My Big, Fat, Crazy Week:

It seems like sometimes, I have to think real hard to come up with something to blog about and other times, I have so much to blog about that I can't find the time to write it all down.

This is one of those times.

Sunday was Fathers' Day, of course, and I had really wanted to write a long, wistful homage to Stefan for being such a wonderful father to Adela and Flora. The day came and went and I never got it done.

Wednesday was our 3rd anniversary and I had wanted to scan in a wedding picture and write about how grateful I am to have had 3 such wonderful years with my adoring husband. That day came and went and I never got it done.

I rationalized by saying, "Well, we ARE going to minibar at Cafe Atlantico tonight and THAT will really make for an interesting blog post, especially for my similarly food obsessed friends and family. Of course, on Thursday, I was too hungover and overwhelmed to write that post.

Then somewhere in the course of all of those things happening, we got some pretty jolting news: They are "breaking" our assignment to Frankfurt.

It would seem that one of the very things that made our Germany post so interesting (Stefan was born there) is turning out to be the very thing that will keep us from being posted there. His dual citizenship represents a problem, which is something we always wondered about and therefore, Stefan was very transparent about it from the beginning of the whole process. Bureaucracy being what it is, they overlooked his initial concerns and posted us there anyway. And now we've told everyone. I've spent two weeks learning German via FSI's Rosetta Stone and Stef's spent three polishing his German in class; not to mention the hours we've spent fantasizing about living in Frankfurt and the trips we've reserved (in our heads only, of course)!

Alas, this is a lesson that is worth learning early on. Stefan told me yesterday that he's heard of some Officers who spend an entire career not going to the places they were originally posted to. This latest development is further evidence that it takes a very special type of flexibility to live a Foreign Service life well.

So, here we are, seemingly back to square one, clutching the 154th A-100 class' bid list. Yes, we do have to bid again. The good news is that the 154th has an exceptionally good list. Assuming the same rules apply, I can't mention specifics, but I can say that we might end up being better off...