Since my last post, Tele has had his surgery and almost fully recovered. Thank God that part of life for him is over now. Goodness, it ended up being much worse than we intially thought it would be. Apparently my little (big) puppy does not handle pain very well. After the surgery they had to give him an extra shot of morphine just to calm him down. And we were sent home with 2 different sets of pain pills. The vet gave us strict insturctions to keep the cone on his head for at least 4 days and to not let him run or jump for 10 days...if you're familar with Boxer dogs, you'll know that its almost impossible to keep them from playing...so I knew I was going to have my hands full.
Once we got home, Tele was woozy from all the pain meds he was on. And he had decided that he wanted to be in either my lap or Josh's. he cried if one of us wasn't sitting with him. We ended up having to take turns sleeping on the floor with him. Silly I know, but I felt that since my puppy had just had a pretty painful surgery...I wasn't going to let him cry all night on top of it. The next day, he wasn't much better. But we tried to feed him and he couldn't figure out how to eat with the cone on his head. He kept scaring himself by hitting it on the wall or furniture. So I told Josh that we would keep the cone on like the vet said, but take it off when Tele ate...BIG MISTAKE...as soon as we got the cone off, it was like World War 3 trying to get it back on. Tele had tasted freedom and wasn't going back to captivity without a fight. lol. After about 15 mins, we finally got it back on and decided that Tele would simply have to learn how to eat with the cone on. It took him about a day and then he figured it out.
We ended up keeping the cone on 6 days...2 days longer than the vet said, because it made Tele's behavior more calm. He is a really good dog, but he LOVES to play and he wasn't allowed to until cleared by vet...so he was a cone head until the day before the vet appointment. At his check up the vet said it was looking good and that it should be completely healed in about two weeks. So last night, Tele got to play in the backyard with Josh. He runs super fast in circles around Josh and leaps up into the air, almost reaching Josh's shoulder tops, it really funny to see it. But he loves wrestle time with his "dad." So glad my puppy is almost all better :-)
I realized today that I forgot to mention the newest addition to our family. About a month ago, we bought a 40 gallon fish tank and we bought some beautiful angel fish. But the neatest thing is our Elephant fish. that's right, I have a fish that has an Elephant nose. I had never seen such a thing before, but its pretty cool. Tele is tall enough to look into the tank and he tries to lick the glass when the fish come up to him. They keep him company while we are at work :-)
Now, I know that I have been talking about Christmas forever, and am even decorating fairly early (November 20th) but my goodness...Publix put up christmas decorations 3 days BEFORE halloween and now even Walmart has a christmas tree decorated in the store entrance...as happy as I am to see it...that seems a bit early to me. I mean, they skipped two holidays, lol. But regardless, as silly as I think it is...I am delighted that the holiday season is almost here! I am so excited about Josh and I's first Christmas married. We've got tons of plans to make it as special as we can. Josh even bought me ticktets to the Nutcraker Ballet :-) Can't wait for that! Chirstmas foods, movies, songs, and lights will fill our house. Along with my bouncing boxer wearing his reindeer antler head band I plan on buying him...:-)
Grace Family
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Birthdays, surgeries, and muscle spasms...
The past month has been pretty eventful. At the very beginning of the month I celebrated my 23rd birthday! Usually, when a birthday comes and I'm asked how I feel to be another year older, my response is "no different." However, this year when Josh asked me "How does it feel to be 23?" My answer was "incredibly young." lol. I know its an odd way to feel at getting older. But this year, its how I felt. Reflecting over the past year, I realized that I'm very young to be where I'm at in my life. I'm married to my best friend, done with school, employed as crisis couselor, and mom to a boxer puppy. :-) And I'm really happy. So this year for my birthday, I'm incredibly thankful and full of the realization of the doors God has opened up. So it was a wonderful birthday. :-)
Over the past month, we have gone back and forth with our vets office to determine whether or not our puppy Tele needed a surgery for his tail. Apparently, it was docked wrong a couple days after he was born. From what I understand, its a fairly common thing that doesn't usually show up until around 6 or 7 months. But what happens is everytime he hits a growth spurt (which seems to be constantly, lol) the very tip of his tail spilts. Its awful for him. :-( So after going back and forth a couple times, we have his surgery appointment set up for the 21st...my little baby. Its not a very complicated surgery. They are simply making his tail a little shorter, but he is going to be sore for a couple days. Breaks my heart just thinking about it.
As for Josh this month, currently he has been in bed for the past couple days. He hurt his back lifting weights while working out and its made the muscle spasm out. Its pretty bad. I've tried to help him ease the pain with hot baths, applying bio-freeze, ice packs, advil, and a heating pad. So far, each idea has helped very minimally. We were supposed to go up to Marianna for our nephews dedication this weekend, but with his back the way it is, there is no way Josh could handle 5 hours in the car. He's being a trooper though. Its pretty tough for him to stay in bed. After just one day, I came home from an 11 hour workday, to a husband pained with cabin fever. My poor hubby. Josh is definately not one to simply laze about, so not being able to move his back much has been torture for him. I'm praying that it heals quickly.
Life's been pretty stressful and crazy this past month, but we're doing well. Happy and almost healthy, lol. and still planning out just excatly we are going to transform our house from the normal, clean, and mundane, to the warm, festive, and pine scented home that just screams "ITS CHRISTMAS TIME!!" lol, can't wait to start buying decorations. They are already starting to pop up here and there throughout the the stores....
Over the past month, we have gone back and forth with our vets office to determine whether or not our puppy Tele needed a surgery for his tail. Apparently, it was docked wrong a couple days after he was born. From what I understand, its a fairly common thing that doesn't usually show up until around 6 or 7 months. But what happens is everytime he hits a growth spurt (which seems to be constantly, lol) the very tip of his tail spilts. Its awful for him. :-( So after going back and forth a couple times, we have his surgery appointment set up for the 21st...my little baby. Its not a very complicated surgery. They are simply making his tail a little shorter, but he is going to be sore for a couple days. Breaks my heart just thinking about it.
As for Josh this month, currently he has been in bed for the past couple days. He hurt his back lifting weights while working out and its made the muscle spasm out. Its pretty bad. I've tried to help him ease the pain with hot baths, applying bio-freeze, ice packs, advil, and a heating pad. So far, each idea has helped very minimally. We were supposed to go up to Marianna for our nephews dedication this weekend, but with his back the way it is, there is no way Josh could handle 5 hours in the car. He's being a trooper though. Its pretty tough for him to stay in bed. After just one day, I came home from an 11 hour workday, to a husband pained with cabin fever. My poor hubby. Josh is definately not one to simply laze about, so not being able to move his back much has been torture for him. I'm praying that it heals quickly.
Life's been pretty stressful and crazy this past month, but we're doing well. Happy and almost healthy, lol. and still planning out just excatly we are going to transform our house from the normal, clean, and mundane, to the warm, festive, and pine scented home that just screams "ITS CHRISTMAS TIME!!" lol, can't wait to start buying decorations. They are already starting to pop up here and there throughout the the stores....
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Since we've been married...
Since we've been married, life has been a whirlwind. The summer months came and went incredibly fast and full. With graduating college, getting married, starting new jobs (mine was new and Josh got a promotion), each losing a grandparent, becoming uncle and aunt to our adorable nephew Carson, and the process of finally moving in together and setting up house....goodness, we had lots to do. However, we wouldn't trade it for anything. All we can say is that if we could do it again, we would have had a 2 month engagement, instead of a 4 month one, lol.
We've been married almost 5 months now, and life is finally starting to settle. Our house is just about completely decorated. We have very similar taste in decorations, so the process of making the house our home has been incredibly fun. Another bonus to where we live is that it is literally minutes from both our jobs. I believe mapquest says each are 1 mile from our house, which is very nice for the mornings that time just runs away from us.
About a month after we were married, we added a 9 week old Boxer puppy to our family. His name is Tele (sounds like Telly...its after a guitar Josh likes...yes, I'm married to a music man) and he is such a cuddly dog. He is now 6 months old and weighs 50lbs and he still thinks he is a lap dog. We take him out with us a lot. His favorite places so far seem to be his vets office and the downtown farmers market that we go to every Saturday. He gets tons of attention at both those places and he adores being the superstar wherever we go.
As for our jobs...
I'm the Outreach Specialist for Peace River Rape Recovery & Resource Center. I'm a counselor to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. Its a challenging job much of the time, I really never know what I'm getting when I answer my phone "Crisis line, this is Ashley. How can I help you." And I have heard and come across some of the worst things I hadn't even imagined before since starting this job. But on the flip side, being able to see hope rekindled in a person's life, clarity overcoming confusion, and self-empowerment taking the place of helplessness, its an increbile journey for a person and one that I'm proud to be apart of. I'm thankful for my job because I find myself becoming more patient, slower to judge, and quicker to compassion. Its created much personal growth for me.
Josh is the Module Manager for the Registrar Department at Southeastern Univeristy. He recently recieved this promotion a couple months ago and is doing wonderfully at it. Right off the bat he had huge responsibilty and projects thrown at him and he handled it all incredibly well. Its a lot of computer related project managment. Its a wonderful addition to his resume and we're so thankful he has it. This new job was such a blessing for us, because it meant better work hours. Josh now is home by 5pm where at his old job he didn't get home until around 8pm. So this means we have more time together and also it is much easier for Josh to get time in for his online classes. I'm constantly amazed at how he balances everything together so well.
We've settled into a new church and Josh has begun to play guitar and sing with the worship team. I haven't gotten too involved as of yet...I'm steering clear of the nursery, lol....trying to keeping those baby longings at bay for a couple more years. :-)
Anyway, we seem to constantly have something happening, but life is good and we are happy. We both continously thankful and amazed at the way God has provided for us and the direction our life together is taking. Now if cooler weather and holiday events could just speed up there arrival....:-)
With love,
Josh and Ashley
We've been married almost 5 months now, and life is finally starting to settle. Our house is just about completely decorated. We have very similar taste in decorations, so the process of making the house our home has been incredibly fun. Another bonus to where we live is that it is literally minutes from both our jobs. I believe mapquest says each are 1 mile from our house, which is very nice for the mornings that time just runs away from us.
About a month after we were married, we added a 9 week old Boxer puppy to our family. His name is Tele (sounds like Telly...its after a guitar Josh likes...yes, I'm married to a music man) and he is such a cuddly dog. He is now 6 months old and weighs 50lbs and he still thinks he is a lap dog. We take him out with us a lot. His favorite places so far seem to be his vets office and the downtown farmers market that we go to every Saturday. He gets tons of attention at both those places and he adores being the superstar wherever we go.
As for our jobs...
I'm the Outreach Specialist for Peace River Rape Recovery & Resource Center. I'm a counselor to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. Its a challenging job much of the time, I really never know what I'm getting when I answer my phone "Crisis line, this is Ashley. How can I help you." And I have heard and come across some of the worst things I hadn't even imagined before since starting this job. But on the flip side, being able to see hope rekindled in a person's life, clarity overcoming confusion, and self-empowerment taking the place of helplessness, its an increbile journey for a person and one that I'm proud to be apart of. I'm thankful for my job because I find myself becoming more patient, slower to judge, and quicker to compassion. Its created much personal growth for me.
Josh is the Module Manager for the Registrar Department at Southeastern Univeristy. He recently recieved this promotion a couple months ago and is doing wonderfully at it. Right off the bat he had huge responsibilty and projects thrown at him and he handled it all incredibly well. Its a lot of computer related project managment. Its a wonderful addition to his resume and we're so thankful he has it. This new job was such a blessing for us, because it meant better work hours. Josh now is home by 5pm where at his old job he didn't get home until around 8pm. So this means we have more time together and also it is much easier for Josh to get time in for his online classes. I'm constantly amazed at how he balances everything together so well.
We've settled into a new church and Josh has begun to play guitar and sing with the worship team. I haven't gotten too involved as of yet...I'm steering clear of the nursery, lol....trying to keeping those baby longings at bay for a couple more years. :-)
Anyway, we seem to constantly have something happening, but life is good and we are happy. We both continously thankful and amazed at the way God has provided for us and the direction our life together is taking. Now if cooler weather and holiday events could just speed up there arrival....:-)
With love,
Josh and Ashley
Our Proposal Story: We went out for eggs and came back with karats
On December 26th 2009 Josh and I were going to celebrate Christmas together. Due to a commitment I had in Lakeland, I could not go with him to Marianna to visit his family for Christmas, so on the 26th both him and his parents were going to drive down to celebrate Christmas with me. Josh was supposed to show up at 9am for us to do Christmas together, and his parents would arrive that evening around 6pm and have dinner with us. I was rather anxious and excited to see Josh as I had been in Ohio the week before and had not spent any time with him for a week. I was missing him like crazy, but focused on planning the Turkey dinner I was going to make for everyone.
The morning of the 26th, I realized much to my frustration, that I had forgotten to buy eggs for the cheesecake I was making that night for dessert. I sent Josh a text message asking him to bring me two eggs on his way to come see me. To which he replied “no. We can go out and get them when I get there.” To be honest, this response irritated me. I was excited to see Josh and didn’t want to waste time shopping, but I decided to just keep a good attitude about it…although I didn’t text him back. Just went about getting ready for the morning.
Right on time at 9am, Josh showed up and we jumped into the car right away to go get eggs. I was very happy to see Josh…however, I soon noticed that he was passing the store that we needed to go too. I pointed this out to him and he informed me that he wanted to go to a particular store that was about 25 minutes away. This again irritated me. After all, all I needed were two eggs. But I decided to just go along with it and let Josh go to the store that he wanted too….I’m so glad I decided to keep a good attitude…
As we neared the grocery store destination, I realized that again Josh was not going the direction needed for the store. I asked him again where we were going. At this point, he was said that he wanted to go the lake. He said that he wanted to do my Christmas present there. Though I’m sure it should have been obvious to me what was happening…I was still distracted. I was disappointed that I had left Josh’s Christmas present at the house and couldn’t give him his when he gave me mine. Josh reassured me that this was what he wanted to do and that it was going to be fine. So again, I decided to keep a good attitude and go along. Besides, I was spending time with Josh, more than an enough of a reason to smile.
It didn’t begin to dawn on me that he was about to propose until we got out of the car at the lake. I saw him hurriedly put a couple things in his pockets and then he led me over the bench that has become “our spot” at the lake. It was the place that took ice cream too at the end of our first date months before. Josh sat me down and handed me a card made out of yellow construction paper. The front said “a Poem to Ashley with love.” Inside the card read:
I want to hear your voice
I want to hold your hand
I want to kiss your chin
I want to laugh with you
I want to cry with you
I want to grow with you
I wan to see your soul
I want to walk at God’s pace
Such beauty and such grace
The other side of the card said that there was a word missing at the end of each stanza and he asked me what word is it? I told him I didn’t know…I thought it was the word forever…but just in case he was not proposing…I felt that “I don’t know” would be the safer option…
Josh told me that the word was “forever,” that he wanted to do all these things with me forever. And then he pulled out the ring, got down on his knee, and said “Will you marry me?”
I said “YES” and gave him a really big hug. While giving me a hug, Josh pulled out his phone, dialed a number and said “ok” and then hung up the phone. I was confused on why he was on the phone just minutes after our proposal and also to who was he talking to when all he said was “ok.” But he just hugged me really tight and then told me that his parents (who were not supposed to get in town until later that night) were actually sitting across the lake, had watched the proposal, and were walking over, and that was what the phone was about.
A couple minutes later, his parents walked up to us with yellow flowers, (my favorite) a congratulations card, and Josh’s laptop computer. Josh sat me back down on the bench and opened his laptop. There was a pre-recorded video of congratulations from my parents (who lived in Ohio and could not be there in person). It was a very unexpected surprise and incredibly thoughtful way to have included both sets of parents in the proposal.
We then finally did make it to the grocery store to purchase eggs, and I spent the rest of the day with my new in-laws and my absolutely wonderful fiancé who humorously pointed out that we had gone out for eggs, and came back with Karats.
The morning of the 26th, I realized much to my frustration, that I had forgotten to buy eggs for the cheesecake I was making that night for dessert. I sent Josh a text message asking him to bring me two eggs on his way to come see me. To which he replied “no. We can go out and get them when I get there.” To be honest, this response irritated me. I was excited to see Josh and didn’t want to waste time shopping, but I decided to just keep a good attitude about it…although I didn’t text him back. Just went about getting ready for the morning.
Right on time at 9am, Josh showed up and we jumped into the car right away to go get eggs. I was very happy to see Josh…however, I soon noticed that he was passing the store that we needed to go too. I pointed this out to him and he informed me that he wanted to go to a particular store that was about 25 minutes away. This again irritated me. After all, all I needed were two eggs. But I decided to just go along with it and let Josh go to the store that he wanted too….I’m so glad I decided to keep a good attitude…
As we neared the grocery store destination, I realized that again Josh was not going the direction needed for the store. I asked him again where we were going. At this point, he was said that he wanted to go the lake. He said that he wanted to do my Christmas present there. Though I’m sure it should have been obvious to me what was happening…I was still distracted. I was disappointed that I had left Josh’s Christmas present at the house and couldn’t give him his when he gave me mine. Josh reassured me that this was what he wanted to do and that it was going to be fine. So again, I decided to keep a good attitude and go along. Besides, I was spending time with Josh, more than an enough of a reason to smile.
It didn’t begin to dawn on me that he was about to propose until we got out of the car at the lake. I saw him hurriedly put a couple things in his pockets and then he led me over the bench that has become “our spot” at the lake. It was the place that took ice cream too at the end of our first date months before. Josh sat me down and handed me a card made out of yellow construction paper. The front said “a Poem to Ashley with love.” Inside the card read:
I want to hear your voice
I want to hold your hand
I want to kiss your chin
I want to laugh with you
I want to cry with you
I want to grow with you
I wan to see your soul
I want to walk at God’s pace
Such beauty and such grace
The other side of the card said that there was a word missing at the end of each stanza and he asked me what word is it? I told him I didn’t know…I thought it was the word forever…but just in case he was not proposing…I felt that “I don’t know” would be the safer option…
Josh told me that the word was “forever,” that he wanted to do all these things with me forever. And then he pulled out the ring, got down on his knee, and said “Will you marry me?”
I said “YES” and gave him a really big hug. While giving me a hug, Josh pulled out his phone, dialed a number and said “ok” and then hung up the phone. I was confused on why he was on the phone just minutes after our proposal and also to who was he talking to when all he said was “ok.” But he just hugged me really tight and then told me that his parents (who were not supposed to get in town until later that night) were actually sitting across the lake, had watched the proposal, and were walking over, and that was what the phone was about.
A couple minutes later, his parents walked up to us with yellow flowers, (my favorite) a congratulations card, and Josh’s laptop computer. Josh sat me back down on the bench and opened his laptop. There was a pre-recorded video of congratulations from my parents (who lived in Ohio and could not be there in person). It was a very unexpected surprise and incredibly thoughtful way to have included both sets of parents in the proposal.
We then finally did make it to the grocery store to purchase eggs, and I spent the rest of the day with my new in-laws and my absolutely wonderful fiancé who humorously pointed out that we had gone out for eggs, and came back with Karats.
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