I haven't been keeping up with our blog like I usually do but I have an excuse, I swear. Ed and I have been doing a ton of paperwork trying to get our EROD approved so I could get out of here by the time he left for school in the states. Ya, that's not going to happen. Ed leaves on the 19th for Ft. Leonardwood for two weeks which means Layla and I will be here alone. I was hoping we'd get to leave the day or so before him to go back to the desert but with the way things are going paperwork wise, that's not going to happen. Ed will be back on the 6th of February and then leaves around then 15-20 for Afghanistan which means Layla and I will be packed and ready to go when he gets back from school. I hate that we have to just sit around and wait for him to come home just so we can leave but at least we'll get to spend a bit more time with him before he leaves for awhile. So between paperwork and stressing about everything, I just haven't had it in me to stay caught up. Soon we'll be back in the states and I can relax a little, well, until I get a job or go back to school!
This afternoon Layla and I decided to be brave and go out in the 15 degree weather to ride her bike and blow some bubbles. We are getting so tired of being cooped up in the house so we bundled up and headed out. We only stayed outside for about an hour because we got too cold but we had a good time and a nice break from being inside. Layla does so awesome with her bike peddles now and can even steer how she is suppose to. I guess when we get back to the desert we'll have to get her a big girl bike! 
Last night Ed and I were able to go out and have a date night without the kid. Shell volunteered to watch Layla over night for us since this will pretty much be the last chance we'll get to do something together before he deploys. We dropped off Layla at around 5:30ish and headed over to Pottenstein for dinner. We ate at this place called Hot Stone or Steak on a Stone or something along those lines. It was really nice and the menu was pretty crazy! They had crocodile, bison, lamb, and kangaroo to name a few. Ed and I ordered the kangaroo, we thought we'd try something new. Just about the same time we ordered out came our waiter with a hot stone and sizzling kangaroo meat on top of it. Ed and I drenched out meat with butter and let it cook awhile and let me just say, it was so good! Who would have thought? We had a really nice time relaxing and eating without any interruptions (i.e. Layla). After that we just came home and relaxed and watched a movie. We had a great night and so did Layla. She had so much fun with Evan and Shell, when we went and picked her up today she told me all about what they did. I'm glad we were able to have a nice "alone" night one last time for a year!
The last couple days have been freezing! Layla and I wake up around 8am and it's 0 degrees outside. When Ed wakes up for PT it's been in the negatives, about -2 degrees. I am so over this weather. This is our fifth winter in Germany and it has never been this cold before. So much for global warming, huh? I was laughing about our cold weather so I decided to see what the weather was in Indio. Ya, a low of 53 and a high of 69... must be nice! I would love to have a 60/70 degree winter again!
Layla loves the water, she is a little fish and calls herself a mermaid (she must take after her mother). So lately she has been holding her breath and putting her head under the water, all by herself. She comes up and has a big smile on her face! She is going to be in swimming lessons this summer and I have no doubt about it, she'll be swimming by the end of them!
We had such a great New Years Eve and New Year. On the 30th we drove up to Shelby's house to hang out for a few days and to celebrate the New Year together since that would be our last time seeing each other (this time was for good). We are so happy we decided to go, we really had a blast. We left on the 30th at about 9ish in the morning. Driving to Ktown is about a 3.5 hour drive but we decided to stop in Mainz Kastel and Dexheim on our way. Let me just say that driving through there really made me miss it. I would give anything to be living back there instead of Graf. It was so weird to drive through Dexheim and see no one there, it was a ghost town! After that we headed to Ktown to Shelby's house. It was so nice to see her and the kids (and Matt too, of course). We just hung out for awhile and talked until Matt got home from work. Once he got home we all got ready and headed to Chili's. Chili's was SO good, by the time we were done I was stuffed and couldn't move. The service, like always, is horrible but the food and drinks (my electric lemonade!) makes up for it. When we got back to Shelby's we ended up playing some Rock Band until pretty late and then went to bed! The next day we had to do some shopping for fireworks since it was New Years Eve. We went to Globus to find them and once they were in eye sight, Ed ran over to them and wanted to buy them all. Now, I'm not talking little tiny fireworks that just stay on the ground like you would buy in the desert. No, I'm talking COD fireworks show kind of fireworks. There were tons of them and Ed ended up buying this huge pack of them plus some other smaller ones. He would have bought more but Shelby discouraged him (LOL, Shelby!). After that we went back to Shelby's and hung out and then they made an AWESOME dinner. Fondue and shrimp cocktail! It was SO yummy, I could have ate that all day long. We watched a movie and by the time that was over (about 9ish) we decided to go ahead and do our fireworks. We found a parking lots of a church that had a nice lot in front of it that we lit all the fireworks at. I am still amazed at the kind of fireworks these were, we could have had our own show with how big and beautiful they were! Layla was so scared of everything, fireworks, sparklers, silly string, that she stayed hooked on to my leg the entire time. Poor thing. Ed was being his usual dare devilish self and was jumping over fireworks, putting sparklers in his mouth, etc. It was SO much fun! After that we headed back to the house and played some more Rock Band until midnight where we toasted champagne and listened to all the Germans lighting off their fireworks (which lasted forever). But that was pretty much all that night. I was exhausted and went to bed not too long after that while Ed stayed awake playing some more. The next day was just a nice hang out day where we relaxed. Oh, we also played The Office trivia game which then made me the official queen of The Office (Shelby stayed in the pink room for at least 7 questions). Matt and Shelby made dinner again and then we left to go back home. It was such a nice three days with such great friends. Hopefully we'll both end up together in Arizona so we can have even more fun times together! 
