watch kitten

i woke up the other day and rolled over to find this on ryan's pillow.  who needs a watch dog when you have a watch kitten keeping track of everything happening in the back yard?!

love, laurie

loaf kitten

leko often sits tucked in like a loaf of bread.  it's always so cute when i find him in this position!

have a great weekend!
love, laurie

always by my side

sometimes i get a good laugh when i find leko in various places around the house.  i was working at the dining room table and looked down to find him on the floor next to me like this.  he was so tired, but those little eyes were slivers trying to stay open to watch was i was doing.  it was a hot day, so of course he had to air himself out!

love, laurie

my two cute guys

when you have to watch a webinar for work, but you have to stay home because your husband's not feeling well . . . the whole family climbs in bed to watch the stupid webinar!  (ps: this picture was from 2 weeks ago already, luckily ryan is much, much better now!)

i love these two boys of mine!

love, laurie

a nice little escape!

our schedules have been so crazy lately.  even in the middle of a pandemic we've been running from one job to another and we felt like we haven't had a chance to spend any laurie-ryan time together.  we both had the day off on saturday so we decided to make the most of it by taking a day trip to philly to check out some of our favorite spots: ikea, the king of prussia mall, the cheesecake factory, and trader joe's.  it was a nice little escape (and we felt safe because we wore masks the whole time and stayed far away from other people).

we grabbed a late lunch at the cheesecake factory and shared a veggie burger and a salad.  we could not get over how huge the salad was, it was basically a serving platter!  we brought some home and enjoyed the leftovers.  we tried their new cheesecake for dessert which was really yummy!

it was the perfect day-trip getaway and left me feeling refreshed before starting school and getting back to even more crazy this week.

love, laurie

back to school

well, today is the first day back to classes at the university where i teach.  my classes are partially online and partially in-person in the classroom.  i have to say i am terrified to be back in the classroom with these students and definitely want a hazmat suit!

good luck to everyone headed back to school!

love, laurie

what have you done to your house during the pandemic?

oh my goodness, this video really made me laugh because it is us to a tee!!!  we tore our house apart and put it back together several times early on in quarantine.  we also did a few decent-sized projects too.  thankfully we talked each other off the ledge from the crazy large project ideas we've had over the past several months.  ha!

love, laurie

good kitten

usually leko loves to knock over vases of flowers, not because he wants the flowers, but because he wants the water inside the vase.  i've been keeping a close eye on him with our anniversary flowers.  i'm genuinely surprised how good he has been with these flowers!  i found him lounging next to them recently and was shocked at how well behaved he was the whole time!

love, laurie

birthday treats

i love all the free birthday coupons that come from stores/restaurants.  the week before ryan's birthday we went out to red robin on a rainy night for veggie burgers.  it was a fun little date after work!

love, laurie

a luau birthday party for ryan!

on saturday our parents came over our house to celebrate ryan's birthday.  for his birthday party this year, ryan requested a hawaiian luau!  so, we threw a luau-themed birthday party complete with mango salsa, mahi fish tacos, coconut pineapple rice, teriyaki vegetarian meatballs, hawaiian rolls, coconut shrimp, guacamole, pineapple, cole slaw, salad, and watermelon.

we spent time relaxing on the screen porch, played bean-bag toss in the yard with tiki torches, and enjoyed macadamia nut cake with coconut frosting for dessert!

love, laurie

celebrating ryan's birthday

ryan's birthday was friday and we spent the day celebrating low-key.  we kicked off the day with a peach and blueberry dutch baby pancake for breakfast on our back porch in our pjs.  for lunch, we used one of ryan's birthday coupons from one of our local bbq restaurants.  later in the evening, we picked up pizza and ice cream cake and headed over to ryan's parents' house for dinner.  we finished off the day with a movie rental from redbox.  we opened presents too, with leko's help of course!

love, laurie

happy birthday, ryan!!!

to the man who . . . is always up for an adventure, is the best kitten daddy to leko, isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, does elaborate lighting designs just for fun, saves me from killer spiders, has my back no matter what, and is truly my lucky charm . . . 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

life is better because you're in it and i'm grateful every day for you.  have a wonderful birthday!  

let 36 be the best one yet!

love, laurie

where's leko?

it got quiet the other day and i couldn't find leko.  i rounded the corner to walk into our living room and was surprised to find him in a tucked loaf up on the back of our couch.  what a silly guy!

love, laurie

snapshots of life lately . . .

a few photos of . . . an impromptu dinner date with ryan's parents to use up leftovers from our anniversary party, leko "helping" ryan program lights at home, leko "helping" me flatten a piece of fabric before a sewing project, leko guarding the bathroom door, and finally the before and after shots of a haircut that ended up way shorter than i asked for and left me in tears for two days.  (i know it will grow out, but i'm still trying to get over the initial shock of it.  send hair prayers for fast growth!)

love, laurie

cute kitten!

i went down to my parents house recently and had a bunch of bags with me.  as soon as i set them down on their dining room table, one of their kittens jumped up and made herself comfortable among my bags.  what a cutie!

love, laurie

finally! a little theatre work!

we haven't been able to have a show at our theatre since the beginning of march due to the restrictions put in place by our governor as a result of the pandemic.  indoor gatherings/events were off limits for the longest time.  now we are able to have things indoors again, but they are limited to 25 people max.  there's not a lot you can do with a limit of 25 people in a theatre!

we were able to finally have one event this past week.  a local dance company filmed their ballet production in small segments.  it will be edited together and then screened at a local drive-in movie theatre later in the month.  it took a bit of coordination, but we pulled it off and followed all of the guidelines/regulations!

now it will be quiet again in the theatre for awhile. :-(

love, laurie

a funny video to end the week

the holderness family is making me laugh again with their newest social distancing parody medley! 

have a great weekend!

love, laurie

"innocent" kitten

i brought my bouquet of flowers home from our anniversary, disassembled it, and put it in a vase with water.  since leko can't behave himself with vases of water, it ended up outside on our screen porch for safe keeping.  

on sunday, leko wanted to go out on the porch because it was so nice outside.  i peeked out and this is what i found.  he was statued next to the flowers.  it was so funny!

love, laurie

our 10 year wedding anniversary vow renewal - part 2

i already shared a video of our 10 year wedding anniversary vow renewal, as well as photos from the ceremony.  here are the rest of the photos from our anniversary.  

after the ceremony, we had an outside party with everyone.  we had some of our favorite foods for dinner followed by the same cake we had as our wedding cake.  (we drove all the way down to our wedding venue the night before our anniversary to pick up the cake from the same bakery!)  

after we ate, we had such a great time visiting with everyone outside.  the weather was so nice!  of course, ryan did a special theatrical lighting design for us when the sun started to go down, and when it was dark we had some fun playing with sparklers.  it was really a magical day! 

here are some photos from our celebration . . .

love, laurie