TGIF!

This was a great week. Sissy and I handled Mom being away from us quite well. Sissy took care of Asa this week with some help from Grama and they did great. By the way Sissy, you are amazing. You have met me every morning this week with a smile and a sense of joy that I haven't seen from you in a while. I'm glad that you are well and I have loved spending time with you and Vali. I am truly blessed! Thank you God!

We are going to Goldendale this afternoon to spend the weekend. I am excited to go. Mom and Papa are there already and Sissy, Uncle Norm, Vali, Asa and I are going to ride up together. Sans Josh, he has to work. We are going to be getting firewood, so it will be back breaking work, but sometimes that feeling of being exhausted and aching from doing hard labor makes me feel like I have accomplished a great feat. I thank God that I'm ABLE to do physical labor. I have legs and arms and am healthy. I'm sounding a bit Pollyana today aren't I? Like I said, it's been a great week.

I'm so proud of myself for keeping it together the last couple of weeks. I haven't cried or felt hopeless. I'm happy and feeling very thankful for that.

I am missing my Grandmother as this will be the first holiday season with out her. A lot of things that I see and smell remind me of her. I guess that is a good thing. I was close enough to her to be reminded of these memories. I miss her. For the first time,Sissy and I will be celebrating Dia de los Muertes this year on the 1st. It's a Mexican/central/south American tradition of remembering the dead and their legacy that they have left to the living. Maybe it will make a difference in how our children will deal with death and hope after ward. Even though I wasn't very close geographically with my grandparents on my dad's side, they are gone and I am missing them. They are what created and molded my dad and made him the strong, hard worker my dad is today. It will be interesting to trade stories and memories of our ancestors that have gone to heaven.

Yesterday, Sissy came over to pick up Valentina. I got to have her for a bit since Sissy had another doctor's appointment. Sissy rummages though my books just about every time she visits. She is a book hound. I don't have many books, I just check them out from the library. This time while rummaging, she found Asa's baby book. I had written very little, but loved hearing the stories that I wrote about during Asa's first year. I had totally forgotten pretty much everything that I had written. I have never had the patience to be a journal writer, but am glad that I can document some of Asa's stories and milestones on this blog. It will be so fun as time goes by to read these old posts and relive the memories. One small memory from the baby book. Asa would laugh and giggle uncontrollably when Josh or I would say "DON PEDRO!". I can't remember for the life of me where this came from. Parents do such weird funny stuff when trying to get an infant to laugh.

Asa and I have been playing Go Fish lately. I can't explain to you how adorable I think it is when he says "Mum, do you have aaaaaaaaaaa porcupine puffer?" After he got a matching pair the other day, he was excited and said "WOW! that's impressive! I'm very impressible." I busted up. He prefers to play with me, than Josh. Asa says that Josh doesn't play serious, that he just wants to joke around and that Daddy "cheats". After playing a hand with Joshua, I agreed.

Well, we are off to another adventure filled weekend with the family.

Shake N Bake!