Pig Sooie Ya'll

This weekend we headed to beloved Fayetteville! We decided it would be fun to spend some quality time with John and Sarah, so we left Kansas City Saturday morning. We met John and Sarah for lunch at Hugo's...a family favorite. In fact, it's where David and I ate on the day that we got engaged! We spent the afternoon enjoying the square, Old Main Lawn, and some ice cream at a new spot on Dickson. Here are John and Sarah on Old Main Lawn.

We never miss an opportunity to have a picture taken at Old Main. Old Main was built right after the civil war in 1875. For those of you who are not native Arkansans, :), the North Tower is actually taller than the South Tower because the architect was a Yankee, and sneakily made the North Tower taller since the North won the war.

This is our room at the Inn at the Mill...we just love wood paneling. The room was actually really nice and had a balcony and big bathroom. All of those curtains could be opened too.

On Sunday, we met Tripp at Ben at Marketplace for lunch. If you ever go through Springdale, stop at Marketplace! Tripp and Ben just had spring break...Ben was in Milan, Italy with some UofA Enginners and Tripp drove all over the U.S. and got to see Vegas, California, and even the Grand Canyon! John, Sarah, Tripp, Ben...we LOVED spending time with ya'll.

This picture might confuse some...but yes, this IS Josh and Anna Dugger's car lot! I'm a dork...but I HAD to see it and take a picture. If anyone wants to know how it was to get to see it in person, feel free to ask. :)

The Long Lost Blogger

Here I am making my 2010 blog debut. Rachel has carried us for sure on the blog this year, and has done a fantastic job. I enjoy reading them even though it is about our life. This next week is spring break for me, and everything at school has leveled off for a while. We only have a few practicals remaining and no tests until finals start the last week of April. Rachel and I are both excited about the time off! This weekend we are traveling to Fayetteville to spend the day with John and Sarah. Ben gets back from Milan Saturday, so we are thinking a dinner at Venetian Inn may be in order. We are also headed home for Easter the weekend after next. We wish that our spring breaks aligned better, but still glad for the rest.

During the first week of March, I got the chance to go to Washington DC with some guys from school. This past summer we participated in a program at UMKC that allowed us to research a specific area in the dental field. My project dealt with the bond strengths of different "dentin adhesives." In other words, we tested the strengths of different composite fillings. This trip was the culmination of the project. Although we were only in DC for 1 day, we had a great time. We ate a steak at the District Chophouse, went to see the capitol and toured the new visitor's center. I was interested in seeing the visitor's center because it was under construction when I was in DC last. At the conference we attended, we presented the poster that summarized our project, while people perused all the hundreds of posters that were in the room with us. Some people were actually interested in my project and wanted to talk about it. I really enjoyed the whole experience. Here are some pictures from the trip.

We got to DC around 7 pm Wednesday night and found the District Chophouse for a big steak that UMKC paid for!

Here I am in the exhibition hall standing by my poster. There were hundreds of different posters lined up in this room, and people just walked around reading the ones they were interested in.

A picture in front of the capitol.

One of the guys is from Hawaii, and really wanted us to stand in front of this statue and do this Hawaiian hand motion. This guy is one of Hawaii's two statues in the capitol.

Check out the awesome IADR meeting bags we were toting.

A "Spring" Snow

David has made it through his tests!!! Now, besides quizzes and practicals, he is done with tests until his two weeks of finals at the end of April and beginning of May. It's crazy to have the end of the semester, and the end of so many tests, in sight! For Christmas this year, the Rainwater's gave me a rubbing of my name that's on the Senior Walk in Fayetteville with my diploma in it. I have been wanting one for the "Razorback Room" so that David and I could both have one. David already has his. David's has a blue background with a drawing of Old Main in it. We love having both of them. Thanks Mike and Kathy...I LOVE it!!!

On Friday night, David and I went out to eat at a restaurant called "Peachtree" in the Power and Light District. It's like gourmet soul food. We sat upstairs, right by the window and looked out at downtown and watched the snow storm start to blow in. We plan on taking ya'll there next time you come Mom and Dad!

On Saturday, we worked on our taxes for a large part of the day. David successfully got them done and I mostly just sat around and supported his efforts. Here is David faithfully completing our taxes.

On Saturday night we got to hang out with the Thorpe's. We went to a Mexican restaurant called Kokopelli and it was really good. It had snowed a lot more than we thought it had on Friday and Saturday and we couldn't believe the amount that had come down when we got out in it. Whoa. Tons of snow. Hopefully this is the last blast of winter.

Katherine and I.

Our back porch...there is usually a large step down out onto the deck from this door. Notice the chair in the background.

Getting Crafty on Spring Break!

This picture is from this past weekend when David and I had Samantha, the first year Arkansas student, over for dinner.

Spring Break has left me itching for some crafts! Maybe it's spring fever...but I DID get my pots painted today! It was such a pretty day and I sat outside on the back porch all day and painted my little heart out. We got these clay pots for 25 cents at a garage sale last spring and I didn't do anything with them last year. This year I thought that it would be fun to spice them up a little. I figured that if they turned out bad it wouldn't matter since they'll be outside braving the elements all the time...but I think they turned out pretty good. First I spray painted them black and then painted them with outdoor craft paint. Then I put a final clear protective coat over them. I don't think it's my new career calling or anything, but I sure enjoyed sitting outside all day. Here they are!...

Sooie stayed out all day with me and I got a little bit of sun...she just got herself so tired that she fell asleep with her head smashed into the chair. Poor little dear...so tired.

Spring Break Numero Uno

I am currently enjoying the first Spring Break for our little family! I am off for the whole week and loving every minute of it. To tell you the truth, I haven't done much of anything! I've been sleeping in, working on my project, and watching a lot of TV. Spring Break is the greatest invention ever.

This is David's last week of tests before finals. Woohoo! Before we know the semester will be over and David will be in the clinic. We are very ready for that change. David's Spring Break is the last week of March, so we'll be enjoying that soon! It's raining right now, but I plan on taking some pictures of the flowers coming up in the flower beds soon and painting some pots to keep flowers in on the back porch!

To Continue or Not to Continue...

Many times in the past two years I have wondered if I should go the rest of the distance and complete my masters in education. After this semester, my certification process will finally be done, and I will have fifteen graduate hours applied to my masters program. So do I keep going?....

After talking with my advisor...YES! The decision has been made folks. Here's the good news, by this time next year I'll be finishing it up! I'm going to start it this summer, and then take six hours each semester next year. After talking with my advisor and realizing that I can be done with it in just one more year, I decided to go for it. I'm going to have my Masters of Arts in Education with a Speciality (for now) in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). I have chosen that because I think that in the long run for David and I, it could be a speciality that will be beneficial in the most ways. We're both really excited with the decision and I'm looking forward to getting started. It'll be a lot of work, but it has been a lot of work up to this point, so I'm excited to finish it out and get those letters behind my name. :)


Sarah Busenitz and I managed to take one silly picture at parent/teacher conferences in our new Heritage Christian Academy shirts...in case you were wondering what we are doing with our hands, it's the sign language letter "H," for Heritage. :)

Fun with Friends

Lauren and Justin and Parker came into town this last weekend! We had so much fun. On Saturday the girls (me, Lauren, Katherine, and Lindsay) plus Parker hung out all day and shopped around. We ate lunch at Sushi House at Town Center Plaza and spent the entire day talking, mildly shopping, and just enjoying Parker. Lauren is such a great Mom and Parker is already growing into a sweet boy. It's been amazing for me to realize how much you can love your best friend's child. On Saturday night we all went out to Cheesecake Factory, which might become a custom whenever the Davis' come to town. :) That place is just so good. Parker got fussy during dinner and Lauren and Justin very efficiently got him to sleep. Way to go guys. We were all impressed. It was really wonderful to spend a day with friends and just hang out. Can't wait until next time!



The guys outside Cheesecake Factory.

The whole group. We can't believe we've all almost been married two years! Time passes so fast. Love you all!

Most adorable family award. We all decided that Parker should be a model for Baby Gap.

This week David has FOUR tests and a practical. So to say the least, it's a busy week for him. After this week and next week he is home free until finals though. We've gotten back into routine after all of our travels and I successfully made it through parent/teacher conferences. The weather here has improved SOOO much. It was beautiful this weekend when the Davis' were in town and we didn't even need coats. It was warm enough today for me to go running after work and even need to pull some weeds that have sprung up in the flower beds. Maybe Spring is finally here!

Mom and Dad, I've almost finished "Half Broke Horses" and I am really enjoying it. It makes me want to carry a pearl revolver. :)

WCA to HCA

Thank goodness we're beginning to see some signs of spring around here. My tulips are trying to peek up through the frozen ground and I can't wait for them to bloom. We're also finally having some warmer day-time weather. Today and tomorrow are parent/teacher conferences for me. They are the last ones of this year...Woohoo! I have done three so far today and I have three more this afternoon, followed by six tomorrow. Going good!

The big news around work is that we are no longer going to be called Westminster Christian Academy starting in the fall of this year. We are joining with another private school, called Berean, and making a new name, new colors, and even a new mascot. The new name is Heritage Christian Academy. Berean is about 4 miles down the road from us, so it makes a lot of sense to "join forces." Now our K-6 will be in the building that we're currently occupying now and the 7-12th grades will move to the Berean campus. It is going to be a good thing all around...more students, more facilities, and more sports! Lucky for me it doesn't look like I'm going to have to change grades or even move rooms...for this I am TRULY thankful!

David was in Washington, D.C. last night with some other dental students. He is up there making a presentation that has to do with his project that he did with the school last summer. He's sent me some pictures and I think they're having a great time. He'll be back tonight by 10:00...can't wait!

Sooie slept with me last night...as she does on the rare occasion that David has to go out of town without me. When I turned on my nightstand light as my alarm was going off, I sat up and realized that Sooie was sitting ON TOP of my jewelry box, which sits ON TOP our our dresser...just staring at me. Creepy Sooie.

We had a really nice weekend in Arkadelphia. The funeral on Saturday was wonderful and the weather was very typically Arkansas perfect. It was 62 and sunny! Tons of David's extended family was in town and it was really fun to get to meet people that I hadn't met before. David's grandfather was one of 7 brothers and 1 sister...so that tends to create a lot of descendents. Lot's of Immanual people made it down too...which was really great for Mike and Kathy and made Grandma feel really special. The food was never ending and the nice people at Grandma and Grandpa's church had quite a spread for the family...fried chicken, potato casserole, chicken and dumplings, cabbage, greens, sweet potatoes (that tasted like candy), chicken spaghetti, beans (of all kinds), salad, corn bread, chocolate cake, pecan pie, chocolate cream pie...the list goes on and on.

David and John and Ben sang again at the funeral and helped to turn it into a wonderful tribute to their grandfather. Here is a short video of the guys practicing the night before the funeral...singing Grandpa's favorite hymn..."How Great Thou Art." They also sang "Amazing Grace" and "Victory in Jesus."