In This Crazy Life...

Yesterday we drove to Hot Springs to participate in the Roller Coaster 10K and Ride. I ran the 10K that morning and Kev and I both did the ride that afternoon.  The race course wasn't all that wonderful. You had to run the 5K twice...boring! Part of the course ran through the parking lot, which wasn't too bad and flat, except part of it was gravel. Gravel isn't ideal when you are use to running on the road. This was the first year for this race, so hopefully they will take suggestions to improve it next year. I finished the race in an hour and 18 minutes. I'm okay with my time. The course was hilly and had few water breaks. Kev stopped to get a snack on our way to my parents. He insisted I needed M&Ms. After showering at my parents, we stopped in Chick-Fil-A for a quick bite to eat. We had to be back at Magic Spring before 3:00 to get free parking and pick up his ride packet. You had to ride 16, 405 feet of roller coaster to equal a 5K. Here are t...

We left Doolin after a wonderful breakfast prepared by Kate's husband Charles. I had porridge with Bailey's and Kev had a toasted bagel with smoked Salmon. They have some of the best smoked Salmon I have ever tasted over there. The weather map for today. We did a pretty good job of missing the rain. The Burren is a National Park which contains examples of all the major habitats within the Burren: Limestone Pavement, Calcareous Grassland, Hazel scrub, Ash/Hazel Woodland, Turloughs, Lakes, Petrifying Springs, Cliffs and Fen. We followed a narrow road to hit some of the highlights in the Burren. There were tons of walking trails, but we only had a day and the weather wasn't the best.(You can see the dark clouds in this picture.) Our first stop was the church ruins in Carran. I'm sure  you used to enter through this iron gate, however it is locked so you must step over the wall right next to it. Once we left the churc...

I'm not sure how it happens, but the cat always finds a way to get freaking animals in the house! A snake, a lizard, a baby mouse, a frog, various insects. I know she has something because I find her in a corner playing or the animal is dead on the floor. UGH!! This time it was a baby flying squirrel. She was playing in the corner and all of a sudden I see something scurry across the floor. Of course I jump and scream for Kev. The dogs go over to check it out. I'm yelling for all the animals to come here. Kev doesn't know what he is looking for. The cat insists on trying to climb our fake tree. Kev looks in the top and grabs out a baby squirrel. Somehow it manages to get escape his grip and runs for the bedroom. Kev stops it right before he goes under the bed. We put it outside and notice that one of his legs is hurt. We decide to keep him overnight to make sure he is strong enough for outside life. I get the cat carrier out of the attic, place it in the guest bathroom...

We spent the weekend camping at Lake Ouachita for my birthday! I absolutely love island camping. It's hard to do often unless you have easy access to a boat. My brother bought my grandmother's boat last year, so now we can borrow it anytime. I'm so ready for an SUV! We need the room. Kev's truck is a work truck and is not wextended cab. When we have the dogs with us, Lilly has to lay in the floorboard and hatfiled is in Kev's face. We arrived at Brady Mountain about 5:00, however the battery was dead and had to wait on Spence to bring us his other one. This put us getting out there a little later than we wanted, but we managed to quickly set up camp before we lost all daylight. The sunset on our way to the island.   We quickly realized the geese guarding the island and quacking at the dogs were trying to protect their eggs. This one survived. They cracked open the other one we found. The island had a nice grassy area with thtese beautiful purple...

Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow! We have three beautiful views on top of our little hill.  Two are of water. The other is the horse pasture in the valley. Our unfinished back of the house. Hopefully with temps about 40 this weekend we can get in done! The dogs loved the snow! They ran around like little kids. Lilly kept eating it. Pretty sure she was wondering where her water was. We came in to warm up by the fire. Everyone loves to lay with daddy. After a nice nap, we went back out to build a snowman and throw the occasional snowball. We had so much fun playing in the snow, but I'm glad it's over. Come on spring!

Friday afternoon, school let out an hour early for inclement weather that was supposedly coming in around 5 or 6. I went to happy hour with my BFF. Afterwards my parents called to say they were on their way up here to visit my uncle in the hospital. I decided to meet them there. One the way it started snowing very lightly. Nothing was accumulating on the roads. We visited my uncle for about and hour. Still snowing very lightly. Snow blowing around on roads, not sticking at all. They wanted to grab a bite to eat, so I called Kev to come meet us. We arrived at Chuy's about 6:30 and waited for a table about 10 minutes. Once we sat down, Kev called to say he wasn't coming. He slid down the hill at the end of our road. He said the roads were getting bad. If I would have been with anyone else besides my parents, I would have left right then, but I knew dad would take care of me. We quickly ate and got ready to leave. Boy, were we surprised when we walked out! It had snowed 2 1/2 inch...

We had an amazing time at Beaver Lake outside of Eureka Springs. The weather was perfect. The leaves we're beautiful. Changing leaves and cooler weather make me happy! It was relaxing and we needed relaxing. The cutoff road to the cabins. Maybe it was part of a spook trail or something. Our cabin was on the mountain top. The bottom was closed off since we didn't need the space. The inside was a little rustic for my taste, but I understand why they decorate that way. There was a family of six deer that lived in the wooded part below the cabin. They would come out to graze each morning.  Again the view was AMAZING!!!!!!!! I thought there would be places to eat around the cabin, but there wasn't so we went into Eureka Springs to eat Friday night. The place we anted to eat at had a wait time of over an hour and Kev had forgotten his wallet, so no waiting and drinking. We ended up at this wonderful Mexican place. I love how all the restaurants and shops ar...