Who's crazy idea was this?

Hey friends!  I hope you all have had a wonderful week and weekend! Even though it was hot and humid, the weather at my house (between the showers) was gorgeous!  The skies were so blue, I could swear it was Fall already. A girl can hope, right?

Thanks to all of you who wished Marty and I a happy 25th wedding anniversary last week.  Even though we would have loved to take an exotic vacation or had a big party, right now other things are more important, like work, family, school, and home.  We may eventually celebrate big, but for now, low key was just fine with us. Marty did surprise me at work with these, however:

Gorgeous!  Marty chose a more practical gift....a garden tiller. We are so romantic!  HAHA!

Not only was it our anniversary last week, the short summer is rapidly coming to an end.  We wanted to do some fun things with Jameson before he heads off to school next week.  On Thursday, we decided to start finish-up school clothes/supply shopping, and I let him pick where he wanted to eat.  Since his daddy wasn't with us (he's allergic to seafood), he chose Red Lobster.  Let me tell you, this boy can EAT some crab legs!

This is a pound-and-a-half!

Five minutes later:

Fully cracked and ready to eat.  The waiter was impressed with my cracking skills.  HAHA!

Then ten minutes later:

He was so full, he didn't eat anything the rest of the day!

During our trip, I also picked up a little something for myself:

I'm telling you, I am obsessed with this movie!  This will forever be known as "the Summer of Pitch Perfect".

Then Friday, we decided to surprise Jameson with a quick trip to Legoland in Atlanta:

Most things were a little young for him, but he said he had a great time.

After Legoland, my boss, who is also one of my best friends, took us out to eat at this fantastic Brazilian steakhouse in Buckhead:

They have an incredible salad bar and then the waiters walk around with skewers of assorted meats. When you flip the card to green, that means you want more meat. When you have enough, you flip the card to red.  Everything was amazing!

The best part of the meal for me was dessert...of course:

Oh yeah, did I mention my birthday was also this weekend?  Who's crazy idea was it to get married a few days before my birthday? Obviously I didn't think that through very well.

Saturday we didn't leave the house, but we had a full day Sunday.  First we had church, then off to my favorite restaurant Fuji, where I had a green river roll:

Then, at the last minute, we decided to see Elysium.

Photo from HERE

It was pretty gory in a few parts, but it was an excellent movie. 

On the way home, we saw a beautiful rainbow...so we stopped to take pictures!

What? Doesn't everybody do that?

Once we made it home, Marty and Jameson gave me the very best gift of all...

They cleaned up the kitchen for me!

I've been trying to decrease the amount of sugar I eat, but I couldn't go to bed before trying a small slice of my birthday cake:

Doesn't it look fabulous?

Even though it's been an extremely busy week, we've had a blast spending a ton of time together!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Out with the old, in with the new!

Hey friends!

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! The weather here was BEAUTIFUL! Blue skies, warm sunshine and cool breezes. I'm generally not a Spring fan, but this weekend's weather was PERFECT! Unfortunately, it looks like we are jumping right into Summer this week, so the perfect weather was short-lived.

As I mentioned last week, Marty had a birthday. He generally HATES to celebrate his birthday, but we always try to do something a little special. We went out to eat to his favorite restaurant the Saturday before.

 And we went to his second favorite restaurant (and my favorite) the night of his actual birthday.

 

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" than some delicious food, right?  LOL

I wanted to get him something he wanted, but he never tells me anything. So, I drug him to our local home improvement store and refused to leave until he picked something out. We came home with this:

Yes, that's a grill....in our living room. We bought it unassembled, so Marty put it together in the comfort of the living room.  LOL  Even though it looked great, using a propane grill is prohibited indoors, so he finally took the plunge and dragged it outside.

Doesn't it look like a monster compared to the old grill?

He's chosen to leave it under the porch, with a cover, to protect it better.

I asked Marty if he wanted me to see if any of our friends wanted his old grill, but then he told me that he didn't think that would be a good idea. He then proceeds to tell me all the Maguyver-ing he's had to do to the grill to keep it functioning over the years. It's about 15 years old, so it's had a good, long life...full of many hot dogs, hamburgers, and fabulous rib-eyes. Whenever I've had a hankering for something grilled, I've told Marty and he's made it happen. I had NO idea what he had to do to make the old grill work!

First of all, the ignition switch stopped working long ago.  Even after multiple repairs, it's never really worked right. He always has to use a lighter to start it up. Then he has to scrape, scrape, scrape the grates where they are almost rusted through.  Next, the covers that are over the flames that helps to defuse them, have been gone a long time. So Marty manufactured new ones out of aluminum foil and wire coat hangers.  But the final straw was the bottom of the grill...or the actual LACK of a bottom.  He said the bottom has been completely rusted out for years, so he made a "new" one out of aluminum foil.

Who knew you could make edible (and quite delicious) food using a propane tank, rusted grates, coat hangers, and a ton of aluminum foil?

So I say good riddance to the old grill!  Out with the old, and in with the new!