Tiramisu Braun...

...is the new color of my hair.

Wanna know a secret?!

Hubby dyed it for me. Don't tell. 

November Awesomeness

Hello People! So as you may or may not know, I am new to this whole bloggety-blogging thing. It did not take me long, however, to find some of these awesome people who have awesome blogs. The following lovely ladies are a few of those people.

Read on, then go check out their blogs for yourself (every picture is a link). 

My name is Kelli from Dailypolkadots! I blog about my daily life through photos. Stop over and say hello, I would love to meet you! 

If I had three wishes, they would be: 

1) College Debt to be erased

2) A very nice camera! 

3) Money to be no object 

Hi, I'm Carina! I am a mama of three, happily married, lover of Jesus, and maybe just a little too enthused about coffee and chocolate. I love being crafty and decorating projects, and my little blog is my space to share about all of it with a heart of gratitude for all the blessings in our lives. I also started my etsy shop, lovely little whimsy, for a fun, creative outlet and to raise a little extra money for the adoption of our fourth baby! I've been super blessed by this bloggy community - I'd love for you to come say hello and introduce yourselves! 

If I had three wishes, they would be:

1) A house that is always clean

2) My family to be without illness

3) 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep on a regular basis

I am in love with God, my husband {Ron}, my girls {Moira and Peyton}, and life in the Lowcountry.  I am a stay at home mom. My daughters are 7 and 5.  Peyton was born with multiple special needs.  Over her 5 years, she's developed more problems and has become medically fragile. I absolutely love blogging.  It has become a passion of mine.  That and reading inspiring blogs from other ladies!  I decided somewhere along the way that I could really use my blog to help people.  Our family has been through so much.  I thought maybe something I write one day could help someone who is going through a similar situation.  I'm still just a little blog, but I've met some really amazing women - many of whom, like me, are not afraid to share their faith.  I love to blog about the blessings in my life, my faith, the occasional book review, recipes from time to time, musings about my family, and so on.  When I'm not blogging I am working on my little Etsy shop where I sell little hand knit goodies like cotton wash cloths {love them!!}, scarves, and reusable coffee sleeves!

If I had three wishes, they would be:

1) That my daughter with special needs would be fully healed.

2) That our family would get out from under our financial stresses and not have to worry so much all the time

3) That our family could take an extended vacation somewhere far away - relaxing, peaceful, remote...just get away from it all for a while!

Lauren loves Gavin and his freckles. Gavin loves Lauren and her crazy imagination. They are each others Happy Thought. She loves photography and Disneyland. He loves horses and camping. Every day is an adventure.

Because LOVE is the greatest adventure of them all. Favorite Movie: Princess Bride. 

If I had three wishes, they would be:

1) Work at Disneyland as a Princess

2) Eat whatever I want and never get sick

3) Travel wherever I want, whenever I want

So there you go. They're awesome.

Birthday = Day Trip to Marburg!

So... today was my 23rd birthday (holy crap I'm getting old)! I woke up to the sound of Hubby cooking waffles, and walked into the kitchen to see this:

He snuck out of the apartment this morning to go to the store! He bought me my favorite candy, beautiful flowers, and train tickets to Marburg! The wonderful Familie Uhlig  bought me a card and a German Cookbook, and Aunt Suzy sent me a birthday card in the mail! I seriously feel so blessed to have people that care about me even when we are thousands of miles and half a world away from family. 


So. Marburg, Germany: 

 At the palace

 Again, that palace was at the top of a VERY steep hill. 

 Birthday dinner

Delicious food. 

Loved this red door! 

All in all, I'd say this was a pretty darn good day. 

Happy Monday, everyone!!! 

Sunday Confessions

Wow, that time again already?!

1. I had a bad day. My first bad day in quite a while, actually. But it was one of those days where the world decides it hates you and wants to punch you in the face, and then you have a minor breakdown. That was me today. At least the following pictures made me smile a little [okay, a lot].

(Found all three of these on Pinterest)

2. I played on my iPhone in church today. It kept me awake. Normally I scold Hubby if he does this. I felt like a total hypocrite, but hey - somebody's gotta kill those evil pigs on Angry Birds. 

[source]

3. I had my life all planned out. But... now I'm not so sure. I know I want to get my PhD, but I'm asking myself if Economics is really the way to go. Really convenient, considering the fact that I should be filling out applications right now.

[source]

4. I hate 0.5 lead. Seriously. Why in the world would I want to barely be able to see what I'm writing?! That crap is just too thin (and it breaks easily). I prefer 0.7, and if I can find it, 0.9.

5. It really annoys me that Germans don't use pencils. It is almost impossible to find a pencil up in here. Even worse, pens are ridiculously expensive, so I have resorted to being one of "those" people. You know, the ones who take pens from gas stations, hotels, banks, anywhere that you have to sign something? That's me now.

I guess I really like pencils. Who knew?!

Favorite Things Friday

Hello there, people of the Blogosphere! 
Holy moly, guacamole. This week has just flown by. It seems like just yesterday was Monday, but, I digress.
It's Favorite Things Friday. It's actually a really good thing that I'm being forced to think of some of my favorite things for this blog, because today has been less than ideal. I'm sure thinking of/writing down tons of awesomeness will help get me back to my usual chipper self.

1. Cute shoes. Yeah, shoes are some of my favorite things. I can't help it - I'm seriously addicted to shoes. I need to go to therapy or something, because this is a very expensive habit. Like the shoes I just ordered? They're a birthday present to myself.

2. Parents. Ohmygosh. 7 years ago, I never would have seen myself saying this. But seriously, guys. My mom is an amazing woman (for many reasons, not just the one I'm about to give). She has put together a care package for me with a brand new coat (b-day present), taco seasoning (incredibly hard to come by in Germany), ranch dressing mix (another item missing from all German grocery stores), 4 pairs of various colored tights, and a pair of super cute black flats. Love. Her.

[coat: long tall sally, tights and shoes: target, taco seasoning, ranch dressing mix]

Still on the parents note... I love my dad, too. He's seriously just an awesome guy. I like that he's willing to leave Skype on on his computer at work, just so that if I want to talk to him, he's there. See that goofy guy down there? Yeah, that's my freaking awesome dad. And Mom looks a little mad, but she was happy, I swear!!!

3. The way Hubby looks at me. I think the above picture is a perfect example. He's looked at me like that since the day we met, and I love him oh so very much. 
4. NOVEMBER!! It's my birthday month, and even though I'm getting old, I still love it. Plus, the weather is awesome, you get to eat as much turkey as you possibly can, and there's so much football. I freaking love this month. 

 [turkey]

So there you have it - a few of my favorite things today! 

TGIF. 

Happy finally weekend, everyone! 

[What I Wore Wednesday] WE FOUND A CHOIR!!!!

So... words cannot describe how excited Hubby and I were tonight - specifically about three hours ago. Yesterday, one of my colleagues came up to me and asked if I liked to sing. Heck freakin' yes, and so does Hubby. Next thing I know, we have committed to being in a German choir. Am I okay with this? Abso-freaking-lutely. My voice is sooo out of shape, and really tired after that hour and fifteen minutes of singing, but I'm really excited that I finally have a choir to sing with (secret: I've never really been in a choir). Anywho, that was our exciting moment of the day.

[source]

And... it's Wednesday. This is what I wore. Yippee. [Sorry for the horrible quality pics, it was already dark outside at 4:45, and we had to use the crappy camera because the good one was charging]

Yep. Today was not exciting. Sorry bout that!

Happy Hump Day! 


PS... Look over there, on the left. See those awesome buttons? Yeah, they all link up to my sponsors' sites, so you should get to clickety-clicking. 

My Life is a Big Ole Bowl of AWKWARD.

Ohmygosh. So, I was originally going to jump on the blogging bandwagon and do an "Awkward and Awesome Thursday" post, but, alas... my life is so awkward that if I waited until Thursday to post all the things saved in the "Notes" on my iPhone (what, you don't catalogue awkward moments as they happen to you?), I would have a long, awkward novel.

So... enjoy the awkwardness that is my everyday life. :)
-- Trying over and over again to use a train ticket machine that has an "out of order" sign on it in plain sight, and having multiple Germans (many of them students of mine) walk by giving me weird looks. They were probably all thinking, Wow, she really is a stupid American...

[credit]

-- Sitting on the train, watching the train next to us pull out, thinking that we're the ones moving, and jumping up to try to get off because I thought we were going in the wrong direction.
-- Falling asleep on said train, and waking up right as the doors were closing and the train was about to leave my stop, jumping up while wiping drool off of my face, and sprinting off.

[credit]

-- Going to a class to talk to a girl that I'm supposed to be tutoring, only to realize that the girl isn't even in that English class, let alone that grade. Oops.
-- Singing Silent Night in a German cathedral with Hubby. No, that's not the awkward part; however, the audience of random Germans was.
-- Dropping a piece of chalk while writing on the board in an 8th grade class, then making the mistake of bending over to pick it up to the sound of 2 adolescent German boys saying, "oooooh..."

[credit]

-- Wearing a sweatshirt and jeans to class for like, the 2nd time all school year, and having someone ask, "Do Americans always dress so plain?" Umm, no. I'm just dressed like this because I stayed up until 4 a.m. working on the lesson that I'm giving you right now. But thanks for noticing, kid. Even better - it was a Disneyland sweatshirt. Ach, Mensch!

-- Being the only person in the Blogosphere that did not have a super cool "What I wore/did for Halloween" post. Sorry, guys. Maybe next year when I'm not in a foreign country. I felt kind of left out. Imagine what Thanksgiving is going to be like! I have to work. That's just wrong. Am I right?!


Yeah, I'm sure there are more, but these were the ones that I'd written down, because I'm awesome like that.