Update: Married Life :)

In honor of our one-month anniversary, I've decided to post one last blog entry on here to update you all on life after the wedding.

To start with, we had an amazing honeymoon in Mexico! We stayed at El Dorado Casitas Royale, an all-inclusive resort in the Riviera Maya, and it was fabulous! I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially honeymooners. The resort and the beach were beautiful, the gourmet food was amazing, and the weather was perfect. Most days we spent either at the beach or the pool, but we did do a few activities. We went snorkeling twice - once at the resort and once in Puerto Morales, the second largest reef in the world. We also did zip lines in the jungle in Selvatica, we went on a catamaran cruise at Maroma Beach (considered to be the prettiest beach in the world), and we explored Playa del Carmen on our last night. It was a blast! The only downside to the trip was the topless old women lounging on the beach...

Moving on to life in Connecticut. First of all, New England is GORGEOUS, especially now that the leaves are changing! The weather is wonderful - slightly chilly and overcast every day - textbook New England fall weather! In career news, I have a job now AND I got a promotion! As of tomorrow, I will be working as the PINK Category Supervisor at Victoria's Secret for the holidays. I'm still in search of that career job (the one I got the degree for), but for now, this is a good solution. I am also a cook in training... I'm definitely a novice in the kitchen, but my skills are steadily improving now that I have a hungry husband to feed every night and pretty much a professional kitchen to work in (thanks for the wedding gifts!). I actually enjoy cooking, too, or at least I do when Collin isn't hovering around and distracting me. What I've mainly learned so far is that lemon pepper works for all poultry. For instance, tonight we had lemon pepper tilapia with a side of broccoli. I also made pico de gallo for the first time tonight, and it was delicious! My next project is chili... It's perfect for fall, and it's outside of my comfort zone of meat and pasta, so it's something of a challenge.

I'm thinking about starting a blog of my cooking exploits... I have three cookbooks full of recipes to work through, and I'm so excited to finally be teaching myself things I thought would just come naturally as part of my woman's intuition (let's hope childraising is a little more intuitive than this). Every time I cook dinner without setting off the fire alarm or burning myself, it totally makes my night!

In other news, life with Collin is wonderful. :) It's so nice to have someone who is always there... I'm never lonely, which is an amazing feeling. Of course we're noticing more of each other's idiosyncrasies now, but in a way, it's endearing. I love Collin in spite of (and secretly, including) his weird throat noises and his uptightness, just like he loves me even though I have no sense of time or direction and will blow up in his face if he goes near the kitchen while I'm cooking. One thing I'm not sure if I will ever grow accustomed to is the farting. I know guys are gassy, but seriously! Not his most loveable quality. Lucky for him he's cute. ;)

I think that about sums it up... In a word, married life is: bliss. Stressful at times, unglamorous most of the time, yet perfect bliss. I wouldn't change my life for anything.

I'll post a link on here to my new blog should I decide to create one, so stay tuned! :)

Love,

C & A

Good News, Bad News...

Ok, so A LOT has been happening lately as you can imagine. I don't have time to go into details about everything, but here's a quick recap:

Good News: I got a job!!! :)
Bad News: It's in retail. But it's at Victoria's Secret, so I could definitely do worse. Plus, it will be nice to come home smelling like flowery perfume as opposed to meatballs.

Good News: I had my bridal shower and bachelorette party this past weekend! They were both really fun, and I had an awesome turnout at the bachelorette.
Bad News: The shower was at a really inconvenient time (partly my fault, but mostly outside of my control), so the turnout was not as good as I had hoped. But we still had a great time, and I got lots of great stuff at both events. :)

Good News: My dress came in!!!!!!!!! It is BEAUTIFUL, and so is the veil - both of which Caitlin made, and she did a fabulous job; I can't stop staring at my pretty dress. :)
Bad News: If you could call it "bad news," I still need to get the dress altered some more by Edith, my Nashville seamstress. I wasn't satisfied with the shape of the dress before and didn't speak up about it (dumb, I know), so now I'll just have a couple days to get it right before my bridal portraits. Let's hope Edith and I can make it happen!

Good News: Collin and I are all set for our honeymoon - we booked a private transfer and made all our dinner reservations at the hotel. :)
Bad News: I lost my passport. Like, seriously lost it. I've searched my entire house and storage unit, and Collin searched through my car and all my stuff in CT. The thing has literally disappeared. So, I'm a little stressed about it, to say the least. I'm trying to find a way to expedite a new passport, but it's not going to be easy (or cheap). Wish me luck, please...

In OTHER news, I finally figured out the programs! I came up with a design myself (thank you very much) and have done a couple test prints already at Kinko's, so now it's time to print them! Other recent accomplishments include: assembling favor boxes (with some help!), finishing the seating chart, (almost) finishing the escort cards, and wrapping up my vendor meetings. I've still got a lot coming up this weekend - dress alteration / final fitting, wedding hair trial, makeup consultation, more crafts, etc...

With this passport dilemma now, on top of other drama that I don't care to expand upon, I'm really feeling stressed. Please keep me in your prayers... I'm trying as hard as I can to keep a positive attitude, but it's getting tougher as more and more things keep piling on (not all of which are wedding-related). BUT, the good news is that Collin and I are getting married in TEN DAYS!!!! And that's the best news of all! :)

Love,

C & A

Honeymoon? Check!

Exciting news!! We have officially booked our honeymoon :)

And we will be going to...

the RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO!!!

We are going to be staying at the El Dorado Casitas Resort, which is on the coast between Cancun and Playa del Carmen. It is a AAA Four Diamond resort, and it is BEAUTIFUL! We have our own private infinity pool (in addition to the 13 other pools at the resort), a beach bed, a jacuzzi, a private sunset dinner on the beach, a spa package, and so much more. We also have the opportunity to do all sorts of activities: parasailing, snorkeling, kayaking, excursions, nightly parties, etc. We're so excited!!

Here are a couple pictures of where we will be staying:

The picture on the left is the inside of a casita suite, and the picture on the right shows the casitas on the 2nd level, which is where we will be!

Here is the link to the website, if you want to check it out some more:

http://www.karismahotels.com/node/19

Collin takes all the credit for this, since finding a honeymoon spot was his "job." :) I must say, I am very impressed!! Originally we were looking at Sandals resorts for the most part - which are still very, very nice - but we got such a great deal on this one that we just couldn't pass it up. Plus it's gorgeous!

Here is the link to the Sandals Royal Bahamian, which was our second choice:

http://www.sandals.com/main/bahamian/ba-home.cfm

So now we can mark honeymoon off the list! We are officially booked! Yay!!

Next up are engagement photos, save the dates, ring shopping, and marriage counseling... We take our engagement photos next Saturday! I'm so excited! But that means I have a lot to do before then... working out, getting my hair done, getting my nails done (maybe), etc. We are still working on invitations and save the dates, so no final decision has been made yet. Just start checking your mail before long and you'll see what we picked out :) We'll start shopping for wedding bands on Saturday as well, and we FINALLY chose a marriage counselor (counseling is required at my church), so we will meet with her on Sunday. Collin gets in next Thursday!! :)

In other news...

• I have a meeting with my Nashville seamstress on Thursday about my dress, which is awesome because I was starting to get nervous that I hadn't heard from her!
• My thesis is pretty much due next week.... Yikes! Please pray that I am able to get it done.
• I presented my thesis for the first time over the weekend in Little Rock, AR at a conference. It went ok... but I still have a ways to go. The conference was a lot of fun, though!
• I only have one class tomorrow before Easter Break! Yay! One of the perks of going to a Christian college :) The only drawback is that I have to work on Easter Sunday :( Not too happy about that.

I'll keep you posted about everything! Sorry my posts are fewer and farther in between... It's getting to the end of the school year, and life is crazy busy! Let's hope I graduate in a few weeks so I can be done!

C & A