Wondering what we’ve been up to?

You seriously need to follow me on social media if you don’t know we’ve been in the process of moving to Germany.

We arrived at last week.

Here are our adventures moving to Germany…

I had some creative packing and planning to do these last couple months, beginning in mid-April.

Traveling with pets is not cheap or fun, but they’re part of our family. We flew the cats out to my parents so we could pack up and not have to worry about them with the movers there. There was no way they were traveling in the van with us and meowing the whole way!

We stayed in TLF at Hill AFB for a couple weeks until my husband was released from base.

We road-tripped from Utah to Georgia in a very cramped minivan.

We stayed a couple weeks with my parents. I think they were tired of us after a week.

We flew from Atlanta to Baltimore to Germany with two cats and four kids, nine suitcases and twelve carryons.

We’re now in TLF in Germany until we can move into our house. Our cats are staying with one of my husband’s co-workers until we can get settled. They didn’t have anymore room at the pet TLF.

The cats were the most expensive part of our move.

We had vet fees – twice for each cat – to receive travel certificates. One set of travel certificates for the plane ride from Utah to Georgia and another set of travel certificates, certified by the USDA ($76!), for travel from Atlanta to Baltimore to Germany. We had to pay for their plane tickets to Atlanta and then to Baltimore and then to Germany. We had to pay fees (about  for their entrance into Germany. Altogether, the fees totaled out at about $1500!

Last week?

We flew out of Atlanta mid-morning and spent the afternoon in Baltimore. The USO at BWI was rather disappointing. We flew out about 5:30 PM. We arrived in Germany about 7:30 AM.

Aaron’s sponsor and co-worker met us and helped us store our luggage and get checked in to TLF. We ate a quick breakfast (at JR Rockers – yuck!) and even looked at a German house that was adorable but way too small. He then took us by the commissary for some supplies. He picked up Aaron the next couple days to drop him off at his in-processing appointments.

That’s kinda the last we saw of sponsors.

The kids and I walked around the base to get familiar with the library and BX. We could only bring back what we could carry. Apparently, we can carry quite a lot.

I attended an OSC welcome breakfast and had brunch at a darling coffeeshop and met a new friend. She took me to a German grocery store, Globus, that will sure become a favorite shopping place.

For Memorial Day weekend, we were gonna be stuck indoors with rainy weather, no transportation, and nothing to do.

So we rented a neato Audi wagon and found a house in a picturesque village. It’s perfect and we’re excited.

On Monday, we opened a local checking account, ran some errands, had an amazing German lunch (in the BX no less!), and I was pretty exhausted by afternoon.

Memorial Day has special meaning here in Europe.

If we had a car and I had planned better, we would have gone to see some of the events for Memorial Day.

We are tired of cooking our meals in our little TLF apartment with two pans. We are tired of being in a cramped space not our own. The kids are acting out from not having chores or a regular schedule.

You know your kids are getting spoiled when the boy asks: “When is the maid coming?”

And, yes, I do make my kids make their beds and keep their space clean, even in TLF.

We are so thankful to live here and experience a different culture and it’s coming together as only God could orchestrate.