Arkansas vs. Alabama

Jim and I attended the biggest Arkansas football game since 1979 on Saturday!

Arkansas #10 vs. Alabama #1

Ten years ago, we got married on the Arkansas/Alabama game and we won. Each year, it is kind of a tradition that we go to that game together. We were hoping for the same winning outcome this year, but we lost. It was a really hard loss too. I am still in mourning. ;)

But we did have fun tailgating with friends and family!

And a BIG thanks to Hope aka "Aunt Bopie" for babysitting all day so we could tailgate and go to the game!



My inlaws have a "pit pass" and they scoped out the best parking spot Friday night for the big game. Middle of the pit and right along where the team comes into the stadium!
We enjoyed eating my favorite BBQ, Whole Hog!

John, Jim and Will

The crowd calling the Hogs as the players walked down to the stadium

The players walking in..

Bobby Petrino, the head coach for the Razorbacks!

Ryan Mallett, our quarterback, shaking hands with the crowd


Let's Call Those Hogs!!!

Shawn and Jim...."Woooohoooo Pig Sooie!"

Even though we got beat, it was great to be at the big game!
Alabama, you just wait until NEXT year! ;)

Our 10th Anniversary!

September 23, 2000
My wedding day

It is hard to believe that Jim and I just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary!
How exciting!!!

Jim got off work early and surprised me with flowers!

My gift this year was an anniversary band. But not your typical anniversary band that you wear on the ring finger of your right hand. I like to wear my "fun" fashion jewelry on your right hand and my left hand is for "the real stuff". haha. They say your right hand reflects your style and your left hand reflects your relationship.
I had a couple diamond rings and earrings of my grandmas that have been in my bank safe box for years. So we decided to use those diamonds for the ring. (Lucky for Jim-haha!)
After checking with a few jewelers, we had Barry at Golden's Jewelry in Rogers do a custom design. We picked out the best (and biggest) 10 diamonds we had and I got to help design the ring from scratch. It was a lot of fun! It meant a lot to have a ring of the diamonds my grandma used to wear. It only cost the setup/design fee and we sold the gold from the old rings to pay for the gold in the new ring.

Here is my 10 year anniversary ring...

3 bands set together representing our past, present and future love. 10 diamonds for 10 years.
All the diamonds are set in a suspension setting--no prongs so they look as if they are floating on the ring. I love its contemporary style and unique look! I wear the ring on my middle finger next to my wedding band.

On our anniversary this year, we celebrated with a nice dinner at Bordinos and tickets to see B.B. King at Walton Arts Center!


I feel so blessed to have the best husband in the world!
I love you Jim!!!

House update....

Well, since we had the water damage downstairs, repairs have been going on outside of our house to prevent the flow of water from ever coming into the house again. I have taken a few pictures of the work being done. Jim and I are so grateful to have Bruce Jones, Will and his construction crew working on our house. We know the job is getting done and done correctly.

Here is some of the work being done...

The foundation and wall of that side of the house has been water proofed and pipes are being laid to take the gutter drains to the back of our property---instead of the water flowing along the side of the house.

As you can see, the slope of the land had all the water flowing to that corner of our house and that's where water came into our downstairs. There will be these drain pipes from the gutters and a wall to block the flow of water towards the house and our patio.

Bruce let Christian sit on the bulldozer with him! Christian thought that was really cool!

Bruce filling in the ditch with gravel along the side of the house

Today, they had this much done when I got home and began work on the wall behind the house.

Getting started with the wall

The stone look good!

We probably still have another week or more of work to be done....gutter covers, drains along the back of the house, etc. I will post more pics as more progress is made!

Bret Michaels!!!

Thursday night, I met up with my gal pals to go see Bret Michaels in concert at the AMP in Fayetteville!





Bret Michaels!!!

We had great seats...the 4th row behind the VIP tables.
The show was great, they played all my favs....Every Rose Has its Thorn, UnSkinny Bop,
and Fallen Angel. Though I was never a big Bret fan when he did the Rock of Love show, Jim and I really liked him on Celebrity Apprentice. He is really a great guy and a big advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, since he has been an insulin dependent diabetic from a young age.

He put on a great show!


and he isn't bad to look at either. ;)

After the show, we hung out for awhile to see if we could catch a glimpse of Bret. No such luck.
But we did watch them auction off his two hats, two shirts and 3 bandanna he wore during the show. If you won one of the items, you also got to go on his tour bus and meet him and get your picture made with him too. So I thought...SWEET! But then when the auction started, I bid $50 on his hat and was quickly outbid....one hat went for $700, the other $570, shirts and bandanna also brought in between $300-$400. Uh, yeah. I wanted to get my pic with Bret, but not that bad. At least the proceeds from the auction went to JDF (Juvenile Diabetes Foundation).
Bret announced he was going to have heart surgery in January but planned a return to the AMP next summer and even a visit to Rib Room in Fort Smith next year. I may have to see his show it again. It was a lot of fun!!!

Labor Day Weekend trip to Texas 2010

Jim, Christian, Andrew and I drove to Plano, TX for the Labor Day weekend to spend time with our new nephew Robert. Pops, GoGo, John, Will and Grandmother came down to Texas too!
We had a great time!
Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Christian holding Robert for the first time! He LOVES babies!


I already love being an aunt...

and Jim being an uncle!

Dinner with the Byrd family!

Robert just slept away!

Andrew played with his new Elmo toy! He LOVES Elmo!

Pops enjoying his 3rd grandson!

Pops, Jim and the 3 grandsons


My sweet boys in their matching hats!

Kimberly, Grandmother, Uncle Bill and Wrenn with Christian and Robert in the stroller.

Christian and Uncle Will

Grandmother, GoGo and Christian

The new little family!

Where were you on September 11, 2001?

Today marks the 9th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Where were you on September 11th?

For me, I was in Memphis staying in a hotel during my Series 7 cram course class. I had just a few minutes before class started so I turned on the TV to watch a little news before going downstairs to class. It was then I saw it, the falling of the World Trade Center. It was unbelievably hard to imagine it could happen. I then went down to the lobby of the hotel and everyone was gathered around the TV....just watching in shock. It was hard for all of us to continue on with our class. I had flown to Memphis but all airports were still shut down so I had to catch a ride back to Northwest Arkansas with a coworker who had driven there. The crazy thing was that Jim and I had plane tickets to NYC for Sept. 17th, a planned celebration for our one year anniversary and me passing my Series 7 exam. We delayed our trip by 6 weeks and kept our plans to go to NYC.

Here are some pictures I took of Ground Zero just weeks after the attack...

A black and white pic of a mural nearby Ground Zero

Flowers, flags, poems, pictures of the missing hanging outside the fence of Trinity Church


Along the edge of the WTC site....crews working....and the site was still smoldering with smoke

Jim and I still enjoyed that trip to NYC, though different from our first the year before on our honeymoon. It was truly amazing to see it all in person, read all the tributes along the walls, feel the emotion of all the people of NYC. People were glad to see us, as tourists, not afraid to visit the city after the tragedy. We took a dinner cruise one night along the Hudson River. You could see the lights of the crews working on cleaning up the WTC site. The wreckage still smoldering six weeks after the attack. Jim and I along with a group on the cruise, watched quietly as we passed the site on the boat, then the Statue of Liberty right behind us. Someone started singing, "God Bless America" and the whole boat started singing along. As cheesy as it may sound, it was quite moving to be where we were...seeing it in front of us and feeling the overwhelming sadness for those that died in such a horrific tragedy.

Never forget 9/11