100

Yesterday, my wonderful Great-Grandfather, George Figg, turned a whopping 100 years old!!

isn't he a cutie!

Tomorrow we will be caravanning up to Indiana with my parents, siblings, and their significant others. My relatives are traveling from all over the country to be with him this weekend. I'm so excited to see everyone and for Andrew to meet Great-Grandpa. 

Any ideas for gifts to give someone who is turning 100??

Kyzer

Um....sorry!?

I was doing so well with updating almost every day at the beginning of the month. I guess we can establish an understanding right now. If I don't post for over a week, life is crazy busy at the moment, which always means exciting things to tell you.....eventually.  :)

Ok, glad that's established.

So the fun news.....we have PUPPY!

12 weeks old (now 14 weeks old), 24 lbs, blue weim

This sweet boy has stolen my sanity, my peace of mind, and my heart. I think Andrew would agree with me on that one.

he's such a daddy's boy. 

going for a ride to the one and only dog store in Athens.
he's a celebrity every time we go!

Our days revolve around Kyzer now. When he needs to go out (which I will brag that we've trained him to ring a bell on the door), when the other dogs will be at the park to play with him (between 4:30-5:30 pm), training him, disciplining him, socializing him, and giving him love and attention.  It's EXHAUSTING!

But we are hoping it will all pay off and that he'll grow up to be an amazingly obedient family pet that wont require so much attention down the road. We are willing to pay our dues now to get that benefit later.

We've been spending the last two weeks potty training and crate training with some obedience and skill training.  The potty training has been successful for the most part. He's so smart. He picked up on the it within a couple days, but of course hasn't perfect.  We still have our moments every so often, but for the most part he understands where his business should lay. The crate training has gone well, too. He doesn't pester us through the night (HA! first week = sleep deprivation) and seems to enjoy his crate. But boy once that first alarm goes off in the morning he lets you know he heard it and wants out. 

No more sleeping in. Whoever the first one is that needs to get up, we both have to get up so one can take care of Kyzer and the other get ready. Then we swap duties. 

We take him to the dog park almost everyday to play with some neighborhood dogs. It's a fun community of people that all know each other and their pets. We are making new friends around us because of Kyzer.  

He's napping right now. That's the only reason I was able to crank out this blog post. Been dying to share about our adorable new family member. Can't wait for all of you to meet him!

PS. We started a height chart for Kyzer. (Don't laugh at us. You probably did too of your first pet!) He's already grown at least 1/2 and inch in a week. We saw on another blog that by 7 months old (less than 4 months away!) he'll be close to 100 lbs! We'll keep you posted. 

A Growing Family

Most of you have already heard the wonderful news, but the Foster family is growing again. (No, I'm not pregnant! Don't even think about starting rumors.)  The youngest of the family has found himself a bride-to-be! 

The wedding planning is already in the works and they're looking at an end of summer beginning of fall wedding. What perfect time of year. It's going to be beautiful and such a fun celebration.

CONGRATULATIONS KEVIN AND DEANNA!

Long Time (literally) No See

I'm so sorry it's been such a long time! Trust me, every night I go to bed thinking about posting a blog to update all of you on our adventures, but I'm always too tired. Since coming back to the states, 9 pm has been a constant "I'm ready for bed (yawn!)" time. So my usually blogging time slot has been preoccupied by some zzzzz's. I hope you can forgive me.

I've been trying to figure out how I wanted to share about our month of adventures on here and I'm pretty stumped. If only I could tell of our journeys in one blog post. But that is physically impossible. I'd be here all night and into tomorrow typing to tell you about it. And well, to be so honest, I know neither of us have the time to type or read that long of a post in our busy days.

So to start somewhere....

My husband and I celebrated our first Christmas together! Throughout our entire relationship (2 years) before marriage we never spent a holiday together. 1. Because our families didn't live in the same city. 2. It was few and far between when we got just "family time" with our families so we didn't interrupt that. And 3. Because we wanted the little things like spending the holidays together to be special when we truly became our own family.

And I'm so grateful we did it that way. This Christmas was spent with my family in Cocoa Beach. We had a nice lay/nap by the pool, ate lots of yummy food, and went to the infamous Harry Potter World!

We of course broke our fast. AMEN! With some Ihop. 

Might I recommend the pumpkin pancakes. They were perfection. And don't judge me...but I ate every last bite. You would too if you hadn't touched sugar, bread, chocolate, and coffee in over a month! 

Anyways....

Next Christmas, we plan on spending it with the other side of the family. I can't wait! Of course kind of sad because I've never spent a Christmas without my parents but exciting because spending holidays with in-laws means I'm married, which means I have a husband, which means all my dreams have come true. :)

Til next time, I'll begin to share about the trip that gave us so much joy. And that took me away from here for a month! 

Side note, I saw this today on Pinterest and I want one. 

I want to have this up in our home and put a pin on all the places we travel to. Not in such a way that we are showing off to people, but in a way that always reminds us of where God has taken us. As a way to always remember. And be grateful. 

Next stop......Germany!

First Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful week giving thanks and spending time with loved ones. Andrew and I did quite a bit of traveling to celebrate our Thanksgiving.

First stop.....

Atlanta, GA

We had such a wonderful evening with some close friends of ours. Most there were friends that once lived in Athens but have moved to Atlanta after graduation. Not only did we feast, the person who invited us stood up and shared why they were grateful for us. So encouraging! Thanks to by BFF Lauren for inviting me and the husband! The 2 hr. 30 min drive there was totally worth it.

Next stop....

Macon, GA

Took Lydia ice skating. It was her first time ever and she had a blast! "Two more times!" "One more time!"

Her and I also have a common bond of playing the violin. She was so excited for me to hear her play and play for her. I couldn't really do much on her tiny person violin but she was so cute. I think Andrew had the most fun out of us all playing the violin. He was the one who didn't want to share. Now I know whenever he complains of being bored I'll just pull mine out and he'll be content for hours. Who knew!?

We had such a wonderful time there. Always feel so loved and taken care of by his family. 

On Thanksgiving day, we made homemade chocolate chip waffles and watched the beginnings of the parade. We were able to watch just long enough to be graced with Daniel Radcliffe's singing and dancing. HA!

Then we left that morning to drive to Florida for...

Stop #3...

Cocoa Beach, FL

I forgot to take pictures of the feast but my mom did a top notch job! It was so nice to see my grandparents and aunt and uncle there. The wedding was so rushed that I barely (or not at all) got to spend time with them. 

While down there, Andrew golfed for the first time and I helped my mom with this ridiculously hard puzzle. It's still no where near done after hours of time put in.

And we set up the Christmas tree. The fam will back down to the beach shortly for Christmas as well.

Then final stop...

HOME!

After the 10 hour drive home, we put up our first Christmas tree. It's pretty puny but who cares. We were excited! Got to go get more ornaments this week. It's a bit bare.   

So now it's on to tests, project, and programs to finish out the semester. We are and will continue to be bogged down with books for a couple more weeks. So close! But based on the weather today...I feel Christmas coming up soon. Thank goodness for warm coats, socks, slippers, and heated homes.

Weekend Visitor

The clocks have gone back and the sun is now going down as I am leaving my class at 4:30 pm. How depressing. Because of the change, Andrew and I have been going to be earlier and waking up earlier. Following the sun's lead I guess. And I'm not ashamed to say that I'm enjoying going to bed earlier. I feel much happier and more productive with a nice relaxing morning instead of rushing to get to where we need to be going.  

Things have been happy here in the Chase household. School has been going exceptionally well for the both of us (besides the fact that we are both dying to be done!) and Andrew is loving his job. And when Andrew's happy....we are all happy. :) A lot of opportunities have been coming up in the past week for future jobs for him. Almost everyday he's getting new phone calls and emails with potential offerings. He's so encouraged that people are seeking him out.

We are both playing flag football with our friends. He with the guys and me with the girls. We are practicing for a tournament that will be in January. This is the first year for the girls bracket. So excited!!

This weekend we had a fun visitor staying with us. 

This guy....

Please excuse my sleepiness. But he's just adorable. Mom and Dad went out town so Jaxon came to live the college life for a weekend.

But the poor guy was so homesick the whole time :( 

He kept waiting by the door and he hardly touched his food all weekend. But despite being homesick, Jaxon still managed to sneak in some mischievousness. 

And by the end of the weekend....

He was a pooped pup.

And we admit....we miss him. It hasn't been the same coming home to an empty house. No furry friend to greet us anymore. One day we will have one our own! :)

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we are more than eager to see family. I haven't seen Andrew's mom since the wedding. We will be doing some traveling to see both sides of the family.  Africa is getting closer! 42 days and counting until we leave. 

Well....sorry so brief. Have a good week and thanks for listening!

Changing Identities

Yesterday was a special day for me. 3 years ago, I was baptized into Christ. The greatest decision I have and will ever make in my entire life. It was such a beautiful day to reflect on where God has brought me from. It's funny because where Mr. Hubby and I live now is where I lived when I made that decision to become a disciple. It was really cool being back in the same home. I reflected about the night of the baptism and how I stayed up super late to write in a journal everything that had happened to me that day. That way I could always read back to remember what I was thinking and feeling in that special moment.  I had forgotten I had done that until I was sitting on the same couch in the same spot in which I wrote it. 

God is such an amazing God at helping us remember the little things that He knows will inspire us. 

It was that decision that helped lead me to the other really special moment I had yesterday. I officially/legally changed my last name! My whole friendship, relationship, and marriage would be none existent if it wasn't for Christ and his merciful heart for not only me but also Mr. Hubby. It was just so cool to me to be able to change my identity again on the same day just 3 years difference. The parallel is amazing to me and makes me so grateful to God.

So now I really need to get practicing on my new signature! I had to sign something today with my new last name and it looks super awkward! Oh well. I have 60+ years to get it perfect.