Forever Young: July 2008

My Birthday!

Last Saturday, I celebrated my 35th birthday! It was nice that it fell on a Saturday this year so we had the whole day to celebrate! Here are some pictures from my special day.

The kids are giving me birthday cards that they made for me. Homemade are always the best kind!

Todd got me a new sporty watch. I've been wearing his when I exercise, so he decided I'd look better in a purple one than in his boy watch!

I am all ready to go!

We dropped the kids off at the babysitter's house and drove to Bardstown, Ky for a ride on My Old Kentucky Dinner Train.

This is us on the train! The food was very yummy. Todd chose the Prime Rib sandwich, and I had the chicken. We both really liked their special salad dressing called The Golden Spike.

This is me enjoying the train ride!

This is the trestle we crossed.

Another shot of the trestle.

When we got home I had a birthday package on my doorstep. Todd had ordered Wii Fit for my birthday!

We spent most of the evening trying it out!

Then we were all off for some birthday cake.

We all enjoyed the cake at the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen! A perfect ending for a perfect day!

And the winner is....

Brick Dust! Thanks for the input from everyone. The majority vote was definitely for red, and it was our favorite as well (sorry Kara). We are happy with how the color turned out! We may also paint the shutters at some point, but we haven't decided for sure. Also, we did paint our patio furniture green this weekend. So, that is 2 things marked off the to-do list! Yeah!

Input Anyone???

We recently had some work done to the outside of our home, which included a new door. The door was installed primed, but unpainted. So, we are hoping to get it painted this weekend. Now, the big question is...what color? We took a picture of the house and played around with the door color to get an idea of what each color would look like. Todd wants me to mention that he spent 10 minutes on these pictures and not 2 hours. It doesn't look great, but at least you can get a general idea of what each color will look like. We'd love to hear feedback from you!!

Quite Red

Jalapeno

Dark Meadow

Cavalry

Brick Dust

Black Belt Boy!

When Brandon attended karate class yesterday, he received his personalized black belt. He was so excited to finally get it! On one end of the belt it has his name and on the other end it says 1st Black. As promised, here are the pictures! He's trying to look mean (which thankfully he doesn't do very well).

In case you are wondering about all the spots on his clothes....it was raining when we came in from karate so he was a bit wet when I took the pictures!

House for Sale!

We took a trip to Maryville, Tennessee to visit with Todd's family July 2-5. This meant that we missed our pastor's annual July 4th cookout/pig roast/pool party. We have attended this party every year since we have known them, so it was sad to miss it. Our pastor's family does have a history of playing practical jokes on people. One year another couple missed the party and came home to find the head of the pig in their refrigerator! So, this year it was our turn to be gotten. We came home to find our house for sale for only $50,000 and to see that there had been an "open house" on July 4th! We also had 6 messages on our answering machine from "prospective buyers" who had fallen in love with our house and wanted to make an offer!

Thankfully our real phone number was not posted anywhere and all the "prospective buyers" sounded strangely like our friends at church. You know, once you've been gotten, you have to return the favor.....so church members at State Street beware!!

We returned home on Saturday evening to find the surprise. When we got to church on Sunday morning, we didn't mention it to anyone. Then at the beginning of Todd's Sunday School class he said, "We'd like to share with you all some good news and some bad news. The good news is that God does answer prayer. The bad news is that Heather and I have been praying about whether we should stay here in New Albany or move back to Tennessee. We've had an answer from God this weekend as our house has sold! God gave us a clear "sign" in our front yard!" Several people were shocked just for a moment before they realized he was talking about the practical joke. One guy who wasn't at the party and didn't know what was going on turned to me and asked if Todd was serious. Then everyone laughed and recounted the event for us including our neighbor who came over to reprimand them for vandalizing our yard! Go neighbor!

Chuck E. Cheese!

Since none of my family was able to come up for Brandon's birthday party, we met the following weekend at Chuck E. Cheese in Bowling Green, Kentucky for another party!