*2011*

I was a busy little bee throughout 2011. What did you do all year long? Here's a list of the things I did to make my time fly:

January

I began selling for Tastefully Simple! 

 Had the pleasure of taking Eric to London for the first time so I could show him around the city in the midst of seeing a TNA Wrestling event.

February

I traveled to Mechelen with a group of friends to check out some old world tapestries from the De Wit company. 

My tickets to go home to California for a two month vacation were officially booked!

March

Checked out a killer farmers market in a near by town called Zolder.

Found an amazing scale at my favorite antique warehouse. 

Scored an antique coffee grinder from the same warehouse a week later :)

April

My fashion forward Dachshund gets a rain coat.

Went on a great adventure back to Poland with some awesome friends. 

Experienced the Spring Bazaar at Spangdahlem, Germany

May

Found our rhythm when it came to making a lot of food for the upcoming week. 

My beloved Blackberry went to the great cell phone tower in the sky.

Did some retail damage in Germany while visiting some friends. 

June

Movie dates with my lover face. 

The horses in the field next to our house had another baby! 

Began experiencing one of the wettest summers in Belgium's history. 

My landlord broke ground right next to us to build a duplex :-/

Three whole days of summer! 

July

I put a deposit down on my dream table! 

Went blueberry picking!

Eric and I spent our four year wedding anniversary in Venice, Italy! 

August

FINALLY organized my office! 

My spiffy dream table finally arrived!!

We realized our landlord is filthy rich.

Scored a nifty old school clock!

September

I went..went..back back to Cali Cali.

Adopted a $2k puppy from the SPCA (cost after fees, buying a new plane ticket, carrier, vet bills, etc) 

Drove to Oregon and Washington!

Met my brand new baby cousin!

Won FIRST PLACE in a photo contest! 

October

Made some awesome blankets for my son and husband

Visited Stefanie!! 

Missed my old stomping grounds in San Luis Obispo

Got my Dad hooked on a video game. 

Invaded Pier 39 in San Francisco with my Dad. 

November

Got pictures done with my Dad

Date day to France to buy some Le Creuset 

Lovin' on some European Christmas Markets

Discovered the black hole that is Pinterest

Finally obtained Steve

The goodies I acquired while in California finally arrived! Eee!!

December

Finally came across something quite useful for my Scentsy warmers after being here for almost three years! 

Made arrangements for Eric & I's FIFTH wedding anniversary !

I've come to realize that Belgium likes messing with me. 

Turned my kitchen into a cookie factory.

Took a crack at being a couponer...and failed. 

Here's to hoping for a productive 2012!

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Couponing...Bah Humbug!

I'm sure at some point, you've heard about TLC's "Extreme Couponing". If you haven't heard about it..lemme explain how it works: It's a show where people spend ridiculous amounts of time hunting for coupons to maximize their savings when it comes to grocery shopping. In most cases, they get hundreds of dollars worth of food for a fraction of the price. That's fantastic, right? Yeahhhhh....'bout that...

The new year is right around the corner and, of course, it's time to start eating healthy all over again. We're about a year out from potentially moving, so we're tightening our purse strings even tighter so we can save more money just in case we move back to the States, although, I'd really prefer to stay in Belgium. That's to be seen, though. Anyway, eating healthy isn't exactly cheap. And by that, I mean it's usually expensive. So I got a wild hair up my tail and decided to see if I could save some money via coupons..YAY!

After several mind numbing hours, dozens of websites, registering with fake emails for "exclusive" deals, fiddling with my fussy printer...and an Excederine Migraine pill.. I ended up with this: 

 I already had the Dryel coupon, the Benefuls "Snackin  Slices" coupon, Challenge Butter coupons and "Finish" dishwasher coupon from previous purchases...the majority of the headache clearly came from finding coupons online. I don't have the luxury of having coupons readily available just down the street in the newspaper stand since, well, I'm not in America. So, I can't just gather up a bundle of those lil buggers and clip clip away..instead, I gotta click click click...click...click...sigh...click.......click.... 

I think the frustrating thing is that I really couldn't find any coupons for "healthy" things...if I was wanting a killer deal on Poptarts, soda (lots of soda), anything Pillsbury, Spam (really??), cookies, candy, blah blah blah, I would've hit the jackpot. I felt like I was on a hunt for the great Dodo bird since I wanted coupons for stuff like Birds Eye for frozen veggies, or even Libby's for canned veggies, and various other things that weren't slathered in fatty happiness. I'm not on a mission to build up any sort of treasure trove of all my killer deals (also known as "stockpiles") like some of the people you see on the Extreme Couponing show. Shit, we have weight limits when it comes to moving and I CERTAINLY don't want to waste my limit on food! I rather put that towards kick ass European antiques:

So, after my purchase of sixty six items and with all the effort of twenty five coupons, I managed to knock $22.50 off of the final total (a saving of 12%). Not too shabby, but honestly, not worth all the headache it took to find the coupons. It's no wonder the people who are featured on that show dedicate 8 HOURS a day to couponing..anywhere from forty to sixty hours a week! Great googly moogly!

At least I stayed under my budget, but I can thank my grocery list for that since I ONLY bought what I wrote down what we needed verses "window shopping"..which is what really racks up the cost for most people when they have their adventure in the grocery store. 

Meh, oh well. At least I gave it a shot. 

 

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Wall Time

We ALL know of this social networking site. Wither you love it or hate it..we all know it as:

I've been a member since..hold on, lemme check my Timeline...ah, yes. November 14th, 2007. Although I'll admit that I didn't really start getting into the swing of it till 2009 (I was still clutching onto MySpace). Since I've been on the site, I've managed to get in contact with all sorts of people whether they're old high school friends, people I've met from when I've moved around or even new people from when we've moved here. Instead of calling to check in and catch up, Facebook makes life a little easier (and lazier) in a matter of seconds rather than racking up minutes on the phone when I wanna drop a line. 

I can't help up notice though that there are people who abuse the shit out of the site whether it's knowingly or unknowingly. Odds are, they know they're being douche-y, but that's to be determined by others since no one will obviously admit to being a jackass on a public site. Well, it's not necessarily being a douche or jackass, but sometimes people put the most RANDOM stuff out there, way too much information, or assume everyone is interested in every intimate detail in their life as tedious as it may be. 

"Check In" at Home, etc. 

I'm amazed that people even do this, especially when they list their actual HOME ADDRESS when they check-in! Great way to allow people to stalk you, especially when you have 1k+ plus "friends". Or even better, you post that you're no where near your house and people know you live on your own. Hopefully you don't have anyone on your friends list that's interested in jacking some of your stuff while you're out, bill collectors since now they know where you live, or someone who wants to just "drop in" to say "Heeeeeey" ...in the middle of the night while you're sleeping. Safety first, folks! 

Bitching CONSTANTLY

I love Debbie Downers, don't you? Always posting complaints, pessimistic things or just downright spiteful stuff can get very old. I realize we don't ALWAYS piss rainbows and sunshine, but you can't always be spewing your hatred for the world, either. There has to be SOMETHING in your life that's awesome, otherwise, why are you even here? Constant bitchers are "hidden" for a while , then I'll revive them on my News Feed to see if they've changed their sad ways...and if they haven't, they get removed.

"FML"

FML = Fuck My Life. Hmmmm...because you couldn't get your favorite Starbucks drink, you say "FML"? Or because you broke a NAIL, or your hair is frizzy, didn't have enough ingredients for a meal you "planned"...just, stop saying "FML" over trivial things. I'd understand saying it if you broke your leg and you can't work for several weeks without pay and you have bills. Hell, even if you became an amputee...but fucking your life over something small and stupid. Puh-lease. 

Cliff Hangers

Vagueness. Oh, how I loathe, thee.  When people post a status that's so ridiculously vague, it automatically prompts people to comment asking "Is everything OK?" or "What's wrong?" ...in which the original poster will say "I don't want to talk about it". Makes perfect sense, right? Then why post it in the first place if you didn't want anyone bugging you?! Someone want attention... 

Games / Applications

Even if you have a strong desire to use countless Facebook applications, avoid sending every app invite to all of your friends.  Nobody wants to get yet another Farmville, Frontierville, Castleville, and blah blah blah app requests.  The more applications you sign up for, the more clutter will appear on your homepage and bog down the News Feed. It's one thing to have fun but an entirely different matter to bug everyone with 50-100 apps invites every week. I used to be into the games (hardcore, actually) and they're MASSIVE time thief's...you never realize how much time you're wasting when you actually stop playing them to do other PRODUCTIVE things.  

Churchies.  


You love God. I get it. I understand that he's your Savior and died for your sins. I realize you go to church and feel like a better person...that's FANTASTIC. I'm not religious and I don't have anything against people who DO believe in something, to each their own. BUT. It gets annoying when I see biblical quotes multiple times every day, rants about how God is great and how we should all accept Him into our hearts. Not EVERYONE feels that way! Sorry!

"Real" Friends


This is geared more towards us military folk. We move fairly often and have to make new friends wherever we go. It sucks having to leave great friends behind, but we knew it was part of the deal when we married someone in the military. Thing is, you make new friends wherever you're at. It's a tad bit insulting after you hang out with your current friends frequently (who you claim you have a blast with) and post about how much you miss your "real friends" back at home. Am I not real? I feel real. Apparently not. 

Do Not Publicly Post Private Events

Are you are planning a private event for a select group of Facebook friends?  If so, don't publicly post the event for every single person on your friends list to see.  Make sure you keep the event private so you won't risk offending your other, uninvited friends. It's a virtual slap in the face to the people who weren't invited, but are obviously aware of the event that's taking place. Smooth move! 

SHUT YOUR MOUTH.

Although you may find your comment hilarious, if it is embarrassing to your friend, do not post it on their wall.  Remember, despite Facebook’s optional privacy settings, it is still a social network, which means many people will be able to read what you have to say whether it is positive or negative. With the new Facebook scrolling notification on the top right of your screen, it allows people to watch a conversation without ever having to go directly to your Wall to eaves drop.

"Virtual Balls" Syndrome

Oh, how I love people with "virtual balls". They will never say something to your face, but if they're on Facebook, they have an infinite amount of courage and say whatever they feel like without waiver...ESPECIALLY on your Wall for everyone to see. If you don't have the stones to say it to someone in person, then why say anything at all? You eventually gotta run into that person, so are you willing to repeat yourself for the real life response? Didn't think so. 

IT'S JUST FACEBOOK.

Sometimes, there are people who you just DON'T get along with. It happens. Not everyone meshes. If everyone got along all the time, we'd never have wars, right? Your Facebook is your "bubble" and you have the right to delete people that you don't want in your "bubble" at any time. Why keep someone on there who you don't necessarily care for? It doesn't make sense. People KNOW when they don't get along, so why force a "friendship" when there isn't one to be had? So, if you get deleted..it's for a reason. Don't talk shit or cause a big stink over it when it's an obvious "I don't consider you a friend" move, especially when you feel the same way. When people suggest that I just "hide" someone rather than "unfriend" them to avoid being rude...uhhh..isn't "faking" rather rude? Why tolerate someone who bothers me for the sake of pandering to their ego? It's JUST Facebook and it's JUST the internet. They'll survive.

Status Updates

Facebook is not Twitter, so I don't need to know every time you visit the bathroom, your baby’s feeding schedule, or what you had to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My favorite it when someone is pregnant and I get to experience their entire pregnancy every day with them because they update how far along they are (week and day) in addition to craving and hormone craziness....hourly. Or even better... football season. I get the play by play for penalties, touchdowns, scores, and everything via MULTIPLE people posting it in their statuses! Isn't that what the PROFESSIONAL sports commentators are for?

Grammar

Use it. When you get lazy and tlk lyk dis n dat 2 git ur (sigh, can't keep doing that) status across, you make my brain hurt. Don't be lazy when it comes to writing out a simple status. It's not flattering when you come across stupid. I understand that the English language can be tricky sometimes, but come on, it's not rocket science. 

Gross Pictures

Please don't post pictures of your infants shitty diaper blowout,  their vomit covered  face, YOUR vomit covered face from a night of binge drinking or anything that would be deemed as "gross" to anyone aside from yourself....your friends will appreciate it. Trust me. 

Do Not Tag Your Friends in Unflattering Photos

Do you have a picture of your friend and in that picture, he or she is looking at their worst or doing something extremely embarrassing?  While you may think it is funny, they certainly will not if you tag them and post the photo for the entire Facebook community to gawk at. Remember, paybacks a bitch! 

While on the Subject of Photos

Never under any circumstances post a picture of someone else’s kid without getting the parent’s approval.  A lot of parents are afraid of putting their kid’s picture online considering all of the perverts lurking around in the cloak of anonymity of the internet.  Ask before you post; it is a matter of consideration.


So, there ya have it. Those are the top bothersome things I can think of off the top of my head. Yes, I've violated some of these at some point or another in the span of my Facebook life, but at least I'm owning it. Most people will deny that they do any of the things that I listed.  


On that note, cheers! 

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Merry Christmas :)

I hope everyone has a VERY Merry Christmas! 

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♪ Music Junky ♪

Alright, this blog post is pretty tardy. Why? Because...I meant to write this not too long after I got back from California. I have awful "shiny syndrome", what can I say?

As a birthday present to myself, I went on the hunt for some bitchin' headphones. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my Skull Candies. I've been a loyal Skull Candy believer for a few years now, especially when I need something to listen to while I'm in the gym. 

But, they don't do all that well with noise cancelling when it comes to loud outside static, ohhhh...like crying babies. Heh. My flight from California to Amsterdam was ten and a half hours, so I really didn't wanna risk listening to a grumpy baby (again) during the majority of the flight because, well, that's just my luck. My Skull Candies did pretty well on the flights over from Brussels to Monterey, but they started to hurt after a while since they're the ear bud style..so you gotta stick 'em in your ears. Try doing that for over seventeen and a half hours (thank you, layovers)...it starts to hurt. And yes, it was necessary to drone out noise with music or movies for that amount of time!

I used to have a pretty cool pair of Skull Candy Lowriders and they worked really well... in the beginning. They had great sound,  nice bass, light and fairly compact when I needed to fold 'em up and stuff 'em away in my purse / backpack...but, they didn't hold up very long. They started to warp because of the way they folded together, which in turn started to pinch up the cord and effected the sound quality. Plus, they sit ON your ears, not around them..so after a while, it started to hurt. After about a year of having them, they were retired out and I went back to my little ear buds. 

Back to my birthday present... I had been keeping my eyes on some headphones called "beats by dr. dre", but wasn't sure if I was willing to commit to the three hundred dollar price tag that came along with 'em.  Yeah, three hundred smackers..and that's not the super expensive model, either. My main reason for not getting them, aside from the price tag, was that there wasn't anywhere around *here* in Belgium that I knew of to where I could pop in and listen to the quality. Are you gonna drop cash on something you haven't tested out? No. If you do, then you're silly. So, I held out till I was stateside and I had access to my beloved Best Buy to check out the different models to see which one was best suited for me. After bopping back and forth between all the different styles..

.... I ended up getting the "Studio" headphones that go over the ear. They're VERY comfortable, noise cancel and the sound is UH-mazing! 

For head phones that fold up, they're actually really sturdy feeling!

The red cord is detachable from the head phones so you can store it without bending / straining the wires like you would if they were fixed to the actual unit. 

You also get a jack to plug into whatever electrical musical instrument you happen to play, AND, you get a adapter plug to use for airline flights. I got to test that out on the flight and it was FABULOUS! Amazing "surround" sound :D

And, you get a hard shell case to store your stuff in rather than letting it get all messed up or losing the cords...you know how it is. Things get lost regardless of how hard we try to take care of it. 

I've had these for a little over a month now, and I can genuinely say that these have gotten used DAILY. Between using them for some down time in my office, or when I wanna watch a movie on my laptop without disturbing everyone else...these have phenomenal sound, minimal outside sound disturbance and I can wear then for a LONG time without them becoming uncomfortable. AND...when I wore them on the flight, there was a bratty two year old throwing hissy fits every other half hour and I never really knew it was going on till I took my head phones off. YES, they're amazing! 

My only complaint....of course they came out with pink ones AFTER I bought mine and got back to Belgium...pshh!

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Lush ♥

Ohhhh my goshhhhh.... I love LUSH.. Love love love. I've blogged about it here and here.. yeah..LOVE them. 

Last week, I went over to Maastricht over in the Netherlands to check out their Lush store since I stumbled upon it a week or so earlier. If I knew they had a store there, I wouldn't have driven all the way to Aachen to get my fix!! Anyway, this amazing shower gel is currently available called "Snow Fairy"..here's some info about it from the site since they'll obviously describe it better:

It smells UH-mazing! It's as if  bubble gum & cotton candy had a secret love child and this is, in fact, their love child. I actually use it as a shampoo in addition to a body wash..it makes my hair so soft and helps keep it straight, which is AWESOME since the weather has been rather soggy (in turn, makes my hair not so straight). I believe this is the third or fourth year they've had this available ONLY for the Christmas season. So, I was pretty sad when I realized I only bought two bottles of it...how is it the stuff I always end up liking isn't something that's always available?? Pshh.... 

Over the last week or so, I've been feeling really crappy due to some health issues, so, Eric and I took advantage of the fact that he's off today (and all week) since I wasn't feeling as bad as I have been....take advantage of it, right? So, where do we go for date day? Aachen, Germany. I love date days with him because it makes me think back to when we were first dating all over again..we catch up on all kinds of various things, laugh our asses off about stupid stuff, people watch and just have an all around good time. 

At the end of date day, we ran into Lush there since he was wanting to get some body wash called " The Olive Branch" since he's needing something in terms of moisture for his skin. Right next to that was ...sigh...Snow Fairy, but in the medium sized bottles rather than the large. After staring at it longingly, we made our way over to the register since we were just gonna get Eric's stuff and hit the road. In the midst of ringing him up, I asked the gal at the counter as to when they'd be getting more of it in and she replied with "Once those bottles are gone, it's gone. No more will be coming."....epic sadness I tells you. In my head, I was thinking I'd just get home, log onto their US website and order a bunch and have it shipped here..then I remembered they don't ship to APOs. Le sigh. 

Eric piped up and said to me "Go grab some from the shelf. Love you". 

Sometimes, it really IS the little things :)

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Cookie Exchange Mayhem

Over the last three years, I've participated in a really fun Cookie Exchange that one of my friends has thrown. Every time, she's changed the theme so people can get pretty creative with their cookie names, designs and even how they dress. Sadly, this is her last year doing it since she'll be moving back to the states in the middle of this up coming year. *pout*

Being true to form, I stuck with my traditional cream cheese cookies since they seem to be a hit every year, despite never winning "Best Tasting". I don't get that..I really don't, lol. Every year, I get loads of compliments on them, always get asked to make more, but I never win that specific category. 

This year, I figured I'd box up all the cookies and would keep my fingers crossed for hopefully winning the "Presentation" category. So, I scoured the internet while I was back in California, found some "Winter Wonderland" themed cookie boxes and had 'em shipped here. Honestly, I was pretty shocked at how nice they actually were considering they weren't all that expensive. For the life of me, I can't remember where I ordered 'em from :(

Pictured below are all the ingredients I used to make this cookie factory come to life: 

25 cups of flour

10 cups of sugar

10 cups of butter

56 ounces of cream cheese
10 egg yolks

YES, that's a whole lot of cookies to be made with that amount of ingredients! When I originally RSVP'd to the exchange, I could've sworn that participants were required to bake A LOT of cookies...like thirteen dozen. Apparently, I really didn't read the directions properly because people only needed to make FOUR dozen..go me! So, everyone ended up with a dozen and a half cookies each box...and I made eighteen boxes, lol. 

My trusty Pampered Chef Cookie Press:

I ended up using six of my stoneware pieces to cycle through all the cookies that needed to be baked...aye aye aye..

By the time I was done, I made a total of 400 cookies in which 288 was used for the Cookie Exchange. The others were given to friends who asked for some when they found out I was making them, lol. I ended up doing coconut frosting since that seemed to be a massive hit last year, verses using my traditional lemon frosting. Eric was absolutely thrilled *please note my sarcasm* to help me "paint" all of 'em since it gets really tiring, yet wasteful, to dip all the cookies in the icing. 

Here's how everything looked by the time we were done :) 

Oh, and I won "Best Presentation"! YAY!

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Third Belgian Winter

When we originally found out we were moving to Belgium, we were told that it NEVER snowed here. Never. Since we were coming from California, we didn't have any cold weather / snow gear since, hey, we lived on the beach. Of course, the first winter that we're here...we got snow. LOTS of snow:

December 20th, 2009

Everyone told us that it was a fluke that there was so much snow because, hey, it NEVER snow here. So, here comes winter 2010 and we weren't too worried about getting a snow shovel or anything because it shouldn't snow again. WELLLLL....2010 was by far the worst winter Europe had seen in a VERY long time. By "a very long time", I mean one hundred years:

December 16th, 2010

At that point, I don't believe a damn thing anyone tells me anymore when it comes to weather in Belgium. I've already figured out that it's pretty unreliable when it comes to sunshine. By three in the afternoon, expect rain or high winds. So, I finally broke down and bought a pretty bitchin' snow shovel since our driveway turns into a massive slip 'n' slide when there's snow / ice caked on it. Of course, by the time it arrived, the snow was gone..but hey! I'm prepared for this year!

December 18th 2011

I AM PREPARED! I am READY for some snow! I got not one, but TWO snow shovels readily available for  some bitchin' snow storms since we've had two snowy winters thus far. There's GOTTA be some snow coming our way!

This is what I woke up to this morning:

Barely a "dusting" of snow..and it all melted off by the time Eric and I left to go to the movies. I checked the weather forecast and it's going to be raining for the rest of the week...no snow. 

I. AM. DISPLEASED.

Get with the program, Beglie!

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