Rainy Day Treats

glasses

2012-02-10T14:54:00.002+01:00

eddie certainly didn't get his eyesight from me! although i am the only one in my family over the age of 15 that doesn't wear glasses and i'm pretty sure everyone over 10 wears glasses in memo's family. the red next to his mouth is chapped skin from licking it all the time. sometimes he makes me crazy! we're using bag balm to try to get rid of it. i'm actually not a big fan of bag balm since it has some seriously questionable things in it, but for now that's what we've got. maybe i should try the alba chapstick. anywho - here are some pics with the new eye ware. he got the titanium bendy frames.

and the best one... ahh, the hilarity of knock knock jokes at that age!

finally, SNOW! and some pintrest 365

2012-01-30T10:12:00.007+01:00

the samoa bites i made... not as pretty as hers, but uh-mazing!

13 cutting triangles http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020219653/

14 dishwasher soap http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020172115/
15 brussels sprouts http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020188020/ ... not quite. they needed longer (maybe because i was using my stoneware, duh!) and i still added maple syrup.

16 http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020197802/ hopefully self help can install a hook so i can hang this! and any future changes i make for successive holidays etc

the ear warmers so far... there's a pin somewhere! i need to find my darning foot to quilt this

17 file folder game, these will happen regularly on no school days http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020256838/

18 magnets! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020034780/

19 cake batter pancakes http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020168785/ and cake mix 20 http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020262511/ + tumeric to make it yellow since i don't use eggs. these needed to cook a lot longer, but with no eggs i wasn't worried about them not being cooked. i made them again in the waffle iron - much better!

21 eggplant bacon: http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020267543/ it needs some work on the seasoning and baking, but i think it will work for bacon crumbles and such.

22 did you know you were cutting an onion wrong? i didn't either http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020257256/ so dang smart!

23 fruit roll ups, kind of a combo of these two http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195019979443/ andhttp://pinterest.com/pin/210895195019979806/. i liked them ok, but they're a lot more difficult than i thought. with practice it'll get easier. lessons learned - stick the parchment paper to the cookie sheet (using oil or water) and make sure it is crease free. also make sure the fruit sauce is level. all that's really left is to find flavors everyone likes!

24 corn dog muffins http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020098669/ amazingly easy and the boy likes them!

25 i swear this is a pin! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020288720/

26 bean salsa, kidney instead of black beans, but still good! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020292634/

27 reupholstering the desk chair, it needed it! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020073085/ no more tears or peeling faux leather

28 htt p://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020133305/ tar cookies (no pic) were delici

ous, but i forgot to take pics

29http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020197733/ fabric flowers... i need to figure out how to make the stem... i think i'm going to hot glue them to dowels

30 http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020041897/ pumpkin scrub

just 9 more to catch up!
it snowed! a lot... they all started shoveling the back walkway, and dad joined in. they were working on a fort...

...and then they all went sledding!

pintrest 365

2012-01-17T10:57:00.003+01:00

nothing picture worthy came out last week, and i've now fallen behind, but here's what i did:

friday i made samoas inspired fudgies - these were delicious! i made pb chocolate ones on sunday which were not nearly as good.

http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020192276/

on wednesday i watched a PBS movie on Irena Sendlar. if you haven't heard of her - go research her. i ran across a pic of her on pintrest and did a little searching on her. i found out there was a movie and one of the european libraries carried it. given the context, that she smuggled jewish children out of the warsaw ghetto, it's obviously very sad. it is also an amazingly beautiful story. i highly recommend it. if i knew of her when i was in Sr. Daniel's class - i would have done a report on her and not florence nightengale (i think that's who i got, i don't even remember)

http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020194675/

on tuesday i made spaghetti and beanballs, it ended up just being a variation on veganomicon's recipe - and i didn't care for it. i'm not sure if it was the oats or that i actually used A1 steak sauce this time.

http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020182842/

on monday i just made a spice mix for taco seasoning. easy peasy, something i'd been needing to replace for a while since i lost my last recipe!

http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020188142/

so i'm at 13 days of pintrest... time to catch back up!

pintrest 365

2012-01-06T13:40:00.006+01:00

the makings of pizza pockets http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195019979770/

not so pretty, but...
eddie likes them and that's all that matters!
i made this http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020167997/ and added spinach
cinnamon sugar muffins ( http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020172062/ ) i cut up and added in the 3 pears we had that were past their prime. these turned out pretty good.
yarn wrapped wreath inspiration here: http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020150583/ and that stinking cute flower here http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020170242/
after a few days of playing with adjustments and finding out that you can, in fact, make yo yos out of felt, here's the finished wreath
sourdough starter: http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020168074/
it was quick to bubble up!
2 pins in one dinner, out back bushman bread (http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020168723/ ) and outback potato soup (http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020171898/ ) for the bread, next time i'll be adding less molasses, but otherwise it was a pretty good duplicate from what i remember. the soup just needed more potatoes. i made a heavy cream with about 3/4c cashews and 3/4c water, then added the soy/rice blend milk to get 1.5c. i also blended the flour right into that, i didn't use all of it in the soup, but mostly because holding up a vitamix and whisking with your other hand is quite tedious.
i used this pin for inspiration http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020179668/ and lots of weeds and wildflowers products! i made it 4x6 because that's what the frame said... that's not what it was. note to self - always measure the visible area before spending 20 minutes in PSE!
and in it's home, i knew i wouldn't get a good shot here, too much sun bouncing off the snow right outside the window!
so i'm at 9 pins so far this year!

wildgehege hufeisen

2011-12-30T19:25:00.007+01:00

we went to the deer park on tuesday. and had a great time.checking out the boars... pretty sure these are what roam around the woods here.

no idea who bruno the bear was, but he's got a statue!
i'm pretty sure we're where we're not supposed to be here.
what a goofball :)
eddie kept looking up and pointing at how the trees looked against the sky. so of course, i had to take a picture of it.
the signs all over the park were like this. aren't they beautiful? you need to see this larger.
i love it when they get a little artsy with the trees that have fallen or needed to be cut. there were also mushrooms further on. eddie seems to like them.
we finally came across deer about 1/2 way around the track. this was as close as we could get, but they were certainly curious. they were obviously used to being fed.
check it out - a white stag!
yay! we found another machine that sold wild animal food - which we found out was just dried corn kernels (for those of you following at home, corn is pronounced "mice" in german).

the fawns weren't getting any corn, so we threw some at them. i think they wouldn't have gotten any if we hadn't bypassed the stags and obviously senior does.
she came up to us first, before we had any food. i got to feed her. she is beautiful. i have no idea what's going on with her eye, either she got injured at some point or it's simply glaucoma.
memo even got to pet one, twice!
what's this?! a second group, also with a white stag?! i didn't realize white stags were even kinda common.
i love his dapple pattern. he's just lovely.
the two white ones... i believe they are both the leaders of the individual groups
this went on for a while with these two. the white one is the one we fed, the brown one is from the other group. my best guess is that the other groups' white stag is getting ready to... step down. and this is the buck that will take his place. of the 20+ photos i took of them fighting, this is the best. often they were far apart, or another stags' horn was in the way... or blurry. i'm not the best at photography, but i'm learning!

all in all, we had a great time. we highly recommend this park. while i'd been pretty close to deer before, feeding them was a whole different story. watching them fight like that - while not nearly as violent as i'm sure it is in the wild, was very interesting as well. i'm sure that's not a common sight, but we lucked out!

regensberg

2011-12-30T17:18:00.014+01:00

yesterday we went to regensberg. we visited st. peter's and a really old bridge. before we progress to the pictures i have a bit of a confession to make - i love architecture. i am gaga over the old buildings, even some of the newer ones that are a little more classic in design. so much so, that even before we left the parking lot (which was total rockstar parking 2 buildings away from st. peter's) i took these two pictures:

so be prepared. this is not just a photo laden post, this is a building photos photo laden post.

st. peter's
st. peter's
gargoyle at st. peter's
headed in
a smaller church's relief across from st. peter's... maybe the personal chapel for the clergy of st. peter's? i'm guessing.
st. peter's
at one of the doors for st. peter's

the blinged out... alter? that's my best guess
a wooden replica of st. peter's inside st. peter's. there are two parts to the museum, one had the robes that were beautiful tapestries or embroidered works themselves. the other part had the jewels - the jewel encrusted staffs, chalaces, and jewelry of the bishops. there were also relics including a splinter from the cross and someone's molar. there were fleshy bits from the bishops too... eww. i did not feel the need to photograph them at the time. part of me is glad, part of me is sad i didn't at least try (low light and only having the macro lens would have made it very difficult).
he is the key master! i guess i should have taken a picture of the plaque so i could actually know who this guy is.

some of the major cities in germany had their own bishops. i'm still not exactly sure how this worked (i know wurzberg had them at the same time... and both wurzberg and regensberg always had their own bishop, so i think it's just like stateside?) obviously one of the statues had to be replaced, it looked very out of place. there is a statue for (as far as i can tell) each bishop of regensberg near the entrance to st. peter's.

we didn't go in justin, but i had to show it it's in germany too.
st. peter's from a distance
when looking at a giant sensei wu from ninjago...
...what kid wouldn't get this look on his face?
even germany has t.j. maxx... or rather, t.k. maxx - obviously the same store (come on, "big labels, small prices!")
oddly, a man with a llama in the middle of downtown regensberg was not the weirdest thing we saw (see the lady in the red coat further down). he was very polite, and i'm glad i not only caught him looking at me, but that it didn't turn out fuzzy (i was having issues holding still... it was cold, windy, and i was taking pictures like mad).
you know there's a language barrier when stores have names like this.
look closely at the lady wearing the red coat... she is wandering around the city carrying... a spear?! what?!
just for miss Eva... your name is easy to find, i can even find your mom's name more often than either of your sisters'. but yours is everywhere!
these next two are from an apothecary (drug store) near where we parked. i really liked both sets of bottles. the colorful, deruda looking, set also had one for basil that was beautiful, i just didn't think you guys needed lots of pictures of bottles.

i need to straighten this photo... oh well. just an alley on the way to the oldest bridge in europe. it was built in the 12th century and is considered an engineering marvel.
i admit, it's a pretty darn cool bridge. probably more amazing than cool when the wind isn't whipping cold air at you and stinging your eyes. i think i leaked out one eye the entire time on the bridge. and it was totally worth it!

this was the way we walked up to the bridge... and of course, the buildings looked good.

that water looked crazy cold too! they sure are fishing in it though.
this made us kinda giggle... i got a photo from the side too, but, ummm... it looked more risque.
on the bridge. i don't know what those two towers are, but they're on the regensberg walking stick ornaments we got... and i think the hat pins too... besides st. peter's, i think they're the defining thing of regensberg - which i didn't know when i took this picture.
look at all those pigeons! crazy birds.
ummm... i should have listened to what memo called this. it's used for diverting water. i just like the way it looks (how girly of me!)
one of the buildings near the bridge, taken from the bridge
aaaaaand we're off the bridge.

some shop named - banane (banana)... no idea what it sold.

loved this sign... i've learned to just stop and take the dang picture!
loved this painting on the building, it's a restaurant and bar.
i'm so sad this picture turned out blurry. it was totally weird, just out there, in front of... a bar? something, i couldn't really tell.

this is the entrance to a blah metal bridge across the street from the indian palace where we had lunch. lunch was pretty good - i was much happier with my lunch than memo was with his mango chicken... though i was sad to miss out on the soup - it had cheese or something in it. memo can't taste any of that stuff and in hopes, i tasted it. yeah, there was some sort of dairy in it, but otherwise it was really good.

the only thing that's missing is the sledding today. i got photos, but haven't put them on the computer yet. i think this is picture laden enough - so i'll blog again soon!

family pictures

2011-12-25T17:44:00.007+01:00

i promise, one day i will keep up on all things blog like. until that time, it's constant catch up. no 365 (even though i have a lot to post for that also), just pictures!

eddie doing perler beads, he loves them

most of the baby quilt i made for a friend

trimming the tree

such concentration

first, and only real (so far), snow

making a snowman

eddie's new chore - doing laundry! he's going to have some lucky lady later on

the kindergarteners at the c'mas concert

who's that santa?!

cookie decorating with friends... we did it two days in a row. both times the kids didn't grasp the concept of decorating *before* baking the cookies. i guess i'm weird like that... not decorating with frosting and all.

it's some serious decorating going on

one of the older children crafting at our house. she didn't quite get the perler bead weaving technique down.

fleck trying to get at the catnip in the stocking

coming down christmas morning

stocking stuffer

opening presents

eddie's present to daddy (he did from the feet to the second set of buttons all by himself!)

cuddling with fig

days 6-11

2011-12-14T08:48:00.005+01:00

day 6 was italian hot chocolate. it was a little creamier than usual, but nothing spectacular. it wasn't that much more work either, so i'll probably be doing it again! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020042338/

day 7 sloooooow ramen. it's a big hit in this house. and i cheated, i've made this before, but i'm lagging a bit because i'm working on baby quilts. http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020001384/
day 8 so i saw this with onions http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020104184/ and after making the slow ramen i was initially going to use the beautiful cut base for prints... but by the next day when eddie got home it was starting to grow! so in it went to a bowl of water! day 9 was a wonder if it would work with celery. i have since seen it pinned, but my celery is taking longer than the cabbage did. it looks like it's not growing at all, hence no pic :(
day 10: these are them, the cookies memo wants. http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020081543/ they stay soft. i need to work out the taste a bit, but they're still really good. i think a better quality vanilla. time to buy some cheap vodka for another pin!
day 11 http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020060286/ the pinner i got this from simply said they always wanted to try a green smoothie. all of my "green" smoothies prior to this were not green in color, so it was time! it mostly tasted like banana with a bit of a spinach after kick. nothing invasive. it was loose spinach to the top, 1 over ripe banana, and a squirt of dark agave.
i was going to post more days, but pintrest is now updating... i guess you'll get more later. i know i'm 3 days behind in blogging, i'll catch up!

days 3,4,and 5

2011-12-05T17:10:00.005+01:00

so i made the decision, i'm still not blogging on the weekends. i did the pintrest 365 though. starting friday and finishing saturday eddie and i went through all of his crayons, took off their wrappers and broke them. it was miserable on my wrist. bowling didn't help either. but we made giant train crayons, and the look awesome!

the picture is clearly not as cool as they are in person. the hope was to put eye screws in them and hang them as ornaments. 20/20 hindsight - they're too dang heavy! who knows what we'll do with them, but they look cool! this idea is all over pintrest though i haven't pinned it myself.

next up was: http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020089624/, ear warmers. EPIC FAIL!

so #1, i think i may have changed my mind about the second hand (thrift store) wool being ok. i'm pretty sure i just talked myself into it to have it available as a craft source. i will use what i've got, but i don't think i'll be buying more. i'm still on the waste not. so, i stopped before completing this. it was bulky from the seams and the seams failed to keep the fold over under (does that make sense? i'm not sure how to explain it, but you can see the bump on the bottom of the seam and all the raw edge not underneath!). it's also wonky. so i'll be doing a double one with wool (two pieces sewn together) and maybe a quilted one later. i will revisit this.

today i got a package so it was an easy pintrest day! i made home made body wash! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020058340/ super stinkin' easy! the worst is grating the soap, i did it while working on homework with eddie.

dissolving the soap, i had my stove on 2 or 3 and it never got too hot for me to put my finger in.

reduce, reuse, recycle, right? so reusing bottles i had laying around. it filled up the two shampoo bottles completely and the other body wash (the pump) only had a little left. there was 1/4c of it left. i would guess i had less than that in the pump before adding. i put the rest in my husband's soap and a generous squirt of vegetable glycerin since i'm pretty sure that's whats going to be the main moisturizer.

shhhh

2011-12-02T18:47:00.001+01:00

ok, i did my pintrest 365 today, but i can't share it - they're going out as gifts. but i promise i did it, with a little help from eddie!

bird ornament

2011-12-01T13:55:00.002+01:00

i was a little rushed taking the picture, i wanted to get it done before i had to pick up the boy! here it is, my first in the 365 days of pintrest: stephanie lynn's bird ornament

it was quite simple and i'm pretty happy with the results. there is no sun, and i tried to filter my flash, but that was about the best i could get. and i'm not interested in taking 20 minutes to get a great picture. i used water colors instead of ink, because i'm not a stamper anymore! i think i have red and black inks left, and now i think red ink would have actually looked really good. oh well. hindsight, it's a witch. i added a bit of lime green to it, but it's still drying (i leave in 5 minutes to get the boy). i don't have mica flakes, but i did have glitter! so it got a bit glittered. i didn't print her template, i just traced it onto a small piece of crap paper. yes, i put paper right up on my screen and write on it, regularly. *imagines hardcore comp nerds fainting* i got my toes wet through my shoes and socks when i went into the back yard for a stick for the bird's foot. sticks here aren't like at home - it took a while to find one that didn't have a thorny look to it. i also didn't use card stock on the back as she suggested, i kept it real (because i'm not going to punch a hole in card stock for this!) and used a piece from a cereal box. yep, i went all ~~ghetto~~ upcycling to the max on this craft! i got my jute i'd bought for whatever for €1 (at tedi i think for my germany ladies). done. done. done.

now to pick up the boy and maybe make some salt dough ornaments!

365 days of pintrest

2011-11-30T17:41:00.002+01:00

so i saw on another blog (why can i never remember where?!) a lady who did 365 days of pintrest. given that it's become quite the hobby of mine, i decided to follow suit. we have a facebook group, should anyone like to join just shoot me a message on facebook.

i will be doing 1 thing that i have pinned on pintrest every day. yep, doing. i know - pretty brazen of me given i can't even keep up on this darn blog! i will post it all on here, food stuff will be doubled up onto my other blog (copy and pasted)... i may elaborate on the food blog, i may not. so starting january first you will be seeing me daily or a big weekly post. we'll see.

here are links to the other ladies with blogs:

http://thecrazyamericanwoman.blogspot.com/

halloween

2011-11-09T19:06:00.005+01:00

so we're skipping ahead to halloween. yep, i did not do well at blogging weekly. we'll see if i go back and post older pictures, hopefully i will. in the meantime: eddie as sensei wu from lego ninjago. my favorite part is the fu man chu. it's awesome.

all done up for the fall fest. remember, he's supposed to be a lego guy - hence the yellow face and black eyes.

now with kung fu action!

on halloween night, we decided to forgo the makeup. it got cakey and weird, and he didn't like doing it.

munich

2011-10-17T18:56:00.006+02:00

...or where i was last monday. good times with the chranowskis!

hofbrauhaus... the dunkle was really good. apparently so was the food.

i miss my ballerina

what is this thing? no, really, what is it and why would you do that?! we forgot to go back to get a better picture from inside. it has a beaver-ish face, duck feet, bird wings, horns, and some other animal's tail. all from real animals. for the love of all things good - WHY?!
inside hofbrauhaus... we wandered a bit before the ladies showed up. eddie and julienne giving five.
i'm not sure if i like this or think it's a total waste. a plain white one is reusable, what's the chance another building looks just like this? note the people peeking out the windows though, that's kinda cheeky cute.

jessica getting the boy to be brave

dirtiest.fountain.ever. really. ever. i'll just share one pic... the i'm afraid would offend family members, but it's funny.

achtung! nein flowers for you! ...or is it no black hand? did germany make a WWII joke and i just noticed?!

"flying" with julienne, i wish i could have gotten a better action shot. they were both doing the bob and weave and spin around thing. it was quite amusing

ahh, the language barrier never ceases to amuse me.

amazing door handles.

a gold madonna to go with the gold jesus (in pressath)

some dig going on

manhole covers are different in the cities, munich's is a monk. i kinda like it. jessica and julienne thought i was weird... even after telling them they're all different.

that is some serious difference in advertising.

eddie had a hispanic heritage day at school where he made a taco, a serape, a maraca, some sort of bracelet (i think), and a sun necklace (again, i think).

september and october so far

2011-10-03T09:51:00.004+02:00

first day (one hour) of school.

playmobile fun park with the neighbors for eddie's bday.

seriously awesome balancing park at playmobile. i love this one, i almost ate crap on one a lot like it in schweinfurt (senfield)

and now for the real first day of school

eddie is still scared of the dark and sleeps with the light on, all night. if i turn it off, he wakes up scared and yelling at me. he also reads. think he's got a thing for captain america? gee, i wonder where that came from!
corey (the neighbor's kid... i use that loosely since he is 19) and memo build this, then eddie got to play. eddie is learning to use his contraption blocks, but gets easily frustrated. you can see the ghost pirate ship in the background. he now has a regular pirate ship to go with it thanks to his bday trip to playmobile. ignore the recyclables, that's their home and they went out later that day.
i picked this up for halloween with the intent to make some casts next year. eddie decided that Skullhead is his new best friend.
eddie has copious amounts of bionicles and hero factory. he may have more of this kind of toy than i did at any given time of all my toys. he's quite spoiled as the only kid.
working on riding his bike. the training wheels came off for a little while today, but went back on.

starting new

2011-09-25T10:43:00.002+02:00

now that the kiddo is in school, i am hoping to keep up with my blogs better. my goal is weekly posts on each. probably mondays for this blog, fridays for veganstylie, and consistently as i run across things for eco crafts.

we walk to school most mornings (when daddy comes we drive so he can get to work on time). i drive to pick eddie up and will do so until i get my foot looked at - i should call monday to try to make an appointment for that. hopefully once they find out what these things on my foot are and can treat them i'll be walking both ways. gross, i know... but it's actually not bad, just painful. they look like what my mom used to call "stress bumps" that i'd get on the sides of my fingers. wow, now i sound extra gross. on to less gross subjects (though i promise, they're not even as

odd/gross looking as warts. no one noticed them on my fingers unless i pointed them out).

the teacher is working on getting eddie into accelerated classes. she told me she's not sure what to do with him. she hasn't really hit on anything he doesn't already know from what i'm seeing come home. ...except trapezoid. really? trapezoid? in kindergarten? i thought i was being weird with hexagon! our driveway in schweinfurt was paved with hexagons which was why i did that... and pentagon and octagon just seemed like givens from there. apparently i was weird with crescent as well, i thought that was a normal one. i'm going to have to go through the paperwork and let you all know what the expectations are for kindergarten... most of them eddie had down by the age of 3. maybe it's because it's a DoDEA school, maybe it's because you're not supposed to teach kids real things in kindergarten besides some basics and playing nicely... but the 1st

grade ones are things he's doing now, as well as some of the 2nd grade expectations.

i have become a huge dork - i've learned to play yugioh's duel monsters. yep. dork alert! i actually enjoy it. so i learned to teach eddie - which is coming as soon as we get his cards in... i just don't want eddie to muck up the neighbor's cards. so memo will be learning too so it can be 2 on 1 (someone helping eddie). i figure in about 2 or so months eddie will have it down and not need help. the cards involve quite a bit of reading, the game requires strategic thinking... and of course reading comprehension. hello, mom FTW! oh yeah! here is a card so you can kinda see what i'm talking about:

so he'll have to read it and figure out how best to use it. pretty sweet. some of them fill up the whole space with instructions! it's almost a little ridiculous.

eddie is reading archie comics now too. he struggles with some of the bigger words, but for the most part he can read it. he's been picking up some on his nintendo DS games. it would be nice if there were a few more learning games for it, but i guess that's what his leapster is for... now if only i can find it! i think he'd be just as happy playing that since he has both now.

memo and i are still working on dealing with his new position. it's a little more stressful than we though it would be. (...lots of deleting b/c it really doesn't belong here...) hopefully this time next year memo will no longer be it.

we're still getting used to graf, we've finally taken the train. we went to nuremburg. i promise there will be pictures on the next post!

april part 2

2011-06-01T08:54:00.006+02:00

nueremberg zoo trip while on leave

squirrel monkeys
baboons
eddie got pictures with just about every bronze statue we came across
this goose let eddie and memo get quite close before it dropped into the water. eddie about 5' away in this picture. 2 more steps and it left.
eddie dug the goats, it was a good 20 mins in there.
watching sea lions
eddie loves penguins
taking chances again after injuring our son on a hill in schweinfurt... at least this one was a long, slow slope and we stopped before the end (which didn't have a ditch)
using the opportunity to get a little education in (a little, ha!). eddie had to choose 2 animals to draw, he drew a squirrel monkey and this is him drawing reindeer. he also decided to draw larger monkeys later.

this is the other primate he drew, i can't remember or tell what it is
awwwww, my little tree hugger. he definitely gets that from me!
watching the dolphin show, it's not as cool as sea world, but obviously they both liked it just fine.
easter egg hunting! he found the golden egg!
checking out the loot

april part 1

2011-05-16T12:51:00.003+02:00

we got some shelves for organizing basement storage and eddie helped put them together.

so did fleck
and fleep supervised.... "yer doing it wrong"
crazy fleep sleeps with her third eyelid exposed... ewwwwwwww
fleck does not, but he often tries to choke himself out on the cutout in the cat tower sleeping with just his head out
look! two old men!

march

2011-05-16T12:41:00.003+02:00

march was evidently not very eventful. we got a tball set up, which eddie almost tapped with the bat a number of times in an unpleasant place.

and we put the wax lips from the company valentine party to use

apparently you can tell i wasn't smiling. promise, i wasn't upset

bball photos

2011-02-22T12:09:00.001+01:00

so i was hoping my scanner would magically work again, yeah. it didn't. i need to download new drivers again i guess. lame. anywho, here's a crappy scan of his solo shot, there's a group shot with an action shot on the side that turned out great too, but it's not scanned. eventually, i promise.

1st bball game

2011-01-28T13:33:00.000+01:00

pics from eddie's first game, the little girl cheering is a friend of ours. we were all happy that she got to cheer for eddie's team. it was quite funny. her mom was helping her with the cheers at home. she got very into it! eddie scored a basket and was quite proud of himself. the whole thing was mostly just a mass of kids running back and forth, some crying, some sitting on the court (mostly eddie), and 2 coaches trying to remind them how to play. and memo wanted to know why they don't keep score. how about because they have no idea how to play yet!

making paper and cleaning

2011-01-28T12:45:00.008+01:00

after getting the first frame done for making paper with the home school kids, eddie decided he was a masterpiece. yes, yes he is!and a silly one at that. he came up with this all on his own, including the term masterpiece. thank you little einsteins.
eddie's first finished paper
i remembered to take pictures the second time around.

miss fleep checking herself out in the clean mirror - ok, she's probably sniffing it since i use rubbing -oh to clean mirrors and windows (no streaks)
the entry is always pretty decent with the exception of the bench. i'm going to make some more pillows for it to try to keep it from being a dumping ground. the quality of the next 3 pics is crappy b/c i didn't adjust for the lighting and it was honestly easier to fix these in photoshop than to mess around with the settings on the camera.

the kitchen - i can never keep it clean. somehow i have more space, i got rid of stuff, and yet it's more crowded in here!

i promise, those are clean dishes. all the dirty dishes in the sink are from lunch - a plate, a spatula, and a pan.

the dining room table and hutch. i will need to sand down a redo the hutch, the medallion on top is splitting. putty and paint... i'm thinking creams and blacks or red and teal. not sure yet for that and the table (the finish on the table is cracking too)
the dining room table. the paper on the wall is a family tree we did on paper memo got for us from somewhere.
looking towards the computer area from the dining room. yep, lots to clean
the computer area always looks trashed. i need to put a trash can over here!
sadly, this isn't too bad for the family room. it really is just his bionicles on the floor. everything else will take about 15mins except the bookshelves.
bathroom before
and maybe 8 mins later. small bathroom doesn't take long. i did not mop, i spot cleaned the floor. with a 5 year old and 2 kittens there is usually toilet paper on the floor... and, well, unless i tell him i want to hear it hit the water, it ends up everywhere.

the goal is that next week when i post i can put up some clean shots of these rooms... after that, i'll go after the bookcases and inside the cabinets - maybe i'll be able to get most of that stuff off the top of the cabinets in the kitchen!

whoops!

2011-01-24T10:58:00.006+01:00

need to work on the blogging thing! so i made these for a kid's bday:

eddie decided he wanted them. it's ok though, i remembered i had some k'nex that he'd never earned on top of the fridge that were no longer age appropriate for him.

eddie also started basketball this month! he enjoys it. memo was able to come twice so far. it's a little difficult with dinner since it's over at 6:30 and it's twice a week. right now i have a book checked out called vegan express, it's quite quick. to make it faster i prep what i can before hand and that's working out. hopefully i can find some more slow cooker recipes.

oh yes, snack time is great!

along with cooking - they had vital wheat gluten at the commissary last week - i picked up 3 boxes. memo and i laughed because they had a whole freezer case section full of vanilla so delicious ice cream. i don't know if you've ever had the vanilla - but it is nasty. the chocolate is good in that brand, but the vanilla... nasty is the nicest i can be about it!

resolutions

2011-01-12T10:34:00.004+01:00

1. blog weekly.
2. keep up on household chores.
3. 2 hours of school M-F for mr. eddie.
4. makeover for hope chest (a finish like this i'm thinking)
5. make a favorite recipes book
6. 30 before 30 list!
a. 30 vegetarian meals memo likes
b. find a cream cheese recipe i like
c. ~~switch from bottle to tap water~~
d. ~~reduce plastic use~~
e. finish memo's quilt
f. make mini quilts
g. watch 30 classic films
h. read 30 books
i. make curtains for kitchen
j. learn to crochet
k. crochet a winter hat and scarf
l. reduce sugar consumption by at least 1/2
m. plan and plant a garden
n. make and maintain family game night
o. make and maintain family movie night
p. learn a dance
q. have $x in savings
r. ~~build a piece of furniture~~
s. pay off all debt (not going to happen with the new car)
i) ~~truck~~
ii) bill 1
iii) bill 2
t. make tree full of ornaments with eddie
u. create and maintain a healthy exercise regimen
v. keep up with weekly curriculum for eddie
w. maintain a clean house
x. start yoga
y. learn piano/keyboard basics
z. create own cookbook
aa. organize all cookbooks and recipes
ab. spend more time outside
ac. learn 30 new embroidery stitches
ad. ~~try 30 new recipes~~

middle of december to new years eve.

2011-01-01T10:52:00.009+01:00

ok, these were taken before i learned a little bit about taking pictures inside, you'll see a difference further down. it's eddie and memo putting together bionicles.

his k'nex thing. he did a decent amount. memo and i both helped him
crazy, this is the stairs she's peeking out of.
fleep
fleck
my santas
christmas tree this year

eddie's ornament for this year. it's a beer mug that says "prost" we're telling him it's root beer. he really wanted this nutcracker
quite possibly my favorite jenessa ornament
awesome ornament from my aunt joann - i have about 6 cross stitch ones she did
eddie's first wolfhart ornament
being goofy

blond, mexican, restrained, godzilla jesus
playing with the train set he got last year
fleep and memo
fleck wavered between "holy crap! what's that?!" and "i will destroy you"

sledding on the new awesome sled

all the snow had crystals like this on it
setting off fireworks last night

mass photos

2010-12-31T11:08:00.002+01:00

these are photos from october until the middle of december. sorry it's mashed, but that was the easiest way to get it up. hopefully i'll put up some more soon - and bigger from the rest of the year. i've figured out the camera a bit better so hopefully we'll get some good photos tonight setting off fireworks

october pics... so far

2010-10-16T09:41:00.006+02:00

heritage park - dickhauter lakechecking out termite damage
looking at a snake
i took quite a few mushroom photos that i'll doctor in PSE and put up in the house with the rest of my nature stuff i've been accumulating since getting here.
trying to figure out what made the tracks... kid, it was the truck.
giant mushrooms. i did get a pic w/o the carmex, but i wanted a scale pic too.

eddie wants to be the gunner on a tank now so he can go "pew, pew... pew, pew"

this was designated "supa" or "super" tank. it was all staff sergeant and above. it's now the big joke. 2 tanks were shooting and "supatank" sucked. they missed almost all their targets. the other tank did really well.
(and thanks pete for the lens, these photos were taken at about 50 yards away)
one of the plywoodian army. these are the holes training rounds in tanks leave. training rounds are not as powerful as normal ones
eddie in a PC
lieutenant buchanan. and he was more than willing to pose for this picture.
the company, memo is on the right somewhere near the back.
he's learning early to do chores. i love the chore chart. for this big chore he got the lego game lava dragon. he also picked up all the clippings from memo trimming the bushes.

the farm

2010-06-12T12:53:00.000+02:00

i'll post earlier photos later, but i wanted to make sure that i put up the photos from yesterday at the farm. she took us around for about 2 hours showing us the farm and the animals. eddie was mostly fascinated with - the ants. yeah, great. so the first animal we got to see was the mother hen with two chicks. she was able to grab a black chick (there were also 2 yellow), which was the one eddie wanted to pet anyway. after that eddie got to feed the big black and white rabbit. he was a little afriad, he kept dropping the carrots. then we went to the cheicken coop/pen. we didn't go into the pen area, but we did go into the coop where eddie got to pick out two eggs. we also saw where she had put the male chicks which will be used for meat (i'm down with that, you really can only have one rooster per ...herd? and they're being treated far better than commercial ones). after that she took us up to see the calf, Rudi. Rudi's mom won't feed him so she does instead (obviously, i have no idea what her name is). eddie was a little afraid of the calf, and didn't like the mooing going on in the shelter. you can see him covering his ears and running away in one photo. she showed us her goat lucy, and her cameroon sheep. the ram is joseph. they don't grow wool, they get hairy. we saw where she grows potatoes and onions and she even pulled up a potato plant for us to take home (it's doing well in a big terra cotta pot). we got to see a mother duck on her eggs (roosting?). and then we went into her vegetable store and eddie picked out lots of veggies and fruits for us to take home. i was a little bummed that they were not all from her and her neighbors, she gets some of her stuff shipped from italy. there goes my idea of local eating. at least the eggs are hers. i'm pretty sure the potatoes and onions are also. we will absolutely still be going back and purchasing from her, it's all still a lot better than the commissary, plus i like the idea of supporting a local farmer, even if it's not all local produce.

may

2010-06-04T18:42:00.001+02:00

alright so i cheated with the photos b/c i didn't want to be here forever. so - at the old house are the pink flowers, aren't they pretty?! and the oreo cupcakes with chocolate frosting. sooooo good. let me tell you, no one cared that they were vegan. eddie playing croquet, eating watermelon, and looking at a plant scientifically at the new house. yellow roses at the new house. anyone spy our other new neighbor? i'll take real photos of the house when it's clean! right now i'm building. i have all the wood cut for eddie's bed - i just need to get some countersinking drill bits - another trip to OBI. not bad since it's only my 3rd (and 2 to the PX for tools... i decided not to buy the sander when i bought the saw, i figured i'd wait to buy it so i didn't have as much sticker shock with 2 big tools).

oh goodness - and notice the nasty cracking in the china cabinet - i am miffed! if you are in germany, DO NOT buy from GMK. it is some seriously crappy quality. pretty, but crap quality.

hopefully i'll get back into blogging here soon! oh, and the other food - ratatoulli for dinner and a movie. eddie liked the movie, but not the meal.

long time... nothing

2010-04-19T12:21:00.001+02:00

we're still here, we're healthy, we've been having fun. we finally have some sun. the vogelshuss was here, and we're getting ready to move to graf. i make no promises on when i'll have new photos up, but i will try soon.

i'm also working on getting my son into kindergarten - which is a fight because he misses the cutoff by 3 days. so lots of emails going back and forth. and i'm collecting lots of his work to show them as need be. hopefully we'll get this done - he's so ready!

let's try this again

2010-03-15T09:53:00.003+01:00

so the last 2 weeks we've been a sick household. i go in tomorrow, likely for some antibiotics. colored phlegm is not cool. we're also going to be moving (for sure this time) to graf. probably in about a month, so lots of things are going to be sidelined for a while still. in the meantime, here are some pics of eddie with his new favorites

martian matter... it makes aliens - which he can then dissect. he keeps the dissected "bodies" in a case that came with the toy. cool, but disturbing.the play mobile ghost pirate ship (with 2 extra guys). it plays wet...
or dry.
note the new haircut. i'm not a big fan of it. the boys got their hair cut on saturday, i told her trim his hair... yeah, this is way more than a trim. and his "bangs" (what are they called on boys? still bangs?) come to a weird point in the middle. i told her above the ears, it's at the 1/2 way point. yeah, i guess i'll just cut it from now on. well, we're moving so maybe the people there will listen? he did pretty well in the chair - it was his first pro haircut.

2010-02-26T14:44:00.005+01:00

there are more photos, but i'm currently having some problems loading them and i'm already late posting this. i did start it on friday, other things just got in the way of finishing!

valentine's day at school, art projects and decorating cupcakes and cookies

i picked these out myself

all into his book on the bus ride. he did really well all the way to and from garmisch
this is why memo doesn't get to use the camera often. there were like 20 shots of this with me and some other people

he just looked like such a little man standing there brushing his teeth.

neuschwanstein castle gate.
not a common picture
some serious bed head - sorry i forgot to rotate the first pic

ummmm...

2010-02-23T09:05:00.001+01:00

whoops?

i'll get back on it later this week or monday next week. we went to garmisch friday, and prior to that... i was lazy. i will get back on it though!

promotion and ball pictures

2010-02-07T09:57:00.009+01:00

i didn't exercise this last week, on monday i'll restart. which is a pisser b/c i did really well the week before, but the internet went down and sharing a car was not condusive to getting things done.

snowballs were flying at formation and everyone fell out. eddie decided he wanted to get in on it. all that snow on the asphalt - exploded snowballs.
promotion ceremony

eddie making a snow angel in the driveway
daddy tagged him with lots of snow
tackle it friday
before

after... the plastic cups were in the dishwasher, but the top shelf looks soooo much better

memo liked the blue and white, a friend told him to get the red too.
the ball
memo, bybee, patterson
rod & memo
miller, lauresta, memo, mcdevitt, torres, hartman, c
the grog ceremony with alpha 3-66

with 1st sgt baczek. eddie likes to go bug 1st sgt, come tuesday (he has monday off) he'll have a new 1st sgt.
crystal and me - she's such a sweetheart!
with archie and torres. normal(ish)
total dorks
fer reals, do they get lost a lot? (note torres attempting charlie's angels)
again normal
and their "arggggrrr" face. yeah. i wonder sometimes too.
with bollick
us with the torres' and laurestas
all maint. except pickett (the short guy on the left). ryan and memo in the back; pickett, torres, estrada, and c in front

fulfillment friday and january photos

2010-01-29T08:57:00.011+01:00

before

after... not a big one, and yeah, the bed's not made. but the dresser looks soooo much better!
new years eve... we had a few fireworks to set off. this is our neighbor - run like the wind jackie!

this is what she lit
yes, yes, we all laugh with you not at you. sure.thank you magui and papa joe for the awesomest hat ever! it is dj lance rock's hat and glasses from the show yo gabba gabba. the star plays music. it's pretty sweet. not to mention, our kid rocks the look.

throwing snow at mommy.

driving to go sledding. we don't go far, but just in case we always take the truck
ummm, i think that's backwards...

kid, i don't think that's how you get snow off the driveway, but thanks for tryin'!
playing army men. we let eddie rediscover these since he's gotten better at cleaning up after himself.

concentration is key when it comes to blocks and army men.
eddie picked out a light brite for a behavior prize at the beginning of the month. he loves it. almost as much as candyland and cootie (cootie was the recent pick for behavior, that and chutes and ladders to look forward to next time he fills it). eddie has a chore chart which he gets tic-tacs for when it's filled and a behavior chart which is a no more than $10 toy. both he needs 21 stars to fill out. then he has one for a week of stickers at school, he gets one special star for a week of stickers from school. that prize, well, it will be season 3 of dragonball. this boy loves dragonball. he only needs to get 7 stars, but that's at least 7 weeks. i think the next one will be the 2 disc set of word world. he is digging word world!
coloring the snow green - not yellow. we found yellow snow, in front of a super market no less! ewwwwwwww.
morning fun
using the rollar coaster for a sled
frosting
yep, he even had to shovel out his bmw parked in the spaces across the street. suckage
a shared pastry. nope, it wasn't vegan. i forgave myself. marzipan and cocoa for the coating
some sort of marshmallow fluff and a raspberry jelly inside with the cake doughnut. soooooo good. now to work on making it vegan style, am i right? of course i am.
first day with the fort, not so sure of it.

eddie's pig, he'd already gotten to it, it was like our other pastry
do you see that andre the giant of a snowflake? holy moley! there were a lot of those coming down
we had one of memo's soldiers over. yes, all three of them are playing candyland and that is a bottle of wine. no, we did not have to ply Garcia with wine to play, he was more than happy to play games with eddie.
does anyone else see a problem with these photos?
see, the door was opened since it snowed, but there are only rabbit tracks around the house... strong bunnies?
aw, loves
playing in the snow yesterday.the snow fort is going to the neighbor's side since one night he parked in the yard. yeah.

total happy

crafty wednesday (a day late)

2010-01-28T20:01:00.005+01:00

ok, so i didn't do or even complete any crafts at all this week, i've been cleaning - seriously i need to take care of this dumpsite first, seriously, enlarge that picture - it's terrible.

can you believe that is my dining room? i had a wild hair last week and pulled everything out of my craft closet to organize, i spend some time doing it, then had to take eddie to school and do some other cleaning. the next day - yeah, welcome aunt flo. i'm hoping today is the last day so i have the gumption to tackle something that big again. hmmm... how about fulfillment or follow through friday (instead of tackle it tuesday/thurday). i actually already have something done for that, but maybe i'll have 2 things to show. wouldn't that be rockin'!

so anywho - here are the valentine crafts i have been working on. the tree is now in my entry - hence it not being in the city dump that is my dining room photo.

alright, yes, there is a halloween one in there, she was started before halloween. with the best of intentions of course, but i had no idea how to do clothes at the time. so she got pushed aside
this banner will say be mine when it's done. i'm thinking of seeing if i can't run some cereal box through my printer for the letters. i don't have chipboard. i digiscrap people.
and the tree, seriously, i'm hoping it will look more valentine like by the first. tomorrow i clean, tomorrow night i craft.(?) there is actually one large heart ornament on it now that i made (fabric)
see, photos. there will be fun family photos and such hopefully tomorrow. or not, i should be too busy with my mess!

blah

2010-01-27T14:11:00.002+01:00

yeah, i know, i've lagged. in my defense, it's been that time since about thursday. prior to that was just pure and simple lazy.

now last year i tried to do miss sharon's get fit. i did ok, and then she started the moving process and i think by that point everyone quit. so now i shall do it on my own (unless anyone wants to do it with me...?). right now i am doing the 30 day challenge on wii active. the easy level. i did it on the intermediate level for 3 times and then punked out. so we'll do it on the easy level. this is doable. exercise 2 days, rest one. i can do that. plus, you have to imput what you eat, drink, other activities, how long you are a lazy bum in front of the tv/computer. oh yeah, it sure questions you on all that. so i'm going to be doing this when eddie is at school. of course, eddie is off friday. it's an off day for exercise too. unfortunately, he'll be all over me sat. and sun. oh well. i'm going to continue with monday as my check in day. so monday you'll get to hear all about my week exercising, if i ate well, and see my weight. yeah, while i'm not shy about it, i am embarrassed by it. it took a while to get to that weight so it will take a while to get down to a better one. we'll start with the weight watchers (WW) goal of 20%. on monday i'll have that in pounds for you. i haven't weighed myself in weeks.

on the meal side - anyone have any suggestions? i usually do food stuff on my other blog, so i'm going to keep food limited to whether or not i ate well. hopefully this will help me keep my other blog up better too. while i have vegandad, vegweb, recipezaar, and a number of other sites i can get vegan recipes off - i'd like some recipes that you've tried and like (vegan or not, so long as it's not super meat based - like a roast) - that are good for you! i totally bought lemons for lemon bars too! i can see that the eating side will not go well for a week... but so long as i get in the exercising i'll start feeling better. then it's time to cut down on the sweets and sugar in general!

my grandious scheme: monday will be progress report, wednesday will be crafts, and tackle it friday (it's supposed to be tuesday, but lets be serious, i won't blog every day). all while taking down my computer time. now i'm off to take all kinds of photos of what i'm going to tackle eventually so i have before pictures!
and now that you've read this boring picture free post. i promise i will be back at the latest monday with some photos (and a progress report)!

december photos - overload!

2010-01-07T11:49:00.012+01:00

i didn't realize how many photos i took in december!!! this isn't even 1/8 of them

this was the big winner c'mas present this year for my brother in law... well, my SILs husband. anywho - obviously i like him otherwise he'd never get to be the big winner. i love the way the embroidery turned out, i'm not so thrilled with the mounting of it. oh, well. it's not in my house! this was a tattoo design i ran across and knew he'd like. i know i found the image on deviantart, but i can't seem to find it now to give credit! grrrr
one red robin's art books for 4 nieces - ages 5 to 14. gotta love one present that works for so many! and it was pretty darn easy once i had it down. 3 to one house and the other green one is yet to be sent off - yeah, bad aunt!!
dinosaur (drake the dragon) from kaledoscope book from melly and me
dolls for two nieces. i liked the idea of the rectangle heds, but it just didn't work out as well as i'd hoped. and those are the second faces i did. oh how i've learned!

bundled up to go. they are some flexible girls.
someone was tired!
my guys got me flowers... 3 times in december!

goodness did eddie love the trains. they didn't work so well with the transformer. daddy took care of that by getting him a 220v one for c'mas.

blackhawk rendezvous 2 - welcome home ceremony. it was cold and i got crap pictures, so i'm only sharing one.
DH got me floral cabbages again, aren't they pretty?
"i have a wish" seriously, where did he learn that? all he wanted was water or something similar, but still, "i have a wish"
our tree - i had to stop blogging to edit this b/c the photo was SO dark!

new ornaments for the tree this year. i'm hoping i get a move on and make some for next year.

totally cool ornaments my aunt cross stitched in the early to mid 80's. i have a few more that were on a different tree

yep, that's mine!
the was the topper my MIL and FIL had on their first tree. that's right, somehow i got my hands on it. isn't she awesome?!
my MIL also made snowflake ornaments for my tree (you can see the garland in the above photo). aren't they gorgeous?
throwing the first snowballs at each other
the neighbor's kid made a snowman. about 5 mins after i took pics of eddie mesmerized by it, he stomped it into submission.

awww, my husband loves me! actually, i kinda think these ones eddie got credit for
just a few of opening - b/c really, that's boring unless you're there!

dorks
please everyone, note the year on the foot. yes, that says '85. this ornament lasted 24 years without incident, and then eddie happened. i did glue it back together, but i learned to put all breakable ornaments up high
eddie totally digs the snow

the parking lot is all set upnow it's time to crash them!

and the end result

November photos

2010-01-01T14:46:00.003+01:00

i know i'm lagging, i'm going to try to get december's photos up also

oh yeah, soccer!

the lap quilt i made out of BDUs for DHs 1st SGT
yes, this is the pacific beach shirt cath
in a bucket...

Season's Greetings

2009-12-24T16:41:00.004+01:00

family photos

2009-12-12T14:57:00.012+01:00

this is the only one you can see i'm wearing a captain america shirt too. we all wore them, i thought it would be funny. i love these first two

seriously, memo needs to learn to look at the camera. i'm pretty sure i had this same complaint last year. how many photos did i not pick b/c memo wasn't looking...
#1

#2 (seriously lazy eye wasn't helping either)

#3

and quite possibly - my favorite one
ok, only 3, not bad this year. one i left out b/c i just look bad, but it's up here. whatever, i just wasn't going to pay to have it on a wall!
i'll do a proper blogging at some point - i'm busy spending time with DH on block leave. it sure is nice to have him home (well, until he makes me crazy)!

2009-10-31T21:30:00.002+01:00

playing a diego game on the wii - he's using a megaphone to make loud dinosaur noises.eddie tried on my had before i spray painted it - thank you for the fabric mom.

lychee eyeballs last night
was supposed to be granola bugs. i need to read directions through before starting to make it. i needed to pat dry all the fruit. so it didn't set. i decided it was monster brain dip instead.
and that's all for the party pics. i didn't stress too much and we all had a good time.

my costume

2009-10-31T15:17:00.004+01:00

the costume in full

didn't it turn out great? maybe i'm just biased. seriously, i made the hat too - rock on thread bangers!page credits: template kim wresh, fall fantasia kit by irene alexeeva
started as a plain jacket, pants, curtains, some fabric, and wire. and that is why i'll take whatever fabric, you never know what you can make from it!

costume +

2009-10-25T10:02:00.006+01:00

at the halloween festival, he flipped frogs

back to august photos...
cake at grammie and gramdad's
playing the steel guitar
playing piano with gramdad
he tore up this giant hunk of bread - he ate about 1/2 of it
at magui and papa joe's
with carlos - eddie loved carlos, they played together a lot when luis' kids were there
playing piano with magui
with papa joe
at a goat farm when we stayed at gpa ed's cabin

kaylin
chillin' in the spa with cousin conner
i still have more photos from SD that i'll put up another time

photos - mostly halloween stuff

2009-10-24T08:15:00.012+02:00

three cheeseheads
four cheeseheads.

wrote his name (copying what i wrote and what i was saying)

could i make this up?! they didn't taste very good though. eddie didn't like them either. kinda like berry kix+cardboard... do they even still make berry kix?
cheesehead
donuts are tasty

he has now worn this shirt twice mom - and both times he picked it out. excellent.
eddie lined them all up while i was cooking
eddie's costume in progress. i'm almost done, i just need to sew orange triangles on the hat and some giant black eyebrows too. he's going to be brobee from yo gabba gabba. but felt, not fur.
pumpkins from the pumpkin farm... i didn't take pics there b/c we went to the same place as last year, and really, it's not super cool or anything.
love this set up of pumpkins

my hanging creature under the carport
ENTRYWAY

INSIDE
that's the door to the entryway
still working on it, the tombstones are now up, the top windows have crepe curtains and there is crepe roofing on the traditional roof. still need some windows and a door.
changing photo - i have 3 in the house, i failed to photograph one because that's all there was on that wall. the other print is a black apple print. love her stuff!
KITCHEN
so should have used the flash... oh well - you can't see the dissary...?

specimin jars mixed in with my dry goods
some more specimin jars above the stove
i need everyone to tell me how awesome this on is - €30... it took me a year to finally decide i was going to buy a painted pewter piece for halloween, and they only had the totally awesome big one when i went to rothenburg otb. the other ones were sweet too, but they didn't have them at the time... maybe if i ever make it back there again...

new acquisitions from papyrus in san diego. i know, i know, i should be buying hand made, but these were too cute to pass up! and, i normally can't get the ones hand made before they sell. the problems of being in a seriously different time zone! there was a witch too, but i didn't like her.

don't you love his smile? i got these last year or the year before
she doesn't look impressed
a close up of what's going on in the kitchen, some bugs in "formaldehyde." to set these up early and not get mold, use some white vinegar in the water. some plastics (i'm learning) get weird looking so go for hard plastics unless you want them to look waterlogged.

DINING
china cabinet, make it big and you can see some stuff in it
halloween town... i have more, i just couldn't find it all for whatever reason.
i think with the exception of moving some things and adding a halloween photo in the empt frame, this one is done... oh, wait, i took this before the glittered bones were put in the container with the matches... i'll update later.
seriously, we need to figure out something better for the movies... some mice hidden in here.
still working on this side... there are some mice hidden in there too.
another changing picture, yep - more movies.
not sure exactly why i took this one... but, new, super cool, jammies.

bad blogger!

2009-10-19T08:52:00.002+02:00

yes, yes. i'm not the only one. i'll post photos later, we're going to the pumpkin patch today.

so i've been working on binding a quilt, a halloween costume for eddie, some embroidery, halloween decorations, and a halloween party. everything but the embroidery had to get done this month (i think the halloween stuff is obvious!). i still have a long list of christmas gifts to make, but i'm still pretty sure it's doable. i haven't even mowed my backyard! now that's bad! it's getting cold, it'll mostly die off. i still need to order the dang gas tank for the lawn mower too.

eddie's new show - ni hao kai lan. cool show, i'm trying to figure out why we chose chinse instead of japanese there though. are we trying to show a friendlier china? and if we're going to spend the time on a show that helps teach another language shouldn't it be one that's a little more useful for american children than chinese? yes, yes, i know a lot of stuff is made in china and they are a big power when it comes to manufacturing. ummm... again, japanese...? i'm really not sure which aspect of choosing chinese i find more odd.

at the doc i was 198... that was a few weeks ago. i haven't stepped on a scale since, but it was nice that i didn't gain anything in san diego.

so i just read something about how going green is expensive. ok, some aspects can be super pricey. buying products from sustainable forests and the like are way up there in price. but honestly, you know what's even better on cutting a carbon footprint and better for the environment? - buying used! what a novel friggin' concept. i often don't buy used either, i'm unsure why. i guess because most of it doesn't suit my needs, based on my location it's harder to find and get it used... i'm sure i could come up with loads of excuses. i do tend to give away things we no longer use instead of throwing them away though. so at least on one end i'm doing it right.
cleaning products. green cleaning products often cost the SAME as their not green counterparts. hello - argument null and void now. arm and hammer and clorox realized they had a great market for green cleaners that didn't add to the budget. need met. even better - a box of arm and hammer baking soda (or whatever brand, no name you get) is what? $3, $4 for the big box? a large bottle of vinegar is about the same price. so for $8 you have green cleaners for every room in your house for ...6 months-ish (depending on the size of your house and how often you clean). 1 32 oz spray bottle of 1/2 white vinegar 1/2 water lasts me 6 months in the kitchen. the one in the bathroom lasts longer. i clean the counters in the kitchen almost every day and the bathroom once a week. i was having a problem with soap scum and calcium build up on the tiles and grout in my shower - baking soda took it right off. now i just have to scrape out the caulking that has mold growing under it. nice. it also go rid of where the mold was coming out, so once i get the caulking up, i can get rid of the mold. if you want to get all fancy - get some castile soap for a whoping $15 ($13 if you don't insist on eucalyptus, i just really wanted that scent). there are numerous recipes online that use it, but it is not necissary to clean your house. i really only use it diluted with water on my plants to get rid of pests. so now we've spent a total of $46 to clean our house for the year. your alternatives: furniture polish/duster (ie pledge), all purpose cleaner, soap scum remover, toilet bowl cleaner, abrasive cleaner, ammonia. lets say you shop at the dollar store and find all of these products there. so that's $6 to start with, the only product that isn't used at full strength is the ammonia. at best you're only replacing the all purpose cleaner monthly (add $11), toilet bowl cleaner and soap scum remover every other month ($10); and the polish, abrasive cleaner, and ammonia every 3 months ($) - $36. hmmm, you think that's $10 less. but now i ask, do you buy them at the dollar store? no? well, then double or even triple that cost. so now you're saving $26-62 each year. guess what that can do? but the dirty dozen organic.
on the issue of organic - try the farmers market. they are usually the same price or a little cheaper than the grocery store. you are taking a huge part of your carbon footprint out, and the liklihood of it being organic or at least far fewer chemicals used goes sky high. now the same price - for the non organic equivilants. so why is the liklihood better for less chemicals? i'm so glad you asked, farmer's market vendors produce a wide variety of fruits and/or vegetables. growing variety is the key to natural pest control. what one plant attracts is often cancelled out by growing it next to a plant that repels that pest - and believe me, farmers know this! and better yet, those at the farmers market use that knowledge. not because they care about it being organic (not to say they don't, but that isn't the only or often the main reason), but because it saves them money! if you could sell your products at a better profit simply by arranging them differently, wouldn't you? you can also grow a few of the dirty dozen - bell peppers, strawberries, lettuces, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes are all fairly easy to grow and can be done in just one season. are there orchards in your area? there's another way to take care of the organic issue. amazingly, a lot of the chemical process contiues after harvest to make the produce look pretty for you to buy. by finding an orchard (or strawberry farm, we use ours - we even walk to it!) you can at least cut down on the chemicals if you can't get rid of it overall. if you own your own home, plant a fruit tree or two of fruits you truely enjoy. do a little research to find out how and where they grow best and try it! milk, meat, and coffe i can't help you with except to tell you use that money you save on the chemicals.
did you know you can also make your own laundry detergent for a fraction of what grocery store brands cost you? washing soda ($6), borax ($4), and your choice of soap (mine is $3 for 2 bars). 1c washing soda, 1c borax, 1 grated bar of soap. 2tbs per load (i have an old oxy clean scoop i use). i've made 3 batches and am still on the same box of washing soda (i use borax for other purposes also). so i've spent $16 for at least 80 loads of laundry. looks good, doesn't it? and, you guessed it - it's green. at least as green as the soap you choose. don't want to do that? check out dropps, that's 84 loads for $30... they are rumored to be available at walmart also. again, savings here can get passed on to your grocery food bill.
so while you may not save money, you don't need to spend more to be significantly greener. now quit whining about how expensive it is. sheesh ;)

slide shows!

2009-09-26T13:54:00.001+02:00

loading photos...

2009-09-25T20:45:00.003+02:00

so before the comp jacks up any more tonight - here are some photos from SD. there will be loads more to follow, i'm hoping to do this an easier way!

yep, the lorax - there are a few dr. suess sculptures by the petting zoo

squishing a penny at the zoo
the carousel at balboa park. eddie really liked this one and the one at seaport village
yeah, pete playing with eddie - on two separate occasions

Dachau

2009-07-30T15:48:00.004+02:00

we went on monday - not realizing that the museum would be closed. but we walked the grounds and i realized i could not have handled the museum at all. here are the photos, the first two and the butterfly photo are my brothers.

i couldn't get a good shot of a butterfly with the 4 yo running me ragged. he saw it as a little beauty there... i somewhere remember reading about butterflies and souls of the dead...

a mass grave of ashesthey had lots of plaques marking mass burial places, an execution area, and a blood trench
this was one of the churches (russian) there commemorating the prisoners.
not a lot to say even looking at the photos. my brother's grandfather helped fly the prisoners at dachau to england.

Wurzburg

2009-07-29T20:00:00.005+02:00

the residence, a short trip to the volksfest, and the kapelle

we stopped at the kilian volksfest, ate a little, justin had a beer, eddie got on a train ride.
walking to the kapelle

taken walking the stations of the cross

playing cousins

skip ahead ...

2009-07-22T10:16:00.010+02:00

to yesterday at schwangau... one day i will remember to photoshop my pics before i post!

cool facade on a restaurant on the walk up

do we see kaylin? (btw, she's 5')
just before you enter the courtyard

for kaylin (thanks justin)

for justin

let me in i say!
view from a window in the castle.

the best i could do for some reason. the camera wouldn't take the shot i wanted earlier, it wouldn't focus fast enough.
leaving - i'd suggest you look at this one bigger, you can see a relief (or are reliefs inlaid/etched...? what's this one called [catherine]?)of a knight on a horse that's pretty cool.
just a creek on the walk. yes - we walked up and down and it was a decent incline.
i loved this sticker!
and then i dropped my second child... the plastic thing on the strap came off and it just fell off my neck. fortunately i didn't break my camera.

here's a great page about the castle with some photos of the inside.

day 2 nurenburg

2009-07-20T11:15:00.005+02:00

mushrooms along the colloseum wall

inside the colloseum museum

the inside of the colloseum

the front of the museum. justin took eddie outside to play while kaylin and i looked around longer.the area hitler gave his speeches in nurenburg. the paved in area as well the field behind it is where the third reich celebrated reichsparteitage. they did all kinds of traditional dances to promote german heritage.
imperial palace

up we go

i took a few pics while the boys peed

monkey see...
monkey do
and home we go!

Day 1

2009-07-18T10:31:00.005+02:00

Day 1 - 6:10 airport pickup, drop off at the house, my appointment, lunch, 12pm to Rothenburg O.D.T.

on the way in (most of these are my brother's photos, i didn't bring my camera. it was my third time there)

across for the wine shop
in the criminal museum

courtyard views
they had gelato, i had espresso.
walking along the wall some. i don't think any of us really liked it. awesome view, not a lot of room though (kaylin is afraid of heights)

neglectful much?

2009-07-15T10:24:00.004+02:00

yes, yes i have been. expect more of the same for a while yet.

i have lost a few more pounds, i'm sitting at 197ish. exercise? being a tourist. oh yeah, there are some serious hikes in germany just to get to the views. i'll share photos soonish. my brother leaves tomorrow and i'm not sure how much my niece will want to go out and do things, i'll drag her a few more places though. then we go back to the states july 31, so not a lot of blogging will be going on.

losers - i'm sorry. i will keep exercising and will start eating better (its been hard with my brother and niece here, but i'm going to get back on it).

here are a few photos, i will put up more when i have the patience. i hate load time!

rothenburg odt
nuremburg imperial castle
wurzburg the residence
wurzburg kappele kapelle. stations of the cross - pain in the butt. 3 per level and some nasty stairs. i think that's where the 2.5lbs went!

loser monday

2009-06-29T10:48:00.004+02:00

one day soon i'll remember to weigh myself on monday.

in the mean time i ran across this ad in a magazine:
which links you to sweetsurprise.com. here is a link to the articles saying that HFCS is ok for you. here is what the mayo clinic has to say about it. now lets run through sweet surprise's resources for reccomendations of HFCS.
the AMA - while it is highly recognised and their journal often cited, this is their reccommendation according to their website:

The following statements, recommended by the Council on Science and Public Health, were adopted by the AMA House of Delegates as AMA directives at the 2008 AMA Annual Meeting:

The AMA recognizes that at the present time, insufficient evidence exists to specifically restrict use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or other fructose-containing sweeteners in the food supply or to require the use of warning labels on products containing HFCS. (Directive)
The AMA encourages independent research (including epidemiological studies) on the health effects of HFCS and other sweeteners, and evaluation of the mechanism of action and relationship between fructose dose and response. (Directive)
The AMA, in concert with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, recommends that consumers limit the amount of added caloric sweeteners in their diet. (Directive)

this is what sweet surprise glomed onto:

"After studying current research, the American Medical
Association (AMA) today concluded that high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners..."

American Medical Association press release, June 17, 2008

"Because the composition of HFCS and sucrose are so similar, particularly on absorption by the body, it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose."

American Medical Association Report 3 of the Council on Science and Public Health (A-08), June 2008

what i read: AMA states findings are as yet inconclusive, pay attention and limit your intake. not eat in moderation, limit!

ADA - the largest group of food and nutrition experts

what they say:
High fructose corn syrup may be used as a sweetener in processed foods and beverages and is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. Both sweeteners contain the same number of calories (4 per gram) and consist of about equal parts of fructose and glucose. Once absorbed into the blood stream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable. No persuasive evidence supports the claim that high fructose corn syrup is a unique contributor to obesity, however, like all nutritive sweeteners, it does contribute calories. This is where moderation and portion size become important. The greater the consumption of foods and beverages containing large amounts of added sugars of any kind, the more calories are consumed, influencing weight gain. The source of the added sugar — whether sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, honey or fruit juice concentrate — should not be of concern; rather it is the amount of total calories that is important. Overall, carbohydrates and sugars in foods and beverages can be enjoyed in moderation as part of a balanced diet and active lifestyle. HFCS is a controversial topic and although not all nutrition professionals will readily accept the scientific evidence, this paper represents an evidenced-based, balanced perspective.

FDA - do we need to say how much i dislike the FDA? i wouldn't trust the FDA as far as i could throw a cow, as far as a chicken could spit...

here's your link. i dislike and distrust the FDA, i'm not going to read all that garbage to pick out what they actually say about it.

david s. ludwig - honestly, i couldn't find anything on his stance of HFCS. the quote attributed to him is "High fructose corn syrup is one of the most misunderstood products in the food supply.” which really tells us nothing of what he feels about it.

James M. Rippe - here's an article he wrote. i could be wrong, but it appears he's basing his opinion off of other people's studies. which is cool, but why would sweet surprise use him if he hasn't done research of his own?

really... i'm just going to stop there and say "and on, and on." they really do have quite a few sources saying that's it's just as fine as table sugar. but here's the deal - table sugar sucks too. there is a slightly different frutose to glucose ratio in HFCS, but you'd think 5% wasn't a big deal. well, i guess it's really not - in just one serving. do you drink soda from a can? you're at 10% , a small soda from a fast food place is the same, but how often do you just get the small? if you go for the largest size you're generally looking at 42 ounces - that's 35% difference. why is that a big deal? well, fructose in fruit included fiber and all kinds of goodness. so naturally dirived fructose = good. the fructose in HFCS, nothing.

without taking any of the other observations of HFCS into account we can go with simply the fact that it is super processed food. do you eat food that comes individually wrapped in plastic all the time? why not? exactly, it's not good for you. why isn't it good for you? that's right, it's over processed and lacks any kind of significant good nutrients. well, think of HFCS as individually wrapped in plastic foods. so anything that has HFCS, well, think of it as individually wrapped in plastic. are you seeing how gross and bad for you this is getting? the more processed something is, the worse it is for you. the less processed foods are, the more enzymes stay intact. so organic cane juice is probably the best option for a sweetener. besides, HFCS is well liked in the food industry for it's preservative properties - does that sound like something that belongs in your body? i thought so.

i hope all the losers are doing better!

finally!

2009-06-24T20:05:00.005+02:00

the flowers are in bloom! i dont' know what these first ones are, but they're neat looking. the roses are pink and they were here before us, that's why most of my flowers are pink.

for will's bday we went to the volksfest. this was the only ride eddie would go on. i took lots of pics, but all the kids are in the car, so i didn't want to put up any of the close ups.

what i thought was my new iPOD... i think the next one will end up with the same use too.

serious music listeners only!
more flowers

eddie's awesome new shoes that he picked out himself - yay H&M

my friend's roses - the wind was whipping pretty hard and they were harder to photograph than a 3yo!

2009-06-23T10:07:00.002+02:00

so one of these days i'll remember to do this on a monday!

i gained a few ounces, but hopefully i'll get it off soon. i've been walking a lot and now that the volksfest is over, i won't be eating those yummy macadamia nuts, fries, and cotton candy (just so my son doesn't eat too much of that, honest!). i do have a valid excuse for not posting yesterday - it was a friend's last day here, she went back stateside today.

and glenni - i'm already psuedo bargaining to get a new ipod. DH gets the one i just got, i get the 120GB one. yep, i am a music whore and w/o buying any new music i can more than fill up the 16GB - so i'm hoping i can get all our cds on the 120GB and have room for any new music we want to get. seriously - there's some comercial saying it'll cost $30,000 to fill up the 120GB... apparently they don't take into account people like me who already have 300+ cds and a number of box sets. yeah.

in other news H&M had an awesome sale when we went yesterday (yes, we went shopping with the friend) and eddie scored 2 button up shirts for €5ea and 2 t-shirts for €5 as well a pair of pants for €9 and a mr. men backpack for €5. i picked up a cute dress for €5.

eddie is desperate to go outside and i still have a few other things to do, so i'll do pics soon - i promise!!!

whoops again

2009-06-16T09:40:00.002+02:00

so again the non weighing for the same reason - waking up late. i should have done it today, but a bookshelf crashed last night right in the way of the cats' litter box so that had to be taken care of first. i've been trying to walk to the PX or PXtra every day weather permitting. i meant to get cat box liners yesterday - instead i got an iPod. yeah, i see how those two go together, don't you? so we'll be walking today to get the cat liners i keep forgetting. well, i got tidy cat ones, but who designed those things? they're trash bags, not cat box liners.

anywho - i promose pictures soon, right now i'm loading cds onto my ipod - i got a car player the day before that only worked with iPods - when i got home and realized that i just decided to get one. now it's time to live like i'm dead ass broke until next pay day so we can keep saving for the trip to SD, and while my bro and niece are out here. it would be nice to just have a savings as well.