12.28.2009

White Christmas!

Christmas this year was very exciting! Jonathan and I decided to open our stockings the Monday before Christmas then head to Jonesboro. Jonathan always gives the BEST stockings! This year we decided to not give each other candy. Instead we gave each other stuff to help us run and get ready for the Half Marathon! Jonathan gave me sport beans, GU, socks, granola bars, and EAS drinks! He also gave me lottery tickets and I won $30!!



We finally made it to Jonesboro Monday night. We stopped in Newport to see Jonathan's dad. It was great to see them! We spent several nights in Jonesboro and did Christmas with Jonathan's mom and brothers. Jonathan's mom got a new puppy! Her name is Anna Belle and she is so sweet!

We were going to head back to Newport Christmas Eve night and do Christmas with Jonathan's whole family, but Newport was flooding because of all the rain. We had to change plans. We ended up leaving Christmas Eve morning and drove to Newport to see his grandma and aunt. The roads were awful! I wish I had taken pictures! No car could have driven through what we did. Peoples homes and cars were flooded. It was horrible. Luckily Jonathan's family was ok. Well in the mean time, my parents were supposed to get snow. We were going to head to Bentonville Christmas day, but we knew we wouldn't make because of the snow. So, we decided to surprise my parents and show up Christmas Eve night! We made it back to Conway and hurried up and loaded all of our gifts and then headed to Bentonville! The drive was fine until we hit 540. It was like a blizzard came out of no where! I was terrified! Those roads were so dangerous! We drove about 25 mph all the way to Fayetteville in one lane of traffic. Once we hit Fayetteville the snow stopped coming down so hard and we had an easy drive the rest of the way. My parents were so excited we surprised them! Here are some pictures from our Christmas in Bentonville and my first white Christmas!







We were all tired when we got home! It was great Christmas!

12.01.2009

Christmas Break!

My Christmas break is almost here!! I am done with school this week and won't have to go back until the middle of January! I am so excited to have all this time off! I will still be working but my kids will be out of school too so I won't have to work as much. Last year I worked so much during the holidays I don't feel like I really got to enjoy it. I did enjoy my job, I just had to work so much. This year I am really going to enjoy my time off. I plan on doing a lot of things I haven't been able to do lately. I plan on doing this...

And this...
And this...


And this...

And this...

I plan on doing all the things I enjoy like running, reading, knitting, drawing, and cooking. I guess I need to throw in some cleaning too. I actually enjoy cleaning too....it destresses me! I need to do a good deep cleaning! Anyways, I plan on having a great Christmas break!!

11.29.2009

Jonathans Big Buck and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving and the weekend were great! We ate with our friends Doug, Teresa, and Ryan. We have never eaten Thanksgiving with friends and it was fun! Doug and Teresa are from CA and weren't going back home so we decided to do Thanksgiving with them and Ryan's family was out of town so he joined us! Jonathan and the guys went hunting Thanksgiving morning and Jonathan finally killed him a deer! He has been wanting to all year and he finally did! It was 220 lbs! Here are some pics:

Here is its head in the ice chest....so gross!

I went to Teresas to help her start cooking. We cooked so much food for 5 people! We had a ton leftover. It was very yummy!

I have never done early Black Friday shopping so Teresa and I got up early and went to Best Buy at 5:00 am. We then went to Old Navy, and personally the sales weren't that great. I have seen much better sales at Old Navy! But since I got up so early I wasn't going to leave without buying something. So, I bought a pair of shoes, scarf, and a water bottle. I stood in line for an hour to check out. I was so mad, but I did it anyways. I probably won't get up early again. Shopping online is much better! After we went shopping, I headed to El Dorado to visit my family! It had been 7 months since I had been there last so I was really excited to see everyone! Here are some pics:

I went o House of Wylie which is my favorite place to eat in El Do! My mom and I met my girl cousins (plus Kayden), aunts and grandmas there for lunch! So much fun to catch up with everyone! Saturday I met my best friend Lauren for lunch. It is always fun to see her! I don't get to see her much anymore, but it is fun when I do get to see her! I then tried to sneak Benji home with me....needless to say, my parents would never let that happen!

11.25.2009

Journals and Knitting

Well today marks the end of one journal and tomorrow will be the beginning of the new one. I am obssessed with writing in my journals! I feel it is something I have to do everyday or most days at least. It is always sad to leave one but very excitiing to start a new one! I have had my new one for several months now and I have been ready to start writing in it! I am very picky about my journals but not as picky as I am about my coffee mugs. I am really weird. It is just something that gets me through the day! I love to go back and re-read some of my old journals. I have prayers for many things and it is awesome to go back and see how God has answered all of them. I started writing about the time JOnathan and I started dating so it is really cool to read about my prayers for our dating relationship and now about our marriage! God has brought us through so much!




Ok on the knitting....I know this sounds like I am a grandma but I have found a new love for knitting! One of the little girls I work with has learned how to knit from her grandma and she was showing me what she learned. It really inspired me! I don't want to be one of those grandmas who can't teach their grandchildren how to do anything! I can't sew and before yesterday I couldn't knit! Now I have something to teach my grandchildren. I went to hobby lobby and bought my first pair of needles and yarn. I didn't get the cutest yarn because I just wanted something to practice with. At first I kept getting fed up because my fingers were getting all tangled up and the yarn just looked like a bunch of knots.




But then I decided not to give up just yet. After a couple of hours of yelling at the lady on youtube who was trying to teach me, I finally got it! And once you get it, it is real easy! I am still working on the basic knit stitch and will eventually try to make cool patterns and use different colors. Here is a pic of what I have so far. Not sure if I want to keep going and try to make a scarf or just start over since there are some mistakes. I guess I will keep going on this one for now!


11.24.2009

Marriage.....

This morning I started thinking about how God has blessed me so much. I have the best husband, the greatest family, and the most wonderful friends. Mornings are definitely my favorite.



With two of my really good friends getting married at the end of this year, I have been to several wedding showers. I love going to showers! It is so exciting to celebrate your closest friends getting married! It makes me miss my wedding. I love to see all the neat things they registered for and how they are going to decorate their new home. I loved doing all that fun stuff with my hubby! Today is our year and a half anniversary! I can't believe that in 6 months we will have been married for two years! I just want to say, that I have married my best friend. Marriage is tough for sure, especially when both of you are very competitive and stubborn like we are! But I love going to sleep and waking up to my best friend. I love it that I always have someone to share my deepest thoughts with and someones shoulder to cry on. I love having someone I can spoil and trust me I spoil Jonathan! Here are some of our greatest times together:













11.23.2009

Halloween, Showers, and Christmas Tree

Well I was really excited about my Halloween party and then never posted pictures. We had a lot of great food and a lot of people in our little bitty house!

Here are all the girls:

Jonathan and I:


The yummy food!


I have been to a lot of showers lately! I love going to wedding showers especially lingerie showers! Here are some pictures from the lingerie shower I hotsted for Christeena!





And lastly I was really excited about putting up my Christmas tree so I did! I have never decorated before Thanksgiving but I did this year!

10.24.2009

Soaring Wings Half Marathon and Fall!



My race has finally come and gone! I can't believe it is over. It seems like yesterday I had just started my training but that was over 16 weeks ago! This is a great race to run. The proceeds go to a great cause, the course is tough, and they have a lot of food waiting on you when you cross the finish line! Today had the perfect weather for running. It was kind of cold but not too cold. I finished in 2 hours and 15 minutes. This is not where I want to be, but I finished! I really want to finish in under 2 hours....hopefully I can do that in March at the Little Rock Half! I ran the first 7 miles fine but then I started getting tired. Mile 11 and 12 were definitely the hardest! I am so glad I got to run a race again....there is nothing like crossing the finish line! It makes you want to do more. I was so hungry when I finished! I grabbed some fruit, pizza, and a bag of M&M's!! I didn't care what I ate at that point. Here are a couple pictures of me and Ashley finishing the race!






I love Fall so much! I wish it hadn't rained so much this year though. I drove up to Bentonville last weekend and the weather was great. The mountatins were beautifu! I remember I couldn't wait for Fall to get here and was already buying my Halloween party stuff in July! It was before I even went on vacation. And now I am already buying stuff for Christmas! I really need to slow down. I couldn't wait for Halloween to get here and now I am ready for Christmas. If the stores didn't put Christmas stuff out so soon, I wouldn't get so anxious. I have already started buying more Christmas decorations...I love decorating for Christmas! Here I go rambling on about Christmas....I need to wait until after Halloween. I am really excited about our Halloween party this weekend! I have a yummy menu planned and fun games! Here is a picture of Hershey....her first Halloween!

Tomorrow Brandy and I are going to bake pumpkin and roast the seeds! I can't wait! I will post after we do that!


9.17.2009

Kansas City and Food

This past weekend me and all the girls went to see Sarah in Kansas City! It was so much fun! We pretty much had a girls sleepover like we would when we were 10. We drank margharitas, went shopping, ate some great food, and caught up on life! We went to Francesca's which is definitely my favorite store! I love shopping there and it is great that it is pretty much everywhere! We ate Gelato at this really cute place downtown. There is nothing better than hanging out with the girls! Here is a pic of us:



Jonathan and I decided it would be smarter to make dinner one night that would last several days so it saves money! Today we decided to make beef stew. It was cheap and makes a lot of food. The best part is that it is healty for you! Here are some pics of our stew:



Yum O! Now we can eat some and freeze some!
P.S. I am feeling really sad for Jessica Simpson right now :(

9.07.2009

Learning to be content and just trust

It seems lately a lot things have been happening in a not so good way. First my computer gets a virus and then who knows what has happened to my car. This has caused a lot of stress in my life because both could be big expenses to fix and with both of us being in grad school we don't have a lot of money. Luckily Jonathan fixed my computer. After my car messed up I was like I don't even care about my computer I can get it fixed later. We aren't sure what is wrong with my car but two Honda places and Jonathan's dad have all said the same thing and if they are right it would cost probably no less than $2,000 to fix. My car isn't even worth much more than that! I have never in my life had a problem with my car. I always get my oil changed when needed. I have taken very good care of my car so I don't know why this all of a sudden happened. We are taking it to Honda World tomorrow to see what the problem is. Hopefully it isn't as bad as it sounds. If it is then we have to make the decision to get it fixed or to get a new car. I would love to get a different car, but I was wanting that to happen after I graduate. We do have money in savings and that's why we save just in case things like this happen. It is just hard to let it go.

Anyways through all of this I have learned once again to trust in God and be content with what happens because he is there for me and he will provide. My birthday is coming up and this will probably be my present. In my mind I am thinking woo hoo. I know that is selfish but I just always think of bdays as being a day where you get stuff you have been wanting and you normally wouldn't buy for yourself. oh well as long as I get my car fixed and I have my hubbie and dog I will just fine. Trying to be content here. My job is so amazing! After working with these kids I have learned that I really do have it good. I always knew that, but when you see it first hand it really makes you stop and think. So what if I don't get a bday present, those kids probably rarely get to celebrate their birthdays. If we do end up having to get a different car, we will have to cut things out like eating out. It will be hard but I know we can manage. The weather is getting nice and it will be fun to grill and eat outside on our swing!

I was reading through some scripture today and here are a couple of verses that stuck out to me:

Phillipans 4: 11-13: I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Psalms 112:7 He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

I just can't worry about things and it is so hard not to. In the end though, I know God and Jonathan are always on my side.

8.27.2009

Pretty Day

I am so excited that the weather is so pretty! I wish it was a little cooler but it will get there! I am about to go run on the bike trail again once my ipod gets charged. Running is so relaxing. Except when I went the other day. I was supposed to run 8 miles, the weather was perfect and I was really excited. As soon as I got there my GPS watch died so I couldn't keep track of my distance and pace. I was like oh well I know how far to go so I will just go for it. And then my ipod died so no more music. And then I was like oh well it is pretty so I will keep going. But then, the most creepy old guy on a bike was on the trail. You could definitely tell he was not there to ride bikes. I felt like he was following me so I got off the trail and started riding on a pretty busy road. Well I turn around and there he is! So now I am definitely freaked out and turn back around and haul butt back to the trail and once again there he is. Then I heard him whistle at another woman so I just left and went to the HPER to run on the treadmill. I was so disappointed. Is it necessary for people to be creepy? I mean I probably could have taken him if I needed to, but I didn't want to try :) Anyways I know today's run will be much better! 

Tonight is the first night of worship! I am really excited because 5 different churches are coming together to do one worship. I anxious to see what all goes on! I really hope this turns out great and some people come to know the Lord!! 

8.24.2009

Lots Going on!

I think my stone age computer has finally died. I logged into Twitter for the first time in months and all of these random trashy ppl were following me. I think somehow I got a virus through twitter. I swear I will never use Twitter again. It really sucks not having a computer and having to rely on my hubbies. I can't decide if I want to get a new one or try to get mine fixed. I really want a MAC but I am not sure if I want to fork out the money just yet. Anyways, I was really excited about uploading vacation pictures and now I can't! We had a great time in FL....the weather was perfect and the food was amazing! My favorite place to eat was this hole in the wall cheapo place. It was our last night and I was so tired of dressing up. I wore a tee shirt and shorts with NO makeup. It was the best night! My parents took us parasailing...it was so much fun! There were so many jelly fish I seriously thought I was going to die. It was like all the jelly fish on Finding Nemo....luckily they were father down than I thought! I had a great time running in FL! It sucked because I didn't sleep in once but it was worth it. If I ran past 7:00 AM it was too hot! And the tiny fitness center (if thats what you call it) was even worse. There was no air circulation and you couldn't see the beach. 

I have now officially started my new job! I am really enjoying it! I get to work on my own time and I work with kids. I love kids! I met with a little boy today and he made me smile the whole time! It makes me really excited about teaching! 

I am really excited about running now too! Not that I have never been, but starting out is so hard and once you get good at it is so much more enjoyable. I am now up to 12 miles! Almost halfway to my goal! Tomorrow I run 8...it makes me really excited that 8 miles is now my training days and not my long distance days! I am planning on running in the Conway half in October. Hopefully I will kick butt since I can already run that far....now I will just work on speed! 

I am so over summer! I cant wait for Fall! I already have my Halloween party planned and my decorations ready to go up! I have already started buying stuff for my party so it doesn't all come at once. I figured that was pretty smart! I made this super cute wreath about a month ago! I can't wait to hang it up. I have so many holiday decorating ideas going through my head! I can't wait for the holiday's to get here and the cool weather! I especially can't wait to run in the cool weather!!

8.04.2009

So it has been a long time since writing last! Well I have a new job now at AR Counseling so I am no longer jobless! Woo hoo! I started today and so far so good! I really think I will enjoy it! This is my last week of summer school....I am almost finished with my first semester in grad school! I am really excited about going to Destin this Sat! Jonathan and I have been working out hard to get ready for the beach. I have completed 4 weeks of my marathon training program and am now up to 8 miles! Only 12 more weeks to go! Hopefully I will still be able to run while in FL....running on the beach will be fun! 8 miles used to be nothing to me....but I had to start all over which sucks but I am finally at that point where I am like how many more miles can go?! I love running....it makes me feel so good when I am finished! This past Saturday it was raining so I had to run 8 miles on the treadmill which is torture. I got so bored but when I was finished I felt so much better!

Saturday Jonathan, Rachel, Brandy and I tried winning Keith Urban tickets...I am really pissed at KSSN 96 and Verizon. We drove all the way to LR to register to win back stage passes to see Keith Urban and when we showed up they said we had to buy a phone or start a new plan to event register!!!! I was like are you kidding me??? I will never buy a phone from Verizon. I am bitter because they didn't say anthing about that on the radio so we drove all that way for nothing. It would be cheaper to buy tickets than to buy a phone! Oh well made a good story and we had some bonding time!

7.08.2009

Life without a job and my tiny closet

I have definitely enjoyed my time off lately! I have gotten so much done these past two days that I would have never gotten done before! I don't think I could live like this for long though. I have to have a routine! I started my marathon training Monday and so far so good. It is a 16 week training program so I still have a LONG way to go. But now that I have the time I have no excuses! I started class last night. It is my first education class and my first class in over a year so I was a little nervous! I think I will like this class. I will have to get used to doing homework again. It was nice while working to come home and not have to worry about anything. Yesterday I finally got around to cleaning out my closet! I have been wanting to clean it for a while. I swear I have the world's smallest closet! We live in an older house so I guess that's how they had closets back in the day. I am getting orid f everything I don't wear. When I get in these moods I throw out everything! And then a few months later I will think where is that shirt...oh yeah I got rid of it. We are hoping to have a garage sale and make some money before we go to Destin! We are leaving a month from today! Woo hoo! Here is a before and after pic of my closet
Still doesn't look just great but it is the best I could do! At least I know where everything is now! All my dresses are together, skirts are together, etc. It was awful while working I couldn't find any of my work clothes. My shoes of course have their own closet! I had to use the closet in the living room for them! Next I need to go through them and get rid of the ones I don't wear. I still have a lot of work to do in my extra bedroom. I just hate walking in there. I don't want to unpack it but I need to. Guess I will go get started.