My Sweet Gracie

This may be one of the hardest thing I have ever written about, but I want to have it here so I can look back later and read it.  This morning around 7:30 Wes called and said, "I think Gracie was hit by car.  I hate to ask you to do this, but drive down there and see." Our neighbor called Wes and that is how he knew.  
I immediately started crying before I even knew if it was true.  So I went down there and it was her...right in the middle of the road.   I know this sounds weird, but she looked so peaceful.  It looked like she was just sleeping, but I knew that wasn't the case.  I was a wreck, I called Wes and he drove home from work to get her.
Before I even got to my house, I called my Mom.  Who else would you want to talk to beside your Mom right?  I just cried and cried.  Loosing Gracie is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  I have lost dogs before, but none were ever as special as this girl!

So, in memory of my first baby...I don't want this post to be all sad and depressing. So here are some of my favorite memories with my sweet baby girl.  If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting Gracie, you would see her and think, man..she is a pretty dog! Then you would try to pet her and Gracie was gone!  You see, Gracie was extremely picky about who she liked.  She LOVED me, she liked my mom, Jodi, my old roommate Kim, my mother in law if I was out there with them, and Wes of course.  It took her 4 years to like Wes though, but they finally bonded.

How about a trip down memory lane!

I got Gracie on New Years Eve of 2005.  She was around 9 weeks old.  She was my roommate at Clemson while I job searched..

Sweet cuddly baby girl.  She was nine weeks old when I got her.  Her birthday was this week!

Shows her personality here

She is the main thing that got me through living in Aiken...

Playing with my roommates dog 

We lived in Aiken for a few years and then I moved back to my parents house until Wes and I got married.  This was a huge adjustment for Gracie.  She went from being a city dog to learning to live in the country!  She learned to love it...and loved being outside!

She was there for my bridal portraits...she loved fresh pine straw!

                                                   
We finally were able to move in with Wes...another adjustment for Gracie.  She doesn't like change too much.
    She loved being outside but she loved being able to come inside every once in a while too...
 
Loved going for a ride more than anything in this world!
 
We decided to get Gracie a little sister Callie..

She always looks sad...but I promise you she was happy!!

My favorite picture ever...this was Christmas two years ago when I got my new camera and she was tired of getting her picture taken...
I took this picture the other night...Paige absolutely loves Gracie.  She gets so excited to see her and just waves really big.  Now that she walks, she tries to catch Gracie.  Gracie kept her distance until two nights ago.  I loved this picture on Monday but now I will cherish it forever!  Even though Gracie was terrified, she realized it was worth getting close to someone other than me or Wes to get that goldfish! {I am dreading the next wagon ride with Paige when she wants to go search for Gracie on the front porch}

I don't think I will ever forget my Gracie girl!  She was with my for the biggest parts of my life...leaving Clemson,my closest friend in Aiken when I wanted to be somewhere else, getting married, and having our first baby. Gracie was attached to my side wherever we went, she was the best guard dog ever, and the best friend!  I love knowing that she was outside and night protecting our house.  She looked mean when she barked and those people that didn't know here were usually afraid of her, little did they know that Gracie was afraid of her own shadow!

She was more than just a dog to me and I am so thankful to have had her for the past 8 years...I just wanted a few more years with my Grace!  I will miss my sweet baby!  So if you have a fur-baby at home...go love on them and spoil them rotten for me!

The Blessing Box

I have never participated in this link up before but I feel like I needed it today.  You ever have those days when you are only thinking of what is wrong?  Like in my life for instance, I need to loose weight, my car is broken down, everything seems to be getting more expensive, just money in general....well, I hate thinking of all the negative things because everything will work out, they always do.  So when I saw this link-up today, I knew it was a sign for me to look at all of my blessings!

I am so thankful for my job.  I never really write about that on my blog, but I am able to create a very flexible schedule when I need to.  If I had it my way, I would be a stay at home mom but reality is..I have to work.  Since I have to work, this job couldn't be a better fit!  I just let my boss know if there is something going on with Paige and I just work my schedule around that.  I have signed up to volunteer at a few of Paige's class parties this year and it is so nice knowing that I don't have to take of time at work, I just change my schedule!  Same goes for going to the doctor or if Paige is sick and needs me for an afternoon.  

So for that reason (along with several other reasons), I am so thankful for my job.  I work a lot of nights in the fall and I was dreading that, but it was actually kind of nice.  I just worked in the morning while Paige is at school and then play with her all afternoon and then go back to work that evening.  It really is nice!

Another great part of my job is that I am very close to her school, so I pick her up everyday and spend my lunch break with her and then head back to work while Gerri or my mom keeps Paige at my house in the afternoon.  

So whenever I feel like I need to complain about my job, I just have to remember all the positives that come with having a job like mine.  It also helps that I like what I do, but more importantly I can be a hands-on Mama to Miss Paige!

Our Weekend

We had a pretty low-key weekend and I am happy about that!  Lately we have been go-go-go on the weekends and we will next week so I was happy to say that we didn't have anything really planned.  On Friday, Wes came home and said "lets go to Capri's and go shopping!".  Um, that was like the best sentence ever!  That is my favorite place to eat and we never go there!  I ordered the Tour of Capri, which is like Tour of Italy at Olive Garden.  It was cheaper to get that than my normal meal and then a kids meal.  So Paige and I shared the cheese ravioli, lasagna and fettuccine Alfredo and we had leftovers for Saturday too! Wes got his normal baked lasagna.  After we ate, we went "shopping".  Wes's truck has a lot of miles on it and needs some work so his boss decided to let Wes donate his truck to the business and the business will buy Wes a new truck!  Wes has a huge truck so it will be great for the business when they have to transfer equipment to jobs.  It is perfect for that, but a little much for everyday driving.  So we are donating the vehicle which is worth $13,000 and getting a new truck with no payments!  We are so thankful for this "gift"!  Back to shopping...of course there are not many options in Greenwood for work trucks so that didn't last long!  He is going to have to buy something out of town to get what he needs.  There are a lot "grocery getter" trucks (as he calls them) but not a lot of real trucks.

What he calls a grocery getter...pretty paint job, nice interior, you know just a nice truck

What he calls a truck...white with tool boxes (not pictured) manual windows, 4 wheel drive

Anyways, after we went to look at trucks and I looked at Suburbans just for fun of course, it was time to head home for the night.  We played with Paige until bedtime and we went to bed shortly after Paige. 

Saturday, Wes went to work and Paige and hung around the house and cleaned up a little bit.  Jodi brought lunch over and the three of us hung out that afternoon.  Wes came home after work and graced us with his presence.  He is something else sometimes!  He left that afternoon to go hunting and it was time for some football finally!  Our tigers played at Syracuse and we  had an excited game.  We were accused of running up the score in the first half but you never know what the 3rd quarter will be like and thank god we scored a lot in the first half...Syracuse started scoring in the 3rd but we ended up winning big!  The coach for Syracuse really showed out and decided to cruse Dabo out and was caught on camera...

 

But in his defense, he was caught up in the moment and he did apologize a lot after the game! Anyways...after our game we got caught up on the Georgia vs. Tennessee game and then it was time for Jodi to go home.  Paige and I played until bedtime and of course watched USC vs. Kentucky.  Man was I hoping for Kentucky to pull out that win...they almost did.  Poor little Clowney decided not to play that game...ugh he just makes me sick..Man up and play!  If I was his coach I would make him play or instead of letting him choose to play in only the big games.  NFL recruits are probably knocking him down on their list!  Anyways..enough football I guess!

Sunday morning, Wes made breakfast and we headed to Wal-Mart and Tractor Supply for a couple things.  Then we decided to take Paige to the park for a little while.  For some reason she was not interested in it AT ALL until we tried to leave of course!  After the park, we went home and Wes left for the afternoon to hunt and Paige and I stayed home until she woke up from her nap.  After her nap we went to visit Mema, came home for supper and then visited BB and Boompa since they just got back in town from the game in Syracuse.

We had a great low-key weekend...it was just what this Mama needed because we have a fun filled weekend coming up!