Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving...

I have been horrible about taking pictures, so these are the few that I have. Bethany came home from all her training on Wednesday night. She will get to be here for 2 weeks, then she is going to San Diego where she is being stationed.

We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Quick Update

We are officially "homeless"... We closed on the house on November 13th and have been living in a temporary apartment since November 9th. It's been a rough 2 weeks. I forgot how much I dislike apartment living :-) We got spoiled having our own home.


We were able to find Sammy a wonderful new home last weekend. We went to her new family's house to see if she would play well with the 2 dogs they already had and their 2 children. We were there for over an hour! They are a very nice family with a love of pets. I have kept in contact this week with her new "mom" and she said she is doing great and they are very happy to have her.


We are heading to Springfield on Monday. Matt will be there for the entire week, then head back to Texas on Sunday the 29th. He will finish up everything here at Ft. Hood, then join Savanna and I back in Missouri on December 22nd to spend Christmas/New Years's with our family & friends.


We aren't sure of an exact date we are heading to Alaska, but somewhere around the 8th or 9th of January.


That's about all we know right now. I don't have any new pictures because of how crazy the past month has been. I will take lots while we are in Missouri. We look forward to seeing everyone, and for those of you we don't get to see, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

We need some help...

We have decided to try to find Sammy & Oliver (our dogs) homes before we move to Alaska. We were originally planning on taking them with us, but after MUCH thought and discussion, we have decided to try to find them good homes. It is going to be a very long trip and paperwork to get them on the ferry and even more to cross them through Canada. Then we have to find a place to live that actually accepts pets with a reasonable deposit (I'm talking $1000.00 pet deposits aren't unheard of there...)


So here is the low down on them:

SAMMY

• female beagle mix
  
• approx 3 years old

• house trained
  
• LOVES attention and to play

• has been spayed
  
• current on all vaccinations

OLIVER

• male border collie mix


• approx 2 years old
  
• house trained


• keeps to himself
  
• LOVES to be outside
  
• has been neutered


• current on all vaccinations

If you know of anyone interested, please have them email me for any more info or questions they may have

choley0211@yahoo.com

It is very important to us that they go to good homes. Best case would be someone take both of them, but I know that's also not reasonable. We are more than willing to separate them.

Thank you so much for any help you can give us!

We are safe and sound

I'm sure all have heard already, but there was major shooting on Fort Hood today. An Army Major opened fire in a building killing 11 and injuring 31. He was killed on the scene by authorities.

Post was on lock down for over 5 hours. Thankfully, Matt was in the field and not on post, so he was safe. Savanna and I had been at the hospital on post just 30 minutes before the shooting started. Thank God for lack of paperwork that made our appointment end early, so I could go get the rest of what I needed. Otherwise, Savanna and I would have been in the hospital on lock down until 7:00pm when the lock down ended.

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are safe and sound. It has been a VERY sad, tragic day. Even though no one we know was directly involved, those were still "our people" who were affected by this. Please keep all the families and soldiers injured in your prayers. Everyone involved was a soldier, except for 1 of the deaths that was a civilian contracted police officer.

Holiday Plans

We will be headed to Springfield on Monday, November 23rd for Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, Matt will come back to Ft. Hood and wrap things up while Savanna and I stay in Missouri until Christmas. Then Matt will join us again. After Christmas and New Years we will begin our Alaskan Adventure!


Again, we ask for no toys for Savanna....PRETTY PLEASE with a cherry on top :-)

We will be leaving for Alaska straight from Springfield and will not have the extra room for toys. I was asked if clothing is okay, and that is perfect. It's something we will need in Alaska anyway. She is still wearing size 4T, and now a size 9 shoe.


We are trying to think of things that Savanna can do in the car for several days, so if you have an idea's please let me know! I found this really neat travel tray online that hooks to her car seat so she can color or have snacks.

Happy Halloween!

Sorry these pictures are out of order. As you can see, our little Tinkerbell didn't even make it to her bed before she crashed! We had so much fun tonight. Savanna wasn't shy at all to go up to a door and say "Trick-or-Treat".

Savanna's Halloween Party

Savanna is going to be Tinkerbell for Halloween, but her school bought costumes for the kids to wear at their party, so she was a Tiger. The costume was way to small so we couldn't even get the hood on, and it was about 3 or 4 inches to short :-)

Prayer Requests

Please pray for the Tilley Family in Duncan, Oklahoma. They lost their 16 year old son yesterday from a staff infection in his lungs. It was a pretty sudden illness. He only got sick last Friday. This family is very close with Heather's family.


Heather's family also has another friend in New Orleans whose daughter got re diagnosed with a brain tumor after having one as a child. She is 18 and this tumor is very aggressive. I do not have the name of this family, but please keep them in your prayers also.

Thank you!

Baby Blaine

It's a boy!

Blaine Casey Tennis arrived just before 9:15pm last night weighing 7lbs 7oz. We are all so shocked that Keri had a boy! Considering she has only had girls and comes from a family of only sisters, everybody just assumed this one would be a girl too! The doctor announced it was a boy by saying that "there is a weiner and he pee'd on himself" and Casey said something along the lines of "Are you kidding me?" because he was so suprised it was actually a boy! When I have pictures I will post them.

A niece or a nephew...that is the question!

Keri is at St. John's in labor. Labor & Delivery is really busy tonight, so they gave Keri the option of them breaking her water, or letting her walk around for a while to see if she will dilate on her own (she was at a 5 about half hour ago). She chose to walk for a bit.

So the burning question is...will we have a new niece or a nephew???

2 1/2 already???

Wow, I can't believe that 2 1/2 years ago today, Savanna came into our lives. I can't imagine the world without her. She is the best thing that has ever happened to us! I have started substitute teaching, and I can't get to her "school" fast enough everyday to pick her up!!

Another bit of news, we got an offer on the house! We countered back and they accepted. Last Saturday the inspection was done and we got the requests of the buyer today. Nothing major (I don't think) thank goodness. They want the A/C unit services and to "repair the fins on the outdoor portion of the unit"...whatever that means. So depending on the price of that, we are good to go. Now we just have to wait for the appraisal and pray it comes back at numbers we want! Thank you to everyone for all their thoughts, prayers and support!

Pumpkin Carving

From the past few days

Gran is in Ft. Worth visiting John Douglas and Carrie, so we made a quick trip up there yesterday. For some reason I didn't get any pictures of John Douglas...