Camping in November

Rex crawled right in between us the next morning...he was so happy we were on his level and not up in the bed.

Dan and Rex...enjoying the fire!

Took 20 times to get a pic with Dan's eyes open :)

Me and Rex and his pretty fleece Mama D and Papa Ross got him for Christmas last year

Enjoying his soup

My boys

Our ghetto rigged tent :) We forgot the cover that goes on top so we put towels and blankets over the mesh to keep the cool air from getting in. It worked!

Rex sure is eyeing that food! He was sitting and being good hoping he would get some

We survived our camping trip! :) We left out Friday afternoon. We got to our site and set everything up and we plugged in the heater for our tent that Mamma sent and the electricity was out!!! We were not happy b/c that meant we would really really freeze. So we called the office and got them to switch us to a site that the electricity was working and everything was much better. By the time we got settled and everything set up it was dark and time to get the fire going. We were so bundled up we could barely function. Dan got a good fire going and I don't think I left the fire the rest of the night unless it was to go get more mallows or go to the bathroom. Mom had made some white chicken chili and we heated it up over the fire and had that for dinner and then I, of course, had to make me some smores. They were the best! We sat around the fire for several hours (a lot later than we normally stay up) and just talked and laughed so hard. It was a blast! We moved to the tent where we had heated it up with our handy dandy little heater. Once Rex got settled in the tent he didn't move until the birds started crowing in the morning. He wore himself out stressing about where we were all night. We slept pretty good...never got cold...just not always easy to sleep on the ground. When morning came Rex woke us both up by licking our faces. IT was the happiest day of his life to wake up with us in the floor with him. He crawled right in between us and laid his head on us. It was so funny. We got up and fixed some eggs and bacon over the fire...yummo! We were going to go hiking and stay another night but we had both already hiked all the trails around there so we went for a scenic drive after breakfast and came back and sat around the camp fire for a couple more hours. Then we packed up and came home cuz we wanted to get a good night's sleep. Once we got back to the house we unpacked, took showers, and laid on the couch and slept for 3 hours straight. It was the best nap ever!

We had so much fun and are so glad we went despite cutting the trip short. Dan is back to work today and I am going to get the house clean and finish up some homework before Thanksgiving. We are so ready for Wednesday to be here!

Have a great week!

God Bless!

6 months!

The top picture is Thanksgiving last year, we were celebrating the engagement of me and Dan, Val and Ben, and Jonathan and Rachel. I can't believe it has already been a year since then. The bottom picture is our family in 06 at Thanksgiving. Good times, Good times!

Hey hey!

Dan and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary yesterday. Cheesey, I know, but we had fun. :) We went to Searcy Sunday to watch Landon, our nephew, play in the all-star football tournament. They got 2nd place! Woowoo! We stayed in Searcy so Dan wouldn't have to drive back and forth more than he has to. On Monday I was working on homework all day and taking care of Rex and Libby. I went for a run and on my way back Dan was driving down the street. He picked me up and I went with him to get some lunch and then came back to his parents house and he had surprised me with 6 red roses and a card! :) Isn't he the sweetest? Last night we came back to Conway and had leftovers and we busted out the top of our wedding cake. I know you are supposed to save that for the one year anniversary but we couldn't wait. It was actually pretty good still. Then we ended the night with a good episode of Dancing with the Stars!

Besides celebrating our 6 month anniversary we have decided to stay in Conway. We looked at houses for a while and just weren't finding anything. I kept praying that if the Lord really wanted us to move that He would open the doors somewhere but if He didn't that we would both know it and be willing to stay in Conway for now. Not a week or so after I started praying that Dan asked me if I would be ok with staying in Conway b/c he really felt like that's what we needed to do right now. The Lord is so good! He was working in both our hearts in the same way and we didn't even know it. So, needless to say, we are going to fix this house up in Conway (re-do the kitchen and the floors and paint some, etc.) and when I finish school (if that ever happens) and get settled in a job, then we will talk further about moving. We are at complete peace about the decision. Daniel will still be driving, but with gas prices going down a little bit that has helped a lot.

I have actually started working in the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute one day a week. I work for Dr. Jill James. She is a nutritional biochemist and is doing research on autism and how nutrition is related. Very cool and interesting stuff! I started last week and loved it. I will be working in the lab doing genotyping. Not a very hard task at all but it is getting my foot in the door and I am very excited about that. Everyone in the lab is great and fun to work with too. I am still doing the grant with UAMS for neurodevelopmental disodered children. That is how I got involved at ACHRI. LEND (the program at UAMS) has been great. I have learned lots and gotten some good experience. It has challenged me to step outside my comfort zone and to be confident in that. Daniel has been a HUGE encouragement in that and I am so thankful for it. I have almost completed my first semester of grad school as well. It has been a great semester with having all online classes. Unfortunately, next semester I will more than likely be back in the classroom. I am not looking forward to that but I did it for 4 years, I can do it for a couple more.

For Thanksgiving, Dan and I are going to Little Rock on Wednesday afternoon and will be there the rest of the week. We are going to get to hang out with Lauren and Justin early on in the week and we are so pumped! It has been way too long since we have seen them. We miss our friends! Brian comes in Wednesday and will be there until Saturday. It will be so great to see him too. I have only seen him once or twice this semester and I don't like that. It will just be our immediate family at Thanksgiving and I am so ready. This is one of my favorite holidays. We will be going to the LSU vs. AR game Friday too. Sadly enough, it probably won't be that much of a game, but we will have fun anyways.

This coming weekend Dan and I are going camping at Petit Jean. We are taking Rex for the first time. It will definitely be an adventure. We are going up Friday as soon as Dan gets off work (I am skipping LEND) and will stay through Sunday. We are going to hike and roast mallows! I can't wait! It will be FREEZING, but worth it. Anyways, I am really trying to do better about this updating but it's hard. I don't even know if anyone reads this stuff....so I may just be doing it for my own pleasure :) Oh well!

Have a wonderful week!

God Bless!