A Dose of Humility

I consider myself a confident, talented person most of the time. But every so often it's good for me to suck at something to keep me humble. My latest dose of humility came over Christmas break when we went downhill skiing. I've water skied and cross country skied, but despite living in Utah for 4 years, I had never hit the slopes. Number one, I was a poor college student and too cheap to spend the cash and number two, I was probably too prideful to do something I'd never done before that was sure to involve a lot of falling down. Nate convinced me to swallow my pride and go skiing with him, my dad, and my cousin. We had a lot of fun, but I will say I did have to do quite a bit of swallowing! I was so afraid of falling down and people laughing at me. Well, I quickly broke the ice on that one and fell off the chair lift at the top of the bunny hill. I learned to get over my fear and embarrassment pretty quickly after that. My dad and Nate did a good job teaching me the basics and more importantly picking me up when I fell, literally! (I was certainly glad my dad was nearby when I tumbled off a catwalk and landed upside down in 3 feet of snow!) I was surprised at how fast I picked it up and improved. My last run of the day, I made it all the way down the hill without falling. We had a blast and I'm sure we'll go again the next time we're in Utah during the winter. 

 This was the first year we were home for Christmas since we've been married. I was excited to introduce all my family traditions to Nate. Although, due to various circumstances we nearly threw our Christmas Eve traditions out the window and ate at Chuck-a-Rama. Fortunately, they were closed and we had to fall back on tradition. In addition to spending time with my immediate family, we were able to see many extended family members from both sides. It was super cold and snowy (especially coming from Arkansas!) but we embraced that by skiing and snowmobiling and avoided it by going to Les Miserable and The Hobbit and sipping cocoa in a warm house! We had a wonderful Christmas break and hope all of you enjoyed your holidays as well.

Christmas Greetings from the Shepherds

Wow! Hard to believe another year has flown by. I'm happy to report it was another year of marital bliss in the Shepherd household. Everyday is of course just another day in paradise around here, but these are some of the highlights from the year:
~We managed to survive serving in the nursery. What was meant to be a "3-6 month calling" became an 16 month venture. Word on the street is our ward is splitting in January and we'll be released from the nursery. Surprisingly, I think we'll both miss it.
~Nathan got his second promotion at work! He is still enjoying his job with Wal-Mart and we are grateful that his job brought us out to Bentonville. Laurel on the other hand, works at a place where there is no such thing as a raise or a promotion (no bitterness here) but still finds her work as a health coach to be challenging and fulfilling.
~We took a fabulous trip to New York City with Nate's parents. We saw all the sights, went to Newsies on Broadway, and checked one more place off our bucket list.
~We drove the long trek to Utah in July to visit the Feuz side of the family. We entertained ourselves by listening to the Hunger Games and making frequent stops to walk Ollie. Half way across Nebraska our AC temporarily went out and I was afraid the flame of our love would too, but we survived, albeit a little grumpily for a few hours :) We ran our 15k in Logan, did some camping, and spent a lot of time hanging out with the fam.
~We had several visits over the year from both sides of the family. We are so very blessed to have family who will take the time to fly out to Arkansas and come stay at the Ozark Inn.
~Speaking of the Ozark Inn, we made several updates to the Inn this year. Next thing you know, we'll be a 5 star hotel! We've upgraded from an air mattress to a real bed in one of our guest suites! We've also finally finished painting (almost). My favorite improvement was granite counter tops and new back splash in our kitchen!

~Our niece, Chloe was born. She is such a fun baby and we are so happy Bryson and Alyssa live in Bentonville, so we get to see this sweet girl often! We are also excited to have another new niece and nephew on the Feuz side of the family in early 2013!

 

~The biggest highlight from our year was probably the addition of Ollie to our family. I never really thought of myself as a "dog person" let alone an "indoor dog person."  Nonetheless, I've seen the light and Ollie has converted me. He certainly keeps us entertained and we feel lucky to have him.

All in all, its been a busy but wonderful year. Just like anyone else, we've had our trials and struggles along the way, but we know our Father in Heaven loves us and His plan is infinitely better than anything we could come up with. We are so grateful for all we have and for this time of year to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. May you feel the love of Christ in your homes this Christmas season as well as the whole year long. Merry Christmas!

Halloween Happenings

Do you remember as a kid going trick or treating and hating when someone gave you a box of raisins instead of candy? You tried to smile and say thank you, but really you were wishing for one more piece of rich, delicious confectionery that would lead to canker sours, cavities, and obesity. Now that I am older and wiser (and work in the healthcare field), I quite like the idea of handing out raisins instead of candy. But alas, my thoughts of healthier options for the trick or treaters was one-upped by Nate this year. I had to work Halloween night, so I left Nate to his own devices. When I arrived home, I discovered Nate had un-wired the doorbell, placed a sign on the door inviting the trick or treaters to partake of the goodies in the basket on the door step, and filled that basket with bell peppers and jalapenos from our garden! What lucky children of our neighborhood!


Even though I missed Halloween night, we didn't let the month go by without celebrating the holiday. Our friends hosted a Werewolf party a couple weeks before Halloween. I haven't played that game in a long time, so that was definitely a fun night. It was also fun to be able to dress up in costumes. Nate and I have actually never dressed up for Halloween or done much to celebrate in years past, so it was about time. We went as a flapper girl and 1920s gentleman.

We also spent a night waiting 2 hours in line in the cold for zombie hunting. Definitely worth it. Shooting at unarmed zombies? Now that's my kind of paintballing. No bruises or welts for me. Although, I do hope they paid those poor zombies more than minimum wage!

The gang before the hunt

Not Every Idea Is A Good Idea

Last weekend we went camping with our friends Cat and Shaun down at Devil's Den State Park. Camping is always a good idea…except when it's not.

Good idea: Plan your camping trip to a campground that has flushable toilets.

Bad idea: Book a campsite in the ONLY area of the campground that does not have indoor plumbing. A nasty, insect-infested latrine? I think not. I chose to dehydrate myself all weekend instead.

Good idea: Go to a campground that has warm showers available.

Bad idea: See bad idea number 1…also forget to bring your towel. All four of us actually forgot our towels so we couldn't even have a communal towel. (Eww) So in the spirit of becoming one with nature, guess who went all weekend long without a shower?

Good Idea: Bring lots of water with you

Bad idea: Don't bring lots of water with you when you go hiking. When some fellow hikers found us pathetically squeezing the last drop of water from the pack, they took pity and offered us some of theirs.

Good Idea: Cook some delicious food while camping including my dad's famous Dutch oven potatoes

Bad Idea: Forget ketchup! Dutch oven potatoes without ketchup is a crime.  

Roasting Woofums! Yum!

Good Idea: Religiously watch the weather forecast all week to make sure it's not going to rain on your camping trip

Bad Idea: Trust the weatherman

Good Idea: Bring your fishing poles and buy a fishing license.

Bad Idea: Think you're going to actually catch anything while casting in a puddle. The only "fish" we saw were smaller than the bait!

Doesn't everyone look excited to be fishing?

While we had some bad ideas along the way, we really did have a great time camping with our friends. It was a beautiful weekend (except when it rained), and we always love being able to unplug from life and just relax and enjoy all of God's creations. Thanks Cat and Shaun for the awesome weekend!

While on the subject of camping, I just realized I never blogged about our trip to Nauvoo. We went with Bryson, Alyssa, and Chloe over Labor Day weekend for some "glamping." AKA we got to camp in cabins! It ended up raining quite a bit that weekend so we were grateful to not be tent camping. It was neat to see all the historical sights and take some time to understand and appreciate the lives of the early Saints. I've been to Nauvoo years ago, but I honestly felt like everything was new and different this time. Maybe I'm more mature now and can really value the experience. We enjoyed touring the bakery, blacksmith, brickyard, gunsmith, and many more. It was also really special to go to Carthage Jail and see the site and hear the story of Joseph Smith's martyrdom. He was asked to go through so much in his short lifetime and he faced those trials with courage and an unceasing faith. Learning of his life as well as the hardships the early members of the Church went through, certainly puts things in perspective. We are so immensely blessed and I am glad we were able to have such a wonderful experience to remind us of this.

All five of us in front of the beautiful Nauvoo Temple

Loving the Cheese in Branson

Branson is a strange little town. For those of you who have never been there, I'm not really sure how to describe it. I always thought of Branson  as cheesy, over-the-top, and out-dated. I pictured it full of busloads of retirees on vacation eager to see performers from the golden days still onstage. And while I've discovered that all of those things are true, Branson is still somehow fabulously awesome. We've gone a few different times and always had a good time. In fact, our most recent jaunt to The Live Music Show Capital of the World proved to be no disappointment.


We didn't get a chance to really celebrate our anniversary this year, so this was somewhat of a belated anniversary trip. We stayed in a hotel that was older than dirt, but you get what you pay for and it was dirt cheap. Did you know they still have hotels that give you an actual key to your room rather than one of those little key cards? Weird. It was old but well kept and Nate certainly enjoyed the complimentary dessert bar of cobbler, cookies, and ice cream. Although, Nate freaked out when he saw the sign that said the ice cream was the lactose free. What do they make it with? Soy? And refused to eat anymore. The desk clerk was a young, friendly fellow and asked what we were going to be doing on our visit. I told him we had bought a deal on Groupon for the zipline and I was shocked when he asked me, "What is that?" "What is a zipline?"  "No, what is Groupon?" Really? Do you live under a rock? If you don't know what that is, let me just turn your world upside down and tell you to go get online and prepare to find some deals!

The zipline ended up being a lot of fun.While we had a blast actually on the zip, the highlight involved a 12 year old boy. He was very afraid of heights and talked about how he wimped out when his family was in Guatemala. After his little sister went, he stepped up and exclaimed, "God is good!" before leaping off the plank. We got a chuckle out of that, and it certainly appears that God granted him some courage.

We also went to the fish hatchery and Table Rock Damn. I know, what's more romantic than learning about spawning fish on your anniversary trip? We just can't resist FREE things! Afterwards, we went for a hike in the State Park. Once again, FREE! We finished up the night at a dinner show. My personal favorite scene was the dramatic dance/aerial ribbon routine between the two lovers performed to the theme from Titanic. There was also some cool fire twirling, singing, unicycling, and bubble blowing. It was quite the variety of entertainment. Cheesy? Yes. Enjoyable? You bet!

The History of Stupidity Repeats Itself

I have this history of stupid, self-inflicted injuries. There was that time when I roasted a marshmallow on a fork over the stove and then put the fork in my mouth. My lips had a four pronged blister for a week! Or the time I accidentally cut off the middle of my eyebrow with a pair of scissors. I'm still trying to figure out how I managed that one. Well you know what they say, history repeats itself, and my history of self-inflicted injuries has repeated itself three times in the last three days! 

Saturday morning, I bought a new bike and I was so excited to break it in and go for a ride on the trails around Lake Fayetteville. Unfortunately, my new, purple Mongoose's maiden voyage was doomed to the same fate as the Titanic's voyage. It went down! And just as the captain went down with the Titanic, so too did I go down with my bike.....twice. There were a couple of tricky spots along the way with giant roots growing in the middle of the trail, and I apparently didn't maneuver them very well. I had my seat up too high and couldn't reach my feet down in time to catch myself, so I took a tumble into the brush! Fortunately, I managed to land on a nice pile of leaves. I took two falls before I realized I needed to lower my seat. (Why two and not one is beyond me.) I escaped with only a few minor scrapes and bruises and enjoyed the rest of the ride. Luckily, my new bike is just as resilient as me and held up beautifully to the abuse I inflicted. 

Sunday, our friends Zach and Anna, invited us over for dinner. I was in charge of the salad and decided that I just had to have candied nuts in it. Of course, I forgot to buy them earlier in the week, so I determined I would have to candy some nuts myself. Should be easy enough, I thought to myself. When I caramelized some sugar, it just smelled so delicious and I simply had to have a taste. (Hey, it's quality control. I gotta make sure I'm serving edible food.) In my glutinous state, I forgot that sugar caramelizes at 320 degrees and stuck my finger right in that lava goodness.  I now have a blistered index finger to remind me. 

Today, I was so proud of myself for waking up early to fix dinner and throw it in the crockpot before I left for work. Alyssa gave me a new recipe for cilantro lime chicken that I was eager to try. I chopped everything up, tossed it in the crockpot, and washed my hands with soap and water. Then, I went to go get ready for work. Imagine my surprise and pain, when I went to apply my makeup and realized the jalapeno residue remained on my hands! My eyes felt like I dumped gasoline on them and put a match to it. I couldn't even open my eyes the burning was so bad. I tried to splash some water on my face, but quickly realized that was a dumb idea too since I was still using my hands. I finally put my head under the faucet and attempted to extinguish the burning with running water. I was blinded for several minutes, and needless to say, I was late for work this morning and never bothered to reapply my makeup. I decided to go all natural rather than risk another eye scorching moment. I will say that dinner turned out quite tasty almost making the whole fiasco worth it….almost. My advice: wear gloves when cutting jalapenos!

The Unexpected Helper

Who knew dogs could be so helpful? When we first adopted Ollie, we had no idea how willing he would be to help out around the house. I only hope our future children can live up to Ollie's example and be just as productive.

This was right after I shaved him. I think he was a little depressed.

Ollie helped us plant our garden this spring. We thought he might like to weed the garden while we were gone at work, so we decided to put a fence around it. We wouldn't want him to overwork himself while we're away.

I was surprised to learn that Ollie enjoys quilting. He loves to help lay all the squares out and then lay out on all the squares to keep them in place.

Finally! A man who enjoys helping with the dishes. Boy, did I get lucky with this one!