i need answers...

please, please dusseldorf peeps answer my questions below...

1. can you list your top 3 favorite gorgeous locations in dusseldorf!

2. now your top 3 favorite gorgeous locations in kaiserswerth?

this would be a huge help to me as my creative side is rearing it's ugly head and i need some guidance.

thanks and you'll see why soon!

pop your popcorn...

this is an interesting list of expat movies for all of you. sad to say i have only seen the last king of scotland~it was amazing.

pop your popcorn, get comfy and enjoy

http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/7-best-expat-movies-all-time-182391

my dirty dream...

so, last night i had a dirty dream. yep, you read that right, a dirty dream! i woke up, and i actually wanted to go back to sleep, back to my dream. this doesn't happen very often. after all i am the busy mom of 2 boys, a wife, a volunteer, and i am tired, really tired at the end of my day. usually when i wake up i don't remember my dreams. actually i don't know that i ever, even dream...but last night i dreamt!

i dreamt about laundry-stop laughing-that's what i said, laundry! many of you may not understand this. you sit there with your huge washers, your huge dryers, and i bet some of you even have pedestals. oh, i remember those! they were invented so people didn't have to bend over so far, so you spared your back! i remember them vividly, and last night, i dreamt about them, and doing my laundry when i come to america for the summer.

one of the first things an expat friend said to me when i told her that i was moving to germany was, "oh, you will hate doing the laundry in a foreign country!" really i thought, how much different could it really be???

oh people, it is different. my children often wear the same clothes for days and days at a time, because i avoid the laundry room completely. if you come to visit me, don't pack light...pack everything you can fit in that suitcase of yours because guess what, i will not offer to do your laundry.

when i first moved here and we purchased our washer and dryer, i did my first load. once i had my control panel translated as it was all in german, and i had yet to learn what pflegeleicht meant-easy care-i was ready to go. okay, so the washer was a bit small, but i shoved enough laundry in and all was good. the water was hot and i knew my clothes would shrink, and my darks would soon be, not so dark but, i had to wash our clothes. then it was time to move it all to the dryer. easy enough, move it over and turn it on. that's when it started, for it's the dryer that was really my problem. no matter what i did, that dryer wouldn't dry. i was constantly having to start cycles over, but still everything was damp.

"that's it" i told my friend, "it's going back!"

"did you empty the lint dryer?" she asked.

"yep, i did."

"did you take some of the load out, maybe it's too full?"

"yep, did that too."

"did you empty the water drawer?"

"the what?"

"the water drawer" she replied

now, what the heck is a water drawer? well, now i know; the water drawer is on a dryer that doesn't vent to the outside. all of the water is collected in the "water drawer". really? really the "water drawer"? you have to be kidding.

so yes, every time i dry a load-or a half a load-of laundry, i have to empty the "water drawer"...every, single time!

so, when i tell you that my dirty dream was the thing that made me happy today, or last night, now you understand! i am so looking forward to coming to america and doing laundry. heck, drop yours by, maybe i'll do it too!

so goodnight, im going back to my dreams!

today's hapiness comes from....

the coolest website ever!!

http://www.shabbyapple.com/

love, love, love that you can shop for your shape! have fun

gotta love a good product

two of the best products i have found...

Thanks to the lady at the benefit counter and to my good friend~you know who you are~ for helping me find these products!  my pores have never looked so good, and the skin under my eyes always bright (even if iv'e been up late on pinterest)!!  

benefit link so you can buy...happy shopping

http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/

oh i have been waiting for this

for as long as i have been going to the uk, i have wanted to see this! this weekend my sweet husband drove 2 hours and helped make my wish become a reality...thanks honey!!!

a day late and a dollar short...

okay so i'm a day late again, but i guess in this case being late is a good thing, it means i have disconnected and am spending quality time with my family.


and that is what brought me my happiness on saturday...my family.  to be more specific my boy's happiness brought me my happiness!


we spent the day in london on saturday and it was a wonderful day.  so many of our trips are centered around historic sights and "old things" as my boys call them that they tend to get a little bored.  well this day would be all about them, and the best part was that they had no idea!


we started off catching the train through the southern england countryside.  only a short time later and we were in central london; victoria station.  our first stop was lunch and we let the kids pick, this could have ended bad, but after a debate between them;


oliver; "i want subway, subway is always good!  and besides ben, they will know what we are ordering here, they speak english!"


ben; "oliver we can get subway at home, let's try this place, look at the waitresses!"


thank heaven the waitresses were cute, or i think oliver may have won that one! our lunch was amazing.  we ate at a lebanese restaurant.  i am so thankful that my kids will eat almost anything.  we sat and savoured lunch, jeffery and i savoured  a few glasses of wine and from the way we ate,  you would have thought it had been months since we had eaten anything, when in reality, it was only months since we had eaten anything with that much flavor!

the next stop was the part of the day that brought me the most happiness.  we hopped in our london taxi and off we went, to the secret destination.  

the boys had no idea where we were going, and it was driving them crazy.  not very often can i pull one over on them, but so far they had no clue!  as we pulled up to the theater and got out, oliver caught the first glimpse of the marque...STOMP!  the grins on their faces were amazing...rarely do i see my tween "over the moon" excited, but this may have done it!  the show was everything we could have hoped for and they really enjoyed it.  the rest of the evening the were tapping bottles, stomping feet and clapping there hands trying to re-create the music that they had heard that day.

oh, but that's not it...next was m&m world.  every chocolate lovers dream.  again they had no idea and it is amazing how this little event was such a big deal to them.  the colors were amazing, the smell delicious and the taste...i have to say, the little colored candies tasted different...to me, not as good.  maybe this was a good thing because this could keep me out of their candy bags tonight.

the evening ended with an amazing sunset, kind of like a ribbon on the glorious package that was our day.  

with my kids growing so fast, and life constantly changing these days, these days of surprises and treats and really the joy of just being together as a family is what really make me happy!

friday's blog a day late!

yesterday my happiness came from the fact that we were in 5 countries-yes that is countries-in 6 hours!!!!!  germany, holland, belgium, france and england and we did it all in our car!


we are on ski week in germany.  although we aren't skiing, we are taking some time off.  we decided to go to my hubby's old stomping ground-sussex, england-no planes for us, we just packed up the car and off we went.  

those of you who know me, know that i really, really don't like to fly...any opportunity to not fly and i am great with that!  and again those of you who know me, know that i really, really worry.  i worry about stupid things that i have no control over and i tend to do this a lot.  like i mentioned, flying or nuclear plant leaks, or earthquakes-yes, that's a shout out to my california peeps-, sharks, snakes and i have to admit i have even worried about a tsunami...but only once!!  never in my life had i worried about the chunnel!  that was until we drove the car onto that train!  

the train is like any other train, except there are a lot of cars on this train, giving off a lot of carbon monoxide fumes.  yep, that's it we are all going to die on a train under the english channel due to carbon monoxide poisoning.  had no one thought of this when they built this thing???  my mind was quickly put to rest when we all had to turn our cars off-whew!  then we were told to roll down our windows half way.  why i wondered?  oh, of course the pressure.  then i began to play that game, you know the one you played when your mom told you not to do something and you just had to do it to see what would happen.  what if we didn't roll down the windows?  would the pressure in our car simply blow out the windows?  would our eardrums explode...what?  what would happen??  well, as you can guess, i listened and rolled down my windows.

i have to say, the journey was really uneventful.  other than my husband not being able to figure out how to put on his emergency brake-damn german cars-it was actually almost boring.  we unload on the other side, in another country and you know what, they spoke english.  that may be the other thing that made me happy, once in england, i understood every single word that people spoke!  

so, here is to a week of me hearing people speak and my brain not having to work so hard to understand-happy ski week. 

it takes a village...to raise an expat mom

this quote was something that i stumbled upon today during my browsing of pintrest-a very dangerous website!  it pretty much sums it up!

today i am happy for the people in my life!  the people near and far who "lift me higher", who listen when i need to be heard, offer a shoulder if i need to cry and help me on this crazy adventure that i am on!  you are my village!

a brighter, happier dinner

so, since i have a new attitude i thought i would get a new look for the blog.  something a little bit brighter, a bit more upbeat and happy. let me know what you think?


so for what makes me happy today...


as many of you know cooking in germany presents a huge problem!  good beef is almost non-existent, your choices are pork, lamb, pork, chicken, pork and maybe veal.  well since i don't eat baby cows that are treated inhuman, that gets rid of one of those choices.  


once you pick your meat, you must convert your oven temperature from F to C, I am getting way tooo good at this.  i now know that 350 degrees converts to 176.6666666666666666666666666-and im not kidding about the large amount of 6's on this! tell me how you set that one on your oven? 


my last obstacle to overcome is why one side of my cook-top will not cook with the pans that i have-something about a magnet???  oh well, i can only tackle one cooking challenge at a time and this week i have found an amazingly easy and oh so delicious recipe.  it is what has made me happy today and i have provided a link so hopefully it makes you happy too!


http://www.cookinglight.com/food/everyday-menus/quick-easy-pork-recipes-00400000057015/page8.html

this made me happy today...

making a wonderful dinner for my family and enjoying a great valentines day!!

no more culture shock!!!

i am done! done with the culture shock!  i will no longer compare, wallow or bitch and moan about how germany is not like america.  you will not hear me say, "well, in america we have this" or "in america we do that."  i am not in america.  if they don't celebrate valentines day in germany like we did in america, i will celebrate it like we did and i will celebrate it for all of them!  i am starting tonight-no i haven't been drinking, just preparing!

luckily i had some extra valentines day cards...with nerds even...for my youngest to give to his class tomorrow (my oldest is way beyond this i am told).  i am sending in 2 dozen valentines cupcakes with icing and hershey's kisses on top, and damn it we are having our traditional valentines dinner tomorrow night!  i will decorate the table in red and white and all of those inexpensive tulips will become my centerpiece!  we will eat our valentine pasta, just like we have every year, and does it matter that it isn't in the shape of hearts???  nooooo it doesn't!  my family is healthy, we are living an amazing life and we are living together!

today i am posting photos of 2 things that make me very happy!  i am going to begin doing this daily, maybe for a week, maybe for 2...stay tuned!

my boys xoxoxox

and the correct answer is...

ding, ding ding...both anonymous were correct.  it is a parking spot for women.  usually closer to exits, pay stations and lights!  some even say the spots are a wee bit larger.  not sure if this is true however?

it is one of my favorite things here.  it's the little things after all.

what does the sign say?

so, i have heard many different opinions on this, but on a trip to the dreaded dentist-who was really nice, and not bad on the eyes- i saw this sign in a carpark-which we in america call a parking lot.  


to my friends living in germany do tell what you think it means, and to my friends living everywhere else, please guess....comment below


have fun!