Go Hogs Go!

Labor Day weekend was the first Razorback game.  Nick and I don't have tickets, but we did tailgate with the Cashion's and the Rainwater's...thanks guys!  It was so fun to see the Bell's and the Rainwater's.  We had fun catching up and getting ready to cheer on the Hogs!

The boys at their old house...325!

Sisters!

We went back to my parents house to watch the game...It was so fun to get some quality family time with Brad and Sarah in town.

My cousin Claire moved up here for school.  It is so fun to see her on a regular basis.  Plus we get to see her whole fam when they come up for games.  We love the Greg Ashby family!

 We watched the 2nd razorback game with Brian and Jessica.  No pics, but it was fun to cook and hang out together while watching the game.  We have to mooch off friends and family until we get cable again.

Chi-town!

A couple weeks ago I headed to Chicago for a weekend with college girlfriends.  We made a quick trip to celebrate sweet Jennifer!  She is getting married in October and we had to get one last celebration in with the girls before the big day.  Rachel, Kenlie, and Jennifer picked me up on Friday at 4:00 and we headed for Springfield to pick up Mel.  Erin (Jen's sister) was lucky enough to fly and meet us there. We missed you Amy! 

 Rachel drove us the entire way there, all through Chicago, and all the way home....ROCKSTAR! We got there late Friday night.  It was SO fun to see everyone and we spent some time catching up that night even though it was late.  We piled up in Mikki's awesome apt. and Sean came home to cook us breakfast Saturday morning.  

We spent Saturday shopping and eating!  Lincoln Park during the day, Tapas for lunch, Michigan Avenue, Francesca's on Chestnut for dinner.  Saturday night we spent at Annie's place in the city.  It is so adorable!  We were able to shower Jen with some fun stuff for her honeymoon.  We also enjoyed some yummy cupcakes from Sweet Mandy B's Bakery. Sunday we went to breakfast downtown before heading home.  

It was such a wonderful weekend with friends.  It was a quick trip, but well worth it.  I feel so blessed to have such awesome girlfriends.  College is long gone, but our friendships will last a lifetime.  I can't wait to celebrate again at the wedding in October.  

What's Going On?

We have a lot going on at the Rhoads' house these days. It seems summer has flown by! I LOVE sunshine and summertime and I could live in Florida. Nick on the other hand loves having a true four seasons. We've tried to make the most of the sunshine this year. We take weekly trips to our neighborhood pool, we've taken Mallie to a local creek, and taken several trips. Here is a list of what we've been up to:

-In April we headed to Fort Worth for a Kenny Chesney/Zac Brown Band Concert and we got to spend some fun time with The Bate's and the Stanford's. I love spending time with Nick's aunt and cousin. We both love KC and ZBB and it was such a fun concert!

-We hosted our 1st annual craw fish boil with our community group. I think we would both consider it a success.

-Nick's sister graduated from High School and we hosted her graduation party at our house. It was so fun to have all of his family and some of mine at our house to celebrate.

-Nick headed to Joplin two days after the tornado to help with relief efforts.  We went with our group the next weekend to continue helping.  The pictures don't do it justice and the community of Joplin is still in need of prayers.  It is hard to understand how one act of nature can cause such destruction.  

-Nick has been busy finishing his masters in education and he finished his internship in May. He spent the summer working at his mom's law firm and is continuing to work for her until he finds a job.
-We went with our new friends Brian and Jessica Salmon to some fun events.  Our annual barn dance and a Lady Antebellum/Darius Rucker concert. We were literally on the 5th row at the concert.  so fun! 

- We celebrated our 3rd anniversary with a quick trip to Branson. Spent some time shopping, relaxing by the pool, and eating at Cantina Laredo. We stopped at Roaring River on our way home and Nick fished.

-We spent the last week of July in Destin, FL (my favorite place) and it was lovely. We went with my family and even with a few rainy days we had a blast. It was the perfect relaxing vacation. We missed Brad and Sarah big time!

-We stopped in New Orleans on our way home from FL. It was great to visit a new city, but I personally think NOLA is pretty trashy..Bourbon Street is at least.

-We spent many summer nights with our friends and community group. I am continually realizing how blessed we are to have such a neat group of people to walk through life with. I am so thankful for these couples in our group. Lots of fun memories and good talks!

-Nick now has three annual requirements: annual crawfish boil, annual NYE party, and annual trip to Destin. I am fine with all of the above. :)

Work has been busy for me lately, but Nick is without a job. He is actively looking for a job and we are praying for provision in the meantime. I know God has big plans for his career so we are trusting HIS TIMING is perfect!

SB 2011 Pt. 1

Nick and I had the opportunity to take his sister, Liz, on a college visit to Colorado Christian University. She asked us a while back if we would be willing to take her and we jumped at the chance. Nick was off for SB and I took the week of work. We spent 4 days in Denver and it was a blast. His sister was super sweet and flexible about letting us do lots of fun things like see our friends, go skiing, and tour Denver. We enjoyed our time with her. It was fun to get away for a few days and experience all (some) Colorado has to offer.

Skiing @ Breckenridge. Let's just say a lot has changed in the past 8 years. I haven't been skiing since my junior year of HS. I am not quite as brave or as in shape as I used to be. However, it sure was fun to experience skiing with Nick. Check out his face in this first pic. That was his reaction when I told him I was as good at skiing as he is at snow boarding. :)

Top 5 Favorite things about the trip:

1. seeing old friends (Amy.Blake.Adam.Erin.Kristen.Compston.Argo)...lots of fun catching up convos

2. skiing and being in God's beautiful creation with NRR

3. Red Rocks - famous outdoor concert venue (see pics above)

4. Little Man's Ice Cream (no pic, but a funky little ice cream joint)

5. Walking the streets of Denver and experiencing the sunshine

Updates

I don't want this blog to be all about our dog. After seeing the last two posts I thought I should give an update on the humans in our family. :)

Nick and I have an exciting week ahead. We are heading to Denver, with his sister, for a college visit on Saturday. Then we are heading to the Buffalo River with my parents on Wednesday. They rented a cabin and invited us to tag along. I am so excited for a FULL week off work. It's been over a year and a half since I have taken that much time off. Woohoo!

Nick is currently in grad school to become a high school business teacher. He is student teaching at a local high school and enjoying it for the most part. He is ready to be paid for teaching. :) I am so proud of him for following the Lord's will for his life. It has not been easy and he has been faithful!

I am still working at Loving Choices and enjoying every day of it. It has been the most challenging time of my life, but the Lord has used my job to teach me so much. I know that I know that I know God will always provide. His ways are not always our ways, but they are always the most blessed! I've also realized that Jesus is our ONLY hope. I know that is something I have known for a while, but I actually realize it now. I see so many heart breaking situations and cycles of "junk" in the lives of our LC clients. I realize that Jesus is our only hope. We must look beyond this life and realize there is so much more!

Another way Nick and I have been blessed is through our community group. We are living life with these people on a weekly basis and it is so incredible. We've grown to know and love each person in our group. We know the Lord is using this group to grow and guide us!

here is a pic of our gang (friends and community group minus a few) on New Year's Eve:

Life as we know it...

Well life has seemed a bit crazy lately. I know Nick and I aren't parents, but we do have a 9 month old dog that we are responsible for parenting. She is usually pretty low maintenance, but that wasn't the case last week.

Laundry on the floor in our room + mallie enjoying the taste of laundry = Mallie ate two socks!

Yes, our crazy dog ate two socks which led to one trip to the ER vet then a trip to our normal vet. Mallie ended up having exploratory surgery to remove the socks. It was a huge ordeal. I was so torn...we had to take care of it, but we couldn't really afford it, but we were responsible for her, but we didn't have the money. You get the picture!

However, we survived and Mallie is almost back to normal. We did get her "fixed" during the surgery. So no pups at the Rhoads' house. Thank goodness!

Here are some pics of Mallie.

Right before surgery:

Camping out in the living room to keep an eye on her:

I know that Mallie is just a dog...trust me. I realize we are blessed we weren't going through this with a child. However, it did give me a new perspective on parents with sick children. I can't imagine how draining it must be. We are so blessed!

Mallie Mae Rhoads

Well as you know I can't seem to post on a regular basis. It usually only happens when I find some spare time and I am on my personal laptop (with my pics on it).

However, we do have some old news to share with you! We got a puppy! Mallie Mae Rhoads joined our family in July. Nick read a book and he was very particular that we bring our puppy home on day 49. Somehow, this actually happened. We went to see Mallie on a Wednesday and that next Sunday I talked Nick into going back to get her.

Mallie is a female black lab. She is soooo sweet, but she is crazy like a typical lab puppy. We picked her out because she was calm and slept all the time. Let's just say that has changed big time.

We LOVE her. It has been so fun to watch her grow, walk her almost everyday, and just have the excitement of a puppy. We've had our frustrating experiences, but we7 just keep thinking of ourselves as parents. The joy is far better than the frustrations.

I'll leave you with some pics of our sweet Mallie.

7 weeks

18 weeks

Can you believe how much she has grown? She went from 5 to 25 pounds in just 9 weeks!