happy birthday pop.

this year has taught me a lot of things... mainly it has taught me that we aren't promised tomorrow, that today is a gift, which is why its called a present. don't worry Pop, this post isn't your gift :)

to the man who had to rush into the hospital room, barely having enough time to take his gun belt off to witness my "not so beautiful" birth..... happy birthday

to the man who i use to pry open his eyes, after he worked dawns and ask "are you in there" because I had no idea what "dawns" were..... happy birthday

to the man who used his hands as a makeshift cup to hold water while i rinsed my bloody mouth out after rounding third and eating dirt..... happy birthday

to the man who annoyingly sings "we're all in our places with sunshiney faces and this is the way we start a new day"..... happy birthday

to the man who would do the "buffalo stance" while driving my friends home from slumber parties.... happy birthday

to the man who taught me about charlie worms, salmon eggs, night crawlers, how to shove an ice pick in a frozen tuna heads eye so we could put it in a crab net..... happy birthday

to the man who i saw cry for the first time when he knew what he had to do by giving his brother his kidney.... happy birthday

to the man who danced with me to "somewhere over the rainbow" on my wedding day... happy birthday

to the man who i think was in more pain than i was waiting outside the room while i gave birth to his first granddaughter.... happy birthday

to the man who lights up every time he hears "hi papa".... happy birthday

to the man who is his granddaughters best friend..... happy birthday

to the man who i am SO proud to be his daughter.... happy birthday pop. i love you.

leaving on a jet plane.

oh great. now i'm going to have that song stuck in my head! my hubby and i are heading out to catch a flight friday morning to visit our AMAZING friends the Salvino's, the Bickart's and the Nunnally's in O HI O. and the cherry on top, is when we all get to watch our STEELERS beat the CRUD out of their BROWNS.... what a fun day that will be!! so, if y'all would be so kind, could you offer up a little loving prayer to the big guy upstairs for a wee bit of traveling grace for us? we would greatly appreciate it!!!

facebook.

i graduated in 1995. that was 14 years ago, although, it seems like yesterday... i lost touch with a lot of the people i graduated with, people whom i thought i would NEVER lose touch with, even though i still live in the same town. thanks to this wonderful little online forum facebook, i have been able to reconnect with so many people. i love hearing about what everyone is doing, what they have done and what they are going to do...

tonight however, our class is walking down an all too familiar road. one of our own has passed away. Robby was so special. i can still picture him, hanging with the guys, with his amazing smile and his genuine laugh... i will be honest, i haven't talked to him since we graduated, but thanks to facebook, i knew what he was up to,what he had done and knew that he had just gotten married 2 weeks ago. i looked at his wedding pictures online and there was that smile. infectious smile. i am absolutely heartbroken... heartbroken for our class, for his wife, for his family, for all that knew him and for all those who will never get to know what an amazing guy he was.

facebook is helping our class mourn, relive memories, and let each other know how much we still love each other. in the midst of this horrible tragedy, i find myself thankful for facebook.

to the class of 1995, i love you all.

first day of school.

i knew the day was coming. we found the perfect outfit, a brand new tinkerbell backpack and the perfect princess lunch box. she was set. the only problem was, i wasn't. i did not want to let my baby go to kindergarten. i could not fathom the idea of not knowing her every move for 6 1/2 hours. would she be ok? would she eat all of her lunch? would she get along with everyone?

well, she proved to me that not only was she growing up, she also for a brief few moments, managed to show that she was still our little girl and take comfort in her daddy's arms... she let out one tear, just one, and then she was all smiles for the rest of the day... my little girl is a kindergartener. and i couldn't be more proud of her.

changes.

you may see this blog go through some changes... i get bored kinda easy, and my poor blog is going to be my guinea pig.

the first tooth.

aubrey grace has always been an overachiever. she was born 2 weeks early (thank GOD because she was 9 lbs 1 oz) she got her first tooth at 3 months, she knew her ABC's and could sing the song in tune before she could even walk, she has never been on a growth chart, always been taller than the rest, so it was no surprise to us that she would lose her first tooth at 4 1/2 years old. what was a surprise however, was how hard it was going to affect me.

my baby, my first born daughter is growing up. apparently whether i like it or not.

i am so proud of my growing daughter. she brings me such joy. the spirit inside of her amazes me. she is such a people person and genuinely cares for all around her. i love that she loves to sing on the top of her lungs. i love that she thinks she can speak "fish". i love that she has to sleep with her 2 "ni nights", pink puppy dog, red bear, blue bear, ellie and two flashlights, and if she doesn't have one of those, she won't sleep. i love that she wants to make me feel better. i love that she gets excited when we go shopping together. i love that she knows Jesus was a carpenter. i love that she now poses for me when i bring the camera out.

and, i love how much she loves her "sissy"

so much cooler online

i am totally that brad paisley song "so much cooler online" in real life, i am a total dork. so, you can only imagine what it felt like when the butterflies in my stomach had turned to vultures circling while i waited for my friend to get off the plane... my friend whom i had "never met"

let me back up a smidge. when i was pregnant with ava, i joined a message board that was on parents.com. i met a bunch of wonderful chicks and we each helped each other immensely! from sharing stories of heartburn to swollen feet, to first kicks to people's reactions to the names we all picked out, we bonded throughout our 3 trimesters.... then i was invited to join a spin off board, and there is where i really got to know these girls. they are all amazing individuals, whom i have a lot to learn from. i have made some of the best friends in the world on this board, and i have never actually met them. and that.... pretty much brings you up to speed on how i met "abby"

abby is amazing. she is a 28 year old mother of 4!!! yup, i said it, mother of 4 (well, 5 if you include her husband, LOVE YOU SAL!!!!) She is lucky enough to be a stay at home mom, the high school principal's hot wife, and in her spare time (ha, like she has any) she runs an at home bakery business http://www.salvinodolci.com/ by the way, her cookies are TO DIE FOR!!!

she decided one day, that she was gonna take a trip out to beautiful so cal....i was nervous... i mean, we have talked online almost daily for over 2 years, but the thought of actually MEETING her brought out those vultures in my stomach...i am soooo much cooler online, did i really want her to meet the geek?? the moment she stepped off the plane, those vultures were gone. we are SO alike, that we were both wearing red, white and blue outfits (not tacky mind you, we were both rocking RED shoes)

it was a very short visit, but long enough for me to realize how lucky i am to have abby and her family in my life. and, i have come to find out that abby and i are pretty cool in real life too!!!

here are a few pictures i took of this rockin' 28 year old mother of 4!!!