Things I'm luvin this Summer.....

Bright Nail Polish

Watermelon Margarita's from On the Border

Fresh Fruit and Veggies

The Lake at Heber Springs

Grillin Pizza on the patio

Yard Sales on Saturday

 

Yellow Box Flip Flops

Clean Slate 'My fav wine'

Snow Cones

Lake Bums...

That's what we were for 10 days....  We camped at the lake for a total of 9 nights for the week of the 4th of July.... We had the best time ever.... We slept late, had late breakfast (my favorite).  We spent our days out on the lake- floating on rafts, cruising around the lake.  We grilled on the boat several nights, even had pizza delivered to the Marina one night--Baylie's favorite, watched fireworks from the boat. Had a camp fire one or two nights, played lots of Phase10 and scrabble--we're very competitive when it comes to playing games.  Me and Kent enjoyed 'happy hour' as we like to call it most evenings while preapring to grill.  Baylie helped cook breakfast one morning which was a first--sausage on the griddle was his speciality-Kent took care of the pancakes.  He's really gotten into helping and we think it's great.  Camping is fun but it is alot of work and the more that you share the work the better it is for everyone.  My two boys fished a few nights from the boat, while I read and had wine.  No fish fry though...  Lol  We also met some fellow campers across from us that cooked us a great Dutch Oven dinner one night, Marvell and Gary--they were great--had alot of fun talking to them around a campfire.  We plan to stay in touch with them. 

It was a great week--something that we plan to make a tradition...  Britnie, my daughter came up for a few days and stayed.  She and her brother watched a movie one night in the camper and made smores.  Makes my heart feel good any time I get to see the two spend time together..  Now that she is older and works, she doesn't camp as much but I love it when she comes up.  The other two kids were not able to make it...  It's really quite a show when we have all four at the lake--which is not very often.  Three of the 4 are basically grown so mostly it's just the 12 year old that camps with us these days.  He's a great camper and loves to help.

Camping is a big part of our Summer--'our second home' and we love it.  I thrive in the Summer.  I love all things Summer--you rarely hear me complain about the heat or humidity in my case, since we live in AR.  We plan to Fall camp some this year--which we've never really done....  Really looking forward to the cool air, cooking over a open fire and going for some hikes.  Will be much different than Summer camping but we think it will be alot of fun and look forward to the new experience.

Garden Part 2

What fun we've had with this Garden....   The Sunflowers did great at first--but then got to heavy and starting falling over...I've got to read up to see how to prevent that next year.  The cherry tomatoes did great--although we will plant the tomatoes in a different location next year--they were on a slope and don't get as much as they need therfore, the big tomoatoes are not really producing.  Corn was a blow-out--not sure we'll try it again. And the beans--we basically only got enough for like 1 meal before they were done...  Not sure what the deal was with them either...  But the squash and zuchinni has really taken off...  They were huge when we got back from the lake.  We've been grilling them and yes even fried them once...  Lots and lots bananna peppers.  I love it... It's so fun to check on the garden and get to pick veggies for dinner...  There are several things we will do different next year--I also want to expand my herbs next year.  We need to have our soil tested next year--we were a little too anxious this year so we didn't take the time. The weeding--not so fun......

I also did a section of wildflower seeds righ outside our bedroom window...  I think I should have planted a different type as it gets more shade than I thought--it's taken awhile for them to really bloom.  But I've always liked wildflowers!  And daisy's they're a fav of mine!

HOT TUB Splurge_Early Anniversary

So, Big Splurge of the Year.....  It was February...  We have always said we would love to have a Hot Tub.  When we built our house about 18 months ago--we planned on getting one.  Had the electrical wired for it and everything.  Then one day, we decide to go 'check them out'... Well, that put things into perspective... We left knowing that would not be something we would be doing day 1 with the new House and just planned on one of these years maybe getting one...  Fast forward.....  One Friday, I had to work and Kent was off....  He called me and told me he had stopped at a Yard Sale in our neighborhood -This is funny--because he never stops without me.  He proceeds to tell me that the House is for Sale and they have a Hot Tub that they are selling--I'm like and....??  Lol  Later that day I decide to stop at the sale just to see if he over looked something that I might need want.  Well, one thing leads to another, and we go out back to check out this Hot Tub.  It was just what we had wanted--matter of fact even nicer.  It was practically brand new and fully loaded.  We thought about it over night--went back and forth alot--but knew that this was probably our best chance of getting once as we got a really good deal on it!  We were so excited once we finally made the decision..  But of course, one thing led to another and we decided to rather than just stick it out back on a platform in the yard to have pavers installed.  Normally, we would do this ourselves, but the Hot Tub had to be moved ASAP--since the house was for sale.  So we had to hire someone and then it decided to snow--not once not twice but like 3 times in Arkansas.  Never do we get SNOW--We get ICE.  So, it took us a few weeks longer to get it....  And we are so glad that we did....  Kent has been building a ledge to go around it that will hold tropical Plants for privacy and drinks.  Later we plan to make a Arbour over the top and extend out the pavers so that we can have a better place for seating around the firepit.  We spend alot of time outback so we will definetly enjoy!  It was not something that we had planned on--but sometimes those are the best times....

13.1 Miles

Me and Kent ran our first Marathon on Sunday, March 6th here in Little Rock.  Race day was really cold and quiet windy downtown. We did the 1/2 which  is 13.1 miles.  Back in 2007, I did the whole marathon which is 26.2 and Kent did the 1/2.  So, it was fun to finally do one and run together...  I have to admit, we didn't really train for this one--so it was really tough on us and our time was not what it could have been.  Kent's time would have been much better had he not stayed with me but we decided to stay together for this one and man was I glad.  I was not mentally prepared for this race so I was so glad to have him at my side the entire time.  It was def a challenge and I'm so glad we were able to do it....   The day before we had a big pasta lunch at Olive Garden with our youngest son in order to load up on some carbs.   After the race, we stopped and got some take-out on our way home..  Took a long shower and went upstairs  to what we call  'our nest' and crashed and watched movies for 6 hours straight trying to recover all the while asking each other " And why did we do that"?? The next two days we could barely walk but by Wednesday we were back to normal...

Garden Part 1

So, We have been planning this for a few months.  We've spent a few nights all cuddled up w/ our Notebook--drawing out the Garden Plan, listing what we plan to plant.  Just making a plan in general....  We've got alot to do this first time.... We've got to rent a sod cutter to cut the sod away (we will transplant that to other areas that didn't do so well last year).  We are borrowing a tiller from a friend until we hope to come across a good deal on one... :)  Always on the look-out for a good deal!  We def have our work cut our for us--but we are so excited.  Kent grew up having a garden, his parents farmed and they always had a garden.  But neither of us have had one as an adult....  So, this should be fun....  We know this will be trial and error this year as I'm sure we have alot to learn....  We have Big Plans for this Garden... We haven't planted one thing and I've already bought some canning jars at an estate sale in hopes of canning some.  How funny is that.....??  I even ordered a used book from Amazon 'Gardening in the South'. Oh and I've discovered what compost is so added to the Garden Plan is a compost Bin--want be much help this year--but wil be next  year.  Kent has gotten the biggest kick out of me-- He says he's slowly converting me to his 'country girl' even though we live right smack in  the City and a Subdivision at that--not by his choice at all I might add....

0301 Eureka Springs, AR

March 1st.... We celebrated our 3rd anniversary by going to Eureka Springs.  It took some time to come up with a get away--we were trying to keep it to just a week-end trip--so that narrows it down with our location.  We took our time getting to Eureka--stopping at Flea Markets on the side of the road, bought Black Apples on the way that I later used to make Kent Apple Dumplings when we returned home. We stayed in a 'tree house'--which was really neat.  The entire week-end we never saw one single person.  It was the perfect get away...  We took our my favorite wine 'Polka Dot' and had our very own Happy Hour every night in the tree house before we would go in search of Dinner.  Our typical Day was sleeping in, going to a late breakfast, we would roam around downtown with all the shops--didn't buy much.. Kent got sunglasses and we bought lots of incense We Love Incense! We also rode around alot listening to CD's that I had brought and to the 70's from XM.  It was so relaxing... we would skip lunch and opt for Dinner.  We had some really good Italian Food--our favorite was a complete little whole in the wall in an alley called... Oasis (Tex-Mex--very authenic).  You were practically eating in the kitchen--Luved it!  Our tree house had a Jacuzzi tub and we were always to bed early...  Most relaxing get away I think we've ever had. We are usually so active on our trips.  This is just what we needed though......   We stayed 3 nights and dreaded to leave behind all the one on one time we had....  We stopped in a small town right outside Eureka that had like less than 1,000 people and had breakfast at this cute little diner. And then we took the long way home.. passing thru Rogers and Fayetteville.  All the way home, we were planning our next trip, thinking about the plans we have for the summer.  Planning our first Garden for this Spring....  We love to talk about all the things that we want to do, places we want to go and things that we probably will not get the chance to do..  We have alot of Dreams....

We did not x-change gifts this year--even when we do its usually something small.  We both have the same thought--it's never about Material things...   But this year we did happen to stumble upon something that we've always said we wanted--but just didn't want to splurge that BIG.....  More on That later....

Kent:  If/when you read this blog....   You are the best husband/ friend I could ever hope for....  I luv all the time we spend together....  I luv that we ride to work together, I love our Thursday Date Nights, I luv 'our nest' upstairs, our Friday's that we have off..  I enjoy your company so much.... We have so much fun, whether it's working on projects, going to Yard Sales/Estate Sales, Camping, or just hanging out. You always embrace my thoughts, hopes, and Dreams and live them out with me.  But most of all I love You!