Chicago 2010

So I know it has been forever since I blogged but here I am...back again! Brent and I have been having an amazing summer in Bloomington, IL so far! Lots of things fun things have happened and I am excited to share all of our adventures with you!

Mom and I

We had a great time touring Chicago when my mom came to visit! It was a gorgeous day and there were so many things to see!

This is Chicago on the water of Lake Michigan...so pretty!

I love this picture...I took it at the perfect moment...that sailboat was cruisin'!

Brent and I posing in front of the "Chrome Bean."

Mama and I

Me with my new haircut...It has been so nice having short hair this summer! The weather has been crazy here this year and the humidity is awful!

My handsome Hubby!


This trip was a blast and I was so happy that my mom was able to come visit us! It was nice having someone to hang out with for a week!

Noelle

Day #1 of our Vacation- The Smithsonian

So...here's a bit of an update on our lives in the last couple months. Brent's office gave us a couple days notice that we were transferring to Chattanooga. We ended up leaving half of our things at the apartment in Baltimore because Brent's sister and here hubby were coming to visit a week later. So we made the move to Chattanooga. When we arrived, we were housed in an extended stay. It was pretty cramped...but I'm not complaining when someone makes breakfast for me every morning and there is someone to make my bed if I want it! Anyway...before our week at the extended stay was over, they told us that we had to move to Atlanta, GA the following day. It was a pretty big shocker, but Atlanta wasn't too far away and I just wanted to be somewhere permanent! When we got to Atlanta, it was back to extended stay living, or we would have to share an apartment with another couple. I wasn't too fond of living with another couple so we volunteered to stay at the hotel. We got settled in just to find out that an apartment came available and we had to move in with another couple. Looking back, the living with another couple was the EASY part!! We only lived with them for about 4 days so it wasn't bad at all! The hard part was coming into the disgusting apartment! There was another office of guys living here before we arrived and they left the apartments in a way that you wouldn't believe! I would never have thought that I would clean up strangers fecal matter out of the bathroom! It was absolutely disgusting and I hope Karma comes back and bites those guys where the sun doesn't shine!! Harsh...you may say...but if you spent three days cleaning the things that I did, you would feel the same way!!

So once we settled into our apartment, we headed back to the Baltimore apartment to meet up with Ren and Heidi for our much needed vacation! The day after we got there we picked them up from the airport. These pictures are from the first day of our fun. We spent the whole day in Washington D.C. being tourists and hung out for most of it at the different Smithsonian museums.


These are some Guitars that were displayed and looked incredible!


C3PO-It was really crazy to see this character...it was the same one that was used in the movies!

This was the only thing I was super stoked to see while we were at the museums. Dorothy's ruby slippers were awesome! It's crazy because in the movie they are way shiny and sparkly! I guess over the years they lost that shine, but they were still amazing to see none the less!

Good old Kermit the Frog...the original I might add.

Oscar the Grouch, Seinfeld's pirate shirt and some crazy Hawaii puppet...

This is from the museum with American History...this was a "lobsterback" uniform.

This is George Washington's uniform.

Brent being silly...as usual!

This is one of the military Colonel's horses...it was stuffed and on display...it kind of weirded Heidi and me out!

This was really cool! It's a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Also a great part of the museum...a piece of the Twin Towers! That was a crazy portion of the museum, because it was part of our history that I remember and was a part of!

Brent and I sitting in one the old fashioned buses on display.

A sweet old station wagon!

My cute and awesome sister and brother-in-law...Ren and Heidi !

Brent and I again in the bus...

This was such a fun day! It was so stinking hot, but we got so much done! We couldn't believe it was only our first day into our trip! But after a good night's rest, we were ready to go again! More to come!

OK

Ok people!

I get it! I am super lazy and horrible at keeping up with my blog! So here I am...ready to update! There has been so much going on! I am excited for eveyone to see our fun journey through the last couple of months!

Work...Ughh!

So here I am today at good ole' work! I work at the Hampton Inn hotel. I actually really like it, but there are some days when there is NOTHING to do. It would be fine, except for the fact that I have to stand for all eight hours! It kinda stinks! Today of all days is going to be extra super! Not only do I get to work at the hotel on my feet for eight hours, but I get to go straight home, change and go to work at my new job at Red Robin. Whopee! So all in all, I will be at work from 6:30am-10:00pm! Aren't you all jealous! I woke up this morning and told Brent that I don't get to sleep in until at least Tuesday! What a BUMMER! Haha...he just said I'll be blessed for it...as he continued to sleep! Punk! Well, I hope all of you are having great days...better than mine!

Fun Stuff!

Last weekend, Brent had to go out of town for a manager's retreat in Utah. The day before he left, he picked me up from school and took me out to lunch to a place called "The Counter." It's this place that you make your own burger. They give you clip boards for menus and you fill out what you want. They had fries and onion rings as appetizers, instead of on the side. It was a really cool place! Brent then took me to Best buy and suprised me with an early Valentine's Day gift. He got me the Wii Fit!

It has been so much fun to play with! We both love playing it and competing against each other! When you begin, you only have a certain amount of games to play, but as you put in more time and get better scores, you unlock new games and features! It is a total blast!

We also just planned our "postponed" honeymoon! We are both so excited! With everything that happened right after our wedding, we left our honeymoon after only had been gone a day. So we are headed back to Disneyland at the end of this month! It will be great to relax and enjoy each other after such a hard beginning.

I really want to thank everyone for all of the kind things said about our pictures and posts. It means so much and is really very thoughtful! When I started this blog, I didn't think anyone would read it, but it turns out that lots of people do! It gives me more motivation to keep it updated! :-) We love you all!

Photos

Hello Hello again!
I gues I will try and start making this a normal thing. It actually really helps me to relieve some of my need to talk! Haha...well, most of you have been bugging me for some photos from the wedding, so I am going to try and figure this out! Because of everything that happened with Robin, my mom called the photographer and got her to send some of the Hollingsworth pictures. All the girls were here for Christmas, so my mom had the family photos framed for all of us and Don...

This is the family all squeezing and group-hugging together...Gunnar got what to do...he just forgot to look! :-)

This is just the cutest picture of Brent and Robin! He is definitely a Mama's boy!

I really like this photo of Brent and his parents...He looks just like both of them! He definitely is his father's son! Spitting image I tell ya!

What a Happy Day!!

The newest member of the family! I am so thankful for such wonderful in-laws!

The girls! I love this photo so much! They all look like models! My mom had this photo framed for each of the girls also...

Me and all my wedding day glory! At this point...the hand warmers were not working and I couldn't feel my fingers or toes! But I like how the picture turned out!

Buh-Bye...we have to go get married now thank you...

Well...we are finally married! Yaay!

And now...My absolute favorite picture of us!

So here are some pictures to look at while we wait for the others! We had the best photographer! I can't wait to see how all the other pictures turned out! Let me know what you think of the pictures!

Finally!!!

Hello all!

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to finally update our blog! It has been one heck of a month, but I am glad to finally be back up and running. Some of you might be following my sister's blog and have an idea of what has gone on since our wedding. For those friends of mine who don't know, I'll give you the run down.

Brent and I got married on December 19, 2008. It was the most amazing day! I totally couldn't sleep the night before! At about 1am, I went into my parents' room and jumped on their bed shouting, "I'm getting MARRIED tomorrow." (Yea I wasn't excited at all :-) The next morning, my friend Beth came over at 6:00am to style my hair. It took a little longer than expected, so we had to rush around a little bit. I ended up doing my full face of make-up in about 8 minutes...and for those of you who know me, that is practically a miracle. I put on my dress, got loaded into the car and my Dad drove me over to the Temple. Brent and I had our pictures taken prior to the sealing. We pulled up and Brent was out front waiting with the photographers.

Taking pictures was so crazy! Looking back it was a lot of fun, but in the moment it was freezing and exhausting! When I got out of the car, it was a little windy and overcast. The wind sure did not help, but we got some cool shots beacuse of it! By the time we had to go get ready for our sealing, I was cranky and frozen! Not only that, but I didn't think to have my mom bring my purse, and it turns out my Temple recommend was in there! My uncle Steve happened to be working as a Temple worker that day, so he helped me get through without the hassle of having to go home and get it! Brent was so amazing...he just kept comforting me and made me happy. He would look into my eyes and smile saying, "You are going to be my wife today!" It was very cute and I will always remember that!

It was finally time for our wedding ceremony! It was the most incredible experience of our lives! I have never felt so comforted in my life! We walked in and our family and friends were there to greet us! Even though I felt like a windblown mess, I have never felt so loved and so beautiful as I did that day in the Temple!

After the sealing, I went back to the Bridal Room to put myself back together. Brent said that he got finished getting ready and was headed out the front door of the Temple to wait for me, but realized that he should probably wait for me so we could walk out together...silly boy!

We walked out and everyone was waiting for us taking pictures and giving us hugs! After everything got settled, we all took family and bridal party pictures. While we were taking pictures, everything just felt so surreal! I couldn't believe that this was MY wedding and we were taking MY wedding photos! It was so neat to finally be at this place in my life!

The wedding reception went great as well! It was so beautiful! I have to take this opportunity to publicly thank my Mom and Dad! I really appreciate the time and effort they put in to making my day so wonderful and beautiful! And thanks to my mastermind of a mother, the reception was absolutely gorgeous! My Dad put just as much time into this as well! He was such a good sport and offered so much support with all the "girly" stuff.

After the reception, we headed out to our honeymoon in Disneyland! We stayed in the Hilton next door to Disneyland (thanks to my sweet discount with my job!) and our room was just incredible! It had the most spectacular view! We overlooked California Adventure's Hollywood Tower Hotel. We went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and planned an Early morning entry to Disneyland the following morning.

At about 1:45ish in the morning our hotel phone rang. Brent picked up the phone and it was his sister Kristi. She regretfully informed us that Brent's mom, Robin, had had a stroke. It was the most shocking news to hear! He talked with her for a few minutes about what had happened. She told us that my parents were there helping out and had been there all night with them. It comforted us to know that my family was there offerring their support. But being that it was still the middle of the night we were pretty out of it and in disbelief that this had happened! Brent's Dad, Don, told us that we should stay there until we knew more about what was going on.

A few hours later, and after a few informative phone calls from his sisters, Brent and I decided to stay. Heidi told us that Robin said to stay. Everything seemed to be stable as far as we knew. We ended up walking over to Disneyland for a few hours. For the few hours we were there, we hadn't recieved any phone calls, so we figured everything was good and the medication she was given was doing its job.

We left and were walking back to the hotel to get ready for dinner when Don called. Brent was listening to him and I looked up to see tears in his eyes. We sat on a bench and tried to remain calm while talking with Don. When Brent got off the phone, he told me that Robin's brain had started to swell and bleed. This made her slip in and out of unconciousness and possibly cause death. That was so hard to hear. We thought, what if she doesn't make it? We are here! How can we get there the fastest? We said a prayer together and knew that we needed to go home immediately! At that point, we packed up and left.

When we got home, we went straight to the hospital. Brent was in disbelief, because at that point, the last memory he had of his mom was dancing with her at our reception.

The next couple of days were a blur. Lots of emotions, lots of tears and definitely lots of love! The Hollingsworth's spent Christmas with the Roth's. That was a good experience. We had Christmas at my Parent's house and were able to get to know each other and bond more than we probably would have if this didn't happen. Robin's health was still up and down, but finally stable. The girl's went home and we had Don for our roommate. It was so fun having him there with us! My father-in-law is one of the funniest guys I know!

So as you can see the last month has been pretty crazy! But the good news is that Robin is doing great! She got her health to improve enough for her to drive back to Idaho, where she is in therapy. She is at a rehab center in Boise, which I hear is very nice and state of the art! I am so glad I have had the opportunity to bond with her and I am so thankful to have her in my life! I am also so thankful for my wonderful new family! Both of our families are so much alike that we have all just felt like an extra-big family over the last month!

Brent and I had a very different Wedding experience than most, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! This experience has helped Brent and I to have an extremely close bond, that makes us feel like we have been married for years and years. Thank you for all of your support and love!

As soon as we get our wedding pictures back, I will post them. I have a few already and I will try and get those up ASAP! Oh and for those of you who would like more details about Robin's progress, visit my sister Kristi's blog: http://jeffandkristimiller.blogspot.com/. She keeps everything up to date and also has some good pictures!

Until next time!

Black Friday

This morning Brent and I got up to go to Wal-Mart at 4 Am. When we got to his car, I started to get in and realized that there was glass all over the seat! Someone had broken into his car during the night. It was so stupid because they took the radar detector and his work binder, and yet left his GPS and Ipod hookup sitting there! We were pretty mad about it, but figured that our number was up! We still ended up going to Wal-Mart at the crack of dawn and met my Dad there.

I have a couple thoughts about this whole "Black Friday" shopping deal. One, why on EARTH would you bring your four little children to Wal-Mart, with all these crazy folks at 4 Am? Two, If you are missing teeth have hair that hasn't been brushed/ washed/ cut in a year, you probably shouldn't be buying a Wii! And three, I hate cart crashes!

I have never really taken part in Black Friday, and will probably never go out that early again. After we were done, we came home, fell asleep and vegged for almost the entire day...and then decided to go to the mall for fun. When we got there, everyone looked exhausted and there were so many less people because it was the end of the day. I like that a lot better! Haha...

But all in all, putting aside the car break-in, we had fun being out in the crowds and having the "Black Friday" experience!

Excited!

I am so excited to finally start my blog! Well...I am doing this for both Brent and I, but I don't know how many times he will be on here doing the writing for us. I just added a "Wedding Countdown Clock" to help count down the days until our wedding! It is so crazy how times flies! I am really grateful that everything is running smoothly and hope that it continues that way...So here's to a new blog!