abi & andy » life

playing with dog…

abi — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:46:24 +0000

This week’s you capture challenge theme is play. I was going to get a picture of husband playing with our new dog, Maggie, but didn’t ever get around to it. This is one I took this weekend of Maggie playing with a toy.

Maggie is a really good dog. She is pretty mellow a lot of the time and likes sitting on the couch on a blanket with us while we watch TV or surf on our laptops. But then she has a few hyper ADD moments every day – when we come home and let her out of her crate, sometime after dinner she’ll start going crazy and play with any and all toys in the house, and she loves to run outside. Andy’s been working on training her and we can already tell that she is really smart. She is still not liking her crate and whines a lot at night. She seems to do fine in it during the day though. We are working on getting her used to a schedule so she knows when we’ll be home and when she’ll have to go in the crate to go to bed. We’re all still adjusting. Having a dog around is brand new for me! But at least she’s cute and can be pretty good most of the time. Husband is still loving having a dog again – he loves to play with her and take her out for walks. We both like the fact that she is getting us exercising more and walking her seems like it is good for Andy’s continued recovery.

something new….

abi — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:11:23 +0000

So this weekend we got a dog. I know my friends and family think I must be going crazy…since I have never been a big dog person. But my husband is a dog lover and has been wanting us to get one ever since we got married. We thought about getting a dog last year and even tried it out for a weekend, but decided that dog wasn’t the right one for us and it wasn’t the right time for us to get a dog.

I don’t know why I started thinking about getting a dog recently – but it was actually my idea to start thinking about it again. I guess we just have had such a long year and Andy’s especially had a rough time with everything, that I just thought it might be a good time for a dog. So we talked about it and looked around online a little and I found a dog that I thought looked like a good fit for us. I called about the ad for the dog and we decided to go and check her out the next evening after work. The dog was at a neighboring county’s humane society – only about 30 minutes away. We met the dog – she was very friendly and passed all of Andy’s tests. He was really impressed and I could tell he was pretty excited about the idea of adopting her. He said he could tell that she had been well trained and taken care of before she came to the shelter.

So we decided to adopt her and we renamed her Maggie (since they didn’t know what her name was before she came to the shelter). We went to pick her up on Friday after work. She was great about coming with us and has been pretty good all weekend. Andy is so happy – he really loves having a dog! She is housebroken and we think she was crate trained before too. We are putting her in a crate overnight and while we are away – she barks a little to let us know that she’s not crazy about being there – but otherwise does ok.

She is a Cairn Terrier (which is the the type of dog played Toto on the Wizard of Oz) who is about 10 lb and 2 yrs. old. Perfect little dog for our apartment and small enough that we can both pick her up easily (Andy still isn’t supposed to lift anything really heavy after the accident).

Maggie likes taking long naps too…

prayers…

abi — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:14:38 +0000

This morning my mom headed to the airport to fly to Malawi for 5 weeks. She is co-leading a missions team that will be working primarily with people/families who have HIV/AIDs. She has gone on missions trips like this before, but never for this long and has never led a team. I’m so excited that she has this opportunity and know that God has big plans for their time there. Please pray for her and the work she is doing. Also for my dad and little brother she left at home – my dad is doing better and started back to work (he is not quite up to full-time yet, but he is adding an hour or so each week so that he can build up his strength and not overdo it), but with all the health problems he recently has had, it was harder for my mom to leave him this time. But my 15 yr old (well he’s almost 15) brother is home with my dad and hopefully they will help each other out – my brother knows how to cook and do laundry so he can help my dad!

Another prayer that is on our hearts…..Andy’s cousin, Mark and his wife Jen and their son Connor in Georgia are going through an incredibly difficult time right now. Jen is 5 mo. pregnant with a baby girl and they just found out that the baby has 0% chance of survival outside the womb. She is going to have to deliver the baby next week and say goodbye. Please pray for their peace and strength as they go through all of this.

our new nephew…

abi — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:00:29 +0000

This weekend we went up to the triad and spent a little time with Andy’s family. We drove up on Saturday and went to visit our new baby nephew. He is so cute!

Baby Braeden – 2 weeks old

me & baby
(note to self – need to teach husband how to use the new camera)

with his Nana and Pa

His parents are tired but seem to be doing really well – and they were so nice to let us come visit and get some baby time in!

We had a nice time visiting with Andy’s family the rest of the day Saturday and then on Sunday I went shopping with Andy’s stepmother and stepsister. We also went and saw the movie “Date Night” which was pretty funny – much better than I thought it would be. On the way home, Andy and I stopped at the historic mill near his parent’s house. He wanted to get grits and I took some pictures.

I thought this was a cool wind chime!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

fun with my family….

abi — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:39:58 +0000

Yes…one more post with pictures from my trip to Baltimore last weekend…..can you tell I had a good time?

Patrick and Jen and I went to visit my grandmother. She is looking great and doing really well – we had a nice time visiting and taking her to Chick-fil-a for lunch.

We had a big family dinner at Emily and Paul’s house on Monday night. We had fun eating, laughing, talking, and enjoying watching my niece, Samara, run around. She was all over the place – last time I saw her, she wasn’t even walking on her own yet.

So cute.

She wasn’t too into posing with me though.

We were checking out it my little brother is taller than his big brother – he is! Just by a little bit, but he’s still growing. Probably going to be as tall as my dad or taller. I thought this picture turned out good – I like the angle and the focus on the hands.

love these girls (and their families!)…

abi — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:44:31 +0000

When I was in Baltimore last weekend, I had a great time visiting with some of my good friends. I had made plans to see them when I first got into town on Saturday since most of my family had other things going on that day. I went over to my friend Erin’s house and we had a great time sitting around, catching up, and making pizzas and a big veggie salad.

(the pizza crust looks a little random because it was gluten free since one of my friends has a wheat allergy)

Then because it was such a nice night, we went over to White Marsh Avenue to wander around out side a little. Here’s a group shot:

The next day I got to see them (and their husbands and kids) again at a 4th of July cookout at Becki and Josh’s house. I took a bunch of pictures of their kids – they are all growing up so fast!

Emily Joy and her youngest – Elijah

Becki and baby James – he’s so much bigger than last time I saw him!

Such a beautiful family!

Thank you all for everything! I had a great time visiting and wish I could do it more often. Hopefully we’ll be back up there in a few months.

more fourth of July happiness…

abi — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:02:21 +0000

While I was up in Baltimore, Andy went to visit his family. He spent most of the time up at his parent’s lake house and had a great time relaxing, grilling, and watching everyone shoot off fireworks.

He also got to go visit his (first) nephew! Here’s a dark/blurry phone pic he sent of him holding the new baby:

Congratulations to his stepbrother and sister-in-law on the birth of their beautiful baby boy!

We are so happy for you guys and I can’t wait to meet him too.

things change….

abi — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:40:04 +0000

We found out recently that we will not be moving to England. We are disappointed, but now we have new things to plan and do this summer.

We are happy to be staying closer to family and friends. We are looking forward to spending time at the lake with Andy’s family and meeting a new baby nephew soon. I am looking forward to a quick visit up to Baltimore to see my brother and his wife before they move to Boston (further away!) and visiting with the rest of my family and my awesome friends (who missed me so much recently that they wanted to try and take a roadtrip, leaving behind husbands, kids, baby, and dogs and braving the pirates…all to come see me! I decided to make it easier on them and just go up to visit – only leaving behind one husband then – no kiddos or dogs to worry about…and hopefully no pirates).

We’re looking forward to planning an anniversary vacation in September. We want to go check out the lighthouses and maybe go visit the battleship in Wilmington in a few weeks. Who knows. I am looking forward to practicing photography and getting some models to practice on. I am going to try and paint more. Andy is pretty stressed and having some back issues so we are going to do a lot of relaxing.

belated Father’s day….

abi — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:59:31 +0000

My mom, dad, and little brother were in the area (well closer than they usually are….only about 4-5 hours away rather than the normal 8 from Baltimore) and they came down to have dinner with us on Tuesday night. Andy did an incredible job grilling pork on and potatoes. And I made this cheesecake for my dad for a belated Father’s day surprise (he loves cheesecake). They spent the night and left on Wednesday to go back up to Williamsburg and do a little more vacationing. It was so good to see them! We both had a great time visiting with them and it was so good to see my dad doing so much better. He has a lot less pain and taking walks and getting around really well.

Thanks again for visiting – it meant a lot!

still can’t believe….

abi — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:58:31 +0000

…that husband actually let me cut his hair on Monday night. He is a little bit particular about his once every few week buzz cut. It has to “feel sharp” enough to be a good haircut. But for some reason, he decided to buy a clipper set at Walmart and asked me to give it a try. He did get me to do it early enough to allow time that night to still go to the hair cuttery place that night in case I messed it up horribly.

He was nervous.

But he really needed a haircut.

those were the “before” pics and now for the “after” picture:

not too bad – right?

I thought I did ok for the first time ever cutting someone’s hair. And husband was happy enough with it – the set didn’t come with a low enough guard so it wasn’t quite as sharp as he wanted it, but he didn’t go out and get someone to fix it, so it must’ve been ok. There was only a minor sideburn incident…but they’ll grow back. And I’ll get better at it with a little more practice.