Another week, more fun, and more food!

Saturday officially marked our ONE MONTH anniversary of being in our house.  It really doesn't feel like it has been that long, and we are finally at the point where we can have people over.  (Minus the boxes by the second balcony that I can't lift and get in the attic...)  

We had our friends and their kids over on Saturday and it was a fabulous time.  We played some video games, drank mojitos (ok, the boys drank whiskey and rum), and played catchphrase.  Amanda's sons are so sweet.  They play with Delilah and they actually all laid down in the living room and watched Lady and the Tramp.  It was incredibly sweet.  

I've been having allergy issues.  My throat is super scratchy and sometimes my left eye will just burrrrrrn and itch.  It's so frustrating.  I'd take medicine, but anything stronger than ibuprofen just kinda messes with my body.  Even after surgeries, I've not taken the medicine I've been prescribed because I don't like that swimmy vision and haze and confusion.  I'll deal.  

We went to a carnival tonight in Kaiserslautern.  It was OK, but they claimed to have 140 vendors...it was really like 5 different vendors and then there were 28 booths of each, all food.  We were expecting something like crafts/housewares/etc...but that just wasn't it.  It was fun though, and Delilah got to ride some kiddie rides, so all in all, it wasn't a bust.  If Ben hadn't been on call this weekend, we would have gone to the Black Forest.  There was one mission that kept getting cancelled and he had to go in for a couple hours Saturday, Sunday, AND today.  So it wasn't easy to do anything this weekend.

Just a random building in Kaiserslautern

This was painted on the side of a kid's bathroom at the carnival....

HUGE ferris wheel!

This week is the end of swim class for Delilah, and that kinda stinks because it gave us an excuse to get out and go do something productive.  I think we will keep going swimming though.  It isn't very much and she loves it so much. I love it that she isn't afraid of the water.  Perhaps on the days we don't go swimming, I'll take her over to the next village and run with her in the jogging stroller through the main strip.  I've got to keep myself on track.  It's been hard lately with not feeling well and the rain.

Ok, here's the upcoming week's meal plan: 

(PS. My landlord ordered the part to fix my oven, so I'll be able to branch out more when that's fixed!)

Lunch:

Wraps with mustard and turkey with mixed veggies

Quinoa salad (corn, tomato, avocado, and salt) with a smoothie

Grilled cheese and frozen peas (I don't know why, she loves them more when they are frozen...)

PB and honey (a must have each week) and string cheese

Boiled eggs with veggies and triscuts

Leftovers with blueberries

Snacks:

Salted caramel granola

Hummus and veggies

edamame

String cheese&pretzels

Dried fruit

Apple Slices

Dinner:

Beef and black bean nachos

Crockpot teriyaki chicken

Asian lettuce wraps

Baked chicken fajitas

Hawaiian crockpot chicken

Grilled cheese and tomato soup

So there you have it, folks.  I'm gonna stick with it again this week.  Makes life just a bit easier.  

I'm off to watch some True Blood. 

xoxo

Ok, I just had to come and give an update:

Made the Mexican quinoa.  It was amazing.  One pot, everything just gets dumped in.  So easy and my first vegetarian made meal.  I was extremely happy.

This is one of the easiest things I've ever made and it's so addicting.  My husband came home and had to make himself put the lid back on after a bit.  He told me he could have eaten the whole thing.  A super easy and cheap snack.  It made a lot too!

We've tried store bought hummus, and Delilah won't touch it.  I thought that maybe if she helped me make it, she would try it.  We made the avocado hummus and she actually got upset when we were done snacking.  Another great success!

Links to all the recipes are in the previous post!

In other news: the women are still complaining about the Frozen dolls and it's cracking me up.

Now excuse me, but I have to go watch some Game of Thrones.

Back at it.

Hello, friends!

We are finally out of living in a hotel.  We moved into our house on the 24th of April, and didn't get internet until the 12th of May.  Using a data plan on my phone was not ideal, but it did give me more motivation to get a ton of stuff done at the house.  I've stuck with meal planning, just obviously couldn't post it.  

As always, when I'm away for awhile, a picture update is sometimes easier than trying to remember everything that went on in the 3+ weeks I was absent from the internet.  Here we go:

A really cool kid making a wish on a walk on base.

She's learning about even amounts and learning how to use a mouse at the library.

Super cool kid taking a walk with me.

My friend Amanda has a SUPER sweet kid, Aiden, and Delilah just loves him.

My house looked like this for awhile...and it was awful. 

On a hike on one of the many trails around our village.  The other night, we did almost 4 miles and it was awesome.

A really cool a gross German slug I found on a hike.

We've got this statue in our backyard and Delilah loves it.  Don't worry, the grass in our yard is cut now.

Delilah started swim class and absolutely LOVES it.  She's getting so comfortable in the water and her teacher has nothing but high praise for her.  I'm so happy!

They're making juice (and a mess)

Out and about with my girl, and a sudden big rainstorm trapped us in the car.  We decided on a little photoshoot.  

This is a view from my balcony 7:30am vs 11:00am.  

Our neighbors have sheep that now LOVE us because we bring them carrots.  They are super cute and really stinky.

Authentic German food for Ben's birthday dinner!  They served him this for his birthday and just gave him a bottle of wine (which I drank while we all played Cards Against Humanity). 

Amanda's kids.  Delilah loves them, and they love Delilah.

Went out hiking on May 4th, and stumbled upon a Wanderung.  It's basically a giant walk through a bunch of different villages and everyone is out and about.  There was a tent outside our village that was selling Bitberger (Half cola, half beer).  It's delicious.

A view of my little village from one of the trails.

This bakery is SO GOOD.  

Saw this on the way to Globus the other day...hilarious.

After a trip to Ikea, Ben set out to put together a piece of furniture. It wasn't as bad as he expected, and definitely didn't include nearly as much swearing as when he had to put Delilah's crib together.

Delilah's bed, just waiting on the blanket from Aunt Ruthie.  She's making a pink, gray, and white chevron quilt...because she's AWESOME.  I did all the paintings on her wall.

Another view of her room.

Of course she had to get this cute owl lamp. (Ikea)

Finished toy storage that Ben put together.  So much nicer with toy storage instead of random boxes like it was before. 

Cute little doll bed.

The rug we got for her room. It's perfect.  All the paintings, rug, accessories, etc...go together so well. I'm really pleased with how her room turned out.  Now I just need to get the rest of the house done.

Our Mother's Day pictures.  Love my girl!

Working on new stuff for my etsy site (http://www.etsy.com/shop/intheskydesigns)

This is the sectional we found on MEGA sale.

Our cool retro looking dining room table

Delilah was totally over furniture shopping.

Just walking around our village.

I made Thai soup.  Trust me...don't ever leave out the red curry paste.  I made it in the hotel and had put green peppers in it (which are really bitter out here for some reason) and no red curry paste (because it was out at the store) and it wasn't that great. Remade it the other day and it was AMAZING.

We got her this little easel at Ikea and I moved it into the kitchen.  She likes to be creative while I'm cooking.  The other side is a whiteboard.

We went on base yesterday to the opening of the Disney aisle.  I wanted to go because there were supposed to be prizes and crafts and meet and greets.  First of all, about an hour before it opened, someone had the bright idea to move the line dividers, so people that showed up at 11:45 we starting to shove towards the front instead of acting like adults and waiting in line.  Second of all, they had blown up about 30 balloons and passed them out...and then they were out...so there were a bunch of kids that just couldn't have a balloon.  The meet and greet characters were a JOKE.  They were store employees wearing really cheap halloween costumes.  The announcers made a big deal of looking for Mickey and Minnie, and then out walked 2 people with mouse ears.  The kids were not impressed.  I was looking around, and I could see these women starting to get super aggressive as they were almost drooling waiting to run in and grab some Frozen toys.  I told Ben, "If you want to go in the aisle and try and get a doll, that's fine.  Delilah doesn't need one though, and she's not going to care either way."  He told me we were up at the front, he'd go grab one.  I told him, "You need to be careful, these women are going to get aggressive and shove and they won't care about pushing children or you out of the way to try and get a doll."  He didn't believe me.  So the curtains opened, and as you can see in the picture below, one curtain was almost pulled down as the crazy women shoved children, lost their own, pushed people, and just surged into the aisle.  Ben watched people just start grabbing dolls off the shelf.  Luckily, he's a calm person, and would never think about pushing a woman or child to get a plastic toy, and someone we had talked to just handed him one.  The people running the event had told people not to do exactly what they did, and there were several kids that got hurt and lost, one lady even had her stroller with her child in it pushed over.  It was freaking ridiculous.  A huge disgusting show of greed and lack of care.  I'll just tell you that if someone had pushed Delilah over or ANYTHING to get a freaking doll, I'd probably unleash my temper that I have worked so hard in the last 6 years to control.  

And what is REALLY funny and stupid, there are women on spouse page today complaining that they showed up 15 minutes after the event started and now their kids are disappointed because the toys were gone.  Give me a break.  First, you kid doesn't need a doll that badly, secondly, don't show up late and expect to get an insanely popular toy.  

So here's the meal plan for the week.  Breakfast/Lunches are usually the same, but I'm trying to mix it up.

Breakfast:

Vanilla/almond yogurt

Cereal (she loves cracklin oat bran!)

Boiled eggs

Toast and fruit

Lunch:

Pasta 

Leftovers

Homemade pizza "lunchable"

Tuna salad with carrots and pita bread

Strawberry and avocado salad

Dinner:

Mexican Quinoa Casserole

Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Burrito Bowls

Pigs in a blanket and mashed cauliflower

Breakfast

Snacks:

Honey Almond Granola

PB/Apple/Choco chips

Mango salsa

Avocado hummus