Thursday, December 26, 2013

birthdays

the girls birthdays are almost exactly one month from each other. this year, i was really lame and tired. 

we decided to "just do cake" for cora's birthday. i ordered a huge cake from a friend, invited all of the people who have been an integral part of cora's first year, and made some simple decorations. no gifts, just hanging out. 

it was fun, because there was very little stress. and the cake was yummy. 









for bella, i felt like i had to put a little more effort into it, you know, because she knows. but i was still feeling birthday lazy and so we went for an indoor playground with her 5 closest friends. 

for the lack of effort i put into it, it was a hit. 




i made their "chalkboards" and now they are hanging in their rooms. and i love it. i hope it isn't awkward when bella is 15 and i am still making these for her. 

Thursday, December 12, 2013

the thing i hate most about political ramblings on facebook

file this under "how to lose friends and alienate people".

but i don't care.

i get so tired of one sided articles being pushed as truth. too many people on my friends list need to go to journalism 101 and learn how to figure out if something is a legitimate news outlet or simply rhetoric, whose main purpose is to stir emotions and get you crazed.

inflammatory articles. put out by "news" agencies. yep. i put quotes around that. because real news reports fact with no opinion. they let you look at something and use your brain to assess it for value.

it doesn't stop at political ramblings by left or right wing nuts (they do exist on BOTH sides, by the way). it's the articles that are quickly dispelled if you look any.where.else.

i call them incendiary articles, because they start fires. they prey on your emotion, stir you to action-post this on facebook!!! tell your friends!!!! a great wrong is occurring!!!! and you do, because, well, the internet told you to! the internet doesn't lie!

yes. yes it does. it lies all the time. 

it's called manipulation. "make us famous! here is a story, made to make you fear the very thing you love. we came up with it. no one else is reporting it! (because it's not true!) but we are breaking this story and you should love us now! look how we protect you from fears you never even had."

so here is how you don't fall victim for their traps. start using that thing that is in your head. i hear that it is meant for forming individual thoughts.

listen to me when i say this, things are very rarely as they are presented. there is always another side to the story. always. 

i think, if you have siblings, you probably can understand this more than anyone. remember when you were a kid, and your sibling would pick and pick and pick. and then you would get sick of it, and you would snap and yell, or scream or throw something, or (gasp) hit them? and who got in trouble? you. because you were the one who got caught. your sister or brother were crying foul, and mom, bless her tired, overstimulated heart, believed them. you. go to your room. (ugh. bless my tired, overstimulated heart. i do this all the time.....)

but....but.....but......that's not the whole story!

exactly.

i heard once, there are 3 sides to every story, your side, their side and the truth. so, if your favorite shock jock provides you a story to make your blood boil, and "their side" provides the explanation, you can assume that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

i write this, because i have a headache from all the eye rolling. please friends. i love you. i just want what is best for you. don't stress yourself out over the lies that are out there to draw you in. use your giant, working brain! it is amazing!

plus also, i hear that if you think about things a lot, you live longer. yep. i made that up. but it feels good, right? let's go with it.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

10 things i've learned from being a military spouse

1. learn to open you mind, but protect your heart

this can be true of any situation, but especially in the military. you are going to encounter so many different people, from different backgrounds, different lifestyles, different parts of the world, different races, religions, with all different thoughts on life. if you believe that your way is the only way, you will be very lonely. 

however, there i a time to know the right people to open your heart up to, and not everyone is that person. military families have a way of opening up faster, and giving away a lot, quickly. it's part of the process. make friends fast. you only have a few years, at most with them. just be careful you chose wisely. 

2. things can always be harder. 

and they will be. for you. for others. and usually when you least expect it. we've had multiple deployments,  lost family members while we lived far away, have been separated from our families and each other, and yet, the hardest thing for me so far has been this weird work schedule he is on. he is here, but barely. cora only sees daddy on weekends, and bella for a few minutes before bed. we are living like a deployment, but not really. 

3. goodbyes will not be the hardest thing you have to do. 

when i was a kid, i would cry every time i left my grandparents house. i hated goodbyes. now, we say goodbye, what seems like daily. i've gotten good at it. it's not goodbye. it's see you later. and when people are constantly coming and going, saying hello can be much, much more difficult. 

4. home is not the same for everyone.

as much as we move around, "where are you from" can be a tricky question. and even then, the place you were born may not be home. while we call charlotte home, hawaii really feels like home. we spent our first 4 years of marriage there. bought our first home there. got duke, "got" bella, and pretty much started everything there. 

5. you (and those other spouses) are stronger than you ever thought.

don't count people out. that neighbor who seems to not have anything together, is probably holding it together a lot more than you think. there are days where i look disheveled and may or may not be fully appropriately clothed. occasionally, i look like i am about to fall apart at the seams, however, things are going pretty well aside from a sleepless night here or there (oh, who am i kidding, every night is sleepless). we military spouses go through a lot. we are asked a lot of, without little actual input. we sacrifice a lot, we put up with a lot, and we learn how to keep everyone fed and together on top of it all. 

6. not everyone loves this life, just as not everyone hates it. 

i hate hearing, "that must be so hard" or "you poor thing". don't pity me. i knew what i was getting in to. and i love it. this life suits us just fine. but i also know that the military life is not for everyone. the constant upheaval, no say in where you go or when you go there, no roots. it's not a life for every one. 

7. "family" will become a very complex word.

some of our friends are as close as our blood family. and some closer. we have met people who are completely estranged from their actual families and who have adopted themselves into other families. holidays are spent with whoever is around and you live life together. it all gets very extended. 

8. forget your pride when it comes to having nice things. the movers will just break them anyway.

for our wedding, i registered for 2 sets of nice dishes. in our very first move, just weeks later, several pieces broke from each set, leaving us with a bunch of random dishes. most of our stuff is ikea, refurbished or built by joel, because we have seen some real doozies when the furniture comes off the truck. so we try not to get too attached to anything. or spend too much money on anything.  

9. sometimes it's fun to take the road less traveled. until you realize you aren't the only one who has done this before and there is a reason this road is less traveled. 

whether it comes to shipping an animal, using a certain mover, taking a certain driving route or living in a certain area, there is usually a reason when you find out no one is using that company, or doing things that way. sure, sometimes the road less traveled offers a brighter view. and sometimes, it's a one way road along side a sheer cliff, with cars going in both directions. (that happened) 

10. expect the unexpected. 

because there is nothing else to expect. people always ask, "where are you going next"? and we never ever know. not really. we found out very late we were coming to germany, and even then, weren't 100% cleared until like, 3 weeks beforehand. things get dicey when you try to plan too much, too far in advance. 

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

thanksgiving

we spent our thanksgiving in the netherlands this year. 

i highly recommend it. 

we stayed in a little ocean town called katwijk, on the corner of the street, looking right into the waves. i could have stayed there forever. living pretty far from the ocean, i have learned that my soul yearns to be near crashing waves. each time we have set foot on the shores of some sea, i feel home and happy. 





this trip, specifically was very enjoyable, to say the least. we went with some friends who also have a baby, just 2 months younger than cora. it's so fun, at this stage, watching the babies interact. 

our first day, we took a walk along the canal, and down the beach walk. it was super windy and down right cold, but the smell of salt filled my lungs with "i don't care", and we pushed on for an hour or so. i couldn't get enough. 
that's us, right at the end of the street. 

we got back to our apartment and got ready and went into delft. a small town in south holland. it was quaint and perfect. nothing spectacular or overwhelming, but pretty and easy. we ate lunch of the square-grilled sandwiches and soup, and strolled along the canals, with no real aim but to see. we shopped a bit, and stopped in a couple of cheese stores. we ended up buying beers from one of the shops and goat cheese from another to take back with us. on our way out of town, we found a place that boasted 200 different beers on the shelves, and stopped in to get a sampling. 





the next morning, we woke up and headed out for another city, called den haag. there we found beautiful buildings and more of a city like atmosphere. there was an english book store we ducked into to escape the cold and i found a traditional folk story translated into english that i got the girls for christmas. they won't understand it this year, but i hope one day they realize just how spectacular of a childhood they have had. 



den haag was amazing. it is home of peace palace, which is a beautiful building, but is also home to the permanent court of arbitration and the hague peace conference. 



we headed back home for our thanksgiving dinner, which was....inventive. 



we had no oven in our apartment, but we had brought a crockpot and so we put the turkey in the crockpot. we cooked the ham using a double boiler technique on the stove, while we cooked the potatoes on the back burner. it actually all came together really nicely and was delicious. 

that is, until we tried to cook the pumpkin pie in a frying pan. i don't recommend that. 

friday, we took the train to amsterdam. amsterdam was exactly what i thought it would be. it was a beautiful, old city, full of character and charm. we saw the anne frank house, ate at a pizzaria on a canal, went on a boat ride, and even saw an event where the king of the netherlands unveiled a new exhibit at one fo the museums. we hit the christmas market, drank gourmet hot cocoa and blushed through the main drag in the red light district. there was even a bar with NFL and NBA games showing. 



on our last day, we headed out of town, stopping a couple of times to snap some pictures of windmills.


all in all, the netherlands might be my second favorite place in europe. it's clean, beautiful and charming. the people are friendly and helpful and gracious. and it doesn't hurt that they speak english! 


living in a place where my language is not the first, and sometimes not even the second, is rough and gives me a whole new appreciation for people who move to the states without knowing the language. we have a buffer, since we are a part of a bigger, english speaking community and we have stores and restaurants available to us that take american money and are familiar. i can't imagine the isolation and frustration people must feel when the come to the states and are thrust into an environment where people get angry at them for not knowing english. 

and that is all for my little soapbox spiel.


















Sunday, November 17, 2013

the month of october, part 2

i still feel like i should be getting ready for halloween and people are already putting up christmas lights! 

we started the month off with a visit from my family and then hopped on a plane to the uk. after 4 days in london (living my dream!) we took the train north to edinburgh, scotland, where we met up with joel's parents. 

scotland was a total gear shift from london. whereas in london, i was marking things off my bucket list and trying to do as much in each day that i could, in scotland, we were able to kind of relax. 

on our first day, we walked around edinburgh for a bit, taking it all in. joel's parents had been there a couple of days already and were able to act as our guides, showing us what they had already found. 

one thing that i found kind of fascinating were the thrift stores in edinburgh. each one was named for a different charity, and profits from the shop went to that charity. but this wasn't your goodwill or salvation army. they were pretty fancy. some even carried designers and higher end stuff. if i had known, i would have totally brought an empty suitcase. 

on our second day, we took the car we rented up the coast to aberdeen to see some beautiful countryside. 

first stop was loch leven. it wasn't ness, but it was absolutely gorgeous. we got there shortly after sun rise and there was fog hanging around the shoreline. 


we weren't able to get across the loch to the castle where mary, queen of scots was held, because we were there on a sunday. somehow we haven't learned that sunday is not a good travel day in europe.....

cemetery on loch leven
next, we headed further north to scone palace. this one wasn't planned, but as we were driving along, we saw a turn off and went with it. i'm super glad we did, because it was a pretty awesome stop. there were peacocks wandering all over the grounds and horses and bulls, and there was, of course, tons of cool history. 


"Alexander II and Alexander III, both crowned at Scone, ruled from 1214 to 1286. For centuries the greatest treasure at Scone was the Stone of Scone upon which the early Kings of Scotland were crowned. When Edward I of England carried off the Stone of Scone to Westminster Abbey in 1296, the Coronation Chair that still stands in the abbey was specially made to fit over it. Robert the Bruce was crowned at Scone in 1306 and the last coronation was of Charles II, when he accepted the Scottish crown in 1651. The Stone of Scone is now in Edinburgh Castle (Historic Scotland) along with the Scottish regalia."



our next stop was glamis castle, but we didn't really spend any substantial amount of time  there. because we were working our way to.....


this place. 

dunnottar castle. 

ruins, actually. this was what i wanted to see while we were in scotland. ruins on cliffs and the ocean. oh the ocean. 

i felt like we could have left at this point. i was so happy. 

we spent a few hours walking around and just breathing the sea air. it was incredible.

day 3, we decided, there wasn't much that could top the previous day. so we decided to take it easy, and we headed to the town of portabello. which is by the sea. ooooh the sea....


yes, bella. i agree.

the rest of the day was spent doing the tourist thing-we checked out edinburgh castle, shopped at some shops, ate some good food and took some pictures.



and then we ran against this:


the cafe where j.k. rowling wrote the first harry potter. yeah. it was no diagon alley, but it was still pretty cool. 

day 4, we took a car, to a train, to a train, to a plane, to a train, to a train, to a car to our home sweet bed. it was an amazing 9 days of travel. 



joel's family came back with us to spend the next 4 days hanging out and loving on my babies. it all went too fast. 

finally, we hit halloween, and only just got to experience it!  

cora was a precious little sully wazowski. no, i am not confused. i got this random monster costume at the exchange, and all the dads around the neighborhood were like, "what an awesome monster. monster, inc. right?" 

yep. sully wazowski. 

and then there was bella. this year marks the second year where bella has had a costume and at the 11th hour, i made her something completely different. this year, i was worried she would freeze to death in the little cat costume we picked out. especially considering the fur was falling off and it wasn't even out of the package yet.

so she became the (warmest) cutest little lady bug i could whip up in 2 hours the night before halloween. 


scary little babies.


happy october. merry christmas. 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

(paleo friendly) crockpot fajitas

i like to eat. like, a lot. and i really like food that is yummy. 

unfortunately, eating lots of yummy food often does not equal a flattering pant size. 

now that cora is one, (wait, cora is one?!?!) i feel like i can no longer use the "i just had a baby" bit. 

so last week, feeling overly bloated and like i never wanted to wear pants that didn't have an elastic waistband, i decided enough was enough. we eat pretty cleanly, for the record. but it isn't always belly friendly. 

also, a lot of my cooking happens to be in the form of crockpot cooking. mostly because 5pm is prime meltdown time, and if i throw a bunch of healthy stuff in a crock pot, then i'm less likely to make a bad choice for dinner, grabbing something fast. 

i've done some crockpot freezer meals in the past, and i love them. but lately i have even gotten too lazy to prepare ahead. so, out of necessity (read: laziness) i have devised some meals that are so ridiculously easy and healthy, that it should be a crime. they also happen to be well loved by my 2 little people, so yay me!

Crockpot Fajitas

(edit** i definitely had this as chicken fajitas. they are not. though you could make them with chicken!)

(I didn't make this up, really. but i have made it my own.)

1 package of beef for fajitas (i used about 1 1/2 pounds, but that wasn't really enough for us)
taco mix*
~1/4 cup water
1-2 red peppers, sliced
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 bunch romaine lettuce
cheese (optional as a topping)
guacamole**

-put beef in the bottom of the crockpot.
-sprinkle taco mix* over beef
- add water
-add red pepper and onions
-cover and cook on low 6-8 hours

once it's dinner time, cut the end off the bunch of lettuce, and use each leaf as a shell. 

*taco mix: I make my own. part of that whole, "not using processed/packaged" stuff, and honestly, i like it way better than any store bought one anyway, and it's cheaper. so win win win!

1 tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayanne pepper
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp sea salt
mix it all together. if you make double (or triple) you can store in a shaker or airtight container. 

**guacamole: i also make my own guacamole. i don't claim that it is authentic or even the best tasting, but i love it and it's easy. 

1 (or 2, if you are making a lot) avocado
1 tomato, diced
1/2 an onion, chopped (i usually use half an onion here and put the other half in the meat mixture, so i use 1 whole onion instead of having any left over)
lime juice
chopped cilantro (you can use fresh or the seasoning kind)
sea salt

-roll avocado around on the counter (this helps separate the flesh from the meat). slice it open, remove the core and scrape out the meat. 
-add chopped tomato and onion.
-stir until well incorporated and to desired consistency. 
-add salt, lime juice and cilantro, to taste. 

ta da! 

bella ate 4 small lettuce leafs filled with fajitas, and asked for more (i would have let her eat more but it was all gone!) and cora ate a bit and asked for more too! so, this is going to become a meal we prepare more often. 




Monday, November 4, 2013

the month of october. part 1

we have been busy. life has been rushing around us and things have not slowed down. sometimes, i like that. right now, i have a rare quiet moment.

joel has taken both girls to church, and left me home to rest. he said, "church is a place of healing. you should go. we can pray for you. or you can keep your sickness to yourself and we can still pray for you." i thought that was a good idea. 

october completely disappeared off of my radar, and i feel like i almost missed halloween. october is usually my favorite month of all, and this one was no exception, just not exactly the way i generally like to spend it-making things out of pumpkin, make pumpkin crafts, pumpkinpumpkinpumpkin. for the record, it is not punkin. and watching cheesy halloween movies. like halloweentown 1-4 and hocus pocus and burnign pumpkin and apple candles and covering my house in leaves. that kind of stuff. 

this october, we were hardly home and when we were we weren't really, because we had visitors. so a quick recap of our manic october....and go....

my grandma and my cousin came to visit! 

on their first night here, we took them to volksfest, which is the second largest beer festival in the world, behind munich's oktoberfest. 




that whole week was a whirlwind of going and seeing and doing! we saw the largest cuckoo clock in germany and went to daschau, a former concentration camp, and hung out in munich until a crazy lady followed us around screaming about how cora was going to freeze to death. that was....interesting, to say the very least. especially since it was like 60 degrees, and she was wearing 3 layers of clothes. but that's a story for another time.

a day after my family left, we hopped a plane for LONDON!! i have been wanting to go to london for as long as i can remember, so this was basically a trip of a lifetime for me. 

i'll try to contain myself to 5 points on why this trip was amazeballs.

1. they speaka my language. yes, i said it. my favorite thing about london was quite possibly that i knew what everyone was saying! i didn't realize how much my brain ached constantly living here until it didn't all of a sudden. i think i was probably more pleasant over the week we were in the UK than i have been in the last year+. don't get me wrong, i LOVE germany. but it was like watching a 3d movie for a year and then taking off the glasses. my brain just got a chance to rest. i understood street signs without having to think too hard, i could communicate EXACTLY what i was trying to say, and could even hang out and talk to other parents at the playground without feeling like i was going to say "your child looks like a donkey" instead of "what a cute kid". 

2. two words. harry potter. i am a little embarrassed to admit that. i mean, london is so full of history and all that amazing stuff (which will be my next point!), but seeing all of the harry potter sights made me giddy like a little girl. 

which may be why this picture almost made me cry. bless my sweet husband for taking it. but seriously, take like 500 pictures. and zoom in! and call bella! i had to stand in line for this! i almost bought the picture in the gift shop but for £8 (which is about $12!) i hoped seriously that the free picture on my ipad would suffice. that's ok. when their official photographer took the picture, that other guy threw the scarf in the air and we jumped and it looked like we were.....well...jumping in the air holding onto a cart halfway in the wall. it was still fun. 

also, if you are a HP fan and going to london and don't want to pay for a tour, 

Send an email to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-tours.com. 

write something in the body and the subject (like, i want the free tour please!) and they will auto reply back with a download of a self guided walking tour pdf that you can print and highlight, laminate and hole punch, then carry around and force your family to follow you. i'm not saying that happened. 

3. HISTORY!!! this is the common thread of all the things i love about europe. the history is so rich and full. and disturbing. seriously. some strange crap happened in europe...beheadings and torture and something called "hung, drawn and quartered" which i did not need to hear about....3 times. england had a sick sense of entertainment, and honestly, people who think our reality tv show addiction is sick need to take a history class. it could be much worse. 

but every cobblestone and every corner has a million stories. and i just loved it. in each city we have visited, one of the first things we do is take a free walking tour, given by this company. it is free, they just ask that you tip the amount you felt it was worth. they are thorough and entertaining, and honestly, better than any paid tour we have been on. on our london tour, we hit westminster abbey, parliament and big ben (where we learned how the bell got it's name and that big ben does not refer to the tower, but the bell!), and buckingham palace, among other really cool places.

4. double decker buses and red phone booths! why? i don't know. maybe because they SCREAM london (apparently, they scream "the uk!" because they are also in scotland....) and i am totally a nerd who got my picture with both! 




5. the arts! (that are in a language i understand!) from Shakespeare to sherlock holmes, to all of the theatres (we stayed in the west end, behind The Old Vic-where james earl jones and venessa redgrave were starring in much ado about nothing, and across the street from a pub called The Stage Door), i was pleasantly surprised how steeped in the arts london was. that may sound like i have been living on another planet my whole life. i mean, i knew london had a big art scene, i just didn't realize how big. it was like walking through a small NYC. 
Shakespears's Globe Theatre

i know i said i would stop at 5, but.....well....i just loved it too much. but i will keep it simple! pictures! yay! 

The walkability of the city is GREATLY enhanced by these. everywhere. it tells you where you are, what is within a 5 minute walk and is oriented to the things around it. and they are EVERYWHERE. they are brilliant. we were never lost (we don't get lost a lot, but will occasionally miss things or go the long way) and i think we we able to see more because we would be standing next to something really awesome, and could look on the map and figure out what it was (aka the back side of westminster abbey!) 
at the end of a particularly crazy day (both girls were in tears for the majority of the morning, and it rained big fat rain drops for 3 hours, during our walking tour), we were walking back home (2 blocks from the london eye, mind you!) and passed this. we had been telling bella she couldn't ride it because we had places to go, but we were going home, so we stopped and we all got on. as the sun set over the thames, we rode round and round, giggling partly at the absurdity of the day and partly at the fact that we all looked like we had just been rescued from a sewer. it was a magical moment that was completely unplanned. 


this was way cooler than i even thought it would be. on our last day, we did the "queen's walk" from the eye to the tower bridge, then crossed it, to the tower of london, and then took a water taxi back to the eye. it was all just fun. 


very easily bella's favorite thing. every time we walked passed it (every day) bella would say, "can we do the eye again!?!?!"

we were in the UK for 9 days total, and spent 4 in London. on the 5th day of our trip, we hopped on a train to Edinburgh. this post is long enough for now, so i think it has just become a 2 parter. stay tuned! 

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Berlin

one of the many perks of living where we live is that we get to take time to travel to some pretty amazing places. this past weekend was labor day and joel took a little leave, paired with the holiday and we went to berlin for a short 3 day trip.

for the amount of time we were there, we saw a lot, but if we had to do it over, we would have stayed another day or two. it was such an awesome experience.

whoever said, "it's about the journey, not the destination" has never traveled with small people, during a german summer.

what. a. nightmare.

according to google maps, berlin is a short 5 hour car trip from here on the autobahn. now, i don't know what your knowledge is of the autobahn, but it is not a highway of limitless speed. there are sections where you can go as fast as you want. but that means everyone else can too. and when you are driving your volvo at 100 mph, these german made cars will pass you like you are standing still. and then you hit traffic.

our journey was kind of....insane. the girls were actually very good, and we only had one issue with a diaper which was only vaguely reminiscent of the time bella had a blow out. both times, the girls were in disposables..... coincidence?

our journey was full of stuff like this....

people throwing stuff on the road? there is a first time for everything, and this was the first time i have ever seen such an odd message on our gps....

and these were just kind of incredible


windmills were everywhere. they are all over in general, but we passed a stretch where we maybe saw 100 of them in one area. it was kind of amazing and could send me on a tangent, but i won't go there right now...

there are so many pictures and highlights of our trip-berlin has surprisingly been one of my favorites, so far. i say surprisingly because, while i know it is steeped in history, i didn't think it would have such an impact on me.
our hotel on the right, next to a giant climbing gym. 

Berliner Dom


Gates to the city at Pariser platz.

pieces of the wall on display

joel and bella at checkpoint charlie
isn't she cute? just before this picture, she took 7 or 8 steps on her own. of course, i didn't even get a picture of her standing up, but you'll just have to trust me on that.