Accomplishments and Upcoming Visitors

YES. I can drive manual. It's not a smooth ride 100 percent of the time but I'd say it is smooth 80 percent of the time. Yesterday was the first day I drove around post and didn't stall once. I even managed to stop/start on a hill....we'll just leave out the part where I squealed the tires while an MP watched. At least I didn't stall it five times in a row like the last time I was on a hill, and no one beeped at me impatiently. I still don't think I'd feel comfortable driving to base alone (about a 25-30 minute drive) but I will very soon. Poor Stanley, he has endured so much this past week. He is a trooper of a car. JM calls it the clown car, it is certainly the appropriate color and size. So, adios #9 on my list of things to do in 1001 days! Or should I say tschuss? Also, driving around Schirmitz on Monday I noticed that there MAY BE plastic recycling at the top of the hill we live on... this could potentially be glorious. Right now, we only have plastic picked up at our apartment once a month which is super annoying. We end up storing bags of empty plastic containers in our storage room downstairs (this is what everyone else does too but it is still irritating!). I never realized I was getting spoiled in America by having recyclable pick up every week. So if I could get rid of plastics myself by walking a short distance I would definitely do that.

I also get to cross off #63 (catch up on printing my pictures); 180 prints from Shutterfly arrived on Monday and on Tuesday I organized them (they oddly weren't in chronological order), labeled them, and put them in my album! It was definitely a pot of coffee kind of project.

MY MOM COMES IN NINE DAYS! I am pretty excited about it too. We're going to quilt and hang out, and perhaps take a few day trips to some nearby cities. In the running is Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary), Czechslovakia and Heidelberg, Germany. Speaking of quilting the fabric I ordered just showed up too so I spent yesterday looking at that and futzing around with combinations to start my newest quilt. I'm not completely satisified with the combination I have picked out right now but I'm not sure what needs to be changed, I need a second opinion and Lord knows JM would just stare at me in silence if I asked him so I will wait till the mom shows up. On the subject of sewing/quilting, a part time job at the Craft Store on base opened up and you must have experience sewing, quilting and/or cross stitching - of which I have experience in all three! It would be awesome to get a part time job there and they are open such weird/short hours it wouldn't be hard to go back after Babybarth (thanks to TB for coining that name) is born. They are closed Sun/Mon and when they are open are only open from like noon-4 or 11-5. AND I'd get to hang out in a craft store all day. I'd probably volunteer to work their Saturday hours since JM could stay home with Babybarth of course. I am getting a little ahead of myself though, I still have to turn in my resume.

Blog again soon.