Polish Pottery

Here are the pieces that I brought home. Oh it was so much fun. I can't wait to go again.

Steve insited that I pose with a couple of pieces. I look like I'm ready to fall asleep... haha

Polish Pottery Shopping Trip

On Saturday I went on an Outdoor Recreation trip over to Poland with my friend Christy. It was so much fun. We got up at 4 AM for the 5 hour ride to Poland so we were pretty tired and I was pretty car sick but I recovered enough to have a great time and really how could I not shopping in a foreign country with no kids???


On the bus on the way there.

SHOP, SHOP, SHOP!!!

A tree next to one of the shops decorated with broken/chipped pottery.

I wanted to get more pictures of the area but it was raining so I couldn't get pictures for the bus and we didn't get much opportunity when we stopped. Ah well. I hope to go again without a tour group so I can go where I want and at my own pace.

Hiking

I thought that I had posted this already but apparently I didn't. This is just a hiking trip we (Me, Steve and Christy) went on with the kids. Lets see there's Emmalyn Zachary and Josiah standing in the back. Seth and Hezekia sitting in the middle and Gideon on the bottom.

Look at all those big strong muscles.

Zachary was the brave one that would actually touch the frog.

Snow Boarding Pictures

So here we are. We look cool at least don't we?

See how foggy it got. It looks almost like we're floating.

And this is now Steve's favorite picture. He looks like he knows what he's doing.

It's all an illusion though. We fell flat on our buts so many times I can't remember and we both hurt so bad by the time we were done that we could hardly move our arms. Who ever thought it would be the arms that hurt the worst. I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to go though. It's not just any American that can say they've been to the Bavarian Alps. I feel very lucky.

Playing catch with Daddy.

So we thought that since Zachary is starting his first season of Teeball next week we better get him prepared a little. Steve ordered him a mitt online since the PX here has absolutely nothing to offer us but he forgot to get balls and a bat. Luckily we found everything we needed at the awesome PX in Garmisch.

Steve was impressed that Zachary wasn't afraid of the ball. It's not like he caught every ball or anything but he didn't duck or back away from it. He'll do great with more practice. I think Steve is enjoying having older children. He likes being able to actually do things with them.

These pictures were taken in behind our house. That little hill is the same hill they used for sledding in the snow. I think that might be the reason there is now not any grass growing on it. The building that we live in is just like the ones you can see in the background on the left.

Hyacinths

I really love flowers. They make a home feel so warm and cheery. These hyacinths are bright and cheery, even if I don't have a pot for them, and they smell absolutely delicious. I have them in my kitchen window. I also got some other flowers such as daffodils and some other ones that have a german name but the flowers are all ready gone. Darn.


I am hoping to slowly add more flowers and then next year I will be set. I would like to get some better indoor flowers because these are more for outdoors. If I had my own garden I would plant tons of things in it. I seem to be able to grow things outside without too much assistance but my green thumb does not extend to the indoors.

Battalion Easter Egg Hunt

So it finally feels like spring now that the weather has warmed up and the snow is all melted. I've even notices that little shoots are starting to come up on the trees and plants all around.

Thanks to the lovely weather, the kids' East egg hunt yesterday was wonderful. It was the warmest and driest day since we've been here.

Emmalyn and Zachary are very excited for Easter this year. They are finally old enough to remember how much fun they had last year. Emmalyn is constantly reminding me that the Easter Bunny will surely leave another jellybean trail and maybe even another game for the family. I just hope the Easter Bunny can manage to meet their high expectations.

Marriage Retreat - Garmisch, Germany

Steve's company offered a marriage retreat to the company since we are deploying in just a couple of months. We got to stay at the Army Recreation Facility "Edelweiss" in Garmisch for our stay. It was wonderful. It snowed the much of the time so we were cold but it was beautiful.

The classes were put out by the Chaplain for Steve's unit as well as the Family Life chaplain on Katterbach. They did a very good job and it was obvious that they had put a lot of time into the preparation for our classes. This program was a little different from our last one but we still learned some things and enjoyed ourselves. Everything was included which means food and lodging. They even had free childcare for most everyone. We didn't make it into that but the kids were able to each stay at a friends house. Thank heavens for friends.

Our schedule:
Sunday
6:30 a.m.-Drive to Garmisch (its about a 3 1/2 - 4 hour drive)
1:30-Classes until dinner
7:00-Hang out in the hot tub outside. This was so weird because it was freezing outside and snowing on top of that, but we couldn't even feel it in the hot tub. Steam is rising all over from the cold too so its like sitting in a steam bath. We wish we had a hot tub at home. :)

Monday
We had a free morning. Some friends had convinced us to try our hand at snowboarding. So yes, we got to attempt snowboarding for the first time. It was fun but I admit that it is very difficult and I've got a long way to go. I went home with not my butt or legs hurting but my arms from trying to stand up so often after falling. Apparently this part of the alps isn't necessarily the easiest place to learn on your own. My arms are still hurting today but at least I can brush my hair and unhook my bra again. After all the pain, we both enjoyed it so much that we will probably go again but to a smaller area closer by us. There is a facility over by Grafenwoer that is only about an hour away and has much smaller slopes.

After we got back from snowboarding we walked around downtown Garmisch which is classic Bavarian perfection. Everything looks just like a postcard. We also checked out the local PX which happens to be a lot better than ours. They had really nice bikes and camping gear as well as sports gear and clothing.


After dinner Monday we had one class.

Tuesday
We had classes in the morning and then since the line for lunch was like an hour long, we went to Pizza Hut in Garmisch. It was heaven. That is one of the things that has been very different living here in Germany. Pizza just isn't the same here and neither was Pizza Hut for that matter, but it had a regular crust and most of the basic toppings. After that we stopped for gas and then decided to walk through the thrift store/antique store/gift shop on post. I actually found some really cute curtains for the kitchen so it was a success.

2:00 p.m.-Head home.

We picked up the children and neither of them wanted to come home. I must admit it is sad to have your kids not really care that you are gone for 3 days but it is good that they are independent enough to survive.

I do have some pictures of us snowboarding but I haven't gotten them yet from Steve's friend. We will post them soon.

Knitting Lessons

I've decided that I want to learn how to knit. I learned as a child to crochet but I've been wanting to diversify. My friend Windy started teaching me several years ago so I'm not starting from nothing. But, honestly, I hardly remember it's been so long.

Well since domestic tasks such as knitting aren't as widely known anymore, I thought I'd browse Amazon for recommendations and I found a DVD. I was originally looking for a book but the DVD sounded like it would be very helpful. Here's the link. So far it's been great. I've picked it right back up. I did a couple of practic swatches and then started on my project. I am making a bright pink scarf for my first project. All it uses is the knit stitch so hopefully by the time I am finished I will be an expert at one stitch.

Bake Day.

So it is time to break in the new Kitchenaid. Sadly, I had it for almost 2 whole days before I got around to using it. So today I just went wild. Me and my sidekick (Emmalyn) decided to go all out.



First we made rolls. I learned my first lesson though. My mixer is too big to mix just one egg white, so I was forced to double the recipe. Unfortunately I doubled everything but the yeast so they were a little dense, but still tasted great nonetheless.

Next we made Apple Cake which I just searched for online. I was going to use the one at Smitten Kitchen because I almost started drooling when I saw it, but alas, I do not have a tube pan. Gotta put that on the shopping list...

So then we had to move on to the "what's for di nner" phase. For the menu right now I had everyone in the family pick a couple of recipes or favorite meals and today I let Emmalyn pick hers. She chose Fish & Chips with Jello. Now, stirring Jello just so happens to be one of my most unfavorite thing to do in the world. I remember enjoying it as a child when my mother let me suck all the ice cubes after she was done with them. (Now that was some good times.) But the whole stirring thing just doesn't get me off. Sooooo, KITCHENAID, again comes to the rescue. I poured the hot water in, added the Jello and let her rip. Then I just cleaned the kitchen while it dissolved. When it was done cooling in the refrigerator the kids cut out shapes and put them on a plate for dinner. They then got to top it with fresh whipped cream that it whipped in the ...da dada da...you've got it...the Kitchen aide. I know, I'm smitten. Then we had apple cake for desert.



First I tried it with a little powdered sugar on top.

Then I thought, hmm, I've got all of these new and fantastic cake decorating implements, I'll pipe some whipped cream ontop of it. This particular piece was Steve's. He didn't seem to have any complaints.

Emmalyn was making her own littl emini cakes with the leftover flour and apples from the cake and Brötchen (rolls). She loves to help me bake. I´m telling you, she´s going to be ready to be a housewife long before she is even able to start Kindergarten.

Cake decorating for Dummies

So I've been learning cake decorating from my friend Christy. It has been fun.

My first cake was a birthday cake where we just practiced doing using the star tip, writing and drop flowers and most important, icing the cake. I also learned how to use parchment triangle bags. I wrote Happy Birthday on it and the next day we invited Christy's kids over and dressed up for a happy-unbirthday party. They loved it. It's hard not to love something that includes cake.


My second lesson I learned shell borders and more flower practice. I forgot to take a picture of that cake which happened to turn out fabulously. It said flower power and I used really bright colors. Very 60's. Additionaly, my hand mixer just happened to die while making the frosting for this cake so unfortunately I had to convince Steve that I really needed a Kitchen Aid. IT's so sad, I know!!!

My third, and most recent, lesson I learned how to make roses. I made carrot cake and filled it and iced it with cream cheese frosting. I don't actually recommend using cream cheese for your final icing though as you can see that it cracked. I would use it for a crumb coat and then use buttercream for the outside. I thought roses were going to be ridiculously hard but it turns out that they weren't so hard as long as the frosting is the right consistency. I mention this of course because my original cream cheese frosting was way too thin and the flowers just sunk into themselves as I made them. I hurried and whipped up some buttercream frosting though and it worked like a dream. Here are pics of the most recent cake. I even did a cute little border along the bottom and tried to put flowers on the sides. It turns out that putting flowers on the sides is better if you let them dry first and then just glue them on later. I didn't really have a plan but I still felt pretty successful.

As a side note. I also found this great video instruction segment on how to start making and decorating cakes. The women included a recipe for making your own cake pan grease. I used it on the 3rd cake and it worked like a dream. My cakes just popped out of the pan.
http://www.monkeysee.com/play/982-cake-decorating-how-to-prepare-your-cake-pan-for-baking\

Her receipe for the goop is as follows:
Mix together:
1 c flour
1 c shortening
½ c oil

She´s Here!!!

So it looks like it was meant to be on my counter. You can´t deny it.

It fits perfectly under my counter. The color is nice and commercial looking. There is no doubt in my mind that it wouldn´t have any trouble beating up some bread dough.

And it has this powerful presence. Like if I don´t make sure to keep it clean it might decide to do something drastic. I might need to name it...