October Birthday Shoutouts!!!

Jan and Dwight on their visit to ATL!

Jannell, Leah, me and Donna at Kera's wedding

Me and Rienna

Happy October Bdays to....

ME, my uncle Earl, Donna, and Rienna!

Love you all!!!!

PS - If I missed anyone, feel free to comment on here and bash me publicly! :)

Thanks Kate! I forgot my father in law...happy bday Dwight!

Tennis Practice and El Azteca!

Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association...

Kristen and Aaron at the Decatur Beer Fest...

After our cardio tennis class earlier this year, Ben and I quickly realized that we needed to actually learn how to play tennis...to be honest we really sucked at it!

So we joined a Tennis League through ALTA, Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association! http://www.altatennis.org/

Ben and I are excited to better our skills. Our league is a really fun group of people too.

Our friends Grace and Jon turned us onto it. The season starts in January but we had our first practice last night. I returned a few balls and learned how to hold my racket correctly...so that was good enough for me!!!

After practice we headed over to El Azteca (a "hole in the wall" Mexican place with great food) to chow down and have some margaritas!

Our friend Aaron was having a bday happy hour there so we stopped by! Happy Bday Aaron!

Lots of good times all around!

Wicked Weekend!!!

Wicked...what a great show!!!

Ben/A-rod and my sailor friend Amanda...it's okay...he wasn't being naughty, I was taking the picture!

Beer girl Kim, Me (Madonna), Sailor Amanda, and "Sister" Melissa

A-rod and Madonna...aren't we cute!!!

It was a Halloween filled weekend for the Sullivans!!!

Friday Ben and I went to our Kball bar Charlie Mopps for our Mid Season Halloween Party! Ben and I dressed as A-Rod and Madonna (check out the pics above). It was hilarious! Everyone loved our outfits!!!

We even got runner up in the best "Couples Costume" of the night. We lost by a few votes to Santa and Mrs. Claus. All I have to say to that is...WHATEVER! I still think we deserved first...I mean come on??? Santa and Mrs. Claus? How uncreative can you be??? Sorry...I guess I'm still bitter!

Anyways, Saturday I started my "official" training for my half marathon. I went to Roswell Park and ran 6.2 miles..WOOHOO!!! I was very proud of myself considering it's been about 2 years since I've run that far! I have 5 months until the half marathon so I'm going to keep running 6.2 miles at the park at least once a week for the next month...then I'll bump it up to 7 or 8 from there! I still have a LOT of practice left!

Saturday night Ben and I went to an AMAZING restaurant in downtown Atlanta called Wisteria.

http://www.wisteria-atlanta.com/

I had the Brie stuffed tortellini and it was probably some of the best food I've ever had!!!

Simply delicious! Ben and I went with Ben's coworker Stephanie and her husband Eric. It was a great time!

Sunday Ben and I headed to the gym, and then he went to Cheyenne Grill to watch the Skins play. I had some errands to run, so unfortunately wasn't able to go.

Sunday evening, I left the hubby at home with his Sunday night football and headed out with the girls to see Wicked at the Fox Theater! It was such a great show! I absolutely loved it!

After the show, we went to yet another great restaurant/bar in Atlanta called Churchill Grounds http://www.churchillgrounds.com/.

I can't wait to take Ben here because their steamed dumplings are to die for...and Ben is a sucker for some good dumplings!!!!

So that was our fun filled pre-Halloween weekend! I hope everyone else had a great one!

Did someone say Giant Smoked Turkey Leg???

Yes...we saw Live Bears at the Fair...

Isn't that the biggest cup of ice cream you have EVER seen???

ShamWOW

Smoked Turkey Legs...my FAVORITE!!!

This week was quite the crazy busy week!

Tuesday night I had my HR class...I did well on my 3rd test ( I got an 89..woohoo) but I'm afraid I didn't do too well on the 4th test. I think I'll squeak by with a C on that one..but that's okay. I'll just study super hard for this week's test to make up for it!!!

Anyways, after a grueling 3 hour lecture in class I got home at around 10pm.

But instead of getting sleep, I had to pack my bags to catch a 7:30am flight to NC the next morning (I had to get up at 4:45 am..yuck)! I flew to North Carolina to go to my company's corporate headquarters for a staff meeting and to assist with an audit that we are going through. It was a very intense day at work, so I definitely needed to blow off some steam.

Wednesday night I went to the NC State Fair with my BFF Johanna and her hubby Steve, and my coworkers Chesare and Sylvia! It was so much fun!

We ate...and ate...and ate....see pics above.

The highlight of the night was when Johanna and I purchased an "as seen on TV" Shamwow http://www.shamwow.com/ !!! (They had them for sale in the Hobbies and Crafts section and were doing live demonstrations). Why are Johanna and I such a suckers for info-mercials I have no idea!!!

Now it wasn't the actual purchasing of the Shamwow that was the highlight of the night...it was when Johanna dared me to scream out "I'm SOLD" and run up with my $20 during the middle of the live demonstration. Being one to NEVER turn down a dare...I stepped right up to the challenge. I think Johanna, Steve, Chesare and Sylvia almost wet their pants. The guy doing the demonstration didn't know what to do when I ran to the front, slammed down my money, and screamed "I'm SOLD..where do I pay?" right in the middle of a crowd of people. It was hilarious.

Anyways, while at the State fair I gobbled down a smoked turkey leg and the biggest cup of ice cream in the world!

Good times all around!

I returned home on Thursday in time to make it to our kball game. We lost...Booo!!!

Tonight is our Halloween party for our Kickball division! We will post pics of us in our costumes soon! Stay tuned....

Half Marathon!!!

So today I signed up for the Georgia ING Half Marathon!!! Am I crazy? Who knows???

But it's not until March 29th so I have plenty of time to train!

Inspiration comes from running across the finish line back in 2004 after completing my first 10K.

See pic of me and my great friend Christina above!

Lots of runners in my group of friends so I wanted to jump on the bandwagon...
Kera completed a half marathon last weekend
Jacqueline and Todd run the Marine Corp Marathon this weekend (Good luck guys)
Christine completed the Baltimore Half Marathon a couple of weeks ago along with Jacks and Todd
and Kim and Will are running a Half Marathon in November

If all that running isn't inspiration..then I don't know what is!!!

Beer Fest and Football...can it get much better than that?

Cornhole!!! One of my fave games!!!
Steph S, Shauna, and Kristen during our volunteering stint!
Ben was very happy to fill Melissa's glass!!! hahaha!
Terrapin beer had a "secret stash" of 11% alcohol beer but the only way you could get it was if they painted a "stache" on your finger! It was worth it though...delicious!!!

Amanda, Kim and I in the volunteer check in area
Kim, Will, Ben, Kristen and Amanda during our free time before our volunteering started! There was LOTS of beer to try!
Kim, Chris and Melissa
Ben and Kristen at Brunch!
Kristen and Siliva...Go Skins!!!

This weekend, Ben and I had a lot of fun in ATL. We were excited to not have to travel for once!

Friday, Ben got home from work and we decided to crash. It was uncharacteristically cold and rainy and we were exhausted from Thursday night's kball game and bar time.

Although our original plan was to grill out steaks, we opted for Chinese delivery and movie night!!

We watched "I Am Legend" which we both decided was a complete waste of time! However, we ended the night watching the new Chris Rock special on HBO, which made me almost pee my pants! Good stuff!!!

Saturday morning we were up and out the door by 9am! We were scheduled to be volunteers at the Decatur Beerfest and we didn't want to miss a minute of it!

We met with Amanda at Kim and Will's and off we all went! We got to Decatur around 10am and met up with our friends Melissa, Chris and Aaron at their friend's house for some brunch. We drank Mimosas and played cornhole for a couple of hours and then headed over the festival so that we could get our bracelets and tshirts. We got into the festival for a few hours before it was time to volunteer!

Let me tell you...Volunteering is the way to go when it comes to the Beerfest! It was so much fun. Not only did you get in for free, but all you had to do was pour beer for people for 3 hours. A lot of our friends stopped by our booth so it was an absolute Blast!!!

After the beerfest we were pretty exhausted. The friend who hosted the early morning brunch was having a cookout, so we stopped by there for a little bit...grabbed a burger...and drank some more, but we ended up leaving around 8pm because we were so tired!

I tried to watch the entire South Carolina game back at home but I was out like a light come 10pm.

Sunday, Ben and I slept in, then went for a run in Roswell Park. It was such a pretty autumn day that we had to take advantage of it!

After the run, we came home and changed then met up with Yosh and Silvia at Cheyenne Grille to watch the Redskins game. It was great to see them "post engagement"!!!

Ben and I are VERY excited for them!

The first half of the game was completely uneventful but the second half turned out to be quite the nail biter! We had a great time catching up with them!!!

Hope everyone else out there had a great weekend!

Book Club Meeting

Last night was our second book club meeting! I hosted the event at my house, and everyone had a great time!

The menu consisted of Hash Brown Casserole, Shrimp Cocktail, Wings, Brie Bake, and Cookies for dessert. Everyone brought bottles of wine and we discussed our book for last month "Belong to Me" by Marisa De Los Santos.

I really enjoyed the book...and turns out most everyone else did too. However, we all agreed that we should have read her first book "Love Walked In" before "Belong to Me". Unfortunately, no one knew that there was a prequel to the book before we chose to read it. Oh well, maybe I'll have to give it a go on my own someday!

Our November book is "Marley & Me". A lot of us haven't read it and we thought it was appropriate since the movie will be coming out soon. And since we were on a roll...we went ahead and picked our December book as well. It's a book called "The Shack" which is on the NY Times Bestseller list and getting a lot of buzz. I can't wait to read both!

The Sullivan Clan takes on Atlanta!

Kristen with a HUGE Frog statue at the Botanical Garden...they are my fave animal...
I couldn't resist!

Dwight and Jan at Chateau Elan!
Ben and Kristen and Chateau Elan!
Dwight and Jan posing with one of the many Halloween exhibits at the Botanical Gardens!
Kristen and Ben and the Botanical Gardens!
Jan posing with a dinosaur statue at the Botanical Gardens

This weekend Ben's parents flew in for a visit! Ben and I were excited to take them around and show them all the cool things about Atlanta!

Jan and Dwight arrived Friday evening around 6pm and Ben and I picked them up from the airport. Then we headed straight downtown to dinner at Tamarind Seed. http://www.tamarindseed.com/ Ben and I had tried this place on one of our date nights, and knew we had to go back! After dinner we went next door to Shout and hit up the rooftop bar again! (also a repeat of a previous date night). We had a round of drinks there and then decided to head back home.

Once we got home we chowed down on some cookies I made earlier that day and shared some more wine! Then we hit the sack!

Saturday morning we woke up early. I cooked eggs and crumpets (British food for my British Mother-in-law) and then we headed to Chateau Elan for the winery tour.

http://www.chateauelanatlanta.com/?gclid=CMvOmdGupJYCFQ-bnAod2Bmn6w

Chateau Elan is located about an hour out of the city. It was really beautiful!!!

We got to tour the winery with a precious Australian tour guide and then there was a wine tasting afterwards!

After the wine tasting we purchased a few bottles of wine and then set off to the local Irish Pub for lunch!

After lunch we headed back home for a quick change of clothes, then it was back downtown to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens!

It was Jan's request that we go to the Gardens...I have to admit I didn't even know the place existed. But it really was a beautiful garden and we had a great time touring! I highly recommend it if you are looking for something fun to do in ATL.

After the Botanical Gardens we headed over to the top of the Westin for some cocktails!

The top of the Westin is SO cool!!! It's a revolving restaurant/bar and is really the best view of the city!

http://www.sundialrestaurant.com/

After a round of drinks and checking out the views, we headed to STATS (very cool sports bar)for dinner.

After dinner, we came home and CRASHED! That day wore us all out!

Sunday, I cooked belgian waffles and sausage for everyone and then Ben took the parents to the airport!

It was an exhausting weekend but a whole lot of fun!!!

PS- Congrats to my friends Jacqueline, Todd and Christine for running in the Baltimore Half Marathon!!! Good work guys and Congrats!!!

Half Way Through!

Yay!!! Last night marked my half way point through my PHR Prep Class!
I'm proud to say that I have an "A" Average in the class so far! Hip Hip Hooray!
Let's just pray it stays that way!!!
I registered for the exam last week, so there will be a lot of studying between now and December!

Congrats Larry!!!

Congratulations to my great friend and former roomie Laura Beglis!

Laura, Jim and big brother Damien welcomed Luke Alexander Beglis last night at 8:12 pm. He weighed in at 9 lbs. 6 oz., 21 inches long.

Can't wait to meet him in person but here is a pic provided by my girl Sara!

Viva Las Vegas...Viva Las Vegas!

KA at the MGM Grand! Such a good show!
Ben with a Blue Man Statue
Outside our hotel! Loved the MGM!
Me and Kera in the See through pool at the Mirage!
Me and Ben at the Mirage Pool!

We are back...and Vegas was a blast!

Here's the short recap of the weekend! Ben and I left around 5pm on Friday and got into Vegas at 7pm (gotta love the time change)! We checked in to the MGM Grand and then grabbed dinner at the a Thai/Sushi Bar in the casino! Then it was off to the room to change and get ready for the night. We headed over to the Wynn to meet up with Kera and her dad. Mr. Khalil was in town for an optical convention and Kera was there to help!

We played a lot of slots and kept getting free drinks!

Ben's favorite part of the night???...watching Papa Sam give me the "evil eye" every time he won! He kept saying "Kristen I only won a DOLLAR...geez!!!"

But what can I say??...every time the machine lights up I just start screaming. I can't help it! hahaha! Anyways, the night ended around 1am!

Saturday, we slept in and then went to ESPN Zone at New York New York Casino to watch some football. We got a booth after about a 30 min wait and had SO much fun! The booths at the ESPN Zone come with their own TV and surround sound! We were able to catch the last half of the South Carolina game and all I can say is GO COCKS! We ended up killing Ole Miss and I won $30!!! After the game (and 3 giant beers) we headed to the pool at the MGM! We were able to get in a couple hours of sun which was great! Oh and FYI.... MGM Pina Colada's are pretty darn delicious!

Saturday night Ben and I went to Del Frisco's Steakhouse for dinner! Ben had been dying to take me there since he went on a work trip about a year ago. The dinner was amazing! Ben had onion rings as his appetizer and I had a salad. For dinner, Ben had the Filet and I had the Surf and Turf! Can anyone say Lobster Tail??? MMMMmmm... We also shared the mashed potatoes that were So Yum! For dessert they brought out a piece of lemon cake with a candle! After dinner we went back to the MGM to catch Cirque De Soleil's KA! Such a good show!

Sunday we were up early and then did a little sports book hopping. We started out at Caesar's to watch the Skins game...but this old man behind me (clearly a Gambler-a-holic) kept falling asleep and snoring so loudly that I couldn't hear anything. So then we went to the Mirage Sports Book to catch the rest of the game. There we found some chairs and some beer...and cheered the Redskins on to victory! Ben and I were SO excited that the Skins won! We were wearing our jerseys all day so people kept stopping us to congratulate our win! It was as if I was out on the field beside Jason Campbell tellling him what to do! hahaha!

After the game we met up with Kera at the Mirage pool. On Sundays they have a pool party called Bare. It's a european syle pool party...so...if you get my drift...there were boobies everywhere! Kera and I refrained from the topless sunning but NO VIP restrictions would stop us from getting in one of the coolest pools I've ever seen (see pics above)! Anyways, after a LOT of drinks we headed to the Venetian for dinner. Erin's gift card from Ebrands restaurant came in such handy! We ate at http://www.canonita.net/ Taqueria Canonita which was excellent! Seriously some of the best guacamole I've ever had!

Dinner finished up and we said goodbye to Kera.

Ben and I then headed back to the MGM for our last night of gambling. I ended up winning $200 in Roulette...so it was definitely a fun night for me! Ben entered a poker tournament and didn't fair as well unfortunately.

Lucky for us we still walked away from the weekend in the Green!

Monday morning (my bday morning) Ben and I had room service for breakfast and then took a walk down the strip. We ended at the Palazzo Casino where we went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch! But beware Vegas lovers...don't EVER go to Zine Restaurant in the Palazzo. Seriously the worst food ever. It took Ben half the day to get over his nausea.

Our flight left at 4pm and we were home by midnight!

We are exhausted but had a GREAT time!

PS- Thanks to everyone for all of the bday love yesterday! It's so wonderful to know that I have such great friends!!!

September Bday Shout outs

My Aunt Flicka and my Uncle Earl...Fun Fact...my Uncle Earl has the same birthday as me!!!
Rusty and Ben on our wedding day!
Melissa, Kera, Erin, and Me at Rienna's wedding
Ardy, Me, and Ben
Me, Erin and Ellen out in DC!!!

Happy September Bdays to Melissa, Kera, Ardy, my aunt Flicka, Ellen, and Rusty!!!

Love you all!!!

HAPPY EARLY BDAY!!!

Happy Early Birthday to me!!!!

Last night Ben and I had a bunch of friends over to grill out in honor of my bday! That's right kids...I'll be turning the big 29 on Monday!!!

Thanks to Steph M, Steph S, Amanda, Kim, Grace, Anastasia, Will and Pat for coming over! I had a blast!!!

Thanks to Kim for making the candy delight cake...so YUM!

Thanks to Grace for my adorable picture and cupcake set...

And thanks to all the other ladies who brought over some amazing Red wines!

I've restocked my wine rack now..YAY!!!

So....What's my present from my amazing husband you ask??? Well, Ben and I are leaving tomorrow for VEGAS!!! I'm so excited! We are staying at the MGM Grande and have some really fun things planned! We will definitely be posting pics and sharing stories when we get back!