Dog hair? That's just extra protein...

Today = not a great day.

This morning started out alright as I made a visit to a couple of our outlying clinics to deliver their hand sanitizers and first aid kits myself. I don't think I show up out there enough and I want them to always know I'm here if they need me. It was good to get out there.

Then it went downhill.

I know it's going to sound funny. But at the time it was the end of the world.

Someone, who claims to be my friend, today claimed they found a dog hair in one of the brownies I made for everyone.

I know, I know. But the way it was presented to me just really threw me off. Now, don't go thinking I was just crying over a brownie or a dog hair and try to have me committed to a mental hospital or something. I have had lots of stressors and negative feelings that I just let build up inside me, and when one little thing tips me over the edge - BAM! - waterworks behind closed doors in my office for an hour.

Just when I thought my baking-therapy was working, it goes and screws me up.

Seriously though, it wasn't just the brownie. It was just great timing on their part.

Then it got worse. I got bad news from my doctor today. BAM. Hit me when I'm down! It's like deep inside I knew I was going to hear bad news, so I was already prepared with most of my tears out of the way. Maybe I'll think of it that way. Nah. I definitely had some tears left when I heard that news.

Somehow I managed to make it to almost 5 o'clock and hide out in my office most of the afternoon without too many people seeing me. Luckily I brought my glasses to work so I was able to make the switcheroo with the contacts and hide my huge puffy eyes behind my glasses. Darn allergies...heh... yeah... that's what I planned on telling people.

I got home, yelled at the dogs, Skyped with Carl and told him all about it, then talked to my mom for a while and told her all about it. I've been watching some Reba to try and cheer up a little and all of that seems to have lightened the mood for me for right now.

I have an early morning report tomorrow though so I will be going to bed early to try to sleep the rest of this day away.

My dad used to tell me to never wish any days away because they're all a gift from God (I wonder if he remembers that he told me that?). I really do try to remember that and remind myself of that even when I'm having a bad day. And I can report that it sort of worked today even. Just food for thought.

But not brownies.

One other thing that I forgot to talk about last night was my awesome conversation with my grandma Ger. We talked on the phone for almost an hour last night and it was very special. We were cracking up laughing at times and reminiscing at others. I've been a little down lately because I put up a display in my office recently that I really wish my other grandma (Grandma Mar) could see. It's her brother's picture and his Purple Heart that he was awarded. He was killed in World War II. I am proudly displaying his courage in my office and have gotten many many comments on it. Anyway, that's just something I've had on my mind. I am sure she likes the display from up in Heaven.

Well, back to Reba for a couple more episodes and then hopefully on to sleep for me. Thanks for reading.

I love getting mail

Today I actually had someone comment on the fact that I didn't blog yesterday. How cool is that?! I know my material that I write about is riveting, but I had no idea I had such a captive audience! ha! :)

So I explained to Jen, as I will now to the rest of you three loyal readers, that my day yesterday basically consisted of the following: woke up, went to church, dropped books off at the library, shopped at the commissary, went home, watched Reba, took a nap, woke up to make dinner, watched more Reba, talked to Carl, talked to my mom, watched Reba, went to bed.

Yep. Exciting, eh?

Today was a bit more exciting as I had a full, busy day at work. Since Friday was mostly occupied completely by O-Day, I had a lot of catching up to do today. I was very successful and productive and quite proud of myself when I left a little after 5 tonight for accomplishing so much.

I got two packages in the mail today, too - one was my most recent NutsOnline.com order (some stuff for me, some for Carl). Hello, cinnamon-roasted almonds, dried strawberries and banana chips! This time they even sent me an extra sampler package of their dried berry mix. I like to think it's because I have now proven my loyalty to their company and products.

Ok, maybe "obsession" is a better word...

Anyway, the other package was my super awesome new Vikings gear for football season! whoo-hoo! Welcome to my house, new Brett Favre t-shirt, super cute Vikings sweatpants and super-duper cute Vikings "fanband" (headband).

I have to say, football season sure does bring out the best and worst in people. I remember last year toward the end of the season having quite the conversations with passionate co-workers about "my team's better than yours..."

Ok, so the wording wasn't quite that pleasant, but this is a family blog.

Today I already had several co-workers (and one deputy) comment on my Vikings stuff. And say some not-so-nice stuff.... but whatever, it'll all play out on the field over the next few months. I have confidence in the Purple People Eaters!

Oh yeah, and Chelsey, don't worry, I won't be wearing my Vikings stuff on "Wear Trash to Work Friday." No, dear friend, that's when I'll be wearing the Cowboys gear....

HA! :)

Thanks for reading!

Saturday afternoon naps are the best

Today I worked at our community's organizational fair - it's this big hoopla event where all the local organizations and clubs set up a booth and try to recruit new members, and community organizations can set up a booth and hand out information.

It was a fun event overall but I am quite exhausted! It felt like a full workday crammed into about 5 hours of talking to people, handing out first aid kits and hand sanitizers, and answering random questions about healthcare while living in Europe.

Our commander was a trooper as she had been up at 3 this morning to cheer on our Soldiers beginning the Best Warrior competition, and plans to go back out tonight at 3 again when they finish up their ruck march and do combatives. I felt bad every time I yawned in front of her! She did great though and I actually got a couple compliments on the fact that our unit had our commander present.

Her husband also convinced me to join the Community Spouses' Club... he said he got extra raffle tickets if I joined and listed him as my referral. Too funny :) So, we'll see how involved I end up getting in that. I have heard they do a lot of good things so it may be a good thing after all to help keep me occupied while Carl's away.

After the festival, I stopped by the library and... cha-ching! They had Reba season two! Yes!! I snatched it up and headed home to relax on the couch the rest of the day.

And guess what. That's precisely what I've done. Carl Skyped me earlier at about 6 p.m. and I was sound asleep on the couch. Oops. I am not kidding - these past couple weeks have been quite exhausting! It was nice to have a little nap. So I got up, tried to type/talk to him, and then watched some more Reba. Dinner? Check - a bowl of cereal. Awesome.

Thanks for reading!

Organizational Day at work

Two days in a row my alarm hasn't gone off in the morning. Luckily my internal alarm clock has woken me up around 0700-- a little late but still early enough to make it to work almost on time.

Today at work was our Organizational Day - supposed to be a fun afternoon to celebrate good friends, good food and have a little fun instead of slaving away like normal.

The morning started out kind of cloudy and gray and sure enough the rain moved in quickly. Apparently there was a pretty bad storm last night and it was still thinking about showing its face today.

It was off-and-on rain for most of the morning. The serving line for food was supposed to start at noon. I picked Leslie up about 10:30 and sure enough at noon it was raining. Oh well. We moved all the food inside to our dining facility and everyone crammed in there. I was a little sad because even though I was on the O-Day committee and the plan was for veggie burgers to be on the menu - of course, when I went through the line, they had not made any veggie burgers.

Bring on the one scoop of potato salad and bag of Doritos for my lunch. Ugh.

A couple hours later the rain let up, the sun came out and the humidity skyrocketed! So everyone moved outside to get ready for the games. Our commander's time capsule portion seemed to go well and I even had a lady afterward come up and ask if she could look at one of the items from the 80s because she worked here then. Hopefully we will get the display set up soon and people will contribute more items.

It was fun having Leslie out there. She was a real trooper and won the one and only Sumo wrestling match in the Sumo Suits, then pied her old soccer coach in the face and willingly took a pie to her own face! Way to go Leslie.

I stayed safely with camera-in-hand the entire time and used that as an excuse when people tried to put me in the dunking booth or sell a chance to smack me with a pie. Sometimes that old work excuse comes in handy! "Can't, I'm working!"

Overall, it could have been quite the disaster, but I think it was salvaged enough so that most people who stayed had a good time. I was exhausted by the time I got home though. Never fails that even on those "mandatory fun" days I'll still be working in some capacity. I don't mind though, I'm a little weirdo and enjoy it.

Tomorrow I am working at an organizational fair here in our community and will be helping the commander hand out booklets and stuff about healthcare in Germany.

That's about it for tonight. Thanks for reading!

Sweat stains are common among my friends

Did you know that your risk of heart disease rises 70 percent if you don't brush your teeth twice a day?

Good thing ever since I had braces I am obsessed with brushing my teeth, flossing and mouthwash.

Tonight, I have been reading the latest Women's Health magazine. I really enjoy this magazine. Maybe it's my hypochondriac tendencies, or the fact that I am a medical public affairs officer and am constantly promoting health issues, but whatever it is I've always been intrigued my random health factoids.

Case in point - I learned from this issue that I'm probably quite stressed. Of the six stress signals they list in this one particular article, I have four! My body is always trying to tell me something and I'm always trying to figure it out. Did you know that even a sniffly nose can be a sign of stress? Yep. Also, junk food cravings can be a sign of stress. Huh, who woulda thunk it?

And my favorite article in this issue so far has been "The Bad Girl's Guide to Good Health." Not that I claim to be a bad girl by any means, haha, that's almost funny to think about. No, it's more things like this:

"Being a slob may help you breathe easier. ... a British study found that an unmade bed could nix in-house allergens. Turns out, tucked-in sheets can offer dust mites a covered breeding area. (gross!!)... and we should focus on keeping our houses reasonably clean, not entirely pristine... zapping every germ around, including the harmless ones, can clear the way for more serious or resistant strains. Plus, certain household disinfectant sprays and air fresheners release chemicals that can heighten asthma risk..."

Awesome news, yeah? I knew I was a semi-slob for a reason!

How about these: Downing coffee could cut your cancer risk; getting mad can keep stress in check; surfing the internet might tune up your brain; and chewing gum can keep you trim.

Great news all around if you ask me!

The other article I found quite interesting was "Don't Sweat it!" -- a guide to why some people sweat more than others and how to keep it in check. This is extra interesting to me considering that in the past month I've definitely had more than one deodorant conversation with at least three different friends that I can think of off the top of my head!

Beyond that, today at work was great. I have to say this whole week has been pretty fantastic. I've felt accomplished and appreciated all at the same time. I have been getting good vibes from the command team and co-workers and that's good because for a while I was kind of unsure of my place there. My mom and I had a very nice discussion this evening about how truly blessed I am to love my job so much. And you know what? It's true. I am blessed to work for and with America's greatest heros every day and I'm not afraid to say something like that.

Tomorrow is our Organizational Day. I'm bringing Leslie as my family member. She already called tonight to make sure I didn't forget to go pick her up. Awesome having such a cool little sister. :) It's supposed to be rainy and cold though so I'm a little bummed. We have worked hard to get ready for this day and it would be a shame for it to be postponed or canceled.

That's about it for tonight. I've got my Joe Mauer shirt all ironed and ready to wear tomorrow -win or lose this week I'm still going to show my support for my Twins!

Thanks for reading!

Today at work I was a mammogram model... who really gets to say that too often?

Whew, yesterday's post still feels good! It's nice to just let it go sometimes, you know?

I had an excellent day at work today. This morning, I had one of the DA photographers come over to our kaserne to take some new stock and historical photos for us. Yesterday afternoon I asked the commander if she'd like to tag along, and she actually jumped at the chance. She was very excited, so this morning we walked around for a full two hours taking photos of everything. We are going to have to schedule another time for him to come back as we didn't even scratch the surface of what we do at our clinic!

It was quite interesting because we went to a lot of places I'd never actually been yet - such as into the lab area. A lot of people hide when they see me coming with a camera or videographer, but some people today were more than willing to help out, and I'd have to give a shout-out to our lab folks as they did a great job.

Oh yeah, and I got to be the model for one of the pictures - believe it or not, the mammography machine! Ha! It was only the back of my head so you won't be able to tell it's me... pretty funny though. Chelsey was our audiology model, the commander modeled in our family practice area, and many of our other soldiers stepped up to help out. Thank goodness we had a patient volunteer for the gynocology clinic! Ha!

Chelsey and I also worked on the commander's time capsule today. Our O-Day is this Friday and for it, she wanted to put together a time capsule celebrating the Army's 65 years in our location. We solicited ideas from throughout the command by putting an idea box outside our chow hall a couple months ago. I seem to remember being described as looking like "cheerleaders getting ready for a high school pep rally" the day we were making the poster and box, but I digress. The idea box worked and we spent today gathering a bunch of historical items. It's pretty neat actually - I found an old "yearbook" from the 80s, we found some pictures and maps and stuff from the 60s, and a guy I gave a tour to recently sent me some letters from the 40s! We also have more recent stuff like patches, berets and the infamous "BCGs" - Army spectacles.

Today, Chelsey and Robert also put their reserves on a puppy! A German shepherd puppy that they'll be picking up next week. He's really cute. I am happy because hopefully he'll get along with Scouty and Noel and we can have dog park play dates for them!

I had a failure today as I drank a diet soda with my lunch. Never mind the two slices of cheese pizza that was actually my lunch - that was ok - but I was really doing well with my giving up on soda's. Hmmm. Just realized I had cheese pizza for lunch. And a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner.

Actually, I use this cool vegan cheese stuff now at home. It's called "Veggie Slices" and it's a cheese product that melts unbelievably well for grilled cheese sandwiches. Sounds icky if you've never tried it, but I recommend it. My favorite is just the plain old American slices. I also have tried their mozzarella shreds but it has a little too strong of a flavor for me.

Tonight I tried to make a new cookie recipe I found online, for peanut butter-oatmeal-banana cookies. Sounds yummy, right? Yeah, not so much. They were actually quite disgusting. Oh well. Can't win them all! I do believe it was just this recipe in particular - I'm getting strong enough in my belief in my own baking abilities that I think I could improve upon it quite a bit and actually make something good out of it. Maybe a project for this weekend?

Well, I just finished sipping my mug of Sleepytime tea and think it's time to head to bed. I put nice fresh clean sheets on the bed and that's always a pleasure to curl up in :). Carl would laugh at me because right now I'm singing "So fresh and so clean-clean" like I always do when I wash the doggies or do anything that makes me say "fresh" and "clean" in the same sentence. Silly, I know, but whatever!

Thanks for reading!

Just need to get it out of my system...

Tonight I'm going to vent.

This morning my landlord called and asked if people could come look at the house tonight at 6. Excuse me?

I guess if I were some sort of amazing Suzy Homemaker type of person, this wouldn't be a problem. Maybe my house would always look neat and clean and I'd be able to know for sure I'd be home at a certain time.

But no, I work full-time, and I don't ever know exactly when I'll be home from work. I can't really just up and leave in the middle of the day to show the house or try to clean it. And no, I'm sorry but I just don't keep my house in show-ready condition every day. Shocker, I know.

With two hairy dogs and a fat cat, and me, it's just not always the most tidy place. Oh well. Do I care? Nope.

So, I told her that I have been sick (true) and wanted to clean the house up (also true) and asked if they could maybe come tomorrow evening instead. She said that would be fine. But now I'm regretting only buying myself one day of cleaning up because frankly I'm just not feeling it tonight!

Before you go thinking I'm some super slob, it's really not that bad - just some dog hair bunnies floating by on the floor and the random pile of clothing thrown on the dresser in the bedroom.

Oh yeah, and did I mention the ginormous amount of Polish pottery spread all over my dining room. Yeah, about that.... guess I need to figure a place to stash it all and pronto.

Something else I'd like to vent about tonight is the Germans and their bikes and mopeds. Now, don't get me wrong, I am all about the environment and saving the planet and being green. I use reusable shopping bags, I only buy cruelty free and natural cleaning products, I buy organic, heck my entire family got reusable shopping bags for Christmas a couple years ago. I have nothing against pedal power.

But my gosh, do they have to ride down the middle of the freakin' road? Why don't they use the bike path that is right next to the road? Seriously! Do they have to ride so slow and swerve all over the place so you really can't pass them? Then when you want to pass you come across some random car that is parked halfway in the road so you can't pass anyway, because that's another thing they do here is park WHEREVER THEY WANT. The middle of a busy intersection? Yep, this looks like a good spot to park. Sheesh, people!

And lastly, I really can't stand people who claim to be good Christians and then turn out to be hypocrites. Really. Don't go pretending to be my friend and talk to me all nice only to turn around and talk bad about me behind my back. I am not ok with it. And honestly you shouldn't be ok with it either. You're going to go to church every week and sing and dance and act like you're all friends with everyone you meet. But you're not. Shame on you.

You know, I don't claim to be a perfect Christian by any means. But I do like to think I've learned to be a bigger person through a lot of nonsense lately. Too bad others can't do the same.

From here, I'd like to direct you to my friend Jen's blog so you can read her vent from yesterday evening - she says a lot of stuff so very well. Read it by clicking "here." But please don't forget to finish reading mine!

Ok, seriously, I actually had a very good day at work today, believe it or not! :) I know it's hard to believe seeing as what I've blogged about tonight. Please don't think I'm just in a total bad mood. It's just that I have felt this blog was a little too vanilla lately - and I needed it to be rainbow sherbet mixed with neopolitan tonight! Sometimes you just have to get it out there!

A couple bright spots to my day - that random NCO who ate my blueberry muffins last week stopped by this morning to see if I had any more! And the banana bread I made two nights ago was a hit with yet another totally neutral soldier who was filling in for one of our admin ladies today. Yay! Baking really is good therapy. I'm feeling some cookies coming on later this evening perhaps? Only if I get some cleaning done. And so far I'm really good at putting it off....

Carl got his first care package from me yesterday! It was mailed Thursday and already got to him! That's great news. Today I mailed him a giant envelope of magazines and reading materials.

Alrighty I guess that's enough procrastinating on the housework for now. Thanks for reading!

The joys of tea

I just ate some soup and made a nice hot cup of tea. Nope, I don't feel well tonight. :(

I am pretty sure it's just one massive allergy attack that hit yesterday evening and stayed with me all day today and now well into this evening. I even left work at 4:30 today - that's got to be like a new record for me, actually leaving on time.

Today was a fairly productive workday in between blowing my nose and sneezing and sniffling. Let's just say my office door was closed the majority of the day.

I would like to take a minute to give a shout-out to one of my new favorite drinks - tea. Well ok so it's not my new favorite as probably last winter at some point was when I truly discovered the joys of a nice steamy mug of tea. Almost every day at work you'd find me, mug in hand. Almost like the coffee drinkers, only healthier. :) Every time I went somewhere, I'd try to find a new type of tea to bring back (so far, Sweden wins for yummiest!).

I recently checked out the book "Skinny B****" at the library. You can guess what the B-word is. I just call it Skinny B. Anyway, I have the Skinny B in the Kitch cookbook, which is pretty good, but I finally found the original Skinny B. It talks about all the garbage we eat and put into our bodies. I am working now on giving up sodas. It's going to be tough, as I love a good Cherry Coke Zero with my lunch, but now I'm turning to a mug of tea for my caffeine fix in the morning, a bottle of juice with breakfast, and water the rest of the day. I even bought the True Lime and True Lemon mix-ins to add to my water and so far it's been fantastic. I'm going to make myself healthy yet!

Now I know some of you may be thinking -- right, healthy, with all that baking you've been doing? Well listen here all of you's -- all that baking I do is healthy baking! So much better than the packaged brownie mixes or boxes of chocolate chip cookies. Nope, the stuff I make is cool because I know exactly what's going into it and exactly what's going in to me. And it's bare minimum. Most everything I've made lately is still coming from the "100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes," which I highly recommend to everyone, vegan or not. It's just good stuff!

Yesterday was nice as I went to church in the morning, then the library (STILL no Reba season two or Lipstick Jungle season two!), then the PX and back to the commissary. I know, what a boring day! Church was good and I signed up for a new Wednesday night class they're starting soon. The rest of the afternoon I worked on the house a little and watched some more of "Airline." That's a great show to just have on when I'm working on a bunch of other stuff.

I suppose that's about it for tonight. I need to continue sipping this yummy Sleepytime tea and get to bed very early hopefully. Thanks for reading!

The return of Leslie!

Leslie is back in Germany safe and sound and - almost taller than me now! She's only been gone a couple months!

I was really happy this afternoon when Lira and Leslie showed up as planned. We goofed around the house for a while before heading to the commissary to do some shopping and then going to pick up Thomas so he could come back and work on the yard for me.

It was nice to have company over! We made some pizza and mozzarella bites and rented "Date Night" from the Apple TV. Poor Leslie only made it through the first few minutes of the movie before racking out. She was definitely jet-lagged. She made it till about 7 p.m. so that's pretty good.

Thomas got the back yard mowed in only about 20 minutes, including raking and bagging up all the clippings. Then he moved on to the garden in the back-back-yard (we have two yards here; one is the small yard right outside the house and the other is the much larger garden area behind the garage and work buildings). Unfortunately the weed eater decided to act up. I don't know much about weed eaters but he said something about flooding it and it needed to rest. So, he ended up watching the movie and eating with us instead. We're going to try again on Tuesday and see if he can come back and finish up.

The movie was pretty cute. Lira and I were laughing out loud together at some parts. Overall it was a nice way to spend some time with all of them again.

After they left, I rented "The Last Song." It was good. I had read the book (huge Nicholas Sparks fan) so I already knew the story. I thought it focused a little too much on Ronnie and Will (or rather, Miley and Liam - although he was nice to look at, she annoys me a slight bit, but she did a good job in this movie). But I guess the book was kind of about them mostly. Very touching and sad story but most of the Nicholas Sparks books are that way!

And now, I was getting ready to head to bed so I can get a good amount of sleep tonight (like I didn't last night? Ha!) but my Minnesota Twins are on AFN right now so how do I go to sleep knowing they're on? Come on Twins! Ironic that I wore one of my Mauer shirts today :) Ok not really since most weekends I am sporting a Joe Mauer/Twins shirt of some type. Pretty soon I'll be busting out the Vikings shirts again as well!

That's about it for tonight I suppose. Should probably settle in on the couch to watch some baseball and fall asleep to the glorious sounds of a Twins baseball game :)

Thanks for reading!

Sleep is a good thing!

I'm blogging this morning for yesterday.

Had a good day overall. I called the vet at about 1100 to see if they could see Scouty - yes, they had an opening in 45 minutes. So, I raced home and got him and made it back to the vet. They said he definitely has an ear infection so he got his ear cleaned out and I got some drops for him that have to be administered once a day for a week.

He was such a good boy, too! So well-behaved. All he did was stand there on the table and stare at me for everything they did to him. I also got him updated on a couple shots he needed, and still he didn't even flinch. That's my little baby!

Silly me forgot that I'd need to have Euro on hand to pay though, but they were kind enough to let me leave the 20Euro I had and bring the rest back later. I went across the street to the ATM on Patton, stopped by to visit Lira for a few minutes, went back to pay, and then headed back to work. With Scout, of course.

Our command team was all at an off-site all day, so the building was quiet and most people there have met Scout and really like him, so I knew he'd be ok. Once again, he was so well-behaved! He laid under my desk or by the door the entire time, and whenever someone stopped by he'd slowly get up and walk over to get pet, just sitting there nicely for everyone who wanted to visit him.

I left about 5:45, got stuck in a slight stau, and then got home in time to Skype Carl for a few minutes.

Then I had a message from Chelsey wanting dinner and a strawberry-shortcake date. Who am I to turn that down? So I headed back to PHV and met up with her for dinner.

We are such crazy girls, let me tell ya - lemonade and strawberry shortcake at the bar! Watch out world! :)

Then I headed home, talked to my mom for a little while and headed to bed because I was kind of falling asleep on the phone with her. This was probably 10:30 p.m. last night. This morning I was in-and-out of sleep for a while and had no idea what time it was till I got a phone call at about 11 a.m. I was so out of it I couldn't figure out how to answer the phone! It was Carl calling from his new Afghani cell phone. And yes I was still sleeping at 11! Wow.

So I got up, Skyped with him a little bit and then got to work trying to clean my messy house. Today Leslie is back! My "little sister." So Lira's bringing her and Thomas over so Thomas can work on my yard. They should be here any minute now. The house looks okay but luckily they are enough like family that I don't really care that much.

Thanks for reading!

Random thoughts

Today started out like most days - hitting snooze as often as possible, rolling in to work when I can get there, and dancing and singing up and down the hallways while the command team was in morning report.

Yes, I love my command team :) They don't look at me funny anymore even if they do see me dancing and singing.

Chelsey and I decided to be nice and bake for a friend of ours at work whose wife was having surgery today. So naturally I had to try new recipes last night. But you don't ever want to just try a new recipe on someone without giving them something tried-and-true, too. So, of course, that meant lots of baking for me last night.

Well, since I had an after work meeting that lasted till about 7:30, then I ran to the commissary to get supplies, then on my way home realized I forgot some supplies and had to turn around and go back to the commissary and then drove home, I didn't get home till 8:30 and ended up baking, and baking, and baking. I was so wired and not even remotely tired that I ended up staying up till midnight!

The result? Unbelievably scrumptious brownies, a loaf of banana bread and the new one I was dying to try, to-die-for blueberry streusel muffins. All from scratch. Yes, this is still the same Kristen who only a few months ago was burning frozen pizza and ruining microwave oatmeal.

Chelsey made some phenomenal cookie bars and also bought a card that we took around to the command team. It was our good deed for the day and hopefully the family will enjoy our baked goodies.

I was just excited because a completely neutral NCO who has never eaten my food before tried a muffin and was practically jumping up and down after eating it. Yes! Success!

I was a little disappointed because when the soldier came to pick up his goodies I didn't get a thank-you, and I took it personally - but then I realized he was trying to rush home to his wife -duh, her surgery was today - and hello Kristen, you don't do good deeds to be recognized for them, you just do them to be nice. So I gave myself a little slap on the wrist for being silly and went about my day.

I have been so unbelievably busy at work lately. It's a good thing though. Our O-Day is coming up and I'm on the planning committee. Flu season is approaching and we're starting the plans for that. We have a new Facebook page that the commander is excited about and I'm always trying to come up with things to put on there. I've been helping to re-organize our internal web site. I serve on a patient advisory committee. We have several health themes coming up for September that are taking lots of my time. I've been having ups and downs with work but that's going to happen I suppose.

Carl was able to call my work line today and we chatted, which was nice because Skype has been acting up lately. And his first care package is on its way! He asked for a few things in particular but of course I had to find the largest box I could and fill it up with snacks and goodies too. (Nothing baked this time though; I want to see how long it takes to get to him first).

My commander talked to me a couple weeks ago about finding professional development things to go to and today I asked to attend a conference in the States in October - and she and my deputy commander-supervisor wholeheartedly agreed to send me. Cool! I hope to combine it with a trip to see my family up north (since my parents will have just been here a couple weeks prior to this conference).

Tonight, I watched several episodes of "Airline," that show from Southwest Airlines. Got season one at the library. Good mindless tv :) It's amazing some of the things people do on there! I am anxious to get back to the library and snag Reba season two and Lipstick Jungle season two.

I guess that's about enough random nonsense for this evening. Time to get to bed. Thanks for reading!

Can I borrow some applesauce?

Sometimes you just get disappointed in life... Like tonight, I am bummed out, plain and simple.

I really wanted to bake again tonight. I swear, it's become an obsession. But, alas, I'm out of applesauce and I'm out of oil and I can't find any recipes that I have all the right ingredients for.

Sadness!!

Last night I made my first-ever loaf of banana bread and it was amazing! I think I have about one slice left, and no, I didn't share it with anyone.... that was all me!

I was talking today at work about how I am really considering leaving my current career path and taking up baking for a living. Just open a little shop and sell my own baked goods. My stuff that I've been making lately is just that good.

It's the apron, I swear it is. I am empowered by that magic apron. I can do no wrong in the kitchen!

So, I spent this evening doing lots of Skyping and watching the latest Army Wives -- which, by the way, was really different this week and kind of disappointed me until about the last 30 seconds. Wow....

I will say that I truly enjoyed this evening being able to Skype with my mom and show her all the pottery I got! A lot of it is going to her and she loved all of it. Success! I also Skyped with Carl who was not having a very good evening. I've got some goodies gathered up to send him in his first care package so hopefully if I can get that in the mail soon it will help cheer him up.

My work day was pretty productive overall, but nothing to blog home about.

Well that's about it for tonight I suppose. I am going to go and look one more time for a recipe I can make tonight that I have everything for. Baking has become a sort of therapy for me lately and when I can't do it I feel anxious.

Yeah, I know, I'm a dork. Whatever!

Thanks for reading!

POLAND! Pottery, food, more pottery!

We made it!! Poland was awesome. We had so much fun!!

In a nutshell: Easy drive, no traffic, Polish pottery is amazing and Polish food is super yummy! However, watch out for window washers and rude waitresses....

Here goes:

Chelsey and I successfully made our way across the country and across the border into Poland without causing an international incident, which for some reason is what many people predicted would happen.... huh.... why would anyone think that we would cause an international incident? Can't figure that one out.

Oh, wait, maybe it's because we're two crazy blonde American girls being let loose on the autobahn to cross into another country with nothing but time on our hands and money in our wallets, and a basically endless supply of Polish pottery!

Yeah, well, psssh on all those people, because Go Us. We did awesome!

Somehow Chelsey was able to convince me that we should leave at 0530 on Friday morning, and believe it or not, we did just that! It was perfect actually. We were checked into our hotel in Boleslawiec no later than 1 p.m. Guess what that meant? Time to start shopping!

We browsed around several stores near our hotel (the Protea Hotel - yes, we recommend it). Chelsey found a pattern she absolutely fell in love with in the second store we went into. She basically bought the place out. Then we went to more stores. Then it was time to eat!

We felt a little bad at some times because we know absolutely no Polish, and most people there spoke only a little English and a little German. We managed though. Anyway, we spent the rest of the afternoon browsing stores, then had a nice dinner in our hotel restaurant, then chilled out in our room for a while before going to bed. (There wasn't much to do in such a short amount of time in Boleslawiec except shop and eat - but that's what we wanted to do anyway!)

Saturday we had a nice Polish breakfast and headed out for more shopping.

Watch out for window washers: We had been warned of the kids who surround your car and demand money to wash your windows. Since it was raining Saturday we thought we'd be ok.

Umm, yeah, not quite!

We started out by parking in a Kaufland parking lot, looking at our map and trying to program the GPS. All of a sudden we hear a "thud" and look up to find two probably 15- or 16-year old kids doing what else but washing our windows and asking for money. I had put together a baggy of Euro change for just this sort of run-in, so we pulled it out and handed over some change. Surprisingly enough, even after paying them, the kid kept going and washed all the windows on my car, then the headlights and taillights! We finally had to just drive away!

Alright, since we made it through that, it was really time to shop! One of our co-workers had supplied us with a great map of all the stores, so we were able to venture to the outskirts of town and find some of the good shops....

....We only ended up in the middle of a field once!

After that slight miscalculation in directions, we were well on our way to a great day of bouncing from shop-to-shop. We even made it to this awesome glass factory where we watched them making these amazing sculptures.

Yay for a fun day! We basically shopped till we dropped. We ran into a few people we know. We ate a fantastic lunch at the Blue Beetroot Hotel's restaurant (Perogies...yumm!)

Our only mishap was that somehow halfway through our meal, the waitress decided she hated us. I mean Hate with a capital H.

This girl had been so nice and friendly and helpful until all of a sudden she was rude and spiteful. The only thing we could think was that Chelsey accidentally dropped her Coke bottle and it made a loud noise. That's silly to think it would cause such an attitude change, but that's all we've got.

So what did we do? We went back there for dinner! Ha, we showed her!

Really, the food was just worth it and we knew people staying at the hotel that we wanted to see. Sure enough, she was just as rude for dinner. Strange. Oh well. We didn't let it stop us from ordering lots of delicious food. Seriously, the prices were amazing. I had a giant main course, a hot chocolate, a Sprite and a desert for 10Euro! Was?! (That's German for "What?!") You can't beat that!

Sunday morning we got up early yet again (uggghhhhh was all I felt -- but it was a great idea) and hit the road by 0600. I was back in my house by 1 p.m.! Amazing. Only a slight bit of traffic when we hit some rain but other than that we had smooth sailing.

My car was struggling a bit though from the weight of the pottery...!!

Overall the trip was awesome and I am so glad we went! I got quite a bit of pottery too, and I'll try to take some pics and post them sometime this week. My favorites are a cute little tea pot, a baking dish and a muffin pan.

Chelsey thanks for an awesome weekend! I know you missed Robert but you were a trooper and I had a super fun time :)

Sunday afternoon I relaxed, cuddled with Churro on the couch and watched the rest of Reba season one. So sad it's over! I must go find season two at the library ASAP!! That show is SO stinkin' cute!!

Sunday evening I made my way all by myself with no GPS to the kennel, a.k.a. German Language Camp, to pick up the red babies. They were happy to see mommy and muddy from a weekend of playing on the playground. I was happy to see my babies too and we had lots of hugs and kisses for each other :)

Today at work was spent catching up and getting ready for the week ahead. It was fun to talk to people about our trip because so many people have either been there already, are hoping to go soon - or were there at the same time! A weekend to Poland for pottery shopping is a must-do for those of us living here. Honestly, I know Carl is probably not the least bit interested, but I'd like for us to go back next year when he's home. It's just too unique of an experience and I think he'd really enjoy it.

Today my mom had some surgery and I have received a couple updates from dad that she's doing fine. I am looking forward to speaking to her tomorrow and hopefully Skyping so I can show her all her new pottery, too!

Whew, there's my update. Thanks for reading!

Road trip!!

Poland, here we come!! I am so excited that the day is finally here! What started as a silly, "Hey, we should go to Poland sometime" comment about a month or so ago has turned into this - here we go!

This week has been absolutely crazy busy at work and after work, so this trip will be awesome. Relaxing but fun-filled is what I'm hoping for!

Thanks for reading -- definitely check back for details of this trip!!

Hmm. Today happened. That's about it.

It's kinda late and I should be in bed. I definitely had to watch the latest Army Wives though, which for some reason was not available last night to download but was there today. It was super cute. Love that show!

Tonight we had a farewell dinner for two of our deputies. I will really miss both of them, one in particular who was probably one of the biggest proponents for me getting to take this job. Godspeed to both of them in their next assignments!

Today at work was good. I have to admit I really can't remember much of what happened today though. At one point I seem to remember talking to someone about something that happened that finally gave me something real to write about on my blog -- and now, of course, I can't remember! How annoying!

The funny thing is that I do remember one thing about today -- and that would be lunch at Taco Bell with Chelsey and Lynn. Leave it to me to only remember my lunch date! Geez. The only other thing I remember is having "Deep in the Heart of Texas" stuck in my mind most of the day thanks to a silly episode of Reba I watched last night. Oh yeah, and dancing while I was singing it -- and not realizing one of our new deputies was right there laughing at me. Oops. Oh well. Guess he's just getting to know the real me right away!

Well since it's late and I can't remember much of what happened today, guess I'll call it a night. Hope I have more stuff to write about tomorrow. Don't want to lose any of my three regular readers!

Thanks for reading!

Ding-Dong, can we see your house?

This evening as I was lounging in the house reading "The Answer to Cancer," and of course watching Reba, my doorbell rang. Hmmm. That's never a good thing, considering anyone who knows me would call to make sure I'm decent, and anyone else who would be ringing the doorbell is probably asking for something.

It was definitely someone asking for something - as in, a German family who heard this house might be for sale and wanted to see it.

Say what?!

Umm, no. I am in some saggy soccer pants, a TTU basketball t-shirt, no bra (sorry for the visual) and rockin' the barefeet. Hair up in a ponytail, glasses on and leftovers from dinner stuck in my teeth for sure.

I was pleasant to them, of course, but definitely didn't let them in the house. I gave them my landlord's phone number and did show them the backyard and extra garden area (all while barefoot of course - silly American!). They were very nice, but, still not getting in my house on a random evening when I have no idea who they are.

I must admit, I've been little miss bachelorette lately with my house cleaning. Guess all that's coming to an end again. Yes, the house is for sale in case you are wondering. My landlord has assured us that the new owners will buy it knowing it's occupied... she seems to think that means no moving will have to happen... but I think otherwise. So for the past several months I've been "on call" with the landlord wanting to show it to potential buyers. Many have looked, none have purchased.

Believe me, more than once I've entertained the idea of making sure it's very messy when people look at it so hopefully no one would want it! But when it comes down to it, I can't do that. Only time will tell if it sells, but I sure have to hope it doesn't happen anytime soon. The Army wouldn't pay for this move...

Other than that, this morning was an adventure as Chelsey and I tried to get our international driver's licenses. Let's just say we felt very American today trying to get this stuff figured out. Two trips to the drivers testing station on post and three trips to the Stadt offices later, Chelsey came away with her license, but not me. I apparently have to go to a different office since I live in an outlying community. Great! It was fun though as we tried to figure it all out -- and a great intro to how our weekend may go as two silly blonde American girls try to make our way to Poland!! Should be interesting!

In other news, I made a pretty yummy stir-fry for dinner tonight. I checked out "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" from the library yesterday and enjoyed flipping through it. I like reading up on how to cook, I just wish I could actually absorb some of the information.

I did have to google "How to put out an oil fire in the kitchen" during tonight's cooking session, but I like to think of it as being safe rather than sorry. Just trying to be prepared in case that oil I dripped on the stove top randomly decided to light up. It didn't, thank the Lord, and I remember now that you are supposed to put a lid on an oil fire -- don't worry, I always knew not to put water on it, just couldn't remember what you were actually supposed to do.

And last but not least tonight, my super awesome mom has already begun on Carl's first care package. Awww. Thanks, Dude. :) I am not sure he'll have a use for any of the Polish pottery I'll be buying this weekend, but I really should get to work on a care package soon, too. He sounded good tonight, just very tired as he's getting used to his new work schedule. Long days, short nights. Sorry Carl :(

Thanks for reading!

Reba

Today, I didn't do much of anything. And it felt great.

I did start out this morning by going to church, which to me is the best way to get my week started right. It was a good sermon. The chaplain was not our usual chaplain, but I have heard him before. He lost me a few times but overall it was a good message -- just remember, God's grace is greater than all our sin.

He mentioned thinking about that 'person' you maybe don't want to run into at the commissary, but when you do, you need to make the most of it. Always think of what others have going on, and most importantly, look for the presence of God in others' lives, not His absence.

It's a tough sell sometimes to think that way, but, I'll work on it.

After that, I did my old "Sunday routine" of hitting up the library and then the commissary. Would you believe that someone had already checked out Lipstick Jungle season two?! The nerve! Ugh! So, I got a couple other tv series and a few books but ultimately came home to veg on the couch all day.

I have pretty much made it through the entire first season of "Reba." What a cute show!! I can't stop watching it. I have accomplished pretty much nothing else today beyond making a Boca burger, some macaroni and cheese, baked beans and a smoothie. The dogs have enjoyed nap-and-cuddle time with mommy. I know, I should have walked them, but I didn't. Sorry guys :( I would use my foot as an excuse but that would be lame and therefore I won't even try that one.

I was able to Skype with Carl for almost an hour tonight. Got his address too so I can start sending him stuff. He's doing pretty well but was a little bummed when I told him of some of my upcoming trips I have planned. I definitely understand his disappointment considering where he's stuck but we should have plenty of fun travels when he comes back and he assures me that he doesn't want me just sitting home all year while he's gone.

That's about it for tonight. Tomorrow starts a new work week. It's going to be a very busy one. I can already think of three after-work events this week alone. Whew. Here goes. Guess I better get to bed.

Eh, wait, maybe one more episode of Reba tonight.

Thanks for reading!