Life with my sister

We are inching up to the first heaveniversary of daddy's death. I decided I didn't want to forget the details of that day from my perspective . He was such a loud light in all of our lives and that is missed more than any of us can truly express. I know heaven is a louder and lighter place because of his presence. I still picture him arriving in heaven and it makes me grin ear to ear with a tear.  “Abby, It’s your dad. He’s gone.”   Those words came from a tear stained face and through a broken voice shattered with shock. My husband delivered the news. He knew how those words would devastate me in a way like no other bad news ever had. I had lost jobs, friends, a goldfish, car radiators and engines even, but never had anyone had to tell me I had just lost something as precious as a daddy.  "He's gone." Never something you prepare to hear and the word "gone" still rings oddly in my ear, almost a year later. I sat in Randall's truck screaming ugly word...

Have you ever had one of those days where you just missed someone? That is today for me. I miss my mom. I know there are missionaries and soldiers and soldiers families that haven't seen their moms in months or even years. I also know that if we win the HGTV dream home in Vermont ( I can dream, right?!), that I will soon be acquiring a Vermont driver's license and that would put me further away from her. But I miss her. I miss my sister. I have seen her cute face three times since I've seen mother but I miss her terribly too. I also miss two men who chose to leave this life without asking me first. I hadn't seen these guys in years before they left, but just knowing they were in this life with me was a comfort. And then today I found out that a dear lady in the faith, a great lady with a beautiful legacy of God's love died. She is dancing in Heaven today. A facebook status of a facebook friend today said to finish the sentence "what I love about Grand Avenue...

6 months ago today we were bringing this sweet boy home from the hospital. What an exciting 1/2 year this has been for us. He is my biggest blessing. I tell his Daddy not to feel bad about hearing that Henry beat him on the blessing scale these days because without him I would not have this biggest blessing. His Daddy is my biggest love....I love, love, love that man! What an experience this has been as husband and wife, becoming Mama and Daddy. Wow. This boy is my heart. I tell him that he is Mama's heart, because he is. I feel like my heart was taken and put outside of my body in the form of Henry (I know that sounds cliche, but I mean it). I just love it so much. I can honestly say that I wake up with a smile each morning because of this little love. He always wakes up smiling up at me, so how can I not smile?! He is so full of life and personality. Watch out world... Henry is already making his mark! I love already seeing him blossom into the man God wants him to be. It is tru...

Settling down in Byhalia-2004 We have been on this journey for almost a year now. I have been reflecting a lot lately. I am sure I will post about it more as it comes to the surface a bit more. I get tears in my eyes when I see how much God has blessed us with this move, after I feared it so much. I miss my "old life" and some days I wish we were there because it was so much easier, but it was not near this much fun! One of my best travel memories - Alcatraz As much as we don't do it, we love to travel together. We loved eating the best lobster at Landry's in Branson after a big game of mini golf, falling down in Union Square in San Francisco after touring Alcatraz, shopping at the markets in Mexico because another day on the beach would have turned us into leather, and now we are headed to D.C. Neither of us have ever been. Please let us know if you have suggestions for us, etc. We already have our hotel booked and have an idea of what we will tour, etc. We are wait...

I am watching the inauguration on my computer at work. I sit here and think about how far we have come. I get to watch a black man be sworn in as president of the U.S. on my computer at work. Really, it is impressive. Whether we like him or not, it is pretty remarkable that our country has come this far in such a short time. Next month Randall and I will go visit D.C. for the first time in our lives. We are anxious to see all the history. As I sit here and see history being made on my computer screen, it makes me even more excited to get there and touch, see and hear our American history. Abby P.S. Did you see Aretha's Hat? Oh my.

The other day I was reading a friend's blog and a quote jumped out at me. The quote was regarding attending worship services on Sunday night. The girls were talking about whether they should start going back to those services and wondering why they had stopped. One lady said "you made it a choice." That has stuck with me for days now. I know some of you attend churches that don't have Sunday night or Wednesday night services. But for those of us that do attend churches that have 3 services a week, why don't you go to church? When did you make it a choice and not a commitment? I know there are times when it seems like Sunday is the only day you can run to the mall or the grocery store or you don't want to have to get the kids and yourself dressed for just an hour of preaching. Or maybe you think that only old people go to church on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. And that maybe true, but do you know why? Because they didn't make it a choice, they made i...

Last night we sat around the table eating potato soup (from a Bear Creek mix-the best!!!), and we began talking about our futures. David said he wanted to live in a mansion, yet he wants to be a reading teacher. I told him both of those probably were not going to happen, but he didn't seem deterred. He also gave us the name of his children. He plans on having 2 boys and 2 girls, their names will be John, Luke, Lucy, and Gracie. His wife is going to get to pick out their middle names. He thought this was fair, because they would each have gotten to pick out 4 names. Anna wants to work at the mall, she asked me very nicely if she could. I told her "of course you can." I mean she is 4, I would hate to taint her love of the mall at such a young age. She then asked if she could have 2 jobs, because she would also like to work at a restaurant. It turns out, the girl just wants to work at cash register. And she got one for Christmas, so things are working out just fine for her. ...

Today is my Meemaw's birthday (Julie's Grandmother. We had our own little names for the g-parents) She died six years ago. She would have been 86 today. She was the epitome of a southern belle. She was prissy to the very end. She was the perfect example of a preachers wife and she was our god-fearing, loving and respected grandmother. She and I had a special bond. She was my girl. We were a crazy pair. She LOVED to shop...and mostly for and with me. I was the baby and spoiled rotten. Her excuse for spoiling me, "Hollye and Julie have husbands to take care of them, you have me!" When I was younger the excuse was always, "Y'all know Abby's the baby" (Oh, how I loved it and miss it so much). There for a long time after she died, I would not go in the Oak Court Mall in Memfrica because it would make me cry. In retrospect, it is actually pretty funny that the mall caused me great grief. I was sort of glad Macy's bought Goldsmith's so I could lay ...

Last night Abby called to say that she was going to get to come for David's baptism. I was so exicted!! Molly, Randall's stepmom and a friend of ours from Augusta, called and offered to foot Abby's gas bill so she could come and represent the two of them. What a wonderful gift. Not only to Abby but I think more so for David. Aunt Abby will be there for his special day and it will be because of Molly who has loved him since he was 6 months old. Thanks Molly!!! Change of subject: Yesterday at the pool Daniel was sitting beside me and broke our silence with this bit of wisdom "Mom, do you think the 9 foot end is the shallow end to God?" I hope he always realizes that God is bigger than anything. ANYTHING! He always has been and He always will be. Amen! Julie

I remember when I was a little girl, old enough to know better, but not smart enough to do anything about it. I was spending the night at Mamaw and Papaw's house, it was one of my favorite things to do. Scene: I don't know where Papaw was this particular evening but Mamaw was on the phone and I was taking a bath. While in the bathtub I found her razor and decided that I wanted to use it. So I did, and yes, you know what happened! I cut my leg good!!! I cried (probably screamed) and Mamaw had to get off the phone and settle me down, clean me up, and dry me off. She took care of me, loved me and decided that I had learned a big enough lesson about razors that I didn't get in to much trouble. Fast forward 30-33 years Scene: I am sitting on the couch trying to be still so my back doesn't hurt so bad and I hear Anna ( in the bathtub) talking to David (who had gone in to see her). Anna: Go get mom please. David: What? this was all very calm Anna: Go get mom please. I go in...

This weekend I went to the Women of Faith conference in Little Rock with 5 ladies from our church. We had a really good time. Nicole C Mullin was UNREAL. I tell you that girl has some lungs and some arms! Wow, I wish I had those arms. Anyway she was fabulous, fabulous! Go see her, buy her CD , listen to her on the radio. She is the bomb! Anyway, I am on here to tell you this story. Before we all met for dinner on Friday night, two of the ladies and I went to a little boutique to look for jewelery . One of the ladies was buying earrings to go with her daughters prom dress. She had a picture of the dress that she had downloaded from her computer with her. It is a strapless, short black sequined dress with a pink sash. Beautiful! So we all walked around the store looking for earrings, and found nothing. So we walk up to the counter and my friend says, " I'm looking for earrings to go with my daughter's prom dress, this is the dress," and then shows the saleslady the pic...