Happenings!!!

The little man turns two tomorrow. I can't believe it. I still feel like it was just yesterday that I was sitting at the hospital, waiting for hours, to meet him. I can't wait until he turns about 4 and I can take him to Twins games and really explain the game I love so much to him. It is such a joy and honor to be a part of his life as well as the lives of my two nieces. Children truely are a gift.
I must say, I am pretty proud of myself this weekend. I killed two spiders!!! I did it without having to put on a hazmat suit or call for reinforcments. Growth is happening! Maybe soon, I will be able to kill a centipede all by myself.
Had some interesting patients lately. It's funny because I really do enjoy working with people. I think I do a pretty good job with them, and feel that the majority of my encounters with customers are pretty good. This week was in a world all on it's own. I won't bore you with the details but I will say that I am surprised that I only cried once this week. I have been praying EVERY day on the way in that God will give me strength. This may seem weird to you, but I have been super-sensitive since I was a wee little girl and I have come to appreciate that part of who I am. I was the kid who made herself throw up from crying SO hard when I was little. It always makes me laugh, when I remember how my dad would handle my tears. He would look at me and yell "WHY ARE YOU CRYING?". As you can imagine....this only made things worse.
The state of Montana has a hit out on me, I'm sure of it. In the past month I have inherited a Montana Indian Health Patient and a Montana MA patient. Again, I won't bore you with the details of all that this means, but I will say it is not fun. If you remember, my troubles with Montana started this summer. Now, it serves as a comedy reel for my coworkers!
Hoping life is treating you well. There are a lot of changes coming up for me and quite a few of the people in my life. It is a pretty exciting time. I am really trying to live each day with joy and intention. So far, there have been a few challanges but I believe that it is worth it. May the Lord bless and keep you!

A new chapter...

So, it's been awhile since I've bored you with the details of my ever embarrassing life. Well, the wait is over. I've been somewhat busy lately but mostly I have not really felt like posting. The weeks are flying by and I can't believe the snow is almost melted. This is honestly the first winter in a long time that I wasn't ready to be over. The fact that my commute time is going to be halved will be nice.
So, let see...lately I have been, spending time with my nephew...I get to watch him every Wed. night and I can't tell you how much joy that brings me. My brother and Anna have done a great job with Elijah and I can't wait to watch what comes next. He turns 2 in a few weeks! I feel like I've done a pretty good job of scheduling my life lately. I never really knew this before....but I am a planner. I like surprises in gifts and such but not really when it comes to my time. I think I need to work on that though as I feel like I have aged myself quite a bit by not being more flexible and "fly-by-the-seat".
I just have to say, that I feel SO incredibly blessed these days. I have some of the best friends and family a girl could ever ask for. I have quite a few friends with some major things happening in their lives right now. Some good, some scary but all important. I am praying for you all and want you to know that I am thankful for you in my life. God is good!
Church- this has been quite a challenging area in my life lately. I LOVE my church. I started going to Substance last July and can't say enough good things about it. The problem is, I don't have a lot of single friends that are looking for a church or who attend Substance. I have had to do something that was WAY outside my box lately....GO SOMEWHERE BY MYSELF!!! It has been a challenge, but one that I believe will help me grow. I signed up to be a greeter at church and have a training day next week. Hopefully this will help me get plugged in. You may have never thought it possible but situations like this bring out a side of me I don't really care for... "shy Abbie". I am sure I will do a lot of growing through this process, can't wait to see what happens. I will keep you posted on any stories that make my face turn red:)
Fitness- One of my new years resolutions was to run a race of some sort this year. You may or may not know that I ran cross country back in school but I was never very good at it. I am typically not one of those people that accomplishes a lot of goals and I am trying to work on that. I joined the Gym a month ago and am trying to work out 4 times a week. I am starting to enjoy it and think I will start out slow, with the Twin Cities 10 mile but hope to eventually build up to some sort of Triathlon....this will be a process!
Organization- WOAH!!! I am SO not organized and it is really starting to get to me. I am in the process of simplifying my life. I am getting rid of a lot of clothes and other junk. The problem is I have a HUGE apartment right now but will soon be consolidating to a much smaller one. I want to be prepared, so it is not such a struggle. I also believe it is time for me to break some patterns and create newer, healthier ones.
This will be all for now. The baseball season is officially upon us and I am beyond excited. I am no longer speaking to my brother though, as he got tickets to the first 3 games of the season in LA. Must be nice to work for an airline. Oh well, I will just have to do the cheering from home!!!

Reason number 375,937,281....

I love my nephew!!! Don't get all animal rights on me....the cat LOVES it!!

Just Sayin!!!

It has been brought to my attention that I am a genius. You may think me vain for saying this, but hear me out. As most of you know, I am not really a Vikings fan. I don't dislike them, as the only two football teams I harbor dislike for are The Patriots and The Ravens. I consider myself a Steelers fan but that is only because I picked them as my team at the beginning of the 2005 season because after the boat scandal, I could no longer pretend to cheer for the Vikings. I would not normally switch my loyalties so easily but I felt the Vikes had no class and decided to cut ties before anyone (else) got hurt. This being said, I made an educated decision. I chose based on the QB of the team. I first chose Joey Harrington (based on looks) and then found out he was not a very good QB. I then picked Big Ben(not based on looks) and stuck with him. That year if you remember correctly....The Steelers won the Super Bowl. They have been "my team" ever since.
Now, back to me being a genius. If you know me at all, you know that I am a baseball fan. You know that in the summer, I am pretty much impossible to get ahold of unless you're a.) A Boy of Summer B.) A FSN announcer or C.) A season ticket holder. I'm sorry but I am pretty pathetic from February to October. This being said, I have had a quote attached to all of my work e-mails for the last six months or so. I changed it to stir up controversy with my coworkers that believe football to be a superior sport to my beloved baseball. I never knew the implications.
You see, it was brought to my attention that when the Vikes were playing the Saints on Jan. 24th. there was one point during the game that my face flashed through a few people's minds. Please read my quote and you will understand why a few of my coworkers now think I am so smart and also find me incredibly annoying!

"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for having too many players on the field?"

Watch it!!

I love winter. Anyone who knows me, knows that I really enjoy the changing seasons. This being said...I also like to dress up and wear heels. I learned my lesson this weekend though. I was going to my best friend's house for dinner and on my way had to stop to get cilantro and bean sprouts for the delicious lettuce wraps we were to partake in. The grocery store I went to was not one I was familiar with and so I spent a good deal of time in the "lettuce/herb/grass" section of the produce section. I was chatting with my sister on the cell while going between the two different sections I thought I might be able to find the cilantro in. As I was heading back to check section number 1 for the 15th time...I slipped on some water that was inconveniently placed on the floor. Now this might not have been such a big deal, but I was wearing a dress and knee high wedge heel boots. Yes I know, very stylish. As I fell to the floor, I threw my phone about 3 feet across the produce dept. I was slightly embarrassed (ok completely) but regained my composure and started to pull myself up. As I did this, I slipped on the same puddle of water and fell again. As this happened, I somehow found a way to slightly roll into a guy who was shopping for tomatoes. He looked up and asked "um...are you ok?" I, of course, made no eye contact and said "yeah, I'm fine." I got up, walked over to get my phone and explained to my sister what had just happened. She of course was very supportive and made sure I was ok before laughing so hysterically, that I had to turn the volume down on my phone. I told this story to my coworkers and they reminded me that they truelly believe that my life is a sitcom. I decided that I would not show them the softball sized bruises on both of my knees.

Haiti, the country that I know...the country that I love.

Ok, this is my attempt to help in ANY way that I can. I know you have all heard a lot about what happened in Haiti and what is happening. I am going to share from a personal side of things. I have been to Haiti twice. Both times were trips that I took in High school and both times, Haiti changed my life.
I have traveled quite a bit in my life, this country is BY FAR my favorite one. I have plans to go back someday when I can actually impact the country in a way that is needed. Both trips to Haiti were for medical and evangelical purposes. A team of students and adults went to conduct medical clinics in small towns around the country. The first trip we traveled 7 hours up a mountain and the second trip we went on a boat to a small island off the coast. In our medical clinics we took vitals, spoke with patients about their ailments, prayed for them and made sure that they got their worm pill. It was the the best we could do. We brought along glasses and did vision tests with some patients who claimed they had trouble seeing. It was a pretty basic operation, with pepto bismal and Tylenol being our major drug therapies.
That being said. These clinics changed my life. The people of Haiti are an amazing people. We would open the clinic in the morning, to stories of people that had walked for days and days to come see us. They had traveled mountain roads with only the sandals they had on their feet. Some were really sick. There were people of all ages and I will never forget the beautiful baby girl...who peed all over my dress! These people are fighters. They are thankful for small things. They are thankful for things that I expect, things I have never known a day without.

On one of the trips, we brought supplies to a town to help build a church. We (the Americans) were really excited to help get the process started and thought we really had something to offer. The Haitians were the fastest, hardest working people I had ever seen. They had a legitimate shelter built within 2 days. We mostly were just in the way.

We always brought our own food on these trips and had to eat our meals with the doors to our compound closed as there were quite a few children who would beg for food. One of the guys with our team gave in one day and gave a little boy his small cup of chili beans. Two days later, as were were walking around the community visiting with families, we found that little boy, hovered over a fire, heating those beans to feed his family. This is heartbreaking. This is something, most people I know, have never known or could even imagine.

We know Haiti is poor, we know they are struggling and some of us want to help. I am going to find a way to help as best as I can with this situation and just wanted to do my part to inform people of organizations I know about that are down there. Feed my starving children ( www.fmsc.org ) is an organization that brings food to Haiti, year round. I know they are already down there bringing food and can always use help either financially or by the giving of your time to help with packing events. Also, the American Red cross (www.redcross.org) is always a safe bet to donate to and if you text "haiti" to 90999, they will donate $10 and charge it to your phone bill (if you haven't heard).
Thank you for reading this. I love the people of Haiti and am praying for them daily. It is a country that has endured a lot but the people are AMAZING. Please enjoy the pictures as they are constant reminders to me of the land that I love!

And so, it continues.

I've started and restarted this post so many times I was pretty sure I would never get my feelings down. The holiday season is over and it was such an amazing and challenging time that I am somewhat at a loss for words. God is good...this I know. You may find it annoying that I constantly post this, but through EVERYTHING that I have experienced in my life, this has been one constant.
As a brief (yeah right) update on the happenings of December 09 through today I will post a few bullets of some of the most important things.

-Birthdays- Elise turned 5 and my dad and sister turned __ and __ in December. December is always a month FILLED with family time. I truly enjoyed it this year. Watching everyone (adults too) grow older brings a lot of joy into my life.
-Holidays- Christmas was with family and a great time. New Years was with some of my dearest friends and also..a great time. I love this time of year and was SO thankful for the large amount of snow that was provided right on Christmas. I am a true Minnesotan.
-Visits- Conni was in town and it was strangely odd for me to see one of my close friends...pregnant. I have adjusted pretty well to the changes that have taken place in all of our lives but I do believe this was one of the weirdest for me. I enjoyed SO much celebrating with her at her shower and also spending time watching her and Bryce as they prepare for this next change in their relationship. I am so excited to see what is in store. I got to have coffee with Steph and enjoyed catching up on her life. Seems like UMASS is treating her well and I can't wait to see what is in store. I may need to borrow some of her assertiveness soon as I plan on continuing my education. I am looking forward to a few dates I have set up in the next few weeks to catch up with old friends. I am SO a relationship person and LOVE catching up with people.
-Hardships- Christmas day was definitely a challenging one for me. This year was strange, with my nieces being with their other family, me deciding to work this year (in order to prevent getting drafted for next year), my brother having an incident with the snowblower, and a few other challenges that are a part of life as we know it. I am really striving for Joy in life right now. I know I wrote a bit about this on Thanksgiving but I just want to reiterate. There will always be challenges but through them, I do believe...there is a plan. My best friend lost her grandfather somewhat unexpectedly this year and although my heart breaks for her...I am SO thankful that she was able to spend time with him, somewhat near to his passing. I know in comparison to others, my life may seem like a piece of cake...and to be completely honest..I am SO thankful for what it has been. I do believe it is ok to tell God things are hard...but then it is important to move on to what is next in store while remembering what that trial has taught you. I also believe that in the midst of trials...He is still near and willing to hold you through the pain.
Blessings-My accountability partner got married on Janurary 2nd. It was one of the most amazing days of my life. To see Greta come from the past that she has, to see where God has brought her and to see the way He answered her prayers in a way that was above and beyond her dreams was SO amazing. I am so thankful for these moments. What a blessing to be a part of their story and to know that my own...whatever it may be, is in the works. God is working in me as well. I love the start of something new. Some people mock New Year's resolutions because they see them as rules that no one sticks too...SO WHAT! I find it important to set goals in life, and although I may fail...I will falter and I may not accomplish them, I see it as a source of hope. So, for me, this time of year is SO full of possibilities and hope. I may need to remind myself of that in May or September but I still think that is ok. The process is sometimes the most exciting part. So here's to a new year, here's to renewed hope, and here's most definitely to the increasing of my faith and desire to fulfill the most important purpose for my life...to go where HE wants me to go, love as He wants me to love and trust as He asks me to trust.