one freaking week!

i don't really know what else to say. . .

fully licensed...

...to be married!

so we got our marriage license yesterday. we could just go get married today...tempting, for sure, but i guess since we're in the home stretch of this whole wedding thing, we might as well go for the gold. just two and a half weeks! that's totally crazy. but exciting.

in other news: i've put in 5 applications for jobs in tennessee, and i had a phone interview yesterday for a grant writing job in little rock (thank you mattyp). i still haven't heard anything yet from the governor's office (that is, the governor-to-bebee), but i've got my fingers crossed for a policy research job. not counting any eggs before they hatch, though.

the office threw us a really nice wedding potluck/shower yesterday, and we got tons of goodies...some of which will certainly have to be returned, but it's the thought that counts, right? i feel a little guilty about turning in my notice after such a nice do, but then i remember that everyone brought chicken dishes even though most of them know i don't really eat meat, and we were given a wal-mart gift card (i'll admit, we've been a few times, but really...).

so that's your update. if i had faster internet at home, you'd be seeing pictures of erica's baby, pictures of our 4-foot chrismas tree and other goodnessess. alas, i do not...

does blogger hate me?

i can't get it to let me post comments on other blogs! first, i couldn't post yesterday on leah's blog. then, this morning i couldn't post on kristen's. and now leah's again! what's the deal, i wonder? my username and password are right (otherwise i wouldn't be writing this), and i get those scrambly letters right...hmmmmmm. it's like it doesn't want me to make comments.

not much news to report. need to get on applying for jobs. and wrap up wedding plans. sheesh.

WPWT

that's the pinkslip i'm giving myself: wrong place, wrong time. i've messed up. not supposed to be here. not now, at least. i'm almost to the 6-month mark at my job, and i'm coming to the full realization that it's just not the right fit. so now i'm in some sort of an existential crisis. what to do? where to go? what do i even want to do? i have almost no idea. and the ideas i have aren't realistic at the present moment.

so i'm looking for jobs. possibly any time of job. so, seriously, if you know of a job opening (almost anywhere, for real), pass it on, yo.

5 weeks and counting!

yes, just 5 weeks from tomorrow. it's totally creeping up on us! but i think we've got most of the details straightened out. i think.

i've actually got my bridal portraits tomorrow. i'm a little nervous about the weather...i'm supposed to leave home by 8:00 tomorrow morning, and we're supposedly going to have 1-3 inches of accumulated ice/snow overnight, and i'm not sure if it'll be clear enough that early for me to go down the 2 big hills that separate my house from the "greater batesville area", let alone all the hills i have to navigate between batesville and the rock. not to mention that all this rain can quite possibly equal disastarous hair for little brooke. that's the true downside to the curly hair--you just never know how it's going to turn out until it's dry, and by then it's pretty much too late. so i just cross my fingers and hope for the best!

i'm also having my meeting with the cake folks, and i STILL don't know what i want the cake to look like. i'm stumped! any ideas? ooh, and if you've got any clever ideas for first dance songs, i'm game to hear it.

venez t'ici, dinde

oh, man. if i could just get nari and tarzan to do something like that... i'd be set.

happy turkey-day, folks. tomorrow trevor and i are heading down to little rock to have thanksgiving, france family style. we're having a whopping record 45 people at our thanksgiving dinner!!! usually it's just around 30 or so. my aunt is maniacally amazing. i'm actually making a food contribution: vegan "spicy green rice" casserole. i've got a vegan cousin, and other people acutally enjoy the casserole as well.

friday will probably consist of lying around and scrounging for leftovers. i'll probably be ready to hit the booze by friday night, so i may give you little rockers a call. saturday we're off to a chili-cookout in honor of the to-be-wed joel and ashley. i'm super excited about getting to see them. and hopefully i'll get to see erin m., but you never can tell...

to all of you traveling: safe travels.

and for you non-francophiles, that's "come here you turkey". try it out on your mom this weekend. good stuff.

26

yeah, that's what temperature my car said it was this morning. a whopping 25 minutes ago! burrrrr. and after much trying, trevor and i FINALLY got one of our propane heaters to light. the gas people are gonna have to come out today and light the other one. we're weenies. i'm also glad that someone is going to come out and check out the BLACK MOLD problem we seem to be having in the masta bathroom--yikes. i just hope we don't die or something scary like that firefighter man. so all of this means nari is at the office with me all day long. fun stuff! she's finally learning to loosen up around my coworkers a bit. she even went right into marty's office without being invited. shame on her, but horray for slightly less shyness. now, she wouldn't let him pet her, but we're making progress. slowly but surely.

and woohoo for thanksgiving. and a three-day work week. not as awesome as elizabeth's 1.5, but still... i'm excited for turkey and mashed potatoes and corn casserole and aunt cathy's green creamy jello stuff and spaghetti. yes. spaghetti. it's a traditon at our house, for those of you unlucky enough not to already know and tasted. leah, you know what i'm talking about. remember leftovers in the dorm? those were the days.

lots of wedding progress has been made. the dress is at aunt margie and uncle gene's house, the engagement portraits are done, bridals have been scheduled (december 1st for anyone wanting to be helpful around 4:30), groom's cake pretty much squared away, bridesmaids' dresses in, tuxedos ordered, bridal shower fabulousness (and thank you cards on the way), rehearsal dinner mostly planned. that might be it. still no dj. brooke=lazy and forgetful on this one item. has anybody heard anything, good or bad, about the arkansas dj people? they seem good, but i'm a little nervous to use someone without a reference...

and i guess that pretty much wraps it up. i'm in for another bor-ring day at the office.

oh, and here's a thought: what if i applied for a rotary scholarship and we went overseas for a year? awesomeness? eh?

boil water order

well, i'm back and with trevor in tow. horray!!! and i can make my camera hook up to my work computer. horray!!! but we came back to a boil water order. boo!!! gotta love living in a place where sometimes you have to boil your water for it to be potable. it could definitely be worse, though. anyway, so here are some photos for your viewing enjoyment.

this is what i look like without my glasses. and standing next to the executive director of the women's foundation of AR...this is after the luncheon...what you can't see is the check for the grant we received. great luncheon. awesome "party favors" from b. barnett.

here's a picture of us with two of trevor's sisters and their boyfriends. from left to right we've got greg and chanda, trevor and me, jeff and hannah. we're just missing gwen and ben.

and here's my lovely family. nari and tarzan were just as glad as i was to have trevor home. horray!!!

the wedding countdown: less than two months. yowza!

longest day ever

yes, today promises to be quite the long one. it's my last day to be at the office before i get to see trevor again. hopefully i'll find enough to do to keep me busy...i am going to pick up nari at lunch and bring her up to the office. i'm tutoring this evening after work, and sarah wants nari and me to come in costume (we're party animals). so that should be pretty fun.

tomorrow i head to little rock for the women's foundation of arkansas "power of the purse" luncheon at which i will be awarded the check for the grant proposal i wrote. go me. and i've got a fun coworker as a "date", so it'll be good even if the luncheon is boring. it's at the peabody, so the food should be pretty good...just hope there's a meatless option...

thursday is the greyhound day. 14 hours on a bus. yuckola. but not as bad as 24, as it was when i "moved" to denver. thank goodness for that!

booo on blogger!!! i was going to post a picture of what trevor looked like before his trip, but it's not letting me...and i'm even on my office computer. booo! maybe i'll come back and try again later.

testing, testing 1-2

oh, so i guess i just have to post really small pictures and wait ten hours for them to show up...durn dial-up...

maybe when i have some energy, i'll post some more pictures. of last night's rockin halloween party at sarah & will's.

but for now, this is my house.

it's magarin!

yo, i'm so on a roll with this posting thing.

this is just a quickie to say: holy crap! my wedding dress was on tv last night! and it will be again on monday. now, i just want to go on the record as saying that i got the dress BEFORE seeing it on the bachelor, rome. but hey, it's a pretty dress. i'm no bachelor fanatic (in fact, this is my first season to watch it...i was a joe millionnaire fan, though), but it was totally the dress that the bitchy lisa had on in the preview for next monday's show. so if you want a sneak peek at what i'll be wearing at le wedding, just keep your eyes peeled for nutso lisa wearing it on her hometown date (who does that...seriously?).

and am i wrong to be obsessively worried that aunt margie STILL has not ordered the invitations. i mean, the wedding is just 10 weeks from freaking friday! i think i'll just have her hand-deliver them as punishment. i wish.

blogging...from...home...dial-up style...

first time blogging with dial-up. we'll see how that goes. i'm even going to attemp to post some pictures in here, and i'm a little nervous about it. yeah, that didn't work out so well; i guess i'll try to do that at lunch tomorrow.

things are alright here in bethesda. i'm still plugging along with this solo thing. less than two weeks now. still feels like an eternity. everyone else seems to believe that the time has just flown by. but they're not the ones with empty houses and needy pets (one of whom has decided she's no longer house-broken--that's a TON of fun, let me tell you) and boring drives to and from little rock and nobody to laugh with when the movie is funny. it's pretty sad, really. i really liked living alone when that was my life. liked having my own space and not cleaning up after myself unless i felt like it. and NEVER making the bed. trevor moving in changed a lot of things...i quit eating the same thing for dinner over and over (example: last week, from monday through friday, i ate either homemade vegetarian chili or three-cheese tortolini), i started making the bed every morning, sunday was "clean the house day", i got to get back in bed while he showered because i knew he wouldn't let me over-sleep. and i don't mean to say that everything is entirely different since he's been gone; it's just been lonely, and i can see the good habits slipping.

anyway, on to current events!

my biggest adventure of the weekend: getting myself and my captive passenger, anna-kate, extremely lost deep in the ghetto of little rock. as in college station. scary. freakin scary. but we had gelatto at the river market to calm our nerves, and all was well. had papa johns (soooo needed that) and a movie date with leah--marie antoinette. good quality time.

and although my sunday appt. with the alterations lady went well, the boobs at lens crafters "forgot" to call me to tell me that my contacts haven't come in, and that i have to come back yet again next weekend. which won't be a total loss, since i'll get my early voting in, and make it to some halloween fun!

oh, and happy thoughts for my nonie. she's in the hospital with pneumonia.

on the bandwagon

well, i guess i'm on myspace now. it's actually pretty ridiculous how i ended up on it...i've been trying to track down my former piano teacher for weeks so i can ask her if she will play the piano during our ceremony. so i finally got internet at home again. dial-up-is-pretty-slow. and i did a search on both her and her husband's names, and i found her myspace. well, it wouldn't let me send her a message unless i signed up. so i did. and now i'm finding all sorts of folks on it that i would have never thought to find. it would be pretty easy to stalk someone, you know. way easier than this blogger bit...i don't know how long i'll keep the myspace account, cause it's kind of freaky.

anyway, if you are as bored as i am, and you want to check it out, the link is http://www.myspace.com/abrookeje

and i'm trying to make it look nice. i don't seem to have many decent pictures of myself to put up...i'm beginning to think i'm even less photogenic than i once believed. hmmm.

it's what trevor would call a boomshackalacka moment

yeah, baby. my first grant came in! a few months ago i wrote a grant to the Womens Foundation of Arkansas for their mini-grant awards. and i got it! well, i got $3000 of it. which is not quite how much we asked for, but every little bit counts around here. and i get to go to their luncheon to accept the award, and i get to bring a guest. it'll be pretty funny to have my boss, the ceo, be my guest to a luncheon. silly.
now, the down side is that it'll be my responsibility to put the program (an offshoot of our farm program, but just for the girls) into action. and my plate is getting fuller (on paper and in theory at least) each day. but i guess i'm young and can take the heat.
the only thing is...i got my one phone call from trevor on friday, and he's liking outward bound so much that he'll likely want to apply for a job. which would mean moving. and leaving stuff behind. i complain so much about my job, but i also kind of feel like i'll be leaving so many things undone. but everyone is replacable. and nothing is set in stone.
in other exciting work-related news...last thursday we had the arkansas field coordinator from heifer international come out to have a meeting with us. he showed us a video and we talked about the steps toward becoming a heifer project partner. which means we'll be getting trainings and money for livestock and garden stuff and all kinds of great things. i'm holding a more inclusive staff meeting in a couple of weeks to show houseparents, farm staff, etc. the video and to prep them for when mr. ashanti comes back to do a values training with all of us. i'm pretty pumped. because it was my idea...it's my baby. and it's really happening.

anyway, it was a decent weekend: friday i watched a video (imax videos can come on netflix) about dolphins and ate too many cookies. saturday i went to little rock and ran errands/had lunch with katie and then went to lenscrafters to be fitted for contacts. my eyes=horrible. they didn't even have my perscription in stock, my astygmatism is so bad. so i've got these "practice" ones that are the closest they could get. but i can't get them in. i got one out and one in on my own, but otherwise the dr. had to do it for me. she seemed really confident, but i'm a little worried i can't do it. my eyes are so small, and i can't seem to keep myself from blinking and flipping the contact inside-out on my finger. and my eyeball hurts from trying so much. and it's making the headaches worse. wah wah wha. but i'll be the little engine that could, because i want to have 2 eyes, and not 4 for my engagement photos, bridal photos, wedding, etc.
saturday night i went to sarah & will's for mike c's belated birthday party, which was a total blast and much needed. after the first wave of folks left, sarah, holly, kat and i had a dance party, which was loads of fun. i haven't danced like that in for-ever.
tonight i'm making vegetarian chili for my non-vegetarian brother. we'll see how that works out...

those were the days...

ha! i just found this on katie's ringo site. there is some editing, of course (nobody wants to see that...). this is from well over a year ago and it totally cracks me up. we're at heifer ranch's "northside" house where katie and her cousin ben used to live. i don't remember the occasion for the party, but it involved much drinking. at this point i had lost my clothes to travis (hence the overalls with duct tape around my chest), trevor had won them from travis, and i was trying to win them back from trevor. i'm pretty sure trevor just let me win. that's love, folks. the rest of the night included ali and me dancing on the counter to ocms wagon wheel song and my very first keg stand. yeah, i think i was already too old for that business. much sickness later.

how fun to reminisce...and to post pictures of trevor in my clothes while he's away in north carolina.

the weekend: meeting with melisa the photographer; hanging out with pals i haven't seen in a while; staying with meg and her crazy dog; telling the lady at clinique to help my face; buying too many clothes at banana republic (on sale); walking halfway across the big dam bridge with nari...while wearing burks--bad idea; dog park; meeting with sarah the photographer, and probably some other stuff...

the coming week: cpr/first aid in like 12 minutes; tutoring two nights this week; meeting with heifer international dude; meeting with the arkansas community foundation; GETTING A PHONE CALL FROM TREVOR SETH! i'm very excited about that part. but it might not happen...still have my hopes up.

well, that's enough blogging. just be glad i didn't blog about what ashley said i should last night. then you'd think i was the devil, instead of a girl in overalls taped to her...

off the deep end

it's official: i'm desperately hating living up here. i mean, i love my house and being in the woods a quarter of a mile off the road, but that's about it. work is alright, if you pretend that the big raise really was big and not small, and if you pretend that i don't still feel like a total fish out of water. i'm making more per hour tutoring after work than i do at work, and tutoring is just down the hall from my office. but at least i finally have an office door to close if i want to have a meltdown.
one good thing is that i've been hanging out with my brother, paul, for the past couple of evenings. monday night he cooked spaghetti for me, and last night i made tacos (taco tuesday!) for paul and his friend, jc. and saturday i went to a coworker's dad's friend's farm to strip sorghum. yep, that defines my social life in independence county.
i am going to be in little rock this weekend, so hopefully i'll see some friendly faces and drink some alcoholic beverages...anybody free for such a thing?
i'm still on the hunt for the perfect photographer, but at least i've got one meeting sort of scheduled--with sarah bussey or something. we'll see how that goes...

ASSISTANCE!

i need help, people. planning my wedding from batesville is getting a little harder on the parts where i don't already have a clear-cut idea in my head. like, i already know my cake is coming from mickey's, so there's no need to shop around and do comparisons. but photographer, music, i have no idea where to start! well, i've kind of got some ideas...but if anybody has any suggestions/recommendations for reception music, photographers, etc., i'd really appreciate the help.

think nari would let me...?

halloween is in the air...i can feel it! 41 days and counting.

one is the loneliest number

that's me. i'm sad. only 4 more days with trevor seth before he's gone for 45+. i'm probably also sad in this picture because i'm so misshapen and my hair is bad. and the wonky leg. which is what happens when you live too far out in the woods for dsl and you have to give up the internet at home and use the computer at work.

on a lighter note, we've got our rings ordered and i've got my dress. progress abounds.

here's to hoping i get better at cartooning in paint.

just so you know...(not that it's all that interesting)

this is what went out this morning...yahoo, i feel so much more important! like i got that degree for a purpose...








Brooke Stapleton is hereby named to the new position of: Coordinator of Professional Services

As an MSW..She will take on the above position for Program Services In addition to her responsibilities as Exec Asst to the CEO

She will be responsible for: Coordinating House Parent Training.
Creating a streamlined admission process.
Integrating the Program Team Balance into Program Services
Development of Professional Resources for Program Services Development of a New Youth Tracking System ( allowing us to know quicker the exact services a child needs)
Recommending both Policy (to the BoD) and Procedures (to the CEO)
Overseeing compliance with Child Welfare Licensing

Trevor Edwards will be going on a Sabbatical to Train with Outward Bound in the Smokies for 6 weeks. He will be out in the wilderness and completely cut off from the "good life". ( So, everyone will have to interact with Brooke even more than usual to keep her sane.) Thanks to the animal shelter a dog of unknown origin, Nari, has been hired to baby-sit Brooke in Trevor's absence.

seed ticks = the devil

alright, so i've found the hole in the gloriousness of living in the woods: seed ticks. i mean, seriously, they are the DEVIL. when our landlady said "the ticks are really bad," i thought she meant the regular ones that you can pick off with relative ease. um, no. friday trevor and i took off early from work to "unpack", which was code for exploring the woods we're living in (we had been dying to do so ever since we first saw the place). we ran into a few seed ticks here and there in the first stretch...found the old salvage yard that was on the property along with some random abandoned trucks, boats, a school bus, trailers, etc. then we started following a cattle highway in hopes that it would lead us to the river (we know it's out there somewhere!). we did find a super old-school chicken house and a 1970 AR license plate. and a mess of seed ticks. all over our feet. horrible. we eventually gave up the search for the river when we came across a shale pit and could tell that the river was quite a ways off, and made our way up the trailless hill back to the house.

saturday we went to little rock to do some wedding stuff. trevor's dad was stopping through, so we got to have lunch with him at the flying fish. we went to look at wedding invitations, and tried to go purchase our rings, but the jewelery store was closed for the holiday...bummer. looks like another trip to little rock this coming weekend. boo--tired of driving/riding in the car! but we did get to have dinner with katie and travis at vino's-delicioso.

sunday i messed with the ipod i stupidly purchased on saturday. it seems that it and my laptop don't want to get along. it worked the first time i connected them, but not since. i'm thinking about just taking it back. what a fiasco.

monday we spent about 45 minutes getting seed ticks off of nari, and then we got the tip to bathe her with lemon fresh joy. we also treated her with the regular flea/tick stuff, so we'll see how it works out. she's been pretty miserable. but still in a pretty good mood.

lots of unpacking has taken place, but we're not quite ready to do a photo debut of the house. but you'll all be jealous of the paradise. except for the ticks i can't seem to stop talking about. i'm stopping.

officially official: for real this time.

wha-hoo...we're getting mawied! we've booked the place (pleasant valley country club...pretty swanky...who'd a thought?) and picked the date (friday january 5, 2007). it's just barely over four months from now. we're soo behind on planning, it's unbelievable. we're heading back to little rock saturday to order the rings we've picked out and so i can try on my aunt & mom's wedding dress (which will be way too small since they weighed like 100lbs when they got married...or less). so it's time to get crackin. if anyone's got any fab winter wedding ideas, i'd love to hear them. i'm kind of digging this snowball cake. i found the photo on the internet.

a couple of side-notes: 1. i'm going to be a girl scout troop leader! all by myself. i'm a little nervous, but so far it's just going to be 2 third graders in cushman. they're going to try to get a few more...maybe 5 total. pretty cute, though...brownies.

2. today is moving day. we're going to have one of the houses of boys help us this evening, and they love to work (and they're adorable), so it's going to go by really fast. horray for free help and no uhaul!

3. i'm taking the director of profesisonal services (i think that's what i'll be called) position, which means supervising people (yikes!) and way more moolah (horray!).

that's all, folks.

who knew...

that it is acceptable office etiquette to purposefully dump hole-punch dots so that the woman who does the cleaning in the mornings will vaccuum your office? i mean, come on! i heard some people talking about it one afternoon last week and i thought they were kidding. but then i saw a bunch of dots on the floor of marty's office yesterday morning. i'm sure it could be a coincidence, but you never can tell, i guess. and i'd be willing to bet that paula's wise to the scheme; she's just too sweet to make a fuss. is this common? is this the way of the office?

in other news, it's now just ONE WEEK until we make our move. um, yeah, we've only packed a handful of boxes. but we've had tons of offers for help, which is awesome. turns out i'm a sucker, and we'll still have the internet at our new house (they really give you a deal when you try to disconnect your service). also, it seems that my student loans have gotten effed up: my bank sold the loans to some company while i was in the process of consolidating. the consolidation folks sent me a bill even though the bank sent them a check. oh, and for some reason, the company the bank sold the loans to believe i'm in school till 2009, and can't change my status until ualr tells them otherwise, which means the consolidation folks can't buy my loans while i'm "in school". talk about a snafu. i'd better get my $200 check back!

and ashley, i've put another post on my other blog. i know i've not been writing on it nearly as much as i thought i would...

10-toed sloth

oh man, we've been such couch potatoes this weekend! friday we went to the melba to see the devil wears prada--don't see it if you don't like to receive the message: you're fat, unfashionable and homely. just another anne hathaway make-over movie. it was entertaining, though. yesterday was spent...grocery shoping, baking cookies and watching sex and he city. last night we went to the wards' house for movie night with some of the ranch girls and some of david and melissa's teenage nephews. 8 teenagers, 3 movies. three movies! we watched valiant (so david's little kids could participate in movie night), when a stranger calls and the benchwarmers. it was pretty amusing to watch a "scary" movie with a bunch of teenagers. more amusing, in fact, than the movie itself. we didn't make it home until midnight, which i belive makes our latest night out in independence county.

today we watched more sex and the city, packed a few boxes (this is our next-to-last weekend in this house) and lounged around. oh, and i've decided to take up "art". i'm basically playing with pastels making these "birds" taht are pretty weird. who knows how long it will last. it's pretty fun, though, and maybe i'll post some photos of them if i get brave...you have to promise not to laugh. and i've been playing the heck out of my mandolin. i got a new book last weekend that's way better for learning than the book i bought when i first got the mando. pretty soon, i'll be takin my sho on the road...

friends with ambitions

just a quick hoo-rah for my brilliant friends embarking on the world of graduate school. i'm super proud of my pals, and am actually somewhat jealous that they'll be starting a fresh semester while i'm sitting in an office. so here's to leah, who begins orientation for uams pharmacy school tomorrow; and to ashley who is studying american studies (need thesaurus) and will even have a literature class of her own...watch out university of iowa sophomores; and to miss megan moss, going all the way to vermont to the school of international training (now why didn't i think of that?); and to chandle, who will be the youngest, freshest and brightest new student at the clinton school of public policy. whew.
















as for the rest of us, go us.

today i submitted my first grant on behalf of the sheriffs' youth ranches. a whopping $4905 to start a program that i will direct (that is, if the money comes through)...i'll be teaching the girls about business and finance and entrepreneurship and arranging guest speakers on science and math and technology--that's funny, i thought i studied social work...

up and out

so it looks like our time on hawkins street is coming to a close. no, we're not moving back to little rock...we've found a house about a mile from work for literally half the rent! yeah, sweet deal. we're gonna save so much money. sure, we'll be about 15-20 minutes from the grocery store or hastings, but we can learn to consolidate our trips so we're only going that far once a week or so.

the house is pretty neat. the rocky drive way is about a quarter of a mile long, and there are no neighbors in sight. the house is built into a hill, so it's almost completely underground (read: practically no windows, but excellent energy efficiency). there's a sun room, a huge living space, 2 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. it sits on 100 acres, which technically is leased to a cattle farmer, but is mostly wooded and we'll be able to trek through it with the dog all the way down to the white river (hello ticks!)...hopefully there will be a nice swimming spot! i'm thinking about getting some hens, and maybe even borrowing our friend's dairy goat that he's not milking. who knows.

i'm pretty excited about the house, but not so much looking forward to moving all over again. we'll be moving out/in the last/first of the month. so if anybody wants to make a field trip up to batesville to help, you're more than welcome.

yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!

well, one week later...here are the long-awaited (or not) boat race pictures.

ashley and megan having a pre-race chat.

travis, katie and sarah all decked out in costume (and a half-naked trevor in the background:)our boat's crew: me, sarah, ellen and katie...our boat was so huge, we probably could have used more paddlers...and notice the sexy old lady blow-up doll in the front!
a frenzied start (this is only about a third of the boats)
our boat in the home stretch...after downing melted jello shots that tasted like super thick cough syrup--yuckola
betsy & chris's amazingly crafted fightin' cock (rock out with your cock out as they'd say)
our boat was awarded "bigest boat" and katie did a dramatic reading from a trashy novel while sarah violated me (in order to best depict what was happening in the novel, of course)
surprise, surprise. i'm pretty sure that i've taken this picture each and every year. i think they even host the race and part cause they know they're going to win.

overall, it was a total blast. even nari had fun. we stayed later than we should have, but still missed out on the slip-and-slide. bummer.

holy running bobcat, batman!

so i know i need to be posting photos from the boat race, but i'm at work and without my camera, and i just have to share this crazy story from my drive to work this morning.

so i'm beebopping along down highway 106 to bethesda, when something darts across the road. i didn't have to slam on my breaks or anything, just had to let off the gas. trevor asked if a deer had run by, but i said no, it was a bobcat! i've never seen one before in my life, but i am 99% sure that's what it was. short tail, black spots, fast as all get out. it was a bobcat. apparently the people working in the lime quarry have been seeing a few of them around, and i guess that's probably near where i saw it.

anyway, it made my morning, for sure.

testing out you tube

wanting to be able to share video from the boat race if i take any with my cameroo...

so i'm posting (or at least i think i am) a video of disco tarzan.

looking forward to the weekend: blue & leah's housewarming party!
seeing chandle!
boatrace/pirates & port whores party!!!

enjoy the video--if it works.

not much to report

finally, a weekend where we don't drive in the car for hours-on-end. it's always such a toss-up: do we drive an hour and a half to be in little rock, two and a half to be in perryville, or stay put in ho-hum batesville? well, after several weekends in a row of travel and trevor's complaints about wanting to just have a relaxing weekend at home, we decided to have a batesville weekend.

friday was actually pretty eventful. we got a pretty good storm at work, which i was worried would keep us from going to the fair. but it let up, and we made our way to the independence county fair to see some of the ranch (arkansas sheriffs', not heifer) kids show their horses. the kids took quite a few ribbons, and we left before seeing who took best in show. the storm kicked up again while we were there watching, much to the chagrin of the horsies. it's actually kind of scary to watch a teeny little kid show a huge horse that doesn't want to behave itself...

saturday we finished up nari's pen in the backyard. i think it's fully escape-proof. i guess we'll find out this week (hopefully not the hard way). we watched city of god last night--very violent, but poignant.

today we've been doing our chores: trevor did dishes and mowed the lawn, and i cleaned the kitchen, did all of the floors, and am about to start some laundry. we're going to try to see pirates of the caribbean this afternoon. for our FORTH TRY! yes, we've unsuccessfully tried to see this movien here in baesville 3 times and it has been sold out. granted, it's a pretty small theater, but good grief! hopefully we'll get lucky this time...fourth time's a charm???

oh, and for those of you that are interested, i've started a new blog. i'm going to begin "practice writing" so that maybe one day i can write a book. i'm not going to make it super public (though that's pretty hard to do on the internet...), so if you'd like to be a reader and give me input, let me know and i'll email you the link.

later peeps.

testing, testing one-two-three

just trying to get my new "about me" to show up--that info is no longer current since i don't live in little rock anymore, i'm not in school, etc. i'm thinking if i "republish" it will work...

"another medium dog..."

those were the words of travis, which are pretty true with that crew. between all of us there is one huge dog, one teeny dog and about 4 or 5 medium dogs. we went to perryville saturday to see our friends, joel and ashely for the next-to-last time before they move waaay far away to iowa city (not ohio). we spent part of the day at their yard sale melting in the sticky heat, and then had some delicious bbq for lunch with joel and ashley, katie and travis, and andy and mandy. yes, it came from exxon--but it's made at a restaurant somewhere else in town, i was assured. after a bit of a rest we headed to the aplin watershed and took nari (oh, that's what we decided to name her) and katie's dog fletcher for a swim. nari is quite the natural-born swimmer, though she got spoiled by us holding her and started sinking when she was around anyone she thought should be keeping her afloat. i sure wish i'd had my camera.

things are alright here. uncle gene had a heart attack in florida, and the shit has kind of hit the fan with the family in various ways. it's really hard not being down there with everyone, but i think he'll be in little rock by the end of the week. he's going to be alright, it's just been a long road.

on the up side, i'm looking forward to some camping, a party in the rock, and the boat race/pirates & port whores party. and not being poor. paychecks once a month is freaking tough!

name that pooch!

yes, that's right, we've gone completely raving mad!!! yesterday we broke down and adopted this here pup. she's about 6 months old (or so we think) and just as nervous as can be. never been on a leash, totally not potty trained. thinks we're going to do something bad whenever we walk toward her. needless to say, i've been feeding her lots and lots of pigs in a blanket treats. she did actually sleep well in her kennel thingey we got her. we have to put up a dog yard, as per our land lady's request, but that should be no biggie. i'm hoping i'll be allowed to take her to the office sometimes, cause kari gets to bring tiko. anyhoo, this all boils down to the sweet pup needing a name. we've just been calling her "girl", and that doesn't really work when you're trying to encourage and reward behaviors. so far we've thought of fagan and veda, but i'm not so sure either of those are her... so let us know what you think we should call her, and we just might!

life is soo good

and here's a fine example of why: our 4th of july feast. no, we didn't make it to the fireworks (we later heard that they weren't that good and that the riverfront park was packed with batesvillagers), but we sure had an all-american meal. we had ribs and corn off the grill, baked beans and arkansas-grown tomatoes. mmmmboy.














another example: horseback riding yesterday. we went out with david w. (new farm guy at the ranch) and some of the ranch kids; rode down to the swimmin spot on the white river and then down to the lock. tarzan's just lovin on my cowgal boots. trevor was riding zeik and i rode shorty. how appropriate. except that i've never been on a trail ride before. in fact, i figured up that i've ridden a water buffalo many more times than a horse. the whole trotting thing...a little scary. even scarier, however, was the bucking thing shorty did to kick the horse behind him. all i could do was hang on and say "bucking. bucking. bucking." like that was going to make it stop. need to get more experience with those reigns. yikes. all in all, i loved it and i'm ready to go back for more. though i am wiped out, sore like a mofo, and i can't believe how tight my right arm is from hanging on for dear life. i think we might try to ride with david every week, if possible. and once we get comfortable we'll be able to go out on our own whenever we want. a little perk of working for a ranch that has a horse program...



















and then, in shining glory are our washer and dryer. halleluia. or however it goes. i won't go through all of what it took to get to this point, but i'll leave it that thanks to paul and melanie and reece (who knew exactly where the freakin storage unit keys were the entire time--no one in my family thought to ask her), we got them up to batesville without a hitch. trevor's even done a full load of laundry.













tonight to kick back we went to the melba to see over the hedge. pretty good and smart. i'd forgotten about the charms of going to a children's movie. laughing at things they don't get, kicking you in the head when their parent carries them out crying. and this theater sells little glow stick/bracelet thingeys. it was a good night. it's been a good week. all is good. hope you're all doing as well or better...

no, i'm not expecting!

a short, sad story to kill time because i'm one of the only 5 people in the country stuck working at the office today. (and yes, ashely, i'd agree that i'm becoming a little obsessed with this--but i can't help it).

the scene: it's after a long, hot day in trevor's air conditioning-free car running all over little rock doing wedding things and we're checking out some dogs for adoption next door to ozark outdoor. my hair is a bit wind-blown, i'm pretty sweaty, but i'm wearing a cute white skirt and a pink tank top. trevor and i are looking at this awesome, calm dog when a volunteer lady comes up to us and starts telling us about the dog. so i'm petting the dog and looking at how cute it is when the lady says to me "oh, are you expecting a baby?" yeah. my worst fears confirmed. sure, i've had a 6-year-old ask me if i was having a baby, but i chalk it up to wearing a shirt that's a little funny-shaped and to her being only 6. adults should freakin know better! i wish i'd thought to say something clever back to her like, "yeah, just as soon as trevor here knocks me up!" or "sure, in a couple of years". geez. she was totally embarassed. she should have just given us the dog.

no, we didn't end up getting the dog due to better judgement. but if we see her again there one saturday when we're in little rock, we're getting her. she rocks.

more about the weekend and finding a place to be wed to come...

friday eve my arse!

man, i don't think today could get any longer. i'm in hiatus right now on my board stuff and haven't started ANY grant writing, so i've just been researching and taking notes on foundations that fund in the areas i think i'm going to be applying in. bor-ring. i'm making all of these tedious lists, and i'll pobably never use them. but i really don't have anything else that i can really work on until next week when staff reports come rolling in...
i took my first sick day on tuesday because i thought i'd be cute wednesday and do some rockette-rockette kicks in between my jazz and ballet segments on my "dance it off" exercise video to boost my calorie-burning. yeah, i couldn't sit tuesday morning. my lower back hurt so bad, that standing and lying down were about all i could handle. which doesn't really work at a job where you sit at a desk all day. and so, today, my entire middle back is killing me, and now i'm all squirmy in my chair. i just want to go home...
i am really looking forward to the weekend, though. tomorrow i get my first salary paycheck ever! now that's cause for celebration (especially since we've totally depleted our "savings" and have no money). saturday we're going to little rock to "shop" for a ceremony/reception site. we've got appointments at the lafayette building (left), the manor house & gardens (below) and the albert pike hotel (last...though i don't think i'll have that bride there!). then we're off to perry for will's birthday party...old married man! hopefully i can get in a swim at the watershed on sunday and some sushi at some point...

bad mood

man, i'm in such a nose dive. time of the month, feeling left-out, living in batesville with no friends, blah, blah, blah. thinking i'll eat a candy bar that megan brought me back from the netherlands (nuts bars--think snickers but with hazelnuts--i'm rationing them) when i get home to cheer myself up.

on a less somber note, there's this woman that works part time here in the office that totally reminds me of the creepy little lady from poltergeist (carol anne, go into the light...yeah) in both looks and sound. it's kind of freaking me out. i don't like it when she talks--i know, i'm a terrible person, but it's a really scary movie to have to be reminded of all the freakin time!

just words

i've now successfully gotten up at 6:27 for two mornings in a row. many may say "pish posh", but to me this is quite a feat. we decided that we'd rather our work hours be from 8 to 4 than workin the 9 to 5. and this is really the first time trevor and i have had to share a bathroom to get ready to leave at the same time. hence the almost 7:00 posting.
the jobs are going to be good. trevor's doing more maintainence-type work, which at first bummed him out i think (he was looking forward to being a farm-boy), but he's come to realize that he's going to learn a ton working under his supervisor...like welding and laying tile, etc. yeah, build me a house, buddy. i've finally got a long and snazzy title: i'm the executive assistant to the ceo for program development. oh, and i'm also now the board relations gal, which means i'm starting to spend much of my time at the copy machine printing stuff on the wrong side of the 3-holed paper and saying "well, i guess i've got more scrap paper now!" there are effectively 4 different types of boards. yeah.
the house is kind of coming along. the spare bedroom is not quite living up to that name, however, because we don't actually have anything on which a guest could sleep. unless they're a cat. we're looking to get a futon, once the cash gets a rollin, but until now it's kind of the room where all of the yet-to-be-used decor hangs out.
well, it's about time for me to get ready for work. oh, and we're cooking up a houswarming idea...probably next weekend (not this father's day weekend, of course). any interest???

a series of fortunate posts

whew, i've just finished the following 3 posts with accompanying pictures. it seemed easier to split up the post into multiples. but it sure took a long time to get them just right. so take a look at what we've been up to the last 2 weeks. busy as the bees. i, of course, didn't get shots of everything, and we sure did a lot.

in fact, there's a whole lot that's left out. so here's a little list of other things we did:

*ate. and ate. and ate. meat at lunch and dinner...and i don't mean deli slices. pie. dinner rolls with homemade strawberry jam. i'm fatter, for sure.
*spent lots of time with trevor's family. and his best pal, rick.
*saw x-men III
*went to the bretheren young adult conference in pennsylvania. saw my grandmother that lives there (haven't seen since 7th grade). did not, however, see any horse-drawn buggies. bummer.
*tried to get chanda's vw bug posted on ebay. yeah, if you're looking to buy a baby blue bug, let me know.
*watched a lot of tv. animal planet. the little zoo that could.
*went contra dancing. man, i loved it! i wish i could find something like that going on around batesville.

i'm sure there's loads more that i'm leaving out, but i'm sure you're already bored to tears, and you've still got 3 more posts to go!

coming soon: pictures of the house with (ghasp!) furniture and the like. kitchen: check. dining/living room: almost check. rest of house: negatory.

oh, and call if you want the really big news...

home, home on the range

well, it's not exactly a range, but it sure is enough for me. trevor's "homeplace" is just about perfect. his grandfather built the house in the early 50s, and it sits on about 10 acres or so. yeah, the new plan: put a house on the back end of the land and start homesteading and maybe a goat dairy...mmmmmcheese (his oldest sister, chanda, is on board as well). just have to find jobs in northeast tennessee...

here's the "treehouse" trevor and his sisters grew up playing in. it's actually built on top of the well pump. sweet.









this is a morcel of the amazing farmland across the street that, very sadly, has been sold and split into a 97-lot "planned residential community" called red foxx run. snazzy. and the worst part is that the showy entrance will be directly across from trevor's family's house. poop on that.


a dark shot of trevor on the porch swing. it's really shaded and hard to believe how much cooler it feels hanging out on the porch than anywhere else.





this is a round hay baler. i'd actually never seen a round baler--only square. the baler kind of "poops" out the bale. man, i love farm implements.

a day of hiking

on wednesday of last week trevor took me to linville falls in western north carolina for a bit of a hike. it was a short, but difficult hike down to the falls and back, but it was totally worth it. the pictures i took don't to it any justice. the falls aren't all that tall, but it's a beautiful sight.
to make the trip more adventuresome, my knee and then hip were in some serious pain by the end of the day, and trevor's car's (the faithful red jetta) windshield wipers decided to poop out on our way to grandfather mountain. and, of course, it was raining. it took us an hour longer to get home because we kept having to pull the car over because trevor couldn't see. yikes. but it was still a great day.
ahh, i am the master of the squinty, chubby cheek face!
no, these aren't quite the smoky mountains. more so the blue ridge. but they sure do look smoky...

blue plum festival

good times were had by all at the blue plum festival in johnson city, tn. i sweet-talked ellen into coming into town from nc to hang out for a night, and she even brought a new pal, jessica. when we met up with them, ellen's car was on the fritz, and trevor's dad ended up replacing 2 belts! he said she wouldn't have made it back to nc without having caught those problems. thanks, hollis!
the festival was good fun. lots of art, food and music. i bought some pottery, ate an organic black bean quesedillia and a bloomin onion (by no means organic!), and listened to martha scanlan (formerly of the reeltime travelers...think soundtrack to cold mountain), the waybacks and railroad earth (both non-native bluegrass bands. love it).


in this picture we've got trevor's bff, rick; ellen's friend from "the farm", jessica; and miss ellen herself.
and here we have trevor; his sister, gwen; and gwen's bf, ben (aka "gwenjamin").

i'm baaack...

and will begin the dubious task of unpacking boxes and putting everything in its place (because, baby, it's got one). let the madness commence.

will post later with photos and tales from the two week adventure that was tennessee (and pennsylvania, and north carolina, and maybe some virginia).

oh, and i'm off until thursday when i start my new job, so give me a call and help me fight the boredom.

hi-atus

well folks, finishing up packing the apartment. we'll go to pick up the u-haul in about 20 minutes or so, and then it's even more madness to come. last night we discovered some icky stuff that tarzan couldn't keep down and i had to make an emergency run to kroger for cleaning supplies. then, after midnight, we realized we were pretty much out of boxes. gotta love packing up your pantry in plastic grocery bags (i knew i kept those for a reason). packing has gotten pretty creative. empty hangers in a bookbag. comforter stuffed into a bag way too small for it. trevor's car is already almost brimming with stuff too randomly packed to make sense for a moving truck. and did i mention that it will probably be me driving said truck up to batesville? never driven a 14-foot truck before, but i've really never driven trevor's car out of second gear. add to all of this that i've caught trevor's summer cold and i've got a bit of a tummy ache. oh, and that my family can't find the keys to the storage unit in which my washer and drier have been living. shite.

well, this will probably be my last post for awhile, seeing as i'll be in the great state of tennessee (and also pennsylvania) for 2 weeks. so i'll leave you with the above photo and this deep thought:
Sometimes, when I drive across the desert in the middle of the night, with no other cars around, I start imagining: What if there were no civilization out there? No cities, no factories, no people? And then I think: No people or factories? Then who made this car? And this highway? And I get so confused I have to stick my head out the window into the driving rain---unless there's lightning, because I could get struck on the head by a bolt. --jack handy

takin a break!

whew! i'm pooped. packing, packing, packing... what a way to spend time off.

today has already been a long day, and days of our lives isn't even over yet. at 6:15 i got up, ate leftover cake and milk for breakfast, 6:30 got on the road with a car FULL of stuff headed to batesville. i had to go up there to have the gas turned on (apparently you have to be there, cause some houses have blown up...oops) and figured i'd take what i could. note, i did not fit the entirety of that pile below into my car, spacious though it is. i was planning on being stuck there most of the morning waiting on the dude to turn on the gas, but i had just been there 5 minutes when they called. i unloaded the car and tried to take a nap on the floor, but ended up unpacking the boxes i'd brought in. with nothing left to do, i made it back to the apartment by about 11:15. crazy business.

tonight we're going to the seiter-seivers wedding...yahoo chad & rachel!!! i still remember having "girl talk" time with chad about how he had a crush on rachel our first summer at the ranch. very exciting. i don't think i've ever been to a catholic wedding on a friday before...

tomorrow we're going to vino's for our "last night in little rock"...come one come all. we'll be there around 7, so be there, yo.

long time coming

i'm back. and glad. today is the first day since last thursday that i've spent more than an hour of the day at the apartment. so i can finally post pictures and whatnot from graduation. it's been soo busy lately. friday was my hooding ceremony, followed by a party at reno's argenta cafe, then on to katherine's for some more wine, then to whitewater tavern to see the amy garland band. saturday i went to yellville with katie to a goat show so she could try to find a doe for sale, and so we could try to sell her cutie puppies. if anyone is in need of (or desire for) a male great pyraneese pup, let me know, and i'll hook that up. then i went swimming at the watershed with katie and ashley and trevor met me in perryville so we could hang out with that crowd for dinner in morrilton. sunday, of course, was mother's day. went to mass, then took my mom & dad to perryville so my dad could see heifer ranch. dinner and games at aunt margie & uncle gene's. monday was another trip to batesville to take a load of stuff, get the water turned on, and fill out some paperwork at the sheriffs' ranch. dinner at melanie's and kathryn to the quirky little apartment to watch the grey's anatomy finale (intense). yeah, i'm glad to just be sitting down on the couch. but there's so much more to come in the next few days. friday i'm back to batesville, but then on to a wedding in conway. saturday is the last day in the rock, and sunday is the big moving day. monday we're off to tennessee and pennsylvania for two weeks. my vacation is wearing me out.
here's my list of things to get done in the next couple of days, just so you have an idea of how hectic things are...

grocery store
laundry
take give-aways
buy boxes
buy stuff for the new house
pack: photos, decorations, books, dvds, rest of office/computer stuff for friday's trip
write thank-you cards
get tarzan ready for staying at friends': make phone calls, get flea treatment, get food & litter, write note for those keeping him
pack for tennessee
deposit money
cash in change jar for gas $
not to mention doing those "last time in little rock" sorts of things and entertaining my parents that seem to be staying forever.

alright, that was tedious, so here are some photos to cheer.



this is a very dark shot of me after receiving my hood. i've been told that there are better copies out there. i hope so.












this is my fabulous mickey's special affairs cake. i've finally been able to eat my leftovers for breakfast today.











here's part of the crowd that came to celebrate me: melanie, ashley, joel, me, aunt margie, uncle gene, katie, trevor. not pictured: my mom & dad, carrie & nathaniel, meg, leah, aunt cathy, linda & roy. it was a really good time, despite the incident where i had my knee caps slammed into with a keg on a dolly. much food and drink.







this is perhaps the best shot of the evening. it's miss ashley in my griffindor msw hood. stylish as ever.










and this is trevor teaching hunter, lauren frances and lindsey to play croquet on mothers day. if it were any cuter, i'd barf.