nature

Friday I took Delta to the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center. It's much neater than it sounds, actually. And yes, the dog has now become my child. We even watch TV together...

Anyway, I think this may be my new favorite place. For one thing, they have a butterfly garden, and any place that loves butterflies enough to dedicate a garden to them is pretty dandy in my book. They allow leashed dogs, have free canoeing and kayaking, and every day at 2:00 you can see a snake eat a mouse (which is really quite fascinating to watch). There are other things too, but those are definitely my highlights.

Gosh I love butterflies.

Ever since I moved into the "city," I've missed the privacy and peace of living out in the country. I have to make a conscious effort to make sure I'm decently dressed every time I let the dog out. I can't yell at the top of my lungs outside (not that I did that much before, but it's nice to have the option). I can't go outside my door and wander around for hours without seeing people (is there a word for being people-phobic?). I'm getting used to it, though. The nice thing about the nature center is that, since school is back in session, there's almost nobody there during the day... meaning, I can go walk on the trails with Delta and not see a soul or hear a car. It's lovely... and I usually don't even use words like "lovely."

Oh and another nice thing is that I can let my dog drink out of her own water bottle without anyone judging me on how ridiculous it is.

And now I leave you with this unedited picture.

Still think fairies aren't real???

Moderate Home Makeover: Kacie Edition {part 1}

Another blog already? I know what you're thinking: "She has no life." You would be right in that. Today I spent a good part of the day figuring out new and exciting ways to organize the laundry room and the refrigerator. I need to start work now.

Anyways, I've been meaning to do this for a while now- our "before and after" house pictures. We've done a good bit of work on our little home, and I personally am rather fond of it. You may not be (if there's anyone actually reading), but just... act like you are, okay?

Laundry Room

Big Effort: Painting (duh), shelf removal/replacement

Kitchen

Big Effort: tearing off wallpaper (blah!), painting, sink replacement, countertop replacement, new backsplash (Special thanks to Dad for helping with [okay, mostly doing] the last three.)

(I think the puppy makes a nice addition :P)

Den

Big Effort: Painting (let me again state the obvious), partial wood floor replacement, built-in entertainment center extraction (a much bigger job that it sounds like)

(Cool, I caught myself in the mirror!)

Foyer

Big Effort: Wallpaper removal (a zillion hideous layers hidden underneath!), wall texturing, painting (Special thanks to Dad and Brent for doing the texturing, and both parents for painting while we were on our honeymoon).

Formal Living Room, now known as the Asian Room

Big effort: painting, having a ridiculous amount of nerdy Asian deco stuff

the two fish still alive from the wedding reception...

I plan on posting the other parts of the house later. They're finished too, of course, but I don't have pictures yet. I should go to bed now- tomorrow I have a busy day of doing nothing in particular.

summer sum-up

So the summer started out pretty busy. Ok I don't know how I got a hyperlink on that sentence and now I don't know how to take it off.

In May I graduated with a BM in Music Education and ESL endorsement (and sang The National Anthem and Alma Mater at the ceremony!)...

The next day was Mother's Day, and I apparently did not get the memo to wear green.

Two weeks later, I married the love of my life!

It was (in my opinion... not that I'm biased) a beautiful and unique ceremony, and short and sweet. I hate

those weddings that go on forever. I mean, the girls are just there to see the dress and the kiss, and the guys are just there to eat cake. I'll probably do a wedding post later. By the way, the pictures are by our amazing photographer friend Cathy of Sparks Photography.

We had a dream-honeymoon at a place way classier than us, thanks to my travel-agent Aunt Mary getting us a great deal. The Le Blanc Resort in Cancun.... ah.... awesome week.

We came back and started semi-normal married life, which included my new nephew's t-ball games! T-ball is WAY more entertaining than pro sports.

Michael had a business trip to Chicago for a week, so I went to Conway and got my hair chopped off. I will not go to a hair place here... nobody touches my hair with scissors except my Uncle Wyck at Wyck's Place in Conway.

Michael got back and we left on a family trip to Europe. Wow! What an experience. A very exciting two weeks, to say the least. We stayed in youth hostels and a castle and holiday inns and a baptist seminary and took trains and busses everywhere and walked miles and miles every day. Other than the one time where I thought we were going to get murdered by drunks while looking for a hotel in a sketchy city at 2:00 AM, we had some amazing times.

We came back and I wanted a puppy, and so there was Delta (who I already posted about). She was cute and fuzzy-wuzzy and has more than doubled in size since then. And both of her ears are sticking up now.

Things have been pretty slow since then. I spend most of my time... doing nothing of significance. Being a stay-at-home housewife is not as great as it sounds. I'm very unproductive. Good thing I JUST SECURED A JOB YESTERDAY! I will be teaching voice and working with choir students at a high school here and substitute teaching part-time. I'm ready.

But until then, I shall continue doing what I have done a lot of this summer...

Being nerdy & wearing my awesome new glasses, hanging out with this cute dude ^,

Cooking a lot and making up recipes, watching movies with Delta,

walking the poochie, and, of course, being lazy.

Oh and also I'm constantly trying out new and faster routes home and to places, but usually they end up getting me lost and taking longer.

Okay that's it!