Tickfaw State Park Camping

A group of us went camping on Friday night, 2/27/09 at Tickfaw State park. We had a blast. We arent' necessarily all "experienced campers" but we did have a couple of Eagle Scouts amongst us to help out! We arrived later on Friday and set tents up at night... very interesting in and of itself. We had a group from our Sunday School class get together. Most of us are not from around here, so it was a wonderful time to be able to make friends here in the Bayou. The Bayou is definitely a little odd at times! While we only stayed one night, we made the best of it. We stayed up late by the campfire, telling stories and getting to know one another. The really interesting part came once we decided to go to bed. You see, the campsite thinks ahead and has sand pits to place tents on. Good idea, right? Wonderful idea if it hasn't rained for days and you remember to toss the sand before placing the tent! But if neither of the above apply to you, it is like sleeping on concrete. And me being a city girl compared to my husband, I decided I'd try and rough it and not bring our air mattress like I had originally wanted. Needless to say, at about 3 am of not sleeping on our solidified sand, I stole the giant pillow dog bed from kicks to sleep on it. You know it's rough when.... poor kicks, he had to sleep on the ground... like a dog...

Following this incident, I awoke about 4 am from my dog bed with nature calling! Well leaving tent in the middle of the night to "do nature's bidding" isn't nearly as quiet as in a bedroom. I managed to unzip the tent and leave without waking the dogs and then crunched my way through the blind darkness into the woods. Unknown to me, our fellow camper Cory, also had the same calling. Being as he was not listed in the ranks among our eagle scouts, he was slightly freaked when he heard all the crunching I was doing. So as I teetered behind a tree, I also had to manage dodging a flashlight as Cory spotlighted me a few times to make sure I wasn't going to eat him. Very funny story the following morning when hee realized I wasn't a bear and I realized he wasn't a crazy man.

This past weekend was great! Randy and I, along with our new friends Tricia and Adam Raney, volunteered with the McMains Center for their annual canoe trip. It is a center for kids with Cerebral Palsy, and it's a chance once a year to experience the fun in the outdoors and canoing. We had a blast! The Raney's were able to lifeguard, while Randy was listed as an "expert" cano-er. Me being mediocre and all, I just sat on the sidelines, but I had a blast! After this, we all came back and finally had people over! We grilled, made homemade strawberry ice cream, and had a blast. It has been harder making friends down here in Red Stick, but we are slowly working on it! And we have now found great friends through church, so we are blessed.

Quick Spring Update

We are now into spring camp for Randy. It consist of him leaving at 4:30am each Monday morning and returning on Friday around 3:00. Not much fun! I didn't realize how much we do around here until I have to do it all on my own! I'm now doing the house, animals, and gardens alone, and it's just a bit too much sometimes! But what all has happened since January...

We have planted a garden and re-planted a flower bed. We now have food and flowers on the way! It's great!

We have joined Parkview Baptist Church. http://www.pbcbr.org/. It is a church and a private Baptist School on the East side of Baton Rouge. It is a great church. We are very fond of the new preacher, and becoming heavily involved in our Sunday School An older experienced couple leads the newly married 20's class, so it makes it very interesting!! We are trying to find where we are needed in the church, and where God wants our service. We are ready to go where Christ needs us, so we are finding our place.

We have been trying to reign in Kick's attitude. He always is upsets when Randy leaves, so we are trying to help compensate with it by a lot of walking. It is working pretty well, but we still worry when kids come along. But the animals all together are just a handful!! And even with the cat, I didn't think they were supposed to be so needy! If Mr. Flip isn't fed as soon as I walk out of the room in the morning, I'll hear about it all day.

So not too much going on, just wanted to recap. I'll post pictures on here this weekend hopefully when Randy returns with our laptop. This will be so much more interesting when we have kids!~

The Flying Squirrel Haircut

This weekend was interesting. Well, funny for us and not so good for our Cocker Spaniel. I brought her to PetSmart to be groomed this past Friday. We walked in, and the fear was in her eyes. I don't know if she recognized the smell, or the swinging door, or even the woman with the long blue trench coat on... Whatever sparked her recognition, she knew she would be left for hours without having much fun. Well she began to shake so of course I felt horrible! We have wanted to grow her hair out so she'll now look like an official Cocker Spaniel. So we asked for the top dog package, with the cocker cut. However, her hair is not long enough yet to lay down and be pretty. So she got a cocker cut, shaved on top and left long on the side. But instead of her longer hair laying down, it flies out to the side like a bald man in denial! I feel like she's the poor child with her bad haircut for the yearbook photos that will always be shown to future boyfriends. It was too funny not too share!

And so it begins!

Randy and I are creating this blog in order to help our family keep up with us now! And for any future events, we'll have this ready. So we will start from the beginning. Randy and I married May 12, 2007 and moved to Baton Rouge that summer. I started at Dow Chemical as an Improvement Engineer (project engineer) for the Environmental Technology Center. Randy transferred from MSU to LSU after he came off orders. He finished his activation in July and went back to being a full time student in the Fall of 2007. We are adjusting the Bayou, getting used to traffic and all these crazy LSU fans. We are actually becoming slight fans, but it's only because that LSU bug bit us and the disease is finally catching. We are settled into our new house which we love, and buying all the new furniture and fun stuff that will make us "grown up." We have bought a family car so we'll be ready when we decide to have kids! Our dogs are adjusting to their new blended family status, and our cat has made himself at home. We will continue to update with pictures and events as necessary. We miss you all and you're welcome to visit anytime!

Randy and Ashley