A Good One...

A friend let me borrow a book that helped her through a situation much like mine. It was awesome. I loved it. And I love this quote from it:

"In all adversity, there are lessons to be learned which can strengthen and enhance our lives, if we can only overcome the initial pain."

Maybe I like it so much because it applies to me right now. But it really does apply to everyone. Everyone has struggles, hard times, adversity. It sucks, but we DO learn from them and we are made better people through them.

I know now that I can help another woman through something like this. Even though every situation is different, I know what it feels like. I know the pain, the hurt, the anger, the mess of emotions that you will become. Nobody knows better than somebody who has been through it. And when you go through something like this, you need friends. People to tell you that you aren't crazy. That you will feel normal again someday. That it is ok to cry--it helps you heal. And that when you feel like you are over it, your world may come crashing down on you again. Random things may set you off. Things completely unrelated. But if you have supportive (and patient) family and friends... it helps. Some days you won't even think about it much. Other days you will be sad for no reason.

Anyways, I know I can now help on a different level if a friend ever goes through this. Not that you have to have this happen to qualify to help (not all my friends have), but I will know how she feels. I will cry right along with her. I'll hug her and tell her... I know. Because, unfortunately, I do know. And sometimes not much more needs to be said then just that... or a hug.

So these are the lessons I have learned: A deeper level of understanding to those who have lost a baby. A new appreciation for exactly how much of a blessing and miracle children are. Compassion. It takes time to heal. And that it is ok to cry. And that writing and talking about how I feel really does help... even though I feel bad for a few friends who have seen me be emotional for the past... 2 months?? But I guess if I were in their shoes, I would totally be ok with them crying. Especially since I now know what it is like.

But don't worry... I'm not going off the deep end in a depression or anything. It just took me a while to realize that I am still healing... and that it is ok to still be healing.

Brooklyn

FINALLY! I am posting pictures of this cute little newborn! She was 2 weeks old at her shoot, and still smaller than Abby was at birth! ;) Brooklyn was precious and cooperated well, except for the sleeping part... ;) I'd say we still got some really cute pictures though! Enjoy!















Here's her collage:


I love getting to take pictures of babies. I learn something new every time in both taking the pictures and editing them. It is fun. And I never mind having a baby around me! ;)

TAGGED

I decided to do the tag on this blog... because I just blogged my other blog to death! ;)

Tag, I'm It!

I was tagged by Mom. This is a 4x4 blog meme that reveals some little facts about me! It will be great fun getting to know my blogging buddies better. So check at the bottom and if you're tagged, copy and paste this into your blog and insert your four favs in each of the four subject.


1st - Four places I go:

-Church
-Target
-Library
-Playgroup


2nd - Four favorite smells:

-Babies!
-Tony... well, only sometimes! ;) But his jacket still has the smell from when I first knew I liked him. It brings back memories! Is that weird?! lol
-Food... you know, stuff baking... dinner or dessert! :)
-Freshly cleaned laundry... oh! And new cars!

3rd - Four favorite TV shows and/or movies

-Baby shows...
-American Idol
-I used to love Discovery Health... but now that it is OWN, it isn't as good... boo. But I also like this show called I shouldn't be alive...
-The Office
Shoot... I just noticed it could have been movies... but really, I think it would be hard to choose.

4th - Four recommendations

-Treat others the way you want to be treated
-Remember who you are (mom used to ALWAYS tell us that before we left the house... especially when we were teenagers... totally annoying, but we loved it!)
-Love your family and friends, no matter what
-Be happy. At least try to be. Because it could probably be worse. :)

Tag: umm Actually I should have thought about that first. I don't know who reads this blog... so I will name 4 people who I don't think have been tagged yet... Bethany, Finessa, Angela, and Erin.... or whoever else wants to do this that hasn't yet!

For Real This Time

Sadly, that last post really wasn't that happy... I guess I shouldn't blog when I'm not having a good day! Today I am, so I figured I would get a happy post on here. :)

I'm not really sure what I am going to write... but whatever it is, it WILL BE happy! :) Because I AM happy. :)

Ok, got it... What makes me HAPPY?

Music...I've been listening to a lot of music lately. Thanks to Pandora I can get any kind of music I want! And yesterday I dropped Abby off at a friends house so I could take pictures of a cute cute newborn! She was two weeks old and had red hair! I wanted to eat her up. She was tiny. She is smaller than Abby was when Abby was born.... HAHA! I think I will be cursed with beastly babies (thanks Tony). I guess beastly wasn't exactly nice, but you get what I mean... BIG! Anyways, onto my point... after I dropped Abby off I turned the radio on and listened to "big girl" music! I love that! :) It's the little things I tell ya!

Pictures... I love pictures. Good ones, bad ones... I just love them! Is that weird?! I love to look back and reminisce. It is fun. And taking pictures makes me happy. Even though I didn't take a single picture during playgroup today! (UGH!)

Friends. What a difference it makes when you have friends. I love all of my friends. I even love all of my facebook friends (wow, I just sounded really lame there...). Because it has allowed me to keep in contact with friends I've made around the world... in all my stages of life. When I was younger, whenever we moved, my friends and I would exchange addresses. Not email addresses, because nobody had those! Snail Mail addresses. GOOD GRIEF! I am OLD! Seriously, when did I get that old? I'm starting the "back in my day" stories! HA! Anyways, we would exchange addresses and write letters and send pictures to each other. Because over the 3 years I lived somewhere I made friends, and moving somewhere new was a little scary, but I always had my old friends. But over time, I lost contact with some friends. I lost them, literally. There was no shooting an email to get their new address. But I found quite a few on facebook and it was fun to see where we had ended up! And I also love the cyber mom friends I have. Yes, I have cyber mom friends that I have never met, but know well. Totally weird, I know. But you could compare it to a modern day pen pal... right?! ;) They are awesome though! And I really love my real life friends. Because, it is really important to have real life friendships too. Not that my old friends and cyber friends aren't real, but actual person to person interaction is important. I think... And although Tony is my best friend, it is totally WAY nice to have girl friends too! Because I want to do girl stuff too! :) (Wow... talk about the worlds longest paragraph!)

Family. Tony and Abby are two of the most important people in my life. And I am definitely HAPPY they are with me. :) And my family. They are pretty cool people. They make me happy. I love the humor we all have. It makes me happy. :) And Tony's family. They make me happy. And I am happy we live near both of our parents. I didn't have my grandparents around growing up. So this is all new to me. :) And I am happy that Tony has gotten back in contact with his father. And I am happy I am going to get to meet him and that he is going to meet his granddaughter. And the fact that he lives in Hawaii is a major perk! ;) Well... fun wise... not necessarily financial wise! ;) But that is ok. It is all totally worth it. Money IS just paper.

My Beliefs. Because without that, I think life would be A LOT harder. Speaking of which... I hope I get to see Bro. Mason again someday. He was an awesome man. He was one of those people who, when he smiled at you, you felt like he just gave you a hug and told you that he loved you. He married Tony and I. And actually, Zane is on our boy name list. We think it is a cute name, and it doesn't hurt that such a great man had that name too.

Nap Time. Yup! LOVE IT! :)

Photoshop/Aperture. Those two programs make my life easier! ;)

And speaking of which... I've got to work on the pictures I took yesterday! I'll probably post a few on here when I'm done!

So there you have it. A happy post! :)