Easy Remedy

If only all our worries were this easily remedied eh?

Trapped

All in a day's work...

Dallas and I were going to eat our lunch in the front display room at the office because we both had paperwork all over our desks and the spare desk was covered with product from a mini-consultation Dallas had done with a client earlier today. The front display room is pretty bare; only a table, one chair and a couple shelves. I grabbed another chair and the box of pizza we had ordered from the sketchy-yet-maker-of-surprisingly-good-food bar down the street. The phone rang just then and Dallas said she'd grab it. I set up our makeshift lunch area and waited for her to get off the phone. She walked into the room and was about to sit down and... Click. The door swung shut behind her. She jiggled the door. Locked. She tried the glass door that leads to the front entryway but we both knew that one is always locked. She turned to me and said "We're locked in here". No phones. Nobody else in the office. Stuck. With no air conditioning vents. A box of pizza. Half a cup of water between the 2 of us. Some napkins. And the quietness of being locked in a bare room that can't be more than 12x12. Now today had been the busiest day of our week. Phones had been ringing like crazy, emails were pouring in and we even had some walk-ins. Needless to say we were wanting a break. Guess we got what we wanted. If it hadn't been so ironic that this would happen to us on today of all days... I would have been mad. But I couldn't be mad. It was too freakin hilarious. So I laughed. We both did. Especially when we saw Aunt Norma's car pull up. We knew she wouldn't find it as funny as we did but that just made us laugh harder. She came and rescued us after quasi-jokingly calling us idiots. We were only in there about 15 min before she showed up... just long enough to eat our pizza and humorously plot how we were going to get out of our present situation.
I swear, the strangest things happen when we're together... couches on the interstate in South Dakota last summer, locking ourselves in the display room at the office today... who knows what the rest of the summer will hold...

2 Years!!

It's hard to believe yesterday was our 2 year anniversary. So much has happened in those 2 years and yet it seems like just yesterday we were flirting in Brumfield's Christian Home class.

To celebrate the occasion (which lands right in the middle of finals week!) we went to the Old State House in Little Rock. I love that he shares my love of history and cool old buildings! The Old State House was really interesting. Perhaps one of my favorite pics of the whole time we were there however is this one:

There was a room with a trunk full of dress-up clothes and you could take pics on the train platform. The fun part is that Matt initiated the silly dress-up game... so much fun!
After the State House, we walked along the river (above) and even stopped at a playground for some adventurous fun (below and below).

Then he took me to Sonny Williams' Steak Room - a fancy restaurant in downtown LR (above). The food was great and the atmosphere was elegant... romantic even. While we were eating however, it began to pour outside. We were parked several blocks away & Matt offered to go get the truck since I was in a dress but I figured if he had to get drenched, I might as well join him. And so we ran through the rain... water dripping down our faces and making our clothes stick to us... and laughing... oh, how I laughed... I laughed like a school girl on a swing. I have never enjoyed running through the rain as much as I did last night... Holding your hand and trying not to fall on the slippery bricks... I couldn't have been happier. I'll run through the rain with you anytime, Matt...We thought about going bowling but then decided to just drive around instead. We listened to music and tried to dry off. We spent the rest of the night just enjoying our time together, listening to the rain and talking.

It's been an amazing 2 years, Matt... I've lived and loved and learned so much with you in my life. Everyday I'm so glad that I'm with you and I hope I don't ever have to leave your side... Here's to many more happy years!

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

If you've known me at all in the last 2.5 years you probably know that I am a huge fan of the TV show M*A*S*H and watch it a lot in my spare time. Even though it was off the air before I was even born, I watched re-runs with my Dad when I was a kid and got the 1st season on DVD Christmas of sophomore year. Since then, thru Christmases, birthdays, sales at Hastings, etc, I have acquired all 11 seasons. Nikki and I started watching them 2nd semester sophomore year and made it our goal to finish all 11 seasons before we graduated. Well we did just that today. We watched the final episode this afternoon. It was entitled "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" and the title pretty much describes the contents of the 2 hr series finale. The war is over and everyone has to say their goodbyes. It was particularly dramatic being the finale and I must admit that we watched it in 2 sittings because we were getting too sad yesterday. And yes, when we were watching it this afternoon... I cried. It may sound strange but after 11 seasons, you kinda get attached to the characters and it was if I had to say goodbye to them too. But it wasn't just the drama of the show or the fact that our 11 season rally was finally all coming to an end. It just hit a little too close to home. I have some goodbyes of my own to say in a few days and I think this episode really made that clear. Some goodbyes will only be temporary... a few people will be back next year for one last semester or to get their masters too. But some goodbyes will be for a long, long time if not forever. And just like I can pull out those DVDs and watch any of the seasons again, I can look through pictures and remember the good times. I can even keep in touch with some of them via facebook and email and whatever new forms of social networking emerge in the next few years. But it won't be the same. Just as it won't be the same as when I watched the seasons for the first time, it won't be the same as when I could walk down the hall and see them or meet up at Midnight Oil for coffee and a long chat. All good things must come to an end... but that doesn't make saying goodbye any easier. And with that, I suppose I should go before this posts gets any more melancholy...

Trying to Soak It All Up

As the semester comes to a close and I realize I'm about to graduate college (where did that 4 years GO??) I've been trying to soak up as much as I can in amongst all the end-of-semester craziness. I've been getting my homework done (example: finished my last Strategic Policy case EVER this afternoon!) and trying to get things arranged for next fall (I found an apartment I like, Dad agreed to co-sign the lease, Matt is going to store some of my stuff at his place and Dr. Frazier agreed to let me store the rest of my stuff in his garage for the summer, etc). But in amongst all that homework and to-do lists I've also been having a lot of fun. Thursday night we had a mandatory hall meeting. Afterwards my suitemate Katie and I stayed in Loramy and Ashton's room and just talked and laughed. That then turned into a karaoke fest... Loramy and Katie singing a duet... they're so into it don't you think!
Here's the puzzle I started and finished in one night... this is what happens when you don't have homework and your friends are all busy haha! Then yesterday afternoon Matt and I played tennis (and I got my first official sunburn of the year! haha). Then we went to Riverside Park...

Matt climbing at Riverside

I like the angle of this shot... you can't tell how high off the ground I am haha!

Got this shot of the sunset as we drove out to the lake last night. We then sat on a bench at the lake and watched a bunch of fishing boats come in for the night. We had one of the best conversations ever just sitting on that bench and getting eaten by bugs (yep, pretty sure I counted 22 bites on my legs today!) I have been replaying parts of that amazing conversation in my head all day today. Then today after I did some homework, I went and sat out at the ball diamonds with Matt on the golf cart while he was working and looking after things at a high school ball tournament. It was fun to just sit and talk. The more time I spend with him the more I can't get enough. Mensch, this summer is going to be tough without him...

So overall... there is still a fair amount to do before grad but I am quite pleased with how some things have fallen into place and how I've knocked out a lot of stuff on my list. I'm trying to soak up all the time I can with friends... and I hope there's another random karaoke night with the girls coming up because that was a blast! The time I've spent with Matt this past week has been so great. Matt, if you are reading this... I love you and I'm going to miss you mucho this summer. I can't wait to see what the future has in store and I look forward to being by your side to experience it all :-)

Celebrating Success

Last Thursday night was the COBA Awards ceremony. Matt had to take an extended dinner break from work in order to make it but I was so glad he was there :-) The evening was nice. Dinner, a speaker, recognition of all the business clubs, competition teams and scholarship & award recipients. Here's a few pics from the night...

Our SAM plaque now that they put our names on it :-)

Dr. Frazier with our SAM trophy now that they put Harding University on it (bottom right)

Dr. Frazier awarding me with the Senior Management award

2 years ago Matt was my date for the COBA awards dinner before we even started dating... look how far we've come!

Me messing around back in the room afterwards... yes that Valentine's balloon was still floating on April 16th!!

A Good Friday

Okay this is a little delayed... but in my 2nd to last post I wrote about being excited to go hiking with Matt on Good Friday. The day turned out to be fabulous. We went to Lake Catherine State Park and hiked up to the falls. Then we went and toured around Hot Springs since neither of us had been there before. The hike was very pretty and Hot Springs is a neat town. It was nice to get out and get some fresh air and just spend all day together. Here's a few pics of our adventures...

A panorama of the lake from one of the lookout points

Sitting at one of the lookout points... I love this guy!

The falls