Project 365

Another month completed...

Strandcafe...

The weather has been fabulous lately, so we took the opportunity to go eat a meal on the water a few nights ago.

Strandcafe has some of the best ribs we have ever had and the view of the skyline and water is pretty great too!

Brad enjoys the beer...


and we all enjoy the ribs!!!

Luke's dream house...

Luke often uses my computer to do his homework, and last night when I saw this I got a good chuckle...

"My dream house has 40 rooms and that it would be 5 stories high. In the second floor there would be a big green house that has all different kinds of flowers and exotic plants, such as Venus fly traps. Next to the green house there would be a big swimming pool with a long slide and other fun things. On the left side of the pool there would be a whirlpool and on the right side of the pool there would be a hot tub. On the first floor right when you walk in the door you see a beautiful living room. In the living room there would be a giant TV. Under the TV there would be a cabinet full with cds. On the right side of the cabinet there would be a large shelf with a lot of books on it. In front of the TV there would be a couch with a lot of fat pillows".

I want to know, who is going to clean those 40 rooms?
and I bet he would want some of these in his kitchen:)

die Excursion...

I really am enjoying my new German teacher. She has a great sense of humor and she likes to make learning fun! Today our lesson was on Excursions and sight seeing...and instead of just talking about it, she pulled us out of class and took us on a "little" field trip around the campus where our building is located.

She taught us the names of the trees...

the history of the statues...

more about the trees...

and when we would walk through a doorway she would teach us the right preposition to use...

there was a Japanese garden there, and she had one of our students translate...

then she explained that the campus where part of the University is, used to be a huge compound of hospitals and Dr.'s offices...this building was the Narrenturm, which was where the psychiatric patients would go. Now I believe it is the Patologische Museum.

Here she is telling more about the history of the buildings...

Lindsay listening carefully :)...


Some of my classmates...

Then when we got back into class, she gave us all maps and we had to find some of the major sites in Vienna and then practice giving directions to and from a particular place. This definitely is one of the best and most practical German classes I have taken thus far.

Comment please...

So it seems as though some spammers have gotten a hold of my site. I am now going to start moderating my comments and reading them before they get posted...would you be so kind and leave me a little comment so I can make sure my settings are set ok?

Share with me any ideas that you would like me to blog about or things that you wish I would take pictures of...
Danke!

Happy Monday!

P.S. I wish I could make grocery shopping look this fun!

Showered with love...

Remember how Leslie and Felix got engaged on our terrace?

Today I got to host a bridal shower for her! It was so much fun :)

And here is the recipe for the White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberry Swirl (adapted from www.CuisineAtHome.com)

For the Sauce-
10 oz. frozen raspberries
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. raspberry preserves
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 Tbsp. water
2 tsp. cornstarch

For the crust-
2 packages of Oreo's (European size boxes)
2 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. melted butter

For the cheesecake-
8 oz. white chocolate, chopped
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese at ROOM TEMPERATURE ( I use 4 of the European packages)
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp. vanilla
juice of 1/2 of lemon
1/4 cup of raspberry sauce

Process berries, sugar, preserves and lemon juice for the sauce in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat.

Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl until smooth: whisk into berry mixture. Simmer to thicken slightly. Transfer to a bowl, cover and chill until cold.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees with rack in the center. Coat a 9 inch springform pan with non-stick spray.

Process cookies and sugar, add butter as machine is running. Pat crumbs on bottom and up sides of the pan.

Melt white chocolate over a double-boiler and set aside.

Blend cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. Blend in melted chocolate, vanilla and lemon juice. Pour batter into prepared pan, then drizzle with 1/4 cup of the raspberry sauce.

Swirl the sauce into the batter to create a marbled pattern. Place on a baking sheet and bake until the edges are set and puffed, but center is slightly still jiggly. 60-80 minutes; Do Not Overbake!

Turn off the oven, crack the door with a wooden spoon and cool inside of the oven for 1 hour. Cover cake with a towel and chill in the refrigerator overnight.

Slice cheesecake and serve with remaining raspberry sauce.

Enjoy!

Happy Things...

:: in about 80 days my feet will feel the sand again

:: Abby's ever-growing shoe collection

:: a ride on the famous Riesenrad with friends

:: watching the kiddos dance together



:: this cheesecake

Wild Weekend...

This past weekend was without question, one wild weekend. On Friday and Saturday, we welcomed pastors, elders, and leaders from across Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and Sweden to our "Synod in the City." It was our young denomination's second General Assembly, and we were grateful for the unity and charity of all of the brothers present.


Saturday evening we headed to the Rathaus for the Steiermark Fest (Festival of the Austrian province of Styria). Americans might know Styria as the birthplace of the governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Wine flowed freely. Lederhosen were the trousers of choice.




At the Styrian Festival, Abby was enthralled by the zip slide which carried daring souls across the Rathausplatz and over the massive crowds below. She had to try it. I (Dad) told her that either (1) she was too young or small to go, (2) it would be too expensive, or (3) the line would be too long. But Daddy's little girl has a way of coaxing me to at least consider it. I was wrong about #2 and #3. It was free, and the line was about 20 minutes, but I was right about #1. She was about an inch too short. "No problem. If Dad agrees to go with you." So Dad took one for the team, and Abby was all smiles.
















Sunday morning was the Vienna City Marathon, and since our worship service doesn't start until 4pm, Luke was able to run in his first mini-marathon, a 4.2 km run. He did us proud, especially with NO training, and finished with a sprint.




Now it's time for a (hopefully) slower week!

Here we go again...

Lindsay and I started a new German class at Uni Wien this morning. Our class was made up of 11 nationalities! I like that the teacher has a good sense of humor and likes to share tid-bits about Vienna.

Today she shared with us that the "Schweizerhaus" at the Prater, has some of the best beer and Eisbein (die Stelze) in all of Vienna and she told us about a festival that will take place this weekend at the Rathaus. How fun is that!

Now if she can only get me speaking in full sentences...

Are you feeling weary?

I needed to hear this today and thought some of you might need to hear it too! :)

Best of both worlds...

I love waking up to find a note like this from Luke! (yes-Luke gets himself and his breakfast ready and is out the door usually without our prompting by 6:50am) We really can't say that we trained him to do this, he is just one of those wonderfully annoying "happy" morning folks, who is self-motivated to get to school. Also, as evidenced by this note, God has given him the gift of encouragement! :)

This week we all have struggled a little more than usual to get out of bed and start our day, but thankfully the worst of the jet-lag is behind us. Our trip to Florida was very short, but really sweet! Neena and Memoo were troopers putting up with the chaos of kiddos constantly in and out of the pool and sand all over their floors!

While in Florida, we got to eat all of our favorite foods, hang out at some of our favorite places and love on some of our favorite people! I'll be honest, it is always heart wrenching to say goodbye. I hate watching our kids feel torn between 2 worlds. Fortunately, we have convinced our kids that they get the "best of both worlds" and they seem to really believe us! (sometimes I even have to convince myself)

The fact of the matter is, it is true. They get the privilege of benefiting from 2 countries. They love Austria. They love that they know German. They love their schools, their friends and how cool the parks are here. But they also miss their grandmas, cousins and aunt and uncle and their friends from our home church. (As we do too!)

It tugs at my heart strings as a mom, but I feel like the experience of living overseas has made us appreciate our relationships back in the States more. I also know that these experiences have developed in us all a real sense of being "citizens of heaven", and for that I can be thankful.

A week ago...

we headed down to Miami to eat at Joe's.

Here are some of the crabs...nothing but yummy goodness when dipped in butter!

It's tradition to wear a bib...

after your meal, they bring you a water bowl to wash your fingers...you can guess who loved this
Here are all of the Hunter kiddos posing...
After dinner we took a little drive by the beach, in search of gelato...


Brad also explained what art deco design is to the kids...



It was a fantastic evening of great food, beautiful sites and new family memories!

*Because I took way too many pictures on our trip, all week I will be posting "A week ago" photos here :)