October - Tricks and Treats

We went to see Brian Regan in Lexington...we were supposed to go with Ben's parents but Carl was sick so we had to change plans the day of.  Luckily my parents could go at the last minute.  Brian Regan is my favorite comedian...if you haven't seen him, youtube him - he's HILARIOUS!  And clean.  It's hard to even re-tell his jokes because most of it is just the way he tells them, his body language and facial expressions.  We were so close that we got to see all of that up close and personal :)

October is also Halloween and the beginning of all the seasonal decorating madness in my house.  Surprisingly, I didn't get very much Halloween stuff out this year, but I'm sure there will be a Christmas explosion soon enough.  But back to Halloween...my sister had a craft night at her house, where I put Dollar Store thumb tacks into spray-painted Dollar Store foam pumpkins to make these (ignore the candle stands they are sitting on for the pic!):

A friend of ours made this adorable thing:

I wanted to take her home instead of mine!!  So cute.  Maybe next year...

At work, we had our usual chili cook-off and dessert contest.  And as usual, I entered both.  AND as usual, I didn't win.  I got second one time in dessert and third one time in chili, but the last 2 years the white chili makers have been winning out.  Maybe I need to convert!  My dessert this year was mummy cookies, but I didn't even get a picture :(  I did get pictures of the pumpkin-decorating contest that I somehow ended up in charge of and bought all the supplies for (again, Dollar Store - only $19!).  Each team of 5 had 8 minutes to decorate their pumpkin.  I must say, these were so creative, I was impressed with how they turned out!!  Here are a few of my favorites:

 The first one there, the pumpkin massacre, was the winner!

September - More Celebrations!

I threw a baby "sprinkle" in September for my cousin Amanda as she was expecting her third son.  I got the idea from my friend Angele who also had a "sprinkle" for her third son and it was such a fun afternoon that I decided I needed to recreate it for Amanda.  We just had a lunch with her friends and everyone gave her diapers to handle all the "sprinkles" she would soon be encountering with the new baby. :)  It turned out really cute!

The next weekend, Ben and I went to Baltimore to celebrate the 4 year anniversary of when his brother Carl and family launched Mosaic Christian Church.  They had a celebratory dinner that was SO nice and touching to hear what the church has done in the lives of those involved over the years.  We are so glad we went!

At the end of the month, we celebrated my birthday pretty much over and over again!  First, Ben took me on that Friday to a fancy dinner at Seviche and then to see Wicked!  And the way he gave me the gift was awesome - I came home to find this rolled up on the counter and tied with a ribbon:

The food was amazing and so was the musical - 2nd row!!  

The next day, we drove to E-town for a back-to-back showing of the Back to the Future movies on the big screen!  I'm a total nerd and love those movies to death, so it was a BLAST!  Did I mention I dressed up as Marty McFly?

On Sunday, the day of, we had lunch with Ben's mom Deena (his dad was out of town) at Mitchell's, one of my new favorites.  Crab cake and poached eggs on an english muffin...seriously delish!

At work the next day, one of my co-workers made me this sooooooooo yummy spoon cake!

And finally, my parents had us over for a joint birthday celebration for me and my sister Jenn (her birthday is 2 weeks before mine).  Fabulous food (a Thanksgiving-esque feast!) and decor, as always!

Siblings!

August - Family Time

In August, we got together for our 5th (I think?) annual Kuhl beach trip.  We meet up with Ben's parents and siblings and families in Ft. Walton for a week of fun and family time!  We LOVE this trip and look forward to it every year - and hopefully will continue to do so for years to come!  We always say how lucky we are to have a family that we love to be with and make the time to be with even though all Ben's siblings live in different states.  We are so blessed!

The end of August ended with a different sort of family reunion.  Karen Sorota, our brother-in-law Noah's mother, passed away from cancer.  While it's hard to say goodbye, we are so thankful that Karen knew the Lord and that she is now united with him in heaven!  I've been going to Karen monthly for years for chiropractic care.  I will always remember her cheery voice saying "Hey gal!" when I walked through the door; her continual concern for me and always telling me to slow down; always wanting to know about my life and Ben and how things were going; her excitement in telling me the latest about her son Nathan (one of Ben's close friends) and his experience as a cop; her joy in hearing that we'd had another game night with her daughter and son-in-law, Hannah and Dan (more close friends) and her delight in seeing their chiropractic business doing well; her joy in her son Noah's music (always playing his latest scores in the office) and in her daughter-in-law Ellie's (Ben's sister) hostess abilities from their latest visit with them in LA ("she is just the cutest thing!"); her kind and caring heart and sincere love and concern for all her patients.

Only picture I have with her - this is from Christmas day 2009 - we went with her and Phil and Nathan to see Sherlock Holmes (so excited to hear Noah's music!) in theaters and then to Waffle House afterward.

'Til we meet again!

July - Nationals, Celebrations, and Outside Remodel

Shew, just looking at that post title sounds exhausting!  Let's start with Bible Bowl Nationals.  They were in Orlando this year at Marriott World Center Resort - talk about NICE!  The pools there were unbelievable...

...and that wasn't even the biggest one.  We flew with all 30 or so of us down to Florida, get to the Marriott, go to check in, and the clerk says "You reservations aren't until tomorrow."  *gasp*  There was a third party we went through when booking through Nationals and they had the dates of Nationals a day off!  Luckily, the rooms were already available...otherwise we might have been finding lounge chairs by the pool to sleep on!!

The kids put in so much work that year and they were disappointed not to come home with any trophies (don't get me started on all the crazy/unfair things that happened that contributed to this!), but we still had a blast!  Went for a celebration dinner the last night to Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney, which was great because the kids got to walk around Downtown Disney and also go to Disney Quest arcade (although I wouldn't recommend Disney Quest - overpriced for what you get because it's super outdated, there are better gaming systems at home now - Disney fail!).

We made it home in one piece and closed out a successful Bible Bowl year with a banquet.



July is always full of fun because it's Ben's birthday and also our anniversary.  My parents had us over for Ben's birthday:

Ben's parents took us out to eat at Vincenzo's downtown to celebrate:

Emma and Shanon (Ben's sis and bro-in-law) were in town and went to dinner too, but I don't have a pic of them. :(

We celebrated our 7-year anniversary...hard to believe how time flies!  The funny thing is, I can't even remember what we did to celebrate, and neither can Ben, and I can't seem to find any pictures...must have been really memorable, haha.

For a joint birthday/anniversary present, I got Ben hockey tickets to a Nashville Predators game and planned a weekend in Nashville to go with it - in November.  Looking forward to that - I'll be sure to post after that trip.

Finally, yet another project on the house - but this time we paid someone to do it!  The wood trim on the outside of our house was rotting in places, so we had it covered in vinyl, and also had the shutters and door repainted.  I never liked the bluish/periwinkle color that was there before:

After: 

 Ahhh...much better :)

June - Dinner and a Remodel

Only things of note I can remember about June: a fabulous dinner and a basement remodel!

We had Carl and Deena over for a joint Father's Day/belated Mother's Day dinner.  It was so much fun!  I wanted to use all the cooking-related fun stuff they've gotten me over the last couple years, so I pulled out all the stops.  You can see my menu here, which I had printed up and on every plate.

Got out the china...

...used the heat lamp they gave me to warm my homemade rosemary bread, made recipes out of the Ina Garten cookbook they gave me for most of the recipes, and used the individual crocks they gave me for the chocolate melting cake dessert.

Wish I could go back to that moment and eat that whole meal right about now!!  Of course, all these pictures of the food and none of Carl and Deena.  Ugh.  I'll work on my food picture obsession and try to get more of people! :)

So Ben took it upon himself to remodel our basement.  After a few conversations with my dad, some guidance from my brother Wes, and many youtube videos, Ben was ready to frame the wall:


...cover up the concrete with water-resistant drywall:
...and even tile!

Ben painted the ceiling and walls himself (I'm no help!), we had the carpet laid, and the end result?

LOVE!  What used to be a cold, uncomfortable basement with basically no use has turned into a whole new living area and a new office for Ben.  We are down there constantly and love it!!!  Ben did such a great job!  Only things left are to put a white cabinet door over the electrical box, have my dad build a white column around that pole by the stairs, and do some decorating! :)

Oh, one last thing - hit my 5 year anniversary at work!  Woah!