A German Summer

 It's finally SUMMER!!  My favorite season!
  The picture above is our balcony flowers finally blooming.. BEAUTIFUL! When I open the balcony door to let the air in during that day, the smell of flowers come in and I love it!
  One thing I don't understand about Germany and it's native people is why on Earth don't they use air conditioners?! It really is uncommon to have air conditioners here because Germans don't believe in it.. Everyone back in the States has one! You would think since this is Army family housing that they would have one installed in all the homes but they don't so we have been using fans which seems to do the job okay but it's still pretty hot on cloud-less days.
  Another thing about Summer in Germany is the Sun doesn't go down until past 11 at night and then comes back up around 4 in the morning.  Here is a photo I took last night of our street at 10 pm.. the Sun is still shinning its beam!

I just got back from my monthly FRG meeting and this was the last meeting that my FRG leader is going to be the leader. Her family is PCSing to Stuttgart Army Post, Germany. Our new FRG leader will be Captain Barnaby's wife. Captain Barnaby is the new commander that just took Havoc Troop over a few months ago that I attended the ceremony for (Change of command ceremony). His wife was planning on taking over the FRG anyways but since Kara Jacobs and her family is moving now anyways, this is the perfect time. She is still learning the ropes but next month she is taking over all on her own. I'm sure she will do great! I am sure going to miss our FRG leader, Kara, though. She is always so nice and will do anything for you. She helped me out so much while the boys were deployed and always made sure I was 'in the know'. Hopefully she will like their new duty station.
  I also found out that there is a couple month long field trainings coming up. The first one is in August. They don't get to come home at all during field training (not even on the weekends) and all they do is pretty much pretend they are deployed, train, and be prepared for anything. Seems like the boys just got home from deployment and they already have the next deployment date set.. But Steve won't be deploying again.. We get out of the Army a few months before the unit deploys.

Remember a few blog posts back where I was talking about my Clinical Parasitology class and how it freaked me out to the point I gave Tubby a bath?? Well, Steve went on a training field navigation mission for a day where he was out in the woods. He came home with a tick on him!! Then asked me to search the rest of his body for more... I didn't even want to sleep in the same bed as him.. I was so scared I would start feeling things crawl on me.  I didn't get much sleep after that, Haha!

This last week, Steve bought his first set of Golf clubs. He has taken a liking to Golfing and since he has a few friends in the Unit that golfs as well, he goes out with them every few weekends. Now he will have his own set and he is pretty proud of that.

Joint checking

What do most married couples do? Do they have their own checking account or do they share and put both incomes in to one account?! I have always wondered this. Steve and I have joint checking but what do those people do that don't share.. Out of whose account do they pay for groceries with or who pays the internet bill?! Do people just pay half and half? Remember, I am talking about married couples here.. not just dating. I don't know why I am so interested in other peoples lives and how they do things but I am.. I guess you could say I am a 'people watcher'. But it is interesting to know how other people do things and how different they are to the way you do things in your own marriage.

Other then my curiosity on random subjects, things here in Europe have been pretty exciting! I am getting really close to being done with my Veterinary Assistant program.. I have about a little more then a month left until I receive my Career Diploma. At the moment I am learning about Veterinary Pharmacology and let me tell ya, I have always hated math and never really understood it but Penn Foster career School really knows how to teach and its actually coming very easily to me. Boy, do I sound like an advertisement or what?
  Steve is also working on getting in to college. He is just waiting on his approval for tuition assistance with GoArmyEd (where he gets assistance for his GI Bill) so he can start a few classes online while still in Germany and makes him look that much better for when he applies to colleges. He has been talking with a counselor from Penn State and they told him as long as he gets 3 online classes done by November (when applications are due) then he will have a VERY good change to get accepted in to that school.. He is really trying hard to get in to Penn State University. As soon as that tuition comes through, he can start those classes. We are just waiting for that and its sort of stressful since he has such a small amount of time to get it done.
  Whats funny is that the Scranton branch of Penn State (where Steve is focused on going to school at) is in Scranton Pennsylvania. My school (Penn Foster Career School) is also in Scranton! What a funny coincidence.

Bath time

I taught Steve Feline Restraint and put it to use. We used team work and gave Tubbles a bath. That was about an hour ago and she is still cleaning herself. Cats really are insulted that they think their owners don't think they can clean themselves on their own. I have only given Tubbles one bath before in her life and that was when she was a  few days old.

my wet baby

Forgave us with a meaty meal for dinner

  I am learning a lot in my Clinical Parasitology course (in my Veterinary Assistant program) and it has got me really paranoid about Lice, Fleas, and Ticks. So I decided to give her a bath.. I mean really, do you wants these things crawling around on you and infesting in your house...?

Tick

Flea

Mites

In Germany, we don't have many options when it comes to shopping of any sort unless we want to go outside the gate and into the German world. I have tried to shop at local German stores both for groceries and other household items. The only thing that I prefer German stores for is home decor. They have some really neat decorating stuff but for everything else, I can't pronounce it let alone know what it means if I did know how to pronounce it. So our Commissary and PX on post is where we get all of our stuff.  If we were stationed in the USA, we would have so many other options. We could go to Walmart or Costco.. I hate only having one option since they are always running out of things but this is what life is like being stationed overseas.

  Well. anyways.. I went to the Commissary to get some shampoo for Tubbles and all they sold was Hartz brand pet supplies. I CAN NOT stress this enough..NOT USE THIS BRAND! And if you do, look for open sores on your pet and breathing problems among other things. This is bad stuff. The Commissary went cheap on pet supplies and it's really too bad. Most families that live here have no other choice but to use this on their pet since this is all they sell and we don't really have other options for pet supplies.

  Visit www.hartzvictims.org. People post their stories on what happened to their beloved pet when they used this product! Hartz has many lawsuits going on but still won't take their products off shelves. Their is also a few other brands that will also harm your pet. The best Flea, Tick, and Lice treatment for both dog and cat is FrontLine Plus. You can buy it online or at a Veterinary clinic. Its just drops, I used a shampoo (fourpaws) this one time and now starting these drops back up again. This stuff really works and as safe as can be. You really can't put a price on the health of a family member.

The Office

Since I started college, I had to have a makeshift office to do my school work at, so we just set up a desk in the corner of the dining room until we got the spare bedroom cleaned to make it 'The Office'. Well, it is finally done after 7 months of living here.. the office is DONE!!! Its so nice to have a quite room instead of hearing Steve play video games and not being able to concentrate.When we move again in 10 months, I am not going to let the unpacking drag on for months like that.. NO WAY!!! Army wives are supposed to be able to unpack their house in 3 days (says other seasoned Army wives, wives have have moved many many times because of the Army). So my goal for our next move is to have the next house painted and unpacked in 2 weeks or less. Yes, I want to paint our next home since we will be there for about 4 years and I want to decorate it. I am so sick of looking at white walls. But if there is other things going on and I just can't paint the next house then I guess I will survive.

not much to look at but its nice to have somewhere quite to study

2 years of marriage

Two years ago I married a US Army Infantry soldier, my best friend and high school sweetheart! Back then I thought I knew what love is and I thought I was in it but now, two years later I am 21 years old. I am older and wiser and now I really do know what love is and I do know that I am 100% in love with my soldier and my Hero! Marrying him was the best decision I have ever made. Everyone told me that in a couple years I would feel different and might regret marrying him so young but its quite the opposite! He is such a loving husband and tries with everything he is to make me happy and as do I to make him happy. Our love survived a war.. and even stronger because of that fact. We can get through anything.
  6 months ago is when he came home from his first year long tour in Afghanistan. We have been married for 2 years and we have only been living together for 6 months! This last 6 months have been the best of my life.  The first year and a half of marriage we didn't really consider ourselves newlyweds but we were.. We are now enjoying newlywed life and loving every second if it.
  To celebrate our anniversary, we went to a fancy German restaurant called Aposto.

The love of my life and I

Aposto is in the Basement

inside the beautiful restaurant

the bar