OK, so I am a LITTLE redneck

It is snowing outside. There are a few parking lots and streets behind my house with freshly covered icy roads with snow on top. NO CARS are to be seen. What does any redneck worth his salt do? He loads up his wife in his 4x4 and cuts a few donuts. Bo and Luke Duke would be proud =).

Waterfalls

Because of the threat of inclement weather, my clinic was cancelled today. So I headed to Dr. Stallcup's beautiful place to hunt a little and to take pictures. It is snowing now, but the last 24 hours have produced a LOT of rain. With rain and the steep terrain in this area, many waterfalls pop up. Below is a link to some that I took. I am looking forward to getting some more if my clinic is cancelled tomorrow.

Waterfalls

Happy Thanksgiving

 

I wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving today and hope you have a wonderful time with friends and family. I will be in the hospital on call the next 24 hours, but I am thankful for the opportunity to impact people's lives today. I would rather be with family, but being on call is the nature of my job.

Remember to take time to sit and remember what God has done and give thanks to Him. I encourage you to share this with those who are in your presence today, even though it is not easy to do. We don't do this enough as believers and should do it more often.

"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing priase to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgements he pronounced" 1 Chronicles 16:8-12 

Our New Home

 
Well, we are now the owners of a new old home in DeQueen. We got it for a good price and really liked it so we decided to go ahead and purchase it. We are not so rich as to be able to own two homes, but rather the market in DeQueen is WAY cheaper than here, or likely anywhere else for that matter. (we got this house for less than $55/square foot, which is what a NEW home in DQ goes for.) If any of you are outraged at the pricing of homes nowadays, or if you are wanting to get on the fast-track to paying off all your debt, then consider moving to DQ with us! We would welcome any friends who would like to come down there with us.

The main work that we know about is the refinishing the hardwood floors. I am sure that it being a 102 years old, we will have some things we find out as we go along. It already has a new roof, new central heat and air, and new wiring. We are really excited and looking forward to our future there and seeing how God will bless it and what He has in store for us. Feel free to offer suggestions on remodeling/saving space ideas/etc.

Click here for a slideshow tour. 

O Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're an Arkansas Razorback fan...

So we had quite the tailgating experience this weekend, on top of the fact that we witnessed a GREAT game and something unprecedented in AR Razorback football...definitely blog-worthy. Here are some pics to prove it. My hospitable husband, Jason, was the mastermind behind the whole operation. He did such a great job- by far the best brisket I've ever had. And a BIG thanks to Chuckles & Grammy Kay for all of their help. You guys are awesome. Here are the stats from the Lofton/ Marlin tailgating party:

Massive grill on wheels from Arvest Bank= 1
Pieces of Head Country-smothered-bbq-d chicken= 60
Hickory-smoked brisket ('mopped' with love every 2 hours by Jason during the night)= 1
Skewers of the infamous Lofton deer bites, made with extra TLC by mom & I :-)= 10
Cases of ice cold root beer= 2
Homemade Camp Ozark style chocolate chip cookies= 100
Hours that the green Tahoe was on Razorback Rd. that day= 14
Inebriated fans who talked to Jason so they could get a taste of his chicken, yet couldn't pronounce the word 'Oklahoma'= 1
Tables decorated with our favorite 'Viagra' paper= 2
Times I wished I was somewhere else= 0

GO HOGS!

Code Red

For those of you who haven't heard, and I am sure most of you have by now, Satdurday's game has been declared "Code Red Day" for all Razorback fans. Simply put, wear RED on Saturday. Come by our tailgate party on Saturday. We will be in the yard just north of the ticket office on the west side of Razorback road, just past Walton Blvd. Lots of deer bites, salsa, BBQ chicken, and more. Bring a dessert if you want.

On another note, there is a website to go to to vote for the Heisman and we all want to get McFadden as much props as we can. I don't think he will win this year, but think of this as an early campaign for next year. Vote HERE.

ESPN College Gameday coming to Fayetteville

It is true....after many weeks of rumors floating around that Gameday was coming to Fayetteville we can finally welcome Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit to town. I am excited and plan on having a big ol tailgate party on Razorback road.

One of the funniest signs I saw in the game on Saturday was this:
"Not even Chuck Norris can stop McFadden". I was wondering if someone who read Grant's blog was in the stands? I might have to make something similar for Saturday.

A week in review

So the last two weeks have been sort of an emotional roller coaster ride, as Cindy mentioned earlier. We appreciate all the prayers that so many of you have offered. It is important that we continue to lift each other up throughout life in times of joy and in times of sorrow.

Cindy and I were wondering why all this happend the way it did. Normally, when I hear that people are pregnant I always encourage them to wait until the 12 week mark to tell everyone because I know the statistics: at least 10-20 percent of pregnancies spontaneously abort and %80 of those are in the first 12 weeks. So, normally we would have waited to tell...but since she was supposed to have surgery everyone was asking,"how did surgery go?" We decided we didn't want to lie or avoid the truth and tell everyone who asked. If it hadn't of happened this way, we would have been dealing with this rather alone and would not have had the comfort and prayers of so many of you. God has healed our wounds and I feel this has brought us closer to God and to each other. It has certainly made us think more about really when do we want to have kids and to be asking God for direction.

God has a plan for us as stated in Jeremiah. If we will just trust him and follow he will be faithful. I hope this may encourage some of you to open up your lives more to your community of friends so they can rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn for those who mourn.

hopes & longings

Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. -prov. 13:12

We have really experienced this truth over the past 9 days. Especially the first part. Last Monday, I (Cindy) was in a waiting room at 7am, almost ready to have my much-anticipated knee surgery, when the nurse comes in and tells Jason & I that we are pregnant. Whhhaaat??? That's not what I came here for! I want a new ACL, not a baby! I was speechless for a good 3 hours, as I tried to process this unexpected change of plans. We knew there was still a high risk of miscarriage b/c I was only a few weeks along at that point, but we decided to go ahead and tell people, b/c they'd be asking about the surgery anyway and we didn't want to lie. So I grew more excited as we told our family and close friends that we were expecting a little Lofton at the end of June. We even started throwing around possible names, like 'Allegra' and 'Viagra'. As the week progressed, the more hope I felt and the more I was really accepting the fact that we were going to have a kid. Well, that hope was quickly deferred this past Saturday when I started having a miscarriage. We know for certain today that it's a miscarriage after getting 2 blood tests done, but I knew deep in my gut on Saturday when it started, something in me began to grieve. It was grief that I've only felt when my Granny and my best friend from high school passed away. So I think God was preparing me then for this hope to be deferred, but it still hurts. But He doesn't leave us there, heart sick over deferred hopes. He promises that a longing fulfilled will be a tree of life, like the picture displays. So I guess I'm about to learn the truth of the second part of that proverb. And I know it's always to long for Him and the things of Him. For those of you who have been 'in the know' this past week, thank you for your support and many prayers. We are thankful not to be alone in this. It's definitely been a wake-up call in many ways, esp. for me, so that is good. But a rollercoaster at the same time. Anyway, i just needed to write some of that out to help me process, and to inform those of you who actually read our blog but didn't know what was going on.

...you give and take away...my heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be Your name...