Baby Saum is FINALLY here!!!!

It's a girl!!!

Brianne Cynthia Saum made her way into the world this morning at 6:44am, weighing 7 lbs 5 oz, 18" long. Wes sent us a picture this morning, and she is absolutely beautiful! Baby and Mom are both doing well.

We are so excited to meet her! Congratulations Wes & Katie!! :)

ps. Thanks Karli for the picture!

Winter Wonderland

Yes, even in the South, it snows. Well, more like ices. The weather forecasters have called for a winter storm all week, and their predictions were actually true. Late Friday evening it started snowing and then turned to freezing rain/sleet overnight that lasted all day Saturday. It was a light snow as I went to bed last night, but not much accumulated. It's supposed to be cold again today, but hopefully it will warm up this week and the ice will melt. Here are some pictures from Saturday early afternoon.

Roads on base were not too bad since the plows went through yesterday. Roads in town were not as great, although some had been plowed a little bit. Let's just say that this town basically shuts down with just a bit of snow/ice. I mean, the roads were slippery, but not that bad. There were 5 cars at the gym when we went yesterday around noon...normally there would be 15-20 or so. We stopped at Walmart around 4:00 and almost turned around and left because the lines were so long. We all know Walmart is not known for having multiple registers/lanes open; however, yesterday there were 4 I think. We waited in line for probably a half hour. We couldn't pick up any fast food for dinner because nothing was open! Apparently people can't even make it to work when there is an inch of snow/ice, and I'd be willing to bet those people who work there don't come from that far away... Just a tad bit ridiculous in my opinion.

Oh and while we were standing in line at Walmart, I overheard a girl behind us talking on her phone. She was saying how she hates driving in the snow because "it's so slippery" and her "car slides" and "it doesn't stop when she brakes." WOW. She also went on to say that her car was covered with snow and ice, and she was upset because "it's probably going to chip her paint" when it comes off. Riiiight. At that point, I wanted to turn around and say, "no, it won't." I held myself back and just laughed at her ignorance.

It's definitely weird to look out the windows and see white! I'm ready for it to melt...bring on Spring! :)

Wizzo Has Surgery

A few weeks ago, Grant noticed a small lump on the back of Wizzo's front left leg. I called the vet the next day and made an appointment for the doctor to look at it. The doctor suspected it is something called a histiocytoma, which is just a benign cyst-like growth in younger dogs resulting from something going on with the immune system cells. He suggested having it removed, though, because of the chance it could get bigger and be bothersome to Wizzo. Plus, if it did get bigger and we needed to remove it, there might be less skin to work with (cover the "hole") since it was on his leg (as opposed to say his back or belly).

So we made the appointment for today, and I dropped him off this morning. The vet called me after Wizzo was awake and told me that he did well and that he was nearly 100% sure it was the histiocytoma and not cancerous. He didn't think we needed to send it off to the lab to be tested, so I went with his recommendation and we didn't send it out. I picked him up this afternoon and he was still groggy...it was cute though! :) He was whining a bit, which was actually kind of funny because I don't think he was in pain...just being a big baby!

He gets his stitches out on Friday the 29th, so hopefully he can leave it alone until then! He has tried licking at it a bit, and I didn't get an e-collar, so I'm going to trust him! ;) And now that I look into/research about histiocytomas, it sounds like they typically go away on their own in 2-3 months, so I wish I would have researched it more before making the decision for surgery. Maybe he wouldn't have had to have the surgery! Oh well, I guess. Such is the "Wonderful World of Wizzo."

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas, Grant and I were able to make it back to Ohio for about a week and a half. We both took time off from work and left North Carolina on Wednesday, the 23rd, after Grant was done with work. Since we left late, we only drove half way and stopped in Virginia for the night. We finished driving the next morning and made it home in time to finish up some Christmas shopping, have dinner at Grant's parents house, and go to 10:00pm Christmas Eve church service with my mom and grandma. Here are some photos after we got back that night. Don't you love Wizzo's elf outfit?!

This morning we woke up and celebrated our own little Christmas. We exchanged gifts and then let Wizzo open up one of his gifts. He needed a little help getting the paper started, but he did a good job getting the rest off!

We had lunch with the Saum Family and opened gifts with everyone who could make it to the house. It's always an entertaining time at the Saum house! :) Later, we headed over to my dad's and Sheryl's house to visit with them. My step-sisters and step-brother were there with some of their kids. It's always funny to see if they remember me or not. I'm always amazed at how big they are getting, since I remember them as babies! Anyway, we had some food over there too, and opened up our gifts. Wizzo also went along, but we had to put him in his crate for a bit. Some of the kids were a little nervous around him, but I think he was nervous too! He hasn't been around too many kids. I guess I didn't take any pictures while we were there either. :(

This evening, we headed over to my mom's house and had dinner. Rick and my grandma also came over. Wizzo got his second gift and did a much better job opening this time! He also destroyed the toy in about 2 minutes. Good thing it was free!!

Overall, we had a nice Christmas. We've got plans to meet up with some friends in the next few days and try to fit in as much as we can in such a short amount of time while we're here. We have to head back to North Carolina on Saturday January 2nd. Hope you all have/had a wonderful holiday season! :)

Oh and I almost forgot! Here are some pictures of cut-out cookies I made for the Cookie Drive on base. The first picture is of the cookies that I finished and gave to the Airmen. I didn't actually decorate those in the second picture for the drive because I ran out of time, so I finished them a little later that week. I loved them! And they were yummy!

Happy Birthday Wizzo!!

Wizzo turned "1" today! I had picked up a new toy and a doggie cookie from the pet store on my way home from work. So we put on his birthday sweater and posed for some photos before giving the birthday boy his treats! Needless to say, he loved the cookie (which we split in half) and had a good time with Lil' Buddy too!

Happy Birthday Wizzo! We're so happy you're in our lives! :)

Squadron Christmas Party

It's that time of year again...the Christmas season is here! Last night was our Squadron Christmas Party for the 333d Lancers. It was at the Walnut Creek Country Club, and we had a pretty good time. It was kind of fun to get a little dressed up and spend some more time with friends. Here are a few photos from our night. Merry Christmas!!

B-course Spouses!

"Dim"

Tonight Grant had his naming for his call sign. All fighter pilots and WSOs (Weapon Systems Officer) get call signs that they will refer to each other as on a daily basis. It basically becomes their new name, so needless to say, it's pretty important! However, since Grant is still in a training squadron, this will not be his permanent call sign. After he is mission qualifed at Mountain Home, he will get his official one.

So......you may now refer to Grant as "Dim." Why, you may ask? Well, apparently he messed up a couple of important things twice in a row, so they said "This kid must not be very bright, so we'll call him dim." Nice, right?

And in case you were wondering, Grant also had call signs at Columbus for both T-6s and T-38s. He was "Climax" when he flew the T-6 because they thought he got overly excited in the jet, screaming and cussing when he makes a mistake or is about to. When he flew the T-38, he was known as "Bleaux" (pronounced "blue"). This one was kind of a stretch in my opinion...it's supposed to go with his last name so you would say "Bleaux Saum" like Blow Some. Yeah, I don't get it either.

I'm crossing my fingers for a good call sign at Mountain Home! :)