Birthdays in Heaven

These days I wonder about things in Heaven that I've never wondered about before - do they celebrate earthly birthdays? As I thought about blogging earlier today; I thought about writing about how this would probably be Ryan's best birthday ever because he's celebrating it with our Lord, Jesus. When I sat down to write just a little while ago, the thought occurred to me that maybe earthly birthday aren't celebrated in Heaven. Maybe they celebrate the day you came to Heaven, maybe they celebrate the day you gave your life to follow Jesus, maybe they don't celebrate any of those days because every day is a celebration. However it is, I'm sure Ryan had a blessed day.

Today would have been his 31st birthday. Aubrey sang Happy Birthday to him this morning and we took flowers to the cemetery tonight; she looked up to the sky and said, we brought you these flowers, happy birthday. It blesses my heart to know that she doesn't talk to the ground or the headstone, thinking that he's there; she knows he's in Heaven and that's somewhere in the sky that we can't see right now.

Aubrey went fishing for the first time today; she caught two fish.




-A

Living in Town

I don't think I'd ever dreamed that I would tell someone that I liked living in town, but I'm enjoying it. Aubrey and I stopped at the library yesterday on the way home from our dentist appointments so I could request a book for inter-library loan. She chose to check out a movie and they have to be back in a couple days. She was done with it today and after her nap, she wanted to talk a walk. We walked to the library and returned it, found another movie, and then we played on the school's playground for a while. It kept looking like it was going to rain, so we only played for 10 minutes or so before heading home. It never did rain!

Some of our backdoor neighbors came over last night. They have three children, one of which is just a few weeks younger than Aubrey; he will turn three at the end of August. They played on Aubrey's swingset for a little while. Aubrey wanted to have a picnic and eat lunch outside today so we did and then she wanted Reed to come over and play again, but they weren't outside, so she had to settle for playing with me.

I think I unpacked the last box today! I am mostly down to putting pictures up on the walls and organizing things. I still need to organize Aubrey's room and the bathroom closet. My aunts unpacked things and got them put away, but I'm not tall enough to reach everything on the top shelf in the cabinet! I'm glad it has been out of boxes though!

-A

Closing & Closure

We finally had a closing with the Wulber Family this past Thursday. This process drug on way longer than I wanted it to, but everything is taken care of now. I have about another month or two to finishing up Ryan's estate to the point where I can close that. Somewhere in between that time, I will also be able to close on the house I'm now living in and then I'll be a homeowner! That means I'm going to have to mow my grass. I didn't mind mowing the grass at all at the farm because I could ride around the yard for a couple hours in peace. I will have to push mow here because the yard is a little small to be mowing with a rider. I'm not sure if I'll enjoy it quite as much then or not, we'll see.

I also wanted to share with everyone that I certainly feel that this is the house that I'm supposed to be living in. Sometime during the week after we moved in, last week, my mom told me that two of my aunts watched a butterfly fly around the living room while we were moving in Saturday. I didn't see it, but the butterfly has been my sign since last August, so when mom told me that, it made everything fell comfortable. A few nights after we moved in, I could also smell Ryan's cologne in the house when I would walk in from the garage; I just had this feeling that he was here and telling me that I did the right thing.

I'm smiling a little more these days, although Aubrey has been asking for daddy a lot in the last few days. She "talked to him on the cell phone" from her swing set one evening this week because he didn't call her last Sunday. They must have been really busy in Heaven last week since he forgot to call :)

We are still slowly unpacking. I have a lighter schedule this coming week and hope to get rid of boxes upstairs and organize things that have already been put away.



-A

Unpacking the Kitchen

I was sure that it wouldn't take too long to get the kitchen unpacked. It was my singular goal every night last week. It finally got completely finished up yesterday. There are still pictures to hang on the walls, but there are no more boxes sitting around on the floor and everything has been put away in cabinets! My mom came up one evening last weekend while we were not home and worked on unpacking - there would probably still be boxes in the kitchen if not for her.

My next goal is to get the office unpacked. I have lots of books and so it seems to take me a while to determine which shelf I want everything on. I have 1 of the 3 bookshelves full, so I'm at least 1/3 of the way there. I moved some office supplies around and put into a cabinet last night and moved some garage sale things downstairs. I can see more of the floor now. I'll keep chipping away at it this week. There are a few boxes in the living room, but mostly boxes of decorations that I really don't need to unpack until I have everything else situated. The third project will be going through the closets that we unpacked for me and figuring out where everything is!

Thank you for your continued prayers. If anyone saw Aubrey's fingernail polish on moving day, let me know. She wants to have her nails painted and I can't find the polish.

-A

A New House

Thanks to lots of family members and a few friends, we were able to get everything moved to the new house. We had almost everything moved on Saturday. We went back Sunday for sand for Aubrey's sand box and the gator. I had help yesterday with moving my large kitchen hutch and a shelf from our bedroom. Now, everything has been moved. I've been slowly going through the process of unpacking boxes. I keep thinking each afternoon when I go home from work that I'm going to manage to get the kitchen unpacked. It hasn't happened yet. It is still my goal for tonight, we'll see.

We had a small crisis on Saturday because we lost Lilli (Aubrey's doll) and Aubrey had to sleep without her Saturday night. Part of me was hopeful that she wouldn't be found so that I wouldn't have to take her away someday, but the mom in me knew that Aubrey probably needed her, especially with this move. Luckily, Mamaw found her smashed between 2 boxes on Sunday afternoon.

We would appreciate your prayers as we are adjusting as well as prayers for a closing, as we haven't yet been able to close on either house.

-A

Packing, Packing, Packing

We have been doing lots of packing and moving boxes around the last 2 weeks. We are moving on Saturday. Please pray for us and for our friend Nicole Manges.

I will blog more next week when things settle a little.

April