High School Reunion

So, last weekend I attended my 10 year high school reunion in California and had a blast. It was great seeing old flames, friends and even teachers.

Here are a few pictures from the night...

Quick Little Update...

Just thought I'd share a few pictures from a little weekend trip AJ and I took not to long ago. We went to Rudesheim, which is about an hour away so it was local, but it was very relaxing and romantic.

Where would you like to go?

As our time here in Germany begins to dwindle down to its last day, I've been thinking of the places that we must see before we leave Europe.

AJ and I came up with the idea of us each making a list of our top three "must see" places in Europe and to make it a priority for us to visit them before we head back to America.

Here are the three that I came up with:

1. Switzerland
2. Prague
3. Disneyland Paris : )


So, my question to you is "Where would you like to go?"

What top three places in the world would you like to visit?

I'll go first:

1. Australia
2. Fiji
3. New York

My Life as I Know it…

My Life as I Know it…

I’ve received a few e-mails asking me questions, so I figured I’d share some things about me and my life with the world.

First of all I’m in the military, I’ve been in the Air Force for about 9 years now and Uncle Sam and all of the wonderful tax payers of America are the reason I get to travel and live the wonderful, although not so glamorous life that I live.

I love my job and I am truly proud to serve my country – the military has its ups and downs, but I’ve experienced more good then bad and I absolutely love my job.

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I’m currently in school and working towards my B.A in Communications with a minor in Sociology. One of my biggest regrets is not finishing up my degree sooner, but it is what it is.

School is my number one priority right now – we’ll be heading back to the states this year, so I’ll be buckling down and hopefully walking across that stage within the next year or so.

My ultimate goal is to complete my masters degree before my 35th birthday.

My Mom recently went back to school and got her bachelors degree, so she is my motivation and inspiration. I am so proud of her!

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I’ve recently taken up photography. I’m hoping to take a class when we get back to the states, but for now I’ve just been doing a lot of reading and trying to figure out how to work my camera.

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I’m a Golden Girls fanatic, I just can’t get enough of these ladies and I hope that when I reach the golden years of my life, that it is just as fun and fabulous as these women.

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That's all I can think of at the moment, but if you have any questions ask away...

Innsbruck, Austria & Munich, Germany!

Happy Belated 4th of July!

I know that not all Americans celebrate the 4th of July, but I proudly do. I truly love my country and am proud of the accomplishments and progress we have made. America is not perfect, but what country is?

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe weekend.

There were no fireworks for us on the 4th, but we still had a great time. We headed to Innsbruck, Austria and Munich, Germany with some friends for the weekend.

Innsbruck is beautiful and very scenic. We stayed at the Hilton which was very nice and we had a great view of the Olympic Ski Jump.

We did a little sightseeing, picture taking and eating in Innsbruck. We were here only one night, but that was plenty of time to see the city and enjoy what it had to offer.

The next day we set off for Munich and stopped off at Dachau along the way. Dachau was the first concentration camp here in Germany.

Being at Dachau was very sad, and I honestly couldn't bring myself to see all of it. It was weird to stand in rooms where people were murdered and treated so badly. I didn't take to many photos here (it didn't feel right), but please feel free to Google Dachau if you are interested in learning more.

One positive thing about our trip to Dachau that made me smile and feel even more proud, was the liberation of the camp by the U.S

After Dachau, we continued with our drive to Munich. Munich is my FAVORITE city in the world, because this is where I truly fell in love with my Husband. We met in Turkei (Turkey) but we had only been dating there and we weren't so serious.

In 2006 I flew home to California to spend the holidays with my family. My original itenerary had me staying in California through New Years and returning shortly after, but I found myself missing AJ so much, I couldn't stand it.

Anyway, to make a long story short - I changed my plans at the last minute and flew to Munich to spend New Years with my baby. I departed LAX on December 30th 2006 and arrived at Munich on December 31. AJ met me at the Airport and we had just enough time to drop off my bags in the room and make it to the fairgrounds where they were having this huge celebration.

I just knew from that moment on that he was "the one" and that I couldn't see myself living a life without him.

Okay, so back to the trip. We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton which is outside of the city, but close to the U-Bahn (train/subway station). The trip in to town was about a 5 minute ride on the U3. Our friends really wanted to go to the Hofbräuhaus, so this was our first stop at Munich - actually it was our only stop (we spent a long time here).

The Hofbräuhaus is a brewery in Munich with a bit of history. The Hofbräuhaus in Munich was one of the beer halls used by the Nazi Party to declare policies and hold functions.

Today it is a tourist attraction and well known for great beer. It seemed a bit cynical to come here after visiting Dachau, but I tried my best not to look at it like that and just enjoy our time in Munich.

If the name sounds familiar it may be that you've seen a version of the Hofbräuhaus in Las Vegas.

We ran into some interesting people here, this guy here was getting married in one week and was celebrating with his buddies. He was from France, and he went around offering people cheese, bread and wine and asking for donations for his wedding. We gave him 2 Euro, because well, it was comical...

Look at him!!!!!

AJ and I spent the rest of our time touring the city and enjoying each other.

Overall, this was a great trip... I'm not sure where we'll be headed next, but I'm hoping it's Switzerland or Prague!

Workout DVD Reviews...

As I was working out with my girl Mel B last week, I thought it would be cool to do a review of some of the workout DVD’s I own.

Mel B “Totally Fit”

This chicks body is insane and so are her workouts!

My first attempt at doing this DVD ended up with me lying on the floor just watching and thinking "is she serious?", but after a few attempts, I’ve managed to make it through some of the workouts.

Her DVD is broken out in the following sections:

Warm Up (5 min)

Cardio (15 min)

Advanced Cardio (20 min)

Abs (10 min) Legs (10 min)

Bums (10 min)

Tums (10 min) Cool Down

You can select which workouts you’d like to do and they’ll play back to back, so you don’t have to worry about going back and forth to the menu and clicking around to each segment.

The camera angles aren’t that great, it’s like they do too many close-ups of her face and body and you aren’t able to see the exercises to ensure you’re executing them correctly.
Anyway, the workouts are intense, quick and effective. I recommend this DVD, but shop around – I wouldn’t pay more then $5-10 for this.

Hip Hop Abs

Alright, I love these DVDs – Shaun T is comical! The comments he makes throughout the workouts will have you rolling. I’m not one to judge, but he is super “gay” fun gay though, like someone you’d want to hang out with and go shopping.

There’s a part when “Dontcha” by the Pussycat Dolls comes on and he is like “heyyyyyyyy, Omigodddd this is my jammmm!!!!!!!

I think his workouts are more for cardio then abs, but it is fun and you’ll work up a sweat.

I ordered this off of the Beachbody website, but I’m sure you can find a good deal on E-Bay if you’re interested.

Turbo Jam

Chalene is fun, but this DVD got old quick. Actually, I think once I got Hip Hop Abs I lost interest in Turbo Jam.

In my opinion Turbo Jam is similar to Tae Bo but not as intense. I haven’t done Turbo Jam in a while, but I remember liking it when I was doing it, but like I said earlier – it got old quick and I needed something new.

Chalean Extreme (I did a previous post on this one)

This is what I’m currently doing – It’s a 3 part system that’s supposed to get you to burn fat and get lean. It’s a 3 month program, but I’ve been stuck on part 1 for like 4 months.

There’s a lot of weight lifting (you can also use resistance bands) and some cardio. The concept of this is that muscle burns fat. I can’t comment on the other 2 parts because I haven’t made it that far.

I usually add Cardio with this, because I don’t think she does enough.

Belgium April 2009…

I completely forgot about this trip – we went to Brussels in April for a short weekend get away.

The drive is about 3 or 4 hours and the weather was really nice when we went. This trip was of course AJ's idea, but as always, i'm up for whatever.

We stayed at the Renaissance Brussels Hotel and got a pretty good deal that included free parking and free breakfast. They even had an indoor pool and jacuzzi, which we took full advantage of when we first got there. The walk to city center was about 15-20 minutes, but it was much needed after all the beer and food.

Brussels is famous for their beer, and they have a whole lot.

AJ being the beer connoisseur that he is, loves this place. I'm not a big fan of beer, but Brusells has fruit flavored beers that taste similar to a wine coolers. I can deal with these, my favorite flavors are peach and apple, cherry is very pospualy but it's really bitter to me.

Belgium is also famous for their chocolate which is so good. I spent a lot of time going in and out of the cholatier's "sampling" what they had to offer. We left with about 10lbs. of chocalate for us to share between the both of us (and I wonder why i've gained so much weight). You only live once and this chocolate is so good - like melt in your mouth, give you shivers good.

We were actually here around the same time last year so some of these pictures may be from 2008, they're a little mixed up in my folder.

Let the beer drinking begin...

Beer Heaven!

My baby - checking them all out

Fruity Beer sction - Apple Beer in my hand

Manneken Pis (Dutch for "little man pissng") Seriosuly! There are a lot of stories about this little guy and people flock to see him, if interested you can Google him and read up on his history. He doesn't do anything, so seeing it once is plenty.

99 Luftballons

Total randomness, but I heart this song. I know, i'm such a dork!

Road Trip 2009!

In May AJ and I took a road trip to Spain for some sun and fun. Well, I just wanted to relax and SLEEP – but I went along with the fun.

It’s about a 10 hour drive from where we live to Spain, so we decided to break the drive up on our way there. We departed Germany at about 5P.M and stopped in Givors, France for the night.

Givors is kind of dull, but we were pretty exhausted when we got there – so we searched for food and went straight back to the room for some sleep.

We found the best little hidden Italian restaurant and had some great food – I can’t tell you the name of it or where exactly it was, but it was delicious.

Here is a picture of the Hotel – I think it was called the Kyriad

A picture of the view from our room

The town – Givors, France

The next morning we took off for Spain! The drive to Spain seemed pretty quick – I think that was just because we were excited.

Our time in Spain consisted of mostly relaxing in the room, sightseeing, relaxing on the beach, shopping, relaxing at the bars/pubs/clubs, eating and drinking (not in that particular order).

Anyway, Spain was AWESOME! We actually extended our vacation one day because we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave. I really miss the beach and sunshine :(


Here are a few pictures…

On the balcony of our hotel room...

AJ trying to take a nap and me wanting a picture... AJ taking it all in... On the balcony... Sightseeing...

The drinks were 2 for 1...

Maybe I had one to many?

On the beach at night...

Sangria - some good stuff!

The spanish version of a Corona... The best Coffee ice cream i've ever had!

It’s our Anniversary!

One year ago today, I married my best friend and my life has been nothing but joy ever since.

I feel so honored and lucky to have my husband in my life!

Happy Anniversary!

Greatest Gift - Tamika Scott

Venice April 2009

AJ and I took a romantic trip to Venice in April and had a great time.

Venice is absolutely beautiful, but extremely expensive. Being the budget savvy people that we are, we stayed outside of Venice in a town called Mestre and just took the 5 minute, €1 train ride into Venice each day.

If you’re interested we stayed at Hotel Plaza, which wasn’t to glamorous, but it served its purpose.

I won’t be posting to many photos of me because I think I look so fat lately. I’m working on it though, it’s a slow process because I absolutely LOOOOVVVEEEE food.

Anyway, here a few pictures from our trip:

Waiting to board the flight... (We love RyanAir)

Checking out the sites

My little Italian bird friend...Venice is really beautiful and rustic- i'm still amazed at how these buildings are still standing with all of this water everywhere. Some of the vendors... It was crazy crowded...
This place had the best food and at a great price! On the train heading back to the hotel after a long wet day...