The Sassy Seven

This wonderful Spring Break commenced with a trip to see Jenny (and her new house) in Memphis. We had so much fun and the weather was just perfect! She lives in an artsy part of town and her house is next to an amazing park by the zoo. She has wood floors and big, open spaces.

Since our birthday is coming up (and I'm horrible about mailing things, especially on time), we decided to go shopping together for birthday presents. We began with clothing, but soon got bored. I had been telling her how I want to stock my outdoor sports equipment stash, so we went to Target and she "present-ed" me with a soccer ball (always good to have on hand), volleyball (I have a sand volleyball court at my apartments), and frisbee (can't believe I didn't even have one of those). So, now I'm set. Next item on the list is a tennis racket (or is it raquet?). When I was little, I tried to take tennis lessons, but the Rich klutziness wouldn't allow any good to come of it. I think I've grown into my feeble bones and can better manage myself so I'm trying to give it a shot again.

On to the SASSY SEVEN! At ACU, there was a very close-knit group of seven of us girls. We have not all been together since graduation (there have been six together, but not seven), and it was past time to do something. Angie, Anne, and I live in the DFW area. Kristi and Jenny live in Memphis, Dearing in Nashville, and Allison in Iowa (her husband is in podiatry school there). A good "mid-point" that we found was Hot Springs, Arkansas! I'll let the pictures tell the story:

This is the Buckstaff Bath House. Five of the seven of us did the whole bath house experience. I won't go into details, but it was an experience -- once in a lifetime for me. thanks.

We ate in Hot Springs a couple of times. The most memorable was at this place called "Bubbalou's." A sweet old man and his OCD and keep-it-all-together wife ran the place. Lou kept it social and his wife flipped all the burgers and made sure all the orders were filled. A little backwards to our normal stereotype, but cute nonetheless.

For lodging, Allie found us a house to rent for the weekend, which was a fabulous idea! However, the house was located in Hot Springs Village, a gated retirement community that stretched and winded and curved forever and ever! A good example of how it was a retirement community was the local Wal-Mart. Instead of a line of carts greeting you as you enter, we saw this:

Therefore, we mostly hung out at the house:

At the house, we hung out and did various things. One of the things we did was watch Dearing and Angie try Bertie Botts' Every Flavored Beans. This is Angie's reaction after eating "vomit" or "booger" or something equally as disgusting:

Imagine a picture of Angie about to vomit...The photo thing isn't letting me download my pictures at the moment...

We also played an exciting game of...er, I can't remember the name at the time. Obviously it wasn't so exciting, mainly because we all achieved the highest goal each round. In the end, Dearing, who was half-asleep the entire time and not really paying attention (and who didn't finish first) had the highest score...

Imagine a picture of Jenny throwing ("rolling" if you will) the die cubes... ahh, victory!

Overall, we enjoyed ourselves and had a great time. It was so relaxing to just hang out with people that KNOW me -- people that I don't have to impress or worry about what they might think. I'm so thankful for my close friends. Ah, the beauty of the self-timed photo:

Imagine a super-cute picture of the seven girls smiling. This picture is similar to the top photo, except we're not being as goofy.

The end...