Back in the Desert!

I'm back! Hawaii was terrible, very ugly and boring.

Okay I admit, I am joking. It just seems like all my posts are like "this was awesome, that was cool, things went great...etc". But truly, Hawaii was awesome. We did so many bloggable, picture takeable (made up word, i realize) things that I can't possibly dedicate one post to it, so the plan is to break it up over a few. This way, the suspense can keep building... what did they do next?

My new waterproof camera worked like a champ and was completely necessary on most days. I got tons of great pictures, some sketchy videos and a whole lotta good memories. Tom and I both feel beat up after the honeymoon. Now that is what I call a good time.

Luau Feast at Lele, Maui

Mr & Mrs Studer Finally!

The Oaks Lakeside - Sept 22, 2007

I leave in a few hours for my moon with my honey. It's going to be great! Seven days in Hawaii is my idea of a vacation.

The wedding was amazing, awesome, great, perfect...etc. You get the picture. As a non-girlie girl, I always looked at it as an immense amount of work, most of which was things that I don't really enjoy. But honestly, once it all plays out perfectly and you are surrounded by your friends and family from so many parts of your life, it makes it totally worth it. I loved the whole day and really didn't ever feel the dreaded panic stress that turns lovely people into bridezillas.

My photographer & friend Megan Resch, took amazing pictures which I will receive once we get back (I already saw some of them). I totally recommend her and got numerous complements on her. Check out her site and her blog.

We both want to thank all of my friends who helped out in various ways: Angel, Erin, Dameon, Justin, Brandon & our entire wedding party of Chris, Bill, Joe, Travis, Tony, Kara, Mandy and my three sisters Rebecca, Sarah and Debbie. We also can never thank our parents & families enough for all their help through everything.

Here is a cute picture from my new mom's camera. I will save the suspense for what I looked like till later...

Oh and Tom, I love you now and forever. I am so happy to be your best friend and now your wife.

O H I O! Always Buckeye Fans.

The Heartland Part 2

Bee Buzzing Grapes in My Father's Orchard

I went for another bike ride today to enjoy the fantastic weather happening here in Ohio. If it was like this year round, I'd be moving.

I vaguely remembered this place called Johnson's Woods Reserve where kids used to go to make out which I thought was bikeable from my parents house. I may or may not have first hand knowledge of the parking lot, just saying. So I decided to head there and see if maybe there was a trail in the woods. I had to cross a country highway to get there and climb several large hills, but I eventually made it there. It was actually a boardwalk path so no bikes allowed but I decided to take a quick run through the woods. I immediately ran into a good friend from highschool who I haven't spoken to in like 7 years. She is almost done with her residency to be an emergency room doctor so good for her (smart cookie, she is only 26). We caught up for awhile before I eventually continued on my run and ride home. I saw so many cute country people on my ride from 10-year-olds driving tractors to old timers sitting on the porch watching the cars drive by. Life is more simple here.

I took my camera along this time to post some pictures. Too bad they are not scratch and sniff.

Kids operate heavy machinery at a young age in the country.

Our driveway is a 1/4 of a mile long leading too...

The Old Homestead.

You guys thought I was making this stuff up didn't you? Nope I am a real country girl.
. . .

Well,
I ain't never been the Barbie doll type
No, I can't swig that sweet Champagne
I'd rather drink beer all night
In a tavern or in a honky tonk
or on a four-wheel drive tailgate
I've got posters on my wall
of Skynyrd, Kid and Strait
Some people look down on me
but I don't give a rip
I'll stand barefooted
in my own front yard
with a baby on my hip

'Cause I'm a redneck woman
I ain't no high class broad
I'm just a product of my raising
I say, 'hey ya'll' and 'yee-haw
. . .
~ Gretchen Wilson

The Heartland

I am in Ohio now doing the pre-wedding hizzle. That is hick for hectic dance of madness. Today was a long day of shopping, agonizing over tiny unimportant details and working on super fun things (right...not). I won't be posting very much over the next couple of weeks but I will try to post periodically (at least until the honeymoon).

Things are coming together though and the weather forecast for Saturday looks awesome! I took a de-stresser bike ride late this afternoon on my father's bike and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and smell of the country. Glorious farmland fragrances. I must say I never realized how many large hills are around my parent's house especially since the bike wouldn't shift so I was basically on a singlespeed. I think I will try to take a run tomorrow instead.

Putting his foot down.

"Seriously, I am done with the water already. Yes humanoids, I am talking to you. Hey this rock feels good down there...when do I get my doggie treat? Is the women yelling again? I am just fine right here. No I don't want to swim anymore, why can't we just watch NFL Football on Sundays like my friend's feeders."

This picture taken on Bell Trail makes me laugh. This dog was trying desperately to get out of the water but just ended up humping this small rock. Then he refused to move.

Rugby is in the air.

Did you know that the 2007 Mens IRB Rugby World Cup started this past weekend in France?

I mentioned this to the work lunch group and they gazed at me with incomprehension. World Cup? Rugby? So I decided to blog about it, in hopes of educating the Americans reading this blog who don't know this either. The World Cup is a [finger quotes] large event that involves [finger quotes] THE WORLD. You may remember it from things like the 1999 bad ass US women's soccer champions, or last year's mens soccer debacle where head butting was all the rage. However, although most people know all about Soccer/Football World Cup, they don't even know when the Rugby World Cup is going on (or even that it exists). Well the US Men's Eagles aren't very good due to being years behind in terms of development, however, they were praised for playing a tough match against England in the opener. They lost 28-10 and then lost another tough match to Tonga today 25 - 15. Hopefully they can get a win in their next game against Samoa on Sept 26th. FYI, the US Women Eagle, are good and consistently are one of the top 8 teams in the world.

Also, did you know that the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup started this past week? Well you should because they kick ass and are awesome to watch. The US Women's National Team tied Korea 2-2 yesterday in a debacle where the goals were scored while a US player was off the field getting stitched and they were playing down a player. They should bounce back to be the dominant team they usually are. The WNT takes on Sweden on Sept 14th and will be on live at 5:30 am.

Also, I want to wish the Scottsdale Lady Blues good luck this weekend as they kick off the SoCal Union season with a tough match against the San Diego Surfers. I won't be on the field since I will already be out of town for the wedding but will send my special winning powers to them via wiretap. It's always a good match up and a very physical close game with a great party afterward. I do miss rugby.

In other news, my fiance got a black eye playing frisbee last night 10 days before the wedding...should I be worried or just kill him?

Just another desert oasis calling my name.

This weekend was busy but productive but busy but fun...

Friday was a busy work day, wedding errand day, and house packing day that started at 6:45 with a morning run on my reservation trail. I hardly ever do that since I am not a morning person. And when I say not a morning person what I really mean is that you shouldn't talk to me until I have hit snooze at least four times. After work, I did something else for awhile and then I spent 3 hours packing my house and moving stuff to Tom's since I am emptying my house to rent. Tom and I finally sat down to watch a movie at around 9:30 pm and we both fell asleep at around 9:35. The movie was boring to begin, in German with subtitles and about some war thing (I did pick out the movie so I am to blame, what can I say I normally really like foreign films). It did serve it's purpose to put me to bed so early that I was able to get up on Saturday at 7 with no desires to sleep longer. I finished getting my place packed and cleaned in time to watch Tom kick some flag football booty. The rest of the day was a blur of moving Tom's roommate out of his house, my furniture in, hair die and cheesecake.

On Sunday I planned one last trip with my buddies before getting hitched. We went to a place that I have been wanting to do for a while called Bell Trail along the Wet Beaver River. It is actually located around 10 miles from Sedona but is night and day from there in terms of pristine beauty since it is located on the other (wrong) side of the highway from Sedona. The hike consists of an easy two miles on a wide path which we were able to trail run, followed by two miles of narrow trail along a cliff to a swimming hole on the river. The swimming hole was so clean and deep: very much an adult playground. You can free rock climb up the side of some cliffs over water and jump off many more. There was even some guys who set up a slack line and were doing some ridiculous tight rope walking activity over the water. I was suitably impressed as it looked damn hard. We bushwacked/river walked an additional mile upstream just exploring before heading back for more cliff diving. We even found a mini Slide Rock on the way out just before the parking lot. Overall and great day, with great weather and 10 miles of pure Arizona beauty. I will let the pics tell the story.

Red rocks abound along the hike in (it is only 10 miles from Sedona).

Chillin at the watering hole.

Free rock climbing was great due to deep water below.

Angel attempts to use her head as a fifth point of attachment.

Crazy slack rope traverser. This looks insanely hard.

Back diving off the rock. Joking, she just talked about it.

Upstream from the watering hole.

We climbed a lot of unnecessary things for fun.

We found this great place that was like Slide Rock to cool off right before the car, after a hot 4 mile hike out.

Thursday Quickie

When I feel stressed, I imagine myself here...

Havasu River, Grand Canyon

This is a shout out to Chris & Sarah Thomas who are now expecting their first child. Let us hope that Chris or Christine Jr does not inherit the angelic personality of their papa. Boy do I have some video clips to show that kid some day. You have been warned... Love you guys!

Blast from the Past

Okay, so I was looking through old pics on my computer and had to laugh looking at this picture (this was scanned back in the non digital days). This photo takes place in my freshman dorm room in front of my top bunk bed.

Ummm, yeah. I have a couple things to say.
#1 - Freshman 15 anyone? I look fat.
#2 - Bangs-Bangs-Bangs Wow! But I am sure that look was so hotttt in 2000.
#3 - Really Tom, blond hair? He went to San Diego for spring break and all he brought me was this bleach job (and a really cool shirt that I wore for many a night on the town that Angel now wears since I couldn't bear to throw it away since it really is such cool shirt).
#4 - Notice the poster of hot shirtless guys on the wall by my bed. Haha, this rocks. I used to have these in my room at home too. Ever cut out hot guys from the Sears Catalog? Oh the life of the bored midwestern child stuck in the country. Antonio Sabato Jr made my heart weep.
#5 - Umm am I wearing socks with sandals? Please say no. This must still be in style as I see the computer nerds at work sporting this look all the time.
#6 - Really this picture just makes me wish I was in college again. Life was so much fun then.
#7 - I lived in this room with two crazy people. Emily was fun, but partied way too much and failed out well before the end of year one. Other roommate code named 'nasty girl who worked in the cafeteria' was really crazy and ended up faking a break-in to our room and stealing a bunch of money and my chemistry books. Then her boyfriend installed a hidden ftp package on my computer and destroyed it by deleting all my files. Like I said... ~crazy~.
#8 - I remember when I used to think the dorm beds where big. I would totally kill myself on that bed now.
#9 - Three words: Mack Hall Posse (MHP). This is the name of our dorm social club and we would announce ourselves as such when we would arrive en mass to parties. We really did think we were cool.
#10 - I am done and can't think of anything else, except for "Wow, I hope we are as stylish now as we were then and I can't wait to look at pictures of us now and think, oh those were the days."

Ahhh STRESS

Stress is upon us. I am a manager of stress to some extent. I thrive on good stress (the kind found during athletic events and even during the big presentation for work). But I seriously hate bad stress (the kind that comes with the anticipation of big events and the thought of how much still needs to be accomplished in the short time that procrastination has left). I am sort of in that mode right now.

I went to my lovely friends Ryan and Kerri's wedding this weekend and although it was beautiful and tons of fun, I think it made me realize how much details planning I still have to do. I am not a bride-zilla (yet) and am relatively good at delegating tasks and realizing that it's just one day, however, it is still a huge event and I am the event organizer. So I am feeling somewhat stressed and have a to-do list a mile long, one item which is my most dreaded of activites: moving. I have to move Tom's roommate into my house and all my stuff (most of which I don't use ever) out probably into Tom's garage. Ahhh. I don't know why we waited this long but probably because his roommate is never around and I don't go to my house very often. And I hate moving.

I also have to complete multiple work projects before I take off for two weeks and I haven't even thought of things like "wow I hate all my swim suits and I am going to Hawaii". Now I have another thing to add to the list. I think weddings are definitely over done and mostly too extravagant, but please, just try planning a simple inexpensive wedding Good luck. It will always be more work than you were hoping for and always cost way more. But at the same time, I get to have a party with so many people from so many parts of my life all at once. That is exciting and I am looking forward to introducing my college friends to my Arizona friends to my high school friends to my family. I have changed immeasurably and probably not at all.

Working out is my stress reliever and Tom is the reason it will all be worth it.