After a while

I know the war between the head and heart is often a difficult one to fight. It is a war fought daily, in all aspects of life. Through all my blog-stalking, I ran across this blog. I will give a kleenex warning should you decide to explore, it truly is a heart-breaking story and one I've been following for a little bit. It is so inspiring to see how these people have been faced with a situation and feelings I can't even fathom, yet they seem to have the undying faith to get them through it. She posted a new blog with this verse:

4. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all mean. The Lord is near. 6 Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 4:4-7

It is one I have heard over and over again but it has new meaning for me. I had a huge revelation this weekend that while I say I'm a Christian and know that I truly believe God is in control, I don't let Him be in control. It has always been one of my biggest struggles, but the problems of life are getting bigger, as they tend to, and now not only does my selfishness and lack of letting go affect me, it affects me and Ash, as a unit.

Reading the blog mentioned above makes our problems seem so irrelevant, but it shows me that if she can have faith in a situation like that, there is no reason for me not to let go of all those truly little problems that stress me out. We are obedient - God will provide. So easy to say, so hard to really believe sometimes.

That verse will be my new verse-to-live-by and please pray for me as I continue to truly let go and let God.

Also, keep that sweet family in your prayers during the hard days to come.

Speechless

After the night I had on Wednesday, Thursday was a very good day. We got a lot done on the client we're working on so I had a chance to catch up on some other work. We also were able to get out of the client a little early, so I decided to hit the metro and enjoy some of DC. I headed to H&M, since that's one of the only stores they have here that we don't have at home. I can say that I do wish we had one - it's Forever 21 prices for working women. It was glorious. It was such a great evening - could have been better only if Ash was with me. I love the metro. I love how easy it is to get around and not have to worry about traffic. I know I looked like a tourist trying to buy my metro pass, but who cares. I am a tourist, so it only makes sense! After my successful trip (a sweater, a jacket, a dress, a shirt, a purse, and some headbands, all for $150!) to H&M, I had a little bit of daylight left, and I wanted to go peek at the National Mall. I got off the Metro at the Smithsonian sight to catch this:



It really hit me how everything in life is God's timing. After such a crazy week, God timed my whole day perfectly to where I would be able to see this amazing sunset. It gave me such peace in knowing that He is there no matter what. Whether it's making sure I get on a certain metro line at a certain time, or bigger issues like whether I'm heading in the right direction for my career - He's ALWAYS there. I just stood there and watched the sun go down knowing I will be ok. Sure our fence blew down and we have to put yet another $1,000 on our credit card - we are obedient and God will provide. No matter what is thrown our way, it will not be more than we can handle, and I will say that's the greatest promise.

On another note - the appointment for Taylor went great yesterday. She got her cast off and they didn't have to put on another one, took the pins out (apparently with some extra pulling needed *shudder*), and she's now working on getting her range of motion back. It will be hard, as she's very guarded, as we all would be, but I'm confident she will get back to 100%. She's still restricted from all activity as with this kind of break, it's common for the arm to break below the elbow while the original break is healing. She ended up with a pretty bad rash from the cast, but nothing to be concerned about. Another instance of the miracle of God's healing.

I head back home today. I'm super excited to see all my boys (the hubby and the dogs) and we have family in town this weekend, which is always great! I've gotten to see my cousin Beck more this year than ever I get to!

Have a great weekend and a Happy Easter - and don't forget to celebrate what this weekend is all about.

Taylor update

An update on Taylor's arm -

She goes back to the doctor today to the pins taken out - which is bound to be a traumatizing experience - and get the cast off for new x-rays. The doc told her at the last appointment that he didn't think they would be putting another cast on at this point, like originally thought, so hopefully that doesn't change.

She's done really well with the whole ordeal. She has learned to write left-handed (like her Aunt), so maybe she'll end up ambidextrous after all of this!

I know the healing road is by no means over, but we're certainly getting closer.

I know it's bad, but the only thing I can think about is how BAD that room is going to smell when the cast comes off :)

Have a great Thursday!

Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I know it's cliche, but it's what I need right now.

Happy hump day! I'm in lovely Washington DC, my most favorite place on the planet! Too bad I'm working too much to really enjoy it, but I find joy in the small things, like being able to walk to work and NOT have to fight traffic.

Yet another prayer request

This has to be quick since I'm at work and probably shouldn't be blogging, but a quick back story--I was a helper in Taylor's choir class for a little while and there was the sweetest little boy in there named Jared. His dad is also involved in the media ministry at church, my other place of involvement, and I didn't know him personally but knew of him and all of his help. About three months ago we got word that Jared's mom was diagnosed with colon cancer. They went in for surgery and found that the cancer was everywhere. We got word the beginning of this week that they had called in all family as they did not expect her to make it through the week. We got the final update this morning that she lost her battle around 1 am this morning. I just ask that you keep this family in your prayers. It's never easy to lose someone, a mother, wife, daughter, sister, etc....but my heart is so heavy thinking about this sweet little 7-year-old boy whose life will never be the same. He may not completely understand what's going on right now, but it will forever change the path of his life.

Pray for peace.
Pray for comfort.
Pray that they know their God is there always.
Pray that they can find peace and comfort in the fact that she is no longer in pain.

It seems like every day I hear of crazy things going on. It's a sad world we live in, but I know I always have my Savior and if He decides to take me today, that I am promised eternal life with him. I am not scared of the world, even with all of the evil. I have peace and I pray that you do too.

Pray for this amazing family and that God will begin to heal their hearts.

God answers prayers.

Now I know for most of you, that title is nothing new....but it's always amazing when there is something tangible that you know was really a blessing from God. If you didn't know, Ashley and I have not been happy with our car situation for a while now. He had a Ford F150, Single Cab (2 seat-er) and I had a Mini Coop (technically 4 seats, but no one over the age of 5 has any business in that back seat) so we were always limited in transporting people and when we needed to take our pups anywhere, Stoney was in the bed of the truck which always made my blood pressure shoot through the roof. We were upside-down in Ashley's truck because of a silly car purchase he made before that, so we knew that we would run into some issues in trying to trade the truck in because there would be some rolling in of the upside-down-ness (for lack of a better word). We had been going back and forth about even going to a car dealership because we all know how fun the idea of a new car is, and I didn't want to go through it only to be disappointed. Because of some things that have happened in the past few months, we were not in a place for our car payments to go up a significant amount, so we felt we were kind of stuck. Well, we finally decided to go talk to a guy at Texan Ford just to see if we had any options. This guy has been the guy that my dad has been dealing with for years and we figured if we could get a deal, this would be our man. So we head up there Saturday morning, and four hours later, leave with this.....

The car guy we talked to was able to do what needed to be done in order to keep our payments within about $100 from what they were before...he is truly a miracle-worker. I had said many a prayers the days leading up to the visit to the dealership, and had made my peace with the fact that if it wasn't God's will for this to work out, that I would be ok and trust that there is another plan. Well, apparently this was in God's plan, as I know that had we talked to anyone else, or tried to get any other car, it would have been impossible. I know that God answers prayers daily, and sometimes they're answered in good ways, and sometimes they're answered in ways we don't understand. I try to be patient, as we all know that's my biggest downfall, and see what He is going to do in our lives and 100% of the time I find that when I put it all in His hands, things work out the way they need to. It was truly a humbling experience to see all of this fall into place. I know it sounds silly to get this religious about a car, but God is in every aspect of our lives, and that includes the vehicles we drive, because let's face it, that money has to come from somewhere.
I really feel like it is a blessing to be driving that gorgeous car every day--that's right, Ashley's rocking the mini now, and truthfully, it was his idea! Moral of the story, be faithful and God will provide.

My sweet Taylor

I don't even know where to start about this weekend. I'll start with Ashley's weekend.

There was a trip planned for us to take Ashley's cousin Lance down to Austin to see sister Amber and other cousin Brooke (Lance's sister) and go to a G-love concert. With all the traveling I have been doing for work, the last thing I wanted to do was leave town again, so Ash told me it was cool if I stayed home. I jumped at that offer as I needed a weekend to just re-group. They got down to Austin fine and then Saturday afternoon I get a text saying that one of my favorite singers, Tritan Prettyman, was opening for G-Love. I was disappointed that I would miss out on that, but knew it was better that I was home. Little did I know what was in store for my weekend...more on that in a minute. So later Saturday evening I get an email from Ashley that has a picture of him and said favorite singer....SUPER jealous needless to say.

NOT the best pic of Ash....but she looks gorgeous and he said she is super nice. Too bad I missed out.

Now for my weekend. I woke up and cooked breakfast for me and a friend of mine, whom I've known since 1st grade. Breakfast came out pretty good, which is unusual....should have known then. Ran a couple of errands with my mom and then got a call at about 4 from dad that Taylor had fallen and hurt herself, and he though it was pretty bad. Anyone that knows her knows she is a major drama queen, so we have to be careful about how we handle injuries until we know she's not playing it up. By the time me and mom got back to the house, and my mom saw her, she knew immediately this was something big. All we knew was that Taylor was walking along, went to step over a log, and her toe caught the log so she fell forward and caught herself. Anyways, me, my mom and Taylor load up and head to Arlington Memorial, as it's closer than Cooks. The ER doc looked at her and immediately said something is broken with the way fluid was filling up her elbow, but we had to do x-rays to know exactly what. This picture is pre x-rays....

And walking to get x-rays...
The x-rays were a fiasco. Being at Arlington Memorial, these people don't know the best way to deal with kids. She was in so much pain and obviously didn't want to move as any movement hurt her even more. She stepped up and finally just sucked up the pain to get the x-rays donw, but not without a large amount of tears shed and "I can't"-s. An hour later we have x-rays, and are waiting on the doc to take a look. He initially says he'll put her in a splint, and to call the pediatrician monday for further instruction, as AM does not really deal with children. Then about 10 minutes later, he pulls us back out and says he only had one of the x-rays initially, but in looking at the other two he just received, it's much more serious and they're transferring us to Cooks as AM can't do anything. This obviously freaked out Taylor as she heard the word "surgery" being thrown around.

Right before leaving to go to Cooks...all splinted up:
What felts like 8 hours later we finally get out of AM and head to Cooks. We get to Cooks and go right in since AM had called ahead and filled them in on everything. By this point she had gotten some pain medication in her so she was pretty chill. We get to Cooks, get settled into a room and then they take her for more x-rays as the others didn't give them a clear enough view. Now the doc at AM told us that it looked like there was bone floating around and all this horrible stuff...so we were prepared for the worst. Well, there was NO bone floating around, it was only a break, but it was broken in such a way where they needed to put her down to set it. She broke her humerus (the bone above the elbow), just a little bit above the elbow as the bone gets really skinny. Apparently this is a very common break, but there are only 3 hospitals in the area with doctors to treat it. Again an answer to prayer that we had one so close.

Waiting in the ER at Cooks:
She heard "surgery" and immediately went into hysteria. In the middle of crying, she even tried to negotiate with the surgeon to do the surgery Thursday as it was better than at that point in time. (The doctor's got a pretty big kick out of this one) It's natural for most people to hear that word and think they are being cut open. We explained they weren't cutting anything, and she wasn't going to bleed. I'm not going to go into any details, but my sweet niece has had an EXTREMELY difficult childhood as a result of her mom and dad. As a result of this and a combination of the hard drugs they had her on, and the lack of food or water since they had to do surgery, she was FREAKING out. I'm not talking just some crying, but crying, screaming, going into hysteria. It took all three of us (my parents and me) to calm her down, but anytime another doctor or nurse walked in, she would lose it again. She was just so scared and didn't understand why God would choose her for this kind of pain. It truly was heart-breaking and it was all I could do to not lose it in front of her.
One major answered prayer in all of this is that while we were waiting, the Worship Leader and Children's Minister from church came to visit Taylor. My dad is tight with the Worship Leader, Sean Paul, so he sent him a text just asking for prayer requests. About an hour later, they show up at the hospital which was a HUGE blessing. We were able to keep Taylor's mind off of things for about another hour. These people are amazing and we're truly blessed to be surrounded by these people that care so much to change out of their pj's and come to the hospital at 9 on a Saturday night.
As I said before, this all started around 3:45, well she finally went into surgery at about 1 and was done by 1:30, up in a room by about 2:30 after recovery and everything. I could draw this out even more, but I think you get the picture. It was by far the worst thing to ever have to go through. I have had my share of surgeries and I told my mom, after we cried and hugged in the waiting room after Taylor went to the OR, that I don't know how she's done this so many times. This wasn't even my child but seeing those pleading eyes looking up through tears, begging for us to not make her do this....it makes me tear up just writing this. She has such a big heart and and is such an amazing kid, and of course we all want to know why. It's hard not to have that answer. She is so strong in her faith and she knows God is there and he will give her the strength to get through this. She is stronger than all of us put together because of the stuff she has been through.
I don't have any updated pictures, as she wasn't too keen on the idea yesterday :) Please keep my precious girl in your prayers. She is right-handed and this all happened on her right elbow, so she is really stressed about school and how she is going to function.
She ended up with a cast for about 6 weeks, but they put 2 pins in to keep things where they need to be. *graphic surgery talk warning* They put the pins through the skin and into the bone . However, they are covered by the cast so she doesn't know they are there. We are purposely not talking about it because we know it would freak her out beyond belief, so she will find out about them just in time for them to come out. I think she gets those out in about 4 weeks or something, and they just take them out in the doctor's office, so pray for that day as it will not be an easy one.
I know I said I was wrapping up....so sue me. I can truly say I never want to go through what we went through on Saturday. Seeing the pain she was in...it broke my heart. I know she's a fighter and each day is a step towards getting back to normal for her. There were many answered prayers and that's something we can ALWAYS rely on.

Specific things to pray for:
1. Perfect healing for the arm
2. Taylor's heart--knowing God did not "do" this to her, but it was part of His plan for her life.
3. My mom as she stays home with Taylor this next week...it will be the endurance trial of the year.
4. Pain--that it will begin subsiding so she doesn't have to be doped up all the time.
5. The day the pins come out--pray for peace for Taylor once she finds out what is going on and strength for my mom who will be taking her.

I could go on and on...but I won't.

I appreciate your prayers and will keep you updated on the progress.

Goodbye, Boise

So today is my last day in Boise and while I've had a great time, I'm VERY ready to go home. This city is definitely a little place tucked away in the mountains that most people don't appreciate, but Ashley and I decided it's a place we could live, and really enjoy life. It's a very healthy place (think Austin--lots of runners and bikers), and night snowboarding is only 20 miles away. That means every night after work...head up to the mountain! It's a life I could get used to. I have enjoyed the slower pace. It's so different from Dallas, but still has everything we would need. All in all the trip was really good.
Ashley came up last weekend and we spent Friday night through Sunday night on the mountain--only taking time to eat and sleep. By Sunday my muscles couldn't take it anymore, so I had some good people-watching in the lodge. It was a nice mini-vaca stuck in the madness that is life right now. I made it through learning snowboarding without breaking anything, so mission accomplished! By Sunday, Ashley finally convinced me to venture off the learner's mountain. I had a small break-down at the top of the new run as we all know I am no risk-taker and it just looked like more than I could handle. Once I made it, I had a huge confidence-booster and had a great time. Ashley's patience was out of this world. He is one of those lucky people who can pick up any sport and do it well. Me? Not so much. I did better than I thought I would and it's all thanks to his 100% support and encouragement. It was our early 1-year anniversary celebration, but don't worry, come May there will be parties.....we have PLENTY to celebrate :)
Now, just a taste of our weekend...

Another fun fact from a couple of weeks ago....check out our wedding photographer's new website here. Go to weddings, and then peruse. Be sure to specifically go to "thoughts" page. Make sure you let the page load completely--there should be three pictures that scroll through. Hopefully they will put a smile on your face like they did for me :) We also make some other appearances in galleries --> engagements, so take a peek!

Coming soon to a handmade card near you...

My own stamp! If you can't tell, it says "Shugart". It's a personal logo of sorts I designed recently, and Ash surprised me and had it made into a stamp for all of the cards I make. Even if he picks on me and my craft room, he knows it makes me happy, so he supports the cause :). It's a non-Valentine's day gift, since we don't celebrate with it being so close to Christmas and both of our birthdays. Hard to believe we're coming up on 9 months of marriage. To some, we're just babies in this thing, but I love that it's been that long and we don't even realize it. I love him with my whole heart. He knows me inside and out, and it's the small stuff like this that further instills why he is the one that completes me.

Halfway there

So I'm on the 2nd leg of my 4 week traveling stint for work. I'm now in Boise, ID for, what I'm sure will be, a fun-filled two weeks. I had a layover in Salt Lake City, and it was the most gorgeous landing I had ever seen in my life. The new desire of my heart--a digital SLR camera (more on that later)--would have come in super handy to share with you the gorgeous creations that God gives us daily. Snow everywhere....breath-taking. Boise wasn't so bad either. I saw one of the best sunsets, from the clouds, that I have ever seen. It's so nice to get out of the madness of the metroplex, and Boise definitely seems to be a little more calm. I look forward to what is to come.

We had a busy weekend, as always. We got to go play with new baby, Juliana Ava Murphy, Saturday night and got to see Jonathan, in town from Afghanistan--so it was a double-great afternoon. It's so crazy to think they have a sweet little girl now....but low and behold, she is real! She is a precious baby, and slept 90% of the time we were there, which I'm sure mama and daddy were thankful for. My camera is dead, and someone borrowed my battery charger a while back and I have yet to get it back, so unfortunately no pictures of the little miracle this time around, but you can bet there will be some in the future. I did get to play with GG Rankin's Christmas present, a new digital SLR camera. I was in awe, and everyone made sure Ash knows what to get me next :) I was in Heaven. It truly is an amazing toy, and I can't wait to have one.

After baby-time, we headed out to downtown Ft. Worth (a rare occurrence for the Shugart's) for an evening of celebration for a friend who passed the CPA (the first time around)! We definitely had a good time and got to hang out with Ashley's old gang which is always a good time.

I left DFW at 2:15 today so this morning was spent cleaning/packing/whining because I was off yet again. I am at the halfway point of all this traveling and am SO ready to be back home. Ash said it makes me appreciate home more, and that it does. While it's nice to not have to drive an hour and 15 minutes (at least), one way, to work everyday--it's not worth being away so much. I think I will definitely enjoy these two weeks--not to mention you won't have to read all my whining about it anymore!

Quick prayer request, I have back issues and I pulled something today at the airport, and cannot hardly move at this point. Not only is it painful, but Ash is coming up this weekend for us to snowboard, and I don't want something like this to ruin a fun (early) one-year celebration. I know if it doesn't get better, then I wasn't meant to be on those slopes--perhaps because God knows I don't have the grace and agility to attempt snowboarding without ending up injured :)

A Good Friday

So I had a week that was horrible, but at least I get to end it on a good note.

Good #1:
I got an email last night that my fomer co-worker's little girl, Morgan Kate, was born yesterday morning! (I wasn't lying when I said it's baby boom time). She was born at 10:54 am yesterday, 6 lb. 1 oz and 19 inches long. She looks just like her daddy!Good #2:
I ordered a phone case from vaja leather around mid-December. Now these cases are handmade, out of amazing leather, so not only are they not cheap, they take a while to get as well. When you purchase one, you have the option of the company laser-engraving your name, a phrase, etc. or a logo of your choice. Of course I designed something to go on the case, sent it to them and have been waiting anxiously ever since. The case arrived Monday, but since I was out of town, Ash couldn't get to Fed-Ex until yesterday. He opened it for me, and had bad news for me when I got home from the airport last night. I forgot to include the font file when I sent the graphic, and didn't make outlines in Illustrator either, so I kind of set myself up for failure. Anyways, the logo that was on the back of the case was definitely not the same as the one I sent, as what I designed completely revolved around the font. Ash and I have been going back and forth most of the day with the contact lady at the company, and I received the following:

Hi Tamara
We will replace the case.

This is how to proceed to get the replacement:
You should first send the case to be replaced in the same Vaja box as received
via regular mail to Vaja Corp. 'Return Dept' ,8309 SW 142 AV Dep. H 108, 33183,
Miami, FL.
Once the defective case has been received and checked in our Return Department,
and once the new case is ready, we will send the replacement case to you.
Please print this mail, and send it with the case in the package, we cannot
accept cases without this information.

Bear in mind that this replacement authorization will expire in one month. We
cannot replace the item after that time frame.

Replacement Number: 9686 (it is essential that you write this complete number
on the front of the package)
Returned case's model or description: cap30dck
State (New or Used): U
Cause (Return only, Warranty, Exchange) : W

I was super stoked that they are going to re-do the case at no extra charge to me. However, I was NOT looking forward to mailing back the one I received, as the case is amazing, so I wanted to use it until I get the new one. About 30 minutes after that email, I receive another:

Tammy,
You can keep the case received to protect your device. We think it may not be fair to get your unit without protection until the new one arrives.
So no need to send it back, do not worry about the return.

Best regards

Needless to say, I was SUPER happy. Not only are they going to fix it, for free, now I don't even have to mail back the gimp one I have. I knew I liked this company for a reason :). You can tell a lot about a corporation based on how they handle things when they go wrong. Granted, they probably can't handle every situation like this, but I'm glad I got lucky!

So if you need an awesome phone case, and don't mind spending some money (mine was graduation money, that's the only way I could justify it), this is the place to go.

Good #3:
I get to be home with Ash, who I think missed me more than he's willing to admit! He skipped class last night to clean the whole house so I didn't have to come home to a dirty house. He knows how to keep me happy. Not that I condone skipping class, but hey, I can't complain about it this time.

Happy Weekend!

Hidden Dreams and Aspirations

This image alone makes me want to pursue those desires I have hidden deep down to learn photography and all that comes with it. One of my favorite photographer couples, the image is found, joined the masses and just welcomed a new baby boy into the world on Sunday. Check out their blog, I'm sure you will fall in love like I did long ago.

Short weekend, as always

So I'm back in Austin after what seemed like a very short weekend. I got back to Dallas Thursday night, then worked at the office on Friday. We decided on Nelda's for dinner Friday night, as I haven't been home early enough to beat the rush in a while. We decided to meet up with a former co-worker of mine. He and his wife, another beautiful woman ready to pop....she is due any day with sweet baby Morgan or Reese, met us and we had a really good time. We always try to hang out with them, but it's just never come together. They are both glowing and so ready for their little girl to be here. Tammy (his wife) has been VERY lucky throughout the pregnancy and barely even had morning sickness during the first trimester. She is naturally very thin, and she looks like any normal lady would at about 7 months, not 38 weeks. She looks amazing and we're super excited for them.
We didn't get a chance to go meet the newest addition to Adrienne and Jonathan's world, little Juliana Ava, this weekend. We want to let their lives slow down a bit, so hopefully this coming weekend we will be able to go hang out with them a bit. I will be taking pictures when we finally get to meet her, so maybe my post next week will be a bit more exciting. I've really gotten bad about not taking pictures, but my little canon point and shoot just doesn't inspire me anymore. Hopefully purchasing a digital SLR sometime in the future will remedy that :).
It feels good to have one week behind me of my 4 week traveling stint. I think this week will be the worst, so if I can just make it through this week, then I'm home free. I head up to Boise, ID this coming sunday, and I'm super stoked about that trip. I'm ready to get back into my normal routine at home but Ash has been amazing with keeping the house clean while I'm gone.
It's off to another Monday of....well...doing my job, and I'll leave it at that :)

Have a good day!

Baby Murphy

**UPDATE**

I just got word she's here! Mama and baby are doing great!

**

So she is officially on her way! I got the text when I woke up this morning that Adrienne's water broke last night, and then got an update that it was only a matter of hours (hopefully) before the sweet little baby girl arrives! Jonathan made it back into town yesterday and this was a HUGE answer to prayers. He's in the Army and was overseas, and we all know how difficult it can be to make any travel arrangements happen as we want them to when the government is involved. I know Adrienne was stressing (rightfully so) that he wouldn't be here for the birth....so again God answers prayers and was able to lift that stress off of Adrienne so she could focus on taking care of herself and the baby. We don't know the name yet, as Adrienne and Jonathan decided to keep that between each other while he was overseas. We are VERY excited for these two!

She is in labor as I write this, so keep them all in your prayers!

I'm lonely

In case the numerous blog posts didn't give it away :)

I miss my hubby and my puppies...only one more day for this week!

I am most definitely in a funk today. The weather here in Austin has been miserable--COLD and rainy. Great weather to stay inside and do absolutely nothing. I know part of my funk is due to the fact that everywhere I turn, I hear people talking about Heath Ledger. It's such a sad story, and highly depressing. It's crazy how much this is affecting people (I have seen numerous blog posts about it), and we didn't even really know him. These past couple of months have been a constant reminder to me that life really is going to end one day, no matter how much we try to ignore that fact. I have made a decision to take control of things and do what it takes to be truly happy in EVERY aspect of my life. My husband is a great start to a life of happiness, and there will soon be other parts of my life that will fall into place as well.

We are in wait mode for 2 new babies right now. Two of our friends are due any day, along with many others in the next few weeks. If this doesn't give me baby fever, I don't know what will :)

Because every post needs a picture...One of my favorite people, as well as one of the expectant mothers ready to pop! We can't wait for the phone call-- I just hope I'm in town!

You Will Never Be Forgotten

Some days the reality of Ashley's dad being gone really hits me hard. Usually it's a song. This was today's. My ipod is on shuffle at work and this one popped up.

Jessica Andrews
You Will Never Be Forgotten

I’ll always see your face
The corner of your smile
And all the little things that no one will ever know
Like it was yesterday, won’t ever fade away
Goodbye is just a word that I will never say

You will never be forgotten
A million days could pass us by
But what is time but just a dream
Oh I still feel you here with me
You’re more than a memory
Oh you will never be forgotten

I can‘t hold your hand
Or look into your eyes
And when I talk to you
It just echoes in my mind
But If hearts are made of dust
And if we fell from the stars
I look up tonight and know just where you are

You will never be forgotten
A million days could pass us by
But what is time but just a dream
Oh I still feel you here with me
You’re more than a memory
Oh you will never be forgotten

And the world just keeps on going
It has no way of knowing
That you’re gone

You will never be forgotten
A million days could pass us by
But what is time but just a dream
Oh I still feel you here with me
You’re more than a memory
Oh you will never be forgotten

It's a good thing that I have these moments. I don't ever want life to be so busy where I forget.

**Update: as I was fighting my computer to try and get this post to actually post, Ash called to tell me they found Heath Ledger dead in his Manhattan apartment, at age 28. Life is entirely too short. Live it to the fullest.

Peaceful

Does it get much better?

In Austin for work....I'm away from home for the next 4 weeks. I don't know how people do this all the time with families at home. On the other hand, I am in a really cool city for these two weeks and then I'll be in Boise for the two weeks after. Ash will be coming up for one of the weekends I am up there so we can get our snowboard on. I'm REALLY scared I'm going to hurt myself. Grace was not something I was blessed with.

I feel like this next year will be one of transition. Why? I don't know....call it a gut feeling.

We'll see what God has in store for us.

It's what he does

Sleeps. Sleeps. Sleeps.

And boy is he cute when he does it.

Journey.

So I got an idea from one of the many blogs I stalk, here, and that idea was to pick one word to define 2008 (hence the new banner). There are two ways to look at this idea--you pick a word that you want your life to be, and you make it happen, or pick a word that you think your life will be, and watch life evolve over the next year to see how accurate you were.

My word is journey.

A journey is a passage or progress from one stage to another.

I truly believe that's where me and Ashley are right now--in between stages of life. It's not always easy to be in this place, but we're doing it together.

To another stage in life. To whatever the future holds for us.

That's a wrap.

So we made it through the holidays. I have pictures from all the festivities, but it'll be a couple of days before I can get them loaded. This holiday season was definitely not the norm for us. We couldn't wait to get the Christmas decorations down, as neither of us was in the mood to celebrate after losing Ashley's dad. It just wasn't the same, and we both know it never will be, but unfortunately we can't allow our lives to come to a screeching halt--we know his dad would never have wanted that. While it has been hard for us, there are always people in worse situations. My dad passed on this link not too long after dealing with Ashley's dad, and it definitely brought me to tears. A close friend of ours has also lost 2 loved ones this Christmas season, so hopefully it can bring comfort to her like it did me.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY

I will post again soon with pictures, but I will end this on a happy note. The great baby boom has started, as of Christmas Eve. I know numerous people due within the next couple of months, so I look forward to hearing about the miracles that these wonderful girls get to experience.