cool sites

I was just reading through a communication arts magazine the other day and at the back they have all these recommended sites, a lot of which I found very interesting so I thought I would share with you all.

www.sketchtheatre.com- VERY COOL & you can see an artist sketch.

www.photocritic.org- (Sara I thought of you with this one) teaches you how to use cameras and take great shots.

www.blurb.com- I think most people know about this by now but it's an awesome site to create great books from your trips or big events. You have freedom to do some great designs.

www.koloroo.com- Helps you choose color palettes.

Are you a designer going green? Well here are some great websites:
www.re-nourish.com
www.designcanchange.org
www.designersaccord.com

Enjoy :)

And another pillow done!

WOO HOO!

Lazy Weekend

This weekend was great, but like always went by too fast as always. For the first time in a while, Kyle and I were in town! Yeah!

Friday night we met straight after work at Maggianos for a nice Italian dinner to talk about our busy but exciting weeks. Kyle has been traveling every week for the past month, but after this coming week he should be in town for a while, which is exciting in itself! We then went to see "Step Brothers" with Will Ferrell. The previews were hilarious and the movie was too, but unfortunately there was REALLY terrible language used the ENTIRE time and some really gross jokes. All in all it was funny, but could have done without a lot of the crude humor.

Saturday we actually slept in (woo hoo!) then went straight down to the basement to tackle our garage & storage room. They both have become places where we store junk and that was NOT okay! 2 hours later both are very clean and organized and we felt so much better!

Saturday night one of Kyle's good friends from high school, Michi, came in town so we were able to hang out with her and her boyfriend, Rance, for a little while.

Sunday we did our normal thing = church, grocery shopping, naps. Kyle had his final exam for Finance Monday night, so he was cramming all day. I went out and bought fabric for my sewing class on Monday night with the 20 somethings and TRIED to teach myself to sew but was not successful. For some reason my bobbin just kept getting really messed up. Anyways here is my fabric that I picked out for my pillows on our couch. I REALLY needed to get away from that red color so I thought navy, yellow & white would do the trick!

Tonight I went to my 20 Something's Event. Incase you forgot what that was it's where all the girls from my church in their 20's get together to make new friends and do fun activities. I'm starting to get to know a couple girls really well, so that is always good news! We had a ton of fun making our 18" pillows, and will definitely keep getting together to make more in the near future!

Some of the girls and Susan in the middle (the one teaching us!)

Shannon and I with our pillows! (we were so proud!) I did cording!Sorry... not the most exciting post for us BUT we had a good time. AND we are in town this coming weekend!! Crazy right?!

Girls Night Out

Last night I went out with a couple work girls to the Atlanta Weddings Event held at the Grande Hyatt in Buckhead. KA had a table there, so we were able to get in for free! They had vendors all along with walls of the ballroom, free food & drinks, and a fashion show of wedding dresses. GM had a table there as well, so I got the chance to catch up and see old friends. We had a great time!

Holly (online sales), Gina (product development), Jen (traffic coordinator for marketing), me, and Lizzie (product development). They all used to be cheerleaders, so that's why I'm the tallest I guess!

The boys are back in town (boys are back in town)

Well our famous travelers are back as of last night around 10:30 pm! Kyle was flying in from a work trip as well, so they all just met up at the airport and Kyle drove them home. They had a wonderful time, with tons of crazy stories like always! They went to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama, climbing crazy trees, zip lining through the trees, surfing, hiking up volcanoes, swimming in waterfalls, playing on beaches, and of course kicking it with the locals (and their dogs).

As soon as they got back we had some dinner, and then the boys immediately started checking all their cell phone messages and emails.

So glad to have you all back, come visit ATL whenever you want!

Happy Birthday Sara!!!

Happy 25th Birthday to my best friend Sara!! Let's see how many years have we been saying that to each other? About 19?? Of all the years I've known her, she has remained such a true friend, always offering a listening ear and wonderful advice. I'm so grateful to have you in my life! Happy Birthday Sara!!!

I thought it was only appropriate to show pictures from the OLD OLD days together :)

Boat Day in Charlotte!

This weekend we traveled to Charlotte for a boat day that we had planned 3 months ago!! Cory, Kyle's friend and boss from Irwin, has a boat and invited us and Molly & Marshal out for the day on Saturday! SO Friday after work we started the drive! Midway through we stopped for dinner, and nothing sounded good to me EXCEPT Captain Crunch! So my sweet husband let me stop at the grocery store and buy: Captain Crunch, a half a gallon of milk (smallest they had), plastic spoons, and plastic bowls! He must REALLY love me :)
We made it to Cory's around 9:30 and visited with him. Kyle & Cory woke up early the next morning to get some skiing and wakeboarding done on the flat water... they had a ball! When they came back we all had breakfast, and waited for M&M to arrive. While Cory was packing lunches for all of us Kyle and Marshal went down to the lake for some kayaking lessons. Marshal is a pro at kayaking (what is he not a pro at?!? if you have an answer let us know!) and wanted to teach Kyle a lesson or two!

Tyson LOVES jumping off Cory's dock!

After that we all hopped on the boat and headed out to one of Cory's favorite coves on Lake Norman. The weather was perfect, and even Tyson got to go! Anytime someone would jump off the boat they were followed by Tyson b/c he thought they were drowing! He even brought Marshal a life jacket one time (NO JOKE he carried it in his mouth all the way to Marsh).

All the guys wake boarded and were awesome at it.
Kyle got some SWEET air on one of the jumps:
It was Marshals first day and he was already trying jumps. Here he is doing a manual ;)

I even got the nerve up to try! It took me a couple times, but I DID make it up and stayed up for a little while! WOO HOO (I am SO sore!)

The bromance boys:

We had a great time on the boat, and loved being out in the sun! Thanks so much Cory & Mada for letting us come out with you!

We spent the night with Molly & Marshal, then Sunday morning headed to the pool so that Marshal could give Kyle a couple swimming lessons. Kyle learned a TON from Marsh and we think it will really help him on his future triathlons! Thanks Molly & Marshal for everything and letting us stay with you. Can't wait till we are closer :)

Kyle and I then met my old boss from SBJ, Misty for lunch! We had such a wonderful time catching up... oh how I miss her!! Before we knew it 2 hours had gone by and it was time to head out! Thank you so much Misty for meeting us... we miss you more than you know!!

Great weekend, great friends!

Chris & Kathleens Wedding Photos!

I forgot to post some of Chris & Kathleen's Wedding Photos! They all turned out great, and the photographers really captured some great moments! If you want to see more, click this link. We are so happy for them!

25th Birthday Weekend in Boonetown!

What better way is there to embrace turning 25 than to go "home" to Boone, NC- where Kyle and I both went to school. Man do we just love that place. We were both able to take half days on Friday and by taking 221 up (such a beautiful way) we arrived around 6:30! Our first step was to place a "to-go" order to Black Cat (our favorite burrito place) and bring it back to the cabin.

View off the porch, so green!

We enjoyed eating our dinner on the back porch, listening to how "quiet" everything there is. My mom's friends, The Behuns, were up there last week and she made a chocolate cake & left a card to go with it for my birthday, very sweet!
We went on a walk to see all the new cabins they are building in the "neighborhood" and relaxed the rest of Friday night. We slept wonderfully on the King Bed (we are spoiled now) upstairs!

Saturday we had a lazy morning, eating cereal outside on the front porch swing. Everything there is so green right now, all the flowers are blooming, and the weather is 20 degrees cooler! I had picked up a newspaper the night before, so while I was looking through it I found an article about the hiking trails up near Beech Mountain.
Kyle and I have never really explored much over there during the summertime, so we decided that was where we would hike for the day. On the way there we went by the Ham Shop and picked up sandwiches to take for a picnic. We love the Ham Shop in Valle Crusis, they stuff the sandwiches full of yummy things!
We were pleasantly surprised to find awesome trails out there with waterfalls and NO ONE on them! Tyson was off the leash the whole time, loving swimming in the pools at the bottom of all the waterfalls.

So pretty:

Can you find Tyson?

Here is a video of him jumping in... no fear! (sorry you can hear the waterfall in the background)

The water was freezing but felt so good to stick your feet in after a challenging hike!

We came back to the cabin to shower and then head out for dinner at Capones right on King Street. They have the best pizza! We then walked to Farthing Auditorium to go watch, Cherish the Ladies. Now I know what you are thinking and I'll agree I was SO surprised that Kyle would agree to go to something called that, but he did since it was my birthday. It was a concert of 5 Irish/Scottish women all playing different instruments and singing. They also had 3 riverdance dancers there who would dance when they played. The music was unreal and we really enjoyed the show!

Sunday morning we ate cereal again out on the front porch swing, then headed to State Farm for a bike ride!
We had brought our bikes up from home, and had a great time going on all those trails out there.
We drove by campus again and the additions to our football stadium that they are doing are unreal. I guess that's what happens when you win 3 National Championships in a row!
After a wonderful birthday meal at Hokaido (our favorite Japanese place in Boone) we had to head back to ATL. What a wonderful weekend we had! All we're trying to figure out now is how we can move there! Thank you Kyle for making my birthday so special, I love you!

Hiking on the Chattahoochee River

The rest of our 4th of July weekend we stayed around the house and explored a new park called The Chattahoochee River National Park. It was huge and had a lot of trails to hike. We decided to go on the ones in the woods, as not many people were on them and we could let Tyson off the leash. Here's a pic of the trails that most people stay on:
After our hike we brought Tyson to the river and let him fetch sticks for a while. Man he loves to swim!

Happy 4th of July!

This weekend Kyle and I stayed in Marietta, and have had the best time! This morning we went for a bike ride, then made it home just in time for the Marietta Parade that runs right down our street! Lots and lots of people came out and it was really fun.

The cops rode around in these scooters.. they are brand new and they paid with them with their drug bust money... very cool!

After the parade we went up to the square to see some of the festivites set up.

All of Church St. was blocked off for arts & crafts companies to sell their latest stuff. The other streets were filled with blow up rides for kids and lots of food! So fun and we just love all the flags that they line all the streets & the square with.

We then headed over to Chris & Kathleen's pool. It was nice getting to get in some cool water with all this hot weather! Chris came back to our house (Kathleen had to work tonight) and we had some baby back ribs, french fries, watermelon and asparagus... YUM! Everything was delicious!

The square had bands playing all day today for entertainment and it was getting pretty full around 9:00 when the fireworks were about to begin. We ended up just watching them in the field next to our house and had a great time with our neighbors. Last time Kyle was in Mississippi for work he bought a bunch of fireworks, so him and Chris had a great time shooting some off (even though we are right next to the police station... I was a nervous wreck!)

Serina (our neighbor) and I with sparklers!

Kyle & Chris causing trouble like always:

OH I forgot to mention that around the Marietta Square they just added "Big Chickens" everywhere. The Big Chicken is pretty famous around Marietta and is a historic landmark... it's the KFC in town and it's huge. Anyways they've added them around the square all painted different things that represent Marietta the best. I love them!

Hope you all had a Happy 4th as well, we are so grateful for our freedom and for all the troops that protect that everyday for us. Thank you!!!