Sunday, March 25, 2012

6 Months of Marriage!

This weekend David and I celebrated 6 months of marriage!  I can't believe 6 months have flown by like they have.  We have enjoyed every minute.  We learn more and more about each other everyday and I love that.


David had to leave Saturday for Germany for business, so we celebrated on Friday instead.  He was flying out of Charlotte, so I made some celebratory blueberry muffins, and then we packed up the car and headed to my old stomping grounds!  We arrived around 4 pm, so David, my mom, and I got some drinks and chips and salsa at Zapata's before David and I went on to dinner ourselves.  We decided to go to Maggiano's, the exact place we went for our rehearsal dinner!  Here we are before dinner:




We had so much fun at dinner.  I love coming home to this man everyday, cooking dinner together, getting ready for bed together, but I still love a good date night!  We did a little shopping (everyone needs a few new spring pieces for their wardrobe!), had some delicious pasta, and talked about the last 6 months.

Saturday came all-too quickly.  David had to be at the airport by 12:30 pm so it was a fast morning.  I did manage to get him to stop for a minute to get a picture of us on our real half-anniversary! :)




My handsome hubby arrived in Germany about 5:00 am my time and I was greatly relieved!  I am a worrier anyway, but I like it much better when his feet are firmly planted on the ground- here or Germany!

My mom and I saw The Hunger Games- loved it by the way!  I re-read the book about a week ago and I felt it was pretty similar to the story.  I do wish they had played up the "star-crossed lovers" more, though.  I headed home afterwords, all by myself.  Marley stayed with my mom for a few days so both of my boys are gone. :(

Hopefully the next few days will go by fast and I'll get one of my boys back. :)  Until then, I'm filling my time with work and house projects.  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

An Update in List Form

I love lists.  I love them because I can cross things off and look like I've been accomplishing things!  Sometimes I'll even put things on my list that I've already done just so they will be crossed off and make me feel better about what I have (or haven't!) done that day, haha!  I blogged a few days ago so there really hasn't been  much going on since then, but here's a list of some stuff that has:


  • I think I blogged last time about going to urgent care because I was sick.  Turns out I had a really bad sinus infection.  The NP actually said, "There is a lot of green stuff, you are so swollen on the right side that I can't even see, and you have so much fluid behind your right ear that you are well on your way to an ear infection."  Joy.  Right before my birthday, too!  I left with an antibiotic, 2 cough suppressants, and a nasal steroid!  Happy Birthday to me! :)
  • I spent the majority of my birthday laying on the couch watching movies.  David worked on my jeep which has been giving us problems.
  • We did get to go to dinner for my birthday!  I rested up all day for it! :)  We went to Nami (of course!).  Jess, Jake, Phil, and Emily joined and it was a wonderful time.  We laughed a lot and ate some really good food.
  • Dinner wore me out.  I was so exhausted Sunday! And it turns out that whatever I had before my sinus infection was contagious because David started feeling not-so-hot.
  • Monday was sick day!  I called in sick for Monday night and david called in sick Monday.  We rested, ate tomato soup and grilled cheese, and ran a few errands...including taking my car to the dodge repair shop.
  • Turns out that to fix my jeep is going to cost a pretty penny.  Ughh.  My jeep is 13 years old and we have been having to fix small things on it about every 6 months.  At what point do you stop fixing and just get a new car??!  It's in wonderful shape to be 13 years old so I have no idea.
  • I've been working on my wedding stuff.  I'm going to be making a wedding scrapbook (minus cutting up my pictures, oh my word I might cry if I did that!).  I ordered the scrapbook box off Amazon and ordered my prints from shutterfly.  They should hopefully be here this weekend when I have to work.
  • Going through all of my wedding stuff has made me act like a giddy child.  I loved everything about my wedding :)  I'll have to show off my scrapbook once it's complete. 
I think that's enough for a list!  I only had a quick minute to blog.  I have to finish cleaning up around the house.  My mom is coming for a night, dropping Macy (her dog) off to spend the weekend, and heading out of town for a friend's daughter's wedding.  Marley will sure enjoy having a playmate :)  I hope everyone has a wonderful week an stays sick-free!!


Friday, March 9, 2012

Halfway to Middle-Age

Well, work has kept me from my blog, yet again!  And now sickness has been set upon me!  I'm heading to the minute clinic at 2:30 to get checked out.  So while I'm curled up on the couch, I thought I'd update.

My birthday is tomorrow.  I'll be 25- or as I've been fond of saying lately, halfway to middle-age!  I can feel the wrinkles forming as we speak. :)  Okay, not really, but I like to be dramatic.  This past weekend, David and I went to Charlotte for my family birthday celebration!  I was so excited because my entire family was going to be there.  I don't think we have all been together since my wedding in September!



Everyone minus Grandmom who was taking the picture!


Friday, we pulled in to town around 5 and hung out at home for about an hour.  My mom is a teacher and she had some school volleyball game she had to support so we tagged along for a little bit of that.  Then we went to dinner at my favorite mexican restaurant- Zapatas!  There are mexican restaurants in Greenville, but none that have been as good as Zapatas.  Kinda stinks for a girl who likes mexican so much!  While we were there, I turned around and guess who I saw?  My aunt and uncle!  They were out to dinner with some of their friends.  It was a nice surprise to get to see them before the birthday celebration. :)

On Saturday, we went to the matinee showing of Jersey Boys at the Blumenthal in downtown Charlotte.  I saw Jersey Boys for the first time 2 years ago and absolutely loved it.  I was so excited because the guy who played Frankie Valli the first time was playing him again this year!  Joseph Leo Bwarie played Frankie and he did not disappoint! And he's not so bad to look at either! ;)  He apparently just came out with a cd- Nothin' But Love- and I downloaded it when I got home. :)  It's really jazzy and I like it!  You should check it out if you get the chance.

We went straight from the play to my grandparents house for birthday festivities.  (Well, my mom went to pick Marley up, couldn't have my sweet boy missing out on al the fun!)


My sweet boy!

 We had steak, mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad, and home made ice cream- all my requests, haha!  It was absolutely delicious!  Marley thought so, too.  I think he got a bite of steak from everyone at the table!  UNC was playing Duke so we had the game on for Amy and during half time I openend my presents!


Amy and Tyler


My new nursing shoes! LOOOVVVEE.

Scott wrapped my present in purple and orange! ;)  He got me 2 Caribou coffees to try!  So far, I love them!

Do you remember this post?  I said I would love to have this print framed so I can hang it in a reading nook one day.  Well, my grandmother tracked this print all the way to Latvia and had it matted and framed for me!  Isn't it gorgeous?!  I'm so excited to get my office all set up now!  I also got an outfit from J. Crew (so cute!), a new purse, and a gift card to lululemon!  I racked up! :)



Mom and me

Me and the hubby.

Me and my favorite aunt! :)

Scott and Marley :)


We had cake and homemade ice cream and just spent time together.  Scott is very talented at the piano so he played some songs for us, David showed off some of his recent drawings (yep, my husband is talented, too!), and then we watched home movies from when we were little!  I don't think we have laughed so hard in such a long time!  It was so much fun to look back on what life was like when we were little.  It was such a wonderful evening and I was so sad to leave and come back home the next day!  I couldn't imagine celebrating my birthday with my family any other way. :)

The wonderful host and hostess- my grandparents! :)

Friday, March 2, 2012

Honeymoon: Day 8

Our third day in Maui was snorkel day!  We woke up early, had a good breakfast, took some dramamine and started out on our walk.  We decided to walk to the place where we were supposed to meet the boat...catamaran (the Teralani 2) to start our excursion instead of drive.  The hotels are all along the shore and there is one long, winding sidewalk that takes you from place to place.  The walk was only 15 minutes and early in the morning, Maui is cool enough that you don't even break a sweat.  The meeting spot was on the beach and we found it with no trouble.  We were with a group of about 20 other people, were told the rules (including "don't forget to breathe!), and that we were going to have a fun day!  Then we had to get on the boat- easier said than done!  The boat is at the mercy of the ocean and therefore the waves.  The natives told us that waves come in sets of seven.  I have never in my life counted waves or thought that there was a rhythm to it, but lo and behold, the sea consistently churned up seven waves at a time.  We had to wait to get on the boat until each set of waves passed because the waves carried the boat in- and out- fast and hard.  Once on the boat, there were more rules explained (like, "don't forget to breathe!) and we headed out to our first stop!

When we were in Hawaii, it rained two times.  It rained in Honolulu during our trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center and on our snorkel day.  And by rain, I mean it was mostly cloudy and rained for about 10 minutes.  We had such a wonderful time, but if anything could have made it any better it would have been all sun!  Those of you who know me know I am not an ocean girl.  I love the beach, but I am petrified of the ocean.  The captain of our boat kept calling the water "sharky"- as in, "The clouds are making the water murky and hard to see through- perfect for sharks."  Joy!  


But I wasn't going to go all the way to Hawaii and skimp out on snorkeling just because it was "sharky"- it was a new adventure after all!  So I threw up my shaka sign to show I was in it for the long haul!


David was more than excited!  I think of all the things we decided to do in Hawaii, this one was close to the top of his list.

They had gear on the boat we could use and they got us squared away with the correct sizes, showed us how to keep our goggles from fogging up, and helped boost our confidence, ha!  The staff was incredible.  They were so knowledgeable and kind and really made us feel welcome.  They even took a picture of us before we hit the water:


You can see the clouds in the sky!  Because Maui is mountainous, there are always rain clouds rolling off the mountains towards the beaches.  Most of the time, the rain doesn't make it to the beach, but occasionally it does.  I think we look quite dashing in our gear...haha!

When we got in the water I seriously thought I was going to hyperventilate!  The rule, "don't forget to breathe" popped into my head and I realized why they had been harping on it so much!  I was not expecting the pressure of the ocean water to be so strong against my lungs.  It took a few minutes to get used to, but a few deep, slow breaths got me through. ;)  Of course I was constantly on the lookout for anything that could harm me, but I finally loosened up a bit and had some fun.  We had a wonderful guide who stuck with us a lot of the time we were in the water and he showed us some of the coolest creatures.

This was a fuzzy brown sea urchin.  Excuse my large thigh--I was still trying to figure out how to best stay under the water, haha!


David got to hold this beautiful red sea urchin.  And it peed on him.  Well, we aren't sure if it peed but it definitely excreted something while he was holding it!

We also took pictures of lots of brilliantly colored fish like this one:


We have so many so be glad I only chose one fish, haha! :)

I started feeling a little more comfortable so our guide was able to talk me into swimming a little farther away from the catamaran.  I have no idea what I was thinking, ha!  The coral started getting farther and farther below us, there was a shelf of ocean floor below us and then a complete drop off, like a cliff under water.  But we saw a see-through eel (try taking a picture of that!) and ran into this beauty:


That's right!  A sea turtle!  He was young and lazy, didn't want his picture taken, but stayed still long enough to let us get a picture :)  That was pretty cool to see!  The sea turtles apparently like the deeper waters so we had to go out farther in order to see them.

Our guide was kind enough to take our picture all the way out in the big, blue sea- far, far away from the catamaran. So nice of him!

  

And just when I was feeling nice and comfortable, our guide started laughing while he was taking our picture.  "What?" we asked with our eyes and shrugging our shoulders.  And he pointed behind us and as we turned around we saw this HUGE spotted eagle sting ray!  I so wish the sun had been out and the water had been clearer so we could have gotten a clearer picture of this gorgeous sea creature, but this is the best we could do.  She was magnificent and just cut through the water.  Our guide said that the rays hardly ever show themselves.  We were lucky to see her! 


 And then I was done.  I had braved the ocean long enough and being so far out with such huge creatures that I had no idea were swimming around me-- I saw all that I wanted to see thank you very much!  I made my way back to the catamaran just in time for lunch to be served!

As we ate lunch, the sun came out and David and I headed out to sit on top of the catamaran with another couple we made friends with.  They were probably in their 40's, she works at a ski resort and he was the president of his own video technology company.  We had a great time talking and getting to know each other so before we got off the catamaran they asked if they could buy the newlyweds a drink.  Of course, we obliged. :)  The guy grew up coming to Maui so we knew some great spots right on the beach where we unloaded from the snorkel trip.

As we got off the catamaran, we had to be just as careful getting off as we did getting on...and as I stepped off the last step, a wave came and smashed the stairs into the back of my foot!  Oh my word, it hurt like nobody's business!  I ended up with a nasty bruise on the back of my foot that was still there when I got home!

Our one drink turned in to 4 hours worth of sitting around talking, relaxing, and having fun.  That's one of the wonderful things about Maui, time slips away and it's okay.



We stayed so long, the sun started to set.  We ended up taking pictures at the most popular picture spot in Maui.  It was absolutely beautiful.



And then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  Dinner was at one of the hotel restaurants- Japengo- and we had a little problem:


My husband had a little too much to drink :)  This his how he looked the whole way back to the hotel.  The walk that took us 15 minutes at the beginning of the day ended up being about 30.  We got back to the hotel and I hopped in the shower with about 30 minutes to spare before dinner (luckily we didn't have to leave the hotel!) and he was fast asleep when I got finished getting ready.  There was no waking that boy up!  So, I went ahead and went to dinner!  I had a wonderful salmon and rice dish with edamame.  Everyone was so nice to me because I was on my honeymoon and eating by myself, haha!

When I got back to the room, I got ready for bed and was on my way to sleep when he woke up and said, "are you ready for dinner?"  WHAT?!!  I told him I had already gone and he slept through it and he said, "Oh, ok.  Well I'm gonna go to dinner, do you want to go?"  "No honey, I think I'll just stay here." Hahaha!  I couldn't believe it at the time but it is such a funny story to look back on now!  So needless to say, we don't have before-dinner pictures from this night! ;)

PS: David and I found out about a month ago that the couple we met in Maui and spent the afternoon with had ended their relationship amicably.  We were sad to hear, but glad we were all in the right place at the right time and shared some fun times together!