Too Much Stuff

I'll admit it, I've never been a neat person. I can't even be considered "on the messy side". No, my room is always beyond messy with wrappers, notebooks, candy, hairbrushes, iPods, books, papers, and who knows what else covering the top of every surface. When my mom would put laundry on my bed I'd just end up shoving it down to the floor when I had to sleep, so it's gotten to the point where she just puts it on the ground. It's still there, right behind me :). My floor, as I just mentioned, is almost as messy as the dresser tops. Purses, sweaters, pillows, blankets, and most of all- clothes. I know the average method of cleaning is shoving things under dressers and beds and such, but now mom has to check those. I'm about as bad at cleaning my room as keeping it clean. But the only thing that I'm worse at than cleaning (no, it's not math, although I'm not exactly good at that either) is throwing away stuff. As my mom calls it, "purging". We have done a lot of that lately in our house. We've had points where the WHOLE PORCH was filled with crap to give to the purple heart people. After years and years of keeping all of my childhood toys and other junk in my closet and the storage room, the time has finally come. I can't keep it. So my options are- I sell it/throw it away, or mom throws it away. Since I have a ton of old American Girl Doll stuff that I could get some money for, I'm definately selling all I can. But you really never realize how much crap in general you have until you are forced to CLEAN through it and GET RID OF IT. Two things that I am an utter failure at. I'm one of those people just can't bear to part with anything. I get it from my Dad. But I keep memorable stuff, like art projects, stuffed animals (I'm not getting rid of ANY of those lol), dolls and other toys that I've had lots of fun with. Now I'm ready to give them up because all I ever really play with is my iPod touch and my laptop. My dad saves things like half empty spraypaint bottles that are duplicates. Or maybe even triplicates (I invented a new word!!!). Who knows, we MIGHT need those someday. That's why mom helped clean the garage. And that's why we don't have the spraypaint bottles anymore.


Now, I am preparing to face the ultimate challenge. Like I'm on Survivor or American Idol or Minute to Win It or something like that. Although I don't get money, which is a bummer. I have THREE DAYS (or less, I'm not sure) to clean my room. And not just clean my room, CLEAN CLEAN my room so it's SPOTLESS and it practically shines and there is nothing but furniture. Since I'm selling almost everything in my closet and boxing up the rest (for moving), it's not a huge deal. The real challenge - I have to somehow manage to keep the desktops clear and the floor clean for SIX MONTHS (or however long we're still here). I had to keep my room "clean" for 3 months before I got my hamster. Parker helped me by keeping his messy so mine LOOKED clean in comparision. That's why he went from neat kid to messy kid.
I don't think I'm ready for this........


Oh, this morning I found a really cool verse about how God has plans for our lives and stuff. Underneath my blog title I wrote "God is always there and he always has a plan" or something like that. This verse, Jeremiah 29:11, is like that only and actual verse and I didn't make it up. The problem- I don't know how to edit that without screwing up my entire blog (which I have already done twice). So if anyone could help it would be much appreciated :)


<3 Abby

The Big News

Happy 2011!!! Well, I haven't updated for awhile. My computer is known for getting trojans almost every time I go online and my Avast thing expired, so I was a little wary of going on the internet. But I decided to risk it.

I thought last year was the biggest year of my life. I think part of it's just middle school. I guess that's when you really step into the real world. I don't know if it's necessarily that more events happen, but I think you just notice everything more. However, in my case a lot of things had happened.

As many of you know I had surgery in July, another surgery in November (and a miraculous recovery, I may add), and there was talk of moving around my house. I won't go into any detail or anything about the move, although I will say that there's a really neat God story behind it.

Now, after the initial talk in July of 2010, we are officially selling our house and moving south.

I have lots of different feelings about this. You could say that I was bribed because with moving comes a facebook, a cell phone, and a dog. I was kind of off and on with the idea. When it was bitter cold out, my friends were giving me a hard time about stuff, and I had been looking at puppy pictures online, moving seemed like it could be good. But then on days when I was having fun with my friends, like when I went to Noodles & Company with Libby (they don't have those where we're going) or to Discovery World with Amanda, I wondered how it would be possible to leave everything here. One big thing that we have now is our church, New Vision. It's the most amazing thing ever! As much as I love the friends I had at Fox River, I have made tons of great friends at New Vision and have had a great time there. I'm really sad to leave it, because I have no clue what southern churches will be like.

As I'm sure most people have noticed, our snow has completely melted. And just in case that has caused a mix up with your mental calender, it is in fact JANUARY not APRIL. I just find it funny that this is a normal thing in Georgia yet here it's about as uncommon as food falling from the sky or something. I think it's my little preparation for their strange and unfamiliar Christmas weather. When my dad went down there to check out the place he said he saw a guy doing laps in an outdoor pool. This was back when we still had snow on the ground, thank you very much. It's weird.

(A Morkie. Picture from Google Images)

Like I mentioned, I've been VERY interested in looking at getting my dog. The breed I want is a Morkie, a mix between a Maltese and a Yorkie. I could go on for hours with all the information I've learned, but that would be boring. So I added a picture of one that I found on Google. They're really cute!

-Abby

Well, this post might turn out a little odd because blogger is being a retard to my iPod and random things keep happening. I can't use my laptop because I'm laying down and it kind of hurts to sit.
Yesterday i was released from the hospital. I got home around 5:30. I was more thankful than ever on thanksgiving after my miraculous recovery. We expected to be there for at least a week to a week and a half. I went in monday and came home just 4 DAYS later on Thursday. That's only 1 1/2 days after I went home last time.
I can't believe that I'm officially done.hopefully no more surgeries ever!

My mom and I requested to our surgeon before I went into surgery for him to fix a little intented scar I have to the right of my scar. It caused a lump next to it and I didn't like that. Since this was going to be my last surgery, we wanted everything perfect. When they were fixing this little spot, they found out that itwas a hernia. That saved me an extra surgery right there!

I'm so thankful for everything that's happened this year. For my amazing doctor, my amazing recovery, my family, my friends (who brought me THE BEST cookies ever!), and just everything I have.

-Abby

EVERYTHING!!!

I haven't posted in awhile because I'm banned from my laptop and ipod due to my math grade :( I figure mom and dad won't mind this because I'm using the basement computer and my homework's done. Anyways, a lot has happened since I last posted. I'll start out with Thursday. This is really random but - our dishwasher started on fire (nothing else did, it was just smoking a ton when mom opened it) and is now broken. So we're getting a new one soon.
I also went on an AMAZING church trip with New Vision called Aquire the Fire. It was an amazing God experience and God really spoke to me about things in my life I needed to change and things I needed to stop changing. We also met this guy who was a friend of someone one of the girls in our group knew. He was forced to come and had a lot of issues with religion so we talked to him about it for awhile. And, just a little something for those who went to ATF: "FLEE!" and "Simmer, Cody, Simmer." (THE BEST COMEDIAN EVERRRR!)


And.......Another big thing coming up.........
MY SURGERY!
I have started a surgery countdown in my assignment notebook. I have
16 days left. Wow.
As I explained above, some issues with math are making me out of touch. HOPEFULLY all is fixed by my surgery and if it is you can contact me by -
-my email
-my moms facebook
-THIS BLOG
To be honest I'm kinda nervous, so please pray. But one good side to this....I get to wear fuzzy pj pants for the rest of the winter! Mom bought me like 5 new pair, and I've decided to list them all.
-red and velvet-fuzzy with pink polka dots
-brown and velvet-fuzzy with multicolored dachshunds on them
-super fuzzy zebra print
- white and SUPER SUPER SUPER fuzzy with blue stars on them (and slippers to go with)
-a SUPER SUPER SUPER fuzzy blue bathrobe with froggies on it!
Okay so enough with the pajama pants. One big thing I REALLY want prayer for is
1) that the surgery goes well
2) I heal fast and well
3) that it's the last one, no surgery #10


Today we had our early Christms/Thanksgiving celebration with my Aunt Kay. It was different than usual - it was at my aunt and Gramme's house, my Illinois cousins weren't there, it was a brunch instead of a lunch. But it was better than nothing (like last year because Aunt Kay went to Florida early). And guess what Aunt Kay got us...
A xbox with kinect!!!! it's the coolest thing ever!!!!
So we've been playing that for most of the day :) I still can't figure out how to work it...might take awhile lol.

<3 Abby

My Awesome Weekend!!!

I had a pretty awesome weekend this week in Illinois! I left school early at 1:45 (I missed Tech Ed, but my AWESOME FRIEND AMANDA got me caught up again <3). Dad picked us up and when we got home Cal and my Gramme were there waiting to go. We left right away, but we had horrendous traffic so it took us about 4 hours to get there. But when we did, I had a great time with my cousins! I petted Red and Kitty (those are horses by the way)  and I even took a ride on Red, although he's extremely huge. And I got to meet Bullet the baby goat. He's so cute!
Mom's talk at the conference went well, although the video of me didn't play. They just read my testimony instead.
The ride home was a lot better than the ride there. It was only about 2 hours - no traffic at all!


I can't wait to see Morgan and Devyn and Aunt Kay and all of my other Illinois relatives again! :)


It was an interesting trip, though, because it made me wonder how many changes there would be for everyone in a year. My aunt was really excited about me getting a dog (in a year) in the car, my Gramme was talking about retiring and stuff (in a year or something like that) and, of course, there's always that interesting option of moving to Georgia, which would be taking place in about a year from now :P . Oh, and my last surgery. Almost forgot that one.


As I write this, a game of Monopoly is going on downstairs...I can't stand board games. In my world, I think they should be called BORED games, because I lose interest after about five minutes. And they're so predictable - Parker's going to win every time, it's really a no brainer. Plus Monopoly is too time consuming and frustrating. It's worse than Agrivation - but then again , Agrivation doesn't take 4 hours to play. Is it just me, or does anyone else have a low attention span for board games? lol :D

<3 Abby

This Week

This has been an interesting week. I'm sick with this really strange virus thing and I've been home since yesterday. Plus I slept all of Monday afternoon after I got home from school. I'm not going to jinx myself by saying that I'll be at school tomorrow, because thats what I said yesterday, but I'm hoping I can go back. Though, I have to say, it's been nice sleeping for practically the entire day. 
Yesterday I decided to count how many days until my surgery. I think it's 40 or 41. It's a little over a month away! Last night I freaked a little though because my stomach hurt, and whenever that happens I start worrying about having a bowel obstruction again. I was starting to wonder if my surgery would be 41 days early.... 
AND because I need something else to write, I am just going to congratulate my mom for going on Facebook, adding SIX WHOLE PICTURES, and posting and replying to posts.
I'm hoping I get over this sickness thing so that I can go to Illinois to see my awesome cousins on Friday! 
And, for anyone who hasn't seen Parker since the weekend, he's fine now. My mom said that they were planning on doing his IVIG things in two days now instead of one so he won't feel so bad. I just figured out that you could insert videos on this site! I should try that sometime! I have this really funny one when we were cleaning out the fort and dad found a live mouse AFTER he "killed them all". 
The last random update- we no longer have a lawn. The trees started losing their leaves and when you have a yard covered in oak trees, your lawn becomes....brown. Literally every inch of the lawn is covered in leaves. It's kind of cool, actually.

So anyways, that's this week so far, I'm going to stop going on about random things.   

<3 Abby

Why I'm Glad to be Me

Today Parker had his IVIG. I hope it's going well, I haven't heard from mom or dad yet.
This morning I was alone downstairs for awhile, which isn't usual because Parker usually beats my by about 15 minutes :). When my mom came down she told me Parker was sleeping in, well, because he didn't have to get up early since he wasn't going to school. It made me wish I had JDM instead of Gastroschisis. I mean, even when you're in the hospital the doctors wake you up at 6! But then, I realized all the reasons why I'm glad to be the one with the birth defect.
1) I'm absolutely mortified of shots. Parker's disease requires one shot per week, plus you are actually AWAKE when they insert the IV for his IVIGs. For surgery, you're asleep. I'm so glad, I would abosolutely freak and scream and cry (I said I was mortified, did I not?).
2) Parker has to take a nasty medicine called prednisone every day. I took it once for a week because I had a bad cough. I am now very sympathetic for him. Although, the really nasty pain medicine I got in the hospital(which, for the record, worked just as well as tylenol) was cherry MINT. The only thing worse than cherry...
3) Parker has to wear sunscreen every day, 70 spf. Though, sadly he's tanner than me. Or at least equal. I inherited the Norweigen tanning inability from my dad, not the awesome tanning like mom. I don't like sunscreen or wearing it, because when I do I can't even ATTEMPT to tan.
4) And last but not least, my birth defect will essentially be "fixed" after this surgery. No longer will it affect me. Parker's JDM will affect him the rest of his life. He doesn't like that aspect much. I pointed it out once, and he didn't seem to like it. I wouldn't either if I were him, though.

Parker's disease, though, has proably taught me more than my own Gastroschisis. But, I'm still glad I didn't end up with it :)

<3 Abby