We had a good weekend this past weekend. Saturday morning we got up and headed over to the furniture store to pick up our new guestroom bedset. It was very nice because this store had a vehicle we could rent from them and we live close enough that we had it back within 30 minutes, so it was cheap, too! That's one bad thing about giving up our big vehicles -- it's hard to get stuff home!
After that, we flipped through cookbooks and some of my old vegetarian magazines to find suitable recipes to bring to the Twilight potluck later that night. We found some yummy-sounding recipes (vegetable caviar and lemon-mint vinaigrette sugar snap peas) and headed to the commissary to buy some ingredients. While at the commissary we stocked up on none other than.. Girl Scout Cookies! Yayyy!! I was thrilled. :)
When we got home, I worked on the cooking while Carl went upstairs to put the new bed set together. It looks nice, but it is still lacking bedding as it's a German bed and we need to go buy some nice German bedding for it.
The potluck was at Dan&Kelli's and it was fun. Our vegetarian caviar turned out delicious! For the other recipe, well, the commissary did not have sugar snap peas so we substituted snow peas.... and, it didn't work too well for this particular recipe. Anyway, there were 8 of us at the potluck and we had a nice time sitting around chatting while waiting for time to pass so we could head to the movie!
Twilight. Ahhh Twilight. My favorite vampire boyfriend Edward. :) It was scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m., and this was 'opening night' here at our post theater. So, we decided to get there around 9 p.m. since you can't buy tickets earlier than 30 minutes prior to a show starting here. We got in the line that was formed outside the building at about 9:05 p.m. Not even five minutes later, the theater workers come outside and tell everyone they were sold out already! What?!?! Unbelievable. Apparently, for this movie, they had opened at 8 p.m. to sell tickets. Are you kidding me? Nice. So, no Twilight for us. The stupid thing is they are only showing it maybe two more times at our theater. Dumb. Luckily I got to see it back home in the States. I still wanted to see it again though!! So, we rented Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and headed back to Dan& Kelli's to watch together. It was fun, even though I fell asleep for parts of it.
Sunday we went to church and then went to lunch with Dan&Kelli and Lira and the kids. It was fun. The restaurant has slow service, so we were there for a while, but it was okay because we all get along and had nice conversation. After that, we headed home and did some housecleaning and laundry, etc. before going to bed.
Tonight is bowling night again, but it's also the one other showing of Twilight at our theater. So, I will probably be going to that! Lira said she'll probably get a sub for bowling so she can go and bring the kids, and I think Jen and Kelli may show up as well. So, it may turn out to be a sort of girl's night after all.
27 January 2009
22 January 2009
Shopping, snow, American Idol
Oops, it's been a little while since I have updated again. We have had some pretty uneventful times overall lately, just being busy with work and the daily grind.
Last week, I think it was Wednesday, it snowed again and it was absolutely beautiful! Big huge fluffy flakes that covered the entire countryside with white. The dogs again had so much fun playing in it. The snow had not actually melted yet from the last time, so this piled on top and made for a fairly nice little base. Sunday, however, it warmed up enough to rain so it was all washed away.
Saturday we found a nice furniture store around the corner from the house, and bought a new bedroom set for one of our extra bedrooms! We sold a lot of our extra furniture before we moved, and figured it was time to start getting ready for guests... drumroll please.... since my parents have officially booked their tickets and will be coming in the spring! Yayyyy!!!!! Obviously, I'm not going to post dates or anything for simple security precautions, but, it's a little ways away yet. I have been busy trying to plan an itinerary for their visit. 'So much Europe, so little time' is my new phrase!! There are so many places we want to go while they're here; some we've been to, some not.
Anyway, back to the bedroom set. It's very German, so that should be interesting for all you future guests! We pick it up this weekend and I'll have to find some nice bedding and get it all decorated so I can eventually post some pictures.
Saturday we also stopped by the library and got some new books to read. I got an awesome cookbook and have been a cooking machine this week!! I'm serious when I say that the kitchen and I have never really gotten along, until this week! I should have been taking pictures of the meals just for proof! haha! I got another Karen Kingsbury novel to read (already a good halfway through) but that's the only one they have, so pretty soon I'll either have to find a new author again or will have to find some bargain books online to order.
Monday was a holiday so we spent part of the afternoon and evening in Speyer, our favorite little town nearby, doing some shopping. I needed new work shoes (20Euro for nice black boots) and some of the stores were having some mega clearance sales so I got some new work pants (9Euro!) and a sweater (9Euro!). The only bad thing is that I am still getting used to the sizing over here. My shoes? Size 41! Sweater? Extra Large! Pants? Welllll... let's just say Carl was making fun of me because my European size is near the number for his American size... and also near my European shoe size now that I think about it. The truth is, I'm not really any bigger (okay maybe a little bit -- but the bretzels, berliners and strudels are too good here!!) it just feels so funny to buy sizes like 41! I'll get used to it. Or, get better at online shopping in American sizes again. haha!
This weekend was supposed to be a girl's night on Saturday, when we were headed to the premiere (over here anyway) of Twilight! Well, then Lira's son kind of wanted to come, so Carl said he'd come, and Dan said he'd go if Carl was going, and now Bryce said he'd go if the other guys were going... so, it's just going to be a whole big group thing. We're going to do a potluck dinner together at Dan & Kelli's and then head to the movie. There will probably be 8 or maybe 10, depending on whether Jen & Nate can make it.
Some sad news to report, and the only reason I put it down here is Not because it's not important, but because I know the only people who read this far down are the people who actually care about us, and the only ones who should read this, but we did have a loss in the family last week as Matt & Jennie lost the baby. :( We've all been keeping them in our prayers and are very sad for them, but happy that Jennie is okay. I won't post details because it's not my place to do so, but, we are thinking about them and praying for them.
That's about all for now. It's time for American Idol! :) Yes, we get it over here, just a day later. Better than nothing!
Last week, I think it was Wednesday, it snowed again and it was absolutely beautiful! Big huge fluffy flakes that covered the entire countryside with white. The dogs again had so much fun playing in it. The snow had not actually melted yet from the last time, so this piled on top and made for a fairly nice little base. Sunday, however, it warmed up enough to rain so it was all washed away.
Saturday we found a nice furniture store around the corner from the house, and bought a new bedroom set for one of our extra bedrooms! We sold a lot of our extra furniture before we moved, and figured it was time to start getting ready for guests... drumroll please.... since my parents have officially booked their tickets and will be coming in the spring! Yayyyy!!!!! Obviously, I'm not going to post dates or anything for simple security precautions, but, it's a little ways away yet. I have been busy trying to plan an itinerary for their visit. 'So much Europe, so little time' is my new phrase!! There are so many places we want to go while they're here; some we've been to, some not.
Anyway, back to the bedroom set. It's very German, so that should be interesting for all you future guests! We pick it up this weekend and I'll have to find some nice bedding and get it all decorated so I can eventually post some pictures.
Saturday we also stopped by the library and got some new books to read. I got an awesome cookbook and have been a cooking machine this week!! I'm serious when I say that the kitchen and I have never really gotten along, until this week! I should have been taking pictures of the meals just for proof! haha! I got another Karen Kingsbury novel to read (already a good halfway through) but that's the only one they have, so pretty soon I'll either have to find a new author again or will have to find some bargain books online to order.
Monday was a holiday so we spent part of the afternoon and evening in Speyer, our favorite little town nearby, doing some shopping. I needed new work shoes (20Euro for nice black boots) and some of the stores were having some mega clearance sales so I got some new work pants (9Euro!) and a sweater (9Euro!). The only bad thing is that I am still getting used to the sizing over here. My shoes? Size 41! Sweater? Extra Large! Pants? Welllll... let's just say Carl was making fun of me because my European size is near the number for his American size... and also near my European shoe size now that I think about it. The truth is, I'm not really any bigger (okay maybe a little bit -- but the bretzels, berliners and strudels are too good here!!) it just feels so funny to buy sizes like 41! I'll get used to it. Or, get better at online shopping in American sizes again. haha!
This weekend was supposed to be a girl's night on Saturday, when we were headed to the premiere (over here anyway) of Twilight! Well, then Lira's son kind of wanted to come, so Carl said he'd come, and Dan said he'd go if Carl was going, and now Bryce said he'd go if the other guys were going... so, it's just going to be a whole big group thing. We're going to do a potluck dinner together at Dan & Kelli's and then head to the movie. There will probably be 8 or maybe 10, depending on whether Jen & Nate can make it.
Some sad news to report, and the only reason I put it down here is Not because it's not important, but because I know the only people who read this far down are the people who actually care about us, and the only ones who should read this, but we did have a loss in the family last week as Matt & Jennie lost the baby. :( We've all been keeping them in our prayers and are very sad for them, but happy that Jennie is okay. I won't post details because it's not my place to do so, but, we are thinking about them and praying for them.
That's about all for now. It's time for American Idol! :) Yes, we get it over here, just a day later. Better than nothing!
12 January 2009
Weekend Update
Over the weekend we had a lot to accomplish. Saturday was one of those days that we knew we just needed to get things done. Most importantly, we had to figure out how to buy oil and have it delivered to the house. We use oil to heat our home, and we have four huge tanks in the basement... and they were pretty much at the last drops. I got the name of a local oil company from a co-worker but of course that wasn't going to get the oil delivered.
So, Saturday we drove to where we thought their building was, and through broken English and German we found our way to the office, where the very nice lady at the counter basically only spoke one word of English -"No."
Luckily, Carl's been brushing up on his German, and hand gestures and acting out things are universal languages. The lady was very friendly and willing to help us figure out what to do. As it turned out, there was a driver near our house already who did speak English, so she called him and Carl spoke with him on the phone. About 20 minutes later we were driving up to the house and the oil truck was already there waiting for us! Hallelujah!! We can now turn our heaters up to high and try to keep from catching another cold! It has been unbelievably cold here in our house lately... radiator heaters just don't heat up a giant house all that well. We have figured out which doors to close to keep the heat in certain rooms, and we don't heat the whole upstairs or downstairs just yet, only the side of the house that we are living on. It's worked fine so far, and so it should continue to work well now that we've refilled the oil and know how to get more in the future!
Saturday evening we attened at play at our local theater since we bought season tickets at the beginning of the year. We saw "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and it was hysterical! We were laughing out loud and there were parts where I think the entire audience was laughing as loud as they could at how hilarious it was. It was a good evening. I am really looking forward to the last play of the season, my personal favorite, "The Sound of Music!" but that doesn't start up till May I think. There are a couple more in between we'll go to as well.
Sunday was wonderful for me because I got to stay home. Carl had to work again so I did something I haven't done in forever -- I stayed in my pj's and bathrobe all day! And it felt awesome!! I was a heathen by skipping church, yes I know, and I do feel bad, but sometimes the need to do absolutely nothing and stay in the pajamas is just too great to overcome. I did do a bunch of laundry though so the day wasn't a total waste of time (although I personally think there would have been nothing wrong with a total wasted day...)
I finished another Karen Kingsbury book last night too, this one was "Like Dandelion Dust." I highly recommend it. I am hoping to go by the library to see if they have any more by her but if not then I might move on to another Rosamunde Pilcher or maybe a Maeve Binchy; I really like both of those authors and found some old paperbacks in our stuff that I haven't read yet.
We're hard at work trying to nail down dates for my parents' visit! Lots of work things on both ends have prevented any ticket purchase yet unfortunately, but, we're getting closer! I can't wait!!
One more random thing about me: I have become totally addicted to Burt's Bee's Hand Salve. I got a little kit in my stocking from Santa of Burt's Bee's samplers. (Thanks Santa Dude!!!!) I already knew I loved the lip gloss tin and the lemon butter cuticle cream. I actually gave Carl a huge tin of this Hand Salve stuff last year at Christmas because I thought it would be good for him with work and all. Well, when I felt how dry my skin got here and just one night of putting that stuff on my hands, I am hooked! And I can't get it here! Ugh! So... anytime someone would like to send me a little something, Burt's Bee's Hand Salve would be a real treat! (actually, anything Burt's Bee's is fine with me; I haven't found anything yet I don't like from that company!) Just a thought! :)
So, Saturday we drove to where we thought their building was, and through broken English and German we found our way to the office, where the very nice lady at the counter basically only spoke one word of English -"No."
Luckily, Carl's been brushing up on his German, and hand gestures and acting out things are universal languages. The lady was very friendly and willing to help us figure out what to do. As it turned out, there was a driver near our house already who did speak English, so she called him and Carl spoke with him on the phone. About 20 minutes later we were driving up to the house and the oil truck was already there waiting for us! Hallelujah!! We can now turn our heaters up to high and try to keep from catching another cold! It has been unbelievably cold here in our house lately... radiator heaters just don't heat up a giant house all that well. We have figured out which doors to close to keep the heat in certain rooms, and we don't heat the whole upstairs or downstairs just yet, only the side of the house that we are living on. It's worked fine so far, and so it should continue to work well now that we've refilled the oil and know how to get more in the future!
Saturday evening we attened at play at our local theater since we bought season tickets at the beginning of the year. We saw "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and it was hysterical! We were laughing out loud and there were parts where I think the entire audience was laughing as loud as they could at how hilarious it was. It was a good evening. I am really looking forward to the last play of the season, my personal favorite, "The Sound of Music!" but that doesn't start up till May I think. There are a couple more in between we'll go to as well.
Sunday was wonderful for me because I got to stay home. Carl had to work again so I did something I haven't done in forever -- I stayed in my pj's and bathrobe all day! And it felt awesome!! I was a heathen by skipping church, yes I know, and I do feel bad, but sometimes the need to do absolutely nothing and stay in the pajamas is just too great to overcome. I did do a bunch of laundry though so the day wasn't a total waste of time (although I personally think there would have been nothing wrong with a total wasted day...)
I finished another Karen Kingsbury book last night too, this one was "Like Dandelion Dust." I highly recommend it. I am hoping to go by the library to see if they have any more by her but if not then I might move on to another Rosamunde Pilcher or maybe a Maeve Binchy; I really like both of those authors and found some old paperbacks in our stuff that I haven't read yet.
We're hard at work trying to nail down dates for my parents' visit! Lots of work things on both ends have prevented any ticket purchase yet unfortunately, but, we're getting closer! I can't wait!!
One more random thing about me: I have become totally addicted to Burt's Bee's Hand Salve. I got a little kit in my stocking from Santa of Burt's Bee's samplers. (Thanks Santa Dude!!!!) I already knew I loved the lip gloss tin and the lemon butter cuticle cream. I actually gave Carl a huge tin of this Hand Salve stuff last year at Christmas because I thought it would be good for him with work and all. Well, when I felt how dry my skin got here and just one night of putting that stuff on my hands, I am hooked! And I can't get it here! Ugh! So... anytime someone would like to send me a little something, Burt's Bee's Hand Salve would be a real treat! (actually, anything Burt's Bee's is fine with me; I haven't found anything yet I don't like from that company!) Just a thought! :)
08 January 2009
Snowed In??
Okay, no, we have not really been snowed in. I was going to use the excuse of "We've been snowed in since Monday, and it knocked our power out, and I've had to walk 12 miles in the snow uphill one-way to work every day this week, and the snow is all the way to our roof..." as the reason I have not updated again. But, obviously that's not true.
We did, however, have snow, glorious snow, Monday of this week. It snowed pretty much all day while we were both at work. Overall we probably only had a few inches total, but it was enough to coat everything with a nice thick layer of the nice powdery white stuff. It hasn't really melted yet. The roads are not too bad, as they do a good job here of plowing and salting. They even have special little plows for the bike paths, believe it or not! The doggies have definitely had some fun romping and playing in the backyard in all the snow. They love it! It is really cute too, to see their bright red fur against backdrop of white everywhere you can look.
Today as I was driving home from work around 5 p.m., I looked to my left and right and saw just the most beautiful sight -- it was the landscape, covered in snow, with the mountains on the left and the flat land on the right, pale blue sky above me on the left with the moon rising over it all, and on the right side the sky was still a very pale pink from the sunset. It was gorgeous. We don't normally get views like that because it's been so gray and overcast here all the time. But this was a sight to see. I was driving on the autobahn though, so I didn't get too much time to enjoy the view before needing to concentrate on the road again.
Happy (late) New Year's, everyone! I guess this is my first post of 2009. And I'm only 8 days into it. Eh, oh well. I didn't think anyone was sitting on the edges of their seats waiting for a new post, but, you never know!
For New Year's we went to Dan & Kelli's house. They had a couple friends visiting from the States, and Sonia and Bryce and Jen and Nate came also. We had a good time. They provided a taco bar, we brought cookies and brownies and they also had lots of wines for everyone (else) to try. We played Catch Phrase boys vs. girls (except I was on the boys team because a.I have to be on Carl's team so we don't fight and b. there was one extra girl). Our team won all three games! It was really fun and got pretty intense for a little while.
However, I have to say one of the coolest things ever happened at midnight. We watched the countdown from Berlin on the German cable, and at midnight went outside to see if we could see any of the fireworks. See, fireworks are banned year-round here except for NYE. Well, the Germans take advantage of that and make up for it! I'm not kidding, we stood outside in their front yard and watched a panorama view for 30 minutes of fireworks in every direction we could see. It was so cool!! These people don't just do sparklers and little puny fireworks either. No, these were normal people shooting off what looked like professional shows from their front yards! It was really neat.
After the fireworks we played some Wii and Wii Fit. We all tried ski jumping, slalom, snowboarding, etc. And then they pulled up the Yoga... ugh.... I did two moves and almost killed myself. Carl even tried a couple, and.. it wasn't pretty. We are not Yoga people!
We got home around 2 a.m. and called my parents to wish them a Happy New Year, and it was pretty weird because it was still 2008 for them. This time change thing is still really weird to me! I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.
Anyway, we've been back at work now all week and settling back into the swing of things. We are now looking for airfare for a visit from my parents in the Spring. Yay!! You know I can't wait for that!! This weekend might be the time to go buy some more extra bedroom furniture and get the extra rooms ready!
Here's some randomness about some of my recent activities: I've been doing a ton of reading lately. Let's see, I finished the Twilight series (eeek! I love Edward! But I also love Jacob!) Then I read a Barbara Delinsky book that someone at Fort Jackson gave me, and then I read the "Under the Sabers" book that Army Wives is based on that Santa gave me in my stocking. It was good (but not as good as the tv show)! I have now moved on to another Karen Kingsbury that I got from either mom or grandma, and it's really good. I am not sure what I'll read next. Always up for suggestions, though! I have been listening to the two cds of "Wow! 2009" top Christian music and I am completely addicted to them. That was also from Santa, and I highly recommend getting them.
And to everyone who is leaving comments, thanks! You don't know how much it means to me to hear from you guys back home and know that you are taking the time to check up on us. We are truly blessed.
Don't forget to check the Flickr page for all our DisneyWorld and family Christmas photos!! (click on the link to go directly there).
We did, however, have snow, glorious snow, Monday of this week. It snowed pretty much all day while we were both at work. Overall we probably only had a few inches total, but it was enough to coat everything with a nice thick layer of the nice powdery white stuff. It hasn't really melted yet. The roads are not too bad, as they do a good job here of plowing and salting. They even have special little plows for the bike paths, believe it or not! The doggies have definitely had some fun romping and playing in the backyard in all the snow. They love it! It is really cute too, to see their bright red fur against backdrop of white everywhere you can look.
Today as I was driving home from work around 5 p.m., I looked to my left and right and saw just the most beautiful sight -- it was the landscape, covered in snow, with the mountains on the left and the flat land on the right, pale blue sky above me on the left with the moon rising over it all, and on the right side the sky was still a very pale pink from the sunset. It was gorgeous. We don't normally get views like that because it's been so gray and overcast here all the time. But this was a sight to see. I was driving on the autobahn though, so I didn't get too much time to enjoy the view before needing to concentrate on the road again.
Happy (late) New Year's, everyone! I guess this is my first post of 2009. And I'm only 8 days into it. Eh, oh well. I didn't think anyone was sitting on the edges of their seats waiting for a new post, but, you never know!
For New Year's we went to Dan & Kelli's house. They had a couple friends visiting from the States, and Sonia and Bryce and Jen and Nate came also. We had a good time. They provided a taco bar, we brought cookies and brownies and they also had lots of wines for everyone (else) to try. We played Catch Phrase boys vs. girls (except I was on the boys team because a.I have to be on Carl's team so we don't fight and b. there was one extra girl). Our team won all three games! It was really fun and got pretty intense for a little while.
However, I have to say one of the coolest things ever happened at midnight. We watched the countdown from Berlin on the German cable, and at midnight went outside to see if we could see any of the fireworks. See, fireworks are banned year-round here except for NYE. Well, the Germans take advantage of that and make up for it! I'm not kidding, we stood outside in their front yard and watched a panorama view for 30 minutes of fireworks in every direction we could see. It was so cool!! These people don't just do sparklers and little puny fireworks either. No, these were normal people shooting off what looked like professional shows from their front yards! It was really neat.
After the fireworks we played some Wii and Wii Fit. We all tried ski jumping, slalom, snowboarding, etc. And then they pulled up the Yoga... ugh.... I did two moves and almost killed myself. Carl even tried a couple, and.. it wasn't pretty. We are not Yoga people!
We got home around 2 a.m. and called my parents to wish them a Happy New Year, and it was pretty weird because it was still 2008 for them. This time change thing is still really weird to me! I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.
Anyway, we've been back at work now all week and settling back into the swing of things. We are now looking for airfare for a visit from my parents in the Spring. Yay!! You know I can't wait for that!! This weekend might be the time to go buy some more extra bedroom furniture and get the extra rooms ready!
Here's some randomness about some of my recent activities: I've been doing a ton of reading lately. Let's see, I finished the Twilight series (eeek! I love Edward! But I also love Jacob!) Then I read a Barbara Delinsky book that someone at Fort Jackson gave me, and then I read the "Under the Sabers" book that Army Wives is based on that Santa gave me in my stocking. It was good (but not as good as the tv show)! I have now moved on to another Karen Kingsbury that I got from either mom or grandma, and it's really good. I am not sure what I'll read next. Always up for suggestions, though! I have been listening to the two cds of "Wow! 2009" top Christian music and I am completely addicted to them. That was also from Santa, and I highly recommend getting them.
And to everyone who is leaving comments, thanks! You don't know how much it means to me to hear from you guys back home and know that you are taking the time to check up on us. We are truly blessed.
Don't forget to check the Flickr page for all our DisneyWorld and family Christmas photos!! (click on the link to go directly there).
31 December 2008
From Gibson to Jasmine...
Well, gosh, how time has a flown by! I can't believe we already went home for Christmas, came back and I've been at work for three days.
We had an absolutely amazing time at home though. I am sorry I haven't updated, but I figured since most of the family was with us for the past week or so, I could wait till we got back to update.
I will try to not write too much since I know that no one really likes to read those super long posts.
Our flight over was pretty grand -- we had awesome seats in the front of the coach section that gave us super extra legroom. We also had Delta on demand movies, tv shows and games on these little tv screens on our seats, so I watched four girly movies and Carl watched five guy movies, so the time went by pretty quickly! We arrived back in the States the evening of Dec. 18, in Orlando. It was neat because we got to spend the evening with my brother who had flown in a little bit earlier in the day as well. We had an amazingly yummy Mexican dinner and hung out talking for a while before we conked out. The next day we got up and had breakfast at the hotel, did some shopping (ahhh Target!!!!) and played a round of mini-golf at a course near Disney. (I won, of course, since I had the highest score.... haha, that's a joke). We checked everyone into our hotel and waited for the others to arrive. Our rooms were really awesome... albeit at the farthest end of the hotel they could possibly be! It was nice though because two of the rooms were adjoining and we were the only ones on our little hallway so it felt like it was our own private suite!
A few hours later there we were standing on the front slope at Shades of Green as my parents pulled up with the sis-in-law and nephew along too. We all made it safely! yay!
Our first day at the Park was much like all the rest of our days at the park -- crowded!! We started at Epcot and hit the big ones like Soarin (my favorite) and Test Track (my other favorite). We visited all the countries, ate a nice food sampling and watched some of the shows. Then we headed back to the hotel to take a break before dinner at the hotel. (For anyone heading to SoG anytime soon: The Garden Gallery is really good; Evergreens Sports Bar & Grill is not so good). Later that night we decided to attempt a trip to the Magic Kingdom to get a jump start on the next day's activities. Carl got sick so he had to stay behind, but the rest of us ventured to the MK and dealt with the crowds. It was awful - we kept getting stuck in the stupid parade crowd! So we stayed for a little while, rode It's a Small World and the Carousel and decided to call it a night.
The next morning we ventured back to the MK and rode some more rides. All the days and rides sort of run together for me now, but I do remember that night we went back to take advantage of the Extra Magic hours (a huge perk if you are staying at a Disney resort. Each night one of the parks stays open up to 3 hours later just for resort guests. nice!) So, we basically got to walk straight on to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (my favorite) and Splash Mountain (my other favorite) with no wait! It was awesome! We were there till almost 2 a.m., all of us crazy party animals. :)
So the next morning it was time to head to the Animal Kingdom. We got there around 10 I think and headed straight to the Safari adventure ride. That ride is awesome - it is like you are actually on an African safari and the animals are real and so close. We even had a traffic jam at the rhinos as they were blocking the road and running around playing! Very cute! We got our fast pass for Expedition Everest and headed over to Dinosaur. I loved Dinosaur last time we were there, but for some reason I didn't remember it being so scary! I was terrified and screaming but it was fun. The picture was hilarious. :)
Soon it was time to head to Expedition Everest. Oh. My. Gosh. This ride was being built still the last time Carl & I were at Disney, four years ago, so we've been dying to get back and ride it. That is, until I saw that it is a super fast rollercoaster! Eeek! Carl was determined to ride it and forced me to go. I wouldn't go if my mom wouldn't. My mom wouldn't go if Dad wouldn't go, and Dad wouldn't go without Matt. So, it was settled, we were all going. (Jennie and Jacob stayed behind as Jennie couldn't ride any of the rides with Red Triangle warnings. More on that later.) So, yeah, we waited for about 5 minutes thanks to our Fast Passes. I tried to get on and get right back off again but they wouldn't let me. All I can say is I think my hands are still permanently clenched from holding mom's hands. None of us could even scream we were so scared!! We all (except Carl) had our eyes closed the entire time. It was awful!! Once we got off and we all realized we were alive, we admitted it "wasn't that bad..." hahahaha! We are such daredevils!! Good thing we dragged Carl on that ride since we all ended up liking it so much.
Later in the day we split up for a bit and Matt, Jennie & Jacob headed to Hollywood Studios to watch stunt shows while Carl, Mom, Dad & I headed back to Epcot. We met up back at the hotel for dinner and called it a night.
The next morning they headed out on the road home while Carl and I battled the crowds at Hollywood Studios one more day. It was too crowded to ride anything or see any show so we headed out and did some shopping. Our flight to Nashville was the next morning.
Once we landed in Tennessee, Grandma Ger's flight was due a few hours after hours so we ate at Cracker Barrell (My favorite!) and then got her at the airport and headed HOME. My Aunt Nancy and the kids and their ice-mobile finalllly made it to join everyone after spending two days driving through the wicked winter storm all the way from Minnesota. We were all together finally and it was Christmas eve.
Family time in our family means lots of games and trivia contests. Dad made a really great trivia game for all of us and we spent time having "Family Idol" using the Wii American Idol game. It was absolutely wonderful to have everyone together again and be home, sleeping in the bedroom I grew up in. We opened presents later in the day on Christmas Day after M, J & J rejoined us. We all got some nice little things even though we had agreed we weren't doing presents this year since we all went to Disney!
The biggest surprise of all came when M, J, &J handed out their gifts to us. Remember the Red Triangle rides Jennie couldn't ride "because her back hurt"? HA! Turns out they're expecting! Yay for them!!!!! They handed out a riddle for us to all open and read and then we all got little baby-type gifts like booties and bibs (I got an ant necklace in honor of being an aunt! haha). We are all super happy for them. I don't want to post too much since I don't know what they want out there for the world to see. So that's all I'll say is that we are all very excited and can't wait to see the little one.
Now for the blog title... .that goes along with our Family Idol matchup.... that's a joke that you probably wouldn't get unless you were there. :)
Whew! That's a long one and I said I wasn't going to write much. Oh well. I am at work all alone today (well, Scout's with me) so I had some free time to write this. Basically, the trip home wasn't long enough, but no matter what a trip home probably will never feel long enough. Our flight back was decent enough but we didnt' get much sleep and we're still readjusting.
Tonight is New Year's Eve. Wow. What a year 2008 has been. I loved my 2008 and I hope you all can say the same. Here's hoping 2009 is even better.
We had an absolutely amazing time at home though. I am sorry I haven't updated, but I figured since most of the family was with us for the past week or so, I could wait till we got back to update.
I will try to not write too much since I know that no one really likes to read those super long posts.
Our flight over was pretty grand -- we had awesome seats in the front of the coach section that gave us super extra legroom. We also had Delta on demand movies, tv shows and games on these little tv screens on our seats, so I watched four girly movies and Carl watched five guy movies, so the time went by pretty quickly! We arrived back in the States the evening of Dec. 18, in Orlando. It was neat because we got to spend the evening with my brother who had flown in a little bit earlier in the day as well. We had an amazingly yummy Mexican dinner and hung out talking for a while before we conked out. The next day we got up and had breakfast at the hotel, did some shopping (ahhh Target!!!!) and played a round of mini-golf at a course near Disney. (I won, of course, since I had the highest score.... haha, that's a joke). We checked everyone into our hotel and waited for the others to arrive. Our rooms were really awesome... albeit at the farthest end of the hotel they could possibly be! It was nice though because two of the rooms were adjoining and we were the only ones on our little hallway so it felt like it was our own private suite!
A few hours later there we were standing on the front slope at Shades of Green as my parents pulled up with the sis-in-law and nephew along too. We all made it safely! yay!
Our first day at the Park was much like all the rest of our days at the park -- crowded!! We started at Epcot and hit the big ones like Soarin (my favorite) and Test Track (my other favorite). We visited all the countries, ate a nice food sampling and watched some of the shows. Then we headed back to the hotel to take a break before dinner at the hotel. (For anyone heading to SoG anytime soon: The Garden Gallery is really good; Evergreens Sports Bar & Grill is not so good). Later that night we decided to attempt a trip to the Magic Kingdom to get a jump start on the next day's activities. Carl got sick so he had to stay behind, but the rest of us ventured to the MK and dealt with the crowds. It was awful - we kept getting stuck in the stupid parade crowd! So we stayed for a little while, rode It's a Small World and the Carousel and decided to call it a night.
The next morning we ventured back to the MK and rode some more rides. All the days and rides sort of run together for me now, but I do remember that night we went back to take advantage of the Extra Magic hours (a huge perk if you are staying at a Disney resort. Each night one of the parks stays open up to 3 hours later just for resort guests. nice!) So, we basically got to walk straight on to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (my favorite) and Splash Mountain (my other favorite) with no wait! It was awesome! We were there till almost 2 a.m., all of us crazy party animals. :)
So the next morning it was time to head to the Animal Kingdom. We got there around 10 I think and headed straight to the Safari adventure ride. That ride is awesome - it is like you are actually on an African safari and the animals are real and so close. We even had a traffic jam at the rhinos as they were blocking the road and running around playing! Very cute! We got our fast pass for Expedition Everest and headed over to Dinosaur. I loved Dinosaur last time we were there, but for some reason I didn't remember it being so scary! I was terrified and screaming but it was fun. The picture was hilarious. :)
Soon it was time to head to Expedition Everest. Oh. My. Gosh. This ride was being built still the last time Carl & I were at Disney, four years ago, so we've been dying to get back and ride it. That is, until I saw that it is a super fast rollercoaster! Eeek! Carl was determined to ride it and forced me to go. I wouldn't go if my mom wouldn't. My mom wouldn't go if Dad wouldn't go, and Dad wouldn't go without Matt. So, it was settled, we were all going. (Jennie and Jacob stayed behind as Jennie couldn't ride any of the rides with Red Triangle warnings. More on that later.) So, yeah, we waited for about 5 minutes thanks to our Fast Passes. I tried to get on and get right back off again but they wouldn't let me. All I can say is I think my hands are still permanently clenched from holding mom's hands. None of us could even scream we were so scared!! We all (except Carl) had our eyes closed the entire time. It was awful!! Once we got off and we all realized we were alive, we admitted it "wasn't that bad..." hahahaha! We are such daredevils!! Good thing we dragged Carl on that ride since we all ended up liking it so much.
Later in the day we split up for a bit and Matt, Jennie & Jacob headed to Hollywood Studios to watch stunt shows while Carl, Mom, Dad & I headed back to Epcot. We met up back at the hotel for dinner and called it a night.
The next morning they headed out on the road home while Carl and I battled the crowds at Hollywood Studios one more day. It was too crowded to ride anything or see any show so we headed out and did some shopping. Our flight to Nashville was the next morning.
Once we landed in Tennessee, Grandma Ger's flight was due a few hours after hours so we ate at Cracker Barrell (My favorite!) and then got her at the airport and headed HOME. My Aunt Nancy and the kids and their ice-mobile finalllly made it to join everyone after spending two days driving through the wicked winter storm all the way from Minnesota. We were all together finally and it was Christmas eve.
Family time in our family means lots of games and trivia contests. Dad made a really great trivia game for all of us and we spent time having "Family Idol" using the Wii American Idol game. It was absolutely wonderful to have everyone together again and be home, sleeping in the bedroom I grew up in. We opened presents later in the day on Christmas Day after M, J & J rejoined us. We all got some nice little things even though we had agreed we weren't doing presents this year since we all went to Disney!
The biggest surprise of all came when M, J, &J handed out their gifts to us. Remember the Red Triangle rides Jennie couldn't ride "because her back hurt"? HA! Turns out they're expecting! Yay for them!!!!! They handed out a riddle for us to all open and read and then we all got little baby-type gifts like booties and bibs (I got an ant necklace in honor of being an aunt! haha). We are all super happy for them. I don't want to post too much since I don't know what they want out there for the world to see. So that's all I'll say is that we are all very excited and can't wait to see the little one.
Now for the blog title... .that goes along with our Family Idol matchup.... that's a joke that you probably wouldn't get unless you were there. :)
Whew! That's a long one and I said I wasn't going to write much. Oh well. I am at work all alone today (well, Scout's with me) so I had some free time to write this. Basically, the trip home wasn't long enough, but no matter what a trip home probably will never feel long enough. Our flight back was decent enough but we didnt' get much sleep and we're still readjusting.
Tonight is New Year's Eve. Wow. What a year 2008 has been. I loved my 2008 and I hope you all can say the same. Here's hoping 2009 is even better.
13 December 2008
Not a lot of news, but I figured another update was due
Well, not a lot of news lately for us here. Everything's going well and we honestly just can't believe how time is flying by! We leave next week already to head home for Christmas and we can't wait!! We're headed to DisneyWorld with my family and I am totally pumped!
For the past week and a half or so I've been completely involved with work day and night. Kelli's gone on a work trip, so we've had extra duties as well as I got to be in charge of a briefing. Some of our NATO Soldiers wanted some follow-up media training, so every night for about a week and a half I spent at home working on putting this briefing together. It went very well, I have to admit, and we have a great base to build on for future briefings!
Tonight, Carl is at a championship boxing match in Mannheim. I guess you could say he's having a guy's night because he's there with about six other guys from work. They've been very excited about it for weeks and I think I am happy that I didn't go -- now I get "me time" at the house with just me, the doggies, Churro, the tv and a good mug of fruit tea. :) That reminds me, we have really become addicted to tea as of late because there are so many good tea shops here! We went downtown to the Christmas market last weekend and bought some fresh teas (can teas be "fresh"? Well, you know what I mean!) and they are very yummy. So tonight I've spent some time catching up with my favorite charities online... everyone needs to go to http://www.grpmrt.org/order.htm and order one of the golden retriever puppy mill rescue team calendars. This group stems from the group we used to volunteer so much with in Oklahoma, and also where Noel and Scout were given their second chances at life! While you're at it, also check out http://advocacy.jdrf.org/ and please become an advocate of the juvenile diabetes research foundation - this is helping make life better for all those who are living with diabetes, which is something that is very close to my family's heart.
So, that's about it. Just lots of the 'daily grind' going on here for right now!
For the past week and a half or so I've been completely involved with work day and night. Kelli's gone on a work trip, so we've had extra duties as well as I got to be in charge of a briefing. Some of our NATO Soldiers wanted some follow-up media training, so every night for about a week and a half I spent at home working on putting this briefing together. It went very well, I have to admit, and we have a great base to build on for future briefings!
Tonight, Carl is at a championship boxing match in Mannheim. I guess you could say he's having a guy's night because he's there with about six other guys from work. They've been very excited about it for weeks and I think I am happy that I didn't go -- now I get "me time" at the house with just me, the doggies, Churro, the tv and a good mug of fruit tea. :) That reminds me, we have really become addicted to tea as of late because there are so many good tea shops here! We went downtown to the Christmas market last weekend and bought some fresh teas (can teas be "fresh"? Well, you know what I mean!) and they are very yummy. So tonight I've spent some time catching up with my favorite charities online... everyone needs to go to http://www.grpmrt.org/order.htm and order one of the golden retriever puppy mill rescue team calendars. This group stems from the group we used to volunteer so much with in Oklahoma, and also where Noel and Scout were given their second chances at life! While you're at it, also check out http://advocacy.jdrf.org/ and please become an advocate of the juvenile diabetes research foundation - this is helping make life better for all those who are living with diabetes, which is something that is very close to my family's heart.
So, that's about it. Just lots of the 'daily grind' going on here for right now!
04 December 2008
Photos from our weekend trip to the Alps
Here's a sneak peak of pictures from our trip!
Me and the doggies in Austria.
The Zugspitze.
The cable car to the top of the Zugspitze... notice how it kind of disappears!
Me in my cute new snow bunny outfit, at the top of the Zugspitze.
Carl in Austria.
Isn't it beautiful??
Me and the doggies in Austria.
The Zugspitze.
The cable car to the top of the Zugspitze... notice how it kind of disappears!
Me in my cute new snow bunny outfit, at the top of the Zugspitze.
Carl in Austria.
Isn't it beautiful??
Now, read the post below to get all the details, and don't forget to check out our Flickr page for all the rest of the photos! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristenandcarl
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