a year in review

this last year of my life was by far the craziest and fullest and most exciting yet. the kindness of facebook showed me that it had been exactly 1 year yesterday that i flew to ukraine. it is overwhelming to think back on everything i've done since then and see where my life is now.

i am SO grateful to have been smart enough to just go for my dreams and get myself to europe. i would have forever regretted not doing it and i'm so glad to say i did.

i thought i'd take a quick trip down memory lane and visit the biggest parts of my life in the last year. so here i go::

AUG 30, 2010
I get on the airplane and fly to my new home in kiev, reunite with em, and meet my host family that will forever be in my heart. LOVED ukraine and all the memories that were made there.

In September we took a long long bus ride to prague and dresden, met new people, bought new goodies, and ate new foods!

our next trip took us to budapest, salzburg, and vienna. that trip brought so many of us much closer, we all learned things we never knew and will never forget. love those girls!

we celebrated all late year holidays with our students, taught them all our american traditions, and had our own little teacher thanksgiving dinner with a chicken and Lyuda's pumpkin pie.

when the crazy cold snow hit in December, we took our last trip to poland and got to experience the concentration camps in the winter weather. there is no better time to really try and understand what they went through, unforgettable.

after seeing a bit more of ukraine and saying goodbye to all of our favorite new friends and family, emilie and i moved to italy with the plans to stay for a year as nannies.

LUCKILY plans took a big turn, i headed back home while emilie stayed and still is today! almost immediately after getting back i went on a reunion date with my kindergarten sweetheart, we hit it off and still have not gone a single day without seeing each other.

my beautiful best friend proposed on april fools, we got married, and went on a crazy american adventure honeymoon together!

"my life" has turned into "our lives" and we are living them fully! this next year is going to be another unforgettable one that will change us completely and forever. i can't wait!!!

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

I started thinking about my little library yesterday. I've got a cute little half shelf dedicated to the kiddos but I realized I need a whole shelf for them, no?! Luckily I have time to build this children's library in my home but I couldn't help thinking of all those books that I feel are necessary to have for my children in my home.

I've already got the Fancy Nancy collection, who doesn't love her? Then I've got some Eloise and some Dr. Seuss, Junie B. Jones...what else do I need?

My favorite book when I was young was Goodnight Moon, it's a must have for my children, OF COURSE!



I made a list of Christmas stories I need to find. My mom would have a big basket of our Christmas stories we would beg her to bring out early every year. Every night we would read them laying under the Christmas tree. A few favorites were The Little Match Girl, The Night Before Christmas, The Polar Express, Trouble with Trolls, How the Grinch Stole Christmas...etc.

I can't wait to read my favorite stories to my own children.

 



blueberry

have you ever felt so exhausted you thought you might tip over just walking to the bathroom?

have you ever been so  teired that you end up slurrining youj typing and you wdon't care?

i don't know how i would have gotten it but wouldn't be surprised if i had mono...i just don't want to move...

i went to bed at 8pm to wake up at 530 and get some exercise to help the day go smoother...

i might fall out of my chair today...

FACT



a list

today is one of those days i want to throw something through a window. you know??

so i need to boost my attitude a bit, i'm severely emotional lately and it's getting out of control. time for a happy post.

first of all, nothing makes my day better than snickers ice cream, let alone just ice cream. favorite.

second i want to watch peter pan cuz it makes me happy but they took it off youtube...along with ratatouille (but i bought that one with a wedding gift card so i'll let it slide)



i love finding useful advice online, who doesn't always want to be better for their hunny?



water has been tasting so gross to me lately so i've been throwing lemons in there to give it a little flavor. love.

i miss having a good swing nearby. that was always my get-away on a nice cool evening. i'll have to hunt one down.

who doesn't read nie?

The last 3 years The NieNie Dialogues have become a bit hit. I don't think that Stephanie intended such a huge group of followers around the world, but she got it! Not because she tried, not because of fashion or food, but because of a plane accident that left her and her husband permanently scarred and killing their good friend.

Throughout these 3 years we've watched her struggle, grow, and change. We've used her in our relief society lessons, as examples in our personal lives, and even though few of us actually personally know her, we've kept her and her family in our prayers.

Today I wandered over to her blog to catch up a bit and her latest post brought tears to my eyes. After these three years of pain and an unable body she is finally pregnant with her 5th child. If anyone has gotten to know her at ALL via her blog, they can tell you how much Stephanie has yearned to have another baby. I can't imagine how incredibly happy they are to share this news with us. It will be fun to watcher her grow even more, both physically and emotionally.

For those of you who have been living under a rock you can get yourself caught up on "the story" HERE and then go visit her blog HERE

DIY Hogwarts Acceptance Letter

Today whilst blog stalking I found the most exciting thing EVER!!
To you Harry Potter fans out there, you will appreciate my effort to spread the word.

(taken from Moorea who took it from Mishka)

I decided to do this as a gift for my younger sister. She is a bit obsessed so I thought I would be the queen of the world and send her a Hogwarts Acceptance Letter!!

It was super easy, if you have patience! All you have to do is go HERE and download all 3 Hogwarts sheets. 1 is the envelope, 1 is the actual letter, and the 3rd are instructions on how to a) download the fonts and b) what to do to your letter to make it realistic.

Of course to make them even more realistic you can soak them in coffee and hang them to dry. If you do it to the envelope you'll have to glue or tape it shut because the glue will come off in the coffee.

If you can come up with a non-coffee idea, I would love it. GO FOR IT!

MmMMMmMMm

i don't think i've ever done a recipe on here before...and i'm ok with that. BUT i have one that i can't pass up. i want to save it for myself and share it with the world.

who doesn't love chocolate cake??? well what if it was slightly healthy? try this!!! chocolate zucchini cake! you don't even taste the zucchini but it adds so much moisture!

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

2 1/2 cups flour, unsifted

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 Tbsp. baking powder

3 eggs
3/4 cup veg oil

1 cup milk

1 Tbsp. vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

Mix together dry ingredients and set aside.

Whip together eggs and vegetable oil.

Stir in milk, vanilla, and zucchini.

Combine with dry ingredients.

Mix well.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

While baking, make the frosting:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup margarine

1 tsp. vanilla

In a 2 or 3 quart saucepan, combine all ingredients except vanilla.

Bring to a rolling boil, stirring.

(A rolling boil is one that cannot be stirred down.)

Boil for 1 minute.

Cool.

Set pan aside in a large bowl of ice water and beat with an electric mixer until thick.

Spread onto cake.

This frosting thickens like fudge.

switched at birth

anyone as big a fan of this show as me and honey are??? probably not...

we decided on the first day it aired to give it a try. matt loved it, i grew to love it pretty darn quickly. it's fun to have that in common, we hulu the new episode every tuesday after work because 10pm on mondays is just too late for me to start an hour long show with early work in the morning. no sir.

this show is based off a true story of 2 girls that were accidentally switched at birth. when they were born one went home with an incredibly wealthy family, the other with a poor recovering alcoholic mother. the show is all about how they deal with the situation and they add in so many little surprises that turn up pretty much every episode.

one of my favorite characters would be bay kemmish, the dark haired one pictured up top-matt does NOT like her. she is a bit of a rebel with an attitude. she reminds me of myself a bit, to be honest. she's learning and growing through the situation, just like the rest of the family. she is very gifted and talented, i love her artistic nature!



my second favorite character would be emmett. he's just a sweetheart. he grew up with daphne (the red head up top) and they go to a deaf school together. we were curious if they are both deaf in real life and found out emmett is but daphne is just hard of hearing. she speaks very well though and luckily studied sign language as a child.  it's such an interesting twist to add sign language to the show, seeing how they interact with the hearing. i would love to speak their language!

so if you haven't yet, go check the show out!! i'm officially addicted and they just aired the first season finale. now i have to wait forever. bahhhh