Happy Easter!

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”

Then they remembered his words."

Luke 24:1-8

The Eve of Easter

So often in today's society it's difficult to find things that celebrate the true meaning of Christian Holidays. Easter isn't any different. This week at work, as I was looking forward to Easter, I would ask my patients and co-workers if their family did anything special to celebrate Easter. Many would respond that they have family get togethers and dinners but very few included that they would be celebrating at a church. I was shocked at how many celebrate Easter with no real understanding of the holiday. Maybe shocked is too strong of a word, after all, many celebrate Christmas without celebrating the birth of Christ, so why would Easter be any different? But I guess I assumed Easter was different. Isn't so obviously a religious holiday, a time celebrating the resurrection of our Savior?

Unfortunately it gets buried underneath the commercialized Easter bunny, Easter Eggs, Pretty baskets and Easter Egg hunts. I suppose if you didn't come from a Judeo-Christian background you could justify setting aside a day to go a long with those Easter festivities. But as I consider what this young Poindexter family's holiday traditions will be, I am torn between wanting to avoid any secular aspect of Easter and allowing some fun popular traditions. I struggle with this same concept during Christmas. I find myself severely irritated with Santa Clause during Christmas and even MORE irritated with the Easter bunny during the Easter holiday.

As a Christian is it okay to allow some popular Easter traditions such as the Easter basket and Easter egg hunts into your Easter celebration? I mean, my parents always filled Easter baskets for myself and my siblings, we always had Easter egg hunts and usually dyed Easter eggs for fun on Sunday afternoon. I know doing those things never took away from the true meaning of the holiday in my family, and we never for one second believed that the Easter bunny (or Santa Clause for that matter) were even remotely real. But I am so afraid that I will do a poor job of getting that across to my future children. I want so very badly to raise children that will truly give their hearts to Christ and I know it will be Mark and I's responsibility to lead them in that direction. On the other end of the spectrum, I don't want to be legalistic and make my children bitter towards Christian holidays because they don't get to enjoy many of the same things their friends might be enjoying. How do you give them the true joy of the holiday, allowing it to be fun with family memories, but never taking away from the meaning of the celebration???

Am I crazy for even thinking about this right now? We don't even have a baby on the way and I'm already concerned about this. Is it too early to even worry about it???

Well, worry about I do. Concerned about it, I am. (Some how Yoda is making an appearance all of a sudden...???)  Anyways! Mark and I decided that for now we will plan to allow our kids to have Easter baskets and most likely engage in some Easter egg hunting/dyeing activities, but incorporate the true meaning of the season even more than we allow the secular aspects. And to ensure that our children know the difference between truth and fictional characters.

Here are some cute and fun activities I found that could be a good idea to refer back to when it does come time to celebrate Easter with some young ones one day.

Ressurection Rolls

Ressurection Garden

Jesus Easter Eggs

Moss Covered Cross

Easter Countdown Craft

Cross Cupcakes

Easter Blocks

I'm hoping to keep Christ the center of my life, my marriage and my future family. Not just during holiday seasons but always.

How do you celebrate Easter?

Did you get Easter Baskets growing up?

How do you keep Christ the center of your holiday celebration?

New Years Resolutions???

I had the crazy thought today to check back on my New Years Resolutions to see how I was doing...

And you know what??? I'm not doing half bad!

Here's what I've accomplished : ) - working on : | - and what I haven't even started yet : (...

~ Complete the Bible in 90 days reading.... :( .... I thought I had the study I used when I did this a couple of years ago, the one that has the reading schedule, but I haven't found it yet. And I kind of stopped looking. I should get on that soon and be ready to start that by May 1st.

~ Complete 90 days of P90X.... : | / :( ...... I started this one and then got bored really quickly. It just takes SOOO long to complete. But with my races getting closer I'm really feeling the pressure of needing some serious upper and lower body strengthening. Reading that I was supposed to complete this makes me feel guilty for not sticking with it. *groan* We'll see if I can kick this in to gear soon.

~ Lose 20-25 pounds... :| .... As you've seen from my updates, I've lost about 6 pounds... so only 19 more to go???

~ Give our hall bathroom a mini make-over .... :( ..... NOPE.... Its really not on the list at this point. Probably a project for late summer/fall. But I have all year right???

~ Become a better meal planner... :| ... I feel like maybe my "working on it" face should be a little happier..oh well... Because I am definitely getting better at this! As seen by my Homemade Meal Challenge

~ Become a better couponer... :| .... Same as above. I'm getting better!

~ Pay off my car! ..... :) ...... Finally a smiley face!!! I did this back in January actually. It was definitely exciting! Of course as soon as I paid that baby off I got a chip in my windshield. Isn't that always the case? But that's not the point! The Poindexter's have one more debt paid off! 

~ Finish my first olympic distance triathlon ... :) .... I am in full training!!! I have a 6am wake up call for swimming tomorrow morning!

~ Run More! ...  :) .... I AM running more. Not enough yet, but I am running. And my sweet Piper has started going with me on my 1-2 mile runs.

~ Create a baby Poindexter. .... :( ... Not that this really needs a sad face, we haven't necessarily started "trying" yet. But it's coming. Stay tuned.

~ Become an Aunt! .... :( .... I am going to sad face this one. Still praying for my sister and Brother-in-law for their hearts desire to be granted. I am hoping to hear good news soon!

~ Re-paint music room ... :).... DONE!

~ Read more .... :) .... I've finished the Explicit Gospel and I've started Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

~ Plant a Garden this spring ... :) .... Not completed, but I do have my raised bed made and ready to go. Just waiting for Winter to decide to leave and let Spring have a turn!

How are you doing on your New Year's Resolutions???

Taco Party, Emergency Vet and Fried Ice Cream

Wow, what a Sunday. When I went to bed last night I did not even imagine the day would turn out like this.

Mark and I had invited his Sister and Brother-in-law and his parents to have lunch at our house after church today. They were going to bring their dogs and we were going to have a nice cozy afternoon on a rainy, cold day. Mark and I went shopping last night for all of the makings of a yummy taco party and even looked up a recipe on Pinterest  for homemade fried ice cream - you know - to stick with the Mexican food theme. I was so excited, I like having people, especially family, over to the house. I was up a little later than usual last night making sure the house was all picked up and the food was ready to go since I'd be throwing it together right when we got home from church. I even went ahead and pre-made the fried ice cream so it would be nice and solid when we were ready to eat it. But unfortunately Mark's family never got to come over.

Our poor little Piper had been having some stomach issues the last few days... getting sick in the car (which by the way cost me about $40 to have shampooed...*sigh*) and not eating her normal amounts of food or even treats.  We chalked it up to motion sickness, and the eating thing to the fact that she's been teething so it might be bothering her to chew hard food. She seemed fine all day Saturday, even went running with me, and ate her food this morning, so we thought she was doing better - almost back to her normal self. Unfortunately that wasn't the case when we got home from church. With out going in to too much detail, she was having a hard time keeping whatever was in her stomach, IN her stomach. It was coming out all over her crate, all over my carpets and kitchen floor. After some discussion and a call to the vets office we were convinced we needed to bring her in to the emergency vet hospital. My poor puppy got all poked and prodded. After about 2 1/2 hours they ruled out Parvo (thank goodness!) and wanted to keep her 1-2 days for observation. We opted out of that because of the  close to $1,000 bill that came along with it, so they gave her some IV fluids to prevent dehydration, an anti Nausea injection and instructions to visit our regular veterinarian tomorrow if symptoms don't improve. After almost 4 hours we finally left! I mean, I didn't anticipate taking your pet to the emergency vet would take that long!

Mark and I were starving when we left because we never grabbed any lunch, so we decided to hit up some taco bell. Definitely not something we make a habit out of, but we were in no mood to make any food for ourselves and we were already in the mood for Taco's. : )

Piper is sleeping quietly now. She has a huge camel like hump on her shoulder from the fluids they injected in her, but thankfully she hasn't let any fluids exit her body since being home. : ) I think I might cry if I have to clean up another mess in my house. Hopefully she'll be able to keep food down in the morning or its back to the vet we go. I'm super thankful that tomorrow is Mark's work from home day so he'll be able to closely monitor her through out the morning. I know I probably sound crazy, after all, its just an animal. There might be a day when I'll just put a vomiting dog outside and not blink twice while I tend to my babies, but today little miss Piper is my baby, and I feel oh so bad that she is sick.

Once everything settled down after we got home and we got cleaned up from all of the nastiness of the day that fried ice cream I had made last night looked really appetizing! It wasn't exactly the way we had planned to eat this, we didn't even get out the toppings, but it tasted de-licious! So glad I had made them already. Eating this was the perfect way to end a very long day. 

I was going to post the recipe on here but decided it just wouldn't sound appetizing with all the other information I just shared. So you can find the recipe here. : ) 

Homemade Fried Ice Cream

Any way you can make ice cream more delicious I'm all for it!

This version is faux fried ice cream, so its healthier than the actual fried stuff but its definitely not the on the scale of healthy snacks. But who doesn't like to indulge every once in a while???

Ingredients:

6 cups of honey flavored cereal. (Cornflakes, chex mix, life... etc. I used Honey Nut Chex)

3 Tablespoons of melted butter

2 Tablespoons of white sugar

2 Teaspoons of cinnamon

5 Tablespoons of corn syrup

Crush the cereal and then mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl

The scoop vanilla ice cream (slightly softened) into 3 inch balls and roll them in to the mixture. It was a little messy and you kind of have to pat the cereal on the ice cream balls softly to make sure it sticks.

Place the balls in a muffin pan and then put in the freezer until you're ready to eat. I put plastic wrap cover mine to prevent freezer burn.

We ate them the next evening and they were....

SO DELICIOUS!

You can find the original recipe here.

Homemade Meal Challenge: Round 2

Meal Planning.

I'm going to try to keep the momentum rolling... no boxed or frozen dinners these next two weeks either! I have to say I'm struggling a bit today as I figure out what our meals are going to be because my stomach is a little upset today. Nothing sounds good to eat when you're feeling sick to your stomach, but I'm pressing on because it has to get done!

Week 1

Monday - Crockpot Lasagna

Tuesday- Baked Chicken, with veggies and mashed potatoes

Wednesday - Crockpot BBQ Chicken (This one is a repeat, but Mark really liked it!)

Thursday - Baked Ziti

Friday - Taco Bake

Saturday - Date Night

Sunday - Salad with soup or sandwich

Week 2

Monday - Crock Pot Macaroni N Cheese

Tuesday - Baked Chicken (different marinade than previous week)  with veggies

Wednesday - Crockpot Chicken Enchilada's

Thursday - Breakfast for Dinner!

Friday - We have our Home Group Bible Study so we'll be eating dinner over there!

Saturday - Date Night

Sunday - Homemade Pizza 

Okay, time to clip some coupons and then head to the grocery store in this overcast, cold, 45 degree weather. So gloomy today... I'm going to try to make this trip fast so I can enjoy the rest of the evening cuddled up with my hubby before the work week starts again tomorrow!

P.s.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Project Vegetable Garden: Raised Cedar Bed

Step 1: Make the raised flower bed.

Since spring is right around the corner I've been spending a little time researching how I want to plant my vegetable garden this year. After some reading I decided I wanted to start out this year with a raised bed, just to see how I do, before I tear up a section of my yard for something that might not turn out...

I ran across some pretty detailed but simple instructions for a raised bed using Cedar fence panels here. She promised it could be made for about $10, which is fantastic because Cedar wood is super expensive. 

Mark had the day off yesterday (he gets a rotating day off every other week, so every other Friday he has off!) so I showed him the plans that I had found to make the bed and he said he would give it a try for me!

This little beauty is what I came home to!

The sides are made out of the individual fence panels which is the key to keeping the cost low, because the panels are only about $2 each at the hardware store. (Ana White's blog, where the plans come from, is the one that suggests that little gold nugget of information!) He did say the fence panels had a tendency to split when drilling the screws in to them because they were so thin and he didn't have the tool Ana White said to use (Kreg Jigs). But he made it work after a couple of tries. Cause he's the man like that. :) Ana does a fantastic job at describing how to build this, complete with pictures and diagrams, so I'm just going to refer you on to her for all of the "how to"'s.

Seeing it in the back yard gets me all excited to fill it full of earth and get my seeds planted in there. In fact I'm feeling so confident that I'm going to see if I can get him to build me another one and maybe add a few more vegetables than I had originally planned! I looked up some information on planting seasons in our area and it looks like I should wait until the end of March, early April to plant the vegetables that I want to,  it's so warm out today (70 degrees!) that I'm tempted to just get it all in now! Thankfully I know that would be a bad idea because we still have some night time frosts to watch out for, so I'm going to do my best and just count down the days patiently. :)

Well Balanced Wednesday Update

I've definitely been slacking this new year with Well Balanced Wednesdays.

My schedule at work changed in February so I know have Tuesday afternoons off. I have still been going over to my sister's every Tuesday afternoon to work out together, but we have definitely allowed our bible study to fall off to the side. I think we both have a major focus on trying to get back in shape before this summer, and I like to spend only an hour or 2 over there so I can get home and get all of my housewife work done so we end up just exercising and not reviewing our bible study together. The bible study we chose when we started this whole idea wasn't exactly ideal for group discussion/study but that just sounds like I'm offering an excuse doesn't it?

I am headed over there soon to get together with her so I'll bring up our lack of bible study while I'm there and see if we can't get this ball rolling again...

I want to try to start posting on Tuesdays about it as well, I couldn't really figure out how I wanted to do it when I was posting about Well Balanced Wednesdays, but maybe this time I'll be a little more focused with what I want to share. I'm going to have to change them name though...seeing as its not on Wednesdays... but I'm going to have to think on that one.  I'll let you know!

Okay, I've got a load of laundry started and chicken thawing out for dinner so time to head over to Erin's!

Puppy Sitting

My older sister Erin celebrated her 27th birthday this past weekend. Her husband surprised her with a trip up to Northern Virginia to shop at Ikea, which she has been dying to go to for the past 2-3 years. It was just a quick weekend trip, but they needed someone to watch their 6 month old Lab-Boxer mix, Shelby. a.k.a. Piper's best friend.

Every Tuesday I go over to Erin's house to work out and do our bible study (Remember those well balanced Wednesdays?? They've moved to Tuesdays...I guess I should give an update on that sometime soon...) I take Piper over there with me and Shelby and Piper play their little hearts out all afternoon. So of course Mark and I agreed to watch Shelby for them.

They are the cutest things when they are together. They wrestle, dig holes together, chew on sticks together, take naps together (literally on the same bed with each other) chase balls together and are so well behaved on their walks together!

Here are a few snapshots from our weekend with the girls...

Homemade Meal Challenge Update

I made it through the first work week of my homemade meal challenge!

It was tough. And I have to be honest, not all of the meals turned out that great. Like my Philly Cheese Steak sloppy joe recipe? Ick! Seriously, I will not be making that one again.

There were definitely nights, especially tonight, when I wanted to forget about it and just order pizza because I was tired or got home later than I thought... but I stuck to my guns. And my husband graciously finished each and every meal. Even the icky ones. Who knew my homemade challenge to try and eat better/healthier would be such a challenge for our tastebuds. Not because the food was bad but because my cooking skills were sorely lacking. I really anticipated it to go better than it did. : /

Tonight was probably the best meal yet! We had Chicken and Ranch pasta with some more homemade bread. (Thats one thing I made that turned out AWESOME!) But it took much longer to make than I thought. A 30 minute meal turned into a 90 minute meal... I was getting super frustrated but I made myself keep smiling and keep cooking. I was pretty proud of myself for whipping up the ranch sauce without any actual directions, thanks to a recipe from earlier this week that also had be make a sauce. (+1 for Meghan! If I gain nothing else out of this week, at least I learned how to make sauces).

Tomorrow we'll be taking a break from homemade meals for a usual night out together. I will be so glad to get out of the kitchen! While I do like the feeling of knowing I've made a homemade meals with natural ingredients for my husband and I, I am not a big fan of spending anywhere from 30-90 minutes cooking in the kitchen as soon as I get home from work and then only spending about 20 minutes eating it with Mark. But I guess thats just how it is, huh? 

I am very grateful that my husband voices his appreciation every night as we eat. And never lacks with compliments. He also left this sweet note on our love board tonight...

Hopefully next week goes a little smoother. 

Getting Back in Shape: March Update

*sigh* this is going to be a much longer process than I originally anticipated.

Again. You don't have to go back to my last update on getting back in shape to make sure you're not seeing the same numbers. It IS less. About 2 pounds less than last month.

I don't know how you would feel about this, but I'm thinking that losing only 2 pounds a month isn't going to get me back to the way I want to look before summer rolls around. But I'm also trying to look at this in a positive light. The 2 pounds I've lost each month have stayed off! A total of 4 pounds lost that now do not keep being re-found every couple of days. So maybe the steps I'm taking are making more of a lasting change and not a quick loss? Thats the story I'm sticking with anyways. ;)

I do feel like I'm gaining momentum though. I have officially started triathlon training which means I'm swimming and running at least 2x a week. Mark and I have started a training program through a Nike+ "game" for the xBox Kinect. It's a much more intense version of wii fit. It's no P90X or anything but it makes us break a sweat. 

I'm just going to keep on keeping on. Here's to hoping that I won't get too discouraged and return to my soda addiction for comfort.

I've also given myself an incentive. As soon as I drop below 150 pounds and keep it there for a week I can go get a pedicure! I really love pedicures. :)

Homemade Bread

Growing up my mom used to make delicious homemade bread in her bread maker. I loved waking up to the smell of that bread. My mouth would instantly water at the thought of the warm, fluffy bread, covered in butter and strawberry jam melting in my mouth for breakfast! Delicious!

When I found a recipe on Pinterest for easy homemade bread in a crockpot (because I don't have a bread machine) I could suddenly smell that familiar aroma and I think I might have drooled a little at the thought of eating the finished product.

Apparently my Pinterest pin came from Artisan Bread in 5. The bread dough takes about 5 minutes to make, (you can find the recipe from the same site here) it has to rise for 2 hours and then after that you can either bake it or let it refrigerate. I decided to let mine chill for a couple of hours because the website said it would be easier to handle and, well, I never try to push my luck in the kitchen. :)  It took about 90 minutes to bake in my crockpot. It said it would take about an hour so I was a little disappointed that it took longer because I had planned for it to be finished at the same time dinner would be ready... we had to eat some left over store bought bread with dinner but it worked out because then I could save the yummy bread for dessert!

Here is the dough right after I made it, before it started to rise.

Here is the finished product! I definitely slacked on all of the picture taking in between. But it was really easy. I dusted the dough with flour and pulled out a lump of dough about the size of a grapefruit. No kneading required... you just fold the edges of the bread under itself... I don't know how to explain it, the website definitely describes it better! And just like they mentioned in the post about baking it in the crockpot (you can use the same recipe to bake in the oven), it doesn't brown well in the crock pot so I put in under the broiler for about 4 minutes to get the nice crust. :)

We enjoyed a nice a snack of home made bread with butter and organic strawberry jam. 

It's not my mom's homemade bread, but it sure hit the spot. And I like the feeling of knowing I made it myself and I know exactly whats in the bread.

Homemade Meal Challenge

I was talking to someone the other night about eating healthy. As in not eating so many pre-packaged processed foods. Mark and I were at the home group that we go to every other Friday night, and the husband and wife that hosts the home group were telling me about a book they read.

This book called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral was about a family that decided they would only eat food that they grew themselves or bought/traded from local farmers. They wouldn't buy anything from the grocery store.

We were talking about how appealing it is to eat healthier, but how our lifestyles make it almost impossible to do what they did. How the prices of organic produce, meats and dairy are much more expensive (especially where we're at in the city) and how its more time consuming to shop for and prepare meals when eating that way.

They gave me the book to borrow, so I am going to add that to my reading list for this year. But even before I open that book, I want to start trying to eat better. When I say eat better, I don't mean in the sense of eating only fruits, veggies and not eating sugar etc. But Mark and I are a big fan of Hamburger Helpers and frozen pasta dinners. Not because we just love how good they make us feel *cough* sarcasm *cough*. But because they make a decent meal fairly quickly. This is especially helpful when I don't get home until 7:30 or even 8:30 at night depending on my work schedule.

But I'm going to challenge myself to do something different for the next 2 weeks. I am going to go grocery shopping here shortly and I am going to shop for only 2 weeks instead of a month at a time like I can do when buying boxed and frozen dinners. I'm also going to buy healthy snacks for me to take to work and for eating on my lunch break. And I'm going to make home-made meals every night.

It's going to be slightly difficult. Especially on the nights that I don't get home until 8:30, but I've planned to try some new crock pot meals so Mark can eat a fresh meal rather than pop some frozen buffalo wings on our pizazz for his dinner.

Here's what the menu is looking like:

Monday: Chicken Alfredo
Tuesday: No Bake Mac n Cheese with broccoli
Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken - marinated with Sweet Baby Rays
Thursday: Chicken Ranch Pasta
Friday: Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes (Okay, so this one is still going to be home-made, but definitely not on the healthy side! I'm only making this because I showed this recipe to the husband last week and promised I would make it since he LOVES Philly Cheese Steak)
Saturday: Dinner Out
Sunday: Caesar Salad with grilled chicken
**Can you see I'm trying to stick with mostly lean meat???**
Monday: Home-made Pizza
Tuesday: Baked Chicken with sides of green beans and mashed potatoes
Wednesday: Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti
Thursday: Tuna Noodle Casserole
Friday: Baked Chicken with sides of corn and scalloped potatoes
Saturday: Dinner out
Sunday: Home-made subs - right now I'm thinking meatball but we'll see :)

Like I said, right now this isn't healthier as in low carbs, low fat, more fruits/veggies kind of healthier. It's healthier as in home-made, no cream of soup crap, no boxed/frozen dinners, no processed cheese mess, more chicken less red meat kind of healthier.

It's going to be a process and I have to take baby steps people. And that first step will be getting into a habit of actually putting ingredients together to make a meal!

We'll see how this goes. :)

Summer Travel Plans: Part II

Okay, so now that I've shared the first part of my summer travel plans with you, I'm ready to tell you about our big, grand vacation!

Mark and I are going to Europe at the end of July!!! We are going to spend 10 days visiting England, Ireland and hopefully France.

We are so blessed to be have this opportunity. Last year Mark's parents and his sister and brother-in-law  visited England and Ireland. Mark's sister has a best friend that lives in England right now. They grew up going to school together so Mark's family is very close with her. She invited them to visit her and her husband last summer. Mark and I weren't able to go last year because we had already used our vacation days on our honeymoon! But when she extended the invitation to us again this year it was something we couldn't pass up.

We've always wanted to be able to do some traveling before we have kids and this seems to be the perfect opportunity. It is so much easier to go and visit someone that lives in Europe who will be your tour guide AND be able to stay with them instead of trying to figure things out on your own!

We were slightly discouraged when we found out exactly how much it was going to cost to just buy the plane tickets! But how fantastic is it that our income tax return check was pretty much the exact amount we needed to pay for our entire trip???

Now, I'm sure there are more responsible things we could do with our tax return...maybe use it to buy a section of fencing for our backyard that we've been wanting? Or buy a new couch for our living room? Maybe put it towards the fund for a new roof that we'll probably need in a year or two? I was able to pay off my car in January so the only debt we have is our house and Mark's school loans.

We thought about these options, but we truly feel like we've been presented with this once in a lifetime opportunity! In 20 years from now are we going to remember how we saved money to put up a new fence that probably had to be repaired again, or are we going to remember our trip to Europe? We know these chances don't come around very often and we don't want to look back on our lives and regret that we didn't take these chances.

I don't know if you cared to know all of that, but I felt like sharing. :) The point of this all, is we're going to Europe! I am extremely excited about going to Ireland, my mom's heritage is Irish on her dad's side. I'm hoping to find some information before I go and see if its possible to visit anywhere close to where my granddad's family is from. Mark's mom's mother was actually born in Ireland and last year she actually found her family! Literally found people she had never met (cousins/aunts/etc.) just by asking around in a strange land! How amazing is that? I don't anticipate that happening for me, but it would be incredible to just see the land where my ancestors are from, right?

We're also throwing around the idea of the visiting Paris by taking the Chunnel from England to France. How romantic will it be to see the Eiffel tower??

So not only will you be seeing many posts about my upcoming trip to CANADA! You'll also be seeing some posts later this spring/summer as we plan for our trip to Europe.