Walks with Sugar

The past two days, Sugar and I have gone on three mile walks.  Now these aren't speed walks...or anything close to that...a girl can only go so fast with three good knees!  Walks with Sugar always start out the same:  She sees me putting on my tennis shoes and starts to get a little excited...then, she sees me take out her leash, which makes her even more excited...and then, for about the first five mins of the walk, she walks with a little hop in her step, like she is so happy to be outside smelling the fresh air and feeling the grass between her toes.  Slowly she begins to slow down...and the further we get the more length of leash suspends between us...until finally the leash is completely let out and I am dragging...strongly encouraging her to keep up!  I imagine that if she could speak she would be saying things like "why in the world are we walking further from home??" or "how about you tie the leash around your neck and let me tug on it for a bit!"  She starts to get easily distracted by things like every single mailbox on the road!...or will slow down ever so slightly when we reach a shady spot.  And then, of course, Sugar has always been an avid supporter of our local farmers and continues to selflessly donate her fertilizer whenever she can...this year's crop is going to be extra sweet (get it! 'Cause her name is Sugar!!).

But then, eventually, we get back to our neighborhood and I take her collar off.  She's really good and staying with me and if she gets too far I just call for her and she picks up the pace a bit.  Once we get to our neighborhood, she knows the end is almost near and that a cool summertime beverage waits her at the house.  She starts to get the same hop back in her step...or at least tries to.

After our walk yesterday, I decided to reward her with one of her treats...which turned out to be a bad idea because I gave it to her right after we got home.  She was still huffing and puffing and ended up inhaling part of her treat and then coughed for the next couple mins!  Today, I decided to wait until she calmed down to give it to her :)

Yesterday afternoon, Sugar took many naps trying to recover from the long journey.  You can tell by her posture that she is extremely exhausted...elbows out, leg sprawled!

Maybe I'll give her a recovery day tomorrow...but she'll probably want to come as soon as she sees my tennis shoes...she knows I enjoy her company :)

We're Weaving

So I started a blog...

What else am I going to do with my time??  My life isn't that crazy, right??

WRONG!!!

Life since January 1st has been filled with ups and downs...and when I say filled I mean filled!!!  That's the reason for starting the blog.  There is so much going on these days that I feel like this could possibly be the best way to let family and friends know about it.  And since things have been happening so quickly it's hard to keep everyone up to date.  So having a central location filled with information about our lives is a good way to keep everyone on the same page...I hope it works that way, anyway...or there's a definite possibility I could start this thing and then forget about it completely (but I hope that doesn't happen) ;)

So...the title of our blog...We're Weaving.  This phrase has many meanings.  1) It has some sort of hinting toward our last name. 2) We are attempting to "weave" our own family together with the help and guidance of God and strive daily to depend on him for everything.  And 3) If you were a person with a speech impediment this title would have a different meaning...and that meaning would still apply to our lives because we are, in fact, leaving the Lafayette area.

Chuck accepted a job offer for Sikorsky Helicopter (Connecticut) in early February.  He was given a tentative start date for June 4th, which could be moved up or back depending on when our house sold.  So we got in contact with a local realtor and started finishing projects around the house that had been started in the past few years.  After three long and tiring weeks, we finished our projects and put the house on the market.  The house was added on Tuesday, March 20th.  And the showings started immediately...one on Wednesday, one on Thursday, two on Friday, three on Saturday...And on Saturday we received an offer.  It wasn't exactly what we wanted so we countered.  And they accepted our counter offer!! Five days, people!!!!  It happened so fast!!  We had been praying that the house would sell quickly but neither of us were expecting it to go that fast!!!  Clearly, God had a different, much better, much more miraculous plan than we did!!  Click here if you'd like to see what our current little house looks like :)

OH YEAH!  And one of the conditions of the offer we accepted...we have to be out of the house by May 18th...which means Chuck's start date will move up...and that also leaves only seven more weekends in Lafayette :(  And let me tell ya, they are filling up quick!

So our next step is to travel to Connecticut and find a house.  Thankfully, Sikorsky pays for a week long trip with our plane tickets, rental car, hotel, and all of our food covered!  We have been in contacted with a realtor out there for about a month now and she has been sending us links to houses we might like.  We have somewhat specific requests about our future house...Chuck wants enough garage space for all of his "projects" and at least half an acre of land.  I want a nice kitchen :) and no wall paper or wood paneling!!!!  YUCK!!  And of course it all has to be for the right price...

Then we have to figure out when we are going to take Chuck's cars up to his parents house for safe   keeping while we move.

And then we have this girl to work into the equation....

As you can tell, she is all packed and ready for a move...Heaven forbid we go anywhere without Sugar's toys :)

So that's pretty much what's happening in our lives these days.  We are both very excited about the move and the new environment but incredibly bummed about having to leave the friends we have grown so close to and a church that has been our home for 7 years (me) and 12 years (Chuck).  We are not looking forward to having to find a new church in Connecticut because we know that the chances of it being as awesome as the one we are at is incredibly slim.  We're just praying that God will lead us to a solid church where we can grow close and serve alongside fellow Christians.

Wow!  How's that for an intro post!!  And I'll try to keep this updated as things happen...try :)