Pumpkins

Halloween is this weekend. If you know me, you know how much I LOVE Halloween. I carve/decorate pumpkins every year. There is one that I like to make that is my favorite. It looks like Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's easy to make and doesn't seem to go bad as quickly as a traditional carved pumpkin.

Charles decided to get in on the action of carving a traditional pumpkin. We used one of those pattern books and picked one of the easiest ones to do. I didn't want to do a difficult one since Halloween was this weekend. 

Here are our two pumpkins:

The traditional carved pumpkin doesn't look so hot during the day, but I think its cute at night.

Hope every one has a fun and safe Halloween!

Weekend in the Fort

Last weekend we headed to Fort Smith to visit family and friends and to go to the Arkansas/Ole Miss game. The game was really fun, but definitely miserable at times. The weather did not want to cooperate and the game got delayed twice because of lightening. We were all forced out of the stands and crammed into the inside concession area. The rain poured down and flooded where we were all hiding. The water got above my ankles, very nasty!

After the game that lasted about 7 hours, we rushed back to Fort Smith and cleaned up  so we could head to dinner with my girls and their significant others. We had dinner at Fuji and then went to a bar to watch the rest of the very painful OU game.

It was such a fun weekend and I can't wait to see them all again soon!

Handy Men

When we bought our new house, there wasn't too much we wanted to change on the inside. But there was one thing that for sure had to go and that was the vanity in the master bathroom. It was way too  modern for our old house and claw foot tub. It had joysticks for the water to come out. I mean seriously!

Charles and I went back and forth over trying to install the new vanity ourselves or paying Lowe's for installation. When they quoted us $340 for installation, plus another $60 to test for lead based paint, we decided it was worth trying on our own. Luckily, Charles' best man from our wedding is pretty handy and did a lot of work to his house. We called Josh and asked how difficult it would be and he said exactly what I wanted him too. "It's not hard, I'll come over and help you do it." Thank goodness for Josh.

There were definitely a few bumps in the road. Removing the current sink/vanity went smoothly. Unfortunately when they went and unboxed the cabinet for the new one, it had a huge crack down the side. So the boys loaded it into the car and went to exchange it. They went to the Lowe's they were told had one in stock only to find out they didn't, so they had to go to another one. Then they had to go to a third to buy some parts. The installation was going well until they realized some of the parts from the old sink were not compatible to the new sink. This prompted a Wal-Mart run since it was after 10:30pm. Finally, close to 11:30 the new sink was in place. Overall the whole process took about 6 hours (including a dinner break).

I'm not sure Charles feels like it was worth it, but I certainly do. We learned something new, got to spend some time with Josh, and saved about $400. I think it was totally a win!

New York City Part 2

Saturday was a packed day for us as well.

We woke up around nine and hoped on the subway to Penn station and bought tickets on the LIRR to take the train to Hicksville. Why Hicksville? There is an Ikea in Hicksville and I found a couch I want for the new house and Charles insisted he be able to sit on it before I order it. I know this is a reasonable request...but still. Anyway, my friend Kelli picked us up at the train station in Hicksville and the three of us headed to Ikea. We found the couch and we all sat on it. It was a unanimous decision. The couch is cute and comfy. Yay me!

We headed out of Ikea and I swear it took us thirty minutes to find the exit. That place is so big. After finding our way out, we got in the car and headed back into Manhattan. We had a show to catch!



We went to see Promises, Promises. It starred Sean Hayes (Jack from Will and Grace) and Kristin Chenoweth (she originated Glinda in Wicked). I just love Kristin Chenoweth! She is originally from Oklahoma and is just so adorable! We had heard she was out of town. I would have been so upset if that were true. Luckily she was there. It was really cute and lots of fun. Charles even said he was "pleasantly surprised". That is pretty high praise coming from him!

After the show we walked back to the hotel and made a stop for pizza at Ray's. They had an eggplant parmigiana pizza that I wish I had tried, but I had already placed my order before I saw it. Such a bummer.

We got back to the hotel and took a very quick nap, then we got ready for the big wedding. Mike and Debbie had a beautiful wedding at the Boathouse in Central Park. Unfortunately, we didn't take that many pictures.

Lobster tail from the raw bar during cocktail hour. I swear Charles ate 5 of these.

The menu for dinner...Wow!

The centerpiece at fabulous table #17

The first dance

The cake

Close up of the sugar flowers

Charles and Will

First course, appetizer, scallop ceviche

Will, Charles, and Mike

Mike and Debbie (Dress #2)

Cutting the cake

Debbie and Me

One of the desserts

The other dessert (there was still cake too!)

Table #17, the WashU group

Me and Charles at the end of the night



We had such a good time at Mike and Debbie's wedding. The band was AMAZING and we danced all night and closed the reception down! We didn't even notice when the bride and groom left =)

We love going to visit our friends in NYC, but I think a trip that totals less than 48 hours is entirely too short. We definitely need to stay longer next time.

Handy Man

Owning a home is turning my husband into a handy man. Prior to this, if something needed to be assembled or a nail needed to be hammered, I was in charge. I am excited to say that things are changing.

Example #1:

This is our new mailbox. We didn't have one before, so drilling into brick was necessary for this!

Example #2:

Our heat and air controls were not programmable, so here he is installing new ones.

I know there will be more wonderful examples of his handiness to come, so stay tuned!

New York City Part 1

Last weekend we headed to NYC for Mike and Debbie's wedding.

It did not start off so great. We actually overslept and missed our flight. In our defense, it was a 5:45 am flight and we made it to the airport by 5:40 am, but there was no way to get through security in time. We got bumped to the 6:40 am flight and were still in NYC by 2pm, so it all worked out. It seems only right we would do this, since Mike and Debbie overslept when they were heading to Arkansas for our wedding.

Once we arrived, we took a cab to the upper east side where our hotel was. We tried to check in and were told they had oversold and we were being bumped to another hotel that was on the upper west side. So we hop in another cab and head over to the Hotel Empire.

It was in a really good location. Better than the original hotel actually. We were right across from Lincoln center and a stop on the redline for the subway.

First thing we did was head down to Century 21 to do some shopping. Sad to say, but we actually spent several hours there. We then headed back uptown to shower and get ready for the evening. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at Gray's Papaya so Charles good have a pre dinner snack.

We then met college friend Kelli and new friends (for Charles) Rob and Kevin for dinner at a little Thai place. I thought it was really tasty, but that may be the bottle of wine talking. =) I have no pictures from dinner...I'm a bad blogger.
We then headed to a bar down in Chelsea for Mike and Debbie's pre-wedding party.

Charles and Mike

Charles being silly and getting chalk all over his jacket

Mike, me, Charles

That ended around midnight, so we then headed back uptown to meet Kelli, Rob, and Kevin at another place that I can't remember the name of.

Charles peeking through the window

Me and Kelli

Charles and Rob....peeking though the window was obviously a fun activity

I feel like we got a lot done in less than half a day in New York.

Busy Week

A lot has happened for our little family in the last week.

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Sunday, September 26th by going out for sushi and eating some wedding cake (recreated by a local bakery in Edmond).

Dark chocolate cake with mint buttercream frosting...yum!

We also closed on our first home together on Tuesday, September 28th. 

It has been a busy week and there are lots of details to share!