The Devil Left Georgia and Followed Me.

This is what I know about the devil:
He's strategic.
He's patient.
He's cruel.
He's relentless.

He lies in wait until you are happy and everything is fantastic in your life and then BAM! He's there, ruining everything and anything in his path. Anything he can make go wrong, he will. And he won't stop at that. His tactic is to just keep it piling up until you can't take it. One thing after the other gone wrong. One more burden on your back. One more pain you can't take.
Well I'm here to tell him KEEP IT COMIN' BRO.
The one thing the devil doesn't get is that my God is bigger and better and will completely own him. Everything he does to ruin me will be squashed and something so much better will come from it. The devil may think he is strong, but he is only as strong as you let him be. He attacks when you feel weak because he is weak, and can't attack when you are strong. SO HOLD STRONG. Do not let him get to you. Talk him down. The moment you give in you let him win. DON'T DO THAT. God is, has been, and will always be stronger than the devil will ever be capable of. So here I am, sitting here with thing after thing being thrown in my face, and the devil laughing at my pain, and I am laughing at him, because he cannot and will not win. When push comes to shove, the devil is a bully and a loser and he always will be. I don't give in to bullying and neither does God. Bullying is pathetic. Get over yourself, devil.

How Did You Get Into College?!

This may be bitchy, but it needs to be said:
I hate when I have to respond to stuff other students have submitted. I find myself always wanting to just respond by copying and pasting their work, and then highlighting and fixing all of the spelling and grammatical errors. My professor for this class even requires us to answer five different questions at the end of our submission, one being "Did you check your grammar and spelling?" and I am amazed at the people that have yes after that question. So you checked it and just didn't fix it or what? Type your stuff up in a Word document. Word will show you all of your spelling errors, LIKE MAGIC. This is a college class, I do not care that it is a science course, you shouldn't be even allowed to enter any college course if you don't know simple grammar rules. Its seriously distracting for people like me that are just trying to do what is required. I refuse to respond to anyone's post that has grammatical and spelling errors over and over again because it's so hard for me to read, I don't feel it's even worth my time to respond to someone that incompetent. This makes my life so difficult because I have to go through and weed out all the people that don't know the English language to be able to respond. I do not care if this is mean or harsh. It needs to be said. I understand that some people just don't do well with writing. WORD WILL DO IT FOR YOU. Seriously. Do you think your paper all underlined with red squiggly lines is a good thing? It should be taught from a very young age not to type things up on the internet, but to use Word and then copy and paste it from there. Everyone makes simple mistakes now and then, but most can be prevented and changed so easily and no one makes the effort to do it. HOW DID YOU GET INTO COLLEGE WHEN YOU WOULDN'T EVEN BE ABLE TO PASS THE THIRD GRADE?!
#petpeeve #peoplearestupid

The Sewing Machine from Hell

So my husband's favorite pair of pants has a large hole right down the side of them, and he still insists on wearing them. As a male, I guess wearing pants with holes in the seams that show your boxers or some side leg isn't a big deal, but to me it's sad. We look like we can't afford new clothes, when really, we can, and already have plenty, these are just his FAVORITE.  I, as a good little wifey, decided I would try to fix the hole today. I got out my sewing machine and set it up. And by that I mean its a sewing machine with American voltage, so I had to find a transformer in my house with an open plug that has room near it to hold a sewing machine. After that, the bobbin thread in my sewing machine was hot pink. I know the bobbin thread doesn't really show, but I wanted to change it just in case. I knew James probably wouldn't appreciate pink thread in his favorite cargo pants haha. My sewing skills are a little iffy because I haven't actually used my sewing machine in probably 5 years. I thought I used to sew enough though, that I would remember how to change the bobbin thread, because that's simple, right? WRONG. After thinking I did it right, just by eyeballing how I took the pink bobbin out, I began sewing, and the thread got so tangled and messed up. I cleaned up that mess, and decided maybe I should Google some answers. Thank God for wikihow or I would have never figured out how to make that bobbin work. It really isn't that hard, unless you're like me and have no idea what you're doing. So, I was ready this time. The bobbin was correct, and thankfully I still know how to thread the needle. I began sewing again. A little ways in the machine started making some funky noises...I stopped, looked...the tip of the needle had broken. REALLY??? JUST LET ME FIX THE PANTS YOU DARN MACHINE!!! So I was going to just hand sew the pants because really, this was getting ridiculous. But, My machine is well stocked with different color bobbin and to my dismay/joy,  a selection of new needles. I guess back when I used to sew things I left all of my materials. Go me.  So again, I Googled how to re-needle the machine. This was easy as you just unscrew the old needle and screw the new one back in. I had to take apart the whole section where the bobbin is looking for the needle tip though. No luck. I then looked on the pants, which I wish I had done first, and the tip was stuck to them. Cool. Re-thread needle, re-thread bobbin. Okay, last try and then I'm throwing the pants away. (I wasn't really going to throw them away since they're James' favorite but I might have set them on fire because I was so frustrated LOL.) Alas, It worked, and the pants are all fixed and look FABULOUS! Regardless though, next time I need to sew something, it better not be that complicated. Seriously sewing machine, what are you doing with your life?

The heat, it's killing me!

...and by heat I mean heater.
Our heating system for our house keeps breaking. It's really kind of awkward too because, besides from the fact that the repair guys speak VERY little English, I really have no idea how these systems work anyway. Our house is heated by oil. So from what I understand the oil heats water which then flows through all the radiators and heats the house, or something like that. I'm female. I don't care. I just want my heat. So they thought the problem was the oil was low, so we bought more oil, which was expensive, like $2000 expensive (you can send me a check). Then it broke again. So the guys have been here today fixing it (I think). They don't really talk to me and left without saying anything (I mostly stay upstairs with the dog because young woman home alone in foreign country with strange men in house=bad things). So I have no idea if the heat is working or what the problem is/was. On the plus side, the landlord pays for the repairs so, whatevs. James is finally going back to work today, with a regular schedule. No more holiday breaks, poor kid. It will be nice to get into a more "normal" routine, if ever there was one. The unpacking is well...going...We have a lot of kitchen stuff, like A LOT of kitchen stuff for our tiny little European kitchen, so I found a cabinet that will give us both space to cook on and space to store in our kitchen that we are going to look at today. I did something terrible to my back, I think moving furniture, so I have been alternating ice and heat and downing Ibuprofen like an addict. There are things to be done but I would rather sit here haha story of my life. Dishes, laundry, cleaning, etc. Wife life. Love my husband, hate chores. James does a significant amount between games of Skyrim or whatever it is he plays. If only he would remember to put the toilet seat down I would be very thankful.
I've started using this app called "MealBoard" which basically allows you to plan your meals and then will compile a grocery list from your choices. Its really kind of neat. It proves to be somewhat difficult to plan meals on a budget when the grocery store on base is out of half the things you need. James and I did try a German grocery which was cool, but everything is more expensive and in smaller portions, and it also takes a while because we have to Google translate basically everything to figure out what were looking for lol. Maybe once I actually learn more German we can try again. Until then we will just have to deal. You would think it wouldn't be that hard to keep the on base grocery store stocked for all the Americans that are out of their own country allowing the country to remain America, but it seems the priority got messed up somehow. I've also learned that if I have a medical emergency that I am SOL for an American doctors. There are German hospitals around, but the closest American emergency facility is 2 hours away. The on base medical facility is basically only a clinic and closes a lot for teaching days something. Cool guys. Seems to me they would learn a lot more by staying open and treating people rather than watching instructional videos or doing team building or whatever, but not my choice. Lets just hope I don't have a medical emergency before I learn German. Or after I learn German for that matter.
Anywho, I started a food blog because I like to take pictures of my food, so you should check it out.
http://whataglut.blogspot.com
What a glut. Yep. That's me. I'm a glut. Like slut but instead of giving my body to multiple men I give it to multiple foods. Its fantastic, I know. Don't hate. I'm sure Brad and Gretch are proud. I can see my mom rolling her eyes at the name now (Hi mommy).
Alright, I suppose its dishes time. Meh.

We Like to Move It, Move It

December 22nd was D-Day, and by that I mean "Dang I have to fly 7 hours alone" day. My flight was, to say the least, terrible. The seat belt light stayed of all of 30 minutes total and about every half hour the kid behind me kicked my seat, which prevented any sleep I tried to get from happening. I did have 2 whole seats to myself though and got to watch "We're the Millers" (which actually wasn't nearly as bad as it looked) and "Tangled". I also got all of my Christmas and going away party thank you cards done, so can't complain too much. Once I landed in Germany it as customs and baggage and then try to find my husband. Thank God I am somewhat competent with airports! It is 2 Euro for baggage carts (which I DEFINITELY made use of) and while standing at the carousel waiting for my baggage to come out I saw at least 3 people completely struggle to comprehend how to get a baggage cart. One lady didn't understand you had to pay, another stood there staring at the machine that took your money for at least five minutes. Bless their adorable non-traveling hearts.  Moving on. So I found James and we made our way to Ikea which was actually still closed. We went to this Home-Depoty type store (Picture the Home Depot, but with a pet store included...) and got a tree stand and a couple various other things in an attempt to kill time so Ikea would open. We eventually decided to just ditch Ikea because we were bored of waiting. We made our way back to base to pick up a few things I needed and then back to the house. James did a great job with the house. It is so perfect! The yard is gorgeous and I love the country feel of it all. It has a covered porch which I can't wait to sit on every day once it gets warmer.

Spooker loves to run around in the backyard too. All our furniture fits n the bedroom and we have 2 wardrobes as well. Europeans for some reason don't believe in closets. I will never understand. EVER. Spook loves our bed and sometimes lays in our room by himself. Freak. Our kitchen is small, not like an America kitchen. We are planning on getting a little buffet cabinet for some extra storage/counter space in there. Both our bathrooms are decently sized and have plenty of bathroom storage (YAY!) We (I) have gotten all of my books unpacked and onto the bookshelf in a very disorganized fashion, but the boxes are broken down and out of the way so I don't care. James got a lot of kitchen things unpacked before I got here, but like I said we will need more storage in order to finish that. I have gotten 90% of our clothes out of bags and hung or folded. Have yet to find many shoes, but finally found an abundance of socks and underwear. Moving is hard and messy.

My first few days here have been crazy. It's hard to believe it hasn't even been a week since I got here. Since I landed on the morning of the 23rd, once we got home and unpacked a few things we set up our tree. James cooked me an amazing welcome home dinner while I wrapped the tree in lights. After dinner we decorated together and used our handy dandy tripod to take some Christmas pictures.

Christmas Eve we went to a candlelight service on base and then over to one of James' friends houses for food and games. We had a really great time. Christmas day we were supposed to go to a progressive dinner but ended up waking up really late and missed the first house. We opened our gifts to each other and had a nice breakfast before making it out the door. James got me a few things from Christmas markets, including this really gorgeous heart necklace I am in love with!

We then scurried out the door to make it to the second house in the progressive dinner for salad and Secret Santa, and then onto the third for dinner. After dinner we swung by our house to pick up the pup and a movie and then made our way to base to play games, have dessert and watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

The day after Christmas two of James' friends, their dog, James, Spook, and I all left in the afternoon to drive to Brugge, Belgium. We got there in about 3 hours and found a hotel and then did a little shopping and attempted to go to the Christmas market, which was all closed except for the bar. We tried a couple of drinks and made our way back to the hotel for the night.

The Christmas lights in Brugge are beautiful. Every town in Europe has a town square type feel even if its a big city.

In the morning we got breakfast (Belgian waffles!!) and stopped to get some chocolate. There are more chocolate shops in Brugge than I have ever seen in my life. We then went to the snow and ice sculpture festival! It is sponsored by Disneyland Paris so this year it was all carved after scenes from "Frozen" and they also had a few classic Disney characters. It was so beautiful and incredible. Disney is the professional when it comes to paying attention to detail and making things magical, and magical it was.

All of the classic Disney couples were dancing in a ballroom at the sisters' ball from "Frozen." It was so neat.

They of course couldn't go without Mickey and Minnie there as well!

In order to keep everything frozen it was 21 degrees in there. My toes were numb ad freezing by the time we left! Spook was not a fan of the ice either...

We then drove about an hour to Brussels and hit up the Christmas market there, in the cold rainy mess that is Europe. James and I found this really neat nativity scene which we invested in. We then moved on to try to find the famous bar Delirium. Delirium, as it turns out, is not one bar but a network of like 5 or 6 bars all in the same building. The environment was very chill and nice. They have literally thousands of different beers you can try. We sat in there for a while with the dogs, and then headed back home.
It has been a great adventure thus far but I will be thankful once New Years is over and I can get everything more organized and settled in. My sleep schedule has not been working for me either so I will be glad once the jet-lag has passed. Moving to a different country is kind of like moving to a different planet. I had to relearn how to use a dish washer, washing machine, dryer, etc. The heating and air is different as well as light switches, and pretty much anything else. I feel much more cultured already. Once some more unpacking and organizing has been done I will post some house pics but until then you will just have to wait :)
TTFN, Ta ta for now!

Homecoming

Ive now been away from my husband 8 months. He comes home a day after our 8 monthaversary. I cant wait to see him. Im going though all these emotions and theres such a large mixture. Panic that he wont remember whT im like. Excitement that i get to see him! Nervousness that ill be super clingy. Weve gotten this far apart. All our stuff is being shipped to our house in Germany, just left is us. There are too many mixed feelings to describe how I feel but a month from today Ill be leaving the place ive lived the past 13 years...like i said, too many emotions, not enough words.

The Miracle Butterfly

So I know I haven't written for a while. I told you I was bad at this whole blog thing. I have a story though.

Tonight I saw a monarch butterfly on our front porch. I thought it odd that he was still flitting around and active at 10pm since normally you only see them around in the sunshine. I watched him and the. Saw him fly up into the front porch light. I thought maybe he had gotten stuck in a spider web or something so being the ridiculous person I am, I opened the door to make sure he was alright. I saw him at the top of the door and he seemingly fell toward me, and then flew into my house. I was shocked and quickly went to try to catch him to let him back outside. He had flown into one of the lights of the chandelier in our front hallway. My dad came and got him out. He then flew into the chandelier light in our living room. My dad followed him and caught him and put him in a jar. I took the jar and went on the back porch to let him go but he wouldn't come out of the jar. For a moment I thought he had died, since he had been acting odd and was possibly injured. I dumped him out of the jar into the wooden railing of the back deck. The wind was blowing his wings around but the little guy just clung to the wood for dear life and would not fly away. I didn't know what to do so I put my finger down by him and he crawled right on. For the next 30 minutes maybe I just sat there with him on my finger. When I tried to touch him to see if he would fly he simply just crawled onto the other hand. I felt bad for him thinking he was dying and didnt want to be alone and somehow figured I was his friend or something. I wasn't sure what to do with him because I didn't want to just leave him there. He then flew off my finger and into my hair, as if to say "I'm ready now." I walk back outside into the back porch and he just flew away, perfectly, not injured at all. I have no idea what just happened, as most butterflies may land in you but when you try to hold them they get spooked and fly away. I like to think someone up there was looking down and thought i could use a friend, so they sent me him. Whatever the case, I'm glad I got some time with one of the most beautiful creatures God created and to me, he is a little miracle. I hope he's off to show someone else a little love and encouragement, as he definitely showed me. Weird how such tiny things can make such a big impact.