Day 3 update:

Day 3 did not go as smoothly as days 1 and 2. This process is definitely not an easy one and requires MANY steps. Sometimes those steps go smoothly, other times you hit road block after road block and there is only so much one can take in a day!

The day started bright and early as we are still sharing a car (car shopping this weekend anyone?!?) and Michael had to be at the in processing offices by 7am. I had to be dropped off at the License Office at 6:45am and wait for them to open. Luckily most military offices open by 7am or 7:30am so that's super fun ;D That meeting went super smoothly and I was walking out the door by 7:10am with my German Drivers License! Then I walked to pick up Pistol Pete and and have my first German driving experience (kind of!) as I drove on base to the Commissary for some more grocery shopping. We needed all sorts of things like shampoo, paper towels, Ryder food, hand soap... you know, all the things you cannot pack in a suitcase. Stocked up on all our American goods the military is thoughtful enough to import for us, but I DID branch out and get German "Erdbeeren" (strawberries!) and a package of German labeled Salmon, although I think it came from a Scandinavian country. Anyhow, after that I spent about 2 hours at home trying to do various things using the "free wifi" at the TLF. Might as well call it "barely ever works but works just enough to make you want to pull your hair out and throw your computer out the window and possibly lose a piece of your sanity" wifi. Needless to say it was a wasted 2 hours.

Can we talk about how these are THE most organized grocery shelves we have EVER seen?!?! Like... am I allowed to disrupt the order by taking my can of black beans off the shelf?

Next off to pick up Michael and head to our appointment with Petra the Property Manager of our (hopefully) rental home! But Michael must have been having a crazy day as well because he forgot to tell me he COULDN'T make it. No biggie, I will drive to Bosenbach 20 minutes away BY MYSELF with a GPS that only kind of works (sorry mom- still trying to figure that one out!) and on German roads that kind of terrify me. So off I go... I get lost, show up to the wrong place, but eventually find my way. Petra is a spit-fire of a woman in a pile of paperwork but also an Angel. A I-will-do-all-the-work just give me 400 Euro angel. I would pay her 4,000 euro to do what she is doing for us in regard to this move. Setting up utilities, breaking down all the expenses, setting up the paperwork, giving me a checklist of the various items we need to complete on base before move in etc etc. Her specialty is finding military families rental homes in Germany and she has been doing is wonderfully for 17 years. Bless you Petra. Meanwhile Michael is texting me off the hook about getting receipts for our hotel stay in Baltimore since he was in the finance office trying to get our trip reimbursed. Bless the Air Force for being willing to pay for our entire trip overseas (minus all Roo expenses understandably) but goodNESS if they could tell us what we will need BEFORE we go on the trip so we can be sure to hold onto receipts, reservations, mileage etc. that would be SO helpful. So we are going back and forth trying to figure this out with little avail.

In any case, I left Petra's office an hour later head spinning but basically understanding that the house is OURS! We just need to go through the steps to get the lease signed. Because there are mean people in the world who like to take advantage of others, Americans have to be super careful when renting in other countries. The housing office on base has a few hoops we have to jump through to live off-base but they are all for out protection. Now just to navigate these hairy waters with our angel-guide Petra at the helm.

Once I arrive back to base (made it back without getting lost this time- props) I head to the rental car office to cancel our rental car. This is where the day really started to go down-hill. Long story short I booked a rental car with Dollar via Expedia for the 2 weeks we could have been here without a car. But the rock star car shipping company got it here just before us so we did not *THINK* we would need a rental car. Unfortunately we chose not to cancel the rental car until we had Pistol Pete IN HAND in case something went wrong. So I go the day AFTER our reservation and the lady at the desk was SUPER rude and completely unwilling to help me. Apparently it is a Hertz desk but they do foster the pick up of Dollar and Thrifty cars. But since I missed my pick up appointment I have to call Expedia or Dollar to cancel the reservation. I tried to reach out to Expedia but they cannot cancel cars via email, and our phones do not call international at the moment (we will have that capability once we move into the house and get a house phone, but not until then). Anyhow, we went round and around and Michael even visited the rental office later only to come to the conclusion that since we did not pay ahead and we missed out pick up the order should be void and ultimately canceled. It's just stuff like this where you feel totally stuck and don't know where to turn or how to fix it because you cannot call the States and your Wifi has a death wish and the person standing in front of you refuses to help! ARRRRGGGG.

Then Michael drops me off at the TLF and my room key doesn't work... neither does his. Now we have to drive to the other side of base to go to the hotel main desk and get new ones. They don't work either. I get so fed up I end up figuring out a way to crawl through the window. I open the door from the inside and magically the keys work again. Who KNOWS.

SO- I go and take another 3 hour nap with Roo. I will blame it on Jet Lag although I am pretty sure I just needed a reset. I love moving. I love being organizing and holding appointments and moving and grooving through this sort of thing. But when you cannot use the resources you are used to and you feel crippled, the frustration kicks in quickly.

The end of the day went significantly better. Michael and I apologized for getting frustrated with each other. We recognize that we are both just annoyed with the situation and the feeling that we are spinning our wheels sometimes. We refuse to let these struggles come between us or our marriage. And that is what I LOVE about him. Among many, many other things. We made fajitas for dinner in our AWESOME TLF kitchen and enjoyed some ice cream and How I Met Your Mother on Netflix before bed. (and yes... miracle beyond all miracles our Wifi hung in there for one and a half episodes before it totally crapped out.) And then when we took Roo out to potty, we saw a BEAUTIFUL rainbow and sunset!!!

Today is day 4 and already going pretty well! Realized that hot-spotting off my phone gives me pretty great internet, cost aside it is necessary at this point. I applied for 2 jobs! Subbing on base and Volunteer Coordinator at the USO! Happy thoughts and prayers that one of them comes through! Soon I'll head to pick up Michael, who just finished his welcome brief with housing, our first step to get our beautiful rental home off base! We will be opening our bank account here to use to pay bills etc. and then continue running errands and holding appointments the rest of the day! TGIF! This weekend: CAR SHOPPING!!!

*The phrase of the day is Entschuldigung Sie or "Excuse Me". Take that how you will ;)