Before you go shopping for furniture.....

i adore living in Europe. i do. however... it is a sickening thing to realize that everytime you're buying something off base (which i want to do typically) you're paying 20% sales tax. TWENTY PERCENT. who in the heck thought that was a good idea? this makes our measly 8% sound downright desirable! and then.... oh yeah! it's in euro. therefore instead of paying 220.00 € you're actually paying $330.00. and of COURSE there's no wells fargo over here... so there are non-wells-fargo-ATM-transaction-fees. all this means is that i need to use that account as little as possible. My debit card no longer has a purpose in life. it's the end of an era ladies and gentlemen...

SHOPPING IN K-TOWN

i had a blast shopping with tam in kaiserslautern!!! it's a shame she is leaving today.... and heading to Korea, i might add. gracious. she showed me some of her favorite shops in the city and since she's leaving there were plenty of purchases needed for the road. the excursion was done in the typical girl fashion, with runway shows to display outfits for the other's words of affirmation and approval. she and i have a TON in common. which is why i'm super bummed she's leaving. K-town is fantastic! it's good to know there's a shopping district close. my favorite part of trips to small towns is stopping at the small stands for snacks. whether it's hot cross bun pretzel bread or mini pizza like creations. i have decided, all in all, that a girl could easily go broke here. i did accomplish my mission of buying new boots. not anything horribly expensive or nice.... but something to tide me over until my snow boots arrive... oh, how i miss them.

IKEA KITCHEN FURNITURE, 4 SNOW TIRES, & A HONDA ACCORD...

we finally made it to IKEA!!!!!! (pronounced eekayah here) we simply went to browse as it had been a while since either of us had even been near the world renowned warehouse mecca for post-college grads & the newly married. we went painstakingly through everything (due to my astute level of tunnel vision). Despite my husband's vain protest i sincerely believe if you don't follow the arrows you WILL inevitably miss something important. the couches, while pretty to look at, were horrible to sit on. i mean seriously, they must have skipped the lecture on comfort in Design 101. oh who am i kidding... when have i ever designed something where the soul purpose was for comfort? ha! maybe something like... um.... never. so we will be searching elsewhere for our super-comfy-big-enough-for-the-two-of-us couch.

german countryside on our way to IKEA!

gorgeous bridge that we pass.... definitely not in the US...

fortunately we had amazing luck in the kitchen department. our kitchen, as i have previously mentioned is seriously lacking storage. we have a grand total of 6 cabinets and 1 drawer. and anyone that knows me is aware that i have enough kitchen artillery to house warehouse 13. accompanied by the generous donations by mama W (tupperware containers, charger plates, aka everything i don't have) we're bordering on ridiculous. which, oddly enough, excites me to no end. D found a piece that matched our kitchen in wood style and resembled a cutting board style top with 2 drawers underneath and accompanying shelves. we liked it but it seemed like we would need two to come up with the appropriate amount of extra counter space we cry out for in vain. so we kept looking and out of nowhere he spots the three drawer extra long version!!!! YES!!!!! and the price was reasonable (even better!) so we did a quick priority recap and decided it was totally worth it. we also ended up coming home with shelves to go over the counter/sidetable (which we'll put up once we paint the kitchen), a new cutting board, trash cans, candles, lingonberry jam (yummay!!!), cookies, and a gingerbread house kit! definitely a HUGE success! we also ended up having dinner there.... you know i can't ever pass up those swedish meatballs. and for the two of us to eat under 10 € is a steal.

living in germany has it's quirks though... for example, when you get to the self checkout and everything is in german (which you still can't read) and you swipy-swip the credit card... imagine our suprise when we can't figure out which button is the "okay" button. because it's all in german. we had to have a lady come and help us. definitely humbling... but hilarious. then upon getting to the car, my husband (bless his heart) cries out in frustration and proceeds to tell me that he forgot to take the extra tires out of the car after we had the snow tires put on. so now we have to manage to get this huge side table, an extra long set of shelves, 4 tires, and all the extra goodies not to mention a driver and passenger in the honda accord. it barely fit. barely. we even took a photo to illustrate. and i drove with my knees in the dashboard the whole way home. but we made it!! hooray!

we managed to make it all fit in the car!!!! although we did have a moment of panic...

putting the furniture together with D, however, is a sheer battle of wills. both of us are stubborn and swear up and down we're right. it is mandatory to have a his and hers screwdriver because we (okay, I) can't share. he hates the instructions, i live by them. he hates sitting on the floor (sad mistfortune of having a bony ass) so i poke fun at him for always needing something to sit on. and of course i get sneered at for being bossy (shocker, i know). but somehow, we managed to get the the kitchen counter/storage put together! it looks amazing! and is the best investment we've made thus far.

so what do you do if you need an antenna for the ipod frequency? um a tape measure will work just fine!!! & the DO NOT's for the candles we purchased. i thought this was downright hysterical. i had no idea there were so many things you weren't supposed to do with a candle!!

this is for my brother, Master PT. it was D's idea... and i think it's hilarious!!!

that's it for today...

lots of love!