Monday, April 25, 2011

Week 15!

Well, this past week was full of surprises! Honestly, I don't remember a lot of the early part of the week, so I will just fill you in on the latter part of the week.

On Thursday, we packed up our stuff and headed to Texas after I got off of work.  My parents didn't know we were coming, so it was going to be a big surprise! After driving through storms, we finally got to Plano around 3:30am. Corinn had left the keys in the mailbox so we were able to sneak in and crash in my old room.

The next morning, we came downstairs, and surprised my mom and the rest of the fam. We went to lunch at El Norte and I got my fill on Tex Mex and delicious salsa.  Then, we went to Target and helped Callie find some new clothes.  Then, we went to Half Price Books and used the rest of a gift card on Emma, Little Women, You Are Special, and a Peter Pan popup book.  We spent some time at home and then celebrated my brother, Clay's birthday at Fuddruckers with some family friends. 

On Saturday, we went to REI, IKEA, and Old Navy. Then, we came back home and basically crashed.  I slept for a couple of hours while Nick went and played some disc golf at a park near by.  Then, we went to Chuy's with my dad and siblings. Man, I love that place.

On Sunday, we went to my old church, and then ate roast with my grandparents at home.  Then, we loaded back in the car with a ton of stuff, and headed back to Rolla, with a stop at Starbucks inbetween.  We left around 2:30 and made it back around 11:00.  The storms we drove through were incredible, although the drive was kind of scary for a little while.

Pictures to come later!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Week 14!

Wow, week 14 of marriage! Crazy!

Well, the week started with church, college lunch, and Dave Ramsey on Sunday.

Nick was working hard on his senior design project, and I was able to help him out with some papers and editing and such. Monday night, which is normally date night, turned into me working an extra hour at the gym and Nick spending all night on campus working on his project.  Which meant I stayed at home and watched Friends and then fell asleep all alone. It was kind of sad.

On Tuesday, we had our last gel group, and discussed dependence.  It was a really good discussion.

On Wednesday, Tyler came over for dinner after I got off of work.  We had twice baked potatoes and rolls and something else that I can't remember... Anyway, then Leah and Kevin came over and we went to Sonic. And they kept us up 2 hours later than we normally stay up. haha.

Thursday, I started feeling really bad, but of course it was our busiest day.  Due to some miscommunication, Nick thought I had been kidnapped and we were 45 minutes late for CCF. But we got there in time for Tyler to announce to everyone that he is leaving CCF in the near future to move to Providence and start a college ministry there. But there will be another post on that later.  Nick had a soccer game right after, but they lost. Then we hung out with some friends until late, again.

On Friday, we made butterbeer cupcakes!! Leah had some people over to watch HP DH1, so we brought the cupcakes over and had "butterbeer" and pretzel wands.  It was definitely a jolly good time.  The cupcakes were pretty good but kind of complicated to make.

Saturday, Nick had a field trip to St. Louis.  He got to eat frog legs and drink raspberry beer.  Both things sound disgusting to me.  I had a three hour training for the day care, which I really enjoyed.  I have missed being in a learning environment.  Afterward, I hung out with Dan and some of his roommates. We played Mario on the wii and watched Cupcake Wars and Wizards of Waverly Place and skyped with Hope, Dan's girlfriend, who is in Italy! Then, Nick came back and we went and got Chinese food and brought it back to Dan's and watched House.

So basically, this week was a week for community!

Nick has 3 more weeks until he graduates! Woooohooo! Then we will be in Rolla for another 3 weeks, and down to Dallas for Kaitlyn and Joshua's wedding!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Week 13!

Well, we just finished week 13 of marriage!

We got home from the airport at 2am on Sunday... It was cold, and pretty much a slap in the face compared to the lovely Florida weather.

Sunday morning, we started our month of volunteering with our church's children's ministry.  We are in charge of checking in the babies/preschoolers and taking them to their classes... Well, I take the children, while Nick stands there and looks pretty.  I'm going to have him carry one of the babies tomorrow.

Tuesday, our gel group discussed Godly Discipline.  We focused on prayer, study, and corporate worship.  I was seriously convicted and challenged.

My work schedule changed this month, so now I don't have to work at the daycare on MWF.  It feels like I have a lot more time on my hands.
Nick's week was pretty busy since he had a test, a presentation, and then his Fundamentals of Engineering exam today. 

On Thursday, we spent almost 2 hours at Walmart with Tyler, because they fail at life and wouldn't let us pick up these bunk beds for a lady who runs a battered women's shelter.  But some great conversation was had and we got to watch Tyler drive a scooter and hobble around like an old man because he blew out his knee. 

That night, he cooked us dinner since he made us wait at Walmart for so long... hooray for free dinner and tons of Big Bang Theory episodes.

Friday was a pretty lazy day... I made 5 dozen cookies. Not on purpose, that's just how many the batch made.  I babysat in the afternoon, which was great. Nick and Dan drove to Jefferson City to bring back Nick's motorcycle.  So then we got to go for a ride to fetch an appropriate calculator for the FE.  It terrifies me but is still pretty fun.

Today, Nick woke up early and went to take his exam. I've been praying for stamina and quick recall of everything he has learned these past 4 years. After he is done around 7 or 8, we will have a party! :)

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Wedding Pictures

I realized that I hadn't posted about our wedding pictures! We haven't gotten all of them back yet, but we already love the ones we've seen!  The ones I am sharing now were taken and edited by the one and only Bryce Hamilton.  I am going to post just a few of our favorites, but you can check out more on facebook.






Monday, April 4, 2011

The Honeymoon!

Well, we are back from our honeymoon/vacation/spring break! I am sorry I wasn't able to update about Week 11… But we were out of town on Saturday, and honestly, at this point, I don't even remember what we did that week! I remember watching Baylor basketball and spending plenty of time with friends… but that's about it.

And now, for Week 12! Oh boy, I could write forever and ever about this past week.  Just as an introduction, since Nick started school the Monday after our wedding, we weren't able to go on a honeymoon right away.  So, for Spring Break, we planned a trip to Disney World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

We were blessed by Nick's parents to get to stay at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, which was SO beautiful.  There were plenty of white beaches and awesome pools.  The atmosphere was amazing.  There are definitely some perks to staying on Disney property, and we took advantage of all of them. 
- First, there was free shuttle service to and from the airport.  Disney even took our bags early yesterday morning so we didn't have to worry about them once we got to the airport.
- Second, the free Disney shuttles every 15 minutes meant we could hop on a bus whenever we wanted and have it take us anywhere in Disney! It was so nice not to have to worry about traffic or parking
- Third, Extra Magic Hours… Disney resort guests get extra hours at the parks.  It was so nice to walk around Magic Kingdom two hours after close and actually enjoy the atmosphere.
- Fourth, the Disney Dining Plan was GENIUS.  We got the cheapest one, which meant 2 quick-service meals each plus two snacks each a day.  Let me tell you, SO much food.  The meals included entrees, sides, and desserts, plus a drink.  We would have spent around $30 a meal on food if we hadn't have bought the meal plan.  It definitely saved us money and we were never hungry. The snacks were anything from ice cream to rice crispy treats to strawberry crepes…

Because we had 7 Day, Park Hopper passes, we were able to go to any park whenever we wanted… we didn't have to wake up early or stay at the park all day until close… We were definitely well rested!

Some favorites/highlights from each park:

Magic Kingdom
- Dole Whip Pineapple soft serve!
- The classics like Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Pirates
- Walking around at night, after hours, and getting to enjoy rides with low wait times
- I think my favorite ride was Peter Pan.  I love that story and it was so fun to fly over the perfect scenes.



Epcot
- Yummy meals in Japan, Mexico, France, and China
- Enjoying a Moroccan dinner on our first night in the Moroccan outdoor marketplace.
- One of my favorite rides for years has been Soarin, and I was so glad that Nick got to experience it with me too! We rode it 3 times!
- Nick really liked the Test Track, but I wasn't as big of a fan.
- Living with the Land was a really cool tour.
- The Disney Flower and Garden Festival is going on now, so all over the park, they had characters made entirely out of flowers.  It was really cool.
- We also loved watching all of the films about the different countries.  Hopefully we will be able to visit some of them someday!



Animal Kingdom
- Festival of the Lion King was my favorite show that we saw. Such a cool experience.
- Finding Nemo, the Musical
- Expedition Everest-- Probably the best ride at Disney! So awesome!
- Going on a safari that seemed so real!





Hollywood Studios
- I rode Tower of Terror for the first time... and while it is one of my worst nightmares coming true, I still enjoyed it.
- Toy Story Mania was one of our favorite rides... so cool!
- Unfortunately, it was raining on our first day there, and the second time we went, the Rock n Roller Coaster was closed... We never got to ride it or see Fantasmic.  Oh well.
- I love the whole "classic Hollywood" feel of this park!
- We escaped the rain and watched Beauty and the Beast, the musical. It was great!



And of course... The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!
- It was WAY more crowded than any Disney park we went to... and MUCH smaller. This was definitely a bummer.
- BUT the Forbidden Journey is probably my favorite ride from the entire trip. It was amazing! And the line went all the way through Hogwarts, which was awesome.
- Butterbeer is DELICIOUS!
- We ate fish and chips in the Three Broomsticks. So cool!




Well that's about it. Check out my facebook for more pics.  Now we are back in Rolla, where it is windy and 44 degrees. Yeah...