Dueck sister's reunion

You might have noticed that I hadn't posted anything for awhile...

Well, I was busy.

Busy having too much fun!

You see, two of my sisters came in August from Canada and I hadn't seen one of them in a little over a year (Andrea) and the other one in 8 1/2 years (Daniela). 

That is just too long! 

We had so much fun: laughing, singing while washing the dishes, "be-membering" stuff from our childhood, etc.

We had a special ladies-night-out with my dear mum! And she wasn't even embarrassed with our giggling throughout the meal:) From left bottom to right: my wonderful Mom, my little sister Andrea, my oldest sister Daniela  (Dani), my slightly older-than-me sister Caroline.
The waiter was always rearranging things on our table, so Dani held on to her plate here.

 But the waiter was happy to take this picture of us! I'm the one with the freakishly large hand in the bottom right hand side of the picture:)

Dani brought some stuff along from Canada; like her two very lovable teenager sons and her husband. (Won't show a pic of my brother-in-law here:)

Mark was the happiest on my old motorcycle. I wish I could have given it to him to drive around at home with it...

Philip liked it too, but he was busier shooting the air rifle at the various birdies and cactus'.

My sister also brought me the pattern for this dress. I can't wait to find the perfect material for it and make it for Christmas this year!

I'll post some more pictures soon. I've been having problems with blogger, so posting this was already difficult!

I'll be back soon!

Brenda

Package from the north

My sister Dani sent us a package in May and I already lost any hope of it arriving.

But it did, today:) YAY!

I noticed a funny smell coming from the package and when I opened it, some yellow powder came out. (I really would like to know what the post office workers from around the world suspected was in the package:) It turns out, my sister had sent us some dressing mixes and one of the baggies with the Cheese Nacho Dip mix had opened somewhere between Canada and Paraguay.

After I cleaned everything up, I sat down to enjoy the best part of the package: a recipe book I had been looking out for for a while. Mennonite Girls Can Cook!

 (wierd picture: book on my lap:)

There are so many great tasting recipes in this book, I recommend it to everyone who likes good, home-cooked meals.

This is comfort food at its best!

Waffles with Vanilla Custard and some delish looking raspberry sauce on top.

Chicken noodle soup, looks just as good as my Oma's.

This one I have wanted to try for a while: Rolled up Kielke. (Kielke is a homemade pasta/noodle)

I can just imagine how good this will be with baked farmer sausage on the side!

 Wareniki is a well-known recipe in our Mennonite culture. I never liked them as a child, but love them now. (Pasta pockets filled with cottage cheese drenched in a creamy sauce. )

This is one of the first recipes I ever tried from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog. It's my signature Easter dish (at least has been last year and this year:)

These cinnamon roll-like Maple Twists are delicious!

My Mom made these "Pies-in-a-pocket" for my oldest sister's wedding and we loved snacking on the leftovers!



Thanks Dani, for sending this recipe book to Caroline and me.

 I don't think she'll get her turn with it anytime soon:)

Have a great week, all my readers, commenters and lovely lurkers:)

Brenda

Vacaciones = vacation in spanish:)

So, we went to Asunción last week.

I don't count trips to the capital as relaxing vacations for a few reasons:

1. They don't speak my language in Asunción. I feel the most comfortable speaking in German or English. And Spanish is the principal language there. It's stressful for me because my husband speaks even less Spanish than I do, so I get to order in restaurants, ask for directions and book the hotel rooms. And I'm always the one with the map on the lap, telling the driver (Marv) where to go, shushing the kids in the back, checking for traffic lights (we don't have any where we live),  etc. My head gets tired...
2. Going with 3 kids and my husband means there are 6 different opinions where to go and what to do. Plus we were going with another family with 3 girls in the same ages as ours, but with completley different tastes in activities.
3. It was cold and wet. Enough said.

But it was fun anyway, just not relaxing.

Right before the bridge that takes us into Asunción, we got caught in a traffic jam, which nevers happens here. When we inched closer we saw what was blocking our lane.

A great big tank on wheels was attempting to cross the bridge. It probably came from Argentina.

They even had to lift this sign, so that the tank could drive underneath. I'm glad we weren't on the bridge the same time as that monster truck. :)

We went to a brand new shopping center just across the street from the Expo-site. It's called Shopping Mariano and the prices are high, just like in all of the malls in the city. :( But we did enjoy our first taste of McDonalds, and Amy posed beside the Hulk, so it was totally worth it!

On a walk from our hotel Cindy turned into a tree hugger! Thats fine with me:)

Brianna and Anna found a granny in the Sol-Mall.

This was one of my best moments during our stay there: A real-live Cappucino with a piece of lemon meringe pie from McCafe! Yum!

Ok, it's back to work for me now. We are having a yard sale/flea market this weekend. Brianna and I have priced a lot of our stuff already and I'm still debating if we should try to sell our old sofa set or not. We won't be able to get a new one for a few months because the "carpinterias" are overbooked now.

Thanks for visiting with me, have a great week!

And if you're one of my sisters from up north: I can't wait till August 19th!!!!

Mug Rugness

Hi, has the mug-rug madness caught up to you yet?

I love them, they're cute and fast to make, and the best of all...

 ...you can gift them to someone you care about! I think they'll make great gifts for Friendship Day on July 30th.

 Did you know that Friendship Day originated in Paraguay?

"The Friend's Day had a historic antecedent called Crusader global friendship that is a campaign in favour of giving value and enhance the friendship among human beings, so as to promote the Culture of Peace. It was designed by Dr. Ramon Artemio Bracho in Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay in 1958. From that idea, was set July 20 as the Day of Friendship and is celebrated in several countries in South America. In Paraguay is celebrated on July 30. Its importance lies in the fact that favors the values that enable dialogue and harmony in society and the world." (copied from here: http://news.deviantart.com/article/53388/)

And Wiki says: "Traditionally, the International Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first Sunday of August, among several Friendship Day celebrations on other dates, held by a range of countries. On 27 April 2011, the United Nations declared 30 July as International Day of Friendship. "

We're leaving tomorrow morning for a 3 day vacation to the capital. I hope the 4 hour car drive to Asunción doesn't make me car sick or kid-sick. :) Hope you have  great week! Thanks for checking in on me!

See ya, Brenda

Horses!

 My dad came by last week with a small trailer full of horses. The brown mare in the front is the one we are borrowing (maybe buying) from him. The colt in the middle is here on vacation (to be weaned of his mother still on the ranch) and the black lady in back is sold already and is waiting for the buyer to pick her up.

 And here she comes...

 closer... and closer...

  ...and here she is!

 Brianna is very happy!

Until 10 minutes after this picture was taken and she fell off.


Thank goodness she only hurt her pride. And she might have a bruise tomorrow.:)