Abby's 7!

Today is Abby's seventh birthday.  I can't believe she is already seven, and yet I can't remember life before kids.  She is my oldest kiddo, the one who made me a Mommy.  She is the trial-and-error kid, the test pilot, the leader of the pack.  She is my favorite Abby ever, the one who makes me smile, and sometimes makes me crazy.

Abby loves her little sister (and sometimes her little brother), she loves pink and purple and black.  She likes candy and frosting and requested steak for her dinner tonight.  She loves art, anything drawing, writing, creating.  She loves to play with the neighborhood gang of kids, and hates it whenever she feels like she's missing out on anything.  She is sensitive and sometimes shy and often nervous or anxious whenever she is doing something new.  And yet she is so brave and so tough I can't believe it.

I never wanted to have a baby in December, too close to Christmas and cold in the winter and everything.  Two years before Abby was born Jeremiah's mother died suddenly four days after Christmas.  It was heartbreaking and the next year Christmas was lonely and hard for the Gregg side.  When I found out I was pregnant I was elated!  We had been trying for a baby for almost a year and I was starting to get nervous, every month I would cry and think, I'll take any month, I don't care if it's winter, I just want a baby.  So, go figure, it ended up my due date with our first child was December 3rd.  Oh well, at least I got Christmas off from work!

God's timing is always perfect, and everything happens for a reason, to glorify Him.  The one month I didn't want to have a baby was the month He had chosen.  Jeremiah said looking forward to having our first child gave him a reason to like Christmas again.  And having a tiny baby made celebrating Christmas so much more special.

We found out she was a girl at the 20 week ultrasound and then tried to pick out her name.  We didn't tell anyone her name before she was born, only that it was a girl.  We chose Abigail because it was one of the only names we could agree on.  It's Hebrew in origin and depending on where you look it means "father's joy" or "gift of the father."  PERFECT!  A baby, sent from God, at Christmas time, for my husband.  Abigail in the Bible was one of King David's wives and considered a righteous woman.  Her middle name is Elizabeth, in the Bible she was Mary's cousin, the mother of John the Baptist.

My little girl, she's turning into a big girl.  I love watching her grow up and, as much as I miss her as my little tiny baby, it's wonderful to see the person she is becoming.

Happy Birthday Abby!  I love you!

Monthly Mission - New Month, New Mission

Well it's December 2nd, how did that happen so soon?  Of course we are having a hard time believing it in Colorado because it has been 60-something degrees forever.  It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when the kids are wearing shorts.

So my mission for this month, and I'm excited about this one, is exercise.  I'm more excited about this than giving up the internet.  I have chosen Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred to torture myself with.  And I've already learned a few things about myself.

1. I am out of shape.  Really out of shape.  I was grunting and yelling in my basement today trying really hard to get through the easiest workout.  And my body hurts, a lot.
2. I don't think I'm going to like Jillian Michaels much longer.
3. I have muscles where I didn't know I had them, and they all hurt.
4. Motrin is my friend.

It's going to be a long month.

I hope at the end of this month I will be stronger, have more endurance and more energy.  I'm not trying to loose a bunch of weight, but it would be nice.  I really just want to be healthier.  I'm thinking somewhere around day 10 I'm going to want to give up, or skip a day, and it's then that I need to maintain my self-discipline and get my butt out of bed and down to the basement first thing in the morning.

Wish me luck!