all the pieces are falling into place

we got a few Best Buy giftcards for the wedding and my birthday. since all the new fall shows have officially started, and kevin is obsessed with his xbox, we decided it was a good idea to put those giftcards to good use. now we have 2 LG flatscreens! it's so nice getting new things together...all the little pieces of making up our home together are falling into place. now, instead of bickering about who gets to use the tv, it's over who gets to use the couch vs. the bed. last night, kevin won. i really can't lay in bed and watch tv--i just fall asleep. i'm sure it's a sign of getting old. after all, i am TWENTY FIVE!!

now that kevin was granted an extension on his work contract until february, we are breathing a little easier. our lease is up december 31, so we are deciding if we'd like to sign another or move. a house sounds really nice right now, but may come with too many responsibilities this early in the game. perhaps a nice condo or townhome would be nice. a yard is what we'll be looking for. monster is going stir-crazy in the apartment all the time. and yes, she's our baby so her opinion matters :)

i started my new job on october 7th. it's been a smooth transition. training is going well--i seem to be picking it up quickly. now, halloween, thanksgiving and christmas are all around the corner. plus, lindsi's baby shower. i love the holiday season. we can't wait to get our own christmas tree. we actually purchased our customized stockings the other day. figured we should get them early so the ones we wanted wouldn't be sold out. kevin's has a moose and mine has a penguin. they're too cute. now we just need to get a customized "Garvey Family Christmas" tree skirt. perhaps my mother is interested in making one for us? {hint, hint} i mean, since she is a fabulous seamstress, i bet she could whip one up in no time! :)

another item we are going to purchase this year is ornament storage bins. we keep seeing them in the skymall magazine on airplanes. they are fantastic! holding up to 48 ornaments in individual plastic compartments. it's my organizational dream. since kevin and i started dating (and realized we wanted to get married), we started buying christmas ornaments that were either too cute to pass up, customized with our names, and/or on super sale. we have a nice little collection going. i'm sure we'll get some great hand-me-down ornaments from our parents also...

i just realized...i CAN'T believe this post is about christmas. kevin is going to kill me. there's a rule--no christmas talk, music or decorations until the day after thanksgiving. so with that said, i guess this post is over :)

vegas birthday bliss

this past weekend kevin's parents flew kevin and i down to vegas to spend a couple days with them to celebrate my birthday. it was a lot of fun. the perfect mix of partying and relaxation. they always spoil us whenever we visit. on Friday night (my birthday), they took us out to via brasil. the restaurant is unique in that it brings 18 different kinds of meats to you at your table, one by one, and allows you to have a slice or two of whichever you'd like! definitely a dining experience... it was delicious. even better than i remember it from the first time we went. after dinner, we went back to their place and had homemade carrot cake--it was delicous! i really really need to learn how to cook!

for my birthday, karen and tim gave me a beautiful framed photo of me on our wedding day. it was such a special and thoughtful gift. as of yesterday, it now hangs in our hallway! it's the perfect addition to our home!

saturday we watched the osu game and hung out at home. kevin and i hit up the strip that night. we just like to watch all the crazies and spend time in the chaos of the city. we don't really gamble and we weren't really drinking. just enjoying the nice warm weather! we also hit up in-n-out. that place always attracts weird people, too. we bought a double-double meal for a bum, complete with animal style fries! he LOVED it. ahhh, the joys of in-n-out!

i think it was on sunday that kevin and i went to see The Invention of Lying. it was a pretty good movie. pretty much all the funny parts were already shown in the previews. the humor was very dry. overall, the movie had a good moral. it's definitely only worth a rental. after the movie, we went out to sushi with karen and tim. vegas always has the best sushi. i hadn't had any in a while so it was great! it was a really fun dinner full of laughs and great food.

overall, i'd say our trip to vegas was a success. we're so lucky and spoiled to get to go again over thanksgiving! gobble, gobble...

life is good.

there is good news all around.

i started my new position on wednesday. i love it, or atleast i love what i know about it thus far. all the people are so nice and helpful. i worked in this department as a temp, so i feel like i've gone back home! :)

kevin's position at intel has been formally extended until february 12th! we have been hoping to hear good news for a while, considering the contract was supposed to end on september 1st. so, needless to say, a five-month extension is HUGE. it just goes to show the great work he's been doing at intel. i'm so proud of my hubby!

decorated the apartment for halloween/fall. it's a nice, chic mix of skeletons, pumpkins, fall-colored garland and gourds. kevin was a little bummed that i picked out the decorations myself. i just figured he's a guy so he wouldn't care. i could tell last night by the look of utter shock on his face that i was terribly mistaken. my bad. however, the apartment looks great. he helped me decided where to hang all the decorations, which helped to make him feel better about being left out. note to self: never decide on holiday decorations without asking the husband if he'd like to offer his opinion.

monster is as happy as ever. kevin has been taking her for nightly walks--we realized she was getting a little pudgy. she's our little baby!

i'm going to start planning another baby shower for lindsi, my sister in law. she is due to have another precious baby girl in february. she's actually due the exact same day sophia, her first baby, was due. what a weird coincidence! anyway, she wants to have her shower before the holidays and the end of the year so we are planning for early december. i'm so excited for another niece to spoil :) although sophia is going to have a reality check when the new baby is born, i think she'll still be a great big sister.

a visit to the park

lazy sundays are my favorite. didn't do much besides meet my mom to take sophia and monster to the local park. although she's pretty much annoyed with anyone that sticks a camera in her face, i managed to get a couple photos. not the best, but she still looks as cute as ever. she kept laughing and running when holding monster's leash. you can tell she was very proud of herself for climbing up and going down the slide all by herself. she's getting so big!

a happy note

kevin has been working on trying to fix his xbox for about a week now. the problems it had were not covered by the warranty, so the manufacturer wouldn't fix it for free. for the cost to have it fixed, you might as well just buy a new one. poor guy. he's been living with 2 brand new xbox games for almost a year without a working console to play them on. for me, i love to take pictures, work on design stuff and do crafty-artsy things. he likes to play xbox. i decided today that he just needed to fork out the money to buy a new one. now, he's been playing it all day (in between watching the OSU game of course!).

friends say that buying your husband a video game system is a bad idea. i'll never get any attention, it'll distract him from chores, etc. i think he deserves it. he is so good to me. some days i'll come home, and he'll have cleaned the whole family room or unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. he cooks and he cleans! i am so lucky to be married to someone that adores me as much as kevin does. even if he's had a long day at work or had to sit in traffic for an hour, he's always happy when he walks through the door. he'll go to the store for me whenever i need him to. even late at night when i want ice cream or soda :) he lets me watch my shows and waits to talk to me during commercials--yes, i'm obsessed and i admit it. he'll eat whatever i make for him, even if it's not very good...which is pretty much most the time! he puts up with my tantrums and dramatic flair. he'll even run out the car for me when i need something and don't want to go out there myself. he always takes the trash out. i never even have to ask! it's all the little things that mean so much. i feel so blessed. he makes me so happy. i'm glad i could make him happy today, too. he loves love LOVES his new toy :)

violated

today, i realized that the maintenance person in my apartment complex came into our apartment to fix our dryer without notifying me first! i clearly, and very specifically, stated that the maintenance or managing person that would be entering my apartment needs to contact me to schedule a day/time of entry. it is so frustrating to think that some stranger came into my home without my knowledge. who knows what my poor little monster dog thought of the situation?!?! the whole reason i wanted notification was because monster isn't too keen on strangers entering her home. especially without permission. another reason is because i had a huge pile of laundry on top of my dryer. it was in a basket, but hey...it still had my skimpy undies in there. [i am a newlywed afterall :) ]...but how EMBARRASSING!!! i am humiliated to think that he saw them. i know he did for sure--he moved the entire laundry pile from on top of the dryer to on top of the washing machine. kevin says i should look at the bright side--atleast the dryer is fixed. yes, i am thankful, but i also think it was unprofessional and a violation of privacy. i plan to talk with my apartment manager about this tomorrow. isn't it illegal to enter without permission to do so? i'm so irritated!

an afternoon with a toddler

kevin and i spent last saturday babysitting my-slash-our niece sophia. basically the night consisted of kevin teaching sophia how to play soccer and me teaching her how to do the hokie-pokie. i overloaded her with festive renditions of "bringing home a baby bumble bee" and going over her letters, words (focusing on my name, of course!). she is absolutely obsessed with kevin. when he's around, she wants nothing to do with anyone else. kevin says it's because he never says no or makes her do anything she doesn't want to. he says it's because he's mysterious. :) for whatever reason, she loves him and he loves her just as much. it melts my heart to watch them interact. kevin is really good with kids. one day, it'll be the same with our little rugrat or two. here are a few photos from the adventure with our favorite 19 month old. sorry if they are blurry. 2 reasons: 1)not so great camera and 2)sometimes blurry is the only way to catch her little smiles and smirks.

note: the photo of her standing with her back to the camera is the one time she was put in time out. sometimes that little angel gets rather violent. auntie katie and the rest of the family are trying to nip that fun habit asap. in her timeouts, lindsi and jeff make sophia put her nose the wall. although it's not funny, it is pretty cute! also, in one of the other photos she's standing by the toilet. she was so proud to show me that she knows how to flush. oooh, the little things in life!