Wedding Wednesday: Ceremony Pics

 

 

 

**Photos by Trizza Grantham Photography

Surprise!

Remember this post where I was worried about what would happen, if anything, for my 30th birthday?  Turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about.  After we finished hosting JB's family for Thanksgiving at our house, we were relaxing on the couch with a glass of wine and getting ready to watch some DVR when this happened:

JB: I have something to tell you.

Me: You're cheating on me? (relax folks, this has never been an actual thought in my mind)

JB: No.  I made you something.

Me:  You did?

JB:  I know you were excited to stay home for the next few days, but I made us a reservation at the Hyatt in North Lake Tahoe for your birthday.

Me:  Nuh-uh

JB:  Yeah, we are going to leave in the morning.  I got you a couple of bottles of wine to take with us and I booked you a massage for Saturday afternoon.

Me:  Nuh-uh...for real?

JB:  Yes.

Me:  For really-reals?

JB:  Yep.  I thought about waiting til tomorrow to tell you but thought you might want to start packing tonight.

Me:  *grinning like an idiot with tears in my eyes* Awwwwww, that is soooooo sweet!!!

The amount of thought and effort he put into this whole plan was unbelievable!  He said he researched places for the best packages and deals and the only person who knew anything about it was his mom.  And folks, the weekend was beyond perfect!

Without even knowing why we were there, the hotel upgraded us to a club level room on the top floor in the corner, away from the noise of the ice machine and elevator.  With the upgrade we had access to continental breakfasts, midday snacks, appetizers and cocktails, and desserts every day we were there!  It also gave us a 2pm checkout.  The package he ended up getting included breakfast at their restaurant both mornings and a spa credit, which he used to book my massage.  We enjoyed some time in the pool (heated, of course) and the hot tub, did some gambling, and  a lot of drinking.  We even got in a workout on Saturday morning at the fitness center.  I only took pics on the first day, but there wasn't a lot more to our weekend.  It was pure bliss.

On our way!   Terrible pic of me, btw.

To the mountains we go!

Lunch at Las Panchitas in Kings Beach

After lunch we walked across the street to the beach

Looking down from our room

Looking out our window

Hubs

"Birthday" Girl

The backyard of our hotel, on our nature walk with "walk"tails

I love nature walks!

So happy!

Babbling brook

JB carving our initials into a tree by the brook

JB+BB = JB^3

On the pier waiting for sunset

We couldn't get over how green the trees were

Sunset

Who can photoshop that kid out of there?

What looks like raisin bread is actually some sort of salmon loaf :(

I was on cloud 9 all weekend!  JB kept calling it my princess weekend.  I gotta figure out a way to make those happen more often.  LOL!  We stopped at Las Panchitas again for lunch on our way out of town.  Their nachos are to die for!  I can't believe he pulled this off!  I couldn't have planned something better myself.

Here's to turning 30!!

Thankful

My family

My job

My health

Our home

The fact that my basic income tax prep class is finally over

My education

My IRL friends

My blog friends

Full mental faculties

Love

Music

Those are definitely in no particular order.  I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!!  What are you thankful for?

Wedding Wednesday: Wedding Video!!

It's been a while since you have seen one of these posts, and yes I still have plenty of wedding pics and honeymoon stuff to post, but I wanted to share this with you all first!!  I couldn't imagine a more perfect highlight reel from our wedding day.  So much laughter and love.  I wish I could post the whole thing, but with it being over an hour, I doubt it would hold your attention very long.  If you have about 3 minutes right now, check it out!


John & Bre Bauer Wedding Highlight Film from b hintz on Vimeo.


LOVE!

On the Bandwagon: Quest for 1,000

She's cute, snarky, and fabulous!!!  She also just showed me love by mentioning me on her Link Love post on Saturday so I have to return the favor.  If you haven't heard of her yet, today is your lucky day!  Click on the image above. Go.Now.

Why are you still here?

Way-Back Breezy

I have wanted to write this post for a long time because this is a big part of how I came to be who I am today and I only hope that people can take from this and possibly apply it to something they are going through.  The reason this post came to be is that I was writing an email to share this experience with a blog friend that is currently going through a tough time.  Otherwise I would have had zero motivation to write it seeing as how I am now happily married.

Anyway...Once upon a time,

When I was 17 I started dating this guy I worked with. When I was 18, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. At 19, we broke up for a year and a half and eventually got back together. We were together for almost 7 years total and he finally proposed when I was 23. I graduated from college, he began paramendic school, we weren't living together, he never wanted to hang out with my new friends I had made through college/sorority, and we spent more time/holidays with his family than mine. I had always wanted to marry him, but now that I had a ring on my finger, we were drifting apart.

About 6 months later, I was heartbroken and devastated because I knew that I wasn't happy and if I wasn't happy now, our marriage would be a sham.  He had picked a date that was 2.5 years from the date of our proposal which kind of made me feel like he had only proposed because he had already started to feel me slipping away.  Anyway, I went away for a weekend to my dad's to think about everything and talk to my dad about it and on the drive home I was ill knowing I would be ending our relationship.


When I got home he came over and I was in tears before he walked through the door. I told him that I didn't think this was going to work and laid out all of the reasons why. He was stunned and asked me to reconsider, saying that he would change and make more of an effort. Against my better judgement, I agreed. Things didn't change and got even worse. A month later I knew it was over.  I was becoming more aware of my actions and my unhappiness.  Over the past 6 months I had been putting myself in questionable situations that no woman who is happy in her relationship would and it finally came to a head. A week later, we ended things for good.  I was sad that it was over, but I felt more terrible for him. I knew the sacrifices he had made to buy my ring and felt responsible for breaking his heart and wondered if he would ever find love again. (I should really get over myself, LOL).

We tried to do the friend thing as we had done before during past breakups, but I think we both realized that in order to properly move on, we needed to sever our ties. My best friend of 7 years was gone in the blink of an eye. I did what most do, partied the loneliness away. I was out with my friends 4 nights a week racking up credit card debt with dinners/drinks and trips to Vegas and Hawaii; all of the things we never did together because he was fiscally responsible.

Eventually we started dating other people. Mine unfortunately turned out to be a rebound and his turned into a 3 year relationship who he moved in with not long after they started dating. Although I was happy for him, I was heartbroken mostly because as long as we were together, he had never taken that step with me. I know that he was scared of failing and having to move back home and that's why he wanted to wait, but in my eyes we had each other and we would figure it out and make it happen and I never felt that he had the faith I did that we would get through it.

We would myspace message or text every once in a while on birthdays and stuff, but his GF was a little more than psycho and wanted him to have nothing to do with me so we didn't talk much for a long time. His dream of becoming a firefighter, a journey he had started when we were together, had finally come true for him and I couldn't even celebrate with him and our friends. That made me sad, but I understood.

Not too long after that he broke up with his girlfriend and I started dating my now husband. He and I finally became friends on facebook because we were actually at a place in our lives where we could do that. We both bought houses within a month of each other and were genuinely happy for the other, and not too long after that, I got married. Even though I was extremely happy with the path my life had taken, I still carried around this guilt for breaking his heart all those years ago and I just wanted him to find someone and be as happy as I was so I could forgive myself. About a year ago he did. They are expecting a baby in April and I am so excited for him. He is so happy and successful and is going to be an amazing father and has found someone who makes him very happy.

The important thing to remember if you are dealing with a situation like this in your relationship/marriage is that you can't lie to yourself to save face for the rest of the world or be unhappy for someone else's happiness. It takes more strength and courage to do what I chose to do than to just be complacent and stay in a situation we know in our hearts isn't right. It will take a lot of time and growth and change to be whole again and forgive yourself for walking away, but it will be worth it in the end. I don't think he or I would have done half of the things we have accomplished today or be the people we are now if we stayed together. It's very cliche, but everything does happen for a reason and things to have to fall apart so something better can fall together.

That's truth.

Where's Breezy?

I wish I could capture the look of shock and awe on your faces as I pop up in your reader or on your "Next" button.  Wait, what?  You didn't even notice that I haven't posted in over a month.  Whatevs.

Don't call it a comeback.  I've been here for years....

Anyway, let me fill you beezies in on where I have been lately.  I know you think I was probably off doing something super fun and fantastic, but unfortunately that's not the case.  Most of you know that I started a pretty intense workout schedule back at the end of August, which was definitely taking up a lot of time, but I was still able to blog about it.  But then I decided to take a Basic Income Tax Preparation course through H&R Block.

I know, you are probably like, "Wait, I thought you said you weren't off doing something super fun and fantastic?  That sounds AMAZING!"

Well, if that was the only thing I had going on in my life, which luckily it is not, it probably wouldn't have been so bad.  But since I also work a 40 hour week and then was working out 6 days a week, it was a little cray-cray for my liking.  Notice I said I was working out 6 days a week.  And no, I haven't finished the workout program....yet.

Apparently the only class they offered at Block that worked around my day job was the accelerated course.  7 weeks of classes on T/Th evenings from 6-9pm and Sat/Sun mornigns from 9am-Noon.  Oh, and you know that shiz in college when teachers tell you that for every hour of class you should have an hour of homework?  Pretty sure that never happened...until NOW.  Seriously, I have never been such a studious person.  I have been diligent in reading every chapter and doing all the exercises and haven't missed a class except the first one for my friend's wedding.

Needless to say, about halfway through the class I had a mini-meltdown and realized I couldn't do it all and that Phase 3 of my workout schedule would have to wait until class ends.  That day is finally on the horizon.  We have our final this Saturday and I have senioritis like a mofo.  I just want to get it over with and get the heck out of town.

Oh yeah, my friend sent me a text a couple of weeks ago asking what I was doing on the 19th because she has a hotel room in Tahoe.  I told her, "I have my final in the morning, but that would be an awesome way to celebrate that it's all over!"  So now I get to go have a girls' overnight in Tahoe to celebrate the accomplishement of being done with this class.

The whole thought behind taking the class was being able to do seasonal part-time tax preparation with H&R Block.  I had my interview with them last week and will probably hear from them after they get my stellar results from the final.  I am kind of thinking long-term with this whole thing if it all works out.  Maybe someday we have a child and I want to stay home, but can do this part-time/seasonally and by then I will be doing more involved returns which will bring in more money.  We shall see.  It's also something I can do later in retirement or something too.

So, anywhooooo, that's why I fell off the face of blog-land and I am hoping to get more wedding pics and honeymoon recaps up on the blog in the coming weeks/months (oh yeah, remember when I got married?).

Thanks for sticking around!