Forcing Myself

Since my sister has passed away, it's been hard to motivate myself to blog anymore. It's like I want to because I love it, but it also brings up a lot of pain of missing her. She's the reason I started blogging and we even talked about starting a blog together. I was always excited to see if she had read my latest blog post yet and left a comment. It breaks my heart to kinda move on too. I know she doesn't want me to feel this way, but it's still hard. I think I just need to start forcing myself and hopefully it will get easier... So here I go, forcing myself...

Here are just some photo's of nothing particular, taken before Christmas.

Atalia with some paint on here face.

The rest are from some time we spent at the park with my parents.

I thought it was funny that Atalia has her purse in her hand while she's going down the slide.

Okay, it's not much, but it's a start.

Sisters

(Not an actual picture of us, just one that I found that speaks volumes to me)

My sister, Jennifer Shira, passed away January 9, 2012, in a car accident. I've tried over and over again to write a blog post about her for the last two weeks, but I just get overwhelmed with the grief of losing her that I can't finish. There's a lot I want to say, but I don't think I can do it just yet.

In the meantime, I just want to say that I love my sister so much. She has been exactly what I needed in this life. I depended on her a lot in so many different ways and she was always there for me. There was a very special bond that we shared that is very hard to explain. When we were together, we were in our own little world. We always dreamed of being neighbors and talked about it often. We'll be neighbors in Heaven and it will be the happiest reunion when I see her again.

A Quarter Of A Century

Dec. 1, I turned 25. It feels weird saying that. I feel like my twenties have flown by! I don't like it. The older and older I get, the faster and faster time flies... scary!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

So, I like holidays.. A LOT. I love an excuse to celebrate. I think it must put a lot of pressure on James to make my Birthday's nice. Sometimes I think it's hard to be married to me. Anyway, James did a great job making my Birthday really nice.

He started with Birthday Eve, something he made up, bringing me home some flowers and letting me open one of my gifts.

It was a sweet surprise.

Then he stayed up till two, making me a peanut butter chocolate cheese cake from scratch. It was YummY!

James woke up and made me breakfast. He surprised me and came home early from work. We went shopping, opened my other gift, ordered pizza, and watched Biggest Loser on Netflix... while we ate my Birthday cheesecake. Pretty perfect, really.

I always tell James that the day after your Birthday is always so sad because everyone stops treating you so nice. He must listen to me because he made me breakfast in bed the next morning too, saying I deserve to be treated like every day is my Birthday. Very sweet. He really made my Birthday really special.

"Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many." -Unknown

Saw that quote and it made me feel ashamed for my attitude towards getting older. I think it's a good reminder to enjoy the present and where you are in life.

Fun At The Movies

We saw Puss In Boots with my parents. Going to the movies is my favorite. It's so fun with Atalia too. Seeing the parts in the movie that make her laugh and having her little hand sharing in the popcorn bucket is so sweet.

Oh. My husband is a Jedi.

Oh. My daughter is a jedi too.

The force is strong in my family... or dorkiness, take your pick.

It was a cute movie. Had lots of fun seeing it.

Thanksgiving 2011

A quick rundown of Thanksgiving...

I made turkey cupcakes! Festive.

Here's the turkey army.

Tali enjoying her first turkey cupcake.

Staring down her turkey.

Playing with Poppie.

Just a short video that I thought was very sweet :)

Thanksgiving dinner. Yum Yum!

My ABSOLUTE favorite!! Broccoli casserole! Tali helped me make it.

I made a Banana Blueberry Pie. It was yummy!

What's better than making a craft while letting all that food settle?

I could only convince James to make one. I think he enjoyed it more than he let on.

My favorite one.

That was our Thanksgiving!