TGIF

Wow! Where did the week go?? I normally don't say this, as the weeks here seem to last forever, but this week flew by. I feel like I am so far behind on my blog reading! I definitely miss reading about your daily adventures and I look forward to getting caught up.

I have been really busy with hair, which is a blast and always makes me super happy. I cut Addie's hair this week. It was getting so long and needed a little bit of a trim. She did SOOO good and might be the happiest baby I have ever been around. Seriously, I hope when Jon and I have a child, our baby is as good and as precious as Addison.

What a precious baby she is!!

I have also started walking/jogging again, which of course, we all know how exhausting it can be to start that up again. I'm POOPED! I didn't realize how out of shape I really was until I jogged on Tuesday night! Ouch ;)

I found a great application on my iPhone called,
Run Keeper.

It's fantastic. It tracks my mileage, time and maps out exactly where I have jogged. I am so happy to have found this, because I wasn't sure my little $6 pedometer was accurate. The Run Keeper is super accurate and it has motivated me to jog, because I know exactly how far and how fast I do so. If you don't have this app and are a jogger/walker/runner/biker, definitely grab it. It's FREE!! I think you'll love it.

I did take a couple of pictures from my jog with Jonny the other night.

I like the kind of jog where you run, stop take pictures, run, stop take pictures..... that's my kind of exercise! But in all seriousness, I am just out of shape and getting used to these new insoles so I definitely took every opporunity to stop and catch a breather.

I look forward to running so much more now, because I am not in constant pain from the darn shin splints. I am SO thankful for these new insoles, they have really made a huge difference and I will never go without them again. I've gotten in about 20 miles this week with walking in the mornings and jogging at night with Jon. Not too bad for the first week.

Anyway.....Since we LOVE movies and love sharing the good ones, before I make like a baby and head out of blogland, I'll leave you with a few movie recommendations. Hope you all enjoy.

Duplicity

Excellent flick! I'd briefly summarize it, but I'll leave it up to Imdb, to do that: It is about....

"A pair of corporate spies who share a steamy past hook up to pull off the ultimate con job on their respective bosses."

I just love Clive Owen, I think he's great. He and Julia Roberts both do a great job in this movie. Rent it, I think you'll love it.

AND

The Last House on the Left

Suspenseful much! Another Imdb summary for ya:

"After kidnapping and brutally assaulting two young women, a gang led by a prison escapee unknowingly finds refuge at a vacation home belonging to the parents of one of the victims -- a mother and father who devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics."

I LOVE suspenseful, scary movies. Jon, not so much, but he really enjoyed this movie! Check it out.

I hope ya'll have a wonderful weekend!!!

See you Monday.

My Husband the Adventurer

My husband, "the adventurer" came across a very cool volunteer program in Africa, for Wildlife Preservation. We've been really considering doing some sort of volunteering in another country and have researched several websites. Jon is really into protecting and helping wildlife, and this program seems like a very interesting opportunity for the both of us, to do exactly that.

The basic idea of this volunteer program is...... well I'll just take it straight from the website:

"The commercial farms that are continuing to spread across the area are starting to threaten the wildlife that has resided in the area for centuries. The animals, such as leopards, cheetahs, hyena, caracals and jackals are given to attack the livestock on the farms and the farmers are forced to act against the predators. The goal of the project is to track the wild animals so that farmers can be informed when they are approaching their farms and where to keep their livestock away from when they feed, all while protecting the animals with minimal disturbance to their environment."

How awesome would this be?!?

I think we would both totally enjoy this opportunity and really learn a lot, not to mention experience Africa up close and personal. What an incredible adventure!!

We're looking into volunteering for two weeks in 2010! I really hope it works out and that we are able to volunteer for this program. It would be such a treat to help preserve the wildlife in certain parts of Africa. I just think that it's amazing that there are these types of opportunities out there. I'll definitely keep ya'll posted and let you know for sure if we will get the chance to do this. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Hope ya'll have a wonderful 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!

Dreaming of...........

Fall, My most favorite time of year.
I never thought I'd say this, (due to the extremely LONG fall and winter here in Germany,) but I am REALLY looking forward to fall!

I am dreaming of:

Orange, Red and Yellow Trees

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Fall Decorations from Pottery Barn

Halloween and Vests!

Stews, Soups and Chili

Scarves

Thanksgiving

Camping and Hiking

And last but DEFINITELY not least

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL!!!
I can't wait for the season to start!

Fall couldn't get here any sooner!

Hope ya'll have a great Thursday! The weekend is almost here!!

Way Back Wednesday.... Movie Style

Do ya'll remember Little Monsters??

I LOVED this movie when I was younger. I seriously thought it was the coolest movie, besides the fact that there are monsters coming out from under beds, (and the monster in the movie was quite terrifying to look at,) but it really was an awesome movie.

or Drop Dead Fred??

I am dying to see these movies again, I wonder if they'll be as good now as they were when I was a kid???

What about Willow and The Princess Bride:

two awesome movies that we still watch now!

And how can I forget
The Sandlot

I LOVED this movie!

Anyway, wow, that was my totally random thought for the day........

What are some of your favorite movies from your younger days?

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Computer Woes

My computer has officially hit the fritz! The screen has turned turquoise and there are squiggly lines running along it. I have never had computer trouble, per say, but this is when I would call our friend Chris (the computer genius) and ask him to PLEASE fix my most favorite thing in the world. Well this is a problem, since Chris now lives a gagillion miles away, across the world.

So, I think it might be time to invest in a new laptop! What do ya'll think??? ;)

What blogger looks like now....

Jon told me a lot of companies get new computers every three years because a lot of them break down and it costs more to fix a computer then to just a buy a new one. I thought that was completely absurd, computers are supposed to last forever right......... wrong! It has been about three years now since we've had this laptop, and it is now completely bunk, I guess he was right.

Luckily we recently bought an external hard drive so that I could start storing all of my pictures and know they'd be safe. So glad we decided to buy this ex hard drive because it is going to come in handy today!

Now, here's where I need advice from you lovelies! What is your favorite laptop???

Hope ya'll have a wonderful Tuesday! and thanks for any advice concerning a new laptop!

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!

Favorite Vacation Spot

Today is Show Us Your Life - Favorite Vacation Spot over at Kelly's Korner.

I have been checking out Kelly's Korner for a while and thought this was the neatest idea, so I decided to hop on and show my Favorite Vacation Spot.

My favorite all time vacation spot is Costa Rica! Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica to be exact. For the last 13 years we have vacationed to CR every year for our family trip. To say I love it would be an understatement. I can't wait until the chance to return for another visit.

In Manuel Antonio you have the beach and the rain forest so you can spend the morning hiking and the rest of the afternoon on the beach drinking Imperial! ;)

And watching these:

Playing with random wild animals and pretending

you're a pirate is another fun way to spend the day.

and who can forget canopying through the tree tops of rain forest.


or checking out the ginormous Crocs at the Crocodile Bridge.

I will always have wonderful memories of all of our adventures to Costa Rica and so look forward to going back, hopefully in the NEAR future!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my brother and me.

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL Friday and an even better weekend!