Walmart breaks my Heart.

There are so many reasons to dislike Walmart. If the closest Target wasn't 25 miles away and gas was $4.30 a gallon- we would NEVER walk inside a Walmart. But living in the "quiet side" of Connecticut that's our best/only option 95% of the time. We walked in the other day and were greeted by this older man and it simply broke my heart. Why do these senior citizen's have to work? Much less at Walmart? I hate it. If I could I would wrap them up and bring them home with me. Also, seeing young couples shopping together with a new born and carefully looking at each item before placing into their cart makes me truly grateful for what I have in my life. Baby or no baby.

Since we've moved here there has been an outpour of love from so many individuals, couples and families that it fills my eyes with tears. When we moved into our new home, a friend Afton (don't you love her name??) came on a Friday night and helped me pack our kitchen until 11:30 at night. This is a woman who drives 45 minutes one way to take her oldest son to school. She has four kids and makes that round-trip drive twice a day and I have NEVER heard her complain once. If that were me, someone would be hearing something from me, guaranteed. While we were unpacking I found little love notes from her..

And then there's Nancy who has the most beautiful gray hair in the world. She and her husband take care of our Gracie Lou the Saturdays we are in Boston. The day we moved she cooked pulled BBQ, coleslaw, and homemade pickles for everyone that came to help. When she mentioned she was going to do it, I didn't believe her because who does that?? They have been tremendously generous to us on many different occasions. In fact, not only did they give us their dining room table and chairs, and a Bernina sewing machine- they just dropped off a car to us last night. It's a 1996 Dodge Neon and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time since I was making 3-4 trips to campus everyday for both our jobs & taking Gracie out at lunch. We are blessed beyond measure.

Speaking of being blessed, the sister missionaries have been coming to our home often for dinners and what have you and we simply love them. For me, they've been an unexpected answer to a prayer.

We have lots to catch up on besides telling you all the wonderful things people have been doing for us. Easter was fantastic! We spent it with some families in our ward and ate like a King and a Queen. Crystal who is an artist in the kitchen made this beautiful cake with dried pineapple flowers on top. I have no doubt in my mind why there's more of me to love.

I've been consumed by other responsibilities that I've been neglecting my camera. However, I had to capture Gracie's reaction when we came home with some balls for her to play with. I've decided she's not like most bulldogs. She's not lazy, she fetches and she loves to play with big sports balls. I think mom is right, dad sent her to us because for one reason she LOVES basketballs.

This pink ball lasted a total of 3 minutes. No joke.

One day soon I'll take a video of her little wiggle bum. It goes 100 miles an hour when she's excited.

Priceless.

On a baby note. I'm still struggling with ignoring the problem instead of facing it head on. I had an 'ah-ha' moment last week when I realized instead of loosing weight like the doctor said, I've been gaining weight. Subconsciously, I believe on purpose. I need to remember even if I do loose the weight and we still don't get pregnant... life will continue and one way or another, we will have children. Mother's Day is usually heart wrenching. Especially when they ask the sisters at church to stand so the men can hand out a flower (I've always hated that!). This Mother's Day was much different and not because Gracie remembered (she forgot but we won't dwell on that). I walked into church and the Rich's had bought me a corsage. I never knew until that moment that I did want to be recognized on Mother's Day. To make it even better, the Bishop (leader of church congregation) got up and read a poem. Instead of flowers, they handed out a bag of trail mix with the poem AND they didn't ask the sisters to stand. Score! Maybe next year, Cony will remember my change of heart.