new experiences

well, this has been an interesting week. i've just returned from my very first mammogram (& sonogram) and i survived it. about a week ago, we found a lump in my breast, thus the mammogram, etc. because of said lump, i also got to experience a needle biopsy for the first time. good times. actually, none of it was nearly as bad as i feared. but, now i have to wait on the results. sometime early next week, i'm told. in the meantime, i have to just lay low and not strain myself. guess that leaves housework out for a while, right?

okay, so that was the bad news. here's some fun news. last night (wednesday) we got to go to the pittsburgh pirates baseball game and watch taylor (along with the rest of the sixth grade band) play the national anthem. it was so exciting! i was sick as a dog all day yesterday and up until the last minute didn't think i'd get to be there. but memories of missing important events because i get sick (like my sisters' double wedding...) and taylor begging me to come anyway made me pull myself together and head out. i'm so glad i did! how often will we have a kid performing the national anthem at a professional sporting event?! the band was great and we were all there to see it (ed, myself, the boys, my folks, carrie & frank and bob). taylor had quite the crowd cheering him on!

that's it for now. thanks for prayers, thoughts, calls, cards & gifts... i'm feeling very loved!! i'll keep you posted on the results.

the big green house on a hill...

well, for those of you who have never seen our home, here's an old photo of the outside at least. actually, i'm not sure how old this is, but it was taken before any abbotts lived there, because we've never seen the row of bushes along the left side of the yard (or at least i don't remember it!). anyway, it looks quite a bit different already - that big flowering bush (it died) is gone and the driveway is more than tire marks - but this gives an idea of where we live. the window at the top (now the younger 3 boys' bedroom) is the best view in town - looking over the village with a view of the river and the sewickley bridge too.

anyway, ed's uncle just celebrated the 50th anniversary of his entering the priesthood and so far, the cards i've picked out were unacceptable to my hubby... so i'm going to run out to try again. maybe there's a trick to this that a protestant girl wouldn't get?? :)

back to grace

way back at the start of lent (feb), our church started a study on grace. that series carried through to easter and was then followed by our current (thru july) study on galatians (we're working through the book in church and in our bible study). wow. this topic is hard for me to begin with. and now it has become infused into everything i do!
here's my struggle: i am more than happy to RECEIVE grace (particularly the Lord's saving grace!) but i am very hesitant to really give it. i want to only give "grace" to those who deserve it... which, of course, works directly against the concept of grace - undeserved merit!
and, in the midst of me trying to learn how to destroy my natural self in order to offer Jesus' grace to others, i'm a prime target for attempts to thwart those efforts!! in fact, in the past few months, i've probably had more "attacks" than i've ever had in my 30 years prior! we seem to get slammed at every turn and it becomes so hard to even want to give grace!
and while it is hard for me, it is also a great blessing that my hubby really takes this teaching to heart. i can't imagine how he does it, but ed continues to offer grace to those who lash out at him. it makes me want to fight to defend him and at the same time, i am unbelievably proud of him and the hard choices he makes. and i want to learn from his example and choose to be like Christ. oh, how i thank God for choosing this man to be my husband!!!

back to earth

i know, its been a really long time since i've left an update. sorry. its been a mix of things keeping me from posting anything: very busy at home and at work, being lazy, and waiting to tell what we hoped would be really good news. well, we're still busy - work is still keeping me on my toes and things at home haven't slowed a bit. in fact, things are busier! drew is still doing track and now we've added baseball for drew, noah & evan. taylor isn't participating in any sports, but his social life (and babysitting) seem to be taking off. so, we're pretty much all running wild from the minute we get home until bedtime. honestly, i'm still feeling pretty lazy... i'm trying not to be a control-freak, but i don't seem to have the "happy medium" down yet, so i drop a lot! as for the news (no, its not a baby - we're not even thinking that way yet)... we'd hoped to be announcing a new job for ed. for some time now, we've been convinced that the magazine he was working for was not a good fit for him after all. he's done an amazing job with it and created a great product, but he (we) tend to disagree with the parent company and it just wasn't what we thought it would be. ed resigned when we had high hopes about another opportunity that came up. but, that fell through. so, now ed is looking for a new job... anyone have a great lead for him?! :)
so, that's pretty much the update from us. i've still been working on borrowing a digital camera in order to show pics of the house, but then again, i'm crazy busy (read: disorganized) these days and still lazy... maybe someday.

funny story

today we were in church and it was time for communion. ed was playing drums, so the boys and i sat waiting for our turn to go forward. i went first, followed by the 4 boys. nothing out of the ordinary about that. i get back to my seat and immediately the boys are questioning me with concern... "did we do something wrong?" and "should i not have held my hands like this?". apparently, bill henry (our associate pastor) started laughing when the abbott boys came forward for communion and no one knew why. at the end of the service, bill came to find me because he wanted to tell me a funny story. i asked if it had to do with communion (not having any idea what might have made him laugh). he started laughing all over again. he said that he was passing out the wafers (bread) and noah abbott is standing behind me, looking very serious and wearing a name tag that read "joe mama" right in the middle of his chest. bill said he just started laughing and then throughout communion, he couldn't get the picture of noah out of his head (even as he handed out communion to sweet, little old ladies).
nametags for everyone are a new project of a new guy on our staff. i refuse to wear one because 1) i hate having my name visible like that and 2) my name is so uncommon that if people see it, they know that i am the buffy who works there... and suddenly, i'm working on a sunday. anyway, my not wearing a name tag causes some trouble between my co-worker and myself but maybe when he sees the nametags our kids are wearing every week, he'll back off. either that or i'm going to have to come up with a name to use... :)

march madness

to give a clue about what's going on in our home, let me just say that the boys were kept up past bedtime on wednesday night because there was a very important deadline on thursday... ncaa picks had to be determined before the tournament started!! yesterday afternoon was the start of our "family basketball season". all six of us have our brackets filled out and we've got some tough competition between us! (fyi, as i write this on friday, taylor and i are in the lead... and he's about to go down today!!) i shouldn't admit this on a blog that my family can read, but last night's vcu victory over duke was a good thing for me only... all of the abbott guys went with duke! (it might be my feelings toward my parents' dog - named duke, of course - that i decided not to go with them this year...)

anyway, its a good thing i like basketball because otherwise, i think i would be a "basketball widow" during march madness. the brackets make the games interesting enough for the boys too, because it stirs up all sorts of competition between brothers!!

ed has his first practice for soccer tonight. he's joined an "over 40" league with a bunch of guys from our town, so this should be fun (i hope!).

the middle school has a dance tonight, but drew doesn't want to go. he says it isn't fun to just stand around in a dark room with music playing... hmmm, i remember liking jr high dances quite a bit but as i remember those times, i'm secretly relieved that he's not interested! of course, maybe he doesn't like them because they don't usually play heavy metal music? (since that's all he listens to!) he's headed to a friend's house tonight and then gets to babysit his brothers tomorrow night while we go out for st. patty's day. track is going well, so far, but i'm taking him to a doctor on monday to check on his knee (football injury from the fall). better safe than sorry, so i want to be sure there's nothing really wrong before he gets too far into the season.

taylor was very excited about the dance, but then announced last night that he wasn't going. that will likely change back and forth several times before tonight, so we'll see. since drew joined the school track team, taylor's interest in the sport has grown considerably. i hope it lasts because we think taylor would love track (and be good at it!), but you can't be on the team until 7th grade, so he's got to wait until next spring. in the meantime, he's getting lots of compliments on his babysitting skills (kids just love him) and still working hard to keep on top of school assignments. taylor's latest interest is woodworking. as often as he can (or rather, when he can't play runescape on the internet), he's down in the basement working diligently. i have no idea what he's making, but he's gathering every spare piece of wood and hammering away!

noah called me as soon as i got to work today to ask for a new shirt. apparently his shirt got caught in his locker and ripped. apparently, the hulk look doesn't work at school. i don't know what it is about that kid and clothing, but he's a "work hard, play hard" kind of guy and his clothes often pay for it!! noah's doing great work at school and seems to be getting better and better at the bass clarinet (new instrument he picked up this year... a few months after we bought his clarinet! oh well!). he loves playing music and is really excited about the progress he's making. now, noah is just itching for spring to come. noah loves being in shorts and t-shirts and playing outside. at least he got a few days on the trampoline before this cold front hit us!

as for evan, things are pretty much the same. he's doing well at school and just takes pleasure in all sorts of "little things". last night, he had an "aunt lucy" moment when he got to rip his sock up (it had a big hole). between that and the basketball bracket competition, he was having a blast. you know how babies will get all excited about a box rather than some fancy, expensive toy? that's ev. kitchen tools continue to be a favorite, but he'll take just about anything and find a way to play with it. ev is still playing soccer (and getting better!) and is getting ready for baseball this spring. and like noah, he's anxiously waiting for nice weather to play outside in! ev's teacher is a big sports fan and so he was really excited to take in his brackets today to show mr. may!

okay, that's it for now. i'll try to get the boys to write updates over the weekend! maybe...

snow days

well, today is another snow day for the boys. originally they had a 2 hour delay and when i was sliding down the hill at 7 AM this morning to come to work, i figured that was a good call. to have the whole day off is a little ridiculous in my opinion, but oh well. they will spend the day at home, but wednesday is a "no electronics" day (nothing with screens) so it will likely be a very long day for them! then, we're back to the church for the pot-luck dinner lenten series. the little boys have kids activities while the big boys babysit and ed & i listen to really good teachings on grace.
actually, we're getting "grace" teachings and conversations every time i turn around! wonder if God is trying to tell me something?! some other day i'll write more about these thoughts but for now, i'll just mention that "grace" is such a hard thing for me! i'm way too much of a "right/wrong" mentality.
no real news on the boys other than drew starting track this week. we're into a whole new sport, but i think this one will be a good one for him!