Toby's summer cut (Ryan and I have become doggie hairdressers)

Gardening

I attempted to clean up our yard a little today. I raked most of the wooden debris out of the front and back yards - and came up with 7 bags without even bagging all of it. Thanks to the ice storm mostly. I also pulled most everything but the strawberry plants out of two beds. It was so thick it was difficult to tell what was weeds and what was not.

Toby had fun in the grass... er... weeds that we need to mow. He even decided to dig a hole and thereby earned himself his 2nd bath in 2 days.

He did not think he deserved this torture so soon even though he only got a quick partial rinse. The water turned brown as soon as he hit it.

This is a view of the orange sky last week during our strong storms and tornado warnings. It was an even darker color orange than this actually.

Lazy weekend

Ryan lit the many candles in the living room on Friday night including our unity candle - its probably the longest its ever been burned considering we blew it out within 10 seconds at the wedding.

Toby enjoyed curling up with the blanket Aunt Kathy sent us as a wedding present.

Sabbath morning we woke up to SNOW!

My flowers survived the winter onslaught

It kept coming down like this all day but it was warm enough that it didn't accumulate much.

Ryan started eating a popsicle - despite the cold - and decided that Toby needed to have some too...

Wet from running around in the snow

You've seen all of our antics, so I have to keep showing you Toby's. When the front door isn't open and he can't see outside he's learned that he can barely see over the window sill to watch the squirrels and various passersby. Its pretty cute. This was while Ryan and I were eating pizza and watching the golf at Bay Hill on Sunday. All in all, it was a relaxing weekend before I went to work on Monday and Tuesday!

Eureka! Its spring break!

To keep Ryan's promise for a get-away after his stent in Florida and to get away for a few days during spring break - we headed for Eureka Springs on Tuesday. Its about 2 hours north east of here and the drive was nice and winding. Finally we get back into some mountains! It reminded me of being at home in NC and VA. Being in the woods always makes me feel more relaxed and brings me back to how simple life ought to be.
Here are a few pics of the cabin for those of you that wanted to see it.

We stayed at Cabin Fever Resort in a suite above the man's main office so our deck was nicely elevated. We could see out over the tree tops to the mountains beyond.

Full kitchen and table - to the right is a couch, coffee table and TV, then the bedroom.

Here's most of the bedroom - the corner of the jacuzzi is in the bottom right. Ryan's decided he wants one. It certainly is relaxing and it is big enough to really enjoy - unlike a regular bathtub that just isn't long enough.

The town of Eureka Springs was a 5 minute drive away. This town is supposed to be like a Swiss alps town with narrow winding streets. We enjoyed walking into shops and talking to their keepers.





Ryan is trying desperately to hang onto his Alabama Tide... er... pride... but its hard when the Arkansas Razorbacks have wiped out all other forms of sports paraphernalia.

Ryan found this for you Dad - but we decided they wouldn't let you put this up at the conference office.


Here is our purchase - a nice set of windchimes for our front porch handtuned to the key of A. As we are never short on wind here - they should be quite a nice addition!

I really liked this blue heron sculpture!
Sorry, my leg doesn't bend the same way... and I have arms...

This observation tower used to be used by the Forest Service. It doesn't look so bad from the ground - but for $1 you can squeeze (and I mean squeeze) yourself through a little turndoor and brave the wind on the narrow stairs as you climb up to 100 ft from the ground. The first picture of Ryan and I is up on the top of the tower.

View from the top in one direction - wouldn't this be pretty in the fall?
The top platform is very small - only 5 people can stand there at a time. Both Ryan and I felt like the wind might blow us away up there.

The stairs were so narrow you had to stop on the landings and let people slide past you.

Flood evidence #1 - a natural bridge

Flood evidence #2 - nearby Pivot Rock featured in Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not
You could tell they had reinforced parts of the base with cement but it was still pretty amazing to find this rock just sitting on the side of a mountain trail.

The only part that was NOT fun about the trip was a strange terrible pain in my left shoulder that made it hard to sleep or be still without a dose of Bengay and Ibuprofen. However, I did read 100 pages of my current book, Beethoven's Hair, while I was awake from 3:30 to 5:30 AM trying to keep myself from cutting my arm off. I suppose I should clarify about that book title - its the story of what happened to a lock of Beethoven's hair that was snipped off by a young musician after his death interspersed with Beethoven biography. It also will get into the forensics they used to study the hair. Its quite interesting.

Anyway, coming home was exciting because Toby was waiting for us at the Rector's house next door AND we had a package on the front porch from Carrie and Ryan. Little animals get so excited when they see you! Here's Toby with his new doggie friend that Carrie found him. He's already missing an eye and being loved much. See the resemblence?

After his jubiliant welcome and meeting his new friend - Toby sacked out. Apparently being left home alone and going to a strange house with another dog and a 3 year old makes one wasted.

Signs of Spring (will they last?)

Toby's begun to pant after exercising outside in the warmth

Wild Wilderness Drive-thru Safari

On Friday after all of the painting was complete Stephanie and I took the 10 minute drive to our local safari. Who would have thought such a place would exist in Gentry, Arkansas, population around 2000? Carrie first gave me the heads up about this place when she saw it on TV in an episode of TLC's "17 Kids and Counting" awhile ago. Then I happened to run across the signs for it when I took a wrong turn trying to get home from the post office one day. The variety of animals they had was quite impressive!

First we went to the barns filled with monkeys, parrots, parakeets, and other animals not quite ready for the cold air. There were gibbons, siamangs, baboons, capuchins, and on and on. This lemur runs free we're told. We all kept asking if anyone knew he was out - maybe they should put up a sign! His buddies are stuck in a cage right behind him.

I wouldn't want to come across this African porcupine in the wild - look at those quills. This guy has much longer and thicker ones than the American varieties I've seen. When these guys had them extended they were probably 1.5-2 ft long!

Next we went to the petting zoo and fed the goats. Then on to the kangaroo pen.

This was my favorite part of the whole place. They were so friendly and seemed to like having their heads petted. They are SO soft - just like a bunny!

How can this be comfortable - both for the joey and for the mamma. Every once in awhile she would poke him with her paw to tell him to move.

Next we went through the 10 mile drive-thru. It was divided into sections with lots of different animals - some in cages, some loose. There were the usual lions, tigers, bears, wolves, bobcats, and cougars (all in cages of course), then loose were emus, ostrich, all kinds of longhorn and foreign cattle, wildebeasts, camels, zebra, and on and on. Everybody had an itch including this camel who decided to use the rear view mirror to scratch it. This bison below had one too and used his feeding trough. You can't tell but this guy is huge - his hump almost came to the top of my car. Apparently this place started partially because they wanted to breed bison and other free range stock with domestic cattle.

Yak and baby

The tigers loved these towers

This white rhino was MASSIVE. He was as tall and wider than the human doorway in this building. You can see how tall he is compared to the height of the roof! The rhino we saw in Africa had nothing on this guy!