More busy October!

Dereck and I haven't calmed down much since the last posting. One of Dereck's close friends from the academy come to visit since he was moving across country and we were on the way. I was glad to meet him finally! He was unable to come to our wedding and I still hadn't met one of Dereck's close friends, so it was a fun surprise. We had a good time showing him the nightlife in downtown Little Rock and I know Dereck had a great time catching up with him.
This past weekend we helped our good friends Josh and Leslie move out of their apartment and sent Leslie on her way to North Carolina to move into their new house while Josh finishes up training here. Leslie and I have become good friends during our time here in Little Rock so it was sad to see her go! Marty also likes to play with their husky, Nanook, so we had to have one last goodbye dinner and doggy play session.

Dereck and I also got to go out to celebrate the engagement of our friends CJ and Emmalee while Emmalee was visiting Little Rock. We were very happy for them and I am happy to have been introduced to them both while here in Little Rock. Its been fun making new friends and thanks to email, facebook, and blogs its so easy to stay in contact with everybody nowadays. I hope the friendships I made here will continue to grow as we all go our seperate directions!

Yesterday was another BEAUTIFUL day here in Arkansas (we only have beautiful days on the weekend it seems...which is not good for Dereck finishing up his flights!). We decided to take advantage of the weather and head to Crater of Diamonds State Park to try our luck at diamond hunting! This is the only diamond field that is open to the public, and everybody is allowed to keep whatever they find. People have found diamonds that are worth thousands! Unfortunately all Dereck and I found were some neat stones of Jasper, Agate, and Calcite. It was still a lot of fun though. Its been a long time since I got to sit down and play in the dirt, and it was fun to have Marty there as well. He had fun sniffing around, testing out what rocks are yummy to eat (turns out none of them... haha), and just being outdoors.

This coming week I hope to get started on some more sewing projects. I finished two more projects but since I hope to give them as gifts I am not posting them here so they stay a surprise! I will say that I attempted some quilting and it turned out really well. I enjoyed it a lot! I took advantage of a huge fabric sale this weekend and stocked up on a lot of supplies to make more gifts for the upcoming holiday season.

Till Next time!

Pandas, Polar bears, and Racing pigs!

Dereck and I had a fun few days since he had a long weekend for Columbus day. We took off on Saturday morning to spend two days in Memphis. After a 2 hour drive, which seemed longer since we were passing so many semi-trucks (I've never seen so many trucks in such a small stretch of hiway!), we finally got to our first stop, The Memphis Zoo. The Zoo was in a really neat historic neighborhood so it was a fun drive to find it! It was a great zoo, lots of animals and it was really big. We went to the "northern experience" exhibit first to see the polar bears and the sea lion show. We then got to go to the new "Teton trek" exhibit that just opened up this month. It was so beautiful, if I was a grizzly bear I'd love to live there! After that we moved onto China where we got to see giant pandas. They were probably the first animals we saw that were passed out asleep! It was dissapointing not to see them awake but they were still cute. After seeing more animals we realized it was already 4:30 and we had spent 4 hours at the zoo and needed to get checked into the hotel.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Select in downtown Memphis. It was an old hotel but very updated. We really enjoyed our room, which had a view of the street and the historic Peobody Hotel that was across the street. I liked seeing all the horse drawn carraiges lined up! One even looked like Cinderella's. After checking in and getting ready for dinner at the hotel, we went to Texas de Brazil which is a Brazillian steakhouse. It was so amazing! We got an unlimited amount of premium meat served hot off skewers that are brought right to our table. I don't think I ever ate so much sirloin and filet minon in my life. We were so full but it was one of the best dinners I've ever had! After dinner we went to Beale Street, which is the popular night life neighborhood in downtown Memphis. The street was blocked off for a few city blocks so you could walk right in the street and go from bar to bar to store to bar and see what they had to offer. It was a cool night so almost all the bars had open windows/doors so you didn't have to go in to hear what type of music they had playing. We stopped in one for a drink and to listen to the music, but after a day of walking at the zoo and around Beale St we were tired to we decided to head back to the hotel to get rested for the next day of site seeing.

 

Sunday morning we woke up and were planning to go to Sun Studios to see where Elvis, Johnny Cash, and others have recorded, then go eat some local Memphis BBQ for lunch, check out the National Civil Rights Museum, which is in the hotel where MLK Jr got shot, then finish the day off by seeing Graceland before going back to Little Rock. However, our day got a bit shaken up when our friends called us and told us our dog Marty had gotten sick that morning. Considering his recent health scares this summer we thought it best to come home to make sure that our friends weren't stuck possibly taking him to the doggy ER while we were out having a good time. On our way out of town we stopped quickly at the Peabody across the street to watch the famous Peabody ducks do their morning march into the lobby fountain. It was crazy how many people came to see these ducks! After the ducks, we drove back to Little Rock. Luckily Marty turned out to be okay, and no vet visit was neccesary, but unfortunately we didn't get to finish our Memphis trip. Hopefully we will find the time to go back for a day-trip to finish up our tours.

On Monday we decided to go to the Arkansas State Fair since Dereck had the day off. We had low expectations, since we are used to the Minnesota stair fair, which is constantly rated as one of the top in the country. Those low expectations were met! Though it was a fun day full of corn dogs and people watching, we missed seeing all the exhibits that they would've had at the MN fair and had to settle with one exhibit about farming, and a few goats to see. No more animals where even in the barns,which was a bit of a dissapointment. The highlight of the day were the pig races though.We had a great time cheering for our pigs, who had names like "Hamma Montanna" and "Jeff Pigworthy" and stuff. I even won $2 while betting between Dereck and our friend Russ. We also really enjoyed the petting zoo where I got to feed a baby camel, some goats, and even an antelope. Another neat show was the Tigers of India show which demonstrated some neat Tiger training as well as showed their natural hunting movements. You could tell the tigers were well taken care of so it was a fun to watch.

Missing Minnesota...

After watching last night's exciting win in the NFL against the Packers, and currently watching a top of the 9th, tied at 4-4 game with the Twins and the Tigers, I am officially a bit homesick! I want to see everybody walking around with there jerseys and hats and see the state pride at how well our teams are doing. It was strange to be cheering for Brett Farve as a Viking, but considering how we are doing this season so far, I think I might be able to get used to it! :-) And I'm hoping the Twins can pull this one out too, then we'll have some great playoff games to watch I'm sure. Hopefully when Dereck and I are home in December we'll have a sunday watching football with the family. My mom booked her ticket to come visit me in Corpus while Dereck is away at survival training, so I think that added to my homesickness. I miss spending time with her and I'm so excited for her to visit me in about 6 weeks!

Dereck has been attempting to fly this week, but has been canceled twice becuase of the rainy weather. We had our softball game this evening be canceled as well due to the wet fields. September was a wet month here in Arkansas so hopefully October starts to dry up soon so Dereck can get his flights in and I can start enjoying the cooler temps. Tomorrow's forecast is sunny and a high of 69 degrees so hopefully the weathermen are correct.

Other than some lazy days not much else has been going on. I'm attempting to make a few more gifts and have enjoyed working with fleece so far, as I'm working on a sweatshirt. It could come in handy if the temps keep dropping into the low 60s. My friend Leslie's birthday was today so I made her a cake, which turned out pretty well.

Still 4-4 and the top of the 9th (Twins fielding, 1 out...) so I'm gonna get back to watching the game!

Welcoming fall!

So its offically October and its so great to be into fall weather again! Tanktops and shorts are being worn less frequently and the jeans and hoodies are starting to come out. I love being able to have the windows open in the apartment to let that fresh brisk air inside. I wonder if we'll be around here long enough to see the leaves start to change color on the big tree outside our living room. Dereck seems to think that we will, since though he's had three or four flights now, and only 3 of the 9 exersizes he needs to complete in training actually have been completed.. I hope he can get 2 exersizes done today then we'll be half way done with them and have a better chance of getting out of Arkansas when our lease is up. Otherwise it could be a bit of a pain, but I guess we'll just have to see.

The cooler weather is making me want to go pick up some fall colored fabric and even some fleece! I'd love to learn how to make a fleece pullover eventually, even if I just start with some scarves or something to get used to working with the fabric. The craft store near my place is having a pattern sale so it might be a good time to try out working with patterns. I'll keep you posted on how that goes!