First Day...

... of my last Semester. I still can't believe it, but I am almost done. 12 more weeks and I have my Master of Science finally done.

But before that I have to finish two more classes - a Management Capstone Class and Direct Marketing. The Capstone class is pretty intimidating, but I will manage this somehow. I have a few things to look forward too.

First our planned Weekend-Trip coming up this Memorial Weekend: we will fly to Connecticut to see my friend B, spent some time, celebrate that there are getting married pretty soon and do some sightseeing stuff. This will be also hubby's first flight and he is pretty excited. I figured that a flight to CT is easier to handle as first flight than an 8-hr-plane-ride to Germany :-D

Aunt, Uncle and Cousin will be arriving a little bit after July 4th for their first visit in Maryland :-) I am pretty excited. For July 4th we will prob head to O.C. and enjoy a nice weekend with our friends.

After finishing my classes my focus will be just on Germany :-) I am so excited. Already in the middle of planning our trip and the Reception for our family. It will be awesome :-) Can't wait! I will start going on Job-Hunting after Germany. I will have more time to focus than ;-)

My very first Car Accident

Happy Monday for me? Nope I don't think you. I should have just went straight back to bed when I shook my drink that morning and forgot to close the lid and everything spilled around in the kitchen.

I left for work and just got on the ramp to the highway when it happend... The car in front of me decided to come to a full stop for a truck that was on the emergency lane and wanted to merge on our lane. I was able to stop with squeaking tires, but the Minivan behind me didn't see it coming and rear-ended me. Yay!

I am kind of okay and the car is okay as well, but I wanted to start my week different than that :-/ Our bumper has scratches now and some broken spots. Unfortunatly the car pulls now to the left... We are hoping to get an estimate this week. I, for myself, went yesterday to the doctor. I was fine after the accident but later on I had so much pain... I opened a PIP claim and saw one of our doctors at the facility I am working at. He diagnosed me with a cervical strain and whiplash... :-/ Yesterday was a bad pain day. I got some ibuprofen, muscle relaxen and a month of Physical Therapy. Now I can see how the PT looks from a patients view :-D

Spring Time :-)

I hope this will be the last snow picture I post from this winter. We really one more time snow... On the first Day of Spring?! Really?! So annoying :-D

Since than we had pretty nice weather. Thursday thunderstorms in the morning and 70 degrees in the afternoon. Awesome :-D JT and I went straight to Lake Elkhorn for a nice walk and afterwards we grabbed some dinner and drinks at Green Turtle. We had a blast :-)

We are working on decorating our balcony to get it ready for the wonderful weather. Last weekend we got an outdoor couch and two lampions from Ikea. I think we have to go back soon to get the pots so we can start planting our veggies :-) I think this year we stick with tomatoes, basil, Thai peppers, chives and cress. We might try salad and beans. I heard that is pretty easy to take care of. We will also try planting some plants that are natural repellents for mosquitoes. I hope it works. They can be so annoying in Maryland.

College is going great. We are mid way through. I finished both my midterms last week. I got an A in the leadership class and sadly a B (88%) in Marketing Research. Everything else - participation and assignments - I received A's :-D yay! So I am pretty happy how everything goes :-)

For Memorial Weekend we have finally something planned :-) This year we are flying to my friend in CT. I visited her in the beginning of March for her Bridal Shower and than she invited us to spent the weekend with her husband and her. B and I had a blast and she had such a wonderful shower. My flight Sundays got cancelled so I got to spent one extra day with her :-) So I am pretty excited for Memorial Weekend and I think JT also. Prob more nervous since this will be his first flight ever! I think this will be a good training for the flight to Germany.

Words of Wisdome

Bridal Shower Cake

Beautiful Decoration

Beautiful Bride :-)

Future Mr. & Mrs. :-)

Unfortunately we cannot make it to her wedding. It is a Destination Wedding in Mexico which is why I am pretty happy I was able to celebrate her shower with her. They are having a reception in August or September and we will join the celebrations. And actually B and my coworker gave me the idea of celebrating a reception in Germany as well. I can invite all my family and friends that were not able to attend our wedding in 2013 and we can celebrate :-) I finished the guest list last weekend and I have to get the invitations out soon. Really exciting and I am already in the middle of planning :-D 168 days left until we are going to Germany!!!

Date Night at Pinot's Palette

Last night we had our date night at Pinot's Palette. That's a place where you can paint and drink wine :-) I love these concept. I went there the first time in December for a Birthday Party (Read about it HERE!). I saw that they offered Date-Nights as well - where both partners do one side of the painting. We asked out friends and the four of us signed up :-)

We did the Midnight Moon class and it was sooooo much fun. JT did the black side of the painting and I did the red side. I think we did a pretty good job. Before the class we went to an Asian place right next to it for dinner and bought some dessert to the class. Here some pictures of last night:

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

We had a great night ;-) Afterwards we went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Columbia, where I've never been. We watched UFC fight and had some pretty good wings and cheese fries :-D first thing this morning JT and I hung up our master pieces. It fits just perfect in our bedroom ;-)

A late Happy New Year :-)

Happy New Year to everyone. I know it is a little bit late, but I was not feeling that well. I updated my german blog though :-) I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and a good start in 2015.

Our Christmas was just lovely. We baked and cooked a lot in December, watched Christmas Movies and cuddled on the couch, I got to wear my Ugly Christmas Sweater evey friday in December and just enjoyed the time with my hubby. I skyped a lot with my family in Germany as well and let them see how we spend our December.

Christmas 2015 we celebrated at my mother-in-law's place. We all came together on Christmas Eve :-) She made a great dinner with ham, mashed potatos, brussel sproats, rolls and pineapple stuffing. After dinner we all sat together in the living room to unwrap some presents. It was so much fun :-) later that evening we all went to church and met up with my brother-in-law's parents. It was a lovely mess and I was able to sing most of the songs - thanks to 97.1 WASH FM :D they played Christmas music since Thanksgiving Day - a tradtion of the radio station. Afterwards we all went back to the house for some coffee and dessert.

Back home it was time for my hubby and me to unwrap our presents. This year I put a lot of thought in it. We had a lot of presents under the tree, but small ones, things we need and loved to have. My hubby got some Yankee Candles, his favorite sweets, passport covers for our first big journey together, a book to learn german and the big surprise: a indoor grill :-) we just got a grill in May 2014, but than we moved. We are not allowed to use our grill on the balcony and since than our grill isnin my mother-in-law's basement. So I thought that would be a great present. He also got some steaks to it ;-)

I got really spoiled this year by my hubby. First he suprised me with a camera for Nikolaus which is why I expected something really small for Christmas. But I got a bodymist and body lotion from Victoria Sectret, sweatpants and a sweatshirt from Under Armour aaaaand a Michael Kors purse :D Oh my gosh :D so lucky to have such a great man who sometimes spoils me too much hihi I love everything he got me. I was suprised how nice the Body Lotion is and my purse :-) so nice!

Christmas Day my sister-in-Law, Kelly, came over for breakfast and she spent the rest of the day with us. For dinner we went to my father-in-law's place. He made a yammi stew :-) on friday most of americans had to go back to work, but not us. JT got off from his work, so I decided to take off as well and enjoy a long weekend with my hubby :-) We both got sick on our long weekend but we decided to got for a walk to the Great Falls Park in Maryland to enjoy that first sunny saturday in days.

For NYE we invited JT's friend, Ronnie, and his girlfriend, Abby, over for Dinner and movies. We had a great night. Abby and I went grocery shopping and than cooked Rouladen with Knodel and Red Cabbage - my favorite german dish. It was so much fun to cook with Abby. The guys were playing N64 and after dinner we all played Mario Kart on N64 and Wii :-) it was so much fun!

Last week we had our first Snow Day of this year. We enjoyed it at home and later that afternoon - when the snow stopped - we went out for a nice walk to Savage Park. Afterwards we stopped at this cure french bakery and got a little dessert for the way home :)

My last two weeks of my winter break started today :D time is flying I guess. I will enjoy this as much as possible and just do nothing. Or not nothing but enjoy the time with my hubby, see friends, go outside, party and than it's time to say "Bye-Bye social life"! :-/

Winterbreak, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Winterbreak - finally!!! :) The first week is already over and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. My fall semester was a complete disaster and definitely has exhausted me. Since spring break I was just busy. New job, summer semester, my parents visiting us, our move and the fall semester. But I can proudly say that I finished both classes really good. Consumer Behavior I have reached 86.7% and in International Marketing I have reached 90 % :) not bad, although I barely had time and I totally forgot about a project term paper :D 

What is it else happened ? I got a tablet from my hubby as birthday/wedding gift :-) seems like I am getting spoiled this year. But with the tablet I was able to check on my discussion forums and work on same papers from my couch. Sitting at a desk 8 hrs a day and than sitting during the night at it as well -  nahh not so motivating....

I also got a wonderful package from my friend Anni from Germany with socks, german candy, Adventcalendartea and a really great scarf from Primark. My first piece of the famous Primark ;- )

 

It went again to Aldi and like last year I bought a lot german candy :-) likeToffifee, gingerbread cookies and a Baking mix for Black Forest Cake.

Thanksgiving came around and before a short work week and our long weekend we woke up to a bad suprise on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Someone had vandalised our car and broke the driver site's window of JT's car. So we had to file a police report and report everything to our insurance. Thanks to the Statefarm App that was kind of easy. Besides all of this I also had to make my german potato salad because we had to be at Brady's First Birthday Party at 1pm. Can't believe how time is flying but this young man is already one year old :-)

On Monday I had to pick up a rental car and had to leave JT's car at the workshop. Thank God the insurance will pay almost anything. We only had to pay our deductible and 20% of the rental car :-) Wednesday after work I was able to pick up JT's baby and hubby was super happy again.

Thanksgiving we celebrated with my mother-in-law. She cooked us a wonderful meal with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cabbage, candied sweet potatoes, rolls and even small pumpkin pies made by me for dessert.

On Friday was the famous Black Friday. In the morning I went to Ikea. JT is not a big fan of crowds and it's usually packed at Ikea on a Saturday. But I must say, it was relatively quiet. This time I was also a very clever girl and went in at the checkout :-) I had a giftcard from my grandparents which we got as gift for our first apartment and I needed new ornaments for our Christmas tree. I needed gold ornanments for this year's tree. I got a light curtain, candles and well a loooooot of christmas ornaments :-D Well happily JT was already on the way to the gym when I came home with all the bags:-D

Mini Audi for a great deal

In the evening we went out to go to Micheals (craft store) and Target. I needed garlands and hooks to hang our stockings and advent calendar ;-) We made really good deal. The garlands were Doorbusters and cost only $1.87. After that we went to Target to get hooks, but on the look out for them we found this great deal An 8-piece bedding set 65% cheaper ;-) We couldn't say NO to that deal and it fits great in our apartment.

In the evening we watched a movie on Netflix and I decorated the apartment, so everything was ready for the weekend. We had invited our friends plus baby to Friendsgiving :-) I cooked a delicious roast pork with apple, honey and cinnamon (Here you can find the recipe). Here is the final result of our Christmas decoration :-)