Wow! I LOVE these Plinky prompts. So fun! :) Have you ever been to Plinky.com? Love it! :)

This one is asking which store do I wish I had in my current town. Well, considering where we are right now, I could so use a Wal-Mart and Target fix right about now!

Ready For Some German News?

Some of you have asked in the past about news events happening around here and other things going on, and now I have an answer for you. You can visit the local German news website that is now translated in to English. Yay! We are so glad to finally be able to know what is going on around us. :)

You can go to this website to see for yourself. But beware . . . I wouldn't have the kiddos around you when you go to take a look. The locals have a very different opinion about what is okay to put in the news than the States. :)

When Tears Fall

When lil miss of the house decides she's so underprivileged and never gets a single thing and the crocodile tears begin to fall, and she completely falls apart, telling us how miserably terrible her days are and you know . . . the usual 8 year old girl drama . . . apparently all she has to do is bat those long eyelashes at her daddy and she gets this . . .

Yes, that's Up, and no it's not for her beloved Wii but for the Xbox instead. We never even knew she liked anything other than the Wii, so I was really surprised when she brought this home. But I must say it is super fun! We are all enjoying it! What are some of your favorite games - either board games or video games?

New Love . . . Well For A Moment

I now have a new love living with me. Oh, man I have been waiting for this for a while now.

**Drum roll please . . .**

This is the new love of my life . . .

Yes, "he" is my new Bissell Steam Mop. We have been blessed with this government laminate flooring that I have a love-hate relationship with every day. And I know this picture doesn't do him justice, but trust me . . . he's handsome and he is very handy to have around the house. Our floors have had this sticky messy dirty gross film on them ever since we have moved in. I threaten Ronnie and Neeley every time they walk in the door if they come in the door with shoes on. :) I'm sure they love that.

Just last week a friend introduced me to her own little handy-dandy Bissell Steam Mop and I was smitten. I can tell it is going to take me a while to get the floors looking like I want them to but I am already sold. Ronnie surprised me today by bringing one home from the PX when I just told him to "look" at them to get an idea of what it might be like to have this new guy around. :)

Now I can actually look forward to cleaning the floors. Go get you one too!

Cloudy With A Chance Of What?

Last night, we took Neeley to see this movie.

And, oh my word, it was silly. The adults in the group didn't think it was all that, but lil miss LOVED it and that was putting it mildly.

And then we went and ate the best pizza ever at LeRose Restaurant on Patch. Oh man, it came highly recommended and that was the best pepperoni pizza I have eaten in a while. And it was called "American Meat Pepperoni" so we knew it was okay. See, you can't just go anywhere and ask for a pepperoni pizza here because pepperoni here means those pepperoncini peppers and that wouldn't be a very good pizza, I don't think. Or you have to ask for "pepperoniwurst" which just sounds disgusting but helps them kind of understand what you want. So we were happy to find a place that serves very good and inexpensive pizza in a fancy-schmancy authentic italian restaurant. Yumm-o!!

What A Week!

Wow! Our past week has been crazy.

We've had a welcome party for a new baby, lots of soccer practices and games, homework for lil miss and myself, a picnic for the Patch Ski Club (awesome! that will have to be another post...), school, school, school and more school stuff, a Girl Scout parent meeting, and I helped up at the school one afternoon counting votes for the Student Advisory Committee general officer elections. I'm out of breath just rereading that! :)

Thank goodness for the weekends. Oh wait, that just means it starts all over again!

Are You Smarter Than An Eighth Grader?

Maybe I should rethink this whole substitute teaching thing. Have I told you that I had to sub 8th graders one day last week? Oh yeah! And they were T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E! And I kept telling them that too.

**Insert prayer here**:

Please Lord, help me guide lil Neeley to know better than to EVER act like that.

AMEN!

Ok, prayer over . . . it was all I could do not to strangle every one of them. And the girls were just as bad as the boys, if not worse. Is that what I have to look forward to in a few years? If so, can we just pause at 3rd grade for a while?

PLEASE and THANK YOU! :)

A Swimmingly Good Day

We were able to get in a lil after-school swim thanks to one of the indoor pools here. Now, they take their swimming pretty seriously here in Germany. I can't even begin to describe how awesome this place was. Very inexpensive and more fun than any amusement park or anything else we've done so far.

Neeley took a friend with her and I think we all could have stayed there for three days!

It was so clean and neat and well laid out and everyone was so friendly and helpful. It was so nice to do some swimming and just relax. Ronnie and I liked the whirlpool the best until the girls had to have their turn in it. I could have slept in there the whole time!

We have been told now that this one wasn't even the best place to swim! We will definitely be checking out the others since it is indoors and something we can take advantage of even in the winter months.

How Cute Are They?

Neeley is still really enjoying soccer. Look how nice their uniforms are? Wow! We didn't expect all this. She is on a great little team and the coaches are so wonderful and patient. Here are a few pics from their first game. Enjoy!

Fall Reading

I've been enjoying the Mitford Series books by Jan Karon. It's been a while since I've had something to read that I really enjoyed. I do not particularly care for anything that makes me think once I close the book. Does that make sense? I like cute, funny, comedy types with sappy story lines and that I can close at any time and pick right back up where I left off. I don't want to have to think while I'm reading unless it's for school. :)

I have read the first three books in the series of five and cannot wait to finish the other two. I am hoping to finish them pretty quickly before I have any more heavy reading to do for my classes.

Go on over to the Mitford Books website and check her out. You'll LOVE her!

I'm A Purex Insider

**UPDATE**: I apologize. I checked with Purex and they have taken this opportunity down due to such high interest. Hhmmm....my initial reaction was well duh...we like your products so keep it up. Let me see what other kind of fun stuff I can find for us and will share soon. I had to deal with subbing 7th graders for the better half of today and I just can't even think right now. :)

If you like Purex products, and want a few freebies, you too can sign up to be a Purex Insider. You just give them a few sentences about the products you use and if you love them or not, and you get a nice gift pack in the mail. We tore in to mine before I was able to snap a picture.

If you are interested, just go to the Purex Insider Application Page here and fill it out. Easy as pie!

Trip To The Vineyards

We took a lil after-school trip the other day to the vineyards that are close by and had a great time!

Aren't they beautiful? Wow! We had a fabulous time and came home with a belly full and a bucket full of grapes. :) You can click on the collage above to make it appear larger. That, or go getcha a really good magnifying glass. :) Sorry about that!

Guilty Pleasures

Oh, it has to be Jon & Kate Plus 8. Trash, I know, but I just can't help it! :)

Now That's Good Eats

We have been so fortunate to try some really good food here. We have also been less fortunate to try some really NOT so good food here. But this, my friend, is by far the best cheap eats we've found.

Doner (pron. "donor) Kebabs (or sometimes called Kebaps) are just a mixture of smoked turkey and chicken meats and with as many fixin's on the sammie as you could possibly want. Sometimes they are in buns like this and sometimes they are in pita bread. Oh man, pair these with some of those greasy fries and you have yourself a 2 euro meal.

Yum! Beats any of the expensive stuff we've eaten by far. If I could package these up and send them to each of you, I so would. They are just that good!

Featured Mommy Blogger

Can you believe it? Lil ol' me? I am very proud to share that I am now a featured mom blogger over at Everythingmom.com. Go on over now and check it out!

How Do I Back Up This Here Blog?

Ok, y'all, I need your help. For those of you with blogs, I have a lil question. Do you back up your blog? If so, what do you use/how do you do it? I am just scared that I will end up losing all of this sometime and that would make us all sad. I do have my pictures yes, but stories, no. So help me out here if ya can.

Please and Thank You! :)

Oh Ye Days Of Summer

I think our summer days are past us here in Stuttgart. We are very soon saying goodbye to this . . .

And, unfortunately, hello to this . . .

While I do agree that the castles here in Germany are still beautiful even in the dead of winter, I am not a big fan of cold weather of any sort. I haven't even enjoyed this "cooler" weather we have had here for the past week or so. Oh, and this lasts until April(ish).

Lovely!

Wow! This Will Make You Shed A Tear . . .

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Cutest Blog On The Block

You have to visit THIS WEBSITE. Go there now! They have the cutest lil blinkies and fun things . . .

To My Lovely Neighbors...

Dear Neighbors,

I love that you know how to have a good time. Believe me, I like to have fun too. And I love how you seem to be able to stay up all night every night doing so. What I don't love is how we all have to keep our windows open even during the night, thus I have to hear you having a good time each and every night. And I don't love that you get so inebriated while you sit on "our" front porch having said fun that you have to stumble up and down the stairs all night long for whatever reason. And I especially don't love how you use my mailbox and my flower pots as your trash cans during these fun times for your wine bottles and cigarette butts. Oh, and while I'm at it, please stay off my couch that I have in the downstairs common storage area.

Thank you and have an ever so lovely day! :(

Somber Thoughts On 9/11

It has taken me a few years to even think and talk about how I feel about 9/11. In 2001, I had a brand new baby, had just gone back to work, and bam! Was faced with these horrible thoughts, seeing as how we were a military family. I remember I was so upset I had to leave work after talking to Ronnie on the phone that morning. Of course, I was grilling him with a hundred questions. Where was he going? When was he going? What was happening? Were we all going to die? Was this the end of the world?

As it turns out, he did not have to go anywhere and really wasn't affected in any way, but was able to continue with his normal duty. But still . . . I was terrified and instantly saw myself as a single mom, widowed at 24.

I can still remember that moment like it was just yesterday. Wow!

Look Out, Collegiate World!

Tomorrow begins the end of life as I know it. Tomorrow is the day that I become a full-time student once again. Now let me also add that I have not been a student for the past ten years now, so I really don't know what to do with myself. And I have also never had a program that was completely online so this is all new territory for me. I am very excited to begin this new chapter but I am also determined to not become so overwhelmed with it that I can't stand anything. I think that's why I've had this "nesting" and organization streak in me for the past few weeks. I have been doing all that I can to make sure that I have my days planned properly so I'm not struggling.

If all goes well, this should only take me about a year and a half or so, at the most. So if I can get through the next year and a half, then I can get through anything!

Y'all please pray for our lil family. This will definitely be a new thing for us, and I am really trying to balance it all. I so want to be out there and doing all that I can but I have really had to make myself only join those things that matter the most to me and to this family, and this part has been challenging too. You know I like to be right in the middle of it all, but I've had to hand out a few no's and really decide what I want to do the most . . . and this is it!

Thanks y'all!

Watch Out, Fellow Drivers

Yes, I must issue a word of caution to my fellow drivers. I PASSED MY DRIVERS TEST YESTERDAY! Yahoo! Hallelujah and Amen! It took me almost three months to even get the courage to go take the test. The entire process - class and the test - takes four hours and quite frankly I just don't have four hours in a day to give up. But Ronnie made me. And I'm glad he did.

I know the picture is terribly out of focus, but I just had to show off my temporary license. I won't get my real one in the mail for about six weeks. What?

Thanks for your prayers sent our way. I have been crazy stressed about this and now this is one more thing I can cross off my list.

Couldn't be happier!

Another Castle And A Yummy Recipe Too

The weather here yesterday was off the charts on both ends I think. We walked to school yesterday morning in the FREEZING subzero temps. Yeah, right, there's more to come I know. And it ended up being around 80 degrees by the time Neeley got home from school. Ronnie was off yesterday and it was so beautiful outside by the time that she got home that I just couldn't let us all sit inside for the entire afternoon. Since I had Colorado Green Chile in the crock pot and didn't have to hover around a stove all afternoon, we decided to take a lil trip to Schloss Solitude, better known as Castle Solitude or Solitude Palace. We took the guided tour and I must say it was breathtaking. We couldn't take any pictures in some of the rooms but you know we were snapping away at what we could.

Enjoy the pics of our fun afternoon . . .

Oh wait, before you see the castle...look! This is what Roto Rooter looks like in Germany. Haha!

He thinks he's cool . . .

And just because I think you should make this yummy concoction for you and your family, here is the recipe to our Colorado Green Chile. Oh so yummy!

Colorado Green Chile

2 1/2 lb. pork steak or pork chops, diced and fat trimmed (I use thinly sliced boneless pork chops)
21 oz. diced green chiles
1 can diced jalapenos (I omit these because Neeley wouldn't eat it otherwise)
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. oregano
Salt & pepper to taste
3/4 c. flour
3 cans chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup

Combine first seven ingredients in crock pot on low. In a mixing bowl, combine, the flour, chicken broth, and chicken soup. Mix well with a whisk to avoid lumping and add to pork mixture. Stir. Cook for 3 hours until pork is cooked through. Serve with flour tortillas, fresh avocado, grated cheese, sour cream, and fresh tomatoes.

Let me know what you think if you make it...