Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Thirty-Four

Highlight of the Week

In case I haven’t shouted it loud enough from the hills (okay, in “real life” I haven’t really shouted at all – that would totally go against my personality-grain, but I feel like I’ve definitely “shouted” it on social media): I had a wedding image open this week in Captured::Pittsburgh’s Open Air Gallery! Derrick & I went down for the grand unveiling for February’s images and wow – what an incredible experience! I still am a little bit in shock that it actually happened! You can read all about the opening plus see images of the event here!

Yes, This Happened

• An old friend who I went to Sunday School with when we were like 6 years old came for a visit this week! She & her husband have recently moved back into the area and literally out-of-the-blue, she FB messaged me, asking if we could reconnect & let our littles play! It was SO much fun to get together! She has 2 little guys and her oldest is just a few months older than Braelynn. I wish I could say they were “fast friends”, but that would be a lie. Brealynn really struggled with another little person playing with her toys. Sharing apparently is a trait we should be working on! By the end of the visit, I feel like she was finally beginning to grasp the concept that he wasn’t going to take her toys, and that it was okay if he played with them. It was quite hysterical though to see them together!
• Braelynn had to get her finger pricked (totally routine stuff, I promise) this week & she was a CHAMP – as in, she didn’t even whimper. I was amazed! She was so good! HUGE shout-out to the lab-tech lady who worked with us! She was just perfect – she talked to Braelynn the whole time, was so soothing and pleasant – she made the whole experience so much better than it could have been! Braelynn was so impressive, that she got 2 lollipops and now – she’s obsessed. I don’t even know where she’s found it, but she brought a lollipop to me this afternoon (no worries, I figured out where it came from after a few minutes). So, currently, the way to my child’s heart is through lollipops.
• If you are bored in the least, there is this incredible contest going on called The Shoot & Share Photo Contest. This is my 4th year entering images & man, it simply gets bigger & better every year. It’s all completely free & fair, and if you’d like to participate, all you have to do is go to www.contest.shootandshare.com The instructions are super simple: you’ll see a series of 4 photos – simply click on the one you love the most & then it will give you 4 more! I’ll just warn you: it’s incredibly addicting and it’s really hard to get away once you get into it! (I’ve written about my experiences with the contest here!)

Feeling Blessed

We got our taxes done today. Once upon a time, that statement would never find it’s way under the “feeling blessed” category. I’ll never forget, my first “real” experience with taxes was spring of 2010 – Derrick & I were about to get married & I was expecting a lovely little refund to put toward our honeymoon. Needless to say, I might have had a meltdown when I was told that I actually owed taxes. It was definitely not the news you wanted to hear a few weeks before your wedding! For the next 5 years, Derrick & I owed taxes every single year, for one reason or another. At the beginning of our marriage, Derrick worked several jobs: one of which did not take taxes out of his paychecks, so there was that. Then my business began to grow, so there were taxes owed there. It wasn’t until Brealynn came along & we filed last year, that we got a refund back. You may think that I’m just out for a handout from the government, but, you see: I worked at a bank for several years. Every year it seemed, everyone would come in with their giant refund checks and I would end up owing (and in my mind, giving my precious hard-earned money to those people) I mean, we always knew we were going to owe and we were always prepared for it, but still, it hurt. So last year, was the first year we got a refund: it was glorious. And this year, we are getting another refund. It’s just, a huge blessing.