LEGOLAND, California!!! Day One: Whooyeah!!! A Big Hit for Kids Ages 10 and Under

LegoLand theme park in California: Day 1 On day 2 of our San Diego vacation, Alan woke me up at 6am to tell me he was going to eat at the hotel and then head to the grocery store to buy breakfast. Did the hotel have free breakfast? Why yes, it did. Is there any way that our whole family of 6 will be dressed and ready before the thing closes at 9am? No, not really. Getting myself and the […]

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Day 1 of the Trip to San Diego. Vacation renews a tired Mom.

San Diego Day 1: I have never been so badly in need of a vacation as I was this Spring Break. Actually, I’ve lived in need of a vacation since June 2013. I promise I wasn’t always this tired and whiny. There were actually lots of years where I felt relaxed and happy. I was busy, but it was a healthy level of busy. I want to get back to that healthy level of busy, but happy again!!!   Forget […]

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The Broken Phone, The Aquarium, and the Cat

As you can see in this picture, when it comes to my husband, I have no room for complaints. The man is clearly dressed to work. Meanwhile, he’s also wearing a kitchen towel on his shoulder. He’s trim and fit, helpful, kind, funny, and a wonderful Christian example for all. My grandfather gave me only one piece of advice my whole life: “April, never marry a man who doesn’t work.” Good advice. Alan does work hard. I wouldn’t even mention […]

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One Tough Seven-year-old

This week was my birthday. I did not have a good birthday. I had both a terrible and a wonderful birthday. Don’t you think so many things can be both bad and good at the same time? That was my birthday this year. It was bad because I was so sleep deprived that I could barely function. It was also amazing. One boy worked on my birthday present all week. He made me four different Super Mom comic books. Then […]

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A Sunset Walk in Monterey

Alan and I herded all the boys together and ventured over to Monterey this past weekend. The boys said things like this: “I don’t want to go.” “Can’t we just stay home?” Until we got there. Once we got there, they had a ball and didn’t want to leave. In fact, Joshua developed a sudden interest in film production. He made movie after movie and “News Story” after news story. Sorry, I am under strict gag orders to not share […]

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“A world without friends, I don’t think I could bear it.”

“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”  (Unknown) Jennings and I have been friends since I was 19, and Jennings was 18. Now we are in our 30s. We have gone from bright-eyed, hard-working college students, who both seemed to hardly ever get a date, to what we are now…..one married mom of four and one successful flight attendant and aunt extraordinaire. Jennings […]

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Will Nap Anywhere

There are many things my beautiful little boys do well. Yes, I am sorry. I said beautiful.  They are!! Handsome, if it makes you feel better, but my goodness, they look like sleeping angels to me. This is one of the things we do with FLARE. That’s right. We NAP. We are seriously great nappers. I remember one time, in Sunday school, our class was debating rest on Sundays. Who would debate that? Seriously. Don’t just agree to rest, embrace […]

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We Love Seals!

To kick off Alan’s big week of vacation time, we’re enjoying a big, fat staycation. First stop: Point Lobos State Park. I took such a ridiculous amount of pictures that I will have to split it into two posts. No surprise there, eh? There’s something extra exciting about seeing ocean waves crash into mountains of rocks!! Point Lobos is situated on the north end of Big Sur, and I cannot wait to explore Big Sur further this week!! Yeah, actually […]

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Falling in Love with the Pacific

This morning I took a break. I needed it extra badly today. It was THE most blessed, wonderful thing in the world. Do you know what Jesus used to do, when people were following him around all the time, begging for help? Over and over again, the Bible tells us that Jesus woke up before everyone, went up on the mountain, and prayed. Now let’s NOT get technical here. Focus on the idea: separating yourself from others to pray, and […]

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Roadside Photographer: Beautiful Old Homes of the South

We recently took a road trip to Georgia, and I had a great time snapping photos of beautiful old Georgia and Alabama homes. The South is a beautiful place. Believe it or not, we are not as backward down here as you may think. Having lived in places all over the country, from the west coast to the east coast, and several places in between, it amazes me the misconceptions people have of the South. I have loved every place […]

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