Guten Morgen blog world! Onto my 6th cup of coffee, in my defense the cups are small;-) My blog page thinks my German is better then it is. Somehow the language on my page switched to German, guess that's one way to pick up the language. I just hope I push save (Speichern?) and not delete.

        We not only survived the flight here, but the kids enjoyed it, at least for the short time they were awake. We arrived at the airport at about 10:30 pm Tuesday the 14th. Things started out with a mad rush and didn't end until we sat in our seats on the plane. After unloading our stuff from the car Bea LaBonte sat with the girls and I or more like she held down the fort while I chased Eloise around. Not sure what we would have done without Bea, she was our guide through the airport and helped juggle the girls, pets and ridiculous amount of stuff.  After checking in we went down to USO to hangout until our flight. Unfortunately, pets aren't aloud in USO, Alan and the girls waited out side. The two big girls thought it was the greatest thing in the world, since the USO is heavily stocked with all sorts of complementary goodies. I think the guy working the counter got to know the girls pretty well or at least the top of their heads and their little fingers. I tried to put Eloise down in the family room, but her happy gibbering was not so welcomed by the mom of a sleeping toddler : / Time flew and before we knew it, it was 1:30 am and we had to get the pets to their destination. It was then that I realized we were missing two carry-on bags. So Alan did the mad rush with the dogs and I went back to the check-in counter. After much debating, computer searching and walky-talky chatter, they insisted that I must have checked them on the plane by the number of bags we had..... Well, that's fine and dandy, but all of the girls stuff was in those two bags (diapers, panties, etc.). I was told to run down to USO (with the kids, by myself, down one floor and on the other side of the airport from our gate, minutes before boarding) and grab some necessities for the girls before they closed, which they didn't have....AND then I lost Alan (we have no phones mind you)! Girls were riding in the cart and got in a big fight, I try to console Aria, when I realize Maddy and the cart are going full speed down the steep hallway. I understand that I probably looked crazy holding a screaming child and a baby, chasing a racing cart down the the hall with a child whooping with joy. The people watching weren't a big help either, as they stood there watching and pointing out the chaos instead of helping;-P At last Alan, my hero shows up to save the day! Somehow, we all made the plane just as they made the final call for families to board.  I have never seen such a packed plane...ever! We were 20,000lb over weight!  The airline decided to unload luggage and leave half of it behind and we are talking about a plane FULL of men and woman deploying who now won't have anyone of their belongs until next Monday/Tuesday (20th/21st). After taking off half the luggage, they decided to call off all of the families who I'm guessing were just hopping on for leisure travel. I feel awful for those families and the one next to me.......but it happened to be the family in our row, so we had two empty seats in our row to stretch out on. Maddy and Eloise slept almost the entire time and Ariana woke up as happy as can be with two hours to go.  Alan was amazing, I slept almost the whole time, laying across three seats. Every once in awhile I would peak my eyes open to see Alan helping coo the baby to sleep, taking someone potty or changing diapers and putting them back to bed. Somehow, I missed breakfast, but no worries, Alan made sure everyone had food. In my defense I did offer him my spot, but he refused it until the end:-P

      After arriving and collecting our baggage, surprise, our two carry-on bags aren't there and either is Alan's bag with all his uniforms. So it turns out that in our mad rush to unload, we left the two carry-on bags and the highchair in the floor storage of the rental car, whoops! Again, Bea comes to the rescue and is going to send them to us. Now to wait until next week to get Alan's stuff. Two guys that Alan works with came and picked us up, brought us to our temporary lodging facilities (TLF). They also took Alan shopping to grab the necessities.  Just to help make us feel at home our TLF is located on Kansas street and parallel to Virginia drive:-) 

        While Alan was out running errands, the girls were having a blast in their new rooms until.....Maddy locked herself in her room!  Had to call the office to send someone to get her. Maddy is so good at making the best out of every situation! Well locked in her room she made cards to send to her cousin Amariah. 

   Alan was gone all the next day at in-processing (without his required uniform on :/). The kids and I just spent the day relaxing. Is it weird that I somewhat enjoyed the jet-lag? The girls pretty much slept all day or calmly sat around either curled up in bed or the couch.  The girls have been just so positive and excited about the new changes. I love watching how well they play together, they really are best friends! The girls and I walked to the park and then to the commissary. We got some of the best Italian bread I have ever had! It was exciting to cook a meal with cooking instructions all in German:-)  To my amazement, it turned out at least eatable.

   Looks like Ariana is still trying to get over jet-lag, 11:30am here and she is still out like a log.  Today's goal is to find a cheap family vehicle. House hunting can't happen until late next week. As it turns out, we have to wait to get a list of places we can rent from and ones that are blacklisted.

 Keep us in your prayers as we look for a car today!