Thank God it's the Weekend

It's official, I'm back.

It feels COMPLETELY surreal. I mean, I'm very glad to be home. But there's also some things I'm not so glad about. Like these unpacked boxes and my freezing cold kitchen. And all these boxes. Did I mention that there's unpacked boxes? I guess that's what happens when you move two weeks before you move to another country. Someone remind me to never to do that. ever. again. kthxbye.

But there's so much that I miss about Germany. I miss the food. I miss the culture. I miss the weather. Strangest thing ever, I know. It just felt so comfortable. Ryan and I lived in a bubble. It was a wonderful, just-the-two-of-us bubble. Now, we live in an us-and-everyone-else bubble. It's now a bubble filled with real responsibilities, family schedules to juggle, two full time job schedules on top of fitness goals and house chores. Someone bring back my bubble!

Anyway, enough with my demands. Here's what's keeping me sane...

Buying and hanging these awesome prints from a local shop in the kitchen this weekend.

Visiting the local farmer's market and signing up for a CSA with our favorite farm.

Menu planning and sneaking this, this, and these into next week's meals. 

Eating a dozen donuts from the best bakery in town. I swear, a whole dozen.

Coming up with ideas on how to wrap these souvenirs we bought for everyone.

Figuring out how to get sugary cereal on the grocery list for these without Ryan suspecting anything.

Scheduling a hair cut and freshen up my style. I'd love to be daring and go short but it'll probably end up just being a trim.

Pretending the boxes scattered around don't exist and sitting down to color.

Because this is just out. of. control. Please send help. 

Thank God it's the Weekend

I know I still have some time left here in Cologne, but today has been truly bittersweet.

It's this culmination of five and a half months of experiences. Moments strung together by adventures and work and growth. These months have been nothing short of incredible. Life should come with a pause button so you can take it all in while it's happening. 

I tried this week. I tried to take a couple seconds and look at everything just one beat longer. Just an extra second to catch one more detail, one more tidbit. It's just too hard! 

And even as I want to slow down time and just take in every. last. bit. I'm trying to fast forward through these days until I'm home, home. I'm netflix and chilling with myself. I've watched home, the emperor's new groove, and the entire first season of sing it on. Which, by the way, was so, so good. I had a moment when a group from my alma mater was shown for a split second. I literally jumped out of my seat and hit my head on the light over the kitchen table. I rewatched that second like ten times and texted Ryan immediately. 

I left out that they were on for like point three seconds, because he'd probably think I was insane for getting that excited about point three seconds. BUT HELLO. Our guys won the ICCA quarter finals last year!

Anyway. I have so many plans for this weekend and I can't wait to get started. First up? Remembering some of these life lessons. Especially 36. And 9. Definitely 9. I'm glad someone wrote that down. Now, I can point it out to Ryan.

And because I absolutely can't resist..."wrong lever!"

Germany: Düsseldorf

Today, marked my fifth time in Düsseldorf. The fifth of six trips I'll make there. 

The first time, of course, was when I first landed in Germany to start this whole crazy adventure. The second time was to pick up my missing half. Even jet lagged, my husband is still the most handsome man I know. Those first days were some of my favorite as I showed him Cologne and introduced him to the city where we'd live for the next four and a half months together.

The third and fourth times were just day trips. The first one, during oktoberfest, when our meals consisted of french fries, french fries and apple strudel with warm vanilla cream. Which, by the way, is absolute heaven. We walked down the infamous Königsallee, only daring to peak in the windows to see the prices at Burberry, Hermes, and Prada. I'm pretty sure all we could afford there would be buttons. But who goes and asks for a button? Crazy people who are too cheap to buy anything else! Anyway. And that day, Ryan stepped in dog shit. We spent a half an hour in that park trying to get it out of his shoe. It still makes me laugh.

The second day trip was during the christmas season when we visited every. single. christmas. market. And we struggled to not buy a wurst of some sort at every. single. market. If it's one thing Germans have down, it's meat. And it all looks so delicious. It's almost unfair.

That leaves us with today, my fifth time to Düsseldorf, when I dropped Ryan off at the airport where he would fly home. 

Now, I'll be counting down the days until I make my sixth and final trip there. So I can fly home. Home, home. 

Thank God it's the Weekend

I just realized that I have been working in private accounting for six years. 

SIX YEARS.

It blows my mind that I've been doing anything for six years. I mean, I've only been writing this blog for a year. But I've been doing accounting for SIX.

I think I'm just in denial that my career started that long ago. Or maybe I'm desperately trying to claim that I'm still a recent graduate?

I mean, I can't say that there's anything wrong with my career. In the past six years I went from intern to senior analyst and I quintupled (yep, you read that right, quintupled) my salary. 

But let's temper that statement by saying I live in upstate New York, okay? I don't live in the City. The cost of living is much more affordable here. 

Anyway. My jobs have taken me to Ohio, Florida, Mexico, Argentina, Germany...it's been an incredible ride. But still. SIX YEARS.

For now, I'm going to focus on getting through the next six days. Because in less days than that, Ryan's flying back to the US. My six months in Germany are hurdling towards the end, but Ryan's time is all but over.  So we're going to live in up in Cologne and not think about Monday. 

Here's to the weekend. 

And by the way, happy birthday lifers.

New Year Thoughts

It's almost impossible to believe that another year has flown right by. And almost more impossible to believe that these six months in Germany are quickly coming to an end. I mean, we just got here!

This year has been undeniably amazing. Ryan and I competed in our first triathlons ever. We moved into a bigger apartment two weeks before moving to freaking Germany! Then we explored seven other countries hand in hand.  We drank beer at Oktoberfest, enjoyed crepes in Paris, and watched the wind move windmills in Holland.

Then we watched as an entire city celebrated the coming new year with thousands of fireworks.

As I start this new year off in a country far away from home, I wanted to make sure I wrote down some things to keep in mind. Call them resolutions, call them aspirations, call them whatever you want. Here's what I want to guide me through this year...

Texture: Gold (recolored) Fonts: Linowrite and Sweet Pea

One of the major things I want to focus on is not being a flake. Ryan and I are both flakes and we enable each other. It's terrible. We get invite to parties or hangouts and then we just flake out. It comes down to us being too damn lazy to go or ditching those to hang out just the two of us.

The other major thing I want to focus on is being present. I pull out my phone all. the. time. I check the time. I check instagram. I look at reddit. It's probably my biggest crutch. My goal this year is to either leave it at home or leave it in my bag all night. Whether it's my family, friends, or just Ryan and I, I want to live in that moment with the people I love.

And then, of course, you can't start the new year without some health and fitness goals. One that I didn't write down is tracking what I eat. Starting today. No matter how bad the day is, I want to finish it and then start fresh the next. Here's the rest of my goals...

Texture: Gold (recolored) Fonts: Bikes, Linowrite, and Sweet Pea

What are some of your resolutions for this year? Anything out of the ordinary?