Bucket List Series: #5

1. I want to have short, hot pink hair

2. I want to have a real deal white girl's african weave/braids

3. I want to speak Spanish fluently as a family

4. I want to live in an Airstream trailer

5. I want my family to live abroad.

By now, you've probably guessed that I have been bitten by quite the adventure bug (believe me, I have more goals for my hair...). Traveling is something that I have always wanted to do more of. It took a few years for me to realize after getting married and having a family that I would not be doing any major traveling for several years. It's just not the right time for us any more between school and gaining career experience. Some of you may scoff at me and say are you serious?? How many states have you lived in the past 5 years?? I know, I know, many. BUT in the past year or two, I have come across many families in the blogging world who have done exactly what I dream of: living in another country.

Ideally, I would love to live in Europe, such as Spain, for at least year. In that time, I would love for my family to gain experiences in different cultures and to tour surrounding countries. I love Joanna Goddard's Motherhood Around the World series from her blog A Cup of Jo. Here are my favorites:

11 surprising things about parenting in Northern Ireland

12 surprising things about parenting in Abu Dhabi

And some other inspirations:

Jordan from Oh Happy Day lived in Paris with her husband and two young children for a year

Gabrielle (one of my fave bloggers) from Design Mom lived in the countryside of France with her husband and family of SIX for 2+ years! Bonus: she's sisters with Jordan from the link above.

I think I could settle for yearly trips somewhere for several months at a time if that were an option- we really like the idea of doing medical service missions (providing primary care/immunizations to 3rd world countries), but at least once in this lifetime, I want to live somewhere with Carl and my children that is not part of North America for at least a year. What are some options we've considered to make this happen? Here are our top few:

- be amazing and come up with an sustainable online business that would provide the monthly income we need while not having to work in an office or in that country (unlikely at this time since i have no idea what this business would be. darn.)

- taking a year sabbatical leave after working for 10 years. But what other costs and investments will accrue at that time? Many. Still a possibility.

- pray that PAs will have more of an international role in the next 10 years. Nurses do I suppose, but the jobs are in high demand and there are many international laws that I would have to navigate through to be approved. This is why I like medical missions- all I need is an active license anywhere!

- join the military. I am actually serious about this one and it is an option that Carl and I have pondered and considered very much over the years. I promise to expound on this another day, but I will add that travel is truly one of the last reasons why Carl would join the military (Air Force as a #1 choice). My man has a bucket list of his own and I might just share this one as one of my goals :)


The hardest part of this bucket list item is that it tugs on my heart strings quite often. I feel joy and excitement as much as I feel conflict and concern. For a majority of my marriage and life with children, we have been away from family. School, work, school, life. We are comfortable in our circumstances and okay with the distance, but in these stages, I have almost always felt a bit temporary- as if we are always trying to head back west to our homes eventually. I love my families very much and it pains me to consider living so far away, not creating a situation where my children would be able to foster close relationships with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Nonetheless, I always have this special feeling that we will be happy no matter what we choose.


I promise you can visit and stay with us for free when we live somewhere in the world :)

Bucket List Series: #4

1. I want to have short, hot pink hair

2. I want to have a real deal white girl's african weave/braids

3. I want to speak Spanish fluently as a family

4. I want to live in an Airstream trailer

love. courtesy of http://o.homedsgn.com/

Carl and I would love to buy a large piece of property some day. We're talking several acres and then some. My hope is that we get to live in this camper (with our 2, maybe 3 kids by then) for a few years while we save up to build up our home. If we can't buy property, then I just want to live in it for a few years while we hunt for a home we want. I love the idea of small/simple living. We try to incorporate it in our home as much as we can, but it's hard when we started out with the love of lots of storage and places to hoard our memorabilia and tokens of our past and present. An Airstream trailer would be ultimate small living for me. Not familiar with small spaces? Check out this great video of a studio apartment in NYC.

Oh yes, I want this to be a project. I definitely don't want something moldy from the 70's:

Craigslist, you never fail at finding old and moldy.


Feeling inspired by these remodeled Airstream gems:

Spaces by Milwaukee Interior Designers & Decorators Amy Carman Design

Modern Kitchen by Milwaukee Interior Designers & Decorators Amy Carman Design

I'm not sure what draws me to an Airstream trailer specifically. Perhaps it reminds me of my love for vintage, perhaps the challenge of a good DIY project, I'm not sure, but I am fascinated by this little world of Airstream love and I want in! Plus, Carl's on board with my crazy ideas, so it'll be that much more fun :)

Bucket List Series: #3

I know you've been eager to see what other crazy things I want to do

1. I want to have short, hot pink hair

2. I want to have a real deal white girl's african weave/braids

3. I want to speak Spanish fluently as a family

Ok, this definitely isn't that crazy. I am so eager to learn more languages! I used to want to speak French fluently (and someday I will), but when I met Carl, the Spanish language was suddenly so much more romantic and meaningful to me. As many of you know, Carl lived in Spain for two years serving a mission for our church and speaks Spanish fluently (and the best sounding Spanish comes from Spain, might I add ;)

Fortunately, I've picked up enough Spanish to be about where I was at French. Huzzah! Unfortunately, it actually isn't very much. Bummer. BUT I am confident that we will all communicate in Spanish someday! One of the ways I'm hoping to encourage us all to practice more is to enroll Ezra into the Spanish-immersion school here when he starts K-4 in Fall 2014 (yikes, school already?? more on that in another post...). Side note: for those of you unfamiliar with K-4, as I was when I moved to Milwaukee, it is essentially pre-kindergarten/pre-school for four year olds. It is part of the public school systems, though many private schools have also included it in their schools as well.

Other ways I am practicing is using my Duolingo app on my iPhone. It is simple and frankly, quite awesome. If you don't have any Latin-based foreign language background, it may be a tad more challenging, but it is such a great review for me! I also try to talk to Carl using basic Spanish, such as que hora es? (what time is it) and Cómo se dice "[object]" en español? He tries to challenge me often and some days I respond well communicating as much as I can and other days I just say "I don't know what you're saying!! Yarg!!" Yes, yarg included.

Do you have any languages you are determined to learn? I must say, on top of Spanish, I want to learn Mandarin, French, and Sign. But baby steps and Spanish is priority :)

Bucket List Series: #2

continuing from last's week list, I present the number two:

1. I want to have short, hot pink hair

2. I want to have a real deal white girl's african weave/braids

I enjoyed this gal's guide to white girl braids

What is it with hair? I don't know. I suppose since I'll never have permanent tattoos or crazy ear piercings, I'll change the one thing that will always (hopefully) grow back: my hair. I had a gym teacher when I was in jr. high who had braids and they were cool. That point on, forever engraved in my brain, I needed to have braided hair some day.

Why haven't I done it? It's actually really expensive! And honestly, I have never been brave enough to walk into a salon that says "WE DO AFRICAN BRAIDING" because I don't want to be turned down and awkwardly walk away and cry that I can't cross this off my bucket list. Fortunately, this may be the Year of the Braid because I found a lovely lady in church who may be willing to put up with my crazy ideas.

Of course I had to come up with something for you to see what I would look like:

thanks to pixlr.com for their free online almost-photoshop program

Bet you didn't see that coming! I was even a little surprised at how well I was able to blend my white skin to african skin tones.

May this be the Year of the Braid!


and so that you can laugh your butt off, here's what the picture looked like before all the blending:

Bucket List Series: #1

I've always had a list (aka bucket list) of things I wanted to do through out my short life- some of these things have been on the list since I was a young teenager, others have developed as I've matured (HA! matured. riiiight.), but nonetheless, I have had an ever-growing list of things I want to do, so I thought it would be fun to do a weekly series where my list will grow each week as you learn more about me. The list is in no particular order, just ideas and plans I've collected. If you thought I was boring, well, I'm pretty sure this list will prove you wrong. If you have always thought I was adventurous, then I'm quite sure this list will prove me to be crazy. Enjoy!

*drumroll*

1. I want to have short, hot pink hair 

Oh yes, it is true. This has been on the list since I watched one of those TLC makeover shows and the hair stylist had a blue pixie cut. I loved it when I was 14 and I still love it at 25. But in pink. Hot pink.

images found on google images:

It's not that I haven't been brave enough to do it, I just haven't found the right timing to have pink hair. I'm pretty sure my folks would have been quite upset if I did it in high school, I couldn't while attending college due to our school's policy, and I've always had assignments in my church where I am around younger children, such as now- I teach young girls churchy lessons. I certainly don't think it would be a bad example to have pink hair, but I also don't want to be the one imposing on other's parenting rules. 

How does it look? Windows Paint, you have never failed me in the last 15 years:

awesome.

I'm not a particularly outspoken, wild person when you first meet me nor do I ever go full out cray-cray on many, but Carl will testify to you that my desire for pink hair is fitting. Excited to do this one day when I cut my hair short again!