Honeymoon

Brandon and I had a wonderful, relaxing time on our honeymoon. We did a lot of fishing and canoeing that we didn't get photos of, because we were concerned with getting the camera wet, but we do have some to share with you.

Our cabin was adorable and really comfortable, with a fantastic view. (I took a video tour of the cabin that I'll be sure to post tomorrow.) Even better, we had the whole cabin area to ourselves from Sunday through Wednesday.

This is the view from the deck one morning. The river is just below the pavilion.


Our fire pit and the lot next door.


Our surrogate dog, Axe.


We fished long and hard and caught catfish, bass, sunfish, and drum but only ONE trout! We worked so hard for that damn trout that it had to come home with us. We didn't let it get us down, because the river was so beautiful. The water was very clear and cool, and I enjoyed drifting in the shade even if the fish weren't biting. Upstream from the cabin about a half mile are a series of rapids that look like they didn't belong in Oklahoma. They aren't dangerous, but the water is fast, crystal clear, and cold over the rocky bed. (I was very pleasantly surprised by the land in general. We had wild honeysuckle and huge cypress trees around our cabin; it was very lush and beautiful.)






The owners of the cabin were really nice and generous. We had a fish fry and they gave us a bag of crawdads for lunch. They gave us a card and a picture frame as a wedding gift, and were always available when we needed something. I'd really like to go back one day.

My first crawdad boil! I think I did pretty good, and we figured out how to eat them eventually.


On our last day we said goodbye to the cabin and Axe, and went on our trail ride. Now, most "trail" rides are mostly walking horses on dirt roads in single file, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of this one. I was so surprised. We went through creeks, up and down steep inclines, over slippery rocks and fallen trees. Several times my horse lost its footing, or had to hop logs. We had branches in our faces and at certain points I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a trail there. It was a beautiful view though. We rode to the top of a mountain from which we could see the whole river valley area. The ride was a little intense for someone with nearly zero riding experience, though. Poor Brandon fell asleep on the drive home.

Thank you!

I wanted to keep everyone updated during our honeymoon, but we didn't even have cellphone reception, let alone internet access!

Brandon and I had a great time. Our cabin was beautiful, and we spent all day fishing, canoeing, cooking, and hanging out. It was the perfect few days and we couldn't have done it without all of you. We love you very much!

Right now we're tired from the road but I'll be sure to post some pictures and the stories tomorrow!

Today's the day!

I can't help thinking that I've forgotten something really important and I'll show up for the wedding without, like, my shoes. So I'm up at 6 am to make sure that does not happen! And because I'm too excited to go back to sleep.

We are already "legally" married, as of last night. I told Brandon that I didn't feel any different and he said "Good." Aww, I love him. And he's right, nothing should change because this isn't magical. Which is something I think a lot of young people I know messed up. It won't make us any closer or more serious. It's just a beautiful day and a fun party with the family meant to say: Hooray, you love each other! And we love you!

I can't wait!

Fish-1 Amanda-0

It's a beautiful day at Denton Creek and I'm on the fishing dock enjoying the breeze when suddenly WHAM and a fish is bending my pole right over, pulling out the drag. Must be a nice fish, I think to myself, as I reel down on the circle hook. Little did I know...

As I pick up the pole and reel on the fish, I realize just how "nice" it is--it's a monster. I can feel the fish rolling on the end of my line, and my adrenaline starts pumping; it's probably a catfish. I start to bring it in real gently--this pole has only 10lb test. The fish starts to charge towards the brush, and I'm thinking, good, stay near the bank. I'm feeling pretty good about being able to land the beast, when it turns suddenly and takes off 50 yards downstream. I start panicking, no, no no no--don't you dare! But I can't follow it down the bank, because I'm stuck on a long pier with railings. As I'm reeling, all I can hear is the zzzhhhiiiing of my pole being stripped of line faster than I can reel. I glance down to see 10 yards of line left on my reel and almost have a heart attack. The fish stops, I reel tentatively, it moves again and POP! goes my leader.

I must have sat there and stared at my slack line for two minutes. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

And the worst part is, after the shock wore off, I didn't even feel like fishing anymore.

FREEDOM!

Today was my last class day! I think I might have pulled off all As this semester, but it depends on finals.

Now that I can really let myself focus on the wedding, I am getting so excited! Nothing better than a party with the man you love and all your family, followed by a few relaxing days on the river! Yay! I can't wait to see you all there!

17 days

There are 17 days left until the wedding! And I feel like I'm insane for scheduling the wedding the weekend of finals week! Gahh! Every day I feel like I am losing my mind and forgetting something important. Good thing Mom is there to tell me I'm not crazy...

As far as I know this semester, I have an A in everything. Of course finals are a big part of the final grade in some classes, so that could change, but I know for a fact I'm gonna do pretty well. I can't wait until the honeymoon so my brain can take a break though.

I got a surprise birthday present: I'm a member of a Texas fishing forum, and they're hosting a catfishing tournament/fish fry on Saturday. The guy responsible for organizing the event has been helping me out with fishing tips, and he invited Brandon and I out on his boat to do some scouting for the tournament! Unfortunately Brandon has to work, but I get to spend my day off tomorrow fishing on a BOAT for once, instead of traipsing through mud. I'm going to the tourney on Saturday too, just to learn and eat delicious catfish. Happy birthday to me!

Anyway, it's back to the grind!

I lied.

There's one more thing I want for my wedding/birthday that I can use on my honeymoon:



...this FANTASTIC Esther Williams swimsuit. WANT WANT WANT! At $70 it's more than I'd spend on swimsuits normally, but reviewers say it's a super quality suit. Yum!

(Mostly) Unrelated

Okay, so this is about wedding stuff, right? Well, I've decided the only item I really want for my birthday/wedding is Red Dead Redemption. And, it comes out on May 18. This means we can bring the PS3 on our honeymoon, and after a long day of kayaking, stay up all night playing it! (We just need to make sure there's a store in Broken Bow that sells games, I suppose.)

What's so awesome about this game?



If you have a poor internet connection and/or can't watch the video (looking at you, Mom), here's a synopsis:

Red Dead Redemption is a sandbox game (this means a completely open world--go where you want and do what you want). It's also a Western. Not only is it the first Western game for any recent consoles, it looks freaking beautiful. You play as Generic Western Tough Guy, roaming the West (from what looks like Colorado all the way to Mexico) doing whatever deeds strike your fancy. You can be evil or good; you can gamble, rescue stranded folks, capture criminals, steal horses, hijack stagecoaches, whatever. You can hunt in the wild and sell skins. You can capture and break wild horses. You can fight in the Mexican Civil War. Basically, you can do anything you want to do, and the vastness of the game seems unprecedented. And after many years of complaining about how the horses in games never move correctly, I'm awfully happy about how much effort the developers put into the physics of the horses.

I know it has almost nothing to do with the wedding, but I just can't wait for this!

Honeymoon plans

We originally planned to stay at a lovely bed and breakfast in Broken Bow, Oklahoma for a few days, relaxing and taking bubble baths and doing other honeymoon-ish things. BUT! I thought it might be more fun if it were a little more adventurous. I found a riverside cabin in the same area for the same price per night!

It has a deck with river access (hello trout fishing), full use of kayaks, an outdoor fire pit (to cook our trout on!), a flat screen TV, full kitchen, and jacuzzi tub. It has the best of everything, except for internet. Luckily, Brandon's got a company data plan on his phone...


It's also within a few miles of a trail riding company that does half day rides in the nearby hills plus a meal. It's by reservation only, so it'd just be us and a guide/cook. How fun! Broken Bow itself looks like there isn't much there, but that's okay. All we need is a place to get a fishing license and some groceries.

The cabin is $200 per night, and Brandon successfully got time off. I want him to be able to have a day off at home before going back to work, so we'd be there 5 days and 4 nights. The ride is a bit overpriced at $90 per person, but it includes what looks like a really fun meal, and I figure we deserve that after all the Ramen!

I'm so excited!

The perfect rings for the geeky couple

Seriously, *swoon*!

They are geeky and unique and simple and awesome. Do want! Hooray, I can scratch "rings" off my list!

Invitations are out!

Finally. I bought a 25-pack of invitations and I needed 24. Not a lot of room for error, really, but I figured: hey I'm computer-savvy! I have a nice laser printer! Measure twice, cut once, right? So I cleaned my drum, opened a brand new toner cartridge, aligned the text properly and printed test pages. Success!

Except I'm a retard, so I told the printer to make 25 copies of a page that held 2 cards per sheet. #$^@. Error, out of paper. Okay, it's okay. Just make sure the job is canceled, reset the printer... it should be fine.

I put the paper in, hit the print button... and it's rolling along, printing the old job. I start screaming at it and smashing the print button--NO! STOP! [VULGARITIES!] It stops, and prints 3 test pages on my pretty invitation paper.

Sigh.

So poor Brandon who is really terrified by my rage at this point had to run to Wal-Mart to spend $30 for a whole new invitation kit. We really only needed a few pages, so we essentially spent $30 for 6 sheets of paper. He also brought me a coffee, cause he knows me and is awesome.

Once the printing nightmare was over, I had to assemble them, and I slowly got more and more frustrated--all of the bows were bent and so were some of the envelopes, I had the tiny paper squares that act as backing for the tiny adhesive squares all over me (I'm pretty sure some people got those little white squares in with their invitations), some ribbons stuck to the scotch tape on the kit's box and immediately frayed into tiny strands of nothing all over my desk.

My fury built until I finally said to myself, Self, who cares. Somebody is going to open their invitation and have those little paper squares and probably some dog hair fall out and notice that the bow is all bent up and the cards aren't really lined up right and they aren't going to care.

So I packed them all up and mailed them off merrily, knowing everyone will still be happy because they might not be professional but damn they were made with love. And rage.