Is this thing on...??

Hello to all.  Forgive me for not posting a thing in over two months!  I tell ya, once school starts I let most everything fall to the wayside, which isn't good. 

The past two months have been pretty good though.  I finished out the summer school course I was in.  Enjoyed my 2 weeks of real summer vacation then started my last semester of my program!  I am in 2 semi-challenging classes, and 1 MEGA challenging class.  So I spend Tuesday-Thursday nights away from Aaron, and a good portion of the weekend doing homework and studying. 

Highlights though, my little brother and I took a week-long trip to Toyko, Japan!  It was sooooo much fun.  When my little bro Jeff graduated from college back in 2010 Aaron and I's gift to him was a trip to Japan.  He has always wanted to go, and we figured when we went the following spring or summer that we all would be done with school so it could be a graduation trip for us all.  Well then Jeff got a job with the city and didn't have vacation time for a whole year, plus Aaron and I were still in school.  Fast forward to September 2012, Jeff finally got vacation time, Aaron decided he didn't really want to go with us, and though I am still in school, I took a week off and we went.  I will say, when Jeff wanted to go to Japan I was skeptical.  I didn't really know what you do or so there, or how hard it would be to get around when we can't speak or even read the language.  Turns out I was so wrong.  We had a total blast!  I am going to do a series of posts about our trip eventually, so if you are interested in vacationing there one day maybe it will be helpful.  Now that I have been, I kind of think everyone should go at least once.  So worth it!

And I should finally be getting my wedding pictures soon, so I can begin recapping the wedding at long last!  Hopefully I can remember that far back...

Is it Honeymoon time yet?

(source)

Take me with you!!!

So ready for vacation.  I had hoped that we could be on a plane out of here the day after my last final exam of the semester, but I totally spaced and forgot to remind Aaron to get a new passport.  Some jerk face broke into his apartment years ago and swiped his backpack which had his passport inside, and he hasn't had to internationally travel since then.  So he went and got that handled this week, but it will be about 6 weeks (or less, hopefully) until it arrives.  I don't want to set myself up to be stressed out so I am holding off on booking any trips until he has the new passport in his hot little hand. 

We have a bunch of trips coming up, which is exciting!  Getting away is really under-rated.  In two weeks we are going to Dallas to see my friend Brad get married, yay!  (I am glad I will have wedding things to talk about again - still no word from my photographer about the photos, sadly!) Early June is hopefully when we can squeeze in our Honeymoon in Canada. Then in late June we are going for a long weekend in Port Aransas for a mini-beach vacay with my Mom's family.  We all went last year for my Granny's birthday, so it is turning into a tradition I suppose - which is great news to me!  Fast forward to Labor Day weekend, my bestie Katrina invited me to be her date to her friend/my acquaintance Aaron Blue's wedding.  He and his fiancee are getting married on a cruise ship before it takes off to the Caribbean, so we are going to just pop on the boat for the nuptials then spend the weekend exploring Miami!  Or failing that, lay on the beach all weekend drinking margaritas in Miami!  Woohoo!!!  Katrina and I know how to have some serious fun on vacations, so I am really looking forward to that!  Then in mid September Aaron, little brother Jeff and I are planning a trip to Japan, which is going to be soooo fun and cool.  I have never been so far from home before!  Side note, does anyone else think I totally over use the exclamation mark? Too bad, I like it! lol  Then after all of my vacationings I will settle in to what I have been told is an accounting semester from hades.  Gulp.  Last one, then I am done!!!!!!!!!  And once I get through that one, assuming I have any vacation time left, we hope to get over to Nevada over Christmas break sometime.  Then maybe an anniversary trip come January?  Maybe, we will have to see!  Aaron gets burnt out on travelling so I don't want to overload him. 

The really great thing however, is that while we haven't exactly combined our finances yet, we have just been funnelling everything we can into our credit cards that give us airline points (any pay them off each month, of course) but between the wedding and all that business we have enough points to get plane tickets to all of our destinations (aside from Japan).  So that is pretty sweet!  But until then I will be dreaming of vacation for a few more weeks...

Anyone going anywhere cool this summer??

  

It's my birthday!

I am 30 years old today :O  !!?!  And I have had a pretty fantastic day despite having to work, and it being the last accounting day of the month which is always super busy.

farewell youth.

I was treated to lunch by my little brother (he had to work this evening) at BJ's Brew House, which was delicious.  He and my Mom gave a present to both Aaron and I - a stay at Hotel Zaza for our wedding night!!!!  So exciting!!!!

<3

After work my Mom and I hung out a bit before we met up with Aaron for birthday dinner at the Cheesecake Factory!  We had a delicious feast, and Aaron got me some gorgeous flowers and the new Mindy Kaling book which I wanted so bad!  I had given a bunch out as gifts to my friends, but refrained from buying one for me because we are on a budget.  I got it literally 2 hours ago and have read half of it already.  Win!   I also got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my bestie Katrina yesterday at work.  I love getting flowers :)  

So it has been a pretty great day filled with over eating, and the cherry on top?  The Addams Family Values is on TV right now!  That is seriously one of the greatest movies of our time and among my favorites, so hilarious!

Source

Here's to the next great decade!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas!  And if Christmas isn't your thing, I hope you at least enjoyed a day off work!

Mine was pretty swell.  We had my Mom's annual Christmas Eve get together with friends in Houston.  We changed it up and did fajitas instead of turkey, which was excellent!
Then we had Christmas morning here at home, and then headed to Austin for the day to see some family.  I somehow completely spaced on taking present opening pictures.  Whoops.  Here are some though :)

There is a tree somewhere behind our giant bodies.

Cousins!

The 'do something silly' shot, lol

Christmas is the best!

Holidays!

Hey guys!  It has been a while, I know...

I, along with my Mom, have been working for weeks and hours getting our hand made invitations out so I have had little time for much else!  They have been mailed out, so in a day or two I will do a post on them once they have been received by the guests.  (Didn't want to ruin the surprise!)

Finally addressed and ready to go!

I have been having an awesome holiday however :)

I'll rewind back to the weekend before last, my Mom and I and a few neighbors had a humongous garage sale (sorry I forgot to take any photos) but we didn't pretty fantastically, so that will make a nice addition to the wedding budget - in a positive direction.  So yay for that!

Thanksgiving was pretty great too.  It was a small group, My Mom, brother, Aaron and Ruth and Sam (my step-grandparents).  We had a delicious feast, and Aaron made the most delicious turkey!

My little brother with a comically small whisk

Cutting up the bird!

Ruth and Sam are ready to eat!

We ate until we could eat no more.  Then Aaron and I went and saw the new Muppet movie, and it was great!  I recommend it if you have ever loved the muppets, or like laughing and feel nice movies :)

Friday we decided to sleep rather than wait in lines for super crazy deals, but around 9AM we headed to Macy's because we had some really good coupons.  The mall was pretty tame, so that was nice.  I always say I would gladly pay double to shop in an empty store rather than try to shop and bumping into people all over the place.  

And today (Saturday) it was rainy and I lounged around the house all day and did nothing.  It has been glorious!  

This coming week I have finals at school, so I will be getting those out of the way, then winter break starts!  Which means hyper-wedding mode starts in full force until the big day.  I so cannot believe I will be a married lady in a little over two months!? Wild!! :)

The Long Walk Down the Aisle

I am happy to report that I have requested my grandpa (Buelo) to escort me down the aisle on the big day.  I am so glad that he is willing and able, and honored even.  :)

::a Natalie and Buelo pic will go here once scanned::

Figuring who to ask was troublesome to say the least.  I really considered walking alone, I mean, I'll be 30 years old by then, I am an independent woman!  Roar!!  lol.

I am glad my Buelo is up to it, but had he not been, my Dad has three wonderful brothers and two brothers in law that I am certain would have been delighted to give me away had I asked.  I just wouldn't know how to begin to decide between them.

And I thought about my little brother.  He would have been a good option too, but he is in the wedding as one of the groomsmen, which I think is the best place for a brother to be.  I just thought it would feel weird to be given away by my little bro, the one I look out for and give unsolicited advice to.

Then I thought about my Mom.  We are best friends.  She was Mom and Dad since I was 11.  She would be the most appropriate to give me away.  But I wanted my actual  Dad to be somehow represented, so Buelo seemed like a better choice.  Plus being Mother of the Bride is an important thing in and of itself.  I want her to have her time to go down the aisle before me and get ooh-ed and ahh-ed and 'doesn't she look lovely-ed' at.  If she walked with me she'd totally steal my thunder!  I am joking, but you get the picture.

For those of you who don't know the story, the reason my Dad isn't around to walk me down the aisle himself is because he passed away back in 1993 from cancer.  It was hard and horrible, but time heals your pain as well as it can.  I miss him so very much, but this whole getting married thing really makes the void so much bigger seeming.  I wonder if he would have liked Aaron.  I wonder what advice he'd give us about marriage.  I wonder what he'd look like as a 59 year old.  I wonder what song we would have danced to.  I know that he is always with me, figuratively speaking.  It is just a bummer with no one to blame.  I think some things you just never get over.  Though if life hadn't unfolded the way it did, who knows what my life would be today.  I can say for sure that I am pretty glad for where I am today, so that is something.

Miss you, Dad.

Night with the girls

I have to tell you about the rest of San Antonio weekend now - all the fun that was had spanned the entire weekend after all :)  Angela, Katrina and I checked into the lovely River Walk  Plaza Hotel after an afternoon of visiting with grandparents, and got ready to hit the town.  It was Halloween weekend, so we knew it was going to be a fun night :)  Luckily we were able to walk to the River Walk and downtown - it was only 2 blocks away, win!

Katrina and Angela

We strolled the River Walk and grabbed some food at a nearby Mexican place.  It seemed like there were a lot of people hanging around (and several in costumes, which was fun) seemingly waiting for something to happen, but we were unsure what?  We soon learned that there was a Halloween parade on the river that night, and we had a pretty decent view from the patio at dinner.  It was very festive :)

After dinner we were looking to find a spot to chill out and drink more margaritas, so we walked the whole river and nothing looked too awesome, so we went up to street level.  After walking around aimlessly for a few blocks we found the neighborhood Pat O'Briens.  This place was actually pretty great, we had three nights out in one place!  We got a table and some cocktails and chatted for a bit, then we went to check out the piano bar area.  The piano bar was really fun and engaging and we sang and drank some more.  And yes, that last picture is my dear Katrina 'making it rain' on the piano player, lol.  We can't take her anywhere...

Once we ran out of monies for piano requests, we went upstairs to the dance club which was fun.  We were full of liquid courage to bust a move at that point, lol.  Earlier in the evening I sent a text to my cousin Chris who lives in SA that we were hanging out downtown if he felt like meeting up, and about now is when he replied that he was headed to another bar in the area.  So we got our googlemaps out and headed that way.

And we passed the Alamo!  Funny story, when we were planning out the evening beforehand at the hotel, I was looking at a map of everything, and where to go.  Angela is our history gal and almost PhD in the subject, so it was necessary for her to see our famous Texas landmark while we were here.  Well at the hotel, I decided that the Alamo was way too far to walk to, and we'd have to take a separate trip in the morning.  There was no way we'd be walking that far... Looks like I ate my words!

Our last stop of the night was at On the Half Shell to meet up with my cousin and his lady friend.  If you are in SA on a Tuesday night, go here and you can see my cousin doing poetry slam.  The dude is nation champion finalist material.  Pretty awesome!  But yes, OTHS was fun and loud, and we got to see their costume contest going on :)  And I got to see my cousin, and that is always fun too!

It was like 2 in the AM by the time our heads hit the pillow.  I had a really fun night, and I was so glad that Katrina and Angela were there to make it so fun.  Guess we old gals still have some late nights in us!  

Shower at The Guenther House

Holy Moly it has been a while!  It is good to be back, and I have much to blog about!  First things first, I had my bridal shower the weekend before last!

Guys, my shower was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  First off, the Guenther House is the most quaint little historic house/restaurant ever, with gorgeous views of the San Antonio River!  We had the party room on the second floor with the terrace over looking the river.

There were SO MANY family members and friends that came to show their love, it was really great!

We had a fabulous time drinking tea and visiting.  It was a bummer that I didn't have enough time to visit with everyone as much as I liked, I am sure it will be even worse at the wedding!  We had the best food too, little tea sandwiches that were outstanding, brownies in heart shapes which were to die for, and fruits and bars, and so many delicious treats!

Yum!

And because everyone was beyond generous, I got about a billion presents <3

Only half of them fit into the car, we had my Aunt bring the other half the next day!

And a billion hugs go to my Aunt Gloria who hosted the party, I had the best time and cannot thank you enough for everything! <3

It's Almost Shower Time!

CUTE.

The mailman brought me a fun treat last week - an invitation to my bridal shower!!  It is being held in San Antonio for easy access to my family members, so we are planning on making a fun weekend out of it!  Turns out that an awesome groupon came out for a hotel right on the San Antonio River Walk!

Festive!

I am preaching to the choir, I am sure - but if you are not a Texan, I highly suggest you take a trip down here and check out San Antonio if you get a chance.  The people are wonderful, the city is so full of culture and history, and you will not find better Mexican food on the planet - go ahead and try!

Hotel!

I am super excited to get together with my family, and I know my Aunt Gloria is putting together a really great shower for me.  I only have a two and a half week wait!!

Angela and Erik's Wedding!

What a great day Saturday was!  We (the girls) began the day at Platinum Entourage Blow Dry Bar, which was this super posh hair-do and make-up place.  It was a bummer that Jessie and I did not make appointments because they were totally booked up!  So we sat around and took pictures of Annie and Angela getting their hairs did, and Angela got her make-up done as well.  Let me tell you, these ladies and dudes at Platinum Entourage do some really awesome style and makeup jobs: check 'em -

Helloooo gorgeous!

The salon took up a bit of time, so we had to rush back to the hotel, throw our wedding clothes on and head out.  The ceremony and reception were held at the Historic 5th Street School, and it was such a neat place!  We were out in the courtyard area, and it was just the right amount of space for the crowd.  Angela and Erik exchanged vows in front of a beautiful fountain, and their officiant was really good, and just the right amount of laid-back and funny.  Angela looked stunning in a tea length strapless dress, and my favorite was the rosette skirt and her hip purple shoes!  Erik looked great too, and his boutonniere had a banjo in it (he plays) which was super cute.

  Just Married!

The color scheme was orange, purple and green - fall colors, but brightish tones.  I got more photos of the people rather than the decor, but it was very cute and DIY style, which is very Angela and Erik's style.  There were round tables set up in the courtyard, and the centerpieces were like a 6 pack of beer or soda - the cardboard holder but painted, and in the spots for the drinks there were pixie sticks and heart lollipops and such.  So cute!  The reception was all desserts and snacks, so we totally got all sugared up with all the sweets - which is awesome.  I love dessert more than anything, lol.  Here are some photos I took:

Aaron signing the guest book poster!

The cake!  That totally adorable pennant banner is from etsy, if you want one!

Ok guys.  This was soooooooo awesome - a mini donut station.  I know, right! : D  You get a little bowl of fresh out of the fryer warm donuts and strawberries, and then you dress them up with glaze of chocolate, or powdered sugar (or all of them...) to your heart's content.  It was fantastic, I went through the line twice!

And here is Aaron and I enjoying some fun and color coordinated sodas :)  We also ate some gourmet flavored popcorn, and cake and candy and it was wonderful!

And it was magical and fun and we are so happy for Angela and Erik and wish them happiness and sugar highs until the end of time! :)

Las Vegas Trip!

Hi Everyone!  Sorry for the lack of posts, but I have been in Las Vegas for the last 4 days, and then had a test the day after I came back...

So our trip was way fun!  We arrived Thursday evening and went to our Texas themed hotel (lol).  We has to rush there to watch the new Thursday night TV (Community, Parks and Rec, and The Office.)  Well the plane was delayed and the rental car place took forever, so we missed most of the good tv.  We were tired though, so we just chilled out at the hotel.

Yes, that is an oil derrick!

On Friday we started the day at the $3.99 breakfast mega buffet (yeah!) and lost some monies in the casino.  Then we met up with Dylan for lunch which was fun.  We met at the town square outdoor mall place so we walked around and shopped for a little while as well.  After that, we went over to Aaron's Mom's house and hung out for a while.  The rest of the fam was working or off at sorority pledging activities, so we didn't get to see them until later, but we had a nice visit with Aaron's Mom.  Then we headed back to the hotel for a disco nap before the girls went out for evening with the bride-to-be.

No boys allowed!

We started the night at Downtown Cocktail Room, right off of Fremont Street, and then went to this little piano bar called Don't Tell Mama.  It was just like a female version of The Hangover, except no one got lost, or drugged, and Mike Tyson wasn't there.  But still, a super fun night! ;)

Then Saturday morning I got up early to meet the girls for hairdo's, and then the wedding (I am doing a separate wedding post) which was so beautiful and fun!  Then we went back to the hotel for another disco nap, because that night the afterparty was at Insert Coins.

Insert Coins was a really cool bar downtown that is a videogamer's dream come true!  There are vintage video games to play all over, or you can rent a table for the night (which is what we did) and play all the videogames your heart desires off of a number of different game systems.  We opted for XBox 360 (? I think) and an old school Nintendo.  So we drank and gamed, and danced some, and celebrated and had a grand old time!

Mario!

Aaron, dominating Tetris

The Gang

The next morning we drug our hungover tails to brunch at Main Street Station with Angela & Erik and Co.  Brunch buffets are apparently serious business in Las Vegas because we got there and tried to sit in one big group, but since part of the group had already been sat before us, it was basically going to take an act of congress to get us all sitting together.  Oh well, it was still very good!

After that a bunch of us went and walked around the outdoor outlet mall.  It was mostly uneventful, minus a few shenanigans :)

The best 75 cents Jeremy ever spent - this is a direct quote, lol

Another separate post will be Aaron and I's trip to the jewelry store, but we did that after the outlet mall.  Then we went and saw his family one last time, so that was good.  We grabbed a quick dinner with Angela and Erik, then headed back to the hotel for our 9pm bedtime, because our plane was taking off at 6am - so we had to get to the airport at 4.  Eek.  So come 3:30 we were checking out, and headed to the airport, and a short 5 hours and two planes later, we were back home.  And oh so tired!  As always, we had such a good time seeing everyone, and can't wait to go back!