Baseball, Scrabble, Wedding

My little brother is getting married next year. I absolutely love his fiancé, but I feel a bit sorry for her. One, she is going to be stuck with my brother for the rest of her life and trust me I have been stuck with him for 25 years, it is tough. Two, I am a fairly nosy and pushy person so I have been bombarding her with emails containing bridesmaids dresses, engagement photos, and ideas for their outdoor reception.

As I have said before I allowed myself to join Pinterest this summer. I am beyond obsessed and unfortunately for Taylor, I bombard her inbox with more emails than is probably appropriate. Here are some of my favorites…

Brandon loves baseball, especially the Cincinnati Reds. We grew up going to games, watching Neon Deon, Barry Larkin and Chris Sabo. I saw these engagement photos and I thought they would be perfect for them.

Every time I go home I end up spending one evening playing Scrabble with my brother, Taylor and my Mom. We are not a competitive family, ok that's a lie, we are a highly competitive family so these Scrabble games are intense. I also thought this was a super cute idea for the Scrabble lovers.

Although I may be nosy and pushy I am most of all excited and happy for my little brother and Taylor.

Can’t wait to celebrate 08.31.13!

Happy Birthday America

This is my third 4^th of July in five years that I have spent it out of the US of A. For a number of reasons it always makes me homesick. The first reason is that I never celebrate on the actual 4^th of July. Celebrations typically take place the weekend before or after. Second, I always have to work. Third, I don’t normally get to eat hamburgers, potato salad, or other great BBQ eats!

For the all the reasons spending the 4^th of July out of the US sucks, there is an aspect that makes it really fun, the patriotic feeling of being American in a foreign country. Don’t ask me why, but for some reason I feel more patriotic than I do when I am in the States. I typically try to avoid telling people I am American because of our stereotypes abroad but today I feel a pride that I typically don’t feel. Today, July 4^th, I am proud to be an American.

Often times it is also an opportunity for cultural exchange. My good friend who is German is totally surprised by how seriously Americans take Independence Day. She said that Germans typically don’t do anything and then followed up by saying, “maybe out history has something to do with that.” In Guatemala, many of my friends and colleagues thought Americans didn’t do enough to celebrate our independence. I guess it just depends on who you ask whether we do our independence day justice.

So as much as it sucks spending the 4^th of July out of the US, I have to say it is always interesting and different!