The House!

So....we went to check out the house today and walk around with the inspector.  Here is the house before we get all moved in! 

The front of our 1963 home.

So.  I'm listing these photos and realize I forgot to take a picture of the living room.  It's a nice size.  You'll have to trust me.  Or just come visit and see for yourself.  But here's the hallway going TOWARDS the living room.

Now the bedrooms.  I don't know how we missed it the first go around (yes I do...look!  A shiny kitchen!) but none of the bedrooms have lighting.  Not so happy or crazy about that.  But we will deal.

This is Matthew's room.

And this is Eric's room.  Looks just like Matthew's!  Not really.  They are shaped differently, but you can't tell from the photo.

Master bedroom.  If you can call that.

With a Master Bath to Match!

Annnnnd.....our matching 1963 Master Closet!

Yeaaaahh.  That's a water heater.  Taking up half the space in the closet.  Brilliant design move *insert eye roll*  Ok.  So I'm not crazy about the master bedroom.  But again, not a big deal.  Bigger and more modern would have been great, but this will work just fine.

This is the main bathroom.  Quite possibly the ugliest room in the house.  Any renovators wanna come flip it for us??  :D

I realize it could be MUCH worse.  This is at least workable.  To an extent.  Can we get to the pretty part of my house now? 

Yay!  A Shiny Kitchen!!

Washer/Dryer closet

And..a poorly pasted panorama of the family room.  I was trying to capture its size.  I do love this little room.





And this leads to the great outdoors.  I didn't even bother trying to paste together the backyard.



Prayers Please!

The time has come for me to step up and start contributing financially to our family.  It has been John's dream since we first got married to go to through nursing school.  He put 4 long years in the army to get us into a situation where he would be able to get this degree.  He also fulfilled my dream by giving me two beautiful boys!

It is my turn to sacrifice.  I am in desperate need of a job with extremly free/cheap quality childcare.  It's a hard thing for me to leave my babies with someone else.  I have my dream job now!  But after much thought and many prayers, I feel like it is best that I support my husband.  I have tried hard to work from home through freelance transcription jobs and a small little home business that never took off.  Over the past few months I have searched for open childcare/preschool jobs where I could at least work at the same place my children were at.  Nothing has worked out.

I am asking for prayers that God will open the door for  me to find a job.  I'm also hoping that maybe somebody reading this will have connections or jobs just waiting for me to fill!  I feel most comfortable teaching prechool/daycare or having an office/paperwork job.  But please just pray that I am able to get a job within the next couple of months so that John can start focusing on getting through school.  He sacrificed for us and now it is our turn to do all we can to help his dreams come true. 

Harding Day 1 Part 4

After visiting Mama Cox, we started making our way back across the deserted campus, hoping to run into security for the fun of it.  On our way back across, Kristi pointed out the dark building we were passing.  The old music building.  I hadn't paid much attention to it when I was a student though I had heard the tales.  Standing it front of it and looking at it at 1am was rather creepy.  The tales, you ask?  Harding is haunted.  Or so the legend says.  :)  And we were standing in front of where the ghost haunts.  There are 2 different ghost stories.  They go like this:

On any given day, the campus of Harding University in Searcy bustles with the quick pace of busy students.  Puffs of wind scatter the autumn-painted leaves on crisp fall afternoons.   Only occasionally do the students stop dead in their tracks, chills running up and down their spines at the sight of a young woman, dressed in white lace, sweeping by them, following the path of old bricks leading to the music building.

          According to Arthur Shearin, Harding University music professor, a campus legend is that the young woman, lovingly nicknamed “Gertie Sue” by former students, wanders the campus.

          “Gertie Sue” supposedly was a student attending Galloway Women’s College, which occupied the grounds where Harding University is now.  Apparently one night she wandered out of her room, accidentally fell into an elevator shaft in Godden Hall, and died.

          Galloway merged with Hendrix College in Conway; Harding College, then in Morrilton, bought the Galloway campus and buildings, and the old Godden Hall was torn down.  Bricks from the old building were used in the construction of the new music building, which was built some 300 yards from the old hall’s site.  Some of the bricks were also used to make a brick pathway from the old site to the new one.

          A former student, whom we’ll call “Thomas,” said that people still see her today.  When he was attending Harding, Thomas and some of his audio-engineering friends locked themselves into the recording booth of the music room to “see what would happen.”  He said all was quiet until around 1 a.m.

          “Then some strange things started happening.  We heard footsteps in the room,” he said.  “We recorded the sounds.  Now I’m not one who believes in ghosts, but I can’t say what that was.”  They played the tape for friends, he said; some who heard it said they could’ve made those sounds themselves.

          Thomas says the woman can be seen walking on the path back and forth between the new building and the old site and can also be seen inside the buildings.

          This is one account of ghostly happenings at Harding.  Richard Young, author of the compilation Ghost Stories from the Southwest, tells of another.

          The story, “The Ghost on the Third Floor,” tells of a tradition at Harding University  in which a “ghostly piano player practices by night.”  According to the story, people on the second floor of the music building can hear a piano being played on the floor above them.  But there is no third floor…

          The music’s source, according to the campus legend, is this.  A young woman and man who were in love came from the same town to attend Harding.  Both were majoring in music.  Soon after school began, the story goes, the young man died in a car accident.  The young woman could not be consoled, and many times climbed to the third floor of the old music building to play the piano, sing and grieve.

Apparently, Leigh had made it through her Harding career and never heard this story.  I don't know how that is possible.  Kristi believes in ghosts.  Leigh is extremely logical and claims NOT to believe in ghosts, but she begged us to stop telling the story and to come on.  And I..well I can't say I believe in ghosts.  but I do believe in a spirit world and I have seen odd, unexplainable things (which I will go into in just a minute).  How that manifests itself in the physical world (if it does at all), I just don't know.  Looking up at the dark building did start to creep me out.  The campus is fairly well lit, but this building seemed particularly dark.  Kristi encouraged me to go to the door.  Leigh stayed across the street begging us to go, that we were scaring her.  I decided I was scared too.  Like my mom said, there are demons and you don't want to go chasing them.  I was at Harding to confront some "demons" but not quite so literally.  Kristi persisted.  "This is why you wanted to come!  Ghost hunting!"  She was right.  I did want to explore that side of Harding.  Ghosts aren't real..so there was nothing to be afraid of.  Right?  So hand in hand, we climbed the stairs and looked through the glass into the dark building.  With all the "newness" on campus, this REALLY was particularly creepy.  Why spend so much money on updating the reasonably well kept buildings, and leave this old decrepit building, which I'm not sure they even USE.  There's a totally new music/communications building elsewhere on campus.  We tried the door but it was locked.  I would have wandered around inside, but was secretly thankful that we couldn't get in.  Despite my  trepidation, I teased Kristi as I put my ear to the door.  "Do you hear that?"  I was pretty impressed with her bravery considering how jumpy she was Freshman year.  :)  Meanwhile Leigh, who won't even stand on the same side of the STREET as us, is hollering for us to go.  Once again, I wish I had had my camera with me to capture that building at night.  Maybe we could have even picked up a strange orb on it!  LOL!  I even searched online for a picture, but can't find one.  There was nothing more we could do, unless we just planned on camping out there to look for Gertie, so we joined Leigh again. 

Thankful to be going, we started to explain to her the "encounter" we had years ago.  And that we planned to return to that spot to figure it out once again.  I'm pretty sure Leigh thought we were messing with her to scare her, but we really were being honest and sincere!  There was one more "ghost" we had to check it out.  Here's the back story!

One night, Kristi and I were out late after a campus coffee-shop concert.  It must have been around 10pm at the time because we had curfew at ELEVEN!  (Sorry, just had to emphasize that again)  :)  We were trying to get "Queened" into a particular club (fraternity), so we went to the information kiosk where the baseball games and times were listed so we could go support the guys.  The kiosk is located in the central  main part of campus in between the student center and Benson.  That is a VERY well lit area.  The kiosk is 4-sided and glassed in - similar to this:

I mean...the kiosk looks nothing like that on campus, but I want you to take from it that there are 4 sides and the information lies behind glass.  Not only are there lights surrounding the kiosk, there were lights that shone down on the information from above.  Now, you have to go try this little experiment for yourself to fully understand, but if you are looking into through glass you see what's on the inside, but if you adjust your eyes to look at the glass, you will see your reflection.  This is important to understand.

While we were reading the information in the kiosk, Kristi grabbed my arm and froze.  I was chatting away and asked her what was wrong.  She told me to be quiet.  Uhh...ok.  She had a pretty crazy look in her eyes and next thing I know she whips her head around to look behind us.  I turn to look.  "Did you see that?"  "See what?"  Obviously not.  "In the glass!"  Ummm, no.  "There was a shadow!"  I look in the glass.  There are no shadows.  There's Kristi and me and I can see the Benson and the trees and everything behind us.  At this point I'm highly amused.  I spent the first half of the school year getting a big kick out of how jumpy Kristi was.  She was convinced we had a ghost in our room (named Janie!) and she would attribute the "odd happenings" to Janie.  I laughed and thoroughly explained EVERY occurrence away.  She would crack me up and it was fun to scare her.  I tell her I don't see anything in the glass and she tells me to wait.  *sigh*  So I watch.  And within a few seconds, the shadow of a tall man with a hat passes from right to left on the kiosk.  We both whip around.  There's nobody there.  And it makes no sense.  I turn back to look at the glass.  What could make that shadow?  How do you MAKE a shadow in the glass.  The shadow was proportionate to our reflections meaning...the shadow maker would HAVE to be right up under the light as we were or at least close enough for us to feel or spot him.  I look back at the glass and try to figure it out.  As I stare at the glass, the shadow passes again.  Only this time it goes from left to right, the opposite direction it "walked" the first time.  Kristi explained that she had been watching this shadow do this over and over again.  Go from one side to the other.  She is freaking out.  She wants to go.  I want to figure it out.  But her rising panic starts to freak me out a bit and she insists that we go.  I relent, and decide to  go with her even though I am thoroughly intrigued and want to figure it out.  We start to walk away, my mind is racing.  Several yards away, I change my mind.  We are on another side of the kiosk now..the side facing our path back to the dorms..not the Benson.  I tell Kristi she can go on, but I want to go look again.  I head back towards the kiosk and before I am even able to get up to the glass on the other side of this kiosk, I saw the shadow pass by in the glass again.  THAT freaked me out.  Somebody would have had to have been IN FRONT of me to cause that.  To this day I can't explain what we saw.  And more than anything, I wanted to go back and "search" the glass again.

We explained all this to Leigh, but she didn't want to hear anything about it.  We found the kiosk.  I wanted Leigh with her brilliant scientific mind to explain to me how to make a shadow in the glass.  I want ANYBODY that can explain it and recreate it to PLEASE do it!  But she was freaked out and didn't want to stay long.  We didn't stay long enough to see any shadow men this time, but I will always wonder what we saw that night. 

We decided to go to the new places where ghosts hadn't inhabited yet.  :)  We went across into the new student center.  We were really blown away with how gorgeous it all was.  Very posh.  We were particularly impressed with the Internet cafe, complete with a flat screen television and fireplace.  The giant bison head really topped it all off.  :)  We kept waiting for security to find us and shoo us away, but I guess it's not as tight as it use to be!  We figured you would have to have a password to log onto the Internet, as it IS for Harding students, but we were able to get on just fine - no password required.  So we hung out and checked all our social networks quickly.  Leigh enjoyed pointing out all the ramps on campus now.  I was known as "the girl in the wheelchair" freshman year because I broke my ankle just weeks after getting to campus.  I couldn't put any weight on my foot and the campus was too big to get around on crutches with books.  So wheelchair it was.  And the campus was NOT wheelchair accessible.  That was a pretty significant change that really opened up that campus to many other students, I'm sure.  We decided we had better head home for the night.  Only so much cane you can raise after curfew on campus.  And ...we were tired.  Pulling all-nighters wasn't feeling as easy as it used to.  We decided to meet back in the morning.  We couldn't agree on a time, because Kristi and I knew we needed sleep! 

Although we were both exhausted, sleep didn't come as easy as I would have liked.  Too much excitement.  We fell asleep sometime after 3am, anxious to start new adventures the next day!

Harding Day 1 Part 3

Back to the Harding saga.  Where were we?  Ah, yes.  We are crossing campus to the boys' dorms to see Mama Cox.  For those of you who are non-Hardingites, Mama Cox was the most feared, most intimidating, and most disliked house mother on all of campus.  She was in Sears dorm with the girls for the longest of time.  I think the year after we left she was switched over to work with the boys.

I was with her for 3 years - once as a freshman, and the following 2 years I worked for her as an RA.  The last year was particularly challenging for me as a student and Mama Cox isn't exactly someone I felt I could confide in or go to for help.  So I carried the weight of the year - and my freshmen - alone.  At the end of the year, I needed out of the freshmen dorm, and decided to apply for an RA position at the apartment dorm for Senior year.  I was disappointed not to get the job.  Mama Cox came and talked to me while I was working the front desk and asked how the interview had gone and if I had gotten the job.  I told her no and was surprised that she cared so much.  But that wasn't it at all.  She sat down and told me she had "been meaning to talk to me".  She had been unhappy with my performance as an RA and had given that report to the dorm mother before I ever made it to the interview.  I had lost the job before I had even interviewed.  I was hurt and upset and rather angry, since I had put FAR more effort into being an RA than I had the previous year.  I had worked FAR harder for those girls than she would ever know.  As angry as I was, I let it go.  I applied at the only dorm left I could think to go - Kendall, a Sophomore/Junior dorm.  I was scheduled for an interview after  I finished working the desk one morning, so I was dressed up.  Mama Cox walked into the lobby MINUTES before I was to leave for the interview.  She told me I looked nice and asked why I was dressed up.  I told her that I had an interview.  Mistake.  She asked where at and I gave her the honest answer.  I will never forget her response. "Hm.  Stephanie didn't call and tell me that."  All I could think was "GOOD!"  Maybe I had a fighting chance.  I walk over to the dorm and meet Stephanie, who was a young, wonderfully pleasant woman.  Nice change.   First thing out of her mouth in the interview was, "Mama Cox called me with her concerns......."  I nearly broke down in  tears.  There was nothing I could do.  This woman set out to sabotage me and without this job, I had no hope of returning to Harding.  However, being the amazing, awesome woman she is, Stephanie told me what was said and asked for my side of the story.  Something that neither Mama Cox or the first lady I had interviewed  before had done.  I had the job before I left that interview.  And as a follow-up note...Stephanie was very pleased with my work as an RA the following semester.

All that to say, I left Harding with very strong negative feelings towards Mama Cox.  I am not an angry person and I don't hold grudges, but this was one thing that stuck with me for years and years.  I don't know why it was the one thing I couldn't let go of.  In hindsight, I think it was just all bad timing.  I was in the depths of major depression (and nobody knew it - not even me).  I was running in circles trying to make everything perfect and the harder I tried, the worse I failed.  I just couldn't make things right.  Not in my relationships, not academically, not emotionally.  But I was trying so hard.  I had been unravelling all year, and that was probably the straw that broke the camel's back.  I suppose she ended up being my emotional dumping ground for the entire year's issues.  So all of my animosity was concentrated on her.  So I had to see Mama Cox.  I HAD to see her again and forgive her and really just get past everything that afflicted me that last year.  I couldn't have done it alone.  I'm so glad I had friends with me.

We made our way across campus, contemplating why nobody knew who she was.  EVERYBODY knew Mama Cox "back in the day".  Leigh suggested maybe she had "mellowed out".  We all laughed.  We went into the boys' lobby (A change!  Girls were not allowed in the boys' lobby 10 years ago).  We glanced around a quick second and then headed to the front desk, to torment yet ANOTHER poor college student.

"Is Mama Cox in?"

"Yes.  Would you like me to call her for you?"

"Yes please!  She's not sleeping is she?"

"No."

*picks up the phone*

"Can I get your names?"

Me:  "NO."  (I must admit, I was feeling the urge to be terribly sassy with Mama Cox at this point, with the imminent reunion about to take place)

Kristi and Leigh:  *Laughter*

Kristi:  Tell her it's a "blast from her past".

Leigh:  "Former RA's".

Poor confused college boy on phone:  "Uh, yes.  Mrs. Cox?  There are some ladies out here to see you.  *pause*  Yes, there is a lot of giggling.  *pause*  No, they won't tell me their names.  Former RA's, I think?  *pause*  Ok.  Thank you."

"She'll be out in a minute."

"Did you wake her up?"

"No."

"Are you in trouble?"

"Nah."

"We asked all over campus, trying to find her.  Nobody has heard of her!  Has she mellowed out?"

At this point the college boy shakes his head And mouths "nooooooo", which made us just erupt in laughter, right before Mama Cox's apartment door opened.

And there we were.  Face to face.  She looked exactly the same, with a bit more gray.  Good, even.  She scanned our smiling faces, trying to place us. 

Leigh finally burst out with "Do you remember us?"

She definitely recognized us, but couldn't remember names or years at that point.  She eyed me hard and I wondered what she remembered.  "Susan, right?"  Nope.  Maybe she didn't remember as much as I thought.  I couldn't tell.  We put her out of her misery and told her our names and how we were all connected.  Leigh had worked for Mama Cox as well.  Kristi was just one of the troublemakers in the dorm with me for 2 years!  :)

She continued to try to place us and asked us what we were up to these days.  We all laughed as we explained we were all Harding drop-outs who became full-time mothers. 

We watched her start to relax and we went over and hugged her one by one.  She invited us into her apartment, a place where students were never invited.  Huge honor. It was 11pm at this point and I was hoping to not stay too long.  I wasn't sure how all my feelings about the past would resurface, and I feared things that might be brought up or mentioned. I just needed to face all my failures at Harding and this was a HUGE part of that. 

But we were lead to the living room to sit.  I knew we would be there a while.  I was tense and trying not to show it.  Leigh was most excited to see Mama Cox.  She relates well to her style of "parenting" and appreciated the toughness that others despised so much.  Kristi was there along for the ride.  Leigh led most of the conversation, which I was thankful for.   Leigh poked fun that she's "lost her edge" since we couldn't find her.  I mean, if students didn't know who she was, she most have lost her meanness!  She assured us she was as mean and feisty as ever and recounted a recent story of making a sassy-mouthed boy repent.  We listened as she told us some of the shenanigans of the boys, but she was MUCH happier working in a boys' dorm than in the girls'.  We covered some of our memories of living in the dorm with Mama Cox.  I watched her very carefully to see what she remembered.  She told Leigh she was a big troublemaker.  Leigh is a major rule-follower.  If she thought Leigh was a troublemaker, what did that make me?  The girl she was so unhappy with?  She looked at me and said, 'And Charity....you could always tell when she was up to something because of that little laugh"  What?  Not entirely sure.  I professed my innocence and insisted I was an angel, which made everyone laugh and roll their eyes.  *smirk*  Jogging Mama Cox's memory was not high on my list of things to do, but Kristi and Leigh continued to bring up event after event.  And Mama Cox did remember some of them.  I chimed in occasionally to be social, but never with a new memory, unless I was asked.  So after laughing about all of OUR shenanigans, Mama Cox had one question.  What was your favorite memory of Harding?  Without a beat I said, 'Leaving'.  The shock on everyone's faces and the nervous laughter told me that may not have been the best thing to say.  I KNEW I couldn't make it through the night without saying something smart!  I laughed and quickly followed up with "Just kidding."  And I really was.  I did have good memories of Harding.  But the 3 of us had spent a lot of time recalling that LAST year which nearly killed us all.  The proposed question had Leigh saying "Hmmm..." and rubbing her chin and Kristi stunned in silence at the same time I answered.  After everything quieted down from my initial answer, I turned to the girls and said, "So?  What IS your favorite memory?"  And the truth is and nobody could come up with anything.  We were all recalling people we had loved and conversation quickly turned to updates on everyone we had loved and where they were now.  We were sad to hear of deaths and dementia, and joyous to hear of continued work, and re-marriages.  I had my eye on the clock.  I knew we were going to be there until curfew, but I was slowly starting to relax.  It wasn't so bad after all. 

In an effort to leave things on a positive note, I reminded my friends once again that we never gave Mama Cox an answer to her question.  My honest answer?  The girls sitting next to me.  Harding is nothing without the friends you make.  It was a mutual feeling.  And while we couldn't pinpoint a "favorite memory", we could list many things that made us smile or that were significant to us, like the various annual chapels.  "Muffin Chapel"  "Camaraderie Chapel"  "Dr. Burk's accent"  "Singing Just As I Am with Jimmy Allen for all eternity"  "The Grumpy Old Men"  All the things that made Harding, Harding. 

By that time, it was curfew time.  Time for us to head out.  It was a difficult and uncomfortable 2 hours for me, but it was well worth it.  Was I able to get past everything?  Yes.  The whole Harding experience/reunion was already exactly what I needed.  Our only regret?  We didn't bring the camera with us because it was dark and we didn't anticipate taking any pictures and we didn't want to carry around a camera all over the place if we weren't going to use it.  So I don't have a picture of us with Mama Cox, though I wish I did.  I suppose we could have headed over to get one the next day, but it just wouldn't have been the same.

Zakar Life

I've been wanting to post this blog for quite a while now.  As you all know by now, I love to promote products that I think are fantastic.  I'm privileged to promote Zakar Life, a video scrapbooking company (can I call it a "company"?)  The videos are put together by my father and his business partner.  I desperately wanted to put up the slide show he did for me of the boys, but I can't get it to load on here (hence the delay in the posting).  Fortunately, you can go to their website HERE and see several different videos, including the one of my sweet little boys!

They do a marvelous job and I highly recommend them to anyone who is looking to gather all those loose photos into an amazing piece!

So Far Behind!

Wow!  Life without my own laptop was hard!  I didn't realize how much I rely on it until it was gone.  And being without it, put me way behind on blogging.  I know you guys are waiting on the rest of the Harding trip story, the gourmet recipes I promised, and any new material that I might have - which I do!

While I was MIA, we were very busy here.  Highlights of my time away include:

*Eric busting his mouth to pieces (not really a highlight, but big news around here)
*Trip to WV to visit the college I actually graduated from.

annnnnnnnnnnnd....

*We bought a house!!  Waiting to sign all the final paperwork (so it could technically still fall through), but I think we can definitely consider it ours.  So I need to get caught up on blogging before I disappear again for the move.  There will be a separate blog about the process of buying and moving in complete with pictures.  But I'll post my favorite part of the house here:

Anyone want to join us for dinner??  :)  LOVE this kitchen. 

I'll try to get caught up blogging in the next few days!

Harding Day 1 Part 2

After dinner, we needed a place to go and talk.  Where better than our old hangout, Midnight Oil?!  I love that place.  It's a little coffee shop on the edge of campus.  It was packed with students wall to wall with some students entertaining the crowd, which just added to my excitement.  Just like the old days!  We squeezed our way to the front of the store to get in line.  I was praying they still had my favorite drink, a Creamsicle.  Mmmmm.  I didn't see it on the menu, but I did see a Clockwork Orange.  Must be the same drink, different name.  I've always wanted to know how to make one, because I think it's one of the best drinks ever, so I decided to ask while I had my chance.

"How much to get the recipe from you?"

'How much?  $100.  Nah...you can just go online and look up an Orange Julius.  It's basically the same thing."

"No it's not.  An Orange Julius has crushed ice.  This gets poured OVER the ice."

"No.  We crush the ice here too."

"No!!  I don't want my ice crushed!  I want it poured OVER the ice!  That's how you make it!"

"We've always made it that way."

"NO YOU HAVEN'T!"

"I've been here for 5 years.  It's always been done that way."

"5 years?  WELL I......."

At this point my lovely friends pulled me away and explained that I was crazy before I could  tell that little whippersnapper just how wrong he was and how 5 years was NOTHING.  I regretfully and hesitantly took my butchered CREAMSICLE (oh yeah, buddy!  They weren't ALWAYS called Clockwork Oranges either!)

On the up side, this was a LOT more drink than you used to get for the money.  One sip reassured me that I still got the same taste, just a slightly different  texture.  It still goes OVER the ice.....

We went out on the porch where we had more room and found a corner to sit and talk.  Thankfully the weather was mild and we got to spend a lot of time outdoors that weekend.  I had the BEST time just sitting and talking - mostly about our kids!  It was so great just to compare stories, and personalities, and parenting styles.  I realized this is something that I am missing BIG time in my own life.  I loved having the support.  I would do anything to have those girls live close to me!  Once we realized that we had been spending all our time talking about our kids, we changed the subject back to Harding.  I told everyone we HAD to go see Mama Cox.  Leigh went and attacked some students to see if she was still there.  They had no idea who she was.  Kristi and Leigh came to the conclusion that she must not be there anymore if they hadn't heard of her.  Either that or she has mellowed out.  There was a brief pause before we all bust into laughter.  But I didn't care what they said, I KNEW she was still there.  There was no way she had left.  And of course, no way she had mellowed out!

We laughed as watched Midnight Oil empty out all at once.  Must be close to curfew time!  How nice that we don't have to run off!  We savored the moment of not being bound by the clock and then decided we should go walk around campus for a bit - you know....since we didn't have to be in the dorm!  We were looking forward to being chased off by security.

It was 10:30pm and I wanted to go see one of the students there before curfew at 11pm so I didn't have to track her down on a Saturday.  We got to Cathcart and walked in to see the most unbelievable transformation.  Brand new carpeting, furniture, flat screen TV, new desk, new tiling.  It was really ritzy looking.  I didn't take pictures because I never lived in Cathcart, but I knew this was a major change.  We were blown away.  I asked for the dorm number of the girl I was going to see and they were able to give it to me so we headed off to find her.

She opens the door and the three of us can't believe what we're seeing in the room.  New beds, new desks, new walls, new flooring.  The place looks spectacular.  We gawk for a little while.  I then ask her if Mama Cox is still there.  She looks at her roommate and they look confused.  They have no idea who I am talking about.  Kristi and Leigh say, "See?  I bet she's not here anymore.  If she was, they would know who she is."  I was NOT convinced.  I tell the student that we better get going before they kick us out for curfew and again she looks confused.  "Curfew is at 1am."  WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT??  ONE AM?  The 3 of us start freaking out.  Are you kidding me?  So we're sitting there looking like idiots and they explain that curfew is 12 during the week and 1 on the weekends.  After we explained how oppressed we were by having to come in at ELEVEN on the weekends, we decided to quit terrorizing them and leave - shaking our heads the whole way.

We get back to the front desk and Kristi asks for a number, only to find out the rooms don't have phones, because apparently EVERYBODY has a cell phone.  We just kept getting one shock after another.  Seriously?  NO phones?  Not even at the front desk.  I mean really people.  Can EVERY student afford a cell phone bill?  Are you REALLY just stuck without a phone if you don't have a cell?  We couldn't hide our disbelief.  So what exactly do you DO up here all day??  Keep in mind, we ALL worked the front desk in college and ALL we did was answer the phone and give people phone numbers.  It was exhausting.  Again, we got the "these-people-are-weird" look and they stammered out, "Well...basically enforce dress code....and ummm....make sure the boys don't go back there...."  Wow.  Just wow.  Before leaving, I had to ask where Mama Cox was.  We finally got an answer!  She WAS still there, but was in one of the boys dorms.  We decided to make our way over there - since, ya know...we had until ONE!  We thanked the girls at the desk, who no doubt were glad that we were leaving.  Apparently, this trip was really just going to consist of us "showing our age" and scaring all the current students. 

I have to go get my little boy up now.  But I'll be back later with tales of visiting Mama Cox!!!

Harding 2011 - THE Reunion - Day 1

Well I did it.  I got the courage to return to my old stomping grounds where I crashed and burned.  Thankfully I was meeting up with my fellow Harding drop-outs who were really the reason I loved Harding in the first place.  This trip would not have been possible without my loving husband who allowed me to leave him for a few days to go on this little escapade, and my wonderful in-laws for keeping my little monkeys!  Thank you both so very much!

The fun started when Kristi pulled up in the driveway, and I got to see my roommate for the first time in over 10 years!!  I was secretly afraid of how "reuning" might feel after so long, but great friendships never change.  It was as if we had never been apart.  After gathering our wits about us, we climbed in the car and tried to get situated and then realized we needed a picture of the start of this journey.  So we climbed back out again to grab the first shot of us together since the good old days.

The giraffe is a stand-in for our friend Ryan who was supposed to be with us, but ditched because of a few snowflakes.  We will forever hold a grudge, but did appreciate the quietness of the giraffe!  :)  Love you Ryan!  Of course, one picture wasn't enough.  This was going to be an epic adventure.

The next few hours were spent trying to figure out where we had left off.  Even though we had been at Harding at the same time in the end, we didn't see much of each other and therefore missed out each other's last year there.  We discovered that our junior year had been the "death" of both us. It was pretty interesting that we were going through the same things and yet circumstances just kept us apart that year.  We recalled all the horrible events, all the great events, and everything in between.

We got to stop right outside of Memphis and talk with my beautiful sister-in-laws for a few minutes.  We fell behind on the "journaling" of this trip, and forgot to bring the camera in and take a picture.  Boo!  Once we got back on the road again, we realized we were dangerously close to being out of gas.  We pulled over at the closest exit, which was apparently in ghetto-town.  Since it was decidedly dangerous to pump our own gas, we decided Ryan should it.  He was a bit scared, but I had his back!

We survived pumping gas without incident, grabbed our ho-ho's and hit the road again.  We intended to have lots of video blogs along this trip, and I totally forgot about it, so I grabbed the camera to get Kristi's intial thoughts.

It wasn't long before we hit the bridge before the forever long, last leg of the journey.  Here's my pyramid that I love so much!

And then this sign that we know all too well!  Yay for familiarity!

We were trying to make it in time for dinner with Leigh, but we were hitting the starving point so we stopped by Subway.  Yum!

Somehow we got all sorts of turned around past this point.  Probably from gabbing entirely too much.  It was getting dark and Kristi didn't like to drive in the dark so we pulled over to change places.  We decided to let Ryan drive.

We managed to get back on the right track and made it to Searcy in fairly good time.  We checked into our hotel.  The smell of cigarette smoke greeted us as we walked in and we knew we had the right hotel for memory-making!

Don't stay at the Knight's Inn in Searcy.  Just putting that out there.  This was our closet sized room.  It wasn't this messy when we checked in, by the way.  We took this right before we left.  But still.  Don't stay there.

When we checked in, the front desk worker had a message for us - Leigh had called!!  We got into the room and called her immediately and waited for her to come.  Didn't take long before we heard a knock at the door.  I loudly barked, "Who is it?"  and flung the door open to get the biggest hug from Leigh.  We were all finally together again!!

Leigh had been waiting for us to eat dinner and she was starving!  So we headed out to find a place to eat.  Searcy had grown so much there was an amazing amount to choose from.  However we were all so giddy and talkative that we couldn't figure out where to eat.  We finally settled on the old restaurant Mexican behind campus.  So many changes already.  Even the name of the restaurant changed.

We even made sure Ryan got a bite to eat.  See Ryan?  We took good care of you like we promised!

The night doesn't end there..but this blog does.  Because the one thing I learned is that 10 years DOES make a big difference in your ability to keep up the same pace as you were able to in college.  And I'm exhausted.  So as thrilling as this blog was - stay tuned for when the real adventure starts!

Kid Stuff

I never know how or where to list these little tidbits..but I want them recorded somewhere because I'll forget.  So you will just have to deal with the randomness!

*Matthew can count to 10
*Eric can count to 100
*If you say "Oops"  Matthew will say "Saaaah-ye" (sorry) every time.

I think the boys are finally getting to the age where they really love each other.  Matthew was in the tub and  started hollering for me.  I went back to see what he wanted.  He stated very matter-of-factly "I need Eh-ic!"  Well alrighty then.

Matthew is nearly 25 pounds (in the 30th percentile) and .....doh!  I've already forgotten his height.  Over 30 inches, putting him over the 50th percentile for height.

This is Eric attempting to put on (well at this point attempting to TAKE OFF) a build-a-bear jacket.  I'm amazed he got it on this far.  Can someone please explain to my child that he is the jolly green giant?

Money Saving Mommas!

I found this website that I thought I would share with you all!  We are all needing to save money and it doesn't get ANY simpler than this.  Southern Savers is a place that not ONLY gives you all the deals in EVERY grocery store you can imagine, it also lists the coupons along with the items on sale.  ANNNNNND, on top of that, she has made it so you can print off the grocery list directly from the site.  All this for free, unlike the grocery game that you have to pay for.  Happy shopping and saving!

Follow Up

I thought I would share with you how I teach Eric to memorize scripture.  I take the verse and do my best to put it in picture form.  Yesterday's verse looks like this:

This will get cut up and placed in to his journal:

Which has other pages that look like this:

He thinks it's really neat to have a book that I can add to.  He gets excited about the new things that are put in it and he learns the material quickly.  If you have a verse that you would like your child to memorize, let me know and I can put something together for you!

Bible Challenge

In our Wednesday night class, one of the challenges is to memorize a Bible scripture every week.  It can be any one we want, we just have to be able to recite it on Wednesday night.  I thought I would start by listing it here, and then I will make a picture reference for Eric's journal (so he can memorize with me) and then put it up in the house somewhere.  I couldn't narrow it down to one verse this week - I felt the whole passage was important to memorize.  Feel free to memorize with me!

I Peter 3:13-17

 ¹³ Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats^[b]; do not be frightened.”^{[c] 15} But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

The Naked Man With A Green Coat

We got to start a new semester at church tonight.  Our class was a blessing as always and we look forward to studying the Bible with this group over the next few weeks. After class we hung around and talked with a few people and then went down to get our boys.  Apparently things went just as well with them.

Everybody got a big chuckle out of our little Mattmoo who is entirely too big for his britches.  John went to pick him up and he was the last one remaining.  The attendants told John that he did fine all through class, but once other children started getting picked up, he went over and grabbed his diaper bag and headed to the door saying, "Go!  Go!  Go!" Oh my little man!


But the best part of the night, was hearing about Eric's time in class.  Before I left him I reminded him that he needed to be a good listener and pay attention in class (he apparently didn't do so well with that on Sunday).  When I picked him up, I asked how he did and got a raving review.  Yay!  He listened well and even answered when he was called on!

So when we got in the car, we had the same discussion we always have:  What did you learn about tonight?  And it went something like this....

What did you learn about tonight?

I don't know.  We had SNACKS!

(oh no.  maybe they didn't really teach tonight)

What did you learn about?

Ummm..I don't know.

Did you learn aout Moses?

No.

Did you learn about Adam?

No.

Did you learn about Peter?  Jesus?  Abraham?

No.  About a man who took his clothes off.

(Stunned silence.  What are they teaching them?)

A man who took his clothes off?

A man took off his green coat.

(Desperately mentally flipping through the Bible trying to recall a naked man with a green coat)

Why was he naked?

No hiting!  No biting!  No fighting!  No kicking!  He hit his head on the road!

The Good Samaritan?!?!

YES!!!

Oh!!  The naked man who hit his head on the road.....

The artist forgot to add the green coat....

My Date With Jean Claude

 Yay!  I got a night away! 

Dining Out At Home was an event planned by the ladies at First Christian.  It was a pretty big deal for me to decide to go because 1) I don't do ladies' functions - ever.  2) I really didn't know anyone, and I don't do ANY event alone.  So I stepped out of my comfort zone.

Once I got there, I remembered why I don't do things alone.  There were several tables set up and I was early so I picked one and waited.  I watched as other tables filled up - everybody was with someone they knew.  I started to silently dread being there alone, looking like a loser by myself at the table.  Maybe this had been a bad idea after all.  But the women at FCC are fantastic, which is why I decided to go in the first place and they didn't let me down.  One of the women came and asked if I was waiting for anyone, and when I explained that I didn't really know anybody, she invited me to come sit with her group.  Thank you.  So I got to know a small group of women which was my main goal for going anyway.

I did my best to relax, but I suddenly realized I am just terribly socially awkward.  I realized this is reason number one it is difficult for me to make friends quickly.  I thought about how I got around this in the past and realized that I have always managed to attract a "social butterfly" who enjoys the fact that I am quiet and so they keep me around.  And because THEY are so friendly and chatty...I get to know other people - much quicker than trying to do it on my own.  I was longing for one of my social butterfly friends last night, but I made it through!  All the ladies were very kind and I enjoyed being with them.

As they asked about me and learned that I had 2 children there was an air of surprise.  One lady said, "Wow!  2 kids!  You don't look much older than Jill!"  Jill is a student in college.  This is when I realized my SECOND problem with meeting people.  I look 10 years too young.  So ,we seem too old to the college crowd and too young for the adults.  I need a make-over.  I know ONE day I'll be thankful for my youthful appearance.  I've been telling myself that for years now......

This is Jean Claude:

He's Parisian.  I didn't understand HALF of what he said the entire night.  I literally started to get a dull headache from the amount of concentration it took to understand what he was saying.  I know all the women in there were having the same issue.  It started off very quiet and everybody listened intensely.  When he started to talk about making a red wine vinaigrette dressing, the women started giggling to themselves.  Heavy French accents means all the "R's" become 'W's"  You could hear "dwessing" being repeated all around the room.  As the night wore on, the intent listening gave way to more friendly chatter as he continued to show us how to cook.  You could hear women translating all around.  "What did he just say?"  "What did he just use?"  Sheik-en and wed wine dwessing.   Half the time, people were just laughing because he was so animated and made these facial expressions that indicated he was trying to be funny, even though we had no idea what was being said.

We got to eat everything that he prepared.  I also learned I must be a bit of a food snob as I was disappointed in the term "gourmet".  While all the food was good, it was far from anything I would label gourmet.  I figured this was a result of him providing examples of things that would be easy to cook and prepare at home.  We learned how to make a red wine vinaigrette dressing, pecan encrusted chicken, a chicken casserole, chicken stock/soup, bread pudding, and chocolate mousse.  We were given packets that included all these recipes with room for us to take notes.  We learned very quickly that you HAD to pay attention if you were going to recreate these meals, because he was adding ingredients that weren't listed in the recipe!

My favorite part of the night (and when I started to understand why people can't recreate these dishes at home) was after we had dessert and he was open for questioning.  Everyone at the table loved the chocolate mousse, but one lady noted that depending on what chocolate you used, it would affect the flavor.  So she decided to ask what brand he used.  He was taken off guard by this and stammered out...."You can't buy it here.  It's from Switzerland".  The whole room "aahhhhhh-ed".  Not fair!  But he explained that the important thing was to look for chocolate with a 65% cocoa content.  Still people.  If your meal doesn't taste like the Master Chefs..it's because they are using ingredients you don't have access to!!! 

All in all a great time and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go.  I don't see myself recreating ANY of the dishes, but if any of you are interested, let me know and I will send them your way!

Dine Out At Home

On Monday night, I get a girls' night out with the women at church to go learn how to cook a gourmet meal at home, taught by French chef, Jean Claude.  I'm psyched about this.  Mostly because it means I get to eat a gourmet meal for $10 with no children to chase around for 2 hours.  But until I get my official gourmet lesson, I rely on the internet to provide me with restaurant quality meals for my family.

One of our favorite restaurants is Outback Steakhouse.  Back in the day, when we had the luxury of eating out more often, John and I loved ordering the potato soup and salad.  It was perfect on a cold night.  We were up for a change of pace last night and potato soup was sounding good.  I have tried a LOT of potato soup recipes and neither of us has been overly impressed, so I decided to google "outback potato soup recipe" and I hit the jackpot.  We have a winner!  So I thought I would share that with you here!  It's totally yummy and it hit the spot for us last night.

Outback Potato Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

8 potatoes, peeled and diced

4 cans of chicken broth

1 small onion, diced

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 cups of cold water

1 1/2 cups of heavy cream

1 cup of butter

Boil potatoes and set aside.  

In a separate pot, combine broth, salt, pepper, onion, and water and simmer for 20 minutes.

In a small pot, melt butter.  Add flour and whisk together.  Add to pot of broth slowly, whisking constantly.

Slowly add the heavy cream, continuing to stir.

Let simmer for 20 minutes.

Add potatoes and serve!

Garnish with cheese, bacon bits and green onions.

Yummy!

Now I did mention that we liked the soup AND the salad!  And what makes Outback's salad so great?  The DRESSING!  And yes, I have the ranch recipe right here.  It's my FAVORITE dressing to put on a salad.  

Outback's Ranch Dressing

1 tablespoon of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (You can also use the buttermilk packet)

1 cup of Mayonnaise (note:  NOT Miracle Whip!)

1/2 cup of buttermilk

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder 

Mix together and chill for at least an hour! 

If you like it "spicier" you can substitute cayenne for the paprika or double the spices.  

I LOVE it!

Stayed tuned for more Dining Out At Home! 

Light Up The Sky

This is one of my new favorite songs!  I promise to have a "real" blog up soon.  Things have been crazy here with sickness and house hunting.  I'm truly worn out looking for a house!  It wasn't this hard the first time.  I'll also post some pictures of the crazy things Eric keeps getting himself into.  *sigh*   My boys........

Laugh Of The Day

Don't know what this is..but it totally makes me laugh.

YES!

This has shot to the top of my favorites list!  I think this should be required of EVERY man before his wife delivers.  LOVE IT!  And I love how he wimped out just 3 hours in.  C'mon now.....you weren't even going to have to push anything out!

Watching TV

I am convinced that Sarah Palin could make any trip fun.  She's the one to go road-trippin' with.

Leave Kate Gosselin at home.  She's miserable.

Greetings To Olivia!

Latest Adventures

*Eric in the back seat listening to John and I talk*

"Mommy?  Steaks?  Stinks?  What is that?"

"States, baby."

"Stinks?"

"StaTes.  As in, the United States of America"

"Stinks."

"States!  S-t-a-t-e-s.  States."

"STINKS.  S-r.....a....g.  Stinks."

Ok.  You win.

Matthew playing with his Tickle Me Elmo.  He likes to feel it vibrate.  :)

I caught him in a REALLY good mood while he was in the tub.  He sang really well for me BEFORE I got the camera.  But I get him to sing a little bit more for me here.

And "You Are My Sunshine".  He can actually sing more words than this, but he didn't like being videotaped!

AND Eric "video-bombing" Matthew.

Happy New Year To ME!

With my upcoming reunion, I decided it was time to kick my weight loss into high gear.  I started working out today.  I use the Wii for my work outs and it keeps track of my weight for me which I find very helpful.  I was terrified to learn what my weight was after the holidays.  It had been 162 days since I had last worked out (check the dates on my blog..bet it's been 162 days since I first wrote about Jillian!)  To my surprise, I had lost

SEVEN POUNDS!!

I weighed myself twice to make extra sure that was right.Woo hoo!  Now I know that is not much over 162 days, but what excited me the most, was that all that advice I wrote about was right on!  How do I know?  Because the only change I have made has been to consciously cut out as much HFCS and artificial ingredients as possible.  No exercise.  No change in the amount I ate.  That's pretty sweet.  Imagine how much I could have lost if I had been even more strict on restricting myself to organic fruits and vegetables!  It was just what I needed to see to help motivate me this month.  If just making that itty bitty change produced results, maybe the extra effort I am putting in this month will bring me down to my desired weight after all!

I am trying to work out every day and I have cut down on my calorie intake quite a bit.  I'm also using my new FABULOUS juicer to help me out as well.

 I love it.  It's so much fun to use.  

I hope I will have some dramatic before and after pictures for you in 30 days!