Ring

After a long wait, we were finally able to get my ring. We ordered it, waited, it came and was too big! We ordered again and it finally came in. It is so pretty :)

Dust Bunnies

I know this photo is disgusting.

A few weeks ago, I was telling Robin that our floor is a lot of work to keep clean. I said "There is one good thing though." "What is that?" "I know all that gross stuff I am sweeping up everyday isn't getting stuck in carpet."

We don't have any carpeting in our apartment - tile, laminate, and fake wood flooring. I sweep the apartment everyday. At least once. This is pretty typical of what I get. That gross stuff is all from one day! Sick. I can't believe how fast the dust bunnies grow and multiply. At least I know I am getting it cleaned up... not just letting it hang out in carpet until the next time I feel like vaccuuming.

Around the house

I am not exactly the most domestically-gifted person. However, I have been working on a few domestic projects this week. I worked more on the chairs I was painting. I have 3 chairs now painted light blue. They look so cute with my white scalloped table cloth. Ok, they aren't quite done... one of them still needs another coat of paint. I am still working on another chair, but I will paint it white and cover the seat cushion that is on it now. It is a much nicer chair than the other three, so I am hoping I can put my practice to good use. I don't want to mess up our one nice wood chair.

My other project has been to create a bit more storage room in our apartment. When I say "storage room" I actully mean a place I can hide things that I don't want to put away. In our entry hall way, there was a strange square nook. It isn't very big, but big enough to put (I mean hide) things in. We have had things there since we moved in. I got tired of looking at all that stuff and wondering where I should put it, so this week I got busy and made a curtain to go in front of it all. Looks nice :) You would never know all the mess hanging out behind the curtain, my little secret.

It's... ummmm..... healthy?

Yup - that is a GREEN SMOOTHIE. The other day I was thinking to myself - "Self, you need to try to eat more vegetables". I can only think of two ways to get more vegetables:

The direct way - cook veggies or eat them raw.

1. The indirect way - disguise them so you can pretend you aren't eating them.

I chose the second way. I have had green smoothies before and thought that might be the way for me to hide vegetables. Robin had school today, so he wasn't around this morning when I made one... I didn't want to scare him with the green thing I was drinking.

Here is what I had - so mystery dark green lettuce leaves (I don't know what kind of lettuce it is), 4 frozen strawberries, 1/3 lemon, apple juice, a bit of yogurt, a splash of grapefruit juice. Sounds like a good way to get more fruit... whatever, it's healthy. I tossed it all in the blender and blended everything until I didn't see any chunks left. Then I poured it into my glass and drank. Ummm... it's healthy.... yeah, tastes like it too. My tip - get a straw. You can put the straw far enough back in your mouth that you don't have to taste it. Also, don't think, just drink it... Can't wait to have it again tomorrow.

Fresh air

I like to smell good. Sweat does not smell good. When I moved to Germany I brought a small stash of antipersirant with me. When I was first here as a missionary, one of the other Sisters who had been here a while told me not to bother with antipersirant here - just get the American kind. The advice stuck.

I have tried two different types of deodorant/antipersirant here, but neither were successful (I smelled bad). This past week I finished on of the deodorants in my American deodorant stash.... It is interesting the strange things I miss from the US. The whole country of Germany seems to be able to survive on deodorant purchased in Germany but I can't seem to let my American kind go.

Scriptures

Robin has started a blog. I think he keeps his journal there (I don't know... I just tried to access it, but it is private so no luck). Anyway, this morning he came in with my camera and asked me to take a picture for him. Then he went and got our scriptures and arranged them on the couch. He said the picture was for his blog.

We read from The Book of Mormon together every morning before he goes to work. I read in English, he reads in German. We are currently reading in 2 Nephi - in the Isaiah chapters. After we read a chapter we discussed what we learn from it. The whole process takes 15-30 minutes.

Another Healthy Breakfast for the Pfarrkirchers

I made brownies again a few days ago. This morning, Robin wanted brownies for breakfast. I was eating my yogurt and not paying much attention to how he was eating his breakfast... when looked up I found him doing this - breaking the brownie to bits and putting in on his bread (the bread already had butter on it). He said I should try it - it was WONDERFUL! Umm, I think I will stick to the "normal" way of eating brownies.

I also had a brownie with my breakfast this morning. I ate a bite of it and then worked on the rest of my breakfast. Robin was done eating before I was (which is pretty unusual - I am a much faster eater). He saw my brownie still sitting on my plate and asked if I had had too much brownie... ummm, no.... I was just saving it for dessert. Thanks for making sure though. Good to know he is there for me to eat my brownie when I have had too much :)

An attempt

Ok, I think I have explained in other posts that I am not exactly the most handy handy-woman... but I have seen on the internet (and on TV) you can take old wood furniture and repaint it to make it look wonderful. I thought I would give it a try. I took one of Robin's old wood chairs, sanded it, and tried to spray paint it white. The white spray paint was a little less than sucessful, so I decided to paint it blue with a paint brush. Much more sucessful. I'm not finished with it yet, I didn't have time to paint the bottom of the legs, but here is a picture so you get an idea.

We have three other wooden chairs that I can paint. I am thinking about painting the next chair yellow. One of the chairs has a padded, fabric covered seat. I am planning to replace the fabric with something cute and paint the chair white. We will see how long it takes me or if I even get around to it... I hope I do... it would be so cute.

'I love you' Dinner

Tonight I wanted to make Robin a special dinner. Anyone who knows how I cook (or how I DON'T cook) knows that is a hard task for me. When I read the weather report yesterday, it said it was supposed to be cool and rainy. Great :) I will make tomato soup (from a mix), and corn bread muffins. This morning I made the corn bread muffins. As the day went on, I noticed the

weather report was absolutely wrong. It was warm and sunny the whole day.... hmmmm....I decided we could have heart shaped pasta. To go with it, I went to Robin's favorite bakery and bought some heart shaped rolls. So cute.

When Robin got home, he asked what was for dinner. I told him it was a surprise. A little later I was talking with my mom online and I told her what I had planned to make. Robin heard and said, I knew it! So for dinner I made tomato soup to go with the corn bread. We also had the heart shaped rolls and the heart shaped pasta. It was very good.

During dinner, Robin said "Look at your computer". He had put two little heart shaped photo holders on either side of my computer. It kind of looked like my laptop had sprouted antennas. It was cute :)

Also just to let people who read this know how nice Robin has been this week: He installed a new light fixture in our bedroom, he rubbed my back

when it was sore, he took all the extra furniture and other trash out to be picked up by the garbage men (more about that in a different post), he came with me to file paper work to keep me legally here in Germany, and he brought me roses - twice. What a nice guy.

I am a guinea pig

My mother-in-law has been getting her hair done at the same place for several years (15-30 years, I don't remember exactly). She gets her hair cut for free every 6 weeks. In return for a free hair cut, she has products tested on her hair. I went with her a few months ago to see what it was like and to see if it was possible for me to do it as well. It might sound a bit dodgy, but is really actually pretty neat. It looks like a salon except that there are computers at each station. There are different "sections" people can be in to test products. My mother-in-law is in the natural product section. They lady who cuts her hair is a master at hair cutting and usually has people she is training close by to observe her. I was able to get in the queue with the same lady.

I went last week to have my hair done for the first time. They can do just about anything you want. I plan to get highlights but I have to wait for the ones I have to grow out a bit first. When I went last week, they were testing a deep conditioning product. I got one that was for blonde hair. She brought out two bottles. She told me that one is currently on the market and the other is not. They changed one ingredient in the product and are testing to see if it is an improvement. Most of the products this company distributes (it is called Goldwell by the way) are only for salons. They do have a few lines that can be found in drugstores, but not much selection. Anyway, for the test, they parted my hair in half. Applied one of the products to half of my hair - they weighed how much product they used. Then applied the other product to the other half of my hair using exactly the same amount. Waited 5 minutes as would be directed on the bottle. Then washed it out. She combed my hair and had me feel both sides. She asked if I noticed a difference between the two halfs (yes, I did). Then I showed her the pictures for how I wanted my hair cut. She cut and styled it and then felt compaired the two sections of my hair once they were dry. She asked one of the other stylists to see what she thought. She wrote all of her observations in the computer.

I would post a picture of my hair cut, but I didn't take any. It is pretty much the same cut I have had for the past 5 years or so. Just the way I like it :)

Das Auto

Robin and I have been looking for a new(er) car. Our little Panda Fiat just doesn't like to work well in winter. Last weekend we found this nice Mazda 626. We plan to get it once the mechanic does his inspection on the car. It is a 1997, but well mantained and very, very, very clean on the inside. We are hoping it will be a good car for us. Finding a new(er) car came at good time. This past week the Panda went in for it's safety inspection... and failed..... We have a month to do all the needed repairs be we are not sure if the Panda is work the amount it will cost to fix it... we shall see. Just incase you haven't seen a picture of our Wonderful Panda here it is :)

Pfarrkircher Frauen

Today Robin and I got a package from one of his cousins. She sent us a nice card and a picture of all of the other 5 "Pfarrkircher women". I am the 6th in the family. There aren't very many Pfarrkirchers, so they are glad that one more has joined their group.

Legal

As of today, I have official permission to stay in Germany for 3 years. It only took 2 months of jumping through all the right hoops just the right way, but we did it :) After three years, I can apply for longer term residency.