The Graces' Place

Hosting our first Thanksgiving, in Pictures

2011-11-26T11:41:00.003-06:00

Days of summer- Crafting

2011-08-20T22:19:00.002-05:00

I haven't been very crafty this summer. Graduate school is a major buzz kill when it comes to craft projects. However, I did work on 1 thing that was pretty fun.

Okay, so my friend and neighbor Stephanie is having a baby boy next month. His name's Garrison.

Here we are at her baby shower this weekend. Isn't she cute?

I wanted to make her something fun to hang on her hospital door/ nursery door. I searched the faithful Pinterest for ideas and saw these:

I decided to try to make a combination of the two and came up with this:

Little Bunting

The most fun part was learning how to make yo yo's!

I watched this video tutorial and it was super easy and fun!

Spot the Difference

2011-08-14T17:37:00.002-05:00

Aside from the snow and the car in the driveway, can you spot the difference in these 2 pictures?

February 2011

July 2011

Okay, maybe the blinds being up in the window was a clue. If you guessed that the eaves are a different color, you are correct! The eaves on the front of our 2 gables used to be buttery yellow and it bugged me. I think it sortof clashed with the brick and especially with our green door. Probably nothing anyone else ever noticed but me, but hey, I live here and have to see it every day when pulling into the driveway, right?

Here's a closeup pic (disregard the fried plants)

Ryan did all of the painting for me. It was no easy task because those parts of the roof are very slanted and it isn't easy to sit or stand on there. It took about 3x longer than we anticipated. Thanks, Ryan for a job well done!

Days of summer--Golf and neighbors

2011-08-07T16:29:00.002-05:00

Another part of our summer has been playing golf. Actually, A little less "our" and a little more "Ryan's". Let me explain:

A more accurate picture might be this: Ryan playing golf and me driving the cart and hitting a few puts and drives every once in a while with his clubs.

I don't have my own set yet and I'm not certain I'm ready to commit to golf. I'm pretty competitive and if I am not very good at something I don't really like it.

Makes it tough to get better, huh? Yup, but anyway I hear (and see) that golf can be a pretty frustrating and expensive hobby. So for now I'll just enjoy driving the cart for Ryan and ~~deepening~~ starting my summer tan.

We have been to the driving range together a few times and I have caddied a handful of rounds or so. It has been some good quality time together.

Actually, one fun part of our summer has been hanging out with our friends--Garrett and Stephanie. They like to play golf so we've gone to play with them a few times. We love them and always enjoy spending time with them. We're so excited the moved onto our street this year!

Stephanie and I

Garrett eating some subway

Days of summer--The Connollys and Pinterest

2011-08-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

Our friends, Jason and Jackie Connolly came to visit for 4 days in July. They are on staff with Cru at Rice University in Houston so we don't get to see them much! They brought their game Ticket to Ride, which we really like. We had a lot of fun even though Jason dominated all of us :)

Here Jason is with the board at the end of the game. (He was black)

We had a little shindig for Jason and Jackie on a Saturday night. We wanted to throw a party for them to give them an opportunity to see lots of their friends at the same time. Unfortunately no pictures were taken during the event but I did manage to snag a pic of these fruit kabobs I created. I got the idea from Pinterest.

Speaking of which, Pinterest deserves a blog post in itself. I discovered it in May. It's a pretty fun site. Let me know if you want an invite. (It's invitation only).

That's all for now! More posts from our summer coming soon.

Days of summer--small group

2011-08-03T17:41:00.004-05:00

I fell off the blogging bandwagon a little bit. We've been pretty busy. In the next few posts I'll attempt to recap what we've been up to. No promises on chronological order :)

Since February we have been hosting church small group at our house every week. I don't think I've mentioned that before. We eat dinner the first half of the time and then do our study. This summer our church has been doing a topical series--a break from our Letters of Paul series we've been doing for 2 or 3 years now. This particular night was a small crowd. Some members of our group have been traveling this summer. We miss them and are ready for them to come home!

small group dinner

Some fun new additions to our small group are the Foster family. They have 3 kiddos and one of them turned 2 last week. Here he is blowing out his 2 candles in 1/2 of an ice cream sandwich :)

chocolate lips

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa O'Leary

2011-07-31T16:06:00.007-05:00

Two weekends ago Carly and I took a trip to see my grandparents in Chickalah, AR... Close to Dardanelle, AR which is only really known as the home town of...

John Daly and being just south of Russellville, AR. Which is only really known as the home of...

Whatta-Burger. That and being halfway in between Fort Smith and Little Rock on I-40.

We went to go visit my grandparents before left to move to Colorado Springs for the foreseeable future. We'll miss them, but hopefully we will be able to make it out there to visit every once in a while.

Here we are with them in front of their house.

We had lunch with them and then after that we played Tripoli. It's a game that has been a tradition in the O'Leary family for many years. This is the board with all the chips anted up.

Their chips are really old, but I think they're pretty cool. I think they've been around for 50 years almost.

After you ante up, someone deals all the cards out. One hand to each player and two hands to the dealer...

The dealer looks at their first hand and decides if they want to keep it or not. If they decide to keep it, they can sell their other hand to the highest bidder. Otherwise they take their second hand and no one gets to look at the other hand since the dealer already saw it.

After the cards are dealt and the dealer decides whether they are selling their hand or not, everyone bids on a poker hand based on their best 5 cards. The winner doesn't have to show their cards yet, it's on the honor system. We had to watch my grandpa closely on this one! :)

Whoever won the poker hand starts out playing their lowest black card. Once they play it (3 of clubs for example) whoever has the next highest card (4 of clubs) lays it down and so on. This continues until no one can play. Then, whoever played the last card plays the lowest of one of their red suits. This alternates back and forth from suite to suite. If you lay down a card on the board, you get the chips on that spot. The first person to play their last card gets some chips from the board and everyone else has to pay them how many cards they have left in their hand. As you can see, my grandpa took us to town! Look at the excitement on his face as he reaches for more chips!

While we were playing, Rosie stayed outside and enjoyed being on a farm. She really likes having some room to run around.

After the game, we went outside to go look at a tree that had one half torn off from a recent tornado. On our way, we ran across their sheep. Rosie would have loved to see them, but we left her at the house!

Here is the tree. As you can see, the left half of it was torn off my the high winds from the recent tornado while the right side was left complete in tact. Pretty crazy.

We had a great visit in with my grandparents. It was nice to get to see them and visit them one last time before they head out. After we left, we stopped at a snow cone stand where Carly got a Cola Snow cone. She loves cola snow cones and apparently they don't have them in NWA. For the record, she said it was the best snow cone of the summer!

Boy Oh Boy!

2011-06-07T22:31:00.007-05:00

A few weeks ago a 2 friends and I had the opportunity to throw a fun baby shower for our friend Emily who's due this month! Emily is so special to us and she appreciates details. Emily is very down to earth and likes vintage stuff so we tried to stick with a classic/vintage theme with a flair. Our friend Kelsea Walkley designed the invitation that set the main theme for the shower--classic wagon. She has a great website you should visit called http://www.petit4prints.com/ where you can see her stuff! The shower was at my house and Megan and Cara helped with everything! We had a lot of fun throwing this shower for Emily! We can't wait to meet baby McCall!

the invitation

Ryan hung this tissue ball outside for me instead of balloons :) I like this better.

Maybe I'll keep it for Razorback games!

My friend, Mandy let me borrow her red wagon for the front porch

the hostesses with Emily

My friend, Kristy let me use her boys' old dump truck

guest sign in

birthday

2011-06-02T11:55:00.002-05:00

I had a fun, relaxing birthday this year. That morning Ryan took me to breakfast and then took me shopping. I got to take a nap later and relax. Ryan planned a fun little birthday party for me that night. 14 friends came and ate dinner with us at Bonefish Grill in Rogers. It's one of my favorite restaurants! After that we made a trip to the new t.c.b.y. Later that night, our neighbors, Garrett and Stephanie, along with Donny and Myra came over. Thank you friends for the presents and for coming to celebrate!

Ryan took a lot of pictures. He's like a personal paparazzi!

Me and Myra

showing off some new bling

Steve drew this for me!

eating dinner

Helena!

i love him!

me + Kara!

the whole group

girls hanging out eating frozen yogurt

Ryan and Steve decided to coordinate

Ryan making a "shark bite" for Myra. It's a silly drink he made up.

If you want more details, I'll let him explain it to you ;)

Europe Trip

2011-05-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

Ryan and I recently returned from a 2 week vacation to Europe. Ryan had the opportunity to attend a 2 day convention for work in Belgium, so we tagged on a vacation before and after the convention. After all, it seemed silly to travel all that way just for 2 days! ;)

I am in the process of posting pictures on Facebook because that seems to be a lot easier to caption and view the photos. So I'm just posting a little preview here. Check facebook if you want to see more!

We visited the Netherlands first. We stayed in Amsterdam and took a couple day-trips to nearby places like Haarlem and Keukenhoff.

Canals abound

Shrubbery maze

Day trip to Keukenhof

Queens Day

Day trip to Haarlem in front of Corrie Ten Boom's house

Next we took a train to Belgium and spent 3 days there. Ryan didn't end up needing to spend too much time at his convention so we had plenty of time to explore!

Royal Palace

Ryan going to the convention

Favorite Dinner in Brussels

Delirium Tremens Cafe and Pub

Next we took a train to Paris, France, where we spent 6 days. I was a little hesitant to go with Paris, at first. I was afraid it might be too cliché . Wrong! Gorgeous and wonderful and all it's hyped up to be. We spent every day in Paris, except a day trip to Versailles.

Eiffel. duh.

First Parisian dinner

on top of the arc

Day trip to Versailles

The Louvre

Our favorite bakery down the street from our hotel

the Arc de Triomphe

Dinner Cruise on the Seine River our last night

4 Years ago...

2011-05-17T21:32:00.000-05:00

4 years ago I married the man of my dreams! I think this past year we have grown a lot together and grown in maturity, thanks to the Lord!

Every year for our anniversary we take a little trip. This year we took a big one! We just got back from Europe! I need to post pictures from the trip, but here's a sneak peak from day one in Paris, France.

Ryan sent me a beautiful bouquet at work today.
I love flowers! I think he's the best!

We ate dinner together tonight at one of our favorite pizza joints--Mellow Mushroom. They gave us a smiley face cookie for our anniversary. I thought that was funny!

I really don't like having my birthday and anniversary so close (4 days apart!) but Ryan does the BEST job of celebrating them separately. Birthdays and anniversaries were always celebrated in my family, so they are very special to me!

I love you, Ryan! Thanks for making our anniversary so special!

Fellowship Dinner

2011-04-18T20:59:00.000-05:00

You may know that Ryan and I were very involved in a ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ (or CRU) while attending the University of Arkansas. In fact, we actually met through this ministry! We both grew so much in our walks with God through being involved in Campus Crusade. We are very passionate about this ministry and love to have opportunities to give back to it.

Since college we have attended the annual Fellowship Dinner. It's a benefit dinner to raise funds to support CRU at U of A. It's really fun to hear what God's doing through students right down the road at our Alma Mater! Many student leaders currently involved in the ministry gave testimonies of how God was growing them and what is happening in students lives. It was very encouraging!

This is the first year Ryan and I have been able to host a table. Other years we have had too much going on and so we only attended as guests at other tables. This year we got to bring several of our friends from church to hear about this ministry we're so passionate about!

I didn't take any pictures at the benefit but I did snap some shots at Common Grounds, afterward.

Donny and Myra

Rick and Monica

Lesley and Rachelle

Me and Kara

Double birthday

2011-04-16T10:54:00.001-05:00

We celebrated 2 special birthdays last week! Ryan's parents both have April birthdays and we celebrated both on the same weekend. His parents were sweet enough to come up to Fayetteville because I was on call that weekend and couldn't make it down to Russellville to visit them.

We took the day off Friday and they came up that morning. We made lunch and Ryan and his dad played disc golf at a new course while his mom and I went to a local nursery. We got some good plants for our yards :) That night we took them out to Bonefish Grill for dinner. Next morning we made them breakfast and then enjoyed browsing the Farmer's market and visited our new favorite local bakery. We really enjoyed their visit!

Ryan's mom opening a birthday gift (his dad's will come on his actual birthday)

Her 1st pair of Tom's :)

She's pretty cute, huh?

Dinner at Bonefish

the Birthday couple

Financial Stweardship at CRU

2011-04-09T22:15:00.014-05:00

Carly and I were asked to speak to a group of Campus Crusade student Leadership (a group called M29) at the University of Arkansas. Carly and I actually met through this ministry when we were in college! The students we spoke to were a group of seniors int their last semester of college and this study they are in is all about preparing them for life/ministry after college.

We chose to speak on financial stewardship because this is a great passion of mine. I have been very interested and passionate about financial stewardship since college. I know I have a lot to learn, but I feel like God has given me this passion. I would like to explore how God might use this in the future someday.

Carly and I talked about 5 principles of financial stewardship and tried to make it as interesting as we could. One of the principles was on debt. We showed this skit from SNL to bring some humor into it.

Carly and I were surprised that night to have a mini-reunion with old friends that were involved in Campus Crusade when we were in college. Evan and Emily provided dinner to the students, Megan is on staff and Andrew was visiting from out of town. We snapped a photo to capture the nostalgia. Megan is married to Aaron Fenderson who, although not pictured, is awesome.

Here are our friends from L to R: Andrew, Evan, me, Carly, Emily and Megan.

Boston this year

2011-03-31T11:46:00.000-05:00

We took a trip to Boston for 6 days last week so Ryan could attend an annual convention for work. I was glad to tag along :) I did a lot of shopping with my friend Denise while our husbands were working. Ryan and I got to see some things we haven't seen in Boston before like MIT and Harvard. We also visited the New England Aquarium. I could fill a whole page with pics Ryan took at the aquarium. Maybe he can write his own blog post about it. He's more into aquariums than I. :) We really enjoyed the weather this year compared to last. We did a lot of walking, which was nice. I love Boston, although I'm not sure I could imagine living there. I look forward to visiting each year though!

We stayed at The Eliot.

Our darling room

After lunch at Charley's. Our new favorite bread place.

Saw the Blue Man Group that night. Me and My friend Denise!

Dinner at Sonsie. Ryan had dessert for dinner. I had an amazing sweet potato based pizza.

Date night at the Cactus Club on Newbury.

Some overpriced seafood joint on the ocean

Found my way to the Jo Malone counter at Sak's

Maine Lobster on top of the Prudential Center.

visited MIT

Ryan getting fitted by the cutest Italian tailor!

Adios Beantown!

Oh to be young

2011-03-30T20:20:00.000-05:00

Someone had a birthday! Okay, yeah it was last month. Blogging hasn't been a priority much lately. But, in other news, I heard a rumor that this birthday boy will be making contribution to the blog soon, so stay posted!

Ryan and Donny chatting at the Catfish Hole. Ryan's restaurant choice for his b-day. Haha!

His Fly fishing cake from Ricks. I was not impressed with Rick's decorating skills this time.

Are those ocean waves?

candles

I managed to get in 1 pic for the night :) that's our friend/pastor Scott.

I made Ryan homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next morning

Rising

Ryan's parents took us out to Bordino's that night. Delicious!

I look fatigued. probably was. But look at his baby blues {swoon}

Happy birthday, babe!

beauty

2011-03-18T16:25:00.000-05:00

An unfortunate event happened in my yard the other day. Unfortunate time-wise that is.

Just before we left for Boston, these beauties started popping up in our flower beds! Last fall, Ryan and I dug 2 ft deep into our beds, added bone meal and peat moss for soil drainage and planted over 60 tulip bulbs we ordered online. I was afraid they would start to bloom just before our trip and sure enough.... Oh well. Maybe the house sitter will enjoy them. Maybe they'll still be in their prime when we get back. It's been so windy, all the petals may blow away!

love and pizza

2011-02-28T21:48:00.000-06:00

Valentine Love from Ryan :)

Flowers at work is always a good thing.

That night we actually celebrated Valentines on the actual day. (A first in our 6 Valentines together). We went out on a limb and had dinner at Mellow Mushroom. Tried the Buffalo Chicken Pizza. I have a new found love for that place!

two feet under

2011-02-10T12:31:00.000-06:00

Well yesterday we got nearly 2 feet of snow in about 12 hours! Ryan and I have never experienced this much snow in NWA and we may never again! Here's some pictures we took around our house during the day. I don't think we took any of the maximum accumulation but you can see it's up to my knees. Last night the temperature hit -17. Thats's an all-time record for Fayetteville! Wow!

She thinks she's a sled dog or somethin'

see the tiny bird tracks?

those lumps are our bushes

winter fun

2011-02-10T12:04:00.001-06:00

We've had quite the weather these days! Last week was an ice storm with snow on top that kept us from working 3 days. We made the best of it and spent time with our friends!

Beer and Pizza with our friends, Donny and Myra

Bariola's pizza is very close to our houses. We think it's the best pizza in town!

S'mores for Dessert at the Epp's

We crashed the Cornett's Small group because no one else was able to make it due to the weather.

Boys playing video games

A few nights later we had people over to play games. These troopers made it through the snow.

Guys having serious convo while we play

good friends!

Alex and John

On Saturday we built a snow man at Donny and Myra's. Check out Sammie's ears.

Myra's baby snow man

How to paint stripes on a wall and have fun while doing it

2011-01-21T00:03:00.000-06:00

A few weekends ago we went down to Little Rock to help Whit and Lauren paint their new house. (They still haven't moved in). We got a lot accomplished-- the kitchen, the hallway, dining room and taped off 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. The dining room turned out really cute. They painted 1 color on the wall and then we painted stripes over it. Here are the steps so you can see the before and after :)

Step 1. Paint all the walls one of the colors of the stripes you want. (It's best to paint the lighter color first and the dark second). This is after they painted the robin's egg blue color on all the walls)

Step 2. Hire or bribe an Interior Designer to measure and draw perfectly straight lines and make sure 2 stripes aren't the same color at the end. My mom's a pretty awesome line drawer, as you will see later!

Step 3. Tape off the lines that you wish to paint (make sure the tape is outside the line of the 2nd color's space. hence the reason the stripes look wide, narrow, wide, narrow.) It works best to use premium tape that doesn't bleed easily. (not standard blue tape).

Step 4. Pause for a photo op in your lovely painting clothes and no makeup!

Step 5. Paint the inside of the lines the 2nd color.

Our hunky husbands

Step 6. Go out to a family birthday dinner in your painting clothes since you don't have any other clothes with you and you were running late (check.)

Step 6.5 On the way home stop at Starbucks to give you energy to paint the 2nd coat on the stripes.

-no pics of 2nd coat-

Step 7. Carefully peel off tape after paint is dry but still tacky

No comment.

Step 8. Marvel at the contrast and beauty

Step 9. Squeal with excitement! You just painted stripes yourself!

Finished product :)

Tulsa in a day

2011-01-17T08:44:00.003-06:00

Okay, so New Years Day Ryan and I took a trip with Whit and Lauren (My brother and sis in law) to Tulsa. The main reason for our visit was because of a furniture auction that occurs almost every Saturday of the month that sells closeouts and overstocks from many furniture stores. We knew that on this particular Saturday they were going to be selling a huge shipment of Therapedic and Sealy mattresses, for which both couples happened to be in the market! The auction has pictures of the furniture etc. on their website so we knew ahead of time that it was going to be worth our drive to Tulsa. Both couples found what they were looking for-- a King mattress for them and for us, a Queen for one of the guest bedrooms.

Whit and Lauren just bought their first home in Little Rock. Almost all their furniture came furnished with the apartment so they were also looking for some good deals on basic furniture for their new house! Tulsa has really good furniture store selection, in our experience (see this post to see our bedroom suite find last year). We rented a u-haul in Tulsa and drove it back to Fayetteville that night. Ryan and I had some furniture we were handing down to them, so they left Fayetteville with a truckload!

We had such a great time with our family and lots of bonding experiences that weekend. We love our family!

Lauren and Whit brought my dad's diesel truck up to pull the uhaul we would rent in Tulsa. Unfortunately it is not very temperature controlled so we were either freezing or our faces were scorching the whole way. We made the best of it :)

Whit driving the truck

Whit and Lauren testing out a mattress at the auction. They got a King Therapedic Mattress and box spring for half the retail cost (we did our research).

Lauren and I both thought Tom's were a good idea that day.
We were waiting for our items to go up for bid at the auction.

Later that evening after a full day of shopping....Picking up their furniture from the furniture store warehouse. They got 2 side tables for their living room, a coffee table and a bed frame to go with their new mattress :)

Waiting on the stockers to bring out the boxed furniture. We were cold!

The uhaul trailer may or may not have been on half of it's wheels at the loading dock. You be the judge.

Lauren and I made the obvious choice to eat at the Cheesecake Factory before heading back to Fayetteville

Tired but happy!

One packed u-haul
We filled it to the brim at our house in Fayetteville, which was an experience. Let's just say the girls and guys had different opinions on how to pack the u-haul most efficiently... ;)

New Year!

2011-01-16T21:29:00.003-06:00

My borhter and sister-in-law, Whit and Lauren came to visit us for New Years Eve weekend. One reason they came up was because of a little trip to Tulsa we took on New Years day. (I'll explain that in my next post!). The 4 of us went out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for New Year's Dinner which was delicious! Afterward we all went to a party hosted by some friends from church. It was fun to have Whit and Lauren get to know some of our good friends up here. We actually headed home a little before midnight due to our imminent trip the next day. Here are some pics from our night. I forgot to take any at the party :o/

Me and my brother, Whit

Family pic :)

Whit and Lauren

friends and family!

We were waiting on they boys to finish watching the game on tv

Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse!

~Happy New Year~

A visit from our Marine!

2010-12-29T20:57:00.001-06:00

Ryan's brother, Brenden came to visit us last week. He is a Recon Marine and just got back from a 7 month tour overseas. Ryan and I took off work and got to spend about 5 days with him in Fayetteville and Russellville. We did tons of stuff, many of which were "manly activities" as you will see below.

A picture of Brenden from abroad :) tough, huh?

Playing shuffleboard

Throwing darts

Shooting Pool

Taking Rosie to the dog park

Rosie loves Brenden

Watching the Godfather for the first time for all 3 of us. Brenden insisted they drink Mickey's while watching. I wrapped Christmas presents.

Fried Pickles and Margaritas for Brenden

Christmas Eve Dinner in Russellville--waffles!

Disc golf at the new course in Russellivlle

I walked Rosie instead of playing this time. It was freezing! (hence the scarf)

Jason's wedding in Dallas

2010-12-27T16:13:00.004-06:00

A couple weekends ago we drove down to Dallas for Jason's wedding! Ryan was a best man and my brother, Whit was an usher so he and his wife Lauren came down too. Ryan got there early Friday night and I was the only girl hanging out with 6 dudes (Whit and Lauren came Saturday).We took Clay's crazy truck to a place called the Holy Grail to hang out.
On Saturday all the groomsmen and ushers did bachelor stuff so Lauren and I were forced to go shopping in Dallas. sigh ;) We had a good time and even made a trip to the Cheesecake Factory, one of our favorite restaurants. Saturday night was the rehearsal dinner and Sunday was the wedding! It was a really fun weekend! Best wishes, Jason and Jackie!

Clay's crazy ride.

Jason riding shotgun. You're getting married in 2 days!

Clay driving his big rig

Ryan laughing and Aaron acting mad

riding in the back seat :)

All the guys. I was their party pic girl.

Rehearsal dinner photo courtesy of Arron Conner

Ryan giving his speech (photo by Aaron Conner)

Groomsmen and Ushers

Before the wedding

Jason and Jackie Connolly

Me and Lauren

Happy Couple photo by Aaron Conner

Husband, brother and Jason (like a half brother)

Ryan, me Lauren and Whit! Love them!

Weekend Getaway

2010-11-30T21:36:00.000-06:00

Ryan and I took a little impromptu weekend getaway to Branson earlier this month. Unfortunately we never got any pictures together, but we have several from our trip. We stayed at Château on the Lake, which is conveniently located near the dam, where Ryan likes to fly fish. We spent a lot of time shopping at the outlet malls and at the Branson Landing. One night we ate dinner and watched the Razorback game in the Lounge of Level 2 Restaurant in the Hilton. It turned out to be a great game against Mississippi State and we had such a good time hanging out together and eating a delicious filet. We got some good deals at the outlet malls and Ryan caught some nice Rainbow trout, as you will see. I really enjoyed the special time we had together. I'm thankful to have the means and such a thoughtful husband to be able enjoy such a special weekend.

Hotel

Crazy Gingerbread church in hotel lobby

Branson Landing

Shopping til we drop

Pony ride break

our loot

One of Ryan's many catches.

bed-head with a big 'ole fish

trip to Dallas

2010-10-22T14:09:00.001-05:00

We traveled to Dallas 2 weekends ago for the Arkansas vs. Texas A&M game at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington. We invited my brother, Whit and his wife Lauren to go with us. It just so happens my parents were also going with their community group so we all ended up getting to hang out together. Thankfully we won the game! We all enjoyed a delicious visit to Blue Mesa and visited Ikea before heading home Sunday afternoon. I love my family!

Ryan and I stopped by the Landon Winery in McKinney to purchase a case of wine to enjoy at home. We ended up tasting some wines as well.

eating dinner at the Cheesecake Factory--Lauren and I couldn't pass up the opportunity!

girls

guys

tailgating with may parents' community group

me and my dad

at the game!

I really liked our seats. We were on the lowest level.

Chicago is for lovers

2010-10-14T22:06:00.000-05:00

Cloud Gate, aka The Bean

skyline from Millennium Park

walking through Millennium Park

With our friends, Nathan and Jessica at Navy Pier

lovers :)

Riding the Ferris Wheel at the Pier

some more highlights from Chi-town

2010-10-14T21:51:00.000-05:00

Gorgeous skyline and Lake Michigan

John Hancock Tower

Drinks on top of the tower. The Lounge is called the Signature Room, get it?

Very cool view!

view of Navy Pier

a 3-d scaled model of the city at the Chicago Architecture Foundation

Art

2010-10-14T21:46:00.000-05:00

The Art Institute of Chicago was my favorite thing we did in Chicago. Ryan's favorite was something else, but I'll save that for another post. Here were our top five picks.

Vincent's Bedroom in Arles Vincent Van Gogh

Claude Monet Haystacks

American Gothic by Grant Wood

One of Claude Monet's Water Lillies

Ryan's favorite piece. Woo Pig Sooie!

John Steurt Curry's Pig Killing Snake

to come

2010-10-08T09:26:00.000-05:00

In less than an hour we're hitting the road to Dallas for the weekend for some fun and to go to the Arkansas/A&M game.

We just got back from Chicago Monday night and I haven't had a chance to go through any pictures. So here's a sneak peek from our trip!

More to come!

WPS

2010-10-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

I'm up late taking a break from grad school homework and I thought I'd write a little post. We just got back from Chicago so I'll be writing about that soon, hopefully!

Woo Pig Sooie! Laura Aday and I tailgating before the (tragic) AR/AL game

Ryan with his buddy, Luke
He made me promise to put him on the blog ;)

Why so busy?

2010-09-29T07:13:00.000-05:00

One thing that's been keeping me so busy has been a huge event I've been in charge of putting on. It was the NWA District Dietetic Association Conference. Basically it's an all day continuing education conference for all the Registered Dietitians in the 6 county area. We had 50-75 attendees. I am on the Executive Board for thew Association and I'm the CEU chair, which means that the meeting is my ultimate responsibility. Yikes! I had some help from my fellow board members, but this meeting took a ton of work. We had to arrange for 8 speakers, sign up sponsors for our event, collect door prizes for the attendees, and much more! I have been working on it since June. Ryan is really glad to have it over with too :). He actually helped me a ton in the last stretch before the meeting, making copies of slides for me and picking up one of the speakers at the airport. This has basically taken up as much time as a part time job, so now I'll have much more time to focus on grad school and my job! I was very pleased with the conference, though. We had a great turnout and got really good feedback. Here's some pics of the chaos:

Stuffing Packets for the meeting

Printing, Stapling, Organizing power point slides

some of the door prizes

75 giveaway bags. At one point I caught Rosie laying in the middle of these

A picture of the meeting. Look at all that learning taking place :)

love my man

2010-09-26T20:40:00.001-05:00

Several weeks ago we took a belated anniversary trip to Kansas City. We left Thursday and came back Sunday, so it was a nice, long weekend. It was so nice to have a getaway together. We stayed at the Westin downtown. Some of the highlights were: shopping at The Legends outlet malls, walking around The Plaza, Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun, dinner at The Melting Pot, and many other delicious restaurants! Ryan totally spoiled me. I love him so much. Here's some pics from our trip. Unfortunately I didn't take a ton, and not many of the highlights.

Our hotel

Arriving at our room. I was having an allergy attack!

spacious room was nice

We shared this enormous cinnamon roll.

Relaxing at Oceans of Fun

Riding a Ride at Worlds of Fun

Ryan got a little sick on the roller coasters so I had to ride some by myself hehe

We came across this CUTE creperie that was so delicious we at there twice for breakfast!

(We love Crepes)

Crazy big menu of all the crepe choices

Sweet honey enjoying some crepes

He doesn't look happy in the picture but he was a trooper shopping at the outlets

Taking a break from shopping

We laughed at this every time we passed it

Utah bound

2010-09-15T14:00:00.002-05:00

I'm at the airport right now on my way to Utah. Why, you might ask? I'm headed to Utah State University to attend orientation for the Masters of Dietetic Administration program (MDA).

The short story is- I'm finishing my master's degree through Utah State University.

Preparation for going back to school has been one of the things keeping me busy lately. I fell off the blogging bandwagon for a while and I'm not sure that I'll be blogging very consistently for a while because I'm still so busy with other things.

Ryan, on the contrary just finished his MBA in July and other than his crazy work demands, he has lots of free time! Maybe he can start blogging on "our" blog now :)

Long story is- I began my masters through Utah State University in Fall of 2008 when I started my dietetic internship via distance learning. I gained 29 hours toward my masters by the end of the school year when I finished the Dietetic Internship. After completing my internship I was eligible to sit for the RD exam. I did and passed and began working as a Registered Dietitian at my hospital.

The internship I did was designed to allow working Dietitians to go back and finish their masters with only 15 more credits of graduate school. This is what I'm doing now. The program requires a plan B thesis, which is a project based thesis. I will complete this project at the administrative level in my workplace.

I am on my way to Utah for a little orientation to the second half of the master's program and to meet my thesis committee and get things started. I won't have to go back to Utah until I defend my thesis in approximately 1 year. I will have quizzes and reading through Blackboard and online lectures for the coursework.

I am excited about the coursework. The classes I am going to be taking should likely help me do my job better. I am specifically looking forward to a class on counseling and interviewing clients. this is an area I would like to grow in as a Clinician.

I am not looking forward to the thesis aspect to the master's program. Research and writing are not my forte. :)

more later about what we've been up to.
-Carly

Poor, neglected blog

2010-09-07T07:50:00.002-05:00

We've been insanely busy. That's my excuse. I'll explain later. Be back soon!

5's company

2010-08-06T12:31:00.002-05:00

We have some good friends from our church--Katie and Josh who are about our age. A year ago they decided to foster 3 siblings. A year later they've still got them and we've all grown to love them so much. Katie and Josh had to go out of town last weekend so we kept their kids. We had such a good time! We did a lot of fun stuff with them as you will see below...

Friday morning I took them to the Prairie Grove Water Park all by myself. They were really good. I'm glad since it was 3 on 1! Here they are all suited up and sunscreened.

Next I took them to the Gentry Safari. They had a great petting zoo at the beginning with all kinds of animal babies. Here they are petting a baby cheetah.

Nate and Isaiah petting a big turtle

During the drive through part we saw bigger animals like this zebra :)

Friday night we met up with Ryan after he got off work and took the kiddos to eat at Grubs. Kids eat free, after all!

The kids talked Ryan into taking them to orange Mango afterward even though it was past

their bedtime ;)

"What was I thinking?" (It was a little hectic at this point)

full of frozen yogurt

The next morning, Isaiah insisted on wearing his goggles while eating breakfast

When she woke up she came downstairs dressed in this outfit and proceeded to eat breakfast in it.

Saturday we took the kids to the Springdale Aquatic park

Ryan and I had so much fun playing in the water with them

Nate took our picture at lunch

We had so much fun and hope we get to do it again!

reason 2

2010-07-30T05:18:00.000-05:00

The second reason we went down to Little Rock last weekend was for my friend Laura's wedding. Laura was a good friend in college. She has since moved to Dallas and Little Rock where she will now live with her new hubbie Steve. Steve is a really great guy and I know he'll be a wonderful husband to Laura. She deserves the best :) The Stracks put on a really fun reception-here are some pics.

Eoffs/Graces

Me w/ the bride :)

Laura w/ the new Mrs. Aday

Love him

Luke and Ryan

Us with the Sheltons

baby V

2010-07-28T23:45:00.002-05:00

Ryan and I made a trip down to Little Rock this month for 2 special reasons. One will be in my next post and one was to see my precious friends Lincoln & John's new baby boy Valin Marks Harris. Lincoln is such a precious friend to me and I was so delighted to meet her new firstborn! She is doing so great and I know she is going to be such an easy going, fun mom! Here's some pictures of the new little bundle!

Fort Lauderdale

2010-07-23T07:04:00.002-05:00

We took a 7 day vacation to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in early July with my (Carly) family. Ft. Lauderdale is just north of Miami on the Atlantic coast. We had a great time and got lots of sun. We rented a beach house for the week that luckily had a pool, which we took full advantage of. It also had a pool table that we used a lot at night time. My favorite day was when my dad took all the kids deep sea fishing. My brother Whit and I got a little sea sick but no vomiting, fortunately! Ryan and Whit played golf 2 days. They said it was very hot compared to playing in Arkansas but they had a good time.

The whole group!

Me and Meredith

about to go out to dinner

watching fireworks on the beach 4th of July

didn't take a pic of our beach house so this one's from the website.

pool & hot tub.

Deep Sea fishing. A dolphin ate my fish's body!

Ryan with a fish he caught

waiting on the fish we caught to be cooked!

all the girls

the boys

Long Time Coming

2010-07-19T13:27:00.000-05:00

I've been super slacking on the blog. Sorry! We've been so busy it has just dropped off the radar. I have several things I'd like to post about including our recent beach vacation and my friend Lincoln's new baby. I'll try to get to work on that.

Ryan is officially finished with his M.B.A. He teasingly tells me I have to call him "Master Ryan" now :). Next year I'll be right up there with him and I'll make his call me "Master Carly" to give him a taste of his own medicine.

We are really looking forward to Ryan having more free time. It hasn't really set in for wither of us yet that he doesn't have to do homework every night after work! We have a few house projects planned now that he's finished and at some point we are going to take a long weekend to celebrate our anniversary from back in May.

I have been staying busy with work and another side project: I am a board member for the NWA District Dietetics Association and am planning our fall meeting. It's good experience, but taking a lot of work!

I don't like to blog without a picture, so here's a shot I captured quickly as I waled into our living room. Ryan likes to hold Rosie like a baby sometimes. (Both pathetic and sweet in my opinion). :)

Laura's Bridal Shower

2010-06-20T19:07:00.000-05:00

My friends Mandy Casteel and Mandy Eoff helped me throw a bridal shower for our friend Laura Strack last weekend. We had a little Bridal lunch at the party room at Noodles Italian Kitchen. I haven't been able to go to any of Laura's showers yet so I was happy to have an opportunity to host one. Laura is a laid back, sweet and godly friend who I met in college through Campus Crusade Bible study. She's marrying a great guy named Steve Aday in less than 1 month! I'm really happy for her. Here's some pics of the shower.

opening gifts

flowers

cute table cloth Mandy Eoff picked out

eating lunch

We love Laura!

Cake

baby Valin's shower

2010-05-31T18:34:00.001-05:00

My good friend, Lincoln is having her fist baby in almost a month. My mom and I attended her baby shower this weekend in Little Rock. I can't wait to meet baby Valin in early July! Lincoln is such a cute little pregnant lady. I'm really excited for her. She's wanted to be a mommy for a long time!

My mom holding Michelle's baby Eleanor

Kinley, Lincoln's niece. I love her! She's showing me a pigtail here.

Me and Lincoln

Me and my mom

Kinley and her mom Macy, Lincoln's middle sister

growth

2010-05-27T13:11:00.000-05:00

Ever since we planted our flowers and shrubs this spring our plants have been growing like crazy! We are really happy with how it's turned out. I love the colors! I'm so happy we had Julie do our plans for us. We still need to get some more rocks to line the beds and fill in a plant or two in the blank spots. Here's our progress so far...

I love the potted Celosia down there.

This is what it looked like almost 2 years ago when we bought our house.

No more monster truck in the kitchen

2010-05-23T18:34:00.007-05:00

Our dishwasher has been having issues, so we found one for a great price to replace it. We're excited about a new one because we may be able to actually run the dishwasher while in being in the kitchen. To say that our old one was loud would be an understatement. It sounded like a monster truck revving up! Plus, this one is stainless so it matches our other appliances. Also, no more running it twice because the soap dispenser decided not to empty. Hooray!

Here's Ryan installing the new dishwasher with Rosie's help.

That pink tulle is from one of my birthday presents. We put it on Rosie the other day and have discovered sher actually enjoys wearing it. Ryan's been calling her "pretty princess".

Someone get this man a daughter.

Just kidding, don't! I'm not ready!

She is a pretty princess isn't she?

Party Time!

2010-05-22T21:34:00.005-05:00

Friday was my birthday and Ryan threw me a fun party! He ordered a bunch of Chinese Food and invited a bunch of our friends (mostly from church) over for dinner and cake! It was really special. It was nice to have so many friends over and not have to worry about cooking or cleaning before or after (Ryan cleaned the house really good, and we used paper plates, so no dishes!) Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures with everyone who came.

Thank you so much friends! I am very blessed to have friends that are like family. I especially value my good girlfriends who know the best and the worst of me and love me anyway! I am also so blessed to have Ryan-- a wonderful provider and my best friend. If I have to grow older, at least I'm with you, honey!

Yummy cake from Rick's :)

Pretty Birthday Balloons!

Gwendy and Jay

Katie and I

Steve and Helena--soon to be married!

Steve refused to have a non-goofy expression

Ryan and I with Jordan and Mandy!

Me and Teresa

Me and Julie

me and Gwendy

fun friends

2010-05-19T20:11:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to share some pictures from last weekend. We celebrated our friend Alex's 50th birthday. Alex has been a great mentor to Ryan, and he and his wife, Teresa has ministered to us in so many ways all the time we've known them. We joined their small group when we were still dating in college--just before we were engaged. Alex and Teresa are gifted at bringing people in and making them feel welcome. They've taught us a lot about loving on people and hospitality. They are extremely godly, humble people and we really look up to them. We spent the evening with several of our church friends--all really wonderful people :)

me with friends Denise and Tiffany

Ryan with their husbands- Heath and James

Love this little guy

We love Donny and Myra!

Dan and Marnie are moving soon and we're sad!

Colleen and Chad

Alex and Teresa

We love you Alex! You're a great friend.

3 years

2010-05-18T15:22:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was our 3 year anniversary! It seems so long ago and yet not so long at the same time. We are going wait to celebrate our anniversary sometime later this summer for a few reasons 1 is because we are really busy right now with work and Ryan with school. Also, my birthday is Friday and we will be celebrating that with some friends this weekend so we thought we'd spread out the celebrations a little bit :)

Here's a pic to take you back 3 years ago if you were there.

M.B.A.

2010-05-09T17:54:00.003-05:00

Ryan walked at University of Arkansas commencement ceremonies yesterday. He is graduating with his Masters of Business Administration. Technically, he still has class until July (that is when his program ends). He has been working on this for the past 2 years. We're really proud of him and thankful he has had this opportunity given to him. Ryan was awarded high honors for being in the top 10th percentile of his graduating class. He has made straight A's throughout the program! His parents came up to celebrate and attend the graduation with me. We had brunch at Ella's Restaurant at the Inn at Carnall Hall on the corner of campus before walking over to the graduation. We had a great day and wonderful weather!

Ryan and his parents at Old Main

This is his name from Undergrad.

Soon he will have another spot on the walk with MBA after it

I snapped this quick shot as he was walking off the stage

After the ceremony

Buffalo Trip

2010-04-29T21:08:00.016-05:00

We took a Canoe/Camping trip with Ryan's family this weekend. Brenden, Ryan's brother, is visiting from his Marine base in California before he goes on his next tour overseas. Brenden really wanted to canoe the Buffalo River while he was visiting, so we made it happen! We canoed 11.2 miles total. Heading out Sunday and put from Kyle's Landing, we canoed all day and found a camping spot on the riverside. We woke up Monday morning and canoed down to Pruitt where we ended our trip.

Rosie loved it. She wore herself out completely! It was really fun for Ryan and I to watch her swim and enjoy herself so much.

Ryan did quite a bit of fishing out of the canoe and fly fished the river when we stopped along the way. Notice the picture of the huge small mouth bass he caught :)

We had a good time with Brenden watching all of his antics and climbing most rocks he could find. It was really fun spending time with Ryan's parents too. They are pro campers and they cooked a really great meal over the camp fire Saturday night. We had nice weather and had a great time!

Taking a break on the side of the river

]

I love Ryan's smile here. He is laughing at something. Probably me :)

Rosie living her life long dream

So serious

Toward the end of both days, Rosie enjoyed sitting in the canoe--so much that she did not want to get out when we took breaks. Her feet were hurting and cut up from all the rocks in the river and on the shore. Plus she swam almost the whole way! Poor tired girl!

Checking out some river eel or something

Brenden likes tattoos

Hooking an eel for fishing

Look what Ryan caught!

At our camp site on the side of the river

Our tent :) Rosie slept in there with us

Brenden and Jacob eating breakfast

my crazy haired husband :)

D-town

2010-04-28T22:21:00.005-05:00

I went to Dallas this weekend for my high school friend, Beth's wedding. I got to see lots of high school friends that I don't see often. It was really fun!

at Chuy's for lunch

me, Jacqueline, L.C., Jenny, Rachael, Nicole

Ruthie and me

me, Rachael, Nicole, Cory, Mary Susan

Ruthie, me, Beth, Cameron and Corey

High school friends group shot

Lincoln

2010-04-21T18:17:00.003-05:00

My friend Lincoln came to Fayetteville for a visit last weekend. She is expecting her first baby due in July! His name is going to be Valin Marks Harris :) I had a good time shopping at little boutiques around Fayetteville and talking together. Somehow it's so much better in person than on the phone!

Dinner at Pesto Cafe

Isn't her cute little tummy cute?

Love ya, Lincoln!

Downtown

2010-04-15T08:07:00.004-05:00

2 weekends ago I spent some time with my good friend Mandy and her girls Emma Grace and Abby Faith. We went down to the square to browse the farmer's market. Oh, and I brought Rosie too. She needs to be socialized around other dogs and large crowds.

cute girls and their mommy

5 girls

We had to make a stop by Bliss cupcakes!

Notice the "Gentle Leader" collar Rosie has on her head below. One woman griped me out because she thought it was hurting Rosie. She kept saying "Look that it pinching her eye!"....ugh. ignorant people. Made me want to let Rosie loose so she's slobber all over the lady with her big tongue! It may look like a muzzle, but it is actually very loose around her snout. She can eat and drink and lick with it on. It puts pressure on the back of her head, which instinctively causes them not to want to pull away like a regular collar's pressure would... The gentle leader collar has actually really helped us train Rosie not to pull. She is very strong, and without the collar, I don't think I could keep control of her if she wanted to run away and chase a dog!

Abby Faith with the daffodils Mandy bought

Rosie's newest trick

2010-04-15T08:06:00.002-05:00

springtime

2010-04-13T08:19:00.007-05:00

Spring means:

Planting

Lazy days in the sun

Bright colors

Ripening Fruits

and lilies!

Become a follower!

2010-04-07T20:45:00.003-05:00

We want to know you're out there, so become a follower!

Here's some tips from google.

What is Following?

Do you have a favorite blog and want to let the author and readers know that you are a fan? Well now you can do that and more with the Blogger Following feature! You can even keep track of the blogs you follow via your Reading List on the Blogger dashboard.

How do I become a Follower of a Blog?

There are several ways to become a follower of a blog. One of the easiest ways is to click the "Follow" button under the "Followers" widget:

You'll then see a popup window with the options to either follow publicly or privately

Select how you'd like to follow the blog, then click the "Follow this blog" button. It is that simple, you are now a follower of the blog!

If you elected to follow the blog publicly, your profile picture will be displayed on the blog with a link to your Blogger profile. When you become a follower of a blog, the blog will also be added to your Reading List on your Blogger dashboard and this site will also show on your FriendConnect profile for all the sites you've joined using Friend Connect. Additionally, you can become a follower of any blog or URL (even if the blog doesn't have the Followers widget) by adding the blog to your Reading List on the dashboard.

Easter Weekend

2010-04-05T21:41:00.003-05:00

My parents and Grandparents came up for Easter Weekend. We had a lot of fun! We went out to dinner, to the farmer's market and to our church Sunday morning. My sister, Meredith came over and spent lots of time with us too, which was wonderful. Easter Lunch was Ryan and mine's first holiday meal to host in our home. I forgot to take pictures of those festivities--I was too busy! But here's some pics of the rest of the weekend :)

Friday Dinner at Venetian Inn

Can you tell we're in love?

They are too. For 60 years :)

So are they, but a different kind of love :)

Sisters at the Farmer's market!

Rosie loved sniffing all the dogs around.

my parents!

spring was here

2010-03-28T16:19:00.002-05:00

Spring was here, but then it left!

We put the patio furniture cushions out a little too early!

12 inches on our rooftop

action shot of a snowball flying into rosie's head :)

The Athens of America

2010-03-18T20:14:00.019-05:00

The title of this post is yet another nickname for the city of Boston. Some say that this nickname originated because with some 60 colleges and universities, the Boston area has the highest concentration of students of any metropolitan area in the country.

We spent most of the 2nd day shopping. Here's Ryan in the men's section of Filene's Basement. Love that store!

Soldiers and Sailor's monument-civil war monument in Boston Common

Chai Latte at DD.

They're on practically every corner! (originated in Quincy...a suburb of Boston)

This pizza place delivers via bicycle!

Taking a lunch break from all our shopping

Would you like any pizza with your Parmesan cheese?

The following pictures were taken with a phone in dim lighting, so sorry about the bad quality. We had drinks at the top of the Prudential Center. I would have taken a picture of the view 52 stories up, but it was foggy from all the rain :(

coffee beans floating on the top of my mocha latte martini

Beantown

2010-03-18T20:00:00.004-05:00

One of the nicknames for Boston is Beantown. Back in colonial days, a favorite Boston food was beans baked in molasses for several hours.

Historic Quincy Market by Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston

It was very windy--thus Ryan's hairstyle. :)

First Dinner at Il Villagio on the North End (Italian district)

Handsome husband, despite his poor choice of Merlot instead of Chianti :)

It was so good, I wanted to go again, but Ryan said no! Probably wise to try other places.

Apparently this is famous

They tie the boxes up with little strings

s'more and huge peanut butter cup

We ate our dessert back at our hotel. in our bed. don't judge. :)

The Walking City

2010-03-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

Boston is nicknamed "The Walking City" because pedestrian commutes play a larger role than in comparably populated cities. Owing to factors such as the compactness of the city and large student population, 13% of the population commutes by foot, making it the highest percentage of pedestrian commuters in the country out of the major American cities.

Ryan and I took a 5 day trip to there this past weekend. We had a great time! Ryan had a Seafood Convention to attend 2 of the days. I got to go with him to the show for one of the days. Here's some pics from our trip...

We did our share of walking!

hotel view

hotel room

Boston Common

Celtics Game!

They killed the Pistons.

We heart whole foods. We do not heart the rain.

Cutie Pies

2010-03-05T14:27:00.002-06:00

On Tuesday evening we had 2 little visitors come to our house. Mandy was sick and Jordan had to work at M29 and Cru so these 2 cuties got to come to our house. They had a really good time with Rosie, as you can see. Rosie is really tolerant :) Don't just sit there. Leave comments! You know they're cute. :)

James at the Mill--Food Critique

2010-03-03T18:03:00.006-06:00

Ryan, Meredith (my sister) and I went to James at the Mill to celebrate Ryan's birthday earlier last month. Call us food critics, but we weren't that impressed. Actually not at all. We all thought
dessert was really good though :). The food had great presentation, but not very tasty...to us at least. For the money, I'd rather go to Ruth's Chris or Bonefish. Here's some pictures of us with our pretty but not so delicious dishes :) We had a great time together though, and that's all that matters!

Mere with her gourmet Mac n' Cheese appetizer

My Caesar salad which was clearly made with a fresh anchovy. The fishy flavor gave it away.

Love him.

My pork tenderloin

Mere's spinach fettuccini

Ryan got Ahi tuna of course

Creme Brulee

loves.

aww family!

Out with the Old

2010-03-03T16:53:00.005-06:00

As I mentioned before, we just had wood flooring installed in our living, dining room and hallway. Here's all the steps of the redecoration if you care, or just scroll to the bottom of the post for the finished product. We got a really great deal on the wood from Master's Craft, and a great deal on the install as well. We're really happy with the result. We've had the money saved for a while to do this, but for some reason we never got the process going until now!

We had the carpet replaced in all 4 bedrooms when we bought the house, but left the old carpet in these rooms because we knew we wanted to have wood installed.

notice the gross stained carpet

bye bye allergen-ridden carpet

hello concrete slab.

That's our installer-nicknamed "Rooster", don't know why

Closer look at the grain. I think the color is called "Whisky barrel"

All moved in again!

Tada!

Yee Haw

2010-03-03T16:35:00.002-06:00

My work had a Cowboy Shindig for the whole company last month. My boss and I drug our husbands to it because we had to go. It was actually a lot of fun! Although it was strange to meet my coworkers spouses and see them in anything but scrubs, and even more--Cowboy attire!

My boss and I with our husbands

Line dancing. I was trying to teach her one!

V

2010-02-28T17:36:00.004-06:00

For Valentines Day this year we abandoned our traditional go out to a nice dinner/ give each other gifts routine and decided to just get a couples massage instead. Actually that was Ryan's idea...ha! He had never had a real massage before, and felt like he was missing out. We got our couples massage last Saturday because we needed to be out of the house all day due to our floors being redone (That's another post... coming soon). Anyway, it was wonderful and a really fun thing to do for a change of pace! The night before Valentines we went to a fun V-Day dinner at our church and had some friends over afterwards. At the church dinner we played some fun games and a few people got up and shared their engagement stories or how they met.

Here's Ryan and I at the dinner

friend Teresa

another friend Gwendy!

Olympics

2010-02-21T17:40:00.005-06:00

We went to a really fun party last weekend hosted by my friend Julie and her husband Scott. It was on the night of the Olympic Opening ceremonies. We celebrated the Olympics by watching and each couple bringing a dish from a participating country. It was such a great idea, and so much fun! We ended up picking Germany and I made German Apple Strudel. If you'd like the recipe let me know because it was so easy. Ryan and I thought it was pretty good. I should have taken a picture but I forgot. Some of the other dishes were Chinese Wontons, Mexican corn salsa, Swedish Cookies, Brazilian cheese balls, French crème brulée, British Minced Meat Pie, and some others I can't remember at the moment :( Oh but our friend Brandon brought an industrial can of Chef Boy R.D. Ravioli to represent Italy. I think it represents his bachelorhood more than Italy! He definitely brought it intending to make a statement :) That stuff is sick! Most of the guys partook of it though! Anyways, we had a great time. Julie had a bunch of fun games for us to play including one where we tested our knowledge of Olympic history. She had fun prizes and fun decorations all around!

below are pics of all of us watching the opening ceremonies...

Please notice Helena's gold medal she won in a game!

First Haircut

2010-02-20T18:41:00.007-06:00

I am a bit behind on blogging, so my next several posts are catch up. A few weeks ago, I went with my friend Mandy to get her girls first hair cut. She's got 3 kids age 3 and under, so she has her hands full. She is such a good mom! She brought me along to help out, but I am not sure if she needed me to help out or if was just an excuse to hang out. Either way, we had a good time!

This is after Emma Grace's haircut. I didn't get one of her in the chair :(

It's hard to take a picture by yourself with a 3 year old!

Abby Faith's gorgeous curls

such a good girl!

Sweet smile.

Her patience was waning

Winter Wonderland

2010-02-05T21:54:00.000-06:00

We've certainly had some excitement this winter... a layer of ice with 6+ inches of snow on top! Here's a pic of our house in the snow.

We spent a lot of time playing with Rosie. She loved the snow.

Rosie managed to somehow cut her foot or toenail or something. Ryan and I noticed some blood spots in the snow while we were playing, and we discovered she had hurt her foot. We put a sock on her to keep her from licking it. It healed within a few hours. I think she looks so silly!
We made snow ice cream for the first time ever. De-lish!
One night we went over to our friends house and sledded, ate dinner, hung out. Here's a pic of the guys. And Brandon is holding a bottle of sake. yuck!

Alex, John, Ryan, Jared, Justin, Brandon

Love birds :)

Auction

2010-01-29T12:15:00.002-06:00

While Ryan and I were in Tulsa, we went to a furniture auction and bid on a few items. We got some steals! Here's the goods.

New rug for dining room. We are having hardwoods put in soon, so this will go down after that happens.

Bombay Hutch and Mirror. These are in our entry way right now. I absolutely love the chest!

I forgot to put this bed in our last post. We actually got this at the furniture store, not the auction...but I doubt you care :) Hopefully our guests will like it as much as we do.

New bedroom

2010-01-29T11:47:00.002-06:00

After a year of saving and shopping purchased a bedroom suite. We took a day trip to Tulsa last Saturday to have some more selection. We had a really fun day together, and we were victorious! We ended up finding this suite at Sunshine Furniture. I'm really happy with it. It seems like a whole lot of furniture compared to what we had in there. Plus, we got a great deal. I still need to get some lamps for the bedside tables and hang some art on the wall. I promised my mom, mom-in-law and sister-in-law pictures, so here they are! Sorry they are kindof spotty. I need to clean my camera lens.

Rosie would like to be your tour guide.

Here's a shot walking into our room.

Here's our new bed! I really wanted a canopy bed. Not sure if I will actually put a canopy on it. Ryan is voting no because he thinks it will make it too girly.

Armoire.

Chest of drawers. Rosie says to note that the furniture is the same color as she is--Deep chocolate.

Dresser

Night Stand

Liberty Bowl

2010-01-12T11:18:00.005-06:00

We went to the Liberty Bowl with my brother and Sister-in-law (Whit and Lauren) to the in Memphis 2 weeks ago. It was quite chilly, but we enjoyed it! Thankfully the Hogs pulled it off! We spent some time with Van and Kristin Thompson. Van and Ryan were in each other's weddings, and Van has been a good friend to both of us since college.

Ryan drove! Thanks, honey!

I navigated.

newly-weds!

Van and Kristin took us to a delicious Barbecue shop in downtown Memphis.

It was a little sunny, but here's Kristin and Van!

Lauren and I

Shivering before the game started!

I love Lauren!

I think this was after Whit and I spent a whole quarter getting hot chocolate for Ryan ;)

All bundled up

We were at the end zone where ECU kept missing all their FG's, and where Tejada kicked the winning field goal.

Too bad they didn't have a thermometer on the scoreboard.

We hit up the Melting Pot in Memphis after the game

Ryan's hair was a work of art after wearing his beanie all night.

Bringing Home the Bacon Bits

2010-01-12T10:50:00.007-06:00

People have been asking me all the time how I like my job. Whenever people first learn that I work where I do, they reply "Oh"...and then a sudden silence. I work in a hospital that's a 30 minute drive from our house. It's really not bad. I think people just have stigmas in their head about driving distances. Most people who live in this area commute at least 20 minutes to work. Ryan commutes about 30 minutes, just like me. So anyway, the drive has not yet begun to bother me, so that's nice. It may seem like more of a chore if I drove it 5 days a week, but thankfully I just work part time :)

On that note, I LOVE working part time. I like working, but I like being a housewife too. Ryan and I joke that he brings home the bacon, and I bring home the bacon bits, but I like it that way. I am very grateful to have such a hardworking and successful husband. God has blessed us.

I love where I work. I have the nicest patients, and my co-workers are so helpful and kind. I really like my boss too. That makes a big difference. She is super flexible and easy going.

One of the great benefits of working in a small hospitals is that I get to work with all kinds of disease states and ages...From babies, to the elderly, and from Diabetes, to surgery, to Critical Care. If I worked at a large hospital I would likely be nailed down to just one unit--like surgery or cardiac or ICU. I love the variety of my job.

I also get a lot of variety from seeing outpatients-- patients who are referred by their doctor to me for Medical Nutrition Therapy in my office at the hospital. I've really been able to beef up my counelsing skills here. I've gotten to work with a variety of conditions from eating disorders to Celiac Disease.

So anyway, that's the low-down on how things are going employment-wise.

My boss has really been encouraging me to go back and get my Masters on the side. It would take me 1 year to finish. I already have 29 hours towards it (that I obtained in my internship), and I need 15 more. I am praying about that, and talking it over with Ryan quite a bit. We'll see! I have to apply by March 15th if I decide to do it.

Time

2010-01-11T19:50:00.006-06:00

Above is a picture of my mantle decor for our New Years party. As you can see, there are a bunch of clocks. Clocks tell time... Time. That's what we celebrate when we party on New Years. Time past and time future. I've been thinking a lot about time lately. Specifically, about how I spend my time-- how I've spent it this past year and how I want to spend it in the future. I've been thinking about time I invest toward relationships, friendships, serving my church, and my husband. I've come to a conclusion that maybe I need to reorganize and re-strategize how my time is spent.

Do you ever get in a rut of how you spend your time? I do. One example is that I find myself in a ritual of wasting time--checking facebook, my blogs, etc. (Not that these are bad) but I find myself feeling pressured to keep up with these things even when I have other things to do. I'm going to do my best to stop that. It eats up my time, and I don't seem to have enough of it these days. I obviously haven't been wasting time blogging too much in the past month, but I've made up for it in checking facebook and online shopping :)

I also get into a rut in my efforts to spend time with friends. Spending time with friends is good but sometimes friends have way different schedules and priorities, and even though I put effort into spending time with them it doesn't always work out. I put pressure on myself to keep trying and I get frustrated when they don't seem to be trying as hard to make it happen. That's no good. I'm nipping that one in the bud. I'm not saying that worthwhile relationships shouldn't take effort, but I am no longer going to pressure myself to maintain high-maintenance relationships.

I am going to spend more time serving my church this year. Half of last year I was in my dietetic internship, so I didn't have time for much else. I have since then started teaching pre-k at church, and babysitting occasionally for another small group, but I think I can do more.

I am also going to put more effort and time into serving my sweet husband, Ryan. He's working on his MBA while working at a demanding job, and he could probably use more attention from me. He doesn't complain much, but I know he would appreciate it if I put more effort into meal planning and cooking more suppers for him, among other things.

They say you're more likely to follow through with things if you write them down and tell others, so now I've done both! Happy New Year!