a BIG update!

So, I am going to warn you this post is REALLY long. We have a crazy couple of weeks and have been extremely stressed about some exciting/scary decisions, but we have some fun news to share. Thank y'all who have been praying for us, we really appreciate it!

So here is the BIG news....

WE ARE MOVING TO TULSA!!

Crazy, I know... and there's more... We are moving this summer!!

It has been a CRAZY few weeks, and even though we haven't figured out everything yet, we are headed to t-town by the end of the summer. I literally can not believe we are doing this, and I have been a ball of emotions this past week ha! I am super excited, but also I have truly come to love Bentonville and will always call it my home. It is the most special place in the world to Mitch and I. It is where we started our lives together and enjoyed our first 2 years of marriage! I always had the fear when we moved here it would feel like "Mitch's town" and I was just kind of thrown into it. I could not have been more wrong. It took me a few months, but I have never felt more welcomed into a town. Mitch and I were talking the other day that when we come back to visit I think it is going to feel weird, because we aren't going to feel like "visitors". We are going on our 3rd year of living here and even though we will be living in Tulsa, I have no doubt any time we come back to b'ville, it will be just the same. There are many pros to being in Tulsa, and I know looking at our long term goals it is whats best for us right now. We have been here for 2 years and so we (I guess mainly me since I was new here) have come to find the ins and outs of this town that we never would have been able to enjoy by just visiting here. I had been coming back to Bentonville since our first couple months of freshman year of college and thought I knew the town then. You just learn so much about a place when you live there.  And it makes me so excited that when we come back to visit, it will not be just to come say hi to family and leave, but that we have so much invested in this town and spent such a special time of our lives here, we will be able to still go and enjoy and do the things we love to do here. I can honestly see us coming back here a lot. We are going to love living in Tulsa and we are excited for the new experiences, but I think in both of our hearts we will always consider Bentonville our home.

So y'all are probably wondering why we are doing this? Well... I will try and keep this as short as possible but I highly doubt that will happen :)
Most of you that know me, know that I have always wanted to be a teacher. I remember my junior year of college meeting with my advisor and getting ready to switch my major to early childhood education. I got scared, knew it was going to be a lot of work and that meant being in college for another year to year and a half. I knew Mitch and I were planning on getting engaged and all my friends would be graduating that next year and I wanted to be a part of that, so I stuck with my major. And it wasn't that I didn't like it or enjoy it my major, and I still do(which made thigns even harder) but I have just always thought of myself as a teacher.

So over the past year, the thought of going to get my teaching certificate has been in the back of my mind. It was one of those things where I knew I wanted it, but it was going to take a lot of work and sacrifice from us, and I am happy with my job, so I kept trying to get the thought out of my mind. Well it never went away. I seriously started talking to Mitch about it about 6 months ago and we just talked and talked and I never did anything about it. Well over the past month, I have been praying about it and the desire to do it has never been so strong. So we have been really looking into and I decided I was going to do it. I am so excited and can't wait to get the process started.

Well, last week I thought I had "my plan" all figured out! I first looked into getting my teachers certificate in AR, and long story short is the the most complicated process ever. I met with a lady at the U of A, that helps people in my same position, where you don't have a degree in education but want to get your license to teach. Her words were that she never recommends getting it in AR unless you just have to. She said she turns people away everyday becasue the process is just crazy and going through another state is a lot easier. So after I found out all that it entailed and that it was going to take me at the least 3 years, I thought to look at OK. I knew I was going to want to get my certificate in OK eventually, because by the time I wanted to use it Mitch would be done with school and we would be living in Tulsa. So I called the OK State Board of Education, they told me I had to do three things and I would be good to go! I explained to them our situation and how we are living in AR right now, may move in a year or two for school and then will eventually be back in OK. She said that was completely fine and I could do all my requirements in AR, I just have to come to OK to take the tests. In order to become a early childhood teacher in OK, I have to spend one school year in a school as a teachers aide, take the 3 standardized tests (OGET, OSAT, & OPTE) and take 3 college classes (online or on campus) in Education. It doesn't matter what education classes, I just get to pick the three I think will be most beneficial for me. So my plan was to start in August as a teachers aide, be studying and take the three test by the time my teachers aide is done in May, and then enroll in the online summer courses and be done by the end of Summer 2013. That was a perfect timeline for me and for Mitch. He takes his GRE in July, starts applying and then will know by May if we are going anywhere or if it will be another year. So I would be done with everything before we even left. It seemed like it was going to work out perfect.

Well I was wrong. I had to call the board back to ask one more question (thank goodness) and found out some more information. The lady informed me they have been trying to pass this bill for several years where you must do your year in the school (teachers aide) in the state which you want your license. That means I would have to start in August this fall in OK in order to do what I wanted (which at that point I didn't even think was an option). She also told me as of now I could do it in AR, but if the bill passes this year, all the work I've done so far will not count (even for a teachers certificate in AR) and I will have to start over. Well I can't even imagine how frustrating that would be. She said I could go for it if I wanted, it would just be very risky.

So after I got that piece of info, I talked with Mitch and we were trying to figure out our options. I knew we had three options, 1-for me to not do it all  2- do it in AR and risk nothing counting and putting me behind a whole year 3- going to OK and doing it there.
Once we really started talking about it, we realized there is nothing holding us down to AR. I mean we both LOVE it here and seem to finally be getting settled. It seemed in our eyes we have things "made" and why would we mess those up. Well the more we talked about it, being in AR is only great for our short term goals. We are involved, have a house, love the area, Mitch has a great DAY job and is going on 3 years of working and making connections with this hospital, and I finally have the job I love working at the U of A. But looking at things long term... we would be leaving b'ville anyways when Mitch goes to school, we want to initially end up in Tulsa so Mitch working there and making connections would be good, and I want to be a teacher in OK, so even though I love my job and HATE to leave it, it's not what I want to be doing long term. So looking at it in that perspective, our long term goals are what we need to be focused on, which is hard.

So we decided we would move to Tulsa this summer and PRAY I get a teachers aide job by August!!! Mitch has to get an ICU job in Tulsa as well, but I really don't think he will have an issue. He has already applied for 5 jobs in Tulsa. I think me finding an aide job will be more difficult and it scares me that we could move and he have a job, we have a place to live, but I don't have a job(the only reason we moved here)! Mitch has been reassuring me even if I don't get an aide job, I would either be sitting in AR and not making any progress, or sitting in OK and at least be able to get my name out there by subbing. It is so nice to have such an encouraging husband that is willing to sacrifice in order for me to pursue my dreams.  He told me at the beginning of last week we need to make up our mind. This is not something we can just say, oh well if I get a job we'll go or if the house sells then we will start looking for jobs. We cant depend on one thing to happen before we move foward since I would need to start by August. Because of our time frame, we either say yes to it all and do it or say no we are staying here. When I think about all the risks of us finding jobs, trying to sell our house, finding a place to live in Tulsa it really freaks me out! But when I think about how it will get me one step closer to becoming a teacher I am all on board and Mitch is all for it. When we started talking about the option of moving to Tulsa, I think he was more excited than I was. He loves it there and not to mention we have all of our friends there!!

So as of the middle of last week, we decided to go all in 100% and we are moving to Tulsa. Making a decisions that fast was CRAZY and so not my personality, but I really think it's whats best for us in the long run. The idea of me going to get my teachers certificate wasn't anything new we have been talking about, but the fact I have to do it in OK was what surprised us. I'm sure most people will look at us and think we made this decision way to fast, but really we have been talking about it for a while and moving just happened to be apart of it. It helps having Mitch here to reassure me we are doing the right thing. I know we are going to be stressed here for a little, but it makes me excited to start this new chapter of our lives. I am trying not to worry about everything, I find myself thinking, "what if Mitch doesn't get a job, what if I can't find a job, what if our house doesn't sell"?? And I just have to keep praying and know that God has a plan way bigger than ours and things will happen on his timing, not ours. I think the only way we would end up staying is if Mitch gets zero job leads, I dont hear anything on a job and our house doesn't even have any hope of selling by August, and I think at least one of those will happen. So we would appreciate the prayers as we make this transition.

We are currently applying for jobs, getting our house ready to put on the market this week (hints all the yard work this weekend) and looking for places to live in Tulsa. So if you know of anyone looking for a house in NWA.. ours is completely remodeled. Nothing in it is older than 4 years. We are right by the highway and within walking distance to Memorial Park and Crystal Bridges. We are also super close to so many trails and just a few miles from the square! It is the perfect location and we really hope to sell it soon. We know it will be a process, and most likely with the economy, not sell by the end of the summer. And that is something we are prepared for. We are are also currently looking for a place in Tulsa. We are trying to decide if we should rent or buy and I think we are leaning towads renting. It is just so hard when I see these houese we could rent and they are almost double what we are paying on our morgage and half the size. Its hard to think about paying a monthy rent and not getting anything back in return. With our house now, we are paying a monthly morgage, but when we sell, we are easily going to make more than we bought it for so we will come out ahead. Since our time in Tulsa will be for only a year, I think we will most likely rent. Mitch said if the economy wasn't so bad and he could for sure sell it when we were ready to leave Tulsa, he would buy in a heart beat. It is just the way to go after we have experienced owning a house. But when we go off to school, we cant be paying a morgage on a house we dont live in.

So I obviously didn't do a very good job about keeping this short, but I don't think I could have explained everything without all the details. I keep telling Mitch, why does this happed right we were are getting really involved here and we both finally love our jobs. I think we are just so content with everything it is making it really hard. I know I am going to be thrown into many situation that are going to be out of my comort zone, but I am excited to see how much this experiance is going to grow us. We are really involved and love doing stuff in Fayetteville. We especially love going to all the sporting events, and I get sad when I think that it won't be 20 minutes away anywmore. But Mitch always reminds me, we are only 2 hours away and we can come back and go to games just as easy as if we were in Bentonville. We traveled back from school which was a lot farther away for games. And he also reminds me that it is something that is important to us and a big part of our lives, and we want to keep it hat way, especially since we have been so involved in it these past few years. We both have things we like that the other doesn't, but we have found it is so important to find common interests so both can do something they love while spending time together. We found out quickly golf was one of those things. We had membership at a course and yes, it was a lot of money for us, but it was something we were able to really enjoy together and found it was completly worth it. Attending Arkansas sporting events is another we both love, really any sporting events, but we love our razorbacks! We both don't want to give up something we both enjoy doing and thats the good thing.. we dont have too! We have learned over the past few years to make time and spend the extra money to go and enjoy those things we love to do together.

So thats the story! I hope I answered a lot our your questions and I feel better about stuff when I write. I have been going through mixed emotions lately. Also, thank y'all who have been talking with me and helping me and Mitch with these decisions. I could not have done it with out someone to vent/talk through things with.  I honeslty could not be more excited to be back in Tulsa. I remember when I had my internship in Tulsa my senior year and then lived there for a month before we got married, I was able to see what Tulsa was really like. I know that sounds weird since I "lived" there my whole life, but we lived outisde of Tulsa, and even though we were in the Tulsa area a lot, I never was involved in the fun things Tulsa has to offer. Since I have gotten older, I realized how much I do love Tulsa and I did not want to leave when I graduated and got married. I was excited to start a new chaper in Bentonville, but I wanted to be in Tulsa so bad, because I finally felt like I could really enjoy and appreciate what Tulsa had to offer. Looking back, I wouldn't have traded my time in Bentonville for anything, I think most of y'all know how I feel about b'vill, but once we get back an settled in Tulsa, I know we are going to be very happy.

Well, I can't really say "that's whats going on in a nutshell" ha! You probably know more about it than you wanted to, but it really helps me to get things out and I know many of you have been asking me questions about our move and how we feel about everything, so now you know! Also, if any of you have info about houses, jobs, etc we would really appreciate it! We are really going to miss NWA, but knowing how special it is to us since it is where "we began" and that we can come and enjoy it anytime we want is so refreshing! We can still come and do all our favorite things here and it really helps we have family here!

Thank you for listening to me rant about our lives (if you made it this far down the post) and please be in prayer as we continue to make this transition. It is scary and exciting all at the same time. I really can't describe my emotions and we are just ready for this new adventure!! I am going to be happy living anywhere as long as I have Mitch by my side!

Have a great week! It is Shareholders week so our little town is competely taken over with people from all over! I never seem to get use to this. I love that they come, but it make traffic or going anywhere crazy!!  All the concerts are this week and we use to go to them, but this year they did things different where they "put them up for sale" (they are really free, but they make them avaliable online through ticket master). So they went faster this year. But they are bringing Carrie Underwood back and I saw her last time she was here for Shareholders- so at least it's not someone new, I would love to see Aerosmith tonight though :)

Also, I am going to try and update the look of my blog soon, so if it looks weird and crazy for a few days, thats whats going on!

Pioneer Women Cobbler and Chocolate Chip Cookies

More recipes to share!! These are my two favorite desserts and they are super easy! First up is the Pioneer Woman Blackberry Cobbler, then her famous Chocolate Chip Cookies!! Warning, you will want to make these and then eat them all!!!

I was making a pot roast a couple weeks ago and I wanted to make a dessert to go with it. I don't make dessert every night, especially something like cobbler, but once again, I saw Ree make it that morning on her show and it looked so EASY, I wanted to try it! Cobbler has always been intimidating to me, but when I saw this one, I couldn't believe how simple it looked and not to mention delicious! She has two recipes for different types of cobbler on her website, and she says this one is more like real cobbler. The other one is make with pie crust on bottom and top (which is what always intimidated me about cobbler). She said that one is more like a pie, that people call cobbler. This one is so good, easy and I will defiantly be making it more often! I actually have this recipe memorized.., its that easy ha!! 

This is all you need... how simple is that?? Milk, sugar, self rising flour, butter and blackberries! I bought too many blackberries, so I filled up a few mason jars with the leftovers and snack on them and use them in smoothies!

Mix together your milk, flour and sugar, butter the bottom of the dish, pour it all in and drop in the blackberries! It
really doesn't get much easier than that!! Top it with a little extra sugar and bake it! I forgot to take a picture of the final product.. but you can imagine how amazing it looked... and smelled :)

Next our her chocolate chip cookies. I like chocolate chip cookies, but don't love them. I can make a whole batch and maybe eat one. I just love salty stuff way more than sweets. They have a ingredient i never thought about adding, but it makes the world of difference and I can actually eat a ton of these. I have to teach myself self-discipline when I make these.

This is the key ingredient!! They are made to turn out very flat, they are not suppose to be a big fluffy cookies. Sometimes they even look burnt, but don't worry, they aren't. I have made these multiple times and they are always very soft.

See how flat they are? Don't let that turn you away.. they are the BEST cookies ever!!


Hope y'all enjoyed these recipes! Next time you need a quick, amazing dessert, to some chocolate chip cookies, I highly recommend you try these! You won't be disappointed! Oh and beware- this recipes makes enough for an army!

Here are the links so you can go try these for yourself..

Malted Mik Chocolate Chip Cookies

Blackberry Cobbler

Have a great week!! 

Pioneer Woman Meatloaf and Potatoes!

Well over the past month we have made some yummy recipes so I thought I would share them with y'all. I have always loved the Pioneer Woman. My mom and I would always make her meals when I lived at home. As most of you know, her meals are so good and so simple, but they are definitely not healthy!

I love to cook, anything and everything, and I love even more to watch someone cook something and then try it myself. So I starred watching the pioneer Woman every Saturday morning when we moved here and I always wanted to cook what she did. We soon realized we could not eat like that often, so now every Saturday, I watch it and make what she makes for dinner! I look forward to it all week and LOVE cooking all afternoon!

So here are some of the recipes we have made. I highly recommend you try them, they are all super simple. I love that her meals are not over the top and call for those ingredients we all have never heard of before. Its very basic stuff and most of the time, we have the majority of it already at the house.

First up... Meatloaf and Twice baked potatoes!! We made this a little over month ago and can't wait to make it again!  

She starts out by soaking the bread in milk... best tip ever! 

Put everything in and mix it all up! 

Mixing with your hands is a must :)

Mold it into a loaf, and wrap it in BACON! She always uses a cookie sheet so it doesn't set in all the grease! Next put the sauce on it, back and enjoy!!

Best Meatloaf EVER!

We also made her twice baked potatoes to go with it and they were super easy and delicious. Her recipes always make way to much, so with the potatoes, we baked half and froze the other half. It made a ton and over the past month we we need a quick side dish, we pull two potatoes out of the freezer and stick them in the oven!

First just cover the potatoes in olive oil and back them like normal

Once their done baking, cut them in halves, scoop out the middle and make the mixture and then Scoop it all back in and bake again! 

This is less than half of the recipe! Like I said it makes a ton, but they are perfect to freeze! 

This was defiantly a meal we will be make again very soon. I am not even the biggest meatloaf fan, but this was incredible and Mitch just loved it. I think he talk about it for the next 3 days ha! Here are the links for the full recipes..

Meatloaf

Twice Baked Potatoes

I will do a post later about her blackberry cobbler and chocolate chip cookies I made!

Our Weekend

Our weekend has been absolutely crazy! We have been going non-stop since Friday morning and I am exhausted! We have completely re-landscaped the house, worked in the yard, played golf and cooked some delicious meals! 

To start off, Friday we got up early and I had to run some errands and Mitch started working in the yard. We have been wanting to fix up the yard and plant flowers in the front flower beds since we moved in and we finally got around to it! We spent all day friday in the yard planting (making multiple trips to Lowes) and trimming trees. 

Yes, all three of those carts are ours. 

Not as if that wasn't hard work, but just being in the sun all day wore us out. I forgot to take before pics, but here is what it looked like when we got done.

I know you can't tell much from the pics, but it looks so much better! I love coming home seeing fresh flowers around our house. Its amazing what a little color can do! 

Friday night we went out to our favorite mexican restaurant and then back home to get Bella. We took her up to the square and then to the Crystal Bridges trails. We probably go up to the square 3 times a week. We just love it and all the people that actually go up and walk around it. There is always something going on. They are promoting the new CB hotel and so they put LARGE pink snails all over the square. It actually looks kind of funny, but it seems to be the talk of the town,  and you MUST go get your picture with the snails! Ha! So thats what we did...

Yes, they are even on the roof!

Then we headed down the CB trail to see the new Love statue. I have seen these is different cities and always tell Mitch I want to get my picture by one. I just love them.

Bella wanted her picture with it too :)

After our long day of being outside, yes we got up Saturday and did the same thing again. I got up early and went for a run and then we went to the farmers market. We don't ever miss a saturday morning at the farmers market! We didn't come home with any fruit or veggies, but we did come home with some homemade candies! We tried a sample and fell in love. The had homemade caramel candies, peanut brittle and fudge. Mitch got peanut butter fudge and I got peanut brittle. It was the best I have ever had! 

When we got home, we worked some more in the yard for the rest of the day!! I washed my car and realized we were out of hand soaps, so I ran to Bath and Body to stock up on soap and Mitch told me was going to just barely trim the tree in our front yard while I was gone. Well this is what I saw when I pulled in the driveway...

Yes, half of our tree was gone! But is looks so much better. I didn't realize how bad it was getting until he "trimmed" it all up! 

That night we grilled out pork chops and corn on the cob. It was delicious!! I love this weather where we can grill out and sit outside. It's so pretty! 

Today we went to church and got out around 10:30, so Mitch studied for about 2 hours and then we headed to play golf! We had a tee time for 1:00 and it was really warm out today!

I loved every minute of it, but Mitch likes it a little cooler. We had a great time playing, but it went so slow!! We ended up only playing 9 holes and it took us over 2 and a half hours, which is ridiculous! Here is Mitch waiting for our turn to tee off. This is how the majority of our day went. 

Even though it was hot and slow, we enjoyed taking our mind off things and just playing golf! Mitch is scheduled to work tomorrow, but I am praying he gets called off so we can go play again.

After golf, we made a little trip to the razorback store. We have a friend that is having twins so we picked up some fun razorback things for them and I also got me a few new things for my car! I get a discount at the Razorback stores so we are there often :)

That about sums up our weekend. We literally haven't sat down and just relaxed in the past 3 days. I am hoping tomorrow I will get some "down" time to catch up on my rest before my "big" 2 day work week next week ha :)

Also, we have made some delicious meals over the past month and I have been meaning to share, but always forget when I am blogging. As most of you know I love to cook! I get up every saturday and watch the Pioneer Woman and Trisha Yearwoods cooking shows and I will choose one meal and dessert from them and cook for dinner on Saturday night. We can't eat like them on a daily basis (we would be about 500 lbs), but since I love to cook, Mitch lets me do it saturdays since we usually don't have a lot going on. We have made the Pioneer Woman's meatloaf, twice backed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies (btw these are the best thing you'll ever taste), coffee, mashes potatoes, blackberry cobbler, etc. I will hopefully share these soon, if not go look them up and try them. We have yet to be disappointed with her meals!! 

Hope y'all have enjoyed this long weekend!! Happy Memorial Day! 

Memorial Day!

Happy Early Memorial Day!

I know it is only Thursday, but Happy Memorial Day! I figured I would post now (while I am not doing anything at work ha) because Mitch and I have a very busy weekend. And I'm sure I will not get around to posting. I only have to work a half a day today and I have to run to the dentist and then I am off until next Tuesday! I am so excited and extreamly thankful for this extra long weekend! This is the last time I will have this view for 5 days!! Yay! (yes I know, my desk is messy, I am in the process of fixing that). 

We were planning on having a very slow weekend with nothing to do or nothing planned, but I think that has changed. We have had some things come up and I can't really say much about it yet, but just please be in prayer for us. We have some pretty big decisions to make in a very short amount of time. I will hopefully be able to do a post about it soon, but for now we would appreciate your prayers. Just to clarify, it's nothing bad, but just some important decisions to think about.

Tonight we are going out with Mitch's mom. His dad is on his golf trip in Georgia, so dinner with her will be nice. Once I get home I plan to relax with Bella! We have had a very stressful week and I am so thankful to be off for a few days and just enjoy being in Arkansas.

Last night we watched the AI final and of course I loved the outcome. I have been routing for Philip this whole time! Here is Bella and I watching Idol. As you can tell she wasn't to into it ha! The only thing she watches is basketball. She will sit and watch b-ball for hours!!

I hope y'all have a safe and fun memorial day! 

Little Rock, tennis and the zoo!

We had such a fun time this weekend in Little Rock. I was excited to get away and spend a weekend with Mitch, but I wasn't really sure what to expect about LR. And I was actually really surprised.. it was a lot of fun! I only worked half a day Friday and got to Little Rock around 3:30. I met Mitch at the hotel, we checked in and I waited around for him to get ready for his match so I decided to curl my hair :)

I think I am finally getting the hang of it

We stayed at the Embassy and it was really nice!  Since I work for the university I get a really good rate at hotels, so we got a suite that usually runs $210 a night for only $80!

We got the tennis center about 6:00pm and we went on at 6:30. He played singles earlier in the day, so this match they put him on in doubles. They always have a hard time figuring out where to play him because he is by far the youngest, so he is able to hold up for a singles (in the heat) better than any of the other guys, but he is a very strong doubles player. His first match earlier went 3 sets and it was from 1-3:30 so it was mid day heat! He said it was over 90 degrees, so he was glad to have a doubles match that evening.

He got finished and then we hung around and watched the rest of his team play, so we didn't head out to dinner until about 8pm. We were both exhausted. Mitch had been playing all day in the heat and I was so tired from working all day and then making that drive. So we saw a Pei Wei on our way back to the hotel and we both love it, so we stopped in and ate a quick dinner! When I lived in Tulsa, I bet I ate Pei Wei at least once a week, and we dont have it in NWA, so I was excited!

Mitch always gets the orange chicken, but he tried the spicy chicken this time and he really liked it. I have always gotten the same thing, Chicken Pad Thai! I love it! And it is so much food, I usually can eat on it for two more meals! And of course, we had to start out with lettuce wraps!

We went back to the hotel and watched the Thunder game! Mitch's match wasn't until 2:30 on Saturday, so we slept in had breakfast, this hotel had an amazing cook to roder breakfast, and then went shopping! We first headed to a Sports Authority Outlet, and it was crazy big with so many good deals!

This picture is just of a small portion of the store, but this is what it looked like all over!! They had really nice brands of workout clothes for over half off! If I would have known I would have saved up my money and went on a shopping spree! They also had any kinds of shoes you could imagine. I found a pair of running shoes, just like I have now for $30!! We were in a hurry so we left and said we would run back by tomorrow on our way out get them and of course we forgot! They had so many golf shoes too. I just bought a new pair of golf shoes or I would have def brought a pair. Golf shoes are so expensive and there wasn't a pair here over $50.

After shopping, we went and hit some garage sales! Ha! We have really gotten in to going to garage sales lately. We usually get up saturday mornings and go to the farmers market, then hit the garage sales. We are never looking for anything particular, but we have found some good deals before!
Unfortantly, we did not find anything at any of these garage sales.

We weren't really hungry because we had such a big breakfast, so we decided to just go get some ice cream! There is this place called The Purple Cow and Mitch had been there before, but I had not, and I have heard really good things about it, so we went there. It was like an old fashion soda shop and we sat up at the bar and had ice cream sodas!

I got orange and Mitch got the original Purple Cow. I love orange sherbert, its pretty much the only "ice cream" I eat.

We headed back to the hotel for a quick nap and then headed to the tennis center. He started at 2:30 and this place at zero shade, so needless to say I got pretty burned ha! He had another match that evening at a different tennis center and fortunalty he played on the only shaded court there! I was fried from being out in the sun all day so relaxing in the shade was nice!

After he wsa done, we went back to the hotel, showered and headed out for dinner.

We went to this really fun mexican resaurant and it was delicious! We were going to go expolore the town, but becasue his match started late we didnt even get to the restaurant until about 9:30. So when we were done, we went back to the hotel and caught the last half of the Thunder game!

Sunday, we slept in, had breakfast and got all packed up. We left the hotel around 11:00 and Mitch took me to the Little Rock Zoo!! I love going to the zoo and I have been wanting to go with him forever!! I think he probably got sick of me talking about it over the past year and he finally decided to take me :)

We had a ton of fun (I think Mitch enjoyed it more than I did).  Here are some pictures of our zoo adventure..

There were so many of these fish everywhere!

He was posing for me :)

I, of course, had to get a pic with the HOG!

Lunch time

Sorry for all the pics! We had a blast!

After the zoo, we headed back home. We stoped about half way in Clarksville and had lunch with Mitch's grandparets. They are working on building a church there, so it was nice to see them again! When we got home we crashed!! We were so tired (and so was Bella)! We slept until 7:30 and then got up and made dinner, and went back to bed! Ha!





That was our fun little get-a-way to Little Rock! Hope y'all had a good weekend!