Our Week in Pictures

Saturday, July 30, 2011

This week. . .

we helped daddy work on the car.


I went to the vet. with Mister.


I fried some delicious squash from Grandpa's garden.


I grilled by myself (with help)...for the first time.
And I quote, "Oh my gosh, these things are freaken' good."  Success!


I worked in my classroom.


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It Doesn't Take Much

Well, in case you were wondering, it doesn't take too much to entertain me!!
This video was taken at the Seattle train station bathroom.  

I'll admit were a little, okay VERY, sleep deprived from getting up at about 4 am to get on the train. 
And just in case you're wondering...this is my mom's arm, not a strangers.  
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The Thunder Rolls & Lightning Strikes...

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Thank God for rain!!

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Mini - "Fay"cation

Monday, July 25, 2011

After our weekend getaway in Van Buren, Sean headed back home to Camden.  I, on the other hand, headed to Fayetteville for a few days. 

I was so happy to be able to spend some time with my mom before we both have to head back to work.  We did some swimming, shopping, and of course...eating.  I was so excited to find out that TCBY had opened up in Rogers.  It is probably my FAVORITE dessert place! I also love the new set-up they have.  I had the Pink Lemonade Sorbet with sprinkles. So delicious!


I forgot to take any pictures, but on Tuesday I went to Pesto Cafe with my best friend, Kristian! It's always so wonderful seeing her and catching up.  We celebrated our birthdays with dinner, and drinks at Theo's.

Wednesday I went to dinner with my mom and some of her friends.  We tried out a new little place, Mojo's Pints and Pies.  They have some awesome pizza!


And of course, no trip to Fayetteville is complete without some Little Bread.  Two reasons we always go to LB.  One, awesome food! And, two, we get to see Cody and his girlfriend Gwendolyn (they both work there).  

Hopefully my belly will be content until our next visit!
Thanks mom for the awesome "Fay"cation!
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Dawn of a New Era

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Last weekend Sean and I headed north to Fort Smith.  We had two items on the agenda.  One, of course, visit my family in Van Buren.  And, two, watch our friend Mike compete in an amateur MMA cage fight.  We arrived in Van Buren early Saturday afternoon and got a little swimming in before dinner.  Our friends from Camden, Eric and Toni, came up for the fight as well and stayed at my grandparents house with us.



After dinner we headed to Fort Smith for the big entertainment.  It was really neat, actually.  Mike has been training for a fight like this for years and we were really excited to be a part of it.  We were also really nervous for him. 

So he comes out and the do all the checks on him and goes into the cage and prepares to fight.  They start going at each other and hitting and then...his opponent takes him to the ground! NO!
It was all good though.  Mike got him in a choke hold and his opponent "tapped out"!!
The entire fight lasted about 45 seconds.  We were really excited for him! 

Sunday we slept until about 11 because we'd been out so late the night before.  Then we went to lunch with Dad, Valorie, and the rest of my family. 


It was nice to be able to spend some time with them.  Of course, I always wish there was more time.
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Fruit Smoothies

Thursday, July 14, 2011

A delicious, healthy treat on a HOT day!


Ingredients:

  • Frozen fruit 
  • Yogurt
  • Milk

  1. The serving size for the yogurt is 1/4 of the container.  Eyeball what would be about 1/4 of the container and put into blender. 
  2. The fruit serving size is 1/3 of the bag.  Pour what you think is about 1/3 of the fruit into the blender.
  3. Then just pour about a tbsp. of milk into the blender and blend away!
This recipe makes enough for two servings at about 110 calories each!
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Worries

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

I am a pathological worrier.  
It's definitely one of the very few flaws that I get from my dear father.  I am usually worrying about school.  Grading papers, paperwork, testing, oh! and teaching.  So I was hoping that with the presence of summer, I would have the absence of worrying, right?  WRONG!

Now I'm worrying about our house.  
Is our house large enough to one day start a family?  Do we add-on?  If we add-on will we get the money back when we sell?  Should we buy a new house instead? Build a house? 

I'm worrying about children.
When are we going to have children?  More importantly, when will we have the money to have children? Do we have enough room in the house for children?  Where do we want to travel before we have children?

Ugh!!  I'm trying really hard to let it go and let God do His job.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7
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Thomas Party of 9 - Part II

Friday, July 8, 2011

We greeted day four at 4:30 in the a.m. to get on the Amtrak train.  We took the train down to Seattle for the night.  It was an awesome ride along the coastline.  We ventured down to the Pike Place Market and fish market.  Yea, it stunk so I didn't last too long in there.  We took the Monorail across town to the Space Needle at sunset.  It was pretty awesome.  The views were outrageous! You could see Mt. Rainier so well.  We wanted to go out there but we just didn't have the time.





We continued sightseeing in Seattle on day five.  We went to the Seattle Public Library which was so beautiful and interesting.  It had lime green in the elevators and on the escalators.  We also went down to the Pier and walked along the seaside.  When we were in the Space Needle we saw a family carrying around a Cheesecake Factory bag, therefore we had to find it and enjoy some cheesecake before we left town.


We jumped on the train at 6:30 and headed back to Vancouver for the night. Upon arrival we had the scariest cab ride ever! It was raining outside and our cab driver drove no slower than 60mph down the middle of town...through traffic! We were all hanging on for our lives...in three different cabs!


We headed home on day six.  :(

It was a great trip and surprisingly we got a lot of sightseeing accomplished!
Hopefully we can continue our Thomas Party of 9 vacations...of course the numbers may eventually increase!
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Thomas Party of 9 - Part I

 Our family vacation this year was to Vancouver, BC.  Not only did Sean and I go, but we went with my mom's family (9 of us in all).  We had a fabulous time and were very consistent with always being in the way!  It's pretty difficult to move 9 people from one place to another without being somewhat in the way.

With the time change we ended up being in Vancouver around lunch so we had a good bit of the afternoon to walk around our hotel area.  It was so gorgeous!  Our hotel was near Stanley Park, a 1,000 acre park, so we had the opportunity to walk around it a little bit.  We only started to scratch the surface though.  We had a nice dinner at a Pub near the hotel.  You could tell we were from the South, I think 7 of us ordered bbq sandwiches. And let me tell you, those Canadians can make some killer french fries! I ate french fries nearly every day.


Our first full day my mom and I went whale watching.  It was a 5 hour long adventure! The weather was a little cloudy and there were some storms on the outskirts, which made the water VERY choppy.  Luckily no one on the boat got sick.  We spent the first two hours trying to find the whales, luckily Victoria reported some while we were out.  Ironically, we saw the whales in U.S. waters.  They were so beautiful and actually playful.  We also saw some sea lions resting along the rocks and shores.


On day three we continued our adventures by going to Grouse Mountain.  It was about 40 degrees once we got up there, FREEZING!  There was snow all over the place which was a nice change from the heat and dryness.  We went zip lining while we were up there.  It was so fun, even though I was so nervous before going. It turned out great though! Until we went on the gondola up to the top of the mountain.  I was freaking out! I'm pretty sure we have it all on camera.  
We had gotten a rental car for the day so we could go to the mountain.  We ended up driving to Whistler for dinner.  It was such a beautiful drive! We saw about 10 black bears along the side of the road.  We had actually driven up there to drive up to one of the mountain tops and it turns out there's no road to the top of that mountain...I think we should have done more research.  But we went to a great brewery and had an awesome dinner.  

As you can tell...we weren't prepared for the freezing temperatures and snow!


I want to spare you with the length, I know you have other things to do, so I'll continue this later!

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SheShe Made Giveaway!!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

These beach towels from SheShe Made are perfect for trips to the pool or beach this summer!


They are a great size are very plush!  The appliqued name is an adorable addition that will separate these towels from all the others at the beach or pool.





SheShe Made is offering one reader one of the great beach towels! The winner will have a choice between The Boy's Seersucker Appliqued Towel or The RickRack Name Towel.

To enter this giveaway: Visit The Francis Family Giveaway Blog and leave a comment letting Jennifer know which towel you would choose! Please include your email address if you do not have a blog.
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Ollie's Trick

Saturday, July 2, 2011

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