The Ball

Can I be real with you folks for a minute?

When am I ever not real with you?  But that's besides the point.



I do not get excited about military functions.  Usually there's a lot of ma'ams and sirs and stand, sit, stand, salute.  I'm a down home kinda girl.  I'd much rather have everyone over for dinner than worry about if my dress is fancy enough or if I waited to let my husband introduce me in a receiving line rather than introducing myself.



I'm an army wife.  If I can take care of myself during deployments I can certainly introduce myself.  Duh.



But readers, I promised I would keep it real.  And the real truth of it is, I had a good time.  A really good time.

Since we're keeping it real I feel obligated to tell you: I also had 4 glasses of wine.

xo, nikki

Piles and Smiles

There's something different around here.



There are man things around.



Piles of man things.

I'm really happy about it.

My Favorite Veterans

I don't talk about being an Army wife or an Air Force brat a lot on this blog.  I'm not sure why because the former certainly affects my life in a gargantuan way.

My father served as a pilot in the United States Air Force for 20 years.  He retired when I was just a kid but you can tell he's a military man.  On clear days with blue skies he still says to me, "Today would be such a good day to fly."

My grandfather, who unfortunately I don't have any digital pictures of, served in the United States Army during World War II.  He fought in France along side his bother, my great uncle, who didn't make it home.  My father is named after this uncle.  My grandfather died when he was 87.

My husband is an officer in the United States Army.  He's currently serving a 12 month deployment in Afghanistan.

Side note: He's coming home so soon!  Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have the welcome home photos for you.  Squeal!

I wish I was close enough to one of my favorite vets to give them a squeeze today and say thank you in person.

Happy Veterans Day.

There are good ones out there girls.

My husband is an excellent gift giver. For our anniversary in March he gave me the food processor of my dreams. For Christmas a few years ago he got me a charm bracelet then bought me new charms in addition to other gifts for Christmases and birthdays to follow. Each charm had special significance that he explained when I opened them.

This year for my birthday he outdid himself.



He bought me a 6-month subscription from Persephone Books. This company publishes out of print books each with their own unique endpaper. The endpaper is carefully chosen to "fit" the book: theme, feel, etc. Each book also comes with a matching bookmark with a quote from the book written on it.



My first one, Greenery Street, came this week. I don't know which books he purchased. Every month I get to be surprised and reminded how much my husband loves me and loves to celebrate me. He said he picked this book first because in his words, "It's about a married couple that is happy and stays together. I thought that was quite nice and something we could appreciate."

Happy Birthdays!!!

Today's a very special day for me. It's my husband's birthday. Probably my favorite day of the year. Without today happening my life as I'm living it now wouldn't be happening. I wouldn't be in Italy or an army wife or in love. The list goes on.

As it so happens (lots of happenings), my hubster's birthday is exactly one week before mine. So for a week I get to tease him for being an old man because he's a whole two years older than me. Hey, I know we're in our twenties... just go with it.

Anydangway, in honor of our birthdays I'm having a giveaway!!!

I'm giving away a spot in Elsie and Rachel's online art journaling class. To enter please leave your a comment telling me your favorite birthday memory and a way for me to contact you. The last day to enter is next Friday, April 9th on my birthday.

Good luck and happy birthday, Hubs!

4 strong

It's another great day for me today. My husband an I have been married for 4 years today.

He loves me and I him.

This guy...

Posts had just gotten back to a regular rhythm, but they are about to be interrupted by this guy. My husband is coming home for R&R today!

Let me show you my level of excitement by the amount of things I couldn't focus on:

• missed a meeting with housing
• my boss had to repeat everything to me 3 times
• I left the groceries in the car overnight
• this is the end of my list

Have a wonderful Valentine's day. Mine is going to be my best Valentine's ever because my Valentine will actually be here for Valentine's day.

(For the record amount of times the word "Valentine" has been used in a sentence see above.)

Someone wants to say hi

That's the love of my life. He's saying hi to me, our niece, and my mother-in-law. He makes my heart go pitter-pat. Doesn't he look hot? He looks kinda badass too with that gun strapped to his leg. Which, in my completely unbiased opinion, makes him hotter.

Oh, dear. I better stop before this post moves up from a PG rating.

He's gone

I have been absent this past week because I've been trying to soak up every last moment with my love. He left for Afghanistan. He will be gone a year which I am so thankful for. The last deployment he went on was 15 months. It's going to make such a difference when 3 months of the deployment have gone by and we only have 9 months left instead of a year.

I have so many great goals that I can't wait to get started on while he's gone. Busy, busy, busy is the key. He's going to be busy staying safe. Please keep us both in your prayers.

Some things on my list of goals:

a trip to Paris (which is booked!)

furthering my education in education

write, write, write

read books

take tons of pictures

The list is still growing and I plan on recording progress of my adventures here. I love the internet for keeping track of my life so easily. I can have thoughts, pictures, videos, etc all in one place.

Oh the fishes!

This is my husband's first little bitty fried fishy.

He has rosey red cheeks. I think he dressed up for his final occasion.

Taking the plunge.

I'm pretty sure that guy in the background is laughing at us and not whatever is going on at his table.

So is my life.

I love it.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Happy, happy!

I don't know if they have this commercial in the States. But I freakin' love these commercials. They make me smile no matter what I'm in the middle of doing. I could only find the one in German and French, not Italian. So imagine this in Italian and you'll be seeing what I see.

I wanted to share a little happiness with you today. I'm happy because my man is coming home today from Germany.

Have a good hump day!

German Jump

Who's that over there at Zia's house in Santa Flavia?

Oh, that's my husband.

My extremely, good looking husband.

We got back from Palermo on Monday at 8 pm and he left for Germany at 2 am the next morning. Then he did a jump into Germany while it was hailing.

He jumped in the air with the hail.

Don't worry, he said it's ok because he earned his Germany jump wings since he jumped with the German army.

In case you were wondering, no, that wasn't ok with me. It was ok with him.

He comes home tonight. Can't wait! Have a good weekend.

Butter bretzels

We went to Oktoberfest this weekend.

We being my husband and his parents. Can you tell that my husband are related to these people?

No?

He says he doesn't see the resemblance.

I drank 3 of those glasses. They hold 1 liter of German beer. For my American cohorts I will do the math for you: that equals 9 American beers. Three per glass. I was feeling very good in the Paulner tent.

I'm pretty sure my mother-in-law has video evedence of how good I was feeling.

Mamma mia...

Oh, and when we weren't drinking beer, we were eating big German sized bretzels.

Let's just say that Oktoberfest 09 will not be soon forgotten.

Piove a Milan

Yesterday Inter played Barcelona in a Chapions League match. The crowd made a super cool Italian flag. See that white part in the middle? It's the press stands. The press doesn't have seperate boxes, they are a part of the crowd just like everyone else. I love that they used the press section in part of the flag.

It's been raining here in northern Italy from Sunday to Thursday morning. It's beautiful right now though. I was so excited to break out the fall boots and my new coat.

Here's my hubs doing a little photo shoot. Either he can't get enough camera time or doesn't want his picture taken at all. Yesterday was a "Take another one!" day.

I had to throw this one in. Those blue eyes get me every time. I really hope our future kids get his eyes. The blue eye dark hair contrast is amazing. Isn't he just the handsomest? Don't you wish your boyfriend was hot like he?

Ha! I had to throw that in there. I couldn't resist.

I love taking pictures of up close faces. My husband doesn't care for it though. If you couldn't tell...

Waiting...

I'm waiting for my hubs to get home.

And tomorrow? Inter vs. Barcalona!

Change of Command

My husband took command of a company today. It's a pretty big deal because he hasn't been to his career course yet. He's pretty amazing and the hardest worker I've ever known. I'm so proud of him.Today is the day I start sharing my husband with 150 other men.

*sigh* Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Then this evening we had a battalion FRG meeting. That basically means all the companies met to talk about things that are going on and coming up at the end of the year. I already have been called out as the commander's wife twice and he hasn't even had this company for 24 hours. I turned bright red both times. Not sure how I'm going to do with all this attention.

AND WE'RE BACK!

I have pictures again! It's going to take me a bit to sort through them all, but I'll update as I do. Here's Hubs and baby brother-in-law Chris from Munich this weekend. We were in the Hofbrauhaus (sp?). It's fuzzy but I love it. Just like I love pictures.

YES! PICTURES!

p.s. Isn't my husband the handsomest man you've ever seen?

Munchin, jawohl?

I am currently waiting patiently (as patiently as one bouncing in her seat can wait) for the memory card reader that my parents are sending me to get here. I want to show you my pictures. I WANT WANT WANT to. I’m expecting to get the memory card reader this week. I cannot wait. CANNOT.

Did all my American loves have a fireworky fourth of July?

We (Hubs, me and Hub’s baby brother Chris) drove to Munich. I had my first hostel experience. I have been living in Europe for 3 years and have never stayed in or gone near or thought about a hostel. It just was never an option for Hubs and I because we both have jobs and B&B’s aren’t expensive and that scary movie came out and I didn’t have communal bathrooms in college.

First let me clarify the term “hostel experience.” I did not actually STAY in a hostel. I just went to happy hour in 2 of them and drank an undisclosed amount of 1 euro beers. Good German beers. I think I’m in love.

I am starting my deployment plans. Hubs is deploying again, but only for a year this time. Last time my goals were to get a job (got one) and pay off our student loans (did that) and survive. Making one of your goals to just survive is setting the bar pretty low. I don’t want to just SURVIVE the deployment I want to thrive this time. I want to take my childless self as many places as I can go and take pictures and journal and draw and hear other people’s stories.

Segue time: And you know who stays in hostels? Other people. People with stories. Stories I want to hear and that I can write down in my notebook.

Funny inexperienced traveler story at my baby-brother’s-in-law expense:

Hubs and I are sitting in our hotel room waiting for Chris meet us. We had just finished watching FISH TANK at the Munchin Film Festival. Christ wanted ice cream and said he’d be right up. He comes in eating a prepackaged ice cream bar and says: I think I just paid some random guy for my ice cream.

HUBS: What?

CHRIS: Yeah, there was this guy sitting at a table and he got up to take my money after I got the ice cream out of the freezer. So I gave him the euro fifty and he went back to his seat where everyone at the table started laughing.

We left the hotel and walked by the café that sold the ice cream. Everyone that worked there was wearing and all black uniform.

CHRIS: That guy definitely had a red t-shirt on. I got robbed.

German Crepes and Double Knots

It’s been almost a week since I last posted and I have so much to tell you, my loves. Let’s start with bullet points then break it down to the longest, most pictureless post ever.

x Dusseldorf is my new location lover.
x I have pictures but you can’t see any of them (and neither can I.)
x La Bella Figura
x VBS

Moving onwardly: Dusseldorkin

I want to be a Dusseldorfer. I want to wake up in my house in the old town and hop on my bike down to the market on the Rhine river and eat a crepe for breakfast from the stand that looks like a red truck. (Oh, yes. They have crepes in Dusseldorf, delicious crepes.) Then I want to go to work doing whatever it is that I do while speaking fluent German, of course. For lunch, I’ll meet my husband at a local favorite. Eat schnitzel with fries and a big tall beer. (Beer in Dusseldorf at a restaurant is cheaper than water by almost half!) Back to work, then end the day with a stroll through town. Maybe a beer at the worlds longest bar. Talk to some fellow Dusseldorfers (who are SO NICE and NICE and I LOVE THEM.)

The other thing about Dusseldorf that sold me completely? They have a Dunkin’ Donuts in the train station. DD is my not so secret lover. They have great coffee and delicious doughnuts. If the only condition to getting a D ‘n D on post was that I had to scrub the potties every day with my very own toothbrush, I would seriously consider it. Since American luxuries such as these don’t come around for me, ever, (unless I go to Dusseldorf) I ate a big ol’DD doughnut. I do not regret it to this day. In fact, I wish I’d eaten two. Then I would have told my BetterU about the doughnuts and still not have felt bad.

I took pictures in Dusseldorf. OH, I took loads of them. I took one of the cutest road sign I’ve ever seen (a mamma sign person holding a kid sign person’s hand. It was a hand holding zone. Hubs and I followed the law.) I took some of the river side market and a big Camden County school bus they had there. I took some of the Rhine and some pretty hot air balloons that were being blown up on the other side of the river. I took some of our beers. I took some of the heavy weight fight we went to. I even took a picture of a shop that’s named after my best friend, Laurel, to send to her. I would like to share these with you very much. But my computer had decided that it doesn’t like anything plugged into its USB outlets. So. I was going to upload the pictures at work to share, but the Army now HATES external drives of any kind because terrorists live there. I think.

The book I took to read on the airplane is La Bella Figura by Beppe Severgnini. So far I’m really into it. It’s a commentary on the Italian lifestyle, written by an ACTUAL Italian. None of this, “I’m an American that went to Italy for a little and am now an expert and will write a book,” nonsense. Hope to post a review soon.

VBS has started this week. (If you don’t know what VBS is read about it on Joshilyn Jackson’s blog.) I’m a volunteer and lead a group of 10 kids around to all the different activities. Yesterday we were learning about Moses and the burning bush. We were sitting around a “burning” bush when a voice said, “Take off your shoes. This is holy ground.”

The voice waited a moment. Then it began speaking again. A kid yelled out, “Hold it, Moses! I got laces in DOUBLE KNOTS!”

France Recap (without pictures)

I am back!

France was delicious. The pastries made poor little Italy’s pastries run and cower under a table with its tail between its legs. It’s a goal of mine while Hubs is away to eat my way through the big cities of France. I can mark Lyon off my list.

Let me give you a run down of the best dinner I had while there:
o Halved cantaloupe with port in the middle.
o Roasted chicken with herbs, mixed roasted veg, and French fries. (I guess just fries since I was in France.)
o Best. Chocolate. Mousse. Ever.

Great day in the morning was the food ever good. I had a quest while I was there to eat a crepe. Sadly, it didn’t happen this trip. Apparently the French don’t eat crepes in the morning and that was the only time Hubs and I were free to search for them. WHY you wouldn’t eat crepes all day every day I don’t know. I even went to a French mall that would NOT serve me crepes at 1220 but would serve me a big ol’ice cream if I would like.

The concert was held in an outdoor Roman area. It was pretty cool. What wasn’t cool was that I almost got squashed to death and rained on the whole time. Since living in Europe my personal boundaries have gotten a LOT smaller. I don’t mind any more when people stand so close to me in line that I can feel their breath moving my hair. I don’t even mind pushing my way to the front of lines anymore (because in Italy there is no line. If you want to go to the front, you push.) I have even been to concerts in college on the ground floor and outdoors and remember the pushing and shoving and jumping around. But for some reason at this concert I couldn’t handle it. The people, the shoving, the smell, the rain, the new shoes I had bought that were pinching my toes: it was all too much. I freaked out. I feel bad because that means my husband didn’t enjoy the concert as much as he could have because he was worried about me. But people in France (and Europe) are SMELLY and it was RAINING and we waited 5 HOURS before the show to get in and then for it to start. It was just too much. I’ve been begging the Hubs to give me a second chance at another concert, but he’s standing firm that next time we go we need seats. C’est la vie.

The rest of the trip was beautiful though.

Hopefully I’ll have pictures to post soon. My parents called last night to let me know that the package with the memory card USB thing had been sent. I crossing my fingers for the end of this week or beginning of next week.