Shipping a POV

Goodness! We found out yesterday that our car must be clean enough to eat out of from top to bottom and all the crannies and cracks in between or they wont ship it. No dirt, bugs, leaves, agricultural residue of any kind or they will turn us away on shipping turn in day.

I thought oh my.... Alan will be very busy!! I told him this and he said....I am going to find a detailer to take care of all this for me.

I guess that means he will have lots of free time to clean the apartment so that we can get our 4000 Euro deposit back!

Mitchell Mariot to close its doors...

Nearing the end of the 3rd quarter 2011, the "Mitchell Mariot" will be permanently closing the doors on it’s Stuttgart location.

The last flurry of guests will get to experience multiple day trips including the Stuttgart Spring Festival, the Black Forest Cuckoo Clock town of Triberg, the Hohenzollern castle, the Mercedes Benz Museum, the walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the City of Worms and Alsheim, a tour of downtown Stuttgart, spend a morning shopping a true German Flohmarkt. Some guests will enjoy a foray into Paris and others will experience a day in Switzerland.

As this location is preparing for closure the proprietor's are considering opening up a new location near the Oklahoma City area. Watch for an opening announcement within the next few months!

90 Day Notification

So this evening I gave our German Landlords a 90 Day Lease Termination Notification. It was a sad occasion indeed. They told me they wished we could stay and live here in their home for years! They have been such good landlords. I hate to leave them but know the Housing Office will find replacement tenants quickly as this is such a nice place and very close to Post.

I am excited to be planning for our move back to Oklahoma! It will be stressful for sure and I am sure I will be freaking out before it is all over. There is so much to do between now and then.

But at the end of the move we’ll be right there in Oklahoma with our sons, their wives, their precious daughters and our parents!

I started to do a count down but right now I think this just might add to the stress levels I am already feeling....

I’ll just have to keep telling myself to breathe and turn it over to God and it will all be just fine~

To Marinade or Not to Marinade....

Alan found a wonderful marinade recently and so far we have tried it on skirt steak, chicken and tenderloin. This Lawrys Baja-Chipotle marinade is really good!

I highly recommend it on the skirt steak and the chicken (I don’t think tenderloin needs marinade). Since this adds the flavors of smoky chipotle peppers, cumin, oregano garlic and a splash of lime it works well for when we have a craving for Mexican or Southwest food. Try it using Skirt steak marinaded and grilled and then chopped up for Carne Asada taco with rice and avocados...yum

The past weekend we had chicken breasts marinading and didn’t get to cook the chicken for a couple of days. Then on Monday when we grilled them they were very moist and flavorful. The left over breast was cute up into small bite size pieces and added to a can of Progresso Southwest Vegetable soup; what a wonderful addition to this oh so good for you soup!

Now I just hope we can find it at our grocery store when we get back to Oklahoma!

Arthritis???

Arthritis is inflammation of one or more joints, which results in pain, swelling, stiffness, and limited movement; so says Franklin.

Could this be what is bothering me? I feel like I can predict the weather. This weekend was beautiful, sunny and warm and then Sunday it seemed like every joint in my body started aching. And sure enough Monday morning it was cooler and rain was in the air. Monday night it was worse and indeed it started raining during the night.

Guess I need to go see a doctor about this when we move back to Oklahoma!

AM's Adventures in Cooking: Crock pot meat loaf

AM's Adventures in Cooking: Crock pot meat loaf

Alan decided to try this meatloaf in a crock-pot recipe our daughter-in-law posted recently. We had it for dinner this evening. And just as we finished eating and she called on skype so we got to tell her how yummy it was.

Put it in and let is cook all day and come evening dinner is almost ready....mmmmmm so good!

Frog Road

There is a back road between Patch Barracks (Commissary) and Panzer Kaserne (Base Exchange) known by the Americans as Frog Road. In the spring frogs hop across this road to the ponds on either side and often do not make it across (SPLAT!). So in the spring time they put up special road signs.

“Frog Caution" signs are positioned along the area where the ponds are located. And they lower the speed limit from 100 to 30 KPM.

Now the cars zipping down this road are getting SPLATZ’ed.

30 KPH is pretty slow and remember heading into and out of these Frog protected sections of the road it is 100 KPH. Last year people were rear-ending each other; so they finally had to change the signs . They added a time to the Frog Zone, so now the special speed limit is only in effect from 7:00 PM until 4:00 AM during the frog migration season!

Happy Hopping everyone~