No more stalling

FINALLY! Some wedding posts. I think I thought (still think?) that if I keep it to myself, then I get to hold onto it longer. But at the same time, I want to share. Is that vain? I sure hope not.

I’ll do this a little backwards. I’m doing honeymoon before wedding pictures. Figured no point to post about the wedding and then have to do it again when wedding pictures were done. I got an e-mail that our wedding pictures are in, but since I do not live in the same city as the photographer, my mom is picking them up and  I will get them on Sunday when my mom comes and brings us our wedding gifts that are stashed in her basement at the moment. I tried to say she couldn’t look at them until Sunday, then we could look together, but she nixed that idea really quick. She says she paid for them, she gets to see them. Touche, Mom. Still bummed though.

But anyways.

View from our balcony.

We went to Mexico (in case you missed that somehow.) It was beautiful, but HOT. Now, before you say, “Mrs. A-it’s Mexico. What the heck did you expect?” I know this. I knew this. But the heat was something else.  When the workers say, “Man, it’s hot for this time of year.” That’s telling you something. We took about 5 showers a day…cold showers. I think I only took one warm shower the entire time because it was just too effing hot.

We LOVED our resort. (If you want to go to mexico and want to know which one, e-mail me and I’ll get you the info.) It was perfect. Granted, had we payed a FORTUNE more, we could have been at some super ritzy place, but this was INCREDIBLY nice and from reading reviews on trip advisor, had some of the best reviews, even compared to the others.

Our resort was basically 3 in 1. We stayed at C, but we could use any of the amenities/restaurants/bars-anything at both A and T. They were all connected and had little shuttles going between places. These were the 3 lobbies:

Fountain and statue in C.

All the lobbies were open, so no doors and you could usually feel the breeze blowing through. It was very nice.

All the lobbies had these awesome thatched roofs that were just very neat. They looked awesome.

(sorry it’s huge, but wanted to show the detail.)

The resident iguanas. They were EVERYWHERE. I had never seen an iguana in real life, not at a zoo, so it was crazy to see them everywhere. And some were gigantic, like this guy. He lived in the garden area outside our building. He had a wife and a mistress. He’d switch up which one he hung out with. And they loved bananas, so we gave them our bananas from the fruit basket as we left the resort. Probably not supposed to, but we enjoyed them so much that we had to. Mr. A tried to touch one. That was a no-go.

Our room.

The super wonderful jacuzzi tub. I frequented this about every night. Filled with cold water and it was so relaxing after 113 degree days!

The food was just delicious. The buffet was really good, but then the a la carte restaurants were to die for. I'm drooling now.

They had towel animals everyday for us. I was SO excited about these. I took pictures of all of them except 1. Can’t remember which I missed, but they were awesome! I couldn’t believe how good they were. The elephant and the sea turtle were my favorites. I love sea turtles, so it made my day since we couldn’t see any.

Elephant with flower that was in my hair at the wedding. They saw it on the dresser and used it. So cute.

When we arrived, we were greeted with these!

Sea turtle. Cute that they put it next to the figurine we had bought.

There were coconut trees everywhere on the resort and the beach. I loved it. I thought the clusters were fascinating and I probably have 30 pictures of them. I wanted to get one and open it, but Mr. A told me that might not be a good idea. One day I will.

Ever see the movie Emperor's New Groove? Remember the ball game? This is what it really looked like at the Mayan villages. They played to the death. Now that's some motivation.

This was the super crazy tall Mayan ruins we saw. At this point, we had already been ziplining in the jungle, rapelling 75 feet into an underwater cave, climbing back up those 75 feet, hiking through the jungle, and walking 2 miles to these ruins. I was completely wiped out. My original goal was to climb these ruins just to say I did, but I just couldn’t. I knew we still had a 2 mile walk back and I thought my legs were going to give out they were shaking to badly. (I also learned on this little adventure that you CAN sweat from EVERY. SINGLE. PORE. on your body. All of them. Legs, arms, back, stomach…everywhere. I’ve never been so drenched in sweat in my life.

So, long story short, I didn’t do it. I still wish I could have, but it just wasn’t going to happen. But Mr. A did. I took his picture at the bottom. I turned around to walk down to the log to sit on. I figured it would take him a little bit and I would take pictures of him along the way. I was wrong. Apparently I married a monkey. By the time I turned around at the seat, he was at the TOP.  Other people were saying, “Did you see that guy run up there???” And I missed it.

At the top. He said he looked down and got a little nervous. Ha.

Glorious. The beach was my favorite part. Living in the midwest, I never get to see the beach. Lake beaches are gross and the water is brown and you can’t see what is swimming around you. Icky. But this beach. I could live here. White sand that didn’t scald your feet. Crystal clear water. Cool breezes. Little cabanas. Beach bars. How soon can I go back? It was so clean and I just loved it here.

Pier

We're dorks.

Started reading this on recommendation of Life of a Doctor’s Wife. Really like it. Not finished, but getting there.

Heaven.

This cracked me up. In the U.S., we put tiny little labels about the dangers of smoking and that is could cause cancer. Nope. Not in Mexico. Huge letters and they just put it out there. This will kill you. No doubts. Good job Mexico.

Had this little guy in our room one day. Mr. A named him Intruder. I ran away until we got someone to get it out of our room.

Last night in Mexico before dinner.

Most expensive meal.

By the time it was time to go to the airport, Mr. A and I were kind of craving some “American” food. The resort food was excellent, but we wanted some cheeseburgers. So, we went to Margaritaville at the airport to get some food. I had a yummy margarita. Mr. had a Corona (which we could never get on the resort. It was strange.) And delicious food. But this is a chain. How much could two drinks, free chips, some guacamole, a burger, and a shrimp sandwich cost? We thought maybe about $50. It was the airport so they could charge a little more. Fine. $50 was worth it. Nope. $80. Yeah. That was our reaction.

No more airport meals for a while. Geeze.

It was a truly amazing trip. Mr. A and I finally got some quality time together. The last couple weeks leading up to the wedding were so hectic that we didn’t get any alone time or time to just relax. Finally, in another country, we were able to breathe and just enjoy being married.  We did have some bad news, but we made the best of it all and loved every minute. I would love to go back.

Off to dream about when we can finally return to our little paradise. In 3 years? Better start saving now.

Picture Tease

I know I said I would wedding/honeymoon blog Friday. Well, we went to our future hometown to go apartment shopping, which was more frustrating than anything, so no blogging. Yesterday I had a bridal shower to go to for the girl whose wedding I will be in, in July and the car died on me and Husband had to track down a truck and a trailer, drive 50 minutes to save me, and then haul the POS car home. Today…I just have no energy. Laundry and unpacking have done me in.

But, I will leave you with a few pictures and I promise to start blogging all of this tomorrow, including how much I hate apartment shopping. Also, probably going to have to have a serious conversation with myself as to whether or not I show pictures that show my face. I will probably give in, but I know the husband doesn’t want to be shown. He’s more private than I am.

Mr. A approves this photo

Speaking of private, here he is. He approved this one because you can’t see his face. I figured he’s going to have to make an appearance on this blog at some point, but we will start small.

Bar shot at rehearsal dinner

View from our balcony in Mexico

Lobby at our resort

Mayan ruins

The gorgeous beach at sunset

Upstairs at the gallery, where we had dinner. (Kelly Manno Photography)

Little snippets from the wedding. Love the one with both of our moms on the bottom. (Kelly Manno Photography)

Tomorrow’s to do list:

-more laundry (blah)

-finish unpacking ( might hate this more than laundry)

-online apartment research

-blog about this wedding stuff…I think I keep hesitating because once I blog about it all, it’s over. I would relive every moment of our wedding…it was perfect!

Goodnight everyone!

New Teacher. New Wife.

So many new and wonderful things

I don’t even know where to start.

I guess I’ll start with how wonderful yesterday (Sunday) was.

4 year anniversary and 23rd birthday were this past weekend, and we had a lot going on. So, yesterday we intended on going to the gym and working on school stuff. Well, that never happened. Instead, we spent ALL day cuddling on the couch, glued to Rescue Me via our Netflix ondemand. (If you have an XBox360 or a Wii, and a Netfliz account, you can get your on demand videos to play through the consoles on your tv, instead of just through your computer. We get every penny out of the Netflix because of this. They have almost any season of any big show on there. Check it out if you haven’t. This will also probably be our source of entertainment during law school because we probably won’t pay for cable.)

Fiance and I have both been stressed out lately and a little testy with each other, so it was a perfect time for us to relax together and just have some good quality time. The only interruptions were to get a snack or a restroom break. It was glorious. We intend on having many more of these days int he next few years. We’re lame, we know.

Also, if you have been reading, my long-term sub position ends on Wednesday. While I will miss knowing what exactly I’m doing for money each day and I’ll miss a lot of the kids (and the steady paycheck), it is nice to know that a break is only TWO days away!!! This job would be easier if it had been my classroom and I started with it from the beginning, but it took the students a month before they figured out I wasn’t leaving the next day and that the assignments and tests I gave, actually counted towards their grade. Who would ever have thought?? 13 years olds……

Since fiance’s spring break was this past week and I still had to slave away, we will be headed to my hometown (in a different state than where I went to school and still live and a MUCH bigger city….so many restaurant options…my diet will be slipping away I believe). We are leaving Thursday and coming back Monday morning so fiance can get to his afternoon class. I am so excited. My own little break. No grading. No preparing anything. No worries and NO WAKING UP EARLY!!! It’s all about the little things in life….

While home, we will be doing family birthday stuff since I couldn’t go home the past weekend. My brother, who is seven years older, has a birthday TWO days before mine. So we always do joint family birthdays. I always felt jipped, until he told me that he got 7 whole years before I showed up, so he really felt the got the short end of the stick. Oh well.

Also, going to the GREATEST zoo on earth. I’ll save the engagement story for another post, but fiance proposed at this zoo because it is our absolute favorite place to go. No, I’m not from C a l i f o r n i a. That zoo costs too much. Ours is free. Why should you pay $40 a person for a zoo?? Doesn’t make sense.

When baseball season starts, you will probably find out where I’m from because I won’t be able to hide my hatred for baby bears and my favorite color becomes red for 6 months…… 🙂

So, lots of good things going on right now. This next month holds in store:

2 bridal showers

Bachelorette party (which I know NOTHING of what we are doing….could be interesting)

Run through for wedding hair and makeup (Why this excites me I have no idea)

Licensing test for the state we will be moving to (They won’t take my PRAXIS scores, so I must spend ANOTHER full day testing to prove I can teach. Despite being in school for 4.5 years and graduating with honors.) Not exciting, but VERY important so I can, you know, get a JOB.

Another person’s wedding

I can’t wait.

I AM working on pictures. New camera and I are still adjusting. I promise to take lots and lots this weekend and post them. I love pictures, so I promise this blog will get more entertaining. Hopefully.

I DO have a question though, for the 4 people that read this. We are having a judge officiate the wedding (family friend- we thought better to have someone close than a pastor we didn’t know). BUT, I have to figure out the order of the ceremony and how things will go. The last wedding I went to was when I was 16. I’m lost on this front. Anyone give me a website or someone give me a general layout? I have NO idea how this part should go. Thanks blogging world.

Pictures to come. Two more days at school, then my own little spring break.

We also booked our honeymoon this week. A week in MEXICO on an all inclusive resort. Oh, I am counting the days. So I leave you with a picture of what I will get to look at for a week in June.

Have a good Monday!

New Teacher. New Wife.