Historical Downtown Kaiserslautern

Today, Rob and I and 14 of our closest friends went on a city tour of Kaiserslautern.  It was really neat.  Learned where the bus stops were and we rode the bus into downtown Kaiserslautern.  We gathered into a room where our tour guide gave us a really neat historical overview of the area.  It was rather interesting.  The town has been destroyed at least a half a dozen times and rebuilt.  She was saying that over the history of the city, 2/3s of it has been destroyed in various conflicts.  The town went back and fourth from the Bavarians and the French and a lot of the catholics in were kicked out at some point during this tumultuous time in history (can’t remember the dates on that!)

I asked Rob yesterday why he thought the military wanted to be in this area and he couldn’t even venture a guess.  Apparently, a big armament was here.  Americans and British bombed the area pretty heavily towards the end of the war.  And it makes sense, militarily.  Take out the manufacturers of the arms and you will take down the military machine.  But, not just that, it is also right next to a river and the soil is fertile.  We also learned that there is a river called the Lautern that flows through Kaiserslautern (it is been built over, but there is about 300 meters of the river above ground) (and that’s why it’s named that) [I had assumed that it was a place where the Kaiser was killed--I was on the right track, but WAY off!]

Napoleon built a road that went from France to Frankfurt called the Kaiserstrasse (Kaiser=King/Emperor and Stasse=road or street).  This road still exists!  It also turns out that this is a pretty old city and they didn’t know it for the longest time because of all the fighting that took place in this area.  It was destroyed, then rebuilt and so on and so.

Barabrossa was a beloved Kaiser here and spent quite a bit of time here in the 12th century.  His castle has been built and rebuilt at least 3 times.  The current castle has pieces of the old one built into it, but not much is from the original castle and in 1825 was when it was last renovated.  There are many things here that keep the memory of him: from bookstores that bear his name to the chain bakeries that have the blue and white signs.

Emperor Habsburg gave Kaiserslautern its city charter in the 13th century and he is also held in high regard.

This used to be part of the French quarter, when Germany was divided up among the Allies.  They remained in this area until the 1990s, when Communism collapsed in Russia in 1991.  The Americans came to this area in 1951 and because of the strong dollar, was able to save this city.  Kaiserslautern will remain as a permanent US Army Garrison and will not see closure as we have seen with several bases throughout Germany (like Hanau).

I lead a dull boring life

and there’s nothing going on it today.

Rob and I went out to eat today.  I really wanted to go out dancing, but Rob told me no.  He wants to see a musical tomorrow.  He said, “We can cancel the play and go out if you want to” Knowing full well that my mood for going dancing would fade and I wouldn’t want to go tomorrow!

Oh well.  I guess there will be other days for dancing…

Thanks for reading.

:) :) :) :) :) :)

I might get Rob back FULL-TIME!  I’m excited to no end about this!  You have no IDEA!  He says that there is some stuff that still needs to be done in Hanau, but now that they have Internet access and phones set up here, there really won’t be a reason to spend the majority of his time.  I’m really excited about this.

He called me the other day and said that he wouldn’t necessarily need to stay in Hanau Wednesday night and that he would probably be home! :)  He has to head back tomorrow morning, some pressing issues are going on, but the issue should be resolved on Friday!  Woohoo!  It’s so exciting!

Not a whole lot going on for the weekend.  I have a tour of Kaiserslautern on Saturday morning and I need to get an appointment made so that the Cavalier can get worked on.  The window is stuck in the down position and it’s not possible to drive it with it down…I mean, it IS possible, but not very comfortable.  We might go to a movie, but that’s up in the air.  Gotta find out where our money is for our rent first and foremost!  That’s mainly what we’re stressing about right now!  Perhaps I can remind Rob to do that AFTER I make the appointment to get the Cav worked on.

Alright, this is a rather boring blog, but I just wanted to update you!   Hope all is well in your world and we’ll talk again soon! 

Inspiration

I was reading Texty Ladies today and they did a blog on books made into movies.  I have a lot to say on the subject–it combines a couple of my favorite hobbies–movies and reading!  I prefer to read the book if I know that the movie is based on one.

So, today, I’m going to showcase a few of my favorite movies!  Just so you know, I really like Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Chevy Chase and Jennifer Aniston, so my favorite movies tend to have those actors in them.  I also like animated films–I know, not necessarily age appropriate, but that’s okay.

Funny Farm (it IS a Christmas movie, but my husband disagrees!

Three Amigos.  Here’s my favorite joke and I actually use it on occasion!

[Dusty Bottoms and Lucky Day thinks Ned Nederlander is saying "mail" plane]
Dusty Bottoms: What is it doing here?
Ned Nederlander: I think it’s a male plane.
Dusty Bottoms: How can you tell?
Ned Nederlander: Didn’t you notice its little balls?

To Kill A Mockingbird.  I read this book in High School and my teacher had us watch the movie and make comparisons.  Harper Lee wrote an excellent novel.  Great read, great movie. 

A Walk To Remember.  Written by Nicholas Sparks.  I adore most of his books (did not like Dear John–Soldiers do not talk that way, no matter how classy they are!)  This was the first Nicholas Sparks book I read.  Watched the movie first.  Fell in love with it.  I like him because he doesn’t write his books in the typical romance genre formula…the woman, usually single and a virgin, meets man either single or widowed and he sweeps her off her feet and they get married.  They do not have pre-marital sex.  Bleh, boring!

Little Miss Sunshine.  An excellent movie about a disfunctional family.

Napoleon Dynamite.  Another dysfunct family.  The kids are extremely weird and generally disliked while in High School.  The uncle can’t stop living in the past.  Reminds me of my high school days!

My Blue Heaven.  A tongue-in-cheek look at the mofia and life in middle America.

About Schmidt.  A man dealing with the death of his wife and his daughter getting married.  Kind of like Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers.

A Simple Twist of Fate.  Steve Martin wrote, directed, produced and acted in this comedy about a man who is excited to become a father but then finds out that his wife cheated on him and the baby isn’t his.  Intertwines his life and the lives of the town.  His life is turned upside down after he adopts a baby girl.  It always makes me cry.  It’s a wonderful story.

Office Space.  Everyone can relate.  A great movie that is still talked about around the water-cooler!  Work sucks!

The Princess Bride.  About the relationship between grandson and grandfather and the memories that are made.  Through the course of the movie, the kid’s attitude changes 180 degrees and it is a nice, feel-good movie!

You can always depend on me!!

Not getting paid…

Rob and I submitted the paperwork that we needed to submit to get paid for our house TWICE and it still hasn’t hit our bank account!

He asked me to call the Finance office to find out if it was processed and I was told to check on the mid-month pay stub and it was not correct!  She said that if it isn’t correct, then Rob needed to submit a pay inquiry through his unit to find out what the problem is.  The problem, as there always is, however, is that the finance office is here in Kaiserslautern and not in Hanau.  Rob is in Hanau.  Finance does not allow spouses to make inquiries, unless they have a SPECIAL Power of Attorney AND the Soldier is deployed.  I was going to call someone from the unit here, so that they could go and make the inquiry on our behalf, but there is no phone roster available and the Forward 1SG is unreachable.

GRRR! When we first realized that the pay hadn’t come through, we went to finance, but they couldn’t find the paperwork and it hadn’t been processed.  So, they told us to go to the housing office and see why they didn’t submit the paperwork.  They had a transmittal showing that they had submitted the paperwork.  So, we went BACK to finance and resubmitted the paperwork and the woman there PROMISED that she would process it immediately.  I somehow suspect, though, she never processed it!  I can’t prove it, though.  We’ve never had so many problems with getting our housing allowance.  We’ve already paid 4600 out of our own pockets to cover our rent and there is no more money left.  If we don’t get this money soon, we’re going to get kicked out of our house and it’s not by any fault of our own!

 

There are many things about the Army that I really like, but there are other things that just piss me off to no end!  The red tape and people not taking responsibility are the main things.  GRRRRR!  I hate this!

Anyway, thanks for listening to me rant!  I’m so mad!

A wonderful day!

My friend came up from Heidelberg to spend the day with me.  It was so wonderful to see her!  We had pizza for lunch and then we spent the entire afternoon shopping at the PX.  I was finally able to get her a belated birthday gift and she got me some stuff for my future baby!

It was so cool.  I so didn’t expect it!  She got a hippopotamus bathtub toy, a baby photo album (that the baby can look at), a Fox and the Hound Little Golden Book, and the Best Book of Pooh, Ever (complete with CD, poster and stickers!)  She’s really excited about it.  I showed her the video that convinced my hubby to go with the adoption agency and she cried during it.  She said that it made her think about adopting, too.

I asked her to write a letter of recommendation and she told her husband about it and he said that he would be *HONORED* to write it for us!  I’m so excited!!  I can’t believe this is really happening.  We’re going to be parents someday soon.  This will be a reality for us!

Oh, I’m sorry, was I gushing again?  I’ve been doing that for a while!  I just can’t get it out of my head!

I have to schedule a home study, but Rob’s non-negotiable is that I quit smoking before the home study.  I bought my last carton of cigarettes and I’ll be quitting pretty soon (It takes about 2 weeks to go through one carton, although my friend helped me smoke half a pack today!)

Well, I guess I better get going.  It’s almost 9:30pm and I need to get to bed pretty soon.  Lots to do tomorrow!  Thanks for reading and have a great day

Happy Mother’s day!

I hope you have a very nice day, and you got to eat lots of pancakes!

Adoption Symposium

Oh, I’m still upset about Duaggar (from my last post), but I’m used to it.  People all around me are pregnant.  Don’t get me wrong, I still want a baby!

Well, my husband and I are going to go find out HOW to get one!  We’ll get to hear from a lot of great agencies and be able to network.  I’ll edit this post after we get back…I’ve pretty much talked about all that I can talk about this in previous posts.  Suffice it to say, we’re very excited!

Edit!

Well, Rob and I went to the symposium and we got A LA-HAUT of really great information.  We made some decisions, too!

We’ve decided that we DEFINITELY want to go the international route.  We were considering an Armenia or Russian adoption, but after spending sometime researching it, it’s going to be next to impossible.  I was kind of looking forward to it, considering that my SiL is half Armenian.

We also decided pretty firmly that I we want to adopt a child that is a year or younger.  Gender makes no difference to us.

We also decided on an adoption agency.  We’re going to go with Christian World Adoption.  I’m really leaning toward a Russian adoption, but Rob still wants to look at other countries.  Russian adoptions can take 6-12 months, depending on the parameters listed, but we’re both pretty flexible.

We’re going to get started.  We need to start looking at Home Studies.  This process scares the heck out of me, but I know we’ll get through it. 

Oh, we’re both so excited about all of this! Yeah!!!!

Oh my…

One of the blogs I read announced that Michelle Duggar is pregnant with her 18th child.  Okay, so that makes me feel about (l) this big!

Come on now, don’t flaunt my infertility in my face.  It’s bad enough that I can’t have one, yet she flaunts her and her hubby’s super-fertility!  Good grief!

Yes, it’s my blog and I can cry if I want to…(which is exactly what I’m doing…) Now, if you’ll excuse me.  I’ve got to find some comfort!