My Birthday and the Zoo

My birthday, was between semester break, so I took the day off work, and we went to the zoo. Unfortunately, there weren't many animals, and we had to walk around a lot just to find them. It was a little disappointing, but it was still fun.

Daniel is standing with Chief Seattle. Not sure what he is doing in Memphis.

We made home-made pizza for dinner, and Daniel made me a chocolate cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting.

It was a pretty awesome day, and I am so thankful to Daniel for making it special.

Memphis Flooding

The last time Memphis flooded like this was in 1937. We took a drive down to take a look, and it's just unbelievable. You look at it, and it's almost as if you are watching TV, because it's hard to believe that it's real.

We live 20 miles east of the Mississippi river, and so were not affected by the flood. I have a co-worker though who lives right there, and the water came within 10 yards of her apartment. I feel terrible for those who lost all there belongings in the flood. I don't know what I would do if that were me.

You're supposed to be able to walk to that.

6 years - oh my!

I can't believe it has already been 6 years. Time flies when you're having fun.

Daniel and I celebrated our anniversary by taking a couples cooking class at the Viking Cooking School. Each night they have a different theme, and we went on Southern Cooking night. It was so much fun.

We made southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, collared greens, skillet fried corn bread and banana pudding. My favorites would have to be the banana pudding, gravy and collared greens. It was heaven on a plate. The corn bread was my least favorite. It was really dry and had a weird taste. Overall, we had a blast. I have always wanted to do this, and I'm sure glad I did.

Nashville Country Music Half Marathon

I did it, and I'm still alive.

It was a lot harder than I expected. More hills than I trained for. I walked more than planned. Overall, I had a blast. Sure I thought it would never end, and cried a few times along the way, and couldn't walk when it was over, but I would do it again in a heart beat. It feels good to accomplish something that I worked hard for.

Daniel's Birthday

Today Daniel celebrated his 29th birthday. It's the week before finals, so unfortunately we didn't have too much fun. We had chicken taco's for dinner and German chocolate cake with vanilla ice-cream.

It's Spider Season

The thing I hate the most about living in the south, are the icky bugs and spiders. There is just no avoiding them, and I hate it. This little guy was outside out front door. The keys are for size comparison, just encase you were wondering.

Training at Shelby Farms

I decided to run a half marathon. I have been training since January, and my race is April 30th. It's the Nashville Country Music 1/2 marathon. When Daniel's dad came down in December to run the St Jude Marathon, I thought to myself 'I could probably do that'. But more than that, I wanted to accomplish something. Not being able to have children makes me feel like a failure sometimes, and I wanted to do something to say to myself that I could accomplish something. So this is what I chose.

It hasn't all been fun. I basically started from scratch. I should have given myself more time to train, but my goal is to finish in the given time (4 hours), not to win.

Shelby Farms is where I love to run. They have several different trails, but I just discovered this new one. It starts in the farms, and leaves the grounds. It is an old railroad that they turned into a path. It is 7.5 miles out, so to the end and back is 15 miles. But of course you don't have to go to the end. The path is always busy with runners, bikers, roller-skaters, and people out for a walk.

The weird part is, is that it goes past the prison. It's a very nice looking prison, but it's still a little weird. Daniel comes with me and rides his bike while I run/walk.

It was a hot day, as you can tell by the buffalo chilaxing in the water.

Kebabs

We are always trying to think of new foods to eat, and exploring new recipes. This weekend, we decided to make kebabs. They were absolutely delish!!

We made beef skewers, and our veggies skewers had mushrooms, green and yellow bell pepper, zucchini, red onion, and pineapple. Definitely a keeper!

Camping and Stuff

Daniel and I try going on a camping trip at least once a year. Last year we went during the summer, and it was awful. So this year we decided to go early before it got so hot. We went to the Chickasaw State Park Campgrounds.

We made popcorn over the stove. It was our first time, and it was pretty exciting.

Daniel spent most of the second night playing with the fire.

And we found this little guy! (above)

There is a small town about 10 miles from the camp site, and so we decided to take a little drive to see what was there. We stopped at a grocery store to get something to drink, but realized that Daniel had left his wallet at the campsite. So we turned around to go back. Half way there we heard a weird noise, and stopped to see what it was.

It was 5 miles to the campsite, and 5 miles back to the town. We realized that not only did we not have money on us, but we also didn't have a spare tire, and we were in the middle of the country.

We were pretty embarrassed. Daniel called our insurance company to see what our options were, and they told us that a tow truck could pick us up, and insurance would cover. So, we waited for the tow truck, which took us 15 miles to the nearest tire place so we could purchase a new tire. We had to convince the tire place to let us drive back to the camp ground to get our wallets and then come back to pay.

Thankfully they did, and after driving back and forth, and 4 hours later (from when we first left camp), we were back at camp with a new tire, and a spare in the trunk. So our weekend was full of adventure.

Snow Day

It always amazes me how much I miss the snow. In Rexburg, there is snow on the ground 6-8 months of the year. Here, it snows 2-3 times, and less then 2 inches, so it melts pretty fast. I miss the smell of cold, the crunch of snow under your feet. I can't wait to move back north.

The nice thing about snow in Memphis, is that people don't know how to handle it. Even if there is only 1/2 inch on the ground, they shut down the schools (and my work usually copies). Love it!

New Years

Every year, I make a New Years resolution that I end up forgetting about, or that I just stop a month later. So this year I have been thinking really hard about a goal that I can actually keep, and that makes sense. 2010 was a really difficult year for us, for many reasons. With Daniel's school (studying late), my job (long hours), infertility (just not happening), it was a struggle. With that in mind, I came up with this for my new years resolution.

Be happy, and have fun!

It might sound silly, but sometimes I forget. So this year, I am planning on being happy, and having fun. To take my lemons, and make some awesome lemonade.

Christmas

Christmas was just the two of us this year. It's hard not being around family for the holidays, but we knew this was how it was going to be, living in Memphis.

When me boss heard that we were going to be alone for Christmas, he invited us to be with his family Christmas Eve. He is the youngest of 12 kids, so it was a little overwhelming to say the least. We ate spaghetti and played Dirty Santa. It was a little weird, but we had a lot of fun, and were so grateful that he thought of us this season. It was nice to be around people.

Christmas Morning! I'm still like a little kid. I jump on Daniel, begging him to wake up so we can open presents.

Both of our families have the tradition of making pizza Christmas Eve. Why drop a perfectly good tradition? But since we were with my bosses family Christmas Eve, we decided to make it Christmas Day instead.

I never would have guessed that we would have snow on Christmas - in Tennessee. It started flurrying Christmas afternoon, and by the next day, we had about 1/2 an inch. Not very much, but still nice to have a little snow on Christmas.

Family Visit

Daniel's parents came to visit this past weekend. It was really exciting because we haven't had anyone visit us since we live so far away from everyone. It was really nice to be with family for a few days.
We went to the Peabody Hotel to watch the duck walk. Everyday at 11am the ducks come down the elevator from their duck suite to the lobby floor. They are lead by the Duckmaster to the fountain in the lobby, where they stay all day until 5pm, when they march back up again. It has been a tradition since 1940. I have never been in a hotel so fancy. It was a lot of fun.

We went to the Civil Rights Museum. It was built inside of the hotel where Martin Luther King Jr was killed. On the outside it still looks like the hotel, but the inside is completely changed to be a museum. It was really interesting. A wreath now hangs in the spot where Rev King was shot.

While we were there, we watched a little 25 min video about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In the video, Rev Samuel 'Billy' Kyles spoke a lot about the events leading up to and after the shooting. He was there in the hotel with Rev King right before, and near his side when he was shot. It was nice to hear from someone who was actually there, and not just about what happened. When we were leaving the museum we saw a little crowd of about 8-10 people. When we went closer, we saw Rev Billy Kyles talking to a group of people. It was weird, because it almost didn't seem real that he was there, since we had just watched him in a video. We got to hear him speak, and I sneaked a quick picture of him. (camera's are not allowed in the museum)

Daniel's Dad ran the St Jude Marathon (the full marathon). He is trying to run a marathon in every state. We were there when he ran the Dam to Dam Marathon on Rexburg, so it was nice to see him run again. It's inspirational to sit near the finish line and watch the runners as they approach the line (we were about 500 yards away). Some shout with joy, some extremely focused, and others just start crying when they realize they are about to finish.

I love being around family, and wish that we didn't live so far away. More reason to be excited for Daniel to finish school.

Chair Makeover

Our dinning room table was past down to us when we got married. It was perfect, because who knows how long it would have been for us to buy something ourselves. But over the many years, the chairs have started to look a little sad. They lost their color, and were nicely stained. I have been wanting to recover them for a while. This past Thanksgiving break I finally had the chance.

BEFORE

AFTER

TA-DAH!!