Zoo day and benches

Things have been going pretty good around the Simons compound.  Haley and I had a day with just the two of us on Saturday.  We went to the zoo while Laura did some shopping.  Haley was great.  She LOVED seeing the animals and getting pulled around in her wagon.  We thought it was going to rain.  In fact, it sprinkled on us on the drive down.  But once we got there, the rain stopped and it was a nice fall day.  We went in the butterfly exhibit at the zoo while we were there, which was pretty neat.  I’ve seen it a couple of times, but never been in. 

We’ve also finished up benches for the sunroom.  As you can see in the picture below, I had a little help building them.  Laura’s actually going to try to sell them so that I can re-build them a few inches lower.  No big deal.  It was a lot of fun building them with my little helper.  I’d welcome the chance to do it again.

Busy Bees

Boy have we been busy!  This past weekend was a whirlwind.  I rode in the MS150.  You may could call it the MS75.  The bike ride benefits multiple sclerosis.  It starts at Graceland and we wind through backroads to Tunica, MS.  Normally we stay the night there and ride back on Sunday.  Thanks to Hurricane Ike, Sunday’s ride was cancelled by the people putting on the ride due to high winds. 

The good part about the ride being cancelled was that Saturday’s ride was tough.  Due to Ike, we struggled against a headwind the majority of the way.  Once we hit the delta, the clouds spread and the sun was HOT!  The wind didn’t stop, though.  So, the good part is that we didn’t have to ride back on Sunday.

The bad part is that the wind we struggled against for hours on Saturday would have been a pleasant tailwind on Sunday.  That would have made the ride MUCH more enjoyable.

Regardless, we had a great time.  The ride was very well supported as always.  Accredo sponsored a rest stop along the way and was actually voted the top rest stop by the riders.  Our riding team for Accredo (which was about 20 riders) managed to raise a bit over $21,000. 

Laura came down to Tunica and met me on Saturday night.  We had a great time playing at the tables and endulging on Paula Dean’s buffet.  On the way home Sunday, we stopped at the Waffle House and had breakfast.  I’m not sure if it was something I ate, but I felt sick to my stomach all day Sunday.  I spent most of the day in bed getting waited on by Laura.  I’m feeling pretty good now, but Haley’s not.  Poor little thing has been coughing the past day or so.  It breaks my heart to see her hurting.

We managed to start taking pictures of the house.  I took a bunch of “before” pictures before we moved in.  I’ll try to post some over the next couple of entries.  Below are the first two.  Our sitting room before and after.  This is the room where I spend a good amount of time at home.  Its right off our bedroom and has our computer in it.  We just added a couch a few weeks ago.  We’re thinking we may do build-in shelves/cabinets along the wall with the window.  Still undecided.

Busy Weekend!

Well, our little beauty turns 18 months this weekend.  We took her out to get some good pictures and I think we succeeded!  I LOVE Hayden’s photography skills…he’s phenomenal and has a great subject to capture!  We were looking around the house last night to see where we’d like this picture in poster-size! 

We had a wonderful and full weekend.  Hayden’s parents came up on Friday night to spend the weekend.  I took the opportunity to have a girls night with my friend Melissa and we spent the evening scrapbooking at Archiver’s, a local store in town that hosts evenings to come in and use their tools, have dinner, and win door prizes.  It was fun catching up on some memories without interruption! 
The next morning Hayden’s dad and I went garage saling together!  I saw a couch on craigslist.com (my favorite website) that I thought would look great in our sun room.  I’ve been hunting a couch for months!!  We went and bought it…and had fun hanging out, just the two of us.  Unfortunately, the couch was the wrong color, but it will work perfectly in our office, so it’s not a loss.  So, the hunt continues…

Saturday morning we all drove up to “Goat City”, TN…give you a dollar if you know where that is!  We enjoyed seeing family and being outside at the Simons Family Reunion.  It was especially great to spend time with Papaw Ben.  We got home in time to change clothes and order pizza for the game. GO BULLDOGS!! 
Thank goodness we’re not fair weather fans because we’d be even more disappointed in the Dawgs performance than we were.  Haley had her MSU dress on and both sets of grandparents over to look for BULLY and COACH on the television.  Some kids like Mickey Mouse or other cute characters, Haley lives for BULLY.  We read the book, Hello Bully, many times a day and every time she sees the “M-State” emblem, she yells, “BULLY!”  We’re training her right.

Sunday Hayden was busy cleaning out the garage so I can park in there…yea!  He’s done so many projects lately and I’m sure he’s ready for a break…until my imagination comes up with the next thing we HAVE to have!  He’s so good at building what I come up with (see the benches).  We had a great time relaxing and celebrating my Dad’s birthday Sunday night.  Happy Birthday, DAD!  Needless to say, we’ve had a great weekend and are grateful the hurricane wasn’t too devastating.  We spent a lot of time watching it’s progress.  Our prayers are with all those effected by the damage.