Time goes on . . .

And time goes on. Life continues. What a blessing in so many ways. I still miss Tabitha. I still think of her every day, and I'm still sad when I do. But even though she is dead, I'm not. My kids aren't. My husband isn't. And so I move forward, because that's all I'm actually capable of. Being sad won't bring her back, nor will it heal the hole in my brother's family. And so I've moved forward with time. Here is what time has brought to my family in the past week and a half.

Jill, Daniel, and I missed Jeffrey's birthday while we were in Michigan with my family. My mother-in-law made a tasty dinner and two cakes to celebrate: upside pineapple and upside peach. He's one year away from thirty now.

Jill and Danny were very happy to see their daddy again. Jeff was pretty happy to have us back.

Jill got to go to her gymnastics class twice this week to make up the one she missed during our absence. Her grandma takes her to the same place that she took Jill's daddy when he was a little boy. Jill loves it so far. My hope is that she either is better at it than I was or that she just enjoys being able to do what she can, because man that's a tough sport. I was never able to get over my fear of getting hurt to ever be any good. But I sure was funny!

Oh man. I might make you pee your pants laughing if I ever get those videos off of cassette tapes and onto this blog.

Jill's preschool class went on a field trip to the fire station. They got to walk through the truck, see the ambulance, and walk around the living quarters. Right when they were going to try on the gear, the alarm sounded and off went the firemen to go save someone. At least I hope it was off to a fire to save someone. I couldn't help but think of an ambulance that visited one of my family members recently while I was there. Too late to save. But, we're talking about living here, so I must focus!

I think the kids thought it was pretty exciting to see the truck and ambulance leave, and they were able to sing the fire fighter song they had learned to the very gracious secretary.

Maybe the fire truck and ambulance were going to rescue a kid who locked him- or herself in a room. That is a happy possibility. ;)

The field trip was interesting, and possibly my favorite part was seeing the fireplace in their living room. It was beautiful and had a very large photo of a fire inside of where a fire has probably never been lit. :)

The day after we lost Tabitha was Halloween. Jill still wanted to go trick or treating, and my mother-in-law had done a beautiful job making matching pirate costumes for Jill and Daniel. So, we spent some time at Laurie's Halloween party and then Jill did a little bit of trick or treating. When she went up to a house she would say "trick or treating" instead of "trick or treat."