What's Up With Us Lately...

It's been almost 3 months since the wedding, the parties, and gatherings with family, but we're still staying busy!  Drew is working at the Carousel Center Regal Cinemas, where he worked before college and his mission (his dad was also manager there after Drew left-but has since become manager of another movie theater).  He was having a hard time finding a job here while I was still working at Blockbuster (yipee), then fell back on a job he knew was guaranteed: the theater.  So he's working about 40 hours per week in Syracuse while I idle away at home... I'm only getting, at MOST, 15 hours per week at Blockbuster.  I'm trying to find another job and have some applications from random spots here in Cicero to turn in.  Hopefully I'll be making a little more money soon.

A little fun thing for me this past month: I legally changed my name.  I have a new Social Security card and new Driver License with my new name on each!  Very cool!  As far as Driver Licenses go, Drew got his about 2 weeks ago and he is loving the new independence.  (He laughs and says it will be a fun little trivia fact in years to come that he actually got married before he got his license.)  Very exciting though!!

SO, the newest update is that about our moving status.  We were going to be headed back out west by the end of this month, if not in April, so Drew could continue on in school, but that will no longer be happening.  Drew has differed this Winter Semester (January-April) and is technically back on "track" in the Fall Semester.  We received his differment approval letter stating that he is differed for this Winter Semester but will be ineligible to take classes in his "off track" (a.k.a. Spring Semester starting at the end of April-July).  Our newly formed plan is to stay here in the Syracuse area (thanks to Rick and Julie Drogowski, my parents) and earn and save as much as we can before heading out to Idaho in the Summer.  We are tentatively planning to leave between July and August.

For those who don't have our address:

Drew and Carissa Barron

8532 Old Towne Path

Cicero, New York 13039

By the way... as for our families in Ohio, Kansas (and Missouri), and Utah, we are planning on making a fun road trip out of our drive out west, so we want to maybe stop to see our family!  Most of you haven't met Drew, so that will be fun!

That's about it for now!

Carissa's 21st Birthday!!!

Drew is so great at treating me like a queen!

Here's how our day went...

February 19, 2009, Carissa's 21st Birthday:

Woke up without an alarm (always more soothing).  First thing first, though (said Drew)... present number 2:  a much wanted robe!  (Present number one was given at midnight--something silly I had been joking that I wanted:  a PedEgg to take care of my dry and cracked feet--yuck!)  Drew cooked breakfast, anything I wanted; I asked for a scrambled egg sandwich.  It was delicious!

After getting showered and ready for our day out, we headed to the movie theater.  Now that Drew is working there, he got us passes to see one of the movies that Dirk and Stefanie (my brother and his adorable French-Canadian wife) had been telling us about since they first showed previews for it:  Coraline (in 3-D)!  I really wanted to see it!  While the previews were on, and I was sporting my mighty fine 3-D glasses, Drew got us buttered-up popcorn, a KitKat bar, and oh-so-delicious fruit punch (a medium combo--it's a good sale for the workers there, so we hit it up).  We sat through the supposed children's movie and enjoyed it a lot, even through the creepy-crawly, very Nightmare Before Christmas-esque scenes.  It was PG but there were some questionable parts in there.  Overall, we thought it was pretty good!

Next part of the special day: shopping!!!  I usually really dislike shopping, but I was optimistic; it was my birthday, there had to be something I could buy with my $50.  So we walked through the humongous mall, hitting up all the stores I thought would have a dress that would fit me just right (I don't know why I'm so determined to get a new dress).  I also thought I could find the perfect brown heels.  Not gonna happen.  I don't know why.  Finally, after searching store after store, we went into Old Navy and went into the Clearance section (this was where I usually had good luck).  Well, lady luck visited me again, and I found some clothes that I wanted, and they were ON SALE!  It couldn't get better than that!

We were on our way out of the mall to head to dinner, when I remembered that I wanted to ride the "famous" carousel before leaving.  So we felt a little silly, like children, waiting for our turn to ride.  I even pre-picked my horse.  It was actually pretty fun while we were riding.  We got to see all the happy parents watching their children go up and down on their own pre-picked horses, and we even picked up speed a little.  Something I realized is that they should not have Elvis or the Beach Boys' songs as carousel songs.  And they should tune those poor instruments inside the carousel.

So on to our next exciting part of our day: dinner out!  We decided on Spaghetti Warehouse since Drew had never been there, it was nearby, and I had been referred there for a good virgin daquiri for my 21st birthday!  So after going too far into downtown Syracuse, turning around about 3 or 4... or 5 times, and still getting lost, we finally found the restaurant.  We're not really that terrible at navigating, honest!  There were detours that confused us and led us where we didn't want to go, and we didn't have the full map of Syracuse's streets.  We figured it out though.

FINALLY, we sat down to eat.  We went all out: real drinks instead of water and an appetizer.  I got a mango daquiri, non-alcoholic, and we ordered fried calamari as an appetizer.  I have had really great calamari before, but never like this.  We got some salads and bread while we waited for our dinner, and had some good conversation (you can always count on Drew for that).  Once dinner got to us, we were starting to get full, but we ate just about all our food, and took nothing home!  We'd go back there, oh yeah.

On our way home, we talked about going to the pet store to play with the puppies and kittens.  A few days earlier Drew had a hankering to watch The Adventures of Milo and Otis.  SO CUTE.  Then some of my co-workers brought their new pug puppies into work and I just couldn't stand it!  They are adorably ugly!!  I love their little noses and their little paws, and they are just so irresistable!  So we were actually quite determined to go to PetLand.  When we got there, we walked up to the door at 7:54pm, and they were closing at 8pm.  What rotten luck.  Feeling defeated, we went next door and wandered in the Dollar General.  I got a coloring book and Drew got a book by some sports writer, Jayson Somebody; he couldn't believe he could buy a brand new book for only $1!  Good deal.

So we went home, to The Drogowski's, for cake and ice cream, and to wind down for the night.  My mom made a really great Texas sheet cake, chocolate, just how I like it.  After the party (with my parents, my 10-year-old brothers, and Drew and me) died down, we sat and finished watching a movie on TV- "Coach Carter".  We finished our night with our typical "pillow talk"; reading scriptures and chatting.  Then Drew gave me a really great back massage.  Then I fell asleep while he read for a bit.

An amazing day should never go undocumented.  Especially when you can prove to a spouse later-on that he (or she) really CAN be that sweet.  : )

Samples from Summer

Our first post!

Greetings family and friends of the newest Barron family! (Hey, that's us!)

It's taken quite awhile for us to get this going, but here it is! Finally!

Well, it's been an amazing few weeks together. Drew and I are having a hard time realizing that we can't always be attached at the hip. It's that crazy newlywed kind of love. It's also been weird to us that we're not getting sick of each other yet; as much as we're together, we still want more! It sure is a good feeling!

Well, about the reception/wedding:

The wedding reception was held the night before the wedding; the day after Christmas. It was beautiful! Summer Potter, our photographer, was really able to capture the feeling of that night through a simple camera lens (she's the most talented photographer I have ever seen). Instead of doing it at the church building, they way my parents had done it for my sisters, we had it done at a reception hall for about the same price, but without having to do the work! A stress-free evening, we enjoyed ourselves even more. We danced, we laughed, we (ok, I) cried, we got each other's faces all messy with cake, and Drew got pasta sauce on his tie and collar. Haha! All-in-all, it was an amazing night. Then we went home with our families (which totally stunk), and awaited the coming morning when we were to be eternally married.

Wedding day jitters were getting to us that day as we drove, separately, to Palmyra. We'd never been married before, so we were a little nervous, but mostly excited and anxious for everything to come.

The ceremony was simple and beautiful, as temple weddings are. We saw each other in an eternal perspective for the first time that day, and I wish I could freeze-frame the way we felt when we looked at each other after we were sealed for time and all eternity.

After the ceremony, I quickly fixed myself up so our guests weren't waiting too long to congratulate us. Summer was waiting to take photos, too. We walked out of that building as husband and wife, feeling renewed, refreshed, in love, and ready for anything to come our way!

Summer took some beautiful pictures. It was foggy and wet and getting a little warmer, but she captured the perfect poses and feeling of the day.

After the pictures, we drove up the road, literally RIGHT there, and had a luncheon at the Palmyra Inn. With delicious food, great company, and the perfect mood music (thanks to Ben Shearer), we had a wonderful time.

Since then, we've been off on our own together (which was a little odd at first... we'd always tried so hard not to be alone, now we could??), we go grocery shopping together, we clean together, and read in bed together. Life is pretty peachy right about now, and we don't want much to change.

We are anxiously awaiting our time to move out of The Drogowski Home, though. They are helping us so much, and we are so grateful to them. We love spending time with my side of the family, and it's nice to still be in the area to see the Barrons as often as time and gas will allow. But we are pretty excited to have our own place and feel a little more independent. Thank goodness for my parents, though. We have been blessed so much by their selflessness and charity in our time of need.

Well, I hope you continue to follow our blog! We'll try to keep it updated as much as possible.

Until next time!