Books, books and more books

I love reading, but sometimes it just seems like there's not enough hours in the day to sit down and start a book. Once I start a book, I get completely consumed by it and can't put it down until I finish it. The Twilight series was a bad thing for me and then I read My Sister's Keeper and am addicted to Jodi Piccoult books. So addicted that I've started ordering them off Ebay. I just bought Mitch Albom's new book Have a Little Faith. I haven't had time to start it yet. We are leaving Wednesday on a 12 hour drive to Arizona, so I'm hoping to use that time for some good quality reading.

Here are some of my favorite books

I have never really been into vampires, but have joined the rest of the world in the Twilight craze.

My Sister's Keeper was a real tear jerker, but such a great book. I didn't see the movie in theaters, but can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

The Shack is such a great book. Really makes you think about things.

I really loved this book. It really shows you that everyone is in your life for a reason.

These are just a few of my favorites. There are so many more books on my reading list, hopefully I get around to reading them all.

Wedding Photos by Kristy Ahumada

We got our wedding pictures last week and we are so pleased with the way they turned out! Kristy and her assistant Andrea did an amazing job capturing all the special moments of our big day! I am so excited that we have found such a great photographer. We will definitely be using Kristy for all of our professional portraits.

I am still working on getting all the pictures on my computer (there's 582 of them). But, here are a few of my favorites so far.








As I was uploading these, I realized that I already had a lot of favorites. It's going to be so hard to decide which ones we actually want to print off larger than 4x6.

All of our photos are up on Kristy's website. The link is www.volatilephotography.smugmug.com. Then scroll down and click on Lindsay + Jeremy and the password is penngrovelove9509. Let me know which ones you like best and think we should get larger prints.

XOXO

Arizona

This past weekend, we went to Arizona for Christina's (soon to be sister-in-law) bridal shower. We always have such a good time with Randy and Christina. I really couldn't ask for a better brother and sister-in-law. We got there at 5 pm on Friday evening and left Sunday morning at 11 am. It was a short trip, but filled with fun. Friday night, we went to Dos Gringos for happy hour and then spent the evening hanging out, catching up, stair sledding and playing Rockband. Saturday, we took a trip to Target to look for Halloween costumes and then Christina and I headed to her sisters for her bridal shower. Her sister was an amazing hostess!!! Christina loved the Mrs. Bitzer tank top I got her. Saturday night, we got all dressed up and went out to eat and to Wal-Mart. Then, we went back to their place and played Apples to Apples and of course a little more Rockband. Sunday morning, Jeremy and I got up and made the long 12 hour drive back. It was a great trip and we were sad to leave them, but are so excited to go back in a few weeks for their wedding!!!

Cheesing!

Christina stair sledding

The pretty bride to be

Soon to be sisters

A witch, a beer maiden and a flight attendant

My pilot and me

Michael Jackson and his beer maiden

Wondering...

Why is it that as soon as you get married, people start asking when you are going to start having kids??? Is it just that it seems like that should be the next step?

I'm not saying I don't want kids because I definitely do. I just don't know if I'm ready for them right now. I would like to spend a little bit of time just enjoying my husband and enjoying being married. I would also like to be a little more settled than we are now, as in financially stable, car paid off, possibly buy a house first, etc. I did have this big plan to wait until I'm 30 to start having kids. I figure, I'm only three years away, so I might as well wait. But... I will have to admit, after getting married and being around my friends with babies, it does make me think I could be ready now. So, I've kind of decided that we definitely aren't trying, but if it happens sooner than later it would be ok. :)

I'm sure my mom, mother-in-law, Michelle and everyone else that is ready for us to start having kids would be happy to hear this. But, still don't start thinking it's going to happen anytime soon.

Chocolate Covered Peanut

Before I moved to California last year, I talked Jeremy into buying me a puppy as a "moving" present. Jeremy's parents have miniature dachshunds and we love them so much that we decided to get one for ourselves. I started looking online and fell in love with this little 2 pound puppy from Texas. Jeremy and I talked to the breeder and decided we would have him shipped to Kansas City when I went to pick Jeremy up from the airport, so the little guy could make the 1800 mile drive to our new home in California with us. The breeder told us he was going to stay pretty little, maybe 8 pounds fully grown. After much consideration, we decided to name him Peanut. He did great on the trip out to California and has been such a joy ever since. We moved in with Jeremy's parents when we first got to Cali. He was in heaven running around with their 4 mini dachshunds!!! We moved into a townhouse around Halloween and Peanut dressed up as a pumpkin for all the trick-or-treaters. He was a little sad living in the townhouse with no playmates, so we decided to get him a kitty to play with. My brother-in-law and soon to be sister-in-law came here for Christmas and brought their mini dachshund Blitz with them. So, there were 6 weiner dogs running around the in-laws house. In March, we moved into a rental house across from Jeremy's parents, so now Peanut gets tons of playdates with all the dogs. He loves it at our house, and loves having a backyard!!! He is such a funny little guy. So here are some of my favorite pictures of Peanut aka Nutty, Chocolate Covered Peanut, Nutty, Nutty Butter, Butternut Squash, Peanut Butter and his rap name Nut Master P. :)

CHP Baby!!!

Jeremy just found out that he got assigned a background investigator for CHP. This is such great news!!! We've only been waiting almost 5 months to hear something. We were getting a little worried because other people we know that applied for CHP and had their interview after Jeremy had already gotten the call from their background investigators. Jeremy still hasn't officially gotten the call, but he called the office and they said that the background investigator assigned to him has been out of the office this last month, so that's why he hasn't received a call. Now, we're just waiting for the first of November for the background investigator to call him and tell him what to do next. The next academy starts in December, so hopefully he will get everything done in time to start then!!! He will be gone 6 months (except weekends), but it will all be worth it in the end!!!

Tonight, I'm cooking my hubby a celebratory dinner of salisbury steaks, roasted potatoes, corn and crescent rolls. I'm definitely a beginner at cooking, so wish me luck!!!

San Diego

My favorite part of our honeymoon was definitely San Diego. There are so many fun things to do in San Diego. A few of the fun things we did while we were there were: a dinner cruise, played in the ocean at Coronado beach, ate at a bbq place where they filmed the piano scene in Top Gun and hung out by the pool at our hotel.




Everything we did in San Diego was a blast, but our last night there was definitely my favorite. We decided we were going to go to the Gaslamp Quarter for a nice dinner. When we walked out of the hotel a guy in a pedicab asked if we wanted a ride. At first, we told him no, but then talked him down in price a little and decided to go for it. He had a bunch of event lists from the House of Blues to look through, so I grabbed one and was checking it out. I saw that on that day it said Colbie Caillat (who I love and had talked the whole trip about how I wanted her new cd). I asked the guy if that meant she was there and he wasn't sure, but said he would take us there. We got there and the girl said that she was there, but the show was sold out. But, she told us that there was a scalper that hangs out and sells tickets. We found the guy and sure enough he had some tickets. So, we skipped our nice dinner and saw Colbie Caillat instead. After the concert, we stopped for a couple pieces of pizza. I couldn't ask for a better way to end our honeymoon!!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

DISNEYLAND!!! Need I say more??? The two best rides were closed, Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion, so we have to go back soon. :) Here are a few pictures from our Disneyland/California Adventure visit.



The best part of the day would definitely have to be the fireworks! They were beautiful and such a perfect way to end the day! Made me miss Seneca and all of the Fourth of July festivities though. :(

Honeymoon in L.A.

For the second part of our honeymoon, we drove along the coast down Highway 1 to Los Angeles. It was a long, but beautiful drive!

We made it to our hotel, the Marriott downtown, around 8:30 pm Thursday evening. The hotel was so accommodating, and upgraded us to a nice Junior Suite. We didn't do much Thursday night since it was pretty late and we were exhausted from driving. Friday, we went to Hollywood Boulevard to see Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Walk of Fame. We also went on a Hollywood Homes Tour. I'm not sure if our tour guide had a lisp or just a bad accent, but he kept saying BevWE Hills. It cracked me up every time he said it, and believe me he said it A LOT! He showed us all around Beverly Hills and also took us to Rodeo Drive. Of course, I loved all the stores on Rodeo Drive and Jeremy loved all the NICE cars.


Friday night, we went to dinner at this really cool downtown lounge called The Edison. It was definitely one of the coolest places I've ever been. The theme of the place is the depression era. The hostess was wearing a flapper dress and they had old black and white films being projected on the walls. They also had drink and appetizer specials based on the cost during the depression era. If you ever go to L.A., I would definitely recommend this place http://www.edisondowntown.com/.


The next day we went to Disneyland!!! More about that on my next blog.

Honeymoon Day/Night One

For our honeymoon, we decided to road trip down the California coast. Our first trip was Carmel/Monterey. All the little shops in Carmel were so fun! We had to go to the Coach store and of course I HAD to get something! :)

Our hotel in Monterey was nothing short of amazing! First off, they upgraded us to a room with a view of the ocean and a fireplace. Then, 15 minutes after checking in and getting to our room, chocolate covered strawberries and champagne were delivered to our room compliments of the concierge.

That night we went to dinner at The Sardine Factory (not sure I even saw sardines on the menu). We got to sit in our own private little room with a view of the ocean. It was also right by the lounge, so we got to listen to the piano player play the piano and sing. After dinner, we went out to the lounge to enjoy a little more of the entertainment. I actually ended up singing Crazy by Patsy Cline.

We had a great time in Carmel/Monterey and will definitely be staying at The Clement again! Maybe next time we will take Peanut so he can play on the beach. :)

Wedding Pictures by Kristy Ahumada

We had the privilege of working with a great photographer, Kristy Ahumada, at our wedding. She did such an amazing job! She really captured all the special moments of our wedding. She gave us a little sneaky peek of some of our wedding pictures and we wanted to share them with you.

Go to www.volatilephoto.com, click on "client area" then put in the password penngrovelove.

We hope you love the photos just as much as we do!

P.S. Kristy's sister, Andrea, also helped Kristy photograph our wedding and she really had some great ideas! She also has a business called Print Your Party. You should check out her shop www.printyourparty.etsy.com.