The Locket

The title almost sounds like a Nicholas Spark's book doesn't it?

For Christmas my best friend got me a beautiful locket. On the outside it has Sean and I's initials.



On the inside are pictures of Sean and I on our wedding day. It was such a thoughtful gift and I LOVE wearing it.





What is a favorite piece of jewelry you have?

Jet-Setting

One of my favorite things about being stationed in Europe is the travel opportunities.

In the first year I was able to visit quite a few places and I hope to visit even more this year.

So far this is my preliminary travel plans for this year. I'm hoping more will be added as the year goes along.

January- at the end of the month I'm hoping to go to Florence to visit the Accademia gallery. I have yet to go there and I'd love to see the statue of David.

February- Lugano, Switzerland

March- Hoping for the spas at Baden-Baden with KD.

April- supposedly will be our R&R month. On the way back to Italy I've planned to stop in NYC and visit my friend Brittni for a few days.

May- hopefully Paris with KD!


June- my parents, brother and a couple who are good friends of my parents are coming to Italy. We'll be going on a 7 day Greek Cruise so I'll get to visit Croatia, Turkey and Greece. I'm muy excited about it! I'm most excited about seeing Santorini, Greece though. I've heard such wonderful things about it from everyone who's actually been there.


July- ideally I'd like to go to Norway (where some of my ancestors are from) for a birthday trip. But after an expensive cruise, I'm not sure that's going to happen.

The rest of the year is open as of now, but some places on my list to see are:

1. Plitvice Lakes in Croatia



Aren't they gorgeous?

2. Gimmelwald, Switzerland
3. Salzburg, Austria
4. Tons of Spain, there's so many places in Spain that I can't just name one
5. Rome, Italy(I've been here a year and still not been!)
6. Berlin, Germany
7. Krakow, Poland

Sean has been discussing the possibility lately that he may choose to extend our time here by 2 years, if that's the case it appears I might have some extra time to explore Europe. That would be a definite plus to staying overseas.

So...what are your travel plans this year? Any great vacations you've got planned?

Health Plan Update

I'm currently on a weight-loss quest and have been trying out new recipes so I don't get stuck in a rut.

Last night I tried this lime cilantro shrimp salad. It was tasty, but I felt like it was missing something. I think next time I'd add another vegetable to it like white corn. Granted, I know corn is not a veggie that is really promoted in diets, but I think a few helpings of this salad with corn wouldn't be that big of a deal.

The other day I mentioned I had started using SparkPeople to keep track of my nutrition goals. At first I was pretty skeptical about how writing down what I ate would help with weight loss, but I have to say it's really helped. It keeps me honest and quite frankly I don't want to eat something crappy and then have to put it in the meal tracker, so I've been eating better. So far I've lost 5 lbs since I got back here to Italy. Now...before any of you start saying congrats, let me just say that between Sean coming back from training in September and me going home for the holidays I packed on almost ten pounds! So this five pounds is taking off weight that wasn't on me pre-September. I just hope I keep on losing this easily!

Anyone have any other good healthy recipes they'd care to share?

Are We Going to Have to Throw Down?

Ok, let me just preface this story by saying that I'm not usually a confrontational person, but in the gym today I seriously wanted to throw down with a 70 year old lady.

So..I was in the women's lockeroom. I'd already taken my shower and done my make-up, I just had my hair left to do. As I'm drying my hair, this old lady comes out of either the shower or sauna and sits on the bench behind me. She proceeds to watch me blow-dry my hair for about ten minutes, gets up and disappears for about 10 more minutes. By the time she gets back I'm straightening my hair. She sits back down on the bench right behind me and starts staring at me doing my hair yet again. Can I just add that the whole rest of the bench she's sitting on is empty? Why she chose to sit right behind me I have no idea. As I'm spraying my hair and then straightening it she keeps shaking her head and acting like she's annoyed.

I have no idea what her issue was, but after 10 minutes of that I was ready to turn around and ask her what her problem was. I don't think it was that I was using the plug-ins, because there are at least 2 if not 3 other plug-ins in the lockeroom she could have used and in close proximity.

Did I forget to mention that the entire time this was going on she was sitting naked on the bench so I could see her saggy boobs and who-ha? ::shudders::

She does that again and we're throwing down!

Deployment Month 1 in Review

So..actually Month 1 was over a few days ago, but I neglected to write a blog then, so...here we go.

In Month One I:

-Went back to the States to spend the holidays with friends and family
-Ate my weight in Mexican food
-Got to talk to Sean on an almost daily basis once we figured out our schedules
-Bought a new laptop as Sean took ours with him
-Read a few books including: Scarlett, Midwives, A Good Woman and I'm currently reading Firefly Lane
-Started a new weight loss plan in which I signed up for Spark People and am currently keeping myself accountable with my exercise and what I eat



My family showing how much we missed Sean this Christmas

Girls Night Out

Last night I attended a sort of girls night out function with a friend of mine and some of her friends. I'm not going to lie and say I was really excited about it, because initally I wasn't, but once I went I was glad I did.

We started out at my friend's house and then drove to a local winery. It was awesome! You grab a little cup at the entrance and just go around to all of these huge containers that are labeled with what kind of wine they are. We had a good time just sampleing wine and pitching an idea for a new TV show "The Real Housewives of XX, Italy". In all honesty I think it'd be a real hit. Half Army Wives (with accurate information) and Half Real Housewives. What amazed me though was that none of them had kids and they were all pretty close in age to me. Unheard of usually in the Army. Not knocking people with kids at all, please understand that, but in today's military I find it hard to find women my age who don't have children.

I didn't leave the winery empty-handed though. I now have one bottle of Moscato in my posession and two bottles of fragolino (strawberry wine).

Two of the girls went home to Skype with their husbands and three of us went back to my friend's house for some pasta and more conversation. I liked the other girl that went back with us, but she was a huge complainer. Her main beef was that my friend and I get to talk to our husbands almost daily. I really didn't know what to tell her, I didn't think I should apologize, because sometimes that's just the luck of the draw. I could tell it really bothered her though because she brought it up constantly throughout the night. I liked her, but I can't see myself being friends with her. You can tell she's a very nervous individual who's afraid of being in a foreign country and to be honest I have NO idea how she's going to survive this deployment.



(Penis shaped pasta from Venice..no idea...this was the only pasta in the house)

Overall it was a great night though and I can't wait to do it again.

Snapshot Saturday

Well..I'm slowly adjusting to being back here in Italy. In all honesty I haven't done much. I went briefly to post yesterday to check my mail and to get groceries and that's it. I've just been spending time with Boomer, watching the Twlight Zone and trying to get my body readjusted to being in this time zone.

That's honestly been the worst part. The first night I was back I slept fine because I hadn't slept on the plane, but last night I only slept for about 3 hours and then woke up around 1. I couldn't get back to sleep until almost six and then slept until noon. Not my idea of fun!

One thing I did want to mention was to all my new followers out there. If you don't see your page on my list of links or on my blog roll, then please leave me a comment and tell me what your website is. I'd love to check out your page as well and don't be afraid to introduce yourself.

Now, I leave you with this picture from my lunch date with my dear friend Kebi.