Kyler and Kara

Our First Christmas

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

We celebrated our first Christmas together on Christmas Eve's Eve before we headed home for my family's Christmas that weekend.

Our main gift to each other was our new TV, but we decided to still get each other one gift and a stocking.

What a handsome dude! For starters, Kyler read the Christmas story in Luke.

Kyler got me an electric throw. As in not blanket. He was very specific to buy a throw because he didn't want one big enough to fit on our bed...not that I would've put it on the bed.

In my stocking I found two tickets to the IU vs. Michigan game that we attended a couple of days ago. Way to buy yourself a Christmas gift Kyler!

Kinda blurry, but I got Kyler a new wallet. He'd had his old one since high school and was in desperate need of a new one. According to him, it's much more comfortable when driving in the car. I wouldn't know of such things, but I'm so glad his behind appreciates the gift I gave him.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to my Grandma Maxine's for Christmas with my dad's family. Kyler got a new Blu-Ray player player, and I got lot 'o clothes.

On Christmas Day, we woke up at my parents' house and enjoyed an early Christmas with them before church.

And after church, we went to Grandma Faye's for Mom's side of the family's Christmas. Out of all those Christmases, these are the only two pictures I took the whole time.

This is my cousin's girlfriend's new puppy.

What a cutie!

We had a great first Christmas together and really enjoyed having a few days off work (and weeks off school) to spend Christmastime with family.

Hoosier Update (That's Now Out of Date)

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

In early December, we went to Bloomington for IU's game versus Howard. All week I had been talking about how much I wanted to go to the IU vs. Kentucky game, and when I came home from work there were two tickets on the kitchen table. I had a huge smile on my face as I made my way to the table and asked, "OOOOOOOOOOH, what do we have here!? Who the heck is Howard?"

It definitely wasn't a figurative nail-biter, though Kyler found time to make it a literal one. We won by a significant margin, probably not very exciting for those at home. But it was awesome in Assembly Hall as the crowd went wild over and over again for those crazy moves and impressive dunks.

I believe this may have been the last game Will Sheehey played in. Sad Face.

This is a creepy picture. I was testing the zoom on our camera, and focused on Kyler's professor's seats. We were very surprised that we could make him out perfectly. We sat by him there, in the third row at our first game of the season. CREEPER ALERT!

What an incredible Hoosier team! We're so glad to see this team turn around from where they've been the past four years. Little did we know that since this game, we'd move on to be 15-1!

Go Hoosiers! (Kyler thought those towels were like little skirts and made of these guys like it was the funniest thing ever!)

Back to December

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

Catchy title, anyone? Any Taylor Swift fans reading?...Anyways.

A couple of weeks before Christmas we received a package from P&G. So totally sweet of them, considering Kyler hasn't even started there yet. (Only 121 days until he does start...not that we're counting).

He was so excited.

Just a little trouble getting in there though.

I'm not sure what'd going on. A little batman action?

A nice letter from the company. You know how much those Grays love their Christmas letters.

Some type of tasty treat. They were gone before I got home from work the next day.

Kyler said this was my half of the gift. Calorie & Fat Content book for restaurants. Thanks Kyler.

I like this piece a little better. A beautiful white platter with a wintery scene of an old Cincinnati street, of course featuring a soap building.

And of course lots of product samples. Who knew toothbrushes and deodorant would be such an exciting Christmas gift! Very much appreciated though, and definitely put to great use already.

It was definitely a nice kick-off to the season of gifts leading up to the day celebrating the Best Gift of All!

Old/New Pillow

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

A looooooooong time ago, when we lived in Harrison, I bought some fabric at our going-out-of-business JoAnn's. The old throw pillows I had in college didn't go with our new bedding, and I was going to make covers for them. And then I ran out of time because it was summer, and we couldn't stay inside sewing away all that warmth.

So during our first cold spell of the fall, I broke out the sewing machine and that fabric to cover my old pillows.

Only the fabric was cut so crooked that I couldn't cover the front of the pillow in one fabric and the back in the other. I was not happy at all, that I'd been sitting on this fabric all summer and fall only to find it useless.

Furious, I put all my things away...until this weekend when I decided that I just had to make something work. I had already spent the money, and by-golly I would have pillow cover by the end of the night.

Not exactly what I had in mind. The striped fabric has a few colors that don't really go with my decor but at that point I was just working with what I had.

This was the easiest pillow case ever. It's just an envelope, so that top flap is tucked into the bottom fabric. No hand sewing necessary when I flipped in rightside out.

I really love that paisley and wanted it to be the entire front cover, but this will do for now. As far as I'm concerned, my eyes are closed when I use it, so I can't see it up close anyway.

This is our teal bedspread in the most awful 'indoor at-night light' setting. The paisley would've gone with my bedspread much better. That dark hunter green and olive color doesn't really match the gray sheets, but I still like it. And I'm so glad I was finally able to use of that fabric.

Here's the new pillow beside my old bird pillow. And yes, it's staying. I love that bird pillow.

So a word to the wise, when a 17-year-old girl is pulled off the cash register to cut your fabric at a going-out-of-business fabric shop, order a little extra than you think you may need. Just in case.
The pillow may not live up to my expectations, but it sure felt good to break out the sewing machine for an evening.

Christmas movies...in HD

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

We're addicted to our DVR. Yep, we admit it. And I can't really see us giving it up in the future. Lately we've been recording all the Christmas movies throughout the week and just finished our movie marathon this weekend.

"Messy Messy Messy."

We watched Frosty the Snowman.

One of my favorites as a kid.

And this year we got to watch it in HD. Yes, I got a text from Kyler at work on Friday saying he had just subscribed to a free month of HD, just in time for the Kentucky/IU game.

We also watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer but I was laying on the couch and the camera was too far away to take a picture of that one.

Hope you're enjoying all the Christmas shows leading up to Christmas. Or just enjoying these last few days leading up to Christmas.

Junk Mail

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

...not sure how I got on this mailing list.

IU Celebration...Columbus style

2011-12-12T06:00:00.001-05:00

Words cannot express how badly I wanted to be in Bloomington Saturday night. Kyler and I had tried to buy some student tickets weeks ago, probably back when we were 4-0. Kyler got an email last week from a girl selling two tickets saying she only had one left, and she would accept no less than $200 for it.

So that put a damper on our hopes for being present at the game, and we watched the game from home on the latest addition to our home, Leif, with our newly subcribed-to HD. And what a game it was!

We jumped and cheered and screamed and probably disturbed everyone within a 12 -mile radius from our Columbus apartment when Watford hit that game-winning three. And then I asked Kyler if we could go to Bloomington. And for a split second I thought he was game. But then he got all practical and said we'd spend 2 hours alone just driving and ................wah wah wah. We didn't go. So he took us out to celebrate in town. Only as Hoosiers know how to celebrate.

With Cold Stone ice cream. I mean, I bet by the time we would have gotten to Bloomington, all the ~~beer~~ ice cream would've been gone.

After our unranked Hoosiers upset #1 Kentucky, we couldn't just go to DQ or Culver's. It had to be top-o-the-line Cold Stone.

And after that, we got really crazy and hit up the McDonald's drive-thru.

Cheers in the car.

And as if the night couldn't get any more livlier, I had the genius idea of driving around the countryside to look for Christmas lights.

And not one to disappoint, Kyler drove us around and around past a few homes with mediocre-at-best decorations. Until we hit up the Columbus airport where there were colored lights lined up for miles. Who cares that they're there year-round lighting up the run way.

And to top it all off, we passed this jet plane on display.

I mean, we would never have seen a jet plane in Bloomington, so our celebration in Columbus was way better than the shenanigans going on on Kirkwood.

Our First Nativity Scene

2011-12-05T20:00:00.000-05:00

This is the nativity scene I grew up with. I think my Grandma Faye actually made it and my Grandpa James built the stable. I could be making the stable part up, but my grandma used to paint and fire ceramics in her home, so I'm pretty sure that part is true. There's just something so peaceful about this nativity scene. All white. Large figures. Camels. Every good nativity scene needs a camel.

And since Kyler and I have started our own family and our own Christmas traditions, I've been pining after a nativity scene. A nice one. Nothing that Target or Wal-Mart could satisfy. I have told Kyler all about the Willow Tree nativity scene. I've told him over and over again how I wished I had registered for it for our wedding. We even stopped in at Hallmark over the weekend to look at it again. I was secretly hoping it was on sale, but we left the store without it.

And when we visited our families on Sunday, wouldn't you know, we received part of our Christmas presents early...

...because it's only appropriate to set it out before Christmas. Even though this is just the starting pieces of what is a very large collection, I was thrilled to receive this lovely gift. We got home Sunday night about the time that we usually go to bed, but I couldn't help setting it up before going to sleep.

And now I have a nativity scene of my own. The abbreviated version with the hope of receiving the rest in future years. But even if nothing else ever accumulates, all I really need is there. The stable. The star. And my Savior.

P.S. I was pretty sure that Willow Tree did not include a camel in its nativity set. But I just googled and found this:

Leif Grunderson

2011-12-02T21:30:00.001-05:00

Kyler has been talking about getting a new tv since last year. His 20-inch tv has been providing our entertainment during our married life. My tv is 15-inch and has been collecting dust in our bedroom. I love to watch tv in bed, but the bed is so far from the tv that we can't really see what's going on on-screen.

We were going to get a new one as soon as we got back from our honeymoon. Then we were waiting until we moved to Columbus so we wouldn't be too rough with it. Then we were waiting until Labor Day because we thought some stores might be having sales. Then we thought Black Friday would have bigger sales. And then our computer died 4 days before our big tv purchase, putting the tv on hold again. Bummer. Until tonight...

Kyler has been incessantly researching tvs since August (preparing for the Labor Day sale). I could probably recite in my sleep exactly what he wanted. And we finally got it!

Once we decided we were definitely buying the tv tonight, I had to make sure the size was right. Last December Kyler wanted 55". Eventually we realized that was a massive tv and 47" would be just fine. And after visiting some friends at a Bible study and seeing their 42", I tried to convince Kyler to go smaller. And I almost had him convinced until...he realized the 47" fit in our existing "tv space".

I had the pretty genius idea (if I do say so myself) to try to replicate the sizes on the wall before making a committment. Holy cow. At first we just put the two new tv sizes up there, but for fun we put Kyler's 20" square up for comparison. Either way we went, we were going to be living a life of luxury.

Kyler did a whole bunch more research before we hit the stores. And once we got to the final store, they were running a sale better than we expected. SCORE! And Kyler was hopping up and down right in front of the floor models. He was like a kid on Christmas morning. Smiling ear to ear.

We decided to name our new guy. Kyler picked it: Leif Grunderson. Leif for short. LG for shorter. Get it? LG. Oh man, Life's Good.

We assembled it immediately and probably not nearly as fast as Kyler would've preferred.

And he's up! Hi. Can you see me?

And he hasn't moved since.

Seriously. Hasn't. Moved.

P.S. Jeopardy looks so awesome on Leif. For anyone who doesn't know, I'm as blind as bat. Probably more blind. And Kyler joked that I would be able to watch Jeopardy without my contacts in. Ha! Sadly, that's so not a possibility.

Kyler and the Babes

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

There are many reasons we love going home for visits. Homecooked meals. Being lazy since we're not home. Breaks from work and school. The babes. And don't ask why we call these boys 'babies' or 'the babes'. We just do.

Kyler got out these flash cards and was teaching Karter to add. But Kaden didn't want to be left out, so he counted the pictures on the opposite side. He's a great counter but doesn't necessarily stop counting when he runs out of pictures.

Kaden is at a fun age, learning something new every day. We got lots of snuggle and play time with him over Thanksgiving.

And although Kyler is the favorite rough-houser, don't think they let him leave without reading a few books.

Watching Pixar short films. The trance.

Wordless Wednesday - O Christmas Tree

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

New Computer

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

Our computer died. So instead of Black Friday shopping for a new tv...

We had to buy a new computer. We are sad we aren't watching IU basketball on a huge screen, but Kyler has to take this computer to class every day.

And after using it myself, I realize how badly we needed a new one. It's so fast and clear, and it's got an HD screen. If only the screen was 40 inches bigger...

Kyler's Green Thumb

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Kyler loves plants.

Remember back when we first moved to Columbus, Kyler had to transpant his orchid into a larger pot? He's nurtured her ever since and she's growing a new leaf! He's so proud, and I have to admit that she's a pretty plant. And she has an adorable pot.

Well, in the orchid's old pot, he planted a $.20 pack of Morning Glories (we think).

Definitely not a pretty plant. I wasn't a fan from day one because that pot is so ugly, but it stayed outside. Out of sight, out of mind right? Well, before the first frost, he brought it inside. And daily it just bugged me in all of its ugly, straggly-ness. So he finally threw it away on Thursday.

And what does he bring home on Friday?

Another plant. This time it was much more appealing to the eye. This is his mom's old bonsai tree. But I think we're done with adopting plants...at least until we have some place to put them. I'm not sure the printer is the best location for a greenhouse.

Happy Black Friday and one month until Christmas!

Christmas Prep

2011-11-23T06:00:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving may be tomorrow, but we're already preparing for Christmas.

At least our new constant on tv, IU basketball, matches our Christmas color scheme.

And we've got our Christmas letters all ready to go!

Just one more day until everyone else joins me in Christmas preparing! Black Friday is the official start, right?

IU Basketball

2011-11-21T06:00:00.004-05:00

Last Sunday, Kyler and I had the privilege of going to an IU basketball game, sitting in the 3rd row right behind the bench.

Warm-ups

He got the tickets from his professor by answering a question correctly in class. That's my boy!

We got banners on the wall...

It felt so good to be back in Assembly Hall.

Especially since we have a decent team this year...mostly because of that dude, #40.

The last three years, our team was desperately lacking a big man after DJ White left.

DJ White

Which, DJ actually was in attendance at this game.

The team looks good this year. Talented starters. Great bench.

And lets not forget good-looks too :)

Caught on camera.

But back to basketball...

See that assistant coach there in the middle?

He looked so familiar.

Kyler thought so too. And then we placed him...

Gordon Gecko from the movie Wall Street. We're such business school geeks.

But back to basketball...again.

We're so excited to watch this team this year. After four of the worst years of IU basketball while we were on campus, we finally feel like it's our time!

Obviously, we need basketball to look forward to...

...considering IU football isn't really anything to get excited about.

"Winner, Winner Turkey Dinner"

2011-11-17T14:01:00.001-05:00

Let me explain. Since I have been doing a lot more driving recently than I am used to, I have really picked up on listening to the radio on the morning and afternoon drives. The afternoons are great - as soon as I figured out that Rush and Dana Loesch were on during my afternoon drives (anywhere between 1-4pm). But the mornings are different - all the DJs want to talk about nothing and hardly play any good music. However, I do usually listen to one segment of a Bloomington radio station's show - the "Morning Trivia". They ask a question....usually something like "10% of teenagers say they do this every day". Sometimes I feel like I know an answer and try to call in - and they are always looking for caller #1.

And sometimes the prizes are pretty awesome. A week ago they were giving away a four pack to Shrek: The Musical at the Auditorium. This is something I wouldn't pay for, but if they were giving something worth about $150 away for free, I was going to try to win it. No success on those tickets.

On Tuesday, I turned to the radio station just as they were asking the question (but before I had actually learned what the prize was). The question was something like "60% of college students say they couldn't live without this". I thought I knew the answer, so I called in.
Call 1: Busy. Should I try again?
Oh, sure. Call 2: "Hello, Caller #1"
"Is it their smartphone?"
"Congratulations, you just won a Thanksgiving turkey courtesy of Wal-Mart".

...

What? A turkey? What am I going to do with a turkey and how do I get it? Am I just going to show up to the station and walk out with a frozen turkey? Or is the turkey still alive?

Anyways, I went to the station to claim my prize and walked out with a big voucher saying I needed to pick up my turkey from the Bloomington Wal-Mart. Of course, I picked out the largest one I could find and went to the check-out line (which, at Wal-Mart, you can correctly guess that it took forever).

Now, what should I do with this turkey? Two things were certain: 1) I definitely had to document the occassion with a picture and 2) Kara and I don't really have a use for a turkey. So, I took the picture. Since I didn't really want a picture of me randomly holding the turkey (since that would involve an awkward conversation asking someone to take the picture and see my strange pose), I tried to use my backpack as a frame of reference.

Yes, the 22.5lb turkey was as large as my backpack. Not knowing what to do with the thing, I called the church thinking they might know someone to give it to. Of course, neither of the church leaders that I know was there to speak to. Instead, I had to explain the story to some elder who probably thought the whole thing was ridiculous. Adding to the ridiculous-ness of the situation, I had to grab the preacher out of basketball practice (he coaches girls Varsity basketball) to have him tell me where to put the turkey. He called me the "Turkey Fairy". (Not sure this was a compliment or the fact that my wrists were limp after dragging a huge turkey to him). Long story - but it is now in the church's freezer until they can figure out what to do with it/who to give it to.

Isn't life great....definitely keeps you on your toes.

Tis the Season: Christmas and Basketball

2011-11-11T23:14:00.000-05:00

Happy 11-11-11!

What a great day it was for us! Here are some of the reasons why:

1) It's Friday. Hello weekend!

2) IU basketball's regular season started tonight. 1-0 baby!

3) Christmas shopping began as well

i)

ii) Christmas supplies: gifts, wrapping paper, ribbon, bows, tape, name tags, boxes, apple juice, and cell phone.
All necessities.
There will be two happy little boys on Christmas. And a happy Mom.

4) Tomorrow is more Christmas shopping in Indy with my Grandma and sister.

5) Kyler's currently looking up live Christmas tree farms on the iPad. rightthisverysecond. And I've never had a real Christmas tree. Yippee! But we better get it fast because we have presents accumulating on the tv table and on Black Friday, we're getting a big tv!

6) My sister called with some good news. She found the Kyler's old iPod that I ~~lost~~ misplaced during our move. Turns out it was in one of the coat pockets on my old winter coat. And yes it did get misplaced during our move. I moved the coat home. Little did I know that the iPod was in there though.

7) We're almost halfway through our month of writing down what we're thankful for. And I'm so happy that Kyler's really into it. He's even had to remind me to write one down.

8) We paid off one of my student loans today. It was a smaller amount but the interest rate was really high. Goodbye!

9) Kyler's input for why today was so awesome: Veteran's Day. Freedom. And I quote.

10) Quinn Buckner. We were almost in tears over some of his commentary tonight. Who knew that the referees kicking the cheerleaders of the court could've been so funny.

And that my friends, is 11-11-11's version of our Top Ten.

Have a great weekend everybody!

P.S. More exciting news but unrelated to 11-11-11....we're going to the IU game on Sunday. Third row. Behind the home bench. Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!

Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

2011-11-10T20:19:00.000-05:00

oh. em. gee. these are to die for, and you must make them immediately. go now. after reading the recipe.

this is the prize-winning recipe of 2007 for Betty Crocker's oatmeal cookie mix challenge.

1 pouch Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix (1lb 1.5oz)

1/2 cup firm butter or margarine

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (Betty suggests Gold Medal)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 can (21 oz) apple pie filling

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. heat oven to 350 degrees. spray bottom and sides of 13x9 pan with cooking spray

2. place cookie mix in large bowl. cut in butter until mixture is crumbly and coarse. reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture; press remaining crumbs in bottom of pan. bake 10 minutes.

3. meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla, and egg until smooth

4, spread cream cheese mixture evenly over partially baked crust. in medium bowl, mix pie filling and cinnamon. spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. sprinkle reserved crumbs over top. sprinkle with walnuts.

5. bake 35-40 minutes longer or until light golden brown. cool about 30 minutes. refrigerate to chill, about 2 hours.

prep time: 20 minutes
makes: 24 bars

these were soooo delicious and soooo easy.

Operation Christmas Child

2011-11-07T06:00:00.002-05:00

Many of you probably heard the story of when I told Kyler I wanted to adopt a child for Christmas at midnight on a drive home. And he was a little sleepy and delierious and thought I actually wanted to adopt a real child. Well, I didn't only convince him to adopt one child but two to support for Christmas.

Our church is supporting Operation Christmas Child. So this weekend we took to the aisles of Wal-Mart to pack our children's shoeboxes. Kyler and I were both buying for the ages 5-9, one boy and one girl. After following some suggestions from an OCC pamphlet, we came home with a pretty good spread for each.

TOYS!

SCHOOL SUPPLIES!

HYGIENE ITEMS!

I was pretty impressed with all we got for them and that it all fit in shoeboxes/shoebox tupperwares.

Next, we wrote them each a letter to explain who we are and why they're receiving this package. I told my little girl how much I loved Polly Pockets as a child.

And explained that we're celebrating Christmas here in the United States, the day that God's Son Jesus was born on Earth.

After paying our shipping donation online, including a photo of us, and taping the tracking label onto our boxes, we were almost finished.

One of the most emphasized steps came at the end when we prayed over the boxes for the children receiving them, the volunteers distributing them, and the lives that could be changed because the Word of Jesus is spreading all over the globe.

We definitely had a fun time shopping and ~~cramming~~ organizing all those tiny gifts into those boxes, but it is our hope that those tiny gifts lead to those children coming to know Jesus.

Family Traditions

2011-10-28T06:00:00.001-04:00

One of the coolest parts about our first year of marriage has been sharing our holiday celebrations with one another. Fourth of July cookouts. Carving pumpkins for Halloween. Obviously since being married in June, we haven't run across any major holidays. But as the big holidays are approaching, we're excited to be officially celebrating them together. And we're trying to add in a few of our own new traditions. We'll see if this one lasts.

(Ignore the tags on the new placemats. I'm letting them sit on the table for the weekend to make sure I'm sold on them before I take the tags off. And no, we're not using them)

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I wanted to do something special to remind us what the holiday is really all about. Although I do enjoy thinking it's about food and football, I wanted to make sure we took time to think about what we're really celebrating.

So I decided that I wanted us to daily write down something that we're thankful for. So, we picked up this branch during our late night walk around Mill Park, put it in a Ball jar my Grandpa James gave me, and filled it with the acorns that used to be on my shelf above the tv. Then I cut little squares out of fall scrapbook paper, hole-punched their corners, and looped some string through it.

Each night up til Thanksgiving, we'll write something we're thankful for and hang it on our 'tree'. And on Thanksgiving, we'll be able to read what each other wrote. I'm so excited!

And surprisingly, Kyler's been going along with it pretty well. He just thinks we have the order wrong by putting leaves on the tree as time progresses instead of taking leaves down as the days go by. Oh well. Hopefully this is one of those things that we love enough to repeat every year. Because I can't wait to start our own family traditions.

It doesn't always pay to be smart.

2011-10-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

The other night while Kyler and I were watching Jeopardy, we witnessed the strangest thing. All three contestants got the final Jeopardy question wrong, so the wagers were very important. One of the contestants lost all of his money, and the other two ended up with the same amounts. So they were co-champions of that game.

Usually the champion of the show has some big sum. And usually second place gets $2000 and third place gets $1000. In this round the co-champions ended up with $1599 because of their wagers. So the guy who lost actually got more money than the champions.

I guess it doesn't always pay to be smart.

Gross. With a capital G.

2011-10-24T06:00:00.001-04:00

Remember our beautiful, perfectly ripe pumpkins?

Apparently a few weeks in the cold and rain aren't the best treatement for them.

They got all moldy and disgusting.

Kyler asked if I wanted my candles back. Who knows what kind of funk they sucked up from that standing water. I passed.

Mine caved in, but at least it wasn't as disgusting as Kyler's. I attribute it to scraping it out better than he did.

Nevertheless. Still gross.

Our neighbors probably think we're weirdos. I've caught the man staring at these gross pumpkins. And today he walked by as Kyler was taking pictures of them, but he went inside before he could see Kyler throwing them away. So we're the screwed up neighbors that carve pumpkins to let them rot and then photograph them.

Carving Pumpkins

2011-10-12T06:00:00.006-04:00

Last week when Kyler's parents stopped by, they brought some pumpkins. This weekend, we carved them out and made some Halloween decor.

The weather was wonderful this weekend, and our patio was clearly up for the task.

And I cut my hole a little too small. Can't hardly get the candle down in there.

Kyler's finished product.

And only a minor burn to light these babies...

And my haunted castle...

As we were setting them out in our garden, our neighbor walked by and commented that now we were prepared for The Halloween.

Columbus Night Life

2011-10-10T06:00:00.020-04:00

Saturday night, Kyler and I headed out on the town.

We walked straight past this bar and into Race Mill Park, open til 11pm.

Orange Trees.

Blue Trees.

Green Trees.

We just walked and talked. And Kyler would stop when I stopped to take a picture of tree branches...

...and their shadows.

We chatted about our week and what we have going on the next few days.

We acted silly, as we kept discovering new parts of the park.

We stumbled upon some entertaining architecture, of course.

And little pieces of history to the town.

As we started on our way home, we got stuck by a train. So we just popped a squat on the curb and enjoyed its clanking on the tracks.

We laughed at funny sculptures that were a little odd and not noteworthy of pictures.

And we laughed at unfamiliar scenes and guesssed how many of these trucks are deployed daily and in the holiday season.

We made our way back in town to our car.

And by the time we got back to town, we were a little slap happy.

So we pushed the button, fully expecting a little black and white man to appear. Darn.

Although this wasn't a conventional night out on the town, we fully enjoyed our time together, especially before a big week for both of us.

Happy Birthday Anique!

2011-10-09T16:00:00.001-04:00

Wii Love You

Back to School

2011-10-07T08:00:00.001-04:00

A little behind on the back-to-school update, I admit, but I thought I would just share how things are going in the first month and a half of school.

Well, this is my last year of school and I am definitely ready to be out. It's not that I don't enjoy school and learning - it is the fact that:

I am a married man.

Out of the 60 people in my class, only two of us are married. Of course, the majority of the 58 think it is a little bit crazy to be married right now, but I couldn't be happier. It is just difficult when Kara is working full-time and I am in school. For starters, school used to be an 8:00am-10:00pm (and on the weekends) kind-of mindset, working on and off with breaks all throughout. But, being married, I now try to make it a 8:00am-5:00pm and try not to even think about school on the weekends when Kara is off work. It has been a tough adjustment, but it is definitely worth it because let's be honest - investing time in my marriage and wife is more important than reading for the next day's class.

I am living way off-campus.

If you haven't heard Kara's perspective about living in Columbus, don't worry - I am sure it will come up in conversation soon enough. I actually don't mind living here - it is just the drive and the feeling that I really am not even part of campus. Instead of walking 10 minutes to class, I have to drive an hour each way (and I am not sure how long when it snows). The drive is beautiful - especially right now - all throughout Brown County, and it gives me some alone time just to think.

I have full-time job already waiting for me.

Out of the 60 people in my class, I would say that less than 10 are even seeking a full-time job this fall since they have already accepted their internship job offers. Having that "in the bag" saves a lot of interviewing time, but trust me - it doesn't always serve as the best academic motivator. I am really excited for my job and the next stage our lives.

My classes are going really well, and this year I have some classes that I really enjoy going to because they are completely different than any other classes I have taken. But, after 5 years of finance and accounting, some classes are getting a little "academic". I remember Pastor Bob in Bloomington preaching one time that "academic" is now a substitute for the word "irrelevant". I now understand.

In 7th months, I will be graduating again. I am definitely trying not to wish the year away, because I know Kara & I will look back on this as one of the more exciting times of our lives together.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you didn't find my reflection too boring.

Decorating for the Season

2011-10-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

Since we're in a semi-permanent spot (you know, longer than 3 months), I decided to get some decor on these white walls. And yes, I did have to talk Kyler into letting me put eight holes in the wall in order to hang these four shelves.

So for starters, I pulled out our engagement pictures that just so happened to be taken in the fall. Woo Hoo for coincidence. They're the only photos we have printed of us and they're in the right season.

Then I decided I wanted some mini pumpkins. I really had my heart set on white pumpkins, but last week when I stopped at the little farmer's market, they only had orange. bummer. But when Kyler's parents visited this weekend, we stopped at Farm Fest, and I just had to buy a couple of white ones when I saw them. Although my shelves were pretty full without them.

So I scooted a couple down to the TV stand and moved that red candle by the TV from the shelves to...well, by the TV.

What? You didn't want a play-by-play of how I decorated my shelves?

And, for the past two weeks, I'd been on the lookout for acorns to no avail. This past weekend, when Kim and Terry were here, we went to Nashville and I found lots of acorns...to buy. I was pretty sure I could find them cheaper (say, free) but I couldn't find an oak tree until this afternoon when we took a walk around the apartment complex for Kyler's study break, and I stumbled upon (quite literally) a batch of acorns. And alas, an oak tree! So we filled Kyler's pockets, and I stuck them in a vase when we got home. But I didn't estimate the volume very well, so I filled the rest of the vase with...a pumpkin!

And maybe the most exciting part of this whole post/decorating/blogging process was that I learned how to set the white balance on our camera!

Before:

After:

Ta da! No more yellow walls from taking a picture inside at night :)

Happy Fall Y'all!

Happy Birthday Zach!

2011-10-02T09:37:00.000-04:00

Enjoy it!

Dividend Day!

2011-09-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, Kyler and I headed to Kings Island to enjoy a private event put on by P&G, Dividend Day. The whole park was rented out by the company for its employees' and retirees' families to enjoy. And enjoy it, we did. [Sorry the photos aren't the best, they're Droid pics]

All over the park were huge blow ups or P&G stations. Here is Kyler, sitting on his throne. He often complains that our toilet is not big enough (not sure what that means/don't want to ask), but I think this one would stop his complaining.

I was mimicking Mr. Clean, who was unfortunately positioned right over the sewage tank. Hence, the cross arm and sour face. Not my best photo ever.

We definitely got spoiled that day. We had ridden four roller coasters within our first half hour! There were no lines. And the only ride we had to wait in line was for the dang swings. I hated them. Kyler and I thought we'd probably leave around 6pm. But around 3pm, we'd ridden everything, some multiple times, and we were ready to leave.

This picture below is why we didn't take in the big camera. I'd rather the phone be the casualty.

If you know me, you know that spinning movements don't treat my stomach well. I can ride rollercoasters all day, but spin me in circles or drive me down a winding road, and I get car sick. Kyler thought we should try the new swings ride. Bad idea. We spun around so quickly that I knew before the ride stopped that I was in trouble. So I opted out of the last couple of rides and took these pictures of Kyler.

I am so glad I could take these photos before he was aware of it. I definitely got the "holy cow I can't believe I just did that" look, even though you can't see it well in the pictures.

Before we even entered the park, though, we turned in our voucher to pick up our bag of P&G loot. I guess my post last week was a bit premature since we now possess even more product. Look what we picked up!

All in all, we had a great day together. We enjoyed a day of beautiful weather, an uncrowded theme park, and being with each other! Awww.

Wordless Wednesday: Transplanted

2011-09-21T06:00:00.002-04:00

Katy Perry

2011-09-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

Jamie: Hey, my director just gave me Katy Perry tickets for next next Wednesday night. Would you like to go or is that too far past your bedtime? :-) Plus I don't even know if you like Katy Perry...

Me: Oh my flippin gosh! I would love to! And yes it is past my bedtime. Though kyler might be a bigger katy perrfy fan than me...for real!
Jamie: Ask him if he'd like to go. Kyle said if Kyler goes, he will too.
Me: Kyler said he would love to go. This was his response: Can we party like Last Friday Night. It would be Exteraterrestrial. You made my Teenage Dream come true. Will there be California Girls there? Will it be Hot & Cold? Can I Kiss a Girl and Like it?

And that was that.

Opening Act: Janelle Monae?

Waiting for Katy Perry. Did I mention the tickets were for the Mayor's Suite. It was awesome!

The show begins with a little (creepy) story.

And then Katy Perry finally comes on stage.

Always clad in interesting clothing.

She's quite the entertainer.

Set changes. You know, hanging meat from the rafters is normal.

There were cool light shows.

There were laser shows.

There were acrobats.

There were surprise lifts.

Sparkly outfits in mid-air.

There was a huge crowd, made up of all ages. And apparently everyone got the message to wear their orange flashing sunglasses besides me. Luckily, it wasn't too sunny inside ;)

There were trap doors.

There was a flying cloud of cotton candy.

Here she is really close to us.

During 'Hot & Cold' she ran in and out of different changing stations and sported probably 20 outfits during that one song.

Same song. Different dress.

Then she invited fans on stage. First she asked an "Indiana Boy" to come visit her. The first guy, when she asked how old he was, she responded "17!? You want me to go to jail!??

More candy-themed dresses.

The show ended with fireworks.

Of course, while she was singing my favorite song "Firework"

Then she came out for an encore...in a veryinteresting outfit.

And then the whole thing ended while she doused her front-row guests with a huge squirt gun.

Thanks Jamie for a great night and the awesome tickets!

More Perks of Work

2011-09-16T06:00:00.005-04:00

I'm pretty sure I started work at the busiest time of the year. I was immediately taking on huge tasks that I was pretty sure I wouldn't see for at least three years. I thought I needed experience. I guess they think I just needed some guidance.

Our team spent some late nights at the office, but it all paid off. We were rewarded with an afternoon off to catch a Cincinnati Reds game.

Pretty incredible seats!

It was fun to see everyone out of the office. The girl I work with and I were trying to figure out what to wear. We work with all guys and weren't sure our short shorts were the most appropriate attire. But it was stinkin 98 degrees that day.

Kyler asked me if I saw anything cool. While I think he was referring to a home run or someone stealing home or a no-hitter, I exclaimed "YES!"

Ben Affleck's twin sat in the row in front of us. I spent most of the last half of the game trying to secretly capture his picture. This is by far not his best angle ;)

I'm not sure that's exactly what Kyler was looking for, so I also mentioned this:

"Oh yeah, when the visiting team was walking off the field, one of the players was carrying a Hello Kitty bag and a pink boa."

And his follow up may have been..."So, did you see anything cool?" Guess we have different ideas of cool.

Perks of Work

2011-09-14T06:00:00.003-04:00

Kyler interned for Procter & Gamble this summer (in case you hadn't heard).

And one of the perks of his work was all the product he brought home.

He spent the summer in the finance department in the fabric care division. Gain. Tide. Bounce. Era. (He's asleep as I'm writing this on Friday night or I'm sure he could rattle of all the ones I'm forgetting).

I heard about them all summer, and I got to take some on a test drive too. After our move, we finally had a place to consolidate our laundry supply stash. And it's quite the stash!

Besides the Zest bars on the second shelf, this was all loot from Kyler's job. And this was after I'd given my mom a few favors for helping us move. And this doesn't count the Cascade and Joy dish soap that are in the kitchen. I tell you, our house and laundry smells amazing!

Some things wouldn't fit in the cabinet though.

In our old apartment, we had to share laundry facilities with our building. Kyler, especially, was excited that we finally had our own laundry set. Not because he does laundry but because he couldn't wait to install one of our many Bounce bars into the dryer. Verdict: Wonderful. No more forgetting dryer sheets. No more static-clung socks.

Here he is with the over-zealous installation:

Ta Da! No more staticky socks for at least 3 months :)

Now, if only he could work for the Olay finance department. I think I'm getting some wrinkles :(

A Drizzly Day in Pittsburgh

2011-09-12T06:00:00.005-04:00

While Saturday in Pittsburgh was scorching hot (109 to be exact), the next day was drizzly and headed down to Monday's high of 65. Before we left, we checked out the weather and had decided to do all of our outdoor walking on Saturday, and we saved the indoor activities for Sunday.

I chose our first stop (after Dunkin Donuts) to be the Henry Clay Frick Museum.

The daughter had a huge art collection housed in this building, along with the PAN collection currently on display. Interesting but not amazing.

Our favorite part of the Henry Clay Frick Estate was the carriage house. We weren't allowed to take pictures but there were multiple models of the family's carriages, and we had a volunteer guide us through the carriage house explaining why the family chose each carriage.

A little walk down from the carriage house was a small cafe, fully stocked by herbs from its very own green house.

And this is what I get when I ask for a picture.

Here is a building on the estate, but I'm not exactly sure what it was...besides gorgeous.

We could've taken guided tours of the family's actual home (which is what I really wanted to do) but we didn't realize it was $12/person until we got there. So we shot this half-exposed picture of the home.

Completely ~~fed up with the rain~~ ready to check out other attractions in town, we headed to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Kyler was all about this museum. Although we saw some pretty awesome gemstones and dinosaur fossils, we're abiding by the rules and not posting them online. Bummer for you guys, but next time we see ya, we'll be sure to share our photos. Those dinos were amazing.

So we headed back to the hotel for the evening, and packed our things to head out the next morning. In the lobby, though, was this cute old-fashioned telephone. I just wanted a picture of it, but Kyler picked up the phone and had shoved it up to my ear just in time to hear the lady at the front desk asking if I needed assistance. So...I hung up on her. And photographed the phone.

And now I want a vintage telephone. And camera. And buffet......I like antiques. What can I say? Grandma Faye took me to one too many flea markets, I guess.

This was my best attempt to get a photo of us both. Fail.

Oh, and we had chinese food that night at the classiest chinese restaurant either one of us had ever been to.

Although it's difficult to see, you may notice another one of Kyler's "spills". I can't take this boy anywhere! And I'm definitely not taking his picture anymore. I'm done with the blank stares hehe.

Monday morning, we woke up early (you know, because when you have the option to sleep in, your body won't let you) and headed home. Pittsburgh was our perfect three-day weekend trip. Two days was the perfect amount of time to explore the city, and the extra day to travel and relax at home allowed us to catch our breaths before heading into another busy week of work and school.

Where were you?

2011-09-11T06:00:00.005-04:00

That question. I bet you knew what I was talking about before I even finished the question.

Where were you ten years ago?

We don't watch much TV around here. Maybe a few minutes before and after Jeopardy, but the 9/11 anniversary has overwhelmed every channel with special programs, remembering that horrible day.

I was in seventh grade, sitting in Mr. Hornaday's social studies class. An announcement came over the PA system, and although I don't remember what it said, I remember being very confused. The middle school wasn't allowed to show the news coverage on TV, so we went about our day like it was completely normal.

Once I got home, I saw the footage for the first time, but I still didn't understand what had happened. I had never heard of the Twin Towers, didn't know how many people were in them at one time, didn't realize that they were iconic to our eastern border. I had no idea it was such a big deal.

I remember days later I was sitting on my parents bed watching TV in their room when I heard the announcement that the US had declared war. I didn't know what that meant either. I thought wars happened a long time ago, only recalling the World Wars. I didn't believe that our country could actually be at war.

I definitely didn't realize, when I was only 13 years old, that ten years later I would still be affected by the tragedy of that day. Our economy, our politicians, our gas prices, our airport security, everything was impacted by that day and still is.

No one knows why these events happened. All of those people just going about their normal routines, not knowing that was their last day on Earth. It only reminds me that we never know when our day will come when we have to face God's judgement.
Although I've had ten years to think about the impact of 9/11 on my life, I think about the impact those events would've had if I had been there and not made it out. Those events would've meant that I was entering eternity in heaven with my Savior. But if I hadn't known Jesus, those events would've meant an even more tragic day, because I would've spent eternity in hell.

I realize this seems kind of morbid, but as you're watching the news this weekend and recapping that day's events, ask yourself: If that happened to me one morning at work, where would I spend eternity?

While the most asked question today might be "Where were you", maybe the most important question today is "Where would you be?"

I know that mostly my family reads this little blog of ours, but if you're a newbie and you can't answer the question "Where would you be", please don't hesitate to contact us, because we would love to show you how you can be sure where you will be.

All of the pictures scattered through this post are from my trip to NYC in March. You can see the new One World Trade building in mid-construction. Eventually it will be will be the tallest building in the US. You can also see the memorial plans for reflection pools where the old Trade Centers used to stand and a 3D model of how the surrounding area will look. There is also a picture of a mini Statue of Liberty, covered in memorabilia from 9/11.

Walking Around Pittsburgh

2011-09-09T06:00:00.006-04:00

First of all, I never knew Pittsburgh ended in "h" until I tried to find it on Google maps. The things you learn while travelling.

Woah. I just downloaded all the pictures for this post and there are a ton. So I'll try to keep the captions short.

First stop: University of Pittsburgh. We basically just followed the road to the tallest building we could see and ended up on campus. Right in the heart of Pittsburgh.

Church on campus. St. Someone.

The largest learning center in the world except one in Moscow. Incredible views from the top. Another way we planned our trip. What did we see that we wanted to visit?

Doors to the church. Everyone seemed to stare at Kyler's IU shirt. I guess he wasn't thinking where he would be when he got dressed at 3 in the morning.

The church from the other side of the field.

~~Hogwart's~~. The inside of the learning center.

A gigantic fireplace. Kyler could've totally stood inside.

My attempt at perspective to show how huge that fireplace was.

Going up this stairwell we'd say things like, "To the dungeon" or "Off to slay the dragon". We thought we were so funny.

Puuuuuuuuullll!

Puuuuuuuuuuuuuush! We did some calisthenics along the way.

I took a picture of this little guy because he made me feel like I was back in Bloomington, on campus again. And when Kyler saw that I'd stopped to snap his photo he said something like, "What you've never seen a squirrel before?" I guess it was a little silly of me.

Across the street from campus was the Carnegie Natural History Museum. Apparently Mr. Carnegie bought dinosaur fossils and housed them here at his museum. These painted dinosaurs are all over town...this was the first one I saw before I knew the story behind the town, the Carnegies, and dinosaurs. I was a little confused.

This is the front of the Carnegie Art Museum. Those statues on the front are the famous composer Bach and astronomer Galileo.

Dinosaur.

Fancy history explanation sign.

A funny little fountain. It was so hot that day, I could've jumped in the water.

Kyler, what are you zooming in on?

Testing my chamelion-like camoflauge. Results: Needs work.

Trying to locate the students on this campus, we crossed over this bridge on which many locks were locked. Again, no students, but lots of locks.

A statue of...Christopher Columbus? Pretty sure he's not from Pittsburgh.

We ventured into a beautiful arts garden, but the inside tour cost money, which we were trying to avoid.

But outside, there was a wedding being set up. What a beautiful garden for a wedding. Though I'm glad it didn't rain for this bride, I did feel sorry for everyone involved because it was at least 100 degrees.

A few ~~miles~~ minutes later, we found ourselves practically engaged in a football game for Carnegie Mellon. Poor guys, I felt even sorrier for them playing in that weather.

As we turned the corner from the football field, this sight threw us both for a loop. This was one strange sculpture in the heart of campus.

At this point, I was near death and begged Kyler for a drink of water. BEGGED! It was well past noon, and we'd had neither food nor water since breakfast around 7ish that morning.

After dragging me another couple of miles, Kyler delivered. At Joe Mama's, I set the record for putting down three glasses of water in 32 seconds...or something like that.

And Kyler set the record for 'Quickest to spill glass of water.'

From lunch, we headed downtown downtown Pittsburgh to check into our hotel. And we napped.

Then we headed out to explore some more. This time on the other side of the bridges.

We stumbled upon a park, Ft. Pitt Park, where the French used to have a fort to guard the intersection of the three rivers. Upon seeing the English arrive, they destroyed their own fort (not sure about that one), and later the English established a larger (of course) fort, Fort Pitt. And that is how Pittsburgh got its name.

The only remaining building from Fort Pitt.

Apparently U. of Pittsburgh shares the Steelers' stadium for their football games. We sat across the river and could hear the crowd cheer. Wouldn't it be cool if IU would share the Colts' stadium? Maybe then I could see a game at Lucas Oil!

The sun began its descent, and we realized we were hungry yet again.

We stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. And this is what I get when I tell Kyler I want a picture of him.

This is Kyler's favorite building from the entire trip. I dubbed it the Batman Building.

And then we checked-in for the night. This is our hotel, the Omni Penn Hotel. Very lush, dontcha think?

Again, this is the face I get when I try to take his picture. Boys....

And then we slept from the moment our heads hit the pillow until 9am the next morning.
Early morning departure + 109 degree day + Walking miles upon miles = Pooped Out.

I bet they don't teach you that equation in school.

Mt. Washington, Pennsylvania

2011-09-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

Early Saturday morning, we hit the road for Pittsburgh. Why did we go to Pittsburgh, you ask? Because we can. Because we're married now and can make plans with no one knowing until after the fact. Tee hee. Newlyweds.

Obviously I was a great travel buddy. I lay perfectly quiet like this for about six hours. I don't know what more you would want.

We left Columbus around 3:30 am, so Kyler snapped this picture of the sunrise. Needless to say, I missed it.

Although the morning was extremely foggy, I tried to capture the scene upon entering Pittsburgh. There were a tons of bridges.

Our first stop of the day was Mt. Washington. It was a ritzy little neighborhood, nestled high into the hills and overlooking the entire city.

There were some cute little overlooks. I snapped this picture just for Kristoffer, since I now know how much he likes heights.

The view of the city wasn't so impressive since it was still laden with fog...

But we were able to point out major attractions, like Heinz Stadium where the Steelers play. Gross.

Along the lookout walks, the streets were lined with gorgeous homes. I pointed out a few that I wouldn't mind living in.

This one was just finishing up construction. I love the arched doorways and carpenter-style doors - both garage and entryway. And in the upstairs window, we could see a gigantic chandelier. I want one.

This was an old home that has obviously been restored, painted brick and such. But it had the best landscaping, no doubt.

This one in the middle may have been my favorite. Modest in size. Full of character. Lots of texture mixed in the different exterior choices. Maybe too many bushes to trim though.

Though not very big, this town even had its own library...where they kindly let us use their bathroom.

Another old building, back from the mining days.

Ok, the library was old, but probably not old enough to be from the 1700s.

We didn't spend too much time on Mt. Washington, but we did get a nice view of the city and could pick out a few places of interest to visit during the rest of our trip.

And we'll share more about those places later...

We're Back...

2011-09-06T06:00:00.006-04:00

...from our blogging break and from our weekend getaway to Pittsburgh!
My, my, my! So much has happened that I don't even know where to begin! I guess I'll start with the most exciting (for me anway)!

We got a new car!

This is Sally.

I like to say things like, "Atta girl, Sally," when we climb a big hill.

Or, "Ride, Sally, ride," when we're cruising along the interstate.

Or, "Mustang Sally!" when Kyler's driving and the cruise kicks it up a notch and the motor revs.

And when we get into the car, I like to tell her how nice she looks. And I'll say to Kyler, "Kyler, isn't she beautiful?"
It's a little silly, I know, but sometimes we just get tickled about the fact that we had to give our car a nickname before we could finish registering the car. Now THAT'S silly.

We'd been looking at cars for a long time. My old, '96 Grand Am was having problems starting in the mornings, and Mom wasn't happy when it took us about five minutes to get it running the morning of our move. Dad called the next day and after talking to Jeff the mechanic, the problem was the fuel pump/valve/something and usually only lasted about 2 weeks. Oh, this problem had been going on for about a month.

So the next day, this little lady joined our household: Sally, our 2012 Ford Fusion.

She's a natural ~~Gray~~ Grey. And we broke her in this weekend, with our trip to Pittsburgh. Such a comfy new ride!

The Grays Visit the Grays

2011-08-19T06:00:00.003-04:00

In case that last post was just too personal, here's one a little less nitty gritty on the details. Nope, no underoos in this post.

We had company this past Saturday, and we had a full day of fun!

After the youngest (and oldest and those in between) had their afternoon naps and some lunch, we were ready for our activities.

First up, visiting the rooftop of the (used to be) tallest building in Cincinnati. It's becoming our tradition. If you visit us, we will take you there.

Some people didn't enjoy it so much...

Kristoffer was a nervous wreck! He was found either holding on to the sides or casually strolling the center of the rooftop.

Dana enjoyed the view, and honestly, Kaden probably got better views than his restricted brother.

At least he was being careful, but we may have given him a hard time...down all 47 flights of stairs. Then we dropped it.

Such a cute little family :)

For my birthday, Graeters (the best ice cream eva) sent me an email for a free sundae. Ok. You don't have to offer me free ice cream twice before I take you up on it.

Karterman opted for the cookies. His mama said he doesn't care much for ice cream. That must run in the Tomaw side. Kyler and I eat ice cream every other night.

So this kid might look like a Tomaw, but he eats like a Gray.

Then we just strolled on over to THE REDS GAME!

...where we had incredible seats in the third row of right field.

Seriously fantastic seats.

The new skyscraper hovering over the field.

And by far the cutest companions next to me.

Oh, and to my other side too.

Karter is at such a cute age. He loved everything about the game! The right fielder, star of the show Jay Bruce, was right in front of us. I may have taught Karter to yell "Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce". And we made the countdown to the 7th inning stretch for him to sing his song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame!" He loved it. And then sang it five more times when the guy next to us said he did a good job.

Seriously, this was one of the best baseball games I've ever seen. I can't remember the score. [Yes, I can tell you the combination to my middle school locker but I forget the score to Saturday's game.] There were probably five home runs, if not more, by the 5th inning. AND! One of them went to the couple next to Kristoffer, who then gave the ball to Karter. He was SoOoOo happy!

Both of the boys did extremely well. Karter was by far more into the game than Kado. So Kyler spent the last couple of innings walking Kaden around and apparently letting him climb all over the show cars that Chevy had on hand. Whatever keeps him busy.

At the beginning, there was a slight fear of rain. So Kyler kept checking the radar on his new phone. Apparently that radar isn't the most accurate because according to it, we should've gotten rained on.

But we're so glad it didn't! We enjoyed the game so much, but it was probably the company that made it so sweet!

We're weird.

2011-08-17T06:00:00.002-04:00

We're weird. That's what I've concluded.

We're too cheap to spend the extra $1.50 for another cycle in the dryer, but we'll upgrade our cell phones, buy a new dining room table, and book a trip to Pittsburgh in the same week. [More details to come regarding the Pittsburgh trip].

Warning: Underoo pictures below. If that bothers you, sorry.

So we hang all the clothes from every door jam and knob we have in the house.

Who knew we'd be so lucky to have three doors in the master bedroom...

...and that we'd still run out of knobs, leaving me to resort to hanging shorts from the dresser pulls.

And who knew we'd be so lucky to have the aforementioned dining room chairs' boxes hanging around in our spare bedroom.

And who knew it'd take three whole days for those socks to dry.

And dry they finally did, as stiff as the cardboard itself.

Happy Wednesday!

I don't get it...

2011-08-15T06:00:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks before my birthday, Kyler took me shopping for my birthday present: a new dining room table! Eek! I am so excited for it to get here. But on my real birthday, he gave me this little card...

Isn't that sweet.

I don't understand.

I only have one pair of black flip flops that I wear everywhere!

I mean, I also have this pair that I got in Minnesota when my only pair of shoes I took on vacation ``broke midstride.

I wear them when I want to look sporty :)

And I only have one pair of black flats.

These were my first flats ever, and I'm pretty sure they covered every inch of the IU campus.

And then I have these. They are not flats but more like real shoes. Thicker sole, more covering. You can't wear these with skinny jeans like the flats. Unless you do, then that's fine.

I love my TOMS, and I needed them because my flats' soles were about a thick as a piece of cardstock.

And then I have these dress shoes that I wear to work every other day.

Don't they just say "work shoes" to you?

But I also have these dress shoes. They're more of a dressy dress shoe. Not one that I wear to work but out on dates...if I ever went on dates.

I got them for Kyle and Jamie's wedding. Surely I've worn them other times too...

Oh yeah, and I just bought these dressy black shoes. They're more like daytime date shoes, unlike the above nighttime date shoes. Amen?

The week before my wedding, I still hadn't decided on shoes. We went to many shoes stores that week, and I always seemed to come out with shoes but none for the wedding. This pair was one of those pairs. And Kate Middleton wears espadrilles so I thought I needed a pair too.

And finally, I have this pair of black boots. Hmm...I was just looking at black boots online today. But not cozy black boots. I was looking at dressy black boots. You know...they're not the same.

My first/only pair of UGGS. So warm and cozy and reminding me of winter. Bleh. That's enough about them.

No. Still don't get it. He must've of got it because it says "honey" on front. You know, because when you get married, that's what you start calling each other.

Yeah...that must be it.

2011-08-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

A couple of weekends ago, Kyler and I sat around trying to think of things to do. We talked about going hiking again, but it was blazing hot outside. We talked about laying by our community pool, but it's so packed on the hot days, especially on the weekend. And then Kyler was saying something about needing a project. And I said, "You mean like an art project?" And the he-said, she-said went on until we decided that we would make some artwork.

Completely out of the blue, I know.

So we found the closest Hobby Lobby, and then mapped out a scenic route...because we love driving around new parts of Ohio. Well, new parts to us.

And once we got to our destination, we had to stop for a bite to eat at Taco Bell, which shared a parking lot with an antique store. So we ventured in there, and everything was priced like the people knew they actually had something of value. No lucking into a family trying to clean out an attic...bummer.

After ~~forever~~ milling around HobLob and selecting our perfect combination of canvases and paint, and a quick grocery stop at Kroger, we were back at home with our projects.

We really lucked out that there was a canvas sale going on. All of them were 40% off, and we even found a couple of 2-packs that were the same price as buying a single. Needless to say, we came home with more than our goal of two canvases.

I had envisioned a nice chevron print with our initial on it and had just finished drawing out the lines when my parents called and said they were in Cincinnati. So we hit pause and visited with them before they made it the rest of the way home from visiting family in Kentucky.

Kyler was going in a completely different direction. He wanted abstract full of bright colors. That's not really my style, but he kept saying that he could make his the way he wanted and I could make mine the way I wanted. [Yes, that's right. But I get to choose where they hang. And I told him his would look just lovely in the closet.]

This impatient guy had about 4 coats of each color on by the time I finished coating my canvas once. I wanted mine to hang in the bedroom, so I mixed the perfect teal color to match our bedding...and then I ran out. So I mixed some more, and it matched perfectly. And then I ran out...third time wasn't as charming and I didn't mix as well. So plan B was to use just the blueish green on the whole canvas.

Kyler, already having taken the tape off and putting on more coats. Me, letting my blue coat dry.

Kyler's finished product. He put it on top of the fridge, and honestly it's not too distracting. We definitely need color in this place since all the walls are white.

He's so proud. [Definitely not of my photography skills. Sorry about the horrible lighting.]

My finished product, after Kyler stepped on it. Luckily, no damage was done. But we're not hanging anything on the walls because we move out at the end of August and don't want to fill any holes in the wall. So, for now it's propped up by the tv.

And then I got the hankering to go ahead and paint some more. The first canvas was just me freestyling, but this next set of canvases, I've known what I wanted to do for a while.

Three 8x10 canvases that match our bath towels to a "T".

And bird silhouettes! I freehanded the bird on the right, but as I was looking for some other birds online, I found a template that included the bird on the left and the owl. Kyler loved the owl, and since he usually lets me do whatever I want but for once he said he would prefer the owl over another bird, I included the owl. And now he's my favorite part!

Originally, I wanted to paint them all sitting on a continuous branch so it looks like the branch spans the gaps between the canvases. But since I don't know what our future bathroom will be like (aka if they'll hang vertically or horizontally), I decided to hold off on the branch. Regardless, I love these three little paintings!

And that was our incredibly exciting weekend project!

Let there be light.

2011-08-10T06:00:00.002-04:00

Along with our last electric bill, Duke Energy sent us an offer for free CFL (we think) lights. We had the option of ordering six or fifteen. So we took a head count and ordered the set of fifteen.

And then one day I came home from work and this box was sitting outside our door. I got busy fixing supper, and when Kyler got home he declared his intentions of switching out all our bulbs.

Yeow!

Ha ha.

We'll let you know if we save a gazillion dollars on our next energy statement. In the meantime, we're enjoying these bulbs because they give off a cleaner light. As in, our old bulbs put off a more yellow, fake lighting. And these bulbs put off more white light. If that made any sense at all, good for you.

Anyone else jumping on board the gravy train? Remember our free 3D movie tickets? Have you tried any energy-saving bulbs? Do you adhere to the wattage recommendation on your lamps?

Rooftop in Cincinnati

2011-08-08T06:00:00.005-04:00

The same day that my family had come to visit and nearly witnessed the second flood, we also visited downtown Cincinnati...after we had wrung out our towels, changed into dry clothes, and covered every inch of our apartment with wet clothes to air dry.

Kyler had been telling me about the tallest building in Cincinnati since his first week at P&G when they did a city scavenger hunt and the building was one of their destinations. We had tried a few times to get into it, but it was always closed. The weekend my family was in town though, we ran into some luck.

I was fascinated by all the things you could see from this high up. Check out that rooftop pool?

It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's a blimp.

What happened to the Goodyear blimp?

This is the aerial view of Fountain Square. We had just come from a restaurant on the square and passed that fountain.

A Red's game was going on at the time. Too bad this mirrored building obstructed our view.

Here's the Bengal's stadium...um, let me go ask Kyler what it's called. Paul Brown Stadium. Fortunately, we won't be around Cincinnati during football season. We bleed blue for our Indianapolis Colts!

I love this bridge because it reminds me of New York. Apparently, according to Kyler, this is was the trial bridge before they built the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC.

See that building straight ahead, with the funny headdress? That is now the tallest building in Cincinnati. The buliding we were on top of was the tallest since...a long time ago. But last fall, they finished construction on this new skyscraper. It's like they just added that weird structure on top so they could be the tallest building.

So that's the 360-degree aerial tour of Cincinnati.

It was blazing hot that day, and so humid from the morning rain. We ~~walked down all 49 flights of stairs~~ took the elevator down to the street and went off to find some ice cream...which is another story for another time.

In other news: Tomorrow is my birthday. If I had been born today, my birthday would've been 8/8/88. What was my mother thinking!

Any blimp stories out there (I know of at least one)? Anyone scared of heights?...maybe I should've asked that before showing you these pictures. Anyone with cool birthdates?

The End of the Drought

2011-08-05T06:00:00.011-04:00

Last weekend my parents came for a visit. It was the first time they'd been here since helping us move in back in June. We planned for an afternoon out on a lake and visiting Cincinnati.

This lake is in Miami Whitewater State Forest, just about 5 minutes from our place.

Dad took the captain's seat and drove us around, exploring. It's not a huge lake, but it was pretty vacant so we didn't need that much space. The only thing we could find wrong with the place was the boat that we rented kept dying every few minutes, but we persisted.

Kyler spotted this Great Blue Heron across the lake. It was really far away, but I zoomed in pretty close. And when he flew away, Kyler told his "did you know that herons fly with their feet sticking out behind them?" story.

Oh, and Kelli came too. We broke out some snacks and drinks. Did I mention that entire week, the temperature had been in the high nineties, low hundreds? It was hot! A perfect day to be out on the water.

I switched over to sit by Kell so I would get some sun on my pasty bod. Working long hours, indoors, has kept me from my usual summer tan.

Then Kyler played captain. He drove us right over by a little cove and declare it was time to jump in. Look at that smile!

That boy had jumped in and made his way over to these fallen trees before I could even fold up my clothes and take off my shoes. Kelli, a fellow daredevil, wasn't far behind. Right as I was about to jump in, it started sprinkling. But by the time Kelli had made her way to the tree, the rain has stopped. I knew it was a false alarm. We hadn't had rain in probably 3 or 4 weeks.

They deemed this spot free of critters or nasty water, so it was my turn.

I'm not lying, that was the warmest water I had ever felt. It had to be in the 90s as well. I'm really picky about the water's temperature when I swim. I would much rather float until the water feels like bath water. And in this case, I think I have taken cooler baths.

Dad joined us while mom played captain/photographer.

We headed back to the boat to get some life jackets to float around on.

And then, it started thundering.

And then, it started lightening and we jumped back in the boat very quickly.

And then, it started pouring down rain.

And then, the siren went off at the boat shelter.

And then, the boat died.

And then, it started hailing/raining really hard [and man it hurt] and lightening and thundering every ten seconds.

No kidding.

It was scary.

Everything we had was soaked, and poor dad was getting stormed on. He asked for his hat when we were ~~floating in the wrong direction because the boat had died again~~ on our way back because the rain was coming in horizontal and he thought his contacts were going to be washed out.

And then, we got back to the dock and hopped out of the boat as fast as we could. Seriously, avoiding being struck by lightning was on everyone's mind.

Mom told the guy on the dock that the boat had kept dying, and what should have been a five minute trip to the dock turned into a half hour long trip. His reply: "Oh, that must be the one we've been having problems with".

Unfortunately, our afternoon on the lake was cut significantly short.

Fortunately, we witnessed first hand the end of the drought.

Been caught in any rainstorms lately? Anyone else picky about their swimming water or do you jump right in?

I was sew lonely.

2011-08-03T06:00:00.007-04:00

Last Wednesday, Kyler left immediately after work for the airport, and then he spent the night and next day in Georgia. In our evenings, Kyler and I usually watch Jeopardy after supper and then go on a walk. Without him around, I was sew lonely...

Sew I did what any lonely lady would do...

Break out my new sewing machine!

But I wasn't going to miss Jeopardy, sew I set up shop in the middle of the living room. And, by the way, I dominated the category "Finance and Business Terms".

One of my favorite bloggers, Edie, puts on a 12 Days of Homemade Christmas series of posts around November. And last year she featured one of my other favorite bloggers, Lindsay, from The Pleated Poppy. And that is when I found this adorable little project, and I imagined making it for two of the most adorable little boys I know.The only problem was, seniors in college don't have much free time in the weeks before Christmas. We had things called finals. Did I mention I'm done with them forever? Oh, and I didn't have a sewing machine.

Sew I ~~blatantly told~~ hinted around to Kyler that I wanted one, and he told me I didn't need one. But I gave him an analogy. Sewing machine:Kara::Playstation:Kyler. He didn't get me one for Christmas. Bummer. But his parents did!

And this was its inaugural project, besides sewing on scrap pieces.

I picked out fabric last Christmas at Hobby Lobby, but everything else I had on hand. Yes, I used a ruler because I had no sewing gauge.

Yes, I used a button from my collection of spare buttons.

Yes, I used the needles from my emergency sewing kit as pins. Oh dang it, there's at least a sewing tape measure.

A perfectly matching blue button. I don't really wear blue and can't find a single thing in my closet that is blue. I'm not sure where this one came from, but I won't be missing it.

The finished product. This little crayon pouch rolls up and stays together once you loop the elastic band around the button.

When Kyler and I went to Kroger to pick up groceries and a 16-pack of crayons, they were $2.99, but the 24-pack was only $0.25! Sew we picked up two packs. One for me, and one for toddlers!

Now I just have to wait for those cutie pies to get back from the beach sew I can give them their new gift. Shhh, don't spoil the surprise Dana!

What do you do when you're sew lonely? And projects you've been putting off since November? Any category sweeps on Jeopardy recently?

Evening Drives

2011-08-01T06:00:00.004-04:00

Last Thursday, Kyler was in Georgia visiting a P&G plant. The itinerary he left me said he'd arrive at the airport at 10:24 PM, and he said he should probably get home around 11:15. I can't really tell you what time he got home, not because I was asleep but because I didn't leave work until 11:15 or so. Needless to say, I found out what it mean when I was told we were "working late".

Also needless to say, on Friday night after a normal full day of work, I was very very sleepy. I came home and took a nap...a two hour nap. And when I woke up, I was ready for Friday night! Kyler on the other hand, was about ready for bed. So I asked him if we could drive around for a little bit.

So Kyler whipped out his iPhone and mapped out a two-hour round-trip route, spanning three states. First, we went to Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Kyler and I vaguely remembered this town from high school football days. This time, we were able to see the historic side and Ohio riverfront side of the town.

Entrance to the riverside walk.

On the river, there was this cute little restaurant where boats could pull right up, dock, enjoy a meal, and then be back on their waterway...hehe waterway.

And one of our trips wouldn't be complete without a little history. Does anyone else think it's funny how multiple states are always trying to claim famous figures. Abraham Lincoln. The Wright Brothers.

And a shoutout to our families in Indiana. Kyler's parents are actually from Hagerstown, and mine are from nearby New Castle.

Then we wound around scenic roads checking out old homes and lots of farmland. It may not sound exciting, but it was definitely one of my favorite kinds of Friday nights. Sometimes you just need some R&R and pretty views.

What's your favorite kind of Friday night?

Painting Bathrooms, Cleaning House, and Harry Potter

2011-07-22T06:00:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday, Kyler and I spent our Saturday morning painting a bathroom at a local school. We were there with our new church, along with other churches in the community. Like many other schools, these local ones are facing tremendous budget cuts and couldn't afford to paint some of their spaces. So Saturday morning we met up at a high school, heard a few words from the Superintendent, sang a couple of worship songs, and everyone then dispersed to different locations.

Kyler and I headed out to Whitewater Vally Elementary with our assignment: bathrooms.

While waiting for guidance, I joked to Kyler that all he had to do was replicate this mural and we'd be done. For those of you not aware of Kyler's artistic abilities--I'm not sure he could replicate even this mural.

Also, I thought it was rather funny that usually we see these people all dressed up in their Sunday's best, but when it came to painting, we saw everyone in their worst. I wouldn't have been all to sad to see this "Fight the 15" shirt from my food court days get a little destroyed.

At this school, there were a total of 16 volunteers. We made quick work out of the two sets of bathrooms while the pastor worked on painting the kitchen floor. Of course, we weren't allowed to get out of line--the pastor's daughter, who is about 7 or 8, kept coming around asking us if things were going smoothly. At one point, Kyler asked her what exactly she was doing. And her response was a great one..."I'm the supervisor. Sounds like a job you would like to be doing."

A girl after my own heart.

We finished up around 11am and headed home for a shower. Did I mention that the school had their A/C turned off for the summer and there were four adults holed up in a tiny bathroom?

Once we were cleaned up, we ate a quick lunch and fixed our attention on the TV to finish up Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 1. Kyler and I have seen all the Harry Potter movies together in theater, but I didn't want to see the new one, which was Part 2, until I had a refresher on Part 1.

Then we I cleaned house. Kyler usually finds an obscure task to do (organize the stacked boxes in the spare bedroom, check his credit score, etc.) to appear busy while I clean. Like those are urgent matters...

So while I cleaned, Kyler found a credit agency that would also give us free movie tickets, just for subscribing. So for almost two hours, he set us up accounts to find out our scores and retrieve codes for the movie tickets. Meanwhile, I was battling the dryers that never finish drying our clothes.

Once I had every inch of the apartment covered in half-dry clothing, we went grocery shopping, and then Kyler decided that we were going to see Harry Potter, Part 2.

We drove through the countryside to a little town with a movie theater. And on the way, we saw some peculiar sites:

Tassling corn, already?

Strange looking barn/silos/contraption...

No wait, that's a stinkin roller coaster!

This was not on a major highway or anything. I'd compare it to 36 around our parts.

Then, I was trying to take a better picture of the tassling corn. But right as the camera went off, we were passing a field being watered...I thought a fire hydrant had busted, but as we passed we saw that it was actually a watering system.

Part of our deal for subscribing ~~and then immediately unsubscribing after receiving our movie codes and credit scores~~ was that we got 3D tickets!

He asked me to take this photo because he thought he looked smart...

The movie was stinkin awesome, [if you're thinking about going though, it's not worthy of shelling out cash to see it in 3D]--but since it was free, I'm not complaining. The movie wasn't as dramatic as we'd expected for the ending of Harry Potter. It's kind of sad to think that it's finally come to an end though. I'll never get Kyler back in a movie theater with me now. These were some of the few movies that we both agree on paying for to see in theaters. I know he'll never think it's worth $8 to see a chick flick, and you can bet I don't think it's worth $8 to see whatever man movie they'll come up with next. I guess I'll bank on Matt Damon releasing some action-packed film to suit both our fancies.

And that was our Saturday of painting bathrooms, cleaning house, and Harry Potter.

Hiking at Miami Whitewater

2011-07-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, Kara and I had our first free weekend since we had arrived in Ohio. After we had enjoyed our hiking so much in Hawaii, we thought that we would see what southwestern Ohio had to offer. We decided on Miami Whitewater State Forest, which is less than 5 miles from our house. The funny part is that it is actually quicker to get on the interstate to go there, since it is only one exit away.

Ready to Go

Always a Little More Stylish

We went on two different trails in the morning - the Timber Lakes trail and the Badlands trail. On the Badlands trail, we saw an awesome sight - a red-tailed hawk sitting about 15 feet above us in a tree. After waiting there for a few minutes, it decided to swoop away, and it was incredible to watch gliding through the trees.

Mr. Hawk

On the second trail, I did not bring my camera or backpack, but we saw an owl sleeping in a tree at about the same distance from us as the hawk. After Mr. Hawk could not help us with our pressing question, we had to see if Mr. Owl was as smart as everyone thought he was.

Blast! That impatient Mr. Owl! The world may never know....and he owes me a Tootsie Pop.

Mallards

There is also a lake in the center of the park, which we walked around and saw some ducks. This one below has a little bit of a duck-mullet. Business in the front...party in the back.

View of the Lake

After checking out the park pretty thoroughly, we decided to get our new picnic box out and enjoy a picnic. The park had a lot of picnic areas, so we settled down in one, had some lunch, and took a nap. It was the end of a great adventure!

Trying Out Our New Picnic Set

Fixing My Computer

2011-07-18T06:00:00.006-04:00

I am writing this post from a resurrected computer for the first time in over a month. After four years of school, my reliable Dell decided that it had enough. Early in March, I began to notice my computer was acting up a little bit, and after hearing Mom's photo disaster (which turned out to be less severe in the end), I decided to buy an external hard drive to back up everything important.

So, as the computer was on its way out, I was somewhat prepared for its departure. However, after it had died, I did not realize how frustrating it really was to not have it. It is not that I was desperate for a computer - we have Kara's Dell laptop and our iPad - I just was frustrated that I couldn't use mine.

I took my computer to get a free diagnostic done, and the lady at the counter told me that my hard drive had failed. I asked her if they had hard drives there to sell, and she said yes. Then I asked her how much it would be for them to install one. She said it is $60-$80 for the hardware and $200 for the service. Hmmmm.....I might as well buy a new computer for that price. So, I decided to take my very limited computer knowledge and do it myself. I bought a new hard drive (with 2x the space as the original) online for around $50, looked at a few Google articles, and took the plunge.

Before the Operation

When my hard drive arrived in the mail, I was excited to get started. Kara was.....well, not nearly as excited as me but put up with my little hobby. Needless to say, I had computer parts, screws, and CDs everywhere for the adventure.

Out With the Old

In With the New

Since my Windows CDs were upgrades, I had to install XP, the Vista, then Windows 7

In the end, I was successful and learned a lot. Hopefully, my computer will survive for a few more years!

Full-Time Employment

2011-07-14T06:00:00.002-04:00

As of June 20th, I became a full-time employee! After the whirlwind of graduating, getting married, honeymooning, and setting up house in a new state, I began my first job at Hill-Rom. And no, this is not the casket company. Hill-Rom manufactures and sells mostly hospital beds.

On my first day, this lavender rose and a cute little sign welcomed me to the Finance staff and to my cube. During the first week of work, I spent a lot of time on the phone with IT trying to set up and gain access to all the databases I'll need. I also spent a lot of time talking to HR because no one (including myself) knows who I am. Because I just got married, they set up my email address with my new married name. But for paychecks and benefits, I had to use my maiden name (because I still ain't got it changed). Needless to say, everyone was confused!

The second week, I did a lot of watching and replicating. I am taking over the responsibilities of last year's new hire. I would watch her run reports, take pretty-darn detailed notes, and then go back to my computer to try to end with the same numbers as she did.

The third week, I went through a lot of meetings with marketing people of the products that I work with. So these meetings were a lot of fun because I actually got to see the products in action and even try a couple out.

And this week, I'm finally starting to get into a routine...well at least Monday was routine-ish. I'm definitely on a steep learning curve, but it's all brand new and exciting (and best of all -- not school. Sorry Kyler).

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-12T06:00:00.001-04:00

Don't get me wrong, I loved our wedding day! But just two weeks after ours, and the recent memory of everything that went into that big day, it was so wonderful to sit back and enjoy someone else's.

A very late Congratulations to Ryan and Mikka!

Newport on the Levee

2011-06-29T17:00:00.002-04:00

After a great first week of work, Kara and I decided that we should go check out the city together since we hadn't really had time to since moving in. We walked around the city for a while, just checking everything out. The town was pretty busy since there was a Red's game in town, and we followed the crowd. Of course, I was wearing a bright red IU t-shirt so it looked like I fit right in. After we got next to the Ballpark, I told Kara we should cross the river.

Kentucky on Left, Ohio on Right

Cincinnati Cityscape

Newport on the Levee

Newport on the Levee was essentially a ton of shops, restaurants, a huge movie theater, and a big patio for music and events. We had a pretty good time, and will definitely be headed back there some other time(s) this summer when we need to get out.

Live Music

Crossing over the river on foot was a lot of fun. There were a few barges, some recreational boats, and some cool steamboats.

Steamboat

Kara and I actually saw a newly-married couple get aboard a similar steamboat and take-off for the reception party during sunset. That was probably a lot of fun.

And of course, we had to top the evening off with an old school snow-cone. My flavors of choice have always been a strange combination: french vanilla + cotton candy. Kara favors the flavors of cotton candy + grape. Between you and me, I think mine is less strange.

What a Cutie!

Our New Apartment

2011-06-26T17:51:00.001-04:00

I guess my whole "I just got married and am starting a new job and I will be extremely busy" excuse isn't going to fly anymore, so I thought I should write a post about our new place. We are living in Harrison, OH, which is right on the Indiana/Ohio state line. The location is absolutely perfect, as it takes both Kara and I right at 30 minutes front door to work desk each morning.

Disclaimer: This is Kara for a second. I was in the midst of cleaning while Kyler was taking these pictures. No we do not keep the Windex on the bathroom counter all the time, and yes those streaky carpets are perfectly swept now. That's all from me.

Above is our living area, which we really have a lot of room in. "Our" only complaint is that the kitchen table is barely big enough for the both of us, but we can survive at least until we move back to Indiana in August (2 months...we should start planning already).

Here is our kitchen. It was a strange, but awesome, feeling coming home from work the first week and seeing Kara in the kitchen with supper already made for me. Now that we are both working, we have been trading cooking responsibilities back and forth. I hope my chicken fettucini alfredo/steak/spaghetti/frozen pizza mix will keep Kara happy for at least the summer! Her cooking has been awesome!

The bathroom is nice and spacious as well.

The bedroom with the random ~~purposeless~~ decorative pillow.

And last, but not least, is our extra bedroom that we have converted into a storage room. Basically, anything that we brought but didn't unpack + wedding gifts we haven't used yet are in here. We are only unpacking things in there on an as-needed basis, since it doesn't make a whole lot of since to unpack everything when we might not even use it in the next 60 days.

The Harrison/Batesville/Cincinnati experience is going great so far. Hopefully we can post about our first adventures soon.

[Almost] Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-22T12:00:00.003-04:00

Because I did find some more blogworthy material to share with you about our honeymoon...

This is me jumping up and down to get the seismograph? to record the trembling.

Honeymoon Outtakes

2011-06-21T12:00:00.004-04:00

Waiting in the airport to leave Indy.

Driving from the airport to our resort on Maui.

After carrying our luggage to our room, our bellhop took our picture in front of the balcony on our first night on Maui.

Scenery as we drove to different snorkeling places.

Big man dancing.

Fire juggler (I doubt that's his professional title.)

View from our balcony:

A painting of "the lighting of the torches" that takes place just outside our resort every night. When the guy has lit all the torches along the rocks, he dives into the ocean.

Surfer Dudes
Cows? In Hawaii? I felt right at home.

Pretty blue water

A bouquet, Hawaiian style. And in a 5-gallon bucket.

Kyler repeatedly telling me to get out the camera and take a picture of this cross before we drive past it. I was going as fast as I could...

Waterfall from the airplane:

The missing toilet picture from a previous post. Classy, I know.

Being the wonderful student I am, I thought that being over 4000 feet in the air meant that we were a mile high in the air. Not only was that incorrect, I was told not to say repeatedly that now we can join the Mile High Club. Apparently that phrase isn't used literally to mean that you're a mile high in the air...I'll let you Google that yourself.

And unless I find more blogworthy photos or remember a blogworthy story from our trip, this probably concludes the Honeymoon series.

Honeymoon Day 5

2011-06-20T12:00:00.002-04:00

On Friday, our big day had arrived! We were spending the day at Volcanoes National Park! Although our cabin-owner Barry had given us a ton of suggestions of what to see, we decided to stop by the visitor center to get the scoop on the volcano's current conditions. Unfortunately there was no lava flow that we could see. If I understood correctly, there was a lava flow, but it was making its way to the ocean through lava tubes underground. Bummer. Regardless, there were still many other sites and views we wanted to take in, so we headed out into the park.

First, we headed towards the overlook of Halema'uma'u Crater. Inside the crater was where the top of a cone had collapsed. So way deep down in there, there was some lava brewing. [Does lava brew?]

This crater was deep down in a canyon, the Kilauea Caldera. We're standing on the ledge of the caldera looking down into it that holds the crater. And all along the ledge of the caldera was Wahinekapu or steam vents. Below is a picture of steam coming from the side of the caldera.

The park had about fifty different climates. Hot. Cold. Rainy. Dry. Humid. Windy. Foggy. Clear. Seriously, each time we got out of the car, we had no idea what to expect. So as the pictures progress, you'll see we shed layers of clothes.

Just past the caldera was another open view of the crater/brewing-lava-hole and the Jagger Museum. The museum was named after the guy who came up with volcanology, and it housed a lot of information about volcanoes, lava, and seismic activity.

Kyler was really into reading every bit of information in the museum. I, being the more visual learner in the group, was drawn towards the more interactive sections of the museum. Below is a seismic meter reader [not the technical name].

It reads any movement in the earth, usually earthquakes, that could lead to a volcanic eruption around these parts. See that little blue blurb on the line to the farthest right above? That was me jumping, but once Kyler saw what I was doing, he thought he should come over and put me to shame.

Well done, my love. You are better than me.

Then we were back in the car to travel to the other side of the park.

Onto Chain of Craters Road. We took a turn to go to the Hilina Pali Overlook. Even though we had no idea what was at the end, we thought we'd try it out. After nine miles of twisting and turning, this is what we found:

...a sign. Okay, back to Chain of Craters Road. Our helpful guide at the visitor center told us to take the hike up to the overlook to check out the Pu'u Huluhulu Cinder Cone and Mauna Ulu Shield. Yeah, I'll have to study those names for another hour or so before I can say them out loud.

First, we saw this fissure in the gound.

Then we hiked up, up, up, and then a really steep up to reach the top of a mount. The view was incredible even though the photo doesn't do it justice. In the photo below, we're very high up even though we look like we're standing on the ground.

After that long walk, we decided to travel to the end of Chain of Craters Road where the lava actually crossed the road. Along the way, we saw this sign.

Does that really say what I think it says?

What exactly are they mowing!?

A quick stop at another over look. Freezing cold. We ran to the end of the viewing deck, snapped a photo, and ran back to the car.

Just a couple miles down the same road, we stopped at another overlook. This time it was a bit rainy, but the temperature was probably ten degrees higher. Much better!

Then we got to the end of the road. We were standing right on the edge of the rock, where the lava had hit the ocean.

We walked down to where the lava had crossed the road. Where do we go from here?

Good thing Kyler had already put a ring on it because with that outfit, I was definitely turning heads...just kidding. Kyler made fun of me all day once I changed out of my jeans. I had brought shorts to change into, but it never crossed my mind that I only had high socks. Oh well.

Kyler reluctantly taking a picture with me in my stylish attire. [Not that he has any room to talk...wearing black and blue?]

Kyler voyaged out beyond the beaten path to grab these awesome photos.

The sea arch.

This was our view on the drive back up the road. The dark brown streaks are the most recent lava flows (maybe 2007?).

Then we left the park to eat lunch. It was yummy, and the lady gave us free refills on our Pepsi. Score! And when we came back in, we hit up the sites we had saved for last. The Thurston Lava Tube and the Kilauea Iki Crater hike. Because in this area of the park it was very damp, we saved it for last because we knew we'd be soaked after walking through a cave and across a rainy lava lake.

Here I am going into the first cave (just a bit chilly):

And inside the ~~cave~~ lave tube:

That lava tube was nice and well-lit through its entirety. The next lava tube, we had to break out the flashlights. I saw a sign on the gate that told its distance, and told Kyler it was only 344 feet. After walking and walking and walking and then walking back out, Kyler saw on the gate that it said 344 meters. Woops.

It was very damp inside that cave. Good thing I look good in yellow :)

Then we headed over to the old lava lake. The sign at the entrance said it was a four-mile round trip. Immediately on the trail, we made a steep descent. Then we got to the bottom of the lava lake. At one time, this huge expanse of "lake" was filled with lava...hence the name.

Entering the lava lake:

There were no signs pointing which way we should go, but someone had ever-so-nicely stacked rocks to mark the roundabout path we should take. Sometimes the rock stacks were very clear, but when you're hiking through a land of a gazillion rocks, sometimes we just had to guess. And when we got to a point where we didn't see any rocks, we had to turn around and look for different piles of rocks. Very technical directions, I know.

Eventually, we made our way back out and back up the mountain. And we could see other people walking where we'd just been. Here is a photo from our view at the top, completely zoomed out, and you can see those teeny tiny little people down there to get an idea of how much climbing we did.

Then we left to eat ~~a horrible~~ supper at Kiawe Kitchen. We'd heard they had a great lunch...guess we should've heeded the advice and gone for lunch, not supper. But we were so excited because after we ate and it turned dark, we were going to go back to the park to see the glow of the lava. Our friend at the visitor center said since they'd had some activity in March, the lava was really putting on a show and "the view was spectacular!" So back we went. Rainy. Freezing cold. A hazy orange glow. Kyler tried to take photos but the reflection of the light on the rain drops prohibited any good ones and we ran back to the car.
And that was our final night in Hawaii.

Honeymoon Day 4

2011-06-17T12:00:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday, we were greeted by our wonderful cabin-owner. We spent probably the first hour of our time at the cabin listening to him tell of all the things we should see. Um, we were going to need an early start if we were going to fit everything in
So on Thursday, on our first full day on the Big Island, we left early in the morning for site seeing and a day at the beach (and a surprise ending).

First stop: black sand beach [Hawaii's state bird is the Nene Goose. Maybe because it's such a funny name, the whole trip Kyler and I called every goose-resembling bird a Nene. We really thought these were the real thing though...until we saw a real picture of one and realized these were just ducks. Bummer]

There's the black sand though!

And whaddya know, a sea turtle taking a nap. We could see at least two others swimming in the shallow water just off the beach so we stuck around for a little while. No such luck of them coming onto shore as well. But this 'ol guy and the real black sand made the trip totally worth it.

And on our way out, I spotted our neighbor's car. To me, that car is the epitome of Hawaiians' vehicles!

Our next stop: green sand beach. According to our cabin-owner, once the lava hit the ocean, there was a chemical reaction with all sorts of explosions that left the beach with green sand. I pictured a beach exactly like the black sand beach but with emerald green sand. I couldn't wait! And after winding down to the southernmost tip in the U.S. we found a cliff...and trails leading to the green sand beach.

Here is me perched on said cliff.

Blowhole

We walked and walked and walked and finally found what we assumed to be the green sand beach.

On the way back, we missed the trail that would take us back to our car. Yeah...neither one of us were very happy about that mistake.

Until we stumbled upon this scene. No that is not our car [ours is still about 2 miles away], but doesn't this look like a car commercial?

Well, once we did get back to our car, we headed off to the beach! We wound through a community near Kona...
[we l.o.v.e.d. this sign]

...to the beach. Oh wait. Did I say beach? We definitely made it to the coast, but there was no beach. Just huge rocks.

Off to beach number two: Magic Sands Beach. I really have no idea why, but we have no pictures of this beach. I don't think its sands were magical, but Kyler did go into the ocean for a little bit. The water was really rough, and he even got yelled at by the life guard for entering too close to the rocks.

After some lunch at BIG: Big Island Grille, we were off to beach number three: Hapuna Beach!

Success! Until we tried to lay down and got a facefull of sand. Man that beach was windy!

So after absorbing a ton of sand, we moved up the beach a bit...to the grass.

Much better. No more sand blowing in my ears. I can still see the beach and ocean. And the sun! Oh the glorious sun!

After we'd had enough beaching/grassing it, we decided to head home. At this point, we were directly on the other side of the island of our cabin. Our whole day of adventures had taken us about 3ish hours away from home. So Kyler whipped out his iPhone and saw that the quickest route home was through the middle of the island, between the two mountains that cover the island. Oh, and this is the road that our cabin-owner said that most rental car companies advised against, but he said we should be just fine. So with the sun setting, Kyler said that's the route we were going to take. Needless to say, we were both a bit nervous. So we filled up on gas, bought some snacks and drinks, and were on our way.

At first, we were just surrounded by the gorgeous scenery we had become accustomed to, all the while heading climbing the foot of mountains.

Then we hit some fog. Ok, a lot of fog. Ok, that's not fog. We're in the clouds!

It got much foggier/cloudier after this, but I decided to put the camera down and help Kyler navigate.

I had asked the guy at the gas station about taking this specific road home. He said we should be fine as long as it was daylight. Oh, good thing it was right about sundown and the clouds were blocking what little light was left...

Eventually we made it home. We only had to spend half of the two-and-a-half-hour drive going down a mountain, pitch-black outside, and the road being reconstructed (i.e. we were driving on a one lane gravel road lined by cones). After we made it back to our side of the island, we laughed about the whole experience and picked up a pizza from Kiawe Kitchen on our way home. Another eventful day in Hawaii!

Honeymoon Day 3

2011-06-16T12:00:00.002-04:00

This was our view early Wednesday morning.

We were both so excited to go spend the rest of our honeymoon on the Big Island. I'd say our biggest disappointment of the day was that we had to leave so early that we didn't have a chance to eat at the amazing breakfast buffet at the resort. But alas, more adventures await!

On all of our plane rides, I sat in the window seat...and probably slept 90% of the rides. On this short ride, though, Kyler insisted that he sit by the window so he could take in the view. Fine by me. I was still a little queasy from all the winding roads the day before. So all of these photos are by him.

Above the clouds!

Once we got to Hilo, we had some time to kill before we could check into our cabin. We followed some signs to Rainbow Falls.

What a beauty...both the guy and the waterfall :)

While we were standing at this railing, a little girl tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a little flower. In true Hawaiian tradition, I tucked it behind my left ear. "Left means you're married. Right means you're available. Middle means you're confused." - Barry, our luau host.

After a little looksie, we almost left, but I spotted a trail leading up towards the falls. Following a short little trail, we were at the top of the falls!

Leave it to Kyler to not be satisfied with just seeing where the water tumbled over the edge. He wanted to see the water actually falling over the edge. Be careful!

After he had made his way out there and back, I told him to go out again and take the camera. And then I decided that since I'd seen him make the journey twice with ease that I could join him. We ~~unsuccessfully~~ tried to get a picture of the two of us with the falls in the background (while standing on the edge of a cliff!).

View from the top:

Then it was finally time for us to head to our cabin. On the Big Island, the main attraction is Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We had big plans to spend at least a day in the park so our cabin was just outside its entrance.

Right before the sidewalk, there was a sign that welcomed us saying, "Aloha Kara and Kyle!" Close enough.

When you first walk in, you see kitchen area to the left.

To the right of the entry way was a little sitting area.

As you can see in the background, the bedroom was right off the living room.

And because the tour wouldn't be complete without mention of the lou, here it is in all it's glory. [And, Kyler insists that the toilet seat was up because of the recent cleaning, not because he had been in there first.]

And, at last, the backyard.

I was so excited to be at our new place on the Big Island and couldn't wait to go explore. Kyler on the other hand finally let his extreme case of jet lag take over and took a four hour nap. We had made plans to go out Kileau Lodge for dinner, and by the time I had showered and gotten completely ready, he was in a deeeeeeep sleep. I tried to wake up him four times to no avail. I was almost sure we were going to miss our reservations until he woke up at the lost possible minute that would allow us to keep our reservations. I guess that was payback for practically sleeping through supper the night before.

At dinner, I asked Kyler if we could have some beach time. I really loved all the site seeing that we got to do on Maui, but 1) I needed a chance to relax a little because I didn't get a four hour nap and 2) I didn't think a Hawaii vacation was complete without some time on the beach. So tomorrow, check back for our beach adventures!

P.S. Happy 3rd Birthday Karterman!

Honeymoon Day 2

2011-06-15T12:00:00.000-04:00

Tuesday morning we woke up ~~bright and~~ early again. We were having a little trouble adjusting to the time change, so most mornings we were up and at 'em by 5:00 or so. We would take little walks on the beach or around the resort until breakfast was available at 6:30. Even though Tuesday we had decided to get an early start since we were going to be driving the Road to Hana, the resort's breakfast was TOTALLY worth the wait.

This display is only Round 1 of Kyler's breakfast.

And we usually had quite the audience of little birds while we ate. The servers didn't even seem to notice them, but as soon as you would so much as look away from your food, they would attack. So, Kyler and I would go get our food in shifts so that the birds wouldn't carry anything off.

Then off to Hana we went. We had a summary of all the stops with little descriptions and ratings. We decided to hit up all the stops despite the ratings. Our first stop went down this winding road, only a two-out-of-three star ratings.

Only two out of three stars!? Psssh! We gave this one a ten. This is Twin Falls. We had to hike a little ways back down the road shown above. Then we had to walk through this little creek, past a wading pool, and THEN there were the Twin Falls. It was probably our favorite spot on all of Maui.

Our first stop was so amazing, we couldn't wait to get to our next stop. Unfortunately, it was just a maze of exotic plants. It was very jungley, but we kept thinking that we must've missed whatever it was we were supposed to see. Oh well, on to our next stop

Banana tree anyone?

On our next stop, Kyler found these little vines to swing from. And he also found this strange little sign. Apparently I was being too loud. Imagine...

More exotic plants. This tree is called a Rainbow Euchalyptus (I think). The brown bark would peel, revealing the new green bark. When the green dried out, it would start turning brown and would eventually fall off, starting the whole new process again.

The next stop led us to a pretty hairy stretch of land. We had to cross a 3-foot stretch that was about a foot wide. There was a wall of small trees to the left and a (probably thousand foot) cliff to our right. To say that I was a little nervous was an understatement, but we had this beauty waiting for us on the other side.

A few miles before, a guy tried to get us to pay $15 each to see this waterfall and the view from the opening scene of Jurassic Park. Kyler said that if he wanted to see the opening scene from Jurassic Park, he'd watch the beginning of Jurassic Park, but he was NOT paying $15 to see it. Okay then!

I snapped this photo at one of our stops. I don't think you can really tell from the photo, but the road follows the coastline to a "T". Luckily on the Road to Hana, we had plenty of stops to distract my carsick-prone self. It was on the Road from Hana that I started feeling woozy.

Then we caught lunch in the car. That morning Kyler insisted he get a Lunchable because when he was in school, he was only able to have Lunchables on field trip days, and this was indeed a field trip.

Here is what we believe are taro fields. We don't know what taros are, and we're not positive these are their fields, but that's our story and we're sticking to it.

And this I am positive is my husband in front of the questionable taro fields.

Roadside waterfall. Kyler and I laughed quite a bit at our attire. No one could ever tell where we were from. I was sporting a shirt from Salem, Massachussetts, while Kyler had on a rugby shirt from New Zealand.

I have no idea what these waterfalls were called, but if it were up to me, I'd call them the Triplet Waterfalls. Clever, eh?

A picture of me for good measure?

And...another waterfall! This one was cool too. We had another little hike to get back there. Once there though, I was satisfied with just taking pictures. Kyler, on the other hand, wanted to climb up to the top. Go ahead honey!

Don't worry, Kyler did not jump off of there. As we were walking away, though, we heard some pretty loud splashes.

A beautiful little peninsula that was about a gazillion-mile-downhill drive that Kyler almost gave up on. Persistence pays off!

Then we walked over to a little bitty cliff and let our feet hang over. I looked down and realized that there were some crabs jumping from rock to rock, and Kyler insisted he go down there to catch some.

No such luck.

More scenic views. This is at the Black Sand Beach, which I am considering renaming the Black Rock Beach.

This was as fine as the sand actually got. Later this week, I'll show you the real Black Sand Beach.

Then we followed the signs to a cave.

On our way back to the airport on Wednesday, our bus driver told us that his family was from this beach. He said his grandfather owned this land, and his ancestors and family were buried in the cemetary we walked past. When his grandfather died, he left his final wishes to his son. He wanted his son to make the land into a park, which now it's a national park. And he wanted his son to have many kids so that they could enjoy the park. Our bus driver was 9 of 12. I'd say his father made his grandfather proud.

Horrible pictures of the cave. We're standing on the rock on the bottom, looking down into the water. The water is so clear, though, that it just looks like more rock. Then the rock at the top is the cliff overhang.

After that park, we had just one more site on the map. Wouldn't you know, another waterfall!

Like I said before, we loved the Road to Hana. It was a great way to spend the day. The only unfortunate part was the drive back from Hana to our resort. I tried to sleep the whole way so I wouldn't barf on my driver. Romantic, I know.

After Tuesday, we had covered all of Maui that had roads besides a tiny strip on the northernmost tip of the island. There was also a streth on the southernmost tip, but our map indicated that there was "no real path" that connected the two main roads.

That night, we returned to our part of the island around 9ish. I was exhausted and practically slept-ate my way through supper in Lahaina. I can't really remember what I even ate, and I don't really remember the trip from the restaurant to the resort either. What can I say, I'm the best date ever.

Honeymoon Day 1

2011-06-14T14:03:00.001-04:00

We're back! The last couple of weeks have definitely been a whirlwind! Ever since Kyler's returned from Boston, we've been on the go. We have so many stories and pictures to share with you all, but I want to document the honeymoon before I forget all the details...because there are a TON!

We spent our honeymoon island hopping from Maui to the Big Island, and I think there is only a small stretch of a few miles on each that we didn't cover.

We stayed that the Sheraton Resort on Kaanapali Beach. The view from our room looked out over the resort's pool and then to the beach!

On Monday, we woke up bright and early and wanting to go snorkeling. After a most delicious breakfast at the resort, we went over to the beach kiosk to get us some snorkeling gear. The guy there told us that it was not going to be a good day for snorkeling, and they probably weren't even going to rent out the gear. Um, bummer. So we decided to go for a ride up the island to check out the scenery.

We rented this Dodge Avenger, which Kyler loved. We drove up the coast, past Honolua Bay, taking in the scenery.

Then we wound through the jungle that led to Honolua Bay, and there we found a ton of snorkelers. Apparently you could only see about 10-20 feet out, which was fine by us. But the poeple who are more frequent snorkelers would've been disappointed because you can usually see out over 100 feet. So off we were to get some snorkel gear from a Dive and Surf Shop. We went to the beginners' Kahekili Beach (aka the Old Airport beach), moved to Kapalua Beach, and finally made it back to Honolua Bay.

Honolua Bay: Our favorite snorkeling spot

The trickiest part to snorkeling for me is actually getting in the water. These rocks were covered in algea, making it super slick especially while wearing flippers. And immediately into the water is coral, very unforgiving rock. My knee is just now healing from the scrapes I got from this coral.

After an afternoon of snorkeling, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for the luau that night.

Waiting in line to enter the luau.

We sat with the male-equivalent of Terry Gray. He LOVED to take photos...of everyone and everything. His love for photography was where the similarities stopped though. He was a bit obnoxious. Apparently he and his wife along with another couple came to Hawaii for diving, and he had some pretty awesome photos to share, but geesh he must've been a fisherman in a previous life because his stories were pretty extravagant!

Luau at the Sheraton

The luau was held on the front lawn of the resort at which we were staying. I thought this was the case with all the people there, but the other couple we sat with had driven miles to attend. P.S. I wish we could've gotten a picture of that couple. Kyler swears the man looked like Jim Behrendt.

Before the dinner was served, there were Hawaiian games we could play.

For this one, you're supposed to throw the spear and land it between two little posts. It was described as a mix between croquet and bowling. I didn't really understand why he used bowling as a similar game until he explained to Kyler the real way to throw it. Apparently you're not supposed to launch it through the air, but you're supposed to throw it underhand, scooting it along the ground.

Leave it to Kyler to do it right on his first try. The Hawaiian guys were pretty impressed, as was his new bride.

On our way back into the dinner area, we couldn't pass up a photo op with this dude.

Kyler trying to impersonate the statue.

Then it was dinnertime, and we got to see first hand where our pork was prepared. Yum! Although the smell up close was a little less than desirable.

Ahh supper.

As we ate dinner, the sun was beginning to set. Every few minutes our photographer at the table would jump up to take another round of pictures. Kyler was able to grab a couple as well, in between bites. We definitely FEASTED that night.

After the sun set, the luau's main festivities began. THE DANCING!

Funny guys dancing.
[See that guy in the foreground, in the red shirt, right in front of the bald guy? He's the photographer from out table. He left his wife sitting with us and sat right there in front, the whole time snapping pictures.]

Pretty ladies dancing.

Our host for the night: Barry. One of my favorite things he said from the night was that he was so grateful he was born in Hawaii because he couldn't afford to vacation there. Oh, it was so funny!

Then Barry recognized all those celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings. AND he invited all the new grooms to come up on the stage to do a little dance.

Kyler was great at following the directions. He was really moving those hips!
[See the guy on the far left? He and his new wife were another couple at our table, and they were from Spain!]

Shortly thereafter, all the dancing was wrapped up and out came the grand finale! The flamethrower/juggler/dancer came out and really ended the show with a bang! Here's a little video of the ~~flaming~~ guy with flaming poles.

And that wrapped up Day 1 of our honeymoon. We have SO much more to share with you just as soon as I get around to going through all of these pictures!

P.S. Happy Anniversary to Emily and Zach!

DJDJ - Mansions

2011-05-27T17:00:00.001-04:00

The highlight of the Newport trip was definitely the mansions along the cliff walk. It was literally mansion after mansion just yards away from the sidewalk.

Awesome

It Got Really Foggy, So I Headed Back But Took a Picture of a Few More in the Distance

Now There is an Awesome Gazebo

Unfortunately, Some Lived by the Frostian "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors" Mantra

By the way, this will be the last DJDJ for a while. I mean, I am getting married in eight days...yes eight days. Thanks for following along and hopefully the next set of posts will be of our wedding and Hawaii!

DJDJ - Cliff Walk

2011-05-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

As I was picking out a postcard in the harbor for my beautiful fiancee, I saw one with a large mansion on it. Initially, this is one of the things that drove me to Newport. I had heard that it was full of mansions and old money (and tourists). I noticed that the postcard showed the harbor on one side of the island and the mansion on the other. Since I only had a few hours of daylight left, I went back to my car and set off for the next adventure...something called the Cliff Walk.

I Knew It Was Going To Be Great When I Saw This Sight - "FREE"

Essentially, the Cliff Walk is a many-miles-long paved walk right on the Rhode Island coastline. The ocean is on one side, and the other side is just full of mansion after mansion. I probably walked 4 miles just exploring the Cliff Walk, and it may have been the coolest tourist thing I have done since I was down here. The only downside is that I did it alone, but hey - I am getting married soon and don't have to worry about that anymore.

The Path...Goes For Miles

The Forty Steps - Only Descend With Your Lover....Thus, I Stayed On Shore

Beautiful Coastline

View of The Walk from the Road I Parked On

Your Memories are Now Mine?

DJDJ - Newport Harbor

2011-05-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

...Yeah, I know I left you hanging from the last post. For those I didn't (very few), I was just talking about how I was in Rhode Island with nothing to do for the next 6-ish hours. I had been wanting to go to Newport, RI the past few weekends because I had heard from my supervisor at work that it was a really cool place to see. It was only about an hour away, so I figured it was as good as anything. I didn't really know what to expect, but I knew that Newport had been the yachting capital of the world and was famous for its mansions.

First, I went to the harbor to see what it was like. Although I don't have a ton of pictures of the town, it was very Beaufort, NC-ish in that it had a ton of old shoppes (including a fudge shop) in a short downtown stretch. A lot of the historic roads were also brick, which was cool.

Harbor Area - Lots of Yachts and Sailboats

Another Old Church, Of Course

Strange Fish Statue

DJDJ - Diamond Hill, Rhode Island

2011-05-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

That's right...Rhode Island, affectionately known as the Ocean State (for lack of a better, more worthwhile claim). This past Saturday, all of my classmates were headed either to see friends or to a Red Sox game, leaving me by myself for the afternoon. So, I decided to head out to northern Rhode Island to a park called Diamond Hill. I think the "Diamond" is really quartz, and there are a ton of large stones at the top of the green hill. I hiked up the hill in about 20-30 minutes. The view would have been amazing, but for the most part trees were blocking all lines of sight. I did manage to get a few decent shots, though.

Pretty Awesome Green Sight

I Saw a Lot of Branches Hiding the View

Oh, and even though the sight was cool to see, the mosquitoes were AWFUL. The park was right next to a swampish lake, which was teeming with bugs. I was wearing just a t-shirt and shorts, and let's just say I was a popular target. After a few minutes on the pinnacle, I had experienced enough, and jogged down the hill, swatting the whole time. I thought the park trip would eat up the afternoon, but I was back down to my car in less than 45 minutes, wondering what to do next.....

DJDJ - My Apartment

2011-05-23T17:00:00.005-04:00

I just realized that I haven't even posted about where I am living/what in the world I am doing up here. Pretty much all of my posts have been about Saturday adventures, so I am trying to spend at least a few days of this week explaining the other days of the week....

We were put up in some fully-furnished apartments that are literally less than 1/2 mile from work, so we are able to walk to work every day.

Danny and I Live on the Fourth Floor

Every Sunday Night is Steak Night!

Dining/Living Room...Danny in His Usual Position on Facebook, Listening to Womanly Music

Pretty Nice Furniture

Closet....No Reason I Put This In There Except for Kara to See...Look at That Tidiness

Comfortable Beds. Yes....The Blue Pillow Survives

Bathrooms are Nice Too

Digital JPEG Du Jour - Fisk Memorial United Methodist Church

2011-05-22T17:00:00.002-04:00

When i came to Natick, I knew that I needed to find a place to go to church every week. I had heard from one of my classmates that he had encountered an "interesting" (in a bad way) service near Boston, so I was a little leary. I decided to go with either a Baptist or Methodist church because I trusted their belief systems. I searched online and found Fisk Memorial United Methodist Church. After inviting everyone to join me, Blain wanted to come also, so we went to church together the first Sunday. I really liked it there and went back two other times. The other Sunday, I went to an evening service at another church (at which there were only six other people - one of whom was the preacher). But that's a story for another time. Okay...the JPEGs.

Kara Knows I Am Morally Opposed to Steeple-less Churches....
This Qualifies as a Steeple in My Book

This church has about 60-70 people who attend weekly, but the sanctury can seat well over 250. After only a few weeks, I knew the preacher pretty well. On my last Sunday, he greeted me and I told him it was the last Sunday here. Then, during the announcement time he said "this is the last week for our friends from Indiana" and passed me the mic to say something. Haha. He did this the first week we were there, and we had to say our names. Needless to say, it was uncomfortable the first time. I somewhat expected it the last week, so I was a little better prepared. I told everyone how great it was that we could go anywhere in the country, meet God-fearing people and worship with him. I may never see any of those people again, but for a few weeks they were my Church family.