The Class Clown

Well, it's official. Molly is the WORST student in her puppy class.

I never thought I would be embarrassed by my dog. Children, yes, absolutely. But, dog?  I guess it is good training for when we do venture into the world of parenthood.

There are three other puppies in her class. One, a 10 week old Black Lab, Riley, is already the "Teacher's Pet." He already knows how to sit and shake besides being ridiculously adorable. AND, he is already barking at the door to be let outside.

Meanwhile, Molly (now 4 months old) won't sit, is constantly barking, and is trying to play with the other dogs. The teacher classified Molly as a "jumper." In case you were wondering, that's not a good thing. She's so excited that she doesn't want to perform for the treat, she just wants to jump up and get it out of your hand. So....we have to stand on her leash so she can't jump. She does NOT like it. Needless to say, we have a longggg road ahead of us, but Molly is a very sweet dog and very smart. She caught onto "Sit" very quickly and we are working on the not jumping.

But isn't she cute?

On another note, my mom, Elise and I have been working on starting an online business to sell products that we have hand-made. We will be selling from a blog, as well as on Etsy. We are very excited about getting it up and running because it's something that we will all enjoy. We love being crafty and creative. Final tweaks are still being made on the blog, but look for the link on Facebook soon!

Thanks for reading and love to everyone,

Cait

New Year, New Adventures

We enjoyed our 'White Christmas' in Georgia! Molly didn't care very much for the snow. She had fun until she started shaking from the cold. I know how she feels. It's pretty to look at, but brrrrrrrr!

Chase and I celebrated our anniversary on January 1st. Hard to believe it's been over a year! It's gone by really fast. The year leading up to our wedding seemed to drag on forever. Funny, isn't it?

We found out that Chase has to report to Spring Training on March 11th. He's going to head out on March 8th to get there a few days early. The Indian's complex is in Goodyear, Arizona--the same place we went for the Fall Instructional League. He will be there for about a month (I think he will report to his team on April 3rd). Unfortunately, I'm not going to go with him on this trip. It's going to be hard to be apart for that long, but I know we can do it. Once he gets assigned to his team, I will meet him there.

Chase is working hard. Starting this week he has gone to working at the office until lunch, and then devoting the afternoon to baseball. On top of that, he is leading singing at church regularly and started teaching the high school class last week. He's juggling a lot and doing such a great job. I'm so proud of him!


Love to everyone,

Caitlin

Home Sweet Home

We are HOMEEEEEE! Finally : ) It's so good to be back.

Wanted to share some pictures from our sight-seeing adventures on our way home:

Montezuma's Castle



Jerome





Sedona





Grand Canyon

Watching him sit on the edge was making me sick to my stomach. It's ridiculous. I assumed there would be railings all around the Canyon...surprise! There's not. We definitely won't be going back when we have small children...I couldn't even control Chase!


We saw two of these while on the trail at the Grand Canyon. Chase almost had a heart attack!

Our last stop was in Memphis. We stayed with my cousin Hannah and her family and got to meet sweet Bailey Mae. It was so nice to spend time with them!


Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Sean and Hannah with Bailey. I'll have to next time. She's a cutie!

And for those of you who don't know yet...we are getting a puppy!!! She's a Weimaraner and we went on Saturday to pick her out. We didn't want to leave without her but we can't take her home until the 6th of November. We are counting down the days. We are going to call her Molly and she's precious!

Until next time,

Caitlin

Life in Arizona

A new friend, Diana, took me hiking last week up Camelback Mountain. It was intense! Parts of the trail were very steep and you had to hold onto a metal pole to pull yourself up. I didn't make it all the way up, but the views were breathtaking! Hopefully I'll get another shot at it when I'm in better shape!






Surprisingly, there have been several days of rain in Phoenix since we've been here. It's been nice as it cools it down (it's still quite hot here) and the rain produces the most beautiful and vibrant rainbows here. I think within a couple days, we must have seen about 5!




Everything's been going at a fast pace here! I can't believe our time in Arizona is coming to a close. Chase's last day is Thursday, and then we will begin our longgg trip home with some sight-seeing along the way (or maybe a little out-of-the-way-haha). We are definitely going to Sedona, and the Grand Canyon. Also, we are going to get to stop in Memphis and stay with my cousin Hannah, her husband, Sean, and their new baby, Bailey!

This past weekend, I got to go with the young married's group at Katie and Jason's church on a retreat to Greer, Arizona. Unfortunately, Chase had to stay since he had to go to work :) I don't feel too badly about it because Chase got to go see Jerry Seinfeld with Diana's husband, Jeff, while we were gone. I am so grateful to everyone in the group for making both Chase and I feel so welcome. We definitely feel like we've made lots of new friends! And I got to play lots of nerts! It's also been soo nice to spend so much time with Katie, Jason, and Grayson! We have missed them tons!













While we were in Greer, we took several nature walks/hikes. It was really nice to be in the mountains, but it was cold! It felt more like home. See the deer in the last picture? We saw at least 4 herds on our walks!

We look forward to seeing our family, friends, and church families at Buford and Chestnut Drive when we get back. We have missed you all very much!!! See you soon!

Love,

Caitlin

Tumbleweeds

The Lake County Captains won the Midwest League Championship! I can't even begin to explain how exciting it was for the team to play so well and pull it through in the final game! Chase has never won a championship at any level so for his team to win one in his first year as a professional player is a huge deal and the perfect ending to a wonderful season of opportunity. Everyone was on the edge of their seat until the final out and as soon as it came, the celebration erupted. I am so proud of Chase and he is sooo excited to finally get a championship ring! It's still hard to believe that it really happened!






A celebratory milkshake moustache at Steak 'n' Shake after the game : )

This article is about the championship game and has a video of an interview with the head coach:
http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/09/21/sports/nh3063693.txt

This article is about the game/season and has some really nice things to say about Chase. It also has a video of the last out and celebration:
http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/09/21/sports/nh3063213.txt

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Well, the morning after their amazing win, we packed up the car and were on the road by 5:30. With all the excitement, it was hard to settle down to fall asleep so we both were going on 4 hours of sleep. Since the team went all the way into the playoffs, Chase was very late for the Arizona league. He was supposed to start on the 15th but the team didn't even finish playing until the 20th. And it is a few days' worth of traveling from Ohio. Accordingly, they have asked Chase to stay until the 14th of October since he has missed so much.

Our first day of travel, we drove 14 hours and stopped in Searcy for the night. It was really nice to get to see our good friends and family! I wish we wouldn't have been in such a hurry. It would have been nice to spend some time on campus, go to chapel, and stop in and see some of my professors. Maybe we will be able to fit that in on our way back to Georgia.

The next day, we were up by 6:30 and after an oil change, on the road again. We drove ANOTHER 14 hours to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Chase actually saw a tumbleweed blow across the interstate while we were in Texas...haha. By the end of this day, we were both a little stressed and a lot tired. I'm surprised at how well we did not to be pulling our hair out (or each other's). Albuquerque was beautiful. I wish we could have spent some more time there.

Our third and final day of travel was only 8 hours and seemed like nothing compared to the others. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking and I think that made the time pass even faster. Here are some pictures from our drive out west. However, they don't truly do justice to what we saw. Chase gets credit for some of these. I made him take pictures while it was my turn to drive : )







I can't wait to actually do some sight-seeing! We went straight to the Indians/Reds complex in Goodyear so Chase could "check-in", put his stuff in his locker, figure out the schedule, etc. Then we checked into our hotel and took a nice nap!

Today is Chase's first day with the Instructional League. I'm looking forward to hearing all about his day when he gets done. Tonight, we are getting to go to a Diamondbacks game with the Oberts and their church! It will be so nice to see them and I always enjoy getting to watch baseball games WITH Chase; which doesn't happen very often : )

Thanks for reading! Until next time,

Cait

Aye, Aye, Captain!

For those of you who don't know, lots of exciting things have been happening in our little world the past few weeks!

First of all, Chase's sister and my sister-in-law, Niki, became engaged to her boyfriend, Chandler! I flew home on August 26th so that I could attend their surprise (to Niki) engagement party in Nashville. Chase and I are very excited for the two of them. We can't wait for the wedding--Niki will make a beautiful bride and Chandler, a handsome groom! I stayed for the following week in Georgia, splitting my time with the Burnette's and Quinn's. It was so refreshing and rejuvenating to be around family. I only hate that Chase couldn't enjoy it with me. I was also happy I could squeeze in some time with my best friend Traci :) And I finally got to see Toy Story 3 with Addie--I had been dying to and it was sooo good. I would definitely recommend it!

While I was in Georgia, things didn't slow down back in Ohio. Chase called me to tell me he was being moved up to the Indians Low A team--the Lake County Captains in Eastlake, Ohio. He got this news after an out-of-town Scrappers game on the 29th of August and had to report the next day to Eastlake. The Scrappers got in really late that night, and he had to get up and pack and be in Eastlake by one the next afternoon. Needless to say, the suddenness of the move was unexpected by our host family, and it was sad to have to leave earlier than anticipated. Jeanne and David have already come to one of the games here in Eastlake and are planning to come back on Thursday. Chase grabbed what he needed for the week and left the rest for me to get when I got back up here.

Fortunately, my family had already been planning to visit us over Labor Day Weekend and I was able to make the trip back up with them. I'm so glad they got to meet Jeanne and David and were able to experience a small part of what we have this summer. It also worked out well because they were able to drive my car back to Georgia. They were very sweet to do that for us-it was a HUGE help since Chase and I won't be able to come home now before heading to Arizona because the Captains have made it to the playoffs.


The Captain's stadium and field are very nice! Sunday, Chase hit his first home run as a Captain. Eastlake is only about an hour away from where we were in Newton Falls, and is pretty close to Cleveland, so there are lots of things to do around here. Yesterday's game was at one, so we were actually able to go on a normal date last night; dinner and a movie!






The first playoff game is tomorrow against the West Michigan Whitecaps in Grand Rapids, MI--the team that Jeff Rowland and Tony Plagman play for (they both played with Chase at Georgia Tech). Then, both teams will travel back to Eastlake to play here on Thursday night.

We are very excited and thankful to God, our true Captain, for these new opportunities. Please keep us in your prayers, especially as we will soon be making the long trip to Arizona!

Thanks for reading! Love to everyone,

Cait