Poor Steve!

WoW! It's been over a month since I have blogged! Shame on me! I feel bad but married life has definately taken over. I can't even imagine having kids right now. geez! I am always so busy! Well things ARE starting to settle down for us...we FINALLY completed decorating our apartment! Finished writing all of our thank you cards! YES!! Thank you! haha. Our trip to Roaring River was so much fun! I had so much fun showing Seth all the things that we do. All of the tradition that we have...the stories...all that good stuff. Seth really enjoyed it! But it went by so fast! :(

I have to tell this story!...hint...the reason for this blog. Yesterday...well maybe I should go back in time. Back to when I was a little girl. I'd say about 5 or so. My mom use to work at an orthodontist office in Irving. In the backyard of the office they had alot of trees...very pretty scenery. WELL they also had the occasional animals running through. Lots of birds and 1 squirrel. We use to feed the squirrel to make it stay. Like a wild pet! I named the squirrel Steve! I don't know where it came from. Maybe it just looked like a Steve to me? hehe. Who knows. Well one day Steve ran off. He was no where to be found! I was so sad. I looked for Steve...called Steve's name but he never came. I wanted Steve to come back so bad! I don't really know where I got this. I think it was just that I hoped that it was him...but every squirrel that I saw I called him Steve. haha. So it has kind of come into this little family thing. My mom, dad, and now Seth always call squirrels... Steve. Now lets move forward....YESTERDAY...me and Seth were coming home. We were driving through our apartment complex and we saw a little Steve running across the road. (This always makes me nervous because I'm always scared some people will hit them. And someone almost hit one about a week ago but Seth assured me that he was ok and that he made it across the street safely. Whew! That was a close one!) Anywho, Steve was running across the street. I was like OO! Steve's carrying...! And what does my husband do!!! HE revvs his engine and speeds up!! Oh my gosh!! What what he thinking!! It scared both me and Steve! Poor little Steve! Hub-Hubs in trouble! End of story! (O yes...Seth did not hit Steve...I hit Seth ;) haha...and Steve was carrying a nut across the street) Poor Steve!

Off off and away!! for a little while anywho... :D

I am pretty excited about this weekend. Me, Seth, and my dad are taking a small trip to a small city. We are going camping and fishing! This is a family tradition that we have and I am so excited to show Seth EVERYTHING! I mean their is not much to do but it's very peaceful and quiet. I really enjoy it. We try to go every year when we can but for the past few years we have not been able to go. I had school, my dad had work, and then I had work. I am STOKED!! I love fishing in the morning when the siren sounds and all the fish start biting anything and everything. So fun! Then going to the tent to take a nap. It's all so peaceful to me. My dad told me that it's suppose to be pretty cold but hopefully we will be able to tough it out. haha. The last time me and my dad went we had thunderstorms for about 3 night in a row. We were up in the middle of the night looking out of the tent wondering if we were going to have to pack up and leave. A guy came by and told us that if the siren went off then we would have 10 minutes to get out and then it would come a floodin! Scarrrryyy! So hopefully we can triumph cold weather. Guess what I finally have for you....!!!! My pics from the big day!!! We had so many great pics but here are a few!drum roll plz....




Seeing my dad for the first time that day :)


Placing the ring on his finger

Our first dance

Cutting the cake

the garter toss

The unknown gift

Right now we are trying to write all of our thank you cards from the wedding :) Whew! It is alot of work! We have one unknown gift. It had no name written on the box, no card, no means of identification. It is plaid multicolor wrapping paper. If you gave us this gift we would personally like to thank you so please get in contact with either me or Seth please!

The unknown gift. Let us know if you gave us this. Please!!

ALSO!!! Our photographer loved our wedding so much he has decided to post a few of our wedding pictures on his website! When I found out I was so excited! So honored! This man has TONS of experience in photography. He has shot for National Geographic, Fergie's wedding, worked with Faith Hill, and of these other celebrities! How awesome is that! And he has decided to put OUR wedding on his website!!!!! His website is http://www.harttphoto.com/. Click on portfolios and scroll down to Jolie & Seth. That'd be us! VERY COOL! Go check it out! We don't actually have the pictures with us yet but when we get them I will definately post some!!!

1 month!

We have been married almost one month!! EKS! haha. I would give married life an A+ during our first month. I know that's probably normal but I think it's because I didn't expect it to be this good. Everyone is like...welcome to misery blah blah blah. But it's what you make it. And so far it has been great! Working together and communication is the key. Seth has been helping me alot around the house and yes we are still setting everything up! Taking forever right. haha. I think everyone that knows me would be very impressed to know that I have been cooking! :D woohoo! Yes I have! I'm not so creative yet. I am still going through my cookbooks. Man! They have some good looking stuff in there! And the best part is Seth is loving it! lol. I honestly thought he would hate my food. Spit it out on the floor. But he has been enjoying it and eating my portions too! yeah for me! Today my dad came over for a little bit to hang out. I made him lunch! Can you believe it. AND...drum roll.... I officially baked! haha. My dad loved it! He said it was very good! We set up our computer desk in our spare room. Looks great! Can't wait to get everything set up! haha. All we have are boxes and boxes. We cleaned out a little so atleast you can walk in the room but it's a mess! The last room to set up. I'm excited! Our little 'home' is starting to look nice. :)

If you don't know me and Seth got married!! July 18, 2009 I married my best friend and my lover! The wedding was absolutely fabulous! It was so pretty. Everything was perfect! O yes...hehe...except the cake fell. But it was no biggie. It just scared me but I was able to move out of the way quick enough that not one drop got on me or the dress. We were testing out gravity...and it works! hehe. Everyone had a blast! And it was so beautiful. It was perfect. More than what I ever imagined my wedding to be. And all thanks to my wedding planner...my momma! :D When we get pics I will post them up.


Today is our 2 week anniversary! I would say that married life has been GREAT! I mean der...Seth is the best man ever! I could not ask for more and I know that I am very lucky to have in my life and now as my husband. OOO Weird! I'm not use to that! We left to go on our honeymoon on Monday (July 20) to St. Lucia. One problemo...we got stuck in Puerto Rico for 2 days! We absolutely hated it and will probably never go back! I will not go into details on why we didn't like it. Good news is that we did finally make it to St. Lucia! And we got our stay extended a couple more days so the time that we expected to stay we did get to fulfill all that. We stayed for 6 nights :D And had an absolute blast! It is so beautiful! Geezzzzz!! I loved it! I would totally recommend everyone to go there! It's so pretty! We went to The Pitons, botanical gardens (although all of St. Lucia looked like the botanical gardens to me) and waterfall, the walk-in volcano, went snorkeling, kayaking, and our favorite the zipline! Seth reserved us our very own special candlelight dinner but first suprised me with flowers and chocolates on the bed with some champagne. (See best hub-hub ever!) We had an amazing time! It was very relaxing and very much needed. I absolutely loved it! But now it's back to reality. As soon as we got back we started moving into our apartment! It's such a mess but we are slowly putting things together. I can see that it will take awhile. haha. I think that this has been the hardest part for me...moving out. I'm not like most kids who can't wait to go off to college or get married so they can get away from their parents. That has never been a perogative of mine. As you can tell I've always lived with my dad and that has been by choice. I never left home to go to school and I was very blessed and graduated from a great university! I have a great relationship with my parents...both my mom and dad. I have a very very close bond with my dad. It's nothing that I am ashamed of. It's something I am very proud of because most kids will never be able to experience that kind of love. So leaving home has been a bit rough on me. That's the home that I have lived in since I was 6 years old. Alot of memories there. But the best part is that Seth has been very understanding. He left home a week after he graduated high school for bootcamp. hehe. When he talks about his story it makes me feel a little bit better :) Atleast he understands. It's just hard leaving home. All the changes you have to go through. But I am very excited about the new chapter in my life and I will definately keep you guys updated. Here are a few pics from our honeymoon...


The Pitons

The stinky walk-in volcano

At the waterfall

Where they shot a part in Pirates of the Caribbean

Ready for the zipline

4 more days!!

4 more days till the big day!! YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! I'm so excited. People are starting to come into town today. I am so excited! So far I'm not nervous yet but I'm sure I will get to that place soon enough. I went to breakfast with an old friend of mine today. I had so much fun! haha. I know we are young but its been a VERY long time since I have seen her. It has been atleast over 10 years. We went to middle school together and then she went to a private school for her high school years. So it has been over 10 years! Oh my goodness I feel sssooo old! :( haha. But we had a blast! She just recently got married so as you can imagine our conversation was filled with our men and wedding planning! I really have enjoyed the wedding planning process. It has been so much fun. You get to put your own personality into it. And we weren't rushed. We have been planning this for over a year. It was a very fun and relaxing time :) I can't wait till the big day to see it all come together! Only 4 more days!

One last night of freedom!

As they always say...it's your one last night of freedom! I celebrated my bachelorette party on Saturday!! I had a blast! It was so much fun. It was very small but we had alot of fun and had some good laughs. LeighAnn made me a veil to wear! :D I loved it! We went to Dave & Busters...one of my favorite places! Ate some dinner and played alot of games. I had bought some candy for us to munch on. One was pop rocks thinking they would be good. EW! They were so gross! And SO sour! I was not expecting that at all! I love playing the games! I am such a little kid in there! We played this jump roping game that I had never played before. It was so fun! Except that I kept jumping off the platform. :( So I lost. But over all I did good. hehe. Of course I had to go and play basketball. Not the little ones but they have 2 larger ones. Normal size goals I guess I should say. I always have to play! And I won! (sorry LeighAnn) And NO I didn't cheat! hehe. I'm pretty good at it. Ok I guess. Seth figured that out when we played for the first time together. He thought he would just woop on me...hehe...it was the other way around. I think he was pretty shocked. lol. At the end of the night we picked out our prizes. I donated a stuffed animal (Elmo) to Children's Hospital and me and Leighann got these hot tiger striped ties! woohoo! I got Shirley a Texas Longhorn stuffed animal. She's a big fan of UT. And that was the end of our night!

Happy Birthday!!

We celebrated Seth's birthday!! June 23rd. Ohs nos!! He's so old now!! hehe. A whole 23!! hehe. That old fart! :D This was the first time me and Seth actually got to celebrate HIS birthday together. The first year he was on his way to come see me...or California...I don't remember how it worked out. Last year he was in Gitmo in the hospital. :( I know..what a way to spend your birthday. The worst part was that I wasn't able to be with him and I had no clue he had gone. He just called me in the morning when he got home. He got super sick! I don't remember exactly what it was. Maybe food poisoning? That is a good question! I will have to ask him! hhhmmm... SO this year we were FINALLY TOGETHER!! We (as in...Me, Seth, and my family) went and ate at Roadhouse for dinner. So delicious! YUM YUM!! Someone told the waitress it was his birthday! hehe. It wasn't me!!! But I did ask my mom to somehow tell her. HAHAHAHA! When they came out clapping Seth was said "WHAT IS THAT!?" (I secretly wanted to say "It sounds like people clapping" :p) But I didn't. I just giggled. He goes...THAT BETTER NOT BE FOR ME!! IS THAT FOR ME? THEY BETTER NOT COME OVER HERE AND SING!!" lol. Well sweet stuff they did come and sing to YOU! You turned beat red! It was the funniest thing ever. Atleast all they did was sing. You were so lucky! They could of made you do much much worse! lol. Maybe next year!???!!! But we had a great time and Seth had a blast finally getting to celebrate his birthday.






We also finally...hopefully resolved Seth's car accident. We did learn one BIG thing about this whole situation. If you are ever in a car accident (hopefully not) and the accident is definately NOT your fault you should make a claim to the OTHER person's insurance. Yes we are young and naive. We are learning and still have ALOT to learn. This was one thing. We called our company and told them he was in an accident. They called us back with a quote they wanted to give us and then subtracted our deductable from it. NO WAY! If it ever happens call the other insurance company. No deductable...no minus this or that. They give you a flat fee. We gained a good amount of money by taking that route. That just my advice to you if you've never been in an accident and don't know (cause we never have...and we didn't know) Thanks to our pastor for helping us out! We told him right before our premarital counseling had begun for the day and he advised us on what to do. Thank you!!

Girl's only!!

Saturday I had bridal shower #2. woohoo!! Girl power! This time it was only girls. NO BOYS ALLOWED!! >:l hehe. Two of the ladies from my mom's work threw me the shower. I was so excited because I did not expect another shower at all! They are so sweet! :) We had a brunch type of shower. It was very laid back and relaxing. Except for they made me sit in this HUGE chair and everyone was staring at me. That can be a little awkward especially for me. But that chair was HUGE!! haha. We ate lunch/brunch, opened up presents, and sat around and talked. It was perfect! Nice...relaxing...just what I needed at this point! whew! We talked about all that good girl stuff. Another...well I'M not one just yet...but another newlywed was there. :) I really enjoyed that. They got married in April. (We have a couple pics from their wedding in an older post) She was telling us alot of the funny stories that had happened with her and Bryan. LOL! They were so funny!! I just kept thinking that if Seth did even half that stuff to me that the wooden spoons that I had just gotten would be put to good use! ;p lol. jk!! hehehe. But we had a good time.


Happy Father's Day!! Sunday was Father's Day! Of course I am a huge Daddy's girl! I admit it :) can't help it! I took him out to dinner late Saturday night to a local mexican restaurant that he likes. And then on Sunday he was craving Sweet Tomatoes. yum yum! That place is so good! They have such fresh ingredients! I don't know what it is but it just tastes so fresh to me! They have a HUGE salad bar, lots of different soups, baked potatoes, muffins, a little pasta, and then dessert! Yum! It is more of a healthy restaurant. A buffet type of thing. Me and my dad enjoy eating there :) I got my dad an 8 foot ladder that he has been wanting to get forever! And my fan went kapooie so he had to put up a new one. So no better excuse to get him one of those! haha. And then I got him some dishes that he has been looking at alot recently. hehe. The story behind my dad is that with EVERY single new big thing that we get...like a sofa, carpet, wood flooring, tile...all that good stuff. Things to remodel a home. I mean obviously we don't buy this stuff everyday/ every week. But we have been trying to do more things to remodel and help make our house look nice (which it does very much so...I love my house!) But my dad likes to go and look at these things with a span over one year. And let me tell you we don't go and look at it once. I mean we go ALL the time. Everytime we are near that store we drop by to look at it over and over and over. hehe. I tease him all the time about it! lol. So I thought that I really enjoyed the plates. And instead of going to go and look at it for a year everytime we were at that store. I just bought them! Plus it was about time we got some new dishes. I think we have had the same dishes for like over 20 years. Yep they lasted that long! ...and they are still going. It's amazing how all the things that are really old are built so much better then the things that are new. It's weird how it works. But it just seems to me that all the old stuff last so much longer (unlike my fan for example that gave out after 2 years!) As most older people would say...and my dad says all the time...its... An oldie but goodie

Sorry so blurry. It's hard when you are getting attacked by 3 dogs!

Couple's Shower

Saturday I had my first shower! Or should I say WE.... It was suppose to be a couple's shower but no couples showed up. :( The only couples that were there were me and Seth and my mom and Mike. Seth was so happy that my dad came because he didn't want to be the only boy. haha. And yes I did invite my family. Family is so important to me and Seth. Right now is such a big time in our lives and my parents are VERY happy to be sharing it with us. :) We had the shower at a park in Arlington. It's actually a beautiful park. I was really impressed. It was sssoooo hot!! But besides the heat we had alot of fun!! The shower was hosted by my bridesmaids, Dee and Betty (Chryssa lives in Cali so that's kind of hard to be involved with). They did an excellent job! The games...food...the way everything was set up....beautiful! Me and Seth even brought Abby. :) I love bringing Abby to the park. She's so cute! My beautiful baby! We ate tons of food, had cake, played games, opened presents, and had lots of laughs. Here's some pics....


I was scared cause I just smeared icing on his face. I thought I was gonna get it!

The alchy Seth opening up his wine! lol. It was pear sparkling cider.




Perverts!


Opening up presents!! MMMM!! :D

Can't catch my breath

I know it's been a little while since I have been on here but me and Seth have been dealing with alot of different things lately. I feel like I have been on a rollercoaster going up and down everyday. So let me catch you up. Last weekend (I think last weekend...lately it has been running together) me and Seth went to my cousins house so he could help us with some wedding things. It was so exciting and we had so much fun! Me and Seth loved ALL of it! I meant to take pictures and I am super bummed that I wasn't able to because we have been taking pictures through the whole wedding planning process (hence the photoalbum on our website). I went to put batteries in our somewhat new camera and guess what! No place for batteries! So I am a little late on technology these days. Lol. That's what Seth's for...to keep me updated. My other camera that my dad had bought me for my birthday just 2 years ago had batteries! What is going on with the world!? haha. Sometimes I am slow but I do catch up! :D I know...I'm a nerd! So the cord to charge the battery for the camera was at my moms house. So we didn't get to take any pictures. Bummer. Then at some point last week we had ZERO groomsmen! They all had different issues... which we understood. But as you can imagine we had a little stress on our shoulders with a little more than one month before the wedding. As always the Lord pulled us through and help up out tremendously!! Fortunately and unfortunately we ended up only loosing 1 guy. I think that the Lord has always helped us out. The whole time Seth was in Cuba we had alot of problems making plans traveling and visiting eachother. Especially with him being in the military we can never plan anything. They military plans us. We make plans...make travel dates and buy tickets and then for some reason something always came up. But the Lord has always taken good care of us and things work out perfectly. Just gotta have faith! As far as other wedding planning things are coming along great! I am very excited! ONLY 38 more days!!! We are finishing up all the little details and will be doing so for the next month. We met with our DJ this past Friday and went over our itinerary. It was a very exciting! Both me and Seth enjoyed it alot!! So exciting!!!! EKS!! We also went to IKEA to do a little shopping for our apartment. To look around at furniture but only ended up buying a few items. I love that store! It's humongous!! :D Then on Sunday night as I was getting ready for work I got a phone call. It was Seth. He had gotten in an accident. Yep! I said a car accident. And yes I had gotten in one about a week or two ago. I was so scared. I think you always dread those phone calls. But Seth was ok. He is still ok. But the car is totaled. It was not our fault (I guess I should say Seth). The guy ran into Seth. He actually hit 3 cars total including Seth's car but Seth's car got hit the worst of all. Seth was stopped on the highway do to traffic because of construction. I guess the guy had spillled his drink and went down to pick it up. By the time he came back up he saw all the cars were stopped...tried to swerve but still clipped the car in front of him. He hit Seth on the back driver's side and tore off half the bumper. Then slid up with Seth's car and hit again in front. Seth was VERY lucky! When you look at the car the whole back drivers side is banged in and then their is nothing the whole length of door and then hit on the front side. I was so scared but I definately know that the Lord was watching out over Seth! So as you can see we have had alot of ups and downs lately. I wanted to write them this way so that you can go UH...OOOO...UH...OOO NO...with me. ;p hehe. Now you know how we felt! haha!


Our shopping trip to IKEA

2nd class

Congrats to my Setho! He is officially 2nd class! So what does that mean to most of us? Pretty much nothing. All I know is the military is based off rank. And all the ranks and different uniforms confuse me. I can compare that to the 'civilian' world like their are always the small little workers, then you have the ones that have seniority, then the supervisors, managers, CEOs, and so on. That is how it basically works for them also. Each time you get a little more money (not much) and a little more responsibility. I am super excited for him! He has been doing fantastic at work! This was our first military encounter together. It was fun! Kind of intimidating because I didn't know what I was suppose to do. They have all these rules and I didn't know if I was suppose to follow them or not and I didn't have Seth standing next to me to coach me or tell me what to do. The room was filled with military. Only 3 of us were civilians! But I did have alot of fun! I was so proud of him!


So proud!

Getting ready

Getting his official letter

10,000 miles and a car wreck

This week would mark one of the top scares of my life. I was in a car accident on my way to work. Luckily it was a VERY minor accident. More like a scratch here and there. All I can say is that it scared me to death! I was shaking like no other and it really didn't help that they couldn't speak english. It was the first car accident that I have ever been in so it shook me up pretty good. When I got in my car last night to go to work I looked at my odometer and my mileage was 9999. So little mileage and already an accident :( Atleast I was able to walk away from it unharmed. I know someone was watching over me. Thank you :)


My pretty car

The following day

Of course I wanted to write about my picture taking experience! But I have to say both me and Seth had a GREAT day yesterday! Yesterday was the first day that since Seth has been here and we were both off together that we did not spend yesterday together. Seth had planned a man day with his buddy from work. They were going to go to breakfast at IHOP and then off to see two movies...Terminator Salvation and Star Trek. (I've already see Star Trek with out him! hehe). I had appointments all day long. 11 o'clock was hair, 1 o'clock was makeup, and 6:30 was picture time!! We had no idea how everything was going to work out so we wanted plenty of time to be able to get ready for the pictures. But before Seth left for his man day he got a call from his chief. He thought they were trying to call him to come in on his day off BUT instead they called to tell him he made next rank!! I am SO SO SO SO SO SUPER EXCITED for him! I am so proud of him!! Honestly neither of us thought this would happen. I had prayed for him that day but when he got home he said their were alot of questions that he didn't know. Mainly about the boat of which I know he's in the navy but he's never been on a ship! But the Lord works in great ways! And he made next rank!!!! YEA!! He's been doing so good at work it's really awesome! The other awesome thing that Seth was recently selected for is called SRT, Security Reaction Team. He was asked to be in the primary team where if any disasters like Hurricane Katrina happen again then he will be shipped off to go and help. I am so proud of him! :D eks!!!! After the chief had called and talked to Seth I was like jumping around all over the house. Jumping on him! It was so exciting. Seth was the only one to advance to his new rank in all of security at his base. The only other one to advance in security with Seth was a guy who made 3rd class. Seth is now SECOND CLASS!! WOOHOOOO!! Out of the WHOLE ENTIRE Navy the number of people to advance to 2nd class (That'd be Seth now ;P) was only 8%. That is so awesome! So our day started out great! After that he left and me and my mom started getting things together for our big day. At 11 we went and got my hair done which turned out BEAUTIFUL!!! Then I went and got my makeup done by airbrush! Thats so cool! But it tickles me. hehe. Then me and my mom went and ate lunch at Jason's Deli and I had me a big ol' salad with some ice cream. :) Hey! I can't be ALL healthy. I have to add a little fat somewhere. Then since we had a little time to spare we hit up a couple stores to look for a little miscellanous wedding stuff. Which we found but were more expensive then what we wanted to pay for them. So we headed off to Las Colinas where we were going to meet up with the photographer. The photographer took about 2 hours shooting pictures! whew! And afterwards I was exhausted!!! I had ssssooo much fun! I was a little tense at first but then I started to loosen up. The photographer was so informative and made me feel so comfortable. He was telling us what he was looking for in the pictures not only with me but also explaining to us how he takes the pictures and what he looks for. We had alot of fun! Afterwards he gave us a few tips on the wedding and then we scurried off to get home. I really wanted to celebrate Seth's success but it was way to late! So me and my mom stopped by the grocery store and picked up Seth an oreo cookie cake and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (our favorite). We had fun! Celebrated! WOW! WHAT A DAY! It was an awesome and blessed day for both me and Seth!



Getting my hair done for bridal portraits

My handsome man in his uniform :)

Bridal Portraits!

Today is such an exciting day for me! I'm off work and going to get my bridal portraits done! EKS!!! I'M SO EXCITED! We are going to Las Colinas to shoot for the pictures. Last night me and Seth had a good night. We ate some good dinner prepared from my mom and Albertsons. Then we FINALLY watched Marley & Me. I've been wanting to see this movie forever and we bought it a long time ago. Last night was the the first night we actually had a chance to watch it. That dog was bad! My goodness! I loved the part when Marley attacked the dog trainer because her hair reminded him of a poodle. LOL! That was hilarious. It was a good movie and of course I was sobbing at the end :( It was very sad. And after 22 hours of being up I hit the sack quickly after the movie was over. Allllrrriiiggghhhtttyyyyyyy well I'm off to getting ready for the bridal portraits! Wish me luck!

SIgned it!

We finally signed the lease!! Me and Seth are both SUPER excited! After much anticipation and waiting we finally heard from them last week that we were approved. Actually we were approved a month or so ago but they said that since neither of us had rental history that we would have to pay a deposit. The deposit was $300 per person. $600 total. Thats too much! The only way we could get out of it was to have someone else vouch for us. And they had to make 5x the amount of our monthly rent. But thankfully we did find someone and after much waiting everything went through and it was all approved! Thanks Mike! So yesterday we went and signed our lease! It's official! We are able to pick up the keys on July 1st! Seth will move in July 1st and then I will move in after we come back from our honeymoon! :D So excited! July 1st will give us some time to try to start moving things in little by little instead all at once. Except for that my weekends to work are actually the first two weekends in July. Then the 3rd weekend is the wedding! YEA!!!! So I don't know how much we will actually get moved in but we are both very excited. :DDDDDDDDDDDDDD (that's my happy happy face!!) :D

Sent out!

This was a big and exciting week for us! After hours and hours of my mom slaving away we are finally finished making the invitations! They were sent out this week! How exciting!! We definately were! Seth already RSVPd! ;p lol. That dork! The invitations are beautiful. I couldn't ask for more...I really love them! If you still have the envelope to the invitation pull it back out! I know you probably didn't know or did not notice but the stamp on the envelope is a picture of mine and Seth's ring. How cool is that!? Hope to see everybody come out and celebrate our special day with us!

Front of the invitation

Invitation

Best pic I could get of our cool stamp!

I made it!

The tv went out this weekend and the service people did not open till Monday. So with no tv I didn't have much else to do besides be a little crafty. So I made a necklace! I also like to scrapbook and I have taken sewing classes and made a few things from that but only IN class. I've never sewn anything on my own. I'm not very advanced on jewelry making either but I do know the basics so I like to make necklaces every once in awhile.

Panda Bear

The newest addition to our family! Seems like that has been happening alot lately. lol. Hopefully this will be the last one for awhile! Seth has decided on which puppy to keep! Her name...Panda Bear Ochoa. She's a really pretty girl. Very laid back but likes to play and rustle every once in awhile. This will be Seth's first dog that he will raise from when she was a puppy. It's already been a learning experience for him. lol. I told him puppies were just like babies! But he didn't believe me. Now he knows! hehehe. We are working on her being potty trained. It is coming slowly but I think she's doing a good job.

Lil' Panda Bear Ochoa

Watch the video!~

Me and Seth finally got to relax and spend some time with each other. I planned a little cheap date for us to do. Even though we get to spend alot of time together we are always busy or always with other people. So it was nice to finally spend some time alone. The weather was a little groggy...sprinkling a little bit so half my date got cancelled. One of my favorite things to do is to go to the park with Seth and Abby and throw the ball/frisbee for her. But since the weather wasn't so great I had to cancel that part. I took Seth to Carl's Jr! It's his favorite restaurant! In Cali Carl's Jr. is pretty much on every corner! It's ridiculous how many they have! haha. Here it's pretty scarce! But I did find one close by. It was a suprise for Seth. I didn't tell him I was taking him there. So when we got there he was like..."Baby! There's a Carl's Jr!" I have to admit it was pretty good. I really liked it. I have a feeling we will be eating there all the time! We also watched a video that I purchased not to long ago. I bought a set of 4 dvds all by Louie Giglio. I watched this video that a friend had got and I thought this was AMAZING! I'm still so enthralled by it. It talks about the human body and if you know anything about science then you know that the human body is amazing. Your body always tries to compensate and help you heal when you are sick. Its really crazy! So this really hit me! WOW! God is with you every minute of everyday! Regardless of what's going on in your life...He is always there to support you. Take a look at this....

A visitor!

On Saturday Seth's aunt came out to visit us. She's originally from California but moved to Austin several months ago. I'm so happy we were finally able to meet up! I thought Austin was about 4/5 hours away but she said it only took her about 3 hours, I think? So that's not bad! Austin is such a pretty city but I heard that it's horrible right now for all the people with allergies. That'd be me! haha. But me and Seth plan on going to visit her sometime after the wedding when things start to settle down a little. After she got here we went to meet up with my family and had dinner. It was me, Seth, Aunt Jane, my dad, mom, and Mike. It was the first time for my family and his side of the family to meet eachother! Interesting!! hahaha. So here are a couple pics of Seth and his aunt.


Watching tv while waiting for the storm to pass


Seth & his aunt

p.s. I do have to say that this week I have really been enjoying watching Abby and Audrey play together. It's been alot of fun seeing my little girl play and interact with other dogs.

little Audrey & Abby playing

A new addition

We have a new addition to the family! Not me and Seth...well not yet...and not a baby either. hehe. My dad has a puppy! Her name is Audrey and she's so beautiful. I'm sure me and Seth will be getting one soon so that will be another blog. But as for now...it's all about Audrey and my dad. The story behind Audrey....I guess I should go back in time a little bit. lol. If you haven't figured it out yet we are a border collie family. When I was younger we bought our first border collie from an old friend and ever since then we have loved em! They are awesome dogs! They are sssoooo smart, sweet, and protective. They really are great dogs. So the oldest dog we have is my dad's, Kelsey Doodle. Then we had Riley Bo, my mom's. My mom also got Rascal and Haley(brother and sister). I have Abby Dabby and now my dad has Audrey. The story behind Audrey and probably the one that we will eventually have goes like this... It's kinda a bitter sweet moment but few months ago Riley had developed a large bump on his forehead. My mom took him to the vet and they told her it was an infection. The vet gave him some antibiotics and sent him home but the bump never went away. It seemed like it was only getting bigger and it was getting harder for him to breathe. My mom again took him up to the vet. They wanted to do an MRI and were going to aspirate the fluid from the bump. When the took him in they aspirated the fluid out and about 30 minutes later the fluid filled back up. They took a biopsy while doing all this and the prognosis came back as cancer. He had sinus cancer. The vet told them that all they could do was just to take him home and make him feel comfortable. That was pretty much all we could do. I know my mom is probably crying about now. (I'm sorry mommas) In the end they had to put him down. It was too much of a struggle to breathe and he was constantly in pain. A few days after my mom had put him down she was in the kitchen and looked down at Hailey. Hailey looked big! But this wasn't the first time because she had gone through several false pregnancies. So my mom bent down to feel her tummy and it was as hard as a rock! Haley was indeed pregnant!! She had her puppies a few weeks later....10! Goodness! We always joke that Riley Bo went out with a bang! lol. But it's still been a big roller coaster for our family. Haley had 10 puppies. 1 was stillborn and 3 were very small, sick, and premature. We didn't notice for a couple days. One of those 3 didn't make it. So we ended up with 8 total puppies. And now we have beautiful baby Audrey! She's already learning to sit, had her first car ride, is being potty trained, and lays down like a frog like Kelsey doodle! I think the cutest part of it all is that she just wags her tail EVERYWHERE she goes! No matter what she's doing...walking around..being outside...everything...she just wags her tail. I think it's so cute!

Audrey and dad's first meeting

1st picture together!

Audrey and Kelsey Doodle laying like frogs!

Crazy

Seth gave the title of the blog for today...Crazy! As usual we had a very busy and funfilled weekend. On Friday we went with my mom to the base. They had some tvs on sale so we went to go check them out. We ended up getting $100 more off the sale price because my dad found an advertisement online for the same tv cheaper! I love getting those great deals! It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. hehe. Anywho the final decision was a 42" flat screen tv with an ipod docking station at the bottom. How cool! Next up we went to visit our future apartment complex. We are tryin to get a deposit waived. Since neither me or Seth have any rental history they want us to pay a $450 deposit. The only way we can get out of that is to have a person with rental history and for them to make 5x the amount of our monthly lease. Pretty impossible but we will see what happens. Then we went and ate at...blahhhhhh...Joe's Crab Shack. Seth's choice. I don't eat seafood! It's so gross! And yes I have tried it! My mom cooked shrimp one time. I put it in my mouth took one bite and spit it out! It jumped in my mouth! Disgusting!!! So that was my one time of eating seafood. ew! Then we went to pick up the bridesmaid dresses! They came out so beautiful! I love the color! They are ssssooooo pretty! I was very pleased with the results.
Saturday was another busy day. Seth had to work but that morning/early afternoon we had a get together with people from my work. It was to celebrate...Betty's birthday...Mathai's birthday...and Marlon's going away party! whew! That was alot! haha. We went and ate at Babe's. That place has amazing food! All the refills on sides you can get! :D my fav! yum yum! Then after that I went out to my mom's to get ready for Leighann and Bryan's wedding. Leighann is very goofy! She makes me laugh every time I go up to visit my mom at work. Her and Bryan have been together for like 10 years or so. The wedding was outdoors and very pretty. It was so great to see Seth in some NICE clothes! He looked so handsome! I FINALLY got him out of his sweatpants and Chuck Norris t-shirts. He looked very nice!


Betty and Mathai doing the chicken dance at Babe's

Me and Seth at the wedding (No Chuck Norris t-shirt!)

Leighann posing for the camera

1st dance as Mr. & Mrs. Bryan Voskuil

We found it!

It's time to celebrate!!! YEAS! Me and Seth have finally decided on a place to live and are very excited about it!! Seth pretty much had is heart set on Valley Ranch but we just went to check out Euless. And we...we decided on...EULESS!! It's perfect! We sat down with the lady and told her what we were looking for. She showed us a couple floor plans and told us the prices. My eyes got huge because everything else that we had been looking at were affordable but more on the pricey side for me. I didn't think apartments cost that much but you might as well buy a house for as much as you pay rent for an apartment. Anywho we went to look at a model and as soon as I walked in my eyes got huge! Seth turned around to look at me and his eyes were huge too! I just started laughing. I knew this was the one that he had decided. It's a 2 bedroom/ 2 bath with a detached garage included with the rent. No extra! Suprise for me!... They are always extra. It has a built in computer desk and the master bath has 2 sinks. Yesterday me and Seth went to fill out the application AAAANNNNNNDDDDDD we got approved! lol. I know it's not a big deal and probably everybody gets approved but it's a big step and the closer we are to getting married! eks! :D So on July 1st Seth will move in and then after we get married and get back from our honeymoon then I will move in. That way it will give us time to start putting our 'home' together before the both of us have to get back to work. So yea for us! The other great news is that we have finally found a church!!! We made our final decision on that about 3 weeks ago. We had looked at a few churches and we feel like this is the best one for us. Both of us are enjoying it and the both of us are learning. So it's great! Another thing that we might possibly start doing soon but I don't know when is to find a church on Saturday nights. Seth has to work every other weekend so he is not able to go to church all the time. I thought it would be good if we were able to find a church that had services on Saturday nights. I know that it probably has to be a bigger church but if anybody has any suggestions let me know! Have a blessed day!

Apartment hunting!!

Today we are going apartment hunting for the last time!! We have been looking and we REALLY like this one in Valley Ranch. There are a couple nice ones that we also like in Arlington. Today we are going to go to the Euless/Bedford area and see what we find then make our final decision. I just wanted to go to this area because it is more in the middle of where the both of us work. yea! I'm excited! We have been SSSOOOO busy! It's been really crazy and it seems like it's only going to get worse for the next couple months! Crunch time. I'm so excited to start a new beginning and a 'new life' with Seth! It will be a blast! Anything with this dork is fun! ;D The other day I went and had lunch with him at work. It was alot of fun to hang out with him at work. His friend came over and covered him while we ate. How nice! The area where Seth was working they usually don't get lunch breaks. They get to eat while they work. I think that's illegal but it's the military and they have their own rules. I can't complain too much though. I am VERY PROUD of my fiance. I am proud of what he does and what he stands for! And he's finally in the states with me!! He is enjoying his job much more than he did in gitmo. He has alot more opportunities here and I enjoy seeing him being interested and active at work.

100 days!

100 MORE DAYS TILL OUR WEDDING DAY!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED! CAN'T WAIT!

You're gonna miss this

One of my favorite songs right now is You're Gonna Miss This by Trace Adkins. I heard this song and absolutely loved it. I keep this song near and dear to my heart. I feel like this is something that my dad would tell me and he probably has. haha. I'm the type of person that's always trying to plan the future. I believe it's good to have goals and plans for the future but not so much that you miss life. It's good to step back and take a look... enjoy the things you have right now. And believe me I do! I feel so blessed for everything that I have....a wonderful, loving fiance, family, a job. It feels so great! And I am so blessed! Alot of my friends have gotten engaged after me and are getting married before me. Every time I hear this I get a little jealous. I mean I wish me and Seth could have our wedding right now and that we could be married right now. But I know we are not suppose to be yet. The lord will guide like he has for the past two years. It will all come together. And it is... pretty fast too! Ever since I was little I knew that if I did get married then I wanted to date atleast a year and be engaged atleast a year. Well it has all happened and I'm so thankful for the way that everything has turned out. I couldn't be happier! I am so excited to marry Seth Timothy Ochoa! He is seriously THE BEST man that I have ever met! (I better say that since I'm going to marry him huh ;p) hehe. No but really he is. He treats me great...he has a great heart. EVERYTHING that I was ever looking for I have found 100% in him. He's my best friend and the greatest love I could ever ask for. I love you Seth Timothy!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9XfJxMY8A


A long but fun day at Disneyland!



Seth taking care of Lucky

Seth being a goofball and imitating me after I had gotten my eyes dilated T_T

Allergies

My allergies are killing me! Ever since I've gotten back from Cuba I've had HORRIBLE allergy problems! This has been since November! It had gotten so bad a few months ago that I went to the doctor. I thought I had a sinus infection but the doctor wasn't really worried about it. He said that I might have a slight one. :( So he gave me a shot to help with my allergies. It was great for a few days! BUT I had gone out to California right after that (literally the next day) so that might have been why they were ok. Then I get back here and they start flaring up again. I feel so miserable right now! It's so bad I can't even breath out of one nostril! Not even one! I feel like a panting dog half the time. blah! I just wanted to vent...sorry...snort...snort.

Being altered

I was so excited today I wanted to share it with everybody! I finally took my dress in to get it altered! It wont be finished until the end of April but I was so excited! For one...I haven't seen my dress in a long time. And two it felt so good to put it on again! I love it!

Tell her to stop!

I really don't know what's going on but my dog, Abby-dabby-do aka Abigail Ochoa, has suddenly gotten this urge to start humping me! Yesterday she humped me three times in a row! And this hasn't been the first time! This trouble started a couple weeks ago after she had started her first period. Aw...her first period. (good thing she's a dog otherwise she would probably be really embarrassed) But now it's over...atleast I think it's over. So what's the problem!? I've never really noticed this before. I mean I know obviously boy dogs do this all the time but this is my little girl! My beautiful, sweet little girl! And it hasn't happened to just me. She did it to Seth one day and she did it to my dad too. Although my dad thought she was just giving him a hug. lol. yeah right! I mean she always just grabs him by the legs to give him a hug....uh-huh. Other than that I mean she is great! She's such a wonderful, loving dog. I spoil her rotten and I think Seth could vouch for that one. I've had her for a little over a year. Her birthday is January 17th, 2008. The same day I came back from visiting Seth in Cuba after we had gotten engaged. I love her to death and I've had so much fun watching her grow. Despite the humping episode...she is my sweetheart.
Abby's first day


Abby opening her birthday presents

Cake tasting!

Yeah! One more thing crossed off our list! We are finally done with all the details of the both cakes. Our wedding cake has been finished for awhile but on Saturday we went to finish all the details of Seth's grooms cake. All the flavors were delicious!! yum yum! We showed her a few examples of the design that we liked to give her an idea of what we wanted. I think that she is excited about both Seth's grooms cake and our wedding cake. She said that she has never done anything like our cakes so I am very excited to see how everything turns out!

Continuing on...

Sorry I haven't written in my blog for awhile. The truth is that the website that we are using for our page ran out of space. They told me that they would try to fix it. I talked to them some more.. waited awhile and heard nothing. I figured I had given them enough time to try to figure it out and I have yet to hear from them. I wanted to keep up my blog so here I be!

Me and Seth have actually been really busy. Seth is back to working days and I'm still working nights. Hopefully sometime in the future that will change(for me). Anywho we FINALLY found a caterer. whew! That was a close one! I was really nervous and anxious that we wouldn't be able to find one but we did! Most wedding places advise you to book a caterer a year in advance. We had looked around at different places but were never really satisified with what they had to offer. But this lady has EVERYTHING that we were looking for and more! I'm really excited! Tomorrow we are going to go cake tasting and decorating for Seth's grooms cake. The lady is also going to make samples of the different flavors that I liked for our other cake and then we will make our final decision. We are also in the process of making our invitations. Man! This stuff is alot of work. And yes we are MAKING our own invitations. On top of all of that we usually try to make time to go to the movies at least once a week. Seth is obsessed with movies! If he had the chance he would just sit down and watch movies all day long! Wait! We already did that when I was visiting in Cuba. haha. He has a HUGE collection of movies so if anybody needs to borrow a movie I'm sure Seth has it. lol. just kidding!