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Last night my three year old crawled in bed with us. She turned to her daddy and said "Daddy, I want some skate shoes for Christmas." Well it was midnight so we were not totally awake. John responds "What? What do you do with them?" Savannah never missed a beat she just said "To find a store near you go to Heelys.com."

Merry Christmas

The Sacred Diaries of April aged 32 3/4 years

Can't sleep. Christmas countdown pressure is starting to get to me!! Checklist getting longer not shorter. Blast!

Can't find asparagus dressed like Joseph from the girls Veggie Tales nativity set. Looked under sofa and in toy box but no sign of him.

Still have all those half smashed pine cones in the garage that I can't bring myself to throw away. Thought it would be fun to make peanut butter smeared pine cones with the girls to hang in the trees for the birds but I keep forgetting to pick up bird seed from the store. I do have all that left over Halloween candy. I wonder if the birds would eat that smushed over the peanut butter? Someone may as well enjoy it since I have to loose 20 pounds by next Monday. Dieting sure would be easier if the dryer didn't keep shrinking my clothes. Blasted dryer!

Still need to clean that spot off the living room floor where the girls spilled the gallon-o-bubbles. First several attempts have turned stain from dark grey to a lighter more spotted version of same grey.

We did get the Christmas tree up! Hurrah!!! Even found decorative boxes to prop the two broken limbs on - hardly even looks awkward from most angles. Bottom half of tree will have to be redecorated once I find missing ornaments.

Still have half my presents to buy. It would help to have money and time to shop on the same day. Been to all the closeout stores. May as well wrap up the junk laying around my own house. I've never seen so many tacky picture frames, metal vases and hideous bed spreads.

Forgotten cookies? Who has time with the mountain of forgotten laundry lurking just around the corner?

Speaking of food, what to serve Christmas day? Turkey or Enchiladas? I'm leaning towards a Mexican Christmas this year. Maybe queso and tamales...mmm. Stop it April, your just feeling weakened because it's been a whole day since you had M&M's. You have got to stick to your diet!!

On the other hand - it has been nice talking to the girls about Jesus' birthday. They are so excited! Ask me every day when the family is coming over. They don't seem to be at all concerned about the half inch layer of dust, toenails and fuzz encrusted on the baseboards behind the bathroom door. I need to be more like them. Their biggest goal every day is spending as much time as possible sitting in Daddy's lap. Maybe if I would climb up into my Daddy's lap more often this to do list wouldn't look so daunting...

Eye Twitching

Lately my eye is twitching. What does that mean? Lack of potassium? I feel like I'm 80 all the sudden. This must be how it starts. One day you are discussing nose irrigators and eye twitches and the next thing you know your teeth are soaking in a jar on the bathroom counter. You have a metal chair in your shower and over the potty. The kids are fighting over who will inherit the ugly magazine rack lamp that sits beside the rocker in the den right next to the tin TV trays. Corn isn't necessarily a vegetable anymore and you torment your great grandkids with expressions like "Kool Kat". Wow- I think I just saw my whole life flash before my eyes. I ended up with a lot of crocheted ornaments - did not see that coming.

Stuck at Home

It's sleeting in Dallas. That's what we get instead of snow. Balls of ice bouncing merrily off our roof and cars and turning our city which apparently has more over passes than any other metropolis in the nation (go figure) into a slip n' slide. Unfortunately an elaborate string of events must transpire in exactly the right order to have an ACTUAL ice day. It must be below freezing for several days so the ground can cool, then it has to sleet and the temperature remain low so that the ice stays. If that happens and the stars are aligned just so - we get to stay home from work. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Plenty of ice, not cold enough to stick very long. So I'm pretending to be stuck at home for a few days. I've enforced my "no getting out of your pj's" rule for the second day now. That's a rule around our house. If you are sick or it snows you don't have to get out of your pj's. It's one of the best rules of all time. Someone should write it into the first amendment. John has of course had to go to work on both days. He has been outside working in the sleet. Poor guy. I told him to call in sick but since we have our own business that doesn't work too well for us. I feel nice and toasty though and have had lots of fun watching Malcolm in the Middle and playing with my girls and goofing around on the computer. Ahhhh snow - may we have much more of it this season.

Happy Feet Movie Review - Parents Beware!!

In case anyone is thinking of taking their kids, I just wanted to take a moment to review the movie Happy Feet. We got free sneak preview passes and since we've never taken the girls to a movie decided it would be the perfect time to see if they were old enough to sit through a show. We did not read anything about the movie before we went, which was our mistake. The movie was merely an excuse to promote propoganda and SEX!!!

We could not believe the sexual overtones, undertones and blatantly in your face message. To name just a few things that happened, they used the actual words "sex, making love and freaking" in the movie. Also, there was quite a bit of bump and grind dancing and references to taking someone back to the nest or picking up girls. The movie is filled with pop culture music with sensual lyrics. The penguins are constantly coming on to one another in a a sexual nature with comments like "Do you see something you like here? Do you want a piece of this?" The female penguins are made to look like they have breasts and butts. I know you guys have got to think that I'm lying or exaggerating but I'm not, we were stunned!!

Amazingly there were things that made us even angrier than the constant focus on sex. The elders of the community are made to look like small minded religious bigots who reject anyone or anything that would be considered different. They have drawn the elders with the physical characteristics of vultures and they sit perched up above the people harshly judging those in the community that don't fit in. This is not an accident.

The movie starts with the penguins worshipping a penguin God and even shows the image of this God in the sky so it gives the impression that not only is God a penguin but a harsh, judgmental, unhappy one that has cut off the animals food supply because he is angry at them.

At one point when Happy Feet, the star has been been banished from the community for being different he goes and finds another tribe of penguins who accept him. The leader of this tribe is a fat, chief looking penguin named Lovelace who is "enlightened by the gods". In order to get this enlightened one to answer your question you have to take him an offering. The penguins take him an offering and have a conversation with him in which he bumbles around like a pompous idiot. He then turns the people away for the day because he is going back to his "couch of perpetual indulgences" with a group of lady penguins under his arms leaving you with the impression that they are going to have some sort of orgy. It once again is blatantly beating up the religious community by making the leaders look like selfish cult leaders who seduce and control peoples and in this case his harem through lies and manipulation.

Of course in typical Hollywood style we find out towards the end that the real devils are the humans who are coming in and destroying the environment.

I wish I could give you a complete review but this all happened before we got up and left a little more than an hour into the movie.

If all of this wasn't enough we probably still would have left early because the movie was incredibly BORING and not even funny. Literally NOTHING happened. It's like the entire purpose of this movie was to promote political and religious propaganda and sell sex, enlightenment and tree hugging agendas.

DON'T GO! That's all I can say. Happy Feet isn't appropriate for children.

Inspiring Fall

What is it about fall that inspires me to live, to move, to change things? I love it! I love the cool weather and the bright colors - fall makes my heart sing. Today it was singing to me - "Go to Home Depot and buy paint for the front door". My heart can be very bossy at times. So I loaded up my merry band and drove to the nearest Home Depot and managed to pick out two nearly indistinguishable colors of terra cotta for the front door. While I was there my heart also started singing to me about flowers and dirt to make the yard pretty for Thanksgiving. $114 later I told my heart to shut up and get in the car before the bank calls my husband. We drove home and I was so excited I started priming the front door in the dark. I put one color on the right side of the door and one color on the left. I was at first afraid that I had indeed purchased the exact same color in different brands but as it dried one was clearly hook 'em horns orange and the other the richer, deeper color for which I was hoping. It's amazing how a $10 can of paint can change the entire look of your house. Not that you will ever get out of Home Depot for $10. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Freakin' Poopy

My precious little angels. Aren't they cute? Today I was changing the littlest ones diaper when my older one said in the sweetest voice "Can I see the freakin' poopy mama?" Do they have to hear EVERY word I say??

Nacho Libre

I saw Nacho Libre last night. It's absolutely repulsive, audacious and hilarious. The plot was weak and the movie dragged at times, but the costume and physical comedy were worth the movie. I love Jack Black. He intrigues me. I always wonder what is going on in his head.

Ode to My Dad

Dad,
I couldn't figure out what I like most about you, your wonderful poems or all the dad jokes so I decided to combine the two for this very special (drum role)...

Ode to My Dad

(on Father's Day)

It makes me glad to call you Dad...

A dad by any other name but "my Dad" would not smell as sweet...

Roses are red, violets are blue, you are my Dad and I love you...

It's a good time, for the great taste of McDadders...

I love my Dad in the springtime, I love my Dad in the fall, I love my Dad in the summer when it sizzles and I love my dad in the winter when it drizzels. I love my Dad every moment, every moment of the year. I love my Dad, why oh why do I love my Dad? Because his love is near...

I Love you Daddy

Long Live Juarez

Well I'm back from Juarez, Mexico. John and I just spent a week at Hogar De Nino's Emmanuel http://www.emmanuelministries-juarez.org/ which is a children's home in Juarez. What a blessing. We went there to work on the plumbing, play with the children, do vacation Bible school and generally help others. We left with many tears and a big part of our heart in Juarez. What a humble, gracious people. Our hearts are so full of the many hugs and kisses from precious children who are being raised and taught at Hogar De Nino's Emmanuel. It was a privilege to meet Jonaten who runs the school and Sonia his wife who teaches. Aaron who was actually raised at the home, and John hit it off right away. Aaron now is a married man expecting his first born and he still lives in Juarez and works full time for the ministry.

We can't wait to get back! I look forward to many more years supporting this worth while, Kingdom family. So many stories to tell but just a few for now. We prayed for many people every day. We saw the Lord open the ears of a girl born deaf. She wept as she realized her hearing aids are no longer necessary. He comforted a man who lost his wife 2 years ago and has been drinking heavily since. The man was praying for someone to comfort him when we approached him on the street to pray for him. He cried like a baby for 30 minutes. The next day we saw him again, his face now bright and shiny with new hope. We walked into one yard where men were sitting around drinking and smoking. They offered us joints, we offered them Jesus. There hearts were softened and they asked us to pray for them. One man said " I know what I'm doing is wrong, but I need the kind of help you are offering so I can stop". We prayed for the little girls at the home. Many of them had encounters with God and told us of visions they saw. They saw bright lights and Jesus came out and would speak to them about His love for them. One girl said that the Lord told her "Your name is written in the Lambs Book of Life". Another said the Lord said "Desire to follow me." These are just a few of the many wonderful things that happened.

Pray for this precious ministry. In a city where children are abandoned, abused, neglected and worse, a city where women are randomly and brutally murdered, in the 7th most dangerous city in the world sits a light in the midst of darkness. A place where children find love and a family, where they are fed and taught and protected and loved. A church that reaches out to it's community and encourages men to step up and be fathers. What a difference they are making. Pray for them.

Bloated bellies and jelly donuts

So my credit card company who coincidently is my bank sends me a letter saying they received my credit card payment but unfortunately when they tried to cash the payment my bank told them they couldn't find our bank account. They went on to inform me that they were sorry that my bank (the same company as my credit card) couldn't find my account and that they had to charge the return fees to my credit card. They concluded the letter by informing me that if I wanted to clear this up I should call my bank and find out what happened to my account... Isn't that nice advice? So helpful.

Is it just me or does this sound like the sweetest scam in history? I can just see all the bank big wigs with bloated bellies and jelly donuts sitting around their conference table saying "If we can pull this off we will eat like Kings!!"

A Case for Capes

Recently, as in five minutes ago, I was reading a friends blog. I'll call her Nelmanie S., no that's too obvious, I'll call her N. Smith.

N. Smith was pondering a riveting question that had been posed to her this week. The question "What are you defending". After much apparent turmoil she concluded that she should probably be defending the universe. This brings up a heated debate I've been having with myself for years now.

Where have all the capes gone? When did it become socially unacceptable to don the occasional cape? It is my belief that any mundane task would improve dramatically should cape wearing be reinstated in society immediately. For instance, imagine your morning routine. Dull? Now imagine it with a cape. Do you think people would cut in line at Starbucks if they saw that you were a cape wearer? I think not.

Who hasn't daydreamed of swooping into a room, or swishing past someone - all possible with a cape. Not to mention the added benefit of having your initials embroidered in insanely large fonts right on your person. I assume this is to aid in identification when someone is viewing you from a great distance - which inevitably they would be if you were wearing a cape. Having a large "A" emblazoned on my cape would ensure that credit would be given where credit was due. I wouldn't want my noble deeds credited to N.Smith for instance.

Capes are important. Their benefits cannot be trivialized. A cape symbolizes nobility, character, heroism, acts of kindness and charity. I know you are thinking - On the other hand a cape in the wrong hands could encourage someone already given to an alter ego. Well I didn't say it was a flawless theory, instead you should think of it as a big social experiment.

It's nice to have nice girlfriends. Tonight some friends and I went out to the mall, did some leisurely shopping and bought a few overpriced items. In Dallas we have a mall called Willow Bend. It's a mystery that it is still open. It's a very nice mall and yet I've never seen a crowd there. In fact its so far south of crowded that crowded is a dot on the horizon. That was sufficiently dramatic. I think the problem is, they don't have a full sized Starbucks. It's more of a kiosk in the middle of the mall. What were they thinking with that?? Anyway, I like to go there because it's always empty but it is a bit of an anomaly how they remain in business. After shopping we went to dinner and laughed and talked. They say familiarity breeds contempt. I've often wondered if it's familiarity or taking someone for granted that breeds the contempt. It's good to have new friends and old friends, new friends that think you are wonderful and funny and old friends that are over it but still like you even though they know all your dirt. It's also nice to have a comfy bed and warm husband to retreat to. I'm going to do that now I think. But for my friends - and you know who you are - I had a very nice evening. Thanks for being my Calgon and taking me away from it all.

Hello great big world. I'm thinking of moving my blog here and just wanted to try out the features!! So far so good...

Here is my old address if you want to check out past entries. http://www.xanga.com/himmysoulloves