A few last pics from Germany

This is a pic of the hostel we stayed in while were were waiting for my passport. It was out in the country where they had this business and had a cattle farm right next door. We stayed there for about 8 days and it was so peaceful there.

The people that owned the hostel also had a cafe outside where we often had our dinner. The owners were such nice helpful people. It seemed like the whole family worked there in some fashion. Here you can see we're enjoying a pre-dinner cola beer. Yum!
This is a good pic of my two guys enjoying the view from the cafe.
I got a good shot of the cows they had there on the farm. Our dog Quincy almost got trampled one morning when he thought he'd be a hot shot and charge after the herd. Luckily, he didn't get close enough to get hurt but those cows were seriously about to squash him.


This was one way that my son found to entertain himself while we were staying at the hostel. It made a perfect little cubby hole for him to hide in (even though we could see him LOL!)
I felt bad for the kid. We didn't have many toys since we had them packed with our household goods.

Planes, trains and automobiles...the trip from hell

I'm finally over the trauma, that was Venice....here is the story. Warning...this is long....

It started out great. I met my friend at her house and we headed out to the airport without a hitch. We arrive at the airport and there was no parking. You think I'm kidding, there was none. It was a smaller airport and a long holiday weekend for the Germans, so I'm guessing that was the reason. We saw a sign at a Mazda dealership where we could park for a fee and we felt pretty good about it. Melissa, my friend, had to use the restroom so I waited out front. She comes out with a huge wet stain on her pants. I guess the shape of the toilet and the force of which things left created a boomerang effect, if you know what I mean. So my friend, basically peed her pants before we even got to the airport. She gets cleaned up and we wait for our flight.
The flight was good. It was really full and I did get nervous during takeoff and landing, but we got there in one piece so I was happy.

Once we landed at Treviso Airport we had to catch a bus to the train station. So we find the bus and head out. It takes about an hour from the airport to the train station, but we had some nice scenery along the way. Once we get to the train station we figured out what train we needed and luckily it took us to Quarto Di Altino. (It was about three stops from Mestre which is where the bus took us) Luckily when we got off at our stop, the hotel was right by the train station. Which is great cause we had to schlep our luggage the whole way. The hotel was WONDERFUL!!! It was a brand new Holiday Inn and we felt like we were in heaven. Hotels are so expensive in Venice and we got such a great deal on this hotel. We couldn't have been happier! At this point it's about 7 pm but we really wanted to get dinner in Venice. So we took the train to Venice. It took about 30-40 minutes to get there from our stop, it's all a blur now. But we finally get there. Once we found our vapporetto (water bus) we thought it would be good to get dinner at a cafe by San Marco square. The vapporetto are slow and we were starving. We started looking for anything that was open. We finally get off the vapporetto and find a cafe and order. It was ok, but nothing special. I ordered the canneloni and it tasted like something you could get from Lean Cuisine. Melissa ordered a pizza that was pretty good. The ambiance was wonderful. It was fun just to be in a new country.
After dinner we headed back to the train station. The trains only run till about 1am, if you miss the last train out of Venice then you're stuck there till about 5 in the morning. It's about 11pm and we're trying to figure out which train to take back to Quarto. We finally just took a chance and lucked out. We were not going to get stuck in Venice at night. There were some real creepos hanging around the train station.
We get back to our hotel and crash at about midnight. It had been a long day of travel and we were exhausted. We're both looking forward to our next full day in Venice.

So we get up and around and unfortunately we take so long to get ready that we miss the last morning train into Venice. Since we had a little time to kill we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The cappuccino was awesome, but the breakfast was not so good. Europeans have a weird idea of breakfast. Mainly cold cuts, cheeses and bread. But the cappuccino and croissaints were wonderful!

We finally catch the train into Venice and I remember the view from the train was beautiful. You have to ride on a bridge over the water to get into town. It was a slightly overcast day, but it was still beautiful. The town itself is gorgeous, it definitely has a romantic flair. My friend and I had decided that we wanted to go to Murano island first. This trip was mainly for shopping and Murano is famous for it's glass jewelry and artwork. The vapporetto ride was long to get to the island. It's not that far from the main island, but there are a lot of stops along the way.

We had a great time shopping on Murano island. We both bought some really nice sterling silver and glass jewelry and just had a great time looking around. We also had our first of many drinks of the day. Hey, what is a vacation without kickin back the sauce?!Next stop, San Marco square. We were getting a little hungry and also wanted to pick up some souvenirs for our families. We were looking around and all of a sudden I felt something hit me on the head. I instinctively reach back and touch my head only to find I'd been pelted with bird shit. Oh....GROSS!!!! My friend thought it was funny and decided to take a pic...thanks! (I will not be posting that pic, it makes me squeamish!) Now the search for a bathroom begins. We find this nice little cafe in San Marco square that we thought would be good place to get a couple of drinks and some food. Luckily they had a bathroom where Melissa washed my hair in the sink. We must have looked like weirdos. Me leaning backwards over the sink, her laughing and trying not to touch it while cleaning it out of my hair.

I think this was the best part of the day. We probably spent a couple of hours at this outdoor cafe in San Marco. It's pretty expensive to eat and drink there, I think we paid $15 per drink but the ambiance was worth it. It was so much fun just sitting there drinking and listening to the orchestra while people from all over the world walked by. We both had a great time people watching. It was so fun. I was a little bumbed that by the time we got to the square the big church there was closed. It was absolutely beautiful.

After that we did a little more shopping and at that time it was getting time for dinner. We found a nice cafe near the train station that I wanted to try cause it was one of the few places that had a good choice of pasta. Most places served seafood dishes and neither one of us were huge fans.


(This pic is one Melissa took of me right before we realized my bag was missing)
Since this was our last dinner in Venice we ordered quite the spread. We spent a good hour or more eating and enjoying the evening. Then it came time to pay and head back to the hotel. I reached for my camera bag and it wasn't there. I wasn't too alarmed, I figured Melissa had picked it up with her bags or something. (I had set my bag down by my feet under the table because these cafe tables are small, she set her bags in a chair right by her) I asked her if she had it and she looked around and said "No, I don't have your bag." Then I started to panic.

I had that feeling that you get when you can't find your kid. That feeling of sheer panic. For convenience sake, I had put all my money, ID's, credit cards and souvenirs in the camera bag. I couldn't believe it was gone. I didn't feel anyone get close to the table. Melissa was facing me all throughout dinner and she doesn't recall seeing anyone get close enough to swipe my stuff. Needless to say at this point I LOST IT. I started bawling. The more I thought about what was in my bag, the more upset I got. I had everything in there. I felt like someone just stole my whole vacation, my whole identity, my life at that point was in that damn bag. I felt like a fool for not protecting it better. But I felt like it was safe there. How did they get under the table without me knowing it? Melissa tried her best to make me feel better, but I couldn't stop crying. So dear Melissa paid for our meal and took me to the Italian police station. From here on out the vacation turned in to the seventh circle of hell.

I went to report the theft to the police, but I guess there wasn't someone there that could take my report. So they asked us to come back in the morning. Great! They had me call my credit card company so they could put a stop on my debit card. That took what seemed like forever. I just thought about someone out there trying to use my hard earned money for their own. I finally got through and luckily nothing had been tried yet, so I got it done in time. At that point it was probably about 11 pm and we decided to get back to the hotel. I needed to contact the US consulate in Italy to see what they could do for me, so I could get back to Germany. I also needed to call my husband. I absolutely dreaded that call.

I call the consulate and they were closed for the weekend. I was able to get through on an emergency line and he basically told me that I could try to get back to Germany on my return flight. He thought they might take a copy of my passport since it was only a return flight(we were flying back on Sunday) and it was still in the European Union. He said if that didn't work we could get back on the trains, since they don't really check passports. The last option was going to the consulate first thing on Monday morning to get an emergency passport. However the closest consulate was in Milan, which was probably a two to three hour train ride away. We decided to try the airline first. I finally called my husband and told him what happened and told him we may not be back on Sunday. He wasn't happy with me, but he tried to be supportive.

So we get up on Sunday morning and we returned to Venice to report the theft. We had to hurry cause our flight was at 5 pm and we had to check out of the hotel at noon. Once we got the police report we still had a little time to shop. Melissa was kind enough to spot me a few bucks to get a few souvenirs since mine were stolen (one stroke of luck...the expensive jewerly we bought in Murano wasn't stolen because I had put it one to wear it!). We still fully expected to fly out that night. Everyone we had talked too seemed to think the airline would take the copy of my passport. We finished our shopping with plenty of time to take the train back to Mestre were we would catch the buses back to Treviso Airport. However once we got to the bus station we found out that we had missed the bus and had to walk back to the train station. Just one more thing to deal with!! We had little choice but to take a taxi (which was not cheap in Italy) to the airport. Let me tell you this guys could fly! So we get to the airport about 3 hours ahead of our flight and start trying to find someone that could help us get on that flight.

The airline we flew with was Ryan Air. They are a airline based out of Ireland but they fly all throughout Europe and at VERY cheap rates. It's great. UNLESS you have anything out of the ordinary happen. You can not reach a human being to save your life for any customer service problems. They do not have any representatives to help you at the airport. The people that check you in work for the airport. It was so frustrating because they people at the airport were REFUSING to do anything for us. No passport, no fly. I could understand the need for safety. But this was my return flight. I had a good quality copy of my passport and we were traveling within the European Union. They were firm in their position, so Melissa and I had to come up with a plan B on a Sunday evening. Awesome, we just wasted money on that damn taxi only to have to turn right back around and go to the train station in Mestre. We could have gone to the consulate in Milan and just stayed in a hotel overnight, but we didn't know where it was or if there would be any affordable hotels with availability. The other option was the trains. From what the consulate told us they don't really check passports on the trains, so we looked into buying a train ticket. They had an overnight train to Munich from Venice leaving that night and it was only 75 euros a person. When we heard that we said BOOK IT! Lets get the hell outta this friggin country! LOL!

So we had a lot of time to kill and not much was open while we waited. We walked around town and got a gelatto (italian icecream....Yummy) and waited......

and waited.....

and waited....
then it was finally time to leave! The first thing they ask me for was my passport! SHeesh! But they were nice enough to take the copy I had as proof. I thought we were going to get kicked off the train. It was quite the experience riding on the night train. We were in a sleeping car that had three bunks on one side and three bunks on the other side. It was kinda cramped, but we were lucky enough to have the car all to ourselves. I can't imagine how you'd sleep with four other people in this car! Ugh. We were so tired from the days events we slept like rocks.

We arrived in Munich at about 6:30 Monday morning. From there we caught another train to Kaiserslaughtern which arrived at about noon. We had one more train to catch and that was to Landstuhl. And that's where we split ways. Melissa needed to pick up her daughter from the sitter since her husband was at work. My husband was in the middle of out processing so neither one of our husbands could pick us up right away and Melissa's car was still in the parking lot up in Frankfurt. I only had to wait at the train station for about an hour before Dave could pick me up. However things weren't done yet. As soon as Dave picked me up we started working on the passport replacement. We took my passport pictures that day. I looked like hell. You guys know how the rest of the story went.
So I guess the synopsis goes like this...Melissa peed her pants, I got shit on by a bird, I was robbed and stranded in Venice and we had to find our way back to our family. Venice really is beautiful, even if I had to learn an expensive and stressful lesson. I'm sure I'll look back and laugh about it all....someday...

Oh beautiful... for spacious skies....

Can I just say WOOOO WHOOOOO!!!! Damn I love America! We got back to Oklahoma City on Wednesday evening and it was so good to see the family. It wouldn't come easily. Nothing in this process has thus far, why should this be any different!

Dave and I went to the US consulate in Germany on Tuesday to pick up my passport and that went fairly easily. It was amazing to me how tight the security was there and how many people were there that were trying to get in that weren't American. I don't know what I expected, but I always thought it was just a place for Americans. But I guess they handle immigration stuff too. Once we picked that up it was a race for the clock to get everything wrapped up that needed to happen to get the heck outta Germany.
Dave managed to clear the Army and get travel arrangements done all in one afternoon. It's amazing what one motivated man can do! :) We were leaving the very next day!

We had to be at Frankfurt airport Wednesday morning at 6:30 to drop the dogs off and then catch our flight to Amsterdam by 8:30. Frankfurt airport is about an hour and a half from where we were staying and since we shipped our car, we had to have someone from Dave's unit pick us up at 5am. This guy ended up getting lost and so we didn't leave until 5:30 and we still had to go to Dave's unit and sign him out on leave before we headed to the airport. This was gonna be tight.

Luckily this guy hauled some serious ass and we didn't have any traffic jams along the way. We get there about 7am and get the dogs dropped off by 7:30. We rush over to the main terminal and we see the line to check in luggage. OMG. I've never seen so many people. And here we are with only an hour to check our luggage and get to the gate. Dave and I both thought "whelp we're not making this flight. This basically sets the tone for the whole day.

Miracle #1 : An airport employee walks by and I asked her if there was another place to check in because we were going to miss this flight if we had to wait. She showed us another place to check our luggage. We managed to get on this flight with like 5 minutes to spare. That was too close.

I also found out just how hard it is to fly when you have a small child. You have so much stuff to carry around! You've got the stroller and the car seat along with your carry on baggage. Oh yeah, and the kid. There is a reason they usually let people with kids board first. It's hard to get all this shit down an aisle with people all ready in their seats. I know I hit a few people along the way to our seats. I know if daggers would have been allowed on planes I would have had a few in my back! LOL!

Then we find that our seats are not together. We found people to be accommodating once Collin started screaming. They gave up their seats with gusto. Collin was pretty upset at first, but he got over it pretty quickly. I think the thing he hated the most was that he couldn't get up and explore the cabin. So we get in the air. It only took about an hour to get to Amsterdam. Next stop was Chicago O'Hare.

So we're at Amsterdam airport and find out we've once again only got about hour to find our gate and get through security. We're thinking, this is alright. We don't have to get our checked baggage, no problem. Well, our gate was at the other frickin end of the airport. We finally get there with about 30 minutes to spare, but there was a counter we thought we had to check in at so we got in line. We wait and we wait and we wait. It's about 10 minutes till the plane leaves and I said "Maybe I should check with the security people at our gate if we really need to check in at the desk. (we already had our tickets in hand) So I ask them and they said no, you need to get over here and board now! I get Dave to come to the gate and the second we get to the gate, they close it and change flights. I said "WAIT...We're needing to board the Chicago flight!"

Miracle #2 = We made the United flight just in the nick of time.

They looked super irritated! So they rushed us through security and we got on that plane with a minute to spare. We get ourselves settled in for the 9 hour flight. The 9 hour flight from hell.

We flew United and I must say I was impressed. The seats were roomy, they had seat screens and headphones for the inflight movies and the food wasn't bad either. I even had two empty seats next to me, so I had the lions share of pillows and blankets. Dave and Collin had two seats across the aisle right next to me. Things were fine until we get Collin strapped into his seat. At this point it's past his usual nap time and he's been stuck in a car seat or stoller all day. He's tired and hungry and generally cranky. I can't say I blame him. But there was nothing we could do about it until we were at cruising altitude. We did have plenty of toys which helped, but he got bored real quick. We decided he needed a little help getting him to sleep and gave him a dose of Dimatap. Big mistake. It did help him get to sleep and he did sleep for about an hour. But when he woke up, he was inconsolable. It was like the medicine intensified the groggy effect and made it harder for him to fully wake up. So he was in this inbetween phase of tired and groggy and that just pissed him off more. I felt so bad for him, because even though we did take him out of his car seat we still couldn't let him run around. Try entertaining a toddler for nine hours without letting him loose. It's mind numbing. I'd say he cried on and off for about five of the nine hours we spent flying. I felt bad for the people sitting around us, but they were pissing me off. They kept looking back at us with that "Would you shut your kid up?" look on their face. And with Collin, it seemed as though the harder we tried to find something to calm him down the more pissed off he got. So we got to the point where we had to ignore him and not even look at him. I felt like the WORLDS GREATEST MOM! Frankly, I wanted to punch this one lady sitting near us. She kept looking back at us and sighing, and looking at her watch. Thank god that we survived that flight. At that point, mommy and daddy's nerves were shot.

So we land at Chicago O'Hare and we find out that our flight landed about 30 minutes behind schedule. Once again we only have about an hour to get through immigration, customs and security before we catch the flight to OKC. We both came to the conclusion, we're not going to make this flight. But we were ok with it. We weren't happy about it, but atleast we were in the USA. If we had to get a hotel for the night, so be it. So we take our sweet time getting through immigration and customs and we get to the airline desk to find out when the next flight to OKC would be and if we could catch that one.

Miracle #3 = The flight we thought we had missed had been delayed and was leaving in 30 minutes. She said we could make it if we hurry. So they take our luggage there (we had to pick it up and recheck it for the next flight due to it being from an international flight) and say they are going to send it to the OKC flight.

So once again we have to haul ass to make the flight. If you've been to O'Hare you know you have to take the train if you've taken an international flight. So we get to the terminal and we have to take two elevators to get to the side of the airport we needed. We get to the security lines and they are long and once again we're thinking, we're not going to make it. We got through security and had about 10 minutes to get to our gate. It was quite a sight. I had Collin in his stroller and I had his carry on and my carry on and my purse, Dave had his carry on, the camera bag and car seat and we are running down through the airport. We make it to the gate just in time.

Miracle #4 = We made the OKC flight!

I can't believe we made it. We were sweating and out of breath, but we made it. LOL!
So we had to get Collin in his seat one more time. I think this time he was alittle more resigned to his fate at this point. This was by far the easiest of the flights. Collin pretty much slept the whole way. Poor guy. So we arrive at the airport about an hour late, but my family is there to great us. It was great! We were all pretty out of it, but grateful that we made it and that we were finally back in the United States. We could finally relax. Only one thing would make this moment more special....

A route 44 diet vanilla coke. Awwwhh. You know I had to stop at Sonic before we went home.
We got Collin his first slushy and he gulped it down with delight!

Dave went with my Dad the next day to pick up the dogs. They made it back to the states just fine. Then Dave had two job interviews yesterday. He's had a very busy week! He is doing everything he can to get us settled in as quickly as possible. He been working overtime to see that we got back and I just wanna say "I love ya honey...you did good!"

So that is pretty much it. Time for the next chapter in my family's life. I guess I need to think of a new name for this blog huh?

WTF!?!?!?!

Well, scratch what I said yesterday. Dave went to pick up my passport this morning and guess what? It's not the right passport. It's got all the paperwork with my name and information, but the passport belongs to some infant. I know I have a baby face, but there is no way I'm passing as a baby boy! So we aren't flying tomorrow as planned (we've now had to reschedule our flight 3 times due to passport problems) and I don't know if we'll ever get back to the USA. (I know, I'm being a drama queen now!)
The passport reps here on post called the US consolate in Frankfurt (which is where they processed my passport) and asked if they could find MY passport. They did get back in touch and said that they found it (holy hell they haven't lost it for good? What a fucking miracle!) and that we could come pick it up. But not today. Which makes no sense to me. It is a work day right? grrrr....
So we're going to drive to Frankfurt in the morning and get it in person. Dave thinks that the icing on the cake would be if we drive all the way up there and it's either a German holiday or they sent it out in the mail today and we have to wait for a few days for it to show at the passport office on post. (So help me god if they've mailed it instead of holding on to it like we've asked all hell will break loose. I will go fucking mad!)
Moral of this story? NEVER EVER let your passport get stolen. It's like gold people! I just wonder what happened to my old one? Did the thief throw it away like trash? Did they sell it on the black market? Is my identity out there floating around in space? This is turning in the the worst month of my life....AAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update

Well, it's been a stressful couple of weeks but it looks like we are FINALLY coming home this next week. I got a call yesterday that my passport is ready which has got to be the best news I've had since this whole thing started. Well, that and the fact that my renters insurance is going to cover my stolen items! Thank goodness! If you guys are renters, you should definately have renters insurance. It's cheap and it covers your property even when you're not at home!

Since we left our house on the 8th, we've been living like vagabons (sp?). As I said in my last post we stayed in a lovey German hostel/apartment out in the country. The owners have a cafe and a cattle farm on the premisis. It was very peaceful and you could hear the crickets at night.
I'll definately post pics when I get access to my computer again. Just yesterday, we packed up again and are staying at one of Dave's co-workers home. This wonderful lady and her kids are on vacation right now, so the house would be empty if we weren't here. It's a gorgeous house (she is a captain in the Army and so is her husband so it's really nice) and again in the middle of no where. All I know is that I will be so glad when I can finally stop living out of my suitcase!

I still plan on telling the Venice story, but right now I'm focusing all my energy into getting home. Thanks for all the well wishes from everyone. It's been a trying time for all of us....

I haven't dropped off the face of the planet...

I'm just in the middle of moving. I have a huge long "wonderful" (sarcasm) story from my trip to Venice to tell, but it will take me a while to get it all down. I had my nice new camera, passport, military ID, credit card, souvenirs and about 200 Euro stolen while I was there so it was quite the adventure getting back home.
We are staying at a super nice hotel/apartment in the German country side while we are getting our house ready to turn back over to the landlord. The movers came yesterday and basically turned the house into a disaster area. The nice thing is that we're just getting the trash out of here today. We have someone coming tomorrow to professionally clean the place. I don't think my hubby or I have the energy left to do it ourselves.
Collin is taking the transition fairly well. That first night in the hotel/apartment he had it pretty rough. He didn't sleep well and he was kinda freaked out by all the change, but he's getting over it now.
Well, I better get back to picking up around here. I am really getting excited about getting home! Don't think I'll be wanting to travel for a while though!!