Why I love Michelle Obama

1. She appeared on one of my favorite tv shows, The Biggest Loser, to cheer on the contestants and to promote her Let's Move campaign. In one of the interviews with her on this episode she said she is willing to make a fool of herself sweating and working out on national television if it inspires kids to get up and move.

2. She loves to garden and looks fabulous doing so.

3. She loves nurses and acknowledges that nursing will help move healthcare forward in this country. She even came to my school to tell us that.

4. She also loves military families and focuses a lot of her time on meeting their needs.

5. She is a supportive wife, involved mother, ridiculously talented professional, and somehow she finds the time to take care of herself. When she spoke I felt like I was sitting at her kitchen table with her. She's graceful and sassy and brilliant and full of class. 

I love that she is our First Lady.

Home Sweet Home

Last Saturday, we decided to move. It's a longish story filled with bouts of my dramatic inability to make decisions and Ben's very matter-of-fact, very logical ability to make decisions. "We" finally decided on a place. To help our landlord out, we took some pics of our current place. It made me realize that I never posted pics of our little Philly home on our blog once it was all set up. So here they are...right before everything is about to change. Hopefully it won't take me 10 months to document our next place.

The lovely Spring view from our window

 The family room

My candy apple red kitchen

The entrance

My current laboratory =)

From the family room

We did the best we could to spruce it up but this is my least favorite part about the apartment

Our bedroom

The "living room" 

Can't believe it's already been 10 months!!

Spring has visited our block

Just a few more Europe pics...

Well can you tell school started back up again? January happened and it's hard to believe I'm almost to Spring Break! I suppose when your semester finishes up at the end of April they have to fit it in somewhere. Silly semester system. I've been taking OB and really loving it. Lots of baby-holding and diaper changes and contraction counting and trying desperately to count a baby's heart beat. You should try it sometime, it's quite difficult! Can't say it hasn't made me want one! I've seen amazing wonders of modern medicine though am positive I'd like to try to give birth as naturally as possible. However, I've also learned that as strong as natural intentions can be, it's still wise to be open to interventions if needed. 

Anyway, enough on nursing for now. I just wanted to post some more pictures from our European trip so I can move on to posting about our Philly winter. 

In between Christmas and New Year's, Ben and I had the opportunity to drive up to Frankfurt to meet up with my dear college friend Valerie and her fiance David. Valerie and I lived together all three years that I was at UCLA. She was and is my bosom friend (as we liked to call each other A of GG style) and no matter the time or distance between our reunions, we always seem to pick up where we left off. It seems like only yesterday we were freshmen and making fun of ourselves for going to dormal....

I can hardly believe it's been almost 7 years since graduation when we parted ways...

I know she'll be a lifelong friend. I just wish there wasn't quite as much time or quite as much distance between us! It works out quite well that both her's and Ben's parents live in Germany at the moment, giving us a nice meeting place. 

Reunited at last!

Frankfurt

Loved the chance to spend more time getting to know her future husband. He's wonderful.

They had to explain to us the meaning of all these locks on the bridge. Apparently, when two people fall in love in Germany, they buy a lock, have their initials engraved in it, attach it to a bridge and throw away the key in the river! So cute. One of V & D's Christmas presents this year was their very own lock which they attached to the bridge in Cologne, where her parents live. Love it.

Thanks for spending your special birthday with us, Valerie! I love you and miss our late night fro yo runs, Friends marathons, De Neve adventures, and the laughing that made us tear up. Mostly I miss processing just about everything with you. Can't wait to see you again.

Another very special part of our European trip was spending so much time with our niece. She has grown a lot since we saw her last and will have grown even more by the time we see her next. We loved getting a two-week snap shot of her life as a 2-year old. We moped around for days after saying goodbye to her =)

Playing with Elmo on the iPad

Looking forward to the fall when we get to see her and her parents again =)

Valentine's Day and Marriage

God gave me the gift of a wife and Kristin is her name. She teaches me lots of things, she is patient with me when I am selfish. She makes me laugh, cry and everything inbetween. God gave me her to make me more like Him.

Europe Installment 6: Kandern Then and Now

Tucked away in the gently rolling hills of the southwest tip of the Black Forest in Germany, there is a small town of major significance. 

To say that Kandern is where Ben attended high school would be factual, albeit a gross understatement. However, there are few individuals who can explain exactly what Kandern means to him. Every time I visit, I understand a little more.

I visited Kandern for the first time back in 2002 when Ben and I had just started dating. 

I came over with a group of our friends from Mount Hermon. We had an awesome time exploring the little town where Ben grew up and visiting various places in the region. Looking at the picture below just now, which was taken 9 years ago,  I realized some fun details:  four of us were in Annie's (friend to my left) wedding this past June! Actually, since this picture was taken, Annie and I became sisters! (in-law) Kim (friend to Annie's left) and her husband Dave (not pictured but he is my friend from home and Ben's roommate at Mount Hermon) were among our best friends in Millbrae. Jake (crazy hair) and Ben were each other's best men. Forever thankful for Mount Hermon friendships.

Ro 1 from 2002!!

From wild and crazy rides in the catering van to adventures in Europe, this guy could always make me laugh.

That year was the first time I met some of Ben's closest friends from high school...John Walker, Peter Barrett, Matt Cruse, Phil Storrs....friends I now get to call my own. 

I actually still remember the moment the picture above was taken...I remember ordering my first beer and I remember Annie taking a sip of her drink and saying, "tastes like Hawaii!" and I remember Peter (who is sitting to my left) telling me about a girl he loved a whole lot back then. She went to their high school too. Her name is Kara, he loves her even more today and I am now lucky enough to call her my friend too. Peter and Kara are the amazing friends we visit when we go to D.C.

John (at the bottom of the picture) married Katie, another one of Ben's dear friends from high school. The first time I met Katie, I was visiting Kandern at a pretty awkward point in Ben and my's relationship. In fact, we had just broken up! (It's a long story). Regardless, Katie was so kind and warm to me. I remember thinking how sad I was that I would never get to be friends with her since Ben and I would be parting ways. Fortunately, about three years later, Ben and I figured things out, and I got to be friends with Katie again =) She was visiting Kandern too when we got there this time! AND she is pregnant with their second. So fun to see her and Luca. 

Ben building towers so Luca and Lucie could knock them down.

This time I tried to take some pictures in front of things I knew I had photos of from 2002. It didn't turn out exactly how I had hoped, but that was 9 years ago! Crazy. Here are some then and now shots.

Ben and Annie in Freiburg, 2002.

Ben in Freiburg, 2011.

France in the background, 2002.

France-ish in the background, 2011. (Can you tell from our sweatshirts we are Californians? =)

In the gazebo, 2002.

Gazebo, 2011.

I wish everyone who considers Ben their friend could visit Kandern. He graduated with about 70 kids. I'd say at least half of his friends (including his sister) married someone from BFA (Black Forest Academy...his high school), just to give you an idea of how close they were. Ben is somewhat of an exception in that he married outside of BFA. I think one reason why Ben and I "work" is because I come from a pretty small, close-knit community in Canyon Creek, and so can understand a TINY BIT what it was like for him. Living in France for a year helped me to understand the Europe thing a little. His family and friends welcoming me in helps immensely.

And during trips like these, where I get to spend hours walking the streets and hills of the closest thing to home he's ever known, listening to his stories, trying to see the world through his teenage eyes, understanding more and more why he is who he is...well, what can I say, I just fall deeper and deeper in love.

Next Installment: Feuerbach aka my favorite story Ben told