Lately...

It's been waaayyy too long since the last time I blogged. This is probably just going to be a random post.

• Thanksgiving was great. I really really enjoyed going home and spending 2 DAYS IN A ROW there off from work! It was wonderful. Jeff and his dad and my dad and brother all went to the Arkansas/LSU game that Saturday. I was depressed for days that I couldn't be there with them since I had to work. But I know now that I would have been really upset to be there for the loss. So sad. At least one person in our house could be happy about it. That's the thing about Jeff being an LSU fan and me being an Arkansas fan. One of us will always be sad at the end of that day. This year it was me. Hopefully MANY of the next years it will be him :)
  
• The week before Thanksgiving, on my day off, I was able to go home and surprise my mom to help during Operation Christmas Child collection week. I was just dying to get in the middle of all of the excitement and work on some shoe boxes. It is something I love, and I really wish I could have spent the whole week working there. Last year at this time "we" (okay technically just Jeff) were just finishing up claims adjusting and I was able to spend a lot of time in El Dorado helping. At least I got a little taste of it this year. The boxes and the message that goes with each one of them can impact a child's life in such a great way.
  
• This was the first year I can ever remember not getting my Christmas Tree at a tree farm. I am sure at some point our family maybe went to Wal-Mart or something, but not that I ever remember. But, it was crunch time, and a week after Thanksgiving and I really needed to have that Christmas tree put up. Sooo we had a "farm" we were going to buy a tree at, but once we got there, found that it wasn't actually a farm, but just a bunch of trees already cut and sitting in buckets. What a ripoff! I mean, we drove a good 25 minutes each way there, but I wasn't going to give in and buy one. Especially since I thought they were overpriced and couldn't even find a human being there to pay if we had wanted a tree. So long story short, we bought our tree at Home Depot. Oh well. It really is a beautiful tree and smells good, so it will work for this year. But I WILL find a farm for next year!
• New Moon. Absolutely loved it! And my wonderful husband actually went with me to watch it, and while he might not admit it, I think he enjoyed it a little bit too. Definitely more than the first movie. I have seen Twilight like a million times, but I just really wanted to be refreshed on it and completely prepped New Moon, so watched it the night before. I think Jeff was just glad that this time was without the director's commentary. I have always been team Edward, but for a few minutes there, I was tempted to root for Jacob. But by the end, I was back rooting for Edward. Anyway, loved it, want to see it again, and can't wait for Eclipse!!!
  
• I guess that's all that's on my mind tonight. Going to enjoy the last of my Sunday night!
  

Pretty Nice Little Sunday

I have been giving some serious thought to this...
My friend Amy informed me that I should blog more about my "feelings" not just fun events. It's true, because when I read other people's blogs, that's really the most interesting part. I am going to try to blog more "for no reason" and maybe just ramble about who knows what.
After this post :)
Last Sunday was another GORGEOUS day!!! So nice to have since there has been so much rain. So we decided to go back to Pinnacle with Amy and Jeremy and Saw. Amy and I really are two of the clumsiest people on the planet, which really makes hiking not the greatest idea. There were definitely a few almost faceplants along the way, but I don't think we COMPARE the the crazy guy behind us! He literally stumbled every minute and had to make a comment/joke about it every time. The. Whole. Way. Down. Since daylight savings time started that day, we weren't used to how early it would get dark. So about halfway down the mountain it really started getting dark on us. Which is even worse when you can barely walk without falling in daylight. We ended up with this couple behind us, and the guy did not shut his mouth the entire way down. It was really pretty funny to me, but probably not so much for Jeremy who was in the back right in front of the guy. Saw was such a trooper!! He had soooo much fun and really did better than I expected...and had PLENTY of energy leftover. So I didn't feel guilty. Not exactly the same as the dogs that weigh less than 5 pounds. Poor dogs. They look absolutely miserable when their owners are dragging them up the mountain! Anyway, we made it down safely and it was another successful day!

Haunted House...well, Carport... well not so Haunted either...

When I was in Architecture school, every year for Halloween our student organization made a haunted house as a fundraiser. We would set it up in my backyard, and it was SERIOUSLY scary. Ever since college, I have been waiting for the right opportunity to try and come close to the success of our past haunted houses. Which brings us to this year.

My original plan for the haunted carport was to have a table set up with some candy on it... pretty standard stuff. Now on the table next to the candy would be a jar... with my head in it! I would just be sitting there with a hole cut out in the table with my eyes closed. When I would hear someone coming up or messing with the candy, I would quickly open my eyes and stare at them yelling, "Don't take my candy!" What could I really do but stare... I mean... I'm just a head on a table. But wait... There's more!!! Just when the little hoodlums thought they had escaped they would be chased by my friend Jacob! Now everybody has seen the ole chase someone with a chainsaw routine, but we didn't have one... so we used the next best thing... A leaf blower!!! Man that thing sounded ferocious!!!

Now things didn't go exactly like we all wanted. We weren't able to find a container that my head could fit in, so what we ended up doing was having the table set up with the candy on it, and me hiding in the hot water heater closet with a mask and a bloody hatchet (fake blood of course). Once I felt they had taken enough candy I would make my move and jump out scream. Champ the Bulldog was an added decoy, meant to distract the Trick-or-Treaters, so they would be even more terrified when I jumped out of the closet yelling!

Now that we had it all planned out and set up it had been dark for about an hour... still no "Trick-or-Treaters" to be seen on the streets. Immediately I begin to think, we've set this thing up and nobody is going to show! Well, about 30 minutes later we have our first two victims!

Jacob and I move into position, me in the dark and Jacob grabbing the leaf blower tightly! The 9 year old hobo went in for the candy first and the 8 year old skeleton followed after. Jacob and I were just waiting for the right moment to pounce!!! And then...

I jumped out of the closet and yelled in the creepiest voice I could yell, "You took too much candy!!!" Both the hobo and the skeleton jumped back, froze, and stared at me for a few seconds as I held the hatchet over my head! I could see the fear in there eyes! So much so that the skeleton began to make a little whimpering noise which soon turned into a full out flood of tears!!! Jacob lowered the leaf blower and I took off my mask and tried to give him more candy. I knew it was bad when Amy came running in there saying, "It's OK. Let's go out this way!"

Needless to say Jacob and I both felt pretty bad after that but were comforted when we heard their parents laughing at them when they came out!

We only had three more groups of people come through after the hobo and the skeleton... kinda disappointing. I guess I just thought there would be more foot traffic in the neighborhood.

So a few thoughts for next year:
Advertise + Better Candy + Set Up Before Dark + Louder Leaf Blower
=An even more sweet haunted carport!!!

By the way, isn't that the biggest crawfish you've ever seen??!!

-Jeff

Razorbacks

This post is almost 2 months late, but better late than never! These are just a few pics from the Arkansas/Missouri State game. My parents, Ryan, and Jo were all here for the game. It was lots of fun!! Absolutely nothing better than a fall Saturday watching the Hogs win a football game. We could stand to see a few more of those wins in the next few weeks...
I don't know the guy in the pic with the t-shirt is, but I really enjoyed it, even if my husband doesn't :)

Climbing a Tree for Anna Cate

Since Jeff and Anna Cate really like to climb trees, this one was especially for her!!!!!!
He is throwin up the AC for you :)