latest projects

just thought we'd share some of the latest changes to our home... recently, the living & dining rooms were switched (requiring the addition of a new doorway from the kitchen to the new dining room - glad my honey isn't limited to thinking "inside the box"!!) and just little odds and ends projects that are making us very happy! (i.e. landscaping outside, building a walkway, extending the front porch, rebuilding the pantry...)

girls weekend away

i know, i know. it has been a while since i've written... again... sorry. i've been busy! let me start getting caught up - in aug, i went away for a long weekend with some of my oldest friends (girls i grew up with) to celebrate our 30th birthdays! (okay, some of us are already 30 and preparing for 31, but it was tricia's actual 30th b'day while we were there and marye will hit the big 3-0 this november.) anyway, we had such a blast! i had no idea how much i needed some time with girlfriends and i enjoyed every moment. of course, i called ed every day and talked with the boys a few times while i was gone too, but other than that, i shut down and relaxed. it was so wonderful!! i love the beach... i love my friends... it was an excellent combination! we look pretty good for 30! wait, i'm the one who looks like a total slob... can i blame that on having 4 kids?!?!

great news!!

phew! well, after a really long time of searching and interviewing, ed was offered a great job yesterday! we're so excited - not just about having a new job that he's enthusiastic about, but also because it is such an answer to prayer. we know that this was completely God's doing... so many little details remind us of that! God's provision for us in the past year has been incredible - we're so grateful to Him for that. and for our friends and family who played a huge role in that provision as well. i'm just "bubbling up" with excitement and relief!!
now, i'm getting ready to head off to a beach trip with my elementary/middle school girlfriends to celebrate our 30th birthdays. this, too, is such a treat (made possible by a beloved friend!!) and i'm really excited about this getaway with friends... should be fun, relaxing and rejuvenating! and i hope this will be a good weekend for ed and the boys - just the guys again for a weekend. my only concern is what the house will look like when i get back... oh well. pics to come soon... i hope!

service team

ed & i are very aware of the fact that we have really good kids. seriously, as a step-mom, i'm particularly aware of what great boys ours are. but i do love to hear about other people discovering this about them too. in the past year, we heard quite a bit about drew & taylor being such great babysitters - both with little "fan clubs" of small children who adore them. most recently, i heard from at least a half dozen people about what great workers the boys are. a week ago, drew, taylor and noah (and ed) went to help with a "mini-mission team" to aliquippa (a town about 20 minutes away that was recently flooded during a rain storm). the team went to help clean out the mess left by the flood (quite a bit of damage in the basements of stores along the main street - apparently a very dirty and smelly job!) anyway, for the past week, every person i ran into who had been in aliquippa mentioned what hard workers our boys were - and great attitudes too!! (to be honest, this was surprising to me because they did not all leave with great attitudes that morning...) as you can see, they were a mess when they got back!!

anyway, i'm really proud of them. not just for being such good kids that other people compliment us on them (which is certainly great!), but also because they are willing to lend a hand to people who need help. this is exactly what we want to teach them and i'm glad to see them respond the way they do. (by the way, evan was too young to go on the trip, so he and i spent the day together and that was fun for us.)

The Arrival of Kara Grace Maslow!!

one more quick note must be added today - my sister, susie, gave birth yesterday to kara grace!! i'm so excited and can't wait to meet her! i don't know all the details, but will update this when i get them. and pictures too.
yeah!!! (and i was so certain she was going to be a boy!)

minnesota trip

so much for my bright idea about starting a blog. it seems these are only a good thing when they are actually updated... hmmm...
okay, so much has happened since i last wrote that i can't possibly update everything. so, here's a quick summary of our trip to minnesota for the 4th - we were away from june 30 - july 9 and we had a fabulous time with everyone, including my sister, kathy, and her family, who we stayed with during our drive there and back! we also celebrated our first anniversary while we were there. ed and i left the kids with his sister and we took off for a fun two-day "tour of the river cities along the st. croix". it was great to get away together and to celebrate. (to be honest, we were sorta celebrating the end of the "first year" because for us, it was pretty rough!)
we had at least a little time with everyone in the family this trip and so that was great. we spent most of our time with lucy & paul and their girls. that was wonderful, as usual. every time we ask the boys about their favorite part of the trip, the answer (for all four) is "being with cousins". i'm so sorry that they only get to see their family twice a year because they just relish every moment of it! and i'm so thankful for the family that ed comes from... what an incredible blessing! in addition to the people (certainly the best part), other highlights included the day at the race tracks (horses), the family reunion on the 4th, shari's play (and carly's on dvd), visiting the pig farm with jess and the day on the pontoon with grandma & grandpa. it was a great trip!!

we did so much on this trip and had so many great experiences, i can't even begin to write about them all right now. for me, this recent time with the abbotts was particularly great due to my interaction with the older nieces and nephews. i've come into the family so late... i've already missed so much of these kids' lives and i don't really know them. and that is so sad to me. on my side, the kids are really young, so ed has been around for most of their lives, but with the abbotts, i'm at a total disadvantage in regard to connecting with these college kids who will soon be out on their own - even with their own families! (i'm closer in age to shari & jess than i am to my husband... not unlike my own aunt janet. i would love to have the chance to be "friends" with my nieces the way janet is with us!) anyway, this last trip gave me special memories of my own with each of the older kids and i loved it!! God is so good to me - even when i don't seem to notice what is going on around me!

more later. :)

returning from my disappearing act

well i haven't updated in a while because i just haven't been up to it lately. i've been bogged down in my own little world of feeling sorry for myself and being frustrated with God and so i've just stuck my head in the sand and pulled away. i seem to do that a little too easily. here's what is going on with the pittsburgh abbotts:
ed is interviewing for a new job (again)... i really hope he connects with a job that will bring him pleasure in addition to a way to support our family. and while some stability to our daily lives would be wonderful, we will certainly struggle with the loss of having him available to do all sorts of much-needed work on our house!! ed has worked like a pro and made so many improvements to our home - inside and outside! lately, he worked a lot of on the outside: raising our front porch (8 inches!!) and extending it to wrap around the house, tearing down our cement steps and rebuilding steps to the front porch, laying a walkway from the street to the stairs, expanding our driveway, building a stone wall along one of the ridges in the backyard and cutting down trees and brush that were closing in our backyard. that's just the big projects he's accomplished so far this spring & summer!! this man that i am married to is amazing - he never ceases to amaze me with what he can do!! and i am thankful that, for the past two years, he had a job that allowed him a lot of time to work on the house. now, we enter a new phase when he starts a new job and i wonder how many house projects i'll start taking up??
okay, that's plenty for now. more later.