Mehaffey-Howell Reunion in the Big Peach!

Recently we had the 1st ever Mehaffey-Howell Reunion, in the big peach. I knew it was quite important to squeeze one visit in with each other before busy season begins, or we wouldn't be able to see each other till April, and that just wouldn't cut it. The Mehaffeys arrived late on a Friday evening. Of course we had to hit up the Marietta diner. None of us had eaten dinner yet, so this time we actually hit up another portion of the menu, besides the dessert. Their menu is quite extensive so we had quite a time deciding on what to get. Of course we also got dessert... but we had to take it home since we were so full!
On Saturday morning we headed to the MARTA. What an interesting ride. There was some crazy talking all kinds of racial stuff sitting behind us. Thankfully our stop wasn't too far away. We went and hit up the Lenox Macy's. I was tempted to check out the Flying Pigs ride... but I don't think I convinced anyone else. Oh well. We even got to see the pretty legit Macy's Santa. We considered taking a picture with him, but the cheapest package was $28!!!
After Macy's we headed over to the CNN building for lunch. Inside there was a Hawks mascot that was absolutely crazy! We made sure to grab a table within viewing distance of him jumping out and scaring the bypassers and pecking at peoples heads. He came running towards me one time then fell straight on his face. It was hilarious. After CNN, we headed over to Atlanta's Centennial Park for some outdoor iceskating. Unfortunately it was covered, so it didn't feel very much like we were outdoors. It was a bit of fun, though I'm sure it would have been better if there weren't soooo many people there. I'm not an awesome skater, but I was pretty sure I could keep myself from falling... my biggest threat to that were all the people falling down in front of me or cutting me off abruptly. Even with that, I somehow managed to make it through the skating without falling. Aaron too. Impressive.
Later that night, after a much need though not long enough nap, we headed out to try a new Hibachi Grill. It seems to be a tradition. 2008 Mehaffey-Howell Christmas Extravaganza
And of course we drove back to the Centinnial Park to check out the Christmas lights at night and the beautiful tree. Unfortunately we were crazy cold... and tired... so not much more than that happened. We finally ended up back in our warm apartment, cozy on the couch watching some good 'ole HP. and I fell asleep. Imagine that.
We are so happy that Brad and Mindy were able to come visit. I can't wait to see them again, hopefully soon.

We did a lot of hanging out and waiting on the MARTA. Since it was the weekend, the trains only run every 20 mins or so... and we seemed to have horrible timing... It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't soooo cold!

Ice skating at Centennial Park!

Hanging out in the CNN building.

Reunion Photo Album

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from the Howells!

Have a Tacky Christmas!

We recently celebrated the holiday season with our class from church - tacky style. I do have to say that I was quite impressed by the level of participation from our group. Almost everyone came decked out in some of the tackiest sweater/sweatshirts I have ever seen. I especially loved one sweatshirt that simply read, "Happy Birthday Jesus". Aaron sported an incredibly awesome-we were so lucky to find it -homemade sweatshirt with puppies and kittens, and glitter glue. Gold. glitter. glue.




After feasting on a de-li-cious meal and socializing with the group... we all bundled up for the coldest night in Atlanta and headed out to our truck-drawn sleigh to spread some cheer via carolling. There we even antlers and santa hats to complete our ensembles, one lucky guy got the elf ears!



We had a wonderful time celebrating the season with our new friends.


Slightly off topic - but still somewhat on topic... the last time I celebrated the season tacky style was in 2007. I had high hopes that multiple people would join me... but alas, it was myself and my sister.




Tacky 2007: Here's one of my favorite pictures from the night. Maggie and I were laughing so hard, it was nearly impossible to saddle up on the cow. Our friend Tony attempted to assist, but was quite awkward in trying to figure out how to best position his hands. We eventually made it... Tomorrow I am heading to Memphis to see Maggie, one of my bestest/oldest friends get married. I can't believe how much things have changed since 07!

Complete Tacky Christmas Album

t-giving '09

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! Aaron and I headed to Memphis this year for Thanksgiving with my family. We were also able to squeeze in some time with the Howells as well. I'm so glad that we are not too far away to travel and spend time with our families over the holidays. We plan on tearing up the road over the next few weeks as we make multiple treks out of Georgia to make memories with our families!

Hanging out with my sister and cousins.

The Howell fam

Ethan loved Newton.... especially his tail.

Ethan sporting his Thanksgiving outfit. so cute.

Rachel and I getting into the holiday spirit at the mall.

So we went to see the Starry Nights... but there was a LONG LONG wait. We kept ourselves entertained.

I discovered that my family members can not keep their eyes open when there is a flash at nighttime.

Some of the lights... taken quickly, therefore blurred. The lights were viewed via the car... so I had to jump out a few times to take some pictures.

Complete t-giving 2009 album

Showering with Love

My best friend is getting married, so of course we are showering her with love, laughter, fun times, and of course gifts! Recently Aaron and I made our first Atlanta-Memphis trek for a fun-filled shower weekend. It was great to be able to see some of my oldest friends. We share so many wonderful memories of our days in the youth group and college summers. Even though we don't see each other often enough, it's like we've never been apart when we do. I hope we all continue to be close forever. It's great to have a place like Gtown to reconnect. I'm hoping to start a reunion for us soon...

Her 1st shower was a girls only shower filled with all kinds of yummy food, fun games, and lots of presents.

Her 2nd shower was at our home church congregation. There were so many hostesses and gifts. I know she had a great time opening all the gifts and be loved on by so many people.

Complete Shower Album

Atlanta Safari

Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you, that I am crazy behind in my blogging. When I started noticing my blog listed last on other people's blogs (as in NOT updated recently).. I knew it was time to fix it. I had all kinds of intentions of writing up the blogs during the week while working in Pensacola with no internet. But when we got to Pensacola, we were informed that we did have internet. I got sidetracked, then after multiple evenings of messing with the configurations on my computer, still no internet, and no blogs. Oh well.

On to the point of this actual post. My parents and sister came to visit me in Atlanta! I was so excited to get to show off the city and our home. My mom helped us move in so she hadn't seen our place since I had gotten everything set up and all homey. It was my dad's 1st time to see our place and his 1st real time in Atlanta. I think he had stopped by Stone Mountain once back in the 70s or something.. :)

I had a great time planned for us, including hitting up multiple Atlanta eats, some favorites and some new ones. We of course hit up the Marietta Diner.. a must see for anyone who comes to visit us. Just a warning for any of you who are considering it.. (Mindy!!!!)

On Saturday we spent the morning checking out one of the local malls then heading down south of Atlanta to Pine Mountain for the Wild Animal Safari. The highlight of the weekend! Originally I had thought Pine Mountain was a lot closer.. so we were totally gung ho. Then we discovered it was really about 1 hour and 45 mins from our apt. Once we discovered that, we strongly considered changing our plans, but since we had nothing else in mind.. we just went on ahead. TOTALLY WORTH IT!!

We rented this beat up old 15 passenger van with no legit windows. Just openings where the windows should have been and bars to keep you from falling out.. or to keep the animals from coming it. Whichever you considered more of a problem. We purchased 2 large bags of animal food and began our journey. We were immediately greeted with all kinds of animals ready for some yummy (or not so yummy, in my opinion) food. There were all kinds of slobbery tongues making their way into our van. Unfortunately we were able to feed the zebras or any other horse-like animals... but we did get to pet them!

After the drive-thru animal safari, we headed to the walk about where we had tons of fun picture opportunities and some fun animals to see - including kangaroos! The kangaroos were a bit boring though, as we waited for about 10 mins before seeing one even pretend to jump. Lame. Close to the end we came across one of the walk-workers who so kindly let us (well everyone except for me, since I 100% refused) hold her yellow (I have no idea what kind) snake.

And since it's been a month since then... I don't remember too many more details than that. Oh except for the fact that we went to see 'The Box" which was a totally odd movie. Anyways... so here are some pictures from our weekend to show just how AWESOME it truly was. We're anxiously waiting our next set of visitors so we can check out even more eats and hot spots of Atlanta.

So here are a few snapshots of our eating fun in Atlanta. Don't those cakes look DELICIOUS?? yum yum. and those funnel cake fries.. and those garlic butter rolls. oh my.

A few snapshots of the fam enjoying the animals on the safari. Check out that giraffe! He was so curious!

Pictures of some of the beautiful animals. They were so much fun! Look at the little fawn with all the white spots! So cute.

Some of the fun props in the walk-about. We enjoyed them thoroughly. :)

and the beloved snake. take note... I was not included in this. Snakes completely creep me out. I'm surprised I was that close without hyperventilating.

Complete Atlanta Safari Album

My Little Squirrel

Newton is actually a little squirrel. He likes to collect acorns in our apartment complex while we are out on walks. He gets extra excited if he's able to sneak them inside without me remembering to make him spit them out. I usually let him keep one to chew on for all his hard work. Gotta love him!

Who Dun It?

Our class from church had a Who Dun It? murder mystery Halloween party this year! I had never been to one... so I was pretty excited about it. Aaron and I had originally signed up to just be detectives, but Aaron was asked to join in as Constable Painting - a bumbling English police officer. I decided to try to match up with his costume some, and found the perfect firewoman costume - I say firewoman because it was a dress! We each got some pretty spiffy hats from Party City to complete our ensembles. We were even able to get Aaron a bobby! He was an English police officer after all. The place was hoping with all kinds of fun costumes, including a group dressed up as the Scooby Doo team! Now they were some real detectives! They even won the most creative costume and shared their prize of glow in the dark bracelets with the rest of us. There was tons of great food as well to keep us occupied in between rounds of Who Dun It. My favorite was the awesome mini pumpkin cheese balls. They were amazing. I will be making them soon... probably not as pumpkins though.
The murder mystery went great. It was pretty hilarious listening to everyone try to do fake accents and such. We even suspected Aaron for a little while. Come to find out, it was Jeremy, the local townsman, Who Dun It.

Pre-party. Newton and I sporting our Halloween costumes. Shortly afterward I gave Newton the costume for a chew toy. It was a bit snug, so I was pretty such it wasn't worth holding on to till next year. And I got it on super duper clearance at Target. He loves chewing on it.. especially the velcro part. Weird.

Well you know who we are... and our costumes are quite obvious. :)

The Scooby Doo Group. They did a great job.

The best cheese balls I've ever had. Delicious. I've already inquired for the recipe.

The Who Dun It characters

He did it!!!

A complete murder mystery album

O' Shucks!

Happy Fall! We had yet another fall celebration! In order to keep with the tradition of pumpkin farms and corn mazes, we gathered up some friends and headed to Uncle Shucks! It took us quite awhile to get there, as multiple Uncle Shucks popped up on the GPS (what?!?) and we had to take a few long, windy roads, but we finally made it. The lines were crazy long. but that's ok. The girls utilized the time to take a few pictures while the guys waited. How nice of them.
Once we were finally inside, we grabbed some delicious fall farm food. They had all kinds of delicious stuff, including funnel cake, but we had to pass due to all the goodies we had ready for us back at the Tarpley's house.
Of course we did a corn maze, which of course we didn't finish... just wandered around until we were tired of it. And of course each couple chose their own pumpkin to carve . Once back at the Tarpley home we snacked on homemade carmel popcorn, turtle pumpkin pie, special recipe apple cider (including red hots!) and made some carmel apples - which we were too full to eat. After filling up on goodies, we gathered round the table to give our pumpkins some life. What fun times in such wonderful weather with wonderful friends.

The girls enjoying the sunflowers. One of the many pictures while the guys were waiting in line.

Georgia has some beautiful sunflowers!

Just some of the delicious farm food selections.

Check out that beautiful sunset!!!

The guys showing off the pumpkin selections.

Aaron and I with our little punkin. Slightly dirty.

Jenny and I getting the caramel ready for making caramel apples!!

The group - minus Jon, working hard on the pumpkins.

Showing off our handy work!!!

Finished products. Ours is the one of the far left. Cyrus. He was supposed to have 1 bottom tooth... but Aaron forgot it. oh well.

The Complete O' Shucks Album