Mom's Birthday Surprise :)

As I begin to think about what I should write about today, I wonder how in the world I'm going to fit it all on the page!! As the weekend approached, activities began to fill every hour, of every minute, of every day! But, I must say, it was certainly worth it :)

A few weeks ago, my sister called me with an idea of what we could do for our mom for her birthday (which is still about a month away) :) Her idea was to get the photographer that did my engagement & wedding photos come out and take "Sister Pictures" and family pictures as a surprise for my mom. She had been talking about doing this since the wedding (it's been almost a year already!) but the photographer (who is AMAZING by the way) moved earlier this year. So, the hopes of her taking our pictures went out the window. When my sister came up with this idea first thing was first-call the photographer and see how much it is & if she would travel for our shoot. Luckily, she was in our town for a wedding the same weekend!! Oh how perfectly the plan was coming along :)

Picture day quickly approached, and I got to spend the day with my mom and sister antique shopping. And my mom hit the motherload!! (no pun intended :) & we were very excited. So, we loaded up her car (and mine!) and headed back to my parents house. My mom hadn't slept well the night before & after all the shopping-literally dropped! She was exhausted. And, when asked if she was going to dinner, said no. It was a giant dent in our plan. Going to dinner was how my sister & I were going to get my mom to the picture location! So, as my mom laid on the couch my sister & I secretly (and quietly) got ready for our pictures. Finally, we decided we had to tell her our plans. Or she wouldn't go. And the surprise was for her, so it was kind of important for her to be there ;)

She had NO idea what was going on. It was great! My sister and I walked up to my mom and explained the plan. She started crying. We were ecstatic! It was her dream come true-exactly what she wanted & my sister and I had planned it ourselves. And worked together. Without fighting about it. It truly was a miracle :) So, everything went perfectly. Mom was happy. And we had memories that will last a lifetime!

Here is the link to our pictures!:
http://hardtle.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/wiseman-family-melbourne-florida/

As I've gotten older, I have begun to realize how important family really is. And now that I live farther away & don't get to see them everyday, it's even more special when I get to see them. This may be the last time we will all be together for awhile & we have great memories of it. I love to see my mom happy. I don't think any other present in the world would've made her happier. Finally a family picture-the last one taken was 9 years ago (when I had a giant space between my teeth, a lisp, & awful hair. It clearly wasn't my year....) And my parents got pictures together. They smiled, laughed, played around & got to be romantic with each other. It was so wonderful to see :) I know my dad's not keen on pictures, but he was a good sport & made mom very happy. I can't wait to see the smiles & laughs caught on camera!! (I promise to post some when I see them :)

Families are the best. And I must say, I couldn't of asked for a better one. Getting our pictures together made me realize just how blessed I am to have them :) I miss them & think about them everyday. Love you guys!!! <3

"When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses." ~Joyce Brothers

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." ~Desmond Tutu

My First Blog!

When I first heard about blogs, I never thought I would ever make one. "Blogs are for people who have a lot to say!" (and I didn't think I was one of those people) BUT, now that I'm married, life has gotten just a bit more interesting! ;) I figure family, friends, and such can read my blog and keep up with my "new life" :)

After a few weeks of being married, our house began to feel a little "lonely." So, Kyle and I went to our local Humane Society & adopted 2 orange, male, tabby kittens whom we named Max & George. As I tell stories about my "furry children" to my mother; she reminds me how much I used to hate cats. Well, now that we have our own, I love them. I don't know what it is; their curiosity, playfulness, or trouble-making, but they're awesome. And I have figured out that I'm not allergic to them!! YAY! :)

So, we have Max & George, and our snake-Nike. Snakes aren't my thing. Nike doesn't scare me or creep me out, but I've just never had (or thought of having) a snake as a pet. But Kyle has had Nike since he was about 10 years old; needless to say he was part of the package deal :) The best part: He's GREAT entertainment for the cats!

Now, onto our newest addition; Kyle and I are now maintaining a saltwater "nano" aquarium. It's a Fluval Edge; a 3D cube aquarium that provides viewing from every angle. (No lid so the little furry kids can't get into it!) Now, neither of us has ever had a saltwater tank before. We had turtles. Which our parents took care of. So, this is very new & (hopefully) won't be too complicated!! This is what the tank looks like:

Of course, ours isn't exactly the same, but we LOVE the color: burnt orange! We bought the water, sand, and a live rock to get us started. The tank comes with lights, a filter, and the stand. But, we got a hidden treasure inside our live rock! A day after we set the tank up, I noticed a little snail stuck to the side of the tank! It had survived our set-up and initial decorating :) So, I decided to name her. Sammie the snail!! She is a Cerith snail which looks like this:

Once she stayed alive for a few days, Kyle & I took our water down to Petco for a free testing to make sure it was all balanced. And it was great!! (yay! :) So, we figured that we would get Sammie some friends :) We are starting out with the cheap ones just in case they end up dying, lol :) We also headed down to the beach to see if we couldn't find some more coral or rock to put in the tank (save some $$) And we found some! After some googling, we figured out that we have to boil the rock we found at the beach. So, along with dinner, we boiled our beach rocks. They look awesome in the tank! We are hoping we get some "free creatures" from our new rock :)Today we went to Petco and decided since the water tested out ok, we would get some new friends for Sammie! We got another Cerith snail (Sandy), 2 Cortez Crabs (Pablo & Sanchez) and a Scooter Blenny (Charlie). Let me show you what they look like:
This is the Cortez Crab:

And here's the Scooter Blenny:

All of these creatures are "bottom feeders" basically the maids of the sea world. Now if only we can get some to clean up the house....

Anyways, I will put up some pictures of our new creatures, their habitat, and keep you updated on how it's going! If anyone has any tips, secrets, how-to's, or anything of that nature, let us know! As of now, we are reading up online how to do this. I hope we can get the hang of it without lives being lost! :)

Thanks for reading!
Lauren :)