American Idol...

Apparently, I would NOT make a very good American Idol judge.  Of course, some of the songs, I agreed with the judges but definately not all.  I love American Idol, and have been watching it since the first season.  Love Kelly, but Carrie is my favorite idol of them all.  This year has been said to have the best talent.  I'm not sure I agree with that statement.  I don't think any of these kids hold a candle to Carrie, but I'm a little biased that way I guess.  So tonight I watched the guys.  Casey James, I thought did a great show.  But my favorite was Andrew Garcia, and the judges said how they didn't like his song, and yada yada.  I thought it was a good rendition.  The girls...my favorite is Didi so far.  I can't wait to see who gets booted.  I definately think the kid Tim Urban should get booted.  He just wasn't up to par with the rest of them.  But we'll see.  I'm not in America, so I can't vote, but if I could, I would have voted for Andrew Garcia.  What did you think?

We got a lot done today!

Lots of things were done today, and I feel very accomplished. 

Paul picked me up for a very nice lunch at the food court, we got to sit with his 1st Sgt and his wife, who are very nice, so it was nice to chat with them. 
Then we went over to the EFMP guy and we got appointments to see him and get enrolled.  Autumn needs to be enrolled for her adhd, and I need to be enrolled for my deafness in my left ear. 
Paul also went to a levy brief today, I sat through a bit of it, then had to get the girls and go to a sure start meeting. 
After that the girls and I grabbed the mail and picked up Paul, we also went by housing to see if they could pick up some of their government furniture...I guess they aren't doing partial pick ups anymore.  Soooo...that means we have to hold onto the furniture that we don't need until we clear.  No biggie, we clear in a few months. 
The toyota guy called and whatever is wrong with my brakes IS covered under the warranty, so yay for that!  I am so relieved to hear that, I was hoping that we wouldn't have to fork out the money for that, it would have been about 600.00.  Looks like the van is going to be ready on Thursday at the latest, I'm so glad!

All in all, it was a great productive day.  Tomorrow looks to be similar.  We have Autumn's efmp appointment, and I have a lunch n learn to go to at the school.  It should be another good day to get things done....

Ohhhh AND my birthday is this weekend.  I can't say I'm all that excited about turning 27, but I think it will be fun.  We are planning on having a little party on Saturday night, awesome!  I love entertaining, and parties.

I have some really cute pictures of Sierra from when she was sick the other day, I'll post them soon.  I'll also get back to cooking here soon too, things have been a little busy lately.

One more thing before I go...30 day shred=awesome!  I'm doing day 3 tomorrow.  I like it, its only 20 minutes, but hey its something, especially with my busy days, and having no car.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  I'm hoping to keep up the 6 am shred, and then when I get the car back get going back to the gym too...now if I could just eat a little better...

Wine tasting night

Yesterday, was an interesting day to say the least.  Of course, I took the girls to school, then I came home and got ready to go to our appointment with Relocation assistants at ACS...its called a Smooth Moves class.  We spent about an hour at the class, most of the things we knew, but we did find out a few things we didn't.  I also got this really cool binder with a moving checklist in it.  I'm a lover of checklists.  After the class, Paul and I had a nice romantic lunch at burger king...hey its all we have over here!  I had to run a few errands, came home, watched some Grey's, and picked up the kids from school.  We cleaned up the house a little bit, I watched Survivor, and started getting ready for the wine tasting event.  I got this really cute black dress at the PX that I decided to wear.  I thought it looked pretty good, although it was a little more fancy than the "Sunday best" attire required, I didn't mind.  Hey, its not every day that Paul and I get to go out without the kids.  He wore this beautiful blue shirt with some black slacks and looked as handsome as ever!  Back to my story, I ended up leaving a little early to help a friend collect money and get people through the door.  Paul came after a while and sat down to wait for all of us.  We all sat at this big table, it was us, and three other couple friends of ours.  Then we chatted, munched on some finger foods, and WAITED...and waited....and waited some more.  Finally, after all of the waiting, the wine was being served, we literally got little sips of wine (hey its not a wine glass drinking party, just a tasting).  We were also supposed to "score" the wine.  I'm NO wine connoisseur, I just like what I think tastes good, but I do like wine.  Not all wine, but some.  The first three wines were...horrible...I compared it to eating ear wax (don't ask).  The fourth wine was very bubbly...and then was horrible, but you noticed the bubbly first, its called a sect in german, and is similar to a champagne.  The fourth wine was drinkable, and was pretty good.  The last wine was too sweet for my tastes, there has to be a good balance.  Anyway-we were all extremely bored by this time, so we decided to head out.  I wanted to stay longer, but honestly, I wasn't getting enough to drink, and we were all listening to someone drone on and on about the history of the wine...so I guess I'm not all into the whole wine tasting idea after all.  I'll just get my own bottles and have my own wine tasting at my house!
We came home around 10 or so, we paid the sitter (my girls LOVE her by the way, and could not stop talking about how much they like the girls that come over to watch them), then Sierra starts in.  At first Paul and I just thought she was tired.  She tends to whine a lot when she's tired...I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, my foot hurts, my elbow hurts, my tummy hurts, blah blah blah...usually.  Last night though, she was saying her tummy hurt.  I figured it was just her wanting attention and being tired.  Paul thought so too.  We were both kind of brushing her off, we got ready for bed, Daddy went to get her some water, and I sat with her and talked to her a little to get her to go to sleep.  She was still complaining of her tummy hurting though, so I started lightly rubbing her tummy a little, and she coughed a little strangely...and I yelled, "GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!!!"  She made it just in time...whew!  Needless to say the poor baby was up almost every hour last night.  Two of our friends came over and hung out, and it was a little embarrassing to have to hear Sierra heaving in the bathroom.  They have a toddler, so they understand, but we didn't hang out long, obviously.
I went to bed shortly after they left, Sierra walked into my room around 3 am this morning, "Mommy??  I think I'm going to throw up...," again, I (this time exhaustingly) yelled, "go to the bathroom."  Actually it was probably more of whisper yell...yeah we'll go with that.  She again, made it just in time.  I held her hair back, rubbed her back, and tried to calm her down.  I got her back to bed around 3:30, at 4 the whole process started over, but I heard her this time, moaning in bed.  Finally it happened once more at 5 am.  Now when I woke up the first time, I did try to wake up Paul...he's just better with the gross stuff.  But he was in some other land because he didn't wake up for anything, but thats okay, because I was able to push past my own gag reflex and get through it.
She felt ill again this morning at 10, and hasn't been sick since.  Her color is back to normal, she doesn't look so green, she was hungry, so we started her on the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast), and she held all of it down.  She's also acting normal, telling on her sister, and wanting to wear a dress.  I've been very lucky, my girls rarely get sick like this.  The last time I can remember us having the flu, was when Autumn was an infant, and I only remember because I was the one who got the most of it.  Autumn was still breastfeeding, and didn't get really get the flu.  Sure there have been occassional throw ups, but not like this, where it was every few hours.  I'm not all that great with pukey things, I know, I know, I'm a Mom, but I'm really not good with things like that.  Bodily functions DO, in fact,  bug me.  I can deal with blood, I can deal with owies, but other things do bother me a lot of times.  It was only a few years ago that I was even able to take pills without gagging everytime I took one...yes its that bad.  But Last night was a revelation for me.  Maybe things like that don't bother me as much as it used to.  Maybe I'm getting used to being around puke.  I know I've cleaned it up a bunch of times...but usually with gloves, and a mask around my face...okay not the mask, but gloves are a must! 
I wasn't worried about the smell, or her convulsions, I wasn't worried whether she would get her puke in her hair, or on me.  I wasn't worried if she was going to get it all over the bathroom so I'd have to clean it up...I was worried about her.  I still managed to clean her up, helped her brush her teeth, and get her back into bed.  I guess this was just the first time I realized that it doesn't bother me like it used to, at least when I'm dealing with my kids.
I will always remember this night, not for the wine tasting, or the fun of being around friends,  not for having a night out sans kids, not for the other few things that happened that day.  I will remember this night because I figured out that I really am, a Mom, not that I didn't know it before, but sometimes you need a refresher.  Sometimes you just feel like the live in nanny/housekeeper/cook/and taxi driver.  Last night I really felt like a Mom.
I will also remember this night as the night that I fell in love with my husband all over again as well.  In the beginning of the night, he was dealing with Sierra while she was sick.  I remember going by the bathroom and just looking at them.  He was holding her from behind, as her little head was right near the toilet, she looked like she was about to pass out, he was brushing her hair back, and she was closing her eyes every time he brushed, he put her hair in a really bad pony tail, just so that her hair would be out of her face.  It was so sweet watching him brush her hair, so gently, and lovingly.  I don't think I'll ever get that picture out of my head.  It was one of those heart achingly sweet moments.  While I realized my worth last night, I also realized what a good Daddy Paul has turned into.  All of this wonderfulness coming from two party animal kids who met, and three months later were married.  Its amazing what happens in life sometimes.  I feel very lucky!

New meds...

I went back to the dr. for a follow up appointment, of course, I couldn't see the regular dr. but I had Paul come with me, so I feel like I have support to talk to someone a little better.  It worked, I felt more supported, and I was able to talk to the dr. a little more than usual.  So that was a great thing.  My billions of blood tests came back all good, so nothing is physically wrong with me that could be causing weight gain...it just must be baumholder, lol.  Anyway, I started a new medication, and its draining me, and making my head hurt, but it will take a week or so for me to get past all this.  The last two days I had dry mouth, but that has gone away a bit.  In case your'e wondering, its an antidepressant that I'm taking.  I'm not a down and out person all the time, but sometimes I need help.  I see military wives all the time taking things to help them get by, whether its anti-depressants, sleeping pills, or anti anxiety meds.  There is a lot going on in military life, and I also think that the weather over here doesn't help me at all.  I've tried wellbutrin, prozac and effexor.  The only one that has actually helped was the prozac...great I'm going to be a prozac person...I hate the stigma's.  Anyway, I've had some sort of depression since I was 14 years old, it wasn't so bad that I needed medication until more recently.  I get irritable, and down, and feel really unmotivated.  I want to feel better, and I am doing that.  Please don't judge me as a pill taking freak, because I'm not, but I do want to feel better, and be better able to handle the things thrown my way.  So there it is.  Yes, I take an antidepressant.  I'm not going to hide it, I know its kind of embarrassing sometimes to let it all out there, but I don't mind anymore.  If someone doesn't like me, its not because I take an antidepressant, and if it is, well then they aren't worth my time to begin with.
One of the other side affects, at least for me, is that I feel really tired.  Like I just want to sleep.  Then come bed time, I have trouble actually falling asleep, then I had some crazy dreams last night.  Hopefully this med will work better for me than the others.  Wellbutrin gave me horrible headaches, prozac worked, then kind of tapered off, I took more, and felt worse, so I stopped.  Effexor same thing happened, I felt better, then I felt worse, then I felt even worse, and then when I went off of it, I felt like someone was electrocuting my head, and pissing me off...it was bad, really bad.  I would never recommend quitting effexor cold turkey, again.  I didn't think it would be too bad because I was on a very low dose, but that didn't seem to help.  But thats okay, sometimes you have to try a wide range of candies to get to the one that will be the best...and thats the way it is with me.  I'm getting help, and I feel better, so thats what really matters right?

Fitting punishment??

*Warning, this post contains a lot of poo, poop, poopy, and crap*
This morning I woke up and needed to do some laundry.  I got it all together, put it in the washer, came upstairs, took Sierra to school and headed back down to switch it over.  As I'm coming back from the laundry room, I notice a bunch of commissary bags laying in the little alcove beneath the stairs.  The minute I saw those bags, I knew it was Autumn, my 7 year old.
We don't ask Autumn to do much around the house, keep her room clean, put her plate in the sink, put away her undies and socks when they come out of the dryer.  One thing we also ask her to do is to take out the dog.  We also have her pick up the poo as well.  Especially since our dog likes to go potty out front where other kiddos like to play.  Nobody likes poopy shoes!  So she is supposed to take the dog out when she gets home from school and pick up the poo if she goes.  So I knew it was her.  We have been asking Autumn recently if she's been going poo, because she was seeming to always come upstairs with the bag...she kept saying no that Lexi wasn't going.  Now how can a dog go 5+ days without going poo??  She was still eating, and still drinking water, so we know that Autumn wasn't a.) paying attention, or b.) not picking it up.  Well the last couple of days Lexi has gone poo a LOT.  Autumn went out twice yesterday with two bags each time, and I guess Lexi pooped 4 different times...wow, I guess it was building up from the last 5 times she didn't go.
Sigh...
At first we didn't think anything of it.  Until I saw all the bags, just thrown down the stairs.  I left them there, called my husband, let him know what was going on, and what I was going to do as punishment.  So this afternoon I picked up the girls, and as we were walking home, I told Autumn that she and I needed to have a talk.  She asked why, and I told her what was going on, and that we didn't appreciate it.  I also told her what her punishment was going to be.  We came home, we looked down the stairs, and all of the bags were GONE!  Vanished!  I don't know what happened to them, I really wanted to leave them there only for the reason that I wanted Autumn to pick up every single one of them.  Her punishment was going to be to go outside and with each of those bags, she had to find other people's dog poo, and pick it up.  Since the bags weren't there, I guesstimated, that there were about 10 bags, we grabbed 10 from the house and we both went outside.  I let the dog walk around while we searched for poo.  Let me tell you, it really isn't easy finding poop in the snow.  Unless the dog has just gone, the snow usually covers it up.  So we walked around for a little while, then we walked another way, finally we found some poop for her to pick (oh and the dog pooped once too).  She picked it all up, and threw it away and came back for more.  When all 10 bags were gone, we were able to come inside.
Now I don't know if thats the greatest punishment in the world.  I do believe the punishment should fit the crime, and I don't think what she did was sooo horrible.  I would like it if she picked up the crap, but there are also adults around here that don't, not that I'm making excuses.  I also hate it when she doesn't pick it up, because I've stepped in the poop before too!  Its not fun, its gross, and then it gets in your house sometimes, ohhh and that smell..YUCK!
I hope she has learned her lesson.  Its only over here that she'll have to do this.  When we get our own place in the states, she'll go out every day after school, not to take the dog out (because we will have a yard), but to pick up the poo for the day.  Its one of those chores that really stinks..ha ha, literally, but will give her some sense of responsibility.  With her issues and not paying attention, she needs some sort of consistency in her life.  Personally, I think most kids should have chores, at least to give them a sense of helping around the house.  Even my 5 year old has chores that she does.
So is this a fitting punishment, or was I too hard on her?  Should I try something different next time?  What do you think?  I'd love to know!

Four day weekend...

Well, our Poland trip didn't go through.  We did manage to get up super early on Friday morning, we made it out to the autobahn...we even drove almost all the way to Ramstein (usually a 20 min drive)...then I decided that I was too darn scared to drive in those conditions and we turned back.  It was snowing like CRAZY.  The roads were really bad, I couldn't drive as fast as I wanted to.  Of course, we could have made it eventually, but I didn't want to risk dying...plus I was holding onto the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles were white and starting to cramp.

Seriously though, the normal 20 minute trip, there and 20 min. back turning into an hour and a half.  We left at 5 and didn't get back until 6:30.  I'm glad we came back though, it just wasn't the right time for us to go. 
My husband got a phone call from the radio station...he had entered a giveaway for a new phone, and he WON!  So we had to pick it up, he also had to talk to someone who was supposed to approve his paperwork for his time at BNCOC (basic non-commissioned officer course), I guess now its being called ALC(advanced leader course)...why they constantly change the names of things like that is beyond me!  Luckily we were home for that because he needed numbers from his paperwork.  So it was actually a good thing that we stayed home.  We even went up to the mall and hung out for a little while.

I'm still desperate to get back to Poland...helllooooo, I want more pottery.  Plus, we are leaving in 4 1/2 months...at least, I'm hoping we are leaving that soon.  I won't get this opportunity again.  Paul has his graf training coming up mid March-May, so we are trying to squeeze in as much as we can.  Biggest problem though, is that his 4 day weekends are few and far between sometimes.  I was really hoping that we would get to Poland this weekend so that we could use another weekend for something else.  I'm getting really sick of all the snow, and now that its preventing me from doing things I'd really like to do...its getting even more tiring.  I really thought that maybe we were past the snow, especially since last weekend it was all melting...then this whole week and weekend its been snowing almost nonstop.  We will still be going to Poland, I'm just not sure when, now...  =(

In other news, because it snowed so much, we basically hunkered down inside the house the WHOLE weekend.  We rented a bunch of movies though.  I finally got to see Star Trek, and Inglorious Basterds (fantastic movies), then the next day we watched Changling (which was a great movie too, but depressing), and 500 days of summer (a cute movie).  Last night we watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (I thought it was really funny, and very cute), and today sometime, we are supposed to watch All About Steve..so lots of movies, and lots of inside time!  I love watching movies, I love doing things with my family, but I really want to get out of this town for a bit.  But its been a lot of fun.  I get to sip on my wine, and watch movies in the evening with my husband, and overall its been a great relaxing weekend.

So this week I'm going back to the gym again.  Snow, rain, or sun, I will be going to the gym on Wednesday (tomorrow I have a dr. appt).  That also means that Wednesday I'm going to weigh myself again...I haven't weighed myself in about a month, because I was really being affected by my constant flucuations and I wanted to stay away from it.  So I'll weigh myself on Wednesday, and keep a tally from there.  I'm going back to the gym, and we are going to start eating better again too.  I love eating out of the money saving meals cookbook, but my waistline really hasn't.  So things are going to have to change.  I can lose some weight before we head back to Texas, and I really need to.  My weight issue has been bringing me down lately, and I don't like being down.

Oh, I forgot about Valentines Day!  It was a fun day, Paul and I exchanged gifts, I got him a beer mug with an H initial inscribed on it.  He loves beer, German beer to be exact, and its a stein, and its personalized...and it was under $30, so it was perfect.  He got me a wii fit plus and some wrist weights...he knows I've been wanting that new video game, and I'm so excited to try it.  He also made me breakfast, lunch, and dinner yesterday.  He's so sweet!  Then he insisted that we rent romantic comedies instead of any action movies, and he drank wine with me last night too.  My husband is a very rare wine drinker.  All in all, it was a great day.  Oh, and I can't forget the most exciting thing of the night...the fire alarm in our building went off about midnight last night...it was rather annoying to say the least, but it was kind of fun going outside with all of our neighbors and laughing it off.  No worries, there were no fires.  Probably just faulty wiring, but it was still kind of fun, even if it was very very inconvenient.

Well, I think I'm going to go watch that movie now!

Rice Krispie Treat Hearts

In preparation for valentines day, I helped the girls make the cute little valentines, and I also made some rice krispie treat hearts for Sierra's preschool.  I enjoy making things, and I also enjoy feeling appreciated.  I know the kids love things like this, so I went ahead and made them.  I know, I'm just making more work for myself, but I don't mind in the least!

So I started with two bags of marshmallows, and some butter, threw it in the pot on low until the marshmallows were melting...

Not quite yet!

A little better

Much better!

Add a few drops of red food coloring...

So pretty and pink!

Now add a whole 12 oz box of rice krispie cereal to the pink marshmallows.

Next, you'll want to mix it all up really well, and transfer it to the very greased baking pan...

Make sure you grease your fingers too, so its easier to press it all down!

Now take your favorite heart shaped cookie cutter, and start your cutting!

Last but not least, let your hearts air out for about a half hour, then put into little plastic bags, and tie off with some yarn or ribbon!

You now have a perfect little valentines gift for kiddos...or adults!  =)

Happy Valentines Day!

Whining...

I just feel like whining today, my kids do it, why can't I??  Again, I had great intentions this morning, I even got ready for the gym, yet again.  It started snowing, and as you know I got into an accident at the first of the year, when there was not much snow on the ground, just a patch of ice that I slide off the road with.  Fun right?  No.  So now I have this fear of driving in the snow.  It was snowing this morning, and of course, I'm too afraid of getting in yet another accident, that I didn't feel I could go to the gym, yet again this morning.  I walked my daughter to school, and have been home for about a half hour, and it stopped snowing, the sun is out a little too.  I'd love to get to the gym, but now I feel like its too late.  I like to get to the gym early, literally, right after I drop off Sierra.  Plus I already ingested a rice krispie treat...yes, I said that right.  Hey its sort of cereal, lol.  I didn't eat anything else for breakfast.  Maybe some fruit later.  And it was a small one, in the shape of a heart...awww!  (I'll post pics later).  I'm really sick of not being able to go to the gym though, I haven't gone since we got back from the states.  Part of that was just me being down about being back.  Another part had to do with the exorbitant amount of snow we were getting.  Finally last week the snow started to subside, by the weekend, I was ready to drive again.  But I don't usually go to the gym on the weekends, the gym here isn't open, at least the one I like isn't.  The other one smells funny, so I tend not to go there.  Soo, onto Monday, well I had the kids, they didn't have school.  Tuesday, I hurt my back...which is still a little sore, but doesn't hurt quite as much, and then the snow again.  Sure I could go now, but I'm making excuses and I really do have to get ready for the school's Sweet Strategies for success thing going on.  Tomorrow won't be happening probably either.  I'm supposed to sell things with my friend Lauren for the FRG.  Sigh...Friday is out too, we are going to Poland, to pick up some more Polish Pottery.  Hopefully, next Monday I can start again?  I feel like I should be putting forth more effort, but I'm definately a workout in the morning girl.  And I really really wish I had a treadmill in the house.  My videos are great (I have tons of workout videos), but I don't have enough room in the house now that we have our recliners.  This house is very small.  I honestly and truly cannot wait to get back to the states.  I feel like, things will be easier once we are there and settled.
I'm not the type of girl that hates working out.  I'm not the type of person who doesn't ever want to exercise.  I love exercising, I love the feeling I get right after a great workout.  So I'm not the type of person to make excuses.  I exercised just about every day when Paul was deployed.  I once exercised 4-6 hours a day, so its never been about the exercise.  I love it.  Everything about it.  And I know I want to do it to relieve stress too.  So why am I not trying harder?  I know I could find time somewhere in my day.  After the kids come home from school (they only go to school from 9-2, not a whole lot of time without the kids), after lunch, after my husband comes home from work.  None of that is convenient to me though.  I wish I could workout around 7 in the morning.  So thats another reason I want to get back to the states.  Paul has promised me, we could build my workout room when we get back and get settled.  First thing on my list is a treadmill.  I also want a bicycle (a real one, they have so many bike trails, and a stationary one), I want to be able to get back to the pool to swim.  I want to do so many different things, and I feel lost right now.  I feel down, and out, and like there is no point to me even trying while we are still over here.  I think that is preventing me from going ahead to the gym.  I just hope I can push through this and get my butt to the gym.  I've been gaining weight, and it needs to stop, but thats what I do when I'm down.  I eat.  I also eat when I'm stressed and bored.  Its a wonder I'm not 3,000 lbs!
I have another goal, I'd like to get back to the gym.  Starting next week, I want to go back to the gym, I want to ride on the bike for 26 miles for the week.  I want to walk at least 10 miles next week.  Those are my goals.  I'll do it, I just need to get back to the gym, with goals in mind, I will.
So, if you read this far, thank you for letting me whine!  I really do feel better now that its all off of my chest!

Every good intention...

Of course, I woke up this morning with every good intention of going to the gym.

Of course, I wanted to get all dressed up into my gym clothes, and grab my book and ipod, and go ride on the bike.

I got my kids ready for school, I fed them their breakfast, I looked around online.

Just before I was supposed to take Sierra to school, I got out of my chair, and did something to my back, or side, or backside.

I walked around, I tried to stretch it out...ohhhh it hurts.  I don't know what I did.

Paul thinks I may have pinched a nerve.

Why does it seem that I have all these great intentions, and then life gets in my way...

Stress will do that to a person.

Just sayin'!

Things to do before we move...

We are moving in 5 months!  I can't believe it, I'm so happy, and a little bit sad at the same time.  Happy to be back in the states, sad to leave the great friends I've made here.  But that means that we...or Paul has a LOT of things to do before we leave.  Especially since he's leaving for Graf in March and not coming home until May...joy.  We are trying to squeeze in as much as we can before he has to leave.  As of right now, he has about a month before he leaves, so we are doing what can be done on our end.  This week we are going to go to the ACS Smooth Moves class, and  check that out.  We are also going to be working on things around the house to get done.  Me personally, I've gone through the girls rooms, gotten rid of toys, no more birthdays for a while, so that means no more extra toys for a while.  I'm sure as it gets closer, I'll go through their toys again.  I did just go through all of their clothes too, got rid of a bunch!  I went through all of the girls books last night too, so now I have a pile of books to get rid of.  I also went through all of my clothes, and my bedroom things.  Now I guess I'm going to have to start working on the things in our living/dining/kitchen area.  I've been working on the cupboards for a while now.  I'm trying to get it to the point where we only have what we are eating in the cupboards and nothing more.  Sometimes I buy things for a recipe, we don't end up making said recipe, and bam...we have all of this extra stuff in the cupboards.  So I'm in the process of working on that one.
All in all, it keeps me busy to go through all of these little things.  I definately need to go through our board games, books, kitchen things, and then move onto the storage areas soon.  Seems like a lot, but its really not too bad.
Not only all of this, but Paul and I really want to visit some more places before we head out of Germany for good.  We are planning a trip to Poland again next weekend, so I can get more in my collection.  The last time I went, lets just say, Paul really should have been there.  I swear I could have started a store with everything I bought.  Paul is the one I go to when I need to ask if I should buy it, I may like it a lot, but it doesn't mean we need it, so he's my go to guy for that stuff.
I've also emailed a realtor in Fort Hood.  We are going to have to do some major looking around before we buy another house.  Its definately something we want to do again.  We bought our first house in Fort Carson, and we really enjoyed it.  Then we got orders for Germany and voila, we sold our first house.  I didn't know what to expect if we were to rent it, so I didn't want to try.  This time, after we buy in Fort Hood, we are planning on renting it out.  So we are looking for something that we can both live with for the next few years, but that is also easily rentable.

I'm really excited about our impending move.  I'm also a little overwhelmed with everything too though.  I really wish we weren't moving in July, and we were moving sometime in May, as it stands we will have to ship our dog and cat off before we leave it looks like.  Another hassle of military life, the Army doesn't consider pets family, so they don't care whether you can take your animals with you or not, nice huh?  I wish we were moving in mid May, it would make things so much easier.  Plus in July, its going to be difficult because the girls will be unable to start school until we have housing, so that means they may end up starting later in the year.  I really wish things were more simple in the army, but its the army.
We are going to attempt to get out of here earlier, we are going to submit a request form, the worst they can say is no.  I have a few things up my sleeve that we could possibly get out of here a little early, but its all on who is the person in charge.  I'll definately let you know whats going on in that department.  For now, I'm sorry for my random rambling, just have to get it out there sometimes!

Budgeting?

Wow, so I just went through my checkbook for January.  I have a few goals that I need to work on apparently.  MONEY being the first and foremost, hence the checkbook thing.  I came across another blog not too long ago, where someone was saying exactly how much they were spending on certain things.  So I broke down my checkbook and was absolutely SHOCKED!  First with how much we spend at the commissary.  Please keep in mind that we don't have Walmarts, or Targets, or coupon Sunday papers, or anything like that over here, so I guess its not as bad as it could be, but a whopping almost $700.00 is definately excessive to me.  I know I like to cook, but sheesh, I didn't realize we were spending so much on groceries.  My first goal:  To Lower my Grocery Bill.
Next I went onto gas...now granted, I'm sure there are a few entries that I just wrote PX when it was really gas, but I didn't and don't know, so I added those to our misc. funds, and found that we supposedly only spent about 100.00 on gas.  I'm going to have to check more thoroughly and figure out the gas for this month a little better later.
Bills are a given, I'm not going to not pay them, and we really don't have that many bills that I have to pay, most just come out of his check automatically.  Insurance is one of the bills I pay, msn, penn foster, and our water service, culligan.  I'm not going to be changing those things anytime soon.
Then we moved onto eating out.  I know that we had literally just come home from Texas and had no food, and we were also feeling very very jet lagged, so this can account for some of the spending on eating out, and the grocery list as well, but not all of it.  Our eating out bill was about $240.00.  So my second budgeting goal for 2010 is: To either not eat out as much, or to eat cheaper!  (I'm realistic, I know there are times that we are going to want to eat out.  But spending 20+ on Taco Bell, is not good.  Especially when there are cheaper options.  The girls always eat from the value menu, although that particular visit Paul let them get a happy meal thing...he didn't know.  I eat from the value menu, so we should have a lower bill next time.  We also really enjoy going to Popeyes, well that costs us an arm and a leg, about $35 for a meal that feeds us four, as well as lunch the next day.  But we don't really need to be spending that much money.  If we want Popeyes, we need to just order a smaller, cheaper meal.  I'd like to cut down on that bill by about 100 dollars.  That would be ideal for me.
Misc purchases, who honestly knows what these purchases were, a lot of them just say PX in them, but they do suspiciously look as if they could be gas.  Some just say shoppette.  Some just say aafes.  I honestly don't know.  But I do know that I wrapped up all of the misc purchases, along with all of the money withdrawals, euros and cash, all of my online purchases, ect.  Needless to say this amount was very high, and I felt my stomach drop.  So I'd like to keep better track of where our money is going, and on what.  I like to write in my checkbook if its a gas transaction, or if its just us going to the shoppette.  The problem is that when we are over here, nothing is itemized, almost everything comes up on my online account as aafes.  So it won't be easy, but I'm working on it.  I would like to drastically make this amount shrink, but I'm not going to really post it because I don't feel its an accurate rating of our misc purchases.
Online purchases, I included in the misc, but decided to go back over my checkbook, just to see whats going on in there!  The good news is that my misc purchases went way down, the bad news is that I spent way too much online the month of January.  One of the things I have to realize, is that we don't have shopping here, like we do in the states, so this is all clothes, and extras, that we probably don't really need, but I buy anyways.  I get great deals...but it all adds up.  Itunes, gymbo, old navy, ect...sooo my goal for this section, is to definately reduce this.  I will allot myself $100.00 per paycheck to spend online, if I need to.  But no more than that.  It shouldn't be more than that.  I find it somewhat naseating that it was much more than that.  So those are my goals, and even though we are week into February, I can already see that my plans, are NOT working for this paycheck.  I will impliment my new goals next paycheck though definately and start from there.

Metz, France

 Today was so much fun.  Paul ended up not having to pull guard, so at the last minute, I decided, since we haven't been anywhere the last month and a half...that I wanted to go somewhere.  I've been wanting to check out Metz for a while now, ever since one of my friends told me about it...about 2 1/2 years ago, lol.  We just never had a chance to go.  So this morning, I got up, jumped on Paul and said, lets go to Metz...he looked at me like I was crazy, so I got up and got ready, got the kids ready.  Then he finally decided that sleep wasn't going to happen for him and he got ready too.  So we grabbed some breakfast, got some gas, and euros, and headed out.  We got to Metz around 11, and were just checking everything out.  First we went to go see the cathedral that was there.  Its beautiful, and I have to say, I love my camera!  I've never had a camera take such great pictures indoors!

Since we were in France we couldn't help to hit up some of the pastry shops...awesome!

Those girls are totally drooling!

Now I'm drooling!

Creepy Twlight Zone alley...queue creepy music now!

I told them to look like they loved each other...ha ha, fooled you Mom!  =)

Fishies!  Okay really thats just some shrimps and snails...ewww snails?  Yes, thats escargo, have you tried it?  No.  How do you know its ewww then?  I don't know, it just sounds ewww!

(conversations with kids)

(PS I have actually had escargo, a long long time ago when I was visiting my French foreign exchange student, her mom made us escargo...it was really yummy, the taste, the texture, and the thought, was just not really for me)

Okay, here I got salivating again!  I told Paul to look at these, and told him to buy me one, he said...oh now you can tell all your friends that your sweet husband bought you a choclate heart with chocolates inside from France and everyone will think I'm great. (me = eye roll)  Seriously though, he didn't see them, I did have to point them out, otherwise, he probably would have bought one for me anyways!  He's so sweet, lol.

Fresh veggies and fruits, and if you've ever been to a commissary in Germany, you know how amazing these fruits and veggies look!

Take me to the Opera!  I actually just thought it looked really pretty, snap!

I'm soo glad I timed this correctly...ha ha, actually I got really lucky, but I love how the rays are bouncing off of the church!

All in all it was a great, fun day.  We finally got to get out of the house, out of Btown, and check out one of the many things on my to-do list before we leave good ole Germany.  I'm glad I was lucky enough to be able to visit such an amazing and beautiful city!

Blizzard Bloghop...

Okay, so my friend, and neighbor Ann over at: http://www.household6diva.com/ is hosting something called a Blizzard Bloghop...I'm VERY new to this whole blogging thing.  Sure I know how to write about my day to day life...or just what I eat, but I am still a little confused sometimes.  But I am TRYING!  =)

So I'm supposed to make my introductions here!

Hi everyone, my name is Stephanie, and I'm new to this whole blogging thing!

Right now I'm living at a US military base in Germany, but we will be leaving here to head to Fort Hood in July, and I couldn't be more excited!

My husband and I met when I was 18 years old.  We actually met online, we dated for 3 months, and we were married.  Its hard to believe that in 3 months time you can find that perfect someone for you.  But I did, and we are literally perfect for each other!

We have two amazingly beautiful daughters, Autumn and Sierra, and two animals, Lexi (the dog) and Brody (the cat)!

My husband is an active duty soldier, he's been deployed 3x, he's been on a Korea tour, numerous schools, and all kinds of different little things along the way...so I'm used to the army life, sort of.  Still, its always great to see him again!

Thanks for dropping by!

Veggie Pizza

When I pulled this pizza out of the oven, I thought...oh no, recipe fail.  But since I made it, and it was supposed to be my lunch, I needed to eat it.  I thought that it was going to be all soggy...but it actually turned out really good.  Soo...I did take pictures, because I was going to write all about the failed recipe..and since it actually turned out, I'll post the recipe too.  I will warn you though, because of all the veggetables in it, its a little harder to cut, if you have small pizza cutter, I strongly suggest you get a larger one.  I use the one that Pampered Chef sells, its large, and gets the job done perfectly.  Just make sure you have a big enough pizza cutter.  Also, be forewarned if you do make this recipe, when it comes out of the oven, with all the vegetables, it looks very...moist.  I really and honestly thought it was going to be a soggy pizza, but it really did surprise me, maybe its because of the bisquick.  Either way, here it is:

Very Veggie Pizza Pie

1 pckg (8 oz) sliced mushrooms (3 cups)

1 small zucchini, sliced

1 medium bell pepper, sliced

1 garlic clove, minced (I used two, because of my garlic fetish)

2 cups bisquick heart smart mix

1/4 cup process cheese sauce or spread (room temp.) (I used some cheese sauce for spaghetti that I found with the spaghetti sauce jars)

1/4 cup very hot water

1/2 cup pizza sauce

3/4 cup shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese

(I also added some turkey pepperoni onto this pizza, it really added a boost to the recipe)

Heat oven to 375, spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Heat a skillet over medium-high.  Add mushrooms, zucchini, bell pepper, and garlic and stir about 5 minutes, until veggies are crisp-tender.

Mix bisquick, cheese sauce, and hot water until dough forms.  Roll into ball; knead about 5 times.  Roll or pat dough into about a 14 in circle on cookie sheet.  Spread pizza sauce within 3 in of edge.  Top with veggies, pepperoni, sprinkle with cheese, fold edges of dough over mixture slightly.

Bake 23-25 min. until golden!

Like I said, this was a great recipe, and I was pleasantly suprised.  It was also out of my Money Saving Meals cookbook, here is the cookbook I've been using lately:

If you try this recipe, be sure to comment and tell me about it, and how it turned out for you!

Lens or no lens??

My husband and I were talking the other day.  He asked what I wanted for my birthday, sure a few things ran through my mind.  But he divulged what he was thinking about getting me to make sure he got the right thing...a lens.  I have a Nikon D60 camera (its about the best I could get over here).  I'm not exactly sure if I'm going to stay with this camera, I might end up selling it and buying a different one later.  So I'm really not entirely sure that I want another lens.  Plus, I just don't really know if I'm a lens type of girl.  In other words, I'm not sure I'm going to want to say..."oohhh, let me grab my other lens, for this shot right now."  I'm a total and complete amateur picture taker.  I don't even call myself a photographer.  I love to take pictures of things, but its all very very personal.  Sure there are some things that I've taken really great pictures of, but for the most part, its just a little hobby of mine.  Should I take it to the next level though?  A lens is about 200 dollars.  Yes, I would like more zoom on my dslr camera, but I also have a regular digital that gets 24x zoom and still takes good pictures (not as great as my dslr, but good).  I haven't even read my Nikon D60 for dummies book yet.  I mean I did just get the camera right before Christmas.  Besides, I'm not entirely sure I want to stay with Nikon, when I do want to upgrade camera's.  Don't get me wrong, the d60 is a great camera, but I know I'll eventually want to upgrade to something a little better.  So I don't know what I'd like to do, right now, but I thought I'd put my thinking process out there and see if I could figure it out.  I think I'm going to tell my honey to hold off on the lens.  I'd love to try a different lens with my camera, but I guess right now I'm happy...then again...maybe I'd be even happier with a new lens??  Hmmm....

A huge giveaway!

A daisy in a rose garden is having a huge baby bash!  Go check it out, if you enter, please refer to me to get another entry!

Love it!

Living in Germany definately has its downs...not very much shopping is a HUGE one for me.  Especially when I'm the type of person that makes a beeline straight for the clearance isle of every store I go to.  How I miss Walmart, and Target.  Every now and then though, I come across a really great deal, and even with shipping, it ends up being too good to pass up.  I love buying the kids clothes at decent places i.e. Gymbo, Childrens Place, Crazy8, ON.  Sometimes, I see these cute little outfits, and I literally feel my heart squeeze.  Especially because I feel that it would be entirely too cute on one of my kiddos for them not to get.
I do hand me downs with the girls.  Autumn wears size 6/7, Sierra is in 5/6, so it works out pretty perfectly.  Though, Autumn is more into sporty wear, she likes wearing jeans and a tshirt, Sierra likes wearing dresses and tights, and skirts.  Crazy kids.  Sooo...when it comes down to it, sometimes I can't do the handmedowns, Sierra literally sometimes refuses to wear pants.  Yesterday, I talked her into wearing jeans for the first time in two months!  TWO MONTHS!  But I do really enjoy her being all cutsie and dressing up in pretty little dresses too, I won't deny it.  I love it!  Me personally, I'm a jeans and tshirt kind of girl.  I don't mind a decent dress every now and then, but I'm not a huge fan of wearing one too often.  I think the last time I wore a dress was for the bcsc dinner in November.  So yeah...special occassions type of person.  Or if I go to church.  I'm big on dresses in church...I'm not entirely sure why.
So I checked the mail on Tuesday, and got two packages, one was from Gymbo, and the other from Old Navy.  Both of which I got pretty good deals at.  I had 15% off my whole purchase at Old Navy, and I had a gymbucks coupon for 25 off $50.  I did get some cute clothes at Old Navy, but they were all for me.
So, I opened my package from Gymbo and felt that familiar heart squeeze!  I bought the girls two little valentines looking bracelets this year (I'd rather get my girls something other than candy for vday).  They are these cute little chunky bracelets, and I really think they will enjoy them.  I also got this absolutely adorable short sleeve dress, with footless tights for Sierra.  I want her to wear this dress very often if possible.  Its sooo darn cute!

She looks so cute in brown!

Fun with Photos!

Yesterday morning...it started snowing

It didn't stop until last night sometime...the roads were covered completely

But this morning we woke up to almost cleared roads (it started raining and hiding all of the ice)

On one hand, I'm happy that the snow was starting to finally melt and we could see the roads again...on the other hand, driving in icy slush isn't much better than snow!

I went through the girls clothes last Friday, and came across some dresses that were too small...

Yes, this fit my youngest daughter about a month ago, and yes, it was bought as a dress.  Now my oldest daughter loved it as a shirt!  I love having girls!!!

Finally, I must not forget my promise of a post past....here is the horror (that should have never been)!  But hey, they tasted really great, and in the end, the looks aren't what matters...

At least my Polish Pottery is very pretty...AND speaking of which, I want to go back to Poland for my birthday, I wonder if I can talk Paul into it?

What a busy day...

Today started off like any other Monday, making sure Autumn got ready for school, sending Autumn to school, waking up Sierra to get her ready for school, 5 minutes later feeding her breakfast, then...it happened.

and more of this...

It was coming down so much that you literally couldn't see the roads in front of our house

THIS is what made me decide to call the school and say...ummm...my youngest daughter isn't coming to school today...IS SHE SICK?.....No, I'm just not going to walk her to school in this, and I'm not going to risk driving my car up the hill in this...OH OKAY.

So that was that, Sierra got to stay home from school today, Autumn would have too, if she didn't have to leave almost an hour before her little sister everyday.

So we made our own snowday at the house.  She took a bath while I did a walk workout...very very minor workout, it was like walking one little ol' mile, but hey it was something.  Then I helped her out of the bath, and we painted her fingernails.  Then she helped me made some chicken fruit salad for lunch.  After that we decided to start on her crafts for valentines day.  This year I decided to do something different for the kids.  I don't want to just buy those cheap little flimsy papers that say something funny on them, we are going to make them all by hand instead.  We've already had a test run, and all of them are fairly easy to make.  Today we just expanded on them.  I got them from http://familyfun.go.com/  It has a lot of fun and cute ideas.

This one is for the girls teachers:

We did manage a few others, but then I got really crafty.  My friend Lauren just got snagged as the FRG leader for our company.  Its a long story, so I'll just say that I offered to help her in any way that I can.  So, I was going to START on a few crafts so that we'd have less to do for tomorrow...BUT I ended up doing the whole thing.  I had the items I needed, and it all came together, very nicely.  I even got Paul to help me (he hates crafts, says they are excruciating to him, but he loves me, so he helped) so I wouldn't be up until midnight...not that we aren't getting close, but still....

First, I did the little football centerpiece craft, it took me two hours to do, and I did it a little differently, but I managed it, and if you want to try one, here is the website:  http://crafts.kaboose.com/game-day-football-centerpiece.html

Paul and I came up with this little one on our own, just a cutsie little football field!

Oh and please please please keep in mind that I am not a huge fan of football.  I like a good game now and then, and if Paul were more into it, I might be too, but he isn't, so I'm not forced to watch the games usually.  But the crafts were fun to do.  I also tried attempted failed miserably at making these little football things that bakerella makes:  http://www.bakerella.com/super-bowl-funday/

I truly have no clue how she got hers soooo awesome looking.  But I tried them, I didn't take pictures yet, but you'll see when I post them later when I finish them all, how utterly horrible they turned out for me.  I'm embarrased to post them, but I will.  I just have to go buy some more icing to finish the others.  They could probably go into cakewrecks as little poo's or something, ha ha!  Overall, it was a fun day, but I must be getting myself to bed, I have another busy day ahead of me tomorrow!