Off to the Races!

We spent the weekend in Hot Springs with several friends. Saturday morning we woke and got ready to spend the day at the horse races. We try to make it down there once a year during racing season. The guys have fun trying to sound smart and read statistics and determine the best horse. Us girls enjoy looking at the horses and picking the prettiest one with the most appealing name. It never fails, the girls always come out ahead of the guys. There were 24 of us who sat together and then went to dinner afterwards. We had a great time. It was fun spending time with a variety of people, all with different personalities and creating friendships with those we don't know as well.

Amy rode with Johnny and I to Hot Springs. She was not feeling well when we left Fayetteville. It got progressively worse as the weekend went on. We decided that she most likely had the stomach virus. She was a trooper and attempted to have fun through the weekend. No one else has gotten sick yet!

Jeane and Amy at the races

Zeke, Brandi, Amy & Bryan at dinner

Johnny, Kati, Kortney, & James

Amy trying to keep down a toasted hamburger bun for dinner while Bryan eats the Seafood Feast.

Amy & her Pepto!

Graceland

The Mansion....

Johnny and Amy ready for the tour!

Dinner at Rendezvous

Amy and Bryan met Johnny and I in Memphis for the weekend following St. Jude's. We ate dinner that night at Rendezvous and went to Graceland the next day. We had a good time just hanging out for the weekend.

St. Jude

It has been a tradition to have pictures taken by the statue

I recently went to St. Jude's to participate in a "Life Study". I was diagnosed with leukemia (A.L.L.) in March 1985. I have been in remission for over 22 years, and was a patient at St. Jude's until the summer of 2001. Since St. Jude's is actively involved in research, they closely follow all past patients and encourage continued communication to assist in determining future protocols for their patients. My mom, Johnny and I went for 3 days. It was Johnny's first time to see the hospital, so it was a great experience for him.

This is a chart of cancer survival rates since 1962, which is when St. Jude's opened. ALL is the first one listed, the survival rates have increased from 4% in 1962 to 94% today.

The ABC's of cancer is hanging on the wall in the hospital. Each letter was created by a different child. "V" was too cute and true..I had to take a picture.

Chili's has raised over 18 million dollars through fundraisers for St. Jude's

The hospital has changed A LOT over the past 20 years

There are endless murals covering the walls

The Tree that Wouldn't Fall

As the weatherman was predicting an ice storm, I was preparing the best I knew how. I was assured we would have no landscaping problems by the fact that we have lost most of our trees through storms over the past year. I told someone, "We have one tree in our yard, but it is too small to fall." That tree is the first picture on this blog, it proved me wrong.


Monday night as the storm moved in I did try to get ready. I went home, made chili so we would have a warm meal, got the flashlights out, candles ready, gas for the generator, and extension cords. This is the first time I have EVER "prepared" for a storm. The entire time I was thinking about how crazy I was and would not need any of it. We actually needed every drop of it.. plus some. Our electricity went out for a few hours Tuesday morning. It came back on around noon, so we cooked lunch and I started getting some evals typed while Johnny and Piper took a nap. We lost power again a little after 3:00 Tuesday and it stayed off until around 6:30 Thursday night. The first day was tolerable. We attempted to use our gas fireplace which proved to be worthless. We had to manually light it because the pilot light didn't work. After about an hour of running it would shut itself off. We did have hot water the whole time which was very nice. We woke up Wednesday and Thursday morning to our house being 45 degrees. Piper was so cold that he was digging to sleep under the covers. The generator did help, but is small and had to be refilled every 1 1/2 - 2 hours. We finally hooked up a floor heater to the generator and shut off one room in our house and heated it up. I feel like I should have been so productive being off work for 2 days, but spent the entire time dealing with the fact that we had no power...refilling the generator, trying to heat the house, finding a candle to use the bathroom, trying to convince Piper it was okay to "go potty" on an inch of ice, keeping the freezer running, keeping the cell phones charged, keeping the refrigerator contents cold. It pretty much consumed the entire 2 days. I am so thankful to have electricty, and don't think I will take it for granted for quite a while.

Our street

Our neighbors house
Hillbilly refrigeration system-all of our other ice chests were in the attic, so we used empty "Christmas totes"
Our neighbors tree coming over our fence
Johnny was trying to save the fence
We were amazed at how thick the ice was
Johnny and Piper napping while we still had heat

New Years Eve

It's 2009!!!!!

We had friends over at our house to celebrate New Years Eve. Everyone agreed that we would have a "pajama" dress code. The majority of the evening was spent playing Karaoke Revolution. There were a total of 12 people that came by throughout the night. Even Piper had a friend for the evening because Whitney and Clay brought over their Maltese - Maddie. Piper was very excited to have company of his own. Amy and Kati also presented their, much rehearsed and painstakingly choreographed rendition of "Living on a Prayer". Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath my Wings" was another hit that they sang - or belted out - several times throughout the night... In fact, the countdown to 2009 was nearly missed due to everyone singing. We were happy to be able to host everyone at our home and are thankful for a very exciting night!

Piper and Maddie

Piper can't take his eyes off her

Christmas

We had Christmas with my family on December 23rd. We began at a relatives house in Alma for dinner and then the secret santa/white elephant game that lasts FOREVER when there are 36 people involved. We then went to my mom's house and had Christmas with her immediate family.

We went to Johnny's families on Christmas eve in Fort Smith. We visited with his mom and uncle for a while, then went to his dad's for dinner.

Johnny's Niece
Johnny and his grandpa

Johnny and I have started being stingy with Christmas Day. The first 5 Christmas's we were married, we spent the entire week traveling and running around in circles. Last year we decided we want to be home on Christmas Day and be able to enjoy it. We did the same this year and cooked a dinner for anyone that wanted to come. I made an apple pie this year. It was my first attempt at one since I hate apple pie. Of course, it is Johnny's absolute favorite type of dessert.

Piper checking out my stocking

Johnny was excited about his golf clubs. He has been wanting them for months. I didn't put the package under the tree because he would know what it was, so he was surprised when he finally got it.

My jacket I have been wanting

Attempting to cook dinner before the help arrived

The Apple Pie

Gran Gran

My mom and Aunt Leslie

Amy and Bryan joined us for dinner. Here she is entertaining my grandpa and aunt.

Graduation

Johnny graduated Saturday with a MBA with an emphasis in international business. Yea!. He is very excited to be done, and has been talking about all the things he needs to do now that he has free time and no more homework/papers to write. In the 6 years we have been married there are only 8 months in that time that there wasn't one of us in college. We are excited to finally both be done.