Spectacular Saturday

We woke up early Saturday morning on a mission, we were going to Ikea! We still have several things we need for the house and Ikea is definitely the best place in Wiesbaden to buy furniture. We started our morning coffee and I decided to make pancakes. I remember when I was a little girl my mom used to make Mickey mouse pancakes, so I thought I would give it a try!

Mixing up the AWESOME heart healthy Bisquick!
They make the best, most fluffy pancakes!

My first attempt! Not too bad

Finished product

Making Jon laugh!! Isn't his shirt funny.
We bought it during St. Patrick's Day in the kids sections at Target.

Second attempt! This one was a lot bigger!
Jon had to flip it for me.

Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse Pancakes!

Heading out on our crazy adventure to Ikea! Saturdays are the worst days to go, because everyone in the entire country of Germany goes to Ikea. There are so many people and it tends to get a little overwhelming but we thought we would brave it anyway!

Our car covered in fall foliage!

IKEA!!!!! This was actually our third trip here. I know it's crazy, but they have the best hotdogs here and they sell them for only 1€. We chowed down on our hotdog after shopping! I wish I would have thought to take a picture of them, they are huge!

Loading up the car.


Sunday we spent most of the day organizing and putting boxes into the cellar. We still have a lot to do but it really is coming along well. We cleared out an entire room that was loaded with boxes to the ceiling. I feel like we got a lot accomplished! Hopefully I can get pictures up soon of what we have done so far.

Happy Monday

Steph the Hypochondriac

Yesterday while I was unpacking a man came to the door and told me he was here to check our gas meter in our home. So I let him in to do his business and when he was done he came to me, not being able to speak good English and drew on a sheet of paper the letters CO. After he does this, he than says this is measuring too high and we need to call someone to check it out.

If you haven't met Hypochondriac Stephanie yet, "Hello nice to meet you. Here I am!"

I had a conniption fit just as soon as he walked out the door. I got on the internet and started looking up carbon monoxide poisoning and all of the symptoms that occurred from the poisoning! Of course after reading everything I could about CO poisoning, I started feeling every symptom, fatigue, nausea, headache, dizziness etc etc etc! I called Jon and had him call the landlord to let him know. He said they would get someone out on MONDAY! Are you kidding, I'm dying here!!!

So right when Jon gets home from work, I run out of the house and we drive to the airbase to get a carbon monoxide detector. All the while I am still feeling sick and have no idea what I am going to do. (and Jon is laughing at me because I'm such a darn goof and do this all of the time. My poor husband!) When we get home the first thing we do is plug in the detector. That was at 5:25 p.m. It is now 10:28 a.m. and of course (SILLY ME) there has been no alarm from the monitor! I guess I don't have carbon monoxide poisoning! (Thank you Lord) I guess I might have overreacted a little. Ya think!

TGIF!!!!!!!!

Loving Fall

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day in Wiesbaden. The weather was perfect, the sun was shining and a light jacket was all I needed to go out and about. I couldn't be more happy, this weather brings out the kid in me! Although I was stuck inside most of the day unpacking and slowly working on getting our home organized, I did manage to pop out for a minute to enjoy the day. I took pictures of our street. I absolutely love our street and the way the trees line the road. It has such a cozy feel to it, so picturesque (as Jon says.)

As I was going through my pictures of our street,
I came across this picture I had taken about a month ago.
I thought this leaf was beautiful. I caught it mid changing.
Still green on one side, turning to yellow and orange. How cool!

This is a view at the top of our street.

A view closer to our apartment

Our sidewalk

Another view by our apartment.


Unpacking is not one of my favorite things to do. Actually I really dislike it a lot. Trying to find a place for everything is very overwhelming, especially with no closets. Thank goodness for the cellar we have downstairs or we would have to make one of our spare rooms into an "I don't know where to put this, just throw it in there," room. It will just take time to get our place the way we want it. (I just wish our stuff would magically unpack itself and place itself in the correct location while I go about my normal life.)

Today, it's a little more gloomy, but a typical fall day in Germany. This is the rainy season here, it is usually rainy and foggy, but it's not too bad. Jon and I tried to do a little shopping this last weekend in hopes to buy some fall decorations, but it seems like they just skip right over Thanksgiving and move straight to Christmas decor! I remember looking for fallish decorations a month or so ago, and they had already put the Christmas decorations out! Why is this so? Anyway, while we were out shopping at the farmers market I got a great picture of the church in market square.

We parked in a parking garage and had to park on the top floor because Saturdays are the busiest days downtown. This was the view from the top of the garage.


Back to work I go! Have a great Wednesday.

Proud of Our Soldier!

Matt, Jon's cousin, came to visit this weekend and we were so happy to see him! He also lives in Germany but about two hours away in Schwienfurt and he drove to Wiesbaden to see us. Matt will be leaving soon for his second one year tour in the Middle East. Although we are sad to see him go, he is actually looking forward to making a difference and fighting for our country. We are very proud of him.

Here are pictures from his visit!
Matty and Me

Jon and Matt

We took Matt to Wickinger, it's has wonderful German food! The atmosphere is so cozy, with a fire pit in the middle of the restaurant.

After eating our yummy food, we took Matt to the local Irish Pub where they have live music. The band was so great. They played American Classic Rock.

It's hard to see because of the crowd, but I got a shot of the lead singer.

A better shot of the band.


Happy Monday!

Our Desert Outting

Yesterday, late afternoon, we headed out in search of the infamous singing sand dunes! After driving for over an hour, with no luck finding them, we did come across some natural sand dunes in another area of the desert. The landscape of these dunes was unbelievable.

When we arrived at the sand dunes we had to stop the vehicle and walk because the terrain was becoming a little hard to handle in our awesome Honda Jazz rental vehicle! and I was thinking about wearing flip flops! Good thing I didn't.

Here are some pictures of our arrival
Yield for camel sign! Ha ha.
We did see several camel tracks, so this sign is definitely up for a reason.

Middle of the desert



Jon and Kevin walking to the dunes


We walked quite a ways to get to the sand dune.
Walking up the sand dune was the actual challenge.
The sand just caved under out feet. But it was well worth it!
Here are picture of us climbing the dunes
Look at this handsome guy!

Me climbing the dune

Jon and I

Me being a goof as always (wearing my 405 Fo Sho shirt)
To represent Norman! Although there was no one for miles to see my awesome shirt.


When we finally made it to the top, the sight was amazing. I couldn't believe that a desert setting like this could be so beautiful. You think of a desert as hot, no life, no plants, etc. But it was awesome and I'm so glad that we got a chance to see this place. Singing sand dunes or not, this is what we were supposed to see.









It is amazing how wind moves the sand in such a
way that it creates these magnificent structures.









After playing at the top of the dunes, we thought it would be fun to slide down them! We didn't actually slide, it was more like running down as the sand swallowed half of our legs! But it was exciting and you can see our imprints from the slide down.

Jon at the bottom of the dune. He was so funny the entire time! He acted like he was Bear Grylls from Man Vs. Wild the television show on Discovery Channel. He spoke with a British accent and was trying to find items that we could use for survival in the desert! He found a tarp, a bucket, a knife, an ice chest, and several other things! He was planning to set up camp right there in the middle of the desert. My adventurer!


As the sun was starting to set I wanted to capture some beautiful pictures, and I do believe I did! Of course it's not very hard with this type of scenery!

After taking this picture I thought of you Valerie! It made me think of your post about the footprints in the sand and dancing with Jesus. This is one of my favorite pictures.

Jon and I walking on the top of the dunes



Awe, this made out to be a great picture! Thanks Kevin, you're awesome.

This is special too, Kevin and Jon walking along ;)

Jon and I are so silly!

As you can see by the 100 pictures below I really love sunsets!












This trip to the dunes was probably my favorite adventure in Doha. I was so happy to capture so many great photographs. I would love to come back to this spot on our next trip to Qatar. I know Jon had a great time too, being Bear Grylls for an afternoon, what more could he ask for!