East Texas Adventures

This weekend is one I won't soon forget! It was probably one of the most fun weekends Joe and I have had in a while. On Friday, we headed to Palestine so Joe could help his dad with a few projects. We ended up having so much fun! The weather was absolutely perfect! You know, the kind where it's sunny, there's a slight cool breeze, and the warmth of the sun beating down on you just feels so amazing! I worked on a few crafts while the boys worked, and when they were finished Joe came outside and asked if I'd play horseshoes with him. I am not good at that game at all, but it felt so great outside that I figured why not?=) Joe and I played, and after a game to 10 that seemed to last hours, he beat me. Then Sharon played Joe, Joe played Bob, and Bob Played Sharon. It was a lot of fun to watch, and just to be outside.

Joe beat me and he beat Sharon. He was getting pretty cocky!=)

Then Bob stepped in to try and beat him!

Can you tell by this picture who won?! Way to go Bob!

Then Sharon and Bob played a round. It was so fun to watch them!

Bob won again! He was pretty proud of himself! Love that smile!=)

After Horseshoes, I wanted to swing. I love this swing! They have it hanging from a huge tree in their backyard. Pretty cool if you ask me!

I asked Joe to push me, and I can honestly say I have never swung so high! I would swing back over his head and he would reach his arms up and grab my ankles, and yank me down to push me way up high. There were a few times I was holding on for dear life!=)
There's just something so freeing about swinging. I have always loved it! Yesterday, I had so much fun being up so high, feeling the wind through my hair, and the warm sun on my face. It doesn't get much better than that!
That night we had an amazing beef stew dinner that Sharon made. SO GOOD!!! They had signed up to feed the missionaries, so they were there also. It ended up being a lot of fun. It brought back a lot of memories, and it was fun to talk to them about the people they were working with, the challenges of their area, and just being in their presence. On Saturday we had planned to go to Toledo Bend to help set up some handcarts for our stake youth trek next week. Joe mentioned where we were going and one of the elders said he recommended this BBQ place in one of his past areas we were going to be driving through. We had no cell phone service in this small town, and for much of our drive. We stopped to ask some people how to get here and they highly recommended it.

The woman we spoke to recommended the ribs, and the missionary had recommended the baked potato. So, Joe got the ribs and I got the baked potato and we shared. I got turkey on my potato, and it was outstanding! I don't normally like the bbq in Texas because there's usually a really strong smoke flavor. I like bbq that has rich, wonderful bbq sauces, not really the smoke flavor. This place was awesome! We were glad we stopped there for lunch.

After lunch we stopped for a potty break at a nearby gas station. We both just cracked up when we saw this! Joe LOVES the show Swamp People! They catch alligators, and are from Louisiana so they have a very strong accent. It almost sounds like another language when they talk. Sometimes they have to put subtitles on the show=)

One of Joe's favorite guys always yells to his partner "CHOOT 'EM" (SHOOT HIM) and we think it's so funny!
We still needed to kill some time before the people we were meeting were supposed to be there, so Joe stopped at a little thrift store and we went hunting for some goods! I love doing stuff like that! I found a few cool things I am going to spray paint and bring back to life!

After lunch, we had no idea what was in store for us. Joe had printed off directions from the guy in our ward that's in charge of Trek. We had left Palestine at 8:30am to drive 2 and a half hours to Toledo Bend. We were to drive to this unpaved road and then there was supposed to be a place where we were setting up the handcarts and leaving them until they went to Trek. Well, our cell phones didn't work. (We learned it was because Verizon doesn't work in this part of Texas. Everyone we told that we didn't have cell service said "You must have Verizon!" Great, just Great! So, we got to the unpaved road and started to drive down it, only to realize there were several unpaved roads that connect off of this main dirt road. So, we went down the main road for a bit and had no idea where to go. We weren't sure if the other guys were there yet so we decided to head out to the main entrance. I told Joe we should just wait there. Well, his thought was what if they were already back there somewhere. So, he figured we should just drive up the road a ways to the next town (the direction the guys should have been coming from from Houston) and maybe we would get service, or pass them. Sure enough, a few miles down the road, we see the guys truck and the scout trailer go past us in the opposite direction. I hollered to Joe to hurry and turn around and follow him! Well, we were on a dinky two lane road in the country and we were in a truck. Nobody was coming, so Joe figured he would just go off of the road a little in the ditch and then turn around. BIG MISTAKE! The ground was wet and muddy and we were soon stuck! Joe gunned it to try to get out, and the back wheels just sunk! Totally our luck! This was Joe assessing the situation after a few tries of me trying to gun it, and him jumping up and down in the bed of the truck to put weight on it.We tried gathering big sticks and putting them under the tires, nothing worked! We both had mud on us from taking turns trying to jump up and down in the bed of the truck while the other hit the gas, only to have the tires sink and mud get flipped all over us. We were laughing at our luck at first, and couldn't believe it! Then, after trying a few different things, only to have them not work, we started to realize we weren't getting out without help. Joe sent a text to Bro. Owens saying "Stuck in Mud, Help!" Of course with the cell service the way it was, it didn't send until much later.
So, after a while I said "We need to just say a prayer." Joe said he was too hot(upset) to pray, so I was going to have to say it. =) I had just finished the prayer when we heard a vehicle coming. It ended up being a truck, and Joe flagged it down. It was a nice older woman probably in her 60s. Joe asked if she could pull us out.
She was wondering what had happened! She was so nice and said she would help. She turned around and Joe pulled out the straps he had in his toolbox.

It just took a few minutes, and the truck was out of the mud! Thank Heavens!!!

We laughed about it afterwards. What are the odds!? Now we had a completely new issue. How on earth were we going to find Bro. Owens? We ended up going down every road that went off the main dirt road, and we didn't find them. So, we headed to find a pay phone. We stopped at a Beer Store and an employee let Joe borrow his phone. Bro. Owens said they were just south down the road off to the side with a semi truck. He said we couldn't miss them. He busted up at our story of getting stuck in the mud.
They had to take the semi driver down the dirt road to see if he thought he would be able to get the semi to the open land they needed the handcarts taken to. While we waited for them we played a little game of Mancala. We had stopped at a couple dollar stores to kill time earlier in the day and had picked it up there. I love this game!
The semi driver said he could get the truck down the dirt road and could turn it around on the open lot. Sure enough, he did it!
The truck was filled with handcarts! I have never been on Trek, so I had no idea what to expect.
We pulled them all out and laid them on the ground so they could be put together. The semi driver couldn't believe people were actually going to pull them. I was in charge of putting grease on the axles and wheels and then the guys went through and put them together.

It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get them all put together.

Here's the row of finished handcarts. Pretty cool sight if you ask me!

These are all the guys from the stake that came to put them together. I represented for the females!=)
Joe thought it would be funny for me to put my arms up like this, so it looked like I was holding them. The weather was great, and it was pretty cool to see all of these put together. One day, maybe I will actually go on Trek=)
On the way home we drove past our sink sight. I had to take a few more pics. So funny to see these tracks!
We have some great stories from the day. The drive was beautiful. I have never been through that much of East Texas. I was told it was beautiful, and it really was. So many tall trees, rolling hills, fields of wild flowers, and a lot of cute houses just out in the country.
When we walked in the door, we walked in to freshly cleaned carpets! Getting ready for little Braden to be crawling around! I love me some clean carpets! All in all it was a great day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Well, another year has come and gone! It's Valentine's Day again! It's funny to look back over the few years we've been married and see how it has evolved. The first year we were married, I tried to be a sweet wife and surprise my husband by decorating our apartment and leaving a trail of rose pedals from our front door to the bedroom. He had to work that day, so I wanted to surprise him when he came home. I will never forget, nor let him live down, that when he followed that trail of red rose pedals, and found me, the first words out of his mouth were "Who's going to clean all this up?" SERIOUSLY!? I was trying to be all cute, and that's all he could think about!=) I have learned over the years now that there are a few things that Joe really appreciates, and that he must have, in order to be happy. The first on that list, is a clean house. Every Monday is usually my cleaning, grocery shopping and laundry day. He's always so happy when he comes home on Mondays and finds that our apartment has been cleaned. He usually always expresses his appreciation too, which is nice. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that it may come across that our apartment is a mess the rest of the week. That's usually not the case. Joe is ocd about an orderly home. My parent's can attest that I have not always kept my room, car, and bathroom the cleanest. I guess what it took to help me change, was a husband who turns into a grump if the house is messy=) ha ha jk! I really did get better once we had our own place and I was the one who had to do most of the cleaning. Anyways, I'm getting off on a tangent.

Back to Valentine's Day. So, last year instead of giving Joe a heart attack by decorating again and having candles, balloons, and decor everywhere I just made a nice dinner and set the table with a few candles and rose pedals. He did much better with that=) This year, I decided I wanted to actually make decorations and decorate our house for the month of February. I've had a lot of fun, and now I can pull these out year after year. Joe actually said he likes what I've done, so that makes it even more worth it.

Here's a shot of our living room. I will zoom in on the things I made. Most all of the ideas for the things I made came from Pintrest. Gotta love it!

I have loved having shelves with decorations that I can change out with each holiday or season. I kept it simple this time and just things I had on hand so I didn't have to spend money. I had made the "LOVE" letters last year I think. I just tied ribbon around the candles, and used scrap book paper to fill the frame.

I made this sign out of scrapbook paper, ribbon, and cardboard letters. I just painted them white and glued them on.

These rose balls I made out of crepe paper. I had to make each flower individually and then glue it on to a styrofoam ball. They took FOREVER to make! I will never make them again! I love how they turned out though. The whole time I was making them Joe kept telling me he didn't like them. He didn't have my vision though=) I got the basket at hobby lobby for like 7 bucks. It was brown so I just spray painted it white. Once I got the centerpiece all done and on the table, Joe said he had to admit that he liked it. =) Good thing! I think they're fun, and totally appropriate for V-Day.

Next, I changed out the decor on our little decorative table.

I made the pink ball in the bird cage out of felt. Other than the pink and red hearts, I had all the vase fillers. The rose pedals around the candle are the ones I used two years ago to make the trail to our room. Joe appreciates them being around the candle, instead of on the floor, much more!=) The little XO heart thing was just a wooden frame from Walmart that I modge podged some scrapbook paper onto and then used little wooden letters from Hobby Lobby to put XOXO on it. The plate I had from last year. Well, there you go! All done! I love how everything turned out. Now we can celebrate the month of love in an orderly manner every year=) ha ha!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

The Search Is Over

Ever since we moved into our apartment, we have been on the hunt for a little table to go under our clock in the dining room area. We have found a couple that we liked, but they were pretty expensive and I just wasn't ready to spend 500 bucks on a little accent table. So, we've held off for about 2 years now=) Well, Joe went up to Dallas a few months ago to bring back some furniture that Julie was giving to Serena. An accent table was one of the pieces and Joe mentioned to Serena that we had been looking for one, and she was so nice and said we could have that one if we wanted it. She had just put up some cute shelves in their entry way so didn't know what she would do with it. When Joe and I went up to Palestine after Christmas, we utilized the space and tools at his dad's house. It's not the easiest thing to redo furniture on the balcony of our apartment=) I forgot to take a picture of the "before" while it was put together. Here it is taken apart though. Bob was so sweet to be my assistant and hold it up for me. =)

Joe bought me that nifty sander, and went to town on the top of it. He's so great to help me bring my ideas to life. Lucky for me he doesn't let projects sit for long. He likes to just get them done=) I wasn't feeling very well, but I bundled up and went out to help him.

He took a little break, don't worry he's not done=)

Some of the wood had chipped on a couple of the legs, so I worked on filling those.

I didn't really take pictures after this. Oops! We hung the legs in the garage and then we primed and spray painted them. Joe re-stained the top, and we let that dry. Then we covered the top in plastic and primed and spray painted the rest. We also put a new decal on the front. It is really similar to the old one.Then we covered it with a spray polycrylic to protect it.

And..... Here's the finished product!

I love it! The best part is that it was free. We probably spent between 30-35 dollars to redo it. Not too shabby! I love that I have another place to put cute decorations. This is what it looks like now, and later on this week it will be decorated for Valentine's Day.
It doesn't really "pop" with our walls the color that they are, but I didn't want to have to redo it again once we get a house and can have some color on our walls. I'm content with this for now=)

A little side note..... I finally made a pillow cover with a zipper for my house! I made some last time I was in Utah for my sister. I had never done it before! All I did was watch some lady on youtube do it, and followed along. They are really pretty simple and this chair doesn't look like it's missing something anymore=)