You know you're grown up when you become Costco members.

Happy Monday!

This weekend was a perfect mix of productive and relaxing.

On Saturday, I got my hair and eyebrows done, we explored Whole Foods, then had lunch with friends at Souper Jenny. We also got our first carwashes since moving (yes, we have lived here for 8 months), and paid an interesting visit to Cactus Carwash in Buckhead.

Buckhead is one of the wealthier areas of the city, and lets just say there were literally NO cars like ours (a 97' Camry and an 02' Sentra) in the vicinity. I can honestly tell you that I've never seen so many BMWs, Mercedes, Lexuses (Lexi?) or Audis as we saw this weekend, and I did feel a little embarrassed when the carwash guys popped my trunk only to find the mini-Christmas tree and snowman ladder I've had in there for over a month now:]

 These sunflowers from Whole Foods were so pretty. I resisted buying them, but not by much.

My lunch at Souper Jenny. I had My Dad's Turkey Chili, and the California Love sandwich (avocado, goat cheese, sprouts, tomato and spinach on a french baguette). 

 Thomas had the Creamy Cauliflower soup and a turkey sandwich with swiss and arugula. So good.

Sunday was a day of giftcard spending! We went to Bed Bath & Beyond (I spend my giftcard on a new coffee mug), Ulta (I spent my giftcard on the polish below), and Costco.

Becoming Costco members made us feel like such grownups. I've been stubborn about getting a membership, even dragging Addy to order contacts with me so that I could get a discount. This weekend we broke down, and decided to just join already.

We did set some strict spending boundaries (based on the time we used our Sam's membership to buy a lifetime supply of Toaster Strudel), and on our first trip we bought only some essentials. Also, hotdogs...

Left: Alpine Snow (a pure white used for nail design) and Did It On Em' (a bright green from the Nicki Minaj collection). 

A 'restaurant' after my own heart--two Costco dogs and two drinks for $3.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and that you start off the week well!

Kinsey

Na Na Na Na Na Na - You Say It's Your Birthday!

Na Na Na Na Na Na - It's My Birthday Too!

But seriously, today is my birthday. For those of you who don't know (probably no one because I talk about it all the time), I'm turning 22!

21 was an amazing year. I planned a wedding, graduated college, got married, went on an amazing honeymoon, moved halfway across the country, got a new job, and (I'm sure) much more. 22 will hopefully be much less hectic, but just as memorable.

Although this is out of order from my Valentine's Day post, Thomas and I celebrated my birthday last weekend with a date to Fogo de Chao, courtesy of a giftcard from my parents.

Sidenote: My last box of contacts ran out a couple of weeks ago, and I've been intending to order more while crossing my fingers that I didn't lose/destroy the final pair. Of course, on Friday night, I inadvertently closed my left lens in the lid of my contact case, ripping it in half. Contact lens drama: if anyone was bound to have it, 'twould be me. So, I've been wearing my glasses--and stumbling around blindly--since.

Here I am before the big date.

We didn't make reservations, so the wait was kind of lengthy. We didn't mind though--we'll never complain about getting to spend some extra time talking and people watching. Here's Thomas in front of the wine room.

I know this isn't the first thing people think of in reference to Fogo, but their salad bar is amazing. Here's Thomas' plate.

And here's mine. The chicken salad was soooo good.

I promise you I ate more meat that night than I have ever before. This is a fraction of what I consumed. I couldn't even get a picture of Thomas' plate, because he was a ravenous beast.

Here I am sippin' my caipirinha.

And here's Thomas in a food coma.

Our waiter was so sweet. I mentioned early on--as I always do--that my birthday was coming up in a week (to my credit, he was checking my ID, so it came up in conversation). Without even being sneakily or obviously asked, he brought me a birthday flan! I'm not a huge fan of flan, but this one was great.

I'm sure I'll have more details after my actual birthday celebration(s), but this is all for now. I know 22 will be great!

-Kinsey

Turkey Puppets and a Tandem Slanket

Happy Sunday!

This weekend we've had lots of fun, starting Friday night. We have a quarterly work social every 3 months (aka quarterly), and this time I chose the venue--Ormsby's.

Ormsby's is famous for their beer selection. They also carry one of my favorite ciders, JK Scrumpy. It is amazing (mostly because it tastes just like apple juice).  

For dinner I went outside my typical 'comfort zone' and tried something I wouldn't normally get--a roast beef sandwich on a hoagie roll with pot roast gravy and horseradish sour cream. I also had a side of onion rings--I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture, but each ring was 4-6 inches in diameter. 

This wasn't my dessert, but I still thought it was pretty--Apple Cobbler.

Then, on Saturday, we did some chores and relaxing throughout the day, and headed up to Roswell (a suburb of Atlanta) in the afternoon. Roswell is unlike a lot of suburbs in that it's actually old and historic--it's not just cookie cutter houses and restaurants.

We went to have dinner with Addy and Glenard, my coworkers and our good friends, starting with a walk around the square.

 I got this cute little zipper ring at an antique store for $3! (I decided to try out one of this season's nail trends--one randomly colored nail on each hand).

One of the stores had lots of kids toys, including these lovely puppets.  

This is one of the historic homes/tour sites in Roswell. It was beautiful. 

This sign was just ridiculous. 

 After perusing the town for a couple of hours, we headed to a local coffee shop. Thomas and I split this 'small' french press--so tasty.

Next, we headed back to Glenard's place for appetizers and dinner. While we waited, Addy and I started the beauty-palooza.

 I did her nails...

 And she rolled my hair.

 Next, it was time for dinner. Lasagne!

And after dinner, Glenard taught us to play Mahjong. I'm not a huge game player, but this game was so fun. We literally stayed til 2:00 a.m. playing, and I even won once:]

I'll wrap up with this awesome picture of Addy and I in a tandem Slanket. Was your Saturday night this cool?

-Kinsey

Chester the Garm-ester

Last week was quite the long and stressful one. I'm so glad it's behind me, and I have to say, 2012 can only get better.

Thomas finished up his internship this Friday, and will now be looking for full-time work. He has been searching, but finding a job in his industry in this economy is tough. Fortunately we have amazing connections, and I know he'll find something soon. He is going to do some freelance work for the studio where he's been interning, and he's super excited to be doing 'real audio guy stuff.'

One exciting development this week was the delivery of my new Garmin Nüvi. I always thought the idea of having a GPS was kind of pointless (I mean, I have an iPhone, duh) but having moved to Atlanta and gotten lost while trying to get on the highway/look at a tiny iPhone screen one too many times, I decided that--for the safety of myself and the city at large--I would much rather have a device that yells directions at me.

So, Chester the Garmin was born. I searched for him over the holiday while Thomas' dad was here (we have the same passion for bargain hunting, but he has more experience) and found a great deal on Amazon. I decided on the Nüvi 1350LMT, which comes with lifetime maps and traffic updates (hence the LMT at the end--that one took me a while to figure out). The 1350LMT model is regularly priced at $209, but I got it for a mere $118! BONUS.

I have to say, even though it's been less than a week, I already know that my favorite feature on this particular model is the lane-assist capability. I think one of the hardest things about driving in an unfamiliar place is figuring out after making a left turn what you'll be doing next, and changing lanes accordingly. With Chester, it's easy! He's like "turn left here, then turn right" and I'm all "Got it. THANKS CHESTER!"

I've used Chester to find my way around all weekend, and I'm proud to say that I haven't gotten lost once! One important thing to mention is that I'm actually using the "Jill" aka female voice to yell directions, but Chester seemed like a fitting name anyway. Here we are on our first ride together:

Here are a few other fun pictures from this week:

Charlotte's typical morning antics. She's a dirty beggar.

A big ol' couch full of girls. Here we are posing before heading out to celebrate Julie's birthday. 

Addy, Julie, and I at the Koo Koo Room in Midtown. [See if you can spot B-Spears in the background.]

The brunch of champions--Thomas and I shared the chili cheese slaw dog at Home Grown and met up with some friends visiting from Lubbock.

I hope that you all have an excellent week and that the new year isn't getting the best of you just yet.

-T, K, J, & C

New Years Eve in Pictures - Part 2

Continuing yesterday's post about New Years Eve Day (which sounds weird but makes sense if you think about it), today I'm going to finish up with pictures from New Years Eve Eve.

After our adventures at Oakland Cemetery, we ventured into Little Five Points to walk the dogs and sit down for coffee. The afternoon was a pretty tiring one, and once we were all back home we busted out out all our Apple products to relax.

After taking a couple of hours to recover from the day's activities, we moved the party over to Mari and Holly's (where there's more than one bathroom). Below is my version of Charleston Cheese.

Other food items included [from left]: poppy seed sandwiches, cinnamon pita chips and strawberry cream cheese, cheese-n-crackers, caramel corn, cookies, chocolate/cinnamon bugles, a bunch of desserts, a cheese platter, 3 onion dip, wasabi peas, cream cheese and jalapeño jelly, and cocktail wieners. We also feasted on pizza pockets like a group of 8th grade boys.

Before midnight struck, we played several games of reverse charades and watched goofy TV shows (i.e. 1980s Fame). Once the peach dropped, we headed outside to watch fireworks and light up some sparklers.

I don't participate in the sparkling myself, so I took pictures instead.

Thomas, however, LOVES a good sparkle.

And I pretended to be holding one for the purpose of this picture.

Andrea did a sparkly routine...

And Tom multi-tasked by drinking champagne while twirling about.

Here's the first 'family photo' from the new year (minus Charlotte since cats hate to party).

After a much needed night's sleep, we headed out to Piedmont Park on New Years Day. We decided to stop at the nearby Hobnob for a snack--we got these amazing fried green tomatoes. They were definitely the best FGTs we've had in Atlanta so far, and aren't they pretty?

After some obligatory eating, we headed to Piedmont for some fresh air. Does this picture look familiar? My family posed in the exact same place last week.

The park was really busy--probably because of the perfect weather--and while at the dog park, we saw several horse drawn carriages winding through the trees. It was pretty magical.

Our New Years was full of family, fun, and celebrating, and we couldn't be happier with 2012 so far. Tomorrow I'll be wrapping up with some assorted pictures from the Mahan visit. Enjoy your work-week!

-Kinsey

2011 Recap

2011 was a great year. We accomplished lots of things, went lots of places, and met lots of people. If I had a bucket list, I would have kicked lots of the things on it as of this year.

Lets recap a bit about what went on, shall we?

The 21st birthday

The engagement photos

The showers

The graduation(s)

The wedding

The move

The tree

The kitty

The job(s)

It was a scary, exciting, adventurous, memorable, out-of-our-comfort zone type of year! And do you want to hear my new years resolution? To spend 2012 napping and recovering.

I hope you all have a safe and fun New Years Eve, and that 2012 finds you happy, healthy, and hopeful.

-T, K, J, & C