9/11 ceremony

These are pictures from the 9/11 ceremony they had on post.  They had part of a beam from the Twin Towers that was put into a memorial in Germany that was shared with the German community.  They spoke about how supportive the German community was to the Americans stationed there on 9/11.

Spider Update

I found out that the spiders are not poisenous or are of any danger to me or the cats. I turns out that it is "normal" here for them to come inside the house during the summer.  My landlord came in and caulked the gap in the ceiling so they can no longer come in.  As of Tuesday there have been no spider sightings...YAY!!!!

Storm

I finally got some video of a nice thunder and lightening storm that we had on Wednesday.

Spider

This is one of the smaller spiders that I found on the wall.

Nightmare!!!

I have been living in a scene from the movie Arachnaphobia for the past week.  They are litteraly coming out of my ceiling.  I saw their creepy little legs trying to get out. 
It all started about a week ago...It was at night and it was dark in the living room.  I was walking out of the living room when I saw a shadow on the wall.  Oh...it wasn't a shadow...it was a HUGE spider that was casting a shadow on an already dark wall.  Thankfully Angie (the girl that has been staying with me  (another army spouse)) was there, and she killed it...I stood there in horror.  We didn't know where it came from, but didn't think much of it since that was the first time we saw any spiders in the house.  I would like to add that I have only seen spiders this big at the Zoo or on TV.  Moving on.  A few days later we saw another one on the wall...which again Angie came to the rescue.  The next day...another one, even bigger than the one before...again she killed it for me.  (You should be seeing the pattern by now...I stand there frozen in fear and she kills them.)  Then after that I see a HUGE one trying to get out of a crack in the ceiling (my ceiling is made of wooden planks) so I spray that one with hardcore bug killing chemicals that is supposed to not only kill whatever it comes in contact with, but prevent them from coming back.  So naturally I thought I had it all under control...that is until the great attack last night.  Again, I was minding my own business when I see this Huge shadow MOVING on the wall to my right...now this is across the room from where I thought was their only escape from above...and it was and even BIGGER spider.  So I woke Angie to come and kill it.  (Hey I tried this time...but i froze...epic fail on my part!!)  But she killed it.  So now I am starting to get a little freaked out, I mean these are way to big to be in my house...or alive anywhere for that matter.  So, a few minutes later Angie walks back into the spare room and I hear her yell.  I walk back there...and there is another spider... on the OPPOSITE side of the house.  So I freaking lost it
So...I am currently staying at Angie's Apartment with the cats....yup...I ran away.  They won the battle...Oh but they will not win the war.  I will be at the hosuing office on Monday with my little bag of dead spiders to have them to have someone do something before I go back.
The End  

My little helpers...NOT

So me and Michael were really excited when we found the bag of part that went to our hallway wardrobe thing (it's so we can hang our coats up in the hallway and not bring them in the house wet when it it is raining).  We thought they were lost in the move and we had to take it as a loss since it was on clearance when we got it.  Well, anyways...we decided to put it together imediatly because we were so excited.  I cut open the box and opened it up to get started...and Chango and Oso decided they wanted to be a part of it. 
Chango likes to chew and tear apart cardboard.
I have a picture of Oso sitting on the middle of the parts, but it won't upload...so use your imagination.

I finally got a picture of a German fire truck (for  you Aidan) unfortunatly it was while on the Autobahn so I wasn't able to get my camera out in time to get a picture of the side of it.

This is a historical building on Baumholder.  It is historical because of it's age and what was built into the side of it...

can you see it

This is was that built into the side of this building.  It is cool to see a real part of history like this.

We decided to stop for ice cream, Michael chose spagetti ice

I chose this minty chocolate and vanilla treat

this was a little market they just set up that day right down the street from the ice cream place

 and this is a fountain the was right up the street from the market, this was all in Baumholder by the way.

The road sign leading us to the plush Air Force base-Ramstein

A German police car.

The sign right outside of the gate to the plush air base.

A cool thing I saw on a building right outside of Lanstuhl (another military post right down the way from Ramstein)

The sign in front of the building from the picture above (with the lions) on the way back to Ramstein. 

More buildings on the way

and some more

Now back on the Autobahn heading towards Baumnholder (Michael's old stomping grounds)

This is the little town right outside of the gate at Baumholder.

This is the super cute little road leading to the gate.

The sign outside of the gate for Baumholder Army Post.

Another road and part of the town right outside of the gate.

Pictures of the housing buildings on Baumholder.

More of those housing pictures.

Another view of the sign outside of the gate coming out of the gate.

This is a picture of a bridge on the way to and from Ramstein and Baumholder form Grafenwoehr.

One of the views from the Autobahn.

awesome old car I saw on the Autobahn

This is what bothers my allergies...

...do you see all of the yellow, it is everywhere.  I felt like I was punched in the face by allergies.

I thought this was a really cool looking building in Idar-Oberstein.

This is still Idar-Oberstein.  This is was we saw on the way to the moutain to see the castle and the church built into the side of it.

And the climb begins.

I stopped here to take a picture of the city..and to breath.

the climb continues

This is the church biult into the mountain

another picture of the church

a map of the trail we took

another view of the city...and more time for me to rest

i am still working on translating the writting on this, but it was posted up on the way to the castle.

This is part of a wall from a part of the castle that was destroyed.

The castle from accross the mountain

This is what it used to look like

A view of the area that we were at.  We were at the red circle at the top of the map.

This is what the red circle is in real life.

This would be whole reason we climbed all the way up there.

Now you can really see tht it is built on a side of a mountain.

Another city view.  You will notice the houses look much smaller in this city view photo...it is because I am much higher up.

Another view of the city.

This is the other side of the tower (A.K.A. red dot on map)

Picture of the tower and the castle it was once attached to in the backround.

We are sooooo cute.  ;-)