In other news...

Here are a few snap shots of what has been going on with us the past few months:


Dancing Lucy - Her mom takes such great pictures of her that I couldn't choose so here is one from dance class that just makes my heart smile. And the other is from her dance recital which I was able to attend and I just can't believe how grown up she looks in the photo!!

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Heath got a pipe for Christmas and has almost mastered the art of appearing 20 years older than his true age. A personal goal of his!

Brennen turned one year old! We were able to be there for his first birthday as well as his baptism. I can't believe how fast he has grown and how beautiful he is!

Don't worry, we haven't totally neglected our dogs, not yet anyhow ;)We were able to take them to the lake a couple of times so far this year and of course they loved it! We are so fortunate to be near such a nice big lake (only ten minutes!)

Lightning hit our one and only tree. We hope it survives since we can't plant any trees in the back yard due to the dog destruction.

Heath and I celebrated our first year of marriage on May 23rd. He got me this beautiful rose bush. I love it! I'm trying my best to keep it alive...the neighbors have wagered their predictions as to when it dies and what that means for our marriage. I don't know why they don't have faith in our green thumbs...hum....

Umbrella Medical Systems had a few events in their office and they decided a fooseball table was needed, along with a pop-shot basketball. Priorities.

In photo: Kurk (tech), Trent (business partner), Andrew (business development), and Heath (stud).

Lua de Mel

Our Honeymoon (Lua de Mel in Portuguese) was quite an experience! We had an awesome time and have plenty of memories. We stayed in a small fishing villiage called Buzios, it is North of Rio about two hours along the coastline. Buzios is on a peninsula and has over 25 beaches, all very different from one another. From sand color, to water color, to water temperature, to type of people, etc. So our plan was to try a different beach everyday during our full ten day adventure.

We stayed in a little hut that overlooked the beach and the ocean. It was small but confortable, it took us a few days of watching the small TV in Portuguese before we realized they had more than CNN on in English - in fact they had CSI Miami! I never thought Horatio would make our day! Since the plane from Rio to France crashed while we were in the State of Rio de Janerio we opted not to watch CNN much.

We made friends with Lua, she was a great dog, always at our side, would wait outside of store fronts for us while we shopped. We made friends. She was also friends with many people, we caught her cheating on us a few times.


We found our favorite beach 6 days into the trip. It was the day after we celebrated my birthday which landed on May 31st, directly in the middle of our Honeymoon :) We spent the whole day celebrating and then the following day went to Praia da Tartaruga (Turtle Beach) and had a ball!! The sun was bright, the water was warm, the drinks were delish, and the people were a blast. About halfway through the day I started wondering what day it was, as I was trying to convince myself it was June 1st I realized that it didn't add up. So I asked Heath, he had no idea what day it was. So we asked our server (aka, local guy fetching our drinks in between bouts in the water with his friends and flirting with girls) what day it was, he said he thought it was the 28th of May. We knew THAT was wrong so he asked the bartender for us. It was May 31st. My Birthday. The day after we spent the day celebrating.

The last day of our trip we spent one night on Copacabana Beach in Rio. My long lost Austrailian friend Sonya met us out for dinner. Sonya and I were exchange students in Brazil together ten years ago and we haven't seen each other since. It was amazing seeing her, she hasn't changed a bit! And neither have I apparently ;) We had a GREAT time with her at the Brazilian Churrascaria and the beautiful Rio beach the next day.




















Highlights from the trip: experiencing a water taxi, meeting Lua, re-connecting with Sonya, celebrating my birthday twice, drinking caiparinhas every day, falling in love with each other all over again, getting a message on the beach, the private boat tour of the beaches, the Cuban restaurant that had its own humidor and cigar lounge, reading a book under an umbrella on the beach while it rained, and speaking Portuguese again.


Lowlights from the trip: the 'stomach' issues, not being able to flush toilet paper, choosing restaurants based on the cleanliness of the bathrooms, having to decide between the supernastybeachbumbathroom which was locked with a chain and padlock in the back storage shed connected to the beach bar, or the ocean, and finally deciding on the bathroom due to the children in the water, then experiencing the supernastybeachbumbathroom, realizing we will be starting our marriage off in therapy becuase of the supernastybeachbumbathroom. The flight back involving three planes, 20+ hours, and still getting over our 'stomach' issues.

BEIJOS!! Tchau:)

The Day Arrived

Have I mentioned how much I want to thank everyone who helped for making our day wonderful? Well here I go again. It was perfect, we really had a wonderful day and we couldn't have asked for better people to share it with.

Here are some highlights:)


The decor was perfect, thanks to all my creative helpers, I could have never come up with this without you. Notice the use of the wine bottles ;)




















This was a WONDERFUL idea that my WONDERFUL mother-in-law and best friend came up with. A nice way to remember our loved ones. Sheet music from "She'll be Comin 'Round the Mountin" in memory of Heath's Grandma Bev, my grandpa Ray's overalls, my Grandma Edna's quilt, and my grandpa Bob's hand-carved cribbage board. And a family tree complete with pictures of our parents and grandparents. A true gift. Thank you.











Then it was time to get ready, we both got ready at the hotel and took pictures ahead of time. Here is us at the hotel just before we left for the wedding, what a beautiful day!










Our wedding party, what a good looking bunch! And Hooper, Brennen and Lucy did awesome :) (so did their parents!)

I adore this picture, Heath loves his mama and she loves her boys. I'm so glad to be a part of it :)

Doesn't he clean up nice!! I'm such a lucky daughter:) Out of all the professional pictures this was taken by a guest, and its the best one. I just wish I could remember which guest took this one!





This was our little secret, after the ceremony we escaped back behind the barn to catch our breaths, probably the best idea we had during the whole process! After those crazy vows we needed a moment and this was the perfect moment. Our wonderful helpers Miles and Linda set this up for us, food and drinks included!

The hay ride was a nice touch, the kids really seemd to like it. I think we had over 25 kids there and we tried to get some of them in this picture. From left to right: Hooper, Aiden, Lily, Lucy, Cash, Jayden, Ramzy, Bowen, Tyler, Naner, Andrew, Brennen, and Cole. They all make me smile :)

I couldn't help but add this to the end. Lucy's reward for being an awesome flower girl. Thanks Lu!

To Rehearse and Dine

Thank you to everyone who took pictures of our rehearsal dinner, especially Lamar and Megan, I think most of these came from you. Here are some favorites:

Shiloah being a complete goof while Heath hugs their grandmother.




Our ring bearer and flower girl. Typical: Hooper being super sweet and Lucy pulling out Taz. I love these kids!




Roth Cousins :)





Aaron and Jana, super cute shot!


And my favorite photography moment. Somehow two different people caught the same moment from different angles.




Thanks again to everyone for making it all happen :)

Wedding Week

I have been attempting to make a video similar to the one I made for the bachelorette party, it didn't go so well. So instead I will stick to pictures. Since I am a full two months behind I need to stop fiddling with it and get moving! So sorry for the delay!
We had a lot of help that week and I can't thank you enough! You know who you are!!! Here are some fun snapshots:



Theresa's sister Maria came down early to do some mad flower arranging, she did a WONDERFUL job. Theresa and Brennen helped, they were quite a team.



Jana and Jens helped out with the vases and ribbons. Meanwhile Heath displayed his support :) You can't see it, but he had an ice pack on his back so I guess he is off the hook....



You can also see a little bit of the inside of the house if you haven't had a chance to visit. We like windows :)

The Bachelorette Party

The bachelorette party was one week before the wedding and it was at our house. Heath took Jens to a ball game with Ben and the ladies started showing up. We had good food, good drinks, good people, and secret entertainment!

My good friend Shellie had this idea to have a friend of hers, Shannon, who writes music, write a song for me and Heath and perform it at the bachelorette party. Of course he protested but Shellie is pretty pursuasive! He showed up much later in the evening when the fun was getting underway and I was told there was a stripper at the door. It is all on video but I will save that for special requests. Basically I was very confused and once I saw him and his guitar on the front step I realized he wasn't there to strip and maybe he was going to play some music. So naturally I asked him if he could do Michael Jackson.

Before you watch the video you may want to know a little side story to the choice of lyrics. You see, Heath first decided he was going to marry me about 5 years ago when we went out for a night on the town with our friend Reed. Heath was nice enough to finish my drink for me at the end of the night and paid for it later. So while he was in the bathroom haveing a serious conversation with God, I layed down on the floor beside the door to make sure he was ok.

A couple other things: Our new house is in Smithville, and we don't fight much but when we do it is usually about cleaning.

Here are the lyrics:
Sometimes you’ll argue
like a game of cat and mouse,
It may be nothing more than
whose gonna cleaning the house.
But when the yellins done,
you’ll go back for more, Of that hot,
hot loving on the bathroom floor

It was a match made in heaven
This was meant to be
He had too much to drink
But wasn’t in there to pee
And you, you were waiting
patiently all night outside the door
When you fell in love…
On the bathroom floor

You’ll stand by your man
when the going gets tough.
And, when you start your own business,
know it’s gonna be rough.
But if you love him, support him,
and just sit back and chill.
You could be fighting about
whose cleaning your new house in Smithville

It was a match made in heaven
This was meant to be
He had too much to drink
But wasn’t in there to pee
And you, you were waiting
patiently all night outside the door
When you fell in love…
On the bathroom floor

We know you’ll stay together
‘til you’re old and gray
You'll stand by each other
baby come what may.
But if it doesn’t work out
and you say goodbye,
We’re thinking Tanner maybe might be your guy.

It was a match made in heaven
This was meant to be
He had too much to drink
But wasn’t in there to pee
And you, you were waiting
patiently all night outside the door
When you fell in love… On the bathroom floor



Thank you ladies for a great night! :)

Dumpster Diving

HI! We're back! So sorry for the long delay, we had a few things to take care of the past couple of weeks. ;) I will start from the last post and give you a blog by blog update. Hopefully by the time we get through all of the updates we will have professional wedding photos back from the photographer :)

Lets start with: My Big Redneck Wedding - Dumpster Diving for centerpieces.

One of my bridesmaid's (Jana) came all the way over from Germany to participate in our wedding. To make a trip like that you have to make it worth your while, so Jana came to America for 25 days. I was very excited to have her help :) I warned her that the day after she arrived we had a big day planned. So she arrived on Thursday night, I went to work on Friday and she rested up from her jet lag all day. Then Saturday came. Oh boy! Here was our schedule:

8:00 a.m. - Gomer's Liquor to order alcohol for the wedding. I was so excited they were open so early! I'm sure there are plenty of other people out there that were excited too....they are called alcoholics. Jana and I spent one hour at Gomers selecting the beer, wine, and random liquor. The good thing about Gomer's is that they take back anything you don't open :) So we over-ordered. They owner said we would be returning at least 1/3 of what we ordered. Turns out we ran out of beer two hours into the wedding and somehow forgot to set out the wine. So we have about 80 bottles of wine in our garage :) Nothing is being returned.

9:00 a.m. - go to bank

9:15 a.m. - head towards the mall - stop by every Wal-Mart we can find to clean them out of green ribbon

10:00 a.m. - go to mall and return 5 bridesmaid dresses Jana didn't need

11:00 a.m. - Meet Megan and Lu at Costco to get utensils and such for reception. We were 9 minutes late. (Megan made sure I was aware of this)

12:00 a.m. - go to Sam's Club in case they had a better selection (and Megan got a Sam's Club card) They did not have a better selection

12:30 p.m. - Eat at Applebee's so Jana doesn't faint. Meg and Lu came with :)

1:30 p.m. - head back towards the Northland stopping by Wal-Mart's on the way

2:00 p.m. - Arrive at the recycling center. Theresa had this great idea to decorate the tables at the reception with clear wine bottles. All I had to do was come up with 100 clear wine bottles for free!! So we showed up at the recycling center, found the massive dumpster full of clear glass and dove in. 40 minutes later we had made a lot of friends, heard lots of congrats on the wedding, and had 120 clear wine bottles.







3:00 p.m. - head home to unload car (stinky old wine bottle stench)

4:00 p.m. - meet Ross and Tawny at the wedding site to spy on a wedding

5:00 p.m. - make a last minute stop to my seamstress' house to get Jana's dress altered

5:30 p.m. - stop by liquor store to get some wine for the night (tons of wine bottles, but no wine)

6:00 p.m - meet Kathy at the house to begin our project



Middle of project...after we emptied a few more bottles...



2:00 a.m. - Mission accomplished



I have great friends :)

Stay tuned for pictures of the wine bottles decorated, and on the tables...

Suits us!

We managed to put off getting Heath's suit until the last minute. Notice how I said "we", I am totally all over this 'two shall become one' event coming up.

We ran across an amazing option to get a suit custom made for Heath at Bachrach. The store recently decided to do custom suits to the every detail. From the fabric, to the lining, to the buttons, to the angle of the buttons, to the pocket style, etc. We made an appointment on a Saturday when they opened and Mindy was there waiting for us. She had a notecard with our names on it, bottled water for each of us, and a white rose for me! It was so personal and fun.


Heath was quite overwhelmed with all of the decisions that he had to make for a full hour. Reminder: these are the ONLY decisions he has had to make for the wedding. Poor guy, a whole hour. ;)

The best part of the whole experience was that the suit was within budget for a whopping total of $536! Awesome price for a custom suit that he can wear for work as well.

The Dress

So my wedding dress finally showed up. Just for the sake of memories I will tell the story of how this dress was purchased...

Theresa was living in Minneapolis across from the Mall of America when I was ready to dress shop. How convenient that Ms. Shopper herself was located next to the biggest mall in the country. This is definitely a scary thing for me. But I made the trip up to see her (and my wonderful Uncle Greg too!) and to attempt my biggest fear - wedding dress shopping. Ick.

After many try-ons and attempts at fancy bridal galleries we happened to stumble upon The Chapel of Love. Seriously, that is really the name. And it just so happens that it is what it seems, a one stop wedding shop. You can buy your gown AND get married, all in the same day. Its like Vegas, but on the 4th floor of the Mall of America.

So in my true cheesy fashion I happened to love all of their gowns and had no problems finding a bunch to try on. But it didn't matter. I tried on one dress and loved it. But it gets better people! It was only $344 AND it was 2 sizes smaller than what I had been trying on! Bonus. Sold. Most importantly - I was done shopping!

So six months later (and the first order going to another bride...grrrr) my dress was delivered yesterday at work. Yes, at work, since I wanted to be sure it didn't sit on my rainy steps all day (and it did rain!). Here it is!



hehehehe....I know - it really isn't that funny ;)