Lindsay's Mom's Visit

My mom came for her annual "escape the winter" trip this year for almost 2 and a half weeks. I picked her up in TN with my horse trailer (we exchanged stuff as well) on a Saturday and we drove back on Sunday, her birthday. We kept ourselves busy with riding, birding, arts & crafts, and road-tripping. We also spent lots of time talking about the new house that my parents just bought in TN and the house that Matthew and I are hoping to buy!

My mom spent the days that I had to work wandering around Tybee and the beach painting in her water color journal.
















We spent one weekend riding the horses. This was the first time I had ridden Motive VIII on the trails and he was perfect!
















We were also able to join the Ogeechee Audubon club for a birding trip at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge. My mom and I both added some new species to our life-lists.





















The second weekend she was here, my mom and I drove down to Tampa to visit my Grandparents at their winter residence. We spent most of the time driving around to different parks and watching the birds. We also enjoyed some story telling from my Grandpa and some hot-tubbing at the resort.

I, of course, took lots of photos of the birds and other wildlife during our trip. Here is a great egret that was begging for some handouts from a fisherman.





















This little blue heron was fishing for himself from the mangrove roots.















A scenic spot at one of the parks.





















The tree swallows were migrating through Florida during our trip. There were thousands of them flying around the fields and wetlands.















My aunt, uncle, grandma, and I watching the birds.
















One park we visited had a host of black vultures on the boardwalk. I think they are awfully cute - for a vulture!















The sun shining through a palm frond.

Weekend Projects

Lindsay is in Tennessee this weekend to pick up her Mother and a horse pen panels for our future house; where ever that might be.  I've been busy here.

With all our bunnies, their stand has gotten real dirty and is hard to clean.

So I hung the cage from the shed!  I used wrenches I got for my birthday and the magnetic arm band I got for Christmas on this project.

It swings a little when they jump around but will be easier to clean.

Another Birthday present from Daddy came in handy while cleaning the front yard.  It's hard to see but I'm using a push broom.

The driveway has never been so clear!

I secured a loose cable outlet to the wall.

I replaced the glass and hanger string on a picture frame that fell off the wall recently.  Zia always tries to help me in the shop.  She can't decide if screws are cat toys or cat treats.  Anything small left on the work bench is on the floor if I leave it unattended.

Birthdays

As most of you know, Matthew and I both celebrated our birthdays over the last week. Thank you to everyone who sent cards, gifts, and birthday wishes!! We didn't really do anything special for either day except go out to eat at our favorite restaurants.

Flowers from Matthew.

A joint birthday gift from my mom. It's a horse trailer mailbox for our new house (if we ever get one!).

My big gift, a new horse! His name is Motive VIII (pronounced Motivate) and he is 8 years old. He has been wonderful so far and gets along fine with Rabi.

Rabi and Motive VIII greet each other.

New Years

Although it has almost been a month, I finally got around to posting some photos from New Years. We spent the weekend with Matthew's sister, Emily, along with another sister & family and his mom and dad. We had a great time relaxing, playing games, eating lots of delicious food, and visiting a local nature center.

Decorating some Christmas cookies (a little late, but tasty nonetheless!)
















I think it only took about 24 hours for us to devour all of these.
















Uncle Matthew supervising some fort building at the nature center.




















Uncle Matthew's turn to read the bedtime stories.

A Small Savannah Christmas

This year Matthew and I had a very small Christmas at our house, our first as a married couple! We decided not to do gifts for each other since we are about to buy ourselves a house :) I had a little Christmas spirit though and we still got a tree and decorated it. There are a few gifts under it, although most of them are for family members we haven't seen yet! Our cat Zia is quite fascinated by the tree and mostly tries to eat the branches, not the ornaments. She is still shut in our shop for most of the time (turned out she has no health problems, just behavioral ones) but she got to come in and snuggle with us on Christmas.

The Tree





















Zia checks out the tree.

















A cute, personalized ornament that my aunt gave us.




















Matthew opening one of our gifts from family.





















Zia's presents were the wrapping materials, what more could a cat want?
















Our Christmas "Family Portrait" on our new camping chair!





















One of my favorite things about Christmas is Grandma Bertch's lemon meringue pies. Unfortunately, I had to make it myself this year...

















On a side note, our baby bunnies are growing very quickly. This batch is quite friendly because Matthew feeds them leaves from the yard daily. They sure love him!

















About a week ago, our other doe, Peaches, had her first litter of babies. I originally thought that there were six, but if you look closely she actually had seven! They are going to keep her busy!

Wedding Photographs

Most of you have already seen our professional wedding photos by Katie Joyner Photography but, if you haven't, click here. Matthew and I can send you digital or printed copies of photos if you would like so just let us know. We can't burn DVDs at the moment (because they are packed away) but we promise to distribute the photos soon!

Update from Savannah

The last few weeks have been hectic for us as usual. We are still figuring out what is happening with the house we are hoping to buy but things don't look good. There is a problem with the title and, depending on who you ask, it is an easy fix or it cannot be fixed or it will take months. In the meantime, we are keeping our fingers crossed but have stopped packing our stuff away. I have also started my own aquarium cleaning business that Matthew and I named AquaAid. I only have one client right now but I plan on advertising a bit more after the house situation is settled.

We are still dancing whenever we get a chance and attended the Thanksgiving Ball last Saturday. It is always nice for an excuse to get dressed up! For Thanksgiving, we went to a friend of a friends' house for a lovely meal with lots of unique people. I made my family-recipe pumpkin rolls and there weren't any leftovers! We also did a Great Couch Shuffle last weekend where we moved 3 couches, 1 recliner chair, and 1 TV between 3 different houses using my horse trailer. Our arms were sore the next day! (especially since I do not back the trailer very well so we had to carry things quite a distance!)

Our baby bunnies are growing like weeds and seem to be bigger every day. They are already out of the nest box and running around. Our kitty, Zia, on the other hand is not doing as well. She has not been using the litter box all of the time and we aren't sure if it is a behavioral or medical issue. I took her to the vet for some tests but until we find out what is going on we are locking her in the shop (we call it "jail") so that she isn't using our carpet as her litter box. She is very pitiful and misses being inside with us. I have also decided to sell the horse that I bought this summer, Pandora. She needs more training than I thought, which I don't have time for, and she didn't end up being the type of horse I was looking for.

Here are a few photos from the last few weeks.

Zia likes to use my laptop case as a cat bed (this is before she had to go to jail).
















Matthew and I dressed up for the Ball.





















During the Great Couch Shuffle, we gave our couch to a friend and acquired a new couch that is much more comfortable. It also smells a bit like dog but I'm sure that will fade!