Creativity

I have not been feeling very creative lately, well, since we arrived.  Before we left I was feeling very creative and loving it!  It was great experimenting with Gluten Free cooking, sewing or thinking of things I would like to sew.  Thinking of a million ways to make a home more comfortable and cozy.  Now that we've gotten here, I would love to still do those things, but I'm all dry.  I haven't found any fabric here, so I don't have anything to sew.  I brought a little bit with me and I need to make something for my table, but I just haven't got the creativity to do it.  I miss the cooking, but I really haven't figured out how the oven works yet, plus, I forgot my measuring cups (which is quite important in a place where they don't use our measuring system).  Things just taste different here and it's much harder without all the conveniences or even utensils to cook with here.  I'm starting to feel a little down because I don't have anything I can make. Maybe soon we'll go to another city and get some fabric.  These curtains are certainly not helping my creativity come out :)

Coffee

It has become a routine for us in the last week to head downtown in the evenings and get some coffee.  Well, I get a latte and Andrew gets tea.  Last night the coffee shop we stopped at could not make my latte so I ended up getting the very strong small cup of Turkish coffee.  It was good, but I just enjoy drinking for a longer amount of time.

Andrew enjoying his mint tea

Love a good latte

Our New Home Overseas (Some Before Pictures)

Our Doors...

Yes that's right, we have two doors.  The one on the right goes into our living room and the one on the left goes into the dinning room.  There is a sliding door between the living room and dinning room.  I believe these two doors are so if you have company in the living room, you can close off the sliding door and still come and go as you like in the rest of the house.

Living Room

This picture is taken through the half of the sliding door that is open.  The door to the outside is on the immediate right.  There is a TV in the corner on the left.

Dinning Room

Originally this room was more like a den.  The sofa's from the living room where in this room and those green cushions stacked in front of the window where around the room on the floor (reclined seating).  Our landlord put in a table for us in this room.

Guest Bedroom

Guest Bathroom

Sorry this one is on it's side...I could not figure out how to flip a pictures in blogger.  So, if you come visit us, you might have the opportunity to enjoy this shower squatty combo bathroom :)

Master Bedroom

This bed is actually pretty sweet.  It's bigger than a Queen but not quite as big as a King, and it is a spring mattress.  Apparently these are hard to come by here, they are mostly foam mattress (and I don't mean the Tempurpedic ones).

Master Bathroom

Sorry another picture on it's side.  Standard bathroom, we enjoy it, but unfortunately you cannot flush TP here so we're still getting used to that :)

Kitchen/Laundry

This is our Kitchen/Laundry combo.  We have had to buy quite a bit of stuff for the kitchen. As you can see there is little to no storage, so we've bought some plastic shelves along with dishes and silverware, etc. I do really enjoy that I can wash my clothes in the same room I cook in :)  No dryer though, we have a drying rack I hang the clothes on then move it outside on our balcony.  It's so dry here though, our clothes are usually dry in about thirty minutes if they're outside.  Amazing!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed to before photo tour of our new "flat."  We're still getting things settled in and set up like we want them, but things are coming along.  It's not what we're used to in the states, but we're not in the states anymore so I guess that's to be expected :)  Once we get things all settled, I'll try to take some after photos.  But who knows when we'll be all settled.  Thanks for keeping up with us!  Keep posted for more to come (like the wedding that went on last night right outside our window till 3 am).

We Made It!

Well folks, we have officially made it and settled in.  We arrived last Thursday morning around 8 a.m. and have finally gotten our internet hooked up (Wednesday 3:00ish).  We travelled for 30+ hours to get here.  Put a one year payment down on a flat the afternoon we arrived, and have been running around crazy trying to get things settled since then.  So far, we have averaged 1 to 2 trips to the store daily.  I think things are starting to come together now, so hopefully the trips to the store will slow.  It is definitely a different world here.  Things are just not the same.  For example, when the guy came to put in our phone line, he ran a wire in through our window instead of into the wall.  Andrew had to stand at the window with his arm out to catch the wire as the man threw it to him to pull in through the window.  It's just little things like that here and there that remind us we are living in a different place.

I just wanted to write a quick blog now that we have internet.  Now I'll be able to blog more and keep everyone up to date as to what is going on here.  I also hope to post some videos soon too!  We'll see how things go.  I think we'll be pretty busy here for a while.  I believe we start studying language next week.  Fun times :)

P.S.  I found my favorite Gluten-Free cereal here!  Who would have guessed?!

And We're Off...

As I sit here this morning before the rush of things really begins, I am trying to fathom the fact that we are moving half-way across the world to live.  It feels so surreal.  I am not that stressed because I think I really do not believe that we are going  yet.  Eight bags total, two carry-ons each...we've borrowed a van to get us to the airport.  My dad informed me that the weight of our bags is roughly two people.  We have had so many changes in the last four months.  Two days before our July 1st departure we were informed we could not travel because I was too sick and could not handle the transition overseas.  Now, three and a half months later, I am feeling better than ever!  We have been issued new tickets and we brace ourselves for thirty hours of travel beginning this evening.  It is going to be incredibly hard to say good-bye, but the time has come. We have waited long enough, said our good-byes too many times, it just feels like the time has come.  We are so thankful for the family and friends that have surrounded us during this difficult waiting time.  We are continually thankful for their love and support as we leave them to travel the world.  Words can not even describe the love and gratitude I feel.  Thank you for your support.  Thank you for your thoughts.  Thank you for keeping up with us even though we are out of site, but not out of mind.  I look forward to writing again soon and keeping you up to date with the things that are going on in our lives.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

My Fabulous (Tall) Friend Sandra

My Favorite Mom :)  [Don't we look so much alike?]

My Ridiculously Handsome Husband who loves Turkey Legs

Our Wonderful Grimms who stick with us through everything

Just another treat for ya'll to see the good looks of my husband with another Turkey leg

Sarah's GF Spice Cake

As many of you know, I am planning to enter the Gluten Free Baking contest in the GA National Fair this year.  I am quite excited about this, but I am not sure that I will even be here to enter.  Thankfully, my great friend, Sandra, said she would make the cake for me and enter it.  I am quite excited about this cake.  I have been working on it and tweaking it a bit, and I think I've got a final recipe.  Tonight I am going to a Ladies Dessert Social, so of course this was a great opportunity to have another test run of my cake.

I am still not entirely sure I've got the icing like I would like it.  It is a cream cheese icing but I can't seem to get it thick enough and it runs down the side of the cake.  Maybe when Sandra makes it for the final cake she can tweak it to get it right.  The taste is delicious.  It is a three layer cake.  Gluten Free flours don't rise as much as wheat flour does, so I added an extra layer to make it tall enough to decorate and look pretty.  This cake is not decorated like it will be for the fair.  I made some Marshmallow Fondant Icing, which I colored into four different fall colors.  I found a leaf mold at Hobby Lobby to shape leaves with the fondant to decorate the cake.  I think it will look pretty when it is done and I am sure Sandra will do an amazing job on it.  Probably better than I could have done :)