Fort Worth Stockyards

...is pretty much our favorite place in Fort Worth!

On Saturday we went there for a few hours and had a late lunch at our favorite restaurant there, Trailboss Burgers- best burgers and fried pickles! (Yes, I just said fried pickles...yum!)

Enjoying a Dublin Dr. Pepper...Nascar style

Walking on the train tracks

We discovered this new-to-us thing there...a catwalk!

Its a bridge-type thing overlooking animal pens!

There were even a few horses there!

Roundn' up the longhorns...



...to go walking down Exchange Ave.

 We seriously LOVE the Stockyards! It's so "Texas" and historical.  This is were the West began!

A small history lesson about the Stockyards:   Fort Worth was the last major stop along the Chrislom Trail and was established as a trading and cattle center and was thus nicknamed "Cowtown".  With the emerging of the Texas & Pacific Railway, Fort Worth became a major hub for the livestock industry.  Because Fort Worth was the last major stop along the Trail, Stockyard Station opened to meet the needs of the Cattlemen. This included general stores, banks, hotels, restaurants, and of course saloons, and with all these things came the start of bar fights and shoot outs. (During the summer months you can witness a "real" shoot out and year round you can see a "real" cattle drive!)  Since 1900, over 160,000,000 head of livestock have been through Fort Worth.

Information was taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Worth,_Texas
http://www.stockyardsstation.com/More-Information/History.html
http://www.fortworthstockyards.org/History.aspx

Sundance Square & Valentine's Day

We had another nice day this past Saturday, so we decided we would go and walk around downtown.  They have a lot of old buildings and cool architecture.  We mostly just walked around taking pictures and going into a couple of the shops.  One shop we really enjoyed was the Thomas Kinkade Art Gallery.  He does some gorgeous work, so it was cool to see so many of his pieces.  





Bass Hall





Enjoying the Day



On the Courthouse Steps



Tarrant County Courthouse



Painting of the Chisholm Trail







Overall, it was a good day and we enjoyed getting out of the house for a few hours.  And Donald bought me a Java Chip Frap from Starbucks which was a very special treat!

On Valentine's Day I woke up to sweet sweet note from my Valentine! Then when I got home from work he had printed out hearts and wrote sweet little notes of each and hid them around the house! It was fun walking around finding them all! I actually missed one on Valentine's Day and found it on Tuesday when I was fixing dinner (it was on the fridge, how did I miss that?!?!).  For dinner we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  I know you're probably thinking that's not very romantic.  But we don't eat out very often (maybe two or three times a month) and we LOVE Five Guys, so it was a special treat! After we had dinner we walked around Hobby Lobby for a little while (I love Hobby Lobby!) Overall, it was a good evening!

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:9-11



Our Love Story

In honor of Valentine's Day I thought I'd share our love story...

Donald and I both attended Freeman High School.  He is a year older than me so we never had any contact in high school.  We did, however, live about 2 minutes walking distance from each other all through high school, we just never knew it! We met in April of my senior year (2003).  We both happen to work at Innsbrook After Hours (this is a concert series in Richmond that happened every Wednesday night).  He did set-up and tear-down and I worked the soda booth and sold glow sticks, but we worked for the same guy.

The first night we got to talking about country music and how much we both loved it.  We got to talking about Blake Shelton and his popular song The Baby.  {Sidenote that is helpful for the story: in the video of this song, Blake Shelton is pretty much just sitting there singing the song; he's wearing a black shirt and the background is blue, and his eyes are VERY blue} We started talking about the video and how weird it was that his eyes were so blue in the video.  And at the same time it dawned on us both that his eyes were baby blue and the song is called The Baby.  From that night, I knew we would be friends because he loved country music just as much as I did!

We spent the next couple of weeks seeing each other at Innsbrook.  He would walk with me while I sold glow sticks because 1) at most of these concerts there were lots of drunk men and 2) we liked each other! One of the best memories I have of these nights was one night it rained and rained, but it stopped by the end of the evening and we spent about 20 minutes jumping in puddles together! From that night, I knew we could date because he made me laugh and we had a good time. 

Our first official date was in May and we went to see Finding Nemo at the movies. But on June 21, 2003 he officially asked me to be his girlfriend and of course I said yes! We spent that first summer hanging out and enjoying our time together before I went to Liberty.  About a month and a half after we started dating, he came to my house one night with a rose in hand with sweet little note.  That night I made dinner for him and we watched a movie (I think it was Sleepless in Seattle).  As he was leaving and we were saying goodnight, he told me he loved me and of course I said it back!

We spent the first 4 years of our relationship in different cities. We got to know the roads between Richmond and Lynchburg very well! He proposed on May 7, 2005 and we were married almost exactly 2 years later on May 19, 2007! (Maybe in another post I'll detail both of these events!)

We've now been together for almost 8 years and I can't imagine my life without him. I love him more today than I could have ever imagined back 8 years ago!

And the rest they say is history!





This was taken in August 2003 in Nags Head, NC. I had gone with his family on vacation for a few days.  This was the first picture we ever took together!

P.S. One really cool thing I'll add, Donald and his mom danced to the song The Baby at our wedding!

Prayer

"I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting"

1 Timothy 2:8

"Paul tells us to pray with confidence and certainty.  That is the attitude God wants us to have- to know that he is going to answer.  We don't know how he is going to answer, or when he is going to answer, or where he is going to answer.  But we know without a doubt that he will answer."
-Taken from Falling in Love with Prayer by Mike MacIntosh

And the LORD said to him: “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 1 Kings 9:3

Romans 15:4-6

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.  May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,  so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (NIV) 

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Charles Swindoll

Snow Day...Again

Well, I am really beginning to think that we have somehow moved to Vermont or something.  This morning we woke up to 3 inches of snow! As the morning progressed we got about another inch!

So, let's recap this week...Tuesday morning woke up to 2 inches of almost solid ice, Wednesday and Thursday we experienced some of the coldest temperatures ever, and today we got almost 4 inches of snow.  Its been a long, cold week!

After it stopped snowing, the sun came out and began to melt some of the ice and snow! I am ready for to all magically disappear! Hopefully we will be able to get out some tomorrow, I think we are getting a little stir crazy (even though we have both gone to work at some point this week), we are just ready to get out! And we need food, this week is the week I go shopping so our cabinets are a little bare!

Here are some pictures from today! (Even though I am not a huge fan of snow it is really pretty!)

Out the back door

Out the front door

Back door

Measuring the snow

He wanted a jumping picture!

The roads this afternoon- this looks good!

Walkway

Arctic Freeze

Saturday it was spring...today we live in the Arctic...literally! Monday night a massive cold front hit our area with a bang! It's the coldest its been in a decade.  I need a t-shirt that says "I survived the Arctic Freeze in Fort Worth".

We woke up Tuesday morning to about 2 inches of almost just ice and brutal temperatures. The high on Tuesday might have been 20 degrees (if we were lucky) and with the wind chill it felt about 1 degree.  Today the high is going to be 18 degrees and should feel just at or below 0.  And to top it all off we are experiencing rolling blackouts. People have been using so much electricity because its so cold, that the system is on overload.

I didn't even attempt to leave the house yesterday.  Donald went out for a few minutes to scrap the car and to check out the roads.  But for the most part we stayed in and kept warm.  The roads are still pretty bad today, but I did go into work.



Out our front door on Tuesday morning




Out the back door

I don't think I have ever experienced weather this cold before in my life (that I can remember).  And I have to say, I am not a big fan. I don't see how people who live in states where winter is always like this can survive.  My blood was not made to handle this kind of cold! It is so cold that the condensation on the inside of our windows is frozen. 


Icicles in the house

But the future is looking good...its going to be sunny and 24 degrees tomorrow and we might hit 32 degrees on Friday (woohoo!) And by Saturday we will be in melt down mode and back to regular Texas weather!  I can't wait!