"Blumen!", K-town Freshmarket, & August Happenings...

Yay mail!!!! I have been waiting for this package for about a month. Nothing excites me more than high-end ingredients for The Sugar Queen's magical kitchen!!! Nielsen Massey is one of my absolute favorite companies for quality flavorings. To me, their vanillas represent the best in quality and taste. Try chocolate chip cookies with the Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla and you will never be the same. Dana was kind enough to bring this box of goodies home to be during his lunch break. I'm making cupcakes for Crystal's baby shower this weekend, so I am thrilled to get these flavorings!!!

The month of August flew by.... I still can hardly believe that it's over. We managed to cram a whole bunch of furniture into this house, catch several festivals, and as always-- projects!!!! I want to do my best to give an update, because I've edited a TON of photos in the past few days... figured ya'll could enjoy them!

When D and I were moving furniture one weekend, we passed by this field near Weilerbach. This seems so normal to me now, but I realized it would be something my stateside friends and family would appreciate... particularly my dad. There are Germans who grow an assortment of flowers in fields by the road... then come the right time, the field is full of blooms! You can park by the road and make your way through the fields to pick out your favorite flowers. Then you drop the appropriate amount of euro in the coin box and take home your fresh blooms!!! I was SO excited!!!! D & I bought a gorgeous bunch of gladiolas that looked so lovely in our clean house. Chelsea R. - I wish you had been here, because we would have gone and spent the day among the sunflowers!

The same day we had to drive to a city near Bahn to pick up the new queen mattress. Along the way we passed this field. I was in awe of how the sky touched the fields full of wheat. I definitely made D pull over so I could get some shots. I'm really glad we stopped, even though I was forced to make friends with a rather large arachnid.

Paula & I spent alot of time together toward the end of August. She had come to me with the prospect of making pillows for her couch out of these beautiful linen towels she bought at a bazaar. We went to the fabric store near Globus and bought these awesome brass buttons to sew on front. Then it was time to break out the sewing machine! I was so excited for her and how the pillows turned out. Especially with the lace.

That day I didn't have my fabric yet to recover my pillows, so Paula, Jen, & I made another fabric trip to IKEA the next week. "WHAT?" you say... "IKEA HAS FABRIC??!?" yeah.... this was news to me too! I loved their prints and it was much cheaper than the fabric store near Globus. I wanted such a clean look for my living room particularly since we're painting the wall behind the couch a med. dark gray. I spent a day by myself lost in sewing land making the pillows for our couch. My hands hurt from hand stitching them shut... without a thimble. (Now I completely understand why my mother always had one...) Totally worth it though!!!! I was thrilled with the result! One house project down!

Paula had also told me about the fresh-market in Kaiserslautern. It's held every Tuesday and Saturday morning year round! You can get so many awesome things here! A fresh produce lovers dreamland! It was a blast walking through the different booths. I bought the most delicious peaches I have ever tasted in my life. Seriously. So delicious that my husband was & is STILL hooked on peaches. YUM! I was a bit shy about taking photos because I didn't want to get yelled at by German farmers.... and I think in order to be the photographer I want to become, I'm gonna need to shelve that fear A-sap. But some of these turned out fun! Thanks P for taking me on such a fun food adventure!

LIBRARY NEWS
The library is coming along!!!! My fairy-god-mother Amy was kind enough to pass along some furniture she was getting rid of. Including a perfect mad-scientist table! So I was finally able to move all of my mess from the dining room table to the office, where it belongs. Now my calligraphy-ing can be tucked away in a small corner of our apartment. Now I just have to organize! *sigh* Pinterest, here I come.... We were also able to commandeer an espresso machine from RYS. For $20!!! It's not a fancy one, but because both D & I worked at Starbucks, we know the in's and out's of pulling espresso shots & steaming milk. Which means we macgyver our own lattes. I love it! Particularly since we can buy the fancy syrups at Globus... and I can have an Amaretto latte on a daily basis! Heck yeah man!

WHY TILE FLOORS ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND...
We have had more broken glass in this apartment than any other place I have stored in my memory. From the shattered glass that comes in the mail to the shattered glass on the kitchen tile floor, you take serious risks running around our apartment barefoot. D feels alot better when I wear house shoes. I can't figure it out though...  I wonder if we simply have more glassware here? or if tile floors are really that bad. Either way, when P was over the other day, I was making us lunch and managed to cause this catastrophe. Brand new bottle of balsamic vinegar. Gone. Finito. Destroyed. Not to mention our kitchen reeked of vinegar... Not my idea of a good smell. P helped me clean it up though... what a trooper. So as much as I'm trying to be extra careful... accidents still seem to happen. So my conclusion is that tile floors follow Murphy's Law, despite your over-attentiveness at avoiding disasters.

MACARON OBSESSION LIVES ON
P went into France a couple of weeks ago and was kind enough to bring back macarons for me! I was so unbelieveably thrilled. These things disappear in our house like magic. There one minute, poof.... gone, the next. I have been dying to try out a new recipe soon, I just can't manage to have time on a day where it isn't rainy and overcast (a macaron no-no). So meanwhile, this will have to hold me.

Tonight is date-night and D is cooking! I'm jumping up and down ecstatic! I'm going to try my hardest to be good and NOT micromanage. I'm going to take deep soothing breaths and just "let it go...". He's making a gnocchi dish so this should be fun! Tomorrow I head to O-berg for my escape day with Jen! Saturday is Crystal's Baby Shower and Sunday D has an honor guard detail bright and early in the morning. Typical jam packed week at the Wollschlager's... I hope everyone enjoyed the update! There is so much more to come! I miss and love you guys!

Operation Honeymoon Part II: The Good Life

Food poisoning is not fun. EVER. But guess who got a surprise visit from the upchuck fairy last night? That's right... this girl. I went to bed feeling weird... but figured i was just tired. Or that i was woozy from the delicious new marshmellow vodka chocolate milk mixed cocktail D & I invented last night. Upon waking up at 4:30 am I had that  feeling in the pit of my stomach... you all know  what I'm talking about. I suppose now is a good time to bring up the fact that I abhor throwing up. And will do almost anything to avoid it at all costs. So at this point in the morning, I know full well what's going down in my near future and I'm trying to get up the guts to go through with it. Finally I can't take it any longer and make my way down the hallway to the room of doom. D & I ate salads for dinner last night from the commissary. You know the self serve ones that you're charged for by the lb with spinach and broccoli and carrots and cucumber... One word: GROSS. Although you'll be happy to know that the salads were not the culprit. Paula & I were hanging out yesterday and had a ridiculous craving for Popeye's. The Air Force closed the one on Ramstein (the base D works at) so we had to drive to Vogulweh. I will say this... while I was eating my popcorn shrimp with redbeans and rice... it was bliss. pure unadulterated bliss. I've gotten food poisoning from popcorn shrimp before, so I'm almost positive that was the miscreant. Downside? Today has been rough.... Really rough... Positive Flipside? I now have zero desire to eat fast food for a LONG time. Surely there's a better way to curb the craving that this....

 **Please pardon the disgusting references in today's excitement. I felt this could  be potentially  entertaining to many of my readers... although I realize that it could gross the majority of you out. My sincerest apologies to those of you with weak stomachs.** 

I know i've been slacking on giving you guys honeymoon photos... So here's the next phase... A typical day in the wondrous life of being on vacation in Greece. Our days consisted of lots of beach time, sometimes frisbee, lots of reading, diving lessons from my husband, lots of fun beachy drinks, and food. Our days strangely revolved around what time we would eat as breakfast and dinner were only offered at certain times. So first up, here are the photos of our resort.

The main invisiline pool that looks onto the med. LOVE!

Where we would sit for after dinner drinks and cigars on the patio.

This is part of the main building. This section of rooms have marina views instead of sea views.

D was awesome and let me get a facial at the spa while we were there. It was some vitamin C injection thing... OMG. Best facial I have ever had. The girl cracked me up though, she's like "You should come back for one of these everyday while you're here" and all I was thinking was "If I had a million dollars...."

They served me ginger lemon tea after it was all over. Turns out it's the same tea my father has been making me for years! (Yay Dad!) but they served it cold... which was interestingly fantastic! Definite felt proud of my Papa and missed him dearly all in the same moment. 

Then of course I had to post our beachtime pics. There are more, but these were at the beginning. We had a blast in the water. It's so freaking clear!!! If you stood still long enough the fish would come right up to you and nip at your feet. Completely scared me half to death the first time it happened.

He's such a goof, but I love him!

Then of course there is the epic slicing of the leg incident. Note to all of you, when the battle comes between your skin and a boulder on the beach? BOULDERS WIN. every time. hands down, no questions asked. I really wanted to get up on the rocks to take a panorama of our view without the swimmers per say... So Dana of course, having swimming shoes was able to walk along the rocks comfortably... I however, was not... so I swam up to the rocks and he helped me find a place to step up. I believe it was the phrase "swim over here and swing your legs around this rock" that brought forth the impending onslaught of blood streaming down my leg. To D's credit, that's exactly what I needed to do... To my own detriment, that is NOT what happened. I cut the angle too close and the sharp rock sliced into my leg near my knee. I didn't even really notice it when D pulled me onto the rocks... nor was I aware while taking a panorama for 5 minutes. It wasn't until my husband noticed the pool of blood at my feet that he got nervous and told me we should go ashore and have it looked at. D was adamant about this. I was not. I didn't understand what the big deal was. I wasn't in any pain... and yes, there was a great deal of blood, but it didn't feel urgent, so why should I go all damsel in distress-like to shore to clean what is probably a superficial wound? In the end, he won out due to his unrelenting insistence. But I was fine. and the cut indeed looked worse than it was. phew! All that is to say, I will NEVER make fun of my husbands water shoes again. They are not any of the following: nerdy, stupid, unfashionable, nerdy, awkward, weird, and did i mention nerdy? No... these shoes are genius. and I want a pair A-SAP.

The weather was absolutely beautiful every day we were there. I was in shock after being privy to rain at least once every day. This is the first time I have seen these photos in a month and I want to go back tomorrow!!!! *sigh* Well, that's all for the honeymoon update today. I'll do my utmost to finish posting the pics this month.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful thursday! 1 more day till the weekend!!! Love and miss you all....