Settling

I feel like I am finally settling down. I am liking where we are more and more every day. I am growing to love the people in our lives. I am in a very good place.

Since returning from Georgia for Christmas, my life has been filled with a lot of time wasting, trips to the park with Henry, and wondering what is next for me. I quit my full-time nanny job right before the holidays, praying that God would provide something part time and wonderful. We couldn’t go on putting our dog in daycare 5 days a week, I was neglecting all of my new born friendships that were forming, and I was just plain exhausted. I knew that coming into the new year would be a rough time for me, but hoped that it would lead to something great.

Yes, it has been a lonely time feeling like a stay at home dog mom, but I’m happy to say that I am starting a new part time job tomorrow afternoon. I am officially the new after school teacher/gymnastics coach at National Elite Gymnastics!! Okay okay, I know this is totally random. The things that drew me to apply were a) the hours. I get my mornings to exercise the crazy dog, my afternoons to work, and my evenings to spend with Josh. b) the gym. I really miss tumbling and liked the idea of getting to exercise in that way once again. c) the kids. They are some of the sweetest kids I’ve ever met. Sure they are pretty keyed up after sitting in school all day, but that’s half the fun of it.

God’s been challenging me and speaking to me a lot during this quiet time in my life. I’m truly grateful for the past month. I hope and pray that this new job will be yet another opportunity in my life to poured out and stretched so I can eventually rid myself of this curse called laziness and live a completely amazing, busy, fulfilling life here in Austin. It really is hard as heck to have a busy life in a new city. Or maybe it’s not. It is for me. Anyways…

I’m grateful, hopeful, excited, and content. That’s way more than I deserve.

Have a great week everybody!

 

Cha-cha-change

Hey everyone.

I got sick enough of how horrifyingly ugly my blog was that I decided to change it. Yes, I know it is still ugly, but it has to do for now…At least until I can convince Josh to re-design it for reals.

If anyone would like to help convince my ridiculously smart and talented husband that he is great enough at design to fix my ugly blog, feel free to email him at Joshcody@gmail.com. For examples of his beautiful design work, please see www.joshuacody.net. He is going to kill me for this.
Thank you and goodbye.

-Ugly blog lady

The day my dog got hit by a car.

Since I have put a few days between me and the incident, I suppose it is time to share what happened on the 3rd of January, 2012.

First, let me remind readers of the last idiotic thing my dog did to injure himself. A week before we left for Georgia for Christmas, Henry was trying to start something with another dog at his daycare through a chain link fence, stuck his paw through, got it bitten (hard) and had to get 5 stitches. This wouldn’t have been so bad in and of itself, but it resulted in 6 separate trips to the vet in the next week and a half due to his inability to keep his teeth off of the bandages they were putting on. It was such a long week trying to keep his hurt paw from getting wet by covering it with plastic, socks, and anything else we could find, AND dealing with a stir-crazy puppy who just wanted to run his energy off. But we finally made it to December 26th and they FINALLY took his stitches out and told us we were done with those @*%&^# bandages.

This lasted 8 days.

On Tuesday morning, Henry was going crazy (as usual) so I packed up some tennis balls and loaded him into the car for our usual trip to Zilker Park. If you’ve never been to Austin, Zilker is this amazing, huge, grassy park in the middle of town that happens to be off-leash. We have been there a hundred times since moving here. It looks like this.

We had been there for about 45 minutes, playing fetch and seeing (him sniffing) all the other dogs. I was standing in the very center of the park talking to a guy with a cute little cockapoo with him, when Henry runs off to chase squirrels in some trees on the outskirts of the park. I wasn’t too worried because he had done this a time or two before, but I still called and called for him to come back over by me. Since when does he listen to me though? I kept talking to the guy a little more, still having my eye on my dog, who was far away but still in sight. There is a 4 lane busy road that runs to the left of the park in the picture above called Barton Springs Road. I am guessing there was a squirrel or two on the other side of the street, because henry bolts toward the road and out of range for me to be able to see him. As I start jogging in that direction to try to steer him away from the road, all I can see are the cars on Barton Springs stop suddenly and I hear a noise that sounds like a car accident. I knew it was Henry, and my heart stopped. I yelled his name over and over as I ran as fast as I could toward the road. The cars started slowly moving again and someone yelled “He’s over there!” He had already gotten far away from the scene and was looking absolutely stunned. But he was alive and that’s all I cared about. That moment of hearing him get hit and thinking I was about to have to go carry his dead body off the street was possibly the worst one of my life so far.

He spent the day at the vet so they could monitor for signs of any internal damage, was given pain meds and antibiotics, and sent home. Oh yes, and our friend the bandage was back. Same leg, only it went higher up this time. Fabulous. Boy was our vet surpsiesd to see us for the hundredth time in 2 weeks. I swear it would be cheaper for us to hire an in-home vet to live with us than keep forking out hundreds of dollars to Banfield every couple days.

So there is my terrible story. And now I am left with a pathetic dog who will barely come near me anymore because every 5 seconds I have to squirt something in his ears or give him pills or fix his bandage or readjust his “cone of shame”. He is an unhappy camper to say the least. As I look back on my last post, though, I have to smile and remind myself to be grateful. Henry is healthy (for the most part) and the Cody’s are truly blessed beyond what we deserve.

I am working on ways to make Henry earn back the money we have spent on his stupidity, and the only way we can think to do this is to exploit him through writing a book about his crazy life. It is sad, really, that a dog who is only 1 1/2 can have a lifetime of stories that make people laugh and shake their heads thinking “man, am I glad MY dog isn’t like that”. My sister gave me the idea, and if anyone can help me think of a clever name, I will pay you royalties from book profits. Maybe.

Well, it is 70 degrees and GORGEOUS outside so I think I will go take my dog for a walk. In his cone. Far away from any cars.

Happy Friday!

Bye Bye 2011

Well folks, to state the obvious, it is 2012.

Josh and I rang in the new year in the car somewhere between New Orleans and Houston. That drive home from Georgia to Texas was absolutely brutal. 16 hours of driving through thick fog, heavy rain, and occasional sunshine. One of the only redeeming parts of our trip back was stopping in New Orleans for a couple hours to stretch our legs and eat some yummy beignets.

I wanted to come up with a “Best of 2011” list so I could look back on the most memorable parts of the year. I am not good at making decisions, but I did my best, and here’s what I came up with.

Best memory: Our road trip from Oregon to Texas in May

Best thing that happened to me: I became an Aunt to a sweet baby girl

Best thing I learned: I like running! And I like coffee! Who knew?

Best movies: The Help, 50/50, Bridesmaids, Crazy Stupid Love

Best shows: Breaking Bad, Parenthood, Friday Night Lights

Best books I read: The Help, Bossypants by Tina  Fey

Things I am most thankful for at the end of 2011: My health, being a part of a great church, having friends in Austin who love us, my wonderful husband who takes such great care of me, and the fact that we have an amazing family in Georgia who give us all the love and support in the world.

This year I want to learn to practice over-the-top thankfulness. I want to live my life in a state of utter contentment. I have been given more than I deserve, and I don’t want to forget this fact even for a second. God was really speaking to me a lot as we were driving, and one thing I really felt like He was telling me was that no pain or hardship in this life can take my joy if I am living with a truly thankful heart. I hope all of you can help me with this, because I know I will need all that I can get.

This year is sure to have joy, pain, triumphs, failures, and many many bumps in the road, but I am beginning this journey praising the One who gave me life, and I intend to finish it the same way.

Here’s a couple of my favorite pictures from our Georgia trip. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.

Cheers!

Caroline

My sweet family (minus my brother)

Josh and his grandparents

Some of my old small group girls from Athens 🙂

Christmas day

Me and my Memo who kicked cancer's butt in 2011!

p.s. Can you tell by this post how super excited I am to have my computer up and running again?? YAY! Thank you Josh Cody for fixing it for me!