{belieze it-beach}

We haven't seen wedding photos just yet, but I cant wait so here's a little bit about Belize & some of what we did. 

The second part of our journey was the Ambergris Caye. It was beautiful, just like the photos you'd imagine to see in a travel magazine. Except we really didn't take too many photos, we were too busy actually enjoying ourselves! 

We had an awesome time snorkeling for the first time ever. As newbies, we didn't take photos. But everyone else on the trip did, and it was mildly entertaining watching them swim like fish to catch the best photo. My husband says the sunburn on my back looked like a pirate's face, ha! I'll keep the evidence to myself though, I don't want you to remember me like that.

early, early morning sunrise

I spent a lot of time in the water, while mountain man preferred to see the view from under a coconut tree. My Dad gave me the appreciation to “touch the ocean every day” when we’re at the beach. I gladly did so, despite how ridiculously sun burnt I kept getting. 

While it didn't dampen our spirits at all, we both got a touch of the travelers sickness. Nausea, etc. killed our appetites, so I can’t really attest to the food. Although we did enjoy some really great El Salvadorian food with our neighboring honeymooners out in the “city.” (It took ten minutes to walk around the main part of the city, but I suppose it is still a city.) We also enjoyed some delicious, authentically native chocolate milk/shake too! 

On the way back to the international airport, I got to sit in the copilot seat!! Check out this view! & I'm glad the nausea definitely went away for this part of the trip. The seat belt is like a spider strapping you in, and of course the pilot asked me to not touch anything. Really? I don't want to die either buddy, promise. :)

If you’re looking for a vacation with adventure and relaxation, it exists! It’s in Belize.

{belieze it-rainforest}

We haven't seen wedding photos just yet, but I can't wait so here's a little bit about Belize & some of what we did. 

 We had such a wonderful time on our honeymoon. Belize is a beautiful country. It was mountain man's (MM) first time out of the country, and I think it was the perfect choice. We chose Belize for a few simple reasons: 1. you can explore the rainforest and the beach 2. they speak english and 3. it's not europe, which I've explored a lot as a kid.

First things first, I got a pretty awful cold after the wedding. Even though I was never stressed the day of the wedding, my immune system finally had it. Fair enough, I kind of ignored it and just dealt with it along the way. The worst part was any nausea, particularly on a plane.

When we landed, we hit the road. They don't use stop signs or stoplights, so they use speed bumps instead I literally mean we hit the road. It felt like there was one every mile or so, making for a long two hour ride. So...I took a nap. Naturally.

We arrive at our little casita in the Cayo district, and my new husband (eek!!) immediately fell asleep on the hammock on our little porch and I fell asleep face down on the bed. After we slept, we promptly ordered a margarita pizza that we will never forget. It.was.that.amazing. Of course, we ordered dinner right after that-traveling really take a lot out of you sometimes!

Sniffling and all, we signed up for a full day of adventure the next day. We went to the ATM cave, which is a water cave that holds some Mayan sacrifices. You cross a river three time just to get to the cave, and our car managed to lose a shock too. Classic adventure! Once we got to the cave, you're in the water either walking or swimming the entire time. There's a point where there is no light, and you only have your hat light to guide you-and that's about the point where I started to feel a little nervous. When we had to take the hats off to squeeze our heads through some rocks to keep climbing, that was probably the pinnacle of my desire to turn around. No photos are allowed, so I had to borrow this one from national geographic. Our private tour guide was amazing, he knew so much! It was so thrilling to be in there. After climbing about 30 feet high  with a real drop if you made the wrong move, we saw the dish the queen and king use for their blood letting, and some crystallized humans. We still marvel over how the Mayans went all the way into their sacred caves, with torches, to their rituals.

After crashing, we woke up to another half day of Mayan touring. Xunantunich was also breath taking, and full of mystery. The majority of the ruins aren't even excavated (or excurvated per our tour guide). Imagining how they lived was pretty eye opening, and we once again had an awesome tour guide who knew everything. (I think he may have literally known everything, he didn't even guess at answering my questions. He just knew, and could tell me why they knew certain facts, etc.) The King kept building higher and higher structures (the tallest one shown in the photo) to basically hide himself away from the people as they lost their faith in them.

The last day we relaxed, and headed out to San Pedro. No more sniffling for me! We took a short little ride, with many stops, on this small plane. I'd never been on a plane so small. Little did I know what would happen next time we were on a plane so small!!

Mr. & Mrs. K

Our wedding day was perfect. It is difficult to say how meaningful it was to us in just one simple word. Many people told me it would be a blur and that I wouldn't remember much, but I remember everything and all the details. The significance of the day was, and will never be, lost on us. It is a day we will cherish for as many years as God will give us.

We enjoyed our honeymoon in Belize too, and managed to become even closer. I'm sure I will share memories of the wedding and honeymoon soon too, but it's overwhelming to think of doing that just yet.

It's been a six month hiatus, and by reading the last post it's easy to see that we simply became too busy to update. I can declare that I graduated with my MBA! The last two classes were a challenge, but managed to get a 4.0 GPA.

Other than that, not much to tell you about the last six months. Planning a wedding and finishing school were two big life to-do list things that complimented each other really well. If I wasn't working on school, then I was procrastinating by planning the wedding. Didn't want to do wedding planning? Procrastinate and do some school work. And of course I decided we needed to finish re-painting and re-decorating the entire downstairs, but I'll share that soon enough! I'm still grateful I did a lot of wedding planning well in advance though, because we still had time for friends.

My darling husband (how fun to call him that!!) is going to be in two more weddings later this year, and we are so excited to for our friends! I also have one of my closest friends buying a house, and are hoping we will get to help or at least celebrate with her. Yet another friend just moved. See how they keep us on our toes? Such exciting times.

Somehow even school and wedding free for a week, we're managing to stay busy. I thought I would have a lot of free time, or just simply get bored. It's only been a week, but there's still so much on our life to-do list. And being a part of our friends' big moments moving forward in life is important to us too. Life has a way of always moving forward.

Feel free to subscribe or google plus follow, or whatever it is you do to stay updated on our upcoming many, many adventures!

September to October

Anne Spring, courtesy of Quotelife Photography

September

This was a month of trying to establish a good routine for our little family. My sweetheart was still gone most the week, Coco was going to daycare, and I was trying to balance work/school. I was also taking the lead on wedding planning, since we knew life would get a little hectic during the holiday season. Leaving us with really only six more months once January came around!! I spent a lot of my lunches interviewing florists, DJs, makeup artists, and hair stylists. For some things, it was really easy to make decisions. For others, like the DJ and florist, I really struggled. We also had our engagement photos taken by our wonderful photographers!

I also finally asked my bridesmaids, matron of honor, and maid of honor if they would accompany me on this journey. They've been wonderful! They picked out their dress, and I can't wait to see them! 

I also realized during September that if I wasn't careful, I was going to isolate myself from dear friends and family again. Also, it's pretty clear I am still obsessed with our dog. I've been trying to make it a point to see my friends, and not just the ones in the wedding party. I'm thankful that my sweetheart and I have done this, it has made me feel much more well balanced! 

October

This was an awesome month! Some friends and I went horse riding at the same place where we had our engagement photos from. My derriere was definitely sore for three days. I can't believe I used to do that as a kid!

My sweetheart and I also took a trip to the mountains to see some family and such. I'm really grateful we took the trip, as one of his old childhood dogs passed away. I imagine it is never easy to have a dog pass away, and I really can't imagine what it's going to be like that when I lose my first. 

There was also a bachelorette party! I was a bridesmaid, and we had a blast throwing the party. We had delicious food, drinks, and gifts, and then went into the city to dance the night away at four different hot spots! Got to love the Queen City!

FINALLY

I figured out what was wrong with Coco. After she acted a little sickly at daycare, I took her to a new vet. I love our old vet, by they were too far away! She needed some antibiotics. They helped relieve her issues temporarily, and I finally went with my gut instinct: change her diet. We had been feeding her a brand whose first couple ingredients were pretty good. After I did a loooooooooooooot of research, I found that in order to determine if it was the food causing the issue, I had to change her diet 100%. We went from chicken, to lamb and oatmeal by Blue Buffalo. 

She is in heaven. She loves her food! She has never been motivated by food, and sometimes wouldn't eat all day. We haven't had an issue in almost a month! The company has also sent me coupons! The food is expensive and she somehow has more energy, but I am so thankful that she is healthy and happy! 

So now you're just about updated. November has been a month of wedding stuff, and I am getting a little wedding'ed out. I didn't think it was possible!

courtesy of Quotelife Photography

July to August

i like mud.

July.....
August....
September...
October........

It's hard to believe I last posted on July 4th. So much has happened! I obviously can't update you on everything, but I'll try.

July

Starting in July, my sweetheart was working a couple hours away during the week & we expected that to continue until January. I was taking another really difficult class, and working from home a couple days a week to keep up with Coco who was just about six months old. I thought I could balance everything well without him there. I was so wrong. 

Unfortunately, it turns out Coco was going through pottying issues. It took me forever to figure out what the problem was, but I hadn't figured it out in July. She was consistently pooping pottying in her crate before I could get home from work. It was INCREDIBLY frustrating to clean the dog, clean the crate, clean the floor six times (I can't wait to replace this porous flooring), clean any other surface, and then clean myself. Then there was the incident where I left her out of her crate once during class...but I won't go into that. 

At the end of July, Coco turned 6 months old. We went to our last day at puppy preschool, and she had a blast! We knew she needed to stay social, and I let her try daycare for a day. She loved it! But of course, she had to get spayed before going to daycare regularly. So, Coco got spayed at the end of July. What a goober, she was HILARIOUS when she came home! 

Thanks to the Coco situation, I wasn't getting much time to study. Summer classes are usually intense for six weeks, but with holidays and my professor teaching in another country, we really only had four weeks. It doesn't help that one of my group members in the class had salmonella poisoning, as did the rest of his family. And my second group member had a hard time communicating, as a new foreign exchange student. Got to love grad school!

August

I finally finished my class, by the skin of my teeth. Thank goodness, I had a week off before starting the Fall semester!!

My parents came to visit during  my week off of school. We had a great time! They got to see our new house, meet Coco, and see the town we used to live in. We visited my sweetheart's new work too. They also helped me a lot with wedding planning. I am so lucky, i found the dress while my parents were visiting. It was only the third dress! It was the perfect moment, where I just knew that if it was that easy, it was meant to be. We also found a wonderful hotel for our visiting family to stay in. Minus a couple issues with the DMV, we had a wonderful trip. No one wanted the week to end, which is exactly how every vacation should end. 

Alas, still no improvements with Coco, although she was going to daycare a couple times a week and loving it! I was still working from home a couple times a week, and so the other days she would "romp with friends" as we say! She would come home exhausted, and I would finally do some school work. 

I also started a new job, which is more like a rotational group. I found out back in May that I'd been selected, when I got back from Brazil. It's very different and eye opening, but made our summer a bit more hectic. 

As you can see, a lot of things changed! Most for the better, and a couple complicated life a little more. It had been months since we did any updating or changes to the house, and I certainly didn't have time to cook!

{sparkling fourth}

Let's sum up what's happened in the last week or so...
 
1. Finished the Brazil class. Hooray!
 
2. Started my next class. Boo.
 
3. We had another dog stay with us for nine days, so its owner could go get married! Coco played ALL DAY. The other dog didn't always want to, since she was three years old and much smaller. So I ended up playing referee. They were so sweet, I miss having something to entertain Coco.
 
4. The garden has done nothing. NOTHING. Time to go get fertilizer. I should probably give up at this point, but I'm too stubborn.
 
5. My sweetheart has started a new job! I'm so proud of him. Even if this makes things a tad more difficult since it's a long commute, it's just something else for us to figure out.

6. We bought a new car. I love it! My sweetheart's truck wasn't too reliable, so he is now using my old car. I am so grateful, I now have a/c. And bless his heart, he thinks my old car still has a/c when it blows out lukewarm air.

I've also finally gotten to do some the deep cleaning I have been dying to do. I know it's gross-but it wasn't our mess, we moved into it!

Ew. Disgusting. You would be amazed what is under your little knobs! With a toothbrush, bleach, and gloves {I forgot to use them...}, you can make everything sparkle like new! Don't let the bleach sit too long, just long enough to get all the grime up. It even whitened the caulk around the rest of the sink.

Just in time for my sweetheart's family to come visit!

I hope you all have a wonderful fourth of July!

Alas, the garden

proud garden puppy

There it is! The garden I have been waiting for. Almost all by myself!
Ok, here is what I planted:

In the picture with Coco above, east is facing us. You can see the tomatoes staked up closer to the fence. The diagram above shows everything I've planted.

You can only see one okra plant, one watermelon, four bell peppers, four eggplants, and six tomatoes. The rest I've mapped out are my leftover seeds I planted. I don't know what plants go together and which don't, but hopefully something grows.

I mean, water and sun and it will all grow right? Probably so very wrong.

I was able to find the bell peppers and eggplants really cheap when visiting New Bern, NC for a wedding. Beautiful place! I even found wedding decorations. Yes, I am slowly, slowly planning..