Happy New Year!

A big Texas "Happy New Year" from the Rogers! Thanks to Cali (age 6) for our family photo!

An American Christmas

I haven't been in the states for Christmas since 2005, and then Jay was deployed so I kind of forgot what Christmas was like here. It's not all that different in Germany, but the pace of everything is so fast. I think it's because of all the options; Germany is usually pretty simple!

This year we had a lot of family to see and a lot of places to go! We started Christmas Eve like most of our days here, wrangling a two-year-old into clothes for the day and playing the "what are you saying" game at breakfast. We baked and prepped and thawed and chilled and generally tried to stay out of the way if we didn't need to be in the kitchen. Hayden got to open a present early, and hung out with a little friend for a bit. In the afternoon we did some last minute running around before going over to Jay's Aunt Teressa's for a Christmas Eve party. Jay's cousins have kids that are close to Hayden's age, so he had a blast playing on the stairs with them and helping them share. We barely made it through "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before Hayden was ready to sleep! Santa had a few things to do here but was soon ready for Christmas morning.

We woke up for Christmas and for once, Hayden was sleeping in! We had to go in and wake him up, we were too excited! He wanted a waffle and a few M&Ms (hey, it's Christmas!) before going downstairs to see what Santa brought him. What a difference from last year! He was really excited about everything and has gotten pretty good at opening presents. He had a little Buzz Lightyear from Santa that he wouldn't let go of, so it was pretty funny to watch him try to open everything with one hand. He had books and crayons, clothes and toys, toys, TOYS. He was super excited about his Toy Story race track and his Buzz Lightyear that lights up and makes noise! After we opened all the presents and played, we got ready to go to my brother's house.

As we were driving to his side of town, we saw a few flurries coming down! They had been forecasting snow for a few days but we had yet to see anything. We got to Eric's with some brunch goodies and started opening presents over there. Hayden was excited to give Ryan his sword, and Zoe really liked her tea set from Poland! Hayden got some new trucks and more Toy Story gear, but was really interested in playing with Ryan's Glowdome and Zoe's dollhouse. The kids played a long time, and Hayden was pretty worn out by the time we left. But on the way home we were driving through about an inch of snow, thus giving Hayden his first White Christmas and my first in NC since 1998.

Jay grilled steaks out in the snow and we had Christmas dinner with family. Hayden had a blast playing with more little people and is getting better at sharing his new toys. He was up pretty late, and at 10 he and Jay and Oscar decided they were ready to play in the snow! We put on his snowsuit over his new Toy Story pajamas and bundled him all up to play. He loved it! I stood on the porch to take pictures but the boys were all over the place! Hayden threw snowballs for Oscar, helped shovel the driveway and then threw snowballs at the inflatable snowman outside. He was definitely excited about all the white stuff. We came in, dried off and finally headed to bed after our long day.

On Sunday the snow changed our plans to hang out with my aunt and grandmother, so we picked up some snow boots for Hayden to make it a little easier to play in. We enjoyed a lazy day around the house and of course, some more fun in the snow. It's starting to melt a little, but today it's not supposed to get above freezing so it should stick around for awhile. The roads are pretty manageable and the sun is out, so it's not bad. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays!

An early Christmas present

Remember when I said I wanted a job soon? Santa heard, and delivered early! On Friday of last week I received a call from Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) regarding my application. While I didn't meet the criteria for the job I had applied for, there was another position they were interested in interviewing me for. Was I interested? For my Catholic friends, does the Pope wear a funny hat? Yes!

On Monday I went in for my interview. I had decided not to get too worked up about it, because if it worked out that was great and if it didn't there wasn't anything I could do about it. I went in knowing the right thing would come along, even if I had to wait for it. Lucky for me, the wait was short! After my interview she offered me the position! I will be working in the Financial Aid office at GTCC as an extra set of hands of sorts. The mixed blessing is that it's a contract until June 30th. To me, I see it as an amazing opportunity to try out a new side of two jobs I've already done before. If I love it, I'm certain I can find a permanent opportunity within the office; if it's not for me, I found a job to keep me afloat while I look for something else. It's one step closer to some stability for all of us and to looking for a house!

In the words of my friend Jordan, that's a gift you can't wrap! Hooray for employment! I start on the 10th and am so looking forward to learning new things, meeting new people and being back at work.

Back tracking a bit

In my haste to keep you all up with our lives via the blog, I left out our Welcome Home Party!! Monique threw us a welcome home party the first weekend in December. This was a chance for us to see a lot of old friends all in one place, and enjoy the hospitality of one of my favorite hostesses. She had invited friends from Salem, people we worked with and of course, Uncle Ben. We had a great time catching up with everyone, and Hayden had a blast going up and down her stairs and watching "How to Train Your Dragon" on the big tv upstairs. There was tons of food, lots of sangria and great efforts at keeping Lucy from eating our food. I can't wait for Lucy to meet Oscar. We just can't tell Emma...

We also got our first taste of NC snow! It snowed for almost the whole day without being a dreadful mess. Just enough to blanket the ground and trees with the white stuff, but not enough to make the roads too dangerous. My favorite kind of snow! We are now waiting for the next round so we can take Hayden out sledding in it. Last year we didn't do too much out in the stuff because Hayden was still pretty unsure of it and dad wasn't home to do all the fun things. But this year we are armed with snowsuit and gear (and new tires!) and can't wait to get out and play in it. Most likely we'll get a few flakes here and there and maybe a good snow or two, but you can't expect this old NC gal to get too excited about winter weather. We left Germany, right?

A weekend of fun!

Last weekend we managed to cram a whole lot of fun stuff into just one weekend! After taking a trip to see Santa (and the necessary nap that followed) we headed west to see the Festival of Lights at Tanglewood Park. I haven't been in years and of course, Hayden has never been! He really likes the Christmas lights as we drive around at night so we figured that would be a hit for him. A quick stop to get some munchkins from Dunkin Donuts and we were ready to brave the line!

Surprisingly for a Friday night we didn't have to wait that long and boy was Hayden excited! He kept pointing out the things he had words for (tree, Santa, lights) and asked us what everything else was. My favorite part is the snowflakes, and the guy hitting the golfball near the club. What a fun experience! We drove slowly through the roads and ate our munchkins listening to Christmas music. Hayden passed out on the way home from all the excitement.

On Saturday we spent a little time with my brother and his family before dropping Hayden off with my mom and grandmother so we could go to the Coliseum. My very own Carolina Tarheels were playing Texas in Greensboro and our family had gotten us tickets to see them! We braved the last-Saturday-before-Christmas and Coliseum traffic to get there but made it in the arena just a minute or two after the tip. We grabbed some snacks and headed to our seats to watch the game.

It was a good game and a close one, but in the end Carolina lost. We picked up a mini Carolina basketball for Hayden before we left. I can't wait to take him to a basketball game when he's a little older and can get as excited as I do!

On Sunday we did a little running around and then headed back to Winston for Katie's Christmas Drop-In. I got to see some of my friends that I hadn't seen since at least 2008 and some of Katie's family I hadn't seen in even longer. Hayden busied himself with Katie's books, trying to break things and attempts at sticking his fingers in the dip. There were so many people and he was pretty shy at first but then commenced his usual Hurricane Hayden status. We had food and drinks and fun with friends before heading back home. I love the holidays!

A visit to see some friends

On Christmas Eve-eve, as people are fond of calling it, I headed up the road to Charlotte to visit some friends. My college friend Stephanie gave birth to a premature baby girl in October, and she is still in the NICU. I left Hayden at home with Jay so I could go visit her in the hospital! But her sister had a fever, which kept her mom at home so I went to visit Stephanie and Lily at home instead. Lily is so fun to be around because she is so different from Hayden. She's a girl and younger than Hayden, so she's small and still more of a baby than a toddler, and sometimes you forget what that age is like! We had a good time hanging out and catching up before I had to get on the road again.

My good friend Liz from college lives in Washington state, but was on the east coast for a visit. Her family is in Clover, SC so I drove down to see her. Two hours is nothing when the other option is a four hour flight to see her! I had a great afternoon spending time with her and her family and eating a ton of great food. The thing that sucks about growing up is that we're all so far apart. But every once in awhile, the planets align and we get to be in the (relatively) same place and time.

Merry Christmas!

Hayden was uninterested in a conversation with the big guy OR in sitting on his lap, but we waited an hour and a half so Mom stepped in to help.

So here we are. What next?

So. We are finally getting settled in Greensboro. We luckily have some great family that is letting us stay with them while we are looking for a house. The looking can't really start until we're settled, budgeted and employed, so it's nice to have somewhere to sit still and put away all our stuff. Our unaccompanied baggage arrived this week, which meant the arrival of Hayden's crib and toys. We are having the hardest time getting him back on a schedule. It only makes sense, with all the travel and given that every day is different and he's not back in daycare yet. We have found one we like, but it doesn't make sense to start him until January when the holidays and our last bit of travel before we settle down.

Hayden's newest obsession is Toy Story 3. And when I say obsession, I mean he demands to watch it at least three times a day, sometimes twice back to back when he wakes up at 530am. While I'm not a big fan of him watching that much television, I kind of feel like he's a CHAMP with all the running around we do so he wins that battle a lot.

Jay is all registered for school and we're getting the rest of the ducks in a row. Changing over car and health insurance, getting bits and pieces figured out and applying for jobs (me). I've done a little applying but most of the positions don't close until the end of this month or the beginning of the next so there's not a lot I can be doing right now. Except more applying, which is what I'm going to keep doing. I want a job soon!

Hayden is having a great time with all his family and really likes the new dogs we get to play with!

The joys of the DMV

We found out shortly after we returned from DC that our car had been delivered to port and was ready for us to pick up. We were so excited to have it on American soil and to be a two-car family again! We headed to Portsmouth, VA after packing up all our Black Friday, NYC and assorted other purchases. We promised Hayden and Oscar this was the last time they'd be squished for awhile.

After about two hours we arrived and soon heard our names over the loudspeaker. We would soon learn that it meant nothing, and we waited about an hour and a half before we were able to pick it up. Since our car was shipped from overseas, of course it had no plates! So once we had our papers, we had to go to the DMV to acquire a travel permit that allowed us to drive without plates. Soon we were gassed up, split up and back on the road to North Carolina.

The next day we went to the License Plate section of the DMV to title and register our car. Since it had never been registered nor titles in the states, we read online about all the required documents and showed up with about every identifying document we had for our car and ourselves. Wouldn't you know it, we didn't have a customs inspection that no one told us about. Further, they only do said inspection M-F from 8-10 am. It was noon, and Friday. So we called to see if they would do it for us but no dice. Unfortunately, the trip pass we had from VA only allowed us to drive the car through Saturday, which meant 30 minutes on the phone with our insurance company to get the documents we needed to acquire yet another permit. At this point, it was 4pm on Friday, and the LAST place I wanted to be was the DMV, which was a different one than we had been to earlier. Lucky for me, the guy inside found out I was a military spouse and that Jay was in the Army, and waived me through saying "I served for 8 years, give her anything she wants." So we finally had the trip permit and plans to get the inspection done on Monday.

Monday morning came and we showed up nice and early at the DMV for the inspection. It literally took 2 minutes in the freezing cold, and we had what we needed to go BACK to the OTHER DMV. Ugh. But this time we had everything we needed and saw the same guy we had seen on Friday. We waited while he processed all the paperwork and were so close to our plates when he told us what we owed. We were expecting under $100 with the registration and plates. NOPE. We bought our car from a military dealership in Germany, which means it was sold to us tax-free. When I read about it on the website, it mentioned a tax bill that would come later. No no, that's the county tax bill. We now had to pay the sales tax on the vehicle, which brought our bill to SEVEN HUNDRED TWENTY EIGHT DOLLARS.  Definitely not expecting that. Alas, we paid it and had plates and registration. Only to be changed a week later, when the Purple Heart plates and new registration came in.

Guess who's excited to go back to the license plate DMV to re-title Jay's new truck? Yeah, not this girl.

More traveling!

After our whirlwind day in NYC, we decided to take yet another road trip. This time to DC's outskirts to visit Lizard and Matt. Hayden in tow, we loaded up and headed across the bay to see her new house! I had just seen her for her wedding of course but she hadn't seen Hayden since Reunion Weekend '08 and Matt and Jay had never met. We made great time until we hit 95 of course, where we were reintroduced to stateside traffic. Ugh. By the time we got there we weren't up for much, which was just fine with our hosts! We settled in with the wine cube from Target, some steaks on the grill and some movies on demand. Our kind of night! Hayden fell asleep upstairs, leaving us a little time to catch up. Not long after, Jay fell asleep during the movie and I dozed off here and there. Traveling is hard work!

We just went up for the night, and then were planning to do a bit of travel in the DC area. We rode around looking at things for a bit, and decided none of us were really up for another day of sightseeing, so we headed back to the eastern shore. We said a quick goodbye to the Washington Monument, promised Lizard and DC we'd be back soon, and that was that. I figure our nation's capitol has been around awhile, and I'd much rather visit in springtime without scarves, hats, gloves and windburn!

The Big Apple!

Of all the amazing places I've seen, New York City has eluded me. I've been to country after country, great city after city in the states but never the Big Apple. So on November 27th, Jay and I woke up extra early to be out of the house by 4 to drive to Milford, DE to catch our bus up there! Jay's Nan goes up every year after Thanksgiving to do her shopping and invited us to come along this time. We were so excited! We left at 4, headed up to Delaware and boarded the bus along with many other excited shoppers. We had done some pre-planning and changed our minds a few times on what to see and how to get everywhere, but by the time we arrived at Rockefeller Center we had a good idea of what we wanted to accomplish. The bus dropped us off at 11 am and would be departing at 7pm so we didn't have much time to dawdle!

We took a walk around Rockefeller Center and the surrounding area first to get our bearings, and to see the holiday decorations. NYC seems to sparkle for Christmas! The tree wasn't lit yet but there were plenty of other decorations to get excited about. After a few minutes, we headed to the subway and went south. We really wanted to see Ground Zero. From where we were we couldn't see a whole lot but construction, but it was just amazing to see how much has to be done 9 years after the attacks. We also took a look at the church across the street from where the towers stood, St. Paul's. It's the oldest building in Manhattan in continuous use and has seen the Great Fire, Washington's Inauguration and the attacks of September 11th.

After that we headed down to the harbor to catch the Staten Island Ferry. We really wanted to tour the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, but that would have taken up most of our 8 hours in the city. Instead, we took the ferry across to get a good look at the old girl and promised her we'd be back soon to properly introduce ourselves! It took a little longer than expected, because our first ferry was delayed due to medical emergency. That meant we missed the return ferry completely and had to wait another 30 minutes. Just enough time to grab a hot dog! We did a little more exploring uptown and bought Hayden a t-shirt and a sweatshirt for me.

From there we took our time wandering through Times Square. I could spend all day there! There is so much to see and everything is bright and shiny and lit up and entertaining. We ran across the Naked Cowboy and the Naked Cowgirl, took a quick trip inside Toys 'R Us, checked out a few shops and took a ton of pictures. From there we headed to Top of the Rock, where we got SUPER discounted tickets for being military ID card holders. Woohoo! We waited for our turn to go up and were not disappointed by the amazing views. We saw the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Central Park, Times Square and more at night. It was incredible, and definitely lived up to my NYC ideas.

After all that it was time to find our bus and head back home. We saw a ton in 8 hours and are already planning our next trip to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, do more shopping and eating and see more sights. After all the travel we did in Europe, we found that the shortcuts are just as helpful, there are just as many people not speaking English and the subway is virtually the same everywhere.

Hayden tries out the tractor

Hayden tried out his cousin's tractor while we were at his Poppy's in Virginia. He couldn't quite push it down hard enough with his foot, so he took dad's lead and pushed it with his hand! It was pretty funny.

Black Friday

This year we experienced our first Black Friday...ever! I have somehow missed it every year I lived in the states, probably due to work or lack of funds! In Germany it seems silly, to show up early at the PX to go shopping. All those people in one small building! So I've never bothered. But this year we decided to make a go of it.

We woke up around 5am, which was plenty early for me. Those people that camp out all night in line and start shopping at 4am can have it! Maybe that will change when I'm older, have more kids that want more specific things and the like, but I don't think so! We left a sleepy Hayden with his Poppy and headed up the road. We were still in Virginia, in an area that's not so densely populated so traffic was clear and our first stop, Wal-Mart, wasn't really all that busy. Definitely a high volume of people for 6am but nothing like what I've seen on tv. We picked up a few appliances and headed further up the road to Salisbury, MD.

We hit some good buys at Target, like a Toy Story 3 race track for Hayden and a 12-bottle wine fridge for us! We made our way over to Best Buy where we replaced our navigation system and picked up a few DVDs and CDs. We hit up Barnes & Noble to get some books for Hayden and headed over to the mall. After picking up some super-sale hunting gear for Jay, it was lunchtime. Not bad for a few hours' work! We ate at Chick Fil A, one of our favorites that we hadn't yet had since returning to the states. After picking up a few AMAZINGLY priced Vera Bradley pieces for me, we realized we had plenty of time to spare since Hayden was with his grandparents. Seemed like there was only one thing to do...hit the movies!

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part I had come out in the states a week earlier and we purposely waited until we could see it in the states and without Hayden. Momma needs her wits about her when watching HP! So we caught a noon showing of the movie and were not disappointed! We returned home with all our purchases, full bellies and happy hearts to a Hayden that had a wonderful day with his poppy! All in all, we called our first Black Friday a success!

Happy Thanksgiving...twice!

After spending four Thanksgivings in Germany, we were fortunate enough to spend TWO here in the states, in the same year! The day after we got back, we had Thanksgiving with Jay’s grandmother and some of that side of his family. Hayden was more interested in other people and in the dogs than in eating, but that didn’t stop us! We ate way too much and had a great time catching up.


We spent what was left of the weekend accomplishing mission number one: cell phones! There are of course about a million more options here than there were in Germany. It was easy for Jay, who fell in love with the iPhone in 2008. So we went with AT&T and I got a Blackberry, which I’m now obsessed with! It’s so strange to have internet EVERYwhere. But it’s convenient. I’m still learning how to use it but it’s a ton of fun!

We made some quick visits to see my parents and to see my brother and his family. Ryan and Zoe have gotten so big! They had a great time playing with Hayden and showing them their playground, their rooms and the guinea pig! Hayden’s never seen one of those before so he was fascinated. He played with Oz a little, Eric’s dog, but mostly he just barked.

On Tuesday we headed up to Virginia to see Jay’s dad and family up there. Hayden and Oscar were already kind of rotten from all the attention; it seemed like everywhere we went there were new kids and dogs to play with! Jay’s dad’s was no exception, with more dogs and more cousins.

We spent actual Thanksgiving over at Jay’s Aunt Marcie’s house and there was SO much food! What a great way to reintroduce ourselves to America, too much food. We ate and watched football and then we had a small birthday party for Hayden. He’s had two birthdays in Germany so it was really nice to spend another one with family. He had a blast blowing out the candle and eating icing, and he got some fun stuff to play with. His favorite was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse marching band! He unloaded all the instruments and made everyone march with him. As we’ve learned over the past two years with Hayden, it’s pretty hard to say no to him!

This year we had so much to be thankful for. My happy, healthy family is safe and sound back in the states and ready to start our new chapter. We’ve gotten to see a lot of family and friends and have many more to go, but this time we don’t have a limited time frame to accomplish it. It’s so nice to plan trips and visits down the road without having to factor in a flight, a deployment, block leave or the farm for Oscar. We are truly lucky.

The Journey Home

Our last days in Germany were quite chaotic, trying to get everything in place for our big move. We had boxes to ship, suitcases to pack, floors to clean and goodbyes to say. That’s the hardest part of course, leaving the people that become your family overseas. My last day of work was on Wednesday, which turned out to be a half day! They owed me a half day vacation and realized it that morning. What a nice surprise! All the girls brought in food for a potluck lunch and man, what a great idea! We should have started doing that months ago. We had some great stuff, and said our goodbyes.

Wednesday night we had dinner with The Pollards at the Stables, one of our favorite restaurants in Schweinfurt. They serve greek food and love the kids. We had a fun dinner, and will really miss eating there! Thursday we had our housing inspection that we spent days preparing for. We took out so much trash and recycling and donations and consignments. We scrubbed and swept and mopped and cleaned until our fingers were shriveled and our house sparkled. For once, I remembered to CLEAN the oven after spraying oven cleaner instead of cooking it! We moved appliances, scrubbed baseboards and lime-awayed until we were green in the face. I was a little nervous, but knew we had 2 days to fix anything that wasn’t up to par. Wouldn’t you know the inspector spent about 90 seconds in that house and didn’t even open the fridge! We hadn’t taken Hayden’s border down in his room, but other than that he didn’t need to see anything. All that work!

Hayden was in school right up until the last day we were there, to keep him on his schedule. We picked him up just before dinner Friday night and let him say goodbye to all his classmates. What a great experience this had been for him! We headed to dinner with the Kings, Stockdills and Williams for one last round of bruschetta, pizza and tiramisu at Rimini’s. We had a great time, told some old stories and said goodbye to some really good friends. Luckily for us, they’ll all be in the states soon enough! We spent our last night in Germany with the Pollards, to make things easier all around. Jay went out with the boys while Amber and I hung out with our little guys. We stayed up too late of course, instead of being smart and going to bed early.

6am came pretty early for us and we got our bags ready for the trip. Ryan came to get us and we loaded up the van for the ride. We stopped for breakfast and Oscar’s benadryl, and we were on the road by 8 for our ride to Frankfurt. Luckily we used Jay’s new shortcut and saved ourselves some traffic. Hayden was uninterested in sleeping, which we thought would bode well for plane napping. We got all 7 of our checked bags, Hayden and his carseat and stroller, Oscar and his crate and us with our 3 carry-ons into the airport.

After waiting in the ticket line, we were told we had to get in the other line to purchase Oscar’s reserved ticket. 30 minutes went by with us in line and no movement; we sent Ryan away, anticipating a longer wait. Good thing, since we were waiting over an hour. What a mess! They were unprepared for Oscar apparently, and it took forever to get a vet there to approve everything. We thought we were finished, but then they told us we had to wait for security to come over and check out the crate. They sent me and Hayden through security and “hoped” to have Jay and Oscar ready for our flight in time to board. Hoped?? Yikes.

Luckily our flight was delayed boarding so we all made it. We got settled into our seats and I told Jay, “Wow I was so worried about Oscar getting on the plane I didn’t even have time to worry about the plane crashing.” Needless to say, Jay was not pleased. We watched “Despicable Me” on the plane and Hayden and I ended up watching it three times. We love it! We can’t wait to pre-order it for its release on December 14th. Hayden fell asleep about an hour into the flight and we thought we were home free. Not likely. He slept 30 minutes of our 9 hour flight. Yikes! He just wanted to run and play and I can’t blame him. He was a typical two-year-old which means he was kind of loud and a little pushy but everyone around us had kids as well so no one seemed too put out.

We arrived on time to Dulles Airport in Washington, DC and had to get all our bags and Oscar to be re-checked and clear customs. It wasn’t too much of a hassle surprisingly, and soon we were waiting at our gate for our flight to Raleigh. That was a short hour, but Hayden slept the whole time! Bless his heart he was too tired. Once at RDU, Hayden and I left Jay to get the bags and Oscar and we picked up the rental. After playing a little Tetris with all our bags and Oscar’s crate we were on the road for the hour drive to Greensboro. We arrived around 830pm and stopped to grab some food for us and some food for Oscar and then we were HOME. What a long, long day to get us back to where we grew up but it was worth it!

home, just busy!

 We're home and loving it.  Just can't sit still long enough to blog.  Lucky for you guys, I have a few written that I will put up as soon as we get back to NC!