Our Thanksgiving Day

Wednesday for lunch I met Jon and his coworkers at the Christmas Festival in downtown Wiesbaden. We really didn't get to look around for long, but I did manage to capture a couple of pictures. We plan on going back to the festival Saturday to see all of the vendors and have some gluwein. It is a hot wine that Jon absolutely loves.









Jon and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I thought it was going to be so difficult to be away for the holidays, but we had such a great time cooking, laughing and spending quality time together. (We also listened to a little Christmas music to get us in the mood for the holidays.) Don't get me wrong, I totally miss our families but really, I had the best time with my hubs. It was a great way to spend our holiday and I wouldn't have had it any other way. We made a turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, rolls, green beans and had a relish tray to snack on while we cooked. We also made tiny pumpkin pies that turned out to be the cutest little things.

Our little 10 pound turkey

Jon carving the turkey

Stuffing. This dish is soooo old. My mom used to cook with it.

Our little pumpkin pies!


We were hoping Matt, Jon's cousin could join us for Thanksgiving, but he found out he is being deployed tomorrow morning! We are going to miss him so much, but we know that he is going to be safe and will be home before we know it! The internet is an amazing thing and we will be able to keep in touch with him through Skype! Gotta love technology!

We also finished cleaning the spare bedroom, getting it ready for our visitors Saturday! I think it looks great! Of course...... we still have A LOT to do with our entire place, but I'm glad we've done this much so far!

Here's what we've done:



I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!
Have a great weekend!

A Work in Progress

Since my parents will be here Saturday, I knew I had to bust my butt and get our new place in order. Jon and I have been working our little tails off, making this house a home, it has been a lot of work. I am finally fully unpacked and each room is coming together quite well. Slowly but surely this place will be looking awesome, I am truly happy with the results. There is still so much work to be done, but so far so good! I am going to show a little before and after action of each room, so you can see what I've had to work with!

As you may have read before, Jon and I don't have closets in our house. I guess it's some weird thing they do here in Germany, so we've had to box a lot of belongings up and stick them down in the cellar. The first room I wanted to tackle of course was the living room, because we literally live in this room.

This is what the living room looked like before:

And here is what we've done so far: we still need to get curtains hung.


I really dislike all of the chords showing. I don't know what to do about that yet!


This is a picture of the hallway looking at the front door:

Before

After:

A picture looking at the hallway from the dining room:


Next was my kitchen! Jon and I like to cook, but we were desperately lacking counter space and cabinets! So Jon and I bought a buffet with three drawers and a kitchen island so we could have some extra room.

Here we are putting the island together.

Jon's plumbers crack lol


A picture of the kitchen before:

And After:






The picture on the wall is from one of my long time friends Melissa, she gave it to Jon and I for a wedding gift. If you look closely you can see that each letter is an object shaped as a letter, that spells our last name. Pretty neat! Thanks Mel!



Next was an awfully messy room, the dining room. When Jon and I started unpacking we threw most of the stuff in the dining room and the spare room just to get it out of the way. Here is what it looked like before. Empty dining room:


Unbelievably messy dining room

New and Improved: We have yet to hang curtains or put pictures on the walls.


Due to the fact that we don't have closets in ANY room, we used a spare room that leads into the master bedroom and turned it into a walk through closet. Here is the before and after.



We bought three wardrobes to hold our clothes. And I am using shelves to hold all of our toiletries and towels, because there are no drawers or cabinets in the bathroom.


Mind the windex bottle lol.




Today I am going to tackle getting the spare room finished and cleaning up the office. I will have pictures posted soon of these rooms! The master bedroom is in desperate need of help. Thanks to my mom coming it will be looking great soon!
Hope everyone has a great day!

Black Bean, Corn and Turkey Chili

This is an amazing recipe that is perfect for cold nights, just like we are having here in Germany right now. Jon and I can't get enough of this chili, so I am going to make it tonight for dinner. I thought I'd blog about it because it is too good not to share!

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground turkey
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Dash of garlic salt or powder
1 3/4 cup chicken broth. (I think I used one can)
1 cup salsa
1 tablespoon sugar
1 can black beans
1 can corn

I left out the onion, on account of Jon's dislike for onions, and just added some onion salt. It was wonderful like that too.

1. Heat oil in a 4 quart saucepan over medium heat. Add turkey, onion, chili powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper and garlic powder. Cook until turkey is brown.

2. Stir in broth, salsa, sugar, beans and corn into saucepan. Heat to a boil.

3. Cover and cook for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally while cooking.

Here is the finished product!


Ok seriously, this is the easiest recipe and it literally took me no time to prepare. The last time I made this chili, we had leftovers, so Jon took it to work with him the next day. He said it was actually better the next day, after all of the spices and sugar, etc had time to sit. I hope you guys enjoy this chili as much as we do!

Our Winter Wonderland

Brrrrrr!!!!!!!!!
Have a great week!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Jon and I awoke early this morning to find this!









(obviously my hands weren't sturdy, the pictures are a little blury, could be because I was shivering uncontrollably!)

Our first snow in Wiesbaden! I took these pictures from our balcony, I love the view from our apartment. Isn't it so pretty! I love snow, it makes everything look so beautiful, it just didn't feel beautiful. Today is very cold outside but the sun is shining so the snow probably won't stay for long. I just wanted to show these pictures so you all could enjoy!

We're off to Ikea again today. We are buying a bed for the guest bedroom. I don't think that my parents would like sleeping on our couches! Or what am I thinking, they would totally kick us out of our bed and make us sleep on the couches! ;)

Ikea has a really great selection, and they aren't priced too badly either. I already have a "bed in a bag" as they call it, which I bought from Linens & Things. It's awesome, it came with 1 comfortor, 2 standard shams, 2 sheet sets, 1 bed skirt, 2 euro shams, 3 decorative pillows, 2 extra pillowcases, 1 decorative throw and 2 window treatments and it was only 200 bucks! I think I made out like a fat rat (as my dad always used to say.) Also it doesn't look cheap at all, what a total bargain! I will put up pictures soon, once we get everything set up.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Someone fill us in on the score of the OU game if you can. Germany doesn't do US Football! Thanks so much!!

GO OU!!!!

Back to the Gym I Go..........(sigh)

So....... my parents are coming to visit the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I am super excited about this for three reasons. First off, it will be so nice to have family visit! Secondly, my mom is a wonderful decorator and she is going to help me make our new place look fabulous. But third and most important............she is going to cook for Jon and me, A LOT! My mom is the BEST cook, seriously the BEST cook and I love to eat!

Which brings me to the title of my post, "Back to the Gym I Go." Because she makes such wonderful food, and I am going to eat everything she makes, it is in my best interest to get a head start on my holiday exercise so that I don't blow up like a blimp! Since Jon and I won't be able to make it home for the holidays, my mother is bringing the holidays to us, and while she is visiting plans on making us a Christmas feast! Holy smokes! I can't wait for this, but on the other hand I am utterly terrified because I already have trouble fitting into my jeans!

So today I drove to the airfield which is about 15 minutes away and got to walking on the treadmill. I walked 45 minutes (a little over 3 miles) and let me tell you, when I was walked out of the gym, my entire shirt was drenches in sweat like I had just run the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon! How sad is that?

I am extremely out of shape! And to think I walk two miles everyday anyway when I walk with Jon to work and back, I thought I was in pretty good shape. I obviously proved to myself today that I am not!

I know if I don't start working out now I am going to be 10 pounds heavier by the time my parents leave. So really I have no choice!!! And it will make it that much easier, and I won't feel as guilty when I stuff my face with all of her wonderful cooking!

Oh but did I mention, there is nothing I despise more than going to the gym. I would rather be kicked in the shin several hundreds of times, than have to go to the gym. I guess I'll just have to suck it up, because I can't lose weight sitting around eating Reisens and Haribo Gummy Bears all day long!

Here is picture of the Christmas tree downtown from our walk last night. (A bit blurry)



Yeah, It's almost Friday!