Apple Picking

This morning me and Owen went apple picking with our friends Katie and Trey while Kylie was at pre-school. We went to a local farm called Ackerman's Farm in Morton, I absolutely LOVE this place! Not only is if free but they have nearly all your typical farm animals which toddlers seem to be able to enjoy for hours. Although it seemed their favorite part was chasing the kittens around. Eventually we wandered over to to orchid area and picked the best apples on the planet, HONEY CRISP! They are like candy! And then we went through the cutest gift shop around, I just love it and even picked up a few candle decorations. They had pumpkings, ghords, and indian corn gallor strewn about as well so I was in full fall mode when I got home and even though I didn't have plans to pull out the dusty cobweb boxes of fall decor I did and spent the afternoon putting them out. I am loving fall right now, the weather is amazingly perfect, definately my favorite season. Here are some pictures of our fun morning!

Two Years

I have no idea how to title today or what to even call this day, sure there are probablly lot's of nice politically correct or spiritual ways to name this day but nothing is resonating with me just right, and quite frankly the main thing going through my mind is that it has been 2 years today since my little world spun off it's axis. So for me it's a day to take time and remember Luke and to remember us. I had the best day today doing just that too. I spent most of the day with out my kids and went to a place out in the country where I could just sit and read and pray. I was a bit bummed that it is raining today but once I got out there and stood under a huge oak tree and looked up and saw all these rain drops falling down on me, it was just awesome, truely like tears falling down from heaven hitting my face. I found a nice tree house to spend the a few hours in, which had an open view of the forest and a tin roof.....ahhhhh....I have a thing about listening to raindrops falling on a tin roof. And then after sitting for awhile the rain let up a bit and I was able to walk for a bit through all the trees and along the creek....another favorite sound. I won't go into details because I want them to myself, but I will say that I felt I had an amazing day with God and Luke showed up for awhile too :)
I want to be able to write about where I'm at and answer the "how I am doing" question that I know so many people have.....so here goes.
This past year since I have moved has been exciting, scary, lonely, exhausting, and an incredible time of growth for me. I have felt like God is moving me in a direction that is healthy for both me and my kids. This isn't always an easy move, lots of growing pains are involved. Lots of self reflection. As strange as this sounds, I have had to get to know myself again. I'm not Angie and Luke anymore and even though he will always always be a part of my heart and our life, he's not here in the physical sense anymore and therefore I have had to accept that and start to see who I am ....(deep breath) with out him. I have also been able to have a more positive change of heart and outlook with Life in general here on earth, I now mostly look forward to each new day with my kids, where for awhile it was just another day to "get through". We still have a future here together and that finally is exciting to me to see how it all is going to play out, day by day.
I am thrilled to be doing photography again, getting out and taking pictures has been a great strength of developing something good in me...I have no idea what to call it, it just feels really good and really right. Kylie and Owen are amazing, they make me smile and laugh every day, I am so crazy blessed to have them in my life. Now don't get me wrong, I have hard days and I assume I always will, but they are good and part of healing. God promises to make good from bad, even though it's not always a easy road to the good, He has made good on that promise with me. He has never left me, and He is always ready to meet me wherever I am at in this journey of Life and His grace is full of unspeakable peace and healing to my soul.

Shower for the whole family

OK so tonight as I went to fill up the tub to give the kids a bath. I was noticing it was taking awhile to fill, and then I realized it was just draining, so I check the switch/nob thing and yep it's up just like it should be but nope there is no water staying.....hmmmm. So I of course being a girl fiddle with it, jiggle it, stick my finger down the scary icky drain hole and thinking the whole time, I have NO freaking idea of what I am doing and I seriously doubt I am suddenly going to fix this..... Next I think maybe they don't need a bath tonight, but no we skipped last night and Kylie has pre-school in the morning and I don't want her showing up smelly just yet since it is only the 2nd week of school.... I realize my only choice is for us all to shower. I was planning on doing this AFTER the kids were in bed but I guess we'll all just get clean together. O yea. Now had we been in our old house is Scottsdale this would not be a problem because the shower could hold half a baseball team. But this is a standard shower, meaning small in my spoiled rotten for 10 years standards. But I feel I have no choice so we all get in and we kind of fit and then I look down and see Owen just standing there peeing happily all over the bath toys, at this point I shake my head and pretend I didn't see it. Now I need to go start calling "my people" as I think of them to help me solve this problem because I really don't want to do this every night. Oh, my people meaning all of my girlfriends husbands, who thankfully are all quite handy and always seem to be able to fix my house issues. Well except for the septic one....but that's a whole other story.

1st Day of Pre-School

OH my gosh, my baby girl started pre-school today. And she looked pretty cute doing it too. And of course she did it with out a second of hesitation or fear, she just ran right in and started being a little cute student. Of course today was only for an hour and from what I gathered she sang some songs, got a balloon and met some new friends, although she could only remember the name of one, a boy, whose name is now escaping me even though she told me in the car. Thursday she will go for her first full..half...day...or whatever. It's about 2 1/2 hours long. SO me and handsome Owen will have to find something to occupy our time with....ha ha ha.