Trip to the East Coast and thoughts on life....

Last week I flew back to Philadelphia to visit my best friend from college, Amy, and go to our 10 year Lehigh reunion. I was most excited to help Amy edit her closet and shop for her, which we did for almost 3 days! We threw out maybe 2/3rds of her closet(see pic!), and spend a pretty penny at the best mall in the world, The King of Prussia. You can see her trunk was filled to the brim! I had to take a picture =)

I am quite excited for her new outfits! If I could just keep these 20lbs off I could look that good, but it's that ongoing battle that I am tired of fighting year after year. I just have to accept myself at this size and know that my friends are my friends because of who I am and not what I look like!

Anyhow the trip back through memory lane at our old Alma Matter was quite uneventful. It was nice to see Amy's family, as we stayed with them for a night, and our old friend Jana Banana's new son, but other than that, there weren't too many other people I even recognized. Here is a pic of the football stadium and the "hill" behind it where all the old fraternities are that we used to party at, Amy and Jana and her son Weston, some fall foliage and me and Amy out in Philly!

What it made me realize is how much I love my life here in CA, that college was fun, but I've definitely moved on and grown as a person. I have experienced and been through so many ups and downs that it makes me really grateful for my life today, my awesome husband who I love and miss soooo much right now(he is in Seattle for work for 10 days), and being able to do what I love on a daily basis, which is styling and make up.

I wonder if I hadn't had a brain tumor, and gone through all of that, would I still be going day to day peddling lab products and working for a company going nowhere? Would I still be going on endless Internet dates looking for the guy who was right next to me all the time? Would I still have toxic friends in my life? Would I still be up to my eyeballs in debt because I didn't ever see the point in saving.....hmmm....I don't know. I think it's easy to get stuck in a routine and only look a few days or months in the future. Now I know that so much of what I thought was important then isn't now.

Instead of spending my/our money on stupid stuff, Jonas and I have a house! Our money has been uber tight the last few months because of
1- our cats had to get dewormed and vaccinated which ran up about $700-$800 with flea medicine included
2- we had plumbing issues and blew $500 on Roto Rooter
3- made a payment to pay off in it's entirety the credit card which is now at $0 and
4- our first round of property taxes are due December 10th OUCH!!! I am so worried if that horrible lifetime career politician Jerry Brown gets elected our property taxes will go up! I mean they are pretty high already!
5- we need new tires, that's another $800
6- We have to get our 45k mile check up on our car in the next 2 months!
It all adds up so fast, it's always something!

So, even though we have these financial obligations, I still think we can squeeze in a little trip soon. We never took a honeymoon and our 1 year anniversary is coming up end of January so we were thinking of taking a cruise in the Caribbean but after looking into it, it is just out of our budget. So instead I think we will do 5 nights at Tanque Verde Ranch this spring! http://www.tanqueverderanch.com/ It's a Dude Ranch outside of Tuscon Arizona where my family went when I was 9. I remember having a lot of fun, I learned how to ride horses, barrel race, and play pool because they had a kids program my parents stuck me and my brother in. So anyhow, Jonas and I love the wild west and have been discussing horse back riding for a while, so it's a closer flight and a different kind of trip! I just need to book it now!

And lastly, my Jonas is in Seattle for work. I barely saw him for 3 minutes Monday as he came home briefly to pick up his suitcases. That is when I gave him his early birthday present, something I found for him in Philly; a Holga camera! It's a cheap camera made in the early 80's and mass distributed in china. Jonas has quite a collection of vintage camera's now, and I can't wait to see the kinds of pictures he takes! Ok I need to start getting ready for work, been in San Francisco Nordstrom all week which has been fun because the Giants are in the World Series and 2-0 now!!

First Rain of the Season

YES! It rained on Sunday and to celebrate Jonas and I took a drive to the coast! We were going to just go over 92 but we could see the traffic due to the Half Moon Bay Pumkin Festival so we went up to Pacifica and took the day driving down highway 1 and did some wine tasting. It rained, but was not windy and was actually quite peaceful really. We took my little old Fifi with us, and I think she liked getting out of the house, even if she got rained on!

Look at Jonas in his bright orange rain coat we bought him in Nynasham this summer, he was so excited to finally be able to wear it! And the rain on our windsheild... and here is my Fifi cozy in the car

and of course Jonas is playing with one of his new toys. He found a 1940's film camera at an antique store for $20 so he is taking a few pictures of his favorite lighthouse to see how they turn out!

On the travel front...

Last week Jonas was in Seattle for work, and will be again in Seattle next week and the following week thus spending the weekend of October 31st up there. We are barely going to see eachother over the next month! I am going to Philadelphia this week to visit my best friend from college, Amy. We are going to shop and do fun girlie stuff before heading up to our Alma Matter for the Young Alumni/10 year Reunion weekend for Class of 2000. I will get home Monday and then Jonas takes off to Seattle, so I will keep myself busy with closets, shopping for clients and doing some make up! (Maybe a few days in Reno with my Mom)

Jonas and I have been talking about taking a honeymoon for our 1 year anniversary this winter, since we never took one. We are very interested in an eastern Carribean cruise. The cruises aren't priced so bad, but you add in airfare to Miami and excursion costs and then it gets to be a little bit out of our budget right now, considering we had to call Roto Rooter twice to clear out our sewer line in the last 2 weeks. Then we had to high power blast the line because there were rocks in the pipe! Being homeowners definately adds a new twist on things....well that's it for now!

Quick Weekend

This past weekend went by really fast. Friday I cleaned out a closet and worked with a client on how to mix and match the approved items she already owns. Friday night I fell asleep early because Saturday I worked in the downtown San Francisco Nordstrom all day for a make up trend show. So not only were a bunch of us artists there from Bobbi Brown but every make up counter, there were hair people there trying to sell the flat irons, facial people, and tons of people.

Sadly we weren't that busy, and I had been warned that the city stores are mainly tourists and people just passing through. I only did 5 people's make up all day. One girl was great though, I pulled her off the floor she was just walking by with her friend, she had terribly dry skin, and I recommened all our EXTRA moisturizing line, she was really happy. She bought some of it and will give it a try, and I hope she comes back for our Bobbi Brown book signing on November 5th although I'm realizing this is a Friday and not sure a lot of people will be able to make it. Oh well. Next weekend I'm at Bloomingdales in Stanford Mall, and have 3 of my personal shopping clients coming in so that will be fun!

Saturday night we went to my friend's birthday party where her and her fiance reavealed the sex of their baby, a boy. It was fun, but again so wiped out after working all day on my feet that we came home early and crashed! So I have 2 friends both named Amanda Jean, that are due with boys 1 week apart, end of February/early March. Exciting times for them, I just thought I'd be pregnant now too...oh well, having fun trying!

Jonas is in Seattle for work for a few days. The good news on his end is somebody bought one of his photos of the Golden Gate Bridge on www.nuzart.com for 150 Euros! He only gets 10% of that but it's exciting nevertheless!

The Yard

I am writing this simply because I deal with this mess we call a yard every day and have nobody to vent to....

First we have 2 large oak trees that shed leaves like crazy this time of year. There are a few black squirrels that live in them. Now combine this with the fact that we have a very messy black walnut tree in our front yard which has black sticky balls hanging off of it all over the place right now. If the squirrels aren't sitting on the wall or the table in our yard eating them and leaving the mess behind they are burrying them!

Every morning I get up and find little holes everywhere in the yard, and most disturbingly, in my pots that I have planted bulbs in! Makes me so mad! It's a mess and in some of them I can't find my bulbs!

Right now I just finished planting the 100 pack of red tulip bulbs, hyacinth's and a few bearded iris in the front planter box. Here is the before picture, in March/April we will have a colorful after picture!

Very barren, but it will be so bright come March! Please note in this picture the wall, we are looking at adding a 2ft redwood lattice on top of it so that our morning glory and potato vines can grow through it, thus giving us a little more green, privacy and hopefully noise control! And here is a cute picture of my cat Tiger squaring off with one of the black squirrels in the side yard.

Don't let him fool you, he is the cuddliest, mama's boy cat you've ever met! He snuggles on my lap when I watch tv these days! I think he's just trying to show off!

Hello...do you care?

I know I know, all my friends have blogs so it's a little like I'm copying them, and yes I am. I fully admit that I am doing this because all my friends do it and it's entertaining, but alot of it has to do with the fact that most of my family is in Denmark, Spain or Utah and Jonas's family is in Sweden and the weekly phone call does not include photos. This way they can keep up with our slightly to moderately exciting life. So where do I start.....

WEDDING 1/22/10

Today is October 7th and a few weeks, and Jonas and I have been married now for 8 months! Becasue we got married in a chapel in Reno and had a friend Artem, "marry" un in our ski clothes, we knew we'd really not have a chance to take some timeless formal pictures all dressed up, so I hired Billy Winters, my old friend and fashion photographer, for a shoot in our wedding attire.

These pictures by www.billywinters.com
For more you can go to http://www.missgraceful.smugmug.com/

Me and my Mom at the chapel in Reno!

Post Wedding

So many things have happened in the last 8 months! At first we thought we'd move to Reno because we could buy a mansion, but after scoping out the jobs that just don't exist up there we scratched that idea. Then we though ok we will live in the Bungalow on Clinton st for another year and see where we are, but knowing we wanted to start a family and the size of that place, we didn't know what to do.


Then one day I was walking Fifi(yes she is about 15 now) up Jefferson Ave and looked across the street and saw a house for sale that I could tell was vacant and that there was a rental in the back of the property. So I texted my real estate friend Andrea, and got the skinny on the property; a 3 bedroom 2 bath in the front and a 2 bedroom 1 bath in the back, hmmmm I thought this is PERFECT. That afternoon she opened it up for us and it was love at first sight. I knew in my heart this would be our first home!

Original hardwood floors, original tile in the bathroom, and fireplace(<--although I really want to redo it) high ceilings, all new double pained energy effecient windows, brand new kitchen, granite countertops, a laundry room, a big dining room(which we have had plenty of dinner parties in), bathtubs, huge bedrooms,...and that's just the front house we would live in! The rental was also renovated, the kitchen has all new appliances, granite countertops, a big front room, a jacuzzi bathtub!??(we don't even have a jacuzzi!) You see with this economy, this house was a foreclosure, a company bought it at auction and flipped it, so all new paint and everything was ready for move it! It was an amazing deal to, so we are cozy and happy !! My parents bought us new dining room and masterbedroom furniture as our wedding present, since we chose such a small wedding. I dont' really understand spending so much money on a big wedding...? We had 20 people plus our immediate family and I STILL didn't get a chance to talk to everyone. Oh well, as long as they all had fun, which I'm pretty sure they did(who doesn't love Reno??) we are happy with it, AND our new furniture!

We installed all the new wood shutters throughout the house, they really help with keeping the heat out! And that's my ficus tree in the corner, even in the last 2 months since I took this photo it has grown a few inches.

TRAVEL

We visited my familyin Denmark this summer and had a wedding celebration with them Danish style! It was fun, Jonas and I cooked for 25 people, and Ebbe and Mie, with all their love and kindness allowed us to host in their house! Eva and I decorated a bit, drank a lot, and had a great time! Mie surprised us with an accordian player to help us sing some songs!

She wrote this one for us, as we sang to the tune of Side by Side

"Celebratin' with Jonas and Jenn

wisihing you luck and so many

wonderful years,

life without tears,

Side by Side.

Scandinavian club a place for the meeting

blonde, blue-eyed boys Jen was "eating"(Side note I almost DIED when the entire family read/sang this line!)

The Club-weekend trips

oh what a kick

Side by Side

In the mountains this couple go skiing

hike, nature wonders are seeing

body and gaurd

take off and start

Side by Side.

Jonas does a delicious, good cooking

Jenn's making witches good looking

mum and bride fixed

Jonas takes pic's

Side by Side.

We canmt' give youa barrel of money

Remember life should be funny!

Traveling along

Singing a song

Side by Side.

Hurra- Skal!

I mean for English as Mie's second language this is really good! I love it, and thought I'd share it.

We also went up to Sweden and stayed with Jonas grandparents at their wonderful property in Yxlo, on the water! So relaxing! We had our own little cabin, it was very cozy. I gotten eaten alive by mosquitos, they love CA blood apparently because nobody else got bitten! We had a great Midsommar party with all of Jonas's old army buddies, and our friends Kelly, Sindre and Maria came, what a blast! Just looking at these pictures makes me excited to go back again next summer, which we are planning....here is a slide show!

WORK
I left Nordstrom to have a little time off(bc they would have never let me leave for 3 weeks for our trip!) and pursue my own clients and personal shopping on my time! http://www.jenniferspersonalstyling.com/
I love it! It's steadily growing. I also held a Stella and Dot Party and am probably going to have a Bobbi Brown Cosmetics House party on November 6th. This is because for the last few months I have been working as a free lance make up artist for Bobbi Brown, which I love! OMG I love it, doing make up is so much fun!

Jonas is still working hard as COO for Cypress Security. Next week he will be in Seattle for a new account starting up and he has been in LA more often recently because they have a new huge account starting up come 1/1/2011. But this is great news in this economy and we are very thankful!

LATELY

Two weeks ago on Sept 26th, besides being Lucia's 2nd birthday, was Oktoberfest at our favorite German Restaurant the Tyrolean Inn in Felton. So we decided to take my Mom and Dad on our "day date" meaning wine tasting to David Bruce and Byington and then ending up at the restaurant for some good pork knuckle! Prost!

Amy in Town!!

My bff from college had a last minute work trip to Sacramento, so of course at the last minute made plans for her and her husband, Tom, to come down Saturday night and hang out. Luckily for us we were able to get most of our closest friends to come over and eat some steaks and drink some of our collection of wine with us! This is what happens when you get married and/or have kids; your social life mellows out and people can RSVP yes to a last minute dinner party! Which is why we had 9 people over, and was a great night!

Will post more as our exciting lives progess.....