Last week was a full week! With Dan's 30th birthday and my Wheel of Fortune debut, we barely had time for much else! Dan's birthday was on Wednesday so I made him a cake to take to work with him on Tuesday for a meeting. It's a Dutch tradition that you bring things in for your birthday. . .seems so backwards. I guess we do that in elementary school but. . . Anyways, then on his actual birthday, we started out the day with homemade blueberry muffins in bed and I hung up little notes all over the house, with one in his lunch. I had to babysit that day so I rushed home afterwards and got things picked up a little and showered. Hence my wet hair in the pictures. :)
For his birthday, he wanted us to cook dinner together and picked a recipe for us to try. It was a moroccan couscous with all sorts of vegetables in it. Right up my alley. . .Not. But it wasn't my birthday. Then I cooked a garlic, cheddar chicken he loves. And we topped it all off with a homemade cheesecake.
We followed it up that weekend with a Wheel Watch party at our house combined with a party for Dan. It was so fun to have all of our friends over and to watch the show together. Here are some pictures from all the events!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wheel. of . Fortune!! (Part 2)
So it was finally my turn. They touched up my makeup and escorted me up to my place on the stage. At this point I am trying not to throw up because I am so nervous. The lights are shining hotly down on me, there is a live studio audience, and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of Pat Sajak!!
Cue Music. Here comes Pat and Vanna!! I was in the spot right next to Pat. We played a toss up round and BAM! the game was on. I won the second toss up round and was secretly laughing inside because the category was TV Show and the answer was "The Good Wife", which happened to be my best friend's favorite tv show at the time. Then we got down to puzzle solving. All was going well until I got to the prize puzzle. I knew that darn puzzle but when it came to me again, i got so nervous I blurted out a letter that I knew wasn't in the puzzle, "K". The guy ended up winning the whole prize puzzle...but I was ok with it because the trip was to the Smokey Mountains, was the exact place we had been a few months before on our honeymoon. The reality was, we probably weren't going to make a trip back to the States to take a trip to the Smokey Mountains. But I do cringe thinking about all the money I lost that round. . . :( However, it might have changed the tune of the game and I may not have won the next round!!
So the next round is where I won the trip to the Bahamas!! My next post will be about the place we are going to but a 7 day trip worth $9700???Yes, please! This put me up ahead to win the whole thing and go to the Bonus Round.
The Bonus Round meant I got extra time with Pat, my friends and family got to be on tv, and I had a chance to win more money!! It was SO nervewracking. And I was soo close!!! I was $40,000 too late. It's still hard to think about how close I was and losing that money. But I had a great time, came up with $9000 in cash, a $9700 trip to the Bahamas, and an experience of a lifetime.
One thing I learned from my time on Wheel of Fortune...everyone is much smarter when sitting home playing from the couch. :)
Cue Music. Here comes Pat and Vanna!! I was in the spot right next to Pat. We played a toss up round and BAM! the game was on. I won the second toss up round and was secretly laughing inside because the category was TV Show and the answer was "The Good Wife", which happened to be my best friend's favorite tv show at the time. Then we got down to puzzle solving. All was going well until I got to the prize puzzle. I knew that darn puzzle but when it came to me again, i got so nervous I blurted out a letter that I knew wasn't in the puzzle, "K". The guy ended up winning the whole prize puzzle...but I was ok with it because the trip was to the Smokey Mountains, was the exact place we had been a few months before on our honeymoon. The reality was, we probably weren't going to make a trip back to the States to take a trip to the Smokey Mountains. But I do cringe thinking about all the money I lost that round. . . :( However, it might have changed the tune of the game and I may not have won the next round!!
So the next round is where I won the trip to the Bahamas!! My next post will be about the place we are going to but a 7 day trip worth $9700???Yes, please! This put me up ahead to win the whole thing and go to the Bonus Round.
The Bonus Round meant I got extra time with Pat, my friends and family got to be on tv, and I had a chance to win more money!! It was SO nervewracking. And I was soo close!!! I was $40,000 too late. It's still hard to think about how close I was and losing that money. But I had a great time, came up with $9000 in cash, a $9700 trip to the Bahamas, and an experience of a lifetime.
One thing I learned from my time on Wheel of Fortune...everyone is much smarter when sitting home playing from the couch. :)
Wheel.Of. Fortune!! (Updated)
By now most of you have probably seen my Wheel of Fortune episode so it is no longer a surprise of what happens! Now I can finally share a little more detail about my time at Sony Studios and what it was like being on the show.
The morning of the taping, I took a shuttle with several other contestants from the show to the studio. The air was full of electricity and nervous chatter. People were talking about how they made it on the show, where they were from, and how long they had been watching Wheel of Fortune. We quickly bonded as a group...nervous energy will do that to strangers. After arriving at the studio, we were whisked into a back room to begin filling out paperwork and going over the rules. We then took a tour of the stage. Let me tell you that nothing can describe the feeling of walking out onto the set for the first time and seeing it all in person. It was crazy.
The wheel was smaller than I imagined and MUCH heavier! It took all I had to get it to go around even one time!! We took turns practicing saying our names, calling out letters and spinning the wheel. Everything was fast paced and high energy. Afterwards we went back to our room to finish paperwork and begin getting our makeup done for our commercials we were going to shoot! While I was sitting there, a woman walked through and everyone started screaming! It was Vanna White! She looked like a regular person in her sweats and t-shirt. She stayed and talked to us for a few minutes before being whisked off to her own hair and makeup.
Upon arriving at the studio, we had no idea what show we would be on. They tape 6 shows a day, with 3 people on each show. They had already grouped us into groups of 3 but then we had to draw numbers to see what show we went on. I really wanted to be in the first week, which was shows 1-5, because it was Sand and Sea week and that can only be good right? The last show wasn't even airing until April and the theme for that week was "Gimme a Break"...what does that even mean??? So one of the contestants in my group was chosen to draw and he drew show 5!!!! That meant we were the last show of the week and we got to watch the other shows before us!!
Then they shuffled us out to shoot our commercials. That was pretty fun. For those who didn't see it, I basically said, "HI! I'm Sam from Blue Springs. Watch me play Wheel of Fortune on KSHB Channel 5" or something like that. Once that was done and makeup was done, it was time to start the first taping! It didn't start until noon! They ushered us out to a sequestered part of the audience, on the opposite side from our friends and family. We were given strict instructions to not even look their way.
Then the shows began. I was so nervous for the other contestants!!! Finally, after a day...no, a lifetime , of waiting for this opportunity, it was my turn.
Tune in tomorrow for the second part of my time on Wheel of Fortune!
UPDATE: If you missed the show last night, you can catch it here (in 2 parts) on YouTube. Click on Part 1 and Part 2 to watch.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Secondhand Drama
This weekend I made my weekly trip to the second hand shop, where I like to look for things to furnish our house. It was here that I had a very . . .interesting interaction with the Dutch customer service again. It may not even be customer service problems, just pure craziness, but I'll let you be the judge of that.
So I had picked out a few teacups to use for a project I want to do. On one of the cups the price tag said "6x=6e", which basically means there are 6 cups or pieces to it and for all 6 of them, it costs 6 euros. Well, there was only 2 cups there and I only wanted one so I took it. When I got to the checkout, the lady told me that it could only be sold as a 6 piece set. I explained to her that there were in fact, not 6 pieces but only 2. She told me she had to confer with her "colleague" (sidenote-everybody is a "colleague" here. It doesn't matter if you work at McDonald's, they are your "colleague"). After much Dutch speaking, she tells me she is going to have to go check out the cup to make sure there are not 6 there. I tell her sure and point the way, even though I can see the only orange cup left from where I'm standing. She comes back and says, "Yes, there is only 1 left". Uh huh. Then she must confer with her colleague again. After the consultation, she tells me that she has to charge me 6 euros for the one teacup. I look at her quizzically, thinking that there must be some translation problem and I ask her to repeat what she said. She tells me again that I have to pay the full 6 euros or she cannot sell it to me. Even though it costs 6 euros for SIX cups and I am only getting one, she still wants me to pay the full cost. Once again, I cannot contain myself and I say, " Well that's just silly. I am not paying for 6 cups but only getting one. You would rather NOT sell me that cup than make one euro off of it? There are NOT even 6 cups to be sold!!" She just kind of shrugged her shoulders and I told her I didn't want it. Dan had wandered over at this point and I quickly explained to him what was going on and I could see on his face that he was about to say something we might both regret later, so I took my other two teacups and we left, muttering about the craziness that just occurred.
And in other exciting news, today is our 6 month wedding anniversary!! It's hard to believe that we have married for 6 months already! Happy Anniversary Dan!!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Birthdays and Disco-teking
February is a month full of friend's birthdays, including my very own husband's 30th coming up next week! But this weekend we celebrated our friend Kimberly's 30th birthday. It's a tradition of the Dutch that when you celebrate your birthday, you are the one to provide the entertainment/food/party. If you invite people to dinner, you pay...for all of them. If you have a party, you provide all your own food and cake! And apparently there is this tradition of the Dutch birthday circle, where at a birthday party, you all sit around in a circle and when a new person comes in they have to shake everyone's hand, introduce themself and say "Gefeliciteerd!", which means congratulations in Dutch.This makes no sense to me. Why are you congratulating people who are at the party? But, it's tradition.
Kimberly also made her own birthday cake and a beautiful one at that! After the gathering at her house, a smaller group of us took off for Rotterdam at 11. . .yes, P.M. We were heading to a "disco-tek" to dance the night (and morning) away. We finally made it to the club close to midnight and began getting our boogie on. Let me just say a few things about it.
1. The average age was about 20.
2. My ears are still ringing.
3. I was tired before we even got there.
4. It was even more apparent that I am getting old.
But, we had great company and had a good time, lasting until 2am before we had to call it a night. It's been awhile since I have gone to bed at 3am.
Kimberly also made her own birthday cake and a beautiful one at that! After the gathering at her house, a smaller group of us took off for Rotterdam at 11. . .yes, P.M. We were heading to a "disco-tek" to dance the night (and morning) away. We finally made it to the club close to midnight and began getting our boogie on. Let me just say a few things about it.
1. The average age was about 20.
2. My ears are still ringing.
3. I was tired before we even got there.
4. It was even more apparent that I am getting old.
But, we had great company and had a good time, lasting until 2am before we had to call it a night. It's been awhile since I have gone to bed at 3am.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Spiderman
The night I got home from Amsterdam, I was exhausted. I told Dan I didn't really have the energy to cook dinner so he decided that we should go to the store and both get something we've always wanted to try but haven't because of budget constraints. So we walked over to the store and got pizza...ha! They don't have a lot of pre-prepared meals and we didn't want to cook so that's what we ended up with. Ah well, trying new things is overrated huh? Anyways, so we come home and as we are walking up to our building, Dan says, "uh oh". Uh oh can only mean one thing when you are approaching your building and reaching into your pockets to get your keys. Dan forgot his keys. This has been my fear since living here because the doors lock automatically when you close them so if you forget your keys inside, it's a bad deal because your door is locked. I had left my keys at home too because Dan believed he had his.
So there we are standing outside in the cold, with a bag full of groceries. I did not bring a coat because we were just running across the street. The way our apartment works is that we share a common staircase with two other neighbors and the door on the street leads up to all of our apartments, but it is locked.
Then once we are inside, we have an apartment door, that is also locked but possibly easy to access with a credit card or something. So we start ringing buzzers of our neighbors but no one was home!
We are both looking around, trying to figure out what to do and both look up at our windows. Dan asks me if our windows are unlocked and I hesitantly say yes. For those of you who know my husband, you must tread carefully with anything that involves any sort of risk. If it is risky and sounds like fun, he's all over it. Before I know it, he says, "I'm pretty sure I can climb up there and we can get in that way". Uhhh...well, what's a girl to do who is locked out in the cold with a bag of groceries and no coat? Dan gives me his coat(he is in a white t-shirt) and starts climbing the building. Yes, climbing the building.
He uses the doorknob to hoist himself up onto the streetlight you see in the picture. At one point he is standing on the arm of the streetlight. People are coming by, stopping and staring at this crazy American. At one point a man approached me and says, " Is this a burglary in progress? Because if so, I'm going to have to call the police. " Uh yeah buddy, we're robbing the place, please go ahead and call. I mean really?? If we WERE robbing the place, do you think we'd tell you?? I explained what happened and I guess he believed us because the police never came.
Dan works his way off the streetlight and onto the white ledge to the right of the lamp and then steps (gigantic step) over and up to our windowsill (where I am in the window-these pics were taken after we were successfully in obviously). Our windowsill was so narrow that his whole foot would not even fit on it. Then he had to carefully squat down and lift the window up enough for him to slide in. It. was. crazy. But we made it in!!! and no was killed or seriously injured! Ahh the adventure.
So there we are standing outside in the cold, with a bag full of groceries. I did not bring a coat because we were just running across the street. The way our apartment works is that we share a common staircase with two other neighbors and the door on the street leads up to all of our apartments, but it is locked.
Then once we are inside, we have an apartment door, that is also locked but possibly easy to access with a credit card or something. So we start ringing buzzers of our neighbors but no one was home!
We are both looking around, trying to figure out what to do and both look up at our windows. Dan asks me if our windows are unlocked and I hesitantly say yes. For those of you who know my husband, you must tread carefully with anything that involves any sort of risk. If it is risky and sounds like fun, he's all over it. Before I know it, he says, "I'm pretty sure I can climb up there and we can get in that way". Uhhh...well, what's a girl to do who is locked out in the cold with a bag of groceries and no coat? Dan gives me his coat(he is in a white t-shirt) and starts climbing the building. Yes, climbing the building.
Dan works his way off the streetlight and onto the white ledge to the right of the lamp and then steps (gigantic step) over and up to our windowsill (where I am in the window-these pics were taken after we were successfully in obviously). Our windowsill was so narrow that his whole foot would not even fit on it. Then he had to carefully squat down and lift the window up enough for him to slide in. It. was. crazy. But we made it in!!! and no was killed or seriously injured! Ahh the adventure.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Amsterdam
I took my first trip to Amsterdam this weekend with a few girls from my church. It was one of their birthdays so we took the train to Amsterdam to spend the day shopping and getting pampered. We shopped on De Negen Straatjes, which means "The 9 Streets". They are a set of, you guessed it, 9 streets full of cute boutiques, cafe's, consignment stores, etc. We walked from Centraal Station to this area, which is also close to the Anne Frank house, but we didn't get to go there.
Amsterdam is a lot like our little town of Leiden but bigger and older and a lot more tourists. When you come off of the train and start heading towards the city center, there is a a whole row of tourists shops where you can buy all the Dutch souvenirs your heart desires. In the midst of all those shops is the Sex Museum. I got a picture of it but not really sure what is inside. We also saw "coffee shops" which in Amsterdam translates into marijuana shops. You have to be over 18 to enter and they looked a little shady but what do you expect?
The end of the day we topped off with getting manicures and then making a fast walk back to the station to catch our train home. The city is beautiful and I can't wait to go back and explore it more. We didn't have time to walk through the Red Light District but apparently it's one of the nicest looking parts of Amsterdam, which is what you wouldn't expect from an area of prostitution.
Check out the pics-remember, if you double click on the slideshow, it will be made full screen and you'll be able to see the pics better.
Amsterdam is a lot like our little town of Leiden but bigger and older and a lot more tourists. When you come off of the train and start heading towards the city center, there is a a whole row of tourists shops where you can buy all the Dutch souvenirs your heart desires. In the midst of all those shops is the Sex Museum. I got a picture of it but not really sure what is inside. We also saw "coffee shops" which in Amsterdam translates into marijuana shops. You have to be over 18 to enter and they looked a little shady but what do you expect?
The end of the day we topped off with getting manicures and then making a fast walk back to the station to catch our train home. The city is beautiful and I can't wait to go back and explore it more. We didn't have time to walk through the Red Light District but apparently it's one of the nicest looking parts of Amsterdam, which is what you wouldn't expect from an area of prostitution.
Check out the pics-remember, if you double click on the slideshow, it will be made full screen and you'll be able to see the pics better.
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