I'm Back!

Well hello LOVELY friends!

It has been SOOOO long. How is everyone??
Man, I feel like I've missed so much!
This blog world is fantastic, and I've missed you guys and reading about your adventures!

But, I REALLY am finally back to the blogging world, and I look forward to writing about the Adventures of Jon and Steph, again. I definitely look forward to stopping by your blogs and seeing what ya'll have been up to.

Without further ado, here's what we have been up to:
For my Facebook friends, you might have already seen these pictures, but here they are again.

My parents arrived on Thursday the 17th.

We went to Limburg, Germany, on Friday...

and left for Italy on Saturday. We visited Venice, Murano, Sesto Fiorentino (just outside of Florence,) Lucca, Pisa, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples, and Pompeii. It was a long, but fantastic 10 days in Italy. We ate great food and drank good wine. I have over 800 pictures to look through, but I'll start with our trip to Venice.

We arrived in Venice around noon, hopped on a vaporetto:

and rode around the island.

We arrived at our stop near Saint Mark's Square
and headed to our apartment. Here are a few shots along the way.

After dropping our luggage off at our apartment,
we made our way to Saint Mark's Square,
and walked around Venice.

Saint Mark's Square

Doge's Palace and Saint Mark's Basilica

Downtown and Rialto Bridge

View from Rialto
After a wonderful walk around Venice we finally stopped at a restaurant for dinner. We all had pasta, pizza and wine. It was an incredible day. We were truly blessed to be able to visit Italy.

I'll be back soon to post more pictures from Murano and our next day in Venice.
Hope you all enjoyed the pictures!

Have a wonderful Friday! and enjoy your weekend!

Well Howdy!!

Remember me!! Your lovable blogging friend, Steph?

I'm finally back from my forever long blogging hiatus! (or so it seemed.) Wow, where did the time go?? Jon and I really haven't been up to much, besides working. I just haven't had a lot of time to sit down and blog about our daily adventures. And, I am SO ridiculously far behind on reading everyone's blogs. Please forgive me ;)

So, here's what we've been up to since I last blogged:

• We visited Luxembourg, a cute, TEENY, tiny country.

• I've been super busy with customers. I've met some great new clients over the past couple of weeks and I am so happy to have them! Also, Sarah has been spreading the word about me and because of her I have two new clients! Thanks girl.
  

• We've become completely obsessed with the show "How I Met Your Mother." We borrowed several episodes from one of our friends and can NOT stop watching it. We've been spending our evenings glued to the television. This show is GREAT if you haven't already seen it and are looking for a new series. Check it out.

• Jon saved up tokens from cereal boxes and we now have enough (5) to get a free movie from Kellogg's Brand. We're getting The Sandlot! Yippie.... here's to Jon's inner child for still participating in cereal box giveaways.

• I got my first massage in like 2 years and it was amazing! I desperately needed one and now am feeling loads better. That is definitely something I will be wanting (scratch that, NEEDING) every month ;)
  

• My awesome husband and his work friends are growing out their beards and will unleash some pretty magnificent mustaches on Friday at their 1st Annual Stache Bash. Yup... that's right! I'll be there to experience the awesomeness, and definitely to take pictures. Photos to come later.

Like I said, not much excitement in the house of Barrett, minus getting The Sandlot for free....

BUT, coming up in the next couple of days:

My mom and step dad will be arriving tomorrow! Then we leave on Saturday for our vacation to Italy! We'll be visiting Venice, Florence and the surrounding cities, Rome, Naples and Pompeii. Saturday could not get here any sooner. I am so thankful that we are able to finally take this once in a lifetime trip. It's always been a dream of mine to travel to Italy, I never thought we would actually be going.

So now that I am back from my blogging hiatus, I will be leaving again on Saturday. But I will pop in every once in a while with lots of pictures and stories about our adventures in Italy.

I hope you all are doing well! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

A Lovely Holiday Weekend.

Well hello lovely friends!!

How was everyone's Labor Day weekend?? Our weekend was GREAT! Busy, but lots of fun times with friends and an adventure to another country!! I have A LOT of blog reading and catching up to do! Hopefully I can check in with everyone to see how your holiday weekend was!

Here's what the Barretts have been up to:

Friday night we attended a "going away" BBQ for a woman in Jon's office. It was a great time, with LOTS of good food and friends. The woman in Jon's office, Hedy, has been working in Germany for 7 years, and has finally decided to head back home to the US. She's such an awesome lady, it'll be sad to see her go!

Saturday evening we had some friends over for a pizza party. Jon and I found individual pizza crusts at the commissary and thought it was a great idea to have everyone choose their own toppings. We got every topping you can imagine, and the mini pizzas were a hit. Our friends Christine made lasagna and Tara made a FANTASTIC Tiramisu! OH MY Goodness, it was tasty.

Sunday morning we got up early, made breakfast and headed out for Trier, Germany. It's about 2 hours away from our home. Sadly, we were bummed about Saturday's game, so of course the best way to cheer us up, is to take a day trip. Here are some pictures from our day:

Porta Nigra

Downtown Trier


The Cathedral and The Palace


The Palace Gardens


The Roman Imperial Bath Ruins
Ruins and Tunnels throughout the Imperial bath.




It's incredible to think that these baths have been around since 293 A.D.
This bath in particular, is the largest Roman bath North of the Alps.
How awesome to be able to see structures like these still standing, and to be able to explore the underground tunnels that once were the baths. It was definitely a cool adventure.

I think this picture accurately depicts my excitement for our day trip to Trier.

After spending the day in Trier, we grabbed a late lunch and headed for Luxembourg. Jon's grandfather fought in WWII in Luxembourg, so it meant a lot to him to be able to see this country. Tomorrow we'll be back with pictures and little tidbits from our trip there.

Hope ya'll have a great Tuesday!

Looking Forward to:

• OU Football this weekend!
  
• We play BYU (Brigham Young). Sadly it won't air until 1:00 a.m. over here in Deutschland, but that's what Justintv is for ;)

• BOOMER SOONER!!
  

• LABOR DAY WEEKEND! It will be nice to have a three day weekend. We're planning a day trip somewhere, but haven't decided on where yet.... Remember when I said that the beautiful days here are numbered, well I was right on the button, it is raining here today and is supposed to all weekend. Good thing rain has never stopped us from taking trips in the past, I only hope the forecast is wrong!! ;)

• My wonderful friend Oisin, from Ireland, (the one we visited in April during my birthday trip to Ireland) is coming to visit Jon and I this month! I can't wait to see him and spend a couple of days with him. He is training for another big fight (he's a professional boxer) and can only stay for a couple of nights, as he has to get back and train. It will still be a blast to spend some time with him.
  

• My parents arrive on the 17th of September and we leave for Italy on September 19! We'll be gone for 10 whole days. We will be traveling to Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples. I am SOOO looking forward to Italy. I've wanted to travel there since I can remember. Our entire trip is booked, (minus trains between each city and rental car, which we'll just take care of once we get there.) I am literally counting down the days!!

• I was approached about a great business opporunity in Frankfurt. Guess What!! I will be doing hair in Frankfurt a couple of days a week and it works out perfectly with my schedule. I make my own hours and I will be self employed. I've been praying for something like this to come a long and God definitely answered! God is GOOOOOD! I look forward to starting this new adventure, hopefully in October. This month is jam packed with visitors.

• And last, but definitely not least, the most exciting thing I am looking forward to is our trip home in December! If you couldn't tell that I was excited already, (by the HUGE countdown on my blog.) I haven't been home Since AUGUST of 2008. That's a long time, over a year now. It will be so fantastic to see all of my family and all of Jon's family. I can't wait to see all of our friends. December couldn't get here any faster!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday! It's almost the weekend ;)

P.S. BOOMER SOONER!!

A Day Trip

Hello Lovely friends! How was your weekend???

Ours was great! Filled with friends, food, day trips and relaxing. It was actually the first weekend in a LONG time that we didn't have to cook for ourselves. Saturday night we had dinner at Sarah and Deaner's house and Sunday night we had dinner at our friend Damon's. It was such a treat to not have to cook! And both dinners were DELISH!!

On Sunday Jon and I visited a little nearby town called Eltville. It was a BEAUTIFUL day outside and we didn't want to waste it by spending the day inside. At this point, the good days are numbered here in Germany, so we definitely want to make it a point to spend them outside.

Eltville is located on the Rhine River, so it makes for some beautiful scenery. Here are some pictures from our day.

Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!