Cranky

I was looking back at my previous list of great things that happened to me last year and I really am so lucky.  So why is it that I am so cranky?  Is it because it is February and I HATE February?  Probably.  It also probably has a lot to do with the fact that Brian is gone and I am SICK of him being gone.  Not to mention there is a chance he will be stuck in the stupid snowstorm on the East coast.  I am also a little frustrated with what I am working on for our business mostly because I have no idea what I am doing half the time and thus starts the vicious circle where I want to just quit but when I quit then I feel guilty and feeling guilty makes me CRANKY!


I think Oprah would tell me to get out my gratitude journal (I don't have one).  So maybe I will just jot down a few great things that I am so lucky to have...


wonderful husband, lovely house, good food to eat, nice friends, fun family, enough money to keep us comfortable, warm clothes, an upcoming trip to Maui for my brother's wedding


ahhh...feeling a bit better already.  Maybe Oprah has something with that gratitude journal...

(pics from our last trip to Maui)

#5

I'm going to finally wrap up this list with the 5th awesome thing I did in 2009.  I am sure there are way more super cool things that happened but I don't want to drag this out any longer.


So, the last thing I (we) did in 2009 was:


Bought our first house!

After living in Chicago and London, Brian and I made the decision to move back to Kansas City to be near my family.  My family isn't moving or going anywhere and we wanted to be close to one of our parents for when we start our family.


I love our house.  It is 4 bedrooms and 4.5 baths and has a three car garage even though we only have one car (very scandalous for a driving city like KC!)  My other favorite things about the house are that it is new but our back yard has woods and tons of trees and many of the rooms are high up in them.  It also has an (unfinished) basement that has 16 ft ceilings that has tons of potential.


We miss city living but also feel very fortunate to be able to afford such a great house!

#4

The next thing that was awesome in 2009 was our honeymoon.  After our wedding in April, Brian and I had made the decision that we would move back to the US from London for professional and personal reasons.  Because of this, we decided to wait to take our honeymoon until June and we would take our 3.5 week trip on our way back to the states.  

We started with a train trip back to Paris to meet up with some of our friends from Chicago who aslo happened to be on their honeymoon.

(Me in the catacombs in Paris...creepy)

Then we moved on to Venice because in all our travels of Italy we had neither been to Venice.  Venice was also cool because my husband is 1/4 Italian and we got to go to dinner with a cousin who is Venetian.  We had  a wonderful meal that I don't think we could have achieved speaking English.

We then went to Positano on the Amalfi coast.  This was probably my favorite part of the trip.  We stayed in this charming small hotel where they served us a delicious breakfast every morning on our balcony overlooking the ocean.  We also visited Capri and saw the famous Blue Grotto.

From here we went to the Greek Isles.  We only made it to Naxos and Samos because we really didn't enjoy the ferries that much and wanted to spend more of our time relaxing on the beach and less time boating to the other islands.  

We ended our trip in Ephesus, Turkey.  This was such a unique place to visit and is such an important part of history.  We  loved the food and sightseeing in Turkey.

At this point we were pretty ready to head home.  We had shipped all our things back to KC weeks earlier and were pretty sick of wearing the same clothes.  (It looks like Brian has only two shirts in these pictures, but I am pretty sure he had at least three :)

This was such an amazing trip and again, I truly believe that travel teaches you volumes about yourself and your relationship.  

Rookie Mistake

So I wanted to start this blog as part of a new year's resolution type thing.  And I do actually hope someone reads it.  So what do I do?  I go 5 whole days without posting or even looking at it.  When I finally do I realize:


a.  I won a contest from one of my FAVORITE blogs - Cup of Jo.


b.  Due to said contest winning I actually have comments!


I literally feel like I won the lottery right now.  Not only did a win something I really loved from Pyrrah I had several people read my blog.  


So now I feel both super excited and a bit sheepish for being a lazy blogger. Sheesh... 


But thank you Joanna and the few others who looked at my blog.  I now vow to do better!

I stink at this + awesome thing #3

Ugh, it is so hard for me to post regularly. Here's hoping I get better at this...

Anyway, awesome thing I did in 2009 #3 is

Married this guy:

(Brian driving our stuff from Chicago to KC before we moved to London. Wearing his Indiana Jones hat, natch)

It is hard for me to put into words how lucky I am to have my husband. He is the smartest, funniest, kindest person I know. We have more fun than I thought was possible and we laugh all the time. He brings me a sense of peace that I am so thankful for and didn't realize I would ever have in my life.

We got married on April 25, 2009. It was everything I could hope for - meaningful, beautiful and fun.

I am pretty sure that marrying Brian was the most awesome thing I did in 2009 and one of the most awesome things I have done in my whole life.

2009 Awesomeness #2

Awesome thing I did in 2009 #2:

Traveled!

We went to Paris (twice!)

Cap D'Ail and Monaco in the South of France:

Norway (to see the Northern Lights - amazing):

All over Switzerland:

Brussels:

The year living in London was amazing for travel. I wouldn't trade that part for anything. You learn so much about yourself and your relationship when you travel. You learn how you handles stress and deal with unfamiliar places and languages. You also learn how to much better experience and appreciate the space you live in.

First post is the hardest? + Awesome thing I did in 2009 #1

I have always really wanted to have my own blog. I love blogs and have many favorites that I read daily. But who wants to read a blog written by ME? I have decided I don't really care - this year, I will be a blogger. If no one reads, oh-well.

So, how to start my new and sure-to-be-awesome blog?

I am thinking countdown...

Countdown of awesome things I did in 2009 (yes, yes I know it is already Jan. 20th - whatever)

So, the first awesome thing I did in 2009 (and 2008 to be honest) is:

Lived in London

(Me at Borough Market in London.)

In July 2008 my fiance and I moved from Chicago to London to work and have a great life experience. We had both always wanted to live abroad and we made it happen! It was different, scary, hard, fun, life changing and amazing in so many ways.