Date night at Petit Bistro

Workout Summary:

Distance-4 miles, Pace- 8:25, total time- 33:50

To know me is to know my dad. My dad is crazy. I love him for it, but he is crazy. he is so full of life people never think he is as old as he is. He went to Bentonville high school and was always the life of the party. He  was homecoming king, football star, & class clown. He was also known as pickle pangle (nope don't ask me, cause for all of my life i have refused to hear the story) and the guy that broke his neck. More on that later..

What my dad is:
The guy who is always happy
Your bestfriend
biggest supporter
life of the party
the one you call when you need help
the one who is always proud of you, but has a hard time saying it
He  is the guy who everyone knows in our small town

What he isn't:
Super Sensitive

the dad that realizes you have to stay until the very end of your daughters wedding.. no matter what

the guy who answers the door with a shot gun on my first date

the curfew giving time

Do you know him a little bit now? He is like me with much more energy!

Well we got to talk about him and how crazy he was in high school & it brought uo how he broke his neck Junior year of high school.

I had never heard the whole story so now I am going share the whole miracle story with yall!

They were celebrating their bicentennial so they were all out by some lake/river one weekend. My dad being the dare devil was going to jump of this crazy high bridge.. only to realize there was 18" of water in the river that normally ran so high. Kyle & Mark my dad's 2 BF were going to take him home Kyle was driving my dad crazy asking him all the questions & really freaking our they were going to be in trouble, he at the time didn't realize that he was able to keep my dad awake and prevent him from dying. 

They get too my grandma's house and boy was Polly mad! She drove him to the bville hospital. Where they told her they couldn't help and to take him to fville about 30 min away at the time. He offered her a neckbrace though. Well gma was so mad the threw the neckbrace at the man and told him where to put it..

gma also didn't know that she is part of the reason my dad wasn't a quadriplegic. If she would have placed the brace on him it would have put to much pressure on the already struggling cords of my dads neck, causing him to be a quad.

So they drive to fville & thank GOD the nurse there had been working with a specialist in TX who was trying out experimental surgry. They actually sandbagged him in to the bed out in the parking lot to make sure he was stable.

*sidenote- to show how scary polly can be, they brought in a girl who had just tried to kill herself. all she kept yelling was, LET ME DIE.. so polly being scared her son would in fact die.. Slapped her. right across the face. DANG GMA!

They then drilled holes straight in to my dads head. the Surgeon flew in from TX and he preformed the first frontal neck surgery ever on my dad. They then took a bone from his hip & put it in his neck. 2 months later and out of the hospital my dad was walking. CRAZY huh!

So sorry i wanted to share that story..back to date night..

So our date night started off at a chamber function at this fabulous old house on 5th street in bentonville. I got to see my sweet friend Christie and we are now in Class reunion mode & ready to start planning.. one minor detail.. we weren't officers. But, we have taken it upon ourselves  to make sure this thing rocks!

After we left there we headed over to the Petit Bistro in Bentonville. It is where the old Smoke house use to be. Well they are opening on Wednesday the 7th, so they were doing a sample for friends and family. My dad called and asked if I would be his date. I of course agreed! I got to see & meet a lot of people and we ended u psharing a table with one of my dad's best friends and his wife. Mark & Christie Estes. They were a blast!

Each person got something different and we all passed around and tested them out!

First up on the menu was the apps or petit plates.

*Seared Sea Scallops

*Petit Burger-it was Kobe beef and-AMAZING

*Crab Cakes

*Smoked Salmon Pizza

Tried them all and loved them all!!

They put bread sticks and these fun sauces on the table

This is the inside of the restaurant

It has a cozy fun atmosphere

Next course was Salad's

*Spinach Pear Salad

*Mediterranean Salad

*Caesar Salad

The caesar even had these cute little rolled up flower looking things.. ps. they are NOT flowers but anchovies. I did not so much like those!

I forgot to take pictures of the apps... but the crab cakes scallops, and the slider burgers are to DIE for.. As you all know I do  not like seafood, so this is a very large branch that I stepped on to last night!

This was the caesar salad

 Below is the pear salad

Next up Grand Petit Plates

above are the 

*Mussels Barquaise

below is the

*Curried Chicken Sate

*Steak au Poivre

*Escolar Puttanesca

I also failed on the desserts, but I was so wrapped up in talking and eating that pictures didn't cross my mind anymore!

Desserts were:

*Mozart Chocolate Cake

*Napoleon Trio

*Bistro Creme Brulee

The creme brulee was really good. It had a hint of vanilla bean in it. I think Mark and would have licked the bowl if so many people hadn't been there.

All in all it was a wonder date! You should all go check them out!

Thanks dad!

a cluster..

Workout Summary:
Distance- 10k, pace- 8:10, total time- 50:50
Tonight we were going to run part of the course from the hogeye. The Hogeye is a marathon, half marathon, & relay that is know to be very very hilly. So some of my team members and I went to run a part of the course tonight to know what we are in for. Well we decided that fville was a little to far away so we ended up in Rogers. We ran a very hilly course, but it was tough & I was very proud of myself. Now if only I can do the same on the day of the race.


So on Saturday kelly & I had figured it was going to be yucky out..
Well I did something that I haven’t done in who knows how long.. I didn’t set my alarm! I decided that I was just going to get up whenever since we really didn’t have anything to do. Sadly though I was up and around by 8:30. Why not make the best of it. I made chocolate chip pancakes and started doing laundry. Kelly woke up & we ate breakfast together, after that he was confined to the office to work on his paper for school.


I headed to the grocery store and to run my errands. By 12 I was home and Kelly was done with school. As he surfaces from his den of seclusion he decides since the rain has held off this long we should go for a bike ride. He then vanishes again to the garage.

I being the brilliant woman hat I am know this could take a while, so I turn it to The World is not enough and settle in. By about 2pm Kelly re-emerges from the garage telling me the bikes are ready. Good thing we weren’t in a hurry!

We load up the bikes and head to the Bentonville bike trail, if you have never ridden there it is fabulous. So much fun! You should go. Well the minute (I am not kidding you the very second) our tires hit the ground off of the bike rack it started raining. Not just a little rain either. Some pretty heavy rain and a lot of wind. After a few choice words Kelly tells me to start riding. I look at him like he is a little off, but I am not about to deal with him when he is this angry, so I start riding. Thankfully it stopped raining.

We get about 3 miles away and have been riding on some of the trails when Kelly’s tire goes flat. He then realizes the air pump is broken.. Are you kidding me? Then to top off our Griswold style bike ride it starts pouring..

Now cure the movie slow motion music, Kelly looks at me and says, “You have to leave me behind and go get the car.”

I made it back to the car and was able to put my bike back up on the rack ALL BY MYSELF! This may not be a big deal to you all, but that is a huge deal to me. I have never put it on the rack myself and more importantly when I got back to Kelly he commented on how proud of me he was and what a good job I did!

Then he tells me that he completely broke his bike. Are you serious? We go out for a short little fun ride & we end up breaking the flipping bike! So we load er on up on he back of the jeep & head up to phat tire to have them look at it. 150 bucks.

tell me all about it...

Worst job?
So me being the random person that I am I got to thinking about all the jobs I have had in my life & which one would be the worst..
So to get us to that point I MUST give you some bad job back story!

I was 15 when I got my first job. I was at Walton Jr. Hight dating (who I thought at that time would be my boyfriend throughout the perals of public education until I reached college, which at that point he would be come my fiancé & we would live happily ever after in Savannah, GA and raise 2 kids on in our French Country home with a wrap around porch) Josh O’Neal. Since Josh was able to drive and I was not he would take me to Total Body Tan. I would work at the tanning salon until 6pm when my mom would get off work and come and get me. I loved this job. It was a dream job, easy and free tanning! At this point no one had told me if I tanned like the people at the salon I would end up looking like the grandma from There’s something about Mary!

So my dream job went out of business and I was forced to find a new job ASAP!! I applied and applied.. with no such luck. Finally my dad was like enough of this you bum, and he sent me to the smoke shop. Yep you heard read right. The Bentonville Smoke Shop, which was conveniently attached to a gas station. I was stock girl the cashier, and at times the janitor. I think this was punishment for being a rebellious child. Let’s embarrass her so much that she will never want to show her face in a social setting again.

"What you work here and you aren't even old enough to smoke? Is that legal?"

It was awful, maybe the most embarrassing thing ever. I was supposed to only work at the Smoke shop and that was bad enough, but when I was put on the schedule for the 6am opening on a Saturday after Homecoming that was the last straw. Thank goodness Arvest Bank called and saved my high school reputation!

The Smoke shop at the time was the worst job. Fast Forward a few years and I enter in a job that seems to be fabulous and full of potential, running a private school. At first you think, Wow that sounds like such a cool and rewarding job! That is what reeled me in, molding children’s young minds, helping them to find their true potential and making the world a better place. Then the liability hits you.
You are now responsible for the lives of all the children in that school. You are also responsible for all the teachers at the school, and although no one tells you, you are also responsible for making the parents blissfully happy at all times. Which one is tough, all three was hell. Then on top of that stress, add a boss that is so unhappy and spiteful you can’t say good morning with out hearing what for. I remember one day we had some situation come up. The stuff hit the fan and we were called in for “questioning” aka getting your head bitten off chewed up and spit back at you, at one point I tried to speak. I was told that the resume must be a joke, because someone as stupid as me would never get a 4.0. At that point I got up and walked out. My boss followed me and proceeded to ask me if I was hormonal and on my period? True story. Good stuff.

Have you even seen the Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep with the calls in the middle of the night, the insane demands? Yep that was my life for two years, mixed with a lot of angry parents, no showing teachers, and biting children. The day God blessed me with a job offer from JB Hunt I gave my notice. I was then told 2 weeks is not enough. I need at least 6 weeks to replace you. So I go back to Hunt with tail between my legs and ask for 4 weeks. They accept.

I come in to work the next day and I am promptly told I will no longer be running the school but filling in as a sub. I will also not be allowed to discuss this with anyone. So for the sake of the children, parents, and teachers I obliged. I don’t know if you can image how difficult it is to look parents and teachers in the face and not be honest with them about why all the sudden Mrs. Cortney isn’t in the big office anymore. After about 3 weeks of being an “on call sub” meaning I had to be at their beckon call everyday, I was brought it on a Friday and handed my last pay check. I was told to leave then. I was confused but figured I still had a week left. Then Monday I was told not to come back. I was never allowed to tell the kids goodbye. I was never allowed to tell the parents that I wasn’t some immature child who peaced out on the children that they had entrusted me to. A week later some of the teachers called and told me that missed me & that they had sent out a letter that said I had left to explore other options. The end! To this day I doubt any of those parents have a clue that it was made to look like I just up and left. I am sure they wanted it that way though, making me the bad guy and them the victim.
So there you go. B-A-D jobs! What were yalls?

to iphone or not to iphone.

Workout summary

Distance- 4 miles, pace- 8min , total time- 32 minutes

Tonight me and my no car self will be at World Gym, begging like a junkie to get in. Hopefully with my feminine wiles I will be allowed in without a membership and be able to workout on the eleptical for 45 minutes until my chauffeur BIL is ready.

Yesterday Kelly got a text msg on his phone saying that we will now be charged a data plan of $30 bucks a month. UM NO! We don’t use the internet on our phones.. Yep, we have smart phones, and nope they aren’t that smart since none of the features are enabled on them. Well we use to have the internet on Kelly’s until I gave him the choice of that or cable.. So I promptly get on-line and begin reading the disclaimer on the website. It basically boils down to if you have a smartphone you are now being forced to have a data package. This angers me. Not once was I told when I got my blackberry that I would BE FORCED to have the internet on it! So I call them, and at first customer service tried to tell me that we moved our sim card, and that they can tell when we do stuff like that. I count to 10 and tell her in my best nice voice, “No ma’am. We have had his phone since May of ’08 & mine since October of ’08. I then sign in on-line and tell her well on line it has it right? I then begin to rant.. just a little bit.. about how neither one of us use the internet on our phone and we should not be charged for this. After she lets me cry it out she tells me that the only way to fix this is to put a block on both of our phones. Done. FINE! So we are now both officially blocked from the internet on our phones. SO for those of you sweet people who send picture texts, can’t get them, don’t bother!

Now on to the reason for the post, our upgrade is in May. Kelly is desperate for me to get an iphone. I know most of you out there think I am a total freak of nature and something has got to be wrong with me! Well here is how I look at it:

• 300 for a phone- ludicrous!
• They won’t give you insurance
• Mandatory 30 bucks a month for media

This to the budget queen is a lot to swallow.

•  I then begin to get tempted..
• I could blog on my phone
• I could do mobile uploads
• I could get picture texting
• I would have my own “garmin” at all times

So come on.. what are your thoughts?

One Size fits most

Workout Summary
Ran 3 miles, pace- 7:40 , total time- 23:07
Stairs 5 x 5 (5 flights 5 times)
20 sit-ups, 20 girl push-ups
Yesterday I didn’t run due to the 10” of snow that dumped itself on to NWA. I guess Mother Nature missed the memo that it is Spring? So Kelly & I did Kimpo from P90x for and hour & man it made me feel out of shape! You get to punch and kick like you are in a self defense class, which I like! I don’t like when they throw all of these crazy combo’s in and confuse me!
So yesterday's workout summary:
1 hour of butt kicking P90x
Now for the weekend wrap up..

My weekend technically started on Thursday with our girls night and we all had a wonderful time! Let me start by saying that I swear when it is a pretty day outside or you have somewhere to go it seems that the clocks will just stop working. It didn’t help that Jenni & I both had a meeting during lunch and were not fortunate enough to enjoy the sunshine!

Once 5pm hit I think I drove about 80 to get to Mojito’s. I had never been there before and was pretty excited about some Mexican food! I tried to order cheese dip & I am not gonna lie I was pretty pumped about my cheese dip, the menu said it had mushrooms and chorizo! I even made a point to confirm with our waiter that this was infact cheese dip and not some fake stuff. He confirmed that it was cheese dip.. so I ordered it. Then to my great disappointment he wheels on out with a plate… HUMM cheese dip is not cheese dip if it is served on a plate. Also, if you have cheese and you melt it over the topping, it can not be considered cheese dip, we need some liquid here people! I was like a child whose balloon just popped, but by this time I was hungry and at least it was cheese, which would sort of meeting my craving, so this fat kid ate it.

Next up Remember Me. NOT at all what I was expecting. If you would have given me 50 different ways this movie was going to go, I honestly can say this plot would not be in my 50. What it was not was a cheesy girl love story. What it was though was a very good movie. I do recommend going to see it, or at least renting it. But I would ask you, Do NOT listen to people when they try to tell you about it.
After the movie was over I accompanied Lauren & Lindsey to a little store called seductions. WOW.
I felt like I needed a scrub down with a brillow pad after being in that place. Lauren needed to go to pick up a gift for a lingerie shower she was going to. It really didn’t set the three of us at ease when this 30 year old guy was the cashier at the sleazy store. You would have thought the 3 of us we 10 year boys walking around out mouths open and uttering the words, “that is so gross, how do you think that works, and who uses this stuff?” I think we about wore out our welcome in the store, if we hadn’t when we first walked in.. We had when I started taking pictures!  Lauren was a little embarrassed to make her purchase.

Friday was a good day! I had posted the Jetta on craigslist a week or so ago knowing that tax $$ was rolling in. I posted it for about 2k more than we wanted/ needed to get for it. Well Friday we had a guy call and ask to look at it, and by 6pm it was gone! Yeah!! The only problem is our Acura hasn’t been picked up in AZ yet, which means we are a one car family. This is not an ideal situation for any of you that were thinking about entering in to this conundrum. I work about 15 miles from our house, Kelly is about 3 miles. I work from 7-5 he works from 8-5. So this week I am bumming rides to and from work. I am not too annoyed since we sold the Jetta for more that we wanted, so I can stand some inconvenience, but it just stinks having to ask people & then having nowhere to go during lunch. Maybe I will work out everyday!!

Friday I got to leave work early so I played with the dog, opened all the windows, turned on Pandora, & cleaned the house.

By Saturday I had a clean house so I was able to enjoy myself in the 30 degree weather! I went grocery shopping will Kelly worked on school stuff. Then by 3 we headed to Fayetteville to hang out with my best friend Kathryn & her husband Dave. They were making me a birthday dinner! I love Kathryn for many reason’s, but I mostly love her cause we both like a big deal made for our bday! For dinner Dave made stuffed chicken breast, roasted tomato risotto & steamed asparagus. Then for dessert they got me my very own whinnie the pooh cupcakes!

Sunday morning we woke up to a blanket of snow and church being canceled. Kelly was on breakfast duty & did a fabulous job of a spinach and egg white omelet with hash browns! For the rest of the day I was lazy! There was a James Bond marathon on TV & Kelly was confined to the office working on school stuff, so me and the pup laid in the chair and soaked up a little Pierce and Daniel. All in all it was a wonderful weekend~

healthy dinner

Everyone knows that the Carlson family is on a  budget.. We are also try to eat pretty healthy. We usually buy ground turkey meat in bulk at sam's. Well they were having a special buy on it so I had to buy more. Well, I got home to realize that we had a lot of turkey in the freezer and we needed to get rid some of it.
For Christmas my in-laws got me a cookbook called "Fix it & Forget it Lightly" By Phyllis Pellman Good. It is a healthy crock-pot book.

Last night we made the Ground turkey soup.
1LB ground turkey
1 cup onion
1 clove garlic minced
1 15 oz can drained kidney beans
1 cup carrots sliced
1 cup celery sliced
1/4 cup uncooked rice
1 quart low-sodium diced Italian tomatoes
1 can green beans drained
1 small green pepper chopped
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
3 cups of water
** I added a package of Italian seasoning mix**
You brown the turkey then add all the ingredients in to the crock-pot. Cook on low for 7 hours.
It was so easy and really good. I think it tasted better because I knew it was low fat and healthy.
Total calories per serving 120, 1gram of fat, 13 grams of protein

If you break down the meal, the following things I had to purchase:
ground turkey- 1lb about  $2.25
1 onion $ .50
1 can beans $1.50
1 bag carrots $1.25
celery $.75
green pepper $.85
green beans $.62
2 cans tomatoes $ 3.00

total for things purchased $10.72
We were able to have the soup for 3 meals a piece, costing roughly $1.75 per meal.
I hope you all enjoy and go by this book it is wonderful... you can even make cakes in the crock-pot!

Tomorrow I will have pics and stories from our girls night!

Guitar Hero & other random stories

Kelly wants to play the guitar—or in the words of Theron gee-tar. Well our friends Theron (sweet abby’s hubs) volunteered to let Kelly borrow one of his guitars and help him learn. Well last night at church we picked up the guitar and Kelly was so excited. Abby warned us that if Kelly didn’t follow the strict training schedule set by Theron that he would no longer be eligible for lessons by the Guitar hero that is Theron Lloyd!
We got home and immediately Kelly got the Guitar out and strummed it as loud as he could. Holy Cow Callaway freaked out. He booked it out of the room as fast as he could and bolted right under the bed. So I being the worried mother ran in to the bedroom and pulled him out from under the bed. He was shaking so hard that if I didn’t know any better I would have thought he was having a seizure. He stayed this was for the next hour. Right before bed I took Callaway out to go to the bathroom, well he saw the guitar in the corner of the kitchen, turned around and took the long way to the back door. The long way requires him to walk through the dinning room and living room.

I left him back inside and he went the long way again, made it in to our bedroom and lept on to the bed and hide himself under the covers. Kelly told me to go get the guitar and bring it in the bedroom so he can get use to it. I told him NO, I will not be associated with the fear that comes from the guitar. So I made Kelly cover his head while I went and got the guitar. The minute Kelly uncovered his head he starred down the guitar. He finally lay down and went to bed, so we shall see how we integrate this new member (the guitar) in to our family without scaring the daylights out of my sweet pup.


In the mail this week I received a letter from some law firm regarding Wal-Mart asking for my information & telling me that I would be eligible for money back from Wal-Mart from when I was an hourly associate and they didn’t give me breaks. First of all that was in 2002 and second of all, if it has taken this long for this to come to fruition.. do I really need to sue? Answer- NO. I am completely fine and if they had not given me adequate breaks I obviously won’t be able to remember now! So I ripped up the letter and threw it away. I hope that other people do the same and are just filling it out to get $.

Office fun. We are having a girl’s office bracket at work and it excites me. I like March madness even though I am not the biggest fan of basketball; I think the brackets just make it all the more exciting. I wanted to do a bracket and more importantly I wanted to do a competitive one, but let’s face it, it is not in the budget to pay to play. So I sent and email out and told all the ladies to fill out their bracket. I was pretty proud of myself until my friend Kerri had to trump me with her fancy internet brackets that sorted by mascot and team colors. (Kidding Kerri) So thanks to our Commissioner Kerri we have them all on-line and it keeps up with all the stuff for you! So today was the start and so far Kerri, Denise, and myself are winning. Also tonight we are all heading to Mojito’s for dinner then to a movie. We all know how I am not the biggest movie fan, but we are going to see Remember Me. I am pretty excited about this girls outing even if it means staying up past my bedtime.

I went to the dentist yesterday. I love my dentist even if I hate going to the dentist. He broke the news to me that I have 2 cavities. Most people loose all of their baby teeth by the time they hit the age of 10. I however we genetically cursed and have 4.. yep 4 baby teeth still. No, it is not cause I am lazy and never wiggled them on out, it is because they don’t have anything underneath them! They make up a square in my mouth, fourth one from the back on the left and right side of my mouth and then the teeth directly above that. Now that you know the inner working of my mouth.. you will sleep better tonight. Since I have these precious baby teeth with nothing underneath them I am very sweet to them, and maybe in this instance I am to sweet.. because the have a cavity. UGH. Which means I will now have to budget in some $$ to get these babies-literally- fixed!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous week! Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

** we are selling our jetta.. if you know anyone who is interested.. let me know!

get your tickets...to the gun show

Sunday we went to our church’s new “Contemporary Service” Kelly and I decided that we would try it out, and what better a time to try it out than the Sunday after we loose an hour of sleep. I would say most of the time when I hear of a contemporary service I think of hands clapping and a band on stage, but neither of those took place. It was however, more relaxed and the songs we slightly more face paced. All in all it wasn’t that different from what we are use to. After church Kelly suggested we run by the Christian Book Outlet. This suggestion is very uncharacteristic for Kelly, but I have noticed some awesome uncharacteristic things coming from him lately. My husband is a wonderful man and I just adore him. With that said he doesn’t really talk about feelings & we don’t talk a whole lot about God. We pray before we eat, we talk about praying for things & each other, but we don’t get really deep in to each others spiritual walk. Judge me if you want.. but I am being honest. I will start by telling you what I think has happened, this could be wrong or right on his side, but this is how it appears on my side.


We have been going to the Love & Respect classes, which has really begun the change in the way that we communicate with each other. Also, through our church we are doing the love language book & knowing how the other likes to be “loved” has also greatly helped.

But, the biggest change was after my friend Sarah’s wedding in Memphis. Zach, Kelly’s “big brother” from Kappa sig’s caught a ride back with us to LR. The whole ride they caught up while I slept. Well after talking to Zach, I think it really hit some stuff home to Kelly. Zach is such an awesome Godly man who would do anything for anyone and the way he speaks just gets you excited. So, in my opinion this has been the proverbial straw-in a good way- that broke the camel’s back. So we went to the CBO for him to get a study book. I know it sounds weird, but I am really proud of Kelly, it also doesn’t hurt that he has been the sweetest thing ever the past few weeks.


My workout summary is missing today, because this week I have a meeting or apt everyday during lunch and after work. Last night however, I took the pup for a walk, and then Kelly and I did AB ripper X! Normally we do it in the office, but yesterday we did it in the living room floor and it was hilarious.

When we are doing the ab exercises we moan, cry, and yell mean things at the TV. Normally Callaway is not privy to this scene, but since we were in the living room he was witness. He was so scared he crawled underneath the couch and refused to come out until the cries of pain had stopped. All you could see were these 2 little scruffy paws poking out from under the couch.. if my abs didn’t hurt so bad I would have laughed!
ps.. title has nothing to do with guns, or arms.. but the ab show didn't have the same ring to it..

birthday booty

No dirty minded people.. not that kind of booty..
My birthday presents and Bentonville Half Marathon '10 recap

Well I have debated all weekend long on whether or not I should do a Race post & then a Birthday post, or if I should just put them together. Which since they go hand in hand they are going to be together.. So sit back and enjoy!

To start off I found the results from mine and Kelly’s first real 5k. Please see below.
Place 25 Name Cortney Carlson Age 25 Pace 11:13 Total time 34:45.31
This from the Tour De Cure 3 years ago, and when we first really started running.
Today if I was to run that it would read more to the effect of:
Name Cortney Carlson Age 28 (ughh) Pace 7:50 total time 24:20

After work on Friday we went to the pasta party sponsored by Stouffer’s & Buitoni. Normally every night before we run we eat pasta with red sauce no cheese, or Kashi pizza.
Needless to say my anal self had some reservations about changing up my meal the night before. The food looked really good and I was hungry and figured if I said not so much Kelly would tell me to chill out and let it go. Looking back now, I should have listened to myself. I am not saying that was the demise of my run or anything, but I definitely felt a little off the morning of the race.
The start of the race was at the Bentonville Square at 8am. It was overcast and 35 degrees, flippin cold in other words. It probably didn’t help that I threw a 5 year old style tantrum (complete with the foot stomp) the night before to open one of my presents. My MIL Julie had called last week asking about the running skirt I wanted, so I knew she wouldn’t fail me! That is the one I would like to open I told Kelly. I NEEDED it to run the next day. Sadly the weather did not get the memo that I was going to be wearing my cute new running skirt and it needed to be warmer with sun, instead we got cold and rainy.

yep I am a geek..admit it though.. skirt is super cute!

Around 7:30 we ran in to our friends Darin and Melissa. Darin was running the 5k, but sweet Melissa had made us a sign too! The news crew even came over and taped her and Kelly, then they took our picture for the paper too. Well I guess in all that excitement I forgot that I hadn’t put my knee brace on. ( I have IT Band Syndrome- which it the muscle that runs basically from you hip to your knee and if you hurt it causes excruciating knee pains) I normally always run with it. Here lately I have been trying to test my limits a little and see if I could handle a short recovery run without it, and normally I am sore after. So forgetting this with a course of hills was not the best feeling.

The race started out like every other race we run.. me trying to stay on pace, Kelly taking off like jack russell terrier. I knew once I hit mile 4 it was going to be a tough race. Everything felt off. My knee kept giving me warnings, my legs were sluggish, and my mind was second guessing everything. We crossed the 10k mark (6.2) and all I kept thinking was, “Oh crap, this is when I am supposed to pick it up some. How can I pick it up when I already want to slow down?” Thankfully I made it to mile 8 and I saw Melissa and Darin with our poster. It was that little bit of boost that I needed to keep me going. Then I just kept thinking get to dad. My grandma lives along mile 9 & I knew that my dad & grandma would be there cheering me on. I am not going to lie, I teared up. My dad out there with his hand painted (yep- watercolors ladies & gentleman-the man painted me a sign in watercolors) sign and my 75 year old sassy grandma clapping and running with me. I made it through the next mile pain free, it was a very large down hill and I was able to catch up some big ground. Then I hit mile 13. It is a mother of a hill. One of those hills that you feel like you could put your hand out touch the ground it is so steep! I just kept looking at my watch thinking, “I don’t know if I am going to be able to make it.” Then I thought about my sweet friend Jenni. (she lives in all the way in Springdale & came to watch me, AND she made a big PURPLE POSTER) So thinking about Jenni telling me on Friday, “Well I want to make and see you and make sure you are on pace,” made me pick it up. I picked it up until I crossed the corner and realized how much I had left to run, and how much time I did not have! Then I heard my boss yelling at me to come on. As much as it pains me to admit it, he pushed me to almost sprint to the finish. Then I saw Kelly so far away and the seconds ticking along I really thought I had missed it. All of the sudden he was right next to me yelling that I had 30 seconds and not to give up, push it, come on, you have this!! I crossed that finish line at 1:59. DANG. Yes, incase you missed that little bit, Kelly had already finished when I was crossing. 1:56. DANG IT he beat me.

I know that without a doubt that run sucked, and without all of those people there cheering me on, I know that with out them I would not have made my goal. Seeing them along the course helped me to pick it up when I needed to and helped me to finish strong. It really meant the world to me to have them all out there. I can also honestly say I left it all out on the course, and left nothing in reserve. Next time I just need my reserve to be faster!
*I knocked off 15 minutes off my last PR half & Kelly knocked off 22 minutes!
So after that excitement we headed home for me to shower. ( It rained at some points so we were wet and cold on top of being super tired) Kelly was really sweet, about the whole deal and only rubbed it in 2 or 3 times that he beat me. After I had thawed out we had errands to run and no time to eat so after burning 1300 calories we had the snack of Champions.. We Snapped in to A Slim JIM!

After our fabulously romantic birthday snack Kelly took me to Overstreet’s Jewelers in Bentonville to pick out my marathon charm that he wanted to get me for my birthday. Why couldn’t have gotten it on his own you ask? Well the last time he bought me a charm for the bracelet it was the size of a Frisbee. I could wear it as a medallion instead of a necklace.. Hence, why we took the bracelet to compare this time! I was very impressed with his thoughtfulness. He even googled my blog and birthday to see what I had written!
We headed back home to open up presents after that. All week I was so stressed because I didn’t get a single card in the mail. I even thought Friday after I had checked the mail, man no one thinks of you when you are as old as I am. Turns out Kelly had been hiding them all week long. When I told him how upset I was he was pretty proud of himself.

Please excuse the beauty that is me after the race..

I was very excited for a red running shirt!

We had dinner reservations a Basil’s Café in Rogers and I was so excited about it. Our friends Wade and Kelly Jones own it and we haven’t been in since they moved locations. I looked at the menu earlier in the week and had been contemplating a dish called Razorback Risotto. I also mentioned to my wonderful husband that the spinach dip sounded AMAZING! My sweet and wonderful husband ordered the spinach dip right off the bat which made me so happy. It was so good. They serve it on a cheesy flat bread pizza then let you pile the dip on top of each piece! If it wasn’t such a nice restaurant I would have taken pictures of the food!


Next up was Razorback Risotto for me and the Kobe Burger for Kelly
Razorback Risotto with roasted pork, tomatoes, dried cherries, morels, and spinach
Kobe Beef Burger had parmesan fries cooked in truffle butter.
I am not lying to you when I say, It was the best meal of my life and worth eating all 1300 calories back in that one meal!

We were so full we didn’t even want dessert, but Kelly knows how much I love crème brulee so we got one to go so I could eat it when I wasn’t so full!

We also stopped by the new coffee show near the restaurant, Silver Joe’s. I got a white chocolate mocha and le me tell you.. WAY better that Starbucks!

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special.. LOVE YOU!

The next Natalie

I love my dad. Precious as can be. However, sometimes he struggles on the gift department. So this year I thought about something I wanted, that he would be able to do without to much trouble. I asked him for golf shoes and golf lessons. I knew that this was going to be something that he enjoyed shopping for and it was something I needed. So, it worked out quite well. He did a very good job! He wanted to give them to me before Saturday because he was just to excited to wait..

He said he had to get them since they Callaway's!

I am excited for a little father daughter bonding time while I have my lessons!

I use to play when I was younger I think I was 9 or 10. Dad says that was until I discovered boy and never wanted to leave the clubhouse. I don’t quite know if that is completely true, but a small portion could be! Well since then I haven’t played a lot. Kelly and I have gone to the driving range a few time and we even played a 9 hole course once a couple years ago, but now that I have the shoes.. I AM SERIOUS!

Just be prepared Natalie.. I am about to rock your golfing world..

Next up...
Callaway ( the dog) So Kelly uses my old phone as his alarm. Yes I know that the first thing is this phone. My BFF Kathryn Ann made it, which is awesome, but became slightly extreme after I graduated college and entered in to the adult world. Well Kelly has been trying to get up in the morning to do homework or workout. In order to do this he has to move the alarm on the complete opposite side of the room.


This is where it has been the past few nights.

Yes if you are wondering that is the door frame to the master bedroom.


Which leads me to my next part. Callaway is petrified of this phone for some reason. I thought it was because of all the noise it would make, but last night I realized the real reason.

My husband chases him around the bedroom acting like the phone is about to bite him. He even hums the tune of jaws as he chases Callaway around snapping the phone open and closed at him. Last night Callaway started biting at the phone so Kelly “bit” him back with the phone. Well it scared Callaway so much he ran under the bed and refused to come out until I pulled him by his paws. Well now that the “monster” is on the doorway watching guard, he won’t leave the bedroom until I am with him. SO sad. I swear our children will be tormented!

TV time

So Tuesday at Race for the cure The Race Chairman looked over at me and said I have great news! KNWA wants you to be on TV to promote Bark! I kind of looked at him and my first thought was oh geez. Then my second was do I have a “skinny” outfit? Yes I am an out going person and no I don’t get embarrassed or nervous with big groups, but the fact of actually being on TV (even if NWA isn’t that big) made my stomach lurch. I honestly would have been ok if they had delegated it to someone else. I would have until he hit my Achilles heel he asked me to bring Callaway. Done. Sold. Now there is no way that I will be able to let anyone do this other than me. Yes, I am that girl who thinks her dog is the cutest thing in the world, I also think that everyone agrees with this fact, and they should automatically love him as much as I do.
So I am excited for my pup to be on TV, but not so excited to have to talk. Do we think it would be weird if I just put my dog out there and talked behind a curtain?

I am not sure the days of this TV début yet and may not tell anyone when it is so I don’t have to deal with the shame if I make a giant fool of my self!

My next thought is, will they do my makeup? Will I get to be like SJP in Sex in the City and get to keep the clothes?

for the 27 year old in me

There is no workout summary today cause I am a fat kid that ate Mexican instead of run.


I wanted to run & had full intentions of running, but one of the girls at work was having a birthday lunch. She is very similar to me in the fact that she loves her birthday as much as I love mine. I figure I would be a crappy person to choose running over a birthday lunch especially to a kindred spirit that loves the bday!

I did however want to throw up in my mouth every time she talked about how old she was at 25.. I remember how I was (back in the good ole days) when I was turning 25 and thought it was such a huge deal. So I can relate to that feeling, but now that I am creeping slowly to 30 I vomit a little when anyone younger than me says they are old. Heck I think 30 is young when they are talking about anyone other than my self. I look at people who are 30 and never does it cross my mind that they are old, but to think I will be turning 28 makes me feel old. I guess I just had my life planned out a little differently.



I was 18 and started dating Kelly in high school. Right after High I wanted to go to college, I have always wanted to do events planning which is why I majored in marketing. At the time (I am almost embarrassed to put this down, I was such a geek!) I wanted to go to Arkansas Tech & Kelly was to go to Harding. We would date until I was 20, at that point we would get married. We would spend the next 2 years of college in a state of wedded bliss. We would then graduate with 40k salaries and our dream jobs. I would then become pregnant and we would have our first child a girl…



Now do we see why I am embarrassed to put this little house on the prairie story out on to the internet?? I am so thankful that God had a different plan. I couldn’t image that story coming true and both of us losing all of the life experiences that we have gained. I do wish that the salary number could have been that one thing that came true! 

But now as I am 2 days away from my birthday I look back at where in the world the time has gone! This time last year we had just moved in to our first home. I was recovering from an injury and was slowly getting back in to running. In the transition from 27 to 28, I have done some things that I am very proud of!

1. Ran 2 half marathons

2. Ran a full marathon

3. Put windshield wiper fluid in my car with out asking anyone how!

4. Volunteered my time to Susan G Komen, Make-A-Wish, Hospice, & Girls on the Run.

5. Became more involved in our church

6. Went to Disney World!

7. Went to a St. Louis Cardinals game

8. Saw Kenny Chesney in concert

9. Started mountain biking

10. Striped & stained a nightstand

11. Ran a 7 minute mile ( no super exciting to all, but pretty good for me)

12. Drove 2 hours in a blizzard with 8” of snow on the ground & didn’t wreck!

13. Read over 25 books
I know that some of these are crazy random, but they are things that stand out to me.

I also had some things that I had though that I would have done by the time I was 28.

1. Go to NYC

2. Travel to Italy

3. Go to Napa Valley and do the ½ marathon that runs through the vineyard check it out here
ps.. won't be doing it this year either.. it is already sold out!

4. I thought I would have a baby by now, but I am not there yet so this one is ok that I haven’t completed it yet.

I guess that I have this year to complete these., but that would make for a busy year!

I do think that after the fat kid mexican food. I will have to workout tonight- pilates & ab ripper here I come.

bird flu

Workout summary:

4 miles; pace- 8:11; total time-32:44
Holy Mother. That run SUCKED. I wanted to do an easy out and back. So we opted for our normal 5 mile run, but once we hit the 2 mile mark we would just turn around. Well the winds were blowing so hard 32mph hard to be exact, that I hated that run. This may be part of the reason that I ran the fastest 4 miles of my life. It was all mental for me today; every single twinge would make me want to stop. I was in my head saying things like, “If this is how you are going to run on Saturday all those people that are coming to watch you are going to be disappointed in you.” “Wow, and I thought you had gotten better.” “What is wrong with you? If you can’t do this 4 miler, there is no way you can break 2 hours.”

My mind is very brutal on me. The good thing about the whole crappy run was that I really and truly thought I was dragging and had gone back to my slower 10 min pace, then the miracle happened and I looked down at my watch and it read 8:11 pace. I wanted to jump up and down and hug dear sweet baby Jesus for helping me get through the last year, cause you best believe I was digging in and saying some prayers!
After it was all said and done and I was in the comfort of the AC again I thought how ironic it was that I use to run 3 miles in the same time that I can now run 4. That always makes a girl feel a little bit better!
I have Bark for the Cure tonight. I got my posters in and now all I need to do is get some sponsors. Since the Paw Partnership was my idea I have put a lot of pressure on myself to sell them. We also opened up the Race for the Cure team captain sign up today and we have our J B Hunt Transport team. So if you are interested in participating in any of the events let me know and we can sign you up!

On another note…

Last week we were noticing this white junk all over the cubicles. Well one of the ladies I work with (denise) said she thought it looked like bird poop. Well then one on the VP’s noticed it was all over his walls and computer. So Denise came to the conclusion that we had a bird in the office. Well she called-whoever you call to dispose of random birds in offices and they told her they would take care of it.
So this afternoon Max was walking by and noticed something on the floor under denise’s desk …

So flipping gross..
So my next question is.. How long was the bird under her desk before she realized it?

Manicotti in Memphis

So Friday we got on the road a little late and had to battle some traffic. After some minor bouts with road rage Kelly made it to LR. I jumped (yes literally jumped out of the car) and ran to Hannah’s car and we headed to Memphis.. just a mere 20 minutes behind schedule. So we head on our road trip and Hannah begins to tease me because earlier in the week I sent her and email reminding her to bring a list of topics that she needed to tell me about so she didn’t forget. Needless to say she didn’t but I love her anyway. Then after some MAJOR bouts of road rage we made it to the Peabody. We didn’t however really pay attention to where we were supposed to be parking so after 15 minutes of roaming around the hotel we made it to the rehearsal. Being in the house party was sure the way to go though we just got to sit back and enjoy!
After the madness that always is the rehearsal we headed to spaghetti warehouse for the rehearsal dinner. By this time I was so hungry I was tempted to just start licking the butter that they had put on the tables for out bread. Well since Hannah was my date we decided that I should order the manicotti and she should get the lasagna and we would share the 2. Well they forgot my manicotti so by the time it comes Hannah is ½ way done with the lasagna, so she asks if I just want to switch plates. Me being difficult says, “no I want to mix them together.” So as I am trying to make the transfer… this happens.

I was mortified, and I let this word slip shiuutt. I believe it was about to be an expletive, then I realized and tried to correct myself. I thought I had done a pretty good job until I realize that Dallas is cracking up across the table. Thankfully no one other than the people at our table heard this or saw the debacle.
After dinner we headed out to Beale street for a last night out with the bride & groom.

We went to Alfred’s and other than a few crazies it was a pretty good time.

Saturday we got up for the bridesmaid brunch and let me tell you it was SO good!

After we stuffed ourselves we went upstairs to get ready. Hannah did my hair and I wanted it pretty simple, but I loved it! I think I may wear it like that more often! I also determined I need to buy a teasing comb or a bump-it!

We left the wedding around 10 or so to head back to LR. Zac one of Kelly’s frat brothers Needed a ride to LR. So we volunteered to give him a ride home. I was so excited to see Zac. He is a youth minister and one of the most spiritually grounded people I have ever met. He is just so genuine and really and I was so happy that him and Kelly were able to catch up. I tried to stay awake and lasted until West Memphis before I crashed in the back seat.


Sunday we got up and went and say Hunter and Emily. I hadn’t seen Em since she had Miles and I was very happy so see them and hold sweet miles. It was also very surreal. Even seeing him was hard to fathom that they have a baby now! I didn’t get any pictures of him sorry.. but I am planning on setting em a blog up so we can all stay informed!