Light in the Gloominess 6-23-14

It rained today which is really nothing out of the ordinary lately. I love the way our neighbors light post looks when it is gloomy and rainy. The way it shines off the wet street, it's beautiful to me.

Calamity Beach 6-22-14

Dustin and I went out to Calamity beach this afternoon. We were there for less then 20 min before it started down pouring. Before the rain came down I got some pictures of one of the hundreds of butterfly bushes that were along the river and a pretty wild passion flower.

Melon Flowers 6-21-14

Our melon plants are full of little yellow flowers! We will have little melons soon hopefully!

A Girl and Her Rabbit 6-20-14

This is my friend Sarah and one of her rabbits. We went over to their house tonight for pizza and games.

First Harvest 6-19-14

Our first harvest of Green Beans!

Muddy Paw 6-18-14

I took a picture of a scratched up, muddy window? Yes, I did. That is my Zipper girl's paw right there. When she has had enough of being outside she sometimes jumps up on the sliding glass door. I saw this perfect paw print from across the room as the sun was setting and shining through the glass.

First Love of Arkansas 6-17-14

I was driving tonight and I had to pull over to get a picture of this gorgeous view. Arkansas really does have some beautiful sunsets. The sunsets were one of the first few things that made me fall in love with Arkansas.

Demon Inside 6-16-14

This kitty may be a sweetie when his daddy is home but when it is just him and I....this is what I get. Dustin is at a Tech conference so Blue is without his daddy and he likes to take it out on me. I was laying on the couch and blue was lounging on the side I had my feet propped up. While I was talking to Dustin on the phone, Blue lunged at my feet and grabbed them with claws out. We are not starting this time together out well.....demon kitty.

Father's Day #2 6-15-14

Tonight, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house out in Lakeview for a Father's Day celebration, with my family. We had a Bar-B-Que out on their back deck. It was a beautiful evening filled with family time and good memories.

My sweet dad and my charming husband talking about...drum roll please
.....TECHNOLOGY :-)

This is my brother-in-law Dave and his son Wesley.
Dave and I don't always get along or see eye to eye
but I can so without reserve that he is a fantastic
daddy to his three kiddos.
Thanks for raising my nieces and nephew up right Dave!

We also celebrated Grandpa's birthday that is actually on Tuesday. We were singing to him in this shot. He blew out all those candles in one blow!

Father's Day #1 6-14-14

Dustin got to spend all day with his dad and brother. They took apart a 3d printer then put it back together a different way. It is all three of their things to take stuff apart, figure it out and put it together again. They loved their time together today and I am so happy they got that time.

Lifes a Picnic 6-13-14

Today Dustin and I took half a day off and slept in and then went to the park for a picnic with some of my family. My sis and her three kiddos met us there. We ate our lunches, played on the park, and watched the huge turtles at the pond.

My youngest niece having some
air time on the swings.

My sweet nephew swinging.
 Look at those fantastic
Lightening McQueen sandals!

He loves these kids so much
and they love him too, best uncle ever.

There were lots of huge
turtles in the pond like this one.

So Close 6-12-14

Tonight was a full moon. It was supposed to be completely full at midnight but this picture is at about 9:45. It looks way closer than it actually is. Like I could just grab a ladder and head on up.

Dinner Time 6-11-14

Love all our little birds that come to eat in our backyard!

Holding Ears 6-10-14

So our youngest niece has this thing about holding ears. Seriously, it's a thing she does when you are holding her or watching a movie with her or whatever, she wants to hold your ear. It drives uncle Dustin crazy so when she holds his ear he makes sure to hold hers back. She usually doesn't like it when it is happening to her, but they seem to be having a good ole time holding ears while watching Natalie's softball game. He makes an over the top amazing uncle.

Enjoying All the Rain 6-9-14

We are growing little orange sweet melons this year and they are really enjoying all this rain. No melons yet, but they are coming soon!

Time To Go 6-8-14

We had thought about going canoeing today, but when we woke up after the second night of camping, we both just wanted to go home. We had plenty of fun and more than enough bug bites. It was a good thing we decided to leave because as soon as we had packed up our campsite and headed down the road it started raining!



6 years together!

I wonder what this little guy will turn into?!
 Found him on our tent while we were taking it down.

Leaving our campsite at Barkshed.

High Wire Anniversary 6-7-14

Saturday morning we woke up to no rain. It didn't even rain throughout the night. We prepared for the worst though and had a tarp covering our tent.

Sooo Handsome!

We woke up and I made a yummy breakfast then to my dismay we decided to go ahead and go to Loco Ropes in Mountain View. I was really hoping to be swept away by some catastrophic flash flood before we had the chance to go....but that didn't happen. So after a lunch at Angler's, we made our way to Loco Ropes. I was really trying to not freak out but when we think of NOT doing something, what do we do? Yup. But by the time we got there I decided I was just going to pull up my big girl panties and do it because Dustin REALLY wanted to. I am not keen on heights at all so it was scary. The staff was super nice though and I did fairly well. I didn't even totally fall off the course once, I was as slow as a tortoise, but I made it passed every element rather nicely.

Yea, I did that, 30 feet up in the trees!

All except one which required a free fall type experience and eventually I did make it through that one too....with a 10 min coaching from the facilitator, Kari, and a ummm encouraging light tap on my shoulder from my husband. I had scooted myself so close to the edge that the small encouragement tap on my shoulder had just enough push to rock me and then I instantly decided not to fight it and just go. Kari gave him the death look for that tap and rightly so, I was supposed to decide to go. But honestly, I was going to chicken out and I am actually kind of thankful for that love tap cause I would have been SOOOO mad at myself if I wouldn't have finished.

The Loco Ropes high wire facilitator , Kari.

We finished just in time before the rain came pouring down. All in all it is a lot of fun for people who don't mind being 30 feet off the ground, Dustin loved it, I on the other hand, would rather be finding my adventure on the ground.

We dropped by the soda fountain in Mountain View afterwards and shared a blueberry malt....so good but so very sweet since we aren't use to having much sugar anymore.

We decided to camp another night but before we left Mountain View we stopped by Wal-Mart and got some glow in the dark spray paint. When we got back to the campsite, we spray painted our croquet set and when it got dark we played glow in the dark croquet! I don't have a picture of that but it was just so much fun I had to mention it!

So happy this adorable nerd lets me drag him to the great outdoors!

Adventure, Rain or Shine 6-6-14

Despite the immanent rain in the forecast Dustin and I decided to go forth with our plans to go camping for our 6th anniversary. We landed at Barkshed Campground at about 5:00pm. We set up camp, and headed down to the creek to explore our surroundings. The mist was heavy and made the scenes take on an eerie, yet mysteriously romantic feel. I felt like I got into a time machine headed to the distant past to get to that moment.

There is an old road bridge over the creek that is closed to vehicle traffic. There is a trail into the woods across the bridge that we didn't explore, but I am sure there adventure lurking there.

Happy Little Blue Bird 6-5-14

Saw this little sweetie visiting my strawberry baskets out in our garden tonight. At the first sign of berries though, I plan on putting wildlife netting around the plants so he can still sit there, but no snacking!

On The Line 6-4-14

Tonight as I was watering our herbs I looked up and noticed I had company...

I love birds. My living room is decorated in bird decor and I try my hardest to make sure the bird feeders are always full.

Sultry Summer Softball 6-3-14

Our Nephew and his Papa goofing around as our oldest niece finishes up her softball game.

Since it was a hot evening, Mimi and Papa bought after game popsicles for the kids. This is our oldest niece after her game eating her popsicle with her little sis behind her in the pink shirt.

Garden Pups 6-2-14

Zipper and Gracie love going out to the garden with me. They just hang around me while I pick weeds and take care of the garden. They basically just love being wherever I am, and I am so thankful for their loving company, plus they are SOOOO cute who wouldn't want these two hanging around?

Washin' It 6-1-14

This is pretty much what we did today. We cleaned our windows, curtains vacuumed the floors and planted pepper plants. Not much else happened today it was basically just a lazy, yet somewhat productive Sunday at home. I love when my man steps away from what he's doing and helps me with house work. Thanks babe!

50 Years 5-31-14

We celebrated Jo & Steve Wilson's 50th anniversary today. Their family set up a wonderful drop in get together out in front of their cabin on the river. It was a beautiful day filled with smiles, laughter, hugs and memories both old and new. We were so blessed to be able to spend the afternoon with these sweet people and celebrate their 50 years of adventures together.

Blackbirds and Coyotes 5-30-14

Tonight Dustin and I went to Blackbird Café where they were serving up delicious food (or course) and hosting an art walk with three different artists from around the area. They also had one of my favorite local bands playing tonight, Coyote Union. We started out our year listening to Coyote Union as we rocked out at their New Years eve concert with Kib and Sarah in an old bowling alley. Tonight they put on a great show as well. It's going to be exciting to see where their talent them!
This is the best picture I got tonight. There are times I am just to in the moment to really get any great pictures...so this will have to do.

Also I want to include their Official music video to one of their most popular songs, Teardrop River....check them out!!

Soaking The Itch Away 5-29-14

So on the 5-27-14 blog, "Worth It", I went to Clysta Willett to take pictures of the flowers. After getting quite a few tick bites and several more chigger bites I am not so sure that title fits. When I get tick and chigger bites it feels like I have a flesh eating disease for several days. I react terribly to them and when there are 10+ from the waist down it is pretty miserable. So I took a hot Epsom Salt and Baking Soda bath tonight to try and draw out some of the itch and burn. It helped A LOT actually. I was having a hard to finding a shot worthy of a picture today so I decided to go a little on the odd and artsy side for todays picture.....

Sunshine On a Cloudy Day 5-28-14

Today has been mostly cloudy with intermittent showers. Actually, that's been the forecast all week. As I was coming out of my favorite grocery store, The Truck Patch, I looked up and saw this beauty of a sight. The plants have gotten a wonderful drink this week and my eyes have feasted on the beautiful cloud formations that have frequented the skies.

I was messing around in Photoshop as I was cropping this picture and I wound up with this look.... weird, yea?

Worth It 5-27-14

After I got off work and before my niece's softball game, I stopped at Clysta Willett to take some flower pictures. I got flower pictures, unfortunately I picked up some hitchhiking ticks and chiggers too, but I think these might be worth it. If you click on the pictures and make them bigger they look even better. My favorite out of this group is the little fragile poppy with the tiny grasshopper in it.

Memorial Day 5-26-14

Dustin had to work today and while he was gone I went to the Mountain Home Memorial Day ceremony for the first time. It was a very special ceremony honoring the men and women, especially from our area, that served their country and made the ultimate sacrifice. I was pleased to see so many people of all ages attend. Memorial day is a day to honor and remember the fallen who sacrificed everything for our freedom. If that point wasn't well brought to mind at the ceremony, it was brought to mind when I later got onto facebook. There was pictures of people with there families having good times together and then there was a picture of a decorated grave. A man that I once knew that had served his country and made that sacrifice in 2010. Memorial day is considerably different for his family than it is for mine as they go visit the grave of their brother, son, uncle....husband.
We may not have had to experience the pain of a loved one in the military who didn't get to come back, but we can honor their memory and reflect on the sacrifice they and their families have made.
I love this picture of a Veteran honoring the fallen as the colors were presented.

Day of Rest 5-25-14

We got home late last night from Jasper, so we just had a sleep in and not do a whole lot kind of day. We did get a handful of peas off the sugar snap pea plant in our garden though! I love the designs the feelers of the pea plants make around the stick trellis.