Throwback Thursday – People, It’s My Birthday

Today is my birthday. Holy hell. The past 4 birthdays seem to really bring me back to reality. The truth is as simple as it sounds: I’m not getting any younger. To me, this is terrifying! Like shakin in my boots scared. Where did my life go? Am I where I want to be? Did I do all the things I wanted to do up until this point?

Today I’m 29…Like…whoa…

…and here is a little blurb of me on my 3rd birthday ( I think )

Today I had so many wonderful birthday messages through all sorts of different social networks and emails. It kind of makes a girl feel special. So to those of you who wished me a Happy Birthday, I THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. Being so far away from what is normal it helps me stay grounded. I forget that living in Germany means that I have to follow their traditions, which is hard since I’ve been celebrating my birthday a different way every year. But I know that next year I will get to celebrate my birthday back in the US next year and it will be amazing!!!! Can. Not. Wait.

So I have one year left in my 20’s. One year as of today to do something great. I’ve got my life bucket list, I have my German bucket list which I am plucking away at but I want something different. Another blogger friend did 30 German towns before she turned 30. That inspired me to want to do something of my own. 30 things before I turn 30. But I need your help and your inspiration to give me ideas. What should I do with myself?! Give me your thoughts!

Here is to another year…correction, another wonderful year full of taking roads that are less traveled and making our own stories. Chapter by chapter.

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxo

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost

Throwback Thursday – A Babyrific Post!

Another Thursday yet again, only that much closer to the weekend! Woot woot! I’ve been having crazy dreams about babies and fertility drugs and all sorts of whacko stuff. And staying in theme with this week’s post about Germany’s way of announcing babies I decided to throw us all back to a cold December day in 2009 when my nephew was born! He was the first to give me the name “Aunt Kait” and I just fell TOTALLY in love with him when I saw him all wrapped up like a burrito.

Isn’t he adorbs?!? He’s all grown up now practically…talking, walking, saying “no” to everything because he can and because he’s a little manpants. Still totally in love with that sweet boy! This picture was also before I knew I had endometriosis and it was a time where the possibility of having my own child was still an easily reachable goal on the horizon.

For those of you who know that I wrote a story called “The Letter” for a great organization called CausePub, we need a certain amount of people to sign up to buy the electronic story. It’s only $10, and it would help us meet our goal to 1. Publish the book and 2. provide clean water to over 40,000 people in Africa. This is such a big deal to me.

I wrote the story a long time ago, not really sure that I would ever publish it in fear of showing my feelings and sounding too dramatic and spotlight hogging. But that’s not the case. I published it and people wrote to me, thanking me for my bravery. That they share the same feelings and problems and are feeling less alone. To have this story published in a book would be not only incredible for a writer like me but imagine the people it would influence!

If you would like to spend the $10 (come on, we all have it to spare!) then please go to CausePub – Buy the book and read more about what your money would do for others. Andddd of course, how it would make me kinda famous!

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxo

Another Day, Another Story…

I did something yesterday that took a little courage to do. Remember back a few weeks when I posted about a really cool place called Causepub.com?? I submitted a story which you can see here and vote on for a chance for the story to be published!

Well, I posted a second story. The first was more along the humor lines and this second one was a personal one that hit home. I wrote this letter a bit ago when I was trying to piece together the feelings I was having regarding infertility and the struggle to have my own child. So I wrote this…and for some reason I decided to share it. Why did I share it? Maybe to put the message out in the universe would make it hurt less. Or maybe my struggle would help another woman know she’s not the only one. For whatever reason…it’s there.

Here’s a little excerpt from it:

You don’t know this yet, but you’re the best part of my life. I’ve dreamed of you for so long it’s almost as if I painted you to life. Those soft blue eyes, the sandy brown hair, and the giggle that sends me to the happiest of places.

I’ve been waiting to say those two little words out loud. To scream it to the world that you, my dream, are here. Those words that so many have been able to say before.

“I’m pregnant.”

But with each passing day, the words don’t come. I know you’re just waiting for the perfect moment to surprise me. You’re clever that way, just like me.

To read the rest of it you can go here: The Letter on Cause Pub. And it would mean the WORLD to me if you would vote by clicking the orange thumbs up or the orange button. The more votes, the more chance I have to get my story published.

The orange voting buttons look like this:

Thank you all for your help and mostly, thank you, as always, for reading!

Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxoxo

We All Need Clean Water

I should be on a ten hour bus ride to Berlin right now buttttt we kind of missed the bus. However, I can’t pretend I’m not relieved! From the beginning I had a bad feeling about this little get away and it’s for the better. It’s pouring this weekend anyways so better to just stay in by the fire! Not time to be a tourist! Besides, we are going to the US next weekend and Id rather stay home and get ourselves organized for that! Berlin…you’ll just have to wait!

I have some WÜNDERBAR news!! I wrote a short story (1000 words max is hard to do!) for CausePub which is an inspiring organization that publishes books in order to fund a specific cause. This particular project is going to provide clean water to those in need and what a cool thing that is! I share a crazy story about how I’m not a couch potato and bam! People are drinking clean water!!!Well, almost…

To see more about this particular cause watch this, its empowering:

Yesterday I got the news that my story passed the first step and was approved for the voting process! Now I need your help! The more votes, the higher the possibility that my story makes it into the book. Then a few things will happen:

1. I get to say I’m a published writer!!! Eeeeeek! Dream come true!!
2. I will be able to sleep at night knowing that because of my story (and many other awesome stories) there are people drinking clean water. For every book sold, three families in Africa will drink clean water for a year. How incredible is that?!?!?
3. I can see who votes for me (so you bet I’ll be adding you either to the naughty or nice list…) which means…I will put the names of everyone who voted into a drawing to win some pretty cool German stuff!! This may include a typical German beer stein and other fun things!

Here is how you vote!

Go to this link: Cause Pub Story – Click Here!

Once there…read the story…laugh at the mental image of me going through that strange ordeal.

Then…at the top of the page where there is a big orange button (this should show the number of votes so far). Click the orange button or click on the “thumbs up” orange button right below!

You can verify your vote through Facebook or twitter and then Bam!!! You just helped save a life….or helped to provide clean water but either way, you did a good thing!! Thank you for giving me a fighting chance to also chase my dream a bit!

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxoxox

A Writer’s Heaven

Finally….a place for me to sit and do what I LOVE to do most! 🙂 AN OFFICE!!!

I know I’ve been talking about this for months and how excited I am to show you guys. It’s still not 100% yet but I’m working with the small space. Got the furniture bits in there and now it’s time for all the decorations/plants/etc. So…Here it goes!

After much discussion I decided to go with dark gray walls and white furniture. Seems to be “in” for the moment so I went with it! Funniest bit was I worked forever on painting this room. First coat didn’t really dry as dark as I wanted but I was ok with it. Went back to the store to get more paint, started painting and found they were two totally different colors. The girl who mixed the paint the first time around completely gave me the wrong shade of gray. THANK YOU, MORON! So, I decided to leave the largest wall as the lighter gray and the rest as the dark gray….and this is what we have!

Walking into the office you see (right side wall is lighter gray)

Then we have the cubed bookshelf. It’s my stock of English books! 🙂 And a few of Toblerone’s. I told myself I would go back and read all of these again. Doesn’t hurt! I definitely need to add to it though, no empty spaces!!!

This picture is amazing. Everything old is what I want in this room and this is a scene of NYC in 1932. Not sure you can see it so good because of the glare (SORRY!) but the harbor is missing quite a few buildings and this is long before World Trade Center was built. Back before all the terror and Prohibition was just ending. Just a great piece if you ask me!:

And of course this is my favorite part so far. Right now there are pictures of my grandparents and family – all B&W pics of course. It was these pictures that gave me the idea for the room so I went with it. I felt I needed a special place for them to be displayed. Soon this will be overflowing with them and from Toblerone’s grandparents too. Just have to make the copies but it will be all different sized frames all overlapping one another…chaotic…because that’s what family is. A whole lot of love and chaos and in this case – a mix of cultures and memories:

So, that’s what I have so far. I’ll be adding more vegetation to the room to add some color to it but for now it’s my little hole in the house. It’s my sanctuary to write and have peace of mind. It may not be anyone else’s Heaven but for me…it does the trick as far as inspiration goes.

Let me know what you think and what ideas you have for other decorations to liven it up a bit!

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxoxo