Sally

I almost forgot to mention that we recently got a new car!!!! Her name is "Sally" and she's going to be my new spaceship....remember- I'm still an alien!!! Well, the joke worked for me.



Sally is a sweet darkblue Dodge Magnum (station wagon) and drives awesome.

Green Card

Today, Wednesday 27th 2008 @ 10:00 am, we had the Green Card interview in Tucson. Everything went well and the person didn't even want to take a look at the wedding pics....and I was soooo looking forward to show off my first 4 scrapbook-style pages. Anyways, I was informed that I can expect my card within the next month, which made us both very happy! I CAN TRAVEL!!!!

Thanks for everybody's support on that matter!!!!!

Before the interview:




After the interview:


Eric called me the queen of dorktown....again!....just because I had to have those pics taken!?!?

Dogs

Last weekend (08/23) we were dogsitting for a friend of mine, Daniela. I met her at the dogpark, where we meet almost every morning to chat in German (yes, she's German, too!!!). Our dogs get along just fine. Her dog, Bailey, is the cutest baby- Beagle you can imagine! So, on Saturday Daniela went to Tucson for some family fun time, but unfortunately dogs are not allowed at zoos and kids playgrounds. She dropped Bailey off at our place in the morning and hit the road. Eric and I filled some water bottles and got ready for our weekend hike to Brouwn Canyon.


An old farm




View over Sierra Vista




River walking




We met some "big dogs"






DIIIIIIIRTYYYYYY!




In the car

Girls

Leigh and Christine are awesome people! I love to hang out with them!
Christine and Nolan have the cutest 2-year old son in the entire world, Liam- I don't have a picture of him yet but hopefully I will get one soon.
One day we all took a girls shopping trip to Tucson. Mo had his girlfriend, Anett, from Hungary over but was in class all day. So we invited her to come along. Here're some pics from our trip:


I, Anett, Leigh and Christine (sitting)


Leigh and I

Friends and Rockband

Eric made a few awesome friends in class. There are Nolan, Brad, Mo and some I haven't met yet. One weekend Nolan and his wife, Christine, hosted a barbecue. The unmarried Mo was there and Brad, who brought his wife Leigh. This was when I first had contact to real military wives! I iummediately liked the two girls. They were cool, funny and two very different characters. I learned a lot from them about the Army, some new acronyms, expressions and words (thanks, girls!!!).
That same day around 10pm the guys decided to go to Best Buy and get the computer game (is it?) "Rockband". For the rest of the evening the house turned into a concert hall, which made it difficult to talk for us ladies. But we still managed and also watched the guys.
From that day on the guys were addicted to that game and had "band practice" everyday for lunch and some evenings.

Finally here

It took my Mom and me about 4 days to get from Richmond to Arizona (with the very densely packed and heavy Volvo). It was great to spend so much time with her. Of course we spoke German all the way and had fun stopping at several malls, Starbuckses (?), welcome centers of each state and lonely gas stations. We saw amazing and changing landscapes all the way.
As we finally arrived in Sierra Vista, the last 30 minutes I was sooooo excited that my mom thought I should better not drive, I almost cried as Eric took me in his arms.
Mom stayed for a few more days and we cooked, shopped some more (mostly for Paul, my nephew), walked the dog (mom), had a good time and rested.
After Mom left everything went back to normal. I was soooo happy to be with my two boys, which is where home is!

Saying Good Bye

In June I flew back to Richmond. I stayed at an extended stay hotel on Broad Street since we had rented our house to Jenny and Ryan (friends from the dog park). I helped Dr.Dvorak and Julia (and Mike who took over my job as administrative assistant) organizing the 2008 language academies like the previous years. For the first time I was also the director for the German academy. I was really looking forward to that but was also scared at the same time. All the other directors, Julia and Mike as well as Helen Small and Dr.Dvorak helped me a lot and were always there for me. Thank you all soooooo much!!!
After the academies were over I was exhausted but it was one of the best experiences I've ever made. My syaff was fabulous and the kids were exceptional. I was very proud to be part of this great program and hope to do it again soon.
During the last couple of days of the academies my Mom came to Richmond. As the language program was done I had to say my Good-Byes to everyone and everything. I was very sad to leave and had tears in my eyes. It's very hard to leave people behind who you've really gotten used to and can't imagine not to see regularly anymore. I think of a few special ones all the time.

Sierra Vista

I got to visit Eric and Nelson for about 2 1/2 weeks in May (for my birthday, which was great!!-> we had a livingroom picnic and watched a movie). Pat, Don, Connie and Charley came to visit us for a few days, which was nice- I haven't seen them in a while and we did lots of fun stuff together...like going to Tombstone, the place where Doc Hollywood and that other guy had that shooting (I didn't understand a lot of the stuff the guide was talking about- he spoke reheeeeeally fast). Well for the rest of my stay I unpacked all the boxes and decorated the house while Eric was busy with his classes.





Since I had his grey Volvo still in Richmond he bought "Mr. Bob", a POS to get him to work and back:




Our Street- Silverado Drive.


A funny car a few houses down the street.

Decision

In fall 2007 we decided to stay in the Army. Eric's new job will be to fly surveillance airplanes....after he went through all the schooling. So, since the new job is different from his old one he first has to attend the military intelligence captain's career course in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The city next by is called Sierra Vista. For our honeymoon we took a trip out there to house hunt. After a little search we found a house for rent that we liked. A day later we drove up to Telluride, Colorado.....yessssss....for our favorite winter sport: SNOWBOARDING!!!!!! It was great, we had a nice little room in a rustic lodge, the food (especially the breakfast) was awesome, the weather was good and the snow fantastic. I was bruised all over my body and complained about it all the time (sorry, Schatzi!) but other than that we had great time.





So, we moved to Sierra Vista, Arizona in May 2008. Well, Eric drove his Chevelle all the way to Arizona. His best friend Jacob and Nelson joined him for the trip. I stayed in Richmond (in an empty house) to finish the semester at VCU.

Here some pics from the boy's trip:

Just Married!

Eric and I decided to get married on the 20th of October 2007. We picked the fall break weekend (4-day weekend for both of us). A couple of days before the big day our parents (and some other friends and family members) came to Richmond and helped us prepare. We rented the Cannon Chapel on the University of Richmond Campus. The ceremony was conducted by Eric's father, Don, who did a fantastic job.









After the ceremony I was slapped on my behind (thanks, Mike!), OUUUUUUCH!!!!!, and welcomed to the Army. Then we took several pictures in front of church and by the lake.










My Mom, Pat and a family friend (Faith) did the flower arrangements. My Mom designed all the decoration for the church and the reception. Everything was georgeous!

Rehearsal

On October 19 we had our Bavarian rehearsal. Everybody who had Lederhosen or a Dirndl wore those! The wedding party went to the Chapel to practice for the next day.







Marina: the best (princess-) flower girl in the world!(thanks, Kristen!)



All Germans...and ONE American together (my sister was 8 months pregnant! Unfortunately we couldn't find a Dirndl for pregnant women).

Later we met everybody that had arrived that day at Cafe Gutenberg in Richmond, one of our favorite places. A dear friend (thanks Deanna... and Reza of course!!!) arranged for us to have the whole upstairs for ourselves. The place and the food were awesome! Eric and I picked our favorite foods and wine about a month before the event.





The Dirndl girls: Niki, I, my Mom and Faith.



After Cafe Gutenberg most of us went to Capital Ale House which is located right next to the hotel everybody was staying at (how convenient, right?) and had a few drinks.