Wrapping Up the Holiday Weekend

It's Sunday around lunch time and I wanted to update you on my weekend.

FRIDAY. I got up early and went to my hair appointment. I love the color and the cut. It is shorter then I usually wear it, but I will work with it and it will grow in. I have not had a lot of time to mess with it, so we'll see what happens. Friday night I talked to the family and then went to bed.

SATURDAY. Today was suppose to be the Valkenburg Cave Christmas Market in The Netherlands and The Lindt Chocolate Factory. Well, I got up to get ready for the tour, but I did not feel well. The more I moved around the worse I got. I made it over to the bus, but realized it was probably a kidney stone. I decided to fore go the tour and went home. Good call on my part!! Otherwise I would be writing to tell you all about the health care system in the Netherlands. After I got home, the pain the got worse so I changed my plans and decided to tour LRMC's ER instead. I got to the hospital, underwent a few tests and I was admitted. Later in the afternoon I went up to the OR to have the stone removed and then back to the ward. I must say it was an exciting day. By supper time, I was pain free and stone free (at least my Right kidney). Throughout the evening I had a number of shipmates stop in to visit, this was nice.

I must say I was in very good hands. When I knew it was a stone I called our Urologist who met me in the ER and took great care of me. A number of my providers were Navy, the charge nurse, the night nurse and tech. My non-Navy providers were also great. I would like to say, if I must be sick - there is no better place -IN THE WORLD - to be sick then in a Military Hospital.

Besides, my dad was an outpatient here at LRMC in 2003 and in true Vandzura Fashion, I did not want to be outdone. I elected for inpatient status.

SUNDAY. Well I was discharged around 9:30 and home by 10:00. Now I am updating my blog and watching a Harry Potter Movie. I plan to sit around all day watching movies and working on the computer. I may do a load of laundry if I am up to climbing all the steps. If not, I will wash clothes later in the week.

Ok that is all for now. This weekend coming up is the Navy vs. Army Football game. In case I forgot to tell you, we filmed a spirit spot in front of the hospital a few weeks ago. AFN, Armed Forces Network, taped us yelling - 'GO NAVY - BEAT ARMY - OO-RAH' The Female Officer who introduces us is CAPT Margaret McKavitt. Her son is at the Naval Academy and she is one of the ladies I run around with. I am located on the left side of the screen, her right, in the second or third row. But don't worry, we all look alike. Just know I am in the mix. Any way, CBS may air the spot as well - so look for me!! AFN also filmed the Army yelling 'GO ARMY - BEAT NAVY - WHOA!!' We are hoping they will show both.

ok now I am going to go. Talk to you later.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Well it is 6:20 pm on Thanksgiving Day here in Germany. I am wrapping up my day and most of you are getting ready to sit down and eat or you will be shortly.

I got to sleep in today, a full 8 hours, this way great. Then I got up and leisurely got ready to go to the hospital. We decided to eat before we served lunch. It was very nice, everyone was in uniform - some were in their service dress, others were in their mess dress. Then there were those of us who were told not to back any service uniforms so we were in cammies. But it was very nice.

After we ate we were assigned workstations. I got the dessert table - not a bad gig.

After our shift was finished we decided to hang out and talk to some of our shipmates when a DV arrived. It is that time of year. We were told between now and Christmas we will have a lot of DVs (Distinguished Visitors) come through. Anyway, Don King was here. It was really funny to see the parade of people and tv cameras. Well Barb and I jumped up and got our picture taken so I will post it as soon as I get a copy from our Pharmacist.

Afterwards we changed clothes and went shopping. We ran to France to check out this 'great' grocery store. Well first, France is dirty. At least the part we were in. And the 'great' store was ok. As we walked to the front door you could smell the wonderful fresh baked bread. After we entered all you could smell was the fresh, raw fish - yuck!

So we got a few things and then ran to another store close to home. It was a giant German IKEA. Really cool stuff and a good price, but there is no way to get it into my apartment.

I got home a few minutes ago and Vince tried to skype me, but the connect is acting up. He is at my parents with all my family. He decided to go eat and then mess with the connection. OK I am hungry again so I am going to go get something to eat.

Tomorrow is my hair appointment - let's hope it all goes well.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Week

It's Wednesday night and everyone is rushing home for the holiday. My office is away from the hospital and on a floor with all Army people - imagine that. Anyway they had a holiday lunch and included us which was very nice. I ran to a local bakery for bread and desserts which were really good. Anyway, the Sergent who organized the lunch did a great job. She had tables with table clothes and place settings. It looked so nice that I got a little choked up. I think I realized for the first time I would not be home for the Holidays. I am so happy my family is going to Germany for Christmas. It would be very hard to be away for Christmas.

Tomorrow we are going to 10 am mass and then to the Dining Hall for lunch. After we eat we are scheduled to serve lunch from 12:30 to 1:30. After lunch we are going shopping. There are two stores within 30 minutes of me, but in opposite directions, that we want to check out, one is in France and the other is in Germany. Either way we plan to shop. Friday I have a hair appointment in town. Luckily the guy speaks perfect English, so we will see what happens. If it turns out ok I'll send a picture. If not, well I'll just whine for the next 6 weeks.

Saturday we are off to the Netherlands. I am excited to see another new country. There are these Christmas Markets in the Valkenburg Caves we plan to explore. Shopping and History - what more could a girl want. Oh, yeah - there is a chocolate factory tour on the way home, Lindt. I can hardly wait.

Then Sunday we are going to church and then to France or Luxembourg to poke around. I hope to have pictures and great stories.

I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and I will write again soon.

Quiet Sunday Night at Home

It is Sunday night and I am wrapping up the evening. We were suppose to go to Paris this weekend but the trip was full so we decided to stay home.

Friday night we went up to the club. We have not been up to the club for about 2 weeks. We had dinner, 1.5 L of beer and a little singing. I made it home around 12:30 AM.

The next morning we did a walking tour of Kaiserslautern. That is the local town. I found out it dates back to 6000Bc. There is a lot of cool history here. There are castle ruins in the middle of the town with human and horse bones in the dungeon. There was some tribe that buried their military members with their horses.

Sunday, today, we went to church and then a brunch on one of the local bases. After Brunch we walked around a craft show and came home.

I am watching a movie and plan to get to bed soon. So all in all it was a quiet weekend.

It is hard to believe this week is Thanksgiving. We are serving lunch in the Dining Hall on Thursday. Friday we are going to run around in the area and Saturday we head to the Netherlands for a day of shopping in the Valkenburg Caves. Sunday I plan to relax.

I'll keep you posted but this week is already getting busy. I have two airport runs, I will have the Frankfurt Airport down cold before to long.

Ok, I'm tired and I want to eat dinner. Talk to you later.

3 cool Stories

I had 3 cool stories to share and I can only think of two. I will see if I remember while I am typing.

Story #1.
I got an email from the mom of two good friends today. I will write back soon, but I think it is so cool that this mom wrote to me. Especially since one of her daughters had not written to fill me in on the status of her twin sister who is home on bed rest. But that is ok, because mom filled me in. No guilt or anything, at least mom is keeping me update.
Thanks again, Shelby and Kirsten's mom!

No really, it was very nice to get her email this morning. I am going to write her back and tell her how easy it is to get around and that they should rent a car and drive around Germany.

Story #2
We had another member join our group this week. He is a replacement for a member who had to drop out. Anyway, he arrived over the weekend from Florida via San Diego. We went to lunch and were talking about different 'things'. We started to talk about dirt bikes and motorcycles. He has two daughters who ride both and I was telling him about me kids. He said something about you must live where you can ride. So I said we live in PA, up on the side of a mountain. He was very interested and asked what part. I told him Altoona and he laughed. He said he grew up in Johnstown, PA. We laughed and I told him I was actually from a small town in the Johnstown area and he said he really lived in Ebensburg. Wow, I said I went to Bishop Carroll High School but lived in Portage. He chuckled and said he went to Bishop Carroll and his brother is currently living in Portage with his wife and 4 kids. His other brother lives in Hollidaysburg and his sister-in-law is a Physical Education Teacher for Hollidaysburg. So I asked if she ever taught at a Bishop Carroll and he said yes, but only for a year or two. Funny I said, she was my Phys Ed teacher my junior/senior year.

Now is that a small world or what!!!

Oh mom /dad and Sue his last name is Koenig. His sister-in-law would be Mrs. Koenig at Hollidaysburg, not sure if it is the high school or junior high. Could even be elementary school.

Story#3
Still can't remember. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. We may get snow tomorrow. It is super cold at times and then the sun comes out for a brief time and it warms up. But boy when the wind blows it cuts to the bone.

I got my flu shot today, I better not get sick.

I want to go and email my friends mom before I turn out the lights. See you later. I hear the family is making candy this weekend in Portage.

Heidelberg Germany

On Friday we drove over to Heidelberg Germany. It is a very nice town about 1 hour from here. There is a large castle on the hill that was destroyed by the French and then there was a fire. The King who inherited this castle decided he did not like it so he built a new one in Mannheim. I will try to run over to Mannheim at some point and compare the two to see if he made a good deal or not. Anyway, we walked around and then drove home so we could gather the rest of our group and drive to Austria for the weekend.

We got back and gathered everyone and got on the road around 7pm. I was not planning correctly because I thought we would be in Austria by 10pm. Well we were running behind so we took off. The GPS took us off the main road and on to these narrow crazy roads. After about 30 minutes we started to look for a place to pull over. It was dark, Germany is VERY dark when the sun goes down, and it was starting to rain. I pulled over and looked at the GPS, it was set for the scenic route not the fastest route. So we reset it and found the main road. But again we lost another hour. Around 9pm we stopped for gas and something to eat. I called Ms Elizabeth and told her we were running late. She said she would wait for us, thank goodness. Otherwise I'm not sure where we would have slept.

Anyway, we drove south into the Alps and into more rain. Then we hit this snow/rain mixture. I'm getting better and converting F to C, but after this weekend the only thing we need to know was 0C is freezing rain/snow.

We finally made it to our Zimmer around 2 am - 3 hours late. Ms Elizabeth lead us to our rooms and out we went. As I was drifting off to sleep I could hear the wind pick up outside. I was very happy to be off the road and in a warm bed.

Tomorrow we take the Sound of Music Tour.

A zimmer is a private room rented out, a bed and breakfast in the US.

The only good thing about the 'scenic route' is that we think we found two great little towns right around the corner to explore during the day light.

Pictures of Heidelberg

Here are some pictures from our adventure on Friday.

After our long drive to Austria we finally got some sleep. We slept late into the morning, but we were up and moving by 9am. We had a traditional German/Austrian breakfast of rolls, meat and cheese, danish, tea/coffee or juice. It was terrific. Then we drove over to the little church, parked our car and hopped on the local bus #21 and headed into town. We got off the bus in the down town area and headed into the 'old' district and the walking area. We found the home where Mozart was born but then decided to walked to the home where he lived. We had 1 hour so we toured the home, his life was very interesting. I did not know he had a sister who was also very gifted as well. After the tour we made our way to another bus for the Sound of Music Tour. In the meantime, let me set the stage. Remember the high winds from last night, well they were still high. We had rain, cold blowing rain. I was happy to climb onto the bus, but we got off and walked around in the rain at various points. We saw the back of the home, where the kids fell out of the boat and into the lake. The front of the house, where Marie sang 'I have confidence'. The gazebo and the tree lined road where the kids were hanging like monkeys. After all this we headed for the mountains to Mondsee, the little village where the wedding scene was filmed.

This is great, because the church is beautiful and there is an interesting item(s) in the alter. However, remember the high winds and rain - IN THE VALLEY - well that turns to high winds and snow in the mountains - that is the AUSTRIAN ALPS! Not to be confused with the little hills we have in central PA. It was very pretty, but the roads must have been bad. We passed at least 2 cars in the ditch and watched the police van spin in circles trying to get to the accident scenes. No one was hurt, but it was great to watch. I felt like I was at home. We did make it to the church and got our pictures. Afterwards we had Apple Strudel with ice cream and then made our way back to the bus. The bus drive back into town was no big deal, except that the bus did slide once on the autobahn which was wild. I have never been in a bus that was sliding in snow. It would have been very uncool if the driver lost control, but he did not so it was just one more story for the blog.

It was cold and we were wet when we arrived back in town, but we found an Italian restaurant in the old district for dinner. After another great meal in Europe we found our local bus, #21, and went home. I was looking forward to my warm bed with the heavy German down comforter. I could hear it calling. As I snuggled into bed the wind started to whip outside the window it such a way that I was not sure if it was super cool to listen to Alpine Winds beat against the house or if maybe we should have gone south to warmer weather. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. I fell asleep and slept very well.

Pictures from the Sound of Music Tour

Here are some of the photos I took on the tour. It was cold and rainy so I did not take a lot.

Around Town in Salzburg Austria

Here are some pictures of town, that would be Salzburg, Austria.

Waking up in Austria Saturday - Pictures

The first set of photos were taken outside our Zimmer, or bed and breakfast. Not a bad view to wake up to every morning. The church is where we parked our car. The home is where we stayed. I think it cost 22 euro a night or $66 for two nights. It was fantastic. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Waking up in Austria Sunday

I woke up early Sunday morning because we had to catch a van to go to the Salt Mines. I heard the wind whipping around and I did not want to get out of bed, but I did. We had another great breakfast, packed our bags and said good-bye to Ms. Elizabeth. Our van arrived and we were off for another exciting day. We drove up to the Eagle's Nest, but only made it part way up the mountain due to snow. The Eagle's Nest was closed for the season anyway, but it was nice to get that close. The bus ride up the mountain was another interesting ride. Next we headed to the Salt Mine. We got to the salt mine and rode the train deep into the mountain. After walking awhile we came to the first 'slide.' The miners used a wooded slide to go deep into the mountain quickly. I was all excited to go down the slide, that was until I saw how steep it was. CAPT Doll went with one of the first groups. One of our members walked down so there were only 3 of us left to slide down. I climbed on the rail and then stood up at the last minute. The other two ladies went without me. The guide said, 'no problem you go with me' so I had to suck it up and get on. I grabbed his shoulders and kept my eyes closed the entire time. The mine staff took a picture and in it I am pulling so hard it looks like I am choking the guide. When I got to the bottom the rest of the group asked what happened. They said you talked about how much fun the slide was. I told them, well as soon as I saw it I remembered how much I hated it!!! We laughed, I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. There was a second slide and I did it without any problems. Finally we headed home. It took us 7 hours to make it back to Vogelweh. We had high winds, the kind you can't walk in. Heavy rain. And I think a little bit of snow. I got in around midnight and went to bed. I was very happy to see my apartment. One more day off and then it is back to work.

Waking up in Austria Sunday - Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the Salt Mine tour. It was a lot of fun. I have 3 great pictures that I need to scan before I can put them in the blog. I will see if I can them online soon.

And then there was Monday

We ended our four day weekend on Monday by shopping. I had to return the rental van by lunch time so we took the van back and I got a rental car. I had to learn a new shifting pattern but then we were off. I really am starting to like driving a stick shift. We ran to the exchange, the grocery store and then the shoe store. Europeans love their boots and I love European boots. So we found a shoe store and I bought some boots. I'll take a picture and send it with this blog, the boots are great. I feel like I should be in Siberia. I guess I am ready for the snow. Well that was my weekend in a nut shell. I have no idea where we are going this coming weekend but I'll keep you posted.

Plans for the weekend

Well it is Thursday night and we have the next 4 days off - the Army has 'training holidays' once a month. I rented a van for the next 4 days. We are heading south, into snow - I think. We can going to Salzburg, Austria. We are going to run around in the area tomorrow and then head to Austria after my room mate is done with 'call'.

We plan to try the salt mine. I'll take lots of pictures and post them when I get back.

Take care and talk to you soon.

Another exciting weekend in Germany

First I would like to thank my Grandma Helen and Desiree for the birthday cards. It was a very pleasant surprise today to find mail in my box today. I put them on the wall in my office. I do not have any pictures yet, but they are a start.

Next I would like to let everyone know Vince made cookies last night for Parker's special day. I would love to hear from the ladies at Preschool because he said his were better than mine. I am waiting for feedback.

So on to my wild weekend. I passed my driver's test last week so I wanted to rent a car. I figured I would just stay in the area and get to know 'my town'. Well that was not to be. The group we replaced was leaving so we did not have any duty drivers and we needed to pick a member up at the airport. I agreed to run up since I had a car. Frankfurt is about 1.5 hours away up the Autobahn. I really did not want to do an autobahn run right out of the gate, but I picked the car up at 3 pm and was heading to Frankfurt by 4 pm. The trip up was no problem. I rented the GPS system just in case and I had another person with me. Now for your knowledge the Autobahn does not list north/south or east/west directions. Instead they list the largest city you are driving towards. This means you need to know Germany. Up was simple, I was going to Frankfurt - a large German city. All the roads and connecting Autobahns were marked. Home was another issue. I picked up a new member but her luggage was lost so we waited. Then we finally got on the road and it was dark, very very dark. I am shocked how dark it is at night around here. And then it started to rain, just a little. Now I got on the road and knew I needed to hear towards Weisbaden, but that is where it ended. But no problem. I got the GPS and I even had the lady program it for English. So I set it for home and headed southwestish.

Well the machine told me to turn but I did not listen. I just did not think it was correct. Now I have been living in Germany for 2 weeks. I do not speak or read the language nor do I know the landscape but I did know the computer was wrong!!! Well it was not. I made MANY 'U' turns and some were more daring then others. I finally listened to the machine and made it home. I was 0.5 hours late but I was home. I was never so happy to see the base in all my life.

The next day we just stayed in town, but I think I got a parking ticket. I'm not sure so I need to ask Mrs. Barbara tomorrow. She is a German National who works in the office across the hall. She is very nice. I think she will get a laugh at my ticket. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday we went to a Christmas Market and I got all kinds of stuff. Linens and smokers. It was a great day in German. I then went to buy food for my apartment. I need a good steak. I have been eating a lot of chicken and pork. I need red meat.

Well that was my weekend. I had to work late tonight otherwise I was going to a Stamp'n up party. Since I could not go I called the Community Center and asked the lady to call me. I'll have my own party!!!!

Tomorrow should be another busy day but this is a four day week. We have a 4 day weekend so we are planning our next trip. As soon as I know where we are heading I will let you know.

Take care and talk/email you soon.

Pictures Pictures Pictures

This was taken at the airport before I left. We took another picture that looks just like this the night he left for Kosovo.

I must say - my husband has finally gotten into the spirit of Halloween. It is a shame I was not there to enjoy it. Please let him know how proud I am of his holiday spirit the next time you run into him.

Lots of new stuff

I already posted that I passed my driver's test this week but I need to add a footnote. I got 99 out of 100 - not bad. But my dad only got a 97 out of 100. I just had to throw that out there because the number of times I have beaten my dad are very limited. Sorry dad, but you have been disappointed if I didn't share this with the world.

I rented a car for this coming weekend. I am planning on staying local, I just want to get to know the area. I also want to go the Commissary (the grocery store) and buy more then 4 bags of food. If all goes well we are planning a road trip to Rothenburg next weekend. Rothenburg is a walled Medieval city that served as a cross road between Rome and points North. It is also known as the year-round Christmas city and it has a criminal punishment museum. Speaking of Christmas Markets we have plans for the Netherlands over Thanksgiving. They have the Valkenburg Cave Christmas Market where they set everything up in 7 different caves. Then after shopping all day we get to tour Lindt Chocolates Shopping and chocolate - oh my.


Vince and the kids had a great Halloween. I will post some pictures but I want those of you who have small children to take notice. When they are little they will wear whatever 'theme' you pick. But between the ages of 5 and 9 they decide to pick their own costumes. My best advice - good luck.