Where on earth have I been??

I have been taking care of sick babies, at Cenacle Retreat House on a silent retreat, taking care of sick babies and not sleeping, at Disney World , taking care of sick babies and being sick myself, taking care of sick babies.

If I could find the pictures of Disney World I would post them, until then no pictures, just a post to let you know I'm here!

Dallas Trip

I'm a little late posting these pictures because it's been almost 3 weeks since we went, but better late than never!! I'll post Easter later too! Bethany and I had a great time driving to Dallas with Grandma to visit Daddy's Grandma and Mommy's cousins...hence referred to as Uncle and Aunt! :) Enjoy!

On my way

Bethany and Daddy's Grandma

Cindy & Nancy

Cindy, Abby & Nancy

Bethany & Uncle Dubbs

Bethany & Evie

Bethany & Aunt Jenny

Bethany & Uncle Brad

Jenny, Evie & Abby

Love to all,
Abby

Plenty

So I have a friend, Jovi who may or may not know she had challenged me to rethink the way that I do things. Back in 2005 when she and I started e-mailing back and forth a friendship was formed discussing cloth diapering. She also taught me about CSA and lots of other things that we can do to be healthier and protect the earth. Have I done the things that she taught me you ask? Well not exactly, I tried, and gave up far too easily. I want that to change though, I don't want keep doing the same things I have been doing just because it's what I've always done. So I'm blogging about this for a little accountability. I plan to read this,




and hope that it helps me to start living better than I am now. It's time to make some changes and this a good way to start! Who knows maybe I'll start cd'ing Bethany next!

Abby

Blue Cake

Way back in 1981, when I turned 3, I wanted a Mickey Mouse birthday cake more than anything for my birthday party. My Dad, being the baker in the family, obliged and set about to make me a Mickey cake. At some point during the cake making process something went terribly wrong, and I ended up with a blue cake....inside and out. Being the quirky family that we are, we latched on to this little accident and made it a tradition in our family. Now when I have a birthday I have a blue cake and so does everyone else from time to time. Here are some pictures of our blue cakes...

Aubrey's Pale Blue Birthday Cake

Colin's Blue Birthday Cake

My Birthday Cake

Abby

I'm tired of grief...

and I want it to be over. Today is my birthday, it should be a happy day, I have fought hard to celebrate, but to tell you the truth so far today has just been awful. I miss my mom and I'm mad that she isn't here. I HATE death, so there.

Sorry if you reading this and you've done something special for me, it does mean a lot to me and I thank you for it.

_________________________

Ok so 10 minutes after I post this, I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my mom's friends, who have been calling all day just to tell me they love me. I'm grateful. Today is not so bad, but man I'm volatile...argh!

A new chapter

Today marked the end of a long road for me. Some of you may know that I took over my grandmother's estate in April 2007 after my mom went into MD Anderson. It would take too long and I'm too tired to chronicle all that has happened with the estate since that time last year and now, but it has been hard. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I wanted to quit, just give up, but God consistently said "No" there were lessons to be learned and I had to persevere. Today I closed on the sale of my grandmother's house. It was on the market for 357 looooooooong days. The house was a huge burden to say the least, and I was ready to get rid of it believe me!!! But today as I drove to the closing I cried. I cried because I miss my Nani, I miss sitting at her kitchen table and telling her all my secrets, I miss eating ice cream for dinner and miss trying on all the clothes she saved from the 40s, 50s & 60s...she had some serious style people!! I cried because it is the closing of a chapter in my life, and I'm tired of having to say goodbye to people and things that I love. But God tells us in Matthew to store up our treasure in heaven, and he also tells us in 2 Corinthians that what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal, not to set my sight on the here and now, but look forward to what he has prepared for us in eternity. If you read my older blog posts, you will see that this is a theme for me right now. I have had to say goodbye a lot in a short amount of time, but through this I know God is at work. He is more concerned with changing my heart than my circumstances. He is pushing me to change, and in order to do that he has lined up some circumstances that make me uncomfortable...like having to say goodbye. I know I can't hang onto the past and still be healthy, but I would certainly try. Thankfully he pushes me to change because I would never do it on my own. So here I go, I'm leaving behind a house, but keeping my memories. I'm moving on because that's what I have to do, it's just bittersweet sometimes.

Ok, I'm going to try not to be so depressing all the time. Please bear with me as I go through this season of grief!

Love you all!

Aby (no that's not a typo, but the only people who would get it are in heaven now!)

3 Months and lots of smiles

I can not believe Bethany turned three months old on Tuesday. She is so big and cute as a bug. I really wish she would stop growing up so fast though, it's making Mommy sad.

Russell loves to call her "Bethel" you know like Bethany and Russell combined and Aubrey calls her "Bethy". Her Daddy calls her "Princess" and I call her "Janie", so needless to say we are confusing her and there is a high likelihood that she will not know her name anytime soon.

Abby