Honeymooning: Fort Lauderdale

Also known as sleeping... a lot.  No one really tells you how exhausted you'll be, especially as a bride.  You got through months of planning, stress, tears, and joy.  The honeymoon is the time to finally breathe, which means the exhaustion hits really quick, and really hard.  As soon as we got to the hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, we crashed for about 3 hours.  I think I took a nap 5 out of the 7 days.  It was definitely needed.

We had a about 1.5 days of sun, and then the rain hit hard.  It was right before the hurricane/tropical depression hit so at least we weren't stuck in that weather.  Since it rained so much, we went to Sawgrass Mills Mall, which just happens to be the largest outlet mall in the United States. Poor Brett was such a trooper.  We probably walked at least one mile.  To make up for that shopping trip (in which Brett bought more than me), we went to see Rock of Ages.  It was a little cheesy but had some great music. 

Brett and I ate some AMAZING food.  That was my favorite part of the trip.  We stuck to seafood most of the time.  Here are a list of restaurants that we went to with a brief description.  If you are ever in Ft. Lauderdale, you should check out them out.

• Chima Brazilian Steakhouse:  I think the waiters work in teams here so we were very happy with the service.  Even if you don't like red meat (Brett says the flank steak is the best steak he's ever had), you can find fish and chicken as well.  They also had a big salad bar with soup.  They gave us a special dessert for free because it was our honeymoon.
• Coconuts: Trey, the graduate assistant for NGU, recommended Coconuts to us.  We had the best waitress here.  She was kind, funny, and extremely attentive.  Needless to say she got a great tip. The coconut shrimp did not disappoint.  I had the potato-crusted red snapper which was superb.  It came with a lightly seasoned tomato slice which was simple, but delicious.  This was probably my favorite meal.
• Big City Tavern: This restaurant is off of Las Olas Boulevard in the heart of downtown Ft. Lauderdale.  Las Olas is beautiful.  Brett and I both had burgers.  Their fries are like skinny Carolina Ale House fries. Amazing. We went here right after we landed, and actually went back for lunch before we left.  Our waitress from the first time remembered us, which I thought was pretty rare considering how many people probably go through there.
• Tom Jenkins' Bar-B-Que: You know a BBQ place is going to be good when the store hours sign says "Sundays: Gone to church, Monday: Gone fishin' "  It was a little hole in the wall that you probably would miss just driving down the road.  The atmosphere is fantastic: they have picnic tables for tables and an actual brick oven.  Brett says they have the best collard greens that he's ever had.
• Bimini Boatyard Bar and Grill: This restaurant was alright.  Honestly I don't remember what I had here so it wasn't one of my favorites.  The food wasn't terrible but it was just average.  It was close to the resort which was nice.
• The Soda Shop: This restaurant was on the Lago Mar resort property.  I'm sad we found this on the second to last day.  We ate there for breakfast two days.  Fran, the waitress, was my favorite.  When Brett grabbed my hand to pray over our breakfast, she said, "Aw Christians." Praying over a meal is not something I typically think about as witnessing.  We had some great conversations with this kind lady from Brooklyn.  We probably sat there for an hour just talking with her while she served everyone else.

Well that's a wrap-up of our honeymoon.  Here are some pictures we took while we were there.

Well Hey There 25

I had the luxury of getting to go home to my parents' place for my birthday.  Actually I had to "officially" move out of my apartment (aka turn in my keys), but we stayed for the weekend.  It was the first trip Brett and I have taken together that was longer than an hour drive.  We did well for about the first 3 hours...but then my passenger seat driving got the most of us.  Yes I may have a control problem that we are trying to work through.

Anyway, I was able to work almost a full day, and then I got to spend Saturday afternoon with my best friend Jessica.  Brett's parents also came into town for the night to celebrate my birthday.  We did my birthday meal at dinner Saturday instead of during my actual birthday, which was fine with me.  I got all kinds of goodies from the wonderful people in my life.  It was so nice to be able to spend my first birthday married with Brett and both of our parents.  Love them!

Glad I got to spend my last day of being 24 with this lady!

Please check out my father in the background!

Brett says shooting the AR-15 is the same feeling he gets on game days.

Blowing out the candles.

Check out those beautiful pearl earrings he got me! They have diamonds too.  I'm a lucky lady.

Me with my parents-in-love birthday morning (excuse the clothes).

So thankful for them.  Wedding and birthday within a month is a pretty amazing feat.

My little Asian lady.

I miss her already.

24 in Review

Actually, it's 24 years and 368 days in review.  Work has been incredibly busy with lots of late work nights so I haven't been able to blog about what all happened when I was 24.  I almost can't believe that I have been blogging for over a year.  I had said one year ago tomorrow that 24 and I were going to be friends.

I think I had an inkling that a lot would happen when I was 24, but I had no idea what all that would entail.  I got engaged, married, and moved.  Brett and NGU football made it to the third round of the Division II playoffs.  I went to Montana to visit the brother, and I went to my first and second Carolina basketball game and my first March Madness game.  It was quite a busy year.  Here is a rundown in pictures of the year that changed my life (sorry for the picture overload).

So it Begins...Feeding the Masses

I apologize that it's been almost a month since I've blogged.  Life has been crazy since the wedding.  We went to Fort Lauderdale for our honeymoon (post to follow soon).  The day after we got back, we moved my stuff down to our apartment in South Carolina.  A special thanks to Jess, Greg, Jonathan, AJ, Trey, Issac and my family for their help with my stuff.  I'm very thankful that I had that week off because it took me a whole week to unpack! We're still trying to settle in so I'll put up pictures of our new place soon.  I really like it!

On the 4th of July, Brett suggested we have some of the players over for dinner.  Quite a few of the players are here for summer school.  For the freshmen, it's their first time at school away from their parents.  He sent out a message inviting them over to our apartment for dinner.  We decided on the typical 4th of July menu: homemade hamburgers, hotdogs, cheese potatoes, baked beans, and my annual 4th of July cake.

We had planned on having 6 guys come; instead 11 of them showed up!! Luckily we had enough food for everyone. I have to tell you, I LOVED being able to serve them and make them feel like they were cared for even though they were away from home.  I also loved being able to see Brett interacting with his guys.  I've never seen him with them away from the field.  They brought out the Xbox and were talking junk to each other.  It was quite entertaining.

The fellas cleared out the food pretty quickly.  To my surprise, when they left, everyone gave me a hug.  It made me feel appreciated.  Even though I was in the kitchen almost the entire time and my ankles were swollen by the time the players left, I'm so excited to be able to serve with Brett in this ministry.  It's already teaching me to be a better wife and to be more selfless.