Down By the River... Almost

Well my in-laws, (otherwise known as Judge and Baba to my nephews and now us) spent the weekend with us. We started dreaming up plans for them to come to Fayetteville for their anniversary back in April. They have been married for 40 years this year and wanted to spend it with us... how sweet! Baba decided she wanted to do something "outdoorsy" and thought that floating would be fun. We decided that the Buffalo would be too slow and hot in July and hoped to float the Elk River in Southwest Missouri instead. It's only about an hour or so drive North of Fayetteville. They were going to stay in a nice hotel in Rogers and we would float on Saturday... nice dinner Sat night followed by a card game... church Sunday... the works! Weelllll..... then we started getting reports about how the Elk River was frequented by we will say, "shirtless hillbillies." Evidently at one point on the river ladies have the opportunity to gain Mardi Gras beads and this act is done so often. After discussing with my husband, then he with his mother, we all decided that seeing some toothless female removing her swimsuit for a $.10 strand of beads was not our idea of a good time. That topped with an unexpected funeral that the MIL and FIL needed to attend meant...

 Dinner at Mermaids, then coffee drinks at Arsaga's with the in-laws.

Then a private tour of Adam's company, Acumen Brands. The in-laws hadn't seen the building since it had been completed. Here are Adam and I on the giant bean bags in the break room. Its seriously one of the neatest companies I've ever heard of. They have an equally as neat new office space!

Then... I had this genius idea to check out our local Botanical Garden. We have never been before and I kept hearing about the "Firefly Festival" going on so we headed on over there on Friday night. It was kind of neat to walk around and see different kinds of flowers and plants and just spend time together... the boys were NOT impressed.

 You sweated just by breathing and there were a million people... mostly kids.  Supposedly there was a great show on the stage at dusk so we encouraged them to be patient until then (we had just paid $30+ to get in!) So we waited....and waited.... and sweated... and waited for the show to start. When it did we expected a million fireflies to be released or something spectacular. Instead.... there was a puppet show. One of those shadow puppet shows.... the boys were done. We left and laughed all the way to the car about how dorky it was.  We WERE spending time together and that is what was important!

On Sunday we went to church, then had brunch at Greenhouse Grill, one of our new fav restaurants in town. We then did a little shopping. I was SO exhausted from a week of traveling and little sleep so I went home and crashed after that. We had such a great weekend! No matter what we do... we always have a good time with our parents when they come to town!

J&B- I'm sorry it wasnt the weekend we had originally planned, but we really enjoyed seeing you guys! We were thrilled that you decided to celebrate your anniversary with us. We love you!

Happy 4th Y'all!

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. On Friday night, we met up with 3 other couples at a place in Fayetteville called Greenhouse Grill. It is a restaurant that serves only organic food. They have the regular stuff like burgers, pasta, etc... but I decided to be adventurous and get Veggie Crepes. They.were.amazing!  I'm not sure that they were low in calories, but they were definitely made with home grown vegetables and whole wheats.

After dinner, we went to the Turpin home to play cards. The 8 of us played a card game called "The Great Dalmuti." It was a blast! We had a great time visiting and eating Kirsti's delicious dessert, Calypso Pie. (She refuses to share this age old family recipe! Darn it!)

To celebrate America's birthday, we headed to Arkadelphia, AR on Saturday to meet my family at Lake DeGray.  I grew up going to Lake DeGray every weekend. My parents had a ski boat and many Saturday's were spent there enjoying it. They sold it a few years ago when my brother and I became involved in so many activities (mainly his baseball) that kept us too busy on the weekends in the summertime to go to the lake. SO- when dad mentioned renting a boat for the day, I got very excited!

 Brother Lee, Gus, and Husband on Dad's fishing boat. Gus had a BLAST! It was his first time ever on a boat!

 Baby Kate and Lee driving the big boat

 Husband and I

 Me and Gus. He LOVED the lake!

Kate and Uncle Ted. 

My dad's whole family came to the lake on Saturday.  We ate lunch at the lake and then dinner at one of my all time favs... The Fish Net! Sadly, I didn't get a picture of our whole crew, but I did get one of my Meme with all of her children! We had such a good time and I'm hoping we will make the lake on July 4th weekend a tradition!

On Sunday, we went to church with our parents, ate lunch with Adam's parents, then headed back to Fayetteville. We wanted to make the firework show at our sister church, Cross Church Pinnacle Hills. I am SO glad we made it back in time... the firework show was one of the best I have ever seen! We met up with the Francis family to enjoy the show.

 Josh, Jen, Brody, Jillian Kate, Adam, and I. We love their family!

 Brobee (Brodie) loves Adam. I think this was right after he gave Adam an "elmo drop."

On Monday I slept in while Adam met his BFF Brad for golf. I then met them and Brad's wife Mandy for lunch at Chic Fil A before Adam and I headed to the mall for some shopping. We are redoing our bedroom and found a new bedspread! I had to order it but it should be in this week... pictures to come!  Monday night we met up with the the Green's and the Owen's and had dinner at Fayetteville CC. We then sat on the driving range to watch their annual fireworks show. We had a great time. I told Adam several times this weekend that I wish I could just freeze time. There were so many great moments this weekend with our friends and with our family.... I feel so blessed.

Those blessings of friends and family coupled with the fact that I live in the greatest nation in the world- one where I am free to worship and praise my Lord without persecution are my greatest joys. Happy Birthday America- I enjoyed your weekend of birthday festivities!

Where Did June Go?

I have no idea where the month of June went! It's like it was May... then it was the 4th of July!  I went back through my Outlook calendar (my whole life is documented there!) and wanted to remember a few things about June...

1. I started a new job June 1st which consumed much of my time this month. I still work for the same company, Advanced Tissue, as an Account Representative.  For the past 2.5 years, I have called solely on hospitals and outpatient clinics. As of June 1 I now also call on nursing homes.  Its been a big change, but a good one. I will no longer be jet-setting to Florida once a quarter, now my territory is close to home. I will miss working on the beach, but glad to not spend as many nights away from home. I really enjoy my job.  It's challenging, but a lot of fun (most of the time.) Its very fast paced, but I enjoy it- especially the flexibility of it.

One weekend in June I spent in Dallas for training.  I got to meet up with one of my BFF's Kori.  Kori and I met when we were 11 or 12.  I used to always introduce Kori as "my home schooled friend."  We met at church and were great friends growing up.  Kori and her husband moved to Dallas after they married 3 years ago and we don't see each other near enough.  Kori picked me up from the airport and we grabbed a late lunch before she took my to my hotel. Sadly, I did not get a picture of us that day, but here is a picture of us together at our BFF Megan's wedding. She is the Indian colored girl in the middle. I am the starkly white Caucasian to the left of her. We ate at La Madeline, which was completely delicious!

2. We spent time with friends cooking out. I love summertime (the heat doesn't really bother me) and being with good friends. We are blessed with GREAT friends and one night got together at Ryan and Sarah's.

 The boys.

 This is my new friend Kelly. She is Sarah's friend, but I'm taking her.

 This cute little couple is a product of Sarah and I. We helped them meet 1 year ago and they are some serious love birds today.

 We had a pretty yummy spread going. We like food.

Ally made this delicious fruit tart for desert. It went perfect with our homemade ice cream!

3. Father's Day. We went home to Benton for Father's Day to spend time with our dads. Adam spent the day with his dad on the golf course and my dad spent the day together just piddling around town. We love our dads very much and are thankful that we live close to drive home for the weekend.

4. We celebrated MIL's birthday. Known as "Baba" to my nephews, we celebrated her birthday with dinner at a new favorite restaurant in Little Rock, Bravo.  We love you, Baba!

Other than that, Adam and just tried to spend as much time together as possible.  While I'm not going across the country, my new job does involve a few nights overnight away from home per month.
We are loving the stage of life that we are in that keeps us very much on the move. Hopefully I will be able to continue to document bits of our life along the way!



Memorial Day Weekend!

We had such a fun Memorial Day weekend!  Recently, one of my good friends from college moved to Fayetteville for her Pharmacy School rotation.  Friday, 2 of our other friends/sorority sisters came to stay with her in Fayetteville and we all went out for dinner. It was such a good time and we since we haven't all been together in a while, we had a great time catching up.

 Lindsey, Jessica, Becca, and I

 We had Sushi, talked for hours, then....

 got hotdogs at a roadside stand at 1 am!  The perfect end to a great night!

On Saturday, husband and I painted my home office. I got a new desk a few weeks ago and Ryan and Sarah came over Saturday night to help us assemble it. More pictures to come of the office redo!

We also layed by the pool, played golf, and went to a cookout on Monday with some other young couples from our church. It was seriously a perfect weekend! To top it off, we finally bought a new mattress and it was delivered on Monday. We got a great night's sleep after such a long, wonderful weekend!

The Graduate

My wonderful husband, Adam Fite, graduated on May 14th, 2011 with a Master's Degree in Information Systems from the Sam Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

I. am. the. proudest. wife. ever.

 Adam's MawMaw came to celebrate with us!

 

 Adam was the 12th from the end to graduate... out of over 700 people. It was a looooong commencement service!!

 We had everyone to our house for dinner. We catered The Flying Burrito, Adam's favorite!

 Our sweet friend Ally made these amazing cookies!  They tasted as good as they looked!

 So cute!

 The dessert table.

Our friends who we love so much came to celebrate with us.  We planned to have dinner outside, but it was really cold and wet so we had a garage party instead. c:

 Lanny, Mom, and dad

 Amber and Chad.

 Dally. Otherwise known as Dalton and Ally.

 The Franc-i family and The Greens

 My Uncle Jim and Aunt Wendy came all the way from Phoenix to watch Adam graduate!

 Sherri, MawMaw, Aunt Judy

 Amber and I

 Table decor.

 My baby brother!

 The girls! Ally, Sarah, Jennifer, me, Amber

Boys. Dalt, Chad, Josh, Adam, Ryan

Adam,  I am so proud of you! The last year and a half flew by... and you never complained about studying or going to class.  I am so glad that God led you to go back to school. If He hadn't, we might never have ended up in Fayetteville and our life would be so different.  I am so proud of you and can't wait to see what God has in store for us next! 

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of prayer. Our church, Cross Church held a luncheon at our Fayetteville campus for anyone in the community who wanted to come together to pray- specifically for our National and State leaders. We also prayed that the churches in America would be broken and that we would rise up and not be conformed to the world, but instead would spread the Light of the World.

The verse that sticks out to me today is:

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
II Chronicles 7:14

I am so glad that I am a part of a church that preaches the gospel and doesn't argue on political stance. One thing we do believe in is that it doesn't matter who is in the White House (God will control that.) But what does matter is who is filling our church houses. It is our responsibility to step up and lead our nation towards God. We must not conform to the world, we must do everything to tell others about Christ and to share His love!

This past Sunday, May 1, Osama Bin Laden was founded and killed. Many emotions still come over me and did that night as my husband and I watched the news together on the couch holding hands. I think I will always remember that night, just as I remember being in my 10th grade science class when the twin towers were destroyed on September 11, 2001.  As far as being happy about his death... I don't know. I can't seem to rejoice about a man who did not know the same loving God that I know and is not experiencing his presence in Heaven. I am, however, giving God glory and praise for the justice that He ultimately gives. I am thankful for the peace that so many likely have now that this person can no longer harm them. Realistically, I also know that this world is still the home of the Prince of Darkness and until Christ comes back or calls us home, we will never truly escape evil.  Until then, may we spread the love of Christ so that all may hear and have the opportunity to know His love.