American Military Cemetery In Luxembourg

Took a tour last week of Luxembourg.  Our first stop was the American Military Cemetery.  It is a really special place.  I really didn't even know that it was there.  It is very well taken care of, it is one of the 24 American burial grounds that are in foreign counties.  There is so much military history in Germany.  I wish I would be here in November, there will be a battle sites tour to Normandy.  I really didn't care for history when I was in school.  I wish now that I would have paid better attention!

The reality of my mission......

Please keep our service members in your prayers.  Week before last I was at Vilseck for a briefing on Tuesday, there was a lot of activity in the building because they were having a  SRP, which is a Soldier Readiness Processing, which to someone who hasn't been in the military, I know what it means, but I don't think you can get the true meaning by just hearing and seeing that a SRP is going on.  

Wednesday morning I arrived at the same building for my briefing and it really hit me what a SRP means, the hallway and entire area was filled with soldiers, (young men and women - most younger than my own children) in full uniform with their ruck sack and backpacks full.  There were at least eight buses there to pick them up and take them to the passenger terminal at Ramstein to board a plane to Afghanistan.  Seeing all this brave young men and women makes it all so real.  I pray that God watches over each one of them and so that they return safely.  Please keep all of those who are serving or have served our country in your prayers!  

It is times like these I am reminded that I have the best job in the world, being able to serve those that are willing to give it all for the freedoms we have today!  When you have the chance, smile and tell a veteran or active duty service member thank you!

What have I been doing?

I know that is the question you all have been asking.....I have been so busy, working every day serving our active duty Service Members, with a few Veterans thrown in here and there.  When I have not been at work, you guessed it I have been running my legs of seeing as much of Europe that I possibly can!

I can't even remember the last time that I posted, but I have received several e-mails from many of you asking what the heck I have been doing!  LOL.  Believe me, I am making good use of your tax dollars!  There are several weeks that I leave on Monday morning and don't get home until 7 or 8 p.m. Friday night.  With a six hour briefing then travel to the next base sometime 1 - 2 hours away, to get up and do it all over again the next day.  But believe me, I am not complaining, because I don't let that work get in the way of me getting on a bus at 11:00 p.m. Friday night and heading to Prague in the Czech Republic for the weekend!  I figure that I can rest when I get home!  Good thing I planned a week off after I arrive back in Little Rock!  I know, pictures to come!

It is very different here from my tour in the United Kingdom and Okinawa.  When I was in the UK, my office had wireless internet, so I was able to get on my computer when I didn't have customers and I didn't have near the amount of traveling and briefings there as I do here!  At Okinawa and UK both, I lived on base, so I really had excellent internet in my room.  Here I am living in an apartment in Siegelbach, which is a small village in Kaiserslautern.  The internet is HORRIBLE!  It is very slow and tends to go off and on!  Interestingly enough, I have talked to several people that live here and they have told me the same thing, the internet in Germany is just not that good!  Basically, when I want to use the internet for any length of time, I come to the internet cafe at Ramstein AFB!  At the Army base, I do not have internet in the office, at the AFB, I use a conference room that does have wireless internet, so I can get on when I am there, but believe it or not, I am busy doing work stuff!  It is unusual to be in the office more than two days per week, sometimes not even one day a week, depending on who is traveling that week.  Ann, my coworker and I try to split the travel so that we are both on the road a equal amount of time.  But, we have found our favorite bases that we each like to go to, so we are flexible and divide the schedule so that we are both happy.  I really enjoy going to the North East part of Germany, toward Ansbach, Schweinfurt and Vilseck.  I especially love going to Bamburg, it is absolutely beautiful.  The firs time I went there I stayed on base, so I really didn't see much of the town.  This time, there were no room available at the on base lodging, so I was forced to stay downtown.  It was absolutely beautiful, I can't wait for you all to see the photos!  Well, I am going to close for now, I am going to upload some photos so you can see the wonderful things that I have been experiencing!

Reflection on my tour in Germany

This is my third tour as a Overseas Military Services Coordinator and I have to say Germany is a really busy sight!  I absolutely loved Okinawa, I was busy there, but not too bad.  I worked with some really wonderful people In Okinawa.  United Kingdom was good, I got a do a lot of traveling all over England with my job which was really nice.  On weekend, I traveled to Rome, Dublin, Amsterdam, Scotland, Wales, and Belgium.  Germany is a different story!  I am traveling a lot during the work week with briefings all over the country and in Belgium and the Netherlands!  Not to mention when I travel, I maybe gone a week at a time and have briefings, four of those five days.  Also, the Army schedules TAP briefing (4 hours) and DTAP briefing (2 hours).  That makes for a long day.  But, just like every country and every base that I have visited, I have met some wonderful people.   Germany is certainly no exception.  The service members here in Germany have been so nice!  With all the briefings that we are doing weekly, I can certainly see that the military is downsizing.

I have been so fortunate in my VA career to travel all around the United States, Okinawa, United Kingdom and Germany.  I am thankful for every moment that I have gotten to experience something new and exciting.  I never dreamed when I started working for the VA Medical Center on April 4, 1980, that I would have such a fulfilling career.  I am so proud to be able to say that I have helped a lot of service members, veterans and their spouses and children.  My motto when I first started with the VA is still the same after 33 years, I want to treat veterans, service members and their families the way that I wanted my Dad to be treated!  Daddy alway thought I could get anything done when it came to the VA.  Fortunately, Daddy was like me and believed that you should treat people the way that you want to be treated, so he always got really good service at the VA.  Did I have anything to do with that?  He thought so,  and maybe I did, but it sure made me feel special him thinking that I could do it all!

My career of helping veterans is certainly my way of saying THANK YOU, for your service and for all that you have done for our country.  And thank you to the spouses, children and parents that have supported our service members and veterans!

Wilhelma Zoo, Stuttgart, Germany

Traveling to various military bases in Germany give me a great opportunity to see all the sights in and around the base.  I had a briefing the first week of July in Stuttgart.  Stephen, Jennifer and Morgan all went with me.  We stopped at the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart.  It is a very nice zoo.  If you ever think the admission fee from the Little Rock Zoo is expensive, just listed to this, for three adults and one child it was 49 euros.  In case you didn't realize that is $65.00 in US dollars!   Oh well, it was great.  We got to watch them feed the sea lions.  They also had a feeding and bathing the bears.  There was a fun obstacle course at the zoo that Morgan enjoyed playing on.  I didn't get too many pictures because I dropped my camera and all the pictures were a big blur.  Thank goodness the camera is working now.

Where have I been?

OK, I got the messages....you're right I have been to busy to post.  A great deal of traveling and briefings for work, then fitting as much as possible into my outside of work time!  So, let me see what all have I done since I last posted?  Stephen and I went with Jennifer and Morgan on a RTT tour "Paris Premium", it was great.  Morgan was so excited to see the Eiffel Tower.

My little princess in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France

As you can tell from the photos it was cool in Paris, not cold, but cool.  I think that weekend was the last time I have felt cool air.  It has been unusually hot in Germany this summer.  I am certainly used to the hot weather in Arkansas, but I am also used to the air conditioner.  There is very little air conditioning in Germany.  Even on the base there is no air conditioning.  The best solution I have found other than taking a cool shower is get in the car and drive around!  Everyone keeps saying enjoy it will only last a couple of weeks, then we will be wishing for warm weather again.

Let the company begin!

Stephen, Jennifer and Morgan arrived on June 26th!  It is so great to see them!  Stephen is staying until September 4th.  Dusty arrived on July 4th, Jaime and James West will be coming on July 11th, Jonathan will arrive on July 18th.  Jennifer, Dusty, Morgan, Jaime and James will all leave on July 23rd.  Jonathan will leave on July 31st.

Just found out today that Angie and Billy, my good friends from Eclectic, Alabama, will arriving on July 31st, to stay until August 27th.  Stephen and I will be going to Rome from August 31 - September 2nd.  Stephen will leave to go home on September 3rd.  My friends Sylvia and Butch will be arriving around September 5th to stay until about September 26th.  I should not get bored!  My weekends will continue to be filled with travel and fun!  I have explained to everyone the regretfully, I am getting paid to work during the week, so they will all be on there own!  Stephen and the kids seems to have a full agenda!  I expect that when Angie and Billy are here, they will keep Stephen busy also!

Since Stephen and I will not be at home to celebrate Morgan's birthday with her, her present was here waiting on her.  Sage - her American Girl Doll.  Together they are two American Girl's in Germany!

Morgan has already met her first friend - the neighborhood cat!

In Germany everyone takes their dog everywhere!  Morgan absolutely loves that.  At least once a day I hear her say that she wishes I would have brought Jazmin with me!

She also made friends with Elke's "eaglet"
which after our visit to the zoo in Stuttgart, we have determined is a hedgehog!

Rothenburg od der Tauber

I had a briefing in Ansbach, which is about 45 minutes from Rothenburg, so naturally I had to stop for a tour!  Rothenburg is an awesome little village, such a well preserved medieval town.  There is a very famous clock there, but of course my luck, it is being renovated!  But, I did take some great photos!  I sat at an outdoor cafe (which were everywhere!) and had a cup of iced coffee, it was wonderful - it was made with coffee and ice cream! Yum, yum!

This is the "gateway" into the city.

The building as so beautiful!

The buildings have these neat little name signs hanging outside of them.

The architecture is beautiful!

Elke's 50th Birthday Party

I was fortunate enough to be invited to Elke's 50th Birthday Party at the park by our house.  It was a lot of fun!  Well, from what I could tell it was fun!  There were a few people there that spoke English!  A great deal of the time I didn't know what was being said, but that was alright - I could tell everyone was  having a great time!

Add caption

Elke's daughter got her this autographed poster of her favorite German singer.
It said "Happy 50th Birthday Elke"

You can't tell from the photo, but Elke is wearing Depends adult diaper and a large bib while maneuvering
around an obstacle course in her wheelchair.

Hauenstein - The Shoe Village of Germany

I had a card for a Josef Seibel Outlet Store, so I decided to check it out.  You know me, I love a bargain.  Lucky for my wallet I am not addicted to shoe shopping as I have heard many ladies talk about!  Hauenstein turned out to be an entire street of shoe stores and some athletic apparel stores.  It really does seem to be  be the shoe capitol of Germany.  

They have a pool and water park facility, and it appears according to the pictures on the signs that there is possibly a creek or small river that runs through the village.  There were signed that had writing (which of course I didn't understand) but they also had a picture of people in a canoe.

At the water park area they had a large banner hanging on the building with something about shoe workers.  I don't really know what it said, but based on the other signs I recognized shoe workers!

 

After I looked in all the stores, I decided to drive through the village.  It is a really awesome place, there are mountains and rock formations all around the village.  And like all the wonderful places in Germany it is very clean!

I saw this house and it was really pretty with nice door hanging decorations and the
 Sponge Bob utility box in front really set it off!

This statue of shoe makers was in the village center.

 This is the church in the Village.

This grotto was built into the side of a mountain,  it was pretty!

More pictures of my apartment

Even though I have a one bedroom apartment it is very roomy.  I am really glad because I wanted to have plenty of room for the family to come visit.  I have the kids scheduled in July, hopefully Angie and Billy will be coming in August and Sylvia and Butch are coming in September.  Thanks to all of you I will not be homesick!  Stephen is staying until September 4th!

My living room, looking in from the door.

Looking out at the balcony from my couch.

Looking to the kitchen dining area from my living room

Huge bathroom with a separate tub and shower.  I am so glad to have a tub!

My bedroom, yes, the ceiling is slanted, so I have learned to duck when I walk up to my bed!

Still the bedroom from the doorway

This is the area at the top of the stairs, basically you come to three doors the one on the right is the living room/dining kitchen area.  The center door is the bedroom and the door on the left is the bathroom.

Rhine River Cruise

There are so many castles along the Rhine River that I can't post all the pictures here!  I am going to upload them to Facebook so that you can all can see the entire trip!  But here are a few to spark your curiosity!

This one was built in the river, the owner used to spread a chain across the river and
you had to pay to go  up or down the river.

This one is a Hostel that you can actually stay in, either rent a room or a bed in the dorm .