Budget Moving

December 3, 2010

We woke up in Hot Springs Friday morning and began the process of organizing all of our belongings to be transported by this Budget truck. It was HUGE, so we were certain we would have room left over.

Then we started loading in all the furniture and got a little worried. Next boxes came, and it was a flood of cardboard with no room to move. Finally we shoved in the odds and ends here and there so it was crammed...in the rental truck, Don (Zach's Honda), Beverly's CR-V, and the Buick I'm now driving. (Speaking of that car, it has no name, so maybe that's why it's misbehaving?)

This is what you call a caravan.

BUT there was room left over. *whew* It was nice to be able to rest that night and not have to worry about driving and/or unloading that day. It wasn't the smoothest day, but it was a lot smoother than some I've had when it comes to moving (and I've had A LOT). We definitely get better at packing and loading each time, but, Lord, please let us stay here for at least two years!

A special thanks to Bobby and Beverly, Momo, Josh, Kevin and Bree, and Jeannie and Chuck for making our move go smoothly! We are so thankful for you guys. :)

Mr. Burger

[photo courtesy http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm1.static.flickr.com%2F164%2F376152316_dff8cd3dee.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fflickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fltb%2F376152316%2F&usg=__KjMJhfCy2Gzvi8SO1U4xgJQBlxQ%3D&h=333&w=500&sz=84&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=lmCzMS3OGMQRWM%3A&tbnh=128&tbnw=192&prev=%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dmr%2Bburger%2Bfayetteville%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D556%26tbs%3Disch%3A1%26prmd%3Div&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=271&vpy=198&dur=2954&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=146&ty=117&ei=iAP_TKH1LYW_nAfBqNSnBw&oei=iAP_TKH1LYW_nAfBqNSnBw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=12&ved=1t%3A429%2Cr%3A1%2Cs%3A0]

December 2, 2010

Stopping here on our way to HS has quickly become a tradition. It really does taste like the fair, which is bad for the waistline (and the heart).

Mama's Birthday Cocoa-Nut Cake

September 30, 2010

After renewing my car tags, my mama and I headed back to Hot Springs for her belated birthday dinner. We had a wonderful time visiting and eating and sitting on the porch. Of course, I baked her a birthday cake. :)

It was a Cocoa-Nut cake (Devil's Food chocolate cake stuffed with coconut and chopped nuts) with cream cheese icing, mums in fall colors of burgundy, orange & goldenrod, and chocolate "dirt" crumbs. It was heavenly! Zach said he thinks it is the prettiest cake I have made so far, and my mama absolutely loved it.

Before dinner, my mama opened her present:

Here we are posing (in my new shirts from Erin and in her birthday sapphire scarf and pin from us) with the cake. Happy birthday, Mama! We loved seeing you!!

I cooked rice, corn & black bean burritos and stuffed tomatoes. The burrito recipe is a definite keeper, especially at 94 cents a serving!

I also added Hobie's name later because September 30 is the anniversary of when Erin and Zach found our fat boy. He's FIVE! :)

We waited for Erin and Josh to get off work and come home before we cut the cake. That's why Mama is in her pajamas. :)

Friday we visited with Momo and took Mama downtown to walk along Bathhouse Row and see West Mountain. On our way, we saw this locksmith. It's awfully nice of them to open your car for free when your kid is locked in!

Our First Wedding Anniversary

September 19, 2010

Happy anniversary...to us!
We have been together for exactly two years and have been married for exactly half of that.
(In case you didn't know, we met on September 19, 2008 and married exactly one year later. : )

We celebrated atop West Mountain with a sunset picnic paired with a bottle of (VERY strong) [cran]Berry Christmas wine from our reception. At home, we squirmed while watching our wedding video (It's just awkward seeing yourself on tape!), and we listened to all the things Alan said that we didn't hear the first time. *lol* We also laughed over our funny wedding pictures and ate a piece of our reception cake--chocolate with cherries, a variation on the very first cake we ever made together.

I cannot wait to use my personalized stationery, and I know Zach liked his Brick Journal book because he already poured over it last night!

Here's to many, many more times together... : )

This is where we had our reception: a former magic theatre turned glow-in-the-dark T-Rex mini golf!

getting ready to open my present: personalized stationery, wax seal set, and Lego rose in a memory box

Zach flipping through his Brick Journal Compendium

We walked along Bathhouse Row...

...and stopped for refreshments in The Arlington, which I first visited when I met Zach's parents in December '08.

the view from West Mountain

our favorite

our wedding cake nine months old...as old as the wine

Jazzy

September 15, 2010

Tonight Zach and I attended a performance at Quapaw Baths as part of Hot Springs' annual JazzFest. We arrived late--thankfully not as late as some others--so we had to scramble for seats and hor d'oeuvres.

As you can see, we were definitely the youngest people there. ; )
(We're really 60 inside!)
But I did see an older lady in a Wilco shirt and was rather confused by it. *tehe*

The ensemble played "Moon River."
(Cue me swooning.)

Downtown Hot Springs

September 4, 2010

Fun = McCardle's, Gallery Walk, Blues Festival, and Brau Haus :)

Diamond Bear

August 21, 2010

Anatoliy joined us for a trip to Hot Springs, but we checked out Diamond Bear Brewing Company first!

After a sampling of three beers from among the Paradise Porter (my fave!), Presidential IPA, Two Term Double IPA, Southern Blonde Lager, Pale Ale, AND Root Beer (yummy!), we toured the tiny factory and got to check out the machines.

Then we winded our way to Spa City for dinner at Brau Haus and night swimming. Fun times! Thanks for coming! :)

My Friend Anne with an E

August 19, 2010

Tonight Anne and I finally got together for an overdue coffee date at Java Primo. (I wanna go back for some gelato, prettypleasewithacherryontop. ;)

Anne was one of the first friends I made at UCA a million years ago when we had British Lit I and American Lit I together, and I missed two days of classes and messaged her on here-back when facebook was about being in college and showed your classes and who was in them. I also messaged Monica that day to find out our assignments. (I believe I also messaged Aaron, too, but I don't think he has ever been a reliable source for assignments.)

We're all old now.
We're grown-ups now.
Scratch that. We're adults now.
(Adults is a much more "grown-up" word. ;)

This picture was taken at Danielle and Charles' wedding, just a little less than a million years ago. I am so glad I got to see my Queen Anne (with an E) and catch up. She's so sweet, and I am so glad that we have stayed in touch. The only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been to have Monica there while we dined on Chik-Fil-A and then went for coffee (at Java City--that's what we did on breaks between classes). Nope. I do NOT miss the student center. But I do miss my English friends!!

It's pretty funny that Anne and I became friends and that I married Zach considering they knew each other working at the movie theatre in Hot Springs and actually went on a few dates. ;)


[our ELEVENTH month wedding anniversary AND the anniversary of the day we got our wedding license]

Fourth of July Weekend

July 2-4, 2010

I didn't mean to get a picture of my mother-in-law yawning... ;/

Friday my Mama joined all the Pharr's for Hot Springs' annual Spa Blast at Oaklawn. We enjoyed carnival food--except for cotton candy :( --and watching the fireworks, but the music was TOO loud. I would definitely say the Spa Blast's fireworks display beat Pops on the River and any other I've seen.It was a cool night and a great way to kick off the Fourth of July weekend! And I'm so glad my Mama decided to come down after all.

Jazz hands? YES!!!

Saturday Zach and I FINALLY went to see The Comedy of Errors, part of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. Because we are poor recent graduates, unemployed and living far away, it's the only one we got to see. :( But I am so glad that this is the one we saw! :)

It was sooo good! We cannot stop raving about it! It was such an entertaining production from the slapstick comedy to the Americana musical stylings to the way they played off the twin factor (BRILLIANT!). And I was in love with the set (as evidenced by my photo taken during intermission) and the costumes. I would have never imagined a Shakespeare play like this, but the era lended itself well to this story. I guess I need to read more Billy Shakes (duh!).

Gosh. I wish I could have seen this one more than once. :) Bravo, AST!!

After dinner at Brauhaus Saturday night, I came home to this sweet gift from the one and only Linda Adams! She is Bobby's cousin, and I got to meet her a few weeks ago at Lindsey and Sam's wedding. I gushed to her how she taught me how to cook on Arkansas Today with B.J. Sams and Beth Ward. Mrs. Adams used to do segments with Beth Ward, who is one of her best friends; she is a home economist pretty famous in these parts. :)

She was such a joy and so sweet to send me a copy of her cookbook and the picture we took together. I can't wait to start cooking again!!

(I'm so glad she wrote in my book and added the date, too. Every time I get a book from someone, I inscribe it with the gifter's name and the date. ;)

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day. We had fun celebrating in the pool and with summery food (beer, raspberry mojitos, strawberry daiquiris, grilled chicken, corn-on-the-cob, and my blackberry cobbler)!

the red, white, and blue fireworks fountain at Spa Blast

It's never a good idea to take pictures of people in swimsuits hence why I have no pictures from Sunday!

Flavor of the Park

Once again this photo-a-day album could be a food journal. :)O (I don't know what this smile is, but I like it.)

Tonight we went to Flavor of the Park at the Farmer's Market pavilion here in Hot Springs. It was A-MA-ZING! So many restaurants were there, from The Arlington to Bohemia to Culinary District. (My favorite was The Arlington--a delicious salad and crab cake!)

I did enjoy these wafflesque cookies (and salt water taffy) from Culinary District!

In this picture, you can see the pavilion; it was lined with tables for each restaurant, and there were two more behind me plus the drink headquarters. The man in the white jacket was one of the musicians from the mariachi band of a Mexican restaurant, Cotija. It was great listening to them play, including Guantanamera. Another fun surprise: all drinks were included in the price ($12) INCLUDING alcoholic beverages. And these were not just your average domestic beers either, but there was quite a few I hadn't heard of and some more pricey imports. I had Goose Island Honker's Ale and Kirin Ichiban, which I would have never bought on my own.

I just thought this was funny!

Definitely got our money's worth... :)O

UFO: Near the end of the night, one of the balloons at the festival escaped. Last night one escaped on the deck from Erin and Nathan's party, and Beverly told Zach to go get Bobby and tell him it was a UFO. ;)~

German Red Cabbage

[photo courtesy http://howard-family.org/germanfood.htm]

May 29, 2010

We went to the Brau Haus tonight.
Bobby got red cabbage with his sauerbraten (roast beef), and I tried it because I couldn't remember if I had before. I was SURE I had, even though I tend to HATE red cabbage and have only started liking sauerkraut again recently, so I thought maybe I had avoided it after all.

I had.
You know what is in German red cabbage?
Cloves.
Zach had said it tasted like Christmas. (He also says that about gin and cranberry juice, but that is more like watered-down summer slush. ;)~
But German red cabbage does!
Weird.
My tongue went all numb like it did when Ashley Shackelford bought those clove candies on the Jonathan Swift ferry to England and I took A LOT.
Cloves do that, even in German red cabbage.
AND I didn't dislike it. :)

no ocupado

May 22, 2010

Zach rigged up an "Occupied" sign since we didn't have one on our door; Brian translated it into Spanish.

As soon as I woke up, I started packing and cleaning because it was Moving Day. :(

I was sad, not to leave Baridon, but because I HATE, LOATH, and DESPISE moving. I believe this is my fifteenth (15!!!) time to move in seven years.

Zach and I really felt like we had got a lot done and didn't have a lot of stuff. We were wrong on both accounts.

(bookshelf before)
This was the first thing I packed up. My books, once compiled, are probably the biggest thing I own.

bookshelf after

His parents saved us. They are moving pros. Three vehicles and a U-Haul trailer stuffed to the gills, we moved to Hot Springs. We put most of our stuff into storage today, where it will remain until we move again. Le sigh.

our first official home

view from the door of the empty living room

our very small kitchen made bigger by being emptied

no longer where we hang our knickers :)
(That would be a post-colonial poetry pun.)

Thanks, guys, for helping us! We're so lucky to have a place to stay with you guys...moreover, a place that is almost big as our apartment was. *lol* The last thing I moved was the wedding cake we're saving for our first anniversary. As we forget to pack it in the cooler, I placed it in two garbage bags that I filled with what ice was left in our freezer and kept it at my feet on the ride home. :)

wedding cake pre-garbage bags