Island Fun

 Our new kitchen island! We got the base from a school here that is renovating. This cabinet was in their science lab. Since we have only 3 very tiny drawers in our kitchen that didn't even hold our silverware, this is exactly what we needed!

 We found the butcher block at habitat for humanity store for a GREAT deal!

 Rob put wainscoting on the back

The top is so shiny!

A Wicked Night Out

Yay...an official date night! Rob and I went out to dinner and a show, but no ordinary show. A Wicked show! We bought tickets to see "Wicked" and loved it SOOO much! Rob and I had heard all the music, but didn't know the storyline exactly. At intermission I found myself asking Rob what was going to happen and how the show was going to end. I think we were both pleasantly surprised! 

Of course at the restaurant we were seated next to a comic book figure. Right up Rob's alley! So of course we had to take a picture.

Unfortunately you couldn't take any pictures inside the theater, but we totally enjoyed the production and would go again in a heartbeat! It was Wicked Awesome!!!

Highlights from Trunk or Treat

This year the young women were in charge of putting on the ward's Trunk or Treat. Little did I know what a big undertaking this would turn out to be. We had the usual chili cookoff and lots of different game booths (cake walk, ring toss, bean bag toss, etc).

But this year we also decided to do a spook alley, which turned out pretty great, but was quite a time sucker. I think it was probably worth it though. The kids seemed to really like it. Unfortunately my camera died after only taking a couple of pictures so I didn't even get pictures of anything but part of the spook alley. At least you'll get an idea. Of course what you're seeing is all in the light.  Sooo much scarier in the dark, but for that...you just had to be there.

This picture was great for our zombie funeral room!

Cecilia crawled out from under the table to frighten the kids as they walked past the coffin.

 Rob was so excited to dress up as a zombie. He had the cheese grater out doing a number on his clothes. He made some chocolate blood and did his own makeup and well as all the kids in the spook alley.  He looks pretty good, don't you think?!

 

The Young Men also helped out in the Spook Alley. We had the evil doctor working on his live experiment. 

Too bad I didn't capture our witch showing the kids the gross science lab body parts (grapes for eyeballs, spaghetti for intestines, crumbled chips for scabs, etc). Also I didn't get the graveyard room complete with creepy graveyard keeper, and lots of scary surprises popping out from every corner. Shoot.

 I wasn't in the spook alley, but was the gatekeeper who showed the kids where to enter and then showed some right back out once they realized it was scarier than they thought! Can you guess my costume?

Happy Halloween everyone!

And the winner is...

So these are the glasses that won out in the end. What do you think?

They're purple!!

Isn't she pretty?!?

There's a beautiful thing in the South called Tax-free weekend! You can buy clothes, computers and school supplies and not be charged tax! How cool is that? So, in honor of tax-free weekend and with the help of a couple of our friends that work at Dell that gave us a 17% discount, we brought home this beauty. An All-in-1, touchscreen, wireless keyboard and mouse computer. We named her Zazzles. I think it fits, don't you?!?

There's another reason we bought a new computer at this particular time too, but I don't want to jinx anything so I'll save it for another post if things work out like they're supposed to!

What I'm missing right now is this...

Rob and I went to Idaho for a visit over the 4th of July holiday and I tell ya...even though I love our home here in Tennessee, there are sure a few things about Idaho that I really miss. Like this...and this...

and being close to this...

I miss being able to do stuff like this...

without having to do this...


because right now I am especially wishing that it was this...

which is totally unlike what we have here, which is this...

But most of all I miss this...

and most especially this...

Chicago, Chicago...that toddlin' town

Rob and I (okay, mostly it was my idea and Rob quickly got on board) thought it would be fun to do something kind of big this year to celebrate 2 different occasions. First, our 5 year anniversary and second... ah-hem, ummm, cough, mumble.....turning 30. That's right...I'm not in my 20s anymore *sniff*. I didn't want my 30th birthday to be unmemorable...to me it's a big deal! So in honor of these great events we spent a long weekend in the windy city. Of course the day before we got there was warm and sunny, but the minute we showed up only gray clouds and 60 degree temperatures. That did not get us down however, because we totally lived it up! I can't remember the last time I walked so much....and my pedometer proved it.


We scoured Michigan Avenue a few times, went to the top of Willis (Sears) Tower, toured the Field Museum, saw The Bean, went on a dinner cruise, strolled down Navy Pier, laughed our heads off at ComedySportz, drove around Rob's old neighborhood and ate way too much food.

Of course anywhere you go on vacation, you have to try the local food. Apparently Chicago is well-known for a lot of different kinds of food. I tried Giordano's deep dish pizza for the first time (AMAZING!) and well as a Chicago hot dog (not a fan of the pickle on a hot dog I must say. And here I am with my first try of an Italian Beef Sandwich---Yum!

So many pictures so hopefully you get the idea here!! Now to start planning what we're going to do when Rob turns 30!!

A New Outlook on Life

I'm trying to find a new outlook on life and need your help. Which one of these glasses or what shape/type of glasses look best on me? Trying to find a new pair and not sure what to go with.

Pardon some of the yellow shots.....we were trying to figure out the photo settings on Rob's phone.

#1 Thick black frame

#2 These ones remind me of my high school English teacher's glasses. Could be a good look for me :)

#3 Frame on top, none on bottom.

#4 A thin purple colored frame

#5 The thinish black frame

#6 Thick sided dark frames

And just for fun....please don't vote for this one!

Alabama Cleanup

This weekend Rob and I went to Sipsey, Alabama, a town where the recent tornadoes hit hard. The town is only 3 1/2 miles wide, but half of that is now destroyed. The only words that we could think of to describe the things we saw was 'unbelievable'.

We were split into groups and sent to different 'homes' to help out where we could. Most of what we did was cut up fallen trees and drag branches and debris to the side of the roads where it could be picked up later. We couldn't help clean out houses or do anything with fallen structures until FEMA has a chance to come and assess the damage. But just cleaning up fallen trees and scattered debris alone kept hundreds of people busy all day and into the next.

The man that lived in this house was outside running a chainsaw when the storm hit. He heard a noise louder than the chainsaw, turned around, saw the tornado and ran inside. He squished himself between 2 mattresses, which is probably what saved his life as you can see the house fell in all around him.

Before we began working...

After

There were so many LDS church members that came, along with members of other churches and just good citizens in general that wanted to come and lend a hand.

This house was completely blown off it's foundation and strewn against the side of the hill.

I loved what was written on the side of this trailer!!

Another house with only the foundation left to show that something once stood there.

This house was picked up and dropped on it's side.

The war zone was made evident by the trees that were ripped to shreds and left in haphazard, scattered piles.

This poor family has just pieces of their house left, but obviously nothing salvageable. How do you recover from this? How do people just start over with nothing?

These are the signs on the house. So sad.

And the chimney stands alone.

The remains of a vacuum.

A sofa chair.

Part of our crew surveying this enormous tree that was completely uprooted.

The roof on this house was completely blown away and most of it was found wrapped around trees in their yard. You can see half of their chimney was also found in the yard.

The front porch roof came tumbling down.

Trees, trees, everywhere. I guess you don't realize how many trees are around you until most of them are scattered about on your lawn and sticking out of your house.

What's left of a house. Hard to believe that this can be all that's left of your belongings after the storms come. I kept wondering where the people were that lived in this house. Hopefully somewhere else, safe.