Snowing~

I don't care what anybody says, it snows a lot in Germany! Regan had a 2 hour delay for work this morning and it was nice to have him around a little longer. But then after he left I realized that the roads weren't the only things covered in snow, so I went to shovel the walk. That was the first time I've shoveled our walk. Fun.

Germans are nuts for clean sidewalks! When you drive through villages, you always see people (usually old people) out sweeping their walks. I guess if your walk is messy you can get in trouble, but people really take it seriously.

I hate to say it, but I really don't have much to update about right now. We've been up to a whole lot of nothing lately! I really...have nothing to write. hrm...

Well, This is our last full week of German classes and then we're on our own! On Saturday we're going with our German teacher for a city tour of Landstuhl and then out to eat. I'm looking forward to some schnitzel!

I guess I can go ahead and talk about some of our upcoming travel plans. For Valentine's Day, Regan and I are heading down to Venice! I'm really excited because I hear that Carnival is amazing! We also want to take our first trip to Paris in probably April - I'm so excited to hit the Sanrio and Angelic Pretty stores! Plans for our trip back in the summer are coming along slowly - it looks like we (Regan, myself, and 3 of my sisters) will most likely be going to Otakon! I'm not going to lie...that makes me super happy haha.

Well hopefully we'll have some adventures this week so that I have something to talk about next time!

A new year!

Happy 2010!! How was everyone's holiday season? Ours was great! Kind of stressful, but great. We went back to Ohio to spend the holidays with our families. The day before we left Germany, we got to see our first snow.

This is a street in our village! Winter wonderland!

Regan and I built a snow man in our front yard!

The next morning, we got up around 5 AM and hit the road to the Frankfurt airport! We got stuck in traffic and got to the airport only an hour before our flight. When we got up to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes, the woman working said "You're on the flight for Atlanta? Ah...you're too late" - not a happy moment. She gave us our boarding passes anyway, though and told us to hurry. By the time we finally made it through all of the security, it was about 30 minutes until take off...and there was still a huge line waiting to board. Stupid lady stressed us out for nothing! Unfortunately, our feeling of relief was fleeting. Before we even made it to our seats on the plane, Regan realized his wallet wasn't in his pocket anymore. He told the flight staff and they went to check at security, where we assumed it had fallen out. When they came back empty handed, we really got worried. I was convinced it had been stolen. Regan acted very chill, but I spent the entire 9 hour flight to Atlanta completely stressed out of my mind! Our two hour layover in Atlanta mostly consisted of us running from one Delta-related office to another with no luck on contacting Frankfurt. Finally the woman at the ticket counter (where we had to go to get a new boarding pass - security right off the plane in Atlanta was crazy) gave us a number to call the lost and found at Frankfurt, which we decided to do after we got to Dayton.

Regan's parents and my family were waiting for us in Dayton! It was a happy reunion! We all went out for pizza, too! Very good night. Well, except for the missing wallet still hanging over our heads. The happy ending is that the next morning we called Frankfurt and *ta da* the wallet had been found, completely intact! Amazing! A miracle!!

Most of our first week home was spent bumming around Regan's parent's house during the day and hanging out with my family at night. I was able to get in touch with a few friends, but it seemed like a lot of people were really busy with the holiday season, so I was only able to actually meet up with a couple of my best friends. We were also able to go out to lunch with some people from Regan's old office and spend time with some of his friends as well.

Laly and I at a midnight waffle house meetup! Just like old times!

Junko Sato and I at Abuelo's = pretty much the best lunch ever!

This is at my parent's house...and it's pretty much my favorite photo of the trip. My sister put the sign above the tub. It reads "Do NOT turn on water for cats" and yet, someone obviously did. And even my darling Ziva joined in?? Well, she better not get used to it because that's not how we roll at my house!

The weekend after we got to Ohio, my brother, sister, and her husband arrived from Utah! After that, there was a lot of quality time spent with my entire family, including a family photo, a trip to the temple, and dinner at the Golden Trough (Golden Corral).

The happy oinkers!! Gotta love over-eating!

Christmas Eve is when Regan's family gets together. It can get pretty wild, but it's always a good time! The adults play a white elephant game and this year I was extremely excited with the gift I ended up with!

Waffle maker, yes! And it's one of those cool flippy ones like I always see at hotels! I'm very excited to use this thing!

Regan and I were up until about 4 AM Christmas Eve. That made things a little difficult Christmas morning because we were supposed to be at my parent's house around 6:30 AM! My family still likes to get up crazy early and open gifts one at a time - it usually takes a few hours!

Happy Christmas, Harvey house!

This is my 2nd favorite picture of the week! Soooooo good. My dad and sister are pretty much amazing.

Christmas dinner, which we ate around 2 PM, was also sooooooooo good. I love love love stuffing. I love it.

Sadly, my sister and her husband had to leave shortly after dinner. So we all waved a white sock and said our goodbyes! Shortly after Christmas, Regan got some family news that caused he and his parents to drive to Maryland. I stayed behind in Ohio to finish getting things ready for our cats to move to Germany and also trying to push our flight back a few days - I was able to push it back only one day. The 29th was my mom's birthday! We celebrated with a little family party complete with cake and gifts!

She looks pretty good for being 82 years old, I think.

The 31st came too quickly and it was back home to Germany for us! The cats were all taken care of, but it was still really hard for me to hand their cage off to the airport security guys. I was so worried about them!

Regan and his parents at the airport.

Me and my family at the airport!

We made our way through security and turned to see a great multitude of white sock waving people! We felt so loved.

My poor little kitty cats in their cage. I know they must have been scared out of their brains.

I was so worried that the cats would be distant and sad, but they adjusted to their new home almost immediately! See Choco playing so well with Daddy?

That trip feels like it was so long ago, even though we've only been home for a little over a week! Now it's back to the grind. I'm trying to get all of my paperwork in for my new job and it's taking a lot longer than I would like. Regan and I started taking a German language class on base every Monday and Wednesday night. We both really enjoy it! We've already learned how to say a lot of useful phrases, but for some reason when we go out to dinner I still feel like I can't say anything except 'danke' to the waitress! I am determined, though! I WILL be confident!

It's been snowing a lot here lately. When we moved here, everyone told us that it doesn't snow much, but I really think it's been snowing off and on since we got back from our trip. It's snowing right now, too. I should probably go shovel the walk...