I'm feelin' 22!

So I celebrated my twenty-second birthday this past weekend.

The celebrating started on Thursday at work with my preschool class! We got to have cookies for snack and they sang me the Happy Birthday song.

Then, on Friday, I got to spend a fun night with my best friend, Farren.  We started the night at Bair's and then moved on to go downtown with a co-worker of hers and his friends.  It was a fun night, but I wish that Mr. C could have joined.  He works the evening shift at work, had a really busy day at work, and had a headache, so he decided to stay home and rest. And that was fine because we got to spend all of Saturday together!

Saturday morning we stopped by the Farmer's Market on our way to my parent's house for my birthday celebration. I love that place and I wish I could afford to buy everything everyone has to offer. We picked up some apples and bagels for breakfast. Yum! If you haven't had apples from a farmer's market, go and get some! They are worth the little bit of extra money you may spend on them and so delicious! They have varieties you won't find at Wal-Mart.

After that we made our way to Holiday Island, Arkansas. We got to have lunch with my parents and then, when my brother and his family arrived, went out for a boat ride.  The weather was perfect for a quiet ride on the lake. My parents just bought a pontoon and I LOVE it! We even took the dogs with us.  Good news- CC loves the boat (even though she doesn't like the car or water.)

We had a yummy dinner and then parted ways back home.

It was a short trip but I love any time I get to spend with my family.

Now, for some pictures from this weekend!

Farren and I at Bair's

Mom and brother, Adam.

Sister-in-law, Lee-Ellen, Adam, niece

Me and Mr. C

C.C. exploring

An old bridge and mansion

My dad helping her drive the boat.

A fun weekend

So I am really playing catch up tonight. Three posts in one night! I'm on fire!

This post is about this weekend.

It was a fantastic weekend!

First, on Friday, I got my hair cut.

Now, normally this wouldn't be anything to blog about, but I did something drastic. I got a pixie cut! I have had my hair in a short to medium bob for about 6 years now.  I recently grew it out for the wedding. I was tired of having the same hair and same look.  I had been wanting to chop it all off for about a year now and finally had the guts to do it and I am so glad I did!

I was worried Mr. C wouldn't be a fan but he told me I look beautiful.  So, score!

Later on Friday evening I got to spend time with one of my best friends. Mrs. Rachel M. We have been friends since fourth grade and have become closer this past year. I brought over the fixings for Zuppa Tuscana.  We cooked and ate, then realized we had a hankering for something sweet. We made a run up to the grocery store for cookie dough. We picked out plain chocolate chip and peanut butter chocolate chip. Yum! When we got back home we baked the cookies while watching Frozen. I love our girl's nights!

Saturday was Cox Health employee day.  This is where Paul works as a surgical technologist. (That's the person who sets up the OR with all the instruments and hands tools to the doctor and helps the doctor with... whatever he tells them to, I guess.)  Anyway, employees and their family get free tickets to Silver Dollar City, a theme park in Branson, MO. We went with a couple from Paul's work.  We had a blast. Paul went on the rides with his co-worker and I stayed behind with Monty. (We aren't ride people.) The only ride I went on was a ride where you had to be like 2 feet tall or taller to ride. It's a ride where to float through a tunnel and shoot at targets placed throughout the ride. I think my ending score was like 3,800.  Paul's and our friend's scores were over 100,000.  I claim my gun was broken. After that ride we had dinner then parted ways.

Sunday I had to work. Normally this is an agonizing four hours of work. I am a nursery coordinator for a Lutheran church and normally on Sundays we don't get very many children, if any at all.  Well today I had at least three kids in the room at a time, and for a brief period of time I had more! It was wonderful! One of the little girls was cracking me up. She is about 3 years old. She kept calling everyone honey.  She would tell another child, "Honey, you can't play with that toy that way." or "Honey, finish your gold fish crackers!" Kids are something else!

After work, I picked Paul up and we went to one of our favorite restaurants for sushi.  We shared a roll and each got a teriyaki dish. It was delicious.

Then we picked up our dog and took her for a walk at the park.  We dropped her off at home then went on a drive to look at houses that we wish we could buy. (We won't be able to buy a house for probably at least 3 years.) We like to do this every now and again.  I love this because it get's us talking about our future and dreaming together. Things like, "Oh! That yard would be great for kids!" or "I can see ourselves having a bbq and fire pit in the backyard." come up. It's so nice dreaming about our future.

After that, we came home.  He began watching Grey's Anatomy (which I got him hooked to) and I began homework and writing my blog posts.  It has been a wonderful weekend.

My new hair!

Park selfie. Selfies are hard to take with a dog...

Mr. C is 22!

So, Paul turned 22 last weekend.

His birthday was Sunday, but I love birthdays so I wanted him to have a fun birthday weekend.

Friday night I had a meeting planned with a couple friends and then wanted to hang out after we got finished. Little did I know that Paul put in to get off early at work if it was slow, and it was slow so he got home at about 8 instead of 11:30.  Now, I had no idea and he wanted to surprise me on the one night that I decided to have a life, ha-ha.

Paul wound up meeting up with my friend Farren, her friend, and me later that night and we all hung out.  But, when I got home I came home to a cleaned living room, washed dishes, flowers and the DVD Frozen. He said it was a little early birthday present to me.  He did this all for me on HIS birthday weekend.  What a sweetheart I have.

Saturday turned out to be a lazy day and Sunday was spent at church, having lunch with his sister and her family and going to the cheap-y movie theater.

Monday, Labor Day, we traveled to Sedalia to spend the day with his family.  His brother and his family and sister and her family also made the trip up.  It was my first Chernioglo family gathering as an actual Chernioglo. The day was filled with volleyball, laughs, cooking, eating, a frozen air conditioner and lots of talking. It was a wonderful weekend.

We also got a new camera for as a wedding present, so I had fun testing it out.  Here are some that were from the first time I tried it out then some from the day at Paul's mom's house.

P.S.- Sorry for the overload of pictures... I narrowed it down to this from 80!

My dad and my dog, CC.

My parent's dog, Chester.

My cute dog, CC, being cute.

My wonderful parents.

My husband fishing at his mom's pond. 

Paul's mom's house.

Uncles, nieces, and nephews playing volleyball.

And again.

Paul and his brother

Family playing.

The children absorbed in some form of technology.

Paul and his wonderful mom.

Nephews being funny.

Honeymoon

So, I have been a bit of a slacker.  I had lost all motivation to do much of anything besides watch Grey's Anatomy this past week.  (You should see the pile of laundry I need to do!)

Anyways, I have been wanting to post about our honeymoon.  I wanted to wait a little while to post about it because I thought it would be more fun to reminisce longer after the honeymoon.

So I will begin with the simple fact that our honeymoon was fantastic! People asked us, "What all fun stuff did you do?" Well, we ate a lot, relaxed, and napped.  It was pretty great. No we did not go snorkeling, kayaking or on some excursion. And you know what, I am happy that we didn't.

We went to Rivera Maya, Mexico and it was our first time travelling outside of the country as adults (and without our mom and dad to take the lead.)   We wanted it to be easy and low-key.  Which it was.

We went to the most amazing resort! I highly recommend it!  The service was amazing. The food was amazing. The weather was perfect.  The best part of all, I got to spend this vacation with my best friend!

To sum up our days (we pretty much stuck to the same schedule every day):
     Wake up (me by 8 and Paul by 9:45)
     Breakfast at 10
     Pool or beach until a late lunch at about 3
     Nap until about 6 or 7
     Get ready for dinner at 7 or 8
     Hang out in the bars or courtyard until late

There were many different restaurants there. My favorites were the French and Japanese.  They were SO SO SO good! I wish I could eat my meals from there again!

I cannot wait to go back and visit this wonderful resort again one day.

 

In the lobby of the resort.

Relaxing on the beach.

The wonderful pool with a swim-up bar.

(This is only like a view of 1/3 of the pool.)