Time To Say Goodbye…

Our journey in Germany ended on several high notes. One of them being the “Going Away” party Toblerone’s parents organized for us. Through all the stress of packing we managed to just take a moment to put all of that behind us and enjoy one last party with the people in our lives there.

We were able to have the party at the Sportheim in Toblerone’s home town which was a great tribute to him and his many years of playing soccer for this town. In addition to us moving back to the states and starting this new chapter, Toblerone had decided to officially hang up his soccer cleats to end his semi-professional soccer career. It was all just bittersweet!

We had about 60 family and friends that came to bid us farewell and we had a blast seeing everyone together. Toblerone’s cousin auctioned off items of ours that we no longer could use in the US (electric items) and so that was hilarious to see who bought our christmas lights or our blender, etc. Most importantly, I’m glad a piece of us is in the homes of those we care about.

It was a perfect send off with wurstsalat and kasesalat…and I may or may not have had too much to drink. 🙂 

Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxoxoxo

To Be In Two Places At Once

Vacation…yup. It was awesome and MUCH needed. Toblerone and I took 4 days with the idea to travel to the Austrian Alps and to skip across the border to check out Italy! I was pretty pumped to add another country to my list of “countries I’ve visited.”

We traveled to Stubaital which is a valley that runs through the Austrian Alps. The really really incredibly massive and beautiful Alps. It was actually pretty different from other times that I’ve been. We drove up on top of the mountains and then there were little ski lodges and ski towns up on tops of these massive beauties. It was quite bizarre actually!

We enjoyed the naked spa as usual (heehee) and Tobi skied down a massive glacier. We took a quick little trip over to the Swarovski Museum in Innsbruck, Austria. This was actually probably one of the best museums I have ever been to. I was VERY surprised. I thought it was just going to be a room full of jewelry and such but they turned this place into a massive interactive art museum. Each room used crystals in it’s exhibit completely different than the last. What a really incredibly place! I saw it on Pinterest actually and never imagined I would be close enough to go visit it. And sure enough! I was stoked at first about the unique fountain outside but the inside was the best part!

Toblerone and I also tried to be as young and fun as we once were so we went to a few bars at night but we really just wanted to go home to bed! My how the times have changed! But we played darts and watched the youngins down their drinks!

Date Night for these old folks!

Darts!!!!!

We filled our bellies with yummy 6 course meals…ok more like stuffed ourselves..forgetting completely about the fact that I have to fit in my wedding dress in 4 months. Lord help me! But it was worth it!

Then the last two days we headed to Italy. Granted, we stayed close to Austria so the scenery looks similar but the atmosphere is different. You can somehow feel it. I was so bummed about the service at the hotel in Austria and we crossed the border into Italy and something in the air changed everything. Maybe it was the fact that their stores are open on SUNDAYS!!!

I got to cross off something from my bucket list in the coolest way! I always wanted to be in two places at once and well… 🙂 Right on the border crossing into Italy for the first time in my life I was in Austria and Italy. Two places at once! Totally rad!

We were in a town called Vipiteno, Italy which was just across the border of Austria but what a darling little place! Everyone knows German but prefers to speak Italian of course. It was so fun to watch people switch back and forth between the two languages. And it’s really no joke…Italian is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. I could have listened to them all day long. We got to enjoy a mini wine tasting in one of the liquor stores and had fun looking at all the different foods they had there.

We started off in a little mini cafe/wine bar and to my surprise, we weren’t the only ones drinking wine at 10 in the morning! But the Italians are so cool about it all. They had a glass of wine, an espresso close by, and a water. You can tell they appreciate the good things in life. Food and drinks!

Our hotel was gorgeous! Sadly we only stayed one night but we were just so in love with this place. So relaxed and there were many people but it was kind of nice.

Not to mention..the dinner was INCREDIBLE!!! I can’t even put it into words. The dessert was a massive room filled with mini desserts! Omg…I took horrible pictures because I felt like such an American but you can get the idea! It was really really amazing. I over-ate on purpose. No shame!

Before I left I was able to pay homage to a special part of my step-dad’s family. His mother is from Austria and his Dad from Italy. I made sure to light candles for them all in a church in Austria and in Italy too. It was so special for me to be able to do that in one trip. His family had lived in the US for a long time so after they had died, I don’t think (to my knowledge anyways) that anyone was able to give their souls peace in their homeland. Was pretty special. But magically enough, both churches had incredible views of the Alps and I felt like these two spots couldn’t have been better to do this.

The church in Italy

Outside the church in Austria

Inside the church in Austria

If a trip has to end…then please let all trips end like this one did. On an incredible high note. Money well spent!

(P.S. In the next week or so I will be posting up hints in the form of pictures to a MASSIVE REVEAL OF A SECRET I’ve been keeping since January! Please follow me on my facebook page to get these hints and be in on the fun!)

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Wouldn’t You Like To Know – My Life Lately

Oh my dear lovelies! I have been SO SO SO behind on blogging and every day I put it off the more I avoided it! I’m forcing myself to give you all an update on my life! Lots going on and its only fair I let you all in on the deets!

Back when I came to Germany in 2011. A brunette!!

First and foremost…I celebrated a BIG anniversary. March 1st hit the 3 years in Germany mark. Can you believe that nonsense?! THREE WHOLE YEARS! IN GERMANY! Like wait….what? I’m not exactly sure how that happened. If you think about what you yourself have accomplished or done in the past three years you’ll realize…its a good chunk of time. It’s also enough time for life to go on without you back home and you start to notice it. People have asked me if being an expat gets easier but I think that depends on the person. Some people really have that travel bug and “want” or “need” to explore. I, however, just want to be around my family and things that are familiar. For me, in three years, I still want nothing more than to be in the US. This also has a lot to do with where we are located (far from cities, bars, bowling, clubs, great lounges, good restaurants, festivals etc.) We rely a lot on the company of each other and the family get-togethers. But even that, as special as it is, gets dull over time. I just keep trucking along though and try to soak in the experience and be thankful that I get this opportunity. Most people I know will NEVER get this chance in their life. Love makes us do crazy things and I would move around the world 100 times just to be with Toblerone. Harley Jones Noodle Butt Butt wouldn’t like that so much though…he’s not a fan of flying. 🙂

Harley Jones is NOT a fan of airplanes and he’s here to tell you all about it!

Secondly…we have 5 months until our wedding! 161 days from this post! WHOA! I feel like I have nothing together and I probably don’t actually but thats ok. We have SO many Germans flying to the US for this, in fact I think the airlines should give us free tickets for 5 years considering how much money people are spending for this. But how cool is that? People are coming all the way to America just to see our wedding (and of course travel) but this fills my heart to the brim. And as if things couldn’t get better, so many unexpected people from the US are coming too! I thought for sure people wouldn’t come because it’s a destination wedding on Cape Cod. I’m just incredibly stunned and so overjoyed there are no words for how complete this makes me feel. On top of it all, most of these people are taking time out of their lives and staying several days or even the whole week on the Cape with us. I…I just….I’m speechless. Speechless from the outpouring of love. I get to spend a whole week surrounded by incredible people. How did I get so lucky? How do you thank people? How do you return the love you’re being given? Just such a beautiful time ahead of us and I can not WAIT. Mattespalooza here we come! Plus we are having a real deal Cape Cod Clam Bake and I can’t wait to watch people get down and dirty crackin lobsters! My dress will be a giant mess! A ceremony followed immediately by a rock the dress session! LOVE!

Mmm….clambakes!!

I’ve been bad with blogging due to work and just being utterly exhausted. However, Toblerone and I gave up drinking alcohol for lent and it seems to be a lot better. Plus we are working out together and such which makes the nights nicer. Strange how it does make a slight difference in our lives! Have any of you done that as well? I mean, some days I would just LOVE to have a glass of wine but its worth it in the end! Plus I better be 10 pounds lighter!

There is big news on the horizon but I have to wait to tell you in the middle of April or so. I hate to hold out on you BUT its important that I do for many reasons. And no, I’m not pregnant, sadly. This may/may not be equally as good though! Stay posted and in the meantime try to guess what it is! Thank you all for hanging by me while I pull my head out of the ground and get back to what I love – writing!

Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxoxo

My Life Lately: When It Rains, It Pours

So much has been going on since I returned back to Germany from my short visit in the US. I haven’t had a second to sit and think and actually as I write this, I have exactly 40 minutes to myself to get this blog post done! How sad is that?!

Anywho, I promise things will start to mellow down and eventually I will have a normal schedule back. But to clue you in one whats been going on, here is my run down of my life lately!

Work – So I’ve been working for a company two mornings out of the week. Which is good. It gets me out of the house, I get to feel like I’m worth something again. AND, the bigger bonus, I can make my own money! Starting in November I will be working Monday through Friday in the mornings for 4 hours or so. This changes things completely for me! Poor Harley Jones isn’t sure whats going on! He’s used to his mommy being around all the time. Eventually this job will turn into a full time job after Christmas so these transitions are good for me. Afterall, I do have a wedding to pay for!

View from my desk at work

Aside from the real office girl job, I’m still giving English lessons. I’ve added on two more classes plus another private student. Thats a total of 4 private students and 2 classes. So, I’m feeling a bit overloaded at the moment. My mornings are gone, my evenings are gone, and the rest of the time is taking care of the house and Harley. It’s a lot. So this is a HUGE reason why I haven’t found any time to blog!!! It’s killing me!!

Husband – I missed Toblerone’s birthday because I was in the US at my grandmothers funeral to be exact. So his day was spent quietly as was mine. When I arrived home, we gathered together his grandmothers, parents, and aunt and uncle to have a small little get together and celebrate a little. I slaved all day and made pumpkin soup, German flammkuchen, banana cake, and a peach pie from my grandmother’s recipe. All in all it was a nice little gathering but only minutes after the family left…the husband really fell ill to the flu! So I had him home during the week. Poor guy! What a rough week it’s been!!

Plans – Next weekend is our annual Halloween party and we are getting pretty excited! Our costumes this year are pretty easy only because the costume we wanted to be was just too complicated to organize when all this stuff was going on! I can’t tell you the costumes because we will be this next year! You’ll just have to wait!! We are getting really excited to teach the Germans how to play beer pong and flip cup! And I’m not so excited about cleaning the beer off the floor the next morning…blah! But with no kids in our lives, this is the time to live it up!

I’ll be having Thanksgiving again this year here in Germany. However, I think I want to invite only Americans lol. The Germans just didn’t get it last year. To them, it was just another dinner at someones house. Which, to be honest, really made my skin crawl. I worked so hard to show them my tradition, my culture, and it was almost dismissed.

Random Thoughts – I saw this picture on Pinterest yesterday and it actually made my heart hurt. I remember being in 7th grade and completely awkward. These days, the girls always have their hair done up, dressing like college girls, and know more about make up then I ever will. This kind of thing scares me. When the day comes that I have my own little girl..I hope she stays wholesome and allows herself to be a child as long as she can.

That’s it for my life lately! Wishing you all cozy fall days!!! I’m off to get my visa renewed for another year! Yikes! 🙂

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxoxo

June Vacation In ‘Merica!

There were several reasons why we decided to take our vacation in June rather than the mandatory 3 weeks vacation in August. One of them being the cheaper flights. Since most companies shut down for August, everyone goes on vacation. The airlines aren’t idiots so they charge a good 500-600 Euro more. We got our flights so cheap (considerably) that it was without a doubt, the best time to fly home! We only had 2 weeks so we made sure to make it count!

We had a beautiful send off in Switzerland from the Alps:

We got to play with our sweet nephew:

We visited lots with friends:

We played with Harley Jones Noodle Buttbutt’s cousins:

And most importantly, we got to be with family:

With my mom and my sister

My parents at their lake!

We got to spend quite a bit of time on the lake where my parents will build their house. My mom and step dad bought some water front property and we can’t wait to spend many summers there and Christmases with everyone. It’s a dream! 🙂 AND….it just happens to be where Toblerone and I are getting married (again!)

We also took a little get away from wedding planning while we were in NY to head to our favorite place, Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Of course June is still a bit cold but more on this later in the week. As well as some insight into my wedding dress shopping!

We miss the US every.day. And its not just my homesick ass, the Toblerone misses it to. The “relaxed nature” of the Americans is the biggest thing we miss when we’re back here in Germany.

Til we meet again, ‘Merica. We miss you.

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxoxo