Old Man

It's official. I am married to an old man. Eric's birthday was last Tuesday, November 23rd, and he is now a quarter of a century old!!

The good news is, Eric is growing into a mature and sensible adult...

Us in the car about to have some birthday fun!

While driving, I was very impressed by this building. Its lights made a wreath!! So exciting. You'd probably be just as excited if I could actually get a good picture of it.

We hit up our 5th BBQ joint experience that night at Hayward's. For some reason, there were only old people in the restaurant with us. But Eric enjoyed his meal, so that's all that matters.
After dinner we headed to the theater and watched the new Harry Potter movie. We can't wait for the next one!!

I knew I was going to get Eric the Avatar blu-ray, but at the last minute I found a great deal online. I couldn't not have a present for him to open on his birthday, so I made my own cover and put it on one of our DVDs. Eric didn't quite get it because he tried to take the piece of paper off and look inside the DVD box. What to do? What to do? I still love him though.

Because Eric loves his toy helicopter, I thought it was only appropriate that he got a helicopter cake as well. Don't judge my artwork. I was running out of frosting.

We were so tired after the movie that Eric got an extra day of birthday fun.

And because I was waiting until his actual birthday, Eric's mom got him an ottoman to match our couch. We love it!!

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes and gifts. Eric really appreciated them!

Independence

2 weekends ago Eric's parents came to town for a visit! They were going to help us move into our new place, but we have yet to sign the lease...so we just had fun the whole weekend instead. On Sunday we were able to visit the Independence, Missouri church site. It was the first time visiting for all of us except Eric's mom.

This is inside the visitor's center with Book of Mormons (or Books of Mormon? I don't know) in tons of different languages.

The printing press to make copies for everyone.

There was a great art exhibit at the visitor's center. It's not always there so we were pretty lucky to see it. This is Eric's favorite. From this angle, the piece focuses in on Jesus. It's awesome in person!

Back then, the houses weren't too tall.

I thought this was a cute picture moment. Eric and his parents walking on the temple site.

Eric was pointing to Mexico City on the giant map.

The crazy upside down snail shell temple (not ours). And might I add, all three of us were wearing a green shirt and blue coat. Not even planned.

It was a fun little visit to see what it was like during the early stages of the Church.

Super Saturday

Yesterday was Super Saturday. There were tons of crafts to do, but knowing that I'm a perfectionist, I knew I'd only have time for a few. Here's a couple of the finished products (Eric said the other one wasn't "blog worthy").

The FHE board is my favorite!! Unfortunately, I decided to leave the tags blank because I don't know our future kids' names yet.

This is the nativity scene. It's a nice addition to our Christmas decorations!

ZOOdles of Fun!

I started my job last Monday and I think it's pretty dang awesome. I can't wait to get into my real job, but as for now, I'm trying to absorb as much training as I can. It's been a challenge waking up at 6 a.m. every morning, so needless to say, I've been exhausted and am a little behind on the blog.

A couple Saturdays ago Eric and I went to the zoo with Karrie and Austin. Eric's school had a great deal of a $5 admission fee instead of the normal $11.50 per person. It was well worth the cost (the discounted cost)!! I can't remember loving a zoo all that much, but I am now a lover. The 4 of us were so tired after walking around for hours. We were like little kids dragging our feet out of the zoo because we couldn't handle walking any further. Can you say out of shape? Or maybe just the wrong choice of shoes.

FYI, as of last Spring-ish, Eric decided he loves giraffes. We couldn't get an awesome picture with the real thing, so this is his new friend.

He likes to ride hippos, in case you didn't notice.

The craziest thing happened. We went to see the chimps but they were too far away to really see, so we left. All of a sudden we heard the chimps making that monkey noise that they do. We ran to see what was going on, and the chimp on the right was hitting the chimp on the left. We left again thinking it was over, but then we heard all the chimps going crazy. It was so loud like they were dying or something! We booked it back and Eric opened the door just in time for us to see this guy on the right literally pounding on the other one like a punching bag, over and over again. It was an intense fight. Then a baby chimp came to console the one getting hit. So precious! Definite highlight of the day.

I feel sorry for this gorilla. He had no friends in his cage. He was just chilling with his leg crossed, watching the people watch him.

We got to the cheetahs just in time to see them eat. They're the fastest land animals. Did you know that they whip their tail in order to turn while they run? If their tail isn't working properly, then they won't survive in the wild.

Me and Eric!

We hit up the tigers just in time to see them eat too! It was a day of great timing.

Don't mind them. He's just getting his butt cleaned.

I guess Eric doesn't believe in zoom because he was reaching his arm out to take a million pictures of this guy. He almost bit Eric's hand!! It is a pretty cool pic, though.

And yes, we saw the birds just in time for their feeding too! I think this is the first time I've held a bird. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

He probably thought we were going to feed him, but we didn't.

This is Kansas City's main attraction, Nikita. They must have trained her because she kept doing a back flip, swimming in a circle, and repeat.

The zoo is lots of fun! Anyone who visits us next summer just might be coming with us...

cRaFtY

My awesome mother-in-law sent me a package last week with supplies to make a Halloween wreath. She must have been thinking about how much Eric loves candy corn and how much I love crafts because this wreath has the best of both worlds! If you like it, I'd be more than happy to tell you how to make one of your own!

You'd be surprised at how long it takes to glue the candy corn onto the wreath. Luckily, I am still in my last week of freedom before work so I got started right away. After many hours, here is the finished product:

When Eric saw a picture with only the candy corn, he wasn't too impressed. He thought the wreath needed a little something extra to make it complete. We went to the store and found this little bear. I think he is the cutest little thing (his outfit says BOO)!

I'm glad I got to do this project because our Halloween decor is a little meager. We don't have a door hanger yet, so for now our new wreath has a home on our fireplace.

Changes

It's true. I finally got a job. Though, it seems kind of weird to say FINALLY. I had only been looking for a few weeks.

Here's how it went:

1. Monday: I contacted our ward's employment specialist and he told me about a couple jobs at the company he works for.

2. Tuesday: I e-mailed him my resume so he could send it to the right people.

3. Friday (the following week): I interviewed for 3 hours (they like to get all the interviews done in one day).

4. Monday: I got a job offer.

5. Tuesday: I accepted the job offer.

I'm a firm believer in things happening the way they are supposed to happen. I had interviewed at other "crap" jobs and just wanted them for the sake of getting a job. This was the only job that I was actually excited about and thought would be a good fit for me. I know that we are so blessed for having this opportunity. Everything worked out so perfectly, there was no way I could have turned down the job.

Starting this Monday I will officially be working my first "big girl job." I will be working for Cerner--an IT and Healthcare company. Yes, I get an actual salary! And yes, I will be getting benefits!!

For 12 weeks I will be part of a training program. Six of those weeks will be in a classroom setting and the rest will be spent working on a company project. At the end of the training program, I will be placed based on what jobs become available along with my skills and interests. If there isn't a good match at the time, I will be put on another 5 week project and then get placed after that.

I am getting really excited about working again and making something of myself. I've had a little too much of the home these past couple months. I'm a little nervous, but I'll finally be at a job where I can use my brain. THANK GOODNESS!

As for some other changes, I dyed my hair all by myself last week. Eric was a great assistant by cleaning up my splatters :) The good news is, it looks pretty dang good. All for 5 bucks!! Gotta love being on a budget!

And in a couple of weeks Eric and I will be moving! We will be happy to say goodbye to this apartment. We like the space, but not our surroundings. No more neighbor who walks outside our window everyday to puke. No more rap music thudding below our bedroom. No more Mexican kids calling out the name Eric all the time. As much fun as all that is...it's time to move on.

Better After

After our friend, Sara, introduced me to this blog, Eric and I were inspired. We went to the thrift store right away and found a ton of chairs for $5 each. The store was about to close so we made a split second decision and bought this chair:

The chair wasn't very cute when we bought it, but Eric and I saw definite potential. We wanted the makeover to be colorful in order to brighten up our living room. We had always thrown around the idea of buying a purple chair to spice up the room, so we stuck to that initial idea.

After a trip to the fabric and craft store, and a little TLC, this is now what our thrift store chair looks like:

We think it turned out awesome and we are happy with the outcome!!

PuMpKiN sEaSoN

I had been looking forward to October for weeks so Eric and I could do some fun and festive dates! With a little reminder from the parentals (thanks for the Halloween package!!), I decided it was time to carve pumpkins, even if they'll be rotten by the time Halloween comes.

I made sure to take the traditional Walker pumpkin carving picture.

Our pumpkins weren't too gutsy.

Our friends, Karrie and Austin, came over to carve with us. It was great to hang out with people other than Eric (not that I don't love him).

Eric is obsessed with holidays. I love seeing how excited he gets with holiday activities!! He's like a little boy on Christmas morning :)

These are the finished products.

Eric's pumpkin--Mario. He found a picture on the internet and then carved it without any pattern.

My pumpkin. I was very proud of myself because this is the first pumpkin I've ever carved that isn't a face. I may have accidentally cut the whole web out, but it just made it easier to carve in the end! Luckily it fit back on my pumpkin :)

Austin's pumpkin--Lebron James. I have no idea how this pumpkin turned out so great! You probably won't see anyone more focused than Austin was at carving this lol.

Karrie's pumpkin. She started off writing "BOO" and then ran into the same issue I did (the whole thing coming out). Good thing you can't go wrong with the traditional pumpkin face!

Our front door is too lit up so we had to put the pumpkins on our back deck. I love passing by them, even if we are the only ones who can see them!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

KC Royals

On September 27th, Eric and I were able to go to a Kansas City Royals game against the Minnesota Twins. Eric got free tickets from his friend from school. Now I'm no baseball fanatic, but I do know that the Royals aren't a great team. So it came as a shock when they beat the Twins (the number one team in their division) 10-8. The close score made the game pretty bearable to watch for so long!

The baseball stadium was actually really pretty! Anytime there was a good play, water would shoot out of fountains. We even got to witness a Royals player hit his first home run in the Major Leagues!!

It was fun to go out and do something outside of the house. Slowly but surely we are hitting all the sites in Kansas.