Perfectly Imperfect

If you haven't noticed this poor blog has been sorely neglected the past 6 months.  There have been so many ups and downs during that time that the thought of blogging makes my head spin.  The good news is I've taken lots of pictures and videos since Bud surprised me with an iPhone at Christmas.  While there are many perks of having this handy little device by far the camera is the #1 for me.  I feel like I have already captures more "moments" than I ever would have if I were doing it with a camera alone because I would never have my camera by my side all the time.  Now the problem will be narrowing them down for posting.  That will have to come later since we finally bought an external hard drive to keep all our pictures on so my computer doesn't crash and I'm not sitting by it right now.

Without going into lots of boring details here are some of the ups and downs of our little family as of late.  Some things may be a repeat of old blog posts but since it's been a while I figure I better just go to the beginning.

August

• Our little family moved to CA and left our condo in a pending short sale which began in July.  We moved in with Bud's family in Carlsbad making the household jump to 11 people.
• Bud began the process of transfer from the AZ plumbers union apprenticeship program to the one in San Diego.
• Abby turned one and loved celebrating with all her cousins.

September

• We took a trip to UT over Labor Day weekend to visit my family and spend time at the cabin near Logan, UT.  We had a blast swimming, playing games and taking family pictures.
• Still waiting for the Bud's transfer to go through but he worked part-time for his aunts at their print shop.
• AZ condo still under short sale contract.
• At the end of the month we found out that we were expecting baby number 2!

October

• Bud's transfer finally went through and he was finally placed on the "out of work" list.  More waiting.
• AZ Condo still under short sale contract.
• Lots of fun with the Packard cousins including dinners, games and of course trick-or-treating.

November

• Abby and I took a trip to UT to visit my family then drove back to CA with my parents to spend Thanksgiving with Bud and my grandparents.
• Abby got croup on the drive back and was a sad sick little girl for about 5 days.  This unfortunately began two months of sickness running through the Packard home.  Two weeks of a sinus infection for me and lots of bad colds for everyone else.
• AZ Condo still under short sale contract but our Realtor thinks we are getting close to closing.
• Bud still waiting for work but  getting a few side jobs and also working with his Dad and Danny learning more about the family business.

December

• Another round of cold for everyone and a bout of some kind of pneumonia for me.  This is getting old!
• Baby Reese (my niece) is born via emergency C-section after being all wrapped up in her cord.  Too much dancing in the womb.  Jackie and Reese are healthy and strong and she is as cute as can be. 
• We receive bad news from our Realtor regarding our condo.  There was some issue with the mortgage insurance and getting a hold of the buyer (it was three days before Christmas people!) and we were forced into foreclosure.  We were very sad as we had tried very hard to prevent this but ultimately we were relieved to finally be able to cut our losses and move forward with the approaching new year.  But we felt at peace with our decision to move when we did and so no looking back.
• CHRISTMAS! Time for a Packard family reunion.  Aubrey and her family came to town and we played, ate, played some more and had a wonderful time.
• The week after Christmas a nasty bout of the flu hits and knocks out 10+ members of our family over a two week period.  Fortunately Abby and Bud didn't get it but I wasn't so lucky.  Darn immune system!

January

• We get to see our baby for the first time and meet our new doctor Dr. Maresh thanks to a referral from my sister-in-law Kristalyne.  He's great!
• Bud gets a call that he gets to start work.  Yippee!  He is hired by a company called David Shoposhnick, Ink (DSI) and is currently working on a new building at Mesa College in San Diego.  He also starts his second year of school in the program as well.  Hurray for a steady income!
• Abby and I go back to UT for a visit and to watch my sister Shelley's girls while she and her husband get away to Florida for some alone time.  Cason had a business trip and surprised Shelley by flying her out.  Abby had a blast with her cousins, aunt, uncles and grandparents.  Bud stays home to work and is thrilled to be doing it.
• I have a detailed ultra sound to check on our baby and we find out that we are having another perfectly healthy baby girl!
• Abby finally has her 15 month check up at 17 months (we were waiting for insurance coverage) and is growing like a weed.  Her new doctor Dr. Miller is wonderful.  More on Abby and all her stats in a later post. :-)
• We got a call from the apartment complex we applied to back in July 2011 saying that there is an opening and we are next on the list.  So we began the approval process and if all goes well we could be in our own place as soon as March!

Summary

• So in summary our situation these past few months hasn't been ideal but we have learned much, grown closer, been blessed by the generosity of friends and family and continue to grow and move forward.  I wish I could say that my attitude during all this has been perfect faith, humility and joy but I would be lying.  I have and continue to have many personal trials and struggles as I suppose all do but I continue to strive to improve every day.  That is why the title of this post is called Perfectly Imperfect.  I am a perfectionist to the core and while there are many great qualities that come with this there are many not so great ones that have to be managed as well and I haven't done very well at that lately.  But I'm pretty sure this topic could be an entire blog or book on it's own.  Maybe someday...But for now I am just grateful to have the most wonderful, faithful, loving, kind, patient husband a girl could ask for.  I never could have dreamed of finding someone who is so perfect for me.  Not perfect, but perfect for me.  And Abby?  Well...I could just squish that little girl I love her so much.  It's hard to imagine loving another little person that much.  But I know that I will and probably several more.  Pretty amazing how your capacity to love grows.  I hope to catch up with all of our past events soon but for now here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

I'm a big girl!

Where's Daddy?

Baby Girl #2!