Moments Worth Mentioning

Last night, as I was spending the evening with friends, I found myself stepping back a little bit in pure awe.  I have now been an official resident of Atlanta for three months.  In that relatively short time span I have met (literally) hundreds of new people and I am privileged to now call lots of them my friends. 

One of the girls that I met last night was a fellow blogger… Which is where I found my motivation for coming back to the blogshere.  As I sat there and shared a glass of wine with her we dove right down to the all important topic of… boys.  We both laughed as we dissected conversations and emails to overanalyze any hint of returned attraction from the many men in each of our lives.  Eventually, several others joined our conversation and we ended up staying up to the wee hours of the morning discussing the differences in guys and girls.  Comical to say the least.  And no humor was lost in the two of us as we had this conversation with the vary boys that needed to hear it the most.  These people will never know the joy that I find in such a simple evening spent on a rooftop patio on a random Monday night.

I think its normal to have different seasons in your life.  We all go through different phases in which we conquer new things, experience various situations and view things differently.  Sometimes the seasons are well defined, but most likely they slowly change without us realizing it.  It is not until we take a look backwards and see how much things have changed that we realize the new season in upon us.  This season of my life is easily the best yet.  I have been blessed in so many ways over the last few months in ways that I hardly new existed.  I am a firm believer that everything that happens today prepares you for what lies ahead tomorrow.  I am fairly confident that my current living situation, job, church life and social calendar are a product of what I have lived through.  It is easy for me to look at the last three years and see the events that lead me to this current place, and yet during those three years I was unable (and unwilling) to see the point in all of the struggles.  I am so thankful and blessed to have a God that loves me enough to give me a second chance.

Last month was the one year mark of being without my puppies.  I can still remember the day that I hugged each of them one last time and handed them over.  In all honesty it remains as the most difficult decision I have ever made.

It had been several months since I have heard from Foster and Sadie’s new family.  I was so thankful to hear from them earlier this week and fought back the tears as I read the email from work.  The tears were half caused from me being selfish in wanting them back in my life and also in joy as I know how happy they are.

Now, for an update on Foster and Sadie.  They are doing great.  It is amazing how much Sadie has calmed down.  She will never be as calm as “The Lump” we call Foster, but she has definitely become an adult.  She taught herself how to dance like Foster for a treat, and just starts spinning around if she hears the treat can rattle.  Foster is like a nanny to all of our cats and new foster cats that come in.  He likes to groom them (whether they want it or not), and is very patient when foster kittens climb on him and cuddle in his fur.  Foster still sticks to me like glue, Sadie sticks to Nathan like glue.  I have started taking Foster and Sadie on pet therapy missions with me.  We go to a senior nursing home every other week or so, and alternate weeks we go to my son’s autistic program.  The dogs love it, it’s like every Wednesday they instinctively know they are going to therapy.  Foster wears a necktie, and Sadie wears a dog necklace, and everybody loves it and comments on how cute they are. 

 I have their hair groomed down about every two months or so – basically they just cut the wispy hairs off of their legs, and trim their ears a little shorter, in between their toes, etc.  They enjoy going to the groomer, and they are the star clients there.  They often have sleepovers at my parents house, or my parents Cavalier comes and stays with us.  Sadie really likes to play with Sasha – Foster just sleeps at my feet.

 There is a jealousy issue going on around here though.  My neighhors behind us got a new dog.  He is a Teddy Bear (which I think is a mixture between a Poodle and a Yorkie?).  Anyway, Teddy is his name, and he is in love with Sadie.  When he was small enough, he would squeeze through the fence and show up on our back porch with a stuffed toy in his mouth.  When Sadie goes outside, Teddy just runs along the fence trying to play with her.  If we let Teddy in our yard, Foster goes and basically tries to sit on Teddy.  Not in an aggressive way, just to keep him away from his little sister.  It’s very amusing to watch.

 But things are going great.  We are thankful every day that we have Foster and Sadie in our lives.  And I hear you about the warm Atlanta days.  My brother lives down in Cumming, GA.  He was up here this past weekend, and was talking about how humid and hot it has been there.  And then he wonders why his sister doesn’t rush down there to visit!!  Talk to you soon – I intend to send you some pictures eventually.  We have them all backed up, and need to put them back on our computer. 

-Andra