What's new?

What have we been up to since our wedding festivities have ended?  Well, we are on a mad hunt for an awesome house.  We'd love to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit, so we are hoping to find a house and sign before December 1st!  We have a great realtor and of course found our dream house, BUT it was an approved short sale, for practically $50-75,000 less than it was actually worth.  We bid high, but unfortunately someone else bid higher.  We saw a few houses last weekend, including a pretty nice house on a lake in Lake Orion, but decided it was a bit too small for us.  The view was beautiful and of course we'd love to live on a lake, but we didn't want to sacrifice the size of the house for the view.  We saw 7 more on Sunday and will look at a few more this Friday.  We'll keep you posted.

As for me, my summer vacation is officially over.  I was back to work as of last Monday and was unsure of how I felt about this school year.  I'm back to teaching 6th grade, which is my favorite grade to teach, and have taken on the position of lead teacher.  Although I was a lead teacher at DEPSA, I was more concerned with my team this year because we were going to have 4 new teachers due to two leaving and two teaching a different grade.  I'd have to say that our principal did an AWESOME job with the hiring though.  My partner (the ELA teacher) is great.  We have the same teaching styles/philosophies AND she scrapbooks!  It doesn't get any better than that!  If you are even halfway aware of my partner last year, you'd understand how much better this is!  The others in my team are great too..we get along very well and they are fun to hang out with (one is just as addicted to Big Brother as I am!) so I feel very lucky to be the leader of what's going to be an awesome team.  

Of course with more responsibilities, I have lots of work to do.   So, if I haven't talked to you much lately, don't take it personally...just trying to readjust to this thing called work.  Troy has been very busy too.  He's had a few trainings here and there which has taken time away from clients, meaning he has to squeeze them in on other days.  Plus, he has audits every other week it seems, so he has a ton of paperwork to look through/get signatures for/etc. in a short period of time.  Don't you just love when your bosses throw work at you and tell you its due in two days...you do the work putting other work aside, then are told the next day that they changed their mind and it isn't due until next week.  Yeah, thats been happening a little too much and it pretty much sucks if you ask me.

So, we've been busy busy busy the past couple weeks...but we are hoping for some relaxation and non-work related fun this weekend.  We'll keep you updated on the house-hunting!

Our Cadillac Reception

A huge thanks to Dan and Rosie for hosting a reception for us after we returned from Cabo.  Along with my parents and other family friends, they did a wonderful job of setting everything up and cooking all the food.  We had awesome mexican food, including chicken and beef fajitas, enchiladas, rice, beans, chips and different sauces/dips, and of course cake and other desserts!  The only downside to the whole day was the rainy/windy weather for the first hour or so.  After that though, the sun started peaking and the rest of the day was great.  

After eating, visiting with family and friends, and looking at wedding pictures, Dan and his band played some good ole' country music and they made a bonfire, where we hung out for the rest of the night.  Thanks to everyone for coming and making it a great wedding celebration.  

Cake and Card Box

    

Yes, I was waiting to see if Troy was going to shove it in my face before I gave him his.

Pictures of Friends and Family

          

      

    

We love you all!  Thanks for coming!

Last but not least...Day 8

It was time to go..but not without many lasting memories.  Today we got up and had breakfast, saying goodbye to our good friend Maribel -- we first met her as the waitress at our wedding, but she frequently worked at El Patio (our favorite breakfast buffet).  

We went back to the pool for about another hour before going back to the room, showering, and gathering our things to check-out by noon.  After we checked out, we took some last minute pictures and relaxed with our last drink (a miami vice) before our shuttle came.

  

      

Goodbye Dreams Los Cabos.  Thank you for a wonderful time -- we all 

had a blast -- and we miss you already!

Thank you also to all of you that came.  

We hope you enjoyed your time in Cabo as much as we did.

Day 7

It was our last full day in Cabo.  So, we took this time to relax, relax, relax.  As part of our wedding/honeymoon package, we got a few perks today.  First, we got a champaign breakfast in bed -- breakfast burrito, fruit, beans, hash browns, toast, pastries, and of course juice and champaign..yummy!

Then, it was off to the pool for our last day of sun and relaxation!  We even got served lunch at the pool so we didn't have to dry off and wait for our food!  

Later that afternoon, we had some more pampering with a salt glow scrub and a tension release massage.  The scrub was a nice exfoliation, but to be honest, for me it kind of hurt because of being in the sun so much.  After we showered it all off though...woah!  Soft skin!  Then it was our massage...which also felt VERY nice!

Then it was time for our last hoo-rah.  We got a private dinner on the beach, with our own personal waiter.  First, we had a salad, followed by tortilla soup.  Then we had filet mignon, shrimp, veggies, and potatoes, followed by our dessert of chocolate mousse.  With the waves crashing along the ocean in the background, and the sun going down behind us, it was the perfect way to end our last night in Cabo.

Day 6

Well, unfortunately, this was the day when all of our friends, and my parents left!  =(  We hung out in the pool (AGAIN!) during the morning and went to lunch with everyone before they left.  Once everyone left, it was back in the pool until dinner.  Troy and I went back to Himitsu for dinner and I had FABULOUS coconut curry chicken and a coconut martini.  Yummy!  After dinner, we decided to take a walk on the beach as the sun went down....

Whenever we were looking for someone, the pool was always the first place to look!

Before everyone left...

Sunset from the beach

  

Our walk on the beach

Day 5

I know, I know, I've been a bit delayed in the rest of our trip.  Well, here we go...

On Saturday, we started our day at the pool.  Swimming, laying on rafts, grabbing a drink from the bar...yeah, thats how we spent most of the day.  Mid-afternoon though,  we thought we'd go to downtown Cabo San Lucas in the evening with Kelly, Ian, Rosie, and Dan.  We walked around the marina a bit, then went towards the flea markets.  It was actually rather sad that people would chase you out of their "stores" by yelling out lowered prices of whatever you were looking.  Dan ended up buying a few t-shirts, I bought a bracelet, and Kelly bought some pretty sweet cowboy boots.  Before we got on the shuttle, we stopped at Margaritavilla.  We had a HUGE margarita and had a mexican band play good ole "Ring of Fire" for us, as well as the famous "La Bamba".  Talk about entertaining! 

  

Pool time doesn't get any better than this!

  

Margaritavilla -- Awesome margaritas!

  

and Awesome entertainment!

Cabo -- Day 4

The day after the wedding, you would have thought we'd just want to relax right?  Not quite.  Troy has always wanted to go deep-sea fishing, so at a bright and early time of 6am, he headed down to the marina in Cabo San Lucas with Dan, Bryan, and Derek.  Despite Troy getting a bit sea sick (sorry Derek!), they had a great time and each of them caught a few yellowfin tuna.  Most notable was Dan's catch of a 110lb. striped marlin which took 45 minutes to reel in.  45 minutes!  I can't believe something taking that long to reel in, but then again, it was 11o lbs.

    

Since they left for about half the day, I talked Rosie, Erin, and Val into going on the zipline tour with me.  It was CRAZY.  Not only do you ride ziplines over canyons (which was all I thought the tour included), you also had to walk a small rope across the canyon with only the help of another rope at chest height, rock climb or climb a ladder up part of the canyon, swing across the canyon on a tarzan swing, as well as walk across a bridge with ropes aiding you across.  What a rush!

       

                                                   Rosie on the zipline                           Carefully walking the tight rope

       

                                                        Erin as "Tarzan"                          Yes, that bridge was rather high!

Val -- the only one of us to take the harder route of rock climbing!

After all of us got back, it was time to cool off in the pool.  Most of us went to Himitsu for dinner (an awesome Asian restaurant!).  Since we didn't have our wedding cake yet, they were nice enough to serve it to us here...

    

After dinner, we stopped at another bar for a quick picture -- not only do they have a swim-up bar, but they also have bars without chairs -- instead they have swings!  Talk about original!  Then it was to the smaller pool where Ian decided to go for a quick dip, while Kelly and Val danced to the music of a nearby wedding!

  

Up Next:  Day 5