Calling All Mommies

My sister's lumpectomy is tomorrow, and I'm going to have Peyton for the weekend. So now I am trying to think of fun things to do with her while she's here. Mind you, she's not quite two yet. I've thought about the farmers market and the library. Someone also mentioned Wilson Park to me as well. So now I need all of you northwest Arkansas mommies to help me come up with some ideas. What can I do around here with an almost two-year old?!?

adventures in camping

Our life group went camping this weekend at "Devil's Den" State Park. We camped in tents and cooked over a fire... well most of us (cough Fosters and Argos cough). Sunday morning we got up and had Church together in beautiful mother nature before we left. There were no disasters, only one tick, and lots of s'mores!


The river by our campsite.

Greg had to study because his finals start Tuesday. So he was gone in the day - which is why he is not in any of the pictures - but he came out at night. Yes, my husband is nocturnal.


Haha, I don't know how many marshmallows Jennifer ate this weekend!



Saturday, some of us decided to go for a hike to burn off the empty calories we had shamelessly consumed.

The Argos.


I tried to stop them.


Jedediah and Nellie... awww :)


Little Ashley did not want to stand under the waterfall, but we finally talked her into it. She is too cute!


I would be interested in hearing the story of how "Devil's Den" got its name. I kept thinking the whole time, "Why do they call it 'Devil's Den?" This has got God's artistry written all over it.


The ladies that went on our hiking trip.



The hikers on Saturday in the "Ice Box" cave. Soak in the moment, please. This is the only time you will E-V-E-R see me in an ice box.

MYTH BUSTERS

It is IMPOSSIBLE to chew up and swallow six Saltine Crackers in 60 seconds (with no water).




Mindy confirmed our hypothesis (I wish I had video of this), but then...




Jon proved to be successful.

FALSE.



It is POSSIBLE to chug down a coke and not burp for 60 seconds.



Scott and Nick did. Although I wish you could have felt their burps shake the campgrounds several minutes later.

TRUE.



As I am writing this, I have realized how HICK we must look... especially to those of you who aren't from the South.

Yup, we're from Arkansas folks.

next Friday

Go ahead and put Friday, May 1st on your calendar to pray. That's the day of my sister's lumpectomy. I'll keep you posted.

No, this picture hasn't been edited.

The ladies of our Life Group at Church decided to give a wedding shower to our friends, Matt and Laura, who are getting married next month. All of the girls were able to make it to the shower except Nellie. But somehow she just appeared in this picture. Weird how that happens! Anyways, I love love love these girls! Its so great to have girlfriends again. No more hanging out with Greg's man-friends for me!

If ________, then ___________.

Thursday night in my Bible study, Beth Moore asked us to think of our worst nightmare and what we would do if it came true. Then, we actually had to fill in the blanks:

IF (worst nighmare), THEN (how we would react).

Mine went a little something like this:

IF anyone in my immediate family died, THEN I would fall apart.

The lesson continued on and we soon learned that we can beg for God to protect us and those we love, but if the worst does happen, then that's ok. God's plan for us does not stop when things don't go our way or even when we die. That is an interesting thought... that our destinies do not stop when we die. God will continue to work through our life even after we are gone. OUR DESTINY AND PURPOSE IN LIFE IS OVER WHEN CHRIST COMES AGAIN. So as Christians, our response to the fill-in-the-blank should be:

IF _______________, then GOD.

God may not plan our lives for us as we would like them. But He shapes our destinies with people and events that we may never think twice about. Of course, some events slap us in the face so hard we fall to our knees. Those times are often the hardest to understand.

NOT that I am saying that a tragedy has occured or that anyone is dying, but my family had yet another wake-up call this week. Recently, my sister, Adrienne, found a lump in her breast. She went to the doctor and had an ultrasound on Thursday which ruled out the possibility of it being a cyst. This is not good because now we know the lump is a tumor. She has an appointment on Wednesday morning to have it biopsied, and they might schedule a lumpectomy at that time as well. (She was nervous about the biopsy, and I appealed to her that if she gave birth, then she can handle a little needle!) I will definitely keep the blog updated when we find out more. Please pray that the tumor is benign. My sister has been through too much lately. First with Grampsboy passing, then with Peyton being so sick, and now this. But if the tumor is malignant, pray that our response will simply be:

If A's tumor is malignant, then GOD.

The Wilson girls on Easter Sunday. Peyton was not too happy with the volume of pictures we had taken already.

Fun with a Mac

Its official...

No, its not a baby, ha. Sorry mom. For now though, its even better...I'm a real teacher! No more temporary licensure. I got my Praxis III scores back this afternoon and I passed. So as of today, I am officially an Arkansas PreK-12th Licensed teacher! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!! Well actually I have to pay $100 to get my license (I never thought I would have to pay to work). But the hard part is over... and no more Praxis/Pathwise observations!

Easter Eggstravaganza

Adrienne and I went went back home to Benton this weekend (hubbyless) for Easter. Saturday, we took Peyton to the courthouse for some Easter egg hunting. She was too young last year to know what to do, but this year we made some progress.


Irony anyone?


the wind-blown look


We love Pop!

After the egg hunt, we took P to a friend's house to completely wear herself out so that she would take a really long nap and we could get some rest play on their swing set.


Mumzy got a workout lifting her up to go down the slide again and again and again.



Peyton got chalk in her Easter basket. Can you find... "AJP" (Adrienne, Janice, Peyton), "Mumzy," "Pop," the sun, the moon, "Who" (not sure what this means), the stick person, and "Pa-tun?"



These pictures were taken with my sister's awesome camera. Would someone please tell my husband that our next big purchase should be a camera like this? I do seem to remember standing in line at Best Buy at 3:00a.m. on Black Friday to get a new flat-screen TV that we "needed." ahem ahem.

another reason why we love Fayetteville...

Well its baseball season now, and the Razorback team is number one in the nation. Greg and I have been to a handful of games so far this year, and here are some pictures from a couple of them. Go Hogs!!