Our Weekly Weekend Update

Hello my wonderful blogging buddies! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Thanks for all of the kind words on my last post! You guys really do rock!

This weekend was a laid back one! How was yours??

Friday night we met our friends Sarah and Deaner for dinner at Vapiano. I cannot express how much I love their food! I had fusilli pasta with a mushroom cream sauce, (that I get every time) and a glass of the house red wine. After making a HAPPY plate we decided to take our party of four to Scrooge's Irish Pub.

After many drinks and good convo we called it an evening and headed off to bed.

Saturday we woke up to RAIN! Boooo. I had several things I wanted to do that day, but they got pushed back for another day. We stayed inside the entire day. Watched about 5 movies and went to bed early that night. We're cool like that. One of the movies we watched was Rachel Getting Married.

I LOVE this movie, it is extremely sad, but the story line was great and the acting was awesome. If you feel like a good tearjerker, this is definitely a movie you want to see.

Sunday the sun came back to Germany and Jon and I did not want to miss the opportunity to get some things done. First, very exciting news...... our friends Georgina and Josh had their baby. Her name is Addison, she was 6 pounds 12 ounces, and had a full head of hair. We visited them in the hospital and I held that precious baby for over an hour. She just slept "like a baby" the entire time. She is definitely a beautiful gift from God! We were so excited and happy for them.

After visiting them in the hospital we ran to the base to get some new windshield wipers for the car and popped over to the toy store because I really wanted the game Scrabble. Then we went grocery shopping and finally made our way back home. It was so nice outside and we had eaten a huge lunch with Josh at the hospital so we decided to go take a walk. We walked downtown and I captured some pictures of the cathedral (which I've posted on here about 100 times, but I just can't get enough of this church,) and the park.

It was getting to be about dinner time so we headed back home. While we ate dinner we played Scrabble and drank a Riesling from this area. It was a nice way to end a weekend. Other than the fact that Jon kicked my butt at Scrabble!! After about 5 games the total score was,

Jon: 946
Me: 610

Being the sore loser that I can be, I quit! I knew the only reason I didn't win is because I let him get away with a couple of things and I wasn't feeling well. That's the only reason he won ;)

Kathy if you're reading this, here are some pictures of downtown that I took just for you while we went on our walk yesterday ;) I know Wiesbaden holds a close place in your heart. I hope you enjoy!

This is what the streets in my neighborhood look like right now.

One of the many beautiful streets downtown.

One of the natural springs in Wiesbaden. The downtown square.The cathedral in the downtown square.Obviously I love this cathedral!

Another picture of the downtown square. On every Wednesday and Saturday there is a market here and all of the vendors bring their fresh produce, cheeses, meats, etc. A painting on one of the buildings.Heading to the park.The park downtown Wiesbaden.If you look closely you can see a rainbow caught in the fountain water.The theater.
As you can see, the park was filled with sun bathers. It was a beautiful and warm day.They are doing construction at the Kurhaus, so I found pictures that I had previously taken so I could show you what it looks like.

The back of the Kurhaus.On the way to our house there is another park. Here is the park and the building in the background is the train station.I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! As always ours flew by.
Happy Monday to you all!
Enjoy your week!

A Quote

My grandpa was the king of quotes! I wish I could remember all of the funny things he always used to say. I would love to write them all down and publish them. Seriously he was the most clever, witty man. Not to mention the most hilarious man I ever knew.

Yesterday I called my dad and we talked for a while. I told him all of things I was up to, like the fact that I've been getting a bigger clientele base over here. I've been painting a little and working on my jewelry. I also have been getting better at using my SLR camera, learning more about it and taking it more seriously. I told him I might be doing my first photo shoot soon and that I was really excited about it.

Of course he always gets excited when I talk about taking photos, he thinks my pictures are great, when in all honesty I'm not super stoked about them.

Anyway, my dad was just glad to hear that I have been getting busier and have finally started back into all of the things I used to do at home.

While we were chatting my dad said "well you know what your grandpa always said...... Be an entrepreneur, not a PILE of manure."

I just cracked up when he said this and I still smile now when I think about this quote, because that is so my grandpa. But really it does make a lot of sense. When we first moved here, I felt like a BIG pile of manure. I had ABSOLUTELY no idea what I was going to do everyday. I had no job, no friends, no hobbies. NOTHING. Well I can't say I had nothing, my amazing husband was there with me and stuck by me through every bad day I had in this new world. I am so very thankful for that!

But after a month or so of living here, I started getting back into making jewelry. Jon spread the word for me at his office that I was a hairstylist and I was getting a couple of clients here and there. I made myself get out and start taking pictures of the beautiful town I live in and tried a little harder to find things that I enjoyed doing. It was a tough time because we arrived right when it started getting colder here, and I found it extremely hard to get out and about while it was rainy/gloomy and cold outside. Most of the winter you never see the sun, when in Oklahoma the sun rarely leaves the sky.

It took several months from being a pile of manure to SLOWLY (very slowly) feel like I have found my place here in Germany. I have several clients now, that come on a regular basis and I've met some wonderful people. I am trying to stay busy with all of my hobbies and finally feel like I am worth something again. I can completely relate to this quote and thanks to my ever so wise grandpa, I can appreciate his saying. It definitely opened my eyes a little wider.

This man is greatly missed!

Me and my gramps. I think I cut my own bangs in this pic!
and yes he is holding a ciggy in his hand while holding me ;)
Boy did I love this man!

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

8 Things

I was tagged by Kelly at The Lawrences and Christy at Confessions from an Impulsive Addict. Thanks guys!

Here's the deal, Mention the persons that tagged you. Complete the lists of 8's. Tag 8 of your wonderful blogging friends. Go tell them you have tagged them.

Here are my list of 8's......

8 Things I Look Forward To:

1. My birthday surprise from Jon. I have yet to find out anything other than we are going somewhere and I have to pack underwear, water, and almonds. (to understand my packing reference see here.) My birthday is next Saturday the 25th. I will be 26 years old!!!!

2. Eating at Vapiano Friday night! Love me some pasta and vino ;)

3. Not having to do the dishes Friday night because we are eating out!

4. Mexican fiesta tonight with homemade salsa and chicken tacos! YUM.

5. Buying some new workout pants!

6. Getting my hair colored by my fabulous hairstylist/hubby Jon! Check out the last color job he did :) (mind the post, it's super long.)

7. I am more than looking forward to our one year anniversary in June! 06/07/08! We are planning a trip to Italy!!

8. and my brother is coming again in May and I can't wait to see him.

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. I walked 5 miles through the park.

2. I cut my friend Sarah's hair.

3. Went grocery shopping and loaded up on some, somewhat healthy food.

4. Did the dishes........ my least favorite thing in the world.

5. Went to the grocery store a second time because I forgot to get hamburger buns!

6. Made buffalo/bison burgers for dinner!

7. Ate almost an entire bag of French Onion Sunchips by myself. (and I wonder why I can't lose weight.)

8. Drank some very good red wine with dinner.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. I wish I could lose 1 pound for every mile I walk/jog.

2. I wish I was like Samantha on Bewitched, could wiggle my nose and the house work would be done leaving the entire house immaculate. How can two people dirty a house so quickly is my question!?

3. I wish I could eat Mexican food every day and not gain weight, but actually lose it.

4. I wish I had a beach front home or home on a lake. Water is so relaxing.

5. I wish we had our own vineyard/vineyards that were already producing a good crop.

6. I wish I could play the piano! My mom can play. I always wanted to play Claire de Lune on the piano, although I don't think I could ever play like Claude Debussy.

7. I wish Germany had a Target. I miss that store on a daily basis.

8. I wish Jon and I could volunteer in Borneo, because that would be his dream come true. I would love to research and help save the Gibbons and other animals living there.

8 Shows I Watch:

Well being that we are in Germany and don't have a satellite at the moment we really don't watch Television shows.

We do however have several on DVD that we watch regularly like:

1. TRUE BLOOD!!! my favorite show
2. Entourage
3. Arrested Development
4. Family Guy (that we watch ALL OF THE TIME)
5. Seinfeld
6. Deadwood (That we borrowed from some friends)

I just got Dexter and Sopranos and definitely look forward to watching those.

So I guess that is 8!

We are mainly movie freaks. We watch movies almost every night. We just watched Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler last night and I thought it was really cute. Of course I love Adam Sandler and any movie he is in.

I am tagging these 8 wonderful bloggers!
In no particular order:

More Wine Please
Grand Pooba
Lesley Living Life
Mr. and Mrs. in Training
Mrs. G.I. Joe
Tales of the Trees
Windowboxes and Weissbier
New Girl on Post

Happy Thursday Everyone!!

Summer 2007

Last night I was going through all of my pictures on the computer and putting them on a new hard drive we just got from Tigerdirect.com, (the best site in the world,) and I ran across some pictures from summer 2007. That was such a fun summer for Jon and me, one I think about all of the time. It was when Jon and I first started getting into wine and viticulture/viniculture. We took a class during the summer to learn more about wine. We learned to harvest, de-stem, crush, etc. etc. Our teacher was awesome and he actually owns his own vineyard in Oklahoma called Sandhill Vineyards. His wine is great. We learned a lot from him in the short period we took his class. I wish we could have taken more classes but we can always continue on later once we get back to the states.

That year we also visited several vineyards all over Oklahoma and Texas and bought several bottles of wine from each place so we could be our very own wine connoisseurs! Here are pictures from a few of the vineyards we visited.

This is the vineyard that is owned by our teacher.
Sandhill Vineyards in Oklahoma

Harvesting at a vineyard in Lone Grove, OK

Jon digging into the vines to try and get the best grapes.YumStriking a hot, sweaty pose with my grape hookDelaney Vineyards in Dallas, TXOur best buddy Brian went with us!

Brian and Jon in front of a ginormous barrelGrape Ranch in OklahomaEnjoying some wine on their patioOf course Jon found an animal to play with! I can't wait to visit more of the vineyards and wineries here. Maybe we could even volunteer to harvest at a local vineyard; that would be a so much fun to be able to get out there and learn more. If you've been reading for a while, you know how much Jon and I enjoy good wine and learning as much as we can about it. One day we'd like to have our very own vineyard. Maybe we will someday!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Weekend Update

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! Ours was great! On Easter we met up with several friends and had a nice lunch.

During holidays it makes Jon and me realize how much we do miss our families. I was so sad to miss my nieces and nephew hunting Easter eggs and getting together with my family at my grandparents for a big meal. I missed putting together an Easter bunny nest (a tradition in Jon's family) and waking up Easter morning with lots of wonderful goodies.

But the fact that I have Jon on this Easter in Germany means more to me than anything. I am very lucky to have him in my life.

Well, all the gooshiness aside,
Saturday Jon and I decided it was time to buy some much needed things for our home.

When we first moved here we bought a new dining room table but had trouble finding chairs that we liked. So for 6 months now we have been without dining room chairs. We used fold out chairs and our computer chair to sit on.

This weekend we decided it was time to get out there and find the perfect chairs for our table. (nothing says redneck like an old rolling computer chair at the dinner table!)

We went to Ikea and found nothing suitable for a dining room table. But we did find a rug for our living room.

I think it matches our place spot on.

With no luck at Ikea, we headed for Mann Mobilia knowing we'd probably have a better chance of finding a more suitable set of chairs.

And we did.........
We completely lucked out, these chairs were on sale and I really think they go perfectly with our table. Plus they are super comfortable to sit on.

Nothing like a little furniture shopping to make your entire weekend.
I feel like our house is finally coming along. There are only a couple more pieces of furniture we need to make our home complete. Now if I could only just blink and my entire house be clean, that would really make my day complete!!

I hope you all have a great week!

The Easter Bunny

Since it is almost Easter I had to share this photograph with you guys.

I have no idea how old bro and I were in this picture, but obviously we were young enough to still believe in the Easter bunny. (Although knowing he and I, we'd still take pictures with the Easter bunny at this age, just for kicks.)

My mom always had our pictures taken with the Easter bunny and Santa, but this is one that I found last year and absolutely love!

Maybe it is because of the fact that you can tell my brother is terrified of the crazy eyed bunny with very big hands, and wants nothing more than to get away or the fact that I am shyly smiling in hopes to be good for the bunny so I can get my big Easter basket full of goodies.

It's years later and we still get Easter baskets, but we did find out they were from my mother and not that big giant bunny. Thank goodness, because I'm sure if my brother awoke to find this big scary bunny in his room in the middle of the night dropping off his Easter basket, he might have a conniption!

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!
It's a busy one for the hubs and me. I've got some hairdos to do, then off to Ikea for some dining room chairs, and afterward grocery shopping!

Hiking in Johanissberg

Last Saturday Jon and I met with our friends Ben and Tara and went on a 10 mile hike in Johanissburg.

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip.

Hope you all enjoy your Easter weekend!

You Might Be a Redneck.........

if you spend weekend nights feeding June bugs to toads......

Yup you read that correctly. In the spring time Oklahoma gets swarms of June bugs. For those of you who are not familiar with June bugs, they are icky, scary, gross, bugs that fly around and are attracted to light. (and usually end up flying into your hair!) All you Okies know what I'm talking about!

Well last summer it rained during the spring for like 18 days straight, which somehow brought on TOADS. and large quantities of them!

One weekend Jon, our best bud Brian, my brother and I were outside enjoying the weather when we realized a swarm of June bugs were flying around our outside porch light.

Then we saw a toad hopping around on our back patio. We put two and two together, realizing that toads love bugs and thought it would be interesting to see if the toad would eat the June bugs. Instead of just eating one of these June bugs, we fed the toad like 10! It was a very entertaining thirty minutes of our lives! Hope you are as entertained as we were.

P.S. DO try this at home, it is so fun.

Here are the videos we captured.

Sorry for the ridiculously bad quality, I captured the video from my camera.

Hope you guys have a wonderful Thursday, it's almost Friday!