Little Fockers

What's wrong with this picture (or date night)?!?!

We were so excited to go see "Little Fockers". We walked to Cine Star, picked our seats, bought our tickets, bought soda & popcorn, sat down, watched the previews AND THEN.......

The Cine Star representative, who sold us the tickets, walked into theater #4, came right to our seats AND SAID......

I'm so sorry, this movie is NOT in english...........................NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

So we got up, walked out of theater #4 and took the above picture before heading back home. This was our date night gone wrong. We soooo wanted to watch this movie. Apparently, it will not come to Pardubice theaters in the english version. Boo!

What's your date night gone wrong??

Our Christmas

This year, the hubs and I were very thankful to have each other during the Holidays. Being apart last year really stunk.. Even though we don't have everything our home has to offer (OVEN) here, we made it work. Actually, we went to a beautiful restaurant haha! It was great food and we had a good time.

Our 2010 family Christmas shot. Love it ;)

Being in another country during the Holidays makes for a lot of time spent on the phone with friends & family. I'm not even kidding you, between Adam and I, we spent over 5 hours making calls. But every single one was worth it!!!!

Merry Christmas!!

December 24th

Dear friends, I'm sorry that I've kinda neglected my blog. What can I say....IT'S THE HOLIDAYS! We had a wonderful Christmas spent with the Spirko's! In Czech Republic, they celebrate "the generous day - Christmas" on the 24th. We got to embrace their traditions to the fullest....!


Some lovely traditions that we did:
- Have an extra plate set in case an unexpected guest in need comes by the house at dinner time and/or for those who have left us.
- A very important part of Christmas is garlic. It's believed to give strength and protection so there was a bowl of sliced garlic on the table. Everyone bit into a slice.
- Honey is believed to guard against evil. Therefore, before our meal, we ate a waffer style bread with honey on it :)
- Another custom.. No one should ever get up from the table before dinner is finished. Doing this will bring bad luch and death in the family.

The Spirko's Christmas Tree

Micha & I after our tummies were full of deeeelicious food.

Notice the beautiful arrangement of post appetizers below. Yup...we dug into them! So good.

Then the guys jumped on the patio with huge sparklers!!

Well, in a nutshell, we had a great time! Thank you Thank you Thank you Spirko & Micha for a great Christmas Eve dinner!!

Abby's 1st Christmas

Check out my sweet goddaughter's Christmas pictures in this Santa hat. Love it!!! I miss her so so so much :)

Christmas Market

I got to quickly experience the local Christmas market in the Pardubice square. I hopped from one stall to another in the cold COLD weather ~ us girls we just gotta browse ;) There was all kinds of Holiday items, crafts, Christmas decorations, gifts and traditional goodies sold along with hot wine! T'was a very festive atmosphere.

The hubs and I playing around with this ornament which reminded me of the huge steel ball in Chicago.

Shadow got really upset when she saw this wooden dog sitting in the manger...

It's so different spending Christmas in another country. I'm really missing my personal rituals...!

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Here are a few:

->Sending my Holiday cards (here)

->Cooking/my oven

->Yummy Holiday coffee (here) & my favorite candy cane tea (here)

->Reading a Holiday book (here)

->Christmas parties with friends/the hub's team

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I did however manage to fit a few in this year.

->I'm with my HUSBAND!!!!!

->I've watched 9 Christmas movies so far and I still have 3 on my DVR!

->I decorated our apartment

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The thing that we miss the MOST is being able to spend the Holidays with family & friends. Also, we're most thankful for our health & happiness!!

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On that note, have a great week everyone :)

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Strollers & Bicycles

You may find that my post title today is a little weird but that's all I've been seeing around town. I love how the weather doesn't "faze" this community in Czech Republic. You will see people walking their babies all year round. I do have to point out that I've been seeing amazing wheels out-and-about. Popular styles are Stokke & Bumbleride. I mean these baby carriages are surely designed to take on some serious cobblestone roads along with frigid weather.




Now for the bicycle part.. This is absolutely worthy of being remarked because riding your bicycle in North America during the winter is totally uncommon. At first, I didn't expect to see anyone riding their bikes at all yet I've noticed a large amount of people on their wheels. Great talent or what?! Actually, the hubs said that he saw a few flips last year ~ Eeeek!

Stunned and in shock, I had to capture it on camera (yup, I'm a nut like that - haha!). Anyhooo, I love how this little city doesn't plan around wind, rain or snow. They will not put off any type of activity. They just live life!!

Ohhh Christmas Tree

Here you go peeps! A peak at our artificial Christmas tree. A few weeks ago, we went in search for the cutest Christmas tree for our living room. I could hardly wait to decorate it. I even found an english "Merry Christmas" that I used as a tree topper since I can't really fit anything else up there HA!

Last year, the hubs and I spent Christmas apart. I didn't have a Christmas tree nor did he. But this year, I was unable to resist the urge to deck our apartment with a festive tree!

The Knee..

Awwww... The hubs got hurt at last Wednesday's game. A combination hit from another player and the darn board a few minutes into the game. When he went down on the ice, my heart sank into my toes. My husband got up, in what I can imagine was pain, and skated towards the bench while holding the boards. I wish I had the video clip so I could show you. So that's how it happened.

The doctor took a look at it after the game in the locker room and suggested doing a "blood injection". This is a platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection where they take your own blood, spin your blood plus mixing agents for growth factors and inject it back into the knee to accelerate healing. Outch!! This has been used a few times on other players to shorten the recovery. Per the doctor it gives a great result to heal at an excellerated rate and promote a quicker return-to-play.

We read about this procedure. Apparently, this research is still on going. The Clinics in Sport Medicine have yet to establish some official standards for PRP (buffering the platelets, not buffering them, etc..) to get optimal patient results. It's scary when it's your own knee to make the immediate decision especially when there are no significant clinical studies on the effectiveness. So, the hubs made the decision to have an MRI done instead. He feared that if there were tears with tendons or ligaments that PRP wouldn't be beneficial. Please note that I am not putting down this pilot study which seem to be a promosing treatment. I think it's actually great that medicine is advancing and physicians offer more innovative treatments. However, the hubs wanted to make sure that all was good on the inside of his knee.


On my birthday, we went to the doctor's office who said that the MRI showed no rupture to the tendons and ligaments (Woohoo!!). At this point, the hubs has been working with the team therapist. He has less pain, less swelling and less bruising - Yes! it was way worst than these pics. Thankfully, the team has a break this week so this will help Adam's recovery. We went to the game last night and I could tell that he wanted to be in the line-up! Go Pardubice!!

My birthday!!

'Tis the season for my birthday! Actually, it was yesterday the 10th. The hubs and I went to the hospital for his knee which I will blog about tomorrow. Then, we went to the immigration office at the airport which I will also blog about later. We went to a few restaurants around town who couldn't take us because we didn't have reservations. Finally, we found this restaurant underground and it turned out to be great!!

Dear Diary, this is my birthday shot :)

A walk in the square to find a huge xmas tree all aglow. Just gorgeous!

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Where to even begin?! These past months have been challenging living in another country. I've struggled with stuff that I never thought (in a million years) would even come close to frustrate me.. I couldn't wait to master the new way of life here. I wanted to accomplish so many tasks, that in Florida were easy for me to scratch off my list, but here were difficult/frustrating/failures. Along my side, my very helpful and patient husband. He's been my "calming pill" haha! and has been understanding to my adjustment. Doting husband to the rescue! I love this guy so much...!

The famous arm shot. I totally cut off the tree below - oups!

Now for the birthday goodness comin'atcha... My bday cake! At first, we thought that it was a strawberry cheesecake but nope. It turned out to be a strawberry shortcake which is fine with me :)

Well, that's my birthday post folks. How amazing to be able to spend it with Adam this year.

Absolutely wonderful!!!

Shadow 'n Snow!

This post is a little late but it's Shadow's first snowfall since she was 12 weeks old. I vividly remember her loving it. She walked outside and was just looking everywhere.

Then she decided to hop in the snow.

Once the hubs finished with practice, we headed to the soccer field for some playtime.

So content even though out of breath!

Pure happiness!!

Shadow getting a good taste of the snow. Quickly realized that it's freezing lol!

More running around..

The hubs trying to get the ball from her.

This is one of those photos where I was able to capture Shadow catching a snowball. See it in the air??

She caught it! Great timing, if I do say so myself.

Shadow is so happy when she gets a good run in.. Look at that tongue hangin'!

More snow fun to come!

Show us your entry way

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner to show you our entry way. Our house was a model home before we bought it. I love how the designer "dressed up" the entrance. Once we return home after this hockey season, it's actually a place in our house that I want to put some focus on. I want to paint it, find nice pictures, get a carpet and make it cozy! Come on in...

You can find all kinds of things in our entrance.. The hubs and our friend's boys playing hockey!

You can usually find Shadow around the door. She knows that's where all the traffic comes from and she doesn't want to miss anything ! {my gf Tracey in pink :)}

Okay so now that I've showed you our primary residence entry way. Let me show you our apt entrance in Czech Republic. We are living here for the hockey season. I miss my home! BIG TIME!!

The hubs & Shadow down there!
Well, that was today's tour. Hope you enjoyed it!