Slow Cooker Sunday, Valentine's Day, and Fasching!!

Hello Hello! Time to play a little catch up! Let's start with Valentine's Day. The day before, Sasha and I were as sneaky as possible and snuck into Regan's office after he'd left for the day (we were lucky someone else was still there to let us in) and decorated his cube with balloons, candy, pictures of us, and streamers! I thought I really got him good.

Here's one of the pics we put up in his cube!

He called me the next morning right after getting to work and told me how surprised he was! He actually woke me up when he called because I wasn't going to get up until 8 when Sasha gets up. After we got off the phone, I decided to just get up and go downstairs and what should I find? A surprise of my own!

Flowers and candy! So sweet!

Sasha wearing his awesome V-day crown (made with only a little help from Mama)

Next up, let's talk about Fasching! Fasching is carnival time in Germany. We've never really done anything to celebrate, even though it's a pretty big deal in our area. This year, Regan happened to be off of work on the same day that Mainz was having their big Fasching celebration. We decided to make the drive (it only takes about 45 min) and check it out. Our friends the Ta's came with us and our goal was to get there around 11 when the big parade started!

There were MANY of these scary guys in the parade!

For Fasching, you're supposed to dress up in a costume like at Halloween, but we didn't. I'd say over 90% of the people there were dressed up, though.

I wore my Hello Kitty headband for a costume!

The parade was advertised as being kid friendly, which it pretty much was. The problem was when you stepped away from the parade! It was just a drunken mess! There were people puking every 20 feet or so, and I don't even want to think about how much public urination I witnessed! As we walked down the street, we had to dodge "pee streams" flowing down from the side of buildings when men had been relieving themselves all day. It was also VERY crowded. We ended up staying for about 2 hours and most of that time was spent watching the parade, thank goodness. It was pretty much agreed by all parties that the Mainz Fasching parade was a one time thing. We won't be going back next year. It was yucky.

For slow cooker Sunday, I made Polish Sausage Stew from my Fix it and Forget it cookbook! I picked it with Regan in mind.

It's not much to look at, but holy crap it was good.

Recipe:

1 can cream of celery soup

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

27 oz. sauerkraut, drained

14 oz. Polish sausage, cut into bite sized pieces and browned

4 medium potatoes, cubed

1 cup finely chopped onions

1 cup shredded Jack cheese

Combine soup, sugar, and sauerkraut. Stir in browned sausage, cubed potatoes, and chopped onions. Cover and cook on low 8 hours or high 4 hours. Stir in cheese just before serving.

YUM!

This was REALLY good. Everyone loved it and it made enough that we got to have it for lunch for a couple of days. WHEN I make it again, I will double the sausage. 1 pack just wasn't enough!

Sasha enjoying his stew!

Last Friday, we had a speech therapist come out to the house and evaluate Sasha. It was a wonderful visit! She was really sweet and she pointed out some things that no other doctor has (and considering how many we've seen in the 6 months since we brought Sasha home, that's saying something). She wants to do a second evaluation and bring another doctor with her. She said that Sasha tested really high on pretty much everything except speech and fine motor skills, so she doesn't know if we'll make it into the free early intervention program, but she's hopeful that because of his history, we'll be able to sneak in. I really hope so because I would love to work with her more! I already learned so much from her after just one visit. In any case, I'm very hopeful that Sasha will be able to catch up now and that makes me super happy!