What a beautiful day the Lord has made. Not a cloud in the sky. With devastation all around us, we still have many things to be thankful for. WE ARE ALIVE!!! Although so many have lost their lives, family members, good friends homes, businesses, God has brought us all closer together as a community. I never knew how strong I was till this tragedy struck. I am woman.....HEAR ME ROARRRRRRRRR. LOL Please continue to pray for all the victims here in Tuscaloosa and all the other surrounding areas that have been struck by the deadly tornado on April 27th, and also for those in Joplin. We all have a long way to go. Many will need counseling for years to come, but most of all our PRAYERS.

Oh a happier note, I am proud to say I am down 11 pounds. It's been a long hard battle for sure. When I say HARD, I mean HARD. Geez, once you gain back a few pounds, it's harder than ever to get those dreaded pounds back off, but so easy to gain even more. I have 15 more pounds to goal, but for the life of me, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to lose more than that. With it so EASY to regain, I want to get off EXTRA, so that it won't be so bad if I regain a few in the future.

I just went to look at some demin shorts with a friend yesterday. I always have trouble with shorts.....they are either too long, or too short and no middle line for me, and then I have the problem with the legs......they are usually SOOOOO baggy on my skinny legs. If any of you have ever met me, you know what I'm talking about. One of our lunchroom staff calls me "stick legs" when I am making a cut-through run to the cafeteria everyday. (what I mean by cut-through , is that it's a shortcut for me to get to the other building. They fuss at me, cause I never eat in the lunchroom.....to be honest, the food is just TOO fattening)
Anyway......I found a couple of pair that looked like they might work and got the size I thought I would wear and the size smaller......I've been wearing a 10 in pants, so I got an 8, just in case.......my friend looked and them and said...."you need a 6".....the 8's were TOO BIG. Praise the Lord. I asked the sales associate if she could bring me a 6, and that I doubted they would work but OH MY GOODNESS....they FIT. Not a bit too tight either. It was a perfect fit. I have even gone down a size in my shirts as well. I am so proud of myself. I lost 3 pounds just this week and the doctor asked me what I had been doing differently this week to get that much weight off in a week. She asked if I had been walking. I said that I wished I could walk but am just unable to do alot of walking due to my feet. I am still struggling with my feet. One having 3 broken toes on one foot and as soon as most of that healed, I fell out my back door and had a badly sprained ankle and a stress fractures in my foot. Ioo was in a walking boot for an entire 6 weeks. I am still having trouble with swelling and pain in both feet. Please keep me in your prayers. I am keeping our 3 year old grandson ALL summer and ahe just plain wears me out. I sat down and planned out our summer weekdays yesterday and found all the "free" things we could do this summer together. We have a wonderful little water park where chlldren can go play that's free to the public. It's not swimming or anything bu****er shoots up like fountains in a huge circle and then shoots up in one big gush in the middle. The kids love it. I took Christian there yesterday for the first time for his end of the year party with his preschool. There are also 2 differents free kids movies at the Cinema during the week and the library has something a couple of times a week for children during the summer. These are things that I knew nothing about before and I am so excited because it's all FREE to the public. Now that he's a strapping big boy of 3 and so highly intelligent I was wondering what in the world I was gonna do with him all summer. This way it will keep us busy and going all summer and just sitting at home in front of the tv. I even bought several workbooks to work through with him in the afternoons. Christian is one that has to be kept busy to keep him from getting into things......he's a mess, I tell ya. He's too smart for his own good and carries on a conversation like a grown up. Sometimes he asked me to watch the weather station and he can tell you everything about a tornado and storm and tornado damage.

Well, I didn't mean to write a book. I just wanted to write from my heart today and I hope this finds everyone doing well. Be blessed and keep us all in your prayers.

Elle