SoJo & Co.

A Decade

Then years ago today, I turned 16.

I hadn’t kissed a boy, and I didn’t live olives.

Today? I’m married.

I still don’t like olives.

4 comments February 8, 2010

After a week in DC and spending a week catching up at home, I found it hard to want to blog again. Saturday has struck me with the urge to get a lot of things accomplished, and so far so good. Along with that motivation came the urge to finish posting our winter photos (thus far). Granted, this doesn’t include the time in DC, but I think that’s best kept for a separate post.

2 comments February 6, 2010

Seven Quick Takes (vol. 10)

1. John left for DC yesterday morning. This is the first time I’ve ever been in Germany without him. It’s weird!

2. Yesterday was a marathon day. My day went like this:

Wake up at 5:15 AM, shower, get ready and get out the door by a few minutes after 6
Take John to Ramstein (about 1 hr drive) to catch his plane to the States
Drive back to go to work. This was my first drive ever on the Autobahn. I’ve never been a fan of highways or driving fast, and the fact that Germans can drive so fast has always made me really nervous. The drive went well, though.
Work work work
Make a mail run for work at the end of the day, go from there to downtown to pick up John’s computer at the repair shop, go pick up dinner
Come home, walk and feed Béni, reheat my food which has already gotten cold by this point
Eat dinner and watch a TV show – the only semi-relaxing part of my day
Rid our house of boxes (shamefully we still had the TV and sound system boxes and had added to them over the course of the week through 3 separate boxes we received in the mail)
Do the dishes
Talk to my brother, sister, mom and mother-in-law on the phone
Work two crafting projects start to finish
Walk Béni again
Shower
Talk to John for a few minutes
Sleep

3. We made black bean soup this week. It was one of my new recipes to try for the month. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very good. I also made Jim and Sarah’s Broccoli Cheese Soup recently, and unlike the black bean soup, it was delicious and very easy to make.

4. Work just blocked a bunch of websites including my personal email and our blog. Lame.

5. We have received a few awards lately, and I’ve been a bad blogger and haven’t followed the “rules.” Thank you to both Vesper and Deiala for the awards!

6. I am eager to do my tax return. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I have to pay German taxes, so I have no idea what to expect with my tax return. I know I don’t have to pay into all of the German income tax, and I have heard that the return comes out to roughly what it would be in the States, but what gets me is the word roughly. Does that mean more? less? I’m a planner, and this is driving me a little crazy.

7. This work trip will be the first time John and I have been to the States and not been visiting family since we our wedding. I’m pretty excited about that.

6 comments January 22, 2010

They Call You Lady Luck

I’ve never considered myself as someone who is particularly lucky. Heck, prior to this month I had never won anything other than a free kids meal at my favorite restaurant. I used to win those free meals all the time, and when I found out every kid who enters that drawing wins, I was crushed.

With that in mind, get this…

I won a drawing at work (company-wide) a couple weeks ago. There were literally thousands of entries. How cool is that?

Speaking of work (which I don’t do often on here), I mentioned in my Seven Quick Takes post last week that I am getting the opportunity to travel for work. I never thought that my position would involve travel, and technically, it doesn’t. However, we are undergoing some restructuring and the company wants to send me back to the States for training. Last Tuesday (a week ago), I was told to prepare for a business trip to the DC-area January 26-28, which would put me as traveling January 25-29. Due to travel costs, I’m actually going to leave on Saturday. Wow!

John also found a way to come along, and he’s currently somewhere over the Atlantic on his way to DC. I can’t wait to see him (and the US) on Saturday night! That being said, I’m have an irrational fear of flying, so I’m not actually looking forward to the flying part. Too bad that takes up about 13 hours of getting there (not including airport time). Anyone have any tips to calm my fears? I’ve flown a lot, and sometimes I don’t get too worked up, but this time around, I’m pretty freaked out.

11 comments January 21, 2010

Winter Photo Update

I’m a bit embarrassed that I haven’t posted any photos in so long that I’ve created an incredible backlog. Bear with us as I post a few photo updates this week. This post contains photos up through December 23rd, including my parents’ and younger brother’s visit, our trip to Garmisch via Ulm and back to Heidelberg via Munich.

5 comments January 18, 2010

Seven Quick Takes (vol. 9): Weekend Edition

Please forgive this late posting of Seven Quick Takes. I want to say things have been abnormally crazy (and thus why I haven’t posted), but crazy seems to be our new norm.

1. I get to do some business travel. More on that next week.

2. I sewed my first ever project on the sewing machine John got me for Christmas. It turned out fairly well. I don’t want to post pictures in case I give some similar projects as gifts…

3. We bought 7 pink tulips at the grocery store today for 1.77 Euro (USD equivalent approx. $3)! That also strikes off one out of 3 times I wanted to have fresh flowers in our home for our 101 in 1001.

4. We got a new TV!! I don’t know if you know how big of a deal that is to us. Our old TV was not a flat screen and was about 24″. We only had one TV, which is perfect for our small family. Now, however, we are also the proud owners of a 32″ Panasonic flat screen TV. Hello, 21st century. It’s nice to meet you. We were also able to buy a new sound system, so we could get rid of John’s 10+ year-old big chunky speakers (or we’ll keep them in our room!).

5. I made chocolate chip cookies from scratch tonight. I think it’s sad that when I hear people say “I’m going to make some chocolate chip cookies,” I immediately envision slice and bake cookies.

6. The humidity in our apartment has been sitting at about 29%. My skin is begging for more humidity – so is my hair.

7. The snow is starting to melt, and I’m glad. We ended up getting about a foot when all was said and done. I’m just glad we don’t live somewhere that this happens with more regularity. I think Wednesday or Thursday was the first day of 2010 where we had weather above freezing. I’m ready for spring!

9 comments January 16, 2010

Help Haiti

Since we started this blog, we have had links that run alongside our main page to blogs as well as organizations we care for deeply. We have been involved with the Dominican Republic and Haiti and have urged people to become aware of the situations in these countries. In the wake of Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti, I hope that everyone’s eyes have been opened to the need for help and hope in Haiti.

Please prayerfully consider if/how you can help out. If you don’t have money to donate, perhaps you can donate time to raise money or package supplies to be sent. Contact your local Red Cross, church, or other reputable charity to see how you can donate time to help.

If you are blessed with the ability to donate financially and do not have a particular place to send your money, please consider giving to the following organizations:

Real Hope for Haiti <- That’s a link to Licia’s blog. She and the other workers at RHFH provide care (medical, etc) and support for approximately 70 children as well as many adults. They have a medical clinic on site as well. Their building has cracks in it and all the children are currently sleeping outside. To read more about what RHFH does, visit Licia’s blog. At the upper right hand corner of the page, there’s a PayPal link to donate.

Makarios International <- Makarios has a number of ways they are working in and around the Dominican Republic. They are currently sending supplies to Haiti and could use more help as well.

Heartline Ministries <- This is one of the ministries the Livesay’s work with/for. It is a Christian organization with many programs you can read about on their website.

World Wide Village <- This is the other ministry the Livesay’s work with/for. According to their site they are a “non-profit charitable organization whose mission is to transform impoverished communities mainly by providing Christian education, health care, nutrition and micro enterprise opportunities to children and families. Our current geographical focus is in Haiti.”

Also, Aaron Ivey has a “Help Haiti” t-shirt for sale for $25 on his website. All proceeds will “go to charities giving aid to Haitian earthquake victims.” Aaron is the worship leader at our church in Austin, and he and his wife Jamie are in the process of bringing home their second adopted child, Amos, from Haiti. Please also pray that Amos’ papers are in tact and that the Iveys will be able to bring their son home soon.

3 comments January 14, 2010

Extreme Makeover: Snow Edition

Hi everyone, I know the US has had quite the cold snap going on, but I wanted to share what we have been dealing with… The first picture is from the summer. The second is from today. Brr. By the way, we haven’t been above about 30 degrees for a couple weeks now. It spends most of the day sitting right about 25 degrees. (Please excuse the fact that we have taken these pictures through the screen on the window.)