Warning: This much cute may cause temporary blindness.

Decembers Past

I've been a bit nostalgic lately. I'm not sure if it's because of the end of the year, or if Christmas is making me sentimental, but I've had an idea I'm going to pursue.

I'm really enjoying blogging--I hope there are those of you out there that are enjoying reading my ramblings. :) Well, I'm wishing I had better documented our time here--all the adventures and trips we took over the last three years before I was blogging. My plan is to highlight some of these photos monthly, to reflect on our time in Germany as we work our way through this last year.

One of my favorite things here has been the Christmas markets. More photos to come, but here are a few from December of 2006 when we went to Maria Laach and Koln.

This room could even cheer up Baumholder

I lived in the same house from birth until I left for college. I have a great fondness for the memories that are attached to "home" and it was something that I worried would bother me about the military lifestyle. Since we've been married, Justin and I have only made one (maybe two and a half if you count us moving home from college and then me joining him in OK after the wedding) move, from Oklahoma to Germany.

I messed up that move, not knowing the ins and outs of the system for moving overseas...there are different shipments and in my naivete I misunderstood what should go with which shipment. Basically it's a fast ship for essentials and a slower one for everything else. I understood it, instead of fast and slow, as big and small. Don't ask me how I got mixed up...those were confusing days in retrospect.

Well, because we didn't have many big things, when they came first to pick up those items, I let them take all of those items I deemed "big." The bed, the Pink Chair, the crappy table and chair set that we never put together correctly, and the bookcase. I think that was just about it. When the movers came the next time to get the "small things" (what was really the essential shipment), they were like, "Whoa. You're going to be over your weight limit. All of this stuff should have gone with the other shipment." I was upset, but it all worked out just fine, and I'll know better for our next move.

Even though it's still not for a little while, every day bring us closer to moving back to the states and I get more and more excited about it every day. As much as moving is a hassle, I think there are positive aspects to it as well. For one, I think it will help me keep our lives as uncluttered as possible because the more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to move, and that's a great motivator to pare things down.

Another thing about moving that is both a positive and negative is the fact that you get to/have to redecorate. Our current place has LOTS of built in storage space, especially in the bedrooms and kitchen. This being the case, we don't even have a dresser for our bedroom. We have "wooden" flooring, so here we have rugs. You get the idea. While I can imagine this might become a headache as we move from place to place, it's also an opportunity to renew our surroundings and keep things fresh.

As a child, I always LOVED it when my mother would decide to rearrange the furniture. Don't ask me why, but I got a huge kick out of shoving the couches around the living room and my sister and I used to move our furniture around in our shared bedroom for fun as well. Yes, that's right--I said for fun.

Anyway, I really enjoy getting design inspiration, and I saw an AWESOME room over at Apartment Therapy Ohdeedoh that I just had to share.

Isn't it fabulous?

Click here for the whole slideshow!