A winner and a Recipe

And the winner of the picnic pack giveaway is......

Jon used Random.org and chose:

Katie from
The Adventures of Katie and Josh!

Congratulations Katie!

Email me at steph_t2003@hotmail.com

1. Let me know what color you'd like out of these four:

Mint Chip, Yellow, Royal Blue and Red.

and

2. send me your address!

I'll get it in the mail first thing tomorrow morning!!

And now I leave you with a yummy summer dip recipe: (One I've posted before, but it's too good not to share and post again!)

Black Bean and Corn Dip

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 small chopped onion
1 can black beans drained
1 can corn drained.

Mix it all together and VOILA!
A GREAT summery dip. Soooooo tasty.

Jon and I made buffalo burgers last night, tortilla chips with this delish dip and of course homemade salsa.

We added some yummy spices into our burgers. I found a great recipe for Cumin burgers.

I told my dad that Jon and I were making cumin burgers for dinner and he fell silent for a moment, then said....

"Uh what??"
I said, "Cumin burgers dad."

He comes back with, "Oh I thought you said HUMAN burgers."

Silly Dad ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Make this corn dip, you won't regret it! Or actually you might curse me later, because you won't be able to stop eating it ;)

See ya'll Monday!

Bullets for my Blabbing

Hello lovely friends! How's your week going so far

You wanna know who fell asleep with a bottle of water in her hand and woke up in a pool of Culligan bottle water in the middle of the night last night???? You guessed it, me. My entire back was soaked.... not sure how the water ended up underneath my back when I was laying on my back?? My shirt and the sheets were soaked. AWESOME.

• This week has been drrrraaaaggging! There really isn't much going on with the Barretts. It's a busy week for softball. Jon had a game Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and he plays again on Friday. Depending on whether they lose or win, will determine when they play on Saturday.

• I started reading the 5th Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead as a Doornail, yesterday. So far so good........ meaning I can't put the thing down. I love that they are short reads and you can get through the books in a couple of days. They can be a little crazy around the edges, but they really are good books. I look forward to finishing up the series and moving on to a couple other books.

First, I've been wanting to read:
The Time Travelers Wife.

Word of this book has been spreading through the blog
world like wildfire, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Also Dan Brown's new book
The Lost Symbol.

It is coming out in September and I CANNOT wait to read it. (Ya that's right, I'm a Robert Langdon/Dan Brown nerd.)

• Yesterday I downloaded a simple Italian language program from the internet. It is very basic, but I definitely think it will help for our up coming trip to Italy in September. We've decided on 2 nights in Venice, 4 nights in Florence and the surrounding cities and 2 nights in Rome.
  

If anyone has any suggestions on what to see/where to stay while we are visiting these places, I'd be forever grateful!

• Now since I wrote about my junk food weaknesses yesterday, I thought I'd throw our favorite healthy snack.

Edamame

This stuff is sooooo good. We buy like 4 or 5 bags of it every time we go to the grocery store. It's perfect for a snack or as a side with dinner. Jon usually has it before softball games. It is so very healthy and actually tastes great. (Unlike a lot of healthy food.)

We are always looking for new and healthy snack ideas.

What are some of your favorites??

Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday! Tomorrow is Friday and I couldn't be happier!

Be sure to enter our Picnic Pack Giveaway. Last chance to enter is tomorrow before noon!

What Foods Do You Keep Out of the House........

..... for fear of gorging yourself???


Before Jon and I met I had a MAJOR sweet tooth. I loved candy and sweets. But now since we don't keep it in our home, I don't crave it on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, I still love candy, but I only crave it once in a while.

The sweets we keep out of the house in fear of eating the whole bag are:

For me it is ANYTHING gummy. I love Haribo products and luckily I can get my fill here in Germany!

Also chocolates. My two favs are Reese's and Riesens!

For Jon (and of course me too, I can eat any type of candy and be happy)

It's these:

Jon's mom got us 6 bags of the big Easter Bunnies and
Ducks Sweettarts and they were gone in less than a week.
Can you say fatties!!

But probably the worst thing to have around are cookies.
Even worse are Milano Cookies.
I could eat an entire package in one sitting.
No lie!

Our next biggest weakness is:
Chips, any type really.

We cannot keep these things in our house for more than one day, I kid you not. It's a serious problem! ;)

And.......

If there are chips and salsa around, forget about it, they're gone. I only make salsa every once in a while because I can't stop eating it. Just call me Fatty McFatterson. ;)

What is your weakness?

Hope you guys have a great Wednesday! It's time for another weekend!!!

A Couple of Favorites

Hello lovely friends! How was your Monday? Ours was pretty good. Jon had a softball game last night, but when we arrived it started raining cats and dogs. (Who was the smart individual that forgot to bring the umbrella??? oh, that's right, it was me.) Luckily they canceled the game shortly after it began pouring on us. Anyway, there is a game tonight and Wednesday is the first day of the tournament. If we win Wednesday we play again on Friday, and from there I have no idea what the schedule is like. Let's just say it's going to be a busy week for softball. Should be a good time, just as long as it stays dry.

Anyway.....

A BIG thank you for all of the wonderful comments concerning my photo shoot of Addie and family! You guys rock!! The shoot was a lot of fun. I very much enjoyed working with them and Addie was such a good baby. I really hope to continue taking family photographs and portraits in the future. The practice will help me learn a lot more, and in turn, teach me to become a better photographer. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

P.S. Don't forget to enter our Picnic Pack Giveaway. The last day to enter is on Friday. I'll be announcing the winner Friday afternoon.

Another Weekend Update

Hello my lovely friends! How was your weekend?

Ours was a busy one, but a great one! We were definitely not ready for Monday to roll around so quickly!! Here's what we were up to:

Friday we helped a friend put together some furniture in his new apartment, which is located in our building. We spent several hours hanging out, helping him unpack a little, drinking some good German beer and eating pizza! Yum.

Saturday we headed for a day trip to Limburg, a town about 40 minutes away. Limburg is an adorable little medieval town and of course I captured a couple of pictures.

A wine festival was going on in Limburg this weekend, and as no surprise, we stopped to try some local trocken Riesling. This vineyard/winery Mohr had a very tasty wine, which we enjoyed for the rest of the afternoon.

After we left Limburg we headed back toward home, but stopped on the way so I could capture a couple shots of Jon. I was trying some new things with my camera in preparation for my shoot on Sunday. Here are some of my favorites.

Sunday was the day of my shoot with Georgina, Josh and their new baby Addie. I got up early, jotted down a couple of notes to remember while taking the shots and we headed out at 10:30 to meet up with them. It was a beautiful day outside and I was extremely happy for the great weather! We did several shots inside and then made our way outside to a near by park to take some outdoor shots.

I took over 450 pictures during the shoot and afterward spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening looking through them and editing them. For my first attempt at this, I was really pleased with the outcome. Althought I have A LOT to learn, I had a such a fun time and I look forward to taking more pictures. I can't wait to show them to Georgina and Josh! I hope they're very happy with their photographs.

Check back tomorrow, I'll be posting some of my favorite pictures from the shoot.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. This week is a busy one, full of softball games and tournaments.

I'll leave you with a sneak peak.

Isn't this the most precious face:

Have a great Monday everyone!

Bullets for my blabbing.

Hello lovely bloggers! How are you all??

I slack on blogger for a couple of days and now I feel like there are a gagillion posts I need to catch up on! I guess my brain was telling me I needed a break from the computer for a little while. I think we all need those breaks. ;) Now, I'm reading and trying my best to catch up with everyone. I just love reading your blogs and following a long with your daily adventures!

Jon and I have been doing a whole lot a nothin' this week. So there really isn't a whole lot to report! Plus my laptop has been acting very strange! I think it's time for a new computer.... hint, hint Jon!

• Monday and Tuesday Jon had softball at the base and of course I went a long to cheer! They've been doing pretty good. Next week is the last week of the softball season and there will be tournaments all next weekend. I'm not going to lie, I will be glad when the season is over (and so will Jon) so that we can have our evenings back.

• I got two of the three books I ordered on Amazon for our trip to Italy in September. My parents are coming down and we're planning a week long trip to see Rome, Florence and Venice. We're definitely going to pack a lot into 7 days. but I think we'll be able to see everything we're wanting to see. Jon and I love Rick Steve's books so I bought three books, one for each individual city. There's so much to see and do and we think RS covers it really well.

• We get to hang out with this guy all weekend while his parents are in Greece!

He stayed the night with us last night and will be here until Tuesday morning. Ellie is such a good boy.

• Depending on the weather we are planning a day trip to a nearby city called Limburg. It is about 40 minutes away from our house. I really hope it's nice on Saturday, because it's just no fun to be stuck inside during the weekend because of rain. (The forecast calls for rain the rest of this week and all weekend)
  

• Sunday I am taking pictures for a couple of our friends and their new arrival, Addison!I have never done anything like this before, and I am really excited to see how it goes. I think it will be a lot of fun, and of course Addie being the gorgeous baby she is, will make my pictures look fantastic. Let's hope for a clear day with no rain!!

• We've been watching LOTS of Sopranos. I just LOVE this show and cannot get enough of it! I really am getting sad, because we are quickly coming to the end of the show. I'm the kind of person that doesn't want good things to end so I drag them out as long as possible. Does anyone else do this?? If I find a good series or a good book, I try not to watch/read it SOOO quickly because I don't want it to be over.

• Also, I thought I'd share a recipe with ya'll. My mom used to make this EVERY summer and it is to die for. Well that is if you're a vinegar loving and cucumber loving person. She just called it Cucumber Salad. It is soooooooo tasty, my mouth is actually watering as I'm thinking about it. Here's the scoop:

You mix white vinegar and water: equal parts.

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
pepper to taste
Two small cucumbers or 1 large
1/2 small onion sliced thin
Also add a spoon full of sugar.
If it's too much vinegar for you, just add more water.

Place all ingredients into a large bowl. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and tada!
This is SOOO good and definitely yummy for a hot summers day.
Hope you enjoy!

Have a happy Friday! and a wonderful weekend! I'll be back with my regular update on Monday. It's time to enjoy the weekend and I hope you all do the same.