Day SixtyTwo & SixtyThree: Summer Livin'

Days Sixty Two and Sixty Three:

My Weekend 

I hope everybody else's weekend was as eventful as mine was(:

I blogged on Friday, so this post will cover Saturday and today. 

Yesterday, I woke up and got ready for the day. We decided to drive out to saarbrucken to check eat at the german Hooters! It's only about thirty minutes away, so why not?! At first we couldn't find it cause it was a bit hidden, but after driving around for a little we finally got there. It was set up exactly like the ones in the states, most everything was the same. The menu was a little shorter, but they basically had it all. We didn't know if the wing sauce would be the same, but mom and dad tried it anyway. I played it safe and got a burger and my sister got a chicken sandwich. Though the restaurant seemed the same.. the food just wasn't hooters food. The fried pickles, which we were looking forward to, were disappointing. AND on top of that the meal cost $85. (Did I mention you don't get free refills here?)

After we ate at hooters we walked over to the mall. Unlike most shopping in Germany, this was a mall like the states have.. it was all indoors! We walked around for a little while (it was nowhere near as big as the ones we are used to) and then left. 

Dad had mentioned earlier in the week that he spotted an outlet mall, just like back home, so we decided to try that out. It was literally JUST like every other outlet mall! Of course, some of the stores were different but they had the major stores like Nike, Levi, Adidas, Ralph Lauren, and the others. 

While we were walking through, it started to rain and it was cold, so we made our way back to the car. 

When we got home we all split up for a little bit. We all wanted to do our own thing. I started working on my essay for my history exam. This girlllll made an A on her first set of assignments, whatsupppp?!

We were all full from lunch so for dinner we just made sandwiches. (:

Today started out as a lazy day. All of the businesses were closed so there's really nothing to do. It was the end of the day that brought the excitement. For dinner mom made chicken cordon bleu. Afterwards, my parents and I decided to talk bella on a walk through the woods behind our house. 

(heres where the fun comes in)

There's a large field in between the tree line behind our house and our backyard. Sometimes in the field we see deer and foxes (: We heard there are some pretty cool trails back there so we decided to go on a little adventure. 

We left the house and started to walk through the field. Almost immediately we saw.. some creature? It looked like a fox but it definitely wasn't.. i'm just glad we only saw that thing once.. Bella looked like a little bunny rabbit, running and pouncing through the field. She LOVED it. We got onto a trail pretty quick, and followed it for a while. Eventually we could hear the water running from the stream nearby. We followed our ears & WALLAH we found it. 

The trail through the woods was so pretty! There were benches along the way and little bridges crossing the water. In the states you'd have to travel to Yosemite National Park or something to experience what we did. It's a lot cooler down by the water, too. We let bella off the leash, and she ran free! She loved it down there. 

Along the way we found some really weird rock looking things..  we later found out that they were castle ruins. I mean, how cool is that? Right behind our house! Dad walked up some stairs, we stayed lower though. We continued walking through the woods and then met up with him at a restaurant that the paths link up at. (I'll note here that the restaurant is half a mile.. the short non-scenic route lol)

Walking through was.. nice.. peaceful.. calming.. gorgeous.. quiet.. (all of those types of words.. and then some)

Now the way back..

THAT IS A DIFFERENT STORY.

In case you don't already know, let me just tell you.. our house, is on the tippy top of the highest hill in our little tiny german town. LOL.

As we started to make our way back it wasn't so bad. It was about 9:10.. and it doesn't get dark here until about 10:15, so it was still fairly light out. We began walking back the same way we came.. 

However, with the tall trees covering up the little bit of sunshine it was a bit dark. 

Little did I know.. with darkness comes BATS. 

Yeah, thats right.. i said it.. BATS. 

Those creepy little flying creatures. 

Let me tell you, I do not think those things like humans. When we were walking back dad said, "Oh wow, look a bat." I'm thinking.. oh thats cool.. (this would be cool had it only been one little guy)

NO. 

They were EVERYWHERE..  

though that freaked me out, I probably could've dealt with that.. had one not dove down right next to my head! I really think that thing was trying to eat me.. 

or convert me to some sort of vampire... :o (LOL)

I screamed. Mom sprinted. Dad Laughed. 

Of course, the stairs we had to take back up to the main road were about as steep as mount freaking everest. Seriously, almost died y'all. 

We made it to the top of the road.. Only to find ourselves on the steep road that leads us up to our house.. STILL not close. lol.

From this point on the roads got steeper. As dramatic as the post seems, this part has no exaggeration.. SO STEEP. haha.. If i didn't die while I was walking up the previous stairs, I was sure I was going to die going up these.. 

How my little dog still had energy to walk after she sprinted all over the woods, is beyond me. 

Ball of energy. Literally. 

I think the only reason I made it up that hill is because I saw jesus near the light at the top..

Fo Real.

We finally reached the top of the hills. Then we climbed up another set of stairs, walked down the road a tiny bit and FINALLY made it home.

WE SURVIVED.

Boy, that was an adventure.

I'd do it all over again.. but I will NEVER.. take the same route back that we did.. and I will NEVER walk through the evil bats territory every again while they're awake. 

I enjoy being alive. So sorry to the bats I made angry.

I took a bunch of pictures so you guys could see how gorgeous it was! 

Enjoy them (: 

Thanks for reading! 

SamanthaK<3

Daddy walking through the woods!

Some really weird rocks we saw. They're HUGE and EVERYWHERE!

Mom & Dad walking!

Just a picture of the water. 

Mom feeling the water.. BRRRR.

A bench and table we found - so cute. 

Looking up at the trees.

Another view looking up. 

Mom and Dad(:

The trail we went on. (:
before we died. 

Dad was standing next to the castle ruins we found. 

Explorer Dad(:

My parents walking up to the Gazebo near the creek.  

A picture of the creek. 

Some swans in the pond at the restaurant where we
linked up with dad after we split up. 

Day Sixty One: Summer Livin'

A little update along with day sixty one

It's been over two weeks since I last blogged. The reason being is that nothing has really happened. Instead of boring you guys with pointless blogs every day I figured why not just wait and post later and update them on everything at once. 

I leave Europe exactly three weeks from today. It's hard to believe that the end of summer is already near. Time has been FLYING by. It's also hard to believe that the next time I'll see my parents again is a whole year from now. Possibly longer. That's such a long time & so many things change in one years time. 

Craziness.

This weekend my uncle, aunt, and cousin will come down for a night. Next weekend my moms best friend is coming, and the following weekend is my last weekend here. I imagine we'll go travel somewhere that weekend, but I'm not so sure.

Like I said, nothing has really been going on around here since mom got out of the hospital. Really we've just been hanging out at the house. I've been spending my days doing my online history course, shopping online (well, looking), and PINTERSTINGGGGG. :D

The weather here lately has been cool, and always rainy. I don't think it's gotten to be over 80 degrees since I've been here.. Well, except maybe once or twice. Other than that it's stayed nice and chilly. I said it always rains, but the rain isn't like back home. Sometimes when it rains it will be bright and sunny, and only last for five minutes. Other times it lasts a little longer and is dark and gloomy. However, it usually rains once a day. I've begun to enjoy it. 

I'm really gonna be in for it when I get back to the states.. louisiana heat AND lubbock...

I just don't think I can handle it. 

My Summer here has been amazing, but I also look forward to the Fall semester. I recently found out the number of the apartment I'll be living in and what other roommates will be living with Katie and I. 

Let me know if you want my address so you can send me cute apartment things and shower me with presents (; LOL.

When I get back to the states I'll have to shop for all the things I need for my apartment, find a job, and get back into the groove of going back to school. This semester should be much better since I didn't take any 8 am classes and didn't try to cram all my classes onto Tuesdays and Thursdays like I did last semester. The 8 am seemed like a great idea so I could get it out of the way and start my day out early.. yeah, no. & who wouldn't want to have school only two days of the week? ME. sitting through hour and a half classes all day long is NOT my cup of tea. 

Needless to say, this semester should be much better. 

I hope everyone back home is doing good, and also enjoying the end of their summer. I haven't talked to most of you guys so let me know what you've been up to! 

I plan on staying in Louisiana a couple weeks after I arrive back in the states, then driving to Fort Worth for a couple days to see everyone, and then head to my brothers house for a few more days before I make my way back west to lubbock. 

Make some time for me so I can see all of you before I go back to school. (:

Thanks for reading my blog guys, 

SamanthaK

Days 48, 49, & 50: Summer Livin'

Days Forty Eight, Forty Nine, and Fifty:

A bunch of days crammed into one post(:

Nothing much has happened over the past few days, so instead of posting a few shot blogs I figured I would post one blog covering all three days! 

Day forty eight was on the sixth, the day after dad's birthday. When we woke up that morning mom was feeling really sick. The night before, after dinner, she was saying that she wasn't feeling well but we figured it was just something she ate. Mom was miserable, she couldn't do anything without being in pain. Usually when mom is sick, she still manages to vacuum the house, or clean the windows, or something crazy like that... nothing ever stops her. So when we saw how helpless she was that morning, we knew something was wrong. My sister and I tried to persuade her to call the doctor, but stubborn little mom just wanted to wait it out until monday. Finally dad called and convinced her to call the doctor. The doctor just said that if it gets worse, to go to the ER and they would call him in. After a couple hours mom finally decided to go to the ER. (It wasn't necessarily that drastic, but there are no primary doctors here at this hospital so you must go to the ER first.) They checked her in, called the nurse in to look at her, and then called her doctor. Since she hadn't eaten anything, the doctor decided to go ahead and do surgery that night. Dad came to the hospital straight after work. I won't go too much into details, for my mom's sake. (nobody wants all their information floating around the internet..) The pain was caused by some unknown (for now) bacteria, infection, or something of the sort, near her expander, so they went ahead and removed it for now. She recently overcame breast cancer, and ever since she's been on this roller coaster ride with this deal, poor mommy. We think that this time around she will kick this thing once and for all. 

Who's the real patient here? haha

The other two days we've just been hanging out with mom in her hospital room. What a small room it was. She had to share her room with another lady that had a kidney stone removed. She also had visitors in and out, so the room got pretty full. Her roommate also caused mom a couple problems at night. When mom tried to sleep the nurses would come in for the roommate and turn on all the lights and talk loud. Eventually mom asked her nurse to move her rooms and finally, last night, mom got moved. 

Whenever we were at home, dad, amanda, and I just hung around, watched TV, and played words with friends together.. haha. I miss mom's cooking. lol. The other night we walked down near the neighborhood swimming pool because they were having a fest, it sucked though, so we left. lol

Kickin' my sister's butt..
as always :p

Yesterday after I left the hospital, I met up with a women who had the book I needed for my online class and bought it from her. I got really lucky because none of the rental websites I usually order from wanted to ship APO. Thank God. (:

My online class starts today. After spending near $300 on it, I better make an A! Now I'm sitting in mom's hospital room with her & my sister, typing up my blog and getting ready to start reading the first chapter of my textbook.. Oh how I despise reading textbooks.. 

I'm gonna jump off of here, now. 

Hope everyone has a good day(:

& please say a quick prayer for my mom. 

Thanks, y'all!

SamanthaK

Day Forty Seven: Summer Livin'

Happy Birthday Daddy! (:

Day Forty Seven:

What a long day! Well, today was my daddyo’s birthday! (: but of course, he had to work. (boooo) My mom, sister, and I began our day by going up to Landstuhl for moms doctor checkup and to get my sister registered. Afterwards we went to Ramstein to grab an early lunch and do a little bit of shopping. I bought victoria’s secret lotion (since VS is cheaper here – that’s a plus), and some chap stick since I lost mine. My sister bought a baby swing for little landon. He should be here in about two months. :D

After we did that we went to the commissary to pick up dad’s cake and a couple other things we needed. Well, I stayed in the car and read my book. Lol. Then we went home to relax a little and decorate the house for dad. We wrapped our gifts, cleaned the house a little bit, and hung up all the ribbons and banners for him. In the mean time I decided to look online for the textbook I’ll need for my online class. Usually I rent my text books since it saves so much money, but after searching forever, it appears that nobody ships to APO. Well, no rental text books. Which means, I’ll have to pay near $100 for the dumb textbook. College can be so expensive. Thank God for my Dad’s GI Bill or I’d be covered in debt. I’m truly blessed. I found one posting on bookoo here (a website for military people trying to sell their things before they PCS) that said they had the book I need, however it’s an earlier edition. It’s a history class.. so I’m thinking not much can change, right? I plan on asking my professor if a different version book would affect anything.. but hopefully I can just get that one. It sure would make my life easier. LOL

Anyway, after a hot and humid day, the skies started to get dark. It sprinkled a little bit right before we got home, but we thought that’s all we would see. Not even five minutes after the birthday boy got home, it started POURING down rain. I’m talkin’ the works... super strong wind, crazy rain, lots of fog, and loud thunder followed by bright lightning. We always leave the windows cracked a tiny bit but since it was so bad we had to shut all of them, the wind even knocked down a curtain rod! The storm ended up only lasting about five minutes or so, though. I’m glad it passed so quickly.

Once it was over we all jumped in the car to go out for dads birthday dinner. We decided to try out a restaurant by our local swimming pool. When we read the menu right outside the doors, dad decided there wasn’t anything appealing to eat, so then we went to another place fairly close called the swan! There wasn’t a huge selection, but we were hungry and just wanted to sit down. We all ordered schnitzel, except for my sister who ordered spaghetti haha.

After dinner, we came home so dad could open his presents.. but not before singing happy birthday. (: I snapped a couple pictures of the whole process. My sister got him a couple nice work shirts, I got him a Harley shirt with cut off sleeves (I’m workin’ with a college budget.. don’t judge), and mom out did us both with a new pair of oakleys. He seemed pretty happy with all his gifts. I’m glad I got to spend his birthday with him this year, there’s no telling how often that’ll happen as I start to grow up and get my life going. Once he opened the gifts we cut the cake (we just had to try it).. it turned out pretty good, I don’t think any of us are really big on birthday cake though. It always just ends up sitting in the fridge for a while. I think we just don’t want to let the tradition go. Maybe with my pregnant sister in the house the cake won’t last that long this time. Landon is gonna come up loving chocolate cake! (:

Dad's presents & cake (:

Blowing out the candles!

Reading one of his cards!

After all that jazz, we all finally started to wind down. Mom wasn’t feeling well so she took a shower and laid on the couch for a while. I took a bath, as usual, and read for a while. My sister knocked on the door and said my brother was on the phone. That was a pleasant surprise. (: I talked to him for a while, and eventually I was the only one still up. They all left me! Lol.

Now, I’m blogging it up, preparing to get some shuteye. I’m so sleepy, who knows.. maybe I’ll actually sleep past 9 tomorrow! Let’s hope.

Besides, if I don’t quit blogging now, I’ll fall asleep at the keyboard. Goodnight Y’all.

SamanthaK.

Day Forty Six: Summer Livin'

'Merica! (:

Day Forty Five:

Well, first off, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY Y'ALL!

Today was a very good day. (: This morning mom and dad went to the mobil mart to get a coffee table and end table for the living room. My sister and I got ready, read for a while, made lunch, and then played yahtzee until my parents came home. We spruced up a little bit and my parents dropped us off on Vogelweh where a shuttle would take my sister and I to Ramstein for the event they were hosting for the holiday. (: I have to admit, the event itself was pretty lame. It was more for the little ones, but it was cool being around so many Americans at one time.. I could understand everybody's conversations! haha. 

They had a bunch of food booths, a ferris wheel, bumper cars, and little game booths. When we first got there my sister was hungry (as always - haha, sorry sis.. it's landon's fault) so we stopped so she could eat a corn dog. Then we walked around for a while until we stopped to play at a couple slot machines. I turned $20 into $90. YIPPEEEEEE. (: Then my sister was hungry again, and so was I, so I got a burger and my sister got a pulled pork sandwich. We sat around a little longer and then decided to head back home (but not before Amanda stopped to get ice cream lol). Mom and Dad picked us up and then we headed back home. 

While we were gone, mom and dad went and bought a couple things.. including some bikes! (: There are so many trails here in Germany, and since we live right by the woodline there are a few super close to the house. Everyone over here rides them, so my parents wanted in on the fun. My sister and I decided to take the bikes for a spin.. It's been about 5 years since either of us have rode a bike.. let's just say we'll feel the burn tomorrow haha! Germany is also known for having so many hills!! 

After that we came back inside, cooled down, and checked our internet. I registered for my online class & paid for it. (that really hurt lol). Now i'm gonna play a game with my mom and sister. 

I hope everyone had a good holiday back home. (:

God Bless America<3

SamanthaK

Day Forty Five: Summer Livin'

Internet & Update! 

Day Forty Five:

Man oh man has it been a while? Well after doing some math I figured out that today is day forty five in Germany! The days have flown by! We weren't expecting internet for another three days, but we got lucky and it came early! THANK THE LORD. 

Apparently it takes FOREVER to install internet in Germany. They told us to expect for it to take two to three weeks.. those few weeks quickly turned into SIX. A few days ago we received a package in the mail with our router in it. They said that we would get a phone call telling us when our line was open and then we would have internet. We never received the phone call, but when dad came home from work today he said that the company took money out of the account.. so we thought we'd try to turn on the internet and luckily it worked! 

That was a couple hours ago.. now everyone in the house is sitting around with some sort of bright screen in front of their face.. LOL. 

You really don't see how much you depend on the internet until you don't have it anymore. It was pretty difficult since we moved into a new town. We couldn't use google to find certain things around us, couldn't pay bills online (not that I do.. LOL), connect with our friends back home.. or anything. The library definitely became one of our best friends.. though it was quite inconvenient. 

I'm just so thankful we have it back! :D

As for an update, not much has changed around here. Our house finally looks like a home.. though our landlord won't allow us to install curtain rods.. (what the heck?). Lately we've just been exploring the town, doing a little bit of shopping, and hanging out with each other playing games. I'm about to start taking a course online through CTC to get some extra credits, and to fill up my time. (:

I guess I can talk about my day a little bit, too. This morning my sister, mom, and I got ready and went to the library on Vogelweh to check our emails, and then we went to the Globus (grocery store) to buy a few things. Then we went downtown since my preggo sister was craving ice cream.. haha. (:

Sister laughing when she was eating her ice cream(: haha

Silly mom, eating her raspberry ice cream(:

My spaghetti ice(: It looks like spaghetti! (: haha
SOOO yummy!

After that, we went to the recycling center and then came home. Mom cooked chicken pasta for dinner, which was super yummyyyy. Me and my sister swept the street in front of the house afterwards. Germans and their silly rules... and then we came in and played a game for a while. Shortly after that we discovered the internet and that brings us to where we are now! haha. 

Tomorrow is the fourth of july, so I imagine we'll go to Ramstein for the huge party they have on the base. Then the fifth is dad's birthday(: 

That's about all I can think to update you guys on! Be on the lookout for my daily blogs again! (:

SamanthaK(: