Whoa, it's been a year?!

Next part of this series..our HONEYMOON! 

Ah, it finally arrived, oh but a year later ;)

I know some people have never even been on their honeymoon and I honestly don't know what you're thinking. You have to! Go! Plan it now and get away! 

One thing I would suggest, probably one of my favorite parts of the trip, go out of the country and don't pay for International service on your cell phones. Best. Thing. Ever. No phones, a beach, just the two of us actually giving undivided attention to each other, having conversations. Ah-mazing!

(riiight...as I sit here on my computer, typing this. Mr. Bell on the iPad looking for a mower. And the Cardinals game in the background).

Our honeymoon trip was put off for a year but it also doubled as our one year anniversary, we actually left on our anniversary. I know, I know what you're thinking, "It's already been a year?!" Why yes, yes it has! I know, I can't believe it either, it has seriously flown by.

So our anniversary was on a Sunday. Saturday night I kept saying to Mr. Bell, "Man it would be nice not to have to get up really early in the morning (for our 8 o'clock flight) and drive an hour to the airport on top of having to be there two hours before our flight." He kept saying he wanted to save on a hotel, blah blah. Hello, I need my beauty sleep here! :) Well, I went to Wal-Mart to get a few more things for the trip, travel size stuff, etc. I came back, opened the door to the house to Mr. Bell standing in the doorway holding a card. (He's going to kill me for posting this. hehe, love you!) The card said, "Happy One Year Anniversary! I got us a room for tonight!" Yay, yay, yay! I was so excited. Of course, I wasn't packed yet because I thought I had until 4:30am the next morning. So I rushed to pack up my stuff, got in the car, and headed to the hotel.

Us at the airport before boarding

Sunday we left for Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. It took us for. ev. er. to get through the airport once we arrived in Punta Cana. (This was my first time out of the country FYI, so I was blind as to what to expect). Once we finally got through the airport, we got on a bus and headed to the resort. 

Let me just say, their driving is absolutely *crazy*! For example.....

Stop signs are there. They don't use them. People just go whenever they want.

Lines on the road are there. They don't use them.  People just drive wherever they want.

Policemen are sitting around. They don't do anything.

There are huge and I mean huge places missing in the road where they are "fixing" it. Well on a two-lane road with oncoming traffic, one would think that one person would probably wait, let the other pass in the only lane available, then it would be their turn. Nope! They just drive in the open lane, hope they don't hit anyone, when someone comes they plop over into the gap in the road. It was pretty scary!

Once we were on the resort, we walked around, checked the place out, and got cozy in our room. It poured that night so we waited for it to pass then headed to dinner. That night we ate at the steakhouse that was on the resort. On Monday we just hung out by the pool all day then around mid-afternoon I started to get a really bad migraine and wanted to go back to the room. Well by the time we had walked back to the room I was sick. I ended up throwing up most of the afternoon. I never throw up and when I say never, I mean that I can't tell you the last time I did. (Sorry, maybe a little TMI? oops.) Well we ended up just eating at the buffet. 

Tuesday we went on an excursion. It was called the "Reef Explorer". Basically what we did was take a boat out to this huge dock in the middle of the ocean. There were two levels to this dock. On the first level there were lounge chairs where you could relax and tan with the ocean right there. Try to just imagine that...okay, okay, you don't have to imagine. Here's a picture. :)

Seriously...paradise.

You could also paddle board, kayak, and snorkel in the ocean from this level. On the second level there was a shaded bar area where you could eat, drink, and be merry. If you walked to the other side of the second level they had a massage area where you could get a massage...using seashells! That's the one I picked, pretty neat! Also on this side, you could swim with the stingrays and the sharks. We both swam with the stingrays and got a really cool picture taken with one. But the whole shark thing just isn't for me so Mr. Bell swam with the sharks..all alone..by himself..with the sharks.. ah! But he is still alive, so I guess it's safe?

check out how clear that ocean is!

Us feeding the fish with our toes :)

 



















And as if one massage wasn't enough, we went back to the resort and got another massage. This one actually lasted for an hour though. And we got to do it together. It was...interesting. Let's start by saying that Mr. Bell had never had a massage before except for earlier that day and from me (which if you ask him, he'll let you know that I really stink at massages). So we walk in, they take each of us to the locker rooms, one for women, one for men. We come out in our swimsuit and a robe. We had a man that worked there take us around and show us the different things we could do before the actual massage. They had a sauna, a steam room, a pool that had these fountains which had extreme pressure to beat down on your neck and shoulders (incredible!), a jet in the bottom of the pool that you stand on and it massages your feet. Then they had this pool that was FREEZING and I mean freezing. We had to go in, enough to cover our shoulders, stand there for 5 seconds, and come back out. I'll admit it felt really good after being in a sauna for 15 minutes. After we did all this stuff, we sat in the hot tub and waited for our massage appointment. 
Here comes the interesting part...we get in the massage room, they tell us to undress and get under the sheet. They come back in and start massaging. We'll keep this part short and sweet, let's just say that they got a little too close for comfort for Mr. Bell. Funny story to tell now...but he was not laughing when it was happening. HA! 

That night we went out to eat at the Seafood restaurant there on the resort called Oceanas. Here is a picture of us outside the restaurant. The rocks behind us was actually a water fountain type thing so there was water running down the rocks. Super pretty!

 The next day we hung out by the pool, the beach, swam in the ocean. Got hounded by a man walking the beach trying to get people to parasail. There were a lot of European people on the beach too..so let's just say that we got our fair share of their stylish swimsuits. ;)

Then Thursday we had to head back home. Here's a picture of us on the beach before we left.  

And I'll just post some pictures I took on my phone...

 

Swim up bar at the pool

View from Dinner one night

View from Dinner another night

Happy Anniversary to my bestest friend! Can't wait for the many more to come! Love you so much!

Thanks for sticking with me through this long story. It's kind of hard to put a honeymoon, a one year anniversary, and a 5 day trip out of the country into very few words.

much love,
mrs. bell

We'll just keep dancin' like we're....twenty-onnne!

Alright, catch up time! :)

Let's do a little "series" type thing.
First off, my 21st birthday!

So flashback to a couple weeks before my birthday...I ask Mr. Bell if he's going to do something for my birthday. I mean it's kind of a big birthday. He responds by getting a little upset with me 'cause I asked. (Oops!)

Flash forward to my birthday...
It's about 3:30pm, Mr. Bell gets off work at 4:30pm. So I'm thinking an hour, sure, that's enough time. Well I go to put my dress on for that night, never worn, it was a birthday present from my aunt, and it rips. I guess my shoulders are too broad, it wouldn't fit over them and I pushed it. :( I was so upset. I thought, "okay, I'm going to have to learn how to sew in 5 minutes." I called down to the local family center to see if they had a small sewing kit. They did. I drove down there real quick, said "I'm the one that called about a sewing kit". One of the ladies working there brought me to get the sewing kit, I went back up to pay and confessed, "I don't know how to sew....". They immediately started teaching me how to do it. I said, "I have to have this fixed and on my body in 30 minutes, does anyone here want to sew it?" One of the ladies there ended up sewing it for me and I went home to put the dress on. I was seriously having a panic attack.

Anyway, I got the dress on, got my necklace on, finished my makeup. My friend came over to ride with Mr. Bell and I and we headed to St. Louis. The plan was to go to a casino, we just didn't know which one yet. The AmeriStar or the Lumiere. I kept trying to get Mr. Bell to go to the Lumiere but he insisted that we go to the AmeriStar for some reason. I didn't know what that reason was until we walked in. I walked over to the map to see what we could eat for dinner, look over to my right, and there's my mom, my dad, my grandma, Mr. Bell's parents, his aunt and uncle, and a couple of our friends from our new town. SURPRISE! I now knew why Mr. Bell was insisting we went to the AmeriStar. 

So...with that lovely story, we ended up having a great time. We ate dinner, gambled a little bit, I won a little bit :) It was a great night!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this surprise a success. 
Here's some pictures from that night. 

My Mamaw and I

My mom and I

Kayla and I

And last but most definitely not least, My husband and I

much love,

mrs. bell

Well Hello Life

Oh my goodness! It's been over a month. Ah!

I promised an organization post on "organizing under your bathroom sink" and I broke it. :(

We've had so much going on, life totally caught up with me. When I promised that, we ended up having a visitation and funeral for a close friend's father, the next week I had finals, then we had memorial day, and now we're here. 

This coming week I will be taking care of my baby little, not-so-baby-anymore, brother but this weekend we are staying at home so maybe I can post them! 

I'm not going to promise anything but maybe I could get an under the sink post done as well. The only downfall will be that I organized these forever ago and I don't have any before pictures. (I don't think you guys would want to see the before anyway :/ It was horrific.)

Okay so goals for today and this weekend:
Get "OrganizingU: Your Bathroom Sink" done.
Get "OrganizingU: Your Kitchen Sink" done.

Goals for the near future:
"OrganizingU: Your Pantry"

Any other organizing ideas I need to make my goal?

Sorry I'm slacking a little a lot.

Oh, and go follow my Facebook page, "OrganizingU". It's much easier for me to post on there, so it's more frequent. :) 

much love,
mrs. bell

Binder Organization

Here it is! My organization project I've been talking about. Binder organization. 

Instead of putting papers inside of file folders inside of hanging files inside of a filing cabinet, I put my papers separated by dividers inside of my binder. I find it much easier to find the papers when they are in the binders because I can just flip through the papers on the binder ring. It may not be for everybody but I encourage you to try it out if you are trying to find a way to organize your papers. 

I have a binder for Income, Bills, Statements, Medical, and Auto files. 

Inside the Income binder, we have a divider tab for my income and Mr. Bell's income.

Inside the Bills binder, we have a tab for each bill we pay including our propane, electric, city, tv/phone/internet, and dues for Mr. Bell's work. 

Inside the Statements binder, we just have our bank statements and investment statements. 

Inside the Medical and Auto binders, I have a place for Insurance Information. Inside the Medical binder I have a place for our Doctor bills and a place for other papers we receive from our insurance company. In the Auto binder the second tab is a place for our car maintenance receipts.

Medical Binder

Auto Binder

So there's a little bit of a "walk thru" through my binders. If you would like to get this printables they will soon be available in my Etsy shop. Also, if you would like them personalized for your needs I would be more than happy to do that.

Happy organizing!

much love,

mrs. bell

OrganizingU

Yeah, I said I couldn't think of an Etsy shop name. With a little research, my wheels starting turning, and came up with, you guessed it...OrganizingU. (hence the post name). Click on that name and it'll take you right to my Etsy shop. :)

I also created a Facebook Page. Click on "page" and it'll take you directly to my Facebook page. Go "like" it! Do it! Right now! :)

As of this moment I have uploaded, I think, 9 printables. I have a list of about 75 that I still need to create. So it'll be growing for a while. yay! I love when I have a plan for the future and it's not over once I put an hours work into it, then I just hope something happens. This is great!

I've uploaded the printables I mentioned in my last post; Password Organizer, Medication Tracker, Watch Baby Grow, and the Financial Budget Tracker. 

Go. Check. It. Out!

And I am still working on the organizational project from my last post just for the mere fact that I've been trying to get this Etsy shop up and running. I haven't really had much time to work on my project. 

Anyway..I'm not at all excited or anything. 

Can't wait to see what you think about all this exciting stuff happening. If you have any ideas on what other printables I can make or something you would like to use in your daily life, let me know. 

much love,
mrs. bell

Let's get organized!

Well, this is probably the quickest turn around for my blog posts.
Last post was exactly a week ago, I can't believe it!

Anyways.....

I have a little project I'm going to start as far as blogging goes. I've always loved school supplies and office supplies. I've always loved organizing. And I've always loved when things are in their place. Ya know what they say, "a place for everything and everything in it's place". Yep, that pretty much makes my heart go pitter-patter. :)

So, as I've been talking to my mom about organizing and showing her pictures of things I've been organizing, she says, hello! blog about it, start a Facebook page. So I'm going to work on it.

I've also starting making excel spreadsheet type things to organize various parts of my life and have made several other templates for other people to input their information to organize their lives. Some things I have made are "Watch Baby Grow" (one in a generic baby, one in blue for boy, and one in pink for girl), Financial Budget Tracker, Medication Tracker, and Password Organizer. This is also something else I honestly enjoy doing in my spare time. With all these things I'm creating I've also thought about starting an Etsy shop but can't think of a name, therefore, it's at a stand still. Any idea? Feel free to throw them out there.

My plan is that my next blog post will be on a organizing project. It's half way done! So maybe I can finish it tomorrow and take some pictures to share with you all. Yay! Ah, I'm excited just talking about it.

If you have an idea of an organization project I could post about please comment and let me know! I need some ideas!

This is just way too exciting. Can't wait to share with you.

much love,
mrs. bell

Welcome Spring!

Okay, back at it.

How about this amazing weather today?! Ah, I'm absolutely loving it. Can you say flip-flops?!

Anyway, I'm not going to attempt to recap what has happened since my last post since it's been for-ev-er ago.

Some things that have happened..let's see:

We had Easter last weekend. We went to the lake and spent the weekend with my family. It was great with amazing weather. Did I mention I am so excited for this weather?

As far as the house search goes, Mr. Bell and I found a house we both love. We even put in an offer, ah! Talk about scary. So, we put in an offer, they countered, we countered, they countered, and finally we declined. We just didn't feel it was the amount we wanted to pay. We had set our price before we offered the first time. And guess what? After we declined, they just came back two days ago with "our price". The exact price. Now we're both thinking, "okay, is this meant to be or just a coincidence?" We decided we wanted to go check out the house again, take a little walk through, and see if we still have that feeling, the one we had when we first walked through. That being said, we're going to look at in about 3 hours. We shall see what happens. We're both super excited but super nervous at the same time.

This weekend, after we check out the house, we're headed back home to see the family. Our plan at this moment is to go to Mr. Bell's family farm to fish tomorrow and get a little tan. :)

That's pretty much all that's going on in our lives right now. The main things. Oh, and my little brother is growing like crazy! He's going to be 2 in 2 months. I can't believe it!
Other than this stuff it's just school, work, and living our lovely married life.

Hope you are enjoying this weather as much as I am. Have a great weekend everyone!

much love.
mrs. bell

Gas prices are $3.49

...And a Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! Yes, almost two weeks late (story of my life)...

I hope your New Year is going swimmingly. Mine sure is!

Our Christmas was great. We drove a lot but it was so worth it considering all the time we got to spend with family. My baby brother is getting too big! Seriously, too big. It's incredible how fast little ones grow.

Mr. Bell and I celebrated our first Christmas together as a married couple. We put our Christmas tree up the Sunday after Thanksgiving after coming home from Pea Ridge Forest in Hermann. We went there with mom, kenny, big little brother and his girlfriend (Danielle Cassidy), and little little brother. We thought about cutting a real tree down from there but decided we would just get a fake one. We did get our first annual ornament from there for our tree. Hopefully we will keep the tradition of going there every year with the family. I got a stocking for Bo (our little puppy) and filled it up with some little toys. It was amazing how he knew it was his stocking. He kept pulling it down off the TV stand where it was hanging so I eventually had to close it in our office. One day I found him sniffing and scratching at the bottom of the office door. I opened it to see what he was wanting..yep, it was his stocking. He went right to it when I opened the door.

For New Year's Eve, Mr. Bell and I went to our friends house from down here. They have the little ones I talked about in a previous post. Anyway, we ate a few finger foods, tried to play a game (yes, tried. the guys were not cooperating), and finished the night by watching my new favorite movie, Pitch Perfect. I've owned the movie (and I never buy a movie) for about two weeks now and I'm pretty positive I know every line. Two nights ago, I watched it 3 times..in one night. Pathetic? No, I really don't think so. It's also nice to be able to watch a movie like that with your husband when he actually enjoys it. He's going to hate me for putting this out for the world to hear but yeah, he pretty much knows every line too and we've been watching it almost every night. Pathetic? Okay, yeah maybe a little.

Last week, I went on my first fish gigging trip. I got 12 fish. The people we went were telling me they didn't get any fish their first trip. I'm that hardcore. Ha! I guess you could say I've brought out my inner redneck with the whole fish gigging thing (I totally looked like a redneck while doing it, too. Too bad, so sad, no pictures). Whatever, it was fun. And the reward you get after gigging is the best part, fresh fried fish, fried potatoes, hushpuppies. Yuh-Um! Since moving down south a little bit, I've started to like fish, hated it before I tried it down here. We're actually going to another fish fry tomorrow and bringing the tators. :)

Now for work, things are going great. I just put a little life to the office I work in. I got a new printer, got rid of the 1902 fax machine and phone, and got new phones. And I cleaned that place like you wouldn't believe. Black paper towels everywhere. Yes, this is where I have been working everyday. Now if I could just get the motivation to do this in my own house that would be amazing. I have this problem where I enjoy cleaning and organizing other people's things but not my own. Here are some before and afters of the office. The befores are when I first started working there. The afters are some I took the other day after putting in the printer, taking out the fax and phone, and putting in new phones.

   

     

                            Fax...                                                                 No Fax... :)

New Printer!

I actually did clean up our kitchen, got rid of some of the containers on the counter, and organized the counter and cabinets. Proof? Of course! I'm not going to pass up the chance to show you my awesome new containers I got with my Container Store gift card from the in-laws. :) That store is like heaven to me. I've literally spent hours on their website.

 

Awesome Canisters! :)

Another update on the house search for Mr. Bell and I..we are going to look at one house this weekend. We're going to try and get back into this house thing and see if it feels right this time. If not, back to a break we go.

So that's what's been going on in my life. How was your Christmas and New Year celebrations? Comment below and tell me about it!

Oh, and stay tuned for my next post I've been working on. The story of our engagement.

much love,

mrs. bell

Gas Prices are $2.97