Show Us Your Life - Wedding Reception & Honeymoon

The theme for the blog tour from Kelly's Korner this week is wedding reception and honeymoon. We wanted a unique reception site that was not your typical hotel-type wedding. Since a destination wedding was out of the question for many reasons and we couldn't find a barn or other rustic-like setting, we 'settled' for a historic hotel south of Pittsburgh. The ballroom was absolutely beautiful: wooden floors, huge windows, beautiful fireplace, balconies (which I wish our photographer had used for more shots). The day was perfect! Here's what half of the ballroom looked like set up.

Of course it would not be a Pittsburgh wedding without a cookie table


We had a traditional cake topper and had pictures of our parents cutting their cakes (not pictured) on the table.


Our immediate honeymoon consisted of driving back to Nashville and hanging out for a few days before Mr. H had to come back for work, and I finished my master's. We did take a cruise for our 1st anniversary, though, and count that as our real honeymoon. We spent 7 days aboard the Carnival Liberty, such a treat and sooo relaxing!

Our first stop was in Key West, FL where we visited the southernmost point in the continental U.S., shopped, and did a bar tour.

Next was Grand Caymen Island where we went scuba diving (sorry - no pictures, I forgot my camera on the ship). Our last stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We climbed Dunn's River Falls, shopped a bit, and swam with the dolphins (one of my life long dreams!). They also had a walking trail with exotic animals (we both held an iguana that was bigger than my head!).

Our honeymoon was so much fun that we're planning another trip for (hopefully) next summer!

Couch to 5k Review

I have gotten into trying to become a better person as a whole: mind, body, and spirit. Well, my mind is about full from going to school for so long, and I have been on a spiritual journey since I was a child (which is continuing to grow each day). However, I had let my body go since I was unable to swim anymore (after my senior year in high school). I had always hated running, with a passion. So I dabbled with other forms of exercise, but never really stuck with one.

I had decided last summer/fall that I needed to get back into shape since the 'married 15' was creeping up on me. So I caved and started running. Originally I did the C25k program to ease my way into the world of running, and found that even the 1st round of running for 1 minute at a time was difficult for me (yeah, I was that out of shape). I was making awesome progress until my hip started killing me every time I ran (and even when I wasn't running). I had to stop. Boo, hiss. Upon returning my hip was still killing me...I turned to yoga, wii, and upper body workouts for awhile before giving everything up around the holidays.

Recently, I have been motivated to begin working out again. I started with the basic level of the C25k to get myself acclimated with running again. This time, to prevent further injuries, I stretch after a 5 minute brisk walk (and I know when I've skipped this or not stretched enough after about .5 mile). It seems to do the trick. I have veered away from sticking to the plan and loosely follow it (I run 3 or 4 times per week and do the warm up and cool down), but instead I follow my own plan. I started running as much as I could, walk for about 2 minutes, then run the same amount of time, repeat for about 30 minutes. It works wonders! I'm up to about 5 minutes at a time right now (not bad for the person that could barely make 1 minute before). I've learned that following the program is not as important as getting to the destination, and everyone has her own pace.

Now if only I could find more motivating songs for my ipod....

Tuesday Ramblings

This is my last week at home. I start my first real job next Monday, and have not been this nervous in a long time. What if I forget how to do therapy? What if I cannot manage my time effectively? sigh. Once I get started, everything will come back to me. Anyways, I want to make this week productive so that everything is in order around the house and I do not have to come home and clean (at least for the first few weeks).
Here's my list of what needs to be done:

• scrub kitchen floor
• wash walls
  
• clean bathrooms
• create mail organization system
• do all laundry
• dust
• tidy all rooms
  
• clean closets
• vacuum hardcore (move all furniture)
• finish Mr H's quilt

It doesn't seem like much when it's written, but i swear it takes me longer than most to clean (motivation has something to do with it). Wish me luck!