After the holidays, most people are usually somewhat broke. For us right now, broke doesn't even begin to sum it up. But it's not really due to holiday shopping - that was the least of our worries this year. Aside from affording rent and all our utilities and miscellaneous other bills, we have been getting slammed with major car issues. And this has been going on for a YEAR.

It seems like we'll never catch a break, but I know we will. We've got to. Our time is coming. Right now, we just have to get into Mission Mode, buckle down, and get things done.

And enjoy the rare day when we have nowhere to go, no one to see, and nothing to spend our money on.

We actually did leave the house today, but just to take a walk on Nobska Beach. Though we're basically surrounded by it, we haven't seen the ocean in a while, and i think Jeremy and I were both starting to feel it. There's simply nothing like an ocean stroll to calm your soul and clear your mind. And for a short time today, the three of us were truly able to gaze out at the foggy sea, breathe in the salt air, and appreciate nothing but the serenity of nature and the closeness of one another.

Abigail is such a surfer girl. She had a blast throwing rocks in the water, and didn't run away when the waves rolled onto the beach and threatened to swallow her shoes. In fact, we had to keep pulling her away at the last second, which eventually made her upset. She started yelling, "I want to go swim!" and we had to leave. Poor baby.

I couldn't help having flashbacks to when I was pregnant with Abby and Jeremy and I walked the same beach together, dreaming about the day when we'd have her with us and could expose her to the great big ocean, the sand, the sea glass, the waves. And now here we were, the three of us, as we've been in the past, but this time I was pregnant again. Naturally, I had to express the strangeness of it, the happiness, my wonderment at the idea of us being a family of four soon, walking this beach again.

It was just what we needed.

The only thing possibly better than that walk was a moment this evening, after dinner and after Abby was in her jammies. We were all three sitting on the couch watching one of Abby's movies when she leaned over and lay her head on my belly, right where Sadie was resting. I'm not sure if it was Sadie's bum or head, but either way they were literally cheek to cheek, and it was so, so sweet.

Truly, how can we worry about anything with that image burning in our minds?