Let Me Catch You Up

I have not been very good about writing about the fun stuff we got to do this month and the not so fun stuff we've had to do so I will catch you up!

Chris and I have been trying to be more adventurous in the kitchen as part of a New Years Resolution.  We've been very successful so far :)  This was Lemon-Oregano Chicken with Red Potatoes.  It was delicious but the prep work almost made me faint.  I had to pull apart, cut, hammer and rip apart a whole chicken.  The sounds were just....awful.  Chris had to finish that part for me.  But the meal was so rewarding.

We got to spend St. Patrick's evening with Virginia and Chadd!  I have not seen Virginia since 2007 at her baby shower for Grace so this was such a big deal!  What are the odds that they would get stationed out here with us, just 10 minutes down the road?!  We went to the Roller Derby and it was quite an experience.  Chris and I had never been before and I was a little skeptical if he would enjoy it or not.  Loved it.  Chris, Virginia and I spent a good part of the event figuring out just how they were scoring and who our favorites were.  Oh and some of them shaved their heads for donations to a childrens cancer research.  Virginia and I left with all of our hair though ;)

I got in touch with my friend, Melissa, and we had a lunch date which came to involve riding bikes.  I have not ridden a bicycle in forever!  One marvelous bike ride later, I was hooked!  So that following Saturday I woke up with Chris around 7am and half-jokingly suggested we go rent bikes for the day.  Preparing myself for the "nah, I'm not really feeling like doing anything" I got up and suggested we just go out for breakfast.  I was ready to go when Chris suggested I really wear tennis shoes instead of flip flops and comfortable pants instead of jeans.  I knew right then we were going to rent bikes!  We got all set up and rode from base to Landstuhl to hunt for the path to the castle.  The path we finally DID find, there's no way people ride their bikes up it.  We could barely walk the bikes up the ridiculous incline.  We finally made it all the way to the top and were pleasantly surprised to find a restaurant right next to the castle!  We had a small bite to eat and enjoyed the view from the top before heading back.  Let me tell you, I was so bummed I didn't bring my camera this time.  It was such a fun day.  Riding our bikes DOWN that ridiculous incline was awwwwwesommmme!  We are definitely planning on doing it again and hopefully finding the proper path so I will bring our camera then.

I've already blogged about our Hunger Games: Movie experience.

Now for the not-so-fun.  I totaled our car last Tuesday.  Our only car.  I went to turn left out of our village on a two-way traffic road and didn't see the car coming on my left until I was already pulled out and we collided with the other driver going about 45-50mph....ouch.  It was an awful accident but we know things could have ended much worse.  Everyone is doing fine now.  We were so lucky to be able to borrow a car from a friend in Chris' office for the time being and it sounds like our insurance is taking care of the other driver very quickly so that's good!  Chris has been so great about reminding me he loves me more than a car, helping out with things around the house while I was doped up and making sure we stay positive instead of letting ourselves feel so defeated (that was hard, too.  Finally seeing a light at the end of the crap tunnel and then here comes some more crap.  C'est la vie).  Here's a picture of our car because I totally understand morbid curiosity:

bye, car :(  that's our bumper laying on the ground....upside down

windshield didn't stand a chance against that airbag

Our Hunger Games Experience

Just to be clear, this is NOT my review of The Hunger Games!  I have several friends who have not seen it yet.  This is just our experience last night.

In all honesty, it could have been much worse.  We got to the theater a few hours in advance to reserve our seats, went to dinner and returned to the theater about an hour before the movie just to avoid long lines for popcorn and a sea of people who can't seem to remember you have assigned seats so there's no reason to be stepping all over each other.

Those of you who know me know I am not a jerk.  I don't put people in their place just to achieve some false sense of dominance.  However, once the doors opened and we were migrating to the usher this group of high school-aged kids come shoving through the crowd, arms hooked together like a train saying "There's 6 of us!  'Scuse, 'scuse, there's 6 of us."  So I cut them off in the middle, quite miffed because one of those little turds caused me and the CHILD behind me to spill drink and popcorn, and say "YOU can wait!" and the guy behind me says "and maybe apologize to my child you stepped on to get here."  There were more exchanges between the teens and the parent along the lines of "Our friend has our tickets, though."  "Your friend will still have your ticket when you guys get up there.  This is not a concert, you don't need to be charging the crowd like you're trying to get to the front of a stage."  I stayed out of it, it was a pretty civil conversation.

Moving on to the couple sitting next to us.  This guy was ridiculous!  One of those LOUD commentators and has to go "oooooooooo!!!" every time something remotely dramatic happens or "HO-HO SHIT!  DAAAAAAMN!" during the fighting scenes.  Trust me, I totally understand people just have reactions sometimes.  But this was every - single - time.  A couple of times he did crack Chris and me up, though.  ***SPOILER: If you haven't read the book skip to the next paragraph***  When Katniss finds Peeta but he's all blended in with the surroundings the guy next to us (I'm cracking up as I'm typing this) goes "WHOA!  What tha fahhhck?"  That's me trying to portray his accent hahaha but I died laughing because it almost had a Fozzy Bear sound to it.

The only thing that kept us from choking the people next to us was the couple behind us.  I am, unfortunately, going to have to bring my dear mother into this.  My mom will do this thing where she thinks she's whispering but, in fact, she's just talking really low at a normal volume about the person right in front of her.  (Sorry, Mom haha)  That is what this couple would do.  CONSTANTLY TALKING like they were the only ones in that theater.  Several times they got the warning look from Chris.  You know what I'm talking about.  The one where you just turn around and stare at them.  They'd be phased for like a minute and then go on explaining to one another what is happening.  At one point I looked over at Chris and I go "seriously, I'm going to lose it if they don't stop."  So Chris, as nicely as he could manage at that point, turns around and says "could you guys please whisper. thanks."  There was still a crap load of talking but we could tell they were at least trying to be quieter so we just tried really hard to ignore it.

My final annoyance, which really wasn't as bad as anticipated, the family in front of us bringing their toddler and a baby.  Chris and I genuinely try to be as patient as we can with those situations because we understand really wanting to see a highly anticipated movie opening night (i.e. Harry Potter, Sex and the City haha just me on that last one) and sometimes you just can't find child care.  But it was like this baby knew what was up.  During any intense quiet scene or a dramatic no dialogue part this little babe would start crying haha  but compared to Chatty Cathy and Fozzy Bear it was a mild distraction.

Those of you who know my friend, Chubbs, know what I mean when I say there were times I thought "omg if Chubbs were here he'd be killing someone by now"  We have decided we will avoid opening nights around here from now on.

 

Deployment Project

We found out towards the end of 2011 Chris would be deployed in July.  A lot of things keep changing just about every week so the length of it is unknown.  Either way, he'll likely be gone during all of the holidays.  I still consider us to be pretty lucky for a few reasons:

1.  We've had and still have plenty of time to emotionally and financially prepare for this as well as get any paperwork or house issues taken care of prior to deployment.
2.  We are spending our second anniversary in a row together (pending his deployment goes as planned) which I hear is a rare thing these days.
3.  He shouldn't be in a combat zone (again, pending his deployment goes as planned)

I will need to stay busy during his deployment to keep myself out of trouble.  By "trouble" I mean buying a puppy.  I've had mad puppy fever for a while now and predict it will worsen when my husband is gone.  I do have plans to be in school in the Fall as well as working some kind of part time job, even if that means working in the BX warehouse.  But, I also like to do home projects.  Now, any of you who had the hilarious pleasure of seeing my bedroom when I lived with Dub know painting rooms is not exactly my bread and butter.  So that's out of the question.  Plus without Chris' supervision, who knows what colors he'll come home to.

So, I've decided to make this chair!

The idea is for this chair to someday grace the guest bedroom.  It's perfect for the travel theme we decided on.  Also, it will match the night stand which will also be made of old suitcases.  However, while we live in this house it will just have to be in Chris' office since an entire wall of the small guest room is a huge closet.

I do plan on seeking outside help with this to ensure it doesn't look like an accident AND to make sure it's safe to sit in!  Last thing I need is a lawsuit from someone with a chair leg stuck in their rear.

With all of this keeping me busy I shouldn't have time to think about clumsy, cuddly puppies.

Right?

I Left My Heart In London

Chris had a TDY last month to Mildenhall, England and I got to accompany him!  I've already talked about our airport disaster in the previous blog and our first 4 days there were not exciting because Chris still had to work and I had no car so all I could really do was workout, read or watch TV so I'll just skip straight to Saturday morning.

We took a free shuttle at 6:30am from base to the London Heathrow Airport.  I expected this bus to be pretty gross because, well, it was a free bus.  Nope.  This thing was luxurious!  We were off to a good start!

Once we arrived at the airport we took the tube into London and immediately began exploring.  We were so blessed to have been able to make this trip on one of the rare days London isn't all foggy and gross.  Of course, the first thing I did was step into a typical red English phone booth and immediately discovered it smelled like someone had been peeing in there every day for the last 2 weeks.  YUCK!  I stepped into the one next to it and discovered nothing but pornographic pictures and prostitution advertisements.  *sigh*  It would have to do for now.

After stopping for a quick breakfast of porridge, fruit and carrot juice (which is weird, don't drink it unless you have real love for carrots) we followed some signs and came across Buckingham Palace!  We couldn't tour it because the Queen is there right now and we did not stay for the changing of the guard because it was 10:00AM and it didn't start until 11:30AM.  I just didn't really want to stand against the gate for an hour and a half so maybe next time.  We then proceeded to Victoria Station to jump on our tour bus which would take us all over London.

We stopped in at Sherlock Holmes Pub for some - you guessed it! - FISH AND CHIPS!  We had heard from our travel agent that this place had THE BEST fish and chips and she insisted we go there.  They did not disappoint!  It was so delicious and it came with mushy peas which was a first for me.  It was peas at the consistency of mashed potatoes.  Pretty good stuff!  The pub had a restaurant upstairs, which is where we ate.  They had a section of the room blocked off behind glass like a museum would do and it was set up exactly like Sherlock Holmes' office in the stories.

Once we had a little lunch we hopped back on a tour bus and got off at Trafalgar Square.  There were street performers everywhere including the guys who paint themselves as statues, a couple of guys were drawing every nations flag on the ground in chalk, a man who could convert his bike into a drum set, girls giving out hugs for pounds to feed starving children and a guy putting on a skit to involve the audience.  Pigeons all over the place which was not good news for me since I'm really not a fan of birds.

From Trafalgar Square we made our way to the big stuff!  This was my favorite part of the tour because on our way to The London Eye we passed by St. Paul's Cathedral, crossed over London Bridge and Tower Bridge!  Funny story: Arizona purchased London Bridge and had it assembled only to realize it was not the bridge they thought it was.  Arizona thought London Bridge and Tower Bridge were the same thing.  England basically said "no, you idiots, and we would never sell you our Tower Bridge!"

Right across from The London Eye was Big Ben and The House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.  I had to stand there for a little while and just soak it all in.  So much detail and history in these structures.  My pictures really do not do them enough justice.

 







On to Piccadilly Circus!!  This was my favorite area!  It was pretty much the Times Square of London.  All of those big TV's everywhere and scrolling light up signs.  I discovered there was an M&M World in London and demanded we go.  So we did.  I frequently have to let my inner child out.

Finally, it's time for Hard Rock Cafe.  This is the coolest part of the night because of how the events played out.  We walked up to what we thought was the restaurant and discovered it was only a shop.  No restaurant connected to it and my heart kind of started sinking into my stomach.  I thought "SURELY there is an actual restaurant here!  They don't just post up a merchandise shop....do they???"  Turns out the place was across the street haha.  We saw this ridiculous line out front just to put our names on a list to be seated. Found out it would be a 2 hour wait minimum!!  It was over.  We went back next door feeling a little defeated and ready to just get our shirt and leave.  Chris got the idea to purchase the Hard Rock Membership card while we were checking out so we could start putting points on it since we visit one every major city we travel to/through.  When purchasing our membership we found out we get Priority/Preferred Seating at every location.  This means we get to jump to the front of the wait list....starting right then!  Haha so we get it all purchased, run back next door and find out it's only an hour for priority customers.  We walked over to the pub next door to have a drink while waiting and it was barely 30 minutes before our table was ready. Talk about a lucky night!

After dinner it was time to head back to our hotel.  I did not take any pictures of this because we were both to exhausted to make anything interesting happen for the camera.  We have every intention of returning to London after the Summer Olympics are long gone!

Tips For Traveling RyanAir

Chris and I had a chance to visit England last week!  Don't worry, I'll make sure to write about that in a separate post.  We used a popular airline out here - RyanAir - but relied on advice from others instead of doing our own research.  NEVER AGAIN!  Now, before you start frantically trying to cancel your ticket purchase, let me just say I am not writing this to discourage you from flying RyanAir.  I am simply here to give you some helpful advice to avoid having the experience we had.

1. Do Your Homework!  -Y'all, our problems could have been avoided if we had just done our research instead of relying solely on what others had told us.  So, after reading these tips, please proceed to go onto the RyanAir website and read ALL of their rules.
2. Add Bags During Ticket Purchase!  -When purchasing your RyanAir tickets it will ask you if you'll be checking any bags.  At that time it will charge you 15 euro for your luggage fee.  If you do not add your bag at the time of purchase and wait until you get to the airport it is then a 60 EURO fee!  We made this mistake because Chris was in a hurry when purchasing my ticket and we forgot so we had to add my bag at the airport.  *BAM* that's 60 euro we could have had for our trip.
3. No More Than 30lbs!  -and they mean it!  RyanAir is very strict about how much your checked bag weighs.  If it is over the allotted 30lbs they will slam you with fees for every Kg you go over.  Use a scale at home!  Chris and I used our bathroom scale but I recently bought my friend a luggage scale for something like $40 on Amazon.com.  DO IT!  
4. Check-In Online!  -It is really important that you check-in online!  Seriously, I cannot stress this enough so I am going to one more time.  CHECK-IN FOR YOUR FLIGHT ONLINE!  Chris and I arrived at the airport all excited about going on our trip.  We went up to this counter to check-in for our flight and the woman behind the glass says "You can check-in for your flight here but it's going to be a 60 euro fee."  Both our jaws dropped.  "What??  60 euros...are you serious?!"  My immediate reaction was to jump on our phone and try to check-in online but we'd still have to print our boarding pass if we did it that way.  So we seriously paid 120 EURO to even get checked-in for our flight and then while trying to check our luggage the woman informed us we did not add a bag to my ticket so we'd have to go BACK to the check-in counter and pay ANOTHER 60 EURO just so I could check my bag.
5. Arrive Early!  -Get there early, early for your flight!  First of all because you should always arrive early for your flights and Second of all because RyanAir is first come first serve seating.  I've had experience with this before when flying out of Dallas Lovefield.  In general, if you're flying with someone, people are typically pretty understanding when you want to sit together so they'll trade seats.  But, you can't just expect other passengers to cater to you....yeah, you, the one who decided to show up 20 mins prior to your flight with your friends and/or husband all wanting to sit together.  Thankfully Chris and I did not do this but we saw plenty of groups do it and I couldn't help but shake my head haha

We learned our lessons just on the flight TO England so we were smart enough to check-in a few days before our flight back to Germany, add my luggage THEN (which was only 15 euro instead of 60, woohoo!), print out our boarding passes and arrive in plenty of time to have our pick of seats.

RyanAir really is a great airline with awesome ticket prices but they're not too proud to nickel & dime you on everything else so watch out!  I really hope this was helpful and please feel free to add anything I may have missed.

~Welcome!~

Greetings and thank you for visiting my blog!  The main purpose of this blog is to help my family and friends stay updated on what's going on in mine and Chris' lives without having to scroll through Facebook all the time.  I will share stories and pictures from our travels, kitchen adventures and every day things (that are worth sharing).  This blogging business is very new to me so please bear with me while I learn the ropes and neat little tricks to make things more interesting for y'all!

To Our Family and Friends:  We love you and miss you every day!