Honeymoon!!! Day 1&2

Hello from Belize!!!  We made it here to Belize yesterday afternoon after a very calm and relaxing flight.  We were picked up by a driver for the Hamanasi resort.  We met another resort couple, Wendy and Richard, at the airport and rode with them over to the resort - a 2 hour- 90 mph drive in an old-school style van on a mix of asphalt and dirt roads through a bunch of single lane bridges and small "refugee villages"!  Wow!  

We did get to see a lot of Belize, although there is not a whole lot to see - most of it looks like the middle of the FL Everglades!  Every now and then we'd see a little snack shop or "Belizean Hair Salon" but most all businesses have the appearance of a little shack and most business owners live in their shop.  

When we arrived at the resort - we were treated amazingly!  Everyone wanted to know our names - and suprisingly - they all remembered them the next morning at breakfast!  Our treehouse was adorable and was totally secluded!  There are windows throughout - so it's a good thing we don't have any neighbors!  There's even an outdoor bath tub!!!  

Below are a few pictures from yesterday nd today and there will be even more from tomorrow on our "Rigorous Waterfal Hike!!!"

Anaheim Peppers!

ok - I know this post isn't nearly as exciting as Ed and I getting married, BUT it's still exciting.  When we got back from all our wedding festivities, we had peppers and flowering squash!!  No squash fruit yet, but it's coming!  Here are some pics of our veggies!

Wedding!!!

The wedding was this past weekend and it was AWESOME!!! Everything thing was perfect (even Christina running a 5K 15 minutes before hand!) and it really was everything we hoped it could be! It was great to see all our family and friends and relax with everyone at the cabins. The wedding really combined some of our favorite things - seeing family and friends, hanging out by the fire, being near the water, having awesome food and GETTING MARRIED!!!

It was really awesome and I especially want to thank Christina, Paul, Brett and Jackie for their hard work in helping up to pull this all off the past 6-8 months. And also a HUGE THANK YOU to Tiffanie for being my "project manager" of the whole event - she really made sure everything happened and everyone was doing what they needed. THANKS!

I'll post a few pics here, but I don't have any from the wedding - only ones from Friday before the wedding - where we put on our "fake" wedding clothes and jumped in the river along with the rehearsal and fire afterwards...I'm waiting for other people to upload their wedding pics. When the photographer posts his pics - I'll definitely put up a new blog!

Shower! and Wedding and Honeymoon! How Exciting!

So - T-minus 5 days till Ed and I tie the knot! My mother and Christina threw me a wonderful wine and cheese bridal shower on Sunday which was just awesome! I got to spend some time with great friends and even got some awesome gifts! (Debbie - I think the frosting was "Number 1"!) So - now I'm all showered up and I'm ready to head down to the cabins on Wedesday! I can't wait to see all my friends and family and catch up with everyone. It is such an honor to have all these people make a special trip just to join us on our wedding!

ALSO - I just want everyone to know how EXCITED Ed and I are to go to Belize!!!! In honor of our upcoming trip, I'm posting the Belize "weather sticker" here:

Plastic Bags

So - it's been a couple weeks since I've updated this and I don't feel like talking about wedding planning OR the election (although I'm very happy about it!) - so I'm going to use this blog to vent about our Country's OBSESSION with plastic bags. WTF...seriously. Ed and I have been trying our hardest not to get any plastic bags - so at the grocery store, we use our reusable ones and if we're just running in a store to pick something up, we opt not to get one. Apparently this concept bothers many people.

For example, I went to Michaels today to pick up ribbon...I picked it up and then walked all around the store with it in my hands, looking at all their other fun craft items. Finally, I get to the check out and she immediately puts my spool of ribbon in a plastic bag. I say "no thank you, I don't need a bag" and, like normal, her response is "are you sure?"

Now, in my head, my response was "Why in the world would you think that it's COMPLETELY ok for me to walk with this ribbon in hand ALL over the store with no bag but I desparately need a bag to walk to my front row parking space?!?!?!" Of course my answer was "yes, I'm sure" but I really want to scream to the world of wasteful bag users that "EVERYTHING DOES NOT NEED A PLASTIC BAG!!!!"

Second example - Ed and I went to the grocery store to get a bunch of items - we give them the canvas bags and say "please put everything in these bags." When we get home, we were stunned to find that many of our items in our canvas bags were WRAPPED in plastic bags!!!!! SERIOUSLY?!!? What is the point of that?!?! Do we really need to monitor the grocery baggers to make sure they're not sneaking plastic bags into our canvas bags!?!

And on that note...here are some interesting links:
China Bans Plastic Bags!
San Francisco Bans Plastic Bags!

We're now in the stock market!

After all this recession talk, Ed and I started to think about how low all the stocks were and the potential to make a little money over the next 5-10 years. So we put some money in an account and bought some stocks! We're now officially "in the market!" If you have any good tips on stocks - let us know! We're beginners!

Wedding Planning Weekend

We went to Canyon Lake, TX with Paul and Christina to do some much needed wedding "re-planning" - and we got TONS accomplished! We didn't want to waste money on a hotel, so we decided to camp at North Park right on the Lake. The main goal was to find a ceremony site, rehearsal dinner restaurant, choose a cake and determine a catering menu.
Ed and I at the ceremony site...

Our campsite at North Park...right on the water, but also near nasty toilets!
Another wedding site option...more green, less blue
The wedding party layout at North Park

Sunset picture at the ceremony site
The Overlook Park where we'll be taking sunset pictures after the ceremony

So happy we have a nice ceremony site option!

And now for a couple funny shots of Paul and Christina...
I call this one "Facility Fee??!!?!!?"
And this is the new Country album cover for the the album - "Why won't you look at me during"