Bad News

Being so far away from home definitely has it good moments and it's BAD! We're the kind of family that is  (sometimes overly) involved in each other lives. We gossip about each other (in the best way possible, i mean we're only trying to find out if everything is ok or if so-and-so really did that to her!), but we also love each other. when I was out of work for almost 2 years I built very strong relationships with my sister and her kiddos. When my brother-in-law was deployed I was her surrogate husband during her pregnancy with Logan and was there for everything. I loved being able to be there for the ultrasounds and for the scary bits and last minute ER runs. I like to think of my self as that go-to person. I loved it. I really like to help my family out when they need it the most. With that being said our baby (yes, he isn't just 'theirs' he's Ours- as a collective) Logan has been in the hospital for 4 days now.

Isn't he the cutest? (little boobies and all) We like our babies chubby (no offense to the skinny ones ou there). My sister emailed me this picture two days ago. I cried. I can't believe under his little tear-drop eyes is a nasal cannula! 

Logan has been diagnosed with RSV (so far they are waiting for the doctor to review the chest x-ray to see what else is going on). He was admitted because his oxygen levels were in the 80's (should be 100). We're worried about possible Asthma or pneumonia at this point. (fun fact: I was in and out of the hospital as an infant with asthma related complications.. was not a fun time to be or my mother- only difference is, I don't remember it. Thanks mom!) 

Many prayers and thoughts are needed!! 

Why, Hello There.

I may be a day late (but I don't care). Erin helped motivate me to still play along.

I'm Sam, Samantha, Sammy (to very few). I'm 25, and this is my very first Bloghop! I'm an Army wife (and soooo much more). The Army has provided the hubs (Kevin) and I with this amazing opportunity to live in Germany; to experience another culture. We look forward to learning as much as we can while we're here and seeing as much of Europe as time, money and the Army will allow.

We've been married for 3 years and haven't yet birthed our own babies. We were tossing around the idea prior to the BIG move. But now we are concentrating on this once in a lifetime opportunity

Outside of this craziness that is this the Army life, I adore time with my family and my friends. I cherish the babies in our life. I miss them dearly and can't wait to see them very soon.

I'm a confident girl who likes to tell it how it is (or how I see it, anyway). I'm funny, like Starbucks (on Thursday mornings), traveling (more and more), writing, taking pictures and helping others (amongst other things).

BIG Icing FAIL

Ladies, why aren't you baking out there? Who doesn't LOVE CupCakes!? These ones are especially simple and AMAZING! Give them a shot... but don't forget to come back and link up!

Ingredients coming together.

They're beautiful! And so delicious. Mine have kind of a pound-cake-like consistency. A-MAZ-ING!

However the icing recipe that was attached to the cupcake recipe was just awful!!! The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of Milk.... I figured, ok... lets see how this goes. I mix and mix and mix.... and it still had the consistency of the cupcake batter. Horrible. So I wound up going with Mrs. Martha's Fluffy Vanilla Frosting from page 302 of her Cupcake Cookbook.

Pretty huh? Give it a shot, tell your readers, and link up! The McLinky comes down in two days, Sunday, January 30th!! These Yellow Cupcakes are not as popular or "cool" as Red Velvet but man, they are quickly becoming our household favorite!

Just a tease

We finally made it out of the Lagerhof and are settling into (what will be our) home for the next three years. All in all the move went smoothl,y somethings were kind of scraped up but nothing major (thank God). Here's a few pictures just to wet your whistle:

Tomorrow I'll be baking my Yellow Cup Cakes in Miss Lola's honor!! I hope you'll all join me in my baking adventures and baking in Lola's honor since she can't participate for herself this month! Spread the word, bake them yourself, then come back and link up!!

New Stuff Happening

There's new stuff happening all over the place!

American Idol with JLo and Steven Tyler... I wish I could watch (even though I've never actually been a huge fan of the show) to see how they roll. But it'll be a day late and dollar short here on AFN, and more than likely available for viewing after we'll be out of the hotel and without TV capabilities in our house/apartment. Oh well, as I said I've never really followed the show in the past, so I guess I'm not sacrificing that much at this point. Honestly I've always felt the first two weeks (or however long it lasts) of watching horrible acts fall flat on their faces was just mean spirited. It makes people laugh and it's good entertainment but it's laughing at another person. These people are put in front of (HUGE) celebrity judges after being scanned by countless producers and other auditions, after hours of waiting and being told, "sure you can go in front of JLo, you're good enough for that." And BAM!!!! They suck. They're horrible. I just disagree with the premise. It's wrong.

Beyond that BIG NEWS PEOPLE!!! The Cupcake Club is BACK! I hope you'll all join me this month in baking the classic Yellow Cup Cakes with a super simple Vanilla frosting.

Ingredients

Makes 12

• FOR THE CUPCAKES
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• Sprinkles, for decorating
• FOR THE FROSTING
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.line the cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a liquid-measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla; set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add half of dry ingredients, followed by milk-vanilla mixture, then remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix.
  3. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups (a 2-ounce or 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop is good for this).
  4. Place tin on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool cupcakes 5 minutes in tin, then remove and cool completely on a rack before frosting.
  5. Prepare frosting: in a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat unsalted butter, confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth. Mix in up to 1/2 cup more sugar or a few more teaspoons of milk as necessary to achieve a spreadable consistency. Makes enough for 12 cupcakes.
  6. Frost cupcakes; decorate with sprinkles before frosting dries to ensure that they stick. The frosted cupcakes are best eaten within 1 day.

Click here for more info on the recipe and visit Martha Stewart.com for more recipes and tips!


Ok ladies, in case you forgot how this works (I couldn't blame you) today is the 20th, and we want you to come back and LINK UP (to the right) to tell us about your baking adventures by the 30th! You have 10 days to get out there and show us what you got! 

Idar-Oberstein

Kevin and I have been to Idar-Oberstein a few times now.... it's slim pickins of places to visit when you don't have a car and you're cheap like me. Idar does have more to offer than Baumholder but from what I understand most people only go there as a means to an end; the train station is there. Which was the purpose for our first visit there. Our second visit was a great learning experience- everything is closed on Sunday's! We had to get out of our room though so we jumped on the bus and headed over there. We were lucky to find a little cafe that was open and we stopped in for a hot cocoa and just walked around for a while more. A few photos from our Sunday visit to Idar:

Had to enjoy a Beer...

Shops closed up and there was still snow on the ground.

There is a legend about the Church in the Rocks involving two brothers, love and death (after all, isn't that what all legends are made of). All the same it's interesting to see.

After our failed attempt to visit the town about a month ago, we decided to try again yesterday. We jumped (back) on the bus and went back to Idar-Oberstein in hopes of visiting the Castle ruins as well as the church... I'd heard it was a nice hike up the mountain to see both of these sites but good lord it kicked my ass!

long-ass hike to the top!

Gorgeous countryside isn't it?

I knew you all were dying to see pictures of ye ol' castle ruins... well you've had your fill for today!

Coming together

Finally we have our moving date. We will have been in The Lagerhof (hotel) a grand total of 43 days (!!), and without our belongings for 123 days. Can you believe that? One hundred twenty-three days since we lived in our house, slept in our bed, cooked in my pots & pans, watched our TV or simply enjoyed each other company in the comfort of our own space. It's an understatement to say I miss my life. I miss being comfortable and being inclined to cook. I especially miss having more than just one room to call my own.

Moving day will be next Friday, January 21st!!

Color me happy!

Water

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I spoke to Housing today and good news (!!!): we're still on schedule to sign for our house this week! You all know how excited I am to be getting our house so that I can have my things back (I've only blogged about missing my bed, pots & pans, more times than any one person should)! Something else I'm excited to try making pitchers of water with fruit. I know, I know- where the heck have I been? But, since getting more healthy is a goal I have, and I'm so over soda it's not even funny I'm fiending for an ice cold glass of water (with fruit). I don't know about you but I don't/haven't taken the time to slice up a lemon at home (as they do in restaurants). Beyond being a great way to spice up (teehee) commonly, un-flavorful water, it looks really pretty! Don't you think?

Do you do this at home? What are your favorites, Oranges, Lemon/Lime, Apples, Cucumbers???

PS: Yes I just blogged about water... lol.

Givin' it a try...

Are you a fan of resolutions? I'm undecided. But... I have come across a few things I really would like to try to become better at, change about myself, or test drive for a while. Here's a few new things you can expect to see talked about on my bloggy over the coming year:

Meal Planning. I've seen a few people taking part in this. I think it's a great idea for a few reasons. 1) Keeps waste down so I'm not throwing out rotten fruits or veggies that don't find themselves used in a suitable timeframe. 2) Things are more fresh over here in Germany... things go bad sooner. For instance Milk. Milk is just weird here in general- I'm sure I'll grow accustomed to it soon enough though. 3) I LOVE Pioneer Woman and Our Best Bites. IF you haven't checked in with either of these sites, you're doing yourself a great disservice. Another goal along the same lines with this meal planning is to eat and cook more healthy foods. I've found quite a few recipes I can't wait to try! Stay tuned for the favs.
Exercising 4 times per week. Yes, I'm making that same, tired ol' "resolution" you hear every second person you know make EVERY year. They start off motivated but by MLK Day they've given up. I think this is why I don't like to call them resolutions. It's not a thing I'm interested in only doing for 2011, but a life-change I'm pursuing for my future. I'm not planning on becoming a gym head who spends every spare second I have there. But I am planning on Walking more often. Playing more Kinect (which believe it or not keeps one very active. I'm sure I will make it to the gym once or twice though. haha
Travel! The opportunities once inside Europe are endless. This was one of the main motivators for pursuing orders to Germany for Kevin and I. We're looking forward to gettin' around once we're further settled. (have I failed to mention recently we're still in a hotel room without a car??) The travel goal is negotiable in my mind, but for now stands at visiting at least 5 new countries this year. I say this is negotiable because we still have absolutely no idea if Kevin will remain on rear-d or join his unit in A-stan in a few months. Whether Kevin is here or not I still plan to see sites and get around (haha) but it will be greatly scaled back as I would like experience most places with Kevin!
School: Take 3 courses without breaks. I've sent an email out to the POC for the colleges here on post and I'm waiting to hear back from them. Once I've gotten all the preliminary shizzle out of the way I want to hit the books, HARD. While I am motivated I have this lingering sense that I would take a class or two then slack off for a while and find myself right where I am now. So, here's the goal: I want to take 3 classes (back-to-back) (or more than one at a time) and then entertain the idea of a break. It's been a while since I've really engulfed myself in school so I think this is a sound goal and will keep me in line to achieving my "Big Picture" goals.

So there you have it. There's some of the things I'm going to work my hardest at. Is it fair to say that I'm not going to start until after we have our house? Or is that just an excuse? I mean, really I can't cook much here and who wants to see a weekly meal plan consisting of Grilled Cheese, canned soup and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese? Good news though, we may sign for our house as early as next Friday!!!! Woot woot! Fingers crossed please.

I Want it Wednesday...

Today I bring you a wintery edition of I Want it....

For those of you who don't really know these:

style boots suck for the snow. I know Uggs are from Australia, not a place people know based on it's massive accumulations of snow. However, I always used them for cold weather back home in Colorado. Let me tell you, once we arrived in Germany it was almost immediately clear that these would not make it the long haul. They absorb all the moisture and really freeze your feet right off (not literally, I still have my feet). Instead one should invest in rubber snow boots... just FYI. Uggs does offer great alternatives for snow... FYI.

I spent a lot of time at OldNavy.com today:
I want... this in EVERY color please. They're great for whatever you've got going on.

I want... this beauty.

I want... well... I'm sort of on the fence about this guy:

Stay tuned for next week's edition for what I want from 2011.

The New Years that could have been

I had this idea of what New Years in our new house, with our new friends could have been like. The vision in my head included delicious food, Wii Mario Kart tourney's, other games and delicious drinks:

Exhibit A:

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Strawberry Champagne Sparkler Cupcakes, courtesy of DC Cupcakes. I saw these on Oprah (obvious, by the picture) and thought they were freaking awesome. Click here for the How-to Video and here for the recipe. 

Exhibit B:

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Pomegranate Martini... What's not to like? Seriously? Find recipe here.

Alas, my New Years Eve looked a lot more like this:

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I can lie to myself and you all and say it was just "low-key" but really we didn't do a.damn.thing. I was asleep by 1030 and watched the ball drop (via AFN) at 8AM (Midnight MST). All I can do is keep my rocking' awesome ideas handy for next year and know that everything will be different 364 days from now. 

Hope you all had a great 2010 and had a blast bringing in 2011--- here's to a great year!