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!

Giveaways and an Award

First: Click on these pictures to
Check out these great giveaways!

The Reality of Happily Ever After is
doing an awesome Summer Giveaway:
And check out Blog Goggles for this
killer Messenger Bag Giveaway:

Next:

I was given the Honest Scrap award

from J.J. at I'd Rather Be Laughing.
and d.a.r. at Just Another Day in Paradise.
Thanks so much guys.

The rules are:
1. List 10 honest things about yourself that your
blogging friends do not know about you.

2. Give the award away to 7 bloggers.

3. Let them know they've received the award.

So here goes nothin':

1. I have never in my life driven a stick shift/6 speed. I am terrified to drive one, knowing I'd stall in the middle of a busy street and not know what to do.

2. I get super excited when all of the pickles in the pickle jar are gone so that I can drink the remaining juice! Yummm. My SIL and BIL own a sno cone business in Norman. They used to have a pickle juice sno cone if I can remember. My favorite. If you're ever in Norman you seriously have to grab one or ten of their sno cones. They're the BEST you'll ever eat. And not just the pickle, they have a GAGILLION flavors. You won't regret stopping by!

3. My grandfather has been missing for 30 years, (since '79.) He was a pilot and his last radio contact was over Mexico. We secretly think he worked for the mob and is now in witness protection!! He, his wife, and their best bud were all on the plane together. Neither they, nor their plane we ever found. Interesting.......

4. I always leave a little liquid in every drink and usually leave cups scattered throughout the house. (Think of the little girl in Signs) It drives my husband insane.

5. I was a gymnast for 12 years, competed and worked hard to be in an upper level. But doctors recommended I quit because of an arm injury. Boooo!

6. I'm a candy-holic. You'll normally find me with gummy bears in hand. I come by it honestly, my mother is a huge candy-holic. She hides her candy so no one else can have any!!

7. I have an OCD with time. I never take off my watch and I never wear fancy watches for that reason. I need a watch that can live through anything. Timex has been my watch savior.

8. I have trouble differentiating color. I failed the color vision test at the eye doctor. It was very embarrasing when Jon and I started dating and we would go shopping together. I always had to ask him what color something was.

9. I REALLY don't like my food to touch. When I was a kid my mom bought me my own special plates, like cafeteria style with little invidual slots, because I was a freak about my food touching. Still am.

10. I CANNOT stand being late. I have always been extremely punctual. Maybe it stems from my OCD with time, but it stresses me out to even think about being late. I'm weird.

I'm passing this award along to some of my newer followers to learn a little about ya!!

In no particular order:

Mrs. G.I. Joe
Little Woman, Little Home
Chapters Of Our Lives
If You Think Round Is Funny
The Mathis'
The Adventures of Katie and Josh
Jane

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

I'm Feelin' the Love!

OH MY it is SOOO good to be back in Germany! I never thought I would be so excited to be back, but I missed my second home dearly. We didn't arrive until late last night and for some reason I awoke bright and early this morning! We have so much to do this weekend and into the next week, I probably figured I needed to get up an' at 'em to start in on our # of chores. Hopefully I can get updated on all of your blogs! This traveling has worn me flat out, I'll try my best to get caught up!

My brother and his adorable friend Kathleen will be arriving here on Thursday and I am so excited to see them! We are leaving a week from today to go to Paris for Memorial Weekend! I cannot wait!!

But back to my post title, I'm feeling the love today, because I received THREE awards on my blog! I have NEVER had more than 1 at any given time, but three, WOW!! I'm the happiest little lady!

First Melissa from New Girl on Post awarded me with her First Annual Blogging Award! I received this award for the blogger she'd most want as a hairstylist! Thanks Melissa, you are so awesome for thinking of me!

Second, Donna from Looking Forward and Back rewarded me with the Lovely Blog Award.

Thank you so much for the award Donna! I am so glad that you discovered my blog, because I enjoy reading yours!

The Rules: 1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Here are 15 of my favorite somewhat newly discovered blogs:

1. Brown Eyed Girl and Her Beau
2. Mrs. G. I. Joe
   
3. Crazy Shennanigans
   
4. The Mathis'
   
5. In This Wonderful Life
6. Living Our Own Fairy tale
7. Mr. and Mrs. in Training
8. Occasional Musings n Ramblings
9. Gussy has a lot to say
   
10. The Everchanging Life of a Military Wife
11. The Lawrences
12. The Rest is Still Unwritten
13. A Love Worth Waiting For
14. The McCradys
15. A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words
    

Third, Little Woman, Little Home tagged me with this AWE-SUMMM award.....

Thank you so much for my new shiny award! I never thought I'd be the Queen of Awe-Summm! You rock!

My Queen duties now include:

1. List 7 things that make me Awe-Summm

2. Pass the award onto 7 bloggers that I love

3. Tag those bloggers to let them know they are now Queens too

(and link back to the Queen who tagged you)

Here it goes:

1. I am an AWE-SUMMM hairstylist!

2. I have an AWE-SUMMM sense of smell, it's really wicked crazy!

3. I am AWE-SUMMM at Name that Tune - Elevator Muzak Eddition.... Jon thinks I'm the Rainman of name that tune. I almost scare myself sometimes....du du du definitely. (That was me being Rainman)

4. I make AWE-SUMMM homemade salsa and stacked enchiladas! Yummmy

5. I make AWE-SUMMM jewelry. (At least I think so)

6. I HOPE I take AWE-SUMMM photos...... but I am definitely working on making them AWE-SUMMM.

7. I couldn't think of the last AWE-SUMMM thing about me, so Jon chimed in with "You're an AWE-SUMMM burper." So there you have it peeps, I guess he's a little intimidated by my mega burps! (GROSS)

I am awarding:

1. Confessions from an Impulsive Addict
2. Gleatie
3. Pooba
4. Just Another Day in Paradise
   
5. French Kiss
   
6. New Girl On Post
7. Learning to be a Wife

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Yippie An Award!

First off, thanks for all of the awesome advice you guys gave concerning my last post! All of those ideas were fantastic. Good news, Jon and I walked to the gym last night and worked out and today I worked out at the airbase gym. Thanks for all of the motivation. I can't wait to try some of the videos you all suggested. I'm totally interested in this Jillian Michaels video. I looked for it at the PX, of course they didn't have it so I am ordering it today from Amazon. So far we are off to a good start. I think this time we will keep it up!

Again a big thanks.... you guys ROCK!

Secondly.......

My wonderful blogging buddy Jenny Lee made my day by giving me this.....

Thanks Jenny Lee!!

With this award I am to tell 10 Not So Cute things about myself, so here it goes.........

1. I am OCD about time. I always have to know what time it is, and NEVER take off my watch. Even when I shower, exercise, you name it.... I have on my lovely Timex Ironman. What's not so cute is it can get really gross, because the band is velcro and not rubber. No matter how gross it gets I can't part with my watch, so we usually end up buying a new one often. My time OCD is so bad that I couldn't even part with it during my wedding, but my entire family agreed that it just wouldn't be the same if I didn't wear a watch so they bought me a white one to go with my dress.

2. I sometimes buy Jon and me new underwear so I don't have to rush to do laundry, that is how much I hate doing laundry. But I mainly don't do it because my washer and dryer are German so they are TEENY and take forever to wash and dry clothing.

3. I worry too much, it's just my nature.

4. I bite my nails. Icky I know.

5. I'm with Jenny Lee, I get REALLY cranky when I haven't eaten... I usually carry almonds or peanut butter crackers in my purse, so I don't have a crazy woman episode.

6. I burp... yep I do. I know it's so un cute, but I'm really good at it, so why not use what you have.

7. I eat SUPER duper fast. Ever since Jon and I have been together, I've had to keep up with him. He eats sooooo fast. I also think it has a lot to do with being a hairstylist. I used to never take time for lunch, so I'd be in the back mixing color and shoveling a sandwich down my throat at the same time. I can only imagine how sexy I look eating. Just picture the "Coneheads." Ya, that's Jon and me.

8. I LOVE boxing and MMA. I'll scream, kick, spit, cry, cuss, etc while watching it because I get way too involved. Luckily Jon thinks it is cute, but I'm sure I look like a big idiot while I am acting a fool.

9. While watching movies I'm the person that asks what's going to happen next, why it happened and what's going to happen because it happened. I scream at the TV, I talk to the actors and again act like a fool during movie time as well. Poor Jon, I'm so lucky he puts up with me ;)

10. I am a big, big, big, big baby when I am sick. I complain a lot and whine and cry. I'm literally a big gigantic baby. So not cute.

I award everyone! Seriously all of my blogging friends grab this award for yourselves. Because I love all of the blogs I read and I think all of them are cute, so it is so hard to pick just a few.

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday and a fantastic weekend.

Sunny Saturday

So exciting!......Christy over at Confessions of an Impulsive Addict granted me with this fantastic award!

I am so excited, I always love receiving awards, and it is wonderful that someone out there thinks I am Kreativ!! Thank you so much Christy!

Here are the rules: List 7 things that you love and then pass the award on to 7 people...tagging them and letting them know they won!

1. I love anything to do with being outdoors. Hiking, biking, walking, running, skipping, swimming, surfing, fishing, climbing, exploring, mountaineering, camping, well you get the idea. I love to be outside (when the weather permits), and the real Steph comes out in me.

2. I love Mexican food. Along with my bloggy friend Christy, I can't get enough. I've just learned to make homemade salsa, see here, and I am pretty much eating that everyday!

3. Sunny days in Wiesbaden. It is so amazing to see the sun come out here. I am a completely different person when it's shining away.

4. Wine. There's nothing better than opening a fresh bottle of wine and enjoying every drop.

5. Traveling. As you can tell by my blog, we love to travel. Living here in Europe gives us such an amazing opportunity to travel. Jon and I have already visited 9 countries in the 7 months that we've been here. We really want to experience Europe while we are here. We have a ginormous list of places we want to see and hope to complete the entire list.

6. I love taking pictures. I am wanting to learn more about photography and learn more about my camera.

7. I love cooking. I just recently started cooking more and am finding that I really do enjoy it. I love finding new recipes and trying new things. Plus the hubby loves to cook as well so it is something fun that we can do together.

Now I am passing this lovely award on to.....

Kebi Cedawna at Hanging by a Thread. She has great recipes, she's growing her own vegetable/fruit garden, and she sews. She's super creative.

Allison at the Displaced Texan. She makes blog designs and does some very neat things with digital scrapbooking. She is also making her own paper for digital scrapbooking.

Kathy at Kathy's Red Door Welcome. She has such a cute house and is always decorating her home in fun and adorable ways.

Becca at Lovely Yellow Ribbons is also another very creative blog. She designs blogs and has some of the cutest layouts! Check her out.

Shannon at More Wine Please is one of my favorites. She always has the funniest stories, and I enjoy reading what she has to say. She also takes wonderful photographs.

Short on Words is another of my favorite blogs. She is an amazing photographer, and I enjoy taking the time to visit her blog, her work is beautiful.

Aura is another amazing photographer. She takes such beautiful pictures. Not to mention she is a fellow Okie.

(obviously I have a thing for photography and people who incorporate it into their blogs.)

Well, Jon and I are off to Ikea to purchase some much needed patio furniture! Our life won't be the same until we have some outdoor chairs and possibly a bench. Back in the states, we'd sit outside every morning and drink our morning coffee. I can't wait to get back into that routine again; it was my favorite way to start the day.

We're also grabbing some planters/pots and some seeds, and we're going to grow our own spices, peppers and lettuce. I am looking forward to growing some of our own things in a little garden on my patio.

I'll leave you with this picture! Isn't it so amazing. It was sent to me in an email.

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend everyone!

Woohoo an Award!

I received the Love Ya award from both The Displaced Texan and Kebi Cedwana, and it made my entire morning! I definitely felt loved when I checked blogger this morning. ;) Thank guys!

Allison is a fellow expat living in Germany and I love reading her blog. She's from Texas too, which is connected to Oklahoma, I love my Texans.
Kebi is a new blog I recently started following and a new bloggy friend. She is working her hiney off going to school right now! Way to go chica!

So here's what the "Love Ya" award is all about:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award!"

Satisfy My Soul
More Wine Please
Brand New Sidewalk
Off the Beaten Path...
Valerie
and her heart is in ireland
Learning to Be a Wife
First Comes Love Then Comes Marriage

Enjoy ladies!

Also don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win the Viennese Bottle Art and my Mini-Scarf Me giveaway! The giveaway ends March 1st!

My brother will be here in a little over two hours! I CAN'T wait to see my baby brother!

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Bunches to Babble About

First, I wanted to say Thanks so much!!! to everyone who commented for Jon's birthday! He was excited to see that he had several comments! You guys rock!

Secondly, I got my very first AWARD! I am literally grinning as I write this! I was so excited to receive this award. My blogging friend, who I wish I knew in person, Jenny Lee,
granted me with this! THANKS Jenny!!

The rules are as follows...

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

In no particular order, I am nominating these 10 lovely ladies! I am still getting to know several of these ladies but thought a cute little lemonade stand award would make their day!

Valerie
Yve
Your Next Door Neighbors
That damn expat
The Displaced Texan
Satisfy My Sole
Chapters
More Wine Please
2 Nicholson Girls
All Things in Moddy

Yesterday
Thirdly, after spending almost the entire day on Tuesday reading New Moon, I decided I needed to get out of the house, because my eyes were starting to bug out. Yesterday, I walked around downtown for a while drinking some yummy Starbucks and enjoying the SUN! Yes the sun actually came out for a short while in the morning and I wasn't going to miss it. Here the sun rarely shows it's wonderful face, so when it does grace us with it's presence, I'm out the door trying to soak it up. (Even though it was only 7 degrees when I walked outside yesterday morning) eek!

The church was looking ever so beautiful yesterday, with the sun catching it in such a way, I had to snap a couple of shots. Luckily I keep my little digital camera in my purse for times like these.







I walked through the market in attempt to buy some fresh chicken.... but my chicken guy wasn't there. He has the most fresh and yummy chicken breast, so I was a little bummed when I didn't see him. I'll just have to buy some at the commissary which wouldn't be a problem, if they will ever get their shipment of chicken!

Before Jon headed out for the ME, I was checking into art museums around this area and located several in Frankfurt that I wanted to visit. I grabbed a quick lunch and let my feet thaw, (I couldn't feel my frickin toes), and then headed out the door for the Stadel Museum. Thank goodness for the Garmin, I was able to find the museum with no trouble! Here are some of my pictures from my little day trip. Please excuse the terrible quality of the pictures. I wasn't allowed to use a flash in the museum; which is totally understandable. I would never want to ruin these amazing pieces of art.

















After visiting the museum I walked down to the Rhine River which was across the street and took a couple of pictures.

These were just a few of the pictures I captured. Several of the paintings came out very blurry, so I posted my most favorite. I was impressed with this museum and can't wait to go back. This museum is located on a street lined with other museums so I will definitely have to make my way back down to Frankfurt to view the others.

Today I will be cleaning my house to get ready for "Girls Night." I'm having some girlfriends over tomorrow evening and am really looking forward to it! And.....I am going to start reading Eclipse today, I couldn't put the second one down and I'm super excited to start the third one! I can't wait, eeek!
I hope everyone has a great day. It's almost Friday!

Oh and before I forget!!!!

BOOMER SOONER! The big game is tonight OU vs Florida, for the National Championship! Gotta love my Sooners!