Lis and Tyler in Germany

Today we went back to the Ramstein airbase (for the third time) to try to get Tyler a job at Taco Bell (or some other such place). The military is amazing. We’ve never been exposed to the military world, so we’re new at this. First of all, you never have to use a whole word. There is an acronym for everything. SOA, they are thorough. Tyler needed a passport, a valid, state-issued ID, a birth certificate and a social security card just to get permission to apply for a job. Our third lesson (which is one that I knew, but never really from first-hand experience) is that they are really serious about rules. Really. In fact, I probably shouldn’t post the story online incase they’re checking to see if we incriminate ourselves on our blog. But let’s just say that we broke an itty-bitty rule about shopping on the base and felt that armed guards were coming out of the woodwork to hunt us down. Tyler still doesn’t have a job and will return on Monday to turn in (in person) his third set of paperwork. Hopefully this leads to something good.

After the airbase, we went to France. And I forgot to mention how, exactly, we go to Ramstein or France or wherever it is that we go. We go with Miriam, Ben and Nico in their TINY Alfa Romeo, with “little” Lissy wedged between the car seats in the back seat. And when I say wedged, I mean it in the strictest sense of the word. If they made Lis-size shoehorns, I would use one. I can choose one shoulder to put back at a time and have to put my arms other arm up and over the back of one of the kids’ car seats. And we go fast. So, we went, in our little sardine-can racecar, to France to buy water. The family buys bottled water from France because it’s so much cheaper there. But since gas is expensive and it’s about a 45-minute drive, they want to make such trips worthwhile. We bought enough water to fill a small pool. We also bought some brie for a little over a Euro and it’s likely the best brie I’ve ever had. Next week, we may have a problem getting to and from in the Alfa Romeo.