Our Life the Past 5 Weeks--In 40 Pictures or Less!

Man, life has been hectic around our house!  I can't wait until the holidays get here and things slow down some...yes, I did mean to imply that the holidays will be slower than our schedule as of late!

Our weekdays have been crazy and our weekends full...but we did manage to do a few fun and/or interesting things during the past 5 weeks!  Here are the highlights, in 40 pictures or less...

On September 25, we celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary!  We went to church, spent the afternoon at home, went out to supper and caught a movie...

I did something I never thought I would do--at least not within the first year of marriage--I bought my husband a self-serving gift...wireless headphones for the TV in our bedroom. He can stay up as late as he wants watching TV (if he even stays awake...) and I can sleep without being disturbed :-)

The other half of my present to Justin was tickets to Bill Cosby's performance here at Kansas State University on October 9.  Bill is not the "young" Heathcliff Huxtable that he once was, but he's still just as funny!  Ironically enough, most of his "stand-up" (if you can call it that, considering he sat down the whole time!) was about married life...

Historically, Justin isn't a creative gift giver.  In fact, he's more the type to give you money and let you pick out the "gift" yourself.  Not that I'm complaining but it's not always the most romantic/considerate way to go about gift giving.  So when he surprised me with a band to go with my wedding ring I was quite shocked!

Here is my engagement ring that then became the wedding ring:

And this is what it looks like with the band...we had to have the band custom-made but it turned out gorgeous and looks like they were meant to be together!  For a girl who didn't want any diamonds to begin with, I have to admit I was pleased with Justin's taste ;-)

The following weekend, we removed a tree from my late grandparents' farm house.  Justin was in charge of climbing the tree and doing all the cutting; I was responsible for running the porter wrap, lowering the limbs down to the ground and dragging the brush away.  I kinda knew what I was doing...but donning a bright yellow Hard Hat definitely convinced everyone else that I was a pro at tree work ;-)  The only part that made me nervous was at the very end.  Justin was getting ready to "notch & drop" the main section of the tree down to the ground...and I had to hold onto a rope tied around the tree.  If I didn't hold on just right, we ran the risk of the tree falling onto the garage or even worse, onto Justin.  Talk about nerve-wracking!

Then the weekend after that, we dog-sat my sister's wiener dogs!  It was a hoot!  They had a hard time accepting that their parents weren't coming back right away...

Poor Bennie spent most of his time laying in his crate...

While Rudy just made himself comfortable...

But after a while, they were finally okay letting Mitzi chase them around and attempt to stir them up!

Then last weekend, we decorated the outside of our house for Halloween!  It had already been decorated for Fall....

But it just wasn't scary enough for Halloween...So we wrapped our front porch in a giant cobweb complete with spiders (that really move!) crawling in it; our flowerbed was transformed into a graveyard and; a rising skeleton can be found awaiting visitors by the front steps.  Then to top it all off, Mom found my motion-activated motorized "swaying" broom that cackles like a witch--it will be going right by the front door come All Hallows Eve!  If you can't tell, I get just a tad excited for Halloween...

And FINALLY, this past weekend, we celebrated the marriage of our friends, Ryan and Joanne, in Wichita!  Ryan and Justin met when Ryan started working for Asplundh in Manhattan--the two of them are like two peas in a pod!  Ryan has since been transferred to a different city but there's always fun to be had when Justin and Ryan meet up. Or, as I like to tease the guys, near-death experiences to be had...that story might require its own post!  But back to the story--we wish Ryan & Joanne a lifetime of happiness together and we had fun catching up with everyone.

It's crazy to think that next week will already be November...and our weekends in November are already full of church activities, meetings, a baby shower and our annual trip to Louisiana.  I know the month will fly by and to me, that's a good thing.  Because come December, my new niece or nephew will finally be here!  I just hope my brother and his wife are as ready for the baby to be here as I am :-)