30 Days of...

Day 13...

Today I am thankful and happy to be home! 

I love hearing our boys playing together, even tho they always start off fighting, after about an hour or so  they adjust and they always find their groove and get along!! Laying on our couch, with the hubby on the other watching football is one of my favorite lazy things to do!

So today it is simple.... I am thankful to be home!

Always - Abbey

30 Days of...

Day 12...

Today I am thankful for family! Immediate family, extended family, and my in-laws, who I hate referring to as that because they are my family plain and simple!!

Through my life family has been a constant... there aren't many memories I have that don't involve my family!! I have only been one place for New Year's Eve, my whole life... my aunt's house with my 30+ family members! Every Thanksgiving for the past 11 or more years we have gone to Shane's mom's house, elaborate Italian weddings, birthdays and the way we all scream the song at you... You name it and I can probably tell you a funny family story to go with it :))

Through good times and bad, family is there to give hugs, advice, to poke fun, to cry, to dance, and to share every moment to it's fullest!! As I have grown up I have gone from thinking a huge family is the best and easiest thing to be a part of, to experiencing first hand how much work, effort and love goes into keeping a family together! I am thankful for that experience because it has taught me how precious my own family of 4 is and what it takes to make our family thrive!!

This weekend, I am headed to Austin with my parents, my little man and some of my cousins for a wedding! Although I am sad that my hubby and oldest can't join us because of soccer, I know that we are going to enjoy fun times, telling of stories, dancing and laughing!!! That's just how my family rolls... and I love it!!! So Thankful :))

Always - Abbey

30 Days of...

Day 11 or 11-11-11

A once in a lifetime date, or a date that is special every year... either way it is a date to give thanks on!! Today I am, hopefully like most all, thankful for freedom! But even more so I am thankful for the veterans who have sacrificed their lives and continue to do so, so we can be free! 

It seems like such a simple and easy thing to say, Thank You, or a simple thing to be, Thankful... but today it just doesn't seem like enough! Being that my family hasn't been touched by war directly, had close relatives who have fought in war or given of their time to the Armed Forces... it's hard for me to think that saying Thank You or just being Thankful is enough!! For me, I want to do or say more to give back to the men, woman, and families who's lives are affected and altered because they fight for our freedom!! 

When I see pictures like this...

My heart just swells with emotion and my eyes can't help but fight back tears! The sacrifice given by so many is indescribable and too enormous for my mind to even comprehend sometimes!! I love the scene in the movie Valentine's Day where Julia Roberts, playing a solider, is flying home. The whole movie they play it so you think she is anxiously waiting to see a man, her husband or a boyfriend. But at the end it is her son that she is dying to see and is rushing back to spend time with, no matter how short that time may be!!!! That just sums it all up for me... sacrifice, devotion, love, honor, and insurmountable pride!!!

So.. today I am thankful for just that!!! It may be the only small gesture I can make right now today, but  if that is what I can give so I can see this on a daily basis, I will gladly give thanks...

Our boys, holding hands on the 4th of July, going to see fireworks without a care in the world... because someone in a far off place or close to home is fighting for their freedom!!

Happy Veterans Day!!

Always - Abbey