Thanks-giving or Thanks-living?

A few weeks ago in our Sunday School Teachers meeting, we were learning

 about true thankfulness. Something someone said in the meeting has really stuck with 

me and since then, I've been trying to 'live' my thanks rather than just vocalize it. 

You see, we can show thanksgiving by simply saying "thank-you" for something,

but actually living our thanks is shown by actions that reflect our thankfulness. 

It has truly helped my realize just how much I have to be thankful for.

This Thanksgiving, make an extra effort to live your thanks for the many

 blessings you have. 

"Count your blessings, name them one by one. 

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done." 

Happy Thanksgiving! :) 

Hunting Story

So....despite REALLY REALLY REALLY C.O.L.D. and windy weather...hunting was still awesome. :) We sat on the edge of some fields from about 6am to 9am and I'm pretty sure I almost froze to death...It was pretty miserable for a while. We went in around 9 to warm up and ended up staying inside till about 1pm. We then went back out to do some pushing through a few marshy fields. At one point, the guy we were hunting with and his son decided to push through some heavy brush. The rest of us were stationed in the clearing right in front of the brush patch. After standing there about 15 minutes, I heard some crashing and looked up to see two deer running out of the brush. The first one ran in the opposite direction of me so I only saw it for a split second. The other one stopped running about 10 yards directly in front of me and just looked at me. I saw that it had antlers (yay, a buck!) but wasn't sure how many. I put up my rifle to shoot and pulled the trigger. nothing. Duh, Abbey...turn the safety off! While I was fumbling around with that, I was sure the deer would have run off by now b/c he was watching my every move. But no, he just stood there staring at me. So I quickly raised my rifle, took aim and shot. He jumped slightly, stood there for a second and then slowly sank down. I waited until the guys were done pushing to go take a look. He was a 4 pointer and a pretty good size. Yay! first deer ever! :) 

Pictures below. Warning: Not for the faint of heart... ;)

Evening with the Knapps

We enjoyed a fun evening on Saturday with our long-time and very good friends, the Knapps! 

Lots of hilarious memories with these folks! :) 

Congratulations Steve and Amber! (late, I know)

I know this happened like...3 months ago, but I just felt like uploading some pix from their wedding.

 It was a very sweet wedding, loved it! :)

Amber sang a song with Tatiana

the kiss! :)

Hannah was a beautiful bridesmaid!

Mom made their wedding cake! :) yum yum

 very pretty...

 The happy couple! :)

Just had to sneak some pictures of Karl and Michelle in this post... ;)

Congratulations Karl and Michelle!

On Saturday, July 13th, Michelle Knueppel and Karl Shikoski were engaged! :)  

I had the privilege to witness this godly couple become engaged...how exciting! 

So...story before the pictures! :) To make a LONG story short, 

D'Lacey and I planned a surprise outing for Karl and Michelle on Saturday, 

mainly for the purpose of D'Lacey being able to meet Karl since 

she hadn't been able to yet. Well, I contacted Karl to OK the plans 

with him, and to make another long story short, our plans ended up being 

a cover-up for the engagement! :) So we got everything worked out with

Karl and got the picnic ready and everything. D'Lacey and I drove out to

 Lake Geneva in the morning and got a small Deli market to keep 

our picnic baskets and the roses. So then we went and picked up Karl, Michelle 

and Jessica at the Knueppel's house. Karl acted like he didn't know 

anything about what we were doing or where we were going. 

We had a great picnic lunch and then we went on a walk 

around the lake. The houses and gardens on the Lake Walk were gorgeous! 

Karl, Michelle and I went ahead on the walk while D'Lacey and 

Jessica got rid of our picnic baskets and retrieved the roses. 

Since D'Lacey and Jessica were far behind us, Karl proposed without the roses

and then gave the flowers to Michelle later on down the path on the way back 

where D'Lacey and Jessica had stashed them. D'Lacey and Jessica 

showed up just in time to get some of the proposal on video since D'Lacey 

had the video camera. :) 

Michelle was completely surprised! :) SUCCESS! :) 

So then D'Lacey asked a random guy if we could use his dock for 

pictures and stuff (originally she had asked if we could use the dock

for the proposal, but Karl proposed before we got to the dock). 

We spent a good amount of time on the dock taking pictures and 

texting everyone the good news! :)

So...pictures now. :)  

I insisted that we get a picture with me in between them...just once! :) 

At the picnic lunch...

They are SO cute together! :) 

D'Lacey and Karl "arguing"...it was pretty hilarious. 

Not sure who won that one...

Pictures along the Lake Walk

"Will you marry me?" 

Of course...she said YES! :) 

a very surprised Michelle! :) 

we finally got to the flowers... ;) 

Michelle's ring is gorgeous, absolutely perfect for her! 

Great job choosing the ring, Karl! :) 

The extremely happy couple! 

They are definitely in love...

texting the good news!

we tried to have Karl reenact the proposal... 

It didn't work out too well...

meanwhile, us single girls mourned our singleness... (j/k)

what a lovely couple...

This is the lady that kept the roses and our picnic baskets 

on her porch after we picked the stuff up from the Deli. 

She was so excited to be a part of Michelle and Karl's 

special day! :) She was very sweet! 

After the proposal, everyone (except me)

 went on a ferry boat ride around the lake. 

I was on a rescue mission at the time...Michelle's 

purse was in desperate need of her and was about two 

blocks away. So while the rest of the group enjoyed the boat ride, 

Super-Abbey was to the rescue! ;) 

  

In front of the fountain outside of the Riviera.

We walked past this old run-down house on the way back to the van and

we told Michelle and Karl that they could renovate this house and live 

in it once married. :) 

It once was a really nice house...

Congrats Karl and Michelle! :)