A campfire is for OUTDOORS only!

SOOOO this past Friday night Brett and I went on a date night. He wanted to do something different, so we went to the store and bought firewood for our fireplace at our apartment! It was the first time we were using it, so of course we were excited. Brett gets it all ready while I am standing behind him asking a million times if he is SURE this is how it's supposed to work. Not long after, the fire is crackling and we are getting ready to watch The Office. This is when we realize that our apartment really stinks. Like seriously, it smells SO heavily of smoke and fire that we both begin to think something is terribly wrong. Our eyes are beginning to burn and we begin to look around the room and see that it is filled with smoke. I turn to the fireplace and I can visibly see smoke POURING from the fireplace INTO OUR APARTMENT! Naturally, I am freaking out and suffocating from inhaling so much smoke (maybe there is exaggeration there, maybe not). So our next step is to figure out what the HECK was going on with our dumb fireplace. Because obviously it was the fault of the fireplace, not me or Brett. ***This is where everyone says "Ooohh you didn't open up the chimney, did you?"*** No. We didn't. And we didn't even know we needed to. I guess I just assumed that chimneys were naturally open. How else would Santa be able to get in?! So Brett gets out the oven mit, pulls the lever, and the chimney opens...and they lived happily ever after. The End.

I might have left out a few pieces to this awesome story:
1. We had actually seen the chimney lever before we even started the fire, but we jiggled it and pushed it and nothing happened, so we assumed it wasn't anything we needed to worry about.
2. Before Brett stuck his hand in the fireplace, we decided to pour water on the fire to at least make it stop. This caused for what looked like the black smoke from LOST to attack our living room.
3. Because the entire apartment was so smoke filled, we opened every window and door to air it out. This caused for a FREEZING night of watching The Office.

Luckily, our walls and mantle did not turn black from smoke. Lesson learned....don't build campfires inside...aka make sure your chimney is open before using your fireplace.

As much as I thought I was going to die from a fire in my apartment, I can now laugh at what will be a really funny story to tell our grandkids someday :)

the hair

Okay, here is a picture of my new haircut, along with our pumpkin child named Penelope!

November ALREADY?!

I cannot BELIEVE how fast October flew by! It was a busy month, that's for sure, but I am still in shock that today is November 1st! Many new things have occurred that I would LOVE to share with you:

1. I chopped my hair off! Picture to come soon...but it is short. I'll give you a day or so to imagine what it looks like.
2. We are currently looking for a new kitchen or dining room table. The beautiful table we are hosting for our friends Kelli and Teddy will be leaving us the last week of November. They are able to move into a new place that has room for it, so we are on the prowl. We can't decide if we want to get something cheap for the time being, or invest some money and get a table that will last us for years and years. If you know of any good deals or anyone getting rid of a table, let me know!

3. Brett is doing "No Shave November" but he started the second week of October. Weird. Here are some pictures of his progress...

October 10th

October 15th

October 23rd

October 27th

We'll see how long he lasts.
4. I ended up NOT making the slow cooker Chicken Parmesan. We took a second look at the recipe and realized it was not what we thought it was. Lots of mushrooms and stuff....ew.
5. Today I am making puppy chow and a new chicken and rice casserole. Hopefully it turns out!
6. Brett and I celebrated 3 YEARS of dating on October 29th and 3 MONTHS of marriage on October 31st. I'm sure eventually we will stop counting our dating time...but for now it's still fun!
7. We already ordered our Christmas cards through Shutterfly and are excited to receive them soon (they have great deals for a limited time so you should check it out @ www.shutterfly.com)

Check back soon for a picture of my new hair :)