Parties

The past week we basically have been trying to get rid of all of our belongings that we can't take back home.  All our furniture, dishes, glasses, silverware, bikes, brooms, and the car which is what I'm the most worried about.  Our landlord has agreed to purchase our kitchen from us, which was a big relief.  There is has been a lot of interest in everything and we're getting pretty decent prices.  There are a lot of low income families in the military so people are thrilled to get our stuff.  Now that we are actually selling things though it's starting to hit home that we are actually leaving and that we wish we weren't.

Besides packing and selling our things we had some fun stuff this week too.  Haaken's T-ball finished up and the coaches put together an end of the year party at the USO building on post.  Haaken's coaches were an extremely nice military couple.  The husband was a sergeant in the motor pool and is deploying to Afghanistan in July.  His job downrange apparently will be to retrieve damanged vehicles from the field and then bring them back to the base of operations for repairs.  This is the first person I've actually discussed going down range with and it made a big impression on me.  His son is Haaken's age and when we started talking about it you could see on his face the worry and how much he was going to miss his family.  One thing we hadn't realized before coming here is on top of the actual deployment (which typically last 9-12 months or more) how much time the soldier's are away from their family's before they actually ship out.  The infantry will often be away for 6-8 weeks ahead of time practicing in the field here in Graf with maybe a day home on the weekends if that.  Many of the soldiers have been deployed two or three times.  Not to mention the fact that they are moved to a new location every 3 years.  The sacrifices these families make is pretty remarkable.  I'm not sure I could do it.

Friday night there was a going away party for the Dental Clinic.  Including Carissa there were 3 Specialists and a Major leaving.  The whole clinic and their families took over Tortuga's, the mexican restaurant in town.  The Colonel said nice things about each person and some of the soldiers received awards.  When it was Carissa's turn she got a huge cheer from all the soldiers which was pretty cool.  The Colonel presented her with a plaque and a certificate which will look nice in her new office back home.  They also gave her a fancy carved wooden sign for us to hang outside our house in Minnesota.  Finally, they presented her with a "Challenge Coin" for outstanding service in the clinic.

Challenge coins are a military tradition dating back to WWI.  Basically they started as a way to prove identification during wartime - for example if you got separated from your unit and had to prove you weren't an impostor.  They also are used as a way to recognize outstanding service or performance of duty.  They typically bear the insignia of the organization they came from - in this case Bavaria Dentac, which is the dental command for the region we live in.

Saturday Elise and her friend Daniella had a joint birthday party since they both turned 10 about a week apart.  We held it at Daniella's house and the kids played a bunch of different games and had cake and ice cream on a picnic table on the nature trail behind our neighborhood.  We also rented a bouncy castle so the kids had fun on that.  The only tough part about the party was Elise having to say goodbye to her friends when it was over since it probably was the last time she'd see them before we leave.

 Cake and presents

Flip Flop Craft

 Getting ready to take down the Piñata