Life's Helmet

Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Perfect Day...

Yesterday was what I would consider an absolutely "perfect day." After sleeping in, Ryan and I got ready for the day and headed to the fruit market for some fresh fruit. After returning home and cutting up our newly purchased fruit, we headed off to Usery Pass for a hike. After a 2-3 hour hike in the perfect 85 degree Arizona weather, we came home and Ryan watched a basketball game with his brother while I sat by the pool surfing the web. After a couple of hours of relaxing by the pool in the most comfortable patio furniture in the world, we got ready and spent the evening exploring Phoenix with friends on the new Valley Metro Light Rail. Although I'm sure all of this doesn't sound exciting to most, it's pretty much what I would consider the "perfect day." If only every day could be like that...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Kite Flying Festival

This weekend Ryan and I attended the "Pakistani Kite Flying Festival" in Mesa. After reading about the huge crouds the event drew in over the past few years, we decided we couldn't bear to miss out on this unique opportunity. Although it may come as a suprise to most, neither Ryan or I have any connection to the Pakistani culture. ;-) Luckily, the event is open to everyone so we thought we would join in on the fun. The festival basically consisted of people from Pakistan (we were one of the few without turbans) getting together for an intense day of kite flying. Unfortunately, we got there a little late in the day and weren't prepared with a kite. But you better believe that next year we'll be prepared with the best Pakistani kite you've ever seen! Begin preparing yourself for next year's post!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Yes Man

After watching the movie, "Yes Man" on Friday night, Ryan and I decided that we aren't spontaneous enough in our lives. As a result, we decided to spend our Valentine's Day saying "yes" to whatever opportunities presented themselves.

We started off the day hitting a couple of rounds at the batting cages.

After a few intense rounds of batting, we came out of the park only to find a McDonald's right across the street. In the spirit of saying "Yes," we decided to have a romantic V-Day lunch at McDonald's. Following our "gourmet" lunch, we hopped back in the car and drove until we reached downtown Mesa. When we hit the downtown area, we parked the car and decided to take a stroll.

While venturing through the downtown area, we came across an awesome antique store. The store was massive and had a ridiculous amount of cool stuff. We spent over an hour rummaging through the two stories worth of antiques.

Later that day we had a V-Day feast at Texas Roadhouse. Following dinner, we hit up a late night showing of "Confessions Of A Shopaholic." (Although that wasn't Ryan's first pick, he was a good sport about it.) This post would be extremely long if we tried to include everything we did in the day, but those were a few of the highlights. 13 hours and only $30 later, I think we can honestly say that was the best Valentine's day ever. Hopefully, from here on out, we'll be a little bit more willing to say "yes" to new opportunities.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Chocolate Affaire

On Friday night we had a night out with some of our friends. We started the night by hitting up the "Old Spaghetti Factory" in downtown Phoenix. In case you've never been there, it's an awesome restaurant with an actual train car in the middle. Ryan took me to the restaurant for the first time in Spokane and I've loved it ever since. After dinner we headed over to the Glendale "Chocolate Affaire." The event is an annual gathering of chocolate vendors from the southwest that come to showcase and sell their products. Although the chocolate was a little expensive, it was great getting to check out the event for the first time. Live entertainment was provided, but we preferred "people watching." As always, real people at free events never disappoint.

James & Tiffany

Celeste & Devyn

Ryan and I hope this will be us in 40 years
(Especially w/ the matching shirts & homemade Hershey Kiss hats)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Super Bowl Bash

It's that time again...Super Bowl time!! This year was an especially exciting Super Bowl as our Cardinals were competing for the championship! As always, Ryan made his Mom's "to-die-for" buffalo wings and I made some football-themed cupcakes. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge football fan, but the food and atmosphere of the day totally draw me in. We went over to my parents house to watch the big game and had a blast getting to hang out and watch the Cards battle the Steelers. Although we lost, it was a fun game to watch! Go Cards!!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Feeling "At Home"

Although it seems like we've been pretty bad at posting so far this year, the truth is that absolutely nothing post-worthy has happened lately. Our most exciting news is the arrival of our brand new camera. Finally we'll be able to post some "quality" pictures on our blog.

As promised before, here are the rest of the pictures from our recently completed painting project. After A TON of work, our apartment is officially complete! I'll be honest, I never thought we'd have to do this much work while renting. I guess it's just a small price to pay to feel "at home" in an apartment.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Preparing for 2009

In order to start 2009 off right, Ryan and I decided we needed to "de-clutter" our life. So for the last month we've been working on an intense "apartment renovation" project to help us transition to 2009.

About a month ago we spoke with our apartment manager and found out that we are able to paint our apartment (without having to paint it back) as long as we don't paint it any super bold colors. Since we plan on staying in this apartment for a while, we felt that it would be worthwhile to paint our apartment and make it feel like "home." Within 2 days of finding out we were able to paint, we began our project.

Along with painting the walls, we also painted the baseboards (the few that the apartment has), re-caulked the bathrooms and kitchen, re-organized and cleaned out all of our closets and storage boxes, and did a super DEEP clean on the entire place (including all of the air vents). Although it took a month, we have now FINALLY completed all the changes. It took a ton of time, was a ton of work, and was ABSOLUTELY worth it.

We're interested to see how 2009 will go as it will be our first complete year working full-time. Even though we have no idea what this year will bring, we're much more prepared now that our home is in order. Bring on the new year!

(Pictures of the living room and kitchen are still to come)

Bedroom #1