Taking An Abby Day

I took the day off today and did nothing and it was absolutely wonderful.  No obligations, no email, and I only did whatever I wanted to do.  If you are able to take a day like this for yourself, I highly recommend it.  And do yourself a favor and set no expectations on the day.  I spent the morning sleeping in, enjoying coffee, and catching up on some reading.  I didn't get out of my pajamas until 1 PM.  It was awesome.

We have been busy lately.  Daulton turned 8 last month and I still haven't gotten around to taking the pictures off my camera.  We had a great time celebrating with family and friends and I can't believe he is 8 now.  He's not the little chubby 3 year old I fell in love with 5 years ago.  A smart, funny, and kind young man is in his place.

We went to an Indians game a few weeks ago and had a fantastic time.  Daulton's mom got us the tickets and we sat right behind the visitors dugout.  The starting pitcher gave Daulton a ball and then later, another player gave him a second ball.  Without hesitating, Daulton gave the second ball to the family sitting across the row who didn't have a ball.  It was very generous and Matt and I were both so proud of him.

We also got some bad news that my mom has Hodgkins lymphoma.  It is 100% treatable with chemotherapy so we are lucky that we can cure it, but it sucks to have to go through it.  If you want to follow her journey, I setup a blog at martharardin.com to keep family and friends informed while she goes through this journey.  She has already been through one round of chemo and it feels good to have the first one done and we know what to expect for the next round.  Daulton took the news very well and has been asking questions.  We've talked about what chemo is, that she will lose her hair, and that we have to be extra careful of washing hands and keeping germs away from her.

Baseball has also started for Matt and Daulton.  Its quite a shock going from the warmth and temperature controlled climate of basketball to the unpredictable spring weather.  I spent the first game with my hat on, snuggled in my fleece, sitting on a blanket, and keeping score with one glove on and one glove off (the glove was too big and I couldn't hold the pencil).  I only keep score and not stats and Matt can thank my dad for making me keep score for my siblings games for so many years.

Matt and I celebrated our wedding anniversary last week.  Some days it feels like we have been married for forever and then other days it feels like just yesterday.  This is not a marriage post but I will say that I feel that being married is a choice and it takes work.  Some days are easier than others and I couldn't ask for a better husband.

This is only a small fraction of what we've been up to.  Quite frankly, I don't want to write it all out as it exhausts me just thinking about it and I'm sure you don't want to read it.  I'm also still writing at Beyond The Defaults so you can also find me over there (and sign up for email alerts) or like us on Facebook if you want to be notified when a new post is up.

This post was Daulton approved.  If you don't know what that means then you should read this:  My Son Grounded Me From Facebook.

Here We Go Again

I was single when I bought the house we now live in and one of the selling points of this house was that the lot backs up to a wooded area.  In my single, suburban mind I was thinking "Great! I don't have any neighbors back there".  It never crossed my mind that wooded areas contain woodland creatures.

Yes, this is another animal post.  No, there are no animals living in the garage.  At least not right now.

Matt and Dixie spent at least 30 minutes on Friday evening watching two rabbits in the backyard.  I watched for about 5 minutes because they were just sitting there doing nothing and I got bored.  Matt and Dixie were riveted.

For the 5 minutes I did watch, they were eating, hopping around, and jumping over each other which was  fun to watch.  

But my fun turned to horror when Matt said, "That's it, I'm buying rabbit food".

Here we go again.

Luckily, the rabbits are not babies and there is no chance of capture and housing them in the garage.  Its not a raccoon and they are pretty cute.  And really, once you've had a raccoon living in your garage (part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4) some rabbits in the backyard that your husband may or may not feed and try to befriend are no big deal.

Some of you may be wondering where the Daulton content is.  There's been a change in the editorial review process and any Daulton related posts will now go through Daulton for approval.  For the story and how we came to this decision, you can read more here.