My Adorable Puppy

I just can't get enough of how cute my little Sally Faye is...even if she is an evil genius who opens her crate on her own...here are some recent pics...ENJOY!!

And just to add some variety here's one of me and the cutest little man I know!

Holy Ground

So I have this chalkboard in my apartment (really it's a canvas I slapped some chalkboard paint on) and before that it was in my room up at school and one of my favorite things to do is every so often find a quote...either one that inspires me, makes me think, or just makes me laugh and use my "artistic abilities" to decorate the chalkboard with my new quote. I find these quotes all over the place t.v. shows, books, movies, and even friends sometimes. Anyways today seemed like a good day to update the board but first I needed to find a quote. Looking around my apartment I happened to see my copy of velvet Elvis by Rob Bell up on my book shelf. During my sophomore year of college myself and 6 of my best girlfriends did a study with this book and it was and awesome time AND it left me with alot of good quotes...my favorite of which I highlighted. Flipping through the pages I found this gem " Do you and I walk on Holy ground all the time, but we are moving so fast and returning so many calls and writing so many emails and having such long lists to get done that we miss it?" WOW! That one it me! I feel like I get so busy in life with work, and family, and friends, all of which are great things, that I don't take time to pause and see God in everything around me! Let's face it God is all around us and as his people shouldn't we be working to seek out and point out those places where God is at work ( his Holy ground). So that is my challenge this week to really take a second...or maybe a couple... to soak God in and to soak up this Holy ground I'm walking on...because really if I'm given this awesome opportunity I don't want to miss out on it because I was "too busy"

China

As I sit here watching this Butler game I can't help but think back to last year when the bulldogs took their first trip to the championship game and I took a trip to China. Yes, I have been to China. I still have a hard time believing it and it's been a year! When I first got back I felt like a new mom in the taking in phase where I had to tell stories about my trip over and over and over again just to believe that I had actually taken this trip. As the trip became more in the past and I started focusing on other things- graduating, finding a job, raising a puppy, moving out, and most recently becoming an aunt the stories became few and far between. But tonight I busted out my book of pictures from this trip and it brought such a HUGE smile to my face. Sure there were times on the trip when my culture shock was so bad that I just wanted to go home to my own bed and  yes there were many a text sent home to parents asking for care packages of pbjs because we didn't know if we could survive two weeks on the food but looking back it was such and AWESOME AWESOME experience. I mean how many people can say they actually climbed the great wall or tried duck tongue- not many!! Not only did I see sights not many people get to see but I got to know some beautiful people- both my fellow travelers and the wonderful students that hosted us for the majority of our trip. This trip allowed to me to realize the beauty God has spread all over this planet and it's not limited to my small little sphere of a life! So here are a few pictures from my trip they really can't do it justice but they're great all the same!

Kason Asher Gibbs

Soo I know it's been practically forever since I've updated this thing but the birth of my nephew is just something I can't stay quiet about!! Kason Asher Gibbs was born on March 16th at 1654, he weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19 inches long...oh yeah and he's absolutely precious! Now before I go gushing on about this new little life I just have to brag on my sister a little bit. So being that this is Kel's first baby I had no idea how she would handle everything but she proved to be a real champ. Her labor was about 12 hours which is relatively short for a first timer but before you go thinking it was easy 2 of those 12 hours were spent pushing (aka the hardest part!!).  Now I can't speak for her but I think he was well worth the wait!!

I've spent alot of time at the hospital the past few days doing whatever I can to help and just snuggling with my little buddy! I know I work with babies everyday at my job but it's crazy that I just can't seem to get enough of this one! If he wasn't in such popular demand by friends and family I could hold him all day long...I don't know how happy that would make him though because I can't exactly feed him which is pretty essential!

I could say so much more and probably will in later posts but I pretty beat from a puppy sleepover with Sally and Kaia last night so I'll close out with one last thing. I could not be more proud of Kelly and Duane they are gonna make such spectacular parents! They were so so so attentive to not only Kason but all the nurses and doctors as well. If all the people I took care of could be half as attentive as them well let's just say it'd make my job a whole lot easier! Baby Kason is one lucky baby surrounded by a whole lot of love!!

Puppy Play Date!

Last Wednesday Sally returned to the vet for her 2 week follow up x-rays after her initial pneumonia diagnosis and we got some great news: Sally has a clean bill of health. This is very exciting news for many reasons one of the biggest being that she is now free to play with her cousin Kaia! Today I had the day off so I took Sally over to my sister Kelly's house for a couple hours so she and Kaia could run off some serious energy in the snow!....It was so entertaining to watch little Sally Faye instigating play fights with Massive Kaia. I'm so happy that these two get along so great and I see many more play dates to come! Especially because since we've returned from the play date Sally has been zonked out on the couch allowing me to be productive! Here are some videos from the day.

Best Cousins!

These are a few of my favorite things...Christmas Style!!

Ornaments  

This one is from my kindergarten days but the amputated arm is a result of my sister's puppy Kaia getting curious! 

Every year when my sisters and I were young my grandma would get us together and make Christmas ornaments using school/holiday pictures...I also really enjoy Kel's bangs in this one!

I was on the gymnastics team all four years in high school and loved it...One of my teammates made these for all the girls one year

Other side of the gymnastics ornament

My roommates and I did a gift exchange one year and one of my roommates, Tara Jo, got us all ornaments...This one is mine and it makes me smile everytime I look at it!

Newest addition in honor of little Miss Sally Faye!

Christmas Village

My mom sisters and I all love these little Christmas houses and each year our mom gets us each a few houses for Christmas so when we move out we'll have enough to start our own little village!

Stockings

and the stocking stuffers!

Holiday Beverages

Almost make the cold weather worth it!

Christmas Music

I love Glee, Dave Barnes, and Christmas music so it really doesn't get much better than these two albums right here!

Christmas Movies

Classic!...I watch it any time it comes on tv

Hilarious!

My roommates watched this on ABC family's 25 days of Christmas last year and there is one song, We're too much, that will be stuck in our head for weeks on end!

Can't beat the claymation Rudolph...or any claymation Christmas movie for that matter!

Introducing...Sally Faye!

So a little over a week ago I entered into the realm of parenthood...puppy parenthood that is!!...This is my precious new puppy, Sally Faye. I adopted her last Saturday from the the Morgan County Humane Society and she is a 4 month old boxer mix. 

This past week has been quite the adventure with little miss Sally! It all started on Tuesday when my mom dropped her off at the vet to get fixed. At around 930 am I was just starting to fall asleep after working all night long when I got a call from the vet saying Sally had a cold. They didn't want to operate on her with the cold because it would increase the risk of her getting pneumonia. The vet put her on some cough drops, sulfa antibiotics, and we rescheduled her procedure. Later that night Sally was struggling with her breathing which earned her a trip to the emergency vet, yes I had her for 2 days and she's already headed to the ER! Well after several x-rays and a comprehensive exam we got our diagnosis: Pneumonia. So little Sally Faye now gets two antibiotics, an NSAID for her fever, nose drops, coupage (pounding on her lungs), and steam treatments twice a day! All provided by her own personal nurse/ mom! All this on top of trying to get her potty trained!

She's getting better and more puppy like everyday. She finally learned what her toys were for and she's been on two walks/drags (she's still a little skittish around other dogs). Hopefully soon she'll be back to full health and be able to have a play date with her cousin, Kaia!

Even though she's been a whole lot of work I'm so so happy to have her! I hate to think of what would have happened to her if I hadn't adopted her. As I write this now she's curled up next to me snoring (thank you sinus congestion!) and when I lay down to sleep tonight she'll be curled up right next to me. Love it!