We have our Stuff!!!!

Well, I apologize for not keeping up with my blog as promised.  I got a stomach thing that lasted 5 days then this week got busy and you will see why as you read this post. A lot has progressed since I have last been on this blog.  Since I last spoke with you our couch came on Tuesday.  It was a very exciting day for all of us especially Ivy.  It came 6 pm in the evening so we were all able to enjoy it when it arrived.  Below is a video of Ivy enjoying the couch as we were unpacking and then a pic of the couch. 

 

On Thursday our stuff arrived.  Yes finally after a very long wait we finally have our things and are unpacked.  I will eventually post pics of the place but we are still in the decorating process so you will have to wait on that.  The first couple of pictures are a fragile boxed , marked fragile with kitchen items.  Meaning our dishes.  Thank the lord nothing was broken

The next is a picture of the huge moving truck. It was filled with 3 other peoples items.  I was shocked it made it down our street!! Yes that is Kevin in the Green shirt.  He always has to feel like he has to help even though you are paying the movers to bring up your stuff.  He is such a sweet caring person!!!

Here is a picture of Ivy playing with all her toys once they were unpacked.  We had a blast unpacking them.  

Here is a pic of Ivy reunited with her best buddy Shorty!!!  He was greatly missed.  She can't read books at night without her best pal.  Glad to have him back!!!

Homemade Jam

Well, I know most of you are expecting and wanting to see Ivy pics.  You will just have to wait until the next post.  I just wanted to do a post on what I made last Friday.  Well , since I am not working I am trying to get into making more homemade items as well as do some baking.  As some of you know Kevin had a work party and I made this beautiful pie. 

It was a peach pie, probably the prettiest one I have made yet. It must have tasted delicious since Kevin didn't come home with any left overs.  Instead he brought home this chocolate swirled cheesecake a lady from his work made, marble pound cake, and some other delicious dessert.  So the baking inspired me to make more things.  The problem is finding the right ingredients in a language I still don't know.  I had picked up some Johannisberren (currents) from the local vegetable stand.  I decided to make Jam.. I found this great UK website with recipes on Jellies and Jams and most of them are without using pectin. Its a mix of fruits that contain high and low pectins to get the right amount so you jellies and Jams gel.  Well, this recipe was pretty simple so I decided to try. If you know anything about currants and making them into jam its the right balance of sugar and water.  Currants contain high levels of pectin.  I also added a hint of lemon. First  I cleaned the red currants and rid them of all stems. 

 

 

Then I added the water, 1 lb of berries so I used  3/4 pints of water.  I brought the water to a boil and let it simmer for 15-20 min.  Then I removed it from the heat and added 1 1/2 cups of sugar and a dash of lemon juice.  I put it back on and let it boil for another 15-20 minutes.

 

 

Here is the tricky part.  To do a test to make sure your jam has set you put a silver spoon in the freezer (2-3 spoons)  and let it get real cold. Around the 15 minute mark you take the cold spoon and dip it in so see if the jam gels or if its set.  If it falls off the spoon its not ready.  If it starts dripping slowly to the point of almost not dripping its set.  You do this to your preferred thickness of your jam.  Honestly I got 2 jars of jam.  After a few hours they were still to runny for my liking, so I dumped it all back in the pot boiled it for a few more minutes and added some lemon juice and walla I had great Jam.   This was my first time ever making Jam.   

This pic was from the first time boiling. After the second time I only had 1 and 1/3 jars of jam.  Next time I understand the set test better and I think 1 lb of berries would yield 2 jars.  It was delicious and we all are enjoying it. Even Ivy thinks its rather tasty.  I am pretty proud for the first time making it. 

I am back up and running!!!

Hello all, Its been a very long time since I have posted and I apologize for that.  We just got reconnected to the internet on Tuesday.  I have been busy the past few days catching up on headlines, emails, facebook etc.  Things are going pretty well here.  No we are not settled yet.  As some of you know we still do not have our stuff. Our ship landed in the UK on the 16th of July.  I will try to make this story short so I can post other items.  They did not tell us the money was due before the ship arrived.  I had traded many emails on options of payment.  We found out on the 9th that the money was due prior to the ship docking and they put a hold on our items. Kevin wired the money on the 12th.  Some how their bank never received the money as our bank sent a check and did not wire since it was a first time thing.  Well, we had to cancel the transaction and charge it on our card.  Come to find out they charged our card and then reversed the charges, sent us an email that the credit card had declined.  This is actually the very short version of this story.  So as of now we are steaming and hoping to resolve this as of this week. Our stuff went into storage in the UK on the 23rd and could have been delivered here.  So its very upsetting and frustrating at the same time.  We just want our stuff and have more things that are familiar for Ivy. 
    On another note, we love where we live and we love our apartment. At the moment it is still pretty bare.  We do have a kitchen table and 4 chairs, a patio set, grill, air mattress, and a pack n play for Ivy.  This weekend we picked up a small table for Ivy that we purchased last weekend and we have a toy chest coming in on Tuesday.  She has been helping me pick out things to decorate her room.  On here I will post our apartment as of the weekend we moved in .  I will post pics as we get more settled and finish rooms. Right now we are slowly starting to decorate little by little just to make it more like home.  We did buy a couch back in June but it takes 8-10 weeks for delivery so we should have that beginning or mid September.  I am sure there is a lot to tell you but I will have to think of it through the weeks as I am so far behind with posting.  So this post is to basically show you our apartment the first week we moved in.  If we ever get our stuff or when we are settled I will show you updated pics as we go.  I am sure I will have posts on decorating each room.  Right now Ivy is the important one so her room and a small area of the living space is our focus.  Ok so here are the pics of our humble abode.  As you know we moved in on our Anniversary weekend.  Kevin was so sweet, he walked in our first night in our place with some beautiful flowers. The first pics are of the lovely flowers I received!!

 

 

 

 Now for our apartment.  The first pic is of our entry way.  We have a small foyer.  When you walk in our room is to the right with the kitchen next to it and Ivy is on the left ( not shown in this picture).

 

Next you have our lovey room with the fabulous air mattress we have been sleeping on since the 8th of June. 

 

Next to our room is our kitchen small but has lots of storage and I really like it to be honest.  Its bigger and better then what I expected we would get.

 

Now we have Ivy's room.  She decided that she wanted to help me show off her special place.  As you can see it doesn't have much in it but that will change very soon.  It actually has a few decorations now but I will not show it until its complete.

Next to her room is a half bath with just a sink and a toilet

 

And next to that is a full bathroom.  The half bathroom is technically a WC. 

 

Before taking you to the main living space I will take you to our second level.  The door is just to the right of the entry door before entering Kevin's and My bedroom.  The stairs are pretty steep so I am very thankful to have a door that keeps that area from Ivy's temptations. 

 

 

 

Upstairs is an open room then a bedroom.  I don't think there is a door that closes off the one room. The open area we are going to use as an office space, storage, etc.  Once we get our room/bed set up the air mattress will move to the spare room. 

 

 

 

 

Back down stairs to our main living space we have two pretty big rooms, one with a wood stove, and a balcony.  Right now the room with the woodstove is our dining area and the other room is our living area.  When the season changes and things get colder we may rearrange this. The first pic is of the current living area.  You will see a window with a tiny cove. That is where Ivy's little space will be.  She really likes it.  I will update when we finish it. For now in this pic its empty. 

 

 

 

The next pic is our current dining area which currently does have a table and 4 chairs. The mattress is on loan from Kevin's institute.  They were nice and wanted us to have something to sit on.  The mattress is now in our living area.  Ivy decided to pop into this pic as well. Below this is a picture of the two living areas together.

 

 

 

Now for our lovely balcony.  The first weekend we bought this green outside mat since the tiles get hot.  We bought a grill, Ivy an outside chair and 2 chairs for us. Not picture are 2 more chairs with a matching patio table. 

 

 

I will end this post of a taste of our view.  We do like our house and are slowly making it our home.  As we get more settled and I feel the rooms are complete I will post pics.  It may just be a post room by room as we go.  I will be posting through out the week updating you on our stuff, pics of Ivy and what ever else we are up to.  Enjoy and it is great to be back!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guten Tag

Hello, sorry I haven't posted. Things have been busy here. Kevin started his new job and likes it so far. He hasn't done much work in the lab yet just logistics.  I have exhausted poor Ivy. We will all be happy to be living in our apartment starting Friday.  Ivy and I have been running around buying cleaning products and items to make the new apartment livable. So far we bought an air mattress for Kevin and I. For Ivy a new portable crib. We bought sheets, towels, coffee pot, Britta water filter, a pan, and some other small items. I haven't heard about my stuff since last week. It was suppose to be loaded on a boat as of Friday. I need to get in touch an see what is going on . I will do that tonight. I think what will take the longest is customs. Yesterday, Ivy and I hauled some stuff over to our apartment. Kev, helped with a load this morning. We went shopping and now she is napping. When she wakes up I have a few errands to run then we are headed to the apartment to clean and start unpacking. I am packing a picnic dinner. Kevin is meeting is to get the air mattress blown up. He was borrowing a bike pump from a guy at work. Although he did forget to bring it in but said he would get it this afternoon. If not poor Kiev and I will have the joys of doing it ourselves.  I will try to remember to take pigs today or tomorrow. We don't have internet at our new place just yet. I am having trouble finding a person who understands me. So tomorrow will be the last day we have internet until it gets connected at our place. I pretty much know who I am going with. On the furniture shopping, I have it narrowed down to 2 kitchen tables Kevin and I looked at. I have a few new options for him on couches, and I think we know which patio bistro set we will buy. So its going to be a busy weekend. No rest for the weary. I hope to get pics on here tomorrow night.  Then you will just have to check in to see when I have internet. I am hoping we will have luck next week and be up and running. Until next time, tshüss!!!

The last day and a half in Budapest

Hello, sorry it took me a while to download pics from our trip.  Its been a busy few days here since we have been back from Budapest. I did want to share the rest of our trip with you.  So our last full day we took the metro to the parliament and worked our way back to the flat.  The parliament was under construction so my pic isn't that great. 

After there we walked passed Regan's statue, which was kind of odd for Budapest, but that is just my opinion. Then we went to Saint Steven's church.  Beautiful place.  I just posted one outside pic no inside ones since this is a long post.

We took a break and had coffee outside. Then headed over to the market.  I enjoyed seeing the market it was very interesting but a bit crowded.

 

Once we left the market we headed to the big Jewish temple. On the way I found a yarn shop and popped in. I didn't buy any yarn since they didn't seem to sell needles and I am not sure when mine will arrive.   After the temple we stopped in a pretty popular ruins bar, which I actually thought was pretty cool.  Basically, it was an apartment complex that was no longer in use the people bought it and turned it into a bar. Its pretty clever and unique with lots of history I am sure. They used old trinkets to decorate the place.  We stopped in for a beer during Ivy's nap. When she finished her  napped she found a seat her size.  They had cut an old bath tub in half and made a couch out of it.

The stroller you see above we named "the Ruff Rider". It was an old Norwegian stroller Agi borrowed for our stay. It was old but awesome.  Ivy loved it.  Look at  Ivy striking a pose.   After that we passed by the place where Drew and Agi met, on our way to the opera house. After walking by the opera house we stopped by another ruins bar near Drew's old place and had a beer before heading back, to the flat to meet Agi.  She had us over for a lovely dinner. Ivy fell in love with her rabbit loopey. Sadly, I forgot my camera. We did get some great pics with Kev's phone but he hasn't downloaded them yet.   On the day we left, we stopped by this really nice coffee house for lunch. Here are a few photos from there.

 

Well we have a busy day tomorrow and it starts early. Good night !!!

Back at our hotel in Saarbrücken.

Well we are back and its late. I though I had a way around the internet issues but my signal is still to weak to upload pics.  This week will be busy. We have to figure out how to get utilities set up in our new apartment, we need to buy light fixtures, buy a pack n play, and a futon or something. If we are really lucky we will get a couch, kitchen table, Tec for our apartment. Friday we have visa interview in the morning, so we have to get pics for that tomorrow. We move on Saturday, and kevin starts work on Monday. I will do my best to get these pics from Budapest and tell you what we did yesterday and today.  I hope to also get some pics of our hotel apartment in before I post pics of our new apartment. This is all assuming I get internet in our new apartment right away or figure out how to get the photos upload before we move sat. Sorry for the short post. I'll be in touch soon.

I just got my images to work so since I haven't uploaded my last set of pics from Budapest, you get the apartment we have been living in for 3 weeks now.  The first one is our street. They gray building is the one we are in.

 

 

The next is our lovely dining slash kitchen area. When you look to the right you see the kitchen table.

 

When you look straight there is the bathroom.

 

When you look left you have the bedroom and living area.

 

Well you have finally seen where we have been living the last few weeks. I will work on finishing up what we did on Budapest tomorrow or the next night.

 

Hello from Budapest

Hello. Sorry we have been busy and having a great time. There are so many great pic I will pic a few and see how it goes. Our first night we got on at 6:30 pm. Went our apartment and went to dinner. Came back and went to sleep. The first one is taken from Germany in our hotel. Ivy was worried we would forget her.

 

The second picture is Ivy on the train to Frankfurt airport.

 

 

Yesterday we walked around Buda (that is what Drew calls it any way). We saw the city and walked around the castle. Then we went to dinner and hung out at the apartment. Ivy took multiple naps and went until 11:30pm. She had a great day.

 

In Budapest they celebrate mother's day a week before we do and they don't celebrate father's day. Instead they have a children's day. Today was children's day and so it was fun to see what they do. So today we went to hero's square and there was a little festival going on.  Kevin and Drew were the two big kids that got on this crazy ride. I'll try to download the video I took. Here are some pics from today.

 

Well its getting late and we have a busy day planned tomorrow. I'll try to post tomorrow as well. I hope you enjoyed this post.