overseas, and it was the first time in Europe for all of us.
*I've visited beautiful places I never dreamed I'd see
*I've made wonderful friends that I hope I'll be able to keep in touch with long after we've all left this place.
*I started knitting
*We celebrated our daughters 3rd birthday (and yes I know we each have a birthday every year but our children  are only little for such a short time!)
*We have a different vehicle
*My husband has actually been home all year! (other than a week here and there) Thats a huge change!
*I haven't seen my Texas friends for a year. That's a sad change :(
*We went sledding and built a snowman this winter (and had to buy a snowsuit!)
*My brother and his wife are having their first baby!
*I did NOT cook Thanksgiving dinner this year :)
*Our daughters first movie in a movie theater. It went remarkably well.
*Lastly, I started this blog! I can't wait to see what will change during our next year. I can already think of a couple things we are planning for the future.

What are some things that have changed for you?

hborstad's favorite things

It occured to me that I have never explained why I named my store and my blog Hborstad/hborstad so I suppose I should. My daughter and I have the same initials. I'm big H and she's little h. She'll probably be upset with me when she's old enough to have email accounts and she can't use hborstad for anything because they've already been used! Anyhow, here are a few of the little h's favorite things.

This would actually be the second blanket - the first was lost somewhere in Texas and I spent all day retracing our steps and calling stores searching for it. We had a couple rough nights without it. I tried replacing it with a similar blanket but it didn't take. I was able to find a used one on e-bay for about twice what I paid brand new for hers and voila! She had her blankie back!

This is her "bo-bo". Those of you that have seen my photos on facebook may recognize this from many photos of her. She rarely goes anywhere without it and therefore it ends up in the majority of my pictures of her. She doesn't realize that she has 3 of them. After the blanket incident I found two more of these on e-bay and ordered them without hesitation to have as back-ups. We did inevitably lose one here in Germany. I was glad I had bought the others, even though the lost pillow was eventually found at the library several weeks later. So now she has 2 that she knows of and 1 still in the closet. The odd thing about the "bo-bo's" is that she has a favorite of the two. She smells them and decides which is which. My husband and I have tried smelling them and cannot tell any difference. We've also washed them and gave them back and she still seems to have a preference for one of them. Go figure!

She's had many favorite toys of the years and it's just my luck that none of them are ever easily replaced. They're never sold in stores by that time and are always two to three times as expensive on E-bay, but I'm a sucker for favorite things. I lost my blanket when I was about two and it was never found. R.I.P. favorite yellow blanket from 30 years ago! ;)

If anyone has either of these items and would like to sell them I am always on the look out for replacements just in case!

Fasching

Fasching is the season of Carnival. Americans call it Mardi Gras. The beginning of the Carnival season in Germany begins November 11 at 11:11am. The first few months are pretty tame but Germans let loose and party right before lent which is the end of the Carnival season. Today is known as Rosenmontag (Rose Monday). On Rosenmontag there are various street processions involving lots of costumes and carnival floats. Faschingsdienstag (Carnival Tuesday) is the last day of Fasching and when most of the festivities happen. Faschingsdienstag is not an official holiday but workers usually get the afternoon off. 

Today was the Fasching Parade in Baumholder. Children and adults dressed up in costumes and lined the streets to watch the parade, celebrate and collect candy. Two women dressed as nuns led the parade and collected 1.50 Euro for those children that would be receiving candy and the help fund the event. They gave us a pin to wear to show we had paid. 

My husband was offered the afternoon off to celebrate but he had a lot of work to do so he just took off an hour to watch the parade with us. We had lots of fun and came home with a bucket full of candy. I think Hailey's favorite part was getting to wear her Halloween costume again! Maybe next year I'll dress up too!

Colorsafe Bleach?

My husband spoils me. He bought me a new rug yesterday. I suppose I should share the reason behind it though so you can understand my ability to ruin just about anything I wash. That must be why he insists on doing all the laundry! See I am learning things about myself after all! Anyway, when we first moved here we bought new rugs and curtains to fit our apartment. I ruined the kitchen rug (it's actually meant to be a bathroom rug but I LOVE the thickness and fluffiness so much that I put it in front of my kitchen sink. It almost makes doing dishes bearable) by washing it in Purex color safe bleach. Color safe? I think not! It had a slightly tie-dyed appearance but I didn't realize just how faded it was until he bought me an identical replacement. Here is a side by side comparison for you to evaluate. What do you think? Have you had this happen?

The top rug is the new one. The bottom one used to be that color!

I think it goes without saying that I will NOT be using colorsafe bleach on any of my rugs again!

He got me new plates too! Yay!

Here's a tip for those of you that live in stairwell housing like me:

Did you know your dishwasher rack was adjustable? My plates were too large to fit in the dishwasher without the sprayer arm hitting them when it goes around. My husband raised the rack up and now there is room for my plates! I thought I was going to have to wash them all by hand.

Here's how: 

At the end of the wheel track there is a small plastic piece. It swivels out so you can remove the rack. When you put it back in make sure the wheels are in the correct position to raise or lower the rack depending on your needs. Then just swivel the plastic back and snap in place. 

A Taste of Germany - Roast beef & Knodels

Every once in a while the husband and I will attempt some German cooking. Usually it's from a box or a mix, but we try. This week we made roast beef with brown gravy, carrots and Knödels. Part of what makes German cooking so time consuming and intimidating for me is that all the instructions and temperatures are in German so I have to spend quite a bit of time translating and converting measurements. I cheated a little and made the roast and carrots in the Crockpot. Nothing special, just seasoned the meat and browned it. Then I cut the carrots and put it all in the Crock pot with about 2 cups of water. I cooked it on low for 6-7 hours.

The Knodels were actually really easy once we knew what to do.  
For the Knödels:

The Knödels came in individual bags a little bigger than golf balls full of pellet looking things. Put a pan of cold salted water on the stove with the number of Knödels you wish to cook. We cooked the whole box since there were only 6 in a box. 

Bring to a boil for 1 minute and then remove from heat. Allow to soak in the water for 15 minutes. Quickly rinse the Knödels in cold water but not for more than a second or two. Carefully remove the bags.

 The Knödels are ready to serve. We served ours with brown gravy since that is how my husband ate them at the German restaurant. I'm sure there are other ways. Feel free to experiment and share your experiences!

For more German recipes try these pages:

http://recipesbycindy.homestead.com/GermanRecipes.html

http://www.tasty-german-recipe.com/

http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/german.html

Burg Lichtenberg

A couple days ago on a whim I went in search of a craft store (or the rumor of one at least) in the nearby town of Kusel. The drive through the countryside was beautiful and it was a nice day out other than the chill to the wind. I tend to drive like a 90 year old lady when I'm trying to look for something so the Germans driving (tailgating) behind me were probably not thrilled. I think I pulled over twice to let people go around me! After a quick pass through town I gave up on the craft store. I hate wondering around looking like a lost tourist (which I basically WAS!) so I decided instead of the trip being a waste, we would go stroll through the castle on top of the hill again. The first time we went my husband was along and we climbed all the stairs, explored the entire thing inside and out. I found out that when I'm alone with a 3 year old at nearly 800 year old castle ruins, I spend more time yelling warnings and watching to make sure she isn't face planting on the cobblestones than actually seeing the beauty all around me. I did manage to get a few pretty photos taken before my maximum stress level for multi-tasking was reached. I hope you enjoy them. (even if I didn't get to appreciate the castle fully in person I can go back and look at these pictures anytime I want :) I was proud of the fact that I drove right to it without turning on the GPS. Go me!

The Army and Family (and $$$)

I belong to an Army wife group for the post that I live at and the wives on it often get into heated discussions over matters. (What do you expect with over 500 Army wives living so close together!) Recently women were comparing the amount of COLA they receive. (For those of you who are not military, Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA), is paid to the military to help offset higher costs when stationed overseas.  It doesn't reimburse for expenses, but it helps make up the difference between what you could buy in the states vs. what you can buy with that same dollar overseas. It also does not take into account the remoteness of your duty station, the difficulty in buying goods readily purchased in the states, or hardships.) COLA is calculated based on a formula taking into account the Service Members location, rank, years of service, number of dependents, and type of housing. For instance someone higher ranking with several years in service with dependents will receive more COLA than a single soldier living in the barracks. Although the number of dependents is taken into account, it does not make up a huge difference. For example, if my husband were single and living in barracks would make $87 less than he would being married and living in government housing. Add one extra dependent (child) and he receives an additional $20. If we were to have more children the rate for the third, fourth and fifth dependent would increase by another $10 each. 

Some of the wives in the group (with larger families no doubt) expressed their opinion that COLA should be based mostly on family size rather than on rank and years in service. I have to disagree. Although the Army regularly boasts about family support I cannot believe that it is in their best interests nor do they want service members to have large families. Think about this... the bigger a solider's family is the more the military spends to house them, and the more it costs for health care. Not only for the births of these children, but to continue to keep them healthy during the course of the soldiers military career. If they were to base COLA solely on family size it would encourage people to have more babies just so they could earn more money. Everyone knows a married soldier makes more money than a single soldier and I personally know some people that have gotten married just so they could receive BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing). If the government offered those same people more money in exchange for having a child or two I'm not so sure they wouldn't have done that as well. I see nothing wrong with rewarding a soldiers dedication to service (years in service) and his leadership skills (rank). It encourages nothing more than to be a better soldier and to continue doing so rather than encouraging procreation. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that family size factors into the equation. But do men really need more reasons to have sex?

If you'd like to learn more about COLA - or finances in general there is a terrific blog with 12 frequently asked questions in regards to COLA. (this is not an offical DOD site, but one I personally find helpful) :

http://moneyformilitary.blogspot.com/2007/07/12-faqs-about-cola-and-how-cola-is.html

Here is also a link to the official DOD COLA calculator if you'd like to see how much your COLA is: 

http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/colaCalc.cfm