Our Weekend

Well, this weekend was definitely one full of ups and downs. Friday night I convinced Ryan to take me to Arena, which is a sports bar here in Mountain Home, to watch the KU/Richmond basketball game. I've only gotten to see one other game this year and that was at Thanksgiving when we were in New Mexico. Ryan's not a big sports fan, but every now and again he watches a KU game to me, because he knows its important to me. The game was pretty good and of course they won so that was nice. I seriously got a couple dirty looks from some young guys because I was in Arkansas and probably because I was a girl paying attention and cheering every time KU scored. Ryan and I met a really nice businessman that had family in town and ended buying our drinks the rest of the night. Needless to say I was suppose to be the one driving home, but that didn't exactly happen! LOL What can I say? FREE Drinks and well we luckily have really awesome upstairs neighbors who gladly came and gave us a ride home. :) 
  Saturday morning came and I got reminded that boy I'm sure not in college anymore! LOL We woke up to it being cold and rainy and I was so happy to just stay home and not doing anything. Well, almost not anything. I didnt manage to make my neighbor's 3 year old daughter a birthday cake. I got a whole bunch of cake decorating tools for Christmas and still haven't had the chance to use them, so I jumped at the chance to be creative and use them this weekend. She is really big into Tinkerbell and all of her Fairy Friends, so that was the kind of cake that I made.

I was pretty happy with the results and I knew that even if the cake turned out to be a total fail, that it was for a 3 year old and all she cared about was how it tasted. I finished the cake and Ryan and I spent the rest of the afternoon/ night watching movies and staying inside our nice warm home, while it poured outside.
   Sunday I got up and went to babysit at church like I do every Sunday. I babysit a little boy who just turned one and he's really a baby anymore because he won't let me hold him anymore, except for a bottle and then he's down again. He just started walking and aww talk about a kid being proud of himself! He is just too cute. After church I came home and we talked about going to Ryan's parents to watch the KU game, but decided to stay home and I watched it on my phone with 30 second auto-refresh button so I kinda was watching it. I think I'm happier that I didnt watch it in person, because I was already yelling at my phone while Ryan sat on the couch laughing at me! I think that's all I'm going to say about the game, because seriously, NOT BEING ABLE TO MAKE FREE THROWS, WHY DONT YOU JUST HAND THEM THE FINAL FOUR! OH WAIT YOU DID! Okaye, I'm done! :) I then make us some yummy lazagna for dinner and we headed for an early bedtime to end our weekend. I think it was a bitter sweet weekend.

2 Year Anniversary Weekend

We had a blast on our anniversary camping weekend and I can't believe that it's taking me almost a week to write this post about it. Ryan and I's wedding anniversary was last Monday March 21st. Ryan said that he was going to plan something for our anniversary, which if anyone knows me knows that I'm a huge planner, but it was actually nice for him to want to plan something for our anniversary. He took us on a 3 day camping and hiking trip from Friday night to Monday afternoon at Sam's Throne, which is about 88 miles from our house. 3 whole days with just my husband and no one and nothing else! SIGN ME UP PLEASE! :)  We started Thursday night getting everything all packed up and ready to go. It was so cool to see our puppy, Franklyn get so excited as we were packing the car, knowing we were going somewhere that involves Ryan's camping/hiking backpack. Franklyn LOVES to go hiking with Ryan! Every time Ryan gets his backpack out Franklyn gets all excited and starts running around. We left on Friday night right after work and got to Sam's Throne and got everything all set up just in time for the sun to down as just as we were done. Both of us had a long day from working all day and so by the time we put everything up we sat by the fire for a little bit and then were ready for bed. So Ryan is a HUGE outdoors man, and I mean huge, we loves hiking, climbing, camping, fishing and everything in between. LOL Now, he likes to do all of these things and when he goes hiking and camping he usually brings the least amount of weight and things that he needs. Well, that one for a first for him. Since, I've known him he can't usually sleep without the t.v. going or a DVD on and this has since worn off on me. A couple of years ago, I won at work a Free portable DVD player and we usually take it with us on trips. (YES, Mom if you are reading this, I FINALLY found the DVD player in the back of one of our closets. OOPS! Sorry!) With all of this being said, Ryan and I went camping and YES, we brought along our DVD player despite Ryan normally never would have done this. Talk about roughing it! LOL We watched a movie and fell asleep.
  Saturday morning I woke up to Ryan cooking coffee and bacon and eggs over the fire. Talk about a great smell! For some reason I learned that everything tasted so much better out in the woods and on a campfire. We ate breakfast and went on a little hike.

  This was me right before breakfast as I was just waking up for the day, hence why I still look sleeping. LOL
   

 Ryan cooking our breakfast on Saturday Morning! UMM.. coffee, bacon and eggs! It was very very tasty. Ryan knows how to cook very good food., when he cooks.

 Franklyn and I hanging out by the fire on Saturday afternoon, just relaxing.

       Franklyn took the lead and we hiked around the top of the cliffs and looked for trails to hike for Sunday. After about an hour or so of hiking we came back to our campsite and Ryan made us some lunch and we spent the afternoon listening to the radio and trying to make contacts to Venezuela because there was a group of 6 women that were trying to make as many contacts as possible to as many people as possible. Ryan made his contact at about 1:01pm our time and I made my contact at 1:31pm. (If you read, my last post, it was Venezuela, not New Zealand that we made a contact to this time, New Zealand was Ryan's contact before) We spent the afternoon with me reading an amazing Nickolas Sparks book called "The Guardian" and Ryan was talking and listening on the radio. It was amazing! I love listening to Ryan on the radio and it was cool to sit back and listen to all of the places people from checking in from to the ladies in Venezuela. Ryan made dinner and after dinner we hiked down to one of the cliffs and we opened a bottle of champange and watched the sunset. It was so peaceful and just relaxing to hear nothing but the wind blow oh and Franklyn because he got tied to a tree so that we didn't lose our puppy dog over the cliff. I promise we aren't mean parents to our puppy dog!!!!! Went back had a fire and another watched a movie to go to sleep. Sunday we woke up and decided to take a hike down the cliffs and up to the top of Sam's Throne.

Ryan popping the cork off the bottle of champange trying not to pop the cork in his eye. Which he almost did on our honeymoon. LOL It's our little tradition now that on every anniversary we get a bottle of champange. It all started on our wedding day when Ryan's old boss in KC gave us a bottle for our honeymoon.  

                    Cheers to 2 years of marriage and to many many more!



Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast and we decided to go for a hike down the cliffs and Franklyn was a little scared about this one. He wasn't so sure what we were trying to make him do and hung on to the rocks for dear life every time we passed him from Ryan to I.

We got back from the hike and relaxed by the fire for a little bit. I finished my 500+ page book that was amazing and Ryan hopped on the radio to play around some more. I had really enjoyed climbing down the rocks to get to the bottom of the cliffs. At first I was really scarred, but after I did it and with Ryan's help, it was alot of fun. Ryan has been climbing up and down almost every cliff down at Sam's Throne and I knew he had his harness and climbing gear and ropes with him, so on a crazy wimp I asked if we could go climbing down the side of one of the cliffs. I think he was both happy and shocked that I wanted to do so, but of course didnt hesitate twice when I asked to go and grabbed his gear and we went. Now, my heart races just watched Ryan at work, he climbs trees for a living, but this was me and a completely different feeling. I'm Miss Clumsy and have zero coordination when walking on sidewalks let alone down the side of a cliff!

This was me all strapped up and harnessed in and ready to climb down the side of the cliff. I was very nervous at first, but after I did it I had so much fun that I wanted to do it again. And Ryan was very excited to see me climb and do something that he does all of the time. :)

        We got done climbing and the we watched the sunset together on the cliff. Then we had dinner and just enjoyed the fact that it was Sunday night and we didnt have to rush home and could enjoy another night camping. I had so much fun that by this time on Sunday night I told Ryan that I wasn't ready to go home and could we just not go back home! He of course laughed and then agreed. Yeah, if only it was that easy, we would have done it in a heart beat!!!! We got up the next day and had breakfast, relaxed a bit and then packed up all of our stuff to head home:( We got home and showered because after 3 days we both sooooo needed a shower! We then decided that since it was our actual anniversary that we would put off all housework/ responsiblities til the next day, it could all wait. After a great afternoon together to continued our laziness and Ryan took me out to dinner to Colton's steak house and enjoyed a nice dinner. After our dinner the waiter brought us over an ice cream sundae and sang to us for our anniversary and
of course after one bite I had to take my spoon full of whipped cream and get my hubbin right in the face with the spoon! LOL Of course that came payback by Ryan, but we both laughed so hard that it was totally worth it!!!! Talk about a great end to a wonderful anniversary weekend. I couldn't have asked for anything more and it was exactly what we both needed!
:)

Udate: Pass or Fail?

KF5KED

I PASSED! YEAH! I passed my Ham Radio License Test two weeks ago on March 12th and I had to wait til Tuesday March 15th to receive my call sign! My official call sign is KF5KED. The picture above is a piece of my FCC issued license that I received in the mail:) Ryan and I seriously spent on day Monday, Monday Night and Tuesday day checking the FCC database to see when my call sign would be posted and it was on Tuesday afternoon! On Tuesday night I couldn't wait to get on the radio and make my first radio contact that night. It has been so fun able to talk on the radio to people now and I've gotten alot of support from the other radio operators here in Mountain Home, Arkansas. I didn't even have my license for a week and the folllowing Saturday March 19th I made my 1st overseas contact to New Zealand. More about that in my next post about our anniversary weekend, but talk about cool! That's over 2,000 miles line of sight from Arkansas to New Zealand.  It was so worth all of the time and studying that I put into it!

Taking My Test Saturday!

So it's been like forever since I've posted on here and well I'd say I'm totally slacking on my New Year's goal of blogging more frequently! Oh well, there just hasn't been a lot to really blog about until now..... I'm really excited right now! I'm taking my HAM radio license test on Saturday and I'm pumped and excited because I feel confident that I'm going to pass it THIS TIME! YEAH! And hopefully as of this time next week, I'll be able to talk on one of these babies........

 This actually looks just like the one that's in my husband's KIA right now. (I know, I'm a complete DORK!)

      Okaye, so your probably thinking 'what is she talking about? HAM radio test?' Well, to start off ham radio is "both a hobby and service in which participants, called "hams", use various types of radio communications equipment to communication with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation, and self-training." Okaye, that was the official definition of it, but basically means you can talk to other people that have the same license and it not be through cell phone towers and if any natural disaster ever happens, you can help with emergency communications and Ryan and I will still be able to communicate without use of cell phones. AND not every one has a ham radio license, so it's just cool to say, "Hey I studied my butt off and have something not many people especially my age have today!" Sounds pretty cool to me! :)
  This actually isnt my first attempt to take this test. This would be my 2nd attempt and I'm determined for it to be my last attempt because I'm way more prepared and it has literally consumed my life over the last 2 weeks and so I'm GOING TO PASS this thing on Saturday!!!! 
   My husband had decided to study and take his ham radio test last year and took it and passed it in April 2010. Right about the time he got his license I got really sick with my gall bladder and spent many nights lying in bed listening to him talk to people and get familiar with ham radio and the operators in and around Mountain Home, AR. It was so interesting just listening to him, mostly guys, sit around and talk. I really wasn't too interested in it myself at the time and just enjoyed listening to him and see him find something he really enjoyed! Right at the end of June the conversation came up about me getting my license and I toyed with the subject and decided to take the test. The timing just happened to be right when my 10 year old sister was coming to stay with us for 2 weeks and it only gave me a week to study. Well the day came and I wasn't sure if I was ready to take it, but decided to take it anyway, partly because my husband had been talking about it to all of the ham operators on the nightly net about it and well, I didnt want to let them all down.  So I took the test and I didn't do as bad as I thought I would, but didn't pass it either! :( I was 2 away from passing it! I WAS SO DISCOURAGED! I know I should have just got back up on the horse, as they say but, hey, my pride and ego was hurt and didn't decide to retake it at that time. :(
Forward time about 7 months and I finally decided that I was ready to get back on that horse and re-do the test! So about 2 weeks ago I started studying and haven't stopped every day since! I've taken 27 pages of notes, written about 175 note cards and taken, I dont know how many practice tests! This time I'm ready to take this test. There is a bank of about 235 questions that could be on the test and only 35 on the test. So, please pray for me on Saturday morning at 9am that I pass the test this time and all my hard work pays off! And yes, I'm sure a chessy picture of me holding my license will be posted in the near future if I pass my test! Wish me luck! :)