Home renovation surprise!

Here is an awesome video of the home renovation that happened while I was gone, and at the end it is followed up with my reaction when I can home after being awake and traveling for 30 hours. I had a 4 hour layover that was followed up with a 5 hour flight delay so my midnight arrival turned into 5:00am!
This video is so amazing! I love it!
How in the world I got so lucky to have these amazing friends, I will never know....
Thank you again guys!

11 things...

Travel photo challenge!
Before I left on my trip my friends and I gave each other a photo challenge. I was going to Europe, they were going to Hawaii.
We chose 11 things that we had to try and take a photo of.
Here are my 11 things...
1st ~ Door lock
(self explanatory)

2nd ~ Your name
This stood out to me since my nicknames are Tiffers and Tifferoneous

3rd ~ Kids
Yea, just some kids in England, they seem like classmates of Harry Potter.

4th ~ Shoes
I took this really quick while I was having dinner, the red shoes just grabbed my eye and I snapped the shot.


5th ~ Self Portrait
I only got this photo of myself taken by myself, I thought about some other ideas but never ended up doing any so this will have to do~

6th ~ Stars
Can't get any bigger of a star than The Pope!

7th ~ Local Favorite ~
Wine and Olive Oil, more on this later!

8th ~ Hawaiian for me (Italian for them)
Gotta love Pineapple!

9th ~ BIG
This was taken from miles away, it really is so big!

10th ~ little
This car is so tiny! Smaller than a smart car!

11th ~ Cute guy :)
I took this for the outfit, but it ended up working for the challenge too, he has nice eyes!

While I was out....

I have just returned home from an amazing 3 week journey through Europe~ I will post all about it once I have had a chance to go through all of my photos and sort things out.
But in the meantime, I wanted to post about what my friends did to my home while I was gone.
They had my house professionally cleaned, they rearranged furniture, they did so much yard work...
and painted my entire kitchen and back landing area and took my cabinets from an old out of date brown to a beautiful white!
I got home after a 5 hour delay and about 30 hours of traveling home and they were here at 4:45am ready to surprise me. They all had to work that day too.
I was so surprised and overwhelmed with emotion, I am not sure I thought what I was seeing was real.
I am a very lucky person, surrounded by such amazing people.
I have no words to express how grateful I am to them for all of the hard work they put into my home and making it cozy and beautiful.
Here is a before shot of the kitchen from last year....

And here is the after....



Thank you....
Becky
Andy
Jason
Charles
Rosa
Lana
Lindsey

The quote from my last post....
"Go forth seeking adventure.
Open your eyes, your ears, your mind,
your heart, your spirit and
you'll find adventure everywhere."
is how I am trying to move forward in this journey of life.
I approach an upcoming trip with excitement, fear, happiness, adventure, and slight sadness that I cannot call my mom to share it with her.
This life is an interesting one~ You never know what tomorrow will bring or what twists and turns you will encounter and where the roads will lead.
But I will try with all my might to live, laugh, love and enjoy the journey.
I have packed a few things, most importantly a journal from my best friend, a few books, comfortable shoes, my camera and and open heart and mind. This will be my first trip to Europe. Most will be done on my own~
I am hoping to grow and learn about myself, about the world, about the past and future.
I am filled with fear and excitement and curiosity and hope.
I will post about it all when I return!
I would not have been able to do this without the love and support of my wonderful family and amazing friends and most importantly, my mom!
Thank you for being part of my journey! I am truly a lucky woman...



"Wherever you go, go with all your heart." ~ Confucius

Amazing words....

Saw this quote the other day~
Thought I would share :)

"Go forth seeking adventure.
Open your eyes, your ears, your mind,
your heart, your spirit and
you'll find adventure everywhere."

I am currently reading

this amazing book~

Have you read it?
What an amazing story so far. I am on page 180. I have learned to much over the past year about History just from the books I have read. I love it.
What are you reading?

Mothers Day.....

I greet this holiday with love and sadness~
Love for my beautiful Mother!!
Thankfulness that I got nearly 34 years with her before she died. I say those words still not believing that it is true.
I am Thankful that I am lucky enough to be her daughter.
To have laughed with her
and cried with her
and to love her and be loved by her...
To learn from her
and grow because of her
and love her so much to miss her this much...
I am so grateful that she is my Mother...
And that I am her daughter...
Even though she no longer walks on the earth along side me, she lives in my heart every moment!
I greet the holiday with sadness because it is not right that such an amazing person was taken from the world so soon.
She was such a blessing to everyone who crossed her path in this beautiful life.
Happy Mothers Day to all of the wonderful Mothers out there. I am not a mother myself but I know what an incredible job it is! I admire all of you so much!
Happy Mothers Day to my beautiful Mother, Rena~
She is the reason that this day is celebrated!!