11 airport lines and counting...

This morning we awoke at 4:30 Rome time to a wake up call in Italian,
boo for the last day in Rome.

We got to the airport after an near death experience in the taxi. Then
started the cow hearding and thus far we have waited in 11 lines today
(not including starbucks).

Here's a preview of our feet pictures from vacation, we tried to take
one at every port! This one is us at Newark airport now stuck after
our flight was delayed 2 hours, were on the 18th hour of the day so
far... blah blah

Last day..."I'm done"

So we have disembarked the Carnival Dream and are now in Rome for our
last day! As our Oregon friends would say "I'm done!" :-)

Today's agenda includes our Vatican City tour and hopefully some last
minute shopping...and of course trying to stuff our faces with enough
yummy Italian food to last us till we return.

Yesterday in Florence was awesome, we ate Gelato twice! It was a shop
that made it right there using only organic ingredients, the best by
far! We finally bought something for ourselves, Terence a leather
briefcase and me a new purse, yeah! We also walked the Ponte Vecchio
bridge, toured the Duomo and Santa Croce cathedrals, and climbed the
414 steps of the bell tower to see some beautiful views of the Tuscan
region!

Pics to come of course :-)

Sent from my iPhone

Tonight's towel animal....

No Barcelona :-( but overnight in Monte Carlo!

Yep that's right our cruise sailed into some northern winds from
Africa, which I guess is some rare occasion, but gave or baby cruise
ship quite a scare! We had 40 foot waves and 70 mile an hour winds,
and to the coast guard that meant we had to turn around and could no
longer make it to Barcelona :-( We did however get another day at sea
and an early arrival in Monaco.

We decided to take the night and fancy ourselves up and headed out to
THE Monte Carlo Casino! Terence ended up winning a little which
covered our entrance fees, some Perrier, and a little extra play
money! This is the most expensive place ever, you wouldn't believe the
cars here!

Today we headed to Nice on the train and toured the rest of Monaco on
our own. Tommorow is Florence then Rome then home, boo.

See you all soon though!

Sent from my iPhone

Venice Masquerade Partee

Day ? of the honeymoon and I have no idea what day of the week it is!
I do know that today was our last day in Venice and we are now sailing
our way to Croatia.

After we left Rome we hit Naples visiting Pompei and Mt Vesuvius which
was crazy and we will
definitly have more pictures to blog later! Terence bought some
limoncello and we mostly toured and ate some Margerita pizza (invented
here in Naples) and more gelato :-)

After Naples we had a relaxing day at sea, most of which was spent in
the spa (massages and thalassotherapy pool), napping, and eating! Next
up was our first day in Venice and we conquered the Rialto bridge and
shopping, Murano, and a romantic night gondola tour. Today we finished
up Venice with St Marks Basillica and square, more pizza, and tonights
cruise ship masquerade party!

We made it! And don't worry the gelato is still awesome!

First day in Rome we argued with our taxi driver, got in trouble for
ordeing too slow at the gelateria, but got upgraded on our fancy hotel!

So far Rick Steves has saved the day at the Roman forum with his
awesome walking tour and saved us time waiting in the long lines at
the Colosseum! Oh and the sites are bella!

Here is the pic of Ter in front of the Pantheon eating Cafe and
Chocolato Bianca flavored gelato, jealous? :-)

Honeymoon: Airplanes galore

Yeah! We're on our way to Rome today. Sitting in Newark Airport now
with our 3 hour layover, boo!

A pic of My new hubby deep in thought on our first flight...

Blogging is Calming...hmmm

So as I go to read my weddingbee.com blogs for today, this is my relaxation period of the day, Terence tells me that he finds blogging relaxing. I don't know about this, but thought I would give it a shot! (maybe its calming to him because he gets to write about cruising and baseball...ha)

This morning woke up early in a panic to quickly get the table and place cards printed and ready to drop off at the reception location this afternoon. Well CRAP, I have been procrastinating on this project, mostly because I didn't want to think about table arrangements and here I went and waited till the morning before to work on this project. In enters Terence to the rescue!!! He went and bought more cardstock (which I miscalculated for like the tenth time throughout the wedding planning process), he dealt with the devil printer that for some reason liked to eat my miscalculated cardstock, and even cut and scored all the cards!

I think they turned out pretty cute for a 1-day project...pics to come!

We also got to drop all the out of town bags off at the Embassy Suites and Fairfield Inn. I always liked this idea of getting a gift when checking in for your room. So we decided to pull a little something together, mostly St. Charles/St. Louis visitor guides, some more wedding information, snacks, and a homemade surprise...to be shared later after everyone has seen theirs!

We are so excited to see all of out friends and family that have traveled so far!!

2 days and counting...

Wedding Week Continues...and Ice Cream today!!

Well Monday was a full day. We got our marriage license (see the pic below), met with our DJ, Debbie had another hair trial, as well as her final dress fitting. Plus there was prepping for the out-of-town guests, arranging seating, going shopping...it was a loooooooooooong day!

Today started off just like Monday...with a trip to the gym. See Monday's visit was necessary after all the food we ate "on the road" on Sunday. We haven't been eating out much, so the extra sodium left us feeling...well, like we needed to work out! This morning I was less than amused. We woke up early to the sound of Midnight running at full speed into the bedroom. Just before we heard cat cries from her and Phoebe, Debbie's cat here in St Louis. They are in the "transitional" phase of becoming either a) friends, b) acquaintances, or c) frenemies (where they get along when we are all watching them!). We got to the gym eventually and started our day just like Monday.

Today we met with the videographer over lunch at St Louis Bread Company (aka Panera Bread outside of St Louis...). Then we headed over to Mens Wearhouse to drop off my tux and shirt for pressing/cleaning (oddly enough all the groomsmen, fathers, and ushers' tux rentals were ready. I only need to rent the accessories (i.e. vest, tie, etc) and they were NOT there yet...hmmmmm... We then headed to South City to Serendipity...for some awesome ice cream. They are providing the ice cream at our reception...finally got a chance to try the pumpkin pie flavor, awesome! It'll be there on Saturday! I went with my favorite, Swiss Chip...it'll also be there. Following the loooong stay there, we headed to dinner with our photographer at Three Monkeys (near Tower Grove Park)...had a unique appetizer, Lobster Rangoon...another great find!

Here I am with the ice cream...not the most flattering of shots, but you get the idea. Deb and I really, really have missed the awesome-ness of ice cream! (The sugar crash came later!)

Now it's night...and we are still busy away. As Debbie is on her computer and I'm on another, I'm procrastinating slightly in posting this blog. Hahaha...as I don't have time to email EVERYONE, a blog post is so much easier to update the masses!

Tomorrow...oye, avoiding the schedule for now! :-)

Arrived in St Louis! Wedding Week Begins!

Well after a long 14-hour drive, Debbie and I arrived in St Louis late last night. We planned on leaving at 7am, but it was just after 8am when we departed Pearland. There were things we had to finish up first thing in the morning, including the drugging of Midnight. She had been stressed all week, we noticed, and when I picked her up and held her on the counter, I don't think it helped. Debbie proceeded to push the little pill into her mouth followed by the syringe full of water! She was pissed from that moment...till...well, she's still pissed! She woke up this morning probably groggy from the meds going..."where the hell am I?"

Anyways, as I backed the Xterra out of the garage, full beyond belief of wedding supplies and four weeks of clothes, travel essentials, etc etc etc...the rain drops began falling on the car. It wasn't until we were 2 hours outside of St Louis when the skies cleared and I could finally bring the car up to a satisfactory velocity!

It was a stressful drive all the way through. We opted for Highway 59 again for leaving Texas...with the GPS taking us off onto Highway 43 upwards of Marshall or so. Yeah, never again. See in dry conditions these roads are plenty safe and we cruise right on through. Not yesterday. The rain was bad, the roads were wet, the wind was blowing, and the stresses and anxieties never left! It was on 43 where the truck in front of us, towing a 20-ft boat, went into a 360 degree spin in front of us going 65-70 mph. We then hit the same slick spot but were lucky and held the road and our lane...he wasn't so lucky. He flew across the road and ended up on the other side of the road...we stopped and he was okay, but the stress in that moment carried on until the rains stopped. (I probably doubled my gray hair quota in 14 hours!)

Anyways, we arrived safe and sound and are ready for a busy few days of "wedding week!" Any moment we'll be headed out for our marriage license, followed by a full day of vendor meetings and such. It's going to be awesome...or tiring.

Weather is 59 degrees right now and gorgeous. Considerably better than what we left behind in Texas. Wedding day forecast is a high of 55 and a low of 37...I am so excited! Coupled with the leaves starting to turn (some, not quite there yet), it's going to be a beautiful weekend!!!

See some of you in St Louis!

What a week, holy crap!

What a week it's been. I don't even know how to start!

Work, work, work! Finish up the wedding stuff, drug the cat, pack the luggage, find everything we need, make to do lists, make more lists, pick songs, .... AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Well it's just short of 5pm on Friday as the week is about to end. I figure I can wait 10 more minutes and then get the hell out of here! I am soooooo ready to start my 4 weeks off! That's right people, be jealous, we are taking off the rest of October! :-)

That's it. I just wanted to come on here and say that. Sorry Tyson, Paige, Chris, Debbie and others whom I got feedback from. Sorry this post doesn't have more pictures or animal stories, but hey, no talk of ships, baseball, or stupid stuff! Well, nevermind, totally a post about nothing. Glad I was able to waste a couple minutes!