Anniversary in Hot Springs

Chris and I were debating on where to spend our anniversary. My sister, being a flight attendant, said that we could use some of her free tickets to fly somewhere. We wanted to stay close by, but out of the state. It was between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Hot Springs, Arkansas. Hot Springs won and after looking at the distance and getting a rental car we decided to drive our own car. We arranged to stay in a hotel for the first two nights and a secluded log cabin the following two nights. A coworker suggested to stay in the Arlington Hotel in downtown Hot Springs. The Arlington is a historical hotel that dates back to the infamous gangster Al Capone staying there.

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At the Arlington Hotel

It was a very large hotel, but needed a bit of remodeling. Our room was somewhat nice, but the walls were so thin that I could hear a man in the next room sneeze. The shower irked me the most.

The bath mat was originally hanging on the shower door and it was just a big hole(no drain) in the shower. Needless to say, we took quick showers.
The second day of our stay I arranged for me to have a spa treatment. I went to Quapaw Bath and Spa. I indulged and received the Merry Berry Treatment. This treatment included a 20 minute private bath, 40 minute massage, facial, and foot scrub. I had not received a massage in over 2 years(I know, shame on me). This experience was perfect. The private bath was a huge tub made for two that was filled with mineral water from the hot springs. Alex was my massage therapist and I would recommend him to anyone. He was highly experienced and intuitive when it came to knots in my muscles. He also did my stone crop facial and foot scrub, which were heavenly.

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While I was enjoying my spa treatment, Chris used the time to take up some of his sketching around Bathhouse Row and the surrounding area. Here is one of his sketches

He is really good at drawing or "draw-ring" as he says it. And every time he says it, I think of Mike Myers in the SNL sketch of the little boy Simon back in the 90s. If you remember that, you just got a little chuckle.

The next morning we went to Mass at St. Mary of the Springs Catholic Church. This was a beautifully decorated church and the priest's homily really spoke to our personal life. One of my favorite parts of traveling is seeing new churches. I think it's wonderful that our Catholic Church is universal in that we say the same prayers and read the same readings, but each church has its own appeal according to the culture of the area and the people.

After Mass, we headed to Bismarck where our cabin was located. Before we got to Bismarck, Chris wanted to make a pit stop at Lowe's. I remembered that this was his anniversary too and I needed to let him take his time. Although I thought it would be painful to sit through the long aisles at Lowe's, it was actually really nice to talk to Chris and discuss our plans for the next phase of remodeling our house. We both agreed on what needed to be the current focus and where to move on to after that. It was great to have such an in-depth conversation like that. We are usually so busy that we don't get to talk like that very often.

Once we got to our cabin, I knew that this was going to be the best part of the trip. We stayed at Remember When Cabins. These are newly-built cabins with nice furnishings and a hot tub on the decks. Arkansas was recently hit with a lot of snow and it was still covering the grounds by the cabins when we got there. The owners live on the site and were very helpful in getting us situated. Here is what our cabin looked like

We stopped to pick up a roast chicken for dinner. If you know anything about Chris it is that he LOVES roast chicken. He was in heaven getting it ready for dinner.

The owners decorated the cabins for Christmas, too. There was a small Christmas tree and garland hanging around the rooms. We got festive with our drinks, too.

During our stay, we kicked back by watching a Star Wars marathon and playing Words with Friends and a fun game called Bubble Shooter on our phones. It wasn't until we were about to leave that we saw the board games and cards in a cabinet in the kitchen :(

On New Year's Eve we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. We joked that this New Year's was the complete opposite of last New Year's. But it was quite nice to be an old married couple who did not mind going to Cracker Barrel and having a quiet New Year's Eve.

When we got back to the cabin we popped open a bottle of champagne and ate our wedding cake.

We couldn't eat much more than this

We headed home on New Year's Day and took in the last moments of our trip. It was really nice to get away from it all and get back to us. I wonder what next New Year's will be like?

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary...Kinda

If you feel like you've just read this blog a few months ago about our wedding anniversary, you are correct. But this wedding anniversary is the one we hold dearer to our hearts as it is the wedding anniversary that united us in the Catholic Church. This wedding anniversary means much more than the civil anniversary we celebrated a few months ago. On New Year's Eve, three years ago, Chris proposed to me in Spain and we immediately set the date for New Year's Eve 2011. I picked this date for several reasons: a) we would have a hard time forgetting the date, b) I've always wanted a wedding around the Christmas season, and c) New Year's Eve fell on a Saturday in 2011 and what a way to ring it in!

In one of my first posts, I displayed several of my favorite pictures and talked about our wonderful day. It really does not seem like it's been a year. That is very cliche, but it is true. We have had a fantastic first year of marriage. We have enjoyed getting to know each other better, growing in our love, adopting a new basset hound, and slowly remodeling our house. It hasn't always been easy, but that's what prayer is for. God has shown us what it takes to make this first year work and what we need to keep working on to celebrate many more happy years together. I thank God for allowing us to have this first year of marriage and look forward to what this next year has in store for us.

Christmas Time is Here

With all of my immediate family's crazy schedules(one's a police officer, one works swing shifts, and another is a flight attendant) it is very hard to get everyone together for Christmas. We had to celebrate Christmas the Saturday before Christmas. My mom decided to have breakfast and my sister suggested that everyone come in their pajamas.

 My dad and my nephew, in his Angry Birds pajamas, getting ready for breakfast

 My mom and my niece celebrating her first Christmas

 My soon-to-be sister-in-law and my niece

 My brother and nephew giving each other hugs and love. I love the look on their faces in the second picture.

 Me and my sweet niece. I'm wearing my new robe that Chris got me for Christmas. I'm also wearing new Bear Paws slippers that are so comfy and warm, but you can't see those in the picture.

 My nephew playing Angry Birds. He knew exactly what to do with no help from adults. He's only 2!

 My dad got a new TV stand and needed help to put it together, so he had the son-in-laws and sons help him figure it out. Oh, and my nephew helped too!

 My dad LOVES anything National Lampoon movie related. One of his favorite movies is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

I picked his name this Christmas. I had been saving this shirt on my phone for a few months now and knew that this would be a great gift for my dad. Can you see the excitement on his face??

Later that evening, we celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family. One of my little cousins decided to push a laundry basket around the living room and pick up wrapping paper.

 A few of my cousins, aunt, and cousin's girlfriend posing for a cute photo.

I love being with my mom's side of the family. I have so many great childhood memories that include them. We had so much fun this Christmas catching up, laughing, playing Chinese gift exchange, playing games, and building puzzles. We don't get together as often as we used to, so we really look forward to the time we do get together. I wish I had more pictures to share, but I was having too much fun and forgot to take more.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and found some time to remember that our Savior is born to us. We rejoice that He has come in history and now we await for Him to come in majesty! I attended Midnight Mass with my family. This is my favorite Mass of the entire year. The church is beautiful, the choir is exceptional, and everyone is so excited to rejoice for the newborn King. One of my friends posted this picture of what the church looked like at Midnight Mass.

Here is another picture of my church at Christmas time. It is absolutely beautiful and one of the main reasons why I chose this time of the year to get married.

My next post will be about our one year anniversary trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas!!

Play Us A Song

     Last year, my great Aunt Joanie had posted on our family page through Facebook that they were wanting to get rid of a piano that had been sitting in their house. I have always wanted a piano in our home. I took lessons when I was in elementary from Sr. Kathryn and again in high school from Ms. Powell. I wasn't very good, but really liked playing. So after thinking about it for a bit, I answered that we would like to have it.

     My aunt had mentioned that it was very heavy and would take about six men to move it. We live about 1/2 mile from them, but couldn't think of six people who would voluntarily move the piano for us. So fast forward over a year later and we still had not picked up the piano. A few weeks ago, we had decided that we need to go get it and asked a few burly cousins to help us. But before we got everyone together, my aunt called and wanted us to come get it in a few hours. We tried to think of who we could get to help us in a short amount of time, but then my aunt called back and said that it wasn't that heavy and they were already on their way over. My great uncle and two cousins put it on a trailer and helped us move it in the dining room.

 

     It works as a great display for Christmas cards. It's a bit out of tune, but I don't think we will use it too much for playing. It fits perfectly in the dining room. We needed something to go along the wall and the dark color of the piano gives the room a whole new look. 

     Maybe one day it will be used for playing again...

Christmas Pictures

A few weeks ago, Chris and I arranged to have Christmas pictures taken with our sweet doggies. We have plenty of pictures with Doris, but not too many with Mr. Bates since he is new to the family. It was a perfect day for pictures in town. I hired my friend, Tammy Koch, to take the pictures. She gave us a fantastic price and really worked with us.

I had bought a "Merry Christmas" felt sign for us to hold. It looks easier than it really was. Trying to hold the sign up, hold my dogs in the right place, and stay in a squatting position was not the easiest task. But it worked

 But most of them turned out like this

It was so hard to keep these doggies looking at the camera. We had the photographer meowing and we tried to turn their heads forward, but that didn't help too much. As soon as they got a whiff of a new smell or a car drove by we lost them.

Here are a few more good shots

Tammy had some suitcases that we could put the dogs in

 But this one is my favorite

Even though we have the saddest looking dogs in the world, they are so sweet and I love this picture. The colors came out so well and the dogs are at least looking at the camera.

And the grand finale....our Christmas card

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

I'm working on writing and addressing cards tonight so they can go out this weekend. I know that if I don't get them done now then they will never get done and I will be sitting with all of these cards in a box.
If I don't post sooner, I hope that everyone remembers the reason for the season. Prepare your hearts for the celebration of the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!!

Deck the Halls

If you have met me for more than five minutes, you know that I LOVE Christmas!! Heck, I even had a Christmas themed wedding! Because of the wedding, I had some new decorations to put up this year for our house. First, we had a ton of garland. This is from the first day of decorating for the wedding

 We took all of that garland and put it around the hall

When we went through it a few weeks ago, Chris and I decided to use it for our Christmas decorating.

We put the majority of it around the outside of our house 

 Me holding the garland while Chris was up the ladder

 

It went all the way up our driveway

 It fit perfectly. It looks so pretty and is very unique.

Our front door and "Merry Christmas" sign that my best friend, Lauren, and her husband gave us as a wedding gift.

We also used some of the garland and big ornaments to decorate inside the house

We had Christmas dishes from the main table at the wedding as well as a Christmas teapot, platter, and mugs that we registered for our wedding. I've always wanted to set up my dining room to look like a nice Christmas dinner was about to happen. I did my best and set the table

 The two ornament balls hanging in the window are what my flower girls carried up the aisle.

 I like that we are using parts of our wedding in our Christmas decor because it reminds me of our special day and it also gave me a good excuse to get rid of my old and cheap-looking Christmas decorations from years before.


In my next post, I will display our Christmas card!! YEA!!