Christmas

It is December 30 and I am pretty sure that my Christmas holidays did not end until late last night because we were still spending time and celebrating with family.

We had a very family filled Christmas this year, which is exactly how I like it.

On Christmas Eve we left Grants and headed to Socorro. We hung out at my parents house and then met up with our wedding photographer and picked up ALL 816 pictures from our wedding. That was my Christmas present. We spent the night at Ryan's mom's house and opened presents with Ryan's family that morning. My new sister in laws are 10 so they thoroughly enjoyed opening all of their presents. My favorite moment was Katie, who wants to be nurse some day, got Grey's Anatomy scrubs and this toy surgery kit. She sat on the living room floor in her scrubs practicing surgeries for hours. It was very cute.

After presents, some Rock Band playing (Ryan's brother got that for Christmas) and a quick lunch we headed over to see Ryan's dad and his family. We only stopped there for about an hour, but we got to see everyone and showed all of them our wedding pictures.

We then headed to my parent's house, where it was also my dad's birthday. We had an awesome lasagna dinner with my parents, Aunt and Uncle and some cousins and we opened a ton more presents. Ryan left Christmas evening because he, unfortunately had to work on Friday.

I stayed at my parents house in Socorro until Saturday because there was an alumni soccer game on Saturday. This year was probably the worst alumni game since I graduated because hardly anyone showed up. Literally, there were 5 alumni girls that showed up... how can you play a game like that? We played a pick up game with some of the boys for about an hour and then called it quits.

After the game, Ryan's mom, sisters and brother took me back to Grants, where they stayed with us until last night. We had soo much fun with them! We took them sledding and we had soo much fun. I had not been sledding in years, probably at least 10 years. My tailbone is still hurting a bit, but everyone had a really good time.

Ryan took his four wheeler up the mountain and was giving his sisters sled rides. Here is a picture of the girls on one of their sled rides :



Ryan's brother also brought his rock band game, which we played for hours on end. Man my sister in law Rebecca is soo damn good at the drums! It is insane. We ended the weekend with them last night at an arcade restaurant here. I am not going to lie, it is a pretty cool place to eat... Ryan and I have gone there just by ourselves so we knew his sisters would love it and they did!

Although I had a blast this holiday season, I must admit I am a bit happy to be home alone with just my husband now... I mean we are newlyweds! :) Hope you all had a great holiday!

Overwhelmed with pictures?

For our wedding reception we had a cute little camera on every table at the reception for our guests to take pictures with.

So my mom was going to get all 18 of these developed while we were on our honeymoon, but she gave me the bag of cameras this weekend and said she got overwhelmed when she tried to take them to get developed. I laughed it off.

I just returned from taking the cameras to Walmart and I am now overwhelmed. Not at getting them developed (although it was a pain in the ass to write my name on 18 envelopes) but more on the amount of pictures that we are going to get.... What the hell am I going to do with all of them and what are they even of?

I have a feeling we will be sending people pictures with their thank you cards, because I don't know what else to do with them.

ps... it is snowing again.

2008

2008 was quite possibly the most eventful year of my entire life.

The year started off in Socorro. I was working for the BLM there and loving every minute of my job. Ryan was finishing his last semester of college and we were living together in my grandma’s house. Ryan had all already accepted a job as a mechanical engineer in Grants, NM.

In February our lives changed. For Valentine’s day Ryan took me to Jemez Springs, NM where we stayed at a romantic bed and breakfast and Ryan popped the question. We came back to Socorro engaged with a December wedding date set and an exciting future ahead.



In April we went house hunting in Grants, NM. I immediately fell in love with the second house we saw and two more visits and a week later we were filling out the paperwork for our very first home. By May we were new homeowners.

In May Ryan graduated from New Mexico Tech with his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and I had accepted a job as a park ranger with the BLM in Grants, NM.



We moved into our house in June and we both started our new jobs and our new lives in Grants. We lucked out and we both have really good jobs, our neighbors are fabulous and our house is extraordinary.

In August we took a trip to New York. I have always wanted to go and see where my mom and her family grew up, plus it was the last season for the New York Yankees in their stadium, the House that Ruth built. We took a whirl wind trip to New York, flying in on a Friday and flying out on a Monday, sightseeing as much as possible, visiting my mom’s old neighborhood and attending a Yankee game. It was an awesome trip!


Also in August my beloved grandmother took a turn for the worse. She had been battling congestive heart disease for about a year and ended up back in the hospital. After the hospital visit everything went downhill and September 2008 was probably my worst September yet. She passed away October 1, 2008. She was an amazing woman who I admired greatly and I will miss tremendously.



In November Ryan and I decided to put my cooking skills to the test and host Thanksgiving this year. His dad, step mom, sisters and brother came, along with my parents and everything turned out really nice. I am definitely proud of my cooking skills and feel very confident about hosting many more great get togethers at our house.

And of course the biggest event of the year was our wedding. After 10 months of planning and 6 years of dating, Ryan and I finally tied the knot! Our wedding was perfect. The ceremony went off without a hitch, the reception was fabulous and overall we just enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed spending our special day with all of our family and friends.



2008 was an overall great year. We had our ups and our downs this year, but we took more risks this year than we probably ever have. We put our faith in every decision that we made and just took some leaps and we landed on our feet every time.

We hope you all have a great holiday season, here’s to 2009 and all of the great adventures that next year will bring!

God Bless,
The Waggoners

mobile

I am mobile. We got new phones 2 days before the wedding and mine has the internet. So now when I am working in the booneys, like I am right now, I can still check and write on my blog. Flippin sweet. :) Just thought I'd share my excitement.

Report Cards

While we off getting hitched and honeymooning, I dropped off the animals to get boarded, which I have never ever done before. I was really nervous because they are like my children and I did not want to leave them, at all.

I called and checked on them like 3 or 4 times and I was sooo excited to get home and see them.

We left them at the Canine Country Club and the Feline Inn on the Westside of Albuquerque and can I just say....I was super impressed. They give you report cards of how your animals did on their vacation stay. Plus, Bailey did Doggy Daycare, which was 4 hours (or 8 if you choose) of supervised play time with all the other dogs. We put her in daycare every third day we were gone and she got report cards for every day that she did the day care.

I was soo excited about these report cards, I put them up on my fridge like my real kids!

Eric's was pretty accurate, it said that he was shy and kept to himself, but was a very sweet boy and he ate very well.... that's my Eric.

All of Bailey's report cards were hilarious. Everything from Teacher's Pet in daycare to Social butterfly. They said she was very well behaved, she took commands well, very well socialized, and loved getting pats from the counselors at day care. It genuinely seemed like she had a really great time and I kinda knew she would because she just loves other dogs to death. I guess she picked a dog out of every day care session that was her favorite dog and she played with that dog the most, while still being a social butterfly. I can only imagine how funny it would have been to watch her with all the other dogs and how tired she must have been after each day care session.

After we got home Eric wouldn't leave my side, he had to be touching me at all times.. he would sleep either in my lap or right next to me with his paw on me the whole time. If I left the room, he would freak out. Poor little feller. Bailey on the other hand was just excited to see that we had snow when we got home! lol.

Aww... my precious furry children. I wuv them!

Christmas is next week???

We just got back from our honeymoon on Sunday and yesterday I did something, looked at my calendar and I was in shock. Christmas is next week!! What? Where did December go? Oh, that's right... I got married and went on a honeymoon for a week. But really, is it really next week?!

Sigh... Have I Christmas shopped yet?? Well... not really. BUT I told Ryan yesterday that all of our souvenirs we bought for our family... will have to be their Christmas presents instead. The only other presents we've already bought are a present for each of my parents and a present for Ryan's brother. However, Christmas is also my dad's birthday and the 21 is Ryan's mom's birthday. That is 2 more presents we need to come up with. Have I wrapped anything? Not at all... But yesterday when I didn't feel like cleaning my house I set up Christmas and there is like 5 inches of snow on the ground, so hopefully I will be in the Christmas spirit soon.

Christmas is just a little skewed this year. Christmas cards? Nope, everyone will be getting Thank you cards instead! lol Side note.... I get my pictures from the photographer next week... I think it would be really cool to send one of his pictures as a thank you card to all of our guests... do you think people will be mad if they get their thank yous a little later because of that? Or I may just continue with the traditional thank yous... I am just not sure.


Anyway... Happy holidays already! And I need to do some shopping, wrapping and baking ASAP! :)

Things I learned in Hawaii

Aloha means hello and goodbye

Mahalo means Thank you

Surfing isn't a hobby, it is a lifestyle

Sea turtles are EVERYWHERE

Seals can sleep through anything (including people in their face taking pictures)




Ryan is allergic to Papaya (we had a tropical fruit smoothie and he broke out in hives)

Everyone is very relaxed, especially on the North Shore

Honolulu is HUGE and I didn't really care for it... except maybe their outdoor mall... now that was bad ass

Hawaiian snow cones are literally the best things on earth! (A scoop of vanilla ice cream, covered with a huge mound of shaved ice, with 3 flavors of your choice, drizzled with vanilla.... mmm)



Pineapples are used on every meal... and I loved it! (Chicken grilled with pineapple, a bacon, pineapple burger, and every tropical drink has a pineapple slice with it... delish, we even smuggled a pineapple home)

Waves are insane on the north shore and soo very powerful

Catamarans are the very smooth and I probably didn't need my Dramamine for that ride!

Whales don't always cooperate for whale watchers :( We didn't see any

When it rains in Hawaii, it pours... Oahu got over 15 inches while we were there.

Along with that, when it rains like crazy the ocean turns brown from all the run off for about 5 miles out into the ocean. Crazy.

But because it rains soo much, It is soo unbelievable beautiful and green Everywhere!



Sand hurts... I got blisters on my feet from walking along the beach

Submarine rides are pretty damn cool... regardless of how nervous I was to go 100 feet below the water.

And of course, the sunsets are absolutely AMAZING

Critical

Is it just me??? I feel like I am just soo very critical of myself.. especially looking at myself in pictures. It is soo bad because up until yesterday, with all of my friends and everyone uploading pictures of my wedding... I didn't even like myself in any of them to put on my profile. Last night my Aunt and Uncle sent me a ton of pictures with their bad ass camera.... I actually liked several of them, but still picked myself apart.

There are several things that are driving me nuts about all the pictures.

Number 1, My bangs!!! Ugh. My hair dresser didn't spray them because I had to get my makeup done right after my hair. So I was supposed to fix my bangs and spray them after my makeup.... I forgot to. I remembered while we were taking pictures before the wedding and went back to the hotel to fix my bangs before the wedding... I didn't have hairspray and everyone else was already at the church. So now in every picture I look straight at my bangs and get disgusted.

Number 2, My right eye. Ryan tells me I am crazy. Ever since my crazy eye infection two years ago... my right eye, is smaller than my left... like a lot smaller looking and it drives me up... I think it is actually my eye lid is just closed a bit more... I don't know.. but I hate it... what a stupid thing to look at, right??

Number 3, I thought my dress was super flattering when I got it... looking at the pictures I feel like it makes me look fat. Like I am hiding a pregnancy or something.


I know I am crazy... and it just sounds so crazy, but it is true. That is what I do when I look at my wedding pictures. I hope I will like my photographers pictures a little more.. maybe my bangs will at least look better in those!!

Aloha!!

Who would have thought I'd be blogging in Hawaii??? I didn't. (I probably shouldn't have brought my lap top, but it has come in handy with finding directions and phone numbers.) But it is only 8:15 here, 3 hours earlier than New Mexico time... Ryan is already sleeping and I am trying to get on the Hawaii time zone schedule because this morning we got up at 4 in the morning (7 NM time.)

Anyway... My wedding = Awesome! lol. I didn't really stress at all... Well... I lie, I stressed when my veil fell off before I even made it to the church and also when we locked ourselves out of the hotel room before the wedding... but my bad ass maid of honor kicked off her heels and ran barefoot to the hotel front desk to let us back in... lol. I love Melanie.

But for the most part I was pretty laid back and I think because of that I was able to enjoy our day that much more. I can NOT wait to get my pictures back because I know that they came out AMAZING. In fact the only reason I keep logging on to my computer here on our honeymoon is to check and see if our friends have posted any wedding pictures yet. :)

Ok now, let me talk about Hawaii... It is also amazing, but it was the longest freaking plane flight in the entire world. We both could not wait to get off the plane!! That part pretty much sucked... I may not ever come back unless it is in a private jet. But I am going to drug myself to sleep on the flight home to make it a bit more bearable.

Yesterday when we got in we were pretty damn tired. We ordered room service and went to bed. This morning... since we were up so freakin' early we saw the most amazing sunset out of our balcony. I took pictures.. it was fabulous!

Perhaps the strangest thing and one of the most common things we have seen since we got here.... Seals. I never expected to see them here, at all. But I guess they just come off the ocean and fall asleep on the beach. I swear we saw at least 4 of them today and I actually almost stepped on one. They just lay there and ignore all the people taking pictures of them and sleep in the sun and sand. crazy.

Today we explored the resort, played in the water and boogie boarded. To my surprise it is kind of rocky and corally here... so Ryan and I both has bruises and scratches all over our legs from Boogie boarding, but it was a ton of fun.

Tomorrow we are going Kayaking, which should be a blast. (Don't worry we went to a store today and bought SPF 50 sunscreen) We are planning a full day's trip on the Kayak and we may do some snorkeling while we are out. I really want to see some sea turtles! :)

Wednesday we are going on a submarine ride... which I am a little nervous about (claustrophobic) and then we are going on a sunset dinner cruise. :)

Thursday we are getting up early and going Whale watching on a catamaran! I am VERY excited about this. I talked to the captain today and he said there is a pod of whales that he has been taking people to all week and when we are going is going to be the best time to see them. He also said that he might take us to see some sharks... I cannot wait!

Friday... Jet skiing and horseback riding on the beach as well as exploring some parks.

Saturday... I don't know... Honolulu and shopping?? Then we come home.


Anyway... that is my update...

I may update more later this week... or I may just wait until I go back. Who knows.

Peace from Hawaii

Thursday = 2 days = stress

Oh My Gosh! I have soo much I have to do tomorrow (Thursday)!!! I am going to wake up normal, like I am going to work (even though I have the day off) just so I can get everything finished.

I desperately need to clean (don't want to come home to a dirty house), I need to throw out my flower arrangements from Thanksgiving, Do tons of dishes and clean out the fridge. I need to do laundry. I need to work on the front yard... still haven't finished, but we are SOO freakin' close and I'd love to have it finished before we left. I need to make sure I got all of my presents in gear for my bridal party. I need to print out maps for my next door neighbors, so they can get to the wedding and for us so we can get to the resort. Ummm... I need to finish packing, I need to stop by my "office" and fill out a request for leave form. What else... I know I am missing something.

Oh yes, And I have to do ALL of that before 2:30 because Ryan is getting off of work early so we can go to Alb and get his tux and our Fabulous New Cell Phones! Then drive back to Grants, only to drive back to Alb first thing in the morning. lol Aye!


I can't wait for tomorrow to be OVER!

That is my rant... wish me luck tomorrow. Hopefully Friday should be a piece of cake... besides dropping off my furry children at the boarding place... I am totally going to cry and freak out. I don't want to leave them. :( But after I get over that I go pick up Melanie at the airport and then we have a Manicure and Pedicure apt! I can't wait. We have some major catching up to do!

Thoughts??

Accomplished

Man it isn't even noon and I have already:

Called the courthouse to see what time they closed Friday to ensure we will get there in time to get the marriage license

Called the photographer to see if we could take pictures early (We can! And he was very excited about it because the light is better.)

Called the caterer and made sure he got our final number of people, plus make sure he ordered some champagne!! :D

Called the makeup lady to tell her where to go and what time.

Called the Tux place to see if we could pick up tuxes early

AND called the honeymoon resort to see if we could do a late check in the day we get to Hawaii!!!



Wow. That is insane.