Silver Dollar City

This past Friday Josh and I went to Silver Dollar City in Branson. I've been bugging him for about a year to do this and he finally agreed. I really enjoy amusement parks so I thought I would really enjoy this park. I had been seeing commercials on television saying that this park was currently having a world fest where performers from around the world came and did some shows. I thought it looked interesting so I convinced Josh to go now instead of later. We were originally supposed to go two Fridays ago but the rain changed our plans.

We got up early Friday morning and headed to the park. We got there about 8:30 and were one of the first peoples there. As we were walking up to the entrance some guy said "Hey do you need a ticket to get into the park?" He seemed like a nice enough guy but our first thought was that he was scalping tickets. Instead though it turns out that he wanted to give us a free ticket. I guess he has a season pass and every-so-often with those passes you get a free ticket to bring someone else and he gave us his free ticket. That was a blessing because now we only had to pay for one ticket to get in.

Once we got in we decided to eat breakfast and plan what we were going to do because the rides didn't actually open until 10:00. Our breakfast was the best I've ever eaten in an amusement park. It was a breakfast buffet with a bunch of home-cooked food. It was yummy!!

Once the rides opened the first thing we went into was this supposed house of wonders. As we were walking through I was thinking to myself this is kind of stupid. There is just some pictures on the wall that have lights flashing in them. As I was turning the corner though into another room I somehow got completely disoriented with my balance and about ran into the wall. I would take another step then and lose my balance and run into something else. It was kind of crazy. It took me a couple seconds to realize that the floor was slanted and that is probably why I was having so much trouble. Once I realized this I thought I would just adjust and not have any trouble walking but that was not the case. I was still having trouble standing up and not running into things. Josh thought that maybe the floor was moving. I'm not sure but that was weird.

The first show we went to was a Russian circus show. It was really good and pretty funny. My favorite act was this guy doing a bunch of acrobatics on a big circle thing. I thought it looked pretty fun.

Around lunch time we stopped and got a snack of homemade ice cream. Josh and I split a banana split. The ice cream was amazing. I don't really think you can beat homemade ice cream. YUMMY!!

The next show we went to was a group from Canada that was a bunch of fiddlers and tap dancers. That was pretty good also. I've always secretly thought it would be neat to be a good tap dancer. What good exercise too!

We went on a few rides throughout the day. My favorite rides are things that either swing you, spin you or turn you upside down. Josh is not a big fan of roller coasters (it's not because he's afraid of heights but he says he knows too much about mechanics and metal to feel comfortable on roller coasters) but I made him go on one with me. Unfortunately for both of us it was the worst roller coaster I've ever been on and I've been on quite a few. I was wondering why the line was so short when we got there and then I found out for myself. The only thing this coaster did was go upside down about 4 times right in a row. There were no big hills or turns it was just all upside down. I didn't like it because it bounced my head around too much and all the blood drains from my head when I'm constantly going upside down so much. Anyway after this fiasco Josh didn't want to go on any more. I can't blame him though because that one was bad.

Silver Dollar City is a little unique in the fact that they actually didn't have that many rides. They had a ton of shops and places where you could see skilled people making their crafts. We saw a blacksmith, a knife maker, glass blower and someone that worked with wood. It was all pretty neat watching them do there stuff. In the glass factory Josh bought be some hand-blown blue glass because I collect blue glass. This piece is actually one of my favorite pieces. The color is so dark blue and pretty. There is a picture of it below but I'm not sure the picture does it justice:





Here it is up on the shelf with some of my other pieces. I love it!!

I had a lot of fun with Josh on this day. It's a good park but like I said there isn't a lot of rides. It is somewhat surprising but this is the first park I've ever been in where older people (50 and over) outnumbered younger people. The older people seemed to really like going to the shows here. In fact the lines to get a seat in these shows were extremely long and most were older people. I would love to go again but I don't think Josh was as impressed as I was. Maybe we'll go again next year...

My Husband, the Carpenter

Since before we moved into this new house, Josh has been talking about building a large wooden box to use as our cat litter box. The reason for this is that this house has no real good spot to put the litter boxes so they are in the master bathroom. Unfortunately my cats can be messy and like to shovel the litter out of the box onto the floor. After awhile of stepping on this (despite it being swept up often) one starts to think of some way to fix this problem. Josh came up with a great idea that was really well thought out. He built a very large wooden box that is lined with FRP (not really sure what that is but it is waterproof. He then created an opening on one end and a carpeted ramp on that same end so that hopefully as the cats are walking out, the litter hits the carpet and none comes out of the box. This box looks really good with the trim and stain. I'm so proud of my husband. It makes me wish I new how to make things out of wood. Josh and I talk about getting a lathe someday to have fun with and to make things out of wood. Here are a couple pictures of this cat box:

"Jesus Paid it All"

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow


Lord now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone
Can change the lepers spots
And melt the heart of stone


Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe;
My sin had left this crimson stain
He washed it white as snow


It’s washed away
All my sin
And all my shame


And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
"Jesus died my soul to save,"
My lips shall still repeat


Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.


Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow


O praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead


We’ll praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead

I love this song. It is so true. May we all remember the real celebration of Easter this year. Jesus conquered death and because of that I have the hope of eternal life. What better thing is there to celebrate then that? Thank you Jesus for loving me enough (the good, the bad and the ugly) to take my place on that cross. I'm the one who deserved death but you went through that for me. Thank you Jesus for rising from the dead. You are my real source of joy, peace and hope.

Revelation 1:17b-18 Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Boxes Unpacked (mostly)

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since we moved into the new house and things have been pretty hectic here. We had to try to unpack this house and get our house in Huntsville ready to be rented out. If all works according to plan the house in Huntsville should be rented out by the end of this month (YEAH!!!). The move to Centerton has been a blessing in many ways. The mortgage is cheaper than in Huntsville and we are saving a ton on gas for our cars and time (which is something you can't ever get back). It's really been amazing to see the ways in which God has worked out the details of this house and the move. I'd be lying if I said that the few weeks prior to the move weren't extremely stressful with a lot of ups and downs but the interesting part is that God worked it all out (despite me worrying about it). This whole process has reinforced to me that I really struggle with worry and anxiety at times which is ridiculous because there has not been a single time in my entire life that God has not provided for me or taken care of me. Yes, life has not always gone the way I wanted it to but I can honestly say God's plan has always been better than mine.

Another reason I love living in Centerton is because we are so much closer to everything (restaurants, stores, church, etc.). When things slow down a little (which I think they will soon) I'm really looking forward to figuring out how Josh and I can get more connected to our community (whether that means meeting the neighbors or participating more in church activities) because we would love to have more friends.

Here are some pictures of the new house with most of the boxes unpacked:



Living room - I need help trying to figure out what to decorate the walls above the fireplace and t.v. with. I told Josh that we'll just have to have a few kids so that we can put their pictures up there. He laughed... :-)



Living room



The kitchen - I love the blue glass in here. I do think it looks better in person though. You can't see it very well but when we were moving in we had a little drama with the refrigerator. It didn't fit into the space by mere centimeters. Josh borrowed a hammer and screw driver from a friend and had to pry off the baseboard on the wall so the refrigerator would slide in. There is absolutely no extra room around the refrigerator but I'm glad it's in.



This is the formal dining room that we turned into the office. I'm so thankful to have a spot to put this stuff that isn't in a bedroom. Eventually we might get a different desk and filing cabinet but for now this works for us.



I just had to include this picture because I love the blue glass there.



Guest bedroom - still need to put the picture on the wall in there.



Guest bathroom - still more decorating to do in there.



Guest Bedroom



Dining room - It might be hard to see but I was trying to figure out where to put the words Live, Laugh, Love on the wall and Josh came up with putting them above the table. I think that's a great idea and that it looks great!



Master bedroom



Master bedroom



Master bath - the red doesn't really match in my opinion but that's what we had in the Huntsville house. I think eventually the colors will be a teal/aqua and brown in this bathroom. Hopefully that will make it feel and look more spa like.

I love my new house and I'm very thankful for it!

Happy Anniversary

This past Sunday was Josh and I's 1 year anniversary. It's been a great year. I feel like we have both learned a lot about each other and what it means to be married. Josh is an amazing man and I love him a lot. He is not perfect (and neither am I) but he is perfect for me. I'm so blessed to have him as my husband.

This past weekend we decided to go to Petit Jean State Park because this is where we did most of our dating and we have a lot of great memories from this park. We went down on Friday and thought we would find a motel in the town of Morrilton (which is really close to the park). Unfortunately we did not anticipate that there would be a large church function there and all of the nonsmoking rooms at the motels would be taken. We even attempted to look into staying at the KOA campground in some rentable cabins but their office was closed. We ended up staying at a motel that was older that just didn't look quite so nice. The toilet in our room didn't work very well either so that was a bummer.

After getting a hotel room we went back to the park to cook some supper. Here is a picture of the picnic area that we have cooked our food at many times. This is also where we would spend a lot of time watching squirrels.



We had planned to grill hamburgers this first night and to also make some macaroni and cheese. When we started to get the stuff out to cook we realized we forgot to bring a spatula to turn the hamburgers. So, my amazing and talented husband did created his own spatula out of a stick he carved, a foil ball and some string:



Our food was amazing!! To top of the amazing food we had some cake that we saved from the wedding. Now, I've been looking forward to eating this cake for months and have had a count down going for when we get to eat it. I think the reason for this is that I really do love cake. However I have to admit that this cake isn't really that good (and I didn't think so at the wedding either). The icing is good but the actual chocolate cake is dry. The strawberry cake I had at the wedding was much better... Anyway, here is a picture of our cake:



On Saturday we were supposed to get up early to watch the sunrise. However, neither one of us had much sleep the night before due to an uncomfortable bed and noisy neighbors so we skipped that. However we did go hiking on one of the trails that we hadn't done yet (at least all of the trail - we had done parts of it). We had backpacks on and we hiked probably 8-10 miles. Afterwards I felt like I got hit by a truck and I still am very, very sore. Here are a few pictures though from our hike.



This was a pretty stream we crossed.



Same stream just the spot where we sat down for a minute.



Different stream



These are called "turtle rocks" obviously because they look like turtle shells. Some of these rocks even have algae and other green plant life on them.



Pretty cliffs



Neat-looking tree that was on a cliff



This is a "bridge" that we had to cross. It's actually the second time we've been across this bridge. The first time the water was a little higher so I was thankful that it was lower this time. There was one spot that my foot got a bit wet because the stones were a little too far apart and I had to put my foot down in the water but all in all it wasn't so bad.



Another scenic picture - I love this park!!

We had found out Friday that there was a cancellation on one of the duplex cabins so we decided to stay there Saturday night. Here is a picture of the inside of our cute cabin:



Nice cabin but the beds were extremely small so I didn't get a lot of sleep that night. If you go there and rent cabins I also would recommend spending the extra $20 to get a cabin by yourself instead of a duplex. Our neighbors were kind of loud and had small children...



After a really long, exhausting day here we are sitting on the porch swing on our cabin. I love this man and I'm looking forward to spending the next 50+ years with him.

New House

Josh and I have been wanting to move closer to "town" for awhile now in an effort to save money which would hopefully allow him to get a job where he can be home at night. There have been many ups and downs with this process already but hopefully it is coming to a close.

We are currently under contract for the second time. The first house we were under contract with had a lot of features that were bonuses to us and I think that we kind of got side tracked by them. The house was built in 1975 and needed a lot of updating and some work just because it was that old. The owner of that house was not very willing to negotiate so that was a bummer. After the inspection on this house we decided to walk.

After we called our realtor about this we went looking at two more houses the next day and placed an offer on one of them. The house we are under contract with now is much, much nicer then the other place and is move-in-ready. One could possibly argue that it's got nicer features then any other house I've lived in. Here are a few pictures:



Formal dining room that will be the office because we don't need two eating areas :-)



Kitchen looking out into the eat in kitchen area



Eat in kitchen area - I love all of the lighting fixtures/fans in this house.



Living room - I hope they decide to leave the curtain on the door because I like it!



Fireplace - I'm not crazy about the black around the fireplace or that it's a gas fireplace but at least it's a fireplace.



Master bedroom



Guest bedroom



Guest bathroom



Guest bedroom - Josh said he didn't like the fan in this room because it's a little girl's fan. I said to him, "Well, maybe it would be perfect if we had a little girl." He said, "No, we're only going to have boys." :-) I guess we'll see.



Master bathroom - fanciest bathroom I've ever had



Second part of master bathroom



Part of backyard. There is a funny iron gate that the owner put in at some point that I believe was to keep an animal on one side of the yard. The problem is that there is a riding lawn mower that is on one side of the house (in the back yard) that can't get out or get to the other side of the yard because of this gate. I wonder if that means we will get to keep the riding lawn mower...



Other part of back yard



Entry way and entrance to laundry room

Those are most of the pictures that I've taken so far of the house. Ironically I noticed this morning that I didn't take any pictures of the outside of the house. I guess I'll have to do that still.

Due to the crash of the housing market, Josh and I can't afford to sell the house in Huntsville so the plan is to rent it out. This is a somewhat scary idea for several reasons but we'll see what happens.

Snow

This is a ridiculous amount of snow to have in Arkansas and it's still snowing. The super bad thing is that we don't even have a snow shovel. Josh has tried to go to a few different stores and they don't have them. On the upside my office is closed today. I'm hoping the snow stops and goes away quickly because I would really like to go to work tomorrow. :-)

Charlie

Close to 1 month ago Charlie joined my household. He is quite the character. Sometimes I'm amazed at the places he finds to take a nap. Here is a picture of one such place:



Our bed has drawers under it where you can store things and Charlie has figured out a way to get in the drawers from underneath our bed. Sometimes when I walk into the room one of the drawers will be open which usually Charlie was in there and he opened the drawer in order to get out. If he gets scared then the odds are good that is where you will find him.

It's been fun to see how Oscar and him interact. They have been teaching each other some things (some bad habits but some good ones). For example, Oscar likes to drink water from the bathroom faucet and Charlie would get up there and just look at him. After a while Charlie finally wanted to try drinking out of the faucet. Here is a picture of Leo (my orange cat who died) getting a drink of water so you can see what it is supposed to look like:



At the beginning Charlie would get into the sink and bite at the water and swat the water with his paw. When this didn't seem to work well for him he now stands in the sink and drinks the water from the pool of water at the bottom of the sink. The problem with this is that the water is running and he basically just lets the stream of water pour down his head while he is drinking the water from the bottom of the sink. When he is down with his drink he is pretty wet and shakes himself off just like a dog would and sprays the water everywhere.

Charlie and Oscar are playing more together now which is great and slowly but surely I think Oscar is getting over being jealous of Charlie. To be fair, here is a cute picture of Oscar:



Oscar likes to get in bags especially if you are trying to pack a bag to go somewhere.

I love my cats!

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

One year ago today, my wonderful husband asked me to marry him. This was the start of a very amazing, life changing year for me. We got married just shy of 2 months later which was the best day of my life to date.



I moved to Northwest Arkansas which was a very positive move for me. I love it here because it really is beautiful and there is so much to do. I've been blessed this year to go on several "adventures" with Josh. Here is a picture of us (one of my absolute favorite pictures) on one of these adventures:



I got a job working in a Christian counseling agency which is really something I love. This really is one of the first jobs where I actually love what I'm doing. I've recently got another job that I'm really thankful for that I'm sure is going to stretch me in many ways. I'm a firm believer that God doesn't make mistakes so I know that he has me at these jobs for a reason.

I've learned a lot this past year mostly about marriage and my husband. It's had it's difficult moments but also it's wonderful moments. I've always known that marriage can be hard and takes work but I think I was surprised at just what parts would be the hardest. Is it worth it? Absolutely! I wouldn't change this past year (even the harder parts of it) because I've learned things through these things and feel like I'm trying to grow from them.

So, what's in store for 2011? I really have no idea. If I could pick I would chose that Josh gets a job where he can be home more, that he likes and that pays enough money to help us pay our bills. I would chose that we could move closer to town so that we could save money on a mortgage, gas for cars and time (I currently drive an hour to work one way everyday). I would probably also pick to start a family this year once some of the above listed things get worked out. Will these things work out the way I want them to? I don't know. What I do know is that I have a God who already has a plan set out for my life this year and I trust this His plan is better than mine. I have a husband who loves me and is my best friend. I have family and friends that I'm so thankful for. I'm blessed in so many ways (of which I don't deserve).

Happy New Year!