Europe 2013: Germany

I'm determined to get up the rest of our Europe trip pictures before 2014! First up were the photos from Austria, and now from our trip through southern Germany.

After spending a couple days in Vienna and Salzburg, we began our road trip through Germany. This was an especially meaningful part for Paul and I since we got to visit the towns where our family was from. The first night we stayed in Heilbronn, which is where my Oma was born. We visited her neighborhood of Böckingen and the church where she was baptized. It was so sweet! On our return drive we stayed in the beautiful city of Heidelberg which is where Paul's ancestors originated from. We even got to stay at the "Schmitt Hotel!" Although as far as we know there's no connection. On our last afternoon, we took a tour at the concentration camp memorial site in Dachau. It was a very sobering and well taught tour that we will always remember. Overall Germany was beautiful and we hope we can spend more time there someday!

Europe 2013: Austria

Our trip started out in beautiful Vienna where we were warmly welcomed by our friends Pia and Johannes. It was such fun to see them again and we reconnected and took off our friendships just as they were last summer. On the third day, we took a drive to Salzburg which may have been my very favorite place of the whole trip. Our friends were gracious tour guides and we truly loved their gorgeous country!

Overall my impression of Austria was charming, historical, snow cap mountains, crystal blue lakes, delicious bakeries, and the very best schnitzel! Next up: Germany!

Making Plans

We've had so much fun this week Skyping with Pia and Johannes as we nail down some of the details for our upcoming trip to Europe. The thing about traveling overseas, is that we know this isn't something we'll get to do very often, so it can be tempting to try and cram in as many places as possible. But the reality is, we won't be able to see everything we want, so we just have to pick and choose what makes sense! So, after much discussion, the four of us decided that the best use of our time and resources will be to take a road trip! Woo hoo! After spending some time in Vienna, we'll head through Salzburg to Germany and pass through the towns where Oma was born and where Paul's family is from. So special! Then we'll head up over to France and spend a few days in Paris. After that we'll start heading back through Zurich and perhaps dip down to spend some time in Milan depending on how we're feeling and our timing. We'll round out our days back in Vienna and perhaps take a day trip to Budapest or Prague. Is this a dream?

A Trip to Remember

Excitement is buzzing around here! Tickets have been purchased and plans are being made. This Fall, Paul and I will embark on the trip of our dreams. We're going to Europe!

Ever since Pia and Johannes visited us last year, we've been just wishing and chatting and whispering our hopes to visit them too. We started following flight prices a little while ago, and found it was just SO expensive to travel. But then this past weekend, my mom suggested a reroute of our flights and we figured out a way to save hundreds of dollars from the original flights! So we jumped on it! Hooray! Thank the good Lord for moms :)

So just shortly after our 2nd wedding anniversary, we'll spend almost two weeks city and country hopping around with our two very dear friends. I can't believe it's real! At night after dinner we've been tossing around which places we'd like to see and the best ways to travel. Our home base will be Vienna, so we'll definitely do visits to bordering countries. But we kind of want to do maybe one bigger trip too. My pick is to Paris and Paul's pick is Rome. I have visited Rome before and absolutely loved it, so I just know we can't go wrong. So much of the fun is in the planning and anticipation!

Run, Reunite & Relax

I've been a bad blogger recently, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been lots going on! Here's a little recap of some of our favorite events in the past two months.

In January, Paul ran his very first marathon! He somehow convinced our friend Brent to run as well, although neither of them had trained very much. But they did awesome and we had a really fun weekend with our family and friends!

At the beginning of February, my lifelong friend Annie and her husband came for a "babymoon" to Arizona! It was such a fun evening with them and their sister & brother-in-law and am so thankful that I got to see my dear Annie pregnant! She was just gorgeous like always. And when I learned they would be in town, I quick got my act together and completed my first ever baby quilt for them. I'm so excited for their little girl to arrive this spring :)

And just after Valentines Day, Paul and I got to use some hotel points that were about to expire for a little staycation. We read by the pool, walked around town, went out to dinner, slept in late, went out to breakfast, did a little shopping and enjoyed our 24 hours of luxurious city living!

Getting Settled

We are so overjoyed to be officially moved in to our new home. What a gift! We're still trying to get the hang of the new space. And I think with time, it'll feel more comfortable, and things will start to make sense. But for now I'm still in the stage of figuring out where things should go, what will work well with our natural living habits, and how to start making this place cozy.

It isn't really ready for a proper room tour yet, but I did want to capture a few moments so I can always remember these first few days. Above you can see:

1. I was so super super giddy as we began bringing in our bags and boxes from our car. It was so surreal!
2. I'm still getting used to the tile floors all over. It makes the ground super chilly, which I am sure we will love come July. But for now I'm wearing slippers all the time.
3. Deciding if I like the lamp base and shade combo. The bases I got from the Habitat Re-store, and the shades are from Home Goods and I added the black trim last week. What do you think?
4. Our little dining nook. This is probably the most "put together" spot in our house right now. I love the fixture and rug Mom got us for Christmas! (both from Overstock.com)
5. Putting together the shelves in my office space! They recently had a makeover and I find myself glancing over at them while I work throughout the day, just to take a peak. That's when you know you really like something.
6. Paul, Brent and our first out of town visitor, Ben, were working hard to put up the pendant lights over our kitchen island. They did an awesome job. I'm so thankful.
7. Our first minutes in the house together!
8. Sampling a few paint colors. For some reason choosing colors is really stressing me out. I wish I was more decisive.
9. Just a little glimpse of the many piles of boxes still scattered throughout our home!

Part of me wants everything to already be unpacked and settled, but then I try to remind myself how precious these beginning days are, even with all their chaos and confusion. I hope we will always look back and remember how very sweet it was these first moments in our first home together. And someday soon this place will feel so familiar – I'll know the little spots on the walls, and all the little nooks and corners and quirks like the back of my hand. And that will be so nice and comfortable. But for now, it's still new, and we're still getting to know each other, this house and I. So for now I may not know which drawer I stuck the scissors in, or where my favorite sweater is, or what's the best spot for the dinner plates, but I think we're going to get along just fine. This house feels like just the right fit for my Paul and me (and hopefully a few more someday too!).

Today's the Day!

Today is the day Paul and I have been dreaming about for over 7 months now! In a few minutes we will be heading over to our new house to pick up our keys and start moving in!!! We can hardly believe the day has come!!!

Last weekend, we packed up our apartment and moved out of our first Arizona home. We needed to be out by the end of December which left us with a tricky 5 day gap with no place to live. Thankfully, our dear friends here offered their home to us since they would be out of town this week anyways. We are so thankful for all the little ways the Lord has provided for us during this transition time. Speaking of which, we were so blessed to have this crew come help us pack our truck on Sunday.

What a difference it was to a year ago when we moved in. At that time our only moving help was my parents. It was a big job last January for 4 people. But now we have the most precious community at our church, Valley Life, and we are so humbled that we were completely moved out in just 2 hours!

On Monday morning we had our final walk through with our project manager. Then on Wednesday morning, we signed our closing documents and forked over the big bucks!

This process has gone so fast and so slow all at the same time :) And there were definitely many moments when I was unsure if I even wanted to stay in Arizona, let alone purchase a house here. But as the story unfolded, I'm so thankful that I can see how God has guided our steps all along the way through my husband's leadership and through the revealing of His plans for our family. And I know there is so much more I don't even know or understand. So for this gift, we give Jesus the glory, honor and praise!

I promise I'll be back soon with a little tour of our new pad ;)

The Best Kind of Surprise

On Thursday, I got the best kind of surprise. It started with a text message at 10:14 am from one Miss Kirstie Beth: "What's Courtney's Instagram all about?" I grabbed my iPod Touch and opened my app and stared, with much confusion, at a photo Courtney had posted of an apartment door. "What is that?" I thought. I looked a moment longer. "That's our apartment number." A light bulb went on. No. It couldn't be. I scurried to our front door, and found the sweetest girls standing right there. At my front door! Thousands of miles from their own cozy homes. Here was my response: (No, I don't usually talk like a mouse. At least I don't think so? I was just super surprised and excited)

Isn't that the best?  I have the very best friends! They pulled off this surprise visit beautifully. I had no clue! We then proceeded to have a wonderful weekend of

catching up (because it's so much more fun in person than over the phone!)
surfing on the Anderson's iPad
snacking on delicious TJ finds
shopping at the outlets - a stones throw from our new house
exploring our future stomping grounds
visiting my parents in their cute mountain town
Starbucks (some of our faves include: Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte, Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Macchiato)
talking about babies and houses and husbands
movies (Argo in the theater and Emma at home)
and all the charms and treats a girls weekend brings.

They both made big sacrifices to leave their precious babies at home for a weekend away and it was pure fun, encouragement and joy! I feel so refreshed and so thankful for such dear friends.

Backpack Dreams

Hi all! Today's my day off and the weather has finally been cooling down this week! Right now it's 83 degrees and breezy and I am about to head off to run some errands on my bike. And while I'm thankful for my husband's black Jansport from 1995 (it does the job, I'll give it that!), I must say I'd much rather be cruising town with this beauty. Hey, it's free to dream! I'll just have to imagine this is on my back instead :)  Happy Friday!

(ottobags on etsy)

When The Austrians Were Here

Last week I had the sweet blessing of reuniting with my dear friend, Pia. She and I met almost 5 years ago when we were both in China, and I hadn't seen her since we left 4 years ago. Since then, she has completed 4 years of medical school, I've changed career paths a few times, and we've both gotten married. Despite all these changes and the thousands of miles and oceans and continents that separate Phoenix (or Palatine, or Wheaton...) and Vienna, the moment she and Johannes hopped in our car at the airport, it felt like no time had passed at all. How precious to have a friend like this! And an added bonus that our sweet husbands liked each other as well. It was a refreshing week of laughs, adventures, conversations, lessons and fun. So much joy! So thankful.

365 Days as Mrs. Schmitt

Yesterday was our 1st Wedding Anniversary! What a blessing it has been to be married to Paul Schmitt. I've loved every single day that I have gotten to be his wife!  Last night we were able to go out to dinner and we had a really sweet time reflecting on our favorite memories of the past year. We talked about moments from our wedding weekend, holidays together, our first apartment, our big move to the west, never having to say "goodbye," and just the joys of living and sharing life together! I told Paul that even though I love to remember back on all those sweet first days as husband and wife, I am so happy about where we are one year into marriage. We have learned so much about each other...how to love each other better, how to "fight" well, how to serve one another selflessly...what a gift.  Today is the first day of year two and I am so excited for the next 365 days ahead.

Be Brave

We've been really into the Olympics here in the Schmitt household. The past week we've tuned in almost every night to watch our favorite athletes compete against the best in the world. I have personally grown quite attached to those adorable "Fab Five" gymnasts as well as the super humble and smiley women's swimming team. I've grown so attached to them in fact, that I told Paul they kind of feel like my friends. I've been thinking about why this is, what it is about these people that draw me in. Is it their incredible athletic abilities? Or perhaps NBC's coverage of their real life stories? And I think I've kind of figured it out.

They make me want to be brave.

I watch them get out in front of the whole world and try to perform their very best. And usually they do. But sometimes they don't and there's always that chance that they're going to mess up in front of millions of people. I think that's so brave!

You see, for the past while, really the past 7 months, I have been preparing to open up this little shop. Now it may not be Olympics worthy, but it has been the place where I have poured my energy and time and thoughts. I have nitpicked over details, changed my mind a thousand times, asked close friends and family for advice and studied other shops and businesses. And even though each piece has been carefully considered, there has been one huge missing piece these past weeks. And that was the courage to open. I haven't been very brave. Now I don't know if it was the adrenaline rush of watching the Olympics this past week, or just the fact that my heart and soul are finally ready, but over the weekend I gave myself the push I needed to wrap up a few loose ends, and finally press publish.

I knew I would never feel totally ready, and I know that I'll always want to revise my designs and strive for "better." But I feel so relieved to have finally taken this step. Sure, I might mess up. And no, it probably won't be live in front of millions of people (thank goodness!). But for me, opening up shop is a jump worth taking. Because otherwise there is no chance of winning gold!

My Visit to Illinois

I had such a great trip to Illinois this month! It was a big bummer to be away from Paul for two weeks, but other than that it was such a wonderful time of refreshment. I was able to attend two dear friends' weddings, go into work during the weekdays, connect with so many friends, meet lots of new babies and make a visit to MN to see family. Here are some snapshots from my trip!

There's No Place Like Home

As promised, today I have a really fun and exciting announcement. This past weekend, Paul and I bought a house! But this isn't just any house. It's a house that doesn't exist yet. That's right, we are building a new house!

{doesn't he look so good standing there on our lot!?}

We are so excited for this new adventure and it was just amazing to see how the Lord led us to this decision. We'd been casually house hunting for about a month or maybe a little more, with a realtor we really like. The market here in Phoenix is picking back up, and so homes were moving pretty quickly – especially in our price range. Our realtor suggested new builds to us, and actually we hadn't really even considered it because we didn't realize something like that could be in our price range.

{here I am in our backyard. we love those mountain views!}

So she took us about 15 minutes north of where Paul works to a developing community and we fell in love :) (ok so I had more of the "fall in love" feelings and Paul had more of the "this could realistically work well for us" mindset). We were so thrilled to find that we could get a larger yard, and a little more square feet than the resales we had been touring. After we saw the model and the lot on Saturday, we went up to Prescott to see what my parents would advise. They helped us brainstorm a lot of questions and concerns we should address before moving forward, and then they came back down to Phoenix with us Monday morning. We sat and had all our questions answered, and my parents both thought this would be a good choice for us. It was important to Paul and me that we have both of our parents' support, since we trust their judgement and they have much more homebuying experience than us! It finally came down to, "why wouldn't we move forward with this?" I'll admit, I was the enthusiastic one, and Paul was the cautious one, but we did come to an agreement that we would put down our deposit and sign the contract. Yay!

{we're so excited!}

The home is in a stunning location with beautiful mountains on 3 sides. It's really close to a large lake here in AZ and a huge recreational attraction. Even though the neighborhood feels "out in the country" it's actually just about 7 minutes to the closest shopping area. We have a large yard and our neighbors aren't right on top of us, which was one of our disappointments with Phoenix real estate we'd seen so far. Something that both Paul and I feel excited for is that the home just feels like it will cultivate a "slower" pace of life. It's quiet and surrounded by such beautiful creation, we both are praying that this will be a home where we will draw nearer to the Lord individually and as a family, without a lot of distractions. The sales lady pointed out to me a couple neighbors on our street and around the block who are also newlyweds, and there is a mix between young families and older retirees.

{our cute little street}

We feel so incredibly blessed and peaceful that God has lead us to this home. I am looking forward to "putting down roots" here and investing in our community and our church. It'll be a while before we actually get to move into our new home, but I'll keep you all updated. Our next step is to head to the "design center" in a couple weeks to choose some of the finishings for the home. You know I'm looking forward to that ;)

May Recap

This month we've really just been livin' life. Paul is getting into the swing of his new job (and hitting it out of the park I might add) and I've just been doin my thing. It's warmed up here quite a bit, but I haven't really minded it as much as I thought I would (ask me again in August...).

So, to recap some of our fun times:

We made a couple visits up to beautiful Prescott to visit my parents. It's too hot (in our opinion) to hike down here in the valley anymore, but it's perfect weather up there in the mountains!

We also went to the Scottsdale Rib Fest. One of Paul's favorite summertime events to attend back in IL was the Rib Fest in Naperville, so we thought we would give this one a shot. It was their 3rd year, and overall we'd say it was okay...we were glad we had a Groupon. Paul looks a lot cuter in his picture than I do. I just think it's hard for a girl to look cute holding a rib. But he made me do it for the picture. Plus it was really hot that day (although surprisingly comfortable under the tent).

And this past weekend we went with my parents to the Western Art Show on the main square in Prescott. It was a lovely day, and Mom and I got shaved ice! Yummm.

All-in-all it's been a great May and birthday month for Paul (my main squeeze turns the big 2-9 on Thursday!).

Come back tomorrow for a really exciting Schmitt Family Announcement! The adventures continue...

To Blog or Not To Blog

Obviously I've had some commitment issues with my blog this month. Woopsidaisy.

Honestly, I feel like there's this nagging battle going on inside of me in regards to blogging. Who am I? Am I a blogger? Why do I do it? Am I just trying to get people to like me? Sometimes other people's blogs make me feel like my life is not pretty/fun/exciting/trendy enough. Do I even like blogs? It is fun to look back on the last couple years and remember certain days/events/stages. So maybe it's cool. etc etc etc...

But, apparently my mom and Janell are waiting for me to post again (see previous post comments), and today felt like something blog worthy, so here I am.

I've mentioned before that ever since our move to Arizona, I'm working from home. Well the first couple months Paul was job hunting, so he was mostly around the house with me. Now it's not like we were hanging out or even interacting much of the day, but just having him here I think kept me a little closer to keeping my marbles. But now he's off at work everyday, and you guys, today I lost them. My marbles that is.

Every day I take an hour lunch break, usually at weird times like 10:30-11:30 or 11-12 because my employer is in Illinois and currently 2 hours ahead. Since Paul's been off at work, I have been having some fun during lunch either working on wedding invitations or doing some craft around the house like painting a frame and so forth and so on.

But today, something came over me. And I decided to do a craft. On myself. Yes, a craft on myself.  You see, I haven't had my haircut since before our wedding (eh hem, read, last August). And I do this to myself. I wait 6-9 months between haircuts and I get so antsy that I call Carrie (she cut my hair in IL) and I'd be all like "I need to get an appointment THIS WEEK" as if I hadn't procrastinated long enough. She's a sweetheart and would get me in and my hair would get cut. But I live here now. And I don't know anyone to cut my hair. I don't even know anyone to ask who should cut my hair. So today, when the bewitching lunch hour rolled around, I thought,"huh, I know who can cut my hair, me!"

This is getting long, you can scroll down to the pictures if you want.

Anyways, thankfully I wasn't brave enough to cut all my hair, but I had remembered that my mom had made a fleeting comment the other week about how she had liked when I had bangs. And so I thought, "Self. We shall give ourselves bangs today!" I didn't even ask anyone. I didn't ask a friend. I didn't ask Paul. I hardly asked myself. I just watched a video on YouTube, pulled Paul's trimming kit out of the closet, and hacked away.

Now the thing about cutting your bangs that is hard,  is that the very nature of you not yet having bangs makes it really impossible to see anything. So there I stood in the bathroom, not seeing anything, holding a huge long portion of my hair over my eyes and began to cut.

And then I saw.

"Oh my gosh." I said aloud although no one is around (hence why there was no one to stop me from cutting my own hair).

And so now I have bangs. Do I like them? Not particularly. But thankfully, I have no friends here, I work from home, and mostly visit with my parents on the weekends (50% of whom were the sole inspiration for cutting them in the first place). So, I'm sorry cashier at the grocery store or lady I sit next to at church, about my awkward, not quite even, slightly too short, one chunk too far to the left bangs.

And Paul, thank you for loving me no matter what my hair looks like. I love you too, babe. (he has yet to see my bangs, let alone even hear about their existence..oy).

Without further ado, my first public 2012 bang appearance and my range of emotions to go with them (I think they look better when my hair is up).

Tomorrow at lunch, I think I will go for a walk.

The Desert Is Not So Deserted

My parents were visiting on Sunday and we decided to get out and go on a hike (surprise surprise!). I was feeling tired and not very motivated, so I looked up easy paths in our area. I found one called the North Loop trail in the McDowell Mountain Regional Park that boasted little elevation change and less than an hour hike – winner! After a quick stop at the visitor's center where we viewed a small collection of snakes and the cutest baby turtles (they were eating tiny flower petals!), we found the trail head and a fun surprise. Turns out this particular trail had 34 mapped out "points of interest." We had such a great time stopping at each number to learn about different plants, mountain ranges and fun desert facts. Like, have you ever seen a Packrat Nest? Did you know that Packrats love shiny things such as jewelry, and in fact if they are carrying food back to their nest, they'll drop it in order to "trade" for the shiny object! I just think it's funny picturing a rat getting all google eyed for a piece of jewelry. But I guess humans do, so why shouldn't rats?! And we learned that a Barrel Cactus can drink too much water that it will fall over! We had a lot of fun on our educational trip :) Here I am with Mom and Dad

Paul was the Artistic Director for these next two. The Saguaros were sooo tall!  Did you know these cacti need a "nurse plant" to provide shade for the first 25 years of their life? And they don't even start growing arms until they are 60-80 years old!

  

"Old Saquaro, won't you be my nurse plant and give me some shade?!"

Here we are learning about the Palo Verde Tree, Arizona's State Tree. Paul and I used to call this tree the Wicked Witch of the West because it has green bark. Weird! Now that we know it's our state tree we won't call it that anymore. At least not in public.

Aaaand nightmare of all nightmares, we ran into a snake on the trail! We're 99% sure it's a Diamondback (poison! rattle! danger!).  Luckily for us we were far enough away that it just lay straight like this the whole time we stared at it. Can you see it?

Ewww! 

Well that's all for now! Come visit us and we'll take you on some cool hiking trails too!

Saturday Hike

This weekend we took a really fun hike up to Tom's Thumb. It's this funny boulder at the top of a mountain that looks like a thumb. I found myself thinking "hey, I really like this hike" more than once during the 3 hours we were on the trail. I think I might be turning into a real hiker! It makes you feel so alive and refreshed! My parents got me trail shoes for my birthday which were a great help compared to the slippery soled gym shoes I'd been hiking in before. There were all these big beautiful boulder rocks along the way, not to mention the incredible views. My mom says hiking is like a big playground for adults, and I agree! I felt 10 again as Paul and I climbed around the rocks, exploring different paths. At one point we stopped in this little area that had walls of rocks all around and I told Paul it would make a really awesome spot to play house. So fun! Moving to a new state has been hard for me sometimes, but on Saturday I was sooo thankful for this beautiful place, and that I get to live here and experience God's amazing creation. And I'm so glad that Paul and I have found another hobby that we really enjoy doing together.

We Made It To The Top!

We've hiked Camelback Mountain a few times since we've been here, but hadn't made it to the top yet (mostly thanks to me!).  But this last trip we made, Paul was determined to not stop until we reached the very top!  I'm not a super competitive person, so to be honest, it doesn't phase me one bit if I turn around before "finishing," but I knew it was important to the hubs, so I made it a goal to keep my mouth shut and keep on climbin'! The last lag was really tough, like I was literally grabbing on to rocks and PULLING myself up – all the while wishing I was hooked up to a very sturdy rope connected to a harness around my waste. But we made it to the top and felt really proud of ourselves when all was said and done :) We suffered some spotty sunburn that continues to irritate our necks and arms, but otherwise it was a total success.