We're getting so close!!!

Guys. Seriously. 40 days. Is that right?! It can't be. 40 days, or 6 Saturdays, or 1 month and 10 days, any way you slice it, we're close.

Right now my focus is figuring out how much we can fit into our cars. My goal is to get rid of enough of my clothes, that I can fit everything into a single suitcase. To be clear, I plan on using the vacuum-seal bags, I'm not planning on getting rid of that much clothing. It's just hard to know what we are going to need in Nebraska, with it's crazy weather; plus we don't know how long we'll be without our stuff.

I also hope that I'll be able to use the same logic and get Cole and Jensen's clothes in one suitcase as well. Hopefully, we'll be able to fit so much into my car that when Josh joins us in Omaha a week and a half later, his car won't be so full. It will be, I'm just trying to be positive.

Thankfully my father-in-law, Jerry, will be flying down here to help drive up to Omaha with me and the boys. I can't even imagine making that drive by myself. Yikes. Thank you, Jerry for helping us out!

Okay, I've procrastinated long enough, I'd better get back to my to-do list for the day. Happy Monday!

It's that time of year again!

My posts have been few and far between, and it's been a long time since I've done a non-baby related post, so I thought I'd change things up today!

This last week has been a busy one. With less than 75 days left before Josh goes on terminal leave (simply put, we are done with the Air Force and heading for Omaha ahead of schedule), I'm feeling a little bit behind in my planning. This time last year, I had already organized my to-do lists based on category and priority. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself, we're not moving across the world, just a few states over.

Even with all the planning I did, we still PCS'd from Germany 500 pounds over our limit! How does that even happen?! Since the day we had our stuff delivered in New Mexico we've been trying to lessen our load. We don't have a choice, we need to get rid of at least 500 pounds worth of stuff, and we added a crib, mattress, and dresser for our newest family member. So, in all reality we have 500+ pounds to get rid of...yikes!

I was browsing Pinterest the other day for ideas to better organize and prepare myself for our move, and I came across the best piece moving of advice from White House Black Shutters: Have less stuff. Okay, I already knew we needed to do that (did I mention we were 500+ pounds over our weight limit?!), but the way Ann Marie breaks it down is exactly what I needed to see to really kickstart the rest of our house purge. Apparently it's what Josh needed too, because as soon as I showed him the post, we were on the same page, and got to work. Our favorite piece of advice: "You are not a store and do not need to save stuff 'just in case.'" We are completely guilty of this.

We have now rid ourselves of all unnecessary kitchen supplies. I wanted to start with an easy room, and with all the cooking we do, it was easy to go through and realistically get rid of stuff we haven't used in ages, or at all. If you know me, you know I'm a snowball cleaner, once I start with a simple task, it warms me up to the bigger stuff, and that's exactly how I'm approaching this purge/move.

Sorry there are no pictures, I wanted to drop in real quick, share a thought, and pop back out. I think this may be the future of my blogging, at least for a little while. Until I'm able to get back to regular posting, you can keep up on our day-to-day happenings on Instagram (my username is lindsey_trout). It's mostly pictures of my babes, but in all reality, that's mostly what this blog has become. Instagram is much easier to do one-handed, while breastfeeding. Just sayin'.

Have a great week, everyone!

First post from New Mexico!

Hello all! I've been in New Mexico for almost 2 weeks and I am excited to get back to the old blog.

My amazing mom kindly flew down with Cole and I, and stayed for a week to help us unpack, get settled in, and of course, watch some Gilmore Girls. We still have a ways to go before we're completely done unpacking, but with my mom's help, we were able to get a lot more done-thanks Mom!

I love our new house, we have a back yard that's fenced in (that's pretty new for Cole), and a few parks within walking distance that we've already spent a lot of time at. So far, I'm really loving it here. You can look in almost any direction and see mountains! I know a lot of people will say there isn't a lot to do around here, and maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but I like the slower pace of everything down here.

As for Cole, he has been such a trooper through this whole PCS. I'm in awe of his ability to go with the flow. Change doesn't seem to frighten him, I wish I had his courage. When he walked into his new room for the first time, the look on his face when he saw all of his stuff was absolutely priceless. It was like Christmas had come early. He couldn't decide what he wanted to play with first!

Baby Trout 2.0 is a little mover and shaker. I'm 19 weeks, soon to be 20 on Thanksgiving. We have an appointment to meet with a doctor next week, the last appointment I had was in Germany when I was only 9 weeks along, so Josh and I are pretty excited for this appointment to make sure all is well. Hopefully we'll be able to have our anatomy scan during this appointment, but that's not set in stone just yet, keep your fingers crossed for us please.

I have been getting a lot of questions about Nessa Rose, and what we're doing with her. First, we didn't get rid of her! Second, we weren't sure how she was going to do down here. She is a very curious pup, and I was nervous about black widows and scorpions, I've seen neither so far, thank goodness. Our original plan was to have whichever set of parents comes down to visit first (that drives), bring her down. After seeing how many stickers and thorns there are all over the place, we thought it was best for her to stay in Omaha. Third, I have the best parents in the world. They very generously offered to keep Nessa for us until we return to Nebraska.

As for Josh and I, we are happy to be rejoined, and starting this new chapter. We've been busy planning our Thanksgiving feast, and it's been so nice to make plans knowing we have a big kitchen, an American sized oven, and that Josh will be here with us this year-that's my favorite part!

All packed up and waiting to go

My Monday and Tuesday were spent hanging out with my husband, staying out of the way of our movers, entertaining a 2 year old, and calming the nerves of an overly excited pooch.

It's all said and done, and our belongings are on a truck headed toward New Mexico. Now I'm very ready to head out of here. Josh and I were talking the other night about how we cannot believe we're at the end of our 3 year tour. We thought for sure it was going to feel like the longest 3 years ever, especially since we would be away from family and friends while bringing a baby into this world, but it's all gone by so fast, and we are so grateful for the time we've had here. But now it's time to move on and experience some new adventures!

 The movers used boxes for some stuff, but a lot of our odd shaped items were wrapped using this cardboard roll. I'd never seen it before, what a clever idea!

 If you couldn't tell, Gosselin Group moved us!

 I was okay with our living room getting packed up. I was good with our bedroom getting packed up. When it came to Coleden's bedroom, I got a little choked up seeing it all boxed up.

 We made a fort on Tuesday, and I think Cole was in there most of the day! Boys and forts, always a winning combo!

 When he wasn't in his fort, he'd walk around investigating things and came upon plastic straps (I have no idea what they're called) and decided to ribbon dance with them. Who needs toys? He also spent some quality time with a few boxes!

 We have a lot of crap, man. A lot. We filled up 8 of those crates.

So. Much. Crap.

PCSing stuff and other fun happenings this past week

We received a phone call yesterday from the moving company we'll be working with here, and finally have dates marked down for when they'll be coming. We still have a ton of items left on our checklists but it already feels like it's all coming together much better than last time.

Speaking of last time, thanks to my Timehop app, I was informed that 3 years ago today the movers showed up to our Biloxi house to pack up our belongings. I remember looking around at all of our stuff in boxes and thinking it finally felt real, we were really going to be moving to Germany.

In less than 20 days, our lives will once again be boxed up, and shipped away. I can't believe it's already been 3 years. It seemed like we'd be here forever, and here we are preparing to leave. The real challenge will be these next few days, when I have to decide what clothes are being shipped and which ones will be packed. Last time I didn't do well with this task, and I have the added pleasure of having to decide the same with Cole's clothes.

Josh took a couple of days off this past week so we could work on going through our storage area to figure what we wanted to keep, donate, or throw away. After taking a stroll down memory lane when we found a box filled with souvenirs from our wedding, we discovered over $100 in unused gift cards. That was a pleasant surprise! Now we're extra excited to get back to the states, so we can use them!

If you have any tips or suggestions for over-packers, please, please, PLEASE share them with me!

So...Photo Friday...

It feels like I have really dropped the ball this month with Photo Friday. Sorry about that. Instead of trying to play catch-up, I'll save the photos I didn't get a chance to shoot and apply them to a future Photo-A-Day. As much as I love Photo Friday, I think it'll be around November or December before I can even think about starting it back up. With our big move coming up, I don't think I'll have the discipline to keep up with it, I've already proven that, huh?!

Speaking of PCSing, Josh finally got his orders for New Mexico. I have been going crazy, making lists and Excel sheets for our upcoming move. Last time around, I wasn't fully prepared for what needed to be done before the movers showed up.

This time I'm determined to be more organized and take a more active role the day the movers do come. In Biloxi, I didn't know what to do with myself, so I just stayed out of their way. We lucked out and had some amazing packers, like really amazing. I don't think we had anything break, at least nothing important. When the movers come this time, I will be more vocal in what I think needs extra care (I've unfortunately heard too many horror stories with the German moving companies).

We're still about a month away from when Josh and I are wanting to have our household goods picked up, and I feel like I'm already behind. If I start packing for vacations a month in advance, how much sooner should I have been preparing for our big move?! Yikes! I'm getting stressed out just thinking about it.

The Niedermohr House

It's been almost three months since we moved off base, a first in my Air Force wife career, so I thought I'd share some photos of our house! I've always wanted to live in a house with a spiral staircase, and I can officially check that one off my bucket list! We also have a "guest house" to go with our main house, which just makes me feel super cool. Oh, and a special thank you to Joey Lennemann and Stephanie Bishop for helping us move, we couldn't have done it without you guys sorry it's taken so long to properly thank you.

Going clockwise from the top left:

• Our house! If you go up the stairs, you'll find yourself in our main house. If you decided to go down the stairs, you'll be in the guest house!
• Kitchen. Much smaller than the kitchen we had on base, but it does what it's supposed to.
• Living room and dining room.
• The loft. Where I'm typing this very post-woo!
• Spiral staircase. This is my favorite part of the whole house!!!
• The guest house. There is a storage room, a bedroom, a living area (pictured) and a small kitchen down there.

So far we love this house, and we especially love our landlady. When we first moved to Germany, we heard horror stories of people who lived off base, and had horrible renting experiences, especially when it came to dealing with landlords. Our landlady has been amazing, she even held our house for over a month for us-wow! I'll be even more over the moon when we finally have everything unpacked, including everything down in our guest house. Whenever that happens, I'll hopefully be posting more photos. Stay tuned...

Happy All Saints' Day

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! We sure did. I love, love, love this time of year. Apparently, in Germany this is the time of year we like to move. Hopefully within the next week or so, I'll have a lot more to share. Until then...

Is it December already?!

Holy cow! Can you believe it’s December already!? This year has been a true whirlwind. It’s weird to think that at the beginning of 2011 I was still living in Nebraska and working for Kids Net, counting down the days until I made the move to Biloxi, Mississippi.

Here we are, it’s December 2, 2011 and I’m in Ramstein, Germany! It’s crazy how in less than a year I’ve moved twice, met some pretty fun people, explored my surroundings, and last but certainly not least; Josh and I are having a baby!!! 

14 weeks and 5 days

In a year filled with so many wonderful memories, I feel especially blessed to add a baby into the mix! I am so incredibly excited to start yet another new journey, and I’m actually feeling pretty confident at this point! I thought I’d be a hot mess of nerves worrying about the pregnancy and our future child, but now that it’s really happening it’s almost like a calm has come over this typically hyper gal! Like it was meant to be; and I think it was!

Does it seem like all I talk about anymore is the pregnancy?! Man, sorry about that! It’s all new to me, so please excuse my constant need to share and thank you for continuing to read! You are a fabulous audience! Random thought: when I put “so please excuse my” did anyone else thing “dear Aunt Sally?” No? Oh man! Good times Mrs. Rezek, good times! 

Is that considered “pregnancy brain?” I don’t really think it is, because I’d think like that before I was pregnant, so maybe I’m just a loon and I accept that!

Moving Day...Again

I feel like a nomad, but I guess that’s the life of a military family! We’ve been in Germany for about a month and a half and are FINALLY moving into our new home tomorrow!

I’ve been packing all morning, so that when Josh gets home from work we can run and try and set up our internet service so we won’t be without it for too long! After that, we are loading his car up as full as we can so that tomorrow all we need to do is hop in the car and go to the place we’ll be spending the next 3 years of our lives!

Oh and I had a doctor’s appointment a couple of days ago, still haven’t heard the heartbeat, but I got an ultrasound since the baby wasn’t cooperating, I think the baby secretly did it on purpose, because the whole time we watched our little Etcha (that’s what I call the baby instead of “it” since ultrasounds remind me of an Etch-a-Sketch) on the screen there was a lot of flopping around and even some waving to us!!!

Well, I still have lots to do; I just wanted to update everyone! Also, Thanksgiving is in a WEEK, only 7 more days until I get to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Has it been 12 weeks already?!

I can’t believe that I’m already 12 weeks and some change! This is crazy! This week just keeps getting better too! This Friday, after almost a month and a half of living in a hotel and 3 months of living out of suitcases, we will finally have a place to call home and all of our belongings will be back in our hands!

To be fair, I know there are a lot of people who go longer without their possessions, and I don’t know how they do it. It does make me really appreciate what we do have, and when we have it all back, I will feel blessed!

I don’t think it would be a proper November post if I didn’t mention how excited I am for Thanksgiving!!! Almost a week away! Still have some shopping to do, but we wanted to wait to get the bigger stuff for when we got our house, and all the storage it holds! After that, it’s game on!!! Also, if it’s almost Thanksgiving, then it’s almost time for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!!! Yahoo!!!

Now the challenge is to get into our new home, and unpack like crazy so we can find out if our casserole dishes and turkey will fit in our oven-wish us luck!

This could be the pregnancy talking, or just random thoughts

Josh is working nights for the rest of the week, so I had a little extra time on my hands to do some pondering and this is what I came up with:

I really enjoy the show Reba, I forgot how funny it is!

This is exciting, at least to me, I think I’m starting to get a baby bump!!! As a result, my pants aren’t fitting the way they should, and I’m not quite ready for maternity pants. Thank God for sweatpants!!!

Crunch Berries are amazing; I can’t get enough of them!

German toilets are weird, they have a stop nozzle, and no matter where you go the flusher on every toilet is different. Some toilets are even self-cleaning!

I kid you not the big button is for "heavier things" and the small button is for "lighter things." All so you don't waste water.

I can’t wait until we move into our new home next week.

1. Because I want my clothes (that will still fit) back

2. My bed, my oh-so-comfortable bed

3. I’m ready for space that this hotel room is lacking

4. This room doesn’t have a bathtub, and I’d like to take a nice bath

Crangrape is my favorite juice!

I loved the movie Juno before I was pregnant and now it has a whole new meaning and appreciation for me!

Ice water has never tasted better to me!

Thanks Mom for the boots you bought me when we were home they have become the most comfortable pair of shoes I own currently!

I learned that if you ask a German how they are doing, they will tell you…in detail so don’t ask if you don’t really care but if they ask you feel free to tell them exactly what’s on your mind

On a similar note, I found out that if you are one of those people who like to block the aisle by standing in the middle or talking to someone else therefore blocking the way completely, a German is likely to GROWL at you and if that doesn’t work they will push past you and you will receive the stink eye as they go by. Beware, just beware!

I’m obsessed with looking at baby names, so many options!

I watched a professional bocce ball tournament on Euro Sports, it was intense!

I can’t wait to have American outlets again! At least that’s in the near future, gotta love base housing!!!

Well that’s pretty much it for me today, who knows what I’ll post tomorrow! Have a great day everyone!

Happy All Saints’ Day!

Okay, it’s no longer October, and in my mind that means it is time for Thanksgiving!!! But really it’s my excuse to start listening to Christmas music!

Typically, we decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving; last year however, Josh was at BMT so I started decorating around the 5^th of November!!! Can you tell who the holiday enforcer is?!

Oh and guess what?! An early holiday gift to us! We are moving into a different place (it’s the same kind of apartment, just available sooner!). I’m really crossing my fingers that we’ll be able to get our stuff on the new day we’re trying to get, that way we aren’t unpacking boxes and stuff the day before Thanksgiving like we were previously going to have to do.

I’m really excited for the coming weeks and I can’t wait to share them with you as they unfold! What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving or Christmas traditions?!