Ice in Conway

Rex staring down another dog in the ice storm.
Picture of the house and driveway covered in ice

Me and Rex chilling by the Christmas tree
Rex loved being outside in the ice. IT was so funny to watch him try to run cuz he would start slipping. He cracks us up!
Tyson got to come inside for a bit. THat is big time b/c he has never been inside. He loved it.
Dan got to come home early on Monday and had the day off Tuesday. YAY!!!
Tyson is living it up. We think he got too hot inside though cuz he was begging to go out before the night was over. Weird, huh?
This is what Rex does every day. He is such a spoiled little baby!
Yeah, Tyson STUNK! I don't think Dan has given him a bath since he has owned him...and that has been about 3 years. Sick out!

Monday, December 15 it started sleeting about 11 that morning and did not stop until the middle of the night. The roads were covered in ice so Dan got to come home early and was off on Tuesday b/c it never got above freezing for it to freeze off. It was a great day. We laid around and watched t.v., cleaned house, Dan worked on his real estate class, played dominoes, played with the dogs, etc. It was such a fun day to relax and just be together. Then Wednesday it was back to work! Oh well, he works Monday and Tuesday of next week and then has the rest of the week off. I am so thankful for that. If he had any other job he probably wouldn't be blessed to have the time around the holidays off. We are so ready for Saturday to come b/c we are doing our Christmas together then. I will post pics of that later :) Have a good rest of the week.
God Bless!

Memphis Weekend

Ben and I getting ready for the race. It was freezing cold!
Dan let me borrow his coat to get warmed up before we started.
Dan and I in front of AutoZone Park. We finished inside the pakr and ran part of the way around the field. It was pretty cool.
Laura and I post race. I hate this pic but it was the only one of us and I had to show her there supporting me.
Valerie and I probably dominating at shuffleboard!
Dan and I won the first game of pool. Go us!
Waiting to eat some BBQ at The Rendezvous. IT really turned out to not be that great.
Cute pic of Ben and Val waiting.
Before dinner on Saturday we went to the zoo to see Christmas lights. It was fun.
The four of us post race.

December 5-7 we went to Memphis for the St. Judes Marathon/Half Marathon Race. Ben (my cousin Valerie's husband---they live in Nashville and met us there) and I ran the half marathon and both finished in good times. He finished right at his goal time (1 hour 34 minutes) and I finished 1 1/2 minutes under my goal time (1 hour and 48.5 minutes). We had a lot of fun, despite the freezing cold weather. After the race I got so cold I couldn't stop shaking so we had to make it back to the hotel pretty quick and didn't hang around. We were all starving so we ate lunch at the hotel restaurant and then took naps. We were pooped! After our naps we got ready and went to the zoo to see the Christmas light display, which was cool. We had dinner at the Rendezvous, who is supposedly super famous for their great ribs and to be honest, they weren't that good. But that's just my opinion. After dinner, we went out on Beale Street for a while then made our way back to the hotel and hung out at the Fox and Hound across the street. It was a late night with tons of laughs. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long long time. We got up and headed home the next morning. It was such a fun weekend. I hope we get to do it again soon. Everytime we hang out with Ben and Val we laugh and laugh and just have so much fun. Wish we were closer so we could spend more time together. And we will NEVER forget our experience at the Waffle House Sunday morning...haha! Good times!

Thanksgiving 2008

Razorback game pics....

Gingerbread House making pics.....

Post-Meal Pics....

Pre-meal/during lunch pics....

Pinnacle pics....

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am so blessed to have such a fun, amazing family. We spent the whole week in Little Rock. Dan only had to work on Monday and Tuesday. He went hunting with his brother on Wednesday morning, then headed to Little Rock to spend the rest of the week there.

Tuesday: Lauren and I went to eat sushi...our favorite....and then watched Brian's team play Conway. They won and apparently that was a huge win. Conway was supposed to beat them pretty bad. So, it was a good night for Brian and for me b/c I got to hang out with Lauren and I hadn't done that in forever. I went back to Little Rock that night with my family so Dan and I wouldn't have 2 cars in LR.

Wednesday: Mom and I went shopping for a couple hours that morning and came back to the house and got started cooking for Thanksgiving. Most of the stuff we were having could be made the day before and that was a huge help. Brian and Dan finally arrived and we went to Pinnacle Mountain with Sydney, Austin, and 2 of Austin's friends---Cole and Luke. We played frisbee and football and climbed a little ways up the mountain. It was a beautiful day and so fun to hang out. We just hung out at Mom and Dad's that night and went to bed early. Dan had been up since 2:15 hunting so he was worn out!

Thursday: Brian and I started the day off running together. I really enjoyed that b/c I don't normally have a running buddy. When he comes into town we always try to get a short run in together. Meme, Ed, Mom, Dad, Brian, Sydney, and Dan were all there for lunch. It was so yummy! We spent the afternoon relaxing and then we drove to Conway to feed Tyson since we left him there alone. Poor boy! After feeding Tyson, we went back to LR and worked on the gingerbread house. It took some work and lots of hands but we got it done. It turned out so much better than mine last year. Dan and Mom had to hold the roof on until the icing dried b/c it kept slipping off. It was fun and I think we will make it a tradition from now on. My Aunt Linda got me started on it last year. That night we were going to go see "Four Christmases" but it was sold out so we came home and watched "Ironman" at Mom and Dad's theatre and got in the hot tub. What a great way to end Thanksgiving day?! It was such a fun, low-key, relaxing day.

Friday: GO HOGS!!!! We went to the Razorback game with Mom, Dad, Brian, Sydney, Lauren, and Justin. We were very unprepared for the weather. It was so pretty all week and then on Friday it just turned cold and yucky. We tailgated for a short while before the game and it was just cold. Once we got into the game it started sprinkling and my jeans were wet which made me even colder. The game started off great! The first quarter was so much fun. Then it was downhill from there. The 2nd quarter was so-so...then we sat through halftime...when it rained the hardest! Then came the 3rd quarter...they scored immediately and we turned it over on our first drive. We all looked at each other and thought...lets go home, it's just gonna get uglier as the game goes on. We got to the car and turned on the radio and the fun began! The Hogs started coming back. It was much more pleasurable listening to it in the warm car, although it would have been so much fun to be there. We made a pitstop at Starbucks then went back to the parentals. We finished watching the game and were all jumping around screaming so excited cuz the Hogs won by 1 point! Dad grilled some burgers for dinner and we finished off the night with a fun game of Catch Phrase...and we won't talk about who won. What a great day?!

Saturday: I got up and did my final long run before the big race this weekend. I ran 6.5 miles on an extremely hilly route. It was probably the best run I have ever had. I was so excited. It made me feel good about the race this upcoming weekend. After running, me, Dad, Mom, and Dan loaded up and went shopping. Little did we know we would be shopping for 6 hours that day! It was very productive, but a very long day. We got all our Christmas shopping done except what we are getting each other and Mom and Dad's gifts. I was proud of us. And we stayed within our budget...which is hard for me to do when it comes to Christmas presents :) We ate at Cantina Laredo for dinner and then headed back to Conway. It was sad for the week to come to an end but I can't complain. We had the best Thanksgiving.

Sunday: We were lazy! :)

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!

No go on the house...

The top pic is Dan and I at the horse races in 2007 and the next one is the night we got engaged we were celebrating with Lauren and Justin at Jerry B's!

This was celebration of Dan's graduation with his family. That is his brother Eric and niece Kelsy.

I thought the next 2 were fun. They are from when we first met and started dating in the Spring of 2006. We both look so different from then. We like to laugh about our round pudgy cheeks in the old pics from when we met.

Well, sadly enough the house deal fell through. We found out last weekend (Oct. 18) that the appraisal might not come back as high as it needed to b/c of what we were paying. On Monday, the appraiser went out to the house and let us know that the house appraised for less than we were paying so we offered the appraisal value to the sellers and they weren't willing to accept. It was pretty dumb on their part if you ask me b/c they are not going to be able to get more than appraisal value out of it but I guess they think they can. We were definitely disappointed b/c we loved that house but realize there are more houses out there and that was just God's way of letting us know that's not where He wanted us. We have looked a couple of times since then and found a house we really like but there are a couple things that would need to be done to it once we move it. It needs a fence in the back and there is carpet in an area of the house that would need to be torn up. We are praying about making an offer on it soon. I love the kitchen in that house. It would be my favorite thing!

Besides house hunting not much is going on. I finished my time at the bank on Oct. 17 and have been busy busy busy with school since then. I spent a couple days in LR last week w/ my mom and then a couple days in Searcy with Dan's family. It was a great. We took Rex for the first time to Searcy and I was so nervous about it b/c Sharon has a toy poodle that is spoiled just as much, if not more, than Rex. We didn't know how jealous they would be of each other or what would happen. PLus, they have a pool with a liner and we couldn't let Rex get in b/c he would tear it up...and being 83 lbs...its hard to control whether or not he dives into the pool w/o going in with him. Well, we got there early Wednesday morning and the first thing Rex did when I took him around back to pee before we went inside was dive into the pool and almost took me in with him. Thankfully he didn't touch the liner so that was good. But anyways, things turned out great. Rex and Libby became fast friends and had so much fun. I think it helped that they were both really spoiled, they had a bond. It was so funny to watch them run around the house together, take naps together, beg for treats together....they are too funny. Needless to say, we are not worried about taking Rex back to Searcy anymore. Thank goodness.

This past weekend we hung out in Conway and relaxed.

My parents are in Cancun for the week and Dan's parents leave Wednesday for India for 10 days. Please pray for both of their safety!

It is finally getting cold here and I thought I was ready for it...but I AM NOT! (But, Dan LOVES it---one thing we will always disagree on) I do not like this kind of weather. It makes it really hard for me to go out and run but I am trying to be dedicated so I best get going.

I know posts are no fun to read without pics so I'll put a couple up of just random things :)

God Bless!

Major Changes

Alright, well it has been too long since I have posted. Nothing too exciting has been going on in our lives until the last couple of weeks. Since the last update we have been to one Razorback game, and we all know how exciting that is, and the rest of the time we have spent in Conway hanging out or in Cabot looking at houses. I don't really even know where to start telling you the changes that have occurred in the last week or 2.
Jenny got offered an opportunity about 3 1/2 weeks ago to become part of a program at UAMS called Learning and Education in Neurodevelopmental Disorders (LEND). It is a research based graduate program that deals with children who have neurodevelopmental disorders. We meet once a week at UAMS. Throughout the semester we will also be doing some clinical work. The first week we signed up for the ones that interested us the most. Mine don't come up until the beginning of November and they are one time..it is not a continual thing. I am going to be involved with Foster Care Children, High-risk infants, autistic biochemistry research, TLC(sadly I am not even sure what it stands for yet) and one other that I can't think of at the moment. I am really excited and somewhat overwhelmed. Some other projects we are involved with are called Solution-Focused Learning. We interview families of children with a disorder and find out their needs and their struggles and from the interview we take some learning issues and research them and present them to the class. We have met with one family so far and our presentations are next Friday. I am super nervous about this just because I feel very unprepared and like I am the only one that isn't quite sure what is going on. It's ok though. It will be very challenging and good for me. It will hopefully get me some good experience for when I apply to the internship again next year.
All that to say, needing to be off work on Fridays for class did not go over well with my boss at the bank. Fridays are our busy day so it makes it hard when one person is off. I turned in my resignation a few weeks ago and my last day is Friday, October 17. It is kind of a bittersweet feeling. I know I am going to get better experience at the LEND project but I will miss the routine of having a steady job and being around the ladies at the bank. They were fun to work with.
Since I am no longer tied to Conway (all my grad school classes are online) Daniel and I decided to get closer to Searcy so he wasn't driving as far every day. We have been looking for about a month now and last weekend we found a house we both LOVED. We made an offer on Monday and after a few back and forth counter offers we found out last night that they would accept our offer. We are so so so excited. We are closing October 24...which is super soon...and will move in soon after. We thought Cabot would be the best b/c I am more than likely going to end up in Little Rock for work and that way we would split the difference.
It is definitely going to be an adjustment for the whole fam..dogs included. I was just beginning to feel like Conway was home and getting real settled here but change is good. We are going to embrace the change and have fun with it.
God has been so good to us through the whole process. All those times I interviewed and didn't get called back or missed opportunities to get jobs at places related to my field paid off. I knew God had a plan and I just continued to be patient and trust Him and now He has given us more than we ever deserve. We are extremely blessed to have found a house so quickly for such a great price and that needs no repairs or extra work once we move in. He has also placed this LEND opportunity in front of me to really challenge me and grow me. It is definitely out of my comfort zone but I know it will be worth it. He is teaching us so much about His faithfulness and His healing power.
I could keep going on and on about things that have changed in our lives over the last few weeks but that could end up being a super long post. I won't bore anyone with that. But that is the semi-short update on our lives. PRAISE GOD FOR ALL HE HAS DONE AND WILL DO.
As soon as we close and I get pictures of the new home I will post some. We are so excited.
We also need renters for the house we are in now. We have some potentials but no definites. If you know of anyone please call or email me and we would love to let them look at the house.

God Bless!