Friday, October 30, 2009

Weekend Recipe

Tequila = Check
Triple Sec = Check
Sour Mix = Check
Rose's Lime Juice = Check
Red Bull = Check
Margarita Salt = check
Georgia vs. Florida = check (yikes!)
Ole Miss vs. Auburn = check

This is going to be a good weekend!! We have a Halloween party to go to on Saturday in the afternoon but we promised we would be home in the evening for trick or treaters. Since it is a HUGE football weekend, that is okay with me. I wish we hadn't sent our costumes from last year to storage because I would love to wear them again! What do y'all think?Who doesn't love the Jolly Green Giant and Sprout!?

I never have anything good to say on Fridays! I realize and recognize the fact that my Friday posts normally suck. Today I went to get gas and when I went to get my credit card out of my wallet, I nearly fainted when I saw it wasn't there. All I could think of was "not again" and "this time I already HAVE the gas and no way to pay"!! Thankfully I remembered at the last second that I had put my card in a different place so I didn't have to take my purse into the commissary a few days ago. THANK GOD. I have no idea what would have happened. I would have had to call Deaner to come pay for my gas I guess if I had no means of payment! I've got to get it together!

I also went to the commissary AGAIN. This time I bought 2 containers of sour cream and I am not giving EITHER ONE away this time!

Also, some fun news (for me)! Yesterday our Christmas cards came in the mail! I couldn't believe how quickly they arrived from Shutterfly! I was all pumped to start addressing cards etc when I realized that they forgot to send the envelopes!!!! How irritating!! I do have to admit that all it took was a phone call and they are priority shipping my envelopes to me so at least that was no hassle. Just have to wait a few more days to address envelopes. It is still October!! I was really happy with how they turned out so anyone on the fence about using Shutterfly, do it! They are running several deals right now and I was shocked at how inexpensive we got them.

That is all for today! Again, Friday posts suck, I know! I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Damn Sour Cream

I just noticed that it is almost 5pm, my husband should be on his way home from work and I haven't even started my blog post for the day. Probably because I haven't done anything worthwhile at all today! I put dinner in the crock pot at 9:00am and I have watched 4 episodes of Grey's Anatomy on itunes. Pathetic, I know. I am going to try and do a little bit better tomorrow! Especially now that I have to go back to the commissary for the THIRD time this week.

I'm getting a little annoyed with neighbor George. He is the nicest person I have ever met and I can't even tell you what trouble we would have been in if we didn't have him around to help us out. However, today he might have stepped over the line in annoyingness. When everyone came over to carve pumpkins on Tuesday some of you may recall that I had gone to the Commissary but forgotten my wallet. So the only thing that I had to make as an appetizer was an envelope of onion soup mix and a tub of sour cream. Viola! George proclaimed that it was the best appetizer he had ever eaten (I thought this was a bit over the top but apparently he was not kidding). Yesterday as I was about to make my way to the Commissary (again) he stopped me and asked me about the dip ingredients. Seriously? I know that they could not get Lipton Onion Soup mix in the German grocery stores so I told him I would buy him a box of it and he could get his own sour cream. Problem solved right?

Wrong. This afternoon when I was bringing in my garbage can low and behold, George shows up. He wanted to ask me what you mix the onion soup with. I again told him Sour Cream. He informed me that he didn't think that they could get sour cream in Germany but that he would do some research. I mean really. I think you would know if it was available or not. If you go your whole life without ever having sour cream or knowing what it is, you probably don't have it. I went about my afternoon. 20 minutes later the doorbell rang. George again. Asking to SEE my sour cream. So we come up to the kitchen where I have one almost empty sour cream container and one brand new one. I show him the old one. Thank god because he puts his FINGER IN IT AND TASTES IT. Then he deduces that they don't have it in Germany. He starts EYEING my NEW container. He starts to say that he needs it by tomorrow and there is no way possible for him to get it anywhere else. He asks if I am going to the Commissary AGAIN before tomorrow evening. NO NO NO. I have to draw the line somewhere!!!! It was MY sour cream!!! And I don't even LIKE sour cream but Deaner does and so I keep it in the house! I told him sorry, no, I needed it so he left.

Then I told Deaner what happened and after much going back and forth guess who delivers the new container of sour cream down to George in his office. ME. I feel so defeated. I held my ground for about 45 minutes and now I will probably have to return to the commissary tomorrow to buy myself more. You know, just to keep on hand in case our neighbors need to borrow it!

At least tomorrow is Friday! I plan on drinking many many adult beverages and enjoying my weekend!!!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Halloween Happiness!

Yesterday turned into a much more eventful afternoon than I originally planned for! Just about the time that I posted yesterday George rang our doorbell to ask if his wife, daughter, and two grandson's could come with him to carve pumpkins that same evening. It was 4:30pm and George was supposed to be at our house (alone) at 6:00pm. Oh lord. Deaner and I were planning on carving pumpkins and having a semi late dinner. This just about guaranteed that that wasn't going to happen!

I just had time for a VERY quick house cleaning, throwing together a very simple appetizer and setting up all the pumpkins. Of course they were early and Deaner wasn't even home from the gym. UGH. This would not have been a very big deal but George has a grandson that is rather rambunctious. And by rambunctious I mean that he might be borderline crazy. It was a quiet evening that he only hurdled himself onto my cleanly made bed and later threw a knife at me. I ducked luckily and it hit the window behind me but I always have to be on my toes around that kid!! I call him Dennis the Menice! Did I mention that he was 2 and a half?

The pumpkin carving was a huge success! Here is a picture of mine....One of Deaner's.....And of 8 year old, Julian's......Can you tell which of the two of us used a pattern and which one of us didn't!!?? HA! Here are a few more pictures of all of us pumpkin carvers. You can see that Deaner didn't even get to take a shower after the gym!I think that they all turned out really well and it was a really fun night. I think we will plan on making it an annual event. I can't wait to light the candles in the pumpkins again tonight! Today I had to go to the PX and buy more candy because little Julian said he was going to tell his entire class at school to come trick or treat at our house. GREAT!

I am currently making a new recipe for dinner. Deaner loves French Onion Soup and I am caramelizing the onions right now. God, it sure does take a long time! They have been on the stove for over an hour now! They sure do smell good right now! I might just run down to the bakery and see if it is still open and get a fresh loaf of bread. Hope everyone is having a Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Bonehead Moves

I am not sure what is wrong with me these days. I keep doing the most ridiculous things that are starting to leave even me stumped. I have never been a particularly forgetful person (though I do make a lot of lists) and I would not consider myself absent minded. My recent actions have me re-evaluating my normally "sound" mind.

1. Deaner and I each have certain responsibilities each month. He pays all of our household bills and I have two credit cards that I am currently paying off. I pay them each and every month, just as I have done for the past several years of my life. One is due on the 10th and one is due on the 24th of the month. It is like clock work. I never forget to pay either. That all changed this month. When I got online to pay Chase this month, a week before the payment was due, guess who forgot to pay them last month!?! I was dumbfounded. I still swear this was a mistake. I swear I must have paid them and then mistakenly not hit "submit", or SOMETHING that would logically explain this lack of responsibility. Thankfully Deaner wasn't mad at me for getting a late fee, after all it is the first time this has happened to me!

2. I drink diet drinks. It is the only thing we keep in the house besides iced tea and water. I don't think I have had a real coke since sometime in high school. Last week at the commissary I got my bi-weekly 12 pack of diet cherry coke. And then it MORPHED into REAL cherry coke while I was in the car driving home!!! Sometimes this happens to me when I am buying shampoo and conditioner. Typically the shampoo will morph into the conditioner or vice versa and I'll end up with two of one but I have never had my DIET coke morph before. Again, patience from my husband with just a helpful reminder to slow down and pay more attention. (I'm not sure how I can help morphing groceries)!

3. I picked out the perfect picture to purchase for one of our family members for Christmas. It was a shot of the whole family and everyone actually looked good. I was very excited to have discovered this and I anxiously got on Shutterfly, uploaded the picture and purchased it. When I went back and checked the order, I had ordered the wrong picture!!!! And the picture that I had ordered, I wasn't even IN! Classic case of not paying attention. Thankfully my error was noticed within the 30 minute window and I was able to cancel the order and correct my mistake.

4. I blew the fuse of my transformer out. I should have known my American hairdryer would blow it but I stupidly wanted to try "one more time". So I opened the top to get the burned up fuse out, to take to the store so I could get another one. I went to the store and had no trouble finding another one. When I got home I couldn't find the cap to the transformer ANYWHERE. Deaner and I have searched our room up and down and it is no where. Now we have a new fuse but no cap and therefore no transformer. I really thought it would turn up by now. And let's be honest, it could have been Deaner that lost it! It just goes with my "absent minded" theme!

5. I very nearly cut off my finger while chopping an onion. I chop onions practically everyday and this is not a routine occurrence.

6. I ran over my own poor pumpkin!!

7. And I have saved the best for last. Today I woke up and decided I was going to be productive. I was going to get up, shower, go to the PX and then hit up the commissary to buy our dinners for the rest of the week. I did all the previous things but I was held up at the PX. When I was about to get out of the car I grabbed my purse and thought to myself, "wow, my purse feels so light". Upon further investigation it was reveled that this was due to the fact that I FORGOT MY WALLET! Who does this? Who goes grocery shopping and doesn't bring their wallet?? I called Deaner and told him and he suggested I just use my credit card. Hello!! That would be IN MY WALLET! I had no choice but to come home. Guess I will try again tomorrow.

So, does anyone else have "issues" like this from time to time? I swear I am not normally like this. Please!! Make me feel better about myself!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Pumpkin Is Haunting Me

I have several updates from this weekend and though they are not in any particular order, they are all fairly humorous. First of all, I am pretty sure that the smashed pumpkin is haunting me. Saturday morning Deaner and I had to bring a load of glass bottles to the recycling bins on the edge of our town. This is the place that I chose for our pumpkin's grave site. I waited until there were no cars or people around (we suspect it is quite illegal to dump smushed pumpkins) and I rolled our poor pumpkin into a creek. When we pulled up to the recycling bins you can only imagine my surprise when I saw THIS!!!!!That is our freaking pumpkin! How did it get out of the creek?!? See that drop off behind it? The creek is down there. Now Deaner has me all worried that they are going to be able to trace the pumpkin back to us! Good thing I brought our other pumpkins into the house so hopefully no one can pinpoint me as the pumpkin dumper!

The rest of our weekend was nice and relaxing. Saturday we had a mexican fiesta and watched football. It was a good football day for Ole Miss and I was able to watch on the computer with a pretty perfect feed. The margaritas were also delicious!! Deaner almost chopped off his finger cutting limes and then I almost chopped off my own finger when I took over. Not good. We have gone through more bandaids in this weekend than ever before! And the sheets are in the washer right now because Deaner thought his cut was healed enough not to sleep with a bandaid on. Nice.

Right now I am doing laundry and debating whether or not I am going to go to the gym with Deaner this afternoon. Of course I don't want to but I know it would be good to get out of the house and get a little exercise. It is just such an exhausting task, going to the gym. We will see if it happens or not! Hope everyone is having a good Monday and a good week! We are looking forward to carving our pumpkins this week at some point and I spent yesterday making these Halloween treats just in case we have trick or treaters!
The ghost pops are actually tootsie pops, covered in a kleenex, tied with a ribbon and a face drawn on them. I think they are so cute. I remember making these every year with my mom and can't wait to give them out. George claims that we will have trick or treaters so we will see!! Happy Monday Y'all!

Friday, October 23, 2009

It's Friday It's Friday!

Thank god for Friday!! We don't even have any huge plans for the weekend but since I know it will include beer and football, I am a happy camper. Y'all, today has been really busy for me. I met my husband for lunch AND had to go to the grocery store. Whew! I was almost out of the house for 3 full hours! :) How different my life is from the way it was 8 months ago! I'm not complaining. I've made a big pot of chili in my new Martha Stewart pot (which rocks) and I'm waiting for Deaner to get home from work so we can enjoy an ice cold adult beverage!

I have found the best Christmas presents online but I am having an issue ordering it because my credit card's billing address is my APO address. I don't even want them to be shipped here (shipping all Christmas gift's to my parent's house) but my credit card keeps declining because I can't enter AE as my state. So it thinks my billing address is incorrect. I'm waiting to be contacted back to see if the owner can override the CC machine and enter my info manually. I WANT these gifts BAD so keep your fingers crossed!

This afternoon while Deaner was putting air in my car tires I discovered that my Jeep has a 6 disc CD changer in the back!! What a great surprise! I asked Deaner if he thought there was any chance that we could have gone three full years without ever noticing it! I think there is a good chance that would have happened if I hadn't have been looking for the user manual. Now I have 6 new CD's loaded in to my car and I'm loving it!

Ok, I'm signing off for the weekend. I hope that everyone has a good time and everyone's football team wins!!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Daily Happenings

Well I don't really have any daily happenings to tell y'all about today. I have pretty much done nothing all day long! I think that all my house work has finally caught up to me! I was super excited about all the comments that I got on the house yesterday. Thanks! I have been working hard and I think it is starting to pay off. It is just amazing how things get so messy again so quickly!

Yesterday Deaner and I went on another walk up in the vineyards. It is just so pretty that I find myself not dreading it like I normally do all other exercising! Plus, it takes HALF the time of going to the gym! This time I remembered to bring my camera and it gave me an excuse to keep stopping! Here is the beginning of our walk where we first enter the wine vineyards.During our exercise sessions I like to keep up a pretty good pace walk. Deaner runs in front of me, runs back to me and sometimes runs circles around me. He definitely gets more benefits from our walk but I am just not a runner. Here he is running back towards me after a little jaunt ahead of me!Another shot of Deaner sprinting ahead of me.It is the prettiest walk I have ever been on. From the top of the vineyards you can see our whole town and the Rhine River.I love it when we get to the top because I can actually jog all the way back down to the bottom. Running is MUCH easier when it is downhill! :)

Tonight Deaner and I are going to eat left over lentil soup and have grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. Yum! Most of the time I don't love leftovers but we are trying not to waste so much food these days. We have no huge weekend plans besides watching football. We have to carve pumpkins at some point but I don't know when is too soon?? How long do pumpkins last once they are carved? It is pretty cold here (in the 30's at night) so I would think they would be okay for a week? I'm just not sure. Alrighty, time to find something else to busy myself until Deaner gets home from the gym. This has been a loooong boooooooooring day. At least tomorrow is Friday, right?

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Updated House Pictures!!

I have had a few people ask me over the past week to do some updated house pictures. Since the house needed a good scrubbing I decided what better time to do it and take some pictures! Y'all have to understand there is lots more to be done but I think that I have come a long way! I'll start with the second floor (the first floor is just our front foyer and our unfinished basement space). Our house is 4 full floors but if you count the split levels it really has 6 sets of steps. It is sort of hard to explain and my friend Julia told me this weekend that when she saw it in person it wasn't how she had imagined. Y'all will just have to try your best! First here are some pictures of the kitchen.This is a shot from the other side of the kitchen looking out into the dining room.Here is the dining room up close. I really really need a big piece of furniture to go against that large white wall and a big piece of art for the wall. I want to buy something nice so I am going to have to wait for a bit.See those three steps in the corner? They go up to the den which is on a landing of it's own. In this picture, I am standing in the den overlooking the dining room.And here are some shots of the den, where we spend most of our time and eat dinner every night.Last but not least we have the laundry room. This is probably where I spend the MOST time so I love that I love this room. I told everyone about hand painting the tiles etc and today I put up the wall decal that Steph and Jon gave us as a house warming gift! I LOVE it and I think that it is the perfect place for it! It definitely makes the room.As you can see, I also keep a lot of my "extras" in this room! I'm just so excited about the wall decal! And after I fought with it for almost an hour I was so surprised that I didn't manage to mess it up! Next up is the 3rd floor rooms. Our bedroom and master bathroom are close to done. I still need a rug and curtains in our bedroom and there is nothing we can do about the tile in the bathroom for now. Deaner did get our shower set up (we originally only had a bathtub) and once he puts up a curtain rod support this weekend, I can hang the actual shower curtain (not just the liner).Guest bedroom and guest bathroom. Both of which need total makeovers.The shower is to the right of the sink but I couldn't get far enough away to get it in as well! And finally we are up to the 4th floor of the house which has two bedrooms. One is smaller than the other but the smaller one is the only one with any type of furniture! Small one first (it has a balcony!).And last but not least the empty room that is huge and oddly shaped!In the last picture I am standing on the platform looking down into the room. Such a wierd room but big none the less. Anyways, that is all my pictures for the day! I have a nice clean house and a turkey in the slow cooker! I'm so domestic and handy! :) Hope everyone enjoys the pictures. Deaner just walked in the door from work and since it surprised us and the weather is nice again, we are going on another walk in the vineyards. I will take my camera this time!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

I missed my calling.......

I think that in a former life I must have been a house painter. I'm not sure if I liked my profession in my former life but I know that I was good at it and that I had a problem stopping something I started. Some might think that this is a good quality but with painting, I seem to take it to an extreme. I woke up this morning and figured that it was about time that I snapped the lazy streak that I have been on lately. After painting approximately 2,000 square feet in the downstairs alone in our new house, I really burned out. I managed to paint our bedroom on the second floor but that has been it. The walls in our landing/office space REALLY needed a fresh coat of white paint before I could hang the rest of our pictures on the walls. I've just been dreading doing it. This morning I decided I was sick of looking at the paintings leaned against the walls in the places that I had picked out for them. I busted out the brush around 10am and when Deaner walked through the door from work around 5:15pm I had just hung the last picture on the freshly painted and dry walls. I even missed Days of Our Lives (although I turned up the TV really loud and listened--it's really amazing, I'm pretty sure I could picture exactly how it went anyways!). I knew that I had taken it to the extreme when Deaner texted me in the early afternoon and I couldn't grip my iphone to text him back. My hand is sore but my walls look great!! I finally hung the 4 pen and ink drawings Deaner's mother gave us in our bedroom and they look great. I would have taken a picture but I was too lazy to make the bed this morning (I didn't say I broke the lazy streak COMPLETELY!) and I wouldn't dare post a picture without our bed linens looking their best! I have some standards!

When Deaner got home from work he was pretty surprised to see that my "surprise" consisted of painting the majority of the upstairs. I'm nowhere near down with the 3rd and 4th floors of the house. Those rooms require more than just paint and I'll need to put a little more thought into them. After my painting marathon Deaner and I went on another walk up in the vineyards since it was such a beautiful day. The weather here has been gorgeous the past 3 days (hence me agreeing to exercise 3 days in a row!) but it is supposed to rain for the next 4 days. Ugh.

In other news, y'all might be wondering about my trip to the school today to PRINT my profile thingie. I decided to call this time before wasting my time going over there. Thank god I did because supposedly the printers were still down and it would have been a waste of time. Guess I have to try tomorrow! I got my LL Bean catalog today in the mail and I think that I must have this sweatshirt. It is lined in fleece and looks perfect for lounging around the house.Hint hint Mom, I know you are reading this and Christmas is coming! By the way, I love my new Martha Stewart pot, so thanks for that too! :)

I'm off to eat gummy bears and watch Dancing With the Stars. This show is so gay but my choices are limited here in Germany! Hope everyone is having a good day!

Monday, October 19, 2009

RIP Pumpkin

Our poor poor pumpkin will never be a jack-o-lantern! I'm not sure why my husband thought it would be a good idea to move the pumpkins from their original place where I set them up to their new home but one of them met an untimely end this morning. Their new home just happened to be a little bit too close to the edge of our garage. As I was packing out this morning to head into town I saw an old man gawking at me and I had no idea why. Then I felt the giant thump as my car clearly rolled over something. When I got out and looked I had run clean over the poor pumpkin!! No wonder the old man was staring at my car! Deaner and I had been planning a pumpkin carving contest and George begged to get in on the action. So I had three big beautiful pumpkins on the door step. No worries, I already bought a replacement (that I like the best) at the commissary and disposed of the busted pumpkin. There was no way in hell I was going to put it in our tiny trash can! It would have practically filled up the whole thing! I loaded up the squished mess in the back of my Jeep and drove to the edge of our town where I rolled the pumpkin into a creek! Biodegradable right? :) Of course Deaner has made me feel super guilty by saying that our pumpkin's only dream in life was to become a jack-o-lantern, as if it had FEELINGS!

This past weekend was a lot of fun. It was great to see our friends, the Elkington's, and their family! We had a nice visit and a good dinner! It was also a good football day! All three of our teams won! The weather in Wiesbaden has been gorgeous and last night Deaner and I took a long walk up in the vineyards. It was so pretty that we are going to do it again tonight! I'll have to bundle up to brave the cold but as long as it is not rainy and gross, might as well while we can!

I have to go back to the elementary school AGAIN tomorrow to finish doing my substitute paper work. Don't even get me started on that since it will be the 5th time that I have had to go back. Today I went to change TWO dates on my application thinking that it would be the last time I had to go. WRONG. The printers were down and guess who WON'T print it for me? I have to go back and needless to say, I was really irritated. I have never been to a place that is so unorganized. I don't think this is a good sign either! Hopefully tomorrow I will get everything done without another unnecessary hold up! Wish me luck and I'll be back tomorrow!!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

$30 Quesadilla

Well, I have never in my life, paid $30 for a steak quesadilla! I guess there is a first time for everything, right? Last night Deaner and I ventured out to find a Mexican restaurant that we had located on the internet that was close to our hotel here in Brussels. Surprisingly, we had no trouble finding it. Unfortunately it nearly gave me a coronary when I saw the prices. And we had already walked all that way! We decided to gut it out and give it a try. We are being paid per deim to be here but we try not to always spend every single penny of it! No luck with that last night! After enjoying guacamole that was nearly $12 our food came and looked like this........I was half expecting it to be made out of solid gold, but no such luck! I know it looks like a pile of slop but it was actually decent. Not $30 good, but it satisfied the mexican craving. I can't express enough how much we miss decent mexican food. It was one of our staples back at home and I can guarantee we will be dining on it several times when we go home in December! Which is in approximately 63 more days!!!

Our drive over here yesterday was eventful. Brussels is an awful place to drive. The buildings are high and our GPS doesn't register fast enough. The streets are crowded with walkers and bikers and the drivers are similar to New York. Mix all that with staying in a different hotel than we normally do and that equals not a pleasant drive inside the city limits! Our hotel is fancy but it isn't as close to all the hub bub as our normal Marriot so today is going to be a boring day for me. I'm just ready to head back to Germany. Also, I found out that Deaner has to stop at one last school on the way home on Friday! I seriously thought we were just going home. Boooo!! So make that 4 days in a row of wearing the same dress shirt! I'm surprised but we have only had 1 minuscule spill. I'm so proud!

I'm ready to be home! My friend Julia is in town with her family (husband, daughter, dad, and brother) and Deaner and I are hosting dinner on Saturday. It will be a lot of fun to see old friends and get to catch up. We always have a good time. Anyways, I am off. Hope I don't die of boredom this afternoon!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Maastricht, Netherlands

Today has been a long day. I had to get up and leave the house with Deaner this morning at "normal work time" and to say that I am out of the habit would be an understatement! God, I hate waking up so early! It was a pretty uneventful drive to The Netherlands. Deaner had to make stops at two schools along the way and guess what I got to do while he was working?!?! Sit in the car! It was SO exciting! Thank god I have a good book with me! :) The first school was in The Netherlands with a stop for lunch before the second school which was in Belgium. Then we headed to our hotel in the city of Maastricht in The Netherlands. We are both really pleasantly surprised with how neat this city is! We had a nice long walk around when we got here and here are a few of the highlights. It helped that the weather was nice! The picture above it right outside our hotel, which is right on the Maas River.We both LOVED this building! It is the tourism office for the city.Isn't this a pretty city! I won't mind if Deaner has to come work here again sometime! That is about all from today. Tomorrow Deaner has to go to two different schools. I am hoping that I only have to sit in the car for the first one! By then I will probably have finished my book! This is going to be an interesting trip. I say that only because Deaner walked out of the house this morning and left all his hanging dress shirts at home. That's right, he has ONE dress shirt for THREE days of work. Can we say stinky? We also had a little scare that he might have forgotten his deoderant. Thankfully it was only a scare! And at least he only has to work a couple of hours a day! He better not eat or drink ANYTHING while in work clothes!! I'll let y'all know how that goes!! I'm off to read!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Wine wine wine!

Do I have your attention yet? I feel like I have been a blog slacker lately but I am not sure why! I've still been missing my parents but that gets a little better everyday. This has been a fun filled weekend and I'll start at the beginning. Friday I was SO excited to find night stands that were suitable for our bedroom. I am not in love with them but they will certainly do until I find something that I can't live without. I told myself I was going to go to Ikea ONE MORE TIME and was not leaving without something I could use, no matter what. Thankfully I came up with these.Y'all have no idea how happy I am to have my bed and now something to put my book on each night. In all the time that Deaner and I have been together, I have never had my own alarm clock! When I wake up at night, I HAVE to know what time it is. This means that for that the past four years I have had to sit up in bed and look OVER Deaner's body to see what time it is. It is AWESOME to have my own clock now!! Oh the small things!

Friday evening was spent putting the nightstands together and then we had left over enchiladas. Yum! Saturday we slept in, went to lunch on the base, and then headed to the Wiesbaden soccer game! I have never been to a professional soccer game and I have to say that it was pretty boring!I'm not sure that I want to go back any time soon. And every single person around us was smoking. Nasty! Since we have moved to Europe I have gone from being very tolerant of smoking to being totally grossed out by it. And it is like a pre-requisite of being European. Afterwards we went to the grocery store to pick up dinner and snacks for football watching. Deaner made wings with homemade wing sauce (I had grilled chicken with the sauce) and it was DELICIOUS! I can't wait to have it again! Unfortunately it was a terrible outing football wise for me. While Deaner's team, UVA, won, both my teams lost. Dear Ole Miss and Georgia, you pretty much sucked this weekend and left me in a foul mood! Unfondly, Sarah.

Sunday Steph and Jon came over and we grilled out and played a really fun game called Apples to Apples. I would highly recommend it for those who like playing games. Easy and entertaining! We drank lots of beer and an awesome drink called Gluwein. It is like a mulled red wine that is served hot. It is a Christmas type drink and Steph and Jon found it in the local German grocery store. I can't wait to have more at the Christmas market! We had lots of fun.

Today Deaner had the day off! A big thanks to Christopher Columbus for discovering America!! We really appreciate it! :) Deaner and I spent the afternoon on a tour of an old Monastery/winery. We have been to Kloster Eberbach before but never on the tour. Someone from his office set up an English speaking tour and it was really fantastic. At the end, we had a wine tasting in a candle lit wine cellar!! Here are a few picture of the Monastery.The candlelight tasting at the end was the best. It was a little dark for a picture but I think you can sort of see where we were in this picture.I can't wait to take my brother in law to do this tour! Now we are home and just enjoyed lentil soup and grilled cheese for dinner. Deaner is falling asleep sitting straight up and it is only 7:30! Guess I won't get a ton of reading in tonight! Tomorrow we are heading to the Netherlands for Deaner's work and then the rest of the week we will be in Brussels. I'll have PLENTY of time to blog from there. By the time we get home on Friday the weather is calling for a low of 30 degrees. I think I will probably die here this winter!! Alright, I'm heading to read now!! By the way, this is my 200th post!! I know, really eventful!! Happy Monday!