My dad's uncle gave him this book over the weekend during a visit to NM, which was one of his ancestor's. The book was published in 1907 and is in czechoslovskian. I love the pressed plant book marker. I wish my czech co worker was here today to translate.

It brings a smile to my face to know that mine and my family's love (obsession?) for plants, just might be in our blood.

Whenever I get close to moving to a new place, I sometimes get sad when I think about having to leave friends who I care about, and know it'll never be the same again.

Today, this quote gave me comfort. :)

The News

Now, for the news that I mentioned in my last post...

We are moving to Maryland!!

I still don't really believe it when those words are coming out of my mouth.

Wolfgang landed a promotion with Marriott and will be working at their headquarters. He's been looking for a change in his job since the beginning of the year, and now all the many applications and interviews have finally paid off for him.  He's SO excited about his new job.

We've told the good/bad news to family, friends, and co-workers and it's all going to become a reality, in just a few short weeks. We both have never been to the east coast (except for one minor exception, when Wolfgang was flown out to Baltimore right before our Europe trip for an interview. That job didn't end up working out) so this is quite the adventure for both of us.

It's all very exciting, emotional, and scary all at the same time.

These next few weeks are going to be rough and will fly by so fast, I get overwhelmed just thinking about it.

So there you have it.  Any input about Maryland?  Send it my way. 

Oh, and this marks my 500th blog post. (!)

Went to Multnomah Falls yesterday with sister and boyfriend for a nice sunday stroll. We've been enjoying it here and dont really want to leave, but we go back to the desert of hell tonight.

Oh, and I've got exciting news coming real quick! But first I need to spill it to some family and close friends first. And no, I dont have a parasite living inside of me, aka a human. 

We're in Portland visiting my sister, and we went to Voodoo Doughnuts, duh. 

The weather is lovely and we're on our way to the beach. I just love the green!

8 today.

A couple of days ago I was honored to be asked to by a good childhood friend of mine to join her today in a yearly celebration and mourning ritual of hers, even though we live in two different states.

Her first child, and son, was born and also died 8 years ago today.  I cannot even begin to fathom what pain she did, an continues to go through, especially on his birthday.

May little C smile down on his family, and my friend remember that he will one day be reunited with her again, and that she will always be his mother.

Coooookies!!

So, I guess it's been a while since I've blogged, huh?  It's partly because I had promised that I would get pics from Europe up "soon," but that word is all relative, right?  I'm still trying to figure things out, because it won't be as easy to upload my pictures as it has been in times past.  I am off the next two days, so that would probably be a good project to execute, right?

Well, to make this post not too incredibly pointless, there is something I have been wanting to share for a couple of weeks now:

What's that you ask?

Homemade Girl Scouts "Thin Mints"

The recipe can be found here.  (you have to scroll through the bazillion pictures and annoying commentary to get to the recipe).

I can honestly say that they are quite possibly the easiest desserts I've ever made.  They aren't exactly like Thin Mints, but still fantastic.

One thing I did differently that the recipe, is that I used vegetable oil, rather than shortening.

Try it and enjoy.