Hi!! Happy Friday!
Holyyyyy life update! Not quite sure where to start since it has been so long. But I have some time and my mind is racing so I figured now would be a good time to put it out there. Well, the past 5 months in Italy was something that not enough words or pictures can do justice. The people, the places, the food, the simple culture and the memories are something that I will never forget. I am kicking myself now for not over posting and sharing - Yes, Lauren you were right. And the past few days little reminders have been popping up all over the city. Which brought me to this post and reflecting on life lately. When it was time to come home, it was hard to try and plan the next step and direction that I wanted to go. I wanted to do what was "right", what was "best" for me and make the most "responsible" decision. I can't say that I made the most "responsible" decision. But I can confidently say that it was the right one for me at this time in my life. Which makes it the best at the end of the day, right!? It's crazy that this time last year when I was saying all of this, I would have never thought sooo much would happen within the year in between. Mild travel interruption - but I am back! I won't ever have these days back and I felt like now was the time to do it. Once again my pockets are really empty, but my heart is going to explode... and I am back running wild around this big, beautiful, chaotic New York City. It's so easy to get complacent with life. Work, exercise, sleep and do it all over again thinking about how fast Friday will come. That was one thing I tried to focus on when I was working a 9-5. To stop waking up wishing for Friday, instead enjoy and make the most of every single day. It sounds silly because it's something you hear all the time but it can change your life. I am super routine oriented so it's easy for me to say no to happy hour or something that is not in my usual daily schedule throughout the week. With that being said, my goal ( + the 3 roomies too ) decided we were going to say yes to more. The little things like making an effort to catch up with friends once a week really makes a big difference. ** budget style - we have become good at finding the best happy hours in town** Alright, last but not least. After getting settled, I started temping at a consulting office just to have an income & fill my time. I was proactively looking for a job the whole time and started to get a little frustrated because I felt like I couldn't find the right opportunity. That Sunday I was giving myself a pep talk to stay positive, proactive & that the perfect fit for me would come my way. All things I knew, but it's easy to get impatient. I seriously said out loud to my roommates "alright, this is the week. I've been patient and something good is coming!!!" Hahaha! Next thing you know.. I had 3 phone interviews I was interested in and 2 in-person pop up. Power of the mind is REAL people. Everything works out exactly how it's supposed to, and I'll stand by that forever. To sum this rambling up - I landed an amazing job with a Brand Management Company. My first week is off to a great start and I am really excited about the future! I am obsessively grateful for the love, encouragement and beautiful people in my life who truly make me feel like I can conquer the world. My life would be nothing without you. Hope everyone is enjoying all the fall festivities! We may or may not be putting up our Christmas tree tonight. AHH! XO Heath
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Hi!! Happy Wednesday :) Time is flying and I can barely keep up!
A few weekends ago we roadtripped northwest of Padua to Stresa and from there spent one afternoon in Arona. We stayed in a little apartment (little- as in no standing up in your room kinda little) and everyone might have left with a bump on their heads. The view was everything though... so it was worth trading ceiling space. We toured the 3 surrounding islands on Lake Maggiore. It was the boys first boat ride which was fun! We stopped and had lunch on the second island, after quickly leaving the first because it was soooo crowded!! Our lunch was probably my favorite meal yet! It overlooked the ocean and the food was amazing! Meyer fell asleep in my arms while eating a piece of bread because we couldn't bring the stroller. The video is so funny. It's easy to forget that somewhere between traveling and having fun, we're here for baseball. Until they throw some crazy game times at us. Safe to say Lauren and I have this whole 4 hour baseball game with 3 kids kinda thing down. Even if it's a double header starting at 4pm...... not ideal but we did it, still fan girled. Mac got to be the bat boy for the first few innings for his first time! It was so cute, he loved it! If you know Mac, you know he is a crowd pleaser haha!! Prior to the game we made the team the meal that Mark used to eat before every game in America. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Red Bull. I think it was a first for most but the results of their performance was good so we joked about making it every game :) The following day we took the gondola in Stresa to the top of the hill, attempted to go to Switzerland and made a stop in Arona. The cutest little streets had umbrellas hanging between the buildings. They were put up as an art exhibit! OH! Last but not least. WE GOT A NEW CAR! It was a sad day parting ways with the Euro van but definitely time. The new car so far has no scratches ;) XO Heather Happy 1 month of Italian living to us! Even though we already have been finding any reason we can to celebrate a lot of the days we've been here. Haha! Everyday is a new experience and I love it. Soooo here are 10 observations/lessons learned: 1. To have 3 children is an incredible accomplishment. As well as having a double stroller (lots of "bravo's") 2. Don't go to IKEA without your dog 3. You can run a Scooda van into an old building and it won't fall...... 4. If you want to get a lot of people to stare at you, wear flip flops 5. Speed limit is a suggestion 6. Don't expect to eat dinner before 7 7. Horse and rabbit are a delicacy on the menu 8. Italians are not afaid to put a baby park, wine tasting and a bar in the same place 9. Don't judge a deli at a gas station...they're pretty dang good 10. We've limited our gelato intake to strictly #gelatofriday Tomorrow we're off to San Marino for the weekend :) XO Heather Our first weekend trip was a success! We watched a few Padova baseball games in Florence then made our way to stay the rest of the weekend in the cutest town, San Gimignano. It was basically everything you picture when you think of Italy. A little brick town with narrow streets, clothes hanging off lines out of windows and villas covered in Ivy. Although the patios of restaurants and cafes are covered with people, somehow it is still so quiet all you can hear is the birds chirping.....until we get outside. Haha!
We woke up in San Gimignano, enjoyed our coffee and brioche (which are pastries and it's becoming an everyday thing...help) then walked around the shops for the first part of the afternoon. After we drove about 30 minutes to Greve in Chianti to visit Enoteca Falorni. Enoteca Florin is the place that inspired the The Teahen's when they were traveling 3 years ago to later open a wine bar of their own in Scottsdale, AZ. It was so cool to see the concept that sparked their ideas and the results of what they created. If you haven't been to Scottsdale quarter to check out Sorso Wine Room I highly recommend it. Wine on tap is always fun. Our last day we visited the beautiful family owned Winery called Tenuta Torciano. We may or may not have had way to much fun wine tasting but I would be lying if I said the truffle oil they made there wasn't one of the best parts. It's crazy that in America, any dish with Truffles on it is expensive. Here it is not as valuable since they have the resources to produce a lot. Safe to say we made the most of the road trip by making a few other pit stops along the way. We scoped out some cool cities that we will go back to visit another weekend. Time is flying. I can't believe we have almost been here a month! We're off to Bologna tomorrow to watch a few baseball games and get our dose of the town that created tortellini... as if we haven't had enough pasta so far. Happy Friday :) XO Heather You know what I love? The weird feeling of uncomfort. It sparks a different kind of excitement for me, knowing that I am not only growing as a person but learning something I didn't know or have never felt before. What I love even more is finding comfort within a place that is so different and new to us. I would say comfort for us right now is that we are officially locals at the café we go to every morning for coffee. Haha! We've got our day to day routine down. As well as 5 solid Italian phrases that get us through the days. I love our days just hanging out and exploring Padua. But it is sooooo nice being in such a good location where we can just hop in the car and take day trips in less than 2 hours. Oh - and not only are we the Americans touring in the big van (with absolute no tint on the windows). We are the Americans with the big van, double stroller and baby carrier.... yeah we busted that one out. And I love it. We drove about an hour and a half down the coast to Trieste, Italy. It's little port city northeast of us! We just hung out around the outside of the town to have lunch, walk around and let the boys play on the playgrounds that lined the water. Our eyes got pretty big when lunch was served because we misunderstood some stuff on the menu haha... let's just say we left the assorted fish appetizer to Mark. We are off to Florence tomorrow then staying in San Gimignano for the weekend :) Happy Friday! XO Heather Ciao! Felice Venerdi :)
If you know me, you probably know that I just got settled in New York and it might seem like moving to Italy for a few months came out of no where. Well it kinda did, but that's what I love about life and the adventure of being able to make decisions that seem a little crazy but enrich our lives in so many different ways. Throughout my last year of college in Arizona, I worked as a nanny for Mark, Lauren & their 3 cute kids. They quickly became family to me and it was hard to leave once I graduated, but little did I know, a year later I would be living with them in Italy. Mark retired from the MLB about 3 years ago and just a few months ago was offered an opportunity to play in Padova, Italy. He is now making his come back as an Italian Baseball Superstar (Watch his steps on getting there @marktteahen). It didn't take a lot of convincing on my end and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to join them in their new adventures. So here we are! We made it. Might have been 3 kids vs. 3 adults on the travels to get here...but we made it. We successfully arrived only missing 2 bags (happened to be car seats), came down the escalator to Marks manager holding a sign that said "Italian baseball superstar" hahah and some pretty cool Padova gear. I wish I had a picture of everyone's face around us watching 3 Americans each with a kid and just about 13 bags strolling through the airport. Our 9 seater manuel van was waiting in the parking lot and Lauren quickly became our designated driver because she's the only one that knows how to drive it. Our Villa feels like it's out of a movie, coffee and wine are like water here and we are basically the only English speaking people in our town. Signs are now plastered all over the walls in our house with commonly used phrases that we need to learn to make ours (and their) lives easier communicating in town. We're determined and off to a good start. XO Heather Today's a good day. For any specific reason? No. But yesterday was a good day, tomorrow will be a good day.. and the day after. Not because anything crazy will happen, or maybe it will, but because it's a mindset and exactly what we choose to make of it. Last week I called my mom on the way to work at 6 am her time (sorry mom). But basically our whole conversation was myself venting to her about how the past week very morning something was consistently going wrong. I seriously asked her "is this supposed to be telling me something, am I supposed to learn a lesson!? I've been positive and happy everyday about it but it still hasn't stopped." She tried to give me advice and laughed with me because at this point all there really was to do was to surrender and laugh. Later that day, all those things that "went wrong" worked themselves out. All I could think was how happy I was I did not let it have such an effect on me to the point where it had an effect. I am not saying that every time something goes wrong it will fix itself, but I do think the more positive you try to be.. the easier it is to deal with. Life has its ups and downs and there will definitely be worse times than others. But when you can think of all the little things that you're grateful for and make you happy during these hard times, it easily starts to overcome the negative that is going on. Go do something that makes YOU feel good. Treat yourself, love yourself and make everyday a good day. Because life is too short to let anything get in the way of you and what you can make of your day. XO Heather Around the holidays it seems like there isn't time for anything outside of your daily schedule because of the holiday parties, Christmas shopping and cramming in all of the extra work before offices start to close. Actually in life in general, there never seems to be any "extra time". Although I have always believed that you are able to make time for the things important to you, whether it is waking up super early to workout or taking time for an extra hobby. I always find myself disregarding this theory when it comes to being social. It really is important to me to see my friends and catch up but sometimes I let the structure of my life get in the way and do not make the time that I should. I'm sure alot of you are feeling the same way. Butttttttttt, we managed to do both a Friendsgiving and Christmas dinner this year and it was sooo fun, easy and refreshing. My advice to you is it MAKE PLANS & keep it simple. It's as easy as picking a mutual location/house, sending a facebook invite and letting each guest sign up to bring something. Our thanksgiving was more of a potluck with everyone bringing different yummy dishes. Katina and I were supposed to bring turkey.....but found out quickly the day of that you have to pre-order them from Whole Foods rather than being able to pick them up the day of pre-prepared. Thank goodness for rotisserie chicken. Same idea, right? (Sorry there's only pics of the Christmas Din) XO Heather Bright lights, music, decorations covering every inch of this city and soooo many holiday activities was the perfect start to this years holiday season for me. It was so cool to be a part of such a happy time in a busy place like New York. I still catch myself looking around and stopping to reiterate to myself “wow I really live here”. After a long month of festivities and excitement, I took off to spend an awesome 10 days off work with my family and my best friends in Utah and San Diego. We woke up to a beautiful white Christmas in Utah. Our day was filled with snuggles, coffee, snow ball fights, an intense game of yatzee and really good food. I was able to spend so much time with my nephews and my heart was so full. My mom gifted me with round-trip standby flight tickets for Christmas and I thought what better way to use them then to make a trip before heading back to the city. After joking about going from cold weather to cold weather for my vacation, I decided to take off to San Diego! I hopped on the plan Thursday morning, one of my best friends picked me up and we went straight to the beach. Wow, it really was 6 months too long being away from such a beautiful place. Sometimes it feels good to be so spontaneous and break away from such a structured lifestyle. I hope everyone was able to relax, spend time with the people you love and celebrate ringing in the New Year! XO Heather Shop the sweater here! Heyyyyyyy! Since this is one of the first few posts I want to start with a little recap. To make it easier and no blab your ear off I am going to tell you 20 things learned since becoming a small girl in a big city! This experience is something I would have never imagined... some of the absolute best times with many hard times. Through the hard times somehow with a little chocolate and good laughs we manged to see the light in them.
Seriously, everything works out exactly how its supposed to. I've learned not to settle no matter how anxious I am for something. Whether it's a job, a place to live, or even something you have been working towards.. keep working hard and it will all fall into place how it's supposed to. XO Heather |
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