Camping, Visits, and Birthdays

What happens when you get behind blogging? You end up with a bunch of random happenings lumped into one post. So bear with me here...

The first weekend in October was the fulfillment of something I have been wanting to do for a loooong time now...and we had the best weather! The Hartmans finally went camping! Whoever it was that got us our tent that we registered for for our wedding, thank you because we have now finally put it to use! Eight of us (four couples) packed up and went to Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas. It was about 3 hours and 15 minutes away but absolutely worth the drive.

Jon, one of the guys that went with us, decided we had the nicest camping setup he had ever seen with all of the equipment and food. To me, it was just camping...guess I don't know how to "rough it".
Two nights...a really packed car (this was one of two).

It just so happened to be Sarah's birthday that day, so Stacy made her a super cute birthday cake. What better way to celebrate a birthday than by a campfire?
Sarah and her "dirt cake"...very fitting for a camping weekend.
Our tent for the weekend...we had to set it up at 11:30 on Friday night!
Delicious pancakes for breakfast on Saturday morning. Nothing like an iron skillet on open flame...that's good cookin'.
Randy and the great outdoors!
Our little hiking trip trailed along a beautiful river, took us to a giant waterfall, and super cool cave!
Beautiful day!

This picture definitely doesn't do the waterfall any justice, but it was really big. Problem was, I couldn't get close enough to the edge for a good picture, and we didn't have time to go down to the bottom of it. :(

Girls picture. Stacy, me, Emily, and Sarah.
This would be Jon inside the cave. No he is not naked, but it did make for a pretty funny photo op.
Beautiful cave. Again, not too great of pictures.
This is mainly what our weekend consisted of. Sitting/standing around the campfire and talking about life.
Awesome hammock thanks to Adam who was prepared with all things camping.
Meat night. Chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers. Delicious.
Sarah's birthday dessert #2: cupcakes!
And no camping trip is complete without a good batch of smores....mmmm!
We ended our trip on Sunday morning after a wonderfully amazing breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

2nd part of blog...great visits from great friends! The first of which came from my Australian mate, Sarah Kate. She left a couple of years ago to do some work with a church in Perth, and two years later, she is married to a wonderful Australian surfer dude...sounds too perfect, right? Well, she deserves it all! We had a great time catching up and eating some yummy yogurt. I love hearing about her life halfway across the world, and although I miss her dearly, I couldn't be happier for her. Maybe the next time we meet up should be in her neck of the woods?!
(This is an old pic, because we failed to take one in the 2 hours we had to catch up.)

Second visitor was Kelsa, a friend twenty years in the making. We have been childhood friends, teenage moody friends, roommates, and now are almost like sisters. She came for the weekend just to catch up for one of the last times for a while because she is planning to move to the west coast. We did nothing but walk, eat, talk, and eat...oh yeah, we did manage to go see a movie. We had an amazing time just talking...it's so funny how our conversations have changed over the years from school to boys to actually meaningful stuff. From the pic below (which is also old) you can see that we share the same bizarre sense of humor.

And here you have a picture of our amazing breakfast pizza we made. I just had to include a picture because it was that. good.

Last but not least, Randy's birthday was this past weekend, and he is now a quarter of a century old! Such a cougar I am. We spent a pretty simple night eating at the local mexican restaurant, El Toro Loco, with our friends Josh and Amanda. They sang to him while putting a sombrero on him and stuffing whipped cream on his face which was a pretty funny sight. At home, we ate some ice cream cake and then just enjoyed a quiet night in.

I'm not going to go on and on about how much I love this guy, but I will say that I am one lucky girl. As we like to say in the Hartman household, we are "two peas in a God pod". I'm happy to have him as my faithful and trusty pea to travel through this crazy journey that is our life.

Happy 25th Birthday, Rando!

Henry, 5 months

My 5 month, 50 pound baby is growing up so fast! I am realizing that if I do not keep taking pictures of him, I won't notice how fast he is growing. What happened to him fitting in my lap? When did his tail get so strong that he could break my candle sitting out on our coffee table with one quick swing?

He is probably around half his weight right now, and although he LOOKS big, he still acts very much like the baby. He is getting much better on walks now thanks to his harness, he loves to dig holes (like he's digging to China) in our backyard, and he is getting better on his commands.

Here are some more recent pictures of Henry at 5 months...enjoy!

This picture, below, was the last picture of all three of my boys (so taken two weeks ago). It is maybe one of my favorite pictures ever. Jack is thought of very much, but I know that he is doing great in his new home! We miss you, buddy!

Where do I start?

My life the past couple of weeks has been so busy that I have not even THOUGHT about updating this blog. Apparently I am too busy living my life to write about it. Lots has happened, but as always, I will only include the highlights...

The first is not at all a highlight, but the end of an era. Jack has found a new home. At first I thought this deserved it's own post about how wonderful of a cat he was, etc., but then I realized that he isn't dead (he is very much alive and well), he just found a better home. Here is the makeup of why he is no longer living with us: Henry was getting really rough with him, and at the moment I need a guard dog more than a rowdy cat; he always wanted to go outside, and made runs for it, but our neighborhood is not exactly where you want a cat to roam; but the biggest reason is his attacking nature, which we thought was funny for a while, until I showed up with cut arms all the time. Randy firmly decided that Jack would not be around when we had a baby because of his unpredictable aggression; and, although we are not having a kid soon, I thought it would be best for him to go ahead and make a new transition rather than make this one in the new house to just turn around and find a new home in a year or so.

Therefore, Jack now belongs to a fifty-year-old man named Tony, who was so excited to get him and let Jack have the run of his house. He loves that Jack has the personality of a dog and is the alpha male, and he loves that we gave him all of Jack's things to make him feel at home with the transition.

Am I sad about it? Yes. Did I cry? Yes. But it really was the best decision for our life at this point, and also better for the crazy, unpredictable Jack Cat.

I went to Nashville last weekend because I have some fun news to share...one of my very best friends is PREGNANT!!!! YAY! Anna Grace and Drew are expecting their first child in March, and I was so excited to get to have ice cream with her and grill her with tons and tons of questions. I am so happy for them, and it so happens to be that we will have another niece/nephew around that time because Danny and Jenna are also expecting in March. Busy month! Cannot wait to find out what each are having....I'm hoping for a boy for the Townsends and a girl (finally, hopefully) for the Hartmans! I also got to go to a good friend's bachelorette/lingerie shower. Katie and Matt get married in October, and we spent Saturday canoeing 13 miles down the Harpeth, then eating Baja Burrito and watching Katie open her lingerie gifts. It was so fun to be with old college friends. (Am I really "old" enough to call college friends "old"? Geesh.) Sunday was family time, and then home to see the hubs and pup.

A good friend and new PA (physician's assistant), Janine, moved into our "apartment" on Monday. She will be staying there until she finds a permanent place, and we are so excited to have her not only in Memphis, but in our very own backyard!!

Henry had been SOOOOO good lately that we bragged about him to friends. Well, I guess we spoke to soon because the very next day Randy came home to a house that was filled with pages from his Bible. Henry had chewed his Bible covers, eaten the entire book of Genesis and the first 10 chapters of Exodus. To make matters worse, he threw up a ton (probably because he ate the Bible and God was punishing him) and then sat on the couch (a HUGE no, no) and got slobber on my pillows. Yuck. Well, the dog that had won himself freedom around the house for two weeks straight is now back to being in the kitchen until he gets a little older.

Now I am just busy thinking about the next couple of big things we have going on....Sarah Kate visits tomorrow from Australia, we go camping this weekend in Arkansas, the Reds will be in the playoffs for the first time in 15 years which makes Randy too excited for words, and Kelsa visits me soon. To cap it all off we are having some amazing weather and I am loving every minute of it!

A Casserole Explosion

So, tonight we decided to have some people from the neighborhood over for dinner. On the menu? Chicken Casserole, salad, fried squash, bread, and chocolate lava cake for dessert with homemade whipped cream. Everything was looking delicious, and our guests had just arrived. Sarah had just gone to get the door, which left me, Randy, and Adam in the kitchen. The yummy, bubbly chicken casserole had been out of the oven for five minutes tops sitting on top of the stove. As we stood around talking as I finished preparing the last of the squash, the ENTIRE casserole exploded into a million pieces...none smaller than one inch in diameter. No joke. I am not exaggerating in the least.

Not only did my casserole explode, but it exploded over everything in my kitchen...including the squash and the dessert. The two boys were also wounded with some shrapnel so we had a little bit of blood lost over the incident. Luckily, no one was hurt...nor were either animal. With nothing but some salad, bread, and a set dinner table, we decided to go eat mexican up the street. Still had a great dinner with friends, but nothing like what I planned.

Those of you who know the Mary and Martha story in the New Testament, Randy said that maybe it was God's way of telling me not to be a Martha in hosting a dinner. (I had been stressed about not getting the food done. The extreme heat in our kitchen didn't help. Maybe that was because the burner was left on from the tea? I won't say names of who left it on but I will say that it was not me who made the tea!! :) Whether it was a lesson learned or just a huge mess to make a memory in the new house, it is all cleaned up and now we can laugh.)

I hope the next dinner party goes well. If I get pictures sent my way of the entire disaster I will post them for your entertainment.

This Old House

So, we have been in our house for almost a week now, and I am finally able to sleep through the night and sit down long enough to write a blog post or read some of my Bible or book....which is a good sign since the last six days I have been in constant motion whether productive or not. I think I have rearranged silly things like candles and vases a million times. First thing I realized was just how. old. this. house. is. I have never lived in a 90 year old home, so this is all "new" old stuff. For example...

Our front door has to have both doorknobs (yes, we have two doorknobs) pushed at the same time if you want in. So you better have two hands ready.

No floors are level....I haven't even tried rolling a marble or anything because I don't need to to know how off our floors are. And holes. There are holes in the floor....and holes mean...

BUGS. I can't pretend anymore...I strongly dislike bugs. Of all shapes and sizes. Especially bugs inside. We don't have much, but enough to raise an eyebrow.

Outside is a different story. We have more mosquitos than anywhere. Ever. No joke. I wish I had taken a picture of all the bug killer Randy bought from Lowe's. It took up our whole dining room table. He said he told the checkout lady, "These bugs don't stand a chance." I hope he's right.

Doors. None of them work exactly right, and they have about four layers of paint. One color being the pistachio green that was oh so popular in the ??'s. Just like that green piano, Mom...remember that thing?!

Insulation. Or lack there of. We have none...so if you want to visit us, I would be wary of the cold months. Ha!

With all of these quirks and mishaps of our old house, I love it and wouldn't have it any other way. Well, maybe there are some things that could change, but it is great. And homey. And cozy. And ours.

We have neighbors across from us, a bunch of kids, that are already on my case to teach them art. Their request? Dinosaurs.

The house next to us is boarded up, and the house directly across from us is being turned into a single family home from the boarded up duplex it is now. If you like hispanic music, you will fit right in because it is played by many of the SUV's cruising down the street.

Pictures to come...when I have the strength to take them.

Goodbye, Apartment

This is our last night in the apartment. I only thought it fitting that I include a list of things I'll miss (and some I won't miss) about our little apartment on Mud Island...

-Kitchen Island...big time

-Being able to see the TV while sitting on the toilet. Necessary?

-THREE flights of stairs

-Open floor concept...being able to see all rooms at the same time, ha!

-Walking on the river. Probably biggest thing I'll miss

-High counters in the bathroom

-Good closet space

-Crappy carpet

-All the "first" memories...first home together, first meal cooked as a Mrs., where we first brought little Jack home, etc.

-Kitchen storage

-Our dryer that mysteriously stains things with a tiny rust-colored spot

-No windows in the kitchen

-Dishwasher that takes for.ev.er.

-Walking down the street to the mailbox

-Parking woes...not finding a spot...getting your friend towed when visiting, etc.

-Fitness center and tennis courts

-Recluse-type neighbors (until I got a dog)

-Dental school friends close by

-Track lighting...bleh

-Front gate

-The hole in the base boards in the kitchen that Jack retreats to in storms

Top two would have to be the kitchen island and walking along the river. At least one of those two can be added to our new home if needed!

Binghampton

I wanted to share with you all some pictures and a video of the family we have come to love. My earlier post about moving into Binghampton seems as though it was written forever ago, but it is finally here...well, really close...it will be moving day come Saturday morning. Our apartment looks like a bomb went off as we pack up all our boxes and try to keep Jack and Henry from getting into everything. On top of everything, I have a head cold...not fun.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the pictures courtesy of a talented Janine Noble, who will be moving into the neighborhood soon herself. The video is of our house church a few Sunday mornings ago thanks to John David, who will be leaving this week with three others to do some medical work in Afghanistan for ten days.

One of the homes on our street.

This church is almost directly across from us.

A community center and restaurant, Caritas Village, does artwork and service projects for the neighborhood, and I can't wait to find out how I can get involved in the art projects.
This is the Sedekia family who moved to Memphis from Burundi, Africa about four years ago. They came here from a refugee camp and are our Christian brothers and sisters who sing beautiful worship at our house church. Yes, these are all their children...8 daughters and 2 sons. All 8 girls were born first, then they finally got 2 sons. They are amazing.
This park has become a place where competitive soccer games are a must. Sometimes the teams are pretty even, but sometimes they play Americans vs. Africans and I hear the score is pretty favorable for the Africans.

Just this summer, they have started a farming project called Urban Farms. They are growing immensely and are soon opening a Farmer's Market. The idea (and what received a federal grant) is to provide healthy food for poorer, urban areas that usually end up at fast food or small grocery stores due to proximity and price. They have vegetables, fruit, and also fresh tilipia. Yum!
Our house church...not your usual extravagant church building.
One of my favorites, Nani Kama Wewe Bwana, which translated means, "Who is like you, Lord?"