FMM::New Year's Resolutions

I usually don't make new years resolutions, because when I did, I ALWAYS broke them. This year, however, I feel like I'm more mature, and can actually hold myself accountable [keeping my fingers crossed].
Here are a few things I'd like to do this year:

• Like most women, I want to get in shape. I bought myself the bender ball today, and have promised to use it AT LEAST 3 times a week.
  
• I want to work on my temper. I am so quick to anger, and I really want to learn patience.
• I want to make more art work OUTSIDE of the art I make for my classes. I would really love to do a show at some point this year.
• I want to keep my house clean and organized at all times. I get so frustrated and feel so UNmotivated when it isn't just right.

Those are my resolutions for 2010, what are some of yours?

To read more New Year's Resolutions, head on over to aefilkins.

Honeymoon Part 3, don't worry it's almost over.

I'm rushing through the rest of my honeymoon details, mainly because you're probably bored by now, and I know that I am.

Wednesday morning we got up bright and early, and headed to the Pancake Pantry.
I ordered these amazing little treats...Chocolate Cherry FANTASY Crepes
If you are a fan of the chocolate/cherry flavor combo, you would probably die for these. aka HEAVEN in your mouth. I'm not lying.
By far, the best part of the day.

Anyways, after that we decided to check out the Guinness World Record Museum....
seriously, save your time & money if you ever consider going.
Looking through the books would be a better experience.

The Hollywood Wax Museum was much better.

We got to see
Jude Law
Spiderman
and Hugh Hefner, of course.


Then it was time to get high.
407 feet in the air kind of high. Hello, Space Needle.
Have I mentioned that I am really scared of heights?
Ya......
The AmTrack was calling our name, so off we went.
The only other thing we did that day was go to dinner at Little Tokyo. It was a little hibachi restaurant, and it was really not that great.

Our last day of the honeymoon was pretty chill. We went to this huge outlet mall and shopped around. Got everyone Christmas presents. I started to get sick, so we decided to just go to eat and then head back to the hotel.

We ended up going to a really, really good home style country restaurant called the Old Mill.
They make amazing corn chowder [don't knock it til you try it] and the best fried chicken I've ever had.
andddddddd then we got all rested up and made the 8 hour trek back to good ol' Alabama.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Honeymoon Part 2

Our plans were to:
- wake up & leave the hotel by 8:30
-get to gatlinburg & eat at the pancake pantry by 9
-go to ripley's aquarium
-go shopping.

It pretty much didn't happen like that AT ALL.

Our alarm went off at 8 and we were both still so exhausted from the long drive we hit snooze.
We finally got up and out around 10.
We got alllllllllllll the way to Gatlinburg, only to find out it costs a whole $8 to park.
Call me crazy, but I wasn't about to pay to park [I'm apparently an idiot].
So, we drove about 5 miles away to the welcome center, parked [for free], paid $2 for a trolly pass, and rode the trolly back into town.

We had only been on the trolly like literally 2 minutes when the car in front of us lost control and crashed into the mountain. Since our driver saw the whole thing, we had to sit and wait for the police, so he could fill out a witness statement.

By the time we actually got back into town, it was almost noon. I couldn't believe we had lost half of our day! We decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch before hitting up the attractions.
We got seated at the Kurt Cobain/Courtney Love table, and had the sweetest waitress ever.
It was really good! And active duty military gets 15% off their ticket.
After lunch, we headed over to the Ripley's Aquarium. They have this great deal, where you can pick which attractions you want to go to, and the more you do, the bigger the discount. It was pretty awesome. But, if you're active duty military, you can go to all 8 of the attractions, for an 85% discount!! That is ridiculously amazing, and is why we got to do as much as we did.
Here are a few shots from the aquarium:

The aquarium was huge, and amazing. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to go through it, and we didn't really want to leave, but there was so much left for us to do.

Next, we stopped by the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum.
I used to watch this show religiously, and I have been to the Ripley's in St. Augustine, so I knew I was going to enjoy it.

Here are a few things that we saw:


britney spears, painted on cow dung.

the tallest man...ever.

sushi made from lint


And they had a dog tag machine there, so of course we had to have one made.

Those were pretty much the highlights of our day.......
we went to a motion theater? It pretty much sucked.
I mean, the actual 'movies' were really corny, but all I could concentrate on was NOT getting whip lash.

The last thing we decided to do was go to the Hollywood Car Museum, which was neat, but TOTALLY not worth the amount of money we spent on it.




By this time, we were starving, so we went to Subway. We just took our time eating and relaxing, since we had been walking all day. And when we finally decided to leave, it was close to 7. We walk over to the trolly stop, and guess what..............the trolly stopped running at FREAKIN 6 pm! Although, when we asked the ladies at the welcome center, they said it ran until midnight during peak season.

We had to end up calling a cab, and guess what? It cost us a whole $8 to get from subway to the welcome center. We learned our lesson! Just drive and pay to park, instead of having to call a taxi.

Honeymoon Part 1

All I can say is......

don't try to go on an 8 hour car ride without some form of entertainment!
It will draaaaaag by.

I took a book.
Because it didn't USED to bother me to read in the car.
This time, however, every time I read a sentence, I felt like I was getting nauseous.
GREEEEEAT. Forgot to bring my nintendo ds, forgot to bring our psp.
Aaron did have his phone, which has internet [Thank God] so I spent most of the time in the car on there.

After 8 LOOOONG hours, we finally made it.

We immediately wanted to go out and explore. We decided to go to Smoky Mountain Brewery, which we THOUGHT was a steak house, but apparently was a pizzeria? Anyways, it was pretty expensive, and not really that good. Jussssst sayin'.
Aaron did enjoy a few of the beers that they make on site, though.

We decided to take it kind of easy after that, so we could get a fresh start the next morning. We saw an arcade on the way to the restaurant, though, so we stopped by.
It was seriously the biggest arcade I have ever seen.

I'm not going to lie...we were on a roll! We won 1800+ tickets.
But then it was time to go back to the hotel, and get some rest so we could have plenty of energy for the next day.

Day 2 will have it's own little post. Mostly because we did so many amazing things that day, and I'd hate to overwhelm you. Check back tomorrow!

The Wedding Day

12/12/09

a day I'll never forget!

It was so great, although not flawless, everything seemed to work its self out.
As I mentioned here, my dad walked me down the aisle.
This was kind of a shock to me. I was totally not expecting it.

The wednesday prior to the wedding, Nanny told me that she asked my dad to walk me down the aisle and he ACTUALLY said yes. I did know whether to be happy, sad, or mad. She asked him without asking me if it's what I wanted--I should have been mad. But, he said yes, which was surprising, so I didn't want to call him back and refuse, I just went with the flow.

He actually showed up sober. I can't remember the last time I saw him that way, and at that point I knew I didn't make a mistake.



The ceremony seemed to go by so quickly. I didn't trip over my dress OR stumble over the words for the vows.....and I never shed a tear.

The reception was amazing. So many people came, and there was so much food! Mine and Aaron's favorite local restaurant catered [bbq], and it was delicious! I didn't eat much because I was ready to get up and socialize.
Too many people asked me if I felt any different now, and to be honest.......I don't....and I'm okay with that.

Did I mention how amazing my cake was?


And the groom's cake, too!

As if that wasn't enough sugar, we also had a candy bar :)


I am so blessed to have such good friends and family that support Aaron and I. Here are just a few:

Later that night, we decided to celebrate with our friends at a local bar.
Although there wasn't a very big turn out, it was fun.


After all the fun [and stress] of the wedding, we were ready to leave town for a while!

We're Back!

That's right...
after 5 days of fun
and 16 hours [round trip] in the car,
we are Home Sweet Home.

It was a great vacation, but I am happy to be back.
I did come home with a little cold, though. Yuck.

I decided to break the trip up into a couple of different entries, as to not overwhelm you all with stories and pictures, so expect those to come soon!

As for now, I'm going to take some nyquil and get some rest. Hope you guys are having a great weekend!!

This time we're not giving up

Let's make it last foreverrrrr.

Guess what?

I'm married!

See...
And my dad even walked me down the aisle.........
but that is a story for another day.

I just wanted to update really quick to say 'hey' and let you all know that everything went well!
Expect a longer more detailed post at a later date.

Until then...a few pictures from the crowd until I get the professional ones back.