Monday Monday

Good Morning ladies

I am doing a quick drive by.  I am leaving in about 15 minutes for Hot Springs Village.  Have some business to take care of and will also take in a few sights.  I am scouting out small towns to see if any of them compare to Sheidan Wy.  Hubby wants to be reasonably close to an airport so we will look in and around Little Rock.  Any idea you Arkansas ladies.  I want a place that has a definite sense of community.  A place that big city "progress" has passed by.  Where people have a pride of ownership and take care of their property and are courteous to one another.  Where you could leave your doors unlocked during the day and not worry and sleep with the windows open without being concerned you'd have visitors in the night.  Sounds like a tall order I know but that is Sheridan and that is what I am looking for.

Since I will be on the road I will be making the best choices I can as far as food is concerned.  I am bringing good choice snacks with me.  I have a cooler and my celery and carrots are in there along with some fruit.  Exercise will be walking during stops but it will be limited.  Once there I will have access to lots of trails and will be doing a lot of running around getting things done so I'll get my steps in. 

Also Jeannie maybe you know about pinnacle mountain.  I know it is in Little Rock and I have heard that it is a challenge to climb.  I want to try it.  Have you  been there?

Gotta scoot.

see ya later

Pinnacle Mt. is too close to LR; in fact, all those towns from Russellville to LR are growing like crazy. If you want a mountain, you should check out Fayetteville or the little towns surrounding us. It is rated number 1 community by one of those magazines that does what is the best city to live in.  From Alma, which as at the bottom of the Mt to Fayetteville, there are about five small towns that are very cool and a couple are artsy. Fayetteville has the best farmers market in the world....or I think it does.  The summers here are real nice because the students all head home but even with the students in full-swing, I love living here.   There are also communities around Mt. Magazine that are nice.  I'll do a little more research....we have an airport about 15 minutes from Fayetteville and then Ft. Smith's airport is about 40 minutes from us.

I just may have to look in your area. Would a fiscal conservative and social libertarian fit in in your area? Lol .  That best describes me politically. 

About pinnacle Mt. I was asking about the climb. Have you climbed it. Do you know how challenging it is?

I have not climbed it but it looks easy and there are easy, modertate, and hard trails....

You would love Fayetteville. We are close to the white and Buffalo rivers. We are twenty minutes away from Devil's Den http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/devilsden/ and that's some really nice hiking. We have lakes and rivers and tons and tons of little artsy communities. You would love Terra Studios....http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WME09P_Terra_Studios_Blue bird_of_Happiness_Factory_Durham_AR  

We are not far from Branson and Silver Dollar City. Tulsa is three hours away and LR about three hours. We are a little over 3 hours from Hot Springs...it's a really nice, liberal community

Jeannie.....I stopped at the Arkansas welcome center and pick up a book on Fayetteville and another on NW Arkansas.  I must say I think John would love your city.  I like all the things to do but it seems a little large for me.  Do you know anything about Huntsville.  Its about 30 miles east of Fayetteville.  When you say you are going down the mountain where are you going?  Do you live in Fayetteville or in the mountains?  What are your winters like?  I also like that you are only 66 miles from Branson.

I live in Fayetteville and down the mountain is to the River Valley about 30 miles east of Ft. Smith. There are several very small communities surrounding Fayetteville but I bet you would love Fayetteville...it's small town living at its finest. We have the  best theater compliments of the Waltons and we have Crystal Bridges, which is free and has tons of walking trails. We go often...it's beautiful.  Normally, we have mild winters but every once in a while, we have some pretty bad snow but it's still nothing like what most people see and it doesn't stay long.  

We also have walking and bike trails that go all through Fayetteville....the only down side to Fayetteville is its a mountain and full of trees and plants and eagles and hawks and coyotes.  Every morning, I get to work right at 7 and there's a mama fox that I have been giving a little cat food to because she has a den full of babies and I just want to make sure she eats well....as a payment, she stands right outside my window and I watch her eat, stretch, and bathe before she goes back to her babies.  Our campus is full of rabbits and squirrels...a ton of birds.  Magazine Mt. which is about 4 hours from here has a butterfly festival every year and we go to that....Magazine Mt. has the most species of butterflies as any mountain in the world, or so I've heard. A friend of mine takes people on tours to the water falls...hey, look at this...http://www.exploretheozarksonline.com/activities/parksnature /nationalforests/ozark/bigpiney/gloryhole.html we go here often...it's a little hike off the rode but it's so worth it.  

Hello Ladies,

I am rushing like a crazy person, trying to get the last of my 2015-16 academic year stuff done.  

Today's breakfast was an egg and DH and I have decided we are giving up eggs. We both have lost our taste for them and they just sit in my pouch and make me miserable...I'll still cook with them but no more for breakfast.

Lunch is a veggie patty, fried squash and okra.  I forgot my snack.

Dinner is beans that are cooking in the crock pot.  

That's it for me. Ladies, do Monday proud.

Hi Linda, those to come. . .

Busy weekend with the littlest of my grandchildren, who just lights up my life. . . parents are moved into their new home, I ate what I could, nothing like I would normally, but little time for eating when trying to entertain an almost nine month old, who is teething, doesn't like to nap and with the weekend, almost entirely rainy and cold. . .  today my back aches and I have lots to do, so trying to compensate for the weekend with my food choices, cottage cheese and small russian bagel for breakfast, strawberries and l/f cheese for snack, lots of water in between, thai shrimp soup for lunch, applesauce for snack and dinner is not figured out yet.

Have a great day!

Laureen