Baby it's cold outside!

Well, folks, I am officially back in Pennsylvania!  And, boy, was it one hell of a trip back.... I'll get to that a little later.  Christian FINALLY comes home tomorrow night and I'm so excited!  But, I'm also kind of bummed because he'll only be here three days and then leaves again Sunday for another week.  Oh well, at least I get to see him!  I'm also a little nervous to have him back home.  I think this a feeling many people get when their spouse is gone for a while.  I'm nervous the house won't be in order, something won't be "just right", and there's also the slight awkwardness that's there when we haven't seen each other in forever.    I know everything will be fine but I'm weird about making sure everything is perfect when he gets home!  I don't want anything to mess up our time together!

So anyway, I'm back home from my five weeks in Florida for the holidays and I couldn't be happier to be sleeping in my own bed!  I had wonderful accommodations in Florida (thanks to Dad, Mom and even Karyn!) and I had a great time seeing my family and friends.  I'm blessed to be in the situation where I could leave home for that long and come see everyone.  Shoot, I even got a job while I was there.... ok, just for three days, but it counts!  It was fun to catch up with old work friends and even do some actual work!

Christmas was wonderful and all my gifts from my parents were great!  Mom got me an awesome antique map of Philadelphia framed in a really neat frame so I can put in my new house!  It has a copyright date of 1885 and 1903 on it.  I LOVE it!!!  Then, Dad got me some Ugg boots which have shown their worth the past three or four days!  Those were my two favorite gifts!  But, of course, the best gift was just being able to be around my parents for those several weeks.  That time is certainly treasured!

So, after the long visit, it was time for me to make my trek up the east coast back to good ol' PA.  So, I originally planned on leaving Monday, the 27th after the HSG procedure I was going to have.  Well, I ended up canceling the procedure b/c the timing just wasn't right.  So, I ended up leaving the 26th.  Boy, was that a mistake!  The first snow I hit was south of Montgomery, AL.  And, as you southerners know, we don't really know what this snow crap is all about.  And we damn sure don't know what to do to the roads when it snows!  So, I was stuck in traffic for about an hour and a half in Alabama because the roads had ice all over them.  By the time I got to Tennessee, I saw about 10 different accidents because of the ice/snow.  So, needless to say, my nerves got a very good workout early in the trip.  After I got through Alabama, the trip was going pretty easy.  Roads were clear, not a whole lot of snow, etc.  Well, then I hit the Virginia/West Virginia area.  (Mind you, I was going to my father-in-law's in western Maryland... not going to Philly yet)  Oh, man... I can easily say that I have never been more terrified in my life.  My stomach was in knots, my shoulders and neck kept cramping and I was just a ball of nerves.  So, after about 13 hours in the car and my amazing dad staying on the phone with me for the majority of the bad areas, I needed to stop and stretch my legs.  Well, when I got out of the car at that point, there was no way in hell I was getting back on the interstate.  So, luckily the exit I got off on had a nice hotel so I stopped for the night and rested until the next morning.  The next morning I had two more hours to go to make it to my FIL's house for breakfast.  I made it there with no problem and had breakfast with him and my brother-in-law and his wife.  Then, I was just itching to get home so I got back in the car and drove another four hours  to my house!  Ahhh.... home sweet home!

And, here's what I drove home to!  This was actually taken the day after I got home after my driveway and the streets had been cleared.  The day I got home, my driveway and the roads were still covered in snow and ice.

It was soooo cold too!  But, it's refreshing and pretty and neat because it's something different to me.  So, I've just been going about my regular daily routine... just a little more bundled up now!  

Other than Christian getting home, we have the move to look forward to!  We're now moving January 20th which is way earlier than we expected but that's just how the chips fell.  So, hopefully the snow will hold out and make our move easy.  I'm definitely not looking forward to the act of moving but I'm really excited to get in the new house!  I started packing up some stuff today and I'll have all next week to get a lot done too.  

Anyway, now I'm starving so I better go eat some of my left-over chili (perfect cold weather food)!  I love y'all and hope everyone has a wonderful New Years!!!

xoxo, 

Chrissi

I'll have a blue Christmas without you....

Well, folks, as everyone is getting ready for this glorious time of year, all I can think about is having my husband come home December 30th at 6:50 p.m.!  Christmas just isn't all that exciting for me this year.  Don't get me wrong, I am having a great time in Florida and I love being around my family but man, I'm ready to get home!  I can't wait to see some snow (yes, I know, I'm insane)!  I'm also pretty excited to start packing up all of our stuff so we can move into our new house!!  I'm SOOOO excited about moving.  I love everything about our new house and the new town we're moving into.  The house is a historic 1927 home in a great neighborhood that was built back then by a prestigious builder for his mother.  It's got a great layout, all the original molding around the doors and windows, original hardwood floors and "powder rooms" in the guest bedrooms.  That's what they used to call half baths back then.  I love it.  :)  The town we're moving into is Moorestown, New Jersey.  Christian and I found this town back in the spring when we drove over to NJ to find towns that we would want to eventually live in since we knew we were going to be moving again.  We both fell in love with Moorestown when we ate lunch on their little Main Street (which we will live less than a mile from!).  So, it's got a great little historic downtown but it also has all the convenience of suburbia about 4 miles from our house (Target, Wegmans *my favorite grocery store ever*, Bed, Bath & Beyond, etc).  Plus, we'll only be about 20 minutes from Philly instead of 45 minutes like we are at our how now. So, if you can't already tell, I'm itching to get moved!  Plus, we should be in the new house by February 20th so we can celebrate our first anniversary there!

Speaking of anniversary, is it crazy to anyone else to think that I've almost been married for a year?!  If they say the first year is the toughest, this was a BREEZE!  I have loved every second of being married.... even the stupid little fights, the tough compromises, having to leave my job, moving to an entirely new city where I didn't know a soul, the many, many days I spend alone due to Christian being gone 50 percent of the time for his job, spending Christmas as a single lady, etc, etc, etc.  I have never been happier.  I am one lucky gal for finding such an amazing, funny, supportive, fun, exciting, loving, sexy :) person to spend my life with.  And, of course, he's damn lucky to have such an awesome wife too.  haha

**Pardon the interruption: I'm listening to Pandora.com and created my own Christmas music station and they're playing Judy Garland "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas".... man, I love her voice!**

Haha, now back to the blog.... so anyway, a whole year!  That's crazy to me!  It has flown by.  One more thing that has happened within our first year of marriage is our trouble with trying to have a baby.  It's been a while now so I went to my doctor down here in Florida (Dr. Lile @ Sacred Heart if any of you are searching for the best OBGYN ever...) yesterday to talk to him about all of this stuff and he's sending me to have an HSG in the next two weeks to check out my fallopian tubes and make sure there are no blockages.  There are no other things on my end of things that point out any issues.  We know I'm ovulating b/c of tests I've done and my cycles are like clockwork.  Christian will be having his own test in January once we're back up north.  So, hopefully, we'll find out soon what is going on and we'll be on our way to parenthood.  Gosh, that's crazy to think about too!  haha  We're going to LOVE it though!

So, on to other topics.... I have yet to do any Christmas shopping.  I had really good intentions of getting it done today but I just couldn't get in the mood.  I REALLY don't like Christmas shopping.  Luckily Christian and I agreed years ago that we will never give gifts to each other.  We aren't in need of anything and if we ever are, we go get it at the time we need it.  We celebrated our first Christmas together with gifts back in 2008 and it was awkward and neither of us really used the gifts we received so it was pointless for us.  But, unfortunately for me, I can't use that same philosophy with other loved-ones. haha  But, there are only a few people I need to shop for so it won't be too painful.

Other than Christmas shopping, my week is actually getting pretty busy.  I was just asked by my old job to come in an work a couple days.  This was the job where I was a Case Management Assistant.  Man, I loved that job.  It was the one I left when I was offered the position with Studer Group.  Haha, sometimes I wonder about my sanity at that point.  ;-)  So, I'm going to hang out all day tomorrow with my old co-worker Angela and my old boss, Denise!  I can't wait!  Thursday, Alison is having craft day with her students at Molino Park Elementary and she invited me to come help out so I'll probably do that and then I may work back at ECRA again Friday if they need me.  Then, Saturday and Sunday are chock full of fun stuff!

Saturday is Ali's baby shower!  I'm sooo excited about that and can't wait to see all the cute stuff she gets for Baby Boy (who is yet to be named) Ohler.  After the shower, we have our family Christmas on my mom's side and then Sunday is family Christmas on my dad's side.  Lots of family time this weekend!  I love it.

Christian always asks me to say hello to everyone so here is his hello and Merry Christmas!  :)  I can't wait to see those of you I will see this week/weekend.  Love y'all!

xoxo,

Chrissi

Once again, it's been a while!

Well, hello everyone.  I come to you from the apartment above the garage at my dad's house here in Florida!  I am very happy to be home for the holidays.  As many of you know, Christian and I got in town last Saturday evening and spent the first few days of our visit running around seeing as many people as possible!  We also got to stay at my cousin's condo for about four days and that was super nice!  We walked the beach and watched sunsets, went for morning jogs, and even had all of our friends over to watch the Auburn/Alabama game (WAR EAGLE!!!).  We had a great time doing all of that while he was here.  

But, I had to take him to the airport this morning so he could head back to Philly and get ready to leave for his 30+ day trip over to Japan tomorrow.  The goodbye was very hard.  We both shed a few tears (mine continued on the way home and his were held back pretty hard in typical male fashion, haha).  So, needless to say, this whole thing sucks but I know it could be a lot worse.  Thirty days is nothin' compared to six, nine, twelve or eighteen month deployments that other couples have to deal with.  So, I feel a little like a spoiled brat being so emotional about this one.  But, I miss my husband and there's no getting over that.  

So anyway, since I'll be down here for another five-six weeks, I need to keep myself as busy as possible!  I'm trying to spend as much time as possible with family and friends but I'm also such an independent person so I'll be taking day trips here and there by myself.... Destin, Fairhope, etc.  I'm trying to fit in a trip to New Orleans and I've even contemplated getting a job while I'm here.  I'm thinking of working a retail job just a couple nights a week to give me a little holiday money and take up some free time.  Who knows if I'll actually find one but I'll be trying!  

Of course we also have this little thing called Christmas coming up so that will take up some time with the family too!  We have our family Christmas on my mom's side on the 18th and we still need to plan the one for my dad's side of the family.  I also have a baby shower coming up on the morning of the 18th for my beautiful cousin, Ali.  :)  

I don't really have too much to blog about right now but I'm sure something will come up soon enough to bring some interesting thoughts!

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving.  Have a great week back at work!

xoxo, 

Chrissi

Holy crap, it's been a while!

Well, folks... it looks like we have quite a bit to catch up on!  Where do I begin??

I guess I'll start in the typical chronological fashion and back up to where my last post left off.  So, my last post was about two weeks ago and Mom & Adam had just left Philly and headed back to Florida.  Quite a bit has been happening around here since then.  The weekend after Mom & Adam were here, I got to experience Atlantic City for the first time with my "philly friends".  Vicki's birthday was the occasion so about six of us drove over for Friday night.  We went to dinner at a place called Continental at Caesars and then saw a Pink Martini concert.  Pink Martini is a band I had never really had too much experience with but they are Vicki's favorite and since it was her b-day, that was on our agenda!  So, we saw the concert, which was pretty awesome.  Very different from anything I've been to before but none the less, a great show!  After the concert we hung out in a bar/club in the casino and then hopped around to different bars/clubs and before we knew it, we were walking back to our hotel room at 5:30 a.m., yes, that's 5:30 in the morning.  Uh, I don't even remember the last time I was even close to staying up that late, much less past midnight!  But, we had a BLAST!  I LoVe the friends I've made up here and we have so much fun together.  They're intelligent, funny, a little crass (which I love), and honest (also another thing I love).  Vicki and Iris (who Vicki introduced me to one day over a game of golf) are probably my closest friends here so far.  So, Atlantic City was fun and I really think once you've seen one casino, you've seen 'em all but I've never stayed out this late at any of the casinos I've been to in Biloxi.  Oh, did I mention I didn't even touch a slot machine, poker table, blackjack table or roulette table?  The casinos made their money from me on the $16 drinks.  Blah.  And, mind you, $16 drinks don't make a hangover any better.  Vicki, Iris and I were pretty pitiful driving back to Philly Saturday morning.  haha

So, anyway, Saturday after AC was pretty much a dud.  Christian flew that day so he didn't get home until late that afternoon.  We had dinner out and then Sunday we decided to drive over to Jersey to look at some houses.  We found a couple that sparked our interest quite a bit but there was one that we both love.  It's in Moorestown, NJ and it was build in 1927 by a very popular builder during that time for his mother.  It's in a great neighborhood within walking distance to the little downtown and it has so much character.  We met with the realtor that day and told her that we weren't looking to move until the beginning of March but wanted to go ahead and secure something b/c of all of the traveling we have coming up.  So, we're in the process of negotiating rental terms.  I have another meeting with the realtor and the owner tomorrow to discuss everything (and to meet the owner for the first time).  So, keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer that we get this house!!!

This weekend we traveled over to western Maryland to visit with the family-in-law.  We got over there Thursday and got back last night.  As always, it was a good, relaxing time.  Christian's high school football team had a playoff game Friday night that we went to.  It was FREEZING but we had a good time and I got to drink my first hot chocolate of the year.  The hot chocolate brought back memories of the good ol' St. Ann's Round-up days (for those of you from Pensacola).  Christian played golf Saturday while I hung out and started Bush's new book "Decision Points".  It's a great book so far!!  I definitely recommend it (even for people who haven't had a great view of him).  We went to church yesterday morning with Christian's 91-year-old grandma, like we do every time we're in town.  The church also had their Thanksgiving lunch yesterday so we stayed for that and it was just a bunch of yummy food!  We got back home around 7:30 last night and Christian unpacked from the weekend and packed again for the week.  He left this morning for a five day trip over to Germany.  He'll be back Friday, I'll pick him up from work, we'll drive straight to Maryland to spend the night and then Saturday morning we'll be on our way to Florida!!!  I can't wait to get home!

Today was such a fun day!  I met Iris at here house around noon and we headed down to Philly to run some errands.  She's a self-proclaimed food snob so we went down to the Asian Market in South Philly to pick up some things and then ventured over to the 9th Street Italian Market in South Philly.  She introduced me to two shops in the Italian Market that literally made me feel like I was in Italy.  I stood there tasting cheeses and olives and pesto for about 15 minutes!  AMAZING!  I ended up getting some cheese and pesto.  It's so neat to have all the culture around since we live in a big city.  With every new little finding, I love Philly more and more.  After the markets, we went to Rittenhouse Square (another one of my favorite areas of the city) and had lunch at Parc.  After lunch, it was time for manicures and pedicures.  The great thing about Philly is that you can find services for SUPER expensive or SUPER-DUPER cheap.  We found a little place that did mani/pedi/massage for $45.  They literally massage your back the entire time you're getting your nails done.  Can't beat that!  Plus, our nails look great!  That pretty much wrapped up our day and we headed home.... where I am now.

So, tomorrow is the meeting w/ the realtor, I don't have anything planned Wednesday and Thursday I'm meeting Vicki so we can donate our quota for the Junior League thrift shop (one of our requirements for Junior League up here) and then we have a meeting that night for Junior League.  Friday is a packing day and it'll be time to pick Christian up and start our road trip before we know it!

I hope all of you are enjoying the fall weather wherever you are!  It's kind of gloomy and cool here for the next day or so.  I'm ready for that Florida sunshine and 70 degree weather!

Love y'all!  Have a FANTASTIC week!

xoxo,

Chrissi

In the Season of Giving Thanks...

As Thanksgiving approaches each year, I try to reflect on life and ponder the things for which I am thankful.  I think I have a winning year this year.  Never have I ever been so blessed in life with everything that I want, need and desire.  I have never been happier in life than I am right now and I have so many people and circumstances to thank for this.  So, here are the things I am thankful for:

My home:  As a military wife, I have come to terms with the fact that home really is where the heart is.  For the next six or seven years, we will be moving around the country and we don't have the luxury at this point in our lives of looking for a home to raise a family in and make memories for a lifetime in our children's childhood home.  But, while we're in limbo for the next seven years, I will make the most of the roof over our head.... whether it really "feels" like home or not.  We are blessed that we get to experience life in different parts of the country.  This helps us become more accepting of others and step out of our comfort zones.  I will carry my heart with me to each and every house and home will be where the heart is.  

The military:  I never,  ever thought I would end up as a military spouse.  Coming from Pensacola, Florida (one of the largest military populations), I, like many other young women in Pensacola, had a preconceived notion about what military men were like.  And, I NEVER wanted anything to do with any of them.  But, everything changed when I made some great friends who were officers stationed in Pensacola for flight training.  They (about six guys who lived across the street from me) made me realize what great guys they really were and how hard they worked.  So, two years after making those friends, I met my husband.  Thank God for the change of heart I had regarding military men or else I wouldn't be in the position I am today.  Yes, the military life is tough and yes, it sucks that my husband is gone so much.  But, we are extremely blessed in this economy to be in a position where we never have to worry about getting laid off or always having a back-up plan.  The military allows us to sustain an amazing life and gives us all kinds of opportunities to travel the world and have free healthcare (another luxury in this country).... not to mention the great discounts we get on everyday items.  I'm thankful that my husband is so dedicated to his job as a pilot.  He's so smart and loves what he does.  His dream of being a pilot stemmed from a flight he took to Europe when he was 10 years old... and that dream has come true.  Doing what he loves definitely makes our home a happy one.  

My family:  Family is always at the top of my "gratitude list".... especially my immediate family consisting of my mom, dad, brother and step-parents.  I had such a great time this past weekend with Mom & Adam and now I'm missing my dad a lot!  I can't wait to see him in less than three weeks so we can hang out and laugh like we always do!  Living over 2000 miles away really puts things into perspective regarding your family. When I lived in Florida I had the luxury of seeing my parents any time I wanted to see them.  Now, it's obviously not that easy.  But, the time that we do have together is so special!  Plus, now they have a great vacation spot!  I'm also thankful for all of my extended family; my amazing aunts, cousins, grandfathers and crazy grandmothers (haha)!  The new addition we have coming to the family from Ali & Ben is sooo exciting too!  

My friends: When I moved, I knew things would change a little bit with my friends.  Of course, the most obvious change is the fact that I don't get to see them as often and I can't call them to grab a drink after work or meet me for lunch.  But, thank God I have great friends who are just a phone call away.  There have been a few times since being up here when I really needed a friend to cry to and Alison, Laura and Christina have been there every time I've needed them.  I'm so thankful for great friends like that.  I'm also so very thankful for the great friends I'm making up here.  Junior League has been my saving grace when it comes to friends.  There are such great girls in this group and I'm excited to see how these new found friendships will blossom in the coming months, years, etc.  

and last but certainly not least, the love of my life, Christian:  As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I have never been happier in my life than I am now.  Much (if not all) of that happiness is caused by this amazing, smart, handsome man I get to wake up to every day (well, not every day since he's gone 50% of the time but you get my point).  For those of you who know us really well, you know how unconventional our relationship really is.  We always tell each other that if someone took a transcript of our conversations with each other and didn't get the tone or sarcasm from our conversations, people would think we hated each other!  haha  About 90 percent of the time, we're joking around and laughing and being goofy.  It's awesome.  The other 10 percent of the time is left for serious conversations that are necessary to sustain any relationship, lifestyle and our sanity.  This man that I get to call my husband is everything I could ever ask for.  If I made a list of all the things I want in a man, he would have all of those qualities.  He's obviously very attractive (check), very intelligent (check), fun (check), outgoing (check), good w/ money (check), gets along with anyone he meets (check), can fix things and figure out how things work (check), etc, etc, etc (check, check, check).  Plus, he does little things totally out of the blue that make me so very happy.  For instance, the past two nights, he's built a fire, set up a table in front of the fire place, turned the lights low and we've eaten dinner right in front of the fireplace with Frank Sinatra playing.  Not too shabby, huh?  He's just about the least emotional person I've ever met but he surprises me sometimes with these little things.  I can't wait to spend all the days of my life with him, see him as the father of our children and continue all of our crazy adventures together.  

So, needless to say, life is good.  I'm thankful for everything.... every decision I've made in life that has ultimately made me who I am and gotten me where I am.  Tell me the things you're thankful for!!

xoxo, 

Chrissi

November 1, 2010- Part 1 of 2:  Great Halloween Weekend!

Well, the weekend has come to an end and so has Mom & Adam's visit to the City of Brotherly Love.  We had a great time this weekend and I was super sad to see them off this morning!  Friday evening we ventured up to my favorite little Americana town, New Hope, PA for some brew and dinner.  Adam and Mom both LOVED it up there... maybe even as much as I do!  We parked right by the New Hope/Ivy Land Train Station (cute, old school train station....you should google it) so we got to see the "Trick or Treat Train" take off with the little kids in their halloween costumes.  It was really neat!  They have it decorated really cute all around the station.  Then, we noticed there was a brewery right across the tracks so we walked over to the Triumph Brewing Company and had some great beer!  Pumpkin Ale... my favorite! After a few drinks, we walked down to a restaurant called Karlas.  It was so neat!  Teeny tiny place in an old house with a lady playing piano right in the middle of everyone.  And, as the night went on, she started singing along... it was great!

Saturday was our day down in Philly.  We ventured to Pat's & Geno's for some cheese steaks and decided on Geno's.  It was my first cheese steak ever and it was pretty good!  We walked around in the 9th Avenue Italian Market and then headed uptown a little to visit the Reading Terminal Market (one of my favorite Philly sites).  We walked around the city a little bit then hit a sports bar to watch good ol' college football and then headed back up towards home for dinner at the Brick House in Willow Grove so we could catch the rest of the games (WAR EAGLE!)  :).

Yesterday was pretty low-key.  It was a beautiful day so Adam & Christian played golf on the course we live on and Mom and I went riding around to antique shops!  We got some great deals and I added to my growing milk glass collection!  Mom couldn't get over how cheap the antiques are up here.  I love it!

Then, last night was soooo fun!  We went down to the Eastern State Penitentiary to visit the Terror Behind the Walls Haunted House.  Eastern State Penitentiary is a historic prison that was built in 1829 and closed in 1973-ish.  Al Capone was probably the most notorious criminal to be locked up there.  This haunted house was BY FAR the best all of us had ever visited.  There were about six different themes to the haunted house and the coolest one was the 3D area.  The guides handed out 3D glasses and it was super crazy!  Soooo much fun... and I got the sh*t scared out of me a few times... so did Mom!  haha

So, all in all, we had a great time!  I'm sad to see them leave but I'm excited about going down to Florida for the holidays!

Part 2 of 2:  Happy November & Merry Christmas


On this Monday, November 1st, according to advertisers, Comcast channel 645: "Sounds of the Seasons", and the random house up here who already put Christmas lights up, it's time for Old Saint Nick to make his mark on the world.  Plus, the fact that it's COLD!  It's a brisk 50 degrees right now and supposed to stay this way for the next few days!  So, this Florida chick has a fire going in the fire place and Christmas music on the surround sound.  haha  I'm not going to be up here for the actual day of Christmas so I have to celebrate somehow, dang it!

Mom & I were watching t.v. this morning and saw our first Christmas commercial for cookies (I think that's what it was for) so I switched it to the music channel called Sounds of the Seasons and sure enough, Christmas music has started.  Kind of funny since yesterday this same channel was rocking out to "Monster Mash".  Oh well.... I guess as the song says, this is the "most wonderful time of the year" so I'll just bask in all of it's glory since it feels like Christmas outside anyway.  

So, anyway, I hope all of you have a wonderful Monday!  Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving (the red-headed step child of the holiday season)!  ;-)

xoxo,

Chrissi

The weekend comes to an end....

I hope all of you had a great weekend!  Here comes Monday...  boo, right?  Well, to me, it doesn't make a difference anymore which day it is but I know how Mondays can suck, big time.

I've had a pretty great weekend.  Friday night, I went out w/ about eight girls from my Junior League group  for dinner and drinks and then stayed a little longer w/ two of them for another beer and good conversation.    We had a good time.  There are some great girls in my group and I could see myself becoming friends with just about every one of them!  I'm already pretty good friends w/ Vicki.  She and I met back in May at a benefit for Junior League and clicked and we've been hanging out ever since.  She and I have a blast together.  Saturday, about 70 of us Junior League-ers helped clean an area of Fairmount Park in Philly called Rittenhouse Town.  It was a beautiful area and we just helped clean out all the exotic plants and vines that are taking over the indigenous trees and plans of the area.  It's amazing how much work we did!  We had a blast doing it too, though.  We had AMAZING weather yesterday.  Good weather, plus good work, plus good girlfriends= great day!  Last night I was so tired from staying out Friday night and working all day Saturday so I just chilled and was in bed by about 10:00.  AND, I slept until about 9:30 today... which I NEVER do!  If I wake up past 7:30 anymore it's a miracle.  Today, I went to Peace Valley Park and did a 5k on a trail through the park.  That was nice and the weather was great today too.  After the park, I picked up some pumpkins and spent the afternoon carving those on the back porch.  Here's pictures of both of them!

So, my weekend was pretty good.  But, I really wish Christian was home today like he was supposed to be!  So, since he's not home yet, I took myself out on a date to a sushi bar tonight and had sushi and wine at the bar.  Not a bad way to end the weekend, I suppose.  

The crew finally got Christian's plane fixed so he should be home Thursday.  Thank God!  I'm sooooo ready for him to be home!  I was thinking earlier today, he and I haven't really gone on a date since the night before he left for Sicily back in August!!!  Yes, we were in Europe for three weeks in September but we never had a nice dinner out by ourselves... we were always with friends or family over there!  So, I'm craving date night w/ my husband!  

Mom & Adam come Friday!!!!  I'm soooo excited to have them up!  There so much to do up here so I'm trying to narrow down our plans so we don't run ourselves ragged!  I know we'll do a day in Philly checking out all the history and fun places but I also thought about spending a day in NYC.  It's only 1 1/2 hours away so I think I'll make that a tentative plan and see how we all feel about it.  There's a really neat haunted house that the Eastern State Penitentiary is putting on down in Philly.  It's an old historic prison that they make into a haunted house every year.  I'm going to get tickets to that this week!  That should be awesome!  Also, my friend Vicki and her friend Iris told me about the Italian market in South Philly that is awesome.  So, I need to do a little more research about that.  Iris said that's where you can see some of the mobsters telling the shop owners to "put it on my tab".  haha!  I think that would be great!  

Like I said, there's soooo much to do!  I love it up here.  It's crazy b/c I thought I would really hate it.  But it's been great.  I've met some amazing people and the amount of culture you can find here is endless.  I think I'll actually be kind of bummed when we have to move in 2 1/2 years.  

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!  I love y'all!

xoxo, 

Chrissi

Hello all and Happy Hump Day!

I hope everyone has had a great first half of their week.  Christian's still gone and we don't know when he's going to make it back home.  His plane is broken and he's stuck in Hawaii (rough life, right?).  In all actuality, he's not hangin' loose on the beach or anything, he's up with the plane just about all day every day so I don't really envy him.  I just wish they could get it fixed so he can finish his trip and come home!  I did some calculations the other day and found that he's been gone 47% of the time since we moved up here.  Yes, it sucks but I know it could be way worse so I'm not complaining.

In other exciting news, I locked myself out of my house yesterday morning.  That was rather exciting.  haha  I left at about 8 a.m. to go to the grocery store b/c we were out of milk and I eat oatmeal just about every morning.  So, I get up to the grocery store and realize I don't have my wallet.  So, I drive back home only to find out that my garage door opener is not working.  The battery was dead.  Annnddd, to make matters worse, I don't have a house key.  Our one and only house key was in Christian's truck up at base and his truck key was, of course, inside the house.  So, not only did I not have his truck key to go up to base to get the house key, I also didn't have my wallet that had my military i.d. that I would have needed to get on base.  Also, because I didn't have my wallet, I couldn't simply run up to Lowes or Home Depot to get a new battery.  ugh....  But, luckily my wonderful neighbor, Pete, was home and he miraculously had an extra teeny tiny battery for the garage door opener and I was able to get inside.  haha  Great start to the day, right?

I have a somewhat busy weekend planned, which is nice.  Friday night, my Junior League group is getting together for happy hour and then Saturday we have a "work day" down in Fairmont Park where we'll be cleaning up the park and stuff.  I'll get to see a lot of the great girls I've met so I'm excited for some socialization.  It gets a little boring around here when Christian's gone and my socialization comes from my blog, Facebook and the t.v.  haha

One thing I've heard lately on the radio shows I listen to is a discussion regarding this LA Times article about religious views of 20-somethings.  VeRy interesting and I can empathize with a lot of the views of those 20-somethings mentioned in this article.  It's not too long... here's the link to it if you're intrigued:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-1017-putnam-religion-20101017,0,6283320.story

Hope everyone has a great afternoon!

-Chrissi

Welcome to the world, little ones!

Today, two of my friends (Kristen & Mandy) that I grew up with are both giving birth to their baby boys.  Kristen & Jason are expecting Easton Palmer & Mandy & Joe are expecting Jonathan Cooper.  I can't wait to see their pictures!  I'm keeping an eye on Facebook to see who the first person to post pics will be!  So exciting.  It stinks that I'm so far away but hopefully I'll get to hold the little bundles of joy when I'm home for the holidays.  I also have about four or five other friends who are pregnant!  Maybe we'll be in the same boat soon!  Still hoping & praying for that miracle!  :)

So anyway, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, we had someone come out this morning to look at our washing machine and the verdict is: $400 for a new motor.  Ugh.  So, I went ahead and ordered the part and it should be fixed in a couple days.

Something that I haven't mentioned to y'all is how I ran into a scam on Craig's List!  I've already started looking at homes to rent in New Jersey where we want to move so I can get a good idea of prices.  Well, I looked on Craig's List and found a great house for $1500 a month.  This is much less that we are currently paying for our townhouse.  So, yes, I immediately though "hmm... this is mighty cheap for around here" but I went ahead and pursued the ad.  I got a reply from a man by the name of Donald Mennig who claimed he and his wife work for USAID and will be moving to Africa to work for eight years.  The email was extremely religious and said they were looking for a "God fearing family" to rent their home.  When I got that email, I sent it to Christian and told him "I don't think we're God fearing enough for these people".  He laughed and said we should still check it out.  So, I continued the conversation with "Donald".  I told him that we have experience on both ends of the rental process (as the owner and renter) and we were military and all this other crap to make us sound really good.  Well, I get a reply from him within about 10 minutes saying that he has found his future renter (even though I had already mentioned twice that we weren't looking to move until March).  He also listed his phone number which looked like a international number so that threw a red flag for me.  So, I googled the home's address and ended up finding the REAL listing on Zillow.com for $2500 a month.  So, luckily, I was able to contact the homeowner and realtor and let them know this scam was going on.  This impostor's next step was probably to ask for the deposit ($1000) by mail since they weren't in the country.  Sneeky, sneeky Mr. Scam artist!  I hope he gets caught!!!  The realtor said this wasn't the first time it had happened but he had never seen the emails from any of the scam artists so I sent him the whole conversation I had with this person.  Hopefully something will happen.  The listing is already off of Craig's List.  It amazes me how crappy some people in this world are.

I also mentioned in yesterday's post that I was reading a new book.  Well, I've had the book since about two weeks before I went to Europe and I'm only about half way through.  I haven't been very motivated to read lately.  Anyway, the title is "For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage".  As you guys know, I am very fascinated with marriage and relationships and what makes them work and more interesting, what makes them fail.  So, this book is full of research studies about different aspects of marriage such as communication types, having children, monogamy, etc.  It's neat b/c it's all factual and it's not just some author telling you what they think you should be doing in your relationship.  I've also told y'all before that I'd love to go back to school to get my masters in Family & Marriage Counseling so this book was right up my alley.  For anyone looking for some interesting facts and outcomes, this is a great book!  It's also full of neat little tests to rate your relationship.  Christian and I are doing just fine.  :)  haha  I usually carry a highlighter with me when I'm reading these kinds of books because I always find neat little pieces of info but I have had to pass over so many things without my highlighter b/c either I forget it or I can't find one when I need it.  So, I may end up reading this book again so I can capture some of those things.

Now, I'm going to run some errands!  Hope everyone has a great Monday!

xoxo,

Chrissi

Home at last, with no place to go.... for about a month.

After a long seven hour drive, I'm back home from my weekend in New Hampshire.  I had a great time and it was great to see Megan and her family.  They are really great people!  We ate great New England food (clams & lobsters) and drank plenty of good red wine and bloody mary's!  The weather was a little dull Saturday with some pretty harsh winds and clouds but it certainly didn't take away from the beauty of all of the leaves changing!  This morning, all the clouds had blown by and it was absolutely gorgeous!  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures!  I know, I know... I'm the picture queen!  But, I kept forgetting about my camera.  Oh well....

I made it back home around 5 o'clock this afternoon and have been relaxing and surfing the internet.  Christian's still gone.  He'll be gone until next Sunday I think... they had an issue w/ the plane today so the trip may get extended a day or so.  Who knows... This is the life of the Navy.  As a wife, you can never have any grand expectations for when he'll actually be home, that's for sure!  So, I'll make the most of my week.  I really need to strip a piece of antique furniture that I have but I've been putting that off for weeks.  Maybe I'll get to that this week.  I'm wanting to redecorate our living room... spice it up a bit so hopefully I can use pieces we already have to give it a new look.  If I'm anything like my mom (which people have told me I am), I can turn any room upside down and inside out without spending a penny!  :)  But, searching through the Pottery Barn website right now probably isn't helping that whole "without spending a penny" thing....

We have someone coming tomorrow to look at our broken washing machine.  Hopefully they can fix it and I don't have to go buy a new one!  I also have to go to the VW dealership tomorrow to have my tires checked out.  Apparently, I have low tire pressure and my tires are filled with nitrogen so I don't know if I can put regular air in them.  So, I'm just going to run up to the dealership and let them handle it.  I also have to go the next three days without spending much money.  Christian made a deal with me; if we can keep the credit card relatively low this month, I get to go on a winter clothes shopping spree.  He finally realized that this Florida girl's wardrobe isn't too prepared for a northeastern winter.  So, the 20th is the last day of the cycle so I'm being very good.  I really don't shop a lot and I don't spend a lot of money but we put EVERYTHING on the credit card and have had some big purchases that last few months with all the travel so it's been a nice break to see the low balance!  Hopefully, we can make this work!

Some of you may have seen on my Facebook profile that I'm listening to Christmas music.... already.  Pandora.com is my best friend for Christmas music and for some reason I'm in a very Christmasy mood!  Maybe it's the cooler weather that we're getting and the firewood we cut last weekend out in Maryland.  It's not quite cool enough for a fire but I am itching to build one ASAP!  I'm also really wanting to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!!!!  I don't have it on DVD but I will be watching it FOR SURE when I'm home at my mom's!  I love this time of year.  The holidays and all the family time... and, of course, the awesome comfy cozy clothes you get to wear!

Well, I've officially come down with writers block.  I've got nothing else to write about.  haha  Oh, I need to tell y'all about a new book I've been reading.  I'll try and do that tomorrow.  It's very interesting!

Stay tuned!

Love,

Chrissi

Good morning and Happy Friday!!!

I hope all of you have a great weekend planned!  For those of you in P'cola, beautiful weekend coming your way!  Here in Philly is supposed to be pretty nice.  But, wouldn't ya know that where I'm heading, New Hampshire, is rainy and windy.  BLAH!  Oh well, just gotta make the best of it!  I'm sure it will be a beautiful drive up today.  Hopefully the rain will hold off a while.

Christian left this morning for a nine day trip for work.  And, oh so conveniently, our washing machine broke last night while I was doing laundry for both of our trips.  Fabulous, huh?  It's one of those front loading ones and it keeps coming up with an error that means "overload on motor".  So, first, we tried lightening the load... that didn't work.  So, after it had already gone through the process of filling the washer with water, it decides to not work.  So I had to pull all of the soaking wet clothes out of the washer and put them in our bathtub with hot water and laundry detergent and wash EVERYTHING by hand.  It was soooo frustrating but hilarious too.  I was standing in the tub trying to hand wash underwear, shirts, jeans and Christian's flight suit.  Needless to say, it wasn't easy.  Christian started laughing at me and tried to make excused to get out of helping me but that was not happening.  We ended up throwing underwear at each other and I almost fell down into the soapy water in the bath tub.  It was hysterical.  hahaha  So, now we have a repair man coming Monday morning to take a look at it.  Hopefully it's nothing major!

I'm leaving in a little bit for my six hour drive.  I have my ipod loaded, my GPS ready and plans to stop at Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte!  It's not a bad drive and it actually goes by pretty quickly.

A couple of things in the news that are worthy of a little of my insight:

1.  Holy cow for "The View" yesterday!  If any of you are living under a rock and haven't watched t.v. in the last 24 hours and you haven't seen the clip from the fight with Bill  O'Reilly, Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, it is a must-see.  It's really pretty ridiculous.  Bill O'Reilly pops off and said "Muslims killed us on 9/11".... big statement... and big mistake.  He should have known he was going to catch all kinds of hell from folks for that, especially liberals like Joy & Whoopi.  Oh well, politics aside, I can't stand Bill O'Reilly.  I think he's a pompous ass.  He's such a jerk and soooo condescending.  And, I have to admit, I like watching Joy Behar's show on HLN.  No, I'm not a liberal.  And no, I'm not a conservative.  I don't care for anyone who's so far to the right or left that they can't see what else is going on the world.  There are a lot more important things in the world than political parties.  So, I'll stand behind Barbara Walters (Wawa) on this whole fight.  She handled her colleagues and guest with grace and set everyone straight.  Bravo, BW, bravo.

2.  Bullying.  If any of you picked up one of the most recent issues of People Magazine, you'll found several articles profiling the suicides of children and teenagers as a result of bullying.  This hits home to me because I was bullied for a long time in high school b/c of stupid girl/boy drama and it really takes a toll on a person.  It's amazing how hateful some kids can be.  I read all of the articles in People and it breaks my heart to hear some of the hurtful things that are said or done to children/teens because of a minor difference.  So, even though I'll most likely miss it b/c of my trip, tonight on ABC, there is a two-hour special on 20/20 about bullying.  I encourage any of you to watch it if you can.  We have to do something about all of this crap.  It's ridiculous.  It starts in the home!  If you condone your kids talking about others under your roof and you don't reprimand them, who knows what they're saying when they're not in your presence.  Be careful parents!  One story I heard yesterday brought me to tears.... a woman was on a radio show that I listen to and she discussed how one of her children committed suicide b/c of bullying.  That was last year some time.  Now, her younger daughter is being bullied by a little boy about her brother committing suicide.  Saying things like "haha your brother's dead" and other hateful, hurtful things.  If this kid just gets a slap on the wrist and continues on with life without any major repercussions, what do you think our world will be like in 10-15 years when these kids are adults?    What happened to instilling kindness and respect for others in our children?

3.  Hip Hip Hooray for the Chilean miners!  Such a great story and I'm so happy all them are safe and home with their families.  But, did any of you hear about the one miner who's mistress showed up to greet him but his wife didn't??  This is craziness!  Apparently, while they were trapped, the wife was up at the site of the mine and kept seeing a woman crying and eventually realized she was crying for the same man!  They compared stories and realized what was going on.  So, as I mentioned, the wife decided to stay home on the rescue day while the mistress was there and received a not so warm welcome from the miner who knew he was in deep doo doo.  Let this be a lesson to all men- the women always find out, one way or another.  I heard on the news this morning that there's another miner who allegedly has FOUR mistresses!!  Oh, the price of limelight.

Well, that's about all I have for today!  Have a wonderful weekend!!!

xoxo,

Chrissi

Really neat website!

A friend of mine sent me this website and I just wanted to share it w/ you guys: www.atwestend.com.  She sent it to me b/c I asked where she got something like this:

She actually had little parts that made the pumpkin a witch but I can't find those.  They also have one that makes it a spider (in two different ways)!  Sooo cute.  The website has some other really great stuff.  

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Finally back home... for three days, at least.

I think I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to traveling.  We got back home LATE last Wednesday night from Germany...Landed in Baltimore and drove two hours home to Philly.  Arrived home around 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning and went to bed.  Christian and I both woke up at about 6 a.m. Thursday b/c of the time difference still messing with us.  So, he went into work for a little bit and I unpacked and packed again since we left at about noon on Thursday to spend the weekend at Christian's dad's house in Maryland.  We finally got back home today and Christian and I are both leaving Friday for different trips.  Christian's going to Guam for eight days and I'm probably going up to New Hampshire for the weekend.  This weekend is the party that we've been going to the past couple years in Meredith, NH.  It's Christian's friend, Scott's wife's (Megan) parent's lake house.  They have a huge clam bake every October and it's so much fun.  So, Scott's on an IA in Africa and Christian will be in Guam so I'm going to spend the weekend w/ Megan and her family.  It should be a good time!  I love New Hampshire and this family... they're great people and they know how to throw a party!  The drive up will take about 6 1/2 hours but I'm sure it will be absolutely gorgeous with the leaves changing!!  I'm hoping to drive up to Freeport, Maine one of the days I'm up there too so I can go to the L.L. Bean Factory Outlet.

Once I get back, there will be less than two weeks until my momma & brother come up to visit!!!  I'm soooo excited to have them come up!  Hopefully the weather will be really nice and we'll find some neat things to get into.  There's a Flyers vs Penguins hockey game here in Philly the night they get into town so I'm going to try and get tickets to that.  Hopefully I can get them!

I'm also sooo excited to be coming home for a whole month over the holidays!  Christian's getting pretty excited to go back to Florida too.  He hasn't been back since we moved!  We can't wait to see all the family and friends!

How's the weather down in Florida?  It's been great up here since we got back.  It's supposed to rain a little tomorrow and be pretty cool this weekend w/ highs in the low 60s here in Philly but even cooler in New Hampshire!

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great week so far!  I love y'all!

xoxo,

Chrissi

WE MADE IT HOME!!!!

Yayyyy!  I'm so happy to be home!  We got on an earlier flight than we expected and arrived in Baltimore last night at about 11 p.m.  Then, we had to drive home so after getting our bags, getting the rental car, etc, we actually didn't get home until right after 2 a.m.

It was so nice to lay in our big comfy bed!  But, neither of us were tired because of the huge time difference so we both woke up at about 6 a.m. today and started getting everything back in order here at home.

So, now, Christian wants to go to his dad's house this weekend so I think we might leave this afternoon or tomorrow for a weekend in the mountains.... never a dull moment, huh??  haha  It's actually not all that much of a pain for me.  For some reason, this house still doesn't feel like a "home" and I don't really get homesick.  The things I miss when I'm not at home are my cooking and being able to watch t.v. and not worry about having to wear a bra the second I wake up in the morning.  Haha!!!  It's the little things in life....

So, I'm off to the grocery store and I don't know if I've ever been so excited to go grocery shopping!  I miss American food!  :)

I'll be posting more elaborate stuff about our trip in the coming days....

Hope everyone has a great day!!!

xoxo,
Chrissi

WOW!  It's October 1st!!!  How crazy is that?!

Well, we made it to Germany.  However, we only made it after a 10 1/2 hour car ride from Faistenau to Frankfurt.  UGHHHH.  The traffic on the autobahn was horrible yesterday and the weather didn't make it much better.  We had to take our rental car back to Munich airport and then ride the rest of the way with Christian's cousin, Christof.  As you know, many parts of the Autobahn do not have speed limits so we got up to about 140 mph a couple times!  However, that did not speed up our trip!  haha  We had to go to Ramstein Airforce Base to book our flight home.  We put our name down on a flight leaving Thursday morning and flies straight to Baltimore where we'll just have to rent another car to drive home (about 2 hours away).  The flight we're supposed to be on is the "Patriot Flight" which carries all the guys coming home from the middle east so that will be a treat.  I'm looking forward to being home.

We walked downtown this morning which is about 2.5 miles away so we got a pretty decent work out.  Christian and I have both lost about 5 pounds since we got here.  All the walking and not eating like we do in the states will do that to you!  The big meal over here is lunch and then you just have bread and meats for dinner (salami, bacon, ham, etc).  It's hard to get used to.  I like having the big meal for dinner b/c it gives you something to look forward to all day!

We're going to his aunts house tonight for a surprise b-day party for her husband (an American).  So, there will be a lot of English being spoken, which is nice.  :)  I actually started a small conversation with Christian's grandfather this morning in German about my car (since it's German too).  So, I used a little more of my German than what I usually do.  I just never know if I'm saying something correctly.  It all sounds so funny.  I asked what English sounds like to them and he said it sounds like we have a hot potato in our mouths!  haha

I think we're going out tomorrow night with Christian's cousin, Julia.  She's my age and so much fun.... she also speaks english!  She's the one we went to Oktoberfest with last year.

Anyway, all is going good and I'm getting antsy to be back home!  I'm ready for Halloween and for my mom & brother to come visit!!!!  I can't wait to see them!  Also, for those of you from Florida, Christian and I are driving to Pensacola the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Christian will leave to go back to Philly the weekend after Thanksgiving to get ready for his trip to Japan.   He'll be in Japan all of December (including Christmas :(  ) so I'm staying in Florida from Thanksgiving until right after Christmas.  I'm excited to be home that long but I'll definitely miss him!  But, hopefully the holidays will make the time go by quickly.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and sees some good weather and great football!  We both miss football soooo bad!  haha

Love y'all and miss y'all!

Chrissi

Good morning!

Christian and I came down to Salzburg for a little bit to check our emails and other online stuff.  We're still having a great time.  It's pretty cold over here today.  It's been rainy the last two days and it must have been a cold front that came through.  Friday, the four of us (Christian, me and his grandparents) went to another mountain top restaurant.  That day was beyond hilarious.  Christian told me we'd have to park and walk a little ways to the restaurant b/c our rental car didn't have a certain pass that we needed to drive up.  So, his grandparents drove up the mountain and Christian and I were just going to meet them up there.  Well, little did I know, this "little nice walk" we were going on was a friggin' hike from just about the bottom of a mountain to the TOP of the mountain.  It took us over an hour and I was cussing the entire time while Christian just laughed his ass off at me.  He kept saying "I can't wait to tell your mom & dad about this" hahaha.  Needless to say, I did NOT expect to be hiking a mountain so I had just showered, was wearing "designer jeans" (that's what his grandmother calls my jeans) and some little canvas shoes.  By the end, I had my shirt pulled up so the sweat that was drenching my back wouldn't soak my shirt.  But, when it was all said and done, the view at the top of the mountain was worth it.  It was just a funny situation.

Other than that, it's been pretty low-key the past couple days.  Yesterday was actually "thanksgiving" in Faistenau.  Not sure what the exact tradition is but we walked to the center of town and everyone was wearing traditional clothing like we wore to Oktoberfest last year.  It was kind of interesting.

Oh, another thing.... we eat so much bread over here that my TMJ has started acting up and my jaws are killing me.  So, that sucks.  I also forgot to tell you guys that the morning of the day we flew out of Sicily, I ended up in the ER on base because of a UTI.  Thank God it happened while we were on base b/c I don't know what I would have done if it happened while we were in Austria or Germany!!!

We leave Thursday to go to Frankfurt, Germany.  There's a lot to do there and I'm excited to see the rest of Christian's family.

That's about all the news I have for now!  I hope everyone has a great week!  Love y'all!

xoxo,

Chrissi

PICTURES OF SICILY ARE ALL POSTED ON FACEBOOK!

Hello everyone!  We finally found internet here in Austria in downtown Salzburg.... at a McDonalds! haha Apparently Europeans are very stingy with their internet b/c there are about five different wireless signals near Christian's grandparents' place but they're all locked.  Oh well.

We're having a great time!  We flew into Munich, Germany Monday and drove about two hours from Munich to Faistenau, Austria to his grandparents' vacation home.  It has been great to see them... even though I can barely understand them.  My german is getting a little better day by day.  I'm understanding about 1/2 of the conversations.... I'm just too timid to actually speak haha.

I've posted two pictures below.  The first one is us at the top of Taormina in Sicily and the second is in the mountains in Austria!  Our days have been filled with mostly eating and walking.  Faistenau is a tiny little village in the mountains that has a little town square and it's about 20 minutes from Salzburg, which is one of the larger cities in Austria and a major tourist trap.  Tuesday, his grandparents took us to a little restaurant on top of a mountain where you can sit outside (this is where the second pic below was taken) and take in the scenery and drink beer (which me and his grandfather did) haha.  Wednesday, we came to Salzburg and did some touristy stuff like go on a tour of a the big castle here and walked around all the shopping areas.  This morning we walked a mountain trail for about two hours, ate lunch and now we're back in Salzburg.  We just went to see the Mirabell Gardens and it was beautiful.  I think we're taking a trip to one of those spa places tomorrow!  I'm excited!!!

Anyway, I love all of you!  I hope everyone is doing well and that the weather is cooling down for everyone!

xoxo, Chrissi

TAORMINA

I officially fell in love with Sicily as of yesterday.  Christian and I went to Taormina and it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life.  Here's a picture I found online of it but I have some amazing pictures on my camera that I hope to load later today!

Taormina is a beautiful town on top of a huge cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  The streets are super narrow, lots of shopping, beautiful old buildings (similar to New Orleans architecture).  There are two levels of the town where the majority of the tourist areas are.  The first level is where all the shopping (VERY nice shops with designers like Gucci, Armani, etc) and great restaurants and the Greek Theater is there as well.  I also fell in love with a pair of boots that were 700 euro.  Christian didn't think that was too funny.  haha  Oh well.  We weren't able to make it down to the theater b/c there was some big concert going on.  We also saw a wedding going on there and the bride and groom were Greg & Nancy.  Their names sound so American so I was a little jealous about a destination wedding!  haha

After we walked around a little bit more, we went to the top of the cliff, had some drinks, watched the sunset and then had dinner.  The place we had dinner was called Bar Turrisi.   It was hilarious.  It's a bar with penis statues everywhere!  haha  Here's their website:  www.barturrisi.com  I got some great pictures of that too!  The food was, once again, amazing.  I could live forever on Italian food!

We came back to base after dinner and we're just lounging around today getting ready for our trip to Austria tomorrow.

I'll send a note later once I have the pictures loaded onto Facebook.  Love y'all!!!!

Chrissi

Good morning everyone (it's actually the middle of the night for you guys)-

I hope everyone had a good start to their weekend yesterday!  Christian and I had a great day but I'm still recovering from being so tired!!  Jet lag plus a 14 hour trip yesterday is not the best thing for me.  But, I'm carrying on!

We went to the Aeolian Islands off of Sicily.  This is the "spa" trip I told you guys about.  We left base on a bus at about 6 a.m. yesterday, had a two hour ride up to the port town and then took a two hour ferry ride over to the islands.  It was a beautiful ride and we got lots of pictures!  I'll load them when I have more time.  The ferry stopped at one island first and the majority of the passengers got off and then it took us over to Vulcano (a volcanic island).  Our trip included the ferry ride and then entrance into this mineral pool place.  They had three different pools (all different temps) that were pure mineral water.  It was kind of neat.  Then, we had the opportunity to do the sulfur springs/mud but it smelled SOOOO bad that I refused to get in it!  haha  Christian wasn't too keen on it either.  The smell of sulfur was so strong so you had the constant smell of rotten boiled eggs.  It's supposed to be great for your skin but I like to think I already have great skin and don't need that!  haha  So, Christian and I lounged on the beach for a little while.  It was sooooo beautiful and the water is so crystal clear!  There were cliffs all around the little cover we were in.  We ate lunch twice haha.  One time I had a caprese panini that was super good and then we got pizza.  The pizza over here is amazing.  All of the menus are in Italian so I just try to pick one that sounds somewhat appetizing and it always turns out so good!

We had to be back on the ferry at 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon and then the ferry drove us all around the islands.  The sites were stunning!!!  I can't wait for you guys to see my pictures.  There are seven islands and we saw three up close.   There are beautiful rock formations jutting out in the middle of the sea and then caves that are so vibrant in color!  We saw where the lava used to flow from the islands and the steam still coming from one of the volcanos.

All in all, it was a good trip.  I think it was a bit expensive for what we actually got to do but it was beautiful.  So, we took another two hour ride back to port and two hour ride back to base.  We got back to our room around 8:30 and I was OUT!  Then, my slave driver husband made me get up at 8 this morning.  Ugh.  I could have slept all day!  Not sure what we're going to do today.  He wants to go climb Mt. Etna but I'm not feeling too great today so who knows.  We're going to Taormina later today for dinner and to see the sites.

We leave here Monday for our trip to Austria!  We're both so excited about that part of our trip!  I can't wait to see Austria and the family.  My german has gotten little better so hopefully I can somewhat communicate with his grandparents while we're in Austria.  Once we're back in Germany in a couple weeks, pretty much everyone in his family speaks english so that will be comforting.

Anyway, I just wanted to update everyone!  Love you all and miss you!!!

Chrissi

Buongiorno!

Hello everyone!  I am now in Sicily w/ my husband!  I flew in around 8 p.m. last night and Christian and two of his fellow pilots came to pick me up at the airport and the four of us went to dinner at a little italian place that was sooooo good!  We had caprese, spaghetti, rosa vino (red wine), and some other asparagus & pesto pasta.  YUMMM!  The owner also made us try some traditional italian liquor which tasted like a mix between jagermister and goldschlogger (not sure if I'm spelling those correctly).  haha

Then we were all so full and tired so we just came back to base.  This morning, Christian and I went to the gym here on base.  After we left the gym, Christian wanted me to learn how to drive one of the cars they have for their trip which is a standard.  Well, that didn't go so well.  I couldn't even make it out of the parking lot!  haha

Today we went out to Catania for lunch.  It was really pretty and old.  It's very dirty here but it's still amazing.  We had a great lunch of yummy food but we have no idea what ingredients were in it haha.  Then, we walked around for a little bit and then went to a city called Lentini where we got three bottles of red wine, one bottle of a red champagne (too interesting to pass up) and a 5 liter jug of olive oil!  It was this little hole in the wall winery and olive oil place.  We tried to chat it up w/ the owner but there was an obvious language barrier!

We're back at the base now and planning on going out to dinner again tonight.  Christian has to go to the Netherlands tomorrow but he'll be back tomorrow evening around 6 so I'll spend tomorrow at the base and around the pool.  Friday, we're going to an island called Vulcano for a sulfur spa!  It's a trip that the base is offering so there will be more Americans.  We have to leave base at 6 a.m. and I don't think we get back until about 8 that night.  I'm pretty excited about it though!  Christian planned that all on his own!  I'm very proud haha.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hello!  Love you all!

xoxo,

Chrissi

Good morning from Zurich, Switzerland!!!
Well, I made it to Zurich.  The flight wasn't too bad and we actually arrived in Zurich about 45 minutes earlier than expected.  Coming into Zurich was beautiful.  There are HUGE mountain ranges covered in snow.  I've never seen mountains like these.  It was gorgeous because the sun was just coming up.  I had an empty seat next to me so I had some room to sprawl out a bit.  I slept pretty much the whole flight but woke up about every hour to change positions.  So, I'm hoping I got enough sleep to get me through the day.  There were some really nice people around me who told me about places we should go while in Sicily.  One woman had been there and she said it was absolutely gorgeous and one of the best trips she and he husband ever took.  Then, there was a guy whose family is from Sicily and he wrote down several places that I should go.  So, I'm definitely looking forward to getting there!  Christian went to Africa yesterday and is supposed to get back to Sicily this afternoon.  However, he said they had an issue with their plane when they landed in Africa and it might delay his return.  So, I have one of his fellow pilots as a back-up to pick me up.  I really hope Christian makes it back!  It's already been too long!

This airport is really clean.... and really expensive!  haha  I went to have breakfast because I'm STARVING and a little croissant and coffee was $11.  The regular American breakfast was $25!!  So, I'm going to try and find some place that sells premade sandwiches or something for lunch. I also forgot how strong the coffee is over here!  haha One croissant and a tiny cup of coffee and I'm all jittery! 

 It's already 10:30 here (4:30 Eastern time).  I'm also going to rent a shower here at the airport to freshen up before I leave.  You can rent little rooms as well but those are about $50 for three hours. The shower's only about $15. 

Anyway, I'll be updating  my blog throughout trip.  I hope everyone has a good day! 

xoxo,

Chrissi

Hoping for the next big adventure:

I've been researching schools up here for the potential beginning of my graduate studies.  I've become very interested in Family & Marriage Therapy and lucky for me, one of the universities around here, Jefferson University, is one of the top schools for that kind of program!  So, I'm going to a workshop October 14 to learn a little more about the program and what I need to do to prepare.

I'm pretty excited about it!  I hope it all works out and that it's possible for me to finish my masters in the next 2 1/2 years that we're up here... and to not break the bank.  I'll definitely need to get a job if I end up going back to school.  Christian's already paying my student loans so I don't expect him to shell out another  chunk for school again.  Yes, I know, what's his is mine and what's mine is his but I still feel guilty!

Other than that, nothing exciting has been going on.  I'm getting antsy about the trip!  I'm so ready to leave already!  I have the Junior League kick-off this Saturday down in Philly so that will be fun!  I've already started packing for my trip.  It's a bit difficult to pack for a trip when you're going to be in two or three different climates!  So, about half of my closet is going with me :).

Communication between me and Christian has been kind of spotty the last couple days.  He's been really busy (which is odd haha) and the time differences don't work to our favor sometimes.  Oh well, I'm hoping to hear from him today.

It's actually a little chilly up here today.  It's 68 out right now and the wind is kickin' so I'm a little cold!  It'll probably get pretty cool tonight.  Looks like the low is 55.

Well, I need to go eat lunch now!  Love y'all!

xoxo-

Chrissi

If anyone had difficulty viewing the video in my last post, here's the link:

http://vimeo.com/12562270

Soul Mates

I was on my way home from the gym today and Oprah Radio was on in my car (like it always is).  Oprah's Soul Series was playing at that time and Rainn Wilson (plays Dwight Shrute on NBC's The Office) was her guest.  They were discussing a new book he wrote along with three other folks: "SoulPancake".  Since the gym is only two miles from my house, I didn't hear much of the interview but came home and Googled soul pancake.  Apparently, it's its own movement of sorts.  Here's the website for this whole idea:  www.soulpancake.com

The book is subtitled "Chew on Life's Big Questions: Spear your mind, unload your questions, figure out what it means to be human.".  It actually doesn't come out until November 2, which I was pretty bummed about since I'm searching for the next great read right now.

So, anyway, I perused the website a little and found some interesting areas.  Many are just questions posted where you can comment with your own answer.  One that caught my eye was "What's your definition of a 'soul mate'?"  Many people posted the typical responses like someone you can be your total self with... someone who is supportive, loving, passionate, and fun without materialistic motives, etc, etc, etc.   Others posted comments stating that they do not believe in soul mates, or souls at all.  But at the top of this page, to get the conversation started, the following video was posted.  Please watch this.

Danny Perasa and his wife, Annie, came to StoryCorps to recount their twenty-seven-year romance.  As they remember their life together from their first date to Danny's final days with terminal cancer,  the remarkable Brooklynites personify the eloquence, grace, and poetry that can be found in the voices of everyday people when we take time to listen.


Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

I found this video so touching.  And, obviously, it made me miss my own husband.  Now, whether or not I truly believe in soul mates is still out with the jury.  I'm not sure if there is only one soul mate for each person or several soul mates for one person or no soul mates at all and just, as one commenter said, conscious mates.  I'll take a famous line from "Sex & the City".... Carrie asked Big  if he believed in soul mates and his response was, "I like the word soul.  I like the word mate.  Other than that, you got me."  There's my stance!

However, if I was forced to give a definition of what a soul mate means to me it would be this: A soul mate is someone you can share your life with.  By that, I don't mean the days in your life, but rather the life in your life.  The things you like to do, the music you love, the thoughts you have, the insecurities that inhibit you, the work that you do, as Lady Gaga would say "the freak within you".  You share and communicate all of those things and more and your soul mate reciprocates all of those things plus a little love for the things you've shared with him/her.  I think being a soul mate is more than just being in love or being infatuated with someone.  That wears off.  Being in love and having love are two different ideas.  I prefer the latter.

Thus, I think I've found my "soul mate".  Christian is all of those things to me.  I respect him, love him, admire him, and trust him.  Plus, like both my parents told me, "You better hold on to him.  He can handle you and that's a big deal".  Apparently, I'm hard to deal with?!  :)

So anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the little video.  I also hope everyone has had a great Labor Day weekend!  One week from today and I'm leavin' on a jet plane, hopping the pond, and get to see my husband soulmate.  :)

Have a wonderful day!!

xoxo-

Chrissi

Table for one, por favor.

I haven't really been eating all that well since Christian has been gone.  I don't mean I've been sitting around stuffing my face with chips, cookies and brownies.  Nope, I forget to eat.  Yes, yes, I know... many of you are probably wishing you had this same problem.  Sorry.

I'm actually hungry most of the time but then I think about all the hassle I have to go through to make a decent meal and tell myself, "ok, i'll eat in 10 minutes... after this show is over"  haha.  But, 2 hours later, I still haven't stopped my day to make myself a satisfying meal.  Granted, this happens mostly at dinner.  I can get by with a bowl of cereal for breakfast along with yogurt and a banana or something and maybe a sandwich and cheese and crackers for lunch but dinner is sooooo grueling!

So, today I had a flashback of living alone in my 700 square foot apartment(s) and my pitiful trips to the grocery store.  Back then, I didn't have the money to buy all of the healthy stuff so I would grab the standard... mac & cheese, dinner in a bag, dinner in a box, etc.  I rarely ventured into the uncooked meat area (chicken, pork chops, etc) nor the fresh veggies because I knew I would never cook them and they would just rot in that drawer at the bottom of my fridge.  Those days are long gone, thank God.  When Christian is home, we eat really well and I love to cook for both of us.  But when it comes to just me, it's BORING (not to mention a waste of food)!  So, I slightly reverted back to my old ways today.

I went to Trader Joe's (kind of like Whole Foods but won't actually break the bank like Whole Foods does).  Trader Joe's is all organic so I thought I was doing the right thing by going there rather than some normal ol' grocery store to pick up easy-to-cook things (i.e. pop right in the oven for 15 minutes and voila! there's dinner!).  So, I saw what I thought was a box of frozen chicken nuggets.  I also got some fresh fruit, mini veggie pizzas, fresh cheese, and some kind of cucumber wontons (that will be interesting).

Tonight, I took the box of chicken nuggets out of the freezer and placed eight of them onto a baking sheet while my mac & cheese was cooking on the stove.  Well, right at that moment I realized that the box didn't actually say "chicken nuggets", it said "chickenless nuggets".  Yep, that's right folks, they were made of soy.  UGHHHH  I cooked them anyway and ate five of them and about a fourth of the box of macaroni and there was dinner.  They weren't entirely awful but I wouldn't try anymore chickenless products, that's for sure!

I'm so great at cooking for two!  Like I've said in past posts, I like to refer to myself as Chef Chrissi!  I think it has a lot to do with cooking for someone else and having them really love what I've made.  I really could care less, but I love the fact that Christian thinks I'm a good cook.

So, even though my house is slightly bigger than my first apartment and I'm no longer forced to buy the store brand of EVERYTHING, I definitely feel like I'm back to my old single days.  Hopefully the thirty pounds I've lost since then doesn't creep back in the next two weeks while I'm still cooking for one.

Bon appetit, my friends!

xoxo-

Chrissi

Restoring Honor Rally


As you know, I ventured down to our nation's capital this weekend to attend Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.  The group I went with was seven 1/2 strong (seven adults and one baby).  We stayed at a beautiful hotel, ate good food and sweated our rear ends off at the Rally.

DC was packed.  Two of the guys that were with us got up at about 4 a.m. Saturday morning to go stake out a place in the crowd for the whole group.  Then, Kimberly and I walked down at about 6 a.m. Saturday to take a look at the happenings before we headed back to shower and gather the rest of the crew.  DC is a beautiful city and I always feel so American when I'm there.

The Rally was good.  It wasn't really what I was expecting or had hoped for but it was good, none the less.  Frankly, the main reason I went to the Rally in the first place was because I heard Marcus Luttrell was going to be speaking.  He's the Navy Seal who wrote the amazing book "Lone Survivor".  Well, Sarah Palin introduced him, along with other vets, but he did not speak.  I was pretty bummed.  The beginning of the Rally was good.  There was a mother of a special warfare officer (I hope I'm getting that terminology right) who spoke about losing her son in the war and what an organization, SWOF (Special Operations Warrior Foundation, has done for her family as well as all of the other families affected by losing their sons.  She made me cry.  I hate hearing of anyone dying over there but especially those who know their life purpose is to be a Navy Seal, Army Ranger, or a member of any other special operations forces.  Her story was just so touching.  Then, Sarah Palin came out and she was pretty good.  She honored our troops and mentioned the military more than just about anyone up there.  Unfortunately, I wasn't familiar with anyone else who was on the stage.  There were several religious folks, recipients of awards, and of course, Glenn Beck.

Glenn Beck's main message was for America to get back to God.  It actually felt like I was attending a church service at some points, which was a little weird for me since that wasn't exactly what I was expecting.  Here is the actual event description from Glenn Beck's website:

Throughout history America has seen many great leaders and noteworthy citizens change her course. It is through their personal virtues and by their example that we are able to live as a free people. On August 28, come celebrate America by honoring our heroes, our heritage and our future.

Join the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and many more for this non-political event that pays tribute to America’s service personnel and other upstanding citizens who embody our nation’s founding principles of integrity, truth and honor.

Our freedom is possible only if we remain virtuous. Help us restore the values that founded this great nation. On August, 28th, come join us in our pledge to restore honor at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.


So, as vague as this description is, I'm hoping you can understand why I really didn't expect that it would get all church-like (as Jerry Seinfield would say, "not that there's anything wrong with that").  

I will tell you, I was definitely expecting a little more political speak than what was delivered.  There actually wasn't an ounce of politics associated with anything any of the speakers had to say.  So, that was nice.  It was nice because I am just about the least political person I know.  I really could care less about politics and I think it's stupid that our country is so divided.  It's funny because I logged onto my MySpace account the other day for the first time in FOREVER and looked at the description of myself that I wrote and I actually put this on there: "I think political debates make for some of the best t.v. ever".  Um, I almost threw up in my mouth.  It's amazing how much I've changed in the last four or five years (thank God).  haha  I've read some things online about the Rally and I just get so annoyed with everyone's opinions (most are uneducated opinions from people who were not in attendance).  It was also nice that the crowd was so controlled.  No obnoxious signs, vulgar language or crazy folks were displayed.  I watched people making sure their trash was picked up and I didn't see a single protestor, like I had expected (obviously my expectations were way off).  


But, I had a great time with a great group of people!  And, it helped pass some time and now I only have two weeks until I get to leave to see my man!  I wish I was leaving today and not two Mondays from now but oh well.  


I don't really have too many plans for this week.  I'm looking for a new form of relaxation so my friend, Vicki, recommended acupuncture.  She goes quite often so I might try it as well.  Who knows.  One big thing coming up is COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!  This Saturday is the first Saturday full of it so you better believe I'll be propped up watching some pigskin!


Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!  Love y'all!


xoxo, 


Chrissi