Surprise Trip to London!

Bas surprised me on Monday by telling me that he had booked a trip to London for us in April! We were talking abou going to Egypt for some sun, but he was looking at prices and was able to get us both airfare for a combined total of 375 Euros! We booked the hotel today - the K&K Hotel George for a very good rate (for London standards.) We will be there for 5 nights... I'm too excited! I've driven through London, but never really been there, so I have a lot of research to do!

I'm advertising!!

It's a small ad - in an obscure spot, but it's only $10 for 3 months. I'll place an ad on this network's start pages once I get the blog reorganized and the Spring backgrounds loaded. But I still think it is very cool!

Click here to check it out! Scroll down to the Blog section.
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Oops!

Some of you may know the children's book by Sandra Boynton - Blue Hat, Green Hat, where the poor turkey keeps on getting it wrong... well, I guess Luna thought it was instructional on how to dress! Oops!

German Chocolate Chips...

Many of you know that I am still figuring out how to bake over here... you saw my post on the cookies I made and "baking powder."

Well, I didn't get into the chocolate chips... chocolate chip cookies are such a mainstay of American childhood that it was the one thing I started worrying about long before we ever got here. I just want to be able to make chocolate chip cookies for Luna! Well, the good news is that we can get chocolate chips... the bad news is the price and volume by which they are available. I think a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for like 4 cups, and I know my new favorite brownie recipe is about the same... well, here's a picture of what we can get here. I included the banana in the picture for reference... and each of these boxes is 1.99 euros - (keep the exchange rate in mind. :))

Sunny Saturday!

After 8 or 9 days of rain, snow and clouds, we finally saw the sun today! Here are some pictures from "lunch" in Erlangen, and our walk around the lake behind our house...

Each town with a church has a sign at the entrance to the town which announces the churches there, and their service times. This is the sign for the churches in Weisendorf - one is Catholic, the other is Evangelical.

This is the Rewe in Weisendorf. It is where I do my grocery shopping. It's very close to our house which is nice, because I go there almost everyday. I like to walk with Luna in the stroller.

Here's what it looks like inside. That's the whole produce department there. Nothing out of season here! The whole thing is about 1/4 the size of a typical American grocery store, but the quality and selection are very good.

View of a little hamlet surrounded by fields.

Building a house in Germany is a serious undertaking. They're all concrete block construction, and there is always a crane required, which sits there the whole time it takes to build the house.

Afore mentioned crane...

This is the back of our house from the other side of the lake. Ours is the half on the right. We will clear out the trees and brush along the shoreline this spring.

Nice view of the lake from another spot.

Pics of Luna from the other day...

This is outside the Cafe Mengin, which is our favorite place to go for coffee and Apfel Kuchen (Apple Cake) and Apfel Streudel on Saturday or Sunday mornings. It's on the market square in Erlangen, and there is a sun room which overlooks the Schloss (castle) Park.

I can't believe what an adorable little girl we have...

Saturday Morning Waffles

We had "waffles" this morning. I made some whipped cream to go on them. Yum. Needless to say, we had a bath right after breakfast...

Yay!

I was checking feedburner today for the latest traffic on blogaroozer, and noticed a blog I was unfamiliar with listed in the incoming referring websites, so I clicked on it to check it out... and lo and behold... someone (outside of friends, family and myself) is using one of my backgrounds!!! I was so excited. What a milestone. You can check it out at...

www.amberandnic.blogspot.com

AND she mentioned me in a post - so hopefully I will get some good word of mouth, too! I left her a comment to let her know she is my "first" (at least as far as I can tell) and to say Thanks!

Fun Day

Hey All-

had a fun day today. Now that I'm home, I've been scanning in fabrics I have around the house to use for my blog backgrounds. I can't really use anything new because of copyright concerns, so I've been scrounging for old linens I have that are appropriate. So I decided to go to Neustadt a.d. Aisch to pop into an "antiquaten" I had noticed there. Well, when got there I didn't see it from the road, and Luna was asleep. Neustadt is on the way to Rothenberg, which is about 45 miles away - so I just drove to Rothenberg! Rothenberg is a really quaint old town that still has the entire medieval old town wall circling the city, and tiny little streets and gates that you have to drive through. I was there when I was a kid, and remember it because I ran down the street barking like a dog, and my father asked (in German) a stranger we passed, if he had "seen our dog?"

Anyway - Luna was sleeping, so I just drove on, and when I got there, she was still sleeping, so I just kind of drove around and checked it out. Will be very excited to go back when the weather is better, and we can get out and explore.

So then I just turned around and drove back! And on the way back, not only did I find the store I was looking for, but another store as well. No really exciting finds today, but good places to stop back by! I'd like to find a little antique trunk to keep Luna's toys in in our living room, an old butter churn, and a wooden plate that says "Unsere Taglich Brot, Gib Uns Heute." It will be fun to look again - but when it's warmer. Both stores were in old barns and FREEZING!!

By the Way...

The lake behind our house is frozen solid! Some boys just skated past our backyard!