Another Weekend Update

Hello lovelies! How is everyone doing? We are great! Especially because 30 days from today we'll be on our way home for a visit!!

I can't believe that it will be 1 and 1/2 years since we've been back to Oklahoma. We are both looking forward to seeing our families and friends. It is so strange to think that I haven't seen my dad, or Jon's family, or my nieces and nephews for a year and a half! WOW......... that is way, way too long!! But only one more month and we'll be home for the holidays. Time couldn't fly any faster!

And man, where has the time gone? I haven't blogged in over a week!! I'm so far behind on reading blogs!! Not a whole lot has happened in that week. I started a running program with my friend at the gym, got HORRIBLE shin splints, bought new running shoes, and am impatiently waiting for these shin splints to go away so I can get back out there and run again! Jon and I are looking into running a half marathon in May. We both are really interested in it, but I've gotta get these shins under control. Hopefully the new shoes will make a huge improvement......

Anyway, Here's what we were up to this weekend:

Friday was our friend Kevin's going away party. He works with Jon, and his time in Europe has come to an end, so he will be heading back to the states this week. All of the office went out to dinner at an awesome restaurant called Waldgeist. At this restaurant they serve XXXXXL servings...... any by XXXXL, I mean ridiculously honkin' big! Here are some pictures from the dinner:

My 1 liter beer!

Jon and me with our honkin' beers!

Kevin, Jon and Me

A picture of the ginormous schnitzel they also serve!

Our hamburger....We had to cut the hamburger like a pie because it was too big...

Sadly, this is all we could eat!It was such a fun time and a really fun idea! But I will have to make sure to not eat breakfast or lunch before we eat at Waldgeist again!

Saturday I had to work in the morning and then that evening we went to a friends to celebrate her birthday. She made chicken chili and it was DELISH!

Sunday we were lazy ALL DAY! We watched Transformers 2, which was pretty good, and super action packed. It was a perfect weekend!

Today is laundry day! I've somehow let the laundry get out of control, we have it coming out of ears.... so it's definitely time to nip it in the bud. It's another rainy day here in Germany, perfect for getting all of the house work done.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

and I hope to catch up with reading your blogs soon.

Adventures in Cologne

Hello lovely blog friends, how is everyone today? Wonderful I hope!

I am blogging today from our hotel room in Cologne. It's a beautiful day here today, the weather is fantastic! But I needed a break from walking, so I thought I'd share some of the pictures I've taken so far from this trip. The forecast said it was supposed to be cloudy all day, but God has graced us with sunshine and no clouds today. He is good!!

Last night I arrived around 8:00 p.m. by train. It was my first time to take a train to another city (other than Frankurt) alone. But thanks to my friend Yve and the Kings of Leon, it actually wasn't a bad experience. The only frantic moment I had was when I arrived at the Frankfurt station and had to change trains, I had exactly THREE minutes to make my next train. So you can imagine the sheer panic I had when I saw that my train for Cologne had already arrived at the station and I was on the opposite side of the tracks. Luckily I just followed some random crowd and found a flight of stairs that took me across the tracks, to my train, where I jumped in the first seat I could find just in time for the train to leave. Whew. Good times!

When I arrived Jon was waiting for me, we dropped my stuff off at the hotel, and made our way to the Dom. If you've been reading our blog for a while, you've probably seen this cathedral in some earlier posts. But for my new readers and my faithful readers and my lovely picture lovin' readers; here is the Dom, once again (or for the first time), for your viewing pleasure.

After seeing this massive beauty, we went to a fantastic steak restaurant called Farmer's Steakhouse. Mind you, we haven't had good steak in forever, so let me tell ya'll, this was a real treat. My mouth just waters looking at this photo.

After dinner we walked through the town, window shopping. They have some awesome shopping here in this city. Too bad we're saving for our trip home, or we'd both be maxing out the cc's! ;)

Today we both got up early, as Jon had to be at work early, and grabbed breakfast at McDonalds. Oh ya, you read that right!! The McDonalds here is directly across the street from the cathedral. You can site see while you eat a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin and drink your morning coffee.

I walked Jon to work and then made my way back to the Dom for some picture taking.

I love the fall trees and leaves!As you walk across the Hohenzollern Bridge you come across thousands of locks. The locks symbolize love. Actually...... while I was on the bridge I witnessed a couple attaching a lock with their names engraved on it. It was pretty darn sweet, minus the make-out session they had afterward. Here are pictures from the bridge.

I was completely mesmerized by all of these locks, I must have read about 200 of them.
I just think it's such a neat idea.

I slowly made my way back to the center and planned on going inside of the Dom, but my camera battery decided to quit on me. (Only because I forgot to charge it before we left.) So here I am now waiting for it to fully charge so that I can take pictures of the interior and more of the front of the cathedral during the day, which I will post tomorrow.

Tonight Jon and I finally get our much anticipated MEXICAN FOOD fiesta! I can't wait. Talk about one happy-but-soon-to-be-chubby-from-all-of-the-chips-and-salsa-and-Mexican-beer wife! I hope ya'll will stop by tomorrow to see some more pictures from our adventure to Cologne (Köln to all the German folk).

Have a great Wednesday!

A Lovely Holiday Weekend.

Well hello lovely friends!!

How was everyone's Labor Day weekend?? Our weekend was GREAT! Busy, but lots of fun times with friends and an adventure to another country!! I have A LOT of blog reading and catching up to do! Hopefully I can check in with everyone to see how your holiday weekend was!

Here's what the Barretts have been up to:

Friday night we attended a "going away" BBQ for a woman in Jon's office. It was a great time, with LOTS of good food and friends. The woman in Jon's office, Hedy, has been working in Germany for 7 years, and has finally decided to head back home to the US. She's such an awesome lady, it'll be sad to see her go!

Saturday evening we had some friends over for a pizza party. Jon and I found individual pizza crusts at the commissary and thought it was a great idea to have everyone choose their own toppings. We got every topping you can imagine, and the mini pizzas were a hit. Our friends Christine made lasagna and Tara made a FANTASTIC Tiramisu! OH MY Goodness, it was tasty.

Sunday morning we got up early, made breakfast and headed out for Trier, Germany. It's about 2 hours away from our home. Sadly, we were bummed about Saturday's game, so of course the best way to cheer us up, is to take a day trip. Here are some pictures from our day:

Porta Nigra

Downtown Trier


The Cathedral and The Palace


The Palace Gardens


The Roman Imperial Bath Ruins
Ruins and Tunnels throughout the Imperial bath.




It's incredible to think that these baths have been around since 293 A.D.
This bath in particular, is the largest Roman bath North of the Alps.
How awesome to be able to see structures like these still standing, and to be able to explore the underground tunnels that once were the baths. It was definitely a cool adventure.

I think this picture accurately depicts my excitement for our day trip to Trier.

After spending the day in Trier, we grabbed a late lunch and headed for Luxembourg. Jon's grandfather fought in WWII in Luxembourg, so it meant a lot to him to be able to see this country. Tomorrow we'll be back with pictures and little tidbits from our trip there.

Hope ya'll have a great Tuesday!

Another Weekend Update

Well hello lovely friends! How was your weekend??

Ours was busy busy, but fantastic. We had a great weekend filled with lots of food, wine, and good friends.

And sadly, I didn't take even one photograph. If you've been reading for a while now, you know I (Steph) am a HUGE picture takin' fool, and somehow, capturing our weekend with photo's completely slipped my mind. Oh well, I can still give ya'll a little update:

Friday we went to the wine festival with Sarah and Deaner and had a great time. There are over 120 wine vendors at the fest, loads and loads of different German foods, and desserts. YUM! Jon and I had mini pancake thingies with powdered sugar on them and S&D had sugar and cinnamon crepes. Holy goodness, they were fantastic. After a few too many drinks we all headed back to the house and crashed. We may or may not have stopped at an alley or two on the way home to take a little bathroom break. But you can't blame a girl, when the line to the restroom is outrageous and you'd rather pee for free! I mean come on ;)

Saturday after struggling to get out of bed, we finally made it to the farmers market. I bought loads of fresh fruit and some very interesting cheeses. I also bought the prettiest bouquet of flowers.

Then we ran a couple other errands and made it home in time to crash out for an hour before I had to prepare for a birthday party we were hosting for some of our friends in Jon's office.

We had some great appetizers: cheeses and crackers, olives, brushetta, fruit, vegetables, cheese fondue and we also made chicken bites, steak bites and pasta salad. The food was a hit and we had several people bring extra goodies for us to enjoy. I SO wish I would have taken a picture of all of the food, it was enough to feed an army.

Sunday we were both pooped and I don't think we even left the couch the entire day. We watched several movies and enjoyed relaxing and spending some QT together. We've been really busy the last several weekends and I think that was exactly what we needed. Pure bliss!!

Today, I started back to walking/jogging with my friend Tara. I went to my doctor a couple of weeks ago because my shin splints were getting out of the control. He told me that the problem was my feet and that it definitely explains why I have been having so much pain, so they took a mold of my feet and custom made insoles. YAY! I tried them out today and so far so good, but I'm definitely taking it slow. Hopefully tomorrow morning I won't be buckled over in pain from shin splints. I have a good feeling that these insoles will solve the problem, and I can finally get into running again!

And lastly but definitely not least, my sweet blog friend Stevy at The Rest is Still Unwritten gave me the awesome Fabulous Blog award! Thanks so much girl! I'm so glad you think my blog is fabulous!!

There are 2 rules once you receive this:

1. You must list 5 current obsessions.

2. You must pass this on to 5 people.

1. I am obsessed with True Blood on HBO. The second season is fantastic and I can't get enough of it!

2. I am also obsessed with the Sookie Stackhouse series that True Blood is based on. The books are great if anyone is looking for a fun serious to get in to.

3. Fondue: I am totally obsessed with fondue right now. I LOVE cheese fondue and chocolate fondue! We're going to purchase another fondue pot so we can start cooking with the fondue oil, similar to the Melting Pot, (one of our favorite restaurants back home!!)

4. My new iPhone! Love it, can't put it down. My husband may or may not be getting a little jealous of the time I spend with my iPhone and not with him ;)

5. Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade, YUMMMM! Obsessed with it.

I am passing this award onto these 5 lovely bloggers:

Grand Pooba
Learning to be a Wife
Brown Girl Blogs
Satisfy My Soul
Tales of the Trees

I hope you all have a fabulous Monday!

Another Weekend Update

Hello lovely friends! How are your weekend???

Ours was fantastic, but didn't last long enough, that's for sure. It seems like that is how all of our weekends are these days, and I guess what they say is true, "time flies when you're having fun."

Here's what we've been up to:

Friday Jon took the day off so we could get some things done. The most exciting part about our day was that my awesome husband bought me an iPhone at the base! We set up a new cell phone account and with the new account an iPhone only costs 1 €......YUP, you read that right 1 €! So needless to say I have a fun new gadget on my hands, that cost less than $1.50 American dollars, and I cannot put it down. It's amazing! Now I know why Sarah and Deaner love theirs so much ;)

After running errands all day we met some friends out at the Rinegau Wine Festival. It was just as fun as last year, but I might have enjoyed myself a little too much this year. We had lots of great wine and some yummy food. My favorite food there is fresh potato chips, they're so good it's bad! Here are some pictures from that night.

Saturday afternoon I met up with my friend Tara and we did a little shopping at Ikea. I needed a new book shelf and some little things for the house and she also needed some things for her home. Afterward we headed downtown and found some gifts for a housewarming party we were attending that night.

Jon and I got ready and headed out to the party. It was a wonderful party and of course, we had a fantastic time. Good food and good friends, what more can you ask for??

Yes, that is Jon sticking his tongue out!

Sunday we spent the entire day lazing around watching movies.

We finally were able to see I Love You Man which was great. I just love Paul Rudd! We also saw Watchmen which was pretty good if you like that kind of comicy movie feel and we watched another silly movie called Miss March. It was really funny!

Sarah and Deaner just moved into their new house and invited us over for dinner to barbecue, that night. Let me just tell you, it was AMAZING! We recently got into trouble from a neighbor because she doesn't like the smell of barbecue and she asked us to not bbq anymore. REALLY???...REALLY!!!..... With that being said, we've been sans barbecue all summer, so it was a SUPER huge treat and very sweet of them to invite us over. They made buffalo burgers (my personal favorite), grilled corn on the cob and a fantastic salad. It was so awesome. Thanks S & D for the delicious food!

Afterward we came home and crashed. It had been a very busy weekend, but I was sad to see it end.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!