Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! We had a quiet night at home. We really didn't have that many trick or treaters but enough to take all the candy we had. Of course I gave each kid several fists full!

Our candy bowl

Dawson was not too excited about the fact that people were coming to our house and we were giving them food instead of vice versa

We got Dawson a little bat hat but he hated it so we just let him wear the collar

We had a precious little kitty come and visit us. Could she be any cuter?

Mouth full of chocolate

Me and my girl

The Ormons came to trick or treat

Sick

I did something today that I have probably only done maybe four times in the 12 years I have been working. I called in sick. I started feeling bad yesterday afternoon and I just hardly slept last night I felt so bad. Just achy and yuck and I had a fever this morning. I was trying to go to work because I hate missing and I hate calling in - but I knew that I wouldn't make it.
I took some medicine this morning and slept for quite a while so I'm feeling better now so I'm laying on the couch under a blanket watching daytime TV.

Fire!

I have an almost irrational fear that our house might burn down one day. I have no idea why. I guess I think it would just be so terrible. Everytime we go out of town - all I can think of is "what if our house burns down?" and my palms sweat as we drive into town thinking "what if our house is gone". I never drive into our neighborhood (I'm talking every day) without looking first for our rooftop to make sure it's still there. I'm crazy. You would think it would make me feel better to realize that there is a fire station basically right in our subdivision.
Saturday afternoon when we went to pick up Dawson from Doggie Daycare - I noticed the hotel they were building next door was GONE! Completely! The picture above was in the paper of the firemen trying to put out the fire that started at 1 a.m. It was still smoking when we got there at 5 the next afternoon. It kind of freaked us out to realize that a 4 story hotel was blazing just a few hundred feet from where Dawson was. What if it had spread and the dog place had burned down with it? I shudder to think what would happen if we would have lost Dawson in a fire.
Thank goodness the hotel was just in building stages and no one was there.

"How's It Bra?"

Scott and I LOVE "Dog the Bounty Hunter". And we share that love with our friends the Murray's. They went to a costume party tonight and dressed as Dog and Beth Chapman. I knew it would be hilarious so I told them to take pictures. But since they live close to us - they did even better - they came over for a viewing. We laughed so hard. Mike was in character from the time he drove up. He acted like he was on a bust and arrested Scott. I think Kacy makes a GREAT Beth.


Mike and Kacy - I know you read this - I hope you won the costume contest! Thanks for the laugh! (Now I'm sharing it with everyone else) ha!

Monkey Business

Today we went to the Tulsa Zoo. It was such a beautiful day and we had so much fun - neither of us had been to a zoo in probably over 20 years.

One of the stars of Meerkat Manor

These sea lions had the life - just laying out in the sun.

We loved this igauna - it was smiling at us!

Me taking a drink from the Lion's mouth

Too Old for Concerts

Yesterday we went to Tulsa. We stopped and ate Mexican for lunch on the way and got there in the afternoon. We checked into our hotel (see below). I had picked out this small boutique style hotel to stay in. It was downtown and I thought it would be fun to stay somewhere that wasn't a chain. It was pretty neat.

We thought the concert opened doors at 6 so we got there a little after 5. Only to find out after we paid to park that the doors didn't open till 7. So we got in line.

This is me right before we left to go to the concert. I realized hours later that I was completely over dressed. (Me? Never? Ask my old college roommate Kandi about how I used to wear Sunday dresses to class in college).
David Crowder is on a "club tour". Which means - instead of churches or nice venues - he is playing at clubs - to reach the unchurched. This is where the concert was - Cain's Ballroom.
Here was Scott standing in line. We stood in line for about an hour and a half to get in and realized that "club tour" = no seats. So we were very close to the stage but we stood for the entire time and were crammed in with hundreds of sweaty college and high school students who liked to jump up and down most of the time. We probably have never felt older.
So after an hour of standing in the ballroom just waiting for the concert to start - my feet were killing me (once again -poor choice of footwear). We were almost at the point of leaving .......but I'm so glad we did not. The concert was GREAT! He had 2 bands play before him and they were good but David Crowder was awesome! He played every song of his that I love and was just so good live. We loved it! Even though we could barely walk afterwards we were so sore and tired. My back nearly gave out. (Could I BE any older?) We would have liked to have hung around and had our picture made with him and met him.......but I could just barely stand up and it was WAY past our bed time. But it was such a great night.

T.G.I.F.

Scott and I have a really fun weekend planned that is officially starting tonight so we decided to get crazy and have our favorite - Papa Murphy's Take It and Bake It pizza. It is the best! They make it up and then you take it home and bake it. It's cheap and the most yummy pizza in town.
We both have tomorrow off and we are going to Tulsa to hang out and shop and eat out and then tomorrow night we are going to see David Crowder in concert! We are SO excited. He is our favorite! Scott bought the tickets back in January so he has been anxiously waiting to see him!
Then we are spending the night and we decided to skip the Razorback game (for obvious reasons and also because we didn't want to have to rush back to town) and go to the Tulsa Zoo and just spend the day together out of town. I'm so excited!
Have a great weekend!

New Blogger

My friend Hillary has started a blog! I'm so excited - I try to encourage everyone to blog!

Check her out: http://razorbackhillary.blogspot.com/

Birthday Treats

I went to a dog bakery today www.bigwag.com and got Dawson some birthday treats. I was too late to get him a birthday cake but I got him two "pupcakes" and some cookies. He ate one of the pupcakes and loved it. We sang Happy Birthday and he was one happy dog.

Ladies Who Lunch

I had lunch with Laurie and my favorite little niece today at Chili's. She had a cute little Halloween outfit on. She is the cutest!

C&C

My brother sent me some of the engagement pictures they had made this weekend on the campus of University of Texas where they met. This was my favorite.

Happy Birthday Dawson!

The week Dawson came to live with me

Today is Dawson's 5th birthday. Five years ago (a year before we got married), Scott drove an hour from home and picked up this little white ball of fur and then showed up at my door and gave him to me for my birthday/Christmas gift. He was 8 weeks old and the cutest thing I had ever seen. We love that little dog so much. We constantly call each other to talk about him and we have cut vacations short at least twice that I can remember to come home early because we missed him so much. Half the children in this world aren't loved or treated as well as he is (and that is sad). I know that one day he will play second fiddle when a baby comes but right now he is king of our castle.

Shoe Exchange

I think fall is officially here. At least in Arkansas. We went from days in the 80's to yesterday being in the 50's. And looking ahead at the weather - it's the 50's or 60's from here on out. So Sunday afternoon - I finally switched out my closet and pulled out my winter clothes and put up my summer clothes.

I think we can officially switch from these:

To these:

Welcome back boots! I have missed you!

Breakfast at Mimi's

This morning I had to go to the Dr. to have a procedure done so we had to miss church. So after we were finished - we went to Mimi's Cafe to have breakfast. We never eat out breakfast so this was a treat. I hate eggs but I had an omelette and it was really good. Mimi's is a GREAT place for breakfast - we would highly recommend!

Neighborhood Halloween Party

Tonight we had a neighborhood Halloween party. It was a lot of fun. Everyone brought food and we ate and the kids bobbed for apples and painted or carved pumpkins. The women talked and the men mostly stayed inside watching football. We have a lot of really nice neighbors. We are already starting to plan a neighborhood Christmas party. I think I might have volunteered to have it at our house. Yikes!
P.S. I had gone to the local thrift store and found a hilarious old prom dress to wear as a costume - I was going to be a 1988 prom queen with big hair and all but I couldn't convince Scott to dress up with me. And then I ran into my neighbors at Wal-Mart and thank goodness they told me they weren't dressing up because only the children did and I would have felt real stupid showing up all dressed up with everyone else in normal clothes. ha!

Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake

Here is the recipe for the cake I made for today's neighborhood party. It will make you want to slap your momma it's so good. ha!

1 cup butter, melted (2 sticks)
1 pkg chocolate cake mix (18.25 oz)
3 large eggs
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
3 to 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 box (1 lb) confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts (I left out the nuts on mine)

Heat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center. Lightly butter a 13x9 inch pan. In a large bowl, stir together cake mix, 1 egg and 1/2 cup butter until combined well. Evenly pat into pan and set aside.
In a large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Beat in remaining 2 eggs and the cocoa powder until combined well. Reduce speed to low and add sugar; beat until combined well. Gradually beat in remaining 1/2 cup butter and the extract. Beat until smooth. Fold in nuts with a rubber spatula and spread over cake mixture.
Bake until set around edges but center is a little gooey, 40 to 50 minutes.

Widow's Oil

Last Sunday our pastor preached on a story I hadn't heard in a very long time. He preached out of 2 Kings 4:1-7. It's the story of Elijah who met a woman whose husband had recently died and she had 2 sons and no money and her creditors were going to take her sons into slavery and she didn't know what she was going to do. All she had was one jar of oil left. Elijah told her to get as many jars as she could and pour the oil into those jars until it ran out. Which sounds like a crazy idea when you are looking at that one bottle of oil. But she poured and poured and filled up all the jars anyone had. And at the end she had enough sell and to pay off all of her debt and to live on. My pastor said "what if she hadn't trusted God enough to pour out her oil. What if she decided to lean on her own understanding and hold on to that one jar?" That really struck a chord with me because so often - I hold on very tightly to my plans (or my oil) and what makes sense to me and the way I think will be the best and what would happen if instead - I give up my plans and I give when God tells me to give and just trust Him - what kind of blessings does He want to pour out on me and how much better is it then the plans I have for myself.
I shared this with a friend of mine who is going through some stuff and this morning she e-mailed me and said "You won't believe this but I am doing a Bible Study and guess what they had for us to read this morning?" You guessed it - the widow's oil story. She said "I'm pretty sure God wants me to hear this and get it".
Scott and I started some fertility treatments this month and I just know that God is going to use this to bless us with a family. Today I was in tears because I was so thankful for my sweet doctor who is helping me but I'm mostly thankful to God because He is able to use her to fulfill His perfect will - whatever that may be. Right now - I'm just trying not to hang on to my oil - but to be obedient to trust God to provide for us.
I saw a church sign that pretty much summed this up for me - it said "Being Content means knowing that Jesus has already given you everything you need".

Charm City

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I have just been in Baltimore, Maryland for the last few days at a sales meeting and my computer broke while I was there so I had VERY limited access to the internet. Painful.
I'm a big fan of Maryland. It is such a pretty state. We had a great trip. We got to do some fun things when we weren't in meetings all day.
We got there Monday and that night we went to our Vice President's house. His family owns a dairy farm in Hunt Valley, MD and it is SO beautiful where he lives. It was almost dark and I didn't have our good camera with us - I wish I could have taken good pictures of his house and the land around it - it was GORGEOUS! We did get to take a hay ride to the farm and see all the cows. Then we had BBQ at his house. It was a lot of fun.

The little calves were so cute!

Tuesday night we took a "bus" (which ended up being a party bus and not the charter bus I had pictured). We watched U2 videos all the way. We went to downtown Baltimore by the harbor and ate a Bo Brooks - a famous Crab place. I had never eaten crabs like this before. It was very messy but good.

Rolling in the party bus

The view outside the restaurant

Me getting ready to drop the hammer on my crab

Crabs, crabs and more crabs

It was a great trip but I missed my boys (Scott and Dawson) so much and I am glad to be home.