So long Rambling Road...

The new year brought a bittersweet goodbye to our first house. After re-locating to NW Arkansas in February of last year, it was a long road in a tough housing market to sell our house in Oklahoma City. After many months, we decided to stage the house thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law. Within a few weeks, we had an offer and a great new couple is now enjoying.

A few pics as we say goodbye...

Snow Storm January 2010

As if the Christmas Blizzard was not enough, more snow has hit Arkansas. Luckily it came towards the end of the week. I am not for sure on total of inches we have gotten, since I rarely watch the news. But think we will be staying put for a few days. Glad we have plenty of food.

Notice MarinaMan's gloves...Go Pokes...think my dad got him those for Christmas and since we didn't have our ski stuff here in Arkansas, he had to manage.

The dogs have been enjoying the snow, but don't stay out for long.

To occupy our time, we luckily bought the first three seasons of 24 on DVD earlier this week. Anybody 24 fans?

Coming out of Hibernation

This past month has been great and busy(hence the not blogging for a month). We were fortunate to make some trips back to OKC for the holidays including getting snowed in with the Oklahoma City Blizzard. 14 inches, come on that is insane.

We have been back home and daily life has been more of survival mode. Weather in the single digits and snow has resulted in frozen pipes (aka no water) and trouble getting around on the roads and up the driveway. Lets just conclude that I am ready for this winter adventure to be over and ready for spring.

You know when the marina starts to get calls about boat rentals and reservations for July - that I am not the only one ready for spring and summer.

I will try to get some photos up soon.

Adventure story: Scott was out working in the well house a few weeks ago, probably adjusting the heater to help the frozen pipes, and he found a package that appeared to have been carried from our front porch down the driveway. Just guessing that the UPS guy delivered the package to the porch instead of just throwing in the driveway. As you can tell from the picture something decide the present inside was worth trying to get. A whole corner of the box had been destroyed and the tin can inside had claw indentations in it, but lucking the animal did not succeed. The can of nuts and candy was still there just with a few addition decorations on the outside.


Lesson learned: Warn vendors about sending packages with food

Dear Santa, I would like grass and a front yard for Christmas! It's ok if I don't see it until spring

Ok, I know this is weird, so I will start off by acknowledging my weirdness.

Since our move to rural Arkansas, I have gain a new appreciated by being surrounded by God's work and beautiful landscape. Our house (mini house/cabin) sits on wooded acreage and you get to drive up a windy and curvy road to get to the cabin. All great especially the roadside lake views you see on the way.

The first picture I saw of this cabin online was a winter picture with the house in snow. So cute, then I saw a few summer time photos with a small grassy front yard surrounded by trees and woody stuff.

Since we bought the house, the yard has never been groomed or mowed and is now taken over by weeds or wheat growing tall, sticker bushes, you name it. Nobody's fault in particular, but we were a little busy this summer, you know, figuring out how to run a marina, opening a motel, moving, etc.

Lately, I have been on a kick to try to rake some of the leaves and trim some weeds to see if there is signs of life under all this mess. To my great surprise I think there is. The dogs love to run through the trees but the also love to lay in the yard and bast in the sun. Kinda hard to do with sticker bushes under there paws and weeds taller than them.

All this to say, I miss green groomed grass and am hopeful I can create a patch next year. Probably on my own since Mr. H is not so excited about creating more work and stuff to maintain. Understandable, but it will look pretty.

Who votes for a small front yard amongst the jungle I now call home?

Every 50 feet in Arkansas - Curvy Road Ahead

Every 50 feet in Arkansas
Originally uploaded by adhumphreys

Car sickness. My husband I don't think truly believes in this, but that is probably because I get nausea almost every time I get in the car.

There are a few things that increase the likeliness of this happening - sitting in the back on a car, not eating that day, afternoon sun, etc.

I continue to surprised myself. Normally this only happens when i am a passenger, but there is always a first. When driving to the marina from the cabin early afternoon recently, I had not eaten yet that day and manage to make myself car sick.

You literally see one of these signs every 50 feet which does not help.

Upon arriving at the Marina, Mr. H looked at me and said, "Why do you look so pale?"

Normally this is because I haven't been in the sun much, but no, not this time. Me, "I got car sick".

Mr. H, laughter.

Add this to the "Things you should consider when moving" list.

Meet my nephew, Wesley(the chihuahua)

My sister, Katie, and husband, Daivid, got Welsey earlier this year, but I don't get to see him often enough. He has only made one trip to the lake and lets just say I didn't make it back home very often this summer.

Katie prepared dinner for the family and Scott's early birthday celebration, so I was able to get some Welsey time in. He is the cutest little thing. I do love my dogs, but he fits in your hand.

So I thought I would introduce you to him. The other big dog that he is sitting on is Sammy, their other dog that does really cool tricks(like when you sneeze-brings you a Kleenex, go and gets firewood, etc).

I am thankful for to have more time to visit home and hang out with the family.

Annual Craft & Baking Night

About 5 years ago, I started a tradition with Scott's two cousins (Morgan and Taylor). They are like having little sisters that I don't see often enough. So to give their parents a night to themselves(they normally go shopping), we have a slumber party and craft night each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Kelsey started joining us a few year back after joining the Humphreys family. Always an all girl party, but the boys don't seem to mind.

Some of the activities we've done:
Concrete Stepping Stones
Pottery & Jewelry Making
Ornaments and Craft painting
Wire Letter Ornaments
This Year - Bulletin boards and fleece blanket

Each year there is not enough time to get everything done, but that never prevents us from trying. Along with a craft project each year, we bake sugar cookies and do lots of decorating with icing and sprinkles. Morgan's favorite part is putting flour on the counter top to roll out the dough. This year we did cupcake instead but was just as much fun.