I'm a little late with this

but back in June before the whole seizure thinggy, we headed out to Graz, Austria (home on Schwarzenegger) for a little summer fun. We just walked around and enjoyed the view, Austria is a beautiful country. Anyhoo, Graz has several large hills and so we took off to the top of one for a look-see. 

Luckily we didn't have to take the stairs up, there is a shorter little tram thinggy that takes you up for a small fee and let me tell you it was so worth it. 

At the top we discovered this guy playing for his supper. He was good and entertaining. The girls enjoyed dancing around to his music.
I totally fell in love with this clock. Is it amazing or what and it actually worked. 


On the other side of the clock was this beautiful little garden. We had a ball taking photos under the rose laced trellis. 

BTW, we went to Austria kinda as a celebration of our 19 wedding anniversary. Since it's only about 45 minutes from home it's not too costly and it's another country!
The view from the top of the hill was awesome. Graz is breath-taking.


Oh yea and check out the hippo shaped building to the left, a little of the 21st century amidst the past.
I think this metal shell shaped thinggy in the river was a coffee bar, I think!

On the way back down we took the stiars and found a great place to catch a photo. 



Thought about hitching a ride with this guy buy decided against it. It does look like a sure fire weight loss plan though.


The next photos were taken from the inside of an Austrian armory, billions of swords, suits of armor and killing stuff. We weren't allowed to film inside so I filmed through the windows.


Can you imagine this being your view from your window?

I fell in love with this roof. Isn't this the most interesting roof ever. I love the different shape tiles. Beautiful!

Oh yea and out one of the windows was the charming little bistro. So sweet.

One of the more intesting buildings in town was this one that had a fresco painted all over the outside. 

I also love all the detail on the fasad of the buildings.


Kids were exhausted and ready to go home.

Took this one just because.

Don't know who he is but he must be someone important. If you know, give me a hollar!

Oh the Swarovski building was incredible. The detail was so intricate and interesting.
Okay the video down below I took while we were walking back to the van. The bells starting ringing and regardless of their origin I loved it and thought you would too.
WARNINGThis video has links on it to other videos on Photobucket. Please keep in mind that PB is not a Christian place and therefore all sorts of evil could be at the end of any of these links. I have tried to remove the links but with no luck. :0(



On our way out of town I saw this chair, a little bit big for my living room but I like the color!

Anyhowm, thanks for sharing my trip with me. There are some serious perks to being a missionary in Europe, Graz, Austria is one of them!

Sunshine!

Finally after a week of nonstop rain or drizzle it's finally sunny!! I'm so excited about the potential of the sun and if you could see my clothes line you would understand. I think I'm on load number 6 already. I have high hopes of getting it all done.

Honestly I'm not one of those who can get it all done. I'm sure if that were my focus and didn't take any time for family I could manage to keep a perfect home but often I get off kilter. I have never in all of my almost 19 years of marriage been able to balance everything and honestly I can't see it happening any time soon. I'm  a multi-tasker no, I'm not and I'm sure it's too late for me to learn to be.

Anyhow, I'm trying to get it all done today and as I was walking in the kitchen today I noticed the prettiest setting. It was totally on accident but it was so pretty. It gets hot in the house quick on a warm day if you don't let some of thee cool morning air in. So I was, and it made me happy.. :0)

Anyhow, between the laundry and the fridge that keeps calling my name I managed to change out the flowers in the vase on the red buffet. I found the pale pink roses in the yard and filled the vase with some of the red thorn bush that also grows in our yard. I love having any sort of fresh flowers in the house and really it's possible if you look around nature enough to find then for free! Actually I just heard the washer go off so I better hurry this post up. 

In Croatia we can get Nesquik chocolate milk mix but it's about $10 for a bag that lasts about a week in our house. So yesterday stumbled upon a recipe for chocolate syrup and since it was so easy I printed it. Last night Hannah made it and this morning we enjoyed yummy chocolate milk for breakfast and it cost little to nothing. 

I can't remember where I found this particular recipe but there are lots of them floating out there in Blogville. 

Here's the one Hannah used for her syrup. 

1 C cocoa powder

2 C water

4 C sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1. In a large pot mix 1 cup of coaoa wth 2 cups of water and cook over and medium heat stirring occasionally. 

2. Add 4 cups of sugar and stir until completely dissolved. 

3. Bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium low and let it boil for 3 minutes. 

4. Remove the syrup from the heat and add 1/4 teaspoon of salt. 

5. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. 

6. Stir the syrup. *the syrup will thicken as it cools*

7. Let it cool for 20 minutes and then transfer it to a quart canning jar. Give it a a day or overnight to thicken and you can enjoy it in the morning. 

You can either print out the actually recipe or here is a nice 4x6 recipe card you can print out and place in that old recipe box of yours.

Anyhow, the washer is nagging so I better get!!! Have a great weekend!