WOOHOO!

In the tradition of recent blogs making the same announcement we are making, here is a photo you might find interesting...



We are excited to announce that there will be a new little Grissom added to our family some time around April 3rd :) We had our first appointment with our OBGYN's nurse today and it had its ups and downs. We really like our nurse and feel like we are in capable hands for this brand new process but were a bit disappointed when we did not get to hear the heartbeat. I am only 10 weeks along and it is not uncommon to have a hard time finding the little heart at this early stage, but it was one of the main things we were looking forward to today. Once we finished our appointment we were sent downstairs to get bloodwork done... when they finished taking my blood everything got a little woozie and I ended up passing out (no fun at all!). I was only out for a few seconds but the lab insisted that I go to the clinic and get checked out before I left, it ended up being a pretty long morning and I am still pretty tired from it. Quite a bit more of a dramatic beginning than I was hoping for...

We are excited to finally make this public information and will keep you posted on how it is going :)

Sad day

Yesterday Jeff and I had a sad day. Gus was rescued from a home where he had been neglected, left in his crate all the time and not really interacted with. This being said, we did not leave him alone much but when we did put him in his crate he was not a happy camper and apparently he would bark and cry for longer than we knew. Our neighbors called our landlord 3 days in a row (Gus was only in his crate 1 of those days...) without ever talking to us and on Sunday morning, on our way to church, we received a phone call informing us that we had to get rid of him. We called the family that gave him to us, packed up all his stuff and dropped him off with tears in our eyes. Due to his history Gus was a very high maintenance dog and we were struggling with that a bit but, overall, he was a great dog and will be missed!

Our little circus and visiting a new church

So, I know that we have only been blogging lately when big things are happening, hopefully I will keep up a little better now :)

Lately our lives have been working and taking care of the pets... a little overwhelming, not to terribly unexpected with all the change that we had in such a short time but the size of our little house has been felt lately. We are tired, Gus has a tendency to keep us awake but he is getting better all the time. This followed in the wake of Moose getting use to us, he used to cry all night as well but we have gotten past that phase now. Frank continues to be the easiest of our little circus to take care of, chirping politely most of the day and occasionally hearing a bird outside or on TV causing him to go into a fit wishing he had a friend to play with.

Tomorrow we visit a new church, Hope Evangelical. We are excited about trying to find a smaller church where we can hopefully get plugged in a little easier. We have enjoyed Harvest but feel disconnected and lost in the crowd...

I hope you all enjoy our blog as much as we have enjoyed our friends blogs. My wish is that it would not feel like we are so far away :)

The Big Hike

We titled this The Big Hike but the word that Jeff has used most to describe it is HUGE! 26 miles through several different kinds of terrain and some of the most beautiful scenery we have seen. All of us were in considerable pain by the time we reached mile 26 and if we never see another power bar or dehydrated meal again we will be just fine. All of us ended up with at least a blister but the prize for the worst blister goes to LeeAnn and the prize for the most blisters goes to Ryan. The burger that we ate at The Dewdrop Inn when we finished the hike is one of the best meals that we have ever had. Here is a link to all of our pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/jefferyjg/CookeToERB (as you know we tend to take a lot but there are some great ones so they are worth going through). Who's coming with us next year?

Meet Gus

Along with all the other changes going on in our lives we have added one more furry friend to the family. Gus is a 1 year old Weimaraner and, while being a bit of a handful, is a very very sweet dog who already seems to have found his best friend in Jeff. We took him with us on our 26 mile hike (the next thing we will blog about) this weekend and he did so good :) Moose was incredibly traumatized at first but seems to be warming up a little bit now.

LeeAnn's New Truck

I gave LeeAnn a hug the other day after she drove home from work in her '98 Escort. She was so hot it felt like she just stepped out of the oven. Then the other night she was going to bring me some dinner at work but her car wouldn't start (a reoccurring problem). So I started thinking that we ought to do something about her transportation situation. Friday I hopped on a flight to Missoula and brought back a Toyota RAV4 for her. It's four wheel drive and has the 268 HP V6 (more than my truck, that makes me a little sad) and it gets the same mileage as the V6 Camry. Plus it has lots of room for our future kids and we can take it camping in places that a car just can't go. It will be great in the snow which the escort certainly was not! Best of all LeeAnn gets a cute little grin on her face when she floors it and the little V6 throws us back in the seats. Come on up we'll take it camping.

Meet our new little Moose

Here is our new little kitten Moose. He is 14 weeks old, solid black with these green eyes that have just a little bit of blue around the pupils. We are having a little trouble getting a decent picture of him but here are the best we have gotten so far.