Seven Quick Takes (vol. 10)
1. I haven’t been swimming since before my family came to visit for Christmas. Shame on me. Does it count if I think about going to work out nearly every day? No? Rats.
2. AFN (Armed Forces Network) is showing limited Olympic coverage. This happened with the summer olympics too. I’m really disappointed.
3. We started Beni on a new food, which we are hoping is even healthier than the old food. Plus, it smells so much better, which means our puppy now has better breath. On top of all that, it’s about $20 less/bag. I think everyone is happier this way.
4. Yesterday was John’s older sister’s birthday. Happy Birthday (again), Catherine! We can’t wait until we can all celebrate our birthdays together in the same city!
5. When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had been in the deepest sleep all night. It was an incredible feeling, but all I’ve wanted to do the rest of the day is to go back to bed.
6. My mom is (hopefully) getting released from the hospital today.
7. In one month, we will have an hour and fifty minutes more sunlight in the day. Today’s sunrise/sunset times are 7:28 and 5:51, repsectively. A month from now, they will be 6:26 and 6:39, respectively. I’m looking forward to more sunlight and warmer weather! Also, a month from now, my friend and her sister will be visiting. Yay!
8 comments February 19, 2010
Back to Good
Sigh.
That wasn’t just a typed sigh. After a week of crazy, things are getting back to “normal.” Two weekends ago, on Friday the 5th, John worked an overnight shift (after working 8-5 too). Last weekend, on Friday the 12th, John worked an overnight shift (after having been in class 8-5 all week, including Friday). Saturday morning, I had to come into work to proctor a 3-hour exam for 9 of our employees. I was at work from 8:15 AM until 1ish. John picked me up from work then and was feeling terrible, and he had a touch of stomach sickness that afternoon – probably due to exhaustion.
Although my company observed the Monday holiday, I worked. We were preparing for a conference in town on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I needed to get everything situated for being out of the office. Additionally, the girl I work with out of the UK has been gone for two weeks. Her mom passed away on Friday the 5th. Since the beginning of February, I have been doing my job as well as hers.
Tuesday and Wednesday were crazy running between the conference in the morning (though it ran all day) and my office in the afternoon. I was trying to ensure all the jobs I have on my plate were getting done.
Sunday afternoon, my mom called to say she had to have surgery on Monday. She’s still in the hospital, but she’s doing ok. She should get to go home today.
So yes – sigh. I want a break. Why oh why is spring break only a school-observed break?
Speaking of spring, I was thrilled to walk outside this morning and hear the birds chirping and feel much warmer air on my face. It was 40 at 8 AM! On Tuesday, it’s supposed to hit 49. I will be thrilled if that happens. Spring is so close that I can taste it. (Granted, it’s still about a month away, but that’s exciting after 5 months of dark, grey, cold winter!)
3 comments February 18, 2010
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.
14 comments February 8, 2010
Winter Photo Update Part 2
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
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