Gingerbread Men

There is a part in Shrek that really makes Robin and I laugh.  It involves a Gingerbread Man.

I told Robin we could make Gingerbread Men this year.  This was the first batch.  I really went to town with the frosting… they tasted good, but weren’t anything nice to look at.

Some detail pictures.  Let me explain, from left to right, top to bottom.
Gingerbread man in one-piece red pajamas, gingerbread girl in swimsuit with flip-flops, this gingerbread man was supposed to be tie-die but something went very wrong, a gingerbread girl in a ruffle skirt with high-heels, gingerbread man with heart, this gingerbread man is like the symbol that says “don’t walk” at the cross walk

Robin liked the gingerbread men so much, that he wanted more. He even made them this time. I kept the frosting simple – just the outline. Last night we took some of them to some friends but this recipe makes a lot of Gingerbread men, so we still have a whole army of Gingerbread men sitting in our kitchen.

Gesundheit

Yes, gesundheit is something you say when someone sneezes. It means health.  This past month has probably been our “least healthy” month since we got married.

I have had a cold since before Thanksgiving that just will not die. For two weeks, I was sick with it, but now it isn’t bad enough for me to think I am sick, but it is annoying. In the middle of having a cold, my back went out.  That was cool… or not.  It is really quite surprising to bend over to pick something up and suddenly have such an intense pain and not be able to stand back up again. I would say it wasn’t severe – I was able to bend over (slowly) two days later and within 4 days I was lifting things again.  It was quite shocking and quite painful. Robin was very nice through the whole thing. 

Robin has also been fighting something (a cold/cough) for a few weeks.  He was doing pretty well, but this past weekend, it caught up with him and he spend quite a bit of time on Friday in bed. He is back at work today, but isn’t sure he will make it though the week.  Again, nothing severe, but just enough make things not so pleasant…

Between the two of us there has been more coughing, sneezing, and staying in bed than we have ever had. Here is hoping for a healthy holiday and new year.

Humor

Robin and I usually speak English with each other.  His English is really good but every once in a while there is a word that doesn’t get pronounced quite right.  One word in particular makes me giggle every time.  Button.  The other day Robin asked me if I had pressed the button to close the garage door. It didn’t sound like button though… it sounded like bottom. Of course I was confused… ummm, Robin, what ‘bottom’? I did figure it out. We laughed. Since then, a similar dialog has happened more than once, with plenty of laughing from both of us.

For every word Robin has a problem with, there are about 10 I struggle with. Two examples:
Cake – Kuchen: the ‘hen’ part comes from the back of the throat and I can only say it if I way it very slow and over pronounced (kuc—HEN)… it never sounds normal (and just to make things confusing: Kuchen is cake, Küche is kitchen, and kochen is to cook…they all sound similar)
Bundt Pan – Gugelhupf: if I have to say it, it is usually followed by a giggle – google-HUP-f
Apple – Apfel: should be pretty easy, but somehow when I say it, it sounds more like Abfall, which means trash

There are plenty of other words in English and German that Robin and I laugh about… we mix the languages frequently and sometimes forget words in our native language.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas is coming!  We set up our Christmas tree a bit early this year (a few days before Thanksgiving).  It actually worked out quite well for us because the day after we put up our tree, I got sick and spent a few days in bed.  I am doing much better now.

During my trip to the US this year, I was able to bring back more of my Christmas ornaments.  I think they all look quite nice.  If you couldn’t tell by the colors on the tree, I like blue.  Very much.  Our tree also has a new neighbor. However, this neighbor is a much more permanent resident and will be staying around long after the tree gets put away for the year.  A lovely electric fireplace. It looks a bit bare and lonely at the moment, but we will work on that.

The candles on top are our advent “wreath”.  The four Sundays before Christmas we light one candle.  The next Sunday we light two and so on until Christmas.  This Sunday is the first Advent (Nov. 27th)

We like Christmas time at our house :)

Autumn Leaves

Just a few pictures of the leaves here this fall.  These pictures were taken out in the fields near our apartment.

Happy Autumn!

Home Improvement

Now that we have 97.5% of the boxes unpacked and the walls all painted, we are able to do other things around our apartment that need to be done. Here are some of the projects we have been working on.

Nightstand for Erin

We bought this dresser at Ikea.  I saw online that several people painted it and made other changes to make it a cute little nightstand.  Now, many of you may already know that I am not really the one you want working with tools. Have any of you seen me working with a screwdriver? I think it is safe to say I have an “interesting” technique when it comes to tools. I did this piece (and all the other ones I will show you) all by myself.  I used a power screwdriver and power sander (normally it is not a good idea to give someone  who is a tool-idiot power tools, just if you were wondering). The change isn’t dramatic; it isn’t perfect, but it is still pretty good.

There it is, right next to my bed.  You can’t tell very well, but the knobs are blue with a silver piece in the middle. I just finished it today, so I haven’t filled it with stuff yet.  That will come very soon.

Coat hangers

We needed a few hooks to hang our coats on in the entry way.  Robin had some old wooden ones (see color example).  Bare wood = not my favorite color.  Presto-chango, let’s make them white. They may not be the cutest thing in our house but they are very functional.  They will hold both a coat and a scarf… and more.  You may ask what that grey box above my coat is.  It is the door bell “speaker”. Why is it covered with a grey tape? I have not idea.  It was that way when we moved it.

 

Re-Painting Chairs

Remember these chairs from last year?  Well, they don’t match anymore.  So, they will all be painted white.  See the example below.  That chair has wet paint on it.  White is the only color of furniture paint we have, so any furniture that needs to be painted will probably end up white.

New Silicone in the bathroom

Some of the silicone caulking in the bathroom wasn’t looking very good.  It needed to be replaced (it was stained with tobacco smoke).  I removed the old caulking and put in the new.  Not bad for someone who doesn’t usually do that sort of thing.  The caulking isn’t perfect, but the only thing I know about putting on new caulking I learned from watching my dad do it and two YouTube videos.

Not quite perfect, but not bad.

It looks better than it did before, so I can’t complain.

While I was putting on the new caulking, I got silicone everywhere… EVERYWHERE! Have you ever tried to do things with silicone all over your hands?  Considering the mess I had while I was doing it, I think it came out wonderfully.

A few craft projects

I didn’t get around to decorating for Halloween. It isn’t a huge holiday here anyway.  I did make a banner for Thanksgiving though.  It looks good in my entryway. 

I am a bit ahead of schedule, but I also made a wreath for Christmas.  I saw a cute wreath online and decided I would make it for my door this year.  I started it last week and finished today.  I like it.  I can’t wait to put it up for Christmas!

Those are all my projects… for now….

We have moved!

Robin and I found a new apartment and moved in on October 1st.  Since then we have been quite busy will making our apartment a nice place to live.  The previous tenant had interesting decoration ideas.  We have quite different taste than she did so we have been painting up a storm.  Here are a few pictures to show  what we have been up to.

Living Room

Lovely red with grey stripes has been replaced with “bamboo white”.  The walls are white with a hint of yellow.  We still need to put pictures on the wall and maybe a rug in front of the couches. We are quite pleased with the results here.

Entry way

For some reason, I didn’t take pictures of the entry way. You can see a small bit of the color in the doorway in the picture on the top left.  The picture next to it shows the mirror designs that were in the hallway. We painted it a crisp white.  Ignore the laundry basket in the picture… and the light hanging from a wire.

Bedroom

The yellow and brown in the bedroom was also replaced with white.  It looks great with my bedspread.  There are still a few things to be done in the bedroom, but at the moment it works.

Bathroom

Just in time for Halloween we replaced the old toilet seat with a boring white one.  The old one had real razor blades, barbed wire, and for those times when you want to use the restroom at night and don’t want to turn on the lights – LED lights (although, I am not sure how you would find the switch in the dark… it is quite small and hard to see even with the lights on). Call me strange, but I will take a boring white toilet seat any day of the week over the old one.

The kitchen is still being worked on, but here is one thing I did in there. When it is done, we will post more pictures.