Airplane Encounters

It seems I can never have an airplane ride without encountering some rather interesting characters. Whether it be the large man who fell asleep on me or the smelly man who released noxious gas throughout the plane ride, I somehow attract the least desirable seat companions. And so it was with our latest trip home for Brianne's wedding.

Our first flight required us to wake up at 3:00 AM (or in Nate's case, simply not go to bed at all) in order to make the 6:00 AM flight out of Tulsa. We nearly missed it and barely ran aboard as they were closing the door! Needless to say, it was a very stressful and tiring morning, but we anticipated being able to at least get a couple hours of sleep on the airplane. The flight attendant dimmed the cabin lights and we were ready to slip away into dreamland when Mr. Obnoxious behind us apparently missed the memo that every other passenger on the flight was sleeping! He proceeded to talk (or rather shout) to his seat companion (whom he didn't know, poor girl) for the entire flight. He was one of those big, jovial guys with a booming voice and an endless supply of absurd stories. It was all I could do to keep from turning around and saying. "Listen up buddy; Nobody cares about how free you felt running naked on the beach, how beautiful the Elton John concert in Vegas was, or how huge your wife has become since gaining 30 pounds! Now zip it so I can sleep!"

We had a short layover in Denver and then boarded the plane to Salt Lake City with high hopes once again that surely we would get some rest on this flight. But alas, rest was not in the cards that day. A sweet looking grandmother sat down beside me and immediately introduced herself and asked how I was doing. Normally, when someone responds to that question by saying, "Tired. I've been up since 3:00 AM" that is a hint that they plan on sleeping for the duration of the flight. However, sweet Ruth took that opportunity to tell me how tired she was as well and continue talking until we reached Salt Lake. She was on her way there to teach the Mormons about Christianity. Much to her delight, she was able to practice her skills right there on the plane when I revealed that I was in fact a Mormon! In all seriousness, it ended up being a great experience for me. There has been so much hype in the media lately concerning whether Mormons are Christians or not, and obviously this woman was of the belief that we are not. I took the opportunity to debunk that myth for her. I am a Mormon- a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I believe in Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and King. I believe in his Atonement and that He suffered and died for me. I testify that He lives and because of Him I can live again. I am a Mormon and I am a Christian!

2007 Honda Civic Hybrid (No we haven't gone green, we just like to save greens on gas!)

We chose to buy a car in Utah, cancel our flights, and drive 1338 miles home to Arkansas rather than risk another plane ride!

Did You Know????

I'm a big believer in lifelong learning and education. My quest for knowledge has led me to ten interesting discoveries lately.
1. Did you know Chuck Norris writes adult Christian fiction books? It's true: I saw them in the library the other day. You may ask, what does he write about? Naturally, God fearing Texas rangers from the 1800s. 
2. Did you know there is such a thing as golden raisins? This discovery was more of a duh moment for me. A couple of weeks ago we went for a strenuous eight mile hike, and as I was sitting on a rock munching away on my trail mix, I was startled to realize my raisins were golden! And then it hit me, of course they make raisins out of green grapes and not just the purple ones. 
3. Did you know that when you buy a house and the fridge comes with it, there is probably a reason it was left behind and that reason wasn't to be nice? When we bought our house we were thrilled that we could save some money by not having to buy a fridge. This thrill soon turned to bitter disappointment whenever I would attempt to crack an egg or pour a glass of milk only to discover they were frozen! Adjusting the temperature only resulted in melted ice cream in the freezer which is quite frankly unacceptable in my book. The good news is after combining several offers we saved 25% on our brand new fridge from Lowes! 
4. Did you know that after a year of marriage, you're considered a menace to society if you have not multiplied and replenished the earth? 
5. Did you know that they make shower handles that require you to be large, green, and named the Hulk to turn on? Yes, that's right; our shower handle demands brute strength to operate. At first, I feared I would be doomed to sponge bathing in the sink until we could buy a new handle. Upon checking the prices of such a project, I decide to lift some weights instead. I can now successfully turn on the shower. I tell you this because I don't want anyone to feel pathetic when they stay at my house and are unable to operate the shower. 
6. Did you know that when you try to buy a car with cash from a dealership, they will look at you like you are stupid and proceed to tell you about their "awesome finance plan"? What has our society come to when you are considered the dumb one for trying to stay out of debt? We haven't found the right car yet so keep your eyes open for us!
7. Did you know that the crowd will let out a cry of disappointment if you sprint to the finish line of a race and pass a 12 year old boy in the last second? Nate does. 
8. Did you know that football season can actually be a wonderful time in your marriage? I didn't last year but have discovered the secret this year: compromise! We now spend four hours on Saturday morning doing whatever I want and then, Nate spends four hours watching his game while I spend four hours still doing whatever I want! Win-win!
9. Did you know that you're mother was right? At least mine was when she told me all those years to practice the piano because someday I'd have to do it in church. Well, I guess she was only partially right because I'll be playing the organ. I really should have listened to her. I wonder what else I'll discover she was right about? 
10. Did you know that they call men to be nursery leaders at church? Yep, Nate will be in the nursery starting next Sunday as will I. I know what you're all thinking: how cute! A couple's calling in the nursery! But will this serve as encouragement to have kids or as a good form of birth control? Only time will tell..... 

Doing a little fist pumping on the morning of our Labor Day 5k. Nate was pretty proud of his victory over the child.

Protect the sick people!

You know your night at the county fair is going to be great when it starts off like this:

Activist with his clipboard in hand on his soap box, "Are you registered Arkansas voters? Will you help us legalize medical marijuana?"
Us, "No."
As we walked away cries of "You must protect the sick people!" followed after us.

As I said, fantastic way to start the evening!I haven't been to a county fair since my "glorious" pig showing days in Nebraska so we decided to check it out on Thursday with Bryson and Alyssa. Even though we ate dinner before we went, something about the disgustingly greasy, overpriced, fair food was tantalizing enough to convince us we had to eat a hand dipped, foot long corn dog and fresh squeezed lemonade that really just consisted of one lemon squeezed into a cup of ice. Not the best eight bucks we've ever spent. However, I was much more pleased with my next purchase: 15 Taste of Home magazines from the 90s! Many of the recipes actually look familiar as I'm sure my mom and grandma have the same magazines. They were five for a dollar and the proceeds benefited the local 4H chapter; who could say no to that? Not Nathan!

Since it was a weeknight, there weren't very many people there. It felt a little eerie walking around what felt like a deserted carnival. (Other than the scary carni people.) I felt like I was walking through a horror movie. But then we walked around the animal pens. Lambs aren't scary, just stinky.

As you can see, there weren't a lot of people there.

The one disappointment from the evening resulted from Nate crushing my lifelong, cliche dream of making out on the ferris wheel! He said it was too expensive! I guess he traded my dream for a piece of processed meat on a stick.

The crowning moment of the evening came as we were about to leave when Nate stepped in a pile of "green mud" wearing only his flip flops. Yuck for him, entertainment for Bryson and I watching him!

On a side note: I woke up with pink eye the next morning. It looks like Mr. Marijuana Activist didn't protect the sick people after all. 

Italian with a Southern Accent

What happens when Little Italy is smack dab in the middle of the South? The Tontitown Grape Festival of course! Tontitown was settled by Italians, but over the years the Southern influence has crept in resulting in an annual feast of homemade spaghetti noodles and sauce served with none other than your traditional Southern fried chicken. Who knew they could pair so well together?

Nate loved the fried chicken while I preferred the spaghetti. What a perfect marriage of flavors and two people!

The festival also featured grapes from the local vineyards. (Hence, the name Grape Festival).

We didn't buy any grapes but we did try the grape flavored ice cream. Normally, I avoid grape flavored things because I'm always reminded of dimetapp......Fortunately, this was yummy ice cream with no resemblance to the syrupy medication.

The Ozark Inn

For those of you who haven't heard, Nathan and I recently purchased The Ozark Inn Bed & Breakfast. The historic Ozark Inn, dating back to 2002, is situated on a lovely .22 acres in the heart of charming Bentonville Arkansas. The Ozark Inn offers luxurious accommodations to it's guests. Our cozy rooms provide comfort and allow our guests to discover a home away from home. Guests have the freedom of choosing from an array of fun, themed rooms. Our most popular rooms are the Dr. Seuss Suite and Dwight Schrute Chamber.

The Dwight Schrute Chamber is painted the exact shade of mustard as the shirt of the character you know and love on the The Office. Fans of the show, will feel they are almost a part of an actual episode!

Or for the young at heart,The Dr. Seuss Suite is hand painted to take guests down the nostalgic, childhood, memory lane. You can't go wrong with any room at the Ozark Inn. We are excited to offer guests not only their choice of rooms, but their choice of beds as well! We'll mix and match beds and rooms to create your ideal experience. Photos of options are included below. 

The Queen Size Eddie Bauer

The double high queen size Coleman

The cozy sleeping bag for one or two!

The soft, yet firm yoga mat

Guests can mingle with one another in our large, bright common room and enjoy reading, watching t.v., or playing the piano.

And as all good bed and breakfasts do, we offer a succulent buffet breakfast each morning to our guests. Not only do we do breakfast, but lunch and dinner are included with your stay as well!

We know you will have a wonderful and relaxing stay when you choose the Ozark Inn. Whether you are planning a vacation, business trip, or a weekend getaway to the Natural State, the Ozark Inn is the place for you. We would love the opportunity to make your stay unforgettable! Rooms book up quickly, so make your reservations soon! For reservations feel free to leave us a message in a comment to this blog.

The Floating Trailer Park

Have you ever heard the song, "Redneck Yacht Club"? I always thought it was a funny song but I never expected to find myself experiencing it. I'm pretty sure we stumbled across the redneck float club this weekend. We decided to go on a float trip down the Elk River. We were expecting a quite, peaceful day on the water, but as you will soon see, we could not have been more wrong!

Saturday morning we packed our cooler, drove up to Missouri, rented a canoe and set off down the river. It wasn't long before we came across what looked like the Jersey Shore rowing crew. A group of rowdy, tattooed coeds in their twenties, drinking beer, smoking, and making out. We laughed to ourselves at how trashy they looked as we quickly paddled past them. We passed several more similar rafts and began to feel that we were in the middle of a spring break-type gathering. We were in for a surprise (and not a pleasant one) as we rounded the next bend and there it was: the floating trailer park! Hundreds of canoes, rafts, kayaks and tubes we're berthed in the widest part of the river, of which 99% of the occupants were intoxicated. We saw all ages of people from teenagers on up to grandpas who could be described as anything but classy. It took us a good fifteen minutes just to maneuver through the mass. I won't go into great detail of what we beheld because this is a family-friendly blog and it wasn't a family-friendly sight! The best description I could come up with is Mardi Gras meets Vegas, meets MTV Spring Break redneck edition. I will say the one positive note was the wonders it did for my body image issues: seeing enough middle-aged women with beer bellies clad in very skimpy bikinis made me look at my body in a whole new light! 

We saw many of these floating beer coolers along the way

Once we got through that area, we hoped we'd passed the worst of it. Unfortunately, it didn't get better from there. We kept paddling faster and faster in search of a white trash-free zone, but somehow never came upon it. I was hoping to find a spot to get out and swim for a while, but was deterred by watching people throw their beer cans and cigarette butts overboard and spit their chewing tobacco in the water. When I saw a father throw up in the river from being so wasted, that was the nail in the coffin. I didn't even want to put my feet in the water after that.

It was a LONG 8 mile journey. I'm sure we were the fastest ones on the river but that wasn't difficult considering many were too inebriated to even find their paddles. In the beginning, all I could think about was all the great material I would have for my next blog post, but the more we saw, the worse I felt. I mean can you imagine if that was your father throwing up in the river or your mother exposing herself for a string of Mardi Gras beads? What kind of message does that send to your kids? It’s no wonder that we are seeing the moral degradation of our society when parents are teaching their children that it is acceptable to exercise no self control as long as you are having “fun.” I am so grateful that I was raised in a home with high moral standards and taught from a young age to reject the “fun” the world has to offer. The world can only offer temporary happiness. And calling it happiness is even a stretch. I can’t imagine drinking yourself silly, giving yourself lung cancer, or contracting an STD can make you very happy.  No thank you for me! I think I’ll pass on those and choose the eternal things that will provide lasting happiness: family, friends, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Herdin' the Sheep

It all started with that dam run! Last summer Nate, Bryson, and I decided to run a race together (the Dam Night Run), and Kaley decided she wanted in on the fun (or rather "fun" as some would say). She told us she was going to get in shape and come run a 5k with us next summer. Well, it's next summer and................we all ran a 5k on Memorial Day!

Brady and Kaley (Nate's brother and sister) came to Arkansas for a whole week. They win the prize for the longest visit. We'd love for someone to try and top that. (hint, hint: come visit us!) The paramount event for the week was the First Annual - or not so annual- Shepherd 5k.

There weren't any races around so we created our own. We had grandiose ideas for making shirts, bibs, a fancy finish line, the works. And while none of those ideas actually emerged into reality, the important thing was the running part of the race did!There was a lot of trash talk beforehand, but when all was said and done, Brady came forth to wear the victor's crown of laurel leaves, or rather just a crown of sweat. Nate insists he would have won had he not been forced to answer the call of Nature along the way! Some of us we're just glad to be able to finish. I've been resting my leg since our half back in April, and let me tell you, seven weeks sedentary makes for seven days soreness for Laurel! Ok, not really seven days, but I sure felt pretty out of shape, and I just liked the alliteration of that sentence.

Kaley deserves a paragraph of recognition. Heck, she could write a whole book about her journey. Kaley is such an inspiration to me of where hard work can take you. Since last summer, she has lost 50 pounds! Not only does she look fantastic, but she is in such great shape too.  I was huffing and puffing keeping up with her during the race! She is amazing so I feel the need to toot her horn for her for all to hear. For those of you who know Kaley, let her know you agree with me that she is awesome, amazing, fantastic, and inspiring. And Kaley, I'm serious about that book thing; Paris Hilton wrote an autobiography and I'm not even sure she can read, yet people read it! I would read yours over hers any day!