Our Anniversary Weekend

This weekend was perfect!  It gave us time to relax and just enjoy each others company without any distractions!  Before I tell you more about our weekend, let me catch you up to speed.

It was my husbands job to plan parts of this weekend because I planned most of our wedding.  Let's just say that he didn't disappoint. I cannot believe that we have been married for over a year now!  It just seems so odd.  Does that mean we are no longer newlyweds?  How long are you newlyweds??  Anyway, without further-a due, let me tell you about our Anniversary Weekend!

Friday:

We both took off today so that we could use this as a travel day.  We headed to my hometown to drop off our puppy at my parents, then went out for Mexican food with my mom.  Then we were on our way to Wisconsin to spend the night with my in-laws.  We went out for dinner that night with my in-laws, my brother in-law and his girlfriend.  It was so nice for everyone to get together for a change.  It doesn't happen very often.  After talking for about an hour after dinner, we called it a night.

Saturday:

We got to sleep in, which was amazing!  We woke up to spend some more time with my in-laws and had breakfast, which was delicious!  After breakfast, we spent a few more hours just hanging out before we decided to get on the road.  We arrived in Gurnee, IL around 2:30ish.  Jesse took me shopping at Gurnee Mills, which if you haven't been there before is a HUGE mall.  It took us about 4 hours to walk one direction in the mall and we only stopped at about 10 stores.  After shopping till we dropped, we headed back to our hotel to check in and get settled.  Jesse booked us a 2 night stay at Key Lime Cove Waterpark resort.  It was so fun!  Our hotel had it's own whirlpool and when we walked into the room, there was a dozen red roses waiting for me! :-) Yes, mr engineer himself got me the most impractical gift for our anniversary because he knew that I would enjoy it so much! I loved my flowers!  We then got ready for dinner and headed to a Japanese Steakhouse (sorry no pics).  Apparently, when its the slow season for 6 Flags, everything else is slow because we were the only ones at the restaurant!  It was delicious though and our cook was hilarious.  We went back to the hotel room to enjoy our whirlpool and a bottle of wine.  It was fabulous!

Sunday:

We slept in, went to Cracker Barrel for a delicious breakfast and then back to our hotel room to hang out.  We then ventured to the water park at our hotel, which was not as fun as we thought, but very cool for younger kids.  We then went to our hotel room to get some more use out of our relaxing Jacuzzi.  After relaxing, we got ready and went to The Rainforest Cafe for a light lunch before heading to 6 Flags Great America's Fright Fest.  We had so much fun going on all of the rides.  The best part was, the longest we waited in line was about 5 minuets!  We got to go on every ride we wanted to, went through a haunted forest and just spent some quality time together.  We also got a caricature done which was pretty fun.

Hubby playing an intense game at Cracker Barrel!

Our drawing and my beautiful flowers.  If you look closely, hubby put our rings in the picture too! :-)

Monday:

We headed back home today.  What a wonderful weekend.  I couldn't have imagined it better myself.  My husband did a great job with the surprises and we were just able to relax and spend some quality time together.  Thanks Jesse, for making this 1st Anniversary amazing!!! I love you! :-)

Bowl for Kids Sake

Hello everyone!

This year, I am participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters annual Bowl for Kids Sake.  This is our most important fundraiser of the year.   I'm writing to ask if any of you would be willing to donate to this cause.  It would be such a huge help if you would donate to this event.  Even just $5.00 will help me achieve my goal of $200.00, because every little bit helps.  Due to funding constraints, we do not have an online donating website at this time, specific to this event, but you can read more about Bowl for Kids Sake at our website: www.iowabigs.org

If you are not able to donate at this time, I completely understand.  Thank you for your time!

If you are interested in donating:

You can send checks of any denomination made out to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Iowa

Please send checks to:
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Attn: Kayla Crane
2530 University Ave. Suite 8
Waterloo, IA 50701


Thank you so much for your support!

P.S.  There will be a small giveaway to a random winner.  Just comment that you sent in a donation and I will put your name in the contest to win something fun!! The drawing will be held on 10/19/09 so send them in as soon as you can!  All donations received by/on the 19th will be entered in to win!

Thanks ahead of time to all that read this!  Please tell your friends!

We're back!

Well, we're back from our weekend!  I'm busy putting things away and getting organized.  I will be back later this week with a post about our anniversary weekend and I do have pictures to include! 

I also have to show the surprise that was waiting for me at my door upon our return!  Stay tuned!  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is our 1st Anniversary!  I cannot explain how quickly this last year has flown by!  It's incredible.

I once heard the quote: " I hope the day you get married is the day you love each other the least".  I thought this was very powerful and o so true!  Your wedding day is and should be the most important day of your lives (obviously until children come, maybe or maybe not.). 

Each and every day when my husband comes home from a long day at work and he kisses me hello, it reminds me just how lucky I am to have found the true love of my life, my best friend, my companion, my soul mate, my partner in crime, my wonderfully, lovable, generous, forgiving, honest, hardworking, amazing husband!

I've decided to make a list of things of 10 things that my husband does that I love:
1)  He never leaves the house in the morning without coming back into our bedroom to kiss me goodbye.
2)  He always comes home happy (no matter what kind of day he had)
3)  He always kisses me hello and goodbye everytime he comes home or leaves.
4)  He always wants my opinion on everything he does, whether he thinks I understand it or not (engineers!)
5)  He would rather show me anyday how much he loves me than speak the words.  He once told me that actions speak louder than words and why shouldn't it apply to love?
6)  He knows how much it means everytime he says those three little words to me, so he does say them
7)  He knows I usually cal, e-mail or text him once during the day while we are at work.  If I don't, he finds it odd and calls, e-mails or texts me.
8)  He would rather stay at home with me and cuddle up to a movie than go out, any day.
9)  He is goofy and will do anything to get me to laugh.
10) He loves me regardless of my flaws.

With that being said, here are a few wedding pictures none of you have seen:

Jesse~  Thank you for all that you do.  Marriage takes work, compromise, and love, none of which are lacking from our relationship.  I never knew I would be so lucky as to have found you and to have fallen in love with you. My life would not be complete without you and I am so thankful that you are in my life.  I cannot wait to celebrate many more years with you by my side as my one and only, my husband.  I love you more than the day we got married and tomorrow, I will love you even more.  XOXO

What day is it?

It's Friday!

Today I am thinking about all sorts of things (I'll share those at a later date)...

Mostly about this weekend!  You all know, I am not actually posting this today, but I have scheduled it to post in my absense.  I wanted to give you a sneak peak of where we will be spending our first anniversary!  We will be staying here, in a whirlpool suite!  I'm not sure of many  more details yet, as my hubby has planned those.  I'm sure I will not be disappointed! 

I do know that we will also be checking this out, because after all, one of our first dates was to a haunted house, just 3 years ago!!  (If you click on the link, beware that it does look kind of creepy!)

I will be back to post next week about our fun-filled anniversary weekend!! :-) Have a great weekend everyone!

Thankful Thursdays

Today I am Thankful For:

• This coming weekend!  I have Friday & Monday off and the hubby and I are going on an extended Anniversary weekend!
• Rainy mornings.  I was able to sleep in this morning while it was cold and rainy and it was great!
• Wine.  We will be drinking some very good wine to help celebrate our 1st anniversary this weekend!
• My parents.  They are taking our puppy, Bear, this weekend so we don't have to worry about him.
• My in-laws.  They are sending us off with some wine and fresh baked bread to indulge in over the weekend.
• My husband.  My entire life I dreamed of what my life would be and I have to say that I am not disappointed with how it turned out.  My husband is amazing and I love him so very much.
• Today.  It is my Friday!! :-) 

What are you thankful for?

An Award!

Thanks to Emily over at The Lamb Family, I got my FIRST award ever!! :-)

She awarded me: This Kreativ Blogger award!

Here are the Rules for this award:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they've been nominated.
here it goes.....

1.  I am obsessed with organization.  Especially when it comes to my planner, if I lost that puppy, I'd be lost!
2.  I love hot apple cider of any kind!  It's sort of another obsession I have in the fall/winter time to keep me warm!
3.  I'm terrible at listening to voice messages.  I usually just call the person right back without listening to what they wanted on the message.  It drives some people crazy.
4.  I also hate talking on the phone for long periods of time.  I get bored, even if we are having a good conversation.  I think I need to learn to pay more attention!
5.  I want two children, a boy and a girl.  Preferably twins, but I don't think that's something I can choose!
6.  I went to school for Criminal Justice with the intention of working with juvenile delinquents, until I realized nobody would hire me without previous experience, which I couldn't' get because nobody would hire me... It's a vicious cycle...
7.  I love margaritas and bloody mary's.  They are my drink of choice anywhere I go even though they are both so bad for me.  However; we rarely go out, ever....

So, with that being said, I now nominate the following:
Cat from The Answer is You
Becky from The Branches
Emily at Imperfect
Miss I "Dew" from Life after I Dew
Shaina at Post Smith
Summer at B is for Brown
Chelsea at Life is Beautiful