10...9...8...

...1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! As 2008 comes to an end, I thought it was only right to do a year in review! So here goes, 2008 in review...

You win some and you lose some and sometimes you call it a draw. For 2008, I think it would be called a draw. This year, I married the man of my dreams on October 11 and we had the fairytale picture perfect wedding. Our wedding was everything that we had imagined and so much more. I want to thank my parents, my family and those friends out there that stood by my side, supported me and helped me keep things in perspective. Matt and I are very excited about this new chapter in our life and sharing the rest of our lives together. After our wedding, we went on an amazing honeymoon in Jamaica and things couldn’t be better-him, me, the beach, romance…life with him gets better and better every day!

So while we began our lives together, we also said good-bye to Matt’s grandfather this past summer along with two other friends of his family. My dad had full shoulder reconstruction, Sally’s mom found out she had cancer and Matt hurt his back. All three are working on getting better but it’s a long road for all of them.

In January, we gained a new member to our family. His name is Shadow and he’s a black lab. He had some bad habits when we got him (like eating anything on the counter) but he’s learned and is a very good dog. He and Emma get along very well although Shadow likes to shred her bandana! In August, we found out that he had heartworms but we got him treated and so far so good. We take him back around March for a final all clear and then he should be good to go!

In June, I finished my Masters in Business Administration from Lindenwood University. Luckily, the program was quick and painless and definitely well worth it! Work this year has been a learning and growing experience. Never do we stop learning-if we do then we stop growing.

So 2008 has definitely been a year of ups and downs but, overall, it was a year of understanding…understanding that the good comes with the bad, that true friends stick by your side and what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Here’s to 2009!!! Happy New Year!

(Here's a picture of Matt and I at our rehearsal dinner-never before seen!)

Merry Christmas to all...

...and to all a good night! The holiday season FLEW by!!! Here are just a couple of memories captured on our camera from Christmas 2008.

My neice and Emma!
Emma got bored watching us open presents so she fell asleep in my lap.

The infamous trio tried to get a picture together...this was the aftermath of Emma giving us crazy kisses!

Here's our reindeer...eh...dog Shadow! Don't you just love the ears?

Here is Mattie and I in front of our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve (the only couple of hours we actually had to ourselves) before we exchanged presents. Being the good husband that he is, he got me everything I wanted!!! I got a Carthart jacket and bibs for hunting, a past/present/future necklace in aquamarine stone which matches my wedding ring and ponytail holders!!! He's so funny on what he picks up on!

Here we are on Christmas day at his parents house where they got me a 22 rifle for hunting!!! I swear to you not 10 minutes after this picture, Matt and I walked outside to put our gifts in the truck and a deer ran across the field! It's a sign!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and, after all my gifts, hopefully I'll have better hunting stories for you next year!

Mr. and Mrs. Claus...

...kissing!!! Here are Emma and Shadow donning their holiday attire and Emma is giving Shadow a kiss!


Here's Emma sticking her tongue out at me saying Ha! Ha!

Happy Holidays everyone from the human Mr. and Mrs. Claus and the doggie Mr. and Mrs. Claus at our house!

It's beginning to look...

...a lot like Christmas!!! So I had to work this morning but I'm home now and Mattie and I are busy baking, wrapping, cleaning, hanging, etc...

First things first, we decided to do little baskets for our neighbors which included cinnamon ornaments. FYI-the batch made about 6 PLATES of ornaments and our all house smells of cinnamon. They are spread throughout the house in HIGH places so the dogs won't eat them.

Here is a pretty cardinal that's been eating at our birdfeeder.

Here is the finished baskets for our neighbors. Contents include a glass snowman filled with potpourri (I made them myself and my mom knitted the hats-they are made out of frappacino bottles), homemade applesauce, cinnamon ornaments and homemade cookies. I've only given one basket away so far and she loved it!!!

Here I am (and I look awful) with one of our wedding gifts. It's one of those that lights up (but we couldn't catch all the colors). It looks really good.

Right now, I'm waiting for my dough to chill then I'm going to make Andes Mint cookies-yum!!! Hope everyone is finished up with their shopping and enjoying the holiday season!!!

The Story of Us...

...happy Two Year Anniversary of our First Date! So the story of us...here goes! This is all very ironic and a story full of fate. So back in spring 2006, I was working at the front desk with a friend/co-worker, Mel. It was SLOW and we were BORED! So we decided to play MASH and all those fun girly games...great idea except I wasn't dating, interested or talking to anyone SO who would I put down? Well, Mel starts telling me about this guy named Matt and he becomes the object of my MASH fun that day. After that day, she starts telling me that I really should meet him and we'd be great and all those fun things you say to get someone to go on a blind date. So about a month and a half later, it was Cinco de Mayo and (hold on to your seats...this gets romantic) I'm standing in line for the Port-a-Potty and this guy is standing in front of me. I had seen him earlier but thought he was with a different girl so I casually start making conversation and during the conversation I figure out that this is MASH MATT!?! OMG! So the night goes on, we danced, talked and drank and nothing came of that night. Mel tried a couple other times to get us to go out and we were in a couple of group settings but fast forward to December 2006. We FINALLY go on our first date!!! Dinner, comedy club and then to BWW for drinks...I loved how everyone casually had to leave so that it was just Matt and I talking. We had a great night, chatted, got to know each other, gave each other a hug and I gave him my number. WELL, Mr. Matthew let the three-day rule expire so I was like great he's not interested but we really did have a GREAT time but at the same time, I tried to tell myself it was the holidays and he was busy. So two weeks go by and I finally just tell Mel give me his number and I CALLED HIM! The rest is history and now I'm Mrs. Matthew!

Here is one of the first pics of us together. I'm not real big on taking pictures together because I think it will jinx stuff so Matt is probably the only boyfriend I have pictures with.

Here we are 1 year ago today when we got engaged (FYI-this is a totally staged picture and Matt had no idea what I was doing).

And here I am with my pretty husband on our wedding day (I love this picture because I think it truly captures how in love we are).

So happy two year anniversary to us! I love you Mattie!

Vistors...

...in our backyard! Matt put a birdfeeder up in the back yard and almost EVERY day we have to restock this corn for the squirrels. We always find the empty cobs but never saw one until the other day!!! I ran and grabbed the camera and snapped a couple of shots. Mattie was very disappointed he didn't get to see them in person but he was very happy I got the picture for him!!!

Isn't that a fat squirrel? Anyways, the birds that eat out of the birdfeeder (not shown) always knock the feed on the ground and the squirrels drop corn so when we let the dogs out they run straight to it and look like cows grazing!!! Hope everyone has a great week and FYI-this is my 50th post!!!!

You know Comet, Cupid and Donner and...

...Blitzen but do you know Bojangles? Well, allow me to introduce you! Faithful and loyal readers of my blog meet Bojangles. Bojangles my faithful and loyal readers! Tonight I had to work at Celebration of Lights and aside from drinking enough hot chocolate to turn into a Hershey kiss and having my little toesies (not sure on the spelling of that) frozen off, I also got to meet Bojangles. He mainly hung out with Santa and Ms. Claus but he took a couple minutes to meet me. Once I told him about the blog, HE suggested we take a picture. He knows that Rudolph and the gang are busy practicing their take-offs and landings for Christmas so he's trying to get his name out to make appearances for them. He was very soft and a pretty sweet reindeer but he was getting a little cranky probably because he was so cold too! (Notice that I am wearing two scarves, I also had on long underwear, two pairs of socks, a hat, a hood and 4 shirt layers PLUS a coat and oh yeah, it was raining too!)

So first I got a Christmas tree today and then I got to meet a real reindeer so it really is beginning to be a lot like Christmas!

Our First Christmas...

...as Mr. and Mrs. Matt didn't have to work today because of the weather so when I came home from work today, I came home to this teeny tiny Christmas tree! It's a real one that Matt wants to plant in the yard after the holiday season. If you can't tell by the picture, it's "swamped" (sarcasm if you can't tell) with all 5 ornaments we have which are all primarily mine. Let's see there is one soccer ball ornament, another soccer ornament that is cross-stitched with my name on it and we can't forget the wooden cheerleading bear in orange and black-GO TIGERS! Yes, soccer was a pasttime of mine, orange and black were my high school colors and I used to collect bears. OH, if you read Kristal's blog and mine which I know all two of my readers do, please do not compare my wrapping to hers-I'm embarassed!

Now, tonight, I'm actually working at Matt's part-time job and my full-time job...so we'll kinda be together and cold and outside SO I'm in charge of bringing hot chocolate AND I get to sleep in tomorrow! Happy Holidays everyone!

Silly doggies...

...that's exactly what my two pups are-silly doggies! Since Matt and I both now have full-time AND part-time jobs, we haven't eaten dinner together since last Monday night which was....SURPRISE-leftovers!!! So today, I had to work my FT job this morning then we both had to go work our PT jobs so we decided we'd have a nice lunch together (yummy deer steak!). So while we were waiting for lunch to finish, my 100lb black lab decided to jump up and give me a hug! I can't believe we're almost the same height! Isn't he cute?

On a side note, we are his third (and final home) but look at this face, who wouldn't want him? I mean his worst trait is that he wants you to love him, he's always trying to get in bed or slowly climb in your lap. About 8:30 on a Friday evening, Matt's friend calls asking if he knew anyone that wanted a three-year old black lab. The friend was getting kicked out of his house and had to find a home for all their animals. Matt gets off the phone, comes in the room I'm in and in his sweetest, biggest puppy dog face says, "Baabe...." I told him to give me 20 minutes alone so I could think about it. We'd been talking about getting another dog because Matt felt outnumbered by Emma and I and I think he felt leftout because Emma and I were so close. I agreed and we went to get him. The first day, I'd laid some hamburger in the sink to thaw. I was in the bedroom getting dressed and here comes Shadow with the hamburger meat in his mouth. He brought it right too me and didn't try to eat it so it was hard to not laugh. A couple weeks later, he had a seizure which scared the beejezus out of me! Then in August, we found out he had heartworms. He's doing good now, we won't know until about March if he's in the clear from them but I'm so glad he's a part of our family now even though he is pretty crazy and loves to eat birdseed.

Now I'm not one to play favorites so here's a picture...eh, we should say attempt, of Emma and I. Once again, her biggest problem is that she wants to love you-notice the blurred snout on her, that's because she's giving me kisses. Emma is a great dog too. We got her from a free ad in the newspaper which turned out to be more like a puppy mill so my mom took her thinking we'd at least clean her up and find her a good home. Well, you know how those stories go and she's now a part of the family although she almost didn't get to stay. Talk about dogs that love to chew...that would be Emma. At our old house, we had a screened in porch that the dogs stayed on when we left. Emma slowly ate everything on that porch until there was nothing left on it and there was A LOT on it!?! So she lived at my mom's house until she was two being "the red-headed step-dog" because the other two dogs were black and so she was the outcast. Then I graduated college and moved to SC and in my biggest puppy dog eyes, I asked my mom if I could take Emma with me. She agreed and this was probably the best choice ever for both Emma and me. We lived out there for about 1.5 years but while we were out there, it was just us learning to be in the "real world" together and being each other's family. We spent holidays, birthdays and sick days together taking care of each other. I always ask my mom if she thinks Emma would have rather stayed with my mom or me and my mom always says, "She wouldn't be happier anywhere else but with you."
So that's the story of my "kids" and how they came to be a part of our family. I know most all of you out there like dogs so I thought you would enjoy this post plus people only comment when I add pictures! Hope everyone had a great weekend and spent some quality time with their dogs!

My Head...

...feels this big (see extended arms)! I came home from a weekend with the fam with a massively horrible head cold. Monday I woke up and couldn't swallow, luckily I was already off work. The sore throat is gone but the stuffy nose, headaches and general icky feeling is still there. Matt has been doing a great job taking care of me...bringing home OJ and Sprite, fixing me toaster pizzas (I really wanted pizza!?!)and reminding me to take my medicine. He's so sweet because every night before bed, he'll ask my symptoms and then bring me whatever we have that matches it. I also brought a gallon of OJ to work that I've been sipping on all week.

On a brighter note, we got our wedding album in the mail yesterday! There are a couple of things I would like differently but overall I love it! Matt hasn't even seen it yet! Speaking of him, he's working tonight so I should take the opportunity to go Christmas shopping for him except I have no idea what to get him!?! The whole wedding thing put me WAY behind this year! Ususally, I'm done shopping for everyone and gifts are wrapped! Not this year though! I did buy him a new winter coat but he was with me for that one so I don't think that really counts.

Happy early Friday to everyone!!!

Turkey Hangover...

...Matt and I are home and finished with all of our Thanksgiving dinners. We have slight turkey hangovers from our three Thanksgiving meals...all were delicious and while the menus were similiar, they were all different! Thursday, we had T-Day with his family. While we were there, his very talented aunt gave us our wedding present. She owns a store in House Springs called The Gallant Lady. Check out our wedding gift! Is this not amazing!?! It's probably 2 ft by 1 ft. custom-made stained glass piece for our window.

Then Saturday afternoon, we went to my dad's for T-Day. Haley, my four-year old niece saw this old embroidered quilt that my sister had where each family member embroidered a square and has now decided she wants one. So after dinner, we all started working on our squares...it was quite the experience! Matt and I finished our square before anyone else and did a great job sharing. He wanted to start and ended up doing one more heart than I did but didn't realize it!!!

That night, we headed over to my mom's for T-Day! By the end of the night we were stuffed but not too stuffed to show off some wigs we found!!! Don't we look fabulous?!?!

Well, my husband just came upstairs from packing his hunting bag for tomorrow (he's determined to get a buck and he also got this new hunting "toy" from my mom he wants to try out!) so I must go fix dinner. Any guesses on what we're having!?!

Gobble, gobble...

...Happy Turkey Day everyone!!! As I sit in my cozy red chair covered with a quilt my mom made me and my husband snoozes in the bed room, I am reminded of things that I am thankful for. As David Letterman would say, TOP TEN LIST

1. My pretty husband, Mattie who makes me the happiest girl in the world
2. My family who loves me, supports me and tells me when to get over it!
3. My awesome friends who love me for who I am and help me out whenever, where ever-no questions asked
4. My health, remember my post about TB test and a blood test? Well, I got negative on my TB and I got a clean bill of health in the mail yesterday so YAH for good health
5. Work-I may complain but I love the people I work with, the stability it brings, the people I meet and the creative juices it flows
6. MY PUPPIES!!! I love waking up with one of them in my arms, keeping my feet warm and telling me in their puppy way everything will be alright....now if only they would learn to drink from their water bowl and not drool
7. Our house, its not much now but Mattie and I are slowly making it into a home
8. The amazing opportunities I've had in life including but not limited to school (MBA baby!), travel (walk like an Egyptian), different people I've met, hot air ballooning, fairytale wedding, etc...
9. Life lessons-my dad has taught me MANY over the years and every day recently has been a new life lesson, without these we would never understand people, ourselves or the world in general.
10. FOOD!!! OMG! I am thankful for my mom's manicotti, my grandma's mac-n-cheese, Sally's fluffy pototoes, my sister's no-bake cookies, my dad's grilling and anything Mattie makes!!!

So while I was making this list, I decided I would make a top ten list of why I am thankful for my Mattie.
1. He knows how to take care of the yard!!! It's a work in progress but he does a great job with the upkeep and when we get the money, we'll have the best yard on the street!
2. His patience...if anyone knows me, then you know you have to be very patient! For instance when I cooked dinner the other night and the smoke alarm went off three times, he didn't even get upset! LOL...he just took the battery out of it!
3. His delicious cooking! He amazes me because he never follows a recipe but it always taste like something you'd get at a restaurant!
4. He helps me and teaches me. Our hunting weekend was actually a lot of fun because he took the time to teach and explain to me what was going on. He also helps me especially in the kitchen because I tend to not follow directions.
5. He's handy! He installed our attic fan all by himself among other things he fixes and does around here on a daily basis.
6. His great attitude on life. He's so laid back and just has a great attitude, I wish it would rub off on me more!
7. His kindness. The morning we got engaged, we were driving back to the house and someone's car was stuck in the snow. He got out and helped them push-I was in the truck yelling, "Tell them we just got engaged!"
8. I think he'll be a great father. No we're not having kids...yet! But I've seen him around my niece and he's great with her and she loves him (she always asks about him before me!) so I think he'll be great with our own.
9. He's a problem solver!!! Any situation, he always thinks of a clever way to solve it.
10. HE LOVES ME!!! He did ask me to be his wife FOREVER you know!!!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving but don't eat turkey and drive! The enzymes put you to sleep!!!

Pictures, anyone...

...okay so I finally picked out some of my fave and have uploaded them for your enjoyment. I finished our wedding album last night and now I'm not so sure about the cover color I picked. OH WELL! Enjoy and please leave comments.

Here I am in the vineyard before the wedding



My grand entrance on the slowest horse EVER

My husband testing my trust in him within moments of saying I do

Eskimo kiss!

Here are our blue eyes pics

Kissin' my husband in the vineyard

Sand ceremony, we are smiling because we thought they might overflow

Us at the altar

Our delicious yummy cake that was gone but no one got a piece of

JUST MARRIED!!!

Just in my short month and a half of marriage, I've learned that every day is a learning experience and that you have to work HARD at your relationship. I love my Mattie and thank God for every day I have with him.

WHEW...

...my radio still works!?! Yesterday, when I left work the radio in my car wasn't working. Not a big deal because I usually don't drive much but, of course, I did last night. So while I love Brad Paisley...his CD got a little old after about the third time. When I got in the car this morning, the radio worked!!! Listening to the DJ made me realize that I would LOVE to be a DJ (except for the fact that I hate my voice on recordings and such) because they get to give their opinion, give and learn random facts and meet famous people (like Will Smith...ooooohhhh....he's so cute!). Plus they get free stuff! In the words of klf and her mama, my "soulmate" works for a radio station and he is a DJ so they gave him free Lasik surgery so that he would promote it on air! Now that's a good field right there. So what's everyone's dream job???

Right now I'm starving! I haven't eaten since last night and I have to fast until 11:20 (at least) because then I'm having blood test for a 'physical' to qualify for our employee incentive plan. As though getting blood taken today wasn't bad enough, I had to go get a TB test yesterday! So within 24 hours, I'm going to be stuck TWICE!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

...find out what it means to me! Okay so in this entry, I would like to hear from all of you what respect means to you. Now that the wedding is over, I've been having flashbacks (and crazy weird dreams) about some situations that happened over this past year leading up to and including the wedding day. As I look back and analyze each situation, I realize that everyone has different definations of respect. For instance, well...I don't think I can really give a for instance without reliving it and I'm really trying to put it behind me. Which brings me to another issue...trying to put it behind me. I know klf has given me some great advice and I love her for it but sometimes those things are easier said than done. So please leave me a comment and let me know what respect means to you and maybe it will help me figure out things.

On other notes, Matt got a PT job and I did too; they are both seasonal. We are worried that it might be a bad winter and with his line of work, he may not be working much so this will help supplement and if the winter turns out okay then this is just extra present money. As I told my boss today, it means he can buy me a bigger Christmas present! This week kind of stinks because our schedules are totally opposite and I haven't seen him since Monday night and won't see him until Saturday night then he's off to hunt again on Sunday (he wants me to go but I'm not so sure this time, I might take klf's advice and have a girl's day to myself). He has his schedule through January so I'm going to turn in my availability to fit his so we can at least see each other SOME nights.

Even more exciting than PT jobs...I got my WEDDING PICTURES!!! So in an upcoming blog (maybe Friday), I will pick out some of my faves and post them. How I'm going to narrow down 1500 to like 5 for my blog...I have no idea!!!

And even more exciting that PT jobs and wedding pictures...this is the last full-week of work until 2009!?! How exciting is that?

Bambi...

...is in my fridge! I know some you think that's sad but, honestly, when you're on a budget then its great! We got a cooler full of deer burger, deer steaks, roasts and all for the low cost of $8!!! (An anterless deer tag $7 and the bullet $1...gun and all the fun stuff included doesn't count since its been over the years of accumulation, gifts or hand-me-downs). Matt's family owns 80+ acres on a farm land where his grandparents used to live. We all trucked out there (his mom, dad, brother, sister and the two of us) Friday night, got up early Saturday for biscuits and gravy (homemade-yum!) then they all headed out. Star and I went back to sleep for a little cat nap but it wasn’t long before John came back with the first deer of the day! Around 11ish, Matt got the second deer and we started to butcher them. That afternoon, I went out in a stand with Matt and I saw THREE deer! I was very proud of myself 1) I saw the first deer before Matt 2) I saw the second one and Matt didn’t because he was positioned weird and 3) I didn’t complain about being bored, cold or anything! His sister got a deer on Sunday then we headed back home. It was a long weekend and I actually had a really good time! Thank you to my husband for having the patience to take me out this weekend. I love when we teach and share our interests with each other.

Here is my husband heading out to hunt

Here I am with Matt's sister, Elizabeth heading out Saturday afternoon (don't I look official)

Here's my hub and I in our tree stand before we had to "be still and don't move"

I'm looking forward to our deer steak dinner tonight!

Lost in Translation...

...that's what I feel like right now. Currently, I am without last name. Monday, Matt and I went to the social security office to change my name...after ONE HOUR of waiting and Matt having to walk to his doctor's appointment, I finally got to change my name. I won't even begin to tell you all the stories that I heard. Anyways, the lady kept my SS card so as of right now, I don't really know what my last name is...I guess I'm just Alyssa like Diddy. Hopefully, I get a last name soon because both my names together is a MOUTHFUL!!!

Update on my Mattie: we were at the doctor for TWO HOURS (yes, after the ONE HOUR at the SS office)....first off, the nurse practitioner had no idea what she was talking about...seriously! Matt started asking her questions and her response, "I'll be right back." She leaves and comes back later with the doctor who never introduced himself, guessed I was the Mrs. and started calling me mom, then answered his personal cell phone TWICE while he was meeting with us (once about a conference he was going to in January and the other about his car). Then he drew on the throw away paper over the exam paper his $72,000 landscaping job and told Matt to get a new job and even asked him if he had a high school degree. So then they kicked me out of the room and Matt went into another room and gave him a shot right in his spine. He said its feeling better but still a little sore. I told him when he goes back to his chiro to let him know he needs to find someone else to refer patients too! So long story short, Matt's back is feeling better but its not 100% so thanks to everyone for the good thoughts!

O...M...G...

...scary!!! So last night, I'm sound asleep in bed then I hear the dogs barking. I slowly wake up and see Matt jumping out of bed, I look at him and say, "What are you doing?" He tells me that someone rang the doorbell-keep in mind that this is 10:45 at NIGHT!!! So I start to get scared! I let Matt answer the door then I hear him talking to someone and see flashing lights. I go to the door and see Matt standing on the front porch talking to a police officer. There's a fire truck at the end of our street lighting up the whole neighborhood and three police cars in each part of the streets. Matt comes back inside and lets me know that the cop told him someone lit a pipe bomb on the front porch of the vacant house across the street! We look outside and the whole neighborhood is up and watching what's going on. The cop was knocking on people's doors to see if they knew or saw anything.

The fire truck leaves so Matt goes outside to move his truck off the street into the driveway and then our two side neighbors come over. Story goes...this girl was driving down our street and saw fire on the front porch of this house so she runs to the neighbor's door yelling calling 9-1-1!!! It was actually a sparkler bomb with aerosal cans tied to it! Now this house has been vacant for at least 4 months and all the neighbors have been watching it (we're a good neighborhood watch system). First off, their grass got out of control and the city had to mow it. Then one lady saw the cops at the gas station one night and asked them to come check it out then a couple weeks ago, I was coming home from work and saw some kids in the driveway going into the garage (yes, this house is vacant yet their garage door is half up/half down with STUFF in it!). So long story short, we've all been keeping an eye on this house yet this still happened. I asked Matt, what if they had done that to our house? He tried to reassure me we were okay but by this point, my heart was racing, my stomach hurt and I was wide awake. So I layed in bed writing my blog in my head until I finally drifted off to sleep.

To stay positive though, the policeman that came to our door was pretty cute!!!

KC Y'all...

...KC y'all! Mattie and I took a road trip to KC. We got to our friends' house around noon and watched Journey to the Center of the Earth. Then Candace got home from class to tell me that our friend Kristin got engaged!!! So Candace and I spent the afternoon with Kristin watching her try on wedding dresses while the boys went to the Toby Keith Bar at Harrah's, ate sardines and mustard and then got some beer to tide them over until we got home. Matt got some Red Stripe to relive our honeymoon. As we were leaving the Bridal Mansion, Candace and I saw this interesting ad hanging up to sell a wedding dress and we couldn't pass up the photo op:

That night, we went to the Power and Light District for drinks and dinner. We had dinner at Chef Burger and then grabbed a couple of drinks at the Flying Saucer.

Candace and Chad

My husband and I

We left the Flying Saucer and went to a little pizza and beer joint called Grinders. Matt decided to try out some new beers. The first beer Matt had was Flying Monkey Four Finger Stout made in KS. He said it was good but his favorite Old #38 Stout.

After splitting a pitcher of Natty Light with Candace (we were trying to be cheap dates), I decided to try a new beer too. I had Ace Hard Pear Cider from CA. I love cider beers!!!

So that concludes our trip to KC!!! We left KC after Candace made us homemade biscuits with "snoozberry" jam made by Chad's mom! Next weekend starts hunting season and I'll be a deer season widow. Tomorrow, I have to take Matt to the Pain Clinic for his back so think good things so his back gets better.

What a dreary day...

…so I thought I’d relive some of our honeymoon for all of us! The Saturday of our trip, we took an excursion on an ocean catamaran. It was awesome aside from both of us getting burnt to a crisp. We went out in the ocean and got out to snorkel. Then we got back on the catamaran and rode to a private beach, Half Moon Beach, where we had a Jamaican style bbq complete with jerk chicken. Matt decided to snorkel some more while I watched a soccer game and took in the view. While he was snorkeling, he found some squid that he showed me. At first, he wasn’t for sure but then he threw a rock in their direction and they squirted out ink-gross! It was awesome just like the rest of the trip! Enjoy the pics!!!

Here is a small starfish Matt on top of a piece of coral that we brought home with us. It now resides in our front garden...yes, it was legal!


Here is a sand dollar...they are pretty cool before they fall apart.

Here's Matt saying, "It's all good!"

I don't know what these things are but what a great pic!

Here's my husband and I at Half Moon Beach!

Wow...what a great honeymoon! I can't wait for our one year anniversary trip! Happy Thursday everyone!