A Nice November Day

Today was beautiful outside, so me and the girls went out into the backyard to enjoy it. I think it was about 70 degrees, I never actually saw the temperature. We played on the swingset and Meredith drove the little car around. Madelyn and I played "Eye doctor" one time and I (the eye doctor) asked her, "Do you see well at night?" She answered "No, not really and I can't hear very well either! Can you do ear appointments too?" What a silly girl!!

Meredith was quite the little daredevil. I caught her more than once trying to climb up the big ladder onto the swingset. Then she did start climbing up the slide, saying, "I climb!" I couldn't believe how well she did. Just a few pictures of our day.

Fall Festival

Today was the Fall Festival at the girls' school. I fully expect them to come home completely high on sugar. The teachers probably laugh their hinies off as they hand them over to us. I remember a couple of years ago on Valentines Day at Madelyn's old daycare, I swear she ate sugar all day long and then when she came home, she was like a troll on heroin! Not that I've ever seen that.....I can just imagine. I wanted to strangle the teacher for letting her eat all that!!

Madelyn dressed as a 50's girl and Meredith went as a little cowgirl. I had to put Meredith's boots and ribbons in her hair twice. The little stinker....she just won't keep clothes on and her hair in a ponytail. Madelyn got dressed this morning and informed me that she didn't think she looked pretty. She was wearing a white boyish shirt and the whole 50's gear. (You'll see the pictures). The shirt wasn't all that boyish....it just certainly wasn't feminine. Now Madelyn Grace is certainly her MiMi's granddaughter. This child asks Mimi everytime she talks to her what she's wearing and when she sees her in person, she always compliments Mimi on her style. This girl likes to be very girly. The whole long hair, purse-carrying, princess dress wearing girly thing! I told her I'd make her a monogrammed "M" for her shirt like the ladies on Laverne and Shirley used to wear on their sweaters. She could wear that for actual Halloween night. She was impressed with that option since it made her outfit more girly. She wants it to be pink. I've actually enlisted Mimi for the job to do on her computer since my color cartridge is out of ink.

Meredith looked too precious!! I can't wait to go pick her up and see if she wore her clothes all day and what her freaky hair looks like! Here they are this morning before we left for school! Enjoy!

WoW! God works!

I was staring at my list I posted yesterday with all the blog ideas with the intention of picking one to write about. Instead God tapped me on the shoulder and said he needed me to write about something else. He's been tapping me alot lately.

If you are a K-Love listener, this week is their pledge drive. This radio station is solely supported by listener's pledges and prayers. The first time I pledged was in March of 2006 right after Nancy died. I pledged $20 because that was all I could give at the time. That time was the worst in my life financially though, but God kept telling me he would provide and he did. I did really well for the first year faithfully sending in my pledge every month, sometimes more if I had it. Then, I just kind of fell away from it. K-Love would send me sweet letters asking me if they could pray for me and if I needed to reduce my gift since I hadn't been sending it faithfully. I would be overcome with guilt and throw the letter away. I didn't think I had the money at that time because I had credit card debt to contend with and other things to spend it on. God was talking to me about it, but I was ignoring him.

Every once in a while, I would be listening to K-Love and think, "I need to send them some money! They have such a blessed ministry!" But I never did it. This year's pledge drive started last Tuesday and God started tugging on my heart again. This time, I perked up a little more and promised myself and him that I would send $20 in the next time I sat down and paid bills which would be at the first of November. That wasn't good enough for our Mighty God. But he never yelled at me....he never got angry....he just kept gently nudging me telling me "April, I've provided for you every time in your life. What makes you think I won't this time? I'm the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow!" I had made the decision then to write the check today when I sat down to update my bills spreadsheet. Well, that still wasn't in God's plan. Yesterday as I was driving to school, I had to radio tuned to K-Love. When I first started listening, I thought that this pledge drive had been more inspiring than past ones. Lots of beautiful stories of how K-Love has touched people's lives. But none of them had moved me like the one I was about to hear. Kelly on the afternoon show started reading a letter they had received from a man named Brett. His letter read something like this: "I am not an avid K-Love listener or supporter. I rarely listen to the radio especially while I'm driving as it distracts me. This weekend, my gorgeous wife of 6 years was torn from me because of a sudden illness. I also lost my precious baby son who was due to be born on October 29th. I ran out of the hospital crying inconsolably, crying out to God and got into my car. When I got into my car, my radio was tuned to K-Love and the song, "There will be a Day" by Chris Tomlin was playing. I hadn't left my radio on when I went inside. As the song played, my heart cried out to Jesus and as he held me and consoled me like the precious Father he is, he told me to give to K-Love. That's why I'm calling you today....because K-Love was there for me in a horrendous moment in my life and every gift people give matters. I have come back to Jesus and I know I will see my beautiful wife and son in Heaven." OMG....as I heard those words being read, I choked up so badly that I almost had to pull off on the side of the road. It made my heart physically hurt for this man and what he had gone through. But what a testimony of how God meets us just how and when we need him! By the way, the writer of the song, "There will be a Day" Chris Tomlin, lost his wife also when they were newlyweds. I knew right then that all those stories I had been hearing from people about how K-Love had brought them back to Jesus or kept them from committing suicide or just encouraged them......those stories had been for me. God had been gently whispering them in my ear until that last one when he shouted it into my heart. Right then, I picked up my cell phone and called K-Love. I had then set me up with an automatic gift every month coming directly out of my checking account. It's called an EZ-Gift. To me, it's a step of faith knowing that God will provide and I can't let the devil talk me out of making the payment each month. It comes out automatically. The feeling I got for being obedient to God at that moment was awesome! I knew that I had made him happy! I give him all the Glory for the good that station brings to people and I'm so thankful he lets me be a part of it. God is So Good!!

Blog Ideas

1. The Story of my most serious injury.
2. The person I admire most.
3. This will be my epitaph.
4. Why I love my hometown.
5. Why I hate my hometown.
6. Why I was a childhood bully.
7. How I shop.
8. How I choose to spend my money.
9. I wish I spent less money on this.
10. Why I'm in my current job.
11. My ideal job.
12. My high school clique.
13. My worst subject in school.
14. If I had a super-power.
15. Here's where my opinion differs from the majority.
16. Why I voted the way I did in the last election.
17. Why I don't vote.
18. The cause I really believe in.
19. Why I came to religion.
20. Why I don't believe anymore.
21. Where I find spirituality.
22. My first kiss.
23. My worst kiss.
24. The first time I had my heart broken.
25. Why I travel.
26. Why I don't travel.
27. My philosophy on raising children.
28. Why I chose my university degree.
29. My favorite place on the planet.
30. My greatest sin against the environment
31. Why I married my spouse.
32. My most hated movie.
33. The book that changed my life.
34. My unexpected mentor.
35. I couldn't live without this song.
36. If I hear this song again, radio personalities will suffer.
37. Why I believe in luck.
38. Why I don't believe in luck.
39. Where I volunteer.
40. Where I don't volunteer.
41. My favorite item of clothing growing up.
42. If this celebrity knocked on my door, I'd run away with them.
43. Why I care about celebrities.
44. Why I love this sport.
45. When I'm at my most self-indulgent
46. How to be selfless.
47. My childhood dreams, and how I've fulfilled them.
48. How I learned patience.
49. How my hard work paid off.
50. I've never been more surprised in all my life.
51. What scares the crap out of me.
52. The only thing I can teach you.

I stole these from Holly's blog. It's just a list of ideas to write about on your blog. I figure I will choose a few and write about them. Stay tuned!

Meredith and her cute little voice!

Last week, Madelyn spent Thursday night with Mimi and so we had Meredith all alone. While I worked on homework on the computer, Daddy and Meredith did some reading and playing. Meredith got ahold of Madelyn's workbook and started asking Daddy, "What's that?" She asks this about everything now. It's so cute listening to her and watching her learn! Have a look!

Girls' First Day of School

Madelyn and Meredith had their first day of school on Tuesday, September 1st. Madelyn is in a Pre-Kindergarten class and Meredith is in an 18-24 month class. Madelyn wanted to dress up, so I decided to dress them both up. Madelyn did really well when I took her to her class. It was all familiar to her and she had a lot of the same kids in her class. I had brought bedding for her naptime and the teacher informed me that Madelyn's class doesn't do naptime this year. I was sort of shocked, and I think Madelyn was kind of peeved. She fights going to sleep, but she's always a good sleeper. The good thing about it is that we don't have to fight her as much at night to go to bed at a decent time. Meredith did well too when I dropped her off. She has never been to any kind of formal child care in her almost 21 months, so it was very new to her. When I was ready to leave, she did follow me and cried a little bit, but not bad. I had to go back out to the car to get the girls' school supplies and when I dropped Meredith's off, I just set them outside her classroom so she wouldn't see me again. I did sneak a look in on her and she was comforting another little girl that was really upset. I have the sweetest girls!! Meredith was VERY excited to see me at the end of the day. When I came to get her, she said, "Momma!!" and ran over to me. She then started unloading her basket to me telling me, "Let's Go!" Very cute! Madelyn had a great day too and she had lots to tell me. We had brought some play clothes from home because my friend Leslie was taking them to McDonald's after school for a treat and some playtime while I finished out my workday. It was a good day!

Naughty Madelyn

I posted these pictures on Facebook last week, but I wanted to add them to my blog for people that don't do Facebook like my Dad and Cindy. I came home from work a few weeks ago when my Aunt May was keeping the girls for me and this is how I found Madelyn. Meredith had been sick most of the day, so Aunt May was preoccupied with her and naughty Madelyn took advantage of Aunt May and covered herself with tattoos! I believe we counted 17 in all!! I was mortified when I saw them! When I gave her a bath that night, I nearly scrubbed her little skin off trying to get them off. We mainly concentrated on the tattoos on her face since they were the most noticeable. Here is what she looked like when I came home. Naughty Madelyn!!!

Detoxification

Well, the 7-day detoxification did not work out as planned. I lasted 3 days. The main deal-breaker was the feeling like I was going to pass out on a regular basis. I could eat as much as I wanted, but I'm not a huge fan of plain vegetables and fruit, so I didn't eat enough. I did learn several fruits that I liked, so that was a good thing. I'll try it again when I'm ready to eat more.

7-day Detoxification

Last week, my mom told me about this detoxification diet she had read about and suggested it to me. Now, let me tell you....my first thought was, "No Way!" as she told me I was only to eat raw fruits and vegetables. If you know me at all, then you know I don't like fruit, never have, and swore I never will. But, I thought I just might try it just to see if I could do it and try to learn to like fruit. I gave David a list of things I wanted and he went to the store on Saturday to stock up. There are lots of vegetable that I like, so that wasn't an issue. It was hard coming up with the fruits to buy though. I decided on watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, apples, and peaches. For breakfast this morning, I had pineapple, cantaloupe, and orange juice. I found this morning that I'm not a huge fan of cantaloupe, but can stomach it. I do LOVE pineapple though in spite of its stringiness (that usually grosses me out)! For lunch, I'm eating a salad with avacado, onion, mushroom, bell pepper, and light balsalmic vinegar, with lots of black pepper to taste. It's actually pretty good, although I do miss the cheese a little bit. I think I can do this for a week! The only things I'm worried about are staying full, working out while doing this diet, and getting burned out. From what I've read, I should stay full because I can have as much as I want all day long, but it takes me a lot longer to eat I've noticed just because these aren't meals I would naturally choose. I'm afraid I'll be a little lightheaded from the negative caloric intake and then try to workout. I don't want to over-do it! For supper, I plan on having a bowl of beans. I LOVE beans, so that will be something to look forward to. Beans are high in fiber and they fill you up, so that's probably a good choice to end the day on. I probably will have to take some sort of fruit snack or some broccoli to munch on though because I start class tonight which means I will have to eat supper around 4:30 and then I go to class from 5:45 to 10:15. It will definitely take some getting used to. But it's only for a week and I can do ANYTHING for a week!! Wish me Luck!!

New Earrings

Madelyn has finally made it the 8 weeks to change her earrings for the first time. She's talked about it for weeks and decided a few weeks ago to go with her new ice cream earrings to coordinate with her ice cream shirt for the first change. Daddy sat down with her tonight for the big reveal. They were a little tender and she cried just a tad, but she did awesome. You'll see in the pictures that her little eyes are red from the few tears. She wants to wear her monkey earrings tomorrow, so it looks like we'll be changing them often now. Have a look!