just you and me baby...

Sunday, April 15, 2012

The North Sea

Last weekend we took a trip to the Netherlands to see the Keukenhof and made a stop at the beach! It was cold and windy but so beautiful. I'm so glad we stopped. I can only imagine how amazing it would be in the warm summer sun.

We stole sea-shells from the sea shore :)

Goodbye Sea!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

I WILL win an Epiphanie bag if I try hard enough!

I entered the Epiphanie Camera Bags + Zenfolio Picture It photo contest! http://bit.ly/Ix1mXq

I have entered 3 or 4 contests so far trying to win one of these Epiphanie camera bags. I will not give up until I finally have one. I think it's become an obsession. My current camera bag is very sad. It's a purse I picked up in Trier, Germany at the Christmas market (where the above photo was taken!) with a blanket stuffed in the bottom for padding. I REALLY need to win this bag :)

Thursday, April 5, 2012

2 years in Germany

I just realized that I missed our 2 year anniversary in Germany! How time has flown. Last year I did a recap of all the things that had changed over the past year. Let's see, Adam had back surgery and wow, what a difference that has made! My hair went from blonde to brown, we had several visits from family members, I've given up knitting and replaced it with photography. Last year we were planning a baby shower for a friend, I can't believe that baby is almost a year old! My pregnant friends have had their babies and now I other friends expecting. (There is always someone expecting LOL). We've experienced a lot as a family. We visited 3 more countries, many many castles, and for the first time went to some Christmas markets. We are planning to add two more countries to our list this weekend and hopefully a couple more this summer as this will be our last year in Germany. We have had to say goodbye to some good friends and will have a lot more leaving in the months to come. I hope we can make the most of our time left in Europe and look forward to meeting new friends as old friends move away and new people filter in.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Monopoly in Germany

We don't eat at McDonald's very often son when I indulged my daughters request one afternoon I was excited to find that they are having their Monopoly promotion... here in Germany! I had never seen the Monopoly pieces in German. I've had some pieces donated by friends but they have mostly been duplicates of what we have collected from our two visits. I doubt we'll win anything other than the ice cream cone and the cappuccino that were instant wins. It's still fun though.

I think my favorite piece is "Weinerstrasse"

Anyone need an extra?

Did you know that in 2003 there was a game released called Ghettopoly? It was intended to be humorous but was deemed as racist for it's use of racial stereotypes. Hasbro sought and received an injunction against the designer. The copies that are still out there go for quite a bit and get very high ratings by users at sites like Amazon. There are liquor stores instead of railroads, some of the properties are replaced by pawn shops and massage parlours. Instead of building hotels you build crack houses and projects. I don't think it's racist - just making fun or poor folks. Have you ever seen the show Shameless? Yeah, enough said. maybe they should make one about the army. There are dry cleaners and alterations shops on every corner around military bases. (and in Baumholder, strip clubs).

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Where in the world?

It's time to play again! Reservations have been made. (Hopefully this trip is more successful than it was exactly a year ago when we attempted it the first time *hint hint.)

Where are we going on vacation next weekend?

We'll be seeing a lot of this next weekend

I'll even give you one extra hint...

( clog photo courtesy of © Pierdelune | Dreamstime.com)

Truffles 2.0

I got this great book from my mom and thought I would try one the their cute designs with a twist. Instead of using their recipe for cake pops, I decided to use my cake batter truffle recipe. As you can see mine is no where nearly as cute as the book but It worked. The decorating was much harder than I anticipated. I think maybe because I used almond bark instead of candy melts? I may try again eventually. I only made 5 of the cupcake shaped truffles before I gave up and made the rest into balls.

See the original post about no bake cake batter truffles here

Happy Birthday Heather!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Rhine River Castle Hunting

These are the castles along the Rhine River. They were taken from the car in the late evening the same day that we visited Schloss Stolzenfels and Burg Lahneck so some are not of the best quality. We missed a few along the way or weren't able to get a good shot but I was excited at the number of castles we were able to see in one day. Now I have a reference to look back on and decide which we want to go back and visit up close.