The Grays Visit the Grays

In case that last post was just too personal, here's one a little less nitty gritty on the details. Nope, no underoos in this post.

We had company this past Saturday, and we had a full day of fun!

After the youngest (and oldest and those in between) had their afternoon naps and some lunch, we were ready for our activities.

First up, visiting the rooftop of the (used to be) tallest building in Cincinnati. It's becoming our tradition. If you visit us, we will take you there.

Some people didn't enjoy it so much...

Kristoffer was a nervous wreck! He was found either holding on to the sides or casually strolling the center of the rooftop.

Dana enjoyed the view, and honestly, Kaden probably got better views than his restricted brother.

At least he was being careful, but we may have given him a hard time...down all 47 flights of stairs. Then we dropped it.

Such a cute little family :)

For my birthday, Graeters (the best ice cream eva) sent me an email for a free sundae. Ok. You don't have to offer me free ice cream twice before I take you up on it.

Karterman opted for the cookies. His mama said he doesn't care much for ice cream. That must run in the Tomaw side. Kyler and I eat ice cream every other night.

So this kid might look like a Tomaw, but he eats like a Gray.

Then we just strolled on over to THE REDS GAME!

...where we had incredible seats in the third row of right field.

Seriously fantastic seats.

The new skyscraper hovering over the field.

And by far the cutest companions next to me.

Oh, and to my other side too.

Karter is at such a cute age. He loved everything about the game! The right fielder, star of the show Jay Bruce, was right in front of us. I may have taught Karter to yell "Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce". And we made the countdown to the 7th inning stretch for him to sing his song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame!" He loved it. And then sang it five more times when the guy next to us said he did a good job.

Seriously, this was one of the best baseball games I've ever seen. I can't remember the score. [Yes, I can tell you the combination to my middle school locker but I forget the score to Saturday's game.] There were probably five home runs, if not more, by the 5th inning. AND! One of them went to the couple next to Kristoffer, who then gave the ball to Karter. He was SoOoOo happy!

Both of the boys did extremely well. Karter was by far more into the game than Kado. So Kyler spent the last couple of innings walking Kaden around and apparently letting him climb all over the show cars that Chevy had on hand. Whatever keeps him busy.

At the beginning, there was a slight fear of rain. So Kyler kept checking the radar on his new phone. Apparently that radar isn't the most accurate because according to it, we should've gotten rained on.

But we're so glad it didn't! We enjoyed the game so much, but it was probably the company that made it so sweet!

We're weird.

We're weird. That's what I've concluded.

We're too cheap to spend the extra $1.50 for another cycle in the dryer, but we'll upgrade our cell phones, buy a new dining room table, and book a trip to Pittsburgh in the same week. [More details to come regarding the Pittsburgh trip].

Warning: Underoo pictures below. If that bothers you, sorry.

 So we hang all the clothes from every door jam and knob we have in the house.

Who knew we'd be so lucky to have three doors in the master bedroom...

...and that we'd still run out of knobs, leaving me to resort to hanging shorts from the dresser pulls.

And who knew we'd be so lucky to have the aforementioned dining room chairs' boxes hanging around in our spare bedroom.

And who knew it'd take three whole days for those socks to dry.

And dry they finally did, as stiff as the cardboard itself.

Happy Wednesday!

I don't get it...

A couple of weeks before my birthday, Kyler took me shopping for my birthday present: a new dining room table! Eek! I am so excited for it to get here. But on my real birthday, he gave me this little card...

Isn't that sweet.

I don't understand.

I only have one pair of black flip flops that I wear everywhere!

I mean, I also have this pair that I got in Minnesota when my only pair of shoes  I took on vacation ``broke midstride.

I wear them when I want to look sporty :)

And I only have one pair of black flats.

These were my first flats ever, and I'm pretty sure they covered every inch of the IU campus.

And then I have these. They are not flats but more like real shoes. Thicker sole, more covering. You can't wear these with skinny jeans like the flats. Unless you do, then that's fine.

I love my TOMS, and I needed them because my flats' soles were about a thick as a piece of cardstock.

And then I have these dress shoes that I wear to work every other day.

Don't they just say "work shoes" to you?

But I also have these dress shoes. They're more of a dressy dress shoe. Not one that I wear to work but out on dates...if I ever went on dates.

I got them for Kyle and Jamie's wedding. Surely I've worn them other times too...

Oh yeah, and I just bought these dressy black shoes. They're more like daytime date shoes, unlike the above nighttime date shoes. Amen?

The week before my wedding, I still hadn't decided on shoes. We went to many shoes stores that week, and I always seemed to come out with shoes but none for the wedding. This pair was one of those pairs. And Kate Middleton wears espadrilles so I thought I needed a pair too.

And finally, I have this pair of black boots. Hmm...I was just looking at black boots online today. But not cozy black boots. I was looking at dressy black boots. You know...they're not the same.

My first/only pair of UGGS. So warm and cozy and reminding me of winter. Bleh. That's enough about them.

No. Still don't get it. He must've of got it because it says "honey" on front. You know, because when you get married, that's what you start calling each other.

Yeah...that must be it.

A couple of weekends ago, Kyler and I sat around trying to think of things to do. We talked about going hiking again, but it was blazing hot outside. We talked about laying by our community pool, but it's so packed on the hot days, especially on the weekend. And then Kyler was saying something about needing a project. And I said, "You mean like an art project?" And the he-said, she-said went on until we decided that we would make some artwork.

Completely out of the blue, I know.

So we found the closest Hobby Lobby, and then mapped out a scenic route...because we love driving around new parts of Ohio. Well, new parts to us.

And once we got to our destination, we had to stop for a bite to eat at Taco Bell, which shared a parking lot with an antique store. So we ventured in there, and everything was priced like the people knew they actually had something of value. No lucking into a family trying to clean out an attic...bummer.

After forever milling around HobLob and selecting our perfect combination of canvases and paint, and a quick grocery stop at Kroger, we were back at home with our projects.

 We really lucked out that there was a canvas sale going on. All of them were 40% off, and we even found a couple of 2-packs that were the same price as buying a single. Needless to say, we came home with more than our goal of two canvases.



 I had envisioned a nice chevron print with our initial on it and had just finished drawing out the lines when my parents called and said they were in Cincinnati. So we hit pause and visited with them before they made it the rest of the way home from visiting family in Kentucky.

Kyler was going in a completely different direction. He wanted abstract full of bright colors. That's not really my style, but he kept saying that he could make his the way he wanted and I could make mine the way I wanted. [Yes, that's right. But I get to choose where they hang. And I told him his would look just lovely in the closet.]



This impatient guy had about 4 coats of each color on by the time I finished coating my canvas once. I wanted mine to hang in the bedroom, so I mixed the perfect teal color to match our bedding...and then I ran out. So I mixed some more, and it matched perfectly. And then I ran out...third time wasn't as charming and I didn't mix as well. So plan B was to use just the blueish green on the whole canvas.



Kyler, already having taken the tape off and putting on more coats. Me, letting my blue coat dry.



 Kyler's finished product. He put it on top of the fridge, and honestly it's not too distracting. We definitely need color in this place since all the walls are white.

He's so proud. [Definitely not of my photography skills. Sorry about the horrible lighting.]

My finished product, after Kyler stepped on it. Luckily, no damage was done. But we're not hanging anything on the walls because we move out at the end of August and don't want to fill any holes in the wall. So, for now it's propped up by the tv.

And then I got the hankering to go ahead and paint some more. The first canvas was just me freestyling, but this next set of canvases, I've known what I wanted to do for a while.

Three 8x10 canvases that match our bath towels to a "T".

 And bird silhouettes! I freehanded the bird on the right, but as I was looking for some other birds online, I found a template that included the bird on the left and the owl. Kyler loved the owl, and since he usually lets me do whatever I want but for once he said he would prefer the owl over another bird, I included the owl. And now he's my favorite part!

Originally, I wanted to paint them all sitting on a continuous branch so it looks like the branch spans the gaps between the canvases. But since I don't know what our future bathroom will be like (aka if they'll hang vertically or horizontally), I decided to hold off on the branch. Regardless, I love these three little paintings!

And that was our incredibly exciting weekend project!

Let there be light.

Along with our last electric bill, Duke Energy sent us an offer for free CFL (we think) lights. We had the option of ordering six or fifteen. So we took a head count and ordered the set of fifteen.

And then one day I came home from work and this box was sitting outside our door. I got busy fixing supper, and when Kyler got home he declared his intentions of switching out all our bulbs.

Yeow!

Ha ha.

We'll let you know if we save a gazillion dollars on our next energy statement. In the meantime, we're enjoying these bulbs because they give off a cleaner light. As in, our old bulbs put off a more yellow, fake lighting. And these bulbs put off more white light. If that made any sense at all, good for you.

Anyone else jumping on board the gravy train? Remember our free 3D movie tickets? Have you tried any energy-saving bulbs? Do you adhere to the wattage recommendation on your lamps?

Rooftop in Cincinnati

The same day that my family had come to visit and nearly witnessed the second flood, we also visited downtown Cincinnati...after we had wrung out our towels, changed into dry clothes, and covered every inch of our apartment with wet clothes to air dry.

Kyler had been telling me about the tallest building in Cincinnati since his first week at P&G when they did a city scavenger hunt and the building was one of their destinations. We had tried a few times to get into it, but it was always closed. The weekend my family was in town though, we ran into some luck.

I was fascinated by all the things you could see from this high up. Check out that rooftop pool?

It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's a blimp.

What happened to the Goodyear blimp?

This is the aerial view of Fountain Square. We had just come from a restaurant on the square and passed that fountain.

A Red's game was going on at the time. Too bad this mirrored building obstructed our view.

Here's the Bengal's stadium...um, let me go ask Kyler what it's called. Paul Brown Stadium. Fortunately, we won't be around Cincinnati during football season. We bleed blue for our Indianapolis Colts!

I love this bridge because it reminds me of New York. Apparently, according to Kyler, this is was the trial bridge before they built the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC.

See that building straight ahead, with the funny headdress? That is now the tallest building in Cincinnati. The buliding we were on top of was the tallest since...a long time ago. But last fall, they finished construction on this new skyscraper. It's like they just added that weird structure on top so they could be the tallest building.

So that's the 360-degree aerial tour of Cincinnati.

It was blazing hot that day, and so humid from the morning rain. We walked down all 49 flights of stairs took the elevator down to the street and went off to find some ice cream...which is another story for another time.

In other news: Tomorrow is my birthday. If I had been born today, my birthday would've been 8/8/88. What was my mother thinking!

Any blimp stories out there (I know of at least one)? Anyone scared of heights?...maybe I should've asked that before showing you these pictures. Anyone with cool birthdates?