The Nutcracker Ballet

A couple weeks ago, my sweet husband scored some free tickets to see the Nutcracker ballet at the Schuster Center in downtown Dayton. He knows that my favorite ballet is the Nutcrackers, so he took full advantage of the free military tickets. I was thrilled when he told me we were going, and we had so much fun!

Little did we know that our free seats would be on the lower level RIGHT in the center! It was amazing seeing it all play out, and some of our friends were sitting close by, and we had no idea they'd be there too.

It was a fun, romantic night out, as we enjoyed a new-to-us restaurant, the Spaghetti Warehouse, before the performance.

We had a GREAT time at the Nutcracker, and I hope we're able to see more shows at the Schuster Center before we leave - it was awesome! 

• Do you enjoy the Nutcracker?
• Do you like going to the ballet?
• What is YOUR perfect date night?

Honeymoon Series: Paris, France

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our seventh stop: Paris, France

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

Where do I even begin with this post? Paris is a place I had wanted to visit my entire life. I took six years of French, and I wanted to visit Paris more than any other place. I am so happy to report that it did not disappoint! All of the sights we went to were magical. Walking around the city was like a dream - seriously. I LOVED Paris, and I would go back in a heartbeat.

In fact, I really want to for a couple of reasons. 1) We definitely did not get to do everything on our list. It's just such a huge city, and we only had three days there. 2) I was really sick. I had a bad inner ear infection from the sleeper train we took to get from Venice to Paris after our cruise. I even ended up going to the emergency room at the American Hospital of Paris - where they actually still only spoke French - go figure. Instead of staying in, though, I fought my way through the city and still enjoyed it very much.

I'd love to go back when I'm 100% healthy and enjoy it even more. The bread was good, the cheese was good, and the wine & champagne were superb. Dan and I both enjoyed this part of our trip a lot. Seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time from across the city made me jump up and down. Going to the top was AMAZING. The Arc du Triomphe was even better - there's just so much history surrounding it. Checking out the Sacré Couer at sunset was unbelievable, and the Notre Dame Cathedral, flying buttresses and all, was incredible. 

Every time I look through these pictures, I smile and think about how amazing our honeymoon was. I think this stop actually came in second place, though. My number one is coming up in my next honeymoon series post, though, so be on the lookout for that! 

• Have you ever been to Paris?
• What is your favorite thing to do there?
• Is Paris on your wish-list?

Hectic Holiday Season

Whoa, has it been a busy holiday season or what?!

My husband has been busy with his grad school classes. He is taking his finals this week, so he's been holed up in his office procrastinating studying for his finals.

I've been working so hard in my Etsy shop. Just a month ago, I was bragging about reaching 300 sales... and now I'm at over 460 sales. Yes, it's been a CRAZY month of custom orders, buying a new printer so I can make my prints at home, and lots and lots of magnets. It's well worth it, though - I've made a substantial chunk of change, and we're planning on using it when we hopefully make it back to Europe this spring.

We've also hosted our family for Thanksgiving, babysat the cutest little boy from good friends, taken way too many pictures of cats, enjoyed donuts at the cutest little shop, made six dozen cookies for the Wright-Patterson Cookie Drive, served in the youth group at our church each week, almost completed (this week!) our 12 week course at church to become members, saw the Nutcracker, attended the AFIT Holiday Ball, and drank copious amounts of coffee.

It's been hectic but fun.

It's been a busy month and a half, but it's been fun as well! 

• What have you been up to this holiday season?
• Do you prefer to be busy all the time or to have free time?

Official NaNoWriMo Winner!

Somehow, December started, and I never blogged about my NaNoWriMo win. NaNoWHAT, you ask? Find out more in this post or on the official website.

In short, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month - all in November.

I finished my novel in the afternoon on November 30th. It was anticlimactic because I KNEW I was going to achieve my goal - and also because my novel wasn't finished yet. I made it to 51,234 words that day, but my characters and plot were still moving right along - it's not finished yet, but I'm hoping to have about 60,000-65,000 words when all is said and done. I need to edit next, which is NOT my favorite part... but at least I can wait until the craziness of the holidays are over with for that!

My novel is a YA (young adult) novel about a school shooting. It was difficult to write because of the topic, but the idea just wouldn't leave my mind.

I'm considering self publishing this novel through Amazon - it would be an ebook. I haven't decided yet, but that is my ultimate goal... just in case any of you were curious!

• Have you ever self published a piece of writing?

Honeymoon Series: Split, Croatia

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our sixth stop: Split, Croatia.

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

Our very last stop on our cruise (but not the last stop on our honeymoon overall) was in Split, Croatia. We visited Dubrovnik, Croatia earlier as the first stop on the cruise, and while we had a blast exploring that town, the weather was nasty that day. In Split, however, that was not the case.

It was bright and sunny, and we made the most of it! We climbed up to the tip top of the bell tower, took way too many photos of the spectacular views, and just enjoyed it. We knew that once we stepped back on the ship, our cruise was essentially over (though we still had dinner and one more night on board). We had a great time walking around Split. I'd love to go back to the region and see more of the countries around Croatia - especially Bosnia. That whole area is so rich with history.

You can tell we had both been enjoying the buffets on the cruise ship at this point... it's a good thing we walked all throughout Paris shortly after we got off the cruise ship!

We were so sad for our cruise to end the morning after we toured Split. We had the best time on that ship, and I can't wait to go on another cruise in the future! 

• Have you been to Split?
• Do you enjoy cruises?