Sunday, May 19, 2013

Pottestein and Poland

Pottenstein for Mather's Day was great. We had some pretty crappy weather, but we manged to get out of town before the rain started. 'Steak on a Stone' was an awesome little restaurant, but I couldn't go through with grilling my own raw meat on a stone. I take after my dad in that I need my meat burnt to a crisp ... and that slab of rock just wasn't going to do it for me. Instead I chose the Cordon Bleu and fries ... and it was delicious. Vic opted for the stone cooking ... and I did try a couple of bites!

After dinner we walked around the town ... very picturesque and quaint. We want to go back soon and try the hiking paths!


I love this picture ...


The views were amazing...


Yesterday I took a whirlwind trip to Boleslawiec, Poland. It was a very industrial looking city, and was filled with different pottery shops and factories. The bus picked us up in Grafenwoehr at midnight and we got to Boleslawiec at 6 am. The stores were already opened, so we immediately started shopping!


There were so many shops, patterns and items that it was hard to decide what to get. It's a good thing I have a little self-control - otherwise I would have done some serious damage to our bank account. I kind of had my mind set on a few things that I wanted, and I manged to stick (fairly) close to that list.

This was one of the first stores we went into ...


Rows and rows of pottery ...

More rows ...


One of the larger stores with a pottery tree out front ...


By lunch time we were all STARVING ... we stopped at this little old restaurant for some Polish cuisine. There was a story about Hitler visiting this place, and etching his name into the wall, but I was half-unconscious from hunger, so I missed the details from the tour guide. I got pirogies and a beer, and it was pretty good!  This is after about 12 hours of being on the bus ... so I'm looking a little rough ...


These are a few of my favorite things that I got in the same pattern ... I love the big bowl. I also got a couple more casserole type things, but in a different pattern. They also had their holiday stuff on sale, so I got several really cute platters and bowls in different Christmas patterns. My ultimate favorite thing I picked up was a huge, beautiful wicker basket - I wish I would have gone back for more. Everything was priced in Polish Zloty, so it was all really fairly priced in dollars.

Everything is hand-painted and made right in town ... which is pretty amazing when you see some of the detail in the patterns ...


I'm back on my couponing game, and I'm doing quite well for myself. In the last week I have made some amazing deals on diapers, and then I hit the mother-load on Thursday. My total come out to $120, and with coupons I paid a little less than $30! I think I ended up leaving with 10 bottles of shaving cream, 4 things of laundry detergent, 8 things of body wash, 4 things of shampoo/conditioner, 8 packs of razors, 4 chapsticks, etc ...

I was pretty proud of myself!


Elliott is doing great ... and adding things to his vocabulary by the day! He can say 'Buzz' ... like Buzz Lightyear and 'all done'. He can now clean-up after himself ... which is a great new trick ... he will attempt to sing the 'Clean-up' song and then say 'yaaaay!' when he's done. I love it ... now I just need him to learn to do the dishes :)

We're headed to Austria this coming weekend ... the weather looks promising on the 10-day forecast  so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!! It is a rainy day here in Germany (go figure), but we are headed out to a place called Pottenstein to do some exploring, and eat at a restaurant called Gasthof Schuettersmuehle, but Americans call it 'Steak on a Stone'. Americans call it that because you literally cook your own meat on a molten hot stone - and they specialize in 'exotic' meats ... yikes. Vic has been before, but it's my first time ... I'm pretty excited. Side note for Molly Kelly - this is a gluten-free restaurant option that I have penciled in on your agenda!


An update on my first semester ... I did finish with all A's!! The summer session starts tomorrow, and it should be fairly easy ... 
Elliott seems to be over his teething madness, and back to his angelic self.  The countdown is on ... I have 21 days left of work, and 21 days until Elliott is free from daycare. 
Elliott can say Roscoe's name now!! But, it sounds like either dodo (like the small-brained bird), or tonto (meaning stupid in Spanish) ... both fitting names for poor Roscoe. He'll follow him around and say, "sit Dodo (or Tonto)", and then give him a hug ... too cute ... 
E and Vic playing in his room this morning. His hair is getting so long ... I don't know what to do with it!





Taking care of some important business on their laptops ...



So happy during bath time ... and, yes - that's a serving spoon in the tub ...



Brushing his new molars ...



I will add some pictures from Pottenstien at some point this week!!!


I hope all my moms have a great day!!!! :)

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Busy Busy Busy ...

This week was crazy for us ... meetings, get-togethers, bake sales, final exams, etc. We definitely enjoyed our weekend ... even if the weather didn't cooperate.

I finished my first semester of courses!! My final paper was a beast ... it ended up being about 15 pages of nonsense, but it's done and turned in! I'm still waiting for my final grade and semester grade.

I also ran my first bake sale ... exciting stuff, I know. One of my fellow unit spouses and friend, Vanessa, runs a little cupcake shop out of her house, so she was our main draw ... but even I made some cookie - and, yes, people ate them! We ended up raising a good deal of money to send care packages to our deployed soldiers, so I'm excited to go shopping for them!


Great news! We finally found a trustworthy babysitter!!! We tested her out on Saturday night, and tried out a German movie theater for the first time. They occasionally show movies in English, so we caught Iron Man 3D! It was an interesting experience for a couple reasons ... 1. They serve beer! 2. They don't have butter popcorn ... only kettle corn - this was upsetting. 3. A nice little lady comes in after the previews and sells ice cream ... normally I would take advantage of this, but I was downing my beer. 4. The previews were in German ... it was very comical to see American actors with German voices ...


We are still waiting for Vic's leave to be approved for Austria over Memorial Day weekend! We have a cute little hotel booked right in Salzburg ... and our itinerary all planned out! The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg, so we should get some beautiful pictures ...

Last Sunday I went to attend a spouses event, and walked into a conference room to see this giant poster of Vic shooting a large gun ...

I thought that was pretty cool!


A lady I work with cleaned out her basement, and gave Elliott a TON of awesome toys ... so we moved them to our basement and set-up a playroom! We are waiting for some bins and organizers to come, but he loves it so far ...



We are hoping for nice weather next weekend so we can take a day trip!