Ayres Insanity

  It just occurred to me that I never wrote about Callae's first birthday, I mean really, what kind of mother forgets to blog about her only daughters first birthday? A frazzled one, that's who! Anyway, she turned one on August 10th and we did have a little party. It was a BBQ with family, girly balloons and a pink cake covered with pearls and topped with a sparkling singing candle (which might I add, was a big hit), and as most first birthdays, we enjoyed it more than she did.   I bought her her first baby doll, and she of course, got plenty of clothes and was spoiled by the grandparents.   She is now 13 months and started walking about 2 weeks ago, the time has flown and I can't believe my baby is becoming a toddler! I sure do love that beautiful little girl and can't picture my life without her.

  So for those who know what has been going on lately, it's no secret that we've been sporting one car lately.   About one very long month ago, Russ called in the morning and woke me up with the news of a broken down car (nice way to start the day eh?) so I packed up the kids and towed him to the repair shop. After fixing a broken radiator, the  piece of crap rice rocket 1998 Honda Civic hatchback revealed a hopelessly non repairable engine. Ummm seriously? I could swear that it was just barely over a year ago when the EXACT same thing happened to our Pathfinder. Who has this kind of luck???   Well, our mechanic quoted $2500.00 for the repair, (yeah right, we're still paying off last years $5000.00!) so after much prayer and contemplation, we decided that it simply wasn't going to happen. Russ decided to find a used motor on his own and with the help of his awesome brother, they would do the repair themselves. They spent several hours Friday night and literally all d

  I have been abundantly blessed in my life, but tonight I'm a little bit sad. I'm sad for a friend who is experiencing trials, for the trials that have been going on in my life recently, and for the challenges we face daily, simply because of the world we live in.   Something that I've realized about trials is that we all have them, and there is always someone out there that probably has it worse. Having said that, I believe that just because an others trial might be worse, we should not count ours as trivial or insignificant.  Our trials are ours, ours to dread, to fight through, and to learn from... and although perspective is important in order to cope, it is of equal importance that we take the time to cry for ourselves, wonder why, and plead for  divine help. And then we move on, hopefully better than when we started.   So with one of my favorite quotes in mind; "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it".  I'm planning on tomo