Hey, whaddya gonna do?

Today I found out the exact day that Cameron leaves.  And, no I will not tell you...unless he says I can.  I am at a loss for words as to how I describe that feeling.  The feeling of it finally sinking in.  The feeling that it's really happening.  The feeling of certain uncertainty.  How do you stay strong when all you want to is break down?  I've known this day was coming for a long time now, so it shouldn't be such a shock to me, but to know the actual day that the love of my life will leave me for 9 months is a little heart-stopping.  The logical side of me says hey its his job and he has to do what they ask of him so he can provide for his family.  And I'm happy knowing that he's doing what he wants to do and not some boring job he hates.  But the emotional side of me is screaming on the inside and questioning whether or not I'm strong enough for this.  This is the relationship test of a lifetime.  I'm not worried that I will fail, just worried knowing that things will be very different.  But ready or not, my time is coming.  I know I'm not alone, and I have all the support in the world from family and friends but sometimes it's hard being this far away when all you want is a shoulder to cry on, someone to help you up when you totally break down, a hug from your mom.  I'm trying my hardest to stay strong in front of Cameron and to let him know that he can do his job without worrying about me.  I try not to be emotional about this because I know he doesn't need to see that.  He needs to see me supporting him and encouraging him to do his best and come home safe with all his fingers and toes.  And he needs to see that I am proud of him.  I hope he sees that.

My confidence is shaky right now, but not all is lost for this chick! 

I think the anticipation might be worse than the actual time away, but I may be speaking too soon.  We'll see soon enough I guess.



These are two of my favorite pictures of us, ha:

Fears Conquered

Well, I'm nearing the end of my three-week-boredom-fest that is field training for Cameron and I have to tell you.....it wasn't that boring!  I made a lot of new friends and I did so many things!  So in a way, I'm glad he was away because it forced me out of my comfort zone!  Most of you probably don't think of me as a shy person but upon first meeting someone, I am--which usually leaves me with not as many friends.  Meh.  However, I tried not to be awkward and weird and "give it all I got", and I wound up with some pretty awesome new friends!  This is the time to be making friendships and establishing bonds with other ladies in my same boat!  We'll all need each other for support throughout this upcoming deployment! 
Speaking of, these last three weeks have really tested me and I think have given me a little bit more confidence in myself that I'll be able to take care of things when Cameron is gone.  I certainly conquered some fears...especially my fear of hair!  And I know I have long hair and you would think it wouldn't bother me but--BLEH!--it does!  Because of this wonderful little furry dog of mine, EVERYTHING I own is covered in hair.  So I took these past three weeks as a time to "de-hair-ify" my home...however, we don't own a real vacuum.  We have all tile floors with a few rugs here and here.  We didn't think we'd need a full size vacuum.  WRONG!  Anyway, hair is gross, and I don't like it.  But I had to get rid of it.  Off the rugs, out of my bed, and out of the shower drain.  Talk about gross.  I won't tho.  I also took out the trash (which I NEVER do.  I'd rather do dishes 100% of the time!) and killed bugs!  Riley ate the bugs so I didn't have to pick them up.  What a good little pup!  These are things I would normally not do because they are gross, and boys are gross and are supposed to handle gross things.  Doing it myself kinda empowered me a little.  I know they are little things but it's a step in the right direction, ha. 
I also turned a whole year older while he was away!  And got a tan, and dyed my hair darker.  I'm a whole new woman!  I hope he likes this new older me!  Ha, and to think, I was 16 when we first got together!  BAH, so crazy!  For my birthday, I went shopping and bought a new bike!  This is my present from Cameron, or so I told him.  At least it's better than a CD that I already had, wrapped in the bag it came in (no, I will never let him live that down)!  I also get the chance to celebrate my birthday again on my "fake birthday" on April 1st.  Out of the seven birthdays we've now had, he's been there for TWO!  So I changed it.  Plus, Riley's birthday is April 1st!  My little baby puppy is turning 1 soon!  Awwwwwwww!  And you better believe I'm throwing him a party!
I don't remember where I was going with this update, but hey, it's something, ha.  It's getting late here, and I need to go to bed!  I get to see Cameron tomorrow, and I don't want to have sleepy eyes!

my precious :]

I think it's time for an update!

Our newly painted and decorated apartment

I've been trying to update this blog for about four days now because something always happens in between the time I sit down to write and when I'm done.....the dog needs to go out, dinner needs fixin', or Cameron is coming and going.  Today is Monday and Cameron just left for the field again (training), this time for about three weeks.  I've been trying to think of some fun things to do while he's gone to keep me busy.  Everyone always says, "read!", but I'm not a reader...at least not of substantial things.  I like celebrity gossip, oops, ha.  With all this down time, though, I tend to start thinking of how my life will be in just a few short months when Cameron leaves for his deployment.  Some days I think, "eh, no big deal, we'll get through it just fine," and other days I freak out inside.  I try to stay positive for his sake and make him believe I am strong enough for this, and I think I am getting stronger, but sometimes it is difficult.  My thoughts just begin to snowball..."what happens if" flashes across my mind a lot.  But I've learned from this lifestyle that you simply cannot think about "what happens if."  You'll drive yourself crazy.  I need to just sit back and let life happen, and know that we can make it through anything.  We don't have the greatest luck with things but that has made us find the humor in things.  Right before Christmas (two days before, actually), our car broke down about 2 hours from home.  We were pissed and embarrassed, but we were still able to laugh.  Its moments like that that make me appreciate my husband even more.  People were right when they said we'll have to rely on each other more than we've ever had to, which has definitely made our relationship grow, proving to me that we are ready for this challenge in June.

The Old City Hall, Altes Rathaus,
in Bamberg

Now, on to the fun part!  A LOT has happened since I last updated.  It's been about a month and you'd be surprised at all the things that go on in this unemployed, stay-at-home-wife's life!  We had our first visitors--Cameron's parents--who stayed for a very quick ten days.  I finished painting our apartment, colored my hair, decorated our little home, discovered our town, and grew closer to Cameron!  While they were here, we traveled, we ate, and we saw things I never thought I'd see!  Lemme try to recap it all...its been a while and I've had a glass of wine or two since then, ha!  I think they got here on a Friday so after they caught up on sleep, we went to Bamberg on Saturday.   We've sort of been to Bamberg, but at night, so seeing in the day time was fun!  We got to see the famous Old City Hall building that is in the middle of the river and this gorgeous cathedral!  We also had lunch at this cute place and found this little beer hall that is famous for their smoked beer.  I did not have any of that, ha.  

eating lunch in Bamberg, yummy!

Inside the cathedral.  I like this shot.

Sunday was a lazy day.  We went on a walk with Riley and found a couple of frozen ponds to spin him around on, then I cooked dinner for everyone!  Gasp!  Monday, while Cameron was a work, his parents and I went to visit their old friends, Christa and Josef (who only know German).  It was much easier to talk to them with Kelley there instead of Cameron...she knows so much more, ha.  We went shopping and ate more than I care to remember.  Everythingisjustsogood!  Tuesday was Valentine's Day so we all went out for a nice little dinner in our town.  On Wednesday, while Cameron was at work, his parents and I drove to where they used to live when they were stationed here.  It was fun letting them relive their memories :].

Spinning on the frozen pond, ha.  The video is funnier!

Dinner!  BBQ Meatloaf!

Thursday began our weekend adventure!  There was a pie-in-the-face event at work for Cameron that morning, so after that we all drove back to Christa's to visit again.  Even though I can't return conversation I'm beginning to be able to understand the words, and they just make it so easy to have a good time that you forget that you don't know what they're saying half the time, ha.  Friday, after a teary goodbye for Kelley and Christa, we drove down to Austria!  We stopped in Salzburg.  If you know anything about Salzburg, you know that this is where (most of) The Sound Of Music was filmed.  And if you know anything about me, you know that I adore that movie and that I freaked out when I saw The Fountain (from "I Have Confidence"), The GAZEBO, and THE VON TRAPP HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!  I hope the exclamation points are an indication to you as to how excited I was.  The rest of the group tho....eh, not so much, haha.  Although I did make Jack watch the Sound of Music before we left!  After Salzburg, we drove and drove and drove, through the mountains, and stayed at a random guesthouse where we ate our weight in schnitzel and french fries!  Saturday, we drove to Innsbruck (where they had the '64 and '76 Winter Olympics).  We discovered that Italy was just a short drive to the south (about 40 min) so we decided to go have lunch...Italian food in Italy!  After 2 hours of sitting in traffic on the side of a mountain we were a little more than hungry!  There were great views tho!

All in all it was a really great visit, and we were not ready for them to leave!  We can't wait for our next visitors!  We also went on another trip as a couple to Ramstein, Luxembourg, and France!  But I'll write about that later!

THE FOUNTAIN!

It was boarded up for winter....I was a little more than disappointed.

This is for my mom and sisters.  I'm in my drapes!

"Tripping" like Maria does outside the Von Trapp house, bahaha.

Just chillin' in The Alps!  NBD!

Having a beer at a 400-something-year old brewery!

Italian food in Italy!

I know, its been a while, ha!

Happy New Year!  Or as the Germans say, "Frohe Neue Jahr!"  I FINALLY have some time to sit down and update this thing now that Cameron is away on field training for the next week-ish.  He's been gone almost a week now and, although I miss him, its kind of been a nice break.  I'm sure I won't be saying that in March when he'll be gone again, but instead of two and half weeks, he'll be gone for almost four.  And don't get me wrong here, I love being around that silly man, but sometimes I think the statement "absence makes the heart grow fonder" is true (but not too much absence, ha). In 2011, we spent a total of about four months together, collectively, two of which were in a new country, newly married.  It's been an adjustment, and a lot to take on, but honestly I think that's our way of doing things, ha, and I love being married to my best friend.  That makes it easy :].

Since my last post, so many things have happened!  "Duh, its been almost a month," you say, and to that I say, "my bad," ha.  We've been on a few trips, experienced our first Christmas and New Years together as a married couple, and done a lot of exploring!  Around Christmastime, we discovered many things in our little town of Arnstein.  We live on the edge of town, so we decided to drive over to the other edge and see what all was there and in between.  We found a park with a big slide and decided to let Riley take a ride!  He didn't make it all the way down though...he jumped off about halfway down, silly dog!  Here are some pictures from Christmas and our adventures:

Our first Christmas as "The Powells"

The beautiful Christmas feast

The crazy slide we sent Riley down

Thanks to an untimely incident with our car right before Christmas, we spent our new year just hanging out together at our apartment, and creating our own dance club, ha.  We got to watch fireworks from our window and I got to kiss that wonderful man of mine at midnight for the seventh year in a row. I'm such a lucky person to be able to say that!  I know we'll have many many more to come, whether in person or thru skype, ha.  (Soapbox!) Skype sure is a wonderful thing!  It has made this move away from our families a little bit easier, but I am still homesick at times.  I miss my goofy family and the simple pleasures of "American life."  And I miss my friends, and texting them random things at random times.  Now I just tell Cameron the random things I think but I can't tell if he thinks I'm a crazy person or not, ha. 

Well, its almost midnight here, and I'm getting kind of tired.  I'll try and update this more often!  Right now, I am in the process of painting our apartment and I have to get everything done before Cameron's parents come to visit us in February!

Love to All!

It's too funny not to share!

I bought Riley some snow booties for Christmas to keep his feetsies warm!  Too bad he can't walk in them, ha! 
I'll be updating this on Monday, after all the holiday festivities, but in the meantime, I just had to share this!

I'm an automated woman! This is a big update!

MY CAR HAS ARRIVED!  AND I CAN DRIVE IT!!

It is official!  My car has arrived and I am a legal German driver!  I took my driving test today and passed!  By one...but who is really counting, ha?  It was pretty nerve-racking but I went through the class, had an extra chance to study, and then took the test.  There was another guy in there who was taking it for the second time who failed again....I'm just glad that wasn't me!  After I passed the test I had to go "hurry up and wait" for my car.  It was taking too long so we ended up just going back home because we were going to meet up with Cameron's friends (one who has known him since he was born) in Würzburg. 
Also this week, Cameron and I got temporary stockings and were able to send off our Christmas gifts to our families.  We had a lot of fun wrapping them...well, Cameron did.  So family, when you get your gifts, don't be alarmed by the "wonderful" wrap job he did, hehe!  
Let's see, what else happened?  I've been getting more confident about my minimum skills in the kitchen!  The website "Pinterest" has got me wanting to try so many different things, so we tried a loaded baked potato soup recipe, which turned out pretty good!  We also went to the grocery store to buy food for our Christmas feast that just the two of us will have.  That 8 lb ham is going to last a loooong time!  I can't believe Christmas is in less than a week.  We're both pretty bummed to be spending this time of year away from our families and our family traditions and numerous get-togethers, but we're glad to at least have each other.  It'll be our first married Christmas, which is really exciting, considering he'll be deployed this time next year.  Right now we've only got a few gifts under the tree (which are all for him!) but tomorrow we are venturing out to Grafenwöhr to do some more shopping at their huge PX!  
Oh, before I forget!  HOW TO MAKE A COMMENT:
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And now, a few pictures!

In Wurzburg!

Getting ready to make my potato soup!

Our tree and our stockings!

Putting the topper on, just like at home.  Cameron is standing in for my dad.

Our little family!  :]

I look crazy, BUT that is my temporary DRIVER'S LICENSE!!  Yay!

One of these days, Cameron is gonna write a post!

Pictures and Adventure

As promised there will be pictures in this post!  I might as well start now before I forget, ha.

This is a view from one of our windows in the living room.  It looks down into part of our town :]

The first actual dinner I made that wasn't spaghetti with our new wedding dishes!  BBQ meatloaf, mmmm!

Our beautiful REAL Christmas tree in our dining area, with all those windows I was talking about!

My sweet boy!  He gets so many compliments wherever we take him.

This is the Brandenburg Gate at night in Berlin!  Our first "far-away" trip in Germany together.

The Berlin Wall....or what's left of it anyway.

I'm in two countries at once!  Poland on the left and Germany on the right!

There's way more pictures on Facebook, but y'all can look at them yourselves.  I've had so much fun here so far!  My car is still on its way over here, but I was told it'd bet here by the 19th.  One week.  I have to pass the German driving test and my Führerschein (driver's license), yikes!  Its kind of daunting.  I passed the Texas driving course 6 years ago, never thinking I'd ever have to take one in another country.  I feel like an old person having to renew their license but all the rules changed, ha!  I'll be so glad to have my own car though!  I'll finally be able to get out of the house during the day, maybe even make some new, much needed friends.  Maybe I'll take a day trip and explore something new.  Hell, its all new for me.  Well, until next time!  It's bedtime for the lieutenant and his wife!