Here's an inside glimpse of our episode on House Hunters International!

As many of you now know, Joe and I recently made our TV debut on House Hunters International! The whole experience has been incredibly surreal. I was contacted by a casting office for HGTV’s House Hunters International asking if we would be interested in shooting with the show, they had found me on Instagram! If you haven’t heard of House Hunters, you obviously haven't ever been bored on a Southwest flight, but the basis of the show is that you move abroad and then the show helps you find your perfect place in your new city! First of all, I can’t say instagram never did anything for me, because I was found completely through moving hashtags by the casting office and I am sure many of you are now reading this post thanks to Instagram connecting us!

I’ve had so many questions from friends and family since the show aired about a week ago, so I wanted to give you a glimpse into the behind the scenes of the show! If you haven’t had a chance to watch the show, we are Season 160, Episode 4 and you can watch on this link, House Hunters International.

On the first day of shooting, we were super nervous and had no idea what to expect. Joe joked about needing a makeup artist, which the show does NOT provide for the record, and in all reality I was the one who ended up powdering both of our noses. 

We arrived at the first meeting location where we sat for our interviews. There were 4 team members total in the crew; the director, the audio guy, the camera guy, and the fixer (basically the guy doing all the running around and speaking German for us). The following day, we met our real estate agent. Over five days, we spent about 40-50 hours shooting for the show. That means for our 23 minute and 55 second episode, A LOT of things were not included in the episode. The director had all kinds of crazy ideas like doing a segment of me making homemade tie dye to show to my trendy followers on the blog or surprising Mr. Sparkle (Joe) with a sequined shirt and catching his reaction on film. We ended up not having time to do many of those ideas, but even some of the things we did have time to shoot, didn’t end up on the show. 

Because there is no great way to answer all of your questions, I’ve compiled some of the most common ones, but feel free to leave additional questions in the comments! 

For the record, we keep the cats on the top floor of our house where they have three rooms and plenty of space to run around. Fuzzy, our blind cat, is not able to safely navigate the stairs and the other cat, Fatty, can navigate the barrier to come down the stairs if she wishes. 

Top Five Questions

How were you cast for the show?

If you are moving and interested in applying to be on the show, it is my understanding that the show is typically cast through applications, but that is not how we landed our TV debut on the show. I was found by the HGTV casting company through my Instagram hashtags like #movingabroad and #movingtogermany and received an email asking if we would be interested in being on the show. To be honest, with Joe’s work schedule it was almost impossible to find a time to shoot the episode, but we were able to make it work and I am so thankful for the experience!

Does Joe love the pets more than he loves you?

If you know anything about my husband, you know he is NOT a huge fan of owning pets. Now, do not get me wrong, he cares for and loves our pets very well, but he jokes that if I died, they would be put outside immediately. Joe lovingly puts up with the pets for me and that is the ONLY reason we have them. I have always loved having pets, and they are a great comfort for me when Joe is traveling for work (which is typically over 250 days of the year with his current job). Joe loves me, and therefore he tolerates the pets.

Was the realtor as bad as she seemed on the show?

Many of you had visceral reactions to how the realtor treated me on the episode and I appreciate your love and support, but do not forget that the only thing “real” about reality TV is the name! Every single word in the episode is intentionally put there. Remember, they have hours of film to choose from when compiling each 20ish minutes episode, so of course, they can dramatize each scene in the show. In actuality, we got along great with the real estate agent and joked around with her the entire time! 

Were you pregnant when you shot the episode?

NO! While I am happy to pose with a beer in a picture even while pregnant, the episode was shot while Joe and I were trying for a baby, but not pregnant.

Why did you need four bedrooms if it was just the two of you?!?

The show failed to add the small (but very important detail) that we were hoping and praying to start a family while living here in Kaiserslautern, Germany. If you haven’t seen the announcement, we are ecstatic to be welcoming a baby boy into our world in January 2021, so with the idea that we might have family coming to stay with us AND a new nursery for our first child, four bedrooms was important to us. Joe does much of his job from home when he isn’t traveling, so it was very important for him to have his own office space. And finally, yes, I do have a lot of clothes, and the house we decided on has zero, you heard that right ZERO, closets. That means, no pantry, no coat closet, no linen closet, no storage closets, and no clothing closets. With that in mind, it was important to me to have a space to organize it all. Four bedrooms wasn’t a requirement, but we did end up finding a great house with four bedrooms and now, with my baby belly growing, we are thankful for the space! 

Here is the official plot of our episode, Dressing Up in Kaiserslautern:

A Louisiana couple is following his military transfer to Kaiserslautern, Germany. She's giving up her job for the move and starting a fashion and style blog, so she hopes to find a home with plenty of space for her clothes, as well as room for their pets.

If you did not get a chance to catch it live, our episode can be found here or on the HGTV website, here. I would love to hear what you think about our episode!!!

Xo,

Theresa

Easy Tortilla Soup

Cooking with T.S.E

I’ve been trying a lot of new recipes since we are home more. By more, I mean I don’t ever remember us being in our house for this length of time in our 7 years of marriage. While I typically cook at least 3-4 nights a week in our normal life, staying at home for this period of time has really had me searching for new recipes to try. We still aren't very familiar with the German takeout restaurants in the area so that has left me preparing food for every meal for the last 6 weeks. My husband and I are not picky, we will literally eat anything, but we definitely have a taste for yummy food. Now, there are plenty of recipes I’ve tried and won’t make again. Whether it’s the amount of weird ingredients, the difficulty or length of time it takes to prepare, or the overall taste, there are some recipes you try and you think, "That was fine, but I don't need to do that again."

Out of the last 5 new recipes I’ve tried, this is the ONLY one I will be adding to our rotation. The last one to be added to the rotation was green enchiladas and my husband literally asks for enchiladas as soon as the leftover enchiladas have left the fridge. We could probably eat Mexican every day of the week, so I love that this soup is Mexican flavor but something different than enchiladas or taco salad. Here is the best part of the recipe, it is EASY. My husband is quite possibly one of the worst cooks in the world (so much so that if I died I think he would starve). He watched me make this and even HE said he could do it. That’s where the “easy” part of the name comes in. It’s so easy my husband could do it. 

*Scroll to the bottom for the recipe card!*

The prep for this recipe is pretty much as easy as it gets. But, first let’s talk about some tips and

ways you can make it your own! First and most importantly is the beer. In my opinion, you get bonus points if you use German beer because then it’s like German-Mexican Soup and that’s just silly to me. Ok, but for realz you can use whatever type of beer you have on hand (I probably wouldn't use one with too much flavor). Next, a personal secret of mine is the lime tortilla chips. I think the lime brings a much better flavor than regular tortilla chips when you crumble them as your topping. I also use them to top off my Mexican salad!

Next tip is in regards to the Rotel. If you like your tortilla with a little bit of kick, then substitute a can of hot Rotel instead of original. If you want it with less heat then use two cans of the mild. You can really change this up to your personal heat preference! Also keep in mind, outside of the Rotel, you can really use any brand, these are just what I found at the commissary here in Germany.

Ok, so here is the hardest part! Chop the onion. You will literally be crying with tears of joy for how easy this recipe is, or maybe it's just the onion? JOKING! Please excuse my corny jokes and grab that can of corn. That's the last one, I promise. Drain your corn and black beans. Put everything except the cheese and tortilla chips in your crock pot (leave out the avocado and cilantro too). My favorite part of this recipe is that I don't have to do any preparing with the chicken. You just literally put your raw chicken breast in the crockpot with everything else and press go!

Don't forget to sprinkle everything with a package of taco seasoning (you can also choose a spicier version here to add more heat!). I mix everything up in the crockpot and it should look like your chicken is in a Mexican bubble bath (shown below).

Cook in the crockpot on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. I absolutely love getting to the end of the day and not having to worry about what is for dinner when I have something in the crockpot. ALL HAIL to the crockpot. When your time is up on the crockpot, pull out the chicken and shred. Then put it back in and stir it up! It's that easy!

I serve my Easy Tortilla Soup with cornbread, and you can add a yummy mojito or marg to make it a whole experience! Enjoy and drop me a comment if you decide to make it!! I would love to hear how it goes!

XO,

Theresa

Now What Do I Do?

Surviving our emotions in this time of uncertainty.

Have you seen them? All of the recommendations of how to be successful and productive while you are forced to stay home? Well, a week ago I would have told you to read those posts and do what they recommend, but then I had a bad day, a REALLY bad day. I don't suffer from chronic anxiety and depression in the typical way, so it's not noticeable to most and I actually hesitate using those words. For me, it is self-diagnosed and most of the time it feels more life a glorified funk. Regardless, I'm writing this because maybe you too have been having some hard days in this new "what the hell is going on?!" time we are enduring.  And maybe you too are having to figure out how to manage your emotions in this time of uncertainty. 

First, let me give you some context if you are new around here. I have been unemployed for the last six months because my husband and I moved to Germany from Louisiana with the military. For the last few months I had been traveling with my husband for his job and planning bucket list trips like to France, Italy, Morocco, and ALL the cool places but then traveling was banned and so here I am, in my house, with nothing to do. Ok, now that you are caught up (in two sentences no less),  I will get to my really bad day. I had been doing pretty well with my routine which included these daily activities:

1. Read bible

2. Workout 

3. Get outside and walk the dog

4. Make a to-do list each day

5. Keep the house tidy

6. Read 

7. Keep boundaries on things like T.V., alcohol, and sweets

You may be thinking, "Wow, your life sounds pretty boring..." It is. But more importantly, I've learned that if I have a little discipline in my life, I feel MUCH better emotionally. I've told you this list of things, not to bore you or pat myself on the back for having a tiny bit of discipline, but to tell you that even with discipline and productivity in my day, I still had a very, very dark day. So, back to the bad day....

I thought the discipline and to-do list would keep me going mentally but, on the bad day it just hit me. Why? Why am I waking up? What is my purpose? No one really likes me. My life is not important. The list goes on and on and I literally just laid on my concrete basement floor and could not find the will to stand back up. Thankfully my husband was here and helped rally me off the floor, prayed for me, and reminded me how much I am loved. But, the next day I realized I needed to find something that was going to be different and exciting in this time to keep me from ending up in a day, week, month or longer funk. I needed something to look forward to other than more normal daily routine. I need to you to promise not to judge me right now, but that something for me last week was joining TikTok. As crazy as it sounds, creating videos with my husband brought me immense joy in the last week. I've learned that creating is an incredible outlet for my energy and something I really enjoy. So what's my point in writing all this? My point is maybe in this time you don't need to be the MOST productive and maybe you won't be winning at your job or responsibilities every day, but maybe you can make it out of this without being shipped to the loony bin (they probably wouldn't let you go there anyway because it's a health risk at this point). My best recommendation is trying something new, which is extremely hard to do when you are so limited with what you are allowed to do, but I am going to give you some suggestions!!!

Here are a few things I recommend to mixing things up and trying something new.

Try a new hobby:

1. Cross Stitching

2. Puzzle while you watch TV

3. Paint by number

4. Play a board game

5. Join TikTok (I've learned a ton about social media on this new platform as an added perk!)

6. Try making a new recipe (I made enchiladas for the first time!)

7. Pick up that book you've been meaning to read.

Start a new podcast. Listen while you clean, or while taking a walk outside. Here are some of my favorites if you are new to the podcast world and don't know where to start:

1. Armchair Expert with Dax Shephard

2. Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey

3. The Popcast

4. How I Built This

5. New podcasts are being created SO fast right now, so go look at the shows on the Top Charts and pick a new one! I am going to start Unlocking Us with Brene Brown to spice it up!

Try a new workout routine! Home workouts can get really boring but there a TON of new ways to work out right now. I started joining my cousin's zoom classes (she's a personal trainer in CT). You can subscribe to a ton of online yoga classes (like CorePower Yoga or Buti Yoga). There are free apps like (SixPackin30Days or Crossrope) or just Youtube a class (my sister is trying all of the free barre classes!!).

Last but not least, STAY CONNECTED! I recommend checking on at least one friend a day. Set up a time to do a group call with your family (I've absolutely loved seeing my nephews over FaceTime in this way which I wasn't able to do with everyone's busy schedules before!). Join a new club or bible study (there are a ton of ways to meet with these groups still online). Or schedule a happy hour with a group of friends. Social distancing is 100% the wrong way to describe what we are going through right now. YES, we need to physically distance ourselves, but don't let that keep you from socializing!!! The picture below was taken before we were told to stay home, but I am jumping for joy thinking about seeing my friends face to face again.

I've found that mixing up my routine and trying new things is doing the most in helping my mood. Please, please leave a comment if you have found something to help keep you sane in this time. And, I would be HAPPY to expand more on any of the topics above (podcasts, books, new hobbies, etc.), so let me know in the comments what you want to hear more on!

Xo, 

Theresa

The Biggest Decision of Our Life

How we made the decision to move to Germany

You might assume that because we moved to Germany with the military, that we didn’t have a choice in the decision process. It's true that the military can totally decide to uproot us at any time and for any reason (because they basically own us).  However, when it comes to this move, we were actually given the unique opportunity to decide what we wanted to do. One thing I’ve heard many times since moving over here is “It is so cool that you can travel Europe for a few years while you live there!” Even though it is incredibly cool, and a big reason we personally chose to move to Europe, I want to tell you that you too, could choose to move to Europe! Maybe not the exact way we chose to, but since being here we’ve met tons of people that are living here and working here as civilians (not military). The logistics behind moving across the world are not for the faint of heart...but after settling in for a few months, I can tell you that if you enjoy traveling and experiencing other cultures, it is 100% worth it. 

If you’ve been following along with my life on the gram, then you may not know our moving story because this is the first time I’ve shared it! Moving to Europe was the hardest decision Joe and I have had to make in our adult life so here’s a glimpse into what it looked like for us.

A random weekend at the end of 2018…..

Joe called me on a Thursday morning to tell me that we had been offered a job with the Air Force at Ramstein. To give some context, Joe had requested a position with the Air Force that entails a lot of travel and there are only five main bases across the world from which they are stationed. This is Joe’s DREAM job, doing exactly what he wants to do with trial work and from the Germany base (Ramstein) he would be getting to travel Europe while he worked (hopefully with me). But, as soon as Joe took the call he knew I would have doubts.

The irony is when we asked for 10 different places on our “dream sheet” four years prior, we weren’t given any of our picks. Instead, we were sent to Shreveport, LA. This time, we were given exactly the position that we asked for and we had the perfect plan. I would stay working as a sales manager and live out of the house that we owned in Shreveport. Joe would work out of San Antonio on paper but he would come home to me when he wasn’t traveling. Eventually, we would look for a place in Austin, TX if a job opened for me. We were offered the exact position that fit into our perfect plan which RARELY happens in the military. And then, we were asked if we wanted to scrap that plan and move to Germany instead.

I went to bed on that Thursday saying no.

On Friday morning at the gym, Joe told one of my closest friends that we were offered the chance of a lifetime. That friend, being the faith-filled woman that she is, offered to pray for me at the top of every hour that day so that God could give me clarity in the decision. I had had an exhausting week and the magnitude of this decision felt too monstrous to make in three days. Oh, did I forget to say that?  We got the call on Thursday and the Air Force needed to know our decision by Sunday night.

I went to bed on Friday saying no.

Luckily, a full night sleep had me waking up with a fresh perspective. When Joe and I got to our Saturday morning gym class, we were greeted by a friend leaving for Korea the next week. He said, “You absolutely have to go.” The excitement in his voice was changing my fearful heart. God was working.

This is a story about redemption and walking in obedience. Even when you aren’t really sure how, or even what’s going on, God can still work. Joe and I had our own plan when really, God had an even better plan. Obediently walking in His plan is hard but, it’s the only way I want to be walking. Surely my plan pales in the shadows of God’s plan for us.

When I got home from the gym that Saturday, I knew I had to talk through the decision with a trusted friend. She listened and let me process the things that felt like they would be the most challenging. The blow to my career, the potential of having to pay my company back a large sum of money for the time I owed them for business school tuition, leaving sooner than expected from a community that I have grown to love, being even farther from friends and family on the east coast, and of course the issue of getting all the pets overseas. (Yes, I am a crazy cat lady with three cats and a very large dog. I love them and if they couldn’t come with me, then it wasn’t going to happen.)

After this conversation I found that none of the barriers were too large to overcome. There would be challenges, but none too big for God. So, I messaged a friend who had lived in Germany. She had dropped everything to move there with her then boyfriend. She responded saying, “You have to go.”

Originally it felt strange to me that I didn’t want to go. So much so that I thought that it must be a sign that we weren’t supposed to go. This type of opportunity had always been a dream of ours. I loved traveling abroad and living there sounded even better theoretically. I could have let the momentary emotions of being tired at the end of a long, stressful week keep me from clearly looking at God’s hand in all of it. (This part is scary to me- why do I make decisions on SUCH A WHIM?) Lucky for me, God interjects when necessary and when you are willing to listen. I have an amazing community of believers that I can rely on for prayer and counsel when I am emotionally drained and seeing things sideways.

By the end of Saturday afternoon, Joe and I were writing a pros & cons list. Joe had told me from the moment we were asked that he would happily reject the opportunity if I didn’t agree that this was the right decision for our family. God redeemed this area in our marriage because I no longer had any resentment over his job priorities when he said this. Instead, I was given the option to weigh the decision without feeling like I would be dragging his career down by putting mine first. This is the fun part of having two very driven people married to each other *she said sarcastically*.

Saturday night we had dinner with our best friends in Shreveport. Instant tears come to my eyes when I think about leaving them. They are the biggest blessing I could have ever dreamt of when we made the big, terrifying move to Shreveport. They listened to our pros & cons list and how we were processing the decision, although selfishly they never wanted us to leave. Thankfully they respected God’s call on our life over anything we selfishly wanted for ourselves.

I went to bed Saturday thinking an anxious, excited, nervous maybe.

Sunday morning instead of our normal Sunday school class, we had missionaries from the Czech Republic visit. We didn’t know this was happening but it sure felt like a crazy coincidence. The missionaries visiting live in a city bordering Germany and would be just a few hours away by car. Joe and I have dreamt of the opportunity to participate in international missions and it is so incredible that God would give us this chance when we least expected it. Just two weeks prior to getting the call about the potential to move to Germany, David Platt, a Christian pastor and author, had visited our church for our missions conference and challenged our church to send missionaries to places that had never heard the gospel. There are places and people in the Czech Republic that have never heard the name of Jesus. I stood during the service and said send me even though I knew we were restricted by the Air Force. Joe stood alongside me in the middle of church while our friends watched. We stood in faith that God would use us to spread His glory. With tears falling from my eyes, we were surrounded by the congregation as they prayed. We had no idea that two weeks later we would be asked to go. You see, we do not have to understand how God plans to use us. All we are responsible for doing is standing up and being willing to go. Use me however You see fit for the glory of your kingdom is what I prayed. I had no earthly idea that two weeks later we would be asked by the Air Force to move to Germany. Europe puts us much closer to many countries that have less than 1% of their population that are believers. 

The timing of these circumstances can only be from God. I know I’ve said this a few times, but I don’t think we recognize God working in our lives enough. There is no way we could have ever dreamt these plans. And, it would be a shame if we didn’t recognize and see with eyes wide open that these plans were laid by God, but only if we were willing.

In God’s goodness, he offered us a place that both Joe and I have experience visiting and living in. Joe studied abroad in Dresden, Germany during his undergrad for 6 months and I studied German in high school and did an exchange program in Stuttgart, Germany. Tell me, what are the odds of that? Our first big move with the military was daunting and scary. We didn’t even have a single friend or family member living in the central time zone at the time. In many ways, moving to Louisiana was more scary for us than moving to Europe. I had extreme peace with the decision to move to Germany even though there were more unknowns than I had ever experienced in life.

Needless to say by Sunday afternoon, the answer was yes.

XO,
Theresa