Meet Dakota!

Well, we finally did it! We got a puppy!!! :)

Meet Dakota! He's our new dorkie. No really, that's what he's called. He's a dachshund and yorkie mix...a dorkie! Haha! He's 10 weeks old and weighs about 5 pounds. We got him yeaterday and have had so much fun with him! He's definitely got some things to learn, but he's a puppy so that's to be expected. He does the whole puppy biting thing, but we've done our research and hope to be able to break that habit eventually. He's only had a couple of accidents in the house, but we're trying to keep him on a routine of taking him out every hour or so until he gets used to our house. His previous owners said he was potty trained, so we'll see if they're right. He did really good in his kennel last night so we were really happy about that. He's super playful but also loves to cuddle up and take his naps. We love him so much already and can't wait to have more adventures with Dakota!

An update on life...

Life has been pretty interesting for us lately. While we've had a lot of fun, positive things happen in our lives, but there have been a couple challenges too.

In the middle of February I was put on furlough from work. While our company still has plenty of projects coming in, the projects haven't been "released" yet so we haven't been able to start working on them and therefore there isn't as much cash coming in. A lot of our existing projects were being finished up, so the money wasn't coming in from that either. While at first this was a very scary situation for us, especially being newlyweds, we've just learned that all we can do is trust that God has a plan for us and know that he will carry us through this. We've leaned on each other, shared our thoughts and feelings, and it's ultimately turned out to be a very good thing for us. It's hard for me to not have a routine and I always like to keep busy, but I've learned to enjoy the down time while I've had it. The house is really clean, I've made trips out to Grayson to see Mom and the kids, and I've been able to enjoy life a little bit and just relax. We have a meeting tomorrow to get a status update on where we stand with our furlough, so hopefully we'll get some good news!

While the furlough has been hard on us, we've had a lot of fun too! On Valentine's Day weekend, the day after I found out about the furlough, we went to a cabin in Hiawassee, GA with some of our good friends. We had a great weekend! We had no cell phone service so we were able to completely forget about "the real world" and just enjoy our getaway and each other's company. We played some Wii, soaked in the hot tub, the guys played A LOT of pool, and we played some really fun games! We also ate some AWESOME food too! It was a much needed vacation.

We also took an overnight trip to Savannah at the end of February! Nancy made All-State Chorus and so we went down for the concert and took some time to explore the city and eat some good Savannah food! We went to Paula Dean's restaurant, Lady and Sons, and had some yummy southern cookin'! We were going to have some seafood for lunch on Sunday, but the snow was coming back home and we decided to try to beat the storm and get home in time. Well, we didn't quite make it. After stopping for lunch on the way back we got to the Milledgeville area and here came the snow! It was beautiful and so neat to see the trees and wide open fields covered in snow, however it became pretty hard to drive in too. We got onto I-20, stopped at a rest stop to take a quick family photo, and then got back on the road. Traffic was moving slow and we had come to a stop at one point when next thing we knew we had been rear-ended. It was a chain reaction type accident where there were about 5 or so cars involved and one person hit another person who hit the person in front of them...and so on. We were at the front of the line. Thank goodness no one was hurt, but we didn't have time to wait for the cops or else we would have gotten stuck in the snow. So we exchanged insurance info and hopped back in the car to head home. It was a VERY slow ride home, but we made it! And fortunately my car only got a few scratches on the bumper, so that won't be too bad to fix. Just have to wait on our check from the insurance company now! Woohoo!

Other than that, we've just been living life and enjoying all of the time we've been able to spend together. All of this time off of work has given me a chance to expand my cooking repertoire too. I now love the Food Network and have tried a few new recipes lately...Cooking is so much fun!!! I bet y'all never thought I'd say that! :)

What a fun weekend!

Chris and I really enjoy hanging out with our friends and family and were fortunate enough to get to do that all weekend long!

Friday was lots of fun... We had two of my friends from college over for dinner, Colleen and Marisa. They're super special people and I had the privelege of playing on the Brenau softball team with them. They came over for dinner (Colleen always loves my cooking which makes me feel great!) and then we just talked forever and reminisced about "the old days" at Brenau. We even played a little Wii. Marisa dominated at bowling and then we played a little tennis. It was so good to see them and I can't wait to go watch them play some softball this upcoming season.

Saturday was an excellent day. Chris and I had absolutely nothing to do and were able to relax all day and get ready for my family and his sister to come over. So exciting!!! We had been looking forward to this all week. Chris and I had bought a Wii the weekend before and we invited all of them over for dinner and a Wii tournament! We got some wings, I made baked potato wedges, Mom brought broccoli salad and an AMAZING assortment of cookies and Kristi brought the drinks. We had SO much fun and it was just so nice to have everyone together. I made brackets for a Wii Bowling and Wii Tennis tournament! Dad and I dominated at tennis! Well, not really dominated, but we won! And then Chris made an awesome come back in bowling to beat Ryan by 3 pins! It was so much fun! Then we just rocked out to a little Guitar Hero and watched a few people do some boxing. I thought at one point that Nancy was going to have a real boxing match with our TV...she was getting into it! :) But she didn't. We had a really great time with everyone and hopefully will get to do that again really soon!

Sunday was, as I'm sure you know, SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!! We were invited to go out to Winder to spend the afternoon and evening with one of Chris's former co-workers, Tommy, and his family. Tommy and Erica are so much fun to be around and their kids are absolutely adorable. We took the Wii and Tommy and Chris played pretty much all afternoon while Erica and I chatted and I got to play with Dalton, their 6.5 month old son. A few more people showed up right before the game started, but then we were all eating and watching the game and commercials so we didn’t get to chat with them much. We didn't get to watch the halftime show because the Wii was on (go figure!) but I heard we didn't miss much anyway. But overall it was a really great day with really great friends!

There's not too much going on this week in our lives. We're both trying to fight off a sinus thing so we'll probably just stay around the house and rest as much as we can. We have an exciting trip to a cabin with friends for Valentine's Day weekend so we can't wait for that!

So it's been a while...

While having dinner with my mom and dad last night we were reminded that we hadn't updated our blog since our original entry! Oops! Hopefully we'll get the hang of this and do a better job of updating this.

For those of you who don't know, married life is amazing! :) I never thought that it could be so easy to begin a new life together with someone, but Chris is just so easy to get along with and so easy to please. We both just enjoy relaxing and enjoy each other's company and it just all seems to flow well. We're not perfect...we have our moments. But for the other 99.9% of the time everything just seems perfect.

It's been just over two months since our wedding. We're pretty much settled into the house (well, Chris was already settled so it's mainly my stuff that's still in some boxes) and we love to share our home with others. We usually are wide open to having visitors, so if you're ever in the area then you'd better stop by! We love our house...it's very us! There's always little things to work on, but we've really enjoyed fixing up the house and seeing the transformation. I'll post some before and after pictures sometime soon...gotta take the after pictures before I can post those I guess. Just last week our washing machine broke and so our latest addition to the house is a new washer! It's pretty! :) I actually have fun doing laundry now! I'm sure that won't last long. Too bad we don't have a machine to fold our clothes...that's our least favorite part.

Cooking...now that's been interesting. My mom is an amazing cook and so life was always easy when it came to food (thus the reason I'm on a diet!). I never really learned how to cook, but I guess I watched enough to get the feel for it. We've enjoyed going grocery shopping and planning our meals, and it's actually become something we both enjoy doing together! Our favorite...chicken poppy seed casserole! Yum! Every now and then we get wild and crazy and try a new recipe, so our recipe box is growing. Feel free to share your favorites with us!

We're both pretty simple people so I guess there's not too much more to say at the moment, but we'll try to keep you posted on our lives and what we've been up to as much as possible! We're taking a cabin trip with some friends for Valentine's Day weekend, so that's something you can look forward to reading about!

Oh yeah...here are a few of our wedding pictures! Some of our favorites! Our photographers were simply amazing and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! Enjoy!!!