A Trip to Georgia, A New Addition, and a $5 Home Office

OK, lest the title of this post lead any of you to think otherwise, let me clear the air and state for the record that we are not pregnant!  I'll explain our "new addition" a little later.... :)

Back in May, Anthony and I went to Georgia for 8 days to visit my family.  We had a wonderful time!  We flew to Atlanta where my sister Sarah picked us up and drove us down to Thomasville.  The next day we drove over to Dothan, Alabama to stay with Munna & Papa for a night.  Of course Munna fed us like we were never going to eat again...and we loved it!  We spent the whole next day with Munna & Papa, then stopped by the Friths' on our way out of Dothan.  Chris & Lisa Frith were my youth pastors since I was 14 years old, and they were one of the couples, along with Don & Judy Pearce, who prayed over us with our parents at our wedding.  It was so great to spend some time with Chris & Lisa and their wonderful kids.  Little Grant (who is three and a half) took to Anthony so quickly.  Every time I looked over, Grant was up in Anthony's lap showing him something.

We spent the rest of our trip in Thomasville with my family.  That weekend we had a birthday party for Mimi at our house, and she and my uncles came up and spent the afternoon with us.  Other than that we just hung out at my parents' house, swam in the pool, ate Pool Room hot dogs (my favorite!), watched movies, visited friends, and spent time with everyone.  It was a great trip home, and I hope we get to take another one at the end of the year, but of course we'll have to see what works out.

Emily & me at Mimi's party:

Mimi & me having lunch in Tallahassee:

At dinner with my family on our last night in Georgia:

Shortly after we got married, Anthony started mentioning that he'd like to get a dog someday.  At first I was pretty hesitant about it, but I saw how he'd light up whenever he got the chance to play with other people's dogs, so I started to rethink it.  Finally, a couple of weeks ago we started looking at dogs on Craigslist to just see what we might like.  July 4th weekend we went and saw about a beagle puppy, but didn't really click with him.  Plus, he wasn't a rescue dog, and with so many dogs needing to be rescued it was hard to fall in love with one who was going to have a great home with or without us.  We drove up to the Denton Animal Shelter that afternoon to see a few dogs that we'd seen online.  I had even called that morning to ask if the dogs were still available and was told that they were.  However, when we got there we were told that a no-kill rescue organization had picked them up just a couple of hours earlier.  We were also told that had they not been picked up by that organization, they would have been euthanized before we got there anyway, so it was a blessing in disguise that the dogs were not there when we got there!  Anyway, we contacted the organization and went to go see the dogs on Monday.  The first dog they brought us was a little black & white four-month old spaniel/terrier mix.  Although they brought us two more to look at, we were both pretty taken with the black & white puppy.  She had the sweetest demeanor and just started loving on us right away.  We decided to adopt her and were able to bring her home that day!  We named her Georgia, and she is the newest addition to the Sieben family!

Right after we adopted Georgia:

She's a cuddler:

One of her favorite pastimes:

New toys:

Although this week has been a little demanding, I have to say that having a puppy has been much easier than I'd anticipated.  Georgia has only barked a couple of times, is doing really well with her house-training, is getting used to her crate quickly, and hasn't chewed up our furniture!  She loves to show affection and loves people.  We can't wait for you all to meet her!

OK, this next portion probably won't thrill anybody except for my Mom since she & I share a love of design & decor, so this one's for you, Mom!  For some time now I've wanted to create a home office space for us.  Anthony has a TON of books, plus we just needed a place where we could pay bills, file receipts, and have our printer permanently set up instead of shoved in a corner of a bedroom!  I had been scouring Craigslist looking for a really cheap desk that I could paint and put in our guest room, but Anthony wanted to wait on that project.  So, with my budget now being $0, I needed to get creative!  I read design blogs everyday (like mother, like daughter), so one day it hit me: the hall closet!  It needed a major cleaning out anyway, and it already had shelves.  I realized that I could remove one of the shelves and create an instant workspace, and VOILA!  An office was born.  Now Anthony's books are all organized and accessible, and we finally found a place to hang his Albert Einstein picture that I knew would otherwise never see the light of day in our home if I had anything to do with it! :)  Oh, and the reason the project cost $5 was because we needed an extension cord for the printer.  Little things like this make me happy, and if I could do stuff like this for a living I think I would!

Before:

After:

Anthony and I are coming up on 8 months of marriage!  It's hard to believe!  We are doing great and loving each other more and more everyday.  Marriage is an incredible blessing and a gift from God.  Although it can be difficult at times, we are learning and growing with every challenge.  We are excited about where we are now and excited about the future!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this update on what's going on with us.  We'd love to hear what's going on with all of you.  We love you and hope to see you very soon!