The holiday season is upon us

I don't care what Nordstrom says, when the weather gets chilly I put on some Christmas music, light a few candles and spend my weekends BAKING!

This is my FAVORITE time of year. It's the time to be thankful and realize how blessed you are. It's the time to cuddle and do puzzles and watch movies with your family. It's the time for festive dresses and hot chocolate and twinkle lights. 

But the best thing about Christmas is, in my opinion, Christ. Now is the time to realize you are free from the penalty of sin because of Him coming to earth as a humble infant. Jesus came to rescue Israel and bring forth the new covenant. He came to defeat Satan, if that isn't a reason to celebrate, I don't know what is. (Unless, of course, you don't believe in any of it, and then I guess you can just celebrate presents or time off work or something). 

But really, 'O Holy Night' is just around the corner, and I can't wait for the skies to open up so we can all rejoice with the angels in remembrance of such a sacrificial event in the birth of Christ. 

Here is hoping your holiday season is full of joy & not stress, thankfulness at your Thankgiving feast & not exasperation. Here's to silent and holy nights & not chaotic and fretful ones. 

And here's to lots and lots and lots of Christmas cookies. 

Catching Up

So, in the past few months a lot of things have gone down.

#1: Jonathan got into the Psychological Operations program and we found out we will be moving to Ft Bragg, NC

#2: We went on a cruise in the Mediterranean, going to Rome, Sicily, Ephesus, Athens & Crete.

#3: We spent a few days in Geneva visiting some beloved friends

#4: We went on a few weekend trips to Luxembourg, Bastogne, Tubingen (where I "studied abroad" in college), Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and a few other small towns.

#5: We realized we were leaving sooner than we thought, and have started the leaving process. We have shipped one of our cars and I am getting all of the home goods ready to go while Jonathan is spending his last month in Germany doing training. (Note my frustrated tone about them sending him away his last month.)


And here are some picks from our cruise & visit to Geneva:

Girl's Getaway to Cologne, Brussels & Amsterdam

The cathedral in Cologne

"a-a-A a-a-a-a-A A-A-AAAA" (Think Little Mermaid) THE CHOCOLATE MUSEUM in Cologne

Enjoying our chocolate drinks at the chocolate museum

The famous Cologne Cathedral

Belgian Waffles & Le Manneken Pis

A canal in Amsterdam

I love the Amsterdam architecture

DANGER ZONE!! We gorged on the cheese samples

   

The Amsterdam flower market

Back in Brussels!

This past weekend my friend Emmy & I went on a girl's trip to Belgium and Amsterdam. J and his friends also went to Belgium to do a battlefields and beer tour. I've seen enough of the Belgian battlefields, so we spent our time enjoying the scenery, eating Belgian waffles & chocolate and Dutch Gouda!! (J came home with a ton of Belgian beer gift packs & I came home with tons of tasty treats).

We spent the first evening in Cologne on our way to Brussels. We spent the morning there checking out the cathedral, a renowned chocolate museum & doing a little shopping. I forgot how much fun it is to shop with friends. Then we drove into Brussels and checked out the main sights that evening.

The next day we trained it to Amsterdam and walked a few miles all around the city. I just love the architecture of Amsterdam. I try not to let all of the drugs and sex everywhere ruin the beautiful city for me. We went to the newly renovated maritime museum, but I'd say the highlight was just walking down the canal roads. We found a hidden church which had some great history, and had such a good time we almost didn't get home. The trains all run differently Sunday nights, so we had a few mishaps and ended up missing our train from Antwerp to Brussels by TWO minutes. Yeah, the LAST train to Brussels. Thankfully, there was one that got us about 30 minutes away..and thankfully someone else was trying to get to Brussels too, so we ended up sharing a taxi the rest of the way. A little pricey, but definitely better than sleeping on the train station floor.

Our last day in Brussels we walked through some of the ritzier parts of the town, and then the place that used to contain all of the lepers, Marolles. There is some much to see in Brussels, and so many different areas, it's hard to tell when you are leaving one neighborhood and entering another.

The trip ended with a stop at a furniture shop. A Belgian woman once came to a Bamberg bazaar on post to sell her beautiful handmade furniture. A few of my friends bought pieces last time she was there, but J & I missed out. I have been green with jealousy ever since, so I just went directly to the source and got a beautiful kitchen island. I'm in love!! (And J doesn't hate it much either).

Emmy left for America the morning after we got back, so that was our last hurrah until I am back in the states. There is a good chance we will be stationed relatively close, so here's hoping!!

This weekend J & I are going to a medieval fest, so look forward to pictures! I hope you have a great weekend.

Rosh Hashanah/Where I have come in 2 years

Rosh Hashanah

Today is the start of the Jewish New Year. Shanah Tova!!!

Fun fact: this is the earliest in the year Rosh Hashanah has fallen since 1899.

Two years ago I was in Jerusalem for this particular celebration and it is always such a joy to remember my time there. I remember the blowing of the Shofar and greeting everyone with “Shanah Tovah” (have a good year). Rosh Hashanah is the start of the Jewish holiday season. Rosh Hashanah is followed by Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah & Chanukah. Somehow I ended up in that city for the new year, Atonement day, the festival of tabernacles & the celebration of the Torah. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun & learned a TON.

There is a group of Jews who call themselves the “dancing jews” and drove a van around Jerusalem during Simchat Torah. The van had a huge Torah on it and they followed it around dancing throwing the torah up in the air…it was really interesting. 

I actually started thinking about all of this last week, and then today I got an email from my old employer, the woman who I au paired for. She was rejoicing in the same things I had been thinking about. What an amazing past 2 years it has been since we were preparing for our move to Jerusalem! Her husband was already there studying and awaiting our arrival. 

Jerusalem meant so much to me. It was definitely the best time I have ever experienced in my relationship with Christ. It was a time of learning and of growth and of declaring my love to Him by being baptized. I also came in contact with some amazingly spiritually people and was often humbled to tears. I am often jealous of my time there. 

 Psalm 46:4-6
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

This is the WesternWall on the night of Rosh Hashanah two years ago. I had no idea what was going on when I heard of all of the Shofar's blowing throughout the city.

After I was baptized by Sam Fiore in Jerusalm

I took out an excerpt from a previous blog post: “Living Without Limitations” for the rest of this post:

“I keep feeling like this is just a pause out of my "real" life. That I will go back to Georgia, go back to school, go back to living with my parents, go back to work, go back to my friends, basically go back to the life I had before I left...and that was kind of a depressing thought. I want to change. I want to grow. I didn't move to Switzerland to stay the same person. And more importantly, God didn't send me to another place with completely new people and experiences to not show me something or use me in some way or teach me something.

So, I know that, when all is said and done, when I go back home in December, I will have changed...or I will have done something for the Kingdom. Maybe I won't figure it out until I am sitting in class in Georgia, or maybe I will never know. But I am sure that there is something for me, or something for me to do here. Which is exciting. Also, know that you are wherever you are for a reason.”

One thing I have been struck by recently is how my life has been so perfectly ordained. For instance, there is a possibility somewhere down the road J & I would have had a time to become friends and decide to get married; but if you take a good look at how our lives have gone, it doesn’t seem likely.

I just want to give a little timeline/reasoning for doing the things I have done & J doing the things he has done to show how it must all be some epic, pre-ordained plan:

Choice: J joined the army

Choice: I decided to be an Au Pair for family in Switzerland

No Control: J was stationed in Germany & deployed to Afghanistan Jan 2011

No Control: The family that I chose to work for decided to move to Jerusalem and take me with them Sept 2011

No Control: I had to fly back to America from Geneva before Dec 8^th (I think), because of the ticket I bought & because all of my stuff was in Geneva

Choice: I gave a blanket invite to my friends in Jerusalem to come with me so they could experience Europe

No Control: Only one friend excepted…and it was a guy

No Control: J was back from war

Choice: Try and figure out how to not have a super awkward weekend w/ just me and this guy in Geneva. Find someone to invite.

No Control: See that random friend from college (J) is back from deployment and is stationed in Germany

Choice: Invite random guy friend (J) to Geneva for the weekend

Choice: J decides to come

No Control: Guy friend from Jerusalem did his own thing most of the weekend & left J and I with each other

No Control/Choice: J & I really hit it off

Choice: J goes home for Christmas break

Choice: J & I hang out most of his Christmas break & he asks me to marry him & I say YES!

Basically, if you look at the above list, there are TONS of circumstances that we had no control over. If I had not been coming back from Jerusalem, I would not have invited a friend and then wanted someone else around to make it less awkward. If J hadn’t been stationed in Germany & gotten back from deployment when he did, I wouldn’t have been able to invite him. If I had a different day I needed to fly home, or my friend from Jerusalem didn’t want to spend time on his own and left J & I together all the time, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get to know each other like we did.

But most of all, if J wasn’t created by God the way he was, and if I wasn’t made the way I am, neither of us would have been comfortable with getting engaged after 9 days of dating. One or both of us would have thought that was insane, and he would have gone back to Germany & I would’ve stayed in America and we would’ve just chalked it up to a fun Christmas break.

Going back to my original excerpt, I am not saying that the point of my going to be an au pair was so I would end up married to J. There is SO much that came out of that amazing year in my life. I never would’ve been baptized in Jerusalem, I never would’ve become friends with amazing people like the Fiores, the Trumpers, and off the young adults at Crossroads & EBCG.

I’m just saying it was one obvious perk…

J came to visit me in Geneva the weekend I got back. This is the day I picked him up from the airport. Who knew what would come of a Swiss Christmas village and a Medieval castle?

 Psalm 48:14
For this God is our God for ever and ever;
    he will be our guide even to the end.

I will praise the Lord for what he has done in my life. I will celebrate Him and glorify Him with my life. Thank you Christ for your grace. Thank you for your overwhelming blessings. Thank you for Jerusalem, for the New Year, for J, and Michelle, Sam, Mia, little Sam, Margot & Lydia. Thank you for revealing your love to me through such amazing people in my life. 

I am exceptionally blessed. 

Soli Deo Gloria

Visitors!

J's best man & his wife came to visit us this week in a pit stop before their family reunion in Scotland.

It was so much fun for me to get to know them better. I loved hearing stories about J in highschool & at Carriage Lane church. I wish they could stay longer or that somehow we'd end up together on a joint Army-Air Force base. Thankfully, we all love to travel, so I am sure we'll have plenty of times to catch up in the future. 

As they head off the Scotland, I am headed to Amsterdam & Brussels with my friend Emmy & J is going on a trip he planned entitled: "Beer, Battlefields & Belgium with the boys." (Okay, I added the "with the boys" part.)

I hope you have a great weekend too! 

Running in beautiful

So, if I ever get the urge to run before work in the morning, I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world.

We live a half a mile from the canal that runs through Bamberg, and everytime I walk or run by that river path, I feel truly blessed to be living in such a beautiful place. 

I told J the other day that I don't think we will ever have the opportunity to live in as lovely a place as this ever again, but then I retracted my statement bc I have blessed enough to spend time living in Geneva/the French alps, Jerusalem, Estes park and the beautiful Georgia, as well as here. So I feel like I am on a role.

Last night we went to Mahrs Brau for bible study, and it was a perfect time to catch up with everyone.

Morning run

The state of the world based on reading credit reports

If you weren’t aware, since I have been living in Germany, I have been working at a credit union. I started with my mandatory 3 months of service on the teller line, but I was made for bigger things… the LOAN department! Well, seeing as, at the time, I was one of the only people with a bachelor’s degree working there, I wasn’t super surprised that I went to the head of the class. I also had some great teachers in my coworkers Myke & Candice…plus a boss who expected perfection.

So, here I am a year later working as a loan officer in Germany. I always joke that J & I are both officers. I was really upset when I didn’t get a badge or anything. Where is the fun in the world?

When I started working up loans I was very unpleasantly surprised by the state of our military personnel’s finances. You probably don’t know the ranking system, but it basically goes like this: Enlisted is E1-E9 & Officers are O1-O10. J is currently an O2 (2^nd Lieutenant), but he just got picked up to be a Captain (O3), and will be promoted the beginning of next year. There is also something called a warrant officer, which is W1-W5 – I don’t really know much about them other than they are higher than Enlisted and lower than Officer in the army hierarchy.

I thought one could assume that an E1-E4 is young & doesn’t know much about money, and that anyone who is E5 and above should be pretty put together. BOY WAS I WRONG.

Here are a few tales of my woes in financing:

I have an E8 (big time, I assume) requesting $50,000 for a new car (no problem, right. Should be auto approval). So, I pull their credit & this person’s scores are rough. I mean BAD. He has over 10 accounts that have gone to collection agencies. So I am looking at what this person hasn’t paid, and I start to get really confused. He has all of these different Pizza Huts & Papa John’s accounts that have gone to collections. Since when are pizza places handing out credit? I ask. And they are for small amounts too, between $40-$50. So, I go to my manager and ask him to explain it to me what all of that means. He gets this knowing grin on his face. “I see what they are doing.” He says. “They are cutting bad checks to pizza places.” And he was right- you could tell that this person had never hit the smae pizza place twice and ruined his credit to save $50 bucks on PIZZA!!?! What is wrong with the world.

I have another story with an E8. You will need some background though: we have this terrible thing at the credit union called “Courtesy Pay.” Basically, you can take your account negative up to $1000 if you have your direct deposit going into SCU (for a $19 fee every time you go negative) and up to negative $500 if you don’t have direct deposit (that’s for a $24 fee). So, we have people that come in before EVERY payday and take their account negative, only to pay $19 and pay back all of the funds once their pay hits. It is extremely stupid and people depend on it. You can deduce a lot of things from this: 1) that people don’t save money…EVER 2) That people don’t plan ahead EVER & 3)People can’t do basic math & figure out that they are screwing themselves. People LOVE this service though, so it won’t be going away anytime soon.

Okay, back to my story. We have an E8 who would abuse courtesy pay, as in he would take it out every month & one time his account stayed negative so long that his courtesy pay was revoked. That was a while ago. Then just a few months ago, I get a call & the woman on the line asks to speak with the manager. We are never supposed to transfer the person unless we try to help them first, so I ask if there is anything I can do. She responds with; “Well, we are in Croatia and we are in a little pickle, and I just need to speak with the manager.” So  I transfer the call and go back to my work. A few minutes later my manager comes rushing out of his office, all in a panic and comes over to me to explain the situation. Apparently, this couple was in Croatia when they got a 250 Euro speeding ticket and they had to pay it right then. Now, they don’t have enough money  to get home. They did the math and they need $700 to get the rest of the way...

Are you doing the math, because that definitely doesn’t add up. We look at their account & see that they only have $100 available. So, my manager and I decide to review their history a bit and see this: 5 days ago this joker got paid $4000. When he got paid he had $1500 in his account. So that makes $5500 he had when they set out for Croatia. In the process of this little 5 day getaway, they managed to spend ALL of it, shopping, $2000 hotel bills, more shopping, eating out, and who knows what else. So, now they are “in a pickle” because they have spent all of their money and they don’t have enough to get home. Well, I have NO sympathy. And I tell my boss as such, he gets annoyed with me and tells me I need to be more helpful. He thinks we could reinstate this couple’s courtesy pay until they get home, or we could give him a special loan that he qualifies for because he just got back from deployment. Oh, did I mention that? This guy JUST GOT BACK FROM DEPLOYMENT?!!?! You are supposed to have tons of mullah when you have been sitting in the desert for almost a year. Not this guy. And who doesn’t have an emergency credit card, or savings, or ANYTHING?

 

He told me later that his wife “married down” & never got used to living on a budget. They “finally feel like they are at a place where their income suits their lifestyle.” Umm, seriously?! You have been in the army for 15+ years and  you FINALLY feel like you make enough money for your lifestyle?! Um, didn’t the thought ever enter your mind that you should CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE ACCORDING TO YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES?! I have some friends that came from pretty nice circumstances, and we were all taught that you have to work hard to earn what your parents have. You can’t expect a $300,000 house when you are first married and you don’t deserve a brand new $40,000 car with no money down. You have to be humble. You aren’t entitled to what your parents have.

 

The end of this couple’s story is that we gave them back courtesy pay one last time, and they were able to get home. Whew, you were worried about this crack team, weren’t you? And then, since they knew they qualified for that special loan, they came in & got that as well. More debt! YAYAY! This is the kind of stud I sincerely enjoy turning down for a loan when he applies for a brand new BMW with no money down (oh yeah, that happened). And if that makes me a bad person, then I am a bad person.

 

Nothing really tops that story, but I will just give a few more little gems. I had this one guy (an E4 I believe), who I turned down for a small unsecured loan. Whenever I tell someone that they are turned down, I let them know that they can come in and look at their credit report to get some pointers on how to improve their scores. When this guy came in to look at everything, it was pretty easy to show him the right direction. Basically, he didn’t have any good trade lines and his credit report just looked like a rap sheet  of institutions he had stolen from (in essence). So, I advised him to start paying everyone back. His response: “Won’t all of this stuff just fall off my credit after 7 years anyways?” I told him: “Technically, but it doesn’t always work that way. And, don’t forget the fact that YOU OWE THIS MONEY.” That fact didn’t seem to faze him and he just thanked me and continued in his “take money from anyone who will give it to me” ways.

One time I had an E9 (that’s the big time for enlisted) request $500 for car repairs. When I got that application I knew I wouldn’t be approving it. If a guy who has been in the army for that long needs a LOAN for $500, you know something’s wrong. Surprise, surprise, I turned him down and didn’t feel bad about it at all.

I used to get really depressed when I saw the state of the world through people’s credit reports. It made me so frustrated how terrible people were with money, how irresponsible and entitled everyone was. What 20 year old NEEDS a brand new $30,000 car when he only has job assurance for the next 3 years? What kind of people decide that they are going to quit their job and so they just decide to stop making their loan payments, or, even better, ask if we can just buy the car back. Umm, it doesn’t really work like that. Who KNOWS they want to get out of the army and gets a car loan anyway that they KNOW they won’t be able to pay.

Some days I felt like the teacher in “A Christmas Story” when Ralphie is dreaming about how she will love his “theme” about the red rider bb gun: “F, F,F,F, 20 years of teaching down the drain!” and then when someone comes around who has “b” paper FICO score, I just want to write A++++++++ all over the chalkboard and dance around the office I am so excited.

Morning!

I woke up extra early to relax with my breakfast and the Bible.

This is my Southwest Omelet: So basic, so delicious: black beans, eggs, & milk for the omelet. Topped with melted cheese, salsa & sour cream.

Such a great start to my day!

Monday, Monday

I just had to add some pictures of our kitchen, because it has never been this clean. I felt the need to document while it was in such perfect condition....of course then I made dinner.

We are super excited because tomorrow we have 2 guests coming, Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Gilzean! Andrew was J's best man, and at Andrew's and Carrie's wedding was and only day J & I were calling each other boyfriend & girlfriend. His parents were here a few months ago, so now we just need his brother to stop by, and we will have hosted the entire Gilzean family! Unfortunately both J & I have to work so we won't get as much time with them as we would like.

Today also had some news about the job J is interested in getting. It looks as if our timeline will definitely be pushed back a bit. We thought we would be moving back to the states November or December, but it will probably be later. We have not gotten our orders or anything, but basically since J wants a different job than he currently has, he has to forgo moving by November so he has a change at this other position.

I will keep you posted.

On my career though, I turned in my notice last week and I will be quitting in September. If we end up staying here longer than originally planned, I will use all of that free time to work on a course I am taking. I am training to become a Certified Financial Planner, and I need ALL the time I can get for this intensive course. I know that whatever happens, whenever we move, whichever job opportunity J gets, it was all written before we were born. God's sovereignty gives me great comfort and joy.

12 Miles, 12 Beers & 12 Hours in line

This weekend was our town's biggest fest: SANDKERWA!! Which really just means our town gets ridiculously crowded with people waiting in line for beer for the weekend. My mom was here last year for the fest, and she could probably give you a good idea of how crazy it was.

Jonathan took me to a romantic dinner b/c I had requested quality time, and then we went out to the join the party Friday evening. Both Jonathan and I were pretty beat after our full week of work, so we decided to turn in relatively early.

Saturday, Jonathan told me he wanted to go on walk (which mean a march in Jonathan terms). He wears his 70lb rucksack and I just try to keep up. When he said he wanted to go 6 miles, I said, "sounds good" & we headed off. We kept up a pretty good pace speed walking b/c Jonathan has time goals, and I was proud of how we were doing when we hit our 3-mile-turnaround-point. When we kept going, I questioned Jonathan when we would turn around. His reply was: "I meant 6 miles out, then 6 miles back, obviously." OBVIOUSLY?! I said. You crazy....So that's how he tricked me into doing a 12 mile, speed walk/run that left me with all of my joints aching and a nice farmer's tan as mementos.

After our "walk" we relaxed a bit to recuperate and prepare for another evening at the fest. We got downtown just around dinner time and enjoyed some bratwurst & beer with our friends. The night before I had really wanted to get some popcorn, because this one place has this delicious smell that fills the street & the line goes around the corner. So, I know it's gotta be good. That stand was there last year too, and I had never gotten my popcorn, so I was ready for it now. When we got to that spot the line was around the corner again, but I committed myself to waiting so I could partake in what was creating that heavenly aroma. After about 20 minutes of going NOWHERE in that huge line, I gave up and found the group. I went back to the stand a few times throughout the evening and the line was still ridiculously long. After complaing that I was so ticked about that line a few times, I just kind of gave up. Another year of Sandkerwa without my popcorn.

Then...magic happened. I was sitting at our fest table enjoying a drink with our friends, when Jonathan came back with popcorn for me!!!! Our good friend Stan had smelled the pleasing aroma & decided to stand in the line, and when Jonathan saw him midway through, he waited with him to get me some! If that's not true love, I don't know what is ;).

So the fest ended well, and we have had a nice, rainy Sunday. I made peanut butter cookies, Jonathan and Stan put up some light fixtures (finally!!) and we had dinner together...there might have also been Christmas music in the background while I was baking.....and right now too.....don't judge me.

And now it's off to bed! If I can leave you with one thought, it's what the sermon was about this morning: In Luke 13, Jesus healed a crippled woman. She was transformed from a miserable, dejected disabled woman to one with an upright body and heart. She left glorifying God. In what ways has Christ transformed you to the person you are today, and in what areas do you still need changing? What sins and miseries do you hold onto and thereby reject the transforming grace of God? I was thinking about myself & I am terribly judgmental & selfish & lazy...and those are just the obvious ones. I suggest you (and I) do the following: "by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable & perfect." (romans 12:2).

Have a great week!

Our crowded streets during Sandkerwa

I am SUPER excited about the popcorn

The long line in the rain for popcorn

Peanut Butter Cookies

We finally have a light fixtures in the living room!

Congrats to my sister-in-law!

J & I just found out that his sister is pregnant! We are SOO excited for them! We are both hoping we will be much closer to home as our families all start growing.

And this is us in Vienna, Austria in front of the Hapsburg Winter Residence. Going to a ball in a real live palace was pretty much a dream come true. It felt like Christmas how you are sad when it's over because you don't know when you'll experience something that beautiful ever again. J reassured me that now we "know a guy" and will be able to go back if we ever want to. Here's hoping!

Please be thinking about J this week as he'll be freezing his butt off in the USAREUR Best Sapper Competition. I think him and his partner have a really good chance of doing well, but it's going to be tough.

Other than all of that, have a very happy Monday & rest of the week!

New year news

An idea of what we'll be doing this weekend

So, last 2 posts were all of 2012 – so what’s going on in 2013? You ask.

Well, 2013 started out with a few changes. I hate resolutions, but some changes I wanted to make happened to coincide with the new year, so I don’t know what else to call them. I have decided to try to cook more for J, work out more for my health, and read the Word more for my relationship with Christ. So far, my resolutions are going pretty well, but they usually do at the beginning, so I won't get cocky.

I also got promoted! Woo-hoo! I am now officially a “Loan Service Representative” for Service Credit Union. And I will hopefully be upgrading to full-on LOAN OFFICER soon- that’s the goal! It is perfect timing too, because it seems I will be able to get it before we PCS (ie: move – “permanent change of station”).

J is in training for “Best Sapper Competition” which will take place in February and he is waiting to find out which path his career will take. Thankfully, both of us are pretty good at going with “whatever the Lord wills…” or else being in the army and not knowing our future plans would be a HUGE stress. Thankfully, I am 99.9% sure will be in the states by next Christmas! J is pretty excited about being close to all of the conveniences of America, but I am going to miss Europe.

We are getting ready for the Austrian Officer’s Ball in Vienna (the above pictures is what I am POSITIVE it will be like) and some of our good friends deploying over the next few months.

We both work full time, but with the New Year have come new plans to keep organized. I have been planning meals for J and I;  and J has been planning our family worship. It’s fun to see us coming into the husband and the wife that we want to be.

Well, that’s all for now!

Love, K

Oh Christmas Tree

Our First Christmas Tree - A Nordmanntanne

We had people come over and string the popcorn & cranberries and decorate the tree with us; a perfect Tree-Trimming Party!

 

J & I bought this in Poland when I visited in February 2012

J bought this for me when he took his parents to Poland this past December '12. He thought it was really ugly and knew I'd like it.

Memento of my time in Jerusalem- Sept-Dec '11

My sister bought me this when we were together in Hilton Head- Sept '12!

I got Little Mole when we went to Prague for the Christmas market Dec '12

A witch from Slovenia June '12

Everyone's favorite castle! Nov '12

A gift from Gemma when I visited her for my birthday in 2011. And I do love London :)

A Swiss little bird J & I got at a Christmas sale in Geneva - Dec '12

2012 in Review

I thought when I first got married that I wouldn’t keep a blog because it wasn’t just my life anymore that I was sharing with the world, it was now mine & J’s life. Unfortunately, I could only stay away for a while. Well, I guess it’s been a year. You must excuse me from not blogging about my wedding planning. It probably would’ve seemed like a bitter epilogue most of the time, and the rest of the time I was busy doing a thousand other things. I was actually re-inspired by one of my best friends who is blogging her prego belly pictures (and the rest of her great life). I agree with her that it isn’t very classy to constantly post pictures of your pregnant body on fb, but people like me who are on the other side of the world REALLY want to see them. Ergo, she blogs. I feel like I have missed out on a year of sharing my life, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start again fresh. So, since it’s the new year: let’s do a year in review via pictures: