Summer fun....

Today I took the kids to the water park. We had a great time and got some great sun. I thought I would share some pictures with you while the kids are knocked out asleep on the couch. Tonight I will try to post about my getaway this past weekend.

And we are off.....

Actually we are not yet but we will be leaving in the morning. Three days in beautiful Gulf Shores with just my two best friends and my Husband. I am having some mommy worrying time but I am doing a little better than normal. I trust the people that my kids will be staying with but even more importantly I trust God. I have to believe that there is nothing wrong with taking a few days break somewhere without your kids...I hope so anyway. This will be the first time that they have ever celebrated any kind of a holiday without me and that makes me kind of sad but at least it is not a major holiday. Please say a prayer for us on our travels and more importantly please pray that my kids will be safe here.

Oh, one more thing. I will be using Twitter to update so you can follow me on my side bar.

I hope everyone has a great Fourth and a wonderful long weekend. Until I return.....April

Fathers Day

Well, since it is midnight I thought I would write my Fathers day post. My ear hurts and I need to go to bed so it may not be that great of a post but it comes from my heart so I hope you will enjoy.

I have a wonderful Father, a Father that loves me to the end of the Earth and always has. Even in times that I know he was disappointed in me he always let me know that he still loved me. I can remember being a little girl and going to work with my Dad, I can remember being a teenager and having major fights with my Dad, I can remember the day I got married and how happy my dad was and I can remember when my Mom died and my Dad and I got so much closer. Dad and I didn't always have the greatest relationship, I suppose Mom was right in saying that it was because we were to much alike. Now that I am grown I can admit that the day that my Dad gave me the nickname that has stuck with me all of these years "Princess April" he was right. I am sure I was no bundle of joy to live with. LOL!

Dad did not have an easy life and so much of his life was really on the job training. He was never really taught how a loving marriage worked or how to properly raise kids but he figured it out. He was a wonderful Husband a husband that loved my Mom to the end of her days and beyond. He was a great Dad, a strict Dad but a great one never-the-less. Now my Dad gets to be one of the best kinds of Fathers...a Grandfather. My three kids love their PopPop so much much.

I pray that my Dad always know that no matter the choices that his kids make that he still did a great job. I love you Daddy and I am very proud of the person you are. So many men come out of lives so much better than you did and never became half of the man you are.


I also wish my Husband a Happy Fathers Day. A day that I intend to make a great day starting with a huge breakfast in the morning and if that is the case I better wrap this up and carry myself to bed.

Happy Fathers day to all of the real Fathers out there! April

The Love Dare....

I just wanted to write down that tomorrow will be my official first day of starting this challenge. I thought Fathers Day would be a great day to start since what greater gift can you give someone than a better marriage. Even though I have no intentions of telling Michael I am doing it.

I doubt I will update on here through all forty days but who knows...I may. I pray that this will breath new life into my marriage. Wish me luck....April

One day at a time....

Whew what a summer of nothing. We have really not done anything much this summer but I still feel like I am wore out. Maybe yelling at the kids to get out of something ten thousand times a day is more draining than I realized. I am trying to enjoy each day that we have at home because before I know it we will reach our busy month of July and then after that the kids will be back to school.

Today was actually a nice day or it would have been had I not had blood coming out of my ear. I got up several times through the night to take medicine to ease the pain of my ear infection but it was really not much help. So after very little sleep I got ready to go to town when Tinkerbell and W.W. declared that they didn't want to go. I called my Sister-in-law and she told me that she would be happy to keep them while I went. It was so nice just to have one kid with me, and Q has actually reached an age where he can be reasoned with. I only had to spend about $3 on him and he was happy go lucky for the rest of the trip.

I was once again amazed at how I can never stay within my grocery budget while we were gone. I set a limit every week and I can not even remember the last time I stayed in it. It is rather disgusting to me to know that Michael has to work in the heat to make money and I can go spend a chunk of it on just food. All of this and I swear I am a very frugal shopper, you can ask anyone and they will tell you. Oh well though, I guess that is life and we have to eat....or maybe we would be a little better off if we didn't. I know I sure look like i could miss a few meals. LOL!

Anyway, that was our day. We came home and picked up the other kiddos then I ventured out in the incredible heat to work on cleaning the swimming pool. I fixed a fancy dinner of Frito chili pies and then went and stood in the mirror and asked my ear what I have ever done to make it want to cause me so much pain for over a year now. I am undoubtedly entering permanent hearing lose by now and it is kind of a sad thought. I hope the blood will be gone by tomorrow because it is a little disturbing to me.

Two weeks and two days till Michael and I leave for the beautiful coast and I can't wait. I know I will miss my kids dearly but it will be good for Michael and I to have some time with adults. I may need to come back and read this post the night before I leave to remind myself but I will make it. Lots of parents leave their kids over night and they all make it....I can to. LOL!

Enjoy the rest of your week and your upcoming weekend, and remember that life is so much easier when you take it one day at a time. April

Music.....

Sometimes in the busy pace of my life I forget about one of my favorite things in life....music. I think music has a different effect on most people but to me it is like medicine. It is good for my soul and can often give me just the background music I need to think about life.

I am so blessed to have a best friend with almost any music that you can want to make you the best of the best cd's. I have about five mixed cd's that I adore, and adore the thoughtful person that made them for me. Long gone are the days of listening to the radio and waiting for your favorite song to play.

I have found that I can relate to almost something in every song. If I listen to the words of the songs I can normally get some kind of message out of it. It is really a release for me and I am so happy to find that release sometimes.

Well, I am off to listen to my music and cook some yummy squash casserole. Until next time...April

I love my life...

You know there are times when I forget just how great my life is and I hate that I do that. I really have a wonderful life, a life that I wouldn't trade with anyone even on the worst days.

I have three wonderful children. Three kids that make me smile everyday for some reason or another. Sometimes they say or do the sweetest things and I adore those moments. The other night Michael was going to bed and Q looked up and said "I love you Big Daddy." I laughed so hard. It was so cute and I have never heard him say anything like that before. I have no idea where it came from but it made my night. I adore my children and I try to remember how much I adore them even when I am spraying water in my hair only to realize that the kids have replace my water with Listerine mouth wash. LOL!

I have a great Husband. A husband that works so hard in the heat all summer long to help make my dream of staying home with my kids possible. We don't always get along but I never want to forget how blessed I am to have him.

I have wonderful friends! That statment is really a huge understatment but they are really the best. I read somewhere one time that friends are the family that you pick for yourself and my friends are really my family. I have no idea where I woud be without them.

I have great parents. My Dad and StepMom are wonderful. I am so proud to call them mine and feel so blessed because most people are not so lucky to have such great parents.

So, with all of these factors combined it is no wonder I love life. I hope I never become a person that fails to see how good that I have got it. We could have more money, a nicer house, better cars or fancier things and I probably wouldn't be any happier than I am right now.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and never forget to look at the good things in life. April