Tuesday, October 13, 2009

One Year Anniversary

This past Sunday, October 11, we celebrated our very FIRST anniversary! It has been an amazing first year, filled with so many wonderful memories!

We had many FIRSTs throughout the year - We started off with our honeymoon to St. Lucia. In November we shared our very FIRST Thanksgiving together house hopping between families. In December, we hosted the Edge family Christmas at our house and then shared Christmas Day at the DeMartino's. We hosted our FIRST New Years Eve and New Years Day party at our house and invited both families to celebrate together. January was lots of fun, I turned the Big 3-0 and Monty threw me my FIRST 70s style rollerskating party. February was our FIRST Valentine's as a married couple! March was Monty's first birthday celebration and we attended our FIRST marriage seminar - Love and Respect. April was fairly quiet as I worked to finish up my degree and May was the FIRST DeMartino kids graduation (thats me!). Monty took me on my FIRST cruise through 7 caribbean islands - it was a well needed vacation. June was fun as we built our FIRST playhouse for my niece Sofia. July and August were filled with many pool parties and family bar-b-qs. Finally September was another quiet one where we celebrated my dads birthday and spent a lot of time on the chopper since the weather was cooling off to the 90s.

As tradition tells it, PAPER is the FIRST anniversay gift. I made Monty a special message in a bottle. I included sand and shells from our honeymoon and wrote him a special love letter. Monty was very creative and wrote me a lovely poem, also a FIRST. He framed it and read it aloud (and made me cry). It was an amazing day starting with church, lunch with the family, relaxing, watching football, baseball, eating our favorite food - sushi and CAKE made in the exact flavor of our wedding cake. A-MAZING!! (I think I will have another piece as soon as I am done here!)





Wednesday, July 8, 2009

To God be the Glory


At times - my daily devotions really hit me on the side of the head and make me realize just how much of sinner I am ... Thank you Lord, for continually forgiving me of my selfish ways.

James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

In James 4 the author, James, is specifically speaking about prayers seeking our own worldly gain and not God's glory. Prayer is a blessing to each of us -- the constant ability to commune with the Almighty. When we go to God in prayer, it's important to understand that God knows what's best for us. We may not understand now or in this lifetime, but He does.

Our ultimate goal and privilege is to bring glory to God in our lives. James is asking us to look into our hearts and submit ourselves and our prayers to Christ and not our own selfish desires. Look into your own life and examine the heart of your prayers. To God be the glory
If you are interested in a good daily devotional - check out theDailyBibleVerse.org

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Sofia's Circus


Our neice Sofia turned 5 this year and as every 5 year should ... she celebrated with her very own Circus. It came to town this past Sat. just for her (at nanie and papas house). We had a bounce house, face painting, animal pictures, cotton candy, old fashion popcorn machine and best of all - a clown! It was a fantastic event, and as you can see - Sofia and her friends really enjoyed themselves!

Happy Birthday sweet angel, we love you very much!

Eva LOVED the slide, Sofia and Nicco had fun too!



Birthday Princess and the beautiful Jenni and Caden



Keris and the funny animal faces



Isabella and Uncle Joe


Monty the talented clown (if you ever wondered if he loves me - now you know :))



Sofia and Daisy

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Graduation and Vacation



After alot of work and many years of sacrificing - I finally graduated college! Graduation was fun - Monty and my parents were there so it made the day even more special than I could have imagined. Now that I do not have to write papers or study - I am not sure what to do with my free time ... we will see! :)


For graduation, Monty and I decided to take a cruise through the Caribbean, better known as paradise to me. We left early Saturday morning for San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan is beautiful, but we were so exhausted we did not see much of it. Just relaxed to the sound of the oceans breeze from our hotel. It was beautiful - and worth a trip back to explore.

Sunday we headed out to sea. The cruise would take us to one island each day for a week. I am amazed at how big cruise ships are - definetly the way to travel in convenience. Day 1 was St. Thomas. Beautiful island, but we did not explore it too much because we did not book our excursions early and they were all sold out of the good ones. We ended up just walking around shopping and relaxing with some beautiful scenery. We usually start off slow and then wear ourselves out by the end of the trip - so this is typical Edge.
Day 2 was Dominica, a beautiful island with tons of mountain terrain and beautiful rainforests. We took an island tour of the best of Dominica. A unique opportunity to experience island culture and roadways. We went through the botanical gardens, a beautiful hike in the rainforest to a hidden cove with 3 waterfalls and then to their fountain of youth emerald pools where Monty took a dip in the cold water for a swim with another waterfall.
Day 3 was Barbados, a little more civilized as far as the roadways go - they had stop signs :). In Barbados we took a bus ride out to the middle of no-where and started off for our hike and cave tour. What an amazing experience. We hiked through another rain forest and ended up at the base of the cave 150 feet below sea level. Helmet and light on head - we started exploring. It was so cool to see all the stuff hidden in caves - stalagtites, stalagmites hundreds of years old, lots of millipedes, cave crickets, the rare cave spider and the not so comforting to me - bats. There were different parts in the cave where we were practically on our knees crawling, or 5 ft deep in crystal clear water and even being lifted and scaling walls 5+ feet above. It was an awesome experience and one of my favorites for the tip.
Day 4 was St. Lucia - our honeymoon spot! We decided in St. Lucia to go horseback riding to the beach and through the ocean. We jump on Moonlight and Lesa and headed through a huge banana plantation to the beautiful St. Lucia beaches. St. Lucia has such amazing terrain - I love it there and could go back time and time again. We ended up at the beach and took two brothers into the ocean with no saddles for a little swim. That was so exciting - I never knew horses could swim! I guess I never really thought about it.

Day 5 was Antigua - my favorite island! They have 365 discovered beaches on this beautiful, and suprisingly pretty flat island from what I could tell. We jumped on a boat and headed to the middle of the ocean to a sandbar in the middle of no-where to swim and snorkel with the stingrays. It was almost like seeing kids run to the street when the ice cream truck music fills the air - the stingrays covered the ocean floor swimming in as they heard the boat pull up to the sandbar. They knew it was time to eat! The stingrays were surprisingly dosile, they just swam around us and allowed us to pet them, hold them and feed them. The guides said as long as we shuffled our feet to let them know we were there and avoided startling them - they will not get aggressive and sting with their barbs. We had so much fun - I am thinking when we get a pool I will make it saltwater and get a stingray for a pet :) or maybe not but I did love them.

Day 6 and our final island was St. Kitts, another beautiful place. We took a bus to a far end of the island where we would snorkel and kayak in the ocean. On the way to our destination the bus driver paused for a photo-op where the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea meet. It was breathtaking! The snorkeling was ok there - we did not see too much, but Monty as always spotted a baracuda and some pretty cool fish. The kayak was fun, but a little harder than usual because of the ocean tide. It took about 45 minutes to make it over to our destination where we had so much needed island fruit and water.
Outside of the wonderful excursions to such beautiful islands, we had a blast on the ship. The service was good, the shows were entertaining, the food was good and plenty of it, we met lots of new friends and were lucky to have a table we only shared with 2 other people and they were a lot of fun. Veronica and Renjit live up in D.C. and I am certain we will keep in touch and see them again in our travels.
We hope you enjoy some of our favorite pics!






















































































Thursday, May 7, 2009

Sabbatical

I know I have been on a blog sabbatical ... things have been so busy lately at work and finishing up school ~ but I am happy to say I just hit submit on my very last final. I will have my grades by Sunday and on May 15th I will graduate college after 12 long years of part time school at night after long days at work. I am so over joyed that I finally completed my degree. It feels good! Anyway - Monty is taking me on a graduation cruise on May 16th - so I promise to post exciting pics and stuff when I get back.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Love & Respect


This weekend Monty and I attended the Love & Respect marriage seminar at our Church. What an exciting weekend! Emerson and Sarah Eggerichs really hit the heart of the cries of every man and woman. I highly recommend all married couples, new and tenured, attend this conference or rent the video conference.

Ladies - it will really help you open your eyes to see that men are not wrong - just different than us. Most of the time when they say things that are hurtful - it is not their intention - they just don't speak the same language as we do. So many times in the past 2 days, I rolled through the pendeflex of disagreements Monty and I have had (that I unknowingly held onto) and realized in the majority of them - he loves me, and did not intend to come across the way he did at the time - but he was not wrong in what he said - he was just speaking through a Blue (man) megaphone. It will help really open your eyes to see that a man does not respond the same way you do to most things. They don't desire love like we do, they need respect. The book goes through many examples of what men consider respectful ... and ladies it will be like running into a brick wall. I thought I was respectful of Monty. He is so honorable, protects me and strives to do all he can to provide me with a comfortable future. He is everything a "man" is called to be ... yet I have still said or acted in ways that could come across as if I do not respect him - which is far from the truth. I am now more aware of how I need to speak and react for Monty's blue earphones to hear my heart.

Monty - thank you for working so hard to provide our family with a safe and secure future. I am honored to be the wife of such a hard worker, a volunteer police officer with the desire in his heart to give back and serve and a wonderful husband, son, brother, uncle and friend to so many people that look up to you and admire you as a person. I respect you so much and thank you for choosing me.

Men - The Love and Respect seminar/book will show you that women need to feel loved - and women hear things through pink earphones. Although you think you are treating her the way you want to be treated, her needs are different than yours and at times you will have to crack complex codes to hear the cries of her heart. The seminar is very light and explains many examples of how you can love your wife ... Monty was amazed at how many times the Eggerichs went through examples of how women interpret what a man said completely different than their intentions ... he has recently lived through many of the same examples that were given. Its not wrong, its just different. Monty can go into more detail on this part - but overall he would recommend you give it a try. It will help you understand you wife in a way that is priceless - in the way the God designed her.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Catherine's BIG 3-0!

I turned the Big 3-0 this year, and what an exciting time it was! Monty planned a really fun party with all my favorite people, food and activities! He is so sweet and did such a wonderful job preparing for a perfect event.

We started off at the Thunderbird roller rink in Plano dressed in our best 70s attire. We had fun teaching my niece to skate, remembering how to do some sweet moves we knew way back, couples skating ... and I even skated underneath my brothers legs and did not fall! Just like a professional skater :)

My brother Joe and couple skating...

Ken and Barbie, Fred and Daphnie - call us what you like. And our dear friends Brian and Tammy aka the 2009 Schriewer roller derby team

Sofia's first time on real skate and my friend Elizabeth (she came just to laugh at us)

My cousin Marie and a close up of our sweet hair makeovers

After the skating party, we headed back to our house for food and fellowship! Monty ordered my favorite pizza from Mama's in Plano, WingStop Wings and the Lemonaide cake from Breadwinners. I could not be happier! We played fun games - pool, darts and off course Wii bowling and UFC and hung out with all the people that love us most!
Uncle Monty and his biggest fan Eva
The beautiful suprise decorations when I returned home!
A special thanks to my sister, brother and parents for helping Monty pick-up or order various items and Tammy and Brian for helping him decorate ... you all made this the best birthday I have ever had. I thank God for friends and family as special as you! I love you Monty and absolutley loved my birthday party!