Reminder

Fall love letters from God.

Desk building

Tiny babies

The half marathon - pt 2

I finally did it!

The half marathon - pt one

Last run before the big day!

Relaxing nights

Yoga behind my piano.
Chocolate milk.

Long weekends

Naps in unmade beds

New glasses

Unhidden kitten

Homemade banana chocolate oatmeal cookies

Discoveries in the kitchen

Got a new recipe from my lover -- pinterest. And then my kitchen smelled of joyous Thai food.


You may find that recipe here:: http://www.consideringcampbell.com/2012/03/pinterest-challenge-winter-edition.html?m=1

You're welcome.

Lyrics

Whatever's in front of me I'll Choose to sing hallelujah.

It's the little things...

Sometimes I forget the blessed little details of life that bring joy to my heart. I'd like to start a record of them.

Number One
Always number one.

Little Sis is a Mom!

So once upon a time -- I had a little sister -- and then she passed me up in life and had a baby! Making me an aunt. A happy happy aunt. I have pics of the little fellow, but I never posted pics of her baby belly! She was adorable! I hope hope hope that my pregnancy and delivery are as amazing as hers! Seriously. Please be genetic.

Becca and Steve [November Wedding]

I had the opportunity to photograph a dear dear friend's wedding in the middle of fall. It was beautiful. The location set this amazing fall atmosphere -- and topped with Becca and Steve's zest for life, and love... I couldn't have asked for a better day! Becca was drop dead gorgeous, and Steve was super giddy with excitement to see his bride walk down the aisle for the first time!

Their story is one of God's utmost love for those who follow Him. When I think of them and their lives I am reminded of God's realness in our lives and how He loves to give us the desires of our hearts... even when we are least expecting it. Congrats Becca and Steve. D and I look forward to many dates with you awesome people! 

Folks, please don't take my pictures and use them as your own. That's just down-right mean.

Colorado Love

We can never get enough of this view.

{taken from the spot D proposed, just over 4 years ago}

Lessons Learned: Europe Edition by B,I, and E.

1. Don't lose your chewing gum. Chewing gum is very important.
2. Every city transportation system is different. Sometimes you keep your tickets to exit, sometimes you don't have to activate it more than once. If you don't know the system you may get stuck in the station (forcing yourself to jump turnstiles) or arrested. 
3. German is a cool language... but it didn't really make for good music. Germans singing Irish music is a little rough, too. German architecture makes up for it though.
4. European toilets: little button for little things, big button for big things.
5. European trains run on their own time... regardless.
6. Everything is normal on a European train.
7. Homeless men hangout at CDG airport, get drunk, sing, and get in fights at night.
8. One can in fact stay overnight at CDG for free.
9. Staying 17 hours in an airport isn't the best way to spend a day.
10. Have a back-up plan to your back-up plan.
11. Booking flights on an airline you know actually has customer service is a good idea.
12. The Vatican has a dress code. This may mean you cross dress.   

13. Pack snacks. Snacks will SAVE you!!

14. Europe is expensive - very expensive. Just suck it up and spend the money since you're already there. :) This is also the reason that you should pack tons and tons of snacks.

15. Traveling on countless planes and trains will make your ankles swell to the size of grapefruits. Just roll with it.

16. Smile really big when you don't speak the language and say thank you over and over again. Hopefully, the locals will find that charming instead of obnoxious.

17. When the people in the line in front of you at the airline counter are angry, grouchy, negative, rude, obnoxious, and totally debbie downers, ignore them completely. Smile at the poor guy who has had to put up with their ranting and be nice.

18. Don't let the Europeans cut in front of you in any line, regardless. Box out and block them - this goes for bathrooms, attractions, gelato, and airline counters. Stand your ground, yo.

19. People are just people, no matter where they live. They all have the same needs and feelings even in different countries. I think that is pretty awesome.
20. Be prepared to encounter God's creation, the nude form, pretty much everywhere... street corners to museum walls. :S
21. Do not force a visit to both the Louvre and the d'Orsay back to back... just go to the d'Orsay :).
22. The Mona Lisa is a postage stamp... make a decision early on what is important to you: a blurry, up-close picture of it while suffering elbow jabs and body shoves or standing back to watch with pure amusement how immature people of every culture can act in front of a 500 year old woman.     
23. Always, always have a backup plan.
24. In Europe, the customer is not always right. In fact, when customers are irritating and whinny, customer service representatives stop responding.  
25. Rent bicycles!
26. If you are offered whiskey at the Queen's birthday party, it is a necessary rite of passage to take a least a sip ;).
27. In the moment it is overwhelming and three weeks feels like an incredibly long time, but looking back it is hard to believe it happened, it was just a flash in time.

Falling Behind. Again.

Hi!!

Man life has been busy since the whirlwind trip that was Europe. D and I are officially settled in our small home in Cincinnati, and we are adjusting to life. D is starting his Masters work and I'm student teaching an hour away... so life still catches us by surprise once in a while. We are busy, to say the very least. As in - I'm lucky if I remember to shower everyday, please give me more that 5 hours of sleep, I need to be done with school, when will my husband go to bed -- kind of busy. I feel like life presses on you so hard sometimes and it takes everything inside, every fiber of strength, to resist being crushed.




I do have a few pictures I'd love to share with you. Not of the house... those will come eventually. But of a wedding I did this summer. My dear dear friend Brooke got hitched to this Air Force Doctor to-be, and their wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was stylish, classy, and really fun. They both have this joy for life and love -- it was truly unique. So enjoy a few pictures of B&C.

Love,
B

Kids say the darnest things...

(PAUSE) I have some good good things ahead for this lovely little blog that you think I've abandoned. I haven't left this little guy, and I have things like lessons, weddings, seniors, families, and school to share with you.

But until then, I just wanted to share with you two quotes from my new 6th grade students. They make me laugh.

" That teacher just said that I was a good kid! Clearly I'm not in any of her classes."

Students talking about protesting because they want to use cell phones in class...
"What about we do a violent protest... you know... with torches and toilet paper and stuff."

Formally inducted into the "Horror Travel Stories" club.

Sometimes when you think nothing else can go wrong, you soon realize it can.
This is an account of our journey home starting Saturday June 25th.
Saturday:
We woke up in Rome, pack up our bags, cleaned a little, and checked out of our adorable little apartment in Roma. Looking back the following decision may have been stupid... but we gave all of our bags (except our passport and train passes) to the lady we were renting the apartment from to keep in her car while we roamed around Rome for the day before our train left that night at 8.
**Side note** European trains don't run on time. At least the overnight ones don't. So we were prepared for delay. Which we encountered.
Spending the night in the train was alright (better than our journey there, at least). We were really sad to miss lunch with our friend W because of our lateness. We headed straight to Charles De Gaulle airport (because we are poor college students who became more poor in Europe) to spend the night. Please note that we arrived there at 2pm on Sunday and camped out waiting for our plane that left Monday at 8am.
It was about 10-hours (mid-night) the Irene came back from a bathroom walk and told us that our flight through Icelandic Air was cancelled. Since this news was directly after an exchange of hilarious stories and embarrassing moments... we didn't believe her. It took about ten minutes for everything to set into my mind, but little did I know that was just the beginning.
Around 2 am D, E, and I walked around the concourse looking for Icelandic Air just to see what time an attendant would be there. Oddly enough, we couldn't find where they were located. We asked a man and we couldn't understand him, so we decided to just get as much sleep as we could, wake up early, and begin figuring everything out. It was 4am that the lights came on in the airport and we couldn't sleep any longer. After asking several people, we found out that we had to go to this makeshift place where we could rebook our tickets. Surely, we thought, there was just not many people booked on the early flight, so they would just stick us on the later flight.
When we got to the line that labeled our desk on printer paper there were others there camped out on seats already in line. It took only five minutes to listening to what they had to say to be completely overwhelmed, stressing out, and on the brink of tears. They said they've been stuck in Paris for two days because Icelandic Air is currently undergoing a strike. Most flights have been cancelled, and the company has contracted one person in CDG to rebook every single person. The computer was old, no one would answer questions, and they were less than sympathetic. So, we waited. We ere warned to be aggressive as people began to wander to the counter and take our spots.
At one point, Irene was leading the pack and a French couple walked up next to us and stood there. We were only about 2 people away from being at the front of the line... and the line itself extended quite far behind us at this point. At first, Irene scooted up. And then they came close to us (obviously with the intentions of cutting us). Irene then leaned over and put her arm on the desk counter (making it even more obvious that we weren't letting them in). As they proceeded to get close she just hopped up and sat on the desk counter. That-a-girl. The French lady asked E a question about the line, and with no sleep and a slightly stressed out E just stared blankly at the lady and pointed to the back of the line. It pretty much made my day.
We a little relieved when we got tickets (after about 2 hours of waiting) through Air France. We were headed to Montreal that afternoon. Hesitant about checking our bags, we waited in a terribly long line to check in and get our tickets, only to find out at border/customs that we had to check our bags (except Irene slipped in with hers... sneaky little girl). E and I manned Daniel with our carry-on, and waited 40 more minutes to check our bag. We met up, and wait another hour to get through customs. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that when we checked in to get our tickets, they put Irene on a wait list for our flight. With a little layover in Montreal to get to JFK, we couldn't afford for her to be put on another flight. Daniel was going to offer his seat, and then we decided that if he was going to offer his seat, I may as well give mine up as well (we married kids gotta stick together).
Luckily, after standing in hours of more lines, Irene got on. Praise the Lord. Home free, right? No more problems!
Except that we missed our connection flight in Montreal because we were delayed in Paris (CDG strike). Awesome. I know. Still operating on 2 hours of sleep and a millions pounds of stress, we were re-ticketed to LaGuardia. While we were thankful to be headed to the U.S., E and Irene were not going to be able to make their connecting flight from JFK (where we were suppose to initially arrive) to Denver. Not to mention that their flights from JFK to Denver were book at different times, so neither Air France nor Air Canada could help them. As we when through border control at Canada, got our bags, checked back into Air Canada, and went through U.S. customs, we were running for our plane to the U.S (at first the lady said that Irene and E could not check in because they were too late, and so Daniel and I went on, but the lady was on crack and got them on the same flight anyways).
So there we were in New York LaGuardia when we should have been at JFK 8 hours earlier. Still with only about 3 hours of sleep under us, tired, hungry, stressed, and E and Irene without a plane to Denver. Through they talked with Jet Blue reps, it became clear that they would have to travel to JFK and wait in more lines before figuring something out. Daniel and grabbed a taxi and made a crazy journey to Queens where we would sleep and get up for our morning flight to Indianapolis.
Periodic texts from Irene and E told us that they were waiting in ridiculously long lines, fighting with people getting to Puerto Rico, and just trying to make it through the day without collapsing. It wasn't until around 11pm that we got news that they were able to get on a flight at 4pm the next day arriving in Denver (with a layover) late late that night. Poor girls. We thought they were just cuddled up in the airport or another sleepless night. In the morning we found that they decided to get a hotel for the night so that they could get some sleep.
As I write this we are about to land in Indianapolis. we have sad hearts knowing our dear friends are still waiting for their flight to Denver. We are, however, thankful that everyone is getting home. We didn't have to stay another night in Paris, we have all of our luggage, we were never pick pocketed (that we know of...), and we still all look back with fondness of our adventure in Europe.
Stay tuned as more stories and pictures come trickling in about our trip through Europe. E is going to write about the Louvre, and d'Orsay and D is going to be writing about the BMW Museum. I plan on posting a few more things from Rome and an overall "Lessons Learned" blurb from all of us.
Thanks to our family and friends (and friends who are family) who have supported us through the planning process and transition period. In the midst of traveling the world we missed home dearly because of you.

Munich!

D and I arrived in Munchen from Brussels by train. we have decided that train is by far our favorite way to travel. It's easy, relaxing, and you get to see some beautiful scenery. And, for those who are rich and thirsty, they even have a bar car where you can chug booze until your heart is content. I love Europe.
We made it to the place we were staying with no problems at all. The city wide transportation system was the easiest we've found so far (although we learned by our host that we could have been in a world of trouble because we didn't activate our tickets properly that first ride to her place). And that first night we decided to hit up the most well-known beer garden in all the world: Hofbrauhaus. All the waiters and waitresses were dressed in traditional German clothing and musicians played traditional German music. Seating was seat yourself family style... meaning you normally sat next to strangers on a long bench. I guess after a few beers you don't really care who you sit by. Daniel ordered schweinshaxe (grilled beef knuckle... I don't think it is actually knuckle, unless pigs have huge knuckles) with a liter of the original brew, and I or the HB sausage platter with saurkraut, pretzels, and a half-liter of a Radler (half original beer and half lemonade... perfect girl beer). The beer house was an awesome experience, and we were both really glad that we spent our dinner there. After dinner we walked home. After we told our host what we did that night and that we walked home, she looked at us with a surprised looked and exclaimed, "Are you guys really American?!?!"

The next day we spent exploring the BMW museum, dodging the rain, napping for 2.5 hours, and then finding the only restaurant open after 8pm (that wasn't sit-in)... Subway. I'm going to let Daniel enlighten you about the BMW Museum in the coming days. We both had a great time, and for different reasons.




On Sunday we decided to take a short train and bus ride to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Unprepared for what we were going to see and learn, we left the site with a completely different understanding of WWII. The unjust treatment of innocent people was the hardest part for me to understand. How could anyone purposefully torture, humiliate, and kill innocent people on a day to day basis for years? Daniel and I left the camp in awe and wonder. Why didn't God intervene? The pictures, videos, and places we saw are forever engrained in our heads. Though we left with heavy hearts, we still strong encourage anyone to go if you have the opportunity. It brought a new, very real, aspect to the treatment of "others" during WWII.




Sunday night we decided to get off the train at a random stop downtown and walk until we found dinner. One thing we have found that we love about Munchen is the fact that there are always festivals, good food, beer, and markets. It took about 50m of walking until we found a huge festival with multiple musicians set up along the street and awesome food to be had. That night we experienced schnitzensimmel (flattened pork, breaded, and grilled/fried on a wonderful bun) from two places. The first one was horrible and cold... but once I saw a man carrying one from another place that was hot and crispy... I had to try it again. We also got another radler from the beer garden. We continued walking around. Daniel got some roasted cashews from a man that made fun of my accent, and we stopped to listen to an Irish rock band perform before taking the train home.

Munich was an amazing city. Daniel and I both agreed that of all the places we've had the pleasure to visit, that Munich felt most like "home". We loved the culture, the people, the food, the music, and the city vibe. We really hope that we can return to Germany again in the future.

Europe Trip Pt 1 (a poem by Irene)

Brooklyn giggles at D's fun
His biking antics are no where near done
In Brussels we ate tons of Frits
Irene was very much a ditz
Em bought a billion choco eggs
We all think she has really nice legs
In Paris we saw tons of art
For dessert we had a brown sugar pop-tart
Once we ate nothing but bread and cheese
We think the Heredia's are the best bee's knees.