A whole month has past and this blog has sat neglected, yet again. This time though, I haven't even had a moment to consider blogging. A lot has been going on (as with most people this time of the year) but for us, it's been more personal life stuff than just holidays. (the good kind of stuff so no worries!)
Anyways, as it's a start to a new year I wanted to take a moment and reflect back on everything from 2010 and remember how blessed this last year was. Let's see what I can remember.
In the early months of last year we were busy coaching hockey and in terms of what we did, I can't really think of anything else but again, but I'm not surprised since last year, the hockey team we coached played almost 6 nights a week! So much for little ones. However, I did spend a lot of time trying to figure out where I wanted to take my 'career'. This was when I discovered my interest Doula work and since then I've completed all of my training. I also have set up a website www.cvds.weebly.com to advertise myself and have made connections with other moms and mom's group in the area to hopefully get the word out about doulas. I have attended one birth since finishing my training and it really solidified for me that being a doula is something I not only really want to do but something I am actually quite good at.
Into the spring months we did some traveling -- Keller & I took a fun 22 hour trip to San Diego, CA and back -- and sadly, I had to experience the loss of an amazing friend and sister, Miss Annie O'dell. She still crosses my mind daily and I'm grateful for everything she gave to our world. I was just thinking today that she must have had a great time ringing in the New Years in Heaven...getting to witness each of the time zones across our world celebrating. Holidays were always special with her :).
Last summer was a fun one. We spent a lot of time outside and I planted my first vegetable garden. Keller was a lot more active last summer and it was fun spending time with him at pools and at the beach, although not so fun when he'd eat the sand! We enjoyed our first 4th of July here in Eau Claire, WI and although Broghan & I enjoyed everything, Keller wasn't much of a fan and we watched the fireworks while en route back to the car. Still a great night! This summer was also our first full season of races. Last year, as a resolution or more of a goal, I set out to complete 3 5K's, 1 10K, 1 Half Marathon and 1 Triathlon. I'm glad and proud to say I accomplished all of that along with a 2nd 10K called the Muddy Buddy race with my sister Anna. It was awesome and I'm fairly certain I'll be in condition by this summer to do it again!
From summer and into the fall we got to celebrate a lot of unions between many of our friends and had fun attending their multiple weddings all 'wedding season' long. I believe the first one was sometime in June and the last wasn't until October!
Finally, fall brought about a different plan for us. I found out in early September that I was pregnant again, and it was nice to know that this time, it was not a shocking surprise. I had wanted to be pregnant and lo and behold, I was! By this time, Keller was walking and creating new challenges for us all the time. Thankfully, this past fall we got really good at our bed-time routine and we are now to a point where all it takes is a bath, diaper change, hug/kiss and a little snuggle and then he lays himself down and falls asleep. Hard work has definitely paid off! Anyways, he had fun this fall playing outside in the piles of leaves we continuously raked into piles and yes, we actually did dress him up for Halloween AND went trick-or-treating...(haha only to two neighbor's houses though). He did help hand out candy though.
Late fall and holiday season began and so did more changes in our family. On Nov. 15th I went to work at the clinic Broghan worked at as their front desk/office manager (the other one left for a full time job) and so this meant that me, Broghan AND Keller were all at his office almost 12 hours MWF and at least 4 hours T, TH. Ugh, poor child but he has adjusted quite well to being there and we've somehow managed to keep our patients coming back even with a 1 1/2 year old holding their hands through their adjustments!
Almost exactly a month after I began working there, Broghan & I became our own bosses after we purchased the clinic on Dec. 16th, 2010. That was the first day we officially treated patients at Reilly Chiropractic! (www.chiropractorlakehallie.com - you can also find it on twitter, facebook, youtube & linkedin) We're now business owners and employers. We hired our first helper (for the afternoons M-F) two weeks ago and it feels like she is set enough to be there without me so starting Monday, I won't be working afternoons (yea!). Our second helper (for the mornings MWF) will be starting Monday as well but I'll still be coming in those days for a least the first two weeks (if not more) to make sure she gets trained in as well as can be.
Outside of the clinic purchase we've enjoyed many trips to visit family these past few months including deer hunting (Broghan got bucks in both bow & gun season!), Thanksgiving, a fun trip over to Green Bay for a Packers game, visits from Grandparents, and Christmas festivities. Keller was a trooper through all of it and has really shown his resiliency in being dragged about by his parents! I'm really hoping this next little one is the same way!
All in all I have to say that 2010 was a pretty great year. I could have done without the loss of Annie (as everyone else would agree) but I'm glad her battling is done and in my heart I just can't help but believe she's with God, and what better place to be right? I really have high hopes for 2011 though and although April last year was very hard, I'm really hoping April this year will be one for the record (a full term birth of a healthy little baby!!) I hope everyone enjoyed their NYE and I'm looking forward to more time to keep all of you updated on our life, business, and baby news!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Snarky continued but in a different direction...
Okay so this is a complete tangent from my last post, but as I said, I'm in a 'mood'.
As I was driving home a car pulled up next to me, it was a guy, not sure what he looked like or how old he was, although I'd probably guess 20's something just based on the car style. But anyways, he was smoking. And a couple thoughts ran through my head. Here is my best attempt at explaining them:
Thought 1: I should just roll down my window and yell too him "No girl thinks smoking is attractive".
Thought 2: It would be kind of cool to have something like the following on my car window or bumper:
As I was driving home a car pulled up next to me, it was a guy, not sure what he looked like or how old he was, although I'd probably guess 20's something just based on the car style. But anyways, he was smoking. And a couple thoughts ran through my head. Here is my best attempt at explaining them:
Thought 1: I should just roll down my window and yell too him "No girl thinks smoking is attractive".
Thought 2: It would be kind of cool to have something like the following on my car window or bumper:
Simple Math
Smoking = disgusting
If then, YOU choose to SMOKE,
It can be deduced that
You = disgusting
Thought 3: When I get home, I'm going to post on Facebook this as my status: "I will never understand why people choose to smoke. Please someone give me a reason smoking is a better choice over a different activity that DOESN'T negatively impact your health." OR "Smoking makes no sense. Each time a person lights one up, they are taking a step towards an early death. So unless you're suicidal, why would you smoke? (and I'm not looking for rebuttals here)."
Then...Thought 4: Do people really consider dying in your 70's to be enough? Do they not realize that our bodies are meant, and intended, and coded, to live for 120 years? That means, if you die at 75, you die 45 years before you were supposed to when your body was first created. It blows my mind how anyone could be okay knowing they are practically ensuring an early death by smoking.
Thought 5: Woah Abby, take a breathe, smoking is addictive, some people can't help it. (and here is where my head got into a fight with itself). Aren't most people educated enough to know it's bad for you? And unless you're currently living under a rock and had been raised there your entire life, wouldn't you know that there are ways to quit? Why wouldn't someone do everything in their power to quit? Again, unless they seriously don't care about how long they live or what the quality of their life is....
Ok, I'm done. Mostly because by this point, I was home and had to re-focus on unloading what turned out to be the perfect rug for my kitchen :).
Hopefully I didn't offend you, but if I did, maybe you should quit smoking and then it wouldn't seem so offensive. (see....snarky...)
Nighty night.
Snarky
That's what kind of mood I'm in. Snarky. But I'm hoping to get some relatively interesting blogging done whilst in this mood. :).
Anyways, it's been a long night. My usual nights consist of getting Keller to bed (around 6pm), making dinner, cleaning up, and watching a little T.V. and then heading to bed around 9. Veeerrrry easy. Veeerrry chill. and Veeerrry domestic. Haha. Tonight has been different. In many ways, it's been an extremely productive and extremely positive night. And in just a few ways, it's put me in this mood.
Broghan's mom (my wonderful mother-in-law Janet), offered to purchase us new rugs for our dining room and kitchen.. We are in the process of giving it a face lift from the 'country kitchen' look we inherited with the purchase of our house just over a year ago and have been playing with ideas of how to update. Do I take on the task of tearing down all the ugly wallpaper? Possibly discovering, after scraping glue and gunk, that the walls themselves suck and will need replacing? (just like both of our bathrooms mind you) or Do I just go the easy route and paint over it?
Of course, I went the easy route. Which isn't really so easy since its taken three coats of primer and two coats of color to cover the darn patterns! Oh well. It's been a good and much needed change in that area of the house and the colors schemes are working out well with some of the decor we already have going throughout the house.
So new rugs it is. Our local Shopko was having a rug sale but it ended tonight...at 10PM when they closed and I had to wait until 7pm when Broghan got home to get a nod towards the 'square' design or the 'circle' design...(we went with square btw). Then it was one trip over to Shopko, which I was okay with. But the dilemma comes into play when I get home with said rugs and we discover that 1) we don't need all of the ones I got and 2) the second large rug (the one for the kitchen) just isn't 'flowing' with the rest. Meaning I have to get a new one...and if I didn't go back to Shopko tonight...it would no longer be on sale (and by on sale I mean 40% off...which for these size rugs is a steal and the difference between spending a decent amount of money and spending way too much). Soooo at 9PM when I am usually headed to bed after some relaxation on the couch in front of the tube, I'm back in the car, hauling this huge rug back to Shopko, and on a second mission to find a rug to create positive Fung Shui if you will, throughout our dining room and kitchen. Bleh.
Again, this is all really a big positive thing but I'm just being cranky, tired, and pregnant. Bleh. I'll post pictures when I get the motivation to do it and once the painting is finished. I just don't have to the guts to share with all of you how strange it all looks right now, half painted with these really awesome new rugs...weird. I just keep reminding myself...one day....one day it will all be done and totally worth every minute I spent working on it!
Anyways, it's been a long night. My usual nights consist of getting Keller to bed (around 6pm), making dinner, cleaning up, and watching a little T.V. and then heading to bed around 9. Veeerrrry easy. Veeerrry chill. and Veeerrry domestic. Haha. Tonight has been different. In many ways, it's been an extremely productive and extremely positive night. And in just a few ways, it's put me in this mood.
Broghan's mom (my wonderful mother-in-law Janet), offered to purchase us new rugs for our dining room and kitchen.. We are in the process of giving it a face lift from the 'country kitchen' look we inherited with the purchase of our house just over a year ago and have been playing with ideas of how to update. Do I take on the task of tearing down all the ugly wallpaper? Possibly discovering, after scraping glue and gunk, that the walls themselves suck and will need replacing? (just like both of our bathrooms mind you) or Do I just go the easy route and paint over it?
Of course, I went the easy route. Which isn't really so easy since its taken three coats of primer and two coats of color to cover the darn patterns! Oh well. It's been a good and much needed change in that area of the house and the colors schemes are working out well with some of the decor we already have going throughout the house.
So new rugs it is. Our local Shopko was having a rug sale but it ended tonight...at 10PM when they closed and I had to wait until 7pm when Broghan got home to get a nod towards the 'square' design or the 'circle' design...(we went with square btw). Then it was one trip over to Shopko, which I was okay with. But the dilemma comes into play when I get home with said rugs and we discover that 1) we don't need all of the ones I got and 2) the second large rug (the one for the kitchen) just isn't 'flowing' with the rest. Meaning I have to get a new one...and if I didn't go back to Shopko tonight...it would no longer be on sale (and by on sale I mean 40% off...which for these size rugs is a steal and the difference between spending a decent amount of money and spending way too much). Soooo at 9PM when I am usually headed to bed after some relaxation on the couch in front of the tube, I'm back in the car, hauling this huge rug back to Shopko, and on a second mission to find a rug to create positive Fung Shui if you will, throughout our dining room and kitchen. Bleh.
Again, this is all really a big positive thing but I'm just being cranky, tired, and pregnant. Bleh. I'll post pictures when I get the motivation to do it and once the painting is finished. I just don't have to the guts to share with all of you how strange it all looks right now, half painted with these really awesome new rugs...weird. I just keep reminding myself...one day....one day it will all be done and totally worth every minute I spent working on it!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Faith journey, The Shack, SAMmy's and Parenting - Part I
I've been contemplating this entry for a very long time. Somehow, I am going to make the bridge between my faith journey and my parenting style, even if it takes me multiple posts. :) .
So here we go.
Almost two years ago, I lost a daughter. A tragic and hard time in my life, but for me, it marks the start of what I consider to be my faith journey. In reality, this journey probably began long ago when my parents decided to have all of us girls begin our education at a Catholic school. I was taught religion and went to church. By the time we transfered up to public schools I think most of us could recite the mass just as well as the priest overseeing the service. It really seemed disconnected for me. Was there a God? Yea, I guess. That's what I'd been told and I'd talked with Him plenty of times. But really, I never understood (and still don't really or fully) what it meant to be in relationship with Him and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Speeding the 'rewind' segment up, two years ago my life and my perspective changed. My attitude and my ability to experience life changed and my journey began. As many know, my pregnancy with Madison was not planned. It was full of stress and worry about how having a child at 23, not married (heck not even engaged at the time), living far from family, and without a kick-butt job would ultimately change my life. I didn't lean into God. I leaned into myself and the people around me trying to do things the way I thought our world expected me to. God knew better.
It's hard to describe the immediate change I felt. I guess if I had to pin-point a moment, it would have been when we were driving back from the hospital. I believe down to my core, that I was filled with God's graces and the Holy Spirit on that drive (it felt like a warm bubble..and while I was sad, I was okay). It was the first time in my life I had felt that way and recognized it as such. And so, the faith journey began.
Now I hope I don't get too confusing here. I didn't know it was the big H.S. at the time. I just knew it was God and for the first time in my life I just knew. He was real and He was here.
So here we go.
Almost two years ago, I lost a daughter. A tragic and hard time in my life, but for me, it marks the start of what I consider to be my faith journey. In reality, this journey probably began long ago when my parents decided to have all of us girls begin our education at a Catholic school. I was taught religion and went to church. By the time we transfered up to public schools I think most of us could recite the mass just as well as the priest overseeing the service. It really seemed disconnected for me. Was there a God? Yea, I guess. That's what I'd been told and I'd talked with Him plenty of times. But really, I never understood (and still don't really or fully) what it meant to be in relationship with Him and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Speeding the 'rewind' segment up, two years ago my life and my perspective changed. My attitude and my ability to experience life changed and my journey began. As many know, my pregnancy with Madison was not planned. It was full of stress and worry about how having a child at 23, not married (heck not even engaged at the time), living far from family, and without a kick-butt job would ultimately change my life. I didn't lean into God. I leaned into myself and the people around me trying to do things the way I thought our world expected me to. God knew better.
It's hard to describe the immediate change I felt. I guess if I had to pin-point a moment, it would have been when we were driving back from the hospital. I believe down to my core, that I was filled with God's graces and the Holy Spirit on that drive (it felt like a warm bubble..and while I was sad, I was okay). It was the first time in my life I had felt that way and recognized it as such. And so, the faith journey began.
Now I hope I don't get too confusing here. I didn't know it was the big H.S. at the time. I just knew it was God and for the first time in my life I just knew. He was real and He was here.
Now bring in The SHACK. It's interesting looking back and seeing how things have been placed in your life to lay a foundation for later. This book was one of those. I read this book about a month before losing Madison. At the time, the themes that really shined bright were the ones relating to relationships. I, of course, kept relating it back to my relationship with Broghan and thought of it as a guidepost for us to look at. However, it played a pretty pivotal role in my ability to cope with my loss. The ideas of good and bad and how we're all God's children and how He wants to relate with us as such didn't seem important until looking at it in hindsight. (I'm hoping that if you have yet to read this, you'll be intrigued enough to go out and find it and read it).
Moving forward I began leaning more into God and my faith for comfort and recognizing what blessings I'd been given. Madison was a blessing. Broghan has been and continues to be a blessing. I leaned hard into him and into Him and survived particularly well in my opinion. I re-read The Shack and those other themes really stuck out and really stuck inside my head. Broghan and I began attending an amazing church and real understanding of the Bible began. Slowly, it began.
As I'm sure many of you know, my life has been put into fast forward for the past two years. Two babies (and one on the way), a wedding, a move, a new home, change of cars, change of lifestyle, new friends, new jobs, new interests and educational pursuits. It's been a lot. But I've also taken quite a bit if time and focused on my faith. Broghan and I began searching out a church home when we moved to Eau Claire and we spent a few months doing what I like to call "church hopping". We'd attend one, then another, then another, then go back to one of the other ones. We finally settled on one and have enjoyed the services when we've been able to go.
Also, last year after Keller was born I was invited by a friend to attend a local Christian mom's group called SAMmy's. It allowed me the opportunity to not only connect with mom's (such a blessing!) but to also have a safe, friendly, and low-pressure environment to test out my "God wings". (haha a term I just conjured up..but hopefully you understand what I mean)
sorry to end it short and in a weird spot...tired & the game is on..soooo to be continued!
sorry to end it short and in a weird spot...tired & the game is on..soooo to be continued!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Fun Fall days!
So as the leaves have now officially started falling off of our maple (I think it's a maple??) in the back yard, raking leaves season has begun as well. Two days ago I made the big attempt of using our blower to get everything into a big pile and really, it wasn't a pretty sight to watch. As I blew leaves and dirt and mulch one direction, God and his almighty wind attempted to blow it the other...meaning right back in my face. Bleh. But eventually I did make a decent enough pile that it didn't blow away over the next two days.
Yesterday, I spent some time in the morning being crafty (I'm not really all that crafty that often) and made our very own 'scarecrow'. He's not very scary...at all. But he's sturdy! So I don't think he'll be blowing away anytime soon or falling apart, which is really the main goal. This things got to last through Thanksgiving folks..
I also used some old socks and balled them up, covered them in $1 fabric I bought from our local 'goodwill' type store and made little hanging ghosts! Ah...so festive! haha.
Combine those with the corn stalks our neighbors had given us a few weeks back and I'd say we're pretty close to being fully decorated for this fall season. :) All we're really missing in a new flag out front (we currently have the American flag...which is good, but really, it's football season...so a GBPacker's one is really what needs to be waving out there).
Anyways, today I finally got around to bagging the last of the leaves and captured a few (and by few I mean two) good pictures of Keller. The other ones I got are okay, I mean, it shows him in the leaves and all...but he's not looking at the camera or smiling...so these were the best! And some video of Keller walking all around like he does, and Marvin being a bit of a spaz like he is.
Yesterday, I spent some time in the morning being crafty (I'm not really all that crafty that often) and made our very own 'scarecrow'. He's not very scary...at all. But he's sturdy! So I don't think he'll be blowing away anytime soon or falling apart, which is really the main goal. This things got to last through Thanksgiving folks..
I also used some old socks and balled them up, covered them in $1 fabric I bought from our local 'goodwill' type store and made little hanging ghosts! Ah...so festive! haha.
Combine those with the corn stalks our neighbors had given us a few weeks back and I'd say we're pretty close to being fully decorated for this fall season. :) All we're really missing in a new flag out front (we currently have the American flag...which is good, but really, it's football season...so a GBPacker's one is really what needs to be waving out there).
Anyways, today I finally got around to bagging the last of the leaves and captured a few (and by few I mean two) good pictures of Keller. The other ones I got are okay, I mean, it shows him in the leaves and all...but he's not looking at the camera or smiling...so these were the best! And some video of Keller walking all around like he does, and Marvin being a bit of a spaz like he is.
Update in Video format..
I try to get as much onto video as possible. Sorry that the quality isn't any better but I'm usually taking it on our digital camera and it can get tricky. Enjoy!
This is his awesome new skill of being able to climb off of things...like the couch.
Hanging in the yard..
This is what we like to call a Kiss Attack!
This is his awesome new skill of being able to climb off of things...like the couch.
Keller playing in his new Fire truck!
Update in Picture format.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
