Sunday Social

1. What is something you have wanted to do but are afraid of?  Play the piano in church.  I have major fear of doing anything in front of a large group of people, but I would love to be the type of person who’s perfectly comfortable sitting down and playing.  I haven’t really played the piano in a good 5-10 years though, so I’d need to brush up on my skills.
2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?  The fun (?) thing about the military lifestyle is that we tend to live our lives in 3 year increments.  We have moved 5 times in 6/7 years and we are rapidly approaching our 6th move, but we don’t have our assignment yet so we have no clue where we’ll be going.  But in 5 years, I will still be happily married to my husband, and we will have an 8 year old and a 5 year old and hopefully a 2-ish year old, God-willing.
3. What are you looking forward to before the end of 2012?  Lots of things!  The base bazaar is coming up soon, we’re going to Rome and the Amalfi Coast with Mark’s parents and brother, my parents are coming for 3 weeks and we’re going to Salzburg for a weekend and Ireland for a week, along with showing them around here more, we’re planning on going up to Munich to meet friends there for a long weekend, going skiing in Austria in December with the squadron and also going somewhere over Christmas, but we haven’t decided where yet.  LOTS to look forward to and I’m so excited!
4. What are your hopes for your blog?  I’m not sure I have any hopes for my blog.  I like to meet people through blogging and I suppose followers are always nice, but I blog for me.  It’s my online journal of sorts, to keep track of different phases of our lives.  I print my blog out every year, so someday we’ll have a whole series of books from my blog that the kids will be able to look at and see what they did and where they’ve been.
5. Do you always see yourself living in your current town/city?  Nope, not at all.  We live in Italy, and while it’s been an amazing experience and the travel has been unbeatable, we’re ready to get back to the States, to a house that’s big enough for the 4 of us, to all the modern amenities that the US has to offer and Italy doesn’t (garage door openers, closets, etc), and most importantly, to be closer to family.  Abbie is at the age where she is very aware when grandparents and aunts/uncles aren’t around.  While we will never live super close to them (about 5 hours away would be the closest possible), it would be nice to be on the same continent.
6. What is your morning routine?  Get up around 7:40am, quickly get dressed, take the dogs downstairs to go out, open the shutters in the living room, get Ben’s bottle ready, get Abbie’s breakfast set out, get Abbie up and dressed and eating breakfast, get Ben up and changed and dressed and feed him his bottle, feed the dogs, eat breakfast while feeding Ben breakfast and encouraging Abbie to finish eating, and then get out the door to get Abbie to school around 8:30am.  It’s kind of a whirlwind.

Sunday Social

1. What are 3 items you can't live without on a daily basis (water, food, shelter, and clothes don't count)  My iPhone - because my life is in that thing, my car – because it’s a long walk to “civilization, my computer – because I seem to have a lot of stuff to do on here lately.

2. What is your all time favorite book? Why?  I haven’t read a Francine River’s book that I didn’t like yet, but I think The Last Sin Eater was my all-time favorite.  Her books make me want to be a better person.

3. What is something you'd like to accomplish before the end of 2012?  I have a quilt (or 3) I’d love to finish before the end of 2012, but even with my machine on my dining room table, I’m having trouble being motivated to work on them.

4. If you could go back and relive any year of your life which year would it be?  24.  I was in college for the second time, getting a second bachelors, and that was the year I met my husband.  We hung out a lot and had tons of fun before we started officially dating and I would like to do that all over again.  Plus living in downtown Milwaukee was fun.

5. What do you wish people knew about you without you having to tell them?  This is a hard question.  I’m not sure I wish people knew anything in particular about me, but even if I did, I wouldn’t mind telling them.  I’m a pretty darn open person.

PS:  I’ve finally learned out to edit some of my photos!  Here are two of my kiddos!

Sunday Social

1. What was your favorite trip/vacation/activity this summer?   The cruise to Greece and Turkey that my husband and I went on without the kids, for sure.  I think we need to try to make it a point to get away at least once a year without the kids to be able to focus on our relationship and take a break from the parenting role.

2. What was your favorite outfit look of the summer/clothing item?  I love dresses for the summer.  Light, cotton ones – short or long, I don’t care. 

3. What is one thing you wish you had gotten to do this summer?  I wish I had quilted more than I did, which was pretty much not once.  I miss quilting and it’s another reason I can’t wait to get back to the States so I can organize my space that hopefully won’t be in the basement.

4. What was your favorite song of the summer?  Call Me Maybe….  Call me crazy, but it’s catchy and it cheers me up when I hear it.

5. What was your favorite movie/tv show of the summer?  Summer TV isn’t nearly as good as fall TV (another reason I LOVE fall!!!!) and I think I saw 3 movies total and I can’t really remember any of them right now so I guess I don’t really have a favorite.  How boring.

Sunday Social

1. What is the first website you log into each day?  Gmail, to check my email, followed by FB, followed by my blogger dashboard to read all my blogs.
2. Give us some funny websites that you visit that we need to know about.  I don’t really go to funny websites regularly, but the STFU ones are pretty funny.
3. Pinterest or Facebook? Why?  FB for sure.  You have a better idea of what’s going on in people’s lives and I have never fully figured out Pinterest.
4. Twitter or Instagram? Why?  I don’t log in to either regularly, but I guess Twitter.  I like reading articles people post on there.
5. Favorite YouTube video. Post it!  Oh…. I LOVE the sneezing baby panda one and the one where the German Shephard is “talking” about eating.  But I think this one makes me laugh more than any other.

6. Biggest online pet peeve?  When people are cryptic on FB.  Where they post things that make you wonder what they’re talking about and then never explain.  It’s like they just do it to get attention.  Drives me nuts.  That and all the political BS people are posting right now.  Yuck.

Sunday Social

1. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?  The stipulation would have to be “WITHOUT EVER GAINING WEIGHT”, but it would be chocolate.  I could live on the stuff.
2. What's your guilty pleasure/comfort food?  Chocolate chips and popcorn.  Best combo ever.
3. What's the weirdest/craziest thing you've ever eaten? Sardines on potato chips, and surprisingly they weren’t that bad.  Apparently that’s a common “tapa” in Spain.
4. What foods do you avoid at all costs?  I’m not a big fan of peppers of any kind.  I don’t like peppers.
5. What meal reminds you of your childhood?  Baked chicken and mashed potatoes.  It was my favorite meal growing up and my mom would make it for me pretty often.
6. Share one of your favorite recipes and the story behind it.  My ‘go to’ party dip is pretty good.  Not sure what it’s called but it’s one bar of cream cheese, 1 can of beanless Hormel Chili and mozzerella.  Spread cream cheese in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish, cover with chili and then top with mozzerella.  Bake at 350 for about 10-15 or until cheese is all melted and serve with tortilla chips.  REALLY good.
Happy Sunday!