Promises

It sure is a good thing my new year's resolution was not to blog more often!! Haha!! I have been very neglectful and will update this weekend and do sincerely hope to get back into the routine of updating more often! I make no promises though!!

Until then, Happy Kings Day! This day celebrates the wise men who came to see baby Jesus bringing him gifts. I remember around this time last year making a king's cake at the youth center because that is part of the tradition- minus a plastic baby of course, because I find that just a little bit too creepy! Anyhow, if you have never had the chance to make one you definitely should! I will have to admit when I took the cake out to the kids to eat, by the time I cleaned up my mess and came out to try some it was GONE!! So, I have never actually had any but it smelled delicious if that helps!! :) Maybe I will make another one this year!

So I got my recipe here last year when I made it and if I could get a bunch of middle and high schoolers to eat it then I think it must be somewhat good!!

Bright Side

I know it has been a while since I posted but in honor of "Look on the Bright Side" Day, you should be happy I am posting now! :) Anyhow, I am officially on my winter vacation from school and I am reminded of one of the reasons I love teaching- breaks. Do not underestimate the love your teachers have for your kids because we anticipate these breaks. But in case you are unaware, teaching those rugrats can get exhausting and we need that little break to recharge our batteries and go restock on patience! :)

This how I have spent the past few days of my break. Saturday morning Jon, Doug (our friend), and I drove about an hour and a half to pick up our new addition to the family, Trooper. Doug insisted on calling him money since our other furry boy is Cash! So silly! Anyhow, on the way there I desperately needed to stop at a restroom. I am not sure if you remember me mentioning way back when we first got there that you have to pay to use the restroom sometimes here in Germany! Believe me- I find it just as ridiculous as you do that you should be charged for something you have to naturally do. Anyway, so here is my story. We pulled into a place after being on the lookout for one for a good thirty minutes so I was not the most delightful person. I jumped out of the car as soon as we parked ans discovered the bathrooms were around the other side so I start a light jog- so as not to look like a complete idiot. So I finally see the door with those blessed little figures on them showing restrooms and go through the door. I am immediately met with one of those metal turn things you have to go through when entering the subway, a baseball game, or six flags. This was not your everyday-you-pay-bathroom. Normally, when they want you to pay, they put a bathroom attendant there to give you a cold deathly stare if you do not put 20 euro cents in the bowl. NO- you had to insert your money in this machine in order to get to go through the little turn in order to even get into the restroom! I wish now that I had taken a picture of this to show you how ridiculous! So I am forced to do a slightly more idiotic jog back to the car to beg for euro change, and not 20 cents- 70 euro cents!! That is basically equivalent to our dollar! We had nothing!! SO my sweet friend Doug had to go in the little shop, buy a sandwich and get me change so I could go to the bathroom. I, totally idiotic jogging by this point, return to the darn bathroom and put my euro in and it spits out a ticket!! Like seriously!! What am I going to do with a ticket saying I had to pay to go to the bathroom!!! UGH! So yea by the end of the whole ordeal I was quite ill but relieved at the same time. So next time you have to make a bathroom stop and want to complain about the bathroom- remember this story and think, "I am glad I didn't have to pay!"

OK, so back to our new addition. We brought Trooper home and Cash wanted nothing to do with him at first but they are wrestling, playing, and getting along quite nice now. Sunday evening I hosted a cookie swap party. Some of the girls I invited were unable to make it but we still had a lovely time with those who did. We laughed, cut up, and just had a plain old good time- plus got yummy cookies. I will put up the recipe for the cookies I made later because I have to admit- they were pretty darn good! Other than that we have been switching off between relaxing and cleaning!

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning and into Tuesday afternoon we had our first snowfall of the winter. Sadly Jon didn't get home before nightfall to play in it with me and the dogs. Most of it has turned to ice by now and is already surrendering to the grass below. It was still nice to finally get the first one!

German Christmas Tradition

Psst, psst, Nikolaus may come to your house.
German children believe that Nikolaus (the German Santa Claus) secretly visits their houses
during the night from the 5th to the 6th of December while they are asleep. He fills their shoes
with tiny things like candy, a hair band, a sparkly pencil, a little toy car, etc.

Since we live in Germany we have a chance of having our shoes filled if we put out
our shoes either in front of our bedroom doors or - if you have nice neighbors - in front of
the hallway doors. So do not be surprised if you find a pair of shoes where you think they do not
belong.

Help your children believe in one really exciting German custom. (In case Nikolaus does
not make it to your house, you might want to back him up with a little surprise for your
child…). :)

Gift idea for today:
Get your family a new game so that it is something you can all enjoy together. Our household just consists of my hubby and I but we still love playing cards and games with our friends when they come over. Here are some ideas of good family games:

If you're looking for dinner games which the whole family can join into, take a look at the family time fun dinner games and activities. These are a set of extremely simple, and yet highly enjoyable dinner games and activities for families with kids aged 5 to 12. These dinner games promote unity within the family, and make dinner time pleasurable and fun. The set of game cards is nicely packaged in a colorful metal tin. The games and activities are of a wide variety, ranging from puzzles, counting, naming your favorite things, to guessing games and more. Young kids are even encouraged to eat their veggies and drink their milk via the fun games and activities. The games encourage the kids to open up, share their experiences, and get to know a lot of things about each other and their parents. It is a boxed set of fifty-one games for families with kids 5 to 12 years to play at the dinner table while they eat. The quick and easy-to-play games, like counting moo, the last bite and pass the pepper, break up dinnertime routine and add fun to family meals. No game board or game pieces required just food and family. Kids learn creative thinking, social skills and more. The spill-proof game cards are durable and easy to clean.

If your crew is more likely to get into a video game- please do not fret! There are answers for that problem! Try one of the video games with fun family games in video game format. These video game collections usually include up to four different "old school" games that are fun for the whole group. Those are just two ideas, feel free to incorporate your own "classic" favorites! Who remembers these classics?

Go for a Ride

Today is "Go for a Ride" day. Obviously, this holiday was thought of when gas prices were not quite so ridiculous. Still, I have to admit one of my favorite things about going somewhere with my honey is the drive.

Living in Germany does benefit you on those drives with beautiful scenery. My favorite scenery is all the little villages that in little valleys surrounded by farm land. There is something so quaint and refreshing to see that people here still live that way and makes you remember that life is simple, we are the ones who make it complex.

Another favorite part about taking those drives is being by the side of my hubby. We love to joke and tease each other when in the car about who is right more than the other about the times we have gotten lost since being here in Germany, which has unfortunately been one time too many! ;) However, riding in the car with my husband also gives us time to hold hands and talk and it takes me back to the days when we were dating and our riding time was our quizzing time where we would ask each other questions and just talk about how our days were. We don't take drives here in Germany very often because we don't need to drive very far for most things and we often take the short drive alone. I will be grateful when we are back home and more drives include both of us.

So take a short or long ride today and savor the scenery and the conversation. If you ride alone, take the time to have a conversation with God instead. Enjoy your ride!

Beautiful Day

I do not find it a coincidence at all that My sister-in-law's birthday falls on "Beautiful Day." While I will not be able to celebrate her 30th birthday with her I know she has many friends and family there to help make this day super special for her, not to mention my amazing brother who I know will treat her like a princess like he always does! I mean if Molly(the pup) gets her own cake and party then Lisa deserves one too right?!?! Lisa, thank you for making my big brother so happy and turning him into a big puddle of mush! haha I miss you both Happy Beautiful Birthday Lisa!!

On the project front I recently told you I was working on something involving a canvas, paints and a ribbon. Well the ribbon got wrecked in the process of trying to use it for a photo so I had to resort to simple yarn but I think it all worked out in the end. What do you think of my most recent project- our Christmas door decoration for this season!

This was yet another idea inspired by Pinterest. I am telling you that place has got to be one of the coolest things ever created. I had a lot of fun painting my canvas. I love the Christmas season and we have started early here at our house. Our Christmas tree has been up for almost two weeks now. My hubby started ordering Christmas presents online a few weeks ago that he said I could not open. I told him if he was going to do that, I got to put up the Christmas tree when the packages started arriving. He was forced to keep up that deal and we now have a lit Christmas tree next to me with about 5 wrapped boxes underneath it!

I had some extra time on my hands tonight before posting this and decided to go ahead and make this project I have been meaning to make for a while. We always seem to end up with papers and mail lying around on our kitchen counters so when I saw this very simple and cute way to keep that from happening I certainly had to jump at it! I saved the first cereal box we had after that. In fact I think I made it a point to buy some cereal the next time I went to the store so that I would have a box for it! This particular box used to be fruit loops. I took some scrapbook paper from a pack my mom sent and from a pack my sweet sis sent and covered the box and cut out the letter to spell out paper on the front. I do not have the proper heavy duty magnet clips to safely secure it yet so it won't hold anything for now but it sure did come out great.

Yesterday Jonathan and I went down to Ramstein to pick up a few things we needed. We had some friends who also needed to go so we all made a day of it. We stopped in a Mexican Cantina in Kaiserslautern for lunch which was quite yummy but I admit made me miss Mexicale Grille. Once we made it to the px in Ramstein we shopped around for random odds and ends we needed that our px does not carry. I snatched up a couple Christmas presents for the boys, my nephews. Then snatched up some string so I get started using my sewing machine I recently purchased. I am so excited to get started on so many projects I have in mind from pillowcases to quilts. Jonathan also did some wandering around and happened upon a very nice desktop. We have been discussing how the next kind of computer we would purchase would be a desktop computer since we have a couple laptops already. Although we have a couple laptops his is the only one that works fairly fast and such. So we bought ourselves an early Christmas present and got a new desktop. So we are very excited about that.

Well that is about all for now, I must go finish cleaning and getting ready for all our guest we will have in the next week. Our dear and sweet friends, the Greens, will be arriving Wednesday night to spend Thanksgiving with us and will be staying here until the weekend when we will have our other sweet friends baby shower to celebrate her baby girl that is due the first of January. It will such a fun and exciting week indeed!!

Evaluation Day!!

Tomorrow is "Evaluate Your Life Day." I figured it had been a while since I highlighted a random holiday and this might be a good one to touch on. I know, I getting ahead of myself since this day is actually tomorrow but I wanted to let you know so that as your day goes by tomorrow you can evaluate the things in your life that are important and what means the most.

I have recently started a new job, as some of you already know. Teaching is a great joy for me and I missed it when I could not get a job upon arriving here last year. It is still tough with schools and bases closing here in Germany. So I did the only thing I knew to do, I tried to find a way to get back into the school somehow. I took a job as a teacher's aide in a kindergarten classroom. It is definitely challenging at times not being able to do my own thing and challenge the kids in ways I would like to but it has also been a learning experience thus far that I know will make me a better teacher in the end. So in evaluating that part of my life- I am so glad I have the opportunity to get back to what I love doing, even if it is a smaller way than I am used to.

A picture, bad one, of the school I work at.

In evaluating my life, I am also force to look at my role as a wife to my husband the past two years. Now granted, the first year my role took place from a distance but that does not mean that is was any less important. My husband is an amazing man who does everything he can to make my life better and more meaningful and I am so appreciative of all he has done for me. He truly makes me want to be a better person. I love doing my best to take care of him by cooking his favorite foods and trying new things. I enjoy challenging myself to be better and knowing how appreciative he is in response to that. I know I have a lot to learn as a wife and will fall short on numerous occasions but I am seriously giddy that I get to learn it all with this man by my side.

His current profile picture!

The final and most important part of our lives we all need to evaluate is how well we are letting the light of God shine in our lives. As I am aware of my short comings as a wife, I need to also be aware of my short comings as a Christian, as a disciple of Christ. There will always be more to learn and better ways to show His love. I pray that as the days go on that I will improve on this aspect of my life more than any other because I know if I am improving in this area of my life, the rest will fall into place as well. 

So on eval day:

Father,

   Show me ways in my everyday life where I can shine brighter for you. Guide me to people who are in need of your love and give me the strength to show that love- no matter what the circumstances may be. Help me to always be aware of my weakness so that I may call upon you for strength. Place in my heart the burning desire to know and love you more so that I may truly be a brighter light for you wherever you take me. Thank you for allowing me to be your child and for your never ending mercy and grace when I fall short.

Amen

Favorite Mexican Food?

Today is Mexican Independence Day. Contrary to what most people believe Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence day, but rather a celebration of a battle won in the fight for independence! In fact in doing a little research this past May I discovered more people in America celebrate Cinco de Mayo than people in Mexico. I found that quite entertaining. Anyhow, my family will be enjoying tacos tonight in celebration of Mexican independence.

I made my trip to the grocery store earlier today which means I am not in the mood for cooking a high-maintenance dinner. If you are feeling more adventurous or just do not want to be boring with your dinner tonight you can try this recipe for Mexican pasta I made a few weeks ago that was a hit in our house.

Creamy Mexican Chicken Pasta
-3 cups of bow-tie pasta
-1 1/2 chicken, cut into strips
-8 oz velveeta
-1 can crm of mushroom
-1 cup salsa
-1/4 cup milk
~Cook pasta. Spray large skillet with nonstick spray. Add chicken; cook and stir 4 to 5 minutes or until cooked through.
~Add pasta in saucepan along with remaining ingredients; cook on low heat until velveeta in completely melted and mixture is well blended.
~Lastly, ENJOY!!

Happy birthday also to my father-in-law, Tim!!

Hey- Where's the Cream Filling?

If you grew up anywhere close to my generation you will remember the Little Debbie commercials that reference to the title. Today is "Cream-Filled Donut" Day. Now I am not a huge fan of donuts with cream in the middle. I know, I know- I must be crazy! My hubby is a huge fan however,  so I might just walk down to the commissary and pick him up one today as a treat for when he gets home!

I figured I should probably give an update of what is going on here with the Rupard's. We have been celebrating so many birthdays lately! My father-in-law's entire family celebrates their birthdays in September. Abby and Karen have already celebrated theirs, Kaity and Pops (Tim) are this week. Kaity's is actually today! YAY! My dad's birthday is next week and we celebrated a friend's birthday here last week. It has just been birthday madness. I am hoping to get up to the post office today or tomorrow to send off our goodies to our family.

Jonathan and I out to celebrate Christina's birthday last week.

We are also keeping an ear out to hear what the plans are for us to move. We have heard we are going to be moved to Heidelberg but we are not sure when. I find this part the most frustrating of all. All the job opportunities that I will have a chance to get are in Heidelberg, so I would rather go ahead and move if that is what we are going to be doing. Unfortunately, I do not have a clue when this is going to happen which puts a huge hold on my home decorating because I do not want to decorate anymore if we are just going to be moving soon. Knowing my luck, it will be a long time though. Who knows with our blessed army!! Well that is all for now!

Goodness me, too many choices!!

Wow! When I looked up what interesting holiday I might embark on sharing with you today there were so many to choose from! First of all, today is my old college roomie, Bray's, birthday!! I am so excited for her to have her first birthday as a hot mama of a sweet lil baby boy!! I can't wait to meet that lil bundle of joy the next chance I get to come home. So if all else fails- celebrate Bray List Day!! :) I love ya roomie!!

However, if you are not acquainted with my lovely Bray, then perhaps you would like to celebrate one of the many other choices you have for this day!

Today is "Defy Superstition Day." My family jokes about this kind of thing but I know there are people out there that take it crazy serious. So walk the fence and do something you never would do otherwise if you didn't believe in superstition. I think us avid sports fans are probably the worst at this. Those of you bulldawg fans who have been disappointed thus far in the season and think you can never wear the same outfit on another game day, defy that notion- do it anyway. If we lose again, beware, the masses of fans may place the blame on you because of your defying acts; so proceed at your own risk! ;)

Today is also "Fortune Cookie Day." Now, who doesn't love a fortune cookie? I know plenty of people who do not enjoy eating the fortune cookie but I am thoroughly convinced that there is none who does not enjoy cracking the cookie open to see what message awaits them inside. I am not a believer in fortune telling, astronomy, etc by any means but this is just plain old fun! It is especially fun when your fortune is exceptionally generic: "Something good will happen to you next week." DUH!! :)

ACHOO!! Sorry the first thing I thought about with the next one was allergies! Today is "National Peanut Day." I, personally, claim no allergies to peanuts- thank goodness! I know many people are, however. I worked at a summer camp for three summers where peanut products were not allowed in lunches due to the large amount of campers allergic. As counselors, we were charged with searching their lunches for peanut products. Let me tell you, it was such a burden taking those Reese's off their hands! :) I mean of course, all of those things got thrown in the trash!!

The last one I will touch on is "Think Positive Day." I have to admit this is something that is rare in my marriage. Do not get me wrong, my husband and I are very happy and generally have a positive outlook on life. The army, however, does not subscribe to this method. We both have learned in the almost 3 years the army has been in our lives to think realistically and never get your hopes up. We try to keep our expectations low so that when something does go the way we would want it to- we can be extra thrilled!! It is an extremely twisted way of thinking, I know, but trust me it is a means of survival in this world of camouflage. I still think positive of all things NOT pertaining to the army, which is why I am choosing not to dwell on the fact that it is also happens to be "Uncle Sam Day" today- how ironic is that?!?!

Read, read, read!!

If you stopped by here yesterday you will remember I mentioned today is "Read a Book Day." This is one of those days where I REALLY wish I was a teacher and could share in this day with a class of students! Then I would have all of these out for "my kids" to read:

A tub of books in our storage room.

I love reading and that is something I thank my dad for! My dad was one of those dads that no matter what was going on would always do his best to read a book to me before bed every night. Alice in Wonderland was a favorite of ours as was Where the Sidewalk Ends. It was a night ritual I very much intend to share with my own children someday. One of my favorite things as a kindergarten teacher was all the fun books I got to read to my kids everyday! I love reading, little kid and big kid books alike! I thought I might share with you some of my all-time favorite little kid books to share with your own cuddle bugs when you get a chance!

Most of these books can be found on this website of a list of top 100 books, feel free to take a look if you would like and see if your own favorites made the list. However, here are my top ten- for now, there are bound to be books I could not think of!.

10. This Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales
    This was always a favorite of mine because it just has a bunch of silly twist of the fairy tales you here growing up. I used to love reading these to my kindergarten students when we did our unit on fairy tales. This book kind of pokes and makes fun at the fairy tales and usually gives those little darling kids a good laugh! If you have never read any of these, I hope you are able to find a copy soon!

9. Madeline
    I was always a big fan of Madeline. I even loved the cartoon tv show that used to come on. I was so enchanted by the littlest girl in the group and how she always got to such fun and neat things. I was quite a small girl, the second smallest in my grade most of elementary school, so there was a slightly empowering message in these stories. I thought if Madeline can do it, then so can I. Plus, it is really cool because she lives in Paris! :)

8. Miss Nelson is Missing
    I loved this book so much as a kid and even more so as a teacher. I love all the Nelson books! They are just fun stories to read to the students. It is fun to watch as some of the kids figure out what happened in the story with the mysterious sub who made the students BEG to have their Miss Nelson back! It might even give your own students a little push to behave better! :)

7. Pinkalicious
    This is a recent book and therefore a recent favorite. I ordered this book from Scholastic my first year of teaching. I mainly ordered this book because we do colors at the beginning of the year in kindergarten and I thought this looked like a cute book to read for pink day. This book is very cute and an instant favorite with both classes I taught. I literally had to periodically pull this book out of the kids library in our room for fear it would get torn up. Just in case you were wondering- even the boys liked this story all about things pink. By the way there is also now a Purplicious!

6. The Kissing Hand
    This is another one of those books I was not familiar with until I started teaching. This is a book we read on the first day of school. For you mothers out there with babies going away to school for the first time- this book is a must. This story is all about a little raccoon who is scared to go to school and his mother has a very special way of reminding her little one how much she loves him. Be careful, you might need to have tissues near by.

5. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
    This was another favorite as a kid and as a teacher. I always enjoyed reading this book during our fairytale studies and having the students talk about what they think really happened and which version of the story the liked better. It was always a lot of fun to act out the original story as well as this one. The kids also enjoyed reading along with this book. The parts that happened over and over again, we would read together and they would get really into it.

4. Love You Forever
    This is another book that had stood the test of time and I think a lot of people would consider to be on their top book list. It is such a sweet story of a mother's love and how that love is returned as the child grows up. This is another one I think everyone should read and possibly have tissues for- just in case! ;)

3. Oh, the Places You'll Go
    This book is a favorite because it can be so meaningful. I would read this to my students at the end of the year. I love that this book encourages you to be whoever you want to be. I saw on pinterest where someone bought this book for their child and had every teacher they ever had kindergarten-twelfth grade sign it for them  and gave it to them as a graduation gift. I thought that was so sweet!

2. Amazing Grace
    This book has always been a favorite. It is a powerful story that no matter who you, one can achieve anything that they put their mind to. This is a wonderful story of a little girl who desires to be Peter Pan in her class play and people keep telling her she can't because she's not a boy or because she's not white. The only person who believes in Grace is her sweet grandmother who reminds her she can be anything and anyone she wants to be.

 1. The Giving Tree
     This is my all time favorite kids book. I love how this story shows love and its ultimate gift, sacrifice. The tree has such a great amount of love for this boy that he will give and give and give until he can give nothing more. It always saddens me that he had such a great love and the boy left him. I am reminded how great is the love of my Father in heaven and how often does He show me that only to find I am paying Him no attention. This book always gives me a wake up call.

Well, there you go- those are my top ten. So find one of these, or one of your own favorites and curl up with your favorite cuddle buddy. My cuddle buddy, my sweet little Cash, and I will be reading in bed before night waiting on daddy to get home! Hope you have a wonderful day of reading!