It has been forever so I will give you a little update:

We left here:


Looked at a lot of these...


Finally decided on this...


We're not sure about our decision. The more we find out about the house, the more work we realize needs to be done. Our neighbors don't talk to us and our ward doesn't know we exist. At least we're only here for a couple of years. Although, I am hoping that things will change and we will come to like it here.

We looked for these...

Finally ended up ordering some off the internet {hey, I read the comments} but they just didn't fit us--even though they are simple and cute. So we had to box them back up {BIG pain in the ****} and return them.

Decided to paint all of our brassy doorknobs...

To this...
Just kidding, that is only the primer. They are still in the finishing phase.

Decided to paint the laundry room...

And thought, wow, that paint sample is going a long way. So I kept painting. Went back to the store for another paint sample, cuz dang, it's a lot cheaper than paint. Found out that's cuz it's not "real paint". So, I wasted time doing that instead of just painting a spot on the wall to test the color. Not sure you can even tell one wall is a blueish-grey because it reflects on the other walls. I'm waiting until Sherwin-Williams is having there Anniversary Sale this coming weekend with 40% off. I'm also really liking some Benjamin Moore colors but the closest store is 25 miles away. Did I mention we live in the middle of nowhere?

Do you like my washer & dryer. I love them.

I would love to give you more pictures of our house but I can't because we're still in moving mode. But hopefully those will come soon enough. I'm stressed out just thinking about it!

Send Her Home

WHY is Kate still on Dancing With The Stars??? Send her home!!! Vote for anybody else, please. I beg you.
I'm too lazy to post a picture.

Dublin

We decided to go to Dublin last weekend. The decision was between Scotland or Ireland and Ireland prevailed, maybe because I have Irish in me. We quickly regretted our decison when...just kidding. We had such a great time in Dublin! I guess you could say this trip was a mix-up with times as I'll explain in the post. First off, we thought we were going to be in Dublin for 2 full days. It would be a short but sweet trip and we'd be back for Sunday so Rick could teach Sunday School and I could get sustained to my new calling {Relief Society Secretary}. Turns out instead of 9pm, we'd be back at 9am Saturday morning, big difference. Stink. So we had all of Friday to visit Dublin. Our flight left at 6am something Friday morning so we had to leave our house by 4am something. One would think we would have gotten to bed early that night. Nope, we went to bed past 1am. Stink. Luckily, we woke up and got to the airport on time.

This is what the weather was like when we left Germany. The funny thing is, we didn't want to be in Ireland too long because of the cold. We didn't want it to be cold & misrable outside that it would be a chore to sightsee.

Well, Dublin was actually very nice weatherwise, it barely even sprinkled (for Ireland weather we were told it was nice. It's green there from a reason). The above picture is one of the first we took for obvious reasons. Hey, it's Irish English--maybe they don't have the same slang as we do. Do you know that Celtic is the national language of Ireland? Yup, everybody learns it in school and all the signs are in it.

It was a little early after arriving in Dublin. The airport is so close to the city that we were able to take a regular bus and it cost a fraction of what an airport bus would've cost. We stopped a traditional Irish Breakfast, that's what the sign said anyway. Our breakfast came with both hot chocolate and orange juice. How's that for a nice treat? Rick got the meat & potatos dish, while I chose the crossaint and fruit cup dish. Don't worry, the fruit was swimming in whipped cream.

Here's the marshmellows that came with the hot chocolate. They double as hats when you're cold.

I'll post more on this trip later...hopefully. I'll just add on to this post, so check back later when insomnia hits. It's almost 2:30am and I should really try and go to bed. I'm on a bad sleep cycle!

A Powerful Story

I got this in an email forward and thought it was quite powerful.

Before seeing the video, read below to understand the video:
The video shows the winner of "Ukraine’s Got Talent", Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about $130,000.00. She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.
She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.
This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye..

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.


Kseniya Simonova says:
"I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment."

Snow Snow, Everywhere, Snow

I had big plans for today. We were going to go to the Metz Fleamarket. I guess it's a pretty big one and I love flea markets. Love them. After that, we were going to go to our French Walmart aka Cora and pick up some French goodies. Then, we would drive to Mettlach where they have a Villroy & Boch outlet, along with Silit and Land's End outlets. {Of course, we'd keep our eyes open for any other flea markets along the way.} Next we'd make our way to European Country Living to mostly look around there. We have fallen in love with a farmhouse style table with a butterfly leaf that costs as much as our rent. But they also have other cute things there and sometimes we splurge a little. We'd finish up the day at Ramstein where there is an Air Force base and a big American-type mall complete with a movie theater complex and a Macaroni Grill. Then we'd drive home and sleep soundly in a warm bed.

That was my plan.

Until it snowed last night.

( picture taken after all said events)

We left anyway this morning to make the plan a reality (a little later than I wanted to, but we left nevertheless).

We drove.

Then we were driving slower. Meanwhile let me add there was lots of snow everywhere but the freeways were pretty okay. But then traffic slowed down to 20. And I think that was kilometers. Maybe I'm confused how slow we were going but it wasn't pretty and we still had a long ways to go.

So we turned around.

Sad. I know.

We tried to follow signs to other flea markets but the snow was bad and we thought they might have cancelled them anyway.

We found one flea market that was basically like 5 people having a combined garage sale. We got 2 children's books. Our children to be are going to have no idea what we're saying but we got them anyway.

Then we went to Ikea and got lunch because it was already that time. Yes, we had been driving around for like 3 hours! And we spent way more money that we planned for lunch. Because I thought they were still serving breakfast until I got up to the lady behind the counter with the food. So we ate delicious Swedish meatballs and salmon and drank hot chocolate. We did this even though we splurgged last night and ate at Die Kartoffel. And when I say splurgged, I mean we splurgged.

Die Kartoffel brings out a salad and then later a huge potato with mounds {literally} of sour cream. The main meat comes out on a hot simmering stone. It cooks in front of you. It's pretty cool and we had to do it at least once. We ate down in some old wine cellar that was decorated with antiques. Should have taken a picture of those. It was fun, we got to know more people from church.


So now we're home. Rick's asleep on the couch and I am almost done cooking an incredible soup recipe. If tortellini sausage soup doesn't hit the spot then I don't know what would because that soup is amazingly delicious! p.s. that website, the one with the soup, is amazing. I've already tried their Brazilian Lemonade and Cinammon or Orange Rolls. They are amazing.

Okay, so basically I just gave you all my secrets. So treat them wisely.

But getting back to the snow part--it sort of stunk. I need to go to flea markets. NEED.

I guess there's next week...

Here's a teaser picture from our Strassbourg outing the week after Christmas,

Can you believe they strung up that beautiful chandelier in the middle of a street. It was really beautiful. The house behind it isn't bad either.

More on Metz

In Metz, I...

Saw this cool church

Hung out with these lovely ladies

Saw this cool floor downstairs in the crypt of that cool church.
Can you tell what the different designs/symbols represent?

Took a picture of the entry way and doors of the church.

Ate this. Do you know what it is? Have you ever had it?

Do you like it?

Bought this and later found a surprise in it.

Discovered the joy of yogurt. If you are French, and don't like yogurt,

there may be something wrong with you. These TWO aisles are full of yogurt!

Saw what some might be eating for Christmas dinner.

Remember, in the Christmas Carol (the one with Scroge),

what did he end up buying them for Christmas dinner?

Saw the world's smallest potato.

...and some other different kind of vegetables.
Do you know what this is?

Oh, and did I mention this was all after outlet shopping and trying to climb and tree to get some mistletoe? Yup, it was a fun and full day. I hope to do something similar again soon!

Glee

Now you know it's trouble when all I post are videos. Wish I would have seen this episoide:



As for me and my life I went to France yesturday and loved it!!! At this moment I do not want to leave Germany! (Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Because of he-who-should-remain-nameless that lives above us and is SUPER loud!)

I got lucky and somehow got invited to go to Metz, France with a group of great girls. Seriously, if I could do something with them every once in a while, my life would be complete. The story of how I "got" to go was being in the right place at the right time, because I don't know if it was a deliberate invite. {I don't mean that to sound negative. I'm just not that popular.} So, last Saturday at our ward Christmas breakfast, yes, you read right, breakfast--one of the ladies in the ward (church group) asked if I'd ever want to go to France. Um, hello, yes! But I thought she was just mentioning and asking for future reference for one of those things you talk about doing, but never actually do it.

But then Tuesday night I get a call from her and she says, "can you go Thursday and not Wednesday?". I said, "go where?". I had no idea what she was talking about. But alas, when she said, "France", I said, "oui". (I'm blaming that forgetful moment on the "breakfast" part of "Ward Christmas". ) Luckily for me she is one of those girls that says when she's going to do something, she does it and I was only lucky to be a part of it.

So, France. Let's just say I may have bought all my Christmas presents for myself {from Rick, of course} there and then some :) p.s. if you don't know the brand name Bonne Maman, you are really missing out. I've seen there marmalade sold in Safeway, I love it. They also make these little tartelettes that I am excited to try. Not to forget the chocolate covered pear, tarte myrtille chantilly, le yaourt vanille (the best my paris living friend said she's had), oasis drinks, galette des Rois Frangipane, Petit ecolier, and the list goes on and that's just the food! I mean, it's here in the kitchen. We are going to eat that food in the near future. I did not eat all that while I was in Metz.

I had a wonderful time! I tried pate (I'm not quite sure about that, yet), had some crepe, I think I basically ate my way through Metz. At least I worked out this morning, whew!

Hopefully some pictures to come.

Au Revior {did I spell that right?}

Giving Thanks

I'm a little late on the whole Thanksgiving thing but saw this on another blog and thought it was sweet. It's still November and a good time to give thanks, so enjoy!

Our Thanksgiving was really nice and I wish I had pictures to show but I didn't take any. My mom and I went up to Monterey to my cousin's house. The weather was so lovely, it was really warm and sunny. The food was delicious and the company was terrific.

Before we left for Monterey, I had made a pumpkin pie from scratch, using Libby's pumpkin. I couldn't help myself when we got home and had to try it. It was so good! I think that was my first pumpkin pie and it was delish, if I don't say so myself.

p.s. i finally figured out how to put a youtube video on my blog!!!

Improv Everywhere!

I LOVE this concept! Would love to be a part of it sometime. Have seen these forever ago but didn't know how to put them on my blog until now...watch out!

Here's another fun one (there are many):



These happen to be both about food. Hmmm...maybe I'm hungry. Okay, one more without food this time:

New Blog Background

It's funny that I've got a new blog background but haven't posted in months. New Blog Background compliments of http://www.jannypie.com/. I think it's really cute!

There is Beauty All Around

This
can not

even begin to describe

how beautiful

the Black Forest is.

Just a Tad Too Small

Okay fine, I'm gaining weight and I'll deal with it...somehow. But not by cutting back on Magnum Ice Cream bars, Haribo Gummy Candy, or all the delicious food I get to eat. But somehow I want to be able to comfortably fit in my clothes again.

food i like to eat
was so busy eating it after it was cooked -- forgot to take an after picture

This is what I'm thinking everytime I put on a shirt or pull it down during the day because it's not long enough when it used to be fine. This is what I've been thinking for the past looong time. But when I do go somewhere with a scale, although I'm a few pounds more than I used to be, I'm not that much heavier (cuz then I wouldn't be doing a blog post about my weight). So I just go on wearing the small clothes, wondering what on earth happened to my clothes but blaming it on a weight gain, I mean, what else could it be?

Let's go back to where I'm wrong. Yes, wrong. I admit it. My husband once cautioned me about how hot the water in the washing machine gets. I'm talking H-O-T. Like 60-95 degrees Celsius. We're talking 140-203 degrees in Fahrenheit. 212 degrees is the boiling point of water--the boiling point! And it didn't really sink in but I thought, I wouldn't wash on the "white clothes" mood aka the hot cycle. Problem solved, I thought. Okay, it's still hot if you wash on the "colored clothes" option. But I never really did get the whole Farhrenheit thing very well, let alone Celsius.

It was not until I decided to wash my carry-all bag that I realized I am shrinking everything by washing and/or drying it!!! EVERYTHING. I fully admit I thought Rick was overreacting because he is tall and slender. He has mentioned how he'll buy a new shirt and it fits perfect before he washes it. But after the wash, it's just a tad too small. (American manufactors don't supply the "tall and slender" population very well. It's usually the "tall and overweight" category when looking at XL clothes.)

bag under discussion is to the left of me in the picture

the most delicious shave ice we've ever had at Matsumoto's in Hawaii


It's really unfortunate that I found a few great pairs of jeans before discovering this dilema because now they are just a tad too tight.

My bag, which I could previously shop at the grocery store and stuff a ton of stuff in it (Germans don't give out bags at grocery stores like in the States--you have to pay for them, so the majority of the customers bring their own). We're talking a couple liters of bubbly water, a package of cheese, some bags of bread, maybe some of our favorite jam or pesto sauce--all in my handy shoulder bag. My bag, which used to be able to hold my school books and notebook, still does but now I have to turn them vertical! So yes, I have definite proof that my bag--along with everything else I've washed in the past YEAR has shrunk!

my very nice, sweet, and sexy husband holding said bag

Yes, my bag which I used to be able to throw in a big sized beach towel and beach necessities can now only carry a regular sized to smallish towel. I like them big, people. BIG.

me, being delighted with my bag (hidden behind the big hawiann towels we got)

i told you, i like them big

don't mind the big white car in the picture--has nothing to do with the story

So I admit my wrongful actions and unfortunatly I did not realize that washing and drying our laundry was harming the whole batch. I guess the bright side is, I can't blame my weight! But now I need a whole new wardrobe and I like the one I had. I guess it's not as bad as it seems. I still fit into my clothes but they're just a tad too small.

Is there a secret to un-shrinking clothes?

What would you do if you shruk your whole wardrobe?

Do you think you would figure it out quicker than I did?

Would you be happy you strunk your clothes so you could buy new ones?

Do you know where to buy clothes for tall & slender people?

Are you going to answer these questions?