3rd Annual Halloween Party

Its that time of year again folks! Feels like just yesterday!! Another year to show the Germs just what Halloween is about. Candy, Drinking, and Costumes! If you recall, last year our Halloween Party was actually our surprise wedding reception! Toblerone and I got married on October 26th and that evening, we had our Halloween Party. Just so happens that our Halloween Party would once again be on October 26th so we got to celebrate our Anniversary with everyone!!

This year I didn’t go all out as much as I did the years before as far as food and what not. I did my usual vegetable skeleton and a few snack items. Nothing too crazy. I didn’t want to spend the whole day cooking. I actually wanted to enjoy my own party!! Even though I turned it down a notch, it was still really stressful and I’m thinking this will actually be our last year of this stuff. The house was a disaster the day after and truthfully, friends, I’m too damn old!! Toblerone and I were David and Victoria Beckham this year. (sorry for the crappy quality! It’s the only pic we have and from an iPhone!)

The greatest part of this was an American friend of mine living in Stuttgart came for the party and we had a BLAST! This year we did a little beer pong and flip cup! That was FANTASTIC! I always get way excited about competitive drinking sports. Maybe a little too excited for my age! Anyways, here is a look into the evening! I just absolutely adore all the costumes the Germs come up with! So creative and cute! And they get into it!! No half-assing from them!!

And I want to thank my sweet husband for just being the greatest man in my life and I’m glad he picked me! 🙂

Wishing you all a very happy Halloween!! 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

My Life Lately

I have been totally MIA and it’s not because I’m ignoring you guys…I’m truly not. In fact I have over 50 blog posts in my drafts folder ready to go!Gotta get with it! I figured I’d catch you up to date on what’s been going on in my life lately and then we can go from there!

Where to begin…ahhh yes….Sweet sweet summertime. No, actually not sweet. I am MISERABLE in the summer. Give me a gloomy fall day and a snow storm ANY DAY of the year. I am not a summer person. This of course all happened once I moved to Germany. Where as you know Air Conditioning does not exist and strange large flesh eating bugs attack me when its the most humid out, constantly. Today it’s rainy and its a balmy 46 degrees. I have found my happy place!

I’ve mentioned this before but in Germany, several companies have a mandatory 2-3 week summer vacation. They shut down the company and everyone goes to Turkey…sometimes Greece or Croatia. Air tickets spike and Germans are EVERYWHERE. This summer Toblerone and I decided to keep it simple. After all, we do have a wedding to pay for in a year! We went to our favorite hotel in the alps, I turned another year older, and got quite a few things done around the house. I got some really lovely gifts from the husband and in-laws 🙂 And in true German fashion very practical gifts! More on this later!

Now I’m in the midst of throwing myself into little projects. I decided not to continue teaching English lessons through the school and instead will keep my private lessons and search for a more permanent job. Of course these little projects consist of changing my name finally on my social security card, my passport, and filing for the Toblerone to get a green card. Thankfully, the US Embassy here in Germany can help me with the majority of that. And the greatest part about dealing with the embassy…is I call…and its ALL in English. THANK YOU BABY JESUS! Its nice to talk to Americans once in a while!

Other projects are of course…PARTIES!!!!! A dear friend of mine is preggers and although she is due any day now, I’ve decided to throw her a baby shower! Germans don’t have baby showers. It’s quite the opposite due to superstitions. Friends and family bring you gifts well after the baby has arrived. But if it was me I’d want to be showered for a day! So, that’s happening this weekend. Then of course, the 3rd Annual Halloween Party is almost here! We’ve invited even more people than last year, I’m prepping for this and it just so happens to be on our 1 year wedding anniversary too! We have a fun costume that I can’t wait to show you guys!

In other giant news…we decided to completely start from scratch with our wedding. In fact, We changed the venue, cut the guest list down by 75%, we changed the style, and…changed the state! Things back in NY just started to feel complicated for us for some reason. Maybe was it too many people? Was it because everything is just way too expensive? Maybe…but I really think that we just felt like we were settling for something that isn’t 100% us. SO, going back to the old plans…we’re planning a very small and intimate wedding in Cape Cod, Mass. As you all know…we love us some Cape! That’s where we are doing it and already, it’s a thousand times easier. A HUGE weight has been lifted off my shoulders. We realize most people won’t be able to join us…even most family won’t but I had to start thinking about what we wanted. Just us. And the answer was really simple.

And last but not least…Oktoberfest!!! Off to Stuttgart to celebrate and looking forward to it! This year is special, I’ll be meeting a new American friend who is in the same situation as me. You know the story…fell in love with a Germ and moved here to be with him. Yeah..so the story goes! Anyways, that will be fun. I’ve decided this year I really need to put some more effort into making friends here that get me. Looking forward to that! 🙂

Still collecting ideas for 30 things before I’m 30. German recipes is at the moment the one in my head but give me some ideas!!!

More to come about all the fun! Thanks for sticking it out with me while I took a little break from the world! The truth is, I hit a little downward spiral of homesickness and just generally hating people so I figured it was best to keep my negativity off the blog space for a bit. That’s never good for business!!

Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxoxo

2nd Annual Halloween Party

It came and went once again! Last year we decided to show the Germans how Halloween should be celebrated so we held a mandatory costume party! We invited maybe 8 people. Then this year we decided to invite everyone!

There were two great parts to this Halloween…1. My mom was still in town from the wedding and would get to meet the people that are in my life. 2. This was our surprise wedding party following our civil service wedding we had that morning. So everyone who came had no idea that we got married! Once everyone arrived, we gave a little speech followed by cheering and congratulations all around!

It really went perfectly this year! We had around 25 people and they were dancing, in the jacuzzi, and downing Jell-O shots like Americans! I was so proud! Everyone came in costume and that made it more fun! We had drinks galore, pumpkin soup, chili, and loads of goodies my mom helped me get done! She’s a saint!! Thanks again momma!!

There is one stark difference between Halloween in the US and Halloween in Germany. In the US the girls dress a bit skanky usually and the men dress crude, and creative but inappropriate. In Germany, everyone is dressed scary and if they aren’t, then appropriate lengths on dresses, etc. Totally opposite! But fun nonetheless!

This year we had 5…count them…5 trick or treaters. The kids held small glowing pumpkins and sang a song. Once they were finished they would take money or candy. So cute and I was so excited to finally get kids!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and are now prepping for Turkey Day! My first one out of the states…and I’m hosting! (Aka stress-mania!!!)

Until next time, Readers!!!! Xoxoxoxoxoxo

Back In The Game

Here I am again, folks!! I had an AMAZING vacation back home. 3.5 weeks just isn’t long enough!!!

We packed in so much stuff in the time we were there so here’s a brief picture summary of what we busied ourselves with!

“Tea Party” Bridal Shower for my best friend:

Annual Cape Cod Trip:

28th Birthday Party Extravaganza (Oldschool style with putt-putt and bowling!):

Bachelorette Party for my best friend:

Camp with the family:

 

We also took my baby sister to College for the first time as well! Busy busy bees!

We certainly had our days filled and it was incredible! I was so happy to be home. Now I’m dealing with jet lag and lesson planning for my new teaching gig which starts up in 3 weeks!

Since we won’t make it home for Halloween or Thanksgiving this year I’ve decided to throw the Germans our usual annual Halloween party as well as a Thanksgiving! I packed my bags full of stuffing, cranberry sauce, and recipes! The fun part will be cooking a much smaller turkey in my much smaller oven. I honestly think that Americans only have large ovens specifically for the 20 pound Turkeys we cook each year! Here, I can get maybe 10 pounds at most, anything else won’t fit!

More to come on all that goes on! I’m trying to nurse my jet lag (it’s 4am as I write this) and no better way than to hike the Austrian Alps! Pics to follow!

Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxoxoxo

Typical American Halloween Party in Germany!

So what does a typical American Halloween Party entail? Drinking. End of story.

Halloween isn’t really celebrated here. I’m not sure what it means to everyone but I think they are picking up on the fact that American’s have the best parties in the world (besides Oktoberfest) and Halloween is a GREAT example of that. With everyone dressed up as a character…you already feel silly…and it makes for an even sillier party-goer! So, like I said, Halloween isn’t huge here so decorations are scarce. There aren’t any big Halloween Outlet stores or Party stores where you can shop till you drop for all your holiday decorations. Luckily, my mom sent me boxes of Halloween decorations which I am SO grateful for! With the things she sent me combined with the few items, I made…it was a hit!

Here are a few pictures of the decorations (I know…the pics aren’t that great…but you get the idea). This year I took a ride back to the past of 1980’s. Toblerone was Papa Smurf..which he was last year too but who cares! (It’s hard to find costumes here too….) Harley stayed with his Omi and Opi and had he been here…he would have been a big black spider! 🙂 Well, a spider for 20 seconds before he ate his fake legs off.

I painted the brown bags with spiders, witches, cats, leaves, bugs, bats, pumpkin faces, ghosts, just about everything I could think of and lined them up the driveway and up the stairs in the house with. These took a long time to make but thankfully I had some help painting! (Thanks Ele!)

The previous owner left this perfect witches broom and I just decorated with some leaves and Wahhhh-BAM!

Spider webs are always key 🙂 This is the walkway into the house after the mud room.

We set up tables around with little decorations and a “Potions” table so people could get their own drinks! 🙂 Sorry for the bad quality of pictures! It’s so hard to take good pics in the dark…and I don’t know how to use our big camera just yet.

A Skeleton Vegetable man (thanks to Mom for the good idea on this one!) I like his “mushroom guts” 🙂

The spread! 🙂 Complete with candies, Clementine pumpkins (in the back), broccoli salad, veggie skeleton, avocado feta salsa, bread bowl dip, chocolate cake, buffalo chicken wing dip, mini meat sandwiches, and my cheese and fruit plate! 🙂

All in all it was a good time and by the end of the night the jacuzzi was in full swing, loaded up with people! 🙂

Happy Halloween, lovelies!! Be sure to give out lots of candy to the kiddies and promote cavities! 🙂 That is a treat with a trick 😉

Until next time, Readers!! xoxoxoxo

Together Let’s Fight For Sarah’s Life

I’m just going to come right out and say it. CANCER SUCKS! But one thing that Cancer can’t affect is the amount of love and support that comes around when the “C word” is uttered. I’ve directly been affected  with Cancer in my family and I always try to do what I can when I have the means to. One thing that is free to give…LOVE. Another thing….SUPPORT. I know all of you know someone, directly or indirectly, who has been affected by cancer. However, for me, I feel that no matter if you know the person or not your support can be healing in more ways than one. That’s why I’m joining in the fight. Sarah’s fight. Won’t you join me?

Since Sarah is from Maine I’m targeting all my Mainer friends to pull through and head out to the benefits to do your part. You wouldn’t believe the kind of love one can feel from the kindness of a stranger. For the rest of you, no excuses. I’m 3,000 miles away and supporting this girl with loads of love!

Sarah is a 26 year old mother, wife, daughter, friend, and identical twin. She was 24 when they discovered she had a brain tumor which she kicked out in the summer of 2011. Five weeks later the tumor had returned and this time it was deemed, “inoperable.” She and her family are now in the fight for her life and every bit of support will help. I know this hits home for many of you so let’s see what we can do to offer a heartfelt, ” BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF CANCER” for Sarah. Let’s let her know that the world is cheering her on and we have her back.

She’s currently receiving chemotherapy treatments at the Infusion Center of Tufts Medical Center in Boston and the traveling in itself is tiring but we know the worst of it isn’t the travel time. Six days ago she completed her second chemo treatment and a few weeks ago, her beautiful daughter just started Kindergarten. Aside from the battle she is fighting she has a life to live, memories to make, identical smiles to share with her twin sister, kisses to give her highschool sweetheart husband, and hugs to wrap around her baby girl. Someone as beautiful as her deserves this chance. She can beat this and the more support the better.

How can you help? Great question….there are many ways to help!

Help 1: Join her facebook site and send her some support. Give her a shout-out. Tell her that you care about her from miles away or from next door. For those of you in Maine, they are constantly updating with benefits and spaghetti dinners that are happening. They have a Halloween Bash coming up so dress up and go have some fun!

Sarah’s Fight On Facebook

Help 2:  A great friend set up a blog for her with all the benefits, updates, pictures, and videos. I encourage you to go check it out and learn more about Sarah and her beautiful family.

Sarah’s Fight On Blogspot

Help 3: Purchase a bracelet. You can currently do so at selected stores and places around Maine. Please go grab one! Only $2.00, skip the latte and do something better with your money!

A Support Bracelet For Sarah

She’s one of the most fabulous people in the world for many reasons but one that is quite inspiring is she has started a project to provide housing to families that are fighting this disease. As if she doesn’t have enough to think about, she continues to think for others and how she can help make it easier for those that need to travel for treatments find housing close-by to the medical facilities. Read more about her amazing work here and also on her blog.

I know there are many people in the world fighting a battle right now. Our hearts are with every single person battling Cancer. Let’s fight with Sarah, give it your all, she sure as hell is!

Sarah – You are not alone. People all over the world are pulling for you! We put our boxing gloves on and we’re ready to knock Cancer out! Your smile is inspiring and will continue to win over the hearts of your supporters…your own personal army! Keep up the good fight – we’ve got your back.

30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 16

Day 16-  Photos of yourself 2 years ago

In South Beach, Miami for New Years 2008-2009…hanging out with my best friend (wife), super fun french guys and an Aston Martin. Nothing was more fun then my pink fluff of a dress.  I have no where to wear it to now but what a good night that was. I saved a girl from death in the bathroom climbing under the bathroom stall  (in my dress!!!) sliding on the floor to save her. She was completely passed out…I’m sure alcohol poisoning and was completely unconscious! It was crazy! Then I danced until 6 in the morning. Absolutely amazing night…I’ll never forget it! 🙂  So this pic was from my first day in 2009, I wish I could do it all over again! There’s always drama on New Years for most but the wife and I managed to just say, “whatevs” to the drama and had a great time..heck…a great week!

On December 5th, 2009 – the most beautiful nephew in the world was born!! MY nephew! A first for my family and we were SO excited! He was the most perfect burrito baby I ever did see. Now he’s so big with blond curly hair (almost two!!) There is no words to describe the love I felt for him when I first saw him. 

So, I’m known as the weird one.The loud and obnoxious one, always trying to be the jokester. Here we are on Christmas day at my Grandparents house…found a decorative little penguin and there starts the wacky girl that I am. X-mas always makes me a little funny – full of eggnog, chocolate, and cookies, I’m bound for destruction! I’m just glad my family hasn’t disowned me yet!

I have hot friends. That’s all I will say about that for now…more on that later. This was Halloween, I’m on the right there making my best “duck-face” and two of my besties. I was a Ballerina that year with my friend Roblet, which was super exciting for me. I LOVED being a ballerina! I’ve always wanted to be one and what better time to do that then at Halloween! 🙂  What was the best costume you ever wore for Halloween? I need to hear some ideas for my Halloween party I’m throwing this year. These Germans don’t know whats about to hit them! (For those of you who don’t know..they don’t have Halloween) Worst costume gets thrown in the jacuzzi!

When I wasn’t all dressed up and going somewhere or acting like a maniac, I did partake in some relaxing time. I was out with Toblerone downtown for a dirty martini, per usual. He snapped this pic and there ya have it! 🙂 He calls it my Jennifer Aniston pic. If Only…

2009 feels like just yesterday but I guess as you get older it all starts to blur together. I wish I could rewind the time. I’m getting to that point, aren’t I? Wishing it were yesterday rather than today. Well, I can’t turn back time but I need to start making today count…and tomorrow…and the next day….and the next….and….

Until next time, readers!! xoxoxoxoxo