happy birthday, Thumpy

During the month of April in 2004 (if our memory serves us well), our sweet puppy dog was born.

We picked her up Memorial Day weekend, so we are sure she was born in April sometime.  

Tuesday night, we celebrated the sweet birthday girl 

with birthday hats, cupcakes, a candle, and special treats.

She did enjoy licking the icing and finally Chris helped her get to the cake part.

We did not let her eat the entire cupcake ... she shared with J.D. as well.

 We can't believe she's 9 years old now.

She is one of the best, no doubt.

We love her to pieces.

She's always excited to see us.

And she senses when we need some loving too.

She's our sweet Thumpy-girl!

beach photo session

Since our "babymoon" was planned at the last minute, I didn't have much forethought of this ...

but after we arrived at the beach I thought about having our picture and a few maternity shots taken on the beach.  So Saturday morning, I randomly searched on Facebook for a few photographers in the Myrtle Beach area ... found four and sent each of them a message asking about the possibility of a last-minute session.

Despite the last-minute decision of choosing a photographer with little research, putting the orange and pink together, and the cooler evening brisk breeze on the beach ... I'm happy to have these pictures for the memory.

Prayers do get answered (baby on the way after 6 years of waiting).

And dreams do come true (maternity beach pictures).

These pictures remind me of that.

God is so good.

babymoon weekend

What a wonderful, wonderful weekend away!

It will definitely go down in our history books as one of the best.  Ever.

We had originally planned to take a little vacation with my mom and brother;

but plans fell through.

So since this was our last available weekend to travel before I'm no longer allowed to travel, 

we decided to take advantage of the free weekend and head to North Myrtle Beach.

Our plan was to do only what we wanted to do, rest, relax, sleep in, and enjoy our time together.

And we did exactly that ... which really amounted to a whole lot of nothing.

(I should note here, that I'm glad Chris and I share the same idea of a vacation)

Last Thursday, I was packed and ready waiting on Chris to get home.

As soon as he walked in the door, he ate dinner, changed his clothes, and we were on our way.

Along the way, we stopped for a few snacks.
Actually we stopped often so I could stretch and walk ... and almost every stop included snacks.  =)

I wanted to try these ... but they didn't do much for me.  Too much "stuf."

One of our "walk/stretch" stops included a dozen Krispy Kremes.
Nothing beats a fresh, warm doughnut.

We arrived around midnight,  found a pet-friendly hotel room, and settled in for the night.

Friday it drizzled rain and was a bit chilly, so there was little beach time.

But, we did take a stroll that evening.

Here's the bump on the beach - Josie's "first visit."

 

We shopped at the outlet stores.

"Shopping til you drop" doesn't take long as an 8-month pregnant lady.

Needless to say, Chris was happy that it didn't last long

Friday evening we enjoyed dinner at Outback.

Saturday was our day on the beach.

I never get tired of this view ... something about it soothes my soul.

Chris attempted to feed the birds.  He threw food to them. 

And here he is trying to get them to take from his hand - but no such luck.

This was Thumpy's first time to hang out on the beach.

Clearly, she enjoyed it.  She loves sunning.

Saturday evening, I ran into a few stores looking for a scarf.

When I came out, Chris was once again feeding birds.  

I grabbed this picture of one of the birds riding on top of our car as Chris came to meet me.

At 6:30 PM, we had a photo session on the beach with a local photographer

and finished the day with dinner at Chili's.

Sunday morning, while we were packing up our hotel room, 

Thumpy took the opportunity to lay on the big king-size bed.

Obviously, she thought she was the queen.

Sunday, we drove about 1.5 hours away to meet with friends who moved to North Carolina last year.

We thoroughly enjoyed catching up and spending time together.

They've got two sweet little kiddos.

I'm grateful, that I had no problems or anything to scare me or make me worry 

while we were away from home.

This restful, peaceful time together was such a blessing.

It was exactly what we needed.

Now, June 2nd can hurry up!!

We are more than ready for our sweet babe to be in our arms.

she was the baby first

Everyone is not a dog person.

Actually, some folks aren't even people persons. :)

But, while growing up, our families always had a dog (outside).

Cats aren't my favorite ... I'm not keen on the leg-rubbing and licking.

But, I like dogs.

I know I've told the story before on here, but after my dad passed away, my brother begged for an inside dog (actually first he pleaded for a ferret), but my mom gave into a little Chihuahua.  After living with a dog in the house, I told Chris that I didn't want a dog in the house when we were married.  It is extra work and then there is always the question of what to do with the dog when traveling.

Anyway ... yes, I ate my words ...  and this girl worked her way right into our heart AND home!

Thumpy is the absolute BEST!  She is calm, obedient, great with kids, lazy, loves people, travels well, and rarely barks.  Seriously, everyone talks about what an awesome dog she is.  If we could afford to clone her, we would.  LOL.  We hate to think of a day without her.

Here she is doing devotions with Chris. 

She is very much loved.  

And yes, a lot like a child ... she requires our attention, needs us to feed and care for her, and in return, she gives us so much love.  She follows us around like a little shadow and gets so excited when we walk through the door.  She even seems to know when we are upset or sick.  (Dogs are smart animals!)

And while our hearts longed and ached for a child, undoubtly, she helped to fill that void to a degree.

And now, we can't wait to see how she reacts to our baby girl.

randoms & confessions

I have a lot of random thoughts.  And these days, I'm doing some crazy things that are worth a laugh.

-Monday morning, on my way to work, I stopped for a drink and a pack of crackers.  As I was leaving the store, I realized all I had in hand was my phone, cash, drink, and pack of crackers -- yep, I had locked my keys in my car.  After a long ordeal of getting Chris' keys, I stepped out to get into my car and dropped my drink and it spilled all over the sidewalk.  Needless to say, my Monday didn't get off to a good start.

-My mom made me think when she said, "What if your baby had been in the car?"  (can you tell - this is not the first time I've had this happen?)  And I'm not an advocate of leaving babies in the car, but I had pulled right to the door of the store and was only grabbing a drink and crackers.  So, I made a note reminding myself to lock the door with the remote so that I know my keys are always in my hand when exiting the vehicle.

-Monday night we were in bed and most likely asleep by 9:00 PM.  What can I say, rough Mondays call for early bedtimes.

-This week I sold my first item on one of the Facebook used item sale group pages.

-I got these Dr. Brown bottles at a steal from several friends (all 25 bottles for less than $30).  I've already put them in the kitchen cabinet.  It's beginning to look like a baby is coming to live at our house.  :)

-Prior to becoming pregnant, I thought a lot of people too often used pregnancy as an excuse just to have an excuse.  Boy, was I wrong.  I am finding that a lot of those excuses are in fact legitimate.  "Pregnancy brain" is a real problem and your body does indeed feel totally different and energy is a thing of the past.

-I think Thumpy is catching on that big changes are ahead.  Over the past two weeks, we have transitioned her out of our bed.  Since I've dubbed Chris the "mean guy" and he is enforcing the new rule, her dog bed and blanket is placed on his side of the bed.  Tuesday morning, I woke up, and she had pulled her blanket to my side of the bed and was sleeping on my side.  She is quite the spoiled fur-baby.  This picture is the typical evening routine when Chris gets home from work.

-Every few weeks our ice maker "floods" and the water runs out of the fridge.  Anyone ever have this problem?

-I was going through a stack of paperwork and mail - found a bank envelope with $40 inside. What a nice surprise!

-I am already over cold weather.  I needed to go to Wal-Mart Tuesday night, but opted to wait simply because I didn't want to get out in the cold ... I'm ready for June for more reasons than just warm weather.  ;)

November 2011

**Although, I wasn't blogging this month, I do want to include pictures from this month just for memory's sake.  Here are pictures and a few thoughts from that month.

 

Taking a nap with my two. 

I took the picture (pretending to be asleep)

 L with Ava at mom's one Sunday at lunch.

 This silly little girl can make me smile anytime. 

She used this "scary face" to scare her doctor upon entering the exam room.  :)

 New t-shirt - I love the looks and comments that I get from others when I wear this!

 We took advantage of the vacation days at Thanksgiving and retreated to the mountains for a few days of much needed rest and relaxation.

Me with my sweetie at one of the mountain overlooks.

 Celebrating Chris' 30th birthday at Los Amigos - complete with sombrero, fried ice cream, and whip cream on the nose.

 Chris' birthday card from Thumpy - pawprint signature and all

   This was a quote that I repeated often and clung too during the rough days.

 



Starring: Thumpy

Today, over at Kelly's Korner blog, it is Show us your life: Show us your pets.
Sno I'm showing off our Thumpy-girl!

She is a 7-year old mixed-breed ... don't really know what breeds.
Her daddy is Ickes (our dog that recently died)
and her mom was a feist (if I remember correctly).
She looks like a miniature lab of sorts.
But we don't really care about that.
 We got Thumpy and her brother, JD, in May of 2004.
(That is a long story in of itself)
And they were both outside dogs.

In September of 2005, she had a litter of 9 puppies (more mutts) ;)
(that's another long story)
We moved her and pups into the back fence to keep an eye on them.
We gave all the puppies away and immediately had her spayed.
We brought her in the kitchen while she recovered from surgery.
After that she would sit at our back french doors and beg to come in.
For a while, we only let her in the kitchen periodically.
Soon after she went all over the house,
but we always put her out when we left home and at night.
Well, the rest is history.  Now, she stays in all the time.
Only going out to do business, take walks, or hang out with us.

We love her so much.  She helps in filling the void in our home.

We fight over her.  And try to figure out who she loves most.

I think she loves me the most.

This is what Chris does before he leaves for work and when he comes home:

She is one of the sweetest dogs -  mild-mannered, good-natured, and so smart.
The only thing that bothers her - is someone taking her food.
She travels well and goes with us all the time.
She loves kids, even though she is not accustomed to their loud play.
When children play quietly, she will lay right beside them and wants to be close.
If she hears a baby cry, she looks on concernedly.


This is a recent picture.
When the alarm goes off, she hops on the bed and stands over us,
waiting on us to get up and let her out.

We never intended to have an inside dog.
but somehow it just happened over time.  
She won our affection and she is very much a part of our life.
And now we wouldn't want it any other way.
We love our four-legged, furry girl so much (shedding and all).

I (heart) this face

Good-natured.

Smart.

Cute.

Thumpy.

bums

Today, we are being bums.

Well, not entirely.
I randomly took the day off. (with the Rev's approval)
I'm feeling overwhelmed on the home front.
We're in revival this week. So that makes for a busy week.
And I have a busy weekend ahead.
Today, I just needed a day at home.

So today my plans are:
1. Be a bum. Sleep late with Chris.
2. Get my house back in order.

I took the above picture Sunday night.
It captures a favorite time with Chris.
Chris loves to "take two;"
which means to stop what we're doing and cuddle for two minutes.
Sometimes we end up taking five, seven, or ten minutes.
(or maybe longer; especially if we fall asleep)
Notice, he still has on his 'church' shirt.
But he changed into his pajama pants. {Mismatched plaids} :)
And yes, he is really asleep.
Thumpy had been asleep, but the flash on my phone startled her.

Every now and then, I need a day to be a bum.