Friday, January 24, 2014

 Lunch with Ogra and Pap
 Kate's 1st B-day
 Date night
 "official" family  picture
 Being silly
 Watching Saturday morning cartoons
 Trip to the Fire Station, Jack LOVES fire trucks

So it has been way too long since we have updated this blog, and a lot has happened since 2009.  Two major things the birth of our son Jack who will be turning 3 in a few weeks and our daughter Kate now 18 months.  We have moved from Fort Gordon, GA to Fort Benning, GA which is located in a dumpy little town called Columbus which we cant wait to get out of. 

Since our last entry into this blog, I have been promoted to Staff Sergeant and looking forward to hopefully being promoted to Sergeant First Class soon.  I am currently the Medical Platoon Sergeant for 3rd Squadron 1st Calvary 3rd Brigade 3rd Infantry Division, and it has come to be the most difficult and rewarding job I have ever had. 

Wendy is working hard taking care of our two beautiful children, with a special emphasis on our son.  Jack has been dealing with some significant health issue's related to his kidneys and we are hoping the army will move us to Fort Sam Houston, TX so that our baby bot will have immediate access to the medical care he needs.  However, considering he is only 3, he is not aware he has any sort of problem and is a very happy. active, and extremely intelligent little boy. (I am not biased at all)

Our daughter Kate is healthy as a horse, as ornery as her father but blessed with her mother's good looks.  At 18 months she is in to everything and beginning to talk.  She continues to amaze and entertain  me on a daily basis.

Our heard of cats has dwindled from four to two.  Mamamel took "bear" when we moved and affectionately renamed him "Paddywhack". Paddywhack enjoyed his new home for a few years before he unfortunately came up missing and never returned.  Our other cat Roscoe passed away shortly after we moved to Fort Bennning .  We now have two Lil man, and squirt..

I am going to try to do weekly updates to this blog, mostly for us so that we have a journal of sorts for our family memories, but if you are reading this I hope you enjoy hearing me brag about my family as much as I do

Friday, June 26, 2009

Long time, no update!

Well, we are major slackers on updating the blog! We've been busy opening up Wendy's antique booth (part of her business - "Three Little Monkeys, LLC" which used to be Ivy Allison's business). Wendy wanted to continue Ivy's legacy and well, she is doing just that by working out of the house. It's definately a work in progress but right now we're working on getting her own "shop" in a popular shopping center in North Augusta. But for now, we're keeping the antique booth and working out of the house for everything else.

Here's a link to a slideshow of pics we took showing the progress of the booth from start to finish. Click here : http://www.onetruemedia.com/my_shared?z=1582ab3df89b991e65105e&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

We think it looks great (but we'd love to hear what you think) and sales are doing really well so far - selling lots, much more than we thought we would with this economy.

Wendy's also been busy with wedding programs and other custom stationary orders. A few interior design consults as well. She does as much as she can given her health condition. And on that note, her most recent tests were EMG's on her hands, feet, wrists, legs, back, neck.....EVERYWHERE! to determine just how much nerve damage there is and they showed something new to add the the list! Carpel tunnel in her hands and severe nerve damage on the left side of her body, concentrated in the lower back region. The nerve damage wasn't a surprise cuz we knew about the L5 ridiculopathy which goes along with that.

Anyhow... Brian is back to work since his emergency appendectomy in April. He actually switched positions at the fort. He's now working in operations at troop command. Sort of a promotion but they don't technically call it a promotion in the army (they're weird like that!). But speaking of promotions, Brian is going to the board in July for another promotion to Staff Sgt. We're very excited as this is a huge step from Sgt. to Staff Sgt.!! And we're movin on up...to the top.... Tee-hee... I'm such a proud wife! I love my soldier.

We'll try to be better about posting more often.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Happy New Year!

Well, we've had an interesting start to the New Year. Wendy's father, Dr. Henry Staggs passed away on January 5, 2009 in Nashville, TN. Wendy and I were right by his side in the hospital room, holding his hands as his spirit left this Earth to be with his creator in heaven. He now is with his parents, brother, and first daughter (Wendy's sister) Ivy Allison. Please keep us in your prayers that Wendy can find strength and be comforted during this time of grief. You can click here - http://www.onetruemedia.com/my_shared?z=1582ab3df89b991e65105e&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url to see a slideshow we created for her dad's memorial service. It's a great tribute to his life.

Wendy was also diagnosed with lupus in addition to her back problems. She will begin treatment next week. Hopefully things will start to look up for us soon, but I know how strong prayer is so please, please keep the prayers coming!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Merry Christmas!

I know, I know it has been a very long time since we have updated the blog and there is no excuse other than laziness, but I thought we would use the blog to show off how beautiful Wendy made our house look for Christmas! Click on this link and it will take you to a slide show that we created (actually, you can see all our montage videos at this website) - http://www.onetruemedia.com/my_shared?z=1582ab3df89b991e65105e&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Other than getting ready for the holiday's things here have been busy but good we are looking forward on spending the holiday with our families and hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love
Brian and Wendy Cummings

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Brian's Promotion

me in front of Darling Hall after the promotion getting my new ID card

Wendy reading my promotion orders
A gift from Lt. Col Chhoeu
The Hyperbaric Staff
Wendy and me After the Promotion

Wendy and Me
CPT Ramsy and Wendy and Me ( my CO)
1SG Okieke my CO 1st Sergant
Lt. Col Chhoeu giving me a gift






orders being read
Wendy Pinning on the rank (upside down...ha ha ha )
offically promoted!!!!



I know it has been almost 2 months!

I know I should be ashamed of myself for not updating our blog for the past 2 months, but alot has happened since we last spoke! I guess I will start from the beginning and work my way to the present and if I forget anything I am sure I will be reminded of it later.
We have a new addition to our family, my new niece Delaney, there is a beautiful picture of her with my sister Kim on the Blog, we were in Dallas recently for her Baptism and got to see all the kids, as well as Carey, Liz, and Brian and an added bonus Uncle Mike was there to Baptize Delaney! It was a great trip, it was topped off by an exciting 1000 mile road trip in a 26 ft Penske w/ a 10ft trailer back to SC with some of Ivy's lovely furniture in it. Mike Mcasland was the hero of the day and helped me load the truck, drive the truck, and unload the truck therefore my first born will be named Mike.

Not to long after the road trip came the day I turned the big THREE-O , although I wanted to keep this as low key as possible my wonderful and thoughtful wife surprised me at work with cake for myself and everyone I work with, I was a little embarrassed, (one of the cakes had a big elmo on it) but it was fun and I love her for it! The rest of August consisted of getting the house in order for the arrival of my parents until we had the unexpected arrival of our little friend "Earl the Squirrel" after being only a day or two old he had fallen from his nest high in one of our pine trees in our yard, Wendy, being the kind nurturer that she is took in earl and did the best she knew how to nurse him back to health, unfortunately after about 2 1/2 weeks earl tragically went to squirrel heaven. I believe he could not recover from his injuries sustained from the fall. All of this may have been a blessing in disguise, because my Mother would have probably killed him upon her arrival a few days later given her fear of furry little woodland creatures.

This brings me to The awesome visit with my folks. They arrived on Friday before Labor day and we showed them the new house we went to dinner and we showed them around town, we even went to a neat little living history museum in our town that we knew nothing about!, than on Sunday we drove down to Charleston, but for some reason dad was convinced that we were going to Charlotte even when we got to Charleston. But if you ever have a chance to go to Charleston I highly recommend going Wendy and I are going back as soon as we can it was awesome!

Than the most recent event was yesterday.. I was promoted!!! Wendy got to pin on my new rank, although she was a little nervous and pinned it on upside down but it was cute! Wendy is posting the pics from that so they should be on here shortly. I hope this post finds everyone doing well and I look forward to hearing from everyone soon!!!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

and the excitment continues

So now that we are moved out of the new place we now are getting the new house together, and I am finding out the joys of owning your own home.
Our dishwasher sprung a leak last night and spilt water all over our kitchen but luckily it will be covered by the home warranty, the previous owners had not done any yard work in about 5 years so I hired a guy and his brother to rake, mow, and trim trees in our yard (a 1/2 acre w/ about 15 150ft pine trees) this took them a couple of days but we got a good deal, and we also had a barn built it is a 10X10 with a loft and a 10ft ceiling, this will give us our much needed storage considering we don't have a garage, and of course Wendy got it 70% off!
Needless to say things are plugging along and we can't wait to come in town for the baptism

On another note if you could keep Mimi Porter in your prayers, her brother, Uncle Bob (86), passed away last weekend when his car overturned in the lake. This has been a hard year for the family so please keep them in your prayers.

I hope everyone is doing well, until next time

Friday, July 11, 2008

STATUS: Job complete

Well, 1526 Stovall St. is officially a distant memory....THANK GOD! that really sucked, and for those of you that know how much stuff we have I am sure you can understand my relief, Although we are not unpacked at least now we can focus on our new house 100%, so that is a little exciting, but the main thing consuming my thoughts right now is our upcoming visit to Dallas, and my impending 30th b-day, which my beautiful wife reminded me was only 2 weeks away. So I guess this means I have to start acting like an adult now......

Well I just wanted write a quick note while I had some time, I sent out an e-mail with our address and new phone number on it, if you did not get it put in a comment on the blog and I will send it to you
until next time

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

We are just about complete

I know it has been a few days since I have updated the blog but we have been crazy busy, Melanie came back in town on Sunday night and has helped us finish up the move, her and Wendy are cleaning the old house as I write this post, it is acctually like a break going to work when you are in a move. Other than all of the craziness we are still in love with the house and will have an enormous amount of pictures for you when we come home on the 18th, speaking of coming home, I can't begin to say how excited I am about coming home, not only to see my new niece but to see everyone else, it seems like forever since we have been back, so I am looking forward to a great visit.
I wish had other things to report but our life right now is consumed with moving so that seems to be the only topic to speak of, but all of the heavy lifting is preping my body for a trip to the beach so I am going to try and talk Wendy into a weekend trip to the beach just to relax and get away from the maddness before the end of the summer. I hope this post finds everyone well and can't wait to come home.

Friday, June 27, 2008

A little off the moving subject

I wanted to ask a favor of anyone reading this blog, my sister Carey's good friend Jessica from law school was hit by a car while riding her bicycle and tragically killed, her and Liz will be attending the services this weekend, if you could keep her family and friends in your prayers that would be nice, also Papa Porter (Wendy's Grandfather) is in the hospital but is in good spirits so if you could keep him in your prayers we would appreciate it.

On a lighter note my father has opened his new website, so for those of you who live in North Texas you can now eat green from local farmers and ranchers just by ordering direct from the farmers and ranchers, just go to www.eatgreendfw.com and check it out.

The move is still under way but going smoothly minus some interesting surprises with the house but all in all everything is going great, and we still Love our new house!
Take care for now

Thursday, June 26, 2008

The move continues

Well I know it has been a few days since my last post, but we have gotten alot done! All of the furniture is moved and I must say if anyone is going to hire movers in the near future go with Two Men and a Truck they were awesome and reasonable, yesterday we had repairmen galore out at the house, we had the main water line replaced to the house so there was a huge bulldozer in our front yard, and the A/C guys came out and replaced our duct work (all paid for by the seller) Now the fun part begins, cleaning and getting the rest of the little stuff but My wonderful mother-in-law is in town and has been a huge help so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Even after all of the madness we are still in love with the house, Wendy took pictures of all the work that was done on the house yesterday (surprise surprise) and I will post them soon, and I promise as soon as we get it all set up I will post the new pics. Other than that all is well, Take care.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

The move is under way!

Well, not really but we have cleaned the whole house top to bottom, replaced light bulbs, received our new washer and dryer, I think I need to take a class on how to operate it, but its pretty cool. You would think that delivering a washer and dryer would only take 20-30 minutes tops but.....not when you involve us, first they had the wrong cord and they forgot our TV , so we had to go to best buy but Wendy got a 50 dollar gift certificate out of it plus a free dolly, so I guessed that worked out well for us. This was an all day affair so the actual heavy lifting will start tomorrow wish us luck there is more to follow.

Friday, June 20, 2008

The first blog

As most of you know when it comes to grammar and spelling I tend to fall short, but because this is my blog you will just have to deal with it, although I am sure Wendy will come back through and edit it for me. This is my first ever blog so I thought I would start with the most recent news in our lives.....WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!! Yes someone decided to give me a loan and it was a real bank too, but I am not going to question it because I just signed all the paperwork so Wendy and I are now officially home owners...pretty exciting, so for all of you who are reading this blog it is time to come an visit beautiful South Carolina, trust me it is a very pretty town with a good amount of stuff to do (Augusta National is only 3 miles away) I am going to be posting pictures tonight but here is a link to a slide show Wendy made when we first looked at the house http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=5eeb287afa4055ad632d4f&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

We also just got a new car, I know I know the army pays really well, actually it was more of a necessity because our AC went out when it was 100+ degrees outside, Wendy just had back surgery and the recovery is taking a little longer than expected but keep your fingers crossed that they fixed the problem so that we can move past these back issues. The cats are doing fine and fat, although the new addition is costing us a little money because he keeps getting himself caught in places his fat body can't fit ( I will be posting pics of them as well)

Mamamel is coming to visit on Tuesday and to help with the move so if any one from the Cummings side feels the need to follow suit (Mom and Dad you have already volunteered so you are off the hook) please feel free to come whenever you please we will be using the 2 1/2 weeks we have left in our current place to move stuff than of course as you know comes the decorating. I don't have to much more to add right now but as more happen the more I will write.
Love
Beans

About Me

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I thought because Wendy and I are sort of disconnected from all of our loved ones, I would set up this blog to help keep everyone informed about what is happening in our lives, as if you are interested but I am going to tell you anyway.