Driving Marathon

This weekend, David was gone for about 36 hours, and he was driving for 20 of it. Wow. David's grandmother's 90th birthday was this weekend and he could leave at noon on Friday (I couldn't), so he headed on down. The party was in Ruston, LA...which is a full 10 hours from Kansas City. He drove 8 of the hours Friday and stayed with his other grandmother in Arkadelphia, AR, and then got up Saturday morning and drove on to Ruston for the party. At 1:30 he left Ruston and drove all the way back to Kansas City, arriving home at about 11:30 p.m. It was a lot for him to do, but it was worth it for him to get to be there.

David being gone meant that I was by myself Friday and Saturday. What did I do with myself you ask? Well, on Friday night, Deuce, Sooie and I watched "The Dog Wisperer" and ate some sushi...yum! Friday night is also when I did my Razorback blog...I guess I was feeling excited.

On Saturday I took care of some of the regular stuff, plus some extra so that David and I could spend Sunday mostly haning out. I slept in, washed clothes, picked up the house, went to the grocery store, made my "Back to School" night folders, and walked Deucer boy. We went to our personal off-leash dog park (an elementary school).

Cross-stitching is a pastime of mine, so I started something new. I'm not really following a pattern (except for how to form the letters), so it's kind of free-hand. I bought an alphabet book and a blank "canvas." Eventually it will say "Mrs. Rainwater."

My next cross-stitch project is going to be a razorback. There's no pattern at all for it that I can find, so I'm flying blind...we'll see how it goes.

On Sunday David and I rested and worked in the yard. We also enjoyed seeing all of our friends at church. This is a normal week...except that we leave Friday for Fayetteville and the lake!!!!

One week and counting

Woohoo! One week from tomorrow, college football kicks off! We are ready. The air is cooler in Kansas City, which makes us even more excited. This post is a tribute to the Razorbacks. I know, you might be thinking, "My goodness, we get it, y'all love the Razorbacks." Please remember as you read, Arkansas has ONE team. No pro sports...like none. We have the University of Arkansas...everyone loves to call the hogs, tailgate, and walk around all Fall using a conversation starter that sounds something like, "How 'bout them hogs?"

David and I have grown up loving our team. Our parents grew up loving the Razorbacks. Heck, our grandparents grew up in Hog hats. I say all of this to explain why we're as "obsessed" as we are.

"Think-back Thursday" has basically fallen by the wayside, so how about a one-time only installment of "Flash-back Friday"? I know, real clever. So without further ado, reasons we love the Arkansas Razorbacks, with some pictures included. :)

1. Little kids in Razorback gear. This is my best friend Lauren's son Parker. Now he is almost 2 and wears good-luck game gear every game day.

2. Calling the Hogs. We love it and will do it almost anywhere. I am so thankful that I also got to experience calling the hogs from the field itself. If you don't have anything else to do at your tailgate, just start the hog call...others will join you.

3. Matching clothing. Never fails, someone will wear the same thing. It's not embarrassing...it's cool. :) P.S. These are our fathers.

4. Family time. Sometimes games can serve as a great family reunion time. We get to see our immediate families, extended families, church families and even sorority families. Tripp and I at a tailgate...

Dad and his brothers.

5. No shame. Nobody has any shame about how much Razorback gear they wear. Some of my favorite fan trends are khakis with hogs on them, razorback headbands, red velvet jackets, hog purses, bedazzled sunglasses and sorority stickers!

Ben wore this wonderful outfit one season to recruit cars to park in front of their house. It was a hit.

6. Memories with David. Time to get a little corny, but we had so much fun going to games together throughout college!

7. THE A. This is the big A. The team runs through it and it's an Arkansas icon. It's great to see it every time.

I have rambled quite enough. It's safe to say we're ready for September 3. Razorback fans always say that this could be our year, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, "This could be our year." I mean it though. Hogallelujah.

I leave you with the song that is sung after a Razorback victory...

Oh Lord it's hard to be humble,
When you're perfect in every way,
I can't wait to look in the mirror,
I get better looking each day,
To know me is to love me,
I must be one heck of a fan,
Oh Lord it's hard to be humble,
When your an Arkansas Razorback fan,
GO HOGS!

Cook-Out Weekend

The first half week of school ended pretty good. I was extremely tired of being on my feet and hearing my own voice though! It's a challenge to get back into the swing of things. Sarah and I took our annual first day of school picture. We're not totally sure what happened to this picture, but I like it none-the-less.

And here they are!...the new crop of kids in room 114!

They're quite the little group for sure. Very busy.

On Friday night we went to eat at Pei Wei and then stopped by our friends, Chris and Sarah's, for their going away cook-out. They moving to Dallas!

Saturday was a rainy/cloudy day, so we were pretty lazy and stayed inside and worked on "home stuff." We kind-of got ourselves re-organized before David started fall clinic. I even watched the first half of "Gone With the Wind." Love that movie. :)

Saturday night we had a Sunday School class cook-out, and the food was delicious! Here's a couple pictures from the night. What great friends we have.

This is Matt and Diana's precious son, Collin. We adore him as you can see!

This is my first full week back. Yikes. We've got some evening activities this week too. Tonight we're going to dinner at our friends Hershel and Jodi's house. On Wednesday we have the annual Delta Dental dinner at Lydia's for all of the Arkansas students that are at UMKC, except this year David is one of the fourth years!!! Finally! So great.

Technology

I've never been known for being extremely technology proficient. In fact, sometimes technology and I just don't get along. However, I always enjoy new technology...when it works. My computer HAS NOT been working correctly for about a year. I didn't have any sound coming out my speakers. David fixed it for me on Sunday and now I'm back in action! Last night, David stayed with Tripp in Fayetteville and I was able to skype them! It's the first time I've been able to do skype on my computer in a long time. And...I got to see two of my three favorite guys (Dad wasn't there)! I took a picture of the computer screen on my phone to document. Last night, I was loving technology!

Also last night I was able to do some power-walking with my friend Katherine. She came over and we walked and talked for quite a while before settling in for some TV time and more talking. Thanks for coming over Katherine! You made my night great! Meet the teacher is in about an hour...I think I'm ready. :)

Church Picnic

This has been a really relaxing weekend. Friday was David's last summer clinic day. That night we met our friends the Heine's for a graduation party for Jess at Tanner's. Jess is all ready to go out there and be a nurse. Congratulations Jessica! After the graduation party we rented a movie. You may remember a little while back that David and I rented "Pure Country" accidentally, thinking it was "Country Strong," and were sorely disappointed. Well, we actually saw "Country Strong" this time, so we rented it...equally not as good as "Pure Country." Really, NOT GOOD.

On Saturday morning I got to go eat breakfast with some friends, which was a great surprise. Katherine texted me Friday and said that our friend Jessica was coming into town for a wedding! So I ended up getting in some great girl time.

Saturday afternoon we worked on some dental job search stuff, layed around, watched TV, and took Deuce for an hour and a half walk. We couldn't wait for Saturday night because we were going to see "The Help." I read the book over a year ago and we were super pumped about the movie. LOVED.IT. It was incredibly good. Best movie we've seen in a good long while.

Today was a big day at church. David and I worked the gospel group table at the ministry fair and tonight was our church-wide picnic at Kill Creek Park. I didn't manage to take any pictures of the weekend except at the picnic. We went last year too and it is so much fun.

There were SO many people there.

There was a watermelon eating contest, and the kids got to enjoy the left-overs. These are our friends, Adam and Becca's kids...Grayson and Neylan.

Me and Nicole!

David with some of the guys.

Pastor Steve offered to snap off a picture of David and I!

There were so many more of our friends there, and I hate it that I didn't take more pictures, but there was just too much chatting to do. :)

This is a big week at our house! SCHOOL STARTS. Yes, it's finally here. My room will be filled with children at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Physically, the room is totally ready. Mentally, I'm getting there. This is David's week off before fall clinic starts, so he is heading to Little Rock to meet with some dentists and see his family for a couple of the days this week. I'll be missing him terribly here, but it couldn't be a busier week for me. I do hate it when he leaves though. This week I pray that I will connect with the new children God has given me in my class this year and that we will start the year off well!

Last day of summer

This is officially the end of my 2 month vacation! I report for duty at school tomorrow for meetings and school starts one week from today. This summer has been so relaxing. I hate to see it go and get back to the strict school schedule. To celebrate my last night of freedom I took Deuce for a nice long power-walk in the delightful weather we've had all week.

Because I've been home half days this summer, I've been able to stay really of our "home stuff." In other words, the house has stayed really picked up, really clean, and the laundry basket remains low. I've felt like I've had so much time in the day to stay up on stuff that I've been very care-free. David has definitely enjoyed coming home to a clean house with dinner ready. :) Tonight, at David's request I made home-made chicken tetrazzini.

My classroom is done and ready for my new group of kiddos. I got some before and afters this year.

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

More afters...

I won't mourn summer too long, because I really do love my job and can't wait to meet a whole new group of kids. I'm looking forward to the funny things they'll say to me, the looks on their faces when they finally "get" something, and I even look forward to their sticky fingers touching my clothes when they want hugs. Tomorrow morning I report and a wonderful summer is over, but I am looking forward to everything that will happen this fall.

The Rainwaters take over Branson

We have just gotten back from a great long weekend in Branson with David's family. We just had the best time and got to do a lot! We got to the cabin at about 10:30 on Thursday night. The cabin was SO nice and big. We all (minus Ben...so sorry Ben), had our own big room with bathroom attached. Mine and David's room was upstairs, so we had a cool view.

Looking down from our room.

Living area...

There was this huge bear in the condo that sat in a rocking chair...we thought it was a good photo opportunity.

We think this might need to be on Shepherd's Christmas list.

Ben in the bear's rocking chair...

Weary travelers...

On Friday morning we all slept in and then divided for some fun. David, Mike, John and Ben all went and played 9 nine holes of golf at Branson Creek golf course. While the guys were golfing, me and Sarah and Kathy headed over to the Tanger Outlet mall and did some shopping. I only took one picture while shopping and it was in the car on the way back to meet the guys. To say the least, Shepherd was an angel the whole time. He is such a happy baby! We couldn't get enough of our nephew.

After shopping and golf we all met at Big Cedar Lodge and ate at Truman's Smokehouse for lunch. Big Cedar is such a beautiful place and the weather was pretty nice!

After lunch...

After lunch we went back to the cabin for a little while and rested. We had big plans for dinner and a show that night. For dinner we went to Hard Luck Diner, where all the waiters randomly sing! They would literally be delivering drinks, hit play on a CD player, grab a microphone and start singing. All the waitors and waitresses sang.

One waitress was especially vocal and of course, noticed Shepherd. She came over and started singing to him. He was quite interested in her and even held her hand. Not to worry, we cleaned his hands up afterward (considering two seconds before she was holding his hand, she was cleaning up tables). :)

After dinner we went and saw a show called "SIX." It was really good and the performers, who were six brothers, did a lot of "vocal play" where you make your voice sound like a musical instrument. We saw a group called "Naturally Seven" when we went to the Michael Buble concert last summer, and these guys weren't quite as good, but we had a wonderful time. Shepherd even went to the show and was a perfect baby the whole time.

On Saturday morning we slept in again and then drove to Dogwood Canyon. We signed up for a 2 hour guided tour, and while we waited for it to start we ate at the little cafe. I had a cold smoked trout sandwhich and David had a Bison Burger! The creek that runs through the canyon has trout in it, so I felt really "natury" eating my trout sandwich. After lunch our guided tour started and it was great!...but unbelievably hot. When I say hot, I mean the actual temperature was 108 degrees in the shade. Nothing could take away the beauty of what we saw though.

I ate one of these trout's brother's for lunch. :)

There was such a beautiful waterfall on the tour and we stopped for a photo!

Another place that we stopped was called "Glory Hole." People are not allowed to fish here, with two minor exceptions. The guide told us that the only two people that have been allowed to fish in Glory Hole, and they were President Bush (the first) and the legendary Johnny Cash. They DID have to throw their trout back though. :)

Could David be touching a trout that was caught and released by Johnny Cash or President Bush? We'll go ahead and say he did.

Waterfall at Glory Hole.

A little later in the tour we saw an elk!

Little did we know he would bring so many friends along!

I risked life and limb to get a picture with the beasts and kind-of leaned out of the vehicle. I accidentally touched one of their antlers and just about had a heart attack. A little girl had asked the guide if she could touch them and he replied, "It wouldn't be a good idea." Pretty soon after this they started getting a little territorial and we had to move on, but it was definitely a highlight of the trip for me.

There were also some buffalo and a longhorn later on. The longhorn was crabby and moved all the buffalo out of the way. What a bully (typical for longhorns right? :)...Hogs hate longhorns).

We learned some cool facts on the tour and even traveled into Arkansas for part of it (the part with the large animals). There some caves we were shown that were found to have bones from Native Americans in them that dated to 190 A.D. Another fun fact...trout can't live if the water is above 80 degrees.

After the tour we were tired and more than a little hot. So we went back to the cabin to get ready for the evening. For dinner we went to the Landing and ate at Rocky's Italian Restaurant. After dinner we headed over to Branson to watch the Shoji Tabuchi Show! He's a violinist and it was excellent! There was a lot of attention to detail and lots of different kinds of music. Shoji is orignally from Japan, but he made me proud to be an American with the amount of patriotism he had for America.

Waiting for the show to start in the lobby...

Today we slept in, once again, and then went to the Keeter Center for brunch. The Keeter Center is at the University of the Ozarks and was REALLY cool. The decor is all cabin-like. All of the students at the university go to school for free, but have to work at the school to cover their tuition. It's a pretty neat concept. After lunch we went to the patio to take one last picture.

It was a fantastic trip. We were busy, but not too busy to just enjoy hanging around. We feel like we've been gone longer than we have. It was so great to spend some quality time with everyone.

On the way home today we decided to stop at some of the antique stores along the way and look for some good deals. We weren't looking for anything in particular. It was more for fun and the experience. At one point we stopped at the "Amish Country Store." We were pumped and looking for some good Amish deals. However, it was a trick!!! We read the name of the store, "Amish, Country Store." It actually was, "Amish Country, Store." See the difference? One implies Amish goods, the other means, "a store within Amish country." Mean trick.

Anyway, David is back at the school for his last week before his week off. I report offically back to school on Thursday and the busy month of August begins! We're also looking forward for some of the cooler temperatures they're predicting.