Still having fun!

We're just finishing up sightseeing in Rome, and are headed to Florence this afternoon. I've always heard it's hot here....and it's only May!! We had some minor hiccups with our timing yesterday afternoon (got to the Forum too late and it was closed), but it worked out for the best. We were able to catch it this afternoon after the Vatican. Now, we're on to the next stop and more fantastic art. I can't believe how old everything is here. There's Roman rubble just laying around all over....some of this stuff, if we had it in the U.S., we'd put it behind bulletproof glass in some museum....here they use it to stand on and sit on. Fantastic!

Europe!!

Just want to update quickly. We're 5 days in to the 12-day trip, and are having a blast. Right now, we're sitting in a cafe in Prague, and it's beautiful here! We would come back in a heartbeat. We did the beer, sausages and pretzels in Munich, have had the beer and pig knee in Prague, and I think have managed to eat at least one serving of gelato each day...and we're not even to Italy yet! We head to Rome tomorrow, where we look forward to more fun to come. That's all, folks. On to the next spot...!

Well, ok...now it's May!

Back in January I was wondering how we were ever going to wait until May for our trip. Apparently, I decided that the best way to wait was to try to think about it as little as possible, and avoid blogging about anything at all!! While that was kind of lame of me, I did make it clear at the beginning of this whole blogging experience that I usually got really excited about "journaling" when it came to picking out the journal...then had a tendency to let it slip by the wayside. Guess I was right about myself! :) However, now that our fantastically exciting trip is ONE WEEK AND TWO DAYS away, I'm ready to focus again.

What's been going on in the meantime....well, we've been working a lot. Other than that, we've had some fun with friends and family coming into town, and a visit we made to Seattle....and spending time with lots of friends around here.

Now, we're honing in on the trip actually being here. We've been finalizing plans, printing confirmations, double- and triple-checking the details, and making laminated copies of important documents (did I mention that Seth and I may have a tendency to be slight over-planners)? :) Anyway, Seth has been working ridiculously hard the past few months doing research, building the itinerary, and booking sights. I, on the other hand, went weeks at a time without doing a thing, then had a few furious days here and there where I could think of and do almost nothing else. I finally finished reading the last of the guidebooks, and now I'm feeling good and ready. About having to be on the plane for that long....we'll see how that goes!

Until next Tuesday, we are furiously washing our hands and coughing into our elbow-pits to avoid the swine flu (what amazing timing for that pandemic, huh?) and tying up all the loose ends. We've got some friends that will be house/pet sitting for us while we're gone - and that's helping a lot to ease our minds. I plan on updating this blog a bit while we're over there...so stay tuned! I also picked out a really pretty new journal that we're going to take with us....I wonder if I'll actually write in it?!? :)

How are we going to wait until May?

So, now that we've booked our flight to Europe....I can hardly stand my excitement!! I mentioned in a previous blog that we're going (in May) - it's one of those things we want to do before we have kids, and we finally have enough vacation to do it! Since we made our reservations, and it's REALLY happening, pretty much all I want to do is trip planning. Most of our weekends are being spent reading guidebooks, searching the internet for places to stay, daydreaming, wondering how we're going to pack, and watching Rick Steves. :) The picture here is of Vernazza, one of the cities in the Cinque Terre, Italy - and currently the background on my computer screen. :)

For those of you who don't know the specifics, here's where we are planning to go (times vary a LOT - and we're going to maximize time in Prague and the Cinque Terre). The places we're visiting are:

Frankfurt (just fly in)

Munich

Salzburg (Sound of Music tour, here I come!!)

Prague

Rome

Florence

Cinque Terre

Milan (just for flight)

and London.

We're so looking forward to the trip - and actually I think it will be the longest trip that Seth and I have taken together...even longer than our Honeymoon! If anyone has input for ideas (places to see, stay, definitely not miss...whatever), we'd definitely appreciate it! I know we're going to end up hitting some snags...it's inevitable....but I'm sure we'll come home with good stories, many pictures, and hopefully not too many extra inches around the wasitline! :) I hear there's lots of good food in Europe, and the Cinque Terre is the birthplace of pesto!!!

A good time was had by all!

Ah..another Christmas come and gone. I think the most exciting time of the year is Christmas morning. Even though I am 28 years old (counting the days until I turn 29 for the first time), I couldn't sleep the night before Christmas. Was it the chocolate fondue I had at my coworker's house...couldn't have been that! How about the coffee that I had to wash down all the fondue...nope, no way that keeps me awake... I'm convinced that I was just excited about Santa and all the other Christmas magic! I woke up at 2:30am on Christmas morning..and went out in the living room so I didn't wake Seth. I turned on the tree and was watching Christmas shows on tv...and who comes out into the living room but my sweet, sound-sleeping husband! He tried to go back to bed, without success, and was reading for the next couple of hours. I think we both had the Christmas spirit so badly we just couldn't stand it!

Anyway, we managed to wait until about 8:30am before we tore into everything. And what a fun Christmas it was! :) Despite the fact that we weren't with our extended families (this was the first year that we weren't with one or the other), it was a really fun time...and totally felt like Christmas!! We went over to our friends' house for Christmas (Day) dinner, and had spent Christmas Eve with one of my coworkers and her family...even though we weren't doing anything that we traditionally do, I think it felt like Christmas because we were together (and because it was snowing...hard!). Now, we're back to work, the leftover treats are all in the garbage (although I may have had a final bite of everything as it went into the can...), and we're anxiously awaiting another party where we can say goodbye to 2008, and welcome 2009!

We can't see the lawn anymore...

Here's a picture of Mrs. Claus for your Christmas enjoyment! From everyone I've talked to, it seems like the snow is hitting the entire country - or at least the entire Northwest! I know that it's creating havoc for all of the holiday travellers (and I really hope it backs off a bit and allows everyone to get where they're going for Christmas), but I just think it's so pretty! Maybe I'm able to enjoy it more because I'm not going anywhere, but I think the snow, this year, has put me in the Christmas spirit more than in years past. As soon as it started snowing, all I wanted to do was bake cookies and watch Christmas movies. I've already seen Christmas Vacation, White Christmas, part of A Christmas Carol, the Garfield Christmas special (which used to be my all-time favorite...and I hadn't seen it for years!!), some kids show called Cranberry Christmas, endless cheesy Christmas movies on Lifetime, ABC Family, and the Disney Channel, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas....can you believe I haven't seen Charlie Brown yet? In fact, I'm having so much fun with the whole Christmas thing, I'm finding it very hard to focus on work this week. Good thing it's a short one. I hope all of you are feeling as Christmas-y as I am!

The lawn!

Oh crumb. Apparently, it's been just under a month since my last post (just barely under!) At long last, I have pictures of the lawn. It's looking lush and green! In fact, I think it's likely the greenest lawn in the neighborhood right now. Still a bit patchy in front, but we're hoping that fills in better in the spring.

To catch everyone up on all the other odds and ends in our lives, we had a nice Thanksgiving (my parents came to visit for the week and we had some other friends join us for the turkey dinner on Thursday). Seth and my Dad deep fried a turkey (actually, 2 so we would have lots of leftovers), and did a wonderful job. The only scare was Thanksgiving morning when we opened the box to assemble the fryer and discovered the hardware and instructions were missing. Thank goodness for WalMart and their being open 24-hours that day! :) Other than that, it's been work, work, work. Our company Christmas parties are this weekend (one Friday and one Saturday), and we're going to dinner and bowling for both! The other exciting thing we did this week was booking our flight to Europe! We're going to Europe for 12 days next spring...and now we REALLY have to go because the tickets are non-refundable!

I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try to be better about this thing!