Highs and lows

When we bought our house several years ago we thought that it was a little odd that the previous owner had installed a ceiling fan in the kitchen.  We said that we were going to eventually take it down.  But it came in handy when we have tons of people over or when Chris is making big meals.  It really keeps the kitchen cool when you're baking or cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving.  We leave all of the ceiling fans running all day and night during the summer to keep the house cool. 

Well on Saturday the ceiling fan in the kitchen finally burnt up.  The light still worked but the fan itself was dead and it started to smell.  So we headed down to our favorite neighborhood Home Depot to look for a new one.  I now know more than I ever wanted to know about ceiling fans!  We started off buying one that I really loved but it didn't produce enough air so we had to return it.  I found several that I wanted that either didn't provide enough air or enough light.  After several hours of looking we finally decided on one.  Let's hope that nothing else decides to break in the kitchen.  I've already had to replace the dishwasher this year!

The old ceiling fan, don't look to closely it's dusty!

The box claimed it would take 5 minutes to put up.  It took us an hour and a half!

The finished product looks pretty close to the old one but it puts out more light.

Good cause

I love shoes and I especially love buying shoes when I'm able to give back.  My favorite shoe company to buy from is Toms!  For every pair of shoes that you buy they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need.  I think that is a great cause and a good reason to buy new shoes! :)  I have six pairs of Toms shoes which two pairs are the wedges which are my FAVES.  I wear those more than any of them.  If I was able to buy all of them I would.  They are so comfortable to wear and they go great with all different types of outfits.

My parents bought these for my birthday this year.

A few weeks ago when we went down to Mena Chris's wonderful mother bought me my sixth pair of Toms and had them painted.  I have a feeling that they will be my new favorites to wear during Razorback games.  I plan on wearing them to the first football game in a few weeks.

I love them Vicki, that you so much!!

Community Block Party

Last Sunday at our church we held a Community Block Party where we handed out free backpacks with school supplies, free immunizations, free haircuts, dental consultations, and free food.  We were expecting around 500 people.  Over 2,000 people from the Springdale area showed up!  There were people who got in line at 3 and the party didn't start until 5.  People were lined up around the block for the party.  It was a great turn out and I'm so proud to see the work of Jesus being done at our church. 

Our small group helped out in big ways.  Dwight was one of six people who helped with haircuts and he didn't get finished until almost 9!  Chris helped with handing out food for hours.  Kathleen, James, and I helped out in the kitchen and doing various other tasks.  We are already planning the Community Block Party for next year and I bet that we'll have an even bigger turn out! Our church may be small but we are helping out in big ways in our community.

Dwight did TONS of haircuts.

James helping out in the kitchen.

Part of the line for haircuts.

Our pastor Stephen got a temporary tattoo.

Chris handing out beans and coleslaw.

Kathleen finally enjoying a break when it was all done!

Ready for fall

The temperature has been a lot cooler in our area and we have gotten a few inches of rain in the past couple of days.  One morning we had lows in the 60s!  It makes me ready for fall weather and that means it's almost time to start decorating for fall and Halloween.

Last Saturday at Yankee Candle was the debut of the 2011 Boney Bunch collection.  We were not in town because we went down to Mena to visit with Chris's family for the day.  So Sunday after church Kathleen and I went to the mall to look at the new collection.  Every year I add a new piece to my collection.  Boney Bunch is highly collectible and a lot of the pieces sell out within minutes of them being available.  Most people are like me and treasure their pieces but there are some who buy multiples and sell them for a huge profit on eBay.  Once they are sold out it is very rare for Yankee Candle to bring them back.  This years most coveted item was the Boney Bunch dog it sold for $9.99 in the store and you can find it on eBay anywhere from 30-100!  Here are some of the pieces I got this year.  Chris surprised me and got me a couple of extra pieces this year and he got me on the waiting list at two stores just in case they get anymore of the dogs in.

When Chris was out of town he also bought me a new accent pillow for the guest bedroom bedding.  I think that once the walls are painted to match it will all tie it in.  My question is what color should I paint the bed?  We don't like light colored furniture so it's between painting the bed black or attempting to stain it a darker color.  I'm worried with painting it black that the bedding will blend in with the bed.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you guys think.

Summer haircuts

We have been having record breaking heat in our area and it doesn't seem it is going to end anytime soon.  It's starting to feel and look like we live in Texas.  We haven't had much rain in the last two months either so everything is brown and dead here.  So we decided to take the dogs in for their summer haircuts to help them stay cool.  Newton didn't get a haircut because he already has short hair but he did get his nails trimmed.  They all seem to be much cooler now with their new summer do's.

Baxter loves his summer haircut but he looks naked without hair.

Morgan HATES his haircut!

Newton is just sleepy.

Here is a photo with Morgan watching television.  His addiction to television seems to be getting worse.  His favorite channels to watch are Animal Planet and the History channel.  If we have guests over all I have to do is put Morgan in our bedroom and turn the tv on and he is entertained for hours!

Tiling it up

Every since we have moved into our home 4 years ago we have had a checklist of things that we have wanted to do.  Get hardwood floors, granite countertops, and putting in a tile backsplash in the kitchen.  Well we finally got to check off one of those because a few weeks ago Chris and Greg put in a tile backplash in the kitchen.  We've been looking at them for years and we never thought that we could do it ourselves.  But after watching hundreds of home improvement shows over the years we finally decided to do it.  It was also nice that Lowe's had the tile backsplash that we wanted on sale!  It turned out really great and everyone seems to love it.  Chris also fixed our under cabinet lighting while he was at it.

Chris and Greg were pondering what to do next.

The finished product!

Up close photo of the tile.  I love the color of the tile, it goes with everything.

Remember when I posted about my dream of redesigning our spare room.  Well here is a sneak peak of the bedding.  I still have to get some accent pillows to finish the bedding.  But I still have TONS to do in this room.  I'll keep you guys posted with all the updates that are to come. :)

30 years ago

July 11th was Chris's 30th birthday.  For his actually birthday we didn't do anything big except for go out to dinner with our closest friends.  But you guys all know that I couldn't just do nothing for his milestone birthday.  For months I had been planning a surprise birthday party on July 16th.  Chris was playing in his first disc golf tournament that day so it worked out perfect for a surprise birthday. 

If anyone remembers I had another surprise birthday party for Chris when he turned 25.  I had kept the secret for months only to leave a check list in the car for him to found out about the party.  This year I went to great lengths to keep the surprise party a secret.  I used my work email account to send out all of the evites and every text message I sent to people I deleted just in case Chris wanted to use my phone.  I made everyone park at the middle school which is blocks away from our house and shuttled everyone back to our house.

The party went off great expect for the tournament got over at 3:30 and the party didn't start until 5:30.  Thankfully our friend Greg was in the tournament as well and picked up Chris that morning so Chris wouldn't come home early.  Greg did a great job keeping him out until the party started and Chris was really surprised to see everyone especially his parents who drove up from Mena.  Thanks to everyone who was involved in helping me keep this secret from Chris, he had a wonderful birthday!

Surprise!!!!

My parent's made homemade chocolate ice cream and I was eating from the container.

Chris looked for this hat at every craft fair last year.  Chris's Mom finally found it and bought it for his birthday present.

You can't have a birthday party without some Razorback decorations.

My parents!  I tried getting a family photo with Chris's parents but I could never get one.  Sorry the photo is blurry to but it was the only one of my parents.

Thanks Wolfpack for all your help decorating and for the emotional support!!

Chris and his dad.

Chris's Mom and Vaden.

Sarah and Frank drove all the way up from Mena too!

Thanks Greg & Becky for everything!

Independence Day

Where on Earth did the month of July go?  It went by so fast that I didn't have any time at all to do any posts on the blog.  So over the next couple of days you'll get a recap of what we did during the month of July.  I sometimes wonder if we will ever have any down time.  Normally our summer months are slower because we don't have baseball or football to deal with but that just isn't the case anymore.

This year for 4th of July we celebrated it with my parents and we went to watch the Naturals play some baseball.  After the game finished we got to watch some wonderful fireworks.  Thankfully it wasn't as hot during the first part of July so we got to really enjoy them.