College of the Ozarks on CBS!!

Hey All! CBS ran a story about C of O this morning. It is about the work program that every full time student must go through. I had an amazing experience at C of O - It is an amazing school. The video is titled "The Value of a 'Hire Education'". Here's the link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4303320n&channel=/sections/earlyshow/videoplayer500202.shtml

GO BOBCATS!!!!!!!!

16 days and Counting!

In 16 days Joel and I are leaving for Montana for our “real” anniversary trip! We are going back to Glacier National Park where we honeymooned. This time we are going to spend most of our time “backcountry camping and hiking” and Jerry and Shelby are also going. Our route takes us along the continental divide so we ought to see some AMAZING views! When we were there before we didn’t spend as much time in the mountains as we will this time but we still saw the most gorgeous views I have ever seen! Most of you know that I absolutely love the mountains and their cool, dry climate. This will be a fantastic break from a hot, humid August in Missouri!

We have collected some really cool camping gear that is light and easy to carry into the mountains. This last February we went camping to test some of our gear, including our mummy sleeping bags. It was absolutely frigid, but we stayed pretty warm in our bags. The first thing that Molly did after Joel and I got up was jump in the river (she loves water and the cold). When she got out her fur froze in icicles before she got back to the tent (she didn’t care). BBRRRRR!!



We camped right next to Rush, Arkansas. It’s actually a ghost town that used to be a huge ore mining town. We spent some time the next day looking at the old buildings and caves. It was a lot of fun.


Anyway, if you can’t tell I am VERY excited to visit the amazing Glacier National Park once again! 16 days to go…

The New Beast

How exciting, we have FINALLY bought a new truck! Having a good, solid truck to drive will make our job so much easier and more enjoyable! Ode to the A/C! Yeah, so we decided to replace Babe the Big Blue Ox after it tried to eat Joel the other day...



Here's the new truck. It's a Chevy Duramax Diesel, Heavy Duty, 2500, crew cab, long bed, Z71 off road package - Big Dawg. It's a little bit of a tradition that my family names their big trucks. Jerry has voted that we name it the U.S.S. Enterprise for several reasons, this was in an email we got from him (Jerry hope you don't mind me sharing your creativity):

"well so many big grey and/or silver things come to mind. The Hindenburg...but that blew up. The Titanic...but that sunk. The Bismark...but that was blown up AND sunk. Dumbo...but he was a fat elephant that cried. How about the USS Enterprise...that was huge, had warp speed, 12 phasers, and last but not least-a supply of 250 photon torpedoes." The only other name we have came up with is Max. So here's the beast:




We spent the Fourth at Mom and Dad's. We had a really nice time and got to see just about everyone while we were in town. We of course spent lots of time shooting fireworks and then the next day spent time at the pond fishing and shooting. We also sprayed lots of plants with herbicide. Joel and I planted some aquatic plants in Mom and Dad's pond about two years ago and one of the kinds, the American Lotus has gotten a little out of hand.



I hope you all also had a great Fourth of July weekend!