Lucy and Friend

Some of you know already, but for Christmas Joseph gave me a cute, cuddly, little puppy dog! Since we aren't prepared for baby mode yet, Lucy is a nice beginning! It's surprising how much joy a little dog can bring :). She's just about the sweetest dog I've ever had and a very quick learner (although I have found a stubborn streak in her!). Her favorite place to be is sitting right between me and Joseph, touching both of us. She'll play full blast with him for as long as he will play and then she crashes on me! Her second favorite thing is the duck you see in these pictures. It goes everywhere she goes and as you can see, it is almost as big as she is. It makes a sound like a real duck when she chews on it so it sometimes feels like we have more than one pet! Last weekend we decided to take Lucy with us to a barbeque out in the country at Joseph's boss' house. Unfortunately Lucy got into a bed of fire ants and her face was swollen to about twice it's size! Her lips were so huge that they felt like they were going to pop when I touched them! We had to give her Benadryl and now she's back to normal. We still call her Big Lips though and occasionally Angelina. (Jolie, that is)

Our "House"

Okay, so it's not a house yet but this is our street sign! And I also posted a few pictures of our lot where the house is being built. It's difficult to tell in the pictures but they left us a really nice wild Cherry tree in the front yard and a group of really nice Oak trees in the back yard. Right beside our lot is a beautiful green path that we followed for awhile and it really leads you to nowhere! We're happy about the fact that we don't have neighbors surrounding us yet and are hoping that it will be awhile before any houses are put in behind us. Not that we are anti-social or anything, but it is sooo nice and quiet out there right now and we are excited to get away from the noises and crowds (and muggings) of our apartment complex! We are also hoping that they start the foundation on the house sometime this week so maybe I will have more exciting pictures to post soon! We feel so blessed to be getting this house and thank God for the excitement!

My Mom

For those of you who know about my mom's illness, she is doing very, very well. I think her trip down here was the longest she has taken since she was so sick and she did great. I don't know if life will ever be quite the same for her or any of us for that matter, but I guess that's because a challenge like the one she faced is life changing and definitely forces you to grow. We are all very thankful to still have her with us and have learned to value even more, the time we have together as a family. Joseph and my parents just LOVE each other and for that I am very thankful as well!

Graduation

I forgot to mention, Joseph also graduated with his Bachelor's of Business Administration in February. We had so much fun that weekend. My parents came down for the first time and we got to show them around Alabama. It was so good to have them here for a little while and I'm pretty sure they loved it down here! Particularly the boiled peanuts which was a new phenomenon to them. My parents gave Joseph a PDA for graduation and he and my dad spent most of the weekend with their faces buried in them! We were very proud of Joseph for going back to school and finishing his degree.

Current Events

Well, I am finally trying this Blog thing as it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep updated with the people we love! Joseph and I are staying extremely busy right now with the new business but we are hoping that we start to see results in the next couple of months. We are both working during the day and trying to get the business going at night and on weekends. We are also hoping that in about 3 months our new house will be completed and we will be moving across the Bay to a pretty little town called Loxley. These past seven months since we got married have absolutely flown by! God continues to take care of us and continually bless us in so many unexpected ways.