Caleb's (kind of) surprise!

Happy Halloween!!! It's so weird that I have no costume, and have no orange on today. My cute orange tank I had planned on wearing got thrown in the wrong pile and was all dirty and wrinkly (grouch), so I have on black and white... woops!

Anyway! As I said yesterday, I had another surprise waiting for Caleb once we arrived home. He just didn't know it yet.

Long story short... it didn't turn out how I planned. It was hard enough stalling all day to be sure we didn't get home any earlier than 5! .I may or may not have made Caleb stop at a Walmart cause I was "feeling sick"... anyyyyway!

This is where it gets tricky. Well, not really...when we got home, some of his friends were running late and weren't in our apartment yet. Well, a few seconds went by, and Caleb saw them outside. He was SO confused, so it was still fun to see his reaction to that...it just wasn't the "surprise" I'd originally hoped for. Either way, it was a blast and I knew we had a night full of fun with all his old college friends waiting for us upstairs. He was so thrilled and just spent a few minutes outside with me thanking me for everything I'd done so far. He just couldn't believe it!

So, upstairs we went.

Made by my Erin!

As cheesy as it sounds, after the cake was cut...we all went around and introduced ourselves and said a few fun memories about Caleb. It started some interesting conversation, that is for sure!

This is probably my favorite picture of the night. I can just tell how much fun Caleb was having. Surrounded by his old friends.

Boys will be boys.

HUGE congrats to Rich and Amber!! They just got engaged last week, and he has asked Caleb to be in the wedding next October! Ahh I love fall weddings.

Also a MAJOR thank youuu to my soulmate, without her I could not have done ANY of this. I gave her my key, the supplies and a "good luck!" and she set EVERYTHING up the day of. She also made an incredible cheeseball (rolled in Caleb's favorite, Doritos!) and a delicious pasta salad that I may or may not have inhaled. Okay, I did.

Sibling looove :)

The wives! These are some seriously great ladies I'm so happy to know!

After nearly 5 hours of hanging out, our friends started to head home. Oh, did i mention MOST  of them drove over an hour and a half to help celebrate? We have some great people in our lives, I'll tell ya.

Shortly after most everyone had left, I gave Caleb his actual present -- an orange and grey Under Armour hoodie. He hasn't really taken it off since... :) I think he likes it?

To say Caleb's birthday weekend was a blast would be an understatement. I'm so happy he had a great weekend!! He's the best husband ever and so good to me on a daily basis, that I wanted to be sure he had a weekend worth remembering!

Hope it was great Caleb, you're amazing!

PS - although its Halloween, we are not passing out candy. First, we live in an apartment complex (do people even do that?!). Second, we are hitting up the gym after work, and spending the evening at my grandparents (bro/sis in law to join us!) and hopefullllyy by the end of the night? We'll be celebrating a Bengals W! 

Louisville happened!

So, as most of you know by now, Caleb's 25th birthday was this past Saturday. I can't let a birthday this big go to waste! So, I took off Friday and had a whole weekend of surprises planned for him.

I booked us a hotel in Louisville and we hit the road around 2 after exploring more of our own city a bit.

After a few CD's later, and even some talk radio...we arrived.

We had quite a bit of time before dinner, so we hit the shopping malls. Not before taking some fun selfies first.

After a fun few hours of shopping, we headed back to get ready for 4th Street Live! Our hotel was within walking distance, but man was it chilly!

Luckily, Caleb put his shoes on after this shot ;) 

It was a blast, there was a couple live bands out and our dinner was amazing. I highly recommend it!

Saturday morning was time for the Louisville Slugger Museum. Caleb was like a small kid in a candy store. It was awesome to watch him. Not only does he love baseball, but dude loves history, too.

Part of the museum is getting to hold ACTUAL game used bats by some of baseballs greatest.

Who did it best? I think I stole it from the birthday boy, sorry babe!

It was seriously creeping getting up close with these wax models.

We had a blast taking the tour, too. & you know we had to get a photo inside the "dugout"!

This city was beautiful. It is so alive and the architecture was just amazing.

After the museum we grabbed lunch at a cool pub, and headed home. Little did Caleb know I had another surprise waiting for him there!

I'll show you the rest of his awesome birthday weekend tomorrow.
Happy Wednesday, folks!

Linking up with the super sweet Shanna!

The ugly stuff.

Last night, as I edited wedding pictures galore...I got bummed that I had yet to prepare my post about Caleb's birthday weekend. Then I remembered, its okay. So what? I'm not prepared. Which is just one thing about myself I'm not always proud of, that I sometimes procrastinate, cause we all have stuff. You know, the kind of stuff we don't shout from the rooftops about ourselves.

The stuff that we'd probably be judged on.

The stuff, sometimes silly, sometimes weird, sometimes ugly, that we'd like to keep hidden.

Such as....

-I was a completely different person in high school. I'd still like to think I was a sweet girl, but my morals just weren't intact. Frankly, I didn't have many. I "fell in love" (whatever that means to a 15 year old girl), and lost myself in him. I became miserable, very quickly. Along came Caleb, who saved me from that life and showed me what it meant to truly be in love.

-I once had glasses and braces at the same time. Not just braces, but a retainer that covered the entire roof of my mouth that I had to TURN a knob on NIGHTLY so my jaw would widen....super sexy.

-I had one big freak out moment mid-wedding planning. Caleb found me in my walk-in closet, crying, holding fabric swatches..terrified our wedding colors wouldn't come together like they did in my head.

-I had (accidental) yellow tiger stripe high lights when I was in 6th grade. My friends never let me forget that.

-I'm kind of sensitive, and I over think everything. It bites me in the butt, all the time.

-I am bad at saying "no", especially to friends.

-I'm not always comfortable in my own skin. I find myself comparing myself to other girls a lot. I know, its so silly, we are all beautifully made.

All of this stuff doesn't have to define me, but so often I find myself down about these things. & then, there's those special people that come along in your life that have found out all of your ugly stuff, and yet love you anyway. The friends and family who will encourage and support you in your dreams, and let you know everyone makes mistakes.

I'm so thankful to have not one, not two, and not even only three...but TONS of people in my life to encourage me when I need it, celebrate through life's accomplishments, cry with me when I'm down, and remind me of how beautiful my life is. I'm so blessed. Remember, we all have stuff...but its choosing how to handle the stuff that matters. Be positive. Stay happy. It's contagious.

Have a great Tuesday!

Flappers, pirates, heroes, oh my!

Ahh Halloween is almost upon us.

Lets take a look back at past Halloween's since 2009...because before that everything was just a hot mess in my life. 2009 = Caleb and I started dating. AKA -  Caleb is the glue in my life.

For some reason we thought it was a great idea to go as Dave Thomas and Wendy. We realized too late that we were playing father-daughter...that's not creepy, right? This meant I basically had to find a rag doll costume and de-sluttify it. Add some white and red striped leggings under that skirt? Voila! 

Caleb also saw it fit to spray paint his entire head of hair, and facial hair white... let me tell you, it took like a week to come out.

The next year, 2010, I borrowed a costume from a friend of a friend and went as a flapper. For some odd reason...Caleb went as a bowling ball. He tried desperately to make me go as a bowling pin. No thanks, babe.

Also see below, Jared and Erin win best costume EVAAA! 

Can someone please tell Caleb those look like boobs...not eyes.

The next year, 2011...Caleb and I got kind of creative on a budget.

Yes, those are Mens boxers from Walmart, but they were $5 and Caleb made that impressive "shield" from cardboard. We win! ;)

Erin...er, Cleopatra, and I!

On ACTUAL Halloween, I helped Caleb's family pass out candy...and threw on a witch hat. Totally a costume, right?!

& this was last year... 2012. Caleb and I hadn't thought about our costume basically until the day of. So, what did we do? Headed to Walmart, Spencers, etc...and made us some new superhero costumes...AGAIN.

Batman and Robin, y'all.

Freaky thing is...dude totally sounds like batman when he tries.

& there's Jared and Erin, the pirates!

& we usually end the night with glow sticks...its kind of our thing!

I hope everyone has a safe Halloween next week!