Will you pray?

ANOTHER REQUEST ***** I'm really not feeling well. Billy and Holden had the stomach bug 2 days ago and I don't really have those symptoms I'm just feeling really achy and run down. Maybe my body is just trying to fight it off. My parents are here and our flight doesn't leave until 2:00 today so I can rest this morning. I REALLY don't want to feel like this on our trip on top of everything else, so again, will you please pray?


First of all, I love this picture.(click on it to enlarge) When you take young children out for a sledding day it can be a great day or it can be, well, not so great. After you spend at least an hour getting everyone dressed and layered it only takes one fall or one time of the gloves falling off and the meltdowns begin. Clearly in this picture it was not a great outing. Holden has given up and both girls are sobbing. Billy said Holden was mad because the girls didn't want to go down the "big" hill and he's pouting because now they're stuck on the "easy" hill since it isn't steep enough. They should've listened to their brother this time. This is what it's like in Chicago right now. See (Alabama friends) don't you wish we could have at least a few days when there is snow covering the ground. I do.

ok, about praying. Please pray for us this weekend. We're headed to Chicago on Friday and Billy will be speaking at a Men's Prayer Breakfast at our old church. He's nervous and he doesn't really get nervous. I'm just tagging along. I will get good time with friends and just enjoy catching up. I would love it if you would commit to pray. It's hard going back to a place you loved so much...good but hard. And obviously the weight of going back after losing Alaina adds another layer. We've talked about going to our old house and I know that will be painful.... even as I type the words I can feel the tears coming. She left her mark. Her mark is there. Her life was there. But her mark is here too. It makes me sad that my Cullman friends never knew her. They didn't get to see how much fun she was and how she could light up a room. But I've realized the past few weeks that Elley is so much like Alaina. She's spunky and determined but fun and lovable. She will sing as loud as she can and make up the words as she goes. She learned that from Alaina. So my friends can watch Elley and get to see much of Alaina's personality. Do you know it's so good for me to type her name? It may seem weird to you but even things like writing out my Target lists are sometimes hard. Because I don't write Alaina's name on the list. There's nothing I need to get for her anymore. Does that make sense? Emotions are such hard things to "deal" with. We watched a little video yesterday of when Alaina turned three and it was so HARD to watch. But at the same time I loved it because I could hear her voice and watch her laugh. That's why I have such mixed emotions about going to our old house. The memories are all great but that's why it's so painful. That was our life WITH her and now we must learn to live without. And learning, I guess is a life long journey and struggle.

I'm going to bed. We've joined a gym and I've been going EARLY (6:30am) to exercise. I'm tired...this body is screaming "What are you doing to me?" I haven't consistently exercised in forever so it's about time! That's another thing you can pray for me :)