AUS Airpot Tour

So Mark got home last night from working all week. He was supposed to be able to come home each night, but it was too much, so he decided to stay with my patents Tues and Weds nights. I was going to work from home so I could be with him for awhile but he informed me he had to go to a AUS Airport tour as part of his serving on the AUS airport council. So I tagged along~! (I also would like to point out that I got up at 6:30am to go workout before hand, pretty sure that's NEVER happened before!)

Two other people from the council were supposed to join us but didn't end up showing, so it was just Mark me and the tour guide! We got to drive around all of the taxi ways, which is crazy when planes are landing and taking off mere feet from you! We saw the fire plans they have stationed there for the next few months. Below is one of them:  

We also got to go over to the Airport fire station and get a tour there. The fire trucks are quite different so they can get close and move around any fires/crash sites while still pumping water. (still can't figure out why my pictures are always sideways...)

The coolest part was going to the top of the control tower! This pic is on the deck they have around the top! We got to stay in there for awhile and listen to the dispatchers (or whatever they are called) talk to planes etc. it was really cool and a great view!

Tonight I am going with my friend Leslie to the Junior League's Christmas Affair. It is a Christmas shopping bazaar they have at the Austin Palmer Event center. We went last year and they have a lot of really great stuff! I have to keep myself from buying all of the adorable little baby things!!! :) Speaking of that my brother and sis in law find out the sex of their baby next week! I'm rooting for a boy, need to balance things out!

After that Mark and I have a dinner pizza date and tomorrow we are going to the Texas A&M football game in College Station! Malinn and Sandy (my moms best friend and her husband) have season tickets, had 2 extra this game and invited us! We are so excited! I haven't been back since I graduated in 2007! (Technically 2006 was the last time I lived there since I moved to Austin, and only went back in May 07 for the grad ceremony!) I'll post pics of the game when we get home. Gig 'em Ags!

Happy 1 Month Anniversary to my amazing husband!

Today marks one month of marriage for Mark and I! It has been the greatest month of my life, and I can't imagine my life without him! Unfortunately he had to leave at the crack of dawn to drive down to Houston. He is staying with my parents tonight and tomorrow night because the flight schedules are full back to Austin both nights! I'll miss him! :( I am sure we will celebrate this weekend though.

This weekend Mark and I are going to the Aggie football game! We are so excited that Malinn and Sandy invited us to go with them. I hate to admit this but I haven't been back to College Station since I graduated back in May 2007, and even then I had moved out of CS in December 2006, so its been almost 5 years! Crazy how time flies. The game is early, at 11am for TV air time, so we will need to get up super early to drive out there, but it will be worth it! Mark is really excited, he loves the Texas College Football atmosphere. I couldn't find any of my old Aggie shirts, and Mark wanted one too. I was in Old Navy a few weeks ago and they were selling them! Crazy huh? So we have adorable matching Aggie shirts. I'll post pics from the game afterwards!

I got a filling this morning on one of my back molars, it's almost 6 hours later and my mouth is STILL numb!!! I guess that's better then feeling the pain of them drilling a hole in my tooth...

Friday night I am going to the Junior League Christmas Affair with my friend Leslie. It is a huge Christmas market in DT Austin at one of the event centers. I went with her last year, and it took us hours to go through all of the booths! I'll have to try hard not to buy everything I want! Maybe a few Christmas presents for family members though!

I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the wedding.

The baby is here!

Jenn and Brant's baby that is! Keegan Ross Oertli was born on Friday 11/11/11 at 9:28 PM, 6lbs 15 oz and 20 inches long. He is so handsome!!! Jenn had a pretty easy labor but ended up having to have a C Section due to the baby not fitting like it should. All went well though and mommy, baby, and daddy are headed home from the hospital today! How cool is it that Keegan's birthday will always be 11/11/11! Hard to forget that one!

My ovaries are in overdrive after all that baby snuggling, his fuzzy soft head just kills me! But then he cries and I'm happy to hand him back over :) Today I held him for about 30 minutes, and now my arms are killing me! Apparently I need to do some serious arm workouts before I have a baby!

And now for pictures of the precious bundle of joy!

Mark and I had a pretty easy weekend. We visited Jenn, had date night on Saturday night at Sushi Zushi (our favorite!) and went to church followed by lunch with Ashley and Eric on Sunday. Church was a nice surprise yesterday though, we were walking in (a few minutes late...) and I heard a third day song and it sounded just like them. Well it WAS them! Crazy but they were in town doing another show that day and came by to do worship for us! It was so awesome!

Hodge Podge

Mark and I got a crock pot for a wedding gift a few weeks ago, and Sunday I finally busted it out! O M G.. the crock pot is my new favorite! I basically threw in whatever I could find, beans, corn etc, along with some chicken breast, and 6 hours later was the most amazing chicken, bean, corn, etc dish!! Mark loved it, I loved it, and Minkey wished she could eat it...

One of my BFFs Jenn is very very pregnant. She is due November 18!!! Being the total amazing friend and trooper that she is she was ever much involved in our wedding planning and ceremony as one of my brides maids! She was the most adorable pregnant brides maid I've ever seen! Anywho, she's pretty much ready to be over the whole pregnant thing by now and would very much like Keegan to make his appearance tonight :) She is having him over at Seaton Downtown, which so happens to be right down the street from our house! I keep reminding her how important it is that she notify me when she goes into labor, although there is a chance that I am so excited she might want to keep me away until after he gets here! The last newborn I held was my friend Angie's baby Jewel, so so tiny!!! Jewel is now over a year old and I need a newborn fix stat!!!

Mark is off to work tomorrow for the rest of the week, which works out well because I need to get my act together for the Jingle Bell Brunch thing at church I am helping with! There are vases to glitter and fabric to cut! I'll post pictures if me and Elexis's creation afterwards! I hope it turns out as well as we imagined it :)

10 Reasons Why I Love My Husband

in no particular order:

1. Since we have been married I haven't had to take the trash out once!
2. He tells me he loves me about 1000 times a day
3. He loves everything I cook for him (or at least acts like it)
4. He makes the bed every day! (confession that I never make the bed!)
5. He cleans the bathroom, before we got married we divided up chores, I will do anything else but Mark always cleans the bathroom!
6. He is always honest with me
7. He watches my TV shows with me (and I think he secretly likes them all)
8. He loves every single ounce of me, the good and the bad
9. He brags about me to everyone, which I secretly love :)
10. He's hot... :)

to be continued...

So I wasn't able to post yesterday because our internet was out all day. Mark ended up making the flight to Austin from Houston! He got the last seat on the plane. I worked from home so we could hang out all day! We had lunch with my brother Eric and his wife Cate at Taco Deli, and I noticed I had bent a prong on my engagement ring so I made a trip over to Jarred to get that fixed!

We had our weekly date night! last night. Since we have been together, so for almost 14 months, we go on a date night every friday just the two of us. We try and leave our cell phones at home or in the car, and if we bring them with us we try not to get them out during dinner! I hope we continue to do this for a long time! Last night we went to Kobe hibachi grill. My favorite restaurant is Benihanna's, and a few weeks ago we drove by their location and noticed the sign was gone!!! Mark met the Vice President of the company this past weekend and asked him about the Austin location. Apparently the owner of the property was raising the rent so they left and aren't planning on opening another location in Austin! I am so sad. Kobe is good, but definitely not as good as Benihanna's! (Mark meets the most random people! I guess given his job always being on the road, he met this guy in the lobby of the hotel he was staying at in DFW).

It seems since the wedding all I want to do is organize and clean... everything seems messy and out of place! Mark and I went to Macy's last weekend and ordered our flatware and glasses off our registry that we didn't get, and they arrived yesterday! Five giant boxes worth! I spent this morning washing everything and re-organizing, making goodwill piles so everything would have a new home!

(apparently Cascade complete packs don't get water spots
off my NEW silverware!!!)

Our new Fiesta glasses! (we're missing 1 set of the glasses below,
they sent the wrong color so we need to exchange them)

Not much on tap for today. We thought about going to this Scottish festival down by Lady Bird Lake, but that probably won't happen. I made delicious waffels for breakfast/lunch with my amazing waffle iron!

We have a list of errands to run as well. Mark is normally my errand runner during the week when he has those days off, but this week he wasn't home so we have to do everything on the weekend along with everyone else. Now I am going to snuggle on the couch with my awesome husband and watch some football, BTHO OU!!!

Married Life

So, Mark left for his first trip since we've been married this past Monday. He would be gone Mon-Fri which is unusual for him, normally his schedule allows him to work Sun-Tues or Weds or Mon-Thurs. We were sad to be apart but I think both secretly excited to get some alone time :) I was finally able to clean the apartment up after the wedding chaos! and get gifts put away in their new homes. Next on my to-do list is lots of thank you notes! I have a goal to finish them before the end of November. I think that's do-able... Up until the wedding I was very good about writing the notes as soon we we received a gift, but since we have been back from the honeymoon I just haven't had a chance to start!

With Mark flying all week I got a chance to catch up on my TV shows and hang out with some girlfriends as well. One of my BFFs Jenn is having a baby boy (Keegan!) this month, so we wanted to have one last girls dinner hang out night before he arrived! I am so excited for her and her husband Brant! I feel like Mark and I are entering baby season with all our friends. Most friends are married and are thinking about babies or having them! Right now the only baby in our minds is our 18 year old Siamese cat Minkey! (Sorry Ginny...) Tonight I got to catch up with a friend of mine who is on the Family Life Marriage Conference team with Mark and I. Elexis and I are in charge of decorating a table for our churches Jingle Bell Brunch next weekend. Its basically a craft fair/bizarre type thing where ladies come and shop and then brunch! I think we have a good theme in mind, hopefully we can execute it to match our ideas!

Mark should be home tomorrow. Originally he was supposed to be back in Austin around 11am, but now most of the flights from Houston to Austin are full, so alternate plans must be aranged. I guess thats the problem with not living in the city your based in! For the most part he doesn't have much trouble commuting to and from Houston, but there have been a few times he had to wake up around 2 or 3 am to drive to Houston so he could arrive by his "show" time for that day. I think he is going to try and fly into San Antonio tomorrow, and rent a car and drive home. I miss him so much and I can't wait to see my husband!!!

Tomorrow night is date night! Our second date night as a married couple :) We haven't picked out a place yet, I am in the mood to try something different. I was driving downtown last week and noticed a hole in the wall restaurant that only served chili! I thought that sounded so cool! We need to try it out soon, especially with the cool weather we're having in TX this week! (cool or cold weather for Texas is anything below 70 degrees) No plans for the rest of the weekend, just relax and watch football probably! If it were up to me I would put out the Christmas decorations already but Mark says it's too early :)

Happy almost Friday!

October 15, 2011

October 15, 2011 is the day I married the man of my dreams!

The night before we had a wonderful rehearsal with our wedding party, parents, and close friends. The rehearsal dinner was at North by Northwest Brewery and Restaurant.

                          

  We said our goodbyes that night, and wouldn't see each other again until a little after 6pm the next day. We got back to our suite, and my step brother, his girlfriend, step sister, and BFFs Ashley and Jenn all stayed up to late hanging out and talking! We finally decided it would be a good idea to go to sleep around midnight, since tomorrow would probably be a big day...

Me and the girls woke up around 9 to get ready for our hair appointments. We all had our hair done at Jackson Ruiz salon in downtown Austin.

After everyones hair was made beautiful we came back to the hotel to do make up and for the girls to put their dresses on. We had the most amazing videography team, Crescent Video, that showed up at 3pm to start getting footage of us.

Then we headed to the church! In the meantime the guys were in Mark's suite watching football and getting ready themselves. We got to the church around 4:15pm (15 minutes late according to my detailed itinerary!) just in time for me to slip into my dress and start pictures. It actually took about 6 people and 3 tries to get my dress on the right way with all the accessories where they should be! I opened my wedding gift from my husband to be, a diamond necklace I had picked out many many months before at a jewelry shop in NJ! I was shocked he got that for me since we had a limit on how much we were going to spend on each other!!! It was so beautiful and of course I immediately put it on and wore it that day! I gave Mark an engraved money clip. I had a hard time trying to think of something special that would last forever, and remembered my mom gave my step dad a money clip on their wedding day. So I hope it is a tradition we can pass down to our children too!

The ceremony was at 6pm at the Smith Family Chapel, Riverbend Church (Me and Mark's new home church!). It was an amazing ceremony, officiated by my childhood pastor Dr. Harlan Betz. Harlan gave an incredible marriage challenge to Mark and I. We had a "sand ceremony" where Mark, myself, and Harlan each poured sand into one container, signifying Me and Mark coming together as one, with Jesus. It was really neat. My brother sang towards the end of the ceremony. He played the piano and sang This Kind of Love by Sister Hazel. It was truly incredible! I have waited so many years to have my brother sing at my wedding and I was so honored and touched to have him as an integral part of my wedding day. There wasn't a dry eye in the house and people still tell me how amazing he was!!!

After the ceremony and pictures, we headed over to the reception as husband and wife! The reception was at The Glass Oaks Ballroom at The Renaissance Hotel. The entire event was amazing, the food was delicious, the DJ (DJ Cecil!) was awesome, it was amazing to see everyone having such a great time! I got to surprise Mark with our first dance song. All along he wanted to dance to Taylor Swift, Today Was a Fairytale, and I told him no! Well I ended up changing it at the last minute and he was so excited! Everything was so perfect, from the flowers and food, to the cake and the company we had celebrating with us! About 80% of our guests came in from out of town to celebrate with us (Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Alaska, Colorado, California, and I am sure more!). We were so thankful that so many people took the time and effort it takes to travel to be with us on our wedding day.

 

Mark and I left there ceremony to a flurry of bubbles around 11pm. We had an EARLY flight the next morning, 6am, to Maui!!!

Welcome to newly wed life!

So Mark and I are 2.5 week newly weds! We married October 15, 2011 at 6pm, and it was the most incredible day ever! I plan to do an entire post on our wedding and honeymoon. Mark and I returned home from our honeymoon on October 24 from Hawaii, and he promptly left at 6:00 am on October 25 to go to a meeting in Washington DC! Welcome to the world of a pilots wife! (at least he got to come home the next day!)  I thought it would be good to document our crazy life from the beginning, kind of in lieu of a scrap book, so people can get a glimpse of what our life is like. Enjoy!