European Cyberball 2011

Last night we attended the 2011 Cyber Ball in Weisbaden, Germany. (The theme should have been "The Night of Extreme Foot Torture" but it was actually "Strong Beginnings") The event was held at the Weisbaden Kurhaus. It was gorgeous. There were over 680 people in attendance. Tickets actually sold out. The buffet was delicious and it was a lot of fun to get dressed up. I only wish I had worn more comfortable shoes! I still feel like I am walking on marbles. I was proud of myself for staying tough and I did not take my shoes off until 
we left the ballroom and were walking to the car! Oh, and maybe next time I'll remember to bring some Euros so I can get myself a drink. A .21 Liter bottle of water cost 3.50 Euro! (thats 7.1 ounces of water for $5.07!!) Luckily there was a bottle of wine provided for each table and a .25L bottle of water for each guest for toasting. The toast was my favorite part aside from the actual food. The toasts were as follows:


"Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a toast to our Host Nation!"
(response) "To Germany!"


"Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a toast to the United States of America!"
(response) "To the United States!"


"Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a toast to the United States Army!"
(response) "Army Strong!"


"Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a toast to the Signal Regiment!"
(response) "To the Regiment!"


"Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a toast to the Commander in Chief!"
(response) "To the President!"


"Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a toast to our Deployed Soldiers!"
(response) "To keeping the peace!"


 (We were instructed to fill our water glass for the next toast because in Vietnam only 
water was available.)

(Photo by Jonathon M. Gray)

"We call your attention to this small table, which occupies a place of dignity and honor 
near the head table, this Table, it is Small – set for one, symbolizing the frailty of one prisoner alone against his oppressors.

The Table Cloth is White – symbolizing the purity of their intentions to respond to their country’s call to arms.

The Single Rose – displayed in the vase reminds us of the families and friends of our mission brothers who keep faith while awaiting their return.

The Red Ribbon – tied prominently on the vase reminds us of the red ribbons worn on the lapels and brothers who are not among us tonight.

The Place Setting – single, alone no friends or family to dine with.

A slice of Lemon – reminds us of their bitter fate.

Salt Sprinkled – on the plate reminds us of the countless fallen tears of families as they wait.

The Glass is Inverted – they cannot toast with us this night.

The Chair is Empty – they are not here.

The Candle – reminiscent of the light of hope which lives in our hearts to light the way home: from their captors to the open arms of a grateful nation.

The Bible – represents the strength gained through faith to sustain those lost from us, from our country, founded as one nation under God.

Let us pray to the Supreme Commandant that all our brothers will soon again be among our ranks.”

"Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a toast to our Fallen Comrades!"(response) "To our Fallen Comrades!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, I propose a toast to the beautiful ladies present!"
(response) "To the Ladies!"




I forgot my normal camera so the only pictures I took were on my cell phone and since it was dimly lit they didn't turn out fantastic. I'll post what I have. If you'd like to see the commercial AFN aired click here (the soldier in the video sat at our table ;)

The receiving line 

Me and my husband shaking hands with the commander (Photo by Jonathon M. Gray)

(Photo by Jonathon M. Gray)

The Lobby of the Kurhaus

The Lobby of the Kurhaus

The ballroom

There was also seating upstairs

(Photo by Jonathon M. Gray)

Everyone received a commemorative stein

The program

I never want to see these shoes again! It felt so good to throw them on the floor when we got home! Anyone want to by a used pair of heels?

 To view the professional pictures taken at the ball

click here

Birthdays!

I've been so busy this week I haven't done a very good job of keeping up on my posting so unfortunately I will have to combine some events that I would have liked to have posted separately ...


Last Thursday was my friend Miranda's birthday so we planned to have a joint birthday party for her and another friend's daughter. The little girl had a fever and we postponed her party until this week. She celebrated with a picnic at the park complete with cupcakes with nutella frosting followed by an evening at the bowling alley. It was so fun to spend the day with friends! (I'll post the pictures a little further down.)
 It was also my husband's birthday last weekend. We celebrated with a trip to IKEA and McDonald's in Saarlouis and then Cora in Saint Avold, France. On the way home our crazy GPS encouraged us to take the scenic route. (It would have been much more scenic had it not been dark out already!) My husband and daughter made homemade pizza together and we had cake. My heart melted a little seeing them making that pizza together. They've missed out on a lot of father/daughter time with him being away so much.  My Grandmother & Sister-in-law also had a birthday last week. I gather July must be a "hot" month if you follow my train of thought ;) 


I think this week is better expressed through pictures so here it is for you:

McDonald's in Saarlouis, Germany

The trash in Germany is much different. They recycle everything so instead of dumping your trash into a bin or a bag, the other side of this has shelves and you place your entire tray on it. A worker sorts through it all later and puts everything in the correct recycling bin.

Below that sign is another row of shelves to place trays on.

She was pretty excited to play in the play area outside

The drive through was an enclosed tunnel that wrapped around the building & had a mural painted on the wall.

Flowers in bloom along the road between Germany and France

Crossing the French border. We took our passports just in case, but we did not have to stop and show them.

The sky was so beautiful I was really wishing I was outside instead of riding inside a car!

There were a ton of these smoke stacks really close together just outside Saint Avold. (Took me awhile to figure out it was a nuclear power plant - smack!)

We passed by the Lorraine American Cemetary and Memorial in Saint Avold but it was already closed.  The Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in France covers 113.5 acres and contains the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II in Europe, a total of 10,489. It's open to the public daily from 9am to 5pm. The only days it is closed is on Christmas day and New Years day. We just got there a little too late that day. I would have liked to visit. Maybe next time. 

The best picture I could get on the way home when the GPS was torturing us.

So proud to be making pizza with her daddy.

I think they used two bags of cheese! But it was good :)

I did a horrible job writing on the cake. It's a good thing birthdays only come once a year!

One of my daughters friends turned 2

I think we had every one of their lightweight balls in our lane. Even the two year old had bowling shoes on. It was adorable. I'd never seen such tiny bowling shoes. Too bad she wouldn't stay still long enough to get a picture. 

My poor husband was the only adult that bowled and out of the five children, I think at least three of them beat him! (but everyone had fun)

Cell phone migrane! (continued from previous post)

WOW! I hope this is an isolated incident and not happening to anyone else. In the future I will refrain from sharing any information I receive from AT&T customer service since that information will most likely be incorrect and therefore screw up your account as well. If you read my previous blog you'll see we have a unique cell phone situation and I, being proactive sought out answers beforehand to ensure a smooth transition to our new cell phone carrier and mobile phones. Well that was a stupid idea!

© Photoeuphoria 

Our phones were supposed to activate themselves yesterday. I called my parents several times yesterday to check and nothing was happening. I called customer service and was told to allow more time and I was assured it was still going to happen last night. I called my parents again this afternoon. No change. I called customer service again (another hour on hold) and instead of doing anything to my account or checking anything she gave me generic trouble shooting advice and told me to try it and call back. Since the phones are with my folks and not physically here with me it of course becomes more complicated as I have to call my sixty some year old father and walk him through the steps she gave me. No change. I called customer service once again (only a 30 minute wait this time, woohoo!) and was told that due to a recent rate change request on my account my transition date had been postponed to allow them to update their system with the new plan and so it wouldn't  mess up my billing. He told me I would be receiving a new date view text message in a couple weeks. WTH? The only "change" to our account in the last few months was asking Alltel to remove the military suspension (as directed by customer service) so the account would be active for the transition. And THAT is what is screwing up our transfer?? He said as long as no other rate changes had happened he could manually activate our account. Now the next step is to call my father again and walk him through the process yet again and hopefully this will take care of the situation. I actually find it mildly amusing that following their direct instructions was what caused the issue, but I'm really agitated that the woman with the heavy accent I spoke to earlier couldn't have told me this. Nothing had changed between those two phone calls. Was she just a moron or was she trying to get me off the phone as fast as possible to keep her statistics up? I can tell I'm going to LOVE being an AT&T customer. (that was sarcasm for those of you that don't know me)




**UPDATE** April 26,2011*********************************
It just keeps getting better! I called AT&T customer service today to put the military suspension on and was told we could only put it on once a year and only for 180 days (6 months) but we'd still have to pay for the service while it was turned off. EFF OFF!! Thats NOT what we were told prior to this transition and thats not what it states on their own website: http://www.wireless.att.com/answer-center/main.jsp?solutionId=60168&t=solutionTab

(The above is a screen print from their website. I know its pretty small so here is what it says:)

Question:
I am in the military and am being deployed, can I suspend my service?

Answer:
If you are in the military and are being deployed, or transferred to an area that does not have AT&T wireless service, please read the information below and contact Customer Service at 1-800-331-0500 or 611 from your wireless phone to discuss your account options.

If you are being transferred or deployed for 90 days or longer to an area where AT&T wireless does not provide service, you have two options: 1) you can cancel your service and AT&T will waive any early termination fee (ETF) or 2) you can suspend your service and retain your telephone number if you resubscribe to service within 90 days after your deployment ends if your deployment is for 3 years or less. AT&T will waive the recurring monthly fees on your account while it is suspended, you will retain your original wireless number. All billable features are removed at the time of suspension. If you are changing from a Rollover Plan to a Military Plan, you will lose all accumulated rollover minutes. If you are in the military, have a family plan and all members of the plan are transferring with you, they are also eligible to have their service cancelled or suspended. If you are in the military and are on a family plan, the account owner can have just your service cancelled or suspended. 

You must contact us within 90 days after your deployment ends to resume your service with the same telephone number. If you fail to resubscribe to service within that 90 day period, you will have to complete an application for new service with a new telephone number. When you are ready to reinstate your service, you will need to choose from rate plans and features that are available at that time. 

I read this to the customer service rep who kept putting me on hold and coming back and telling me the exact same thing. Then after several times of doing this she started insinuating that we aren't technically "deployed". I pointed out to her that I haven't heard of any "war zone deployments" that lasted for 3 years and the only tours that are for 3 years are overseas tours which is what we are on. Not only that but it says in that paragraph, "..being transferred OR deployed for 90 or longer.."

She put me on hold again saying she was going to call Alltel and see how they handle it. When she came back she said we could either cancel the account under the buyers remorse clause, or we could wait 30 days (pay the 1st months bill) and then put it on hold for 38 months. I told her I had to talk to my husband. We have had nothing but issues with AT&T so far and we've only been customers for five days. I'm not sure I want to deal with them going forward. Has anyone else in the military experienced issues like these? I know of another with a similar situation. I'd like to hear your experiences! Feel free to share in the comments.

Cell phone headache?

For those of you who had or have Alltel service that is changing to AT&T but have your plans suspended due to an OCONUS deployment  hopefully this will help you. I went through hours of calls trying to get the correct info.


**UPDATE** PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION BELOW - REFER MY BLOG FOR THE REASONS WHY**


Our Alltel plan is supposed to transition to AT&T this week. The instructions we received in the mail (which in no way applied to our situation by the way, just a mass generated instruction pamphlet, most likely you got one too) gave us a whole lot of information but didn't really help answer any of my questions due to our special circumstances. (See scan of the pamphlet below)

To make a long story short - I got passed back and forth a lot but here is what I finally got for instructions for accounts on a military suspension: 
*This will only work if your new AT&T phone is still in the states. We had ours sent to a parent since they wouldn't let us send them to our APO address. 


Charge up your new AT&T phone and turn it on the day before or day of transition. (Hopefully you've been getting some kind of notification as to when that is. If you have not you can contact AT&T and they can tell you the exact date.) Call Alltel a couple days before the transition date and have the military suspension removed from your account so that your line is active. It may take a day or two for it to go into effect. It is NOT necessary to have the Alltel phones turned on or charged. If your line is still under military suspension when your account is set to switch it may not work. You should get a text on your new phone on the transition date and that will activate the phone and switch it to AT&T. Make a test call to be sure it is working (or have someone in the states do all this for you.)  You can then call AT&T and have them put a military suspension on your AT&T account. (I was informed I wouldn't need to fax any paperwork in to prove it but I have feeling when it is time I will have to send something in. I guess we will see in a couple of days.) I don't know if there will be a prorated bill for those 2 days my account was active or not. Last time Alltel was able to see we were not in the states and not using the phones and were very helpful about crediting the charges for the few days when we were trying to get the suspension put on. If we get a bill I'm sure it will be very small. 


I do not work for Alltel or AT&T. I am only relaying information provided by their customer service departments. If I find out any of this is incorrect I will post an update. My purpose is to hopefully save some other military family the time I spent making all these calls and asking questions. Those of you living overseas know that 800 numbers aren't free to call from here and it's almost impossible to find a non 800 number to contact customer service anymore. Luckily we have a magic jack that has a US phone number and we are able to use it to call 800 numbers for free. 

Royal Honeymoon

I learned tonight that the state of South Dakota has officially invited Prince William and Kate Middleton to spend their royal honeymoon in the Black Hills. http://www.travelsd.com/Newsroom/Detail?id=96657  I found this humorous, however it was pointed out to me that privacy was a concern for them. I can completely agree that South Dakota would be one of the most private places I could think of. Instead of listing places I would rather spend a honeymoon I decided I'd make a list of places that I feel would make a worse honeymoon locale. 

1. Tokyo, Japan - (radiation suits do not count as lingerie)
2. Ethiopia, Africa -(anywhere you have to have a health certificate for yellow fever and a vaccination against Cholera is pretty much out for me. I bet you didn't know they have a tourism website did you! ( http://www.tourismethiopia.org/ )
3. Alert, Nunavut, Canada - it's the northern most inhabited place in the world (508 miles from the north pole). There is snow 10 months of the year and the average temperature for July (the warmest month) is 37.9 F (3.3 degrees C) No thanks.
4. Tripoli, Libya - Travel warnings and bombings tend to turn me off (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/libya)
5. Anywhere in  Afghanistan - enough said
6. Anywhere in Iraq - According to their tourism website "Since 2003, the amount of tourism has dropped significantly." (http://www.iraq-tourism.net/) I can't imagine why? I'm sure the holy lands are beautiful but I'm just not ready to go there yet.
7. Los Angeles, California - As much as I'd like to visit Hollywood, it wouldn't do much for the couples privacy. Wouldn't it be ironic though if they went on the celebrity and movie star homes tour?
8. London, England - While this would be heavenly for me I'd imagine it would be their worst nightmare (well maybe not WORST considering the rest of my list but not the most pleasant.)
9. St George's, Grenada, Jamaica - I guess the recent flooding, landslides and big waves might keep the rest of the tourists away?
10. North Dakota - does my final entry really need a reasoning? Ok, well everyone from SD knows that North Dakota is much worse than South Dakota!  

After listing all the places they should not have their honeymoon, South Dakota sounds much nicer. Here is the official tourism link for South Dakota: http://www.travelsd.com/

Hopefully someday you'll get to visit Mt. Rushmore. Just don't visit the Corn Palace. Yes - it's a real place. http://www.travelsd.com/Attractions/World-s-Only-Corn-Palace.dr

The Badlands, South Dakota

The Black Hills, South Dakota

The Black Hills, South Dakota

Mickelson Trail, South Dakota (Mt. Rushmore)

 

Wall Drug, South Dakota 

(yes that's me, the last time I visited the Hills I was probably 18. I bet almost everyone from SD has a picture with that creepy old man statue!)

For now the honeymoon location is still a secret, we'll have to wait two more weeks to find out if/where a new heir might begin! *wink, wink*

Puddles

The rain yesterday left something behind...

I love how kids can find the positive in everything. Even a storm!

We all scream for Eis!

Last night my daughter brought a handful of coins to me and said she wanted to take them to the park. She said she wanted to buy some ice cream. (I never take a purse with me to the park so when the Eis truck comes I always tell her I don't have any money. If one parent gives in and gets ice cream then the rest of the kids start whining for it so it's just easier if we all say no.) I asked her where she got the money thinking she'd been digging in my purse again but she said her piggy bank. Sure enough, her piggy bank was lying empty on her dresser. I figured she'd forget about it but when we walked to the post office today she made sure to fill her pockets with coins! She got lucky. Even though the weather was insane today (raining, hailing, sunshine, more hail, then cold and cloudy) he came by this afternoon and she got her blue ice cream cone with sprinkles. How could I say no?