Rachael and Blake's Wedding

Zach and I went to the wedding of a VERY good friend of mine from high school last weekend. Her name is Rachael. It was nice to catch up with some old friends and the wedding and reception were beautiful. Here are some pictures.

Zach and I in the car between the wedding and reception.


There were so many people there that the reception hall was full as well as the outdoor patio tent. This is the tent before it was filled to the brim with guests.


The bride's cake. Notice the bowls of water filled with white flowers holding up the glass platter for the cake. Cool, huh?


A view of the gorgeous satin covered chairs in the reception hall and the calla lillies and tulips at each table. WOW!


Zach and I in the dark reception hall in one of the sitting areas. Sorry it's blurry, the flash on our camera is broken. (Please refer to the rock climbing blog from a few months ago where I dropped the camera off a 30 foot cliff).


Rachael and Blake being serenaded by her family, "I say a little prayer for you!"


Here are a few pictures of the gift I made for the Jones'. It's a magnet board. I bought flat sheet metal and an open-backed frame, cut the sheet metal to size, fit it in the frame and then, I made personalized magnets for them of their engagement photos and some quotes about love. It was fun, easy, and between you and me, pretty cheap!






And, to finish...A picture of some of the flowers growing in our yard. In my favorite hand-made vase. Come visit us and you can see them in person! :D

Camping at Petit Jean Mountain

"If it wasn't for Zachary...." that is what most of my sentences begin with. But, this particular sentence ends with, "you guys would never know what was going on in our lives."

Zach and I went camping with our very good friends, the Powells. Justin and Claire are friends of ours from church. I went to high school with Justin, but didn't know him very well. His wife Claire is the sweetest thing. She is from Mississippi and she sounds like it too. Her name has two syllables according to her. 'Clay-air.' :D LOVE HER! Anyway, some pictures from our camping adventure:

Zach and I were up before 7am and I think Justin and Claire slept until 9. :) We enjoyed some alone time. It was sooooo beautiful!


Stick biscuits of course. Zach likes his with little smokies inside and I like butter and strawberry jam. mmm :P


Ah, yes. The glory of campfire cooking. We had hot dogs for dinner and then, for breakfast I made scrambled eggs, stick biscuits, little smokies, and coffee. That's better than when we're at home and I make cold cereal for breakfast.


We were camping at Petit Jean mountain, so the next day we went hiking! It was really breath-taking. A little bit for the scenery and a little for the hiking. The view from the top of the trail.


The only picture I got all weekend of all 4 of us. Not a great picture, but that's the whole gang.


I love this mess. I'd like to plop a house on the side of this creek. Too bad you'd have to hike in with your groceries. No easy unload from the car.


Aren't they cute and sweet? We are so glad to have some good friends here.


This is Zach's happy face. You want to know how I can tell? He has a fish in his hand. That's how.


This was at the end of our hiking trail. Cool, huh? Claire and I sat on a rock in the middle of the river and chatted and just listened to he waterfall while Zach and Justin finished fishing. It was very relaxing.


There were A LOT of people there that day, so I had to crop little heads out as much as I could without making the waterfall look squatty.
Good trip. Pretty things to see, some good exercise for our bodies, good friends. God is good.

BOWFISHING!

Over the past year or so I've really been interested in bowfishing but I haven't had much of a chance or much knowledge to really get out there and do some damage. Well the best way to learn is to get out there and try so I have been. I've went a couple times since I've been in Arkansas with no luck. But this time was different....


These are the four fish my friend John Madill and I shot. He shot the alligator gar and the smaller of the other three. I shot the two big ones. We don't really know what kind of fish they are but we think may be bonefish.


More pics. Anyone have any ideas what they are?


I didn't get to weigh them but they were definitely bigger than anything I've ever shot before.


This was a very funny story.

We were in the canoe and one person would paddle while the other stood up and looked for fish. Well standing up in a moving canoe is really hard and it gets even harder when you are excited about a fish, as Madill was. He was the gar and shot at the same time he almost tipped our canoe and fell into the canoe. We laughed about that and he said he had missed to the right and started collecting himself and bringing in the line. When he got it in he pulled the arrow up and to our surprise there was the gar on the end. We started laughing even harder. He had hit it through the head so we assumed it was dead and the threw it in the boat. It wasn't. It went crazy and we both started trying to pin the fish down with our feet. After we gained control and stopped laughing from that we looked and Madill had dropped his bow in the water during the escapade. I lost it at that point and couldn't see I was laughing so hard and the tears were rolling and he pulled his bow in with the line that was still attached to the fish. So he caught a bow with his fish, fishbowing. When he pulled it up I had to snap this picture and relax from laughing so hard.

All in all it was one of the most fun and most memorable times I've had on the water. I'm pumped to get back out there and try again! Dad, you have to get down here and try this!!!

School Update

School is great... I've been spending a lot of time there. We just continue to get busier and busier. This week was a kind of milestone in this program. I had an ethics test on Tuesday, which you have to pass before you can move on. I studied hard for quite a while and it paid off, I got an A. Then Wednesday was the big Pre Practicum Interview.
This is were you get interviewed and your professors decide if you're ready to move forward in the program, redo some things in the program, or just plain leave the program. As customary in this program they didn't tell me one way or another (I think to make me squirm) but I felt very confident afterward. Hopefully I'll be seeing clients within the next week or two. The other big thing that happened this week was on the same day as the interview one of my professors asked to talk with me and to make a long story short asked me if I wanted to work part time at Capstone Treatment Center.
I've really wanted to work there for a while and its such a blessing to get the opportunity so early. Hopefully this means I have a better chance at staying there after this program is over. My first day of work was yesterday and it was a "potluck"
of odd jobs. Normally I'll be assisting on adventure days where I help drive the boat on fishing trips
, belay guys rock climbing , keeping them safe while caving
. You know all the normal stuff people do. I think its going to be a great experience. The program just continues to roll and I still have lots of big papers to finish
, books to read , and theories to debate
. Its all really exciting, but I do really miss WV
. This might be the longest I've spent away from WV and I think I'm starting to feel it. I can't wait till I get to be back on the Cranberry River (click on this picture to make it big and look at the fish jumping out of the water!) or Seneca Creek Trail

or Jay's pond . But until then I'm keeping my foot on the gas and my eyes on the wonderful things God has given me here in Arkansas (You know its the natural state).

Steve Schwarzenegger AKA Steve-Rod AKA The Juice

First, I have to say that I understand there will be some people reading this blog who might hold the belief that dogs are dogs and that is all they are...I agree with that belief for the most part but when it comes to Steve I feel a little different. This dog has been by me throughout some of the lowest points in my life and right there for some of the highest points also. Steve is K-9 Therapy on steroids for me, which leads us to how he's doing...

So here is the update about Steve. He hasn't been doing very well lately, so we took him to the vet. They wanted to watch him for the day so we had to leave him there, which was a little weird. We got a call later that evening with the diagnosis. Doc thinks he has Wobbler's Disease which fits him well. If you want to read on the link you can find out more, but in short it is messed up discs in his neck which makes it hard for his brain to communicate to his back half making him walk drunk. We have him on steroids now and in three short days our pup is back. He can't jump and swim like he used to, but he is motoring around the yard and getting into the trash. He wants to play more and enjoys walks over 5 minutes. We don't really know what the future holds but we're hoping things continue in this direction. When we find out more we'll let you know...but for now enjoy the pics of our dog.