(not the best picture of my table and chairs, but this was the sweet furniture that we bought from european country living back in the fall. sorry kayla that it took me this long to show you! people have told me that my chairs are "sexy", so that's cool right?)
*take pictures of all your nice things way before the packers come (tv, game consules, musical instruments, furniture, cd's, dvd's, collectibles, picture frames, toys, dishware, bedding, etc.) so if something does show up broken, you can prove that it wasn't shipped that way and get reiumbursed. it's also important to take little video's of your tv, game consules, microwaves to show that they were working before they were shipped. luckily, we haven't had any of our items break so far from being packed poorly. but then again, we have a good 17+ years left! i'm trying to be optimistic.
*label rooms/items that you do not need to be packed up or get them out of the house completely. we had 2 bathrooms in our house (right next to each other which is sort of odd...) so we used these 2 rooms to cram our suitcases, cleaning supplies, food and other things into. it was a pain to use the bathrooms for 2 days, as they were PACKED, but none of the movers packed anything up that we didn't want them to. i was having nightmares about our passports and all of my underwear being packed up! so of course i kept checking these items over and over to make sure they were in the bathrooms. i so don't want to be stuck in germany going comando.
*before the movers come, pack your own clothing/personal items into rubbermaid storage bins. i personally am not cool with random strangers going thru my g's and clothing, so this helped ease my anxiety issues a little. plus, this helps things move along faster as the movers don't have to worry about putting your crap away in boxes. steve and i actually packed a lot of our things into these huge bins and had been working on doing so months before our move. in the last 2 months, i estimate that i bought well over $350 on storage containers alone.
(ann and jake, does this picture bring back memories?! hahahaha! i still laugh at how jake described the 2 guys they sent over to your place to pack you guys out)
*get out of the way when they come! the whole family should NOT be home while these guys are trying to do their job (unless you have a freakishly huge house and can hide out all day). the first day they came to our house, brynn and i hung out at random stores in bitburg, and on base. there is no way one can work when you have a crazied toddler making messes! so steve hung out home while brynn and i tried to find something kid friendly to do. this is HARD (and those of you who have lived here/live here feel my pain!) as german's don't have kids, so we tried to make the best of it. of corse it was nasty outside, so we couldn't go to any of the 15 playgrounds on base. so we went to ROFU to get some coloring books and to look for an etch a sketch, a few bakeries, walked around the commissary forever, and drove around the B51 looking at sheep, birds, and dogs. pretty exciting...
the next day, we hung out with my friend valerie r (THANK YOU!) on base and at her place. thanks so much for entertaining us! it was nasty outside again, so doing anything outdoors was out of the question.
*hook the movers up with food! seriously, when you are nice to those who are packing up your possessions, i believe they will pack things a little bit better. the first day they were there, i bought them a huge palette of otis spunkmeyer muffins, water, and banana's for breakfast, and bought everyone mcdonald's (40 euro later...). we were super lucky this time around with the crew they sent over as NONE of the 4 german's smoked or drank on the job (seriously, they drink on the job. its not a big deal for them i guess? beer always makes one work so much quicker right?) so i didn't have to deal with those nasty smells. im very VERY sensitive to smells at the moment, so i was grateful for this as those smells tend to linger after people have left.
the next day i made the mistake of asking the packers what they wanted for lunch. bad idea. i thought i was being nice, (and was hoping that it wouldn't cost me nearly as much as the day before) and thought they would answer with a "whatever, anything is good" as i had already planned on getting sandwiches from the deli at the commissary. no. the one dude who spoke english, wanted popeye's. and no, he didn't just want a meal of his own. he wanted a
bucket of chicken, chicken tenders to be exact, and not spicy, all for himself. (this SO reminded me of that children's book "when you give a mouse a cookie"!) so i hooked them up with sandwiches, popeye's (the bucket of tenders was going to be $35 bucks! so i just got a small box instead and told them it was for everyone not selfish dude alone), chips and dr. pepper (they don't have that in german stores as its an american soda) and of corse they hardly touched the sandwiches. lol! its ok though as we had sandwiches for the next 2 meals. but really, we had a nice crew who were great and we really didn't mind the money we spent on feeding them as it's the least we could have done for them since they had a lot of our crap to pack up. and did i mention that they all weren't too stinky? this crew had heard of deodorant! i
CANNOT tolerate stanky BO so i was very very happy that they didn't smell. seriously, i've ran into enough clouds of BO out in town that i was beginning to come to the conclusion that german dude's don't care about the way they smell. i think someone told the company that i was pregnant and to send over their best crew as this was highly unusual that we get this lucky. anyway, moving on...
*the items they have packed already, aren't toys. this was hard for brynn to understand since all of her toys were already packed. she tried to move the couch closer to these boxes so she could throw herself into them. nice huh?
*try and be grateful for the ghetto fmo furniture the base lets you borrow while you are waiting to get into tlf. when they brought over brynn's "crib", we laughed so hard! shelly, you are so right! it DOES look like a cage! but we made brynn believe it was the coolest thing in the world, so she LOVED sleeping in it for the 4 days we had left in our house. our bed on the other hand, was NOT so cool. the mattress was covered in plastic, so whenever one of us moved, it woke up the other person! needless to say, we didn't sleep too well since i had to keep getting up to pee.
can i say, that we are so GRATEFUL that the air force provides people to pack up your stuff! there is no way we could have done this alone and have our items arrive in one piece.
our awesome landlords beate, edgar, with brynn. we were so sad to say goodbye to these awesome people as they have truly made us feel so comfortable and made our 3 years in germany much much easier. i cannot imagine having better landlords then them as they were always so willing to help and we all became good friends. whoever moves into our house is so lucky.
hanging out by our yard. brynn is all about being outdoors so she had no problem at all posing for steve.
steve had a going away with another guy from his squadron at an italian resturant in binsfeld called "iso bella's" on thursday night. i wasn't feeling so hot (obviously, i look pale and sickly here) but we all had a good time. thank goodness i brought brynn a coloring book and stickers as she was totally distracted by that for the night. she is normally a TERROR to go out with as she hates sitting still and wants to run around and german's aren't so understanding about this. so it's normally pretty embarrassing for steve and i to take her out...
it's tradition in steve's squadron for one to get a license plate plaque when you pcs (move away). steve is a little obsessed with popeye's, especially their spicy chicken sandwich, so this was fitting for him. about two years ago, popeye's had a banner up on their window advertising their chicken sandwich and they called it a sandwich with "big flava" as it was supposely loaded with flavor and what not. so steve decided to call this sandwich from there on out, as the "big flava". he has these pretty regularly so everyone at work knows him as that. nice...
partners in crime. when together, brynn and ethan can do lots of damage. it is never EVER a good idea to leave these two alone for more then a few minutes as they have got into major trouble in the past. brynn just adores ethan (she's getting better about calling him "ethan" and not "EEEEEE")
the S family. we always have the best time with these people and consider them AWESOME friends. they are one of the reasons we are so excited about alaska as they were there for 6 1/2 years before they came here, so they have filled us in about the area. emily and i have become really close as our kids all went to the same preschool together, so we spent our mornings without kids working out and running errands. i was also lucky to be visiting teaching partners with her! so so fun. emily and i believe that our husbands are meant to be together and should run away to the moutains in alaska as they are freakishly alike in so many ways. do i hear a brokeback mountain sequel?! HAHAHA JK! 
the R family with brynn. we just love this family and always have a blast when we are together. they too are down with the wii game "rayam's raving rabbid's", so when we get together we normally play this and laugh at one another. valerie is always fun to hang out with as she is so full of energy and makes everyone feel great. 
