Labor Day

Kickball comes to an end

Unfortunately, we did not defend our title as Champions. We got beat by D12, one of the Ranger's grounds crew teams. It was a very close game but we just couldn't pull it off in the end. However, it was still a great season and it is helping to build awesome friendships! Next Friday we get to attend an on the field experience during the Rangers batting practice. Can't wait!

Receiving our medals

On to good news...Tana is doing awesome adjusting to her new home. We take her on walks almost every night when it "cools off" and she is getting used to her leash. We've taught her to sit, lay down, and she can give you her right or left hand depending on which one you ask for, haha! The best part is that from day 1 we have taken her directly outside from the time we let her out of her kennel and now whenever she has to go to the bathroom she goes straight to the back door! Having a dog is definitely teaching us responsibility and communication skills about teaching obedience and other important things that go along with having a well behaved pet.

As I said in my last post, she had her ears cropped about a month ago and she has to have posts in them to help them stand on their own. This is a common look for Dobermans. The next picture shows what she will look like when we are able to stop "posting" her ears. She still has a little while to go :)

@ 10 weeks old

Our new little friend

This is Tana, pronounced "Tahna." She is a full bred Doberman and we bought her from a breeder in Fort Worth on Tuesday night!

We named her after a city in Africa that Slone went on a mission trip to in the summer of 2001. He saw two Doberman guard dogs in action while he was at worship service one night and has been wanting one ever since. We did lots of research and looked for reputable breeders before deciding on where we would get him/her from. In February of this year we visited the breeder we found in Fort Worth, Shannon, and met the 4 full grown Dobermans she has. I have to admit, I was pretty intimidated! They are big dogs and have a very sharp look to them but they could have cared less about me being there - lol! When we left, we knew that a litter would be available in late July. We initially planned on getting a boy, but he was born with ear problems so the breeder decided to care for him herself. So, we chose Tana. She is the sweetest thing ever and already doing a great job at learning "come," "sit," and "lay down." We work with her numerous times a day for about 5 minutes each time. That's about all her little attention span can take for right now. She is getting up between 5 and 6am and this morning we took her for a walk in her new neighborhood. She was so distracted from all the smells we had to help her move forward along the way. :) She is doing a great job in her crate and waits until we let her out to go potty. She still whimpers at night which makes us sad but I hope she can adjust soon. We are going to a puppy obedience class on Saturday and I look forward to what they are going to teach us, as well as Tana.

Oh, before I forget. Everyone keeps asking about the "cone on her head." Dobermans normally get their ears clipped to make them stand up and not flop over. It's a look that most breeders have done on their puppies and Tana will get the cup replaced with posts next week. They don't hurt her and she is not bothered by them at all.

The streak continues

We won our kickball games the past two weeks and finals are next Thursday! Jon and Slone both kicked the ball into the street. Yes, outside of the park! Slone's was foul but Jon's almost completely cleared the scoreboard in left center field.

Here is a cool panoramic pic that Slone took on his phone. It's pretty small but click on it and hopefully it will enlarge. Til next week...

Time Flies

We have been pretty busy lately. Here's what is new:

• I recently joined a lady's tutoring company and will be tutoring kids weekly. Essentially, I make my own hours and it really helps me get more experience in my pursuit of becoming a teacher. Student teaching should begin for me in January when school starts back after Christmas break. I am super excited about it and really feel the Lord present in all of it!
• Slone and I both started volunteering at our church. He is now the Activities Leader for the Youth Ministry and I will start leading 5th or 6th grade girls in the Preteen Ministry. I really love that age and hope that I can set a really good example for them.
• We visited a lady back in February that breeds Dobermans. She was expecting a new litter sometime in June and at 8 weeks, we would be able to get one. The 8 week mark comes in about one week and we are pretty excited about it. We were expecting to get a male, but he had ear problems and the breeder is keeping him. The only puppies left are females and we are ok with that. We have plans to visit them this weekend!
• Slone just finished summer school and we are both about to start the Fall semester. This is my last semester for certification and will pray about continuing on to get my Master's. I have always told myself that I would get it so I hope to be able to reach that goal. Slone is scheduled to graduate in May - hallelujah!!
• We won our 12th consecutive game in kickball :)

Here are some pics of what we've been doing the past few weeks

The Nance's are renting a new house and invited us over for dinner and games. Here are the boys playing Bocci Ball in the living room. Landon loved playing with them :)

We hung out with with Fearings all afternoon last Saturday. We ate lunch at Joe T's and drove around Forth Worth just sightseeing and enjoying the day together. Jon got a new app on his phone called Hipstamatic and snapped pictures all day and night. They turned out really cute!



A few weekends ago we went to see the Simmons' new house in Coppell and ate dinner at Hard 8 BBQ. Even though it was super hot out, the food was great and it was good to catch up with them. This is Rex. He is a year old, I believe, and Trent said he is not done growing! We are excited that if we do get a dog, she will have a friend :)


We finally hung curtains after 7 months of being homeowners. It's funny how you don't realize something is "missing" until you get it and put it in your home. We actually love the lighting that the windows give in the house but once summer hit, we knew it was time to hang curtains. It was much harder than we thought though! We bought 5 different kinds and settled on this one. I really love the color and they make the room much more "homey." The photo makes them look more sheer than they actually are. Next on the agenda is our room! I think I want to try Roman shades in there. We will see how it turns out. Decorating is definitely an on-going process for us. We work on one room at a time and I'm hoping to put a special "Nashville touch" on every room :)