Not Fair!

To my lovely wife....
   Posting pictures of home cooked food is banned unless I am in the States to enjoy it! German food isn't bad, but it isn't your good southern cooking!!!

   We actually ate American tonight at a newly opened diner here called Pink Girls. I wish I would have took pictures of the restuarant. Pink and blue leather seats and booths. The waitress -two of which were the owners- wore old timey pink checkered dresses. American classics playing over the speaker - and I mean OLD stuff. One of the cooks even had real "Elvis" sideburns. And the food was super good. I think the onion rings were probably the best I have ever had, including in the States! They had spareribs so I had to check them out. The BBQ sauce was not the best, but it was pretty good. More of a Texas style tangy, sweet but they were still good. The plate was huge so I had to skip desert. I really wanted a milkshake but I was just too full. I think we will visit one more time before we leave. And guess what, they had Ben & Jerry's ice cream! First time I've seen that over here too. One of the owners came over and sat with us a few minutes and talked about their dream of starting that diner. Turns out, they just opened this past Saturday. Rodney and I gave them a true southern US thumbs up!!!

 
  I have to say again that I really enjoy the way the Germans slow down for their evening meals. We sat and talked a long while after we finished the meal and not once did we feel pressured to move on. Matter of fact, you are very likely to strike up conversations with complete strangers in small places like this diner. Super laid back and a wonderful way to enjoy the afternoon. Of course, being by myself -without wife or kids- makes this really seem like a big change for me. But if they were here, I'm sure they would enjoy the change just as well. At least Andrea would  ;)

  The town here of Esslingen has changed a little from my trip earlier this year. The bear looking hills that surround the village are now covered with grape vines. The trees are starting to turn colors. I have a pic from the top of our hotel that shows just how beautiful it is here. I couldn't get outside, so I had to snap shots though the windows. If I can catch the doors open up there I will get some really good shots.

  Rodney and I also took a little jaunt Saturday. We had plans to visit a German castle -the real one that Disney based their princess castle on- but a slight error in programming the GPS got us off coarse. By the time we found out how we got off track, we were closer to Switzerland than the castle. So that is where we ended up. We drove all through the mountains that border Germany and Switzerland. Some of the scenery was truly breath taking. Rodney wasn't feeling well -he gets car sick and those mountain roads we crazy!- so I didn't stop to take pictures. I regret that big time now. Switzerland was super nice and I wish we had more time to spend there.

So that's enough for now. Lots of love to my Baby and my kids! I miss you guys a WHOLE LOT! See you real soon.
DP

Homecoming 10-16-2011

See what you're going to miss! And this is only part of it. Just thought I'd tempt you a little and show you all the foods I made. Who knows, maybe you'd rather have your German cuisine!

grilled smoked sausage

chicken and pastry

deviled eggs

macaroni and cheese

pineapple cake

cheesecake

I have fruit salad too, the picture just wouldn't load.
ADP

September Youth Service

 On the last Wednesday of each month we do something a little different at our church. Instead of our normal worship service, we have what we call Youth Service. As you probably can guess, this service is geared towards the young people of our church. The choir songs is done by the youth. The offering is taken up by the youth. And one of the most anticipated things for the young kids is the object lesson. We generally have a "theme" for the service. The songs and scripture reading -also by the youth- all follow the theme. Normally, Deanna has her camera and takes pics. She didn't have it with her this month and asked me to see what I could get with my phone. The pics are not that great, but the videos turned out pretty good. Take a look below and see if you can figure out this months theme.

The object lesson:  Take a mini Oreo cookie and place it on your forehead. Without the use of your hands, get the Oreo into your mouth. Not an easy task! See below.

So what is the theme?  Any guesses?

Determination! Notice nobody quit the first time the Oreo fell? They picked it back up and tried again. And God will do us the same way if we will just keep trying. When we stumble and fall, He is gracious and loving enough to pick us up, dust us off, and help us continue on in our journey!!! I'm glad I serve such a loving God, aren't you?!?!

DP

October 8, 2011

The day after Daniel left for Germany we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Glenn and Ruth Vollrath. He is going to miss quite a bit this trip. I made the cake, Daniel helped with the leveling before he left :), (Thanks, Deborah for bringing the cake leveler, it worked great!). I was satisfied with the finished product, unfortunately I can't say that every time. The "groom's" cake was one of those instances. After I finished the other one I didn't have a lot of time to work with it. It definitely tasted better than it looked. I appreciate all the nice compliments I received on them! I'm posting some of the pics from that day from my perspective I guess you could say. Deanna gave me the pictures since my own photographer was unavailable:) I figure she'll post the others on her blog. She, along with others, worked very hard on all the decorations and other things.

 A work of art:). Somehow Reuben thinks he should

get credit for this. Go figure.

Delicious, if I do say so myself...

 A very special family:

The kids "hanging" in there. Paige wanted this pose

so of course Brooke and Hunter had to try.

Reuben and Hunter throwing punches:

 Hunter playing football with the big boys.

 He thinks he is a big as they are.

I had to call him in to change clothes so he wouldn't get grass "staings"

ADP

"Brooke"

Our sweet little Brooke turned 6 October 6th. Here are a few pictures from when we celebrated her big day.

She loves kittys!

Deanna, thanks for the pics! ADP

Long Over Due!

  Hey everybody. I want to start off this by saying it is completely Andrea's fault that we have not posted anything for 2 MONTHS! Just kidding. It's been really busy around the house and to be honest, I haven't had my camera out all that much. That should change and we are gonna try to do better.

  The real reason I am posting is because I'm back in Germany again. I'm in one of the cities I've already been to this year, but it's still a nice place with plenty to see. Things have changed since the spring, even though it feels about the same as it did when I came in March. The high here yesterday was about 46°. One thing I've noticed here in Germany is that most towns have lots of gardens throughout and surrounding them. This town, Esslingen, is bordered on one side by a tall hill with an old guard wall on top. I took picture from that wall last time, looking down on the city. Then they were planting and working grape vines on the hill. Yesterday from the city, I took a pic with my phone of the hill. The grape vines are all green now and I was told they are loaded with grapes. We are going to try to walk up the hill one day this week and I'll try to take my real camera. Anyway, here is what it looks like from the city streets.
 

The hill in the background is covered top to bottom with grape vines

I also took pics last time of one of the open greens they had in the center of the city. Yesterday they had some kind of presentation going on. I'm not sure what they were talking about but you can see they had a decent turnout for a windy 45° day! It still amazes me that it can be windy -which it almost always is here- and cold, but you will see people out walking everywhere. Not just one or two either. I guess your body gets used to the cold, but it sure is a shock for us southern U.S. guys!

I'm not sure what it is growing on the sticks, but they had different types of flowers on them

On the way to dinner yesterday afternoon, we walked past this BMW and I just had to take a pic. This thing makes a Mini Cooper look huge! I would hate to drive this thing in the States. I could run over this is my truck and probably not even stop.

This is Rodney, my traveling partner this trip.

Check out my dinner last night. There was no way I could eat all of this, but I tried hard. I needed some leftovers for today anyway ;) Just to clarify, this is a personal pizza not one for the table to share. If you order pizza in Germany, each person gets their own pizza. The crust us super thin and it is baked in a hearth and they are REALLY good!

My guess is this pizza was at least 20" in diameter. It was wider than half the table!

 To Andrea and the kids, I love you and really miss you! I wish you could be here with me. I'm expecting a post with some pictures from you guys too! LOVE YA'LL!!!