You Can't Teach an Old(er.. 5 year old) Dog New Tricks...

Ok, so all my friends have been posting adorable videos of their kids (see Grady giggle here) and (see Anna Cross sing here)
(seriously, they are so freaking cute! Watch them both ) So, I thought that I would post vids of our equally adorable, albeit hairy children!



So, our new happy house has a doggie door. YAY!! Now, we don't even have to get up off the couch to let the kids out to play!!! Or, so we thought.



Ok, so for those of you who don't know, we've got two furry kids, Bobo and Bay. Bobo will be 13 in November and Bay will be 6 in April. Bobo is Greg's child and Bay is mine. I will tell you that Bay really doesn't get all the love that he deserves because he's a big and loud dog. People tend to be very afraid of him. He can be very scary, but when it comes down to it, he's the sweetest little thing. He really doesn't know how big he is and would love to curl up on my lap (sometimes I let him). He's a shedding machine and has made apartment living a nightmare, but he's so sweet and he LOVES his mama. Bobo is adorable and just watching him walk around makes me laugh. But, he's actually the more ornery one who often gets his way just because he's old. He's been with Greg for a very long time. I mean, I love him and everything, but someone forgot to teach him his manners! (I've told Greg that I will be the disciplinarian if we ever have kids because I can see how easily he gives in to Bobo just because he's so cute. Greg's such a softy) Anyway, I always bragged about how smart MY dog is because he will usually listen and follow directions. However, he is a bit of a scaredy cat and doesn't really like to try out new things......
On the other hand, Bobo, for as old and cranky as he is, picked right up on the new toy!

I tried everything to get Bay to go out the door... Well, at least he'd get the treat....

Ahhh.... the tast of success.... well, almost. We finally got Bay to go all the way through the door, but he has not yet made the connection that he can go through anytime he needs to go potty, or wants to go play outside. He still goes to the front door and whines at us. We have to give him the "go outside" command (and usually accompany him to the door and give him a little push) for him to actually go out. Poor special, special puppy....

We've Moved..... Again!!

I swear, all I've done over the past five or so years is move! I feel like I've become a real pro! Well, we've done it again! Here's our new address....

1731 King Woods Drive

Augusta, GA 30904

When Greg and I decided to move to Augusta neither one of us knew anything about this place. Greg had been a few times to visit with his family, but never enough to really know his way around. He came up here with his dad before our big move to find us a place to stay and found us a cozy little one bedroom apartment. The apartment complex was nice and it was great that they were so pet friendly...but we had our share of problems while we were there. Not soon after we moved in, it really began raining in Augusta. We came home one evening and found ourselves sloshing through the living room! Rain had come in under the door and from the bottom of the wall!! The apartment people were quick to send out someone to remove the water, but not long after, it happened again! Finally they decided to fix a retaining wall.... but, we already had a sour taste in our mouth for our apartment. Then, we got water in through the roof, then a fire in our building had us without power for a few days, then our toilets backed up, then.... well, you can figure it out! Also, Greg and I were both so ready to move into something that felt more "grown up" and real. We had both been in beige apartments for so long!! We thought about trying to buy something, but with me just starting my own business, we wouldn't qualify for a loan.... and besides that, we just didn't feel financially ready to buy. Why buy something now that you have to settle for when you can save and wait until you are really financially prepared and able to get something that you really love and are more likely to stay in? So, we went -a -lookin' for us a house to rent!

It was like we couldn't find anything that would work out for us... no pets, too much, too scary, oops too late... finally on a last ditch effort, we found this adorable

(well, we think it's adorable even if you guys don't) little cottage on CraigsList!!

The lamp post out front is seriously one of our top 3 favorite things about this place!


Greg and I both love older homes with a lot of character. This place was perfect for us! We keep talking about what we would do with it if we owned it..... we tend to get a little ahead of ourselves!

Even though we are only renting, we really want to make this place feel like our home, especially since we plan to stay here for a while. Our first order of business was to clean out the front yard. Greg's family was again so, so helpful to us!! We could never have done it without his mom, dad, sister and brother-in-law, and nephews. Thanks! We had to cut the grass, trim the sidewalk, pull out tons and tons and tons of overgrowth around the house. But, we did a whole bunch in just a few hours! Moving on to the inside, this is what the living room looked like "before"

Again with the "I forgot"... This is the only "before" shot of the living that I got! But to give you some details, the walls are a sort of beige/peach/tan/pink/purple? color. The paint on the mantle is chipped and spray painted (poorly) on. There is paint splattered on the black part of the fireplace. And overall, the trim of everything just needs to be touched up.

And our living room "after":

Coming through the front door. I love. love. the arched entrance to the dining room there on the right.

Can you see it?

A close-up of the re-painted mantle. Greg did a really great job. The mantle is not completely decorated the way I envision it. The painting is something I did and is probably temporary. Looking at the pictures, I think it needs to be a tad bigger. But, it adds some color to the room.

The view from the dining room looking in to the living room....

The view from the hallway into the living room...love the french doors. Just wait to see where they lead to...
We still have a few finishing touches to do in here. We've got to go back and paint the white trim and touch up some paint, and of course I want to add a few (a lot?) more decorative touches. I have big plans for the "C" on the wall and the mantle, and there's that whole blank wall behind the couch.... but one step at a time, Christy (as per Gregory).

Now, here's my numero uno favorite part of the house...

Open those french doors to this:

Aaaah, what's that? Why that's a screened in front porch! I love. it. And thanks to my super sweet in-laws, we have a perfect little table and chairs set there. It's the perfect spot for coffee in the morning or a glass of wine or hot choclate in the evenings, or sweet tea in the afternoon. It's especially nice lately with this Georgia fall weather. Did I mention that I love it?

I think Bobo loves it too!

Ok, I need some opinions. I'm going to re-paint them and I'm trying to decide on a color. I would love to do something bright to really liven up the space. My top choices are torquoise (are you surprized at all by that?), green, yellow, or maybe orange. I plan on adding touches to of fabrics, flowers, whatever to really make it blend. Nothing to wild, just something very cheery. What do yall think?

July, August, and September..

I was just glancing through my posts and I realize that I haven't done a "monthly update" since June! Wow. We must have been really busy..... or really boring! :)

Looking back, I can see that we had a pretty busy summer. The highlight of my summer I think was spending the weekend with my family. August really seemed to fly by and then, before we knew it, our ANNIVERSARY!! We celebrated one year of marriage on September 13, 2009!

Whew, has it really been a year already? I feel like it was just a few months ago! It's amazing how fast the time goes by. This year has been fantastic, and hard, and wonderful and miserable all at the same time! We've made some really big, crazy changes in our lives in this past year and I truly believe that it would be wrong of me to sit here and say that it has all been wonderful and magical. Gregory and I have learned so much about ourselves and about each other in this past year... we've both really had to adjust to being someone's "other"- we had both gone so long being "just me" that it was hard sometimes to remember that there was no "I" anymore, from here on out it's only "we" and "us". We are still learning and adjusting and taking it one day at a time. For every one "bad" moment between us, we have hundreds of fantastic ones!

Greg and I really went back and forth about what to do for our anniversary this year. We knew that we would be looking for a place to rent very soon and we just didn't have an abundance of money to splurge on some fantasy get-a-way... I told Greg that I would be just as happy staying here, packing great picnic and heading out to one of our favorite nearby places. Well, I was surprised when I found out on Friday that we had "secret" dinner plans. Greg had called to make reservations at General Elliott Inn in Aiken, South Carolina. Aiken is abouta 30 minute drive from Augusta and it's such a neat little town. We had dinner outside on the veranda and it was the most perfect night - a little bit of a breeze, low humidity, no bugs! I had the Maryland style crab cakes (yummy) and Greg had the lamb chops (delicious!!!). We were two of maybe 12 guests that night for dinner. Greg had to order our food when he made the reservations (so fancy!) and they knew exactly who we were when we arrived. I loved the personal service! The owner of the Inn came and talked to us and we learned a lot about Aiken and how it came to be. For all of you who don't know about Aiken... it's a huge horse town. They have Polo tournaments here in October and many owners of racehorses house their horses there. Mr. Eliott gave us the interesting statistic that there are 150,000 people in Aiken county and 240, 000 horses! It was such a lovely, lovely evening and a great start to our anniversary weekend.

(There are no pictures of us because I'm still not very good at remembering to take my camera places!)

Saturday morning we got up and headed back over to Aiken for their "Aiken's Makin'" arts and crafts festival. I love. love. love. a good arts and crafts festival! We didn't find anything that we just "had" to have, but we found this great general store with all sorts of wines and neat food. I can't wait to go back. Sunday was our real anniversay day. We went back and forth with what to do... go to the lake? go to the mountains? go hiking? go to Savannah? We finally decided to head to a state park not too far away called Watson Mill Bridge State Park. Watson Mill Bridge is located in Comer, GA....which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere! I may have said before that I think that there is something about riding in a car for a long time that literally sucks all the love out of Greg and me! Our "anniversary bliss" was almost extinguished with a little bit of poor map reading skills by me! But, we made it there none the less and had a fantastic and relaxing day hiking and taking in the beautiful scenery. This I do have a few pics of.....

We saw this mushroom out on our hike... It was gigantic and this cool bright orange color. I've never seen anything like this before. Have any of you?

The Results of Your Prayers...

So many of you responded to my posts about my sweet great-niece Brooklee, who was so sick about a month ago. Our family thanks you all so much for your prayers and kind words!

Brooklee is home now and is really doing great. The latest report is that she has gained back up to a "normal" weight. Cassidy says she is eating great and is showing no signs of distress or problems from her illness. They still believe that she has a very strong dairy allergy and are keeping Cassidy on a strict diet as she is still nursing. Poor Cass can only have fresh fruits and veggies and, just recently, white meat. No eggs, no dairy, no other highly allergenic foods! It's been hard, but she has been such a trooper!

I have not yet B-lee yet, and I am just itching to get to Alabama to kiss her sweet cheeks, and those adorable cheeks of her cousin Sage. All I have now are pictures... and I thought I'd share some with you!

She sucks her thumb like her Aunt K.K. (Kendyle)...alas, I guess no one told her that her great- auntie is a speech therapist......

And look at her belly up there! So cute!

Here she is smiling a gorgeous smile!

And sweet cousin Sage....

Waaar Eagle, Hey! Do you know how happy this makes me?

Look at his big, beautiful, blue eyes!! He's so handsome. I can't wait to love on him.

And this one is just too cute for words.....

A Quickee..

Hi Blog Friends!!
It's been a little while since a post, I know. I've got lots of things to catch up on!!
But, we have just moved to a house this weekend (yes, I'm going to post about that!!) And we have to wait until next Saturday to have our internet up. I'm doing this from work now. I just don't want to spend all the time uploading pics and stuff on my work computer...
So, you guys will all just have to wait a tiny bit more....

:) See you soon!

Yay!

Brooklee is home and doing well! Thank you everyone for your prayers for our family! Praise God for his healing and for such wonderful family and friends!

Brooklee

Has gained 4 oz over night and is now up to 9 lbs 7 oz! They are just now waiting on the doctors to come and tell them when they can go home!
Wow. God is good!
Thanks to all of you who've been praying!