Been a Busy Week...

This week has been busy and this morning I slept until almost noon (well except for a wake up call at 6:00 am to take my parents to the airport --then I came back and slept till almost noon)...I haven't done that in a LONG time.

Monday was our anniversary and we celebrated at one of our favorite restaurants - Flying Fish down in the River Market.  Although it's not fancy, it's really good food.  Can't believe it's been 13 long wonderful years!  : )

Wednesday I spent the day with one of my dearest friends from Pine Bluff, Kay Shankles.  We started around noon by "Dipping our Chip" at an old favorite, Mexico Chiquito and then shopped until we dropped...hitting Charming Charlies, the Doggy Boutique, had a cupcake at Cupcakes on Kavaugh and browsed through some shops in the Heights and stopped in Full Moon (I love that little store).  We had dinner at Red Lobster and then headed downtown to see WICKED.  Such a WONDERFUL musical.  Loved spending time with you Kay, we don't do it nearly often enough.  Love ya!

Thursday night I had a Portrait Photography class.  Posed portraits aren't really my main style, but I learned a lot about lighting and shadows and look forward to my next class...but first I've got to do my homework!  Any volunteers for a photo shoot?  This class is offered by Arkansas Extended Learning.  I have taken lots of classes from them from knitting to photoshop to photography and each one is very affordable and informative.  And they cater to the working public with night classes. I highly recommend checking out their schedule at http://www.extendedlearning.org/ if there's a subject you're interested in learning more about.  They have two semesters a year. 

Last night Mark and I took a trip down memory lane by going to dinner at the La Hacienda in Benton...it was very lively with their live mariachi band.  We used to go there quite often and then to WalMart where we can't seem to get out of that store under $200...even though we didn't need a thing!  Topped off with a Baskin Robbins nightcap makes for a very married Friday night date.

Today there is very little on the agenda, other than what house cleaning I can muster and some Hog football tonight.  GO HOGS BEAT UTEP!

Happy Anniversary Superman

Today I've been married to Superman for 13 years.  It just seems like last week my friend, Brenda Hartsfield, told me she had someone she wanted to introduce me to...well, I'll just say, it wasn't love at first sight.  But I am a firm believer that there is someone for everyone and my someone was Mark, no one else could have been more perfect for me.  Lord knows it hasn't all been easy, we've had our share of disappointments and setbacks, but we could always count on each other and that's all that matters.  I love my Superman and look forward to many more adventure filled years together.

(How many of you remember when Mark actually had hair!)


November 8, 1997

CAC Senior Photographer: Alex

I had the pleasure this afternoon of shooting senior pictures for Alex.  It was a beautiful afternoon, albeit a bit chilly, but with a beautiful senior who needed no direction, my job was easy!  Here's a sneak peek for her mom!  I hope she likes them!

 While I was out shooting, my husband was running.  Now he started a couple hours before I left...I was gone a couple hours and when I came home...he was STILL running!  He had his longest run today, 20 miles.  Here's superman heading out.

WOO PIGS SOOIE! 

Hogs  41 - South Carolina  20

Christmas Countdown 2010!

50 days until Christmas.  ONLY 50.

Today I am officially declaring it get ready for Christmas day for me.  I have several projects I want to get done and I DO NOT want to put them off until the last minute...like I usually do.  One I'm so excited about I started on tonight!

I am scouring the net looking for particular items and some inspiration.  I ran across this magazine the other day and found it quite interesting.  Check it out!  It has some great ideas and it also leads you to other blogs and some really neat Etsy shops.

Gifted Magazine by Creature Comforts

Holiday House

 

General Shopping Hours

Thursday, November 4 – Noon to 9 p.m.
Friday, November 5 – 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday, November 6 – 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

$7/day or $15 for a 3-day pass

I LOVE shopping events!  I prefer to go by myself so I can just roam up and down the aisles and work my way through the crowds.  I almost turned around today and went back to work instead of Holiday House... downtown traffic and parking was a nightmare!  In addition to the shopping extravaganza, there was a teacher conference next door and also WICKED was starting down the street at the same time.  I finally got lucky with a parking place inside a parking deck.  Once I got inside, the traffic wasn't much better.  I'd say the economy is picking up...it was terribly crowded. 

I did manage to pick up just a few things this year...a few baubles, some Christmas collars for the pups, a new top for my Carleon ring (this is the one thing I buy each year - the Carleon people bring their whole line to the show...and it's really hardly hard to settle on just one!) the one I decided on was the black onyx... although the black diamond was REALLY tempting!  I also picked up some chocolate peanut butter fudge for me and pumpkin fudge for my husband.  (That's kind of become a tradition as well.) 

This year's show was really good...a few new vendors and old vendors with new stuff.  If you can getaway, check it out.  But take a lot of patience with you.  : )

October Roundup

Notable Birthdays:



My Friend - Sheila Wyles


 

One of my "Lovelies" - Melanie Rogers Reeves



  

Zebra Sista - Judy Wright Low (with other ZSista Lori)




High School Buddy - Kreg Cummins & his wife, Renee







Notable Anniversaries:

 

My Mom & Dad - 56 Years!!



My Sister, Sherri & her husband, Andrew - 14 years



Books Read:
Since we spent A LOT of time in the car this month, I got a lot of reading done, thanks to my new Kindle!

Two of my

Favorite Authors!

 

 



Scrapbook Retreat in Branson - Can you find me??
(picture courtesy of Scrapbook Generation)

Notable Events:

Soaring Wings Half Marathon - Conway




Dedication of the Jim Hill Sports Complex
Seabrook Family Christian Center
Pine Bluff, AR



Halloween
The cutest little Lady Bug Ever!  Olivia


Notable Purchases:

The most notable purchases this month were souvenirs from our trip and some great fall wardrobe pieces...oh and boots...SEVERAL pairs of boots!


Travel:

Our Southwest Vacation

WHEW!  That was on busy month!

Soaring Wings Half Marathon

While I was having a little scrapping, shopping, girl time weekend, Mark ran the Soaring Wings Half Marathon in Conway. 

Mark beat his fastest time by 5 minutes.  I'm so proud of him.  I really hate that I wasn't there to cheer him on.

Now he's training to run his first full marathon in Dallas on December 5.  His running every night sure does put a damper on my evenings, but I get some pretty good weekend trips out of the deal!  I see a little "Sheila Shopping" in my future.

Jim Hill Sports Complex

Friday Night I went down to the Seabrook Family Christian Center for the dedication of the Jim Hill Sports Complex.  How cool is that!

My Dad has spent his life doing for others and especially when baseball is involved and it so amazing that he is being honored.  The Complex is a part of the Seabrook Center and it houses several baseball fields and soccer fields.  I'm not sure what else happens behind those gates, but I think it's just really cool that it's all encompassed as the Jim Hill Sports Complex.

This is the official ribbon cutting ceremony.



The Chamber of Commerce Red Coats



After the dedication there was a BBQ supper and a Halloween Carnival.

"Dragon Ninja" Lindsey and the baseball ghost.


 

Mom & Dad after enjoying a BBQ dinner.



Lindsey & Daddy playing Cake Walk



Lindsey & Daddy with their Cake Walk winnings -
I'm pretty sure that was the most expensive Apple Crisp my Dad's ever bought!

What a fun night!

Southwest Vacation By the Numbers

This is my LAST post regarding our recent vacation to the Southwest.  I just wanted to do a summary of our vacation by the numbers:

• 6 states in 10 days and 3 time zones -- I never knew WHERE I was, what DAY it was or what TIME it was!
• 14 attractions
• 3 new Hooter's locations to add to Mark's ongoing list
• 1,576 photos
• 3,805 miles
• 29 hour drive to get home to my own bed!

A lot of planning goes into a trip of this type.  We go without reservations, but you need to have a plan as to where you're going to be when and how long it takes to get there from the last location!

Some say I'm a little OCD, but here's a a snapshot of our travel itinerary.



It's a little hard to read, but we stayed pretty much on course!

And you must have a few planning guides:

Now to start planning where we're going next year!

Southwest Vacation - Headed Home

Saturday morning we got up and got ready to head home.  We had a couple of side trips along the way so we got started early.

Our first stop was the Meteor Crater in Winslow, Arizona (yes you all have heard that city mentioned in a famous Eagles song - and yes it took me all the way home to finally put all the lyrics together in my head!).  The Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid traveling at 26,000 miles per hour and planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago.  Today, Meteor Crater is nearly one mile across, 2.4 miles in circumference and more than 550 feet deep.  (or to the unscientific eye -- a big ol' hole!)

When we got there the electricity had just gone out, some of the visitors had just gotten out of the elevators after being stuck for 20 minutes!  Thank goodness I only had to climb TWO flights of stairs this time!



LOVE this picture of my shutterbug!

A few miles down the road near Holbrook, Arizona we stopped off at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  This was one of my favorite spots of our trip...we'll have to go back sometime because soon after we arrived, the sun started going down.

Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees, that lived about 225 million years ago.  We brought home a beautiful piece of the forest to put in our yard. 

The fallen logs were HUGE.

There is nothing more beautiful than an Arizona sunset.

 



The Painted Desert

After we left the Painted Desert, it was around 6:30...or dinner time! The original plan was to stay the night in Albuquerque, which was about 4 hours away.  My husband had the brilliant idea to drive all the way home.  That way we would be home around 3:00 on Sunday rather than around 11:00.  So we set out toward Arkansas.  The nearest Hooter's was in Albuquerque so that's where we set our sights for dinner...yes, dinner at 10:30 at night!  I guess it really doesn't matter if you're not going to sleep!

Somehow I was the one who ended up with the 11:30pm to 6:30 pm shift...HOW'D THAT HAPPEN?  Well...with a few bottles of 5 hours energy...that really only last 2 hours!  After about an hour nap, we stopped for breakfast at Denny's in Oklahoma City.  And drove in our driveway at 2:30.  After it was all said and done, it was the better solution, but in those wee hours of the morning I was tempted to pull into the closest Best Western!