Return to Arkansas

I mean by way of subject matter, not that we're hopping a plane today or anything...

I did a pretty good job of packing for Arkansas for Lindsey and I, though I did expect the weather to be a little warmer. So the shorts/capri pants that I had packed stayed packed, and my sweatshirt got worn three days in a row, but at least it made for consistency in pictures over the weekend, right?

Speaking of pictures, that was the one thing I didn't pack -- well, I mean, I packed the camera, but the battery was left in the charger on the kitchen countertop. So I was left with mobile pics from my Blackberry until I got to my dad's, when I immediately confiscated his camera for the weekend. Because after all, if he'd had the camera, we would have pictures of the trees, the cabin, the flowers, but not the people. He did sneak one of those in during the weekend, so let's just get that one out of the way right away, shall we?

This is the view from the Jonesboro nature center. It's sponsored and staffed by the Arkansas Fish & Game Commission, so the subject matter had more to do with hunting than nature, but I think Lindsey missed that little twist on the subject matter.

The nature center was one of the highlights of the weekend, especially since it was the one day that was sunny, though the breeze was still brisk. We had a good time checking out the displays; Lindsey played in the little theatre (per previous post) and ultimately we had a very good time. Though it was funny driving over there -- Lindsey is clearly used to being in a dense metropolitan center, because we had to stop during the 25 minute drive there for "snacks" because the drive felt really long to her, apparently. And since I had forgotten my wallet back at the house, "snacks" were compliments of my dad. (I know I know, my husband tells me I would forget my head if it weren't attached to my neck.)

Speaking of forgetting things...

On Friday night I offered to make chicken enchiladas, a recipe I'd gotten off the internet that Wayne and I had been enjoying of late. So Friday afternoon we headed to the grocery store for the ingredients, one of which is 2 C of cottage cheese. So we picked up a 16 oz container of cottage cheese.

When it came time to use the cottage cheese in the recipe, I began measuring out the 16 oz into 1C measuring cups...because apparently in my mind 16 oz and 2 cups are not related. Sure enough, 16 oz is indeed 2 cups, so I feel better for having confirmed that, and my dad feels better for having something else to tease me about. (Hey, at least I didn't make flubber out of eggs on my visit, Kristi!)

Let's see...other pictures...This was another highlight of the weekend that Lindsey loved, the "chore" of filling the various birdfeeders. My dad would hold her up while she filled the feeders. One evening we set out corn and a few hours later were rewarded with the site of two deer coming out to munch on the corn. (No pics of that since it was near twilight.)

We also dyed Easter eggs on Saturday, which took all of like 10 minutes. Seems like so much prep time and/or big deal is made of dying Easter eggs, when ultimately it took longer to set up than to dye 10 eggs. Terry was able to use some of the eggs in a potato salad that we ate on Easter, which was divine, by the way, yum!!!

There was more, much more, but I have to save that for another post, or risk taking a lunch afternoon instead of a lunch hour.