Tickled Yellow

Meaning of the color yellow= "Yellow shines with optimism, enlightenment, and happiness. Shades of golden yellow carry the promise of a positive future. Yellow will advance from surrounding colors and instill optimism and energy, as well as spark creative thoughts."

Today I was on Better Homes and Gardens website and decided to take a color personality quiz! It was an 8 question quiz.
Here are what the results said:
"Like yellow's strongest symbol, the sun, you radiate warmth. Others love to be around you because you have a gift for always looking on the bright side, and your ready smile can be infectious. Chances are your calendar is packed -- yellow lovers tend to be always on the go! Your signature color indicates someone imaginative and creative, so don't be afraid to express yourself through the way you dress and the way you decorate your home."

I do feel I have all of these qualities! For a while now I feel like I haven't been the best person I can be. I have been through so many changes lately, with my step father's stroke, getting married and moving to Germany. I have noticed I am not the happy Steph everyone knows me to be, but I am working harder to be a better wife, friend, family member and a better person all around.
I am definitely creative and imaginative and I love being around people and spending time with my friends and family. I enjoy making people smile and laugh. It's what I have always been good at and love to do. I thought this was a really neat quiz and it made me happy today.

WOW......It has been forever since I have been able to blog, but I'm BACK! Jon and I feel a little out of the loop here, for the fact that we have been without internet or phone for two and a half weeks. It is a bit sad how dependent we can be on technology. But most importantly, we miss staying in touch with our family and friends. We actually won't have internet or phone in our apartment until October 24, but we are back in Qatar at the moment so we are able to use the internet at the hotel. Thank you Doha! Jon has an audit here and wanted me to tag along seeing as how his business trip is two weeks long. I enjoy traveling with him, getting to see new and interesting places. During this trip we plan on seeing the Qatar Zoo and might possibly go four wheeling through the sand dunes! eeeek.

Some very exciting news, we have finally moved out of the American Arms hotel and into our apartment! It is unbelievably wonderful to be out of that hotel. I can't express how happy we are, and we don't have to share our home with cockroaches anymore ;) It is actually a funny story. We were so worried that we would bring a couple of the little guys a long with us to our new place, so right after we unloaded the vehicle and brought all of our suit cases from the hotel into our apartment, we set off a bug bomb to kill anything that might have stowed away. I would hate to think that we brought a family of cockroaches along to start a new colony in our home!!!! Thanks to the bug bomb, I think we were successful. (although Jon told me cockroaches can survive a nuclear bomb.) I still think that bug bomb did the trick! Whatever helps me sleep at night :)
I forgot how much work went into unpacking and getting everything in order! We still have so much to do and not much time to get it all done before my parents come to visit in November. I guess you don't realize how much STUFF you have until you start putting it all away. I am really looking forward to my parents coming! My mom is an excellent interior decorator and she is going to make our place look amazing. While I think of myself as being a good little decorator, she is tons better!

Our house has a large living room, dining room that leads to a balcony, kitchen, guest room and guest bathroom, master bathroom and bedroom and an office. We also have a cellar which is a perfect place to store wine. Believe it or not, none of the rooms have closets! I have never experienced anything like this before. We had to buy free standing wardrobes! (and still need several more to put everything away.) Also, there are no cabinets and no drawers in either of the bathrooms, so we are having to work around that little issue. Oh and we just got a German washer and dryer from housing, which takes twice as long to do laundry. I'm not even kidding when I say this. It takes an hour to wash one load and about two 1/2 hours to dry the load. But I'm not complaining! We really do enjoy our new home and love the street that we live on. Trees line our street, it is so beautiful! Especially this time of year, (which is my most favorite time) the leaves are turning orange, red and yellow. There are leaves all over the ground. It is very romantic.

We are in walking distance of a grocery store, a wine bar, a pharmacy, a lovely park, and only about a mile or two from downtown Wiesbaden. I am thankful we found a place close to the downtown area, because I really enjoy walking there when the weather permits it. I love to get fresh fruit, vegetables and meat from the market. Now that we are finally able to cook it makes the food taste so much better. I really enjoy cooking a lot! Back in Oklahoma I never had time to cook, because my work schedule had me extremely busy and Jon was always the better chef!

Back to our place, I have taken some pictures of the apartment with nothing inside.
Here is the outside of the building. We live on the second floor. (The center balcony.)

Another angle



Here are pictures of the inside. It is hard to get a feel for the place with nothing in the rooms, but it will give you an idea.
This is the main hallways as you enter the front door.

To the left of the hallway, the living room



The next room to the left of the hallway is the dining room

With the balcony

The third bedroom to the left of the hallway is the guest bedroom

Back at the beginning of the hallway as you enter the door to the right is the guest bathroom

The kitchen



The second room on the right of the hallway is the office

The third room to the right of the hallway is our walk through closet leading into the master bedroom. (I am inside the walk through closet taking a picture toward the main hallway.)

Our bedroom

The master bathroom at the very end of the hallway




I will be adding more pictures as we get our place in order. We've already gotten so much done and decorated. Things are coming along quite well. I'm proud of us. It's slowly starting to feel like home. I think Qatar will give us the rest we need to get right back to work when we get home.

Have a wonderful Sunday!