Kyle's 26th Birthday!

Saturday morning I woke Kyle up to Monkey Bread in bed! I was so proud of myself for getting up and making it even though we had gone to bed at 3 in the morning the night before! Unfortunately I did mess up on the candles. Once I lit them I walked into our bedroom and all of a sudden they started to spark! Kyle's like "haha leah very funny" and of course I gave him a look like "whats so funny?!". He said "you bought trick candles huh?"... I immediately busted out laughing because I had NO IDEA!! Guess I need to read the boxes more closely instead of just buying the candles on sale! (and for those of you that don't know -- trick candles can be a MAJOR fire hazard with their sparking!!)

We headed downstairs and ate the monkey bread. Then laid around ALL day. It was pouring here so it was a great day to just be inside and do nothing! (Plus I had promised Kyle I wouldn't make him do any projects on our house since it was his birthday!).

We headed to dinner at 7:30 to RUTHS CHRIS in downtown ATL! Neither one of us had ever been there before, so we wanted to give it a try! (Kyle had picked up from Costco two $50 giftcards for $79 to save us some money too!) It was fun getting dressed up to go out to a nice dinner, so I made Kyle take a picture when we got home! And of course Tyson wanted in :) **Please excuse our huge bellies... we had just eaten a feast!**

The atmosphere in the restaurant was great, low lighting and Frank Sinatra playing. As an appetizer we ordered mushrooms stuffed with crab meat, and they were heavenly! We then got "harvest salads" that came with goat cheese, cherries, tomatoes, bacon, and corn with a raspberry vinaigrette type dressing. I ordered a 6 oz. filet with shrimp and mashed potatoes, and Kyle ordered a 12 oz. filet with mashed potatoes as well. The plates are heated to 500 degrees so everything is sizzling as it comes out! For dessert we had carrot cake and chocolate mousse... wow! What a great birthday meal! (And of course I'm in there taking pictures for y'all with my camera... oh the things I do for the blog)

I'm so proud of Kyle for everything he's accomplished this year, and what a great way to celebrate it all! Love you sweetie! WOO HOO we are both finally 26 :)

Super Heroes of the Universe Party.... Part 2

The Ninja Turtles met at our house early to put on our outfits and take some pictures. We were so proud of the costumes, and everyone loved them!

Here are our outfits laid out ready to rock:

AND GETTING READY WITH HY-YA!!

With our car fully loaded with people we headed downtown for the Super Heroes of the Universe Party! It was at Taylor, Mikey, Warren and Chuck's house and man did they go all out with the decorations! Their living room was transformed into "the universe" with black lights hung, trash bags hanging all around (to make it dark duhh) and glow in the dark stars stuck all around. It was an awesome way to celebrate some birthdays! They also had chocolate cake later on in the night to really make it official!

Here are some of our favorite outfits of the night:

(Super Man, Gladiator, Mario & Luigi, Quail Man, Batman & Robin & Wolverine)p.s. one of our favorite things all night was when Kyle kept sliding his turtle shell on the floor to hit Mario & Luigi's feet. Once it hit them they would wobble/shrink down into the half person size just like on the game! haha HILARIOUS!

Super Heroes of the Universe Party.... Part 1

This past weekend was Kyle's birthday, and how better to celebrate then with a SUPER HERO'S OF THE UNIVERSE party! It's also Taylor and Scott's birthday, so it was a big birthday extravaganza at Taylor & Mikey's house on Friday night. BUT before we get to that...

Just wanted to show you what Lacey, Ky and I constructed the day before the party! That's right Thursday night we worked from 7 pm till 1 am on these! We decided to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!! Lacey and I bought all the fabric, clothes, and weapons at Walmart on our lunch break, then started constructing once we got to the house after work.

I drew the shell-abs on the front of each shirt, then Lacey started painting a white base inside. We then painted yellow, and outlined each ab in brown. The t-shirts look great!

Kyle's job was figuring out the shells, and he did such a great job! Cutting ovals out of cardboard, stuffing packing paper underneath and covering with fabric they turned out AWESOME! We then cut strips of fabric for our straps and tied them into the cardboard.

Lacey and I had a little too much fun trying the shells on... keep in mind this is around 12:30 WAY past our bedtime! Kyle was cracking up... here is ONE of the twenty pictures we took while saying "HY-YA". Very fun night!

Labor Day Picnic & Field Day at KA

By now you guys should NOT be surprised about all the events that we do at my work.... they are just so fun! For Labor Day we had a picnic to celebrate, with catered BBQ and then we all brought in sides & desserts. (This was also hat day that I posted about earlier). I made dog tag nickname necklaces for my team, and you'll see in some of the pics other people made t-shirts.

And our yummy spread of food:

After we finished eating, we began the field day competition with our teams. The first game was wedding and baby trivia, where we just had to answer generic questions about the wedding and baby fields. Who knew that the word "bride" meant COOK back in the day? Needless to say my team lost, but we put up a good fight!!

Next game was the favor box relay. We all went into the warehouse (it had rained that day so we couldn't do that outside) and picked our 6 teammates that would participate. We actually had to put together the 6 hardest KA favor boxes that we sell... it was HILARIOUS. We all agreed we need to make them a little easier for these poor brides that have to put 200+ together. Unfortunately the rules didn't specify that they had to be put together perfectly, so the team that made them the fastest won... little cheaters!

The last game was the obstacle course... by far the funniest event of the day! This involved 5 teammates doing: 1) dizzy bat spin then run zig zag through cones 2) jump rope 3) tire drill run 4) crawl under ropes 5) spoon-egg balancing through finish line. Our team had a pep talk and everyone did SO well!! We were in the lead until Jazzy Jen & the Fresh Aspens went and beat us by 10 seconds. ( I will say though they cheated by not having the bat on the ground... so we really did win!) Even though we didn't win anything, I was very proud of my team!

It was a fun day getting to play from 1-4 on a Friday afternoon instead of work!

MFEO

(If you guys haven't seen "Sleepless in Seattle" then MFEO= Meant for Each Other.) I was just cleaning out my nightstand and found these. Last December for our 2 year anniversary, Kyle and I bought the exact same card to give to each other while we were on the cruise... MFEO :)

Has anyone else had this happen?

Sips n' Strokes

Last Wednesday Lacey, Jen, Andrea and I all headed to a Sips n Strokes class in East Cobb. It was so fun! You can pick out a painting you like online and sign up for that class, which normally runs 2-3 hours. Ours lasted two hours, and we picked an abstract flower field to paint. Oh and you can bring a bottle of wine/ soda/ snacks whatever you want!

The walls in this place are CRAZY. Everyone has painted their names on them, so that was fun decor! They give you paint, canvas and instruction so basically all you have to do is sign up and pay $25!

We were loving our paintings after we had done the sky and grass. THEN came the flowers, haha. Our instructor had said that these paintings look better from far away, we should have taken that as a sign! We painted "dots" for flowers and then had to do millions of them. And it turned out like this:

We had a great time though and laughed A LOT. Definitely going to go back for more soon!

Working on Levi!

Okay, its Kyle and I’m blogging again. Leah introduced everyone to Levi a few weeks ago and I wanted to let everyone know what is going on with him. He is running great and has been a lot of fun to drive.

My only issue has been that when I have been driving it I have been getting killer headaches. The reason is because the exhaust turned out right under the doors and when I was sitting at stop lights I was getting nailed with exhaust fumes. I decided that I wanted to run the exhaust all the way out the back (like most vehicles) so I won’t feel like I am sucking on an exhaust pipe and it will also make the Jeep a little quieter which I think the neighbors will appreciate…

I put up a posting on craigslist to see if anyone had stock exhaust that they were selling and I found a whole set up (manifolds, tail pipes and mufflers) for $50…what a deal. I ended up having to buy two new mufflers, some hardware and some gaskets so the deal ended up not being quite as good, but it was a lot cheaper than if I had taken it to a shop or paid for all new parts and the project is done! I also had to get a new battery tray because until now the battery was held in place by a bungee cord (and that was about it) and as soon as that comes in tomorrow the Jeep will be back in one piece.

... well maybe except for the fact that I have taken the stereo and all of the speakers out because the previous owner had done a pretty horrible wiring job, to the point where if you honked the horn the radio shut off…haha. I have run all of the new speaker wires and re-positioned a couple of the speakers so that it will sound better and I just need to get a couple of splices and I should get it all back together tomorrow night.

Other things that I have done since I had it are: Got rid of a lot of random wires that did nothing, fixed the hood latch, fixed the driver’s seat and repaired and installed a bikini top (Thanks to Leah’s sewing skilllsssss).

All I really have left that I want to do is install a tire carrier on the back, oil change, transmission fluid change, some seals need to be changed and some other routine maintenance type stuff.

Not sure how many of our blog readers care about this, but I just wanted to give an update...

Wordless Wednesday: Fat Cats on a Little Couch

And the Winner Is...

I have finally gotten around to reading all of the sweet comments y'all left on our blog when Kyle and I went on our Wyoming Trip. Thank you thank you thank you! It's always wonderful to hear how much people enjoy reading about our lives, and only helps motivate me to keep our blog going! If for some reason you missed the post I'm talking about, it's not too late just click here and leave us a message!
So we had a total of 38 people comment, and Tyson literally pulled out #27. The person who left the 27th comment and the winner of a SPECIAL gift is.....

JULIET!!! Woo hoo!!

(Email me your address so I can send it to you!)

Date Night: "Bodies in the Dark!"

Hey everyone, its Kyle! I am going to take a more active role in blogging since I am done with school. I wanted to write about the awesome date night that Leah planned for us on Saturday. Some of her co-workers told her about this really cool exhibit at Atlantic Station (a big complex in Atlanta that consists of retail, restaurants, exhibition space and apartments/town homes) called “Dialogue in the Dark”. When Leah was buying our tickets for Dialogue in the Dark she found out that there was a combo deal where you could get access to the “Bodies” exhibit for only and extra $5 per person.

We headed down to Atlantic Station at about 5PM and went to the “Bodies” exhibit first. If you are not familiar with this exhibit it travels around and uses real human cadavers to point out the different systems in the human body and how they work. It is basically a real life anatomy lesson and although it sounds morbid, it is really pretty cool. (Can't take any pictures once inside though). My favorite part was learning about all of the different types of prosthetics and hardware that can be used in the body to repair damaged bones, etc. Leah's favorite was seeing the fetal development exhibit, and seeing how quickly the human body grows. We were both amazed at the complexity of the human body that God created. It truly is unbelievable.

After the Bodies exhibit we had time to get something to eat before we went to Dialogue in the Dark. After wandering around aimlessly for a while we ended up at a restaurant called Strip. I know, it sounds weird, but it is named Strip because it specializes in strip steaks (New York Strip, Omaha Strip, etc). It is sort of a Vegas type restaurant that transforms into a club at night and we had some delicious Teriyaki kabobs for an appetizer and Leah had sushi for dinner and I had an AWESOME bacon cheeseburger.

We got out of dinner just in time to get back for our 7:00 Dialogue in the Dark appt. The experience started out with us getting rid of anything that emitted any light like cell phones and watches so that it would be completely dark and we would have to rely on our other four senses. After we locked all of that stuff up in a locker we were given canes comparable to those that blind people use. Once our group of 8 was all ready we were taken in to an introduction room where we were given an idea of what was going to happen in the exhibit.

During the introduction they explained to us that we would be guided through several different areas by a leader who was blind or visually impaired. We would be asked questions and would be required to use touch, smell, hearing and taste (in one area) to determine what the room or area was that we were in. After they finished the introduction, it got completely dark, I am talking…can’t see your hand in front of your face dark…can’t see any of the other random people that are in the confined space with dark.

After the introduction our leader, Dexter, came in and started guiding us through the exhibit. We had no idea what Dexter looked like or where he was, but somehow he always knew where we were and what direction we needed to go in order to get through the room that we were in.

I don’t want to give away what each of the rooms were in case anyone has the opportunity to go to this exhibit, but let me tell you that it made us so grateful for our sight. The different rooms had different smells, sounds, decorations, furniture, air movement, etc. in order to create a different environment. We were allowed to pick things up, open doors, touch the walls and floor and use our canes in order to try to determine what environment we were in.

At the end of the exhibit, still in pitch black, we were taken into a café where we had the opportunity to order a drink and then go find a table and sit and talk with our leader. We found out that Dexter lost his sight when he was six years old because his optic nerve became detached. His father was a colonel in the Army and did not give him the opportunity to feel sorry for himself. He taught him how to cook, clean, sew, etc. and Dexter is now completely self sufficient. In fact, Dexter is more than self sufficient, every day in order to get to work he has to take two busses and a train which is something that I don’t even know that I could do and I have my sight.

I will say that Leah was so confident in the dark, always running away to explore all the areas of each room by herself. I was very impressed-- no fear! In one room Dexter had me find a car and identify what make/model it was just from touch. And I did it, year and all! We took a lot away from this exhibit and would recommend it to anyone that is in Atlanta. If you aren’t in Atlanta, there is a chance that they could take this exhibit on the road. It was originally designed in Germany and it has had great success internationally so hopefully more people will have the opportunity to understand the fear, confusion and disorientation that blind people deal with on a daily basis.

We had such an awesome night where we learned a ton, had great food and just got to enjoy one another’s company. We've been joking combining the names and calling it "Bodies in the Dark", so now you all know what the title means. Thanks again honey!!

New Plan for Litter!

Yes, I am devoting a whole post to cat litter... if this is going to work like we hope, it's a HUGE breakthrough in our home! As I said in the earlier post we have issues with cat litter going EVERYWHERE in our laundry room. (Unfortunately it's all Puck just loving the litter box and throwing it around a kindergartner at recess-- my mom can vouch for that she's seen him in action!) I've been doing some research online and I've found a new litter box system! Of course I'm cheap and I don't want to buy something that might not work, so Kyle and I made our own.

First you start with a normal tote and fill it with litter:

Next you cut a hole in the top for the cats to enter in vertically!
Line top of lid with rubber backed rug to stay in place and catch stray litter pieces:
And VOILA you have a new form of a litter box, without spending a thing!!
(well at least for us since everything we used was laying around the house)
We'll let you know how it works! Keep your fingers crossed!

"Flip This LAUNDRY ROOM"!

Kyle and I finally had a weekend at home, and of course instead of relaxing we took on a house project! We both have been hating our laundry room, with how cluttered and dirty it always is. Unfortunately that's the first thing you see as you walk upstairs so that made our issue even worse!
We headed to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore downtown (thanks to M&M for recommending it to us!), and struck GOLD! There were custom cabinets that had just been delivered from a Lake House in North Georgia: stained, distressed and beautiful for only $160! We weren't planning on spending that much money so we went over to Home Depot to compare pricing... the plain white cabinets with plastic handles and no beveling were going to be $200!! SO we ran back over to the ReStore and bought them!!

Before we put up the cabinets we needed to majorly clean the floor in our laundry room. Unfortunately our washer likes to leak just a little and when water mixes with stray pieces of litter it's just bad. The mess was completely stuck in the washer pan so we spent a long time cleaning that out and making a new plan so that wouldn't happen again.

The next step before putting the cabinets up was PAINTING! The laundry room was the only room in the whole house that I hadn't painted, and with those cabinets it just needed to be! After the painting was done we finally got to hang the cabinets! Kyle also hung all my organization systems up as well... everything looks so clean and organized I LOVE IT!

Close up:

So much more can fit in these cabinets than the shelf we had before! Another view:And of course our faithful helper with all his tools:

Pictures really don't do it justice as I can't really get the whole room in there, but we are so happy with it!! Who knew you could LOVE a laundry room?!

Boone for Labor Day!

We traveled over Labor Day to the cabin that we are part owners of in Boone, NC! We offered our weekend to our good friends, Molly and Marshal, as a wedding present and they wanted us to join them in the fun! We had such a wonderful, relaxing weekend it was great!

Saturday morning we woke up, had a wonderful breakfast cooked by the guys then headed over to Daniel Boone Days, an art festival being held in town. They didn't have much stuff there, but it was still fun and we took some funny pictures.
We walked around King Street for a while, and of course stopped in Mast to get some yummy candy. We love that M&M are just as addicted to candy as we are :)
After eating a delicious lunch at Black Cat, we headed to Hebron Rock Colony! We had never taken them there before, and it's such a cool place! Unfortunately Tupelo had a hard time climbing some of the rocks with her leash on, so it ended up being quite a workout for Molly and Marshal. One time Tupelo straight jumped in a river, and went down a waterfall with Marshal behind her! (Thank heavens it wasn't a big one!) But hopefully it toughened her up a little ?!

Tyson did really well though, he's listening so much better as he gets older!

Sara I tried the "waterfall" setting!

Marsh and Kyle exploring:

Molly and I looking niiiiice. For some reason whenever we all hang out, we don't take many showers or put on make up.... I secretly LOVE it :)

Kyle and I:

This was part of the trail:

We came back to the cabin, took showers and relaxed. The guys went out to pick up pizza, while Molly and I sat out in the porch swing and talked. You know it's good when an hour goes by and it only feels like 5 minutes! We ate the delicious pizza from Capones, then headed out on the porch again to sit by the fire and roast marshmallows. The weather was just perfect! By the end of the night we were all stuffed and were crying from laughing so hard. It was a wonderful night!

Kyle and I:Molly & Marshal:

And here is the guys' invention... chocolate chip cookies with marshmallow in the middle!And here is Marshal thinking "I can't stop eating... why do I love you so much, dear cookie?"

Unfortunately around 3:00 am I started to get sick :( I thought it was a weird reaction to the pizza b/c my stomach is known for being terrible, but it didn't go away. I spent the next 24 hours in bed b/c of the nausea and slept 21 out of those hours! Molly and Marshal were so understanding, of course. While the guys went out on Sunday to play golf and throw the frisbee, Molly stayed at the cabin to take care of me if I needed it. Molly was able to get a lot of reading done and relaxing which she needed, so I'm so glad for that! They left around 6:00 on Sunday to get back to Charlotte to get things done, and Kyle hung out by himself until midnight when I woke up ready to party! (by then it had almost been 24 hour and I was good to go!)

Monday morning we walked around Valley Crusis Park and took it easy since my stomach was still settling. We let Tyson swim in the river, but unfortunately that park bothers us b/c of the Leash Nazi's there. We came back, watched tv and cleaned then headed back to ATL. (When Kyle caught the 24 hour bug and started to get sick, but that's a whole other story!) Even though I ruined the second half of our weekend with a stomach bug, we really did have a lot of fun. Thank you guys so much for coming, it was so great to see you as always!