Bells and Bows

Our First Christmas

2012-11-26T10:06:00.001-06:00

This Christmas is our first married Christmas! Yay! I have been looking for a good Christmas ornament to commemorate the occasion. It is so hard to decide, there are a lot of cute ones out there!

Isn't this Hallmark one perfect???

Here are my favorites from etsy.com

Love!

Cute!

Classic!

Any opinions? Is it okay to have 5 ornaments for your first Christmas? lol

At Home with the Hinkleys

2012-11-23T11:12:00.001-06:00

In case you didn't know, I have been blogging with more frequency at www.athomewiththehinkleys.com

Still waiting on wedding photos, then the wedding updates will be on the docket, but until then, I'd love to have you stop by! :)

Anniversary, year 1

2012-11-12T22:24:00.003-06:00

It is already November, where did the year go??! I am a planner by nature, so of course I am already thinking about ideas for Aaron and I's first anniversary in January.

I really like the idea of giving the traditional gifts per year because Aaron is really stinkin' tough to shop for. If I have a parameter set, ie: paper, I feel better about unleashing my creativity. If I am picking something out of the sky I get way overwhelmed.
I had not one, but two ideas that would have been SLAM DUNKS and I would have won the anniversary. Problem is, we are not in a place to spend hundreds of dollars on presents, especially right after Christmas.

So Aaron, if we were billionaires, here are some first anniversary Paper ideas that would have been really fun.

When I think of a paper gift, I think of two things. Stationary (?) yawn. And tickets to something (or somewhere)

1/31/13
We'd be celebrating a few days late, but tickets to our favorite freaky pop star ever would have been soooo awesome.

Lady Gaga!

You have got to be out of your mind?!?!

I am sure this show is worth the small fortune she is charging for tickets, but holy jeez, $442.50?? and $25 just to park my car? and $60 for convenience?? Not happening. Even if I did have the money, I would skip this in protest. I might even dress up in a meat dress and hold Lady Gaga karaoke night in the parking lot across the street for all the people who are fans but not suckers. Unbelievable. But it would have been pretty perfect....

My second awesome idea hit me as soon as I heard the news. The Book of Mormon is going on tour! We both have been dying to see it for a million years. They aren't even coming to Houston, which is way lame so I won't even get into that.

Book of Mormon on Broadway!

So our anniversary is the 28th, and that weekend the tour will be stopping at the fabulous Des Moines, Iowa Civic Center! Can I get an LOL? And we are totally the types that would go to Des Moines for our anniversary weekend - not even trying to be ironic about it.

Ask me how much a flight to Des Moines costs?

Boo! >:/

That is not even counting lodging or food for the trip. So we would be looking at the equivalent of seeing Lady Gaga twice.

Why do all of my good ideas have such high price tags??

So for now, my best and most reasonable idea is to go see a movie, lol.

Did anyone out there do traditional first anniversary gift? Does anyone have a good idea that is under, say, $200 bucks?

Fun fact, tomorrow is our 2nd engageaversary (if that is a thing?) :)

Can you be a Christian and Support Same Sex Marriage?

2012-10-22T16:31:00.001-05:00

I think so, yes.

Source

Since today is the first day to early vote in my state, I thought I would share a bit about my views on being a Christian and also supporting same sex marriage.

I am not a theology scholar by a long shot, I am just throwing that out there. I am only slightly familiar with the passages that condemn homosexuality in the bible. And I won't bore you with the tired arguments that people make for and against these passages. The bible is full of contradictions, I am well aware. Being an Orthodox Christian, our premise and goal is to keep the ancient faith. The church that Jesus himself established 2000+ years ago is what we strive to stay true to. So that is my background as far as my religious point of view.

I am also a big fan of separation of church and state. Even though I am a Christian and so are a lot of other people, I don't think everyone is doing it right. Nor do I think there could never be a time when the majority of citizens in this country are Jewish, or Muslim. You never know. So I like the fact that we are all equally protected to do as we please under our constitution, and have the right to be left alone as we do it.

So yeah. Marriage. I remember dreaming about being married and how awesome it would be when I was single. Love and romance and the comfort of knowing they too wanted to be with me for forever. And eventually we will have a little family of our own, and go to Disney World, and be so happy, for forever. Easy right? I don't mean to shatter any dreams of any single readers, but this is where the record player comes screeching to a halt. Being married is really hard sometimes. Most days it is great, and I come home and my favorite person is there to make me laugh, or hear about the latest work drama. But then sometimes when we are on day 3 of picking fights with each other about really dumb stuff, I just want to scream f* this! and then go back to my cozy little apartment and live my single life again, and not have to think about anyone but me.

Marriage is one of 7 holy sacraments in my church. "In every sacrament there is a combination of an outward visible sign with an inward spiritual grace." (source) So basically it is like a gift from God for our salvation. Most of the church stuff we do, is for our own healing. We are taught that man is in a fallen state, we are all sinners, and the church is our hospital. So when we attend services on Sunday, fast during certain times, confess and repent our sins; they are all to make us better Christians. The whole point of it is to kill your own ego, and obey God. Because what you want at any given instant is usually bad for your soul, and/or the easy way out. Screaming obscenities and leaving is the easy way out of the challenge of being married. But if I stay and love Aaron even when it is super hard for me, learn to accept him and respect him as my husband, I am being a better person, a better Christian, and making God happy. And keeping my ego in check. I know nothing, and I forget that a lot. Is anyone a fan of Sisterwives, like I am? While I think Polygamy is ridiculous, I can see from a vantage point how sharing a husband can be beneficial for your soul in an ego killing way. You don't have to just love someone when they are frustrating you to your core, you have to deal with jealousy too. It is ridiculous because of course the man doesn't have to fight the same fights you do, I think his ego only gets bigger with the more wives he gets. I digress.

So if homosexuality is a sin, I guess it is a sin. But it shouldn't be demonized any more than every other sin that you are sinning. They are all one in the same. We all have crosses to bear in our spiritual life, some bigger than others. I am a glutton. Sometimes I am a liar. I get really angry sometimes. I don't love my neighbor anywhere near as much as I should. I am selfish. I covet. My name is Natalie, and I am a sinner. And really, according to Aaron who is the closest person I know to being a Bible scholar, only the act of man on man 'adult activity' is specifically condemned per the bible.

I posed a question to Aaron the other day, as I often do, and it was a conundrum. If two people of the same sex are married, and are learning the tough lessons of martyrdom to your spouse just as we are; isn't that better (less sinful, if even) than a same sex or even heterosexual person getting down all around town with whomever? We couldn't come up with a good answer, but my gut says yes.

I don't know what is a condemnable offense, or what the bible specifically says, or if that is conveying what God even means when he made these 'laws' of life. But I do know that the overall theme of the entire book, and the entire church is to love one another.

Romans 13: 8-10
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,”^[a] “You shall not covet,”^[b] and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”^[c] ¹⁰Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

So as I see it, if you are doing things with love, you are obeying God. Simple as that.

As the state sees my marriage, is quite another thing. Aaron and I can file a joint tax return and get a little tax break. I can visit him in the hospital. I can have his social security benefits if he dies before me. We are each responsible for each other's debts. Plus a dozen other things depending on your personal situation. It is just a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo. And frankly, I don't want any church business involved in it. And I don't see any reason aside from a church reason why this couldn't apply to any two consenting adults. If a church wants to deny people who want to be married, I think that is within their rights, but there should be no reason for the government to deny that to its citizens.

So that is my two cents. I will be casting my vote for the Democrats this year. Don't you just love politics and religion on a wedding blog? LOL

I understand. lol

Tokyo Trip!

2012-10-19T11:15:00.004-05:00

I have my first post about my trip to Tokyo posted, but not here:

In order to keep Bells and Bows about wedding themed things, I have started a personal blog for all the other stuff I want to write about!

www.athomewiththehinkleys.com

Hope you will continue to follow!

I am guest posting today!

2012-10-16T09:35:00.001-05:00

Hi guys! I just wanted to let you know that I am guest posting at my friend Megan's blog today. She and her hubs got married in January just like Aaron and I, so I have been following her blog for a thousand years by now. She had a gorgeous winter wedding, well worth checking out!

But yeah, below is a link to her blog, my post is about my fav fall outfits on pinterest. Despite how I dress in real life, I think my selections are actually pretty cute, lol. Go to her blog, show her some love!

http://livingonthedreamsofbutterflies.blogspot.com/

And stay tuned for my Tokyo trip posts this week!

Is this thing on...??

2012-10-02T08:44:00.002-05:00

Hello to all. Forgive me for not posting a thing in over two months! I tell ya, once school starts I let most everything fall to the wayside, which isn't good.

The past two months have been pretty good though. I finished out the summer school course I was in. Enjoyed my 2 weeks of real summer vacation then started my last semester of my program! I am in 2 semi-challenging classes, and 1 MEGA challenging class. So I spend Tuesday-Thursday nights away from Aaron, and a good portion of the weekend doing homework and studying.

Highlights though, my little brother and I took a week-long trip to Toyko, Japan! It was sooooo much fun. When my little bro Jeff graduated from college back in 2010 Aaron and I's gift to him was a trip to Japan. He has always wanted to go, and we figured when we went the following spring or summer that we all would be done with school so it could be a graduation trip for us all. Well then Jeff got a job with the city and didn't have vacation time for a whole year, plus Aaron and I were still in school. Fast forward to September 2012, Jeff finally got vacation time, Aaron decided he didn't really want to go with us, and though I am still in school, I took a week off and we went. I will say, when Jeff wanted to go to Japan I was skeptical. I didn't really know what you do or so there, or how hard it would be to get around when we can't speak or even read the language. Turns out I was so wrong. We had a total blast! I am going to do a series of posts about our trip eventually, so if you are interested in vacationing there one day maybe it will be helpful. Now that I have been, I kind of think everyone should go at least once. So worth it!

And I should finally be getting my wedding pictures soon, so I can begin recapping the wedding at long last! Hopefully I can remember that far back...

Honeymoon in Bermuda: Royal Naval Dockyards

2012-07-24T14:18:00.001-05:00

We spent our last day in Bermuda in the Royal Naval Dockyards, which was where our ship was docked. We had to be 'all aboard' by 4pm so we wanted to stay close by. After our snorkeling excursion was cancelled yet again, we proceeded with plan B. Go to the Clock Tower Mall, eat at the Frog and Onion Pub, and go to the National Museum. And, go!

The mall was cool to walk around, but pretty small. We got through it in about 30 minutes. There were about 14 stores, and 13 of them were pretty identical souvenir shops in a flea market-esque setting.

The term 'Mall' used loosely.

Aaron with a novelty anchor

Aaron eating a comically large candy bar

After the mall we went and ate at the Frog and Onion Pub. It was really cool. The pub itself isn't too old, but the building it is in dates back to the 1800s. There are some good pics of it on their website here. Mine didn't turn out too well unfortunately.

After a big lunch we went to the museum and saw lots of cool things!

Why isn't this cannon firing...?

Then we had to get back on the boat back to America. We had a good time!

Liebster Award!

2012-07-17T21:43:00.000-05:00

My internet pal Megan @ Butterfly Dreams N' Things nominated me for the Liebster Award!

Fabulous!

I started following Megan's blog what seems like ages ago when I started this blog to chronicle my wedding planning ~~insanity~~ adventure :) Megan and her husband (Aron with one A!) had their wedding a few weeks before we did in Colorado, and I have loved reading about all her plans and recaps. Go read her blog because she is really awesome :)

This award is given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. Liebster is German and means sweetest, kind, lovely, endearing, and welcome.

How it works:
1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you and create 11 questions for bloggers you have tagged.
3. Choose up to 11 bloggers and link them to your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs.

Here are the questions Megan asked:

1. What is your favorite TV show?
This is tough because I watch a flipping ton of TV... probably The Office. I could watch it all day, every day and it never ever gets old! An honorable mention goes to any reality TV show, because I watch almost all of them religiously. ::hangs head in shame::

2. Are you a sports enthusiast?
Not exactly? But. The sport I most enjoy watching is basketball, and my team is the Dallas Mavs. I got into them in college when my friends and I would go watch every game because our favorite bar served $1 beers. I also support UT Baseball (University of Texas) because my now retired Uncle Howard was one of the coaches, and a former player, and his son/my cousin Bryan is also an alumni of the team. So because of this my whole family bleeds burnt orange. I also support any athletic endeavors of my alma matter UNT (University of North Texas) however futile they normally are. It's an art school...lol. And of course, anything is fun when you are there to witness the action in person!

3. Do you sometimes believe that you were born in the wrong decade?
Not particularly. I totally would have loved to live through some of the times of the past, but I can tell you one thing. I freakin' love the 90's! I feel that I was born at just the right age where that was the decade I could fully appreciate. Everything that is pure and wonderful came from the 90's. Ok maybe not, lol. I think most people end up loving the decade that was happening when they were young and carefree, and the 90's is mine!

YES!!!

4. What is your favorite Summer activity?
I live in Texas, so I pretty much hate summer. I try to hibernate indoors until it is over. The only enjoyable parts are going to the beach and eating an insanely large amount of ice-cream. But really, I do that all seasons...

5. What is the one thing you can't leave the house without and why?
I would say my phone, but I leave without it mistakenly all the time, and it is horrible. Otherwise, my keys are a definite must have.

6. What kind of car do you drive?
An '08 Dodge Caliber. It is an okay car. It can hold a lot of stuff, which is cool and it has a drink cooler in the glove box. It doesn't work that well but it is quite an interesting feature.

7. What movie can you quote backwards and forwards?
Napoleon Dynamite, the most under rated movie of our generation. And probably about 12 others. If I have seen a movie more than once, it is likely I have seen in 900 times.

8. When you were little, what did you say you wanted to be when you grew up?

An astronaut and a singer. I failed. :( lol

9. What one product are you currently addicted to?
I can't thing of anything I would claim an addiction to that isn't food related, however: I recently tried this natural deodorant called Crystal - www.thecrystal.com and I am actually shocked at how well it is working for me. Granted, I don't put it through the wringer or anything - I try to sweat as little as possible. But it doesn't have any of those chemically things or anything and I can go an entire day without stinking. It's a good thing. lol

10. What was the last song you listened to in your car?
It was either Call Me Maybe, or something Katy Perry, because that is all they ever play :\

11. Do you sing at the top of your lungs while alone in your car?

only sometimes:

lolz.

Ok, now questions for those I am tagging:

1. What is your favorite quote or line from Napoleon Dynamite?

2. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

3. What would be the ideal super power for you and why.

4. Which game show would you want to be on because you are certain you would beat the pants off of everyone?

5. What did you want to be when you grew up?

6. What was the last good book you read?

7. What are the last 3 things your purchased from the internet?

8. Do you, or do you not, like meatloaf (the food).

9. You just won $5000 in the lottery. Do you spend it on bills or something fun? Explain.

10. What is your favorite cause to donate your money or time to?

11. Who is your favorite judge on any reality singing contest show?

Tag, you're it!:

Lindsey's 30 Journey

Liz's Adventures in Baby-Making

Laura @ Saying 'I do' in NY

Mimi @ Stylishly Blissfully Ever After

If someone reads this and has a blog - consider yourself tagged ;)

Honeymoon in Bermuda: Hamilton

2012-07-13T09:49:00.001-05:00

For our next installment of the honeymoon, I give you: Our second day in Bermuda - which was spent in St. George and Hamilton!

On day two, and our last day before our bus and ferry pass was expired. I really really really wanted to go to the Swizzle Inn, which was in St. George and also hit the beach. The Swizzle Inn was in St. George, and we just didn't get to it the day before. The plan was to take the ferry to St. George, and take the bus to Hamilton to go to the beach. On the bus ride we would stop by the lighthouse that I wanted to look at. And if we have time we can go see the Crystal Caves. We can end the day in Hamilton and souvenir shop, since we were in the big city. I realized just now that I am really over-ambitious with the amount of stuff I plan to do in a day...
Anyway, we got off the ferry and got to the bus stop to take us a roundabout way past the lighthouse and then to the swizzle inn.

But not before decapitation! -Aaron is a good sport :)

And snacks - Ginger Beer and a Bounty Bar!

Waiting for the bus

Doesn't Aaron look so dapper in that hat?? Anyway, we learned of the bus schedule a little late in the game - and that it would drop us off at the light house, but not return for a whole hour. We didn't think we could occupy ourselves for an hour, and we have a lot to see, so we just saw the lighthouse from the bus.

Now as you probably know, Bermuda is a teeny island 100% surrounded by water, so there are like 10 different beaches one could go to. We planned on going to Horseshoe Bay which is the nicest and most touristy, BUT we overheard this couple on the bus talking about going to the beach too - but a different beach. A probably much less crowded beach.... so we decided to throw caution to the wind and follow them while trying to appear as though we had planned to go to that secret beach all along too. They totally bought it...lol. It was quite a walk from the bus stop, but well worth it!

Walking to the beach

Empty!!!!!!

No one will see me in a swimsuit!!!!&^&*%!!!

Beach day was the best!

Soon after we got to the beach and swam a bit we were mega starving, so we went back to catch the bus to the Swizzle Inn. This place is the birth spot of the Rum Swizzle, which is a delightful fruity-tropical rum drink. It is also a tourist trap kinda place, but oh well! They let you eat there when you are still wet from swimming, so that was good enough for me!

At the Swizzle Inn

Proof that I was on this vacation too, lol - getting my Rum Swizzle on!

We left our mark as best we could

Food was pretty good, but pricey. The drinks were really good and strong. I don't know if I would go there again, but I am glad to say I've been. The Swizzle Inn was right by the Crystal Caves, so we walked there in our sandy shorts (ouch!) only to find that admission was $20 a person! So we passed on that. But here is a cool tree we saw:

We are way tired at this point, so we took the bus to Hamilton so we could take the ferry back to the boat.

This is the city of Hamilton. It is just like a real city, so there wasn't anything especially cool about it. I wish we could have spent more time exploring in Hamilton is probably a pretty neat town, there was just not enough time, and too much sand in Aaron's shorts. We did stop in a few places to get souvenirs like we had planned.

Hamilton from the ferry

That was day 2 in Bermuda, a very good time!

Honeymoon in Bermuda: St. George

2012-07-05T15:02:00.001-05:00

We got to Bermuda in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday, and docked at the Royal Naval Dockyards. We decided to go to St. George on the first day since it was the furthest, and seemed like it was the coolest town we'd see since the weather cancelled our shipwreck snorkeling (boo!). Our main gameplan was to spend a day in each of the three cities so we would only need a two day bus pass, since we would spend the last day in the town where the boat was docked. We saved 10 bucks that way!

So anyway, took the ferry to St. George.

Waiting for the ferry

On the ferry

All the pastel houses

St. George might be a contender for the quaintest town ever. It was the first settled town(?) when the settlers were coming to America from Europe, so the whole infrastructure of the town is like 400 years old! The first thing we did coming off the ferry was get some lunch. The ferries are a great way to get around Bermuda, but it is a 45 minute ride to get from the Dockyards to St. George! We ate at the White Horse Pub which was right off the pier to the ferry. We had to sample the famous Bermudan Dark N' Stormy. Preeeety good, and very strong! The food was very good, the prices were steep, but that is to be expected when you are a tiny island 600 miles from any mainland place. Aaron says it was the best fish and chips of his life!

Don't even think about snagging this book as a free souvenir! lol

Aaron having a Dark N' Stormy

After we refueled we did some exploring. We didn't have an exact gameplan of stuff to see, but winging it was pretty easy. The place is small and you can walk to all the places pretty easily, and there are signs galore pointing you to places worth seeing.

Lots of tourists.

We were welcomed by a steel drum band :)

Once we walked past the main town square area, we found St. Peter's Church which was founded when the settlers got there. It celebrated its 400th birthday this year! Needless to say, it was really neat, and Aaron the history geek was in heaven!

Wow!

The Hinktinez's were here.

So very old

Pretty places to kneel

Cemetery out back. The weather took all the names off the headstones.

I suppose that while the men were at sea back in the day all the ladies did was go to church, because we passed by nearly a dozen different churches while in town. We also went to the unfinished church which was really cool. A big giant storm ripped the building's roof off ages ago and no one ever finished building it. It was cool and a little bit spooky! We couldn't go inside because it was structurally unsound. Bummer.

After walking about some more we decided to have a sit in a park we found. We saw a legit Bermudan in the official Bermudan business attire - your top half is a regular suit, bottom half is Bermuda shorts and knee socks. Oh, British people! lol

It being baby blue makes it that much better, huh? :)

We were pretty beat after all the walking around town and such so we caught the ferry back to the boat and ate a free dinner there. The food in Bermuda is pretty much all pub food, so once a day for fried stuff is good enough!

I promise I will be more timely with the remainder of our trip updates!

Honeymoon to Bermuda Days 2-4, 7: The Norwegian Star

2012-06-27T09:57:00.001-05:00

Our trip itinerary went a little like this:
Saturday: Get to NY
Sunday: Get on the Boat
Sunday PM - Wednesday AM: At Sea
Wed AM - Fri PM: Bermuda
Saturday-Sunday AM: At Sea

This post will be about the 'At Sea' days aboard the Norwegian Star.

We had a good time aboard the boat. There is so much to do! Each day they give you a newletter of the happenings of the day - there are games, talks on different things, tournaments, entertainment things, etc. It is hard to be bored!

Sunday we just bored the boat and checked out the place. When we were leaving Manhattan we made sure to get a spot on the deck to see the Statue of Liberty as we sailed by. So cool!

As we passed they played "Proud to be an American" and it was pretty cheesy...

The background there is New Jersey, so Aaron thought it appropriate to 'hit the beat' a la Jersey Shore

Here is our room. It was a tad small, but they laid at the space very well so it didn't feel as cramped as it seems. We didn't spend too much time in the room anyway.

Bed and window

Veiw from the bed.

The side with that TV has a little closet and drawers, a mini fridge, a safe and our life jackets just in-case. The side with the mirror is the little bathroom. Toilet, sink and a shower with really great water pressure. And where that backpack appears to be floating is a desk and chair. It wasn't too bad!

Some of the things we did on the boat:

Watched a conga line go by

Lost at Deal or No Deal

Win a poker tournament!

Played Pub trivia

Ate at this restaurant that looks straight out of Titanic

Not shown: Layed out and got a tan. Ate and drank a lot. Gambled in the casino. Watched singing and dancing and comedy shows. Shopped in gift shops. Read in the library and interneted at the internet cafe. Slept in.

The food on the boat was pretty good. There was an always open buffet thing by the pool, and it was good for breakfast and usually had interesting options. A grill place was by the pool with a constant supply of burgers and hot dogs. The icecream bar was in that area too, only open until 5 though :\

The 'free' dining rooms were usually good but the selection didn't vary too much from day to day. There were a handful of restuants that we had to pay a little extra to dine in. We took advantage of the French, Italian and Steakhouse restaurants. The French was really good, the Italian was good, and the Steakhouse was outstanding. Well worth the price. The service everywhere was outstanding.

Cruising is such a stress-free way to travel, and you can't beat the price of lodging and all you can eat foods and entertainment for 7 days! I forsee us going on cruises again in the future :)

Next up is Bermuda!

Honeymoon in Bermuda: Days 1-2

2012-06-20T10:10:00.000-05:00

We had a FABULOUS time on our honeymoon! It was a super fun week that I didn't want to end. :) We started our journey to New York City on Saturday morning. We caught a 10am flight to Detroit.

Aaron with the Michigan Lottery Ticket Machine

Had a layover and took a teeny tiny scary plane to Newark, NJ. We had to do a bunch of weirdness to get good bang for our buck with our credit card points!
From there we took 3 different trains

In Newark

Beautiful, huh? lol

And finally arriving in Manhattan! (start spreadin' the news...) jk :)

We put a good number of miles on our little luggage wheels hiking to out hotel, but when in Rome, right? :)
After about a million blocks we got there and took a power nap because we aren't used to all this exercise. lol
Our hotel was in the Tribeca neighborhood, so we weren't super close to any mega touristy places to see. We took a recommendation from our hotel to check out Walker's, which was a couple blocks away. So we are just strolling along, and I am checking my foursquare account so it could GPS us and see what was nearby. And lucky day, we are right across the street from the Ghostbuster's firehouse!! We ate a delicious yet pricey meal and headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters!

I will say that I had some fears about getting mugged or whathaveyou, as I normally do anywhere, but I can honestly say that I felt totally safe walking around the streets of New York at night. Aaron says the mayor hired a bazillion cops and it really cut down the crime. I'd believe it, you could go two feet without seeing a law enforcement person.

Day 2 was pretty great too. We slept in like some champions, then walked around to find some breakfast. We almost settled on dunkin' donuts, but we found an authentic NY bagel place - Tribeca Bagels. Talk about yum! We got some bagels and ate them on a park bench, fed the birds and enjoyed the nice weather. I felt very New York... lol

Me and a bagel, woo!

Birds getting fatter. It is amazing that they can lift their giant bodies off the ground!

After all that we caught a cab to the pier to catch our boat outta here. The cab ride was fun, we saw a lot of New Yorkish things. The thing I found most entertaining about the city is that everywhere you turn there is something 'famous'- either from a movie or TV show or something. It was pretty great!

The Daily Show!

Sbarro - where Michael Scott likes to grab a New York slice. LOL

Jerry Seinfeld worked out at NY sports clubs!

The day and a half spent in the big apple made me really look forward to the end of the cruise when we had a whole day to explore!

But now onto the cruise...

Hurricane Beryl :\

2012-05-30T12:27:00.001-05:00

Needs to move on outta here.

There is a tropical storm/hurricane on our projected path to Bermuda. Beryl, please don't stink up our honeymoon or else you'll be sorry!!

Honestly I am not too worried about it, we don't set sail for another 4 days so hopefully it will have dissipated by then.

I am a little bummed though, because my friend Amanda got married on Sunday (congrats!), and her photographer already has her pics up on facebook :\ Lucky. I was prepared to wait some, but I am getting tired of being so patient... After we get back from vacation I will attempt to get a firm date of when things will be finished. I feel like I need to tread lightly or I wont get my wedding pictures at all. Sigh.

!

2012-05-24T14:58:00.000-05:00

That is all, thanks. :)

Wedding Picture Slide Show!

2012-05-17T13:02:00.000-05:00

I got this from my photographer today! I am so glad to see some pictures at last!!!

http://video214.com/play/dxs7EJl3YjQGkA0v77BQnw/s/dark

This is merely around 10% of the 2000 images that were taken, more to follow!!

Brad and Lauren get married part duex

2012-05-11T22:41:00.000-05:00

Ok reception. So fun!

Our first married wedding! :)

We got to our table, chatted with the other people at our table and ate some chips and salsa. Some photos of the tablescape:

the view

They had a really really great band called Downtown Fever, they sounded really great and kept the dance floor PACKED the whole night!

The dinner was really really tasty, we had skewers of chicken and beef, with beans and tortillas - and Brad even jumped in with the Pappa's crew to serve his guests, lol!

Another really cool thing they had was a photobooth type thing that made flipbooks! http://www.iloveflipbooks.com/

You pretty much get in front of a webcam and have 7 seconds to dance and whatnot and it will print out a flip book!

And we had seriously delicious cake! I know I am biased about cake and love it all, but this was really top notch. I should have had a second piece...

The best part of the night though, was the dancing of the horah dance - which is a tradition at a Jewish wedding. This is the dance where everyone is dancing in a circle and lift up the couple on chairs. Super festive right? Well Brad's family owns, and he works for Sunnyland Furniture in Dallas, home of the worlds largest patio chair...so we were all in for a big surprise:

How awesome is that?!

We had a really wonderful time, and thank you to Brad and Lauren for including us in celebrating your special day. The Hinkley's wish you a lifetime of love and happiness! Mazel Tov!

Sorry girls, he's hitched :)

Brad and Lauren get married!!

2012-05-11T21:49:00.000-05:00

Aaron and I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in the Dallas area to see my friend Brad from college get married!

Our trip started in Greenville where Jeremy and Nicole let us stay over and hang out. We drove to Rockwall for dinner at The Flying Saucer and it is right on the lake, so we had to take a pic or two :)

Always fun seeing those guys!

Sunday afternoon we headed to Dallas to get checked in at our hotel. We stayed at the Magnolia Hotel (Dallas edition) in downtown - it was a really nice hotel!

It was a bummer though, by the time we checked in, all the gift bags for guests had been handed out :\ I am sure they were lovely!

Onto the main event!

I will preface this by telling you that Brad is a very proud Texan :) Brad and Lauren's wedding and reception were held at the Old Red Courthouse in Dallas. It was such a neat venue, and the insides were just beautiful. Elegant yet a little rustic. There were so many neat details that really personalized the event, we just had a super great time!

Source

We entered the courthouse on the first floor and were greeted with the voice of Big Tex welcoming us to the wedding. For the non-Texans, Big Tex is this cowboy character that welcomes everyone to the Texas state fair!

We then were led to the fourth floor for the ceremony. Brad and Lauren are Jewish, and this was the first time Aaron and I have been to a Jewish wedding, so we were really excited to see what the ceremony would be like. The men were asked to wear the traditional Kippah to remind them that God is always above us. Texas flag themed, of course :)

Some photos from the beautiful ceremony:

Married!

(sorry about the pic quality, the lighting wasn't cooperating with my camera)

Onto cocktail hour:

Awesome! Pappa's catered the event with some excellent Tex-Mex foods:

We had quesadillas, an avocado bar, shots of poblano cheesy soup, grilled vegetable trays, and drinks on top of all of that. It was deluxe, and mega tasty!

Katrina, Amanda and Aaron

The curly girls! :)

OMG yum.

This blog is getting really long, so I am going to do a separate post for the reception portion of the evening....

Rethinking the Honeymoon

2012-04-29T15:33:00.001-05:00

We are anxiously awaiting the end of the semester and for Aaron's passport to arrive! After some discussions and budget meetings, we think that while we would love to visit Montreal and Quebec City for our honeymoon, it would be extra awesome to be there in winter for the Quebec winter carnival.

Um, awesome! (source)

So that would be a really fun first anniversary gift. (the traditional gift is paper - a plane ticket totally counts!)

As you can tell, I am longing for a get away in the much nearer future, and would like somewhere romantic-ish to go, but that isn't super expensive (ie: Paris) or isn't super typical (ie: crowded with tourists; ie: Cabo/Cancun) Plus Aaron isn't really a beach guy at all, so I have to factor this into the equation.

Well it must be my lucky day/month/life because he has agreed to go on a cruise to Bermuda!!

And with luck, we will return home safe, lol (source)

Insert Nerd Alert: He thinks Bermuda would be interesting to visit because it is the second oldest continuously inhabited English settlement in the New World (after Jamestown). This knowledge will win us Jeopardy! at some point I hope, lol.

The cruise leaves out of NYC on June 3rd and is a week long, so we will get there in about a day and a half, and get to spend about four whole days on the island! Win!

Source

Hello paradise!

So I am super duper looking forward to the trip, and it will be here before we know it! :D (And now, Aaron won't quit singing Kokomo by the Beach Boys...ugh, lol)

Update 4/30/12: trip is booked!!!

Wedding Crowns on Display

2012-04-28T22:12:00.000-05:00

I totally forgot to share with you guys, the gift that my Mom made for Aaron and I for Easter:

Love!

Close Up

She mounted our wedding crowns in a shadow box with our wedding program! Love love love! It is tradition to display your wedding crowns in your home after the wedding as a reminder that "God has united them to each other and to Himself and that He has bestowed His grace upon them to live in unity, faith and love." (http://www.antiochian.org/1285), so I am glad we can now partake thanks to my Mom's handiness with all things crafty. Thank you Mom!!

Is it Honeymoon time yet?

2012-04-24T14:50:00.001-05:00

(source)

Take me with you!!!

So ready for vacation. I had hoped that we could be on a plane out of here the day after my last final exam of the semester, but I totally spaced and forgot to remind Aaron to get a new passport. Some jerk face broke into his apartment years ago and swiped his backpack which had his passport inside, and he hasn't had to internationally travel since then. So he went and got that handled this week, but it will be about 6 weeks (or less, hopefully) until it arrives. I don't want to set myself up to be stressed out so I am holding off on booking any trips until he has the new passport in his hot little hand.

We have a bunch of trips coming up, which is exciting! Getting away is really under-rated. In two weeks we are going to Dallas to see my friend Brad get married, yay! (I am glad I will have wedding things to talk about again - still no word from my photographer about the photos, sadly!) Early June is hopefully when we can squeeze in our Honeymoon in Canada. Then in late June we are going for a long weekend in Port Aransas for a mini-beach vacay with my Mom's family. We all went last year for my Granny's birthday, so it is turning into a tradition I suppose - which is great news to me! Fast forward to Labor Day weekend, my bestie Katrina invited me to be her date to her friend/my acquaintance Aaron Blue's wedding. He and his fiancee are getting married on a cruise ship before it takes off to the Caribbean, so we are going to just pop on the boat for the nuptials then spend the weekend exploring Miami! Or failing that, lay on the beach all weekend drinking margaritas in Miami! Woohoo!!! Katrina and I know how to have some serious fun on vacations, so I am really looking forward to that! Then in mid September Aaron, little brother Jeff and I are planning a trip to Japan, which is going to be soooo fun and cool. I have never been so far from home before! Side note, does anyone else think I totally over use the exclamation mark? Too bad, I like it! lol Then after all of my vacationings I will settle in to what I have been told is an accounting semester from hades. Gulp. Last one, then I am done!!!!!!!!! And once I get through that one, assuming I have any vacation time left, we hope to get over to Nevada over Christmas break sometime. Then maybe an anniversary trip come January? Maybe, we will have to see! Aaron gets burnt out on travelling so I don't want to overload him.

The really great thing however, is that while we haven't exactly combined our finances yet, we have just been funnelling everything we can into our credit cards that give us airline points (any pay them off each month, of course) but between the wedding and all that business we have enough points to get plane tickets to all of our destinations (aside from Japan). So that is pretty sweet! But until then I will be dreaming of vacation for a few more weeks...

Anyone going anywhere cool this summer??

Pascha!

2012-04-16T09:26:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! It has been a while!! (sorry!)

Aaron and I are all moved into our new place, and about 95% unpacked at long last. So I have been busy with the move and school and unpacking everything, I can't believe a whole month has gone by already!? I also got cable AND learned how to use Pinterest (from my Mom of all people, lol) so both of those have been extreme time sucks.

For the Orthodox Christians in the group, yesterday was Pascha (pronounced Pah-ska)(Easter) or the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord. So we had a feast! It was sort of like our very first hosted holiday. Normally we are at my Mom's or Aunt and Uncles, but no one in the family celebrates Orthodox Easter but us, so we jumped on the opportunity to entertain.

We invited my Mom and my brother Jeff over to eat (at our little two seater table, lol) At least 70% of this menu was inspired by Pinterest...

Cucumber Roll Ups (filled with feta)

Bacon egg and cheese deviled eggs. And Cadbury eggs, of course

Leg of Lamb

Aaron getting his carve on

Easter Basket Cake!

And we will be eating leftover from our feast all week long, lol. It was basically a success - everything turned out well taste wise. Time management could use some work, as I should have make a few things the night before but we were frantically unpacking the last bunch of boxes. Plus we were at church all night for Pascha services. It was mega fun breaking in a bunch of our new kitchen gadgets and things! We are totally going to have a game night, or get together sometime soon so we can do this again!

On that note (and speaking of notes), our thank you notes came in, and it is my goal to get them 100% done by the end of the week. I am pretty certain that everyone thinks we are ungrateful jerks at this point, but we were moving and everything has just been too crazy.

AND I got an email from our photographer that our pictures should be ready sometime this week! Exciting!!!

So I am going to start recapping everything very soon :)

What a month!

2012-03-12T12:43:00.001-05:00

I cannot apologize enough for leaving this blog high and dry for so long! It has been non-stop crazy at the Hinkley residence lately...
This school semester is totally crazy, I have an Ethics class which is the amount of work for 3 classes with all the papers and projects we are constantly doing; a law class which is pretty easy, and another accounting course which I have to study like mad for in order to even pass. It has been rough! And since we are squeezed into Aaron's one bedroom apartment, I don't have good studying space set up (or blogging space for that matter!). But enough with explaining myself, let me catch you up to the happenings of us these days.

So here is the deal with our living situation. I was living with my Mom and brother before the wedding, then I moved into Aaron's one-bedroom apartment. I was dead set on moving shortly after the wedding or even before if we could swing it because I figured if we were living in such close quarters crammed amongst 2 households of stuff we would surely get divorced in a month. That would be like 1/3 of a Kardashian marriage, how humiliating! lol. But yeah, I need my living space to be at very least not a claustrophobic stress inducing environment. The plus side is that two people in a one bedroom apartment is very cheap, which the accountant in me LOVES. And maybe it is because we are in newlywed lovey dovey mode, but we are not having any problems living in the cramped space. We investing in some clever space saving and organizing gadgets, and sort of cleaned and got the whole place out of bachelor mode - it was just fine. I thought that if we wanted to move it should at least wait until the semester is over - there will be more choices available on places to rent, we will be in a better financial boat at that time, and we will have time to pack and move without incident.
Well not sooner had I come to terms with this decision did we get a lovely little note from the property management jerks.
"The Landlord has decided to not renew your month to month contract after March."

Yeah. Apparently, they can do that.

So this happened on February 28th, giving us exactly a month and 2 days to find a new place to live. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I met up with the realtor lady who helped us look for a place pre-wedding to show us around a few places. Well Aaron was gone to Notre Dame for a conference for half the week so I was flying solo on this apartment search. Nothing available for rent really spoke to me except this super cute duplex which was right about at the max we wanted to pay for a place (so much for paying down those credit card bills quickly!). So I got our application in, and someone leased it out from under us! Jerks!!! The thing about our neighborhood (which we love so dearly and don't want to leave) is that it is a pretty highly sought after locale, so stuff stays on the market for like 2 days then it is gone. It makes it pretty impossible to even get in to see a place let alone mull it over before you decide. And every place that is good is pricey. Every place that is affordable is trashy. It is hard. I imagine this is sort of similar to what NYC residents go through when trying to move. And then that clock just keeps ticking down, we now have 25 days to find a place...

Since all the places weren't that hot, we just decided to go with a mega-apartment complex. They so aren't really our style, but time was of the essence and we got everything we wanted (yes, we are upgrading to a place with a dishwasher AND washer-dryer!) for a pretty decent price. I am sooo glad also that it is relatively new. Our current place was built in the 1930's. And it smells like it was built in the 1930's and had the amenities needed in 1930. Like only 3 plugs. In the entire apartment. Not even exaggerating.
AND our neighbors (well, mystery neighbor) are being such jerks lately! We got a note on our door that someone went and printed off their computer (possibly to remain anonymous) that can we please not leave trash outside our front door. Ok so we were making an effort, but it isn't like it sits out there for days, it is like, hours at most. So Saturday it was monsooning outside and we were packing and such and we stuck a bag outside of the door. It was not out there even an hour and there was another note. It said - 2nd notice, can you please stop putting your trash in the hall, it smells and it blocks the hall for all your neighbors. 2nd notice?! Who in the heck do you think you are??! Do you not see/hear it pouring down rain right now?? So Aaron wrote back a sassy remark on this note and it disappeared from the door soon after. I suggested that he put that the next time we smell probably you and pretty much everyone else in the building smoking weed in your apartment, or being super loud at all hours of the morning we will call the cops on all of you a- holes! I was super mad. We don't complain about a billion things that these ghetto people do. He did not take my suggestions for the response, but that is probably for the best.
So in short, I think being kicked out for no good reason was a blessing in disguise.

Our future home!

And as if that weren't enough to deal with, remember on Saturday when it was monsooning? Aaron was in a car accident :\. It was the other person's fault, and no one was injured, but it is a pain to have to deal with that now too. Just by comparison, I think April is going to be pretty fantastic :)

I promise I will get back to wedding recaps as soon as I can!

Our first married Valentine's Day

2012-02-22T09:35:00.000-06:00

We had to celebrate on Sunday the 11th because Tuesdays are busy busy busy for the both of us. As far as gifts go, I got candy and flowers and Napoleon Dynamite on bluray, because it is one of the best movies of all time, and a Chelsea Handler book that I didn't have, yay! I got him a few books and some candy. I didn't take pictures of any of this unfortunately, and the flowers are already brown and droopy.

Aaron took me out to dinner to Fogo de Chao. It was his choice, I wanted to go to the fondue place. Fogo de Chao was alright. If you like meat, it is the place to go. I wouldn't call it especially romantic, and it is pretty pricey. But we enjoyed ourselves and left very very full, so that was good :)

camera phone pic, eek!

This was a papaya cream dessert Aaron ordered. It was pretty gross, but it looked pretty!

So that was Valentine's Day! How was yours?

Natalie vs. Irene

2012-02-17T20:21:00.001-06:00

Does anyone still read this?? lol

Things have been CRAZY busy in the past weeks so I have had zero blogging time. I am alive and well though, in case anyone was wondering ;)

I have about a billion posts of wedding recaps and such to come, but I feel inspired to address an issue I am having in my new married home. My step-daughter Irene.

This picture does not do justice to how fat she actually is.

Sure, she looks innocent and cute enough. Now I wont be over dramatic and call her the devil or anything. But there is something very mean and unholy about her. No lie.

And Aaron loves this creature as if he birthed her himself. He is so openly affectionate to her that it sometimes makes me oddly jealous. I once asked if he were hanging onto both me and Irene over the edge of a cliff and could only save one of us, who would he save: and he hesitated! And I think I was chosen by default because cats usually land on their feet when dropped. Thank you professor science. Not only does he love Irene, but he has a pretty weird affinity for all cat things. But yeah, Irene always gets the benefit of the doubt. When she scratches you and makes you bleed everywhere - she is just playing. When she hisses at me incessantly - it is because I am making her feel backed into a corner (somehow?). I mean, who is in charge here?! Sometimes I feel badly that I may have robbed some lonely cat lady out of her soul mate...

Never in my life have I been a cat owner. My Mom is allegedly allergic, but if she had been faking it all this time I would totally understand. But nonetheless we are dog people. Small, non-drooling, non-shedding, cute sweater wearing dog people. Being the introvert that I am, I thought being a cat person would be right up my alley. Plus some of my friends have cats, and they are sweet or non bothersome or do funny stuff like crawl inside of the couch. Low maintenance pets are pets I enjoy. They don't wake you up at the crack of dawn to be let out, and they don't bark when you are trying to talk on the phone, or want you to play with them while you are trying to focus on your tv show. Dogs could learn to chill out every now and then.

Irene drives me nuts in so many ways. I can be somewhat forgiving of things she cannot control. I know it is not her fault that there is cat fur flippin' everywhere. I have my clothing hanging up in the closet, and they still get fur on them somehow?! It is circulating in the air or something! I do take into account that there has not been a proper fur management plan in effect in this space.

Then there is the fact that she is mean. She is more mean to me than Aaron, but Aaron makes excuses for her meanness. Everywhere I try to walk she jumps in front of me, then turns around and hisses at me. If my hand or arm gets within 3 feet of her, she will try to swat me with her razor blade claws. She escaped out of the apartment when I was leaving for work this morning and i got all scratched up trying to corral her back inside. Vicious.

Please excuse my sausage fingers and two week old manicure.

And when you sleep, she jumps on you. She jumps on all sorts of things. She knocked my vase of Valentine's flowers off the bookshelf. She also claws things. So any dreams of having nice furniture are out the window. I don't understand why people think cats are worthwhile pets?

And I hit a new low when I tried to internet research how to get her to like me. I mean, wtf.

How to gain a cat's trust.

See all these special things you have to do to or for this animal only so you won't be harmed when getting near it?? You know what I had to do to get my dog to like me? Absolutely nothing! Dogs understand the pecking order in the house, and that they are the animal.

So dealing with the cat has been a challenge. Anyone have any pointers of how to stop hating your spouse's pet, lol?