Monday, February 1, 2021

Lucy's First Snow!

This week Lucy got to experience her first snow on February 1st! Last year it snowed on February 8th and I was so sad because that would mean Lucy wouldn't be able to see snow until she was about 3-4 years old or more because of how seldom it snows in Tennessee now. When I woke up this morning I was SO surprised and elated. I got all dressed and ran out with Lucy for her to experience her first snow. She absolutely loved it and took it in stride. She played and chased the snowflakes and snowballs. She hated me building snowmen and would immediately knock it down lol. She also hated me snowboarding and couldn't figure out where I was going without her haha. I hope it snows again next year, on the weekend, and more snow so we can play in it and she can have a better understanding of what's going on.

 

Such a pretty girl!

 



 



 



 



The weekend before, I visited my coworker and friends Jordan and Seth as they just had their little baby girl 6 weeks ago. I brought them dinner and the next morning brought Lucy over to play with their dog Mose. I hadn't seen Seth in forever, I had never met Ellie, seen their new house, or Mose. It was a much needed trip. Lucy LOVED playing with Mose. They had a ball outside for an hour and a half. Jordan and Seth were so sweet to let us come over and even let Lucy drink out of Mose's water bowl lol. Lucy has gotten so comfortable with other dogs since she has gotten so much bigger but she has always loved goldens anyways, I think she just knows she is one of them somehow. 




The next day I hiked with my other coworker and friend, Meryl! I introduced her to the White Oak Mountains and we hiked all the way to the ridge. The hike and views were so much fun but the company and good talks were the best part by far! Thanks Meryl for hiking with me on this gorgeous Sunday!!



Love,
Kayla 
1/18/2021




New Year's Eve Party!

 To start off New Years eve we had Morgan visit, look through the new houses with me, and play games with us in the beginning of the day and Tyler came over in the second half of the day. It was so good for us to keep our minds distracted as this was supposed to be our baby's due date. 

These two pictures below were taken 5 hours apart. Lucy really took to Morgan and Tyler. She doesn't do this to anyone, not even Cody or I. She really loved them and Cody and I think it's because they both are our siblings, and smell the most like us. But Morgan and Tyler were a little surprised but loved the close up Lucy cuddles.

 



We took Tyler on the long hike in the back of our neighborhood. He loved it and I think we can get him to go again!!!


 
We had Tyler over for actual New Years Eve and got to watch the ball drop all together. The Times Square ball drop was so strange this year with NYC so empty from covid. Here's to better times, and a renewed sense of Hope. 

 

We had family come over on December 30th to watch football and hang out. Lucy loved all of the attention. I think she really took to Nana, Morgan, and Tyler this time. 


 




We hiked to the top of Cody's families property with Lucy and it was so sad to see so much torn up. I can't believe Miles sold the farm a little over 3 years ago. Lucy loved the hike but got burrs and mud caked all over her. I had to wash all of our shoes, clothes, the car, and give Lucy 2 baths and comb out her burrs. Never again.

Lucy, do you love your new snakey or what!?!


My brother-in-law recently accepted a job in Iowa! We are so sad to see him leave but this being his dream job made it a lot easier to say goodbye for now. So we threw him a little going away party with the family.


Lucy and I have been enjoying the fields in our neighborhood. I can take her off leash and throw the ball and frisbee as far as I can. I started taking the soccer ball so we could play together like Air Bud! She actually dribbles!


We've been taking Lucy on a lot of hikes in the White Oak Mountain trials. She loves it but pulls us so much! We have to work on that before we have kids so she doesn't pull me and/or the baby stroller down.


This specific trip we got very lost and ended up hiking in the pitch dark for 1 hour. Cody and Lucy were less than pleased. Lucy wouldn't even look at me in the car ride home. I'm just glad we made it out safely using only our phone flashlight.

So much love,
Kayla Raborn
1/9/21


Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Wrapping up 2020, Looking forward to 2021

 Bye 2020

My word of the year this year was peace and I’m not really sure that I found it. I try so hard to focus every day on my set goal of the year but for this year, I would like to think I eventually found my peace but every time I started to find peace, I was violently smashed back down to the ground. The inspiration of making peace my word of the year this year was trying to move from an abusive/harassing role at work and that miracle happened within 7 days of 2020 (and in general finding peace internally and to bloom where I'm planted). The year started off so good and so strong. Then we closed on our new house after so so much patience, reserved Lucy, went on many trips, found out we were unexpectedly pregnant, and then went and picked Lucy up. I was so happy. From that moment on it was torture. The pandemic hit, the miscarriage happened, then surgery, then broken bones, and it goes on and on. This year had the lowest of lows and some of the highest of highs there is. This year dang near broke me. I honestly don't feel the same. The miscarriage changed me and Lucy dug her way into my heart grounding me and bringing love back into my mentality. So without much further ado, here's a recap of this horrendous year.

We are living in a history book, who would have thought something like a pandemic would happen in our lifetime.


 

January- I was moved roles at work and am working in a position I always saw myself doing. I genuinely love it, I am growing so much, it matches my talents and interests so well, I'm good at it, I'm so thankful and am so happy. 

My cousin Hannah got pregnant and announced her pregnancy this month.

Cody and I moved into house before it was finished (70% done), and closed on new house when it was 75% done. That was an amazing day filled with such inner pride and accomplishment after 4 years of hard work, extreme saving, and helping build the house.




  


February- We braved a 35 hour round trip to Niagara Falls and to see the groundhog over a normal 2 day weekend. We closed out our apartment lease after 4 years. We found our angel dog breeder and reserved Lucy. Lucy's mom Daizi got pregnant with her litter. 




  

March- We finally finished building our house, we threw a big family housewarming party, we got pregnant but didn't know at the time, we went snow skiing 2 days before the country and world shut down for the strike of covid-19. My friend got pregnant and announced her pregnancy to me.



 

April- Our puppies were born April 20th 2020, Lucy at 11:30am. Her half sibling's litter was born 3 days before. At the end of the month, the 26th, I felt off and took a pregnancy test to find out it was positive! Shock of a lifetime!  




 

May- On Mother's Day weekend we told our family about the baby after keeping it to ourselves for 3 weeks. Our first ultrasound was 4 weeks later and we got the news the baby wasn't ok. We met and chose Lucy out of the litter at barely 5 weeks old. We waited for the miscarriage to happen naturally but it didn't . So to fill time and keep our minds off of it all, we built a ton of things around the house including our fence in preparation for Lucy.



 

June- We finally picked up Lucy at almost 7 weeks old on June 7th. It was the best day of my life. We experienced a partial/failed miscarriage from the miscarriage inducing pills not working for us. My cousin Katy was pregnant but didn't tell anyone yet.





 

July- I had to have an emergency D&C after realizing the miscarriage wasn't complete and I started experiencing complications. Katy announced her pregnancy to everyone. Crappy timing for me with all of the babies in our family this year.



August-The most chill month where nothing bad happened.




 

September- I broke my toe pretty significantly and it took 3+ months to heal since it wouldn't heal properly. My cousin Hannah's baby girl Esther was born. My cousin Nathan got got married.




 



October-Lucy's had surgery to get spayed and experienced complications making it an 8 week recovery time instead of 2-4. My other cousin got pregnant but it was still a secret.




November- That cousin announced pregnancy at Thanksgiving. I work I threw my friend/coworker a shower for her baby girl Ellie.



December- Cody and I had to get away and we went to Opryland Resort in Nashville TN for a weekend and had a blast. My friends baby was born!

Our baby's due date was on the 31st, the final gut punch of the year.


Summary shot




Here's to 2021 the year of Hope

On a note filled with Hope (my 2021 word of the year) this year I plan to lose more weight, invest some money, save up for Cody’s dream truck, hopefully have Cody finish masters degree, kick the covid crisis to the curb so we can move on with life, hopefully get pregnant eventually, enjoy the holidays in a normal way next year, and celebrate my second year at my dream job right now. There is so much going on in these next 8-10 months, I’m so excited. I'm going to ignore the bad this next year and blissfully carry on. I have extreme Hope for this year and the future of our little family. I have no worries because God is on our side. I hate to say I really feel like 2021 will be my year but I have every ounce of Hope on it. I predict the covid crazies will end June 1st 2021 and I’m sticking to that. 

Thank God the nightmare of May 2020-December 2020 is over. A year of struggle.


With so much love,

Kayla Raborn

12/31/2020