Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

A couple months ago, we booked this trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, because we knew with all the stuff coming up this year we just wanted to RELAX! Well I think it was the first time ever in either of our lives that we followed threw. On our vacation to the Dominican, WE DID NOTHING! Our schedule was, wake up, get breakfast, get chairs, sit by the pool, eat lunch, sit by the pool, go shower, eat dinner, maybe watch a show and GO TO SLEEP! It was truly amazing, we did nothing, and I could not believe it. We were there for SEVEN NIGHTS, and we did not get bored doing nothing. Jerods sister, and parents went a long with us and it was so much fun. It was the most relaxing vacation that we have ever been on and we are excited for the next one.

Something we realized early in our trip is that the Dominican Republic was not an American attraction. We went to a show one night and were the only Americans in the room! Most of the English speaking people were from Canada, and they even spoke Spanish (America is so behind on the bilingual thing). There were many people from all over South America and Western Europe. It was a different experience and has made me extremely determined to learn Spanish fluently, even more than before. Melissa (Jerods Sister) is getting married in Costa Rica in December so we are going to enroll in classes together. Her fiancé is bilingual and we want to be able to communicate with his family. Therefore, that is our challenge for the next couple of months.

So the story behind the “Unofficial engagement photos.” At our hotel there was a place you could sign up for free photo sessions, and Jerod and I took complete advantage of that. It was free, we just had to pay for the pics we wanted, and they turn out great! We love them, well I love most of them. The photographer was really into making you pose all sexy, and I do not have a sexy face at all!! So I mostly laughed when it came to the sexy ones, but my sis in law took beautiful ones! Here are a couple of pics from the trip!
Side note: Melissa and I hated the food, but we are picky!

Fam on the dock Girls before dinner

One of Melissas' "professional" pics

The photographer made us ROLL on the sand, I was acutally in pain!

One of our favorites!

Hand Painted Easter

This is a bunny given to me by my future sister in law. She is getting married in Decemeber and went to New York to find her wedding dress this past weekend. I had to take a picture of this bunny before I ate it! Its hand painted!

Not the woman I expected to be

I have been engaged for a month now, and I have found it to be a very interesting experience. Since Jerod has a 13-month deployment to Iraq, we are waiting to get married until he returns, I have not had to do anything other than set our date. Well, I did look up Spas to treat my wedding party to a Spa day, and I did look up cigar rollers, and lounge furniture because that is what is important. I did ask some fellow St. Ann parishioners that have gotten married there before me for some advice on what to do. I guess because it is still so far away I do not feel so much pressure to book everything, but I have picked out a couple of FAVS that I have had my eye on from past weddings to contact. Anyway, my point is that I have realized that I am not an “OH MY GOSH” girl, even though growing up we are socialized to dream of our PEEERRRFECT wedding. My extremely generous partner did put a nice ring on my finger. So when people I have no seen in a while notice it, they say, Are you engaged? In a pitch so high, that I think dogs could hear it. I respond very nonchalantly, “yeah.” I have realized people do not like that response, because they usually say back, are you not excited? Well yeah, I am excited I am marrying my partner and best friend I just don’t feel the need to be like “OH MY GOSH IM ENGAGED! WOO-HOO” every time I see someone. I also realize that I am not as Type A as I thought, sure I want things to go well on for our wedding, but I am not a bridezilla, nor plan on turning into one. I appreciate the girls who are really excited and wedding is always on their mind, it is a very exciting time and over joy is to be expected, so I don’t want to knock them. Nevertheless, Marriage is a privilege that Jerod and I are lucky enough to be able to participate in. I love Jerod and he is everything I have ever wanted in someone, he’s my rock and best friend, and even though he is my political, social and religious opposite, (but he’s starting to see the light in many issues), we work together, additionally we will raise our kids to be flaming liberal Catholics (Side note: our priest looks like SANTA! How cool will it before our kids to see Santa every Sunday…haha!) Anyway, I decided that this picture would be my big WOO-HOO I am engaged and display my internal excitement! Therefore, if I forget to tell you that I am engaged, I apologize in advance, but at the end of the day, our commitment of a lifetime together means more to me than planning a wedding.

See I am SO EXCITIED!

SURPRISE your 28! YOU'RE OLD!

So, every year I try to make Jerods birthday special because he ALWAYS makes mine over the top. The problem with Jerod is that he has everything and he is hard to surprise. Well I go down to Kansas City every weekend to spend time at our new house and hang out with him. I decided that I would throw a little surprise party at our house on the Monday night of the championship basketball game. (Because we have BIG TVs in our house, we have no furniture but we made sure to have TVs!) I had Cory (Jerods Brother) call Jerod and invite himself over the watch the game, that way I knew Jerod would be at the house. Then I emailed some of his friends to show up at the house at 7 pm. Jerods whole family was in on the surprise as well. So my normal routine is to go down to KC on Thursday then leave Monday morning at 6 am to get back to class. Well I get up on Monday at 6 am and act like I am going back to Columbia for class, but I really go to the dealership to get my oil changed. Jerod made me feel guilty for leaving him on his last birthday before he leaves for Iraq. But I was thinking man is he going to feel like a jerk once he finds out what I was doing! Well for some reason we could not get Jerod to leave the freakin house this day. So I am running all the errands, Jerods Mom goes to pick up Jerod birthday cake an hour away (THIS CAKE LADY IS AWESOME! Cherry has convinced her to make the trip to Dallas do our wedding cake, YAY!) Anyway, we finally get him out of the house to set up the surprise, and was he super surprised to come home and see me? Well kind of, I had left my FREAKING email open on a message I sent to our best friend Kayrin, and the title said, Jerods Surprise Party…So once again, he knew! But he still played along, and the fam came over and some of our friends and it was a ton of fun, and the first official thing we have had at our house. We had to have Kent and Cherry (Jerods Parents) bring chairs from the Auction building so people could sit somewhere, cause we still have no furniture. But the funniest part of this story is I bought Jerod a stand to go under the TV down by the bar, but I made him buy it back from me because I needed the money for other things. Therefore, he bought his own birthday present! Haha!

AWESOME 3D Scooby Cake!

My Sweet Boy!
Singing Happy Birthday!

Mi casa Su casa

We are setting here in our hotel room in the Dominican Republic because it is pouring down rain, so we thought we would let everyone know that we have officially closed on our house.
We were originally looking for a nice starter home, but I think this has turned into a little more than that. For those of you that do not know where or what Creekmoor is, it is a golf course located in Raymore, Mo and is at this point a semi-private golf course community. That house we live in is located in the Westbrook Villas. We figure since I was going to be gone for a year this would be the best location for a few different reasons. First, Jess won’t have to mow that lawn. Second, Jess won’t have to water the lawn. Third, Jess won’t have to shovel snow, basically she can be lazy. These are all amenities that come along with our HOA. Also, along with those amenities comes my favorite part, GOLF!!!! Because, I am trying to get on the PGA tour, living here will help my chances, ok maybe not but I still love golf. The area has its own elementary school. The club house has tennis courts, a weight room and a pool, Jess swears she will be swimming every day.

It' Officially OUR House!

So the first night we spent in our house want Friday, we have only a bed, a TV and couch. We eat our meals on the floor, which is a great bonding experience. However it is the coolest feeling knowing that all of this is yours!