Quick Trip to NWA

At the beginning of June, we had the chance to go to Northwest Arkansas for an overnight trip. Stephen had two sporting events to cover on two consecutive evenings, so instead of him making the trip by himself twice in two days, we decided to just book a hotel room and have the whole family go.

We basically just had one morning and early afternoon to explore but we had several things we wanted to try to squeeze in!  First on my list was… (don’t laugh!) finding the Duggar’s house! My husband officially labeled me as crazy. I was able to use my super sleuth skills to find their address and I forced Stephen to drive me by it. He really thought the whole thing was super nuts but I thought it was awesome!

From there we went to Bentonville because we were planning on visiting Crystal Bridges Museum. When we arrived at the museum, we discovered that it didn’t open for another hour or two, so we decided to explore Bentonville a bit. I’ve mentioned before that Stephen and I would love to live in NWA. We just love it there. We found the Bentonville Square and it was seriously SO neat!

The original Walton’s 5-10 was located on the Bentonville town square, and it has now been turned into a Sam Walton/Walmart museum. Even though Stephen and I did not enjoy being employees of Walmart #67, it truly is remarkable what Sam Walton accomplished and the museum was really neat.  The red and white truck parked in front of the store is a replica, Sam’s actual truck was inside the museum.

The city of Bentonville had these weird pink snails all over the place. I looked it up and it was to spread the word about some hotel being built nearby.

After exploring downtown Bentonville, we made our way back to Crystal Bridges.

The museum was really interesting! There are neat trails and sculptures outside that you can see, but it was hot and we were getting hungry so we decided to go grab lunch at a popular NWA place – Abuelo’s.  After lunch we did a little driving around Fayetteville and Stephen had to meet someone real quick on the Fayetteville Square. I remembered reading about a cupcake place on the Fayetteville Square and realized we were parked just a few doors down from it, so we had a treat from Bliss Cupcake – YUM. Don’t know why I don’t have pictures of our yummy cupcakes? Oh well. After cupcakes it was time to go to the sporting event that Stephen was supposed to cover – a basketball game. And after that we headed home!

We had such a fun time on just a one-day excursion to a place we’d like to eventually call home. We love NWA and all that it has to offer and our “goal” is to move to that area eventually.

Summer Days + The Dogs (but not the dog days of summer)

I’ve really been enjoying this weather recently. It’s perfect – warm, but not that blistering scorching heat that will be rearing its ugly head in late July and August. I’ve been trying to take advantage of the weather by playing outside and going on plenty of walks. My stroller didn’t see the light of day for most of the fall, winter, OR spring, so I’ve been trying to remedy that. I really enjoy walking outside and have even gone a few times by myself – actually, with our Boxers, because it’s just enjoyable for me.

Speaking of our Boxers… they drive me nuts. One day I’m ready to get rid of them, the next I’m begging Stephen not to give them away – “Stephen! They’re part of our FAMILY! We can’t just give them away!”  Jasper has GOT to quit chewing every little thing he gets his mouth on. I don’t know what we’ll do if he keeps destroying things. He’s basically eating our money, and it’s so frustrating.

But he’s so pretty…

sweet Bella-boo

 

This picture is from April. Jasper, Bella, C-Monster & me.

Baxter – obviously not a Boxer, but I can’t leave him out.
This picture is from this April as well, and he was really shaggy.
He has a much better looking summer cut right now.

Stephen went into work late this morning and didn’t come home for a lunch break, so after Christopher and I were finished eating lunch, I texted Stephen and asked if he would like for me to bring him something. I decided that since it was nice weather outside (and cloudy, which is a blessing for me because I get “sun sick” easily, even when the weather is cool) we would walk to his office.  It’s just a few blocks away from our house – just a block past the park, (I actually Google mapped it – it’s only 8/10 of a mile) so I decided to walk it! I loaded up Christopher and we decided to take Baxter with us. We walked to Stephen’s office and delivered his lunch to him.  Then I decided to walk to my mom’s office, which is just a few more blocks down the road from The Star.  We hung out there for a few minutes, caught our breath and enjoyed the cool air. Baxter especially like the break, and was panting so hard that mom felt sorry for him and found a bowl for him to drink some water out of! (I’ll add here that she didn’t offer me anything – just Christopher and the dog. Thankfully, I had brought my own water.) ;-)

We left mom’s office and headed home. I was trying to avoid the park (I just wasn’t up for it today and preferred for Christopher not to see it- he mentioned wanting to play there on the way to The Star) so I headed home by going past James’ (if you’re local) and realized that I was just a half mile away from my dad’s office… so I asked Christopher if he wanted to go see PawPaw, and of course he did – so we ended up walking to dad’s office, as well. By the time we got back home, we’d been gone over an hour and a half and walked 2.5 miles. The jogging stroller killed my calves.  Ouch. But we had fun! This afternoon we chilled at the house and watched Mickey Mouse and Christopher took a late LATE nap and I even napped on the couch for a few minutes before making dinner. I’ve been really good about making lunches and dinners and eating out less since summer started. Tonight we had tilapia, rice, and green beans and it was all delicious! Last night I fried squash… It was Stephen’s first time to have fried squash, which is funny considering I didn’t know there was any other way to eat squash (or okra, for that matter) when I was a kid. It was yummy!

Today was another great summer day!

Graduation {alternatively titled: I DID IT!!!!!}

On May 11, 2012, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education! I know I finished college in an unconventional way, but I finished and that is really all that matters. In fact, I think that I appreciate this degree more now than I would have if I had finished college the traditional way – four years straight after high school. I worked hard for this degree, traveled God-only-knows-how-many miles, cried many tears, stayed up plenty of late nights, and spent a ton of time away from my home and family. It was very hard at times, but I made it!

I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without my family. My mom kept Christopher for me, so I was able to go to school 2 hours away and not worry about his health or safety. One semester, he spent two nights a week with her because Stephen and I had to leave for school at 6am – and it was easier to let him spend the night with mom instead of trying to wake him up and get him dressed and over to moms super early.

My entire family was encouraging and supported me (and Stephen) during our journey through college. Ty and Britney let me use their apartment on multiple occasions. I spent a week there alone while they were on a cruise and I was having to attend Internship Orientation in January. They let me keep food there and eat lunch there.

Stephen – my husband. I would not have, could not have, gone back to college and finished my degree if it had not been for him. He encouraged me on the nights I didn’t want to continue. He worked his tail off at his job so that I could afford to not work while going to school. He went to school and still worked hard at his job. He had it much tougher than me, but he insisted that I focus on school, Christopher, and our home so that I didn’t have to worry about working. He helped me with assignments, calmed my fears, wiped my tears, and never gave up on me. I will never be able to repay him for all that he did to help me through the last two years.

Enough mushiness – moving along.

I was so happy at graduation. I couldn’t quit smiling. I kept having to choke back tears during the beginning of the ceremony – while the speakers were giving their speeches. I just couldn’t believe it was finally happening! I managed to not break into a big ugly sob, thankfully.

Happy Me:

Where’s Stephanie?

Me and My People:

Me + My Boy:
{My main motivation for getting my degree}

After graduation, we traveled north to Hot Springs, to celebrate! We had a delicious dinner at Olive Garden, compliments of my awesome parents. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day! =)

fun with Nana

My mother-in-law came down from Missouri for my graduation and spent the week with us before my graduation. She had some work she needed to do, plus she wanted to spend time with us. We had a fun week visiting with her! One day we took Christopher to the park.

Christopher loves going up this ladder thing. It scared Nana to watch him do it!

Even yours truly played for a few minutes. :)

Love this sweet boy!

Today

I have SOOOOO MUCH to blog about! I know - I say that every time that I update this ol’ thing! I wish I were dedicated enough to sit down every night and write about our day… and maybe as the summer progresses, I can get into that habit.

I have SO MUCH to blog about over the past few weeks, but I am just going to do a post over “today” for now. We are loving summer SO much! I love not having to worry about school, homework, etc. I have really been enjoying my “free” time. I’m also excited knowing that I will always have fun summers with my family. Our days recently have consisted of lots of fun outside, swimming, playing, watching Thomas, playing games, etc. We are loving it!

Christopher woke up early this morning. He had wet the bed – something that happened for the first time just yesterday, so I was really surprised when it happened again this morning. We (Christopher and I) had planned on spending the morning delivering some goodies to my parents at their work offices. What goodies, you ask?

Homemade oatmeal cream pies. Oh. My. Goodness. Deliciousness.  I could tell by the number of cookies that the recipe made that I would need to be sharing them, and as soon as I stuffed three in my mouth without thinking about it ate one, I made a decision to get them OUT OF MY HOUSE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I love sweets and I love baking, but I will eat all.day.long. without even thinking about it. I literally have to get stuff out of my sight (usually out of the house) to keep from stuffing myself silly. Yes, my self-control is sad.

Anyway, since C was up early and it was a pretty morning outside – mid-60s and warming up, I decided to walk to our local park and play for a little while, then keep walking to my mom’s office and deliver her cookies to her.

We were at the park no more than 30 seconds when Christopher announced that he needed to pee. He may or may not have peed on a little rock building close to the playground. (Hey Park People – let’s get restrooms closer to the playground side of the park, huh?) Approximately 4 minutes later, he decided he needed to POOP, too.  WELL. No way was I taking him to the nasty park bathrooms to do a #2, so I loaded him up in the stroller (thankfully I had taken the jogging stroller) and RAN all the way to my mom’s office, telling him the whole way – DON’T POOP IN YOUR UNDERWEAR!!! WAIT TILL WE GET TO GEEGEE’S OFFICE!!!! I’m quite sure it was a site to see. And hear.

And what do you know – we get to my mom’s office and his need to poop magically disappeared. Sigh. We delivered mom’s cookies to her then took her car back to the house because I wasn’t going to risk walking home with a possible poopy situation.

We delivered my dad’s cookies to him in the late morning – and while we were at his office Christopher actually DID relieve himself (number 1 AND 2)  so we went back by the park on the way home. Somebody was nice enough to leave a wad of gum on a slide and christopher went over it before I realized it, resulting in this leg and jeans being covered in nasty already-chewed gum. Lovely. AND Guess What! We were there for about 5 minutes and he needed to pee. AGAIN.  I don’t miss diapers, but MAN. It’s exhausting running errands when you constantly have to stop what you’re doing to go to the bathroom to maybe pee. There have been times when we’ve been in walmart for 45 minutes and gone to the bathroom three times.

Anyway… back on subject. We got home, (took his shorts off before getting in to the carseat) had lunch (corn dog, mommy! and ma-an-cheeese!) and played in the yard for a few minutes before naptime.  This afternoon we’ve watched Thomas the Tank Engine, colored, and played in the sprinkler. And I say “played” – but really that means that I got C all dressed in his swimming clothes and his new water shoes that I bought him and then we went outside to run in the sprinkler, but he was scared of it and I ended up holding him and running through it myself (dressed in workout clothes) and getting myself soaked. I’m sure the people driving by our front yard got a kick out of that. :)

Tonight we’re grilling steaks. Yum! Tomorrow is daycare day – we decided that 2 days a week, Christopher would continue daycare (which he LOVES, thankfully) and that would give him the social interaction (he needs it) and it would give me two days a week for myself, for running errands or getting the house and yard cleaned up, etc, that way we can enjoy the other five days of the week!

Kicking off the Summer!

I am OFFICIALLY in Summer Mode!

My last day of Internship was Wednesday. Thursday, I had to go back to HSU for my “Exit Interview” from the the Teachers College/Internship program. I was so nervous and I know I stumbled over my Impact on Student Learning defense presentation, but I made it through. Afterwards, I had lunch with my brother and B and Stephen. (Stephen was there for classes but we had to go separately because he had to attend a state sport event in a town not far from Arkadelphia after he left college.)
 
When I got back to town, I picked up Christopher from his daycare then we “went to Cruizzers to get a sip.” This is one of Christopher’s favorite things right now and he asks to do it almost every day when I pick him up. Cruizzers is a Sonic-type drive-in that we have here. (They’re way better than Sonic – we have one of those too, and I’m not sure how it gets enough business to stay open.)  Cruizzers half-price drink is from 3-5, which is perfect for getting out of school. We have been going maybe once a week since the weather has gotten warm! Christopher gets a small Sierra Mist and I get a Cherry Diet Pepsi. I have quit buying the canned CDP because I am trying to cut back on (NOT COMPLETELY CUT OUT) caffeine.

We came home that afternoon and I decided to cut back the bushes that are in this small flowerbed between our front porch and sidewalk. There are two different types of bushes that grow there – azaleas and something else. The other bush grows really quickly and crazy and had been needing a good trim for quite awhile. There were like 6-8 bushes total… way too many for the space available. I got out the electric trimmers but the battery gave out on me not long after I started trimming them, so I decided to go ahead and cut them way back with some loppers.

Um, yeah. I got a little carried away…

Friday morning, I had to go back to Arkadelphia again for the Internship Award presentation. It was a pain to have to make the trip again since I had just gone the day before for a 30-minute interview, but I did, as it was required.  I was glad I went, because I received an award! I was so shocked – I couldn’t believe it! I received the “Outstanding 7-12 Intern” award. SO EXCITING!!! There is one “Outstanding Intern” awarded to each group of interns based on the grades they are going to teach. (One for those who are K-12, such as art, music, & PE; one for P-4; 4-8; & 7-12) then one of the Interns who received the “Outstanding” award for their area is chosen as the Overall Outstanding Intern. I did not receive the overall Outstanding Intern award, but I am honored to have been in the top 4 of all 83 interns in the program this year!

The winners are chosen by a survey that goes out to faculty of the college and faculty in the public schools where we were doing our internship. There are certain qualifications that must be met in order to be able to be put on the nomination list, then professors, high school teachers, principals, etc, are able to choose from the nominees and place their votes. I’m not sure who all voted for me, but I was so surprised to be chosen! They named off several “honorable mentions” before calling out the winner of Outstanding 7-12 Intern and I honestly did not think it would be me!

Enough with that. =)  After I got back to town on Friday, Christopher and I had to try out a new sno cone stand in town. I’ve seen people at it every day after school for several weeks but never stopped for myself. I figured there was no better way to kick off summer break than with sno cones! Christopher got a grape one and I got wedding cake – my favorite. We enjoyed them on the back porch after we got home.

Before we got sno cones, we stopped at Atwoods to buy a few plants. (HAVE I MENTIONED I HAVE A PROBLEM?!?) I had been thinking about it all day and decided that I wanted to completely dig up the bushes that I had cut back in front of the house. I bought a few new, much smaller azaleas, a few dayliles, and some ground cover. I plan on stealing some variegated monkey grass (liriope) from my mom’s house.

I started digging up the bushes this morning. After the disaster I had a few years ago at our old house digging up century-old holly bushes (not really, but their root systems were a bitc you-know-what) I swore in the future, I would just leave well enough alone. Yeah, well… not so much. Stephen had a golf tournament this morning, so Christopher and I loaded up on water and tools and started digging. (Well, I did. Little man – not so much. He rode his motorcycle {tricycle} around and “helped” me a little.) I worked for several hours and dug up several root systems before giving in to the heat (I overheat easily and when I do – it’s not pretty.) and coming inside. I spent the rest of the day cleaning AT the house and doing laundry. (It’s a disaster area, really.) I am hoping to finish the new flower bed tomorrow or Monday and will post pictures then. =)

Stephen got home from his tournament around 5 and we headed back outside. He and Christopher swam (C’s first time in the pool this summer – he loved it!) and then Stephen mowed the yard while I did a little cleaning up in the back yard. Bliss!

 

(PS – I know the kiddo looks like a crazy hippie child. He keeps telling me he needs a haircut. We have one scheduled for Tuesday!)

It’s been awhile.

Soooo.

It’s been awhile.

The reason I haven’t blogged this semester? It’s sad.

I would take my laptop to and from school every day. Most days I would pack it up from school, put it in the car, and then leave it in there overnight. It was just easier that way. In the past, most of my blogging was done in my chaise lounge, in front of the television, while Stephen and I were relaxing at the end of a long day. Not to mention, my nights are quite full, especially since the time changed and it stays light so late. My afternoons this semester have consisted of picking Christopher up from daycare, coming home and (most days at least attempting to) clean up the mess that we’d made that morning getting ready for school.  Usually there was an errand than I needed to run or I would go to Curves to work out or something that took up another hour of my afternoon. Then before I knew it, it was time to make dinner, bathe the kiddo, and get my stuff ready for the next day. Lots of nights it’s 9pm before I’m having my “me” time, so blogging just got put on the back burner, unfortunately. I hate it.

I do plan on catching up on the good ol’ blog over the summer, as well as trying to keep blogging on a semi-daily basis.  I have no idea what is in store for us this summer, but it might very possible involve moving and it better most definitely include a new job for me!

Today is my last day of student internship, which is absolutely crazy. This semester has gone by faster than ANY spring semester has in the past. I have to to a Defense/Exit Interview tomorrow in Arkadelphia, then a luncheon in Arkadelphia on Friday. Then the next Friday, I’ll graduate! So exciting. =)

Other things I’m looking forward to?  Cruising in less than three weeks, summer break, Fourth of July, swimming, tanning, spending time with my family, a small family vacation this summer (maybe just visiting a zoo or waterpark), grilling hot dogs, planning Christopher’s third birthday party (WHAT?), blogging, photographing, and sleeping in past 5:30.

It will be the first summer in five years that I am not working (Walmart), and/or pregnant/on bed rest (for four weeks with C -- July 21 till the day he was born on August 18) or taking college classes. I have a feeling I will have a busy summer as far as looking for a job and getting all set up for it (i.e. possibly moving, professional development, setting up my classroom, etc.) but as of right now there is nothing that I HAVE to do and I am SOOO looking forward to it. {Knock on wood.}

Now, for an iPhone picture dump. (No good blog is complete with it.)  Here are some randoms I’ve taken recently.

This past Saturday, I had a much-needed girls day shopping in Hot Springs with my mom and Britney. This was the back of our car at 9 that night. Doesn’t B look happy? I got a lot of new clothes for this summer and for the cruise.

The next day, Stephen, Christopher and I drove to Owasso to visit Stephen’s grandfather. Stephen’s mom and Leonard were also visiting with Stephen’s grandpa. Christopher was very excited about seeing everybody! He keeps growing.

Another reason I love summer! Plants! I go crazy overboard with flowers every year. I love them! One time back at the beginning of Spring, we were in the garden center and I told Stephen to pick out a plant that he liked for the backyard. (Because then it would be even, you know, I have my plants and Stephen can’t gripe about not having any himself. Haha.) He came back to me with a tomato plant. Crazy guy. Anyway, these are my first two homegrown tomatoes! I don’t like tomatoes but I told Stephen I would try one because he swears they’re better homegrown.

Again, crazy with plants. I’ve never been able to grow petunias before because at our old house there was no good full sun areas. There was a huge tree in our front yard and we didn’t really go in the back yard much (although there was also a huge tree back there that also shaded a large area.) I’ve always loved the way petunias look and I kept seeing different colors and varieties this Spring. I kept buying them and buying them… I have five different pots with petunias. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more (I’m thinking red/white/blue) pop up sometime in the next few weeks.

That’s all for now!