Mema

Katie "Mema" Simpson

Sept. 14, 1910 - June 30, 2009

My great-grandmother on my father's side. I have only a few memories with her (all of them very special to me), but I know that she loved her family very much and that she is very much loved by her family. She was always a sincere joy to be around at family gatherings and I look forward to being with her in Heaven someday - THE family gathering. I feel so blessed to be a descendant of her, my Gramdaddy, my father... All, as far as I can tell, amazing people.

A Night of Retrospect

The pendant I wore almost every day while Gabe was deployed.
St. Michael, Patron Saint of Paratroopers

Gabe is camping tonight with the youth group. It is the first night in a very long time that we have spent apart. Driving up to Mt. Madonna I felt faintly a familiar anxiety over the short separation. What would be a trivial weekend event for most couples was a reminder to us of where we have been.

Missing Carolina

Let's see...
I miss the way the air smelled in Aberdeen. I miss my forest. I miss hearing bombs go off at random times and shaking the house. I miss having dear friends over for tri-tip. I miss going to the Walkers' house. I miss watching Samson play with Charlie and Angus. I miss hanging out at Beth's while Gabe was at work. I miss walking around downtown Southern Pines. I miss the rude customer service (but only slightly). I miss being an Army wife. I miss having lazy days with Sam. I miss the

Quote by C.S. Lewis

Just a Drop of Monterey... and Less than that of God's Love

The other day Gabe and I were made aware of a job fair in Monterey. So of course he wanted to go. I thought, "I have not been to Monterey for a while, maybe after the fair we can go to Cannery Row or something," and decided to accompony him.

A Different Kind of Anniversary

On March 16, 2008 Gabe came back from a 15 month deployment to Afghanistan. After an excruciating separation we finally became whole again. Little did we know that our battle wasn't over. We have fought - hard - for this marriage during the past 2 years. During the deployment and for a long while after we seemed to find ourselves trying to hurtle obstacle after obstacle. It was exhausting. I thought the hard part

Love is a Battlefield

Gabe and I are doing this Fireproof small group study. If you haven't seen the movie you should go rent it right away. No matter what your marital status it is a fantastic movie that speaks volumes to any heart.


Anyway we are on week one of a 6 week study about marriage and it has me thinking about things. When a

Valentine's Day 2009

Another special day! Gabe and I have not had a Valentine's Day together in 2 years and the one we did have together (which was the only in our 5 year relationship) was rather sad as he worked all day. So this year was especially importat to us. Gabe had a test to take for the CHP in the morning (which gave me time to clean and get pretty) and he returned with those roses and my favorite beverage from Starbucks (my man knows me)! It was so

Inauguration Day

Something I made with various photos I found online and
don't know where to credit... Sorry. 

Election day was exciting. For the first time our country elected a member of an ethnic minority as its President. I look forward to one day telling our children and our grandchildren that we were there, that we took part in history. Neither Gabe or I voted for Barack Obama (if you're curious we voted for Chuck Baldwin), but I cannot deny that I was proud

But Wait! There's more....

Gabe and I have a home! Well, we have an apartment which we will quickly make our home. We have been extremely grateful to the God who provides; grateful to the God who would not allow us to be homeless during this transition and put people in our lives to help us, but now we are overjoyed at the prospect of starting our life here in California. We have honestly no complaints. Even though it has been sort of a limbo kind of world for us since we left North Carolina in October (really longer than that because we had no idea when or if we

Some things I've learned from Samson

Happy New Year's

Gabe and I were reminiscing a little bit... We were talking about our first few months of marriage - how little we had and how even when all of our stuff got there we still didn't have much. And yet, without anything, we were happy. Even talking about it now we were laughing and smiling and hugging.


It got me thinking about our past New Year's...

Our World

Well, after the episode yesterday we were not going to be deterred today. We first went to Moss Landing (found some wonderful beaches there, but they wouldn't allow Sam and the one that did was a little crowded). Then we went to "our" beach, Rio Del Mar in Aptos - the beach that was once the most polluted int the state.. ha ha. But now it is clean and very inviting. It was also not too populated for it being New Year's Eve... All I had

It IS a dog's world

I have been going through a lot lately. So in an attempt at some healing I cranked up my Amy Grant, then went to the beach (poor man's therapy). I spent quite some time on the internet last night and this morning trying to find a beach where Samson could really just be a dog: run around, get dirty, bug other dogs, whatever. I found a beach in Carmel (of course) and I was so excited to go. I had this image in my mind of sitting on the beach while Sam sniffed

Flowering Tea

My dear and loving husband decided to get the internet; there are a few reasons for this: he is in the process of applying to law enforcement agencies up and down the state which require extensive background information (such as old transcripts, estranged family members' addresses and phone numbers, etc.). We are also quite disconnected from important things like bills and our banking. So, with some restrictions, we are now online again.

Christmas Day 2008

Well, here is our Christmas - in pictures.


First things first - wake up, Uncle Gabe!!

Girl's Day

It had been far too long since I had seen my girls Nicole and Ashawnae. So we made some time in the midst of our busy schedules to have a little fun! We just went to the mall and shopped a little…

We found out that Ashawnae's trim was made out of raccoon fur... so she named it and became it's friend.

Beautiful women!

I missed her!

Goofy faces!

Little miss Nicole wanted to push down the display at Victoria's Secret... I really missed her, too!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always a special day; anticipation swallows every child’s heart and the grown-ups are a little anxious about the stress of the next day… But everyone is content. It’s a very interesting sort of day… For us it was fairly normal (as normal as normal is) – Beth and I stayed at home while the guys went out to run some errands (and on Christmas Eve that takes a while).

Ayden woke up Uncle Gabe and read him a book.

Samson looking snazzy.

Beth and I cleaned the apartment because it was important to us to have a clean house Christmas morning (you know, before it gets destroyed). Anyway, she was being “fierce.”

He really enjoys eating oranges…

“YEAH – WE BE EATIN’ OUR FRUIT. GOTTA PROBLEM WIT DAT??”

Apparently oranges make one want to be upside down.

Then we all went to church – Gabe and I to First Baptist in Morgan Hill and the Balls to a church here in Salinas (a rather nice one actually). I really missed the candlelight service as it’s a long standing tradition and with the fragmented state of my family right now I am trying to hold on to the things I can. But it was nice to see Vickie and Jean and to hear Gabe give a little testimony about what God has been doing in our lives.

Of course, First Baptist is where we got married. So we took some pictures in the sanctuary.

“I still do!”

Very excited to be the Sedberrys!

After church Gabe and I went by Dad’s house to open our one gift each – Gramdad and Grandma Sylvia got us $100 to Amazon.com (sweet!). Then we went back to the Balls’ house. Completely humoring me, everyone opened one gift each – the gifts from my mom.

Oh yes, so excited. Can’t you tell?

Opening my gift.

Paper!!

The gift is attacking Levi!

Apparently Gabe is attacking the gift.

She got us all pajamas (which was perfect because Beth had wanted to start doing that anyway) so we all went to bed in brand new comfies. I think that one-present thing was the only “normal Christmas” thing I did. I am constantly reminded about the divorce and the division in our family, but the Holidays make it that much sharper. It was nice to share a special custom with these people I only met two years ago; people who have become our functional family. They were quite sensitive to the situation I am in this year and really made it a wonderful time.

Our 3rd attempt at a picture.

Then came the fun part! For the last few weeks I have been gathering goodies and putting together bags for Christmas Morning and finally I got to assemble the stockings! I don’t know how it is for everybody else in the world, but for me the stockings are the best part of Christmas. You know that you’re going to get some great presents under the tree. And you also know that you will more than likely get a few things from your list. But the stocking is a total surprise! You’ll get cheap things that will probably get thrown away, but you’ll also get some really neat things that you never thought to ask for. And you always get candy! Santa never leaves you wanting with a stocking…. Stockings are awesome. Anyway, I was so excited to have the opportunity to…. Er, help Santa. I think I enjoyed it more than anybody else enjoyed it on the other end! It was such a blessing for me.

Yay!! And my stocking most certainly did not remain empty. Gabe and I do all of our gifts for one another with the stocking so he filled mine before I got up in the morning and it broke the hook off… He is so wonderful! I’m spoiled.

Somehow, even though we are all broke, Ayden (and the Balls) got a million presents under the tree! God is so good!

Though not what I am used to, this was the perfect Christmas Eve…