I love to travel. That probably goes without saying, right? But you know what else I love?

Coming home.

I love my house. I don't own it, but it's definitely mine - at least for a little while. Military spouses generally fall into 2 camps: the first are just moving through. They don't really decorate or move in and get comfortable in their community. Maybe they don't even build good friendships. That's sad to me, but I've been there, too. Sometimes it just hurts too much to say goodbye and start over again. The second camp knows that home is what we make of it; home is where we are at the moment. We might be here only a year or two, but for now we can make this a home. We don't just live in this house - WE.LIVE.IN.THIS.HOUSE.

We yell and fight here.

We love and hug and kiss here.

We laugh here. A lot.

This past weekend we went to Amsterdam and of course I came home with treasures. The town we stayed in was having a community yard sale for Koningsdag 2014 (King's Day for you non-dutch speakers) so I'm really not to blame for my lovely new ... vases? Sure, we'll call them vases even though they will never hold flowers. I'm just lucky Mike's just lucky I got out of there with only a couple of things. It helps that we were rolling in a convertible and it had less than zero trunk space!

Now for the past three four five days (yes, it took me 2 extra days just to take a picture of them and finish this post- I'm the worst) I've been trying to find them a home in my home. We're working on our issues and I haven't found their sweet spot just yet. I have noticed, though, how very different my house is from where we started out.

When Mike and I got married, I had all the plans. All of them, I tell you. I bought real furniture (vs. temporary furniture that doesn't make it past a move or two) with goals in mind. I knew I couldn't afford the dream home in my head, but I bought pieces I thought would give me time to build that dream. For the record, that dream was all clean cut lines and warm woods and slightly over-sized pieces. I was all about a Tuscan color scheme - all of those rich earthy colors that make every room so warm and cozy. Then it morphed into what I lovingly call "coffee shop couture." Somewhere along the way- in Texas or Florida, I think- I moved more towards blues and browns and bronzes. Still earthy'ish but different from where I had been. Everything matched. It all flowed from room to room with a nice cohesiveness that perhaps I needed then. I upgraded some of our wall art and accessories and I thought it was really coming together. I almost felt like a grown up.

If you had told newlywed me (or even 30 year old me) that one day I would live in an eclectic German cottage with random pieces from yard sales mixed with Ikea furniture and curtains I painted myself (and did a really poor job with, if I'm being honest) and some of that original furniture (it really has held up well) and the world's most comfortable leather chair that we picked up beside a dumpster, I would have laughed you under the table. I read all of the home decorating magazines and perused all of the best websites and I was a girl with plans.

But you know what? I'm happy with my home. I like being here. It's a comfortable space and it has good energy. It's welcoming and warm and full of colors I never expected. I have an orange-red ceramic picture frame I love that I would never have bought 10 years ago. And Stoner Dave, our buddha from the Target clearance aisle - he's pretty awesome. I just don't want to pigeon hole my space right now. Maybe this is another phase for me, but right now I have no plans for our decor. I'm just letting it morph into whatever it wants to be. I'm letting go of that control and it feels so good.

Perfection really is overrated. Or misunderstood, I'm not sure which.

It has been forever since I've blogged, right?! I've missed this so much and I've really missed the weird / funny / silly conversations that were sparked with some of you. I enjoy interacting with y'all so please - comment! Message me! I love to hear from you!

I wish I could say I've been up to some really interesting things, but the truth is ... well, it's a long story, but here it is in a nutshell:

Life got a little overwhelming and I needed a break. Enter my sisters wedding and a whirlwind trip stateside that almost didn't happen (we drove 2800 miles in 6 days- whew!) and then I definitely needed a break. I thought I'd take a little time for myself for the holidays (our last in Germany) and I enjoyed myself immensely. So in January I tried to log into my account - HACKED! Why anyone would want to hack a blog account is beyond me, but, please, if you see anything really weird around here, please please please let me know and I'll get it taken care of. So the funniest part is whoever hacked me reset stuff to a gmail address that I don't have access to. What the what?! Again - why? I don't do any commerce on or from this blog. I don't use this password for anything else. What is the point?

I don't get it but whatever man. It took some time and a lot of emails and talking to customer service and everything has been worked out... I think. Fingers crossed.

Top 10 Highlights From The Past 5 Months:

#10 - I finally hung some pictures around my house. 

I'm moving this year so I guess it felt like time. I mean, I've only lived here for 3 years. 

Ahhhh.... military life.....

#9 - I painted 2 walls. 

When we first moved in, Mike hated the white walls so he picked a color and I painted our living room but it was sooooo dark (he disagrees, but he's wrong). So I painted 2 walls back to white and we have accent walls in the living and dining room. It's way better my way.

#8 - I redecorated this wall 3 times. 

I hung pictures on it. Hated them, took them down, fixed the holes then hung shelves with lots of frames as a collage. Hated it, tried to live with it, didn't work. Took them down, fixed the holes, and this is what it currently looks like:

 

I'm pretty sure it's going to stay that way until we move. 

#7 - Sort of fixed a leather chair we picked up for free.

The leather was torn and needed to be glued so Mike took the whole thing apart and I glued it and he put it back together. The plan is to have it reupholstered at the next base along with our sofa. I feel so grown up upholstering furniture rather than buying new. 

Remind me I said that when I see the invoice.

You can see it there on the left by the window (and we're going to reupholster the couch, too), but mostly this is a shameless plug for my super cute dog. Isn't she so adorable?! I don't even mind that I'm posting a pic of our messy living room.


#6 - Weaseled out of stuff.

I don't think I've pumped gas at all since the 1st of the year. I hate going to the gas station.

#5 - Relaxed.

 Read a lot of books. Saw a lot of movies. Took a lot of walks. Enjoyed every minute of it.

We've had an very mild winter so we've been able to spend a lot of time outside. I don't think I've had to shovel snow once. Of course I probably would have found a way out of it, see #6 above.

#4 - I got socks for Christmas. 

Not just regular socks, but military boot socks. From Military Clothing.
That my husband bought on Christmas Eve.
They.Are.Special.

Mike now understands that socks are not an appropriate Christmas gift.

Disclaimer: They are REALLY warm and he says that's why he got them - because I was always complaining about my feet being cold. Problem solved.

#3 - Planned some really exciting trips for our last year in Europe. 

Greece, Turkey, Dubrovnik, Poland, Ireland, Spain, Paris, Provence
and maybe Morocco and Scotland.

I've got to get it all in while I can.

Less than a year and I still want to see everything!

#2 - Got some new family members! 

I got TWO new nephews in March! TWO! And, of course, I got an awesome new brother. Seriously, couldn't love Kevin more and he makes Jess so happy.

Love abounds!

#1 - Got orders to HAWAII!!! 

That's right, y'all, this blog is going tropical! I couldn't be more thrilled. I miss my beach so much. I've already got big plans: learning to surf & scuba, get serious about yoga, etc. I'm thinking about giving the blog an update so it fits more with that lifestyle, too. We'll see. I've got some time to work on it and see how it goes. Plus, Hawaii isn't a for sure done deal just yet. We both have to pass medical exams and I'm nervous about that but, God willing, we'll kick off 2015 in Hawaii!