Thanksgiving in Tulsa

Here are some pics from our wonderful trip to Tulsa / Norman for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time getting to hang out with our friends and family. And we owe a big THANK YOU to matt and courtney who let us stay with them the entire time and gave us one of their cars too. Pretty sure they didn't miss us for a couple days after we left ;-)

The pictures are in reverse order and it won't let me change them at the moment so you get a backwards tour of our trip!



Surprise early birthday dinner for Kyle at El Tequila


The Hustons seats are directly behinds ours at the stadium!!


The Sooner Tailgate, actually really fun!


In the Raw in Norman


Justin, Laura, Kyle, Me out on thankgiving


Kyle's mom, Uncle Bill, and Aunt Susan @ the Lights at Utica


Kyle, Nick, Stuart, and Jim @ the Lights


Thanksgiving '09 Family Photo


our BFF's The Scotts!!


Matt, Jeff, Kyle, Dustin, and Dustin's brother


Being in OK was so nice, but in a way it helped make Orlando feel more and more like home. We were so ready to get back to our house and move into our new place. We also flew with AW, but those pictures are on my phone and I haven't downloaded them yet. He actually did really well considering he had to stay in a crate for 6 hours.

And on the way back from Tulsa we had a 5 hour layover in Houston and got to hang out with James Bartell for a little bit as well. He took us to his new house in Houston and we can't wait to go back and visit when he's all settled in!

Hope everyone is ready for Christmas. Now that our house is mostly set up I promise to get better at posting. Maybe that will be my New Years resolution this year!

Love you all!

Angela and Kyle

Celebrity sighting in Norman!

I ran into one of the members of Kings of Leon, Jared Followill, (who just so happens to be the only cute one too) at In the Raw in Norman. Kyle saw him walk in and we were both really excited. I ended up buying him a shot and asking him if I could take a picture with him which he kindly obliged.

How cute is he!!!



I'll post more pics from our trip back to OK but this one was my favorite ;-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!

27 years ago today God brought Kyle into this world all for me! What a lucky girl I am! Unfortunately, between the move and going home it hasn't really felt like his birthday but we are going to try to celebrate tonight by 1) not unpacking a thing and 2) going to see his favorite band of all time Third Eye Blind!!!

In case you're wondering just how lucky my husband is , he managed to get a TV and refrigerator for his birthday! So I just put big red bows on them!

Happy 27th Birthday to my amazing husband!

I'll post more on the move and the house as soon as we get our internet at home working.

Love,

Angela

Thanksgiving in Tulsa!

We are off to Tulsa / Norman today for 5 days and could not be more excited. We are bringing AW so this could be an interesting trip. The last couple of days have been crazy with not only packing for our trip, but packing up our entire apt so we are ready to move when we get back. We spent last night moving everything from the 2nd and 3rd floors to the garage. It was exhausting but will pay off when we get home at midnight on Monday and have to be up at 8 AM Tuesday to move!

The thought of eating El Tequila for dinner is the only thing getting me through today! It is exactly 9 months since we drove out of Tulsa and this will be our first time back. Time sure does fly.

Hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving! If you're in the Tulsa / Norman area the next 5 days we'll be seeing you soon!

love
a and k

First pic with glasses

There won't be too many of these so enjoy it while you can!



p.s. we will be in OKLAHOMA in 5 days! we can not wait. we would LOVE to see as many people as possible! This will be our first time back to Tulsa since we moved 9 months ago. and we will have AW with us! Have a great Friday. and yes I am going to see New Moon tonight!

Love
us

Latent Hyperopia

i.e. farsightedness. Yes it's true I am the newest member of the glasses club. I have been having really bad headaches for months now and have just always said it's stress and being in front of a computer all day and finally went to an eye dr. about it. I went on Friday and did all the tests and he told me I was not only farsighted...but pretty bad at that. He was surprised I had waited as long as I had to get in to see someone. I am a +2.5 in the right eye and +2.o in the left eye. I have been wearing my glasses as much as possible over the weekend and although the headaches haven't gone away and I had a really bad migraine Saturday night, I am hoping to see some improvements soon. I haven't taken any pics of me with my new specks yet (and will probably try to avoid it) But I'll try and take some so you guys will recognize me when we come home! Which by the way is in 10 days!!!!

I will post pictures of what we did this weekend tomorrow but wanted to let yall know my new exciting news! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! only 2 more weekends until Thanksgiving.

Love

4 eyes and my (as he will forever remind me) still perfect eyesighted husband!

How we spent our weekend

The pics are pretty self explanatory, but this is the entry way and hallway of our house! It was actually a really ugly light pink color and I knew I wanted to get ride of it asap. We went and picked out paint and agreed on a color immediately! This was our first time to paint together and it was a lot of fun. He didn't realize how good I was at it...must be in the genes ;-) We spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday at the house. And I had to be really careful to not get any splatter on my new glasses!

The hallway has all the bedrooms, bathroom, office, and 3 hall closets. The doors were the most tedious part and with the front door there were 8 of them. and then the double doors at the other end of the hall leads into the living, dining, and kitchen areas.

Before








After

And this pic is just to show how great i did on the ceiling! I did it all by myself!

Finally found a house!

We have been painstakingly looking for a house here in Orlando. We really thought we wanted to buy a house and with the market the way it is we thought it would be a good time. Without going into long details, we never really found a house that we loved enough to purchase and things just never seemed to work out. So we decided to just look for a rent house. After looking just 1 week we found one that we are going to rent! It is a different house (not one that I would ever buy) and I recently learned what the term "mid-century modern"means. It is in Winter Park, FL and it's a great little neighborhood and we are right across the street from Lake Killarney. And there is a huge fenced back yard (hard to find in Orlando) and a big screened in back patio! AW is going to be in little doggie heaven. We are really excited about it and get to move in December 1st. I can finally unpack all the boxes in my garage! I will send out our new address along with the Payne Christmas card.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Love
me and kp

Road Trip to Athens, GA

On Friday Kyle and I hopped in the car and headed north about 7 1/2 hours to Athens, GA. Kyle's cousin Jason is an assistant golf coach at The University of Georgia and offered us a place to stay and tickets to the football game so we took him up on his offer. And we got to spend a wonderful weekend with family and you can't beat that. We got in pretty late on Friday and pretty much went straight to bed. I wish I had taken pictures of their house because it is beautiful. They have done a lot of remodeling and it looks like a perfect southern country home. Their kitchen is so beautiful I could spend all day in it! And the decor looks like it came out of the Pottery Barn catalog...I knew Angela and I would get along great. ;-)

On Saturday morning we got up and got dressed in our black and red for the game. I must say Georgia has some pretty cute collegiate clothes and as long as you are wearing red, black, and white you are good to go. Jason made us some yummy pancakes and we watched some sports center and I got to meet the other Angela in the family. We headed to the game to do some tailgating and we had so much fun. They make this dip that is to die for. All it is is some pepper and onion relish from Harry and David and cream cheese and viola...really good dip!

Angela and Jason Payne

The Dawgs were playing Tennessee Tech and it was a blow out. By time we got to our seats it was 14-0 but it was nice to get to watch some live college football. The stadium is bigger than OU's and it holds something like 92,000 people. Around the field they have hedges and they call it "tween the hedges" because you can walk around the field inside the hedges and it's pretty cool. We walked down there and got to see UGA the mascot! such a cute pup.

UGA!

And Jason and Angela have an english bulldog too named Dooley! We left the game early and it was nice to be a fan of a winning team that day. I won't talk about OU losing to Nebraska and I'm certainly not going to talk trash about the OSU game because there is a possibility that we might lose to them. ugh.

Angela Payne and Angela Payne!

Kyle (how cute is he in his Georgia gear!) and Jason

Oh and there's a tradition that SEC teams have that I think OU / the Big 12 needs to adopt. All the sororities and fraternities have stickers/ buttons that they wear saying (insert sorority / frat here) loves the Dawgs. So of course I ventured towards the student section to see if I could find me some cutie Chi O's and get a sticker. I found a group of them and asked if they had any extras and they didn't. That or they thought I some crazy old alumni! Either way I ended up finding a mom that had a sticker on and took a picture. I think it is such a great idea! See not everything about the SEC is annoying!

Saturday night we went back to campus and ate at a pizza place called The Mellow Mushroom. It is Hideaway's long lost cousin. It was really good! Then we walked around campus and got a tour from Jason and Angela. They have some pretty cool traditions. They have a bell tower that you ring after winning a game. People just walk up to it and ring it all night long. So we gave the bell a ring since they won the game that day. They also have arches around campus that stand for wisdom, justice, and moderation. If you walk under the Arch while you are a freshman, legend has it that you will never graduate. (sound familiar...clock tower). We saw the field where the first football game was played and their campuses are divided between north and south campus! Very similar to Norman!

oh and had to stop by this place of course...

Then we went back to their house and roasted marshmallows and made S'mores. Perfect ending to a perfect day. They have an amazing fire pit and it was pretty chilly in Athens so it was nice to bundle up next to a fire with great company. Jason and Angela are the first and only family members on Kyle's side of the family that I've met and vise versa. It is so nice to reconnect with family. I hope to get to meet more of them in the future. Also, Angela is expecting their first child in April and they find out this Friday what they are having. We can't thank them enough for a wonderful weekend and hope to do it again soon.

Love,

AP and KP

Texas Hold'em Girl and a Nerd

That is what we were for Halloween. The best part is we spent all of $5.00 on both our costumes. I borrowed mine from a girl at work and all we had to buy were Kyle's nerdy glasses. We went downtown to the Wall Street Halloween party and had a lot of fun. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

Get it...haha. i thought it was pretty funny!

Jaya, Me, and Kelly

Heather and Hunter

Jen and Kyle

The jumbotron from the Cowboy Stadium!

Reed (one night stand) and Kyle

Deanna and Me

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my dad's birthday! I won't reveal his age on here - just wanted to wish him a very happy birthday. Last year my sisters and I took him out for his birthday and made a big fuss which he hates (but I still think secretly enjoyed) and now I realize how special that was. I never dreamed that in 1 year I would move 1200 miles away and not get to see him on his birthday. He always downplays his birthday and says it is just another day and all he wants are hugs and kisses, but everyone deservers a big fuss on their birthday, especially him. I am going to try to skype with him while he is at my sisters house seeing laney in her cute costume. How cool would it be to have a birthday on Halloween!!! So lucky. You'd always have such fun birthday parties as a kid!

Thank you dad for being my rock and friend. There are many times I wouldn't have made it through if it weren't for your support. I am sad we won't get to celebrate with you but hope you have a wonderful day. Love you so much!

Love,

Angela, Kyle, and AW

Surprise visits from family

Orlando is (as I am sure you are all aware) a big convention place for a lot of companies. When my mom and Jack left on Tuesday I was a bit sad to see them go. So God decided to cheer me up a bit! My Uncle Larry from Birmingham (my dad's brother) called me on Tuesday and said he was in town until Thursday for a work convention! I was so excited. We made plans to meet up with him on Wednesday at his hotel for some drinks and dinner. Kyle was in Tampa that day for work and his hotel was down in a place called Celebration, FL, only about 20 minutes from our house. We met my uncle at his hotel and had a great evening. We had some drinks and then headed to one of the many restaurants at the hotel for dinner. It was so nice to see him again. We had stayed with him and my Aunt Myra in B'ham on our drive from OK to Orlando and that was 8 months ago, and the last time we saw him. It is always so nice to catch up with family, especially ones you don't get to see too often. Loved getting to hang out with him!

On Thursday night we ventured to Universal for their annual Halloween Horror Nights at the park. It was so much fun! My friend from work, Jaya, had invited us to go with her group of friends who were going so there were 11 of us. The park had random people walking around to scare you and the houses we went in were pretty good. They have 8 haunted houses - all movies themes- and various shows around the park too. We made it to Saw, Wolfman, Leave it to Cleaver, and Frankenstein. The lines got pretty long, some were up to 190 minutes and it was a school night. We also caught one of the shows called Bill and Ted's Halloween adventure. Apparently they have it every year but they change the content. It was all based on current pop culture people so as you can imagine they had a Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Edward and Bella, and a very funny Christian Bale when he went crazy on that light guy. Pretty entertaining. We didn't get home until 1:30 AM but it was worth it!

Then on Sunday, Kyle's cousin Jason was in town for a golf tournament and we got to meet up with him. Kyle's dad Gary has a twin brother named Larry and Jason is Larry's son. It was the first time I had met anyone from Gary's side of the family and I was really excited to get to meet him! Kyle hadn't seen him in 15 years so it was a very nice reunion. And he recently got married to an Angela, so there are now two Angela Payne's in the same family! I love it and can't wait to meet her. Jason is the assistant golf coach at the University of Georgia so we got to walk around Islesworth and watch them all play. Islesworth is a really prestigious community in Orlando and is where Tiger Woods (and many other pro golfers) lives and it's the course that he practices at. The course was beautiful and Kyle even said he would be so nervous if he ever got to play that course. We also met up with Jason that night and went to a Kerr's Winghouse (like a hooters, but classier...no not really) for some wings and beer. Jason and Angela have invited us to Athens, GA for the Georgia / Tennessee Tech football game next weekend and I hope we get to go. It is only about a 6 hour drive so I'm pretty sure we're going to take them up on their offer. And they are expecting a little sweet baby in April so we are excited for them! Thank you Jason for the passes to the tournament and we hope we get to see you soon!

Love,

us

Mom and Jack Visit

Last Thursday my mom and Jack came in from Dallas to spend a couple days with us! It was so nice to spend time with family! On Thursday night we went to dinner at a place mom loves in Orlando called Fish Bones. We hadn't eaten there before but it was a wonderful dinner and everybody loved their meals. They have this huge wood fire grill in the front where they cook the fish and meat and it smelled amazing.

On Friday they dropped me off at work and got to see my office and then headed over to the Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach for the day. They found this place along the way to ride on one of those airboats. I didn't know what that was, but she explained it to me! They got to ride on it in the swamps and saw some gators and other wildlife. They did say it was really fun so maybe it's something we should try out too. Then they went to the Kennedy Space Center which we also have not been to. They enjoyed it and that is definitely one place I want to go while we are here. Then they went to Cocoa beach for a little bit and came home. By time they got back to the house Friday night they were exhausted so we just ordered pizza and hung out at home.

On Saturday we got up and got ready to watch the OU/ tx game. I must say it was quite painful to watch them at the fair and not be there. I think we vowed to never miss this game again. I really missed everything about OU/ tx weekend, especailly the corny dogs! After the game we went to this place called Wonderworks. It's another place in Orlando that we hadn't been to yet and it was interesting. It's sort of like a big fun house with different things to do. It's hard to explain, check it out here...http://www.wonderworksonline.com/html/

After that we went to dinner at Bahama Breeze! Talk about blast from the past. The food was actually a bit better than I remembered. After that we were all pretty exhausted and went home since we knew Sunday was going to be a big day!

Sunday we went to our first Disney park since moving to Orlando...it only took us 8 months. But it helps when your parents buy the tickets for you to get in ;-) We went to Epcot and they are having an International Food and Wine Festival right now which was really fun. The weather was really nice too. I broke out my northface for the first time since we've moved. It was a bit windy at times but at least it wasn't inthe 90's! They had a bunch of tents from all different countries and you could sample food, wine, and beer from those countries. Everything we had was really good! We also got to ride some of the rides at Epcot. There is actually a big "ride" inside the silver ball thing. Not the best ride but it was interesting. We also rode the new "Sum of All Fears Ride." You get to create your own rollar coaster and then ride it on this simulater ride. Luckily we didn't really have to wait in line too long because it wasn't too exciting. We ate dinner at Season's 52 that night and had yet another wonderful meal there.

On Monday they decided to get up and go to the west coast beaches which are much prettier. They went to Clearwater for the day and really enjoyed getting to see the white sands! Their flight left on Tuesday and the time went by way too fast. It was such a wonderful visit and I am so glad we got to spend 5 days with them. We can't thank them enough for everything while they were here. We hope they had fun. AW certainly enjoyed getting to play ball with them all the time!

Love,

a and k