It's been a while

I know I have used the title before especially since lately my posts are very far and few between. I guess that is because life gets in the way.

So whats been going on - well the adoption process is going well as you can read about here. We are working on the profile that will be on the agency's website and in their profile book where expected parents will be able to select couples to meet who potentially will raise their baby. Lots of more questions to fill out and we need to dig though our pictures to include so they can see who we are.

On work front things have been insanely busy with deadlines. Ours kept moving and thus creating more work for me since I am one of the few that still has sites where new data comes about every month. Hopefully things return to normal soon. I am also in the interview process for a new position in the company that is a step up but also would keep me home 90% of the time (unlike the 2% I am now). I had my first interview last week and figured since my boss is behind me, actually she has been asking me to do this since last year I have a good shot.

Well I need to run, finish making breakfast then 6 loads of laundry, packing since I head out again tomorrow, get things set up for Germany (19Apr-3May), work on the adoption profile and all this in the next 14 hours. So glad its not busy or anything. Will try to be on here more than less but then I have said that before ....

When was the last post???

Really November wow that is so long. I have been posting over at The Clumsy Eater and Can't wait to meet you but that is no excuse.

Life has been good but busy. Work has a deadline and everyone has been scrambling all over the place making sure its met.

Hubby and the pups loved being at our Westgate timeshare in the Smokey mountains. Sadly I ended up working though most of it but loved walking the pups everyday and loved my Spa visit and hanging out in the indoor water park. The pups loved spending time with us, they were too funny always wanting to go where the bears were.

I am leaving for Germany in 5 weeks. I meet up with Mom in Charlotte and then we fly over together. My sisters wedding is the first weekend we are there and then its off to meet up with friends and relatives.

Happy Thanksgiving

Another year and more things to be thankful for.

Having great friends
Loving family (2 and 4 legged)
Having a job that I love and that pays the bills
Getting to travel
Trying new things and so much more...

Speaking of new things we got a bunch of apples from Zina's Produce and I decided to try make applesauce. This is another one of those things that is so simple but I have just never thought about making it myself before.

I looked at several recipes some called for tons of ingredients others for almost none. I decided to stick with the more natural approach and just cut the apples leaving the skin on.

I put them in a big pot and added just a bit of water so they wouldn't burn on the bottom. Once they were all soft I spooned them into my magic bullet container a bit tedious since you have to do it several times but it does the trick. Once pureed I put it back in the pot and tasted it to see if any sugar was needed - none was just a bit of cinnamon.

Looks good enough to eat and even better no chemicals, preservatives or added sugars. I still have a lot of apples so I will make more and freeze them so we can have them later. Got a few apple recipes I can't wait to try like apple fritters and apple pancakes.

Want some delicious soup?

The other day Ms Jewel mentioned she'd made a carrot and parsnip soup that was delicious. This reminded me that I had some carrots who had seen better days and kohlrabi that needed to be eaten. I adore home made soups so off to the kitchen I went.

I cut up the carrots and kohlrabi chopped an onion and added to potatoes - cubed into a pot added some water and a bit of salt.

Boiling the veggies until soft, then drain but be sure to catch the water.

But veggies with some of the broth in a blender and puree. I placed the puree back on the stove and added some nutmeg to taste.

Guten Appetit

NEW BLOG

I know i have been scarce and I can't promise that I will post here more now as life is still busy. I did want to note that I created a new Blog - one to chronicle our new journey which hopefully will end with us being parents of a beautiful baby girl or boy or both. You can follow our story here http://cantwait2meetu.blogspot.com

Bierfest - Germany 2011

We are back. If we are friends on facebook then you will have had a chance too be on vacation with us - sort of. Thanks to my awesome friend who works for vodafone in Germany I had a SIM card for my Blackberry with data service. So I was able to upload pictures in real time giving you a chance to literally see what we saw.

As always the trip was much to short and over soon after it began. And it wouldn't be a trip for us if there wasn't something that went wrong. We tend to have bad luck when our US Airways flight code-shares with Lufthansa. The new LH plane was super uncomfortable I had a metal box under the seat in front of me and I ended up having major circulation problems from it. To make matters worse when we got into Frankfurt we were told my suitcases didn't make it and they couldn't even tell us where they were. It took 40Euros and 3 days to finally get them - of course they were damaged. At least we had gotten them back.

We headed from Frankfurt where we landed to Munich as Hubby wanted to check out the Octoberfest. We stayed with friends - a stroke of luck as my friends mom had some clothes she didn't need which fit me so I didn't have to wear my sweats. We headed to the "Wiesn" right away and Hubby loved it. He was so proud that he had 4 Mass of beer while our German friends switched to Radler after the second Mass.

The next days the boys checked out Dachau while I did some running around and then we had dinner at one of the local spots in Tracht.

We had fun dressing up in Dirndl and Lederhosen to head out.

After a quick stop at Neuschwanenstein castle we headed back to the East. We got to meet up with friends and family and then headed up to Berlin for a few days. Hubby fell in Love with Berlin and wants to go back.

As always 2 weeks were not nearly long enough. I feel a little better about it knowing I'll be back in Spring but still .......

Here are some pics of our trip    - there are 400 some - you are warned ;)