Where's Abby (+ Dylan and dogs)

  Home is where the heart is .  Home is wherever I'm with you .                       Home is where you are .   Home is where I wanna be.     Home is inside you .  Now for the good news I postponed from the previous post for a combination of organization, suspense, and getting the chance to use another cliche...     After my travels so far, my original thinking that I would be so likely to stay in Europe have changed a little. As I began to realize during my American road trip, and I think I mentioned in my posts about it, it's really important to me to stay close to my family, especially when I have one of my own. So I started thinking that maybe the best thing would be to go and live abroad and explore until wanting to settle down with a family and all. Now these thoughts have become even more clear.  Being so far from home has made me realize just how much I love and miss my family, and how I don't want to miss much more of their lives.      It's been interesting too...

Here's a little tour of my place and the things I love that make it home.  We've got a picture the the Amy's Denmark trip, a super cool print from Mom, a print from my favorite artist Robin Pedrero , a cross stitch I did for Switzerland, an elephant painting I drunkenly (but gratefully) purchased at the Jax Blues Fest, random tree painting I did, and Route 66 sign I got on one of my motor home trips with Papa and Mimi. Table below that collage: special music boxes from Grandma Jeanne, Danish elephant, cork from the first wine at the new place, candles from Jenna, and a seashell from Jax Beach.  Special heart garland from Mom. It goes here perfectly! My little book nook. With another little Danish elephant peaking out behind Lola Perfect year-round home for my Danish flag ornament. Gotta have my KBH picture. Plus a candle from Amy, bridesmaid heart present from Amanda, and David Sedaris. On the candle: "Just wait unt...

      Since I've been here, there have been a slew of mishaps from directional issues, phone problems, key mishaps, and so much more. Just remembering all these blunders can be quite comical/entertaining/eye opening. So here goes. Technologyyy    My fight with technology seems to never cease. First, when I got here, I went through leaps and bounds to get my iPhone 4 working here... Getting it unlocked, taking it to Apple, erasing everything, biking to and from Lyngby twice trying to fix it, having no phone for a week or so, FINALLY getting it to work to have it stolen right out of my pocket a month later. So I went two weeks without a phone while having a failed attempt at unlocking Lotte's old phone, buying a cheapo one, switching SIM cards a million times, and resorting to buying an ipad during this crisis. I finally find a working phone from Rachel that I use until I get mom's iPhone 3 in the mail after she upgraded.    About a week later I...

Happy Friday, Friends! I hope everyone enjoys their weekends and starts gettin those bellies ready for Thanksgiving! I know I'm more stoked than ever for this Thanksgiving. I get to meet my precious niece  and  see my brother and sis I haven't seen in over TWO YEARS.  Talk about too long. These are some of the highlights from my week.   1. A week full of amazing nanny times. Walks with this precious angel baby, sharing the love of flowers, the beach and music made for a lovely Sunday. Stopping to enjoy the musicians on the street was beyond worth it, watching her little legs bouncin and shoulders swaying  (link to video of the cuteness).The lady even let her pluck her (probably) first violin. Another enjoyed night watching three great girls last night. From 2 years old to 15, these girls all have an amazing sense of humor, sweetness, and character. Their whole family makes me excited about family life. 2. Bringing these two beauts home. Meet Butter...

Happy weekend!! My weekend will be busy with work, working all three of my jobs. Nanny tonight, tutor in the morning, nanny tomorrow night, Daniel Sunday morning. Dad pointed out that I'll be able to tell my future kids I used to work three jobs to get by. So enjoy relaxation time extra for me! So I got into my "not much blog-worthy stuff has happened lately" thinking in the last couple weeks but I suppose it has.  1. One being an extremely impressive drag show. Finally. my first drag show, and it blew me away. They were some  Beautiful queens. Not to mention there was a crime scene for a shooting right next door. Kinda crazy. After said drag show and discovering Nick's hidden talent for dancing, we chilled with stranger friends we met on our walk home in their high rise apartment with a ridic view of the beach, left my purse and all importants at their apartment, didn't realize til home and tired, and my most irrational option led to a trip to Hom...

       Although it may seem like we didn't do a lot in terms of touristy stuff, this trip was still quite an adventure. Even with our lack of willingness to pay for museums or wait in lines, museums being closed, and early nights, we still managed to do a lot. And if you don't wanna read this whole post, a quick summary could be "lots of walking, canals, shopping, coffee shops, beer, one castle, one tower, cats, flutes, biking, Jesus' blood, live music, and great people."  But for those avid readers, have at it! Amsterdam         This wonderful city was the first stop on our journey. We got there Thursday night and stayed with Simon, a couchsurfing host. We were welcomed with homemade beer, exchanging favorite tunes, and stopping in a club, Canvas, super close to his house. Our first observations were the more colorful, hippie, dreaded (hair) people. They were quite interesting dancers too. Maria and I loved all the color people...

Neptune Beach, FL --> Gainesville, FL--> Apalachicola, FL --> Dothan, AL --> Natchez, MS --> Austin, TX--> Santa Fe, NM--> Colorado Springs, CO --> Telluride, CO --> Page (?), AZ--> Park City, UT --> Boise, ID --> Pacific City, OR!  Our Oregon Trail             Last May, we spent 18 days traveling across the States during the weirdness of the pandemic to get to our new home on the Oregon coast. Most places were very shut down so we were getting lots of takeout, wondering strangely empty streets, "living the yuppy condo life and ordering Grubhub" at an Airbnb in Texas... Certainly not ideal for our big plans, but it was fantastic nonethess.  We started off with a quick visit in Apalachicola, FL, a town special to my Grandma Jeanne, on the way to visit Pa, Grandma, Dennis and Dede for a few days. Got to take Dylan to their old farm and farmhouse on Coe Road (our family name) that is actually still dirt. ...